[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[Issue]
[Pages 14657-14971]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 14657]]
VOLUME 153--PART 11
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The House met at 10 a.m. and was called to order by the Speaker pro
tempore (Mr. McNulty).
____________________
DESIGNATION OF THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following
communication from the Speaker:
Washington, DC, June 6, 2007.
I hereby appoint the Honorable Michael R. McNulty to act as
Speaker pro tempore on this day.
Nancy Pelosi,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
____________________
PRAYER
The Reverend Zane Fishel, Temple Baptist Church, Mount Airy, North
Carolina, offered the following prayer:
Our Great and Almighty Father, we thank You for the blessings of this
day and the opportunity that we have to make a difference in our world.
I pray that Your all-knowing wisdom be granted to each person
responsible for the decisions that govern this great Nation. May Your
divine leadership be followed as they seek Your paths.
Give Your grace to these Representatives in the face of opposition
and Your courage to enable them to stand for truth and right.
We know the issues that face this country are complex and some are
seemingly unresolvable. But we look to You for wisdom, knowledge and
guidance to assist the men and women with this awesome responsibility.
Make America a stronger Nation by using these individuals to make
Godly decisions. God bless our President, our Representatives, and God
bless our troops and pour out Your richest blessings on America.
We ask this in the name of our Eternal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
____________________
THE JOURNAL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has examined the Journal of the
last day's proceedings and announces to the House his approval thereof.
Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.
____________________
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Will the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady)
come forward and lead the House in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mr. BRADY of Texas led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
____________________
MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE
A message from the Senate by Ms. Curtis, one of its clerks, announced
that the Senate agreed to the following resolution.
S. Res. 220
In the Senate of the United States, June 5, 2007.
Whereas, Senator Craig Thomas had a long and honorable
history of public service, serving in the United States
Marine Corps, the Wyoming State Legislature, the United
States House of Representatives, and the United States
Senate;
Whereas, Senator Craig Thomas represented the people of
Wyoming with honor and distinction for over 20 years;
Whereas, Senator Craig Thomas was first elected to the
United States House of Representatives in 1989;
Whereas, Senator Craig Thomas was subsequently elected 3
times to the United States Senate by record margins of more
than 70 percent; and
Whereas, Senator Craig Thomas's life and career were marked
by the best of his Western values: hard work, plain speaking,
common sense, courage, and integrity: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the United States Senate has heard with
profound sorrow and deep regret the announcement of the death
of the Honorable Craig Thomas, a Senator from the State of
Wyoming;
Resolved, That the Senate mourns the loss of one of its
most esteemed members, Senator Craig Thomas, and expresses
its condolences to the people of Wyoming and to his wife,
Susan, and his 4 children;
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate shall
communicate this resolution to the House of Representatives
and transmit an enrolled copy thereof to the family of
Senator Craig Thomas; and
Resolved, That when the Senate adjourns today, it shall
stand adjourned as a further mark of respect to the memory of
Senator Craig Thomas.
____________________
MOMENT OF SILENCE IN MEMORY OF SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The House will rise and observe a moment of
silence in memory of Senator Craig Thomas.
____________________
WELCOMING THE REVEREND ZANE FISHEL
(Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Reverend Zane
Fishel, who is the House of Representatives' guest chaplain today.
Reverend Fishel comes to us from Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy, North
Carolina, where he shepherds the flock at Temple Baptist Church.
Reverend Fishel has faithfully served in the ministry of Temple Baptist
since 1997 and he became the full-time youth minister in 1999 after
sensing a call to serve God in the local church.
With the passing of Temple Baptist's pastor in 2003, Reverend Fishel
took up his current role as the church's pastor, where he is devoted to
spreading the good news to his congregation and community.
Under his leadership, the church body at Temple Baptist Church in
Mount Airy has thrived. He has worked tirelessly to increase the
outreach and effectiveness of Temple Baptist in the local community. He
has shown a remarkable commitment to educating leaders in the local
church so that many within the church can use their God-given gifts.
I am very pleased that Reverend Fishel joined us today to open the
House of Representatives with such an
[[Page 14658]]
inspiring prayer. He is a model of service to God, country and
community; and he plays a vital spiritual role in Surry County, North
Carolina. I am proud to welcome him to the people's house.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will entertain up to 15 1-minute
speeches on each side.
____________________
PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT
(Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of every working
woman who faces pay discrimination in the workforce and call on the
House to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. Last week, the Supreme Court
ruled 5-4 to limit the ability of women and other employees to sue
their employers for pay discrimination under title VII. The court
decided that a victim of pay disparity should be able to document a
discriminatory difference in pay within a mere 6 months, despite the
typical office secrecy over income.
The Supreme Court is essentially rolling back efforts to ensure equal
pay. When women still earn only 77 percent of what men earn, this
ruling leaves these individuals with no recourse or remedy.
The Paycheck Fairness Act will help women confront discrimination in
the workplace and give teeth to the Equal Pay Act by prohibiting
employers from retaliating against employees who share salary
information with their co-workers; allowing women to sue for punitive
damages and recovery of back pay; and create a new program to help
strengthen the negotiation skills of girls and women.
Mr. Speaker, next Sunday, we commemorate 44 years since John F.
Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act and still equal pay is not a fact of
life for American women. It is time to value the work that women do in
our society. Let's pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
____________________
HOUSTON'S PASSPORT CRISIS
(Mr. BRADY of Texas asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute.)
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, my message today is to our State
Department in Houston. We have a problem, a serious passport problem
that reached a crisis stage. We have families who applied in February
for their passports that have not received them yet. We have wives that
can't meet their soldier husbands on leave from Iraq. We have families
who aren't able to go to experimental surgery out of this country,
families leaving for the last time before college together who are
simply denied the opportunity to travel.
Our passport offices are overwhelmed. Our people wait in line for
hours, if not days, getting there at 4 o'clock in the morning. We
appreciate the 20 additional staff the State Department sent. They are
overwhelmed. We appreciate the 1-800 number. It is a middle man and
causing more problems.
We need more staff. We need more information call lines manned 24/7.
We need more resources. It is wrong. As our constituents tell us, they
feel like they are in a third-world country. We think they deserve
better treatment than that; and this deserves immediate attention,
immediate, absolute action by the State Department.
____________________
PAY DISCRIMINATION
(Mrs. MALONEY of New York asked and was given permission to address
the House for 1 minute.)
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, last week, the Supreme Court
dealt a serious blow to women pursuing pay discrimination claims.
For the majority of her 20-year career, Lilly Ledbetter was paid less
than her male counterparts, including those with less seniority for
doing the exact same work. By her own calculations, she was now being
shortchanged by about $15,000 annually.
Her experience is, unfortunately, a common one. In the Supreme Court
decision, Ledbetter versus Goodyear Tire, the Court ruled that she had
missed her window of opportunity to file a claim covering the many
years of discrimination she faced.
We need to close this loophole by making every pay period a new
infraction. This way, employees can challenge unfair practices that
persist over time but don't come to light for years later.
Inequality still exists. It is our job to fix it.
____________________
{time} 1010
FIX THE LEAK OR BUY MORE BUCKETS
(Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, when Hurricane Rita hit southeast Texas, a pine
tree fell on our house and caused a leak in the roof. The water came
into the house, and I couldn't put enough buckets under the leak to
catch all that water. I didn't really know what to do. Eventually it
dawned on me, I had to go up on the roof and fix the leak or water
would have continued to fill all those buckets and more. The ``grand
bargain'' immigration plan is really a plan to buy more buckets for the
big leak on our border.
The government is missing the obvious. Until we fix the leak, we can
never deal with all of the water from the leak. Until Uncle Sam
enforces border security, we cannot solve the problem with the illegals
already here.
The so-called immigration reform bill deals with the wrong issue
first. It legalizes the illegals while inadequately securing the
border. Secure the border and then come up with a plan that is not
amnesty in dealing with the people here illegally. Otherwise, we will
keep buying more buckets and the real problem will never be solved.
And that's just the way it is.
____________________
FOOD AND FARM BILL OF RIGHTS
(Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, Congress is in the process of updating
the Nation's agricultural policy for the first time since 2002 to see
if it can serve the interests of all America's farmers and ranchers.
This is more than a farm bill, it is a food bill as well. Everyone who
eats is affected by our food and farm policy.
Michael Pollan explained how the farm bill is the reason that a
package of Twinkies, which contains 39 complex ingredients, costs less
than a bunch of carrots straight from the farm. The farm bill should
serve all Americans, not just a few special interests.
Today, 70 percent of the payments go to the richest 10 percent of the
farmers, while 60 percent of America's farmers and ranchers get no
support whatsoever.
It is time for a food and farm bill of rights that provides a
comprehensive guide to reform the farm bill. We must move beyond the
policies that were written for the Depression or the 1950s to one
designed for the world we live in today; and, more important, the world
we want to live in tomorrow.
____________________
RISING ENERGY COSTS
(Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about the need for this
Congress to address the rising energy costs across America. Gas prices
are continuing to rise, and our energy needs across our country
continue to increase. The American people expect us to do something
about this, to solve the problem.
Yet the liberal leadership of this Congress is missing in action.
Instead of coming forward with a real plan to
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solve our energy problems, they are preparing to recreate the energy
crisis of the late 1970s. Are the American people really ready for long
lines, rationing, and higher prices?
The policies of the 1970s should have been a wake-up call for us. But
instead of instituting a plan for American energy independence back
then, we just kicked that can a little further down the road.
So today, my GOP colleagues and I will unveil a multi-tiered plan
that focuses on innovative ways to create new American sources of power
through conservation exploration and cutting-edge technologies. We will
act to fill the need.
____________________
PASS EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH
(Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, there are many issues that face America that
are of great importance, from the Iraq War to global warming. These
global issues must be dealt with, but we have lacked the leadership in
this administration to make the world proud of America and see us as a
leader on such issues.
On Wednesday, this House will vote on an embryonic stem cell research
bill sent from the Senate which the President has threatened to veto. I
don't think there is a more important bill that this House could pass
and send to the President and for the President to sign than embryonic
stem cell research.
Mr. Speaker, if you or anybody in your family has Parkinson's
disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury, cancer, stroke,
burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis,
you could have relief and possibly a cure for that illness because of
embryonic stem cell research. America could reestablish itself as a
country that has the best scientific research and provides the world
with hope for cures for these catastrophic illnesses.
Last night in the Republican debate, one of the candidates said we
need to find a cure for cancer. He's right, and the way to do it is
through embryonic stem cell research. I urge this House to pass the
bill, and I urge the President to have the courage to do the right
thing and be pro-life and extend life for people on this planet.
____________________
BODY ARMOR FOR TROOPS
(Mr. WILSON of South Carolina asked and was given permission to
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today the House Armed
Services Committee will examine the issue of body armor for our troops
in combat. Fortunately, before going into recess for Memorial Day,
Congress passed a critical war funding bill that will allow the
military to purchase body armor and other equipment for our men and
women in uniform.
I was grateful to visit with our troops during the break in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Everywhere we went, the troops thanked us for passing the
legislation to provide for their being fully equipped.
Our soldiers are fighting the terrorists overseas so we do not have
to face them again in the streets of America. We are protecting
American families in stopping al Qaeda's threat to our Nation.
On the 63rd anniversary of D-day, we appreciate the new greatest
generation. I am pleased Congress passed and President Bush signed a
bill that will provide our military with the tools it needs without
handcuffing our commanders on the battlefield.
In conclusion, God bless our troops, and we will never forget
September 11.
____________________
PAY DISCRIMINATION MUST BE CORRECTED
(Mrs. CAPPS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I voice my deep disappointment with the
recent Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tires.
Women, on average, are paid less than their male counterparts. For
women of color, the pay is much less. Unless you can look me in the eye
and say that women are less intelligent, less capable than their male
counterparts in the same fields, the most glaring explanation for this
discrepancy is discrimination.
We have made great strides in working to equalize wages for all
Americans regardless of gender, race or age. But the decision last week
to limit a worker's available recourse in the face of discrimination is
a setback to all of our civil rights, and reminds us of how far we
still have to go.
Now we must mobilize. To fix this disparity, we must move forward and
correct the law so this misinterpretation will never occur again. I
urge my colleagues to support a legislative remedy to preserve a
worker's right to be compensated for discrimination.
____________________
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS
(Mr. BOUSTANY asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, during my career as a heart surgeon, I saw
too many patients who were trapped in a paper-based system that leads
to duplicative tests and avoidable medical errors.
Despite the advancement of innovative health information technology,
America's health care system remains trapped in the 20th century. The
need for health IT became even more apparent during Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, when I saw displaced patients present themselves in makeshift
clinics with little or no medical history to guide their health
providers.
To date, only 24 percent of Louisiana physicians have converted their
offices to electronic health records because many are unwilling or
unable to handle the cost.
I will soon introduce a bill to create a demonstration project
through the Department of Health and Human Services to provide
financial incentives to providers and health information exchange
networks to encourage the adoption and use of interactive personal
health records.
Health IT will greatly improve the quality of information and care
that patients receive, but Congress should do more to encourage
physicians to transfer to a paperless system.
____________________
PAY EQUALITY
(Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to voice my strong disapproval
of the Supreme Court's decision last week that effectively endorsed pay
discrimination against women.
Pay equity is a problem for women around the country, but especially
for women of color, women who look like me. On average, African
American women earn only 64 cents for every dollar and Latinas earn
only 52 cents on the dollar compared to their white male counterparts.
We need to protect the rights of workers, to remedy wage
discrimination, and do more to close the pay gap between men and women.
That is why I cosponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give
teeth to the Equal Pay Act. The Paycheck Fairness Act would entitle the
plaintiffs to backpay, compensatory, and punitive damages for
``intentional'' wage discrimination.
Without serious penalties for wage discrimination, violations will
continue and working men and women and their families will suffer.
We can and must fix the Equal Pay Act so workers all around can be
fairly compensated for wage discrimination, and we must pass the
Paycheck Fairness Act to close the wage gap.
____________________
{time} 1020
SAMEH KHOUZAM
(Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
[[Page 14660]]
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of Mr. Sameh Khouzam.
In 1998, Mr. Khouzam fled Egypt to the United States to escape
persecution and torture at the hands of the Egyptian officials. Mr.
Khouzam currently works in my district and by all accounts is an
upstanding, contributing member of the community.
In 2004, our courts gave him protection because they believed, ``it
is more likely than not'' that he would be tortured should he return to
Egypt. Even our State Department reports outline extensive torture in
Egypt. Having personally heard stories of individuals who have suffered
torture by Egyptian authorities, I firmly believe that the court has
been right to prevent his deportation.
U.S. officials are now prepared to ignore the court's decision and
deport Khouzam based on nothing more than ``assurances'' of no torture
from known torturers.
Mr. Speaker, a former CIA officer stated this week on an Australian
news program that sending someone like Khouzam back to Egypt is
``tantamount to condemning them to death.''
Our government has the ability to prevent his torture. Do not deport
Mr. Khouzam.
____________________
CAPITOL HILL OCEANS WEEK
(Mr. FARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Capitol Hill
Oceans Week. The President has declared June as Oceans Month, and this
Friday will be an international celebration of Oceans Day.
Why do we need to pay attention to the oceans? Well, the oceans are
dying, and the earth is dependent upon them. We are dumping everything
we don't want into the ocean and extracting every living thing we can
to eat.
We've created commissions by Congress and by private trust of the
best talent in America to advise Congress on what we should do, and
they recommended national ocean governance policies, new policies that
can be adopted by this Congress.
I've introduced that bill, H.R. 21, and as National Oceans Week, Day
and Month, I'd like to ask all my colleagues to seriously consider
cosponsoring H.R. 21. It provides solutions to the problems of the
earth.
____________________
MARKING THE ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY
(Mrs. BACHMANN asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, today, June 6, marks the anniversary of
D-day, the invasion of Normandy. It marks one of the most selfless acts
of humanitarian love known in the history of mankind. It exemplifies a
Nation's willingness to lay down our lives and to expend our treasure
to free a people from brutal oppressors.
Today, Mr. Speaker, America remains the greatest Nation on earth, and
we have our American soldiers to thank for securing our safety, for
securing our freedom.
To those who marched to a near certain death that morning on a French
sandy shoreline, we pay you tribute. We can never repay the price that
you paid for our freedom, but we will never forget that cost that you
paid.
There is no greater love than this but that we lay down our lives for
our friends.
____________________
GITMO
(Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, military judges
dismissed the cases against the only two men to have been charged with
a crime still being held at Guantanamo Bay. This legal impasse creates
an imperative for Congress to address the legal black hole that we have
created at Guantanamo.
There have been almost 800 people sent to Guantanamo. There are 385
left; and, of those 385, only 80 will be charged and tried with a
crime. Now, that means that 90 percent will not even be charged and
tried, but it will take more than a decade even to try those 80 people,
given the island's remote location. In fact, there's only one courtroom
there.
Mr. Speaker, every day that we keep Guantanamo open, we damage our
credibility and we lose ground in the global war on terror. Congress
has an opportunity to change this wrong-headed policy, and we can do so
by shutting the facility down and transferring the detainees to the
U.S. military brig system. There they will still be under lock and key
but also have the right to a fair and speedy trial.
The United States is a country that should stand for justice and be
governed by the rule of law. Our policy should reflect our values.
Guantanamo does not.
____________________
STEM CELL RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007
(Mr. KLEIN of Florida asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the Stem
Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.
Stem cell research has the capability to cure our most common and
pervasive diseases and conditions. From Alzheimer's to Parkinson's
disease, cancer to juvenile diabetes, the potential of stem cell
research presents one of humanity's greatest leaps toward the ultimate
goal of preserving, prolonging and improving life.
As a member of the Florida State Senate for 10 years, leading efforts
to utilize and fund embryonic stem cell research was not just a
priority of mine, it was a mission.
A large part of my passion and drive toward funding stem cell
research is driven by people like Adam Susser, a young boy from the
town I reside in, Boca Raton. Adam was asphyxiated at birth and, as a
result, is cortically blind with quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
It is driven by Matthew Romer, a young boy in south Florida who died
from a fatal genetic disease, despite both parents being told they did
not carry the gene.
Both Adam and Matthew suffer from illnesses that stem cell research
could find cures for.
Today, I encourage my friends in Congress to support the Stem Cell
Research Enhancement Act. The passage of this Act is vitally important
to the millions of Americans who suffer today from incurable disease
and to the millions of Americans who will suffer from incurable
diseases in the future.
____________________
PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT
(Mr. HARE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. HARE. Mr. Speaker, according to the National Committee on Pay
Equity, working women stand to lose $250,000 over the course of their
careers because of unequal pay practices. While women's wages and
educational achievements have been rising, there's still a sizeable
gender wage gap. This is a national disgrace.
Unfortunately, last week's Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter v.
Goodyear, does little to achieve fairness for American workers. In a
narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court threw out the case, not just
because she wasn't being discriminated against but because she filed
her claim too late.
This interpretation, which has been rejected by eight Federal appeals
courts and the EEOC, fails to realize that employees are discriminated
against every time they receive a discriminatory paycheck.
Congress needs to step in and stand up for ordinary people without
delay. We should move quickly to pass Congresswoman DeLauro's Paycheck
Protection Act that would provide remedies to women facing pay
discrimination.
Mr. Speaker, I don't want to live in an America where my daughter
earns
[[Page 14661]]
less than my son for doing the same job.
____________________
U.S. ATTORNEYS
(Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court, the judicial branch of
our government, has ruled that the President of the United States is
not above the law, even during time of war.
The Attorney General's office within the executive branch of
government is undermining the entire judicial system. Over 400 U.S.
attorneys have been confirmed over the last 20 years. Three have been
fired for political partisanship during that time.
However, in the last 9 months, nine have been fired because they
didn't bow to the partisan pressures of the executive branch of
government. The Attorney General has allowed these nine U.S. attorneys
names to be trashed in the public.
This is worse than Watergate. There is reason to believe that a
cover-up occurred, and that will be worse than the dirty deed. How did
each of these get on the list in the first place? And out of the
original 30, how did you get off the list? What did you have to do to
be removed from that list, Mr. Attorney General?
This is not the moral high ground. No one is above the law.
____________________
{time} 1030
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The Speaker pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair.
____________________
PERMITTING OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO BE TAKEN
WHILE HOUSE IS IN SESSION
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution (H. Res.
460) and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration in the
House.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 460
Resolved, That on such date as the Speaker of the House of
Representatives may designate, official photographs of the
House may be taken while the House is in actual session.
Payment for the costs associated with taking, preparing, and
distributing such photographs may be made from the applicable
accounts of the House of Representatives.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
AUTHORIZING TRANSFERS FROM SENATE GIFT SHOP REVOLVING FUND
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to
take from the Speaker's table the Senate bill (S. 1537) to authorize
the transfer of certain funds from the Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund
to the Senate Employee Child Care Center, and ask for its immediate
consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the Senate bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
The Clerk read the Senate bill, as follows:
S. 1537
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. TRANSFERS FROM SENATE GIFT SHOP REVOLVING FUND.
Section 2(c) of Public Law 102-392 (2 U.S.C. 121d(c)) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(3) The Secretary of the Senate may transfer from the
fund to the Senate Employee Child Care Center proceeds from
the sale of holiday ornaments by the Senate Gift Shop for the
purpose of funding necessary activities and expenses of the
Center, including scholarships, educational supplies, and
equipment.''.
The Senate bill was ordered to be read a third time, was read the
third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the
table.
____________________
REPORT ON HOUSE RESOLUTION 459, DISMISSING ELECTION CONTEST RELATING TO
OFFICE OF REPRESENTATIVE FROM 21ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on House
Administration, submitted a privileged report (Rept. No. 110-175) on
the resolution (H. Res. 459) dismissing the election contest relating
to the office of Representative from the Twenty-first Congressional
District of Florida, which was referred to the House Calendar and
ordered to be printed.
____________________
REPORT ON HOUSE RESOLUTION 461, DISMISSING ELECTION CONTEST RELATING TO
OFFICE OF REPRESENTATIVE FROM 24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on House
Administration, submitted a privileged report (Rept. No. 110-176) on
the resolution (H. Res. 461) dismissing the election contest relating
to the office of Representative from the Twenty-fourth Congressional
District of Florida, which was referred to the House Calendar and
ordered to be printed.
____________________
REPORT ON HOUSE RESOLUTION 462, DISMISSING ELECTION CONTEST RELATING TO
OFFICE OF REPRESENTATIVE FROM FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF
LOUISIANA
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on House
Administration, submitted a privileged report (Rept. No. 110-177) on
the resolution (H. Res. 462) dismissing the election contest relating
to the office of Representative from the Fourth Congressional District
of Louisiana, which was referred to the House Calendar and ordered to
be printed.
____________________
REPORT ON HOUSE RESOLUTION 463, DISMISSING ELECTION CONTEST RELATING TO
OFFICE OF REPRESENTATIVE FROM FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, from the Committee on House
Administration, submitted a privileged report (Rept. No. 110-178) on
the resolution (H. Res. 463) dismissing the election contest relating
to the office of Representative from the Fifth Congressional District
of Florida, which was referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be
printed.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the Chair
will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules
on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered, or on which
the vote is objected to under clause 6 of rule XX.
Record votes on postponed questions will be taken later today.
____________________
NATIONAL STEM SCHOLARSHIP DATABASE ACT
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 1051) to direct the Secretary of Education to establish and
maintain a public website through which individuals may find a complete
database of available scholarships, fellowships, and other programs of
financial assistance in the study of science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1051
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 ``National STEM Scholarship
Database Act''.
[[Page 14662]]
SEC. 2. NATIONAL DATABASE ON FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR STUDY
OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND
MATHEMATICS.
(a) Establishment and Maintenance of Database.--
(1) Database.--The Secretary of Education shall establish
and maintain, on the public website of the Department of
Education, a database consisting of information on
scholarships, fellowships, and other programs of financial
assistance available from public and private sources for the
study of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics at
the post-secondary and post-baccalaureate levels.
(2) Presentation of information.--The information
maintained on the database established under this section
shall be displayed on the website in the following manner:
(A) Separate information shall be provided for each of the
fields of study referred to in paragraph (1) and for post-
secondary and post-baccalaureate programs of financial
assistance.
(B) The database shall provide specific information on any
programs of financial assistance which are targeted to
individuals of a particular gender, ethnicity, or other
demographic group.
(C) If the sponsor of any program of financial assistance
included on the database maintains a public website, the
database shall provide hyperlinks to the website.
(D) In addition to providing the hyperlink to the website
of a sponsor of a program of financial assistance as required
under subparagraph (C), the database shall provide general
information that an interested person may use to contact the
sponsor, including the sponsor's electronic mail address.
(E) The database shall have a search capability which
permits an individual to search for information on the basis
of each category of the information provided and on the basis
of combinations of categories of the information provided,
including whether the scholarship is need- or merit-based and
by relevant academic majors.
(F) The database shall include a recommendation that
students and families should carefully review all of the
application requirements prior to applying for aid, and a
disclaimer that the scholarships presented in the database
are not provided or endorsed by the Department of Education
or the Federal Government.
(b) Dissemination of Information on Database.--The
Secretary shall take such actions as may be necessary on an
ongoing basis, including sending notices to secondary schools
and institutions of higher education, to disseminate
information on the database established and maintained under
this Act and to encourage its use by interested parties.
(c) Use of Vendor To Obtain Information.--In carrying out
this Act, the Secretary of Education shall enter into a
contract with a private entity under which the entity shall
furnish and regularly update all of the information required
to be maintained on the database established under this
section.
(d) Encouraging the Provision of Information.--In carrying
out this Act, the Secretary of Education and the contracted
entity shall consult with public and private sources of
scholarships and make easily available a process for such
entities to provide regular and updated information.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this
Act such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2008
through 2012.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Holt) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
General Leave
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I request that there be 5 legislative days
during which Members may insert material relevant to H.R. 1050 into the
Record, and I ask unanimous consent that Members be allowed to revise
and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. This is an important piece of all of
the work that we have to do to improve our science, engineering,
technology and mathematics capability here in the United States.
Specifically, this bill establishes a complete database of all
available scholarships from public and private sources, fellowships,
and other programs of financial assistance for the study of science,
technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Act, specifically known as the National STEM Scholarship Database
Act, directs the Secretary of Education to establish and maintain a
public Web site through which individuals may find a complete database
of available scholarships, fellowships and financial assistance.
The Secretary of Education will also, under this legislation,
disseminate information about the database to secondary schools and to
colleges and universities, institutions of higher education. It will
serve as a one-stop shop for financial aid information for those who
want to study in the STEM fields.
Now, it may be surprising to my colleagues that this doesn't already
exist. But it does not. Although there are many things that we need to
do to improve science and math teaching in elementary and secondary
schools and in higher education, and encourage students toward science
and technology fields, this is one important thing we can accomplish
today.
We all know that higher education is expensive. In fact, many
students are deterred from studying these important fields because of
the cost.
Yet, at the same time, some of the opportunities for financial
assistance go unused, and, students, however motivated they may be,
often don't know where to start to look for financial assistance.
Certainly in high school, school counselors are overloaded with
typically 400 students each, and as a college student is trying to
decide on a major and a specific field of engineering, for example,
it's hard to know where to turn for financial assistance.
This simple straightforward database available through a Web site
will greatly, I think, facilitate the student's ability to go into
these STEM fields. It will serve all students at all levels as they are
thinking about going into college, as they are thinking about choosing
a major in college, as they are thinking about going to graduate
school, as they are thinking about whether or not to teach in a science
or engineering or mathematics area.
This is an important and straightforward piece of legislation that
will assist our nation's students in studying science and math, and
will assist our country in our efforts to be more competitive
internationally.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1051, which is a bill to
establish a public Web site through which individuals may find a
database of available scholarships and fellowships and other programs
of financial assistance for the study of science and technology and
engineering and math.
Before I begin, I just want to commend the gentleman from New Jersey
for introducing this piece of legislation and for his leadership in
this area. I also want to commend the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Ehlers) for his leadership, as well as Mrs. McMorris Rodgers, Mrs.
Biggert and others for their support of this bill itself.
I am a strong proponent, strong proponent of STEM education programs.
Anything that Congress can do to strengthen interest in these fields is
wholeheartedly welcome.
As a physician, I understand and appreciate the challenge that our
Nation has in maintaining its preeminence in these fields. Encouraging
our best and brightest and interested young people to choose this field
of study is a positive step, and I believe this bill is a step in that
direction.
As we continue to discuss new ideas for the reauthorization of the
Higher Education Act, it's important that we develop proposals that
will ensure students are informed about their options for financial
aid, both from the Federal Government and from the private sector. In
fact, the House has already taken one step in that direction, included
in H.R. 890, the Student Loan Sunshine Act, which passed last month,
was a proposal that was offered by Representative Keller, that would
make it easier for students to get information on their options for
Federal financial aid.
This proposal would launch a single Web site for opportunities for
financial aid in fellowships and scholarships being offered by any
agency within the Federal Government.
[[Page 14663]]
This bill simply takes this idea one step further by making sure that
information about scholarships and fellowships and other forms of
private financial aid is readily available to students interested in
pursuing their opportunities in education and science, technology,
engineering and math. As we continue to examine proposals to increase
America's competitiveness, it's helpful for us to equip students
interested in pursuing careers in these fields with the information
that they need that might assist them in financing their education.
For these reasons and others, I respectfully ask my colleagues to
support H.R. 1051.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1040
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Price, who is an original
cosponsor of this legislation, along with many others from the
Education Committee, from the Science Committee, and from elsewhere
here in Congress.
And, with that, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas, my colleague on the committee on Education and Labor, Mr.
Hinojosa.
Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1051, the
National STEM Scholarship Database Act. I would like to commend the
work of my good friend and colleague from New Jersey, Congressman Rush
Holt, for bringing this bill forward and for all of his efforts to
ensure that our Nation stays at the forefront of the STEM fields. I
share his commitment to mobilizing our resources at all levels to
expand the pool of opportunities in these career fields that are
critical to our future security and prosperity.
It is no secret that we are losing our competitive edge in producing
experts in science, technology, math and engineering. Of the 42
countries that granted more than 20,000 university degrees in 2002, the
United States is in the bottom quartile in the ratio of STEM college
degrees awarded.
Our pool of future STEM professionals can be found in our public
schools in America. The 2007 ``Condition of Education'' reminds us that
a growing percentage of these students are minorities, with a growing
percentage from low-income families. These are the students that will
rely on college scholarships and college financial aid to achieve the
dream of a college education.
The National STEM Scholarship Database will be an invaluable tool to
help our young people to find the resources they need to finance
college education in the STEM fields.
As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, I believe
this legislation will also underscore that a STEM career is possible,
an essential message for our young people to hear.
This is a real service to our young people and to our Nation. I thank
the gentleman from New Jersey for his efforts, and urge all my
colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, at this time I'd like to yield 5
minutes to the gentleman from Michigan, who has been pivotal in this
area, in this field, Mr. Ehlers.
Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the National STEM
Scholarship Database Act, H.R. 1051. I thank my friend and fellow
physicist, Congressman Rush Holt, for introducing this important
legislation; and I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this excellent bill.
For several years, Congressman Holt and I have worked tirelessly to
improve our Nation's math and science education. It has been wonderful
to have a Member from the other party sharing my concern about the
quality of math and science education in this country and the limited
number of young people who are pursuing math and science-related
degrees. In fact, I'm very pleased that Representative Holt and 115
other Members have joined the STEM Education Caucus that I founded in
2004.
Of course, I'm sure by now everyone knows that STEM stands for
science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It's very important
to make that clear, because tomorrow we'll be debating a few stem-cell
issue bills on the floor, and this bill has nothing to do with that.
This year, an estimated 111,000 students in Michigan will graduate
from high school and may face the pricey but critical investment in
their future known as paying college tuition and fees. In Michigan, the
average cost of tuition fees is about $6,200 per year at a 4-year
public university and $13,250 at a 4-year private university, according
to the Chronicles of Higher Education.
Unfortunately, data have shown that some students do not attend
college or graduate school because they think they cannot afford it.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, science and
engineering students who had taken out loans as undergraduates were
more likely to indicate a cost-related reason for not applying to
graduate school, compared to students who had never borrowed funds.
Unbeknownst to some students, significant financial aid resources are
available. The Federal Government alone provided about $80 billion in
student financial aid this fiscal year, with States providing almost $8
billion in additional financial aid. Also, the private sector provides
significant financial aid resources.
The National STEM Scholarship Database Act will provide students with
better information about available financial aid resources related to
the STEM fields. It simply establishes a database to be accessed on the
U.S. Department of Education's Website. I am very hopeful that this
database will link students with available financial aid resources, and
I particularly hope this will encourage more students to enter STEM-
related careers by entering graduate schools related to the STEM
fields.
This is an excellent bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
I again thank Congressman Holt for his work on improving STEM
education and urge all of our colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for his
support and also for pointing out that this has nothing to do with
pleuropotent stem cells but has to do with what is generally known as
STEM education, science, technology, engineering and mathematics
education.
Mr. Speaker, I'm now pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Illinois, my colleague on the Education Committee, Mr. Hare, who
understands that financial assistance is necessary for nearly two-
thirds of undergraduates and most graduate students, and anything we
can do to help them take advantage of available financial aid will
improve their lives and our society. Mr. Hare.
Mr. HARE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today as a cosponsor and a
very strong supporter of H.R. 1051, the National STEM Scholarship
Database Act. I want to commend my friend, Congressman Rush Holt, with
whom I serve on the Education and Labor Committee, for introducing this
vital piece of legislation.
America's global competitiveness will increasingly depend on our
ability to attract more of our best and brightest students into
technological careers.
Sadly, the U.S. is growing reliant on foreign talents to fulfill its
science and engineering workforce needs. According to the National
Science Foundation, 25 percent of all college-educated professionals in
science and engineering occupations in the United States are foreign
born.
The National STEM Scholarship Database addresses this problem by
directing the Secretary of Education to establish a database on the
Department's Web site with information on financial assistance for
postsecondary and graduate programs in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics. This important database will help capable students who
are interested in STEM careers find scholarships to support their
studies.
We all know the cost of higher education is very expensive. In fact,
two-thirds of undergraduate students are on some form of financial aid.
Therefore, identifying funding opportunities is critical to the
recruitment of aspiring STEM students.
H.R. 1051 is endorsed by all sectors of the technological workforce,
and I urge
[[Page 14664]]
my colleagues to help the U.S. stay globally competitive by voting for
this bill.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I'm now pleased to yield 2 minutes
to my good friend from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo) who's been a leader in
this field as well.
Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, the science and technology and math
education fields, they are inseparable, tremendous assets to our
economic strength and national security. These disciplines are critical
to ensuring our global competitiveness, and the demand for knowledge-
based jobs is growing.
From 1994 to 2003, the proportion of the work force working in STEM
fields jumped from 17 percent to 23 percent. Furthermore, if trends in
manufacturing continue, over 40 percent of factory jobs will require
postsecondary education by 2012.
{time} 1050
I spend at least half of my time in Congress working on manufacturing
issues, one of the founders of the manufacturing caucus, and serve as
co-chairman, along with Congressman Tim Ryan from the State of Ohio,
and this is obviously a bipartisan effort in order to encourage more
education of people who will be qualified to play a more meaningful
role in the field of manufacturing.
The skyrocketing cost of college education have made access to this
type of education more and more difficult for many of our brightest
students. This bill seeks to correct the problem. It creates a web
portal of public and private science, technology, math education
scholarships, loans, and grants that are available. And the database
would be searchable by field of study, demographics, and level of
study. By placing all of these scholarships in one easily accessible
location, H.R. 1051 greatly increases the chances that our students
will be able to pursue these valuable opportunities.
It is not without coincidence this bill comes up 3 to 4 weeks after
the missed reauthorization wherein we set aside a certain amount of
money to complete the huge web portal that would replace what agencies
are doing in manufacturing and what programs are available. So this
fits very tidily into that program, and I would encourage that the
House adopt it.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
gentlewoman from New York, my colleague on the Committee on Education
and Labor (Mrs. McCarthy), who also understands the importance of this
legislation to individual students as well as to our economy at large.
Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding, and I would like to thank my colleague from the Education
Committee, Congressman Holt, for bringing this measure to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1051, the Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship Database Act. This
legislation will help students become more competitive in science and
math and allow them to find the scholarship that is right for them.
Mr. Speaker, in the audience today we have many young students. This
is the future of this country. And we have to do everything that we can
to encourage our young people to go into the sciences, math, and
engineering. Last year the Education Committee went to China and we
spoke with many students there and the minister of education. And their
effort, and certainly on what they are pushing their young people to
do, is to go into the math and sciences.
This country has an obligation to give our young people the ability
to compete in the future. This kind of legislation is going to help in
so many ways as far as our country on our economy. But more than that,
our young people deserve this opportunity.
When you think back to the 1960s when we were looking at the moon and
having programs that were putting us into space, those were kids'
dreams. We need to reunite that dream, to have people understand that
engineering and math is exciting. The last several years Mr. Holt and
Mr. Ehlers have been talking about science and math in our committee;
so it is right that at this time we are pushing to encourage our young
people, saying if these are the careers that you want to go into, we
are going to help you between a private partnership and certainly with
the government's helping. This is a great piece of legislation. We
should be seeing more and more of this. This is only the beginning.
And I have to say last week I had a field hearing back in my
district, and the issue had to do with gangs. And we had testimony from
all the experts. But even those young people that had gotten into
gangs, all they were asking for were opportunities to better
themselves. This young fellow did go back to college. He did start
studying science and math, and now he is reaching out. Education is the
most important thing that we can do for our young people and for this
country.
So, again, I thank my colleague Mr. Holt for bringing this, and I
encourage certainly all of my colleagues to support this legislation
H.R. 1051. This is only the beginning. We must do more things like
this.
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind all Members to
refrain from references to persons in the gallery.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I simply want to close and commend
once again my good friend Mr. Holt for introducing this legislation and
for moving this forward.
I think the discussion that we have had has been good. I think that
the breadth of individuals that have signed on as cosponsors to this
legislation, as well as the diversity of the background of those
Members who have come to the floor today to speak on behalf of this
legislation, give testimony to the importance of moving forward and
having this kind of information available.
So I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1051.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
As I said earlier, it may come as a surprise to my colleagues that
this single database where any student who might be interested in
science, technology, engineering, or mathematics could go might, they
might be surprised that it doesn't already exist. In fact, it doesn't.
This is straightforward legislation that will make it easier for
students to pursue a line of study or one of a number of lines of study
that are critically important not only for their personal development,
but for our economy and our society, our international competitiveness,
indeed, the future of our country.
This is only one piece of the many things that we need to do that you
have heard from other speakers about this morning. It is a
straightforward, simple thing that we can do, that is not expensive. If
we could, through this inexpensive method, encourage eight or ten or
twelve more students to go into science, that would be wonderful.
Instead, I expect we will get hundreds, if not thousands, who will find
their way into these critical fields because of the existence of a
database that gives them a place to start as they look to their future.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 1051, as amended.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the
National STEM Scholarship Database Act. In a time of global economic
and scientific competition, we must ensure that our brightest young
people have the resources to pursue careers in science, technology,
engineering, and math.
When students graduate from American universities with undergraduate
degrees, they graduate with on average, $20,000 in debt. This
undergraduate debt is a significant factor in a student's decision to
pursue graduate school. And among science and engineering students,
those who had debt from their undergraduate education were more likely
to say they could not afford graduate school.
We cannot afford to limit the potential of these students, or those
who find the cost of even an undergraduate education prohibitive. We
cannot afford to have ambitious students with interest and aptitude in
science or math or engineering shut out of our colleges. We
[[Page 14665]]
need Americans with advanced degrees in the STEM fields to propel our
Nation forward in discovery and innovation.
This bill makes it easier for students to find scholarships and
grants to finance their educations. It does not require a significant
investment from the Federal Government--although I believe we should
make the investment in more Federal loans in the future. It simply
creates a central location where students can learn about their
options.
This is a common sense way to help students pursue careers in
science, technology, engineering, and math. It is a simple, low-cost
part of our competitiveness agenda, and I urge my colleagues to vote
for it today.
Mr. HOLT. 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 New Jersey (Mr. Holt) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1051, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
FIRST HIGHER EDUCATION EXTENSION ACT OF 2007
Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2559) to temporarily extend the programs under the Higher
Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2559
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 ``First Higher Education
Extension Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF PROGRAMS.
Section 2(a) of the Higher Education Extension Act of 2005
(P.L. 109-81; 20 U.S.C. 1001 note) is amended by striking
``June 30, 2007'' and inserting ``October 31, 2007''.
SEC. 3. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.
Nothing in this Act, or in the Higher Education Extension
Act of 2005 as amended by this Act, shall be construed to
limit or otherwise alter the authorizations of appropriations
for, or the durations of, programs contained in the
amendments made by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of
2005 (P.L. 109-171) to the provisions of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 and the Taxpayer-Teacher Protection Act of 2004.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for 5 legislative
days during which Members may insert material relevant to H.R. 2559
into the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
{time} 1100
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong report of H.R. 2559, a bill to extend
the Higher Education Act through October 31, 2007.
This bill is very straightforward. It simply extends the current
programs authorized under the Higher Education Act until October 31,
2007, giving us the time to fully consider and complete the
reauthorization act.
I would like to thank Congressman McKeon, the ranking member of the
full committee, and Congressman Ric Keller, the ranking member of the
Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and
Competitiveness, for joining Chairman George Miller and me in bringing
this noncontroversial extension to the floor in a bipartisan manner.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2559, which is a measure to
extend programs under the Higher Education Act that are set to expire
at the end of this month.
I want to thank my committee colleagues, Chairman Miller, Chairman
Hinojosa, Mr. McKeon and Mr. Keller for their work on this bill, as
well as their consistent efforts on behalf of our Nation's college
students and their families.
Bolstering our higher education and student aid programs has long
been a priority for Congress, regardless of which party was in the
majority. In the last Congress, for example, under Republican
leadership, we passed a measure that reduced lender subsidies,
increased loan limits for students, and provided additional resources
for students studying math, science and critical foreign languages in
college.
Unfortunately, the Senate didn't act on the higher education
reauthorization in the last Congress, so we were forced to extend
programs under the law last September. In that extension, we included a
number of important benefits for college students and institutions of
higher education as well. For example, we reduced red tape and provided
loan forgiveness to spouses and parents of those who died or became
disabled on September 11.
Mr. Speaker, just last month, the House continued our work to
strengthen the student aid system by passing the Student Loan Sunshine
Act, bipartisan legislation that will restore confidence in the
relationships between student lenders and colleges and universities.
Now, as we prepare anew to reauthorize programs under the Higher
Education Act, we are again faced with the need to pass an extension of
these programs to bridge this gap. Now, make no mistake, the measure
before us today is worthy of our support, but, at the same time, I am
hopeful that our friends on the other side of the Capitol will renew
their commitment to a full reauthorization. These extensions, now five
of which we've had in the last Congress alone, ought to become a thing
of the past.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my colleagues on both
sides of the aisle and on both sides of the Capitol in completing our
reauthorization work in the 110th Congress. Just as importantly, I also
look forward to working toward reforms that recognize the contributions
of market-based programs that have been made on behalf of millions of
students for the last several decades. In the meantime, I urge my
colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my strong commitment, as
chairman of the Higher Education Subcommittee, that I will work very
closely with Congressman Price from Georgia and all of the members of
our committee to be able to finish the work necessary to reauthorize
the Higher Education Act sometime before the end of this year,
hopefully in October.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to yield to my
good friend and fellow physician, a gentleman from Louisiana who has
been a strong proponent of higher education in his work on the
committee. I yield the gentleman 3 minutes.
Mr. BOUSTANY. I thank my colleague.
Mr. Speaker, it is high time that we actually get the work done on
this. We really need to get this done permanently, but I rise in
support of this extension so that we can continue to move the ball
forward. It is my hope that the other body across the Capitol will move
this time around. I know we are going to do it here in the House.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the House has agreed to include a
provision I offered with subcommittee Chairman Rob Andrews that would
limit projected physician shortages. This was an amendment to the bill
that we had in the 109th Congress, and it is my understanding that it
will be included in the base bill, and I am very pleased.
I hope, also, that Congress will add a provision that I introduced
with Congresswoman McCarthy to meet the future need of qualified
nurses, which is an area where we have critical shortages throughout
the country. And so it
[[Page 14666]]
is my hope that as we go forward with this bill on the House side we
can introduce this language into the bill or perhaps amend the bill, if
necessary.
Once again, I think it is critical that we get the job done on this.
We did our work in the 109th Congress. The other body needs to move
forward. We need to complete our work here so we can get a good, solid
reauthorization bill that will do justice to our higher education
system.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman once again
for moving this issue forward. Again, I look forward to working with
him as we move forward with the Higher Education Reauthorization Act. I
am confident that we will be able to get it done in this Congress.
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HINOJOSA. I thank Congressman Price for those closing remarks.
And with that, Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to pass H.R. 2559.
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 Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 2559.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
HONORING THE MERCURY 13 WOMEN
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 421) honoring the trailblazing accomplishments of
the ``Mercury 13'' women, whose efforts in the early 1960s demonstrated
the capabilities of American women to undertake the human exploration
of space.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 421
Honoring the trailblazing accomplishments of the ``Mercury
13'' women, whose efforts in the early 1960s demonstrated the
capabilities of American women to undertake the human
exploration of space.
Whereas all of the Mercury 13 women were accomplished
pilots with commercial ratings or better and at least 2,000
hours of flying time;
Whereas the Mercury 13 women passed the same rigorous
physical and psychological tests that the original Mercury 7
astronauts had to undergo;
Whereas the Mercury 13 women successfully completed their
testing at the Lovelace Clinic, in Albuquerque, New Mexico by
the end of 1961;
Whereas the Mercury 13 women were prepared to continue
their contributions to America's space program at the Naval
School of Aviation Medicine in Pensacola, Florida, by
undergoing advanced aeromedical examinations using jet
aircraft and military equipment, until they were informed
that their testing program was canceled;
Whereas the Soviet Union flew the first woman in space in
1963;
Whereas the United States flew the first American woman in
space, Dr. Sally Ride, in 1983;
Whereas the United States flew the first woman to pilot the
Space Shuttle, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in 1995;
Whereas the Mercury 13 women served as pathfinders for
NASA's female astronauts; and
Whereas the careers of accomplishment of the Mercury 13
women can serve as an inspiration for other young women who
are considering pursuing a career in aviation, astronautics,
science, or engineering: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes and honors the contributions of Myrtle
Cagle, Geraldyn ``Jerrie'' Cobb, Jan Dietrich, Marion
Dietrich, Mary Wallace ``Wally'' Funk, Jane Briggs Hart, Jean
Hixson, Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen, Irene Leverton, Sarah Lee
Gorelick Ratley, Bernice Trimble Steadman, Geraldine
``Jerri'' Sloan Truhill, and Rhea Hurrle Allison Woltman; and
(2) encourages young women to follow in the footsteps of
the Mercury 13 women and pursue careers of excellence in
aviation and astronautics, as well as in engineering and
science.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Wu) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Feeney) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon.
General Leave
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H. Res. 421.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oregon?
There was no objection.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the trailblazing accomplishments
of the Mercury 13 women, whose efforts in the early 1960s demonstrated
the capabilities of American women to undertake the human exploration
of space. The Mercury 13 women were Myrtle Cagle, Geraldyn ``Jerri''
Cobb, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Mary Wallace ``Wally'' Funk, Jane
Briggs Hart, Jean Hixson, Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen, Irene Leverton,
Sarah Lee Gorelick Ratley, Bernice ``Bea'' Trimble Steadman, Geraldine
``Jerri'' Sloan Truhill, and Rhea Hurrle Allison Woltman.
All of these Mercury 13 women were accomplished pilots with
commercial ratings or better and at least 2,000 hours of flying time,
and they passed the same rigorous physical and psychological tests that
the original Mercury 7 astronauts underwent. The Mercury 13 women were
prepared to continue their service to America's space program, until
they were informed that their testing program was cancelled.
While the former Soviet Union flew the first woman in space in 1963,
it was another 20 years before the United States flew Dr. Sally Ride as
the first American woman in space in 1983.
Mr. Speaker, I seek support for H. Res. 421 to honor the Mercury 13
women pioneers and to encourage young women to follow in the footsteps
of the Mercury 13 women in pursuing careers of excellence in aviation
and astronautics as well as in engineering and science.
Times do change. I spent a chunk of my time last week at home during
recess handing out space camp scholarships. At every stop, it wasn't
clear whether the winner was going to be a boy or a girl; and the
enthusiasm for space seemed to be relatively equal between the boys and
the girls in the classes where we made such awards.
{time} 1110
In an aside, I would like to welcome China as a new nation among
space-faring nations. There is an old Chinese saying, as there always
is, that women hold up half the sky, and this recognition that American
women have been participating in space long before 1983 is very, very
appropriate at this point in time.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Oregon for his
resolution. I want to rise today in support of House Resolution 421,
which honors the accomplishments of the so-called Mercury 13 women
whose efforts in the early 1960s demonstrated the capabilities of
American women to undertake human space exploration.
At a time when there were many prejudices against women, the Lovelace
Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, began testing female pilots to
undertake human exploration of space under the same rigorous, physical
and psychological standards as NASA's male astronauts.
In 1960, the first of the Mercury 13, Geraldyn ``Jerrie'' Cobb went
to Lovelace Clinic, and by the end of 1961, 13 women had successfully
completed this rigorous training. Following their testing program, the
13 women were prepared to continue their contributions to America's
space program at the Naval School of Aviation Medicine in Pensacola,
Florida and undergo advanced aeromedical examinations using jet
aircraft and military equipment, but their program was canceled.
The careers and accomplishments of these great American women served
as
[[Page 14667]]
an inspiration for many other young women that followed in their
careers in aviation, astronautics, science and engineering.
This resolution recognizes the accomplishments of Myrtle Cagle,
Geraldyn ``Jerrie'' Cobb, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Mary Wallace
``Wally'' Funk, Jane Briggs Hart, Jean Hixson, Gene Nora, Stumbough
Jessen, Irene Leverton, Sarah Lee, Gorelick Ratley, Bernice Trimble
Steadman, Geraldine ``Jerri'' Sloan Truhill, and Rhea Hurrle Allison
Woltman.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support House Resolution 421 and
again thank the gentleman from Oregon.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Wisconsin, Dr. Kagen, and thank him for his leadership in bringing this
legislation to the floor.
Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues from Oregon and
Florida. I appreciate their support on this important resolution.
I rise today in support of House Resolution 421, to honor the first
American women to participate in the United States space program. Known
as the Mercury 13, they were extremely accomplished pilots and aviators
and were selected from a pool of women to become astronauts. Conducted
in secret at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, they
excelled in the same physical and psychological tests as the male
candidates for astronautic school did, the Mercury 7.
Although many of these women outshined and outperformed their male
counterparts, they were never allowed to fly into space. The prejudice
of the day grounded their mission before they could reach the stars,
but it did not ground their dreams.
In 1961, just before their final phase of training at the Naval
Aviation Center in Pensacola, Florida, the Mercury 13 women received
notice that the program had been canceled. Twenty-two years later, NASA
sent our first American woman into space, Sally Ride.
In these past decades, the groundbreaking achievements of the Mercury
13 women have often been overlooked. Author Martha Ackmann wrote this
about the Mercury 13 and their quest for flying into space:
``While the Mercury 13 did not get their shot at space--at least not
yet-- they refused to let someone else trim their dreams. They fought
for what they wanted, what they believed in, and spoke out against
discrimination.''
The Mercury 13 women, as already stated, were Jerrie Cobb, Gene Nora
Jessen, Wally Funk, Irene Leverton, Myrtle ``K'' Cagle, Jane Hart,
Jerri Truhill, Rhea Hurrle Woltman, Sarah Ratley, Bernice ``B''
Steadman, Jean Hixson, Jan Dietrich, and Marion Dietrich.
I had the honor of meeting several of these very tough and spirited
women at the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh in a commencement
ceremony, and I was privileged and honored to present to the Mercury 13
women an honorary degree, an honorary doctorate. Today, I have the
extreme privilege to honor these phenomenal and extraordinary women on
the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and their pioneering
spirit that has advanced the rights of women everywhere. As these
Mercury 13 women have demonstrated, the sky is not the limit.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform my friend from Oregon
that I have no further speakers and am prepared to reserve my time
until it is appropriate to close.
Mr. WU. There are no further speakers on this side, either, if the
gentleman would care to close.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, again I want to thank my colleagues for
their support for the great history of the Mercury 13. I should say
since that Mercury 13 program, there have been 34 women that have flown
aboard the space shuttle, including four who made the ultimate
sacrifice in the Challenger and Columbia accidents.
In order to honor such dedication after the Columbia accident,
America committed to a vision for space exploration that will return
Americans to the Moon. Undoubtedly, several women will make that
journey. I look forward to that moment when the first American woman
steps on the Moon and shares her experience with the rest of the world.
This resolution by the gentleman from Oregon and others recognizes
the first 13 women that helped propel an entire gender and an entire
nation into space.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WU. I thank the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to recognize the good work of my
colleague from Wisconsin, Dr. Kagen, for bringing this legislation to
the floor. It is timely and it is timely recognition of a space program
that includes everyone from America and now, because of the
international space station and international space efforts, includes
many people from around the world.
Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer strong support for House
Resolution 421, honoring the extraordinary accomplishments and
courageous journey of the Mercury 13 women. Though largely unrecognized
in history, these 13 female pilots displayed determination, bravery and
strength in their quest for space exploration.
Selected from a large group of women, the Mercury 13 pilots endured
and passed the same grueling physical and psychological tests as the
Mercury 7 male astronauts. These women however, were tested not only on
their ability to withstand the toils of space exploration but also on
their capacity to overcome extensive discrimination in both their
careers and personal lives. When championing their cause, the women
were repeatedly told by government officials that any effort to put a
woman in space was a waste of time and money. Given this lack of U.S.
support, Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian engineer, became the first
woman in space on June 16, 1963. It would be many years later, in 1983,
that Dr. Sally Ride would become the first American woman in space.
Although the women of Mercury 13 were barred from space travel,
disappointment did not lessen their pioneering spirit and quest for
equality. We must follow their lead. Given our country's shortcomings
in 1963, it is our responsibility today to ensure that future
generations of women are granted equal opportunities to follow their
dreams.
These courageous women demonstrate that the sky is not the limit and
that as a Nation we must ensure that all individuals, regardless of
gender, race or ethnicity, are encouraged to venture into the fields of
math, science, technology and engineering. I believe we must instill
the spirit of the Mercury 13 into our children today, by supporting
innovative programs such as the National Science Foundation that
promote technology in the classroom. By creating an environment in this
country that fosters innovation and growth, we will ensure our
businesses and workforce can stay competitive in the global economy of
the 21st century. From new education technology and better math and
science teachers to train the next generation of innovators, to the
promotion of new sources of energy and the expansion of markets for our
products, this comprehensive agenda will create a strong foundation to
build the economy of the future.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to capitalize on this opportunity
to extend an honor to the women of Mercury 13 and to ensure we never
again allow gender inequality to restrict our citizens' ambition and
potential.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
support of H. Res. 421.
This resolution recognizes the brave ``Mercury 13'' women who in the
early 1960s undertook the human exploration of space.
The members of the ``Mercury 13'' include Myrtle Cagle, Geraldyn
``Jerrie'' Cobb, Jan Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Mary Wallace ``Wally''
Funk, Jane Briggs Hart, Jean Hixson, Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen, Irene
Leverton, Sarah Lee Gorelick Ratley, Bernice Trimble Steadman,
Geraldine ``Jerri'' Sloan Truhill, and Rhea Hurrle Allison Woltman.
The ``Mercury 13'' women successfully passed the same physical and
psychological tests as those of their male counterparts, the ``Mercury
7.''
Just before leaving for the next phase of training at the Naval
Aviation Center in Pensacola, Florida, they were told not to come.
In 1961, their efforts marked a milestone in American history and
these women paved the way for those who would follow in their
footsteps.
The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas has been the leading NASA
center for
[[Page 14668]]
more than 40 years and continues to encourage women to participate in
the area of space exploration.
H. Res. 421 is an important way to help young women understand the
importance of space and science.
As of today, there have been 34 women in space, and although this is
a great accomplishment, there should be more.
It is my hope that this resolution encourages girls to pursue what
they may feel is impossible.
The ``Mercury 13'' continue to inspire women of all ages to go above
and beyond, so that they can fulfill their dreams. The sacrifices of
these women deserve to be honored.
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
support of H. Res. 421, a resolution to honor the achievements of women
in space exploration.
In the 1960s, a courageous group of women challenged themselves, and
the stereotypes of our Nation, to become the First Lady Astronaut
Trainees.
These women were all accomplished pilots with a dream to explore the
unknown.
Thirteen of these women--``the Mercury 13''--were chosen to be part
of America's space team, breaking boundaries with their passion and
determination.
Though the program was discontinued before these women could actually
fly in space, they paved the way for future female astronauts through
their hard work and relentless efforts.
Finally, NASA got the message and began recruiting women again,
starting with the class of 1978 astronauts and culminating in the first
American woman in space in 1983.
Without the efforts of the Mercury 13, women with skills and interest
in science and exploration would have had a much tougher time breaking
through gender barriers.
The Mercury 13 women saw roadblocks as challenges to overcome.
I hope that all of the young women in my district and across America
may be inspired to make change by their example.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important
resolution.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res.
421, to honor the trailblazing accomplishments of the ``Mercury 13''
women, whose efforts in the early 1960s demonstrated the capabilities
of American women to undertake the human exploration of space.
The 13 women who participated in this program demonstrated the
willingness and capability that women all around the world, past and
present, possess, and in many cases must possess to overcome an
indictment of sexism and discrimination that our society often
presents. Although their participation in these tests and trials
yielded no concrete results, the 13 women trailblazers ought to be
recognized for having endured and overcome such grueling physical,
medical and psychological astronautical fitness examinations.
These 13 women--Jerri Cobb, Wally Funk, Irene Leverton, Myrtle ``K''
Cagle, Jane B. Hart, Gene Nora Stumbough (Jessen), Jerri Sloan
(Truhill), Rhea Hurrle (Woltman), Sarah Gorelick (Ratley), Bernice
``B'' Trimble Steadman, Jan Dietrich, and the late Marlon Dietrich and
Jean Hixson--all surpassed society's expectations of rejections, by
proving that although women are typically smaller and lighter than men,
women are still fit to be good occupants in cramped space vehicles.
These women attempted the dream that many others only dreamed of--
flying the newest and the fastest craft.
Mr. Speaker, though few Americans know the names of the 13 women
trailblazers, their valiant attempts to earn the opportunity to fly a
spacecraft call for worldwide recognition. Because of the secrecy of
the test programs, these women never received the recognition for their
accomplishments, which laid that critical groundwork for women who have
reached and those who are seeking to reach the skies. We can show our
gratitude and appreciation for these women trailblazers by honoring
them with the passing of this bill.
As a representative of the 18th Congressional District of Texas, home
to an integral number of space exploration projects, centers,
businesses, and constituents employed in the space industry, I strongly
support legislation that seeks to inspire, motivate and recognize those
individuals who assist with the improvement and advancement of space
exploration.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting H.
Res. 421 to honor the trailblazing accomplishments of the 13 female
pilots of Mercury 13.
Mr. WU. 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 Oregon (Mr. Wu) that the House suspend the rules and
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 421.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
HONORING ASTRONAUT WALTER MARTY SCHIRRA AND EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES ON
HIS PASSING
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 446) honoring the life and accomplishments of
Astronaut Walter Marty Schirra and expressing condolences on his
passing.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 446
Whereas Walter Schirra was born on March 12, 1923, in
Hackensack, New Jersey;
Whereas as an exchange pilot with the 154th Fighter Bomber
Squadron during the Korean War, he flew 90 combat missions in
F-84E jets and was credited with downing at least one MIG
fighter;
Whereas on October 3, 1962, Walter Schirra became the fifth
person to fly in space when he piloted Mercury 8 (Sigma 7) on
a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes and 11
seconds;
Whereas on December 15, 1965, Walter Schirra piloted Gemini
6A in what was the first attempted rendezvous by two manned
spacecraft in earth orbit;
Whereas on October 11, 1968, he concluded his third and
final mission when he was launched as commander of Apollo 7,
the first manned Apollo mission, making Commander Schirra the
only astronaut to fly aboard Mercury, Gemini and Apollo
spacecrafts;
Whereas Commander Schirra was the recipient of many
distinguished awards, including three distinguished flying
crosses, two air medals, two NASA Distinguished Services
Medals and induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame;
Whereas after he retired to San Diego in 1984, Wally
dedicated much of his later years to working with children on
connecting them to the amazing possibilities that a career on
space exploration could provide, and as a tireless advocate
for discovery, Wally was an inspirational figure for
countless San Diegans; and
Whereas Commander Schirra was an exemplary resident of the
State of California where he resided in La Jolla until the
time of his death on May 2, 2007: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) honors the life and accomplishments of Astronaut Walter
Marty Schirra and expresses condolences on his passing; and
(2) recognizes the profound importance of Astronaut
Schirra's record as a pioneer in space exploration and long-
time contributor to NASA's mission as a catalyst to space
exploration and scientific advancement in the United States.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Wu) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Feeney) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon.
General Leave
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include
extraneous material on H. Res. 446, the resolution now under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oregon?
There was no objection.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and accomplishments of
one of our heroes of the American space program, astronaut Walter
Schirra, known as Wally Schirra. In his 84 years, spanning 1923 to
2007, Captain Schirra took great risks on behalf of his country,
including while serving in the Pacific during World War II.
{time} 1120
During the Korean War, Captain Schirra served our country as an
exchange pilot with the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron and flew 90
combat missions and downed at least one MIG fighter.
In April of 1959, Wally Schirra was selected by NASA as one of the
original Mercury 7 astronauts. On October 3, 1962, he became the third
American to
[[Page 14669]]
orbit the Earth when he piloted his Sigma 7 spacecraft on a six-orbit
mission that lasted 9 hours 13 minutes and 11 seconds.
As a brand new American who had just been in this country for a year
and about 8 years old, I remember that, and I just remember that as one
of the signal moments that I indeed had come to a country where
anything and everything was possible, and Wally Schirra and others of
the Mercury 7 group demonstrated that to America and to the world.
Wally Schirra went on to pilot the Gemini 6A mission in 1965, which
involved the first attempted rendezvous by two manned spacecraft in
Earth orbit, and he made his third and final mission in October, 1968,
as commander of the first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7.
During his career as an astronaut, Wally Schirra was the only
astronaut to fly aboard all three generations of our late sixties-early
seventies spacecraft, the Mercury, the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.
His outstanding service to the U.S. space program is marked by several
awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Medal, NASA
Distinguished Service Medal, and induction into the National Aviation
Hall of Fame.
Wally Schirra was a tireless advocate for discovery and spent his
later years helping to connect children with the amazing possibilities
that a career in space exploration can offer.
Mr. Speaker, today, I seek the support of this Chamber to honor the
life and accomplishments of astronaut Wally Schirra, to express
condolences on his passing, and to recognize the profound importance of
astronaut Schirra's record as a space pioneer and a long-time
contributor to NASA's mission of space exploration, scientific
advancement and education in the United States.
Mr. Speaker, it is only fitting that this Chamber honor Wally
Schirra's achievements, and I urge my colleagues to support this
resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I again want to thank Mr. Wu, my friend from Oregon, for
this resolution and want to speak in favor of H. Res. 446, which honors
the life and accomplishments of an extraordinary man, astronaut Walter
Marty Schirra. Wally Schirra, as he was known to nearly everyone, was
truly a great American and a terrific human being.
Wally Schirra was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 12, 1923,
and was perhaps best known as an accomplished NASA astronaut and human
spaceflight pioneer, with the distinction of being the only astronaut
to fly aboard the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecrafts. He was named
one of NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts in April of 1959 and became
the fifth American to fly into space. Then, as the commander of the
Gemini 6A spacecraft, he completed a dramatic rendezvous in space with
the Gemini 7 spacecraft.
Schirra then served as commander of the Apollo 7 mission, which was
the first Apollo flight after the catastrophic 1967 launch pad fire
that killed the original Apollo 1 crew. At the conclusion of the Apollo
7 mission, Schirra had logged 295 hours and 15 minutes in space.
Before his service with NASA, Wally Schirra had already served his
country with honor as a pilot in the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron
during the Korean War. Schirra flew over 90 combat missions in F-84E
jets and was credited with downing at least one enemy MIG fighter.
What is perhaps less well-known about Wally Schirra is his personal
warmth, his contagious sense of humor and his tireless dedication as an
advocate for discovery. After his retirement in 1984, he spent many
years working to inspire children to pursue their dreams by connecting
them to the amazing possibilities of space exploration.
Schirra captured the pride of our entire Nation when he wrote, ``We
shared a common dream to test the limits of man's imagination and
daring. Those early pioneering flights of Mercury, the performances of
Gemini and the trips to the moon established us, once and for, all as
what I like to call a spacefaring nation. Like England, Spain and
Portugal crossing the seas in search of their nations' greatness, so we
reached for the skies and emboldened our Nation.''
I am deeply saddened by Wally Schirra's passing on May 2, 2007. He
was truly an American hero. I am proud to support this resolution
honoring such a prominent American citizen, military veteran and
astronaut.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 446.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my good friend, the
gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray).
Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to, first of all, thank the chairman
from Oregon and the ranking member for supporting my bill, H. Res. 446,
in recognition of the life of Wally Schirra. I would just have to say
that when we go through the record of the life of Wally, he was a San
Diegan for a long time; and we celebrated Wally as a neighbor and as a
friend and as a national and international hero.
The fact is that he did serve extensively, like many San Diegans, in
the military, with three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Air Medals,
more than a MIG or two on the side. He obviously went into the space
race with a lot of accomplishments.
Being the only individual to fly in all three of the first stages of
manned space flight for America was unique, but I think, as was pointed
out before, Wally is a man that filled in so often when others might
have hesitated.
After the terrible disaster of losing astronauts in a major fire, he
did not hesitate to look forward to being the first to step back into
those capsules and move on and move up with our space race. That kind
of bravery we didn't really take into consideration at the time. What a
huge challenge it must have been to explain to your wife, ``Honey, I am
going to get in this capsule. Somebody has to do it, and I will be the
one.'' We don't think about that family, that personal aspect of being
a hero and moving forward with those kinds of accomplishments.
I also would like to say that we forget that, without the docking
procedure that Wally was able to master, there was not going to be any
trip to the moon. It was an essential component, as important as any
missile, any rocket, any control system. The ability for man to dock
with another spaceship was an essential part, and Wally was a major
part of that.
But I want to thank all my colleagues for supporting this bill. Wally
was our neighbor, he was our friend, and he really did live a life that
San Diegans are proud of in public service. He spent his later years
working with the local museums for flight history, and he also spent a
lot of time on his sailboat in San Diego.
But I want to thank all of you, because Wally was not just a hero to
the world and to America; he was a neighbor and a friend to those of us
in San Diego.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, again, this is a terrific resolution. Mr. Bilbray is
rightfully proud to call Wally Schirra a neighbor and a friend. I think
America can call him a neighbor and a friend as well.
I expect to be proudly this Friday evening down at Cape Canaveral
where we will hopefully send the next shuttle flight into space with
some good luck and good fortune. And as I am down there I will join
many Americans in thinking about Wally Schirra and the other great
heroes that have come forward and made these great feats today possible
and the many more opportunities in space that would not have happened
without heroes like Wally Schirra.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life and accomplishments of
Astronaut Walter Marty Schirra, one of our heroes of the American space
program.
[[Page 14670]]
In his 84 years of life spanning from 1923-2007, Captain Schirra took
great risks on behalf of his country.
During the Korean War, Captain Schirra served the country as an
exchange pilot with the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron and flew 90
combat missions and downed at least one MIG fighter.
In April of 1959, ``Wally'' Schirra was selected by NASA as one of
the original Mercury 7 astronauts.
On October 3, 1962, he became the third American to orbit the Earth
when he piloted his Sigma 7 spacecraft on a six-orbit mission that
lasted 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds.
He went on to pilot the Gemini 6A mission in 1965, which involved the
first attempted rendezvous by two manned spacecraft in Earth orbit, and
he made his third and final mission in October 1968 as commander of the
first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7.
During his career as an astronaut, Wally Schirra was the only
astronaut to fly aboard the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecrafts,
and his outstanding service to the U.S. space program is marked by
several awards, including Distinguished Flying Crosses, Air Medals,
NASA Distinguished Service Medals, and induction into the National
Aviation Hall of Fame.
Wally Schirra was a tireless advocate for discovery and spent the
later years of his life helping to connect children with the amazing
possibilities that a career in space exploration can offer.
Mr. Speaker, today I seek support to: honor the life and
accomplishments of astronaut Walter ``Wally'' Schirra; to express
condolences on his passing; and to recognize the profound importance of
Astronaut Schirra's record as a space pioneer and a long-time
contributor to NASA's mission as a catalyst to space exploration and
scientific advancement in the United States.
Mr. Speaker, it is only fitting that this House honor Wally Schirra's
achievements, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of
H. Res. 446, honoring the life and accomplishments of Astronaut Walter
Marty Schirra and expressing condolences on his passing.
Astronaut Walter Marty Schirra was a member of the Mercury 7, who
were named by NASA in April of 1959.
He piloted the six orbit Sigma 7 Mercury flight, the Gemini 6 flight
and was Command Pilot on the Apollo VII.
Walter Schirra became the first man to fly in space three times after
being pilot of the Apollo VII. Schirra received numerous awards and
honors while being a member of NASA. Schirra logged more than 295 hours
in space.
After he left NASA in 1969, he worked as a television commentator
during the Apollo moon landings, was an engineering consultant and
worked on corporate boards.
Not only was Walter Schirra an astronaut, but he was an advocate for
students who want to pursue careers in science and engineering.
He helped to found the Mercury Seven Foundation, which creates
college scholarships for engineering and science students.
The passing of Walter Schirra has been a huge loss to the space
community and America as a whole.
His contributions will never be forgotten, and he leaves a strong
legacy of bravery and service. I urge support of this resolution.
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize the
life of one of our great space pioneers, Walter M. ``Wally'' Schirra
and to speak in support of H. Res. 446, a resolution to recognize his
many accomplishments and honor his memory.
Wally Schirra was one of the original seven Mercury Astronauts and
the only astronaut to fly in all three of the earliest manned space
programs: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
He was known for being an exact and precise pilot, and this aviation
excellence speaks for itself as Capt. Schirra flew 90 combat missions
while serving in the Navy during the Korean War. Later, during his
Gemini 6 mission as a NASA astronaut, Schirra conducted the first
rendezvous of manned spacecraft in orbit, considered one of the most
challenging tasks in space flight at the time.
Capt. Schirra was a great astronaut and a great American. What many
of my colleagues may not realize is that Wally Schirra became an active
businessman and citizen in Colorado after retiring from the space
program.
In the decade after he retired from NASA's Astronaut Corps, he moved
to Denver where he lived a life as a successful businessman and an
active environmentalist. When he first came to Colorado, he became the
president of an investment company. Several years after that, he
started an environmental management firm that concentrated their
efforts towards developing solutions for environmental problems faced
by the government and private industry.
In addition to being an advisor to Colorado State University, Capt.
Schirra was also an avid outdoors man, as evidenced by his tenure as a
trustee of the Colorado Outward Bound School.
Later in his life, while he continued to be busy in civic life, he
played an active role in Colorado politics and served as Colorado's
honorary chairman for Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign.
I and my fellow Coloradans will miss him, and I urge my colleagues to
honor his memory by passing H. Res. 446.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res.
446, to honor and recognize the life of astronaut Walter Marty Schirra,
and to express condolences on his passing. Walter Marty Schirra passed
away in La Jolla, CA, at the age of 84.
The American community is sad to have lost one of its original space
trailblazer--a true pioneer in both innovation and discovery. In
attempting to place men in space, Schirra was chosen to serve as one of
the original Mercury 7 astronauts for Project Mercury. Serving as an
astronaut and naval officer, Schirra became the first man to fly on all
three of our Nation's space programs--Apollo 7, Gemini VI-A, and
Mercury 8 (Sigma 7). Prior to his passing, ``Astronaut Wally Schirra''
logged a total of 4577 hours of flight time, with 295 of those being in
space. Additionally, he performed 267 landings in an aircraft carrier.
His lifetime of achievement also included a decorated record of
service in the United States Military. He flew 90 combat missions in F-
84E jets, as well as downing at least one MIG fighter, while serving as
an exchange pilot with the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron during the
Korean War. His courage and valor was eventually recognized with three
distinguishing flying crosses, two air medals, two NASA Distinguished
Services Medals, and induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
Mr. Speaker, Wally Schirra serves as a positive role model and an
asset to the space community. Schirra was an accomplished astronaut
whose personal and professional career was filled with positive
milestones and accomplishments. Schirra always rejected mediocrity by
rejecting to conform to commonplace expectations. Schirra pushed the
limits of 2 discovery and was determined to work harder and go farther
than anyone before him.
Despite his numerous accomplishments, which ranged from educational
attainment, military awards, hall of fame inductions, activeness in
diverse clubs and organizations, as well as experiences, his humility
was one of his most endearing traits. Although he was a great asset to
the space industry, he assumed a very modest character.
As one of the few and profound trailblazers ever known to the United
States Naval Academy, NASA, and the space community, he has helped pave
the way for much of our knowledge about the operations of the space
system. As a Member who represents many NASA-employed constituents and
as a strong supporter of the expansion of our space programs, I
understand the important role that Schirra played in advancing our
scientific explorations in space.
Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in recognizing the
enormous contributions that late astronaut Walter Marty Schirra has
made in the space industry and beyond, while also expressing
condolences for his passing.
{time} 1130
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the resolution, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu) that the House suspend the rules and
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 446.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
PERMISSION TO RE-REFER EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION 1370 TO COMMITTEE ON
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Executive
Communication 1370, the Department of Transportation's final rule,
Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants,
be rereferred to the Committee on Science and Technology.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oregon?
[[Page 14671]]
There was no objection.
____________________
10,000 TRAINED BY 2010 ACT
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 1467) to authorize the National Science Foundation to award
grants to institutions of higher education to develop and offer
education and training programs.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1467
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 ``10,000 Trained by 2010
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that--
(1) the National Science Foundation has long been a
government leader in strengthening our Nation's information
infrastructure;
(2) as automation and digitization reach the healthcare
industry, that industry will need to draw heavily on the
expertise of researchers funded by the National Science
Foundation for the collection, processing, and utilization of
information;
(3) the National Science Foundation's basic research,
demonstrations, and curriculum development assistance are all
required to help make sure the industry has the knowledge,
procedures, and workforce necessary to take full advantage of
advanced communications and information technology;
(4) the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 136,000
Americans were employed in 2000 as information management
professionals in the healthcare industry alone, with
projected growth of 49 percent by 2010; and
(5) no systematic plan exists for designing and
implementing systems and information tools and for ensuring
that the healthcare workforce can make the transition to the
information age.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of
the National Science Foundation.
(2) Information.--The term ``information'' means healthcare
information.
(3) Institution of higher education.--The term
``institution of higher education'' has the meaning given
that term in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965
(20 U.S.C. 1001).
SEC. 4. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RESEARCH.
(a) Grants.--
(1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with the
heads of other Federal agencies as appropriate, shall award
grants for basic research on innovative approaches to improve
information systems. Research areas may include--
(A) information studies;
(B) population informatics;
(C) translational informatics; and
(D) data security, integrity, and confidentiality.
(2) Merit review; competition.--Grants shall be awarded
under this section on a merit-reviewed, competitive basis.
(3) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the National Science Foundation to
carry out this subsection--
(A) $3,500,000 for fiscal year 2008;
(B) $3,600,000 for fiscal year 2009;
(C) $3,700,000 for fiscal year 2010; and
(D) $3,800,000 for fiscal year 2011.
(b) Informatics Research Centers.--
(1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with the
heads of other Federal agencies as appropriate, shall award
multiyear grants, subject to the availability of
appropriations, to institutions of higher education (or
consortia thereof) to establish multidisciplinary Centers for
Informatics Research. Institutions of higher education (or
consortia thereof) receiving such grants may partner with one
or more government laboratories, for-profit institutions, or
non-profit institutions.
(2) Merit review; competition.--Grants shall be awarded
under this subsection on a merit-reviewed, competitive basis.
(3) Purpose.--The purpose of the Centers shall be to
generate innovative approaches in information by conducting
cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research, including in the
research areas described in subsection (a)(1).
(4) Applications.--An institution of higher education (or a
consortium thereof) seeking funding under this subsection
shall submit an application to the Director at such time, in
such manner, and containing such information as the Director
may require. The application shall include, at a minimum, a
description of--
(A) the research projects that will be undertaken by the
Center and the contributions of each of the participating
entities;
(B) how the Center will promote active collaboration among
professionals from different disciplines, such as information
technology specialists, health professionals, administrators,
and social science researchers; and
(C) how the Center will contribute to increasing the number
of information researchers and other professionals.
(5) Criteria.--In evaluating the applications submitted
under paragraph (4), the Director shall consider, at a
minimum--
(A) the ability of the applicant to generate innovative
approaches to information and effectively carry out the
research program;
(B) the experience of the applicant in conducting research
in the information field, and the capacity of the applicant
to foster new multidisciplinary collaborations;
(C) the capacity of the applicant to attract and provide
adequate support for undergraduate and graduate students to
pursue information research; and
(D) the extent to which the applicant will partner with
government laboratories or for-profit or non-profit entities,
and the role the government laboratories or for-profit or
non-profit entities will play in the research undertaken by
the Center.
(6) Annual meeting.--The Director shall convene an annual
meeting of the Centers in order to foster collaboration and
communication between Center participants.
(7) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated for the National Science Foundation to
carry out this subsection--
(A) $4,500,000 for fiscal year 2008;
(B) $4,600,000 for fiscal year 2009;
(C) $4,700,000 for fiscal year 2010; and
(D) $4,800,000 for fiscal year 2011.
SEC. 5. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION INFORMATION PROGRAMS.
(a) Capacity Building Grants.--
(1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with the
heads of other Federal agencies as appropriate, shall
establish a program to award grants to institutions of higher
education (or consortia thereof) to establish or improve
undergraduate and master's degree information programs, to
increase the number of students who pursue undergraduate or
master's degrees in information fields, to provide students
with experience in government or industry related to their
information studies, and, to the extent practicable, to do so
using distance learning.
(2) Merit review; competition.--Grants shall be awarded
under this subsection on a merit-reviewed, competitive basis.
(3) Use of funds.--Grants awarded under this subsection
shall be used for activities that enhance the ability of an
institution of higher education (or consortium thereof) to
provide high-quality information education, including
certification and undergraduate and master's degree programs,
and to recruit and retain increased numbers of students to
such programs. Activities may include--
(A) developing and revising curriculum to better prepare
undergraduate and master's degree students for careers in the
information field;
(B) establishing degree and certificate programs in the
information field;
(C) creating opportunities in information research for
undergraduate students;
(D) acquiring equipment necessary for student instruction
in these programs, including the installation of testbed
networks for student use;
(E) providing opportunities for faculty to work with State,
local, or Federal Government agencies, private industry, and
other academic institutions to develop new expertise or to
formulate new information research directions;
(F) establishing collaborations with other academic
institutions or departments that seek to establish, expand,
or enhance these programs;
(G) establishing student internships for students in these
programs at State, local, and Federal Government agencies or
in private industry;
(H) establishing or enhancing bridge programs in
information fields between community colleges and
universities; and
(I) any other activities the Director, in consultation with
the heads of other Federal agencies as appropriate,
determines will achieve the purposes described in paragraph
(1).
(4) Selection process.--
(A) Application.--An institution of higher education (or a
consortium thereof) seeking funding under this subsection
shall submit an application to the Director at such time, in
such manner, and with such contents as the Director may
require. The application shall include, at a minimum--
(i) a description of the applicant's relevant research and
instructional capacity, and in the case of an application
from a consortium of institutions of higher education, a
description of the role that each member will play in
implementing the proposal;
(ii) a comprehensive plan by which the institution or
consortium will build instructional capacity in information
fields;
(iii) a description of relevant collaborations with State,
local, or Federal Government agencies or private industry
that inform the instructional program;
(iv) a survey of the applicant's historic student
enrollment and placement data and a study of potential
enrollment and placement for students enrolled in the
proposed program; and
(v) a plan to evaluate the success of the proposed program,
including postgraduate
[[Page 14672]]
assessment of graduate school and job placement and retention
rates as well as the relevance of the instructional program
to graduate study and to the workplace.
(B) Awards.--The Director shall ensure, to the extent
practicable, that grants are awarded under this subsection in
a wide range of geographic areas and categories of
institutions of higher education.
(5) Assessment required.--The Director, in consultation
with the heads of other Federal agencies as appropriate,
shall evaluate the program established under this subsection
no later than 3 years after the establishment of the program.
At a minimum, the Director shall evaluate the extent to which
the grants have achieved their objectives of increasing the
quality and quantity of students pursuing undergraduate or
master's degrees in information fields. The Director shall
make this assessment publicly available.
(6) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the National Science Foundation to
carry out this subsection--
(A) $9,000,000 for fiscal year 2008;
(B) $9,200,000 for fiscal year 2009;
(C) $9,400,000 for fiscal year 2010; and
(D) $9,600,000 for fiscal year 2011.
(b) Scientific and Advanced Technology Act of 1992.--
(1) Grants.--The Director shall provide grants under the
Scientific and Advanced Technology Act of 1992 for the
purposes of section 3(a) and (b) of that Act, except that the
activities supported pursuant to this subsection shall be
limited to improving education in fields related to
information.
(2) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the National Science Foundation to
carry out this subsection--
(A) $7,000,000 for fiscal year 2008;
(B) $7,200,000 for fiscal year 2009;
(C) $7,400,000 for fiscal year 2010; and
(D) $7,600,000 for fiscal year 2011.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Wu) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon.
General Leave
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H.R. 1467, the bill now under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oregon?
There was no objection.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I and other Members of the Science and Technology
Committee have been working on the issue of health care IT for several
years. The genesis of this legislation, H.R. 1467, was a roundtable I
held in Oregon in August 2005. This roundtable was followed by an
Environment, Standards and Technology Subcommittee field hearing on
health care information technology in February of 2006. Representative
Reichert of Washington chaired the hearing, and our current ranking
member, Mr. Hall, also had staff in attendance.
One of the common issues raised at both of these events was the lack
of trained people who are experts in both health care and in
information technology. Despite the Federal focus on developing a
national electronic health care record system, there is no systematic
plan for the training of current and prospective professionals in both
health care and IT. Without this specialized training, the technology
can sit on health care provider's desks as a box, cold and unused
rather than as an integrated system of health care doing what it should
do.
The need for individuals to manage health care IT is expected to grow
49 percent between 2000 and 2010, and nearly 75 percent of health care
organizations indicate there are not enough qualified applicants for
these positions.
I would like to point out that the Science and Technology Committee
has a history of developing specific and specialized training and
research programs for IT professionals.
During the 107th Congress, the committee became concerned that the
lack of specialized computerized training for IT students and
professionals was a contributing factor in the lack of decent computer
security practices and software. As a result, the committee developed
and moved H.R. 3394, the CyberSecurity Research and Development Act
which subsequently became Public Law 107-305.
The bill under consideration today, H.R. 1467, consists of four
components. It authorizes the National Science Foundation, NSF, to
award research grants for innovative approaches enhancing health care
informatics. I want to make clear that this provision builds upon
existing NSF activities.
It authorizes NSF to support multidisciplinary health and medical
informatics research centers to perform research and to train qualified
health care informatics personnel and professionals.
Next, it authorizes NSF to establish a grant program to improve
undergraduate, master's and certificate programs in health care
informatics. The goal is to increase the number of students and the
quality of training in their field. This program allows both 4-year and
2-year institutions to participate as well as allowing for the
development of continuing education curricula.
Finally, it authorizes NSF's Advanced Technology Education Program
which focuses solely on 2-year colleges to support improved education
and technical training for health care informatics.
H.R. 1467 is a bipartisan product of the Science and Technology
Committee. Ranking Member Hall and I introduced this bill in the last
Congress. In this Congress, we introduced this legislation, along with
Chairman Gordon and Ranking Member Gingrey of the Technology and
Innovation Subcommittee.
I have spoken to Dr. Gingrey about health care IT, and he knows from
his firsthand experience the challenges involved in integrating IT into
health care settings.
We all recognize the benefits that an integrated health IT network
could provide in terms of improved patient care, safety, privacy and
potentially cost savings. However, investment in physical
infrastructure and technology alone is not enough. We need research and
training programs for health care and IT professionals in order to use
and design the system well.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise today in support of H.R. 1467, the 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act,
and the primary goal it seeks to achieve. If implemented correctly and
efficiently, health information technology, which we call IT, can
revolutionize our health care system.
However, we have to have an educated workforce properly trained in
health IT in order for it to be successful. This is what H.R. 1467 is
all about. NSF is already doing incredible work in the IT area, but
this measure focuses specifically on health IT by providing grants on
new innovative approaches for health care hardware and software
solutions.
Creating health medical informatics research centers and making
improvements to undergraduate and master's degree programs for health
care informatics, it also expands the Advanced Technology Education
Program to include health IT.
The activities supported by H.R. 1467 are important if we are to have
a sufficiently trained health IT workforce, and I encourage my
colleagues to adopt this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for working
with me, and his staff for working with our staff over a period of 3
years on this legislation.
I inquire of the gentleman whether he has any additional speakers.
Mr. HALL of Texas. We have no further speakers, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I thank the staff on both sides of the aisle on
the Science Committee for working hard through two Congresses to bring
this legislation to the floor, and I encourage all of my colleagues to
vote for adoption of this legislation.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of
H.R. 1467, the 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act.
[[Page 14673]]
The bill requires the National Science Foundation to award
competitive grants for research to improve health care information
systems.
As our health care information moves from paper to computer-based
storage methods, it becomes increasingly important to develop
systematic methods for organizing and sharing biomedical information.
Digital medical records must be transferable, and above all, patient
confidentiality must be ensured.
H.R. 1467 would fund scientific and engineering activities to improve
education in the health care information fields. The funding would be
used to develop innovative approaches in health care information; and
help students earn advanced degrees in these fields.
Mr. Speaker, this bill would promote technologies that will save us
taxpayer dollars over the long term. I urge my colleagues to support
H.R. 1467.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.
Res. 1467 the ``10,000 Trained by 2010 Act''. This legislation would
authorize the appropriation of about $100 million over the 2008-2011
period for the National Science Foundation to award grants to
institutions of higher education for research on innovative approaches
to enhancing healthcare informatics through hardware and software
solutions, as well as to conduct basic research and improve
undergraduate and graduate education in the study of information
systems. Higher educations facilities would also be able to establish
multidisciplinary centers for Health and Medical Informatics Research
Centers.
These research centers would be designed to train qualified
healthcare personnel and professionals, as well as physicians, nurses,
information technology specialists, medical administrators and social
scientist.
Ciborra (2002) defines the study of information systems as the study
that ``deals with the deployment of information technology in
organizations, institutions, and society at large.'' Today, information
and information technology have become the fifth major resource
available to executives for shaping an organization, alongside people,
money, material and machines
One of the benefits of H.R. 1467 the ``10,000 Trained by 2010 Act''
is that we will be able to stay ``up to date'' with other countries and
their technology.
Most businesses have shifted from being product oriented to knowledge
oriented. This means that employers are now looking for people who can
compete in innovative, and knowledge oriented businesses, rather than
product oriented business. By funding this Act, we are giving our youth
a better knowledge about the field of information systems so that they
can have a greater chance on jobs and other opportunities in our
country, rather than the employer having to go to foreign nations to
look for help. We are also increasing the amount of resources that we
have available here in the United States.
We should make a conscious effort to get as many of our minority
students and women into the information systems career field as
possible. Although this is a highly populated field, there are not very
many minorities holding these positions. It is not because they are
incapable or lack the drive and determination to get the job done, but
simply because they are not very educated about the options and
possibilities that are out there.
Mr. WU. 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 Oregon (Mr. Wu) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 1467.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
{time} 1140
GREEN ENERGY EDUCATION ACT OF 2007
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1716) to authorize higher education curriculum development
and graduate training in advanced energy and green building
technologies, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1716
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 ``Green Energy Education Act
of 2007''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITION.
For the purposes of this Act:
(1) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of
the National Science Foundation.
(2) High performance building.--The term ``high performance
building'' has the meaning given that term in section 914(a)
of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16194(a)).
(3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Energy.
SEC. 3. GRADUATE TRAINING IN ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
(a) Funding.--In carrying out research, development,
demonstration, and commercial application activities
authorized for the Department of Energy, the Secretary may
contribute funds to the National Science Foundation for the
Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
program to support projects that enable graduate education
related to such activities.
(b) Consultation.--The Director shall consult with the
Secretary when preparing solicitations and awarding grants
for projects described in subsection (a).
SEC. 4. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE BUILDING
DESIGN.
(a) Funding.--In carrying out advanced energy technology
research, development, demonstration, and commercial
application activities authorized for the Department of
Energy related to high performance buildings, the Secretary
may contribute funds to curriculum development activities at
the National Science Foundation for the purpose of improving
undergraduate or graduate interdisciplinary engineering and
architecture education related to the design and construction
of high performance buildings, including development of
curricula, of laboratory activities, of training practicums,
or of design projects. A primary goal of curriculum
development activities supported under this section shall be
to improve the ability of engineers, architects, landscape
architects, and planners to work together on the
incorporation of advanced energy technologies during the
design and construction of high performance buildings.
(b) Consultation.--The Director shall consult with the
Secretary when preparing solicitations and awarding grants
for projects described in subsection (a).
(c) Priority.--In awarding grants with respect to which the
Secretary has contributed funds under this section, the
Director shall give priority to applications from
departments, programs, or centers of a school of engineering
that are partnered with schools, departments, or programs of
design, architecture, and city, regional, or urban planning.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H.R. 1716, the bill now under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today, I rise in support of H.R. 1716, the Green Energy Education Act
of 2007. I'd like to thank Mr. McCaul and Mr. Hill for their leadership
on this important legislation.
This bill authorizes the Department of Energy to contribute funds to
the National Science Foundation's successful Integrative Graduate
Education and Research Traineeship program, known as IGERT. IGERT
awards prepare doctoral students by integrating research and education
in innovative ways that are tailored to the unique requirement of newly
emerging interdisciplinary fields and new career options.
Many future green energy technologies, such as thin film solar
technologies, will require interdisciplinary teams of scientists and
engineers such as those trained under the IGERT program.
This bill also authorizes the Department of Energy's high-
performance-building technology programs to contribute to the National
Science Foundation's ongoing curriculum development activities with the
goal of improving the ability of engineers and architects to design and
construct high-performance buildings.
Innovative technologies, coupled with a whole-buildings approach that
optimizes interactions among building
[[Page 14674]]
systems and components, enable buildings to use considerably less
energy, while also helping to meet national goals for sustainable
development, environmental protection and energy security.
The high-performance, or green, building movement is growing rapidly,
but it is still a very small slice of the multibillion dollar building
industry; and there's a real gap in university level education and
training for the next generation of green building professionals. This
bill helps address that gap.
In summary, this bill addresses a critical need to provide resources
to universities to update their curricula and research efforts in
alternative energy and high-performance buildings, and it improves
coordination between the Department of Energy and the National Science
Foundation in achieving this goal.
I'm pleased to support H.R. 1716, the Green Energy Education Act of
2007. Again, I want to commend Mr. McCaul and Mr. Hill for this
important legislation; and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1716.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McCAUL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I
may consume.
I want to first thank Mr. Lipinski and my colleagues on both sides of
the aisle for their strong support of this bill, which I introduced in
the last Congress; and I'm pleased to see it get to the House floor in
this Congress.
The National Academies' Rising Above the Gathering Storm report
echoed the call of many in the academic and business community for
greater need to recruit and develop scientific and engineering talent
to work on solving problems of national need.
Like many Members of Congress, I'm concerned about America's
dependence on foreign sources of energy. Our reliance on imported
energy only serves to increase our vulnerability to both external
events and the actions of regimes that are, in many cases, openly
hostile to the interests of the United States. One of the ways we can
reduce the need for energy imports is to use our energy more
efficiently.
Buildings consume more energy than any other sector of the economy,
including industry and transportation. According to the U.S. Department
of Energy, American buildings consume 39 percent of our Nation's
primary energy and 70 percent of electricity. However, energy efficient
building practices are not being fully utilized, in part because of a
lack of awareness about energy efficient technologies and design
practices among building professionals.
That is why I introduced the Green Energy Education Act. This
legislation authorizes the Department of Energy to partner with the
National Science Foundation to support graduate education and
curriculum development to advance DOE's broad energy technology
development mission. Working through NSF, DOE will help develop the
next generation of engineers and architects to produce buildings
incorporating the latest in energy efficient technologies.
In order to reduce the likelihood of duplicative and wasteful
programs, this bill also allows the Department of Energy and the
National Science Foundation to combine their efforts to find workable
solutions to the issues surrounding building efficiency that then can
be transferred to the marketplace.
Specifically, H.R. 1716 will authorize DOE's Office of Science and
applied energy technology programs to contribute funds to the NSF's
successful Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship
program, which is already doing great work in this area.
This bill also authorizes the DOE to contribute to NSF's curriculum
development activities in order to improve the ability of engineers and
architects to design and construct more efficient and durable
buildings.
I urge my colleagues to support this important step towards
increasing America's energy independence.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this is another great effort that we are making, another
important step in helping to reduce our energy consumption in this
country. It's critical for national security, our economic security and
to combat global climate change, and certainly energy efficient
buildings, great work is being done in this, and much more work needs
to be done.
I have seen at the Department of Energy lab the work that is being
done on some of this. I think much more needs to be done. This bill
will help to provide these opportunities for more students, more people
to learn about what it takes to make our buildings more energy
efficient.
Again, I commend Mr. McCaul and Mr. Hill for this bill, and I urge my
colleagues to pass this legislation.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, today the House will consider H.R. 1716, the
Green Energy Education Act. As the lead Democratic sponsor of this
bill, I am pleased that it has moved so quickly through committee. I
believe its rapid movement onto the floor of the House for a vote is
indicative of the bill's importance and timely subject matter.
H.R. 1716 promotes the design and construction of energy efficient
buildings by authorizing the Department of Energy to partner with the
National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of multidisciplinary
graduate education and curriculum development activities that will
enhance the DOE's broad energy technology development mission. By
working with the NSF, DOE will help develop the next generation of
engineers and architects to work effectively together to produce
buildings and incorporating the latest in energy efficient
technologies.
Buildings in the U.S. consume a disproportionate share of our energy
and electricity. We must do something to make our buildings more energy
efficient and friendly to the environment. In fact, buildings in the
U.S. consume more energy than any other sector of the country,
including industry and transportation. According to 2003 U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) statistics, U.S. buildings consume 39
percent of our nation's primary energy and 70 percent of electricity.
We need to do everything we can to address the harmful things we are
doing to the environment. This bill is a step in that direction--making
buildings more energy efficient and less stressful on our energy and
electrical supplies. And, it will save businesses considerable sums of
money in the long run.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this important bill and take
a step forward in easing our dependence on foreign and harmful energy
sources.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of
H.R. 1716, the Green Energy Education Act of 2007.
Mr. Speaker, ``green energy'' is defined as energy that is produced
and used in ways that lessen air pollution and other environmental
impacts.
An investment in green energy education will benefit our Nation in
important ways. It is good for the environment, because it reduces
environmental impacts of the production and delivery of energy.
Green energy also reduces harmful greenhouse emissions.
H.R. 1716 directs the Department of Energy to contribute funds to the
National Science Foundation for the Integrative Graduate Education and
Research Traineeship program. This program is important in supporting
graduate education related to green energy projects.
The bill also supports energy technology research and development for
high tech buildings and for educational activities to teach students
how to improve building design that is not harmful to the environment.
Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 1716 and urge my colleagues to support it
also.
Mr. LIPINSKI. 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 Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1716, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. McCAUL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
[[Page 14675]]
____________________
{time} 1150
H-PRIZE ACT OF 2007
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 632) to authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish
monetary prizes for achievements in overcoming scientific and technical
barriers associated with hydrogen energy, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 632
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 ``H-Prize Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Administering entity.--The term ``administering
entity'' means the entity with which the Secretary enters
into an agreement under section 3(c).
(2) Department.--The term ``Department'' means the
Department of Energy.
(3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Energy.
SEC. 3. PRIZE AUTHORITY.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall carry out a program to
competitively award cash prizes in conformity with this Act
to advance the research, development, demonstration, and
commercial application of hydrogen energy technologies.
(b) Advertising and Solicitation of Competitors.--
(1) Advertising.--The Secretary shall widely advertise
prize competitions to encourage broad participation,
including by individuals, universities (including
historically Black colleges and universities and other
minority serving institutions), and large and small
businesses (including businesses owned or controlled by
socially and economically disadvantaged persons).
(2) Announcement through federal register notice.--The
Secretary shall announce each prize competition by publishing
a notice in the Federal Register. This notice shall include
essential elements of the competition such as the subject of
the competition, the duration of the competition, the
eligibility requirements for participation in the
competition, the process for participants to register for the
competition, the amount of the prize, and the criteria for
awarding the prize.
(c) Administering the Competitions.--The Secretary shall
enter into an agreement with a private, nonprofit entity to
administer the prize competitions, subject to the provisions
of this Act. The duties of the administering entity under the
agreement shall include--
(1) advertising prize competitions and their results;
(2) raising funds from private entities and individuals to
pay for administrative costs and to contribute to cash
prizes, including funds provided in exchange for the right to
name a prize awarded under this section;
(3) developing, in consultation with and subject to the
final approval of the Secretary, the criteria for selecting
winners in prize competitions, based on goals provided by the
Secretary;
(4) determining, in consultation with the Secretary, the
appropriate amount and funding sources for each prize to be
awarded, subject to the final approval of the Secretary with
respect to Federal funding;
(5) providing advice and consultation to the Secretary on
the selection of judges in accordance with section 4(d),
using criteria developed in consultation with and subject to
the final approval of the Secretary; and
(6) protecting against the entity's unauthorized use or
disclosure of a registered participant's trade secrets and
confidential business information. Any information properly
identified as trade secrets or confidential business
information that is submitted by a participant as part of a
competitive program under this Act may be withheld from
public disclosure.
(d) Funding Sources.--Prizes under this Act shall consist
of Federal appropriated funds and any funds provided by the
administering entity (including funds raised pursuant to
subsection (c)(2)) for such cash prize programs. The
Secretary may accept funds from other Federal agencies for
such cash prizes and, notwithstanding section 3302(b) of
title 31, United States Code, may use such funds for the cash
prize program. Other than publication of the names of prize
sponsors, the Secretary may not give any special
consideration to any private sector entity or individual in
return for a donation to the Secretary or administering
entity.
(e) Announcement of Prizes.--The Secretary may not issue a
notice required by subsection (b)(2) until all the funds
needed to pay out the announced amount of the prize have been
appropriated or committed in writing by the administering
entity. The Secretary may increase the amount of a prize
after an initial announcement is made under subsection (b)(2)
if--
(1) notice of the increase is provided in the same manner
as the initial notice of the prize; and
(2) the funds needed to pay out the announced amount of the
increase have been appropriated or committed in writing by
the administering entity.
(f) Sunset.--The authority to announce prize competitions
under this Act shall terminate on September 30, 2018.
SEC. 4. PRIZE CATEGORIES.
(a) Categories.--The Secretary shall establish prizes for--
(1) advancements in technologies, components, or systems
related to--
(A) hydrogen production;
(B) hydrogen storage;
(C) hydrogen distribution; and
(D) hydrogen utilization;
(2) prototypes of hydrogen-powered vehicles or other
hydrogen-based products that best meet or exceed objective
performance criteria, such as completion of a race over a
certain distance or terrain or generation of energy at
certain levels of efficiency; and
(3) transformational changes in technologies for the
distribution or production of hydrogen that meet or exceed
far-reaching objective criteria, which shall include minimal
carbon emissions and which may include cost criteria designed
to facilitate the eventual market success of a winning
technology.
(b) Awards.--
(1) Advancements.--To the extent permitted under section
3(e), the prizes authorized under subsection (a)(1) shall be
awarded biennially to the most significant advance made in
each of the four subcategories described in subparagraphs (A)
through (D) of subsection (a)(1) since the submission
deadline of the previous prize competition in the same
category under subsection (a)(1) or the date of enactment of
this Act, whichever is later, unless no such advance is
significant enough to merit an award. No one such prize may
exceed $1,000,000. If less than $4,000,000 is available for a
prize competition under subsection (a)(1), the Secretary may
omit one or more subcategories, reduce the amount of the
prizes, or not hold a prize competition.
(2) Prototypes.--To the extent permitted under section
3(e), prizes authorized under subsection (a)(2) shall be
awarded biennially in alternate years from the prizes
authorized under subsection (a)(1). The Secretary is
authorized to award up to one prize in this category in each
2-year period. No such prize may exceed $4,000,000. If no
registered participants meet the objective performance
criteria established pursuant to subsection (c) for a
competition under this paragraph, the Secretary shall not
award a prize.
(3) Transformational technologies.--To the extent permitted
under section 3(e), the Secretary shall announce one prize
competition authorized under subsection (a)(3) as soon after
the date of enactment of this Act as is practicable. A prize
offered under this paragraph shall be not less than
$10,000,000, paid to the winner in a lump sum, and an
additional amount paid to the winner as a match for each
dollar of private funding raised by the winner for the
hydrogen technology beginning on the date the winner was
named. The match shall be provided for 3 years after the date
the prize winner is named or until the full amount of the
prize has been paid out, whichever occurs first. A prize
winner may elect to have the match amount paid to another
entity that is continuing the development of the winning
technology. The Secretary shall announce the rules for
receiving the match in the notice required by section
3(b)(2). The Secretary shall award a prize under this
paragraph only when a registered participant has met the
objective criteria established for the prize pursuant to
subsection (c) and announced pursuant to section 3(b)(2). Not
more than $10,000,000 in Federal funds may be used for the
prize award under this paragraph. The administering entity
shall seek to raise $40,000,000 toward the matching award
under this paragraph.
(c) Criteria.--In establishing the criteria required by
this Act, the Secretary--
(1) shall consult with the Department's Hydrogen Technical
and Fuel Cell Advisory Committee;
(2) shall consult with other Federal agencies, including
the National Science Foundation; and
(3) may consult with other experts such as private
organizations, including professional societies, industry
associations, and the National Academy of Sciences and the
National Academy of Engineering.
(d) Judges.--For each prize competition, the Secretary in
consultation with the administering entity shall assemble a
panel of qualified judges to select the winner or winners on
the basis of the criteria established under subsection (c).
Judges for each prize competition shall include individuals
from outside the Department, including from the private
sector. A judge, spouse, minor children, and members of the
judge's household may not--
(1) have personal or financial interests in, or be an
employee, officer, director, or agent of, any entity that is
a registered participant in the prize competition for which
he or she will serve as a judge; or
(2) have a familial or financial relationship with an
individual who is a registered participant in the prize
competition for which he or she will serve as a judge.
SEC. 5. ELIGIBILITY.
To be eligible to win a prize under this Act, an individual
or entity--
(1) shall have complied with all the requirements in
accordance with the Federal Register notice required under
section 3(b)(2);
(2) in the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated
in and maintain a primary place of business in the United
States, and in the case of an individual, whether
participating singly or in a group, shall be a citizen of, or
an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in, the
United States; and
[[Page 14676]]
(3) shall not be a Federal entity, a Federal employee
acting within the scope of his employment, or an employee of
a national laboratory acting within the scope of his
employment.
SEC. 6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
The Federal Government shall not, by virtue of offering or
awarding a prize under this Act, be entitled to any
intellectual property rights derived as a consequence of, or
direct relation to, the participation by a registered
participant in a competition authorized by this Act. This
section shall not be construed to prevent the Federal
Government from negotiating a license for the use of
intellectual property developed for a prize competition under
this Act.
SEC. 7. LIABILITY.
(a) Waiver of Liability.--The Secretary may require
registered participants to waive claims against the Federal
Government and the administering entity (except claims for
willful misconduct) for any injury, death, damage, or loss of
property, revenue, or profits arising from the registered
participants' participation in a competition under this Act.
The Secretary shall give notice of any waiver required under
this subsection in the notice required by section 3(b)(2).
The Secretary may not require a registered participant to
waive claims against the administering entity arising out of
the unauthorized use or disclosure by the administering
entity of the registered participant's trade secrets or
confidential business information.
(b) Liability Insurance.--
(1) Requirements.--Registered participants shall be
required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate
financial responsibility, in amounts determined by the
Secretary, for claims by--
(A) a third party for death, bodily injury, or property
damage or loss resulting from an activity carried out in
connection with participation in a competition under this
Act; and
(B) the Federal Government for damage or loss to Government
property resulting from such an activity.
(2) Federal government insured.--The Federal Government
shall be named as an additional insured under a registered
participant's insurance policy required under paragraph
(1)(A), and registered participants shall be required to
agree to indemnify the Federal Government against third party
claims for damages arising from or related to competition
activities.
SEC. 8. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
Not later than 60 days after the awarding of the first
prize under this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary
shall transmit to the Congress a report that--
(1) identifies each award recipient;
(2) describes the technologies developed by each award
recipient; and
(3) specifies actions being taken toward commercial
application of all technologies with respect to which a prize
has been awarded under this Act.
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) Awards.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary for the period encompassing fiscal years 2008
through 2017 for carrying out this Act--
(A) $20,000,000 for awards described in section (4)(a)(1);
(B) $20,000,000 for awards described in section 4(a)(2);
and
(C) $10,000,000 for the award described in section 4(a)(3).
(2) Administration.--In addition to the amounts authorized
in paragraph (1), there are authorized to be appropriated to
the Secretary for each of fiscal years 2008 and 2009
$2,000,000 for the administrative costs of carrying out this
Act.
(b) Carryover of Funds.--Funds appropriated for prize
awards under this Act shall remain available until expended,
and may be transferred, reprogrammed, or expended for other
purposes only after the expiration of 10 fiscal years after
the fiscal year for which the funds were originally
appropriated. No provision in this Act permits obligation or
payment of funds in violation of section 1341 of title 31 of
the United States Code (commonly referred to as the Anti-
Deficiency Act).
SEC. 10. NONSUBSTITUTION.
The programs created under this Act shall not be considered
a substitute for Federal research and development programs.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
Inglis) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H.R. 632, the bill now under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 632, the H-Prize Act of
2007, an innovative bill I introduced, along with Mr. Inglis of South
Carolina, and that we passed in this House last year by a vote of 416-
6.
America faces a great challenge today, finding a new clean energy
source that will free us from our dependence on foreign oil and will
combat global climate change. Hydrogen has great potential to be this
new source and the H-Prize Act will help focus America's technological
and entrepreneurial talent on making it happen.
Hydrogen-fuel cars already exist. Last year I had the opportunity to
drive a hydrogen-fuel car. It didn't drive much differently than a gas-
powered car, except for the silence, silence that I am used to somewhat
from driving a hybrid. But that was the only real performance
difference. There is no performance difference. The only difference I
know of is the silence.
But there are really currently significant technical and economic
barriers that must still be overcome before we can put a hydrogen car
in every American garage. Current hydrogen-powered vehicles cost about
$1 million. But while several significant technological advances are
necessary, they are within reach.
Just yesterday, it was reported in the Chicago Tribune that engineers
at Purdue University are researching methods of producing hydrogen gas
by combining aluminum with another metal, gallium, and adding water.
This research could yield ways of overcoming hydrogen storage problems,
allowing automobile engines to burn this gas with little modification.
While we must continue to invest in traditional grants to fund
university research, we in Congress have the responsibility to find
creative and new ways to inspire researchers, business leaders and our
youth to solve the problems that society faces today.
The H-Prize will help expand the possibility of hydrogen research,
promoting people not normally involved in Federal research to explore
one of the greatest challenges facing us today.
Specifically, this legislation would establish competitively awarded
cash prizes to spur innovations that advance the use of hydrogen as a
fuel for transportation. Every 2 years, four $1 million prizes would be
given for advances in the production, storage, distribution and
utilization of hydrogen, and one $4 million prize would be awarded for
advances in prototype hydrogen vehicles. At the end of 10 years, one
grand prize of $10 million would be given for a transformational
advance in hydrogen energy technology.
In addition to this $10 million grand prize, we are also seeking to
raise up to $40 million to add to that grand prize, $40 million in
private contributions.
When these advances are made, hydrogen can fill critical energy needs
even beyond transportation. Hydrogen will also be used to provide heat
and generate electricity. The future possibilities of this energy
source are enormous.
Most importantly, hydrogen will be a clean, domestic energy source.
When used for energy, hydrogen produces no emissions besides water,
zero emissions, an amazing advance over current energy resources. By
utilizing hydrogen, we can improve our national security by lessening
our dependence on foreign oil that often comes from unstable countries.
Mr. Speaker, America has always been at the forefront of
technological breakthroughs. We have responded to great challenges,
perhaps most famously, President John F. Kennedy's challenge to land a
man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. We have seen that prizes
have been an effective way to inspire technological advances.
Perhaps most famously the prize won by Lindbergh for his successful
nonstop flight across the Atlantic. More recently, the Ansari X-Prize
given to the first private team to build and fly a spaceship 100
kilometers above earth. The H-Prize is patterned after this X-Prize.
We have seen that challenges and prizes help to spark the imagination
of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, who invest blood, sweat,
tears and often large sums of money, sums of money even larger than the
prizes being given, to achieve a great goal.
[[Page 14677]]
I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill today. Perhaps
one day we will look back on the H-Prize as a catalyst to a better,
cleaner, more secure America and world.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. INGLIS of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to one
of the co-chairs of the House Hydrogen Caucus, Charlie Dent from
Pennsylvania.
Mr. DENT. I too want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Lipinski) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Inglis) for
working together so well to bring this important piece of legislation
to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I was proud to join 415 of my colleagues in supporting
this bill last Congress, and I am pleased that the H-Prize Act has been
brought up again so that we can have an opportunity to enact this
important legislation into law.
I rise in strong support of H.R. 632, the H-Prize Act. The
Constitution of the United States provides that Congress has the power
to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. We, in
Congress, have an opportunity and obligation to promote scientific
advancement today. For more than a century, America's industry,
transportation, and households have been heavily reliant on foreign
oil. We must now face newer realities.
Petroleum is a finite resource. No matter how much we explore and
discover, we will one day run out and booming worldwide demand is
burning up resources and driving up prices. We must search for
alternatives to wean us off our addiction to foreign sources of oil.
The drive to produce energy economically can be advanced to American
innovation and competition.
Fossil fuel technology was the impetus for 20th century industrial
development. Today, hydrogen holds a promise of being the driver for
the economy of the future and ushering in a new generation of an
American energy independence.
Hydrogen makes up 98 percent of the known universe, and it is the
third most abundant element of the earth's surface. It is the lightest
of all gases, the coldest of all liquids, next to helium. As a
component of water, minerals and acids, it makes up a fundamental part
of all hydrocarbons and organic substances. Hydrogen is renewable,
abundant, efficient and clean. Unlike carbon-based fuels, it does not
create fumes or other harmful emissions.
In fact, using hydrogen in fuel cells produces only electricity and
pure water. By awarding prizes in three of the most critical areas of
technological development, the H-Prize Act will incentivize the
realization of scientific advancements that will break down the
obstacles that stand in the way of the hydrogen economy.
Specifically, H-Prize will promote technological advancements in
hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilization. Prizes will
be awarded for the development of hydrogen vehicle prototypes that meet
ambitious performance goals. Finally, the bill will award the
implementation of critical transformational technologies.
We are not that far away from making hydrogen a functional source of
energy. H.R. 632 will speed the development of breakthrough
technologies that will make hydrogen a practical alternative to oil in
our transportation sector and set our Nation on a path toward energy
independence. I strongly urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 632.
Again, I do want to commend the two gentlemen, Mr. Lipinski of
Illinois and Mr. Inglis of South Carolina, for their strong advocacy on
this critical issue.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. INGLIS of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite).
Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in very strong support of the H-Prize bill
that we have before us, H.R. 632.
This legislation encourages the best of what this House can offer,
and that is ingenuity and the genius of the American inventor. We have
always known that when the American people in our free markets put our
minds to a problem, there is no stopping them. When we faced the
challenges of World War II, for the run-away inflation of the 1970s,
American genius and the free market prevailed and delivered our
solutions.
Today's challenge is for us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil
sources. Our goal is to create a free market diversified portfolio of
energy sources, so that we are never again reliant on one single source
for our energy needs. Whether with wind, solar, nuclear or biofuel,
this Congress' goal should be to protect the environment with as little
prejudice for or against alternative energy sources as possible.
One might ask why? As we are already seeing with ethanol, we should
never forget the law of unintended consequences. By forcing ethanol
into our gas tanks, Congress has unfortunately raised the price of our
gas and the price of feed for our livestock.
{time} 1200
Listen up, America. Our experience with ethanol should be a
cautionary reminder of the burdens government regulation places on our
economy and the everyday lives of American families.
What is so brilliant about the H-Prize is that, unlike most of the
programs coming out of Congress, this bill doesn't mandate a specific
form of technology or add additional regulatory burden. Indeed,
instead, the H-Prize encourages the inventor and the market to generate
the ideas and solutions.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans pretty much have been shut out of debate and
denied amendments, but this bill was one of our ideas from the last
Congress which I voted for then, and I certainly will vote for now. I
commend you for moving a free market approach through to the floor so
that the 110th Congress can also do the right thing.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. INGLIS of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time
as I may consume.
First of all, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Illinois
(Mr. Lipinski) for his work on a number of energy initiatives that
we're collaborating on. This is one of those. I think it's a very
exciting bill that won't solve all of our challenges, but it will get
us down the road toward a brighter energy future.
And it's always helpful to have a picture tell a thousand words. This
is a picture of a gas line in a province in China on August 17, 2005.
That's a line of cars waiting to buy gas.
ExxonMobil tells us the global energy demand is expected to grow by
60 percent between now and 2030. So we've got to find something to do
in order to get to a brighter energy future, one that does not involve
the restricted supply that we have when it comes to petroleum. So what
we've come up with is an idea of using the incentives of a prize to
make it happen, to make some breakthroughs happen when it comes to
hydrogen.
Well, the good news is we've done prizes before. In 1927, Charles
Lindbergh won a prize for being the first to make a successful
transatlantic flight. It worked with flight, and it worked again here
more recently when the Ansari X-Prize was created to incentivize space
flight. On October 4, 2004, Burt Rutan's Spaceship 1 became the first
private spacecraft with commercial potential, succeeding in going into
space twice within 2 weeks; and the result was they won the Ansari X-
Prize.
So the concept here is to build on that kind of legacy and create the
H-Prize. The good news for our colleagues is this shouldn't be a
terribly controversial vote. The last time we did it, we got 416 votes
in favor of the H-Prize. So it's a do-over with a 416-6 margin last
time. So we're hoping that it's going to be successful here today on
the floor.
As my colleague from Illinois just said, Mr. Lipinski was telling us
that the concept is to incentivize breakthroughs in hydrogen
technology; and, as he said, technical breakthroughs would be rewarded
with a $1 million prize and then prototypes every other
[[Page 14678]]
year, $4 million. And then the transformational technology prize, the
big one, would be a $10 million prize, hopefully augmented by up to $40
million of private money that's authorized under the bill.
So the concept is to, basically, create the most nongovernmental way
to achieve a governmental purpose, which is to break this dependence on
oil. So we've created the H-Prize. It's a way of incentivizing
entrepreneurs and inventors to come together and to create teams that
can make this breakthrough.
The beauty of a prize, two beauties of the prizes to point out here
to our colleagues, one is, if nobody does it, you don't pay the prize
money out, so they've got to win it in order for us to incur the
obligation to pay the money out. That's a good thing about prizes.
The second thing that's very important about prizes is the
breakthroughs may come from way outside the normal realm that you would
expect; and it could be that it's not the normal people or the normal
suspects that might come forward with a breakthrough. It may be
somebody way afield.
For example, hydrogen breakthroughs may come from biological agents
that create hydrogen as part of their metabolism. That's way outside
the field of where a lot of people are expecting hydrogen production to
come from. But if you have a prize that isn't restricted as to how you
create the hydrogen, then you get a lot more entrants, and you get
interest from a broad range of fields that may come in with the out-of-
the-box thinking that can transform our energy supply.
So I'm very pleased that we've got it on the floor today. I thank the
gentleman from Illinois once again for his collaboration on these
topics. I'm hopeful that today we'll pass it with a large margin and
that we'll be successful with the other body and then a signature by
the President, and this will be one of the ways that we can break this
addiction to oil and move to a more stable energy future for America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation is another great example of what we
have been able to do on the Science and Technology Committee by working
together in a bipartisan manner. Led by Chairman Gordon, working with
Ranking Member Hall, I hope that we can continue this cooperation on
other critical issues related to America's future technological
competitiveness, energy dependence and global climate change. This is
the type of bipartisan work we need to continue to be doing to make
progress.
I'd also like to thank Mr. Inglis for all the work he has done on
this. We worked on this bill last year. We worked together on that, and
Mr. Inglis is the one who came forward at that time with the original
idea on this. He's worked very well. We have continued to work to make
progress, and I'm very hopeful that this year we have worked with the
Senate and the administration. We can get this past not just the House
but signed into law. Because I think this H-Prize act has really great
potential. It has the great potential to solve the great energy
challenge we face today. But perhaps it may be most important in
spurring the imagination of our youth, our most valuable resource in
this country.
I remember in the 1970s there was great excitement about alternative
energy. There was an environmental movement, and there was the gasoline
crisis, and there was great interest in helping clean up the
environment, investing in alternative energy.
It's something that really got me excited. I was caught up in it when
I was in grade school back in the 1970s. I remember I did my eighth
grade science fair project on solar energy. That was back in 1980. We
saw, unfortunately, though, that the interest in alternative energy
really dropped off after that time. Not only interest, but then Federal
funding dropped off.
{time} 1210
Just in talking to the Science Coalition this morning, they talked
about how critical that was when that research funding dropped off. We
can't afford to let that happen again. But what did happen with me is
it really inspired me, got me interested. I went out and got a degree
in mechanical engineering, and although I did not continue down that
road, today I bring that background to this House and continue to work
on these issues, understanding the importance of this issue and
understanding the importance of the Federal Government's really
investing in our future and especially in alternative energy. And these
challenges are great. We must really confront them.
So today maybe this H-Prize Act will inspire another child out there
today. He or she may become an engineer or a scientist or an
entrepreneur who plays a hand in the next technological breakthrough.
So there is great hope with this H-Prize Act. And today, Mr. Speaker, I
ask my colleagues to join me by passing this bill, and hopefully in the
future we can look back to today and see it as a major change and a
major move forward for America and for the world.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of
H.R. 632, the H-Prize Act of 2007.
The federal government should become more involved in supporting
cutting-edge technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move
our nation toward renewable energy.
As a member of the House Committee on Science and Technology, I
committed toward supporting a variety of renewable energy
technologies--including hydrogen.
H.R. 632 would create competitive cash prizes to reward innovative
research, development commercial application of hydrogen energy
technologies.
Hydrogen cars and other vehicles would make such a difference in air
quality, Mr. Speaker, especially in Texas. Cities in Texas have some of
the poorest air quality in the Nation.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles could be designed for mass-scale use. These
vehicles would emit only water vapor as a byproduct and reduce our
dependence on foreign oil in the long term.
Hydrogen, solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear are all cleaner energy
sources than fossil fuels. H.R. 632 is a positive step toward
developing energy technologies that create a brighter future for our
children and grandchildren.
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of
the H-Prize Act of 2007, H.R. 632, an important step forward in making
America more competitive and energy independent. As a founding member
of the House Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Caucus and a cosponsor of this
bill, I believe we must move forward in fostering innovation and
competition in hydrogen technology, in order to end our addiction to
oil.
According to the Department of Energy, major advances must be made in
hydrogen production, distribution, and storage before it can be widely
used as a fuel source. The H-Prize Act would excite and attract
innovators throughout the country to take up this important task.
Specifically, the bill would authorize $50 million from fiscal year
2008 through fiscal year 2017 to be awarded in cash prizes to non-
federal entities in three categories--technologies created to assist in
the distribution or production of hydrogen; development of hydrogen
powered vehicles; and ``transformational technology'' related to
production, storage, distribution, or use of hydrogen fuel. And
importantly, the cash prizes would only go to individuals who produce
breakthrough results in these categories, spurring competition and
innovation into much needed technology.
Solution to our energy crisis can be found in our backyard. Hydrogen
can be produced here on American soil. Companies such as UTC Power and
Fuel Cell Energy in my district in Connecticut produce hydrogen fuel
cells which are a clean, reliable form of energy. Technology such as
this can relieve us from our dependence on foreign nations for our
energy and create a much healthier alternative for our environment.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me today in advancing
science and supporting H.R. 632. It's time for us to take leadership
and commit to the safety and health of our nation by inspiring our
nation's brightest to make hydrogen technology a reality.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Salazar). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 632, as amended.
[[Page 14679]]
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
____________________
SECURELY PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST CYBER TRESPASS ACT
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 964) to protect users of the Internet from unknowing transmission
of their personally identifiable information through spyware programs,
and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 964
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 ``Securely Protect Yourself
Against Cyber Trespass Act'' or the ``Spy Act''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES
RELATING TO SPYWARE.
(a) Prohibition.--It is unlawful for any person, who is not
the owner or authorized user of a protected computer, to
engage in unfair or deceptive acts or practices that involve
any of the following conduct with respect to the protected
computer:
(1) Taking control of the computer by--
(A) utilizing such computer to send unsolicited information
or material from the computer to others;
(B) diverting the Internet browser of the computer, or
similar program of the computer used to access and navigate
the Internet--
(i) without authorization of the owner or authorized user
of the computer; and
(ii) away from the site the user intended to view, to one
or more other Web pages, such that the user is prevented from
viewing the content at the intended Web page, unless such
diverting is otherwise authorized;
(C) accessing, hijacking, or otherwise using the modem, or
Internet connection or service, for the computer and thereby
causing damage to the computer or causing the owner or
authorized user or a third party defrauded by such conduct to
incur charges or other costs for a service that is not
authorized by such owner or authorized user;
(D) using the computer as part of an activity performed by
a group of computers that causes damage to another computer;
or
(E) delivering advertisements or a series of advertisements
that a user of the computer cannot close or terminate without
undue effort or knowledge by the user or without turning off
the computer or closing all sessions of the Internet browser
for the computer.
(2) Modifying settings related to use of the computer or to
the computer's access to or use of the Internet by altering--
(A) the Web page that appears when the owner or authorized
user launches an Internet browser or similar program used to
access and navigate the Internet;
(B) the default provider used to access or search the
Internet, or other existing Internet connections settings;
(C) a list of bookmarks used by the computer to access Web
pages; or
(D) security or other settings of the computer that protect
information about the owner or authorized user for the
purposes of causing damage or harm to the computer or owner
or user.
(3) Collecting personally identifiable information through
the use of a keystroke logging function.
(4) Inducing the owner or authorized user of the computer
to disclose personally identifiable information by means of a
Web page that--
(A) is substantially similar to a Web page established or
provided by another person; and
(B) misleads the owner or authorized user that such Web
page is provided by such other person.
(5) Inducing the owner or authorized user to install a
component of computer software onto the computer, or
preventing reasonable efforts to block the installation or
execution of, or to disable, a component of computer software
by--
(A) presenting the owner or authorized user with an option
to decline installation of such a component such that, when
the option is selected by the owner or authorized user or
when the owner or authorized user reasonably attempts to
decline the installation, the installation nevertheless
proceeds; or
(B) causing such a component that the owner or authorized
user has properly removed or disabled to automatically
reinstall or reactivate on the computer.
(6) Misrepresenting that installing a separate component of
computer software or providing log-in and password
information is necessary for security or privacy reasons, or
that installing a separate component of computer software is
necessary to open, view, or play a particular type of
content.
(7) Inducing the owner or authorized user to install or
execute computer software by misrepresenting the identity or
authority of the person or entity providing the computer
software to the owner or user.
(8) Inducing the owner or authorized user to provide
personally identifiable, password, or account information to
another person--
(A) by misrepresenting the identity of the person seeking
the information; or
(B) without the authority of the intended recipient of the
information.
(9) Removing, disabling, or rendering inoperative a
security, anti-spyware, or anti-virus technology installed on
the computer.
(10) Installing or executing on the computer one or more
additional components of computer software with the intent of
causing a person to use such components in a way that
violates any other provision of this section.
(b) Guidance.--The Commission shall issue guidance
regarding compliance with and violations of this section.
This subsection shall take effect upon the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(c) Effective Date.--Except as provided in subsection (b),
this section shall take effect upon the expiration of the 6-
month period that begins on the date of the enactment of this
Act.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF COLLECTION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION
WITHOUT NOTICE AND CONSENT.
(a) Opt-in Requirement.--Except as provided in subsection
(e), it is unlawful for any person--
(1) to transmit to a protected computer, which is not owned
by such person and for which such person is not an authorized
user, any information collection program, unless--
(A) such information collection program provides notice in
accordance with subsection (c) before downloading or
installing any of the information collection program; and
(B) such information collection program includes the
functions required under subsection (d); or
(2) to execute any information collection program installed
on such a protected computer unless--
(A) before execution of any of the information collection
functions of the program, the owner or an authorized user of
the protected computer has consented to such execution
pursuant to notice in accordance with subsection (c); and
(B) such information collection program includes the
functions required under subsection (d).
(b) Information Collection Program.--
(1) In general.--For purposes of this section, the term
``information collection program'' means computer software
that performs either of the following functions:
(A) Collection of personally identifiable information.--The
computer software--
(i) collects personally identifiable information; and
(ii)(I) sends such information to a person other than the
owner or authorized user of the computer, or
(II) uses such information to deliver advertising to, or
display advertising on, the computer.
(B) Collection of information regarding internet activity
to deliver advertising.--The computer software--
(i) collects information regarding the user's Internet
activity using the computer; and
(ii) uses such information to deliver advertising to, or
display advertising on, the computer.
(2) Exception for software collecting information regarding
internet activity within a particular web site.--Computer
software that otherwise would be considered an information
collection program by reason of paragraph (1)(B) shall not be
considered such a program if--
(A) the only information collected by the software
regarding the user's internet activity, and used to deliver
advertising to, or display advertising on, the protected
computer, is--
(i) information regarding Web pages within a particular Web
site; or
(ii) in the case of any Internet-based search function,
user-supplied search terms necessary to complete the search
and return results to the user;
(B) such information collected is not sent to a person
other than--
(i) the provider of the Web site accessed or Internet-based
search function; or
(ii) a party authorized to facilitate the display or
functionality of Web pages within the Web site accessed; and
(C) the only advertising delivered to or displayed on the
computer using such information is advertising on Web pages
within that particular Web site.
[[Page 14680]]
(c) Notice and Consent.--
(1) In general.--Notice in accordance with this subsection
with respect to an information collection program is clear
and conspicuous notice in plain language, set forth as the
Commission shall provide, that meets all of the following
requirements:
(A) The notice clearly distinguishes a statement required
under subparagraph (B) from any other information visually
presented contemporaneously on the computer.
(B) The notice contains one of the following statements, as
applicable, or a substantially similar statement:
(i) With respect to an information collection program
described in subsection (b)(1)(A): ``This program will
collect and transmit information about you. Do you accept?''.
(ii) With respect to an information collection program
described in subsection (b)(1)(B): ``This program will
collect information about Web pages you access and will use
that information to display advertising on your computer. Do
you accept?''.
(iii) With respect to an information collection program
that performs the actions described in both subparagraphs (A)
and (B) of subsection (b)(1): ``This program will collect and
transmit information about you and will collect information
about Web pages you access and use that information to
display advertising on your computer. Do you accept?''.
(C) The notice provides for the user--
(i) to grant or deny consent referred to in subsection (a)
by selecting an option to grant or deny such consent; and
(ii) to abandon or cancel the transmission or execution
referred to in subsection (a) without granting or denying
such consent.
(D) The notice provides an option for the user to select to
display on the computer, before granting or denying consent
using the option required under subparagraph (C), a clear
description of--
(i) the types of information to be collected and sent (if
any) by the information collection program;
(ii) the purpose for which such information is to be
collected and sent; and
(iii) in the case of an information collection program that
first executes any of the information collection functions of
the program together with the first execution of other
computer software, the identity of any such software that is
an information collection program.
(E) The notice provides for concurrent display of the
information required under subparagraphs (B) and (C) and the
option required under subparagraph (D) until the user--
(i) grants or denies consent using the option required
under subparagraph (C)(i);
(ii) abandons or cancels the transmission or execution
pursuant to subparagraph (C)(ii); or
(iii) selects the option required under subparagraph (D).
(2) Single notice.--The Commission shall provide that, in
the case in which multiple information collection programs
are provided to the protected computer together, or as part
of a suite of functionally related software, the notice
requirements of paragraphs (1)(A) and (2)(A) of subsection
(a) may be met by providing, before execution of any of the
information collection functions of the programs, clear and
conspicuous notice in plain language in accordance with
paragraph (1) of this subsection by means of a single notice
that applies to all such information collection programs,
except that such notice shall provide the option under
subparagraph (D) of paragraph (1) of this subsection with
respect to each such information collection program.
(3) Change in information collection.--If an owner or
authorized user has granted consent to execution of an
information collection program pursuant to a notice in
accordance with this subsection:
(A) In general.--No subsequent such notice is required,
except as provided in subparagraph (B).
(B) Subsequent notice.--The person who transmitted the
program shall provide another notice in accordance with this
subsection and obtain consent before such program may be used
to collect or send information of a type or for a purpose
that is materially different from, and outside the scope of,
the type or purpose set forth in the initial or any previous
notice.
(4) Regulations.--The Commission shall issue regulations to
carry out this subsection.
(d) Required Functions.--The functions required under this
subsection to be included in an information collection
program that executes any information collection functions
with respect to a protected computer are as follows:
(1) Disabling function.--With respect to any information
collection program, a function of the program that allows a
user of the program to remove the program or disable
operation of the program with respect to such protected
computer by a function that--
(A) is easily identifiable to a user of the computer; and
(B) can be performed without undue effort or knowledge by
the user of the protected computer.
(2) Identity function.--
(A) In general.--With respect only to an information
collection program that uses information collected in the
manner described in subparagraph (A)(ii)(II) or (B)(ii) of
subsection (b)(1) and subject to subparagraph (B) of this
paragraph, a function of the program that provides that each
display of an advertisement directed or displayed using such
information, when the owner or authorized user is accessing a
Web page or online location other than of the provider of the
computer software, is accompanied by the name of the
information collection program, a logogram or trademark used
for the exclusive purpose of identifying the program, or a
statement or other information sufficient to clearly identify
the program.
(B) Exemption for embedded advertisements.--The Commission
shall, by regulation, exempt from the applicability of
subparagraph (A) the embedded display of any advertisement on
a Web page that contemporaneously displays other information.
(3) Rulemaking.--The Commission may issue regulations to
carry out this subsection.
(e) Limitation on Liability.--A telecommunications carrier,
a provider of information service or interactive computer
service, a cable operator, or a provider of transmission
capability shall not be liable under this section to the
extent that the carrier, operator, or provider--
(1) transmits, routes, hosts, stores, or provides
connections for an information collection program through a
system or network controlled or operated by or for the
carrier, operator, or provider; or
(2) provides an information location tool, such as a
directory, index, reference, pointer, or hypertext link,
through which the owner or user of a protected computer
locates an information collection program.
(f) Study and Additional Exemption.--
(1) Study and report.--The Commission shall conduct a study
to determine the applicability of the information collection
prohibitions of this section to information that is input
directly by users in a field provided on a website. The study
shall examine--
(A) the nature of such fields for user input;
(B) the use of a user's information once input and whether
such information is sent to a person other than the provider
of the Web site;
(C) whether such information is used to deliver
advertisements to the user's computer; and
(D) the extent of any notice provided to the user prior to
such input.
(2) Report.--The Commission shall transmit a report on such
study to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate not later than the expiration of
the 6-month period that begins on the date on which final
regulations are issued under section 9. The requirements of
subchapter I of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code,
shall not apply to the report required under this subsection.
(3) Regulation.--If the Commission finds that users have
adequate notice regarding the uses of any information input
directly by the user in a field provided on a website, such
that an exemption from the requirements of this section, or a
modification of the notice required by this section is
appropriate for such information, and that such an exemption
or modification is consistent with the public interest, the
protection of consumers, and the purposes of this Act, the
Commission may prescribe such an exemption or modification by
regulation.
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT.
(a) Unfair or Deceptive Act or Practice.--This Act shall be
enforced by the Commission under the Federal Trade Commission
Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). A violation of any provision of
this Act or of a regulation issued under this Act shall be
treated as an unfair or deceptive act or practice violating a
rule promulgated under section 18 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a).
(b) Penalty for Pattern or Practice Violations.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding subsection (a) and the
Federal Trade Commission Act, in the case of a person who
engages in a pattern or practice that violates section 2 or
3, the Commission may, in its discretion, seek a civil
penalty for such pattern or practice of violations in an
amount, as determined by the Commission, of not more than--
(A) $3,000,000 for each violation of section 2; and
(B) $1,000,000 for each violation of section 3.
(2) Treatment of single action or conduct.--In applying
paragraph (1)--
(A) any single action or conduct that violates section 2 or
3 with respect to multiple protected computers shall be
treated as a single violation; and
(B) any single action or conduct that violates more than
one paragraph of section 2(a) shall be considered multiple
violations, based on the number of such paragraphs violated.
(c) Required Scienter.--Civil penalties sought under this
section for any action may not be granted by the Commission
or any court unless the Commission or court, respectively,
establishes that the action was
[[Page 14681]]
committed with actual knowledge or knowledge fairly implied
on the basis of objective circumstances that such act is
unfair or deceptive or violates this Act.
(d) Factors in Amount of Penalty.--In determining the
amount of any penalty pursuant to subsection (a) or (b), the
court shall take into account the degree of culpability, any
history of prior such conduct, ability to pay, effect on
ability to continue to do business, and such other matters as
justice may require.
(e) Exclusiveness of Remedies.--The remedies in this
section (and other remedies available to the Commission in an
enforcement action against unfair and deceptive acts and
practices) are the exclusive remedies for violations of this
Act.
(f) Effective Date.--To the extent only that this section
applies to violations of section 2(a), this section shall
take effect upon the expiration of the 6-month period that
begins on the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 5. LIMITATIONS.
(a) Law Enforcement Authority.--Sections 2 and 3 shall not
apply to--
(1) any act taken by a law enforcement agent in the
performance of official duties; or
(2) the transmission or execution of an information
collection program in compliance with a law enforcement,
investigatory, national security, or regulatory agency or
department of the United States or any State in response to a
request or demand made under authority granted to that agency
or department, including a warrant issued under the Federal
Rules of Criminal Procedure, an equivalent State warrant, a
court order, or other lawful process.
(b) Exception Relating to Security.--Nothing in this Act
shall apply to--
(1) any monitoring of, or interaction with, a protected
computer--
(A) in connection with the provision of a network access
service or other service or product with respect to which the
user of the protected computer is an actual or prospective
customer, subscriber, registered user, or account holder;
(B) by the provider of that service or product or with such
provider's authorization; and
(C) that involves or enables the collection of information
about the user's activities only with respect to the user's
relationship with or use of such service or product,
to the extent that such monitoring or interaction is for the
purpose of network security, computer security, diagnostics,
technical support or repair, network management, authorized
updates of software, or for the detection or prevention of
fraudulent activities; or
(2) a discrete interaction with a protected computer by a
provider of computer software solely to determine whether the
user of the computer is authorized to use such software, that
occurs upon--
(A) initialization of the software; or
(B) an affirmative request by the owner or authorized user
for an update of, addition to, or technical service for, the
software.
(c) Good Samaritan Protection.--
(1) In general.--No provider of computer software or of
interactive computer service may be held liable under this
Act on account of any action voluntarily taken, or service
provided, in good faith to remove or disable a program used
to violate section 2 or 3 that is installed on a computer of
a customer of such provider, if such provider notifies the
customer and obtains the consent of the customer before
undertaking such action or providing such service.
(2) Construction.--Nothing in this subsection shall be
construed to limit the liability of a provider of computer
software or of an interactive computer service for any anti-
competitive act otherwise prohibited by law.
(d) Limitation on Liability.--A manufacturer or retailer of
computer equipment shall not be liable under this Act to the
extent that the manufacturer or retailer is providing third
party branded computer software that is installed on the
equipment the manufacturer or retailer is manufacturing or
selling.
(e) Services Provided by Cable Operators and Satellite
Carriers.--It shall not be a violation of section 3 for a
satellite carrier (as such term is defined in section 338(k)
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 338(k)) or cable
operator (as such term is defined in section 631(a)(2) of
such Act (47 U.S.C. 551(a)(2))) to--
(1) utilize a navigation device (as such term is defined in
the rules of the Federal Communications Commission);
(2) interact with such a navigation device; or
(3) transmit software to or execute software installed on
such a navigation device to provide service or collect or
disclose subscriber information,
if the provision of such service, the utilization of or the
interaction with such device, or the collection of or
disclosure of such information, is subject to section 338(i)
or section 631 of the Communications Act of 1934.
SEC. 6. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.
(a) Preemption of State Law.--
(1) Preemption of spyware laws.--This Act supersedes any
provision of a statute, regulation, or rule of a State or
political subdivision of a State that expressly regulates--
(A) unfair or deceptive conduct with respect to computers
similar to that described in section 2(a);
(B) the transmission or execution of a computer program
similar to that described in section 3; or
(C) the use of computer software that displays advertising
content based on the Web pages accessed using a computer.
(2) Additional preemption.--
(A) In general.--No person other than the Attorney General
of a State may bring a civil action under the law of any
State if such action is premised in whole or in part upon the
defendant violating any provision of this Act.
(B) Protection of consumer protection laws.--This paragraph
shall not be construed to limit the enforcement of any State
consumer protection law by an Attorney General of a State.
(3) Protection of certain state laws.--This Act shall not
be construed to preempt the applicability of--
(A) State trespass, contract, or tort law; or
(B) other State laws to the extent that those laws relate
to acts of fraud.
(4) Effective date.--The preemption provided for under this
subsection shall take effect, with respect to specific
provisions of this Act, on the effective date for such
provisions.
(b) Preservation of FTC Authority.--Nothing in this Act may
be construed in any way to limit or affect the Commission's
authority under any other provision of law, including the
authority to issue advisory opinions (under part 1 of volume
16 of the Code of Federal Regulations), policy statements, or
guidance regarding this Act.
SEC. 7. FTC REPORT ON COOKIES.
(a) In General.--Not later than the expiration of the 6-
month period that begins on the date on which final
regulations are issued under section 9, the Commission shall
submit a report to the Congress regarding the use of cookies
in the delivery or display of advertising to the owners and
users of computers. The report shall examine the extent to
which cookies are or may be used to transmit to a third party
personally identifiable information of a computer owner or
user, information regarding Web pages accessed by the owner
or user, or information regarding advertisements previously
delivered to a computer, for the purpose of--
(1) delivering or displaying advertising to the owner or
user; or
(2) assisting the intended recipient to deliver or display
advertising to the owner, user, or others.
The report shall examine and describe the methods by which
cookies and the Web sites that place them on computers
function separately and together, and shall compare the use
of cookies with the use of information collection programs
(as such term is defined in section 3) to determine the
extent to which such uses are similar or different. The
report may include such recommendations as the Commission
considers necessary and appropriate, including treatment of
cookies under this Act or other laws.
(b) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on the
date of the enactment of this Act.
(c) Paperwork Reduction Requirements.--The requirements of
subchapter I of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code,
shall not apply to the report required under this section.
SEC. 8. FTC REPORT ON INFORMATION COLLECTION PROGRAMS
INSTALLED BEFORE EFFECTIVE DATE.
Not later than the expiration of the 6-month period that
begins on the date on which final regulations are issued
under section 9, the Commission shall submit a report to the
Congress on the extent to which there are installed on
protected computers information collection programs that, but
for installation prior to the effective date under section
11(a), would be subject to the requirements of section 3. The
report shall include recommendations regarding the means of
affording computer users affected by such information
collection programs the protections of section 3, including
recommendations regarding requiring a one-time notice and
consent by the owner or authorized user of a computer to the
continued collection of information by such a program so
installed on the computer. The requirements of subchapter I
of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, shall not
apply to the report required under this section.
SEC. 9. REGULATIONS.
(a) In General.--The Commission shall issue the regulations
required by this Act not later than the expiration of the 9-
month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this
Act. In exercising its authority to issue any regulation
under this Act, the Commission shall determine that the
regulation is consistent with the public interest and the
purposes of this Act. Any regulations issued pursuant to this
Act shall be issued in accordance with section 553 of title
5, United States Code.
(b) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on the
date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 10. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act:
[[Page 14682]]
(1) Cable operator.--The term ``cable operator'' has the
meaning given such term in section 602 of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522).
(2) Collect.--The term ``collect'', when used with respect
to information and for purposes only of section 3(b)(1)(A),
does not include obtaining of the information by a party who
is intended by the owner or authorized user of a protected
computer to receive the information or by a third party
authorized by such intended recipient to receive the
information, pursuant to the owner or authorized user--
(A) transferring the information to such intended recipient
using the protected computer; or
(B) storing the information on the protected computer in a
manner so that it is accessible by such intended recipient.
(3) Computer; protected computer.--The terms ``computer''
and ``protected computer'' have the meanings given such terms
in section 1030(e) of title 18, United States Code.
(4) Computer software.--
(A) In general.--Except as provided in subparagraph (B),
the term ``computer software'' means a set of statements or
instructions that can be installed and executed on a computer
for the purpose of bringing about a certain result.
(B) Exceptions.--Such term does not include--
(i) computer software that is placed on the computer system
of a user by an Internet service provider, interactive
computer service, or Internet Web site solely to enable the
user subsequently to use such provider or service or to
access such Web site;
(ii) a cookie; or
(iii) any other type of text or data file that solely may
be read or transferred by a computer.
(5) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal
Trade Commission.
(6) Damage.--The term ``damage'' has the meaning given such
term in section 1030(e) of title 18, United States Code.
(7) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.--The term
``unfair or deceptive acts or practices'' has the meaning
applicable to such term for purposes of section 5 of the
Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45).
(8) Disable.--The term ``disable'' means, with respect to
an information collection program, to permanently prevent
such program from executing any of the functions described in
section 3(b)(1) that such program is otherwise capable of
executing (including by removing, deleting, or disabling the
program), unless the owner or operator of a protected
computer takes a subsequent affirmative action to enable the
execution of such functions.
(9) Information collection functions.--The term
``information collection functions'' means, with respect to
an information collection program, the functions of the
program described in subsection (b)(1) of section 3.
(10) Information service.--The term ``information service''
has the meaning given such term in section 3 of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153).
(11) Interactive computer service.--The term ``interactive
computer service'' has the meaning given such term in section
230(f) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)).
(12) Internet.--The term ``Internet'' means collectively
the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities,
including equipment and operating software, which comprise
the interconnected world-wide network of networks that employ
the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or any
predecessor or successor protocols to such protocol, to
communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio.
(13) Personally identifiable information.--
(A) In general.--The term ``personally identifiable
information'' means the following information, to the extent
only that such information allows a living individual to be
identified from that information:
(i) First and last name of an individual.
(ii) A home or other physical address of an individual,
including street name, name of a city or town, and zip code.
(iii) An electronic mail address.
(iv) A telephone number.
(v) A social security number, tax identification number,
passport number, driver's license number, or any other
government-issued identification number.
(vi) A credit card number.
(vii) Any access code, password, or account number, other
than an access code or password transmitted by an owner or
authorized user of a protected computer to the intended
recipient to register for, or log onto, a Web page or other
Internet service or a network connection or service of a
subscriber that is protected by an access code or password.
(viii) Date of birth, birth certificate number, or place of
birth of an individual, except in the case of a date of birth
transmitted or collected for the purpose of compliance with
the law.
(B) Rulemaking.--The Commission may, by regulation, add to
the types of information described in subparagraph (A) that
shall be considered personally identifiable information for
purposes of this Act, except that such additional types of
information shall be considered personally identifiable
information only to the extent that such information allows
living individuals, particular computers, particular users of
computers, or particular email addresses or other locations
of computers to be identified from that information.
(14) Suite of functionally related software.--The term
suite of ``functionally related software'' means a group of
computer software programs distributed to an end user by a
single provider, which programs enable features or
functionalities of an integrated service offered by the
provider.
(15) Telecommunications carrier.--The term
``telecommunications carrier'' has the meaning given such
term in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 153).
(16) Transmit.--The term ``transmit'' means, with respect
to an information collection program, transmission by any
means.
(17) Web page.--The term ``Web page'' means a location,
with respect to the World Wide Web, that has a single Uniform
Resource Locator or another single location with respect to
the Internet, as the Federal Trade Commission may prescribe.
(18) Web site.--The term ``web site'' means a collection of
Web pages that are presented and made available by means of
the World Wide Web as a single Web site (or a single Web page
so presented and made available), which Web pages have any of
the following characteristics:
(A) A common domain name.
(B) Common ownership, management, or registration.
SEC. 11. APPLICABILITY AND SUNSET.
(a) Effective Date.--Except as specifically provided
otherwise in this Act, this Act shall take effect upon the
expiration of the 12-month period that begins on the date of
the enactment of this Act.
(b) Applicability.--Section 3 shall not apply to an
information collection program installed on a protected
computer before the effective date under subsection (a) of
this section.
(c) Sunset.--This Act shall not apply after December 31,
2013.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Rush) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, today the House takes up H.R. 964, the Securely Protect
Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act, or SPY Act.
This bill is not unfamiliar to the House of Representatives. Twice
this body has passed the SPY Act with overwhelming margins, and it is
my hope that today will be the third time. H.R. 964 aggressively
tackles the problem of ``spyware,'' the insidious software that
consumers unwittingly download onto their computers, only to have their
personal private information extracted for commercial or fraudulent
purposes.
In the past two Congresses, Mrs. Bono and Mr. Towns introduced the
bipartisan SPY Act, and both times the bill enjoyed overwhelming
support. This year, Mr. Towns and Mrs. Bono have once again teamed up
to introduce the SPY Act as H.R. 964. And on March 15, the Consumer
Protection Subcommittee held another legislative hearing on the bill.
On May 10, 2007, the Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously reported
H.R. 964, the SPY Act, as amended.
H.R. 964 provides a broad regulatory framework that empowers
consumers with knowledge and the ability to control what software is
installed, and is not installed, on their personal computers. This bill
prohibits unfair or deceptive acts and practices related to spyware and
creates an ``opt in'' regime whereby entity cannot execute any program
that collects a person's personal information without, first, giving
explicit notice to the consumer and second, receiving his or her
consent. H.R. 964 provides that the FTC will enforce the SPY Act and
will have the authority to impose significant civil penalties. During
both the full committee and the subcommittee
[[Page 14683]]
markups of H.R. 964, I introduced manager's amendments tweaking
provisions of the bill, and they were the work product of deliberative
bipartisan cooperation. This bill has been thoroughly honed to be
effective without being overbearing.
Mr. Speaker, the SPY Act is a quality piece of legislation that all
Members of the House should enthusiastically support. The full
Committee on Energy and Commerce and the subcommittee that I am
privileged to chair, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer
Protection, have a long history of bipartisan cooperation, and this
bill is an extension of that longstanding tradition.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased again, I have been here a number of times, to
consider H.R. 964, the SPY Act, a bill which is important to fight
Internet privacy. In the past and as we speak on the floor today, this
has bipartisan support with bipartisan leadership. It has been offered
by my colleague from California, Mary Bono, and my colleague from New
York, Ed Towns. Both of them have worked dutifully to try to pass this
bill. And, unfortunately, the last time we passed it overwhelmingly in
the House, it did not get through the Senate; so we are back at it
again.
I also want to thank the new chairman of the committee that I chaired
last year, Mr. Rush, for his commitment to maintaining a bipartisan
process in this, and that is why we are here on the floor today. If it
hadn't been for the leadership of these individuals combined with what
I think is a Federal Trade Commission commitment and the stakeholders
in the community in this process, we would not have had a workable
legislative solution.
So I think today that we have to realize that even at the last 11th
hour we might have some people who don't totally agree, but I think the
bill is a strong bill. It takes a firm and, I think, a fair on balance
approach in balancing the need to address bad actors and the need to
protect the functions of legitimate business tools.
Both at the committee level and on the floor, we have voted on this
spyware before, as I mentioned, three times. Three times we have gone
through the process of holding hearings, receiving testimony from many
witnesses, listening to the horrors of spyware and how it can be a tool
of identity thieves, and we know how identity theft is prevalent today,
conducting negotiations, and we have asked for ways to improve the
bill. So we have seen support across the board in industry for this
bill. We asked what is the best way to improve this bill. So I think we
have worked hard on this legislation.
And, my colleagues, I think it is time we move this to the Senate,
and if there are any further problems with this bill, we certainly can
handle these problems in the conference between the House and the
Senate.
Now, you should realize that there are some in the business community
who have raised a 11th hour concern about a specific provision that was
added at the full committee markup. Not in our subcommittee, Mr.
Speaker, but in our full committee. I have been through seven hearings
on the question of privacy on the question of opt in and opt out. I am
well aware of the feelings of Members dealing with opt in and opt out,
depending upon how you view this process. So I share some of the
concerns of the business community in their 11th hour attempt to bring
this to our attention. But the responsibility of continuing to move
this process forward, I think, is important. That is why I have decided
to vote ``yes'' today to support this bill. And, hopefully, when the
Senate has it, they can make the changes. If not, we can do it in
conference. But to take a bill that has been in this long process and
has had so many hearings for so many years and decide that it should
not go forward is not the right process.
{time} 1220
And we all in Congress here know that sometimes the enemy of the good
is the perfect.
So we can solve this issue, I think, to satisfy all interested
parties. It is a strong piece of legislation; and I cannot think of a
reason why our Senate colleagues should not act on it, also.
So, in closing, the SPY Act is a solid consumer protection bill that
returns control of personal computers and private information to where
it belongs, and that is to the consumer.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 964.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the
gentleman from New York, my colleague, my friend (Mr. Towns).
Mr. TOWNS. Thank you very much for yielding time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 964, the SPY Act, which would
greatly improve the privacy of consumers' online computer use. The time
has come for this bill to pass.
A lot of hard work has been put into this legislation. First and
foremost, I would like to commend Congresswoman Mary Bono, the
Republican sponsor of the bill. Of course, without her hard work,
insight and persistence on this issue, we would not be where we are
today. I have been proud to work with her on this bill, and I salute
her for all of her efforts.
Of course, we have been down this road a few times now with several
hearings; and, of course, we passed it before. But this time I think
that people realize how important this legislation is, and I do feel
that it should go all the way.
I also want to commend Chairman Dingell and Ranking Member Barton for
their strong commitment to this issue and leadership in getting our
bill to the floor. I would like to thank my very good friend, the
subcommittee chairman, Chairman Rush of Chicago, Illinois, Ranking
Member Stearns, who has been a friend for many, many years as well, for
their hard work on this legislation. They have stayed with it and gone
through the process over and over again because they recognize how
important this legislation is to our country.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge all of the staff for their hard
work, especially Consuela Washington and David Cavicke for their hard
work and, of course, their suggestions and ideas and recommendations. I
would like to just take this opportunity to thank them.
There is no question that spyware is a serious problem. Spyware
software, which is downloaded without a computer owner's knowledge,
invades one's privacy by recording and transmitting personal
information, monitoring the Web site someone visits, or even stealing
documents from an individual's computer. Other programs hijack a
computer by changing home pages or forcing a person to click through
multiple screens until a spyware program is downloaded.
In fact, problems related to spyware have become so widespread that I
cannot run into someone who hasn't been negatively affected by it. This
is a big change from when we first began this effort a few years ago.
There were only a few people complaining, but now we have a lot of
people complaining. Now we know the seriousness of the problem and that
we need Federal legislation to safeguard privacy, as well as to ensure
the long-term integrity of e-commerce.
Today's legislation provides consumers with new tools to protect
themselves from unwanted, harmful software. Under the bill, consumers
would have to receive a clear and concise warning about the spyware
program. Second, consumers would have to provide their affirmative
consent before the program could operate on their computer. Finally,
Mr. Speaker, consumers must have the option to easily disable any
harmful spyware programs to their computer. While some consumers may
want to share their information to receive free games other discount
offers, all consumers have the right to make that choice.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, and this time I really mean finally, any time
we legislate on highly technical matters there
[[Page 14684]]
is always a danger of stifling innovation and making the use of
legitimate software too burdensome. It is a very difficult tightrope to
walk. But I think we have done an excellent job in walking that
tightrope.
This bill addresses many of the concerns raised, while at the same
time retaining a meaningful notice and consent regime to protect
consumer privacy.
Through much hard work, we have carefully crafted a strong bipartisan
consumer protection bill, and I would urge my colleagues to support
this. This is a quality piece of legislation, and I hope that we are
able to move it through both Houses very quickly and that the President
would sign it into law.
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the author of the
bill, the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Bono).
Mrs. BONO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 964, the
Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act.
When the gentleman from New York and I first introduced the spyware
bill in 2003, few people knew what spyware was or how problematic it
could be to American citizens; and since that time the online threat of
spyware remains. According to a recent Consumer Report survey, spyware
and viruses cost American computer users nearly $8 billion over a 2-
year period.
Historically, spyware legislation in this House has received strong
bipartisan support. Our initial bill in the 108th Congress passed 399-
1; and in the 109th Congress, our spyware bill again received
overwhelming bipartisan support, garnering over 60 cosponsors and
passing the House 393-4.
Mr. Speaker, this Congress, H.R. 964, the Securely Protect Yourself
Against Cyber Trespass Act, or SPY Act, has again garnered wide
bipartisan support with 41 cosponsors.
Because of the Internet's role in interstate commerce, the need for
Federal spyware legislation is clear. We cannot expect online companies
to function efficiently when they are faced with a patchwork of State
anti-spyware statutes. There needs to be legal uniformity.
Additionally, I remain a strong proponent of anti-spyware legislation
because I believe consumers should have the final say about what plants
itself on their computer, not a third party with potentially
conflicting interests. The SPY Act accomplishes this by prohibiting
commonly known, unfair or deceptive acts relating to spyware.
H.R. 964 also prohibits the collection of personal information from a
computer without notice and consent before the first execution of any
information collection program. The bill also requires that the user is
able to easily remove or disable the spyware.
I also understand there are instances where spyware can be useful.
H.R. 964 exempts action taken by law enforcement and national security
pursuant to warrant, court order or other lawful process, or actions
taken in good faith with the user's consent. H.R. 964 also protects the
developers of anti-spyware software from the threat of serious
lawsuits.
Simply stated, this bill works to restore privacy on the home
computer, which has become the control center for our business
transactions as well as as our personal interactions.
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from New York and I began this effort in
2003; and I thank the gentleman, Ed Towns, for all of his efforts and
for being such a terrific partner in this process. Again, since that
time, this effort has received the bipartisan support of the House. It
is my hope that the 110th Congress will continue to act in a bipartisan
way that passes this legislation.
I ask for the support of my colleagues and hope that once again we
can take back our computers so the consumer owns their computer, not a
third party. Let's pass the SPY Act, H.R. 984.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, as was indicated earlier, this is the third
time that this bill has been before this body. It was passed
overwhelmingly two times in prior Congresses. We really believe that
the third time should be the charm. This bill should pass out of this
House with the same kind of margins that it passed out of two previous
Congresses, and I would urge my colleagues to vote for this bill once
again.
This bill needs to become law. This bill protects the American
consumer. This bill protects the American economy. This is a good bill.
It needs to become law.
None of the practices outlawed by section 2 of the bill are
``legitimate.'' As for section 3's consumer notice, consent,
identification, and easy disabling requirements, legitimate business
practices are exempted by the exceptions in section 3(b)(2) and the
limitations in section 5 of the SPY Act. The committee added new rule-
making authority to exempt a broad class of entities operating Internet
Web sites that collect information if the FTC finds that their notice
to consumers is adequate.
{time} 1230
Mr. Speaker, we have corrected the bill, made minor tweaking
improvements on the bill, and I urge my colleagues to support this
bill.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R.
964, the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act--the SPY
Act. It is a strong consumer protection bill, of which I am an original
cosponsor, that will help us in the fight against identity theft.
With today's vote, the House will have passed the SPY Act three
times. Let's hope that the third time's a charm--and that today's
passage means this bill will finally get signed into law.
The SPY Act is important because it protects consumers from spyware,
the unwanted and sneaky software that is so powerful that it can steal
information from, monitor and control others' computers--without the
computer's owner even knowing the software has been installed.
The SPY Act would put the control of computers back in the hands of
consumers--where it belongs. It prohibits indefensible uses of the
software, like phishing and logging every keystroke entered, and
requires that consumers be notified and opt-in before software is
installed on their computers. Furthermore, the SPY Act gives the
Federal Trade Commission the additional power it needs to pursue
deceptive uses of the software.
I believe that this bill will go a long way toward protecting
consumers from having their valuable and personal information stolen by
purveyors of spyware. I am glad that I was part of the bipartisan
process that brought this bill to the floor today. I urge my colleagues
to support its passage. Thank you.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 964, the SPY
Act.
The continued growth of the Internet has brought tremendous
enhancements to our quality of life--from advances in the delivery of
health care, to the ability of consumers to instantaneously conduct
transactions online. Increasingly, consumers want a fast connection to
the Internet and want the delivery of online services to be seamless
and online service providers have invested significant resources to
develop software to make their services as safe, reliable and fast as
possible.
However, as Congress considers legislation to combat spyware, I
believe that four overarching principles should guide our efforts.
First, we must punish the bad actors, while protecting legitimate
online companies. Second, we must not over-regulate, but rather
encourage innovative new services and the growth of the Internet.
Third, we must not stifle the tree market interactions between
consumers and service providers. Fourth, we must target the behavior,
not the technology. It is my hope that any legislation Congress enacts
to combat spyware will adhere to these core principles.
On May 23, 2005, the House of Representatives passed legislation,
similar to H.R. 964, which sought to solve the spyware problem by
targeting the technology, instead of the criminal behavior behind the
technology. However, many developments have occurred during the
intervening two years which have convinced me that this regulatory
approach to combating spyware is even more unwise than previously
thought.
For example, just last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee
adopted an amendment to H.R. 964 that would have had enormous
consequences for the Internet and online innovation. This amendment
would have, in part, regulated Internet ``cookies'' for the first time
under the bill. Internet cookies
[[Page 14685]]
are used by most websites to enhance consumers' experiences with the
Internet and to make the Internet more seamless and navigable with
fewer stoplights. To make every online company that uses cookies comply
with the notice and consent regime under the bill would have
significantly interfered with consumers' Internet experiences. By
forcing consumers to click through even more pre-scripted alert
messages, this change would have, ironically, exacerbated the
likelihood that consumers would become desensitized to these notices
and click ``accept'' without reading them. In addition, this
desensitization is likely to also give nefarious software installers a
false legitimacy since there would be no distinction between the
notices they provide and the notices legitimate online companies
provide.
Apparently, the Democratic Leadership saw the error in the regulation
of cookies and stripped the bill of this language just before the bill
came to the Floor today. However, this mistake by the committee
highlights the difficulties with trying to impose one-size-fits-all
regulations to solve problems involving ever-evolving technologies.
In addition, Chairman Majoras of the Federal Trade Commission
testified in October of 2005 that a notice-and-choice approach was not
recommended for combating spyware for many reasons. He noted the fact
that consumers will be overwhelmed by the notices they will receive
when using the Internet and will most likely ignore the notices and
click through them.
Furthermore, in the past few years there have been major developments
in technological solutions to help consumers combat spyware. Consumer
packages are becoming more and more effective in screening out unwanted
spyware from their computers and are offered by many Internet service
providers, as well as independent software providers.
Finally, a broad cross-section of legitimate online businesses and
trade associations has expressed opposition to the regulatory approach
of H.R. 964. On June 5, 2007, a coalition of over 30 trade associations
and companies, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National
Retail Federation, the Financial Services Roundtable, and numerous
technology-based entities, sent a letter to all Members of the House of
Representatives detailing their concerns with H.R. 964. This letter
specifically expresses opposition to regulating Internet cookies, as
well as opposition to including web sites (where consumers willingly
submit information online) within in the scope of the legislation.
The better approach to combating spyware would be to target the
criminal behavior of those who actually use spyware, and to continue
our policy of letting innovative online companies interact with
consumers to develop the exciting new online services that consumers
have come to enjoy and expect from the Internet.
I have introduced legislation, along with my colleague Zoe Lofgren of
California, to combat spyware by going after the criminals using
spyware, rather than trying to regulate all software regardless of
whether it is harmful or helpful. This legislation, H.R. 1525, was
passed by the House and now awaits further action in the Senate. I urge
my colleagues to support this targeted approach.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the bill we are considering today--
the Towns-Bono SPY Act--is an important piece of legislation to me.
We've been working on this bill for 4 years now, before many of us ever
heard the term ``spyware.'' I applaud the bipartisan sponsors for their
unwavering commitment to pass this legislation.
The surreptitious installation of spyware on your computer without
your knowledge and without your consent is a little like sneaking into
your home and planting a bug: it is an invasion of your privacy and it
is clearly wrong. This bill prohibits all the nefarious conduct that is
used to harm consumers. The legislation provides the FTC a strong
mandate to go after bad actors and their destructive behavior.
There are many important and legitimate business functions of the
Internet, and I have no problem with businesses trying to compete and
sell their goods and services. And I recognize advertising is a part of
commerce. But I feel strongly that there is a line that should not be
crossed regarding the sharing of my personal information without first
obtaining my consent. Consumers have the right to know if they are
being profiled, if their personal information is going to be shared,
and with whom it might be shared. My computer and my personal
information are my property. This legislation will ensure I have
control over both.
This bill strikes a fair balance between the need to protect the
functions of legitimate business tools and punishing bad actors.
In closing, I want to thank Chairman Rush, Chairman Dingell, and
Ranking Member Stearns for moving the bill through the Committee. I
commend Mary Bono and Ed Towns for their tireless efforts to address
this insidious activity.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this important piece of
legislation and hope that our Senate colleagues will do the same.
Mr. RUSH. 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 Illinois (Mr. Rush) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 964, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
____________________
HUMAN CLONING PROHIBITION ACT OF 2007
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2560) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to
prohibit human cloning, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2560
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 ``Human Cloning Prohibition
Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION AGAINST HUMAN CLONING.
(a) In General.--The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
(21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``CHAPTER X--HUMAN CLONING
``PROHIBITION AGAINST HUMAN CLONING
``Sec. 1001. (a) In General.--It shall be unlawful for any
person--
``(1) to perform or attempt to perform human cloning; or
``(2) to ship, mail, transport, or receive the product of
human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology knowing that
such product is for the purpose of human cloning.
``(b) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
``(1) The term `human cloning' means the implantation of
the product of human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology
into a uterus or the functional equivalent of a uterus.
``(2) The term `human somatic cell nuclear transfer
technology' means transferring the nuclear material of a
human somatic cell into an egg cell from which the nuclear
material has been removed or rendered inert.
``(3) The term `person' includes a governmental entity.''.
(b) Prohibited Acts.--
(1) In general.--Section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 331) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
``(jj) The violation of section 1001(a).''.
(2) Criminal penalty.--Section 303(b) of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333(b)) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
``(7) Notwithstanding subsection (a), any person who
violates section 301(jj) shall be imprisoned not more than 10
years or fined in accordance with title 18, United States
Code, or both.''.
(3) Civil penalties.--Section 303 of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333) is amended--
(A) by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (f); and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(g)(1) Any person who violates section 301(jj) shall be
liable to the United States for a civil penalty in an amount
not to exceed the greater of--
``(A) $10,000,000; or
``(B) an amount equal to the amount of any gross pecuniary
gain derived from such violation multiplied by 2.
``(2) Paragraphs (3) through (5) of subsection (f) apply
with respect to a civil penalty under this subsection to the
same extent and in the same manner as such paragraphs (3)
through (5) apply with respect to a civil penalty under
subsection (f).''.
(4) Forfeiture.--Section 303 of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act, as amended by paragraph (3), is amended by
adding at the end the following:
``(h) Any property, real or personal, derived from or used
to commit a violation of section 301(jj), or any property
traceable to such property, shall be subject to forfeiture to
the United States.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Colorado (Ms. DeGette) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts)
each will control 20 minutes.
[[Page 14686]]
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Colorado.
General Leave
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Colorado?
There was no objection.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2560, the Human
Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007. Tomorrow, the House will debate S. 5,
the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which will expand the number of
stem cell lines that are eligible for federally funded research.
Similar to legislation passed in the House earlier this year with
overwhelming bipartisan support, the goal of S. 5 is to accelerate
scientific progress towards cures and treatments for a wide range of
diseases and debilitating health conditions. When we debated the bill
in January, opponents of the bill chose to muddle the debate by
offering a motion to recommit involving cloning, a topic unrelated to
H.R. 3.
After the debate, a number of my colleagues asked me if we could
address the issue of human reproductive cloning because they, like I,
were opposed to reproductive cloning. So, as we prepare to debate
embryonic stem cell research tomorrow, I have introduced H.R. 2560 with
my colleague from Connecticut so that we can discuss this important
issue.
Since scientists in Scotland were able to create a cloned sheep named
Dolly, some have speculated about the possibility of one day cloning
human beings. But we can all agree that there is universal opposition
to conducting human reproductive cloning and it should be illegal.
Human reproductive cloning is morally and scientifically wrong.
Unfortunately, at this time, though, there is nothing to prevent
irresponsible individuals from conducting research in an attempt to
achieve human reproductive cloning. The most effective way to prevent
human reproductive cloning in the United States is to pass a Federal
prohibition on this practice and impose severe penalties for doing so.
This is why my colleague, Congressman Chris Murphy, and I have
introduced the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007. Our bill would
make it illegal to use cloning technology to initiate a pregnancy and
therefore create a cloned human being. The penalty for such an act
would include severe criminal sanctions, in addition to as much as $10
million in civil fines. These strict penalties are necessary to ensure
that such an act is prevented from occurring.
Unbelievably, people actually are opposing this bill because they are
seeking to characterize it as a much broader bill. While they make many
false claims, the fact of the matter is this legislation today is
solely a ban on human reproductive cloning, something that all Members
of Congress as well as, I think, the vast majority of the American
public support. The accusations that this bill expressly allows
something new are completely false.
I also find it ironic that those who oppose our bill argue that one
of its flaws is that it would force all cloned embryos to be killed.
The bill bans human reproductive cloning. Nothing more, nothing less.
So the argument of those who say they are against cloning is that we
should defeat our bill to prevent cloned embryos from being killed. It
defies logic, just like it defies logic why anyone would vote against
this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I hope today we can take the rhetoric down and that we
can focus on what this bill does, which is to prevent human
reproductive cloning. We all agree this practice should be banned, so
let's pass this bill and make it happen.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in opposition to H.R. 2560. This bill is being marketed as a
ban on human cloning. However, H.R. 2560 does nothing to prevent human
cloning. In fact, the bill allows for unlimited cloning of human
embryos but prevents women and doctors from trying to implant one of
these embryos to initiate a pregnancy. In practice, this means that
embryos will be cloned, used for experimentation, harvesting, research,
then assigned a death sentence. So cloned embryos would be required by
law to die. Not only does this bill allow the practice of cloning to
move forward, it also mandates the killing of those human embryos.
The bill before us today is a ruse. It is not a ban on cloning. It is
a permission to clone, and I hope no one here today will be confused
about what we are being asked to do. The bill's supporters state that
this would ban reproductive cloning, but this claim is highly
misleading because the language does not restrict the actual act of
human cloning by allowing for somatic cell nuclear transfer, a
confusing and technical way of defining research cloning.
The bill before us is called the Human Cloning Prohibition Ban, and
you might think that it does what it says instead of the opposite of
what it says. If it did what it said, I would vote for it. Part of the
problem we are having is the consequence of having had no committee
process to determine what the bill actually does. We have had no
hearings. We have had no markups. In fact, the bill was not even
introduced until last night. And now the bill that nobody has seen is
on the suspension calendar. Intentional or otherwise, this is another
duplicity. The suspension calendar is for noncontroversial measures,
like naming post offices, not for highly controversial legislation that
is a wolf in Dolly the sheep's clothing.
This bill is bad policy, and so was the process by which it got here.
How many times will we have this discussion? The week before Memorial
Day we discussed a bill on Medicare payments that came to the House
floor the same way. Yesterday, a resolution on how Congress will handle
future ethics matters was introduced on the same day that it was
inserted in the suspension calendar with no committee hearings.
{time} 1240
The Senate could be forgiven for concluding that the new majority
promises for open government are still not being realized after 5
months.
The bill is opposed by the White House. In their statement of
administration policy which came out, they said that this would
``prohibit human cloning for reproductive purposes but permit the
creation of cloned embryos or development of human embryo farms for
research which would require destruction of nascent human life.''
That is exactly what H.R. 2560 does. It crosses a new moral line by
making it a criminal act to let the cloned embryos survive. To put it
directly, this bill would create a class of living human beings that
must be killed under the law.
Mr. Speaker, this is not progress. It is a disturbing step in the
wrong direction. It should be rejected on this floor, and I urge my
colleagues to oppose the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, just briefly, as the gentleman from
Pennsylvania knows, our committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee,
did have robust hearings on cloning several years ago where we brought
in several scientists as well as a cult called the Raelians who are
actually trying to clone human beings, and that is why we need this
kind of limitation.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Murphy), the cosponsor of the bill.
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague,
Representative DeGette, for being such a leader on this issue in the
past and allowing me to join with her today to offer this very
commonsense measure regarding the banning of human reproductive
cloning.
I rise in support of this act today. I do so because to me the bill
before us is relatively simple. This is a straightforward ban on human
reproductive
[[Page 14687]]
cloning, taking material through somatic cell nuclear transfer and
turning that material into a living, breathing human being. As
Representative DeGette said, nothing more, nothing less.
Under this law, if someone uses cloning technology to initiate a
pregnancy and creates a cloned human being, they would face severe
criminal and civil sanctions.
This legislation is something that the vast majority of the American
public supports, and it is something that all Members of Congress I
think should support as well.
In Connecticut, as part of our State's historic Stem Cell Investment
Act, which I was very honored to have authored, we recognize that human
being reproductive cloning is a practice that perverts the promise of
science; and we banned it outright in our legislation. In fact, I think
it is pretty amazing that we are standing here having this debate
today, that the Federal Government has, until today, not stepped
forward and said that human reproductive cloning, bringing that
material to the stage of a human being created from that material, is
illegal. We should do what we did in Connecticut here today.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that there are some members who want to
turn this ban on human reproductive cloning into a ban on somatic cell
nuclear transfer, called by some therapeutic cloning, and I understand
the discomfort many Members have with this innovative line of stem cell
research. Personally, for me, I join the scientific community in my
belief that it is this research that holds the most potential for
lifesaving treatments and cures.
But I recognize there are those who disagree. However, the debate
surrounding this particular disagreement is not the subject of today's
legislation. Today's legislation is simply about the line that we all
can agree to draw, that which clearly and cleanly prohibits the
manipulation of cells or embryos into a cloned human being.
The moral and ethical questions surrounding somatic cell nuclear
transfer are legitimate subjects for debate. But that debate will occur
later this week when we revisit the comprehensive stem cell
authorization bill coming back to this House from the Senate.
Today, Mr. Speaker, our task is simple: Ban what we all agree is
beyond the scientific and ethical pale, human reproductive cloning.
We are dealing with an issue as complicated as cloning technology.
The morass of scientific arcana and the ease of sound bite
simplification can obscure the simple facts. So let's be clear. Today,
human cloning, creating a replica of a person's DNA, implanting an
embryo into the womb of a woman and creating a new human being out of
that material, that practice is legal today in this country with
exceptions such as Connecticut and other States that have done the
right thing and banned it. With the enactment of this legislation,
human reproductive cloning will be illegal. Nothing more, Mr. Speaker,
nothing less.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith), a leader on this issue.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, beware of false and misleading bill titles.
H.R. 2560, rushed to the floor today after only being introduced
several hours ago, is misnamed the ``Human Cloning Prohibition Act of
2007.''
The fact is, this bill doesn't ban any human cloning at all.
Absolutely none. Researchers are absolutely free, are given the green
light, to clone human life to their heart's content, so long as they
kill and destroy the cloned human embryo at some point, perhaps weeks,
after its creation. As a matter of fact, the legislation makes it a
serious crime to allow a cloned human being to survive pass a certain
point.
In other words, this bizarre piece of legislation would make it
illegal not to kill a cloned human being; and the penalties are stiff,
up to 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine.
By redefining human cloning as ``implantation'' rather than the
creation of a new human being that would be then transferred into a
uterus or a functional equivalent, this phony ban sanctions unlimited
human cloning for research. Even more bizarre, under the bill, if a
woman were to have a cloned human embryo implanted in her womb, she
could go to jail for up to 10 years and/or be fined up to $10 million.
Is that something we want to vote for? I think not. The plain language
in the Weldon-Stupak cloning ban penalizes those who facilitate the
creation of the clone--not the woman.
My colleagues, I am sure all of us are aware of the fact that a
cloned human embryo will be indistinguishable from an embryo created
using in-vitro fertilization. Dolly the Sheep looked just like every
other sheep. How will this be enforced? If a woman is found carrying a
cloned baby, are you willing to fine her and send her to jail for 10
years?
Mr. Speaker, the United States should join many countries, including
Canada, Germany, Italy and France, in totally banning all cloning. The
Democratic leadership should bring the Weldon-Stupak bill to the floor,
instead of the DeGette pro-cloning measure.
Finally, what a difference a few years makes. In 2003, Ms. DeGette
said, ``We are not and we do not support creating embryos for the
purpose of research.'' This legislation begs the question. Apparently
you do. Why aren't you bringing a total ban before this body?
I would point out when a similar bill to H.R. 2560 was brought to the
floor as an amendment in the nature of a substitute by Congressman Jim
Greenwood we voted it down 174-231. Charles Krauthammer wrote, and I
think this is very insightful, that ``Greenwood,'' and read that now
DeGette, ``is a nightmare and an abomination. It sanctions, licenses
and protects the launching of the most ghoulish and dangerous
enterprise in modern scientific history, the creation of nascent cloned
human life for the sole purpose of its exploitation and destruction.''
I urge my colleagues, let's pass a real ban on cloning, not this
phony ban.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I just would make two points toward the
gentleman from New Jersey's comments. The first one is the Weldon-
Stupak bill, which he says he supports, also would make it a crime for
a woman to carry a cloned embryo in her uterus as a pregnancy. Frankly,
we think that cloning should be a crime. I am surprised to hear the
gentleman say that he does not think it should be.
Secondly, the so-called Greenwood-DeGette bill from several sessions
of Congress ago that he is referring to is a completely different bill
than this bill today. People should probably read the legislation in
front of them to see that all this bill does is make reproductive
cloning illegal.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), a real leader on these issues.
{time} 1250
Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me
this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2560, the Human Cloning
Prohibition Act. In recent years, Congress has debated various means of
banning human cloning. In an area that can be complex and confusing, I
am pleased that this bill, which is exceptionally simple and
straightforward, has come to the floor here today. Clearly some of my
colleagues on the other side of this issue are among those who find it
too complex and are confused. Hopefully we can clarify that before the
vote today.
H.R. 2560 would make it illegal to use cloning technology to initiate
a pregnancy and thereby create a cloned human being. The bill also
includes strict penalties to insure that such an Act is prevented from
taking place. Unfortunately, there seems to be some misinformation
circulating among my colleagues and outside groups surrounding the
implications of this bill.
I want to be very clear, this legislation in no way encourages or
endorses therapeutic cloning, otherwise known as somatic cell nuclear
transfer or any other type of research. On the contrary, this
legislation will simply ensure that as technology advances, ethical
safeguards are in place to keep
[[Page 14688]]
human cloning, something we all agree would be a frightening
development, from occurring.
For the record, there are no incentives included in this bill, not
even any words of encouragement, for any specific types of research.
This bill is a simple ban on human cloning once and for all.
Regardless of my colleagues' feelings on stem cell research or any
other type of medical research, I cannot imagine why any of them would
oppose a ban on human cloning.
Mr. Speaker, I hope all of my colleagues will take the time to
understand what this bill does and what it does not do and why it is
important and vote in favor of H.R. 2560.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield 5 minutes
to a leader on this issue, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon).
Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
This bill before us today entitled the Human Cloning Prohibition Act,
is better entitled the ``Human Clone Implantation Prohibition Act.''
Essentially what it does is make it a crime to implant a cloned human
embryo in the uterus of a woman.
While the gentlewoman from Colorado has said this is a very different
bill from the Greenwood substitute, it is true if you sit down with the
two of them and read them, they read differently; but the net effect,
let's be serious, is the same. It is the goal pursued by many research
scientists, who I assume do not ascribe to a belief in the sanctity of
human life, that they want to begin experimentation on human embryos
produced through the process of human cloning.
My position when we began debating this issue 5, 6 years ago, remains
the same. There are a host of problems with this, not the least of
which is that I and millions of Americans like me believe that human
life is sacred and we should not be wholesale producing it to be
experimented with in the lab and then discarded when the
experimentation is done.
Are we really trying to say to the American people we want to make
the human embryo the lab rat of the 21st century?
I will add, this is going to create a huge demand for human eggs. It
has been very surprising to me to see so many people on the left who
claim to be great champions of women's issues, it is going to create a
lot of pressure for more human eggs. And the way you get human eggs, it
is not a simple, overnight procedure. You have to give women a powerful
medication that produces something called superovulation. It has the
potential for complications, depression in some 25 percent of the women
who get these drugs, possible significant complications requiring
hospitalization called the superovulation syndrome.
And who will be donating their eggs to all these research labs? We
all know who it will be, it will be women who really need the money.
You will probably have problems and complications, suicides from
depression. What will end up happening is they will end up going
overseas to Third World countries where they can't bring litigation.
This is why many leaders in the feminist movement chose to support
the Stupak-Weldon bill over this alternative. It is just down right bad
policy.
Let me say as well, the lady said previously that the women could,
under my previous bill, could be criminally prosecuted. I disagree
wholeheartedly. I thought the language of the Stupak-Weldon bill was
very clear, that the criminal act would be the creation of the human
embryo through the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer. That is
the way they created Dolly; that is the way this process begins.
Let me just say in closing, the process by which we have undergone
this, when we were in the majority, we had committee hearings. We
allowed a substitute. And to rush this to the floor on the suspension
calendar is an inappropriate way for us to deal with a very, very
significant issue.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a profound slippery slope. They will
not be satisfied with doing research on human embryos. The next target
will be the human fetus itself, creating human models of disease so
research scientists can do research on certain forms of human disease
by doing research on human embryos and fetuses. That is the direction
we are going, patenting some of those diseased human embryos.
I say this is a place where we should be drawing the line. We should
defeat this on the suspension calendar. I believe if you brought it
forward under regular order, it would go down under regular order, and
I encourage all of my colleague to vote ``no'' on this piece of
legislation.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time I want to yield 3 minutes to the
distinguished ranking member of Energy and Commerce, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Barton).
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I don't normally come to the floor
to talk on suspension bills because normally, suspension bills have
been cleared by the majority with the minority and they are bills that
we have if not unanimous agreement on, we have general agreement on.
But I feel very strongly about this particular bill and the way it is
being done.
The gentlelady, who is the chief sponsor of the bill, the gentlewoman
from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) is a good friend of mine. When I was
chairman, I helped her and Mr. Castle bring to the floor the stem cell
bill which was very controversial and which the President ultimately
vetoed. I voted for that bill, and spoke for the bill on the floor. We
had an arrangement between Mr. Dingell and myself about how we were
going to bring that bill to the floor. Ms. DeGette and Mr. Castle were
part of that discussion.
This bill was introduced after 7 p.m. last night. John Dingell didn't
call me. Diane DeGette didn't call me. We can't find anybody from the
majority who called anybody on the minority. There have been no
hearings on the bill. There has been no markup of the bill. We just
basically take the gentlelady's word that it is what it is.
We know that cloning is controversial. We know that most of us in
this body are opposed to human cloning, for whatever purpose. There is
a good chance if we had a legislative hearing, we had a markup, we
could probably come to a consensus on a bill that Mr. Weldon could
support and Mr. Smith could support and Ms. DeGette could support; but
not this bill. Not this process.
A bill is introduced at 7:30 one night and is on the floor of the
suspension calendar the next day, there have been no hearings, no
process, and you can't amend it because it is under suspension of the
rules. I think that is a subversion of the process.
It is a way to give some Members a vote for political cover because
tomorrow when the main stem cell bill comes up, which was noticed last
week, the last time the stem cell bill was on the floor, the minority
who has the right to offer a motion to recommit, part of the motion to
recommit dealt with cloning, and some of the Members in the majority
voted for it.
{time} 1300
So this is a way for the majority to give some Members of their party
a way to vote for a cloning bill so they can vote against the motion to
recommit tomorrow, if that's what it is. So I understand the political
strategy, but I don't understand the process of ignoring the Energy and
Commerce Committee repeatedly, and I don't understand a bill as
controversial as this being brought under suspension with no hearings
and a bill that wasn't even introduced until after dark last night.
That's wrong. I hope we vote ``no,'' N-O, ``no.''
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the time remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 5\1/2\
minutes remaining. The gentlewoman from Colorado has 9 minutes
remaining.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
The gentleman from Texas, the ranking member of Energy and Commerce,
[[Page 14689]]
who just spoke from the well, he said it exactly right. This is a
political ploy, bringing this bill up under suspension, in my opinion,
Mr. Speaker, to give Members on the other side of the aisle the
opportunity for cover on this bill, this Castle-DeGette legislation
that's coming up tomorrow.
When King Solomon ordered that the baby be cut in half, Mr. Speaker,
who knew that someone would actually take him up on the offer. And yet
regrettably, this bill before us today, H.R. 2560, it aims to
figuratively and literally cut the baby in half.
Supporters of this legislation claim that H.R. 2650 bans human
cloning. This claim could not be further from the truth. If we really
want to ban human cloning, then the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon)
and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak), in a bipartisan way, they
have the right bill, and this was reintroduced by Representative Weldon
last night. I'm a proud cosponsor of that. That bans human cloning for
any purpose, reproductive or research.
I'm not impugning the motive of Representative DeGette, maybe it's
inadvertent, and maybe hopefully she understands through this
discussion today about the bill that, inadvertently, this promotes
cloning for research purposes.
We believe, those of us who are part of the pro-life caucus, strongly
believe that when you clone a human Dolly, that is a human being, and
then you slice it and dice it to get stem cells and then it's required
that you destroy it because it becomes a crime if it's implanted in a
woman to become a child. Then we say that you are indeed creating life
and destroying life, not maybe for the purpose of reproduction but for
the purpose of research, and that is wrong.
And that is why we need to vote down this bill today, and I strongly
oppose it.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers, and so we're
prepared to close. And, with that, I reserve my time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price).
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I stand before this House and say
that I oppose human cloning.
As a physician, I'm extremely concerned about the consequences of
human cloning and all of its ramifications, but this bill doesn't ban
human cloning, not as we all know it.
The author says, read the bill. Well, I would suggest to my
colleagues, that is exactly what they ought to do, read the bill.
The definition on page 2 of human cloning says, ``The term `human
cloning' means the implantation of the product of human somatic cell
nuclear transfer technology into a uterus or the functional equivalent
of a uterus.'' It confines the definition to implantation. Cloning
means to copy. Human cloning means to copy a human.
Dorland's medical dictionary definition of human cloning is, ``The
transplantation of a nucleus from a somatic cell into an ovum which
then develops into an embryo.'' It doesn't confine it to implantation,
because implantation is the next step.
Cloning doesn't have to do with implantation. This is another, Mr.
Speaker, in a long list of Orwellian democracy actions by this
majority, saying one thing and doing another. This bill wouldn't ban
human cloning at all.
What a shame, what a sham. I urge my colleagues to read the bill. I
urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, let me just say in conclusion that, as we all
know, Dolly the sheep was a cloned animal. Let me remind you that Dolly
the sheep was the 277th try. There were 276 before her who were
defective and deformed and died. In fact, the history of cloning is
replete with defects, deformity and death; and as they seek to create
little human embryos for the purposes of research and experimentation
and harvesting and death, we should remember this fact.
The researcher in South Korea that failed to identify what he was
doing, Dr. Hwang, and his team obtained 2,000 eggs from over 100 women
that they paid for their cloning attempts.
Human cloning exploits women. It ushers in an era of eugenics. It
embraces a utilitarian view of humans. It involves the creation of
little human embryos for research experiments. And for these reasons
and all the reasons that are stated, I urge my colleagues to oppose
this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Well, I've been in Congress now 10 years; and some days I feel like
I'm in Alice in Wonderland. Today happens to be one of them. Because
when you listen to the arguments from the other side you'd never dream
that the bill under consideration right now is a ban on human
reproductive cloning.
Maybe I will start by talking about the status of the law in the
United States today. Right now, in the United States, SCNT, somatic
cell nuclear transfer, is legal. It is legal today, and there is
nothing about H.R. 2560, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act, that
changes that or alters it in any way.
We hear the other side talking about egg farms and forcing women to
donate eggs and all of that. If that was going to happen, it would be
happening today because this bill does nothing to stop the status of
current law on SCNT or therapeutic cloning.
What we do have happening today, however, is there are some unethical
scientists who are trying to do reproductive cloning. They are trying
to take the results of SCNT, implant them in women's uteruses and
create cloned human beings.
I just heard my colleague from Pennsylvania talking about Dolly the
sheep and all of the failed attempts with animal cloning before Dolly
the sheep. He is absolutely right. It is a terrible problem, and that
is why it is reprehensible and immoral to try to clone human beings.
That is also why we need to make it illegal in this country.
He also talked about the example of South Korea, and he's also
absolutely right about South Korea. There was an unethical researcher
in South Korea who, with no ethical standards or controls, tried to
make experiments and lied about the results.
By the way, that's why we need to pass S. 5 tomorrow, because
currently in this country there are no ethical controls either over
embryonic stem cell research or SCNT research, controls which we could
really use in this country, and they certainly could have used in South
Korea, but that's all sort of aside from the point.
The point is, right now, in this country it is not illegal to clone a
human being for reproductive purposes, and there's a national consensus
that it should be.
{time} 1310
I do want to apologize to my ranking member, Mr. Barton, about the
process. Perhaps there should have been notice. But the truth is, there
is a consensus on reproductive cloning.
This is a simple bill, and we have tried, over the years in Congress,
to ban reproductive cloning. The reason we haven't been able to do it
is because the other side gets up and makes all of these false
arguments, which then complicate the situation, and we have not been
able to ban reproductive cloning. We felt that under a suspension
calendar, with a clean vote and a simple bill, it would work.
For people who try to say, well, somehow this is going to cause more
problems, I can't believe that they would support reproductive cloning.
I can't believe that the opponents of this bill would actually vote
against a bill that bans reproductive cloning. I can't believe that
they would say they think that we would encourage reproductive cloning
in this country.
I would tell my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, this vote will
be a clear vote today. The vote will be, do you oppose human
reproductive cloning and think that it should be a Federal crime in
this country, or are you in the pocket of the special interests who
will make any argument because they don't think this bill goes far
enough to ban other types of research, which are legal right now in
this country and for which the results which they fear have not
happened to date.
[[Page 14690]]
I will say, let's make the clear statement in Congress. Let's stand
up for our constituents. Let's ban reproductive cloning today. There is
no Member of Congress who supports human reproductive cloning, which is
exactly what this bill prohibits.
Vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2560, and then we can have the rest of this
debate tomorrow on S. 5.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of
H.R. 2560, the ``Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007.''
This legislation, offered by my colleague, Representative DeGette,
specifies that it is illegal to utilize cloning technology for
unethical purposes.
The bill text defines human cloning as the implantation of the
product of human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology into a
uterus.
In my view, H.R. 2560 would allow important stem cell research to be
done in an ethical manner.
However, it specifies criminal penalties for individuals who do
attempt to clone humans.
Mr. Speaker, as a nurse and long-time member of the Committee on
Science and Technology, I have long advocated for federal resources to
be used to support stem cell research.
After careful review of the bill text, I feel that this is a sound
piece of legislation that does what it says it will do--prohibit stem
cell technology from being used unethically to ``clone'' human beings.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2560.
Mr. SPACE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2560.
Mr. Speaker, I am a fervent supporter of the promise and optimism of
embryonic stem cell research. As the father of a child who suffers from
juvenile diabetes, I know full well the importance of stem cell
research in developing a cure for life threatening diseases. For
millions of Americans like my son, stem cell research represents
promising hope of a cure within their lifetime.
Unfortunately, many Americans confuse embryonic stem cell research as
human cloning, a practice which I adamantly oppose.
While technological advances continue to give scientists
opportunities to explore beyond our horizons, we have an obligation to
pursue our goals responsibly. The pursuit of science cannot go
unchecked; occasionally, Congress must intervene.
The artificial creation of human life through cloning challenges the
ethical foundations of this Nation. The development of human life is a
natural process that cannot be replaced by scientists in a laboratory.
I cannot in good conscience support a world where the chance and wonder
of the birth of a child is eliminated in favor of a cold, sterile
process.
Embryonic stem cell research differs from cloning by developing
embryos that might otherwise be destroyed for specific functions. The
goal of this practice is not to create new human life, but rather to
sustain existing human life by replacing failing parts of the human
anatomy.
I will always support saving an American life. I cannot support
artificially engineering one.
The importance of this distinction is critical. I hope that my
colleagues in the House will join me in educating the public on the
differences between these practices.
Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 2560.
The purpose of government in free societies is to protect basic human
rights, the most important of which is the right to life. It is because
of the need to protect that right to life that I oppose this bill.
Misnamed ``The Human Cloning and Prohibition Act,'' H.R. 2560 purports
to ban human cloning.
I wholeheartedly agree that human cloning should be outlawed. Yet the
term ``cloning'' in this bill does not refer, as it normally does, to
the simple act of creating a viable human embryo. Here the word cloning
refers only to the implanting of a cloned embryo in a uterus and not to
anything that precedes implantation. This bill is silent about and so
condones the experimentation upon and destruction of human embryos
prior to implantation. Even prior to implantation a human embryo has
the entire genetic makeup of a new human being and is worthy of
protection.
Those of us who seek to defend life at all stages have long argued
that embryonic research would initiate a downward spiral for the
sanctity of human life in this country. The government of the greatest
nation in the world cannot treat human life as an expendable resource
and allow taking the life of its most vulnerable citizens. I urge my
colleagues to oppose this bill and to support Representative Weldon's
ethical and moral alternative, H.R. 2564, of which I am a cosponsor.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2560
the ``Human Cloning Prohibition Act.'' This legislation prohibits human
cloning, and it makes it unlawful for any person to ship, mail,
transport, or receive the product of human somatic cell nuclear
transfer technology knowing that it will be used for human cloning.
H.R. 2650 also makes it illegal for any person to initiate a pregnancy
to facilitate human cloning.
Mr. Speaker, by a wide margin Americans believe that human cloning is
wrong and immoral. It is also highly inefficient. More than 90% of
cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. In addition to low
success rates, cloned animals tend to have compromised immune system
and higher rates of infections, tumors, and other disorders.
Studies conducted in Japan show that cloned mice live in poor health
and die early. About a third of the cloned calves born alive have died
young, and many of them were abnormally large. The American Medical
Association (AMA) and the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) have issued formal public statements advising against
human reproductive cloning.
Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 2560 because it reinforces the views and
values of the American people. Human beings should be born, not cloned.
Bringing a child into this world should be a consecrated act of grace;
not a clinical or commercial enterprise. It is one thing to conduct
research to find life-saving cures. It is quite another to try and
create life in the laboratory. I support the former and oppose the
latter.
For these reasons, I support H.R. 2560 and urge all of my colleagues
to join me in voting for its passage.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2560.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
____________________
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2446, AFGHANISTAN FREEDOM AND
SECURITY SUPPORT ACT OF 2007
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 453 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 453
Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this
resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule
XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of
the bill (H.R. 2446) to reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002, and for other purposes. The first
reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points of
order against consideration of the bill are waived except
those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule XXI. General
debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one
hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and
ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
After general debate the bill shall be considered for
amendment under the five-minute rule. The bill shall be
considered as read. Notwithstanding clause 11 of rule XVIII,
no amendment to the bill shall be in order except those
printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying
this resolution. Each such amendment may be offered only in
the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a
Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read,
shall be debatable for the time specified in the report
equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an
opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be
subject to a demand for division of the question in the House
or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against
such amendments are waived except those arising under clause
9 or 10 of rule XXI. At the conclusion of consideration of
the bill for amendment the Committee shall rise and report
the bill to the House with such amendments as may have been
adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered
on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without
intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or
without instructions.
Sec. 2. During consideration in the House of H.R. 2446
pursuant to this resolution, notwithstanding the operation of
the previous
[[Page 14691]]
question, the Chair may postpone further consideration of the
bill to such time as may be designated by the Speaker.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr.
McGovern) is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-
Balart). All time yielded during consideration of this rule is for
debate only.
I yield myself such time as I may consume.
General Leave
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I also ask unanimous consent that all
Members be given 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks on House Resolution 453.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 453 provides for
consideration of H.R. 2446, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security
Support Act of 2007 under a structured rule that makes in order all of
the amendments that were submitted to the Rules Committee, except for
those withdrawn by their sponsors.
I want to acknowledge and express my respect for the work of Chairman
Lantos and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for bringing such a fine example
of bipartisan cooperation and collaboration before the House for
consideration.
Following the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001, the United
States, the United Nations and the international community embarked on
what they hoped would be a comprehensive assistance program to help the
new Afghan president, of President Hamid Karzai, establish a new
democracy, rebuild the Afghan economy and provide for the general well-
being of the Afghan people.
Regrettably, after a most promising start, progress has slowed in
most parts of the country. Remnants of the Taliban continue to resist
the new government and are reorganizing and strengthening their
networks from neighboring countries. Instability has increased,
including the introduction of suicide bombings against U.S. soldiers,
NATO troops, Afghan officials, and civilians and international and
Afghan humanitarian aid workers.
Narcotics production threatens to overwhelm the country. According to
UN studies, a large percentage of Afghans, including farmers, laborers,
traffickers, war lords, insurgents, and officials participate in and
benefit from illegal poppy trade.
Congress first addressed the issue aiding Afghanistan by passing the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002, which established a
reconstruction program, mandated a relief coordinator, provided support
to the NATO-led international security forces, and gave new security
assistance authority to our President.
In addition to food aid, refugee relief and other forms of emergency
disaster assistance, the United States implemented a wide-ranging
assistance program for Afghanistan, including aid for schools,
hospitals and farms, and support to reestablish the participation of
women and girls in society, education and the workplace.
The legislation the House will take up today, H.R. 2446, reauthorizes
programs created by the original Afghanistan Freedom Support Act,
creates a new focus on counternarcotics efforts, and provides for
stronger and more enhanced oversight of U.S. strategic goals and
performance in Afghanistan.
Overall, H.R. 2446 provides modest increases in authorized levels for
humanitarian, development, democracy building and security assistance.
I cannot stress enough how important it is that Afghanistan succeed in
establishing and consolidating a representative government and
rebuilding the country's economy and civil society.
When we overthrew the Taliban regime, we made promises to the Afghan
people with the full backing of the international community. We cannot
renege on those promises. We cannot fail the people of Afghanistan who
came together in support of a common vision for the future.
I am very, very concerned that many of the difficulties confronting
Afghanistan today, especially in the areas of security, are due in
large part to taking our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and exhausting
our economic and military resources in Iraq. We had the chance to make
Afghanistan secure. We failed to do so because we chose not to invest
the necessary resources in Afghanistan, but, rather, to transfer our
attention and our resources to Iraq. We are now playing catch up in
Afghanistan as the situation there is deteriorating.
I applaud the chairman and members of the Foreign Affairs Committee
for this timely reauthorization.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1320
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank
the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for the time; and I
yield myself such time as I may consume.
As we all know, Mr. Speaker, after the defeat of the Soviet Army in
Afghanistan, the brutal Taliban took over the country. The Taliban
ruled that country through terror, through systematic assassination,
torture, intimidation. They denied Afghans all personal freedoms and
made women fifth-class citizens. They also provided safe harbor to
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. It is from that safe harbor that al Qaeda
was able to plan and train for the horrendous attack of September 11,
2001, against the United States of America.
Following the fall of the Taliban, due in large part to the heroic
assistance of the United States Armed Forces and coalition forces from
many, many countries throughout the world, the international community
worked together under the auspices of the Bonn Compact to make possible
what was really a wonderful, historic accomplishment, a democratically
elected government in Afghanistan.
In 2004, Afghanistan adopted a new constitution and held successful
presidential elections. Parliamentary elections followed in 2005.
Factions that once fought on the battlefield now, after decades of
violence, debate and resolve their differences in parliament with
ballots instead of bullets.
However, Mr. Speaker, there are remnants of the former Taliban
regime, along with al Qaeda, that are intent on overthrowing the
democratically elected government of Afghanistan. The Taliban is using
suicide bombings against U.S. and NATO troops, against Afghan
officials, against civilians, both international and Afghan
humanitarian workers, assistance workers.
Opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking have become significant
negative factors in Afghanistan's fragile political and economic order.
Afghanistan currently accounts, unfortunately, for a majority of the
world's illicit opium production.
As the democratically elected government faces grave challenges, we
must not turn our backs on that young democracy. We must continue our
support as that country moves from a brutal dictatorship to a
consolidated democracy.
In 2002, this Congress passed the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act.
That law provided both economic and military aid to the young Afghan
democracy.
This legislation will reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act
through the year 2010. The programs reauthorized in this bill focus on
countering narcotics production and boost security efforts to protect
United States and NATO forces as well as Afghan officials and
international assistance workers. This legislation calls for the
President to set out a detailed strategy for Afghanistan and provide
reports on progress there.
The Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of 2007, this
legislation that we bring to the floor today, builds on congressional
initiatives enacted in 2002 and 2004; and I again congratulate the
leaders, who in those Congresses back in 2002 and 2004, worked so hard
to ensure that these
[[Page 14692]]
initiatives that are being reauthorized today were passed. And these
initiatives now are, as I say, reauthorized in this legislation, H.R.
2466, that will be before the House today.
Among those initiatives passed in 2002, 2004 are the creation of
multiple programs, but this legislation calls for the creation of a
coordinator role for the development of a coherent, consistent counter-
narcotics strategy, and to strengthen the fight against the drug
trade's links to totalitarian Islamic terrorism.
We also insured in this legislation that initiatives passed in 2002
and 2004 continued, such as prohibition on assistance to Afghan
officials who are found to be supporting criminal activities such as
narcotics trafficking.
This bill, good legislation, Mr. Speaker. This bill reaffirms the
commitment of the United States to support Afghanistan in its
transition to a stable, representative democracy.
This bill, good legislation, Mr. Speaker, that we bring to the floor
today, authorizes the appropriation of $1.7 billion annually for
humanitarian and economic assistance and $320 million annually for
military assistance during fiscal 2008 to 2010.
This is important legislation. It's important legislation for the
fight against the international drug trade and totalitarian Islamists,
dangerous remnants of the defeated Taliban, the Taliban who were
overthrown, thank God.
Remnants of the Taliban are festering, and they use deadly tactics
against United States and NATO forces, as well as Afghans and
humanitarian workers. Those people have no scruples, and we only have
to remember, Mr. Speaker what they did to the Afghan people when they
were in power. So they use horrendous tactics, brutal tactics without
limits against our troops and other international forces that are in
Afghanistan pursuant to the request of the democratically elected
government to secure the peace.
And, furthermore, Mr. Speaker, poppy cultivation and opium production
continue to directly support insurgents, militias and terrorist groups.
In the face of these very difficult challenges, we cannot allow that
fledgling democracy, that budding democracy striving to be a stable
society, to fail.
With regard to process, our friends on the other side of the aisle,
again, the majority had another opportunity yesterday in the Rules
Committee to open the process and comfort with an open rule. They voted
down an amendment by our ranking member of the Committee on Rules to
bring this legislation forth under an open rule. Yes, they made in
order all of the amendments that were presented before the committee,
and that's commendable. But why not come forth with an open rule? I
think that was disappointing.
Let's not fail to see, however, Mr. Speaker, that this is, this
underlying legislation that's being brought forward is extremely
important. It's a very important piece of legislation.
And by the way, with regard, again, to process, precisely since it's
such an important project that as a Nation we're working on and there's
great national consensus on the need to do everything we can to
consolidate, to help consolidate the representative democracy and the
peace in Afghanistan, precisely I think there would have been no harm
in allowing, as this debate proceeds, to allow any Member who's hearing
the debate who has an idea for an amendment to bring it forth. That's
why an open rule is appropriate.
I'd like to thank, Mr. Speaker, the chairman, the distinguished
chairman of the International Relations Committee, Mr. Lantos, for his
hard work on this important facet of our foreign policy and the
legislation that's being brought forth today, as also the distinguished
ranking member, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, who's also worked very hard on this
legislation, and other members of the International Relations
Committee. I want to thank them for their hard work on this important
issue, which constitutes, as I said, a project where the American
people, in consensus fashion, are moving forward and doing everything
possible so that our friends and allies in Afghanistan can survive and
defeat the brutal Taliban and al Qaeda.
{time} 1330
This legislation brought forward today is an important bill. It is of
the utmost importance to our national security and obviously to the
region where Afghanistan is and, of course, to the people, to the noble
people of Afghanistan, as they continue their efforts to consolidate
their representative democracy and achieve peace and prosperity in
their great country.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me just say that, again, the underlying legislation is incredibly
important. We do have an obligation, a moral obligation, to the people
of Afghanistan. And, quite frankly, from a national security
perspective, that is where our attention should be and where our
attention should have been. It is regrettable, it is regrettable that
the President of the United States and his administration and many in
this Chamber have chosen to take their eye off what our responsibility
is in Afghanistan over these last several years, and instead, we find
ourselves bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq.
Those who are responsible for September 11, those who are responsible
for the murder of so many of our citizens, they were in Afghanistan.
That is where al Qaeda was. And instead of holding al Qaeda accountable
in Afghanistan, instead of making sure that our resources go to
promoting democracy and stability in Afghanistan, instead of focusing
on this ever-growing drug problem in Afghanistan, we have spent over
half a trillion dollars in Iraq. And that is regrettable. And, quite
frankly, when history looks back on how these last few years were
conducted, they are going to take note of the fact that we missed
important opportunities to better protect our country by taking our eye
off of what our responsibility was in Afghanistan.
And let me just say about the rule, I will apologize to my colleague
from Florida for a rule that we bring to the floor today that makes
every single amendment that was offered in the Rules Committee and not
withdrawn by its author in order. Every Republican amendment, every
Democratic amendment. And I know that that is different from the way
things used to be when the Republicans were in charge of the Rules
Committee. They had a tendency to just shut us all out routinely. But
things are different now, and under the Democratic administration here
in the Congress, we are trying to make sure that all points of view
have an opportunity to be heard on the floor.
So I am happy that we have this rule, and, again, I apologize to the
gentleman that it is not like what they used to do.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Vermont, a member of the Rules Committee (Mr. Welch).
Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Massachusetts for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, in April, I had the opportunity to join five of my
colleagues on a delegation trip to Afghanistan. And our six-member
delegation, three Democrats and three Republicans, spent 2 days in
Iraq, 2 days in Afghanistan. And we had an opportunity to speak with
American, Iraqi, Afghani soldiers; military leaders; security forces;
government leaders; and civil servants. And at every turn in our trip,
we encountered these extraordinary men and women from our country that
are doing incredible work in very dangerous and trying circumstances.
And I had the opportunity to meet troops from my State as my colleagues
met troops from their States, and all of us were incredibly proud at
the selflessness of these troops who are performing the missions that
we have assigned to them.
But the circumstances in each country and each war are very
different. Iraq is in a full-blown civil war. The British, our last
remaining significant ally in Iraq, will soon withdraw, and American
forces are now viewed as occupiers. The situation is much different in
Afghanistan. And I came
[[Page 14693]]
away, as did my colleagues, with the clear impression that there is
will on the part of Afghani leaders to step up and to take control of
their future.
In Afghanistan, we have 37 allied nations joining with us to help the
Afghanis drive out the Taliban and to restore order and to create a
future for that country.
In fact, the differences between these two situations in Iraq and
Afghanistan was best summed up by three soldiers I spoke to who had
completed full tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I asked, What is the
difference in your experience? And the soldiers said, In Iraq it seems
as though everyone is interested in fighting each other and us. In
Afghanistan everyone is interested in fighting for their future.
What this legislation recognizes is that we have partners, 37 other
nations, working with us in Afghanistan, and we have a partner, the
government and people of Afghanistan, in our effort to restore order
and to create a future for that country.
H.R. 2446, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act,
reinforces the United States' long-term commitment to support
Afghanistan in its efforts to confront its challenges and to complete
its transformation into a secure and prosperous future.
This bill enhances the narcotics operations. More importantly, it
provides incentives to encourage greater participation from our NATO
allies in the International Security and Assistance Force. If we have
learned anything, it is that we have got to work together and not
alone.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such
time as I may consume.
I appreciate the gentleman from Massachusetts' kind words. What I had
been referring to before with regard to the process is that I don't
believe that any harm would have been done if the majority would have
kept its promise of open rules. It is the majority that promised during
the campaign that they were going to bring a significant amount, as
many as possible, of bills to the floor under open rules. And this is a
noncontroversial bill, and, yes, they made the amendments in order by
the Members who went to the Rules Committee, and that is appreciated.
So what harm would it have caused if this legislation would have been
brought forth under an open rule, as was proposed, in amendment form,
by the ranking member of Rules? That is what my point was. No harm
would have been done.
And, simply, I would like to remind the majority of the promises that
the majority made during the campaign of bringing forth legislation
under open rules. So I don't believe that any harm would have accrued
if they would have kept their promise. That's all.
But with regard to the apology, I certainly appreciate the gentleman
from Massachusetts' kind words, Mr. Speaker.
And, again, with regard to this underlying legislation, which is of
extreme importance, there is a national consensus in the United States
that we not only have an obligation, but we must do everything in our
power so that the democratically elected government in Afghanistan
survives, and that is what this legislation is about. We will have
other continuing debates on nearby countries and what our obligations
are or what is, rather, in our national interest with regard to the
stability in neighboring countries of Afghanistan as well and in trying
to prevent neighboring countries from becoming basically safe harbors
for international terrorism.
{time} 1340
Those are legitimate debates.
Today, the legislation being brought forth, Mr. Speaker, is one where
there is a national consensus in the United States, thank God,
fortunately, and that is that with regard to that country that was for
so long oppressed by the brutal Taliban and that had given sanctuary to
the terrorists that carried out the mass murders of September 11, 2001,
against the United States of America, that we certainly have an
obligation to do everything we can to make certain that the people of
Afghanistan have as much ability, that they have the wherewithal to
proceed along a path towards a consolidated, representative democracy
in peace and with prosperity.
That is why we agree that this legislation is very important; and it
reauthorizes critical programs, programs of critical importance with
regard to our assistance to Afghanistan that were authorized initially
and appropriated by the Congress of the United States in 2002 and 2004.
Mr. Speaker, having said that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, again, I regret that my colleagues on the
other side of the aisle are not pleased with the rule that makes all of
the amendments that were offered in order, but I think that that is the
way we should do business around here. It is in sharp contrast to the
way they used to do business when the Republicans were in the majority,
where there was a tendency to shut everything down, to close everything
up, to not allow Members of the minority to be able to have amendments.
But we're different, and I'm glad we are different.
On the underlying legislation, there should be unanimity in this
House about the importance of passing this legislation. It is important
that we keep our commitment to the people of Afghanistan. It is
important that we keep our commitment to the people of the United
States, who after September 11 we said, in the Congress and in the
White House, that we are going to do everything we can do bring to
justice, to hold to account those who are responsible for September 11.
Unfortunately, today, we are not anywhere near where we should be in
Afghanistan; and the reason for that is because we have diverted our
resources, we have diverted our soldiers and our political capital to a
never-ending war in Iraq. We have put our soldiers in the middle of a
civil war in Iraq. We have spent over half a trillion dollars in Iraq;
and, as a result, those resources have not been sent to Afghanistan;
and I think that is regrettable.
But we need to pass this bill today. I hope it passes with a
unanimous vote. I urge my colleagues to support the rule.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on
the rule.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the
previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the
yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on adopting House Resolution 453 will be followed by 5-
minute votes on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1716, the
motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 632, and the motion to
suspend the rules and pass H.R. 964.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 220,
nays 195, not voting 17, as follows:
[Roll No. 431]
YEAS--220
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Lincoln
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Giffords
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
[[Page 14694]]
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Rodriguez
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Weiner
Wexler
Wilson (OH)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NAYS--195
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Bachmann
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Cubin
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
English (PA)
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Paul
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Sullivan
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--17
Baca
Becerra
Cantor
Conyers
Davis, Jo Ann
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Meek (FL)
Nadler
Pallone
Pickering
Shuster
Tancredo
Waxman
Welch (VT)
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Members are advised 2
minutes remain in this vote.
{time} 1408
Messrs. HASTERT, LINDER, TERRY, GOODLATTE, DENT, KIRK, SAXTON,
GINGREY and ROYCE changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
GREEN ENERGY EDUCATION ACT OF 2007
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1716, as amended,
on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1716, as amended.
This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 416,
nays 0, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 432]
YEAS--416
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Baldwin
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Carter
Castle
Castor
Chabot
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Feeney
Ferguson
Filner
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillibrand
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Hare
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hobson
Hodes
Hoekstra
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jindal
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)
Jordan
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kucinich
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Marchant
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCollum (MN)
McCotter
McCrery
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Nunes
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Pearce
Pence
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sali
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
[[Page 14695]]
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Tierney
Towns
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--16
Baca
Becerra
Cantor
Conyers
Davis, Jo Ann
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Nadler
Pallone
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Welch (VT)
{time} 1417
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 431 and
432 I am not recorded. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''
____________________
H-PRIZE ACT OF 2007
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 632, as amended, on
which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 632, as amended.
This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 408,
nays 8, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 433]
YEAS--408
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Baldwin
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Carter
Castle
Castor
Chabot
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Feeney
Ferguson
Filner
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillibrand
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Hare
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hobson
Hodes
Hoekstra
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jindal
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)
Jordan
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kucinich
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Marchant
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCollum (MN)
McCotter
McCrery
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Nunes
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pearce
Pence
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sali
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Tierney
Towns
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NAYS--8
Blackburn
Culberson
Duncan
Flake
Foxx
Manzullo
Paul
Royce
NOT VOTING--16
Baca
Becerra
Boyda (KS)
Cantor
Conyers
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Nadler
Pallone
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Members are advised there
are 2 minutes remaining in this vote.
{time} 1424
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Mrs. BOYDA of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 433, I was meeting
with constituents in the Rayburn Room. Had I been present, I would have
voted ``yea.''
____________________
SECURELY PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST CYBER TRESPASS ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 964, as amended, on
which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 964, as amended.
This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 368,
nays 48, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 434]
YEAS--368
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Alexander
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Bachmann
Baird
[[Page 14696]]
Baker
Baldwin
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Boehner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carson
Castle
Castor
Chabot
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Ferguson
Filner
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillibrand
Gillmor
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goode
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Hare
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hobson
Hodes
Holt
Hooley
Hoyer
Hulshof
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jindal
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (NY)
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kucinich
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
LaTourette
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lowey
Lucas
Lynch
Mack
Maloney (NY)
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCollum (MN)
McCotter
McCrery
McDermott
McGovern
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pence
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tiberi
Tierney
Towns
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NAYS--48
Aderholt
Akin
Barrett (SC)
Biggert
Bishop (UT)
Blunt
Bonner
Boustany
Boyda (KS)
Brady (TX)
Cannon
Carney
Carter
Conaway
Davis (KY)
Davis, Tom
Feeney
Flake
Foxx
Gingrey
Goodlatte
Hoekstra
Honda
Inglis (SC)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
King (IA)
Kingston
Latham
Lofgren, Zoe
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mahoney (FL)
Manzullo
Marchant
McHenry
Moran (KS)
Nunes
Paul
Pearce
Poe
Price (GA)
Sali
Sessions
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Walberg
Westmoreland
Wilson (SC)
NOT VOTING--16
Baca
Bachus
Becerra
Cantor
Conyers
Hastings (FL)
Hill
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Nadler
Pallone
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Members are advised 2
minutes are remaining in this vote.
{time} 1431
Mr. GOODLATTE and Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California changed their
vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mr. HALL of Texas and Mr. BURTON of Indiana changed their vote from
``nay'' to ``yea.''
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
PERMITTING AMENDMENT NO. 11 TO BE OFFERED AT ANY TIME DURING
CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2446, AFGHANISTAN FREEDOM AND SECURITY SUPPORT
ACT OF 2007
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during
consideration of H.R. 2446 in the Committee of the Whole, pursuant to
House Resolution 453, amendment No. 11 be permitted to be offered at
any time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
____________________
GENERAL LEAVE
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on H.R. 2446.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
____________________
AFGHANISTAN FREEDOM AND SECURITY SUPPORT ACT OF 2007
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 453 and rule
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House
on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 2446.
{time} 1436
In the Committee of the Whole
Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill
(H.R. 2446) to reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002,
and for other purposes, with Mr. Ross in the chair.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the
first time.
The gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2446 and
yield myself as much time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, the Taliban is back, posing not only an insidious
threat to the people of Afghanistan but to our Nation as well. We
simply cannot allow a resurgence of the Taliban. If we do, al Qaeda
will once again be able to use Afghanistan as a state-sponsored
launching pad for terror.
And so every schoolhouse door in Afghanistan is a threshold to
stopping terrorism. Every new power line in Afghanistan is a frontline
in the war on terror. Every farm in Afghanistan used for legitimate
crops, instead of opium poppies, is fertile ground for peace.
So we ought to look at funding Afghanistan as both good foreign
policy and good domestic policy. Every dollar we invest now translates
into lives and dollars we save in the future, both in Afghanistan and
in the United States.
Our initial efforts, Mr. Chairman, in Afghanistan must be redoubled.
For that reason, it was my pleasure to join with the ranking Republican
member
[[Page 14697]]
of the Foreign Affairs Committee, my good friend, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
of Florida, in introducing this crucial reauthorization bill, which
clearly demonstrates our long-term, bipartisan commitment to
Afghanistan.
Our job in Afghanistan is not finished, not by a long shot. Yes, the
Taliban was seemingly purged from that Nation in 2001 and a democratic
government was established in its place, but we must not have a false
sense of security.
The effectiveness and very existence of the Karzai government is
threatened as we meet here today. As we speak, the volatile southern
part of Afghanistan is aflame with clashes between NATO coalition
troops and the reorganized forces of the Taliban. Make no mistake:
Afghanistan is a brush fire that could ignite easily into an all-out
conflagration.
Recently, Mr. Chairman, there has been an alarming return to the
reign of terror against women in Afghanistan. Just today we learned of
the slaying of a pioneering advocate of free speech, a courageous woman
who owned a radio station near Kabul, shot to death in her home. This
brutal attack shows how difficult the working environment has become
for journalists, especially for journalists who are women.
So the Afghans need our help as much as ever. The teetering situation
there is an echo of the instability just after the United States and
our allies invaded that country. Security for the people and stability
of the government are paramount.
Let me sketch, Mr. Chairman, the basic outline of our bipartisan
legislation. The first title of the Lantos/Ros-Lehtinen bill provides
much-needed financial aid for health care, energy development, programs
for women and girls, assistance to combat corruption, and a crop
substitution program to curtail the growing of poppy. Under this
section of our bill, the administration will be required to certify
whether any senior official in Afghanistan's provincial or local
government is involved in the illegal narcotics trade and to take
appropriate action.
Our bill also requires the President to appoint a coordinator for our
Afghanistan assistance programs, including counter-narcotics. We
mandate accountability in the effort to eliminate narcotics corruption.
Title II of our bill bolsters security and policing in Afghanistan,
supporting the international security force beyond October, 2007, and
further training the Afghans. It encourages greater participation from
countries in the region, and it mandates the creation of special drug
interdiction teams.
We must recognize, Mr. Chairman, that security in Afghanistan is
inextricably intertwined with the fight against the narcotics trade.
Title III of our bill ensures greater planning and accountability for
the future of the country, and it fosters regional coordination. A
structured blueprint for 2008 will be required, with updates as
necessary. Reporting and evaluation measures will be expanded and
extended. These are all crucial provisions for meeting benchmarks and
assessing progress so that Congress can perform the oversight that is
important to our successful effort in a war-torn country.
I want to repeat, Mr. Chairman, we will not let Afghanistan fail. The
world is watching, and it wants to know whether we have the resolve to
fight the terrorist forces threatening Afghanistan, whether we are
ready to maintain the country's security and stability.
Mr. Chairman, the Committee on Foreign Affairs approved our
bipartisan legislation unanimously. I want to repeat this because it
indicates the unanimous conviction of the Foreign Affairs Committee,
reflecting the view of this body and the American people, that
Afghanistan will be a successful endeavor.
I want to express my appreciation for the support of not only the
ranking member, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, but also the chairman and ranking
member of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, Mr.
Ackerman and Mr. Pence.
I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in
strongly supporting this most important piece of legislation.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1445
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I thank the chairman of our committee, Chairman
Lantos, for his leadership for so long on this issue.
Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would like to voice my strong support for the chairman's bill, H.R.
2446, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act, and that's the
key part of what we're talking about today, security support. This
legislation is the product of the bipartisan cooperation that our
committee has shown on an issue of critical importance to the United
States and our allies in the war against Islamic militant extremists.
Five years ago, our Nation experienced a terrible tragedy, and it led
our Nation to destroy the al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan that the
brutal Taliban regime had created there. Our focus was to provide a
safe, stable and secure Afghanistan that would deny global jihadists a
base of operations to conduct their campaign of terror and destruction
against our Nation and our critical security interests around the
world.
Since then, Afghanistan has taken notable steps to emerge from
decades of war, of violence, of oppression, toward a prosperous,
secure, free, democratic nation. Today, over 5 million Afghan children
are in school, including 2 million girls. This was prohibited under the
Taliban rule. Hundreds of clinics and new schools are now open to serve
the population as a result of international efforts. Media, cultural,
business and political leaders are free to meet to discuss, to
demonstrate and to guide policies that are transforming their nation
across all sectors.
The Afghan economy is growing at an incredible rate, and
institutional assistance for Afghan economic reconstruction has been
forthcoming. Most importantly, the Afghanistan people, through their
active direct participation in the political process, have demonstrated
their desire to accelerate and ensure the movement of Afghanistan
toward modern society.
However, challenges to these and other efforts remain, as Mr. Lantos
has pointed out. A dramatic increase in illicit opium cultivation is
financing and strengthening the Taliban and anticoalition activity.
It's increasing crime and corruption, and it is eroding the authority
of the central government institutions.
Afghanistan's ballooning drug trade has succeeded in expanding the
ranks of the Taliban. It is no coincidence that opium and heroin
production dramatically increased at the same time that the Taliban-
staged massive counteroffensive, particularly in the south of the
country.
The issue of Taliban and al Qaeda resurgence cannot be considered in
a vacuum. In response, this critical legislation seeks to address the
current situation in an integrated fashion, to include the confluence
of the short-term goals to reduce opium activity and related
corruption, while addressing longer-term developmental goals which have
an impact on our counterterrorism and our counternarcotics policies and
objectives.
In particular, within this critical legislation, we have worked to
establish the means for developing a long overdue and coherent
interdepartmental and counternarcotics strategy that addresses the
deadly and the neglected illicit drug trade and its links to radical
Islamic terrorism that imperil the future of Afghanistan.
In February of this year, I, along with some of my other colleagues
on the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the administration on the
need for an across-the-board policy change on the illicit drug threat
fueling the resurgence of the Taliban, the attacks on our coalition
troops, and official corruption in Afghanistan.
The bill before us incorporates many of the recommendations that we
proposed in this letter, and I thank Chairman Lantos for working so
closely with us. I believe that his bill will
[[Page 14698]]
prompt much-needed changes by mandating the appointment of a high
level, interdepartmental Afghan coordinator with emphasis on a
development of a coherent government-wide counter drug policy. This
includes bringing the U.S. military into the fight, providing
meaningful support for the drug enforcement administration with an
emphasis on interdiction and on the extradition of major drug kingpins.
This legislation also contains limitations on assistance to senior
Afghan local and provincial government officials who, based on
evidence, are found to be supporting Islamic terrorist activities or
narco-traffickers or drug producers or are involved in other criminal
activities. This important oversight provision will be instrumental in
assuring that vital U.S. reconstruction assistance is properly
allocated and utilized.
I am also pleased that we were able to come to an agreement with
Chairman Lantos on the extension of draw-down authority for military
equipment, which promotes greater ability to operate with the
international security assistance force and other allies in the country
of Afghanistan.
In addition, the bill ensures that there will be prevetting of the
recruits of the Afghan police to help adequately assess the candidates'
aptitude, professionals skills, integrity and other qualifications for
law enforcement work before they enter the service. Our efforts in
Afghanistan, in particular, and our campaign against militant Islamic
extremists in general must be pursued in a comprehensive manner.
As illustrated by this critical legislation, it requires an effective
and unified reconstruction strategy with a unified counternarcotics
strategy, counterterrorism strategy, and an Afghan government committed
to fighting and eliminating corruption.
Only with this comprehensive approach will we accelerate economic
development and reconstruction, improve the quality of life for
Afghanistan and address the underlying conditions that fuel extremist
acts and decisively defeat the jihadist elements that want to once
again control Afghanistan.
My daughter-in-law, Lindsay, after serving her military tour in Iraq
as a marine pilot, is now serving in Afghanistan. We hope that she will
be back home with us by Thanksgiving. But we thank every brave man and
woman who is wearing our Nation's uniform in Afghanistan, and we thank
them for freeing an entire population, and we hope that their
contributions will always be celebrated in this House.
This bill before us brings us closer to making sure that Afghanistan
remains a free country and be without the extremist Islamic elements
that seek to destroy it.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of our time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
distinguished chairman of the Armed Services Committee, my good friend
from Missouri, Ike Skelton.
Mr. SKELTON. I thank the chairman for allowing me to speak on this
very important subject.
Mr. Chairman, for too long, Afghanistan has been the forgotten war.
Opportunities there have been lost, and progress has been limited.
Recently, there has been movement in a more positive direction.
Secretary Gates has been focusing more on Afghanistan and NATO-led
and U.S. forces achieved some notable successes against the ongoing
Taliban insurgency this spring. This, of course, is encouraging. I
commend Secretary Gates for his efforts, and, of course, I commend our
troops for their tremendous contributions.
However, over the same time, violence is on the rise in Afghanistan.
Roadside bombs, suicide attacks are increasing, and the number of
civilian casualties is, of course, troubling. Opium production is at
high levels. The authority of the central government remains, of
course, limited. Corruption and poverty still plague the country. These
are significant challenges that will not be overcome either easily or
quickly.
Lasting security in Afghanistan depends on long-term comprehensive
efforts that, of course, are well coordinated. It is critical that our
NATO partners who are there play a central role in this effort in terms
of both troop contributions, as well as aid.
Earlier this year, I traveled to Afghanistan with a delegation led by
Speaker Pelosi. I came away from that trip convinced that the effort in
Afghanistan is winnable, and I am still optimistic.
But together with NATO, we must ensure that the Taliban and al Qaeda
are destroyed and destroyed for good. Afghanistan will never again
become a terrorist harbor as it once was.
The House Armed Services Committee, which I am pleased to chair, is
committed to doing whatever it can to achieve this goal. Our committee
has held comprehensive hearings on Afghanistan this year.
Just recently, in the defense bill that we passed, we had provisions
regarding Afghanistan. This bill not only provides funds for Afghan
national security forces, but it includes a range of provisions that
will promote long-term security, as well as robust oversight of
American activities in that country.
I am pleased to see that the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act builds
upon our committee's efforts. This legislation includes many important
bipartisan provisions that will further advance long-term security in
Afghanistan.
I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this. We must build on
recent gains in that country and seize the moment to establish real
security there.
I do support this legislation.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume
to Judge Poe of Texas, a great member of our Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr. POE. I thank the gentlelady from Florida for yielding time.
Mr. Chairman, I was a prosecutor and a judge in Texas for 30 years
total, and I can tell you that I saw the results of poppy and opium
fields in my courtroom. Opiates make victims out of capable,
independent citizens, and they turn decent people into monsters, and I
have seen it with my own eyes. Case after case after case.
Illicit drugs take complete control of people's lives, and they are
now strangling the democracy in Afghanistan. Opiates not only poison
Americans, the poppy trade funds our enemies. The Taliban, or more
appropriately, those demons in the desert, are getting rich off of the
poppy fields, and they are using that money against American troops and
NATO troops.
They are using their wealth to become more numerous, more organized,
and more deadly to the military of NATO and the United States. They are
promoting intolerance and propping up evil and propelling Afghanistan
really back toward the dark ages to a fundamentalist rule.
In the 2005 and 2006 growing season, poppy production in Afghanistan
actually grew to almost 60 percent. That resulted in a net growth of
almost 50 percent in the production of illicit opium, and all the
profit from this drug trade lined the pockets of our enemies, the
Taliban. Those poppy fields are growing like weeds, and they are
choking Afghanistan's freedom. Also, those narcotics are eventually
choking the lives out of many Americans addicted to opiates.
The administration, I know, recognized the importance of
counternarcotics operations. However, judging from the rapid spread of
the poppy production in Afghanistan, it's evident that whatever we are
doing is not working. The time has come for a clear and comprehensive
and truly wide-reaching counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan.
That is why I rise in support of this bill, the Afghanistan Freedom
and Security Support Act. This bill does numerous things, but it
specifically provides a comprehensive strategy and a priority to deal
with the narcotics. It allows the military to give greater logistics
support to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and, more importantly,
though, this bill creates a coordinator role that will reach across
government departments to develop a comprehensive strategy in how to
deal with this problem.
Our military is unmatched in its ability to get the job done. Any
time,
[[Page 14699]]
anywhere. But including enhanced civilian interdiction teams, the fight
against the drug trade will help our troops get the bad guys, the
kingpins in Afghanistan, these people that are making money off of the
drug trade.
{time} 1500
Also, the team will receive support from our military, international
resources and Afghanistan law enforcement officers. I believe that
allowing law enforcement to participate in taking down these desert
kingpins will give the Afghanistan police a sense of ownership over
their own security and help further train them in counternarcotics
operation. That could only be a good thing for the citizens of
Afghanistan.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the administration's commitment to
taking care of the poppy fields in Afghanistan that fund our enemies,
but I think we're missing a link somewhere in our strategy. Provisions
in this bill focus on funding that link, and that's a good start. All
of our sacrifice and that of our NATO allies and the future of
Afghanistan depend on establishing a stable and viable democracy in
that region of the world. That democracy can only thrive amidst a
legitimate economy. Our troops, our allies, and, most importantly, the
Afghanistan people deserve a chance to live unfettered and free of the
rule of kingpins of the drugs and the Taliban.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to
Congressman Adam Smith, the chairman of the Armed Services Terrorism,
Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and a valued
member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the leadership
in both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed
Services Committee for their efforts to make Afghanistan a top priority
and to focus on our challenges there. They've done a fabulous job.
I recently returned, during the last break, from a visit to
Afghanistan. I am very optimistic about what's going on there but at
the same time mindful of the effort that it's going to require in the
years ahead to continue to succeed, and I believe this bill reflects an
understanding of that required effort.
The Afghan people are on our side. They support the presence of the
NATO troops to support the Karzai government. They do not want the
Taliban to return, and they will fight them and appreciate our help in
doing this.
I'm also very impressed with the job our military and the military of
the NATO alliance is doing there. We have some of the most talented
folks in our military there doing a fabulous job of fighting the
Taliban. But as we go forward, there are remaining challenges,
significant challenges.
Number one, we have to maintain the military presence. In fact, I
believe we need more troops and further support to train the Afghan
army and to fight off the Taliban as they try to resurge in the south
and throughout the country.
But overarching all of this is the economic challenge. That is the
enormous challenge in Afghanistan. It is a country that has never had
the best economy, and it has also faced 30 years of civil war. Their
infrastructure is destroyed and needs to be rebuilt. Their ability to
govern has also been significantly reduced and needs to be rebuilt.
The Karzai government has the support of the people, but the people
also want infrastructure. They want electricity, and they want jobs.
They want alternatives to the poppies, alternatives to that as a way of
making their living, and we have to give them a long-term commitment to
show them that we will help. We need that long-term financial
commitment that is contained in this bill to get them to believe that
their economy will be strong again. We need to reward their faith in
the Karzai government, their faith in our ability to defeat the Taliban
and to build a better future for Afghanistan; and this bill does that.
So, again, I thank the chairman. I want to thank the ranking member
as well for putting together this piece of legislation and ask all
Members of Congress to understand this is a long-term commitment in
Afghanistan.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to yield such time as he may
consume to Mr. Pence of Indiana, the ranking member of the Middle East
and South Asia Subcommittee who has traveled to Afghanistan and closely
follows the developments there.
MR. PENCE. Mr. Chairman, I especially want to thank our ranking
member from Florida for yielding and the distinguished chairman of the
full committee for their work on this important legislation.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Afghanistan Freedom and
Security Support Act, and I call for its passage. It was reported
unanimously out of the Foreign Affairs Committee last month. Our action
today would reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
passed 5 years ago this month, just a few short months after our
invasion of the country that harbored the September 11 attackers.
Mr. Chairman, there is nearly unanimous agreement in this body that
the battle currently under way in Afghanistan is in our vital national
interests, and it is crucial and central to the war on terror. It is
critical that we adequately resource and support our mission and the
government and the people of Afghanistan.
As with any conflict, there are both positive and troubling signs
today in Afghanistan. Challenges facing us include a resurgent Taliban,
growing opium trade and slow progress on reconstruction.
On the positive side, our forces, in conjunction with NATO, are
waging war on the Taliban, pursuing terrorist nests and providing
support to the Karzai government. I was able to witness some of the
early fruits of these efforts firsthand, along with some of my
colleagues in December of 2004 when I visited. As in Iraq, our troops
and civilian efforts there are inspiring in difficult and dangerous
conditions.
Opium production remains a plague that will haunt this country until
it is curbed. Tragically, Afghanistan is the world's largest opium
producer. As Antonio Maria Costa of the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime said last year, and I quote, ``Afghanistan's drug situation
remains vulnerable to reversal because of mass poverty, lack of
security, and the fact that the authorities have inadequate control
over its territory.''
And that's why this bill is so important. In this legislation, $1.6
billion per year over the next 3 years are authorized for
reconstruction and security assistance, specifically a pilot program of
crop substitution to encourage legitimate alternatives to poppy
cultivation, as well as an anti-corruption effort.
This bill also addresses, as has been alluded to by my colleagues,
the continuing humanitarian needs and offers programs for women and
children.
One of the most inspiring experiences of my life, Mr. Chairman, was
during a visit to an American installation in the mountains of
Jalalabad where we walked outside of the military base and visited a
school which, for the first time, had running water, which, for the
first time, more poignantly, had little girls in the classrooms. It was
an extraordinary experience as I approached the gates of that school
surrounded, as I was, by heavily armed American military personnel,
only to see the children run forward out of the gates, embrace those
soldiers and greet them, not as the glowering menaces that they might
appear to a stranger but as friends. And I stood and marveled as the
soldiers taught me words in their native Afghan tongue to greet the
children and to be able to speak to them. It was extraordinary.
This legislation providing for the humanitarian needs and for
programs for women and girls like those which I saw is truly treasure
in heaven.
This legislation also encourages greater cooperation from friendly
countries in the region, and it requires the President to keep Congress
informed on the progress of these various issues.
Mr. Chairman, our success in Afghanistan will require a multi-tracked
effort on numerous fronts in order for
[[Page 14700]]
the United States to stay on the offensive in the war on terror and to
stabilize this key ally in our shared struggle. The Afghanistan Freedom
and Security Support Act is an important and central component in that
fight, and I urge its strong support from my colleagues on both sides
of the aisle.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I'm pleased to yield 2 minutes to my
neighbor in California, a valued member of the Foreign Affairs
Committee, Ms. Lynn Woolsey.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Afghanistan
Freedom Support Act and to thank the chairman and the ranking member of
the Foreign Affairs Committee for this bipartisan bill.
H.R. 2446 provides for reconstruction and reconciliation. It provides
for the future of Afghan people by supporting women's rights,
supporting education, agricultural initiatives and civil society
reform.
Actually, this bill is doing what we could and what we should do in
Iraq. It builds a path, a true path to peace. With H.R. 2446, through
economic political and reconstruction support, we can help rebuild a
nation. We can provide hope for a safe and prosperous future for
another nation. And we can also learn from this bill, learn that
democracy and stability come from international partnerships, not from
guns, not from bombs.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I'm pleased to yield such time as he
may consume to Mr. Doolittle, of California, a member of the
Appropriations Committee.
Mr. DOOLITTLE. Thank you to Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen and Chairman
Lantos. I'm very happy to see the strong support for Afghanistan
manifested here by the statements on the floor and, obviously, by a
bill like this with unanimous approval out of the committee.
Mr. Chairman, we had some great initial successes in Afghanistan, and
those are now threatened by subsequent developments that would be
absolutely tragic and really intolerable for us to allow any reversals
to occur. We need to build upon a solid foundation that has been laid,
and I'd just like to briefly cite what I think the need for this
legislation is.
Others have alluded to it as well, but the fact is that remnants of
the Taliban regime have regrouped and are using increasingly deadly
tactics, including the introduction of suicide bombings against both
U.S. and NATO troops, Afghan officials and civilians and international
and Afghan assistance workers.
Also, the poppy cultivation and opium production which directly
support local warlords and sustain and finance insurgents, militias and
terrorist organizations is increasing at a staggering rate. Indeed, the
narcotics problem in Afghanistan threatens to overwhelm the entire
country. More than 500,000 laborers and an unknown number of
traffickers, warlords, insurgents and officials also participate in and
benefit from the drug trade.
The risk for Afghanistan to again devolve into a failed state is
increasing. The ability of the Taliban and other insurgents to enjoy
safe haven in Pakistan-controlled areas destabilizes the region and
adds to the political tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I'm very encouraged to see that this legislation establishes the
means for developing a long-overdue and coherent interdepartmental
counternarcotics strategy that addresses a deadly and neglected illicit
drug trade and its links to radical Islamist terrorism.
Mr. Chairman, for all of these reasons, I endorse this bill and
encourage our Members to support it and pray that it may further
strengthen our efforts to bring stability and peace to that vital
region of the world.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I'm very pleased to yield 3 minutes to my
good friend and distinguished colleague from New York, Mrs. Carolyn
Maloney, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Lantos for
his leadership on this important bill and in so many other areas; and I
rise in strong support of the Afghan Freedom and Security Support Act.
The bill includes provisions from legislation that I introduced
earlier this year, H.R. 937, the Afghan Women Empowerment Act, which
targets critical assistance to Afghan women and girls. The bill
authorizes $45 million each year from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal
year 2010 for programs in Afghanistan that benefit women and girls, as
well as the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Afghan
Ministry of Women's Affairs.
The funding would be directed toward important needs, including
medical care, education, vocational training, protection from violence
and civil participation.
In 2003, I successfully attached, with the leadership and help of
Chairman Lantos, an amendment to the fiscal year 2004 emergency
supplemental bill that provided $60 million in funding for Afghan women
and girls NGOs, including $5 million for the creation of the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission.
{time} 1515
During the past several years, the U.S. has invested in the
reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, both because it is the
right thing to do and because it is also critical to our national
security. However, like many of my colleagues, I am troubled by the
challenges facing Afghani women. In March, I had the pleasure and on
other occasions of meeting with Dr. Sima Samar, head of the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission. She says Afghan women are losing
ground. Many women continue to endure hardships including targeted
violence, limited mobility, and a high rate of maternal mortality. I am
also deeply concerned about reports that girls schools continue to be
targeted for violence, including dozens in this past year.
Clearly, we have a great deal of more work to do. And by giving women
access to the skills and opportunities that they need, they will become
partners in creating Afghanistan's future and we will ensure that women
will no longer be second class citizens.
I deeply thank Chairman Lantos and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for
their leadership in getting this important bill to the floor, and I
also want to acknowledge Congress Member Abercrombie for his strong
support for this legislation and his efforts on its behalf, along with
the Feminist Majority, led by Ellie Smeal.
This legislation is another critical step in helping Afghan women,
and I commend the House for passing this legislation today.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield such time as he
may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter), the House
Republican policy chairman.
Mr. McCOTTER. Mr. Chairman, first, I wish to begin by commending the
work of the chairman and the ranking member for bringing this bill to
the floor.
Upon my first visit to Iraq in 2003, I was struck by the centralized
reconstruction process. I believed it was a mistake, and I came back in
November of that year and gave a speech on the floor of the House and I
said that I thought that one of the things that we needed to do was to
provide the Iraqi people a transactional benefit to undergird the
transformational change to democracy. This lesson is equally applicable
in Afghanistan, which is why this bill today is so welcomed, because it
recognizes that the people of Afghanistan in the provinces, in the
local levels are where the reconstruction money must really be
targeted.
If you think about how the United States evolved into a democracy, we
began with the family unit and went to the town halls and went to our
county government level and eventually became States and eventually
became a strong union. We can expect no more nor no less from the
people of other nations who are yearning to breathe free and have been
given the chance to seize the opportunity.
On a more personal note, having been on my first trip to Afghanistan
with my colleagues, we had the opportunity to meet with some female
parliamentarians, and I was struck by two things: The first, and I said
this to
[[Page 14701]]
them, was that I admired their courage and that there was a part of me
that envied them. I envy them because here in the United States capital
we see portraits and we see monuments and we continue to this day to
hear testaments to the courage and perseverance of our Nation's
founders.
And I said that I was so honored to be in the presence of these
female parliamentarians for in Afghanistan, as they move towards
democracy, one day there will be testaments and monuments and portraits
of them hanging on the walls of their own chambers and in the homes of
their fellow countrymen.
We promised that day not to forget or forsake them. And today, thanks
to the leadership of the ranking member and the chairman, we can tell
those female parliamentarians that we have not forgotten them and that
we stand with them.
And, finally, let us not forget when we think about the role of the
United States, which was conceived in liberty, those female
parliamentarians were once considered property until they were
emancipated by the United States of America and the coalition allies.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to my
good friend from Texas, a distinguished colleague, Sheila Jackson-Lee,
chairwoman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation
Security and Infrastructure Protection.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, allow me to thank my good
friend the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House for
his energy and the focused way in which this committee is pursuing its
business of engaging and improving the relations of the United States
with those around the world. Let me thank the ranking member as well,
whom I have worked with on many issues dealing with women and children,
and I appreciate their collective leadership.
This bill is an important restatement of what many of us have argued
for and continue to make the point that the building pieces that we can
offer to Afghanistan will build a building of peace for decades and
centuries to come. Frankly, many of us believe that the war on terror
is seeded in Afghanistan and would like us to find or to be able to
invest not only as it relates militarily to the concerns of the borders
between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the rise of the Taliban but to
seed out, if you will, the bad seeds of terrorism, to make Afghanistan
the shining star, people desiring and hungering for the water of
democracy.
So this legislation, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act
of 2007, needs to be reauthorized and has in it a valuable statement
about the United States' commitment, longevity in its commitment, to
helping Afghanistan put forward the building blocks of peace. The fact
that it authorizes $1.7 billion in each of the fiscal years 2008 to
2010 emphasizes economic and development assistance and as well
capacity building programs and, as has been mentioned, women and girls
programs.
Let me cite, Mr. Chairman, an individual who has really been a sole
champion on the issue of educating Afghan children. And, of course, I
am very grateful for your accepting my amendment regarding the refugee
resettlement in the manager's amendment and look forward to discussing
my amendment regarding the emphasis on training girls to encourage them
to finish secondary school, and as well, my amendment regarding the
safety of women legislators. But I do want to pay tribute to Josanna
Smith. She is a name that you may not have heard, but she has devised a
little chalkboard that is able to travel in places where many of us
couldn't in the high hills of Afghanistan to give to the children that
many of us see in pictures or have actually visited them, as I have
done, and giving books to these children, sitting in little circles
trying to learn.
This little simple, if you will, chalkboard that ties to it a piece
of chalk allows children to learn. Josanna has put together a
foundation where it is almost self-funded. She has been to Afghanistan
and many places around the world.
I cite Josanna Smith as an example of the kind of good heartedness of
Americans who really desire the best for Afghanistan and see it as the
place where we can, in essence, make the fruits of democracy thrive.
This legislation acknowledges that the war on terror started first in
the bowels of this country. It acknowledges the need to address the
controversy and conflict on the Afghan and Pakistan border. It
recognizes the rise of the Taliban. And, hopefully, it will
characterize the foreign policy of this Nation, that is, that we must
solve the terror in Afghanistan before we begin to completely finish
the war on terror or at least make the forward step that we need to
make.
I look forward to discussing the amendments that will hopefully
further help women and women legislators take their rightful place in a
free and open democracy that is safe and secure, and that is the
country of Afghanistan.
Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 2446, ``the Afghanistan
Freedom and Security Support Act of 2007.'' This is an extremely
important and timely piece of legislation, and I commend the Chairman
of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lantos, for introducing it. In
the nearly 5 years since the 9/11 attacks, and the subsequent ouster of
the Taliban and al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, we have made significant
efforts to secure that nation from the Taliban.
However, the Taliban continues to pose a very real threat to
Afghanistan's stability. After enduring decades of violence and
hardship, the people of Afghanistan continue to live in a climate of
ongoing turmoil, particularly in the southern regions of the country,
where there are ongoing and dangerous clashes between coalition-led
forces and insurgents. Despite our positive efforts, the Taliban has
been able to reorganize, and continues destabilize the country.
These unfortunate realities remind us of the need to continue U.S.
programs in Afghanistan, as well as the necessity of continually
studying and revising our involvement to ensure that taxpayer dollars
are being put to the best possible use. If the United States is to
ensure that Afghanistan is secure and stable in the long run, we must
address the underlying causes of persistent violence, including the
still-flourishing opium trade and the nation's lack of infrastructure.
Education, so long neglected under the Taliban regime, will be a
vital component of Afghanistan's development. I commend the many
individuals and groups who have been tirelessly furthering the cause of
Afghanistan; individuals like Josanna Smith and her organization
Worldwide Wisdom United, Inc. Ms. Smith's organization has distributed
thousands of Learning BoardsTM, which are sturdy, hand-held
chalkboards containing eraser and a supply of chalk. This simple but
ingenious device can mean the world of difference to a child in
Afghanistan, opening up a future of economic success and self-
sustainability. I commend Ms. Smith, and other Americans like her, for
bravely recognizing and addressing this ongoing problem.
I am proud to have offered two important amendments to this
legislation, both of which I believe will strengthen this bill and help
it to achieve its intended purpose. My first amendment states that
technical assistance should be provided to train national, provincial,
and local governmental personnel for capacity-building purposes as it
relates to education, health care, human rights (particularly women's
rights), and political participation. This amendment also seeks to
ensure girls complete secondary education so they are prepared and have
the ability to pursue post-secondary education.
My second amendment seeks to bolster women's political participation
by protecting women legislators when they return to the provinces they
represent. It states that it is the sense of Congress that assistance
provided to foreign countries and international organizations under
this provision should be used, in part, to protect these female
legislators.
This bill has many other important provisions. Key among these are
programs to combat narcotics trafficking and rampant corruption.
Additionally, this bill encourages greater regional cooperation. I
believe this to be a vital aspect to any effort toward peace in
Afghanistan, and I strongly encourage regional dialogue and the
involvement of Afghanistan's neighbors.
Mr. Chairman, we have a responsibility to Afghanistan. We have
pledged a commitment to Afghanistan's long-term stability. I believe
that this bill is essential and urgent, and I strongly urge my
colleagues to join me in support of it.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to my
[[Page 14702]]
good friend from Connecticut, Congressman Joe Courtney, distinguished
member of the Committee on Education and Labor.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to stand in support of the
Afghan Freedom and Security Support Act.
Exactly 1 week ago, I was in Afghanistan with a congressional
delegation from the Armed Services Committee and had the opportunity to
see firsthand both the progress and challenges that face the people of
Afghanistan. It is a land of contrasts. On the upside there is a
healthy political life. President Karzai, who met with our delegation,
is clearly a dynamic, moderate, engaged leader who has a national
government which is clearly focused on trying to move the country
forward. There are clear signs of economic life. The shops were open.
There was traffic. Schools were being built. Roads are being
constructed, 16 percent growth of GDP over the last couple of years and
a clear commitment to strengthening and building the Afghan army and
police. In fact, our delegation was present at a graduation ceremony
for the Afghan national police and handed out the diplomas to the young
cadets who were taking on these important critical duties to
Afghanistan's future.
There clearly are challenges, however. The reappearance of the
narcotics trade; the resurgence of the Taliban; and the challenges in
the border areas of Pakistan, which our military are fighting very
bravely every day. Seven soldiers lost their lives the day that we were
there because of the struggle that is still going on with the Taliban.
What is clearly needed, and this bill addresses it, is a strong,
long-term commitment by this country to continue the efforts that have
been made with our international allies, NATO allies, who were present
also during our trip. French Marines, Scandinavian troops, Germans who
are taking responsibility for control of some of the PRTs in the
different provinces. And, clearly, lastly, most importantly, is the
economic aid that is so critical to defeating the rise of the narcotics
trade and defeating the Taliban. As one of the generals stated to us,
where the roads end, the Taliban begins in Afghanistan.
Flying from Kabul to Jalalabad, we actually tracked a new road which
was constructed by Chinese contractors that had heavy truck traffic and
again showed that there were real opportunities in growth in that area
which this bill will continue to build upon, and I applaud the chairman
for his efforts and urge its unanimous passage.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I encourage all of my colleagues to
support this far-reaching bill.
Mr. Chairman, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, before yielding back, I would like to make
just a couple of observations.
It is such a rare pleasure to manage a major bill of international
significance on a bipartisan basis. Our Nation wins when Congress is
united. This Congress is united on our policy with respect to
Afghanistan. Just as importantly, Mr. Chairman, was my privilege some
years back to point out that Afghanistan is not an American problem; it
is a problem for the civilized the world. And I called for NATO to take
over the responsibility in Afghanistan.
NATO is now the principal operating entity on behalf of freedom and
democracy in the country of Afghanistan. NATO should be performing this
function. It is the greatest military alliance in the history of the
world, and it is my earnest hope that, just as NATO has accepted its
responsibility in the struggle in Afghanistan, it will do so in other
troubled parts of the world.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this very
important legislation.
During the first 6 months of 2007, this Congress has rightly spent a
great deal of time debating and trying to reorient our policy in Iraq.
It's important to remember that one of the chief reasons we need to
leave Iraq is so that we can win the other war we've been fighting
since 2001: the war against Al Qaeda and their Taliban allies in
Afghanistan.
This bipartisan bill provides additional support for programs as
diverse as assistance to women and girls, energy development and
counter-narcotics. It authorizes $6.435 billion for fiscal years 2008
through 2010, of which $2.145 billion is authorized to be spent in
fiscal year 2008. Let me comment on a couple of specific provisions
that I think are particularly important.
This bill seeks to set standards, create performance metrics, and
mandate a tightly coordinated interagency strategy for Afghanistan--the
very kinds of measures that were absent in our effort in Iraq from the
very beginning. Starting in December 2007 and every 6 months afterwards
through September 30, 2010, this bill would require the President to
submit detailed reports to Congress on the political, military, and
economic progress being made--or not being made--in Afghanistan. It is
long past time that Congress mandated such benchmarks so that we can
know what is working in Afghanistan and make adjustments where things
are not working.
This bill also mandates the creation of a special envoy to help more
closely coordinate activities between those governments and the
International Security Assistance Force in their joint efforts to
interdict Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who attempt to use Pakistani
territory to launch attacks against civilian and military targets in
Afghanistan. Pakistan's record in this area is at best mixed, and I am
glad that the committee has recognized the need for our government to
increase its effort to get both governments to make the borders no-go
zones for insurgents.
Finally, this bill recognizes that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are not
the only enemies of Afghanistan's fledgling democracy. The narcotics
trade in Afghanistan is producing violence and corruption that
threatens the people and government of Afghanistan just as much as the
actions of the terrorists. Indeed, we know that in many cases the
terrorists are using narco-trafficking to help fund their violent
campaign to overthrow the Afghan government.
Weeding out potentially corrupt police who assist the drug lords and
the terrorists is essential, and this bill would require that future
assistance to the Afghan National Police include ``vetting procedures
to adequately assess each Afghan National Police candidate's aptitude,
professional skills, integrity, and other qualifications that are
essential to law enforcement work.'' This is exactly the type of
framework that we have lacked in Iraq to deal with police corruption in
that country, and so I'm pleased that the committee is including such a
vetting requirement for Afghan police in this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the day when the people of
Afghanistan are free of the fear and uncertainty that decades of war
and civil strife have produced in that ancient country. Let us hasten
the arrival of that day by reaffirming our partnership with them by
passing this bill.
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R.
2446, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of 2007.
This bill reauthorizes the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002,
which has made a huge impact in the stability and security of a new
democracy in that country.
Since 2002, we've seen major reconstruction of schools and
infrastructure in that country, as well as the birth of a democratic
nation.
Reauthorization of this bill is crucial ensuring that Afghanistan
continues to strengthen its government and that its people start to
feel safe and secure in a nation that has been riddled with so much
violence and terrorism.
H.R. 2446 also makes some important enhancements to the original Act
by dealing with a rising narcotics problem related to heroine and poppy
production that is threatening to endanger Afghanistan's security.
H.R. 2446 also takes a strong step towards building international
diplomacy and shared responsibility in the region with our allies.
The Act expresses the sense of Congress that greater humanitarian
assistance is needed in the country for civilians, that the United
Nations should play a larger role in assisting the people of
Afghanistan and also provides means to train military from foreign
countries to share responsibility in Afghanistan.
We also set strong benchmarks for accountability in the region by
requiring more reporting, a better overall strategy for Afghanistan,
and by pursuing policies that foster regional cooperation.
This bill will make Afghanistan stronger and more secure while
securing our own homeland in the fight against global terrorism.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
{time} 1530
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIRMAN. All time for general debate has expired.
Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read for amendment under
the 5-minute rule.
[[Page 14703]]
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2446
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the
``Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of 2007''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this Act
is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Definition.
TITLE I--ECONOMIC AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE FOR AFGHANISTAN
Sec. 101. Declaration of policy.
Sec. 102. Purposes of assistance.
Sec. 103. Authorization of assistance.
Sec. 104. Certification and phased-in limitation on economic and
democratic development assistance.
Sec. 105. Monitoring and evaluation of assistance.
Sec. 106. Coordination of assistance.
Sec. 107. Pilot program to provide scholarships to Afghan students for
public policy internships in the United States.
Sec. 108. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 109. Clerical amendment.
TITLE II--ASSISTANCE FOR A NEW SECURITY FRAMEWORK FOR AFGHANISTAN
Subtitle A--Amendments to the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
Sec. 201. Authorization of assistance.
Sec. 202. Congressional notification requirements.
Sec. 203. Matters relating to the International Security Assistance
Force.
Sec. 204. Sunset.
Subtitle B--Other Matters
Sec. 211. Counter-narcotics activities in Afghanistan.
Sec. 212. Expansion of international contributions to the security of
Afghanistan.
Sec. 213. Training for military personnel of foreign countries that are
to be deployed for security operations in Afghanistan.
Sec. 214. Humanitarian assistance for war victims.
Sec. 215. Sense of Congress concerning United Nations mandate in
Afghanistan.
TITLE III--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 301. Donor contributions to Afghanistan and reports.
Sec. 302. Report on progress toward security and stability in
Afghanistan.
Sec. 303. Comprehensive interagency strategy for long-term security and
stability in Afghanistan.
Sec. 304. Special envoy for Afghanistan-Pakistan cooperation.
Sec. 305. Transit through Pakistan of shipments by India in support of
reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
Sec. 306. Reauthorization of Radio Free Afghanistan.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Nearly six years after the liberation of Afghanistan
from the Taliban, who provided Osama Bin-Laden and Al-Qaeda
with a safe haven for planning the attacks of September 11,
2001, Afghanistan remains highly unstable and the Government
of President Hamid Karzai remains subject to attacks from
remnants of the Taliban who have regrouped along with other
insurgent groups, including some foreign fighters associated
with Al-Qaeda.
(2) The Government of Afghanistan supports the continued
deployment of international forces to supplement its own
nascent national security forces, and the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), which took over international
stability operations for the entire country on October 5,
2006, must show continued commitment to these operations in
order to assist Afghanistan in defeating the growing
insurgency in rural areas of Afghanistan.
(3) The current United States counter-narcotics strategy
for Afghanistan has not produced significant results, in part
due to a failure to seek out and capture high-level warlords
and kingpins who control the flow of illicit narcotics and
because sufficient sustainable alternatives have not been
provided to Afghan farmers who suffer from a lack of access
to microfinance facilities, financial services, and land
rights and whose crops are subject to eradication.
(4) In some cases, the misaligned eradication policy
endorsed by the United States Government has led adversely-
affected Afghan farmers and villagers to support insurgent
groups, including the Taliban.
(5) The violence and instability in Afghanistan is further
exacerbated by the flourishing trade in opium and opium-
related crops, which has reached record levels and which fuel
local militias, corrupts the national and local governments,
and provides funding for insurgent and terrorist groups.
(6) The United States and the international community must
continue to support Afghanistan both through increased
support for its national and local police forces, the Afghan
National Army, and Afghan counter-narcotics operations.
(7) The United States and the international community must
also continue to support the growth of the Afghan economy
through foreign assistance and other means because
Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world
and economic growth is impeded by the lingering remnants of
25 years of civil war and occupation and the ongoing
instability since December 2001, including the growing
illicit drug economy.
(8) The United States and the international community must
also continue to show a long-term commitment to support the
promotion of democracy and the protection of human rights in
Afghanistan, including increased assistance for the rule of
law, freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of
religion, and other measures of good governance.
(9) From January 31 to February 1, 2006, the Government of
Afghanistan and the international community issued the
Afghanistan Compact, which sets forth both the international
community's commitment to Afghanistan and Afghanistan's
commitment to state-building and reform over the next five
years.
(10) The Afghanistan Compact, which supports the Afghan
National Development Strategy, provides a strategy for
building an effective, accountable state in Afghanistan, with
goals and standards set forth in the Afghanistan Compact for
improvements in security, governance, and development,
including measures for reducing the narcotics economy,
promoting regional cooperation, and making aid more
effective. The Afghanistan Compact also established a
mechanism to monitor Afghanistan and the international
community's adherence to the timelines, goals, and objectives
set forth in the document.
(11) The security of Afghanistan is closely intertwined
with those of its regional neighbors and success in
Afghanistan, both economic and political, will be dependent
on security and stability in the region.
(12) The recent closure of four refugee camps in Pakistan
and the deportation of Afghans from Iran have resulted in
over 200,000 Afghan refugees repatriating to Afghanistan who
will require urgent humanitarian services.
SEC. 3. DEFINITION.
(a) In General.--In this Act, except as otherwise provided,
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means the
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives
and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
(b) Amendment.--Subsection (c) of section 1 of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7501 note)
is amended to read as follows:
``(c) Definitions.--In this Act:
``(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--Except as
otherwise provided, the term `appropriate congressional
committees' means--
``(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and
``(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee
on Appropriations of the Senate.
``(2) Government of afghanistan.--The term `Government of
Afghanistan' includes--
``(A) the government of any political subdivision of
Afghanistan; and
``(B) any agency or instrumentality of the Government of
Afghanistan.
``(3) International security assistance force or isaf.--The
term `International Security Assistance Force' or `ISAF'
means the international security assistance force established
to assist in the maintenance of security in Afghanistan
pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386
(2001), as amended by United Nations Security Council
Resolutions 1413 (2002), 1444 (2002), 1510 (2003), 1563
(2004), 1623 (2005), and 1707 (2006).''.
TITLE I--ECONOMIC AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE FOR AFGHANISTAN
SEC. 101. DECLARATION OF POLICY.
Section 101 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
(22 U.S.C. 7511) is amended by striking paragraphs (4), (5),
and (6) and inserting the following new paragraphs:
``(4) While the election of a President and the
establishment of a National Parliament for Afghanistan
concluded the process begun in December 5, 2001, in Bonn,
Germany, the United States needs to continue to work with the
Government of Afghanistan and other friendly countries to
ensure that Afghanistan's neighboring countries and other
countries in the region do not threaten or interfere in one
another's sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political
independence, including supporting diplomatic initiatives to
support this goal for the establishment of an independent and
neutral Afghanistan.
``(5) The United States must continue to demonstrate a
long-term commitment to the people of Afghanistan by
sustained assistance and the continued deployment of United
States troops in Afghanistan with the support of the
Government of Afghanistan as Afghanistan continues on its
path toward a broad-based, multi-ethnic, gender-sensitive,
[[Page 14704]]
and fully representative government in Afghanistan.
``(6) To foster stability and democratization and to
effectively eliminate the causes of terrorism, the United
States and the international community should also support
efforts that advance the development of democratic civil
authorities and institutions in Afghanistan's neighboring
countries and throughout the Central Asia and South Asia
regions.
``(7) While rampant corruption has impeded development and
economic growth in Afghanistan and contributed to insecurity
in the country, the United States should support all efforts
to fight corruption in all levels of government in
Afghanistan and assist in promoting an efficient and
effective Government of Afghanistan.''.
SEC. 102. PURPOSES OF ASSISTANCE.
Section 102 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
(22 U.S.C. 7512) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ``the humanitarian
crisis'' and inserting ``the continuing humanitarian needs'';
(2) in paragraph (3)--
(A) by striking ``heroin, and to'' and inserting ``heroin,
to''; and
(B) by adding at the end before the semicolon the
following: ``, and to establish a pilot program to test the
effectiveness of a crop substitution combined with an
appropriate offset policy and to provide practical
information on the measures needed to implement such a policy
with the potential of scaling up the pilot program for large-
scale deployment''; and
(3) in paragraph (7), by inserting ``, the energy sector''
after ``the agriculture sector''.
SEC. 103. AUTHORIZATION OF ASSISTANCE.
(a) Continuing Humanitarian Needs.--Subsection (a)(1) of
section 103 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
(22 U.S.C. 7513) is amended--
(1) in the heading, by striking ``Urgent'' and inserting
``Continuing''; and
(2) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking
``urgent'' and inserting ``continuing''.
(b) Counter-Narcotics Efforts.--Subsection (a)(3) of such
section is amended--
(1) in the matter preceding clause (i) of subparagraph
(A)--
(A) by striking ``To assist in'' and inserting ``To assist
in the apprehension of individuals who organize, facilitate,
and profit from the drug trade,''; and
(B) by inserting ``, including the destruction of drug
laboratories'' after ``heroin production'';
(2) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as subparagraph (C);
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following new
subparagraph:
``(B) To establish a pilot program to test the
effectiveness of a crop substitution combined with an
appropriate offset to encourage legitimate alternatives to
poppy production for Afghan poppy farmers within an area in
which poppy production is prevalent, such as in the Helmand
or Nangarhar provinces, by providing--
``(i) seeds for alternative crops for which there is
internal market demand and in an areas in which there is
adequate infrastructure for access to market;
``(ii) technical assistance to such Afghan poppy farmers on
how to best plant, grow, and harvest the alternative crops
utilized; and
``(iii) an appropriate offset that would significantly
address the difference in income that such Afghan poppy
farmers would otherwise earn had they continued to grow and
sell poppy.'';
(4) in subparagraph (C) (as redesignated)--
(A) by striking ``(B)'' and inserting ``(B)(i)'';
(B) by striking ``2003 through 2006'' and inserting ``2008
through 2010'';
(C) by striking the last sentence; and
(D) by adding at the end the following new clauses:
``(ii) For each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2010,
$10,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated to the President
to carry out activities described in subparagraph (B).
``(iii) Amounts made available under clauses (i) and (ii)
are in addition to amounts otherwise available for such
purposes.''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(D) Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act
of 2007, and every 180 days thereafter through the end of
fiscal year 2010, the President shall transmit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report on the status
of the implementation of the activities described in
subparagraph (B). The report required by this subparagraph
may be included in the report required by section 304 of this
Act.''.
(c) Reestablishment of Food Security, Rehabilitation of the
Agriculture Sector, Improvement in Health Conditions, and the
Reconstruction of Basic Infrastructure.--Subsection (a)(4) of
such section is amended--
(1) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the
following new subparagraph:
``(B) increased access to credit, savings, and other
financial services and to farm management and business
advisory services;'';
(2) by redesignating subparagraphs (K), (L), and (M) as
subparagraphs (M), (N), and (O), respectively;
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (J) the following new
subparagraphs:
``(K) programs to train medical personnel, including
doctors, nurses, physicians' assistants, and midwives;
``(L) programs to provide equipment to primary and
secondary clinics and hospitals;'';
(4) in subparagraph (N) (as redesignated), by striking
``and'' at the end;
(5) in subparagraph (O) (as redesignated), by striking the
period at the end and inserting ``; and''; and
(6) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(P) rebuilding and constructing rural and urban roads and
highways, including secondary and tertiary road systems.''.
(d) Education, the Rule of Law, Anti-Corruption, and
Related Issues.--Subsection (a)(5) of such section is
amended--
(1) in the heading, by inserting ``, anti-corruption''
after ``the rule of law'';
(2) in subparagraph (B)--
(A) by striking clause (v);
(B) by redesignating clauses (vi) through (viii) as clauses
(v) through (vii), respectively;
(C) in clause (vi) (as redesignated), by striking ``and''
at the end;
(D) in clause (vii) (as redesignated), by striking the
period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and
(E) by adding at the end the following new clauses:
``(viii) support for the implementation of the Afghan
Action Plan on Transitional Justice, including examination of
abuses by all parties as specified by the document with a
view to establishing truth, reconciliation, and justice; and
``(ix) support for land titling programs and reconciliation
of land rights.'';
(3) by redesignating subparagraphs (C) and (D) as
subparagraphs (D) and (E), respectively; and
(4) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following new
subparagraph:
``(C) Anti-corruption assistance.--To combat corruption,
improve transparency and accountability, increase the
participatory nature of governmental institutions, and
promote other forms of good governance and management in all
levels of government in Afghanistan, including assistance
such as--
``(i) providing technical assistance to the Government of
Afghanistan to assist in the efforts to ratify the United
Nations Convention against Corruption and assistance in
creating implementation legislation and a monitoring
mechanism to oversee implementation of the United Nations
Convention against Corruption;
``(ii) supporting the establishment of audit offices,
inspectors general offices, third party monitoring of
government procurement processes, and anti-corruption
agencies;
``(iii) promoting legal and judicial reforms that
criminalize corruption and law enforcement reforms and
development that encourage prosecutions of corruption;
``(iv) providing technical assistance to develop a legal
framework for commercial transactions that fosters business
practices that promote transparent, ethical, and competitive
behavior in the economic sector, such as commercial codes
that incorporate international standards and protection of
core labor standards;
``(v) providing training and technical assistance relating
to drafting of anti-corruption, privatization, and
competitive statutory and administrative codes, and providing
technical assistance to Afghan governmental ministries
implementing anti-corruption laws and regulations;
``(vi) promoting the development of regulations relating to
financial disclosure for public officials, political parties,
and candidates for public offices;
``(vii) supporting transparent budgeting processes and
financial management systems; and
``(viii) promoting civil society's role in combating
corruption.''.
(e) Assistance to Women and Girls.--Subsection (a)(7) of
such section is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking clauses (i) through
(xii) and inserting the following new clauses:
``(i) to provide equipment, medical supplies, and other
assistance to health care facilities for the purpose of
reducing maternal and infant mortality and morbidity;
``(ii) to expand immunization programs for women and
children;
``(iii) to establish and expand programs to provide
services to women and girls suffering from mental illness
problems, such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic
stress disorder;
``(iv) to protect and provide services to vulnerable
populations, including widows, orphans, and women head of
households;
``(v) to develop and implement programs to protect women
and girls against sexual and physical abuse, abduction,
trafficking, exploitation, and sex discrimination, including
emergency shelters for women and girls who face danger from
violence;
``(vi) to establish primary and secondary schools for girls
that include mathematics, science, and languages in their
primary curriculum;
[[Page 14705]]
``(vii) to expand technical and vocational training
programs to enable women to support themselves and their
families;
``(viii) to maintain and expand adult literacy programs,
including economic literacy programs that promote the well-
being of women and their families;
``(ix) to provide special educational opportunities for
girls whose schooling was ended by the Taliban and who now
face obstacles to participating in the normal education
system, such as girls who are now married and girls who are
older than the normal age for their classes;
``(x) to disseminate information throughout Afghanistan on
international standards for human rights, particularly as
pertaining to women;
``(xi) to provide information and assistance to enable
women to exercise property, inheritance, and voting rights,
and to ensure equal access to the judicial system;
``(xii) to support the work of women-led and local
nongovernmental organizations with demonstrated experience in
delivering services to women and children in Afghanistan;
``(xiii) to monitor and investigate violations against
women and to provide legal assistance to women who have
suffered violations of their rights;
``(xiv) to increase political and civic participation of
women in all levels of society, including the criminal
justice system;
``(xv) to provide information and training related to human
rights, particularly as pertaining to women, to military,
police, and legal personnel; and
``(xvi) to provide assistance to the Ministry of Women's
Affairs and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
for programs to advance the status of women.''; and
(2) in subparagraph (B), to read as follows:
``(B) Availability of funds.--For each of the fiscal years
2008 through 2010--
``(i) $5,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated to the
President to be made available to the Afghan Ministry of
Women's Affairs for the administration and conduct of its
programs;
``(ii) $10,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated to the
President to be made available to the Afghan Independent
Human Rights Commission for the administration and conduct of
its programs; and
``(iii) $30,000,000 is authorized to be appropriated to the
President for grants to Afghan-led nongovernmental
organizations, including Afghan women-led nongovernmental
organizations, to support activities including the
construction, establishment, and operation of schools for
married girls and girls' orphanages, vocational training for
women and girls, primary health care clinics for women and
children, programs to strengthen Afghan women-led
organizations and women's leadership, and to provide monthly
financial assistance to widows, orphans, and women head of
households.''.
(f) Assistance for Energy Development and Short-Term Energy
Supply.--
(1) Amendment.--Subsection (a) of such section is amended
by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
``(8) Assistance for energy development.--To support the
development of local energy sources, new power generation,
and energy transportation, including further development of
existing hydrological power sources, studies of the utility
of geothermal energy, expansion of local natural gas fields
for internal consumption and export, and transport of natural
gas or other appropriate energy sources to Afghanistan's
neighboring countries.
``(9) Assistance for short-term energy supply.--
``(A) Assistance objectives.--To provide assistance for the
supply of short-term energy resources such as diesel to
secure the delivery of electricity to major Afghan cities.
``(B) Availability of funds.--For each of the fiscal years
2008 through 2010, $75,000,000 is authorized to be
appropriated to the President to carry out this paragraph.
``(C) Relation to other available funds.--Amounts made
available under subparagraph (B) are in addition to amounts
otherwise available for such purposes.''.
(2) Sense of congress on opic activities.--It is the sense
of Congress that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
should, in accordance with its mandate to foster private
investment and enhance the ability of private enterprise to
make its full contribution to international development,
exercise its authorities under title IV of chapter 2 of part
I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2191 et
seq.) to further increase efforts to promote and support
United States-sponsored private investment in the energy
sector in Afghanistan, including--
(A) issuing loans, guaranties, and insurance, to support
energy infrastructure reconstruction and development; and
(B) undertaking a special initiative that includes--
(i) sending a needs assessment team to Afghanistan to
determine ways in which the Corporation can best support the
essential investment required to restore the energy
infrastructure in Afghanistan;
(ii) engaging in an exhaustive outreach program to involve
United States business in energy development in Afghanistan
and exploring potential new public-private partnerships,
supported by the Corporation, which will assist Afghanistan
in developing its energy sector; and
(iii) consulting and coordinating with the Government of
Afghanistan and regional governments and international
financial institutions to promote private investment in the
energy sector.
(g) Assistance for Capacity-Building.--Subsection (a) of
such section, as amended by subsection (f)(1) of this
section, is further amended by adding at the end the
following new paragraph:
``(10) Assistance for capacity-building.--To increase the
capacity and improve the sustainability of national,
provincial, and local governmental institutions, including
assistance such as--
``(A) providing technical assistance to all ministries
through funding to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund
to improve transparency and ability to respond to the needs
of the Afghan people;
``(B) promoting the implementation of fiscal and personnel
management, including revenue tracking and expenditure
systems;
``(C) assisting in developing ministry-wide recruitment
systems;
``(D) creating or improving databases and other human
resource information systems;
``(E) supporting the expansion of the Afghan National
Solidarity Project and other provincial and local-led
development projects;
``(F) providing training and technical assistance to the
Ministry of Finance to better account for funding to the
Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund and other funds
implemented by the Government of Afghanistan;
``(G) supporting the Afghanistan Independent Administrative
Reform and Civil Service Commission; and
``(H) providing financial and technical assistance to
support the Transition Support Strategy for Afghanistan,
including the Public Administration Reform project.''.
(h) Limitation.--Subsection (b)(1) of such section is
amended by striking ``adopting a constitution and''.
(i) Monitoring of Assistance for Afghanistan; Report.--
Subsection (d)(1)(A) of such section is amended--
(1) by striking ``Committee on International Relations''
and inserting ``Committee on Foreign Affairs''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new sentence: ``The
report required by this paragraph may be included in the
report required by section 304 of this Act.''.
SEC. 104. CERTIFICATION AND PHASED-IN LIMITATION ON ECONOMIC
AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE.
Title I of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22
U.S.C. 7511 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by redesignating sections 104 through 108 as sections
105 through 109, respectively; and
(2) by inserting after section 103 the following new
section:
``SEC. 104. CERTIFICATION AND PHASED-IN LIMITATION ON UNITED
STATES ECONOMIC AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT
ASSISTANCE FOR AFGHANISTAN.
``(a) Certification.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than October 1, 2008 and each
October 1 thereafter, the President shall transmit to the
appropriate congressional committees a certification that
contains a determination of whether or not, based upon
substantiated and credible evidence, any senior official of
the Government of Afghanistan, at the provincial or local
levels, is engaged in or benefits from the illicit narcotics
trade or is engaged in terrorist or criminal activities,
including the names of any such senior officials and the
provincial or local governments over which such senior
officials exercise authority.
``(2) Form.--The certification required by paragraph (1)
shall be transmitted in unclassified form, but may contain a
classified annex.
``(b) Limitation on Assistance.--For fiscal year 2009 and
each subsequent fiscal year, assistance authorized under this
title or under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2151 et seq.) may not be provided to a provincial or local
government of Afghanistan if the President determines and
certifies to the appropriate congressional committees
pursuant to subsection (a) for such fiscal year that, based
upon substantiated and credible evidence, one or more senior
officials from such provincial or local government is engaged
in or benefits from the narcotics trade or is engaged in
terrorist or criminal activities.''.
SEC. 105. MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF ASSISTANCE.
Title I of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22
U.S.C. 7511 et seq.), as amended by section 104 of this Act,
is further amended--
(1) by redesignating sections 105 through 109 (as
redesignated) as sections 106 through 110, respectively; and
(2) by inserting after section 104 the following new
section:
``SEC. 105. MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF ASSISTANCE.
``(a) In General.--The President shall establish and
implement a system to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness
and efficiency of assistance provided under this title on a
[[Page 14706]]
program-by-program basis in order to maximize the long-term
sustainable development impact of such assistance.
``(b) Requirements.--In carrying out subsection (a), the
President shall--
``(1) establish performance goals for assistance authorized
under this title and expresses such goals in an objective and
quantifiable form, to the extent practicable;
``(2) establish performance indicators to be used in
measuring or assessing the achievement of the performance
goals described in paragraph (1); and
``(3) provide a basis for recommendations for adjustments
to assistance authorized under this title to enhance the
impact of such assistance.
``(c) Assistance To Enhance the Capacity of Afghanistan.--
In carrying out subsection (a), the President shall provide
assistance to enhance the capacity of the Government of
Afghanistan to monitor and evaluate programs carried out by
the national, provincial, and local governments in
Afghanistan in order to maximize the long-term sustainable
development impact of such programs.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--Of the amounts
authorized to be appropriated under section 110 for a fiscal
year, not less than 5 percent of such amounts are authorized
to be made available to carry out this section for such
fiscal year.''.
SEC. 106. COORDINATION OF ASSISTANCE.
(a) Congressional Finding.--Congress finds that the
coordinator of assistance provided for in section 106 of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (as redesignated) has
not achieved the objectives of an integrated approach to
United States assistance programs for Afghanistan.
(b) Appointment of Coordinator.--Not later than 90 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President
shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, a coordinator who shall report directly to the
President. The coordinator shall not hold any other position
within the United States Government and shall have the rank
and status of Ambassador.
(c) Duties of Coordinator.--The coordinator shall be
responsible for--
(1) designing an overall non-military strategy, in
coordination with the heads of relevant United States
Government departments and agencies, to advance United States
interests in Afghanistan, including policy coordination
relating to counter-narcotics efforts, reconstruction and
development, and activities to equip and train the Afghan
National Security Forces;
(2) ensuring policy coordination among relevant United
States Government departments and agencies in carrying out
the strategy described in paragraph (1);
(3) pursuing coordination with other countries and
international organizations with respect to assistance for
Afghanistan;
(4) coordinating the implementation and oversight by
relevant United States Government departments and agencies
for assistance for Afghanistan described in paragraph (1);
(5) resolving policy disputes among relevant United States
Government departments and agencies with respect to United
States assistance for Afghanistan described in paragraph (1);
(6) ensuring policy coordination among relevant United
States Government departments and agencies for counter-
narcotics efforts and coordinating the implementation of such
policies, including by facilitating the access of certain
departments and agencies to sensitive sites in Afghanistan,
where practicable, for the purpose of conducting critical
counter-narcotics operations; and
(7) ensuring coordination among the United States, the
Government of Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, and other
international partners that are supporting counter-narcotics
efforts, reconstruction and development, and activities to
equip and train the Afghan National Security Forces in
Afghanistan.
(d) Deputy Coordinators.--The coordinator may appoint up to
two deputy coordinators to assist the coordinator with the
duties of the coordinator described in subsection (c),
including duties relating to counter-narcotics,
reconstruction and development, or equipping and training of
Afghan National Security Forces. A deputy coordinator shall
not hold any other position within the United States
Government.
(e) Repeal.--Section 106 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support
Act of 2002 (as redesignated by sections 104 and 105 of this
Act), is hereby repealed.
SEC. 107. PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE SCHOLARSHIPS TO AFGHAN
STUDENTS FOR PUBLIC POLICY INTERNSHIPS IN THE
UNITED STATES.
Title I of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22
U.S.C. 7511 et seq.), as amended by sections 104 and 105 of
this Act, is further amended by inserting after section 105
(as redesignated) the following new section:
``SEC. 106. PILOT PROGRAM TO PROVIDE SCHOLARSHIPS TO AFGHAN
STUDENTS FOR PUBLIC POLICY INTERNSHIPS IN THE
UNITED STATES.
``(a) Pilot Program Required.--The Secretary of State shall
establish a pilot program to provide scholarships to
undergraduate and graduate students in Afghanistan for public
policy internships in the United States to improve the
ability of such students to increase the capacity of the
Government of Afghanistan. The pilot program required by this
subsection shall be carried out as part of the educational
and cultural exchange programs of the Department of State
under the authorities of the Mutual Educational and Cultural
Exchange Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2451 et seq.).
``(b) Scope of Pilot Program.--It is the sense of Congress
that 20 students should participate in the pilot program
required by subsection (a) for each fiscal year during which
the pilot program is in effect.
``(c) Period of Pilot Program.--The pilot program required
by subsection (a) shall be in effect during each of the
fiscal years 2008, 2009, and 2010.''.
SEC. 108. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) Amendments.--Subsection (a) of section 110 of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (as redesignated) is
amended--
(1) by striking ``such sums as may be necessary'' and
inserting ``$1,600,000,000''; and
(2) by striking ``2005 and 2006'' and inserting ``2008
through 2010''.
(b) Rule of Construction.--The amendments made by
subsection (a) shall not be construed to affect the
availability of funds appropriated pursuant to the
authorization of appropriations under section 108 of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7518)
before the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 109. CLERICAL AMENDMENT.
The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Afghanistan
Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7501 note) is amended
by striking the items relating to sections 104 through 108
and inserting the following new items:
``Sec. 104. Certification and phased-in limitation on United States
economic and democratic development assistance for
Afghanistan
``Sec. 105. Monitoring and evaluation of assistance
``Sec. 106. Pilot program to provide scholarships to Afghan students
for public policy internships in the United States.
``Sec. 107. Sense of Congress regarding promoting cooperation in opium
producing areas.
``Sec. 108. Administrative provisions.
``Sec. 109. Relationship to other authority.
``Sec. 110. Authorization of appropriations.''.
TITLE II--ASSISTANCE FOR A NEW SECURITY FRAMEWORK FOR AFGHANISTAN
Subtitle A--Amendments to the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
SEC. 201. AUTHORIZATION OF ASSISTANCE.
(a) Extension of Drawdown Authority.--Subsection (b) of
section 202 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
(22 U.S.C. 7532) is amended by striking ``$550,000,000'' and
inserting ``300,000,000 in any fiscal year''.
(b) Sense of Congress.--Such section is further amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
assistance provided to eligible foreign countries and
international organizations under subsection (a) should
promote greater interoperability with and among the military
forces of the International Security Assistance Force, the
United States, and the Government of Afghanistan.''.
SEC. 202. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.
Subsection (a) of section 205 of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7535) is amended by striking
``the Committee on International Relations and the Committee
on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate'' and inserting ``the
appropriate congressional committees''.
SEC. 203. MATTERS RELATING TO THE INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
ASSISTANCE FORCE.
(a) Implementation of Strategy.--Section 206 of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7536) is
amended--
(1) by striking subsection (c); and
(2) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as subsections
(c) and (d), respectively.
(b) Reports on Efforts To Expand International Peacekeeping
and Security Operations in Afghanistan.--Subsection (c)(1)(B)
of such section (as redesignated) is amended in the first
sentence, by striking ``Committee on International
Relations'' and inserting ``Committee on Foreign Affairs''.
(c) Arms Sales Incentive for Cooperating Nations in
Afghanistan.--Such section is further amended by adding at
the end the following new subsection:
``(e) Arms Sales Incentive for Cooperating Nations in
Afghanistan.--
``(1) In general.--The President is authorized to provide a
subsidy of up to five percent of the total acquisition cost
of defense articles and defense services sold pursuant to the
Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.) to a country
if--
``(A) the country will use such defense articles and
defense services in Afghanistan, or
``(B) the country will use defense articles and defense
services of comparable quality and quantity in Afghanistan,
in support of operations in Afghanistan for an extended
period of time.
[[Page 14707]]
``(2) Definitions.--In this subsection--
``(A) the term `defense article' has the meaning given the
term in paragraph (3) of section 47 of the Arms Export
Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2794 note); and
``(B) the term `defense service' has the meaning given the
term in paragraph (4) of such section.
``(3) Authorization of appropriations.--To carry out this
subsection, there are authorized to be appropriated to the
President $10,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2008
through 2010.''.
SEC. 204. SUNSET.
Section 209 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
(22 U.S.C. 7538) is amended by striking ``2006'' and
inserting ``2010''.
Subtitle B--Other Matters
SEC. 211. COUNTER-NARCOTICS ACTIVITIES IN AFGHANISTAN.
(a) Support for Counter-Narcotics Interdiction
Operations.--
(1) In general.--The President, acting through the
Secretary of Defense, shall direct the United States Armed
Forces to continue to support counter-narcotics interdiction
operations in Afghanistan, consistent with ongoing
operational activities and the Department of Defense's
counter-narcotics strategy for Afghanistan.
(2) Coordination.--Such operations shall be conducted in
coordination with the Government of Afghanistan and in
coordination with any support for counter-narcotics
interdiction operations provided by the United Kingdom and
other appropriate countries.
(3) Types of activities.--Such operations shall include--
(A) intelligence, surveillance, and information sharing;
(B) logistical support, to the extent practicable in light
of ongoing operational activities, for interdiction efforts;
and
(C) training and equipping the Afghan National Police,
consistent with existing law.
(b) Special Counter-Narcotics Interdiction Teams.--The
President shall enhance existing civilian special counter-
narcotics interdiction teams and, in addition, such counter-
narcotics interdiction teams shall, to the extent practicable
in light of ongoing operational activities, receive the
support described in subsection (a).
(c) Participation of Foreign Counter-Narcotics Law
Enforcement Personnel.--Counter-narcotics law enforcement
personnel of NATO and other friendly countries may
participate in the formation and operation of the counter-
narcotics interdiction teams described in subsection (b) or
other counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan that are
supported by the United States.
(d) Vetting of Candidates for the Afghan National Police.--
The President shall ensure that assistance for the Afghan
National Police include vetting procedures to adequately
assess each Afghan National Police candidate's aptitude,
professional skills, integrity, and other qualifications that
are essential to law enforcement work.
SEC. 212. EXPANSION OF INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE
SECURITY OF AFGHANISTAN.
(a) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United
States that the President shall encourage the Governments of
Pakistan and friendly Arab countries to increase
reconstruction assistance to, and diplomatic support for, the
Government of Afghanistan.
(b) Pakistan and Afghanistan Military Cooperation.--The
President shall encourage the Governments of Pakistan and
Afghanistan to engage in greater military cooperation to
promote greater trust and transparency between them,
including greater communication and coordination between
their respective military, border security, and counter-
narcotic units operating on both sides of the border between
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
(c) Report.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and every six months thereafter until
September 30, 2008, the President shall transmit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report on the
implementation of subsections (a) and (b). The report
required by this subsection may be included in the report
required by section 304 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support
Act of 2002 (as amended by section 302 of this Act).
(d) Definition.--In this section, the term ``appropriate
congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Foreign Relations of the Senate.
SEC. 213. TRAINING FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL OF FOREIGN
COUNTRIES THAT ARE TO BE DEPLOYED FOR SECURITY
OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN.
Chapter 5 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
(22 U.S.C. 2347 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the
following new section:
``SEC. 550. TRAINING FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL OF FOREIGN
COUNTRIES THAT ARE TO BE DEPLOYED FOR SECURITY
OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN.
``(a) Training Authorized.--The President is authorized to
furnish training under this chapter for military personnel of
foreign countries that are to be deployed for security
operations in Afghanistan, particularly in the areas of
special operations, counter-insurgency, border security,
counter-terrorism, and counter-narcotics.
``(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--To carry out this
section, there are authorized to be appropriated to the
President $10,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2008
through 2010. Amounts authorized to be appropriated under
this subsection are in addition to amounts otherwise
available for such purposes.''.
SEC. 214. HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FOR WAR VICTIMS.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the President should be commended for and should continue
ongoing programs regarding assistance to innocent Afghan
individuals or families of Afghan civilians who have suffered
a serious loss during military operations conducted by United
States forces.
(b) Report Required.--Not later than 180 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall
transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a report
on the feasibility of expanding programs of assistance
described in subsection (a) to include--
(1) the provision of special additional assistance to
families of Afghan civilians who were injured or killed
during such operations and who were the primary source of
income for such families;
(2) the provision of assistance in excess of $2,500 to
families of Afghan civilians described in subsection (a); and
(3) the provision of other payments that might be required
as a result of ongoing military operations in Afghanistan.
SEC. 215. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING UNITED NATIONS MANDATE
IN AFGHANISTAN.
It is the sense of Congress that the United Nations
Security Council should expand the United Nations mandate in
Afghanistan to--
(1) authorize international civilian law enforcement
missions in Afghanistan as a part of peace operations of the
United Nations in Afghanistan;
(2) authorize the International Security Assistance Force
to conduct counter-drug interdiction operations, consistent
with ongoing operational activities and as opportunities
arise, against the top narcotic traffickers, their
operations, and their infrastructure in Afghanistan, with the
concurrence of the Government of Afghanistan;
(3) install effective centralized authority within the
United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan such
that the international community's political objectives can
be prioritized and communicated directly with the Government
of Afghanistan; and
(4) extend the authorization of the International Security
Assistance Force beyond October 13, 2007.
TITLE III--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
SEC. 301. DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO AFGHANISTAN AND REPORTS.
Subsection (c)(1) of section 303 of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7553) is amended--
(1) in the first sentence, by striking ``the Committee on
Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the
Senate and the Committee on International Relations and the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives''
and inserting ``the appropriate congressional committees'';
and
(2) in the second sentence, by striking ``December 31,
2004'' and inserting ``December 31, 2010''.
SEC. 302. REPORT ON PROGRESS TOWARD SECURITY AND STABILITY IN
AFGHANISTAN.
(a) In General.--Title III of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7551 et seq.) is amended by
striking section 304 and inserting the following new section:
``SEC. 304. REPORT ON PROGRESS TOWARD SECURITY AND STABILITY
IN AFGHANISTAN.
``(a) Report Required.--Not later than December 1, 2007,
and every six months thereafter until September 30, 2010, the
President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional
committees a report on a comprehensive set of performance
indicators and measures for progress toward security and
stability in Afghanistan.
``(b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required by
subsection (a) shall include the following:
``(1) With respect to stability and security in
Afghanistan, the following:
``(A) Key measures of political stability, including the
important political objectives that must be achieved over the
next year to ensure that all segments of Afghan society
become committed to the elected government in Kabul.
``(B) The primary indicators of a stable security
environment in Afghanistan, such as the following:
``(i) The number of engagements per day by each of the
following:
``(I) The Afghan forces, United States forces, and other
Coalition forces.
``(II) ISAF.
``(ii) The numbers of trained Afghan security forces,
including the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National
Police.
[[Page 14708]]
``(iii) The trends relating to numbers and types of ethnic
and religious-based hostile encounters.
``(C) An assessment of the estimated strength of the
insurgency in Afghanistan and the extent to which it is
composed of non-Afghan fighters, including whether insurgents
are obtaining weapons and other military material from
outside of Afghanistan and whether the insurgents are based
in or use the territory of countries other than Afghanistan.
``(D) A description of the extent to which warlords in
Afghanistan exercise effective control over personnel,
natural resources, infrastructure, villages and towns, and
material that should be under the direct sovereign control of
the Government of Afghanistan, including--
``(i) an identification of each warlord and the extent and
means of control that the warlord exercises over personnel,
natural resources, infrastructure, villages and towns, and
material that should be under the direct sovereign control of
the Government of Afghanistan; and
``(ii) a description of actions undertaken by the
Governments of the United States, Afghanistan, and countries
participating in ISAF, individually or collectively, in the
previous year to diminish and ultimately eliminate control by
each warlord identified under clause (i) over the Afghan
resources described in clause (i), and a description of
actions that will be undertaken in the coming year.
``(E) A description of all militias, tribal forces, and
terrorist and insurgent groups operating in Afghanistan,
including the number, size, equipment strength, military
effectiveness, sources of support, legal status, and efforts
to disarm or reintegrate such militias, tribal forces, and
terrorist and insurgent groups.
``(F) Efforts by ISAF to establish a unified command,
unified rules of engagement, information detailing the
specific restrictions placed by each country participating in
ISAF, or any successor coalition force, on the military
activities of its national military personnel within
Afghanistan, an assessment of the impact of such restrictions
on ISAF's effectiveness, and an assessment of the
capabilities of ISAF forces, including any equipment and
logistics shortages.
``(2) With respect to the training and performance of
security forces in Afghanistan, the following:
``(A) The training provided to Afghan military and other
Ministry of Defense forces and the equipment used by such
forces.
``(B) Key criteria for assessing the capabilities and
readiness of the Afghan National Army and other Ministry of
Defense forces, including capability and readiness levels,
including recruiting, training, and equipping such forces.
``(C) The operational readiness status of the Afghan
National Army, including the type, number, size, and
organizational structure of Afghan battalions that are--
``(i) capable of conducting operations independently;
``(ii) capable of conducting operations with the support of
United States or Coalition forces or ISAF; or
``(iii) not ready to conduct operations.
``(D) The rates of recruitment, retention, and absenteeism
in the Afghan National Army and the extent to which
insurgents have infiltrated such forces.
``(E) The training provided to Afghan National Police and
other Ministry of Interior forces and the equipment used by
such forces.
``(F) Key criteria for assessing the capabilities and
readiness of the Afghan National Police and other Ministry of
Interior forces, including capability and readiness levels,
including recruiting, training, and equipping such forces,
including--
``(i) the number of police recruits that have received
classroom or field instruction and the duration of such
instruction;
``(ii) the number of experienced veteran police officers
who have received classroom and field instruction and the
duration of such instruction;
``(iii) a description of any vetting that police candidates
receive, the number of candidates vetted, the number of
candidates derived from other entry procedures, and the
success rates of those groups of candidates;
``(iv) the number of Afghan National Police forces that
have received field training by international police trainers
and the duration of such training; and
``(v) attrition rates and measures of absenteeism and
infiltration by insurgents.
``(G) The estimated total number of Afghan National Army
battalions needed for the Army to perform duties now being
undertaken by United States, NATO, or Coalition forces,
including securing the borders of Afghanistan and providing
adequate levels of law and order throughout Afghanistan.
``(H) The effectiveness of the Afghan military and police
officer cadres and the chain of command.
``(I) The number of United States and Coalition trainers,
advisors, and mentors needed to support the Afghan security
and associated ministries.
``(J) An assessment, in a classified annex if necessary, of
United States military requirements, including planned force
rotations, through the end of calendar year 2008.
``(3) With respect to the economic and political stability
of Afghanistan, the following:
``(A) An estimate of the annual budget for the Government
of Afghanistan for the Afghan fiscal year, including the
costs of operating and maintaining the Afghan security
forces.
``(B) An estimate of the amount of Afghan Government
revenue and the amount of international assistance for budget
support for the Afghan Government.
``(C) An estimate of the amount of funds pledged by all
major donors for the calendar year and the amounts committed,
obligated, and expended during the reporting period.
``(D) An assessment of United States reconstruction
assistance programs in Afghanistan, including--
``(i) a description of existing efforts to improve the
monitoring and evaluation of the reconstruction assistance
programs, including from the design of such programs through
implementation and eventual transfer to the Government of
Afghanistan;
``(ii) a description, by project, of ongoing and future
reconstruction assistance programs and the amount of funding
obligated and expended to carry out such programs, including
programs in the security, rule of law, counter-narcotics,
power, rural development, education, health, and governance
and anti-corruption sectors;
``(iii) an analysis of completed reconstruction assistance
programs, on a project basis, and a determination of the
impact of and the benefits yielded from such programs on
Afghanistan and its people;
``(iv) a description of ongoing efforts that have improved
the employment situation in Afghanistan, including efforts
that have created job opportunities and increased private
sector development; and
``(v) a description of the progress made in implementing
all of the elements of the Interim Afghanistan National
Development Strategy, including--
``(I) the Afghanistan National Solidarity Program; and
``(II) the Afghanistan Compact, including a description of
the goals and objectives in the Afghanistan Compact that have
been achieved.
``(E) Key indicators of economic and political development
activity that should be considered the most important for
determining the prospects of stability in Afghanistan,
including--
``(i) unemployment levels;
``(ii) agricultural production;
``(iii) construction of roads, irrigation, and other basic
infrastructure;
``(iv) education rates, particularly of girls;
``(v) electricity rates;
``(vi) hunger and poverty levels;
``(vii) illiteracy rates;
``(viii) maternal and infant mortality rates;
``(ix) appropriate measures for the protection of human
rights;
``(x) appropriate measures for the protection of political
and religious freedom and freedom of association;
``(xi) access of women to political and civil society
participation; and
``(xii) appropriate measure for the protection of freedom
of the press.
``(4) With respect to opium production and counter-
narcotics activities in Afghanistan, the following:
``(A) An estimate of the number of hectares and amount of
poppy production for the current year, including by province.
``(B) The number of hectares and the amount of poppy
destroyed by eradication.
``(C) The number of counter-narcotics raids against drug
labs, storage facilities, and caches, including the number of
narcotics confiscated.
``(D) The number of raids against narcotics traffickers and
the number of traffickers arrested, prosecuted, convicted,
sentenced, and extradited, including high-value targets.
``(E) The number of Afghan counter-narcotics forces,
including the Afghan National Counter-Narcotics Police,
trained and equipped, the attrition rate of such forces, and
the number of such forces available for counter-narcotics
operations, including an assessment of the number of
operations such forces conducted, the outcomes of such
operations, and any additional resource needs of such forces.
``(F) The number and type of alternative livelihood
programs, a description of where such programs have been
conducted, and an assessment of the number of hectares
planted with poppy in the year following such programs.
``(G) The amount and type of NATO and United States
assistance provided to Afghan counter-narcotic teams in
conducting raids and investigations, including close-air
support and helicopter lift, and the number and type of
requests for assistance by United States or Afghan counter-
narcotics teams.
``(H) An assessment of Afghan efforts to extradite suspects
to the United States and other countries, including--
``(i) a list of the persons whose extradition has been
requested from Afghanistan, indicating--
``(I) those individuals who have been surrendered to the
custody of United States authorities;
``(II) those individuals who have been detained by the
authorities and who are being processed for extradition;
[[Page 14709]]
``(III) those individuals who have been detained by the
authorities and who are not yet being processed for
extradition; and
``(IV) those individuals who are at large;
``(ii) a determination of whether Afghan Government
officials and entities receiving assistance from the United
States are making good-faith efforts to ensure the prompt
extradition of each of the persons sought by United States
authorities; and
``(iii) an analysis of any legal obstacles in the laws of
Afghanistan regarding prompt extradition of persons sought by
United States authorities and the steps taken by authorities
of the United States and the authorities of Afghanistan to
overcome such obstacles.
``(c) Update of Report.--Not later than 90 days after the
date of the transmission of each report required by
subsection (a), the President shall transmit to the
appropriate congressional committees an update of the report,
to the extent necessary.
``(d) Form.--The report required by subsection (a) shall be
transmitted in unclassified form, but may include a
classified annex, if necessary.
``(e) Definition.--In this section, the term `appropriate
congressional committees' means--
``(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Appropriations, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House of Representatives; and
``(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Appropriations, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
Senate.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents in section
1(b) of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (22
U.S.C. 7501 note) is amended by striking the item relating to
section 304 and inserting the following new item:
``Sec. 304. Report on progress toward security and stability in
Afghanistan.''.
SEC. 303. COMPREHENSIVE INTERAGENCY STRATEGY FOR LONG-TERM
SECURITY AND STABILITY IN AFGHANISTAN.
(a) In General.--Section 305 of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7555) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ``submit such
strategy'' and all that follows and inserting ``submit such
strategy to the appropriate congressional committees.'';
(2) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (c); and
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following new
subsection:
``(b) Comprehensive Interagency Strategy.--
``(1) In general.--The President shall formulate a
comprehensive interagency strategy for long-term security and
stability in Afghanistan which, in addition to the specific
and measurable goals specified in subsection (a)(2), shall be
composed of the elements specified in paragraph (2).
``(2) Elements.--The comprehensive interagency strategy
required by paragraph (1) shall contain the following
elements:
``(A) Reinvigorated reconstruction activities and
provincial reconstruction teams.--A comprehensive interagency
reconstruction strategy for Afghanistan, including objectives
for the strategy, a plan to implement the objectives of the
strategy, and a long-term budget to carry out the strategy.
The strategy shall--
``(i) include a plan to implement all of the elements of
the Interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy,
including the Afghanistan National Solidarity Program, and
the Afghanistan Compact, including a description of the goals
and objectives that have yet to be achieved, and the
impediments in achieving such goals and objectives;
``(ii) include a mechanism for tracking and oversight of
the reconstruction funding provided by countries
participating in ISAF and other donor countries,
international organizations, and international financial
entities, including a description of the progress by such
parties in fulfilling their pledges of financial, technical,
and other assistance;
``(iii) include a mechanism for tracking and increasing
oversight of the reconstruction programs implemented by the
provincial reconstruction teams, including the amount of
reconstruction funding spent by such teams, the purpose of
such funding, and the evaluation of the success of such
programs;
``(iv) provide for a mechanism to enhance coordination
between the Department of State and the United States Agency
for International Development and other relevant departments
and agencies of the United States Government in carrying out
reconstruction programs, by--
``(I) coordinating existing and future efforts in the
reconstruction programs carried out by the Department of
State and the United States Agency for International
Development with the reconstruction programs carried out by
other relevant departments and agencies of the United States
Government; and
``(II) coordinating existing and future efforts needed to
achieve enhanced coordination between the Department of State
and the United States Agency for International Development
and other relevant departments and agencies of the United
States Government in the design and implementation of
reconstruction programs;
``(v) include a plan to enhance monitoring, evaluation, and
oversight of reconstruction programs to ensure the effective
impact of such programs on Afghanistan and its people;
``(vi) provide a plan to identify and implement critical
reconstruction programs, by project, including in the areas
of security, rule of law, counter-narcotics, power, rural
development, education, health, and governance and anti-
corruption, that will improve the security and economic
stability of Afghanistan, and the amount of funding needed to
implement such programs;
``(vii) include actions to significantly increase
contributions from countries participating in ISAF and from
other international partners for reconstruction programs,
including in the areas of security, rule of law,
counternarcotics, power, rural development, education,
health, and governance and anti-corruption sectors;
``(viii) provide a plan to improve the employment situation
in Afghanistan, including a plan to increase job creation
opportunities and enhance private sector development in
Afghanistan;
``(ix) include actions to ensure enhancement of the
capacity of the Government of Afghanistan, on all levels, to
respond to the needs of its people;
``(x) include actions to enhance the design and
implementation of programs carried out by the Government of
Afghanistan, on all levels, including efforts to increase
funding and implementation of reconstruction programs carried
out by the National Solidarity Program;
``(xi) include a plan to increase significantly the number
of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), particularly in
the southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan by December
31, 2009, including a review of the operation of and lessons
learned from existing PRTs prior to the preparation of the
strategy;
``(xii) clarify a single chain of command and operations
plans for PRTs, including their relationship with ISAF;
``(xiii) increase staffing, particularly staffing of
civilian specialists, and increase staff training for PRTs;
``(xiv) incorporate measures to improve the effectiveness
of PRTs in providing reconstruction and development
assistance and in promoting security and stability in their
areas of operations, including coordination between PRT
civilian elements and ISAF reconstruction goals; and
``(xv) include efforts to ensure that a significant amount
of the material, financial, and personnel support for the
increase in the number of PRTs is provided by foreign
sources.
``(B) Counter-narcotics strategy.--A comprehensive
interagency counter-narcotics strategy for Afghanistan,
including objectives for the strategy, a plan to implement
the objectives of the strategy, and a long-term budget to
carry out the strategy. The strategy shall--
``(i) address the five pillars that comprise Afghanistan's
counter-narcotics strategy and implementation plan: public
information, rural development (alternative livelihoods),
elimination and eradication activities, interdiction, and law
enforcement and justice reform;
``(ii) identify the roles and responsibilities of relevant
departments and agencies of the United States Government with
respect to the activities described in clause (i);
``(iii) include the strategic direction of current and
planned activities of the United States relating to counter-
narcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and shall specifically
include a description of steps that have been conducted and
planned to--
``(I) improve coordination with all relevant departments
and agencies of the United States Government;
``(II) strengthen significantly the Afghanistan National
Counter-Narcotics Police;
``(III) build the capacity of the Afghan Government to
assume greater responsibility for counter-narcotics related-
activities;
``(IV) strengthen anti-corruption measures that target
narcotics producers and traffickers and the individuals
influenced by them;
``(V) improve counter-narcotics intelligence capabilities;
``(VI) strengthen narcotics-related interdiction
activities;
``(VII) strengthen the capacity of the judicial sector to
investigate, prosecute, and penalize narcotics producers and
traffickers and government officials benefitting from
narcotics-related activities;
``(VIII) effectively address any problems with eradication
strategies; and
``(IX) significantly increase the focus on creating
alternative livelihoods for the Afghan people;
``(iv) include current and planned actions to involve and
coordinate with the United Kingdom and other appropriate
international partners in supporting counter-narcotics
efforts in Afghanistan.
``(C) Sustainability of the afghanistan national security
forces.--A comprehensive interagency strategy for building
and sustaining the Afghanistan National Security Forces
(ANSF), including objectives for
[[Page 14710]]
the strategy, a plan to implement the objectives of the
strategy, and a long-term budget to carry out the strategy.
The strategy shall--
``(i) include a mechanism for tracking funding, including
obligations and expenditures, as well as equipment, training,
and services provided for the ANSF by the United States,
countries participating in the International Security
Assistance Force, and other international partners;
``(ii) include actions to build and sustain effective
Afghan security institutions with fully-capable leadership
and staff, including--
``(I) a reformed Ministry of Interior, a fully-established
Ministry of Defense, and logistics, intelligence, medical,
and recruiting units (ANSF-sustaining institutions);
``(II) fully-trained, equipped, and capable ANSF in
sufficient numbers;
``(III) strong ANSF-readiness assessment tools and metrics;
``(IV) a strong core of senior-level ANSF officers;
``(V) strong ANSF command, control, and communication
between central ANSF headquarters and regions, provinces, and
districts;
``(VI) a robust mentoring and advising program for the
ANSF;
``(VII) a strong professional military training and
education program for all junior, mid-level, and senior ANSF
personnel;
``(VIII) effective merit-based salary, rank, promotion, and
incentive structures for the ANSF;
``(IX) an established code of professional standards for
the ANSF;
``(X) a mechanism for incorporating lessons learned and
best practices into ANSF operations;
``(XI) An ANSF personnel accountability system with
effective internal discipline procedures and mechanisms;
``(XII) a system for addressing ANSF personnel complaints;
and
``(XIII) a strong record-keeping and accountability system
to track ANSF equipment and personnel issues, and other ANSF
oversight mechanisms; and
``(iii) provide for coordination between all relevant
departments and agencies of the United States Government, as
well as ISAF countries and other international partners,
including on--
``(I) funding;
``(II) reform and establishment of ANSF-sustaining
institutions; and
``(III) efforts to ensure that progress on sustaining the
ANSF is reinforced with progress in other pillars of the
Afghan security sector, particularly progress on building an
effective judiciary, curbing production and trafficking of
illicit narcotics, and demobilizing, disarming, and
reintegrating militia fighters.
``(3) Report.--
``(A) In general.--Not later than December 1, 2007, the
President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional
committees an update of the report required by subsection (c)
for 2007 that contains the comprehensive interagency strategy
required by paragraph (1).
``(B) Form.--The report required by subparagraph (A) shall
be transmitted in unclassified form, but may include a
classified annex, if necessary.''.
(b) Monitoring.--Subsection (c) of such section (as
redesignated) is amended to read as follows:
``(c) Updates of Strategy.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the
submission of the strategy required by subsection (b)(3), and
every 90 days thereafter through September 30, 2010, the
President shall submit to the appropriate congressional
committees an update of the strategy required by subsection
(a) and the strategy required by subsection (b), as
necessary.
``(2) Definition.--In this subsection, the term
`appropriate congressional committees' includes the Committee
on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Armed Services of the Senate.''.
SEC. 304. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN COOPERATION.
(a) Statement of Policy.--Congress declares that it is
strongly in the national interest of the United States that
Afghanistan and Pakistan work together to address common
challenges hampering the stability, security, and development
of their region and to enhance their cooperation.
(b) Establishment.--The President is authorized to appoint
a special envoy to promote closer cooperation between
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(c) Appointment.--The special envoy--
(1) shall be appointed with the advice and consent of the
Senate and shall have the rank of Ambassador-at-Large; and
(2) may be appointed from among individuals who are
officials of the Department of State.
(d) Duties.--
(1) In general.--The primary responsibility of the special
envoy shall be to coordinate United States policy on issues
relating to bilateral relations between Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
(2) Advisory role.--The special envoy shall advise the
President and the Secretary of State, as appropriate, and, in
coordination with the Assistant Secretary of State for South
and Central Affairs, shall make recommendations regarding
effective strategies and tactics to achieve United States
policy objectives to--
(A) stem cross-border terror activities;
(B) provide assistance to Afghan refugees who repatriate
from Pakistan;
(C) bolster people-to-people ties and economic cooperation
between Afghanistan and Pakistan, including bilateral trade
relations; and
(D) offer comprehensive efforts to support effective
counter-narcotics strategies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
SEC. 305. TRANSIT THROUGH PAKISTAN OF SHIPMENTS BY INDIA IN
SUPPORT OF RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS IN
AFGHANISTAN.
(a) Statement of Policy.--It shall be the policy of the
United States to use all appropriate means to encourage
Pakistan to permit shipments by India of equipment and
material to Afghanistan in support of Indian reconstruction
and development projects in Afghanistan to be transported
across the territory of Pakistan and to remove any obstacles
to such transportation.
(b) Report.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter until
January 1, 2010, the President shall transmit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report on actions by
Pakistan to permit or impede transit of shipments described
in subsection (a). The report required by this subsection may
be included in the report required by section 304 of the
Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002 (as amended by
section 302 of this Act).
(2) Sunset.--The requirement to transmit the report under
paragraph (1) shall cease to apply if the President
determines and transmits to the appropriate congressional
committees a determination that India no longer needs to make
shipments to Afghanistan for the purposes described in
subsection (a).
SEC. 306. REAUTHORIZATION OF RADIO FREE AFGHANISTAN.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) Since January 30, 2002, RFE/RL, Incorporated (formerly
known as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) has provided 12
hours of daily surrogate broadcasting services through Radio
Free Afghanistan in Dari and Pashto languages to the people
of Afghanistan.
(2) Radio Free Afghanistan is the leading broadcaster in
Afghanistan with an audience of nearly 60 percent of the
adult population.
(3) It is in the national interest to continue Radio Free
Afghanistan's surrogate broadcasts to Afghanistan in order to
provide accurate news and information, help give voice to
ordinary Afghans, and provide programs on the fundamentals of
democracy.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--For each of the
fiscal years 2008 through 2010, such sums as may be necessary
are authorized to be appropriated to the Broadcasting Board
of Governors for grants to support 12 hours of daily
surrogate broadcasting services through Radio Free
Afghanistan in Dari and Pashto languages to the people of
Afghanistan.
The CHAIRMAN. No amendment to the bill shall be in order except those
printed in House Report 110-174. Each amendment may be offered only in
the order printed in the report except amendment No. 11 which may be
offered at any time, by a Member designated in the report, shall be
considered read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the
report, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an
opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject
to a demand for division of the question.
Amendment No. 1 Offered by Mr. Lantos
The CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 1 printed
in House Report 110-174.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 1 offered by Mr. Lantos:
Page 5, line 23, strike ``supports'' and insert ``is
supported by''.
Page 5, line 25, strike ``a strategy'' and insert ``the
core framework''.
Page 6, line 6, insert before the period the following: ``,
particularly at the local and provincial levels''.
Page 12, line 12, strike ``(B)'' and insert ``(C)''.
Page 12, line 13, strike ``(B)'' and insert ``(C)''.
Page 12, lines 19 through 25, move the margins of clauses
(ii) and (iii) two ems to the left.
Page 18, line 3, insert ``helping women deliver healthier
babies and'' after ``for the purpose of''.
Page 35, line 11, strike ``300,000,000'' and insert
``$300,000,000''.
Page 37, line 1, strike ``The President'' and insert
``Pursuant to the authorities of the
[[Page 14711]]
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) or
section 23 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2763),
the President''.
Page 43, line 16, strike ``to conduct'' and insert ``to
participate in, to the extent appropriate and practicable,''.
Page 46, strike lines 1 through 4 and insert the following
new subclauses:
(I) The Afghan forces.
(II) ISAF.
(III) Non-ISAF United States forces.
(IV) Other Coalition forces.
Page 47, beginning on line 10, strike ``and countries
participating in ISAF'' and insert ``countries participating
in ISAF, and other Coalition countries''.
Page 57, line 24, strike ``Affairs'' and insert
``Relations''.
Page 66, line 9, insert ``and'' after the semicolon.
Page 70, after line 17, insert the following new
subsection:
(c) Concurrent Submission of Report.--Such section is
further amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(d) Concurrent Submission of Report.--The strategy
required by subsection (b) and any updates of the strategy
provided pursuant to subsection (c) shall be submitted
concurrently with the report and updates required by section
304 of this Act (relating to progress toward security and
stability in Afghanistan).''.
Page 71, line 24, strike ``who repatriate'' and insert ``to
ensure orderly and voluntary repatriation''.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I am offering this amendment on behalf of
my distinguished colleague, the ranking Republican member, and myself.
Our amendment makes a number of technical, clarifying and clerical
changes to several provisions in this bill as reported by the Committee
on Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Chairman, this amendment has been cleared by both the Republican
and Democratic sides, and I urge all of my colleagues to support it.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim time in opposition,
although I am not opposed to the amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for 5
minutes.
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise in support of and have no objection to this manager's
amendment, which contains minor technical and conforming changes. I
support this amendment's consideration by unanimous consent.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 2 Offered by Mr. Ackerman
The CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 2 printed
in House Report 110-174.
Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 2 offered by Mr. Ackerman:
Page 51, after line 7, insert the following new
subparagraph:
(J) An assessment of the quality of governance in each
province in Afghanistan, including an assessment of the
following:
(i) The implementation of the rule of law, including the
effects of any lack of such implementation on operations of
the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, and other
Afghan National Security Forces.
(ii) Whether and to what extent actions by Afghan National
Security Forces have led to abuses of human rights and the
extent to which such abuses, if any, undermine overall
counterinsurgency efforts in such province and Afghanistan as
a whole.
(iii) The ability of courts and the judicial system to
provide an effective justice system to support the civil-
military side of military and police operations.
Page 51, line 8, strike ``(J)'' and insert ``(K)''.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Ackerman) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
First, I want to congratulate Chairman Lantos and Ranking Member Ros-
Lehtinen for producing an excellent bipartisan bill. The Afghanistan
Freedom and Security Support Act demonstrates yet again the depth of
support in the Congress for our efforts in Afghanistan to defeat the
Taliban and al Qaeda and sends a clear message to the Government of
Afghanistan and the Afghan people that the United States is committed
to the success of a stable, free and democratic Afghanistan.
As the bill also points out, we remain far from that goal, and it is
not at all certain we will get there. The amendment I am offering today
concerns a problem that if left unaddressed could undercut all of our
efforts in Afghanistan, and that is the problem of corruption.
The Government Accountability Office in a recent report said the
reform effort in the judicial sector is being ``undermined by systemic
corruption at key national and provincial justice institutions.'' The
most recent report in Afghanistan from the U.N. Secretary General noted
that because corruption influences government appointments, Afghans
don't trust local government officials and have turned to making deals
with the Taliban for protection of their property. The same report goes
on to describe the popular alienation that many Afghans feel towards
local governments and asserts that this alienation is a key factor in
support for the insurgency.
My amendment adds language to section 302 of the bill to ensure that
the Presidential report required by that section includes an assessment
of the quality of governments in each province in Afghanistan, focusing
in particular on the implementation of the rule of law and its impact
on the operation of Afghan society, security forces and the impact of
any human rights abuses by Afghan government forces on overall
counterinsurgency efforts and the ability of the courts and judicial
system to provide an effective justice system in support of Afghan
military and police efforts.
Mr. Chairman, the question of corruption in Afghanistan may seem like
a small matter when compared with the resurgence of the Taliban and the
explosion of narcotics trafficking. But I believe for the Taliban to be
defeated and for the narcotics traffickers to be imprisoned, ordinary
Afghans must have confidence that their government actually works for
them. If the citizens of Afghanistan believe otherwise, then they will
turn to local warlords, drug traffickers and the Taliban for
protection. Under that scenario, Afghans can look forward to another
generation of civil conflict.
I would urge all of our colleagues to support the amendment as well
as the underlying bill.
Mr. LANTOS. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. ACKERMAN. I would be delighted to yield to the chairman.
Mr. LANTOS. I want to thank my friend from New York for his very
thoughtful amendment, and I am extremely pleased to support it.
Mr. ACKERMAN. I thank the gentleman from California.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the
amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, the amendment has a noble purpose, to
enhance congressional oversight on the status of local governance in
Afghanistan, including adherence to the rule of law, protection of
human rights and operation of an effective justice system.
Unfortunately, the amendment lacks specific criteria by which to
measure these issues. It requires the administration to report, for
example, on how the lack of implementation of the rule of law affects
the operations of the Afghan National Army, the police and security
forces. However, there are numerous factors that comprise the
[[Page 14712]]
rule of law. How would this provision measure implementation of the
rule of law?
Without a clear measure, how could any administration then state,
with any degree of certainty, what effects the absence of such
implementation had on the operations of Afghan security forces? It goes
on to ask for an assessment on the ability of the Afghan judicial
system to support the civil military side of military and police
operations.
Again, a noble purpose, but there are no clear definitions, no
guidelines to determine the information sought. Further, how could we
establish a clear measure so that the administration can state how the
actions of the Afghan security forces led to human rights abuses, and
in turn, how much those abuses undermine counterinsurgency efforts?
That is an extraordinary, complicated, causal chain, and some direction
and clarification within the amendment itself, Mr. Chairman, would have
been most useful.
We sought modifications to this amendment in an effort to arrive at
an agreement on the text because I do support what my colleague from
New York is trying to get at. We want to support the overarching goals
of this bill, and his amendment is an attempt to do that.
I will continue to work closely with the gentleman from New York
regarding his particular amendment to preserve its intent, to make sure
that it can be effective in its implementation, but as currently
drafted, I will have to oppose the amendment. I urge my colleagues to
do the same.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Chairman, despite the fact that this might be a
complicated and extraordinary and difficult thing for the President to
do, we have every confidence in the President on this side that he will
be able to come up at least with some criteria that he at least thinks
is objective and report in his own language, using his own complicated
or simplistic criteria, whether or not he thinks corruption is
prevalent in the various provinces in Afghanistan. We are leaving that
up to him. And we will fully understand that in any language that he
presents it to us, it will come from him, and that will be his
determination.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I urge our colleagues to defeat this
amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 11 Offered by Mr. Souder
The CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 11 printed
in House Report 110-174.
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 11 offered by Mr. Souder:
Page 39, line 1, insert ``, including force protection and
in extremis support'' after ``logistical support''.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Souder) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Chairman, it is my intention to withdraw this
amendment because of the strong opposition of Chairman Skelton and
Ranking Member Duncan Hunter, but I appreciate the Rules Committee
making this in order. I believe it is an important step.
I know I am going to rain a little bit on the general parade here. I
think this is an important bill, it is an important step, but we have
oversold the success of Afghanistan. Before my first trip, I knew then
that our then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, wanted to separate
the military effort in Afghanistan from other challenges the country
faced, just like in Iraq.
In Afghanistan, the question was heroin. On my first trip there, I
heard our own soldiers reflect the Pentagon attitude by mocking heroin
and minimizing its efforts to get rid of it. I attended the briefings
back here in Washington as the heroin problem began to pass anything
we've ever seen under the Taliban by a factor of four to five times of
anything we have ever seen under the Taliban. I asked the question,
since we had not removed the regional drug lords from office, how many
of the people who voted in that much heralded election could vote
against their local drug lords.
State Department, Defense Department, DIA and CIA disagreed on the
exact number. The highest was 30 percent, the lowest 20 percent. In
other words, 70 to 80 percent of the people who voted in that election
did not have a free vote because we did not remove the regional
druglords from office, and we let the heroin poppy grow without
controlling their sources of financing that had penetrated the early
parts of the government.
This government has, in fact, started to act, as they attempted to
assassinate President Karzai, who was clean, and he removed gradually
some members of his cabinet. But by that time, the heroin, once again,
four times world record, five times world record, four times world
record, three times world record, approaching eight to 10 times the
total cumulative effect that ever happened before the United States
went into Afghanistan. We had sites that we could not hit because we
were afraid they were going to shoot down our own planes.
What do we think they are buying the new IEDs with? What do we think
they are buying the other equipment with? Of course they are getting it
from profits from poppy.
I did a hearing in our subcommittee, because the British had this
effort, ``Afghanistan: Have the British Counter-Narcotics Efforts Gone
Wildly?'' On April 1, 2004. This is no new problem. Go arrest the
druglords. Our military is afraid they are going to get exploded. How
can you go arrest the drug lords?
My amendment was simply to say the military needs to support the
antinarcotics efforts and the DEA to take down these. You can't send
10, 25 agents out and say go arrest and take down the Helman province.
When I went with Congressman Hoekstra and Congressman Ruppersberger and
Congressman Shadegg, the four of us went into the Helman province,
possibly the only four Members that will ever get there. And when we
got there in a Blackhawk ride for 45 minutes, heroin as far as the eye
can see going at a high rate of speed. Dwarfed Columbia. This is an
incredible problem. The military needs to engage.
I agree with Chairman Skelton; we don't have enough troops in
Afghanistan. And that makes it a problematic thing of how to support
the DEA.
{time} 1545
This bill is a first step. But we need the military engagement and
support, because you cannot get order, you cannot do alternative crops
unless you eradicate the heroin and change a little bit of the market
force. We can't subsidize the difference between other products and
heroin. It is not possible.
We can't do those efforts, and INL and the State Department and DEA
and the other agencies cannot do this without military support. This
needs to be addressed in the defense bill. It needs to be addressed
here in conference.
I hope that the chairman here can do it. I hope Chairman Skelton can
do it. I hope the administration can do it. But let's understand there
is no terrorism funding in Afghanistan. There is no insurgency efforts.
There is no corrupt government if you get rid of the heroin.
This is a difficult problem. It is multi-faceted. But you need real
protection, with real guns, with real transport, with real time, saying
that they are going to give logistical support rather than force
protection and extremist support, means and effect. For most of the
time, the DEA agents are on their own, go in. With 10,000 Taliban, good
luck in taking them
[[Page 14713]]
down. They need more than good luck. They need some help.
Mr. Chairman, I yield to the chairman of the Foreign Affairs
Committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos).
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend from Indiana for
yielding, and I want to thank him for working with the committee. I
understand the gentleman is going to withdraw his amendment, and I
thank him for his courtesy.
I fully support his sentiment that is behind his amendment, and I
will work with him on this issue as H.R. 2446 goes through the
legislative process.
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished chairman for his
leadership for the start of this bill. I hope we can really tackle the
underlying problems.
Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from
Indiana?
There was no objection.
Amendment No. 3 Offered by Mr. Costa
The CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 3 printed
in House Report 110-174.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 3 offered by Mr. Costa:
Page 29, after line 23, insert the following new section
(and redesignate subsequent sections and conform the table of
contents accordingly):
SEC. 106. ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT THE OFFICES OF THE INSPECTOR
GENERAL OF DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND THE UNITED
STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN
AFGHANISTAN.
(a) Assistance Authorized.--The President shall provide
assistance to support the auditing, investigation, and
oversight capacity and capability of the Offices of the
Inspector General of the Department of State and the United
States Agency for International Development in Afghanistan.
The Offices of the Inspector General of the Department of
State and the United States Agency for International
Development are authorized to audit, investigate, and oversee
the programs authorized in title I of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (as amended by this title).
(b) Requirement for In-Country Presence.--The Offices of
the Inspector General of the Department of State and the
United States Agency for International Development, after
consultation with the Secretary of State and the
Administrator for the United States Agency for International
Development, shall permanently deploy not less than two staff
from each of the Offices of the Inspector General in
Afghanistan to carry out this section.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) Availability of funds.--Of the amounts authorized to be
appropriated under section 110 of the Afghanistan Freedom
Support Act of 2002 (as redesignated by this title) for each
of the fiscal years 2008 through 2010, not less than
$1,500,000 for each such fiscal year is authorized to be made
available to the Office of the Inspector General of the
Department of State and not less than $3,000,000 for each
such fiscal year is authorized to be made available to the
Office of the Inspector General of the United States Agency
for International Development to carry out this section.
(2) Relation to other available funds.--Amounts made
available under paragraph (1) are in addition to amounts
otherwise available for such purposes.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I think from many of the comments that have been made
here this afternoon regarding the concerns that we have as it relates
to the situation in Afghanistan, we come with the best of intentions to
support H.R. 2446, which is the underlying bill, a strong bill; and I
am, of course, among those who support this measure.
It affirms the United States' long-term commitment to support
Afghanistan in the transition that has seen 30 years of civil war,
violence and occupation by a brutal regime to a stable and prosperous
democratic state at peace with its neighbors.
Having said that, though, it is easier said than done, as we all
know, for Afghanistan faces many challenges. With the amount of funding
that we have provided to the Afghani people for economic and security
reasons, I believe that there is increased need to have the sort of
oversight mechanisms in place to protect this investment, to ensure its
success and, of course, to always make sure that American taxpayers'
dollars are well spent.
My amendment provides this opportunity in two ways: It provides
oversight that includes the Office of Inspector General at the State
Department as well as the United States Agency for International
Development to provide the necessary oversight within this bill that
many of us believe is necessary.
The amendment to H.R. 2446 provides such support in two ways: in-
country presence and funding. Without in-country presence and without
the necessary funding, it won't happen.
Currently, the staff of the Office of Inspector General of the United
States AID are performing their duties in Manila. Now, you take out a
map and Manila is a long ways from Kabul in Afghanistan, which is the
capital. We need to have on-the-ground knowledge in Afghanistan and
programs that they are implementing, and they cannot perform those
duties from Manila, which is thousands of and thousands of miles away.
Many of us have visited Afghanistan, and we have on-the-ground
knowledge of what is critical to this war on terrorism. We must
remember this is where the war on terrorism began, which premeditated
the attacks on 9/11.
The amendment mandates that at least two staff members will be
permanently deployed in Afghanistan in the country. The amendment also
increases the funding for both the Offices of Inspector General in
accordance with their own plans to increase staffing over the coming
years. The Offices of the Inspector General are our watchdog, and they
provide vital efforts to ensure that money is well spent in
Afghanistan. We need to ensure that these American taxpayer dollars are
spent wisely and that waste and corruption, which was mentioned by the
previous speaker, is kept at bay, to the degree that it is possible.
In conclusion, let me say, Mr. Chairman, that we had tremendous
success in South Korea, but we have been there over 50 years and we
still have 30,000 troops there. The initial two decades in South Korea
will be, in my opinion, as difficult as it is today in Afghanistan.
Therefore, we must be prepared to put the proper resources there and to
stay the course. I strongly support this bill.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. COSTA. I yield to the chairman.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend for his extremely
thoughtful and very necessary amendment, and I am very pleased to
support it strongly.
With billions of dollars being poured into reconstruction and
development assistance, justifiably so, we have a heavy responsibility
to the American people to ensure that our taxpayer dollars are being
spent in the manner in which they were intended.
As the gentleman knows, we just had a hearing with the Inspector
General for Afghanistan which was singularly instructive and
illuminating and highlighted many of the problems in the spending of
our tax dollars in Afghanistan. This function is the function of the
Inspectors General at the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for
International Development.
Your amendment requires that these officers be permanently deployed
in Afghanistan, which they are not currently, so that on-the-ground
assessments can be made in real time and with full continuity. Your
amendment authorizes additional funds to help ensure that adequate
resources are allocated to measure the effectiveness of our aid program
without increasing the cost of this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I strongly support this amendment and urge all of my
colleagues to do so as well.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim time in opposition,
although I am not opposed to the amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for 5
minutes.
[[Page 14714]]
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Chairman, this amendment both authorizes and requires oversight
by the Inspectors General from the State Department and the U.S. Agency
for International Development, and it does this in two main ways.
First, it requires the permanent deployment in Afghanistan of at
least four IG staffers, two each from State and USAID, to audit, to
investigate and to oversee economic and developmental assistance
provided in Title I of the Act.
Secondly, it also earmarks a total of $4.5 million per year for these
IG activities.
We all share the goal of ensuring that our investment in
Afghanistan's economic and democratic development is not squandered.
Fiscal accountability is always in order, Mr. Chairman. As a proportion
of the total amounts in the Act, the amount earmarked by this amendment
is roughly in the ballpark of the amount that USAID usually spends on
IG activities as compared to its total budget. Furthermore, the
activities contemplated by this amendment are in keeping with the
current responsibilities of the State and USAID Inspectors General.
Solid plans that help maximize the impact of the strategy embodied in
the underlying bill are to be welcomed. In this spirit, I am pleased to
support this well-thought-out amendment by the gentleman from
California; and I also urge my colleagues to support it as well.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I yield to the gentleman from California.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the gentlewoman, the
ranking member, and the chairman of the Committee on International
Relations for their good work on this legislation and for their
bipartisan effort to provide leadership in our committee and in all the
hearings that we are holding and in the legislation that we are
participating in.
The bipartisan spirit which I think surrounds the committee these
days is welcomed and is truly a tribute to the chairman and the ranking
member.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, I would also like
to thank Chairman Lantos as well as his staff for having such a
wonderful, cooperative spirit and for the working relationship between
staff and Members.
I thank the gentleman from California for offering this amendment,
because it gets at the heart of what we want to do: fiscal
accountability; making sure that our tax dollars are being used in the
wisest way, free of corruption, and making sure that we have folks on
the ground to look at those dollars. We have our precious treasure, our
men and women in uniform, shedding blood for freedom. Let's make sure
that American taxpayer dollars are being used in the correct way as
well.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Costa).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 4 Offered by Mr. Franks of Arizona
The CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 4 printed
in House Report 110-174.
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 4 offered by Mr. Franks of Arizona:
Page 44, after line 5, insert the following new section
(and conform the table of contents accordingly):
SEC. 2_. REPORT ON THE SALE AND USE OF IRANIAN-MADE WEAPONS
FOR THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN.
(a) Congressional Finding.--United States Armed Forces in
Afghanistan recently intercepted a shipment of Iranian-made
weapons and explosives intended for the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
(b) Report Required.--Not later than 90 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, and every 6 months thereafter,
the Secretary of Defense shall transmit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report on the current Iranian-made
weapons being sold to or used by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The report shall include any evidence of official Iranian
Government endorsement of the sale of the Iranian-made
weapons.
(c) Definition.--In this section, the term ``appropriate
congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Foreign Relations of the Senate.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman from
Arizona (Mr. Franks) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Chairman, according to Secretary of Defense Gates, Iranian
weapons have begun to flow into Afghanistan in recent months. We know
this much for certain. What we do not know is if indeed this is an
official sanction of the Iranian government.
However, some in the intelligence community believe that this effort
is on the part of a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which
are responsible for shipping these deadly weapons to the Taliban. If
this is true, Mr. Chairman, the implications must be realized by this
Congress, because it means that Shiite Iran is disregarding sectarian
differences with Sunni Taliban in order to unite with them in an effort
to undermine U.S. efforts for peace in the nascent democratic
Afghanistan.
Mr. Chairman, this means that the nation of Iran is determined to
back non-state Muslim militants to terrorize countries who desire
peace, tolerance and stability. We saw them do this last year in
Lebanon through their proxy Hezbollah against the nation of Israel. We
now see this happening in Iraq as well.
There are two major elements, Mr. Chairman, when we consider the
danger of an enemy to this Nation. We first have to assess their
intention or the will of an enemy to harm the U.S. or our allies. It is
clear that the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah and groups like them hate
governments like ours that uphold the rule of law and uphold the effort
to protect freedom of action, thought and religion. They hate the
United States because of this, Mr. Chairman. They hate a tolerant
Europe, they hate the new democratic Afghanistan, they hate pluralistic
Israel and they hate Lebanon. They have an insidious and determined
will to tyrannize. They need only the means or the capacity to bring
that hate to fruition.
Mr. Chairman, this is the second element. A true threat exists to
this Nation's freedom when those who are committed to tyranny and to
disrupt peace are met with the means and the capacity to do so. Iran is
providing the means to non-state terrorist actors who possess the will
to use them.
{time} 1600
We must not let this continue. My amendment requires that the
Secretary of Defense provide Congress with a semiannual report that
informs us of the Iranian-made weapons being provided to the Taliban,
and any evidence that the sale is endorsed by the government of Iran.
Mr. Chairman, it is vital that this body understands the intention of
Iran because they may some day very soon possess a very frightening
capacity that threatens the potential future of the world and the peace
of free people across the world.
I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.
I would now like to yield to the distinguished ranking member of the
committee, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I rise in strong support of the Franks amendment. Since last April,
two arms shipment from Iran, including mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades, C-4 explosives and small arms have reportedly
[[Page 14715]]
been intercepted by U.S. and coalition troops.
Further, a NATO spokesman recently stated that an explosively formed
projectile, EFP, which resembled the EFPs bearing Iranian manufacturing
markings that have been found in Iraq, have been recently discovered in
Kabul. This directly affects the safety and security of our men and
women serving in Afghanistan. As I pointed out previously, my daughter-
in-law is one of those wearing our Nation's uniform serving in
Afghanistan. We want to make sure that we protect everyone in that
country.
These disturbing developments may indicate that the Iranian regime
has decided to also undermine the government of Afghanistan and U.S.
efforts to deny Islamic militants a safe haven in Afghanistan.
While fighting in Afghanistan has thus far been concentrated near the
Pakistani border, increased Iranian interference in Afghanistan may
indicate an attempt to provoke the U.S. and our coalition partners into
opening a second front. Iran's apparently increasing involvement in
this central front of the global war against radical jihadists reflects
the goal of the regime of pursuing regional dominance, spreading
radical Islam, and counteracting western influence in the region. Such
a goal is intolerable. As in Iraq, failure in Afghanistan is not an
option.
Mr. Chairman, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act works
to bolster our efforts, and I support the Franks amendment.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time
in opposition to the amendment, although I am not opposed to the
amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN (Mr. Pomeroy). Without objection, the gentleman
from California is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, the Committee on Foreign Affairs has long
been concerned with events in Iran, including recent media reports of
weapons crossing into Afghanistan from Iran destined for the Taliban.
This can create the potential for Iran to contribute to the
destabilization of Afghanistan, which we simply cannot allow. Congress
must have up-to-date information on Iran's influence in Afghanistan.
And I, therefore, welcome the gentleman's amendment in this regard, and
we are prepared to accept the gentleman's amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 5 Offered by Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 5
printed in House Report 110-174.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 5 offered by Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas:
Page 25, line 20, strike ``and''.
Page 25, line 24, strike the first period, the closing
quotation marks, and the second period and insert ``; and''.
Page 25, after line 24, insert the following new
subparagraph:
``(I) providing technical assistance to train provincial
and local governmental personnel, especially as it relates
to--
``(i) healthcare;
``(ii) political participation;
``(iii) human rights, particularly as pertaining to women;
and
``(iv) education, particularly to encourage girls to
complete secondary education so they are prepared and able to
attend post-secondary schools.''.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) and a Member opposed each will
control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I
may consume, and I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their
leadership on this issue.
Earlier in the debate I mentioned the concept of building blocks of
democracy. Frankly, I believe this amendment speaks to the building of
capacity to ensure that democracy.
Having first started my elective political career in local
government, I know that many times we say that is where the rubber hits
the road.
The effort of my amendment is to ensure that those who are involved
in local and State government would have the ability to build capacity
through technical assistance that will train national, provincial and
local government personnel for capacity-building purposes.
In order to govern, you must have information, information on
education, health care, human rights, and political participation. This
legislation globally speaks to those issues in a large manner.
I would like to technically emphasize the one-on-one training and
influence and information to those who have to govern. The more we can
do that, the more we can build capacity. And the more of those who are
in the leadership positions can establish confidence so that when they
confront the emerging terror of the Taliban or the questioning face of
a chieftain, they can have the response that this is, in fact, good
government.
My amendment also goes to encourage girls in Afghanistan to finish
secondary school. We realize this bill has a very strong focus on women
and girls, but there has to be the added measure of incentive, not only
to the earlier grades, but to say to a young woman that by finishing
secondary school, you can go on to post-secondary education, building
the blocks of democracy which would include women who would be enabled
to be doctors, lawyers, scientists and teachers, building a society in
Afghanistan that will need not only men but also women.
May I close by simply saying I point to a picture that points to this
learning board that I mentioned earlier. These are the kinds of tools
that would give young people and those without, if you will, various
equipment to go to school the opportunity to do so. I ask my colleagues
to support this amendment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to explain my amendment to
H.R. 2446, the ``Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of
2007.'' I believe this is an extremely important piece of legislation,
and I commend the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr.
Lantos, for introducing it.
In the nearly 5 years since the 9/11 attacks, and the subsequent
ouster of the Taliban and al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, we have made
significant efforts to secure the nation from the Taliban. But we must
do more; otherwise, a resurgent Taliban will continue to pose a very
real threat to Afghanistan's stability.
This bill is an important step toward a more secure Afghanistan, and,
ultimately, a more stable region. It authorizes $1.7 billion in each of
fiscal years 2008 through 2010 for economic and development assistance
and provides additional support for other capacity building programs,
such as assistance to women and girls ($45 million per annum), energy
development and counter-narcotics ($75 million per annum).
Additionally, the bill authorizes funding for counter-narcotics efforts
and programs to increase the capacity of Afghan national, provincial,
and local governments, and additional development programs.
In addition to authorizing assistance to address the continuing
humanitarian needs, this legislation targets the ongoing opium trade,
as well as persistent problems of corruption. The bill links these
various sectors of policy together, integrating security,
reconstruction, and development concerns with counter-narcotics and
anti-corruption policies.
My amendment simply states that technical assistance should be
provided to train national, provincial, and local governmental
personnel for capacity-building purposes. In particular, this amendment
emphasizes the need to build local capacity in the critical fields of
education, healthcare, human rights, and political participation. My
amendment will also encourage girls in Afghanistan to finish secondary
school, providing them with the ability to pursue post-secondary
education.
Mr. Chairman, this amendment is born from my strong belief that we
must take a long-term view toward reconstruction in Afghanistan,
[[Page 14716]]
and, in doing so, we must develop the capacity of Afghanistan's
citizens. Under the Taliban regime, education, healthcare, human and
women's rights, and political participation were seriously stunted by
the government's oppressive policies. These sectors are absolutely
crucial to the long-term stability and sustainability of Afghanistan.
My amendment specifically speaks to the need to combat the lingering
societal barriers that may discourage girls from completing secondary
education. According to UNICEF's 2005 estimates, 1 million primary
school age girls in Afghanistan were not enrolled in school, and
education of girls continues to be undervalued in many communities.
Girls and women were horribly oppressed under the Taliban, and we
must take particular care to ensure that the lack of opportunities
afforded to females under the previous leadership is not carried over
into the current government. Encouraging girls to complete their
education would be extremely beneficial for both the women and girls
themselves, and for Afghan society as a whole.
Mr. Chairman, we have recognized the shortcomings of Afghanistan's
infrastructure. Even as we express our commitment to continuing our
programs in Afghanistan, we must look forward to the day we will
ultimately leave that country to stand on its own. We must do
everything we can to ensure that, sooner rather than later, Afghanistan
will no longer need our ongoing assistance.
My amendment represents an important step toward that ultimate goal,
while at the same time serving our short-term goals and increasing the
effectiveness of the humanitarian programs outlined by this
legislation.
To conclude, let me thank Chairman Lantos for his leadership on this
issue. I am confident that we can work together to craft legislation
designed to ensure that Afghanistan can recover from the excesses and
abuses of previous regimes, and become an active and prosperous member
of the international community. I urge my colleagues to support this
amendment.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I yield to the gentleman from California.
Mr. LANTOS. I want to thank my friend from Texas for her thoughtful
amendment, and I am very pleased to support it.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in
opposition, although I am not opposed to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentlewoman from Florida
is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the
amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee)
stating that technical assistance should be provided to train national,
provincial and local government personnel for capacity-building
purposes as it relates to education, health care, human rights, and
particularly in respect to women and political participation.
As we have heard this afternoon, Mr. Chairman, under the Taliban's
brutal regime, their blatant disregard for the lives and the well-being
of the Afghan people, was perhaps most clearly evident among half of
their population, the women of Afghanistan. They have been made
destitute, sick and marginalized. They were banned from receiving any
education past the age of 8. They were denied proper medical treatment,
and they were not allowed to work.
Today, the Afghan people are free with women enjoying the freedoms
and opportunities previously denied to them under the Taliban. In order
for our efforts in Afghanistan to be effective, it is critical that we
continue to provide the Afghan people with the tools and the training
necessary for the development and sustainability of educational
institutions, protection of human rights, and implementation of
political reforms.
It is imperative that our efforts focus on educating and training the
officials of the Afghan government at the local level as local
officials have a better understanding of the needs of their citizens
and will be better prepared to address those needs.
This amendment also seeks to ensure that girls complete secondary
education so they will be better suited to pursue their post-secondary
education. Without proper education of its women and a society more
open to women who holding jobs, Afghanistan's political and economic
development is doomed to failure.
Providing Afghan girls with proper education will give rise to a new
generation of confident and educated women with skills to pursue
careers that will open unprecedented opportunities for them and enhance
Afghanistan's economic sector. I urge my colleagues to support the
Jackson-Lee amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlelady for
her support, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 6 Offered by Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 6
printed in House Report 110-174.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 6 offered by Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas:
Page 35, after line 22, insert the following new
subsection:
(c) Additional Sense of Congress.--Such section is further
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(d) Additional Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of
Congress that assistance provided to eligible foreign
countries and international organizations under subsection
(a) should be used in part to protect women legislators when
they return to the provinces that they represent in
Afghanistan.''.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) and a Member opposed each will
control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I want to join Chairman Lantos in applauding this legislation as
being bipartisan, and all of us seemingly speaking from the same
songbook about the need to build these blocks of democracy, but also to
enhance the opportunities for women.
Might I just cite as a need for my amendment a report from the BBC
that says an international women's rights group says guarantees given
to Afghan women after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 have not
translated into real change.
Another quote from an Afghan woman: ``When I am at home, sometimes I
feel as though someone is choking me.'' And 57 percent of girls are
married before the legal age of 16.
We know that we have made great strides, but there is much more for
us to do. Former example, a controversial Afghan politician and former
member of parliament, Jalalai Joya, reported in May 2006 that she was
forced to sleep in a different house every night as a result of the
numerous death threats they have received. She has been quoted as
saying ``women still live under the shadow of the gun. Women are still
victims of violence.'' Joya was subsequently ousted from parliament
after she continuously voiced controversial criticisms of her fellow,
mostly male, lawmakers.
Raazia Baloch was presented with a broken Kalashnikov firearm upon
her election to the provincial assembly, which local authorities told
her was for her protection. Ms. Baloch serves a particularly volatile
province where, short after her election, an unknown gunman emptied his
AK-47 into a van leaving the province's women's ministry.
The unfortunate truth is if these women are going to serve, they are
going to need our special attention. And I do believe in the
relationship that the United States has with Afghanistan. The
leadership of President Karzai, speaking to him directly, I
[[Page 14717]]
know he has a great concern for the viability of women elected
officials. In fact, might I say that in a direct, one-on-one
conversation with any number of Afghan women parliamentarians during my
visit to Afghanistan, talking to them face to face, eye to eye, sister
to sister, if you will, they made it very clear when they do their work
in the capital, and they have to go home to their district, just like
any one of us, they fear for their lives. They are concerned about
being able to fully represent their constituents by going home and
coming back safely.
Might I just quote additionally, a female owner of a radio station
was shot seven times while she slept at home with her 20-month-old son.
She is the second female journalist to be murdered in Afghanistan in
the past week.
So my amendment is very clear, and it is very straight. It allows us
through this legislation to make a very pronounced statement, and that
statement is that it is the sense of this Congress that assistance
provided to foreign countries and international organizations under
this provision should be used in part to protect these female
legislators. I hope this is part of helping us help them build
democracy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing me to explain my amendment to
H.R. 2446, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of 2007. I
believe this is an extremely important piece of legislation, and I
commend the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lantos,
for introducing it. In the nearly 5 years since the 9/11 attacks, and
the subsequent ouster of the Taliban and al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, we
have made significant efforts to secure the nation from the Taliban;
however, the Taliban continues to pose a very real threat to
Afghanistan's stability.
This bill is an important step towards a more secure Afghanistan, and
ultimately, a more stable region. It authorizes $1.7 billion in each of
fiscal years 2008 through 2010 for economic and development assistance
and provides additional support for other capacity building programs,
such as assistance to women and girls, $45 million per annum, energy
development and counter narcotics, $75 million per annum. Additionally,
the bill authorizes funding for counter-narcotics efforts and programs
to increase the capacity of Afghan national, provincial, and local
governments, and additional development programs.
In addition to authorizing assistance to address the continuing
humanitarian needs, this legislation targets the ongoing opium trade,
as well as persistent problems of corruption. The bill links these
various sectors of policy together, integrating security,
reconstruction, and development concerns with counter-narcotics and
anti-corruption policies.
My amendment addresses the very serious issue of persecution of women
legislators in Afghanistan. All women, but particularly those who
demonstrate the courage to become national leaders, continue to face
intimidation and violence. If we are to encourage political and civic
participation among women, which I strongly advocate, we must ensure
that those who bravely venture into the political arena are protected
when they return home to the districts they represent.
After many years of oppressive Taliban control, women in Afghanistan
are now beginning to emerge from the shadows. For the first time in
recent memory, they now have the opportunity to take an active role in
their country's political destiny. As a female legislator myself, I
believe that women should be strongly encouraged to become national
leaders; I believe their involvement is extremely beneficial to the
nation.
And yet, these women face specific dangers as a result of their
gender. They may be exposed to vile threats and even physical violence.
For example, controversial Afghan politician and former Member of
Parliament Malalai Joya reported in May 2006 that she was forced to
sleep in a different house every night as a result of the numerous
death threats she received. She has been quoted as saying ``women still
live under the shadow of the gun. * * * women are still victims of
violence.'' Joya was subsequently ousted from parliament after she
continuously voiced controversial criticisms of her fellow, mostly
male, law-makers.
In 2006, another legislator, Raazia Baloch, was presented with a
broken Kalashnikov firearm upon her election to the provincial
assembly, which local authorities told her was for her protection. Ms.
Baloch serves a particularly volatile province, where, shortly after
her election, an unknown gunman emptied his AK-47 into a van leaving
the province's women's ministry.
The unfortunate truth is that women's rights are not yet enshrined in
Afghanistan. Women who venture into other leadership roles are
threatened as well. Only this morning, Zakia Zaki, the female owner of
an Afghan radio station, was shot seven times while she slept at home
with her 20 month-old son. She is the second female journalist to be
murdered in Afghanistan in the past week.
This further illustrates the unfortunate truth: Women continue to
face persecution and abuses, despite the fall of the Taliban. Until we
have reached a point where the basic rights of women are protected by
Afghanistan's government and cultural and social institutions, I
believe that we need to make every effort to ensure that basic rights
are respected.
I believe my amendment is absolutely crucial. With residual societal
barriers against women and girls persisting even under the new
government, I believe we must make every effort to protect women
legislators from the persecution and violence they may face in their
local communities.
[From the BBC News, Oct. 31, 2006]
No ``Real Change'' for Afghan Women
(By Pam O'Toole)
An international women's rights group says guarantees given
to Afghan women after the fall of the Taleban in 2001 have
not translated into real change.
Womankind Worldwide says millions of Afghan women and girls
continue to face systematic discrimination and violence in
their households and communities.
The report admits that there have been some legal, civil
and constitutional gains for Afghan women.
But serious challenges remain and need to be addressed
urgently, it states.
These include challenges to women's safety, realisation of
civil and political rights and status.
Womankind Worldwide sent a film crew to Afghanistan to
investigate the situation of women there.
They found a young Afghan woman crying in hospital who said
she wanted to die. She was recovering after setting fire to
herself.
Womankind Worldwide says there has been a dramatic rise in
cases of self-immolation by Afghan women since 2003.
It believes many are the result of forced marriages,
thought to account for about 60% to 80% of all Afghan
marriages.
57% of girls are married before the legal marriage age of
16.
Domestic violence remains widespread.
At an Afghan women's shelter, a young woman told the film
crew that she came to the shelter to target life's troubles.
``I come here so I can ease the pain a little. When I am at
home sometimes I feel as though someone is choking me,'' she
told the film crew.
Womankind Worldwide says the Afghan authorities rarely
investigate women's complaints of violent attacks.
Women reporting rape run the risk of being imprisoned for
having sexual intercourse outside marriage.
Although women now hold more than 25% of the seats in the
Afghan parliament, female politicians and activists often
face intimidation or even violence.
``Women who are standing up to defend women's rights are
not being protected,'' says Brita Fernandes Schmidt of
Womankind Worldwide.
``My message, really, to the international community is:
you need to address specific security issues for women,'' she
says.
``Women's rights activists are getting killed, women's NGO
workers are getting killed, and that is not going to change
unless some drastic action is taken,'' Ms Fernandes
continues.
Womankind Worldwide says the international community needs
to fulfil promises made after the fall of the Taleban to help
protect Afghan women.
It says the international community should give women a
greater voice in setting the aid and reconstruction agenda.
Until basic rights are granted to Afghan women in practice
as well as on paper, the report says, it could not be said
that the status of Afghan women had changed significantly in
the past five years.
I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos).
{time} 1615
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend from Texas for
offering another needed, thoughtful and carefully crafted amendment;
and I'm very pleased to support it.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the distinguished gentleman.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim time in opposition,
although I am not opposed to this amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentlewoman from Florida
is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment
offered by our distinguished colleague
[[Page 14718]]
from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) supporting efforts to bolster women's
political participation by protecting female legislators when they
return to the provinces they represent.
This important amendment includes a sense of Congress stating that
assistance provided to foreign countries and international
organizations under this provision should be used in part to protect
these female legislators.
It is no secret that Afghan women were brutalized under the Taliban
rule. They were frequently beaten, raped, kidnapped and killed. They
had no access to education nor health care and were routinely singled
out for abuse simply because they were women. They lived in nightmarish
conditions that few of us could even imagine.
Five years after the fall of the Taliban, the women of Afghanistan
are making substantial progress in reclaiming their rightful place in
society. They are working as doctors, lawyers, teachers, civil servants
and in numerous other professions.
These women have overcome unimaginable obstacles, and they deserve
our ongoing support as they work to build a new democracy. We must
continue to work to ensure that they are not threatened, nor
intimidated nor physically harmed by those who seek to bring
Afghanistan back to the oppressive and brutal times experienced under
the Taliban regime.
As part of the work that my daughter-in-law does in her military
service in Afghanistan, Lindsay encounters many Afghan women and is
impressed with the great progress they have made in such a brief time.
Let us not go back in time.
Women legislators in Afghanistan are currently targets of attacks
perpetrated by Islamic militant extremists. We must enhance the efforts
in providing a safe and secure environment for these women to allow
them to pursue their legislative duties and encourage future
generations of women to seek leadership positions in Afghan society.
I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the remainder of our time.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I thank the ranking member for her support and eloquent words on this
issue and as well the chairman of the committee for his support.
Let me conclude by simply reading the headline of an article: Female
Afghan and Pakistani Politicians Forced from Office. This is as late as
Wednesday, May 23, 2007.
Let me thank my colleagues. I believe my amendment will further
enhance our goals, and that is to provide opportunities for all of
those in public life, including women in Afghanistan seeking to build
the building blocks of democracy, and I ask my colleagues to support my
amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 7 Offered by Mr. Kirk
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 7
printed in House Report 110-174.
Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 7 offered by Mr. Kirk:
At the end of title III of the bill (relating to
miscellaneous provisions), insert the following new section:
SEC. 3_. ELIGIBILITY IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES FOR AGENCIES OF
THE GOVERNMENTS OF AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN TO
RECEIVE A REWARD UNDER THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE
REWARDS PROGRAM.
(a) Eligibility.--Subsection (f) of section 36 of the State
Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708(f))
is amended--
(1) by striking ``(f) Ineligibility.--An officer'' and
inserting the following:
``(f) Ineligibility.--
``(1) In general.--An officer'';
(2) in paragraph (1), as so designated by paragraph (1) of
this subsection, by inserting ``, except as provided in
paragraph (2),'' before ``of a foreign government''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(2) Exception in certain circumstances.--The Secretary
may pay a reward to an officer or employee of the government
of Afghanistan or Pakistan (or any entity thereof) who, while
in the performance of his or her official duties, furnishes
information described in such subsection, if the Secretary
determines that such payment satisfies the following
conditions:
``(A) Such payment is appropriate in light of the
exceptional or high-profile nature of the information
furnished pursuant to such subsection and such information
relates in any way to the commission of an act in
Afghanistan.
``(B) Such payment may aid in furnishing further
information described in such subsection.
``(C) Such payment is formally requested by such agency.''.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--Subsection (b) of such section
(22 U.S.C. 2708(b)) is amended in the matter preceding
paragraph (1) by inserting ``or to any officer or employee of
a foreign government in accordance with subsection (f)(2)''
after ``individual''.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman
from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
Mr. KIRK. I thank the Chairman.
I also want to thank my partners in this effort, Chairman Lantos and
Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen, because their support for this amendment
was critical.
Mr. Chairman, one of the most successful counter-terror programs run
by the United States is not managed by the Defense Department or the
CIA. It is the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program run by
Mrs. Rachel Schindel-Gombis.
By offering rewards, we have brought a number of criminals to justice
who killed Americans both here and abroad. One of our proudest
successes was the program's production of matchbook covers, like this
one here. Tipped off by a face and a telephone number on a matchbook, a
Pakistani citizen provided a key tip for the arrest of Mir Amal Kansi,
the man who murdered two Americans outside the CIA's gate here in
Virginia. Thanks to this program, Kansi was arrested, extradited,
convicted and executed for the cold-blooded murders he committed, as
was the famous al Qaeda terrorist Ramsi Yousef.
As a congressional staff member, I drafted the amendments to this
program that first opened this up to the arrest of United Nations war
criminals, specifically people indicted for war crimes by the tribunals
for Rwanda and Yugoslavia. The program has helped bring dozens of mass
murderers to justice, fulfilling some of the highest and best ideals of
the United States when we promised ``never again'' after liberating the
Nazi death camps.
As a Member of Congress, I coauthored the legislation for this
program that allowed varied rewards and mass media campaigns. I took
action on this after conducting missions on the Afghan-Pakistan border
where I learned that tribesmen in that region would not respond as
strongly to a $100,000 cash award but would respond more strongly to an
offer of say one kilo of gold or a new motorcycle.
Using this new authority, the State Department launched an
unprecedented multilingual campaign that yielded dozens of new
contracts for the arrest of senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
One target stands above all, and that is the arrest of Osama bin
Laden for the murder of 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. By many
accounts, bin Laden and the core leadership of al Qaeda and the Taliban
are hiding in the frontier autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan or in
the border provinces of Afghanistan. The Rewards for Justice Program
has helped to arrest several senior Taliban and al Qaeda leaders but
not bin Laden or his number two, Ayman Al Zawahiri.
The amendment before us builds on the extensive legislative tradition
of this program, bipartisan, effective and flexible, to make it more
likely that the world's most wanted men pay for the murder of thousands
of Americans.
In this amendment, we authorize the State Department to pay rewards
to anyone in Afghanistan or Pakistan, including government employees,
if the
[[Page 14719]]
information leads to the arrest of ``exceptionally high-profile''
targets.
Mr. Chairman, the support for Osama bin Laden, like this poster here
which went out in English as well as many in Urdu and Dari, remains
high. For us, we need to rely on sometimes the only assets we have in
this region which are government employees in the service of
Afghanistan or Pakistan; and if they can provide the information that
leads to the arrest of Osama bin Laden or Ayman Al Zawahiri, then we
should gladly pay for this justice.
Mr. Chairman, I have discussed this amendment with senior officials
in the White House who expressed their support. I will note the receipt
of talking points from the State Department bureaucracy received this
morning that expressed concerns, and my reaction is that the officials
who authored these points may work for someone, but they do not serve
the American people. Their points are poorly written and disconnected
and reflect strongly on a disappointing State Department tradition of
sometimes serving an obscure academic point but not America's citizens
or their future security.
If we can arrest bin Laden, we should. If reward money helps to lead
to his arrest, we should pay it. This program should be run in the most
flexible and effective manner possible so that the greatest mass
murderers in American history should meet their final justice.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. KIRK. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida, one of my partners
on this.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment
offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).
The search and the long hunt for Osama bin Laden and other major
radical Islamic terrorists we want brought to justice in the
Afghanistan-Pakistan region requires new ideas and new tools for law
enforcement and those who are involved in this initiative. Mr. Kirk's
amendment represents such an initiative, by improving our terrorist
rewards program to reflect the reality of what we face on the ground.
Our terrorist rewards program has been a valuable and successful
tool, and I urge my colleagues to adopt the Kirk amendment.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time
in opposition to the amendment, although I'm not opposed to the
amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentleman from California
is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
As you well know, a version of this amendment has passed before on
the floor of this House. I welcome any incentives that help to prevent
elements of al Qaeda and the Taliban to engage in further international
terrorist and criminal acts, and I strongly support this amendment in
the hope that it might lead at long last to the capture of Osama bin
Laden.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance our time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).
The question was taken; and the Acting Chairman announced that the
ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, further
proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois
will be postponed.
Amendment No. 8 Offered by Mr. Kucinich
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 8
printed in House Report 110-174.
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 8 offered by Mr. Kucinich:
Page 43, after line 6, insert the following new subsection:
(c) Contribution to Post-Operations Humanitarian Relief
Fund.--Of the amount appropriated pursuant to subsection (a)
of section 110 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002
(as redesignated by title I of this Act), $500,000 for each
of the fiscal years 2008 through 2010 shall be available for
a United States contribution to the Post-Operations
Humanitarian Relief Fund of the International Security
Assistance Force.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
In Afghanistan, as is true of all wars, bombs have missed their
targets, civilians have been maimed and killed, property's been
destroyed. Both homes and families have been devastated and literally
torn apart.
As the United States seeks to abate terrorists, we must also learn to
avoid the unintended consequences related to our foreign policy. One
approach is to accept responsibility when we harm innocent civilians
and provide compensation for the impact that war has had on civilian
lives that are accidentally caught in the crossfire.
The United States has a moral obligation to help the innocent
civilians of Afghanistan, whose lives have been devastated by war, to
rebuild their lives and their country. The United States must live up
to this moral obligation by providing humanitarian assistance for
innocent victims of war who are harmed by combat operations.
Currently, the U.S. military has two systems in place that provide
monetary compensation to civilians who, as a consequence of U.S.
military action, have been accidentally harmed.
The Foreign Claims Act provides for the compensation of civilians who
have been injured, died or whose property's been damaged from noncombat
activities and negligent or wrongful acts.
Alternatively, condolence payments can be paid by the U.S. military
directly to victims, or their survivors, who suffer a physical injury,
death or property damage in amounts not to exceed $2,500.
Congress should support the Foreign Claims Act and condolence payment
systems to the greatest extent possible as this money helps innocent
people of Afghanistan rebuild their lives.
Today's bill, the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of
2007, seeks to increase the maximum amount of condolence payments; and
I commend this action and urge the President to heed the intent of
Congress in this matter.
There's another avenue for the United States to make major gains.
Brigadier Richard E. Nugee, chief spokesperson for the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, recognized that NATO forces had killed dozens of
civilians in Afghanistan in 2006, and here's what he had to say. ``The
single thing that we have done wrong and we are striving extremely hard
to improve on is'' the unfortunate killing of innocent civilians.
NATO, realizing their past mistakes and in an effort to advance
goodwill and allay resentment among Afghans caused by innocent civilian
casualties, established a post-operations humanitarian relief fund,
placed under the ISAF's Commander's discretion, to compensate Afghans
harmed by combat operations.
{time} 1630
This NATO program is alike in its objective to both the Condolence
Payment system and the Foreign Claims Act. This system is noble in its
intent.
I urge the United States to show its commitment to the people of
Afghanistan, to honor our promise to win their minds and hearts by
increasing the functionality of the NATO humanitarian assistance
program for innocent war victims.
This amendment shows the commitment of the U.S. people to Afghanistan
by diverting $500,000 to the Post-Operations Humanitarian Relief Fund
of the U.N. International Security Assistance Force. The international
fund has received contributions from the Czech Republic, Lithuania, the
Netherlands and Sweden. By diverting this money the United States is
sending a message
[[Page 14720]]
to and joining with NATO and the international community to show our
commitment to the people of Afghanistan.
The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, CIVIC, founded by
Marla Ruzicka, who worked tirelessly in Afghanistan to win compensation
for civilian war victims before she was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad
in 2005, supports that commitment.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to insert in the Record a letter of
endorsement from Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict.
Campaign for Innocent
Victims in Conflict,
June 5, 2007.
Hon. Tom Lantos,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Having recently returned from Kabul, I
write in support of H.R. 2446, as offered by Mr. Kucinich on
June 5, 2007.
The civilian death toll in Afghanistan has become alarming,
with both sides responsible for civilian casualties. While
NATO forces work hard to avoid harming civilians, we know
that in war accidents happen and the families of those
innocent people killed and injured need--and, frankly,
deserve--immediate assistance.
Several NATO countries recently created the Post-Operations
Humanitarian Relief Fund (POHRF)--a compensation war chest
under NATO's commander with the potential to give Afghan
civilians much needed assistance. However, only four NATO
countries have donated and the amount raised is not nearly
enough to truly make a difference to the Afghan people.
As H.R. 2446 requests on page 43, line 7, the United States
should lead the way by donating the relatively nominal amount
of $500,000 to POHRF. Showing--not merely telling--other NATO
countries how to ``win hearts and minds'' demonstrates
American leadership and humanity on behalf of innocent
Afghans suffering losses.
NATO's mission in Afghanistan cannot succeed without the
trust and support of the Afghan people, as you are seeing
with civilian protests and discontent in the headlines. To
win that trust, NATO--with the United States leading the
way--should dignify civilians harmed by its forces with the
help they deserve.
I hope you will join in urging NATO countries to support
POHRF by supporting this amendment ensuring a United States
contribution to this important fund. After all, Afghanistan
will be won or lost 1 civilian at a time.
Sincerely,
Sarah Holewinski,
Executive Director.
CIVIC states that ``The civilian death toll in Afghanistan has become
alarming, with both sides responsible for civilian casualties. While
NATO forces work hard to avoid harming civilians, we know that in war,
accidents happen and the families of those innocent people are killed
and injured need--and, frankly deserve--immediate assistance.
``NATO's mission in Afghanistan cannot succeed without the trust and
support of the Afghan people, as you are seeing with civilian protests
and discontent in the headlines. To win that trust, NATO--with the
United States leading the way--should dignify civilians harmed by its
forces with the help they deserve.''
If the United States truly desires to win the hearts and minds of
people in Afghanistan, we must consider how the destruction and loss of
life hurts those who are trying to resurrect their lives and their
country. While no dollar amount can truly be equated to a human life,
we can have a substantial impact on the rebuilding of the lives torn
apart by the war.
War causes wreckage, pain and suffering for many innocent civilians
who must endure life in a war zone. It's easy to understand how the
innocent may become angry or disillusioned with combat forces. As such,
it's in the interests of the United States to ensure proper levels of
humanitarian assistance.
I am urging my colleagues to join me in support of this amendment to
direct additional and much-needed assistance to the innocent citizens
of Afghanistan who deserve our help to rebuild their lives and their
countries.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim time in opposition to
this amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentlewoman from Florida is recognized for 5
minutes.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. The issue of providing compensation to Afghan
civilians is one whose efficacy is not questioned. Our brave troops on
the ground offer such support through the allocation of the Commander's
Emergency Response Program funding and other avenues that allow U.S.
forces to compensate civilians for the damage caused due to ongoing
U.S. operations.
However, the manner by which my esteemed colleague from Ohio, my good
friend, Mr. Kucinich, seeks to go about addressing this issue would
establish an extremely troublesome precedent regarding our operations
in and our policy toward Afghanistan.
Simply put, U.S. taxpayer funds, U.S. assistance for Afghanistan,
should not be used to fund long-term compensation programs under the
Post-Operations Humanitarian Relief Fund of the International Security
Assistance Force for damage caused by foreign forces and not U.S.
forces.
By contrast, the underlying bill acknowledges ongoing U.S. efforts to
support war victims affected by U.S. operations and then calls for a
feasibility study to be conducted in order to assess if there is a need
to expand U.S. assistance to Afghan civilian war victims.
The Kucinich amendment, however, seeks to circumvent this necessary
precursor, essentially prescribing a solution to this problem before
the diagnosis is received, and, again, seeking to assign U.S.
responsibility for the actions of others. The United States could work
diplomatically with participant nations to ensure that they make proper
and substantially greater contributions to this relief fund.
However, I find it to be outside of the parameters for the U.S.
assistance to Afghanistan to cover the international forces where they
have fallen short, thereby putting the onus on the United States to
step up financially for damages that we have not created.
Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge my colleagues to vote against this
amendment.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan
people is crucial to our success in Afghanistan.
This amendment seeks to bolster that support by providing more
resources to a fund operated by the International Security Assistance
Force, led by NATO, which seeks to assist those Afghan individuals and
families who have suffered injuries due to unintended military
operations.
Currently, there are a handful of NATO countries who contribute to
this fund, and it is important for the United States to show leadership
in this area. With our contribution, other NATO allies will also be
encouraged to participate.
Mr. Chairman, I support this amendment and urge my colleagues to do
so as well.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).
The question was taken; and the Acting Chairman announced that the
ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, further
proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Ohio will be
postponed.
Amendment No. 9 Offered by Mr. Terry
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 9
printed in House Report 110-174.
Mr. TERRY. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 9 offered by Mr. Terry:
Page 26, after line 12, insert the following new
subsection:
(j) Priority to U.S. Organizations for Grants To Aid in the
Revitalization of Afghanistan.--In awarding grants to
nongovernmental organizations to aid in the revitalization of
Afghanistan, including to assist the people of Afghanistan to
create and sustain quality economic and educational systems,
under section 103 of the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of
2002 (as amended by this section), the United States Agency
for International Development should give priority to
organizations based in the United States that have an
established and cost-effective record of developing and
administering such programs of assistance in Afghanistan.
[[Page 14721]]
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman
from Nebraska (Mr. Terry) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska.
Mr. TERRY. Mr. Chairman, I come here today with the common sense and
hopefully consensus amendment that directs USAID to give priority to
organizations based in the United States when awarding grants to NGOs
to rebuild Afghanistan.
The experience and expertise of U.S. organizations in public
institutions to rebuild Afghanistan should be utilized and recognized
by USAID. It's also a fact that when people of Afghanistan see
Americans helping to rebuild their schools and providing teachers and
helping their economy, that a true and positive perception of our
Nation increases.
My straightforward amendment states that USAID should give priority
consideration to U.S.-based organizations that have a proven track
record of assisting young nations like Afghanistan to educate its
children and teach them skills that will lead to economic growth and
revitalization.
The Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska's
Omaha campus is a great example of a proven institution, experienced
institution, in providing cost-effective services to Afghanistan, as
well as other nations, that has experience in administering programs
within Afghanistan, and teaching the people of Afghanistan, and yet
were not considered to be a subcontractor with USAID.
There are undoubtedly many more examples of expertise and assistance
from United States programs dedicated to the betterment of nations and
their citizens. It seems only right that USAID give priority to U.S.
organizations with established records of service and success.
I urge my colleagues' support.
Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen), the ranking member.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment
offered by my distinguished friend from Nebraska (Mr. Terry).
This important amendment requires the U.S. Agency for International
Development to give priority in awarding grants to nongovernmental
organizations, to those based in the United States that have an
established and cost-effective record in developing and administering
such programs within Afghanistan.
In addition, it focuses on organizations that specialize in the
teaching of the people of Afghanistan how to create and sustain quality
economic and educational system. In this respect, U.S.-based
organizations, with a proven track record of accountability and cost-
effectiveness and the development and administration of such programs
in Afghanistan, should be granted priority in the grant process.
This amendment is necessary, both as a means of ensuring
accountability at all levels of the contracting process, and for proper
oversight by Congress.
I thank my colleague and friend for introducing this important
amendment, and I strongly urge its adoption.
Mr. TERRY. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time
in opposition to the amendment, although I am not opposed to the
amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentleman from California
is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I support the underlying premise of the
gentleman's amendment that assistance should be provided through
organizations that have a cost-effective record of administering
programs in Afghanistan. I am also gratified that the gentleman made
some modifications to the original version of his amendment.
As H.R. 2446 reflects, we must continue to assist the Afghan people
in creating and sustaining economic and development systems for
themselves. We must continue to endow the Afghan government, Afghan
organizations and the Afghan people with the necessary know how,
expertise and resources so they can lead a free, stable and prosperous
Afghanistan.
I believe that this amendment strikes the right balance in calling
for USAID to prioritize organizations that have a cost-effective record
of administering programs in Afghanistan, while allowing for assistance
to Afghan entities as well.
On that basis, the amendment is acceptable to our side.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. TERRY. I thank the chairman for his instructive input, advice,
counsel and kind words and acceptance of the amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry).
The amendment was agreed to.
Amendment No. 10 Offered by Mr. Van Hollen
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 10
printed in House Report 110-174.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 10 offered by Mr. Van Hollen:
Page 17, line 17, strike ``and''.
Page 17, line 19, strike the first period, the closing
quotation marks, and the second period and insert ``; and''.
Page 17, after line 19, insert the following new clause:
``(ix) promoting the empowerment of citizens at the local
level in the decision-making process, including
reconstruction and economic development decisions.''.
Page 62, beginning on line 16, insert ``, create an
environment conducive to Afghan small business development,''
after ``opportunities''.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 453, the gentleman
from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) and a Member opposed each will control 5
minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Let me begin by congratulating the chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Lantos, and the ranking member, Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen, for their wonderful bipartisan work on this very important
legislation, which sends a signal that the United States remains fully
engaged in making sure we have a secure Afghanistan, and that we build
on what has happened to date and make sure that we continue to have a
situation that demonstrates a continuing investment by the United
States.
I think if you look back over history, we made a big mistake, when we
disengaged from Afghanistan, after the Soviet withdrawal. We had
helped, of course, support the Mujahedin, the freedom fighters, that
was the right thing to do.
But when the Soviets left Afghanistan, so did we. And that left a
vacuum that the Taliban exploited, Afghanistan became a failed state,
al Qaeda found a home there, and we know the rest of the story, the
terrible attacks of September 11, 2001. Even to this day, we have not
yet finished the job in Afghanistan in terms of hunting down al Qaeda
and Osama bin Laden, and essentially destroying the network that caused
those terrible attacks of September 11, 2001.
But even as we continue that action, we need to make sure we provide
for stability in Afghanistan for the longer haul, so we do not create
another situation where other terrorists can take advantage of a failed
state.
That requires we work in partnership with the Afghan government and
the international community to make a long-term investment in
Afghanistan's stability. That involves, making sure, that in addition
to large infrastructure projects and important investments that we
make, that we also make sure that we empower the Afghan people and make
sure that they understand that we continue to have a stake and they
have a stake, obviously, in their future and in building their economy.
That's what this amendment that I am offering today relates to.
[[Page 14722]]
According to a recent GAO report, despite the expenditure of billions
of U.S. dollars, reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan still have
lacked a strategic focus. I know that is the major thrust of this bill,
and I, again, want to commend our leadership for putting this important
piece together.
As you know, this bill requires, among other things, that the
President design a comprehensive interagency strategy for long-term
security and stability. But in addressing these issues, issues that
will impact heavily on the lives of ordinary Afghan citizens, it's
essential that we make sure that we leverage one of Afghanistan's
greatest assets in that decision-making process. That is the Afghan
people themselves.
{time} 1645
And while it does support local-led development programs such as the
National Solidarity Project, the bill, I think, would also benefit and
be strengthened by additional focus on involving the Afghan people at
the local level in decision making. And that is why I'm proposing this
amendment that requires the President to include as any part of his
Afghanistan strategy an emphasis on empowering Afghan citizens in that
decision making.
Economic development is a major source of concern, obviously, to the
Afghan people. The CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, recently released the second in a series of post-conflict
assessments of progress in Afghanistan and reported that, despite a
marked improvement in the economy, Afghans continue to suffer from
unsteady employment and economic insecurity. So this amendment
addresses those issues. Just, again, emphasizes what I know is the
overall thrust of this legislation, the importance of making sure we
include the Afghan people at the grassroots level in decisions that
affect their future.
Again, I want to thank the chairman, Mr. Lantos, and the bipartisan
support this overall effort has had; and I urge the adoption of the
amendment.
Mr. LANTOS. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I will be delighted to yield.
Mr. LANTOS. I want to thank the gentleman for his singularly
thoughtful and carefully crafted amendment, and I'm very pleased to
support it.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim time in opposition,
although I am not opposed to this amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized
for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment
offered by my distinguished colleague and my friend, the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).
This amendment seeks to promote the empowerment of citizens at the
local level in the decision-making process, including reconstruction
and economic development.
One of the key elements necessary to achieve success in Afghanistan
is enhancing and promoting citizen participation in the reconstruction
and economic development efforts in that country.
Citizens making decisions is a critical part in a democratic society,
and this will enhance Afghanistan's political and economic
institutions. Local participation, local decision-making will allow the
Afghan people to take charge of their own lives and make decisions
based on the needs of their local communities.
In addition to ensuring security, fighting the illicit illegal
narcotics trade, related terrorist activities, developing the
infrastructure for a sustainable democratic central government, the
economic situation must also improve if Afghans are to have confidence
in their own future and if they are to build upon the progress they
have achieved thus far.
A lack of success in the economic forum has the potential to
undermine political developments. It could risk demoralizing the
aspirations of Afghan citizens and could jeopardize their ability to
actively shape their destiny.
The United States must work hard to ensure that Afghanistan is never
again a haven for terrorists, a major source of narcotics, or a source
of instability or oppression towards its citizens.
Again, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for introducing this
important amendment. I strongly urge my colleagues to support it.
And before I yield the remainder of our time to my good friend and
our fearless leader, Chairman Lantos, I want to thank the excellent
staff that has been working on our Republican side with the Democratic
side on forging this strong bill; and perhaps next time, Mr. Lantos, we
will come to the floor wearing tie-dyed T-shirts and love beads and
singing Kumbaya.
Mr. Chairman, I yield the remainder of our time to Chairman Lantos.
Mr. LANTOS. As we close discussion and debate, Mr. Chairman, let me
first express my appreciation to my friend and colleague, the ranking
Republican member of the committee, for her exceptional leadership on
this matter. Let me thank all of my Republican and Democratic
colleagues who have worked so hard on this matter.
But I particularly want to express my personal thanks to the
committee staff on both sides, specifically, Matthew Zweig and John
Mackey on the Republican side of the committee staff, as well as all
other members of the Republican staff, and on our side, Manpreet Anand,
Robin Roizman, David Fite and our extraordinary general counsel, David
Abramowitz.
We have done good bipartisan work, and I think the Congress did some
useful work today.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of our time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).
The amendment was agreed to.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.
The motion was agreed to.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Van
Hollen) having assumed the chair, Mr. Pomeroy, Acting Chairman of the
Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that
that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2446) to
reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002, and for other
purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.
____________________
RECESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the
Chair declares the House in recess until approximately 5:15 p.m. today.
Accordingly (at 4 o'clock and 52 minutes p.m.), the House stood in
recess until approximately 5:15 p.m.
____________________
{time} 1717
AFTER RECESS
The recess having expired, the House was called to order by the
Speaker pro tempore (Ms. Castor) at 5 o'clock and 17 minutes p.m.
____________________
REPORT ON RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF S. 5, STEM CELL
RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2007
Mr. McGOVERN, from the Committee on Rules, submitted a privileged
report (Rept. No. 110-179) on the resolution (H. Res. 464) providing
for consideration of the Senate bill (S. 5) to amend the Public Health
Service Act to provide for human embryonic stem cell research, which
was referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.
____________________
REPORT ON RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 65, LUMBEE
RECOGNITION ACT
Mr. McGOVERN, from the Committee on Rules, submitted a privileged
report (Rept. No. 110-180) on the resolution (H. Res. 465) providing
for consideration of the bill (H.R. 65) to provide for the recognition
of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, and for other purposes, which
was referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.
[[Page 14723]]
____________________
AFGHANISTAN FREEDOM AND SECURITY ACT OF 2007
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 453 and rule
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House
on the state of the Union for the further consideration of the bill,
H.R. 2446.
{time} 1718
In the Committee of the Whole
Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for the further consideration of
the bill (H.R. 2446) to reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act
of 2002, and for other purposes, with Mr. Andrews (Acting Chairman) in
the chair.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. When the Committee of the Whole rose earlier
today, amendment No. 10 printed in House Report 110-174 by the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) had been disposed of.
Announcement by the Acting Chairman
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, proceedings
will now resume on those amendments on which further proceedings were
postponed, in the following order:
Amendment No. 7 by Mr. Kirk of Illinois.
Amendment No. 8 by Mr. Kucinich of Ohio.
The Chair will reduce to 5 minutes the time for the second vote in
this series.
Amendment No. 7 Offered by Mr. Kirk
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The unfinished business is the demand for a
recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois
(Mr. Kirk) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the
ayes prevailed by voice vote.
The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.
The Clerk redesignated the amendment.
Recorded Vote
The Acting CHAIRMAN. A recorded vote has been demanded.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 419,
noes 1, not voting 17, as follows:
[Roll No. 435]
AYES--419
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Baldwin
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Bordallo
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Carter
Castle
Castor
Chabot
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Feeney
Ferguson
Filner
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fortuno
Fossella
Foxx
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillibrand
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Hare
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hobson
Hodes
Hoekstra
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jindal
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Kagen
Kanjorski
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Marchant
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCollum (MN)
McCotter
McCrery
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Norton
Nunes
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Paul
Payne
Pearce
Pence
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sali
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Tierney
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOES--1
Kucinich
NOT VOTING--17
Becerra
Cantor
Christensen
Conyers
Faleomavaega
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Jones (OH)
Kaptur
Pallone
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Towns
{time} 1745
So the amendment was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Amendment No. 8 Offered by Mr. Kucinich
The Acting CHAIRMAN (Mr. Pomeroy). The unfinished business is the
demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) on which further proceedings were postponed
and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote.
The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.
The Clerk redesignated the amendment.
Recorded Vote
The Acting CHAIRMAN. A recorded vote has been demanded.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 159,
noes 260, not voting 18, as follows:
[Roll No. 436]
AYES--159
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Baca
Baldwin
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bordallo
Boswell
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Carson
Castor
Clarke
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Costello
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Doggett
Doyle
Ellison
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Filner
Frank (MA)
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Green, Gene
[[Page 14724]]
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinchey
Hirono
Hodes
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kagen
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Maloney (NY)
Markey
Matsui
McCollum (MN)
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Norton
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Perlmutter
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rodriguez
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sires
Slaughter
Solis
Space
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Wexler
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NOES--260
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Arcuri
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Chandler
Clay
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Cramer
Crenshaw
Cubin
Culberson
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Donnelly
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellsworth
Emerson
English (PA)
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Fattah
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fortuno
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hinojosa
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Kanjorski
Keller
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Mahoney (FL)
Manzullo
Marchant
Marshall
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mitchell
Moran (KS)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Ortiz
Paul
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Royce
Ruppersberger
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Skelton
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Souder
Spratt
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--18
Andrews
Becerra
Cantor
Christensen
Conyers
Faleomavaega
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Jones (OH)
Mollohan
Pallone
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Towns
Announcement by the Acting Chairman
The Acting CHAIRMAN (during the vote). Members are advised there are
2 minutes remaining in this vote.
{time} 1753
Mr. HINOJOSA changed his vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
So the amendment was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. There being no other amendments before the
House, the Committee rises.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr.
Kind) having assumed the chair, Mr. Pomeroy, Acting Chairman of the
Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that
that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2446) to
reauthorize the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002, and for other
purposes, pursuant to House Resolution 453, he reported the bill back
to the House with sundry amendments adopted by the Committee of the
Whole.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the rule, the previous question is
ordered.
Is a separate vote demanded on any amendment reported from the
Committee of the Whole? If not, the Chair will put them en gros.
The amendments were agreed to.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third
reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
Motion to Recommit Offered by Mr. Pence
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill?
Mr. PENCE. Yes, I am in its current form.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to
recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Pence moves to recommit the bill H.R. 2446 to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs with instructions to report the
same back to the House forthwith with the following
amendment:
At the end of title III of the bill (relating to
miscellaneous provisions), insert the following new section
(and conform the table of contents accordingly):
SEC. 3_. UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAN.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) It is of grave concern that General Peter Pace, the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in late April
2007 that United States and Coalition forces ``have
intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban
that were made in Iran''.
(2) Iran's provision of weaponry and technological
expertise to terrorist and criminal elements operating in
Afghanistan have reportedly included--
(A) 107 mm mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, C-4
explosives, and small arms;
(B) surface-to-air missiles reportedly supplied by the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard;
(C) explosively-formed projectiles, one of which was
recently discovered in Kabul; and
(D) Iranian 240 mm rockets, with a range of up to 30 miles,
which have been used recently by Shiite extremists against
United States and British targets in Basra and Baghdad.
(3) An increase in both the quantity and quality of Iranian
arms shipments and technological expertise to the Taliban,
other terrorist organizations, and criminal elements has the
potential to significantly change the battlefield in
Afghanistan, and lead to a large increase in United States,
International Security Assistance Force, Coalition, and
Afghan casualties.
(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act or any
amendment made by this Act shall be construed to limit the
ability of the United States to respond to Iranian-supported
or facilitated attacks against United States Armed Forces or
interests in Afghanistan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Indiana is recognized for
5 minutes.
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this motion to
recommit with instructions. Part of my responsibilities here in the
Congress are that I serve as the ranking Republican member on the
Middle East Subcommittee on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. As such,
I have been intimately involved in the development of the underlying
legislation and am strongly supportive of it.
But I think it is also imperative that we adopt this motion to
recommit and add language that addresses an issue of great concern to
the United States of America, to Afghanistan, and to the free world.
Mr. Speaker, we are receiving numerous reports that Iranian-made arms
are
[[Page 14725]]
being shipped to Afghanistan and transferred to the Taliban and other
radical Islamic forces that seek to kill U.S. troops and Afghan forces.
{time} 1800
This past April, General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, confirmed that, ``We have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan
headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran.''
This past Monday, on a visit to Kabul, Defense Secretary Robert Gates
noted that the weapons are flowing not only to the Taliban but to drug
traffickers as well. ``There have been indications over the past few
months of weapons coming in from Iran. Some weapons,'' he said, ``are
coming into Afghanistan destined for the Taliban, but perhaps also for
criminal elements involved in the drug trafficking coming from Iran.''
The arms transferred reportedly include mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades, C-4 explosives, surface-to-air missiles reportedly supplied
by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and rockets with a 30-mile range.
Most disturbingly, an explosively formed projectile, an EFP, similar
in characteristics to the Iranian-made ones that have killed our
soldiers in Iraq, were recently discovered in Kabul.
Given Iran's unceasingly hostile rhetoric and actions in opposition
to the United States, our interests and our allies, and given that
these weapons were made in Iran, it is very reasonable to draw the
conclusion that the Iranian regime transferred these arms to the
Taliban.
We cannot allow Iran to undermine U.S. efforts and kill our soldiers
in Afghanistan or to return that country to the status of a failed
State and pave the way for increased terrorism against the West.
What we must do, simply, is to confront and respond to any efforts to
subvert our efforts and kill our troops in Afghanistan.
As General Pace noted, ``I think we should continue to be aggressive
inside of Iraq, and aggressive inside of Afghanistan, in attacking any
element that's attacking U.S. and coalition forces, regardless of where
they come from.''
If we are to be vigilant in protecting the lives of our soldiers and
our allies' soldiers and security forces, we cannot tie the hands of
our President and our commanders in the field. They need to have every
option at their disposal and opportunity to combat an insidious threat
from Iran that appears to be supplying weapons to our enemies.
Accordingly, we offer this motion to recommit which explicitly states
that the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act does not limit
America's ability to respond to attacks that Iran supports or
facilitates against our forces or interests in Afghanistan.
As the United States begins to engage Iran diplomatically, we must
also make it clear that we will defend our allies and our interests in
Afghanistan with all the means at our disposal.
Mr. Speaker, our relationship with Iran should be described as
follows: one hand extended in diplomatic negotiation and another hand
resting lightly on the holster of the arsenal of democracy.
Mr. Speaker, in support of our troops, in support of freedom and
stability in Afghanistan, I call on my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle to strongly support this motion to recommit.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in
opposition to this motion, although I'm not opposed to the motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from
California is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, this has been a bipartisan bill from the
very beginning. We have incorporated ideas from both sides of the aisle
into this legislation. The recommittal motion has no practical effect
whatsoever.
Nothing in the legislation before the House would prohibit the United
States from responding to an Iranian military attack on the United
States forces or interests in Afghanistan. In fact, no statute
prohibits the President from ordering a response to military attacks
upon our Nation or upon our Armed Forces.
However, this motion does not provide for taking any military action
outside Afghanistan, nor should it. Therefore, I will support this
motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to recommit.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule
XX, this 15-minute vote on the motion to recommit will be followed by
5-minute votes, if ordered, on further proceedings in recommittal;
passage of the bill; and suspension of the rules with respect to H.R.
2560.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 345,
noes 71, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 437]
AYES--345
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Allen
Altmire
Arcuri
Baca
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carter
Castle
Castor
Chabot
Chandler
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeGette
DeLauro
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gillibrand
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green, Gene
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Hare
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinojosa
Hobson
Hodes
Hoekstra
Hooley
Hoyer
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Kagen
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Latham
LaTourette
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lowey
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Marchant
Marshall
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meek (FL)
Melancon
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Myrick
Nadler
Napolitano
Neugebauer
Nunes
Oberstar
Obey
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Pearce
Pence
Perlmutter
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
[[Page 14726]]
Sali
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Souder
Space
Spratt
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Visclosky
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOES--71
Abercrombie
Baldwin
Berry
Capps
Capuano
Carson
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Cummings
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
Delahunt
Doggett
Ellison
Eshoo
Filner
Frank (MA)
Gilchrest
Green, Al
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hinchey
Hirono
Holt
Honda
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (NC)
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kilpatrick
Kucinich
Larson (CT)
Lee
Lewis (GA)
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Markey
Matsui
McCollum (MN)
McDermott
McGovern
Meehan
Meeks (NY)
Michaud
Miller, George
Moore (WI)
Murtha
Neal (MA)
Olver
Paul
Payne
Rahall
Sanchez, Linda T.
Schakowsky
Serrano
Solis
Stark
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Velazquez
Waters
Watson
Welch (VT)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
NOT VOTING--16
Andrews
Becerra
Cantor
Conyers
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Jones (OH)
Pallone
Peterson (MN)
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Towns
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). Members are advised there
are 2 minutes remaining on this vote.
{time} 1821
So the motion to recommit was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the instructions of the House in
the motion to recommit, I report H.R. 2446 back to the House with an
amendment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the amendment.
The Clerk read as follows:
Amendment offered by Mr. Pence:
At the end of title III of the bill (relating to
miscellaneous provisions), insert the following new section
(and conform the table of contents accordingly):
SEC. 3_. UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAN.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) It is of grave concern that General Peter Pace, the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in late April
2007 that United States and Coalition forces ``have
intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban
that were made in Iran''.
(2) Iran's provision of weaponry and technological
expertise to terrorist and criminal elements operating in
Afghanistan have reportedly included--
(A) 107 mm mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, C-4
explosives, and small arms;
(B) surface-to-air missiles reportedly supplied by the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard;
(C) explosively-formed projectiles, one of which was
recently discovered in Kabul; and
(D) Iranian 240 mm rockets, with a range of up to 30 miles,
which have been used recently by Shiite extremists against
United States and British targets in Basra and Baghdad.
(3) An increase in both the quantity and quality of Iranian
arms shipments and technological expertise to the Taliban,
other terrorist organizations, and criminal elements has the
potential to significantly change the battlefield in
Afghanistan, and lead to a large increase in United States,
International Security Assistance Force, Coalition, and
Afghan casualties.
(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act or any
amendment made by this Act shall be construed to limit the
ability of the United States to respond to Iranian-supported
or facilitated attacks against United States Armed Forces or
interests in Afghanistan.
Mr. LANTOS (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent
that the amendment be considered as read and printed in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the amendment.
The amendment was agreed to.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third
reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 406,
noes 10, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 438]
AYES--406
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Allen
Altmire
Arcuri
Baca
Bachmann
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Baldwin
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Carter
Castle
Castor
Chabot
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Edwards
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Feeney
Ferguson
Filner
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillibrand
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)
Hare
Harman
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hobson
Hodes
Hoekstra
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jindal
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Mack
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Marchant
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McCollum (MN)
McCotter
McCrery
McGovern
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Neugebauer
Nunes
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pearce
Pence
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (WI)
Salazar
Sali
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sessions
[[Page 14727]]
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Space
Spratt
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Tierney
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Wexler
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOES--10
Berry
Duncan
Flake
Goode
Hinchey
Jones (NC)
Kucinich
McDermott
Paul
Stark
NOT VOTING--16
Andrews
Becerra
Cantor
Conyers
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Jones (OH)
Pallone
Pickering
Radanovich
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Towns
{time} 1832
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
AUTHORIZING THE CLERK TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN ENGROSSMENT OF H.R. 2446,
AFGHANISTAN FREEDOM AND SECURITY SUPPORT ACT OF 2007
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Clerk may
be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of H.R.
2446, to include corrections in spelling, punctuation, section
numbering and cross-referencing, and the insertion of appropriate
headings.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, 5-minute voting will
continue.
There was no objection.
____________________
HUMAN CLONING PROHIBITION ACT OF 2007
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2560, on which the
yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2560.
This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 204,
nays 213, not voting 15, as follows:
[Roll No. 439]
YEAS--204
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Biggert
Bilbray
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bono
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carson
Castle
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Edwards
Ellison
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Granger
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kagen
Kennedy
Kilpatrick
Kind
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Markey
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Perlmutter
Price (NC)
Ramstad
Rangel
Reichert
Reyes
Rodriguez
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stark
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Wexler
Wilson (NM)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NAYS--213
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Bachmann
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Berry
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Boozman
Boren
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Capito
Carney
Carter
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Costello
Cramer
Crenshaw
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Ellsworth
Emerson
English (PA)
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hill
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Keller
Kildee
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Marshall
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Melancon
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mollohan
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Oberstar
Paul
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Regula
Rehberg
Renzi
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shimkus
Shuler
Simpson
Skelton
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Stupak
Sullivan
Taylor
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--15
Andrews
Becerra
Cantor
Conyers
Hastings (FL)
Holden
Hunter
Jefferson
Jones (OH)
Pallone
Pickering
Ryan (OH)
Shuster
Tancredo
Towns
{time} 1841
Mr. SAXTON changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So (two-thirds not being in the affirmative) the motion was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
____________________
DALLAS-FORT WORTH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT'S ``WELCOME HOME A HERO''
PROGRAM
(Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to
address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
strong support of House Resolution 391, recognizing the employees of
the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the North Texas
Commission, the USO,
[[Page 14728]]
and the people and businesses of North Texas for their dedication to
the ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program.
The ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program is a daily gathering of
volunteers to celebrate the homecoming of soldiers returning from Iraq,
Afghanistan and Kuwait.
The tremendous effort has made the ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program
one of the largest ongoing community service efforts in North Texas;
and these committed employees have given of their time so that our
troops, as well as their families, can be welcomed.
On June 12, the 500,000th soldier will come home for a well-deserved
2 weeks of rest and recuperation, and I'm proud to share that the
``Welcome Home a Hero'' program in the Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport has been selected by the U.S. military to host this
celebration; and, Mr. Speaker, I would ask for support when this
resolution comes up. I know we couldn't do it today, but I extend my
personal gratitude to the program's volunteers for their efforts in
supporting our dedicated men and women in uniform who are proudly
serving our Nation.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Dallas/
Fort Worth International Airport for their role in sponsoring the
internationally recognized ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program. DFW has
been selected by the U.S. Military to host the celebration of the
success of this critical program for soldiers and their families.
DFW's ``Welcome a Hero'' program has been praised as the premiere
volunteer homecoming program for soldiers returning from Iraq,
Afghanistan and Kuwait for much needed R&R with their families.
On June 12, 2007, the 500,000th soldier to return home during
Operation Iraqi Freedom for 2 weeks of Rest and Recuperation (R&R) will
travel through DFW International Airport.
As a representative of part of the DFW Airport and a frequent
traveler between DFW and Washington Reagan, I am grateful that they
have taken to heart the mission of our brave soldiers. I have
participated in the ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program, and I will always
remember the pride I felt and the thankfulness I had for the dedication
of those men and women to our country and freedom.
I extend my sincere congratulations the Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport and their success with the ``Welcome Home a
Hero'' program.
____________________
HONORING THE VALUABLE WORK OF THE ``WELCOME HOME A HERO'' PROGRAM
Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on
Armed Services be discharged from further consideration of the
resolution (H. Res. 391) recognizing the employees of Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport, the North Texas Commission, USO, and the people
and businesses of North Texas for their dedication to the ``Welcome
Home a Hero'' program, and ask for its immediate consideration in the
House.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 391
Whereas the residents of North Texas have greeted thousands
of troops returning to the United States from Iraq and
Afghanistan for Rest and Recuperation since the program's
inception in June of 2004;
Whereas volunteers from North Texas welcome over 200 troops
each day who travel through Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport on their way home;
Whereas these are the first people the troops see upon
their return to the United States, and the support they give
the troops on behalf of all Americans is invaluable and
inspirational;
Whereas citizens like Bert Brady, a veteran, spend 300 days
a year at the airport thanking troops for their service and
giving them a well deserved homecoming;
Whereas thousands of young men from the Boy Scouts of
America's Circle Ten Council have also selflessly contributed
to one of the largest and most respected community
initiatives in North Texas; and
Whereas these dedicated and selfless volunteers positively
impact the morale and spirit of the men and women serving our
country in Iraq and Afghanistan and demonstrate our
appreciation for their sacrifice to the Country: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the
valuable work of the ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program and its
volunteers and expresses gratitude for their efforts to
support our troops proudly serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
{time} 1845
GENERAL LEAVE
Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert
extraneous material on House Resolution 391.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
____________________
SPECIAL ORDERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hare). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, and under a previous order of the House,
the following Members will be recognized for 5 minutes each.
____________________
OIL PRODUCTION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, everybody in America is concerned
about gas and oil prices. We all remember the long gas lines during the
Carter administration, and the government made a commitment that we
would be independent as far as energy needs were concerned at some
point in the not too distant future, and we were supposed to work
toward that end. I would like to give a report on where we stand
because the American people are very, very concerned about high gas
prices right now and the lack of oil.
On May 29, the United States consumed as much oil as it will produce
domestically all year. All the oil that we produce in the United States
has been used up by May 29. That means from that date until January,
2008, next year, we are now completely dependent upon politically
unstable regions of the world such as the Persian Gulf, Nigeria, and
Venezuela for our energy needs. Why is that? Because year after year,
decade after decade, this country throws up more roadblocks, usually
because of some environmental reason, to exploring for and utilizing
domestic supplies of oil and natural gas.
In the ANWR, for instance, it holds the single largest deposit of oil
in the entire United States, and that is 10.4 billion barrels of oil,
and it is more than double the proven reserves in the entire State of
Texas, and almost half of the total proven reserves in the United
States, which is 22 billion barrels.
To put it more simply, opening the ANWR could increase U.S. reserves
by nearly 50 percent.
And I have been up to the ANWR, and I can tell you there is no
environmental damage that is going to take place if we drill in that
area. And we could get between 1\1/2\ to 2 million barrels of oil a
day. That would help a tremendous amount the needs of the American
people.
On the outer continental shelf, another example, as required by the
Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Department of the Interior recently
conducted a comprehensive inventory of oil and natural gas resources
located off of our coastlines. According to the Department of Interior,
there is an estimated 8.5 billion barrels of known oil reserves and
29.3 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas reserves along our
coastlines; with 82 percent of the oil and 95 percent of the gas
located in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, even more importantly, the Department of the Interior
estimates there are untapped resources of about 86 billion barrels, 51
percent in the Gulf of Mexico; and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural
gas, 55 percent in the Gulf of Mexico, that is out there.
In July, 2004, a Spanish oil company, Repsol-YPF, in partnership with
communist Cuba's state oil company,
[[Page 14729]]
CUPET, identified five oil fields it classified as ``high quality'' in
the deep water of the Florida Straits right off the coast of Florida,
20 miles northeast of Havana and within Cuba's Exclusive Economic Zone.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the North Cuba Basin holds
an estimated 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion barrels of crude oil and 9.8
trillion to 21.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Unfortunately, since the 1980s, the U.S. has prohibited oil and gas
drilling on most of the outer continental shelf except for limited
areas of the western Gulf of Mexico, not the Florida Straits or around
Florida, and limited parts of Alaska.
Oil shale: There is enough oil shale in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming
to create the equivalent of 1.8 trillion barrels of oil and potentially
as much as 8 trillion barrels of oil. In comparison, Saudi Arabia
reportedly holds proven reserves of 267 billion barrels, which is less
than about one-eighth of what we have in the United States in shale.
Unfortunately, oil shale is roughly equivalent to diesel fuel and a
number of Clean Air Act regulations, such as low-sulphur diesel, and
Federal motor fuel taxes, which favor gasoline over diesel fuels, have
created a strong financial disincentive regarding the production and
use of oil shale fuels.
I don't want to belabor this point, but we have enough oil that we
could move very closely to energy independence if we didn't have
environmental radicals stopping us from drilling where we have the oil
and we have those known oil reserves.
It is tragic that we have to continue to rely on Saudi Arabia,
Venezuela, and other countries that are very unstable in various parts
of the world when we really know that at some point in the future we
are going to need more and more of their oil.
We need to move toward energy independence. We have been talking
about it since the 1980s. Nothing has been done, and now gas prices are
going up because we aren't producing enough oil and gas in the United
States. And we have the reserves there to do it. We haven't even built
any new oil refineries for 30 years. We can't even refine the oil that
we do get here in the United States to take care of all the needs of
the American people.
So I would just like to say to my colleagues, as I close, on both
sides of the aisle, that we need to start moving toward energy
independence. We need to start thinking about economic concerns as well
as environmental concerns and have a balance there. We can do it in an
environmentally safe way, and the American people want us to do it, and
we need to listen to them as well as the environment lobby here in
Congress.
____________________
END THE WAR IN IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, from the very beginning of the war, which
is now an occupation, in Iraq, the Bush administration has not kept
faith with our troops. Whether it was sending them into combat without
the proper body armor or failing to provide wounded veterans with
proper care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, this administration
has turned its back on our brave men and women time and time again.
Another example of this outrageous mistreatment is the Pentagon's
``stop loss'' policy. A very disturbing article about ``stop loss''
appeared 3 days ago in the Chicago Tribune. Actually, it should be
required reading for every single Member of this House. The article
says:
``As the United States moves into its 5th year in Iraq and escalates
troop levels there, the Pentagon has kept combat units manned by
forcing as many as 80,000 soldiers to stay in uniform in war zones even
after their enlistment obligations have been met or their retirement
dates have passed.
``The policy, known as ``stop loss'' . . . has sparked . . . a spate
of lawsuits and in backlash in the ranks.
`` . . . The vast majority of troops find that stop loss means one
thing: Instead of beginning new lives in the civilian world, they are
headed back to Iraq for their second, third, or even fourth combat
tour, a practice critics say amounts to nothing less than an
involuntary draft.
`` . . . Suzanne Miller, a Jacksonville lawyer whose son expects to
be stop-lossed this summer, said, `I like . . . to call it indentured
servitude . . . you have no control over your own destiny and are being
forced, under threat of prison, to work for an employer you no longer
want to work for.'''
Mr. Speaker, it is time to stop mistreating our troops and the
families who wait so patiently for their return. We need bold action to
bring our troops home.
Last month this House had the opportunity to take such bold action.
We had a bill before us that would have fully funded a safe withdrawal
of our troops and defense contractors starting within 90 days. This
bill also would have provided for the social and economic
reconstruction of Iraq so that the Iraqi people could look to their
future with hope. And it would have supported diplomatic efforts and
multinational efforts to restore security in Iraq. That plan of action
made sense.
But instead of taking bold action, the Congress took the same old
action and gave the President every single thing he wanted in the
supplemental spending bill. There is no timetable for withdrawal, and
the President doesn't even have to hold the Iraqi government
accountable for failing to meet the benchmarks in the bill.
Mr. Speaker, every third grader in America is being held accountable
for meeting his or her reading and math benchmarks under No Child Left
Behind. We are demanding more from our 8-year-olds than the Iraqi
government.
Mr. Speaker, the American people didn't send us here to go all wobbly
in the knees and weak in the stomach when the moment of truth arrived.
They sent us here to stand up to the President to end this war, and
that is what we must do.
So let us begin to restore the good name of the Congress by
overturning the original authority for the war. Congress didn't
authorize this President to use U.S. troops to police a civil war,
which is what Iraq has come to.
From here on, there must be one benchmark and one benchmark only. The
orderly, fully funded, and fully protected withdrawal of our troops.
They have done their duty. Now it is our time to do our duty for them.
____________________
IN COMMEMORATION OF D-DAY AND HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES: PRESIDENT
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S PRAYER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, for those who question the
role of religious expression and religious faith in our national
history and in our public square, I rise tonight to read a nationally
broadcast prayer that was read on D-Day, June 6, 1944, by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt as our troops landed at Normandy. I am reading
this prayer in the House tonight to both commemorate this event and to
honor the men and women of our Armed Forces.
``Almighty God, our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon
a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion,
and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
``Lead them straight and true. Give strength to their arms, stoutness
to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
``They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For
the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come
with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know
that by Thy grace and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will
triumph.
``They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest until
the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's
souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
[[Page 14730]]
``For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight
not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to
liberate. They fight to let justice arise and tolerance and good will
among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their
return to the haven of home.
{time} 1900
``Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them,
Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
``And for us at home, fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and
brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever
with them, help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed
faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
``Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of
special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I
ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we
rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of
prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
``Give us strength, too, strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the
contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our
Armed Forces.
``And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear
sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever
they may be.
``And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in thee; faith in our
sons, faith in each other, faith in our united crusade. Let not the
keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary
events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment, let not these deter
us in our unconquerable purpose.
``With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our
enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies.
Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into
a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the
schemings of unworthy men, and a peace that will let all of men live in
freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
``Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.''
____________________
HAROLD ``HAL'' HART
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hare). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and passing of a
great man and a gentleman, Harold ``Hal'' Hart. He was a teacher, a
father figure, a mentor and friend to thousands across Oregon and
thousands scattered indeed around the world whose lives go on as a
testament to the goodness that Hal instilled in others.
A resident of Portland, Oregon, for most of his life, Mr. Hart lived
a life that others could only dream of. Married to his high school
sweetheart, Sally, and blessed with five daughters and eleven
grandchildren, he never missed an opportunity to see the good in
others. Nor did he miss an opportunity to bring out the best in others.
An attorney with an unabashed respect for the law, Mr. Hart worked
tirelessly to mend the shattered lives of young people. He was seen by
judges as the ``go to'' lawyer when a child was in need of help,
working pro bono to aid countless adoptions, custody cases and child
support cases. When asked why he cared so much and gave so much in this
cause, he would say that everyone has the right to a happy childhood.
Outside of his professional life, Mr. Hart continued to give of
himself. The founder and coach of Lincoln High School's Constitution
program that won 13 consecutive Oregon State championships, including
three national championships, and eight top 10 national finishes, he
not only pioneered law-related education programs in the Portland
metropolitan area, indeed, in that endeavor he was the Johnny Wooden of
his field. One of his proudest moments, it was said, was when his
students were given the opportunity to present their winning remarks to
the U.S. Supreme Court, Members of the Senate, and to then Vice
President Al Gore. Hundreds of his students have moved into the legal,
teaching, government and service professions.
A noted softball coach who established girls' softball at Ainsworth
Grade School and Lincoln High School, Hal Hart was coaching a women's
team up to the last week of his life. He was also a lifelong musician
who supported himself through high school, college and law school
playing clarinet and saxophone. As an adult, he played countless
fundraisers with his jazz combo and the Providence Hospital Stage Band.
While Mr. Hart quietly went about helping others, never asking for
anything in return except that those that he helped be good people, he
was recognized by countless organizations for the works that he did.
The effect of Hal Hart on his community and on the lives of those who
knew him cannot be overstated. He was loved by his teams and
beneficiaries, respected by his adversaries, and he will be universally
missed.
While we have lost this great Oregonian, we find solace that so many
others have been spurred on by his example. Throughout his years of
teaching, he kept framed on his desk a few lines from Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and they sum up his philosophy as follows:
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent
persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of
honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate
beauty; to find the best in others; to give of oneself; to leave the
world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a
redeemed social position; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm
and sung with exaltation; to know that one life has breathed easier
because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Mr. Speaker, Hal Hart was a success by any measure and in so many
different ways.
____________________
UNANTICIPATED GOOD RESULTS (WHEN WE LEAVE)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, good intentions frequently lead to unintended
bad consequences. Tough choices, doing what is right, often leads to
unanticipated good results.
The growing demand by the American people for us to leave Iraq
prompts the naysayers to predict disaster in the Middle East if we do.
Of course, these merchants of fear are the same ones who predicted
invading and occupying Iraq would be a slam-dunk operation, that we
would be welcomed as liberators and oil revenues would pay the bills
with minimum loss of American lives. All this hyperbole, while ignoring
the precise warnings by our intelligence community of the great
difficulties that would lie ahead.
The chaos that this pre-emptive undeclared war has created in Iraq
has allowed the al Qaeda to establish a foothold in Iraq and the
strategic interests of Iran to be served. The unintended consequences
have been numerous. A well-intentioned but flawed policy that ignored
credible warnings of how things could go awry has produced conditions
that have led to a war dominated by procrastination without victory or
resolution in sight.
Those who want a total military victory, which no one has yet
defined, don't have the troops, the money, the equipment, or the
support of a large majority of the American people to do so. Those in
Congress who have heard the cry of the electorate to end the war refuse
to do so out of fear the demagogues will challenge their patriotism and
their support for the troops. So nothing happens except more of the
same. The result is continued stalemate with the current policy and the
daily sacrifice of American lives.
This wait-and-see attitude and a promised reassessment of events in
Iraq late this summer strongly motivates the insurgents to accelerate
the killing of Americans to influence the coming decision in 3 months.
In contrast, a clear decision to leave would
[[Page 14731]]
prompt a wait-and-see attitude, a de facto cease fire, in anticipation
of our leaving; a perfect time for Iraqi factions to hold their fire on
each and on our troops and just possibly start talking with each other.
Most Americans do not anticipate a military victory in Iraq, yet the
Washington politicians remain frozen in their unwillingness to change
our policy there, fearful of the dire predictions that conditions can
only get worse if they leave. They refuse to admit the conditions of
foreign occupation is the key ingredient that unleashed the civil war
now raging in Iraq and serves as a recruiting device for al Qaeda. It
is time for a change in American foreign policy.
But what if those who were so wrong in their predictions as to the
outcome of their invasion are equally wrong about what might happen if
we leave? Unanticipated good results may well occur. There is room for
optimism. The naysayers have been wrong before and are probably going
to be wrong again.
The truth is, no one knows exactly what would happen if we leave.
Civil strife may last for a while longer, but one thing is certain, no
longer will American lives be lost. That in itself would be a blessing
and reason enough for doing so.
After we left Vietnam under dire circumstances, chaos continued, but
no more American lives were lost. But, subsequently, we and the
Vietnamese have achieved in peace what could not be achieved in war. We
now are friends. We trade with each other, and we invest in Vietnam.
The result proves the sound advice of the Founders: Trade in friendship
with all nations, entangling alliances with none. Example and
persuasion is far superior to force of arms for promoting America's
goodness.
It is claimed that we cannot leave until a new military faction is
trained to fill the vacuum. But the question is, will there really be a
vacuum, or are we talking about our proxy army being trained well
enough to continue to do battle with the very strong militias already
in place? Lack of training for the local militias has never been a
problem for them.
The real problem with our plans to train a faction of Iraqis to carry
out our plans for the Middle East is that the majority of Iraqis object
and the army trainees are not as motivated as are the members of the
various militias. The Kurds have a militia capable of maintaining order
in their region. Sadr has a huge militia that is anxious to restore
order and have us gone. The Badr brigade is trained to defend its
interests. And the Sunnis are armed and determined. Our presence only
serves to stir the pot by our troops being a target of nearly all the
groups who are positioning themselves for our anticipated departure.
After we leave, just maybe the Shiites and the Sunnis will develop an
alliance based on nationalism. They already talk of this possibility,
and it could include the Badr brigade and the Sadr militias. A
coalition like this could serve as an efficient deterrent to al Qaeda
and Iran since they all share this goal.
Al Qaeda and Iran were not influential in Iraq before the invasion
and would not be welcomed after we leave. There is cooperation now,
motivated by the shared desire of the Sunnis and the Shiites to oppose
our occupation. There's definitely a potential that the Iraqis may do
much better in dealing with their own problems than anyone can imagine
once we leave. Already there are developing coalitions of Sunni and
Shiites in the Iraqi parliament that seek this resolve.
It is claimed by some that leaving the Middle East would not serve
the interests of Israel. Israel with its nuclear arsenal is quite
capable of defending itself under all circumstances. Its dependency on
us frequently prevents it from taking action that otherwise may be in
its best interests because we do not approve of such actions. Israel's
overtures to Syria and other neighbors would not be road blocked by
U.S. policy if we left the Middle East. With us gone Israel would have
greater motivation to talk with other Arab countries as they did with
Egypt. It just may be that Israel would accept the overtures made by
the Arab League for a comprehensive peace. The Arab League might be an
acceptable alternative to the U.S. influencing policy in the region.
We're told we can't let this happen or we'll lose control of the oil
and gasoline prices will soar--exactly what has happened with our
invasion. And if the neo-conservatives have their way there will be an
attack on Iran. If that occurs, then watch what happens to the price of
oil.
No matter who ends up controlling the oil they will always have a
need for western markets. Instead of oil prices soaring with our
leaving, production may go up and prices fall A change in our foreign
policy is overdue.
____________________
WAR IS UGLY BUT TYRANNY IS UGLIER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. WAMP. I thank the speaker.
Mr. Speaker, tonight I come to the floor with several of my
colleagues over the next hour to recognize that while even tonight
we've heard these divisions on the floor from both parties and Members
in each party that have differences of opinion about Iraq and the war,
we come tonight to talk about the threats around the world that
continue to emerge, that are real.
But before we get to the discussion about those threats and global
security and the need for our country to be the leader of all of
civilization, civilized countries versus, frankly, uncivilized,
organizations, factions, even countries around the world who actually
believe that blowing themselves up somehow is right or just. This is
the struggle, and I do not think we can afford to deny the threats. I
want to start first, though, by honoring the people who are
volunteering to this very day to put themselves between the threat in
our civilian population and serve in the uniform of our Armed Forces,
first and foremost, the ones that have actually given their life for
us.
Last week, over the Memorial Day district work period, I joined the
families of two heroic East Tennesseans, one here in Washington at
Arlington National Cemetery as I left. Sergeant First Class James David
Tiger Connell, Jr., of Lake City, Tennessee, was laid to rest here in
Arlington a week ago Friday for answering the Scriptural call that ``no
greater love hath any man than to lay down his life for a friend.'' And
then on Memorial Day, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I joined the family of
Private First Class Travis Haslip from Ooltewah, Tennessee, to lay his
body to rest. Two great American heroes who joined six other heroes
from my district who have given their life for us. And contrary to what
some people say, they not only did not die in vain, they joined the
ranks of the greatest Americans ever who were willing to give their
life for the cause of freedom.
{time} 1915
They were willing to lay it all on the line for the principles that
this country holds so dear, knowing that every generation sooner or
later has to face threats like this and somebody has to go and answer
the call.
If you believe they died in vain, then many, many, many others
through other wars throughout the history of our country also did, and
I don't believe it for a second, because I know that it is those
patriotic Americans that have paid the price.
I want to honor tonight Sergeant Paul Thompson III of Jefferson City,
Tennessee; Sergeant First Class Stephen Curtis Kennedy of Oak Ridge,
Tennessee; Sergeant David Thomas Weir of Cleveland, Tennessee, and I
want to talk about his mom in a minute; Staff Sergeant Daniel M. Morris
of Clinton, Tennessee; Sergeant John Michael Sullivan of Hixon,
Tennessee; and Sergeant Terrance W. Prater of Speedwell, Tennessee.
I want to say that Jackie Weir, Sergeant David Weir's mom, wrote me a
letter which I received over the Memorial Day weekend. This incredible
mom has on the bottom of her letterhead a quote from General George S.
Patton. It says, ``It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.'' This is on her
letterhead. She gave her son for our country and its future.
This coming Monday, I will be privileged to join my nephew with the
181st
[[Page 14732]]
Field Artillery Brigade as they deploy for Iraq from Chattanooga.
Jeffrey Watts is my nephew, so a member of our family is going as well.
May God be with all of them, protect them and strengthen them.
Because, as John Stuart Mill once said, ``War is an ugly thing, but
it is not the ugliest of things.'' He said, ``The decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth
war is much worse.'' He said, ``A person who has nothing for which they
are willing to fight, nothing they care more about than their own
personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of ever
being free unless those very freedoms are made and kept by better
persons than himself.''
That is etched in my memory, because I don't believe everything John
Stewart Miller ever wrote, but I agree with that, that the alternative
to war sometimes is complete loss of freedom, and it is tyranny, and it
is terror all the time, and it is oppression. Without the courage to
fight and stand up, that is where we may end up.
It is easy to forget the timeline. I want to go through it. Then I
want to recognize the gentleman from Michigan. The timeline though goes
back a long time.
Twenty-five years ago, April, 1983: A suicide car bombing against the
U.S. Embassy in Beirut killed 63, 17 Americans.
October, 1983: A suicide car bomb attack against the U.S. Marine
barracks in Beirut kills 241 servicemen. A simultaneous attack on a
French base kills paratroopers.
November, 1984: A bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Bogota,
Colombia, kills a passerby. The attack was preceded by death threats
against U.S. official by drug traffickers.
April, 1985: A bomb explodes in a restaurant near a U.S. air base in
Madrid killing 18, wounding 82, including 15 Americans.
June, 1985: San Salvador, El Salvador, 13 people are killed in a
machine gun attack in an outdoor cafe. Four U.S. Marines and two
American businessmen.
June, 1985: A TWA airliner is hijacked over the Mediterranean, the
start of a 2-week hostage ordeal. The last 39 passengers are eventually
released in Damascus after being held in various locations in Beirut.
August, 1985: A car bomb at a U.S. military base in Frankfurt,
Germany, kills two and injures 20. A U.S. soldier murdered for identity
papers is found the day after the explosion.
October, 1985: Palestinian terrorists hijacked a cruise liner, the
Achille Lauro, in response to the Israeli attack on PLO headquarters in
Tunisia. Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly, wheelchair-bound American is
killed and thrown overboard.
November, 1985: Hijackers aboard an Egypt Air flight killed one
American. Egyptian commandoes later stormed the aircraft on the island.
Sixty people are killed.
December, 1985: Simultaneous suicide attacks are carried out against
U.S. and Israeli check-in desks at Rome and Vienna international
airports. Twenty people are killed in the two attacks, including four
terrorists.
I am going on and on. There are 44 incidents in 25 years by the
Islamic radicals. You can deny it if you want to. You can say this is
all about Iraq if you want to. But I continue.
April, 1986: A bomb destroys a West Berlin disco frequented by U.S.
servicemen, killing one American and one German woman and wounding 150,
including 44 Americans.
An explosion in April, 1986, damages a TWA flight as it prepares to
land in Athens, Greece. Four people are killed when they are sucked out
of the aircraft.
December 21, 1988: A bomb destroys Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland. All 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 are killed, including
189 Americans, as are 11 people on the ground.
February, 1993: A bomb in a van explodes in an underground parking
garage in New York's World Trade Center killing six people and wounding
over 1,000, 1993.
April, 19, 1995: A car bomb destroyed the Murrah Federal building in
Oklahoma City. This was not al Qaeda. We know what that was.
November 13, 1995: A car bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed seven
people, five of them American military and civilian advisers for the
National Guard training center.
June 25, 1996: A bomb aboard a fuel truck explodes outside a U.S. Air
Force installation in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Nineteen U.S. military
personnel are killed.
July 27, 1996: A pipe bomb explodes during the Olympic games in
Atlanta. That was also not them.
June, 1998: Rocket propelled grenades explode near the U.S. Embassy
in Beirut.
August, 1998: Terrorist bombs destroyed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi,
Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
October 12, 2000: A terrorist bomb damages the destroyer USS Cole in
the Port of Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.
September 11, 2001: It is all I need to say.
April 11, 2002: Explosions at ancient synagogue in Tunisia leaves 17
dead.
May of 2002: Car explodes outside hotel in Pakistan, killing 14.
June of 2002: Bomb explodes outside American consulate in Pakistan,
killing 12.
October of 2002: Nightclubs bombed in Bali, Indonesia, killing 202,
mostly Australians.
October suicide attack on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, killed 16.
May 4, 2003: Suicide bombers kill 34, including eight Americans, in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
May of 2003: Four bombs kill 33 people, targeting Jewish, Spanish and
Belgian sites in Casablanca.
August, 2003: Suicide car bomb kills 12, injures 150 at Marriott
Hotel in Jakarta.
November, 2003: Explosions rock Riyadh Saudi Arabia, killing 17.
November, 2003: Suicide car bombers simultaneously attack two
synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 and injuring hundreds.
March, 2004: Ten terrorist bombs explode almost simultaneously during
the morning rush hour in Madrid, Spain, killing 202 and injuring more
than 1,400.
May 29 through 31, 2004: Terrorists attacked the offices of a Saudi
oil company in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, taking foreign oil workers hostage
in nearby residential compound. Twenty-two people dead.
June, 2004: Terrorists kidnap and execute Paul Johnson, Jr., an
American in Riyadh. Nearly a week after his capture, photos of his body
are posted on an Islamic website.
December, 2004: Militants believed to be linked to al Qaeda drive up
to U.S. Embassy consulate in Saudi Arabia, storm the gates and kill
five.
July, 2005: Bombs explode on three trains in London, England, killing
52.
October, 2005: Twenty-two killed by three suicide bombers in Bali.
November, 2005: Fifty-seven killed at three American hotels in
Jordan.
March, 2006: Two residents arrested in this country, one a Georgia
Tech student.
June, 2006: Canadian plot to behead the Prime Minister and bomb the
Canadian Parliament. Seventeen arrested.
June, 2006: Florida-based plot to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago,
seven arrested.
December, 2006: Chicago area Muslim convert arrested for plotting to
attack a local mall and government buildings using grenades.
May, 2007: New Jersey-based plot to attack soldiers in Fort Dix, New
Jersey.
Last week, another huge plot exposed to cause unbelievable damage at
JFK Airport on an energy system that runs between New Jersey and New
York.
We sure better not ignore these threats. We better stand in the gap
for the next generation and quit denying that these threats are
mounting against us. I don't want our country to be the last country in
the world willing to face this reality.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan, the Chairman of
the Policy Committee here among Republican Members of the House,
Thaddeus McCotter, an expert on these issues.
[[Page 14733]]
Mr. McCOTTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Tennessee.
Mr. Speaker, amidst these tumultuous times, it is often difficult to
make sense of the stakes and the situations which confront us. But let
us be clear: America in Iraq faces the prospect of a defeat, with
consequences not only for this present generation of Americans but for
future generations of Americans as well. Unlike Vietnam, the enemy will
follow us home; and this is an enemy that is bent upon our destruction
and the death not only of ourselves but of everything we hold dear.
In similar times, as my colleague Phil English, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania, earlier read, it was the moral clarity of individuals
like President Roosevelt, who helped guide the greatest generation to
their triumph over abject evil.
This generation of Americans must retain their moral clarity to
understand what needs to be done in the perilous present to get us to a
better tomorrow. First, we need to step back and assess the situation
in Iraq. The reality in Iraq is that we have one thing left to do as a
Nation, and that job has been entrusted to our troops, who have done
everything and more that has been asked of them.
To date, Iraq is free, Iraq is sovereign, Iraq has a democratically
elected government. The people of Iraq within the government are
fighting side by side with United States forces to kill and capture al
Qaeda and other terrorists and insurgents.
And today we find ourselves struggling to attain the last goal before
our troops accomplish the mission, and that is to give the new
democracy a chance to survive in our absence. I say a chance to survive
in our absence, because no free people, including ourselves, can ever
be guaranteed that their liberty will last in perpetuity.
Did not Benjamin Franklin tell us this when he said to his fellow
patriots at the founding of our Nation, we will give you a republic, if
you can keep it.
The price of keeping that republic, or of any free nation, is eternal
vigilance, to make sure that your rights are not eroded and you are not
enslaved.
At another time in our Nation's history, when we were sorely tried
through the conflagration of war, it was President Lincoln who
understood that a war for secession had become a war for the
emancipation of an entire race so that our Nation could have a new
birth of freedom.
What we find in the Middle East today as we struggle to accomplish
the last task in this mission is that our war for terror has been
transformed into the war for the emancipation of millions of Muslims,
so that the Middle East and our world can have a new birth of freedom.
If we, as a nation conceived in liberty, who have seen the sorrowful
sacrifice of so many of our sons and daughters throughout our history
to retain that liberty, determine to turn our backs upon people we have
given a cruel sip of freedom to before we abandon them, we must ask
ourselves two questions: What do we as a nation believe anymore about
ourselves and the inalienable truths upon which we were founded; and
what manner of dedication can we portray to the world and to ourselves
as to its preservation?
{time} 1930
And then we must ask ourselves a very cruel question: What other
nascent democracies under terrorist attack will the United States
abandon? Because that is the question that the enemy wants us to
confront in what they are doing in Iraq.
If the United States is defeated in Iraq, and make no mistake, with
the euphemisms that are bandied about, if we leave we lose, and the
terrorists will remind us of this. The gutter snipe, Osama bin Laden,
will be more than happy to proclaim it through every Internet site and
every broadcast media available to him and his ilk for domestic
American consumption.
If we leave and are defeated in Iraq, everything that the enemy has
done in Iraq will be transferred to Afghanistan. Already, as we found
out earlier today, we have seen the hand of the Iranians in putting
exploding devices and other material to support the Taliban insurgents
against the NATO forces and our own U.S. troops who are part of that
coalition.
Let us not forget that it was in Afghanistan that al Qaeda, and
especially bin Laden and others, learned to kill as they chased the
Soviets out through measures that they are now applying in Iraq and
Afghanistan. And let us not forget that an emboldened enemy will then,
on much more familiar ground where the al Qaeda was housed before the
attacks of September 11, it will prove a much more fertile ground for
their incipient brand of insurgency, which we will have already been
unable to quell in Iraq, which will now devolve into chaos and prove a
safe haven for those who wish to kill us.
But let us not forget, we have one thing left to do in Iraq. That is
why it is so bloody, that is why it is so bitter, and that is why it is
so frustrating to the vast majority of Americans. But if we maintain
our prudence and perseverance and clarity, we can see this through
until the mission is accomplished. We can see that the United States,
which is a revolutionary experiment in human freedom, can remember the
lesson that Lincoln taught us: When we extend liberty to the enslaved,
we ensure liberty for ourselves. President Lincoln understood that
liberty is not static. It does not remain in a perpetual stasis where
we can enjoy our liberty while others have it denied unto them.
If freedom is advancing or eroding in the course of human events, let
us rededicate ourselves not only to accomplishing the mission in Iraq
and Afghanistan so that our world can experience a new birth of
freedom, let us rededicate ourselves to the proposition that we who are
born into freedom also bear the responsibility where we can to extend
liberty to those who also yearn to breathe free, as do all of God's
creatures.
Mr. WAMP. I thank the gentleman.
We all desire a better course in Iraq. We all desire changes, not
just General Petraeus' leadership and the increase in security forces
from our country necessary to prevail in Iraq, but even more regional
cooperation, and some of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group so
that people in this country will truly recognize, especially in the
Congress, that this is not our President's war. This is our country's
war. This is our country's fight.
Now a very prominent person from my State wrote a book called ``The
Inconvenient Truth.'' He wrote it about the environment, but I have to
say tonight on the floor of the House that a bigger inconvenient truth
than the one he wrote about is the inconvenient truth that is lost
around here a lot, that over half of the Democratic Members of the
United States Senate and almost half of the United States House of
Representatives voted to remove Saddam Hussein by force. Now, many
people are running from that commitment and decision, but it is an
inconvenient truth that they said it needed to be done and they
committed us to doing it. And we went as a nation and there was not
that much criticism as there is now, but it is convenient to blame or
cast aspersions or to say that intelligence went wrong instead of
accepting the responsibility that we removed a genocidal mass murderer
from the world stage in an important time in the history of the Middle
East and an important time in the history of the world.
I have two pages, and I am not going to go through these quotes like
I did the time line, but two pages of quotes from the most prominent
leaders in the Democratic Party in this country saying why Saddam
Hussein had to be removed by force.
The quotes I will go through tonight, though, are from the terrorists
themselves because I think they must be quoted so we understand what
they are doing.
Zawahiri, al Qaeda's top leader in the region now, we don't know
where Osama bin Laden is, but Zawahiri said, ``The jihad movement is
growing and rising. It reached its peak with the two blessed raids on
New York and Washington. And now it is waging a great heroic battle in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and even the crusaders' own homes.''
[[Page 14734]]
Al Manar said, ``Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the
Great Satan, America, is absolute. Regardless of how the world has
changed after September 11, death to America will remain our
reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.''
Zarqawi said, ``They are aware that if this Islamic giant wakes up,
it will not be satisfied with less than the gates of Rome, Washington,
Paris, and London.''
Bin Laden's top lieutenant said, ``The fire has not and will not be
put out, and our swords, which have been colored with your blood, are
thirsty for more of your rotting heads.''
The leader of Hezbollah said, ``We have discovered how to hit the
Jews where they are most vulnerable. The Jews love life; so that is
what we shall take from them. We are going to win because they love
life and we love death.''
Zawahiri said, ``Knights under the prophet's banner, al Qaeda's most
important short-term strategic goal is to seize control of the state,
or part of a state, somewhere in the Muslim world.'' He wrote,
``Confronting the enemies of Islam and launching jihad against them
require a Muslim authority established on Muslim land. Without
achieving this, our actions will mean nothing.''
Osama bin Laden said, ``The whole world is watching this war and the
two adversaries. It is either victory and glory or misery and
humiliation.''
Osama bin Laden has said, ``The most important and serious issue
today for the world is this Third World War.'' That's what he said.
``It is raging in the land of the two rivers, Iraq. The world's
millstone and pillar is in Baghdad, the capital of the caliphate.''
These are the words of jihad.
Before yielding to the gentlewoman from North Carolina, I would like
to encourage people to open a book called ``America Alone'' by Mark
Steyn. The gentlewoman has just finished the book. It is on our reading
list as we are trying to educate Members of the House on the threats.
We all know you can't believe everything you read. But if you do your
homework and you follow people who do their research, reading is the
best way to understand this threat.
Let me say first, I am for pluralism. Every religious view is
welcomed in this country, period. We are tolerant. It is a tenet of our
foundation, religious pluralism is the American way. We do not believe
in theocracy. It doesn't come with freedom, not our way. But let me say
tonight, and this may not be popular in some quarters, that is not the
Muslim way today. It is not.
The Islamists, the radicals, are insulated within Islam and they are
not being challenged by the rest of Islam. And they call for a global
sharia. That is Islamic rule. There were challenges all around the
world right now about whether Islamic law, their law, a theocratic
system, trumps the laws of any country, including this country. And if
you don't think this is infiltrating most of the countries around the
world, you are not paying any attention. This threat is growing and
rising.
All you have to do is study the demographics that are articulated in
this book and you realize that countries like our and Japan and Russia,
they are actually declining in population. Our country is barely
growing. The most rapid growth in the world is among the Muslim
countries. Sheer demographics overtake us if the radicals continue to
be insulated within Islam and not challenged because the numbers are
exponential in terms of how many people are now willing to kill
themselves for a cause. I could spend the rest of the night going
through the latest statistics which ought to shock every American, that
26 or 30 percent, depending on two different questions, of Muslims in
this country, many of whom are citizens, believe it is acceptable, this
is scientific polling 2 weeks ago, it is acceptable to blow yourself up
for a cause. That's a problem. I have to tell you, that is not
acceptable in this country.
It is not acceptable that jihadism is fashionable or a way of life.
How many people in the Muslim world now think that 9/11 was justified.
I have to tell you, America is not perfect, we have made mistakes; but
anybody in the world who apologizes for our country is wrong.
And these apologists who somehow blame us for what happened are
wrong. Many others are here to speak. I yield to the gentlewoman from
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Wamp for
organizing this hour tonight and bringing together a group of folks who
have similar feelings to his. I see several of my colleagues have
joined us and so I won't take a lot of time. It is always hard to
follow such eloquent speakers as Congressman McCotter and Congressman
Wamp. They are both eloquent people, and I am pleased to be with them
to add my few comments.
As Congressman Wamp has said, I have been reading ``America Alone.''
I want to recommend it. It is written by Mark Steyn, S-T-E-Y-N. It is
an excellent book. It is very, very readable, and it is very, very
frightening.
As Congressman Wamp said, if you don't do anything but pay attention
to the demographics, you will have your attention gotten by this book.
As he indicated, the United States of America is the only western
country that is replacing itself in terms of population. It takes a
birth rate of 2.1 to replace the population. What is happening in
Canada, which I wasn't aware of, Canada has a birth rate of about 1.3
right now, 1.4. All of the European countries have birth rates of 1.3,
1.4, 1.2. Their populations are going to be cut in half within 35
years. That is something that has never happened in the history of
humanity. Their populations are going to be cut in half; and yet the
Muslim populations are growing anywhere from 4.7 percent to over 7
percent which means their populations are going to double in a very
short period of time. And fairly soon, all of Europe is going to be
predominantly Muslim.
The title of the book, ``America Alone,'' we are going to be the only
country in the free world that is increasing our population of people
with western ideals, western religions and western thought. That is
something we really have to be thinking about.
I have been troubled, and I have spoken about this before, about
statements that have been made by Democrats in this body when we talk
about the war that we are in. They talk about failure. They talk about
it being an impossible situation. Well, I want to try to tie this in to
what Congressman McCotter was saying.
When I meet with people and they ask me about the, quote, ``war in
Iraq,'' I quickly say to them as kindly and as nicely as I can, we are
not in a war in Iraq, we are in a war for the freedom of this country
and the freedom of the world. If we lose this war, we are losing to
radical jihadists who see that we have only two choices. We either
convert to becoming Muslims or we should be killed.
Now as Congressman Wamp says, we believe in pluralism in this
country. We believe in inviting people to come to this country, worship
as they please, but not to come here and try to impose their idea,
their radical idea of the world on us. So I think it is very important
that we all do that. We understand this is a war for freedom.
{time} 1945
This country is the beacon of freedom in the world, and failure is
simply not possible.
I am very troubled again by the talk by Senators in the Democratic
party who say the war is lost. It cannot be lost again. If it is, then
we will go out of existence as a society and as a culture. We can't do
that.
We know that we're fighting against extremists. There's Sunnis,
there's Shias and there's al Qaeda and their intent to fortify their
influence in the Middle East and expand beyond it.
The Democrats have claimed that a recently declassified National
Intelligence Estimate concluded that the war in Iraq has made the war
on terror more difficult to win, even though the terrorists see the war
in Iraq and the war against terrorists as one and the same. They see it
that way. We do not.
But the NIE actually concluded that, should Jihadists be perceived to
have
[[Page 14735]]
failed in their efforts to undermine democracy in Iraq, ``fewer
fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.''
So we have to defeat the terrorists. We have to defeat them not only
in Iraq but in Afghanistan, in New York City, in New Jersey, anywhere
that we find them. Because that is our mission, and that is what we're
here for. If we don't want to see freedom and our way of life
destroyed, then it's our responsibility to do that.
And I will tell you that I am not going to allow the brave men and
women who are fighting to maintain our freedom to think that all
Members of Congress have no backbone and are weak-kneed and look only
to political advantage. I want them to know that there's some Members
of Congress who appreciate what they're doing, who understand the
sacrifice that they're making and understand the consequences of our
winning or losing.
Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman.
One of the most articulate and knowledgeable Members of the U.S.
House of Representatives on radical Islam is Representative Trent
Franks from Arizona, and I yield to him.
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. As usual,
he's always more kind than he should be.
Mr. Speaker, today, as we embrace the grave responsibility of
discussing an issue that will have a profound impact on future American
generations, it seems very appropriate to remind ourselves of the ideal
that gave birth to the United States in the very first place. We hold
these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It puts us all on even ground, Mr. Speaker, but, whether we realize
it or not, most of the important discussions in this Chamber, including
the one in this moment, center around whether we still believe those
words.
In these hours, America finds herself at war with an inexpressibly
dangerous ideology that is the antithesis of those words and everything
that is the American ideal. What concerns me most, Mr. Speaker, is that
this is a war between an ideology that is committed to the death and
destruction of freedom and the subjugation of the entire world and is
one waged against the world's free people who still remain primarily
asleep.
Mr. Speaker, this ideological war did not begin on 9/11. It began
many years ago when certain Muslim extremists embraced a divergent
Islamist dogma that dictates that all infidels must die. It was called
then, as it should be now, Jihad.
This is the same Jihadist ideology that murdered Israeli athletes in
1972; that took American hostages in Iran; that murdered Marines in
their barracks in 1983; that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993,
Riyadh in 1995, the Khobar towers in 1996, the embassy in 1998, the
U.S.S. Cole in 2000; and that brutally murdered scores of little
children on their opening day of school in Beslan, Russia. And then,
Mr. Speaker, this same dark ideology massacred nearly 3,000 Americans
on September 11.
The ideology of Islamist Jihad leads to the practice of decapitating
humanitarians with hacksaws on television while the victims scream for
mercy. Just last month, one of those most recent videos on the Internet
showed a member of the Taliban beheading a man accused of spying. That
member of the Taliban was 12 years old.
Mr. Speaker, that is a wake-up call to this planet if we will only
listen. This same hatred causes Islamic Jihadists to cowardly hide
behind women and children while launching rockets deliberately
targeting innocent civilians, and continually breaking treaties of
peace, and forcing children to blow themselves to pieces to effect the
murder of other innocents, and all this while their mothers scream for
joy.
As we anticipate future actions of the Jihadists, we should consider,
as Mr. Wamp has so eloquently said earlier today, the words of the
terrorists themselves. And at the risk of repeating some of the things
that Congressman Wamp said, I believe that these kinds of words are so
important for America and for the people in this body to hear.
Al Qaeda's Al-Zawahiri said this. He said, ``The Jihad movement is
growing and rising. It reached its peak with the two blessed raids on
New York and Washington. And now it is waging a great heroic battle in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and even within the Crusaders' own
homes.''
Al-Manar said on BBC, ``Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility
to the Great Satan, America, is absolute. Regardless of how the world
has changed after 11 September, Death to America will remain our
reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.''
Al-Zarqawi said this of America's leaders, ``They are aware that if
the Islamic giant wakes up it will not be satisfied with less than the
gates of Rome, Washington, Paris, and London.''
Al-Muhajir, Osama bin Laden's latest lieutenant in Iraq, said this.
He said, ``The fire has not and will not be put out and our swords,
which have been colored with your blood, are thirsty for more of your
rotting heads.''
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said this, ``We have
discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The
Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are
going to win because they love life and we love death.''
Mr. Speaker, then we hear Democrats in this body say things like,
``The savagery of the terrorists is not relevant,'' or even the most
senior Democrat in this House is quoted as saying, ``I don't take sides
for or against Hezbollah, or for or against Israel.'' The senior
Democrat in the other body said, ``This war is lost.''
Mr. Speaker, that kind of blind relativism that deliberately ignores
all truth and equates merciless terrorism with free nations defending
themselves and their innocent citizens is more dangerous to humanity
than terrorism itself, and it is proof that liberals completely
misunderstand the enemy that we face.
Osama bin Laden's deputy, Al-Zawahiri, said this. He made it clear in
his book, Knights Under the Prophet's Banner, al Qaeda's most important
short-term strategic goal is to seize control of a state, or part of a
state, somewhere in the Muslim world. He wrote, ``Confronting the
enemies of Islam and launching Jihad against them require a Muslim
authority, established on Muslim land. Without achieving this goal, our
actions will mean nothing.''
For God's sake, I hope we're listening to people like that. Mr.
Speaker, such a Jihadist state would be the ideal launching pad for
future attacks on the West.
Bin Laden himself has stated, ``The whole world is watching this war
and the two adversaries. It's either victory and glory, or misery and
humiliation.''
Mr. Speaker, the terrorists regard Iraq as their central front in
their war against humanity; and if we're to understand our enemy and
this war, we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war
against Jihad. Our courageous and noble soldiers understand that, and
our enemy certainly understands that.
Osama bin Laden himself said, ``The most important and serious issue
today for the whole world is this Third World War. It is raging in the
land of the two rivers, Iraq. The world's millstone and pillar is in
Baghdad, the capital of the caliphate.''
Mr. Speaker, if Democrats are correct that this struggle in Iraq is
not crucial to winning the war against Islamist Jihad, then for God's
sake I wish they would explain that to the terrorists, because they
don't understand it.
Brink Lindsey put this all succinctly. He said, ``Here is the grim
truth: We are only one act of madness away from a social cataclysm
unlike anything our country has ever known. After a handful of such
acts, who knows what kind of civilizational breakdown might be in
store?''
Mr. Speaker, we simply cannot deny that we are fighting a war against
an insidiously dangerous and evil ideology that is bent on the
destruction of the
[[Page 14736]]
Western World, and they would like nothing better than to decapitate
this country by detonating a nuclear blast 100 yards from here. To
allow Jihadists to declare victory in Iraq will serve only to hasten
such a day.
The free nations of the world once had opportunity to address the
insidious rise of the Nazi ideology in its formative years when it
could have been dispatched without great cost. But they delayed, and
the result was atomic bombs falling on cities in the world, 50 million
people dead worldwide, and the swastika's shadow nearly plunging the
planet into Cimmerian night.
Mr. Speaker, Jihadists believe they have a critical advantage over
the free world. They believe their will is stronger than ours and that
they need only to persevere; and, Mr. Speaker, the words of neutrality
and retreat have only encouraged them in that belief.
We must realize that this is a war that is fundamentally a battle
between good and evil, between light and darkness, between individual
freedom and totalitarian repression; and we must realize that our enemy
is absolutely blinded with an absolute hate for all the Western World.
They also recognize that America is the flagship of human freedom,
and if America allows terrorists to conquer us both on the battlefield
and in our will to fight the result will be that humanity will be left
to face a future that is dark beyond expression.
Mr. Speaker, I think that probably Ronald Reagan could close this in
the best way. He said to our soldiers who nobly fought in Vietnam,
``Let us tell those who fought in that war that we will never again ask
young men to fight and possibly die in a war our government is afraid
to win.''
And I'm afraid sometimes that we forget the heroism of the past. So
let me just close with a prayer that one of our great Presidents,
Franklin Roosevelt, said many years ago, as today we mark the 63rd
anniversary of the D-Day invasion to liberate Europe from Hitler's
fascism. U.S. forces alone sustained over 6,500 casualties in that 1
day, twice what we've endured in 5 years in Iraq. Knowing the gravity
of the operation, Franklin Roosevelt, one of the Nation's most liberal
Presidents, said and allow me to close in those words:
``Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon
a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion,
and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. They fight
not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to
liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill
among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their
return to the haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these,
Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom. And
for us at home, fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and
brothers of brave men overseas, help us, Almighty God, to rededicate
ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons;
faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Thy will be done,
Almighty God. Amen.''
Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
Every Member of this body has an obligation to do their best to share
their beliefs in what they think we face with the American people and
their constituents. I believe that this problem in Iraq that we've got
to do better with is not the end of this at all.
For some reason, God spared us again with the JFK plot and allowed us
to actually interdict that before another September 11 or even worse
happened. For some reason, He granted us grace, but it is a matter of
time, given the conflicts that we face.
To the people, this Iraq conflict is a chapter in the war that is
mounted against us, and it's not the end, anymore than the first
bombing in 1993 of the World Trade Center was the end. We denied that
it happened, but we weren't willing to address it, and September 11
happened. But Iraq is no different in the long-term conflict which is a
generational struggle with radical Islam.
____________________
{time} 2000
HISTORY AND THE WAR IN IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hare). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) will
control the remaining 12 minutes.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that, and I appreciate
the gentleman from Tennessee for organizing this special order tonight.
As I had the privilege to sit here on the floor and listen to each of
the speakers, it was a good education for me to listen to the eloquent
voices that stand up so well and speak for defending our freedom.
To take us towards the to the point towards conclusion of this hour,
it is hard to pick up on that tone that was left by Mr. Franks of
Arizona, the understanding of over 6,000 casualties on that first day.
I presume that they were those killed in action on that day, and on D-
Day landing on Omaha Beach and on Utah Beach and on other points there
in Europe. That is a place and a location that will always live in the
history of this country. It is a place of glory. It is a place where
freedom was begun to spread back across Europe.
As I look at that, and I see these 60-some years hence the D-Day
landing, I can't help but think that those countries in Europe that
have experienced freedom the longest seems to hang on to that freedom
the least, and those countries in Europe, particularly eastern Europe,
that have lived under tyranny the most recently, seem to want to grasp
that freedom and hang on to it and fight for it and defend it more
aggressively.
That is reflected, I think, in the troops that are part of our
coalition troops in Iraq. In one of my trips over there, I found myself
standing with a British general down in Basra. I looked around his
headquarters there, and I exempt the Brits from that definition,
because they have been tenacious and stood with us in Iraq and other
places around the world, but as I looked around, the uniforms and the
national flags that were on the shoulders of the coalition groups,
Great Britain there, Australia there, Romanians there, there were
Danish soldiers there, Bulgarian soldiers there, as I recall, and the
list went on.
If I remember right, it was eight different countries represented at
those headquarters. I just gathered them together at random, lined them
up and stood there and had their picture taken so that I could go back
and reference which countries were represented.
But it surely appeared to me that the nations that had lived most
recently behind the iron curtain, the one that had the least experience
with freedom, were the ones that were the most likely to be there
serving with and defending us and defending the freedoms of the people
of Iraq and helping with the liberation that is there. That does not
take away from the commitments that we have seen on the part of the
British, and especially the Australians. They will let me know always
that they have been with us in every war, and sometimes they beat us
there. So I count them among our best friends and our best allies.
But here we are, with a debate that is going on continually here on
the floor of this Congress. The questions that come to mind, as I
listen to this discussion, I have to ask this question, what do
liberals think? What are they thinking about? How can they draw a
conclusion that somehow, even though Iraq is the central front in the
war on terror, and that al Qaeda has streamed into Iraq to fight us
there, in a way, a lot like the bug light. It is attractive, millions
of them have been killed. They were captured and taken out on the field
of battle there in Iraq. I would a lot rather have it there than here,
and so would the American people.
But how can one argue that the war against terror is not in Iraq, it
is anywhere else where they might be. We listened to the gentleman from
Tennessee go through a long place of places around the world where the
Islamic terrorists have attacked, a lot of times, free people. With
that list, you have to
[[Page 14737]]
know that this is a global war. These jihadists are attacking people,
not like them, and their belief that they could expand, they should
expand the caliphate at least around Western Europe and to the United
States and presumably to the rest of the world, how can one conclude
then that you would take a place off the map that has been paid for
with the blood of American patriots, coalition force patriots and the
blood of Iraqis, and the treasure, and say we are going to give it up.
We have liberated it. We have earned it, we have paid for it, and,
now, we are going to give it up and hand it over to the terrorists
because the war on terror is not in Iraq, even though Osama bin Laden
believed it was there, and al Zarqawi believed it was there and al
Zawahiri believes it is there.
It is obvious, General Petraeus has told us over and other again,
that's where the central front is. In fact, Speaker Pelosi conceded
that same point in one of her remarks here in a failed attempt to
override one of the President's vetoes on one of their unconstitutional
appropriations bills, but Iraq is the central front in the war on
terror.
To argue that we should pull out of there and let that country become
whatever it would become, and that would be the off limits, safe ground
and territory for al Qaeda to set up shop, because, politically, it was
a good argument to make.
All right, I can't follow that rationale, I can't follow that. If it
is logical, someone has got to explain that to me. So we have a liberal
approach to this. It is a law enforcement problem. Yes, we should go
after Osama bin Laden in the mountains between Afghanistan and
Pakistan, and we should do that.
But we can fight this war on many fronts. We are a nation that can do
that. Before this is over, we will have to do it in many places
simultaneously. But we dare not walk away from this country that we
pitched our future with. It was the right decision to go in there. I
regret we had to.
The President didn't have a choice, and honest historians will write
that into the history books. But if we should walk away from there now,
under any kind of ruse or under any kind of an excuse, they will claim
victory, and, you would see, not just sectarian violence and the
devastating bloodshed that would come from that until such time a
dictator emerges, it can rule that part of the world, that's not the
worst of things. It is a bad thing, but it's not the worst of things.
What I believe you would see happen is the Sunni triangle would
become the haven for the al Qaeda terrorists. They would set up shop
there, unchallenged. We wouldn't have a way to go in and challenge
them, because if we're not willing to take them out and keep them out
of there now, why would we ever have the will to go in and take them
out later. You know that the price would be higher, but the will
wouldn't be materialized.
So I believe al Qaeda takes over the Sunni triangle, and that would
be the base of their operations, and they would seek to expand that
base of operations. But, worse than that, as you have right now, you
have Iranians fighting a proxy war against the United States in Iraq,
and in Afghanistan.
In fact, the motion to recommit with instructions that Mr. Pence
offered today illustrated how Iran is engaging themselves into the
operations and in the support of the Taliban and Afghanistan. But they
have been engaged in this proxy war against the United States in Iraq
for 2\1/2\ or perhaps 3 years.
So if we were to pull out of there, you would see the hegemony of the
Iranians go into the Shi'a regions and the influence of that, get
entrenched further in the Shi'a regions of Iraq. Those regions control
70 to 80 percent of Iraq's oil. That would put Iran in control of the
oil in that region, and the Strait of Hormuz, through which 42.6
percent of the world's export oil supply flows.
They would be in a position to decide when their treasure chest is
full of oil money, when they have purchased enough scientists and
enough nuclear capability and when they have developed enough delivery
capability to terrorize the rest of the world and attack the rest of
the world with their nuclear capability, pick their time, shut down or
shut off, I call it the valve at the Strait of Hormuz, the place where
the oil has to flow through. Through that strait, they can control the
economy of the world.
If that valve is shut down, that sends the United States, the effect
of the cost of our oil price is going through the roof, $3 a gallon gas
would be cheap if that would happen. That would put the United States
into at least a recession, probably a depression.
China would follow us. They are starved for the energy the same way,
and their economy is linked to ours. If we catch a cold, they sneeze,
because they sell so much product to us. The biggest losers in this
would be the United States, China. The biggest winners, Iran in their
hegemony; and the Russians who have more oil than they know what to do
with.
That's why Putin is opposed to our operations there, and that's why
we are getting a lot of grief out of Putin. This outfit over here says
somehow says we shouldn't fight this in Iraq. The worst scenarios are
the ones that I have talked about, and I anticipate a nuclear Iran, an
Iran that is committed to annihilating Israel, and an Iran that is
committed to annihilating the United States.
That's the rationale that we are dealing with here. I wonder if they
can actually think through this. But I also wonder why anyone would
think that the voters have hired 535 liberal generals to micromanage a
global war on terror. In fact, I'd ask anyone in this Chamber, come
down, and I will yield time to you, and you tell me, name me a single
general that was a liberal, a successful liberal general throughout all
the history of the world.
I defy you to name one, there isn't one. One has never existed. One
will never exist. Liberal generals don't succeed, 535 micromanaging
liberal generals certainly don't succeed. It's not Congress' business
to micro manage war. It's our job to fund them and support them and
equip our troops, field an Army and a Navy, and declare a war if the
situation calls for it. We haven't done so since World War II.
That's our job in this Congress, and that's our constitutional
limitations. We need to live by those limitations and not be busting
our buttons believing that we can do something here that isn't getting
done, maybe, to the satisfaction of the people on that side of the
aisle or mine, for that matter.
But there is a tremendous amount at stake, and it is more than the
lives that have been invested so far, those that have been lost so far.
God bless them for that. Zach Wamp spoke well to that, but the destiny
of America and the destiny of the free world and the destiny of western
civilization are all on the line matched up against a belief that they
are going to restore a caliphate and renew a 100 year-old conflict that
has been taking place here in the war, here in the world for hundreds
of years.
We have a western civilization belief, we believe in freedom, this
has been a country that has been founded on Judeo-Christian principles.
That's some of the foundation of our strength, free enterprise market
economy is another one, belief in the rule of law, and the foundational
principles that we have in this Constitution, all tied together, all at
risk, all matched up against people that don't believe in freedom,
people that believe in death, people that execute homosexuals and
female adulteresses, by the way.
Many people on this side of the aisle have a different belief system.
I don't know why they would want to ally themselves with the interests
of those who want to restore the caliphate, stone women and execute
homosexuals and destroy your freedom and your freedom of religion. All
of that is tied up in the risk of this.
____________________
FIND WAYS TO COME TOGETHER ON IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from New
[[Page 14738]]
York (Mr. Israel) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, tonight we do something different. Tonight
we may do something that may even be unprecedented. Tonight I am joined
on the floor of the House by my distinguished gentleman and my partner
from Long Island, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop) and we will
be joined by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) and the
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Maryland
(Mr. Gilchrest) and perhaps others.
Tonight, for the first time that I know of, Republicans and Democrats
take to the floor of the House to discuss Iraq, but not to criticize
one another about Iraq, not to beat each other up about Iraq, not to
cast aspersions and blame about Iraq, not to talk about what divides us
on Iraq, but to find ways to come together on Iraq.
I don't think that's happened before on this floor, but I do believe
that the American people have an unquenchable thirst for Democrats and
Republicans not to take the time of this Congress for sloganeering and
name calling and the impugning of motives, but to take the time of this
Congress to have an intellectual debate over those issues, to take the
time of Congress to really honor those troops and our veterans, and to
discuss not what is left and what is right, but to discuss the way
forward.
The gentleman from New York knows that every time the people from our
districts and the American people tune into C-SPAN, what they see are
Republicans and Democrats arguing and fighting and criticizing,
attacking each other's ideas, impugning each other's patriotism,
impugning each other's motives. Tonight is different, because we are
not going to discuss what separates us and divides us, but we are going
to discuss what, in fact, can unite us.
War in Iraq has caused an outbreak of war on floor of the House of
Representatives, and tonight we declare a ceasefire. For me, this is
not just a professional obligation, but, for me, it is personal, for
two reasons.
The first is that several days ago I made a phone call to the father
of Matthew Baylis. He was killed in Iraq last week. It was small arms
fire in Baghdad. I have no idea whether Matthew Baylis himself was a
Democrat or a Republican or an independent or perhaps not registered to
vote.
{time} 2015
I don't care. I do believe that Matthew Baylis would want Republicans
and Democrats to come together to talk about the way forward; that
Matthew Baylis and those like him, who died in the service of his
country, would want us to spend more of our time talking about moving
our country forward than moving our country to the left or the right.
And the second reason that this is personal for me, Mr. Speaker, is
because it's being organized by the House Center Aisle Caucus, which is
a bipartisan group of 50 Democrats and Republicans who have come
together, based on certain propositions. The first proposition is, we
can disagree agreeably; that we can state our differences without
calling each other names; that we can debate the issues without having
this Chamber sound like a fourth grade elementary school auditorium
that's run amok.
And the other premise of the Center Aisle Caucus, Mr. Speaker, is
that Democrats and Republicans will disagree on perhaps as much as 70
percent of the issues, which means we have a fundamental obligation to
agree on the 30 percent that's left.
The problem is that even when we agree we haven't moved forward,
because we've allowed our disagreements to paralyze areas where we, in
fact, have consensus. And so the Center Aisle Caucus, which was
sponsored, actually which was founded by the gentleman from Illinois,
Congressman Tim Johnson, and me and the gentlewoman from Missouri,
Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, and the gentleman from Kansas (Mr.
Moore), the Center Aisle Caucus has been meeting on an ongoing basis to
find areas of agreement. We recently met with the ambassador from Iraq
to the United States, and he gave us some ideas.
Before I yield time to my friend from New York, I just want to focus
on some of the principles that we do agree on.
If you would listen to the debate here on the floor of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Speaker, you would think that there are actually
Members of Congress who want us to lose in Iraq. There's not a single
Member of Congress who wants us to lose in Iraq.
If you listen to the debate on the floor of the House, Mr. Speaker,
you would think that there are actually Members of Congress who do not
care about the lives lost in Iraq. There is not a single Member of
Congress who has a callous disregard for the lives lost in Iraq.
You would think that there are two types of Members of Congress,
either Members of Congress who want defeat or Members of Congress who
want to be in Iraq forever. I don't know of a single Member of Congress
who supports either option.
The fact of the matter is we are not the enemies, Democrats and
Republicans. Americans aren't the enemies. The enemies are the people
that we're fighting, and we need to focus on this.
And the Center Aisle Caucus has gathered and has endorsed several
principles that we're going to discuss tonight, and I'll run through
them quickly and then yield my time to the gentleman from New York.
Here are the shared principles that Democrats and Republicans who are
interested in finding common ground have articulated:
Number one, we support our Armed Forces. We want to make sure they
have adequate force protection. We want to make sure they have
everything they need to keep them safe and keep them sound, and we want
to bring them home as fast as possible.
Number two, we want to take care of our veterans. And I am so proud
to announce on this floor tonight that earlier today the Appropriations
Committee, which I have the privilege of serving on, unanimously,
Republicans and Democrats, Democrats and Republicans, passed a $109.2
billion package that addresses the critical health care and housing
needs for our veterans. $18 billion above last year's level and $4
billion more than the President requested, and I hope that he will not
veto that bill.
Our bill includes $87.7 billion in crucial funding for the Department
of Veterans Affairs, which is a $6.7 billion increase in discretionary
funding over last year's level. That is the largest single increase in
the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration.
Our bill addresses the backlog in claims by adding 1,000 new claims
processors, and that's going to help veterans who now wait an average
of 177 days for the benefits they deserve. I am very proud that
Democrats and Republicans today in the Appropriations Committee voted
to take care of our veterans.
We agree that we need to secure Iraq's borders because there are too
many reports that Syria and Iran are sending fighters and equipment and
technology over those borders to make the situation in Iraq even worse,
not resisting Iraq's sovereignty, and threatening our troops and Iraqi
civilians.
We agree that we need to stand up Iraqi security forces because we
cannot be there for a prolonged period of time. I would imagine that we
all agree that we've all been there too long already, and so we need to
find ways to stand up Iraq security forces, and we're going to discuss
that tonight.
We agree that there's a need for regional change. We agree that the
Middle East is a very dangerous place in the world, and we need to
transform it, using all the tools in our toolbox, from a place where
children are taught how to blow things up to a place where children are
taught how to put things together.
We agree that Iran needs to be responsible, and we need to engage
Iran with the carrot and the stick. And we're pleased that the
administration, which had resisted having any talks
[[Page 14739]]
with Iran with respect to what is happening in Iraq, in fact, held
those talks recently.
And, finally, we want to defeat al Qaeda, and we are prepared to use
all the tools in our toolbox to do that. Because it was al Qaeda in
Afghanistan that launched the attacks on the United States which killed
hundreds of Long Islanders, those represented by myself and those
represented by the distinguished gentleman from Long Island, from New
York's First Congressional District, Mr. Bishop.
And on that I would be privileged to yield time to my colleague, the
gentleman from New York.
Mr. BISHOP of New York. I thank Congressman Israel for yielding, and
I also thank him for organizing this special order, something I think
that is long overdue. And let me also thank my friend and colleague
from New York's Second Congressional District for his leadership role
in the Center Aisle Caucus.
In a Congress that is, at times, bitterly divided along partisan
lines, and that partisanship obscures the kind of discussion that we
need to have on this issue as well as so many other issues, the Center
Aisle Caucus stands for civility. It stands for honest and reasoned
debate, and it stands for shared decision making. I say qualities that
are often in short supply in this Chamber but qualities that are
desperately needed, both in this Chamber and in our country.
Let me also start by offering my deepest sympathy and condolences to
the family of Specialist James Lundin of Bellport in the First
Congressional District, who also gave his life last week in Iraq. He
represents, as you know, the 26th Long Islander to lose his or her life
in the service of our great country in Iraq. His wake was today, and he
will be buried tomorrow in Calverton National Cemetery.
And like you, Congressman Israel, I called his father on Monday, and
I spoke with his father. And one of the things that struck me was the
remarkable dignity with which he and his family were dealing with what
has to be unspeakable pain. It is that kind of dignity that we need to
honor in the way we do our jobs, and it is that kind of dignity that we
need to bring to what will hopefully be a fruitful discussion of how we
move forward in Iraq.
And, as I say, this kind of debate is a debate that must take place.
It must be an honest debate; and it must be a debate that, above all,
is absent in the often inflammatory and pejorative characterizations of
those who offer differing views. And we all engage, at one time or
another, in these inflammatory characterizations.
As you said, Congressman Israel, there is not a soul in this Chamber
that does not support our troops. And, in fact, the evidence of that is
over the course, the 4\1/2\ year course of this conflict, the fact that
with overwhelming bipartisan majorities we have consistently given the
troops each and every dime that this administration has asked for them
and in some cases increased the amounts of money that we will make
available to them.
We all want us to succeed in Iraq, in Afghanistan. We may have
differing versions or different interpretations of what constitutes
success, but that, again, is the kind of debate that ought to take
place in a healthy and vibrant democracy.
But the debate thus far has been compromised, as you and others well
know, when those of us who think that a time line is something that we
ought to seriously consider. When that time line is characterized as a
surrender date, that obscures the kind of discussion that we need to
have.
When those of us who believe that we must change course in Iraq, when
that is characterized by the questioning of our patriotism, that
obscures the kind of debate that we need to have.
When looking for time lines or looking for benchmarks or talking
about the way in which we fund our troops is characterized as
abandoning our troops, that's the kind of thing that obscures the kind
of reasonable debate that we need to have.
And with respect to supporting our troops, my own view, and I think
this view is shared by a great many in this Chamber, that the best way
to support our troops is to put them in positions where they can
succeed and get them out of positions in which they cannot succeed. And
I think we all agree on both sides of the aisle that what has taken
place thus far has put our troops in positions in which it has been
very, very difficult for them to succeed. So that, if nothing else,
motivates an impetus on the part of a great many of us to urge a change
of course in Iraq.
I want to speak just for a second, Congressman Israel, about one of
the shared principles. And, by the way, those shared principles are the
kind of principles that all reasonable people should be able to embrace
and support. But one is the issue of standing up the Iraqi security
forces. It is a subject about which we have spoken in the past, and I'm
proud to be a cosponsor of the legislation that you have introduced,
along with Chairman Skelton, that would create, in effect, a one-for-
one exchange; that for each Iraqi brigade or battalion that we stand
up, we would withdraw one of our own.
I think that that kind of approach has several advantages. One, it
would be true to the goal that the President himself has set out, and I
believe set it out as going as far back as January of 2004, that as the
Iraqi stand up we will stand down.
Since January of '04, we have spent about $15 billion to train and
equip and outfit Iraqi troops, and we have several hundred Iraqi troops
right now in uniform under arms, and yet we continue to increase our
own complement of troops.
I think it is a perfectly reasonable, sane, rational proposition that
we impose obligations on the Iraqi troops; and as they step up to those
obligations, we relieve our own troops of those obligations.
As I say, I think the legislation that you and Chairman Skelton have
filed and that, as I say, I am proud to cosponsor, I think that that is
very reasonable legislation. I hope to see that legislation receive the
kind of debate and discussion and attention that it ought to.
We're not done yet. As you know, we have a report coming to us in
September; and at that point the Congress is going to need to make
another set of decisions. Hopefully, that kind of reasoned response to
a situation that none of us can support in terms of how it has gone
thus far is the kind of direction in which we need to head.
So, with that, I'm happy to yield back to you.
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank the gentleman, and I appreciate his raising this
issue of one for one, because I think it's a perfect example of Members
of this body having different ideas that may make sense, trying to
offer those ideas in the spirit of some compromise and reasonableness.
Let's go into the basis of that one for one and explore it as a
possible, not a way out, because Iraq is certainly complex and
complicated, but at least one measure of improvement.
The President has said that, in the past, and has stated this
publicly, that for every Iraqi that stands up, an American will come
home or be redeployed. And he has said that on several occasions. On
other occasions, we've heard that there are between 250,000 and 300,000
Iraqis that have been stood up. Well, the gentleman can help me do the
math. If in fact there are between 250,000 and 300,000 Iraqis that have
been stood up and if for every one that stands up an American is going
to redeploy, how come 250,000 to 300,000 have not redeployed?
{time} 2030
The answer is in how you define ``training'' and what it means to say
``stand up.'' In fact, go you take a look at the textbook definition of
``training'' in military terms, combat proficiency is what is
important, and there are different levels of combat proficiency. If you
are trained at level one combat proficiency, you are capable of
fighting and winning convincingly anywhere in the world and you don't
need any U.S. support. If you are trained at level two combat
proficiency, you can fight and win almost anywhere in the world, but
you need
[[Page 14740]]
some measure of U.S. support, maybe some intel, maybe some
reconnaissance assistance, maybe some logistics support. So if you take
a look at the numbers of Iraqi forces that are actually trained at
level one or level two combat proficiency, you will find that it is not
250,000 to 300,000 but far less. And the numbers ought not be repeated
in a public forum, but far less than 250,000 to 300,000.
So the idea that we came up with was why don't we ask the President
to report to the Congress on a monthly basis how many Iraqis have
actually been trained at level one or level two combat proficiency,
certify that to the Congress, and then we will redeploy an equivalent
amount. Now, I am not suggesting that we withdraw that number
necessarily. We might redeploy them to the borders so we can prevent
Iran and Syria from inflaming the situation in Iraq.
The point is, Congressman Bishop, that I don't claim to have all the
answers and I know that this isn't the perfect answer, but it is an
idea that we have tried to set forward.
Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. ISRAEL. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. BISHOP of New York. I think it is, as I said before, a perfectly
reasonable idea but also one that represents, I believe, an imperative.
I think even the most ardent supporters of our presence in Iraq must
recognize the enormous strain that a prolonged presence in Iraq has
placed on our Armed Forces, and I believe the most ardent supporter
must recognize that it will be enormously difficult, if not impossible,
for us to maintain that presence at the current level or even at the
presurge level. And thus if there is a chance of bringing order to
Iraq, it must in the long term rest with Iraqi security forces as
opposed to our own forces.
And as I say, we have spent $15 billion thus far, and I won't say we
have little to show for it but we certainly don't have as much to show
for it as I believe everyone in this Chamber would agree. So I think
that of the shared principles, and I think they are all crucial and
important, but I think this perhaps take prominence over all the others
because if for no other reason, just the simple logistics of
maintaining the troop presence we have given our current end strength
is going to be enormously difficult, if not debilitating, on our Armed
Forces.
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. And, again, this was
just one idea.
And the true value of the Center Aisle Caucus and this kind of
dialogue, this unprecedented dialogue, and civil dialogue between
Members on both sides is that we all have good ideas and we have all
been trying to advance those ideas. And it is so refreshing to be
joined by three members of the other side of the Center Aisle Caucus
who have been extremely constructive, who have been true leaders in
trying to forge bipartisan alliances in order to move the country and
the debate not to the left, not to the right, but forward. And I am
very proud that we are joined by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Dent) and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), and I know the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) has joined us as well.
And I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, a
leader in the Center Aisle Caucus (Mr. Dent).
Mr. DENT. Thank you so much, Congressman Israel and Congressman
Bishop, for helping to organize this Special Order tonight. I think the
American people expect this much of us, that they like to see this type
of civil, controlled dialogue where we are trying to rally around, I
think, some shared principles that we can pretty much agree to, that we
are talking about this in a proper tone, keeping the temperature down,
so to speak. And I think that that is what the public expects instead
of all the sometimes hot air and noise and at times excessive
partisanship that seems to be the public perception of how this
institution operates far too often.
And I just want to take a couple of moments to commend you,
Congressman Israel, on something that you have shared with many of us
who participate in the Center Aisle Caucus, and that is the idea of a
Status of Forces Agreement and how such an agreement might be of
benefit to us in Iraq.
And for purposes of this discussion, that Status of Forces Agreement
is an agreement that is worked out between our government and the
foreign country that delineates the legal partnership between the
troops who are deployed to that country and the host government. And
that is a very significant issue.
In the civil side of the law, for example, a Status of Forces
Agreement can spell out proceedings under which nationals of the host
country may file claims against the United States for damage to
property of these nationals that has been inadvertently caused by the
United States Armed Forces. An agreement is also important because it
can be used to spell out jurisdictional issues with regard to criminal
offenses. For example, these agreements are often used to make sure
that American servicemembers who commit offenses overseas and are tried
by U.S. military courts-martial rather than local courts. They can also
delineate the conditions under which U.S. servicemembers charged with
crimes within the boundaries of the host country are treated. A Status
of Forces Agreement can specify, for example, that a servicemember
accused of a crime in violation of local laws must be detained on board
a ship or some other U.S. installation rather than await trial in a
local jail.
We have never had a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi
government. I know that is something that you have been strongly
advocating, and I believe it is high time that we implement one for a
few reasons. First, a Status of Forces Agreement is an agreement
between two sovereign nations. By executing such an agreement, we would
be affirming sovereignty of the Maliki government and the right, as
well as the obligation, of that government to exercise control over its
own territory.
Second, a Status of Forces Agreement would send a clear message both
to the Iraqis and to other countries in the region that we do not
intend to establish permanent bases in Iraq, I think something that
many of us on both sides of the aisle agree. And this agreement is
usually negotiated for a fixed period of time, and it can be renewed or
not, as was the case with the old Subic Bay naval base in the Republic
of the Philippines.
The Philippines example is instructive, I think, in this instance.
There the Aquino government asserted its sovereign rights over Subic
Bay by refusing to renew a prior agreement and other related treaties
with our government in 1992. Thus the world was made to know that even
though the U.S. had a presence in Subic Bay and a neighboring city for
more than 90 years prior to that time, that presence was not permanent
and was subject to an agreement that had to be agreed to by both
nations. And third, as described a few moments ago, this agreement, if
properly negotiated, can protect U.S. forces from being tried by
foreign courts or prevent them from being detained in Iraqi facilities
if charged with a crime under foreign law. This kind of measure is
necessary to make sure that Americans operating overseas have the
fullest protections afforded to them by Federal jurisprudence.
I also really want to thank you again for organizing this, and I
think these shared principles you have outlined here are really a basis
upon which we can have further dialogue. And a little later in this
Special Order, I might want to talk about the Iraq Study Group
recommendations, the Baker-Hamilton report, that I think many of us on
both sides of the aisle have a good feeling about, and there is
legislation that has been proposed and recently introduced, and I will
get into that a little later.
At this time I would like to yield to one of our other colleagues,
the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), who has been
to Iraq 17 times now.
Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I thank all four of my colleagues, Mr.
Gilchrest,
[[Page 14741]]
Mr. Dent, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Israel. I wanted to be here simply for
the novelty of Republicans and Democrats trying to talk about where we
could find common ground.
My basic view is that we made a mistake going in given that we didn't
find weapons of mass destruction. But I tend to think it would be a
mistake to leave precipitously. I think we went in on a bipartisan
basis, and I think we could leave on a bipartisan basis. I just don't
think we are as far apart in some ways as some may think.
I do think there should be a Status of Forces Agreement instead of a
U.N. resolution as an occupying nation. If the Iraqis don't want us
there, we will leave. I feel we attacked them; they didn't attack us.
And we have an obligation before we leave to replace their army, their
police, and their border patrol. That is really one of your shared
principles. But if they want us to leave before, then they are a
sovereign nation. They could ask us to leave and we would.
I will also close with this because I think it would be nice to have
more of a dialogue rather than just speeches from us, but I think the
Iraq Study Group is something that Democrats agreed to in principle and
so did Republicans. And I agree that they left a little bit of
discretion as to what they meant and we could each view it in the way
that we want to, and so that would have to be worked out. But the basic
principles of the Iraq Study Group, to my mind, should be voted on and
supported by both sides of the aisle, specifically getting the
Americans and the coalition forces out of doing police work.
Secondly, getting the Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds to work out their
differences. They said with consequence if they didn't. I think there
should be a timeline. I just think it should be not by 2/08. And,
thirdly, to get the nations around Iraq to dialogue and we should be
dialoguing with them, including Iran and Syria.
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman.
Before yielding to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland, just to
clarify on the issue of Status of Forces Agreement, Mr. Dent was kind
enough to join the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, Ambassador
Sumaydi, and me and other members of the Center Aisle Caucus for a
dinner where the ambassador himself talked about the importance of a
Status of Forces Agreement.
Will it end the war tomorrow? Absolutely not. Will it end it next
week? No. Is it one good, reasonable idea that will lower the
temperature in Iraq, that will reduce the animosities that are flaming
out of control there? I believe it will. And I am appreciative that the
gentleman from Pennsylvania has cosponsored a bipartisan resolution
that asks the President to submit a Status of Forces Agreement to the
Iraqi government, not conclude one because it has got to be negotiated,
but at least submit one to send a signal and a message that we don't
want to own the place; that we are there and we will leave when the
Iraqi government wishes us to.
With that, I want to thank the gentleman from Maryland for his
bipartisan leadership and his great measure of thoughtfulness on issues
with respect to Iraq, and I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Gilchrest).
Mr. SHAYS. And I might add a former Marine, and I guess always a
Marine, who was wounded in battle in Vietnam and was left on the
battlefield for 3 hours before he was brought to safety, and we will
always be grateful for that service.
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
And I also want to thank all of you for coming down here this evening
for a thoughtful dialogue on the issues of war and peace that confront
this country and literally the rest of the world.
I would just like to speak to the issue of Iraq in the context of
where we are in the world today. This is not our grandfathers' world.
This is not our parents' world. This is a new configuration that can't
be compared to World War II or even the Cold War. This is a world that
is now filled with tiny splintering, struggling countries and cultures.
The Soviet Union is gone. Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, we see
a great deal of struggling third world countries, cultures, people
trying to find their place, their niche.
One of the countries, the United States, has a golden opportunity to
integrate ourselves with the rest of the world to encourage peace and
security. And if we notice around the world, the world is integrated
right now. The world is integrated globally. It is integrated
economically with trade. It is integrated politically. It is integrated
when there are disasters. We saw what happened with the tsunami to
countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand and India and Indonesia when the
world responded. The integrity of the world's compassion for these
people was extraordinary.
The world is also integrated with disease. Whether it is Ebola,
malaria, bird flu, TB, you name it, the world is integrated.
And one of the ways I think to solve the problem, besides solving the
problem of Iraq on the House floor the way we are doing it tonight with
a discussion, is to integrate our integrity with the great land mass
that is around this great globe. The integration of integrity.
{time} 2045
I want to make a quick quote by a former artist, media person,
diplomat named Norman Cousins, who wrote a fabulous book called ``Human
Options.'' In the book is one extraordinary quote, ``History is the
vast early warning system.'' And if we look at how we dealt with the
Soviet Union over decades of time, it was step by step by step with
dialogue. What did we do with China over decades, even after China said
that they would like to destroy the United States, even if it wiped off
half the population of China? It was step by step by step of dialogue.
What did we do with the Cuban Missile Crisis? It was dialogue.
Unfortunately, we never had a dialogue with Ho Chi Minh. We lost
probably a million people on both sides of that conflict.
What is the issue here with Iraq? It's a dialogue with the Iraqis,
it's a dialogue with the Sunnis, the Shi'as, the Kurds. It's a dialogue
with the Syrians, the Iranians. It's a dialogue with the Middle East.
It's a dialogue with the international community to integrate ourselves
to make a commitment to the politics, to the economics, to the security
of all the peoples of the world.
So, there is hope. There is movement. And the way to solve one
conflict is to understand the nature of the culture. Talk first, for as
long as is necessary. And that dialogue got us out of the Cold War with
the Soviet Union. Nixon went to China. Kennedy did not bomb Castro in
Cuba. That can work today.
I will close with this comment from a book I recently read by Anthony
Zinni called ``The Battle For Peace.'' And Anthony Zinni described the
Cold War where one man is in a room with a cobra alone for decades, and
the man wakes up one morning and the cobra is gone, but the room then
is filled with bees; a whole different set of circumstances. And you
don't deal with the bees the way you dealt with the cobra.
I thank all you gentlemen for coming here tonight for this integrated
dialogue so our integrity can mesh a little bit better and we will find
a solution.
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank the gentleman.
Before recognizing Mr. Bishop, I want to follow up on a very
important point that the gentleman made about the lessons that history
teaches us with respect to the importance of having a dialogue with our
adversaries. I wish we understood those lessons here in the United
States Congress. Because if you take a look at those lessons of
history, the Cold War, The Space Raid, World War II, all of the great
challenges that confronted Congresses in the past have been solved with
bipartisan dialogue. Think about the Cold War. It was the
bipartisanship, the bipartisan approach of a John F. Kennedy and a
Richard Nixon and that helped end the Cold War. Think about World War
II. It was the political leadership of FDR and Harry Truman and the
military leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower. There was always great
bipartisanship with respect to enormous
[[Page 14742]]
foreign policy challenges in our country. Democrats and Republicans
found ways to talk to one another. I guess there was a saying that
``politics stops at the water's edge.'' One of the concerns I have is
that we have kind of lost that sense, that we have made foreign policy
and made issues of war and peace partisan issues. And what we are
trying to do here in the Center Aisle Caucus, with the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop)
and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) is bring Democrats and
Republicans back to the water's edge in the Center Aisle.
And with that, I will yield to Mr. Bishop.
Mr. BISHOP of New York. I thank Mr. Israel for yielding.
I want to pick up on a comment that my friend from Connecticut just
made with respect to how we should deal with the recommendations of the
Iraq Study Group. You suggested that we bring those recommendations
here and we discuss them and endorse them. And I think that the model
is the 9/11 Commission. It was a bipartisan commission that issued a
unanimous set of recommendations, which in the main we have acted upon
here in this Chamber. The Iraq Study Group was a bipartisan group that
issued a unanimous set of recommendations. And I believe that they are
ones that we can galvanize around, and I believe that they make good
sense. They perhaps don't give all of us everything that we would want
on either side of the aisle, but they do represent a way to move
forward. And I believe that if we were to bring those recommendations
here, I believe they would attract majority support in this Chamber,
and perhaps that could then be used as a means to moving with the
administration, who I think now has also endorsed the recommendations
of the Study Group.
Initially they seemed to reject them, or at least dismiss them, but I
think now, as time has passed and as the situation on the ground has
continued to evolve, they now recognize that they do have merit, that
they do have legitimacy. And they also speak to several, if not all, of
the shared principles that we are discussing here this evening that
come out of the Center Aisle Caucus. So I thank you for making that
suggestion, and hopefully we can carry forward with that.
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank the gentleman.
I will yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
Mr. KENT. Thank you, Congressman Israel.
I wanted to make a comment. You had mentioned our dinner engagement
between the Center Aisle Caucus and Iraq's ambassador to the United
States, and we had a wonderful dialogue. And I was struck by something
that the Iraqi ambassador had said to us. Of course we, often, in the
United States, talk about the tribalism that we see within Iraq, Sunni
and Shia and Kurd. And it is sort of hard for us to understand the
complexities of those tribal relationships and interactions. And the
Iraqi ambassador, obviously a very well educated man, made a comment
back to us about what he more or less termed ``American tribalism,'' I
think referring to Republicans and Democrats. It's hard for them to
understand how we operate. It was a point that I think was well
intended and well understood. And I think that we have to think about
that from time to time, that they see us, they see our bickering, too,
from where they sit. We had a lot of comments about their behavior.
Well, they have observed ours as well. And certainly our political
dynamics are very difficult for them to comprehend. And I appreciated
his insights.
I did want to make a few other comments about this recommendation,
these 79 recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. I think many of us on
both sides of the aisle realize that the beauty of this report maybe is
not necessarily in every one of the 79 recommendations, but the process
they adopted to make those recommendations. And I do want to give a
little bit of credit tonight to the two prime sponsors of the
legislation that was introduced just yesterday, that was Congressman
Mark Udall, a Democrat of Colorado, and on the Republican side, the
father of the Iraq Study Group report, legislatively, Frank Wolf, a
Republican of Virginia.
And I think they have really gone out of their way to secure probably
close to 50 cosponsors by now, fairly evenly divided between
Republicans and Democrats. And again, I just think there is so much in
this report that we can rally around and need to. I think we all agree,
when you look at those shared principles up there, from defeating al
Qaeda, I think every American, regardless of how they label themselves
politically, agree that the defeat of al Qaeda is a primary and
principal interest of all of us, whether in Iraq, or anywhere
throughout the world. Containing Iran. Another issue we all agree, that
the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a menace, a threat, and we all I
think agree that his potential acquisition of nuclear capability would
be a very destabilizing influence on the world and something that none
of us can tolerate.
And regional change; standing up for Iraqi Security Forces; secure
Iraq's borders; take care of our veterans; and support our Armed
Forces, I think those are great principles. I think this report, in
many respects, addresses these issues.
So with that, I just again wanted to share those thoughts with you
about the dinner with the Iraqi ambassador.
At this time I would like to yield back to Mr. Israel.
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank the gentleman.
I would pose a question, if I may, to the gentleman from Connecticut,
who as Congressman Dent said has been to Iraq 17 times and chaired the
Subcommittee on Terror. I know he was consulted with respect to the
Iraq Study Group report or at least I believe was consulted with
respect to the Iraq Study Group report and see if he would share his
perspectives on the value of the Iraq Study Group report in terms of
generating some bipartisan cooperation and moving us in the right
direction in Iraq.
I would yield to the gentleman.
Mr. SHAYS. I thank you for your question.
What was stunning about the 9/11 Commission was it was Republicans
and Democrats, liberals and conservatives all trying to find common
ground for addressing what was really a frightening sea change in our
society, and that was the recognition that there was a real threat. And
they called it ``Islamist terrorism,'' which the Islamist community
needs to deal with as well. I mean, it is not Islamists, it is these
radical Islamist terrorists. But the Iraqi Study Group had that same
approach, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives making
an assessment of the problem, and then recommending what needed to
happen.
I would like to suggest something. And I would be interested, Mr.
Israel, how you would react to this, and that is, Mr. Petraeus and our
ambassador are going to make a report in September. And I was thinking,
you know, there could be a view they have a vested interest.
So one of the things that I would like to promote is that this same
Iraqi Study Group go back to Iraq and say, okay, this is what we found
then, this is what we recommended. This is what General Petraeus is
recommending and our ambassador. We either verify it or don't, or have
subtle changes to it or maybe significant changes. But in other words,
bring this third party back in to make an analysis since they already
have credibility, and clearly General Petraeus does and our ambassador
does as well. But I would be curious to know if any of you think there
is merit to that idea.
Mr. ISRAEL. Well, I thank the gentleman. I think it is a very sound
idea. The Iraq Study Group proved its value as an independent entity.
And I have the highest regard for General Petraeus. In fact, he was in
my office the day that the President announced the surge. And I was
skeptical about the surge, personally I did not support the surge, but
I thought it was important to reach out to General Petraeus and at
least give him an opportunity to explain it to me.
I think he is the best we have. I have a very high regard for him. I
think his
[[Page 14743]]
report is going to be indispensable. I think it would be extremely
useful to send the Iraqi Study Group back to take a look so that, like
President Reagan said, ``trust but verify.'' I think that verification
would be extremely useful.
And I will yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. BISHOP of New York. I would certainly agree. And I think we all
await General Petraeus' report. And I don't know General Petraeus, but
I have been told that he is a man of absolutely rigorous and
unimpeachable intellectual honesty and he will give us an honest, spin-
free report, which I think is something that we all need and would
value. But I also think sending that coalition of people, as you say,
Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, back to see on
the ground conditions 9, 10 months after they wrote their report or 11
months after they wrote their report, I think would be enormously
valuable and again perhaps would spur both the Congress and the
administration to take their recommendations more seriously or give
greater weight to them than we have thus far.
Mr. ISRAEL. Before yielding to the gentleman from Maryland, I want to
again remind my colleagues and those viewing that what you've heard
here on the floor of the House is different. You've actually heard
Members from both sides generating ideas and agreeing to them rather
than impugning each other's integrity. And that is exactly the purpose
of this Special Order.
I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. GILCHREST. I think when you generate ideas like we're having
tonight with this decision, people are free to have an enthusiastic
conversation where we can see each other's individual ingenuity. And
then it is that collective ingenuity, that individual collective
ingenuity that spawns these kinds of ideas that solve problems.
I couldn't agree more that the Iraq Study Group reassemble to
evaluate where they were just 6 months ago in their recommendations to
where we might want to be in September or sometime this fall is an
excellent idea. And I am pretty sure that those men and women would
come together to do this second reevaluation.
The other thing is, I think we, as members of our group here, Members
of Congress, we need to do some preparation ourselves prior to whatever
that announcement, whatever that assessment is going to be in
September, we have to have some preparation for what we think the
status of the conflict in Iraq needs to be.
And the third thing, while we are preparing for this report by
General Petraeus, while we are encouraging the Iraq Study Group to
reevaluate the status, as General Petraeus will, I really think it's
important for us to continue to pursue a dialogue with all of Iraq's
neighbors, including Iran and Syria.
Now, we all know that the Ahmadinejad administration, if I can say
that, has said some pretty pointed, scary, threatened things. But it is
my understanding that the Iranian people do not see the world, do not
see the United States through Ahmadinejad's eyes. The Syrian people,
the parents, the fathers, the people who want good lives for their
children, the Chamber of Commerce in Damascus wants to have a
relationship with the United States. There are many, many business
people, many, many people in Iran that want a relationship with the
United States.
So as we are preparing for this discussion in September, where we are
with the surge and where we are with the conflict, let's get the Iraq
Study Group together. Let's prepare for that statement so we understand
where we think we should be. And then let's continue to pursue, however
difficult it is, this dialogue.
Mr. ISRAEL. The gentleman from Pennsylvania.
{time} 2100
Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I also want to endorse the gentleman from
Connecticut's idea about reconstituting the Iraq Study Group and
sending them back over to Iraq at some point to help give us an update
of this very useful report. I think we all can agree that many of us in
this country, and I suspect in Iraq too, are frustrated by this slow
pace of reconciliation that is ongoing in Iraq.
But, again, another point about this report, and I think this
gathering tonight, I think this helps us as Americans try to reconcile
our differences. We talk about Iraqi reconciliation, but I think in
many respects we need a little reconciliation of our own.
Mr. SHAYS. If the gentleman will yield, when I was there this last
time, what I found for the first time was that when the Iraqis got
together to form a government last year, they were like someone
described a sixth grade dance. The guys were there, the girls were
there. Maybe once or twice there would be a little interaction, and
they would go back. But nobody was dancing.
Now you are starting to see Sunnis, Shias and Kurds trying to see
some common ground, and they are coming back to us and saying, don't
rush us. But one of them said to me, I thought it was interesting, he
said, ``You are complaining about the fact that we may take a break in
the summer. What about your monthly break?'' They said, ``You are
asking Sunnis, Shias and Kurds to work together. How come you guys
aren't working together?'' They are starting to come back and throw
that at us.
The difference is they are in an environment where they can get
killed any day of the week, and yet we are telling them, find common
ground. If they found common ground, probably some of that killing
would talk.
But I am sorry to take so much of the time. I am just trying to add
to your point that they are saying why don't we practice what we
preach?
Mr. DENT. Well, it is a very fair point in many respects. I just want
to point out something. When I first read this report back in December
when it was first released, I had some concerns too, like many people,
about some of the recommendations, particularly the recommendation
about directly engaging Iran, for all the reasons we have identified.
Ahmadinejad is a virulent anti-Semite. He has made such inflammatory
comments. I think we all agree he is a menace.
After listening to Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton talk about the issue, I
don't think any of us expect there to be any real process in a dialogue
with Iran at a sub-cabinet level, but I think we also realize that you
need to have that kind of a conversation initially and let the Iranians
be an obstruction themselves, so we can then isolate them
internationally and also perhaps drive a wedge between the Iranian
Government and the Syrian Government.
I think it makes absolutely no sense for the Syrians to be engaged in
destructive behavior in Iraq, given the fact that they have more than 1
million refugees, primarily Sunni, who are in Syria. Of course, Syria
is ruled by Allawites, who represent about 10 percent of that country.
So it is clearly not in Syria's interest to have protracted instability
in Iraq.
So, again, I just wanted to thank the gentleman from Connecticut for
his thoughtful idea about getting the Iraq Study Group back over there,
perhaps hearing what General Petraeus says and make some
recommendations on what he has said, and maybe give us a bipartisan way
for us to move forward.
I think Americans want a solution. They don't want an issue in Iraq,
but they want a solution. I think that is one of the great things about
this dialogue tonight.
I yield back to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the gentleman from Connecticut
whether he is proposing any specific initiative to formally request
that the Iraq Study Group reconvene and make an assessment in Iraq in
the near future. If he is, I would be pleased to join with him on a
bipartisan basis.
Mr. SHAYS. To guarantee it would actually come to the floor of the
House, maybe we could put your name first and mine second. But I would
love to work with you on that.
Mr. ISRAEL. I would welcome that partnership.
I am going to yield to my friend from New York, Mr. Bishop.
[[Page 14744]]
Mr. BISHOP of New York. I just want to make two points. One, on the
question of engaging Iran and others that we see as enemies or
adversaries, you are quite right, Mr. Dent, that there is no guarantee
of success if we do engage, but we can virtually guarantee no success
if we don't engage. So it just seems to me that engagement is
absolutely crucial.
I think I am quoting former Secretary of State Baker correctly when I
quote him as saying that engaging in dialogue with our enemies is not
appeasement. It is diplomacy and negotiation and dialogue, something I
think we have had too little of. Hopefully we are moving in that
direction now, and signs recently are that we are.
The second point I would make is that Iran has an awful lot at stake
here. If, in fact, as a great many fear, Iraq becomes a haven for al
Qaeda, I cannot imagine that Iran views an al Qaeda-Sunni dominated
state on their borders as something that is in their best interests. So
I think that they clearly do have in effect common interests with us in
terms of bringing some order, some stability, to Iraq.
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. If my colleagues have
any final comments, I would be happy to recognize them, and then I am
prepared to close.
The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Gilchrest.
Mr. GILCHREST. I thank the gentleman.
Just very quickly on the comment from the gentleman from New York,
Syria is basically a secular country. It is not an Islamic state. It is
secular. They feared al Qaeda and the Taliban, and they don't want al
Qaeda in Iraq creating chaos. Al Qaeda was basically the enemy of the
Iranians. It was the enemy of Iraq. It was a disruptive factor in the
Middle East.
So careful analysis of each country, using the best diplomats in the
world that the United States has, has the potential for unraveling this
very difficult, chaotic situation. We know we need a military presence
in the Middle East, we know we need a political presence in the Middle
East, and we know we need an economic presence in the Middle East. With
the emphasis on the politics and the economics with the Middle Eastern
countries, I think we can back our way out of this chaos.
Mr. SHAYS. I would just like to thank you again for getting us
together. This has really been a pleasure. I just admire all of you
here tonight, and thank you for including me.
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman from Pennsylvania?
Mr. DENT. I too want to commend the gentleman from New York for
organizing this event tonight, this special order. We need to see a
little bit more of this type of activity in this Congress, and I hope
the American people who are watching this exercise tonight maybe find
this a little bit different or maybe a little bit more refreshing than
what they are accustomed to during special orders. I just want to thank
you for putting this together.
One final point. I think Mr. Gilchrest made the point about
interaction with Syria on a commercial basis in this country. A
constituent called just the other day who imports various food products
from Syria, because I have a large Middle Eastern community in my
district. And just some of the challenges, they just want to go about
life as they normally would.
I thought it was interesting. It kind of brings back home the point
that people want to coexist peacefully. That the challenges and the
stakes are very high in Iraq, and I think all of us want to make sure
that whatever policy is pursued, particularly after September, it is
one that is responsible and one that will make us all safer and
hopefully the region more stable.
So, again, thank you, Mr. Israel, for putting this on. It is much
appreciated.
Mr. ISRAEL. I thank the gentleman.
I will close by thanking each of our colleagues to join with us this
evening. Of the American people are accustomed to tuning into these so-
called special orders and seeing a Democratic hour, which is usually
spent beating up Republicans, and a Republican hour, which is usually
spent beating up Democrats.
Tonight they saw something different. They saw Mr. Dent talk about a
status of forces agreement, which Democrats can agree with. They saw
Mr. Bishop talk about the one-for-one agreement, which has bipartisan
support. They saw Mr. Shays discuss an idea to have the Iraq Study
Group reassess conditions, which has Democratic support. And they heard
the historic perspective of Mr. Gilchrest, a perspective that only a
Marine that was wounded in Vietnam can properly give to the United
States Congress.
The point is that I believe that without sounding overly
enthusiastic, that in the past hour there was more bipartisan,
reasoned, rational discussion of ideas to move us forward rather than
left or right than has happened on the floor of this House over the
past 4 years. That is precisely what the Center Aisle Caucus was
created to generate.
Tonight we close by sharing our principles: That we support our Armed
Forces. We will take care of our veterans. More assistance passed in
today's appropriations bill to veterans than at any time in the 77-year
history of the Veterans Administration, passed unanimously by the
Appropriations Committee today. We will secure Iraq's border. We want
to stand up Iraq's security forces. We understand the need for regional
change. We will push for that. We understand the threat of Iran. And we
want to defeat al Qaeda.
Today's discussion was not about left or right, it was about moving
forward. I know the gentleman talked about the servicemember that he
represents who was lost in Iraq. Again, I would ask the American people
to continue to support our Armed Forces.
I can think of no better evening and no better person to inspire this
special order than Matthew Baylis, who we lost in Iraq last week, and I
believe he would be very proud of what we are doing this evening. As I
said before, I don't know whether he was a Democrat or a Republican. I
have no idea whether his family are Republicans or Democrats. I do know
that they would be proud that this evening, Democrats and Republicans
joined together to talk about a way forward, without a single one of us
calling another one a name.
____________________
IMMIGRATION ISSUES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is
recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I have defended President Bush
throughout most of his administration: From the war in Iraq; to those
tragic mistakes that were made at Abu Ghraib, realizing they were just
mistakes, but not at the heart of the policy; from the tax cuts to the
preparation of the prescription drug bill.
I feel that I have been a loyal soldier to this administration, to
the President, and, yes, to the country, especially on the country's
war on terror. I have been four-square behind the President's
successful efforts in that war and some of these efforts that we have
been talking about today that are straining the public morale.
I have been very supportive of the President's tax efforts,
fundamental economic efforts in the tax area to keep our economy
humming.
So after all of this support, last week it was personally offensive
to me to hear that I and millions of people like me were being
described by the President as not wanting to do what is right for
America because we refused to support the Kennedy-Bush immigration bill
currently being examined and going through the Senate.
The President also suggested that those of us who oppose the type of
legalization of status and those of us who are opposed to the type of
legislation that we believe will promote more illegal immigration into
our country, that we are just trying to frighten people by using the
word ``amnesty.''
The President, of course, insists on defining amnesty in a way that
is independent and contrary to the way everyone else defines that word,
and every
[[Page 14745]]
time he does that, he loses credibility. Every time he follows his
inclination to try to obfuscate this issue of illegal immigration,
rather than to deal with it and to debate it four-square, he loses
credibility.
The President also suggests if we know the details of the bill, the
legislation, I call it, the Bush-Kennedy legislation, that we will
support it. Well, the more we find out about that legislation going
through the Senate, the more vigorously we should oppose that bill.
There are literally hundreds of loopholes in that legislation. I
believe the very basis of the legislation is flawed in its intent. The
fact there are so many terrible aspects of this bill, one has to
suggest that the bill's intent was not the right intent to begin with.
It was not a bill aimed at stemming illegal immigration, but instead
this bill has some other intent, obviously.
The American people, however, can decide for themselves. The
President says we need to get to know what is in the bill. Well, let's
take a look at what is in the bill.
Problem number one: This legislation is an amnesty bill. I am sorry
if that doesn't go by the definition that is handed down by the White
House, which obviously has the ability to define or redefine words, but
it is an amnesty bill. This bill grants immediate legal status to
illegal aliens, and that legal status happens immediately, before any
of the enhancements. They will have what they call ``enforcement
enhancements'' in the bill that will help us ``enforce our immigration
laws.''
{time} 2115
But before any of those enhancements are activated, and they are
called the triggers, before they are activated, every person who is
here illegally will be able to be granted legal status, a temporary
visa. It is called a Z visa.
So 24 hours after an illegal immigrant files an application, they
will be granted a probationary visa, the so-called Z visa. It will be
issued, and with that legal status, that visa, comes the right to live
and work in the United States: Immediate legalization for everyone who
is here.
The President tries to suggests it is not amnesty because we are not
granting citizenship. And then a big cloud of smoke comes up for people
to try to understand what's going on here.
Amnesty doesn't mean granting citizenship; amnesty means somebody is
doing something illegal and you have now made it legal. All of them get
this amnesty, this legalization, within 24 hours of applying the minute
this legislation passes. That is whether or not the triggers, the
enforcement mechanisms that are also in the bill, if they are never
activated, these so-called probationary visas will never expire. They
will continue on. Every 8 years or so they will have to be reapplied
for, but they can be reapplied for and granted further extensions
forever.
And the Social Security cards which come with that can be issued.
These people when they have Z visas, these probationary visas, they are
now eligible for all of our government programs with the Social
Security cards and all of the other things that people who are here
legally, people who immigrated to this country legally, people who
waited for years to come here, who obeyed our rules, these other people
are going to get it immediately.
Of course, U.S. citizens, what does U.S. citizenship get? The only
difference is a right to vote. So how is this not amnesty? Obviously it
is.
Word games aside, the Senate bill not only grants amnesty, but it
also provides things that will do great damage other than just the
amnesty to our country.
The much-touted fines of this bill, and there are fines that are
required, and we have heard this, another cloud of smoke comes in
during that discussion on this bill. We hear this idea there is going
to be a $5,000 fine for those people who want to be serviced by this
legislation. No, that $5,000 fine is not required before someone gets a
legal status. That is what happens before someone becomes a citizen.
This legislation that is passing through the Senate does not require
$5,000 to legalize status. You cannot buy a used car in this country
for $1,000; but $1,000 will give you the right to live in the United
States and obtain government benefits, including Social Security, that
goes with that legalization.
The Z visa fine, which is a requirement, it is just a payoff, that
$1,000, is not the $5,000 that everybody hears about. It is about
$1,000. Unfortunately, ignorant and lazy mainstream media people have
been using the $5,000 figure, and even that I think would be a very
questionable thing to give all of these benefits and rights to people
here illegally for $5,000. No, we are going to give it to them for
$1,000. And by the way, it can be paid on the installment plan. You can
buy the right to live, work and receive benefits in the United States
of America for $1,000. And it can be renewed every few years, it can be
renewed every few years forever.
If a government official misuses information, according to this
legislation, if there is information on an illegal amnesty application,
and that information is misused by a government employee, there is a
$10,000 fine for that government employee who would misuse information
on an illegal immigrant's amnesty application.
So breaking into our country, entering the United States illegally,
using false documents, which almost all of them have, identity theft to
hold a job, and they are holding of course jobs that they are not
entitled to have in the first place, this is somehow less onerous, we
are only going to charge them $1,000 to legalize their entire status,
but we are charging $10,000 for a paperwork mistake by a government
official who might misuse the information or get it wrong on the
application.
It should be noted that the amnesty of the Senate bill treats illegal
immigrants better than they treat legal immigrants into the United
States. Illegal aliens who snuck into the United States 5 months ago
are given immediate legal status while legal immigrants who applied to
come to the United States after May 1, 2005, must start the application
process all over again.
Now these are people who have been waiting overseas. They applied
after May 2005. They are overseas waiting. Those people who are not the
law breakers, they must start the process over again.
So the illegals can cut in line, go around everybody around the world
where there are millions and millions of people who are waiting to come
here legally, who respect our laws, those people who cut in line in
front of those who would be U.S. citizens and come here legally are the
ones given the benefit. Those waiting in line have to, in fact, go to
the end of the line, in some cases, according to this legislation,
while the others scoot ahead.
This, of course, is a serious blow to those waiting in line who would
like to come here legally, and that has not escaped the notice of the
foreign press. People overseas are taking very close note of this. The
foreign press is making it very clear what this legislation is doing to
people who respect the laws of the United States.
This legislation is now being touted overseas by people suggesting
that anyone who stands in line and waits and respects our laws is a
fool. And, of course, we are making them fools by rewarding those who
don't obey the rules and punishing those who do.
By the way, in the Senate bill a note from a friend, a note, a letter
from a friend, is considered evidence that one has lived in the United
States before. When an illegal alien applies to live in the United
States, if this legislation passes, he can literally provide a sworn
declaration from someone, as long as it is not a relative, as proof
that he lived in the United States and now is eligible for this
legalization of his status.
Is there anyone outside the White House who does not understand that
this will cause a massive influx of new illegal immigrants into our
country? Because if they want to get legal status, all they have to do
is find someone to write a letter for them, and as far as they are
concerned, that is a get-into-America-free card that one of their
friends will write for them. Does anyone think that we are not going to
[[Page 14746]]
have a massive flow of people? That all of the people waiting in line
will not hear about this? And what about all of the people not waiting
in line hearing about this?
Between 12 and 15 million people are expected to apply for amnesty if
the legislation now going through the Senate passes. Now how can the
Department of Homeland Security possibly verify the letters that are
going to be presented by people to prove that they have immigrated to
this country or lived in this country for a given period of time; and
thus, then they have legal status if they have lived here. Even if it
is illegally being here, they still will be legalized if they have a
note from their friend. Does anyone not understand the jeopardy that
this rule puts us in in America? Yet it is in the bill. I mean, it is
bizarre but it is in the bill. Who wrote this bill? Whoever did let
this provision be in the bill.
And as for the much-publicized background checks that amnesty seekers
are supposed to have, the background checks are going to happen on
those people applying for citizenship. The background checks are going
to happen after legal status has already been granted as a temporary
status, a legal status that can be again renewed. Background checks are
not required before the probationary visas are issued.
And yes, you heard it correctly, legal status must be granted to an
illegal alien within 24 hours of that illegal alien making application.
Even if the alien has not passed all of the appropriate background
checks, within 24 hours, the Department of Homeland Security has to
grant him legal status, a ``probationary visa'' which can go on
forever. Can you imagine the criminals, the carriers of communicable
diseases, the dregs of other societies, who will obtain a legal right
to live and work in the United States because of this loophole?
How about the gang who flew planes into the World Trade Center? How
about the terrorists, would they have been granted legal status
immediately by this bill? Many of them of course were here illegally.
They had overstayed their visas. The answer is yes, they would have
made legal status almost immediately. It is insanity.
And a final burst of insanity, illegals who have been ordered
deported by a United States court already, and the court has ordered
them to be deported because they are not here legally, those people
already under court order to be deported, will be eligible for this
amnesty, for this legalization of their status.
Now listen to this carefully. Illegals who have been through the
courts and are under court order to leave the United States, can apply
for amnesty. Almost 636,000 aliens are in this country in defiance of a
court order to leave. All of them can now apply to stay here under this
bill. They will be given a temporary visa, a ``probationary visa,''
that can be renewed.
Talk about teaching a disrespect for law. Does a court order mean
nothing? How can we simply allow people who have openly defied our
laws; and, yes, also defied a court order from a judge in the United
States of America, how can we simply ignore that? That is what the
Senate legislation would have us do. That is the Bush-Kennedy
legislation making its way through the Senate.
Problem number two with the bill, the enforcement triggers in the
bill are actually weaker than the current law. What is a trigger? What
we have are the enforcement mechanisms that are in this bill that are
supposed to be activated. They will supposedly help us enforce the
laws, like fences and more beds in detention centers and stronger
border patrol.
The provisions of this bill, these triggers, these enforcement
mechanisms, are actually weaker than current law. This bill does not
require, for example, one more detention center bed. It does not
require one more mile of fence. It does not require one more agent than
is currently required by law. In fact, the bill cuts the fencing
requirements in half so the bill actually, when they talk about to get
the fence, we have to have this bill, although there is already
legislation requiring the fence, this bill requires actually one-half
the fencing that is already required by law.
It requires 11,500 fewer detention spaces and fewer border patrol
agents than the Congress has already authorized in other legislation.
So we are supposed to support the legalization of status for illegals
in order to get the trigger mechanisms to work, in order to get the
enhancement of enforcement when this bill weakens the enforcement that
is already in place.
{time} 2130
To think you can weaken an enforcement provision and then pretend
that legislation somehow strengthens border enforcement is an insult to
the American people.
Wake up, America. Our country is being stolen from us. Our country is
being invaded, and the Senate legislation will accelerate this
invasion.
And it is not just Mexican Americans who are crossing the border, nor
South Americans and others who are crossing the border from Mexico. We
also, of course, have a huge problem with illegal immigration of people
who are coming into our country and overstaying their visas. They're
just as much a part of the illegal immigration problem as those people
crossing our Canadian and our Mexican border. Yet this bill does
nothing, absolutely nothing, to strengthen the system to try to reform
the U.S. visa system. They call it the U.S. visit exit system which,
right now, when someone comes into our country with a visa, we don't
know if they have left.
It was mandated back in 1996 that that system would be fixed and that
we would track visitors to our country so we would know if they had
come and if they'd gone home, and so then we would know at least who is
here illegally. That hasn't even been fixed by this legislation. Of
course, not knowing who is left or who stays in the United States, it
makes it impossible for us to track who has overstayed their visa.
May I remind you that somewhere between a third and half of our
illegal alien population, that's between 4 and 5 million people, are
people who are here who have overstayed their visas. So I think it's
misportrayed when we only look to our southern border, and too many
people, too many people talk about this as something to do with Mexico.
Well, it has something to do with Mexico, because a large number of
illegals are from Mexico, but this problem is way beyond that, and
there are many, many other illegals in this country, from Asia and
elsewhere, that need to be brought to justice and to be returned to
their country.
Now why is this such an important component of this bill? Because
it's already been mandated by Congress, and what is important, in
actually looking at the legislation going through the Senate, is that
legislation doesn't even touch on this provision of trying to get
control of this huge wedge into our system, this road on which people
are invading like bacteria into our country.
The Bush-Kennedy legislation in the Senate, of course, does not touch
on it, because that legislation is not aimed at stemming the flow of
illegals into our country. It is, indeed, pro-invasion legislation.
Problem number three, a great many criminals are eligible for amnesty
under the bill going through the Senate. Again, this is a simple
statement of fact, and this is very bizarre.
Under the bill going through the Senate, some child molesters are
eligible for legal status. I'm not making this up. A child molester in
this legislation, a child molester who committed his crime before the
bill was enacted, is not barred from amnesty if their conviction
omitted the age of their victim. This is a bizarre loophole.
Who wrote this bill? Who included that in this bill? This is a nutty
provision. The people who put that provision in the bill are working
with those people who wrote the legislation.
Also, we have gang members who are eligible for amnesty. As long as a
gang member signs a piece of paper renouncing their gang membership,
they can apply for the probationary status and must be granted it
within 24 hours. Now, I'm certain that signing a piece of paper will
mean that the gang members will change their drug dealing and
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violent ways and become positive members of our society.
This bill will cost American taxpayers billions and billions, yes,
trillions of dollars. Just one example. The earned income tax credit
which now provides help for financially low-income Americans, we
actually are providing them through this tax credit some stipend, some
money, it is currently done at a cost of $20 billion. It's a $20
billion expenditure that we're trying to help out low-income Americans.
Illegal aliens on Z visas and guest workers will be eligible to apply
for the earned income tax credit immediately. They are now legally in
this country, so they can have that income tax credit. The
Congressional Budget Office says this will cost $20 billion more of our
money.
Now the 1996 welfare reform bill demanded that persons be a legal
resident of the United States for 5 years before they can receive any
benefits that are eligible to people in the United States. Why are we
granting illegal aliens and guest workers benefits that we do not give
to legal aliens? How can this possibly be right that we treat illegal
aliens better than law-abiding immigrants, much less treating them
better than the poor people who are waiting in line, trying to emigrate
to this country legally, who respect us and want to become U.S.
citizens the right way?
Well, also in the Senate legislation is, of course, the old issue of
State tuition and loans. Yes, in this legislation, State tuition and
loans will be granted to illegal immigrants once they get their
probationary visa. That means anybody who's come here illegally will
automatically be eligible for all these educational benefits that our
children are eligible for.
Actually, it's worse. Our children can't get in-State tuition. If
we're 100 miles away over your State's border, we can't go to the other
State and go in that facility, but someone who has snuck into this
country from thousands of miles away or from the other side of the
world can get a tuition break, and it is paid for by us, the taxpayers.
They get in-State tuition, even though they come from a far-off country
and have come here illegally, while if we try to go to another State we
have to pay higher rates.
Now the legislation does ban some illegal aliens from being able to
collect Social Security, and that's true. But we know that the
President of the United States, for example, has actually already made
an agreement with Mexico, although it was a secret agreement in order
to provide what they call a totalization agreement, which will permit
illegals from Mexico who have been working in the United States to
obtain Social Security benefits for the work that they did here
illegally, but that's just for the people from Mexico.
Now this bill says that others outside of the totalization agreement
won't get Social Security benefits for the work they did while they
were here illegally, but there's a big loophole in the bill. Any
illegal who overstayed a visa but was issued a Social Security number
will be allowed to obtain credit for the work they did illegally.
In other words, if someone was here illegally, overstayed a visa,
while they were here on the visa, if they got their Social Security
number, they will then be permitted to get credit for what they did
when they were working here illegally because they then had their
Social Security card.
We know that between, as I said, 4 and 5 million illegal aliens are
people who entered here on a visa and then did not go home. This
loophole would allow these millions of people who broke the law to work
in this country to collect Social Security. At the very time when we
are rightfully worried about the future solvency of Social Security, we
will allow those who violated their visas to obtain the fruit of their
illegal labors. They will be permitted to have Social Security. This is
an incredible injustice to our seniors who depend on that system and
should not worry about what amounts to basically this theft of Social
Security benefits.
Now, let us note that there are many people trying to suggest that
illegal immigrants actually help Social Security. People actually said
this here in Washington.
Well, let's note this. More than half of the illegal immigrants in
our country work for cash under the table. Now, of those people who are
working for cash, are they helping our Social Security system? We're
being told that illegals working here help our Social Security system.
So these illegal immigrants, because they're being paid under the
table, half of them are paid under the table, they do not pay into the
Social Security system. And since they are paid cash, the employers do
not pay. Not only does the worker not pay his contributions to the
Social Security system, but the employer isn't paying his portion into
the Social Security system.
So a negative effect is this job, if you look at it even beyond that,
is that this job is a job that could be filled by an American citizen
or a legal immigrant, but now that job's been taken by an illegal who
is not doing anything to pay into the Social Security system. The legal
immigrant or the American citizen, whose job that would be if that
person wasn't there, would be paying into the system.
So Americans are losing jobs to illegals who aren't paying their fair
share into the Social Security system. How does that help the Social
Security system?
Corresponding to this, a flow of illegal labor into our country
brings down wages in general. So employers might have paid $10 to $12
an hour, they're now paying much lower wages which then results, of
course, in lower contributions to the Social Security system.
Don't tell me that illegal immigration or that huge amounts of
immigration to our country will help the Social Security system. It's a
grave threat to the Social Security system.
Of course, there are those who say, well, actually the way to make
this right is to legalize all those immigrants who are here illegally
and then they will be paying Social Security. Well, let me note this.
Legalizing the status of those who are here illegally will make the
Social Security challenge we now face dramatically worse in the future
than it is now. Any plan that specifically gives Social Security to
those who have been working in this country is an invitation to fraud
on a massive scale.
What would stop anyone from claiming that they worked here under a
false Social Security number? Hundreds of thousands of people pay into
Social Security under various numbers. Hundreds of thousands, millions
work here under false Social Security numbers. So how can you prove who
used those fraudulent numbers? Who were they? You can't prove who they
were. If they make that claim, how are we going to prove that that's
not them?
We already have a huge problem with identity theft and fraudulent
identification. Allowing those who work here illegally, who have worked
here illegally to participate in Social Security, exponentially
increases the incentive for fraud. Because now they were using false
papers to begin with, now they will claim that they were here and they
could claim they worked for any number of people, even if they didn't.
Another overlooked consequence is the survivor's benefits and
disability benefits of the Social Security system. What would stop
anyone from claiming my spouse worked in the United States under this
false number, I am his widow, these are his children, please start
sending me survivor's benefits now that we are entitled to them?
Remember, billions of people around the world have no retirement
whatsoever. Why assume that only younger immigrants will come to the
United States? Why wouldn't someone in their 50s think, gee, if I come
to the United States and work for a few years, maybe 10 years, the
Social Security that I will get will let me live very well at home;
I'll get it sent to me at home. Why wouldn't they think that?
If you had no retirement benefits and you knew that we were
legalizing the status of millions upon millions of people who have come
here, why wouldn't you do anything, including commit fraud, which they
already do to get
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jobs anyway with their fraudulent documents, why wouldn't they do
anything to get their hands on that Social Security? The bill going
through the Senate would facilitate that.
Furthermore, many people who would be legalized under the several
different proposals that are going around, including these ones that we
are hearing in the Senate, the people that are coming here already and
will come here under the system because it will attract many more
illegals, these are mainly poor and unskilled workers.
The fact is over half the illegal immigrants in this country do not
have a high school education. The inconvenient fact is that Social
Security pays out more benefits proportionately to lower-wage workers
than to higher-wage workers.
A projection I've seen from Social Security assumes that immigrants
have the same general earning potential as native-born Americans. Well,
that's obviously not true.
So to bring in people with low education or little education, what
we're going to do in the long run is place the burden of about $100,000
per person in the long term on our Social Security system because they
will collect that much more than they put in, especially if they come
here when they are in their 50s, in the late 40s or 50s. In the long
run, this will be a catastrophe for the Social Security system.
And last and foremost in terms of Social Security, in 1986, after
being told that it would only legalize about 1 million people, 3
million people were actually legalized. Three million illegal
immigrants ended up being given amnesty. That's back in 1986.
{time} 2145
It is now 20 years later. The current illegal immigrant estimate
ranges from 12 to 20 million people. I keep hearing the lowball, 11
million. Let me note the 20 million figure that I just suggested, that
we have up to 20 to 25 million illegals in this country, this didn't
come from a government source, it was from a private study that was
conducted on the monies that were sent back as remittances to other
countries.
They studied that and figured out how many people it would take to
supply those kinds of remittances, and they came up with about 20
million people could be here illegally. Well, what's going to happen
when those people are legalized? Last time, 1 million people became 3
million, and now we have maybe 15 to 20 million. Well, if we legalize
those people who are already here, and then we permit them into the
Social Security system, this will turbocharge the flood of illegals
into our country.
So, what does that mean? We are going to end up, not with the 20
million that we had, 3 million before, and it became 12 to 20 million,
now, with 20 million, 12 to 20 million, we could expect that by
legalizing their status we will have between 45 and 60 million illegals
here by 2027.
Wake up, America, 45 to 60 million people from other countries
pouring into the United States? What is that going to do to our
society? No fence, no wall, no minefield, no system will keep illegal
immigratios out of this country. If we give them a reasonable hope that
generous government benefits, including retirement benefits like Social
Security can be theirs, if they can just get across the border and wait
us out. Because that's exactly what we are doing right now. If we pass
this bill that's going through the Senate, we are telling the people
throughout the world that they will be able, if they wait us out and
get here, they can expect to get pension benefits, health benefits,
education benefits, beyond their imagination.
Who would not come, when they come, by the tens of millions, oh, much
to the surprise of the people who were passing this legislation. After
all, Senator Kennedy didn't predict this massive jump that we have now
when they passed the bill in 1986. Well, what's going to happen when
they get here? The Social Security system will collapse, as will most
of our government infrastructure.
Listen, being irrationally benevolent to illegals is a crime against
our own people. The bill that's going through the Senate would bring
about such a calamity in the United States of America. It would be a
calamity for average Americans. Illegal immigrants are not, despite
what you have heard, required to even pay back taxes in the legislation
going through the Senate. The bill originally did not require any back
taxes to be paid however.
However, there was an amendment to the bill, I understand, that was
passed, asking that illegals pay back taxes. All right, we are going to
treat our illegals better than we treat our own people, because that
provision in the bill is weak. It only requires that illegal immigrants
show proof that they have paid taxes for 1 year under subparagraph DI,
that's according to the bill.
Unfortunately, the bill was written in such haste that there is no
subparagraph DI in the legislation. So there are certain to be court
cases arguing whether or not the provision that requires a certain
amount of back taxes to be paid, whether or not that is a legal
requirement or not. Because there is no section DI in the bill.
Remember, you do not have to show that you worked in the past in
order to obtain a legal status. So the actual effect of the full
amendment on taxes will be that you will have to show that you will pay
taxes in the future if you come, and, frankly, how do I become an
illegal immigrant with this type of lax attitude towards taxation? I
would love not to have to pay my taxes if I had back taxes that I owed.
If people are paid under the table for years, we are just going to
give them, issue them a waiver. You have paid up, made all this money
in the United States. U.S. citizens will go to jail if they make a
$1,000 mistake. You could have earned, $10-, $20,000, paid taxes, and
you are forgiven.
The final insult, our tax dollars will go to lawyers that are helping
illegal immigrants become legal. That's right, the bill gives money so
that those people who are here working in agriculture will have other
people who come to them and offer them free legal services to legalize
their status.
Well, another problem, problem number 4. The authors of the bill say
that this bill will end chain migration. But the bill that is going
through the Senate does not end chain migration. Chain migration, just
so people will understand, is when we allow relatives of immigrants who
are already here to come to the country for family unification. They
will do that and get in line before those other people who have been
waiting long, long periods of time to emigrate to the United States.
Well, chain immigration is actually dramatically increased by the
legislation going through the Senate. Now, they claim they have ended
it, but look at what the bill actually does. The bill, right now, there
are 138,000 people who come into our country legally through what they
call this chain migration, you know, family reunification. For 8 years,
they are going to increase that number to 440,000 a year. You get that?
So they say we are not going to change migration, but we are
increasing it. We are tripling it for at least 8 years. Does anyone
really believe that 8 years from now they are going to then end this?
We have tripled chain migration.
The point system, which supposedly will take the place of this chain
migration, is a joke. The merit system will not even kick in until
2016. What year is this? That's 9 years from now. So what you have to
do is you have to take it on faith that the future Congresses won't
scrap this system altogether. But, of course, the merit points are
here, we are talking about, are granted for high demand occupations.
Now, what we are talking about here, of course, is the fact that the
bill over there provides for a guest worker program and for us to
restructure, supposedly restructure the legal immigration coming into
our country, even though, by the way, we all know that by granting
amnesty that will bring tens of millions of more illegals into the
country anyway.
But the legal system, we are going to have a merit system, and we are
going to have people coming into our country
[[Page 14749]]
to fill jobs like janitors, maids, gardeners and other low-skilled
occupations.
Well, you know, I can see that instead of bringing people in from
overseas by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, perhaps we
should let the market work and let the pay level of our low-skilled
workers increase so that our own people can get the job. In this
country there are 69 million people of working age who are not working.
People say, well, how are you going to get the people to pick the fruit
and the vegetables? Some jobs they won't do. The President, of course,
has stopped saying they won't do, he says jobs that they aren't doing.
Well, first of all, we have millions upon millions of prisoners. We
have more prisoners who are healthy young men, by and large, 18- to 40
years old, who are sitting in prison doing nothing but pumping up,
watching TV. Let's let them pick the fruits and vegetables. Let's let
them make some money on it. Let's let them help pay for their
incarceration.
No, there are people in our country to do the jobs, but they are not
going to do it for free, and they are not going to do it for a
pittance. I used to work as a janitor, yet the janitors make about the
same as I made when I was a janitor. What's different, the GDP has
tripled. The janitors are making about the same amount of money.
Why? Because a flood of illegals have come into this country and bid
down wages. Every middle class American working person has had his
income brought down by illegals. Oh, yes, it's helped the employers,
all right. It's helped the bosses. It's helped the rich people who want
to hire illegal nannies. It's helped the people who want their lawns
mowed because they would have to pay more wages.
They would have to pay the children of the neighborhood perhaps more
than they would pay the illegal immigrant who comes around to mow the
lawn. It's better for our country to have these people who are not
working paid more money and have the people in our middle class pay
more money than bring in millions and millions and millions of people
into this country legally or illegally.
Of course, this country, this system would suggest that we bring them
in illegally. That's what the Senate, the Kennedy bill, wants to do.
We currently have a 15 percent unemployment rate among those in
America with less than a high school education. Why shouldn't we let
them get those jobs? Yes, they might have to pay them more money,
because they would have to attract them to work. That makes more sense
to me than bringing in these people from overseas.
In my own district, I was contacted by people in the health care
industry begging me, say we need nurses and health care people. Well,
officially, they can't find the nurses and the people to work. They
wanted me to support bringing in 100,000 Filipino nurses, 100 now from
Pakistan and India.
But these are high-paying jobs, even the high-paying jobs, they want
to bring in foreigners to do the jobs. No, this $50- to $75,000 health
care job should go to a young American or middle-class American who is
working their way through school. It could be a middle-aged American
person who just wants to upgrade their skills. It should go to that
person.
We went to junior colleges last week during break. I brought all the
junior colleges and the hospital people together to find out why we
didn't have enough people, trained health care people to work. Why was
it a pressure for us to bring people from the outside?
We found out that in our junior colleges where we should be training
these people, that they weren't permitted to pay the instructors of the
people being trained for these health care programs more than they paid
the other instructors who were teaching sociology and political
science.
That just means that these nurses, who can earn more money on the
outside, won't come to be teachers at junior colleges. They have 185
students at Golden West College who are taking nursing, and yet 24,000
students are taking classes that will enable them to get a job selling
clothing at Nordstrom's or being the assistant manager of a 7-Eleven at
$35,000 a year when there are $60,000-a-year jobs that are going
begging in the health care industry, and they want us to bring in
people from the Philippines.
This is wrong. This is a betrayal of the American people to bring
people in from outside our country to bring down wages and take the
jobs away from the American people who need those jobs. This is wrong.
But people say, no, no, we need a comprehensive bill, there is all
this talk about a comprehensive bill. All this talk about a
comprehensive bill is a cover, because every part of the legislation
going through the Senate actually, that will be implemented, that will
be different than the law that exists today, actually encourages the
invasion of our country by illegals and by a massive flow of people
coming into the country even through the legal system.
Do we need a comprehensive bill in order to try to set up those
protections that will protect our border? No. It's already mandated.
That bill actually weakens it.
Do we need something to help us with our visa system? No. You know,
this isn't helped at all by the legislation going through the Senate.
Do we need it in order to have more Border Patrol agents? No we have
already mandated more Border Patrol agents that is required by that
bill. All of those aspects of that legislation are covered for the real
purpose of the bill, which is to legalize the status of 15 to 20
million illegals who are here, which will then create a massive flow of
illegals into this country, which will result in 20 to 30 to 40 million
new illegals in this country within 10 years. We will have lost our
country. Wake up, America. We already have a flood of illegals sweeping
into our country, crowding our classrooms, closing our hospital
emergency rooms, up leashing violent crime, driving down wages. None of
this is theory.
{time} 2200
It is a harsh reality that faces the American people and is borne not
out of academic studies but is being borne out by the life experiences
of American people, the American people across our country.
Middle class America is being destroyed. Our communities are not
safe, our Social Service infrastructure is collapsing, and, yes, it has
everything to do with illegal immigration, immigration that is out of
control. And the bill going through the Senate, once they legalize the
status of all those who are here illegally, there will be five and six
times more illegals, ten times more illegals in our country. And what
will happen then? It'll be lost.
Year after year, while our schools have deteriorated, our jails
filled and our hospitals and emergency rooms shut down, the elite in
this country have turned a blind eye to this disaster that is befalling
the rest of us, their fellow Americans. The elites obscure the issues
and try to maneuver, to keep in place the policies that reward illegal
immigrants with jobs and benefits, just like the bill that's going
through the Senate will reward the illegals who have come into our
country.
This country, the upper class says, can't function without cheap
labor. And it may be cheap to the captains of industry. It may be cheap
to the political elite. But it's painfully expensive to the American
middle class.
It's our kids whose education is being diminished, our families who
are paying thousands more in health insurance to make up for the
hospital costs of those who are giving free services to illegals. It's
our neighborhoods that are suffering from crime, perpetuated by
criminals who have been transported here from other countries. People
who should not be here, criminals who should not be here are raping and
murdering American citizens. More Americans have been murdered by
illegals over the last 5 years than American soldiers have been killed
in Iraq. Yet we hear a cry of pain and agony coming from the Congress
for soldiers who volunteered to go overseas and take their chances. And
what do we hear for the victimized Americans
[[Page 14750]]
who are being raped and murdered in greater numbers than those being,
the Americans being killed in Iraq? We don't hear anything except,
well, let's, we need a comprehensive bill, a bill that somehow is going
to be fair to the illegal immigrants who are already here.
Our job is not to be fair with people who have come here illegally,
not to watch out for the benefit of people who are overseas. Our job as
elected officials here, as Members of Congress, is to watch out for the
United States of America and the people of the United States of
America. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not being selfish.
And what do we hear from some of the Senators backing that
legislation, even Republican Senators, as if we're being hateful by
expecting our government to watch out for the benefit of Americans,
rather than giving benefits away, draining our treasuries and giving it
to people who have come here illegally or people in other societies?
This is wrong. It's morally wrong. It's a dereliction of our duty as
people who were elected to watch out for our people.
It's in our neighborhoods that are suffering from crime that's
perpetuated by criminals who are here, as I say, from other countries.
It's our livelihood that's being dragged down as wages are depressed
and anchored down by a constant influx of immigrants, mostly illegal,
some with H1-B visas, who will work for a pittance.
The American people have every right to expect that we're not going
to let masses of people come in and bid down their wages; that we're
not going to let people come into this country and give them, like that
bill does, immediate legal status when some of them have communicable
diseases, diseases which are coming into our schools which we licked
years ago, threatening our children.
It is not hateful to say that we have to watch out for our children.
It is not wrong for us to put that as a priority and say, yes, we care
about those overseas, we care about others. But it is not wrong and
hateful and it is not some sort of a selfishness to say we've got to
take care of our own people with our limited resources.
Of course, big business has a hold on the GOP. There's no doubt about
it. I've been in the party for a long time to see the undue influence
that big business has on the party. It's very clear.
Yet big business is in an unholy alliance and the GOP is in an unholy
alliance with the liberal left, the liberal left coalition that
controls the Democratic party. It is this unholy coalition between the
big business element of the Republican party and the liberal left
coalition which dominates the Democratic party that is responsible for
this invasion of our country, this attack to the well-being of our
people. The coalition gives the jobs and passes out the benefits that
have lured tens of millions of illegals into our country.
And it's no accident. This predicament was predictable. Big business
wants to depress wages. The liberal left that controls the Democratic
party wants to have political pawns. They believe that large numbers of
illegals will help them change America, or even large numbers of
newcomers will help them change America.
Well, if you give the jobs and benefits, as this coalition in our
Congress has done for the last 10 years, if you give away the policies
that created the jobs and the benefits that have gone to people who've
come here illegally from overseas, well, if you give them the jobs and
benefits, the masses of the people over there, if you told them that
they are eligible for these benefits and these jobs, they will do
anything to get here. And that's exactly what they've been doing. As
you say, give it, and they will come. Surprise, surprise.
And now, the out-of-touch elite claim this new piece of legislation,
the so-called comprehensive bill will, in some way, fix the immigration
crisis. That's what you hear.
Well, everybody wants a comprehensive bill because we've got to do
something. Doing nothing is better than doing something wrong. Doing
nothing is better than doing something that'll make a problem worse.
And of course the people who say you've got to do something are the
ones who created the problem in the first place.
And, as I said, all of these things that they're trumpeting in the
bill, the new enforcement measures, the security measures, the fence,
the new agents, the employer sanctions, all of these things are already
in place in the law. But we have to give amnesty to illegals and
actually encourage tens of millions more to come here in order to get
that?
It's like Lucy holding out the football for Charlie Brown. This bill
is yet another attempt to trick us as Lucy tricked Charlie every time.
It is an illusion, a scam that will make things worse.
The Senate legislation being touted by Senator Kennedy and the few
Republican senators and our President, as I say, the purpose of that
bill is to legalize the status of 15 to 20 million illegals, which will
then bring tens of millions more. It is a pro-invasion bill. It
behooves all of us, all of us to oppose that legislation because we
love America.
The President has it all wrong. We want to do what's right for
America. That's why we're opposing what he's suggesting.
In that bill, of course, is a provision that would increase the
Border Patrol. And, as I say, the legislation going through the Senate
actually increases the Border Patrol by fewer agents than is already
required that the Border Patrol expand. A great deal has been made out
of that. But let's take a look at what that really means.
Do we really believe that President Bush and this administration and,
yes, those supporting this bill, are supportive of a strong border
control of the fence and strengthening the Border Patrol?
This is an administration that has backed up U.S. attorneys who have
taken Border Patrol agents who have stopped drug smugglers at our
border and thrown the Border Patrol agents in jail for not following
the proper procedures, giving immunity to the drug dealer, and throwing
the book at the people, the law enforcement agents who are trying to
protect us.
As we speak, Ramos and Compeon, two Border Patrol agents who, for 15
years combined in their lives, were risking their lives every day to
protect us. One of them is a 10-year veteran of the Naval Reserve. The
other served in the military before joining the Border Patrol. These
people have clean records.
Yet the U.S. attorney has thrown the book at these folks, these two
brave men, men whose records are clean. And yet he has, the U.S.
attorney claims they are corrupt again by playing word games, just like
his boss. And today, as we debate this bill, these two Border Patrol
agents languish in solitary confinement in Federal prison.
How can anyone claim that they are in favor of the Border Patrol,
strengthening the Border Patrol agents, when this administration has
done so much to demoralize those people in the Border Patrol and to
attack the well-being of those who are protecting us?
The demoralization of our Border Patrol is a grave threat to our
national security and the safety of people. We need to back our Border
Patrol agents. They do not support this legislation. We need to be
strong. We need to make sure that we are doing what is right for the
American people. That is what this battle is all about.
Let's remember those two Border Patrol agents because they symbolize
everything that's wrong with that legislation, everything that's wrong
with the position of the elite in this country. These are just ordinary
men, Ramos and Compeon, who were out trying to protect us, just like
our military people overseas, risking their life. Yet they were told
not to use their weapons on the border, and they did, and they did not
follow the proper procedures, and they were thrown in jail.
Remembering them, remembering what we do right for our own people,
let us oppose this effort to change the immigration laws that would
bring more illegals into our country.
[[Page 14751]]
____________________
30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ellsworth). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Meek) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker; and it is an
honor to come to the floor once again. My good colleagues that have, we
come to the floor working on behalf of the 30-Something Working Group;
and I can just attest that it's just great to be an American and have
an opportunity to share our thoughts and ideas and concerns.
As you know, the 30-Something Working Group, we come to the floor to
shed light on the action of the House and to talk about this new
direction that we fought so hard for last November, especially on the
Democratic side of the aisle, to move this country in a new direction
and exactly what the American people have called for. So we're excited.
I'm glad to have Mr. Altmire and also Mr. Murphy here with me
tonight. And I know that Mr. Murphy has been pulling almost a double
duty here. I understand he was Acting Speaker a little earlier tonight.
And I had the opportunity, while you were in the Chair, to join
Speaker Pelosi celebrating her 20th year of public service, 20 years
here in the House. There were a number of great Speakers that were
there, honored her family for allowing her to serve this great country
of ours, and also recognizing the fact that she's history as being the
first female Speaker. But also there were people like Patti LaBelle
there, and just a really star-studded event. She deserves that honor
and that appreciation; and constituents also, I'm pretty sure, are
pretty happy and proud. All Americans are.
With that, I, of course, we, Mr. Speaker, we and mainly as of late,
talking about Iraq, and as we speak here on the floor, there's a major
debate going on just across the hall in the Senate dealing with
comprehensive immigration reform. Just in the last 6 months, we have
done so much and we've talked about so much and we've taken action on
so many different issues; and I know that Mr. Murphy and Mr. Altmire
and I will be addressing many of those issues tonight.
This is our first time since the Memorial Day break, and I had a
wonderful opportunity to attend a NATO conference, parliamentary, that
the Speaker appointed me and I think 12 other Members of the House,
bipartisan, spent some time over in Portugal meeting with some of our
European Union partners there, and had the opportunity to go to Tunisia
to honor those World War II veterans that are, or honor those that paid
the ultimate sacrifice. It's the only U.S. cemetery on the continent of
Africa; and it was so very, very special and touching, just as an
American and as a Member of Congress, to go there and lay a wreath on
behalf of those that paid the ultimate sacrifice.
And then having, and still having, Mr. Speaker, the opportunity to
come back here and join with my family, who's here in Washington, go
down to the World War II Memorial, which had Tunisia and all of the
different countries where World War II, we had fighting and men and
women lost their lives, to make that connection, all in a 5-day span,
is something great as an American.
{time} 2215
I just want to share that with the Members of the House. And we know
that one of our soldiers just today, one of the soldiers who was found
in Iraq was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery, and we know that there
are two that are still missing of the recent ones that were missing
from the IED that exploded recently in Iraq. So we paid honor to those
that have paid the ultimate sacrifice and their families and also to
those veterans that served beside them. And it was such a great week,
and I know that many of the Members had an opportunity to go back to
their districts to celebrate the life of those that paid the ultimate
sacrifice.
With that, Mr. Murphy, I would like to yield to you, sir.
Mr. PATRICK J. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentleman from Florida for yielding.
You know, it is funny. This is my first time as a member of the 30-
Something Group, and I know I am the puppy of the group because I am
only 33 years old. So when I ran for Congress, I had tremendous support
from the network community, those bloggers out there all across
America. But there are bloggers, especially in Philadelphia and greater
Philadelphia and the suburbs that blog every day, and they got so
excited when the 30-Something Group was their voice when you were in
the minority. Your voice in talking about progressive values, talking
about the things in the New Direction, that if we were just given the
chance, we would lead. And when we got that chance just a few months
ago in the 110th Congress, those bloggers, that network community, are
just so proud of their efforts. And it is neat for me to be here to
think that when we had a rebirth in our country and Philadelphia, the
city of Philadelphia was part of that rebirth and to know that six of
the ten biggest bloggers in our country are from Philadelphia and the
Philadelphia suburbs. People like Chris Bowers of MyDD and Duncan Black
of Atrios and how they are following the 30-Something Group every day
and to be part of this group now is just a really proud moment.
And another proud moment that the gentleman from Florida mentioned is
the fact that today is the 20th anniversary of the public service of
the Speaker of the House, Ms. Nancy Pelosi from California. And when I
was in this body just a few months ago speaking and taking that oath of
office, taking that oath to support and defend the Constitution of the
United States as a Member of Congress, and when I was there with my
wife, Jenni, and my 6-month old, at that time a month old, daughter,
Maggie Murphy, and I know, Mr. Speaker, that they are watching at home
on C-SPAN because I am down here trying to work on behalf of our great
country, I know that I was thinking of not just the folks that are over
in Iraq, those men that I served with or those men that I had taught
when I was a professor at West Point, but I thought about my month-old
daughter, Maggie, and I thought about what an incredible story it is
that when she was born into this great country, the third most powerful
person is a woman, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
And I thought about a role model. Here is this Italian Catholic woman
originally from Baltimore, now in San Francisco, and the criticism
about the Speaker before she got in here was that she wasn't going to
do a good job or she was going to lead from the left. She has really
made this a House united. She has reached across the aisle to the
Republicans. She has tried to lead in a moderate fashion, and I think
we have to give her a lot of credit. I know the analysts have said that
she is getting high marks as the Speaker, and I know that I am proud
that she is our Speaker and I am proud to serve under her leadership.
I will keep my remarks relatively brief. It is my maiden voyage here
with the 30-Something Group, and I am joined as well with one of my
brothers, the other Murphy, Chris Murphy, who is the elder statesman
from Connecticut, who is a whole, I think, 30 some days older than I
am, and I know tonight the Speaker Pro Tempore is the gentleman from
the great State of Indiana, the sheriff, but tonight I want to speak
about the New Direction that we are bringing about.
Finally, the rubber stamp Congress of the past is gone and the do
something Congress is here. And we all campaigned in saying that we
were going to hold President Bush accountable. And I had served in
Baghdad as a captain with the 82nd Airborne Division, and I am so proud
of my military service. My father served during Vietnam in the Navy. My
grandfather served. My brother is still serving in the Air Force. And I
think back to those times and what you come to expect of the Congress.
And our men and women who are serving so honorably fight for our
country. They fight to support and defend the Constitution of the
United
[[Page 14752]]
States, and they execute the public policy as it is drafted and
implemented here in Washington.
And I know that I get e-mails from Iraq and Afghanistan and those
heroes talk about sometimes they don't know what the policy necessarily
should be, but what they do appreciate is the fact that we are actually
having a debate, that we are actually asking the tough questions
necessary. So when we talk about a New Direction in this 110th
Congress, when we talk about accountability, part of that is what we
just passed out of the Armed Services Committee with the defense
appropriations bill. Talking about in Iraq when we give the Iraqis
support, why is it that 4 years later they are still, for the most
part, sitting on the sidelines? Why is it that we gave them pallets and
pallets, crates and crates of literally U.S. money and pallets stacked
this high, shipped it over to Baghdad, gave it out, and billions and
billions of dollars are simply missing?
When we talk about accountability, we have to talk about the weapons
that we have given the Iraqis. In the United States military, and I
joined it back in 1993, we are taught pretty early that your weapon is
your best friend. There was even a cadence that I used to sing when I
would jog in the morning and run troops, ``I used to date a beauty
queen; now I date my M-16.'' And it is kind of funny, but it is true in
that you are always around your weapon. It is part of that
accountability. If you lose your weapon, that is the end of your
career. You will be lucky if you don't get court-martialed.
But how that relates to Iraq is we have given the Iraqis 14,000
weapons, AK-47s, M-16s, that are now missing. Think about that. We have
given 14,000 weapons to the Iraqis that are completely missing,
unaccounted for. That is not the accountability that our taxpayers are
expecting. That is not the accountability that we should be expecting
when we fight the war on terror because when you give billions of
dollars over in Iraq, when you give 14,000 weapons to Iraq that are now
just missing, that affects the lives of our soldiers. And we cannot
stand for that.
I would also like to talk about accountability when it comes to
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Almost 6 years ago, our Nation was attacked
by Osama bin Laden. Thousands of innocent civilians, innocent Americans
were murdered on September 11 of 2001. The culprit: Osama bin Laden. He
was in Afghanistan. He trained al Qaeda, and al Qaeda was really given
a free pass by the government there, the Taliban. And we made a
decision. We got a coalition. We got Canada and all these other
countries going in there in Afghanistan to do the job. And then a short
time later, President Bush said, no, let's change our focus to Iraq.
Well, we have ten times more troops now in Iraq now than in
Afghanistan. And when we talk about accountability, you have to ask the
question, what are we doing to get Osama bin Laden? Why is it that we
give Pakistan billions of dollars? We actually give Pakistan $80
million a month because we have intelligence that is unclassified that
we can talk about here in this setting that Osama bin Laden is in
Afghanistan and possibly on the border of Pakistan. So we need
Pakistan's help as an ally.
Why is it that President Musharraf has outsourced the hunt for Osama
bin Laden to his regional warlords?
Years ago we learned that we outsourced the hunt for Osama bin Laden
in Tora Bora and he slipped through our fingers when we had a chance.
We can't repeat the same mistakes. So if we are giving support to
Pakistan and Afghanistan, which we should, they are our allies, we need
to demand accountability. We need to demand the accountability that the
American taxpayers, that the American families, and that the American
soldiers deserve.
And the last point I would like to bring up on my maiden voyage here
in the 30-something Group is education. One of the greatest jobs I ever
had was being a professor at West Point teaching constitutional
military law. And it was the Constitution that those young cadets who
were about to become second lieutenants were going to take an oath to
support and defend. And education is vital for Americans and our
students to be more and more competitive in a global economy.
I joke with the gentleman from Florida we are not competing in my
district in Bucks County for jobs against Florida. As I look at Mr.
Altmire, we are not competing with the folks in Pittsburgh in Bucks
County. I look at the congressman from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy). We are
not competing with jobs necessarily against the folks in Connecticut.
We are competing for jobs with people in China and South Korea and
Japan and in Europe. And we need to have high investment in education
so we remain more competitive.
And this gets me into our national debt. Right now our debt is over
$9 trillion. So that means every man, woman, and child in America owes
over $29,000 to our national debt. So that means when my daughter,
Maggie, was born 6 months ago at Lower Bucks Hospital in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, she was born in that hospital and she owed $29,000 to our
national debt. That is a debt that we owe to foreign countries like
communist China, like Japan, like South Korea, like Mexico. We keep
borrowing and borrowing and borrowing and borrowing.
Now, when I am back home, people say to me, Patrick, we are at war.
Of course it is going to cost money.
And I say, $9 trillion we have in debt, $9 trillion; yet this war in
Iraq has only cost at this point about $450 billion. That is a huge
difference.
And how it relates to education is just in March of 2007, we paid $21
billion just that month on the interest rate to this debt, just paying
off the interest rate that we owe, $21 billion. But that same month we
only paid $5 billion in education. So what we spend on education, $5
billion, we spend four times that much that same month on our interest
rate on our debt.
We need a change and we are making that change happen here in the
110th Congress. And I am proud to be part of it. I am proud to be part
of the leadership to make sure we do what is necessary, establishing a
pay-as-you-go system, doing the things necessary to hold all of us
accountable and this government accountable.
So I would say to the gentleman of Florida, thank you for giving me
the opportunity on this maiden voyage. I look forward to many more
times back here with the 30-Something Group, and I am proud of all
those supporters not just back home in Bucks County and northeast
Philadelphia and Montgomery County and the network community. I am
proud, on this 20th anniversary, of the public service of our leader,
Speaker Pelosi, to be here amongst the 30-Something Group. Thank you so
much.
{time} 2230
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Murphy, I am just so happy that you had an
opportunity to share some of your wisdom with us here tonight and also
a perspective, especially someone who has been in harm's way and has
been in the field with our men and women, and at the same time talking
about education.
We just had a major education summit right before the break that the
Speaker put forth, and Mr. Miller and Ms. DeLauro were a part of that
effort, and we were just so pleased to do that.
In the 30-Something Working Group, we kind of like to have a
conversation. We know that everyone has to make an opening remark or
statement, but, Mr. Altmire, I am looking forward to hearing what you
want to share with the members.
And, also, one of my constituents once called me. Serving in public
service, you have an opportunity to hear some interesting things. He
called me up. And you know these cable talk shows, where you go down to
public television and you sign up and it's like a nonprofit
organization. He called me, and I was a State representative at that
time, and he said, Kendrick, I want you to come on my show. And I said,
well, what are we going to talk about? And he said, we're going to talk
about the consequences of the consequences.
So I had to kind of, I was on the phone and I said, ``consequences of
the
[[Page 14753]]
consequences?'' And he said, ``Yes, the consequences of the
consequences could be consequential.''
But in this case, as we look at the consequences of the consequences,
using his description of what was going on at that particular time, I
couldn't help, as I yield to you, but look at the Newsweek cover.
I went home tonight before I came over here. My wife joined me at the
celebration for the Speaker. And this Newsweek cover that many of us
will be reading this week says, ``After Bush. How to Restore America's
Place in the World.'' I mean, this is not a Democratic publication, Mr.
Speaker. I think it's important for us to understand that we are living
in serious times. And here at the 30-Something Working Group, we try to
break things down so that everyone can understand, where Members won't
say, well, I didn't know exactly my role at that particular time.
There are very historic votes that are taking place here. We just had
an emergency supplemental. I think that every vote that every Member
took was a heroic vote and a sheroic vote, in my opinion, need it be in
the positive or the affirmative.
But I think it's important for all of us to realize that we have a
role to play. And many of us, I know I do, share getting our men and
women back home and bringing an end to this conflict, especially as it
relates to U.S. troops serving in combat posture on the streets of
Baghdad in the middle of a civil war.
Mr. Altmire.
Mr. ALTMIRE. I just want to say how proud I am of my fellow
Pennsylvanian and the second Murphy now to join the 30-Something
Working Group, along with the gentleman from Connecticut. He is someone
that we look to for his expertise, having been in the field of battle
and having served in this conflict; and I really am excited to hear
that he is going to be joining us now with the 30-Something group to
talk more about these issues. And he definitely has a unique
perspective that he's adding. So I was excited to hear his voice, and I
am very proud to hail from the same State.
I wanted to talk a little bit about one of the consequences of this
action that we're talking about, as Mr. Meek brought up, is the fact
that we are creating, through our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan,
hundreds of thousands of new veterans are returning to this country,
many of whom are returning seriously injured. We have over 25,000 that
have been injured. We are approaching 4,000 killed now. And those that
are returning and are going to have to use the VA system are going to
find, thankfully, that for the first time in the history of the
program, 77 years of the Department of Veterans Affairs, we have
increased funding at a rate that has never been seen in the history of
the Department. We are up to approximately $15 billion in increased
funding for the VA in this Congress.
And as every member of the 30-Something Working Group knows and
certainly every Member of this House knows, this is a priority issue
for me. Funding for Veterans Affairs has languished in the past several
years, unfortunately, but this Congress has stepped up to the plate in
a bipartisan way, I will say, to give the Veterans Affairs Department,
especially the health accounts, the necessary funding to take care of
these hundreds of thousands of veterans that we are creating in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
These are men and women who have fought bravely, people like Mr.
Murphy from Pennsylvania who have put their lives on the line, who have
left a family behind to do this and have made every possible sacrifice.
They deserve to know that they can count on the United States to give
them the health care that they deserve and that they have earned, that
they've been promised when they entered the military.
So we voted in just the first 5 months here in this Congress to
increase funding by $15 billion for the VA. And significantly, for the
first time ever, we exceeded the recommended independent budget request
of the service organizations, the American Legion, the VFW, and others.
I want to repeat that point for my colleagues. For the first time
ever, Congress exceeded the request of the service organizations. I
think that's something we can be proud of.
We talk about the enormous achievements we've had in the first 5
months, the many bills and the different subjects that we have
addressed. The fact that we have paid attention to and finally moved
forward with our veterans health care facility in a way that is
unprecedented in the history of this country is I think one of the
things we can be most proud of in our first 5 months in office here.
Some of the things that this funding is going to allow us to do, we
are going to be able to hire more doctors and nurses and improve
medical services at the VA. As we saw with some of the Department of
Defense facilities with regard to health care and Walter Reed, chronic
underfunding can lead to some disastrous consequences. We need to make
sure that we don't allow that to happen in our VA system. So this bill
is going to improve the quality of care.
I have in my district a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital that
is undergoing a $100 plus million expansion right now. Hopefully, when
that is done, we are going to have in my district the preeminent health
care facility in the entire VA network; and I want every VA facility to
have that type of access across this country. Our veterans deserve
nothing less than the highest quality health care this Nation can
provide for them.
We are going to reduce waiting times. We have a backlog at the VA,
unfortunately, of nearly 500,000 cases. And every Member of this House
knows, you probably have the same experience that I am having in my
office of people who are calling, frustrated veterans who want to
access the VA health system but they have to wait, they have to get in
line. And it is a very long line, weeks or months of waiting, because
of that backlog, nearly 500,000 cases. The bill that we passed in this
House, the legislation that we've passed is going to go a long way
towards improving that situation.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Altmire, if you would yield, and Mr. Murphy,
I just don't want it to go by. You're talking about what we just passed
before we left, received the funding for, with a major fight at the
White House. I mean, the President wanted to veto it. He said that's
not what I asked for. Meanwhile, Walter Reed was still standing by for
the dollars to be able to make the corrections that they need to make.
We know that we passed the Chairman's, Mr. Skelton's, bill, Armed
Services bill off this floor to help us with readiness and all of those
things. The President said that he is going to veto many of these
things that are over his mark. But what you're talking about is
something that we couldn't even dream of in the last Congress. I mean,
you start thinking about how we moved the ball down field, and I mean
by force. And Mr. Speaker, I can tell you, many of us, not only do we
have to eat our Wheaties, but we have to do our pushups. And mentally
we have to prepare ourselves between our ears to go to battle on behalf
of the American people and those that have served.
So I hear exactly what you're saying. I just want to make sure that
Members understand. And guess what? Again, Democratic leadership. A
number of Republican colleagues, I believe with maybe 80 of them, voted
against the emergency supplemental to get these dollars to our veterans
to show you that if we can get these great issues to the floor and that
we can get a vote on them that the American spirit and the bipartisan
spirit will then take off, versus those that said, well, we don't need
to do it. And we are doing it in a meaningful way that veterans are
going to see an improvement as we move on.
So I just wanted to hit that real quick, and I yield back. But I just
wanted to be able to, especially from a person that was around as it
relates to Members on the floor, now, I guess I'm the only Member that
was in the 109th Congress and 108th Congress, to reflect on that
historical note there of just leadership and making it happen on behalf
of our veterans in Pennsylvania and other States.
[[Page 14754]]
Mr. ALTMIRE. I appreciate the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) for
his comments and certainly his leadership on this issue, which is
unmatched in this House. I am proud to hear your comments.
We have a situation at Walter Reed which we all came to know very
well, of course, in the months. I had the opportunity to tour Walter
Reed, and when you see these kids that are returning from battle and
you think about them, one of the fantastic gentlemen that we met was a
2005 graduate of the Naval Academy. And you can picture him just 2
short years ago in his uniform, throwing his hat in the air, excited,
cream of the crop, the best this Nation can put forward, and he came
home just horrifically injured.
It breaks your heart to see these men and women who fought so
bravely, and you think that they went home to Walter Reed, and it is
our responsibility to give them the best medical care that money can
provide, and we had disastrous things happening there. You think of the
living conditions that were outlined in that Washington Post article,
and the paint peeling from the walls and the rodents and the mold, and
you think, how could we possibly have let this happen?
For several years, there were complaints that were made, but nothing
was done about it. But this Congress is doing something about it. We
have not only done the investigations and the oversight to find out
what went wrong and to hold those accountable who are responsible for
what happened at Walter Reed, but, just as important, we have a
commitment in this House and in this Congress that this is never going
to happen again.
We are going to give the necessary funding to the Department of
Defense and to Walter Reed so that they can take care of the
maintenance and the repair that's necessary. And we are going to do a
top-to-bottom review of every Department of Defense health facility and
every VA facility in this country, find out if anything similar is
happening, if there are any problems of this sort, and fix them
immediately, not wait for this to take place again.
Because it shouldn't take a Washington Post article. It shouldn't
take the newspaper to bring this situation to light. We have a
responsibility, and we are fulfilling that responsibility, to ensure
that this never happens again. And we are doing that in a variety of
ways, through oversight and through the funding increases that I've
talked about.
The supplemental bill that we supported and that went to the
President's desk, which was signed, included an increase in funding to
help the Department of Defense health care and the VA health facilities
fulfill these obligations. And, as I said, we are now at record levels.
The Appropriations Committee dealing with Veterans Affairs just today
announced that they had marked up their bill with a $6.7 billion
increase in funding for the VA which, as I said, for this 1 year is the
largest in history and is nearly $4 billion above what the President
had requested.
We are going to talk a little bit later about bipartisanship, and
that is an issue of which there can be no disagreement. There are
issues that we talk about, like immigration, like Iraq, like tax cuts,
where there is a deep divide among us. There are serious policy
differences among us. But every Member of this House can agree that
there is no group that should stand ahead of our Nation's veterans when
it comes time to make Federal funding decisions. That is an issue that
we can all agree on.
I am proud to be a Member of this House that has, for the first time
in a very long time, as I said, created an atmosphere where we all
agree that veterans come first, and we need to increase the level of
funding for the VA health facilities after years and years of neglect.
So, with that said, I would yield at this time to the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Murphy).
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you very much, Mr. Altmire.
I want to key off of your last point there, just spend a couple
moments before we kick it back to Mr. Meek, on that issue of
bipartisanship. Because you are exactly right. You know, it seems like
a pretty simple premise that the cost of the war should include taking
care of the warriors when they return back home, that the cost of the
war isn't just the guns and the ammunition and the mechanics necessary
to fight a war in Iraq or Afghanistan, the cost of the war is also
taking care of those men and women when they get back home. That is
this war and that is previous wars.
So it sounds like a pretty unanimous premise that we could all get
behind, but the fact is that we didn't get behind it, and we didn't get
behind it until the Democrats took control of this Congress. It was
just platitudes and rhetoric for a long time, ``let's support our
troops and support our veterans.''
{time} 2245
So I think we got to be clear today, as much as we are going to talk
about the importance of bipartisanship, it took the Democrats to put
some of these issues out before the House in order to garner bipartisan
votes. I think that is maybe as important as anything that we have done
in these first 5 months, is that we have gotten rid of that old rule
that I heard a little bit about when I was watching this place from
afar in Connecticut called the ``majority of the majority.''
I heard about this rule where nothing could come to the floor of the
House of Representatives unless the majority of the majority party
supported it. So you had very few opportunities for there to be real
bipartisan cooperation, because you had to have almost unanimous
agreement from the majority party, at the time the Republicans, in
order for anything to get down here to the floor of the House.
We talked a lot, Mr. Meek, when we stood up here after that sort of
glorious first 100 hours about those bills, those six or seven bills
that we passed, and how many Republicans we had on board with each one
of those. They were really remarkable numbers. On average we had 60-70
Republican votes for each one of those. It doesn't get covered much in
the news. The news wants to cover just the grinding and gnashing of the
two parties.
We had a lot of bipartisan cooperation, and that has continued. That
has continued. In the last few weeks here we had on a bill to
reauthorize funding for children's healthcare, we had 123 Republicans
supporting it. That same 123 Republicans supporting increased record
funding for Katrina recovery. On the joint funding resolution that
finally restored some fiscal balance to this country, we had 57
Republicans supporting it. Increasing the minimum wage, 82 Republicans.
I know when you turn on the cable news networks you are not going to
hear about the times that we agree. But why a lot us were so
enthusiastic to stop by and send well wishes to Speaker Pelosi on her
20 years in Congress is because she has made good on her commitment to
make this the most open and ethical and bipartisan Congress in a real,
real long time.
I know, Mr. Meek, this doesn't get the headlines all the time, that
the newspapers want to talk about the places that we conflict. But
there has been a lot of cooperation here and it has mattered. I think
it has made a difference.
I think one of the things the people don't understand is sort of how
this place works, and I certainly didn't understand it until I got
here.
It used to be it was impossible, virtually impossible, for Democrats
to get their amendments heard on the floor of the House of
Representatives. You were going to get a bill introduced by the
Republicans, and that was about it. No more debate, no changes, no
amendments. Nothing. No real opportunity for the People's House to
actually engage in a real argument, in a process of coming up with a
better piece of legislation.
That has changed now. In the first 5 months of 2005, we had two what
are called open rules, bills in which any Member can put forth an
amendment, have a chance to have that idea vetted and aired out before
the House of Representatives. We have quadrupled the number of bills
that have come before this House under a so-called open rule.
[[Page 14755]]
I know these are sort of arcane terms that people out there may not
understand, but they matter. It means that every single one of the 435
people that are elected here have a chance to make a bill better, have
a chance to have their voice their constituents' voices heard. For a
long time it was shut down.
So it was a good night tonight to be able to celebrate Speaker
Pelosi's two decades here in the House. A lot of us are excited about
the potential that lies before us to be able to really reset our
direction in Iraq, to do better things in energy policy, to stand up
for working families.
But for a lot of us that came here on the backs and shoulders of our
constituents who have virtually lost complete faith in politics, maybe
we are just as excited about the fact that, despite what you may see in
the cable news networks or reading the headlines, we actually are
starting slowly to bring people together here, to open up this House,
this process, again, to make it a true bipartisan People's House.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, Mr. Murphy, it is very hard to move in
a bipartisan fashion. One speaks constantly about the bipartisan
spirit, about bipartisan action. Spirit and action are two different
interpretations of actually getting something done.
The action part means that Members are able to vote with their voting
cards or walk up to that desk and sign a card that says yea or nay and
work in a bipartisan spirit on the yea. Many amendments from our
Republican colleagues, some of them are passed and some of them are not
passed. But the bottom line is they have at least the opportunity to
come to the floor and to bring their ideas to the floor. Definitely in
the area of financial services.
We have spent a very long time, Mr. Speaker, on this floor hearing
Republican amendments that were offered in committee, offered in
subcommittee. Some came to the floor and we were able to work those
amendments out to become a part of the work product. Others just wanted
to file an amendment, for whatever reason, but had their opportunity in
this democracy to do so.
Many of the Members in this House, of course we have a lot to do, and
Members when they come to the floor, they said, I thought this
amendment was already voted down in committee? But many of the Members
on the minority side, the Republican side, had an opportunity to offer
it, Mr. Murphy. I think this really makes a difference between
Democratic leadership and Republican leadership.
Even though we may not agree, giving the opportunity to others to be
able to take part in this democracy, something that was suppressed in
the two previous Congresses that I can speak to. And I can tell you
that it should be well-noted here that this House has provided the kind
of leadership to allow the minority party here in this House, which are
the Republicans, to have a voice in the process of making laws. That is
so very, very important.
I will say this and then yield back to you. Some are saying, why
aren't you treating the Republicans as the Republicans treated you or
treated Democrats. Well, guess what? Forty-two new Members of the
House, especially when you are on the Democratic side, all of you in
this Chamber who are part of the majority makers, they voted for
change. They didn't vote for the same. They voted for a government that
can work in a bipartisan way. They voted for the kind of leadership to
allow minority Members, who have constituents just like I have, to vote
for veterans assistance, to be able to vote to make sure we put forth
dollars to come up with alternative fuels and other ways that we can
supply America so that we can invest in the Midwest versus the Middle
East. They voted for all of that.
And guess what? That takes time and tolerance, Mr. Speaker, and that
is something that the Republican majority in the previous Congress did
not have. I am glad we have the tolerance. I am glad we are taking the
time. I am glad we are working the way we are working, even though it
is very painful for many of us and our constituents and many that have
our families back in the district.
In this time and this place in history, when you have cover after
cover, how do we restore America's place in the world, it is not how
the world thinks about us. It is about what kind of leadership are we
providing, not only for our constituents, but for the United States of
America. And just at a time we are trying to dig ourselves out of out-
of-control borrowing from foreign nations, we are seeing differently.
I am a Member of the NATO parliamentary group, and I can tell you,
when you are talking to some countries, and it is kind of like you have
to be quiet for a moment, have some level of contrition and listen to
what other people are saying, because they feel we have been dictating
to them what they should do and what they should think, and they are
saying, by the way, you owe us money. You owe me money. You owe my
country money.
So we have domestic issues that we have to cover. I know we are going
to talk about stem cell research and I think that is very, very
important. That is part of the new direction. It is leadership.
Sometimes leadership is lonely. But we have to do it.
Mr. Murphy, I just want to thank you for bringing some of these
issues to light and talking about what it takes to bring about
bipartisan action versus Members coming to the floor and saying we
should have a bipartisan spirit.
Well, spirit is a good thing, if you use it religiously. One of my
friends, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, I have read a couple of his books, he
says spirit makes religion act right. The real issue is that it is good
to have spirit. We all feel good about it. But action is even better.
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. You can talk the talk, but you have to
come out here and do it. You have got to put bills before this House
that have Republican ideas in them and have Democrat ideas in them. And
you have to be okay with the fact that we can share credit. Listen,
nobody in my district cares whether I am a Republican or a Democrat, as
long as I am on the right side of the issues, as long as I am fighting
for what they believe I should be fighting for.
People don't think in Republican or Democratic terms back at the
places we come from. They think about Republican and Democratic terms
here inside the Beltway in Washington, DC, but back out in America, Mr.
Meek, people think about what is right and wrong; what is good for
people and what is bad for people. Not Republican and not Democrat. I
think we are beginning to start to figure that out.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Murphy, you are 110 percent right, and that
is what folks voted for. They didn't vote for you to go be the
strongest Democrat you can be, or I want you to go and be Republican-
like. The bottom line is they voted for us to be Members of Congress,
constitutional officers having a part in this process, one of the three
branches of Government, and making sure that every Member is able to
fulfill their constitutional duty and come here and participate.
I feel so good about it, it is like almost I have chill bumps. To be
able to come to this floor, to be a part of the whole begging, if you
get us an opportunity to train the thought it could. All of those
things we talked about, you think about where we were and where we are
now, and that we still have the kind of spirit that we had then, we
still want to fight and we still have battles ahead of us.
We have a President that is saying you do anything over the budget
that I set forth, no matter how good it may be, children's healthcare,
veterans affairs, the issues dealing with the environment, I am going
to veto it.
Well, you know something? We are here saying fine, if you want to
veto it, then consider yourself challenged, versus, well, if you say
you are going to veto it, then I guess we can't do it. Even though we
have our challenges in the Senate, I think that it is very, very
important as it relates to getting a number of these agenda items
through, because of the close numbers there, I think the American
people are going to continue to follow in the spirit of a new direction
and help us carry out the
[[Page 14756]]
agenda that they wanted originally, and hopefully some of our
Republican colleagues in the Senate will be able to come together and
have bipartisan action and move it forward.
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Before we send this back over to Mr.
Altmire, Mr. Meek, let's talk about an issue on which I think this
Congress is going to stand together tomorrow, Republicans and
Democrats, and stand against the policies of a President who is going
to show once again how out of step he is with the American public, and
that is on the issue of stem cell research.
Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity when I was in the Connecticut
State Senate to author Connecticut's Stem Cell Investment Act.
Connecticut became the first State in the Nation through a legislative
act to invest public dollars in stem cell research. I am real proud of
that.
But part of the reason that I decided to leave the State Senate and
come here to the United States Congress is because it was a bittersweet
victory for us. We shouldn't have 50 different State legislatures
investing in basic scientific research; certainly not the type of
potentially pioneering, life-saving scientific research that stem cell
research, both adult and embryonic, holds in its vast and potentially
limitless potential.
So, tomorrow, we are going to take up a bill that we took up at the
beginning of January, now coming back to us from the Senate, which is
the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which is once again
going to allow for Federal dollars to be used for both embryonic and
adult stem cell research around this country, and, by the way, finally
put some real ethical and moral and scientific boundaries around that
research.
One of the great secrets in this world today is if you don't live in
a State like Connecticut, California or New Jersey that has put forth
in State legislation some moral and ethical parameters around stem cell
research, this research is largely unregulated in this country. So I
think the most important thing we will do tomorrow is pass in a
bipartisan way a bill that will start to turn on Federal funds for
research that, as we know, potentially will unlock the treatments and
cures for such insidious diseases as juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's
research and maybe even for cancer some day.
This isn't tomorrow's cure and it is not even the day after
tomorrow's cure, but if we don't start investing now and start
investing at a Federal level, start investing our Federal dollars, we
are never going to get to that day when we can start to realize the
potential of stem cell research.
But here is where the rub is. We are going to do this with
Republicans and Democrats standing together. There will be more
Democrats supporting it than there will be Republicans. That is just
how this issue is going to work. But this is going to be an issue in
which this Congress, because we are in tune with what the people are
telling us, that they want us to use the research at our disposal to
try to make people's lives better, that is what this is all about,
trying to use the resources of the Federal Government, the communal
resources of the American people, to try to make our lives better, that
is what stem cell research can do. They want us to make that jump. It
is going to land on the President's desk and he has already told us
once again that he will veto it.
He is continually out of step with where the American people are with
this war in Iraq. Now he will once again show us he is out of step with
where the American people are on healthcare.
But, once again, we are going to show that if we stand together, if
we put party aside and we listen to what the people want, in this case
they want a Federal Government that is going to start standing up and
trying to find cures for cancer and Parkinson's disease and bone marrow
disease, that we can do some pretty amazing things here if we stand
together.
We passed things with bipartisan support in the past. We will do it
tomorrow on maybe one of the most important things that we will do
before we take our break for the summer, which is invest in stem cell
research.
{time} 2300
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I just want to say that Mr. Murphy presented
himself so well tonight. Mr. Ryan is in Ohio tonight, and he
BlackBerryed me and said he wished he could be here with us. As you
know, Mr. Ryan is an outstanding Member of Congress. He had a death in
his family and had to return to his district. We appreciate and
recognize his absence. I am going to e-mail him back and say, Mr. Ryan,
I think one of the reasons why things are moving so smoothly, you
guessed, is because you're not here; but that is another issue.
Mr. Altmire, one thing that we need to talk about as relates to stem
cell research, there are so many diseases that could be cured, and 72
percent of Americans are supporting this research. We have kids with
juvenile diabetes. There are a number of issues that we want to try to
move on. This is a leadership issue. The thing about leadership is it
is lonely sometimes.
I get e-mails and calls from my constituents, I support this; or,
Kendrick, I wasn't quite with you on that decision. But the good thing
is something is happening, action versus inaction.
Mr. ALTMIRE. I wanted to commend the gentleman from Connecticut
again. We say a lot of things when we are transferring comments here
back and forth about the different roles that we play, but it truly is
the truth to say there is no one in this Congress who has done more on
a public policy basis to promote this issue than the gentleman from
Connecticut. He has done it at the State level. He is passionate about
it. He has done it here in Congress. He has made it a staple issue of
his young career, and I want to commend him. He has shown great
leadership.
And in saying that, I want to recognize that we have a colleague, the
gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette), who certainly deserves credit
second to none for her pushing this agenda. I certainly don't want to
overlook her in recognizing Mr. Murphy's equal efforts on this issue.
I have a unique perspective in my support of this issue in that I am
a pro-life Member of Congress. I used the occasion of my first floor
speech on the floor of this House specifically on this issue because it
is that important to me.
I have a view that embryonic stem cell research and a vote to promote
it is a pro-life vote. By voting to pursue embryonic stem cell
research, we are voting to improve the lives of people. And most
importantly with this bill, we are voting only on, and this is a very
key point, lines of stem cells that would otherwise be discarded by the
fertility clinic. That cannot be overlooked.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. That is a very good point.
Mr. ALTMIRE. This is not a situation where we are going to be able to
pick and choose types of stem cells that can be used for other
purposes. The administration talks about snowflake babies and other
uses. These are only lines of stem cells where the donor has said I am
done using them. They cannot be used for my other purpose, they are to
be discarded, and then they agree that the stem cells could be used for
research purposes. Otherwise they are discarded.
That is something that in my mind is the decisive point on this. If
they are going to be discarded anyway, hundreds of thousands of lines
of embryonic stem cells, why not use them for scientific research to
save the lives and improve the lives of people who are alive today,
real men and women who are suffering from diseases, and the people who
don't know they are going to have those diseases in the future, people
who are going to suffer from these diseases tomorrow.
We are talking about debilitating diseases, we are talking about
long-term diseases that are reaching epidemic proportions in my
district of southwestern Pennsylvania, like diabetes. Imagine if this
research could show a cure or improved treatment for any of these
illnesses. Why would we not use them for scientific purposes if they
are otherwise going to be discarded.
[[Page 14757]]
I am certainly not the only pro-life Member who is going to support
this tomorrow, as the gentleman said. But I do want to emphasize this
is an issue whose time has come. The President has vetoed it in the
109th Congress. He has vetoed it once in this 110th Congress. We are
expecting we are going to face a second veto, and I know the vote is
going to be close on whether or not we are going to be able to override
that veto.
But we have sent a message, and we are going to do it tomorrow, that
the time for this issue has come. This is not about political games or
trying to score points for a political agenda. This is about saving
lives and improving the lives of people who are alive today, and I
strongly support this initiative.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. You couldn't ask for a better feeling being a
Member of Congress. I always share out that. Out on the steps of the
Capitol at least once or twice a week we have young people from our
districts, and they want to hear from Members of Congress. The
difference between us and the average American out there, and there are
only 500-plus Members of Congress, we read something in the paper,
something that could have been avoided, we hear a story from our
constituents, something that could have been avoided, and to have an
opportunity to vote on a piece of legislation like we are going to vote
on tomorrow, no matter how many times we have to vote on it, we are a
part of the solution to many of the health problems that are facing
Americans throughout this country. We are the leader in the world as it
relates to research and being responsible and being respectful.
To have 200 organizations supporting the bill is very, very
important. It is supported by the American Medical Association, the
AARP, the Association of American Medical Colleges, Parkinson's Action
Network, the American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research
Foundation, Paralyzed Veterans of America, all of these groups. That is
just to name a few. And also, 72 percent of Americans support this bill
that we are looking to pass. You also have a number of corporations
that are out there calling for it. Think about the money that could be
saved, not only the money, but the lives. This is what it is all about.
People ask: How do you feel being a Member of Congress? I feel good
because I feel we can bring to the floor and bring to this government
what is needed to help Americans, and I am glad we are a part of that.
Mr. Murphy, it is good having an authority on the floor. I was a
member of the Florida State legislature, and a State legislature is an
interesting organization to be a part of. I think the first line of
public service is being a county commissioner or city commissioner.
That is when somebody can leave their house and let you know what is on
their mind. I am glad to have an opportunity to vote on this, and I
look forward to releasing information to my constituents about what we
have done, and hopefully put some pressure on the White House to do
what so many Americans want us to do, and that is get at some of the
issues that are facing our country right now.
Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. You talked about how much public support
this enjoys, and it is broad and far ranging. I think the public
support mirrors the support within this body. It probably cuts across
partisan lines because the diseases that stem cell research can treat
do not discriminate based on whether you are Democrat or Republican,
not even on whether you are pro-choice or pro-life.
So when you have family members out there who are watching a loved
one grapple with diabetes, watching a father or mother die of
Alzheimer's disease, and they see there is this vehicle, there is this
potential out there, untapped right now, with their Federal tax
dollars, they don't understand. They don't understand why their elected
representatives wouldn't stand up and at least try to make an effort to
bring a cure or treatment to their loved one who is struggling or dying
with these diseases.
This issue enjoys public support because these diseases don't
discriminate based on political discrimination, political views or
geography. I think that is why you will see so many Republicans and
Democrats supporting it.
This is an issue that arises a lot of passions in people. So there is
rhetoric that sometimes doesn't match the reality. One of the arguments
that you are going to hear tomorrow is we don't need to invest in
embryonic stem cell research, which is the controversial piece of this
debate, because adult stem cell research does the trick. That argument
doesn't wash when you talk to the scientific community.
Adult stem cells have vast potential, and we have found ways to
utilize them to make people better and give people longer lives.
{time} 2310
But the fact is that adult stem cells only work on the person that
those cells are harvested from. My adult stem cells work on me. So I
can take stem cells out of my bloodstream, manipulate them, put them
back into my bloodstream to try to cure the disease or whatever may be
affecting me.
Embryonic stem cells have almost a limitless possibility of being
manipulated, to being harvested and put into a limitless number of
people. Those cells don't just work on the people they're taken from.
Those cells can be manipulated and have universal traits to try to cure
diseases.
So we're going to have to try to talk about that tomorrow and why we
need to invest in both adult stem cell research and embryonic stem cell
research.
Mr. ALTMIRE. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I will do two things. First,
it has come to my attention that while we were talking the Anaheim
Ducks kept the Stanley Cup in the United States of America. I want to
congratulate them. And I will now yield back to the gentleman from
Florida to wrap up.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you so very much, Mr. Altmire.
Also, we want the Members, if they want any information we talked
about tonight or want to speak to us, we have the www.speaker.gov Web
site.
With that, Mr. Speaker, it was an honor to address the House, the 30
Something Working Group, tonight, the two Murphies and also Mr. Altmire
and myself.
____________________
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
By unanimous consent, leave of absence was granted to:
Mr. Shuster (at the request of Mr. Boehner) for today on account of
attending his daughter's high school graduation.
Mr. Conyers (at the request of Mr. Hoyer) for after 1:30 p.m. today
on account of personal business in the district.
Mr. Baca (at the request of Mr. Hoyer) for today on account of
personal business.
Mr. Ryan of Ohio (at the request of Mr. Hoyer) for today after 2:00
p.m. on account of attending a funeral.
Mr. Reyes (at the request of Mr. Hoyer) for Tuesday, June 5, 2007, on
account of illness.
Mr. Hastings of Florida (at the request of Ms. Pelosi) for Tuesday,
June 5 and for the balance of the week, on account of official
business.
____________________
SPECIAL ORDERS GRANTED
By unanimous consent, permission to address the House, following the
legislative program and any special orders heretofore entered, was
granted to:
(The following Members (at the request of Ms. Woolsey) to revise and
extend their remarks and include extraneous material:)
Ms. Woolsey, for 5 minutes, today.
Mr. DeFazio, for 5 minutes, today.
Mr. Sestak, for 5 minutes, today.
Mrs. McCarthy of New York, for 5 minutes, today.
Mr. Wu, for 5 minutes, today.
(The following Members (at the request of Mr. Burton of Indiana) to
revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material:)
Mr. Poe, for 5 minutes, June 13.
Mr. Jones of North Carolina, for 5 minutes, June 13.
Mr. Paul, for 5 minutes, today and June 7.
Mr. Davis of Kentucky, for 5 minutes, June 12.
[[Page 14758]]
____________________
ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED
Ms. Lorraine C. Miller, Clerk of the House, reported and found truly
enrolled bills of the House of the following titles, which were
thereupon signed by the Speaker:
H.R. 1675. An act to suspend the requirements of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding
electronic filing of previous participation certificates and
regarding filing of such certificates with respect to certain
low-income housing investors.
H.R. 1676. An act to reauthorize the program of the
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for loan
guarantees for Indian housing.
____________________
BILLS PRESENTED TO THE PRESIDENT
Lorraine C. Miller, Clerk of the House, reports that on May 31, 2007,
she presented to the President of the United States, for his approval,
the following bills.
H.R. 414. To designate the facility of the United States
Postal Service located at 60 Calle McKinley, West in
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, as the ``Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez
Post Office Building''.
H.R. 437. To designate the facility of the United States
Postal Service located at 500 West Eisenhower Street in Rio
Grande City, Texas, as the ``Lino Perez, Jr. Post Office''.
H.R. 625. To designate the facility of the United States
Postal Service located at 4230 Maine Avenue in Baldwin Park,
California, as the ``Atanacio Haro-Marin Post Office''.
H.R. 1402. To designate the facility of the United States
Postal Service located at 320 South Lecanto Highway in
Lecanto, Florida, as the ``Sergeant Dennis J. Flanagan
Lecanto Post Office Building''.
H.R. 2080. To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act
to conform the District charter to revisions made by the
Council of the District of Columbia relating to public
education.
____________________
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now
adjourn.
The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 11 o'clock and 12 minutes
p.m.), the House adjourned until tomorrow, Thursday, June 7, 2007, at
10 a.m.
____________________
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS, ETC.
Under clause 8 of rule XII, executive communications were taken from
the Speaker's table and referred as follows:
2032. A letter from the Secretary, Department of
Agriculture, transmitting a legislative proposal that would
shift funding for the research, development, and maintenance
of information technology functions of the Federal Crop
Insurance Corporation (FCIC) from the Government to the
insurance companies participating in the crop insurance
program; to the Committee on Agriculture.
2033. A letter from the Fiscal Assistant Secretary,
Department of the Treasury, transmitting the Department's
notification to Congress of any significant modifications to
the auction process for issuing United States Treasury
obligations, pursuant to Public Law 103-202, section 203; to
the Committee on Financial Services.
2034. A letter from the Chief Counsel, FEMA, Department of
Homeland Security, transmitting the Department's final rule
-- Final Flood Elevation Determinations -- received May 4,
2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on
Financial Services.
2035. A letter from the Chief Counsel, FEMA, Department of
Homeland Security, transmitting the Department's final rule
-- Changes in Flood Elevation Determinations -- received May
4, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee
on Financial Services.
2036. A letter from the Chief Counsel, FEMA, Department of
Homeland Security, transmitting the Department's final rule
-- Final Flood Elevation Determinations -- received May 4,
2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on
Financial Services.
2037. A letter from the Chief Counsel, FEMA, Department of
Homeland Security, transmitting the Department's final rule
-- Final Flood Elevation Determinations -- received March 18,
2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on
Financial Services.
2038. A letter from the Counsel for Legislation and
Regulations, Department of Housing and Urban Development,
transmitting the Department's final rule -- Native American
Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA);
Revisions to the Indian Housing Block Grant Program Formula
[Docket No. FR-4938-F-03] (RIN: 2577-AC57) received May 2,
2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on
Financial Services.
2039. A letter from the General Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, Department
of Housing and Urban Development, transmitting the
Department's report entitled, ``Sixth Progress Report on
HUD's Strategy for Homeless Data Collection, Reporting and
Analysis''; to the Committee on Financial Services.
2040. A letter from the General Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, Department
of Housing and Urban Development, transmitting the
Department's report entitled, ``Affordable Housing Needs
2005''; to the Committee on Financial Services.
2041. A letter from the Assistant Secretary for Legislative
Affairs, Department of the Treasury, transmitting a copy of
draft bills entitled, ``To extend the authority for canceling
debt owed to the United States pursuant to the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative'' and ``To extend the
authority for making contributions to the HIPC Trust Fund'';
to the Committee on Financial Services.
2042. A letter from the Fiscal Assistant Secretary,
Department of the Treasury, transmitting the Department's
annual report on material violations or suspected material
violations of regulations relating to Treasury auctions and
other Treasury securities offerings during the period Janaury
1, 2006 through December 31, 2006, pursuant to Public Law
103-202, section 202; to the Committee on Financial Services.
2043. A letter from the Secretary, Department of Education,
transmitting the final report of the Academic Competitiveness
Council, including recommendations for legislation and
administrative action, pursuant to Section 8003 of the
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005; to the Committee on Education
and Labor.
2044. A letter from the Interim Director, Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation, transmitting the Corporation's final
rule -- Benefits Payable in Terminated Single-Employer Plans;
Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans; Interest
Assumptions for Valuing and Paying Benefits -- received April
23, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee
on Education and Labor.
2045. A letter from the Regulations Coordinator, CMS,
Department of Health and Human Services, transmitting the
Department's ``Major'' final rule -- Medicaid Program; Cost
Limit for Providers Operated by Units of Government and
Provisions to Ensure the Integrity of Federal-State Financial
Partnership [CMS-2258-FC] (RIN: 0938-AO57) received May 25,
2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on
Energy and Commerce.
2046. A letter from the Director, Office of Enforcement,
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, transmitting the
Commission's final rule -- Accounting and Reporting
Requirements For Nonoperating Public Utilities and Licenses
[Docket No. RM07-2-000; Order No. 694) received May 4, 2007,
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on Energy
and Commerce.
2047. A letter from the Director, Office of Congressional
Affairs, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, transmitting the
Commission's final rule -- Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee
Recovery for FY 2007 (RIN: 3150-AI00) received June 4, 2007,
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on Energy
and Commerce.
2048. A letter from the Director, International
Cooperation, Department of Defense, transmitting Pursuant to
Section 27(f) of the Arms Export Control Act and Section 1(f)
of Executive Order 11958, Transmittal No. 05-07 informing of
an intent to sign the Air and Space Capability Development
Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and
Australia, pursuant to 22 U.S.C. 2767(f); to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
2049. A letter from the Assistant Secretary Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting the Department's
final rule -- Amendment of the International Traffic in Arms
Regulation: United States Munitions List [Public Notice: ]
received April 17, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A);
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
2050. A letter from the Assistant Secretary Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting the Department's
final rule -- Amendment of the International Traffic in Arms
Regulations: Policy with respect to Vietnam [Public Notice: ]
received April 17, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A);
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
2051. A letter from the Associate General Counsel for
General Law, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting a
report pursuant to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998;
to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
2052. A letter from the Senior Vice President & Chief
Financial Officer, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York,
transmitting the 2006 management report of the Federal Home
Loan Bank of New York, pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 9106; to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
2053. A letter from the Director, Office of Personnel
Management, transmitting the Office's final rule -- Waiver of
Requirements
[[Page 14759]]
For Continued Coverage During Retirement (RIN: 3206-AI62)
received April 17, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A);
to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
2054. A letter from the Inspector General, Railroad
Retirement Board, transmitting the semiannual report on
activities of the Office of Inspector General for the period
October 1, 2006, through April 30, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
app. (Insp. Gen. Act) section 5(d); to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
2055. A letter from the Assistant Secretary for Land and
Minerals Management, Department of the Interior, transmitting
a copy of a draft bill entitled, ``to amend the Mineral
Leasing Act to provide for Net Receipts Sharing and for other
purposes''; to the Committee on Natural Resources.
2056. A letter from the Chairman, National Indian Gaming
Commission, transmitting a copy of a draft bill entitled,
``To amend the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (IGRA) to
revise the Act to clarify the scope of the National Indian
Gaming Commission's authority and to make such other
technical amendments as are required''; to the Committee on
Natural Resources.
2057. A letter from the Assistant Administrator for
Fisheries, NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, transmitting the Administration's final rule
-- Fisheries Off West Coast States and in the Western
Pacific; West Coast Salmon Fisheries; 2007 Management
Measures [Docket No. 070430095-7095-01; I.D. 042707D] (RIN:
0648-AV56) received May 18, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on Natural Resources.
2058. A letter from the Assistant Administrator, Fisheries,
NMFS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
transmitting the Administration's final rule -- Atlantic
Highly Migratory Species; Atlantic Commercial Shark
Management Measures [Docket No. 070302052-7088-02; I.D.
021307B] (RIN: 0648-AV09) received May 4, 2007, pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on Natural Resources.
2059. A letter from the Under Secretary and Director,
Department of Commerce, transmitting the Department's final
rule -- International Trademark Classification Changes
[Docket No. PTO-T-2007-0004] (RIN: 0651-AC10) received May
24, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee
on the Judiciary.
2060. A letter from the Chief, Regulatory Management
Division, Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the
Department's final rule -- Removal of the Standardized
Request for Evidence Processing Timeframe [CIS No. 2287-03]
(RIN: 1615-AB13) received April 23, 2007, pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on the Judiciary.
2061. A letter from the Chief, Regulatory Management
Division, Office of the Executive Secretariat, Department of
Homeland Security, transmitting the Department's ``Major''
final rule -- Adjustment of the Immigration and
Naturalization Benefit Application and Petition Fee Schedule
[Docket No. USCIS-2006-0044; CIS No. 2393-06] (RIN: 1615-
AB53) received June 6, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on the Judiciary.
2062. A letter from the General Counsel, Office of Justice
Programs, Department of Justice, transmitting the
Department's final rule -- Department of Justice
Implementation of OMB Guidance on Nonprocurement Debarment
and Suspension [Docket Number: 0JP (DOJ)-1457; AG Order No.
2870-2007] (RIN: 1121-AA73) received May 22, 2007, pursuant
to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on the Judiciary.
2063. A letter from the Chair, United States Sentencing
Commission, transmitting the Commission's report entitled,
``Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy''; to the Committee
on the Judiciary.
2064. A letter from the Assistant Administrator for
Procurement, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
transmitting the Administration's final rule -- NASA
Implementation of OMB Guidance on Nonprocurement Debarment
and Suspension (RIN: 2700-AD32) received April 25, 2007,
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on
Science and Technology.
2065. A letter from the Administrator, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, transmitting a proposed amendment
to the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958; to the
Committee on Science and Technology.
2066. A letter from the Deputy General Counsel, Small
Business Administration, transmitting the Administration's
final rule -- Business Loan Program; Lender Examination and
Review Fees (RIN: Number 3245 AF49) received May 18, 2007,
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on Small
Business.
2067. A letter from the Chief, Trade and Commercial
Regulations Branch, Department of Homeland Security,
transmitting the Department's ``Major'' final rule -- United
States -- Singapore Free Trade Agreement (RIN: 1505-AB48)
received June 6, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to
the Committee on Ways and Means.
2068. A letter from the United States Trade Representative,
Executive Office of the President, transmitting a report
regarding concerns expressed in the United States-Korea Free
Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA); to the Committee on Ways and
Means.
2069. A letter from the SSA Regulations Officer, Social
Security Administration, transmitting the Administration's
final rule -- Temporary Extension of Attorney Fee Payment
System to Title XVI; 5-Year Demonstration Project Extending
Fee Withholding and Payment Procedures to Eligible Non-
Attorney Representatives; Definition of Past-due Benefits;
and Assessment for Fee Payment Services [Docket No. SSA 2006-
0097] (RIN: 0960-AG35) received April 17, 2007, pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); to the Committee on Ways and Means.
2070. A letter from the United States Trade Representative,
Executive Office of the President, transmitting consistent
with Title I of the Trade and Development Act of 2000, the
``2007 Comprehensive Report on U.S. Trade and Investment
Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa and Implementation of the
African Growth and Opportunity Act''; to the Committee on
Ways and Means.
2071. A letter from the Under Secretary, Food, Nutrition,
and Consumer Services, Department of Agriculture,
transmitting the Department's final rule -- Data Collection
Related to the Participation of Faith-Based and Community
Organizations [FNS-2007-0005] (RIN: 0584-AD43) received May
4, 2007, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); jointly to the
Committees on Agriculture and Education and Labor.
2072. A letter from the Principal Deputy Under Secretary
for Personnel and Readiness, Department of Defense,
transmitting the Department's report on the results of a
study of initiatives to expand the relationship between the
Department and Job Corps, as requested by the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006; jointly to
the Committees on Armed Services and Education and Labor.
2073. A letter from the General Counsel, Department of
Defense, transmitting a copy of legislative proposals as part
of the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year
2008; jointly to the Committees on Armed Services and Foreign
Affairs.
2074. A letter from the Deputy Assistant Administrator,
Office of Diversion Control, Department of Justice,
transmitting the Department's final rule -- Implementation of
the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005; Notice of
Transfers Following Importation or Exportation [Docket No.
DEA-292I] (RIN: 1117-AB06) received April 25, 2007, pursuant
to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); jointly to the Committees on the
Judiciary and Energy and Commerce.
____________________
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
Under clause 2 of rule XIII, reports of committees were delivered to
the Clerk for printing and reference to the proper calendar, as
follows:
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania: Committee on House
Administration. House Resolution 459. Resolution dismissing
the election contest relating to the office of Representative
from the Twenty-first Congressional District of Florida
(Rept. 110-175). Referred to the House Calendar.
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania: Committee on House
Administration. House Resolution 461. Resolution dismissing
the election contest relating to the office of Representative
from the Twenty-fourth Congressional District of Florida
(Rept. 110-176). Referred to the House Calendar.
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania: Committee on House
Administration. House Resolution 462. Resolution dismissing
the election contest relating to the office of Representative
from the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana (Rept.
110-177). Referred to the House Calendar.
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania: Committee on House
Administration. House Resolution 463. Resolution dismissing
the election contest relating to the office of Representative
from the Fifth Congressional District of Florida (Rept. 110-
178). Referred to the House Calendar.
Ms. MATSUI: Committee on Rules. House Resolution 464.
Resolution providing for consideration of the bill (S. 5) to
amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for human
embryonic stem cell research (Rept. 110-179). Referred to the
House Calendar.
Mr. ARCURI: Committee on Rules. House Resolution 465.
Resolution providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 65)
to provide for the recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North
Carolina, and for other purposes (Rept. 110-180). Referred to
the House Calendar.
____________________
PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
Under clause 2 of rule XII, public bills and resolutions were
introduced and severally referred, as follows:
By Ms. CARSON (for herself, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas,
Mr. Payne, and Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida):
H.R. 2576. A bill to direct the Secretary of Health and
Human Services to prepare concise written materials for use
by school personnel to help to identify students with a
[[Page 14760]]
high potential to commit aggressive and harmful behavior, and
for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce,
and in addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. McKeon (for himself, Mr. Boehner, Mr. Castle,
Mr. Regula, Mr. Marchant, Mr. Heller, Mr. Walberg,
Mr. Renzi, and Mr. Paul):
H.R. 2577. A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 to provide additional flexibility to
State and local educational agencies to raise the academic
achievement of all students; to the Committee on Education
and Labor.
By Mr. DAVIS of Alabama (for himself, Mr. Alexander,
Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Walsh of New York,
Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Mr.
Kildee, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Mr. Boren, Mr.
Clay, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Rahall, Mr. Marshall, Mr.
Bonner, Mr. Jindal, and Mr. Boustany):
H.R. 2578. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to extend and expand the benefits for businesses
operating in empowerment zones, enterprise communities, or
renewal communities, and for other purposes; to the Committee
on Ways and Means.
By Mr. BOOZMAN:
H.R. 2579. A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to
authorize the use of funds in the Department of Veterans
Affairs readjustment benefits accounts and funds appropriated
for such purpose to provide funding for State approving
agencies; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
By Mr. GINGREY (for himself, Mr. Dreier, Mrs. Bachmann,
Mr. Akin, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Hastert, Mr.
Knollenberg, Mrs. Drake, Mr. Hall of Texas, Mr.
Wicker, Mr. Gary G. Miller of California, Mr. McCaul
of Texas, Mr. Heller, Mr. Kline of Minnesota, Mr.
Smith of Texas, Mr. Radanovich, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite
of Florida, Mr. Fossella, Mr. Everett, Mr. Price of
Georgia, Mr. Westmoreland, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Carter,
Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Shays, Mr. Pitts, Mrs.
McMorris Rodgers, Mr. Porter, Mr. Dent, Mr. Shuster,
Mr. Mack, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. Saxton, Mr. Wilson of
South Carolina, Mrs. Biggert, Mr. Shimkus, Mr.
Cannon, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, Mr. Walberg, Mr.
Buchanan, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Rogers of Alabama, Mr.
Matheson, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Cramer, Mr.
Boren, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Burgess, Mr. McHugh, Mr.
Boustany, Ms. Fallin, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Hayes, Mr.
Hobson, Mr. Hensarling, Mr. Roskam, and Mr. Wolf):
H.R. 2580. A bill to improve patient access to health care
services and provide improved medical care by reducing the
excessive burden the liability system places on the health
care delivery system; to the Committee on the Judiciary, and
in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Ms. BALDWIN:
H.R. 2581. A bill to amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social
Security Act to permit States to expand coverage for children
between 19 and 25 years of age under Medicaid and under the
State child health insurance program (SCHIP); to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida:
H.R. 2582. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to allow a deduction for qualified long-term care
services in computing adjusted gross income; to the Committee
on Ways and Means.
By Mr. BURGESS (for himself and Mr. Matheson):
H.R. 2583. A bill to amend title VII of the Public Health
Service Act to establish a loan program for eligible
hospitals to establish residency training programs; to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. BURGESS (for himself and Mr. Cuellar):
H.R. 2584. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to
alleviate critical shortages of physicians in the fields of
family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency
medicine, general surgery, and obstetrics-gynecology, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and
in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. BURGESS:
H.R. 2585. A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social
Security Act to modify Medicare physician reimbursement
policies to ensure a future physician workforce, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and
in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. CAPUANO:
H.R. 2586. A bill to amend the Investment Advisers Act of
1940 to authorize the Commission to require the registration
of hedge fund advisers under that Act; to the Committee on
Financial Services.
By Mr. COHEN:
H.R. 2587. A bill to designate the facility of the United
States Postal Service located at 555 South 3rd Street Lobby
in Memphis, Tennessee, as the ``Kenneth T. Whalum, Sr. Post
Office''; to the Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform.
By Mrs. DRAKE:
H.R. 2588. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to modify the annual contribution limit for Coverdell
education savings accounts; to the Committee on Ways and
Means.
By Ms. ESHOO:
H.R. 2589. A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act and the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize
and amend the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act and the
Pediatric Research Equity Act; to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce.
By Mr. FORTUNO:
H.R. 2590. A bill to provide for an additional requirements
payment under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to ensure
that Puerto Rico is treated in the same manner as other
States for purposes of determining the amount of the
requirements payment made under such Act, and for other
purposes; to the Committee on House Administration.
By Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts (for himself, Mr.
Delahunt, Mr. Goode, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Walsh of New York, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Gordon, Ms.
Hirono, Mr. Neal of Massachusetts, Mr. Grijalva, Mr.
Capuano, Mr. Farr, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Hinchey, Mr.
Abercrombie, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Murphy of
Connecticut, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Markey, Mr. Cohen, Mr.
Loebsack, Mrs. Tauscher, Mr. Lincoln Davis of
Tennessee, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Gonzalez):
H.R. 2591. A bill to amend part B of title XVIII of the
Social Security Act to limit the penalty for late enrollment
under part B of the Medicare Program to 10 percent and twice
the period of no enrollment, and to exclude periods of COBRA
and retiree coverage from such late enrollment penalty; to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the
Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
By Ms. GIFFORDS (for herself, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mr.
Hall of Texas):
H.R. 2592. A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act to provide for one or more Critical Path Public-
Private Partnerships to implement the Critical Path
Initiative of the Food and Drug Administration, and for other
purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. GRIJALVA:
H.R. 2593. A bill to secure and conserve Federal public
lands and natural resources along the international land
borders of the United States, and for other purposes; to the
Committee on Homeland Security, and in addition to the
Committees on Natural Resources, and Agriculture, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. KNOLLENBERG:
H.R. 2594. A bill to establish a Federal public relations
and education campaign to promote responsible and fuel-
efficient driving in the United States; to the Committee on
Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. MAHONEY of Florida (for himself and Mr. Castle):
H.R. 2595. A bill to amend the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 to require the disclosure of proxy votes relating to
executive and director compensation by beneficial owners of
more than 5 percent of a company's shares; to the Committee
on Financial Services.
By Mrs. MALONEY of New York (for herself, Mr. Shays,
Mr. Waxman, and Mr. Inslee):
H.R. 2596. A bill to establish certain duties for
pharmacies to ensure provision of Food and Drug
Administration-approved contraception, and for other
purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. PAUL (for himself, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, and
Mr. Alexander):
H.R. 2597. A bill to provide that human life shall be
deemed to exist from conception; to the Committee on the
Judiciary.
By Mr. SHAYS (for himself and Mr. Price of North
Carolina):
H.R. 2598. A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign
Act of 1971 to clarify that an
[[Page 14761]]
expenditure made by a political party committee may not be
considered to have been made in concert or cooperation with a
candidate solely because the candidate has requested that the
committee not make any expenditures in support of the
candidate or in opposition to an opponent of the candidate;
to the Committee on House Administration.
By Mr. SIRES:
H.R. 2599. A bill to establish a program for the Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development to provide financial
assistance to certain homeowners experiencing temporary
difficulty making home mortgage payments resulting from their
call or order to active duty while a member of the Individual
Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces or the inactive National
Guard; to the Committee on Financial Services.
By Mr. PASCRELL (for himself, Mr. Jones of North
Carolina, Mr. Michaud, and Mr. Hunter):
H.R. 2600. A bill to authorize the imposition of a tax on
imports from any country that employs indirect taxes and
grants rebates of the same upon export and to authorize
compensatory payments to eligible United States exporters to
neutralize the discriminatory effect of such taxes paid by
such exporters if United States trade negotiating objectives
regarding border tax treatment in World Trade Organization
negotiations are not met; to the Committee on Ways and Means.
By Mr. STEARNS (for himself, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Barton of
Texas, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Rush, Mr. Pickering, and Mr.
Burgess):
H.R. 2601. A bill to extend the authority of the Federal
Trade Commission to collect fees to administer and enforce
the provisions relating to the ``Do-not-call'' registry of
the Telemarketing Sales Rule; to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce.
By Mr. STUPAK (for himself, Mr. Ehlers, Mr.
Knollenberg, Mr. Levin, Mr. Hoekstra, Ms. Kilpatrick,
Mr. Dingell, Mrs. Miller of Michigan, and Mr.
Walberg):
H.R. 2602. A bill to name the Department of Veterans
Affairs medical facility in Iron Mountain, Michigan, as the
``Oscar G. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical
Facility''; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
By Mr. WEINER:
H.R. 2603. A bill to require the Secretary of Homeland
Security to designate high threat helicopter flight areas and
to provide special rules for screening of passengers and
property to be transported on passenger helicopters operating
to or from such areas and for helicopters flights in such
areas, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland
Security, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
By Mr. DENT (for himself, Mr. Altmire, Mr. Barrett of
South Carolina, Mrs. Bono, Mr. Boustany, Mr. Camp of
Michigan, Mr. Cantor, Mr. Carney, Mr. Carter, Mr.
Castle, Mr. Coble, Mr. Cole of Oklahoma, Mr. Tom
Davis of Virginia, Mrs. Drake, Mr. Duncan, Mr.
English of Pennsylvania, Ms. Foxx, Mr. Gerlach, Mr.
Gilchrest, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Graves, Mr. Hastert, Mr.
Heller, Mr. Holden, Mr. Hulshof, Mr. Keller, Mr.
Kingston, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Kuhl of New York, Mr. LaHood,
Mr. LaTourette, Mr. Daniel E. Lungren of California,
Mr. McCarthy of California, Mr. McCaul of Texas, Mr.
McCotter, Mr. McHenry, Mrs. Miller of Michigan, Mr.
Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, Mr. Tim Murphy of
Pennsylvania, Mr. Petri, Mr. Platts, Mr. Price of
Georgia, Ms. Pryce of Ohio, Mr. Ramstad, Mr. Regula,
Mr. Roskam, Mr. Saxton, Ms. Schwartz, Mr. Serrano,
Mr. Shays, Mr. Shuster, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr.
Souder, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Upton, and Mrs. Wilson of
New Mexico):
H. Con. Res. 165. Concurrent resolution supporting the
goals and ideals of National Teen Driver Safety Week; to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
By BRADY of Pennsylvania:
H. Res. 460. A resolution permitting official photographs
of the House of Representatives to be taken while the House
is in actual session on a date designated by the Speaker;
considered and agreed to.
By Mr. MEEKS of New York (for himself, Mr. Towns, Mrs.
Jones of Ohio, Mr. Payne, Ms. Clarke, Mr. Cummings,
Mr. Davis of Alabama, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr.
Ellison, Mr. Clay, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Johnson
of Georgia, Ms. Carson, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Mr.
Cleaver, Mr. Watt, Mr. Scott of Georgia, Ms. Lee, Mr.
Rush, Mr. Wynn, Ms. Waters, Mr. Scott of Virginia,
Mr. Butterfield, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mrs.
Christensen, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Watson, and
Mr. Jefferson):
H. Res. 466. A resolution honoring and recognizing the
achievements of Barbara Hillary, the first African-American
woman on record to reach the North Pole; to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
By Mr. PATRICK MURPHY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr.
Burton of Indiana, Mr. Nadler, Mrs. McCarthy of New
York, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Wexler, Ms. Corrine Brown of
Florida, Mr. Hall of New York, Mr. Weiner, Mr. Kirk,
Ms. Berkley, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Hastings
of Florida, Mr. Engel, Mr. Klein of Florida, Mr.
Lewis of Georgia, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. McNulty,
Mr. Berman, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr. Crowley,
Mr. Rothman, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts,
Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Sires, Mr.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, and Mr. Baca):
H. Res. 467. A resolution condemning the decision by the
University and College Union of the United Kingdom to support
a boycott of Israeli academia; to the Committee on Foreign
Affairs.
By Mr. PATRICK MURPHY of Pennsylvania:
H. Res. 468. A resolution expressing the sense of the House
of Representatives that officials of local governments who
are also members of the National Guard or Reserves and are
deployed as part of their service in the Armed Forces should
be granted reasonable accommodation to fulfill their
governmental duties while so deployed; to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
By Mr. STEARNS:
H. Res. 469. A resolution expressing the sense of the House
of Representatives that the Iraqi National Assembly should
cancel or postpone its planned two-month recess scheduled to
begin in July 2007 and work toward meeting political, social,
and military benchmarks; to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
____________________
MEMORIALS
Under clause 3 of rule XII, memorials were presented and referred as
follows:
75. The SPEAKER presented a memorial of the Legislature of
the State of Louisiana, relative to House Concurrent
Resolution No. 61 memorializing the Congress of the United
States to take such actions as are necessary to support the
goals and ideals of a National Day of Rememberance for Murder
Victims; to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
76. Also, a memorial of the Legislature of the State of
Louisiana, relative to House Concurrent Resolution No. 67
memorializing the Congress of the United States to take such
actions as are necessary to expedite the repair and
rebuilding of the St. Bernard Parrish levee system by all
appropriate federal agencies and to close the Mississippi
River Gulf Outlet; to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure.
____________________
ADDITIONAL SPONSORS
Under clause 7 of rule XII, sponsors were added to public bills and
resolutions as follows:
H.R. 23: Mr. Hall of New York, and Ms. Eddie Bernice
Johnson of Texas.
H.R. 135: Mr. Shadegg.
H.R. 156: Mr. Marshall.
H.R. 199: Mr. Mitchell.
H.R. 211: Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 278: Mr. Peterson of Minnesota and Mr. Ross.
H.R. 297: Mr. Rothman and Mr. Sires.
H.R. 322: Mr. Culberson.
H.R. 440: Mr. Murtha.
H.R. 473: Mr. Kingston.
H.R. 549: Mr. Miller of North Carolina.
H.R. 550: Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Nunes, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Mr.
Miller of North Carolina, Ms. Sutton, and Mr. Wamp.
H.R. 583: Mr. LaHood, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr.
Olver, Mr. Meehan, Mr. Barrow, and Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 620: Mr. Ramstad.
H.R. 621: Mr. Andrews, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Ryan of Ohio,
and Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 643: Mrs. Boyda of Kansas.
H.R. 661: Mr. Kennedy.
H.R. 695: Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Kennedy.
H.R. 741: Mr. Delahunt.
H.R. 782: Mrs. McCarthy of New York.
H.R. 819: Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Mitchell.
H.R. 840: Mr. Wilson of Ohio.
H.R. 980: Mr. Hoekstra, Mr. Reynolds, and Mr. Frank of
Massachusetts.
H.R. 997: Mr. Coble.
H.R. 1004: Mr. Wynn and Ms. Schakowsky.
H.R. 1014: Mrs. Miller of Michigan and Ms. Giffords.
H.R. 1022: Mr. Rothman and Mr. Sires.
H.R. 1023: Mrs. Boyda of Kansas, Ms. Norton, Mr. Ramstad,
Mr. Baird, Mr. Mahoney of Florida, Mr. Sessions, Mr.
Knollenberg, Ms. Matsui, Mr. Doggett, and Mr. Hayes.
H.R. 1076: Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 1092: Mr. Tierney.
H.R. 1093: Mr. Boucher, Mr. Ross, Mr. Mahoney of Florida,
Mr. Snyder, and Mr. Buchanan.
[[Page 14762]]
H.R. 1102: Mr. Rahall and Mr. Terry.
H.R. 1125: Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Payne, and Mr.
Graves.
H.R. 1167: Mr. Moran of Virginia.
H.R. 1187: Mr. Gordon, Mr. Wu, Mr. Becerra, Mr. Jefferson,
Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Linda T.
Sanchez of California, Mr. Inslee, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Ms.
Watson, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Ms. Lee, Mr.
Kind, and Mr. Stupak.
H.R. 1188: Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Sessions, and Mr. Kennedy.
H.R. 1190: Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, Mr. Gingrey,
Mr. Wu, Mr. Rogers of Alabama, and Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 1192: Mr. Payne.
H.R. 1222: Mr. Ellison.
H.R. 1223: Mr. Ellison.
H.R. 1225: Mrs. Capps.
H.R. 1232: Mr. Boucher, Mr. Peterson of Minnesota, and Mr. Kuhl of New
York.
H.R. 1283: Mr. Peterson of Minnesota, Mr. Duncan, Mr.
Cannon, Mr. Whitfield, and Ms. Baldwin.
H.R. 1293: Mr. Costa, Ms. Slaughter, Ms. Corrine Brown of
Florida, Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Boucher, and Mr.
Wu.
H.R. 1304: Mr. Lewis of Kentucky, Mr. Costa, Mr. Boucher,
Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mr. Stupak, Mrs. Capito, and Mr. Mario
Diaz-Balart of Florida.
H.R. 1330: Ms. Woolsey.
H.R. 1371: Mr. Upton and Mr. Buyer.
H.R. 1395: Mr. Feeney, Mrs. Musgrave, Mr. Miller of
Florida, Mr. Pence, Mr. Akin, Mr. Gingrey, Mr. Shadegg, Mr.
Goode, and Mr. Culberson.
H.R. 1396: Mr. Wynn and Ms. Lee.
H.R. 1399: Mr. Coble, Mr. Hastings of Washington, Mr.
Hayes, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Walden of Oregon, Mr. Forbes, Mr.
Bonner, Mrs. Boyda of Kansas, and Mr. McCrery.
H.R. 1415: Mr. Kagen, Mr. Holt, and Mr. Fattah.
H.R. 1416: Mr. Kagen, Mr. Holt, and Ms. Eshoo.
H.R. 1422: Mr. McNerney and Mr. Michaud.
H.R. 1426: Ms. Granger.
H.R. 1430: Mr. Moore of Kansas and Mr. Smith of Nebraska.
H.R. 1435: Ms. Woolsey.
H.R. 1440: Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 1479: Mr. Frank of Massachusetts.
H.R. 1481: Ms. Norton.
H.R. 1512: Mr. Souder, Mr. Honda, Mrs. Capps, Ms. Jackson-
Lee of Texas, and Mrs. Lowey.
H.R. 1534: Mr. Ellison and Mrs. Capps.
H.R. 1537: Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Walsh of New York, and Mr. Bishop of New York.
H.R. 1567: Mr. Jackson of Illinois and Mr. Reyes.
H.R. 1576: Mr. McNerney, Ms. Berkley, Mr. LaTourette, and
Mr. Michaud.
H.R. 1600: Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Klein of Florida, and Ms.
Moore of Wisconsin.
H.R. 1655: Ms. Hirano and Mr. Allen.
H.R. 1665: Mr. Westmoreland.
H.R. 1671: Ms. Hirano, Mr. Rush, Mr. Honda, and Mr.
McGovern.
H.R. 1687: Mr. Gilchrest and Mr. Gillmor.
H.R. 1717: Mr. Smith of Texas and Mr. Al Green of Texas.
H.R. 1727: Mr. Neal of Massachusetts, Mr. Engel, Mrs.
Lowey, Mr. Towns, Mr. Olver, Mr. Allen, Mr. Young of Florida,
Mrs. Maloney of New York, and Ms. McCollum of Minnesota.
H.R. 1733: Mr. Shadegg.
H.R. 1738: Mr. Yarmuth.
H.R. 1761: Mr. Miller of Florida.
H.R. 1770: Mr. Bonner.
H.R. 1776: Mr. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania and Ms. Jackson-
Lee of Texas.
H.R. 1787: Mr. Wexler.
H.R. 1823: Mrs. Blackburn.
H.R. 1838: Mr. David Davis of Tennessee, Mr. LaTourette,
Mr. Pascrell, and Mr. Baca.
H.R. 1859: Mr. Moran of Virginia.
H.R. 1876: Mr. Payne and Mr. Holt.
H.R. 1881: Mr. Sessions, Mr. Rahall, Mr. Tom Davis of
Virginia, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Nadler, and Ms. Castor.
H.R. 1888: Mr. Buyer.
H.R. 1893: Ms. Woolsey.
H.R. 1895: Mr. Moran of Virginia.
H.R. 1911: Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Ellsworth.
H.R. 1924: Mr. Kagen.
H.R. 1947: Mr. Delahunt.
H.R. 1948: Mr. Payne.
H.R. 1964: Ms. Velazquez, Mr. McNerney, and Mr. Price of
North Carolina.
H.R. 1971: Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Bishop of New York, and Mr.
Alexander.
H.R. 1975: Ms. Berkley and Mr. Payne.
H.R. 1979: Mr. Castle.
H.R. 2005: Ms. Carson, Mr. Perlmutter, Mr. Emanuel, Mr.
McDermott, Mr. Crowley, Ms. Shea-Porter, Ms. Sutton, Mr.
Welch of Vermont, Mr. Boren, Mr. Carney, Mr. Arcuri, Mrs.
Boyda of Kansas, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Dingell, Mr.
Capuano, Mr. Hall of New York, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Sires, and
Mr. Murphy of Connecticut.
H.R. 2017: Ms. Norton and Mrs. Boyda of Kansas.
H.R. 2019: Mr. Frank of Massachusetts.
H.R. 2035: Mr. Matheson.
H.R. 2049: Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. Cummings, Mr.
Nadler, Mr. Ellison, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Mr.
Grijalva, Mr. Cleaver, and Mr. Yarmuth.
H.R. 2073: Mrs. Davis of California, Ms. Corrine Brown of
Florida, Mr. McNulty, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Welch of Vermont, Mr.
Price of North Carolina, Mr. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, Ms.
Hirono, and Mr. Reyes.
H.R. 2095: Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Peterson of Minnesota, and Mr.
Smith of New Jersey.
H.R. 2109: Mr. McCotter.
H.R. 2116: Mr. Nunes.
H.R. 2125: Mr. Sires.
H.R. 2164: Mr. Perlmutter.
H.R. 2165: Mr. Boswell, Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Mr.
Pomeroy, Mr. Ross, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Hinchey, Mrs. Boyda
of Kansas, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. Clyburn, Mr. Weiner,
Mr. Snyder, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Crowley, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Baird,
Mr. Delahunt, and Mr. Larson of Connecticut.
H.R. 2197: Mrs. Jones of Ohio and Mr. Kucinich.
H.R. 2205: Mr. Boustany.
H.R. 2236: Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Filner, and Mr. Frank of
Massachusetts.
H.R. 2266: Ms. Carson and Mr. Filner.
H.R. 2274: Mr. Sessions, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Engel, and Mr.
Moran of Virginia.
H.R. 2286: Mr. English of Pennsylvania.
H.R. 2290: Mrs. Gillibrand.
H.R. 2295: Mr. Baird, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Delahunt,
Mr. Yarmuth, Mr. Buchanan, Ms. VelAzquez, Mr. Rahall, Ms.
Bean, Mr. Souder, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Reichert, Ms. Ginny Brown-
Waite of Florida, Mr. Dent, Mr. English of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Pascrell, Ms. Watson, Mr. Rogers of Kentucky, Mr. Peterson of
Minnesota, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Tiberi, Ms. Woolsey, Mrs.
Blackburn, Mr. Alexander, and Mr. Lucas.
H.R. 2303: Mrs. Musgrave, Mr. Johnson of Illinois, and Mr.
Young of Alaska.
H.R. 2304: Ms. Matsui.
H.R. 2305: Mr. McHugh, Mr. Kuhl of New York, and Mr. Lewis
of Georgia.
H.R. 2329: Mr. Gerlach, Ms. Slaughter, Mr. Peterson of
Minnesota, and Mr. Kuhl of New York.
H.R. 2342: Ms. Matsui and Ms. Woolsey.
H.R. 2353: Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, and Ms.
Baldwin.
H.R. 2362: Mr. Gallegly.
H.R. 2367: Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. Cummings, Mr.
Waxman, Mrs. Tauscher, and Mr. Hastings of Florida.
H.R. 2368: Mrs. Myrick and Mr. Gingrey.
H.R. 2370: Mr. Weldon of Florida, Mr. Inslee, Mr. Hastings
of Florida, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mr. Burton of
Indiana, Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Mica, Mr. King of New
York, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, and Mr. Paul.
H.R. 2384: Mr. Peterson of Minnesota.
H.R. 2401: Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Al Green of Texas, and Mr.
Filner.
H.R. 2407: Mr. Boyd of Florida.
H.R. 2417: Mr. Ross, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Hinojosa.
H.R. 2432: Mr. Hoekstra, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. McCotter, and
Mr. Fortenberry.
H.R. 2449: Mrs. Napolitano.
H.R. 2487: Mr. Pallone and Mr. Hinchey.
H.R. 2521: Mr. Terry.
H.R. 2526: Mr. Sherman.
H.R. 2573: Mr. Etheridge.
H.J. Res. 12: Mr. Holden and Mr. Edwards.
H. Con. Res. 13: Mr. LoBiondo.
H. Con. Res. 40: Mr. Graves.
H. Con. Res. 81: Mr. Capuano and Mr. Frank of
Massachusetts.
H. Con. Res. 138: Mr. Rahall.
H. Con. Res. 142: Mr. Hare and Mrs. Lowey.
H. Con. Res. 149: Mr. Payne.
H. Con. Res. 162: Mrs. McCarthy of New York, Mrs. Boyda of
Kansas, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Cummings, Mr. McGovern,
Mr. Gutierrez, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Mr. Conaway, Mr.
Salazar, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Mr.
Shuler, Mr. Pomeroy, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Mahoney
of Florida, Mr. Arcuri, Mr. Melancon, Mr. Hill, Ms. Herseth
Sandlin, Mr. Wilson of Ohio, Mr. Ellsworth, Mr. Cardoza, Mr.
Spratt, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Perlmutter,
and Mr. Skelton.
H. Con. Res. 163: Mr. Engel, Mr. Towns, Mr. Honda, and Mr.
Tom Davis of Virginia.
H. Res. 49: Mr. Rush.
H. Res. 68: Ms. Lee.
H. Res. 111: Mr. Ferguson.
H. Res. 169: Mr. Marshall.
H. Res. 189: Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Norton, and Mr.
Hinojosa.
H. Res. 194: Mr. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania.
H. Res. 226: Mr. Hinchey.
H. Res. 257: Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Kildee, Mr.
Honda, Mr. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, Mr. Boustany, and
Mr. McGovern.
H. Res. 282: Mr. Space, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Butterfield, Mr.
Yarmuth, Mr. Tiberi, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, and Mr. Lincoln
Davis of Tennessee.
H. Res. 333: Ms. Clarke.
H. Res. 353: Mr. Rahall, Mrs. Christensen, and Mr. Lincoln
Davis of Tennessee.
H. Res. 356: Mr. Brown of South Carolina, Mr. Langevin, Ms.
Berkley, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Sherman, and Ms. Matsui.
H. Res. 396: Mr. Baird and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina.
H. Res. 416: Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Dent, Mr. Reichert,
and Mr. Rogers of Alabama.
H. Res. 431: Mr. Wexler, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. McDermott, Ms.
Lee, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cummings, and Mr. Cohen.
[[Page 14763]]
H. Res. 436: Mr. Moran of Virginia, Mr. Doyle, Ms. Roybal-
Allard, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. Ramstad, Mr. Sherman,
Mr. Honda, Ms. Solis, Ms. Matsui, Mr. Wu, Mr. Etheridge, Ms.
Baldwin, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Reyes, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Gene Green of
Texas, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Baca, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Van
Hollen, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Wexler,
Mr. Schiff, Mr. Kildee, Mr. McGovern, Mrs. Davis of
California, and Ms. McCollum of Minnesota.
H. Res. 442: Mr. Kind and Mr. Pickering.
[[Page 14764]]
SENATE--Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was called to order by the Honorable
Benjamin L. Cardin, a Senator from the State of Maryland.
______
prayer
The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, offered the following prayer:
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, whose compassion never fails, from Your vantage
point of eternity, look afresh into our time. Teach us to love as You
love and to touch hurting lives as You do. Remove from us besetting
fears about what tomorrow holds as You remind us that our times are in
Your hands.
Today, inspire our Senators to honor You. Empower them to treat one
another as they themselves desire to be treated and to pray for one
another. Calm their anxieties and strengthen their faith in the
ultimate triumph of Your purposes. Let Your unfailing love energize
them to new levels of excellence and service.
We pray in Your strong Name. Amen.
____________________
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin led the Pledge of Allegiance, as
follows:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
____________________
APPOINTMENT OF ACTING PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will please read a communication to
the Senate from the President pro tempore (Mr. Byrd).
The legislative clerk read the following letter:
U.S. Senate,
President pro tempore,
Washington, DC, June 6, 2007.
To the Senate:
Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby appoint the Honorable
Benjamin L. Cardin, a Senator from the State of Maryland, to
perform the duties of the Chair.
Robert C. Byrd,
President pro tempore.
Mr. CARDIN thereupon assumed the chair as Acting President pro
tempore.
____________________
RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY LEADER
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.
____________________
IMMIGRATION
Mr. REID. Mr. President, in reading this morning's paper, I was
reminded of the times I would read Dr. Seuss to my boys and my girl. In
today's New York Times, Tom Friedman quotes Dr. Seuss as follows:
Then he shut the Things
in the box with the hook.
And the cat went away
with a sad kind of look.
``That is good,'' said the fish.
``He has gone away. Yes.
but your mother will come.
She will find this big mess!
And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
we can not pick it up.
There is no way at all!''
Mr. President, some would say that is what we have in the Senate
today--a big mess. But if you go back and read Dr. Seuss, the cat
manages to clean up the mess. And as big of a mess as we have with
immigration in the United States, we have the opportunity to clean up a
big mess. If we work on a bipartisan basis in the next couple of days,
we can clean up this mess. If we cannot, then we are back with the cat
who didn't clean up the mess and the Senate didn't clean up its mess
with immigration.
We have known for 3 months the time set for doing immigration. People
worked in good faith trying to come up with legislation, and they were
a week short. They said: We need more time. So they got more time. They
came up with a bipartisan bill. Ten Senators, Democrats and
Republicans, came up with an immigration bill. Is it a perfect bill? Of
course, not. Is it a good bill? It is not bad at all. It does some
things that I think are extremely important, something I have talked
about for a long time based on my experience in Smith Valley, NV, with
a girl who couldn't go to college. She was Hispanic. Her parents were
here illegally, and this young girl couldn't go to college even though
she was the best student in her class. So we have in this bill the
DREAM Act. It is a dream for many young Americans.
AgJOBS. We have been talking about an AgJOBS bill for years. This
bill has one in it.
Border security. We have talked about the need for border security.
This bill provides border security.
Employer enforcement, employer sanctions. This legislation has good
employer sanction language. Good enough? Well, we will have to see.
Some want to improve it. Maybe that is the way to do things.
Pathway to legalization. For millions of people here illegally with
improper papers, a path to legalization is a way to bring them out of
the shadows. That is in this legislation.
This year's legislation builds on the bill passed by the Senate last
year after extensive committee considerations and many floor
amendments. This year, there were lengthy bipartisan negotiations
involving about 10 Senators and a number of Cabinet officers, in
addition to other people from the White House. The negotiators asked
for additional time. We talked about that. It was agreed upon.
We started the floor debate the week before Memorial Day recess.
During that week, we disposed of more than a dozen amendments and
allowed an additional 14 amendments to become pending to the bill.
Proponents of the bill asked for an additional week of floor debate. I
agreed. The minority leader said this time this is a 2-week bill. I
agreed with him and scheduled a second week of debate, and that is
where we are now.
This week, we have conducted four rollcall votes, adopted four other
amendments by voice vote, and we probably would have done more but for
the unfortunate death of our colleague and friend, Senator Thomas.
Yesterday morning, in memory of our friend, we decided not to work
here, and that was the right thing to do. This morning, we have two
more votes that are scheduled already on the Cornyn and Kennedy
amendments regarding eligibility for the legalization program. We have
proposed a unanimous consent agreement. We did that yesterday, and I
understand the managers have that fairly well worked out on the 12
pending amendments to have votes on those later today. That was not
accepted last evening, but I am hopeful that agreement can be worked
out soon.
So it is clear we are working in good faith to process amendments and
move forward on this bill. My decision about cloture last night was
simply a way to ensure that we finish this bill in a timely manner. By
offering to postpone the cloture vote, as I did yesterday, until
tomorrow night, I am offering an additional full day of amendments
before the cloture vote and, of course, germane amendments are
considered postcloture.
I had a meeting in my office just a few minutes ago with a bipartisan
group of Senators. I believe there is a good-faith effort being made by
a majority of Senators, Democrats and Republicans, to move this bill
forward. That is what we are going to try to do.
There are some people, rightly or wrongly--and that is all in the
eyes of the beholder--who feel they have not had an opportunity to deal
with this legislation. If that is the case, let's see
[[Page 14765]]
if we can come up with some amendments that will make them happy. We do
a lot of business in this body by unanimous consent--in fact, most
everything. The cloture vote is scheduled for tomorrow morning, an hour
after we come into session. We can change that. It is my hope that we
can finish the bill this week. I am very confident we can.
I personally feel an obligation to go to the funeral in Wyoming.
Craig Thomas was a Republican with whom I worked very closely on a
number of issues, and I had great appreciation and admiration for him.
Out of respect for him and Susan, I feel that I need to go to that
funeral, and I am sure many others feel the same way. So that is going
to change our schedule. It is my understanding that funeral is going to
be Saturday. I have notified my caucus, and I have explained to the
distinguished Republican leader that we may have to work longer hours
this week. But let's try to finish this bill.
There are some, and it is a small number of people, who don't want
this bill finished under any circumstances. That happens on a lot of
bills, and we have to try to work our way through that.
I hope people understand that I would like to get a bill passed. We
have responsibilities as Senators to not only deal with immigration,
which is a system, as I have tried to explain with a little vignette
from Dr. Seuss, that is badly in need of fixing, but we have a lot of
other problems in this country that are badly in need of fixing. So we
may have to work hours the Senate hasn't seen very often. We may have
to work into the night, tonight and tomorrow night and maybe even
Friday and Friday night, and who knows if that will be enough time to
get us over the hump.
I hope people will understand that it is not a question of how much
time we spend on the bill, it is a question of whether people feel they
have had the opportunity to change the provisions that are in the bill.
I have gone over most of them: AgJOBS, DREAM Act, employer enforcement,
legalization, border security.
I hope we can get this bill done. We can debate this bill all year
and end up right back where we are. The American people did not send us
here to pontificate; they sent us here to legislate. That is what I am
trying to do and most are trying to do.
Recognizing that this immigration system is broken and that we need
to fix it, I extend my appreciation to Senators--Democrats and
Republicans--who believe this is the time for us to do something
important for the country.
I have said on a number of occasions that this bill, when it comes
out of this body, is not the last word. We have other ways of working
on this bill. We, as Senators, are going to be fully involved in the
legislation until it comes out of conference, which is after the House
passes a bill which will have the imprint of the White House on it.
So I hope we can move forward in good faith and understand that
everything we do in life has deadlines, even our legislation in the
Senate.
Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. REID. I will be happy to yield.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank our leader, someone who has been
interested, along with many others, in the immigration issue, for the
leadership he has provided in making sure the Senate was going to take
up this issue. He had announced in January of this year that he was
going to take a time for the Judiciary Committee to consider this
legislation but that he was going to allocate 2 weeks of time, which
was basically the time we took on the last bill, but it was a major
period of time to consider the people's business regarding this issue.
He has been accommodating in terms of working through the Senate's
schedule. For all of us who are interested in getting a bill, we thank
him for all he has done in terms of encouraging us to reach judgments
on these various measures.
As he has mentioned, we have made very important and significant
progress, and I think there is a strong mood in the Senate, as there is
in the country, that this is an extremely important issue. We are
increasingly close to trying to at least make a recommendation to the
country about what the Senate's judgment will be on this issue.
I join with him, as others, to say we are eager to move ahead during
the day today and tomorrow and to work with the leadership. I know they
have full schedules. I do think we are making significant progress and
it is being done in a bipartisan spirit with a desire that those who
have differing views about this issue can come together and do the
Nation's business. When we achieve that, hopefully by the end of this
week, both the Senator from Nevada and the Senator from Kentucky will
be very much appreciated for their support in helping this legislation
move ahead.
____________________
RECOGNITION OF THE REPUBLICAN LEADER
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is
recognized.
____________________
IMMIGRATION
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as I think my good friend, the majority
leader, already knows, we are ready to work with the other side to
schedule votes on pending amendments. I think the two managers are
working together this morning to set up a schedule of votes for this
afternoon. All of that is a step in the right direction.
Many of the amendments we hope to schedule, however, for the
afternoon are amendments that were offered prior to the recess. My
concern with cloture being filed last night is that we do not want to
deny Members who have yet to offer--and many of them have been denied
the right to offer their amendments this week--and those who have been
denied the right to offer their amendments should still get their
opportunity prior to being shut out.
Now, I am counting progress on this bill not by calendar days--that
is one way of looking at it--but by the ability of Senators to debate
and to vote on their respective ideas is the way that I would consider
progress on the bill. So I hope we can clear out the amendments that
are currently pending and that we will also work together to schedule
debate and votes on additional amendments that are going to be offered.
Let me remind everyone again, on the day my conference elected me
leader I said that I thought we ought to do two big important things,
at least, in this Congress. And one of the issues I mentioned was
immigration. So I am among those in the Senate who would like to see us
accomplish something on a very difficult, some days seemingly
intractable, issue. Nevertheless, I am in favor of trying to pass an
immigration bill. But there is going to be widespread reluctance on
this side of the aisle to support cloture and thereby bring the bill to
a conclusion unless amendments, a significant number, are being allowed
to be considered.
____________________
HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES
Sergeant James W. Harlan
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, while I am in my leader time, I rise
today to honor the heroic sacrifice of a fellow Kentuckian, a brave
soldier who served multiple tours in Iraq. He was also a proud father
and grandfather who sought to protect the people and the land he loved.
SGT James W. Harlan was tragically killed on May 14, 2004, when a
suicide bomber detonated a car bomb next to his humvee at Camp Anaconda
near Balad, Iraq. Sergeant Harlan was a native of Owensboro, KY, and a
member of the 660th Transportation Company's 88th Regional Readiness
Command in the U.S. Army Reserve. He was 44 years old.
For his heroic service, Sergeant Harlan was awarded the Silver Star
and the Purple Heart, among many other awards and medals of
distinction.
I mentioned that Sergeant Harlan was brave; let me elaborate on that.
When he was 11 years old, his older sister Doris was assigned the
daunting task of babysitting young Jimmy.
[[Page 14766]]
``Jimmy was mischievous. He was always into something,'' she recalls.
Sensing a window of opportunity to display his courage, Jimmy declared
that he would jump off the roof of their family's house while his
parents were away. At first Doris protested, but realizing that his
intentions were probably only to rankle her, she told Jimmy: ``Fine,
you go ahead and do it.'' She even went so far as to set out pillows
for him to land on. Sure enough, brave young Jimmy jumped off that
roof, and to this day Doris is surprised that he escaped without major
injury.
Jimmy's love of adventure carried over into his adulthood. He enjoyed
the outdoors and would often take his kids fishing and hunting. A
compassionate and loving father to his five children, Jimmy always made
sure to spend quality time with his family. ``When everyone else was
sitting around with their bellies full on Thanksgiving, he would be
outside throwing the football,'' his brother Kenny Likens recalls.
One of his favorite things to do was to coach baseball with his
brothers. When he spent time indoors, he enjoyed watching old Western
movies with his kids.
His sons, James Bryan Harlan, David Shane Harlan and Jacob Alexander
Roberts, and his daughters, Tara Strelskey and Amanda Prout, as well as
his two stepchildren, Bobby and Brittany Gray, will miss his caring and
generous spirit.
Jimmy will also be missed by two girls who might not yet realize the
extraordinary sacrifice their grandfather made, but who will learn it
as they grow older. He was especially proud of them. Jimmy often said
of his granddaughters, Jaidyn Main and Abigail Prout, ``Aren't they
just the prettiest things you have ever seen?''
Jimmy's civilian career was partly spent as a truck driver. He
enjoyed the opportunity to work on the big rigs and to see different
parts of the country. He would often drive with his brother Kenny
Likens. Through all that driving across the country, though, the two
never did find a place they liked as much as their hometown of
Owensboro, KY, where Jimmy was born and raised. When Jimmy left for his
final tour in Iraq, he was working for the streets department in
Owensboro.
Having served for two decades in the military and Reserves, Jimmy was
a seasoned soldier. His patriotism and sense of civic duty compelled
him to reenlist after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and
he served two tours in Iraq.
While there, Jimmy supervised truck drivers who transported supplies
to the troops at Camp Anaconda. His son James Bryan Harlan offered some
perspective when he remarked:
Nobody wants to see their father die . . . but to have it
be while doing something of this significance, we're proud of
him.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that not only
is his family proud of him, but all of America is proud of
Jimmy's heroism and sacrifice.
SGT James W. Harlan drove a rig across the highways of the United
States, and he traversed the desert sands of Iraq. He had an
adventurous spirit, and his far travels and his exemplary service were
a natural fit for that little boy who once jumped off his parents'
roof.
Jimmy Harlan left an inspirational example for his children and
grandchildren, his brothers, Kenny Likens and DeWayne Likens; his
sister, Doris Taylor; his step-brothers, Randall Wingfield, Steve
Wingfield, and the late Michael Calloway; his fiancee, Carol Gray; his
mother, Doris Marie Gray; and his late father, William Arthur Harlan.
I ask the Senate to keep the family of SGT James W. Harlan in their
thoughts and prayers. I know they will be in mine.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
____________________
RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
leadership time is reserved.
____________________
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2007
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will resume consideration of S. 1348, which the clerk will
report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 1348) to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes.
Pending:
Reid (for Kennedy/Specter) amendment No. 1150, in the
nature of a substitute.
Cornyn modified amendment No. 1184 (to amendment No. 1150),
to establish a permanent bar for gang members, terrorists,
and other criminals.
Dodd/Menendez amendment No. 1199 (to amendment No. 1150),
to increase the number of green cards for parents of United
States citizens, to extend the duration of the new parent
visitor visa, and to make penalties imposed on individuals
who overstay such visas applicable only to such individuals.
Menendez amendment No. 1194 (to amendment No. 1150), to
modify the deadline for the family backlog reduction.
Sessions amendment No. 1234 (to amendment No. 1150), to
save American taxpayers up to $24 billion in the 10 years
after passage of this act, by preventing the earned-income
tax credit, which is, according to the Congressional Research
Service, the largest antipoverty entitlement program of the
Federal Government, from being claimed by Y temporary workers
or illegal aliens given status by this act until they adjust
to legal permanent resident status.
Sessions amendment No. 1235 (to amendment No. 1150), to
save American taxpayers up to $24 billion in the 10 years
after passage of this act, by preventing the earned-income
tax credit, which is, according to the Congressional Research
Service, the largest antipoverty entitlement program of the
Federal Government, from being claimed by Y temporary workers
or illegal aliens given status by this act until they adjust
to legal permanent resident status.
Lieberman amendment No. 1191 (to amendment No. 1150), to
provide safeguards against faulty asylum procedures and to
improve conditions of detention.
Cornyn amendment No. 1250 (to amendment No. 1150), to
address documentation of employment and to make an amendment
with respect to mandatory disclosure of information.
Salazar (for Clinton) modified amendment No. 1183 (to
amendment No. 1150), to reclassify the spouses and minor
children of lawful permanent residents as immediate
relatives.
Salazar (for Obama/Menendez) amendment No. 1202 (to
amendment No. 1150), to provide a date on which the authority
of the section relating to the increasing of American
competitiveness through a merit-based evaluation system for
immigrants shall be terminated.
DeMint amendment No. 1197 (to amendment No. 1150), to
require health care coverage for holders of Z nonimmigrant
visas.
Bingaman/Obama modified amendment No. 1267 (to amendment
No. 1150), to remove the requirement that Y-1 nonimmigrant
visa holders leave the United States before they are able to
renew their visa.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, there
will be 2 hours of debate with respect to amendment No. 1184, as
modified, offered by the Senator from Texas, Mr. Cornyn; an amendment
offered by the Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy, related to the
same subject, with time equally divided and controlled between Senator
Cornyn and Senator Kennedy.
Who yields time?
Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I am requesting just 30 seconds to make a
unanimous consent request.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered. The Senator is recognized.
Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending
amendment be set aside and that we call up three amendments, Nos. 1187,
1188, and 1201, and then we be returned back to the pending amendment.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Objection.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
Mr. ALLARD. I thank the Chair.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, just for the benefit of the Members, we
have tried to establish a way of moving along today. We are going to
consider the Cornyn amendment, and then there is an amendment that I
will place at the desk. We will have a 2-hour time allocation equally
divided, though I am not sure we will take all the time, and then we
will have an opportunity to vote on that measure.
[[Page 14767]]
We are trying to set up a series of votes through the morning,
through the afternoon, and through the evening. What we are going to
try to do is to give Members as much time as possible on these items,
rotating back and forth through the course of the day, and we will work
with our colleagues to try to accommodate their schedules. We have a
rigorous program, and we will announce that.
We have talked with the floor managers, Senator Specter, Senator Kyl,
and others, on these measures, and we will proceed in that way. So
Members need to understand that we will have a busy and full day, and
we will start off with the amendment of the Senator from Texas, No.
1184, as I understand.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
Amendment No. 1184
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I yield myself up to 10 minutes.
Mr. President, this amendment we will vote on this morning is an
important amendment. It was first filed 2 full weeks ago, and it has
taken this long to be able to get a vote on this amendment, for which I
am grateful, but I must say that, as the Republican leader indicated
this morning, the rate of progress with getting amendments debated and
voted on is not promising. And the fact that the majority leader has
now filed cloture, potentially cutting off the opportunity for full and
fair debate and an adequate number of votes on this bill, again, is not
encouraging at all.
I am one of those who would like to see a solution to this problem,
but I think it is important that we reflect on what kind of solution we
will accomplish if we are successful. To me, the goal is simply to
restore law and order to our immigration system. It is important to our
national security because we have to know who is coming into our
country and why people are here in a post-9/11 world. It is important
to public safety because we know the same broken borders that can allow
people who are economic migrants to come across can also allow common
criminals, drug traffickers, and even terrorists. And it is important
to our prosperity in this Nation that we reestablish our heritage as a
nation that believes in the rule of law. We simply cannot have people
choosing to obey some laws and disobeying others. That is not adherence
to the rule of law. That is picking and choosing, cherry-picking what
laws you find convenient and what laws you find inconvenient.
To my mind, and based upon my experience with my constituents across
the State of Texas last week, this is the cause for so much distrust of
the Federal Government when it comes to this issue. The basic objection
to this underlying bill is not that people don't believe there is a
serious problem, it is not that people are racist or anti-immigrant or
nativists or know-nothings or any of the other names that sometimes
people are called. It is that the American people believe we have been
here before.
In 1986, they gave their trust to the Federal Government to actually
fix this problem by granting a one-time amnesty and then providing for
an enforcement system that would actually be enforced against employers
who hire people who cannot legally work here. They were sold a bill of
goods. It didn't work. We got an amnesty, and we got no enforcement.
That is why people are so distrustful.
So if we are serious about restoring the rule of law, I believe the
first place to start would be by passing this amendment, amendment No.
1184, on the floor of the Senate.
What does this amendment do?
Well, first of all, this amendment would mandate that gang members
cannot obtain legal status. It is well documented that members of MS-13
and other gangs, ultra-violet gangs emanating from Central America,
have come across our broken borders and committed terrible crimes of
violence in the United States. In the underlying bill, the Secretary of
Homeland Security could actually grant a waiver that would allow a gang
member legal status.
That just cannot be. Congress should draw a line about whom we are
willing to allow in and whom we are not, and we shouldn't delegate this
to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security or the Attorney
General or anyone who might hold those positions in the future.
The next thing my amendment would do is it would address the
definition of ``good moral character.'' We would allow only people with
good moral character, as defined in the bill, to obtain legal status.
The underlying bill does not contain a prohibition on those who are
affiliated with terrorist organizations. My amendment makes the
commonsense change that would bar them. The amendment also requires
that those who apply for legalization under the bill must generally
show they have good moral character.
Third, my amendment makes the failure of sex offenders to register in
high-speed flight crimes grounds of ineligibility for Z visas.
Fourth, my amendment makes repeat DWIs, driving while intoxicated or
driving under the influence, an aggravated felony. It is a simple fact
of life that repeat DWI offenders are a substantial threat to a
community's safety.
They have a proven history of involvement in various serious
collisions that kill, maim, and otherwise seriously injure innocent
people.
When I was in Texas this last week, I met with representatives of
Mothers Against Drunk Driving and told them about the gaps in this
underlying bill and received the assurance, at least of that
representative, that this was an issue she cared passionately about. I
suggest all of us who care passionately about public safety and
decreasing the incidence of drunk driving and driving under the
influence, that are a threat to public safety, that those who care
about decreasing that threat should vote for this amendment.
Designating a third DUI offense as an aggravated felony recognizes the
acute danger that repeat DUI offenders present to the American people
and the strong need to remove from the United States those who
repeatedly commit DUI offenses.
The fifth category is the one on which I believe there is the biggest
disagreement. This has to do with so-called absconders and identity
thieves. This gets to the essence of this bill and whether we are
serious about restoring the rule of law to our immigration system and
whether we are going to send a message, loudly and clearly, that while
we might be willing to consider those who have entered our country
without a visa, who are by definition guilty of a misdemeanor, or those
who have come in legally and who have overstayed, who are guilty of a
status violation under our immigration laws--while we might be willing
to consider them for a path to legalization and citizenship under some
conditions, we should not allow a path to legalization and citizenship
for those who have openly defied our courts, the lawful orders of our
courts, and who have shown themselves as having no regard for the rule
of law.
What kind of citizens can we expect these individuals to be,
individuals who have been ordered deported, who have had their day in
court and who simply defied that court order by going on the lam and
melting into the American landscape, or those who have been ordered
deported and who have actually been deported but then who have
reentered the country? Both of those, going on the lam after you have
been ordered deported and reentering after you have been actually
deported, are felonies under section 243 of the Immigration and
Naturalization Act--a felony.
If we are serious about restoring respect for the rule of law, then
we should, at the very least, prohibit felons and repeat offenders from
getting the Z visa or path to legal status, including the opportunity
to apply for legal permanent residency and citizenship. We should be
willing to draw a bright line there.
I have to say, with all due respect, if we do not adopt this
amendment, then we might as well retitle that section of this bill,
``No Felon Left Behind.'' It is clear, whether it is gang members,
terrorists, sex offenders or repeat drunk drivers, these people have
thumbed their noses at the law. While there is
[[Page 14768]]
some common ground, and I congratulate Senator Kennedy for moving our
way on this issue, it completely omits the category of felons who have
shown no regard for our laws and who have shown themselves unwilling to
live in peace with Americans in this country. We ought to draw a bright
line there. My amendment would do that.
Mr. President, I yield myself 2 additional minutes.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Senator is
recognized.
Mr. CORNYN. I know we have a number of colleagues who not only are
Members of the Senate but are also running for the highest office in
our land, running for the office of President of the United States. I
know there have been a number of debates on the Democratic side and
Republican side. I believe this amendment and the vote on this
amendment is a defining issue for those who seek the highest office in
the land, for them to demonstrate their respect for the rule of law and
to demonstrate their desire to return law and order to our immigration
system. A ``no'' vote on the Cornyn amendment will demonstrate that we
are not serious, that we do not believe the rule of law deserves
respect because, unfortunately, under the Kennedy amendment, the
alternative is literally a figleaf that has been offered to give people
the sense they voted for something so they will have an explanation,
even knowing they have not voted to exclude these felons. A failure to
vote yes on the Cornyn amendment will indicate we are not serious about
restoring the rule of law through our immigration system and will
indicate we are willing to allow felons and people who have no desire,
based on their experience, to comply with our laws and live in peace in
this country, to become part of America. I think we need to send a loud
and clear message as to where that line should be drawn.
I reserve the remainder of our time on this side and yield the floor.
Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. CORNYN. I will, Mr. President.
Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator about a hypothetical that
is not a hypothetical. It is a real case that has come through my
office in Chicago. I ask the Senator from Texas if he would consider
the facts in this case and tell me how his amendment would apply to the
case.
In a family in Chicago, the father is a citizen of the United States
and the four children that he and his wife have are all citizens of the
United States. The mother is undocumented. The mother came into the
United States illegally. She was married, raised a family--and her
grandmother died in Mexico. She went back over the border and, when she
tried to reenter the United States, produced identification that was
false. They caught her. They deported her back to Mexico, but she made
it back to the United States. She is now with her family in Chicago.
It is a case that has had a lot of publicity because she was deported
2 days before Mother's Day. She has been allowed to return to the
United States on a humanitarian waiver to be with her family.
I would like to ask the Senator from Texas, how would you treat her
under your amendment? What would her status be? Would she be
characterized as an aggravated felon? Could she, under any
circumstances, be given any opportunity to become legal under your
amendment?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I will be glad to try to answer the
question. Similar to a lot of hypotheticals, it has a lot of twists and
turns. Let me give it a try.
Under this amendment, people who entered the country illegally and
who are guilty of illegal entry, or who come in legally and overstay,
would not be rendered ineligible, not under the Cornyn amendment. Those
who are repeat offenders--in other words, people who have entered
illegally, then exited the country and reentered; exited, reentered--
are guilty of a more serious offense because they are multiple
offenders.
I am not sure, under the hypothetical the Senator asked, whether this
individual would be barred. But people who are serial offenders and
violators of our immigration laws would be barred under this amendment.
Mr. DURBIN. So if I might ask the Senator from Texas: The Senator
from Texas would suggest, then, that this mother of four citizens,
married to a citizen of the United States, who has lived here for more
than 10 years, should be deported?
Mr. CORNYN. What my amendment would do would not order her deported.
What it would do is say she is ineligible for a Z visa.
Mr. DURBIN. I ask the Senator from Texas--let's get down to the
reality of the situation. As far as this family is concerned, where the
mother has gone through the experience I described, you would say that
family has to either break up or leave?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I disagree with the characterization of
the Senator from Illinois. As this hypothetical individual is married
to a U.S. citizen, she could get a waiver on that ground because she is
married to a U.S. citizen. She would not, under existing law--she could
get a waiver and would not be deported necessarily.
Mr. DURBIN. If I might ask one last question, is that a provision in
your amendment? Or is that in the underlying bill?
Mr. CORNYN. In response to the question, that is a provision of
current law that my amendment does not touch.
Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator from Texas.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts is
recognized.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Illinois for
raising that issue. I think our language makes it extremely clear. I
think there is a real question. We are looking through the language of
the Senator from Texas about whether that would necessarily define that
individual as an aggravated felon and therefore would deny the judge
the opportunity to make a humanitarian finding on it, but we can come
back to that.
Amendment No. 1333, as Modified
Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 1333, as modified.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the clerk will
report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy] proposes an
amendment numbered 1333, as modified, to amendment No. 1150.
Mr. KENNEDY. I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be
dispensed with.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
On page 48, strike line 11 and all that follows through
page 51, line 37, and insert the following:
SEC. 204. INADMISSIBILITY AND DEPORTABILITY OF GANG MEMBERS.
(a) Definition of Criminal Gang.--Section 101(a) (8 U.S.C.
1101(a)) is amended by inserting after paragraph (51) the
following:
``(52)(A) The term `criminal gang' means an ongoing group,
club, organization, or association of 5 or more persons--
``(i) that has, as 1 of its primary purposes, the
commission of 1 or more of the criminal offenses described in
subparagraph (B); and
``(ii) the members of which engage, or have engaged within
the past 5 years, in a continuing series of offenses
described in subparagraph (B).
``(B) Offenses described in this subparagraph, whether in
violation of Federal or State law or in violation of the law
of a foreign country, regardless of whether charged, and
regardless of whether the conduct occurred before, on, or
after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, are--
``(i) a felony drug offense (as defined in section 102 of
the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802));
``(ii) a felony offense involving firearms or explosives,
including a violation of section 924(c), 924(h), or 931 of
title 18 (relating to purchase, ownership, or possession of
body armor by violent felons);
``(iii) an offense under section 274 (relating to bringing
in and harboring certain aliens), section 277 (relating to
aiding or assisting certain aliens to enter the United
States), or section 278 (relating to the importation of an
alien for immoral purpose);
``(iv) a felony crime of violence as defined in section 16
of title 18, United States Code, which is punishable by a
sentence of imprisonment of 5 years or more, including first
degree murder, arson, possession, brandishment, or discharge
of firearm in
[[Page 14769]]
connection with crime of violence or drug trafficking
offense, use of a short-barreled or semi-automatic weapons,
use of a machine gun, murder of individuals involved in
aiding a Federal investigation, kidnapping, bank robbery if
death results or a hostage is kidnapped, sexual exploitation
and other abuse of children, selling or buying of children,
activities relating to material involving the sexual
exploitation of a minor, activities relating to material
constituting or containing child pornography, or illegal
transportation of a minor;
``(v) a crime involving obstruction of justice; tampering
with or retaliating against a witness, victim, or informant;
or burglary;
``(vi) any conduct punishable under sections 1028 and 1029
of title 18, United States Code (relating to fraud and
related activity in connection with identification documents
or access devices), sections 1581 through 1594 of such title
(relating to peonage, slavery and trafficking in persons),
section 1952 of such title (relating to interstate and
foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering
enterprises), section 1956 of such title (relating to the
laundering of monetary instruments), section 1957 of such
title (relating to engaging in monetary transactions in
property derived from specified unlawful activity), or
sections 2312 through 2315 of such title (relating to
interstate transportation of stolen motor vehicles or stolen
property); and
``(vii) a conspiracy to commit an offense described in
clause (i) through (vi).''.
(b) Inadmissibility.--Section 212(a)(2) (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(2)) is amended--
(1) by redesignating subparagraph (F) as subparagraph (L);
and
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the following:
``(F) Aliens associated with criminal gangs.--Unless the
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General waives
the application of this subparagraph, any alien who a
consular officer, the Attorney General, or the Secretary of
Homeland Security knows or has reason to believe participated
in a criminal gang, knowing or having reason to know that
such participation promoted, furthered, aided, or supported
the illegal activity of the gang, is inadmissible.''.
(c) Deportability.--Section 237(a)(2) (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2))
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(F) Aliens associated with criminal gangs.--Any alien, in
or admitted to the United States, who at any time has
participated in a criminal gang, knowing or having reason to
know that such participation promoted, furthered, aided, or
supported the illegal activity of the gang is deportable. The
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General may
waive the application of this subparagraph.''.
(d) Temporary Protected Status.--Section 244 (8 U.S.C.
1254a) is amended--
(1) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(2) in subparagraph (c)(2)(B)--
(A) in clause (i), by striking ``, or'' and inserting a
semicolon;
(B) in clause (ii), by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``; or''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(iii) the alien participates in, or at any time after
admission has participated in, knowing or having reason to
know that such participation promoted, furthered, aided, or
supported the illegal activity of the gang the activities of
a criminal gang.''; and
(3) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (2)--
(i) by striking ``Subject to paragraph (3), such'' and
inserting ``Such''; and
(ii) by striking ``(under paragraph (3))'';
(B) by striking paragraph (3); and
(C) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (3); and
(D) in paragraph (3), as redesignated, by adding at the end
the following: ``The Secretary of Homeland Security may
detain an alien provided temporary protected status under
this section whenever appropriate under any other
provision.''.
(e) Increased Penalties Barring the Admission of Convicted
Sex Offenders Failing to Register and Requiring Deportation
of Sex Offenders Failing to Register.--
(1) Inadmissibility.--Section 212(a)(2)(A)(i) (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(2)(A)(i)), as amended by section 209(a)(3), is
further amended--
(A) in subclause (II), by striking ``or'' at the end;
(B) in subclause (III), by striking the comma at the end
and inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by inserting after subclause (III) the following:
``(IV) a violation of section 2250 of title 18, United
States Code (relating to failure to register as a sex
offender); or''.
(2) Deportability.--Section 237(a)(2)(A)(i) (8 U.S.C.
1227(a)(2)(A)(i)) is amended--
(A) in subclause (I), by striking ``, and'' and inserting a
semicolon;
(B) in subclause (II), by striking the comma at the end and
inserting ``; or''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(III) a violation of section 2250 of title 18, United
States Code (relating to failure to register as a sex
offender).''.
(f) Precluding Admissibility of Aliens Convicted of Serious
Criminal Offenses and Domestic Violence, Stalking, Child
Abuse and Violation of Protection Orders.--
(1) Inadmissibility on criminal and related grounds;
waivers.--Section 212 (8 U.S.C. 1182) is amended--
(A) in subsection (a)(2), by adding at the end the
following:
``(J) Crimes of domestic violence, stalking, or violation
of protective orders; crimes against children.--
``(i) Domestic violence, stalking, and child abuse.--Any
alien who has been convicted of a crime of domestic violence,
a crime of stalking, or a crime of child abuse, child
neglect, or child abandonment, provided the alien served at
least 1 year's imprisonment for the crime or provided the
alien was convicted of or admitted to acts constituting more
than 1 such crime, not arising out of a single scheme of
criminal misconduct, is inadmissible. In this clause, the
term `crime of domestic violence' means any crime of violence
(as defined in section 16 of title 18, United States Code)
against a person committed by a current or former spouse of
the person, by an individual with whom the person shares a
child in common, by an individual who is cohabiting with or
has cohabited with the person as a spouse, by an individual
similarly situated to a spouse of the person under the
domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction where
the offense occurs, or by any other individual against a
person who is protected from that individual's acts under the
domestic or family violence laws of the United States or any
State, Indian tribal government, or unit of local or foreign
government.
``(ii) Violators of protection orders.--Any alien who at
any time is enjoined under a protection order issued by a
court and whom the court determines has engaged in conduct
that constitutes criminal contempt of the portion of a
protection order that involves protection against credible
threats of violence, repeated harassment, or bodily injury to
the person or persons for whom the protection order was
issued, is inadmissible. In this clause, the term `protection
order' means any injunction issued for the purpose of
preventing violent or threatening acts of domestic violence,
including temporary or final orders issued by civil or
criminal courts (other than support or child custody orders
or provisions) whether obtained by filing an independent
action or as an independent order in another proceeding.
``(iii) Applicability.--This subparagraph shall not apply
to an alien who has been battered or subjected to extreme
cruelty and who is not and was not the primary perpetrator of
violence in the relationship, upon a determination by the
Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security that--
``(I) the alien was acting in self-defense;
``(II) the alien was found to have violated a protection
order intended to protect the alien; or
``(III) the alien committed, was arrested for, was
convicted of, or pled guilty to committing a crime that did
not result in serious bodily injury.''; and
(B) in subsection (h)--
(i) by striking ``The Attorney General may, in his
discretion, waive the application of subparagraphs (A)(i)(I),
(B), (D), and (E) of subsection (a)(2)'' and inserting ``The
Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security may
waive the application of subparagraphs (A)(i)(I), (B), (D),
(E), (F), (J), and (K) of subsection (a)(2)''; and
(ii) by inserting ``or Secretary of Homeland Security''
after ``the Attorney General'' each place it appears.
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall apply to any acts that occurred on or after the date of
the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 205. INCREASED CRIMINAL PENALTIES RELATED TO DRUNK
DRIVING, ILLEGAL ENTRY, PERJURY, AND FIREARMS
OFFENSES.
(a) Drunk Driving.--
(1) Inadmissibility.--Section 212(a)(2) (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(2)) is amended by inserting after subparagraph (J),
as added by section 204(f) the following:
``(K) Drunk drivers.--Any alien who has been convicted of 1
felony for driving under the influence under Federal or State
law, for which the alien was sentenced to more than 1 year
imprisonment, is inadmissible.''.
(2) Deportability.--Section 237(a)(2) (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2))
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(F) Drunk drivers.--Unless the Secretary of Homeland
Security or the Attorney General waives the application of
this subparagraph, any alien who has been convicted of 1
felony for driving under the influence under Federal or State
law, for which the alien was sentenced to more than 1 year
imprisonment, is deportable.''.
(3) Conforming amendment.--Section 212(h) (8 U.S.C.
1182(h)) is amended--
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking ``Subsection
(a)(2)(A)(i)(I), (II), (B), (D), and (E)'' and inserting
``Certain Provisions in Subsection (a)(2)''; and
(B) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking
``and (E)'' and inserting ``(E), and (F)''.
(4) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act
and
[[Page 14770]]
shall apply to convictions entered on or after such date.
(b) Illegal Entry.--
(1) In general.--Section 275 (8 U.S.C. 1325) is amended to
read as follows:
``SEC. 275. ILLEGAL ENTRY.
``(a) In General.--
``(1) Criminal offenses.--An alien shall be subject to the
penalties set forth in paragraph (2) if the alien--
``(A) knowingly enters or crosses the border into the
United States at any time or place other than as designated
by the Secretary of Homeland Security;
``(B) knowingly eludes examination or inspection by an
immigration officer (including failing to stop at the command
of such officer), or a customs or agriculture inspection at a
port of entry; or
``(C) knowingly enters or crosses the border to the United
States by means of a knowingly false or misleading
representation or the knowing concealment of a material fact
(including such representation or concealment in the context
of arrival, reporting, entry, or clearance requirements of
the customs laws, immigration laws, agriculture laws, or
shipping laws).
``(2) Criminal penalties.--Any alien who violates any
provision under paragraph (1)--
``(A) shall, for the first violation, be fined under title
18, United States Code, imprisoned not more than 6 months, or
both;
``(B) shall, for a second or subsequent violation, or
following an order of voluntary departure, be fined under
such title, imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both;
``(C) if the violation occurred after the alien had been
convicted of 3 or more misdemeanors or for a felony, shall be
fined under such title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or
both;
``(D) if the violation occurred after the alien had been
convicted of a felony for which the alien received a term of
imprisonment of not less than 30 months, shall be fined under
such title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both; and
``(E) if the violation occurred after the alien had been
convicted of a felony for which the alien received a term of
imprisonment of not less than 60 months, such alien shall be
fined under such title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or
both.
``(3) Prior convictions.--The prior convictions described
in subparagraphs (C) through (E) of paragraph (2) are
elements of the offenses described in that paragraph and the
penalties in such subparagraphs shall apply only in cases in
which the conviction or convictions that form the basis for
the additional penalty are--
``(A) alleged in the indictment or information; and
``(B) proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial or admitted
by the defendant.
``(4) Duration of offense.--An offense under this
subsection continues until the alien is discovered within the
United States by an immigration officer.
``(5) Attempt.--Whoever attempts to commit any offense
under this section shall be punished in the same manner as
for a completion of such offense.
``(b) Improper Time or Place; Civil Penalties.--Any alien
who is apprehended while entering, attempting to enter, or
knowingly crossing or attempting to cross, the border to the
United States at a time or place other than as designated by
immigration officers shall be subject to a civil penalty, in
addition to any criminal or other civil penalties that may be
imposed under any other provision of law, in an amount equal
to--
``(1) not less than $50 and not more than $250 for each
such entry, crossing, attempted entry, or attempted crossing;
or
``(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) if the
alien had previously been subject to a civil penalty under
this subsection.''.
(2) Clerical amendment.--The table of contents is amended
by striking the item relating to section 275 and inserting
the following:
``Sec. 275. Illegal entry.''.
(3) Effective date.--Section 275(a)(4) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act, as added by this Act, shall apply only
to violations of section 275(a)(1) committed on or after the
date of the enactment of this Act.
(c) Perjury and False Statements.--Any person who willfully
submits any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent
statement or representation (including any document,
attestation, or sworn affidavit for that person or any
person) relating to an application for any benefit under the
immigration laws (including for Z non-immigrant status) will
be subject to prosecution for perjury under section 1621 of
title 18, United States Code, or for making such a statement
or representation under section 1001 of that title.
(d) Increased Penalties Relating to Firearms Offenses.--
(1) Penalties related to removal.--Section 243 (8 U.S.C.
1253) is amended--
(A) in subsection (a)(1)--
(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting
``212(a)'' or after ``section''; and
(ii) in the matter following subparagraph (D)--
(I) by striking ``or imprisoned not more than four years''
and inserting ``and imprisoned for not more than 5 years'';
and
(II) by striking ``, or both'';
(B) in subsection (b), by striking ``not more than $1000 or
imprisoned for not more than one year, or both'' and
inserting ``under title 18, United States Code, and
imprisoned for not more than 5 years (or for not more than 10
years if the alien is a member of any of the classes
described in paragraphs (1)(E), (2), (3), and (4) of section
237(a)).''; and
(2) Prohibiting carrying or using a firearm during and in
relation to an alien smuggling crime.--Section 924(c) of
title 18, United States Code, is amended--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``, alien smuggling
crime,'' after ``any crime of violence'';
(ii) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``, alien smuggling
crime,'' after ``such crime of violence''; and
(iii) in subparagraph (D)(ii), by inserting ``, alien
smuggling crime,'' after ``crime of violence''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(6) For purposes of this subsection, the term `alien
smuggling crime' means any felony punishable under section
274(a), 277, or 278 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1324(a), 1327, and 1328).''.
(3) Inadmissibility for firearms offenses.--Section
212(a)(2)(A) (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(A)), as amended by sections
204(e) and 209(a)(3), is amended--
(A) in clause (i), by inserting after subclause (IV) the
following:
``(V) a crime involving the purchasing, selling, offering
for sale, exchanging, using, owning, possessing, or carrying,
or of attempting or conspiring to purchase, sell, offer for
sale, exchange, use, own, possess, or carry, any weapon,
part, or accessory which is a firearm or destructive device
(as defined in section 921(a) of title 18, United States
Code), provided the alien was sentenced to at least 1 year
for the offense,''; and
(B) in clause (ii), by striking ``Clause (i)(I)'' and
inserting ``Subclauses (I), (IV), and (V) of clause (i)''.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I will make a comment. I see my friend
from Rhode Island. I would like to make a brief comment on the
amendment of Senator Cornyn and a brief comment on our amendment. Then
I hope the Senator from Rhode Island will speak to it.
It is always interesting to listen, when we are talking about the
immigration bill, to those who go back to the 1986 bill. I remember it
very clearly. I voted against it. That was an amnesty. That was a real
amnesty. We hear a great deal in the public about what is amnesty, what
is not amnesty. That was amnesty. This legislation is not amnesty. That
effectively said those people who were undocumented, who came here,
were forgiven. They followed the basic recommendations of a report by
the distinguished president of Notre Dame, the Hessberg Report. I
remember it clearly.
There were enforcement provisions in there. They were completely
inadequate. I might remind my friend from Texas, from 1986 to 1992, we
had a Republican administration, a Republican President, and they
didn't enforce it, as they have not enforced the recent legislation.
They have had three investigations in terms of investigating
undocumented aliens--three. They are the great defenders of the
American border? Great defenders about immigration reform?
Please.
We always have to go through the little dance about the 1986 bill and
the enforcement. I wish, during that period of time--1986, 1987, 1988,
1989--I wish all during those years we had the enforcement. But we did
not. So we are where we are today. The real question is, is this
legislation that we have now the downpayment on national security, on
security internally? Does it provide the opportunity for those who are
here to pay the fine, go to the back of the line, demonstrate a good
working relationship and be able to emerge out of the shadows--the
AgJOBS bill, the DREAM Act, and other provisions of the temporary
worker program?
With regards to the Cornyn amendment, we have an immigration program
in this legislation that is strong, practical, and fair. One of the
essential elements is to bring the 12 million men, women, and
children--hard-working families--out of the shadows into the sunlight
of America. We know we are not going to conduct massive roundups and
deport 12 million people. We don't have the means to do it. It would
disrupt our economy, inflict untold hardships on millions of hard-
working people. It is estimated it would cost more than $250 billion.
We
[[Page 14771]]
would have buses all the way from Los Angeles to New York and back to
trying to do this, if it were even possible.
But the Cornyn amendment would make vast numbers of these families
ineligible for our program. We are trying to deal with a key element of
the program and that deals with the families who are here. It would
keep them in the shadows, where employers abuse and underpay them. That
hurts the immigrants, but it hurts American workers, too, by depressing
wages.
That is what we see that is out there now, with undocumented--the 12
million with a work record which is even better, in terms of
percentages, than native born Americans, people who are willing to work
and want to work hard. But there is exploitation of those individuals
because every one of them knows all the boss has to do is go down and
call the immigration service.
Work 80 hours a week.
Well, I don't want to.
Well, I'm going to call the immigration service and you're deported.
They do that. That individuals are exploited in this country is well
understood. We are trying to free ourselves from that kind of a
condition. But the Cornyn amendment would still make vast numbers of
these families ineligible for our programs, keep them in the shadows
where employers abuse and underpay them, which hurts the immigrants but
it hurts American workers, too, by depressing their wages.
The Cornyn amendment does this by classifying an array of common
garden variety immigration offenses as crimes that would make them
ineligible for the program. For example, the Cornyn amendment says that
if you come here, have been ordered out of the country by immigration
authorities, but if you fail to leave or you come back, you are
ineligible. That is exactly what has been going on with our broken
immigration system; people have come to work, employers want them to
come, and they have benefitted our economy.
Immigration officers may find them and order them home, but our
employers beg them to come back. Our broken borders make that possible.
Cornyn says: If you have used false identification, you may be found
inadmissible and may be deported. But in our broken system, the people
who have wanted to work have been forced to use the false
identification. That is the reality of where we are today. Cornyn says
he wants to be tough on gang members, sex offenders, individuals
convicted of domestic violence. So do we. We have addressed any
provisions not covered by the current law. Our amendment goes even
further than the bipartisan compromise bill.
He wants to exclude gang members. Our amendment does that too. Nobody
who has engaged in illegal activity as part of a criminal gang will be
allowed to enter or stay in this country. He says we should bar sex
offenders from coming here. Our amendment does that. Any convicted sex
offender who fails to register will not be allowed back in the country;
if already here, then those offenders will face deportation.
Cornyn says immigrants who commit acts of domestic violence or
endanger their families should be punished. Our amendment does that. He
says drunk drivers should be deported. Our amendment does that. Any
immigrant with one felony conviction for drunk driving will not be
allowed to enter this country. If convicted here, then the drunk driver
will be deported.
He says there should be consequences for individuals engaging in
fraud. Our amendment does that. Our amendment punishes anyone who
commits perjury or makes false statements when seeking immigration
benefits. If any person lies on their application, then this individual
will be prosecuted and subject to criminal penalties.
He says we should go after immigrants convicted of firearms offenses.
Our amendment does that, too. Who are the people we want to apply under
our program? Who are the people the Cornyn amendment would condemn to
the shadows of abuse? We know that the vast majority of the families
who have come over here are hard-working people who care for their
children, go to church, and contribute to their communities.
In America, we respect hard work. Hard work built America. So our
program says: If your only offense is that you came here to work, you
came here to provide for your family, we will proceed in a way that you
can atone for that offense and earn the right to stay and work legally.
If you are a criminal, then we will arrest you. If you are a threat to
our national security, a terrorist, then we will lock you up. If you
try to cheat your way into the program through fraud, we will deport
you. But if you came here to work and build a life, then you can stay.
But first you have to meet the tough requirements: You have to pay the
$5,000 fine, show a steady work history, learn English, get to the back
of the line to get your green card, behind all those who have been
waiting legally to get theirs.
The Cornyn amendment creates harmful barriers for refugees fleeing
persecution. In America, we have had a long and proud tradition of
providing refuge to people who have faced persecution and oppression in
their lands, whose lives are at risk because they stood up for their
beliefs.
We took in refugees from Cuba and from Vietnam as they fled
communism. We have helped people from Somalia and Bosnia and other
areas of conflict and oppression. Now we are beginning to help people
whose lives are at risk because they helped our troops in Iraq.
But often these persecuted refugees have no choice but to cooperate
with their oppressors in order to save their families' lives and enable
their escape. The Cornyn amendment says: If you do that, if you provide
what is called material support to these oppressors and terrorist
groups, then we are not going to rescue you from the hands of your
oppressors. You have to take your chances and hope your oppressors do
not persecute you or even kill you or your family.
Consider the case of Helene from Sierra Leone, Revolutionary United
Front rebels attacked her home, hacked one of her family members to
death with a machete; they set her son on fire, leaving him near dead
with severe burns. They held her family captive, raping her and her
daughter and forcing them to cook, forcing her to cook and wash their
clothes.
The Cornyn amendment would bar legitimate refugees who were forced to
assist their oppressors under duress. Under the Cornyn amendment,
Helene would be ineligible to come to America as a refugee because she
cooked for the rebels and washed their clothes. Under the Cornyn
amendment, she and her family are ineligible because they provided
material support for a terrorist group.
If that is not bad enough, the Cornyn amendment says she can be
excluded based on secret evidence, evidence that neither she nor anyone
else outside the Government can see. She may never know why she was
excluded. The Cornyn amendment even bars her from going to court to
explain her situation and appeal the denial of her case. The decision
of the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General is final.
Helene would never get her day in court to explain the tragic
circumstances of her case. The door to freedom in America would be
closed shut, end of the discussion, you go back into the hands of your
persecutors.
Madam President, surely by now, we have learned that closed
proceedings conducted by executive branch officials based on secret
evidence without any possibility of court review are inconsistent with
American traditions and inconsistent with the search for justice; let's
not go down that road again.
The amendment makes all of its changes retroactive. They apply to the
past and future conduct. The Cornyn amendment would change the rules in
midstream. That is frowned on in American jurisprudence; it is
unconstitutional in criminal law and disfavored elsewhere. People whose
conduct would not have affected their immigration status at a time it
was committed, will suddenly suffer severe consequence. The
retroactivity provisions simply bring home the punitive nature of this
amendment. It is not designed to contribute to creation of a tough but
fair
[[Page 14772]]
and practical system of immigration, it is designed to be harshly
punitive.
This amendment would exclude hundreds of thousands from benefits of
this bill and undermine the bipartisan compromise that members of this
body worked so long and so hard to produce. We will have an opportunity
to vote for an alternative, the amendment I have offered. The amendment
expands the already tough criminal gang provisions contained in the
bill.
If you are associated with a gang, and that gang is known to be
engaged in violent crimes, drug crimes, crimes involving firearms or
explosives, alien smuggling or trafficking, you are not going to
qualify for benefits. If you are associated with a gang and the gang
has been engaged in crimes of violence, including murder, arson,
possession, kidnapping, bank robbery, sexual exploitation, abuse of
children, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, burglary,
racketeering, among other crimes, you are not going to be entitled to
receive lawful status in this country, and you are not going to qualify
for benefits.
This amendment expands the already tough grounds of inadmissibility
and the criminal penalties in the current immigration law. We target
essentially the same provisions as Senator Cornyn but in many instances
go further. This amendment bars the admission of sex offenders who
don't register as required and makes them subject to deportation as
well.
It ensures that wife beaters, child abusers, stalkers, and others who
prey on the vulnerable are inadmissible to the United States. It
ensures that a drunk driver who is sentenced to 1 year of prison cannot
be admitted to the United States and can be removed as well. Our drunk
driving provisions, which require only one felony conviction, are even
more restrictive than Senator Cornyn's, which requires three
convictions before a drunk driver becomes inadmissible. We increase the
penalties for illegal entry. We ensure that immigration fraud is
subject to perjury charges. We toughen the penalties for firearm
offenses. We are tough, but we are practical too. That is where this
side by side differs from Senator Cornyn. His provisions are bright-
line rules. He turns many of these criminal offenses into aggravated
felonies. That is ``immigration speak'' for: You will never, ever be
forgiven.
For many offenses, such as murder, that is more than a reasonable
consequence. Murderers should not become U.S. citizens. Under the
current law, they can never become a citizen. But most immigrants are
not murderers, they are people who have entered the United States
illegally. Under the Cornyn amendment, they could be aggravated felons
too.
As a practical matter, Senator Cornyn does not want us to distinguish
between murder and illegal entry; but that is not practical, nor does
it reflect our criminal justice system. So it is true that we build in
some small but important waivers that in extraordinary circumstances
would give someone a second chance, not murderers but someone who had
long ago made a mistake.
This week, I received a letter about a young man named Adrian, a
former gang member in Massachusetts who has turned his life around.
Adrian went from a life of juvenile delinquency to that of a dedicated
student; one who works full time now in hopes of going to college.
Adrian's principal and his teachers praise him for his hard work, his
commitment to family, his newfound motivation to go to college. They
want him to have a chance to stay in this country.
The author of the letter then says: ``It is a very, very hard thing
to leave the gang life behind. There are other Adrians out there as
well who have made the same decision regardless of difficulty. Is the
message this country wants to send them, that what they have done is
unforgivable regardless of whatever changes they may have courageously
made? Wouldn't the country gain by having an incentive in law that
might attract young people to leave gang life and move their lives
forward a very different way? Wouldn't it be helpful to the country to
have a waiver that a person could apply for if they can prove they have
left a gang and provided evidence on how they have moved on?''
Every change in our immigration law represents a statement about whom
we are as a country. Are we a country that takes individual
circumstances into account or are we a country that punishes with no
regard for individual circumstances? We can be tough on crime and yet
retain a level of discretion in our immigration laws? This is the crux
of the difference between what I am suggesting to the Senate and what
Senator Cornyn has proposed.
That a measure of discretion is every bit as much a tool of law
enforcement as the strictest ban. I see my friend who has been waiting
here. I yield time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. McCaskill.) The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I would ask the distinguished Senator
from Massachusetts if we may go back and forth across the aisle. I have
a speaker on our side as well who would like to be recognized for 10
minutes. Is that acceptable?
Mr. KENNEDY. Well, I would like to follow that. The good Senator was
here even before I was this morning. Is that agreeable?
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I would yield to the request of the
Senator from Texas.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. VITTER. I thank all my colleagues for their courtesies.
Madam President, I rise in strong support of the Cornyn amendment and
in opposition to the much weaker, watered-down Democratic alternative.
This amendment illustrates a lot about this debate. The Cornyn
amendment is clear. It is necessary. It is common sense. It is
absolutely necessary we pass amendments such as this and have the
ability to debate and vote on amendments such as this in the important
immigration debate.
This amendment is very straightforward. It prevents terrorists, gang
members, sex offenders, and other folks who have broken the law in
significant ways, committed significant felonies, from receiving
immigration benefits and citizenship in the future. How can any of us
in the Senate oppose a straightforward and necessary commonsense
amendment? How can any of us be comfortable with an underlying bill
which has these gaping loopholes? We must address these gaping
loopholes. How can we tell families across America that we are going to
allow sex offenders and gang members to become legal residents,
possibly citizens? The Cornyn amendment would prevent this. It would
address all of these significant loopholes.
Again, terrorists, gang members, violent gang members, those who have
committed other significant felonies, those who have been detained for
coming into the country illegally and have absconded, those who have
been deported from the country for coming into the country illegally
and have reentered illegally--all of those categories of illegals
should be prevented from gaining the benefits of this bill. The Cornyn
amendment clearly does that.
The Democratic alternative clearly does not. It has significant
omissions from the Cornyn amendment. It allows absconders, those who
have been detained and have gone underground, to receive the benefits
of the bill. It allows those who have been deported from the country
and who came back in illegally to get the benefits of this bill. It
allows others who fall into the category of gang members and those who
committed serious felonies to gain the benefits of this legislation.
That is simply wrong. We must support the commonsense, straightforward
Cornyn amendment.
I also want to spend a portion of my time urging my colleagues to not
vote for cloture on this bill as it presently rests before us, because
we have many important amendments to consider. Two of those are the
amendments I will humbly offer to the Senate. They are important
issues; they are important amendments. I urge us to pay careful
consideration to them and to have an opportunity for debate and vote.
[[Page 14773]]
In that spirit, I ask unanimous consent to lay aside the pending
amendment and to call up my amendment No. 1338.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. KENNEDY. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. VITTER. I am sorry to hear that. Let me try my second amendment
which is also at the desk. It concerns a significant provision in the
bill which we need the opportunity to debate and vote on. That is
Vitter amendment No. 1339.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. KENNEDY. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. VITTER. Madam President, unfortunately, this illustrates the
point about the inappropriateness of cloture. These are two significant
amendments which go to important provisions of the bill. All of us--and
more importantly, the American people--deserve to have these matters
debated and voted on. Let me explain what these amendments are about.
Everybody--certainly the majority side--has been given the amendments.
My first amendment only requires what Congress originally mandated
back in 1986; that is, the entry/exit system known today as US-VISIT.
We must have that fully operational before all aspects of this bill are
allowed to go into effect. It was authorized 10 years ago, but it is
not near to fully operational now. We must make sure that it is a part
of this bill's enforcement trigger.
Without the US-VISIT system's completion, we can't be sure that we
know what individuals are in the country. In fact, we can be sure we
will not know because how can we possibly have a grasp of who is in the
country and who is not in the country without this system which tracks
people as they exit? There are a lot of folks on visas here for a
limited period of time. Under that visa, they, of course, need to exit
the country before their visa is up. The US-VISIT system allows us to
know if they are doing that. How can we possibly be ready for the full
implementation of this legislation, how can we possibly say we have the
enforcement system we need in place without the US-VISIT system,
without knowing who exits the country and when, without knowing whether
they have overstayed their visa?
As of 2006, the illegal population included 4 to 5.5 million
overstays, people here illegally because they are overstaying the time
limits of their visa. The US-VISIT system is absolutely necessary to
get to the heart of the problem and to enforce against overstays. How
can we say we have adequate enforcement, how can we trigger the other
provisions of this bill without making sure we have that in place,
functioning, fully operational?
The US-VISIT system is not any part of the triggers now in the bill.
It must be. That is what my amendment 1339 goes to.
As I mentioned, I have another amendment, No. 1338, that would
correct a provision in the bill which doesn't allow for a catch-and-
release program anymore but simply changes that to a catch, pay, and
release program. In this legislation, those in this country illegally
who are caught and who are not from Mexico don't have to be kept in
custody. They can be released on a $5,000 bond. For months, and indeed
years, we on the Senate floor and those around the country have decried
the catch-and-release program, a program that has been in place where
illegals are caught but are released into our country and simply given
a piece of paper that says: Show up to court on such-and-such a date.
Guess what. They never do. This bill merely changes that to a catch,
pay, and release program. It allows catch and release to continue, only
with a $5,000 bond.
Why is that a problem? Because many of the folks we are talking
about, particularly those who are among the most dangerous, those
involved in illegal drug activity, those in other organized crime, can
get the $5,000 bond. If they are already paying human smugglers to get
them across the border, in many cases thousands and thousands of
dollars, one has to assume they can get the resources to pay this bond.
Changing catch and release to catch, pay, and release is completely
inadequate. Yet that is what the underlying legislation does.
Amendment No. 1338 would close that loophole, would say: No, we are
going to end catch and release forever, and we are not going to allow
cash, pay, and release. When we catch these folks coming into the
country illegally who are not from Mexico, so we can't simply send them
back to Mexico at the southern border, we are going to detain them. We
are not going to let them into the country on a bond or anything else.
We are going to detain them until they are deported, and we are going
to work very hard to deport them as quickly as possible.
Again, I believe my two amendments, which have not been allowed to be
offered, clearly illustrate why we are not ready for cloture on this
bill. This is a significant debate on a massive, 800-page bill. This
bill, if enacted, will affect our country in major and significant ways
for decades to come. Everybody admits that, no matter what side of the
debate they may be on. Yet we have only been allowed to have a modest
number of votes on the bill, something on the order of 12. That is
ridiculous. We need these sorts of amendments considered and voted on,
and we must oppose cloture until that happens.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, we have tried to work out an orderly
process as we have proceeded. We are going to have plenty of time to
deal with a range of different amendments, as we did with the Vitter
amendment previously.
I yield 12 minutes to the Senator from Rhode Island.
How much time remains?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts has 39\1/2\
minutes remaining.
Mr. KENNEDY. I yield the Senator from Rhode Island 12 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
remembering senator craig thomas
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, this is my first time speaking on
the floor since the passing of our colleague, Senator Thomas. I know we
are all very conscious of the desk draped in black across the way, next
to Senator Cornyn. I extend my condolences to his many friends, my many
esteemed colleagues who knew and admired Senator Thomas and mourn his
loss and know he will be sorely missed by his friends in the Senate and
his friends and family in his native State of Wyoming.
Amendment No. 1184
I rise today to address amendment No. 1184 offered by my friend from
Texas, my former attorney general colleague, Senator Cornyn.
I will oppose this amendment. It is not entirely without merit in
every one of its many dimensions, but it would undercut the fundamental
principles of due process which are a longstanding and vital hallmark
of our legal system. I fully support the creation of new grounds for
inadmissibility to the United States for convicted sex offenders, gang
members, repeat DUI offenders, and for individuals who have been
convicted of firearms offenses and domestic violence. I have prosecuted
these crimes. I have a firsthand understanding of how dangerous these
criminals are. Simply stated, America's doors should not be opened to
people who commit such crimes. If Senator Cornyn believes there are
loopholes, I am happy to plug them, although I would note that the
Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, the President,
and others seem satisfied.
For that reason, I will support the alternative amendment offered by
Senator Kennedy which would add these offenses and others to the
grounds for inadmissibility.
There is a right way to ensure dangerous criminals don't enter the
country and there is a wrong way. Unfortunately, the amendment we are
debating goes about it the wrong way. Let me explain.
[[Page 14774]]
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, good moral character is a
prerequisite for a variety of benefits and privileges, the most
important being naturalization. Therefore, the law lists a series of
characteristics which exclude a person from the definition of ``good
moral character'': for example, a person whose income is derived
principally from gambling or one who has given false testimony for the
purpose of obtaining benefits or one who has been convicted of an
aggravated felony. This, of course, makes perfect sense. These
individuals as a general rule should not get on a path to
naturalization.
But this amendment would change the definition of ``good moral
character'' in a very novel and unsettling way: It would exclude from
that definition one who the Secretary of Homeland Security or the
Attorney General determines, in the unreviewable discretion of the
Secretary or the Attorney General, to have been at any time an alien
described in section 212(a)(3) or 237(a)(4). These sections list a
series of security-related grounds under which an alien is excludable
or deportable. Those grounds, sensibly enough, include espionage,
sabotage, terrorist activity, and any other unlawful activity. Anyone
convicted of such offenses or even indicted for such offenses should
be, of course, excludable. But that is not what this amendment says.
This amendment would give the Secretary of Homeland Security and the
Attorney General unreviewable discretion to make a determination as to
good moral character.
First, as I have previously said, I am not inclined to expand the
powers of the current Attorney General in any substantive way, much
less to expand his power to make important unreviewable decisions.
Setting aside my grave hesitation about this particular Attorney
General, as a general rule, I don't believe we ought to prevent judges
from reviewing important decisions which can affect life, liberty, and
property. This would violate one of the most fundamental principles of
American democracy--judicial review, a principle we have honored for
centuries.
The second issue is even more unsettling. That is, under the proposed
amendment, a person could be determined to lack ``good moral
character'' if the unreviewable decision is made that he or she is
``described in'' these two specific sections of the immigration code.
``Described in,'' what exactly does it mean to be ``described in'' a
statute? Not ``convicted'' under a statute, not ``in violation'' of a
statute, not ``indicted'' under a statute but merely ``described in''
it.
Who knows what it means? I have found no precedent for this
formulation. Is it consistent with American values to grant the
Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security the
unreviewable discretion to say that a person is ``described in'' those
statutes; the unreviewable power to say that somebody is engaged in
``unlawful activity''; and the unreviewable power to then deny them the
benefits and privileges of American law?
That is not my experience as a prosecutor. I found due process to be
important and valuable.
The amendment does not stop there. It would allow this unreviewable
discretion to be based on evidence which the accused would never have
the opportunity to confront.
Madam President, like you, I have spent my professional life in the
American legal system, a good deal of it I spent as a U.S. attorney and
as an attorney general. My experience is that our American system of
law stands on some fundamental principles, among them that people can
be aware of the charges brought against them, that people have an
opportunity to confront the evidence used against them, that the
prosecution and the judge are not rolled into one, and that we have
judicial review of important decisions affecting people's rights and
privileges. These are basic principles, and they represent core
American values.
I do not know why we have to keep getting up to defend this. This is
bedrock stuff. From the suspension of habeas corpus, to the
administration's legal defense of torture, to ``extraordinary
rendition,'' and so on, we have seen relentless efforts to chip away at
bedrock principles of American law. With this amendment, there they go
again.
Of course, we must do everything proper and necessary to protect our
borders and keep Americans safe. But to throw out the separation
between prosecution and judge, to throw out the opportunity to
understand and explain evidence used against you, to throw out our
ancient principle of judicial review, to allow Government officials to
take away rights and privileges without answering to anyone? I do not
think so.
These principles are too dear to be thrown away so lightly. Our
country has been through a lot over the years, and these principles
have survived and flourished, to lie today in our hands, in our
stewardship, to protect and to pass on, as they were passed on to us.
I do not think this immigration issue is so terrifying that we need
to throw these principles away now over immigration. We are made of
sterner stuff than that.
I ask my colleagues to oppose Senator Cornyn's amendment No. 1184.
I thank Senator Kennedy, and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I yield the Senator from Alabama 10
minutes from our allotted time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama is recognized for 10
minutes.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I appreciate the Senator's comments
about American law and principles. As a former U.S. attorney and
attorney general, I share the general view. He mentions the historic
privileges we have in America. But let me tell you, no one has a right
to enter the United States of America. We decide who comes in and who
does not.
That is a core principle of sovereignty. Every Nation in the world
makes those decisions, if they are a functioning state, and you then
allow people to enter on your terms, on whatever conditions they may
be. The condition may be, you can enter as long as you are enrolled in
a college, you can enter for a certain period of time, you can enter on
a tourist visa to do a certain number of things.
But those conditions are not such that if you say someone cannot come
here you violated the laws of America. If you say you can come to
America but not if you have a history of being a sexual predator, what
right does that violate? What principle of American law does that
violate? I suggest none. We have every right to insist and ensure the
immigration system of the United States serves the national interest.
The national interest means you do not allow people to continue to stay
in our country or to come to our country who have repeat DUIs or who
sell drugs or who are associated with terrorists. How basic is that?
Nobody has a constitutional legal right to demand entry into the United
States of America. How much more basic can it be than that?
So that is where we are confused. It amazes me the lack of
understanding and comprehension of what it is all about. We set the
standards. We have the most generous immigration laws of almost any
country in the world. It has been a big part of our heritage. We are
not going to end immigration. Nobody wants to do that, or to act
irrationally, and so forth.
But to set reasonable standards, as Senator Cornyn is attempting to
do with his amendment, only makes common sense. For example, I have
mentioned some of the loopholes. He fixes them. I give him every bit of
credit for this: for standing firm, for insisting on this vote, after
he has been objected to and objected to and blocked from getting his
vote. But he stood firm on this issue. He is going to fix a number of
the problems I wish to briefly mention.
Some aggravated felons who have sexually abused a minor are eligible
for amnesty under this bill. They have no entitlement to amnesty.
Nobody has entitlement to amnesty, whether they
[[Page 14775]]
are perfectly wonderful citizens and all that. They are not entitled to
that. This is a gift we give. So why would you want to give that to
somebody who sexually abused a minor?
Well, the child molester who committed the crime, before this bill is
enacted, is not barred from getting amnesty if their conviction
document omitted the age of the victim. If the conviction document did
not put the age down, then they are to be admitted under this bill.
After there was some objection to it, they fixed that language for the
future but did not fix it for the past or current convictions. So I
think Senator Cornyn is correct. I support that portion of his
amendment very strongly.
Another provision is that aliens with terrorism connections under
this legislation are not barred from getting amnesty. They do not have
a right to stay here. If we have any suggestion that someone in this
country, now here, or someone who wants to come here is connected to
terrorists, they do not have to be admitted. What kind of right do they
have to demand to be admitted? If our State Department, in some country
around the world, has information that a person is connected to
terrorism, they do not have any right to demand to come here. They come
at our pleasure, our sufferance.
So one of the things this bill, as written, does is it says an
illegal alien seeking most of the immigration benefits must show good
character. But last year's bill--let me say this on the terrorism
question--specifically barred aliens with terrorism connections from
having the required good moral character to enter the United States.
That is one of the things we say. You cannot come here unless you have
good moral character. You cannot come here if you are a felon, a thief,
a drug dealer or a child molester. Surely, that would make sense. So
this bill eliminated that.
Another example, surprisingly, of this bill being weaker even than
last year's fatally flawed bill: The bill's drafters have ignored the
Bush administration's request that changes be made to the asylum,
cancellation of removal, and withholding of removal statutes in order
to prevent aliens with terrorist connections from receiving relief. The
bill drafters were told about this by the Bush administration and were
urged to put different language in, and they refused to do so, for
reasons I cannot fathom.
But it begins to show a certain mindset. I think that mindset is we
are somehow here to represent people who want to come into our country
and stay in our country instead of representing the American people and
the interests of the United States.
Last year, we had good moral character as a requirement. Good moral
character involved not being connected to terrorists. But according to
current law, an alien cannot have good moral character if they are a
habitual drunkard, a majority of their income comes from illegal
gambling, giving false testimony for immigration benefit purposes, they
have been in jail for 180 days, they have been convicted of an
aggravated felony or they have engaged in genocide, torture, or
extrajudicial killings. That is current law we have. But this year's
bill is completely missing these new terrorism bars that were in last
year's bill, and the bill no longer requires good moral character. That
is a matter that leaves us at greater risk than we need to be. It
concerns me.
Another example. Instead of ensuring that members of violent gangs,
such as MS-13, are deported, the bill will allow violent gang members
to get amnesty as long as they renounce their gang membership on their
application. That is the current law. Under the bill, being in a
violent gang is not going to prevent you from qualifying for amnesty.
The bill requires amnesty applicants to list--to list--you are required
to list that gang membership on your application. Then you get a blank
that says ``renunciation of gang affiliation.'' So if you check that
blank and say you renounce it, then you get to stay in, perhaps.
So why don't we allow this: If an illegal alien has been a member of
a violent international gang, such as Mara Salvatrucha 13, MS-13, why
don't we say that blocks him or her from being eligible for the amnesty
in the bill? Loyalty to the United States should be the requirement,
not loyalty to some outside gang that is violent.
The night before last, I happened to turn on C-SPAN and catch a
National Press Club conference by a series of law enforcement officers
involved in the Border Patrol, the former chairman of the Border
Patrol. They were ferocious in their criticism of this bill. I was
surprised how strongly they felt about it.
Hugh Brien, himself an immigrant, was Chief of the Border Patrol from
1986 to 1989. He called the bill a sellout, a complete betrayal of the
Nation, a slap in the face to millions of Americans who have come here
legally like he had done. In 1986, he recalled: ``Our masters, our
mandarins promised it would work.'' Of course, the 1986 bill did not.
He also said, based on his experience in many years with the Border
Patrol: ``It's a disaster.''
Kent Lundgren, the national chairman of the Association of Former
Border Patrol Officers, said this: ``There are no meaningful criminal
or terrorist checks'' in the legislation. He noted that the ``screening
will not happen.'' He added Congress is lying about it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used his time.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I thank the Chair and support the
Cornyn amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, how much time do I have?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Thirty-one minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from
New York.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you, Madam President.
First, I salute my colleague from Massachusetts for his undaunted,
courageous, and effective leadership on this issue, which is one of the
most difficult issues we face. I think he has the respect of everybody
in this body for that--the Senator from Massachusetts does--whether
they agree or disagree with the bill.
Now, I rise in opposition to the Cornyn amendment and in support of
the Kennedy alternative amendment No. 1333. There certainly are
attractive parts of the Cornyn amendment, but the good parts of the
amendment are buried in complicated language that strikes at the heart
of the comprehensive immigration bill many of us are working hard to
pass. At a minimum, my colleague's amendment would have the effect of
stripping the path to citizenship, one of the mainstays of the
compromise--one of the two mainstays of the compromise--out of the bill
altogether. This body has already rejected that approach outright. It
ought not do it now by stealth. It is a Trojan horse--nothing short of
an attempt to kill the whole bill in the guise of tough enforcement.
My colleagues know when it comes to tough enforcement, whether it is
on immigrants, citizens, or anyone else, I don't yield to anybody. I am
a tough-on-crime guy. I come from an area that was ravaged by crime,
and the works of the Federal Government, State government, and city
government helped make the communities I represent much safer.
What we do in the Kennedy amendment is keep the tough enforcement
without killing the bill. Let me repeat that. What we do in this
amendment is keep the tough enforcement--it is all there--but we don't
kill the bill. We don't eliminate the path to citizenship which is, of
course, what the Cornyn amendment does and may well be intended to do.
If we are serious about passing the best possible bill and passing a
bill that makes good sense, we should support the Kennedy amendment and
not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We all want a bill that is
tough on people who have broken the law, and we all want a bill that
keeps people who should not be let into the United States in the first
place from coming here.
[[Page 14776]]
Senator Kennedy's amendment is both tough and smart. It changes the
law to prevent the worst criminals from getting into the country and
kicks out people who shouldn't be here, and it picks out the best parts
of the Cornyn amendment and leaves out the worst.
Like Senator Cornyn's amendment, Senator Kennedy's amendment says any
new immigrant who has participated in a criminal gang in any way,
shape, or form can't come live in the United States, period. It doesn't
wait for a felony conviction or anything else. If you are in a gang,
you can't come in, and you can't become a citizen. Any immigrant in the
United States who has been a member of a gang can be deported. That is
how it should be. Also, Senator Kennedy's amendment cracks down on gang
members who violate our gun laws.
Under Senator Kennedy's amendment, aliens who have committed the
horrible crimes of domestic violence--stalking, child abuse, child
neglect, or child abandonment, and who have been sent to jail for a
year--are barred from moving to the country or from attempting to
naturalize as citizens. The amendment provides that sex offenders who
don't register can't immigrate or come work here, and convicted sex
offenders who don't register get deported.
The amendment would keep drunk drivers from immigrating to the United
States. Just one felony conviction for drunk driving and you are out.
People who try to sneak into the country, illegally cross the border,
or lie to immigration agents will face steep fines and jail time, as
the bill provides, as this body ratified last week.
The amendment has tough penalties for repeat offenders. An alien who
tries to enter the country after being convicted of a serious penalty
can face up to 20 years in jail under the amendment.
So this is one tough amendment. But, again, it doesn't seek by
stealth, as the Cornyn amendment does, to eliminate the bill
altogether. Some of the things in this amendment are exactly like the
language in Senator Cornyn's amendment. Senator Kennedy's amendment
takes the best of the Cornyn amendment and leaves out the parts that
will gut or decapitate the bill. A vote for the Kennedy alternative is
a vote for tough enforcement but also smart policy.
Madam President, I yield back the remaining time to my colleague and
friend from Massachusetts.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from Texas is
recognized.
Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, customarily, as a manager of the bill,
I control time, but I think now the time is in whose hands? I ask for
12 minutes of time, Madam President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, may I inquire whether the Senator
intends to speak for or against the--
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I yield 12 minutes to the Senator from
Pennsylvania.
Mr. CORNYN. I think that takes care of it. I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.
Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I was about to say some nice things
about the Senator from Texas, and I still will. He has been a very
active and constructive participant in the consideration of immigration
reform. In the 109th Congress he was very much involved and contributed
greatly. We didn't always agree on a number of items, but he is very
sincere, very studious, very thoughtful, and very constructive, and he
continues in that role, although as is evident, there are some
differences as to our approach. But I commend the Senator from Texas
for what he has done and for what he continues to do here.
I am in favor of the alternative to the Cornyn amendment. I say that
because we have structured the bill with a great many compromises.
While I might be inclined to agree with the Senator from Texas on some
of the specifics that he has enumerated which would be a bar to
citizenship, there was a tremendous amount of give-and-take in the
structuring of this bill so that I am standing with the committee
bill--strike that. We don't have a committee bill. I wish we did. But I
am supporting the bill which came out of the lengthy consultation with
about a dozen principal Senators participating. There are a number of
specifics, in the amendment which is side by side, which I think are
preferable to the amendment by the Senator from Texas.
Illustrative of this preference is that the Senator from Texas makes
a third conviction for drunk driving a crime of violence. Well, it may
be a crime of violence, or it may not be a crime of violence. The
alternative which has been proposed would make drunk driving a grounds
for inadmissibility and deportability, providing the alien serves at
least a year in prison. From my days as district attorney, I have seen
quite a number of cases involving drunk driving, for example, and while
I don't condone multiple convictions, I think it is a more appropriate
ground that there be inadmissibility or deportability where the drunk
driving was serious enough to call for a year in jail.
The amendment offered by the Senator from Texas also strips judicial
review of findings that an alien is barred on national security
grounds. From what we have seen about this issue in many contexts,
there needs to be judicial review, although in a different context. In
the last few days we have seen the Military Commission conclude that it
had no jurisdiction because of problems with the indicting procedure
with respect to whether one is an enemy alien or an unlawful enemy
alien. This points to the necessity for judicial review, which would be
excluded by the Cornyn amendment.
The Cornyn amendment also would deport or prevent citizenship for
someone who has ever violated a protective order. Well, it is a good
bit more complicated than that. The alternative amendment provides that
there would be an analysis. It would exclude people convicted of a
felony domestic violation, but there would be a consideration about
whether, on a protective order, the alien was acting in self-defense,
along with other considerations, in fact. Most fundamentally, the
Cornyn amendment would strip the authority of the Departments, the
Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, to waive
certain grounds which would warrant deportation or inadmissibility.
That discretion, which is lodged in the alternative, enables a fuller
review of the facts. It gives a chance to really look beyond some of
the technical categorizations which might appear ominous on their face,
but which, after there is a detailed review of what has happened on the
underlying factors, might reveal there ought not to be inadmissibility
or deportation. That discretion ought to remain with responsible
officials in the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of
Justice.
It is for those reasons, but fundamentally because the pending
legislation was crafted with a great many compromises, that I favor the
substitute and oppose the Cornyn amendment.
I would like to address something which is more fundamental and very
serious, as we have had a statement by the majority leader that if
cloture is not invoked tomorrow at 6 o'clock, he will take down this
bill.
I think that would be grossly erroneous. I think that would be very
bad procedure. If you compare what was done last year in the 109th
Congress with what we have done in this Congress, you would see there
was much more consideration in the last Congress than has been afforded
this bill at this time.
For example, in the 109th Congress, we worked the bill through the
committee. We did not work this bill through the committee. That was a
leadership decision. I have stated on the Senate floor on several
occasions the concern of not having gone through committee; that it was
probably a mistake. Well, if this bill is taken down because we haven't
made sufficient progress in the eyes of the majority leader, there is
no doubt it would be a mistake because had we gone through committee,
we would have worked
[[Page 14777]]
through so many of these issues which we have had to legislate on the
floor.
In the 109th Congress, the Judiciary Committee, which I chaired, had
6 days of committee markups. They were tough and laborious days, and we
dealt with 59 amendments. We returned one Monday after a recess when
the majority leader said he would proceed with the substitute bill, and
a Monday back after a recess is a very tough day. But on March 27,
2006, the committee made a special effort to reconvene. We had a
quorum, believe it or not, by 10 o'clock in the morning, and we worked
through, laboriously, until the evening when we reported out a bill.
That is what happened during the markup, 6 days of markup in the
committee where, as I say, we considered some 59 amendments.
Then, when we moved to the floor of the Senate, we had 12 days on the
bill. We had 4 days before cloture failed, and then we came back with 8
days more and considered in excess of 50 total votes--some rollcall,
some voice votes--in passing the bill out of the U.S. Senate.
Now, contrast that with what we have had up to the present time. We
have been on the bill 8 days, and 3 of those days were Mondays or
Fridays pro forma without voting. We have only had 5 days where we have
been involved in voting. Even on those days, they have not been as
productive as voting days were on the bill in the 109th Congress
because we have been in quorum calls. We have been negotiating. We have
been trying to work through issues that, had this bill gone through
committee, would have been resolved some time ago.
So you have a comparison of, really, 5 days, plus 3 days of pro
forma, 8 at the most, contrasted with 12 days before. It is more
accurately a comparison of 12 to 5--12 in the last Congress where we
legislated and where we passed the bill. Here, where we have voted on
only 21 amendments, contrasted with more than 50 we voted on in the
last Congress.
We have also had a tremendous amount of Senators' time and time of
the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Homeland Security. We
met for 2 hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and sometimes
on Mondays and Fridays as well, over a 10-week period.
It is hard to calculate how many hours were put in by Senators, but I
think it goes into the thousands. It is hard to calculate how much time
was put in by the two secretaries, but I think that goes into the
hundreds. If you talk about staff time, it is incalculable. The staff
director, Mike O'Neill, worked for about 20 days solid, including
weekends, and that was sort of par for the course.
So to pull this bill tomorrow at 6 o'clock--I think it would be hard
to find the right word that is appropriate in strength and not
overboard. But I think ``outrageous'' would be a modest comment; it
would be outrageous to pull this bill tomorrow.
One of my staffers said this bill has been the result of blood,
sweat, and fears--paraphrasing Churchill's blood, sweat, and tears--and
maybe more fears than blood and sweat. But we have come a long way. We
have already seen a lot of finger pointing on this floor. We seem to be
a lot better in the Senate at finger pointing than at legislating. But
if this bill is pulled down, then you may even see toe pointing,
because 10 fingers won't be sufficient for Republicans blaming
Democrats and the majority leader for pulling down the bill, and
Democrats blaming Republicans for a lot of dilatory amendments.
The majority leader has said these amendments are designed to kill
the bill, that the people offering the amendments don't have any
intention of voting for the bill. Senators who offer amendments don't
have to have intentions of voting for the bill. Senators can offer
amendments because they are Senators and because they think their
amendments may pass, and because, who knows, they may even think their
amendments could improve the bill. I think Senator Cornyn sincerely
believes his amendment will improve the bill.
I ask unanimous consent for 3 more minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I ordinarily keep better track of time,
but I am a little wound up and concerned about where all of the work we
have done may end up if this bill is pulled and, more importantly,
after the work that has been done, where it would leave the immigration
mess in the United States. We have 12 million undocumented immigrants;
we don't know where they are or what risks they face. We cannot deport
them all. We have a porous border. If we don't have comprehensive
immigration reform, we are not going to put up all the fencing, the
barriers, and stop the additional people. The administration has made
commitments, and there will be more about how the funds will be spent.
We are not going to go through with employer verification. We are not
going to spend the money on foolproof identification so employers can
see who is legal and who is not legal, so that we have the basis for
imposing tough sanctions, including jail. We are not going to eliminate
the magnet to bring more people in. It will be a colossal failure.
I think it is safe to say the Senate would be the laughingstock of
the country, after all of the hyperbole and publicity and all of the
proposals and objections, if we are not able to finish this bill. It
doesn't have to be finished this week. There is next week. We are not
known for necessarily using the full week. We vote very infrequently on
Mondays, almost never on Fridays. The evening session is not really
practiced around here. When I came to the Senate with Howard Baker, we
used to have a lot of all-night sessions. One night in 1982 or 1983--I
ask for 4 more minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. I yield 4 more minutes to the Senator. How much time
will I have remaining?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will have 6\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.
Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, we had a tax bill on the Senate floor,
and it was 11:45. Howard Baker, the majority leader, was consulting
with the Finance chairman, Senator Dole. There were 63 amendments
pending. Senator Baker said we are going to work through the night. He
said amendments, like mushrooms, grow overnight. So we worked through
the night. There were some amendments taken, some amendments withdrawn,
and some voted upon. It is amazing how much shorter the debate is at 3
a.m. It is also amazing how many more Senators there are on the floor
at 3 a.m. There were a lot of people on cots in the cloakroom, but a
lot of Senators were on the floor. The insomniacs outnumbered the
sleepers by 2 to 1. We had a lot of comments like you heard in
Parliament. Someone would be making an argument and there would be
cries of ``vote, vote.'' At 3 a.m. the cries of ``vote'' and the lack
of decorum carried the day.
The point is that a few more days in the Senate will not impede the
action of this body. Some of the items that are coming up on the agenda
may not merit the kind of time and attention the immigration bill does.
The American people are obviously sick and tired of the bickering in
the Congress and in the Senate, sick and tired of the kind of finger
pointing, and there will be an awful lot of it if we fail to legislate
on this matter. The bill may be voted down. I think the bill will pass
if we stick with it. Certainly, we ought to carry it through to
conclusion.
I thank my colleague from Massachusetts for yielding me the extra
time.
I yield the floor.
Mr. WEBB. Madam President, I rise today to discuss amendment No.
1313, an amendment that I will offer to the immigration reform bill,
which will address what I believe are two crucial flaws in this
legislation. The first flaw relates to what some people may call
amnesty, wherein the bill legalizes almost everyone who entered this
country by the beginning of this year. The second flaw relates to an
unworkable set of procedures applicable to those who are properly
offered legal status.
[[Page 14778]]
It is important to the health and practicality of our system that these
two flaws be addressed.
My amendment would achieve three critically important goals: it
creates a fair and workable path to legalization for those who have
truly put down roots in America; it protects the legitimate interests
of all working Americans; and it accords honor and dignity to the
concept of true American justice.
If one accepts the premises of these three goals, then I strongly
believe that this amendment is the best way forward.
As a general matter, I agree with my colleagues that the time has
come for fair and balanced reform of our broken immigration system.
When I say ``fairness,'' I mean a system of laws that is fair to
everyone here in the United States and especially our wage earners.
I strongly support the provisions in this immigration bill that
strengthen our Nation's borders. Our porous borders are a threat to our
national security, and we have waited far too long to fix this problem.
I also support the sections of the bill that create tough civil and
criminal penalties for employers who unfairly hire illegal immigrants,
creating both a second-class population and undercutting American
workers. The bill's employment verification system will help ensure
that illegal workers cannot get employment in the United States and
would therefore face little choice but to return to their homelands.
As a point of reference, I do not support this bill's creation of a
massive new temporary worker program. Two weeks ago, I voted to support
Senator Dorgan's two amendments to strike and sunset that program, and
I find it regrettable that the Senate did not adopt those amendments.
We have seen a good bit of analysis on the Senate floor in recent
days to the effect that the temporary worker program will be largely
unworkable. To the extent that it would work, it would create a wage-
based underclass and a bureaucratic nightmare. Furthermore, as I stated
on the floor 2 weeks ago, I believe that guest worker programs--aside
from purely temporary, seasonal work--drive down the wages of hard-
working Americans and of those who came here by following the law.
With those points in mind, I now turn to my amendment, which regards
the other major component of this bill--the legalization program.
My amendment reflects a proposal that I have been discussing with
Virginians ever since I began my campaign for the Senate. I have always
supported tough border security and cracking down on large employers
who hire illegal workers. I also have always supported a path to
legalization for those who came here during a time of extremely lax
immigration laws but who have laid down strong roots in their
communities. I do not, however, favor this path to citizenship for all
undocumented persons.
Under the provisions of the immigration bill we are debating,
virtually all undocumented persons currently living in the United
States would be eligible to legalize their status and ultimately become
U.S. citizens. Estimates are that this number totals 12 million to 20
million people. This is legislative overkill. It is one of the reasons
that this bill has aroused the passions of ordinary Americans who have
no opposition to reasonable immigration policies but who see this as an
issue that goes against the grain of basic fairness, which is the very
foundation of our society.
By contrast, my amendment would allow a smaller percentage of
undocumented persons to remain in the United States and legalize their
status, based on the depth of a person's roots in their community.
Under my proposal, undocumented persons who have lived in the United
States at least 4 years prior to enactment of the bill could apply to
legalize their status. I note that this 4-year period is even more
generous than the 5-year threshold that was contained in several bills
in the past few Congresses--bills that were supported by Senators from
both parties and by immigrants' rights groups.
After receiving the application, the Department of Homeland Security
would evaluate a list of objective, measurable criteria to determine
whether the applicant should receive a Z visa and thus be allowed to
get on the path to citizenship.
The statutory criteria to be considered would be work history,
payment of Federal or State income taxes, property ownership and
business ownership in the United States, knowledge of English,
attendance at U.S. schools, immediate family members in the United
States, whether the applicant has a criminal record, and whether the
applicant wants to become a U.S. citizen.
Like the underlying bill, applicants would be given probationary
status while the DHS considers their Z visa application and could
lawfully work during this probationary status period.
I believe these provisions are fair to our immigrant population and
also that they will help us avoid the mistakes this Congress made in
1986 with the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty bill, which resulted in a tidal
wave of illegal immigration.
My amendment would also make the underlying bill more practical.
It strikes the bill's unrealistic ``touchback'' requirement. Few
immigrants would have the money or the ability to return to their home
countries on other continents. Most of these persons would lose their
U.S. jobs, leaving their families in turmoil and placing further strain
on our communities. Basic fairness dictates that these persons be
allowed to apply for a green card from within the United States.
I believe that my amendment sets forth an equitable system that not
only recognizes the contributions of immigrants to our society but also
introduces practical measures that will help us avoid the same mistakes
our country made in 1986 with the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty bill.
I have heard loud and clear from Virginians, and I have talked with
people on all sides of this issue. What I hear over and over again is
that Congress should find a fair system that both protects American
workers and respects the rule of law. This amendment represents the
fairest method I know to do so and to do so realistically.
I ask you all to support amendment No. 1313 when it comes for a vote
in the Senate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, how much time do I have?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 22 minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. Will the Senator yield as a point of interest?
Mr. CORNYN. Yes.
Mr. KENNEDY. I think I have 6\1/2\ minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 8\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. I am trying to get some information to the Senators who
will follow along. Does the Senator plan to use the remainder of his
time? I am not trying to hurry him; it is only for information
purposes.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I agree it is a good idea to try to give
our colleagues notice as to when a vote will occur. I am happy to agree
we can have the vote at 11:45. I probably will not use all of my time,
but it depends on how wound up I get.
Mr. KENNEDY. Why don't we sort of move along but indicate to our
colleagues that we are reaching a conclusion and we expect votes fairly
soon. Then we will have follow-on amendments with Senator DeMint and,
hopefully, Senator Bingaman. If we can work those out in the next 20
minutes or so, we can get stacked votes; otherwise, we plan to have
these two votes reasonably soon.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. For the information of Senators, the vote will
occur at approximately 11:55 if some time is not yielded back.
The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, we have a number of speakers who have
commented. I appreciate the wise comments of the Senator from
Pennsylvania, and I am not talking about the
[[Page 14779]]
part where he was complimentary of me; I am talking about his comments
on the process and the difficulty, since this bill came to the floor
without going through committee, of providing an adequate opportunity
for debate and amendments. We have all tried to work our way through
this.
I do concur it is a terrible mistake in judgment to seek to close off
debate on this bill before an adequate opportunity for votes occurs. We
have had, by my count--and I could be off one or two--nine rollcall
votes on this bill. By way of comparison, when the McCain-Kennedy bill,
which later became the Hagel-Martinez bill, was on the floor last year,
we had 32 rollcall votes, I believe. We need to have an adequate
opportunity to flesh this out. As we have seen here, some of these
details get very technical, but they have a profound consequence in
terms of the outcome.
Let me speak to some of the specific items that have been raised
here. As we pointed out, first, there will be a vote on the Kennedy
amendment, and then there will be a vote on the Cornyn amendment. With
all due respect, I call the first one a watered-down version of the
second one. I will point out the differences now, in part.
The Kennedy amendment would still allow waivers to allow members of
gangs to become legalized under the provisions of this bill. The
Kennedy bill would still allow sex offenders to not be barred if they
were sentenced to less than 6 months. The Kennedy bill would still
allow waivers for firearms offenses; that is, allow people who have
been convicted of firearms offenses to get a waiver and to be allowed
legal status.
My amendment covers those who are associated with terrorist
organizations. Those innocents referred to under the material support
provisions are covered by a waiver executed by the Department of State
and Department of Homeland Security.
As we can see, this gets exceedingly technical. Let me focus on sex
offenders, by way of example, to point out why these differences are
important. My amendment would bar those who have failed to register as
sex offenders from becoming eligible for a Z visa and legal permanent
residency status and a path to American citizenship. We have spoken in
Congress on this issue through such legislation as the Adam Walsh Act.
We have made it clear we will monitor and lock up those sex offenders
who don't follow the rules and bar sex offenders from bringing
individuals into the country whom they may also harm.
Yet the amendment offered by the distinguished Senator from
Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, would still give those sex offenders
who fail to register a loophole to exploit if they can plea bargain
their case to less than 6 months. The maximum penalty for the
underlying offense is no more than 1 year. All of us who have had
experience in the legal system, particularly with the criminal law
system, understand plea bargains are a way of life and it may well be a
very serious sex offender will have plea bargained an indictment
against him or her to less than 6 months, and still be allowed entry
into the United States under the Kennedy amendment.
Here is what the Kennedy amendment does. On page 20 of the amendment,
it modifies the exceptions to the criminal bars admissibility by adding
failure to register as a sex offender and firearm offenses to the list
of offenses excepted from the criminal bars to accessibility.
Why would we allow this loophole? We just got this amendment last
night, of course. We have not been able to survey the sex offender
registry laws of all 50 States. We know there is at least one State--
New York--where first-time failure to register a conviction is a class
A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 1 year.
My simple question is: Why would we want to employ a loophole for sex
offenders and allow them to gain the benefits under this bill by being
eligible for a Z visa, with a path to legal permanent residency,
potentially, and American citizenship?
My amendment makes clear--unlike the Kennedy amendment--that all
these loopholes are closed and this is not possible. I cannot imagine
that the American people would feel, among the many other people who
are arguably worthy of gaining benefits under this bill, we would want
to demean what we are doing here by providing these benefits to people
who so clearly have shown themselves unworthy of getting those
benefits.
I will point out that I know we have had a big debate in this country
and in the Senate about what constitutes amnesty. I think the problem
is the American people--many of them--don't feel we are serious about
restoring the rule of law when it comes to our broken immigration
system. I don't mean for a minute to impugn the good faith of Senators
who have labored long and hard to try to bring this bill to the floor,
and those of us who are trying to improve it, to make it better. But by
way of example, these are the sorts of offenses that ordinarily would
be punishable under our laws but which are completely ignored when it
comes to applicants for a Z visa--and that is the 12 million or so who
are here--who have committed these acts.
Anyone who has entered the country without being inspected or
admitted; that is, who came across the border before January 1, 2007,
this bill would make eligible for a Z visa.
Any alien who failed to show up for his or her removal proceeding
without just cause would be eligible for legal status under this bill.
Any alien; that is, any noncitizen, who, through fraud or willful
misrepresentation, got a visa or other document or admitted to the
United States would be eligible for a Z visa.
Any individual who makes a false claim to U.S. citizenship--this is
an independent offense against our criminal laws--would be eligible for
a Z visa.
Any noncitizen who was a stowaway who made their way into the United
States, anyone who is the subject of a civil penalty for document fraud
would be eligible under this bill for legalization and a Z visa.
Any alien who, when trying to enter the country, did not have the
proper documents, visa, passport, border-crossing card, et cetera; any
alien who remained unlawfully in the United States for less than a
year, left the United States before removal, and then tried to reenter
in a 3-year period would be eligible for a Z visa under this bill, or
was in the United States unlawfully continuously for more than a year,
then tried to reenter the United States within 10 years after leaving
or being removed from the United States. It gets a little convoluted,
but that person would be eligible for a Z visa or legalization and
potentially a path to legal permanent residency and American
citizenship.
Under this bill, any alien who, after previously violating
immigration laws, for example, crossed the border multiple times and
remained unlawfully in the United States for an aggregate of a year or
more under this bill would be eligible for legalization under a Z visa,
potentially eligible for legal permanent residency and American
citizenship.
Any alien who came with another alien who is not admissible to the
United States who is certified as helpless due to sickness, disease,
and disability and requires the protection or guardianship of an alien.
That is one more example of the kind of offenses which ordinarily we
would punish under our laws which are waived and not considered when it
comes to eligibility of the Z visa.
I don't think it is particularly productive on the floor of the
Senate to talk about what is amnesty and what is not, but let me talk
about the more basic consideration and one reason I think my
constituents in Texas have expressed such strong concerns about it. It
is really exemplified in the debate we are having on the Cornyn and
Kennedy amendments. Are we serious about restoring respect for the law
or are we going to simply turn a blind eye to violations in the future?
What we are being told by the proponents of this bill--and I believe
they in good faith believe this, but it is unfortunate that the bill
language itself does not appear to bear out that optimism and hope when
it comes to the
[[Page 14780]]
enforceability--is that this is, as in 1986, the last time we are going
to do this. If we deal with the 12 million people who have come into
the country without a visa or who have entered legally and who have
overstayed their visa, if we give them an opportunity to get a Z visa,
this is it, last time, it will never happen again. That sounds
ominously similar to what the American people were told in 1986 when
there were 3 million people in that category. Now we have 12 million in
that category.
So the question people have, logically--these are not racists, these
are not bigots, they are not nativists, they are not anti-immigrants;
these are American citizens who are concerned about their country and
about being a country that respects the rule of law--they want to know:
Is this going to work? Will it be enforced? Are we serious about
restoring the rule of law to our country?
I have to say that the sort of fine and requirement that is being
required with the Z visa is looked at with great skepticism. Last week,
I had a constituent who said: Well, Senator, are you telling me that we
are going to allow people who have not respected our immigration laws
to pay $5,000, in effect, to buy legal status and then potentially
apply for legal permanent residency and then become an American
citizen? Who wouldn't go for that kind of deal? That caused me a lot of
concern because I, frankly, had not thought about it in those terms.
But what causes me even greater concern is the concept that is
missing from this legislation that is so important; that is, when it
comes to our laws, we believe in the role of deterrence. In other
words, when we provide a penalty to somebody for violating the law, one
of the considerations is, will it deter people from acting in a similar
capacity in the future?
I am afraid, when I look at this legislation, it completely omits any
consideration of what will deter people from violating our immigration
laws in the future. In fact, I am afraid what happens, as pointed out
by my constituent, is that it is really viewed as an incentive. If all
you have to do is to get into the country any way you can and then wait
for the next bill to pass Congress which will allow you to pay a fine
and then become legally here and on a path to legal permanent residency
and citizenship, that is no deterrent. That is a powerful magnet which
will continue to attract people to our country.
I say this not in any spirit except to say we have to find a way to
fix this. I have been one who wants to try to fix this legislation. The
amendments I have offered are in that spirit. But I have to say that we
are going to continue to be viewed as nonserious about workability,
about enforcement, about restoring respect for the rule of law unless
we vote to exclude those who have shown nothing but defiance for our
laws by absconding, by going underground even after having their day in
court and refusing an order of deportation, or those who have been
deported following a day in court, following all the rights our country
provides for judicial review and administrative review and who simply
left to only reenter again illegally.
As I mentioned at the outset, the Immigration and Naturalization Act
makes both those categories of individuals felons--felons. This is not
a misdemeanor. This is not an inadvertency. These are not people,
frankly, who are entitled to the generosity of the American people when
it comes to dealing with their legal status. These are people who
showed they have nothing but contempt for our laws, for restoring the
rule of law, and I just cannot imagine why any Member of the Senate
would vote to give these individuals a path to legal residence and a
path to potentially American citizenship.
If we are going to regain that lost credibility--and I think this is
really where the rubber meets the road because, frankly, people across
this country don't really believe we are serious about making this
work. They are used to a history of being overpromised and undersold
when it comes to fixing our broken immigration system. But I believe
there is going to be a high price to pay for those of us who are still
around in the coming years if, in fact, we pass this law knowing that
it has these huge, gaping loopholes that excuse unlawful conduct, which
is basically thumbing their noses at the rule of law. If we are not
serious about making sure people who go through background checks are
actually not criminals or terrorists, if we are not serious about
making this work, there is going to be a high price to pay for those
who support this legislation only in the coming years to find that it
was another scam pulled on the American people.
That is why it is so absolutely critical that we continue this
debate, and I implore the majority leader to allow us to continue the
debate, to allow us to have amendments offered. I understand and we all
understand in this country that you win some and you lose some,
majorities rule, but that is what we ought to be doing on this bill to
make it as good as we possibly can to try to regain the respect and the
trust of the American people because, frankly, we don't have it now.
That is the reason for the outcry we have heard in my State and around
the country when it comes to this legislation.
We can fix it. I am an optimist, but we cannot fix it if there is not
an opportunity for a full and fair debate and if the majority leader is
determined to cut off the opportunity to provide votes on amendments
and is going to insist on ``my way or the highway''; in other words,
you are either going to have to agree to not let your amendments be
heard and to let this bill go to a final vote or the majority leader is
going to pull it down and deny us the opportunity to fix this problem.
I don't know anyone in the Senate who doesn't want to fix this
problem. It is enormously complicated because this problem has festered
for 20 years or more without a solution. That is no excuse for not
trying, and that is why I have tried, along with my colleagues, to come
up with an acceptable solution. I would say 90 percent of it we agree
with. There is no light separating us. It is in the 10 percent we
talked about that is the subject of important amendments which need to
be heard and voted on where we can regain that trust.
Let me say in conclusion--and I may reserve a little bit of time--let
me say before I sit down, Mr. President, that a ``no'' vote on the
Cornyn amendment and a ``yes'' vote on the Kennedy amendment will, in
essence, could retitle this section of this bill ``No Felon Left
Behind'' because while we have excluded many categories of felons, we
have, for some reason, left this big, gaping hole when it comes to
those who show nothing but contempt for our laws. We need to fix this
bill, we need to make it better, not make it worse, and we have an
uphill climb to regain credibility of the American people to show we
are serious and we want to restore our reputation as a nation that
believes in the rule of law. A ``no'' vote on the Cornyn amendment will
do nothing to help it; indeed, I think it will confirm the worst
suspicions of the American people--that we really are not serious about
fixing this problem.
Mr. President, I yield the floor but reserve the remainder of our
time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey). The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 8\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I listened carefully to the Senator's
presentation. I have come to a different conclusion. The Senator said a
``no'' vote means we are really not for dealing with this issue. We
have a bipartisan group that has worked long and hard. The Senator from
Texas was involved in a lot of the discussions. As we pointed out
previously, we wanted to have tough law enforcement internally. We
wanted recognition that those 12.5 million people here were going to be
able to be secure, they weren't going to be deported, they were going
to go to the end of the line, they would have to go through the earned
legalization program, bring families together again, set up a program
in terms of a temporary worker program. I don't know
[[Page 14781]]
what 90 percent the Senator agrees with because I haven't heard much.
What is important is what his amendment does and what its impact
would be.
We ought to come back at the conclusion of this debate to the point
that was raised at the beginning because after all the rhetoric, after
all is said and done, listen to the example that was given by my friend
from Illinois.
Senator Durbin describes a mother of four U.S. citizens, married to a
U.S. citizen, who is herself undocumented. She left the country to
visit her sick mother. She was apprehended after she snuck back in.
That means she has reentered the United States at least twice, and
under the Cornyn amendment on page 2, she could be convicted of illegal
reentry. That would make her an aggregated felon. Even if she is not
convicted, the Cornyn amendment makes her ineligible for the Z program.
On page 10 of the amendment, he eliminates the waiver for final
orders available in the bill. This is a waiver for hardship to family,
and he eliminates it. No harm, the Senator says, because she can get a
different waiver as the wife of a U.S. citizen. That didn't stop DHS
from deporting her.
So why should people come out of the shadows? Why should they come
out of the shadows if they are here with false papers, undocumented?
Why should they come out of the shadows when they have seen what has
happened to a mother of four citizens married to an American citizen?
That is what we are basically talking about. That is undermining the
basic core because we are talking about 12\1/2\ million people who are
here, who came here to work in order to provide for their families, and
they have been trying to do that for their families. More often than
not, they probably went back to their countries of origin and came back
in again. Probably more often than not they had false papers in order
to be able to get their jobs. That in and of itself, under the Cornyn
amendment, would effectively exclude them from participating in this
program and would subject them to deportation. End of story. End of
story because that undermines, obviously, the essential aspect of this
legislation.
The rest of the Cornyn amendment--which I mentioned earlier with the
list of the amendments that we have put through--covers the bars, the
criminal gang members, including the new provisions of gang members
engaged in gun crimes. Sex offenders are covered by the comprehensive
Adam Walsh Act. The sex offenders are not going to get Z visas.
The Senator from Texas can say, under our language, under his
interpretation, they will, but they would not. End of story. They would
not.
On the provisions regarding drunk-driving convictions and individuals
convicted of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, and other
serious crimes, we increase the penalties for perjury, fraud, and
firearm offenses.
It is important that after all is said and done--and we gave the
illustration earlier about the questions of material support--the
terrorists are out.
One thing about managing a bill, for those of us who have been here,
we understand it; that there is always the possibility and the
likelihood people will misrepresent what is in the bill and then differ
with it. It is an old technique. I have even used it myself. But we
ought to understand when we see it that it is just a technique that is
being used.
So with all respect to my friend and colleague, and I have a good
deal of respect for him, the effect of the underlying Cornyn amendment
would effectively exclude from the Z visa program any immigrant who had
been or will be convicted of using false documents. That is the problem
today. Because of our broken immigration system, almost every hard-
working immigrant in the country has been forced at one time or another
to use false documents to get a job. These people have come here to
work. They have been lured by the employers offering work. They are the
very people this program is designed to bring out of the shadows. The
Cornyn amendment will ensure they cannot come forward. Indeed, if they
did come forward, they could be subject to prosecution and mandatory
deportation for using a fake Social Security card.
I believe we have addressed many of the concerns the Members have had
on dealing with some of these other issues and questions with the
Kennedy amendment, and I would hope the Members would vote in favor of
that and against the Cornyn amendment.
Mr. President, I withhold the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. May I inquire how much time remains on my side, Mr.
President?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 2 minutes 45 seconds.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, let me assure my colleague, Senator
Kennedy, that only those who have actually been convicted of document
fraud would be excluded under my amendment.
According to recent statistics, roughly 10 million Americans fell
victim to identity theft last year, at an estimated cost of $50 billion
to U.S. taxpayers, and victims spent an average of $1,500 and 175 hours
to actually recover their good name and their good credit after
identity theft. This is not a trivial matter, and it is only people who
have actually been convicted, not those who have presented false
documents to work in the country who have not been convicted.
As far as the woman with four American children and married to an
American spouse, my amendment does not touch her rights under current
law. For example, we don't touch current law waivers for consent to
reapply for admission. We don't touch the Secretary's ability to grant
humanitarian parole. And we don't touch the waivers under current law
that cover an immigrant who is the spouse of a U.S. citizen.
I thought Mr. Durbin, the Senator from Illinois, was satisfied with
that answer earlier, but I point that out to my colleagues just so they
can be satisfied that there are exceptions for extraordinary
circumstances.
What this amendment does is it broadly says felons will not be given
the benefits of legalization and a path to American citizenship. They
have had their chance, they blew their chance, and they have shown
themselves unworthy of the trust and confidence of the American people
when it comes to living among us in compliance with our laws and
respecting the fact that, yes, we are a nation of immigrants, and
proudly so, but we are also a nation of laws. Those laws keep us safe,
they keep us secure, and they assure our prosperity, and the prosperity
of generations yet to come. We cannot, once again, turn a blind eye to
the laws that protect all of us, including those immigrants who have
come here to become part of our great country and to seek opportunity
for their future.
I hope my colleagues will support the Cornyn amendment, that they
will vote against the Kennedy amendment as a dilution and watered-down
figleaf of the Cornyn amendment.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with regard to Senator Durbin, he could
come back and speak to this issue, this was a mother of four U.S.
citizens, herself undocumented, who left the country to visit her sick
mother and was apprehended after she snuck back in. She had entered and
reentered the U.S. twice. She had false documents, and she has been
effectively deported.
The Senator says, well, she had rights to appeal, rights to do this
and to do that. This is the real impact. This is the real impact of the
Cornyn amendment. This is what the Cornyn amendment is all about. We
know the people who have come in here. Why do they come in here? They
come to work. Why do they come to work? Because the job is there. They
are devoted to their families, devoted to their work and faith, in many
instances devoted to this country--with 70,000 of them working in the
Armed Forces of the United States. But in order to be able to do that,
somewhere along the way they get the false papers. That is what the
[[Page 14782]]
facts are. The great majority have them.
Under the Cornyn amendment, it says those individuals are subject to
deportation. He thinks all 12\1/2\ million people are all going to
volunteer and come out and say, well, by the way, Senator Cornyn gave
us assurance that somebody down there in DHS can give me a waiver and
let me stay. Come on. Come on. We believe that? That is going to be
sufficient assurance to get these people to come out of the shadows so
that they are not going to continue to be exploited? I don't believe
that.
I have a lot of respect for my friend. I know what he is attempting
to do in order to deal with some of these other issues, and we have
attempted to address that. But the fact remains his amendment
undermines the basic core of this--recognizing that people here are
undocumented, and the ones who are undocumented, by and large, have
these false papers. That is a part of the reality.
The question is: Are we going to say to those individuals: Look, you
came here and are undocumented. You are going to pay a fine, and you
are going to have to demonstrate that you are going to work, and you
are going to show that you are going to be a good citizen. And in 8
years, after all the other people who have been waiting in line, after
all of that period, when you are able to pay the fine, demonstrate that
you have worked all that time, and have been a good citizen trying to
make a difference in terms of going into the country, that then you
will be able to at least start--start--on the potential road to
citizenship.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. All time has
expired.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, does the Senator desire the yeas and
nays?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in
order to consider the yeas and nays on both amendments.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request for the yeas
and nays on both amendments?
The chair hears none, and it is so ordered.
Is there sufficient second on both amendments?
There appears to be a sufficient second. The yeas and nays are
ordered on both amendments.
Mr. KENNEDY. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President: There are going to
be two back-to-back votes. The first one will be on the Kennedy
amendment and the second one is on the Cornyn amendment; is that
correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Kennedy amendment is the first vote.
Mr. KENNEDY. And the second vote is the Cornyn amendment. I thank the
Chair.
To continue, Mr. President, it is our hope that we will move toward
the DeMint amendment. We had good debate on that yesterday, and the
Bingaman amendment, and then have votes on those fairly soon after. I
thank all our Members for their cooperation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No.
1333, as modified, offered by the Senator from Massachusetts.
The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr.
Johnson) is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 66, nays 32, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 186 Leg.]
YEAS--66
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Craig
Dodd
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Tester
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--32
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Ensign
Enzi
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Lott
McConnell
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
NOT VOTING--1
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1333), as modified, was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1184
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate equally divided on amendment No. 1184 offered by the
Senator from Texas, Mr. Cornyn.
Who yields time? The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would ask my colleagues for a ``yea''
vote on this amendment. If you voted for the Kennedy amendment, you
made an incremental improvement over the current law when it comes to
banning criminals from getting the benefit of our immigration system.
But in order to exclude felons, people who have shown their contempt
and defiance of American law, and unless it is your intent to reward
felons who have shown their contempt for the American legal system, to
reward them with the most precious gift this country can offer, which
is legal status, potentially legal permanent residency and a path to
citizenship, you should vote yes on this amendment. I would urge my
colleagues to do so.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from New York is
recognized.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, make no mistake about it, with many good
intentions which were covered in the Kennedy amendment, this guts the
bill because it not only eliminates--it not only says that felons
should not become citizens, and we agree with that, it says that anyone
who has filed an illegal paper should not become a citizen. That is
every immigrant who would be on the path to citizenship. This body
voted against eliminating that provision overtly a few weeks ago. Now
they are trying to do the same thing covertly because if you vote for
this amendment, you will say no one will have a path to citizenship, no
one who works, because everyone who has worked had to file a Social
Security paper or something like that.
Anyone who wants to keep this bill going at the moment should vote
against the Cornyn amendment. The Kennedy amendment dealt with felons.
This is a stealth, Trojan horse amendment to kill the bill by saying no
one--no one--who has ever worked shall have the path to citizenship.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, with all due respect, the Senator should
read the amendment. It does not affect people who have committed
identity theft unless they have actually been convicted of that. It
would have no effect on people who have entered without a visa or who
have come in on a legal visa and overstayed. This is no gutting of the
bill; it is only to protect the American people from felons.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 30 seconds.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. McCONNELL. Objection.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 1184, as modified,
offered by the Senator from Texas.
The yeas and nays were previously ordered. The clerk will call the
roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr.
Johnson) is necessarily absent.
Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator
from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn).
[[Page 14783]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Menendez) Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 46, nays 51, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 187 Leg.]
YEAS--46
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Landrieu
Lott
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Warner
NAYS--51
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Craig
Dodd
Domenici
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Specter
Stabenow
Voinovich
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--2
Coburn
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1184), as modified, was rejected.
Mr. REID. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. KENNEDY. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until
2 p.m. today be for debate prior to a vote in relation to the following
amendments; that the time until then be equally divided and controlled
between the two leaders or their designees, with the time to run
concurrently; that no amendments be in order to any of the amendments
covered in this agreement; that at 2 p.m., the Senate proceed to vote
in relation to the amendments in the order listed; that there be 2
minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote, with the vote
after the first being 10 minutes in duration, with no amendments in
order to the amendments prior to the vote: DeMint No. 1197, Bingaman
No. 1267, as modified.
I designate Senator Kennedy to have my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, we are making some good progress. The
Senator from South Carolina, Mr. DeMint, had a good discussion last
evening, as well as Senator Bingaman. We are grateful to them. We will
have a good discussion prior to 2 o'clock on these issues.
We are hopeful, then, we will be moving along. Senator Cornyn had an
amendment on confidentiality. We have Senator Dodd. There are a number
of those where we are trying to go back one side to the other. We hope
those Senators who have amendments who are ready, particularly those
who would like to enter into a time agreement, will let us know as
quickly as possible. We will be in touch with others during this
luncheon period and continue to move along. But we are thankful for all
the help and cooperation we have received.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, staff has been working hard to set up votes
on the amendments that have been called up. We ran into a little
problem; that is, we had too many Democratic amendments. But we think
at this stage they are now working on setting up side by side, in some
instances, Republican amendments. We need to clear off the amendments
that have been called up.
Now, as I have just indicated, if we have offsets for the Democratic
amendments, we will go ahead and allow those to be called up or have
side-by-sides. Once we get this done, I have been assured by both
Senator Kennedy and Senator Kyl and others that we can have a list of
amendments people need a vote on--not they want a vote on but need a
vote on. We hope both cloakrooms have hotlined this and Senators are
working on a personal basis with individual Senators.
Hopefully, we can get, by the 2 o'clock time, permission to do away
with--I should not say ``do away with''--to dispose of the amendments
that have been called up. Then, hopefully, we can shortly thereafter
find out what amendments people wish to have votes on. If we can do
that, it would really move this ball down the court a long ways.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
As I understand, 1 o'clock today is the deadline for the filing of
amendments.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. KENNEDY. A number of Senators have spoken to me about having
their amendments filed. Many of them I have given the insurances that
we would. The Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, had asked that 2 days
ago, and we are working with the Finance Committee. I see her in the
Chamber. I think Senator Thune was here last evening. I objected to
those individuals proceeding. It would appear to me, out of fairness we
ought to make sure they are not excluded. Is our policy to make sure
they are at least within--if they have indicated to the floor managers,
they want to be in, we have them meet the deadline?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, all first-degree amendments would have to be
filed by 1 o'clock. As we have indicated, we are going to try to be
fair to everybody. If there are amendments that have been up at the
desk, we will certainly do our best to get to those. I think what we
need to do is find out, as I have indicated, what needs to be voted on.
Some Senators on our side, for example, have been contacted this
morning, and they have decided not to offer amendments. The same will
happen over there. If people have been waiting around and feel
aggrieved they have not been allowed to offer their amendments, of
course, we will consider that. But I do not think we need to do
anything right now as far as a unanimous consent request in that
regard.
We will do everything we can--everybody is working in good faith--to
have people feel they have the opportunity to offer their amendments. I
know the Senator from Texas--she is gone--she just walked in. I do not
know what her amendment is about. I think it is Social Security. I am
not too certain. She has been around here a lot. She is entitled, if
for no other reason than having the endurance to hang around as long as
she has, to have her amendment offered. We will work with everybody,
both Democrats and Republicans, to see if we can work something out to
have all these amendments offered and a time set to vote on them.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as I understand, all they have to do is
be filed by this time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. REID. That is correct.
Mr. KENNEDY. So for those who are back in their offices, they do not
have to be called up. They just have to be filed. So they have until 1
o'clock for the filing of amendments. We urge those who want to have
amendments filed to make sure they understand that. They do not have to
call them up. They are protected in that way.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
[[Page 14784]]
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be allowed
to speak up to 10 minutes as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following
me, the Senator from Maine be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, let me add another part to that
unanimous consent request: that the Senator from Florida be allowed to
speak for up to 10 minutes, following the Senator from Maine.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Georgia.
(The remarks of Mr. Chambliss are printed in today's Record under
``Morning Business.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as I understand, under the rules, the
filing time was set for 1 o'clock, and the leader has indicated for
filing any amendments that we extend that. I ask unanimous consent that
the filing time be extended until 2 o'clock.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, if I could just say this--I would say this
mostly to the staffs: We do not need a big rush over here as to filing
amendments. It does not give anybody any benefit anyway. Just show some
discretion on who has to file amendments, and then we will work our way
through those and find out how we are going to dispose of them. So I
think this is the right thing to do. There is no magic to the next 5
minutes. So we will wait for the next 65 minutes. If people have
trouble making that deadline, let us know.
I have no objection.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, if I might just add a word, we thank the
majority leader and the Senator from Massachusetts for extending the
time. That should ease substantial pressure on this side of the aisle.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Maine.
(The remarks of Ms. Collins pertaining to the introduction of S. 1554
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills
and Joint Resolutions.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida is recognized.
(The remarks of Mr. Martinez are printed in today's Record under
``Morning Business.'')
Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum, and I
ask that the time be equally charged.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from South Dakota is recognized.
(The remarks of Mr. Thune are printed in today's Record under
``Morning Business.'')
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence
of a quorum and ask unanimous consent that the time be charged equally
between both sides.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1183, As Further Modified
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Clinton
amendment No. 1183 be further modified with the changes that are at the
desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment (No. 1183), as further modified, is as follows:
On page 260, line 13, strike ``567,000'' and insert
``480,000''.
On page 260, line 19, strike ``127,000'' and insert
``40,000''.
On page 269, line 18, insert ``or the child or spouse of an
alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence'' after
``United States''.
On page 269, line 21, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident'' after ``citizen''.
On page 269, line 22, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident'' after ``citizen''.
On page 269, line 23, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident'' after ``citizen''.
On page 269, line 23, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident's'' after ``citizen's''.
On page 269, line 24, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident'' after ``citizen''.
On page 269, line 25, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident's'' after ``citizen's''.
On page 269, line 26, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident's'' after ``citizen's''.
On page 269, line 32, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident's'' after ``citizen's''.
On page 269, line 41, insert ``or lawful permanent
resident'' after ``citizen''.
On page 269, line 42, insert ``or lawful permanent resident
status'' after ``citizenship''.
On page 270, strike lines 18 through 29, and insert:
(2) by striking paragraphs (2) and (3) and inserting the
following:
On page 270, line 31, strike ``(3)'' and insert ``(2)''.
On page 271, line 17, strike ``(4)'' the first place it
appears and insert ``(3)''.
On page 273, between lines 15 and 16, insert the following:
(5) Section 201(f) (8 U.S.C. 1151(f)) is amended--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) by striking ``paragraphs (2) and (3),'' and inserting
``paragraph (2),''; and
(ii) by striking ``(b)(2)(A)(i)'' and inserting ``(b)(2)'';
(B) by striking paragraph (2);
(C) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (2); and
(D) in paragraph (2), as so redesignated, by striking
``(b)(2)(A)'' and inserting ``(b)(2)''.
(6) Section 202 (8 U.S.C. 1152) is amended--
(A) by striking paragraph (4); and
(B) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (4).
(7) Section 203(h) (8 U.S.C. 1153(h)) is amended--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking
``subsections (a)(2)(A) and (d)'' and inserting ``subsection
(d)'';
(ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``becomes available
for such alien (or, in the case of subsection (d), the date
on which an immigrant visa number became available for the
alien's parent)'', and inserting ``became available for the
alien's parent,''; and
(iii) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``applicable'';
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``The petition'' and all
that follows through the period and inserting ``The petition
described in this paragraph is a petition filed under section
204 for classification of the alien parent under subsection
(a) or (b).''; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``subsections (a)(2)(A)
and (d)'' and inserting ``subsection (d)''.
(8) Section 204 (8 U.S.C. 1154) is amended--
(A) in subsection (a)(1)--
(i) in subparagraph (A)--
(I) in clause (iii)--
(aa) by inserting ``or legal permanent resident'' after
``citizen'' each place that term appears; and
(bb) in subclause (II)(aa)(CC)(bbb), by inserting ``or
legal permanent resident'' after ``citizenship'';
(II) in clause (iv)--
(aa) by inserting ``or legal permanent resident'' after
``citizen'' each place that term appears; and
(bb) by inserting ``or legal permanent resident'' after
``citizenship'';
(III) in clause (v)(I), by inserting ``or legal permanent
resident'' after ``citizen''; and
(IV) in clause (vi)--
(aa) by inserting ``or legal permanent resident status''
after ``renunciation of citizenship''; and
(bb) by inserting ``or legal permanent resident'' after
``abuser's citizenship'';
(ii) by striking subparagraph (B);
(iii) by redesignating subparagraphs (C) through (J) as
subparagraphs (B) through (I), respectively;
(iv) in subparagraph (B), as so redesignated, by striking
``subparagraph (A)(iii), (A)(iv), (B)(ii), or (B)(iii)'' and
inserting ``clause (iii) or (iv) of subparagraph (A)''; and
(v) in subparagraph (I), as so redesignated--
(I) by striking ``or clause (ii) or (iii) of subparagraph
(B)''; and
(II) by striking ``under subparagraphs (C) and (D)'' and
inserting ``under subparagraphs (B) and (C)'';
(B) by striking subsection (a)(2);
(C) in subsection (h), by striking ``or a petition filed
under subsection (a)(1)(B)(ii)''; and
(D) in subsection (j), by striking ``subsection (a)(1)(D)''
and inserting ``subsection (a)(1)(C)''.
[[Page 14785]]
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 5 minutes
of the remaining time be reserved for Senator DeMint.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1267
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I want to first speak on behalf of an
amendment I offered with Senator Obama. It is one of the two amendments
that will be voted on in the sequence at 2 o'clock. The amendment is
aimed at addressing what I believe is a very shortsighted provision in
this draft immigration bill.
My amendment applies only to this new guest worker program we are
creating under the bill, the so-called Y-1 program. It doesn't impact
the Y-2 program, which is the seasonal and nonagricultural program that
is based on the existing H-2B program, or the H-2A program, which is
the agricultural temporary worker program.
Under this immigration bill as it now stands, Y-1 workers--guest
workers, which is how we refer to them--would be able to work in the
United States for three 2-year work periods. But before they could
renew their visas for the second and the third of those 2-year work
periods, they would have to leave the country for at least a year. This
is the so-called 2-1-2-1-2 provision. Work for 2 years, leave for 1
year, work for 2 years, leave for 1 year, work for 2 years, and then
leave for good. The total number of work years in the United States
would be limited to 6 years, but the work pattern would be interrupted
twice each time by a 1-year absence requirement.
The amendment I have offered, and that we will be voting on in a few
minutes, simply removes the requirement these guest workers leave the
country before they renew their visas. It would leave in place the term
of the visa, which is 2 years, and it would not alter the 6-year total
work limit that is provided for in the bill. In addition, it would
modify the requirement that Y-1 workers meet all of the relevant
requirements under the program each time they apply to renew their
visas.
Over the last 2 days, I have come to the floor to discuss this
provision a couple of times. I strongly believe it does not make any
sense from a policy standpoint and, ultimately, we are going to be
judged by how much sense this legislation makes. As I have pointed out,
this provision is bad for employers; it harms American workers; it will
be difficult and costly to implement; and it will likely encourage
these workers, whom we are bringing here as so-called guest workers, to
overstay their visas.
For these reasons, my amendment has the broad support of labor
groups, such as the Service Employees International Union; business
organizations, such as the National Association of Home Builders and
the Associated Builders and Contractors; and immigration and religious
groups, such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the American
Association of Immigration Lawyers, and the National Immigration Forum.
The coalition of organizations supporting this amendment is indicative
of how harmful the 1-year absence requirement would be from a variety
of different perspectives.
I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, the following
material be printed in the Record: the statement that was issued by the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a letter by the Associated
Builders and Contractors Organization, a letter by the National
Association of Home Builders, and a statement by the SEIU, the Service
Employees International Union.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, with regard to the employer, it would be
extremely costly to require businesses to retrain and rehire new
workers every 2 years. No employer I am aware of would think it
satisfactory for an employee to take a 1-year so-called break every
couple of years. Each of us in the Senate employs people in our
offices, here in the Capitol and our home States. This would be an
unacceptable condition for us, and I am sure it would be for any
employer. Businesses would have to hire other workers to take over for
the leaving guest worker, would have to invest time and money in
retraining additional staff. This would be extremely burdensome,
particularly on small businesses.
From an economic standpoint, I believe it generally does not make
sense to enact laws that cause instability in the workforce and create
requirements that unnecessarily impose significant costs on our small
businesses. I am not an economist, but this does not seem to be a
sensible way for us to do business.
Let me take a moment to read a portion of a letter I received from
the National Association of Homebuilders on this issue. The letter
says:
This system essentially makes the entire program in title
IV unworkable for the construction industry. In the
residential construction industry, employers spend much time
and resources training employees. To arbitrarily lose valued
employees at the end of 2 years, as they are forced to return
home for a full year, creates unnecessary amounts of
instability in our workplaces, and wastes scarce employer
resources.
The construction industry is not the only sector of the economy that
would be adversely impacted by this provision. The new guest worker
program is not limited in the respect that existing temporary worker
programs are in terms of the work being seasonal or within certain
industries, such as in agriculture. These are, in fact, permanent jobs
we are talking about, and they are scattered throughout our economy and
will be affected if we leave this provision unchanged.
The 1-year absence requirement is also harmful to American workers.
Kicking workers out of the country every 2 years ensures that there
will always be guest workers who will be coming in to be paid at the
low end of the pay scale, and this will result in a depression of wages
for all workers, not just those guest workers but for the American
workers who are competing for those jobs as well.
According to a letter of support I have asked to be printed in the
Record that I received from the Service Employees International Union,
they say the following:
Employers will be less likely to invest in worker training
or other benefits and wages to retain workers. . . . The 2-1-
2-1-2 is a recipe for wage depression, job turnover and
increased illegal workers.
The structure of the new guest worker program will also result in a
substantial number of these workers overstaying their visas so they
don't have to leave the country for an extended period of time. The
Government has not done a great job in the past of ensuring that
individuals leave the country at the expiration of their visas, and I
have no reason to believe--I don't think any of us have any reason to
believe--that the Department of Homeland Security will be able to do a
substantially better job in the near future.
In December of last year, after the Government Accountability Office
issued a report regarding the US-VISIT Program, which is a mechanism by
which Government is supposed to be able to track the entry and the exit
of foreign visitors, the Department of Homeland Security scrapped its
plans to implement the exit portion of that program for U.S. land ports
of entry.
In essence, the GAO report found it could take up to 10 years to
develop the technology required to fully implement the program and that
the cost of doing so could be in the tens of billions of dollars. There
is nothing in the immigration bill that indicates that this capability
is within our reach.
In section 130 of the bill, the Federal Government is required to
come up with a schedule for deploying the exit component of the US-
VISIT system. However, we have already been told by the GAO that this
will not be a reality for a very long period of time.
In crafting this immigration bill, there has been a lot of attention
given to trying to bring together individuals with a wide variety of
political views. In my opinion, we have not focused enough on the
practical aspects of how this bill is going to be implemented.
Compromises need to be made as part of any legislative package, but we
cannot lose sight of the need to craft legislation that makes sense
from a policy
[[Page 14786]]
standpoint and that actually can be implemented and can work.
It is my belief the new guest worker program is currently structured
in a manner that has more to do with the politics of getting a
compromise among those who drafted the legislation than it does with
sound policy. As I have discussed, the requirement that these guest
workers leave every 2 years before renewing their visas is bad for
employers, it is harmful to American workers, it is difficult to
enforce, and it will likely result in a larger population of
undocumented workers in this country in the future.
For those reasons, I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and
to help make this bill more workable and better public policy.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Exhibit 1
United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops,
Washington, DC, June 6, 2007.
U.S. Catholic Bishops Urge Senate To Support Amendments Protecting
Asylum Seekers and Guest Workers in the Comprehensive Immigration Bill
The U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops urges Senators to
vote for the following amendments to S. 1348, the
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007:
The Lieberman Safe and Secure Detention Amendment.
Lieberman amendment #1191 would maintain U.S. obligations to
international human rights by providing safe and secure
detention for victims of torture and persecution seeking
asylum protection in this country. While awaiting judgment on
their cases, persons claiming persecution or fear of
persecution in their home countries often are subjected to
prison-like conditions in U.S. detention facilities without
proper health, nutritional, physical or spiritual care. This
amendment makes major improvements to the U.S. detention
system by reinforcing the country's rich heritage and
tradition of assisting especially vulnerable persons.
The Bingaman Guest-Worker Workability Amendment. Bingaman
amendment #1267 would eliminate the requirement for the
``years out'' for guest workers who are renewing their
temporary Y-visas. By requiring workers to leave the country
after two years, only to return one year later, the
underlying legislation would create a highly-bureaucratic and
unstable system for guest workers to come in to the country.
It is likely that many guest workers would overstay their
visas, knowing that they are to return in just a year, and
many government resources would likely be devoted to seeking
out and punishing individuals who are providing valuable and
much-needed work. The Bingaman amendment provides a
significant step toward creating a worker program that is
more humane, workable, and desirous for both guest workers
and employers alike.
____
Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.,
June 6, 2007.
The U.S. Senate,
Washington DC.
Dear Members of the United States Senate: On behalf of
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and its more than
24,000 general contractors, subcontractors, material
suppliers and construction related firms across the United
States, I urge you to vote YES on an amendment (#1267) being
offered by Senator Bingaman and Senator Obama to S. 1348, the
``Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Reform Act of 2007,'' which would remove the requirement that
Y-1 temporary workers leave the country before renewing their
visas.
Currently, the immigration bill allows Y-1 guest workers to
work in the U.S. for 2-year periods (up to 6 years). However,
it requires the workers to leave the U.S. for at least 1 year
before renewing their visas. Requiring these workers to leave
the country for a lengthy period of time between each work
period is harmful for employers; extremely difficult and
costly to enforce; harms American workers; and increases the
likelihood that individuals will overstay their visas.
Moreover, the construction industry, more so than many other
industries, relies on highly trained workers to fill their
labor force. Having a temporary worker on the job for only a
two year time frame makes the current Y-1 visa program
outlined in S. 1348 virtually useless for our industry. This
is due to the fact that in most cases it takes two to four
years to properly train workers in the construction industry.
The Bingaman/Obama amendment (#1267) would allow Y-1
temporary workers to stay in the United States for the entire
duration of their work visa. This would give ample time for
the employee to become fully trained in the construction
industry and it would make the new Y-1 temporary visa
beneficial to our ever expanding industry. It is imperative
that America's construction industry be allowed the time
needed to properly train their employees so that accidents on
jobsites can be avoided at all costs.
ABC supports the Bingaman/Obama amendment (#1267) that
would remove the mandatory requirement that Y-1 temporary
workers leave the country before renewing their visa and ask
you to vote ``YES'' on this important amendment.
Respectfully Submitted,
William B. Spencer,
Vice President, Government Affairs.
____
National Association of
Home Builders,
June 5, 2007.
Hon. Harry Reid,
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Mitch McConnell,
Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell: On
behalf of the 235,000 member firms of the National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB), we urge you (NAHB), we
urge you to vote in support of the amendment being offered by
Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Barack Obama (D-IL), AMDT
1267, that would eliminate the mandatory one year cooling off
periods in the proposed 2-1-2-1-2 future flow (``temporary
worker'') program contained in Title IV of S. 1348, the
Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform
Act of 2007. Because of the importance of this issue to our
members, and the overall workability of comprehensive
immigration reform, NAHB will be key voting in support of
this amendment.
The future flow program in Title IV of S. 1348 will create
a legal process by which immigrants can enter the United
States in future years to work in industries that have
established labor shortages. Under the current proposed
legislation, the bill would require a worker to return to
their home country for a full year every two years. This
system essentially makes the entire program in Title IV
unworkable for the construction industry. In the residential
construction industry, employers spend much time and
resources training employees. To arbitrarily lose valued
employees at the end of two years, as they are forced to
return home for a full year, creates unnecessary amounts of
instability in our workplaces, and wastes scarce employer
resources.
The Bingaman/Obama amendment will eliminate the mandatory
one-year ``cooling off'' periods in the current bill, and
replace it with a two-year visa, that can be renewed two
additional times for a total of six years--equal to the six
years that are ultimately allowed under the program in S.
1348 now. Removing the cooling off periods will create a much
more usable program for employers, and we urge you to support
this effort to improve the bill.
NAHB believes that a workable future flow immigrant program
is essential to comprehensive immigration reform because
without it, it is likely to lead to a situation that will
encourage more illegal immigration in the future.
Again, NAHB will be key voting in support of the vote on
the Bingaman/Obama amendment, AMDT 1267.
Sincerely,
Joseph M. Stanton,
Chief Lobbyist.
____
SEIU strongly support the removal of the requirement that
Y-1 temporary workers leave the U.S. for at least 1 year
before renewing their visas. While we are willing to accept a
temporary worker program in exchange for legalization of the
12 million undocumented living among us, we are very
disappointed with the guest worker program contained in the
``Grand Bargain''. This is why the Bingaman/Obama amendment
is critical and would improve workers ability to stay
employed during the entire period of their Y visa. When
temporary workers are working in year round jobs it is more
difficult for all workers to raise their wages and improve
their working conditions. The Y-1 visa program as it is
currently drafted will ensure wage depression for all
workers, because it will ensure workers leave their jobs
every two years. Employers will be less likely to invest in
worker training or offer benefits and wages to retain
workers. Removing the 1 year return requirement will help all
workers raise the wages, gain job experience and receive
valuable training to improve the job skills. The 2-1-2-1-1 is
a recipe for wage depression, job turnover and increased
illegal workers, as history has demonstrated--guest workers
will overstay their visas, when they have no legal channel to
remain in the country.
We thank Senator Bingaman and Senator Obama for their
continued leadership on comprehensive immigration reform.
SEIU urges all Senators to vote for this improving amendment.
Alison Reardon,
Director of Legislation, Service Employees International
Union (SEIU).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Senator from New Mexico and I have
worked on a great many matters since he was elected in 1982. If I may
have the attention of the Senator from New
[[Page 14787]]
Mexico, I am about to compliment him. I don't like to compliment him
behind his back. The Senator from New Mexico and I have worked on a
great many matters since he was elected to the Senate in 1982. I came
at about the same time after the 1980 election. I am especially
interested in his amendment and the criticism of the bill because it is
the politics of compromise and not based on sound public policy.
The Senator from New Mexico and I are now working on a bill called
the Bingaman-Specter bill on global warming. I am pleased to hear there
has been no compromise in that bill that is based upon sound public
policy. But in a very serious way, I suggest that is what we do. This
place would be run a lot better if I ran it unilaterally. The Senator
from New Jersey, who is presiding, smiles at that. I think more in
humor than in disagreement. But we have 100 Members of this body with
200 different ideas. Each of us has two ideas on the same subject at a
minimum. I know the Senator from New Mexico has a full plate on many
items. He chairs the Energy Committee. He has been working on the
global warming issue. He is not on Judiciary, and he doesn't have a
special concern--well, for whatever reason, he did not elect to become
part of the group of Senators who worked on the bill, for good and
sufficient reason. I am not suggesting he should have. He attended the
sessions, as did the Senator from New Jersey who is presiding, and saw
what we were doing. We were so compromised that people on opposite ends
of the political spectrum left us. They wouldn't stay with us because
we couldn't satisfy everybody, and understandably so. We simply could
not satisfy everybody.
The question is whether we would have satisfied anybody. We will know
when we move along and try to get this bill to final passage. But when
you take what happened to us last year--we passed a bill in the Senate,
they passed one in the House, and we couldn't even conference it,
wouldn't even conference it. There are people who just want a tight
border and to deport 12 million undocumented immigrants. That is what
they want to do.
As we work through the compromises, I would consider it a compliment
to be a party to the politics of compromise, and I would accept the
term ``politician'' with grace and appreciation. I remember hearing
Adlai Stevenson speak in the early fifties. Perhaps it was when he
first ran for President in 1952. He said: Do you know the definition of
a statesman? The definition of a statesman, Mr. President, is a dead
politician. That is why I much prefer being a politician, at least for
the moment. I much prefer being a politician.
On this specific amendment, we hassled about this a long time. We had
6 years in mind. Should it be 3 and 3 or should it be 2 and back and 2
and back for a year and back? We finally accepted this compromise to
try to make the workers temporary, that they would not get roots here
and not return to their home country; that when we are working within
the structure of the immigration laws, we have to accommodate the 12
million because we cannot deport them. We would like to identify those
who are criminals, who are not contributing, who do not have roots and
deport them, if we can identify them in numbers that we can handle.
Then there was the issue of trying hard to avoid the characterization
of amnesty. Amnesty is a lot like Shakespeare's famous definition of a
rose:
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as
sweet.
If we could find more ways to make these 12 million people earn
citizenship, we would. We have the fine. Maybe it is too high, maybe it
is too low. We have back taxes. Maybe we can find that out and maybe we
cannot. The requirement of English I think everybody agrees with.
Having roots in this country, yes. Being a contributor to this country,
yes. If we could shake the title of amnesty, we would like to do it, if
somebody could tell us how to do it.
There are many people who are so opposed to what we are trying to do,
they will call anything amnesty. I am not going to say it is not
amnesty--although I believe it is not amnesty because they are earning
their way--because if you get involved in name calling, it all
disintegrates. People are angry at President Bush for saying it is not
amnesty when they are sure it is amnesty.
I compliment the President for the leadership he has shown on this
issue. He sent us Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez and Secretary of
Homeland Security Chertoff. For hours, days, weeks, months they worked
on it. There was a commitment by the administration.
The President has spoken out on this issue loudly, plainly, and
clearly. He has taken a lot of brickbats for it, but he is working hard
on it. On the Senate floor a few weeks ago, I made a comment that it
was either amnesty or anarchy. Anarchy is what we have here; that is,
if it is amnesty--and, again, I say I think it is not, but I am not
going to get into a name-calling contest with people who want to call
names.
Lou Dobbs of CNN has been one of the most vocal critics of the plan.
He has a right to do that, and I have been on his program and discussed
it with him, debated it with him. But I was interested to see him
comment about my characterization of anarchy. That struck a chord. Lou
Dobbs doesn't like anarchy--nobody likes anarchy--but in a sense that
is the choice we have.
So I urge my colleagues to vote against the amendment of the Senator
from New Mexico, although I have great respect, and I know this is very
thoughtful, very well presented, all except for his criticism of the
politics of compromise.
I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I first thank my colleague and
congratulate him for his leadership on this bill. I know he has worked
long and hard to bring this bill to the floor and is making the best
out of a very awkward, difficult situation in trying to get all the
interested parties under the same tent.
I am reminded of when I was attorney general of my State of New
Mexico. One of the duties of the attorney general in New Mexico is to
issue what are called attorneys general opinions about different legal
points that come up. Sometimes those opinions are followed by various
State agencies and then they are challenged in court. I remember in one
of the cases where it was challenged in our State supreme court, a
friend of mine on the State supreme court, who was a very wise man,
wrote an opinion essentially saying that the opinion I had issued, the
attorney general opinion, was wrong. He said attorneys general opinions
are entitled to great weight, except when they are wrong.
That is sort of the way I feel about the bill that has been brought
to the floor. I have great respect for those who have put it together,
and it is entitled to great weight and deference, except where it
clearly is wrong. That is what we are trying to do with this amendment,
is to correct an area of the bill that clearly is wrong. I hope my
colleagues will see it the same way and support my amendment. But I
compliment the Senator from Pennsylvania for his leadership on this
important issue.
Amendment No. 1177
I wish to speak very briefly about another amendment, unless the
Senator from Pennsylvania wishes to say something, and then I would
defer to him. I gather he does not need to at this point.
Let me speak briefly about another amendment I have filed. It is
amendment No. 1177. It provides forestry workers with Y visas some of
the same rights to ensure that the terms of their guest worker
contracts are honored the same way other guest workers in the
agricultural sector can have their contracts honored.
This is an amendment that is eminently reasonable. It was adopted by
unanimous consent during the debate as part of the immigration bill we
passed out of the Senate in the last Congress. I hope we can get
agreement from the managers of the legislation to
[[Page 14788]]
include it this year as well. So I wished to briefly allude to that
amendment and urge every consideration of it.
I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1197
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I expect that Senator DeMint will come to
the floor to address his amendment, but in the next 5 minutes that we
have before he does so, I would say his amendment is basically saying
there will be no adjustment in status unless all these individuals are
going to be able to buy into the high-deductible HSAs, health savings
accounts, and that because of the fact that immigrants are a burden on
the health care system, that they should be required to do this
additional kind of work to meet their responsibilities under this
legislation.
There are a couple factors I wish to mention. First of all, if you
take the fact that you have 12 million of these individuals, the 12
million who are the undocumentable, they are going to, as part of their
fine, pay $500 per individual. That comes to some $6 billion--$6
billion--that can go for support for various health care offsets into
local communities. That is not an insignificant amount of resources. We
anticipated this possibility, No. 1.
No. 2, we ought to make an examination of what happens to these
undocumented individuals. What is the utilization by the undocumented?
We know they are basically healthier, they are younger, and the various
information and statistics we see says there is not an overutilization
of the health services.
I have statistics for undocumented immigrants in one of the border
States, this is in Texas, and I will read this and include the
appropriate part in the Record. The Comptroller's office estimates the
absence of the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Texas
would have been a loss to their gross State product of $17 billion.
Also, the Comptroller's office estimates State revenues collected from
undocumented immigrants exceed what the State spends on services, with
the difference being $424 million. That is today, one State--Texas--in
the utilization of services.
So we find this population where there has not been an
overutilization of services, and we have provisions in the current
legislation to deal with this problem and deal with it generously. But
the Senator from South Carolina wants to insist on a high-deductible
program.
Let us look at the average high-deductible program. The average
annual deductible for a high-deductible plan required under the DeMint
amendment is $1,900 for an individual and $4,000 for a family. The
average annual premium for the plan: $2,700 for an individual and
$7,900 for a family. The total average cost for an individual would be
$4,600 and $11,000 for a family. That is for the average individual and
family. This includes the fees and also the deductibility.
We have the various studies that have been done, the reports, and
this information is from the Los Angeles Times. It points out that
plans with high deductibles of $1,000 or higher monthly premiums that
can be less than $100, as Senator DeMint provides, are a good fit for
healthy people with some financial resources. The median annual income
of those using the high-deductible plans is $75,000. This is a fit for
$75,000. Although the lower premiums make plans attractive, cash-
strapped families run the risk of being unable to afford the
deductibles.
Those are the facts. So the effect of the DeMint amendment is another
way of denying the 12 million undocumented from being able to
participate in the other provisions of the legislation, which we have
very carefully crafted. They have to pay a high fine, they have to pay
the State a set-aside, they are going to have to pay the fees as they
move along. These are not insignificant. We are talking about thousands
and thousands of dollars which have been worked out carefully and
considered.
This kind of additional burden will say to men and women whose
average income may be $10,000 or $11,000 that they are not going to be
able to do it. Take those individual Americans who are making $10,000
and $11,000 and look at how many of them are able to afford health
insurance. Virtually none. We know about that in Massachusetts because
Massachusetts has passed a very effective program to bring those
individuals in and to help and assist those individuals.
So the idea that we are going to put this in as a requirement is
another way of saying to those individuals, look, we might like other
provisions of the legislation, but this is a way of effectively barring
you from being able to participate in this program. That undermines the
object of a very important aspect of this whole endeavor. Therefore, I
hope the amendment will be defeated.
As I understand from the Chair, the last several minutes are supposed
to be for the Senator from South Carolina; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
Mr. KENNEDY. I don't see him in the Chamber. I think we ought to
reserve that time for the Senator. As I understand, under the previous
agreement, we have agreed to vote at 2 p.m.; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from South Carolina is
recognized.
Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I would like to speak on my amendment that
is up for a vote.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. At the present time, all time has
expired.
Mr. DeMINT. I ask unanimous consent that I have 2 minutes to speak on
my amendment.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on
this amendment. I think all of us would agree that we would like to
design an immigration program that benefited America, that actually
brightened the future for Americans, for our children, and that we do
not want an immigration system that is going to invite people from all
over the world who will come here and be a burden to the American
taxpayers.
Unfortunately, the way this bill is written, the Z visas we offer all
the illegal immigrants in this country do not require that these
illegals have health insurance before they are given these legal
passes. That means they will continue to be a heavy burden on the
American health care system.
Senator Kennedy has said the $500 one-time fee they have to pay is
enough to cover these costs. I know every American wishes they could
pay $500 and have free health insurance for life but, unfortunately, it
is more expensive than that. Also, Senator Kennedy has said these types
of minimum policies cost well over $2,000 a year, which is, frankly,
not true. Many of us have policies that cost less than $1,000 a year
for a high-deductible policy, which is the minimum level we ask for.
The least we can ask of these immigrants we are granting permanent
legal status in this country is not to be a burden on Americans for
their health care. To have a minimum level of health insurance is the
least we can ask. This amendment would require Z visa holders to have
that minimum level, and I ask all of my colleagues to support it.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the
DeMint amendment No. 1197.
Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second? There
is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr.
Johnson) is necessarily absent.
[[Page 14789]]
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Are there any other Senators in the
Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 43, nays 55, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 188 Leg.]
YEAS--43
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Ensign
Enzi
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Lott
Martinez
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NAYS--55
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Collins
Conrad
Dodd
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McCain
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Specter
Stabenow
Tester
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1197) was rejected.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and move
to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Senator from New Mexico has an
important amendment. He was over here yesterday afternoon and evening
and spoke well about it. He came over here during the lunch hour. It is
a very important amendment. He deserves to be heard.
Amendment No. 1267
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, there
will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided on the Bingaman
amendment No. 1267, as modified.
The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator
Landrieu be added as a cosponsor to amendment 1267.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, this amendment tries to eliminate the 2-
1-2-1-2 provisions in this bill. The underlying bill says if a guest
worker comes here, they can work for 2 years, they are kicked out for a
year, they can come back, work for two more, they are kicked out for a
year, they can come back work for two more, then they are kicked out
for good.
What my amendment does is to say: Let's bring them here for 2 years,
allow them to renew their visa twice, so that they would be here a
maximum of 6 years. This makes a lot more sense for employers, for
American workers who are competing for these jobs, for the guest
workers themselves.
This has the support of the business community, the unions, the
Catholic bishops. Everybody interested in this bill supports this. This
is commonsense legislation. I urge my colleagues to support the
amendment.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, earlier this afternoon the Senator from
New Mexico criticized the bill as being the ``politics of compromise,''
as opposed to sound public policy. I told him, had he participated in
the negotiations, he would have seen quintessential politics of
compromise. You could not begin to make any progress at all on this
legislation unless it was the politics of compromise. I suggest that is
an art form frequently practiced in this body. I reminded the Senator
from New Mexico of our cosponsorship of global warming. I am glad to
hear there is nothing in the bill which he is the principal sponsor of
that is a factor of the politics of compromise. I am glad our bill is
pure.
I have not seen the bill, in the short time I have been in the
Senate, that doesn't have compromise in it. If it did not have any
compromise, it would not have gotten here. If it did get here, it would
not be passed.
The principle of this bill is to make it temporary so people do not
establish roots. If you dealt with Senator Kyl on this matter, you
would understand how important he is to this bill and how important
this provision is to his continued support.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak in favor
of the Bingaman-Obama Y-1 guest worker amendment.
The Bingaman-Obama amendment removes the requirement that Y-1 visa
holders under the new guest worker program leave the United States for
at least 1 year before renewing their visas. Designing a worker program
where people are supposed to come to the U.S. for 2 years, leave for a
year, return for 2 years, leave for a year, and then return for 2 years
is a recipe for creating a new undocumented population.
Our amendment does not modify the overall number of permissible work
years, which would still be limited to a total of 6 years, and it
doesn't change the term of the visa, which would still be 2 years. In
order to renew their visa, applicants would still have to demonstrate
that they are eligible to meet the requirements of the program. The
amendment maintains the general structure of the program, but revises
it in a manner that makes the program more workable.
We need to pass this amendment because the process in the underlying
bill is costly and burdensome on employers, especially small
businesses. Requiring employers to rehire and retrain workers every 2
years imposes unnecessary costs and creates instability in the
workforce.
The underlying language is also harmful to American workers. The 1-
year absence requirement would ensure that guest workers are always at
the lowest end of the pay scale, which would depress overall wages. And
the system as now designed provides an additional incentive for guest
workers to overstay the term of their visas. Rather than returning to
their home countries after their 2-year visas expire, many workers will
just remain in the United States and become undocumented immigrants.
In short, the temporary worker design in the bill is unworkable and
difficult to enforce. It is unlikely that the government will be able
to sufficiently track the entry and exit of these workers to ensure
that they comply with the 1-year absence requirement. By removing the
1-year requirement to leave the country between renewals we would at
least be making the program workable.
Our amendment has the support of a variety of labor, business,
immigration, and religious groups. Specifically, the Service Employees
Union International, SEIU, the National Association of Homebuilders,
NAHB, the Associated Builders and Contractors, ABC, the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, the American Immigration Lawyers
Association, AILA, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the National
Immigration Forum, NIF, have voiced their strong support of this
amendment.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to
amendment No. 1267.
Mr. BINGAMAN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr.
Johnson) is necessarily absent.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Are there any other Senators in the
Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 41, nays 57, as follows:
[[Page 14790]]
[Rollcall Vote No. 189 Leg.]
YEAS--41
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coburn
Conrad
Dodd
Durbin
Feingold
Hagel
Harkin
Hutchison
Inouye
Kerry
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Lieberman
Lincoln
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Sanders
Schumer
Shelby
Tester
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--57
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Clinton
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Inhofe
Isakson
Kennedy
Klobuchar
Kyl
Levin
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Roberts
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sessions
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
NOT VOTING--1
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1267), as modified, was rejected.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to
lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until
6:45 p.m. today be for debate prior to a vote in relation to the
following amendments; and that the time until then be equally divided
and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the
time to run concurrently; that no amendments be in order to any of the
amendments covered in this agreement prior to the vote; that at 6:45
the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order
listed; and that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to
each vote, with the votes after the first being 10 minutes in duration;
that if an amendment on this list is not pending, it is to be called up
now. These amendments are Cornyn, No. 1250; Reid, No. 1331; Sessions,
No. 1234; Menendez, No. 1194; Kyl, No. 1460; Lieberman, No. 1191; and
that a half hour of the minority's time on these amendments be
allocated to Senator Sessions, and another half hour allocated to
Senator Cornyn.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the unanimous
consent request?
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, is this an
exclusive list?
Mr. REID. No.
Mr. STEVENS. No objection.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I shall
not object, I wish to inquire of the majority leader: I have an
amendment that is a change in the amendment by which we proposed to
sunset the guest worker provision. That amendment failed by one vote. I
have made a modification to that amendment and would intend to reoffer
the amendment and have another debate on it and a vote on that
amendment. I wonder if I could inquire of the Senator----
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend, at this time tentatively
there are three Democratic amendments pending. There are no Republican
amendments to match those. When we finish this tranche of votes, we are
going to try to complete tonight at least these six more. I understand
the Senator has or will refile his amendment, and we will be happy to
take that into consideration as we try to move this bill along.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have no objection.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, could the
leader tell us when amendments can be called up which were not on the
list he just read, that have not been allowed to be called up today?
Mr. REID. We are working on that now. We are making progress. There
are going to be three called up as soon as we get this vote started.
That will be the next agreement we will enter into, and there will be
three Republican amendments. So if you have something you care about,
work with your colleagues over there to see if that can be one of the
next three.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair hears no objection, and
it is so ordered.
Amendments Nos. 1331 and 1460 To Amendment No. 1150
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report two
amendments.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid] proposes an amendment
numbered 1331 to amendment No. 1150.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To clarify the application of the earned income tax credit)
At the end of subtitle F of title VII, add the following:
SEC. ___. EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT.
Nothing is this Act, or the amendments made by this Act,
may be construed to modify any provision of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 which prohibits illegal aliens from
qualifying for the earned income tax credit under section 32
of such Code.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid], for Mr. Kyl, for
himself and Mr. Specter, proposes an amendment numbered 1460
to amendment No. 1150.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To modify the allocation of visas with respect to the backlog
of family-based visa petitions)
Beginning on page 270, strike lines 31 and 32, and insert
the following:
``(3) Family-based visa petitions filed before january 1,
2007, for which visas will be available before january 1,
2027.--
``(A) In general.--The allocation of immigrant visas
described in paragraph (4) shall apply to an alien for whom--
``(i) a family-based visa petition was filed on or before
January 1, 2007; and
``(ii) as of January 1, 2007, the Secretary of Homeland
Security calculates under subparagraph (B) that a visa can
reasonably be expected to become available before January 1,
2027.
``(B) Reasonable expectation of availablity of visas.--In
calculating the date on which a family-based visa can
reasonably be expected to become available for an alien
described in subparagraph (A), the Secretary of Homeland
Security shall take into account--
``(i) the number of visas allocated annually for the family
preference class under which the alien's petition was filed;
``(ii) the effect of any per country ceilings applicable to
the alien's petition;
``(iii) the number of petitions filed before the alien's
petition was filed that were filed under the same family
preference class; and
``(iv) the rate at which visas made available in the family
preference class under which the alien's petition was filed
were unclaimed in previous years.
``(4) Allocation of family-based immigrant visas.--''.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business and the time to be charged to the majority side.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
Hearing no objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Virginia is recognized.
Amendment No. 1313
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I wish to discuss amendment No. 1313, an
amendment I will offer to the immigration reform bill, which will
address what I believe are two important, crucial flaws in this
legislation. The first flaw relates to what many are calling amnesty,
wherein the bill legalizes almost everyone who entered this country by
the beginning of this year. The second flaw relates to an unworkable
set of procedures that is applicable to those who are properly being
offered legal status. It is important to the health and practicality of
our system, in my view, that these two flaws be addressed.
My amendment would achieve three critically important goals. It
creates a fair and workable path to legalization for those who have
truly put roots down in America; it protects the legitimate interests
of all working Americans; and it accords honor and dignity
[[Page 14791]]
to the concept of true American justice. If one accepts the premises of
these three goals, then I strongly believe this amendment is the best
way forward for our country.
As a general matter, I agree with my colleagues that the time has
come for fair and balanced reform of our broken immigration system.
When I say ``fairness,'' I mean a system of laws that is fair to
everyone in the United States, and especially our wage earners.
I strongly support the provisions in this immigration bill that
strengthen our Nation's borders. Our porous borders are a threat to our
national security, and we have wasted far too long to fix this problem.
I also support the sections of the bill that create tough civil and
criminal penalties for employers who unfairly hire illegal immigrants,
creating both a second-class population and undercutting American
workers. This bill's employment verification system will help ensure
that illegal workers cannot get employment in the United States and
would, therefore, face no choice but to return to their homelands.
As a point of reference, I did not support this bill's creation of a
massive new temporary worker program. Two weeks ago, I supported
Senator Dorgan's two amendments to strike and sunset that program, and
I find it regrettable the Senate did not adopt those amendments. We
have seen a good bit of analysis on the Senate floor in recent days to
the effect that the temporary worker program will be largely
unworkable. To the extent it would work, it would create a wage-based
underclass and a bureaucratic nightmare. Furthermore, as I stated on
the floor 2 weeks ago, I believe guest worker programs--aside from
purely temporary, seasonal work--drive down the wages of hard-working
Americans, and of those who came here by following the law.
With those points in mind, I wish to now turn to my amendment, which
regards the other major component of this bill: the legalization
program.
My amendment reflects a proposal I have been discussing with
Virginians ever since I began my campaign for the Senate last year. I
have always supported tough border security and cracking down on large
employers who hire illegal workers. I also have always supported a path
to legalization for those who came here during a time of extremely lax
immigration laws but who have laid down strong roots in our
communities. I do not, however, favor this path to citizenship for all
undocumented persons. Under the provisions of the immigration bill we
are now debating, virtually all undocumented persons living in the
United States would be eligible to legalize their status and ultimately
become citizens. Estimates are that this number totals 12 million to 20
million people. This is legislative overkill. It is one of the reasons
this bill has aroused the passions of ordinary Americans who have no
opposition to reasonable immigration policies but who see this as an
issue that goes against the grain of true fairness, which is the very
foundation of our society.
My amendment would allow a smaller percentage of undocumented persons
to remain in the United States and legalize their status based on the
depth of a person's roots in their community. Under my proposal,
undocumented persons who have lived in the United States at least 4
years prior to the enactment of the bill could apply to legalize their
status. I note that this 4-year period is even more generous than the
5-year threshold that was contained in several bills the past few
Congresses addressed--bills that were supported by Senators from both
parties and by immigrants' rights groups.
After receiving the application, the Department of Homeland Security
would evaluate a list of objective, measurable criteria to determine
whether the applicant should receive a Z visa and thus be allowed to
get on the path to citizenship.
Among the statutory criteria would be an individual's work history;
payment of Federal or State income taxes; property ownership and
business ownership in the United States; knowledge of English;
attendance, successfully, at American schools; immediate family members
living in the United States; whether the applicant has a criminal
record; and, very importantly, whether the applicant wants to become an
American citizen.
Like the underlying bill, applicants would be given probationary
status while the DHS considers their Z visa application and could
lawfully work during this probationary period.
I believe these provisions are fair to our immigrant population, and
also that they will help us avoid the mistakes this Congress made in
1986 with the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty bill, which resulted in a tidal
wave of illegal immigration.
My amendment would also make the underlying bill more practical. It
strikes the bill's unrealistic ``touchback'' requirement. Few
immigrants would have the money or the ability to return to their home
countries on other continents. Most of these persons would lose their
American jobs. They would leave their families in turmoil and place
further strain on our community services. Basic fairness and common
sense dictates that these persons be allowed to apply for a green card
from within the United States.
I believe my amendment sets forth an equitable system that not only
recognizes the contributions of immigrants to our society but also
introduces practical measures that will help us avoid the same mistakes
our country made in 1986 with the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty bill.
I have heard loudly and clearly from Virginians, and I have talked
with people on all sides of these issues. What I hear over and over
again is that Congress should find a fair system that both protects
American workers and respects the rule of law. This amendment
represents the fairest method I know to do so, and to do so
realistically.
I ask my colleagues to support amendment No. 1313 when it comes to a
vote in the Senate.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I gladly yield to my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sanders). The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I was listening to the description of the
amendment by Senator Webb. I think it is a good amendment, and I intend
to be prepared to support it. This amendment is about the treatment of
those who have come here without legal authorization. The underlying
bill, by the way, was cobbled together by a group of people, including
the White House, I guess, and they said anybody who shows up in this
country without legal authorization by December 31 is deemed to then
have been legal and will be given a work permit.
I think Senator Webb's approach is much more sensitive and much more
realistic to our people who have been here 10, 15, 20 years without
legal authorization but they have been model citizens, they raised
families, have had jobs, have done things that would commend them to us
for the future. He is suggesting a much more sensible way of dealing
with that. I think that amendment makes a lot of sense.
I did want to say we had a vote on the guest worker or temporary
worker provisions, and I offered an amendment, or 2 amendments, and the
second amendment was to sunset that after 5 years. I lost that vote by
one vote in the Senate, and I have filed an amendment at the desk and
will attempt to have another vote on that. I have modified section 2
just a bit. But my hope is that the Senate would reconsider and pass
the amendment that would sunset this temporary worker provision after 5
years. Again, the vote was 49 to 48 against my amendment, and we will
have another opportunity to vote on it.
The reason I mention it is the Senator from Virginia mentioned that
amendment and the other amendment I offered as well. I ask the Senator
from Virginia if he doesn't think this piece of legislation, in
addition to legalizing those who have come here as of December 31st of
last year, saying you now
[[Page 14792]]
have legal status--in addition to that--saying we believe there are
millions of people who don't live here at this point whom we want to be
able to invite in to take American jobs--I ask the Senator from
Virginia whether that makes much sense in the scheme of trying to
create economic opportunity for Americans at the lower economic scale
in this country. There are a lot of people working at the bottom of the
ladder here who want jobs, who can't find jobs, and find downward
pressure on their income. I ask whether the Senator doesn't believe
this temporary worker program displaces people in this country who need
these jobs.
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from North Dakota I was
very pleased to support both his amendments for those reasons and
reasons similar to them. I hope the Senator can get a vote on his
revised amendment. I think it is important we deal with this
immigration issue in a very realistic and practical manner, with the
focus being the well-being of individuals who are here legally and who
are citizens whose wages and salaries are in many ways being held down
by these types of programs. The guest worker programs are classic
examples of that.
I also would like to say that with respect to the timeline in the
present bill and the cutoff for full legalization being anyone who came
here before December 31 of last year, or before January 1 of this year,
one of the questions that has been raised on my amendment is: Well,
what do we do with these people who haven't been here 4 years? Some
questions have been raised saying this would create an unfairness in
this amendment. But the answer to that--the obvious answer to that is:
What do we do with people who came here after December 31? They are
here. What are we going to do with the people who are here next year?
They are going to be here.
There is always going to be some leakage in our system. What we are
looking for is a measure of fairness for people who have truly put down
roots in their community and to allow them to assimilate and become
American citizens. That is a separate thing from the guest worker
program that the Senator from North Dakota is talking about, and I hope
I get another chance to vote for his amendment.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, if the Senator would yield further for a
question, there are some in this Chamber who say to us: The choice on
immigration is between doing the wrong thing and doing nothing. That is
not the choice at all. That is a false choice. They bring the wrong
thing to the floor of the Senate and say: If you oppose this, then you
are for nothing.
One of the things we are for is enforcing the law. We have a law in
this country about employer sanctions, about illegal immigration,
trying to stop it. All one would have to do would be to enforce the
law. In 2004, there were four cases in the entire United States of
America that were brought by the U.S. Justice Department against
employers who were employing illegal workers, illegal aliens--four.
What does that tell us? That tells us that the administration says: We
surrender on the issue. We surrender.
The other point I wished to make is there is no discussion on the
floor of the Senate in the construct of this bill, within the debate on
this bill, about the American worker. I understand we have an
immigration issue. I fully understand that, and we need to deal with
that. But part and parcel of that, in my judgment, ought to be some
discussion on the floor of the Senate about how this affects the
American worker. We have a lot of workers in this country who aren't
doing very well. It has been a long time since they have seen any
increase in their income, despite their productivity rising. Where is
the debate about the impact on the American worker? It is not selfish
for us to believe that ought to be a part of this discussion.
So I ask the Senator from Virginia whether he believes as well that
when you bring an immigration bill to the floor, you ought to have some
discussion about what is the impact of this issue on the American
worker, on the people who have a high school education or perhaps don't
even have a high school education and who are at the bottom of the
ladder, got up this morning and went to work and are working at minimum
wage, struggling to get by to raise a family to do the best they can
and discover at the end of the day: Oh, by the way, there is more
downward pressure on your income because the employer can bring
somebody through the back door that is able to be paid lower wages,
they will work for less money, even as the bigger employers are
exporting jobs out the front door to China and Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh.
So I ask whether the American worker shouldn't play a bigger role in
the debate on the floor of the Senate.
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I would say that an enormous amount of work
has gone into this piece of legislation, as we all know. I appreciate
all the energy that the Senator from North Dakota has placed for years
on the interests of the American worker. I share those interests. This
amendment that I offer is based on two things. One is fairness to
everyone, including the American worker, and the other is the
practicality that is this particular part of the legislation.
Mr. DORGAN. I thank my colleague.
Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Amendment No. 1250
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have an amendment that is scheduled for
a vote later on this evening, and I would like to spend a few minutes
explaining it. This is--well, let me put it this way: If the definition
of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and
expecting a different outcome, the provisions in the underlying bill
that my amendment will correct represents insanity in action because it
repeats a mistake made in the 1986 immigration laws that is within our
power to correct. I believe the amendment I am offering will allow that
correction to take place, and I offer it in that spirit.
At the very least, the American people expect we will not
intentionally repeat mistakes. They don't expect us to be perfect. They
do expect us to do our best, and we owe them that much. But in this
case, doing our best means not repeating a mistake.
Quite simply, the Department of Homeland Security is, under the
current bill, prohibited from using internally all information from Z
visa applications, as well as sharing information with the relevant law
enforcement agencies. That is right. You can actually apply for a Z
visa if you are 1 of the 12 million or so people here in the country
already in violation of our immigration laws, whether it is entering
without a visa or once having entered with a visa, overstaying that
visa, and if you are seeking the benefits of this underlying bill which
are mainly represented in the form of a Z visa, the information
contained in that application by those 12 million individuals is
effectively shielded from law enforcement authorities. For example, if
an applicant comes forward and is denied a Z visa, this legislation
currently pending prohibits the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Service from using that information in order to apprehend that person
who is not legally present in the country.
What we learned about the 1986 amnesty was that the New York Times
said it created the largest immigration fraud in the history of the
United States. That same view is shared by the general counsel of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Clinton with
regard to statutory restrictions on sharing and using information. That
general counsel, Paul Virtue, noted that this prohibition greatly
contributed to this fraud.
At this point, I ask unanimous consent that the New York Times
article be printed in the Recored and I refer my colleagues to the
testimony of Paul Virtue before the House Immigration and Claims
Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee at judiciary house.gov/
judiciary/106-52.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
[[Page 14793]]
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. CORNYN. In addition to questions of why we would want to put out
of bounds to law enforcement agencies information which they could use
to investigate and identify fraud and criminal conduct, you might ask:
Why the double standard? For example, we don't afford these kinds of
robust confidentiality provisions for other classes of immigrants such
as asylees or battered women or those who fall under the temporary
protected status provisions. So why would we have a double standard?
When an asylum seeker applies for legal status, that asylum seeker must
submit an application and return at a later date for the decision. If
that asylum seeker's application is denied, then he or she is taken
into custody on the spot, based on information contained in the
application.
Now, the proponents of this bill will tell us that without these
guarantees of confidentiality, those who are already here in the
country in violation of our immigration laws will not come forward and
seek the benefits of the Z visa provided for under the bill, which
leads me to ask: Aren't we granting the biggest benefit that can ever
be given to anybody in the world--legal status and a path to American
citizenship--even though these individuals have violated our laws?
And to be clear, we are talking about those who cannot even establish
that they meet the minimum requirements to get this valuable benefit.
Even worse, they have continually flouted our immigration and criminal
laws. Why would we consciously give these individuals broad privacy
protections by the mere filing of their application for Z status, and
why would they be treated differently from other immigrants?
The proponents say they do exempt from confidentiality those who
commit fraud or are a part of some other scheme in connection with
their application. Of course, that is the very least we should do. But
this bill does not go nearly far enough to effectively enforce our
immigration laws and protect the American people from those who could
and would and might do us harm.
For example, on page 311 of the bill, in section 604(b) labeled
``Exceptions to Confidentiality,'' the drafters of this bill have
chosen to protect aliens who are criminal absconders who have not been
removed from the United States; that is, people who are under orders of
deportation but who have not yet been removed. This is, in fact, a
felony offense under 8 U.S.C. 1253, which is punishable for up to 4
years in prison. Yet the underlying bill would provide confidentiality
for that individual.
We all know that hundreds of thousands of individuals come across our
borders each year in violation of our immigration laws. But what most
Americans would be shocked to realize is that, according to recent
estimates, almost 700,000 aliens who have immigrated illegally or
overstayed who have been ordered deported have simply failed to comply
with that court order. How many Americans think that it is OK to ignore
a court order? How many Americans, after receiving a subpoena from a
court, ignore it and simply skip that court date?
Let me give two examples of what I am talking about. In section
604(b), the drafters claim they allow law enforcement to go after
information for those denied Z status because of felonies and serious
criminal offenses, but what is missing are those aliens who have
actually committed those felony offenses but who have not yet been
actually convicted. In section 604, the drafters further claim they
resolve the problem by allowing law enforcement access to those who
commit fraud or misrepresentations in their Z applications. But again,
what is missing is law enforcement's ability to reach third-party
fraud: Where the alien, him or herself may not be complicit but to
prosecute the third party, the Government needs the information from
the Z application filed by such individuals in order to make the case.
Simply stated and summarized, fraud by third parties involved in a Z
application; crimes that have not yet resulted in a conviction;
absconders--people who have ignored a valid court order and who have
yet to be physically removed--as well as those Z visa applicants who
are denied on noncriminal grounds, all of those categories of
information are rendered confidential and kept from law enforcement
authorities when it comes to investigating crime and other wrongful
conduct.
As I said earlier today, in fact, if we were more interested in
regaining the public's confidence that we were actually serious about
passing an immigration law that could be and would be vigorously
enforced, I don't think I would be up here offering this amendment
because it would be agreed to without the necessity of a vote. But
strangely, to me, this commonsense sort of amendment is being resisted.
In a way, it helps merely confirm what most people across the country--
particularly in my State--seem to suspect, which is that Congress
cannot be trusted and is not serious about creating an immigration law
system that can be adequately enforced.
As my colleagues know, I offered a separate amendment that would
categorically bar fugitive aliens from receiving the benefits under
this bill. I believe this is an issue of fundamental fairness and
integrity of the system. In exchange for what has been offered to this
population, which is the largest legalization program in our Nation's
history, we should be able to say that for any person who applies for
and receives benefits under this program, we will authorize the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service to look at that application
and to, if necessary, if warranted under law, arrest that individual
who made that application and deport them, in accordance with our laws
that Congress has already passed.
But the bill the Senate is considering today turns a blind eye to
those who apply for the benefits under this bill and are denied. This
bill would allow them simply to slide back into the shadows--the
precise problem we are being told we are trying to fix.
I daresay if you ask a random taxpayer on the street this simple
question: Assume an alien comes forward to apply for legal status under
this bill. Because the applicant doesn't satisfy one of the criteria
for being awarded legal status, the applicant is denied benefits under
the bill. What happens to that individual under the Senate immigration
bill? If you were to ask that question to a man or woman on the street,
I bet you that 100 out of 100 times people would say: Well, they ought
to go home, they ought not to be granted benefits under the bill.
Certainly, they would say you ought not to hide evidence of fraud or
criminality or wrongdoing that could be investigated and prosecuted.
Yet the so-called confidentiality provisions my amendment addresses,
under the current bill, would prevent law enforcement officials from
using information on the application to locate and remove a significant
population of those who don't qualify for legalization but have applied
for it.
To be clear, this is for individuals who have actually applied for a
Z visa, or benefits under the program, and have been denied, not those
whose Z visa status has been granted.
This is, in essence, providing an opportunity--to significant
categories of individuals whose applications are considered and
rejected--to slide back into the shadows, which is the very problem we
are told this solution is designed to solve.
The whole point of this exercise, we continue to be told, is to
enhance U.S. security by bringing people out of the shadows. But this
bill would draw people out, only to allow them to slide back in if they
demonstrate they are disqualified for the benefits under the bill--the
very people we ought to be focusing on and having deported in
accordance with our laws.
I remind my colleagues of our Nation's recent history with mass
legalization and the consequences of prohibitions on Federal agencies
sharing information.
As I have stated, reasonable observers have concluded that the 1986
amnesty was rife with fraud. That is the conclusion of the New York
Times in the article that will be part of this record, dated November
12, 1989. The title is ``Migrants' False Claims: Fraud on a Huge
Scale.''
[[Page 14794]]
We also note, for example, from the 9/11 Commission staff statements,
that Mohamed and Mahmud Abouhalima, conspirators in the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing, were granted green cards, or legal permanent
resident status, under the Special Agricultural Workers Program, which
was an amnesty program created by the 1986 bill.
Under this Special Agricultural Workers Program, a key component of
the 1986 amnesty, these applicants had to provide evidence they had
worked on perishable crops for at least 90 days between May 1, 1985,
and May 1, 1986; their residence did not have to be ``continuous'' or
``unlawful.'' Nearly 1 million illegal aliens received legal permanent
resident status under this amnesty--``twice the number of foreigners
normally employed in agriculture'' at that time, according to the 9/11
Commission staff statements.
In other words, the inference is inescapable that there was fraud on
a huge scale, based on the very kind of confidentiality provisions this
bill includes and which my amendment would remove.
I wish to make one other point about this ill-conceived
confidentiality provision. Under this bill we are considering, Congress
would even prohibit the use of information from sworn third-party
affidavits that are one of the documents that can prove eligibility.
Who could not, with a little bit of creativity and initiative, get some
third party to provide an affidavit that says: Yes, you were present on
June 1, 2007; thus, you are eligible for the benefits under this
program.
If you designed a program to welcome and invite and embrace fraud
more, I cannot imagine what it would be. Yet that very same sort of
affidavit could be rendered confidential and could not be shared with
law enforcement personnel, unless my amendment is passed.
We already know from well-documented prosecutions of document vendors
and other legalization cases that the type of documents submitted--
especially sworn affidavits from third parties, not even relatives--no
qualification, just third parties--have been used routinely to further
fraud.
At the very least, we should not repeat the mistakes of 1986 by
allowing the continued use of sworn affidavits by applicants to
establish eligibility for the Z visa. My amendment takes care of these
concerns.
We know one thing: Criminals and terrorists have abused--and will
continue to seek ways to abuse--our immigration system in order to
enter and remain in this country.
I regret this bill we are debating fails to give law enforcement the
commonsense tools they need in order to prevent terrorists and others
from exploiting the vulnerabilities inherent in any massive
legalization.
My colleagues may tell you there is a confidentiality exception for
national security and for fraud. But to rely solely on these exceptions
is simply wishful thinking; it is not going to happen. It doesn't go
nearly far enough to reach the kinds of fraud and criminal conduct and
other wrongful conduct I have mentioned.
This kind of information law enforcement needs may provide valuable
leads of which they were previously unaware. Failure to allow law
enforcement to connect the dots is a deadly mistake I have heard my
colleagues promise they would ``never allow to happen again.'' So I
urge those who are truly serious about the commitment to make sure this
kind of fraud and the danger associated with it doesn't ever happen
again to support my amendment and make a crucial improvement to this
legislation.
I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.
Exhibit 1
[From the New York Times, Nov. 12, 1989]
Migrants' False Claims: Fraud on a Huge Scale
(By Roberto Suro)
In one of the most extensive immigration frauds ever
perpetrated against the United States Government, thousands
of people who falsified amnesty applications will begin to
acquire permanent resident status next month under the 1986
immigration law.
More than 1.3 million illegal aliens applied to become
legal immigrants under a one-time amnesty for farm workers.
The program was expected to accommodate only 250,000 aliens
when Congress enacted it as a politically critical part of a
sweeping package of changes in immigration law.
Now a variety of estimates by Federal officials and
immigration experts place the number of fraudulent
applications at somewhere between 250,000 and 650,000.
lack of manpower and money
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has identified
398,000 cases of possible fraud in the program, but the
agency admits that it lacks both the manpower and the money
to prosecute individual applicants. The agency is to begin
issuing permanent resident status to amnesty applicants on
Dec. 1, and officials said they were approving 94 percent of
the applicants over all.
Evidence of vast abuse of the farm worker amnesty program
has already led to important changes in the way immigration
policies are conceived in Congress. For example, recent
legislation to aid immigration by refugees from the Soviet
Union was modified specifically to avoid the uncontrolled
influx that has occurred under the agricultural amnesty
program.
Supporters of the farm worker amnesty argue that it
accomplished its principal aim of insuring the nation a
cheap, reliable and legal supply of farm workers and that it
made an inadvertent but important contribution in
legitimizing a large part of the nation's illegal alien
population. #1,000 Workers, 30 Acres Critics point to cases
like that of Larry and Sharon Marval of Newark. Last year
they pleaded guilty to immigration fraud charges after
immigration service investigators alleged that the Marvals
were part of an operation that helped about 1,000 aliens
acquire amnesty with falsified documents showing they had all
worked on a mere 30 acres of farmland.
The amnesty for farm workers was a last-minute addition to
the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which sought
to halt illegal immigration with a two-part strategy. Under a
general amnesty, illegal aliens who could prove they had
lived in the United States since before Jan. 1, 1982, were
given the chance to leave their underground existence and
begin a process leading to permanent resident status. And to
stem further illegal immigration, the employment of illegal
aliens was made a crime.
The agricultural amnesty program was adopted at the
insistence of politically powerful fruit and vegetable
growers in California and Texas who wanted to protect their
labor force. In several respects, the provisions for the
program were much less strict than the general amnesty
program, which drew 1.7 million applicants. Instead of having
to document nearly five years of continuous residence, most
agricultural worker applicants had to show only that they had
done 90 days of farm work between May 1, 1985, and May 1,
1986.
Representative Charles E. Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat who
was an author of this Special Agricultural Worker provision,
said that in retrospect the program seemed ``too open'' and
susceptible to fraud. But he argued that budget decisions had
made the battle to combat fraud more difficult.
``There has not been enough diligence in tracking down the
fraud,'' he said, ``because funding for the I.N.S. has been
cut by the White House in each of the last three budgets,
even though everyone agreed when the bill passed that greater
I.N.S. manpower was essential to make it work.''
Congress rarely raises the immigration service budget above
Administration requests.
Aside from its budget problems, the immigration service has
repeatedly come under fire this year in Congress and in an
audit by the Justice Department for what was termed
mismanagement and administrative inefficiency.
John F. Shaw, Assistant Immigration Commissioner, agreed
that ``manpower restrictions'' at the agency were a major
factor in the fraud in the agricultural amnesty program. He
said much of the fraud ``shot through a window of
opportunity'' when the agency was frantically trying to deal
with many new burdens of the 1986 immigration law.
people who sold false documents
Mr. Shaw said law-enforcement efforts had been limited to
the people who sold false documents to applicants for the
farm worker amnesty. The immigration service has made 844
arrests and won 413 convictions in cases alleging fraud in
the amnesty program. The people involved ranged from notaries
public to field crew leaders. ``It was a cottage industry,''
Mr. Shaw said.
The immigration service can revoke legal status if it finds
the applicant committed fraud, but even this effort is
limited. Only applications that appear linked to a fraud
conspiracy are held for review, as when an unusually large
number of applicants assert that they have worked in the same
place. Some 398,000 aliens have fallen into this category
since the application period ended last Nov. 30, but it is
likely that many of them will get resident status.
Mr. Shaw said the fraud conspiracies often involved farms
that actually did employ some migrant labor. So it is
frequently impossible to separate legitimate from illicit
claims.
[[Page 14795]]
Given the limited law-enforcement effort, no precise count
of fraud in the agricultural amnesty program is possible. But
some rough estimates are possible based on information from
the aliens themselves. An extensive survey conducted in three
rural Mexican communities by the Center for U.S.-Mexican
Studies at the University of California in San Diego found
that only 72 percent of those who identified themselves as
applicants for farm worker amnesty had work histories that
qualified them for the program. A similar survey conducted by
Mexican researchers in Jalisco in central Mexico found that
only 59 percent qualified.
But fraud alone does not explain why the program produced
more than five times the applicants Congress expected. Frank
D. Bean, co-director of the Program for Research on
Immigration Policy at the Urban Institute in Washington, said
the miscalculation in the Special Agricultural Worker program
reflected longstanding difficulties in tracking the number of
temporary illegal migrants from Mexico.
``It is at least plausible that a very large percentage of
the S.A.W. applicants had done agricultural work in the U.S.
even if they did not meet the specific time requirements of
the amnesty,'' Mr. Bean said. `It Was a Weak Program'.
Mr. Shaw of the immigration service, and other critics of
the law, believe there were more fundamental flaws. ``It was
a weak program and it was poorly articulated in the law,'' he
said.
Unlike almost all other immigration programs, which put the
burden of proof on the applicant, the farm amnesty put the
burden on the Government. Consequently, aliens with even the
most rudimentary documentation cannot be rejected unless the
Government can prove their claims are false.
Stephen Rosenbaum, staff attorney for California Rural
Legal Assistance, a nonprofit service organization for farm
workers, argued that there was no other way to structure an
immigration program for an occupation ``that does not produce
a paper trail.'' He noted that farm workers are paid in cash
and neither the employers nor the workers keep detailed
records. `Immense Logistical Problems.'
``You can argue the wisdom of a farm worker amnesty, but if
you have one, you have to recognize the immense logistical
problems involved in producing evidence,'' he said.
The immigration service at first tried to apply the
stringent practices common to other immigration programs,
like rejecting applicants with little explanation when their
documents were suspect. But three lawsuits brought in
Florida, Texas and California over the last two years forced
the agency to follow the broader standards mandated by
Congress.
The burden-of-proof issue arose again earlier this year
when the House of Representatives approved legislation that
would have made any person who could prove Soviet citizenship
eligible for political refugee status.
A legislator with a powerful role on immigration policy,
Senator Alan K. Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, eliminated
the provision because of concerns raised by the farm worker
amnesty program, an aide said. Mr. Simpson, who is on the
Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee
Affairs, substituted a series of specific circumstances that
had to be met for a Soviet citizen to be considered a
refugee, like denial of a particular job because of religious
beliefs.
Immigration experts believe that the agricultural amnesty
program will probably color policy debates over other
categories of aliens whose qualifications will be difficult
to document, like the anti-Sandinista rebels of Nicaragua.
``One certain product'' of the agricultural amnesty
program, Representative Schumer said, ``is that in developing
immigration policies in the future, Congress will be much
more wary of the potential for fraud and will do more to stop
it.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from South Carolina is recognized.
(The remarks of Mr. DeMINT pertaining to the submission of S. Con.
Res. 35 are located in today's Record under ``Submission of Concurrent
and Senate Resolutions.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from
Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, so I understand, how much time do I have
remaining?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 1 hour 42 minutes remaining.
Mr. KENNEDY. I yield such time as I might use.
On the Cornyn amendment, the issue is basically confidentiality. Why
is confidentiality important? What we are trying to do with this
proposal is to say to the 12.5 million who are living here, the
undocumented as well as those in agricultural jobs: Come out of the
shadows, and if you are going to meet the other requirements of the
bill--paying fines, go to the end of the line, demonstrate solid work
achievement and accomplishment--you will eventually be able to get in
line after the backlog is completed for a green card and citizenship.
We are saying to the individuals: If you are undocumented today, we
want you to register.
There is a question with regard to people who are undocumented today.
If I go down and say my name is--maybe an undocumented Irish person,
say his name is Halloran, and he goes in and says: I am Halloran and
live on Linden Street. I am undocumented, my wife is undocumented, and
my children are undocumented. We want these people to come out of the
shadows and register to begin this process, right? Right. We have to
make sure those people are going to have a certain amount of
confidentiality, that they are not thinking they are just going to sign
in and register and report to be deported. That is what the Cornyn
amendment effectively does, is report to deport because he eliminates
all kinds of protections of confidentiality.
We provide levels of protection of confidentiality for individuals,
but not if they have been involved in any criminal activity and any
fraudulent activity.
The Senator from Texas mentions the 1986 act. He has been mentioning
the 1986 act time and time again. I responded that President Reagan
signed that act. Republicans were in charge at that time, and they
administered that act from 1986 to 1992. I voted against that
legislation for many of the reasons that have been outlined. That is a
different time.
If they want to talk about what President Reagan and what the
Republicans did at that time, they can be my guest. But the fact is, as
we do know, there were incidents where fraud was committed during that
program in the submission of various agricultural documents, and fraud
was committed. That is all outlined in a 1988 report which has been
quoted here. But that has been the document. We have not seen other
documents about similar kinds of fraudulent activities.
As a result, what did we do with this legislation? We did a number of
things because of what happened in 1986.
We provide additional protections and requirements in these areas of
identification. We provide a number of protections in this legislation,
and I will include those at the conclusion of my statement.
Secondly, we have included in this legislation that if the DHS
believes fraud has been committed, they can move ahead and deport. Do
my colleagues understand? If the Department of Homeland Security thinks
fraud has been committed by these individuals, they can move ahead and
deport. That has been included. We have also included random audits of
these various programs.
The point that has been made that in 1986 there were irregularities
we accept and agree. The fact that the 1986 act was not well managed,
we agree. Was there fraud in a number of these affidavits? We say, yes,
and that is why we took action in this legislation to address it. And I
will include those particular citations.
I will run through these points very quickly. If the applicant is
inadmissible for criminal reasons or an alien smuggler, that
information is turned over to the local law enforcement and police. If
there has been a conviction of a crime, criminal activity, smuggling,
marriage fraud, all of that information is turned over to the police.
If there is any indication of any kind of intelligence activity, it is
turned over to the Department of Homeland Security.
We have written into this legislation protections so we are not going
to have abuses of confidentiality. But--but, Mr. President--when we are
talking about other kinds of activities--for example, if they fail the
English test, or because there is a certain amount of work requirement
time, there is an issue as to whether they completed the work
requirement, we protect their confidentiality. If they fail the English
test, we protect their confidentiality. If there is a technical
registration issue, we protect their confidentiality.
[[Page 14796]]
This is enormously important because if we do not protect their
confidentiality, they are not going to register. It is as clear and
simple as that.
This represents a very careful balance that was worked out. I respect
the Senator from Texas on this issue, but it is important that we have
guarantees for individuals if we expect them to register as this system
is being set up because it is going to transition. We know parts of
this system are not going to go into effect until we have border
security, and if we expect individuals to participate in that system,
we have to guarantee their confidentiality. We do so. It is enormously
important. This system isn't going to function unless we do.
If the Cornyn amendment is adopted, the bottom line is this system
will not function, and it will not work because as individuals in this
community are wondering whether they ought to sign up for this system,
by and large they are going to check with perhaps their local parish,
maybe their local priest, maybe a nonprofit organization, social
service organizations, community organizations in which they have
confidence and trust, and those individuals are going to know whether
there is confidentiality or not. Those individuals upon whom they rely
in the local community, extended members of their family, nonprofit
organizations, church organizations, unless they are able to give the
assurance to these individuals that their confidentiality is going to
be protected, we are not going to have people involved, and we are not
going to have success with this legislation.
As I mentioned, in the incidence of fraud, we have addressed those
extensively with provisions in the legislation. If there are incidents
of fraud, criminal activity, terrorist activity, any of the other kinds
of issues that involve criminality, of course, that protection is
effectively out the window. We provide confidentiality, but limited in
a very important way. It is enormously important to the success of the
program.
Mr. President, I anticipate that we are going to have presentations
by my friend and colleague from Alabama sometime with regard to the
earned-income tax credit. I have comments in response to that
amendment. I know there will be an alternative amendment that will be
offered in that area. I will address the Senate when we have that
particular proposal.
Eventually, we are going to have the Lieberman amendment, which is a
very thoughtful amendment. We will have opportunity to address it at
that time.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask that the time during the quorum
call be equally divided between both sides.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I appreciate the tremendous effort that
has been made on both sides of the aisle to try to address the
immigration dilemma facing our country. In my view, other than the war
in Iraq, the war on terror, there is nothing more important before us,
and we should leave the bill on this floor for as long as it takes to
get it right because as difficult as it is to get it right, it seems to
me that failure is not an option. If we fail, then what we have done is
admitted that we have just simply allowed a situation to continue where
perhaps a million new illegal persons will come into our country each
year. That contravenes the rule of law upon which this country is
founded, it works against our ability to be a country that lives by the
motto that is engraved up there on the wall, ``one from many,'' to
assimilate into our country the number of people who are coming, and it
is a poor example for the rest of the world when we suggest to them
that they create governments that rely upon the rule of law. It also
absolutely enrages the American citizens, who look at Washington and
say that the Government has done a horrible job for the last 10, 15, 20
years in enforcing our immigration laws. Americans have, in many cases,
lost faith that we even have the ability to fix the mess. I used to
feel that way myself before I came here. I haven't been here that
long--just 4 years.
Twelve years ago, I was a candidate for President of the United
States. I was in those debates which we watched on television last
night, or those kinds of debates. One of my proposals was that we
should create a new branch of the military in order to secure the
border. In 1994, 1995, and 1996, Americans were upset about our
inability to distinguish between legal immigration, which is the
lifeblood of our country, and illegal immigration, which is an affront
to the rule of law and the principles of what it means to be an
American. So this has been going on year after year after year.
When I was home last week in Tennessee, I spent a lot of time
listening and talking to Tennesseans. In fact, I just left a group of
homebuilders from Tennessee in my office who were talking to me about
the immigration bill and about some concerns they have. But of all the
concerns that came through to me last week in my conversations with
Tennesseans, it boils down to this: We don't really trust you guys in
Washington, DC, to fix this problem. You don't seem to be willing to do
it.
So I have a suggestion today that I will make, an amendment that I
intend to offer. I won't call it up at this moment, but I want my
colleagues to know about it and the country to know about it because I
think if this bill were to become law, it would increase the level of
trust the American people would have in the ability of this Government
to enforce whatever law we pass. I am not suggesting it would solve
everything or that we would regain trust overnight, but I am suggesting
it would be a step forward. I will describe the legislation in just a
moment, but it boils down to this: We would involve the Governors of
the border States between the United States and Mexico in determining
whether the new border control system we put in place is actually
operational.
Right now, particularly amendment offered by my distinguished
colleague from New Hampshire (Senator Gregg) the other day, the
proposed bill has been strengthened in the following way: He said that
his amendment would require the Department of Homeland Security to
certify that it has established and demonstrated operational control
over the entire U.S.-Mexico land border before other parts of the bill
involving legal status could go into effect. We call this the trigger.
Senator Isakson from Georgia suggested this last year. It is a wise
idea. It says, first we secure the border, and then, when it is secure,
we do the other things about legalization of people already here, to
the extent we decide to do that. But the question still remains: Who is
going to say when the border is secure? The people out across the
country--at least those in Tennessee--don't trust us, don't trust the
Government in Washington, because of this poor record of 20 years. It
doesn't matter that I just got here 4 years ago. They look up here and
see the Government and they say: You didn't do it last year, you didn't
do it 3 years ago, you didn't do it 10 years ago or 15 years ago, so
how do we know you are ever going to do it, even if you pass the law?
Well, the three things I can think of that would make a difference
are, No. 1, to pass a bill with teeth in it. For example, the Gregg
amendment says there will be 20,000 Border Patrol agents. That is more
than we currently have. Today, there are 13,000. There
[[Page 14797]]
will be four unmanned aerial vehicles. There will be 300 miles of
vehicle barriers. Currently, there are about 78. There will have to be
at least 370 miles of fencing already built. Now, there are 700 already
authorized by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and that hasn't changed,
but 370 miles would have to be built. There would have to be 70 ground-
based radar and camera towers on the southwest border. There would have
to be a permanent end to catch and release. There would have to be an
employment verification system that requires employers to
electronically verify new hires within 18 months and all existing
employees within 3 years. All of those things would have to be in
place. The words are they would have to be ``established and
demonstrated, that the Federal Government had operational control over
the entire U.S.-Mexico land border.''
The amendment that is already part of the bill, the Gregg amendment,
said the Director of Homeland Security would certify that. What I add
with my amendment is it has to be concurred in, agreed with, signed off
on by three of the four Governors on the United States-Mexico border.
In other words, we pass the law with teeth--the teeth of the Gregg
amendment and maybe more. I have suggested, and others seem to have
agreed, what we ought to do is then fund the law. Either the President
challenges us to pass an appropriations bill within 30 days after we
pass the law, we do it ourselves, or we set up a trust fund--the way we
do for highways and the way we do for Social Security, the way we do
for anything else--and we say that money goes to secure the border, to
fund these things. We pass a law with teeth. Then we provide the money.
Then the Director of Homeland Security says the border is secure. That
is the trigger. My amendment would say: The Governors of the border
States, three out of four, have to agree.
The Governors of the border States are not in Washington, DC. They
have not been infected with whatever is up here. They have not even
been vaccinated. I have been up here long enough to be vaccinated with
whatever disease is up here, and for that reason more Tennesseans trust
the Governors than they do the Washington officials to solve this
problem. If the Governors of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas
say yes, the border is secure, we agree with the certification of the
Department of Homeland Security, I think that would be good enough for
most Americans. That is the point of my amendment.
We need to put together a good bill that secures the border first.
After border security, the other biggest problem is what to do about
those already here illegally. I think that issue is less of an issue if
most Americans believe we would pass a law that permitted the Border
Patrol agents and the verification system to be done, that we would
fund it and we would actually do it as certified by the Director of
Homeland Security and the Governors on the border. Then I think they
would be willing to accept different solutions for those already here.
But the week before last I voted for the amendment offered by Senator
Vitter that would have sent the bill's drafters back to the drawing
board on the question of what to do about the 12 million illegal
persons, more or less, who are already here.
Senator Hutchison and Senator Corker have done some very important
work on this issue, which I intend to support and to cosponsor. That
amendment would require illegal immigrants, who want to work here, to
return to their home countries and reenter through legal channels in
addition to paying a fine and passing the criminal background check.
In addition to that, this bill should be about another subject about
which we hear almost nothing, and that is the number of people who come
here legally every year. A little more than a million people come into
the United States each year legally. Today, if I remember the figures
right, most are family members. Some come here as students. Some come
here as researchers, to create jobs for us. Some come here as refugees.
For those Americans who come here legally and who are prospective
citizens, especially given the large number of people coming from
overseas, we need to do everything we can to help those persons become
Americans.
I have filed several amendments. They seek to promote learning
English, our common language, and what it means to become an American
through an understanding of history and civics. For example, one of
these amendments will help these legal immigrants learn English and
what it means to be an American, to codify the oath of allegiance, and
to make English our national language.
Another amendment would ask the Government Accountability Office to
provide a comprehensive report on the costs imposed on the public and
private sector by having millions of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent
residents who are not proficient in English. So far in this debate the
Senate has already passed my amendment to establish a Presidential
award to recognize companies who have taken extraordinary efforts to
help their employees learn English and American history and civics.
Some may say that is not so important, we all agree with that. It is
awfully important. If you take a look at Europe today and you see the
difficulty France has helping immigrants become French, and that
Germany has helping immigrant workers become German, and that Japan
has--because no one has an idea of what it might mean to become
Japanese if you are not born Japanese--you can see how fortunate we are
in this country to have literally invented the concept of becoming
American. We say it does not matter what your race is, it doesn't
matter who your grandfather is, you come here, you take the oath George
Washington gave his officers at Valley Forge and you say: I am not
whatever I was. I pledge allegiance to America. I learned the language,
I learned the history, and we have a few principles we agree on, and I
am an American. I am proud of where I came from, but I am prouder to be
an American. Race doesn't matter. Religion doesn't matter. We pride
ourselves on that. It is a tremendous advantage we have, so we ought
not lose sight of the importance of helping legal citizens learn
English and what it means to be an American.
I have heard some talk that encouraging people to learn English is
somehow divisive. I can't imagine that. In fact, it is the reverse. It
is our unifier. It unifies us, to have a common language. It unifies us
to know that the rule of law and equal opportunity are common
principles.
We debate what that means, and often they collide and conflict and we
have to work that out as legislators, but we all agree on the same
common principles and we enjoy the fact we have a common language, so I
can speak to the President, and I can argue with the Senator from
Colorado or I can agree with him as we are doing on an Iraq piece of
legislation right now. We have a common language.
So, common language, what it means to be an American, finding many
different ways to honor these new citizens who come here legally--that
ought to be as important a part of this bill as securing the border and
creating a verification system in dealing with the people who already
got here illegally.
Primarily I came to the floor this afternoon to let my colleagues
know I have a suggestion for how to begin to regain the trust of the
American people on this issue, and that is this bill should pass with
strong new provisions for border security, with funding to pay for it,
and with a trigger that says the legalization parts of the bill don't
take effect for 2, 3, 4, maybe even 5 years, until the border is
secure.
Then the question is how are we going to know if the border is
secure? The bill says trust the Director of Homeland Security. I say
ask him, pay attention to him or her, but also trust the Governors of
the border States. Let three out of the four Governors, of California,
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas concur with the Director of Homeland
Security that the border is secure before we begin the legalization
process, and I think the American people might buy it, they might
believe
[[Page 14798]]
that, and we might begin to regain their trust, after 20 years of
mismanagement, that we are willing to take seriously securing the
border and establishing respect again so we can have a rule of law.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse). The Senator from Colorado is
recognized.
Mr. SALAZAR. I thank my friend from Tennessee for his comments on the
importance of immigration reform. I would say there is agreement in
this Chamber among both Democrats and Republicans that what we need to
do is secure our borders. The legislation before us today and the
legislation we have been working on is, in fact, intended to secure our
borders. We all recognize we need to move from a system of lawlessness
and broken borders that create a wake of victims, to a system of law
and order and a system of immigration reform that works for our
country. We have been making significant progress as we move forward
with this legislation. At this point we have already had 15 rollcall
votes on this legislation. We expect to have another seven rollcall
votes on this legislation as we move forward today. That gets us up to
22 rollcall votes. Last year before cloture was invoked on the
immigration bill that was before the Senate, there were, at that time,
23 rollcall votes. So by the end of tonight we should be at a point
where we would have equaled at least the number of votes we had last
year.
We have some difficult amendments still coming up that we will be
voting on, both today and tomorrow, but it seems to me we are making
significant progress, and I appreciate the hard work that is going on
today on the Democratic side as well as the Republican side.
Again, I appreciate the leadership of Senator Reid. What he did is
say: I am going to take the time of the Senate, 100 Senators. All of us
here in the Chamber know how important our time is. We get a 6-year
license to serve as Senators, so how we spend our time and how our time
is allocated is at a very high premium. What Senator Reid did was to
say a long time ago we would spend the latter part of May, and now we
are into June, dealing with this huge issue of immigration reform. At
the end of the day it is a national security issue that goes to the
heart of what Senator Alexander was saying, which is we have to secure
the borders of this country, we have to deal with the economic
realities that have created the immigration issues we are facing here
today, we have to deal with the reality of 12 million undocumented
workers who live here in the shadows of America's society, and we have
to create a system for immigration that is going to work into the
future.
The people who have worked on this, including President Bush in the
White House, have helped us move this debate forward--hopefully closer
to conclusion.
I see my friend from New Jersey, who is I think ready to speak, so I
yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey is recognized.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, first, I ask unanimous consent that
Senator Reid be added as a cosponsor of the Menendez-Hagel amendment,
No. 1194.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1194
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, let me first commend my distinguished
colleague from Colorado, who has been a voice of reason throughout this
whole process. He has been a leader in trying to fashion a
comprehensive immigration reform that is tough and smart. We need
immigration reform that is tough as it relates to making sure our
borders are protected. We have not only the right but the obligation to
secure those borders and ensure that we have the wherewithal and the
resources to make sure only those who cross, cross in a fashion that is
safe, legal and orderly. At the same time, we need immigration reform
that deals with our economy, fueling that economy, and finally finds
justice for individuals who are often subject to human trafficking as
well as exploitation.
To my distinguished colleague from Colorado, I tip my hat for the
tremendous effort he has made--and that brings us to where we are
today. But I do want to go toward one of the pending amendments that
will be voted on in the next block. It is the amendment I have offered
with Senator Hagel and many others that goes to the core of one of the
great issues the Senate will decide as it relates to this immigration
bill, and that is whether families and the reunification of families is
still a value to the Senate, is still a value in our family, whether
families who come together and are strengthened by being together and
helping each other and working with each other and nurturing each other
and by so doing strengthening communities in the process are to be
preserved, or are they, in terms of that battle, likely to be
eliminated and struck, at least in our immigration context?
I certainly hope when the Senate comes to vote, it will be voting in
a way that is in line with the many speeches I have heard here, that I
have heard in committee hearings, that I have heard in the other body,
in the House of Representatives, where I served before coming here,
about family values, family reunification is going to be preserved. It
is time to put our votes where our values are. The Menendez-Hagel
amendment offers that opportunity.
Now, I do wish to wave my saber to the managers of the bill. I have
heard some suggestion that there may be an attempt to offer a budget
point of order which would require a higher vote total. I would simply
say that there are also budget points of order on the underlying
substitute. If in fact we are going to go down that slippery slope,
then I would have the expectation myself to be offering budget points
of order against the substitute. I think what is fair is to have a vote
up or down on the amendment as it relates to the majority of the
Senate's will. We will see what the majority will of the Senate is.
But if we are going to move down that road, I would acknowledge that
there is a budget point of order as it relates to the underlying
substitute. So I hope we will not move to that type of tactic as we
pursue the vote on this amendment.
Now, it seems to me that under the existing bill, people who apply
under the existing rule, under the law as it is today, who observe the
law, who follow the rules, who said to their family member: No, no, do
not come to the United States, wait your turn, follow the law, obey the
rules, who filed an application as is a right of a U.S. citizen to file
for a petition for their immediate relative, who paid their application
fee, whose Government took their application fee, whose Government went
ahead and made an analysis of that petition to see if it was a petition
that was lawfully entitled to be approved, and who approved the very
essence of that petition saying: Yes, this person, as a U.S. citizen,
has the right--the right--to go ahead and apply for their family
member, their brother or sister, their mother or father, their son or
daughter--that is the universe that we are talking about--and says:
Having approved my documentation and having approved of that petition,
then you must wait your turn to the time that ultimately the priority
date will invoke the possibility for you to come to the United States.
That is the law. That is obeying the law. That is the rule of law. So
you would think that in the legislation we are debating, those who have
obeyed the law, followed the rules, and those who are U.S. citizens and
have done the right thing, that we would not extinguish, eliminate
their right for having done the right thing--for having done the right
thing.
But that is the very essence of what this bill does, unless we adopt
our amendment. Under the bill, not only does, of course, the Senate
bill propose a radical change to who and how you can come to this
country, but it also cancels the applications that are pending--
pending--of many people who have been waiting patiently in line for
family-based visas. If you are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent
resident, you filed after May of 2005, the date that arbitrarily was
taken and put into
[[Page 14799]]
the bill to bring in a relative to the family immigration system, your
application is gone. It is voided. You are told: Get to the back of the
line--the back of the line, by the way, which is the back of the line
with people who violated the law, who violated the law. Imagine that.
Whose right is being extinguished here? Not the family member who is
waiting abroad. No. The right of the individual that is being
extinguished is the U.S. citizen. That is where the right accrues. It
is that person who has the right to make this claim under existing law.
So we take away their right after they filed the petition, paid their
fees, and told their family members to wait. They are told to get in
the back of the line. The back of the line is after those individuals
who did not follow the law and obey the rules.
It boggles the mind. Under the Senate bill, employment-based
immigrants are allowed to continue their applications as long as they
are pending after the date of enactment. Employment-based verification.
What about those families who have done everything right? It is only
fair, in my mind, that family-based immigrants be given the same
treatment.
The Menendez-Hagel amendment goes a long way to restoring fairness to
this situation by doing what? We simply take the cutoff date that is in
the bill, May 2005, and we say: Do not treat American citizens any
worse than you are going to treat those who came into the country in an
undocumented fashion. You are going to give them a benefit, January 1,
2007. They had to be here by January 1, 2007. Well, then, let those who
followed the law, obeyed the rules, paid their fees, told their
families to wait, they have the same benefit: January 1, 2007.
It is not outside the ``grand bargain.'' It is within the same
context. You want to clear out a backlog? Fine, clear out a backlog but
be fair in the process. Do not extinguish the rights of U.S. citizens.
It is important to understand, as we talk about this, the stringent
requirements that exist under the law today governing family
sponsorship for immigration. They would continue to apply in these
cases. Any U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident wishing to sponsor
a family member, as part of the approval of that petition, must
demonstrate that he or she earns at least 125 percent of the Federal
poverty level and must sign a legally enforceable ``affidavit of
support,'' pledging to ensure his or her relative will not become a
public charge.
On top of that, based upon the welfare reform legislation that was
passed several years ago, legal immigrants are barred, barred from
accessing most Federal means-tested public benefits for the first 5
years in the United States and are thereafter subject to further
limitations until they have worked 40 quarters in this country, which
is the equivalent of 10 years--10 years. Five years first, in terms of
being barred from any public benefit because you came in on the
affidavit of a family member who said: I am going to be responsible for
this individual, and then 10 years after, in terms of being subject to
further limitations of their necessity to have worked 40 quarters, 10
years.
Now, I have heard a lot about the rule of law. I am for the rule of
law. But how does the rule of law get promoted, how does the rule of
law get promoted when we say to a U.S. citizen who has applied for
their family member waiting abroad, waiting their time, following the
rules, obeying the rule of law, that, in fact, they have an inferior
right to someone who did not follow the rules, who did not obey the
law, and who ultimately will receive a benefit superior, superior to
that U.S. citizen who is claiming their family member and waiting under
the law and pursuing the law?
In my mind, it sends out totally the wrong message. The message
should have been: No, no. Come across. Come however you can. Then, by
the way, you know we are going to give you a benefit. Do not stay out
there waiting. Yes, it breaks our heart that we are not together. Yes,
you are going to have to wait a period of time. But you know that is
the law. We are going to do this right.
Oh, no. Instead of honoring and rewarding that and sending a message
that when you observe the law there is a benefit, you know, we do the
opposite. We do the opposite under this bill. Our amendment very simply
says: A U.S. citizen claiming their family member, waiting under the
legal process, waiting to proceed, that their right should not be
snuffed out like that, under this bill, in May of 2005, when those who
have crossed the borders of our country through a process that is
unchecked, undocumented, get a benefit--January of 2007.
Because here is the message we send under this bill: Break the law,
you get a benefit--January of 2007. Follow the law, follow the rule of
law, obey it, your right is snuffed out in May of 2005. So I think if
we want to send a message about the rule of law, what we want to do is
to ensure we put on an equal footing the rights of a U.S. citizen
claiming their family member, obeying the law, to give them the same
opportunity that those who have not. That is what our amendment is all
about.
Now, as we approach moving toward a vote on this amendment, I wish to
remind our colleagues about whose rights they are snuffing out. Rights
of individuals good enough to wear the uniform of the United States,
good enough to serve their country, good enough to fight for their
country but not good enough to observe their right to claim their
family member.
Under this bill, both U.S. citizens and U.S. legal permanent
residents' rights are snuffed out. These men in different branches of
the armed services of the United States, they were good enough to fight
for their country, but they were not good enough, under this bill, to
have their rights preserved to claim their family member.
That does not make sense to me. Now, I have heard about this killer
amendment--killer amendment. One of our colleagues has tried to
describe our amendment on family reunification as a killer amendment.
What is a killer amendment? A killer amendment is an amendment that is
proposed by a sponsor who does not want to see comprehensive
immigration reform pass the Senate.
Now, the ironic part of that is many who used that language last year
when I was in the Senate voting for comprehensive immigration reform,
that was used against me in my election last year. They were voting
against comprehensive immigration reform. Killer amendment? When did
family reunification--family reunification--strengthening of families,
preserving the rights of U.S. citizens, including those who wear the
uniform of the United States, when did that become a killer amendment?
Now, I have heard a lot about family values in my 15 years in
Congress. You know, when you want to move away from the human aspect,
when you want to forget, for example, the face of Marine LCpl Jose
Antonio Gutierrez, a legal permanent resident of the United States who
gave his life, the first soldier to die in Iraq, under this bill, had
he survived, you would have extinguished his right to claim his family.
He was good enough to die for his country, not good enough to have his
rights preserved. When you don't want to see the human faces, you
dehumanize it so you can deal with it abstractly. So what have we heard
about? We have heard about chain migration. We can treat it like an
inanimate object; we have to stop that chain migration.
This is much more than chain migration. This chain my colleagues so
abstractly refer to, the top of this chain is someone who is a mother
or a father. When did that become such a horrible thing? I thought we
wanted to strengthen families, honor our parents, honor their ability
to perform and to be strengthened. But that is chain migration. We
can't let a U.S. citizen be able to claim their family. No, that is
chain migration. We can't do that.
When did we decide our brothers and sisters are nonnuclear? But they
are part of the chain, brothers and sisters. Then our children--this is
a good one--if they are under the age of 21, they are part of our
nuclear family. If they are
[[Page 14800]]
over the age of 21, they are no longer part of our nuclear family, just
a little part of this chain.
I have two children. One is 21; the other is 23. I have never for a
moment, because they changed from 20 to 21, believed they were not part
of my nuclear family. I don't view them as part of a chain. I don't
love them any less. I couldn't live without them any less. The mere
passage of a year, some numerical figure makes them part of a chain,
nonnuclear. I guess we can do away with our children. I guess we can do
without the right of U.S. citizens to claim their children. We can just
discard them. I guess when you become 21, you really don't matter
anymore. As a matter of fact, all of that family values stuff doesn't
matter anymore. Unless we adopt this amendment, that is what we are
talking about.
Imagine if we couldn't have such a set of circumstances be preserved
by virtue of this amendment. I have shown some of these pictures
before, but as we move to the vote, I hope people understand what I am
talking about. Under the bill, family reunification that I believe is
so critical, we wouldn't have a lot of people in our country who have
made enormous contributions. Ultimately, we ended up thriving because
of their contributions. We ended up thriving on the contributions of a
Colin Powell whose parents, under this bill, would not have been
eligible to come to this country and, therefore, unlikely that he would
have been born here and had the opportunity to become chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff or Secretary of State. He has made a good
contribution to this country.
Right now in Iraq our leadership comes from GEN David Petraeus. The
reality is, under this bill his parents would have been unlikely to
come to this country, and he would not be a United States general and
leading the best efforts we can have in Iraq.
Under this bill, the inventor of the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk, would
not have made it to this country. Yet he saved the lives of millions
and millions of people here and across the world. Under this bill, at
least, America wouldn't have been the place in which electricity and
the light bulb would have been found. Thomas Edison, from my home State
of New Jersey, likely would not have made it because his parents
weren't rocket scientists.
The list goes on and on. We have a gentleman who did a great service
to our service men and women across the globe, Bob Hope. Under this
bill his parents wouldn't have made it, and we wouldn't have had an
incredible ambassador for our country and an incredible sponsor of
goodwill for the men and women who served us over decades around the
globe.
What do we say? This came out recently in one of the newspapers. What
are our priorities? Stopping terrorists, stopping drugs at the border?
No. Drugs or explosives? No. We are just checking to make sure you
don't take any loved ones with you.
Under this bill, it doesn't matter because even when you obey the law
and follow the rules, you ultimately have your right extinguished.
It seems to me we have our values wrong. It is not about chain
migration, not about just looking at the ability to say that family
reunification should not happen, especially when the burden is on the
family member who happens to be a U.S. citizen. I simply believe the
question before the Senate will be, are you willing to vote to
eliminate the right that exists today of a U.S. citizen who filed his
papers, the Government took his money, he obeyed the law, followed the
rules, you are going to take away his or her right? But you are going
to give a right to individuals who didn't follow the law and obey the
rules. I certainly don't believe that ultimately is in pursuit of the
rule of law.
There are many organizations that have joined us. I ask unanimous
consent to have this list printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Asian American
Justice Center,
Washington, DC, June 5, 2007.
Dear Senators: We, the undersigned organizations, write to
urge you to vote yes on the Menendez-Hagel Amendment to
ensure fairness for U.S. citizens and their families. Without
this amendment, U.S. citizens will be punished for playing by
the rules and waiting in line to be reunited with their
family members.
The current immigration bill being considered by the Senate
contains a provision that would address the current family
backlog of people that have applied for lawful permanent
residence, but only for those who applied before May 1, 2005.
Applications that were filed by U.S. citizens to sponsor
their adult children or siblings after this cut-off date--an
estimated 833,000--would be thrown out. Not only does this
send the wrong message to people who are citizens and obey
the law, the government will be severely taxed with the
administrative cost of returning application fees for the
past two years.
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) have
introduced an amendment, co-sponsored by Senators Daniel
Akaka (D-HI), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Christopher Dodd (D-
CT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Frank
Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Barack Obama (D-IL), to the current
Senate bill that would correct this grave injustice by
changing the cut-off date for legal immigrant applicants from
May 1, 2005 to January 1, 2007--the same cut-off date that is
currently set for the legalization of undocumented
immigrants--and adding 110,000 green cards a year for a
meaningful backlog reduction so as to not lengthen the 8-year
deadline for clearing the adult children and sibling backlog.
By voting for the Menendez-Hagel Amendment, you will help
immigrants who have gone through the long and sometimes
arduous process of learning English and becoming citizens.
These Americans have filed applications and paid fees to the
U.S. government so that they can bring in their adult
children or siblings. They have made life choices based on
the very reasonable expectation that they would be eventually
reuniting with their family members. Our country can't tell
people who have been waiting patiently in line for visas that
we are now retroactively rewriting the rules and effectively
forcing them to start from scratch.
We urge you to vote yes on the Menendez-Hagel Amendment and
ensure our immigration system is fair for United States
citizens.
Very truly yours,
National Organizations: Asian American Justice Center;
Advocates for Children and Elders International;
American Friends Service Committee; American
Immigration Lawyers Association; Amerian-Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee; Asian & Pacific Islander
American Health Forum; Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now; Cambodian American
National Conference; Church World Service, Immigration
and Refugee Program; Coalition for Comprehensive
Immigration Reform; Democracia Ahora; Dominican
American National Roundtable; Ethiopian Community
Development Council; Federation of Indo-American
Seniors' Association of North America; Friends
Committee on National Legislation; Hate Free Zone;
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society; Hmong National
Development; Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project;
Immigrant Legal Resource Center; International
Immigration; Foundation Japanese American Citizens
League; Kurdish Human Rights Watch; Laotian American
National Alliance; Latin American Legal Defense and
Education Fund; Leadership Conference on Civil Rights;
Legal Momentum; Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service; Mennonite Central Committee, Washington
Office; Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund; National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the
Good Shepherd; National Alliance to Nurture the Aged
and the Youth; National Asian Pacific Center on Aging;
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials Educational Fund; National Council of La
Raza; National Korean American Service & Education
Consortium; National Immigration Forum; National
Immigration Law Center; NETWORK, A National Catholic
Social Justice Lobby; Organization for Justice &
Equality; Organization of Chinese Americans; People For
the American Way; Sikh Council on Religion and
Education; Sojourners/Call to Renewal; Somali Family
Care Network; South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow;
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center; Unitarian
Universalist Association of Congregations; United
Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society;
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; World Relief.
Local Organizations: Asian American Federation of New
York; Asian American Institute, Chicago, IL; Asian Law
Caucus, San Francisco, CA; Asian Pacific American Legal
Center of Southern California; CASA of Maryland; Causa,
Oregon; Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition; EI CENTRO
de
[[Page 14801]]
Igualdad y Derechos, Albuquerque, NM; Filipino-American
Coalition of Florida; Filipino American Political
Alliance of Florida; Fresno Interdenominational Refugee
Ministry; Guru Gobind Singh Foundation Sikh Center,
Rockville, Maryland; Illinois Coalition for Immigrant
and Refugee Rights; Iowa Citizens for Community
Improvement; Korean Resource Center, Los Angeles, CA;
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center, Chicago,
IL; La Casita: Servicios Legales para inmigrantes,
Trenton, NJ; Latin American Community Center,
Wilmington, DE; Massachusetts Immigrant And Refugee
Advocacy Coalition; National Capital Immigrant
Coalition; New Jersey Immigration Policy Network; New
York Immigration Coalition; Northwest Federation of
Community Organizations; OCA--South Florida Chapter;
Stone Soup Fresno; Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee
Rights Coalition; The Pyonghoa Gospel Church, Flushing,
NY; United Chinese Association of Florida; YKASEC--
Empowering the Korean American Community, Flushing, NY.
Mr. MENENDEZ. There are 80 of them. I will not read them all, but I
want to give a sense of some who have moral authority behind them, as
it relates to saying the Senate should adopt this amendment: The Church
World Service; the Hebrew Immigrant Aids Society; the Lutheran
Immigration and Refugee Service; the Mennonite Central Committee;
NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; the Unitarian
Universalist Association of Congregations; the United Methodist Church;
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and a whole host of
organizations that are not religious in nature but clearly are
advocates from all of the different sectors of society: For example,
the Asian American Justice Center, the Asian and Pacific Islander
American Health Forum, the Federation of Indo-American Seniors'
Association of North America, the Friends Committee on National
Legislation, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed
Officials, the National Council of La Raza, the National Korean
American Service & Education Consortium, to mention a few. They all
believe this Senate should be putting its votes where its values are,
into the reunification of families.
Finally, I know there will be an attempt to offer what we call a
side-by-side, something to try to produce a figleaf for those who don't
want to be seen as casting a vote against family reunification, a vote
against snuffing out the rights of U.S. citizens. And that figleaf
actually would do absolutely nothing. What it would do is guarantee the
underlying bill. It would guarantee that a U.S. citizen who obeyed the
law, followed the rules, did everything right, had their family member
waiting, it would guarantee that their right would be snuffed out. It
would guarantee that they would go to the back of the line, a line in
which there are people who didn't follow the law, obey the rules,
violated the law, and they will be in the back of the line with them.
That amendment that is going to be offered clearly is a figleaf. It
clearly is poorly constructed. It doesn't deal with the present
realities of undermining that right of a U.S. citizen. It does nothing
to preserve the right of those people who filed and who are now being
snuffed out, being cut out in terms of the rights of those U.S.
citizens because of the underlying bill.
There is only one way to make this right. There is only one way to
preserve family reunification. There is only one way to preserve the
rights of these individuals who wore the uniform of the United States,
who were good enough to wear the uniform, serve their country, and
should have the right, which this bill snuffs out, to claim family
members. There is only one way of making sure we don't turn this into
an abstract object of chain migration, but that we understand the core
values of family; that we understand a child who turns 21 is no less a
child you love dearly and want to be with and who doesn't stop being
part of your nuclear family because they magically turned 21 and are
now nonnuclear. That is what is at stake in this amendment.
I urge my colleagues to support the Menendez-Hagel, and others,
amendment so that, in fact, we can still stay within the ``grand
bargain'' but we can do what is right on family reunification.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning
business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The remarks of Ms. Klobuchar are printed in today's Record under
``Morning Business.'')
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the
absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and
ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be charged equally.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. KENNEDY. As we noted earlier, we are going to have a series of
votes at 6:45. I wanted to address the amendment which has been offered
by my friend, Senator Sessions from Alabama, which relates to the
earned-income tax credit.
I see the Senator from Alabama has just arrived, so I will be glad to
let him make his presentation and then respond. If that is what the
Senator would like to do, I will withhold.
Mr. SESSIONS. I think I am ready, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama is recognized.
Amendment No. 1235
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I thank Senator Kennedy for his
courtesy, and I would just like to make some general comments about the
earned-income tax credit and why I think this is important. I ask that
I be notified in 20 minutes if I have gone that far.
The earned-income tax credit is one of the major--the major, in
fact--transfer programs in the Federal Government. It is a payment of
monies, in reality. It doesn't work the way it was intended, but in
reality, it provides a substantial check every year to persons who are
low-wage workers. It is for people who are trying to do well but are
not making much money, so they give them a check to encourage work. I
have felt for some time--and maybe I will talk with Senator Kennedy one
day about it, and we might reach an agreement on this--I think it would
be much better if tax credit were paid along with your paycheck. It is
designed to increase--it is allowed, under the EITC, but we don't do it
that way. You file a return, and the next year, after you have
completed your year's work, they send you a large check. On average,
the recipient receives a benefit of almost $1,800 a year; that is, the
people who qualify receive that amount. Again, the people who qualify
are individuals who are working in lower wage jobs, which, in fact, are
the types of jobs most of the 12 million illegal aliens are doing. They
are working at low-wage jobs. Therefore, we can expect there will be a
disproportionate number of persons who will qualify for this tax
credit.
Now, the tax credit was designed to encourage Americans to work--
American citizens. When it started in the 1970s under President Nixon,
they thought there had to be some incentive so that you would get more
money by working than by drawing welfare, or else you would just stay
home and draw welfare. There still is a problem with that, in reality.
But this bill was supposed to incentivize work, and that is why it was
drafted the way it was and has continued to grow and become
[[Page 14802]]
quite substantial. But, again, it was designed to take care of American
citizens, our own people.
Now, we are into an immigration reform bill where we have 12 million
people here who came into our country illegally. They are being
considered for amnesty. They are going to be allowed to stay in this
country and be given that right. Maybe some didn't want it or didn't
expect it, but they will be given the right to stay here. But under
present law, because they are not legally here, they are certainly not
entitled to the earned-income tax credit. Unless they file fraudulent
documents and receive it fraudulently, they don't get an earned-income
tax credit.
So we say we are going to have a $1,000 fine that people must pay as
part of a punishment for being in the country illegally, and it is not
really amnesty because they pay a fine, but in reality, the fine can be
paid on the installment plan, and only $200 has to be paid the first
year when you apply for the Z visa. So under the bill, as I understand
it--I think there is little dispute about it--as soon as this bill
passes, everybody can come in and get a probationary legal status in
America, and then before long, they are entitled to apply for and
receive a Z visa that is good for 4 years. It can be renewed
indefinitely. At some point, they can apply, if they so choose, for
legal permanent residency.
What I want to tell my colleagues is that not only will we be
providing amnesty to the persons who came into our country illegally
for a $200 payment, we will be giving them--even for the temporary
probationary status and the Z visa, prior to legal permanent residency,
the earned-income tax credit. I think that is quite a step. Indeed, you
pay $200 for your fine, and you file your tax return next year and get
a $1,800 check from Uncle Sam.
Don't be mistaken, the earned-income tax credit is for people who
don't pay income tax. It is a gift from Uncle Sam. It is meant to
encourage Americans to get out and work, not to encourage people to
come into our country illegally to gain this benefit. So I just would
say to my colleagues, this is an important principle.
According to the Congressional Budget Office--and they run the
numbers on this--it is the largest single benefit program and cost of
this bill in the first 10 years--not in the outyears; there are some
big costs that aren't being calculated. But in the first 10 years, this
is the largest direct single benefit.
Over the 2008 to 2017 period--
Ten years--
the Joint Tax Committee estimates that S.A. 1150 would
increase outlays for refundable tax credits by about $13
billion, the largest direct spending effect of the
legislation. Enacting 1150 would increase the amount of
refundable tax credits mainly by increasing the number of
resident aliens for income tax purposes.
In other words, it would increase the number of people eligible.
Resident aliens are taxed in the same manner as U.S.
citizens and thus could qualify for the refundable tax
credit.
They are taxed, but they are not going to be paying high taxes
because many of them are lower income people, but they will get the tax
credit.
So my amendment would reduce the bill's direct spending cost, the
cost to the American taxpayer. Who pays the big check they get every
year? Who pays the check they get every year? They are not paying it.
It is the taxpayers, the American taxpayers. It is an additional reward
on top of the amnesty that is provided. So my amendment would reduce
the estimated cost of this legislation by nearly half, No. 1, and it is
right, and it is fair.
Now, last year, my amendment--which I believed was justified, but
this Congress didn't agree--said you would not receive the earned-
income tax credit until you became a citizen. Why not? How is an
illegal alien able to come here, not expecting the earned-income tax
credit, and then be rewarded with it by our government? That never made
sense to me.
But in this legislation--because I think it is important, and we can
make a big difference here--in this legislation I have offered, it
would simply say that during the time you have a probationary visa or a
Z visa up until the time you become a legal permanent resident, you
wouldn't get the earned-income tax credit. How much simpler is it than
that?
I hope my colleagues will see that this is a perfectly logical
amendment, and I would suggest it reflects on our mindset, our approach
to this entire process, if we are not able to draw this kind of line as
we go through passing--or attempting to pass--this historic piece of
legislation. I really think we should give thought to that and ask
ourselves what right does somebody who came into our country illegally,
who has been here maybe for a number of years, expect to receive this
benefit, where we say: OK, we are just going to give up; we are not
going to make you go home; we will let you stay; you can have amnesty.
By the way, you start receiving the earned-income tax credit of $2,000.
How much sense does that make? I don't think that is good public
policy. It raises questions about how serious we are about defining our
immigration system in a way that works, that has bright lines, and
carries out a logical policy. But I understand that people are
determined to see that this goes forward.
Now, Senator Reid has offered an amendment that is going to be a
side-by-side. This amendment is very short, and basically all the
amendment says is--I don't have it before me. Our majority leader, our
Democratic majority leader, is offering an amendment that says: Well,
we will comply with all the current laws of the IRS, and you don't get
the earned-income tax credit if you are illegal. Well, of course. That
means zero--nothing. I have to tell my colleagues, I am amazed at that
amendment, unless I have missed something entirely, because that is
what it is all about. They won't be illegal when they are given the
probationary status or the Z visa status. They become legal and would
get it. I was going to meet with some of the White House people to
discuss this issue. I don't think they understood it that way, and I am
not sure the President understood that this was actually going to
happen under the legislation. But if this bill becomes law, they would
get it.
So you say: Well, maybe they wouldn't get it. Well, if they don't get
it, why wouldn't you vote for my amendment, which quite plainly assures
that they don't get it? Follow me?
So I don't understand this cover amendment. It is not even a fig
leaf, I say to my colleagues. I don't think you are going to be able to
hide behind the Reid amendment because it is not going to do anything
but guarantee that persons who are here and are given this amnesty will
pay $200 and then they will get to draw nearly $2,000 a year under the
earned-income tax credit.
The amendment being offered by Senator Reid makes no sense to me.
Maybe I missed something, but I don't think so. I would be delighted to
hear what is in play. It is what you call a cover amendment. So what I
say to my colleagues is, let's get realistic about what we are doing.
Let's understand the cost this legislation is going to have. The
Congressional Budget Office has found in their report--although it was
written so that it is a little hard to find, but it is perfectly
plain--the bill, over 10 years, will cost the American taxpayers $32
billion. A substantial chunk of that amount is the earned-income tax
credit. They say the earned-income tax credit is for children. It is
not for children, it is for American workers. You may get more if you
have children, but it is not for children, it is for American workers.
I thank the Chair and reserve the remainder of my time on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Obama). Who yields time?
The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I see the Senator from Arizona on the
Senate floor. I was going to respond at some time to the Senator from
Alabama. I am glad to wait until the Senator from Arizona is finished.
Amendment No. 1150
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts, since
it is
[[Page 14803]]
important that, prior to a meeting we have at 5:30, to speak to an
amendment offered by Senator Menendez.
I want to be clear that we have a side-by-side amendment that we will
also be voting on, which I think goes to the heart of what Senator
Menendez is trying to get at here, but it does so in a way that will
not upset the bipartisan consensus that has been worked out on the
legislation.
I think the Menendez amendment has been discussed in the past. It is
an amendment that would, in significant ways, change the basic
agreement that has been made by some of the Senators. Therefore, it
would be very problematic were it to pass. There is a budget point of
order against the Menendez amendment, and that point of order will be
raised. Because of the extra cost that would be imposed by additional
immigrants being permitted to come into the country over time, in fact,
I think there is more than one budget point of order because of those
increased costs. The general proposition is that some have said the
bill is not family friendly and that we need to do more for families. I
want to try to dispel that, Mr. President.
We start out with the proposition that somewhere between 12 million
and who knows how many million illegal immigrants who are in the United
States, for the most part, are going to be able to stay. If everything
that can be expected of them is accomplished, they have the ability to
apply for a green card and eventually potentially become citizens of
the United States of America. That is a tremendous benefit for people
who came illegally.
One of the reasons some of us have been willing to accommodate that
is people have come here with families or have created families here,
and we do not want to disrupt those families.
Secondly, there are family visas that historically have been issued
by the United States. This bill doesn't in any way affect the ability
of any legal permanent resident or citizen to bring into the United
States their spouse or minor children. That is the so-called nuclear
family.
In addition, 40,000 parents per year can be brought into the United
States, and there are extraordinarily liberal visitations for parents
beyond that 40,000 number. We have said the so-called nonnuclear
family--the extended family--in the future is going to compete the same
as workers are going to compete, so that we can get in balance with
some of our competitors in the global economy, where more of the visas
are reserved for work purposes and fewer for family purposes. But in
the meantime, some 4 million people, roughly, who have applied for a
family visa--extended or nonnuclear family--are going to be allowed to
immigrate to the United States, and instead of taking 30 or 40 years,
in some cases, it is going to all happen within an 8-year period of
time. That is extraordinarily helpful to families and family
reunification.
Now, it is true, if somebody has come here illegally and their family
is still outside the country, we don't permit that family to come. But
the object, obviously, is to try to encourage that individual to go
back with his family. That would be family reunification.
But the problem the Menendez amendment poses is, instead of allowing
those people who have applied for visas for extended families who have
a reasonable expectation to come to the United States, he would change
the date that measures their eligibility in such a way as to allow a
lot of people--thousands, hundreds of thousands, actually--to immigrate
to the United States who, today, under current law, have no reasonable
expectation they would ever make it to the United States. What we have
tried to do is to be fair and say, if you have a reasonable expectation
you will be permitted to immigrate to the United States, we will allow
you to come in, and we will do it within a very short period of time--8
years, or perhaps less than that period of time, as opposed to the
perhaps 20 or 30 years it may have otherwise taken. If you didn't have
a reasonable expectation to get in, then you are not going to come.
The reason the date was drawn where it was in May 2005 is that
represented a compromise. I believe the original date was March or July
of 2004--the time when people who were in line but had no reasonable
expectation--that their application was going to be processed and were
notified by the U.S. Government. Basically, the Government said: For
the time, we are not going to be processing these numbers anymore
because the backlog is too long. The backlog numbers are truly
astounding. There are people in Mexico, for example, who have no
reasonable expectation of getting here. For example, if you are the
brother or sister of a U.S. citizen, and if you are a Mexican national
and you recently filed to become a legal permanent resident of the
United States, you have an expected wait of about 80 years. So even if
you are 21 years of age, at the time when you can expect to get here
you would be 101 years of age. That is not a reasonable expectation you
will be allowed into the United States.
I went to Senator Menendez and said: I think you have a point because
we have drawn an arbitrary deadline. Remember, the date at which they
were told we were no longer going to be processing, temporarily, these
applications was in 2004. But in order to be more liberal, we moved the
date to May 2005. His argument was, there may be some people who still
had an expectation because they filed last year, and maybe they had an
expectation they could make it.
I said: You know, there may be some such people, so let's take a look
at it and see if we can redo this so everybody who had a reasonable
expectation they could get here will be allowed to be here, no matter
when they applied--whether it was 2 years ago, last year, 2 months ago,
or 10 or 12 years ago--if they had a reasonable expectation of getting
in.
We have crafted an amendment that I offered to Senator Menendez, but
he preferred to go forward with his amendment. But the side-by-side
that I will be proposing is an amendment that stretches the date out to
2027. It says: If you had a reasonable expectation, based upon your
category of immigration, the country you are from, the lines that
currently exist with that country, if you had a reasonable expectation
within the next 20 years you could have made it into the United States,
then you get to come in under a family visa. That is extraordinarily
liberal--everybody who really had an expectation that they could make
it. Like I said, if you are this Mexican national, and you are the
brother of an American citizen, and you were 21 years of age when you
applied, you would be over 100 years old today. That is not a
reasonable expectation. So you would not be permitted to come into the
United States. You never had a reasonable expectation that you could
make it.
The effect of my amendment and the Menendez amendment is almost
identical in terms of the number of people who would be allowed to come
to the United States. There is only a 3,000 difference out of about
600,000 people. So we are not reducing the number of people. We are
making it accurate as to who can actually come.
There is also a general notion that somehow we are being unfair to
families. As Senator Kennedy has frequently pointed out, after this
legislation is passed, for a period of 8 years, the total family
percentage coming into the United States will be 74 percent. And you
add another 15 percent for humanitarian visas, and there is only 11
left for the employment visas. Today, 65 percent are family visas. In
subsequent years, families will still be the majority of immigrants to
the United States--51 percent. Then you add to that another 17 percent
for asylum seekers and other humanitarian visas; 17 percent of the
total is a very humane number for the United States. We can still be
very proud of our tradition of allowing the poor, hungry, and
downtrodden to come to this country, and we will still have a majority
of family-based visas in this country.
Mr. GRAHAM. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. KYL. Yes.
Mr. GRAHAM. For those who are worried about this, on the issue of
families, you should be worried about this.
[[Page 14804]]
Is it not true that in this bill, in terms of family reunification, the
way we have accomplished or dealt with the bill, families will be
reunified decades earlier, and those who are waiting to join their
families under this bill--those who have done it right--will be
together no later than 8 years; is that correct?
Mr. KYL. That is exactly correct. Instead of waiting 20, 30 years,
they will have to wait no longer than 8 years.
Mr. GRAHAM. So if you want to be the person who keeps families apart,
bring this bill down. I assure families will not be reunified under the
current system like they are here, that we will have a dramatic
increase in green cards to get these families reunited. We go up to 74
percent. If you want to keep families apart, bring this bill down and
let the current system survive.
Secondly, when it comes to families, there are 12 million people here
illegally. Is it not true that their families, under this bill--if they
will do the right thing--will never live in fear again?
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, to me, that is one of the main features of
the bill. Today, we have people who are being exploited, people against
whom crimes are being committed, but they are afraid to report it to
the law enforcement authorities. They are not being paid adequate wages
and their working conditions are poor. Frankly, they are being taken
advantage of. As long as they are in this gray status, that will
continue.
This bill offers them immediately an opportunity to begin a process
by which they are playing by the rules and, as a result of that, they
can have the freedom and the assurance of being protected by the laws
of the United States.
Mr. GRAHAM. To my good friend from Arizona, I say this: If you are
concerned about the 12 million people who are living in fear, subject
to exploitation, then this is the best chance you will ever have in my
political lifetime to fix it. If you want to bring this bill down, the
one thing I can assure you is that the 12 million, or however many
there may be, will not only live in fear, they are going to live in
more fear because we have stirred up a hornets nest in this country.
I argue, if you care about people who have families not being afraid
anymore, if they get themselves right with the law, help us pass this
bill. In the future, after everybody has been accommodated who has a
reasonable expectation, we are going to allow families to be part of
the new immigration system.
Could the Senator tell me again, in the future, what percentage of
visas will be given to families?
Mr. KYL. The answer I give the Senator is that family visas alone are
51 percent--a majority--and another 17 percent is humanitarian.
Mr. GRAHAM. Would the Senator acknowledge that is twice the family
component of other nations with whom we are competing?
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, that is almost exactly right. I know in the
case of--in fact, I will give you the exact number. In Canada, it is 24
percent. If we have 51 percent, obviously, that is close to twice that
number. In Australia, it is 27 percent. And, again, if we are at 51
percent in the future, that is almost exactly twice. But remember, that
is only after 8 years. For the next 8 years, it is 74 percent because
of what the Senator from South Carolina was pointing out.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, the bottom line, I say to my good friend
from Arizona, is we would have no bill without him. He stepped to the
plate and said I am willing to look at the 12 million anew; I don't
believe we are going to deport them, and I don't believe we are going
to put them in jail; So I am going to give them a chance to identify
themselves, come out of the shadows and do things that will make them
valuable to our country and will be fair and humane.
We have accomplished that. We couldn't do it last year. We are going
to reunite families who have been waiting for decades to get into this
country. We are going to expedite family reunions in an 8-year period
for some people because they would not live long enough to get back
with their families.
In the future, we are going to have a new system. There is going to
be a strong family component, but I make no apologies about this, in
the future we are going to have immigration based on the global economy
and merit. We need to start looking at where we are in the world and
making sure people come into our country under a merit-based system.
Neither one of my parents graduated high school. There is a way forward
for the semiskilled and low-skilled workers to come into our country in
the future. But the family component in the future will be spouses and
minor children, freeing up thousands of green cards for merit-based
employment. They are not going to bring in their adult children unless
they have a way to get in on their own. They are not going to bring in
their third cousin. Nobody else does that. They are going to come in as
a nuclear family, and we are going to do it based on merit, and merit
is not a degree.
Under this bill, if you come in with a strong back and a strong heart
and a desire to get ahead, you get points for getting a GED, you get
points for an apprenticeship, you get points for doing the things that
make you a better person. So I reject completely the idea that the
merit-based system excludes hard-working people.
I end with this one thought. If we don't get it right now and correct
the flaws in our system which led to the 12 million which will make us
globally noncompetitive, then who will? When will they do it? There are
a million reasons to say no to something this hard, there are 12
million reasons to say yes, and there are many reasons in the future to
say yes because our country cannot survive with a broken immigration
system that makes us noncompetitive.
This is a national security issue. This is a global economic issue.
Now is the time to understand we will never have a perfect bill but to
do something that will be good for America.
I thank my good friend, Jon Kyl, and Senator Kennedy for getting us
this far.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I appreciate that from the Senator from South
Carolina.
Let me make one final point. I know Senator Kennedy wishes to speak.
It was not easy for some people to agree to allow at least 12 million
immigrants who came to this country illegally to stay here and
eventually become citizens. That was not easy. One of the bases upon
which we were able to do that was to respond to an argument that had
frequently been made: Why should we let all those people, is the way it
is described, become U.S. citizens and then chain migrate all their
family--their uncles, cousins, grandparents, and so on? The answer to
that question is we probably shouldn't. So that was ended in this
legislation. That is what was stopped. That is part of the agreement
that was reached, the consensus that was reached.
The adoption of the Menendez amendment would undo that. You can
imagine how someone like me feels. I have taken a lot of heat for
agreeing that the people who are here illegally should stay here, but I
knew one of the reasons that was more palatable was because we had at
least stopped the chain migration that would occur for anybody
subsequently in the future, after we cleared the backlog of people who
already applied.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, will the Senator from Arizona yield?
Mr. KYL. Yes, I will be happy to yield. I was going to conclude and
turn to Senator Kennedy. I will be happy to yield.
Mr. MENENDEZ. One point. Remember how the Senator from Arizona said
how all ``those people'' would be able to claim their families. The
Menendez amendment has nothing to do with ``those people.'' The
Menendez amendment has everything to do with U.S. citizens today who
have a right under the law. So I hope we do not confuse both of those.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I say to the Senator from New Jersey that
what he said, as far as he said it, is, of course, exactly correct.
What I was talking about was the tradeoff that existed between the
accommodation to the 12
[[Page 14805]]
million people and--by the way, I don't use that phrase ``those
people.'' I hope the Senator understands that I was referring to the
criticism of those who say we shouldn't allow the illegal immigrants in
the country, especially if we chain migrate their families. We ended
the chain migration.
We had to draw a time when applicants would be able to apply and
their applications would be considered. We had it at one point. We
agreed to move that date to accommodate the people on the Democratic
side of the aisle. The Menendez amendment would move it to January 1 of
this year, bringing in, I think, a total of well over 800,000 people.
That, obviously, would undo the rather delicate balance of agreements
that was reached that deals with this subject.
Recognizing, however, we wanted to make sure anybody who had a
reasonable expectation of being able to immigrate should be able to do
so, we have prepared an amendment that would, in fact, allow anybody
with a reasonable expectation to be able to immigrate here. We put the
date way back to 2027, and we say that if you could have reasonably
expected to get here by 2027, you are in and you are in within an 8-
year period from now.
I think that is very fair. The person who is excluded under our
proposal is the person who, as I said, is the sibling of a Mexican
national who is a sibling of a U.S. citizen who might be 101 years old
when he gets to the United States of America. That is not a reasonable
expectation.
I think our approach is reasonable. It is consistent with the
underlying agreement we reached. I regret to say--and I appreciate the
Senator from New Jersey has every right to raise a budget point of
order on the underlying bill--we fully expected there would be points
of order at the conclusion presumably of the consideration of the bill
and we would have to vote on those. Obviously, it is a 60-vote point of
order. We expected to have 60 people who would support the legislation,
and we believe that to be the case. But if the Senator wants to bring
the bill down, as the Senator from South Carolina said, by raising an
amendment such as that which has been proposed or at this time trying
to conclude the budget point of order, I don't think that is the best
way forward.
As the Senator from South Carolina said, we have one good chance to
get legislation passed. I don't think we want to blow that chance. Now
is our time. We were sent here to do difficult jobs. I hope, in the
bipartisan spirit that has so far characterized our debate, we can move
forward and continue to keep this bill as literally a beacon of hope
for a lot of people who are counting on us.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I know the Senator from Vermont is
looking for some time to speak. I believe there is 30 minutes I have
remaining; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 30 minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman, wants time.
I yield 10 minutes to Senator Lieberman. I will use probably 6 or 7
minutes. I will be more than glad to give 10 minutes to the Senator
from Vermont if not, we will try and extend that if we can.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, if I might interrupt the Senator for a
question. Would it be possible also to make sure Senator Domenici will
be able to speak after the Senator from Vermont?
Mr. KENNEDY. I will take 5 minutes of the 30 minutes; Senator
Domenici can have 5 minutes; 10 minutes to the Senator from
Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman; and 10 minutes to the Senator from Vermont,
Mr. Sanders. I think that takes up 30 minutes. I ask unanimous consent
that another minute be given to each of us, 33 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1234
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I will be brief in response to the
Sessions amendment. We are talking about the earned-income tax credit.
That was developed in the 1970s. Why was the earned-income tax credit
developed? Because of the increased number of children living in
poverty.
We have, as this chart shows, in the United States more children who
live in poverty than any other country in the world. This amendment
would say to legal immigrants that you are not eligible for the earned-
income tax credit that benefits children.
If we look at the report from the CRS, it shows that over 98 percent
of the earned-income tax credit goes to families with children. That
was its purpose, that is where it is focused, that was the reason for
it, and this is the need.
Why in the world would we want to take benefits away from needy
children? Who are the workers of the earned-income tax credit? Their
average income is less than $20,000 a year. This is phased out at about
$30,000 to $33,000 a year. This is the low-income individuals who are,
what? Are they on welfare or are they out working? They are working.
They have children. They are legal. Why take the benefits away from the
children, the neediest children, most of whom are living in poverty?
We don't take the earned-income tax credit away from people who go to
jail and commit murder. We don't take away the earned-income tax credit
from people who have defrauded the Government. We don't take the earned
tax credit away from burglars, child molesters, and the rest of the
individuals who commit crimes. But this amendment wants to take it from
one particular group and that is legal workers.
Who are those legal workers? They are trying to provide for their
families, pay the penalties, show that they are working, and go to the
end of the line. Many of these children are American children. They are
not undocumented. They are American children because they were born
here.
I find it difficult to understand, when we are talking about
individuals who are working, who want to work, will work, are trying to
make a better future for themselves and their families and particularly
for their children, why they should be the only class of working people
in the United States who ought to be penalized. That is what the
Sessions amendment would do. That is wrong and it is not fair and it
should not be accepted.
Mr. President, I yield the time as I have indicated.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I thank Senator Kennedy for yielding me
time.
As I think we all know, this is a long and complicated bill. An
important part of this bill deals with illegal immigration--how do we
make sure we stop the flow of illegal immigrants into this country; how
do we finally begin to deal with employers who are knowingly hiring
illegal immigrants; what do we do with 12 million people who are in
this country who, in my view, we are not going to simply, in the middle
of the night, throw out of this country. These are difficult and
important issues.
On those issues I am in general agreement with the thrust of this
legislation. But, Mr. President, I wish to tell you there are areas in
this bill where I have strong disagreement, and one is the issue of
legal immigration, what we are doing in terms of bringing people into
this country who, in my view, will end up lowering wages for American
workers right now.
Senator Kennedy a moment ago made a very important point. He talked
about the truth that in our country today we have the highest rate of
child poverty of any major country on Earth. That is a national
disgrace. But on top of that, we have the highest rate of poverty of
any major country on Earth. In fact, since President Bush has been in
office, 5 million more Americans have slipped into poverty.
Today, in our country, as many people know, the middle class is
shrinking. Millions of American workers are working longer hours for
lower wages. In my State of Vermont, it is not uncommon for people to
work two jobs, even three jobs, to make enough income to pay their
bills. According to a
[[Page 14806]]
recent Pew-Brookings Institute study, men in their 30s earned, on
average, 12 percent less in 2004 than their fathers did in 1974, after
adjusting for inflation. In other words, in America, we are moving in
the wrong direction. Our standard of living, in many ways, is going
down. If we don't reverse trends, our kids will have a lower standard
of living than we have.
Now, in the midst of all of that, we are finding many large
corporations, both those who employ skilled workers--professional
workers--and those who employ low-wage workers, that are coming to this
body and are saying, my goodness, yes, we are outsourcing millions of
decent-paying jobs; yes, we have opposed vigorously raising the minimum
wage; yes, we have done everything we can to make sure workers can't
form unions, but what we want to do now, because we love the American
people so much and we are so concerned about the American worker, what
we want to do now is bring millions of new workers into this country,
both low-wage workers and professional workers.
The argument there is Americans don't want to do the work. They say:
We can't find American workers to do the work. That is a crock, in many
instances. It is not true. One of the groups that has come to Congress
to tell us how much they are concerned about the need to find workers
because they can't find Americans to do the jobs is our old friends at
Wal-Mart.
As many Americans know, Wal-Mart pays low wages. They often hire
people for 30 hours a week rather than 40 hours a week, and they
provide minimal health care benefits. Yet Wal-Mart has come in and
said: Well, we can't find the workers. Bring us in more low-wage
workers.
Well, guess what. Two years ago, when Wal-Mart announced the opening
of a new store in Oakland, CA, guess how many people showed up for that
job in Oakland, CA, at a Wal-Mart. Eleven thousand people showed up--
11,000 people showed up in Oakland--filled out applications for a job
when only 400 jobs were available. Eleven thousand people for 400 jobs.
Wal-Mart says they need more low-wage workers coming in from around
the world because they can't find workers. Well, that was a couple of
years ago. So you might say: Well, that doesn't happen today. In
January of 2006, when Wal-Mart announced the opening of a store in
Evergreen Park, just outside of Chicago, in your home State, Mr.
President, 24,500 people applied for 2,325 jobs. Yet Wal-Mart and their
friends are coming in here saying we can't find Americans who want to
work.
Let us be clear. Wal-Mart does not provide good wages, does not
provide good benefits, does not provide good health care, yet we are
finding many people who want to do that because people in this country
are desperate, because people in this country want to work at almost
any job.
Some of the people at the other end of the economic spectrum, the
people who are hiring professionals, make the same argument. There are
organizations out there, including companies such as Motorola, Dell,
IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and Boeing, that say the same thing: We can't
find professionals to do the jobs. I find it interesting that while
these companies claim they can't find workers in the United States,
some of these very same companies have recently announced major layoffs
of thousands of American workers.
Let me repeat that. These companies are saying we desperately need to
bring workers from other countries into America because we can't find
people in the United States to do these skilled jobs. Yet, at the same
time, they are laying off tens of thousands of American workers.
Let me give a few examples. A few days ago, the Los Angeles Times
reported Dell would be eliminating 10 percent of its workforce,
slashing 8,800 jobs. Dell is part of the group saying we need to bring
more professionals into America. Meanwhile, as Dell has eliminated
decent-paying jobs in the U.S., it applied for nearly 400 H-1B visas
last year.
But Dell is not alone. On May 31, the Financial Times reported
Motorola would be cutting 4,000 jobs on top of an earlier 3,500-job
reduction designed to generate savings of some $400 million. This is
nothing new. Motorola has cut jobs in this country year after year
after year. But guess what. Motorola, part of a group saying they can't
find American workers, recently received 760 H-1B visas. That was last
year.
On May 30, Reuters reported IBM would be laying off more than 1,500
American workers, bringing total layoffs to that company of 3,700 last
year. In April, CBS MarketWatch reported Citigroup announced it would
be laying off 17,000 workers, yet Citigroup received over 330 H-1B
visas.
Here is the point, and this is not a complicated point. Many of the
largest corporations in this country are supporting this legislation.
And you know why? It is not because they are staying up late at night
worrying about some Mexican kid in Detroit or Chicago and what will be
the future of that kid. They are not worrying about that. What they
want to see is a continued influx into this country of cheap labor.
They are not content with outsourcing millions of good-paying jobs.
They are not content with fighting against working people who want to
form unions. They are not content with their opposition, successful
until recently, of keeping the minimum wage at $5.15 an hour for 10
years. That is not good enough. Now they are saying: Gee, we can't move
Wal-Mart from America to China, we can't move hotels to China, we can't
move restaurants to China, so what is the best way to continue keeping
wages low for those workers?
When I was a kid, I worked in a hotel. I was a busboy. There is
nothing wrong with that job. Millions of people do that job. I resent
very much the fact that many of these large corporations are continuing
their war against the middle class and against the American worker. I
think it is high time the Senate begins to stand up for the American
worker rather than the large multinational corporations who have so
much sway over what we do in this body. I would hope before an
immigration bill is passed, it will respect the rights of American
workers, both low-wage workers and professional workers, and say that
is our major responsibility, to make sure our kids----
Mr. SESSIONS. Will the Senator yield for a question?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional
minute to yield to my friend.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Alabama is recognized.
Mr. SESSIONS. My question, I guess, Mr. President, would be something
like this: Perhaps it could be true that the large number of job
applications received by Wal-Mart facilities is because even though
Wal-Mart does not pay great wages, they do have health care benefits
and job security, as opposed to construction work. Would the Senator
agree that if businesses raised wages at the construction sites, if
they had jobs that had a more permanent status to them, and actually
offered a retirement plan and health care benefits, they might get more
people willing to work at the construction sites?
Mr. SANDERS. Reclaiming my time, Mr. President, the Senator makes an
important point, and that is we have all been educated that economics
is about supply and demand. If you don't get the workers you want, you
raise wages and you raise benefits. You don't simply open the door and
bring in other workers at low wages.
The Senator makes an important point.
I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico is recognized for
5 minutes.
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I came to the floor tonight for a few
moments to talk about the significance of the bill that is before us
and the work that has been done by Senators and a couple of Cabinet
members and great staff.
The American people have been telling us for many years that we are
confronted with a problem that is apt to
[[Page 14807]]
destroy our land, destroy our country, destroy our values, and that
problem is that we have an inability to control our borders. We have
illegal immigrants who come across our borders by the thousands who
are, for the most part, interested in jobs. But after some of them get
here and their jobs are procured, there are other things they bring
with them or do here that make the American people very worried about
our future.
I, for one, as a Senator of long standing, grow more worried every
year as to whether we will ever be able to control our borders and thus
control who comes in and who goes out so that we know who they are. We
have heard the American people tell us this is our biggest
responsibility; that if we don't secure our borders, something bad is
going to happen to our country. We have heard them tell us of the
horror stories that happen when some of these immigrants come here
without authority, without the law on their side; they sneak in, in the
dark of the night, or however they have been able to come, and then
they form gangs. We have heard about how they have scared our people,
hurt them, killed them, and how they fight amongst each other. Of
course, I am not talking about all of them. I am saying the American
people see this and say to us, can't you ever control our borders?
I want to say I think a terrific job has been done with this bill. It
is not finished--there are a few more amendments that need to be
considered and some time taken to review the final bill--but I believe
the bipartisan group that wrote this bill under the leadership of
Senator Jon Kyl on the Republican side and Senator Ted Kennedy on the
other side, working with their best staff for months, and then both day
and night for the last 2 months, have put together a piece of
legislation that shows how you can work out practical differences if in
fact your goal is significant and you forget about politics, you forget
about party, and you begin to write a law you can be proud of.
I think we are close to that. I don't think you get there very often.
Rarely do you get the opportunity to be part of such a law as a
Senator. So for those who are going to vote against this bill, tonight
they are saying to themselves, I think I am going to vote against it, I
ask you and urge you to think of when you are going to be given an
opportunity to vote on a bill, a piece of legislation that is more
important than this. If we don't do it now, with your vote, when will
we do it?
If for some reason this bill fails, those who cause it to fail have
to ask themselves, when will we get a bill we can rely on, that we can
trust, which is put together by good, practical people who resolved
issues in a practical manner by working on the issues that are now
confronting us, which are that our borders are wide open and we have no
control over what is happening.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional
minute.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DOMENICI. I am certain if, after we pass legislation such as
this, we provide the resources that are needed--and that is very
important, and I think we are providing a means and a manner for
resources to go to the border in this bill--and, secondly, if we
annually make sure the resources and manpower are there to implement
this law--because it will require much by way of manpower, much by way
of technology--if we give this law that, we will return to say this was
a historic event. Indeed, we will have done something good for America
and good for our children. Something good for the families of existing
immigrants, good for immigrants who are coming in the future and their
families, who will also be permitted. We will also look for merit in
those who are coming to help America, which is competing in a very
difficult world.
I am very proud to be on the side of those who are trying to maintain
the measure intact, or practically intact, because you can't do much
better than was done by this hard-working bipartisan group. The more
you try to change it, the more you risk losing it. When you end up
thinking what did you lose it for, you end up really wondering whether
you did right for your country.
I urge that we move as fast as we can, giving Senators an
opportunity, those who need it, and, yes, saying we are going to pass
it soon--I don't know about tomorrow or the next day but certainly send
to our leader a message that if you will give us an opportunity to call
up a few more amendments, it will get accomplished.
I look forward to more debate, more amendments.
Mr. MENENDEZ addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? Who yields to the Senator? If
no Senator yields time, then the time will be divided equally between
both sides.
The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask unanimous
consent that it be equally charged.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk
will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. DOLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cantwell). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Amendment No. 1345
Mrs. DOLE. Madam President, I ask that at the conclusion of the
consented time and the stacked votes, I be recognized to call up my
amendment No. 1345 and that after 2 minutes of consideration, the
amendment be laid aside.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Who yields time to the Senator? At this time, the Senator from
Alabama controls 17 minutes and the Senator from Texas 12.
Mr. SESSIONS. Is there any other time left?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is not at this time.
Mr. SESSIONS. I will be pleased to yield to the Senator from North
Carolina.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina is recognized.
Mrs. DOLE. Madam President, I am very concerned that amendments to
this bill are being limited because there are many issues that deserve
attention in this debate. For instance, in my home State of North
Carolina, we have had a number of fatal automobile accidents caused by
an intoxicated person who was in the United States illegally. Sadly,
just yesterday morning on Interstate 40 near Raleigh, a man was killed
on his way to work when his vehicle was struck by an SUV barreling
across the median. The SUV driver, according to initial news reports,
is an illegal alien, who now faces a number of criminal charges,
including DWI.
In several of these incidents, the illegal alien driver has a record
of DWI, sometimes repeated offenses, but has been caught and released.
Just this past March, in Johnston County, NC, a 9-year-old boy and his
father lost their lives in an accident caused by an intoxicated driver
who had been convicted twice of drunken driving and had an outstanding
warrant stemming from a probation violation--and he was in the United
States illegally. Another tragic case was the death of Scott Gardner, a
Gaston County school teacher, who was killed in 2005 by a drunk
driver--a driver who was an illegal alien with five previous DWI
charges. I want to thank my colleague Richard Burr who introduced the
Scott Gardner Act to deal with this serious issue, and on the House
side, my good friend Sue Myrick has been a true leader on this front.
I hear from many North Carolinians who ask me what is Washington
doing to stop this from happening. When are we going to take action to
make our communities safer.
Such senseless tragedies are not unique to North Carolina. Automobile
accidents caused by intoxicated illegal aliens are occurring around the
Nation--too often killing innocent people
[[Page 14808]]
who are just going about their daily lives, or leaving the victims with
crippling, disabling injuries.
It is a privilege, not a right, for an immigrant to receive legal
status to live in the United States of America. My amendment would
ensure that this privilege is not granted to an illegal alien with a
DWI conviction.
No question, our DWI laws should be vigorously enforced, regardless
of the offender's immigration or citizenship status.
My amendment addresses an all too prevalent problem and should be
considered. There are a number of other amendments that deserve a place
in this debate. The bill we are considering would have enormous
ramifications for nearly every American, as well as those who want to
work in this country or become American citizens. We must do our due
diligence and not rush this bill through. The majority in this body
must not stifle the voice of the minority Members. More amendments must
be considered.
I yield back my remaining time to Senator Sessions, the Republican
manager.
Mr. SESSIONS. I thank Senator Dole for her insight, sharing that
important information, and for offering an amendment and demonstrating
once again that good amendments dealing with very important issues are
not being allowed to be considered. This is not a free and open debate.
This is not a free opportunity to amend. The majority leader is
controlling his machinery, the train is moving down the track, and very
few amendments are being approved.
I have offered and filed quite a number. I have only gotten two
amendments, and I said at the beginning that only one would be voted
on. We are having the first vote on one I have offered.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent--I see my colleague, Senator
Kennedy, here--I ask unanimous consent that the pending business be set
aside and I be allowed to call up amendment No. 1253.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. LIEBERMAN. On behalf of Senator Kennedy, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, we have quite a number of other
amendments. That is what we are going to hear when we offer any of them
because we now have a cloture motion filed. If cloture is obtained and
you don't have an amendment pending, you can't get a vote on it. We
know what the game is, and it is not a free, open debate on one of the
most important bills in the time that I have been in the Senate that we
are considering today.
I would like to share a few more thoughts. Maybe I will have a few
minutes left for Senator Lieberman. I know he wants more time than he
has gotten so far. Senator Kennedy is maneuvering for me to give him
some of my time and maybe I will be able to do that.
The earned-income tax credit will not be taken away from people who
are illegally in the country today if my amendment is passed. The
earned-income tax credit is a credit given to working individuals who
have lower incomes to encourage people to work. That is what it is all
about. It is for Americans and people legally here.
So what I propose is that we do not provide this, on average, almost
$2,000-per-year paycheck from the U.S. Government, to people who came
into the country illegally and were given this probationary card status
through their Z card status.
I am not offering an amendment to take the earned-income tax credit
away after they become legal permanent residents. So if they become a
legal permanent resident, they would be entitled to have the earned-
income tax credit.
Last year I offered an amendment that said that you would not get the
earned-income tax credit until you became an actual citizen. That was
voted down. Why? I still am not sure. I still don't think that was a
good vote. But at least we ought not to give this credit to someone who
was here illegally a few days ago, and now we give them some sort of
probationary status and they immediately start getting paychecks from
the Federal Government.
I don't think that is what this system is about. People would be
given a great thing. They would be given amnesty, they would be able to
stay in the country legally, continue to work, and any family gets to
stay with them. All of this is in this piece of legislation.
A lot of people think that is too generous, but that is what this
legislation does. The next question is: What else do they obtain by
virtue of having this legal status bestowed on them when they were
illegal? They are not receiving the earned-income tax credit now. It is
not something that is being taken away from them. It is a question of
when are we going to bestow that additional benefit on people who were
in our country illegally and how much of an incentive does this payment
to them create for other people who want to come into our country
illegally?
That is some of the confusion we have. In my view, the first thing
you do to reduce the flow of illegal immigration into the country is to
quit rewarding it by Federal largesse. That is the first thing. If you
cannot go out and arrest everybody--and that is not practical--and we
are not going to do these other things, at least don't give people
extra financial benefits as a reward to coming into our country
illegally.
I am very concerned about that. I think that it is not a little bitty
matter because the--Madam President, I would ask that I be notified
when there is 5 minutes remaining.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator will be notified.
Mr. SESSIONS. So what I would say to my colleagues is, this is going
to cost a lot of money. You do not have to be trained in economics to
understand that money comes from somebody. Who does the money come
from? It comes from American workers and taxpayers, many of whom are
having their wages depressed as a result of this huge flow of illegal
labor. They are being asked to pay an earned-income tax credit check of
$1,800, on average, to individuals who were illegal a few months before
and possibly still have not completed the full background check. They
still may not have completed the process to go to even a Z visa. Then
they may be in a Z visa status for some time.
I know it is said it is not amnesty because they have to pay a fine.
How much is the fine? $1,000. They pay a $1,000 fine. Well, they do not
actually pay a $1,000 fine. When they get this probationary status
visa, they only pay $200. They pay the rest of it on an installment.
Nobody has stated and set out how they are going to pay it. Presumably,
they can pay it for 8 years or more.
So a person here illegally under the legislation that is now before
us, that person would obtain legal status in the country, be able to
work, and would then be entitled to receive an earned-income tax
credit.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 5 minutes remaining.
Mr. SESSIONS. So they would receive that earned-income tax credit,
which would be, on average, almost $2,000, and they would pay only
$200. Now, that is a pretty good deal, if you can get it, it seems to
me. It is not necessary. It is not necessary as a matter of law, and it
is not necessary as a matter of morality. It is certainly contrary to
sound principles of Government. We should not do that.
I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. It is an amendment
that would impact our Treasury by perhaps, according to the
Congressional Budget Office, $10 billion in the next 10 years--$10
billion. So it is quite a sizable chunk.
Madam President, I see my friend, Senator Lieberman is here. I yield
the remainder of the time I have left to him. How much time remains?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 3\1/2\ minutes.
The Senator from Connecticut.
amendment no. 1191
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, I thank my friend, Senator Sessions.
I appreciate his kind gesture. That brings me back within 30 seconds of
[[Page 14809]]
what I originally had. I appreciate that.
I am going to speak on amendment No. 1191, which is set down for a
vote this evening. This is an amendment that would improve our Nation's
treatment of asylum seekers, that is, people who come to our shores
seeking refuge from persecution they have suffered in their home
countries based on race, religion, nationality or political conviction.
As far as I know, this is the only amendment on the treatment of
those seeking asylum that will be considered as part of this
comprehensive immigration legislation. I offer this amendment because
the Congressionally chartered Commission on International Religious
Freedom has told us that our country, our Government, is failing in its
historic duty to those ``longing to breathe free'' from the Statue of
Liberty.
I believe, as the Commission outlined, we can address this serious
challenge at very little expense, with no adverse affect on our
Nation's security, and without impairing immigration enforcement
operations. It is the right thing to do. It is consistent with our best
values in our history. In fact, as you know, our Founding Fathers
understood the Nation's role to be not just a haven for those seeking
freedom but a haven for those seeking freedom from persecution.
Thomas Jefferson once likened the United States to a ``New Canaan,''
the Biblical Canaan in mind, where victims of persecution, and I am
quoting here, ``will be received as brothers and secured against like
oppressions by a participation in the right of self-government.''
That is exactly what America has become. To the great benefit of this
country, some of the greatest Americans in our history came here as
refugees seeking asylum from persecution. Nobel Laureates Albert
Einstein and Thomas Mann became neighbors in Princeton, NJ. Henry
Kissinger and Madeline Albright came with their families to the United
States, fleeing from the Nazis and Communists, respectively, and went
on, of course, to become Secretaries of State.
If I might, on a point of personal privilege say, most special to me,
on a day in 1949, then a child, my wife, Hadassah Freilich Lieberman,
came here with her parents seeking asylum from Communist
Czechoslovakia. This national duty to those fleeing persecution is
emblazoned in a particular stanza on the Statue of Liberty that says:
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the
imprisoned lightning,
And her name . . . Mother of Exiles.
Yet despite that lofty sentiment, too often today we are apparently
turning asylum seekers away without the proper hearings guaranteed them
by law, or confining them in prison conditions alongside convicted
criminals while their cases are pending. That is what the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported to Congress.
This group was established, I am proud to say, in 1998, pursuant to
legislation I introduced along with then-Senator Nickles and still,
fortunately, Senator Specter.
It was aimed at strengthening our Government advocacy on behalf of
individuals around the world who were being persecuted for their faith.
Congress in the year that we established the Commission on
International Religious Freedom also expressed its concern that
recently enacted expedited removal procedures might be causing our own
Government to mistreat victims of oppression, religious oppression, who
came to the United States seeking asylum.
To find out if this was happening, Congress directed the newly
established Commission to study the treatment of asylum seekers. The
Commission conducted a comprehensive investigation and released a
report in February of 2005 that was quite critical of the procedures of
the Department of Homeland Security.
The report's recommendations were reasonable and straightforward.
Unfortunately, 2 years passed. I persistently asked officials at the
Department of Homeland Security when it would respond to the report and
was always told the same: The recommendations are under review.
It appeared that little or nothing was being done. In fact, this
February, 2007, the Religious Freedom Commission itself issued a
blistering report 2 years after its initial report in which it gave out
grades. The Customs and Border Patrol Agency received an F with respect
to its treatment of asylum seekers. The Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Agency received mostly Fs, and an overall grade of D. The
Department of Homeland Security itself generally received an overall
grade of D as well in its treatment of those claiming to be coming to
America to seek asylum from persecution--religious, racial, nationality
or based on political conviction.
That is unacceptable. Remember it was Congress that originally
expressed concern about the treatment of asylum seekers. It was
Congress that directed the Commission it had created to study whether
there is a problem, was a problem, and now, in this Congress, as part
of this comprehensive immigration reform bill, it must be Congress that
will fix the problems the Commission has found.
That is why I introduced separate legislation earlier this year and
then filed this amendment. I am pleased to say it appears I have come
to some agreement with the Department of Homeland Security on a
modified version of the amendment which I hope will be broadly
supported by my colleagues.
It implements the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom and will improve our treatment of those
who come to our shores claiming they seek asylum from persecution.
We have made a number of changes to address the concerns the
Department of Homeland Security brought to us. I am pleased to describe
them briefly.
The Commission on Religious Freedom found that too often the
Department of Homeland Security was returning asylum seekers to
countries where they were persecuted without giving them a chance to
adequately make their case that they had a credible basis for their
claims of persecution. Often employees of the Department of Homeland
Security were failing to even ask these asylum seekers if they feared
persecution, as required by Department procedures, before they were
removed. This amendment would require what might be called simple
quality assurance procedures so that the Department of Homeland
Security can ensure its practices comply with its policies.
Secondly, virtually all the defense facilities the Department of
Homeland Security uses are run as maximum security prisons, and in many
cases those seeking asylum in this country, because they claim to be
fleeing countries that were persecuting them, those detainees are
forced to share cells with convicted criminals in maximum security
prisons, sometimes in county jails. This is not appropriate for asylum
seekers and other detainees who are not criminals and are not being
criminally prosecuted. This amendment would require better Department
of Homeland Security standards for those detention facilities to make
them more consistent with our best values and the words that are
emblazoned on the Statute of Liberty. This amendment would also
encourage the development of more appropriate facilities for asylum
seekers and families with children. These would be modeled after two
secure but less restrictive facilities that the Department of Homeland
Security already operates, one in Florida and the other in
Pennsylvania.
The amendment will also encourage the expansion of secure
alternatives to detention such as supervised release programs. Congress
has already funded programs of this kind, and they have been
successful. The amendment ensures the Department of Homeland Security
will conduct vigorous oversight of the detention facilities it uses so
the facilities, in fact, are complying with Department standards.
[[Page 14810]]
It is time we put in place and enforce safeguards to ensure people
fleeing persecution are treated humanely and in accordance not just
with our Nation's laws but with our best values.
I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Amendment No. 1191, as Modified
Mr. LIEBERMAN. I have a modification to the amendment, which I send
to the desk at this time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modification?
Without objection, the amendment is so modified.
The amendment, as modified, is as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
Subtitle __--Asylum and Detention Safeguards
SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Secure and Safe
Detention and Asylum Act''.
SEC. __02. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Credible fear of persecution.--The term ``credible fear
of persecution'' has the meaning given that term in section
235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)).
(2) Detainee.--The term ``detainee'' means an alien in the
custody of the Department of Homeland Security who is held in
a detention facility.
(3) Detention facility.--The term ``detention facility''
means any Federal facility in which an alien detained pending
the outcome of a removal proceeding, or an alien detained
pending the execution of a final order of removal, is
detained for more than 72 hours, or any other facility in
which such detention services are provided to the Federal
Government by contract, and does not include detention at any
port of entry in the United States.
(4) Reasonable fear of persecution or torture.--The term
``reasonable fear of persecution or torture'' has the meaning
given that term in section 208.31 of title 8, Code of Federal
Regulations.
(5) Standard.--The term ``standard'' means any policy,
procedure, or other requirement.
SEC. __03. RECORDING EXPEDITED REMOVAL INTERVIEWS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish quality
assurance procedures and take steps to effectively ensure
that questions by employees of the Department exercising
expedited removal authority under section 235(b) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)) are asked
in a standard manner, and that both these questions and the
answers provided in response to them are recorded in a
uniform fashion.
(b) Factors Relating to Sworn Statements.--Where
practicable, as determined by the Secretary in his
discretion, any sworn or signed written statement taken of an
alien as part of the record of a proceeding under section
235(b)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1225(b)(1)(A)) shall be accompanied by a recording of the
interview which served as the basis for that sworn statement.
(c) Exemption Authority.--
(1) In general.--Subsection (b) shall not apply to
interviews that occur at facilities, locations, or areas
exempted by the Secretary pursuant to this subsection.
(2) Exemption.--The Secretary or the Secretary's designee
may exempt any facility, location, or area from the
requirements of this section based on a determination by the
Secretary or the Secretary's designee that compliance with
subsection (b) at that facility would impair operations or
impose undue burdens or costs.
(3) Report.--The Secretary or the Secretary's designee
shall report annually to Congress on the facilities that have
been exempted pursuant to this subsection.
(d) Interpreters.--The Secretary shall ensure that a
competent interpreter, not affiliated with the government of
the country from which the alien may claim asylum, is used
when the interviewing officer does not speak a language
understood by the alien and there is no other Federal, State,
or local government employee available who is able to
interpret effectively, accurately, and impartially.
(e) Recordings in Immigration Proceedings.--Recordings of
interviews of aliens subject to expedited removal shall be
included in the record of proceeding and may be considered as
evidence in any further proceedings involving the alien.
(f) No Private Right of Action.--Nothing in this section
shall be construed to create any right, benefit, trust, or
responsibility, whether substantive or procedural,
enforceable in law or equity by a party against the United
States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities,
entities, officers, employees, or agents, or any person, nor
does this section create any right of review in any
administrative, judicial, or other proceeding.
SEC. __04. OPTIONS REGARDING DETENTION DECISIONS.
Section 236 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1226) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
(i) in the first sentence by striking ``Attorney General''
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security''; and
(ii) in the second sentence by striking ``Attorney
General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (2)--
(i) in subparagraph (A)--
(I) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(II) by striking ``or'' at the end;
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``but'' at the end;
and
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
``(C) the alien's own recognizance; or
``(D) a secure alternatives program as provided for in this
section; but'';
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ``Attorney General'' and
inserting ``Secretary'';
(3) in subsection (c)--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary'' each place it appears; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``or for humanitarian
reasons,'' after ``such an investigation,''; and
(4) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``Attorney General'' and
inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (1), in subparagraphs (A) and (B), by
striking ``Service'' each place it appears and inserting
``Department of Homeland Security''; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``Service'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security''.
SEC. __05. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON PAROLE PROCEDURES AND
STANDARDIZATION OF PAROLE PROCEDURES.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General and the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall jointly conduct a review and report
to the appropriate Committees of the Senate and the House of
Representatives within 180 days of the date of enactment of
this Act regarding the effectiveness of parole and custody
determination procedures applicable to aliens who have
established a credible fear of persecution and are awaiting a
final determination regarding their asylum claim by the
immigration courts. The report shall include the following:
(1) An analysis of the rate at which release from detention
(including release on parole) is granted to aliens who have
established a credible fear of persecution and are awaiting a
final determination regarding their asylum claim by the
immigration courts throughout the United States, and any
disparity that exists between locations or geographical
areas, including explanation of the reasons for this
disparity and what actions are being taken to have consistent
and uniform application of the standards for granting parole.
(2) An analysis of the effect of the procedures and
policies applied with respect to parole and custody
determinations both by the Attorney General and the Secretary
on the alien's pursuit of their asylum claim before an
immigration court.
(3) An analysis of the effect of the procedures and
policies applied with respect to parole and custody
determinations both by the Attorney General and the Secretary
on the alien's physical and psychological well-being.
(4) An analysis of the effectiveness of the procedures and
policies applied with respect to parole and custody
determinations both by the Attorney General and the Secretary
in securing the alien's presence at the immigration court
proceedings.
(b) Recommendations.--The report shall include
recommendations with respect to whether the existing parole
and custody determination procedures applicable to aliens who
have established a credible fear of persecution and are
awaiting a final determination regarding their asylum claim
by the immigration courts should be modified in order to
ensure a more consistent application of these procedures in a
way that both respects the interests of aliens pursuing valid
claims of asylum and ensures the presence of the aliens at
the immigration court proceedings.
SEC. __06. LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General, in consultation with
the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall ensure that all
detained aliens in immigration and asylum proceedings receive
legal orientation through a program administered and
implemented by the Executive Office for Immigration Review of
the Department of Justice.
(b) Content of Program.--The legal orientation program
developed pursuant to this section shall be based on the
Legal Orientation Program carried out by the Executive Office
for Immigration Review on the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(c) Expansion of Legal Assistance.--The Secretary shall
ensure the expansion through the United States Citizenship
and Immigration Service of public-private partnerships that
facilitate pro bono counseling and legal assistance for
aliens awaiting a credible fear of persecution interview or
an interview related to a reasonable fear of persecution or
torture determination under section 241(b)(3).
SEC. __07. CONDITIONS OF DETENTION.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall ensure that standards
governing conditions and procedures at detention facilities
are fully implemented and enforced, and that all detention
facilities comply with the standards.
[[Page 14811]]
(b) Procedures and Standards.--The Secretary shall
promulgate new standards, or modify existing detention
standards, to comply with the following policies and
procedures:
(1) Fair and humane treatment.--Procedures to prevent
detainees from being subject to degrading or inhumane
treatment such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or harassment,
or arbitrary punishment.
(2) Limitations on solitary confinement.--Procedures
limiting the use of solitary confinement, shackling, and
strip searches of detainees to situations where the use of
such techniques is necessitated by security interests, the
safety of officers and other detainees, or other
extraordinary circumstances.
(3) Investigation of grievances.--Procedures for the prompt
and effective investigation of grievances raised by
detainees.
(4) Access to telephones.--Procedures permitting detainees
sufficient access to telephones, and the ability to contact,
free of charge, legal representatives, the immigration
courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Federal
courts through confidential toll-free numbers.
(5) Location of facilities.--Location of detention
facilities, to the extent practicable, near sources of free
or low-cost legal representation with expertise in asylum or
immigration law.
(6) Procedures governing transfers of detainees.--
Procedures governing the transfer of a detainee that take
into account--
(A) the detainee's access to legal representatives; and
(B) the proximity of the facility to the venue of the
asylum or removal proceeding.
(7) Quality of medical care.--
(A) In general.--Essential medical care provided promptly
at no cost to the detainee, including dental care, eye care,
mental health care, and where appropriate, individual and
group counseling, medical dietary needs, and other medically
necessary specialized care. Medical facilities in all
detention facilities used by the Department maintain current
accreditation by the National Commission on Correctional
Health Care (NCCHC). Requirements that each medical facility
that is not accredited by the Joint Commission on the
Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) will seek
to obtain such accreditation. Maintenance of complete medical
records for every detainee which shall be made available upon
request to a detainee, his legal representative, or other
authorized individuals.
(B) Exception.--A detention facility that is not operated
by the Department of Homeland Security or by a private
contractor on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security
shall not be required to maintain current accreditation by
the NCCHC or to seek accreditation by the JCAHO.
(8) Translation capabilities.--The employment of detention
facility staff that, to the extent practicable, are qualified
in the languages represented in the population of detainees
at a detention facility, and the provision of alternative
translation services when necessary.
(9) Recreational programs and activities.--Frequent access
to indoor and outdoor recreational programs and activities.
(c) Special Standards for Noncriminal Detainees.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the distinctions between persons with
criminal convictions or a history of violent behavior and all
other detainees; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for a noncriminal, nonviolent population.
(d) Special Standards for Specific Populations.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the unique needs of--
(A) victims of persecution, torture, trafficking, and
domestic violence;
(B) families with children;
(C) detainees who do not speak English; and
(D) detainees with special religious, cultural, or
spiritual considerations; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for the populations described in paragraph (1).
(e) Training of Personnel.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary shall ensure that personnel
in detention facilities are given specialized training to
better understand and work with the population of detainees
held at the facilities where such personnel work. The
training should address the unique needs of--
(A) aliens who have established credible fear of
persecution;
(B) victims of torture or other trauma and victims of
persecution, trafficking, and domestic violence; and
(C) families with children, detainees who do not speak
English, and detainees with special religious, cultural, or
spiritual considerations.
(2) Specialized training.--The training required by this
subsection shall be designed to better enable personnel to
work with detainees from different countries, and detainees
who cannot speak English. The training shall emphasize that
many detainees have no criminal records and are being held
for civil violations.
(f) No Private Right of Action.--Nothing in this section
shall be construed to create any right, benefit, trust, or
responsibility, whether substantive or procedural,
enforceable in law or equity by a party against the United
States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities,
entities, officers, employees, or agents, or any person, nor
does this section create any right of review in any
administrative, judicial, or other proceeding.
SEC. __08. OFFICE OF DETENTION OVERSIGHT.
(a) Establishment of the Office.--
(1) In general.--There shall be established within the
Department an Office of Detention Oversight (in this section
referred to as the ``Office'').
(2) Head of the office.--There shall be at the head of the
Office an Administrator. At the discretion of the Secretary,
the Administrator of the Office shall be appointed by, and
shall report to, either the Secretary or the Assistant
Secretary of Homeland Security for United States Immigration
and Customs Enforcement. The Office shall be independent of
the Office of Detention and Removal Operations, but shall be
subject to the supervision and direction of the Secretary or
Assistant Secretary.
(3) Schedule.--The Office shall be established and the
Administrator of the Office appointed not later than 6 months
after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) Responsibilities of the Office.--
(1) Inspections of detention centers.--The Administrator of
the Office shall--
(A) undertake regular and, where appropriate, unannounced
inspections of all detention facilities;
(B) develop a procedure for any detainee or the detainee's
representative to file a confidential written complaint
directly with the Office; and
(C) report to the Secretary and to the Assistant Secretary
all findings of a detention facility's noncompliance with
detention standards.
(2) Investigations.--The Administrator of the Office
shall--
(A) initiate investigations, as appropriate, into
allegations of systemic problems at detention facilities or
incidents that constitute serious violations of detention
standards;
(B) conduct any review or audit relating to detention as
directed by the Secretary or the Assistant Secretary;
(C) report to the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary the
results of all investigations, reviews, or audits; and
(D) refer matters, where appropriate, for further action
to--
(i) the Department of Justice;
(ii) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(iii) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department; or
(iv) any other relevant office or agency.
(3) Report to congress.--
(A) In general.--The Administrator of the Office shall
submit to the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, the
Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the
Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland
Security of the House of Representatives an annual report on
the Administrator's findings on detention conditions and the
results of the completed investigations carried out by the
Administrator.
(B) Contents of report.--Each report required by
subparagraph (A) shall include--
(i) a description of--
(I) each detention facility found to be in noncompliance
with the standards for detention required by this subtitle;
and
(II) the actions taken by the Department to remedy any
findings of noncompliance or other identified problems; and
(ii) information regarding whether such actions were
successful and resulted in compliance with detention
standards.
(c) Cooperation With Other Offices and Agencies.--Whenever
appropriate, the Administrator of the Office shall cooperate
and coordinate its activities with--
(1) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(2) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department;
(3) the Privacy Officer of the Department;
(4) the Department of Justice; or
(5) any other relevant office or agency.
SEC. __09. SECURE ALTERNATIVES PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment of Program.--The Secretary shall
establish a secure alternatives program under which an alien
who has been detained may be released under enhanced
supervision to prevent the alien from absconding and to
ensure that the alien makes appearances related to such
detention.
(b) Program Requirements.--
(1) Nationwide implementation.--The Secretary shall
facilitate the development of the secure alternatives program
on a nationwide basis, as a continuation of existing pilot
programs such as the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program
developed by the Department.
(2) Utilization of alternatives.--In facilitating the
development of the secure alternatives program, the Secretary
shall have discretion to utilize a continuum of alternatives
to a supervision of the alien, including placement of the
alien with an individual or organizational sponsor, or in a
supervised group home.
[[Page 14812]]
(3) Aliens eligible for secure alternatives program.--
(A) In general.--Aliens who would otherwise be subject to
detention based on a consideration of the release criteria in
section 236(b)(2), or who are released pursuant to section
236(c)(2), shall be considered for the secure alternatives
program.
(B) Design of programs.--In developing the secure
alternatives program, the Secretary shall take into account
the extent to which the program includes only those
alternatives to detention that reasonably and reliably
ensure--
(i) the alien's continued presence at all future
immigration proceedings;
(ii) the alien's compliance with any future order or
removal; and
(iii) the public safety or national security.
(C) Continued evaluation.--The Secretary shall evaluate
regularly the effectiveness of the program, including the
effectiveness of the particular alternatives to detention
used under the program, and make such modifications as the
Secretary deems necessary to improve the program's
effectiveness or to deter abuse.
(4) Contracts and other considerations.--The Secretary may
enter into contracts with qualified nongovernmental entities
to implement the secure alternatives program and, in
designing such program, shall consult with relevant experts
and consider programs that have proven successful in the
past.
SEC. __10. LESS RESTRICTIVE DETENTION FACILITIES.
(a) Construction.--To the extent practicable, the Secretary
shall facilitate the construction or use of secure but less
restrictive detention facilities for the purpose of long-term
detention where detainees are held longer than 72 hours.
(b) Criteria.--In pursuing the development of detention
facilities pursuant to this section, the Secretary shall--
(1) consider the design, operation, and conditions of
existing secure but less restrictive detention facilities;
and
(2) to the extent practicable, construct or use detention
facilities where--
(A) movement within and between indoor and outdoor areas of
the facility is subject to minimal restrictions;
(B) detainees have ready access to social, psychological,
and medical services;
(C) detainees with special needs, including those who have
experienced trauma or torture, have ready access to services
and treatment addressing their needs;
(D) detainees have frequent access to programs and
recreation;
(E) detainees are permitted contact visits with legal
representatives and family members; and
(F) special facilities are provided to families with
children.
(c) Facilities for Families With Children.--In any case in
which release or secure alternatives programs are not a
practicable option, the Secretary shall, to the extent
practicable, ensure that special detention facilities for the
purposes of long-term detention where detainees are held
longer than 72 hours are specifically designed to house
parents with their minor children, including ensuring that--
(1) procedures and conditions of detention are appropriate
for families with minor children; and
(2) living and sleeping quarters for children under 14
years of age are not physically separated from at least 1 of
the child's parents.
(d) Placement in Nonpunitive Facilities.--Among the factors
to be considered with respect to placing a detainee in a less
restrictive facility is whether the detainee is--
(1) part of a family with minor children;
(2) a victim of persecution, torture, trafficking, or
domestic violence; or
(3) a nonviolent, noncriminal detainee.
(e) Procedures and Standards.--Where necessary, the
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modify existing
detention standards, to promote the development of less
restrictive detention facilities.
(f) No Private Right of Action.--Nothing in this section
shall be construed to create any right, benefit, trust, or
responsibility, whether substantive or procedural,
enforceable in law or equity by a party against the United
States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities,
entities, officers, employees, or agents, or any person, nor
does this section create any right of review in any
administrative, judicial, or other proceeding.
SEC. __11. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; EFFECTIVE DATE.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out
this subtitle.
(b) Effective Date.--This subtitle and the amendments made
by this subtitle shall take effect on the date that is 180
days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, it is my understanding that based on
the agreement we have reached after negotiation with the Department of
Homeland Security, the Senate is prepared to agree to the amendment. I
ask unanimous consent that occur.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, the
amendment, as modified, is agreed to.
The amendment (No. 1191), as modified, was agreed to.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote and to
lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. LIEBERMAN. This will mean the amendment now listed as No. 6 of
those to be voted upon would no longer have to be voted upon.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas has the remainder of
the time.
Amendment No. 1250
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I rise to speak in favor of my earlier
amendment which would take the blinders off law enforcement personnel
when it comes to investigating fraud and other wrongful and even
criminal conduct on the part of those who are claiming an advantage
under this legislation, as well as third parties who might be
implicated in fraud or other criminality.
I would first like to respond to Senator Kennedy's comments, and then
I want to speak to the Menendez amendment briefly. Senator Kennedy
earlier claimed my amendment eliminated all kinds of protections of
confidentiality. He said he provided a level of protection of
confidentiality for individuals so it will encourage them to come
forward and file their applications for Z visas, and he is worried if
we allow law enforcement access to that information to investigate
third party fraud or other criminality, the applicants for the Z visas
will not be willing to come forward.
It should be noted that my amendment does not eliminate all
protections. It simply ensures law enforcement has access to
information for those who cannot qualify for Z status under the terms
of the underlying bill, including those who are criminals and
absconders who have reflected their prior disregard for our laws. Also,
despite Senator Kennedy's claim, their proposal still protects
information for aliens who have committed crimes but have not been
convicted and are denied Z status. My amendment would make that
information available to law enforcement personnel in the discharge of
their official duties.
Furthermore, the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts
acknowledges there was fraud in sworn affidavits and claims.
He said he is now alluding to the 1986 fraud under the agricultural
amnesty bill that I mentioned in my earlier remarks and which were the
subject of a New York Times article dated November 12, 1989. He said we
took action in this legislation to fix it.
First, let me express my appreciation to the Senator for
acknowledging that the third party affidavits that were used to qualify
for benefits in 1986 were a large source of fraud.
I see nothing in the bill that would ensure that fraudulent sworn
affidavits, especially those provided by third parties, are accessible
to law enforcement to prosecute the fraud.
This type of fraud remains protected and thus we haven't come very
far from the problems we encountered in the 1986 amnesty.
Senator Kennedy says we must guarantee confidentiality.
He said:
If we expect individuals to participate in that system, we
have to guarantee their confidentiality. It's enormously
important. This system isn't going to function and work
unless we do.
What my esteemed colleague is essentially saying is, we need to
protect those who have violated our laws, even committed felonies and
other crimes for which they have not yet been convicted, because they
would not come out of the shadows and register.
The point is, it is more than just coming out of the shadows. It is
giving legal status to a person who has arguably violated our laws and
put them on a path to citizenship, denying law enforcement the
opportunity to investigate and to prosecute where appropriate.
Further, we are essentially binding the hands of law enforcement
because even if they wanted to prosecute these individuals and remove
them from the
[[Page 14813]]
country, they couldn't get the evidence needed to make the case, nor
could they remove the person because by merely applying for Z status,
they get the protection from removal.
Is that really what we want to say to our country about who should be
permitted to remain in the United States? I think not. Nothing in my
amendment would affect the ability of those who have entered the
country in violation of our immigration laws or who have simply
overstayed their visa or even those who have produced false documents
in order to gain access to work. My amendment would not even address
any of those individuals. This present amendment would not do that.
But, surely, we want to remove the cloak of confidentiality, the
blinders, from our law enforcement personnel that would allow them to
investigate cases of fraud, wrongful conduct, and other criminality.
I remain flabbergasted that the proponents of this bill would embrace
this sort of provision. I would think what they would want to do is
restore public confidence that we are actually reestablishing the rule
of law when it comes to this broken immigration system. If anything,
this serves to confirm the worst fears of skeptics about this bill
because, frankly, it does nothing but confirm their worst fears that
this is a vehicle for perpetuating the same sort of mistakes we
encountered in the 1986 legislation, but apparently those lessons were
not learned.
Amendment No. 1194
I want to speak briefly about the amendment offered by Senator
Menendez while he is on the Senate floor regarding those who want to
immigrate to our country, but particularly those who have respected our
laws and who have waited patiently in line.
I am particularly troubled by the situation that his amendment is
designed to remedy because the proponents of the underlying bill have
said: We are not going to allow any line jumping. We are going to
provide an opportunity for those who have violated the law to get right
with the law, but we are not going to do so to the detriment of people
who have followed the rules and waited patiently in line, expecting
that their application for a visa or legal permanent residency would be
acted on. As I said before the recess, this is a very important
principle to me. It is a matter of fundamental fairness and crucial to
the integrity of not only our immigration system but our entire legal
system. It would be extremely unfair to allow someone who has not
respected our laws to be able to obtain a green card before someone who
has respected our laws and waited in line for a chance to enter the
country legally.
I am not talking about the claim that those who wait in line legally
have to do it in their home country while someone who is here illegally
and obtains a Z card can wait in country. That certainly is an issue.
Those who are here illegally are getting the advantage over and above
those who have made the decision to obey our laws waiting patiently
outside the country. Even Secretary Chertoff, a key negotiator of the
compromise, admits in a USA Today article that there is a ``fundamental
unfairness'' anytime illegal immigrants are permitted to stay in
country, while those who have respected our laws wait patiently outside
of the country. I am afraid we make what even Secretary Chertoff admits
is a ``fundamental unfairness'' that much more unfair in the underlying
bill. To their credit, proponents of this compromise have stated that
the proposal would not allow anyone who came here illegally to obtain
their green card until everyone who chose to follow the law gets their
green card. That is a laudable goal, and that should be our goal. But
to achieve this goal, the compromise arbitrarily sets the cutoff date
for legally ``being in line'' at May 1, 2005, while setting the date
for the end of the line for those illegally here at January 1, 2007.
As an illustration, this means someone who chose to respect our
immigration laws, chose not to enter illegally, and filed the proper
immigration paperwork on June 1, 2005, is not considered to be ``in
line'' under the terms of this bill, while someone who decided not to
respect the laws and enter illegally on the same date can obtain a Z
status and ultimately secure American citizenship.
My staff has met with a number of groups who have focused on this
particular problem. I know Senator Menendez has been listening to their
same concerns. The Asian American Justice Center in particular has made
compelling arguments that declaring the end of the line for legal
immigration as May 1, 2005, is unfair. Other groups, including the
Interfaith Immigration Coalition, the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs, the U.S. Conference of Bishops, the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Education Fund have written to my office to explain that
those people who played by the rules and applied after May 1, 2005,
will not be cleared as part of the family backlog pursuant to the terms
of the bill and will lose their chance to immigrate under current rules
and be placed in line behind Z visa applicants. Some of these groups
report that more than 800,000 people who have patiently waited in line
will in essence be kicked out of the line.
I understand the Menendez amendment will be voted on soon. It
addresses an important issue, ensuring that those who decided to abide
by the laws will not be disadvantaged simply because they chose not to
come here illegally.
As I said, I have been struggling with this over the past couple
weeks because this is a matter of fundamental fairness. So I continue
to consider this amendment. I know others are likewise considering it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
Amendment No. 1250
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be 2 minutes equally divided on
amendment No. 1250.
Who yields time?
The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I understand we have 2 minutes equally
divided before the vote.
Simply stated for my colleagues, my amendment would remove the
blinders that would prevent law enforcement from investigating and
prosecuting wrongful conduct, including fraud and criminality.
I would think if there is one thing we learned from the 1986 amnesty,
this type of confidentiality provision, if it protects any information
to be gleaned from the applications of those who have actually been
denied Z visas, it would be that we should pursue and support this kind
of amendment which would help law enforcement and, even more
importantly, help restore public confidence that we are not playing
games with them but that we are actually serious about restoring the
rule of law when it comes to our broken immigration system.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, the Cornyn amendment attacks the whole
issue of confidentiality for these undocumented aliens. If the Cornyn
amendment is adopted, there are no individuals who are going to
register for any of these programs--none--because all their information
will be available.
This is a report-to-deport amendment. How are you going to convince
individuals to come in and register for the Z visa program or any of
the programs if they know all of their information is going to go to
the Immigration Service and every other agency?
With regard to criminality, with regard to terrorism, with regard to
all the fraud and all the abuse, we have put in here careful
protections. Those kinds of protections are supported by Jon Kyl, by
other Republican Members, and by all of us here.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. KENNEDY. If you accept the Cornyn amendment, it effectively
undermines all confidentiality.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I appreciate everyone allowing me to say a
few words before the vote starts. We have six votes that will take
place. Any minute, the votes will start. We worked out an agreement--
tentative in
[[Page 14814]]
nature, but I think it is fairly firm--we will have six more votes
tonight. I want to alert Members we will have more votes tonight. It
could be a late night, for sure.
When that is all completed, we will have had--I do not know the exact
number--35 votes, or something like that, and it is evenly divided
between Democrats and Republicans. There is one vote difference as to
who offered the amendment. But I think we have made a lot of progress.
I hope people feel they are having an opportunity to have their
voices heard in this regard. Within a short few votes, we will
certainly have had more votes than we had last year. I am not sure that
is a good guide for anything, but that is at least what we will be able
to show everyone. I hope people would be able to see that the end is in
sight.
Remember, if cloture is invoked on this matter, we will have 30 hours
more of amendments. As I have indicated to my friend, the distinguished
junior Senator from Arizona and others, upon being asked the question
whether all these postcloture votes would take place, the answer is, we
are not going to be blocking any people from voting on germane
amendments.
I hope everyone understands it will be a late night tonight, and we
will start early in the morning.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on my
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the Cornyn amendment No. 1250.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd),
the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), and the Senator from
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tester). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 57, nays 39, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 190 Leg.]
YEAS--57
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Klobuchar
Kyl
Lincoln
Lott
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NAYS--39
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lugar
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Stabenow
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--3
Dodd
Johnson
Kerry
The amendment (No. 1250) was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1331
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be 2 minutes evenly divided on
the Reid amendment, No. 1331.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the earned-income tax credit is an important
program that benefits low-income workers with children who are legally
working in this country. Those working illegally in this country are
ineligible for the earned-income tax credit.
This amendment makes it perfectly clear that nothing in the bill
changes the prohibition of an illegal alien's access to the earned-
income tax credit. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, this is not a cover vote. It is not a
cover vote at all. It leaves the bill exactly as it was. The problem
with the legislation is that those people who are today illegal and
would be made legal through the probationary status visa or the Z visa
would be entitled to receive the earned-income tax credit, which is, on
average, nearly $1,800 per recipient. That earned-income tax credit is
a direct payment from the taxpayers of America.
This amendment--unlike the vote you cast last year when I raised it--
would allow the earned-income tax credit when you get a green card but
not when you are on a Z visa or probationary visa. So this is less far-
reaching than the amendment I offered last year.
I urge that this amendment not be accepted.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired. The question is on
agreeing to amendment No. 1331.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a
sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 57, nays 40, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 191 Leg.]
YEAS--57
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Brownback
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Collins
Conrad
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Grassley
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Smith
Specter
Stabenow
Tester
Voinovich
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--40
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Bunning
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kyl
Lott
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Murkowski
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Warner
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1331) was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1234
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is now 2 minutes equally divided before
the vote on the Sessions amendment No. 1234.
Who yields time?
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, who is eligible for the earned-income tax
credit? Legal workers. They work. Who are the beneficiaries of the
earned-income tax credit? Ninety-eight percent of it goes to poor
children. What country in the world has the greatest percent of poor
children? The United States of America. Ninety-eight percent of the
benefits of the earned tax credit go to poor children, and many of them
are American children.
In the history of the Internal Revenue Code, we have never excluded a
class. We have treated everyone equally. The Sessions amendment for the
first time in the history of the United States of America is going to
say: Workers who are here legally are going to be denied the earned-
income tax credit that can benefit their children who are looking for a
better future.
I hope the Sessions amendment will be defeated.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from Alabama.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, the earned-income tax credit was
designed
[[Page 14815]]
and has been in effect as a support for American workers. That is what
it is. Four million people who do not have children receive it.
This amendment says those people who are here illegally today who are
made legal under this bill through the Z visa or the probationary
status who have not yet obtained legal permanent residence would not
get this benefit. The people are supposed to pay a fine, $1,000. They
only have to pay $200. They pay that $200 fine, sign up, and they get a
$2,000 earned-income tax credit, which is basically a check from the
United States Government.
The people who are here illegally would be, under this bill, made
legal, be allowed to work. They are not receiving earned-income tax
credit today. There is no moral, legal, or principled reason to give
them that in the future until they become a legal permanent resident.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. KENNEDY. I ask for the yeas and nays, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 1234.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd),
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 56, nays 41, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 192 Leg.]
YEAS--56
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Bond
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Klobuchar
Kyl
Landrieu
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sessions
Shelby
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NAYS--41
Akaka
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Brownback
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Collins
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1234) was agreed to.
Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. SESSIONS. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1194
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is now 2 minutes evenly divided before
the vote on the Menendez amendment, No. 1194.
Who yields time?
The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, under the bill before us, U.S. citizens
have less rights than an undocumented alien. The base bill says, you
break the law, you get benefits up to January 1, 2007. You follow the
rule of law, and your right as an American citizen to claim your
family, for which you have already submitted a petition, is
extinguished as of May 1, 2005. That is fundamentally wrong.
How do we promote the rule of law when we say to a U.S. citizen, who
has already applied for their family member waiting abroad, paid their
fees, the government has collected them, their application has been
approved, they followed the rules and obeyed the law, that they have an
inferior right--an inferior right--to someone who did not follow the
rules and crossed the border and who will ultimately receive a benefit
superior to that of a U.S. citizen who is claiming their family?
Why do we tell the family of the U.S. citizen to go to the back of
the line behind people who violated the law? This is a vote about
family values and family reunification. This is a vote about the rule
of law. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. The Senator
from Arizona.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, first of all, this is an amendment that would
enable people to enter the United States and become immigrants, green
card holders, and eventually citizens, who, under the current law, have
no expectation of ever getting those rights because they are in
categories or are from countries in which the waiting line is so long
that they would never, ever be able, under existing law, to become a
U.S. citizen.
In addition, because it would allow several hundred thousand
immigrants to come into this country who would not otherwise be legal
under existing law, there are three budget points of order, and,
therefore, at the conclusion of these remarks, I will be making a
budget point of order. I hope my colleagues agree that we should not
waive the budget under these circumstances.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I make a point of order that the pending
amendment, No. 1194, to S. 1348, violates section 201, the pay-as-you-
go point of order of S. Con. Res. 21, the concurrent resolution on the
budget for fiscal year 2008.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I regret that we have started down this
road. I move to waive section 201 of the concurrent resolution for
purposes of the pending amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to
be a sufficient second.
The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 53, nays 44, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 193 Leg.]
YEAS--53
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Bunning
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Coleman
Conrad
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Smith
Stabenow
Tester
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--44
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kyl
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Murkowski
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 53, the nays are
44. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected. The point of order is
sustained and the amendment falls.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to
lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
[[Page 14816]]
Amendment No. 1460
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are now 2 minutes evenly divided before
the vote on the Kyl amendment No. 1460. Who yields time?
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, could we have order?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I appreciate not waiving the budget in this
last point of order. I will confess to you, I think that Senator
Menendez had a point in saying we should only allow people who had a
reasonable expectation to be immigrants, and those who didn't should
not. The bill itself drew an arbitrary deadline. Senator Menendez drew
a different arbitrary deadline. This side-by-side actually is
constructed so that, under existing law, everyone who has a reasonable
expectation of being allowed to immigrate under a family visa will be
able to immigrate under a family visa. Only those people who never had
any reasonable expectation would be denied.
What it does is to take it out to the year 2027, 20 years from now,
and anyone who could have had a reasonable expectation of immigrating
within that 20-year period would be allowed to immigrate under this
amendment. It is a more precise and fair and just way to allow family
members to come into the United States. The numbers are approximately
identical to those who would be allowed to immigrate under the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote against
this. It is not more than a figleaf. It sounds great, 2027. The
definition of ``reasonable expectation'' means absolutely nothing. The
majority of the Senate voted to have some form, although it did not
pass a budget point of order, to have some form of family reunification
of U.S. citizens waiting to go be reunited with their family abroad.
This does nothing. As a matter of fact, I have heard some of the
children, family members of U.S. citizens, would have to wait 60 years.
I have the State Department's report. None of them are more than 15
years. So the reality is, this is a figleaf for those who voted against
the last one. It does absolutely nothing for family reunification.
Let's keep at least a strong message we do want to reunify families
as we move this bill ahead and vote against the Kyl amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Salazar). The question is on agreeing to
the amendment.
Mr. KYL. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a
sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
Mr. LOTT. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator
from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 51, nays 45, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 194 Leg.]
YEAS--51
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kyl
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NAYS--45
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Conrad
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Stabenow
Tester
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--3
Chambliss
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1460) was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to
lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1182 to Amendment No. 1150
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1182, the Thomas
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid], for Mr. Thomas,
proposes an amendment numbered 1182.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of
the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To authorize the Secretary to establish new units of Customs
Patrol Officers)
At the end of section 101 of the amendment, insert the
following:
(c) Shadow Wolves Apprehension and Tracking.--
(1) Purpose.--The purpose of this subsection is to
authorize the Secretary, acting through the Assistant
Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (referred to
in this subsection as the ``Secretary''), to establish new
units of Customs Patrol Officers (commonly known as ``Shadow
Wolves'') during the 5-year period beginning on the date of
enactment of this Act.
(2) Establishment of new units.--
(A) In general.--During the 5-year period beginning on the
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary is authorized to
establish within United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement up to 5 additional units of Customs Patrol
Officers in accordance with this subsection, as appropriate.
(B) Membership.--Each new unit established pursuant to
subparagraph (A) shall consist of up to 15 Customs Patrol
Officers.
(3) Duties.--The additional Immigration and Customs
Enforcement units established pursuant to paragraph (2)(A)
shall operate on Indian reservations (as defined in section 3
of the Indian Financing Act of 1974 (25 U.S.C. 1452)) located
on or near (as determined by the Secretary) an international
border with Canada or Mexico, and such other Federal land as
the Secretary determines to be appropriate, by--
(A) investigating and preventing the entry of terrorists,
other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics,
and other contraband into the United States; and
(B) carrying out such other duties as the Secretary
determines to be necessary.
(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this subsection such sums as
are necessary for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2013.
Mr. REID. I believe there is no debate on this matter.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate? If not, the question
is on agreeing to the amendment.
The amendment (No. 1182) was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to
lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1272 to Amendment No. 1150
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1272 and ask for its
immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendment.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Reid], for Mr. Schumer,
proposes an amendment numbered 1272.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of
the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To improve security by providing for the establishment of B-1
visitor visa decisionmaking guidelines and a tracking system)
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. B-1 VISITOR VISA GUIDELINES AND DATA TRACKING
SYSTEMS.
(a) Guidelines.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act--
(A) the Secretary of State shall review existing
regulations or internal guidelines relating to the
decisionmaking process with
[[Page 14817]]
respect to the issuance of B-1 visas by consular officers and
determine whether modifications are necessary to ensure that
such officers make decisions with respect to the issuance of
B-1 visas as consistently as possible while ensuring security
and maintaining officer discretion over such issuance
determinations; and
(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security shall review
existing regulations or internal guidelines relating to the
decisionmaking process of Customs and Border Protection
officers concerning whether travelers holding a B-1 visitor
visa are admissible to the United States and the appropriate
length of stay and shall determine whether modifications are
necessary to ensure that such officers make decisions with
respect to travelers admissibility and length of stay as
consistently as possible while ensuring security and
maintaining officer discretion over such determinations.
(2) Modification.--If after conducting the reviews under
paragraph (1), the Secretary of State or the Secretary of
Homeland Security determine that modifications to existing
regulations or internal guidelines, or the establishment of
new regulations or guidelines, are necessary, the relevant
Secretary shall make such modifications during the 6-month
period referred to in such paragraph.
(3) Consultations.--In making determinations and preparing
guidelines under paragraph (1), the Secretary of State and
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall consult with
appropriate stakeholders, including consular officials and
immigration inspectors.
(b) Data Tracking Systems.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 18 months after the date of
enactment of this Act--
(A) the Secretary of State shall develop and implement a
system to track aggregate data relating to the issuance of B-
1 visitor visas in order to ensure the consistent application
of the guidelines established under subsection (a)(1)(A); and
(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security shall develop and
implement a system to track aggregate data relating to
admissibility decision, and length of stays under, B-1
visitor visas in order to ensure the consistent application
of the guidelines established under subsection (a)(1)(B).
(2) Limitation.--The systems implemented under paragraph
(1) shall not store or track personally identifiable
information, except that this paragraph shall not be
construed to limit the application of any other system that
is being implemented by the Department of State or the
Department of Homeland Security to track travelers or travel
to the United States.
(c) Public Education.--The Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall carry out activities to
provide guidance and education to the public and to visa
applicants concerning the nature, purposes, and availability
of the B-1 visa for business travelers.
(d) Report.--Not later than 6 and 18 months after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit to Congress,
reports concerning the status of the implementation of this
section.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate on the amendment? If
not, the question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The amendment (No. 1272) was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to
lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, for all Senators, we now have a number of
amendments lined up which we can vote on this evening. There will be
about 80 minutes, an hour and a half, before the vote starts.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until 10 o'clock
be for debate with respect to the following amendments and that the
time be equally divided and controlled between the majority and
Republican leaders or their designees, with the time to run
concurrently; that no amendments be in order to any of the amendments
in this agreement prior to the vote; that at 10 o'clock tonight, the
Senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order
listed; that there be 2 minutes of debate prior to each vote, with the
votes after the first being 10 minutes in duration; and that if the
amendment is not pending, then it be called up now.
The first amendment we will vote on is Clinton, No. 1183, as further
modified; second is Ensign, No. 1374; the third one will be Salazar,
No. 1384; fourth one is Inhofe, No. 1151; the fifth one is Hutchison,
No. 1415; sixth is Vitter, No. 1339; seventh is Obama, No. 1202, as
modified with the changes at the desk; and eighth is Dorgan, No. 1316.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendments are as follows:
Amendment NO. 1374
(Purpose: To improve the criteria and weights of the merit-based
evaluation system)
Beginning on page 262, strike line 36 and all that follows
through page 264, line 1, and insert the following:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employment .................................... 66
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the Department of
Labor)-35 pts
Honorable Service within any branch
of the United States Armed Services
for (1) 4 years with an honorable
discharge, or (2) any period of
time pursuant to a medical
discharge-35 pts
U.S. employment in STEM or health
occupation, current for at least 1
year (extraordinary or ordinary)-35
pts
Employer endorsement A U.S. employer willing to pay 50%
of a legal permanent resident's
application fee either 1) offers a
job, or 2) attests for a current
employee-23 pts
U.S. employment in high demand
occupation (the 30 occupations that
have grown the most in the
preceding 10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics)-21 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. employment Years of lawful employment for a
experience U.S. employer (in the case of
agricultural employment, 100 days
of work per year constitutes 1
year)-5 pts/year
(max 30 pts)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39-18 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education Graduate degree in a STEM field 50
(terminal degree) (including the health sciences).-50
pts
Graduate degree in a non-STEM field-
34 pts
Bachelor's degree in a STEM field
(including the health sciences)-40
pts
Bachelor's degree in a non-STEM
field-32 pts
Associate's degree in a STEM field
(including health sciences)-30 pts
Associate's degree in a non-STEM
field-25 pts
Completed certified Department of
Labor registered apprenticeship-23
pts
High school diploma or GED-21 pts
Completed certified Perkins
vocational education program-20 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
English and civics Native speaker of English or 30
TOEFL score of 100 or higher-30 pts
TOEFL score of 90-99-25 pts
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests in
English & Civics-21 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home ownership Sole owner of place of residence-8 24
pts per year of ownership
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical insurance Current private medical insurance 30
for entire family-10 pts per year
held
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total .................................... 200
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amendment No. 1202, as modified
At the end of title V, insert the following:
SEC. 509. TERMINATION.
(a) In General.--The amendments described in subsection (b)
shall be effective during the 5-year period ending on
September 30 of the fifth fiscal year following the fiscal
year in which this Act is enacted.
(b) Provisions.--The amendments described in this
subsection are the following:
(1) The amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) of
section 501.
(2) The amendments made by subsections (b), (c), and (e) of
section 502.
(3) The amendments made by subsections (a), (b), (c)(1),
(d), and (g) of section 503.
(4) The amendments made by subsection (a) of section 504.
(c) Worldwide Level of Employment-Based Immigrants.--
(1) Temporary supplemental allocation.--Section 201(d) (8
U.S.C. 1151(d)) is amended by adding at the end the follows
new paragraphs:
``(3) Temporary supplemental allocation.--Notwithstanding
paragraphs (1) and (2), there shall be a temporary
supplemental allocation of visas as follows:
[[Page 14818]]
``(A) For the first 5 fiscal years in which aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an
immigrant visa, the number calculated pursuant to section
503(f)(2) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
``(B) In the sixth fiscal year in which aliens described in
section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa, the
number calculated pursuant to section 503(f)(3) of Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007.
``(C) Starting in the seventh fiscal year in which aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an
immigrant visa, the number equal to the number of aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) who became aliens admitted
for permanent residence based on the merit-based evaluation
system in the prior fiscal year until no further aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) adjust status.
``(4) Termination of temporary supplemental allocation.--
The temporary supplemental allocation of visas described in
paragraph (3) shall terminate when the number of visas
calculated pursuant to paragraph (3)(C) is zero.
``(5) Limitation.--The temporary supplemental visas
described in paragraph (3) shall not be awarded to any
individual other than an individual described in section
101(a)(15)(Z).''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall be effective on October 1 of the sixth fiscal year
following the fiscal year in which this Act is enacted.
(d) Worldwide Level of Family-Sponsored Immigrants.--
(1) Increase in level.--Section 201(c)(1)(B)(ii) (8 U.S.C.
1151(c)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking ``226,000'' and
inserting ``567,000''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall be effective during the period beginning on October 1
of the sixth fiscal year following the fiscal year in which
this Act is enacted and ending on the date that an alien may
be adjust status to an alien lawfully admitted for permanent
residence described in section 602(a)(5).
amendment no. 1384
(Purpose: To preserve and enhance the role of the English language)
At the end of the matter proposed to be inserted, add the
following:
SEC. 702A. DECLARATION OF ENGLISH AS LANGUAGE.
(a) In General.--English is the common language of the
United States.
(b) Preserving and Enhancing the Role of the English
Language.--The Government of the United States shall preserve
and enhance the role of English as the language of the United
States. Nothing in this Act shall diminish or expand any
existing rights under the laws of the United States relative
to services or materials provided by the Government of the
United States in any language other than English
(c) Definition of Law.--For purposes of this section, the
term ``laws of the United States'' includes the Constitution
of the United States, any provision of Federal statute, or
any rule or regulation issued under such statute, any
judicial decisions interpreting such statute, or any
Executive Order of the President.
amendment no. 1151
(Purpose: To amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as
the national language of the Government of the United States, and for
other purposes)
Strike section 702 and insert the following:
SEC. 702. ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE.
(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the ``S.I.
Hayakawa National Language Amendment Act of 2007''.
(b) In General.--Title 4, United States Code, is amended by
adding at the end the following new chapter:
``CHAPTER 6--LANGUAGE OF THE GOVERNMENT
``Sec.
``161. Declaration of national language.
``162. Preserving and enhancing the role of the national language.
``163. Use of language other than English.
``SEC. 161. DECLARATION OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE.
``English shall be the national language of the Government
of the United States.
``SEC. 162. PRESERVING AND ENHANCING THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL
LANGUAGE.
``(a) In General.--The Government of the United States
shall preserve and enhance the role of English as the
national language of the United States of America.
``(b) Exception.--Unless specifically provided by statute,
no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the
Government of the United States or any of its officials or
representatives act, communicate, perform or provide
services, or provide materials in any language other than
English. If an exception is made with respect to the use of a
language other than English, the exception does not create a
legal entitlement to additional services in that language or
any language other than English.
``(c) Forms.--If any form is issued by the Federal
Government in a language other than English (or such form is
completed in a language other than English), the English
language version of the form is the sole authority for all
legal purposes.
``SEC. 163. USE OF LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH.
``Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit the use of a
language other than English.''.
(c) Conforming Amendment.--The table of chapters for title
4, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following new item:
``6. Language of the Government..............................161''.....
amendment no. 1316
(Purpose: To sunset the Y-1 nonimmigrant visa program after a 5-year
period)
At the end of section 401, add the following:
(d) Sunset of Y-1 Visa Program.--
(1) Sunset.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this
Act, or any amendment made by this Act, no alien may be
issued a new visa as a Y-1 nonimmigrant (as defined in
section 218B of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added
by section 403) on the date that is 5 years after the date
that the first such visa is issued.
(2) Construction.--Nothing in paragraph (1) may be
construed to affect issuance of visas to Y-2B nonimmigrants
(as defined in such section 218B), under the AgJOBS Act of
2007, as added by subtitle C, under the H-2A visa program or
any visa program other than the Y-1 visa program.
amendment no. 1415
(Purpose: To prohibit obtaining social security benefits based on
earnings obtained during any period without work authorization)
Strike section 607 and insert the following:
SEC. 607. PRECLUSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY CREDITS FOR PERIODS
WITHOUT WORK AUTHORIZATION.
(a) Insured Status.--Section 214 of the Social Security Act
(42 U.S.C. 414) is amended by striking subsection (c) and
inserting the following new subsections:
``(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), for purposes
of subsections (a) and (b), no quarter of coverage shall be
credited for any calendar year beginning on or after January
1, 2004, with respect to an individual who is not a natural-
born United States citizen, unless the Commissioner of Social
Security determines, on the basis of information provided to
the Commissioner in accordance with an agreement entered into
under subsection (d) or otherwise, that the individual was
authorized to be employed in the United States during such
quarter.
``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to an individual who
was assigned a social security account number prior to
January 1, 2004.
``(d) Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this subsection, the Secretary of Homeland
Security shall enter into an agreement with the Commissioner
of Social Security to provide such information as the
Commissioner determines necessary to carry out the limitation
on crediting quarters of coverage under subsection (c).''.
(b) Benefit Computation.--Section 215(e) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 415(e)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (1);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and
inserting ``; and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) in computing the average indexed monthly earnings of
an individual, there shall not be counted any wages or self-
employment income for any year for which no quarter of
coverage may be credited to such individual as a result of
the application of section 214(c).''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall apply to benefit applications filed on or after the
date that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act based on the wages or self-employment income of an
individual with respect to whom a primary insurance amount
has not been determined under title II of the Social Security
Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.) before such date.
amendment no. 1339
(Purpose: To require that the U.S. VISIT system--the biometric border
check-in/check-out system first required by Congress in 1996 that is
already well past its already postponed 2005 implementation due date--
be finished as part of the enforcement trigger)
On page 3, line 25 insert the following new subsection:
(6) The U.S. Visit System: The integrated entry and exit
data system required by 8 U.S.C. 1365a (Section 110 of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
of 1996), which is already 17 months past its required
implementation date of December 21, 2005, has been fully
implemented and is functioning at every land, sea, and air
port of entry.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from New York.
Amendment No. 1183, As Further Modified
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1183, as further
modified, and ask unanimous consent for its consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment is pending.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
majority
[[Page 14819]]
leader, Senator Reid, and Senator Dodd be added as cosponsors to the
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I know there are very strongly held and
honestly felt disagreements in this Chamber on the legislation before
us. Many of these differences are mirrored across our country. The
issue of immigration strikes deeply at our values and our concept of
America and stirs our emotions. While we may reach different
conclusions, we all have to begin at the same place. Our immigration
system is in crisis. I have concerns about this underlying bill, but we
all do. This is not the bill any of us individually would have written
and produced for the Senate's consideration. But I commend the primary
sponsors for bringing this to the floor of the Senate so we can debate
the issues it raises and try to craft a solution that simultaneously
honors our Nation's strong immigrant heritage and respects the rule of
law.
As a nation, we place a premium on compassion, respect, and policies
that help families. But our immigration laws don't reflect that. In
fact, our current laws tear families apart. For lawful permanent
residents and their spouses and minor children, this bill not only
fails to help them, it actually makes matters worse. It is time to take
all the rhetoric about family values and put it into action and show
that we mean what we say when we talk about putting families first.
That is what my amendment does.
This amendment is a bipartisan amendment offered with Senator Hagel
and Senator Menendez. It is our view we must make reuniting families a
priority in our immigration system, that we should show compassion for
those living apart from their spouses and minor children, that we
should reform immigration in a way that honors families and brings them
together. Unfortunately, the compromise bill before us fails to help
families and children stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire created by our
tangled, broken immigration system. Spouses and minor children of
lawful permanent residents applying for a green card are required to
remain overseas while awaiting their new legal status. The problem is
there is a huge backlog.
Despite what some have suggested this week, the visa backlog for
spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents is significant
and substantial. According to the June 2007 State Department visa
bulletin, the backlog is currently more than 5 years long. For some,
that backlog could stretch even longer. What does that mean? In very
human terms it means parents are forced apart from their children.
Husbands are separated from their wives. Tax-paying, law-abiding, legal
immigrants who are doing the right thing are treated as though their
families don't matter at all.
If you are a lawful permanent resident and your spouse and minor
children are caught in this long line, your family is not allowed to
enter the United States even for a brief visit. You are limited in your
ability to leave the United States to visit your spouse and children
overseas. Under our current policies, lawful permanent residents are
forced to choose between their newly adopted country and living with
their spouse or children. Five years may not seem long to some of us.
We serve 6 years in the Senate. It seems to go by very fast. But 5
years in the life of a young child or in a marriage is precious time
indeed. For a 10-year-old child, it is half their life. It is time that
can never be recaptured. Unfortunately, that 5-year timeframe is often
much less than what actually happens to these families.
We are proposing that spouses and minor children of lawful permanent
residents be exempt from the visa caps and that we finally allow these
nuclear families who have been separated for far too long to be
reunited. This amendment is necessary because the compromise bill does
absolutely nothing to bring these families together. In fact, the
compromise actually reduces the number of visas for spouses and minor
children of lawful permanent residents. It does not allocate a single
visa to address the existing backlog for these family members.
As I have said many times, we have a national interest in fostering
strong families. This amendment is supported by more than 100 faith-
based, family, and immigrant advocacy organizations and denominations.
I thank all of these organizations that have endorsed and rallied
support for the Clinton-Hagel-Menendez amendment. They do an invaluable
service in speaking out for people whose voices would otherwise not be
heard.
The amendment is not considered a bill killer. It is not considered
an amendment everybody has to vote against who has agreed to the
compromise, because many of us know these legal permanent residents.
Many of us actually work with them. Some of them even contribute to the
campaigns of people in this Chamber. These are people who are doing
everything they can to play by the rules, except they are divided for
years from their spouses and minor children. I hope the Chamber will
endorse this act of compassion and common sense.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I certainly agree with the Senator from
New York about the value of having family unity. A strong family is
certainly a very important value that we ought to maintain to the
maximum extent possible. I intend at the appropriate time, before the
vote comes up, to raise a point of order under concurrent resolution
21, but for a few moments I will deal with the merits as to the issue
advanced by the Senator from New York.
The effect of adoption of this amendment would mean those who are now
legal permanent residents or green card holders would have an immediate
right to bring in their spouse and children, and it is estimated there
are some 800,000 of these green cards in existence at the present time.
From many perspectives, it would be worthwhile to have that
accomplished. That would certainly be a personal preference of mine, if
it were not for many collateral constraining factors about the
difficulty of allowing that many additional green cards all of a
sudden. The 800,000 figure is the best estimate that is available at
this late hour.
The effect of the amendment offered by the Senator from New York as
to the approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants would be that
as soon as the backlog is cleared after 8 years, then at that time they
would be eligible to have green cards issued as green card holders or
as legal permanent residents, after the backlog is cleared in 8 years.
Under the amendment by the Senator from New York, they would have the
right to bring in their spouse and minor children.
Again, if I were to devise an ideal system and there were not other
limitations, I certainly would not disagree with that as a desirable
way to proceed. But this compromise was constructed very carefully and
very painfully by the dozen or so Senators from both the Democratic
side of the aisle and the Republican side of the aisle who structured
it. The Presiding Officer was a member of that group, the junior
Senator from Colorado. In structuring the arrangement to not allow
legal permanent residents or so-called green card holders from bringing
in their spouse and minor children, there were many tradeoffs. As I
have said on the floor earlier, many of the provisions which were
excluded, rejected, were ones I personally would have favored. I have
cast a fair number of votes here during the course of this debate that,
given my preferences, I would have cast differently. But the overall
objective of getting a bill passed is worth the compromises which have
been made.
Earlier today, this amendment was characterized by the Senator from
New Mexico as the politics of compromise. Well, that might sound bad,
but that happens to be the reality of what goes on in the Senate all
the time. It goes on in all political bodies. We don't have anyone who
can structure a bill to his or her precise specifications. If I could
structure a bill, it would be a very different bill. But my role, along
with a
[[Page 14820]]
number of other Senators, was to try to find accommodations to find a
bill which we could agree to and bring to the floor and then, if the
full Senate wanted to work its will to the contrary, that is the way
the system works. But there is nothing inappropriate about the politics
of compromise. That means we sacrifice the better for the good.
The overall good is to get a bill passed which will deal with 12
million undocumented immigrants in a constructive way. It gives them an
opportunity to escape the fear they now have that they will be detected
at any time. It gives us an opportunity to identify those who are not
contributing, who have criminal records, who ought to be deported. We
can't deport all 12 million, but for the balance to be on the path
toward citizenship, that is a very worthwhile, commendable objective as
to the greater picture. We have comprehensive reforms. We have securing
the border and employer verification. I will not go through all of the
details, but this bill is very important. This accommodation to reject
the contentions of the Senator from New York is necessary if we are to
attain the greater good.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, might I just interrupt with a question to the
Senator?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, is it not true that under this amendment,
this amendment would wipe out the difference between a citizen of the
United States and a green card holder with respect to their right to
immigrate the nuclear family? So there would be no distinction between
a green card holder and a citizen's rights?
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Senator from Arizona is correct. It
is the citizen who has the right to bring a spouse and minor children,
not legal permanent residents, so-called green card holders.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it was the intention of the majority
leader to ask that there be 10 minutes on each amendment to be evenly
divided. I think that was the desire in order to be fair to all of
those who were going to offer amendments. I think those who are
offering amendments were given that kind of assurance. So I ask
unanimous consent that the remaining time be allocated equally between
the amendments and equally in terms--well, I ask unanimous consent that
there be 10 minutes on each amendment equally divided between those who
favor the amendment and those who are opposed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from New York.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, may I inquire, was a budget point of
order or other point of order made against the amendment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It was not raised. It is not in order at this
time.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, let me, just if I could, respond.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I will take 2 minutes of my time on the
following amendment and yield it to the Senator. She was not aware of
the time limitation when she made her remarks. I think she ought to be
entitled to make her comments.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator.
I think it is important to recognize that there are many distinctions
between a U.S. citizen and a foreigner living legally in the United
States which uphold the value of citizenship, but the right to marry
and to live with your family should not be one of them.
Denying legal permanent residents, who are on the pathway to pledging
their allegiance to the United States, the right to marry and live
together in our country is an obstacle to their becoming the kind of
full-fledged citizens we want them to be.
Also, under current law, guest workers, students, and others can be
with their spouses and minor children and then adjust to legal
permanent resident status with them. Due to the backlogs, only lawful
permanent residents are treated differently.
So, Mr. President, I understand that those who worked so hard on
coming up with this compromise may not be able to find their way clear
to support this at this time, but I do not believe we have a national
interest in separating legal permanent residents from their spouses and
minor children.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
The Senator from Oklahoma.
Amendment No. 1151
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, let me make an inquiry. It is my
understanding that under the UC, all of the eight amendments that will
be considered on the floor have been called up and are in order to be
considered; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. They have not all been reported at this time.
The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, let me tell you something procedurally
that is going to happen here in about an hour at 10 o'clock. There is a
list of amendments. First, there are two of them, and then the Salazar
amendment will be considered. After that, the Inhofe amendment will be
considered.
Now, I want to get something understood procedurally because I think
it is very important for everyone, particularly the occupant of the
chair at this time, who has the Salazar amendment, to know what is
going on.
A year ago, we debated the Inhofe amendment that would make English
the national language for the United States of America. We debated it
at length, hour after hour. We talked about that every President back
to and including Theodore Roosevelt in 1916 made comments that English
should be the official and should be the national language of the
United States of America. We talked about the 50 countries that have
English as a national language, one being in west Africa--Ghana--and
one being in east Africa--Kenya--but not the United States of America.
Now, one of the things that happened a year ago is I had my amendment
up, which is essentially the same amendment that will be up tonight. I
would like to have you listen carefully. It is really a one-sentence
amendment. All it says is:
Unless specifically provided by statute, no person has a
right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the
United States or any of its officials or representatives act,
communicate, perform or provide services, or provide
materials in any language other than English.
In other words, this is an entitlement.
Now, it has exceptions in there for laws that are on the books, such
as laws protecting the sixth amendment, which would be the Court
Interpreters Act and other such things. However, it was aimed--I don't
want to act as if I am hiding this because we talked about this a year
ago. One of the things has been very controversial: At the very end of
the Clinton administration was when he passed Executive Order No.
13166, and 13166 essentially said that if you are a recipient of
Federal funds, then your documentation can all be done in whatever
language you desire, so it could be Swahili, it could be Spanish, or
any other language.
Now, what happened a year ago was they passed my amendment--and my
amendment was exactly the same as it is today--and it passed by a vote
of 62 to 35. Does that sound right? So, 62 to 35. Then right after
that, the Salazar amendment--and I see the Senator from Colorado is
preparing to respond--was passed, which gutted my amendment, did away
with it.
So those individuals who voted for my amendment and then voted for
the Salazar amendment--and there are quite a few Democrats and
Republicans who did that--voted to make English the official language
and then, in the next vote, 3 minutes later, voted to take it away.
Now, I see that this is happening again tonight because,
unfortunately, I
[[Page 14821]]
have to offer my amendment first. I anticipate it will be adopted
because it is very popular. Right now, the polling shows that 91
percent of the people in America want English as an official language,
and 76 percent of Hispanics believe English should be an official
language.
Now, I am prepared to go on and debate this issue. I should not have
to do it since 62 Members of this body already voted in favor of it.
What I am going to say now, though, is very significant because if you
vote for the Inhofe amendment when it comes up tonight, then vote for
the Salazar amendment, you are essentially saying you are gutting the
Inhofe amendment and you do not want English to be the official or the
national language of the United States of America.
The Salazar amendment is exactly the language in the underlying bill.
I have it before me. I would be glad to read it. In fact, I am not sure
how this time is going to work out. If we have time equally divided, I
am going to run out of time. So I will just state that the language is
precisely the same in the underlying bill. The underlying bill actually
puts into law executive orders, and this specific executive order of
13166, which gives anyone an entitlement to any language he or she
wants, will become law. That is the language which is in there right
now.
I am attempting to change that language. If my amendment is adopted,
it will change. However, the next vote is going to be on the Salazar
amendment. I am just saying to you, as my friends out here, do not vote
for both of us because if you vote for both of us, you are voting to
make English the official language, and then, in the very next vote,
you are taking it away and reinstating the original language in the
bill.
So I hope no one is going to think it is going to go unnoticed if
anyone votes for my amendment and then votes to kill the amendment they
just supported. That is what is going to happen tonight. I look forward
to the vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kennedy). The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise to speak in opposition to the
proposed amendment by my good friend from Oklahoma. First and foremost,
I want to say I believe all Members of this Chamber and the people in
the United States understand that English is important and that people,
in order to succeed in our society, need to learn English; that the
ability to acquire the English language and to speak it well is
something we all support, and we support a number of different programs
that would assist people who have limited English proficiency to
acquire the English language as a keystone to success. I think that
goes without saying.
The amendment that is proposed by my friend from Oklahoma would, in
fact, do a number of things that I think are problematical and should
cause all of us to vote against the amendment.
The first and a very important reason to vote against his amendment
is that it is contrary to the provisions of law that exist in many
States. For example, in the State of New Mexico, you have in the
Constitution--in the Constitution of the State of New Mexico--as my
good friend, Senator Domenici, would articulate here, a provision that
says that many of the documents within that State have to be provided
in both English and Spanish. The same thing is true for the State of
Hawaii. I believe this is a States rights issue, and those
constitutions of those States ought to be respected. There are other
States in our Union which have decided they are going to adopt English
as their official language. I believe that is a matter the States ought
to decide. I do not believe it is a matter we ought to be imposing here
from Washington, DC, on the backs of the States of our Union.
Also, at the end of the day, what my good friend from Oklahoma is
attempting to do with his amendment is to undo an executive order that
has been long recognized by President George Bush, implemented by
President George Bush, conceived by President Bill Clinton, and put
into law with his signature.
President Clinton's executive order was signed on April 11, 2000, on
October 26, 2001. That executive order was recognized by Ralph Boyd
with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Bush administration. It
was again recognized on January 11, 2002, and again on November 12,
2002, and then again on December 1 of 2003.
If I may take a moment to just read a portion of what was included in
that communication that went out from the U.S. Department of Justice to
all of the court administrators across the United States and all of the
U.S. district courts. It said the following in the memorandum:
It is beyond question that America's courts discharge a
wide range of important duties and offer critical services
both inside and outside the courtroom. Examples range from
contact with the clerk's office in pro se matters to
testifying at trial. They include but are not limited to
matters involving domestic violence, restraining orders,
parental rights, and other family law matters, eviction
actions, alternative dispute resolution or mediation
programs. . . .
And on and on.
What both the Bush administration and the Clinton administration
recognized in this executive order is that it is important to make sure
people who have limited English proficiency receive the kinds of
services so they can understand what is going on in terms of the
interface between the Government and themselves.
Mr. President, I believe my friend from Oklahoma has an amendment in
search of a problem, and I urge my colleagues to vote against it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I will take just a few minutes. I am sorry
to interrupt the debate.
____________________
EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO
GONZALES NO LONGER HOLDS THE CONFIDENCE OF THE SENATE AND OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE--MOTION TO PROCEED
Cloture Motion
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to proceed to S.J. Res. 14 and send a
cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to
proceed to Calendar No. 179, S.J. Res. 14, relating to
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Harry Reid, Richard J. Durbin, Kent Conrad, Bernard
Sanders, Jeff Bingaman, Dan Inouye, Jon Tester, S.
Whitehouse, Debbie Stabenow, Byron L. Dorgan, Amy
Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, Carl Levin, Chuck Schumer,
Barbara Boxer, Jack Reed, H.R. Clinton.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I withdraw my motion to proceed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is withdrawn.
Mr. REID. Thank you, Mr. President.
____________________
CREATING LONG-TERM ENERGY ALTERNATIVES FOR THE NATION ACT OF 2007--
MOTION TO PROCEED
cloture motion
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to H.R. 6, and I send
a cloture motion to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to
proceed to Calendar No. 9, H.R. 6, comprehensive energy
legislation.
Jeff Bingaman, Dick Durbin, S. Whitehouse, Blanch L.
Lincoln, Jon Tester, Robert P. Casey, Jr., Patty
Murray, Daniel K. Akaka, Jack Reed, Mary Landrieu, Max
Baucus, Mark
[[Page 14822]]
Pryor, Ron Wyden, Joe Biden, Pat Leahy, Claire
McCaskill, Amy Klobuchar, Ken Salazar.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I withdraw my motion to proceed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is withdrawn.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I had alerted the distinguished Republican
leader I was going to do this. I had to do it because we had to do it
before the night's business ends.
____________________
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2007--Continued
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado still has, I think,
1 minute 10 seconds.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry in terms of the
time available with respect to the Inhofe amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has the remaining 45 seconds.
Mr. INHOFE. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. INHOFE. Yes, I understand that. Parliamentary inquiry: Since we
are talking about two amendments, the Salazar amendment and the Inhofe
amendment, then I would assume there would be another 10 minutes
equally divided later on this evening if it is the desire of the
offerors; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
Mr. INHOFE. I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. If they wanted to use the time, obviously it
would be respected.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry again: Just to be
clear, then, on the Salazar amendment No. 1384, there will be 10
minutes for debate equally divided between the majority and the
minority.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
Mr. SALAZAR. And with respect to the Inhofe amendment, the minority
time has expired, and there is 43 seconds left on the majority side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I conclude by urging my colleagues to
vote no on the Inhofe amendment. At the end of the day, what the Inhofe
amendment is proposing to do is to undo executive orders that have been
signed by both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration.
Those executive orders were created in order to be able to have people
understand what is happening with respect to the courts, with respect
to domestic violence, and with respect to other issues that our
government provides services for where they need to be able to
understand what is happening with respect to the communication they are
receiving.
I urge my colleagues to vote no on the Inhofe amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada is recognized.
Amendment No. 1374
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending
amendment be set aside, and I call up amendment No. 1374.
Mr. President, this bill does a laudable job in setting up a new
merit-based system for the future. That is the right thing to do for
our country, but the bill misses the mark.
Our country needs an immigration system that recognizes we want to
attract the best and the brightest from around the world. We have been
doing that for many years because we recognize that people who are
smart, who are talented, when they come to this country they actually
create jobs in this country. They create opportunities for other people
in this country.
The current bill unfortunately misses the mark on this merit system.
The current bill is actually worse than current law. This bill today is
worse than current law, and that is why the high-tech community across
the country has come out in opposition to the provisions of the merit-
based system in this bill. I want to tell a small anecdote that will
illustrate the problems with our current system on attracting talent.
In my office today, a gentleman by the name of Bill Watkins from
Seagate Corporation out of California just opened a new branch in
Singapore and hired U.S. graduates, foreign students who graduated from
MIT and other universities. The reason he hired them to go to
Singapore, where he will pay them less money than he would have paid
them in the United States, the reason he sent those jobs overseas is
because of our immigration policy that basically will educate you in
the United States, but then after we educate you, we will send you
home.
The amendment I offer today says we are going to actually value
people who are educated here, especially in the science and mathematics
and engineering fields--we call those the stem fields--in the health
sciences fields, we are going to give you even more points than the
current bill does so that into the future we will attract the best and
the brightest from around the world. It is the idea of being a brain
drain to the rest of the world. People from all over the world want to
come to America. We want the best and the brightest to come to America
because of this fact--whether it is low-skilled or high-skilled
workers, 4 percent of the jobs, 4 percent of the people who have jobs
in the future will create the jobs for the other 96 percent of
Americans. Those are the talented people we want to attract.
Over half of the start-ups in Silicon Valley in the last 10 years
have come from immigrants. Those people, when they start up companies,
create jobs in America. They create opportunities, some high skilled,
some low skilled, but they are creating opportunities for people to
pursue the American dream. So while the current bill is going in the
right direction, it misses the mark.
So my amendment says we are going to reward those in the sciences,
those in the technical fields, those who have a Ph.D. in electrical
engineering. We are going to give you enough points to virtually
guarantee entrance into this country. It is a good thing. It is why the
high-tech community is supporting my amendment.
We also put in this amendment, if you are an immigrant, if you are
one of these Z visa holders, we actually want you to be rewarded for
doing military service. So we are going to offer another amendment to
make sure they can do military service, and then when they do that, we
want to reward them to come into this country. To serve in our military
should be the greatest honor, and we should reward people with legal
permanent status, the ability to get legal permanent status.
We have a shortage of nurses in this country. We give more rewards
for people in the health sciences as well in our amendment.
I think this is a critical amendment to improve this bill. If we are
going to do a comprehensive immigration reform bill, we certainly
shouldn't make it worse than current law, and this bill is worse than
current law when it comes to high-tech workers coming into this
country. So I would urge all of our colleagues to support this
amendment. I know it is a delicate balance that we have between the
various people who have brought this bill together, but I truly believe
this is an improvement on not only current law, but it is also a great
improvement on the current bill.
I reserve the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, is there anyone who is going to speak
on the other side on the amendment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator could be recognized, and the
person is free under the agreement to speak later during the course of
the evening.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, in that case, I would like to use 4
minutes of my time and then reserve the remainder of my time for if
there is opposition to my amendment.
Amendment No. 1415
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be
set aside, and I call up amendment No. 1415.
Mr. President, will the Presiding Officer notify me at 4 minutes so
that I may reserve the remainder of my time?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair will so advise.
[[Page 14823]]
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, our Social Security system, we all
know, is in a very precarious position. In fact, we are trying to pass
Social Security reform that would extend the life of our Social
Security system. We know we are facing impending insolvency. The trust
fund has $2.4 trillion and is supporting 46 million beneficiaries. In
2017, the trust fund will begin paying out more in benefits than it
receives in revenue. It is expected to be fully exhausted in 2041. If
we pass the bill before us, we will be adding millions of new
beneficiaries into the Social Security system, but we will also be
allowing individuals who were not authorized to work in this country
the opportunity to qualify from illegal work.
Under the current bill, Social Security credits for the time prior to
getting a valid card would not be allowed. That is the good part of the
bill. However, on a visa overstay or someone who has a card in their
name, but they are working illegally, they would still be able to get
quarters credited for that illegal work. My amendment would close that
loophole.
According to the GAO, about 22 percent of the whole Social Security
that an employee would pay over 40 quarters would be approximately
$193.42 per month. What I meant to say is, if you take the example of
an hourly worker making $9 an hour, they would, in a 40-hour workweek,
contribute $193 to the system per month. However, after working 40
quarters, which is the minimum, the payout would be $405 per month for
each overstay after the age of 65 and up to the expected life
expectancy of 78. So 22 percent would be paid in, while 78 percent
would come out. This means over the lifetime of the Social Security for
that worker, the payout would be $81,922 but the input would be
$23,210. So over the lifetime of that person, the deficit would be
$58,712.
Now, it is estimated that 40 percent of the illegals in this country
are visa overstays. So if you multiply the 40 percent, which is about
4.8 million people according to estimates, you would get $28 billion
that would be a deficit in the Social Security system. That is if it
were 1 year of overstay. We don't know how many years people overstay.
That is impossible to know right now. But if it were 2 years, it would
be $56 billion, and it goes on.
We asked for a scoring of this amendment, and we have a letter from
the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 4 minutes.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. I reserve the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado is recognized.
Amendment No. 1384
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 1384.
Mr. President, I ask that the Chair let me know when I have 2 minutes
remaining on my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair will so notify.
Mr. SALAZAR. I ask unanimous consent that Senator Pete Domenici be
added as a cosponsor to this amendment No. 1384.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise to speak on behalf of my amendment
No. 1384 and to urge my colleagues to join me in support of this
commonsense legislation that supports English as the common language
for the United States of America.
Our amendment is a very simple amendment. It says that the Government
of the United States--and here I am quoting:
The Government of the United States shall preserve and
enhance the role of English as the language of the United
States.
Again, it is:
The Government of the United States shall preserve and
enhance the role of English as the language of the United
States.
This is a simple and straightforward amendment that recognizes the
reality of the United States of America, that we are a people who yearn
to speak English, want to speak English, and have the vast majority of
our people knowing how to speak English.
This language I have read is also part of a carefully crafted
compromise. It is included in the underlying legislation that was
worked upon by both Republican and Democratic Senators over a long
period of time. It was agreed that this was the language that made the
most sense in terms of including a provision relating to the English
language in the underlying legislation.
As I said earlier in opposition to Senator Inhofe's amendment, this
is in fact a States' rights issue. The States of America ought to
decide whether they are going to call English the official language of
their State, as they did in Colorado; or they should decide, as they
did in New Mexico in their constitution in 1912, to recognize English
and Spanish as part of the language within their State. That was their
right as New Mexicans. It is their right in Hawaii to be able to
recognize a language other than English. It is a matter that ought to
be left to the States. It would be a Washingtonian kind of thing to
require these mandates upon the States, and it is something that we as
the Senate should reject. Our language in amendment No. 1384 preserves
that ability of the States to be able to enact their own legislation
with respect to the English language.
Finally, I only say that in my own personal history the native
language in my home was Spanish. My family had lived along the banks of
the Rio Grande River in southern Colorado for a period of 407 years.
During all that time, they preserved their Spanish language, but they
also honored and preserved the English language. My father and mother,
who were veterans of World War II, had eight children who became
college graduates. They understood the importance of English as
something that would help them live the American dream, as all eight of
their children have.
I reserve the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana is recognized.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, if I am in order, I will speak in strong
support of my amendment No. 1339 which will be voted on later tonight.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is so entitled.
Amendment No. 1339
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, there has been a lot of discussion in this
debate on the immigration bill about enforcement provisions. There has
been a lot of discussion about triggers in this bill to ensure that
enforcement actions are taken, are paid for, and are enacted before
other aspects of the bill, such as the Z visa program and the temporary
worker program, go into effect.
My grave concern is that these triggers are wholly inadequate and
represent thinking that is backward from where it needs to be. If you
look at the triggers designed in the bill, they were arrived at, again,
as I would put it, in a backward fashion.
The question was asked: Well, it is going to take about 18 months to
be ready to enact the other provisions of the bill, so what enforcement
are we teed up to do during the next 18 months anyway? We will define
that as the enforcement trigger for the bill.
I simply think that is the wrong way to arrive at a trigger. The key
question has to be: What needs to be done? What is the totality of
significant measures that needs to be done in order to have real
enforcement at the border and real enforcement at the workplace? Let's
make that totality the trigger in the bill. Of course, the triggers are
far less than that.
One perfect example is the subject of this amendment. The US-VISIT
Program has been authorized since 1996, but it is not near operational.
This is the program that would establish an entry and exit system so we
know absolutely who comes into the country on visas and when those
people leave, if they leave on time under their visa, or if they do not
and are, therefore, overstaying their visa.
Without such a system, we cannot possibly know who is in the country
and who is overstaying their visa. This is a very serious part of our
illegal immigration problem. As of 2006, the illegal population, by
most estimates, included 4 million to 5.5 million overstays. So visa
overstays are a big part of the problem. We know from 9/11, that visa
overstays accounted for many
[[Page 14824]]
of the terrorists at the center of the 9/11 plot.
So how can we have meaningful enforcement without this US-VISIT
system, including the exit portion of the system? We cannot. The simple
answer is that we can't. My amendment No. 1339 would include full
implementation of this exit system of the US-VISIT Program into the
trigger of the bill. Therefore, the other significant portions of the
bill, such as temporary workers, such as Z visas, et cetera, cannot
take effect until the full trigger is pulled, including full
implementation of the US-VISIT system.
If we are serious about enforcement, we have to pass this amendment.
If we are serious about enforcement, we have to recognize that 4
million to 5.5 million illegals in this country are visa overstays, and
we cannot get our hands around that visa overstay problem without full
implementation of this system, which has been authorized but nowhere
near implemented since 1996.
So I urge all my colleagues to come together and build up the trigger
and enforcement provisions of this bill with the Vitter amendment No.
1339.
With that, I yield back my time.
(Mr. SALAZAR assumed the Chair.)
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1202
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I come to the floor tonight to speak about
the new point system created in this bill--a proposal that will
radically change the way we judge who is worthy of lawful entry into
American society.
For decades, American citizens and legal permanent residents have
been able to sponsor their family members for entry into our country.
For decades, American businesses have been able to sponsor valued
employees. The bill before us changes that policy--a policy that, while
imperfect, has worked well, and this bill will now replace it with a
new, untested, unexamined system to provide visas to immigrants who
look good on paper but who may not have any familial or economic ties
to our country.
I have serious concerns about this new experiment in social
engineering, not only because of the lack of evidence that it will work
but because the bill says the new point system cannot be changed for 14
years. For that reason, I come to the floor today, joined by Senators
Menendez and Feingold, to offer amendment No. 1202 to sunset the point
system after 5 years.
I am pleased that immigration experts, religious organizations, and
immigrant advocacy organizations have all endorsed our amendment.
These groups have endorsed our amendment because the point system in
this bill constitutes a radical shift in immigration policy, premised
on the view that there is something wrong with family and employer-
sponsored immigration. If this program were merely supplementing the
current system rather than significantly replacing it, it would not
have caused as much concern.
Religious organizations and immigrant advocacy groups have also
endorsed my amendment because the decisions about what characteristics
are deserving of points--and how points are allocated for those
characteristics--were made without a single hearing or public
examination.
They support the amendment because the new points system shifts us
too far away from the value we place on family ties and moves us toward
a class-based immigration system, where some people are welcome only as
guest workers but never as full participants in our democracy. Indeed,
the practical effect of the points system is to make it more difficult
for Americans and legal permanent residents with family living in Latin
America to bring them here.
Our current immigration system delivers the lion's share of green
cards--about 63 percent--to family members of Americans and legal
permanent residents, while roughly 16 percent of visas are allocated to
employment-based categories. The bill before us would reduce visas
allocated to the family system in order to dramatically increase the
proportion of visas distributed based on economic points. Once
implemented, these new economic points visas would then account for
about 40 percent of all visas, while family visas would account for
less than half of all visas, with the remainder going for humanitarian
purposes.
Under the new system, just a few of the current family preferences
would be retained in any recognizable form. Spouses and children of
U.S. citizens would still be able to come, but parents of U.S. citizens
would no longer be counted as immediate family. Thus, most parents
seeking to join their children and grandchildren in the United States
would be denied green cards.
The rest of the current family preferences--siblings, adult children,
and many parents--would be eviscerated.
The new points system would also eliminate employment-based green
cards altogether, forcing employers recruiting workers abroad to rely
exclusively on short-term H-1B and Y visas. This proposal takes an
admittedly problematic employment-based visa system and replaces it
with a far more problematic temporary worker visa system.
The design of the points system leaves numerous questions unanswered.
Beyond pushing workers from Latin America to the back of an endless
line with no hope of ever reaching the front, the new points system
leaves unspecified the crucial question of how migrants with sufficient
points will be prioritized. Government bureaucrats would thus be left
with unprecedented discretion to determine which immigrants have
acceptable education, employment history, and work experience to merit
admission into the country.
Taken together, the questionable design of this points program and
the fundamental shift away from family preferences in the allocation of
visas raises enough flags that we should not simply rubberstamp this
proposal and allow it to go forward.
Let me be clear. Senators Menendez, Feingold, and myself are not
proposing to strike the program from the bill, but this system should
be revisited after a reasonable amount of time to determine whether it
is working, how it can be improved, and whether we should return to the
current family and employer-based system that has worked so well.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I ask for 1 additional minute.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, we live in a global economy, and I do
believe America will be strengthened if we welcome more immigrants who
have mastered science and engineering. But we cannot weaken the very
essence of what America is by turning our back on immigrants who want
to reunite with their family members, or immigrants who have the
willingness to work hard but might not have the right graduate degrees.
That is not who we are as a country. Should those without graduate
degrees who spoke Italian, Polish, or German instead of English have
been turned back at Ellis Island, how many of our ancestors would have
been able to enter the United States under this system?
Character and work ethic have long defined generations of immigrants
to America. But these qualities are beyond the scope of this bill's
points system. It tells us nothing about what people who have been
without opportunity can achieve once they are here. It tells us nothing
about the potential of their children to serve and to lead.
In short, the points system raises some serious concerns for me. I am
willing to defer to those Senators who negotiated this provision and
say we should give it a try, but I am not willing to say this untested
system should be made virtually permanent. For that reason, I urge my
colleagues to support to sunset this points system after 5 years so we
can examine its effectiveness and necessity.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
[[Page 14825]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I think it is very appropriate you be
occupying the Chair during this moment in this debate. My good friend
from Illinois says to those who have worked so hard to get this bill to
the point it is at: Nothing personal, but I can't live with this
provision.
Bipartisanship is music to the American people's ears. When you are
out there on the campaign trail, you are trying to bring us all
together. You are trying to make America better. Why can't we work
together? This is why we can't work together because some people, when
it comes to the tough decisions, back away because when you talk about
bipartisanship, some Americans on the left and the right consider it
heresy, and we are giving in if we adopt this amendment.
The 12 million who have lived in fear for decades, my Republican
colleagues and a majority have told our base we are not going to put
them in jail and we are not going to deport them. No matter how much
you scream, no matter how much you yell, we are going to make them
right with the law, we are going to punish them, but we are not going
to play like they don't exist, and we are going to do things
differently in the future.
If you care about families under this bill, people are united in 8
years who would be 30 years getting here. If you care about families
wanting to wake up one morning and not be afraid, this bill does it.
This amendment in the name of making the bill better says that
bipartisanship doesn't have the ``bi'' in it. It means everybody over
here who has walked the plank and told our base you are wrong, you are
going to destroy this deal. And that is exactly what it is, a deal--a
deal to make America more secure, to give people a chance to start
their lives over again and to have a new system that has a strong
family component but will make us competitive with the world because
some people don't want to say to the loud folks: No, you can't have
your way all the time.
Let me tell you, this is about as bipartisan as you will get, Mr.
President. Some of us on the Republican side have been beat up and some
on the Democratic side have been beat up because we have tried to find
a way forward on a problem nobody else wants to deal with.
To my friend, Senator Kennedy, thank you for trying to find a way, as
much as we are different, to make this country better, more secure, to
treat 12 million people in a way they have never been treated and, in
my opinion, deserve to be treated, to have a chance to start over.
What a sweet idea it is to have a second chance in life. Well, they
are not going to get it if this is adopted, and America will be all the
worse for it. What a great opportunity we have as a country not to
repeat the mistakes of 1986, by having a merit-based immigration system
that has a strong family component but frees up some green cards so we
can be competitive.
So when you are out on the campaign trail, my friend, telling about
why can't we come together, this is why.
Mr. OBAMA addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has no time.
Mr. OBAMA. I understand, but I wish to respond to my colleague from
South Carolina since it appears to be directed at me.
Mr. KENNEDY. I yield 2 minutes of my time.
Mr. McCAIN. I object unless the Senator from South Carolina has
sufficient time as well.
Mr. OBAMA. I would like to give additional time. When the Senator
from South Carolina addresses me directly, I feel it is appropriate for
me to respond.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts has the
opportunity to yield time.
Mr. KENNEDY. I think I am entitled to yield time. I am in charge of
the time on this side. I yield 2 minutes to the Senator.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts yields 2
minutes to the Senator from Illinois.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I have a very simple response to what we
just heard. I think it is important to consider the actual amendment
before us as opposed to what appeared to be a broad-based discussion of
the bill overall.
What this amendment specifically does is it says we will go forward
with the proposal that has been advanced by this bipartisan group. It
simply says we should examine after 5 years whether the program is
working. The notion that somehow that guts the bill or destroys the
bill is simply disingenuous and it is engaging in the sort of
histrionics that is entirely inappropriate for this debate. This is a
bill that says after 5 years, we will examine a point system in which
we have had no hearings in the public. Nobody has had an opportunity to
consider exactly how this was structured. It was structured behind
closed doors. And the notion that after 5 years we can reexamine it to
see if it is working properly, as opposed to locking it in for 14
years, that somehow destroys the bipartisan nature of this bill is
simply untrue.
I ask all my colleagues to consider the nature of the actual
amendment that is on the floor as opposed to the discussion that
preceded mine.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Amendment No. 1415
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I wish to use the final minute of my
time on my amendment No. 1415 and say I want to make sure we are doing
everything to be fair to the people who pay into our Social Security
system. We know we will be adding more people in this bill, but we want
to make sure they are people who have worked legally in the system.
Therefore, I hope we will adopt my amendment No. 1415, cosponsored by
Senator Grassley.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter from
the office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration
in which he says the average annual savings in the bill from my
amendment would be approximately $300 million this year, and over the
75-year period there will be more savings up front, fewer savings
toward the end of the 75 years, but the average would be about $300
million per year. That is into our Social Security trust fund.
It is a matter of fairness to the people who have paid legally, and I
hope everyone will support amendment No. 1415.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief
Actuary,
Baltimore, MD, June 6, 2007.
Hon. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Hutchison: Matthew Acock of your staff and
Derek Kan of the Republican Policy Committee have requested
that we produce preliminary estimates of the effect of two
amendments to S. 1348, as amended with A. 1150, on the
financial status of the Social Security program. They
emphasized the need for at least preliminary estimates as
quickly as possible. We have developed preliminary estimates
for these amendments consistent with the analysis provided to
Chairman Max Baucus on the current bill S. 1348/1150.
Amendment 1301: Option to Refund Payroll Taxes for Y-visa Guest Workers
Your amendment number 1301 to S.1348 would provide Y-visa
workers who have completed their time in this status and have
returned to their home country the option to get a refund of
employee payroll taxes from Social Security and Medicare.
Exercising the option would preclude obtaining credit for
these earnings toward Social Security or Medicare benefits.
It would also preclude returning to the United States as a Y-
visa guest worker in the future.
We assume that only those Y-visa workers who have no
intention of returning to the U.S. would exercise the option.
Such workers, without exercising the option, would often have
made the payroll tax contributions with no expectation of
receiving any benefits in the future because the limit of 6
years in Y-visa status is not sufficient to obtain insured
status for most Social Security benefits (unless the U.S. and
the worker's home country have an in-force totalization
agreement). Thus, refunded payroll taxes under the amendment
would represent a reduction in revenue for the OASDI program.
Of the 200,000 Y-visas granted each year we estimate that
roughly two thirds would ultimately exercise the option to
receive their employee payroll taxes back as a refund.
[[Page 14826]]
Those not exercising the option would be individuals who
either attain legal permanent resident status in the U.S. or
overstay the Y-visa and continue residing in the U.S. on an
unauthorized basis. We estimate that the reduction in revenue
from this amendment, assuming it is enacted along with S.
1348/1150, would be a negligible worsening in the long-range
OASDI actuarial balance. The average annual cost over the 75-
year long-range projection period would be about equivalent
to $200 million this year.
Amendment 1302: Withholding of Social Security Earnings Credits for Z-
Visa Workers When Not Legally Authorized to Work
S. 1348/1150 provides for legalization of current
undocumented immigrants who were working in the United States
on January 1, 2007. This amendment would prohibit assigning
credit toward OASDI benefits for years in which earnings were
received but the worker was not legally authorized to work.
The effect of the amendment would restrict the use of such
earnings credits for Z-visa holders who obtained a legitimate
Social Security number (SSN) before January 1, 2007. S. 1348/
1150 already includes this restriction for workers who would
first obtain a legitimate SSN after 2006.
We estimate that almost one half of the 6.5 million
individuals expected to gain legal status under S. 1348/1150
(through Z-visas and agricultural visas) would be affected by
this amendment. We estimate that the long-range actuarial
balance would be improved by 0.01 percent of taxable payroll.
We are hopeful that these quick preliminary estimates will
be helpful. We will be working on more detailed estimates and
must caution that due to the preliminary nature of estimates
mentioned here, the more detailed estimates could differ
somewhat. We look forward to continuing to work with you on
this important legislation.
Sincerely,
Stephen C. Goss.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Oklahoma.
Amendment No. 1151
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Colorado
and I have each had 5 minutes on my amendment. I have not had 5 minutes
in rebuttal of the amendment of the Senator from Colorado. Let me tell
you what is going on. I know a lot people in this Chamber are going to
think no one is going to figure this out. I am going to say it over and
over again after this is over if the outcome is as I anticipate it will
be.
First, this is probably the first time in 20 years we have had an
honest effort where we can make English our national language in the
United States of America. This is something all the polling data shows
is in the nineties--91 percent, 93 percent of the people in America who
want to have this amendment adopted.
In fact, a Zogby poll last month in May showed 76 percent of the
Hispanics in America want to have English as the national language.
The Salazar amendment is precisely what the underlying bill is. The
underlying bill--and I can read it to my colleagues, but I have done it
three times on the floor already--yes, it does put into law the
controversial Executive Order 13166. My colleagues have heard a lot
about this from their constituents.
It says you are entitled to have your information, if you receive
Government money, in any language of your choosing--Swahili or any
other language. That is what is in the underlying bill. That also is in
the Salazar amendment.
This is what is going to be happening. My colleagues have a chance to
change all of this when they vote on the Inhofe amendment, which is I
believe the third amendment in line tonight. What I don't want my
colleagues to do is vote for my amendment and then vote for the Salazar
amendment. All that does is put it right back where the bill is now. In
other words, it would do away with my amendment and put it back as the
language is in the underlying bill.
So there is no reason in the world to do it, unless someone is trying
to cover up their true position. If my colleagues believe we should
join the other 50 countries, such as Kenya, Ghana, and other countries
around the world, that have English as their official language, then
this is a chance to do it. If my colleagues do not believe it, then
this is their chance to vote against the Inhofe amendment.
It is an act of hypocrisy if colleagues vote for the Inhofe amendment
and then vote for the Salazar amendment to undo the Inhofe amendment.
That happened a year ago. Democrats and Republicans did that. However,
this time it will not go unnoticed.
It is interesting that every President back to and including Teddy
Roosevelt in 1916 said very emphatically that we should have English as
our official language, as our national language. It was said by
President Clinton, it was said by the other President Roosevelt, by
both President Bushes, and everyone has been for it.
I have a listing I wish to make part of the Record that shows all of
the polling data in the last 5 years. It shows that between 85 and 95
percent of the American people want this amendment adopted. My
colleagues can turn their backs on them or they can try the old trick
they do around here all the time: Vote for the Inhofe amendment, and
then turn around to vote to undo it if they want.
One thing that was stated by the Senator from Colorado was there are
a lot of statutes this would negate. I remind my colleagues, if they
read this bill, it says: Unless specifically provided by statute, no
person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the
United States or any of its officials or representatives act,
communicate, perform, or provide services or provide materials in any
language other than English.
I have a list I also want to be made part of the Record that shows
there are many statutes where they mandate languages other than
English. A good example is the Court Interpreters Act. That is put in
there to protect the sixth amendment to the Constitution, so people can
be advised of their rights.
Again, my colleagues are going to have the opportunity to vote to
make English our national language. I hope they will adopt this. They
will certainly be serving their constituents well if they do. But if
they do, they shouldn't turn around and undo what they just did because
that is not going to go unnoticed.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the polling information
and the list of selected Federal laws requiring the use of languages
other than English be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
National English Amendment Polls
Polls: All types of pollsters of all groups, liberal and
conservative, immigrant and nonimmigrant, with all wordings
show consistently high levels of support for making English
the official language of the United States:
1. A Zogby Poll conducted on May 17-20, 2007 showed that 83
percent of Americans favor official English legislation,
including 76 percent of Hispanics. 94 percent of Republicans,
72 percent of Democrats, and 83 percent of Independents are
favorable to official English legislation.
2. An April 2007 McLaughlin & Associates poll showed 80
percent of all Americans indicated that they would support a
proposal to make English the official language.
3. A December 2006 Zogby International poll showed that 92
percent of Americans believe that preserving English as our
common language is vital to maintaining our unity.
4. A June 2006 Rasmussen Reports poll showed that making
English the nation's official language is favored by 85
percent of Americans; this figure includes 92 percent of
Republicans, 79 percent of Democrats, and 86 percent of those
not affiliated with either major political party.
5. A March 2006 Zogby International Poll showed 84 percent
of likely voters support making English the official language
of government operations with commonsense exceptions.
6. A 2004 Zogby poll showed 92 percent of Republicans, 76
of Democrats and 76 percent of Independents favor making
Englisgh the official language.
7. In 2000, Public Opinion Strategies showed 84 percent
favored English as the official language with only 12 percent
oppposed and 4 percent not sure.
8. A 1996 national survey by Luntz Research asked, ``Do you
think English should be made the Official Language of the
United States?'' 86 percent of Americans supported making
English the official language with only 12 opposed and 2
percent not sure.
Latino immigrants support the concept of Official English:
1. An April 2007 McLaughlin & Associates poll showed that
80 percent of all Americans, including 62 percent of Latinos,
would support a proposal to make English the official
language.
2. A March 2006 Zogby poll found that 84 percent, of
Americans, including 71 percent of Hispanics, believe English
should be the official language of government operations.
[[Page 14827]]
3. My favorite poll is this one: In 2004 the National
Council of LaRaza found that 97 percent strongly (86.4
percent or somewhat (10.9 percent) agreed that ``The ability
to speak English is important to succeed in this country.''
STATUTES
Selected Federal Laws Requiring the Use of Languages Other than English
The following are provisions of the United States Code
which expressly require the use of languages other than
English:
1. The Food Stamp Act of 1977--(7 U.S.C. Sec. 2020(e)--
Under certain circumstances, requires states to provide
written and oral assistance in languages other than English.
2. Immigration and Nationality Act--(8 U.S.C. Sec. 1224)--
Provides interpreters during examinations of aliens seeking
entry to the United States.
3. Domestic Violence Prevention--(8 U.S.C. Sec. 1375a(a))--
States that information for nonimmigrants shall be in
languages other than English.
4. The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974--(20
U.S.C. Sec. 1703(f))--Upheld in Lau v. Nichols, (1974), this
Act necessitates some accommodation for students who don't
speak English.
5. Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and
Immigrant Students--(20 U.S.C. Sec. 6823)--Requires state
plans for educating limited English proficient students.
Describes how local schools will be given flexibility to
choose the language instructional method to be used, so long
as the plan is scientifically-based and demonstrably
effective.
6. Plans for Educating Limited English Proficient Student--
(20 U.S.C. Sec. 6826)--Calls for plans for educating limited
English proficient students, including demonstrations that
teachers are multilingual.
7. Authorizes Grants for Educating Limited English
Proficient Students--(20 U.S.C. Sec. 6913)--Authorizes and
mandates grants for educating limited English proficient
students without limitation on language used.
8. Education of Limited English Proficient Students--(20
U.S.C. Sec. 6932)--Requires research on education of limited
English proficient students.
9. Language Instruction Educational Program Definition--(20
U.S.C. Sec. 7011)--Defines ``language instruction educational
program'' as one that may include instruction in both English
and the child's native language to enable participating
children to become proficient both in English and in a second
language.
10. Parental Notification of Identity of Limited English
Proficient Students--(20 US.C. Sec. 7012)--Provides for
parental notification of identification of a student as
limited English proficient, including use of language other
than English to notify the parent.
11. Native American Languages Act--(25 U.S.C. Sec. 2902-
2906)--Preserves, protects, and promotes the use of Native
American languages. States that nothing in the Native
American Languages Act shall prevent the use of federal funds
to teach English to Native Americans.
12. The Court Interpreters Act--(28 U.S.C. Sec. 1827(d))--
Invoking the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses,
requires the use of interpreters in certain judicial
proceedings.
13. Labor Protection Notices for Migrant Workers--(29
U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 1821(g), 1831(f))--Migrant and farmworker
labor protection notices must be in languages other than
English, according to the level of fluency of the workers.
14. Migrant Health Centers and Alcohol Abuse Programs--(42
U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 254b(f), 245c, 4577b)--Federally-funded
migrant health centers and alcohol abuse programs that serve
a significant non-English-speaking population must have
interpreters.
15. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration
Reorganization Act--(42 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 290aa(d)(14))--
Requires some services in languages other than English.
16. Disadvantaged Minority Health Improvement Act--(42
U.S.C. Sec. 300u-6(b)(7))--Requires the Office of Minority
Health to provide multilingual services.
17. Voting Rights Act--(42 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 1973b(f)(1),
1973aa-1a)--Restricts elections and election-related
materials published only in English in the bilingual ballots
and voting materials sections of the Voting Rights Act.
18. Older Americans Act--(42 U.S.C. Sec. 3027(a)(20)(A))--
Requires state planning agencies to use outreach workers who
are fluent in languages other than English when there is a
substantial number of limited-English proficient older
persons in a planning area.
19. Community Development Grants--(42 U.S.C. Sec. 5304)--
Requires applicants for community development grants to
explain how they will meet the needs of non-English-speaking
persons.
20. Child Development Grants--(42 U.S.C. Sec. 9843)--
Permits grants for child development (Head Start) programs
for limited English proficient children.
21. Domestic Violence Hotlines--(42 U.S.C. Sec. 10416)--
Requires a plan to provide domestic violence telephone
hotline operators in Spanish.
Mr. INHOFE. I reserve the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I think there are 2 minutes left on the
discussion of this issue.
I hope our colleagues listened to the extraordinary history of the
Salazar family. It is the living of the American dream. It is respect
for the Spanish language and Spanish tradition, and the reverence that
it has for English today.
I am disappointed in the Inhofe amendment because the Inhofe
amendment doesn't add one nickel, it doesn't add 1 hour for those who
want to learn English. To learn English in my home city of Boston, MA,
immigrants have to wait 3 years in order to gain admission to a class
to learn English. There are long waits in all parts of the country. If
we had some effort to try and provide the opportunity for those who do
not know English to learn English, I think we would be much better off.
Finally, as the Senator from Colorado has pointed out, the great
civil rights protections of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and
Executive order 13,166 as well as protections dealing with public
health and safety that we have found to be so important in terms of
ensuring the health and the safety and the security of our people.
Providing information needed to protect health and safety depend on
communication--communication--and we have developed a process, a way of
respecting different traditions in order to be able to do that.
The Salazar amendment retains and respects that tradition, and it is
the way we should be proceeding and embracing this evening for the
reasons he stated so well.
Amendment No. 1374
Mr. President, I wish to yield time on the Ensign amendment. I think
I have 5 minutes on the Ensign amendment in opposition?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. The Senator has 5
minutes on the Ensign amendment.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Ensign amendment basically rearranges
what we call the merit-based system that has been included in this
legislation. This was the subject of a good deal of debate: Do we want
to develop a merit-based system that has been developed in some other
countries. It has had some success in some areas, some challenges in
others.
During the debate there was a question about how we would develop a
merit-based system to take in the needs of the United States. There are
important needs in high skills, but we also understand from the
Department of Labor that 8 out of the 10 areas of occupations are
basically low skill, what they call low skill. Those may be teachers,
they may be managers, or professional people in some areas, but they
are basically individuals who have very important skills that are
essential to the American economy.
We had debate about how we were going to work out that merit system,
and in that whole process we worked diligently to find a system that is
going to respect the higher skilled but also provides some opportunity
for the low skilled as well to be able to gain entry and then to gain
what we call the sufficient points to move far forward and able to gain
green cards and eventually citizenship.
The Ensign amendment absolutely emasculates that amendment and
virtually closes out all of the low-skilled possibilities for people
who might come on in as temporary workers or may come on in under other
provisions of this legislation. Under the Ensign amendment, all of
those individuals, the lower skilled, are effectively eliminated and
closed out, make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it.
Finally, we have provisions in the legislation dealing with the
higher skills, called the H-1B provisions. That is directly related to
higher skills. We have addressed that issue in other provisions of the
legislation.
For those reasons, I would hope the Ensign amendment would not be
accepted.
Amendment No. 1339
Mr. President, on the Vitter amendment, let me add some additional
points to this debate. A great deal of
[[Page 14828]]
time was spent listening to Secretary Chertoff, to making
recommendations about what is going to be in the national security
interest to preserve our borders. That was one of the most important
parts of the development of this legislation.
Senator Isakson came forward with a very important suggestion and a
proposal with regard to ensuring that we were going to have true
national security, protection of our national security before other
provisions were going to be set forth. We have had good chances during
the period of these past months to work with Homeland Security and to
work with all of the Members of this body to ensure we were going to
have effective provisions to protect national security. We even
accepted a Gregg amendment which we believed added to the provisions
that were accepted.
It is our belief those provisions are sufficient, the allocations of
resources for the border, the utilization of enhanced border patrols,
the enhanced border security, which has been outlined time and again
during the course of this debate. They are sufficient. So I would hope
at the time that amendment is addressed it would not be accepted.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Amendment No. 1316
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Dorgan
amendment. I was a little surprised to see it in order, but that
happens quite often around here. This is the same amendment we voted on
a couple of weeks ago. It was a close vote, I realize, but I didn't
know we were going to have a practice of second chances on amendments
after they were defeated.
It seems to me this is something that is very unnecessary. But if we
get into the custom here with so many amendments that we vote again and
again, I don't think that is good for this process. I think the process
that has taken place so far has been very commendable. Both managers
have done a great job, but this is another attempt to do away with the
temporary worker program. It is another attempt to kill this
legislation. That is what it will do. That is exactly what this
amendment does.
We had vigorous debate on it once, with a long period of debate, and
it was defeated. Now, basically, we are having another vote again. I
don't think that is appropriate. But more important, one thing that
hasn't changed, I say to my colleagues, if you pass this, it kills the
bill. We have made too much progress with too much debate and with too
much consensus to revisit the same issue over again and have it carry
this time.
I am sure the sponsor of the amendment has some reason for bringing
it up again, but I don't think there is a good reason, and I hope we
will reject this amendment because it has already been rejected.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Dorgan amendment.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I take the time on the Dorgan amendment
myself. How much time remains on this?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts has 5 minutes.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I have opposed the Dorgan amendment each
time for very important and basic reasons. We are attempting to secure
our borders. We are going to secure our borders. We know, even when we
secure our borders, we are going to have pressure on those borders to
come through. People are either going to come through the front door or
they are going to come through the back door.
What do I mean by that? If they are coming through the back door,
they are going to be the undocumented and the exploited undocumented
workers, such as we have seen in my own city of New Bedford, where they
are arrested and exploited and are driving down wages. If they come
through the front door, they are going to meet the needs of American
industry when we find there are no existing options for American
workers. There is going to be the requirement that you have to get
American workers first. We have accepted that and restated that with
the Durbin amendment. But if they are able to gain entry into the
United States, they are going to have the kind of protections that are
included in the legislation.
I have listened to those who have been opposed to the temporary
workers, saying there are no rights and protections for these temporary
workers. They ought to read the bill. They ought to read the bill,
because any temporary worker who is going to be hired is going to be
guaranteed the prevailing wage, they are going to be protected by the
OSHA provisions, they are going to be protected by workmen's
compensation, and they are going to have the opportunity, we believe,
over a period of time, if they have come in, to try to improve
themselves, to learn English, to involve themselves in an employment
program to begin to go up the ladder in terms of getting a green card.
So that is the choice.
If we act to eliminate the temporary worker program, we are going to
find what we have at the present time, that hundreds of individuals die
in the desert; that we are going to have those individuals who are able
to gain entry in the United States and are undocumented and they are
going to be exploited, as they are exploited today, and they will drive
down wages, as happens today. That happens to be the situation.
Some like some temporary worker programs better than others, but we
have the one we have in this bill and we have every intention to try
and make it work. We have set up a careful system in the bill to
accommodate the concerns about the size of the temporary worker
program. There is, as well, a market-based adjustment that is crucial
to the provision in the bill, and I think it would be a great mistake
to effectively emasculate the temporary worker program. That is what
the Dorgan amendment would do.
Mr. President, I believe that I am the only one who has time that is
remaining. If that be the case, I would be glad to yield back the
remaining time.
I ask if the Chair would be good enough to state the amendments, the
first amendment that would be before the Senate at this time. We have a
series of different votes, and I think we ought to have the opportunity
to make sure all of us understand exactly what we are voting on.
I believe the hour of 10 o'clock has arrived, and I yield whatever
time remains, and I think we expect yeas and nays votes on all of them.
Amendment No. 1183
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question occurs on the Clinton amendment,
No. 1183.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I make a point of order that the pending
Clinton amendment, No. 1183, to S. 1348, violates section 201, the pay-
as-you-go point of order of S. Con. Res. 21, the concurrent resolution
on the budget for fiscal year 2008.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I move to waive the applicable provisions
in the Budget Act and ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is on the motion.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant journal clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 44, nays 53, as follows:
[[Page 14829]]
[Rollcall Vote No. 195 Leg.]
YEAS--44
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Casey
Clinton
Conrad
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Stabenow
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--53
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Carper
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kyl
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Murkowski
Pryor
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 44, the nays are
53. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
The point of order is sustained and the amendment falls.
Amendment No. 1374
Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate
equally divided on amendment No. 1374, offered by the junior Senator
from Nevada, Mr. Ensign.
Who yields time? The Senator from Nevada is recognized.
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, my amendment goes to the merit-based
system. We have a serious problem in this country where we are
graduating incredible engineers from our high-tech universities. When
they graduate, we say: You must go home.
I had a company in my office today from Silicon Valley. They are
opening an office in Singapore, hiring American graduates, foreign-born
graduates from American universities, opening in Singapore because they
cannot hire them in this country. There are not enough visas.
My amendment fixes the merit-based system and says we want to attract
the best and the brightest from around the world. The high-tech
community supports my amendment because they think the underlying bill
is flawed.
Mr. President, India and China will graduate 600,000 to 700,000
engineers. We will be graduating 65,000 to 70,000. Half of ours are
foreign-born. We do not have enough of that brain power coming into
this country like we have had in the past. Those who came here will
come here and create opportunities for other people in the United
States.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the merit-based system that is included
in this legislation as it exists at the present time is heavily skewed
toward the high skills. I would say 75 to 80 percent of those who are
going to qualify in the merit-based system are going to be for the
highly skilled.
There is the reservation under the skill system, 25 or 30 percent for
lower skills because our economy designed high skills, and the
Department of Labor says 8 out of 10 occupations that our Nation needs
are low skills: teacher's aides, home health aides, and others.
That has been worked out. That is the way it is. Under the Ensign
amendment you would completely skew it to shortchange all of the low
skills, all for the high skills. We are taking care of the high skills
with the H-1B program. If we need to do something about that, then
let's have amendments to do it.
But this way effectively is saying to millions of people who have
come here and have been absolutely indispensable to our economy that
they are never going to have a chance to be part of the American dream.
I hope the amendment will be defeated.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the
amendment. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 42, nays 55, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 196 Leg.]
YEAS--42
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Bunning
Burr
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Lincoln
Lott
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Warner
NAYS--55
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Brownback
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Coleman
Collins
Craig
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Voinovich
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1374) was rejected.
Amendment No. 1384
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate equally divided on amendment No. 1384 offered by the
Senator from Colorado, Mr. Salazar. Who yields time?
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask for a ``yes'' vote on Salazar 1384
and a ``no'' vote on Inhofe 1151, and the 2 minutes under that time I
will yield to Senator Domenici from New Mexico.
Mr. INHOFE. Parliamentary inquiry, before the Senator speaks: Is the
2 minutes equally divided?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is 2 minutes equally divided. The senior
Senator from New Mexico is recognized.
Mr. SALAZAR. Parliamentary inquiry: The senior Senator from New
Mexico is recognized for 2 minutes to speak on both amendments?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are now considering only the Salazar
amendment. There are 2 minutes to be divided equally.
Mr. SALAZAR. I ask unanimous consent that the senior Senator from New
Mexico be given 2 minutes to speak on both Salazar 1384 and Inhofe
1151.
Mr. INHOFE. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. SALAZAR. I yield 1 minute on Salazar 1384 and request a ``yes''
vote and yield the time to the Senator from New Mexico.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I, too, ask for a ``yes'' vote on the
Salazar-Domenici amendment which everybody should understand says that
the English language is the common language of the United States. I
come from a State that is different from most of yours in that we have
had a long history of trouble regarding what language we speak; this
has been so from the very time New Mexico started to become a State.
The legislature of the United States played around with New Mexico in
an effort to see if there could be enough Anglos so there wouldn't be a
majority of Spanish speakers at the State's infancy. We were told we
had to wait for Statehood until there was a majority of English
speakers in New Mexico, and the U.S. Supreme Court later said the
Congress
[[Page 14830]]
could not do that to New Mexico. New Mexico could do what they desired.
We voted in a State constitution that still stands that says English
and Spanish are common languages and you can speak both languages.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, this is very simple. I hope everyone
understands and is listening. We are going to have an opportunity in a
few minutes to vote on another amendment which we will describe at that
time with 2 minutes equally divided.
If you are opposed to English as the national language of the United
States, then vote for the Salazar amendment. That is exactly what it
does. His amendment says anyone who receives Federal money is
entitled--this is an entitlement--to have the documentation in any
language he or she chooses. It could be in Swahili, French, any other
language.
So if you are opposed to English as the national language, go ahead
and vote for this amendment. But keep in mind, when you do, that 91
percent of Americans are on our side of this issue and want English to
be the national language, and 76 percent of the Hispanics, as a result
of a poll that was taken in May of this year--a Zogby poll--are for
English as the national language.
I ask you to defeat the Salazar amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The question is on agreeing to Salazar amendment No. 1384.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 58, nays 39, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 197 Leg.]
YEAS--58
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Brownback
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Tester
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--39
Alexander
Allard
Bond
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kyl
Lott
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Pryor
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1384) was agreed to.
Mr. DURBIN. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that
motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
amendment be modified to be a first-degree amendment.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object--I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I withdraw my objection.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is withdrawn.
Amendment No. 1151
Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate
equally divided on amendment No. 1151 offered by the Senator from
Oklahoma, Mr. Inhofe.
The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized for 1 minute.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, last year, a year and a month ago, we had
this same vote. Sixty-two people in this Chamber voted in favor of it,
and I will ask them to do the same again. This, very simply--we talked
about this many times--makes English the official, the national
language of the United States as opposed to giving an entitlement to
anyone, to any other language, which is in, of course, the amendment we
passed.
If this amendment passes, it will go to conference, and we will have
an opportunity to do something in conference to decide whether it is a
combination of these or one or the other should prevail. So I ask that
you do what 90 percent of your constituents want you to do and that is
vote yes on the Inhofe amendment to make English the national language
of the United States of America.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. The Senator
from Colorado is recognized for 1 minute.
Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to vote no on 1151
for three reasons. First, it is in violation of the very delicate
compromise, the bipartisan compromise that has been put together by
both Republicans and Democrats. Second of all, it is an absolute
transparent attempt to undo the Executive Orders of President Bush and
President Clinton and the implementation memorandums from both of those
Presidents. Third, this is a States' rights issue.
Fourth, for me, I remember having my mouth washed out with soap as a
young man for speaking the Spanish language, which is my native
language. I love English and we should encourage people to speak
English.
This amendment is nothing but a divisive amendment among the people
of the United States. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
Mr. KENNEDY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to
be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 64, nays 33, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 198 Leg.]
YEAS--64
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Cardin
Carper
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Klobuchar
Kyl
Landrieu
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Mikulski
Murkowski
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Roberts
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Wyden
NAYS--33
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Casey
Clinton
Domenici
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Menendez
Murray
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Stabenow
Whitehouse
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1151) was agreed to.
[[Page 14831]]
Amendment No. 1415
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate, equally divided, on amendment No. 1415 offered by
the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison.
The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator
Allard be added as a cosponsor on the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the underlying bill does not allow
Social Security credits for work done with a fraudulent card. However,
it does allow credit for work done on visa overstays. We all know that
is estimated to be about 40 percent of the 12 million estimated illegal
immigrants.
Mr. President, if we don't pass this amendment, it could jeopardize
the integrity of the Social Security system for all the hard-working
people who are going to depend on that for their retirement. It would
be a loss of about $28 billion per year. I urge adoption of my
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Texas. She has
worked with the managers of this legislation. We are prepared to accept
this amendment. We thank her for the courtesy, and we hope the
membership will support her amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment
of the Senator from Texas.
The amendment (No. 1415) was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1339
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate, equally divided, on amendment No. 1339 offered by
the Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Vitter.
The Senator from Louisiana is recognized.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, this amendment is very simple and
straightforward. It would add to the enforcement trigger mechanism of
the bill that the US-VISIT Program be fully operational. This is the
entry/exit system program that has been authorized since 1996 but has
never been put into operation.
As Senator Hutchison just mentioned, we all know a huge part of the
illegal immigration problem is visa overstays. The latest estimate, in
2006, is that 4 million to 5.5 million visa overstays are illegal
immigrants in this country. We cannot get a handle on that problem
without the US-VISIT system knowing when people are leaving the country
and, thus, whether they are overstaying their visa. Yet that is not
part of the enforcement mechanism in the bill at all.
Let's vote for this amendment and make it part of the bill.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, there was no difference among all of us
in trying to ensure that we were going to have a secure America. We
worked very closely with Secretary Chertoff. In this legislation, we
have increased it to 27,000 detention beds, 20,000 border guards, 375
miles of fencing, 275 vehicle barriers, 70 ground-based radars and
cameras, sensors, and 4 unmanned aerial vehicles. We accepted the
Isakson trigger, saying that the other aspects of this legislation will
not go into effect until these are committed. Then we accepted the
Gregg additions. We are in the process now of trying to negotiate with
the administration to get mandatory spending to make sure all these are
done, and done expeditiously.
The Secretary of Homeland Security thinks we have met our
responsibilities. I hope the amendment will not be accepted.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment
of the Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a
sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 48, nays 49, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 199 Leg.]
YEAS--48
Alexander
Allard
Baucus
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Byrd
Chambliss
Coburn
Coleman
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Dorgan
Ensign
Enzi
Grassley
Hagel
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Landrieu
Lincoln
Lott
McCaskill
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Webb
NAYS--49
Akaka
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Clinton
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Domenici
Durbin
Feingold
Feinstein
Graham
Gregg
Harkin
Inouye
Kennedy
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Salazar
Sanders
Schumer
Specter
Voinovich
Warner
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1339) was rejected.
Mr. KYL. I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. CRAIG. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Amendment No. 1202
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there is 2 minutes
of debate equally divided on amendment No. 1202 offered by the Senator
from Illinois, Mr. Obama.
Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, this amendment is very simple. It sunsets
after 5 years the points system that has been structured in this bill.
I wish to emphasize that I think the authors of this legislation
deserve credit for working diligently and coming up with a carefully
balanced bill, but the points system we are transitioning to is a
radical departure from the one we have had in the past. The question
is, do we, after 5 years, take a look and see whether it is working
properly? Is it one that is inhibiting families from unifying in this
country? Is it something that is making it easier or harder for
employers to operate effectively in a lawful fashion?
What this amendment simply says is that after 5 years, we will
reexamine the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. OBAMA. I leave it there. I ask my colleagues to support the
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time in opposition?
The Senator from South Carolina is recognized for 1 minute.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I say to my colleagues who worked to put
this bill together, they know what this does. The deal is that in 8
years people will be reunited as families who never would have seen
each other for maybe 30 years. We have united families in 8 years. The
Z visa people have a chance to start over, but only after the backlog
is cleared.
The merit-based system is the vehicle to be used after 8 years so
they can come into our system and maybe one day be a citizen and get a
green card. If we sunset the merit-based system at 5 years, there is no
vehicle left, and to us over here, what would my colleagues say if we
sunsetted the Z program in 5 years? My colleagues would walk, and they
should.
This is not right. This does not help us as a country.
This destroys the vehicle to solve a problem that has been neglected
for 20-something years.
I ask my colleagues to vote no for the sake of the country.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
[[Page 14832]]
The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 1202.
Mr. OBAMA. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 42, nays 55, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 200 Leg.]
YEAS--42
Akaka
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Casey
Clinton
Conrad
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Hagel
Harkin
Inouye
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
McCaskill
Menendez
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Stabenow
Tester
Webb
Whitehouse
Wyden
NAYS--55
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Bunning
Burr
Cardin
Carper
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
DeMint
Dole
Domenici
Ensign
Enzi
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Isakson
Kennedy
Kyl
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Murkowski
Pryor
Roberts
Salazar
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1202) was rejected.
Amendment No. 1316
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2
minutes of debate equally divided on amendment No. 1316 offered by the
Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, will this be the last vote?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. This will be the last vote; that is correct.
The Senator from North Dakota is recognized for 1 minute.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this is a sunset of the temporary worker
program in 5 years. It is a new bill, a new program, with more
questions than answers. It seems to me that we ought to ask some
questions at the end of 5 years.
In the fifth year, we will have 600,000 jobs assumed by temporary
workers coming in; in the fourth year, 400,000 jobs, and on and on. So
the question is, How many of them are going to leave? What if they do
not leave? Are we going to come back to the floor with a new
immigration bill, talking about illegal immigration? Why don't we
sunset after 5 years to see if this has worked?
Let me make a final point as we vote. We have had a lot of discussion
about immigration, but no one on the floor of the Senate is talking
about the impact on American workers. All of these jobs the temporary
workers will assume are going to compete with people at the bottom of
the economic ladder in this country. They are called American workers
as well.
Let us sunset this and evaluate what we are doing, what kind of
contribution to illegal immigration this will amount to, and what
impact it has on American workers. Let us sunset this at the end of 5
years.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this is the third time we have dealt with
this issue. As much as I respect the Senator from North Dakota, he
doesn't care more about American workers than I do.
The fact is, if you have a secure border, workers are either going to
come in through the front door or the back door. If they come in
through the back door, as they are now doing, they are going to be
exploited and humiliated. If they come through the front door, as a
result of the fact that there is no American worker prepared to take
that job, they are going to get labor protections, the prevailing wage,
OSHA protections, workmen's compensation, and they are going to have
those kinds of protections which they do not have now.
You may not like the temporary worker program, but we have to have
predictability for a period of time. In the legislation are correcting
mechanisms for this program. Let us at least give it a chance to work.
Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired.
Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient
second.
The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 1316.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd)
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 49, nays 48, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 201 Leg.]
YEAS--49
Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Bunning
Byrd
Cardin
Casey
Clinton
Conrad
Corker
DeMint
Dole
Dorgan
Durbin
Enzi
Feingold
Harkin
Inhofe
Inouye
Klobuchar
Kohl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
McCaskill
Menendez
Mikulski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Stabenow
Sununu
Tester
Thune
Vitter
Webb
Wyden
NAYS--48
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Bennett
Bond
Brownback
Burr
Cantwell
Carper
Chambliss
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Cornyn
Craig
Crapo
Domenici
Ensign
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Hatch
Hutchison
Isakson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kyl
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Murkowski
Pryor
Roberts
Salazar
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Voinovich
Warner
Whitehouse
NOT VOTING--2
Dodd
Johnson
The amendment (No. 1316) was agreed to.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
Mrs. BOXER. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I know the hour is late and we have had a
long day. I think it has been a very productive day. Due to the delay
in getting amendments actually voted on, of course, the amendment I had
voted on this morning had been pending for a full 2 weeks before we
were able to secure an agreement to vote.
I ask unanimous consent to call up some of my pending amendments so
we can get them pending. I ask unanimous consent that my amendment
1400, which is at the desk, be called up for immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I would have to object. We are in the
process of attempting to clear up these. We have had a very full day. I
want to thank the Senator from Texas for his cooperation. We will try
to address these in an orderly way. We have been trying to process some
of these back and forth. I think we have made extraordinary progress
today. We are trying to make sure everyone's voice and interests
positioned on those issues are going to have an opportunity to be
heard. Now I have to object. I will work with the Senator and see if we
cannot arrange time for consideration.
[[Page 14833]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I know it has been a long day. But the
majority leader has filed a cloture motion which will be voted on
tomorrow. There is concern that there are many amendments that have
been filed which have not been allowed to be called up and be made
pending.
While I think there have been some recent indications that there is
more of a willingness to allow amendments to be considered, I am very
concerned, because of the procedural posture we will find ourselves in
very soon, that some of these amendments will not be allowed to be
considered.
I am concerned as well that may very well affect how many of us are
required to vote on cloture. I think there has been a recent spirit of
cooperation which I hope continues. But if there is going to be an
insistence on a vote on cloture, and at the same time a denial of the
opportunity of many of us to call up amendments and actually have them
considered and voted on, I do not think we will have any alternative
but to vote against cloture.
I regret the reluctance to allow us to call up amendments continues
at this time. If permitted, I want to call up at least four of my
amendments: 1400, 1208, 1337, and 1399. But I understand there has been
objection lodged. There likely will be objection lodged to additional
unanimous consent requests.
I would note for the record here that there are a lot of other
amendments that have not been allowed to be considered, and we have got
a lot of work to do before we can consider that everybody has had the
opportunity to call up amendments and have them voted on.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would state for the record that last
year before cloture was successfully invoked on immigration, the Senate
disposed of 30 amendments with 23 rollcall votes. This year, after
votes just completed, the Senate has disposed of 41 amendments, with 27
rollcall votes, 11 amendments more than when we last considered this
bill under the other party's control. Not counting side-by-side
alternative amendments, there have been 18 Democratic amendments
offered, compared to 21 Republican amendments. Counting side by sides,
it is 21 Democrats, 22 Republicans. So I would say to my friend from
Texas, by standards of the last debate on the immigration bill, we have
considered 11 more amendments, we have had more rollcall votes, there
have been more side by sides and other votes offered from the
Republican side than the Democratic side.
So I say at this point this has been a fair and complete process. It
is now 12:20 in the morning. We have worked a long day; probably have 2
long days ahead of us. But to argue that Members have not had their
chance to express themselves through the amendment process is not
reflected in the actual vote.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I do not dispute the numbers. They are
what they are. But I would point out that this bill did not go through
the Judiciary Committee. Last year when the McCain-Kennedy amendment
and the bill considered in the Judiciary Committee, I believe there
were 62 amendments filed. I think there were a lot more filed than
that, but actually 62 amendments. So there was a process at the
Judiciary Committee level last year which gave people an opportunity to
have their positions heard. That has not been the case this year. I
would point that out as an obvious point of distinction. I hope there
is not going to be any attempt to try to force this bill through before
Senators are ready to consider all or at least a reasonable number of
amendments, because I do not think we will have any alternative but to
vote against cloture, to allow debate to continue and allow additional
amendments to be heard.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in the interests of allowing Senator
Cornyn and other Senators to offer amendments, I make a unanimous
consent request that cloture votes be postponed tomorrow until 4 p.m.
so Senator Cornyn and others who wish to can offer amendments before
the cloture vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I believe a
demonstration of willingness to allow us to call up amendments and have
them debated and actually voted on would have been reflected in the
last 2 weeks. As I have pointed out, I was denied for a full 2 weeks an
opportunity to have the very first amendment I called up actually
scheduled for a vote. I know the distinguished deputy majority leader
is acting in good faith. But I think we need to have a vote on that
cloture motion at the time it is currently scheduled. So I would
respectfully object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Alabama.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I have offered amendments on a number of
occasions and had asked those amendments be made pending, and set aside
the pending business to make certain amendments pending. I have had
objection.
At this time I once again ask that amendment No. 1323, which we
referred to as the Charlie Norwood amendment, that deals with
empowering State and local law enforcement officers to participate
through the normal process, if they choose, be in order.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. DURBIN. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, it is pretty clear what has been
occurring is very few amendments have had the opportunity to get a real
debate. This is an important amendment. It deals with whether local law
enforcement can actually participate in any meaningful way in the
enforcement of Federal immigration laws. I will tell you what the facts
are, with the help from my fine staff chief counsel, Cindy Hayden.
We wrote a law review article for Stanford University Law School that
dealt with this issue, and it is a very important issue. It is one
well-understood by the legal professionals who have been behind the
scenes crafting this legislation.
The ninth circuit has held that visa overstays, which make up 40,
maybe 45 percent, and in the future, if this bill becomes law, maybe
more than 50 percent of the people illegally in the country, would be
visa overstays.
Those persons, if involved in some traffic accident, like many of the
terrorists were before 9/11--they were stopped for traffic violations
by local police officers, but because that is not a normal criminal
violation, as is the case for people who have come across the border,
they are not detainable under the ninth circuit ruling by local police
officers.
So it is a weird thing. Several other circuits seem to have held
differently. But the ninth circuit case was most on point. Lawyers for
police departments all over America are telling their police
departments: You may not have authority to hold anybody, so even if you
apprehend someone you are concerned about who could even be a
terrorist, like those people involved in 9/11, or like John Malvo, who
was involved in those murders, was stopped for traffic violations, we
do not have a system in place to even allow local police to detain them
for even a short period of time until they are turned over to the
Federal authorities.
That is the way the system ought to work. There are 600,000 to
800,000 State and local law enforcement officers in America. We are not
trying to mandate that they do anything. But in the course of their
business, their normal duties, if they come upon people in violation of
the law, they ought to be able to hold them and turn them over to the
Federal authorities.
I am disappointed we are not getting to move forward on that
amendment, very disappointed. We had this matter sort of fixed in
Judiciary Committee last year. Then an amendment came up--somebody
figured out the significance of it, and that amendment took it out.
Ever since, any effort to get that to be made a part of this fix has
been undermined and blocked.
[[Page 14834]]
I say to my colleagues, I do not believe anybody can say they have a
commitment to having an enforceable immigration system if they throw
roadblocks up that undermine the ability of State and local law
enforcement to participate in their normal course of their duties by
detaining people they come upon who are here illegally. You would think
that would be an easy thing to get done. I have said before, it seems
when it comes to immigration, many things can be accepted, many things
people approve of. But if you come up with something that actually is
very effective, that is what gets objected to. This is something that
is critical. It is a testament and a test of our will and our
seriousness as a body.
If we are not prepared to pass legislation like the Norwood
amendment, named after former House Member Charlie Norwood from
Georgia, who died recently, if we are not prepared to do that, we are
not serious about this.
I will say one more thing. Time and time and time again, I have heard
Members of this body say: Oh, we cannot vote for this amendment, or you
must vote against that amendment. Why? Because we have an agreement. A
compromise. It violates our compromise. Well, who was in on that
compromise? I am frankly getting tired of that. That is not
satisfactory to me.
The question really should be, is this amendment good or not good for
the legitimate interests of the Nation? No one small group of people
have a right to meet in secret with special interest groups and write
an immigration bill and ram it down the throat of this Senate. I oppose
it. It is not right. You can agree or disagree on these amendments, but
do so on the merits, whether or not it actually makes sense, not on
some deal made by some advocacy group or some business interest. That
is not what this Senate is all about.
I hope today the people will begin to see that a small group of
Senators who meet in secret and plot out a bill, that if printed in
actual bill language would be 1,000 pages, don't have the power to say
we can't have amendments and we can't change it, and if you do get an
amendment up, we are all going to stick together and vote it down
because it doesn't comply with our little compromise.
The masters of the universe are playing a tough game here. I have
called them that affectionately. I respect the Members who have
attempted to do what maybe they thought was right. But when you look at
the bill, it is a product of a political compromise. A group of
politicians met in secret and wrote a bill that is exceedingly
technical, exceedingly important.
Let me tell you who was not there in this meeting. The American
people were not there. Who was advocating for the American people?
I will tell you another group who was not there. That is the law
enforcement agencies that are charged with enforcing our laws at the
border. They weren't there. As a matter of fact, they had a press
conference a couple of days ago. They were at the national press club
and made a presentation. These are senior retired officials who had
many decades of experience in enforcing our laws at the border. They
uniformly condemn this legislation, as do the Border Patrol Agents
Association. They condemn it roundly. Hugh Brien, himself an immigrant,
became chief of the Border Patrol from 1986 to 1989. I started making
notes on C-SPAN the night before last. I just happened to turn it on.
He said this bill is a ``sell out, a complete betrayal of the nation, a
slap in the face to millions coming here legally.''
He referred to the people in 1986 who passed the 1986 act and
promised it would do things as our masters and our mandarins, who said
the bill was going to work and it never worked. He said:
Based on my experience, it's a disaster.
Kurt Lundgren, national chairman of the Association of Former Border
Patrol Agents said this:
There are no meaningful criminal or terrorist checks in the
bill.
He said:
Screening will not happen.
He said:
Congress is lying about it.
With regard to the proposal that record checks would be performed
within 24 hours, he said:
There's no way records can be done in 24 hours. As to the
proposal that Senator Cornyn tried to fix that allows gang
members, MS-13 international gang organization groups to get
amnesty by simply saying they renounce their allegiance to
the gang, he said:
What planet are they from?
Jim Dorcy, an agent for 30 years and inspector general with the
Department of Justice that handled investigations into all these areas
involving the Border Patrol, internal investigations, he said:
The 24-hour check is a recipe for disaster.
Referring to the bill, Mr. Dorcy, 30 years with the Border Patrol
said:
I call it the al-Qaida dream bill.
Roger Brandemuehl, chief of the Border Patrol from 1980 to 1986,
second one I am calling on here that was chief of it, said:
We have fallen into a quagmire.
He said:
The so-called comprehensive reform is neither comprehensive
nor reform.
He said:
It's flawed.
He set forth some principles that he thought would actually work.
When asked had he been consulted by the masters of the universe who
cobbled this bill together, a bunch of politicians who have never
arrested anybody in their lives, they joked about it. They never have
been consulted. Nobody wanted to know what they knew or cared about.
I will just wrap up and say I am not comfortable with the way this
bill is going. I think we have been slow-walked in the way the majority
leader and the group that is trying to move this bill forward is doing
this. They are objecting to having amendments pending. So when cloture
is filed, if an amendment is not pending, it fails. It can't be voted
on postcloture. So this way they have been able to maintain control
over the amendment process and will be able to maintain it, even if
cloture is obtained tomorrow. I don't know what will happen tomorrow,
but I know this: There are a lot of good amendments. I have seen some
of the amendments Senator Cornyn has that are important. I know some of
the amendments I have are important to having a good, lawful
immigration system. There remain major flaws in this legislation. We
should not pass it in its present form.
In rebuttal to the constant refrain that somehow this bill is going
to end the lawlessness and create a lawful system, I point out that the
Congressional Budget Office, just 2 years ago, issued their analysis of
the bill and concluded there would only be a 25-percent reduction in
the number of people coming into our country illegally. We have gone
through all this, and we are only going to get a 25-percent reduction
in the number of people who come here illegally, when we arrested last
year over a million people. What kind of system is this?
I wish the principles and goals contained in the talking points that
were bandied about early on in this process could have been achieved. I
had hoped they would and said some good things about it because I
thought some of the principles involved in this year's process were a
bit better than last year, but the truth is, when you read the fine
print, very little progress was made in those directions, and the major
flaws continue. I just wish it weren't so. But that is my opinion of
it. I don't think we are on the road to improving the bill. I don't
think we are proceeding effectively to allow full debate and amendment.
I yield the floor.
Amendment No. 1311, as Modified, to Amendment No. 1150
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Good morning, Mr. President.
On behalf of Senator Coburn, I call up amendment No. 1311 and ask
that the amendment be modified with the changes at the desk and then be
set aside.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk
will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
[[Page 14835]]
The Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. Whitehouse], for Mr.
Coburn and Mr. DeMint, proposes an amendment numbered 1311,
as modified.
The amendment, as modified, is as follows:
(Purpose: To require the enforcement of existing border security and
immigration laws and Congressional approval before amnesty can be
granted)
Strike section 1 and all that follows through page 4, line
11 and insert the following:
SECTION 1. EFFECTIVE DATE TRIGGERS.
The provisions of subtitle C of title IV, and the admission
of aliens under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)), as amended
by title IV, the programs established by title IV, and the
programs established by title VI that grant legal status to
any individual or that adjust the current status of any
individual who is unlawfully present in the United States to
that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence,
shall become effective on the date that the Secretary submits
a written certification to the President and the Congress,
based on analysis by and in consultation with the Comptroller
General, that each of the following border security and other
measures are established, funded, and operational:
(1) Operational control of the international border with
mexico.--The Secretary of Homeland Security has established
and demonstrated operational control of 100 percent of the
international land border between the United States and
Mexico, including the ability to monitor such border through
available methods and technology.
(2) Staff enhancements for border patrol.--The United
States Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol has hired,
trained, and reporting for duty 20,000 full-time agents as of
the date of the certification under this subsection.
(3) Strong border barriers.--There has been--
(A) installed along the international land border between
the United States and Mexico as of the date of the
certification under this subsection, at least--
(i) 300 miles of vehicle barriers;
(ii) 370 miles of fencing; and
(iii) 105 ground-based radar and camera towers; and
(B) deployed for use along the along the international land
border between the United States and Mexico, as of the date
of the certification under this subsection, 4 unmanned aerial
vehicles, and the supporting systems for such vehicles.
(4) Catch and return.--The Secretary of Homeland Security
is detaining all removable aliens apprehended crossing the
international land border between the United States and
Mexico in violation of Federal or State law, except as
specifically mandated by Federal or State law or humanitarian
circumstances, and United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement has the resources to maintain this practice,
including the resources necessary to detain up to 31,500
aliens per day on an annual basis.
(5) Workplace enforcement tools.--In compliance with the
requirements of title III of this Act, the Secretary of
Homeland Security has established, and is using, secure and
effective identification tools to prevent unauthorized
workers from obtaining employment in the United States. Such
identification tools shall include establishing--
(A) strict standards for identification documents that are
required to be presented by the alien to an employer in the
hiring process, including the use of secure documentation
that--
(i) contains--
(I) a photograph of the alien; and
(II) biometric data identifying the alien; or
(ii) complies with the requirements for such documentation
under the REAL ID Act (Public Law 109-13; 119 Stat. 231); and
(B) an electronic employment eligibility verification
system that is capable of querying Federal and State
databases in order to restrict fraud, identity theft, and use
of false social security numbers in the hiring of aliens by
an employer by electronically providing a digitized version
of the photograph on the alien's original Federal or State
issued document or documents for verification of that alien's
identity and work eligibility.
(6) Processing applications of aliens.--The Secretary of
Homeland Security has received, and is processing and
adjudicating in a timely manner, applications for Z
nonimmigrant status under title VI of this Act, including
conducting all necessary background and security checks
required under that title.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the border security and other measures described in
subsection (a) shall be completed as soon as practicable,
subject to the necessary appropriations.
(c) Presidential Progress Report.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, and every 90 days thereafter until the
requirements under subsection (a) are met, the President
shall submit a report to Congress detailing the progress made
in funding, meeting, or otherwise satisfying each of the
requirements described under paragraphs (1) through (6) of
subsection (a), including detailing any contractual
agreements reached to carry out such measures.
(2) Progress not sufficient.--If the President determines
that sufficient progress is not being made, the President
shall include in the report required under paragraph (1)
specific funding recommendations, authorization needed, or
other actions that are or should be undertaken by the
Secretary of Homeland Security.
(d) GAO Report.--Not later than 30 days after the
certification is submitted under subsection (a), the
Comptroller General shall submit a report to Congress on the
accuracy of such certification.
(e) Certification of Implementation of Existing Provisions
of Law.--
(1) In general.--In addition to the requirements under
subsection (a), at such time as any of the provisions
described in paragraph (2) have been satisfied, the Secretary
of the department or agency responsible for implementing the
requirements shall certify to the President that the
provisions of paragraph (2) have been satisfied.
(2) Existing law.--The following provisions of existing law
shall be fully implemented, as previously directed by the
Congress, prior to the certification set forth in paragraph
(1):
(A) The Department has achieved and maintained operational
control over the entire international land and maritime
borders of the United States as required under the Secure
Fence Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-367)
(B) The total miles of fence required under such Act have
been constructed.
(C) All databases maintained by the Department which
contain information on aliens shall be fully integrated as
required by section 202 of the Enhanced Border Security and
Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (8 U.S.C. 1722).
(D) The Department shall have implemented a system to
record the departure of every alien departing the United
States and of matching records of departure with the records
of arrivals in the United States through the US-VISIT program
as required by section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1221
note).
(E) The provision of law that prevents States and
localities from adopting ``sanctuary'' policies or that
prevents State and local employees from communicating with
the Department are fully enforced as required by section 642
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1373).
(F) The Department employs fully operational equipment at
each port of entry and uses such equipment in a manner that
allows unique biometric identifiers to be compared and visas,
travel documents, passports, and other documents
authenticated in accordance with section 303 of the Enhanced
Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (8 U.S.C.
1732).
(G) An alien with a border crossing card is prevented from
entering the United States until the biometric identifier on
the border crossing card is matched against the alien as
required by section 101(a)(6) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(6)).
(H) Any alien who is likely to become a public charge is
denied entry into the United States pursuant to section
212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(4)).
(f) Presidential Review of Certifications.--
(1) Presidential review.--
(A) In general.--Not later than 60 days after the President
has received a certification, the President may approve or
disapprove the certification. Any Presidential disapproval of
a certification shall be made if the President believes that
the requirements set forth have not been met.
(B) Disapproval.--In the event the President disapproves of
a certification, the President shall deliver a notice of
disapproval to the Secretary of the department or agency
which made such certification. Such notice shall contain
information that describes the manner in which the
immigration enforcement measure was deficient, and the
Secretary of the department or agency responsible for
implementing said immigration enforcement measure shall
continue to work to implement such measure.
(C) Continuation of implementation.--The Secretary of the
department or agency responsible for implementing an
immigration enforcement measure shall consider such measure
approved, unless the Secretary receives the notice set forth
in subparagraph (B). In instances where an immigration
enforcement measure is deemed approved, the Secretary shall
continue to ensure that the immigration enforcement measure
continues to be fully implemented as directed by the
Congress.
(g) Presidential Certification of Immigration
Enforcement.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the final
certification has been approved by the President, the
President shall submit to the Congress a notice of
Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement.
(2) Report.--The certification required under paragraph (1)
shall be submitted with
[[Page 14836]]
an accompanying report that details such information as is
necessary for the Congress to make an independent
determination that each of the immigration enforcement
measures has been fully and properly implemented.
(3) Contents.--The Presidential Certification required
under paragraph (1) shall be submitted--
(A) in the Senate, to the Majority Leader, the Minority
Leader, and the chairman and ranking member of the Committee
on the Judiciary, the Committee on Homeland Security and
Government Affairs; and the Committee on Finance; and
(B) in the House of Representatives, to the Speaker, the
Majority Leader, the Minority Leader, and the chairman and
ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary, the
Committee on Homeland Security; and the Committee on Ways and
Means.
(h) Congressional Review of Presidential Certification.--
(1) In general.--If a Presidential Certification of
Immigration Enforcement is made by the President under this
section, subtitle A of title IV, title V, and subtitles A
through C of title VI of this Act shall not be implemented
unless, during the first 90-calendar day period of continuous
session of the Congress after the date of the receipt by the
Congress of such notice of Presidential Certification of
Immigration Enforcement, the Congress passes a Resolution of
Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement in
accordance with this subsection, and such resolution is
enacted into law.
(2) Procedures applicable to the senate.--
(A) Rulemaking authority.--The provisions under this
paragraph are enacted by Congress--
(i) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate,
and as such they are deemed a part of the rules of the
Senate, but applicable only with respect to the procedure to
be followed in the Senate in the case of a Resolution of
Immigration Enforcement, and such provisions supersede other
rules of the Senate only to the extent that they are
inconsistent with such other rules; and
(ii) with full recognition of the constitutional right of
the Senate to change the rules (so far as relating to the
procedure of the Senate) at any time, in the same manner, and
to the same extent as in the case of any other rule of the
Senate.
(B) Introduction; referral.--
(i) In general.--Not later than the first day on which the
Senate is in session following the day on which any notice of
Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement is
received by the Congress, a Resolution of Presidential
Certification of Immigration Enforcement shall be introduced
(by request) in the Senate by either the Majority Leader or
Minority Leader. If such resolution is not introduced as
provided in the preceding sentence, any Senator may introduce
such resolution on the third day on which the Senate is in
session after the date or receipt of the Presidential
Certification of Immigration Enforcement.
(ii) Referral.--Upon introduction, a Resolution of
Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement shall
be referred jointly to each of the committees having
jurisdiction over the subject matter referenced in the
Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement by the
President of the Senate. Upon the expiration of 60 days of
continuous session after the introduction of the Resolution
of Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement,
each committee to which such resolution was referred shall
make its recommendations to the Senate.
(iii) Discharge.--If any committee to which is referred a
resolution introduced under paragraph (2)(A) has not reported
such resolution at the end of 60 days of continuous session
of the Congress after introduction of such resolution, such
committee shall be discharged from further consideration of
such resolution, and such resolution shall be placed on the
legislative calendar of the Senate.
(C) Consideration.--
(i) In general.--When each committee to which a resolution
has been referred has reported, or has been discharged from
further consideration of, a resolution described in paragraph
(2)(C), it shall at any time thereafter be in order (even
though a previous motion to the same effect has been
disagreed to) for any Member of the Senate to move to proceed
to the consideration of such resolution. Such motion shall
not be debatable. If a motion to proceed to the consideration
of such resolution is agreed to, such resolution shall remain
the unfinished business of the Senate until the disposition
of such resolution.
(ii) Debate.--Debate on a resolution, and on all debatable
motions and appeals in connection with such resolution, shall
be limited to not more than 30 hours, which shall be divided
equally between Members favoring and Members opposing such
resolution. A motion to further limit debate shall be in
order and shall not be debatable. The resolution shall not be
subject to amendment, to a motion to postpone, or to a motion
to proceed to the consideration of other business. A motion
to recommit such resolution shall not be in order.
(iii) Final vote.--Immediately following the conclusion of
the debate on a resolution of approval, and a single quorum
call at the conclusion of such debate if requested in
accordance with the rules of the Senate, the vote on such
resolution shall occur.
(iv) Appeals.--Appeals from the decisions of the Chair
relating to the application of the rules of the Senate to the
procedure relating to a resolution of approval shall be
limited to 1 hour of debate.
(D) Receipt of a resolution from the house.--If the Senate
receives from the House of Representatives a Resolution of
Presidential Certification of Immigration Enforcement, the
following procedures shall apply:
(i) The resolution of the House of Representatives shall
not be referred to a committee and shall be placed on the
Senate calendar, except that it shall not be in order to
consider such resolution on the calendar received by the
House of Representatives until such time as the Committee
reports such resolution or is discharged from further
consideration of a resolution, pursuant to this title.
(ii) With respect to the disposition by the Senate with
respect to such resolution, on any vote on final passage of a
resolution of the Senate with respect to such approval, a
resolution from the House of Representatives with respect to
such measures shall be automatically substituted for the
resolution of the Senate.
(3) Procedures applicable to the house of
representatives.--
(A) Rulemaking authority.--The provisions of this paragraph
are enacted by Congress--
(i) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the House of
Representatives, and as such they are deemed a part of the
rules of the House of Representatives, but applicable only
with respect to the procedure to be followed in the House of
Representatives in the case of Resolutions of Certification
Immigration Enforcement, and such provisions supersede other
rules of the House of Representatives only to the extent that
they are inconsistent with such other rules; and
(ii) with full recognition of the constitutional right of
the House of Representatives to change the rules (so far as
relating to the procedure of the House of Representatives) at
any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent as in
the case of any other rule of the House of Representatives.
(B) Introduction; referral.--Resolutions of certification
shall upon introduction, be immediately referred by the
Speaker of the House of Representatives to the appropriate
committee or committees of the House of Representatives. Any
such resolution received from the Senate shall be held at the
Speaker's table.
(C) Discharge.--Upon the expiration of 60 days of
continuous session after the introduction of the first
resolution of certification with respect to any measure, each
committee to which such resolution was referred shall be
discharged from further consideration of such resolution, and
such resolution shall be referred to the appropriate
calendar, unless such resolution or an identical resolution
was previously reported by each committee to which it was
referred.
(D) Consideration.--It shall be in order for the Speaker to
recognize a Member favoring a resolution to call up a
resolution of certification after it has been on the
appropriate calendar for 5 legislative days. When any such
resolution is called up, the House of Representatives shall
proceed to its immediate consideration and the Speaker shall
recognize the Member calling up such resolution and a Member
opposed to such resolution for 10 hours of debate in the
House of Representatives, to be equally divided and
controlled by such Members. When such time has expired, the
previous question shall be considered as ordered on the
resolution to adoption without intervening motion. No
amendment to any such resolution shall be in order, nor shall
it be in order to move to reconsider the vote by which such
resolution is agreed to or disagreed to.
(E) Receipt of resolution from senate.--If the House of
Representatives receives from the Senate a Resolution of
Certification Immigration Enforcement, the following
procedures shall apply:
(i) Such resolution shall not be referred to a committee.
(ii) With respect to the disposition of the House of
Representatives with respect to such resolution--
(I) the procedure with respect to that or other resolutions
of the House of Representatives shall be the same as if no
resolution from the Senate with respect to such resolution
had been received; but
(II) on any vote on final passage of a resolution of the
House of Representatives with respect to such measures, a
resolution from the Senate with respect to such resolution if
the text is identical shall be automatically substituted for
the resolution of the House of Representatives.
(i) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Presidential certification of immigration
enforcement.--The term ``Presidential Certification of
Immigration Enforcement'' means the certification required
under this section, which is signed by the President, and
reads as follows:
[[Page 14837]]
``Pursuant to the provisions set forth in section 1 of the
Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform
Act of 2007 (the `Act'), I do hereby transmit the
Certification of Immigration Enforcement, certify that the
borders of the United States are substantially secure, and
certify that the following provisions of the Act have been
fully satisfied, the measures set forth below are fully
implemented, and the border security measures set forth in
this section are fully operational.''.
(2) Certification.--The term ``certification'' means any of
the certifications required under subsection (a).
(3) Immigration enforcement measure.--The term
``immigration enforcement measure'' means any of the measures
required to be certified pursuant to subsection (a).
(4) Resolution of presidential certification of immigration
enforcement.--The term ``Resolution of Presidential
Certification of Immigration Enforcement'' means a joint
resolution of the Congress, the matter after the resolving
clause of which is as follows:
``That Congress approves the certification of the President
of the United States submitted to Congress on ____ that the
national borders of the United States have been secured and,
in accordance with the provisions of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.'',
TITLE I--BORDER ENFORCEMENT
Subtitle A--Assets for Controlling United States Borders.
SEC. 101. ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL.
(a) Additional Personnel--
(1) U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION OFFICERS--In each of
the fiscal years 2008 through 2012, the Secretary shall,
subject to the availability of appropriations, increase by
not less than 501 the number of positions for full-time
active duty CBP officers and provide appropriate training,
equipment, and support to such additional CBP officers.
Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I rise to clarify the record of my vote on
Bingaman amendment No. 1267. I intended to vote against the amendment.
I do not support the amendment and I wish to explain why.
The Bingaman amendment No. 1267 would have allowed certain future
legal temporary workers to renew their work visas from the United
States, rather than being required to leave the country for a period of
time to reapply. In order to have a true temporary worker program,
workers must only come to the U.S. for a season and then return to
their home country. If workers are instead permitted to stay in the
U.S., they will likely establish economic and familial roots, and will
not want to leave when their legal visa has expired. People who want to
take part in our society should seek legal citizenship, rather than
extending upon an agreement that was intended to be temporary. I
encourage those who have respected our laws and want to live in our
country to apply for a green card and become a U.S. citizen.
____________________
MORNING BUSINESS
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now
be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak
therein for up to 10 minutes each.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
63RD ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I stand before you to honor the memory
of the heroes who sacrificed their lives on the beaches of Normandy 63
years ago today. It was these brave men who stared into the face of the
stark unknown and forged on to military victory. Supreme Allied
Commander and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower led the decisive
invasion, now known as D-day, that brought liberation throughout
Europe.
It was on June 6, 1944, at 6:30 a.m., that the first assault wave of
a great armada rolled onto the beaches of Normandy, France. Operation
Overlord commenced and everyone involved knew there was no turning
back. And while the size and scope of the operation were colossal, so
were the risks. The success of the battle hinged on the element of
surprise, and with literally thousands of men involved in the planning,
its secrecy hinged on those same men. It is clear these men were the
epitome of unfailing loyalty, courage, and solidarity. The invasion had
been postponed a day due to weather, and it was only after assurances
from a meteorologist that conditions would improve that General
Eisenhower agreed to proceed. But still, cloudy skies caused drop zones
to be overshot, and more than half of the equipment to be parachuted in
was lost. But soldiers persisted, risks paid off, and bravery triumphed
over peril. On that dangerous early morning, following a treacherous
English Channel crossing, 150,000 Allied troops took the shore, and
100,000 continued inland. Mr. President, 9,000 men were lost that day,
but it went down in history as the decisive battle that turned the tide
of the war.
I am proud to bring your attention to what these men did. And as I
recognize their valor on this remarkable anniversary, I think it is
both fitting and necessary to recognize the valor of our troops in
battle today who are no less brave, and who face uncertainty and risk,
as did those who fought for freedom in the Second World War. I wish I
could stand up here and draw other comparisons between these two wars--
WWII and the global war on terror--and between the threats of Nazism
and terrorism, because it is without a doubt that World War II, despite
our human losses, brought a unity of cause to our Nation, and that
would be a great place for us to be again. But the fact is that we are
in a different world and a different century; we face a different
enemy, and, most of all, our Nation has tremendous differences on how
to deal with this enemy.
However, as with the heroism demonstrated by our fighting forces both
then and now, there are other unmistakable parallels. The invasion on
D-day marked a pivotal time in history when the outcome was uncertain.
The great generals going into battle had faith and trust in their
troops, but knew their bold strategy carried with it great risk. Just
before the invasion, MG Leroy Watson, commander of the 3rd Armored
Division, sent his troops this message:
This is the greatest military operation in the history of
the world. Its success or failure will determine the course
of events for the next hundred years.
General Eisenhower, also uncertain about the outcome, prepared a
letter which he never had to deliver, accepting responsibility for the
loss. He expected catastrophic failure and military victory. He wrote
to his troops:
My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon
the best information available. The troops, the Air and the
Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.
The leaders knew the danger, but also knew the consequences of
failure. In Iraq, and in the fight against terrorism, we must continue
to stay the course, because the stakes of not winning are too high,
and, as was the case on D-day, we are again in a pivotal time in
history. And again, the outcome will surely determine the course of
events for the remainder of this century.
D-day was a tremendous battle, with thousands of casualties over the
course of a day. It was a time of great loss for our Nation. And amidst
those losses stand stories of bravery, individual valor and resounding
brotherhood--stories that enveloped the historic battle and
personalized it for a nation. And I can tell you that the soldiers I
met in Iraq, and the troops whose stories I heard at Fort Benning and
Fort Stewart, will be remembered in the annals of our Nation as
warriors who are as brave, as strong, and as committed as the heroes of
D-day we remember today.
And the Generals who led these brave men will also never be
forgotten. World War II saw Eisenhower, Patton, Marshall and Bradley--
all of these men have secured their places in history. And today and in
the future we will remember the legacies of Petraeus, Odierno,
McChrystal, and Fallon--generals and admirals whose leadership,
ingenuity, courage and forthrightness are shaping the Iraq strategy,
and no doubt its military outcome.
So in drawing these parallels, my conclusion is that in the history
of war, there are some constants: the bravery of soldiers, the
uncertainty of battle, the value of leadership, and the necessity of
victory. These things never change. They were evident on June 6, 1944,
and they are evident
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today. And so it is on the 63rd anniversary of D-day, the decisive
battle of World War II, that I recognize the heroes who fought, lived,
and died valiantly. And I thank them and their families for setting an
example and standard our warriors remember on the battlefield today,
and for creating a generation that is willing and able to set the same
standard and example for our heroes of tomorrow. I hope that our men
and women in uniform serving around the world today will draw courage
from the example of those who have gone before them as they execute the
responsibilities we as a nation have trusted them to carry out.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM ``BILL'' FRANCE, JR.
Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, I wish to speak today to pay tribute to
a great Floridian, Bill France, Jr.--a man who lived the American
dream, a man who literally turned an idea and hard work into a
multibillion dollar national exhibition we today know as NASCAR.
Bill France was a great Floridian in many other ways as well. He was
someone who contributed greatly to his local community of Daytona
Beach, FL, as well as to the State of Florida at large. Mr. France left
us at his home in Daytona Beach, when he passed away earlier this week
after a long and difficult battle with cancer.
What we in Florida know, and what the news reports confirmed
immediately following his death, is that Bill made NASCAR everything it
is today: The sold-out races, the national network television coverage,
the regalia and the memorabilia--it all can be credited to this man and
his love of the sport.
Born right here in the Nation's capital, Bill France moved as a young
man with his family, Bill France, Sr., and his mother Anne to Daytona
Beach, FL, in 1935 to escape the Great Depression. With $100 in his
pocket, Bill, Sr., started a new life for his family in Florida,
setting up an auto repair shop and quickly taking a great interest in
racing. In 1938, he would set up the Daytona Beach Road Course, and
from there, as they say, the rest is history.
This course he set up back in those days was so unique, and to see
photographs of it is one of those things that one can only harken back
to the old Florida that is no more. But the races were essentially
conducted on the strip of sand in Daytona Beach. They would circle
around A1A, the strip of highway that was there at the time, and then
circle back around on to the beach. The spectators would sit there on
the beach side and watch these cars as they raced literally on the
beach.
Bill, Jr., spent his young life around the racetrack and worked
toward the legacy his father had begun to build. He worked on cars,
helped out during races, and beginning in 1956, he worked every day of
the week for more than a year on the construction of the Daytona
International Speedway.
In 1972, Bill, Jr., took the reins of the racing organization that
his father had helped to found in 1948 and took the risks and made the
decisions that took NASCAR to a whole new level.
The International Motorsports Hall of Fame describes it this way:
Other than the founding of NASCAR itself, Bill, Jr.'s
appointment to leadership is probably the most significant
event in the history of the sanctioning body. As rule-maker,
promoter, ambassador and salesman, France has set the
standard by which all other forms of motor sports are
measured. He has taken it from a regional sport to a national
sport, and nurtured its growing popularity on television,
culminating in a record-setting $2.4 billion broadcast
contract.
He served for a quarter century leading NASCAR to unbelievable
heights and set the stage for what it has become today.
I know I speak for hundreds of thousands of fans, the drivers, the
pit crews and anyone and everyone who enjoys NASCAR, as well as
Floridians and Daytona Beach residents, when I say a well deserved
``thank you'' to Bill France, Jr., for making our weekends a lot more
exciting, more enjoyable, and a lot faster. Florida thanks you for your
vision, Bill. We will miss you, but you leave behind a legacy we will
never forget.
____________________
REMEMBERING SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, today I rise to honor Senator Craig Thomas,
who, very sadly, passed away Monday evening. As all of us in the Senate
know, Craig was a respected Member of this body. A number of my
colleagues have made very kind remarks on the floor about their
relationship with Craig. While I have not served as long in the Senate
as have many of my colleagues who knew and worked with Craig over the
years, I did have an opportunity to get to know him since being elected
to the Senate in 2004.
I think one of the most important things we have all witnessed with
Craig's passing is the outpouring of support and stories about the
people he impacted in the Senate, in Wyoming, and across the country.
Without question, the Senate is a lesser place today without Craig's
presence. One of the clearest indications of any politician's
popularity is his or her support back home. Craig's leadership as the
senior member of the Wyoming delegation was overwhelming--primarily due
to the confidence he earned from his constituents back in Wyoming. That
confidence was something he fought to keep since first being elected to
Congress back in 1989.
Craig's battle with leukemia was very indicative of the way he led
his life and how he worked on behalf of his State and our Nation. I
also believe if his diagnosis hadn't been made public following his
reelection last November, I doubt anybody would have known of the
battle he waged as he underwent his chemotherapy treatments.
Craig did timeless work on behalf of the citizens of Wyoming and our
Nation. His absence from the Senate will be greatly felt. Kimberley and
I are deeply saddened by Craig's passing and extend our prayers to
Susan and her family. Craig's hard work over the years on behalf of
Wyoming and our Nation is a testament to his character and gives all of
us something to strive for.
Craig Thomas was a man of the people. He was a Wyoming original. He
represented the very heart and soul of the people of his State and of
our Nation. He personified hard work and integrity. He was a ``what you
see is what you get'' kind of a guy. Wyoming and America are a better
place because of his service.
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I join the many Senators who have paid
tribute to our colleague Craig Thomas. Many of my colleagues have come
to the floor since Senator Thomas's passing, and it is clear how many
friends he had in this Chamber and how well everyone thought of him and
the work he did.
We all knew him as a hard-working Member of the Senate who quickly
earned his colleagues' respect. That respect was grounded in the way
Craig Thomas served his country throughout his life. He spent 4 years
in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Wyoming State Legislature,
the U.S. House of Representatives, and since 1995, the U.S. Senate.
During his years in the Senate, Senator Thomas served Wyoming with
great dedication. Raised on a ranch, Senator Thomas understood the
concerns of rural Americans, and I appreciated his efforts in the
Senate to stand up for the people who keep our rural communities
strong. That is an important concern in my State, and I know it is in
Wyoming as well.
I was very pleased to work with him to improve competition and fair
treatment for farmers and ranchers. I know that he was committed to
giving farmers and ranchers a fair shake in the marketplace, and his
constituents appreciated that dedication.
Senator Thomas also worked on a range of health care issues important
to rural Americans. He well understood the challenges that people in
rural areas face as they seek access to health care services and helped
to address those concerns. The Senate benefited from his leadership as
cochair of the Senate's Rural Health Caucus, where he showed tremendous
commitment to these issues. He led the push to maintain full funding
for several rural
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health discretionary programs, and I am grateful for his efforts. That
was just one of the many ways he contributed to the work of the Senate
and served the people of Wyoming.
As we remember Senator Thomas, we can all be grateful for the life he
led and his outstanding service to the Senate and to our country. To
his wife, his family, his staff, and his many friends, I offer my
condolences and my deepest sympathies.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to join others in paying tribute
to a wonderful colleague, Senator Craig Thomas. Tragically, last night,
he lost his battle with leukemia. I want to send my heartfelt
condolences to his wife Susan, his children, Patrick, Greg, Peter, and
Lexie, and to his staff.
Since January, I had the pleasure to serve with Senator Thomas on the
Finance Committee. I found him to be a hard-working Senator and very
concerned about his constituents' struggling to get health care in
rural areas.
I also had a chance to work with him last year on the Michigan
Lighthouse and Maritime Heritage Act. This legislation sets up a
process whereby the National Park Service would work with the State of
Michigan to create a lighthouse tourist trail.
As my colleagues know, he was chairman of the National Parks
Subcommittee, which had jurisdiction over this legislation. During
consideration of this bill, he was helpful to me and the people of
Michigan even though these lighthouses are thousands of miles away from
his home. He held a hearing on this legislation, worked with me to get
it to the floor and ultimately to the President's desk.
On behalf of the people of Michigan, we appreciate his support of
this legislation.
Senator Thomas was a wonderful man--kind and decent to everyone. We
will all miss him.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, with a combination of great sadness and
admiration, I join my colleagues in honoring the life of Craig Thomas,
a person of strength, passion, and integrity.
Those who have had the blessing of traveling to the State of Wyoming
appreciate its amazing beauty and variety. Craig Thomas reflected the
geography of his State. He could be as peaceful and serene as Wyoming's
rolling prairie grass lands, and he could be as striking and powerful
as its majestic mountains.
Growing up, he learned the creative dynamic of frontier life: rugged
individualism joined with an ethic of neighbor-helping-neighbor when
the need was great.
In this sometimes stuffy and frustrating Washington world, he was a
fresh breeze of unconventionality. He maintained his Wyoming vision of
life throughout many years in this city, and the people of Wyoming
deeply appreciated his strong immunity to the political disease called
Potomac Fever.
Craig Thomas lived a very meaningful life and made the State and
country he loved a better place to live in. From his young days as a
marine to his last days as a Senator, his heart was service and he put
everything he had into making a difference for generations to come.
Because of his service here, our national parks are a legacy that
will be passed to future generations in better shape than he found
them. Because of his fiscal conservatism, fewer dollars of debt will be
passed on to our children. Because of his vision and integrity, a model
of public service will be available to those who come after.
Laurie and I send our prayers to the Thomas family. We thank them and
the people of Wyoming for sharing Senator Thomas with the Nation.
Every one of us on this floor can learn a lesson from his life and
remember Craig Thomas by living the values and commitments he taught
us.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, when Craig Thomas passed away on
Monday evening, the U.S. Senate lost more than a Member; our
institution has lost a good man and I a good friend--someone who was
proud to be called an American cowboy. Sharon and I extend our deepest
sympathy to his wife Susan, his family, his friends, his staff, and the
people of Wyoming whom he served with such complete dedication.
Over the last few years, I worked closely with Senator Thomas. I came
to know him well and came to respect him enormously. We both
represented small, rural States with critical constituencies--his most
emblematic being the farmer, mine the miner. We both maintained a deep
commitment to our home States. Perhaps most importantly, we both had a
history of public service.
Throughout our careers, I would say that we had a very good
partnership. We served together on the Senate Finance Committee and
fought to make this country more independent of foreign energy, to
promote the development of clean coal technologies, and to preserve the
rural American lifestyle.
Through it all, I greatly liked and admired Senator Thomas and
appreciated him for the fine human being he was. He was a man of strong
principle, one who knew the bottom line and didn't hesitate to consult
his colleagues on the other side of the aisle. What I will remember
most about him, however, wasn't his ability to work with his so-called
foes or our tough fights in the Senate, but for his deep affinity for
the beauty of this country.
In fact, over the years, when I have traveled to Wyoming and looked
up at that towering, earthly skyline of the Grand Tetons, I have often
thought of Craig.
Craig, after all, was perhaps one of the people who shared my deep
love of the Grand Tetons. It was in those mountains and the Gros Ventre
that we found a common bond. Together, we exchanged our marvels about
the alpine lakes, the cutting glaciers, wind-swept glaciers and
sparkling rivers.
I will never forget his advice on enjoying the beauty of Jackson Hole
or his stories about long horseback rides or camping in the cool
shadows of the mountains. I will never forget his interest in the
wildlife and his appreciation for the foliage. Nor will I forget how
passionately he protected the autonomy of the park, and how much he
cherished the culture and beauty of his home.
Senator Craig Thomas held my deepest respect; and, to his family and
the people of Wyoming, I offer my deepest sympathies. He was a valuable
public servant, a true fighter and a friend--and, more than anything, a
true American.
Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to our
colleague, our friend, and a great statesman, Senator Craig Thomas.
It is a somber day in the Senate Chamber as we mourn this loss.
His passing leaves a significant mark on the many lives he touched
throughout his life. On behalf of myself and my wife Annette, I send my
deepest sympathies to his wife Susan, his four children, and the entire
Thomas family.
Craig was an influential force in the Senate for the people of
Wyoming, as well as a thoughtful leader on national issues.
Craig served the people of Wyoming with distinction and honor.
His roots in the State ran deep, and Wyoming had no greater advocate.
He has built his reputation as a fiscal conservative while focusing on
the unique issues affecting the American west.
He was honest, humble, good natured, and loyal. It was these
characteristics that he brought to the Senate and to his work. He was
an effective leader because he believed you could get a lot
accomplished when you did not care who took the credit.
Craig was committed to the values and principles he believed in
deeply. He loved his State, and it showed. He was committed to
protecting our Nation's natural resources, improving the lives of those
in rural America, and a leader in advocating a sound national energy
policy.
It was my true privilege to have served with Craig over the past 13
years in the Senate. While we continue to mourn his passing, we should
try to carry on with the same determination and energy he brought every
day to the challenges he faced.
He will be remembered as a dedicated American, a marine, a public
servant, and the quintessential American cowboy who gave so much of his
life in service to the Nation.
[[Page 14840]]
I offer my thoughts and prayers to those close to Craig in this
difficult time, especially to his family.
____________________
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, today I come to the floor to discuss
some of the changes that need to be made to our national energy policy.
The simple truth is, our country is headed down the wrong energy path.
Our current path has led to record-high electricity and gas prices.
These prices are not only hurting ordinary families, they are also
hurting businesses who are seeing their costs go up dramatically. The
growth of energy-intensive industries such as manufacturing is actually
being stunted due to skyrocketing electricity costs. We already know
the negative global impacts our current energy path is having on our
environment. It is clear we can't continue down this energy path
anymore. It is not good policy. It is not good economic policy, and it
is not good environmental policy.
Mr. President, I will be introducing a bill that will lead the Nation
down a path to a better, cleaner, more independent energy economy, a
path that takes us away from higher electric bills and leads to new
opportunities for investment and innovation, more jobs, and more
economic development. As the chart beside me illustrates, 52 percent of
our electricity is currently generated from coal; 15 percent is from
natural gas; 3 percent from petroleum; 20 percent from nuclear; 7
percent from hydro; and 3 percent from renewable energy. Clearly, this
is not a diversified energy portfolio. Clearly, something needs to be
done about rising energy costs.
It is estimated that Americans will spend over $200 billion more on
energy this year than last year. That is an increase of nearly 25
percent. The bill will allow us to meet our future electricity needs.
It will allow us to diversify our electricity supply. It will allow us
to reduce the vulnerability of our energy system, and it will allow us
to stabilize electricity prices, protect the environment, and most of
all, stimulate the economies of rural America.
It is time to act. It is time to pass an aggressive renewable
electricity standard, one requiring that all electricity providers
would have to generate or purchase 25 percent of their electricity from
renewable sources by the year 2025. Twenty-two States throughout the
country have already demonstrated the value of establishing renewable
electricity standards.
This chart shows what is going on around the country. I am looking at
Rhode Island, to try one State, a 16-percent standard by 2019. You see
California, 20 percent by 2010. You see Washington, 15 percent by 2020.
All over the country, we see a change afoot. The checkered States are
ones that have voluntary goals, such as Illinois. The striped States
have standard goals, and the green States actually have standards put
into law.
While the States are already heading down the path toward the new
``green economy,'' the Federal Government has not even made it to the
trail head. The Federal Government is stuck in the fossil age.
I am proud to say my State of Minnesota is further down the path than
any other State. In February, the Democratic Minnesota State
legislature passed and our Republican Governor signed into law what is
considered the Nation's most aggressive standard for promoting
renewable energy in electricity production. It is a ``25-by-25''
standard. By the year 2025, the State's energy companies are required
to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources such
as wind, water, solar, and biomass. The standard is even higher for the
State's largest utility, Excel Energy, which must reach 30 percent by
2020. The CEO has been in my office and said it is going to be tough
but they are going to make it, and they are going to be able to meet
this goal without raising rates.
I admire what the States and communities and businesses are doing
across the country. I admire them for their inspiration, and I admire
them for their initiative. There is a famous phrase: the ``laboratories
of democracy.'' That is how Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
described the special role of States in our Federal system.
In this model, States are where new ideas emerge, where policymakers
can experiment, where innovative proposals can be tested.
Brandeis wrote over 70 years ago:
It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that
a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve
as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic
experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
But he did not mean for this to serve as an excuse for inaction by
the Federal Government. Good ideas and successful innovations are
supposed to emerge from the laboratory and serve as a model for
national policy and action. That is now our responsibility in Congress.
The courage we are seeing in the States, as they deal with global
warming, climate change, should be matched by courage in Washington,
DC. We should be prepared to act on a national level, especially when
the States and local communities are showing us the way.
Now there is an opportunity for the Federal Government to act. It is
time for the Federal Government to begin moving toward an aggressive
national standard--on par with Minnesota's 25-by-25 standard.
There are many economic benefits of this aggressive standard. Yet,
perhaps most importantly, an aggressive national standard opens the
door to a new electricity industry that will bring thousands of jobs
and pump billions of dollars into our economy.
Over the last 20 years, America's renewable energy industries--and
the wind industry in particular--have achieved significant
technological advancements. The industries for solar, wind, and biomass
energy systems are expanding at rates exceeding 30 percent annually.
The clean water revolution is still in its infancy. I think of it
like the beginnings of the computer revolution when the computer used
to take up an entire room. Now they are much cheaper, and they are much
more efficient. That is what is happening with our green technology.
But it will not happen unless we get into the act and set the standards
as they should be.
Businesses are coming on board. CEOs of major corporations such as
DuPont, Duke Energy, and General Electric see the opportunities. High-
tech entrepreneurs in our country want to develop the green
technologies before they do it in India and Japan. It is already
starting.
Nationally, venture capital investments in ``green'' or ``clean''
technologies have increased dramatically. Last year, venture capital
investment in green technologies reached an impressive $2.9 billion.
From 2001 to 2006, there was a 243 percent increase in green technology
venture capital investments.
Not only is clean technology the fastest growing venture capital
sector, it is now the third largest category--behind only biotech and
computer software.
The economic benefits are not just limited to high-risk investors. In
September of 2004, the Union of Concerned Scientists used the Energy
Information Administration's National Energy Modeling System to examine
the costs and benefits of an aggressive national standard. Their
analysis found an aggressive national standard would reduce electric
and natural gas prices and provide significant economic benefits for
all of America.
For example, as you can see from this chart, an aggressive national
standard would create 355,000 new jobs--nearly twice as many as
generating electricity from fossil fuels.
We would see economic development, such as $72.6 billion in new
capital investment; $16.2 billion in income to farmers, ranchers, and
rural landowners; $5 billion in new local tax revenue. We would see
consumer savings. We would see $49 billion in lower electricity and
natural gas bills. We would have a healthier environment. We would see
reductions in global warming, pollution equal to taking nearly 71
million cars off the road. We would see
[[Page 14841]]
less air pollution, less damage to land, and better water use.
So while traditional manufacturing jobs continue to move away from
the United States, the country now has an opportunity to become a
global hub of new, high-quality jobs in manufacturing and other high-
skill areas, while generating environmental benefits at the same time.
So the future looks bright. Never before have we seen such strong
interest and growth in renewable energy and energy-efficiency
technologies. But the question we face is this: Does the United States
want to be a leader in creating the new green technologies and the new
green industries of the future? Or are we going to sit back and watch
the opportunities pass us by?
In this country, we have the fields to grow the energy that will keep
this Nation moving. And we have the wind energy to propel our economy
forward. Right here in the United States, we have the science, we have
the universities, we have the technological know-how, and we have the
financial capital to harness our own homegrown energy.
It is time to act. The only thing holding us back is complacency. A
national renewable energy standard will be a major contributor in
driving innovation in green technologies.
Now, I know there are critics of a national standard. These critics--
who I believe are stuck in the fossil age--believe an aggressive
standard would negatively affect the reliability of an energy system.
Yet, these critics seem to forget that numerous countries in Europe,
including Spain, Germany, and Denmark--where wind power supplies over
30 percent of their electricity--have seen no adverse impacts on the
reliability of their systems.
In fact, a renewable electricity standard can actually increase the
overall reliability of an electric system. It can diversify our
electricity sources so we are not so reliant on energy sources such as
natural gas that are vulnerable to periodic shortages or other supply
interruptions.
Not only is a national standard more reliable and good for the
economy, it will also, of course, protect the environment and public
health. Electricity production has a significant impact on our
environment. Today, electricity accounts for more than 26 percent of
smog-producing emissions, one-third of toxic mercury emissions, and
some 40 percent of climate-changing greenhouse gases.
An aggressive standard will reduce CO2 emissions by 434
million metric tons per year by 2020--reductions of 15 percent below
current levels. This, as I said, is equivalent to taking nearly 71
million cars off the road.
A couple of weeks ago, Minnesota's own Tom Friedman had a cover story
in the New York Times magazine about ``The Power of Green.'' It should
be required reading for anyone who cares not only about the future of
our environment but also our economic future and our future national
security. He talked about the need in this area for setting the
standards. When you set the standards, and people can see off into the
future, we will see the investment. People say: Well, why do you have a
standard set at 2025? Obviously, our bill is going to have a standard
growing each year. But the reason you want to go out to 2025 is you
want American businesses and capitalists and people involved in this to
understand if they invest, where they are going.
In his article, Tom Friedman asks: ``How do our kids compete in a
flatter world? How do they thrive in a warmer world? How do they
survive in a more dangerous world?''
The answer is in making the most of the economic and technological
opportunities to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and the
greenhouse gas pollution that comes from it.
Friedman says clean energy technology is going to be ``the next great
global industry.'' Well, if that is the case--and I believe he is
right--then we need to make America the leader. We cannot afford to sit
back and watch the opportunities pass us by.
As I mentioned before, we are seeing unprecedented interest and
growth in renewable energy technologies. But at the same time, we are
no longer the world leader in two important clean energy fields. We
rank third in wind power production, behind Denmark and Spain. We are
third in solar power installed, behind Germany and Japan.
Ironically, these countries surpassed us largely by adopting
technologies that had first been developed right here in the United
States. We came up with the right ideas, but we did not capitalize on
these innovations with adequate policies to spur deployment. Our
foreign competition was able to leapfrog over American businesses
because these other countries have government-driven investment
incentives, aggressive renewable energy targets, and other bold
national policies.
Friedman proposes a ``Green New Deal''--``one in which government's
role is not funding projects, as in the original New Deal, but seeding
basic research, providing loan guarantees where needed, and setting
standards, taxes and incentives that will spawn'' all kinds of new
technologies.
I agree. It is about leading the new economy. It is about making
America the global environmental leader, instead of a laggard. It is
about creating a better economy for the next generation by inventing a
whole new industry, which will not only give us the clean power
industrial assets to preserve our American dream but also give us the
technologies that billions of others need to realize our own dreams
without destroying the planet.
It is about not being complacent. It is about getting on a new energy
path. I believe an aggressive renewable electricity standard leads us
down that path.
I urge all of my colleagues to support an aggressive standard. I
suggest Minnesota's standard: 25 percent by 2025 for renewable
electricity. It is a start down the path.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO FORMER CONGRESSMAN PARREN J. MITCHELL
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today I rise to pay tribute to a fallen
pillar of the movement to extend equal opportunity to thousands of
African-American and minority businesses throughout our Nation:
Congressman Parren J. Mitchell.
With the passing of former Congressman Mitchell on May 28, 2007, our
country has lost one of its legendary advocates for minority business
owners, a giant who knew that the struggle for civil rights and equal
opportunity would be decided in America's board rooms as well as its
voting booths and lunch counters.
Congressman Mitchell fought with heart, grit, integrity, and
determination to level the playing field so more minority firms could
do business with the Federal Government. He didn't just serve as
chairman of the House Small Business Committee, he served as Congress's
conscience. He also was founder and chairman of the Minority Business
Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Congressman Mitchell's life was an incredible story of courage and
resolve. He became the first African-American graduate student at the
University of Maryland when he challenged the university's policy of
segregation. He was the first African American elected to Congress from
the State of Maryland. He was the first African American elected to
Congress who lived below the Mason-Dixon line since 1898. And he was
the first African American to chair the House Small Business Committee.
Congressman Mitchell's work on that committee has left a legacy that
is as long and impressive as his commitment to equal opportunity for
all of our nation's citizens. Many of his policies made it possible for
the rise of the minority business community. In 1976, he attached an
amendment to a public works bill stipulating that cities and States
receiving Federal grants had to award 10 percent of the money to
minority-owned businesses. That year he also managed to pass a law
requiring contractors to document their goals in contracting with
minority-owned companies. In 1980, he was able to successfully amend
the Surface Transportation Assistance Act to require 10 percent of the
money to be set aside for minority businesses.
[[Page 14842]]
On May 22, 2007, in the Senate Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship we held a hearing to look at the state of minority
small businesses. And while the witnesses at the hearing revealed that
there have been many gains for minority businesses, they also revealed
that there is still more that needs to be done. I believe that the
accomplishments of those who testified at the hearing would have made
Congressman Mitchell proud. I also believe that the testimony about
discriminatory practices that still confront minority businesses would
have confirmed for him as it did for me that there are still more hills
to climb.
The challenge now is to climb those hills by creating opportunities
for minority businesses that will do justice to the memory of
Congressman Mitchell. As we move forward in the Senate Committee on
Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the best way to do that is to pass
laws that expand opportunities for all Americans who have been shut out
or left behind.
____________________
VOTE EXPLANATIONS
Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I regret that on May 24 I was unable to
vote on the motion to concur in House amendment to Senate amendment to
H.R. 2206, the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery,
and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007. Regarding vote No.
181, I would have voted in favor of the motion to concur in House
amendment to Senate amendment to H.R. 2206. My vote would not have
altered the result of this motion.
Mr. President, I also regret that on May 24 I was unable to vote on
certain provisions of S. 1348, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act
of 2007. I wish to address these votes so that the people of the great
State of Kansas, who elected me to serve them as U.S. Senator, may know
my position.
Regarding vote No. 176, on amendment No. 1186, I would have voted in
favor of this amendment. My vote would not have altered the final
result of this vote.
Regarding vote No. 177, on amendment No. 1158, I would have voted in
favor of this amendment. My vote would not have altered the final
result of this vote.
Regarding vote No. 178, on amendment No. 1181, I would not have voted
in favor of this amendment. My vote would not have altered the final
result of this vote.
Regarding vote No. 179, on amendment No. 1223, I would have voted in
favor of this amendment. My vote would not have altered the final
result of this vote.
Regarding vote No. 180, on amendment No. 1157, I would not have voted
in favor of this amendment. My vote would not have altered the final
result of this vote.
____________________
HONORING OUR ARMED FORCES
First Lieutenant Keith Neal Heidtman
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, every Memorial Day, words fight a losing
battle against action. Each year, as spring warms into summer, we pause
our lives and bow our heads in safety, and grope for words to honor the
men and women who have made that safety possible. Inevitably, we fail;
we say ``fallen'' when we mean ``killed''; we say ``sacrifice'' for
those who died unwillingly, in great pain. I believe we do so because
we want to find a register for our voice to match the heroism of their
work, but, also, because high words shield us from the immediacy of
death in war. Even as we remember, we can't help looking away.
But some lack that luxury. They are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they
are living the war we speak about. For 10 American soldiers in Iraq,
Memorial Day was their last day.
Last week, the Senate was out of session in commemoration of Memorial
Day, but now that we have returned, I want to honor the memory of one
of those 10 soldiers: Army 1LT. Keith Neil Heidtman. He was a native of
Norwich and a graduate of the University of Connecticut. He was 24
years old. On Monday, May 28, the helicopter he was copiloting crashed,
likely brought down by enemy fire. Early the next morning, an Army
chaplain brought the news to Lieutenant Heidtman's family.
For Maureen and Arthur Robidoux, his mother and stepfather, for Kerry
Heidtman, his father, for Chris Heidtman, his uncle, and for Keely
Heidtman, his older sister, memories will never fill the place of the
live they loved. ``If you had to pick your son, this is who you would
pick,'' said Chris Heidtman. ``He was handsome, he was bright''. A star
baseball player and a distinguished ROTC cadet, Lieutenant Heidtman
volunteered for pilot training upon his graduation in 2005.
He learned the value of service from his parents, both public
servants themselves: his mother at the State Department of Children and
Families, and his father in a State child-support program. His death
reminds us that the highest service carries the highest cost. ``We're
sending our finest, and we're losing them,'' said Lieutenant Heidtman's
uncle.
So today we honor one of our finest, who wore our uniform and died
long before his time. Next Memorial Day, his name will join the rolls
of our dead. I pray that by then time will have soaked up his family's
tears. Next spring, we will bow our heads and look for words to do him
justice. I don't believe those words exist. His best memorial will be
in our silence.
____________________
WAR CRIMES TRIAL
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, earlier this week in a special chamber
of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, based in The Hague, proceedings
began in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is
accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and serious violations
of international law committed during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war.
Tens of thousands died in this conflict that ended in 2002, and more
than a third of Sierra Leone's 6 million people were forced to flee.
His trial is expect to have significant impact across Sierra Leone but
also throughout neighboring countries as his raging brutality was in no
way confined by national borders.
For over a decade, the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia not only
suffered from deprivation and displacement at the hands of Charles
Taylor, but they also endured forced recruitment of child soldiers,
widespread and brutal sexual violence, and horrifying murders and
mutilations. Those responsible for these crimes abandoned all human
decency in their quest for power and wealth.
I have long been a strong supporter of accountability mechanisms
around the world--and in particular Sierra Leone's Special Court and
Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I have worked to ensure that the
United States provides appropriate financial and political support for
such important institutions, which are crucial to building a framework
for the rule of law in postconflict countries. I commend the court for
taking its mandate seriously and for following the evidence where it
led--directly to a sitting head of state.
Despite Charles Taylor's unwillingness to appear at the opening of
yesterday's trial, the message this critical trial sends--to current
and would-be corrupt, violent, and brutal leaders--is momentous: the
international community will no longer stand silently by but will
support efforts to break the worst cycles of violence and impunity.
When the trial continues later this month in The Hague, it is essential
that international fair trial standards are adhered to, that robust and
transparent outreach programs continue uninterrupted so the trial
remains as accessible as possible to those most affected by the
conflict and that great care is taken to ensure the security of
victims, witnesses, and their families.
While I welcome the proceedings in The Hague, more needs to be done
on behalf of the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia. True
accountability for the horrific atrocities they endured will only be
achieved when the rule of law is respected at every level in the
governments of both countries and all citizens have access to justice.
Great steps forward have been taken, but much more work remains. I will
continue to press the United States and the international community not
to desert the people of Sierra Leone--or
[[Page 14843]]
the region--as they work to reconcile their grievances and seek to heal
from one of Africa's worst conflicts.
____________________
CONQUER CHILDHOOD CANCER ACT
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I would like to take a few moments to talk
about 8-year-old Jenessa Byers, known as ``Boey'' by her friends and
family.
Last year, Boey was diagnosed with a very rare childhood cancer
called rhabdomyosarcoma. Showing tremendous courage and strength as she
underwent radiation and chemotherapy, Boey battled the cancer into
remission. Unfortunately, that cancer returned and Boey is back in
treatment undergoing radiation and chemotherapy once again.
While I was in Oregon over the recess, I had a chance to visit with
Boey and her family at the Children's Cancer Center at Doernbecher
Children's Hospital, as well as with other children at the hospital who
are battling a variety of childhood cancers. Boey refers to herself as
a warrior in the fight against cancer, and there is no doubt about it,
Boey is a warrior. As I witnessed firsthand when I visited her last
week, she is fighting the cancer as hard as she can. This in itself
makes Boey a very brave and very special little girl.
But what makes her especially amazing is that in spite of what she is
going through, Boey has been working tirelessly to help other children
who are also battling cancer. Each month, she donates special bears and
handmade cards titled ``Be Strong'' to other children at the hospital.
The day before her eighth birthday last month, Boey participated as a
survivor in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life, for which she
raised over $500. In addition, she has raised money to help fight
cancer on a local radiothon, and she has raised awareness using her own
videos, which she has posted on YouTube.
Because of Boey's incredible compassion and determination to help the
other children fighting cancer, she was recently asked to be a
spokesperson for Doernbecher Children's Hospital. On May 31, she spoke
about her experiences at a reception for the Children's Miracle
Network. Just this past weekend, she was featured in a segment of the
Doernbecher Children's Miracle Network Telethon.
While I was visiting Boey, she asked me to cosponsor the Conquer
Childhood Cancer Act. Introduced by Senators Reed and Coleman, this act
would provide critical resources for the treatment, prevention, and
cure of childhood cancer. The act would authorize $150 million over a
5-year period to expand support for biomedical research programs of the
existing National Cancer Institute-designated multicenter national
infrastructure for pediatric cancer research. It would also establish a
population-based national childhood cancer registry; enable researchers
to more accurately study the incidence of childhood cancers and long-
term effects of treatments; and provide funding for informational and
educational services to families coping with a diagnosis of childhood
cancer. The Conquer Childhood Cancer Act brings hope to the more than
12,500 children who are diagnosed with cancer each year, as well as
more than 40,000 children and adolescents currently being treated for
childhood cancers.
On behalf of Boey and the other courageous and wonderful children I
met at Doernbecher Children's Hospital recently, and every child with
cancer, I would like to announce that I am cosponsoring the Conquer
Childhood Cancer Act. I will be working with my colleagues to get this
bill signed into law so that we can find a cure for childhood cancer
once and for all.
____________________
D-DAY ANNIVERSARY
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to recognize
the great sacrifices made by our Nation's veterans on the anniversary
of D-day and to once again highlight the need for all of us to do more
for those serving today.
On this day 63 years ago, 3,393 American troops gave their lives on
the beaches of Normandy defending the freedom of America and its
allies. These brave young men sacrificed themselves to stop an empire
born of hatred from consuming Europe and fought to prove that freedom
and justice would never bow to terror and intolerance. Their valor and
service will forever endure in our Nation's memory.
Today, a new generation faces new challenges. The nearly 170,000
American troops currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan exemplify the
kind of courage and dedication that has defined the American military
throughout our history. And for the sacrifices they are willing to
make, we in the Senate, our colleagues in the House, the military
leadership, the President, and the American people have an absolute
moral obligation to provide our servicemen and women with the best
possible protection when we send them to war.
I know that when President Roosevelt sent his men into battle, he did
not simply pay lipservice to their courage, he made sure that they had
the strongest artillery, the best gear, and the most advanced equipment
available. He did not worry that the landing craft he needed for D-day
would not be needed when the war ended. He made equipping the force the
entire Nation's top priority. Calling on the patriotism of American
businessmen to ensure military needs were met before all else. And so I
ask why--a half century later--we cannot do the same for our troops
today.
Today, improvised explosive devices, IEDs, are the single greatest
threat to the lives of our troops, causing 70 percent of U.S.
casualties in Iraq. The military has indicated that mine resistant
ambush protected, MRAP, vehicles, which provide four to five times more
protection than up-armored Humvees, will reduce casualties from IEDs by
two-thirds. These vehicles have already been tested fully at Aberdeen
Proving Center and our allies have been using similar technologies in
the field for years.
So why, then, are these critical vehicles not already in the field?
We learned recently that in February of 2005, Marine commanders in
Iraq realized that they needed vehicles designed specifically to defeat
the IED threat and asked the Pentagon to build them. Yet 2 years later
their request remains unfulfilled. Secretary Gates has indicated that
MRAPs compete with other defense spending, which may make it difficult
to produce all we need. I just don't get that logic. I can see no
greater use of our dollars than getting American troops the best
possible protection that exists today. This Nation can afford to do
that and whatever else is necessary to do right by our military men and
women and their families.
At a later date we will get to the bottom of what happened in 2005,
but our first order of business today should be making sure that we get
our troops the technology they need as soon as possible. That will
require a genuine assessment of how many MRAPs are needed in the field
and how much it will cost to build that critically needed inventory.
We also need to provide our troops with all the latest in tested
technology to defend against the new weapons which insurgents are using
in Iraq: shaped charges called EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators/
projectiles, those shaped-charges which hit our vehicles from the side
with devastating effect. We cannot wait another 2 years to field
technology to protect against these devices when Americans are dying
today.
Today I ask of my colleagues, of the President, of our military
commanders, and of the American people, that we pay respect to American
servicemembers with more than words. We have the ability and the
obligation to do more and we must.
Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, 63 years ago today, many brave Americans
and other allied forces members were dropped out over the frigid North
Atlantic coastline of Normandy; numerous others stormed the beaches
from the sea. Ultimately, well over 100,000 determined Allied troops
were involved in one of the most remarkable and well orchestrated
military events in history. D-day was among the greatest victories of
World War II. June 6,
[[Page 14844]]
1944 is a day all lovers of freedom should hold on high. We cannot ever
forget the sacrifice and meaning of that day.
Were it not for the supreme leadership--both here and abroad--of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and many other government and military
leaders--and a patriotic citizenry--we might be living in a starkly
different world today. D-day does not just signify singular success; it
symbolizes the power of our fearless democracy and way of life. This
triumph--not only on D-day, but in the war effort at large--helped to
further a clear message made by an earlier American President, one who
was considering the weight of World War I. As Woodrow Wilson remarked a
generation earlier, ``The world must be made safe for democracy.'' The
events of June 6, 1944, helped to make the world a safer place. Victory
would not have come about without the smart and strong dedication of
our military.
We must take it upon ourselves as Americans, and as grateful
citizens, to continue to thank the brave patriots who served in what
has become a legacy of freedom; we thank them for their service and
their sacrifice. Every generation faces new challenges and must accept
the consequences of inaction. We are better off for the actions of the
Greatest Generation. Across the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold, and
others, our brave Allied troops sacrificed mightily on June 6, 1944.
That sacrifice lives on.
For all those veterans of D-day, and for that matter, any campaign of
World War II, thank you. You helped to make the world safe for
democracy. Your victorious struggle of more than 60 years ago makes
this Nation proud and grateful. Thank you for your dedication and
sacrifice.
____________________
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate Los Alamos
National Laboratory for its part in completing the 100th genome
sequence. Like the Human Genome Project, this achievement serves as a
constant reminder of the possibilities before us and a step forward in
scientific knowledge. The scientists of Los Alamos National Lab
constantly achieve excellence through their various endeavors, and I am
proud of their contribution to this vast project. This well-deserved
recognition highlights their continuing dedication to serving this
country through research in health and environment-related fields.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has championed the advancement of
national security for over 60 years. In the tumultuous times of World
War II, it stood as our Nation's front line in acquiring a superior
tool with which we could be certain that freedom would prevail.
However, once its mission was complete it continued to pursue the
advancement of American security and research. What began as an
installation solely focused on the creation of an atomic bomb has
developed into a diverse and advanced institution dedicated to securing
our nuclear ordinance, combating the effectiveness of weapons of mass
destruction, and addressing many problems in areas such as energy and
health.
Los Alamos National Laboratory serves as one of five national
laboratories working with the Department of Energy to sequence genomes.
Labeled the Joint Genome Institute, this group of research institutions
first helped to complete the Human Genome Project, which has since been
called one of the greatest scientific advances of our time. The
benefits of this outstanding achievement are many. For example, we can
now match organ donors and recipients with less uncertainty and even
diagnose disease more efficiently.
Over the years, the mission of the Genome Project has oriented itself
towards other vital interests. The Joint Genome Institute is now
targeting specific animals and microbes with traits that, if harnessed,
could aid in areas such as biotechnology, alternative fuels, and the
environment. For example, the organism just completed has shown
potential in aiding the cleanup of uranium-contaminated areas. This
application would greatly benefit Los Alamos itself, which has several
radioactive wastesites.
In the past, I have strongly supported the research of Los Alamos
National Laboratory and the advancement of the Genome Project and have
helped each of them secure defense and biotechnology funding. In
return, their research has yielded important advances in areas such as
health, energy, and the environment. Furthermore, the continuing
excellence of Los Alamos National Laboratory has led to the creation of
many jobs in the northern New Mexico region. Los Alamos continues to
succeed in its purpose of national service, and I am pleased to offer
my support and congratulations for their contribution to the 100th mark
in the Genome Project.
____________________
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
______
100th ANNIVERSARY OF HETTINGER, NORTH DAKOTA
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize a
community in North Dakota that is celebrating its 100th anniversary. On
July 3-8, the residents of Hettinger will gather to celebrate their
community's history and founding.
Hettinger is a vibrant community in southwest North Dakota. Hettinger
holds an important place in North Dakota's history. The townsite was
founded in 1907, and Erastus A. Williams of Bismarck, whose son-in-law
was Mathias Hettinger, was credited with naming the community. It
became the county seat of Adams County in 1907. The post office was
established in May 17, 1907, and Hettinger was organized into a city in
1916. One of the last living survivors of the Titanic, Ole Abelseth,
was a longtime resident of Hettinger.
Today, Hettinger is a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts who come to
enjoy bird watching, fishing, and big game hunting. Nearby Mirror Lake
offers camping and other outdoor activities for all ages. In 2004,
Hettinger was recognized as Hometown of the Year by the Bismarck
Tribune and it received the North Dakota Capital Community Designation
by the Federal Home Loan Bank, which recognized Hettinger's vision and
planning in sustaining and revitalizing the local economy.
The people of Hettinger are enthusiastic about their community and
the quality of life it offers. Hettinger has a wonderful centennial
celebration planned that includes dances, a steak fry, a lumberjack
show, a parade, a horseshoe tournament, class reunions, and a whisker
growing contest. The week long celebration will definitely be one to
remember.
Mr. President, I ask the U.S. Senate to join me in congratulating
Hettinger, ND, and its residents on their first 100 years and in
wishing them well through the next century. By honoring Hettinger and
all the other historic small towns of North Dakota, we keep the great
pioneering frontier spirit alive for future generations. It is places
such as Hettinger that have helped to shape this country into what it
is today, which is why this fine community is deserving of our
recognition.
Hettinger has a proud past and a bright future.
____________________
125TH ANNIVERSARY OF ELLENDALE, NORTH DAKOTA
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am pleased to recognize a
community in North Dakota that will be celebrating its 125th
anniversary. From June 28 to July 1, the residents of Ellendale will
gather to celebrate their community's history and founding.
Ellendale is a community of about 1,550 on the border between North
and South Dakota. It was founded in 1881 in anticipation of the
Milwaukee Road Railroad. It was the first white settlement in the
county and, as the first stop on the railroad in the region, it became
a great distributing point for settlers' supplies. It was named in
honor of the wife of Milwaukee Road Rail Road official S. S. Merrill.
Today, Ellendale is the county seat of Dickey County. It is also home
to an
[[Page 14845]]
Opera House which, at one time, was the largest between Minneapolis and
Seattle. The Organization of the People in Ellendale for the
Restoration of the Arts hopes to reopen the Opera House, which is
currently undergoing restoration, so that it can, once again, have live
productions. In addition, the Cole Memorial Museum hosts numerous
artifacts and memorabilia showcasing the Ellendale area.
For those who call Ellendale home, it is a comfortable place to live,
work, and play. The people of Ellendale are enthusiastic about their
community and the quality of life it offers. Nearby Pheasant Lake
offers a wealth of recreational opportunities from fishing to boating
to camping. The community has a wonderful quasquicentennial weekend
planned that includes school reunions, a Walk of Fame inductee banquet,
a golf tournament, and a Historical Pageant.
Mr. President, I ask the U.S. Senate to join me in congratulating
Ellendale, ND, and its residents on their first 125 years and in
wishing them well in the future. By honoring Ellendale and all the
other historic small towns of North Dakota, we keep the great
pioneering frontier spirit alive for future generations. It is places
such as Ellendale that have helped to shape this country into what it
is today, which is why this fine community is deserving of our
recognition.
Ellendale has a proud past and a bright future.
____________________
100TH ANNIVERSARY OF BOWMAN, NORTH DAKOTA
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I am pleased to recognize a
community in North Dakota that will be celebrating its 100th
anniversary. From June 29-July 4, the residents of Bowman will gather
to celebrate their community's history and founding.
Bowman is a quaint town of about 1,500 people nestled in the
southwest corner of North Dakota. It was founded in 1907 and is named
after William Bowman, the territorial legislator, after whom the county
is also named.
Today, Bowman is the county seat of Bowman County. It is also home to
the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum, which preserves the rich history of
the community and surrounding area. Bowman lies in an area of the state
that has a number of fossils that are millions of years old. In fact,
within the last few years, paleontologists uncovered the fossils of a
tyrannosaurus rex. Bowman also plays host to the Bowman County Fair, an
annual 3-day fair with live music, games, and other events that adults
and children can enjoy.
For those who call Bowman home, it is a comfortable place to live,
work, and play. The people of Bowman are enthusiastic about their
community and the quality of life it offers. Bowman won the City of the
Year 2006 award from the North Dakota League of Cities. The community
has a wonderful centennial weekend planned that includes school
reunions, a golf tournament, local musical entertainment, and much
more.
Mr. President, I ask the U.S. Senate to join me in congratulating
Bowman, ND, and its residents on their first 100 years and in wishing
them well through the next century. By honoring Bowman and all the
other historic small towns of North Dakota, we keep the great
pioneering frontier spirit alive for future generations. It is places
such as Bowman that have helped to shape this country into what it is
today, which is why this fine community is deserving of our
recognition.
Bowman has a proud past and a bright future.
____________________
HONORING THE F.A. PEABODY COMPANY
Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, today I recognize a tremendous small
business from my home State of Maine that was recently designated as
the 2007 Eastern Region Small Business of the Year by the United States
Chamber of Commerce. Established in 1927 by Frank A. Peabody, the F.A.
Peabody Company, based in Houlton, ME, has grown over the last 80 years
to meet the insurance, investment, and real estate needs of Mainers.
From the number of employees, to the number of locations, and even the
services the company provides to the residents of northern Maine, F.A.
Peabody's expansion has been a crowning achievement of small business
in Aroostook County and, indeed, all of northern and eastern Maine.
This award is a fitting recognition of F.A. Peabody's past
accomplishments, and its continued superb work for Maine.
F.A. Peabody began as a property casualty insurance agency for
Aroostook County, and grew to represent 20 insurance companies. As time
progressed, the company expanded to meet other needs in the community,
including investment management, real estate brokerage, and travel
services. A truly diversified operation, F.A. Peabody has gone further
in recent years by administering mortuary trusts and providing
broadband internet to businesses and individuals from the counties of
Maine's northern potato fields to its eastern shoreline. In light of a
lack of broadband internet in Aroostook County earlier this decade,
F.A. Peabody decided to take action and become a broadband internet
service provider.
Collectively, F.A. Peabody employs over 70 people, and has a wellness
program to award employees with bonuses and gifts. Chris and Bob
Anderson, president and chief financial officer, respectively, of F.A.
Peabody, carry on the company's commitment to Maine's positive, pro-
growth small business community.
F.A. Peabody is truly a success story, and a bright example of what
small businesses can accomplish with measured expansion and consistent
determination. I congratulate F.A. Peabody on all of its
accomplishments and, in particular, for garnering the attention of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This award is well-deserved, and I am
confident that F.A. Peabody's strong, outstanding achievements will
continue for years to come as a source of pride for all of Maine. I
wish F.A. Peabody and its employees continued success.
____________________
MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE
______
ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED
At 11:38 a.m., a message from the House of Representatives, delivered
by Ms. Niland, one of its reading clerks, announced that the Speaker
has signed the following enrolled bills:
H.R. 1675. An act to suspend the requirement of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding
electronic filing of previous participation certificates and
regarding filing of such certificates with respect to certain
low-income housing investors.
H.R. 1676. An act to reauthorize the program of the
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for loan
guarantees for Indian housing.
The enrolled bills were subsequently signed by the President pro
tempore (Mr. Byrd).
____________________
EXECUTIVE AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS
The following communications were laid before the Senate, together
with accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as
indicated:
EC-2132. A communication from the Assistant to the Board,
Legal Division, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``Loans to Executive Officers, Directors, and
Principal Shareholders of Member Banks'' (ID No. R-1271)
received on June 4, 2007; to the Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs.
EC-2133. A communication from the Chief Counsel, Bureau of
Public Debt, Department of the Treasury, transmitting,
pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Regulations
Governing Securities Held in Treasury Direct'' (31 CFR Part
363) received on May 30, 2007; to the Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs.
EC-2134. A communication from the Secretary of Commerce,
transmitting, the report of a draft bill intended to
reauthorize the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000; to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
EC-2135. A communication from the Attorney, Office of
Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulatory Law,
Department of Energy, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
report of a rule entitled ``Acquisition Regulation: Technical
Revisions or
[[Page 14846]]
Amendments to Update Clauses'' (RIN1991-AB62) received on May
30, 2007; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
EC-2136. A communication from the Principal Deputy
Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics and
Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting,
pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Approval and
Promulgation of Implementation Plans; South Carolina:
Revisions to State Implementation Plan; Clarification'' (FRL
No. 8321-4) received on May 31, 2007; to the Committee on
Environment and Public Works.
EC-2137. A communication from the Principal Deputy
Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics and
Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting,
pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Approval and
Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Texas;
Revision to the Texas State Implementation Plan Regarding a
Negative Declaration for the Synthetic Organic Chemical
Manufacturing Industry Batch Processing Source Category in El
Paso County'' (FRL No. 8321-7) received on May 31, 2007; to
the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
EC-2138. A communication from the Principal Deputy
Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics and
Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting,
pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Approval and
Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Virginia;
Redesignation of the Hampton Roads 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment
Area to Attainment and Approval of the Area's Maintenance
Plan and 2002 Base-Year Inventory'' (FRL No. 8320-9) received
on May 31, 2007; to the Committee on Environment and Public
Works.
EC-2139. A communication from the Principal Deputy
Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics and
Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting,
pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Approval and
Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Virginia;
Redesignation of the Richmond-Petersburg 8-Hour Ozone
Nonattainment Area to Attainment and Approval of the Area's
Maintenance Plan and 2002 Base-Year Inventory'' (FRL No.
8320-8) received on May 31, 2007; to the Committee on
Environment and Public Works.
EC-2140. A communication from the Principal Deputy
Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics and
Innovation, Environmental Protection Agency, transmitting,
pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled ``Approval and
Promulgation of Implementation Plans; State of Iowa'' (FRL
No. 8320-3) received on May 31, 2007; to the Committee on
Environment and Public Works.
EC-2141. A communication from the Assistant Secretary of
the Army (Civil Works), transmitting, pursuant to law, a
report relative to a flood damage reduction project that was
authorized for Chesterfield, Missouri; to the Committee on
Environment and Public Works.
EC-2142. A communication from the Chief of the Publications
and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department
of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of
a rule entitled ``Aggregation of MECs Under Section
72(e)(11)'' (Rev. Rul. 2007-38) received on June 1, 2007; to
the Committee on Finance.
EC-2143. A communication from the Chief of the Publications
and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department
of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of
a rule entitled ``Certain Mid-Year Changes to a Section
401(k) Safe Harbor Plan'' (Announcement 2007-59) received on
June 1, 2007; to the Committee on Finance.
EC-2144. A communication from the Chief of the Publications
and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department
of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of
a rule entitled ``Substitute Mortality Tables'' (Rev. Proc.
2007-37) received on June 1, 2007; to the Committee on
Finance.
EC-2145. A communication from the Chief of the Publications
and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department
of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of
a rule entitled ``Qualified Conservation Contributions''
(Notice 2007-50) received on June 1, 2007; to the Committee
on Finance.
EC-2146. A communication from the Chief of the Publications
and Regulations Branch, Internal Revenue Service, Department
of the Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of
a rule entitled ``Treatment Under Section 367(b) of Property
Used to Purchase Parent Stock from Parent Shareholders in
Certain Triangular Reorganizations'' (Notice 2007-48)
received on June 1, 2007; to the Committee on Finance.
EC-2147. A communication from the Commissioner, Social
Security Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, an
annual report relative to the Supplemental Security Income
Program; to the Committee on Finance.
EC-2148. A communication from the White House Liaison,
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of
Health and Human Services, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
report of a nomination for the position of Administrator,
received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Finance.
EC-2149. A communication from the Assistant Secretary,
Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of State,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the certification of a
proposed manufacturing license agreement for the manufacture
of the AN/APS-137B(V)5 Radar for the Japanese Maritime Self-
Defense Force; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
EC-2150. A communication from the Secretary of Health and
Human Services, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report
relative to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program of
fiscal year 2004; to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions.
EC-2151. A communication from the Assistant Secretary,
Office of Management, Department of Education, transmitting,
pursuant to law, an annual report relative to the
Department's use of category rating; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
EC-2152. A communication from the Chairman, Securities and
Exchange Commission, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
Semiannual Report of the Commission's Inspector General for
the period of October 1, 2006, through March 31, 2007; to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2153. A communication from the Secretary of Labor,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the Semiannual Report of the
Department's Inspector General for the period October 1,
2006, through March 31, 2007; to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2154. A communication from the Chairman, National
Endowment for the Arts, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
Semiannual Report of the Organization's Inspector General for
the period of October 1, 2006, through March 31, 2007; to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2155. A communication from the Chairman, Railroad
Retirement Board, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
Semiannual Report of the Board's Inspector General for the
period of October 1, 2006, through April 30, 2007; to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2156. A communication from the Deputy Archivist of the
United States, National Archives and Records Administration,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled
``NARA Reproduction Fees'' (RIN3095-AB49) received on May 31,
2007; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs.
EC-2157. A communication from the Principal Deputy, Office
of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness),
transmitting, the report of the authorization of Colonel
James C. McConville to wear the authorized insignia of the
grade of brigadier general in accordance with title 10,
United States Code, section 777; to the Committee on Armed
Services.
EC-2158. A communication from the Principal Deputy Under
Secretary of Defense (Policy), transmitting, pursuant to law,
the Defense Intelligence Agency's 2007 Annual Report relative
to the threat posed to the United States by weapons of mass
destruction, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles; to the
Committee on Armed Services.
EC-2159. A communication from the Secretary of the
Treasury, transmitting, pursuant to law, a six-month periodic
report on the national emergency with respect to Belarus that
was declared in Executive Order 13405 of June 16, 2006; to
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
EC-2160. A communication from the President and Chief
Executive Officer, Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the management report relative
to the Bank's system of internal controls employed during
fiscal year 2006; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs.
EC-2161. A communication from the Assistant Administrator
for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department
of Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a
rule entitled ``Interim Rule to Temporarily Close the
Bottomfish Fishery in the Main Hawaiian Islands to End
Overfishing'' (RIN0648-AV49) received on June 5, 2007; to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
EC-2162. A communication from the Acting Director, Office
of Sustainable Fisheries, Department of Commerce,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled
``Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska;
Pacific Cod by Catcher Processor Vessels Using Trawl Gear in
the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area''
(RIN0648-XA23) received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
EC-2163. A communication from the Acting Director, Office
of Sustainable Fisheries, Department of Commerce,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled
``Fisheries Off West Coast States and in the Western Pacific;
West Coast Salmon Fisheries; Inseason Adjustments'' (RIN0648-
XA16) received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation.
EC-2164. A communication from the Acting Director, Office
of Sustainable Fisheries, Department of Commerce,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled
``Decrease in the Commercial Trip Limit for
[[Page 14847]]
Golden Tilefish in the South Atlantic'' (RIN0648-XA21)
received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation.
EC-2165. A communication from the Deputy Director, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``Advanced Technology Program Notice of Availability
of Funds and Announcement of Public Meetings'' (RIN0693-ZA74)
received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation.
EC-2166. A communication from the Deputy Director, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``NIST Consortium/Consortia for Post-Complementary
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Nanoelectronics Research Program;
Availability of Funds'' (RIN0693-ZA75) received on June 5,
2007; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation.
EC-2167. A communication from the Deputy Director, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``Precision Measurement Grants Program; Availability
of Funds'' (RIN0693-ZA70) received on June 5, 2007; to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
EC-2168. A communication from the Deputy Director, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``NIST Center for Neutron Research and Neutron
Scattering, and Sample Environment Equipment Financial
Assistance Programs; Availability of Funds'' (RIN0693-ZA73)
received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation.
EC-2169. A communication from the Deputy Director, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
Gaithersburg and Boulder Programs; Availability of Funds''
(RIN0693-ZA71) received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
EC-2170. A communication from the Deputy Director, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``Measurement, Science and Engineering Grants
Programs; Availability of Funds'' (RIN0693-ZA72) received on
June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation.
EC-2171. A communication from the Secretary of the
Interior, transmitting, pursuant to law, the annual report of
the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for
fiscal year 2006; to the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources.
EC-2172. A communication from the Regulatory Analyst, Fish
and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior,
transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule entitled
``Protection of Eagles; Definition of `Disturb''' (RIN1018-
AT94) received on June 4, 2007; to the Committee on
Environment and Public Works.
EC-2173. A communication from the Commissioner, Social
Security Administration, transmitting, a draft bill intended
to make amendments to the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability
Insurance program and the Supplemental Security Income
program; to the Committee on Finance.
EC-2174. A communication from the Director, Office of
Personnel Management, transmitting, a legislative proposal
entitled ``Federal Employees Health Benefits Improvements Act
of 2007''; to the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs.
EC-2175. A communication from the Director, Office of
Personnel Management, transmitting, a legislative proposal
entitled ``Locality Pay Extension Act of 2007''; to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2176. A communication from the Chief, Trade and
Commercial Regulations Branch, Department of Homeland
Security, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a rule
entitled ``Extension of Import Restrictions Imposed on
Archaeological and Ethnological Materials from Peru''
(RIN1505-AB79) received on June 4, 2007; to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2177. A communication from the Director, Office of
Personnel Management, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
Semiannual Report of the Office's Inspector General for the
period of October 1, 2006, through March 31, 2007; to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2178. A communication from the Chairman, National Credit
Union Administration, transmitting, pursuant to law, the
Semiannual Report of the Administration's Inspector General
for the period of October 1, 2006, through March 31, 2007; to
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
EC-2179. A communication from the Principal Deputy
Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice,
transmitting, a legislative proposal intended to enhance the
Department's ability to protect Americans from violent crime
and terrorism; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
EC-2180. A communication from the Special Assistant to the
Secretary, White House Liaison, Department of Veterans
Affairs, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a
nomination for the position of Under Secretary for Health,
received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs.
EC-2181. A communication from the Special Assistant to the
Secretary, White House Liaison, Department of Veterans
Affairs, transmitting, pursuant to law, the report of a
nomination for the position of Assistant Secretary for
Operations, Preparedness, Security and Law Enforcement
Functions, received on June 5, 2007; to the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs.
EC-2182. A communication from the Secretary, Judicial
Conference of the United States, transmitting, the report of
a draft bill intended to authorize additional resources in
the United States bankruptcy courts; to the Committee on the
Judiciary.
____________________
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
The following bills and joint resolutions were introduced, read the
first and second times by unanimous consent, and referred as indicated:
By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Leahy,
Mr. Durbin, Mr. Lautenberg, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Brown,
Mr. Kerry, Mr. Dodd, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Feingold, and
Mrs. Boxer):
S. 1553. A bill to provide additional assistance to combat
HIV/AIDS among young people, and for other purposes; to the
Committee on Foreign Relations.
By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. Lieberman):
S. 1554. A bill to comprehensively address challenges
relating to energy independence, air pollution, and climate
change facing the United States; to the Committee on Finance.
By Mr. LAUTENBERG (for himself, Mr. Menendez, Mrs.
Clinton, Mrs. Murray, and Mrs. Boxer):
S. 1555. A bill to establish certain duties for pharmacies
to ensure provision of Food and Drug Administration-approved
contraception, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
By Mr. SMITH (for himself, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Lieberman,
Mr. Wyden, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Akaka, Mrs. Murray, and Mr.
Dodd):
S. 1556. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
to extend the exclusion from gross income for employer-
provided health coverage to designated plan beneficiaries of
employees, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Finance.
By Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Akaka, Ms.
Collins, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Whitehouse,
and Mr. Casey):
S. 1557. A bill to amend part B of title IV of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to improve
21st Century Community Learning Centers; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
By Mr. COLEMAN:
S. 1558. A bill to amend title 14, United States Code, to
strengthen requirements related to security breaches of data
involving the disclosure of sensitive personal information;
to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs.
By Mr. THUNE:
S. 1559. A bill to amend the Food, Agriculture,
Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to reauthorize the
provision of telemedicine and distance learning services in
rural areas; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and
Forestry.
By Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. Domenici, and Mr.
Kennedy):
S. 1560. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to
improve the quality and availability of mental health
services for children and adolescents; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
____________________
SUBMISSION OF CONCURRENT AND SENATE RESOLUTIONS
The following concurrent resolutions and Senate resolutions were
read, and referred (or acted upon), as indicated:
By Mr. CRAPO (for himself and Mr. Dorgan):
S. Res. 221. A resolution supporting National Peripheral
Arterial Disease Awareness Month and efforts to educate
people about peripheral arterial disease; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
By Mrs. CLINTON (for herself and Mr. Smith):
S. Res. 222. A resolution supporting the goals and ideals
of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month; to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
By Mr. INHOFE (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs.
Hutchison, Mrs. Boxer, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Akaka, Mr.
Menendez, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Lieberman,
and Mr. Wyden):
S. Res. 223. A resolution recognizing the efforts and
contributions of the members of
[[Page 14848]]
the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program under the
Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the United
States Armed Forces during and following World War II who
were responsible for the preservation, protection, and
restitution of artistic and cultural treasures in countries
occupied by the Allied armies; considered and agreed to.
By Mr. DeMINT:
S. Con. Res. 35. A concurrent resolution declaring June 6 a
national day of prayer and rededication for the men and women
of the United States Armed Forces and their mission; to the
Committee on Rules and Administration.
By Mr. CASEY (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Durbin, and
Mr. Obama):
S. Con. Res. 36. A concurrent resolution supporting the
goals and ideals of National Teen Driver Safety Week; to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
____________________
ADDITIONAL COSPONSORS
S. 38
At the request of Mr. Domenici, the name of the Senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Cochran) was added as a cosponsor of S. 38, a bill to
require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a program for
the provision of readjustment and mental health services to veterans
who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom,
and for other purposes.
S. 185
At the request of Mr. Leahy, the name of the Senator from California
(Mrs. Boxer) was added as a cosponsor of S. 185, a bill to restore
habeas corpus for those detained by the United States.
S. 469
At the request of Mr. Baucus, the name of the Senator from California
(Mrs. Feinstein) was added as a cosponsor of S. 469, a bill to amend
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the special rule
for contributions of qualified conservation contributions.
S. 548
At the request of Mr. Leahy, the name of the Senator from California
(Mrs. Boxer) was added as a cosponsor of S. 548, a bill to amend the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that a deduction equal to fair
market value shall be allowed for charitable contributions of literary,
musical, artistic, or scholarly compositions created by the donor.
S. 597
At the request of Mrs. Feinstein, the name of the Senator from Maine
(Ms. Collins) was added as a cosponsor of S. 597, a bill to extend the
special postage stamp for breast cancer research for 2 years.
S. 626
At the request of Mr. Kennedy, the name of the Senator from Alaska
(Ms. Murkowski) was added as a cosponsor of S. 626, a bill to amend the
Public Health Service Act to provide for arthritis research and public
health, and for other purposes.
S. 691
At the request of Mr. Conrad, the name of the Senator from Iowa (Mr.
Harkin) was added as a cosponsor of S. 691, a bill to amend title XVIII
of the Social Security Act to improve the benefits under the Medicare
program for beneficiaries with kidney disease, and for other purposes.
S. 771
At the request of Mr. Harkin, the name of the Senator from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Casey) was added as a cosponsor of S. 771, a bill to
amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to improve the nutrition and
health of schoolchildren by updating the definition of ``food of
minimal nutritional value'' to conform to current nutrition science and
to protect the Federal investment in the national school lunch and
breakfast programs.
S. 773
At the request of Mr. Warner, the name of the Senator from Ohio (Mr.
Brown) was added as a cosponsor of S. 773, a bill to amend the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 to allow Federal civilian and military retirees to
pay health insurance premiums on a pretax basis and to allow a
deduction for TRICARE supplemental premiums.
S. 805
At the request of Mr. Durbin, the name of the Senator from Maryland
(Ms. Mikulski) was added as a cosponsor of S. 805, a bill to amend the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to assist countries in sub-Saharan
Africa in the effort to achieve internationally recognized goals in the
treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases and the
reduction of maternal and child mortality by improving human health
care capacity and improving retention of medical health professionals
in sub-Saharan Africa, and for other purposes.
S. 961
At the request of Mr. Nelson of Nebraska, the name of the Senator
from New York (Mrs. Clinton) was added as a cosponsor of S. 961, a bill
to amend title 46, United States Code, to provide benefits to certain
individuals who served in the United States merchant marine (including
the Army Transport Service and the Naval Transport Service) during
World War II, and for other purposes.
S. 970
At the request of Mr. Smith, the name of the Senator from Hawaii (Mr.
Akaka) was added as a cosponsor of S. 970, a bill to impose sanctions
on Iran and on other countries for assisting Iran in developing a
nuclear program, and for other purposes.
S. 994
At the request of Mr. Tester, the name of the Senator from Maryland
(Ms. Mikulski) was added as a cosponsor of S. 994, a bill to amend
title 38, United States Code, to eliminate the deductible and change
the method of determining the mileage reimbursement rate under the
beneficiary travel program administered by the Secretary of Veteran
Affairs, and for other purposes.
S. 999
At the request of Mr. Cochran, the name of the Senator from Alaska
(Ms. Murkowski) was added as a cosponsor of S. 999, a bill to amend the
Public Health Service Act to improve stroke prevention, diagnosis,
treatment, and rehabilitation.
S. 1173
At the request of Mrs. Boxer, the name of the Senator from Rhode
Island (Mr. Whitehouse) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1173, a bill to
protect, consistent with Roe v. Wade, a woman's freedom to choose to
bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.
S. 1175
At the request of Mr. Durbin, the name of the Senator from Maryland
(Ms. Mikulski) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1175, a bill to end the
use of child soldiers in hostilities around the world, and for other
purposes.
S. 1224
At the request of Mr. Rockefeller, the names of the Senator from
Vermont (Mr. Sanders) and the Senator from Arkansas (Mrs. Lincoln) were
added as cosponsors of S. 1224, a bill to amend title XXI of the Social
Security Act to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance
Program, and for other purposes.
S. 1239
At the request of Mr. Rockefeller, the name of the Senator from New
York (Mrs. Clinton) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1239, a bill to
amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the new markets tax
credit through 2013, and for other purposes.
S. 1254
At the request of Ms. Mikulski, the names of the Senator from New
York (Mr. Schumer) and the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden) were added
as cosponsors of S. 1254, a bill to amend title II of the Social
Security Act to provide that the reductions in social security benefits
which are required in the case of spouses and surviving spouses who are
also receiving certain government pensions shall be equal to the amount
by which two-thirds of the total amount of the combined monthly benefit
(before reduction) and monthly pension exceeds $1,200, adjusted for
inflation.
S. 1340
At the request of Mrs. Lincoln, the name of the Senator from
Washington (Mrs. Murray) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1340, a bill to
amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide Medicare
beneficiaries with access to geriatric assessments and
[[Page 14849]]
chronic care coordination services, and for other purposes.
S. 1382
At the request of Mr. Reid, the names of the Senator from Alaska (Ms.
Murkowski) and the Senator from North Carolina (Mrs. Dole) were added
as cosponsors of S. 1382, a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act
to provide the establishment of an Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Registry.
S. 1398
At the request of Mr. Reid, the name of the Senator from Connecticut
(Mr. Dodd) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1398, a bill to expand the
research and prevention activities of the National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention with respect to inflammatory bowel disease.
S. 1405
At the request of Mr. Brownback, the name of the Senator from Georgia
(Mr. Chambliss) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1405, a bill to enhance
the ability of community banks to foster economic growth and serve
their communities, boost small businesses, increase individual savings,
and for other purposes.
S. 1430
At the request of Mr. Obama, the name of the Senator from Florida
(Mr. Nelson) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1430, a bill to authorize
State and local governments to direct divestiture from, and prevent
investment in, companies with investments of $20,000,000 or more in
Iran's energy sector, and for other purposes.
S. 1439
At the request of Mr. Roberts, the name of the Senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Cochran) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1439, a bill
to reauthorize the broadband loan and loan guarantee program under
title VI of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.
S. 1444
At the request of Mrs. Clinton, the name of the Senator from Vermont
(Mr. Sanders) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1444, a bill to provide
for free mailing privileges for personal correspondence and parcels
sent to members of the Armed Forces serving on active duty in Iraq or
Afghanistan.
S. 1450
At the request of Mr. Kohl, the name of the Senator from Hawaii (Mr.
Inouye) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1450, a bill to authorize
appropriations for the Housing Assistance Council.
S. 1457
At the request of Mr. Harkin, the names of the Senator from New
Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer) and
the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Cochran) were added as cosponsors of
S. 1457, a bill to provide for the protection of mail delivery on
certain postal routes, and for other purposes.
S. 1464
At the request of Mr. Feingold, the name of the Senator from
California (Mrs. Feinstein) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1464, a bill
to establish a Global Service Fellowship Program, and for other
purposes.
S. 1494
At the request of Mr. Domenici, the name of the Senator from
Connecticut (Mr. Dodd) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1494, a bill to
amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the special diabetes
programs for Type I diabetes and Indians under that Act.
S. 1529
At the request of Mr. Harkin, the names of the Senator from Hawaii
(Mr. Akaka) and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Reed) were added as
cosponsors of S. 1529, a bill to amend the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to
end benefit erosion, support working families with child care expenses,
encourage retirement and education savings, and for other purposes.
S. 1542
At the request of Mr. Harkin, his name was added as a cosponsor of S.
1542, a bill to establish State infrastructure banks for education, and
for other purposes.
S. 1543
At the request of Mr. Bingaman, the names of the Senator from Nevada
(Mr. Reid), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), the Senator from
Alaska (Mr. Stevens), the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Salazar), the
Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), the Senator from Maine (Ms. Snowe)
and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Hatch) were added as cosponsors of S.
1543, a bill to establish a national geothermal initiative to encourage
increased production of energy from geothermal resources, and for other
purposes.
S. CON. RES. 31
At the request of Mr. Feingold, the names of the Senator from Hawaii
(Mr. Inouye) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Hatch) were added as
cosponsors of S. Con. Res. 31, a concurrent resolution expressing
support for advancing vital United States interests through increased
engagement in health programs that alleviate disease and reduce
premature death in developing nations, especially through programs that
combat high levels of infectious disease improve children's and women's
health, decrease malnutrition, reduce unintended pregnancies, fight the
spread of HIV/AIDS, encourage healthy behaviors, and strengthen health
care capacity.
S. RES. 85
At the request of Mr. Lautenberg, the name of the Senator from
Connecticut (Mr. Lieberman) was added as a cosponsor of S. Res. 85, a
resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the creation of
refugee populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian
Gulf region as a result of human rights violations.
S. RES. 203
At the request of Mr. Menendez, the names of the Senator from Ohio
(Mr. Brown) and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss) were added as
cosponsors of S. Res. 203, a resolution calling on the Government of
the People's Republic of China to use its unique influence and economic
leverage to stop genocide and violence in Darfur, Sudan.
AMENDMENT NO. 1183
At the request of Mrs. Clinton, the names of the Senator from Nevada
(Mr. Reid) and the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Dodd) were added as
cosponsors of amendment No. 1183 proposed to S. 1348, a bill to provide
for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1194
At the request of Mr. Menendez, the name of the Senator from Nevada
(Mr. Reid) was added as a cosponsor of amendment No. 1194 proposed to
S. 1348, a bill to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1197
At the request of Mr. DeMint, the names of the Senator from Georgia
(Mr. Chambliss), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker) and the
Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) were added as cosponsors of
amendment No. 1197 proposed to S. 1348, a bill to provide for
comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1199
At the request of Mr. Dodd, the name of the Senator from Nevada (Mr.
Reid) was added as a cosponsor of amendment No. 1199 proposed to S.
1348, a bill to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1202
At the request of Mr. Obama, the name of the Senator from Wisconsin
(Mr. Feingold) was added as a cosponsor of amendment No. 1202 proposed
to S. 1348, a bill to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and
for other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1267
At the request of Mr. Bingaman, the name of the Senator from
Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu) was added as a cosponsor of amendment No. 1267
proposed to S. 1348, a bill to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1313
At the request of Mr. Webb, the name of the Senator from North Dakota
(Mr. Dorgan) was added as a cosponsor of amendment No. 1313 intended to
be proposed to S. 1348, a bill to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes.
AMENDMENT NO. 1314
At the request of Mr. Graham, the names of the Senator from Colorado
[[Page 14850]]
(Mr. Salazar), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein) and the
Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin) were added as cosponsors of
amendment No. 1314 intended to be proposed to S. 1348, a bill to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes.
____________________
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Durbin,
Mr. Lautenberg, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Brown, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Dodd,
Mrs. Murray, Mr. Feingold, and Mrs. Boxer):
S. 1553. A bill to provide additional assistance to combat HIV/AIDS
among young people, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign
Relations.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today with Senator Snowe to
introduce legislation to strengthen our international HIV prevention
efforts and empower the people on the ground who are fighting this
disease to design the most effective and appropriate HIV prevention
program.
The bill is cosponsored by Senator Leahy, Senator Durbin, Senator
Clinton, Senator Lautenberg, Senator Brown, Senator Kerry, Senator
Boxer, Senator Dodd, Senator Murray, and Senator Feingold.
This bill simply strikes the provision in the United States
Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 that
mandates that at least 33 percent of HIV prevention funding in the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, be set aside
``abstinence-until-marriage'' programs.
Let me be clear from the beginning: this bill does not prohibit the
administration from funding ``abstinence-until-marriage'' programs.
In fact, if the bill becomes law, the administration would still be
able to spend all of our HIV prevention funding on abstinence-until-
marriage programs if it decided do so.
This bill is about giving the administration and HIV/AIDS workers the
flexibility to design the most effective HIV prevention program without
having to worry about artificial earmarks that are based on politics,
not science.
Indeed, in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we cannot afford
to tie ourselves down with undue restrictions.
Worldwide, 40 million people are infected with HIV. Each day,
approximately 12,000 people are newly infected with HIV. In 2006, there
were 4.3 million new HIV infections around the world, 2.8 million in
sub-Saharan Africa alone. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to almost two-
thirds of the estimated 40 million people currently living with HIV.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence rate for the adult
population is 6 percent. Mr. President, 2.1 million adults and children
died of AIDS in 2005.
Despite these devastating numbers, according to UNAIDS, less than one
in five people at risk for infection of HIV have access to basic
prevention services. Studies have shown that two-thirds of new HIV
infections could be averted with effective prevention programs.
Clearly, we still have a long ways to go to rein in this disease.
The 2003 HIV/AIDS legislation recognized that prevention, along with
care and treatment, is an essential component of that fight and demands
a multipronged approach. It endorsed the ``ABC'' model for prevention
of the sexual transmission of HIV: abstain, be faithful, use condoms.
Yet instead of allowing HIV/AIDS workers and doctors the ability to
use all of the prevention tools at their disposal to respond to local
needs, we required them to spend at least 33 percent on ``abstinence-
until marriage'' programs.
The question has to been asked: Why 33 percent? Why not 15 percent?
Why not 50 percent? What scientific study concluded that 33 percent of
HIV prevention funds for abstinence only programs was appropriate?
There was no study and it begs the question: when you are fighting a
pandemic that has already cost so many lives, who should decide how to
allocate funding among different types of HIV prevention programs,
Congress or the people with the knowledge and expertise on how to fight
this disease?
I support abstinence programs as a critical part of our HIV
prevention programs. But mandating an earmark has negative consequences
for other effective tools.
It means less money for funds to prevent mother-to-child
transmission, less money to promote a comprehensive prevention message
to high risk groups such as sexually active youth, and fewer funds to
protect the blood supply.
Indeed, the evidence clearly shows that the one-third earmark has
inhibited the ability of local communities to design a multipronged HIV
prevention program that works best for them.
Last year, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that
found ``significant challenges'' associated with meeting the
abstinence-until-marriage programs. The report concluded that the 33
percent abstinence spending requirement is squeezing out available
funding for other key HIV prevention programs such as mother-to-child
transmission and maintaining a health blood supply.
Country teams that are not exempted from the one-third earmark have
to spend more than 33 percent of prevention funds on abstinence-until-
marriage activities, sometimes at the expense of other programs, in
order for the administration to meet the overall 33 percent earmark.
The spending requirement limited or reduced funding for programs
directed to high-risk groups, such as sexually active youth and the
majority of country teams on the ground reported that meeting the
spending requirement ``challenges their ability to develop
interventions that are responsive to local epidemiology and social
norms.''
Last month, a congressionally mandated review by the Institute of
Medicine on the first 3 years of the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief also found significant problems with the abstinence
earmark. It concluded: there is no evidence to support a 33 percent
abstinence only earmark; the 33 percent earmark does not allow country
teams on the ground the flexibility they need to respond to local
needs.
Our bill seeks to address the problems highlighted in the GAO and the
Institute of Medicine reports and provide local communities the
necessary flexibility to achieve the goal we all share: stopping the
spread of HIV, especially among young people.
Simply put, our bill balances congressional priorities with public
health needs. Under our legislation, country teams can take into
account country needs including cultural differences, epidemiology,
population age groups and the stage of the epidemic in designing the
most effective prevention program.
One size does not fit all. A prevention program in one country may
look a lot different than a prevention program in another country.
A May 2003 report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and
Henry J. Kaiser Foundation highlights that proven prevention programs
include behavior change programs, including delay in the initiation of
sexual activity, faithfulness and correct and consistent condom use;
testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; promoting
voluntary counseling and testing; harm reduction programs for IV drug
users; preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child;
increasing blood safety; empowering women and girls; controlling
infection in health care settings; and devising programs geared towards
people living with HIV.
For example, studies have shown that combining drugs with counseling
and instruction on use of such drugs reduces mother-to-child
transmission by 50 percent.
Such cost effective programs are not related to abstinence and should
not be constrained by the 33 percent earmark on funds for prevention.
I understand the importance of teaching abstinence. It is and will
remain a key part of our strategy in preventing the spread of HIV.
[[Page 14851]]
But let us listen to the words of someone with firsthand experience
about the challenges sub-Saharan African countries face in combating
HIV/AIDS and the constraints the ``abstinence-until-marriage'' earmark
places on those efforts.
In an August 19, 2005, op-ed in the New York Times, Babatunde
Osotimehin, chairman of the National Action Committee on AIDS in
Nigeria, wrote:
Abstinence is one critical prevention strategy, but it
cannot be the only one. Focusing on abstinence assumes young
people can choose whether to have sex. For adolescent girls
in Nigeria and in many other countries, this is an inaccurate
assumption. Many girls fall prey to sexual violence and
coercion. . . . When dealing with AIDS, we must address the
realities and use a multipronged approach to improving
education and health systems, one that can reach all of our
people.
He concludes:
National governments must have the freedom to employ the
very best strategies at our disposal to help our people.
I could not agree more.
If we want to help the girls of Nigeria and the youth of sub-Saharan
Africa, we cannot limit the information they receive about keeping them
safe from acquiring HIV.
We do not have time to lose. I urge my colleagues to support this
legislation and support a pro-abstinence, multipronged approach to
preventing the spread of HIV.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 1553
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 ``HIV Prevention Act of
2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (in this
Act referred to as ``PEPFAR'') is an unprecedented effort to
combat the global AIDS epidemic, with $9,000,000,000 targeted
for initiatives in 15 focus countries.
(2) The PEPFAR prevention goal is to avert 7,000,000 HIV
infections in the 15 focus countries--most in sub-Saharan
Africa, where heterosexual intercourse is by far the
predominant mode of HIV transmission.
(3) According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/
AIDS, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old
are ``the most threatened by AIDS'' and ``are at the centre
of HIV vulnerability''. Globally, young people between the
ages of 10 and 24 years old account for \1/2\ of all new HIV
cases each year. About 7,000 young people in this cohort
contract the virus every day.
(4) A recent review funded by the United States Agency for
International Development found that sex and HIV education
programs that encourage abstinence but also discuss the use
of condoms do not increase sexual activity as critics of sex
education have long alleged. Sex education can help delay the
initiation of intercourse, reduce the frequency of sex and
the number of sexual partners, and also increase condom use.
(5) The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7601 et
seq.) requires that at least \1/3\ of all prevention funds be
reserved for abstinence-until-marriage programs.
(6) A congressionally mandated review by the Institute of
Medicine of the first 3 years of PEPFAR unequivocally
recommends greater flexibility in the global fight against
AIDS. The March 2007 Institute of Medicine report entitled
``PEPFAR Implementation: Progress and Promise'' calls for
greater emphasis on prevention than the law currently allows
and says that ``removal of the abstinence-until-marriage''
earmark, among other changes, ``could enhance the quality,
accountability, and flexibility'' of prevention efforts.
(7) The Institute of Medicine report further found that the
abstinence-until-marriage earmark ``has greatly limited the
ability of Country Teams to develop and implement
comprehensive prevention programs that are well integrated
with each other and with counseling and testing, care and
treatment programs and that target those populations at
greatest risk''.
(8) The Institute of Medicine report also found that the
earmark has ``limited PEPFAR's ability to tailor its
activities in each country to the local epidemic and to
coordinate with . . . the countries' national plans''.
(9) The Institute of Medicine report is in keeping with the
conclusions of a report issued in 2006 by the Government
Accountability Office. The GAO report, entitled ``Spending
Requirement Presents Challenges for Allocating Funding under
the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief '', found
``significant challenges'' associated with meeting the
earmark for abstinence-until-marriage programs.
(10) The Government Accountability Office found that a
majority of country teams report that fulfilling the
requirement presents challenges to their ability to respond
to local epidemiology and cultural and social norms.
(11) The Government Accountability Office found that,
although some country teams may be exempted from the
abstinence-until-marriage spending requirement, country teams
that are not exempted have to spend more than the 33 percent
of prevention funds on abstinence-until-marriage activities--
sometimes at the expense of other programs.
(12) The Government Accountability Office found that, as a
result of the abstinence-until-marriage spending requirement,
some countries have had to reduce planned funding for
Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission programs, thereby
limiting services for pregnant women and their children.
(13) The Government Accountability Office found that the
abstinence-until-marriage spending requirement limited or
reduced funding for programs directed to high-risk groups,
such as services for married discordant couples, sexually
active youth, and commercial sex workers.
(14) The Government Accountability Office found that the
abstinence-until-marriage spending requirement made it
difficult for countries to fund medical and blood safety
activities.
(15) The Government Accountability Office found that,
because of the abstinence-until-marriage spending
requirement, some countries would likely have to reduce
funding for condom procurement and condom social marketing.
(16) In addition, the Government Accountability Office
found that \2/3\ of focus country teams reported that the
policy for implementing PEPFAR's ABC model (defined as
``Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms'') is unclear and open to
varying interpretations, causing confusion about which groups
may be targeted and whether youth may receive the ABC
message.
(17) The Government Accountability Office found that the
ABC guidance does not clearly delineate permissible ``C''
activities under the ABC model. Program staff reported that
they feel ``constrained'' by restrictions on promoting or
marketing condoms to youth. Other country teams reported
confusion about whether PEPFAR funds may be used for broad
condom social marketing, even to adults in a generalized
epidemic.
(18) Young people are our greatest hope for changing the
course of the AIDS epidemic. According to the World Health
Organization, ``[f]ocusing on young people is likely to be
the most effective approach to confronting the epidemic,
particularly in high prevalence countries''.
SEC. 3. ENSURING BALANCED FUNDING FOR HIV PREVENTION METHODS.
(a) Sense of Congress on Abstinence-Until-Marriage Funding
Requirement.--Section 402(b)(3) of the United States
Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of
2003 (22 U.S.C. 7672(b)(3)) is amended by striking ``, of
which such amount at least 33 percent should be expended for
abstinence-until-marriage programs''.
(b) Elimination of Abstinence-Until-Marriage Funding
Requirement.--Section 403(a) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 7673(a))
is amended by striking the second sentence.
______
By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. Lieberman):
S. 1554. A bill to comprehensively address challenges relating to
energy independence, air pollution, and climate change facing the
United States; to the Committee on Finance.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Energy
Independence, Clean Air, and Climate Security Act of 2007. This
legislation takes an integrated approach that is much needed and long
overdue if we are to address effectively three intertwined issues of
crucial importance to our Nation's economy and security and to the
health of our people and our planet. I am very pleased to be joined on
this legislation by Senator Lieberman, a true leader on energy, climate
change, and environmental issues.
The majority leader has announced the Senate may well take up a broad
package of energy legislation next week. The bill I am introducing
today lays out my own vision of how our Nation can best address its
energy problems.
If Mark Twain were with us today, it is not hard to imagine he would
rephrase his famous quip about the weather to something along the lines
of: Everyone talks about climate change and energy independence, but
nobody does anything about it.
Since the actions we take to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to
clean our air, and to reduce our contribution
[[Page 14852]]
to climate change all affect each other, it is necessary we develop a
comprehensive strategy for all three of these challenges.
Indeed, since the oil embargo of 1973, through 17 Congresses and 7
different Presidents, energy efficiency and energy independence have
generated a lot of talk, some pretty good ideas, and a lot of promises
but not enough concerted, determined, coordinated action. During these
34 years, our Nation's imports of foreign oil have soared from less
than 35 percent to more than 60 percent, leaving us dangerously reliant
on unstable regions of the world in order to fuel our Nation and our
economy.
In addition to our increased reliance on foreign oil, we are also
consuming more and more electricity. As demand puts increasing pressure
on supply, electricity prices have soared. In the summer, when air-
conditioners struggle to keep up with rising temperatures, we run the
risk of blackouts, brownouts, and price spikes.
At the same time, our greenhouse gas emissions have soared, leading
to virtually indisputable evidence that human activity is contributing
to climate change. In the United States, emissions of the primary
greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, have risen more than 20 percent since
1990. Globally, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere now far
exceed the natural range over the last 650,000 years. We know this from
scientific analyses of ice cores and other evidence.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the
increase in greenhouse gas emissions has already increased global
temperatures and has likely contributed to more extreme weather events,
such as droughts and floods. These emissions will continue to change
the climate, causing warming in most regions and likely causing more
floods, droughts, and an increase in the intensity of hurricanes.
Climate change is not the only environmental problem caused by fossil
fuel use. The quality of our air also suffers. Although we have made
some important strides in improving air quality since the 1970s, we
have not done enough. Fossil fuel use is the primary cause of mercury
pollution, smog, and acid rain that continue to plague our Nation.
Indeed, air pollution causes thousands of asthma attacks and costs many
lives annually.
The time has come to address our air quality, climate change, high
energy prices, and dangerous reliance on foreign oil. The legislation I
am introducing today is, I believe, the first Senate bill that would
address all these problems in a single, integrated approach. There have
been many bills introduced that address one of these problems. This is
an attempt to have a comprehensive approach and to recognize that each
of these problems affects the other.
My legislation focuses primarily on two sectors of the economy:
electricity and transportation. Together, these two sectors account for
73 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Electricity generation accounts
for more than 40 percent of our carbon dioxide emissions. More than 80
percent of these emissions are attributable to coal-fired powerplants.
Coal-fired powerplants are also the single largest source of mercury
pollution, smog, and acid rain. Between 1990 and 2004, emissions from
these sectors increased by 27 percent.
My legislation requires utilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
to 1990 levels by the year 2020, while also addressing the emissions
that cause smog, acid rain, and mercury pollution. It includes a
renewable portfolio standard which would help to diversify our
electricity supplies and energy efficiency resource standards that the
Alliance to Save Energy estimates would save consumers, over time,
billions of dollars on their electricity bills.
The transportation sector, which relies almost entirely on oil, is
not only partly responsible for our dangerous reliance on foreign oil
but also accounts for 33 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. My
legislation would help to reduce emissions from this sector through a
combination of provisions such as CAFE standards for automobiles and
heavy-duty trucks, tax incentives for consumers to encourage them to
purchase hybrid and alternative fueled vehicles, incentives for
manufacturers to produce the next generation of energy-efficient
vehicles, and a low carbon fuel standard that will help to replace some
gasoline with biofuels. Taken together, these provisions will
substantially reduce our reliance on foreign oil, while reducing
greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of millions of tons.
I wish to make clear the choice is not between hobbling our Nation's
economy and protecting our environment. This legislation is based on
the principle that research, development, and implementation of new
approaches to energy independence and environmental stewardship will
provide a powerful new stimulus for our economy. All too often, we are
confronted with proposals to address one issue that only aggravate
another problem. The integrated approach I am proposing will help us
break through that impasse.
This legislation does not attempt to reinvent the wheel. In fact, it
incorporates several good ideas from my colleagues that have been
introduced as separate bills, many of which I have cosponsored, such as
the Ten-in-Ten and other CAFE bills, the DRIVE Act, and the Clean Power
Act. It includes provisions of legislation I have introduced to address
abrupt climate change and to eliminate certain tax credits for the oil
industry. It contains many of the excellent energy efficiency
provisions in the Energy for Our Future Act introduced by
Representative Chris Shays in the House.
My bill is also complementary with the McCain-Lieberman Climate
Stewardship and Innovation Act. We need to pass that bill in order to
establish a nationwide cap and trade program for addressing climate
change. However, the regulations to implement that could take many
years. The legislation I am proposing today will help us take some
early action to help achieve the targets in the McCain-Lieberman bill.
I believe the first step toward energy independence is to make
better, more efficient use of our current energy supplies. The first
title of this bill tackles that issue on several fronts.
It would implement the ``Ten-in-Ten'' legislation I have co-sponsored
with Senators Feinstein and Snowe to increase fuel economy standards to
35 miles per gallon by 2016. It would then go a step further and
increase CAFE standards to 45 miles per gallon by 2025. This provision
would save approximately 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.
It would help consumers buy more fuel-efficient cars by repealing the
phase-out of the tax credit for hybrid vehicles, which is scheduled to
sunset at the end of 2009. It would also require light trucks that use
diesel fuel to meet more stringent EPA emission standards in order to
qualify for the lean-burn credit.
Public transportation is one of the most effective ways we can get
more passenger miles per gallon. This legislation would promote the
development and use of public transportation by subsidizing fares,
encouraging employers to assist their employees with fares, and
authorizing funding to build energy-efficient and environmentally
friendly modes of transport, such as clean buses and light rail.
It would direct the Department of Transportation to designate 20
Transit-Oriented Development Corridors in urban areas by 2015, and 50
by 2025. These TOD Corridors would be developed with the aid of grants
to state and local governments to construct or improve facilities for
motorized transit, bicycles, and pedestrians. These provisions would be
funded by an authorization of $500 million per year from 2007 through
2016.
We must do more to encourage the development and manufacture of
energy-efficient vehicles. This legislation would create a 20-percent
investment tax credit for automobile manufacturers, and a fuel economy
achievement credit for manufacturers that have a combined fleet fuel
economy that exceeds that of their 2005 model year. This credit would
begin at 5 percent next year and rise to 50 percent in 2015.
And we must do more to help existing vehicles be as energy efficient
as
[[Page 14853]]
possible. This legislation would direct the DOT to create a National
Tire Fuel Efficiency Program that would include tire testing and
labeling, energy-efficient tire promotions through incentives and
information, and the creation of minimum fuel economy standards for
tires. These standards would establish the maximum technically feasible
and cost-effective fuel savings without adversely affecting tire safety
or average tire life.
Heavy-duty vehicles move our economy. This legislation would keep
them on the move while helping to reduce both fuel consumption and
emissions. It would require DOT to develop a testing and assessment
program to determine what is feasible to improve the efficiency of
heavy vehicles, and then to develop the appropriate fuel-economy
standards. It also would provide a tax credit of up to $3,500 for the
purchase of idling reduction technology for heavy vehicles.
In order for the Federal Government to lead by example, this
legislation would require the Secretary of Energy to issue regulations
for federal fleets covered by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to reduce
petroleum consumption by 30 percent from a 1999 baseline by 2016.
Title II of my legislation focuses on increasing our energy
independence and reducing our emissions from the transportation sector
through the use of alternative fuels.
Renewable fuels offer great potential to help us achieve greater
energy independence. This legislation would help us realize that
potential by establishing a clean, renewable fuels performance
standard. The performance standard would require fuel providers to
increase the volume of clean, low-carbon, renewable fuels by up to 35
billion gallons by 2025, unless EPA finds that the increase is
technically infeasible or is likely to result in adverse impacts.
This legislation would expand existing tax credits for ethanol to
include cellulosic biomass. While there has been a great deal of focus
on using corn-based ethanol in order to decrease our reliance upon
foreign oil, there are other renewable, plant-based energy sources that
are more environmentally friendly and have greater potential to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Researchers at the University of Maine have been at the forefront of
applying a research technique known as ``Life Cycle Analysis.'' Life
Cycle Analysis is a unique interdisciplinary research tool that
analyzes the energy requirements and environmental footprint involved
with the manufacture, use, and disposal of a material. This technique
is ideal for identifying fuels which have the lowest environmental
impact and the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions, while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
My legislation would authorize $275 million over five years for
research that would use Life Cycle Analysis in order to identify and
develop new biotechnologies. These technologies will help move our
petroleum-based economy toward a renewable, sustainable forest bio-
economy.
Environmental stewardship must go beyond the tailpipes of our
vehicles to the smokestacks of our power plants. Title III of my
legislation builds upon the Clean Power Act that I introduced in the
last Congress with Senators Jeffords and Lieberman. I have, however,
modified this provision to provide assistance to small businesses
struggling with high electricity costs. I have also included increased
funding for important conservation programs such as Forest Legacy, in
order to help wildlife adapt to the impacts of climate change.
This legislation would cut all four major power plant pollutants over
the next six years. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which cause
smog, acid rain, and asthma attacks, would be cut by 75 percent. Toxic
mercury emissions would be cut by 90 percent from 1999 levels, and
carbon dioxide, which forms the heat-trapping blanket that contributes
to global warming, would be cut to 1990 levels.
These reductions would do more than provide long-term protection for
our environment; they also would produce dramatic and immediate health
gains for our people. According to the EPA, quick and decisive cuts in
nitrogen and sulfur emissions from power plants would save 18,700 lives
every year, avoid 366,000 asthma attacks, and prevent $100 billion in
health care costs. In addition, these cuts would combat the acid rain
that is spoiling some of our Nation's most treasured parks and
wilderness areas.
The Centers for Disease Control has concluded that 4.9 million women
of childbearing age have elevated levels of mercury, and that 322,000
newborns are at risk of neurological damage from mercury exposure. This
provision preserves our national commitment to reduce toxic threats to
pregnant women and to children by requiring meaningful reductions and
by prohibiting trading.
The Clean Power Act incorporated into this legislation closes the
grandfather loophole that exempts dirty, aging power plants from
cleanup. Every power plant will be required to meet the most modern
pollution control standards by either the plant's 40th year of
operation or by the fifth year of the enactment of this legislation.
The Clean Power Act uses market mechanisms, such as buying and
selling pollution allowances known as ``emissions trading.'' As I have
already stated, under my bill, this trading will not be allowed for
toxic mercury. Nor will it be allowed if it enables a power plant to
pollute at a level that damages public health or the environment.
Power plants are the largest source of our Nation's contribution to
global warming; as I stated earlier, they account for some 40 percent
of our carbon dioxide emissions. This legislation would return carbon
dioxide emissions to 1990 levels. By providing electricity producers
with regulatory certainty now about future pollution-reduction
requirements, this legislation would allow smarter investments and more
cost-efficient planning.
As with existing motor vehicles, we must make more efficient use of
the energy we now produce to heat our homes and power our lights. This
legislation would double funding for the Department of Energy
Weatherization Program, reaching $1.4 billion for 2008. It also would
provide predictable funding for the valuable Energy Star Program, which
helps consumers buy energy efficient appliances, and would extend the
renewable electricity tax credit through 2011 and the residential
investment tax credit for solar and energy efficient buildings through
2012.
This legislation also includes an Energy Efficiency Performance
Standard for utilities. This provision requires utilities to achieve
energy efficiency improvements. This provision would help consumers
save on their electricity bills. By way of example, in California,
where a similar provision was employed, utilities achieved energy
savings at a cost of around 2-4 cents per kilowatt hour. According to
the Alliance to Save Energy, an Energy Efficiency Performance Standard
could save consumers $64 billion in net savings, and avoid the need to
build 400 power plants, preventing 320 million metric tons of carbon
dioxide emissions.
In addition, my legislation includes a renewable portfolio standard
which would require utilities to generate 20 percent of their
electricity from environmentally sound renewable energy sources by the
year 2020. For example, biomass electricity generated under this
provision must be done using sustainable forest practices.
This legislation will help Americans save on utility bills, and make
our tax code fairer, too. Title V would eliminate two major tax credits
that benefit large oil and gas companies: tax credits for intangible
drilling costs and for excess percentage over cost depletions. This
would save the taxpayers billions of dollars over the next five years.
This legislation also would help us better understand and assess
climate change. During the last three years, I have had the opportunity
to meet in the field with some of the world's foremost climate
scientists. I have traveled to Ny-Alesund, Norway, the northernmost
community in the world, where I saw the dramatic loss of sea-ice
[[Page 14854]]
cover and the retreating Arctic glaciers. I have seen the same alarming
changes in Alaska. Just a year ago, I went to the other end of the
world and met with researchers--including a team from the University of
Maine's outstanding Climate Change Institute--in Antarctica. These
regions are the canary in the coal mine, and the changes taking place
provide a warning we cannot ignore.
Nor can we forestall taking action by arguing over the precise extent
of climate change and the human contribution to it. The answer to
scientific uncertainty is additional research. Title VI of my
legislation would authorize $60 million for abrupt climate change
research. Studies suggest that the climate can change dramatically
within a very short period of time. An abrupt climate change triggered
by the ongoing buildup of greenhouse gases could cause catastrophic
droughts and floods. Understanding and predicting climate change are
enormous scientific challenges. A great deal more scientific research
is necessary in order to better understand the potential risk of abrupt
climate change, and this legislation would provide the resources that
are so urgently required.
There are few issues of greater concern to my constituents in my home
state of Maine than our nation's ongoing and escalating reliance on
foreign oil, and the damage our vehicle and power plant emissions are
doing to the environment. They bear the brunt of wildly fluctuating and
steadily increasing energy prices. They know the harm this dependence
causes to our national security, and they know the harm our current
energy usage causes to the air they breathe. And although a bone-
chilling, winter nor'easter may bring a new round of jokes about the
possible benefits of global warming, they know that human-caused
climate change is no laughing matter. They know we must be better
stewards of our planet.
I believe that all Americans--whether they live in the sunny south or
a winter wonderland--share these concerns. They have heard enough talk;
they want us to act. Americans deserve to breathe clean air, pay
reasonable gasoline and electricity prices, live in a world with a
stable climate future, and have the peace of mind that comes with
secure energy supplies. The Energy Independence, Clean Air, and Climate
Security Act offers a comprehensive, integrated approach to these
issues.
In conclusion, let me describe the six titles very briefly.
The first title of my bill would increase energy independence and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the efficiency of our
transportation sector. The second title would accomplish similar goals
by replacing some gasoline with alternative fuels. The third title
would reduce emissions of mercury, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and
nitrogen oxides from powerplants. The fourth title would help to reduce
heat and electricity bills and diversify our electricity supply through
a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy provisions. The
fifth title would help save taxpayers money through the elimination of
certain tax breaks for the oil industry. Finally, the sixth title would
authorize $60 million for abrupt climate change research to help us
better understand this phenomenon.
I am particularly excited about renewable fuels. I think there is a
lot we could do to expand the tax break for ethanol to include
cellulosic biomass. There is very exciting research being done at the
University of Maine which has been in the forefront of applying a
research technique known as ``Life Cycle Analysis,'' which is a tool
that analyzes the energy requirements and environmental footprint
involved in the manufacture, use, and disposal of a material. It is
ideal for identifying fuels which have the lowest environmental impact
and the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while
reducing our dependence on foreign oil. This technology will help us
move our petroleum-based economy toward a renewable, sustainable,
forest bioeconomy.
This is a complex bill. I appreciate the indulgence of my colleagues.
______
By Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Akaka, Ms. Colllns, Mr.
Menendez, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Casey):
S. 1557. A bill to amend part B of title IV of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 to improve 21st Century Community
Learning Centers; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today, joined by my colleague Senator
Ensign, to introduce the Improving 21st Century Community Learning
Centers Act of 2007, which will provide children with safe, healthy,
and academically focused afterschool programs. This bill is endorsed by
the Afterschool Alliance, an organization representing more than 20,000
public, private, and nonprofit afterschool providers who are dedicated
to expanding access to high quality afterschool programs, as well as
many other national and local organizations.
More than 14 million children enrolled in kindergarten through 12th
grade spend time unsupervised in the hours after school. Between the
hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., while parents are at work, kids are most
likely to experiment with risky behaviors. To the contrary, students
who regularly attend afterschool programs have better grades and
behavior in school, better peer relations and emotional adjustment, and
lower incidences of drug use, violence, and pregnancy. America's
families rely on afterschool programs to give their children the
opportunity to be engaged in high quality learning activities that will
enhance their children's success in school and in life.
The Improving 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act of 2007 is
designed to do three things: enhance program quality and
sustainability, address the obesity epidemic by including physical
fitness and wellness programs in the list of possible programming
activities, and encourage service learning. First, our bill provides
States with tools designed to sustain high quality afterschool programs
by allowing program grantees to renew their grants based on their
program performance. The legislation also gives States the option to
expand their technical assistance functions to further improve the
quality of afterschool programs.
Second, this bill will increase opportunities for children and young
people to be more physically active. As obesity reaches epidemic
proportions in our society, allowing for such opportunities is critical
in ensuring our children's overall health. Obesity is among the easiest
medical conditions to recognize, but among the most difficult to treat.
The annual cost to society for obesity is estimated at nearly $100
billion. Physical activity and wellness programs are critical to our
overall health and well-being.
Third, this bill encourages children to be involved in service
learning and youth development activities. Service learning integrates
student designed service projects with academic studies. This type of
program has been shown to strengthen student engagement, enhance
student achievement, lower drop out and suspension rates, develop
workforce and leadership skills and provide opportunities for team
work. The Improving 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act will
help build the character and work ethic of our children and youth.
Finally, it is of paramount importance that we adequately fund our
afterschool programs. Currently, afterschool programs have served, at
most, only 1.4 million children. It is critical that we provide more
opportunities for youth to be engaged in high quality afterschool
programming.
The Improving 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act provides a
critical first step toward ensuring the health, safety, and education
of our Nation's children. I hope that my colleagues will join me in
supporting this important legislation.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
[[Page 14855]]
S. 1557
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 ``21st Century Community
Learning Centers Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) More than 28,000,000 children in the United States have
parents who work outside the home and 14,300,000 children in
the United States are unsupervised after the school day ends.
(2) 6,500,000 children are in after school programs but an
additional 15,300,000 would participate if such a program
were available.
(3) After school programs inspire learning. In academic
year 2003-2004, 45 percent of all 21st Century Community
Learning Centers program participants had improved their
reading grades, and 41 percent improved their mathematics
grades.
(4) In academic year 2003-2004 teachers reported that a
majority of students who participated in 21st Century
Community Learning Centers programs demonstrated improved
student behavior, particularly in the areas of academic
performance, homework completion, and class participation.
(5) A growing body of research also suggests that children
who participate in after school programs attend school more
regularly, are more likely to stay in school, and are better
prepared for college and careers.
(6) Benefits of after school programs extend beyond the
classroom. Communities with after school programs have
reported reduced vandalism and juvenile crime.
(7) After school programs help working families. One study
estimates that decreased worker productivity due to stress
and absenteeism caused by issues related to after school care
arrangements costs employers $496 to $1,984 per employee, per
year, depending on the annual salary of the employee. The
total cost to the business industry is estimated to be
between $50,000,000,000 and $300,000,000,000 annually in lost
job productivity.
(8) While students in the United States are falling behind
in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),
more than 90 percent of after school programs funded by 21st
Century Community Learning Centers offer STEM activities,
providing more time for children and youth to gain skills and
build interest in the STEM fields. Evaluations of after
school programs offering STEM activities to students have
found increases in the reading, writing, and science skills
proficiency of these students. Children who participate in
such programs show more interest in science careers, and are
more likely to have engaged in science activities just for
fun.
(9) Data from 73 after school studies indicate that after
school programs employing evidence-based approaches to
improving students' personal and social skills were
consistently successful in producing multiple benefits for
students, including improvements in students' personal,
social, and academic skills, as well as students' self-
esteem.
(10) Teens who do not participate in after school programs
are nearly 3 times more likely to skip classes than teens who
do participate. The teens who do not participate are also 3
times more likely to use marijuana or other drugs, and are
more likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and engage in
sexual activity. In general, self care and boredom can
increase the likelihood that a young person will experiment
with drugs and alcohol by as much as 50 percent.
(11) A 2006 study predicts that by the year 2010 more than
46 percent of school-age children in the Americas will be
overweight and 1 in 7 such children will be obese. A study of
after school program participants in 3 elementary schools
found that after school participants were significantly less
likely to be obese at the 3-year follow-up physical exam and
were more likely to have increased acceptance among their
peers. After school programs provide children and youth with
opportunities to engage in sports and other fitness
activities.
(12) After school programs have been identified as
effective venues for improving nutrition, nutrition
education, and physical activity at a time when just 20
percent of youth in grades 9 through 12 consume the
recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables.
(13) After school programs also provide children and youth
with opportunities for service learning, a teaching and
learning approach that integrates student-designed service
projects that address community needs with academic studies.
With structured time to reflect on their service experience,
these projects can strengthen student engagement, enhance
students' academic achievement, lower school drop out and
suspension rates, and help develop important workforce skills
that employers are looking for, including leadership skills,
critical thinking, teamwork, and oral and written
communication.
SEC. 3. REFERENCES.
Except as otherwise expressly provided, wherever in this
Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms of an
amendment to, or repeal of, a section or other provision, the
reference shall be considered to be made to a section or
other provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301).
SEC. 4. 21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS.
(a) Purpose.--Section 4201 (20 U.S.C. 7171) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(2)--
(A) by inserting ``service learning and nutrition
education,'' after ``youth development activities,''; and
(B) by striking ``recreation programs'' and inserting
``physical fitness and wellness programs''; and
(2) in subsection (b)--
(A) by striking paragraph (2); and
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as paragraphs
(2) and (3), respectively.
(b) Allotments to States.--Section 4202 (20 U.S.C. 7172) is
amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) by striking paragraph (1); and
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs
(1) and (2), respectively; and
(2) in subsection (c)(3)--
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking
``3 percent'' and inserting ``5 percent''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(E) Supporting State-level efforts and infrastructure to
ensure the quality and availability of after school
programs.''.
(c) Award Duration.--Section 4204(g) (20 U.S.C. 7174(g)) is
amended by striking the period and inserting ``, and are
renewable for a period of not less than 3 years and not more
than 5 years based on grant performance.''.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 4206 (20
U.S.C. 7176) is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 4206. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
``There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this
part such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008 and
each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years.''.
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Improving
21st Century Community Learning Centers Act of 2007 with my colleague,
Senator Chris Dodd.
The Improving 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act of 2007
will go a long way toward providing our Nation's children with safe,
healthy, and academically focused aftershool programs. Mr. President,
21st century community learning centers provide students in rural and
inner-city public schools with access to homework centers, tutors,
mentors, and drug and alcohol prevention counseling, as well as
cultural and recreational activities.
Today, 14.3 million children go home alone when the school day ends,
including over 40,000 kindergartners and almost 4 million middle school
students. With less than half of the children in afterschool programs,
the parents of another 15.3 million children say their children would
participate in afterschool--if a program were available. The 21st
Century Community Learning Centers Program is a critical resource to
children, families, and communities in their struggle to meet the need
for high-quality afterschool programs.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program is a worthwhile
and necessary investment--evaluations show that these investments are
having a great impact on children's academic achievement and behavior.
In 2003-2004, 45 percent of all program participants had improved their
reading grades and 41 percent improved their math grades. Teachers
reported that a majority of the students participating in the programs
improved their academic performance, improved their school attendance,
completed more homework on time and to the teacher's satisfaction, and
improved their class participation. Beyond the academic gains, these
programs are making kids and communities safer by reducing vandalism
and juvenile crime. It is important that we provide our children with
access to high-quality, safe, and enriching environments in the hours
after the school day.
When my colleagues and I passed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002
it included a bipartisan commitment to quality afterschool programs and
investment in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. The
learning centers are currently funded at $981 million and serve about 1
million children, yet this is just a fraction--7 percent--of the
children who are eligible for the program and need access to high-
quality afterschool programs. Improving 21st Century Community Learning
Centers Act of 2007 will address this need and provide our
[[Page 14856]]
children with the sustainable afterschool opportunities that they
deserve.
Recent evaluations of 21st Century Community Learning Center Programs
show that participating students are improving both their academic
performance and social behavior in and out of the classroom. Yet
maintaining quality programs takes constant effort and resources. This
legislation increases the investments in quality that are critical to
ensuring that programs not only contribute to children's academic and
social development but also give young people the opportunities that
will ensure their college and workplace readiness in the future.
As the father of three and as a former latch-key kid myself, I
understand the benefits of providing children with a place to go and
activities to help them excel. I am committed to ensuring that our
schools have the assistance they need to ensure that our children leave
the public education system as well-rounded individuals. Children
attending public schools should not only be proficient in reading,
writing, and arithmetic but also be skillful in music, art, and
athletics. It is my sincere hope that my colleagues in the Senate will
recognize this important need and cosponsor the Improving 21st Century
Community Learning Centers Act of 2007.
______
By Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. Domenici, and Mr. Kennedy):
S. 1560. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to improve the
quality and availability of mental health services for children and
adolescents; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions.
Mr. DODD, Mr. President, I rise today to introduce bipartisan
legislation with my colleagues, Senators Domenici and Kennedy, that
seeks to meet the mental health needs of children and adolescents.
I believe that the task of ensuring the emotional well-being and
resiliency of our young people is one of paramount importance. We all
know that mental health is a critical component contributing to a
child's general health and ability to grow both intellectually and
physically. Yet, the task of ensuring the mental health of children and
adolescents is not an easy one. In fact, it is arguably one of the most
difficult and largely unspoken tasks facing our Nation today.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration SAMHSA, 1 in 10 children and adolescents suffer from
mental health disorders serious enough to cause some level of
impairment. Out of these young people, only one in five receive the
specialty mental health services they require.
These startling statistics prompted former Surgeon General Dr. David
Satcher to convene a conference in 1999 that examined the mental health
needs of children. The conference, composed of some of the Nation's
leading experts in mental and public health published a seminal report
that concluded that ``. . . the burden of suffering experienced by
children with mental illness and their families has created a health
crisis in this country.'' The report further concluded that ``. . .
there is broad evidence that the Nation lacks a unified infrastructure
to help children suffering from mental illness.''
The ``burden of suffering'' described in Surgeon General Satcher's
report is a burden endured by millions of children, adolescents, and
their families in Connecticut and across our Nation. Throughout my
Senate career, I have heard from families who have shared with me their
personal stories in struggling to care for their children. Their
stories have fueled my belief that child and adolescent mental health
needs to be a top priority.
Recognizing the fragmentation of the Nation's mental health delivery
system, Surgeon General Satcher's report concluded that one fundamental
way to meet the mental health needs of children and adolescents is to
``. . . move towards a community-based mental health delivery system
that balances health promotion, disease prevention, early detection,
and universal access to care.'' The report further stated eight goals
to ensure the resiliency of children and adolescents. These goals were:
first, to promote public awareness of children's mental health issues
and reduce the stigma often associated with mental illness; second, to
continue to develop, disseminate, and implement scientifically proven
prevention and treatment services in the field of children's mental
health; third, to improve the assessment and recognition of mental
health needs in children; fourth, to eliminate racial, ethnic and
socioeconomic disparities in access to mental health care services;
fifth, to improve infrastructure for children's mental health services,
including support for scientifically proven interventions across
professions; sixth, to increase access to and coordination of quality
mental health care services; seventh, to train frontline providers to
recognize and manage mental health issues, and educate mental health
care providers about scientifically proven prevention and treatment
services, and; finally, to monitor the access to and coordination of
quality mental health care services.
In 2002, President Bush established the President's New Freedom
Commission on Mental Health to study three obstacles identified by the
President that prevent Americans with mental illness from getting the
care they require. These obstacles were identified as the stigma that
too often surrounds mental health care, a lack of mental health parity,
and the fragmented mental health delivery system. In 2003, the
President's New Freedom Commission issued a report that made a series
of recommendations on how the Nation's mental health system could be
transformed for the better. Like Surgeon General Satcher's report, this
publication also set forth a series of goals. They were: first, to
ensure that Americans understand that mental health is essential to
overall health; second, to ensure that mental health care is consumer-
and family-driven; third, to eliminate disparities in mental health
care services; fourth, to ensure that early mental health screening,
assessment, and referral services are common practices; fifth, to
ensure that excellent mental health care is delivered and research is
accelerated; and finally, to ensure that technology is used to access
mental health care and information.
I describe these two reports because the legislation I am introducing
with my colleagues today seeks to address the recommendations they
espouse. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Resiliency Act of 2007
authorizes $205 million in an effort to meet five principal objectives.
The first objective is to increase access to, and improve the quality
of, mental health care services delivered to children and adolescents.
Our legislation seeks to meet this objective in several ways.
First, it authorizes a new grant of $50 million for states to develop
and implement a comprehensive mental health plan exclusively for
children and adolescents that provides community-based mental health
early intervention and prevention services and relevant support
services, such as primary health care, education, transportation and
housing. The plan would have to meet a set of core operational and
evaluative requirements and would have to be developed through
extensive outside consultation with children and adolescents, their
families, advocates and health professionals.
Second, our legislation authorizes two matching grants of $22.5
million each for community health centers, many of which primarily
serve low-income populations, and primary health care facilities, such
as a pediatrician's office, to provide community-based mental health
services in coordination with community mental health centers and/or
trained mental health professionals.
Third, our legislation authorizes a new grant of $22.5 million for
states, localities and private nonprofit organizations, for example,
school districts, to provide community-based mental health services in
schools and appropriate mental health training activities to relevant
school and health professionals.
[[Page 14857]]
Fourth, our legislation authorizes a new grant of $20 million for
States, localities and private nonprofit organizations to provide
community-based mental health services specifically for at-risk mothers
and their children.
Fifth, our legislation authorizes a new grant of $10 million for
States, localities and private nonprofit organizations to provide
community-based mental health services for children and adolescents in
juvenile justice systems.
Sixth, our legislation authorizes $10 million for the Secretary of
Health and Human Services to establish, run and evaluate a
demonstration project that improves the ability of local case managers
to work across the mental health, public health, substance abuse, child
welfare, education, juvenile justice and social services systems in a
State.
Finally, our legislation requires States to meet their statutory
obligations to fund fully mental health screening services under the
Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment Services
Program. It also requires current successful initiatives, such as the
Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with
Serious Emotional Disturbance Program, the Community Mental Health
Services Performance Partnership block grant, the Community Mental
Health Services block grant, and the Jail Diversion Program, to expand
their scope with respect to certain reporting, evaluative, and service
activities.
The second objective our legislation seeks to meet is ensuring
greater public awareness and greater family participation in mental
health services decisionmaking. Toward this end, our legislation does
the following:
First, it authorizes a new grant of $10 million for States,
localities and private nonprofit organizations to develop policies that
enable families of children and adolescents with mental health
disorders to have increased control and choice over mental health
services provided and received through a publicly funded mental health
system.
Second, it authorizes a new grant of $10 million for private
nonprofit organizations to provide information on child and adolescent
mental health disorders, services, support services and respite care to
families of children and adolescents with or who are at risk for mental
health disorders.
Third, it authorizes a new grant of $10 million for private nonprofit
organizations to develop community coalitions and public education
activities that promote child and adolescent resiliency.
In addition, our legislation authorizes $10 million to establish two
new technical assistance centers. These centers are designed to collect
and disseminate information on mental health disorders, mental health
disorder risk factors, mental health services, mental health service
access, relevant support services, reducing the inappropriate use of
seclusion and restraints, and family participation in mental health
service decision-making, exclusively for children and adolescents with
or at risk of mental health disorders.
The third objective that this legislation seeks to meet is for the
Federal Government to develop a policy specifically designed to meet
the unique mental health needs of children and adolescents. The
legislation authorizes $10 million for the establishment of an
interagency coordinating committee consisting of all Federal officials
whose departments or agencies oversee mental health activities for
children and adolescents. Modeled after language in the Garrett Lee
Smith Memorial Act, our legislation requires the coordinating committee
to consult with outside parties, develop a Federal policy exclusively
pertaining to child and adolescent mental health, and report annually
to Congress on specific challenges and solutions associated with
comprehensively addressing the mental health needs of children and
adolescents. It also gives the committee flexibility to develop and
implement joint demonstration projects that bolster appropriate mental
health care services to children and adolescents.
The fourth and final objective that this legislation seeks to meet is
increasing the amount of research into child and adolescent mental
health. Only through intensive research can we develop evidence-based
best practices that allow us to develop services that fully meet the
mental health needs of our children. Toward that end, our legislation
authorizes a new grant of $12.5 million for States, localities,
institutions of higher education and private nonprofit organizations to
identify and research current service, training and information
awareness gaps in mental health delivery systems for children and
adolescents. Our legislation also authorizes $12.5 million to enhance
comprehensive Federal research and evaluation of promising best
practices, existing disparities, psycho-tropic medications, trauma,
recovery and rehabilitation, and co-occurring disorders as they relate
to child and adolescent mental health.
I have begun working with my colleagues on the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions to reauthorize the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration. It is my hope that this
legislation can contribute to that reauthorization effort.
I would like to conclude by saying that this legislation, while
comprehensive, is a first step, not a complete solution, towards fully
meeting the challenge of ensuring the resiliency of our children and
adolescents. We need to continue working together--young people,
families, doctors, counselors, nurses, teachers, advocates, and
policymakers, since we all have a stake, either professional or
personal, on this issue. Only by working together can we develop
effective and compassionate ways through which every young person in
this Nation is given a solid foundation upon which to reach his or her
dreams in life. I sincerely hope that my colleagues will join us in
this important effort.
I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 1560
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Child and
Adolescent Mental Health Resiliency Act of 2007''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act
is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
TITLE I--STATE AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES CONCERNING THE MENTAL HEALTH OF
CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
Sec. 101. Grants concerning comprehensive state mental health plans.
Sec. 102. Grants concerning early intervention and prevention.
Sec. 103. Activities concerning mental health services in schools.
Sec. 104. Activities concerning mental health services under the early
and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment
services program.
Sec. 105. Activities concerning mental health services for at-risk
mothers and their children.
Sec. 106. Activities concerning interagency case management.
Sec. 107. Grants concerning consumer and family participation.
Sec. 108. Grants concerning information on child and adolescent mental
health services.
Sec. 109. Activities concerning public education of child and
adolescent mental health disorders and services.
Sec. 110. Technical assistance center concerning training and seclusion
and restraints.
Sec. 111. Technical assistance centers concerning consumer and family
participation.
Sec. 112. Comprehensive community mental health services for children
and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances.
Sec. 113. Community mental health services performance partnership
block grant.
Sec. 114. Community mental health services block grant program.
Sec. 115. Grants for jail diversion programs.
Sec. 116. Activities concerning mental health services for juvenile
justice populations.
[[Page 14858]]
TITLE II--FEDERAL INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES
Sec. 201. Interagency coordinating committee concerning the mental
health of children and adolescents.
TITLE III--RESEARCH ACTIVITIES CONCERNING THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN
AND ADOLESCENTS
Sec. 301. Activities concerning evidence-based or promising best
practices.
Sec. 302. Federal research concerning adolescent mental health.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, mental
health is a critical component of children's learning and
general health.
(2) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, 1 in 10
children and adolescents suffer from mental illness severe
enough to cause some level of impairment.
(3) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, only 1 in
5 children and adolescents who suffer from severe mental
illness receive the specialty mental health services they
require.
(4) According to the World Health Organization, childhood
neuropsychiatric disorders will rise by more than 50 percent
by 2020, internationally, to become 1 of the 5 most common
causes of morbidity, mortality, and disability among
children.
(5) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, the
burden of suffering experienced by children with mental
illness and their families has created a health crisis in
this country.
(6) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, there is
broad evidence that the nation lacks a unified infrastructure
to help children suffering from mental illness.
(7) According to the President's New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health, President George Bush identified 3 obstacles
preventing Americans with mental illness from getting the
care they require: stigma that surrounds mental illness,
unfair treatment limitations and financial requirements
placed on mental health benefits in private health insurance,
and the fragmented mental health service delivery system.
(8) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, 1 way to
ensure that the country's health system meets the mental
health needs of children is to move towards a community-based
mental health delivery system that balances health promotion,
disease prevention, early detection, and universal access to
care.
(9) According to the President's New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health, transforming the country's mental health
delivery system rests on 2 principles: services and
treatments must be consumer and family-centered, and care
must focus on increasing a person's ability to successfully
cope with life's challenges, on facilitating recovery, and
building resiliency.
(10) According to the Surgeon General's Conference on
Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda, the
mental health and resiliency of children can be ensured by
methods that promote public awareness of children's mental
health issues and reduce stigma associated with mental
illness, continue to develop, disseminate, and implement
evidence-based and promising prevention and treatment
services in the field of children's mental health, improve
the assessment of and recognition of mental health needs in
children, eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic
disparities in access to mental healthcare services, improve
the infrastructure for children's mental health services,
including support for evidence-based and promising
interventions across professions, increase access to and
coordination of quality mental healthcare services, train
frontline providers to recognize and manage mental health
issues and educate mental healthcare providers about
evidence-based and promising prevention and treatment
services, and monitor the access to and coordination of
quality mental healthcare services.
(11) According to the President's New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health, the country's mental health delivery system
can be successfully transformed by methods that ensure
Americans understand that mental health is essential to
overall health, ensure mental health care is consumer and
family-driven, eliminate disparities in mental healthcare
services, ensure early mental health screening, assessment,
and referral services are common practices, ensure that
excellent mental health care is delivered and research is
accelerated, and ensure that technology is used to access
mental health care and information.
TITLE I--STATE AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES CONCERNING THE MENTAL HEALTH OF
CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
SEC. 101. GRANTS CONCERNING COMPREHENSIVE STATE MENTAL HEALTH
PLANS.
Subpart 3 of part B of title V of the Public Health Service
Act (42 U.S.C. 290bb-31 et seq.) is amended by inserting
after section 520A, the following:
``SEC. 520B. COMPREHENSIVE STATE MENTAL HEALTH PLANS.
``(a) Grants.--The Secretary, acting through the Center for
Mental Health Services, shall award a 1-year, non-renewable
grant to, or enter into a 1-year cooperative agreement with,
a State for the development and implementation by the State
of a comprehensive State mental health plan that exclusively
meets the mental health needs of children and adolescents,
including providing for early intervention, prevention, and
recovery oriented services and supports for children and
adolescents, such as mental and primary health care,
education, transportation, and housing.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under this section a State shall submit
to the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner,
and containing such information as the Secretary may require,
including--
``(1) a certification by the governor of the State that the
governor will be responsible for overseeing the development
and implementation of the comprehensive State mental health
plan; and
``(2) the signature of the governor of the State.
``(c) Requirements.--The Comprehensive State Plan shall
include the following:
``(1) An evaluation of all the components of the current
mental health system in the State, including the estimated
number of children and adolescents requiring and receiving
mental health services, as well as support services such as
primary health care, education, and housing.
``(2) A description of the long-term objectives of the
State for policies concerning children and adolescents with
mental disorders. Such objectives shall include--
``(A) the provision of early intervention and prevention
services to children and adolescents with, or who are at risk
for, mental health disorders that are integrated with school
systems, educational institutions, juvenile justice systems,
substance abuse programs, mental health programs, primary
care programs, foster care systems, child welfare systems,
and other child and adolescent support organizations;
``(B) a demonstrated collaboration among agencies that
provide early intervention and prevention services or a
certification that entities will engage in such future
collaboration;
``(C) implementing or providing for the evaluation of
children and adolescents mental health services that are
adapted to the local community;
``(D) implementing collaborative activities concerning
child and adolescent mental health early intervention and
prevention services;
``(E) the provision of timely appropriate community-based
mental health care and treatment of children and adolescents
in child and adolescent-serving settings and agencies;
``(F) the provision of adequate support and information
resources to families of children and adolescents with, or
who are at risk for, mental health disorders;
``(G) the provision of adequate support and information
resources to advocacy organizations that serve children and
adolescents with, or who are at risk for, mental health
disorders, and their families;
``(H) identifying and offering access to services and care
to children and adolescents and their families with diverse
linguistic and cultural backgrounds;
``(I) identifying and offering equal access to services in
all geographic regions of the State;
``(J) identifying and offering appropriate access to
services in geographical regions of the State with above-
average occurrences of child and adolescent mental health
disorders;
``(K) identifying and offering appropriate access to
services in geographical regions of the State with above-
average rates of children and adolescents with co-occurring
mental health and substance abuse disorders;
``(L) offering continuous and up-to-date information to,
and carrying out awareness campaigns that target children and
adolescents, parents, legal guardians, family members,
primary care professionals, mental health professionals,
child care professionals, health care providers, and the
general public and that highlight the risk factors associated
with mental health disorders and the life-saving help and
care available from early intervention and prevention
services;
``(M) ensuring that information and awareness campaigns on
mental health disorder risk factors, and early intervention
and prevention services, use effective and culturally-
appropriate communication mechanisms that are targeted to and
reach children and adolescents, families, schools,
educational institutions, juvenile justice systems, substance
abuse programs, mental health programs, primary care
programs,
[[Page 14859]]
foster care systems, child welfare systems, and other child
and adolescent support organizations;
``(N) implementing a system to ensure that primary care
professionals, mental health professionals, and school and
child care professionals are properly trained in evidence-
based best practices in child and adolescent mental health
early intervention and prevention, treatment and
rehabilitation services and that those professionals involved
with providing early intervention and prevention services are
properly trained in effectively identifying children and
adolescents with or who are at risk for mental health
disorders;
``(O) the provision of continuous training activities for
primary care professionals, mental health professionals, and
school and child care professionals on evidence-based or
promising best practices;
``(P) the provision of continuous training activities for
primary care professionals, mental health professionals, and
school and child care professionals on family and consumer
involvement and participation;
``(Q) conducting annual self-evaluations of all outcomes
and activities, including consulting with interested families
and advocacy organizations for children and adolescents.
``(3) A cost-assessment relating to the development and
implementation of the State plan and a description of how the
State will measure performance and outcomes across relevant
agencies and service systems.
``(4) A timeline for achieving the objectives described in
paragraph (2).
``(5) An outline for achieving the sustainability of the
objectives described in paragraph (2).
``(d) Application of Other Requirements.--The authorities
and duties of State mental health planning councils provided
for under sections 1914 and 1915 with respect to State mental
health block grant planning shall apply to the development
and the implementation of the comprehensive State mental
health plan.
``(e) Participation and Implementation.--
``(1) Participation.--In developing and implementing the
comprehensive State mental health plan under a grant or
cooperative agreement under this section, the State shall
ensure the participation of the State agency heads
responsible for child and adolescent mental health, substance
abuse, child welfare, medicaid, public health, developmental
disabilities, social services, juvenile justice, housing, and
education.
``(2) Consultation.--In developing and implementing the
comprehensive State mental health plan under a grant or
cooperative agreement under this section, the State shall
consult with--
``(A) the Federal interagency coordinating committee
established under section 401 of the Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Resiliency Act of 2007;
``(B) State and local agencies, including agencies
responsible for child and adolescent mental health care,
early intervention and prevention services under titles IV,
V, and XIX of the Social Security Act, and the State's
Children's Health Insurance Program under title XXI of the
Social Security Act;
``(C) State mental health planning councils (described in
section 1914);
``(D) national, State, and local advocacy organizations
that serve children and adolescents with or who are at risk
for mental health disorders and their families;
``(E) relevant national medical and other health
professional and education specialty organizations;
``(F) children and adolescents with mental health disorders
and children and adolescents who are currently receiving
early intervention or prevention services;
``(G) families and friends of children and adolescents with
mental health disorders and children and adolescents who are
currently receiving early intervention or prevention
services;
``(H) families and friends of children and adolescents who
have attempted or completed suicide;
``(I) qualified professionals who possess the specialized
knowledge, skills, experience, training, or relevant
attributes needed to serve children and adolescents with or
who are at risk for mental health disorders and their
families; and
``(J) third-party payers, managed care organizations, and
related employer and commercial industries.
``(3) Signature.--The Governor of the State shall sign the
comprehensive State mental health plan application and be
responsible for overseeing the development and implementation
of the plan.
``(f) Satisfaction of Other Federal Requirements.--A State
may utilize the comprehensive State mental health plan that
meets the requirements of this section to satisfy the
planning requirements of other Federal mental health programs
administered by the Secretary, including as the Community
Mental Health Services Block Grant and the Children's Mental
Health Services Program, so long as the requirements of such
programs are satisfied through the plan.
``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section $50,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 102. GRANTS CONCERNING EARLY INTERVENTION AND
PREVENTION.
Title V of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290aa
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``PART K--MISCELLANEOUS MENTAL HEALTH PROVISIONS
``SEC. 597. GRANTS FOR MENTAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT SERVICES.
``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall award 5-year
matching grants to, or enter into cooperative agreements
with, community health centers that receive assistance under
section 330 to enable such centers to provide child and
adolescent mental health early intervention and prevention
services to eligible children and adolescents, and to provide
referral services to, or early intervention and prevention
services in coordination with, community mental health
centers and other appropriately trained providers of care.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a community health center that receives assistance
under section 330;
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require;
``(3) provide assurances that the entity will have
appropriately qualified behavioral health professional staff
to ensure prompt treatment or triage for referral to a
speciality agency or provider; and
``(4) provide assurances that the entity will encourage
formal coordination with community mental health centers and
other appropriate providers to ensure continuity of care.
``(c) Identification.--In providing services with amounts
received under a grant or cooperative agreement under this
section, an entity shall ensure that appropriate screening
tools are used to identify at-risk children and adolescents
who are eligible to receive care from a community health
centers.
``(d) Matching Requirement.--With respect to the costs of
the activities to be carried out by an entity under a grant
or cooperative agreement under this section, an entity shall
provide assurances that the entity will make available
(directly or through donations from public or private
entities) non-Federal contributions towards such costs in an
amount that is not less than $1 for each $1 of Federal funds
provided under the grant or cooperative agreement.
``SEC. 597A. GRANTS FOR PRIMARY CARE AND MENTAL HEALTH EARLY
INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION SERVICES.
``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall award 5-year
matching grants to, or enter into cooperative agreements
with, States, political subdivisions of States, consortium of
political subdivisions, tribal organizations, public
organizations, or private nonprofit organizations to enable
such entities to provide assistance to mental health programs
for early intervention and prevention services to children
and adolescents with, or who are at-risk of, mental health
disorders and that are in primary care settings.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a State, a political subdivision of a State, a
consortia of political subdivisions, a tribal organization, a
public organization, or private nonprofit organization; and
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(c) Use of Funds.--An entity shall use amounts received
under a grant or cooperative agreement under this section
to--
``(1) provide appropriate child and adolescent mental
health early intervention and prevention assessment services;
``(2) provide appropriate child and adolescent mental
health treatment services;
``(3) provide monitoring and referral for specialty
treatment of medical or surgical conditions for children and
adolescents ; and
``(4) facilitate networking between primary care
professionals, mental health professionals, and child care
professionals for--
``(A) case management development;
``(B) professional mentoring; and
``(C) enhancing the provision of mental health services in
schools.
``(d) Matching Requirements.--With respect to the costs of
the activities to be carried out by an entity under a grant
or cooperative agreement under this section, an entity shall
provide assurances that the entity will make available
(directly or through donations from public or private
entities) non-Federal contributions towards such costs in an
amount that is not less than $1 for each $1 of Federal funds
provided under the grant or cooperative agreement.
``SEC. 597B. GRANTS FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND PRIMARY CARE EARLY
INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION SERVICES.
``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall award 5-year
matching grants to, or enter into cooperative agreements
with, States, political subdivisions of States, consortium of
political subdivisions, tribal organizations, public
organizations, or private nonprofit organizations to enable
such entities to provide assistance to primary care programs
for children and adolescents with, or who are at-risk of,
mental health disorders who are in mental health settings.
[[Page 14860]]
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a State, a political subdivision of a State, a
consortia of political subdivisions, a tribal organization,
or a private nonprofit organization; and
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(c) Use of Funds.--An entity shall use amounts received
under a grant or cooperative agreement under this section
to--
``(1) provide appropriate primary health care services,
including screening, routine treatment, monitoring, and
referral for specialty treatment of medical or surgical
conditions;
``(2) provide appropriate monitoring of medical conditions
of children and adolescents receiving mental health services
from the applicant and refer them, as needed, for specialty
treatment of medical or surgical conditions; and
``(3) facilitate networking between primary care
professionals, mental health professionals and child care
professionals for--
``(A) case management development; and
``(B) professional mentoring.
``(d) Matching Funds.--With respect to the costs of the
activities to be carried out by an entity under a grant or
cooperative agreement under this section, an entity shall
provide assurances that the entity will make available
(directly or through donations from public or private
entities) non-Federal contributions towards such costs in an
amount that is not less than $1 for each $1 of Federal funds
provided under the grant or cooperative agreement.
``SEC. 597C. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
``There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out
sections 597, 597A, and 597B, $45,000,000 for fiscal year
2008 and such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal
years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 103. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN
SCHOOLS.
(a) Efforts of Secretary to Improve the Mental Health of
Students.--The Secretary of Education, in collaboration with
the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall--
(1) encourage elementary and secondary schools and
educational institutions to address mental health issues
facing children and adolescents by--
(A) identifying children and adolescents with, or who are
at-risk for, mental health disorders;
(B) providing or linking children and adolescents to
appropriate mental health services and supports; and
(C) assisting families, including providing families with
resources on mental health services for children and
adolescents and a link to relevant local and national
advocacy and support organizations;
(2) collaborate on expanding and fostering a mental health
promotion and early intervention strategy with respect to
children and adolescents that focuses on emotional well being
and resiliency and fosters academic achievement;
(3) encourage elementary and secondary schools and
educational institutions to use positive behavioral support
procedures and functional behavioral assessments on a school-
wide basis as an alternative to suspending or expelling
children and adolescents with or who are at risk for mental
health needs; and
(4) provide technical assistance to elementary and
secondary schools and educational institutions to implement
the provisions of paragraphs (1) through (3).
(b) Grants.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Education, in
collaboration with the Secretary of Health and Human
Services, shall award grants to, or enter into cooperative
agreements with, States, political subdivisions of States,
consortium of political subdivisions, tribal organizations,
public organizations, private nonprofit organizations,
elementary and secondary schools, and other educational
institutions to provide directly or provide access to mental
health services and case management of services in elementary
and secondary schools and other educational settings.
(2) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under paragraph (1) an entity shall--
(A) be a State, a political subdivision of a State, a
consortia of political subdivisions, a tribal organization, a
public organization, a private nonprofit organization, an
elementary or secondary school, or an educational
institution; and
(B) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require, including an assurance that the
entity will--
(i) provide directly or provide access to early
intervention and prevention services in settings with an
above average rate of children and adolescents with mental
health disorders;
(ii) provide directly or provide access to early
intervention and prevention services in settings with an
above average rate of children and adolescents with co-
occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders; and
(iii) demonstrate a broad collaboration of parents, primary
care professionals, school and mental health professionals,
child care processionals including those in educational
settings, legal guardians, and all relevant local agencies
and organizations in the application for, and administration
of, the grant or cooperative agreement.
(3) Use of funds.--An entity shall use amounts received
under a grant or cooperative agreement under this subsection
to provide--
(A) mental health identification services;
(B) early intervention and prevention services to children
and adolescents with or who are at-risk of mental health
disorders; and
(C) mental health-related training to primary care
professionals, school and mental health professionals, and
child care professionals, including those in educational
settings.
(c) Counseling and Behavioral Support Guidelines.--The
Secretary of Education, in collaboration with the Secretary
of Health and Human Services, shall develop and issue
guidelines to elementary and secondary schools and
educational institutions that encourage such schools and
institutions to provide counseling and positive behavioral
supports, including referrals for needed early intervention
and prevention services, treatment, and rehabilitation to
children and adolescents who are disruptive or who use drugs
and show signs or symptoms of mental health disorders. Such
schools and institutions shall be encouraged to provide such
services to children and adolescents in lieu of suspension,
expulsion, or transfer to a juvenile justice system without
any support referral services or system of care.
(d) Study.--
(1) In general.--The Government Accountability Office shall
conduct a study to assess the scientific validity of the
Federal definition of a child or adolescent with an
``emotional disturbance'' as provided for in the regulations
of the Department of Education under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.), and
whether, as written, such definition now excludes children
and adolescents inappropriately through a determination that
those children and adolescents are ``socially maladjusted''.
(2) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Government Accountability Office
shall submit to the appropriated committees of Congress a
report concerning the results of the study conducted under
paragraph (1).
(e) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed--
(1) to supercede the provisions of section 444 of the
General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g), including
the requirement of prior parental consent for the disclosure
of any education records; and
(2) to modify or affect the parental notification
requirements for programs authorized under the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.).
(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section $22,500,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.
SEC. 104. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES UNDER
THE EARLY AND PERIODIC SCREENING, DIAGNOSTIC,
AND TREATMENT SERVICES PROGRAM.
(a) Notification.--The Secretary of Health and Human
Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, shall notify State Medicaid
agencies of--
(1) obligations under section 1905(r) of the Social
Security Act with respect to the identification of children
and adolescents with mental health disorders and of the
availability of validated mechanisms that aid pediatricians
and other primary care professionals to incorporate such
activities; and
(2) information on financing mechanisms that such agencies
may use to reimburse primary care professionals, mental
health professionals, and child care professionals who
provide mental health services as authorized under such
definition of early and period screening, diagnostic, and
treatment services.
(b) Requirements.--State Medicaid agencies who receive
funds for early and period screening, diagnostic, and
treatment services funding shall provide an annual report to
the Secretary of Health and Human Services that--
(1) analyzes the rates of eligible children and adolescents
who receive mental health identification services of the type
described in subsection (a)(1) under the medicaid program in
the State;
(2) analyzes the ways in which such agency has used
financing mechanisms to reimburse primary care professionals,
mental health professionals, and child care professionals who
provide such mental health services;
(3) identifies State program rules and funding policies
that may impede such agency from meeting fully the Federal
requirements with respect to such services under the medicaid
program; and
(4) makes recommendations on how to overcome the
impediments identified under paragraph (3).
[[Page 14861]]
SEC. 105. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR
AT-RISK MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN.
Title V of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 701 et seq.)
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 511. ENHANCING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR AT-RISK
MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN.
``(a) Grants.--The Secretary shall award grants to, or
enter into cooperative agreements with, States, political
subdivisions of States, consortium of political subdivisions,
tribal organizations, public organizations, and private
nonprofit organizations to provide appropriate mental health
promotion and mental health services to at-risk mothers,
grandmothers who are legal guardians, and their children.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a State, a political subdivision of a State, a
consortia of political subdivisions, a tribal organization, a
public organization, or a private nonprofit organization; and
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(c) Use of Funds.--Amounts received under a grant or
cooperative agreement under this section shall be used to--
``(1) provide mental health early intervention, prevention,
and case management services;
``(2) provide mental health treatment services; and
``(3) provide monitoring and referral for specialty
treatment of medical or surgical conditions.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $20,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 106. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING INTERAGENCY CASE MANAGEMENT.
Part L of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102, is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``SEC. 597D. INTERAGENCY CASE MANAGEMENT.
``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish a program
to foster the ability of local case managers to work across
the mental health, substance abuse, child welfare, education,
and juvenile justice systems in a State. As part of such
program, the Secretary shall develop a model system that--
``(1) establishes a training curriculum for primary care
professionals, mental health professionals, school and child
care professionals, and social workers who work as case
managers;
``(2) establishes uniform standards for working in multiple
service systems; and
``(3) establishes a cross-system case manager certification
process.
``(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 107. GRANTS CONCERNING CONSUMER AND FAMILY
PARTICIPATION.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102 and amended by section 106, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597E. CONSUMER AND FAMILY CONTROL IN CHILD AND
ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE DECISIONS.
``(a) Grants.--The Secretary shall award grants to, or
enter into cooperative agreements with, States, political
subdivisions of States, consortium of political subdivisions,
and tribal organizations for the development of policies and
mechanisms that enable consumers and families to have
increased control and choice over child and adolescent mental
health services received through a publicly-funded mental
health system.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a State, a political subdivision of a State, a
consortia of political subdivisions, or a tribal
organization; and
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(c) Use of Funds.--An entity shall use amounts received
under a grant or cooperative agreement under this section to
carry out the activities described in subsection (a). Such
activities may include--
``(1) the facilitation of mental health service planning
meetings by consumer and family advocates, particularly peer
advocates;
``(2) the development of consumer and family cooperatives;
and
``(3) the facilitation of national networking between State
political subdivisions and tribal organizations engaged in
promoting increased consumer and family participation in
decisions regarding mental health services for children and
adolescents.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 108. GRANTS CONCERNING INFORMATION ON CHILD AND
ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102 and amended by section 107, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597F. INCREASED INFORMATION ON CHILD AND ADOLESCENT
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES.
``(a) Grants.--The Secretary shall award grants to, or
enter into cooperative agreements with, private nonprofit
organizations to enable such organizations to provide
information on child and adolescent mental health and
services, consumer or parent-to-parent support services,
respite care, and other relevant support services to--
``(1) parents and legal guardians of children or
adolescents with or who are at risk for mental health
disorders; and
``(2) families of adolescents with or who are at risk for
mental health disorders.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a private, nonprofit organization; and
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 109. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING PUBLIC EDUCATION OF CHILD AND
ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND
SERVICES.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102 and amended by section 108, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597G. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING PUBLIC EDUCATION OF CHILD
AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND
SERVICES.
``(a) Educational Campaign.--The Secretary shall develop,
coordinate, and implement an educational campaign to increase
public understanding of mental health promotion, child and
adolescent emotional well-being and resiliency, and risk
factors associated with mental health disorders in children
and adolescents.
``(b) Grants.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall award grants to, or
enter into cooperative agreements with, public and private
nonprofit organizations with qualified experience in public
education to build community coalitions and increase public
awareness of mental health promotion, child and adolescent
emotional well-being and resiliency, and risk factors
associated with mental health disorders in children and
adolescents.
``(2) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under paragraph (1), an entity shall--
``(A) be a public or private nonprofit organization; and
``(B) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(3) Use of funds.--Amounts received under a grant or
contract under this subsection shall be used to--
``(A) develop community coalitions to support the purposes
of paragraph (1); and
``(B) develop and implement public education activities
that compliment the activities described in subsection (a)
and support the purposes of paragraph (1).
``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 110. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER CONCERNING TRAINING AND
SECLUSION AND RESTRAINTS.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102 and amended by section 109, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597H. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER CONCERNING SECLUSION
AND RESTRAINTS.
``(a) Seclusion and Restraints.--Acting through the
technical assistance center established under subsection (b),
the Secretary shall--
``(1) develop and disseminate educational materials that
encourage ending the use of seclusion and restraints in all
facilities or programs in which a child or adolescent resides
or receives care or services;
``(2) gather, analyze, and disseminate information on best
or promising best practices that can minimize conflicts
between parents, legal guardians, primary care professionals,
mental health professionals, school and child care
professionals to create a safe environment for children and
adolescents with mental health disorders; and
``(3) provide training for primary professionals, mental
health professionals, and school and child care professionals
on effective techniques or practices that serve as
alternatives to coercive control interventions, including
techniques to reduce challenging, aggressive, and resistant
behaviors, that require seclusion and restraints.
``(b) Consultation.--In carrying out this section, the
Secretary shall consult with--
``(1) local and national advocacy organizations that serve
children and adolescents
[[Page 14862]]
who may require the use of seclusion and restraints, and
their families;
``(2) relevant national medical and other health and
education specialty organizations; and
``(3) qualified professionals who possess the specialized
knowledge, skills, experience, and relevant attributes needed
to serve children and adolescents who may require the use of
seclusion and restraints, and their families.
``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $5,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 111. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTERS CONCERNING CONSUMER
AND FAMILY PARTICIPATION.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102 and amended by section 110, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597I. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTERS CONCERNING CONSUMER
AND FAMILY PARTICIPATION.
``(a) Grants.--The Secretary shall award 5-year grants to,
or enter into cooperative agreements with, private nonprofit
organizations for the development and implementation of three
technical assistance centers to support full consumer and
family participation in decision-making about mental health
services for children and adolescents.
``(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a) an entity shall--
``(1) be a private, nonprofit organization that
demonstrates the ability to establish and maintain a
technical assistance center described in this section; and
``(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(c) Use of Funds.--An entity shall use amounts received
under a grant or cooperative agreement under this section to
establish a technical assistance center of the type referred
to in subsection (a). Through such center, the entity shall--
``(1) collect and disseminate information on mental health
disorders and risk factors for mental health disorders in
children and adolescents;
``(2) collect and disseminate information on available
resources for specific mental health disorders, including co-
occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders;
``(3) disseminate information to help consumers and
families engage in illness self management activities and
access services and resources on mental health disorder self-
management;
``(4) support the activities of self-help organizations;
``(5) support the training of peer specialists, family
specialists, primary care professionals, mental health
professionals, and child care professionals;
``(6) provide assistance to consumer and family-delivered
service programs and resources in meeting their operational
and programmatic needs; and
``(7) provide assistance to consumers and families that
participate in mental health system advisory bodies,
including state mental health planning councils.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $5,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 112. COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR
CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH SERIOUS EMOTIONAL
DISTURBANCES.
Section 561 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
290ff) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b)(1)(A), by inserting before the
semicolon the following: ``and provides assurances that the
State will use grant funds in accordance with the
comprehensive State mental health plan submitted under
section 520B''; and
(2) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the following:
``(4) Review of possible impediments.--A State may use
amounts received under a grant under this section to conduct
an interagency review of State mental health program rules
and funding policies that may impede the development of the
comprehensive State mental health plan submitted under
section 520B.''.
SEC. 113. COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES PERFORMANCE
PARTNERSHIP BLOCK GRANT.
Section 1912(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
300x-2(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(6) Performance measures.--The plan requires that
performance measures be reported for adults and children
separately.
``(7) Other mental health services.--In addition to
reporting on mental health services funded under a community
mental health services performance partnership block grant,
States are encouraged to report on all mental health services
provided by the State mental health agency.''.
SEC. 114. COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES BLOCK GRANT
PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--Section 1912(b) of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300x-2(b)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``(8) Co-occurring treatment services.--The plan provides
for a system of support for the provision of co-occurring
treatment services, including early intervention and
prevention, and integrated mental health and substance abuse
and services, for children and adolescents with co-occurring
mental health and substance abuse disorders. Services shall
be provided through the system under this paragraph in
accordance with the Substance Abuse Prevention Treatment
Block Grant program under subpart II.''.
(b) Guidelines for Integrated Treatment Services.--Section
1915 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300x-4) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(c) Guidelines for Integrated Treatment Services.--The
Secretary shall issue written policy guidelines for use by
States that describe how amounts received under a grant under
this subpart may be used to fund integrated treatment
services for children and adolescents with mental health
disorders and with co-occurring mental health and substance
abuse disorders.
``(d) Model Service Systems Forum.--The Secretary, in
consultation with the Attorney General, shall periodically
convene forums to develop model service systems and promote
awareness of the needs of children and adolescents with co-
occurring mental health disorders and to facilitate the
development of policies to meet those needs.''.
(c) Substance Abuse Grants.--Section 1928 of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300x-28) is amended by adding
at the end the following:
``(e) Co-Occurring Treatment Services.--A State may use
amounts received under a grant under this subpart to provide
a system of support for the provision of co-occurring
treatment services, including early intervention and
prevention, and integrated mental health and substance abuse
services, for children and adolescents with co-occurring
mental health and substance abuse disorders. Services shall
be provided through the system under this paragraph in
accordance with the Community Mental Health Services Block
Grant program under subpart I.
``(f) Guidelines for Integrated Treatment Services.--The
Secretary shall issue written policy guidelines, for use by
States, that describe how amounts received under a grant
under this section may be used to fund integrated treatment
for children and adolescents with co-occurring substance
abuse and mental health disorders, including the
transitioning to adulthood.''.
SEC. 115. GRANTS FOR JAIL DIVERSION PROGRAMS.
Section 520G of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
290bb-38)--
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ``up to 125'';
(2) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(B) in paragraph (4), by striking the period and inserting
a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(5) provide appropriate community-based mental health and
co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse services to
children and adolescents determined to be at risk of contact
with the law; and
``(6) provide for the inclusion of emergency mental health
centers as part of jail diversion programs.''; and
(3) in subsection (h), by adding at the end the following:
``As part of such evaluations, the grantee shall evaluate the
effectiveness of activities carried out under the grant and
submit reports on such evaluations to the Secretary.''.
SEC. 116. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR
JUVENILE JUSTICE POPULATIONS.
(a) Grants.--The Secretary shall award grants to, or enter
into cooperative agreements with, States, tribal
organizations, political subdivisions of States, consortia of
political subdivisions, public organizations, and private
nonprofit organizations to provide mental health promotions
and mental health services to children and adolescents in
juvenile justice systems.
(b) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under subsection (a), an entity shall--
(1) be a State, a tribal organization, a political
subdivision of a State, a consortia of political
subdivisions, a public organization, or a private nonprofit
organization; and
(2) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
(c) Use of Funds.--Amounts received under a grant or
cooperative agreement under this section shall be used to--
(1) provide mental health early intervention, prevention,
and case management services;
(2) provide mental health treatment services; and
(3) provide monitoring and referral for specialty treatment
of medical or surgical conditions.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.
[[Page 14863]]
TITLE II--FEDERAL INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES
SEC. 201. INTERAGENCY COORDINATING COMMITTEE CONCERNING THE
MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services
(referred to in this section as the ``Secretary''), in
collaboration with the Federal officials described in
subsection (b), shall establish an interagency coordinating
committee (referred to in this section as the ``Committee'')
to carry out the activities described in this section
relating to the mental health of children and adolescents.
(b) Federal Officials.--The Federal officials described in
this subsection are the following:
(1) The Secretary of Education.
(2) The Attorney General.
(3) The Surgeon General.
(4) The Secretary of the Department of Defense.
(5) The Secretary of the Interior.
(6) The Commissioner of Social Security.
(7) Such other Federal officials as the Secretary
determines to be appropriate.
(c) Chairperson.--The Secretary shall serve as the
chairperson of the Committee.
(d) Duties.--The Committee shall be responsible for policy
development across the Federal Government with respect to
child and adolescent mental health.
(e) Collaboration and Consultation.--In carrying out the
activities described in this Act, and the amendments made by
this Act, the Secretary shall collaborate with the Committee
(and the Committee shall collaborate with relevant Federal
agencies and mental health working groups responsible for
child and adolescent mental health).
(f) Consultation.--In carrying out the activities described
in this Act, and the amendments made by this Act, the
Secretary and the Committee shall consult with--
(1) State and local agencies, including agencies
responsible for child and adolescent mental health care,
early intervention and prevention services under titles V and
XIX of the Social Security Act, and the State Children's
Health Insurance Program under title XXI of the Social
Security Act;
(2) State mental health planning councils (as described in
section 1914);
(3) local and national organizations that serve children
and adolescents with or who are at risk for mental health
disorders and their families;
(4) relevant national medical and other health professional
and education specialty organizations;
(5) children and adolescents with mental health disorders
and children and adolescents who are currently receiving
early intervention or prevention services;
(6) families and friends of children and adolescents with
mental health disorders and children and adolescents who are
currently receiving early intervention or prevention
services;
(7) families and friends of children and adolescents who
have attempted or completed suicide;
(8) qualified professionals who possess the specialized
knowledge, skills, experience, training, or relevant
attributes needed to serve children and adolescents with or
who are at risk for mental health disorders and their
families; and
(9) third-party payers, managed care organizations, and
related employer and commercial industries.
(g) Policy Development.--In carrying out the activities
described in this Act, and the amendments made by this Act,
the Secretary shall--
(1) coordinate and collaborate on policy development at the
Federal level with the Committee, relevant Department of
Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and
Department of Justice agencies, and child and adolescent
mental health working groups; and
(2) consult on policy development at the Federal level with
the private sector, including consumer, medical, mental
health advocacy groups, and other health and education
professional-based organizations, with respect to child and
adolescent mental health early intervention and prevention
services.
(h) Reports.--
(1) Initial report.--Not later than 2 years after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Committee shall submit to the
appropriate committees of Congress a report that includes--
(A) the results of an evaluation to be conducted by the
Committee to analyze the effectiveness and efficacy of
current activities concerning the mental health of children
and adolescents;
(B) the results of an evaluation to be conducted by the
Committee to analyze the effectiveness and efficacy of the
activities carried out under grants, cooperative agreements,
collaborations, and consultations under this Act, the
amendments made by this Act, and carried out by existing
Federal agencies;
(C) the results of an evaluation to be conducted by the
Committee to analyze identified problems and challenges,
including--
(i) fragmented mental health service delivery systems for
children and adolescents;
(ii) disparities between Federal agencies in mental health
service eligibility requirements for children and
adolescents;
(iii) disparities in regulatory policies of Federal
agencies concerning child and adolescent mental health;
(iv) inflexibility of Federal finance systems to support
evidence-based child and adolescent mental health;
(v) insufficient training of primary care professionals,
mental health professionals, and child care professionals;
(vi) disparities and fragmentation of collection and
dissemination of information concerning child and adolescent
mental health services;
(vii) inability of State Medicaid agencies to meet Federal
requirements concerning child and adolescent mental health
under the early and period screening, diagnostics and
treatment services requirements under the medicaid program
under title XIX of the Social Security Act; and
(viii) fractured Federal interagency collaboration and
consultation concerning child and adolescent mental health;
(D) the recommendations of the Secretary on models and
methods with which to overcome the problems and challenges
described in subparagraph (B).
(2) Annual report.--Not later than 1 year after the date on
which the initial report is submitted under paragraph (1), an
annually thereafter, the Committee shall submit to the
appropriate committees of Congress a report concerning the
results of updated evaluations and recommendations described
in paragraph (1).
(i) Flexible Joint-Funding Programs.--
(1) In general.--In carrying out the activities described
in subsection (h), Federal officials participating in the
Committee may, notwithstanding any other law, enter into
interagency agreements for the purposes of establishing
flexible joint-funding programs, and each official may
allocate discretionary funds appropriated to that agency to
such flexible joint-funding programs.
(2) Program purposes.--Flexible joint funding programs as
described in paragraph (1) may include demonstration projects
that address and eliminate the--
(A) fragmented mental health service delivery systems for
children and adolescents;
(B) disparities between Federal agencies in mental health
service eligibility requirements for children and
adolescents;
(C) disparities in regulatory policies of Federal agencies
concerning child and adolescent mental health;
(D) inflexibility of Federal finance systems to support
evidence-based child and adolescent mental health;
(E) insufficient training of primary care professionals,
mental health professionals, and child care professionals;
(F) disparities and fragmentation of collection and
dissemination of information concerning child and adolescent
mental health services; and
(G) inability of State Medicaid agencies to meet Federal
requirements concerning child and adolescent mental health
under the early and period screening, diagnostics, and
treatment services requirements under the Medicaid program
under title XIX of the Social Security Act.
(j) Personnel Matters.--
(1) Staff and compensation.--Except as provided in
paragraph (2), the Secretary may employ, and fix the
compensation of an executive director and other personnel of
the Committee without regard to the provisions of chapter 51
and subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States
Code, relating to classification of positions and General
Schedule pay rates.
(2) Maximum rate of pay.--The maximum rate of pay for the
executive director and other personnel employed under
paragraph (1) shall not exceed the rate payable for level IV
of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of title 5,
United States Code.
(k) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.
TITLE III--RESEARCH ACTIVITIES CONCERNING THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN
AND ADOLESCENTS
SEC. 301. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING EVIDENCE-BASED OR PROMISING
BEST PRACTICES.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 102 and amended by section 111, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597J. ACTIVITIES CONCERNING EVIDENCE-BASED OR
PROMISING BEST PRACTICES.
``(a) Grants.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall award grants to, and
enter into cooperative agreements with, States, political
subdivisions of States, consortia of political subdivisions,
tribal organizations, institutions of higher education, or
private nonprofit organizations for the development of child
and adolescent mental health services and support systems
that address widespread and critical gaps in a needed
continuum of mental health service-delivery with a specific
focus on encouraging the implementation of evidence-based or
promising best practices.
``(2) Application.--To be eligible to receive a grant or
cooperative agreement under paragraph (1) an entity shall--
[[Page 14864]]
``(A) be a State, a political subdivision of a State, a
consortia of political subdivisions, a tribal organization,
an institution of higher education, or a private nonprofit
organization; and
``(B) prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at
such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary may require.
``(3) Use of funds.--Amounts received under a grant or
cooperative agreement under this subsection shall be used to
provide for the development and dissemination of mental
health supports and services described in paragraph (1),
including--
``(A) early intervention and prevention services, treatment
and rehabilitation particularly for children and adolescents
with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse
disorders;
``(B) referral services;
``(C) integrated treatment services, including family
therapy, particularly for children and adolescents with co-
occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders;
``(D) colocating primary care and mental health services in
rural and urban areas;
``(E) mentoring and other support services;
``(F) transition services;
``(G) respite care for parents, legal guardians, and
families; and
``(H) home-based care.
``(b) Technical Assistance Center.--The Secretary shall
establish a technical assistance center to assist entities
that receive a grant or cooperative agreement under
subsection (a) in--
``(1) identifying widespread and critical gaps in a needed
continuum of child and adolescent mental health service-
delivery;
``(2) identifying and evaluating existing evidence-based or
promising best practices with respect to child and adolescent
mental health services and supports;
``(3) improving the child and adolescent mental health
service-delivery system by implementing evidence-based or
promising best practices;
``(4) training primary care professionals, mental health
professionals, and child care professionals on evidence-based
or promising best practices;
``(5) informing children and adolescents, parents, legal
guardians, families, advocacy organizations, and other
interested consumer organizations on such evidence-based or
promising best practices; and
``(6) identifying financing structures to support the
implementation of evidence-based or promising best practices
and providing assistance on how to build appropriate
financing structures to support those services.
``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $12,500,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
SEC. 302. FEDERAL RESEARCH CONCERNING ADOLESCENT MENTAL
HEALTH.
Part K of title V of the Public Health Service Act, as
added by section 201 and amended by section 301, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 597K. FEDERAL RESEARCH CONCERNING ADOLESCENT MENTAL
HEALTH.
``(a) Best Practices.--The Secretary shall provide for the
conduct of research leading to the identification and
evaluation of evidence-based or promising best practices,
including--
``(1) early intervention and prevention mental health
services and systems, particularly for children and
adolescents with co-occurring mental health and substance
abuse disorders;
``(2) mental health referral services;
``(3) integrated mental health treatment services,
particularly for children and adolescents with co-occurring
mental health and substance abuse disorders;
``(4) mentoring and other support services;
``(5) transition services; and
``(6) respite care for parents, legal guardians, and
families of children and adolescents.
``(b) Identification of Existing Disparities.--The
Secretary shall provide for the conduct of research leading
to the identification of factors contributing to the existing
disparities in children and adolescents mental health care in
areas including--
``(1) evidence-based early intervention and prevention,
diagnosis, referral, treatment, and monitoring services;
``(2) psychiatric and psychological epidemiology in racial
and ethnic minority populations;
``(3) therapeutic interventions in racial and ethnic
minority populations;
``(4) psychopharmacology;
``(5) mental health promotion and child and adolescent
emotional well-being and resiliency;
``(6) lack of adequate service delivery systems in urban
and rural regions; and
``(7) lack of adequate reimbursement rates for evidence-
based early intervention and prevention, diagnosis, referral,
treatment, and monitoring services.
``(c) Psychotropic Medications.--The Secretary shall
provide for the conduct of research leading to the
identification of the long-term effects of psychotropic
medications and SSRIs and other pyschotropic medications for
children and adolescents.
``(d) Trauma.--The Secretary shall provide for the conduct
of research leading to the identification of the long-term
effects of trauma on the mental health of children and
adolescents, including the effects of--
``(1) violent crime, particularly sexual abuse;
``(2) physical or medical trauma;
``(3) post-traumatic stress disorders; and
``(4) terrorism and natural disasters.
``(e) Acute Care.--The Secretary shall provide for the
conduct of research leading to the identification of factors
contributing to problems in acute care. Such research shall
address--
``(1) synthesizing the acute care knowledge data base;
``(2) assessing existing capacities and shortages in acute
care;
``(3) reviewing existing model programs that exist to
ensure appropriate and effective acute care;
``(4) developing new models when appropriate; and
``(5) proposing workable solutions to enhance the delivery
of acute care and crisis intervention services.
``(f) Recovery and Rehabilitation.--The Secretary shall
provide for the conduct of research leading to the
identification of methods and models to enhance the recovery
and rehabilitation of children and adolescents with mental
health disorders.
``(g) Co-Occurring Disorders.--The Secretary shall provide
for the conduct of research leading to the identification of
methods and models to enhance services and supports for
children and adolescents with co-occurring mental health and
substance abuse and disorders.
``(h) Cost of Untreated Mental Health Disorders.--The
Secretary shall provide for the conduct of research assessing
long-term financial costs of mental health disorders left
untreated in children and adolescents.
``(i) Research Collaboration.--The Secretary shall provide
for the conduct of research that reviews existing scientific
literature on the relationship between mental and physical
health, particularly identifying new methods and models to
enhance the balance between mental and physical health in
children and adolescents.
``(j) Collaboration.--In carrying out the activities under
this section, the Secretary shall collaborate with the
Federal interagency coordinating committee established under
section 201 of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health
Resiliency Act of 2007, and relevant Federal agencies and
mental health working groups responsible for child and
adolescent mental health.
``(k) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section, $12,500,000 for
fiscal year 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for each
of fiscal years 2009 through 2012.''.
____________________
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
______
SENATE RESOLUTION 221--SUPPORTING NATIONAL PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL DISEASE
AWARENESS MONTH AND EFFORTS TO EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT PERIPHERAL ARTERIAL
DISEASE
Mr. CRAPO (for himself and Mr. Dorgan) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions:
S. Res. 221
Whereas peripheral arterial disease is a vascular disease
that occurs when narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the
limbs;
Whereas peripheral arterial disease is a significant
vascular disease that can be as serious as a heart attack or
stroke;
Whereas peripheral arterial disease affects approximately
8,000,000 to 12,000,000 Americans;
Whereas 1 in 5 patients with peripheral arterial disease
will experience cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke,
or hospitalization within 1 year;
Whereas the survival rate for individuals with peripheral
arterial disease is worse than the outcome for many common
cancers;
Whereas peripheral arterial disease is a leading cause of
lower limb amputation in the United States;
Whereas many patients with peripheral arterial disease have
walking impairment that leads to a diminished quality of life
and functional capacity;
Whereas a majority of patients with peripheral arterial
disease are asymptomatic and less than half of individuals
with peripheral arterial disease are aware of their
diagnoses;
Whereas African-American ethnicity is a strong and
independent risk factor for peripheral arterial disease, and
yet this fact is not well known to those at risk;
Whereas effective treatments are available for people with
peripheral arterial disease to reduce heart attacks, strokes,
and amputations and to improve quality of life;
Whereas many patients with peripheral arterial disease are
still untreated with proven therapies;
[[Page 14865]]
Whereas there is a need for comprehensive educational
efforts designed to increase awareness of peripheral arterial
disease among medical professionals and the greater public in
order to promote early detection and proper treatment of this
disease to improve quality of life, prevent heart attacks and
strokes, and save lives and limbs; and
Whereas September 2007 is an appropriate month to observe
National Peripheral Arterial Disease Awareness Month: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) supports National Peripheral Arterial Disease Awareness
Month and efforts to educate people about peripheral arterial
disease;
(2) acknowledges the critical importance of peripheral
arterial disease awareness to improve national cardiovascular
health;
(3) supports raising awareness of the consequences of
undiagnosed and untreated peripheral arterial disease and the
need to seek appropriate care as a serious public health
issue; and
(4) calls upon the people of the United States to observe
the month with appropriate programs and activities.
____________________
SENATE RESOLUTION 222--SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF PANCREATIC
CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
Mrs. CLINTON (for herself and Mr. Smith) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions:
S. Res. 222
Whereas over 37,170 people will be diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer this year in the United States;
Whereas pancreatic cancer is the 4th most common cause of
cancer death in the United States;
Whereas 75 percent of pancreatic cancer patients die within
the first year of their diagnosis and only 5 percent survive
more than 5 years, making pancreatic cancer the deadliest of
any cancer;
Whereas there has been no significant improvement in
survival rates in the last 25 years and pancreatic cancer
research is still in the earliest scientific stages;
Whereas there are no early detection methods and minimal
treatment options for pancreatic cancer;
Whereas when symptoms of pancreatic cancer generally
present themselves, it is too late for an optimistic
prognosis, and the average survival rate of those diagnosed
with metastasis of the disease is only 3 to 6 months;
Whereas the incidence rate of pancreatic cancer is 40 to 50
percent higher in African Americans than in other ethnic
groups; and
Whereas it would be appropriate to observe November as
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month to educate communities
across the Nation about pancreatic cancer and the need for
research funding, early detection methods, effective
treatments, and treatment programs: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate supports the goals and ideals of
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a resolution
which supports the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness
Month. This resolution is an important step toward bringing the public
awareness, funding for research, and congressional attention that is
essential for addressing one of the most lethal cancers we face as a
Nation.
I doubt that there is one person who hasn't lost a friend or family
member to cancer, or knows someone who has. The American Cancer Society
tells us that pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer
death in the United States. The reality is that pancreatic cancer will
take over 33,000 American lives this year, more than 2,330 in New York.
And yet, there are no early detection methods and our best treatment is
a surgical procedure that is more than 70 years old.
I believe that we can do better. This resolution encourages
communities across the country to use the month of November to bring
attention to what we have left to tackle. We need research dollars to
create early detection methods, to find effective treatments, and to
raise awareness about this deadly disease.
I am proud to introduce the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
resolution today, and I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting
this critical health issue.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today in support of a resolution
that recognizes November as National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
I am pleased to be joining my colleague, Senator Clinton, in
introducing this resolution, which represents a way to educate
communities across the Nation about pancreatic cancer and the need for
increased research funding, early detection methods, and effective
treatments and programs.
Like many Americans, I have seen the ramifications of cancer first
hand. I support this resolution in honor and loving memory of the
millions of Americans who have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
and their families, and for my mother, Jessica Udall Smith, whom I lost
to pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is hard to detect in its early stages as it doesn't
cause symptoms right away. Also, because the pancreas is hidden behind
other organs, health care providers cannot see or feel the tumors
during routine exams. Because there are no early detection methods,
pancreatic cancer often is found late and spreads quickly.
This year, more than 37,000 Americans will receive a diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer and for over 33,000 of them, it will be their killer.
While overall cancer death rates have declined, the number of people
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is actually increasing. It is
projected that this year, 440 Oregonians will die from pancreatic
cancer. That represents a 17-percent increase in pancreatic cancer
deaths in Oregon over the last 3 to 4 years.
Individuals fighting pancreatic cancer continue to face
discouragingly low odds of survival. In 1975, the 5 year survival rate
for pancreatic cancer was 2 percent. Twenty-five years later, the
survival rate remain at an unacceptably low level of 5 percent, making
this cancer the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death. Indeed,
pancreatic cancer is considered the deadliest cancer, of which 75
percent of patients diagnosed with this disease die within the first
year and most within the first 3 to 6 months. Early detection tools,
such as those that currently are available for ovarian, colon, breast
and prostate cancer, would make a significant impact on pancreatic
cancer, but those tools require a new investment in basic scientific
research at the National Cancer Institute, NCI.
In recent years, funding for cancer research has fallen behind the
promise made during the doubling of the budget for the National
Institutes for Health, NIH. When NIH funding was first doubled, success
rates for first submissions of grant requests to the NCI were 30
percent overall and 15 percent for new investigators. Those rates now
have dropped to an average of 10 percent across the board.
Unfortunately, we are anticipating cuts to other NCI programs that
advance research, such as the Specialized Programs of Research
Excellence program, which provides vital opportunities to explore new
areas of research.
I support biomedical research and the great promise it holds in the
development of new treatments and possible cures for the many types of
cancer, including pancreatic cancer. Past investments at the NCI have
helped drive new discoveries that led to the decline in overall cancer
deaths in the U.S. for the second consecutive year. Now is the time to
expand our efforts in the fight against pancreatic cancer.
I ask that my colleagues support this resolution, which will help
increase research, education and awareness for pancreatic cancer.
____________________
SENATE RESOLUTION 223--RECOGNIZING THE EFFORTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE
MEMBERS OF THE MONUMENTS, FINE ARTS, AND ARCHIVES PROGRAM UNDER THE
CIVIL AFFAIRS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENT SECTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
ARMED FORCES DURING AND FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II WHO WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE PRESERVATION, PROTECTION, AND RESTITUTION OF ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL
TREASURES IN COUNTRIES OCCUPIED BY THE ALLIED ARMIES
Mr. INHOFE (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Hutchison, Mrs. Boxer, Ms.
Snowe, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Stevens, Mr.
Lieberman, and Mr. Wyden) submitted the following resolution; which
was:
[[Page 14866]]
S. Res. 223
Whereas the United States Government established the
American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of
Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas in 1943 to
promote and coordinate the protection and salvage of works of
art and cultural and historical monuments and records in
countries occupied by Allied armies during World War II;
Whereas the American Commission for the Protection and
Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas is
also known as the Roberts Commission, in honor of its
chairman, Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts;
Whereas, in connection with the establishment of the
Roberts Commission, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives
program (MFAA) was established under the Civil Affairs and
Military Government Sections of the United States Armed
Forces;
Whereas the establishment of the Roberts Commission and the
MFAA provided an example for other countries, working in
conjunction with the United States, to develop similar
programs, and more than 100 foreign MFAA personnel,
representing at least seventeen countries, contributed to
this international effort;
Whereas the MFAA was comprised of both men and women,
commissioned officers and civilians, who were appointed or
volunteered to serve as representatives of the Roberts
Commission and as the official guardians of some of the
world's greatest artistic and cultural treasures;
Whereas members of the MFAA, called the ``Monuments Men'',
often joined frontline military forces and some even lost
their lives in combat during World War II;
Whereas, during World War II and for years following the
Allied victory, members of the MFAA worked tirelessly to
locate, identify, catalogue, restore, and repatriate
priceless works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts,
including masterpieces by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt,
and Vermeer, that had been stolen or sequestered by the Axis
powers;
Whereas the heroic actions of the MFAA in saving priceless
works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts for future
generations cannot be overstated, and set a moral precedent
and established standards, practices, and procedures for the
preservation, protection, and restitution of artistic and
cultural treasures in future armed conflicts;
Whereas members of the MFAA went on to become renowned
directors and curators of preeminent international cultural
institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the
Toledo Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, as
well as professors at institutions of higher education,
including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton
University, New York University, Williams College, and
Columbia University;
Whereas other members of the MFAA were founders,
presidents, and members of associations such as the New York
City Ballet, the American Association of Museums, the
American Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological
Institute of America, the Society of Architectural
Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the
National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National
Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected artists,
architects, musicians, and archivists; and
Whereas members of the MFAA have never been collectively
honored for their service and contributions to humanity, and
they are deserving of the utmost acknowledgment, gratitude,
and recognition, in particular the 12 known Monuments Men who
are still alive: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) recognizes the men and women who served in the
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) under the
Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the United
States Armed Forces for their heroic role in the
preservation, protection, and restitution of monuments, works
of art, and other artifacts of inestimable cultural
importance in Europe and Asia during and following World War
II;
(2) recognizes that without their dedication and service,
many more of the world's artistic and historic treasures
would have been destroyed or lost forever amidst the chaos
and destruction of World War II;
(3) acknowledges that the detailed catalogues,
documentation, inventories, and photographs developed and
compiled by MFAA personnel during and following World War II
have made and continue to make possible the restitution of
stolen works of art to their rightful owners; and
(4) commends and extols the members of the MFAA for
establishing a precedent for action to protect cultural
property in the event of armed conflict, and by their action
setting a standard not just for one country, but for people
of all nations to acknowledge and uphold.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a resolution
honoring the efforts and contributions of the members of the Monuments,
Fine Arts, and Archives Program under the Civil Affairs and Military
Government Sections of the U.S. Armed Forces during and following World
War II. This group, known as the ``Monuments Men,'' was responsible for
the preservation, protection, and restitution of priceless artistic,
and cultural treasures in countries occupied by the Allied armies.
In 1938, the Nazi party in Germany began a wide-scale confiscation of
millions of pieces of artwork and other cultural artifacts throughout
continental Europe, including masterpieces by Leonardo Da Vinci,
Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. Much of the art was confiscated from Nazi-
conquered Europe, as well as from Jewish private collectors who were
forced to relinquish their property rights.
In 1944, with the Allied armies rolling across Europe, the Monuments
Men began their work. They were given the charge of protecting the
cultural treasures of Europe, which proved to be a daunting task, given
that they, at times, had to protect these treasures from friend as well
as foe. Their first task was to prevent Allied forces in the field from
damaging national monuments and from damaging or looting public or
private collections. In the spring of 1945, the Monuments Men began
discovering large caches of Nazi-confiscated artwork and artifacts.
They began the arduous process of cataloging and repatriating the
artwork and artifacts to their rightful owners.
I would like to take this moment to recognize the efforts of a couple
of my fellow Oklahomans who served as Monuments Men. CPT Walter Johan
Huchthausen served as a Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officer with
the U.S. 9th Army in Europe. Captain Huchthausen was born in Perry, OK
on December 19, 1904. He earned a master of architecture degree from
Harvard University in 1930 and went on to become the director of the
Department of Design at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts before
joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota. Captain Huchthausen
enlisted in 1942. He served as a Monuments Man in France and Germany
before he was tragically killed by gunfire in April of 1945 while
working to salvage an altarpiece in a German town.
Technical SGT Horace V. Apgar of Oklahoma City was transferred to the
Monuments Men in Frankfurt in 1945, where he was involved in the
retrieval and restitution of Jewish property. He was then assigned to
the Rothschild home in Paris, which was being used as a depository for
recovered Jewish artifacts stolen from synagogues and temples. Mr.
Apgar returned home after the war and sought a career in music. He
graduated from the Eastman School of Music at the University of
Rochester in 1949 served as a bass teacher at the University of
Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955. He went on to a 56-year career with the
Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra.
It is in large part due to the tireless efforts of Captain
Huchthausen, Sergeant Apgar, and the many brave American men and women
who served as Monuments Men that over 5 million works of art and other
cultural treasures were protected and preserved following the collapse
of the Nazi regime.
____________________
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 35--DECLARING JUNE 6 A NATIONAL DAY OF
PRAYER AND REDEDICATION FOR THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES
ARMED FORCES AND THEIR MISSION
Mr. DeMINT submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration:
S. Con. Res. 35
Whereas public prayer and national days of prayer are a
long-standing American tradition to bolster national resolve
and summon the national will for victory;
Whereas the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray
for wisdom in forming a nation in 1775;
Whereas Benjamin Franklin proposed that the Constitutional
Convention begin each day with a prayer;
Whereas General George Washington, as he prepared his
troops for battle with the British in May 1776, ordered them
to pray for the campaign ahead, that it would please the
Almighty to ``prosper the arms of the united colonies'' and
``establish the peace and freedom of America upon a solid and
lasting foundation'';
[[Page 14867]]
Whereas President Abraham Lincoln, in declaring in the
Gettysburg Address that ``this nation, under God, shall have
a new birth of freedom'', rededicated the Nation to ensuring
that ``government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth'';
Whereas, as 73,000 Americans stormed the beaches at
Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt went on the national radio to lead the
Nation in prayer for their success;
Whereas, in his D-Day radio prayer, President Roosevelt did
not declare a single day of special prayer, but instead
compelled all Americans to ``devote themselves in a
continuance of prayer'';
Whereas the words of President Roosevelt calling on all
Americans to ``devote themselves in a continuance of prayer''
for American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines in harm's
way are just as appropriate today as they were in June 1944;
Whereas, with our troops once again facing danger abroad
and the Nation looking for support here at home, the time is
ripe to once again heed the words and prayerful wisdom
contained in the D-Day radio address of the 20th century's
greatest Democrat president as he implored the Nation: ``as
we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent,
let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our
efforts'';
Whereas more than 350,000 men and women of the United
States Armed Forces are deployed worldwide today;
Whereas more than 200,000 of these troops are engaged in
armed combat in Iraq and Afghanistan against determined and
ruthless enemies;
Whereas more than 3,800 brave Americans have been killed,
and over 26,000 have been wounded, while fighting the War on
Terror;
Whereas, because the War on Terror will be long and hard,
because success is not likely to come with rushing speed, and
because the sacrifice will continue to be immeasurable in
human terms, it is appropriate to make every anniversary of
D-Day, June 6th, a national day of prayer and rededication
for the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and
their mission; and
Whereas the D-Day radio address of President Roosevelt is
the inspiration and model for this annual national day of
prayer and rededication: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That--
(1) every June 6 will hereafter be a national day of prayer
and rededication for the men and women of the United States
Armed Forces and their mission; and
(2) in encouraging our fellow Americans to join us in this
national day of prayer and rededication for our troops and
their mission, that the Senate and the House of
Representatives will each designate one member to read aloud
in the Senate and House chambers each June 6th, in its
entirety, President Roosevelt's D-Day radio prayer, as
follows:
``My Fellow Americans:
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I
knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our
Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater
operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in
prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have
set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our
Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free
a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms,
stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and
hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces.
Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return
again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the
righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--
until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise
and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of
war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They
fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end
conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice
arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They
yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the
haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive
them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives,
sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts
and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to
rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of
great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single
day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the
desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a
continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again
when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips,
invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to
redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the
material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to
bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our
sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in
our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade.
Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not
the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but
fleeting moment--let not these deter us in our unconquerable
purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of
our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and
racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and
with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a
sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy
men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom,
reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.''.
Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I rise to speak on a resolution I have
submitted today that declares June 6 a national day of prayer and
rededication for the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces and their
mission.
As my colleagues know, when 73,000 Americans stormed the beaches at
Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt went on
national radio to lead the Nation in prayer for their success.
With more than 350,000 men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces
deployed worldwide today, and many of these troops directly engaged in
armed combat in Iraq and Afghanistan against determined and ruthless
enemies, President Roosevelt's words calling on all Americans to
``devote themselves to a continuance of prayer'' for American soldiers,
sailors, airmen, and marines in harm's way are as appropriate today as
they were in June of 1944.
As we have witnessed, the war on terror will be long and hard.
Unfortunately, the sacrifice will continue to be immeasurable in human
terms. It is appropriate to make every anniversary of D-day, June 6, a
national day of prayer for the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Now I wish to read President Roosevelt's D-day radio prayer:
My Fellow Americans
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I
knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our
Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater
operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in
prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have
set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our
Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free
a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms,
stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and
hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces.
Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return
again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the
righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without
rest--until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by
noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the
violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They
fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end
conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice
arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They
yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the
haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive
them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives,
sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts
and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to
rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of
great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single
day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the
desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a
continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again
when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips,
invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to
redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the
material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail,
to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our
sons wheresoever they may be.
[[Page 14868]]
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in
our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade.
Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not
the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but
fleeting moment--let not these deter us in our unconquerable
purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces
of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and
racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and
with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a
sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy
men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom,
reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.
This same prayer will be read in the Chamber of the House of
Representatives today, and I hope this Chamber will take up this
resolution at some point and make June 6 a day of prayer for our
Nation.
____________________
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 36--SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF
NATIONAL TEEN DRIVER SAFETY WEEK
Mr. CASEY (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Obama)
submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation:
S. Con Res. 36
Whereas motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of
death for adolescents and young adults in the United States,
and many of these deaths are preventable;
Whereas almost 7,500 drivers between the ages of 15 and 20
years were involved in fatal crashes in 2005 throughout the
United States;
Whereas the fatality rate in the United States for drivers
between the ages of 16 and 19 years, based on miles driven,
is 4 times the fatality rate for drivers between the ages of
25 and 69 years;
Whereas the majority of teen driver crashes in the United
States are due to driver error and speeding, and 15 percent
of the crashes are due to drunk driving;
Whereas roughly two-thirds of the teenagers killed in motor
vehicle accidents in the United States each year do not use
seatbelts;
Whereas approximately 63 percent of teen passenger deaths
in the United States occur while other teenagers are driving;
Whereas it is necessary to explore effective ways to reduce
the crash risk for young drivers by focusing research and
outreach efforts on areas of teen driving that show the most
promise for improving safety;
Whereas the National Teen Driver Survey, developed with
input from teenagers and administered by The Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia, demonstrates a national need to
increase overall awareness about the safe use of electronic
handheld devices, the risk of nighttime and fatigued driving,
the importance of consistent seatbelt use, and the practice
of gradually increasing driver privileges over time as a
young driver gains more experience under supervised
conditions;
Whereas in 2005, 1,553 crash fatalities involving a teen
driver occurred in the fall, when teenagers are in the first
months of the school year and faced with many decisions
involving driving, including whether to drive with peer
passengers and other distractions; and
Whereas designating the third week of October as National
Teen Driver Safety Week is expected to increase awareness of
these important issues among teenagers and adults in
communities throughout the United States, as additional
research is conducted to develop and test effective
interventions that will help teenagers become safe drivers:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That Congress--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of National Teen Driver
Safety Week; and
(2) encourages the people of the United States to observe
the week with appropriate activities that promote the
practice of safe driving among the Nation's licensed teenage
drivers.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, along with my
colleagues, Senators Specter, Durbin and Obama, a Senate concurrent
resolution that will recognize a National Teen Driver Safety Week
during the third week of October. This resolution will focus increased
public attention and positive action upon the No. 1 cause of death of
adolescents in our country--motor vehicle crashes. The fatality rate
for drivers ages 16 to 19 is approximately four times that of drivers
ages 25 to 69. In 2005, approximately 7,500 of our Nation's teenagers
were involved as drivers in fatal car crashes.
According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, 13 of 67 counties in Pennsylvania had six deaths or
more in 2005 as a result of traffic accidents involving teens. In
Lackawanna County alone, where I reside, there were 13 accidents among
drivers ages 19 and under that resulted in death or an incapacitating
injury.
It is essential that we focus a heightened degree of public attention
and awareness upon this tragic--and preventable--crisis. A majority of
teen driver crashes are due to driver error and speeding. We must
provide more numerous and effective interventions that will help reduce
accidents involving teen drivers.
We all know that learning to drive is an important rite of social
passage and independence for teenagers. The Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia, in partnership with the State Farm Insurance Companies,
is conducting ongoing research on teen drivers and recently completed
the National Young Driver Survey, questioning thousands of students
across the country. The survey was designed to be representative of the
10.6 million public high school students in the United States. Thanks
to this new data, we know more about what teens themselves think about
driving and how we can more effectively instill safe driving habits.
I would like to mention three key findings from this survey:
1. The critical role of parents. As parents, we are often our
children's first driving teachers. But our role does not end when our
children get their licenses. Parents play a major role in setting and
enforcing safe driving behavior, supervising their teen drivers, and
ensuring that teens assume responsibility for driving, including
financial responsibility.
2. The prevalence of risky distractions. With 80 percent of teen
drivers reporting that they own cell phones, these technological
advances pose a serious threat to our children's safety while driving.
Nearly all--93 percent of--teens in the survey report that they witness
distractions such as cell phone calls, loud music, other teens in the
car, and their own emotions. Nearly half of all teens say they have
witnessed road rage in fellow teen drivers.
3. The prevalence of risky driving behaviors. While 50 percent of
teens report seeing other teens drive drunk, nearly three fourths of
teens report seeing their peers drive while fatigued. Half of teens
report driving 10 miles over the speed limit at least some of the time.
Only 65 percent of teens say they consistently use seat belts.
This superb research from Children's Hospital will continue to
provide us greater insight and strategies for reaching our young
people.
Our resolution will designate the third week in October, when schools
are back in session, as a time for intensive outreach and programming
to encourage teens to drive more safely--to minimize risky driving
conditions, to manage peer-to-peer interactions around driving, and to
learn the skills they need to detect and react to hazards more
appropriately.
As a member of the Senate, and as a father, I want to do everything
in my power to ensure our children are safe on the road. Losing even
one child to a preventable death is a tragedy beyond words. I urge my
colleagues to support this resolution recognizing a National Teen
Driver Safety Week.
____________________
AMENDMENTS SUBMITTED AND PROPOSED
SA 1334. Mr. DOMENICI submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for
comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1335. Mr. DOMENICI (for himself and Mr. Bingaman)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1336. Ms. COLLINS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1337. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1338. Mr. VITTER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the
[[Page 14869]]
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1339. Mr. VITTER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr.
Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348,
supra.
SA 1340. Mr. BROWN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1341. Mr. LEVIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1342. Mr. LEVIN (for himself and Ms. Mikulski) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S.
1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1343. Mr. LEVIN (for himself, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Tester,
and Mr. Schumer) submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1344. Mr. BYRD (for himself, Mr. Gregg, and Mr. Cochran)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1345. Mrs. DOLE (for herself, Mr. Burr, and Mr.
Grassley) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on
the table.
SA 1346. Mr. MARTINEZ submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1347. Mr. HATCH submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1348. Mr. VOINOVICH submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1349. Mr. VOINOVICH submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1350. Mr. SPECTER (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1351. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1352. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1353. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1354. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1355. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1356. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1357. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1358. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1359. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1360. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1361. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1362. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1363. Mr. STEVENS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1364. Mr. STEVENS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1365. Mr. ALEXANDER submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1366. Mr. ALEXANDER submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1367. Mrs. BOXER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1368. Mrs. BOXER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1369. Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Cornyn)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1370. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1371. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1372. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1373. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1374. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr.
Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348,
supra.
SA 1375. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1376. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1377. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1378. Mr. ENSIGN (for himself and Mr. Martinez)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1379. Mr. CRAIG submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1380. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1381. Mr. NELSON of Florida submitted an amendment
intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra;
which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1382. Mr. SANDERS (for himself and Mr. Grassley)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1383. Mr. SANDERS (for himself and Mr. Grassley)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1384. Mr. SALAZAR (for himself and Mr. Domenici)
proposed an amendment to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr.
Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to the
bill S. 1348, supra.
SA 1385. Mr. REED submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1386. Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Cardin,
and Mr. Hagel) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie
on the table.
SA 1387. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1388. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1389. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1390. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1391. Mrs. FEINSTEIN submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1392. Mr. MENENDEZ submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1393. Mr. CONRAD submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1394. Mr. CONRAD (for himself and Mr. Brownback)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1395. Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Durbin)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1396. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1397. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
[[Page 14870]]
SA 1398. Mr. VITTER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1399. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1400. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1401. Mr. COLEMAN (for himself and Mr. Domenici)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1402. Mr. COLEMAN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1403. Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Leahy,
Mr. Hatch, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Sununu,
Mr. Ensign, and Mr. Gregg) submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1404. Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Leahy,
Mr. Hatch, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Sununu,
Mr. Ensign, and Mr. Gregg) submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1405. Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Leahy,
Mr. Hatch, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Sununu,
Mr. Ensign, and Mr. Gregg) submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1406. Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Grassley)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1407. Mr. DURBIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1408. Mr. BAYH submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1409. Mr. SCHUMER (for himself and Mrs. Hutchison)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1410. Mr. FEINGOLD submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1411. Mr. FEINGOLD submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1412. Mr. FEINGOLD submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1413. Mr. KENNEDY submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1414. Mrs. LINCOLN (for herself and Mr. Coleman)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1415. Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr.
Ensign, Mr. Allard, and Ms. Landrieu) submitted an amendment
intended to be proposed to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr.
Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to the
bill S. 1348, supra.
SA 1416. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1417. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1418. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1419. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1420. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1421. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1422. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1423. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1424. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1425. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1426. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1427. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1428. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1429. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1430. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1431. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1432. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1433. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1434. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1435. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1436. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1437. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1438. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1439. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1440. Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Corker, and Mr.
Alexander) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on
the table.
SA 1441. Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mr. Baucus, and Mr.
Obama) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the
table.
SA 1442. Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Durbin, and Mrs.
Boxer) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the
table.
SA 1443. Mr. LEVIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1444. Mr. OBAMA (for himself and Mr. Menendez) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S.
1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1445. Mr. BINGAMAN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1446. Mrs. BOXER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1447. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1448. Mr. COLEMAN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1449. Mr. BROWNBACK submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1450. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1451. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1452. Mr. LIEBERMAN submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1453. Mr. LIEBERMAN submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1454. Mr. LIEBERMAN submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1455. Mr. LAUTENBERG (for himself, Mr. Brownback, Mr.
Menendez, and Mrs. Clinton) submitted an amendment intended
to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1456. Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself and Mr. Cornyn)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the
bill S.
[[Page 14871]]
1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1457. Mrs. FEINSTEIN submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1458. Mr. WEBB submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1459. Mr. WEBB submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1460. Mr. KYL (for himself, Mr. Specter, and Mr.
Martinez) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for
himself and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348, supra.
SA 1461. Mr. KYL (for himself, Mr. Specter, and Mr.
Martinez) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on
the table.
SA 1462. Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Kyl,
Mr. McCain, and Mr. Graham) submitted an amendment intended
to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1463. Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Kyl,
Mr. McCain, and Mr. Graham) submitted an amendment intended
to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1464. Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Kyl,
Mr. McCain, and Mr. Graham) submitted an amendment intended
to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1465. Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. Kyl, Mr. McCain, and
Mr. Martinez) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie
on the table.
SA 1466. Mr. BIDEN (for himself and Mrs. Clinton) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S.
1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1467. Mr. SCHMUER submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1468. Mrs. McCASKILL submitted an amendment intended to
be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was
ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1469. Mrs. CLINTON submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr.
Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348,
supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1470. Mr. LEVIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1471. Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Grassley)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1472. Ms. CANTWELL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1473. Mr. COLEMAN (for himself and Mr. Domenici)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the table.
SA 1474. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered
to lie on the table.
SA 1475. Mr. DURBIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 1409 submitted by Mr. Schumer (for
himself and Mrs. Hutchison) and intended to be proposed to
the bill S. 1348, supra; which was ordered to lie on the
table.
____________________
TEXT OF AMENDMENTS
SA 1334. Mr. DOMENICI submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of subsection (a) of section 218A of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (as added by section 402(a)),
add the following:
``(5) Requirement.--
``(A) In general.--For each calendar year in which Y
nonimmigrant visas are made available under this Act, the
Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the
Secretary of Labor, shall reserve not less than 25 percent of
the quantity of Y nonimmigrant visas available for the
calendar year for use by business concerns, in accordance
with this paragraph.
``(B) Timeline.--Of the Y nonimmigrant visas reserved under
subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall ensure that--
``(i) for the period beginning on January 1 of the
applicable calendar year and ending on June 30 of that
calendar year, the visas are provided only to entities that
qualify as small businesses under the Small Business Act (15
U.S.C. 631 et seq.) (including regulations promulgated
pursuant to that Act); and
``(ii) for the period beginning on July 1 of the applicable
calendar year and ending on December 31 of that calendar
year, any remaining visas are provided to business concerns,
regardless of whether the business concerns qualify as small
businesses.''.
______
SA 1335. Mr. DOMENICI (for himself and Mr. Bingaman) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. INCREASE IN FEDERAL JUDGESHIPS IN DISTRICTS WITH
LARGE NUMBERS OF CRIMINAL IMMIGRATION CASES.
(a) Findings.--Based on the recommendations made by the
2007 Judicial Conference and the statistical data provided by
the 2006 Federal Court Management Statistics (issued by the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts), the
Congress finds the following:
(1) Federal courts along the southwest border of the United
States have a greater percentage of their criminal caseload
affected by immigration cases than other Federal courts.
(2) The percentage of criminal immigration cases in most
southwest border district courts totals more than 49 percent
of the total criminal caseloads of those districts.
(3) The current number of judges authorized for those
courts is inadequate to handle the current caseload.
(4) Such an increase in the caseload of criminal
immigration filings requires a corresponding increase in the
number of Federal judgeships.
(5) The 2007 Judicial Conference recommended the addition
of judgeships to meet this growing burden.
(6) The Congress should authorize the additional district
court judges necessary to carry out the 2007 recommendations
of the Judicial Conference for district courts in which the
criminal immigration filings represented more than 49 percent
of all criminal filings for the 12-month period ending
September 30, 2006.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to increase
the number of Federal judgeships, in accordance with the
recommendations of the 2007 Judicial Conference, in district
courts that have an extraordinarily high criminal immigration
caseload.
(c) Additional District Court Judgeships.--
(1) Permanent judgeships.--
(A) In general.--The President shall appoint, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate--
(i) 4 additional district judges for the district of
Arizona;
(ii) 1 additional district judge for the district of New
Mexico;
(iii) 2 additional district judges for the southern
district of Texas; and
(iv) 1 additional district judge for the western district
of Texas.
(B) Conforming amendments.--In order that the table
contained in section 133(a) of title 28, United States Code,
reflect the number of additional judges authorized under
paragraph (1), such table is amended--
(i) by striking the item relating to Arizona and inserting
the following:
``Arizona.........................................................16'';
(ii) by striking the item relating New Mexico and inserting
the following:
``New Mexico...................................................7''; and
(iii) by striking the item relating to Texas and inserting
the following:
``Texas:
Northern........................................................ 12
Southern........................................................ 21
Eastern......................................................... 7
Western.......................................................14''.
(2) Temporary judgeships.--
(A) In general.--The President shall appoint, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate--
(i) 1 additional district judge for the district of
Arizona; and
(ii) 1 additional district judge for the district of New
Mexico.
(B) Vacancy.--For each of the judicial districts named in
this paragraph, the first vacancy arising on the district
court 10 years or more after a judge is first confirmed to
fill the temporary district judgeship created in that
district by this paragraph shall not be filled.
(d) Funding.--To carry out this section, the Director of
the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall,
for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012, allocate
$2,000,000 from the Administrative Office of the United
States Courts Salary & Expenses (Administrative Expenses)
account.
______
SA 1336. Ms. COLLINS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 242, between lines 39 and 40, insert the following:
(e) Documentation Requirement; Prohibition of
Outplacement.--Section 212(n)(1) (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)), as
amended by this section, is further amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by adding at the end the
following:
[[Page 14872]]
``(iii) will provide to the H-1B nonimmigrant--
``(I) a copy of each application filed on behalf of the
nonimmigrant under this section; and
``(II) documentation supporting each attestation, in
accordance with regulations promulgated by the Secretary of
Labor.''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(L) An H-1B nonimmigrant may not be stationed at the
worksite of an employer other than the petitioning employer
or its affiliate, subsidiary, or parent if the alien will be
controlled and supervised principally by such unaffiliated
employer or if the placement of the alien at the worksite of
the affiliated employer is essentially an arrangement to
provide labor for hire for the unaffiliated employer, rather
than a placement in connection with the provision of a
product or service for which specialized knowledge specific
to the petitioning employer is necessary.''.
(f) Fraud Assessment.--Not later than 30 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services shall submit to
Congress a fraud risk assessment of the H-1B visa program.
______
SA 1337. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of title VII, insert the following:
SEC. 711. USE OF PRIVATE LAND BY BORDER PATROL.
(a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to encourage
land owners to make land and water areas on their property
available to agents of the Federal Government to enforce the
immigration laws of the United States by limiting the
liability of land owners toward persons entering their
property for such purposes.
(b) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Land.--The term ``land'' includes roads, water,
watercourses, and private ways, and buildings, structures,
machinery and equipment that is attached to real property.
(2) Owner.--The term ``owner'' includes the possessor of a
fee interest, a tenant, lessee, occupant, the possessor of
any other interest in land, or any person having a right to
grant permission to use the land.
(c) Powers of Immigration Officers and Employees.--Section
287(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1357(a)(3)) is amended by striking ``twenty-five miles'' and
inserting ``100 miles''.
(d) Liability Limited for Actions of Law Enforcement
Officers.--
(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), an
owner of land shall not liable for damages arising from an
act or omission of an officer of the Federal Government, or
any State or Federal law enforcement officer, who enters the
owner's property with or without the permission of the owner.
(2) Exception.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply to any act or
omission of the owner of land that results in damages if the
act or omission is not attributable to a law enforcement
officer.
______
SA 1338. Mr. VITTER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provider for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike page 10, line 32 through page 11, line 11 and insert
the following:
``Section 236(a)(2) (8 USC 1226(a)(2)) is amended--
(1) by adding ``, and'' at the end of subsection (a)(3),
and
(2) by adding a new subsection (a)(4) that reads ``may not
provide the alien with release on bond or with conditional
parole if the alien is a national of a noncontiguous country,
has not been admitted or paroled into the United States, and
was apprehended within 100 miles of the international border
of the United States or presents a flight risk, as determined
by the secretary of Homeland Security.''
______
SA 1339. Mr. VITTER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself
and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; as follows:
On page 3, line 25 insert the following new subsection:
(6) The U.S. Visit System: The integrated entry and exit
data system required by 8 U.S.C. 1365a (Section 110 of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
of 1996), which is already 17 months past its required
implementation date of December 21, 2005, has been fully
implemented and is functioning at every land, sea, and air
port of entry.
______
SA 1340. Mr. BROWN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 167, after line 2, insert the following:
``(E) documenting that for a period of not less than 90
days before the date an application is filed under subsection
(a)(1), and for a period of 1 year after the date that such
application is filed, every comparable job opportunity
(including those in the same occupation for which an
application for a Y-1 worker is made, and all other job
opportunities for which comparable education, training, or
experience are required), that becomes available at the
employer is posted to the designated State employment service
agency, including a description of the wages and other terms
and conditions of employment and the minimum education,
training, experience and other requirements of the job, and
the designated State agency has been authorized--
``(i) to post all such job opportunities on the Internet
website established under section 414 of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, with
local job banks, and with unemployment agencies and other
referral and recruitment sources pertinent to the job
involved; and
``(ii) to notify labor organizations in the State in which
the job is located and, if applicable, the office of the
local union which represents the employees in the same or
substantially equivalent job classification of the job
opportunity.
The failure of an employer to document compliance with
subparagraph (E) shall result in the employer's ineligibility
to make a subsequent application under subsection (a)(1)
during the 1-year period following the initial application.
The Secretary of Labor shall routinely publicize the
requirement under subparagraph (E) in communications with
employers, and encourage State agencies to do so as well, to
help employers become aware of and comply with such
requirement in a timely manner.''.
______
SA 1341. Mr. LEVIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 66, between lines 9 and 10, insert the following:
(3) Changed country conditions.--Section 208(b) (8 U.S.C.
1158(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(4) Changed country conditions.--The Attorney General
shall accept and grant a motion filed not later than 6 months
after the date of the enactment of this paragraph for a
rehearing before an immigration judge for an application for
asylum or withholding of removal if the alien--
``(A) is a religious minority from Iraq or an ethnic
Albanian who fled Albania or the former Yugoslavia (Kosovo,
Montenegro, and Macedonia) whose claim was denied by an
immigration judge in whole or in part on the basis of changed
country conditions on or after March 1, 2003; and
``(B) remained in the United States as of the date of the
enactment of this paragraph.''.
______
SA 1342. Mr. LEVIN (for himself and Ms. Mikulski) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 173, line 38, insert ``In this paragraph, the
county unemployment rate shall be determined, for seasonal
businesses, during the period in the preceding year when the
Y nonimmigrant would have been employed.'' after ``7
percent.''.
______
SA 1343. Mr. LEVIN (for himself, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Tester, and Mr.
Schumer) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 6, between lines 5 and 6, strike insert the
following:
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
sufficient funds should be appropriated to allow the
Secretary to increase by 1,722 the number of full time border
patrol agents, immigration inspectors, and customs inspectors
at the northern border pursuant to authorizations under--
(1) section 402 of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2002 (Public Law
107-56);
(2) section 331 of the Trade Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-
210); and
(3) section 5202 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-458), as amended by
subsection (b) of this section.
______
SA 1344. Mr. BYRD (for himself, Mr. Gregg, and Mr. Cochran) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for
[[Page 14873]]
comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of title VI, insert the following:
SEC. __. SUPPLEMENTAL IMMIGRATION FEE.
(a) Authorization of Fee.--
(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), any alien who
receives any immigration benefit under this title, or the
amendments made by this title, shall, before receiving such
benefit, pay a fee to the Secretary in an amount equal to
$500, in addition to other applicable fees and penalties
imposed under this title, or the amendments made by this
title.
(2) Fees contingent on appropriations.--No fee may be
collected under this section except to the extent that the
expenditure of the fee to pay the costs of activities and
services for which the fee is imposed, as described in
subsection (b), is provided for in advance in an
appropriations Act.
(b) Deposit and Expenditure of Fees.--
(1) Deposit.--Amounts collected under subsection (a) shall
be deposited as an offsetting collection in, and credited to,
the accounts providing appropriations--
(A) to carry out the apprehension and detention of any
alien who is inadmissible by reason of any offense described
in section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
(B) to carry out the apprehension and detention of any
alien who is deportable for any offense under section 237(a)
of such Act;
(C) to acquire border sensor and surveillance technology;
(D) for air and marine interdiction, operations,
maintenance, and procurement;
(E) for construction projects in support of the United
States Customs and Border Protection;
(F) to train Federal law enforcement personnel; and
(G) for employment eligibility verification.
(2) Availability of fees.--Amounts deposited under
paragraph (1) shall remain available until expended for the
activities and services described in paragraph (1).
______
SA 1345. Mrs. DOLE (for herself, Mr. Burr, and Mr. Grassley)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S.
1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 303, between lines 19 and 20, insert the following:
(s) Definition of Aggravated Felony and Additional Grounds
for Ineligibility for Z Nonimmigrant Status.--
(1) Aggravated felony.--Section 101(a)(43) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43)) is
amended--
(A) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph (T);
(B) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (U)
and inserting ``; and'' and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(V) a second conviction for drunk driving, regardless of
the State in which the conviction occurred or whether the
offense is classified as a misdemeanor or a felony under
State law.''.
(2) Grounds for ineligibility.--In addition to the grounds
of ineligibility described in subsection (d)(1)(F), an alien
shall be ineligible for Z nonimmigrant status if the alien
has been convicted of drunk driving, regardless of the State
in which the conviction occurred or whether the offense is
classified as a misdemeanor or a felony under State law.
______
SA 1346. Mr. MARTINEZ submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of title VII, insert the following:
SEC. 711. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED TRAVELER PROGRAM.
Section 7208(k)(3) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004 (8 U.S.C. 1365b(k)(3)) is amended to
read as follows:
``(3) International registered traveler program.--
``(A) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
establish an international registered traveler program that
incorporates available technologies, such as biometrics and
e-passports, and security threat assessments to expedite the
screening and processing of international travelers,
including United States Citizens and residents, who enter and
exit the United States. The program shall be coordinated with
the US-VISIT program, other pre-screening initiatives, and
the Visa Waiver Program within the Department of Homeland
Security.
``(B) Fees.--The Secretary may impose a fee for the program
established under subparagraph (A) and may modify such fee
from time to time. The fee may not exceed the aggregate costs
associated with the program and shall be credited to the
Department of Homeland Security for purposes of carrying out
the international registered traveler program. Amounts so
credited shall remain available until expended.
``(C) Rulemaking.--Within 180 days after the date of
enactment of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007, the Secretary shall initiate
a rulemaking to establish the program, criteria for
participation, and the fee for the program.
``(D) Implementation.--Not later than 1 year after the date
of enactment of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007, the Secretary shall establish
a phased-implementation of a biometric-based international
registered traveler program in conjunction with the US-VISIT
entry and exit system, other pre-screening initiatives, and
the Visa Waiver Program within the Department of Homeland
Security at United States airports with the highest volume of
international travelers.
``(E) Participation.--The Secretary shall ensure that the
international registered traveler program includes as many
participants as practicable by--
``(i) establishing a reasonable cost of enrollment;
``(ii) making program enrollment convenient and easily
accessible; and
``(iii) providing applicants with clear and consistent
eligibility guidelines.
``(F) Technologies.--The Secretary shall coordinate with
the Secretary of State to define a schedule for their
respective departments for the deployment of appropriate
technologies to begin capturing applicable and sufficient
biometrics from visa applicants and individuals seeking
admission to the United States, if such visa applicant or
individual has not previously provided such information, at
each consular location and port of entry. The Secretary of
Homeland Security shall also coordinate with the Secretary of
State regarding the feasibility of allowing visa applicants
or individuals to enroll in the International Registered
Traveler program at consular offices.''.
______
SA 1347. Mr. HATCH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ADDITIONAL UNITED STATES
ATTORNEY OFFICE AND AN ADDITIONAL IMMIGRATION
AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT OFFICE.
(a) Establishment of a Satellite United States Attorney
Office in St. George, Utah.--The Attorney General, acting
through the United States Attorney for the District of Utah,
shall establish a satellite office under the jurisdiction of
the United States Attorney for the District of Utah in St.
George, Utah. One of the primary functions of the satellite
office shall be to prosecute and deter criminal activities
commonly involving illegal immigrants.
(b) Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office.--
(1) Establishment.--The Secretary, acting through the
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shall establish an
office under the jurisdiction of the Assistant Secretary
within the vicinity of the intersection U.S. Highway 191 and
U.S. Highway 491 to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants
into the interior of the United States.
(2) Staffing.--The office established under paragraph (1)
shall be staffed by 5 full-time employees, of whom--
(A) 3 shall work for the Office of Investigations; and
(B) 2 shall work for the Office of Detention and Removal
Operations.
(3) Other resources.--The Assistant Secretary shall provide
the office established under paragraph (1) with the resources
necessary to accomplish the purposes of this subsection,
including office space, detention beds, and vehicles.
(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this subsection--
(A) $1,100,000 for fiscal year 2008; and
(B) such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal
years 2009 through 2012.
______
SA 1348. Mr. VOINOVICH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 4, strike line 1 and insert the following:
(e) Additional Consultation.--Notwithstanding subsection
(a), the certification by the Secretary of Homeland Security
under subsection (a) shall be prepared in consultation with
the Comptroller General, the Committee on the Judiciary and
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
of the Senate, and the Committee on the Judiciary and the
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives.
TITLE I--BORDER ENFORCEMENT
______
SA 1349. Mr. VOINOVICH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
[[Page 14874]]
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 4, strike line 1 and insert the following:
(e) Additional Consultation.--Notwithstanding subsection
(a), the certification by the Secretary of Homeland Security
under subsection (a) shall be prepared--
(1) based on analysis by the Comptroller General; and
(2) in consultation with the Comptroller General, the
Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the
Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland
Security of the House of Representatives.
TITLE I--BORDER ENFORCEMENT
______
SA 1350. Mr. SPECTER (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
TITLE __--BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS AND IMMIGRATION JUDGES
SEC. __01. BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS.
(a) Composition and Appointment.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, the Board of Immigration Appeals of the
Department of Justice (referred to in this title as the
``Board''), shall be composed of a Chair and 22 other
immigration appeals judges, who shall be appointed by the
Attorney General. Upon the expiration of a term of office, a
Board member may continue to act until a successor has been
appointed and qualified.
(b) Qualifications.--Each member of the Board, including
the Chair, shall--
(1) be an attorney in good standing of a bar of a State or
the District of Columbia;
(2) have at least--
(A) 7 years of professional, legal expertise; or
(B) 5 years of professional, legal expertise in immigration
and nationality law; and
(3) meet the minimum appointment requirements of an
administrative law judge under title 5, United States Code.
(c) Duties of the Chair.--The Chair of the Board, subject
to the supervision of the Director of the Executive Office
for Immigration Review, shall--
(1) be responsible, on behalf of the Board, for the
administrative operations of the Board and shall have the
power to appoint such administrative assistants, attorneys,
clerks, and other personnel as may be needed for that
purpose;
(2) direct, supervise, and establish internal operating
procedures and policies of the Board;
(3) designate a member of the Board to act as Chair if the
Chair is absent or unavailable;
(4) adjudicate cases as a member of the Board;
(5) form 3-member panels as provided by subsection (g);
(6) direct that a case be heard en banc as provided by
subsection (h); and
(7) exercise such other authorities as the Director may
provide.
(d) Board Member Duties.--In deciding a case before the
Board, the Board--
(1) shall exercise independent judgment and discretion; and
(2) may take any action that is appropriate and necessary
for the disposition of such case that is consistent with the
authority provided in this section and any regulations
established in accordance with this section.
(e) Jurisdiction.--
(1) In general.--The Board shall have jurisdiction to hear
appeals described in section 1003.1(b) of title 8, Code of
Federal Regulations (or any corresponding similar
regulation).
(2) Limitation.--The Board shall not have jurisdiction to
hear an appeal of a decision of an immigration judge for an
order of removal entered in absentia.
(f) Scope of Review.--
(1) Findings of fact.--The Board shall--
(A) accept findings of fact determined by an immigration
judge, including findings as to the credibility of testimony,
unless the findings are clearly erroneous; and
(B) give due deference to an immigration judge's
application of the law to the facts.
(2) Questions of law.--The Board shall review de novo
questions of law, discretion, and judgment, and all other
issues in appeals from decisions of immigration judges.
(3) Appeals from officer's decisions.--
(A) Standards of review.--The Board shall review de novo
all questions arising in appeals from decisions issued by
officers of the Department.
(B) Prohibition of fact finding.--Except for taking
administrative notice of commonly known facts such as current
events or the contents of official documents, the Board may
not engage in fact-finding in the course of deciding appeals.
(C) Remand.--A party asserting that the Board cannot
properly resolve an appeal without further fact-finding shall
file a motion for remand. If further fact-finding is needed
in a case, the Board shall remand the proceeding to the
immigration judge or, as appropriate, to the Secretary.
(g) Panels.--
(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (5) all
cases shall be subject to review by a 3-member panel. The
Chair shall divide the Board into 3-member panels and
designate a presiding member.
(2) Authority.--Each panel may exercise the appropriate
authority of the Board that is necessary for the adjudication
of cases before the Board.
(3) Quorum.--Two members appointed to a panel shall
constitute a quorum for such panel.
(4) Changes in composition.--The Chair may from time to
time make changes in the composition of a panel and of the
presiding member of a panel.
(5) Presiding member decisions.--The presiding member of a
panel may act alone on any motion as provided in paragraphs
(2) and (3) of subsection (i) and may not otherwise dismiss
or determine an appeal as a single Board member.
(h) En Banc Process.--
(1) In general.--The Board may on its own motion, by a
majority vote of the Board members, or by direction of the
Chair--
(A) consider any case as the full Board en banc; or
(B) reconsider as the full Board en banc any case that has
been considered or decided by a 3-member panel or by a
limited en banc panel.
(2) Quorum.--A majority of the Board members shall
constitute a quorum of the Board sitting en banc.
(i) Decisions of the Board.--
(1) Affirmance without opinion.--Upon individualized review
of a case, the Board may affirm the decision of an
immigration judge without opinion only if--
(A) the decision of the immigration judge resolved all
issues in the case;
(B) the issue on appeal is squarely controlled by existing
Board or Federal court precedent and does not involve the
application of precedent to a novel fact situation;
(C) the factual and legal questions raised on appeal are so
insubstantial that the case does not warrant the issuance of
a written opinion in the case; and
(D) the Board approves both the result reached in the
decision below and all of the reasoning of that decision.
(2) Summary dismissal of appeals.--The 3-member panel or
the presiding member acting alone may summarily dismiss any
appeal or portion of any appeal in any case which--
(A) the party seeking the appeal fails to specify the
reasons for the appeal;
(B) the only reason for the appeal specified by such party
involves a finding of fact or a conclusion of law that was
conceded by that party at a prior proceeding;
(C) the appeal is from an order that granted such party the
relief that had been requested;
(D) the appeal is determined to be filed for an improper
purpose, such as to cause unnecessary delay; or
(E) the appeal lacks an arguable basis in fact or in law
and is not supported by a good faith argument for extension,
modification, or reversal of existing law.
(3) Unopposed dispositions.--The 3-member panel or the
presiding member acting alone may--
(A) grant an unopposed motion or a motion to withdraw an
appeal pending before the Board; or
(B) adjudicate a motion to remand any appeal--
(i) from the decision of an officer of the Department if
the appropriate official of the Department requests that the
matter be remanded back for further consideration;
(ii) if remand is required because of a defective or
missing transcript; or
(iii) if remand is required for any other procedural or
ministerial issue.
(4) Notice of right to appeal.--The decision by the Board
shall include notice to the alien of the alien's right to
file a petition for review in a United States Court of
Appeals not later than 30 days after the date of the
decision.
SEC. __02. IMMIGRATION JUDGES.
(a) Appointment of Immigration Judges.--
(1) In general.--The Chief Immigration Judge (as described
in section 1003.9 of title 8, Code of Federal Regulations, or
any corresponding similar regulation) and other immigration
judges shall be appointed by the Attorney General. Upon the
expiration of a term of office, the immigration judge may
continue to act until a successor has been appointed and
qualified.
(2) Qualifications.--Each immigration judge, including the
Chief Immigration Judge, shall be an attorney in good
standing of a bar of a State or the District of Columbia and
shall have at least 5 years of professional, legal expertise
or at least 3 years professional or legal expertise in
immigration and nationality law.
(b) Jurisdiction.--An Immigration judge shall have the
authority to hear matters related to any removal proceeding
pursuant to section 240 of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1229a) described in section
[[Page 14875]]
1240.1(a) of title 8, Code of Federal Regulations (or any
corresponding similar regulation).
(c) Duties of Immigration Judges.--In deciding a case, an
immigration judge--
(1) shall exercise independent judgment and discretion; and
(2) may take any action that is appropriate and necessary
for the disposition of such case that is consistent with
their authorities under this section and regulations
established in accordance with this section.
(d) Review.--Decisions of immigration judges are subject to
review by the Board of Immigration Appeals in any case in
which the Board has jurisdiction.
SEC. __03. REMOVAL AND REVIEW OF JUDGES.
No immigration judge or member of the Board may be removed
or otherwise subject to disciplinary or adverse action for
their exercise of independent judgment and discretion as
prescribed by this title.
SEC. __04. REGULATIONS.
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Attorney General shall issue regulations to
implement this title.
SEC. __05. SENIOR JUDGE PARTICIPATION.
(a) In General.--Section 296 of title 28, United States
Code, is amended by inserting at the end of the second
undesignated paragraph the following new sentence: ``However,
a judge who has retired from regular active service under
section 371(b) of this title, when designated and assigned to
the court to which such judge was appointed, shall have all
the powers of a judge of that court, including participation
in appointment of court officers and magistrate judges,
rulemaking, governance, and administrative matters.''.
(b) Senior Judges.--Section 631(a) of title 28, United
States Code, is amended by striking ``Northern Mariana
Islands'' the first place it appears and inserting ``Northern
Mariana Islands (including any judge in regular active
service and any judge who has retired from regular active
service under section 371(b) of this title, when designated
and assigned to the court to which such judge was
appointed)''.
______
SA 1351. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 277, line 25, strike ``$1,000'' and insert
``$2,500''.
______
SA 1352. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 286, beginning on line 4, strike all through line
10, and insert the following:
(iii) for humanitarian purposes, to ensure family unity, or
if such waiver is otherwise in the public interest, the
Secretary may, in the Secretary's discretion, waive the
application of paragraphs (1)(C), (2)(D)(i) (when the alien
demonstrates that such actions or activities were committed
involuntarily), (5)(A), (6)(A) (with respect to entries
occurring before January 1, 2007), (6)(C)(ii), (6)(D),
(6)(F), (6)(G), (7), (9)(B), (9)(C)(i)(I), and (10)(B) of
section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and
______
SA 1353. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 274, beginning on line 8, strike ``or the
beneficiary that cannot be relieved by temporary visits as a
nonimmigrant''.
______
SA 1354. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 100, line 24, strike ``may'' and insert ``shall''.
______
SA 1355. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 269, line 18, strike ``child or''.
______
SA 1356. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 89, line 33, insert ``documents described in
section 218A(m) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as
added by section 402 of this Act, and 601(j) of this Act,''
after ``permanent resident card,''
______
SA 1357. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 154, strike line 23 and all that follows
through page 155, line 8, and insert the following:
``(2) Exception.--The Secretary of Homeland Security may
waive the termination of the period of authorized admission
of an alien who is a Y nonimmigrant for unemployment under
paragraph (1)(D) if the alien submits to the Secretary an
attestation under penalty of perjury in a form prescribed by
the Secretary, with supporting documentation, that
establishes that such unemployment was the result of--
``(A) a period of physical or mental disability of the
alien or the spouse, son, daughter, or parent (as defined in
section 101 of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29
U.S.C. 2611)) of the alien;
``(B) a period of vacation, medical leave, maternity leave,
or similar leave from employment authorized by Federal or
State law or by a policy of the alien's employer; or
``(C) any other period of temporary unemployment that is
the direct result of a force majeure event.
``(3) Return to foreign residence.--An alien who is a Y
nonimmigrant whose period of authorized admission terminates
under paragraph (1) shall depart the United States
immediately.
``(k) Registration of Departure.--
``(1) In general.--An alien who is a Y nonimmigrant whose
period of authorized admission has expired under subsection
(i), or whose period of authorized admission terminates under
subsection (j), shall register the departure of such alien at
a designated port of departure in a manner to be prescribed
by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
``(2) Effect of failure to depart.--In the event an alien
described in paragraph (1) fails to depart the United States
or to register such departure as required by subsection
(j)(3), the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take
immediate action to determine the location of the alien and,
if the alien is located in the United States, to remove the
alien from the United States.
``(3) Invalidation of documentation.--Any documentation
issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security under subsection
(m) to an alien described in paragraph (1) shall be invalid
for any purpose except the departure of the alien on and
after the date on which the period of authorized admission of
such alien terminates.''.
______
SA 1358. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 262, strike line 34 and all that follows
through page 264, line 24, and insert the following:
``(A) The merit-based evaluation system shall consist of
the following criteria and weights:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Employment .................................... 47
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the Department of
Labor)--20 pts
U.S. employment in high demand
occupation (the 30 occupations that
have grown the most in the
preceding 10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics)--16 pts
National interest/ U.S. employment in STEM or health
critical infrastructure occupation, current for at least 1
year--8 pts (extraordinary or
ordinary)
Employer endorsement A U.S. employer willing to pay 50%
of a legal permanent resident's
application fee either 1) offers a
job, or (2) attests for a current
employee--6 pts
Experience Years of work for U.S. firm--2 pts/
year
(max 10 points)
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39--3 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Education M.D., M.B.A., Graduate degree, etc.-- 28
(terminal degree) 20 pts
Bachelor's Degree--16 pts
Associate's Degree--10 pts
High school diploma or GED--6 pts
Completed certified Perkins
Vocational Education program--5 pts
Completed Department of Labor
Registered Apprenticeship--8 pts
STEM, associates and above--8 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``English and civics Native speaker of English or 15
TOEFL score of 75 or higher--15 pts
TOEFL score of 60-74--10 pts
[[Page 14876]]
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests in
English & Civics--6 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Extended family Adult (21 or older) son or daughter 10
(Applied if threshold of United States citizen--8 pts
of 55 in above
categories)
Adult (21 or older) son or daughter
of a legal permanent resident--6
pts
Sibling of United States citizen or
LPR--4 pts
If had applied for a family visa in
any of the above categories after
May 1, 2005--2 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Total .................................... 100
Supplemental schedule
for Zs
Agriculture National Worked in agriculture for 3 years, 25
Interest 150 days per year-21 pts
Worked in agriculture for 4 years
(150 days for 3 years, 100 days for
1 year)-23 pts
Worked in agriculture for 5 years,
100 days per year-25 pts
U.S. employment Year of lawful employment-1 pt 15
experience
Home ownership Own place of residence-1 pt/year 5
owned
Medical insurance Current medical insurance for entire 5
family
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security, after
consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary
of Labor, shall establish procedures to adjudicate petitions
filed pursuant to the merit-based evaluation system. The
Secretary may establish a time period in a fiscal year in
which such petitions must be submitted.
``(C) The Standing Commission on Immigration and Labor
Markets, established pursuant to section 412 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of
2007, shall submit recommendations to Congress to ensure that
the merit-based evaluation system corresponds to the current
needs of the United States economy and the national
interest.''.
______
SA 1359. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 246, between lines 15 and 16, at the following:
``(G) As used in this section, all references to Test of
English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores are based on the
TOEFL internet-based test scoring scale of 0-120. Applicants
using a TOEFL computer-based test or paper-based test, both
of which have different scoring scales, must achieve
comparable test scores as follows:
``(i) To be awarded 10 points on the merit-based evaluation
system, an applicant must achieve a TOEFL internet-based test
score of 60 to 74, a TOEFL computer-based test score of 170
to 203, or a TOEFL paper-based test score of 497 to 537.
``(ii) To be awarded 15 points on the merit-based
evaluation system, an applicant must achieve a TOEFL
internet-based test score of 75 or higher, a TOEFL computer-
based test score greater than 203, or a TOEFL paper-based
test score greater than 537.''.
______
SA 1360. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike subsection (f) of section 218A of the Immigration
and Nationality Act, as added by section 402.
______
SA 1361. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 4, strike lines 12 through 26, and insert the
following:
(2) Smuggling investigators and ice personnel.--
(A) Smuggling personnel.--During each of the fiscal years
2008 through 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall,
subject to the availability of appropriations, increase by
not less than 200 the number of positions for personnel
within the Department assigned to investigate alien
smuggling.
(B) Increase in full-time united states immigration and
customs enforcement personnel.--
(i) In general.--In each of the fiscal years 2008 through
2011, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall increase by
not less than 1,250 the number of positions for full-time
active duty forensic auditors, intelligence research
specialists, agents, officers, and investigators in the
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry
out the removal of aliens who are not admissible to, or are
subject to removal from, the United States, to investigate
immigration fraud, and to enforce workplace violations.
(ii) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out
the provisions of this subparagraph.
(C) Conforming amendment.--Section 5203 of the Intelligence
Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-
458; 118 Stat. 3734) is repealed.
On page 140, beginning on line 4, strike ``In each of the
five years beginning on the date of the enactment of this
Act, the appropriations necessary to increase to a level not
less than 4500'' and insert the following: ``In each of the
two years beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act,
the appropriations necessary to hire not less than 2500 a
year''.
______
SA 1362. Mr. KYL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 310, line 27, insert ``within 2 years of the date
of such denial, termination, or rescission of status, and
only'' after ``only''.
______
SA 1363. Mr. STEVENS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. ACCESS TO IMMIGRATION SERVICES IN AREAS THAT ARE NOT
ACCESSIBLE BY ROAD.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary
shall permit an employee of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who
carries out the functions of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a
geographic area that is not accessible by road to carry out
any function that was performed by an employee of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service in such area prior to
the date of the enactment of the Homeland Security Act of
2002 (6 U.S.C. 101 et seq.).
______
SA 1364. Mr. STEVENS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. ESTABLISHMENT OF A CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
SERVICES OFFICE IN FAIRBANKS, ALASKA.
(a) In General.--The Secretary, acting through the Director
for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, shall
establish an office under the jurisdiction of the Director in
Fairbanks, Alaska, to provide citizenship and immigration
services.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated for each fiscal such sums as may be
necessary to carry out this section.
______
SA 1365. Mr. ALEXANDER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of section 1, insert the following:
(e) Agreement of Border Governors.--The programs described
in subsection (a) shall not become effective until at least 3
of the 4 governors of the States that share a land border
with Mexico agree that the border security and other measures
described in subsection (a) are established, funded, and
operational.
(f) Defined Term.--In this section, the term ``operational
control'' means the prevention of all unlawful entries into
the United States, including entries by terrorists, other
unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and
other contraband.
______
SA 1366. Mr. ALEXANDER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE STUDY ON ENGLISH
PROFICIENCY.
(a) In General.--The Comptroller General of the United
States shall conduct a study on--
[[Page 14877]]
(1) the needs of citizens and lawful permanent residents of
the United States whose native language is not English to
obtain English language and literacy proficiency;
(2) the estimated costs to the public and private sector
resulting from those residents of the United States who lack
English language proficiency; and
(3) the estimated costs of operating English language
acquisition programs in the public and private sector for
those residents of the United States who lack English
language proficiency.
(b) Study Components.--The study conducted under subsection
(a) shall include--
(1) an inventory of all existing Federal programs designed
to improve English language and literacy acquisition for
adult citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United
States, including--
(A) a description of the purpose of each such program;
(B) a summary of the Federal expenditures for each such
program during fiscal years 2002 through 2006;
(C) data on the participation rates of individuals within
each such program and those who have expressed an interest in
obtaining English instruction but have been unable to
participate in existing programs;
(D) a summary of evaluations and performance reviews of the
effectiveness and sustainability of each such program; and
(E) a description of the coordination of Federal programs
with private and nonprofit programs;
(2) the identification of model programs at the Federal,
State, and local level with demonstrated effectiveness in
helping adult citizens and lawful permanent residents of the
United States gain English language and literacy proficiency;
(3) a summary of funding for State and local programs that
support improving the English language proficiency and
literacy of citizens and lawful permanent residents of the
United States;
(4) a summary of the costs incurred and benefits received
by Federal, State, and local governments in serving citizens
and lawful permanent residents of the United States who are
not proficient in English, including--
(A) costs for foreign language translators;
(B) the production of documents in multiple languages; and
(C) compliance with Executive Order 13166;
(5) an analysis of the costs incurred by businesses that
employ citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United
States who are not proficient in English, including--
(A) costs for English training and foreign language
translation;
(B) an estimate of lost productivity; and
(C) costs for providing English training to employees;
(6) the number of lawful permanent residents who are
eligible to naturalize as citizens of the United States; and
(7) recommendations regarding the most cost-effective
actions the Federal government could take to assist citizens
and lawful permanent residents of the United States to
quickly learn English.
(c) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United
States shall submit a report containing the findings from the
study conducted under this section to--
(1) the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
of the Senate;
(2) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
(3) the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of
Representatives; and
(4) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for fiscal
years 2008 and 2009 to carry out this section.
______
SA 1367. Mrs. BOXER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of title 1, insert the following:
(e) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding subsection (a), the
programs established under title VI that grant legal status
to any individual or that adjust the current status of any
individual who is unlawfully present in the United States to
that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence
shall become effective on the earlier of--
(A) the date on which the Secretary submits a written
certification to the President and Congress in accordance
with subsection (a); or
(B) the date that is 3 years after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(2) Presidential waiver.--The President may waive the
application of paragraph (1) for national security purposes.
______
SA 1368. Mrs. BOXER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Section 601(m)(1)(B) is amended--
(1) by redesignating clauses (i) through (iv) as subclauses
(I) through (IV), respectively, and indenting the subclauses
appropriately; and
(2) by striking the matter preceding subclause (I) (as so
redesignated) and inserting the following:
``(B) Period of employment required.--
``(i) Applicability.--Any requirement of this title
relating to employment or the seeking of employment by an
alien shall not apply to any alien who is--
``(I) under the age of 16 years; or
``(II) over the age of 65 years.
``(ii) Requirement.--Subject to clause (i), each Z-1 or Z-3
nonimmigrant shall remain employed for not less than 150
total days during each applicable calendar year, except in a
case in which--''.
______
SA 1369. Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Cornyn) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of the subsection (a) of section 1, add the
following:
(6) STAFF ENHANCEMENTS FOR CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
SERVICES: The United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services has hired and trained 300 additional adjudicators.
On page 3, line 33, strike ``(5)'' and insert ``(6)''.
______
SA 1370. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of title VII, add the following:
SEC. 714. H-1B VISA EMPLOYER FEE.
(a) In General.--Section 214(c)(15)(C), as added by section
713 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``(C) Of the amounts collected under this paragraph--
``(i) 14.38 percent shall be deposited in the Treasury in
accordance with section 286(y); and
``(ii) 85.72 percent shall be deposited in the Treasury in
accordance with section 286(z).''.
(b) Use of Additional Fee.--Section 286 (8 U.S.C. 1356) is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (x), as added by section
712, as subsection (z); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (x), as added by section
402(b), the following:
``(y) Gifted and Talented Students Education Account.--
``(1) In general.--There is established in the general fund
of the Treasury a separate account, which shall be known as
the `Gifted and Talented Students Education Account'.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, there shall be
deposited as offsetting receipts into the account 14.38
percent of the fees collected under section 214(c)(15).
``(2) Use of fees.--Amounts deposited into the account
established under paragraph (1) shall remain available to the
Secretary of Education until expended for programs and
projects authorized under the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and
Talented Students Education Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. 7253 et
seq.).''.
______
SA 1371. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In section 602(a), strike paragraph (6).
______
SA 1372. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In section 602(a), strike paragraph (6).
In section 214A(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act,
as added by section 622(b), strike paragraph (2).
______
SA 1373. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In section 214A(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act,
as added by section 622(b), strike paragraph (2).
______
SA 1374. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself
and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; as follows:
Beginning on page 262, strike line 36 and all that follows
through page 264, line 1, and insert the following:
[[Page 14878]]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category Description Maximum points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employment ............................ 66
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the
Department of Labor)-35 pts
Honorable Service within any
branch of the United States
Armed Services for (1) 4
years with an honorable
discharge, or (2) any
period of time pursuant to
a medical discharge-35 pts
U.S. employment in STEM or
health occupation, current
for at least 1 year
(extraordinary or ordinary)-
35 pts
Employer A U.S. employer willing to
endorsement pay 50% of a legal
permanent resident's
application fee either 1)
offers a job, or 2) attests
for a current employee-23
pts
U.S. employment in high
demand occupation (the 30
occupations that have grown
the most in the preceding
10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics)-21 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. employment Years of lawful employment
experience for a U.S. employer (in the
case of agricultural
employment, 100 days of
work per year constitutes 1
year)-5 pts/year
(max 30 pts)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39-18 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education Graduate degree in a STEM 50
(terminal degree) field (including the health
sciences).-50 pts
Graduate degree in a non-
STEM field-34 pts
Bachelor's degree in a STEM
field (including the health
sciences)-40 pts
Bachelor's degree in a non-
STEM field-32 pts
Associate's degree in a STEM
field (including health
sciences)-30 pts
Associate's degree in a non-
STEM field-25 pts
Completed certified
Department of Labor
registered apprenticeship-
23 pts
High school diploma or GED-
21 pts
Completed certified Perkins
vocational education
program-20 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
English and Native speaker of English or 30
civics TOEFL score of 100 or higher-
30 pts
TOEFL score of 90-99-25 pts
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests
in English & Civics-21 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home ownership Sole owner of place of 24
residence-8 pts per year of
ownership
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical insurance Current private medical 30
insurance for entire family-
10 pts per year held
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total ............................ 200
------------------------------------------------------------------------
______
SA 1375. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 261, strike line 26 and all that follows
through page 262, line 8.
On page 264, in the table preceding line 1, strike the
items relating to supplemental schedule for Zs.
On page 272, strike lines 16 through 39.
______
SA 1376. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 272, strike lines 16 through 39.
______
SA 1377. Mr. ENSIGN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 261, strike line 26 and all that follows
through page 262, line 8.
______
SA 1378. Mr. ENSIGN (for himself and Mr. Martinez) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 302, line 34, strike ``(r) Definitions-'' and
insert the following:
(r) Eligibility to Enlist in the United States Armed
Forces.--Notwithstanding section 504(b) of title 10, United
States Code, an alien who receives Z nonimmigrant status
shall be eligible to enlist in the United States Armed
Forces.
(s) Definitions.--
______
SA 1379. Mr. CRAIG submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of section 218E of the Immigration and
Nationality Act, as added by section 404, insert the
following:
``(i) Special Rules for Aliens Employed as Sheepherders or
Goat Herders.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this
Act, an alien admitted under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a) for
employment as a sheepherder or goat herder--
``(1) may be admitted for a period of up to 3 years;
``(2) shall be subject to readmission; and
``(3) shall not be subject to the requirements of
subsection (h)(4).''.
______
SA 1380. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of subsection (a) of section 1, add the
following:
(6) Staff enhancements for interior enforcement.--The
Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
has hired not less than 2,000 additional special agents to do
investigations, to include work enforcement.
On page 3, line 33, strike ``(5)'' and insert ``(6)''.
______
SA 1381. Mr. NELSON of Florida submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on
the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. RELIEF FOR WIDOWS AND ORPHANS.
(a) Transition Period.--
(1) In general.--In applying section 201(b)(2)(B) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by this Act, to
an alien whose citizen relative died before the date of the
enactment of this Act, the alien relative may file a petition
under section 204(a)(1)(A)(ii) of such Act not later than 2
years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) Parole; adjustment of status.--If the alien was
excluded, deported, removed, or departed voluntarily before
the date of the enactment of this Act based solely upon the
alien's lack of classification as an immediate relative due
to the citizen relative's death--
(A) such alien may be paroled into the United States
pursuant to section 212(d)(5); and
(B) notwithstanding section 212(a)(9) of such Act, such
alien's application for adjustment of status shall be
considered by the Secretary.
(b) Adjustment of Status.--Section 245 (8 U.S.C. 1255) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(n) Applications for Adjustment of Status by Surviving
Spouse and Children.--
``(1) In general.--Any alien described in paragraph (2) who
applied for adjustment of status before the death of the
qualifying relative, may have such application adjudicated as
if such death had not occurred.
``(2) Alien described.--An alien described in this
paragraph is an alien who--
``(A) is an immediate relative (as described in section
201(b)(2)(A));
``(B) is a family-sponsored immigrant (as described in
subsections (a) and (d) of subsection 203); or
``(C) is a derivative beneficiary of an employment-based
immigrant under section 203(b).''.
(c) Transition Period.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding a denial of an application
for adjustment of status, such application may be renewed by
an alien whose qualifying relative died before the date of
the enactment of this Act if a motion to reopen is filed,
without a fee, not later than 2 years after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(2) Parole; adjustment of status.--If the alien was
excluded, deported, removed, or departed voluntarily before
the date of the enactment of this Act--
(A) such alien may be paroled into the United States
pursuant to section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)); and
(B) notwithstanding section 212(a)(9) of such Act, such
alien's application for adjustment of status shall be
considered by the Secretary.
(d) Processing of Immigrant Visas by the Department of
State .--Section 204(b) (8 U.S.C. 1154(b)) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``After an investigation'';
and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(2) Any alien described in paragraph (3) whose qualifying
relative died prior to completion of immigrant visa
processing may
[[Page 14879]]
have an immigrant visa application adjudicated as if such
death had not occurred, and any immigrant visa issued before
the death of the qualifying relative shall remain valid.
``(3) An alien described in this paragraph is an alien
who--
``(A) is an immediate relative (as described in section
201(b)(2)(A));
``(B) is a family-sponsored immigrant (as described in
subsections (a) and (d) of section 203); or
``(C) is a derivative beneficiary of an employment-based
immigrant under section 203(b).''.
(e) Naturalization.--Section 319(a) (8 U.S.C. 1429(a)) is
amended by inserting ``or, if the spouse is deceased, was the
spouse of a citizen of the United States at the time of such
death,'' after ``citizen of the United States,''.
______
SA 1382. Mr. SANDERS (for himself and Mr. Grassley) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of title VII, insert the following:
SEC. 714. H-1B VISA EMPLOYER FEE.
(a) In General.--Section 214(c)(15), as added by section
713 of this Act, is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``In each instance
where'' and inserting ``Except as provided under subparagraph
(D), if an employer seeks to hire a merit-based employer-
sponsored immigrant described in section 203(b)(5) or if'';
(2) by amending subparagraph (C) to read as follows:
``(C) Of the amounts collected under this paragraph--
``(i) 14.28 percent shall be deposited in the Treasury in
accordance with section 286(y); and
``(ii) 85.72 percent shall be deposited in the Treasury in
accordance with section 286(z).''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(D) Public hospitals, which are owned and operated by a
State or a political subdivision of a State shall not be
subject to the supplemental fee imposed under this
paragraph.''.
(b) Use of Additional Fee.--Section 286 (8 U.S.C. 1356) is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (x), as added by section
712, as subsection (z); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (x), as added by section
402(b), the following:
``(y) Gifted and Talented Students Education Account.--
``(1) In general.--There is established in the general fund
of the Treasury a separate account, which shall be known as
the `Gifted and Talented Students Education Account'. There
shall be deposited as offsetting receipts into the account
14.28 percent of the fees collected under section 214(c)(15).
``(2) Use of fees.--Amounts deposited into the account
established under paragraph (1) shall remain available to the
Secretary of Education until expended for programs and
projects authorized under the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and
Talented Students Education Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. 7253 et
seq.).''.
______
SA 1383. Mr. SANDERS (for himself and Mr. Grassley) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of title VII, insert the following:
SEC. 714. H-1B VISA EMPLOYER FEE.
(a) In General.--Section 214(c)(15), as added by section
713 of this Act, is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``In each instance
where'' and inserting ``Except as provided under subparagraph
(D), if'';
(2) by amending subparagraph (C) to read as follows:
``(C) Of the amounts collected under this paragraph--
``(i) 14.28 percent shall be deposited in the Treasury in
accordance with section 286(y); and
``(ii) 85.72 percent shall be deposited in the Treasury in
accordance with section 286(z).''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(D) Public hospitals, which are owned and operated by a
State or a political subdivision of a State shall not be
subject to the supplemental fee imposed under this
paragraph.''.
(b) Use of Additional Fee.--Section 286 (8 U.S.C. 1356) is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (x), as added by section
712, as subsection (z); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (x), as added by section
402(b), the following:
``(y) Gifted and Talented Students Education Account.--
``(1) In general.--There is established in the general fund
of the Treasury a separate account, which shall be known as
the `Gifted and Talented Students Education Account'. There
shall be deposited as offsetting receipts into the account
14.28 percent of the fees collected under section 214(c)(15).
``(2) Use of fees.--Amounts deposited into the account
established under paragraph (1) shall remain available to the
Secretary of Education until expended for programs and
projects authorized under the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and
Talented Students Education Act of 2001 (20 U.S.C. 7253 et
seq.).''.
______
SA 1384. Mr. SALAZAR (for himself and Mr. Domenici) proposed an
amendment to amendment SA 1151 proposed by Mr. Inhofe (for himself, Mr.
Alexander, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Burr, Mr.
Isakson, Mr. Bunning, and Mr. Coleman) to the amendment SA 1150
proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to
the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and
for other purposes; as follows:
At the end of the matter proposed to be inserted, add the
following:
SEC. 702A. DECLARATION OF ENGLISH AS LANGUAGE.
(a) In General.--English is the common language of the
United States.
(b) Preserving and Enhancing the Role of the English
Language.--The Government of the United States shall preserve
and enhance the role of English as the language of the United
States. Nothing in this Act shall diminish or expand any
existing rights under the laws of the United States relative
to services or materials provided by the Government of the
United States in any language other than English
(c) Definition of Law.--For purposes of this section, the
term ``laws of the United States'' includes the Constitution
of the United States, any provision of Federal statute, or
any rule or regulation issued under such statute, any
judicial decisions interpreting such statute, or any
Executive Order of the President.
______
SA 1385. Mr. REED submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 288, between lines 2 and 3, insert the following:
(iv) Nonapplicability to certain aliens.--Clauses (i)
through (iii) shall not apply to any alien who qualifies for
a Z nonimmigrant visa and a subsequent adjustment of status
under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1254a).
On page 304, line 36, strike ``must'' and insert ``(except
an alien granted legal status under section 244) shall''.
______
SA 1386. Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Cardin, and Mr.
Hagel) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. ___. PROTECTION FOR SCHOLARS.
(a) Nonimmigrant Category.--Section 101(a)(15) (8 U.S.C.
1101(a)(15)) is amended by striking subparagraph (W), as
added by section 401(a)(4), and inserting the following:
``(W) subject to subsection (s) of section 214, an alien--
``(i) who the Secretary of Homeland Security determines--
``(I) is a scholar; and
``(II) is subject to a risk of grave danger or persecution
in the alien's country of nationality on account of the
alien's belief, scholarship, or identity; or
``(ii) who is the spouse or child of an alien described in
clause (i) who is accompanying or following to join such
alien;''.
(b) Conditions.--Section 214 (8 U.S.C. 1184) is amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(s) Requirements Applicable to Persecuted Scholars.--
``(1) Eligibility.--
``(A) In general.--An alien is eligible for nonimmigrant
status under section 101(a)(15)(W)(i) if the alien is able to
demonstrate that the alien is a scholar in any field who is
subject to a risk of grave danger or persecution in the
alien's country of nationality on account of the alien's
belief, scholarship, or identity.
``(B) Consultation.--In determining eligibility of aliens
under subparagraph (A), the Secretary of Homeland Security
shall consult with nationally recognized organizations that
have not less than 5 years of experience in assisting and
funding scholars needing to escape dangerous conditions.
``(2) Numerical minimums.--The number of aliens who may be
issued visas or otherwise provided status as nonimmigrants
under section 1101(a)(15)(W) in any fiscal year may not be
less than 2,000, unless the Secretary determines that less
than 2,000 aliens who are qualified for such status are
seeking such status during the fiscal year.
``(3) Credible evidence considered.--In acting on any
application filed under this
[[Page 14880]]
subsection, the consular officer or the Secretary of Homeland
Security, as appropriate, shall consider any credible
evidence relevant to the application, including information
received in connection with the consultation required under
paragraph (1)(B).
``(4) Nonexclusive relief.--Nothing in this subsection
limits the ability of an alien who qualifies for status under
section 101(a)(15)(W) to seek any other immigration benefit
or status for which the alien may be eligible.
``(5) Duration of status.--
``(A) Initial period.--The initial period of admission of
an alien granted status as a nonimmigrant under section
101(a)(15)(W) shall be not more than 2 years.
``(B) Extension of period.--The period of admission
described in subparagraph (A) may be extended for 1
additional 2-year period.''.
______
SA 1387. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 292, before line 34, insert the following:
(E) Limitation.--An alien required to pay any applicable
Federal tax liability by reason of subparagraph (A), or who
otherwise satisfies the requirements of subparagraph (A),
shall not be allowed to file any claim for any tax credit
otherwise allowable under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
for any taxable year preceding the taxable year in which such
application is made unless such credit reduces such alien's
income taxes for any such preceding taxable year.
______
SA 1388. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 292, before line 34, insert the following:
(E) Limitation.--An alien required to pay any applicable
Federal tax liability by reason of subparagraph (A), or who
otherwise satisfies the requirements of subparagraph (A),
shall not be allowed to file any claim for any tax credit
otherwise allowable under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
for any taxable year preceding the taxable year in which such
application is made unless such credit reduces such alien's
income taxes or self-employment taxes for any such preceding
taxable year.
______
SA 1389. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 292, before line 34, insert the following:
(E) Limitation.--An alien required to pay any applicable
Federal tax liability by reason of subparagraph (A), or who
otherwise satisfies the requirements of subparagraph (A),
shall not be allowed to file any claim for any tax credit
otherwise allowable under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
for any taxable year preceding the taxable year in which such
application is made unless 100 percent of such credit reduces
such alien's income taxes for any such preceding taxable
year.
______
SA 1390. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 292, before line 34, insert the following:
(E) Limitation.--An alien required to pay any applicable
Federal tax liability by reason of subparagraph (A), or who
otherwise satisfies the requirements of subparagraph (A),
shall not be allowed to file any claim for any tax credit
otherwise allowable under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
for any taxable year preceding the taxable year in which such
application is made unless 100 percent of such credit reduces
such alien's income taxes or self-employment taxes for any
such preceding taxable year.
______
SA 1391. Mrs. FEINSTEIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on
the table; as follows:
On page 303, after line 19, insert the following:
(s) Perjury and False Statements.--All application forms
for immigration benefits, relief, or status under this Act
(including application forms for Z non-immigrant status)
shall bear a warning to the applicant and to any other person
involved in the preparation of the application that the
making of any false statement or misrepresentation on the
application form (or any supporting documentation) will
subject the applicant or other person to prosecution for
false statement, fraud, or perjury under the applicable laws
of the United States, including sections 1001, 1546, and 1621
of title 18, United States Code.
(t) Fraud Prevention Program.--The head of each department
responsible for the administration of a program or authority
to confer an immigration benefit, relief, or status under
this Act shall develop an administrative program to prevent
fraud within or upon such program or authority. Subject to
such modifications the head of the department may direct, the
program required by this subsection shall provide for fraud
prevention training for the relevant administrative
adjudicators within the department.
______
SA 1392. Mr. MENENDEZ submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 287, strike line 12 and all that follows
through line 35 on page 296, and insert the following:
(6) Fees and penalties.--
(A) Processing fees.--
(i) An alien making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a processing fee
in an amount sufficient to recover the full cost of
adjudicating the application, but no more than $1,500 for a
Z-1 nonimmigrant.
(ii) An alien applying for extension of the alien's Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a processing fee
in an amount sufficient to cover administrative and other
expenses associated with processing the extension
application, but no more than $1,000 for a Z-1 nonimmigrant.
(B) Penalties.--
(i) An alien making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay, in addition to
the processing fee in subparagraph (A), a penalty of $1,000.
(ii) An alien who is a Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant and who has
not previously been a Z-1 nonimmigrant, and who changes
status to that of a Z-1 nonimmigrant, shall in addition to
processing fees be required to pay the initial application
penalties applicable to Z-1 nonimmigrants.
(C) State impact assistance fee.--In addition to any other
amounts required to be paid under this subsection, a Z-1
nonimmigrant making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a State impact
assistance fee equal to $500.
(D) Deposit and spending of fees.--The processing fees
under subparagraph (A) shall be deposited and remain
available until expended as provided by sections 286(m) and
(n).
(E) Deposit, allocation, and spending of penalties.--
(i) Deposit of penalties.--The penalty under subparagraph
(B) shall be deposited and remain available as provided by
section 286(w).
(ii) Deposit of state impact assistance funds.--The funds
under subparagraph (C) shall be deposited and remain
available as provided by section 286(x).
(7) Interview.--An applicant for Z nonimmigrant status must
appear to be interviewed.
(8) Military selective service.--The alien shall establish
that if the alien is within the age period required under the
Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 451 et seq.)
that such alien has registered under that Act.
(f) Application Procedures.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
prescribe by notice in the Federal Register, in accordance
with the procedures described in section 610 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 and the procedures for an alien in the United States to
apply for Z nonimmigrant status and the evidence required to
demonstrate eligibility for such status.
(2) Initial receipt of applications.--The Secretary of
Homeland Security, or such other entities as are authorized
by the Secretary to accept applications under the procedures
established under this subsection, shall accept applications
from aliens for Z nonimmigrant status for a period of 1 year
starting the first day of the first month beginning no more
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section.
If, during the 1-year initial period for the receipt of
applications for Z nonimmigrant status, the Secretary of
Homeland Security determines that additional time is required
to register applicants for Z nonimmigrant status, the
Secretary may in his discretion extend the period for
accepting applications by up to 12 months.
(3) Biometric data.--Each alien applying for Z nonimmigrant
status must submit biometric data in accordance with
procedures established by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
(g) Content of Application Filed by Alien.--
(1) Application form.--The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall create an application form that an alien shall be
required to complete as a condition of obtaining Z
nonimmigrant status.
(2) Application information.--The application form shall
request such information
[[Page 14881]]
as the Secretary deems necessary and appropriate, including
but not limited to, information concerning the alien's
physical and mental health; complete criminal history,
including all arrests and dispositions; gang membership,
renunciation of gang affiliation; immigration history;
employment history; and claims to United States citizenship.
(3) Security and law enforcement background checks.--
(A) Submission of fingerprints.--The Secretary may not
accord Z nonimmigrant status unless the alien submits
fingerprints and other biometric data in accordance with
procedures established by the Secretary.
(B) Background checks.--The Secretary shall utilize
fingerprints and other biometric data provided by the alien
to conduct appropriate background checks of such alien to
search for criminal, national security, or other law
enforcement actions that would render the alien ineligible
for classification under this section.
(h) Treatment of Applicants.--
(1) In general.--An alien who files an application for Z
nonimmigrant status shall, upon submission of any evidence
required under subsections (f) and (g) and after the
Secretary has conducted appropriate background checks, to
include name and fingerprint checks, that have not by the end
of the next business day produced information rendering the
applicant ineligible--
(A) be granted probationary benefits in the form of
employment authorization pending final adjudication of the
alien's application;
(B) may in the Secretary's discretion receive advance
permission to re-enter the United States pursuant to existing
regulations governing advance parole;
(C) may not be detained for immigration purposes,
determined inadmissible or deportable, or removed pending
final adjudication of the alien's application, unless the
alien is determined to be ineligible for Z nonimmigrant
status; and
(D) may not be considered an unauthorized alien (as defined
in section 274A(h)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(3))) unless employment authorization under
subparagraph (A) is denied.
(2) Timing of probationary benefits.--No probationary
benefits shall be issued to an alien until the alien has
passed all appropriate background checks or the end of the
next business day, whichever is sooner.
(3) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to limit the Secretary's authority to conduct any
appropriate background and security checks subsequent to
issuance of evidence of probationary benefits under paragraph
(4).
(4) Probationary authorization document.--The Secretary
shall provide each alien described in paragraph (1) with a
counterfeit-resistant document that reflects the benefits and
status set forth in subsection (h)(1). The Secretary may by
regulation establish procedures for the issuance of
documentary evidence of probationary benefits and, except as
provided herein, the conditions under which such documentary
evidence expires, terminates, or is renewed. All documentary
evidence of probationary benefits shall expire no later than
6 months after the date on which the Secretary begins to
approve applications for Z nonimmigrant status.
(5) Before application period.--If an alien is apprehended
between the date of enactment and the date on which the
period for initial registration closes under subsection
(f)(2), and the alien can establish prima facie eligibility
for Z nonimmigrant status, the Secretary shall provide the
alien with a reasonable opportunity to file an application
under this section after such regulations are promulgated.
(6) During certain proceedings.--Notwithstanding any
provision of the Act, if the Secretary determines that an
alien who is in removal proceedings is prima facie eligible
for Z nonimmigrant status, then the Secretary shall
affirmatively communicate such determination to the
immigration judge. The immigration judge shall then terminate
or administratively close such proceedings and permit the
alien a reasonable opportunity to apply for such
classification.
(i) Adjudication of Application Filed by Alien.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary may approve the issuance of
documentation of status, as described in subsection (j), to
an applicant for a Z nonimmigrant visa who satisfies the
requirements of this section.
(2) Evidence of continuous physical presence, employment,
or education.--
(A) Presumptive documents.--A Z nonimmigrant or an
applicant for Z nonimmigrant status may presumptively
establish satisfaction of each required period of presence,
employment, or study by submitting records to the Secretary
that demonstrate such presence, employment, or study, and
that the Secretary verifies have been maintained by the
Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service,
or any other Federal, State, or local government agency.
(B) Verification.--Each Federal agency, and each State or
local government agency, as a condition of receipt of any
funds under section 286(x), shall within 90 days of enactment
ensure that procedures are in place under which such agency
shall--
(i) consistent with all otherwise applicable laws,
including but not limited to laws governing privacy, provide
documentation to an alien upon request to satisfy the
documentary requirements of this paragraph; or
(ii) notwithstanding any other provision of law, including
section 6103 of title 26, United States Code, provide
verification to the Secretary of documentation offered by an
alien as evidence of--
(I) presence or employment required under this section; or
(II) a requirement for any other benefit under the
immigration laws.
(C) Other documents.--A Z nonimmigrant or an applicant for
Z nonimmigrant status who is unable to submit a document
described in subparagraph (i) may establish satisfaction of
each required period of presence, employment, or study by
submitting to the Secretary at least 2 other types of
reliable documents that provide evidence of employment,
including--
(i) bank records;
(ii) business records;
(iii) employer records;
(iv) records of a labor union or day labor center;
(v) remittance records; and
(vi) sworn affidavits from nonrelatives who have direct
knowledge of the alien's work, that contain--
(I) the name, address, and telephone number of the affiant;
(II) the nature and duration of the relationship between
the affiant and the alien; and
(III) other verification or information.
(D) Additional documents.--The Secretary may--
(i) designate additional documents to evidence the required
period of presence, employment, or study; and
(ii) set such terms and conditions on the use of affidavits
as is necessary to verify and confirm the identity of any
affiant or otherwise prevent fraudulent submissions.
(3) Burden of proof.--An alien who is applying for a Z
nonimmigrant visa under this section shall prove, by a
preponderance of the evidence, that the alien has satisfied
the requirements of this section.
(4) Denial of application.--
(A) An alien who fails to satisfy the eligibility
requirements for a Z nonimmigrant visa shall have his
application denied and may not file additional applications.
(B) An alien who fails to submit requested initial
evidence, including requested biometric data, and requested
additional evidence by the date required by the Secretary
shall, except where the alien demonstrates to the
satisfaction of the Secretary that such failure was
reasonably excusable or was not willful, have his application
considered abandoned. Such application shall be denied and
the alien may not file additional applications.
(j) Evidence of Nonimmigrant Status.--
(1) In general.--Documentary evidence of nonimmigrant
status shall be issued to each Z nonimmigrant.
(2) Features of documentation.--Documentary evidence of Z
nonimmigrant status--
(A) shall be machine-readable, tamper-resistant, and shall
contain a digitized photograph and other biometric
identifiers that can be authenticated;
(B) shall be designed in consultation with United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Forensic Document
Laboratory;
(C) shall, during the alien's authorized period of
admission under subsection (k), serve as a valid travel and
entry document for the purpose of applying for admission to
the United States where the alien is applying for admission
at a Port of Entry;
(D) may be accepted during the period of its validity by an
employer as evidence of employment authorization and identity
under section 274A(b)(1)(B); and
(E) shall be issued to the Z nonimmigrant by the Secretary
of Homeland Security promptly after final adjudication of
such alien's application for Z nonimmigrant status, except
that an alien may not be granted permanent Z nonimmigrant
status until all appropriate background checks on the alien
are completed to the satisfaction of the Secretary of
Homeland Security.
(k) Period of Authorized Admission.--
(1) Initial period.--The initial period of authorized
admission as a Z nonimmigrant shall be 4 years.
(2) Extensions.--
(A) In general.--Z nonimmigrants may seek an indefinite
number of 4-year extensions of the initial period of
authorized admission.
(B) Requirements.--In order to be eligible for an extension
of the initial or any subsequent period of authorized
admission under this paragraph, an alien must satisfy the
following requirements:
(i) Eligibility.--The alien must demonstrate continuing
eligibility for Z nonimmigrant status.
(ii) English language and civics.--
(I) Requirement at first renewal.--At or before the time of
application for the first extension of Z nonimmigrant status,
an alien
[[Page 14882]]
who is 18 years of age or older must demonstrate an attempt
to gain an understanding of the English language and
knowledge of United States civics by taking the
naturalization test described in sections 312(a)(1) and (2)
by demonstrating enrollment in or placement on a waiting list
for English classes.
(II) Requirement at second renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the second extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must pass
the naturalization test described in sections 312(a)(1) and
(2). The alien may make up to 3 attempts to demonstrate such
understanding and knowledge but must satisfy this requirement
prior to the expiration of the second extension of Z
nonimmigrant status.
(III) Exception.--The requirement of subclauses (I) and
(II) shall not apply to any person who, on the date of the
filing of the person's application for an extension of Z
nonimmigrant status--
(aa) is unable because of physical or developmental
disability or mental impairment to comply therewith;
(bb) is over 50 years of age and has been living in the
United States for periods totaling at least 20 years; or
(cc) is over 55 years of age and has been living in the
United States for periods totaling at least 15 years.
(iii) Employment.--With respect to an extension of Z-1 or
Z-3 nonimmigrant status an alien must demonstrate
satisfaction of the employment or study requirements provided
in subsection (m) during the alien's most recent authorized
period of stay as of the date of application; and
(iv) Fees.--The alien must pay a processing fee in an
amount sufficient to recover the full cost of adjudicating
the application, but no more than $1,000 for a Z-1
nonimmigrant.
______
SA 1393. Mr. CONRAD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 238, line 21, strike ``in the first sentence'' and
insert ``and inserting `(other than a nonimmigrant described
in subparagraph (E)(iii), (H)(i) (except subclause (b1)), (J)
(if coming to the United States to receive graduate medical
education or training described in section 212(j)(1) or to
take examinations required to receive such graduate medical
education or training), (L), or (V) of section
101(a)(15))'''.
______
SA 1394. Mr. CONRAD (for himself and Mr. Brownback) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
In section 425, add at the end the following:
(j) Federal Physician Waiver Program.--Section 214(l) (8
U.S.C. 1184(l)), as amended by this section, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(5) In administering the Federal physician waiver program
authorized under paragraph (1)(C), the Secretary of Health
and Human Services shall accept applications from--
``(A) primary care physicians and physicians practicing
specialty medicine; and
``(B) hospitals and health care facilities of any type
located in an area that the Secretary has designated as
having a shortage of physicians, including--
``(i) a Health Professional Shortage Area (as defined in
section 332(a)(1) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
254e(a)(1)));
``(ii) a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area;
``(iii) a Medically Underserved Area (as defined in section
330I(a)(4) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254c-
14(a)(4)));
``(iv) a Medically Underserved Population (as defined in
section 330(b)(3) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
254b(b)(3))); or
``(v) a Physician Scarcity Areas (as identified under
section 1833(u)(4) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
13951(u)(4))).
``(6) Any employer shall be deemed to have met the
requirements under paragraph (1)(D)(iii) if the facility of
the employer is located in an area listed in paragraph
(5)(B).''.
(k) Retaining American-Trained Physicians in Physician
Shortage Communities.--Section 201(b)(1) (8 U.S.C. 1151(b))
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(F) Alien physicians who have completed service
requirements under section 214(l).''.
______
SA 1395. Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Durbin) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Section 419(a) (relating to numerical limitations on H-1B
nonimmigrants), is amended to read as follows:
(a) H-1B Amendments.--Section 214(g) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by amending subparagraph (A) to read
as follows:
``(A) under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) may not exceed
200,000 for each fiscal year; or'';
(2) by striking paragraphs (6), (7), and (8); as
redesignated by section 409(2) and
(3) in paragraph (9), as redesignated by section 409(2)--
(A) in subparagraph (B)--
(i) in clause (ii), by striking ``The annual numeric
limitations described in clause (i) shall not exceed`` and
inserting the following: ``Without respect to the annual
numeric limitation described in clause (i), the Secretary may
issue a visa or otherwise grant nonimmigrant status pursuant
to section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) in the following
quantities:''; and
(ii) by striking clause (iv); and
(B) by striking subparagraph (D).
______
SA 1396. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In section 1(a), add at the end the following:
(6) USCIS adjudicators.--The Citizenship and Immigration
Service has hired 300 additional adjudicators.
______
SA 1397. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of subsection (a) of section 1, add the
following:
(7) Staff enhancements for interior enforcement.--The
Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
has hired not less than 2,000 additional special agents to
conduct investigations, including worksite enforcement.
______
SA 1398. Mr. VITTER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 339, line 38, strike ``not''.
______
SA 1399. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 288, at line 36, strike ``renunciation of gang
affiliation;''
______
SA 1400. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of title VII, insert the following:
SEC. 711. ADJUSTMENT OF STATE IMPACT ASSISTANCE FEES.
Notwithstanding section 218A(e)(3)(B) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act, as added by section 402, or section
601(e)(6)(C), an alien making an application for a Y-1
nonimmigrant visa or an alien making an initial application
for Z-1 nonimmigrant status shall pay a State impact
assistance fee of $750 and an additional $100 fee for each
dependent accompanying or following to join the alien.
______
SA 1401. Mr. COLEMAN (for himself and Mr. Domenici) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of section 1, add the following new subsection:
(e) Information Sharing Between Federal and Local Law
Enforcement Officers.--
(1) Requirement for information sharing.--No person or
agency may prohibit a Federal, State, or local government
entity from acquiring information regarding the immigration
status of any individual if the entity seeking such
information has probable cause to believe that the individual
is not lawfully present in the United States. Such probable
cause includes the individual's failure to possess an
identification document issued by the United States or a
State.
(2) Requirement prior to implementation.--Subject to
subsection (a), with the exception of the probationary
benefits conferred by section 601(h) of this Act, the
provisions of subtitle C of title IV, and the admission of
aliens under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)), as amended by
title IV, the programs established by title IV, and the
programs established by title VI that grant legal status to
any individual or that adjust the current status of any
individual who is unlawfully present in the United States to
that of an alien lawfully admitted
[[Page 14883]]
for permanent residence, may not become effective until the
date that the Secretary submits a written certification to
the President and Congress that the requirement set out in
paragraph (1) is being carried out.
(3) Rule of construction.--Nothing in paragraph (1) may be
construed--
(A) to limit the acquisition of information as otherwise
provided by law; or
(B) to require a person to disclose information regarding
an individual's immigration status prior to the provision of
emergency medical or law enforcement assistance.
______
SA 1402. Mr. COLEMAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 6, line 23, insert ``, including the lease of 6
additional aircraft and 12 busses'' before the period at the
end.
On page 36, after line 17, insert the following:
SEC. 139. SOUTHWEST BORDER EASEMENT FEASIBILITY STUDY.
(a) In General.--The Secretary, in consultation with the
Attorney General and the Commissioner of the United States
Section, International Boundary and Water Commission, shall
conduct a study of the desirability of, and need for, border
enforcement easements between the ports of entry along the
international border between the United States and Mexico to
facilitate the patrolling of such border to deter and detect
illegal entry into the United States.
(b) Identification of Specific Locations.--The study
conducted under this section shall identify--
(1) the specific locations where agents of the United
States Border Patrol lack immediate access to or control of
the border, including any location where authorization by a
third party is required to patrol the border or carry out the
activities described in subsection (c); and
(2) for each such location--
(A) the actions required to create a border enforcement
easement;
(B) the optimal distance from the border to which such
easement should extend and the geographic size of the
easement;
(C) the estimated costs of acquiring the easement and
making the improvements described in subsection (c); and
(D) the changes to existing law that would be required to
carry out such acquisitions and improvements.
(c) Scope and Use of Easement.--Easements studied under
this section shall be considered to provide the United States
Border Patrol with access to and control of land immediately
adjacent to the border described in subsection (a) for--
(1) installing detection equipment;
(2) constructing or improving roads;
(3) controlling vegetation;
(4) installing fences or other obstacles; and
(5) carrying out such other activities as may be required
to patrol the border and deter or detect illegal entry.
(d) Report.--Not later than December 1, 2008, the Secretary
shall submit a report containing the results of the study
conducted under this section to--
(1) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs of the Senate;
(2) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
(3) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
(4) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives;
(5) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives; and
(6) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. REGISTRATION OF ALIENS; NOTICES OF CHANGE OF
ADDRESS.
(a) Registration Required for Work Authorization.--Section
262 (8 U.S.C. 1302) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(d) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall verify that
each alien applying for work authorization under this Act has
registered under this section and has complied with the
requirements under subsections (a)(1), (a)(2), and (b) of
section 265 before approving such application.''.
(b) Annual Notification.--Section 265(a) (8 U.S.C. 1305(a))
is amended by striking ``(a) Each alien'' and inserting the
following:
``(a) In General.--
``(1) Annual notification.--Each alien required to be
registered under this title who is within the United States
on the first day of January of any year shall, not later than
30 days following such date, notify the Secretary of Homeland
Security in writing of the current address of the alien and
furnish such additional information as the Secretary may
prescribe by regulation. Failure to comply with this
paragraph shall disqualify an alien from being approved for
work authorization under this Act.
``(2) Notification if absent on january 1.--Each alien
required to be registered under this title who is temporarily
absent from the United States on the first day of January of
any year shall, not later than 10 days after date on which
the alien returns to the United States, provide the Secretary
of Homeland Security with the information described in
paragraph (1).
``(3) New address.--Each alien''.
(c) Treatment of Change of Address Form as Registration
Document.--Section 265 (8 U.S.C. 1305), as amended by
subsection (b), is further amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(d) Treatment as Registration Document.--For purposes of
this chapter, any notice of change of address submitted by an
alien under this section shall be treated as a registration
document under section 262.''.
(d) Technical Amendments.--Section 266 (8 U.S.C. 1306) is
amended--
(1) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(2) by striking subsection (b); and
(3) by redesignating subsection (c) and (d) as subsections
(b) and (c), respectively.
______
SA 1403. Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Hatch,
Mr. Bennett, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Sununu, Mr. Ensign, and Mr.
Gregg) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the
bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 238, beginning with line 13, strike all through
page 265, line 25, and insert the following:
(c) Granting Dual Intent to Certain Nonimmigrant
Students.--Section 214(h) (8 U.S.C. 1184(h)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``(H)(i)(b) or (c),'' and inserting
``(F)(iv), (H)(i)(b), (H)(i)(c),''; and
(2) by striking ``if the alien had obtained a change of
status'' and inserting ``if the alien had been admitted as,
provided status as, or obtained a change of status''.
SEC. 419. H-1B STREAMLINING AND SIMPLIFICATION.
(a) H-1B Amendments.--Section 214(g) (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking clauses (i) through
(vii) and inserting the following:
``(i) 115,000 in fiscal year 2008;
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, subject to clause
(iii), the number for the previous fiscal year as adjusted in
accordance with the method set forth in paragraph (2); and
``(iii) 180,000 for any fiscal year;''.
(2) in paragraph (9), as redesignated by section 409--
(A) in subparagraph (B)--
(i) in clause (ii), by striking ``The annual numerical
limitations described in clause (i) shall not exceed'' and
inserting ``Without respect to the annual numerical
limitations described in clause (i), the Secretary may issue
a visa or otherwise grant nonimmigrant status pursuant to
section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) in the following quantities:'';
and
(ii) by striking clause (iv); and
(B) by striking subparagraph (D).
(b) Ensuring Access to Skilled Workers in Specialty
Occupations.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (6) of section 214(g) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)), as
redesignated by section 409, is amended--
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``or'' after the
semicolon;
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``, until the number
of aliens who are exempted from such numerical limitation
during such year exceeds 20,000.'' and inserting ``; or'';
and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(D) has earned a master's or higher degree in science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics from an institution
of higher education outside of the United States.''.
(2) Applicability.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to any petition or visa application pending on
the date of enactment of this Act and any petition or visa
application filed on or after such date.
(c) Provision of W-2 Forms.--Section 214(g)(5), as
redesignated by section 409, is amended to read as follows:
``(5) In the case of a nonimmigrant described in section
101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b)--
``(A) the period of authorized admission as such a
nonimmigrant may not exceed 6 years (except for a
nonimmigrant who has filed a petition for an immigrant visa
under section 203(b)(1), if 365 days or more have elapsed
since filing and it has not been denied, in which case the
Secretary of Homeland Security may extend the stay of an
alien in 1-year increments until such time as a final
decision is made on the alien's lawful permanent residence);
``(B) if the alien is granted an initial period of
admission less than 6 years, any subsequent application for
an extension of stay for such alien shall include the Form W-
2 Wage and Tax Statement filed by the employer for such
employee, and such other form or information relating to such
employment as the Secretary of Homeland Security, in the
discretion of the Secretary, may specify, with respect to
such nonimmigrant alien employee for the period of admission
granted to the alien; and
``(C) notwithstanding section 6103 of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986, or any other law, the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue
[[Page 14884]]
or the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration
shall upon request of the Secretary confirm whether the Form
W-2 Wage and Tax Statement filed by the employer under
subparagraph (B) matches a Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement
filed with the Internal Revenue Service or the Social
Security Administration, as the case may be.''.
(d) Extension of H-1B Status for Merit-Based Adjustment
Applicants.--
(1) In general.--Section 214(g)(4), as redesignated by
section 409, is amended--
(A) by inserting ``(A)'' after ``(4)'';
(B) by striking ``If an alien'' and inserting the
following:
``(B) If an alien''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(D) Subparagraph (B) shall not apply to such a
nonimmigrant who has filed a petition for an immigrant visa
accompanied by a qualifying employer recommendation under
section 203(b)(1), if 365 days or more have elapsed since
filing and it has not been denied, in which case the
Secretary of Homeland Security may extend the stay of an
alien in 1-year increments until such time as a final
decision is made on the alien's lawful permanent
residence.''.
(2) Repeal.--Section 106 of the American Competitiveness in
the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (8 U.S.C. 1184 note) is
amended by striking subsections (a) and (b).
SEC. 420. H-1B EMPLOYER REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Application of Nondisplacement and Good Faith
Recruitment Requirements to All H-1B Employers.--
(1) Amendments.--Section 212(n) (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)) is
amended--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) in subparagraph (E)--
(I) in clause (i), by striking ``(E)(i) In the case of an
application described in clause (ii), the'' and inserting
``(E) The''; and
(II) by striking clause (ii);
(ii) in subparagraph (F), by striking ``In the case of''
and all that follows through ``where--'' and inserting ``The
employer will not place the nonimmigrant with another
employer if--''; and
(iii) in subparagraph (G), by striking ``In the case of an
application described in subparagraph (E)(ii), subject'' and
inserting ``Subject'';
(B) in paragraph (2)--
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking ``If an H-1B-dependent
employer'' and inserting ``If an employer that employs H-1B
nonimmigrants''; and
(ii) in subparagraph (F), by striking ``The preceding
sentence shall apply to an employer regardless of whether or
not the employer is an H-1B-dependent employer.''; and
(C) by striking paragraph (3).
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to applications filed on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(b) Nondisplacement Requirement.--
(1) Extending time period for nondisplacement.--Section
212(n), as amended by subsection (a), is further amended--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking ``90 days'' each place
it appears and inserting ``180 days'';
(ii) in subparagraph (F)(ii), by striking ``90 days'' each
place it appears and inserting ``180 days''; and
(B) in paragraph (2)(C)(iii), by striking ``90 days'' each
place it appears and inserting ``180 days''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)--
(A) shall apply to applications filed on or after the date
of the enactment of this Act; and
(B) shall not apply to displacements for periods occurring
more than 90 days before such date.
(c) H-1B Nonimmigrants Not Admitted for Jobs Advertised or
Offered Only to H-1B Nonimmigrants.--Section 212(n)(1), as
amended by this section, is further amended--
(1) by inserting after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H)(i) The employer has not advertised the available jobs
specified in the application in an advertisement that states
or indicates that--
``(I) the job or jobs are only available to persons who are
or who may become H-1B nonimmigrants; or
``(II) persons who are or who may become H-1B nonimmigrants
shall receive priority or a preference in the hiring process.
``(ii) The employer has not only recruited persons who are,
or who may become, H-1B nonimmigrants to fill the job or
jobs.''; and
(2) in the undesignated paragraph at the end, by striking
``The employer'' and inserting the following:
``(K) The employer''.
(d) Limit on Percentage of H-1B Employees.--Section
212(n)(1), as amended by this section, is further amended by
inserting after subparagraph (H), as added by subsection
(c)(1), the following:
``(I) If the employer employs not less than 50 employees in
the United States, not more than 50 percent of such employees
are H-1B nonimmigrants.''.
SEC. 421. H-1B GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY AND REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Safeguards Against Fraud and Misrepresentation in
Application Review Process.--Section 212(n)(1)(K), as
redesignated by section 420(c)(2), is amended--
(1) by inserting ``and through the Department of Labor's
website, without charge.'' after ``D.C.'';
(2) by inserting ``, clear indicators of fraud,
misrepresentation of material fact,'' after ``completeness'';
(3) by striking ``or obviously inaccurate'' and inserting
``, presents clear indicators of fraud or misrepresentation
of material fact, or is obviously inaccurate'';
(4) by striking ``within 7 days of'' and inserting ``not
later than 14 days after''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following: ``If the
Secretary's review of an application identifies clear
indicators of fraud or misrepresentation of material fact,
the Secretary may conduct an investigation and hearing under
paragraph (2).''
(b) Investigations by Department of Labor.--Section
212(n)(2) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A)--
(A) by striking ``12 months'' and inserting ``24 months'';
and
(B) by striking ``The Secretary shall conduct'' and all
that follows and inserting ``Upon the receipt of such a
complaint, the Secretary may initiate an investigation to
determine if such a failure or misrepresentation has
occurred.'';
(2) in subparagraph (C)(i)--
(A) by striking ``a condition of paragraph (1)(B), (1)(E),
or (1)(F)'' and inserting ``a condition under subparagraph
(B), (C)(i), (E), (F), (H), (I), or (J) of paragraph (1)'';
and
(B) by striking ``(1)(C)'' and inserting ``(1)(C)(ii)'';
(3) in subparagraph (G)--
(A) in clause (i), by striking ``if the Secretary'' and all
that follows and inserting ``with regard to the employer's
compliance with the requirements of this subsection.'';
(B) in clause (ii), by striking ``and whose identity'' and
all that follows through ``failure or failures.'' and
inserting ``the Secretary of Labor may conduct an
investigation into the employer's compliance with the
requirements of this subsection.'';
(C) in clause (iii), by striking the last sentence;
(D) by striking clauses (iv) and (v);
(E) by redesignating clauses (vi), (vii), and (viii) as
clauses (iv), (v), and (vi), respectively;
(F) in clause (iv), as redesignated, by striking ``meet a
condition described in clause (ii), unless the Secretary of
Labor receives the information not later than 12 months'' and
inserting ``comply with the requirements under this
subsection, unless the Secretary of Labor receives the
information not later than 24 months'';
(G) by amending clause (v), as redesignated, to read as
follows:
``(v) The Secretary of Labor shall provide notice to an
employer of the intent to conduct an investigation. The
notice shall be provided in such a manner, and shall contain
sufficient detail, to permit the employer to respond to the
allegations before an investigation is commenced. The
Secretary is not required to comply with this clause if the
Secretary determines that such compliance would interfere
with an effort by the Secretary to investigate or secure
compliance by the employer with the requirements of this
subsection. A determination by the Secretary under this
clause shall not be subject to judicial review.'';
(H) in clause (vi), as redesignated, by striking ``An
investigation'' and all that follows through ``the
determination.'' and inserting ``If the Secretary of Labor,
after an investigation under clause (i) or (ii), determines
that a reasonable basis exists to make a finding that the
employer has failed to comply with the requirements under
this subsection, the Secretary shall provide interested
parties with notice of such determination and an opportunity
for a hearing in accordance with section 556 of title 5,
United States Code, not later than 120 days after the date of
such determination.''; and
(I) by adding at the end the following:
``(vii) If the Secretary of Labor, after a hearing, finds a
reasonable basis to believe that the employer has violated
the requirements under this subsection, the Secretary may
impose a penalty under subparagraph (C).''; and
(4) by striking subparagraph (H).
(c) Information Sharing Between Department of Labor and
Department of Homeland Security.--Section 212(n)(2), as
amended by this section, is further amended by inserting
after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H) The Director of United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services shall provide the Secretary of Labor
with any information contained in the materials submitted by
H-1B employers as part of the adjudication process that
indicates that the employer is not complying with H-1B visa
program requirements. The Secretary may initiate and conduct
an investigation and hearing under this paragraph after
receiving information of noncompliance under this
subparagraph.''.
(d) Audits.--Section 212(n)(2)(A), as amended by this
section, is further amended by adding at the end the
following: ``The Secretary may conduct surveys of the degree
to which employers comply with the requirements under this
subsection and may conduct annual compliance audits of
employers
[[Page 14885]]
that employ H-1B nonimmigrants. The Secretary shall conduct
annual compliance audits of not less than 1 percent of the
employers that employ H-1B nonimmigrants during the
applicable calendar year.''
(e) Penalties.--Section 212(n)(2)(C), as amended by this
section, is further amended--
(1) in clause (i)(I), by striking ``$1,000'' and inserting
``$2,000'';
(2) in clause (ii)(I), by striking ``$5,000'' and inserting
``$10,000''; and
(3) in clause (vi)(III), by striking ``$1,000'' and
inserting ``$2,000''.
(f) Information Provided to H-1B Nonimmigrants Upon Visa
Issuance.--Section 212(n), as amended by this section, is
further amended by inserting after paragraph (2) the
following:
``(3)(A) Upon issuing an H-1B visa to an applicant outside
the United States, the issuing office shall provide the
applicant with--
``(i) a brochure outlining the employer's obligations and
the employee's rights under Federal law, including labor and
wage protections; and
``(ii) the contact information for Federal agencies that
can offer more information or assistance in clarifying
employer obligations and workers' rights.
``(B) Upon the issuance of an H-1B visa to an alien inside
the United States, the officer of the Department of Homeland
Security shall provide the applicant with--
``(i) a brochure outlining the employer's obligations and
the employee's rights under Federal law, including labor and
wage protections; and
``(ii) the contact information for Federal agencies that
can offer more information or assistance in clarifying
employer's obligations and workers rights.''.
SEC. 422. L-1 VISA FRAUD AND ABUSE PROTECTIONS.
(a) In General.--Section 214(c)(2) (8 U.S.C. 1184(c)(2)) is
amended by inserting after subsection (F) the following:
``(G)(i) If the beneficiary of a petition under this
subsection is coming to the United States to open, or be
employed in, a new facility, the petition may be approved for
up to 12 months only if the employer operating the new
facility has--
``(I) a business plan;
``(II) sufficient physical premises to carry out the
proposed business activities; and
``(III) the financial ability to commence doing business
immediately upon the approval of the petition.
``(ii) An extension of the approval period under clause (i)
may not be granted until the importing employer submits an
application to the Secretary of Homeland Security that
contains--
``(I) evidence that the importing employer meets the
requirements of this subsection;
``(II) evidence that the beneficiary meets the requirements
under section 101(a)(15)(L);
``(III) a statement summarizing the original petition;
``(IV) evidence that the importing employer has fully
complied with the business plan submitted under clause
(i)(I);
``(V) evidence of the truthfulness of any representations
made in connection with the filing of the original petition;
``(VI) evidence that the importing employer, during the
preceding 12 months, has been doing business at the new
facility through regular, systematic, and continuous
provision of goods or services, or has otherwise been taking
commercially reasonable steps to establish the new facility
as a commercial enterprise;
``(VII) a statement of the duties the beneficiary has
performed at the new facility during the preceding 12 months
and the duties the beneficiary will perform at the new
facility during the extension period approved under this
clause;
``(VIII) a statement describing the staffing at the new
facility, including the number of employees and the types of
positions held by such employees;
``(IX) evidence of wages paid to employees;
``(X) evidence of the financial status of the new facility;
and
``(XI) any other evidence or data prescribed by the
Secretary.
``(iii) Notwithstanding subclauses (I) through (VI) of
clause (ii), and subject to the maximum period of authorized
admission set forth in subparagraph (D), the Secretary of
Homeland Security may approve a petition subsequently filed
on behalf of the beneficiary to continue employment at the
facility described in this subsection for a period beyond the
initially granted 12-month period if the importing employer
demonstrates that the failure to satisfy any of the
requirements described in those subclauses was directly
caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of
the importing employer.
``(iv) For purposes of determining the eligibility of an
alien for classification under section 101(a)(15)(L), the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall work cooperatively with
the Secretary of State to verify a company or facility's
existence in the United States and abroad.''.
(b) Investigations and Audits by Department of Homeland
Security.--
(1) Department of homeland security investigations.--
Section 214(c)(2) is amended by inserting after subparagraph
(G), as added by subsection (a), the following:
``(H)(i) The Secretary of Homeland Security may initiate an
investigation of any employer that employs nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L) with regard to the
employer's compliance with the requirements of this
subsection.
``(ii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security receives
specific credible information from a source who is likely to
have knowledge of an employer's practices, employment
conditions, or compliance with the requirements under this
subsection, the Secretary may conduct an investigation into
the employer's compliance with the requirements of this
subsection. The Secretary may withhold the identity of the
source from the employer, and the source's identity shall not
be subject to disclosure under section 552 of title 5.
``(iii) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish
a procedure for any person desiring to provide to the
Secretary of Homeland Security information described in
clause (ii) that may be used, in whole or in part, as the
basis for the commencement of an investigation described in
such clause, to provide the information in writing on a form
developed and provided by the Secretary of Homeland Security
and completed by or on behalf of the person.
``(iv) No investigation described in clause (ii) (or
hearing described in clause (vi) based on such investigation)
may be conducted with respect to information about a failure
to comply with the requirements under this subsection, unless
the Secretary of Homeland Security receives the information
not later than 24 months after the date of the alleged
failure.
``(v) Before commencing an investigation of an employer
under clause (i) or (ii), the Secretary of Homeland Security
shall provide notice to the employer of the intent to conduct
such investigation. The notice shall be provided in such a
manner, and shall contain sufficient detail, to permit the
employer to respond to the allegations before an
investigation is commenced. The Secretary is not required to
comply with this clause if the Secretary determines that to
do so would interfere with an effort by the Secretary to
investigate or secure compliance by the employer with the
requirements of this subsection. There shall be no judicial
review of a determination by the Secretary under this clause.
``(vi) If the Secretary of Homeland Security, after an
investigation under clause (i) or (ii), determines that a
reasonable basis exists to make a finding that the employer
has failed to comply with the requirements under this
subsection, the Secretary shall provide interested parties
with notice of such determination and an opportunity for a
hearing in accordance with section 556 of title 5, United
States Code, not later than 120 days after the date of such
determination. If such a hearing is requested, the Secretary
shall make a finding concerning the matter by not later than
120 days after the date of the hearing.
``(vii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security, after a
hearing, finds a reasonable basis to believe that the
employer has violated the requirements under this subsection,
the Secretary may impose a penalty under section
214(c)(2)(J).''.
(2) Audits.--Section 214(c)(2)(H), as added by paragraph
(1), is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(viii) The Secretary of Homeland Security may conduct
surveys of the degree to which employers comply with the
requirements under this section and may conduct annual
compliance audits of employers that employ H-1B
nonimmigrants. The Secretary shall conduct annual compliance
audits of not less than 1 percent of the employers that
employ nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L)
during the applicable calendar year.''.
(3) Reporting requirement.--Section 214(c)(8) of such Act
is amended by inserting ``(L),'' after ``(H),''.
(c) Penalties.--Section 214(c)(2) is amended by inserting
after subparagraph (H), as added by subsection (b), the
following:
``(I)(i) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a failure by an
employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (F), (G),
(H), (I), or (K) or a misrepresentation of material fact in a
petition to employ 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $2,000 per violation) as
the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the Secretary of Homeland Security may not, during a
period of at least 1 year, approve a petition for that
employer to employ 1 or more aliens as such nonimmigrants.
``(ii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a willful failure by
an employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (F), (G),
(H), (I), or (K) or a misrepresentation of material fact in a
petition to employ 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in
[[Page 14886]]
an amount not to exceed $10,000 per violation) as the
Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the Secretary of Homeland Security may not, during a
period of at least 2 years, approve a petition filed for that
employer to employ 1 or more aliens as such nonimmigrants.
``(iii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a willful failure by
an employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (L)(i)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per violation)
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the employer shall be liable to employees harmed for
lost wages and benefits.''.
SEC. 423. WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS.
(a) H-1B Whistleblower Protections.--Section
212(n)(2)(C)(iv) (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)(2)(C)(iv)) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``take, fail to take, or threaten to take
or fail to take, a personnel action, or'' before ``to
intimidate''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following: ``An employer that
violates this clause shall be liable to the employees harmed
by such violation for lost compensation, including back
pay.''.
(b) L-1 Whistleblower Protections.--Section 214(c)(2) is
amended by inserting after subparagraph (I), as added by
section 423, the following:
``(J)(i) It is a violation of this subparagraph for an
employer who has filed a petition to import 1 or more aliens
as nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L) to take,
fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take, a
personnel action, or to intimidate, threaten, restrain,
coerce, blacklist, discharge, or discriminate in any other
manner against an employee because the employee--
``(I) has disclosed information that the employee
reasonably believes evidences a violation of this subsection,
or any rule or regulation pertaining to this subsection; or
``(II) cooperates or seeks to cooperate with the
requirements of this subsection, or any rule or regulation
pertaining to this subsection.
``(ii) An employer that violates this subparagraph shall be
liable to the employees harmed by such violation for lost
wages and benefits.
``(iii) In this subparagraph, the term `employee'
includes--
``(I) a current employee;
``(II) a former employee; and
``(III) an applicant for employment.''.
SEC. 424. LIMITATIONS ON APPROVAL OF L-1 PETITIONS FOR START-
UP COMPANIES.
Section 214(c)(2), as amended by sections 422 and 423, is
further amended--
(1) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(2) in subparagraph (E), by striking ``In the case of an
alien spouse admitted under section 101(a)(15)(L), who'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subparagraph (L), if an
alien spouse admitted under section 101(a)(15)(L)''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(K)(i) If the beneficiary of a petition under this
subsection is coming to the United States to be employed in a
new office, the petition may be approved for a period not to
exceed 12 months only if the alien has not been the
beneficiary of 2 or more petitions under this subparagraph
within the immediately preceding 2 years and only if the
employer operating the new office has--
``(I) an adequate business plan;
``(II) sufficient physical premises to carry out the
proposed business activities; and
``(III) the financial ability to commence doing business
immediately upon the approval of the petition.
``(ii) An extension of the approval period under clause (i)
may not be granted until the importing employer submits to
the Secretary of Homeland Security--
``(I) evidence that the importing employer meets the
requirements of this subsection;
``(II) evidence that the beneficiary meets the requirements
of section 101(a)(15)(L);
``(III) a statement summarizing the original petition;
``(IV) evidence that the importing employer has
substantially complied with the business plan submitted under
clause (i);
``(V) evidence of the truthfulness of any representations
made in connection with the filing of the original petition
if requested by the Secretary;
``(VI) evidence that the importing employer, from the date
of petition approval under clause (i), has been doing
business at the new office through regular, systematic, and
continuous provision of goods or services;
``(VII) a statement of the duties the beneficiary has
performed at the new office during the approval period under
clause (i) and the duties the beneficiary will perform at the
new office during the extension period approved under this
clause;
``(VIII) a statement describing the staffing at the new
office, including the number of employees and the types of
positions held by such employees;
``(IX) evidence of wages paid to employees if the
beneficiary will be employed in a managerial or executive
capacity;
``(X) evidence of the financial status of the new office;
and
``(XI) any other evidence or data prescribed by the
Secretary.
``(iii) A new office employing the beneficiary of an L-1
petition approved under this subparagraph shall do business
through regular, systematic, and continuous provision of
goods or services for the entire period of petition approval.
``(iv) Notwithstanding clause (iii) or subclauses (I)
through (VI) of clause (ii), and subject to the maximum
period of authorized admission set forth in subparagraph (D),
the Secretary of Homeland Security, in the discretion of the
Secretary, may approve a subsequently filed petition on
behalf of the beneficiary to continue employment at the
office described in this subsection for a period beyond the
initially granted 12-month period if the importing employer
has been doing business at the new office through regular,
systematic, and continuous provision of goods or services for
the 6 months immediately preceding the date of extension
petition filing and demonstrates that the failure to satisfy
any of the requirements described in those subclauses was
directly caused by extraordinary circumstances, as determined
by the Secretary, in the discretion of the Secretary.
``(L)(i) The Secretary of Homeland Security may not
authorize the spouse of an alien described under section
101(a)(15)(L), who is a dependent of a beneficiary under
subparagraph (K), to engage in employment in the United
States during the initial 12-month period described in
subparagraph (K)(i).
``(ii) A spouse described in clause (i) may be provided
employment authorization upon the approval of an extension
under subparagraph (K)(ii).
``(M) For purposes of determining the eligibility of an
alien for classification under section 101(a)(15)(L), the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish procedures
with the Department of State to verify a company or office's
existence in the United States and abroad.''.
SEC. 425. MEDICAL SERVICES IN UNDERSERVED AREAS.
(a) Permanent Authorization of the Conrad Program.--
(1) In general.--Section 220(c) of the Immigration and
Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 (8 U.S.C. 1182
note) (as amended by section 1(a) of Public Law 108-441 and
section 2 of Public Law 109-477) is amended by striking ``and
before June 1, 2008.''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall take effect as if enacted on June 1, 2007.
(b) Pilot Program Requirements.--Section 214(l) (8 U.S.C.
1184(l)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(4)(A) Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary of
Homeland Security may grant up to a total of 50 waivers for a
State under section 212(e) in a fiscal year if, after the
first 30 such waivers for the State are granted in that
fiscal year--
``(i) an interested State agency requests a waiver; and
``(ii) the requirements under subparagraph (B) are met.
``(B) The requirements under this subparagraph are met if--
``(i) fewer than 20 percent of the physician vacancies in
the health professional shortage areas of the State, as
designated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
were filled in the most recent fiscal year;
``(ii) all of the waivers allotted for the State under
paragraph (1)(B)) were used in the most recent fiscal year;
and
``(iii) all underserved highly rural States--
``(I) used the minimum guaranteed number of waivers under
section 212(e) in health professional shortage areas in the
most recent fiscal year; or
``(II) all agreed to waive the right to receive the minimum
guaranteed number of such waivers.
``(C) In this paragraph:
``(i) The term `health professional shortage area' has the
meaning given the term in section 332(a)(1) of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254e(a)(1)).
``(ii) The term `underserved highly rural State' means a
State with at least 30 counties with a population density of
not more than 10 people per square mile, based on the latest
available decennial census conducted by the Bureau of Census.
``(iii) The term `minimum guaranteed number' means--
``(I) for the first fiscal year of the pilot program, 15;
``(II) for each subsequent fiscal year, the sum of--
``(aa) the minimum guaranteed number for the second fiscal
year; and
``(bb) if any State received additional waivers under this
paragraph in the first fiscal year;
``(III) for the third fiscal year, the sum of--
``(aa) the minimum guaranteed number for the second fiscal
year; and
``(bb) if any State received additional waivers under this
paragraph in the first fiscal year.''.
(c) Termination Date.--Section 214(l)(4) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act, as
[[Page 14887]]
added by subsection (b), is repealed on September 30, 2011.
(d) Medical Professionals.--Section 212(j) (8 U.S.C.
1182(j)) is amended--
(1) by redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (3);
(2) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
``(2)(A) An alien who is coming to the United States to
receive graduate medical education or training (or seeks to
acquire status as a nonimmigrant under section 1101(a)(15)(J)
to receive graduate medical education or training) may not
change status under section 1258 to a nonimmigrant under
section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) until the alien graduates from
the medical education or training program and meets the
requirements of paragraph (3)(B).
``(B) Any occupation that an alien described in paragraph
(2)(A) may be employed in while receiving graduate medical
education or training shall not be deemed a `specialty
occupation' within the meaning of section 1184(i) for
purposes of section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b).''; and
(3) in paragraph (3), as redesignated by paragraph (1) of
this subsection, by striking the matter preceding
subparagraph (A) and inserting the following:
``(3) An alien who has graduated from a medical school and
who is coming to the United States to practice primary care
or specialty medicine as a member of the medical profession
may not be admitted as a nonimmigrant under section
1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of this title unless--'';
(e) Definition.--Section 101(a)(15)(J) is amended by
inserting ``(except an alien coming to the United States to
receive graduate medical education or training)'' after
``abandoning''.
(f) Intention to Abandon Foreign Residence.--Section 214(h)
(8 U.S.C. 1184(h)) is amended by inserting ``(E), (J) (if the
alien is coming to the United States to receive graduate
medical education or training),'' after ``described in
subparagraph''.
(g) Medical Residents Ineligible for H-1B Nonimmigrant
Status.--Section 214(i)(1) (8 U.S.C. 1184(i)) is amended to
read as follows:
``(1) Except as provided in paragraph (3), for purposes of
section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), section 101(a)(15)(E)(iii), and
paragraph (2), the term `specialty occupation'--
``(A) means an occupation that requires--
``(i) theoretical and practical application of a body of
highly specialized knowledge; and
``(ii) attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the
specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry
into the occupation in the United States; and
``(B) shall not include graduate medical education or
training.''.
(h) Waiver of Foreign Residence Requirement.--Section
214(l) (8 U.S.C. 1184(l)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) in subparagraph (C)--
(i) in clause (i), by striking ``Attorney General to be in
the public interest; and'' and inserting ``Secretary of
Homeland Security to be in the public interest;'';
(ii) by striking subclause (ii) and inserting the
following:
``(ii) the alien has accepted employment with the health
facility or health care organization and agrees to continue
to work for a total of not less than 3 years; and
``(iii) the alien begins employment not later than 90 days
after the later of the date on which the alien--
``(I) received such waiver; or
``(II) received nonimmigrant status or employment
authorization pursuant to an application filed under
paragraph (2)(A) (if such application is filed not later than
90 days after eligibility of completing graduate medical
education or training under a program approved pursuant to
section 212(j)(1));'';
(B) by striking the period at the end and inserting the
following: ``; or
``(E) in the case of a request by an interested State
agency, the alien agrees to practice primary care or
specialty medicine care, for a continuous period of 2 years,
only at a federally qualified health facility, health care
organization or center, or in a rural health clinic that is
located in--
``(i) a geographic area which is designated by the
Secretary of Health and Human Services as having a shortage
of health care professionals; and
``(ii) a State that utilized less than 10 of the total
allotted waivers for the State under paragraph (1)(B)
(excluding the number of waivers available pursuant to
paragraph (1)(D)(ii)) in the most recent fiscal year.'';
(2) in paragraph (2), by amending subparagraph (A) to read
as follows:
``(A) Notwithstanding section 248(a)(2), upon submission of
a request to an interested Federal agency or an interested
State agency for recommendation of a waiver under this
section by a physician who is maintaining valid nonimmigrant
status under section 101(a)(15)(J), the Secretary of Homeland
Security may accept as properly filed an application to
change the status of such physician to [any applicable
nonimmigrant status]. Upon favorable recommendation by the
Secretary of State of such request, and approval by the
Secretary of Homeland Security the waiver under this section,
the Secretary of Homeland Security may change the status of
such physician to that of [an appropriate nonimmigrant
status.]''.
(3) in paragraph (3)(A), by inserting ``requirement of or''
before ``agreement entered into''.
(i) Period of Authorized Admission for Physicians on H-1B
Visas Who Work in Medically Underserved Communities.--Section
214(g)(5), as renumbered by section 409 and amended by
section 719(c), is further amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(D) The period of authorized admission under subparagraph
(A) shall not apply to an alien physician who fulfills the
requirements under subsection (l)(1)(E) and who has practiced
primary or specialty care in a medically underserved
community for a continuous period of 5 years.''.
SEC. 426. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be
necessary to carry out this title, and the amendments made by
this title.
TITLE V--IMMIGRATION BENEFITS
SEC. 501. REBALANCING OF IMMIGRANT VISA ALLOCATION.
(a) Family-Sponsored Immigrants.--Section 201(c) (8 U.S.C.
1151(c)) is amended to read as follows:
``(c) Worldwide Level of Family-Sponsored Immigrants.--
``(1) For each fiscal year until visas needed for petitions
described in section 503(f)(2) of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007
become available, the worldwide level of family-sponsored
immigrants under this subsection is 567,000 for petitions for
classifications under section 203(a), plus any immigrant
visas not required for the class specified in subsection (d).
``(2) Except as provided in paragraph (1), the worldwide
level of family-sponsored immigrants under this subsection
for a fiscal year is 127,000, plus any immigrant visas not
required for the class specified in subsection (d).''.
(b) Merit-Based Immigrants.--Section 201(d) (8 U.S.C.
1151(d)) is amended to read as follows:
``(d) Worldwide Level of Merit-Based, Special, and
Employment Creation Immigrants.--
``(1) In general.--The worldwide level of merit-based,
special, and employment creation immigrants under this
subsection--
``(A) for the first 5 fiscal years shall be equal to the
number of immigrant visas made available to aliens seeking
immigrant visas under section 203(b) for fiscal year 2005,
plus any immigrant visas not required for the class specified
in subsection (c), of which--
``(i) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens in
nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y); and
``(ii) 90,000 will be for aliens who were the beneficiaries
of an application that was pending or approved on the
effective date of this section, as described in section
502(d) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007;
``(B) starting in the sixth fiscal year, shall be equal to
140,000 for each fiscal year until aliens described in
section 101(a)(15)(Z) first become eligible for an immigrant
visa, plus any immigrant visas not required for the class
specified in subsection (c), of which--
``(i) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens in
nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y); and
``(ii) not more than 90,000 will be for aliens who were the
beneficiaries of an application that was pending or approved
on the effective date of this section, as described in
section 502(d) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity,
and Immigration Reform Act of 2007; and
``(C)(i) 380,000, for each fiscal year starting in the
first fiscal year in which aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) become eligible for an immigrant visa, of which
at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens of
nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y), plus any
immigrant visas not required for the class specified in
subsection (c), plus
``(ii) the temporary supplemental allocation of additional
visas described in paragraph (2) for nonimmigrants described
in section 101(a)(15)(Z).
``(2) Temporary supplemental allocation.--The temporary
supplemental allocation of visas described in this paragraph
is as follows:
``(A) For the first 5 fiscal years in which aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an
immigrant visa, the number calculated pursuant to section
503(f)(2) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
``(B) In the sixth fiscal year in which aliens described in
section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa, the
number calculated pursuant to section 503(f)(3) of Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007.
``(C) Starting in the seventh fiscal year in which aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an
immigrant visa, the number equal to the number of aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) who became aliens admitted
for permanent residence based on the merit-based evaluation
system in the prior
[[Page 14888]]
fiscal year until no further aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) adjust status.
``(3) Termination of temporary supplemental allocation.--
The temporary supplemental allocation of visas described in
paragraph (2) shall terminate when the number of visas
calculated pursuant to paragraph (2)(C) is zero.
``(4) Limitation.--The temporary supplemental visas
described in paragraph (2) shall not be awarded to any
individual other than an individual described in section
101(a)(15)(Z).''.
(c) Providing Exemptions From Merit-Based Levels for Very
Highly Skilled Immigrants.--Section 201(b)(1) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (as amended by section
503(a)) (8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(1)) is further amended by inserting
after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H) Aliens who have earned a master's or higher degree
from a United States institution of higher education, as such
term is defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)).
``(I) Aliens who have earned a master's degree or higher
degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics
and have been working in a related field in the United States
in a nonimmigrant status during the 3-year period preceding
their application for an immigrant visa under section 203(b).
``(J) Aliens who--
``(i) have extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts,
education, business, or athletics which has been demonstrated
by sustained national or international acclaim and whose
achievements have been recognized in the field through
extensive documentation; and
``(ii) seek to enter the United States to continue work in
the area of extraordinary ability.
``(K) Aliens who--
``(i) are recognized internationally as outstanding in a
specific academic area;
``(ii) have at least 3 years of experience in teaching or
research in the academic area; and
``(iii) who seek to enter the United States for--
``(I) a tenured position (or tenure-track position) within
an institution of higher education to teach in the academic
area;
``(II) a comparable position with an institution of higher
education to conduct research in the area; or
``(III) a comparable position to conduct research in the
area with a department, division, or institute of a private
employer, if the department, division, or institute employs
at least 3 persons full-time in research activities and has
achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field.
``(L) The immediate relatives of an alien who is admitted
as a merit-based employer-sponsored immigrant under
subsection 203(b)(5).''.
(d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the first day of the fiscal year
subsequent to the fiscal year of enactment.
SEC. 502. INCREASING AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH A
MERIT-BASED EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR IMMIGRANTS.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the United States benefits from a workforce that has diverse
skills, experience, and training.
(b) Creation of Merit-Based Evaluation System for
Immigrants and Reallocation of Visas.--Section 203(b) (8
U.S.C. 1153(b)) is amended--
(1) by striking paragraphs (1) through (3) and inserting
the following:
``(1) Merit-based immigrants.--Visas shall first be made
available in a number not to exceed 95 percent of such
worldwide level, plus any visas not required for the classes
in paragraphs (2) and (3), to qualified immigrants selected
through a merit-based evaluation system.
``(A) The merit-based evaluation system shall initially
consist of the following criteria and weights:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
``Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Employment ................................... 47
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the Department of
Labor)-20 pts
U.S. employment in high demand
occupation (the 30 occupations
that have grown the most in the
preceding 10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics)-16 pts
National interest/ U.S. employment in STEM or health
critical infrastructure occupation, current for at least 1
year-8 pts (extraordinary or
ordinary)
Employer endorsement A U.S. employer willing to pay 50%
of a legal permanent resident's
application fee either 1) offers a
job, or 2) attests for a current
employee-6 pts
Experience Years of work for U.S. firm-2 pts/
year
(max 10 points)
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39-3 points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Education M.D., M.B.A., Graduate degree, etc.- 28
(terminal degree) 20 pts
Bachelor's Degree-16 pts
Associate's Degree-10 pts
High school diploma or GED-6 pts
Completed certified Perkins
Vocational Education program-5 pts
Completed Department of Labor
Registered Apprenticeship-8 pts
STEM, associates and above-8 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``English and civics Native speaker of English or 15
TOEFL score of 75 or higher-15 pts
TOEFL score of 60-74-10 pts
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests in
English & Civics-6 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Extended family Adult (21 or older) son or daughter 10
(Applied if threshold of of United States citizen-8 points
55 in above categories)
Adult (21 or older) son or daughter
of a legal permanent resident-6
pts
Sibling of United States citizen or
LPR-4 pts
If had applied for a family visa in
any of the above categories after
May 1, 2005-2 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Total ................................... 100
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
``Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Supplemental schedule
for Zs
Agriculture National Worked in agriculture for 3 years, 25
Interest 150 days per year-21 pts
Worked in agriculture for 4 years
(150 days for 3 years, 100 days
for 1 year)-23 pts
Worked in agriculture for 5 years,
100 days per year-25 pts
U.S. employment Year of lawful employment-1 pt 15
experience
Home ownership Own place of residence-1 pt/year 5
owned
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical insurance Current medical insurance for 5
entire family
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security, after
consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary
of Labor, shall establish procedures to adjudicate petitions
filed pursuant to the merit-based evaluation system. The
Secretary may establish a time period in a fiscal year in
which such petitions must be submitted.
``(C) The Standing Commission on Immigration and Labor
Markets established pursuant to section 407 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 shall submit recommendations to Congress concerning the
establishment of procedures for modifying the selection
criteria and relative weights accorded such criteria in order
to ensure that the merit-based evaluation system corresponds
to the current needs of the United States economy and the
national interest.
``(D) No modifications to the selection criteria and
relative weights accorded such criteria that are established
by the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Reform Act of 2007 should take effect earlier than the sixth
fiscal year in which aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa.
``(E) The application of the selection criteria to any
particular visa petition or application pursuant to the
merit-based evaluation system shall be within the Secretary's
sole and unreviewable discretion.
``(F) Any petition filed pursuant to this paragraph that
has not been found by the Secretary to have qualified in the
merit-based evaluation system shall be deemed denied on the
first day of the third fiscal year following the date on
which such petition was filed. Such denial shall not preclude
the petitioner from filing a successive petition pursuant to
this paragraph. Notwithstanding this paragraph, the Secretary
may deny a petition when denial is appropriate under other
provisions of law, including but not limited to section
204(c).'';
``(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
paragraph, the requirements of this paragraph shall apply
only to merit-based, self-sponsored immigrants and not to
merit-
[[Page 14889]]
based, employer-sponsored immigrants described in paragraph
(5).
``(H) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
paragraph, any reference in this paragraph to a worldwide
level of visas refers to the worldwide level specified in
section 201(d)(1).'';
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (4) through (6) as
paragraphs (2) through (4), respectively;
(3) in paragraph (2), as redesignated by paragraph (3)--
(A) by striking ``7.1 percent of such worldwide level'' and
inserting ``4,200 of the worldwide level specified in section
201(d)(1)''; and
(B) by striking ``5,000'' and inserting ``2,500'';
(4) in paragraph (3), as redesignated by paragraph (3)--
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``7.1 percent of such
worldwide level'' and inserting ``2,800 of the worldwide
level specified in section 201(d)(1)''; and
(B) in subparagraph (B)(i), by striking ``3,000'' and
inserting ``1,500''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following
``(5) Merit-based employer-sponsored immigrants.--
``(A) Priority workers.--Visas shall first be made
available in a number not to exceed 33.3 percent of the
worldwide level specified in section 201(d)(5), to qualified
immigrants who are aliens described in any of clauses (i)
through (iii):
``(i) Aliens with extraordinary ability.--An alien is
described in this clause if--
``(I) the alien has extraordinary ability in the sciences,
arts, education, business, or athletics which has been
demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim
and whose achievements have been recognized in the field
through extensive documentation;
``(II) the alien seeks to enter the United States to
continue work in the area of extraordinary ability; and
``(III) the alien's entry into the United States will
substantially benefit prospectively the United States.
``(ii) Outstanding professors and researchers.--An alien is
described in this clause if--
``(I) the alien is recognized internationally as
outstanding in a specific academic area;
``(II) the alien has at least 3 years of experience in
teaching or research in the academic area; and
``(III) the alien seeks to enter the United States--
``(aa) for a tenured position (or tenure-track position)
within an institution of higher education (as such term is
defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965
(20 U.S.C. 1001(a)) to teach in the academic area;
``(bb) for a comparable position with an institution of
higher education to conduct research in the area, or
``(cc) for a comparable position to conduct research in the
area with a department, division, or institute of a private
employer, if the department, division, or institute employs
at least 3 individuals full-time in research activities and
has achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field.
``(iii) Certain multinational executives and managers.--An
alien is described in this clause if the alien, in the 3
years preceding the time of the alien's application for
classification and admission into the United States under
this paragraph, has been employed for at least 1 year by a
firm or corporation or other legal entity or an affiliate or
subsidiary thereof and the alien seeks to enter the United
States in order to continue to render services to the same
employer or to a subsidiary or affiliate thereof in a
capacity that is managerial or executive.
``(B) Aliens who are members of the professions holding
advanced degrees or aliens of exceptional ability.--
``(i) In general.--Visas shall be made available, in a
number not to exceed 33.3 percent of the worldwide level
specified in section 201(d)(5), plus any visas not required
for the classes specified in subparagraph (A), to qualified
immigrants who are members of the professions holding
advanced degrees or their equivalent or who because of their
exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business, will
substantially benefit prospectively the national economy,
cultural or educational interests, or welfare of the United
States, and whose services in the sciences, arts,
professions, or business are sought by an employer in the
United States.
``(ii) Determination of exceptional ability.--In
determining under clause (i) whether an immigrant has
exceptional ability, the possession of a degree, diploma,
certificate, or similar award from a college, university,
school, or other institution of learning or a license to
practice or certification for a particular profession or
occupation shall not by itself be considered sufficient
evidence of such exceptional ability.
``(C) Professionals.--
``(i) Visas shall be made available, in a number not to
exceed 33.3 percent of the worldwide level specified in
section 201(d)(5), plus any visas not required for the
classes specified in subparagraphs (A) and (B), to qualified
immigrants who hold baccalaureate degrees and who are members
of the professions and who are not described in subparagraph
(B).
``(D) Labor certification required.--An immigrant visa may
not be issued to an immigrant under subparagraph (B) or (C)
until there has been a determination made by the Secretary of
Labor that--
``(i) there are not sufficient workers who are able,
willing, qualified and available at the time such
determination is made and at the place where the alien, or a
substitute is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor; and
``(ii) the employment of such alien will not adversely
affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the
United States similarly employed.
An employer may not substitute another qualified alien for
the beneficiary of such determination unless an application
to do so is made to and approved by the Secretary of Homeland
Security.''.
(c) Worldwide Level of Merit-Based Employer-Sponsored
Immigrants.--Section 201(d) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(d)), as amended by section
501(b), is further amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(5) Worldwide level for merit-based employer-sponsored
immigrants.--
``(A) In general.--The worldwide level of merit-based
employer-sponsored immigrants under this paragraph for a
fiscal year is equal to--
``(i) 140,000, plus
``(ii) the number computed under subparagraph (B).
``(B) Additional number.--
``(i) Fiscal year 2007.--The number computed under this
subparagraph for fiscal year 2007 is zero.
``(ii) Fiscal year 2008.--The number computed under this
subparagraph for fiscal year 2008 is the difference (if any)
between the worldwide level established under subparagraph
(A) for the previous fiscal year and the number of visas
issued under section 203(b)(2) during that fiscal year.''.
______
SA 1404. Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Hatch,
Mr. Bennett, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Sununu, Mr. Ensign, and Mr.
Gregg) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the
bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 238, beginning with line 13, strike all through
page 239, line 38, and insert the following:
(c) Granting Dual Intent to Certain Nonimmigrant
Students.--Section 214(h) (8 U.S.C. 1184(h)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``(H)(i)(b) or (c),'' and inserting
``(F)(iv), (H)(i)(b), (H)(i)(c),''; and
(2) by striking ``if the alien had obtained a change of
status'' and inserting ``if the alien had been admitted as,
provided status as, or obtained a change of status''.
SEC. 419. H-1B STREAMLINING AND SIMPLIFICATION.
(a) H-1b Amendments.--Section 214(g) (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking clauses (i) through
(vii) and inserting the following:
``(i) 115,000 in fiscal year 2008;
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, subject to clause
(iii), the number for the previous fiscal year as adjusted in
accordance with the method set forth in paragraph (2); and
``(iii) 180,000 for any fiscal year;''.
(2) in paragraph (9), as redesignated by section 409--
(A) in subparagraph (B)--
(i) in clause (ii), by striking ``The annual numerical
limitations described in clause (i) shall not exceed'' and
inserting ``Without respect to the annual numerical
limitations described in clause (i), the Secretary may issue
a visa or otherwise grant nonimmigrant status pursuant to
section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) in the following quantities:'';
and
(ii) by striking clause (iv); and
(B) by striking subparagraph (D).
(b) Ensuring Access to Skilled Workers in Specialty
Occupations.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (6) of section 214(g) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)), as
redesignated by section 409, is amended--
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``or'' after the
semicolon;
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``, until the number
of aliens who are exempted from such numerical limitation
during such year exceeds 20,000.'' and inserting ``; or'';
and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(D) has earned a master's or higher degree in science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics from an institution
of higher education outside of the United States.''.
(2) Applicability.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to any petition or visa application pending on
the date of enactment of this Act and any petition or visa
application filed on or after such date.
______
SA 1405. Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Hatch,
Mr. Bennett, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Sununu, Mr. Ensign, and Mr.
[[Page 14890]]
Gregg) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 262, beginning with line 10, strike all through
page 265, line 25, and insert the following:
(c) Providing Exemptions From Merit-Based Levels for Very
Highly Skilled Immigrants.--Section 201(b)(1) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (as amended by section
503(a)) (8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(1)) is further amended by inserting
after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H) Aliens who have earned a master's or higher degree
from a United States institution of higher education, as such
term is defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)).
``(I) Aliens who have earned a master's degree or higher
degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics
and have been working in a related field in the United States
in a nonimmigrant status during the 3-year period preceding
their application for an immigrant visa under section 203(b).
``(J) Aliens who--
``(i) have extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts,
education, business, or athletics which has been demonstrated
by sustained national or international acclaim and whose
achievements have been recognized in the field through
extensive documentation; and
``(ii) seek to enter the United States to continue work in
the area of extraordinary ability.
``(K) Aliens who--
``(i) are recognized internationally as outstanding in a
specific academic area;
``(ii) have at least 3 years of experience in teaching or
research in the academic area; and
``(iii) who seek to enter the United States for--
``(I) a tenured position (or tenure-track position) within
an institution of higher education to teach in the academic
area;
``(II) a comparable position with an institution of higher
education to conduct research in the area; or
``(III) a comparable position to conduct research in the
area with a department, division, or institute of a private
employer, if the department, division, or institute employs
at least 3 persons full-time in research activities and has
achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field.
``(M) The immediate relatives of an alien who is admitted
as a merit-based employer-sponsored immigrant under
subsection 203(b)(5).''.
(d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the first day of the fiscal year
subsequent to the fiscal year of enactment.
SEC. 502. INCREASING AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH A
MERIT-BASED EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR IMMIGRANTS.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the United States benefits from a workforce that has diverse
skills, experience, and training.
(b) Creation of Merit-Based Evaluation System for
Immigrants and Reallocation of Visas.--Section 203(b) (8
U.S.C. 1153(b)) is amended--
(1) by striking paragraphs (1) through (3) and inserting
the following:
``(1) Merit-based immigrants.--Visas shall first be made
available in a number not to exceed 95 percent of such
worldwide level, plus any visas not required for the classes
in paragraphs (2) and (3), to qualified immigrants selected
through a merit-based evaluation system.
``(A) The merit-based evaluation system shall initially
consist of the following criteria and weights:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
``Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Employment ................................... 47
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the Department of
Labor)-20 pts
U.S. employment in high demand
occupation (the 30 occupations
that have grown the most in the
preceding 10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics)-16 pts
National interest/ U.S. employment in STEM or health
critical infrastructure occupation, current for at least 1
year-8 pts (extraordinary or
ordinary)
Employer endorsement A U.S. employer willing to pay 50%
of a legal permanent resident's
application fee either 1) offers a
job, or 2) attests for a current
employee-6 pts
Experience Years of work for U.S. firm-2 pts/
year
(max 10 points)
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39-3 points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Education M.D., M.B.A., Graduate degree, etc.- 28
(terminal degree) 20 pts
Bachelor's Degree-16 pts
Associate's Degree-10 pts
High school diploma or GED-6 pts
Completed certified Perkins
Vocational Education program-5 pts
Completed Department of Labor
Registered Apprenticeship-8 pts
STEM, associates and above-8 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``English and civics Native speaker of English or 15
TOEFL score of 75 or higher-15 pts
TOEFL score of 60-74-10 pts
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests in
English & Civics-6 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Extended family Adult (21 or older) son or daughter 10
(Applied if threshold of of United States citizen-8 points
55 in above categories)
Adult (21 or older) son or daughter
of a legal permanent resident-6
pts
Sibling of United States citizen or
LPR-4 pts
If had applied for a family visa in
any of the above categories after
May 1, 2005-2 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Total ................................... 100
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
``Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Supplemental schedule ...................................
for Zs
Agriculture National Worked in agriculture for 3 years, 25
Interest 150 days per year-21 pts
Worked in agriculture for 4 years
(150 days for 3 years, 100 days
for 1 year)-23 pts
Worked in agriculture for 5 years,
100 days per year-25 pts
U.S. employment Year of lawful employment-1 pt 15
experience
Home ownership Own place of residence-1 pt/year 5
owned
Medical insurance Current medical insurance for 5
entire family
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security, after
consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary
of Labor, shall establish procedures to adjudicate petitions
filed pursuant to the merit-based evaluation system. The
Secretary may establish a time period in a fiscal year in
which such petitions must be submitted.
``(C) The Standing Commission on Immigration and Labor
Markets established pursuant to section 407 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 shall submit recommendations to Congress concerning the
establishment of procedures for modifying the selection
criteria and relative weights accorded such criteria in order
to ensure that the merit-based evaluation system corresponds
to the current needs of the United States economy and the
national interest.
``(D) No modifications to the selection criteria and
relative weights accorded such criteria that are established
by the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Reform Act of 2007 should take effect earlier than the sixth
fiscal year in which aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa.
``(E) The application of the selection criteria to any
particular visa petition or application pursuant to the
merit-based evaluation system shall be within the Secretary's
sole and unreviewable discretion.
``(F) Any petition filed pursuant to this paragraph that
has not been found by the Secretary to have qualified in the
merit-based evaluation system shall be deemed denied on the
first day of the third fiscal year following the date on
which such petition was filed. Such denial shall not preclude
the petitioner from filing a successive petition pursuant to
this paragraph. Notwithstanding this paragraph, the Secretary
may deny a petition when denial is appropriate under other
provisions of law, including but not limited to section
204(c).'';
``(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
paragraph, the requirements of this paragraph shall apply
only to merit-based, self-sponsored immigrants and not to
merit-based, employer-sponsored immigrants described in
paragraph (5).
``(H) Notwithstanding any other provision of this
paragraph, any reference in this paragraph to a worldwide
level of visas refers to
[[Page 14891]]
the worldwide level specified in section 201(d)(1).'';
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (4) through (6) as
paragraphs (2) through (4), respectively;
(3) in paragraph (2), as redesignated by paragraph (3)--
(A) by striking ``7.1 percent of such worldwide level'' and
inserting ``4,200 of the worldwide level specified in section
201(d)(1)''; and
(B) by striking ``5,000'' and inserting ``2,500'';
(4) in paragraph (3), as redesignated by paragraph (3)--
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``7.1 percent of such
worldwide level'' and inserting ``2,800 of the worldwide
level specified in section 201(d)(1)''; and
(B) in subparagraph (B)(i), by striking ``3,000'' and
inserting ``1,500''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following
``(5) Merit-based employer-sponsored immigrants.--
``(A) Priority workers.--Visas shall first be made
available in a number not to exceed 33.3 percent of the
worldwide level specified in section 201(d)(5), to qualified
immigrants who are aliens described in any of clauses (i)
through (iii):
``(i) Aliens with extraordinary ability.--An alien is
described in this clause if--
``(I) the alien has extraordinary ability in the sciences,
arts, education, business, or athletics which has been
demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim
and whose achievements have been recognized in the field
through extensive documentation;
``(II) the alien seeks to enter the United States to
continue work in the area of extraordinary ability; and
``(III) the alien's entry into the United States will
substantially benefit prospectively the United States.
``(ii) Outstanding professors and researchers.--An alien is
described in this clause if--
``(I) the alien is recognized internationally as
outstanding in a specific academic area;
``(II) the alien has at least 3 years of experience in
teaching or research in the academic area; and
``(III) the alien seeks to enter the United States--
``(aa) for a tenured position (or tenure-track position)
within an institution of higher education (as such term is
defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965
(20 U.S.C. 1001(a)) to teach in the academic area;
``(bb) for a comparable position with an institution of
higher education to conduct research in the area, or
``(cc) for a comparable position to conduct research in the
area with a department, division, or institute of a private
employer, if the department, division, or institute employs
at least 3 individuals full-time in research activities and
has achieved documented accomplishments in an academic field.
``(iii) Certain multinational executives and managers.--An
alien is described in this clause if the alien, in the 3
years preceding the time of the alien's application for
classification and admission into the United States under
this paragraph, has been employed for at least 1 year by a
firm or corporation or other legal entity or an affiliate or
subsidiary thereof and the alien seeks to enter the United
States in order to continue to render services to the same
employer or to a subsidiary or affiliate thereof in a
capacity that is managerial or executive.
``(B) Aliens who are members of the professions holding
advanced degrees or aliens of exceptional ability.--
``(i) In general.--Visas shall be made available, in a
number not to exceed 33.3 percent of the worldwide level
specified in section 201(d)(5), plus any visas not required
for the classes specified in subparagraph (A), to qualified
immigrants who are members of the professions holding
advanced degrees or their equivalent or who because of their
exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business, will
substantially benefit prospectively the national economy,
cultural or educational interests, or welfare of the United
States, and whose services in the sciences, arts,
professions, or business are sought by an employer in the
United States.
``(ii) Determination of exceptional ability.--In
determining under clause (i) whether an immigrant has
exceptional ability, the possession of a degree, diploma,
certificate, or similar award from a college, university,
school, or other institution of learning or a license to
practice or certification for a particular profession or
occupation shall not by itself be considered sufficient
evidence of such exceptional ability.
``(C) Professionals.--
``(i) Visas shall be made available, in a number not to
exceed 33.3 percent of the worldwide level specified in
section 201(d)(5), plus any visas not required for the
classes specified in subparagraphs (A) and (B), to qualified
immigrants who hold baccalaureate degrees and who are members
of the professions and who are not described in subparagraph
(B).
``(D) Labor certification required.--An immigrant visa may
not be issued to an immigrant under subparagraph (B) or (C)
until there has been a determination made by the Secretary of
Labor that--
``(i) there are not sufficient workers who are able,
willing, qualified and available at the time such
determination is made and at the place where the alien, or a
substitute is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor; and
``(ii) the employment of such alien will not adversely
affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the
United States similarly employed.
An employer may not substitute another qualified alien for
the beneficiary of such determination unless an application
to do so is made to and approved by the Secretary of Homeland
Security.''.
(c) Worldwide Level of Merit-Based Employer-Sponsored
Immigrants.--Section 201(d) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(d)), as amended by section
501(b), is further amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(5) Worldwide level for merit-based employer-sponsored
immigrants.--
``(A) In general.--The worldwide level of merit-based
employer-sponsored immigrants under this paragraph for a
fiscal year is equal to--
``(i) 140,000, plus
``(ii) the number computed under subparagraph (B).
``(B) Additional number.--
``(i) Fiscal year 2007.--The number computed under this
subparagraph for fiscal year 2007 is zero.
``(ii) Fiscal year 2008.--The number computed under this
subparagraph for fiscal year 2008 is the difference (if any)
between the worldwide level established under subparagraph
(A) for the previous fiscal year and the number of visas
issued under section 203(b)(2) during that fiscal year.''.
______
SA 1406. Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Grassley) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Beginning on page 242, strike line 37 and all that follows
through line 24, on page 250, and insert the following:
``(I) If the employer employs not less than 50 employees in
the United States, not more than 50 percent of such employees
are H-1B nonimmigrants and nonimmigrants described in section
101(a)(15)(L).''.
(e) Wage Determination.--
(1) Change in minimum wages.--Section 212(n)(1) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended--
(A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as follows:
``(A) The employer--
``(i) is offering and will offer, during the period of
authorized employment, to aliens admitted or provided status
as an H-1B nonimmigrant, wages, based on the best information
available at the time the application is filed, which are not
less than the highest of--
``(I) the locally determined prevailing wage level for the
occupational classification in the area of employment;
``(II) the median average wage for all workers in the
occupational classification in the area of employment; or
``(III) the median wage for skill level 2 in the
occupational classification found in the most recent
Occupational Employment Statistics survey; and
``(ii) will provide working conditions for such a
nonimmigrant that will not adversely affect the working
conditions of workers similarly employed.''; and
(B) in subparagraph (D), by inserting ``the wage
determination methodology used under subparagraph (A)(i),''
after ``shall contain''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall apply to applications filed on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(f) Prohibition of Outplacement.--
(1) In general.--Section 212(n) of such Act, as amended by
this section, is further amended--
(A) in paragraph (1), by amending subparagraph (F) to read
as follows:
``(F) The employer shall not place, outsource, lease, or
otherwise contract for the placement of an H-1B nonimmigrant
with another employer unless the employer of the alien has
received a waiver under paragraph (2)(E).''; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by amending subparagraph (E) to read
as follows:
``(E) The Secretary of Labor shall promulgate rules, after
notice and a period for comment, for an employer of an H-1B
nonimmigrant to apply for a waiver of the prohibition in
paragraph (1)(F). The decision whether to grant or deny a
waiver under this subparagraph shall be in the sole and
unreviewable discretion of the Secretary. In order to receive
a waiver under this subparagraph, the burden shall be on the
employer seeking the waiver to establish that--
``(i) the placement is for legitimate business purposes and
not to evade the requirements of this subsection;
``(ii) the employer with whom the nonimmigrant would be
placed has not displaced and does not intend to displace a
United States worker employed by the employer within the
period beginning 180 days before
[[Page 14892]]
and ending 180 days after the date of the placement of the
nonimmigrant with the employer;
``(iii) the nonimmigrant will not be controlled and
supervised principally by the employer with whom the
nonimmigrant would be placed; and
``(iv) the placement of the nonimmigrant is not essentially
an arrangement to provide labor for hire for the employer
with whom the nonimmigrant will be placed.''.
(2) Application.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to an application filed on or after the date the
rules required section 212(n)(2)(E) of such Act, as amended
by paragraph (1)(B) of this subsection, are issued.
(g) Posting Available Positions.--
(1) Posting available positions.--Section 212(n)(1)(C) of
such Act is amended--
(A) by redesignating clause (ii) as subclause (II);
(B) by striking ``(i) has provided'' and inserting the
following:
``(ii)(I) has provided''; and
(C) by inserting before clause (ii), as redesignated by
subparagraph (B), the following:
``(i) has posted a detailed description of each position
for which a nonimmigrant is sought on the website described
in paragraph (6) of this subsection for at least 30 calendar
days, which description shall include the wages and other
terms and conditions of employment, the minimum education,
training, experience and other requirements for the position,
and the process for applying for the position; and''.
(2) Department of labor website.--Section 212(n) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended by adding
at the end the following:
``(6)(A) Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this paragraph, the Secretary of Labor shall
establish a searchable website for posting positions as
required by paragraph (1)(C). This website shall be publicly
accessible without charge.
``(B) The Secretary may charge a nominal filing fee to
employers who post positions on the website established under
this paragraph to cover expenses for establishing and
administering the website.
``(C) The Secretary may work with private companies and
nonprofit organizations in the development and operation of
the website established under this paragraph.
``(D) The Secretary may promulgate rules, after notice and
a period for comment, to carry out the requirements of this
paragraph.''.
(3) Application.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to an application filed 30 days or more after the
date that the website required by section 212(n)(6) of such
Act, as added by paragraph (2) of this subsection, is
created.
(h) Public Availability and Records Retention.--Section
212(n) of such Act, as amended by this section, is further
amended, by adding at the end the following:
``(7) For each application filed under paragraph (1), the
employer who filed the application shall--
``(A) upon request, provide a copy of the application and
supporting documentation to every nonimmigrant employed by
the employer under the application;
``(B) upon request, make available for public examination
at the employer's place of business or worksite a copy of the
application and supporting documentation;
``(C) upon request, make available a copy of the
application and supporting documentation to the Secretary of
Labor; and
``(D) retain a copy of the application and supporting
documentation for at least 5 years after the date on which
the application is filed.''.
SEC. 421. H-1B GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY AND REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Safeguards Against Fraud and Misrepresentation in
Application Review Process.--Section 212(n)(1)(K) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act, as redesignated by section
2(d)(2), is amended--
(1) by inserting ``and through the Department of Labor's
website, without charge.'' after ``D.C.'';
(2) by inserting ``, clear indicators of fraud,
misrepresentation of material fact,'' after ``completeness'';
(3) by striking ``or obviously inaccurate'' and inserting
``, presents clear indicators of fraud or misrepresentation
of material fact, or is obviously inaccurate'';
(4) by striking ``within 7 days of'' and inserting ``not
later than 14 days after''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following: ``If the
Secretary's review of an application identifies clear
indicators of fraud or misrepresentation of material fact,
the Secretary may conduct an investigation and hearing under
paragraph (2)''.
(b) Investigations by Department of Labor.--Section
212(n)(2) of such Act is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A)--
(A) by striking ``12 months'' and inserting ``24 months'';
and
(B) by striking ``The Secretary shall conduct'' and all
that follows and inserting ``Upon the receipt of such a
complaint, the Secretary may initiate an investigation to
determine if such a failure or misrepresentation has
occurred.'';
(2) in subparagraph (C)(i)--
(A) by striking ``` condition of paragraph (1)(B), (1)(E),
or (1)(F)'' and inserting ``a condition under subparagraph
(B), (C)(i), (E), (F), (H), (I), or (J) of paragraph (1)'';
and
(B) by striking ``(1)(C)'' and inserting ``(1)(C)(ii)'';
(3) in subparagraph (G)--
(A) in clause (i), by striking ``if the Secretary'' and all
that follows and inserting ``with regard to the employer's
compliance with the requirements of this subsection.'';
(B) in clause (ii), by striking ``and whose identity'' and
all that follows through ``failure or failures.'' and
inserting ``the Secretary of Labor may conduct an
investigation into the employers compliance with the
requirements of this subsection.'';
(C) in clause (iii), by striking the last sentence;
(D) by striking clauses (iv) and (v);
(E) by redesignating clauses (vi), (vii), and (viii) as
clauses (iv), (v), and (vi), respectively;
(F) in clause (iv), as redesignated, by striking ``meet a
condition described in clause (ii), unless the Secretary of
Labor receives the information not later than 12 months'' and
inserting ``comply with the requirements under this
subsection, unless the Secretary of Labor receives the
information not later than 24 months'';
(G) by amending clause (v), as redesignated, to read as
follows:
``(v) The Secretary of Labor shall provide notice to an
employer of the intent to conduct an investigation. The
notice shall be provided in such a manner, and shall contain
sufficient detail, to permit the employer to respond to the
allegations before an investigation is commenced. The
Secretary is not required to comply with this clause if the
Secretary determines that such compliance would interfere
with an effort by the Secretary to investigate or secure
compliance by the employer with the requirements of this
subsection. A determination by the Secretary under this
clause shall not be subject to judicial review.''.
(H) in clause (vi), as redesignated, by striking ``An
investigation'' and all that follows through ``the
determination.'' and inserting ``If the Secretary of Labor,
after an investigation under clause (i) or (ii), determines
that a reasonable basis exists to make a finding that the
employer has failed to comply with the requirements under
this subsection, the Secretary shall provide interested
parties with notice of such determination and an opportunity
for a hearing in accordance with section 556 of title 5,
United States Code, not later than 120 days after the date of
such determination.''; and
(I) by adding at the end the following:
``(vii) If the Secretary of Labor, after a hearing, finds a
reasonable basis to believe that the employer has violated
the requirements under this subsection, the Secretary may
impose a penalty under subparagraph (C).''; and
(4) by striking subparagraph (H).
(c) Information Sharing Between Department of Labor and
Department of Homeland Security.--Section 212(n)(2) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended by
inserting after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H) The Director of United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services shall provide the Secretary of Labor
with any information contained in the materials submitted by
H-1B employers as part of the adjudication process that
indicates that the employer is not complying with H-1B visa
program requirements. The Secretary may initiate and conduct
an investigation and hearing under this paragraph after
receiving information of noncompliance under this
subparagraph.''.
(d) Audits.--Section 212(n)(2)(A) of such Act, as amended
by this section, is further amended by adding at the end the
following: ``The Secretary may conduct surveys of the degree
to which employers comply with the requirements under this
subsection and may conduct annual compliance audits of
employers that employ H-1B nonimmigrants. The Secretary shall
conduct annual compliance audits of not less than 1 percent
of the employers that employ H-1B nonimmigrants during the
applicable calendar year.''
(e) Penalties.--Section 212(n)(2)(C) of such Act, as
amended by this section, is further amended--
(1) in clause (i)(I), by striking ``$1,000'' and inserting
``$2,000'';
(2) in clause (ii)(I), by striking ``$5,000'' and inserting
``$10,000''; and
(3) in clause (vi)(III), by striking ``$1,000'' and
inserting ``$2,000''.
(f) Information Provided to H-1B Nonimmigrants Upon Visa
Issuance.--Section 212(n) of such Act, as amended by this
section, is further amended by inserting after paragraph (2)
the following:
``(3)(A) Upon issuing an H-1B visa to an applicant outside
the United States, the issuing office shall provide the
applicant with--
``(i) a brochure outlining the employer`s obligations and
the employee's rights under Federal law, including labor and
wage protections; and
``(ii) the contact information for Federal agencies that
can offer more information or assistance in clarifying
employer obligations and workers' rights.
``(B) Upon the issuance of an H-1B visa to an alien inside
the United States, the officer
[[Page 14893]]
of the Department of Homeland Security shall provide the
applicant with--
``(i) a brochure outlining the employer's obligations and
the employee's rights under Federal law, including labor and
wage protections; and
``(ii) the contact information for Federal agencies that
can offer more information or assistance in clarifying
employer's obligations and workers' rights.''.
(g) Additional Department of Labor Employees.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Labor shall increase by
not less than 200 the number of positions to administer,
oversee, investigate, and enforce programs involving H-1B
nonimmigrant workers.
(2) Funding.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
the Secretary of Labor may use amounts in the Fraud
Prevention and Detection Account made available to the
Secretary pursuant to section 286(v)(2)(C) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1356(v)(2)(C)) to carry out
paragraph (1).
SEC. 422. L-1 VISA FRAUD AND ABUSE PROTECTIONS.
(a) In General.--Section 214(c)(2) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(c)(2)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(2) in subparagraph (E), by striking ``In the case of an
alien spouse admitted under section 101(a)(15)(L), who'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subparagraph (H), if an
alien spouse admitted under section 101(a)(15)(L)''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(G)(i) If the beneficiary of a petition under this
subsection is coming to the United States to open, or be
employed in, a new facility, the petition may be approved for
up to 12 months only if the employer operating the new
facility has--
``(I) a business plan;
``(II) sufficient physical premises to carry out the
proposed business activities; and
``(III) the financial ability to commence doing business
immediately upon the approval of the petition.
``(ii) An extension of the approval period under clause (i)
may not be granted until the importing employer submits an
application to the Secretary of Homeland Security that
contains--
``(I) evidence that the importing employer meets the
requirements of this subsection;
``(II) evidence that the beneficiary meets the requirements
under section 101(a)(15)(L);
``(III) a statement summarizing the original petition;
``(IV) evidence that the importing employer has fully
complied with the business plan submitted under clause
(i)(I);
``(V) evidence of the truthfulness of any representations
made in connection with the filing of the original petition;
``(VI) evidence that the importing employer, during the
preceding 12 months, has been doing business at the new
facility through regular, systematic, and continuous
provision of goods or services, or has otherwise been taking
commercially reasonable steps to establish the new facility
as a commercial enterprise;
``(VII) a statement of the duties the beneficiary has
performed at the new facility during the preceding 12 months
and the duties the beneficiary will perform at the new
facility during the extension period approved under this
clause;
``(VIII) a statement describing the staffing at the new
facility, including the number of employees and the types of
positions held by such employees;
``(IX) evidence of wages paid to employees;
``(X) evidence of the financial status of the new facility;
and
``(XI) any other evidence or data prescribed by the
Secretary.
``(iii) Notwithstanding subclauses (I) through (VI) of
clause (ii), and subject to the maximum period of authorized
admission set forth in subparagraph (D), the Secretary of
Homeland Security may approve a petition subsequently filed
on behalf of the beneficiary to continue employment at the
facility described in this subsection for a period beyond the
initially granted 12-month period if the importing employer
demonstrates that the failure to satisfy any of the
requirements described in those subclauses was directly
caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of
the importing employer.
``(iv) For purposes of determining the eligibility of an
alien for classification under section 101(a)(15)(L), the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall work cooperatively with
the Secretary of State to verify a company or facility's
existence in the United States and abroad.''.
(b) Investigations and Audits by Department of Homeland
Security.--
(1) Department of homeland security investigations.--
Section 214(c)(2) of such Act, as amended by this section, is
further amended by adding at the end the following:
``(I)(i) The Secretary of Homeland Security may initiate an
investigation of any employer that employs nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L) with regard to the
employer's compliance with the requirements of this
subsection.
``(ii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security receives
specific credible information from a source who is likely to
have knowledge of an employer's practices, employment
conditions, or compliance with the requirements under this
subsection, the Secretary may conduct an investigation into
the employer's compliance with the requirements of this
subsection. The Secretary may withhold the identity of the
source from the employer, and the source's identity shall not
be subject to disclosure under section 552 of title 5.
``(iii) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish
a procedure for any person desiring to provide to the
Secretary of Homeland Security information described in
clause (ii) that may be used, in whole or in part, as the
basis for the commencement of an investigation described in
such clause, to provide the information in writing on a form
developed and provided by the Secretary of Homeland Security
and completed by or on behalf of the person.
``(iv) No investigation described in clause (ii) (or
hearing described in clause (vi) based on such investigation)
may be conducted with respect to information about a failure
to comply with the requirements under this subsection, unless
the Secretary of Homeland Security receives the information
not later than 24 months after the date of the alleged
failure.
``(v) Before commencing an investigation of an employer
under clause (i) or (ii), the Secretary of Homeland Security
shall provide notice to the employer of the intent to conduct
such investigation. The notice shall be provided in such a
manner, and shall contain sufficient detail, to permit the
employer to respond to the allegations before an
investigation is commenced. The Secretary is not required to
comply with this clause if the Secretary determines that to
do so would interfere with an effort by the Secretary to
investigate or secure compliance by the employer with the
requirements of this subsection. There shall be no judicial
review of a determination by the Secretary under this clause.
``(vi) If the Secretary of Homeland Security, after an
investigation under clause (i) or (ii), determines that a
reasonable basis exists to make a finding that the employer
has failed to comply with the requirements under this
subsection, the Secretary shall provide interested parties
with notice of such determination and an opportunity for a
hearing in accordance with section 556 of title 5, United
States Code, not later than 120 days after the date of such
determination. If such a hearing is requested, the Secretary
shall make a finding concerning the matter by not later than
120 days after the date of the hearing.
``(vii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security, after a
hearing, finds a reasonable basis to believe that the
employer has violated the requirements under this subsection,
the Secretary may impose a penalty under section
214(c)(2)(J).''.
(2) Audits.--Section 214(c)(2)(I) of such Act, as added by
paragraph (1), is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(viii) The Secretary of Homeland Security may conduct
surveys of the degree to which employers comply with the
requirements under this section and may conduct annual
compliance audits of employers that employ H-1B
nonimmigrants. The Secretary shall conduct annual compliance
audits of not less than 1 percent of the employers that
employ nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L)
during the applicable calendar year.''.
(3) Reporting requirement.--Section 214(c)(8) of such Act
is amended by inserting ``(L),'' after ``(H),''.
(c) Penalties.--Section 214(c)(2) of such Act, as amended
by this section, is further amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(J)(i) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a failure by an
employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (F), (G),
(H), (I), or (K) or a misrepresentation of material fact in a
petition to employ 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $2,000 per violation) as
the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the Secretary of Homeland Security may not, during a
period of at least 1 year, approve a petition for that
employer to employ 1 or more aliens as such nonimmigrants.
``(ii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a willful failure by
an employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (F), (G),
(H), (I), or (K) or a misrepresentation of material fact in a
petition to employ 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per violation)
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the Secretary of Homeland Security may not, during a
period of at least 2 years, approve a petition filed for that
employer to employ 1 or more aliens as such nonimmigrants.
[[Page 14894]]
``(iii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a willful failure by
an employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (L)(i)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per violation)
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the employer shall be liable to employees harmed for
lost wages and benefits.''.
(d) Department of Homeland Security Processing of Blanket
Petition L Visas.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (2)(A) of section 214(c) of such
Act is amended to read as follows:
``(2)(A) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide
for a procedure under which an importing employer which meets
the requirements established by the Secretary of Homeland
Security may file a blanket petition to import aliens as
nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L) instead of
filing individual petitions under paragraph (1) to import
such aliens. Such procedure shall permit the expedited
adjudication by the Secretary of Homeland Security of
individual petitions covered under such blanket petitions.
Adjudication of blanket petitions or individual petitions
covered under such blanket petitions may not be delegated by
the Secretary of Homeland Security to the Secretary of
State.''.
(2) Fraud prevention detection fees.--Paragraph (12)(B) of
section 214(c) of such Act is amended to read as follows:
``(B) In addition to any other fees authorized by law, the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall impose a fraud
prevention and detection fee on an employer filing an
individual petition covered under a blanket petition
described in paragraph (2)(A) initially to grant an alien
nonimmigrant status described in section 101(a)(15)(L).''.
(e) Wage Determination.--
(1) Change in minimum wages.--Paragraph (2) of section
214(c) of such Act, as amended by this section, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(K)(i) An employer that employs a nonimmigrant described
in section 101(a)(15)(L) shall--
``(I) offer such nonimmigrant, during the period of
authorized employment, wages, based on the best information
available at the time the application is filed, which are not
less than the highest of--
``(aa) the locally determined prevailing wage level for the
occupational classification in the area of employment;
``(bb) the median average wage for all workers in the
occupational classification in the area of employment; or
``(cc) the median wage for skill level 2 in the
occupational classification found in the most recent
Occupational Employment Statistics survey; and
``(II) provide working conditions for such nonimmigrant
that will not adversely affect the working conditions of
workers similarly employed.
``(ii) If an employer, in such previous period specified by
the Secretary of Homeland Security, employed 1 or more L-1
nonimmigrants, the employer shall provide to the Secretary of
Homeland Security the Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 Wage
and Tax Statement filed by the employer with respect to such
nonimmigrants for such period.
``(iii) It is a failure to meet a condition under this
subparagraph for an employer, who has filed a petition to
import 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants described in section
101(a)(15)(L), to--
``(I) require such a nonimmigrant to pay a penalty for
ceasing employment with the employer before a date mutually
agreed to by the nonimmigrant and the employer; or
``(II) fail to offer to such a nonimmigrant, during the
nonimmigrant's period of authorized employment, on the same
basis, and in accordance with the same criteria, as the
employer offers to United States workers, benefits and
eligibility for benefits, including--
``(aa) the opportunity to participate in health, life,
disability, and other insurance plans;
``(bb) the opportunity to participate in retirement and
savings plans; and
``(cc) cash bonuses and noncash compensation, such as stock
options (whether or not based on performance).
``(iv) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall determine
whether a required payment under clause (iii)(I) is a penalty
(and not liquidated damages) pursuant to relevant State
law.''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall apply to applications filed on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(f) Prohibition on Outplacement.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (2) of section 214(c) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended by adding
at the end the following:
``(L)(i) An employer who imports an alien as a nonimmigrant
described in section 101(a)(15)(L) shall not place,
outsource, lease, or otherwise contract for the placement of
the alien with another employer unless the employer of the
alien has received a waiver under clause (ii).
``(ii) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall promulgate
rules, after notice and a period for comment, for an employer
to apply for a waiver of the prohibition set out in clause
(i). The decision whether to grant or deny such a waiver
under this subparagraph shall be in the sole and unreviewable
discretion of the Secretary. In order to receive such a
waiver, the burden shall be on the employer seeking the
waiver to establish that--
``(I) the placement is for legitimate business purposes and
not to evade the requirements of this subsection;
``(II) the employer with whom the nonimmigrant would be
placed has not displaced and does not intend to displace a
United States worker employed by the employer within the
period beginning 180 days before and ending 180 days after
the date of the placement of the nonimmigrant with the
employer;
``(III) the nonimmigrant will not be controlled and
supervised principally by the employer with whom the
nonimmigrant would be placed; and
``(IV) the placement of the nonimmigrant is not essentially
an arrangement to provide labor for hire for the employer
with whom the nonimmigrant will be placed, rather than a
placement in connection with the provision or a product or
service for which specialized knowledge specific to the
petitioning employer is necessary.''.
(2) Application.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall
apply to an application filed on or after the date the rules
required section 212(c)(2)(L)(ii) of such Act, as added by
paragraph (1) of this subsection, are issued.
______
SA 1407. Mr. DURBIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 238, strike lines 41 and all that follows
through line 21 on page 239, and insert the following:
(2) in paragraph (1), by amending subparagraph (A) to read
as follows:
``(A) under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) may not exceed
200,000 for each fiscal year; or'';
(3) by striking paragraphs (6), (7), and (8), as
redesignated by section 409(2);
(4) in paragraph (9), as redesignated by section 409(2)--
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking clause (iv); and
(B) by striking subparagraph (D).
______
SA 1408. Mr. BAYH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. ___. LABOR CONDITION APPLICATION.
Section 212(n)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1182(n)(1)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (D)--
(A) by striking ``(D) The application'' and inserting the
following:
``(D) Specifications.--
``(i) In general.--The application''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(ii) Verification of employer id number.--The application
shall be denied unless the Secretary of Labor verifies that
the employer identification number provided on the
application is valid and accurate.''; and
(2) in subparagraph (G)(i)--
(A) by striking ``In the case of an application described
in subparagraph (E)(ii), subject'' and inserting ``Subject'';
(B) in subclause (I), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(C) in subclause (II), by striking the period at the end
and inserting ``; and''; and
(D) by adding at the end the following:
``(III) has posted, for a period of not less than 30 days,
the available position on a public job bank website that--
``(aa) is accessible through the Internet;
``(bb) is national in scope;
``(cc) has been in operation on the Internet for at least
the 18-month period ending on the date on which the position
is posted;
``(dd) does not require a registration fee or membership
fee to search the job postings of the website; and
``(ee) has a valid Federal or State employer identification
number.''.
______
SA 1409. Mr. SCHUMER (for himself and Mrs. Hutchison) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 281, after line 27, insert the following:
SEC. 509. INCREASING THE DOMESTIC SUPPLY OF NURSES AND
PHYSICAL THERAPISTS.
(a) Report.--
(1) In general.--Not later than January 1, 2008, the
Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to
Congress a report on the shortage of nurses and physical
therapists educated in the United States.
[[Page 14895]]
(2) Contents.--The report required by paragraph (1) shall--
(A) include information from the most recent 3 years for
which data are available;
(B) provide separate data for each occupation and for each
State;
(C) separately identify the nurses and physical therapists
receiving initial licenses in each State and the nurses and
physical therapists licensed by endorsement from other
States;
(D) identify, from among the nurses and physical therapists
receiving initial licenses in each year, the number of such
nurses and physical therapists who received professional
educations in the United States and the number of such nurses
and physical therapists who received professional educations
outside the United States;
(E) to the extent possible, identify, by State of residence
and the country in which each nurse or physical therapist
received a professional education, the number of nurses and
physical therapists who received professional educations in
any of the 5 countries from which the highest number of
nurses and physical therapists emigrated to the United
States;
(F) identify the barriers to increasing the supply of
nursing faculty in the United States, domestically trained
nurses, and domestically trained physical therapists;
(G) recommend strategies for Federal and State governments
to reduce such barriers, including strategies that address
barriers that prevent health care workers, such as home
health aides and nurse's assistants, from advancing to become
registered nurses;
(H) recommend amendments to Federal law to reduce the
barriers identified in subparagraph (F);
(I) recommend Federal grants, loans, and other incentives
that would increase the supply of nursing faculty and
training facilities for nurses in the United States, and
recommend other steps to increase the number of nurses and
physical therapists who receive professional educations in
the United States;
(J) identify the effects of emigration by nurses on the
health care systems in the countries of origin of such
nurses;
(K) recommend amendments to Federal law to minimize the
effects of shortages of nurses in the countries of origin of
nurses who immigrate to the United States; and
(L) report on the level of Federal investment determined
under subsection (b)(1) to be necessary to eliminate the
shortage of nurses and physical therapists in the United
States.
(b) Consultation.--The Secretary of Health and Human
Services shall--
(1) enter into a contract with the Institute of Medicine of
the National Academies to determine the level of Federal
investment under titles VII and VIII of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 292 et seq.) that would be necessary
to eliminate the shortage of nurses and physical therapists
in the United States by January 1, 2015; and
(2) consult with other agencies in working with ministers
of health or other appropriate officials of the 5 countries
from which the highest number of nurses and physical
therapists emigrated, as reported under subsection (a)(2)(E),
to--
(A) address shortages of nurses and physical therapists in
such countries caused by emigration; and
(B) provide the technical assistance needed to reduce
further shortages of nurses and physical therapists in such
countries.
(c) Recapture of Unused Employment-Based Immigrant Visas.--
(1) In general.--Section 106(d) of the American
Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000
(Public Law 106-313; 8 U.S.C. 1153 note) is amended--
(A) in paragraph (1)--
(i) by inserting ``1996, 1997,'' after ``available in
fiscal year''; and
(ii) by inserting ``group I,'' after ``schedule A,'';
(B) in paragraph (2)(A), by inserting ``1996, 1997, and''
after ``available in fiscal years''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(4) Petitions.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
provide a process for reviewing and acting upon petitions
with respect to immigrants described in schedule A not later
than 30 days after the date on which a completed petition has
been filed.''.
(2) Applicability.--Notwithstanding any provision of this
Act or any amendment made by this Act, section 106(d) of the
American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of
2000 (Public Law 106-313; 8 U.S.C. 1153 note), as amended by
paragraph (1), shall apply to petitions filed on or before
the effective date set forth in section 502(d) of this Act
for classification under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of
subsection (b), or subsection (d), of section 203 of the the
Immigration and Nationality Act (as such section was in
effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this
Act).
______
SA 1410. Mr. FEINGOLD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 308, strike line 35 and all that follows through
page 314, line 10, and insert the following:
(b) Removal of Aliens Who Have Been Denied Status Under
This Title.--
(1) Aliens who are determined to be ineligible due to
criminal convictions.--
(A) Aggravated felons.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of this Act, an alien whose application for status under this
title has been denied or whose status has been terminated or
revoked by the Secretary under section 601(d)(1)(F)(ii)
because the alien has been convicted of an aggravated felony
(as that term is defined in section 101(a)(43) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43))), may
be placed forthwith in proceedings pursuant to section 238(b)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1228(b)).
(B) Other criminals.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of this Act, any alien whose application for status under
this title has been denied or whose status has been
terminated or revoked by the Secretary under clause (i),
(iii), or (iv) of section 601(d)(1)(F) may be placed
forthwith in removal proceedings under section 240 of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1229a).
(C) Final denial, termination or rescission.--The
Secretary's denial, termination, or rescission of the status
of any alien described in subparagraph (A) or (B) shall
represent the exhaustion of all review procedures for
purposes of sections 601(h) (relating to treatment of
applicants) and 601(o) (relating to termination of
proceedings) of this Act, notwithstanding subsection (a)(2)
of this section.
(2) Limitation on motions to reopen and reconsider.--During
the removal process under this subsection an alien may file
not more than 1 motion to reopen or to reconsider. The
decision of the Secretary or Attorney General regarding
whether to consider any such motion is committed to the
discretion of the Secretary or the Attorney General, as the
case may be.
(c) Judicial Review.--Section 242 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1252) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``(h) Judicial Review of Eligibility Determinations
Relating to Status Under Title VI of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.--
``(1) Exclusive review.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), including
section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, (or any other
habeas corpus provision) and sections 1361 and 1651 of such
title, and except as provided in this subsection, no court
shall have jurisdiction to review a determination respecting
an application for status under title VI of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007, including, a denial, termination, or rescission of such
status.
``(2) Review of a denial, termination, or rescission of
status.--
``(A) Direct review.--
``(i) In general.--A denial, termination, or rescission of
status under section 601 of the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 shall be
subject to judicial review in accordance with chapter 7 of
title 5, United States Code, before the United States
district court for the district in which the person resides,
if the petition for review is filed not later than 30 days
after the later of the date of the denial, termination, or
rescission and the date of the mailing thereof.
``(ii) Review.--For any petition filed under clause (i)--
``(I) the court shall review the challenge to the denial,
termination, or rescission of status on the administrative
record on which the denial, termination, or rescission by the
Secretary of Homeland Security was based; and
``(II) an alien may file not more than 1 motion to reopen
or reconsider proceedings brought under this section.
``(B) Review after removal proceedings.--A denial,
termination, or rescission of status under section 601 of the
Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform
Act of 2007 may be subject to judicial review in conjunction
with judicial review of an order of removal, deportation, or
exclusion if the validity of the denial, termination, or
rescission of status has not been upheld in a prior judicial
proceeding under subparagraph (A). Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, the standard of review of such a denial,
termination, or rescission of status shall be governed by
subparagraph (C).
``(C) Standard for judicial review.--Judicial review of the
denial, termination, or rescission of status by the Secretary
of Homeland Security under title VI of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007,
relating to any alien shall be based on the administrative
record before the Secretary when the Secretary enters a final
denial, termination, or rescission. The court may reverse or
remand any final decision that is found to be arbitrary,
capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence, or otherwise
not in accordance with law.
``(D) Stay of removal.--An alien seeking administrative or
judicial review under this subsection shall not be removed
from the
[[Page 14896]]
United States until a final decision is rendered on the
appeal of that alien.
``(E) Confidentiality.--Information furnished or otherwise
developed in judicial review proceedings shall be subject to
the terms of section 604 of the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, relating to
confidentiality. Appropriate measures shall be taken to
ensure the confidentiality of this information, such as
redacting identifying information from filings or, where
necessary, filing documents under seal.
``(3) Challenges on validity of the system.----
``(A) In general.--Any claim that title VI of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007, or any regulation, written policy, or written directive
issued or unwritten policy or practice initiated by or under
the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security to
implement that title, violates the Constitution of the United
States or is otherwise in violation of law may be made
exclusively in an action instituted in an appropriate United
States district court in accordance with the procedures under
this paragraph. Nothing in this subparagraph shall preclude
an applicant for status under title VI of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 from
asserting that an action taken or decision made by the
Secretary with respect to the status of the applicant under
that title was contrary to law in a proceeding under section
603 of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
``(B) Deadlines for bringing actions.--Any action
instituted by a person or entity under this paragraph--
``(i) if it asserts a claim that title VI of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007, or any regulation, written policy, or written directive
issued by or under the authority of the Secretary of Homeland
Security to implement that title, violates the Constitution
of the United States or is otherwise unlawful, shall be filed
not later than 1 year after the date of the publication or
promulgation of the challenged regulation, policy, or
directive or, in cases challenging the validity of that Act,
not later than 1 year after the date of the initial
application of the provision being challenged; and
``(ii) if it asserts a claim that an unwritten policy or
practice initiated by or under the authority of the Secretary
violates the Constitution of the United States or is
otherwise unlawful, be filed not later than 1 year after the
date that plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of
the unwritten policy or practice.
``(C) Class actions.--Any claim described in subparagraph
(A) that is brought as a class action shall be brought in
conformity with the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (Public
Law 109-2; 119 Stat. 4), the amendments made by that Act, and
the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
``(D) Preclusive effect.--The final disposition of any
claim brought under subparagraph (A) shall be preclusive of
any such claim asserted in a subsequent proceeding under this
subsection or under section 603 the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
``(E) Exhaustion and stay of proceedings.--No claim brought
under this paragraph shall require the plaintiff to exhaust
administrative remedies under section 603 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007.''.
SEC. 604. MANDATORY DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION.
(a) In General.--Except as otherwise provided in this
section, no Federal department or agency, nor any officer,
employee, or contractor of such department or agency, may--
(1) use the information furnished by an applicant under
section 601, 602, or 603 or the fact that the applicant
applied for such Z status for any purpose other than to make
a determination on the application, or any subsequent
application, to extend such status under section 601, or to
adjust status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for
permanent residence under section 602;
(2) make or release any publication through which the
information furnished by any particular applicant can be
identified; or
(3) permit any person, other than an officer, employee, or
contractor of such department or agency, or other entity
approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security, to examine
individual applications that have been filed under section
601, 602, or 603.
(b) Exceptions to Confidentiality.--
(1) In general.--Subsection (a) shall not apply with
respect to--
(A) an alien whose application has been denied, terminated,
or revoked based on a finding by the Secretary of Homeland
Security that the alien--
(i) is inadmissible under paragraph (2), (3), (6)(C)(i)
(with respect to information furnished by an applicant under
section 601 or 602 of this Act), or (6)(E) of section 212(a)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a));
(ii) is deportable under paragraph (1)(E), (1)(G), (2), or
(4) of the section 237(a) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)); or
(iii) was physically removed and is subject to
reinstatement pursuant to section 241(a)(5) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(a)(5));
(B) an alien whose application for Z nonimmigrant status
has been denied, terminated, or revoked under section
601(d)(1)(F);
(C) an alien whom the Secretary determines has ordered,
incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the
persecution of any person on account of race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
political opinion;
(D) an alien whom the Secretary determines has, in
connection with the application of that alien under section
601 or 602, engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation,
concealment of a material fact, or knowingly offered a false
statement, representation or document; or
(E) an order from a court of competent jurisdiction.
______
SA 1411. Mr. FEINGOLD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike section 202 and insert the following:
SEC. 202. DETENTION AND REMOVAL OF ALIENS ORDERED REMOVED.
(a) In General.--Section 241(a) (8 U.S.C. 1231(a)) is
amended--
(1) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears,
except for the first reference in paragraph (4)(B)(i), and
inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(2) in paragraph (1)--
(A) by amending subparagraph (C) to read as follows:
``(C) Extension of period.--
``(i) In general.--The removal period shall be extended
beyond a period of 90 days and the alien may remain in
detention during such extended period if, during the removal
period, the alien--
``(I) fails or refuses to make timely application in good
faith for travel or other documents necessary to the alien's
departure; or
``(II) conspires or acts to prevent the alien's removal.
``(ii) Effect of seeking stay of removal.--An alien who
seeks a stay of removal before an immigration judge, the
Board of Immigration Appeals, or a Federal judge, shall not
for that reason be deemed to be conspiring or acting to
prevent the alien's removal.
``(iii) Applicability of administrative and judicial review
provisions.--A determination to extend the removal period
under this subparagraph beyond 180 days shall be made in
accordance with the requirements of paragraph (9) and shall
be subject to the administrative and judicial review
provisions of such paragraph.''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(D) Aliens not in the custody of the secretary.--
``(i) Delay of removal period.--If, on the date determined
under subparagraph (B), the alien is not in the custody of
the Secretary of Homeland Security under the authority of
this Act, the removal period shall not begin until the alien
is taken into such custody.
``(ii) Tolling of removal period.--If the Secretary
lawfully transfers custody of the alien during the removal
period to another Federal agency or to a State or local
government agency in connection with the official duties of
such agency, the removal period shall be tolled until the
date on which the alien is returned to the custody of the
Secretary.'';
(3) in paragraph (2)--
(A) by striking ``During the'' and inserting the following:
``(A) In general.--During the''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(B) Detention during stay of removal.--If a court, the
Board of Immigration Appeals, or an immigration judge orders
a stay of removal of an alien who is subject to an
administrative final order of removal, the Secretary, in the
exercise of the Secretary's discretion, may detain the alien
during the pendency of such stay of removal.'';
(4) by amending paragraph (3)(D) to read as follows:
``(D) to obey reasonable restrictions on the alien's
conduct or activities, or to perform affirmative acts, that
the Secretary prescribes for the alien--
``(i) to prevent the alien from absconding; or
``(ii) for the protection of the community.'';
(5) in paragraph (6), by striking ``beyond the removal
period'' and inserting ``for an additional 90 days'';
(6) by redesignating paragraph (7) as paragraph (10); and
(7) by inserting after paragraph (6) the following new
paragraphs:
``(7) Parole.--
``(A) In general.--If an alien detained pursuant to
paragraph (6) is an applicant for admission, the Secretary of
Homeland Security, in the Secretary's discretion, may parole
the alien under section 212(d)(5) and may provide,
notwithstanding section 212(d)(5),
[[Page 14897]]
that the alien shall not be returned to custody unless either
the alien violates the conditions of the alien's parole or
the alien's removal becomes reasonably foreseeable.
``(B) Admission status.--An alien described in subparagraph
(A) shall in no circumstance be considered admitted.
``(8) Authority to detain for 90 days beyond removal
period.--The Secretary, in the exercise of the Secretary's
discretion, may detain an alien for 90 days beyond the
removal period if the removal of the alien is reasonably
foreseeable.
``(9) Additional rules for detention or release of
aliens.--The following procedures shall apply to an alien
detained under this section:
``(A) Regulations.--
``(i) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
prescribe regulations to establish an administrative process
by which the Secretary shall determine--
``(I) whether an alien's removal period should be extended
beyond 180 days pursuant to paragraph (1)(C); or
``(II) if the removal period is not extended, whether the
alien should be detained or released beyond the removal
period (or beyond the additional 90-day detention period if
such a period is authorized under paragraph (6) or (8)).
``(ii) Limitation on detention.--The Secretary may detain
an alien while a determination under clause (i) is pending
only if the Secretary has initiated the administrative
process established pursuant to clause (i) not later than 30
days after the expiration of the relevant period.
``(B) Evidence.--In making a determination under
subparagraph (A)(i), the Secretary--
``(i) shall consider any evidence submitted by the alien;
``(ii) may consider any other evidence, including--
``(I) any information or assistance provided by the
Department of State or other Federal agency; and
``(II) any other information available to the Secretary of
Homeland Security pertaining to the ability to remove the
alien that otherwise would be admissible before an
immigration judge.
``(C) Authority to detain for additional period.--The
Secretary may detain an alien beyond the periods described in
this subsection for additional periods of 180 days, renewable
under subparagraph (D), until the alien is removed, if the
Secretary--
``(i) determines that there is a significant likelihood
that the alien will be removed in the reasonably foreseeable
future;
``(ii) determines that the alien--
``(I) has failed to make timely application in good faith
for travel or other documents necessary to secure the alien's
departure; or
``(II) has otherwise conspired or acted to prevent his
removal and there would be a significant likelihood of that
the alien would be removed in the reasonably foreseeable
future in the absence of such failure or conspiracy; or
``(iii) certifies in writing--
``(I) after consultation with the Secretary of Health and
Human Services, that the alien has a highly contagious
disease that poses a threat to public safety, in which case
the alien may be detained only in a civil medical facility;
``(II) pursuant to section 236A, that there are reasonable
grounds to believe that the release of the alien would
threaten the national security of the United States;
``(III) that--
``(aa) the alien has been convicted of 1 or more aggravated
felonies (as defined in section 101(a)(43)(A)), 1 or more
attempts or conspiracies to commit any such aggravated
felonies, or 1 or more crimes of violence (as defined in
section 16 of title 18, United States Code, but not including
a purely political offense), for which the alien has served
an aggregate term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years;
and
``(bb) the Secretary has reason to believe that, because of
a mental condition or personality disorder and behavior
associated with such condition or disorder, the alien is
likely to engage in acts of violence in the future or the
alien's release would otherwise threaten the safety of the
community or any person, notwithstanding any conditions of
release, in which case the person shall be referred for civil
commitment proceedings in the State in which the alien
resides or, if the alien does not reside in a State, the
State in which the alien is being detained.
``(D) Renewal of detention.--The Secretary may renew a
determination or certification made under subparagraph (C)
every 180 days after providing the alien with an opportunity
to request reconsideration of the determination or
certification and to submit documents or other evidence in
support of such request. If the Secretary determines that
continued detention is not warranted, the Secretary shall
release the alien pursuant to subparagraph (G).
``(E) Nondelegation of detention determinations.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary may
not delegate the authority provided under subparagraphs (C)
and (D) to any employee below the level of Assistant
Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
``(F) Review of detention determinations.--
``(i) Review by immigration judge.--A determination by the
Secretary of Homeland Security to detain an alien under
subparagraph (C) or (D) or to redetain an alien under
subparagraph (H) shall be subject to review by an immigration
judge in accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the
Attorney General. Such regulations shall require an
immigration judge to complete the review within 90 days. An
immigration judge shall uphold the determination of the
Secretary only if the Secretary establishes by clear and
convincing evidence that the detention of the alien is
authorized under subparagraph (C), (D), or (H).
``(ii) Time periods for administrative review.--For
purposes of this subparagraph, a failure by the Secretary to
reach a determination within 90 days of initiating the
administrative process described in subparagraph (A) shall be
treated as a determination to detain the alien.
``(iii) Review in federal court.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, judicial review of an alien's detention
under this section shall be available--
``(I) through only habeas corpus proceedings under section
2241 of title 28, United States Code; and
``(II) in the District Court of the United States in the
district where the alien is detained or where removal
proceedings against the alien were initiated.
``(G) Release on conditions.--If the Secretary determines
that an alien should be released from detention, the
Secretary may impose conditions on the release of the alien
in accordance with the regulations prescribed pursuant to
paragraph (3), including with respect to the use of
electronic monitoring devices, the use of Federal or State
mental or substance abuse treatment programs, and adherence
to parole and probation requirements for aliens to whom such
requirements apply under Federal or State law.
``(H) Redetention.--The Secretary may detain any alien
subject to a final removal order who has previously been
released from custody only if--
``(i) the alien fails to comply with the conditions of the
alien's release; or
``(ii) upon reconsideration, the Secretary determines that
the alien can be detained under subparagraph (C) or (D).
``(I) Applicability.--This paragraph and paragraphs (6) and
(7) shall apply to any alien returned to custody under
subparagraph (H) as if the removal period terminated on the
day of the alien's redetention.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection
(a)--
(1) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this
Act; and
(2) shall apply to--
(A) any alien subject to a final administrative removal,
deportation, or exclusion order that was issued before, on,
or after the date of the enactment of this Act, unless--
(i) that order was issued and the alien was subsequently
released or paroled before the date of the enactment of this
Act; and
(ii) the alien has complied with and remains in compliance
with the terms and conditions of such release or parole; and
(B) any act or condition occurring or existing before, on,
or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
______
SA 1412. Mr. FEINGOLD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 39, strike line 28 and all that follows through
page 47, line 13.
______
SA 1413. Mr. KENNEDY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 88, line 32, strike ``(2) Definition of employer.--
'' and all that follows through line 34.
______
SA 1414. Mrs. LINCOLN (for herself and Mr. Coleman) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of section 1, insert the following:
(e) Passport Applications.--
(1) In general.--The programs referred to in subsection (a)
shall not become effective until the Secretary of State
submits a written certification to the President and Congress
stating that the Department of State is processing and
adjudicating passport applications for United States citizens
in 6 weeks or less.
(2) Presidential progress report.--The report required
under subsection (c) shall describe the progress made in
satisfying the requirement under paragraph (1).
______
SA 1415. Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Ensign, Mr.
[[Page 14898]]
Allard, and Ms. Landrieu) submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy
(for himself and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348, to provide for
comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Strike section 607 and insert the following:
SEC. 607. PRECLUSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY CREDITS FOR PERIODS
WITHOUT WORK AUTHORIZATION.
(a) Insured Status.--Section 214 of the Social Security Act
(42 U.S.C. 414) is amended by striking subsection (c) and
inserting the following new subsections:
``(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), for purposes
of subsections (a) and (b), no quarter of coverage shall be
credited for any calendar year beginning on or after January
1, 2004, with respect to an individual who is not a natural-
born United States citizen, unless the Commissioner of Social
Security determines, on the basis of information provided to
the Commissioner in accordance with an agreement entered into
under subsection (d) or otherwise, that the individual was
authorized to be employed in the United States during such
quarter.
``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to an individual who
was assigned a social security account number prior to
January 1, 2004.
``(d) Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this subsection, the Secretary of Homeland
Security shall enter into an agreement with the Commissioner
of Social Security to provide such information as the
Commissioner determines necessary to carry out the limitation
on crediting quarters of coverage under subsection (c).''.
(b) Benefit Computation.--Section 215(e) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 415(e)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (1);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and
inserting ``; and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) in computing the average indexed monthly earnings of
an individual, there shall not be counted any wages or self-
employment income for any year for which no quarter of
coverage may be credited to such individual as a result of
the application of section 214(c).''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall apply to benefit applications filed on or after the
date that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act based on the wages or self-employment income of an
individual with respect to whom a primary insurance amount
has not been determined under title II of the Social Security
Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.) before such date.
______
SA 1416. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 295, strike line 18 and all that follows
through page 296, line 7, and insert the following:
(ii) English language and civics.--
(I) Requirement at first renewal.--At or before the time of
application for the first extension of Z nonimmigrant status,
an alien who is 18 years of age or older must demonstrate an
attempt to gain an understanding of the English language and
knowledge of United States civics by taking the
naturalization test described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of
section 312(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1423(a)) and by demonstrating enrollment in or
placement on a waiting list for English classes.
(II) Requirement at second renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the second extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must pass
the naturalization test described in such paragraphs (1) and
(2) of such section 312(a).
(III) Requirement at third renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the third extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must take
the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
administered by the Educational Testing Service.
(IV) Requirement at fourth renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the fourth extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must retake
the TOEFL and receive the lower of--
(aa) a score of not less than 70; or
(bb) a score of not less than 20 points higher than the
score the alien received when the alien took the TOEFL
pursuant to subclause (III).
(V) Exception.--The requirements of subclauses (I), (II),
(III), and (IV) shall not apply to any person who, on the
date of the filing of the person's application for an
extension of Z nonimmigrant status--
______
SA 1417. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 288, between lines 32 and 33, insert the following:
(9) Good moral character.--The alien shall establish that
the alien has been a person of good moral character, as
described in section 101(f) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(f)), for the entire period of
the alien's unlawful presence in the United States.
______
SA 1418. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 3, line 25 insert the following new subsection:
(6) The U.S. Visit System: The integrated entry and exit
data system required by 8 U.S.C. 1365a (Section 110 of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act
of 1996), which is already 17 months past its required
implementation date of December 21, 2005, has been fully
implemented and is functioning at every land, sea, and air
port of entry.
______
SA 1419. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike page 10, line 32 through page 11, line 11 and insert
the following:
``Section 236(a)(2) (8 U.S.C. 1226(a)(2)) is amended--
(1) by adding ``, and'' at the end of subsection (a)(3),
and
(2) by adding a new subsection (a)(4) that reads ``may not
provide the alien with release on bond or with conditional
parole if the alien is a national of a noncontiguous country,
has not been admitted or paroled into the United States, and
was apprehended within 100 miles of the international border
of the United States or presents a flight risk, as determined
by the secretary of Homeland Security.''
______
SA 1420. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 52, between line 18 and 19, insert the following:
``(D) knowingly violates for a period of 90 days or more
the terms or conditions of the alien's admission or parole
into the United States.''
______
SA 1421. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 52, between line 18 and 19, insert the following:
(D) knowingly violates for a period of 90 days or more the
terms or conditions of the alien's admission or parole into
the United States.
______
SA 1422. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act a Y-1
Nonimmigrant:
(1) may be extended for an indefinite number of subsequent
two-year periods, as long as each two-year period is
separated by physical presence outside the United States for
the immediate prior 12 months,
(2) may not be accompanied by their spouse and dependents
for any of their 2 year periods of work in the United States,
and
(3) may not sponsor a family member to visit them in the
United States under the ``parent visa'' created by Section
506 of this Act.
______
SA 1423. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place in Sec. 506(a), strike the
following sentence:
``The requirement that the alien have a residence in a
foreign country which the alien has no intention of
abandoning shall not apply to an alien described in section
214(s) who is seeking to enter as a temporary visitor for
pleasure;''
______
SA 1424. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for
[[Page 14899]]
comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of section 501, insert the following subsection:
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act for
each fiscal year starting with the enactment of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of
2007, 10,000 of the immigrant visas set aside under 503(c) of
this Act for parents will be made available to aliens seeking
immigrant visas under section 203(b) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act based on achieving a score in the top 10
percentile on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or the
American College Testing (ACT) placement exam for that year.
The test, the SAT or the ACT, must be taken in English for
the immigrant to qualify. If more than 10,000 foreign
applicants with the requisite SAT or ACT score apply, then
the top 10,000 of the pool of applicants for that year will
receive immigrant visas.
______
SA 1425. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place in Sections 501 and 502, strike
the ``supplemental schedule for Zs'' in its entirety and at
the end of Section 502(b), insert a new subsection (G) that
reads:
(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) of this Act must compete
with all other applicants through the merit based evaluation
system established under this subsection for merit based
immigrant visas available under section 501 of this Act.
______
SA 1426. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place in Sections 501 and 502, strike
the ``supplemental schedule for Zs'' in its entirety and at
the end of Section 502(b), insert new subsections (G) and (H)
that read:
``(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act,
aliens described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) of this Act must
achieve the same point threshold required for all other
applicants to the merit based evaluation system established
under this subsection.
``(H) Aliens described in section 101 (a)(15)(Z) shall be
exempt from the annual cap on merit based green card as set
by Section 501 of this Act.
______
SA 1427. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place on page 295, line 18 through page
296, line 2, insert the following changes:
Page 295, line 29, insert ``and'' between ``(2)'' and ``by
demonstrating'';
Strike Page 295, line 38--page 296, line 2;
Adding a new (III) that reads: ``Requirement at Third
Renewal.--At or before the time of application for the third
extension of Z nonimmigrant status, an alien who is 18 years
of age or older must take the TOEFL test which is
administered by the Educational Testing Service.'';
Adding a new (IV) that reads: ``Requirement at Fourth
Renewal.--At or before the time of application for the fourth
extension of Z nonimmigrant status, an alien who is 18 years
of age or older must take the TOEFL test as administered by
the Educational Testing Service and receive a score 20 points
higher than the first time they took the TOEFL test for the
third renewal, or a score of 70, whichever is lower.'';
Changing (III) to (V) on page 296 line 3;
On p. 296 line 4, strike ``(I) and (II)'' and insert ``(I),
(II)'' (III), and (IV)''.
______
SA 1428. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place in section 601(e), insert the
following at the end of section 601(e)(8):
``(9) Good Moral Character.--To be eligible for any Z
nonimmigrant status, the alien must establish that the alien
has been a person of good moral character, as defined in 8
U.S.C. Sec. 1101(f), I.N.A. Sec. 101(f), for his or her
entire period of illegal presence in the United States.
______
SA 1429. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place in section (f)(2), strike the last
sentence of subsection (2).
______
SA 1430. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In the appropriate place in section (f)(2), strike the last
sentence of subsection (2).
______
SA 1431. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike Section 607, and replace with the following:
SEC 607. PRECLUSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY CREDITS FOR YEARS
PRIOR TO ENUMERATION.
(a) Insured Status.--Section 214 of the Social Security Act
(42 U.S.C. 414) is amended by:
(1) amending subsection (c) by deleting ``For'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subsection (e), for''; and
(2) adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(d)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) and subsection
(e), for purposes of this section and for purposes of
determining a qualifying quarter of coverage under 8 U.S.C.
1612(b)(2)(B), no quarter of coverage shall be credited if,
with respect to any individual who is assigned a social
security account number:
(a) such quarter of coverage is earned prior to the year in
which such social security account number is assigned; or
(b) if such quarter of coverage was earned after the
individuals visa or work authorization had expired.''.
``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect to any
quarter of coverage earned by an individual who satisfies the
criterion specified in subsection (c)(2).
``(e) Subsection (d) shall not apply with respect to a
determination under subsection (a) or (b) for a deceased
individual in the case of a child who is a United States
citizen and who is applying for child's insurance benefits
under section 202(d) based on the wages and self-employment
income of such deceased individual.''
(b) Benefit Computation.--Section 215(e) of such Act (42
U.S.C. 415(e)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (1);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and
inserting ``;and''; and
(3) by adding at the end of the following new paragraph:
``(3) in computing the average indexed monthly earnings of
an individual, there shall not be counted any wages or self-
employment income for any year for which no quarter of
coverage may be credited to such individual as a result of
the application of section 214(d).''
(c) Effective date--The amendment made by subsection (a)
that provides for a new section 214(e) of the Social Security
Act shall be effective with respect to applications for
benefits filed after the sixth month following the month this
Act is enacted.
______
SA 1432. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 10, strike line 30 and all that follows through
page 11, line 11, and insert the following:
SEC. 113. DETENTION OF ALIENS FROM NONCONTIGUOUS COUNTRIES.
Section 236(a) (8 U.S.C. 1226(a)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(2) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ``but'' at the end;
(3) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at the end and
inserting ``; and''; and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
``(4) may not provide the alien with release on bond or
with conditional parole if the alien--
``(A) is a national of a noncontiguous country;
``(B) has not been admitted or paroled into the United
States; and
``(C) was apprehended within 100 miles of the international
border of the United States or presents a flight risk, as
determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.''.
______
SA 1433. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 265, between lines 30 and 31, insert the following:
(d) Visas for High Achieving Foreign Students.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
this Act, any amendment made by this Act, or any other
provision of law, for each fiscal year beginning after the
[[Page 14900]]
date of the enactment of this Act, 10,000 of the immigrant
visas allocated by section 203(a)(1) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act for parents of a citizen of the United States
shall be made available to aliens seeking immigrant visas
under section 203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
who--
(A) achieve a score in the top 10th percentile on the
Scholastic Aptitude Test or the American College Testing
placement exam administered in that fiscal year; and
(B) take the exams described in subparagraph (A) in the
English language.
(2) Limitation.--If more than 10,000 aliens described in
paragraph (1) apply for immigrant visas in a fiscal year, the
10,000 such aliens with the highest scores on the exams
described in paragraph (1)(A) shall receive immigrant visas.
______
SA 1434. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 276, beginning on line 38, strike ``. The
requirement that the alien have a residence in a foreign
country which the alien has no intention of abandoning shall
not apply to an alien described in section 214(s) who is
seeking to enter as a temporary visitor for pleasure''.
______
SA 1435. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 316, line 16, insert ``or, if such quarter of
coverage is earned after the individual's visa or work
authorization has expired'' before the period at the end.
______
SA 1436. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 260, strike line 3 and all that follows through
page 268, line 35, and insert the following:
SEC. 501. REBALANCING OF IMMIGRANT VISA ALLOCATION.
(a) Family-Sponsored Immigrants.--Section 201(c) (8 U.S.C.
1151(c)) is amended to read as follows:
``(c) Worldwide Level of Family-Sponsored Immigrants.--
``(1) For each fiscal year until visas needed for petitions
described in section 503(f)(2) of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007
become available, the worldwide level of family-sponsored
immigrants under this subsection is 567,000 for petitions for
classifications under section 203(a), plus any immigrant
visas not required for the class specified in subsection (d).
``(2) Except as provided in paragraph (1), the worldwide
level of family-sponsored immigrants under this subsection
for a fiscal year is 127,000, plus any immigrant visas not
required for the class specified in subsection (d).''.
(b) Merit-Based Immigrants.--Section 201(d) (8 U.S.C.
1151(d)) is amended to read as follows:
``(d) Worldwide Level of Merit-Based, Special, and
Employment Creation Immigrants.--The worldwide level of
merit-based, special, and employment creation immigrants
under this subsection--
``(1) for the first 5 fiscal years shall be equal to the
number of immigrant visas made available to aliens seeking
immigrant visas under section 203(b) for fiscal year 2005,
plus any immigrant visas not required for the class specified
in subsection (c), of which--
``(A) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens in
nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y); and
``(B) 90,000 will be for aliens who were the beneficiaries
of an application that was pending or approved on the
effective date of this section, as described in section
502(d) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007;
``(2) starting in the sixth fiscal year, shall be equal to
140,000 for each fiscal year until aliens described in
section 101(a)(15)(Z) first become eligible for an immigrant
visa, plus any immigrant visas not required for the class
specified in subsection (c), of which--
``(A) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens in
nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y); and
``(B) not more than 90,000 will be for aliens who were the
beneficiaries of an application that was pending or approved
on the effective date of this section, as described in
section 502(d) of the `Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity,
and Immigration Reform Act of 2007'; and
``(3) 380,000, for each fiscal year starting in the first
fiscal year in which aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) become eligible for an immigrant visa, of which
at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens of
nonimmigrant status under section 101(a)(15)(Y), plus any
immigrant visas not required for the class specified in
subsection (c).''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the first day of the fiscal year
subsequent to the fiscal year of enactment.
SEC. 502. INCREASING AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH A
MERIT-BASED EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR IMMIGRANTS.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the United States benefits from a workforce that has diverse
skills, experience, and training.
(b) Creation of Merit-Based Evaluation System for
Immigrants and Reallocation of Visas.--Section 203(b) (8
U.S.C. 1153(b)) is amended--
(1) by striking paragraphs (1) through (3) and inserting
the following:
``(1) Merit-based immigrants.--Visas shall first be made
available in a number not to exceed 95 percent of such
worldwide level, plus any visas not required for the classes
in paragraphs (2) and (3), to qualified immigrants selected
through a merit-based evaluation system.
``(A) The merit-based evaluation system shall initially
consist of the following criteria and weights:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
``Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Employment ................................... 47
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the Department of
Labor)-20 pts
U.S. employment in high demand
occupation (the 30 occupations
that have grown the most in the
preceding 10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics)-16 pts
National interest/ U.S. employment in STEM or health
critical infrastructure occupation, current for at least 1
year-8 pts (extraordinary or
ordinary)
Employer endorsement A U.S. employer willing to pay 50%
of a legal permanent resident's
application fee either 1) offers a
job, or 2) attests for a current
employee-6 pts
Experience Years of work for U.S. firm-2 pts/
year
(max 10 points)
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39-3 points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Education M.D., M.B.A., Graduate degree, etc.- 28
(terminal degree) 20 pts
Bachelor's Degree-16 pts
Associate's Degree-10 pts
High school diploma or GED-6 pts
Completed certified Perkins
Vocational Education program-5 pts
Completed Department of Labor
Registered Apprenticeship-8 pts
STEM, associates and above-8 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``English and civics Native speaker of English or 15
TOEFL score of 75 or higher-15 pts
TOEFL score of 60-74-10 pts
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests in
English & Civics-6 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Extended family Adult (21 or older) son or daughter 10
(Applied if threshold of of United States citizen-8 points
55 in above categories)
Adult (21 or older) son or daughter
of a legal permanent resident-6
pts
Sibling of United States citizen or
LPR-4 pts
If had applied for a family visa in
any of the above categories after
May 1, 2005-2 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Total ................................... 100
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security, after
consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary
of Labor, shall establish procedures to adjudicate petitions
filed pursuant to the merit-based evaluation system. The
Secretary may establish a time period in a fiscal year in
which such petitions must be submitted.
``(C) The Standing Commission on Immigration and Labor
Markets established pursuant to section 407 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 shall submit recommendations to Congress concerning the
establishment of procedures for modifying the selection
criteria and relative weights accorded such criteria in order
to ensure that the
[[Page 14901]]
merit-based evaluation system corresponds to the current
needs of the United States economy and the national interest.
``(D) No modifications to the selection criteria and
relative weights accorded such criteria that are established
by the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Reform Act of 2007 should take effect earlier than the sixth
fiscal year in which aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa.
``(E) The application of the selection criteria to any
particular visa petition or application pursuant to the
merit-based evaluation system shall be within the Secretary's
sole and unreviewable discretion.
``(F) Any petition filed pursuant to this paragraph that
has not been found by the Secretary to have qualified in the
merit-based evaluation system shall be deemed denied on the
first day of the third fiscal year following the date on
which such petition was filed. Such denial shall not preclude
the petitioner from filing a successive petition pursuant to
this paragraph. Notwithstanding this paragraph, the Secretary
may deny a petition when denial is appropriate under other
provisions of law, including but not limited to section
204(c).
``(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or
the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Reform Act of 2007, aliens described in section 101(a)(15)(Z)
shall compete with all other applicants through the merit
based evaluation system established under this subsection for
merit based immigrant visas available under section
201(d).'';
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (4) through (6) as
paragraphs (2) through (4), respectively;
(3) in paragraph (2), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``7.1 percent'' and inserting ``4,200'';
and
(B) striking ``5,000'' and inserting ``2,500''; and
(4) in paragraph (3), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``7.1 percent'' and inserting ``2,800'';
and
(B) striking ``3,000'' and inserting ``1,500''.
(c) Procedure for Granting Immigrant Status.--Section
204(a)(1) (8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)) is amended by striking
subparagraphs (E) and (F).
(d) Effective Date.--
(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the amendments
made by this section shall take effect on the first day of
the fiscal year subsequent to the fiscal year of enactment,
unless such date is less than 270 days after the date of
enactment, in which case the amendments shall take effect on
the first day of the following fiscal year.
(2) Pending and approved petitions and applications.--
Petitions for an employment-based visa filed for
classification under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section
203(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1153(b) (as such provisions existed prior to the enactment of
this section) that were filed prior to the date of the
introduction of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and were pending or approved
at the time of the effective date of this section, shall be
treated as if such provisions remained effective and an
approved petition may serve as the basis for issuance of an
immigrant visa. Aliens with applications for a labor
certification pursuant to section 212(a)(5)(A) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(5)(A))
shall preserve the immigrant visa priority date accorded by
the date of filing of such labor certification application.
(e) Conforming Amendments.--
(1) Section 201 (8 U.S.C. 1151) is amended by striking
``employment-based'' each place it appears and inserting
``merit-based''.
(2) Section 202 (8 U.S.C. 1152) is amended by striking
``employment-based'' each place it appears and inserting
``merit-based''.
(3) Section 203(b) (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)) is amended--
(A) by amending the matter preceding paragraph (1) to read
as follows:
``(b) Preference Allocation for Merit-Based, Special, and
Employment Creation Immigrants.--Aliens subject to the
worldwide level specified in section 201(d) for merit-based,
special, and employment creation immigrants in a fiscal year
shall be allotted visas as follows:'';
(B) in paragraph (6)(B)(i)--
(i) by striking ``employment-based'' and inserting ``merit-
based''; and
(ii) by striking ``paragraphs (1), (2), and (3)'' and
inserting ``paragraph (1)''; and
(C) in paragraph (6)(B)(iii)--
(i) by striking ``employment-based'' and inserting ``merit-
based''; and
(ii) by striking ``each of paragraphs (1) through (3)'' and
inserting ``paragraph (1)''.
(4) Section 212(a)(4) (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(4)) is amended by
striking subparagraph (D).
(5) Section 213A(f) (8 U.S.C. 1183a(f)) is amended--
(A) by striking paragraph (4);
(B) by striking paragraph (5) and inserting the following:
``(4) Non-petitioning cases.--Such term also includes an
individual who does not meet the requirement of paragraph
(1)(D) but who is a spouse, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-
law, sibling, child (if at least 18 years of age), son,
daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law,
brother-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild of a sponsored
alien or a legal guardian of a sponsored alien, meets the
requirements of paragraph (1) (other than subparagraph (D)),
and executes an affidavit of support with respect to such
alien in a case in which--
``(A) the individual petitioning under section 204 for the
classification of such alien died after the approval of such
petition; and
``(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security has determined for
humanitarian reasons that revocation of such petition under
section 205 would be inappropriate.'';
(C) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph (5); and
(D) by striking ``(6)'' and inserting ``(5)''.
(6) Section 212(a) (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)) is amended by
striking paragraph (5).
(7) Section 218(g)(3) (8 U.S.C. 1188) is amended by
striking paragraph (3) and redesignating paragraph (4) as
paragraph (3).
(8)(A) Section 207(c)(3) (8 U.S.C. 1157(c)(3)) is amended
by striking ``, (5),'' in the first sentence.
(B) Section 209(c) (8 U.S.C. 1159(c)) is amended by
striking ``, (5),'' in the second sentence.
(C) Section 210(c)(2)(A) (8 U.S.C. 1160(c)(2)(A)) is
amended by striking ``paragraphs (5) and'' and inserting
``paragraph''.
(D) Section 237(a)(1)(H)(i)(II) (8 U.S.C.
1227(a)(1)(H)(i)(II)) is amended by striking ``paragraphs (5)
and'' and inserting ``paragraph''.
(E) Section 245(h)(2)(A) (8 U.S.C. 1255(h)(2)(A)) is
amended by striking ``, (5)(A),''.
(F) Section 245A(d)(2)(A) (8 U.S.C. 1255a(d)(2)(A)) is
amended by striking ``paragraphs (5) and'' and inserting
``paragraph''.
(G) Section 286(s)(6) (8 U.S.C. 1356(s)(6)) is amended by
striking ``and section 212(a)(5)(A)''.
(f) References to Secretary of Homeland Security.--
(1) Section 203 (8 U.S.C. 1153) is amended by striking
``Attorney General'' each place it appears and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security''.
(2) Section 204 (8 U.S.C. 1154) is amended by striking
``Attorney General'' each place it appears, except for
section 204(f)(4)(B), and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland
Security''.
______
SA 1437. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the end of section 1(a), insert the following:
(7) US-VISIT system.--The integrated entry and exit data
system required to be fully implemented by December 31, 2005,
under section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1365a), has
been fully implemented and is functioning at every land, sea,
and air port of entry into the United States.
______
SA 1438. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike Section 606 and replace with,
SEC. 606. ENUMERATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with
the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, shall
implement a system to allow for the prompt enumeration of a
Social Security number after the Secretary of Homeland
Security has granted an alien Z nonimmigrant status.
______
SA 1439. Mr. SESSIONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Beginning on page 262, strike line 34 and all that follows
through page 265, line 15, and insert the following:
``(A) The merit-based evaluation system shall initially
consist of the following criteria and weights:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum
``Category Description points
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Employment ................................... 47
Occupation U.S. employment in specialty
occupation
(as defined by the Department of
Labor)--20 pts
U.S. employment in high demand
occupation (the 30 occupations
that have grown the most in the
preceding 10-year period, as
determined by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics)--16 pts
National interest/ U.S. employment in STEM or health
critical infrastructure occupation, current for at least 1
year--8 pts (extraordinary or
ordinary)
[[Page 14902]]
Employer endorsement A U.S. employer willing to pay 50%
of a legal permanent resident's
application fee either 1) offers a
job, or (2) attests for a current
employee--6 pts
Experience Years of work for U.S. firm--2 pts/
year
(max 10 points)
Age of worker Worker's age: 25-39--3 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Education M.D., M.B.A., Graduate degree, 28
(terminal degree) etc.--20 pts
Bachelor's Degree--16 pts
Associate's Degree--10 pts
High school diploma or GED--6 pts
Completed certified Perkins
Vocational Education program--5
pts
Completed Department of Labor
Registered Apprenticeship--8 pts
STEM, associates and above--8 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``English and civics Native speaker of English or 15
TOEFL score of 75 or higher--15 pts
TOEFL score of 60-74--10 pts
Pass USCIS Citizenship Tests in
English & Civics--6 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Extended family Adult (21 or older) son or daughter 10
(Applied if threshold of of United States citizen--8 pts
55 in above categories)
Adult (21 or older) son or daughter
of a legal permanent resident--6
pts
Sibling of United States citizen or
LPR--4 pts
If had applied for a family visa in
any of the above categories after
May 1, 2005--2 pts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``Total ................................... 100
------------------------------------------------------------------------
``(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security, after
consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary
of Labor, shall establish procedures to adjudicate petitions
filed pursuant to the merit-based evaluation system. The
Secretary may establish a time period in a fiscal year in
which such petitions must be submitted.
``(C) The Standing Commission on Immigration and Labor
Markets established pursuant to section 407 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 shall submit recommendations to Congress concerning the
establishment of procedures for modifying the selection
criteria and relative weights accorded such criteria in order
to ensure that the merit-based evaluation system corresponds
to the current needs of the United States economy and the
national interest.
``(D) No modifications to the selection criteria and
relative weights accorded such criteria that are established
by the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Reform Act of 2007 should take effect earlier than the sixth
fiscal year in which aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa.
``(E) The application of the selection criteria to any
particular visa petition or application pursuant to the
merit-based evaluation system shall be within the Secretary's
sole and unreviewable discretion.
``(F) Any petition filed pursuant to this paragraph that
has not been found by the Secretary to have qualified in the
merit-based evaluation system shall be deemed denied on the
first day of the third fiscal year following the date on
which such petition was filed. Such denial shall not preclude
the petitioner from filing a successive petition pursuant to
this paragraph. Notwithstanding this paragraph, the Secretary
may deny a petition when denial is appropriate under other
provisions of law, including but not limited to section
204(c).
``(G) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, an
alien seeking Z nonimmigrant status pursuant to section
101(a)(15)(Z) shall--
``(i) be subject to the requirements of the merit-based
evaluation system in the same manner and to the same extent
as aliens seeking visas under this section; and
``(ii) shall be exempt from the worldwide level of merit-
based, special, and employment creation immigrants provided
under section 201(d).''.
______
SA 1440. Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Corker, and Mr. Alexander)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S.
1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Strike Title VI and insert the following:
TITLE VI--NONIMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES PREVIOUSLY IN UNLAWFUL
STATUS
SEC. 601.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law
(including section 244(h) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (hereinafter ``the Act'') (8 U.S.C. 1254a(h)), the
Secretary may permit an alien, or dependent of such alien,
described in this section, to remain lawfully in the United
States under the conditions set forth in this Title.
(b) Definition of Z Nonimmigrants.--Section 101(a)(15) of
the Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)) is amended by inserting at the
end the following new subparagraph:
``(Z) subject to Title VI of the [Insert title of Act], an
alien who--
``(i) is physically present in the United States, has
maintained continuous physical presence in the United States
since January 1, 2007, is employed, and seeks to continue
performing labor, services or education; or
``(ii) is physically present in the United States, has
maintained continuous physical presence in the United States
since January 1, 2007, and
``(I) is the spouse or parent (65 years of age or older) of
an alien described in (i); or
``(II) was, within two years of the date on which [NAME OF
THIS ACT] was introduced, the spouse of an alien who was
subsequently classified as a Z nonimmigrant under this
section, or is eligible for such classification, if--
``(aa) the termination of the relationship with such spouse
was connected to domestic violence; and
``(bb) the spouse has been battered or subjected to extreme
cruelty by the spouse or parent who is a Z nonimmigrant.
``(iii) is under 18 years of age at the time of application
for nonimmigrant status under this subparagraph, is
physically present in the United States, has maintained
continuous physical presence in the United States since
January 1, 2007, and was born to or legally adopted by at
least one parent who is at the time of application described
in (i) or (ii).''
(c) Presence in the United States.--
(1) In general.--The alien shall establish that the alien
was not present in lawful status in the United States on
January 1, 2007, under any classification described in
section 101(a)(15) of the Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)) or any
other immigration status made available under a treaty or
other multinational agreement that has been ratified by the
Senate.
(2) Continuous presence.--For purposes of this section, an
absence from the United States without authorization for a
continuous period of 90 days or more than 180 days in the
aggregate shall constitute a break in continuous physical
presence.
(d) Other Criteria.--
(1) Grounds of ineligibility.--An alien is ineligible for Z
nonimmigrant status if the Secretary determines that the
alien--
(A)(i) is inadmissible to the United States under section
212(a) of the Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)), provided that to be
deemed inadmissible, nothing in this paragraph shall require
the Secretary to have commenced removal proceedings against
an alien;
(B) is subject to the execution of an outstanding
administratively final order of removal, deportation, or
exclusion;
(C) is described in or is subject to section 241(a)(5) of
the Act;
(D) has ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise
participated in the persecution of any person on account of
race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular
social group, or political opinion;
(E) is an alien--
(i) for whom there are reasonable grounds for believing
that the alien has committed a serious criminal offense as
described in section 101(h) of the Act outside the United
States before arriving in the United States; or
(ii) for whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding
the alien as a danger to the security of the United States;
or
(F) has been convicted of--
(i) a felony;
(ii) an aggravated felony as defined at section 101(a)(43)
of the Act;
(iii) 3 or more misdemeanors under Federal or State law; or
(iv) a serious criminal offense as described in section
101(h) of the Act;
(G) has entered or attempted to enter the United States
illegally on or after January 1, 2007; and
(H) with respect to an applicant for Z-2 or Z-3
nonimmigrant status, a Z-2 nonimmigrant, or a Z-3
nonimmigrant who is under 18 years of age, the alien is
ineligible for Z nonimmigrant status if the principal 2-1
nonimmigrant or 2-1 nonimmigrant status applicant is
ineligible.
(I) The Secretary may in his discretion waive ineligibility
under subparagraph (B) or (C) if the alien has not been
physically removed from the United States and if the alien
demonstrates that his departure from the United States would
result in extreme hardship to the alien or the alien's
spouse, parent or child.
(2) Grounds of inadmissibility.--
(A) In general.--In determining an alien's admissibility
under paragraph (1)(A)--
(i) paragraphs (6)(A)(i) (with respect to an alien present
in the United States without
[[Page 14903]]
being admitted or paroled before the date of application, but
not with respect to an alien who has arrived in the United
States on or after January 1, 2007), (6)(B), (6)(C)(i),
(6)(C)(ii), (6)(D), (6)(F), (6)(G), (7), (9)(B),
(9)(C)(i)(I), and (10)(B) of section 212(a) of the Act shall
not apply, but only with respect to conduct occurring or
arising before the date of application;
(ii) the Secretary may not waive--
(I) subparagraph (A), (B), (C), (D)(ii), (E), (F), (G),
(H), or (I) of section 212(a)(2) of the Act (relating to
criminals);
(II) section 212(a)(3) of the Act (relating to security and
related grounds);
(iii) with respect to an application for Z nonimmigrant
status, section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) of the Act;
(IV) paragraph (6)(A)(i) of section 212(a) of the Act (with
respect to any entries occurring on or after January 1,
2007);
(V) section 212(a)(9)(C)(i)(II);
(VI) subparagraph (A), (C), or (D) of section 212(a)(10) of
the Act (relating to polygamists, child abductors, and
unlawful voters);
(iii) the Secretary may in his discretion waive the
application of any provision of section 212(a) of the Act not
listed in subparagraph (B) on behalf of an individual alien
for humanitarian purposes, to ensure family unity, or if such
waiver is otherwise in the public interest; and
(B) Construction.--Nothing in this paragraph shall be
construed as affecting the authority of the Secretary other
than under this paragraph to waive the provisions of section
212(a) of the Act.
(e) Eligibility Requirements.--To be eligible for Z
nonimmigrant status an alien shall meet the following and any
other applicable requirements set forth in this section:
(I) Eligibility.--The alien must not fall within a class of
aliens ineligible for Z nonimmigrant status listed under
subsection (d)(1).
(2) Admissibility.--The alien must not be inadmissible as a
nonimmigrant to the United States under section 212, except
as provided in subsection (d)(2), regardless of whether the
alien has previously been admitted to the United States.
(3) Presence.--To be eligible for Z-1 or Z-2 nonimmigrant
status, or for nonimmigrant status under section
101(a)(15)(Z)(iii)(I), the alien must--
(A) have been physically present in the United States
before January 1, 2007, and have maintained continuous
physical presence in the United States since that date;
(B) be physically present in the United States on the date
of application for Z nonimmigrant status; and
(C) be on January 1,2007, and on the date of application
for Z nonimmigrant status, not present in lawful status in
the United States under any classification described in
section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)) or any other immigration status made
available under a treaty or other multinational agreement
that has been ratified by the Senate.
(4) Employment.--An alien seeking Z-1 nonimmigrant status
must be employed in the United States on the date of filing
of the application for Z-1 nonimmigrant status.
(5) Fees and Penalties.--
(A) Processing fees.--
(i) An alien making an initial application for Z
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a processing fee
in an amount sufficient to recover the full cost of
adjudicating the application, but no more than $1,500 for a
single Z nonimmigrant.
(ii) An alien applying for extension of his Z nonimmigrant
status shall be required to pay a processing fee in an amount
sufficient to cover administrative and other expenses
associated with processing the extension application, but no
more than $1,500 for a single Z nonimmigrant.
(B) Penalties.--
(i) An alien making an initial application for Z-l
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay, in addition to
the processing fee in subparagraph (A), a penalty of $1,000.
(ii) An alien making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a $500 penalty
for each alien seeking Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant status
derivative to the Z-1 applicant.
(iii) An alien who is a Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant and who has
not previously been a Z-1 nonimmigrant, and who changes
status to that of a Z-1 nonimmigrant, shall in addition to
processing fees be required to pay the initial application
penalties applicable to
Z-1 nonimmigrants.
(C) State impact assistance fee.--In addition to any other
amounts required to be paid under this subsection, an alien
making an initial application for Z-l nonimmigrant status
shall be required to pay a State impact assistance fee equal
to $500.
(D) Deposit and spending of fees.--The processing fees
under subparagraph (A) shall be deposited and remain
available until expended as provided by sections 286(m) and
(n).
(E) Deposit, allocation, and spending of penalties.--
(i) Deposit of penalties.--The penalty under subparagraph
(B) shall be deposited and remain available as provided by
section 286(w).
(ii) Deposit of state impact assistance funds.--The funds
under subparagraph (C) shall be deposited and remain
available as provided by section 286(x).
(6) Home application.--An alien granted probationary status
under subsection (h) shall not be eligible for Z nonimmigrant
status until the alien has completed the following home
application requirements:
(i) Home application for Z nonimmigrant visa.--An alien
awarded probationary status who seeks to become a Z-l or Z-A
nonimmigrant must, within two years of being awarded a secure
ID card under subsection j), perfect the alien's application
for Z-l or Z-A nonimmigrant status at a United States
consular office by submitting a supplemental certification in
accordance with the requirements set forth in subparagraph
(ii). The alien shall present his secure ID card at the
United States consular office which shall then be marked or
embossed with a designation as determined by the Secretaries
of State and Homeland Security which will distinguish the
card as satisfying all Z-l or Z-A requirements. The
probationary status of an alien seeking to become a Z-l or Z-
A nonimmigrant who fails to complete the requirements of this
paragraph shall be terminated in accordance with subsection
(o)(l)(G).
(ii) Consular application.--
(I) In general.--An alien granted probationary status who
seeks to become a Z-l or Z-A nonimmigrant must perfect the
alien's application by filing a supplemental certification in
person at a United States consulate abroad within two years
of being awarded a secure ID card under subsection (j).
(II) Place of application.--Unless otherwise directed by
the Secretary of State, an alien in probationary status who
is seeking to become a Z-l or Z-A nonimmigrant shall file a
supplemental certification at a consular office in the
alien's country of origin. A consular office in a country
that is not the alien's country of origin as a matter of
discretion may, or at the direction of the Secretary of State
shall, accept a supplemental certification from such an
alien.
(III) Contents of supplemental certification.--An alien in
probationary status who is seeking to become a Z-l or Z-A
nonimmigrant shall certify, in addition to any other
certifications specified by the Secretary, that the alien has
during the period of the alien's probationary status remained
continuously employed in accordance with the requirements of
subsection (m) and has paid all tax liabilities owed by the
alien pursuant to the procedures set forth in section
602(a)(8). An alien making a false certification under this
subparagraph shall be terminated pursuant to subsection
(0)(1)(C).
(iii) Exemptions.--Subparagraphs (i) and (ii) shall not
apply to an alien who, on the date on which the alien is
granted a secure ID card under subsection (j), is exempted
from the employment requirements under subsection
(m)(1)(B)(iii).
(iv) Failure to establish lawful admission to the united
states.--Unless exempted under subparagraph (iii), an alien
in probationary status who is seeking to become a Z-l or
Z-A nonimmigrant who fails to depart and reenter the United
States in accordance with subparagraphs (i) and (ii) may not
be issued a Z-l or Z-A nonimmigrant visa under this section.
(v) Dependents.--An alien in probationary status who is
seeking to become a Z-2, Z-3 or Z-A dependent nonimmigrant
shall be awarded Z-2, Z-3 or Z-A dependent nonimmigrant
status upon satisfaction of the requirements set forth in
subparagraphs (i) and (ii) by the principal Z-1 or Z-A
nonimmigrant. An alien in probationary status who is seeking
to become a Z-2, Z-3 or Z-A dependent nonimmigrant and whose
principal Z-1 or Z-A nonimmigrant fails to satisfy the
requirements of subparagraphs (i) and (ii) may not be issued
a Z-2, Z-3 or Z-A dependent nonimmigrant visa under this
section unless the principal Z-1 or Z-A alien is exempted
under subparagraph (iii).
(7) Interview.--An applicant for Z nonimmigrant status must
appear to be interviewed.
(8) Military selective service.--The alien shall establish
that if the alien is within the age period required under the
Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 451 et seq.)
that such alien has registered under that Act.
(f) Application Procedures.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland SecUrity shall
prescribe by notice in the Federal Register, in accordance
with the procedures described in section 610 of the [NAME OF
THIS ACT], the procedures for an alien in the United States
to apply for Z nonimmigrant status and the evidence required
to demonstrate eligibility for such status.
(2) Initial receipt of applications.--The Secretary of
Homeland Security, or such other entities as are authorized
by the Secretary to accept applications under the procedures
established under this subsection, shall accept applications
from aliens for Z nonimmigrant status for a period of one
year starting the first day of the first month beginning no
more than 180 days after the date of enactment of this
section. If, during the one-year initial period for the
receipt of applications for Z nonimmigrant status, the
Secretary of Homeland Security determines that additional
time is required to register applicants for Z nonimmigrant
status, the Secretary may in his discretion extend the
[[Page 14904]]
period for accepting applications by up to 12 months.
(3) Biometric data.--Each alien applying for Z nonimmigrant
status must submit biometric data in accordance with
procedures established by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
(4) Home application.--No alien shall be awarded Z
nonimmigrant status until the alien has completed the home
application requirement set forth in subsection (e)( 6).
(g) Content of Application Filed by Alien.--
(1) Application form.--The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall create an application form that an alien shall be
required to complete as a condition of obtaining probationary
status.
(2) Application information.--
(A) In general.--The application form shall request such
information as the Secretary deems necessary and appropriate,
including but not limited to, information concerning the
alien's physical and mental health; complete criminal
history, including all arrests and dispositions; gang
membership, renunciation of gang affiliation; immigration
history; employment history; and claims to United States
citizenship.
(B) Status.--An alien applying for Z nonimmigrant status
shall be required to specify on the application whether the
alien ultimately seeks to be awarded Z-1, Z-2, or Z-3
nonimmigrant status.
(3) Security and law enforcement background checks.--
(A) Submission of fingerprints.--The Secretary may not
accord Z nonimmigrant status unless the alien submits
fingerprints and other biometric data in accordance with
procedures established by the Secretary.
(B) Background checks.--The Secretary shall utilize
fingerprints and other biometric data provided by the alien
to conduct appropriate background checks of such alien to
search for criminal, national security, or other law
enforcement actions that would render the alien ineligible
for classification under this section.
(h) Treatment of applicants.--
(1) In general.--An alien who files an application for Z
nonimmigrant status shall, upon submission of any evidence
required under paragraphs (f) and (g) and after the Secretary
has conducted appropriate background checks, to include name
and fingerprint checks, that have not by the end of the next
business day produced information rendering the applicant
ineligible--
(A) be granted probationary status in the form of
employment authorization pending final adjudication of the
alien's application;
(B) may in the Secretary's discretion receive advance
permission to re-enter the United States pursuant to existing
regulations governing advance parole;
(C) may not be detained for immigration purposes,
determined inadmissible or deportable, or removed pending
final adjudication of the alien's application, unless the
alien is determined to be ineligible for Z nonimmigrant
status; and
(D) may not be considered an unauthorized alien (as defined
in section 274A(h)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(3)) unless employment authorization under
subparagraph (A) is denied.
(2) Timing of probationary status.--No alien shall be
granted probationary status until the alien has passed all
appropriate background checks or the end of the next business
day, whichever is sooner.
(3) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to limit the Secretary's authority to conduct any
appropriate background and security checks subsequent to
issuance of evidence of probationary benefits under paragraph
(4).
(4) Probationary card.--The Secretary shall provide each
alien described in paragraph (1) with a counterfeit-resistant
document that reflects the benefits and status set forth in
that paragraph. The Secretary may by regulation establish
procedures for the issuance of documentary evidence of
probationary status and, except as provided herein, the
conditions under which such documentary evidence expires,
terminates, or is renewed. All documentary evidence of
probationary benefits shall expire no later than six months
after the date on which the Secretary begins to issue secure
ID cards under subsection (j).
(5) Before application period.--If an alien is apprehended
between the date of enactment and the date on which the
period for initial registration closes under subsection
(f)(2), and the alien can establish prima facie eligibility
for Z nonimmigrant status, the Secretary shall provide the
alien with a reasonable opportunity to file an application
under this section after such regulations are promulgated.
(6) During certain proceedings.--Notwithstanding any
provision of the Act, if the Secretary determines that an
alien who is in removal proceedings is prima facie eligible
for Z nonimmigrant status, then the Secretary shall
affirmatively communicate such determination to the
immigration judge. The immigration judge shall then terminate
or administratively close such proceedings and permit the
alien a reasonable opportunity to apply for such
classification.
(i) Adjudication of Application Filed by Alien.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary may approve the issuance of
a secure ID card, as described in subsection (0), to an
applicant for a Z nonimmigrant visa who satisfies the
requirements of this section.
(2) Evidence of continuous physical presence, employment,
or education.--
(A) Presumptive documents.--A Z nonimmigrant or an
applicant for Z nonimmigrant status may presumptively
establish satisfaction of each required period of presence,
employment, or study by submitting records to the Secretary
that demonstrate such presence, employment, or study, and
that the Secretary verifies have been maintained by the
Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service,
or any other Federal, State, or local government agency.
(B) Verification.--Each Federal agency, and each State or
local government agency, as a condition of receipt of any
funds under
Section 286(x), shall within 90 days of enactment ensure
that procedures are in place under which such agency shall--
(i) consistent with all otherwise applicable laws,
including but not limited to laws governing privacy, provide
documentation to an alien upon request to satisfy the
documentary requirements of this paragraph; or
(ii) notwithstanding any other provision of law, including
section 6103 of title 26, United States Code, provide
verification to the Secretary of documentation offered by an
alien as evidence of
(a) presence or employment required under this section, or
(b) a requirement for any other benefit under the
immigration laws.
(C) Other documents.--A Z nonimmigrant or an applicant for
Z nonimmigrant status who is unable to submit a document
described in subparagraph (A) may establish satisfaction of
each required period of presence, employment, or study by
submitting to the Secretary at least 2 other types of
reliable documents that provide evidence of employment,
inc1uding--
(I) bank records;
(II) business records;
(III) employer records;
(IV) records of a labor union or day labor center;
(V) remittance records;
(VI) sworn affidavits from nonrelatives who have direct
knowledge of the alien's work, that contain--
(a) the name, address, and telephone number of the affiant;
(b) the nature and duration of the relationship between the
affiant and the alien; and (c) other verification or
information.
(D) Additional documents.--The Secretary may--
(i) designate additional documents to evidence the required
period of presence, employment, or study; and
(ii) set such terms and conditions on the use of affidavits
as is necessary to verify and confirm the identity of any
affiant or otherwise prevent fraudulent submissions.
(3) Burden of proof.--An alien who is applying for a Z
nonimmigrant visa under this section shall prove, by a
preponderance of the evidence, that the alien has satisfied
the requirements of this section.
(4) Denial of application.--
(i) An alien who fails to satisfy the eligibility
requirements for a Z nonimmigrant visa shall have his
application denied and may not file additional applications.
(ii) An alien who fails to submit requested initial
evidence, including requested biometric data, and requested
additional evidence by the date required by the Secretary
shall, except where the alien demonstrates to the
satisfaction of the Secretary that such failure was
reasonably excusable or was not willful, have his application
considered abandoned. Such application shall be denied and
the alien may not file additional applications.
(j) Secure ID Card Evidencing Status.--
(1) In general.--Documentary evidence of status shall be
issued to each Z nonimmigrant.
(2) Features of secure ID card.--Documentary evidence of Z
nonimmigrant status:
(A) shall be machine-readable, tamper-resistant, and shall
contain a digitized photograph and other biometric
identifiers that can be authenticated;
(B) shall be designed in consultation with U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement's Forensic Document Laboratory;
(C) shall, during the alien's authorized period of
admission under subsection (k), serve as a valid travel and
entry document for the purpose of applying for admission to
the United States where the alien is applying for admission
at a Port of Entry.
(D) may be accepted during the period of its validity by an
employer as evidence of employment authorization and identity
under section 274A(b)(1)(B); and
(E) shall be issued to the Z nonimmigrant by the Secretary
of Homeland Security promptly after final adjudication of
such alien's application for Z nonimmigrant status, except
that an alien may not be granted permanent Z nonimmigrant
status until all appropriate background checks on the alien
are completed to the satisfaction of the Secretary of
Homeland Security.
(k) Period of Authorized Admission.--
(1) Initial period.--The initial period of authorized
admission as a Z nonimmigrant
[[Page 14905]]
shall be four years, which shall begin to run on the date
that the alien was first awarded a secure ID card under
subsection (j).
(2) Extensions.--
(A) In general.--nonimmigrants may seek an indefinite
number of four-year extensions of the initial period of
authorized admission.
(B) Requirements.--In order to be eligible for an extension
of the initial or any subsequent period of authorized
admission under this paragraph, an alien must satisfy the
following requirements:
(i) Eligibility.--The alien must demonstrate continuing
eligibility for Z nonimmigrant status;
(ii) English language and civics.--
``(I) Requirement at first renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the first extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must
demonstrate an attempt to gain an understanding of the
English language and knowledge of United States civics by
taking the naturalization test described in sections
312(a)(1) and (2) by demonstrating enrollment in or placement
on a waiting list for English classes.
(II) Requirement at second renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the second extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must pass
the naturalization test described in sections 312(a)(1) and
(2). The alien may make up to three attempts to demonstrate
such understanding and knowledge but must satisfy this
requirement prior to the expiration of the second extension
of Z nonimmigrant status.
(III) Exception.--The requirement of subclauses (I) and
(II) shall not apply to any person who, on the date of the
filing of the person's application for an extension of Z
nonimmigrant status--
(aa) is unable because of physical or developmental
disability or mental impairment to comply therewith;
(bb) is over fifty years of age and has been living in the
United States for periods totaling at least twenty years, or
(cc) is over fifty-five years of age and has been living in
the United States for periods totaling at least fifteen
years.
(iii) Employment.--With respect to an extension of Z-1 or
Z-3 nonimmigrant status an alien must demonstrate
satisfaction of the employment or study requirements provided
in subsection (m) during the alien's most recent authorized
period of stay as of the date of application; and
(iv) Fees.--The alien must pay a processing fee in an
amount sufficient to recover the full cost of adjudicating
the application, but no more than $1,500 for a single Z
nonimmigrant.
(C) Security and law enforcement background checks.--An
alien applying for extension of Z nonimmigrant status may be
required to submit to a renewed security and law enforcement
background check that must be completed to the satisfaction
of the Secretary of Homeland Security before such extension
may be granted.
(D) Timely filing and maintenance of status.--
(i) In general.--An extension of stay under this paragraph,
or a change of status to another Z nonimmigrant status under
subsection (1), may not be approved for an applicant who
failed to maintain Z nonimmigrant status or where such status
expired or terminated before the application was filed.
(ii) Exception.--Failure to file before the period of
previously authorized status expired or terminated may be
excused in the discretion of the Secretary and without
separate application, with any extension granted from the
date the previously authorized stay expired, where it is
demonstrated at the time of filing that:
(I) the delay was due to extraordinary circumstances beyond
the control of the applicant, and the Secretary finds the
delay commensurate with the circumstances; and
(II) the alien has not otherwise violated his Z
nonimmigrant status.
(iii) Exemptions from penalty and employment
requirements.--An alien demonstrating extraordinary
circumstances under clause (ii), including the spouse of a Z-
1 nonimmigrant who has been battered or has been the subject
of extreme cruelty perpetrated by the Z-1 nonimmigrant, and
who is changing to Z-1 nonimmigrant status, may be exempted
by the Secretary, in his discretion, from the requirements
under subsection (m) for a period of up to 180 days.
(E) Bars to extension.--Except as provided in subparagraph
(D), a Z nonimmigrant shall not be eligible to extend such
nonimmigrant status if:
(i) the alien has violated any term or condition of his or
her Z nonimmigrant status, including but not limited to
failing to comply with the change of address reporting
requirements under section 265;
(ii) the period of authorized admission of the Z
nonimmigrant has been terminated for any reason; or
(iii) with respect to a Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant, the
principal alien's Z-1 nonimmigrant status has been
terminated.
(1) Change of status.--
(1) Change from Z nonimmigrant status.--
(A) In general.--A Z nonimmigrant may not change status
under section 248 to another nonimmigrant status, except
another Z nonimmigrant status or status under subparagraph
(U) of section 101(a)(15).
(B) Change from Z-A status.--A Z-A nonimmigrant may change
status to Z nonimmigrant status at the time of renewal
referenced in section 214A(j)(1)(C) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act.
(C) Limit on changes.--A Z nonimmigrant may not change
status more than one time per 365-day period. The Secretary
may, in his discretion, waive the application of this
subparagraph to an alien if it is established to the
satisfaction of the Secretary that application of this
subparagraph would result in extreme hardship to the alien.
(2) No change to Z nonimmigrant status.--A nonimmigrant
under the immigration laws may not change status under
section 248 to Z nonimmigrant status.
(m) Employment.--
(I) Z-1 and Z-3 nonimmigrants.--
(A) In general.--Z-1 and Z-3 nonimmigrants shall be
authorized to work in the United States.
(B) Continuous employment requirement.--All requirements
that an alien be employed or seeking employment for purposes
of this Title shall not apply to an alien who is under 16
years or over 65 years of age. A Z-1 or Z-3 nonimmigrant
between 16 and 65 years of age, or an alien in probationary
status between 16 and 65 years of age who is seeking to
become a Z-1 or Z-3 nonimmigrant, must remain continuously
employed full time in the United States as a condition of
such nonimmigrant status, except where--
(i) the alien is pursuing a full course of study at an
established college, university, seminary, conservatory,
trade school, academic high school, elementary school, or
other academic institution or language training program;
(ii) the alien is employed while also engaged in study at
an established college, university, seminary, conservatory,
academic high school, elementary school, or other academic
institution or language training program;
(iii) the alien cannot demonstrate employment because of a
physical or mental disability (as defined under section 3(2)
of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C.
12102(2) or as a result of pregnancy if such condition is
evidenced by the submission of documentation prescribed by
the Secretary; or
(iv) the alien's ability to work has been temporarily
interrupted by an event that the Secretary has determined to
be a force majeure interruption.
(2) Z-2 nonimmigrants.--Z-2 nonimmigrants shall be
authorized to work in the United States.
(3) Portability.--Nothing in this subsection shall be
construed to limit the ability of a Z nonimmigrant to change
employers during the alien's period of authorized admission.
(n) Travel Outside the United States.--
(1) In general.--An alien who has been issued a secure ID
card under subsection (j) and who is in probationary status
or is a Z nonimmigrant--
(A) may travel outside of the United States; and
(B) may be readmitted (if otherwise admissible) without
having to obtain a visa if:
(i) the alien's most recent period of authorized admission
has not expired;
(ii) the alien is the bearer of valid documentary evidence
of Z nonimmigrant status that satisfies the conditions set
forth in section (j); and
(iii) the alien is not subject to the bars on extension
described in subsection (k)(2)(E).
(2) Admissibility.--On seeking readmission to the United
States after travel outside the United States an alien
granted Z nonimmigrant status must establish that he or she
is not inadmissible, except as provided by subsection (d)(2).
(3) Effect on period of authorized admission.--Time spent
outside the United States under paragraph (1) shall not
extend the most recent period of authorized admission in the
United States under subsection (k).
(o) Termination of Benefits.--
(1) In general.--Any benefit provided to a Z nonimmigrant
or an applicant for Z nonimmigrant status under this section
shall terminate if--
(A) the Secretary determines that the alien is ineligible
for such classification and all review procedures under
section 603 of the [Insert title of Act] have been exhausted
or waived by the alien;
(B) (i) the alien is found removable from the United States
under section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1227); (ii) the alien becomes inadmissible under
section 212 (except as provided in subsection (d)(2), or
(iii) the alien becomes ineligible under subsection (d)(1);
(C) the alien has used documentation issued under this
section for unlawful or fraudulent purposes;
(D) in the case of the spouse or child of an alien applying
for a Z nonimmigrant visa, in probationary status, or
classified as a Z nonimmigrant under this section, the
benefits for the principal alien are terminated;
(E) with respect to a Z-1 or Z-3 nonimmigrant, the
employment or study requirements under subsection (m) have
been violated; or
[[Page 14906]]
(F) with respect to an alien in probationary status, the
alien's application for Z nonimmigrant status is denied
(G) with respect to an alien awarded probationary status
who seeks to become a Z-1 nonimmigrant, the alien fails to
complete the home application requirement set forth in
subsection (e)(6) within two years of receiving a secure ID
card.
(3) Denial of immigrant visa or adjustment application.--
Any application for an immigrant visa or adjustment of status
to lawful permanent resident status made under this section
by an alien whose Z nonimmigrant status is terminated under
paragraph (1) shall be denied.
(4) Departure from the united states.--Any alien whose
period of authorized admission or probationary benefits is
terminated under paragraph (1), as well as the alien's Z-2 or
Z-3 nonimmigrant dependents, shall be subject to removal and
depart the United States immediately.
(5) Invalidation of documentation.--Any documentation that
is issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security under
subsection (j) or pursuant to subsection (h)(4) to any alien,
whose period of authorized admission terminates under
paragraph (1), shall automatically be rendered invalid for
any purpose except departure.
(P) Revocation.--If, at any time after an alien has
obtained status under section 601 of the [Insert title of
Act] but not yet adjusted such status to that of an alien
lawfully admitted for permanent residence under section 602,
the Secretary may, for good and sufficient cause, if it
appears that the alien was not in fact eligible for status
under section 601, revoke the alien's status following
appropriate notice to the alien.
(q) Dissemination of Information on Z Program.--During the
2 year period immediately after the issuance of regulations
implementing this title, the Secretary, in cooperation with
entities approved by the Secretary, shall broadly disseminate
information respecting Z classification under this section
and the requirements to be satisfied to obtain such
classification. The Secretary shall disseminate information
to employers and labor unions to advise them of the rights
and protections available to them and to workers who file
applications under this section. Such information shall be
broadly disseminated, in no fewer than the top five principal
languages, as determined by the Secretary in his discretion,
spoken by aliens who would qualify for classification under
this section, including to television, radio, and print media
to which such aliens would have access.
(r) Definitions.--In this title and section 214A of the
Immigration and Nationality Act:
(1) Z nonimmigrant; Z nonimmigrant worker.--The term `Z
noniminigrant worker' means an alien admitted to the United
States under paragraph (Z) of subsection 101(a)(15). The term
does not include aliens granted probationary benefits under
subsection (h) and whose applications for nonimmigrant status
under section 101(a)(15)(Z) of the Act have not yet been
adjudicated.
(2) Z-1 Nonimmigrant; Z-1 worker.--The term `Z-1
nonimmigrant' or `Z-1 worker' means an alien admitted to the
United States under paragraph (i)(I) of subsection
101(a)(15)(Z).
(3) Z-A nonimmigrant; Z-a worker.--The term `Z-A
nonimmigrant' or `Z-A worker' means an alien admitted to the
United States under paragraph (ii)(II) of subsection
101(a)(15)(Z).
(4) Z-2 nonimmigrant.--The term `Z-2 nonimmigrant' means an
alien admitted to the United States under paragraph (ii) of
subsection 101(a)(15)(Z).
(5) Z-3 nonimmigrant; Z-3 worker.--The term `Z-3
nonimmigrant' or `Z-3 worker' means an alien admitted to the
United States under paragraph (iii) of subsection 101
(a)(15)(Z).
SEC. 602. EARNED ADJUSTMENT FOR Z STATUS ALIENS
(a) Lawful Permanent Residence.--
(1) Z-1 nonimmigrants.--
(A) Prohibition on immigrant visa.--A Z-1 nonimmigrant may
not be issued an immigrant visa pursuant to sections 221 and
222.
(B) Adjustment.--Notwithstanding sections 245(a) and (c),
the status of any Z-1 nonimmigrant may be adjusted by the
Secretary of Homeland Security to that of an alien lawfully
admitted for permanent residence.
(C) Requirements.--A Z-1 nonimmigrant may adjust status to
that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence
upon satisfying, in addition to all other requirements
imposed by law, including the merit requirements set forth in
section 203(b)(1)(A) [INSERT CITE], the following
requirements:
(i) Status.--The alien must be in valid Z-l nonimmigrant
status;
(ii) Approved petition.--The alien must be the beneficiary
of an approved petition under section 204 of the Act or have
an approved petition that was filed pursuant to the
evaluation system under section 203(b)(1)(A) of the Act;
(iii) Admissibility.--The alien must not be inadmissible
under section 212(a), except for those grounds previously
waived under subsection (d)(2);
(iv) Fees and penalties.--In addition to the fees payable
to the Secretary of Homeland Security and Secretary of State
in connection with the filing of an immigrant petition and
application for adjustment of status, a Z-l head of household
must pay a $4,000 penalty at the time of submission of any
immigrant petition on his behalf, regardless of whether the
alien submits such petition on his own behalf or the alien is
the beneficiary of an immigrant petition filed by another
party; and
(2) Z-2 and z-3 nonimmigrants.--
(A) Restriction on visa issuance or adjustment.--An
application for an immigrant visa or for adjustment of status
to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence
of a Z-2 nonimmigrant or a Z-3 nonimmigrant under 18 years of
age may not be approved before the adjustment of status of
the alien's principal Z-l nonimmigrant.
(B) Adjustment of status.--
(i) Adjustment.--Notwithstanding sections 245(a) and (c),
the status of any Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant may be adjusted by
the Secretary of Homeland Security to that of an alien
lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
(ii) Requirements.--A Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant may adjust
status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent
residence upon satisfying, in addition to all other
requirements imposed by law, the following requirements:
(I) Status.--The alien must be in valid Z-2 or Z-3
nonimmigrant status;
(II) Approved petition.--The alien must be the beneficiary
of an approved petition under section 204 of the Act or have
an approved petition that was filed pursuant to the merit-
based evaluation system under section 203(b)(1)(A) of the
Act;
(III) Admissibility.--The alien must not be inadmissible
under section 212(a), except for those grounds previously
waived under subsection (d)(2);
(IV) Fees.--The alien must pay the fees payable to the
Secretary of Homeland Security and Secretary of State in
connection with the filing of an immigrant petition and
application for an immigrant visa; and
(3) Maintenance of waivers of inadmissibility.--The grounds
of inadmissibility not applicable under section (d)(2) shall
also be considered inapplicable for purposes of admission as
an immigrant or adjustment pursuant to this subsection.
(4) Application of other law.--In processing applications
under this subsection on behalf of aliens who have been
battered or subjected to extreme cruelty, the Secretary shall
apply--
(A) the provisions under section 204(a)(1)(J) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(J)); and
(B) the protections, prohibitions, and penalties under
section 384 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1367).
(5) Back of the line.--An alien may not adjust status to
that of a lawful permanent resident under this section until
30 days after an immigrant visa becomes available for
approved petitions filed under sections 201, 202, and 203 of
the Act that were filed before May 1, 2005.
(6) Ineligibility for public benefits.--For purposes of
section 403 of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 D.S.C. 1613), an
alien whose status has been adjusted under this section shall
not be eligible for any Federal means-tested public benefit
unless the alien meets the alien eligibility criteria for
such benefit under title IV of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1601 et
seq.).
(7) Medical examination.--An applicant for earned
adjustment shall undergo an appropriate medical examination
(including a determination of immunization status) that
conforms to generally accepted professional standards of
medical practice.
(8) Payment of income taxes.--
(A) In general.--Not later than the date on which status is
adjusted under this section, the applicant shall satisfy any
applicable Federal tax liability accrued during the period of
Z status by establishing that--
(i) no such tax liability exists;
(ii) all outstanding liabilities have been paid; or
(iii) the applicant has entered into, and is in compliance
with, an agreement for payment of all outstanding liabilities
with the Internal Revenue Service.
(B) IRS cooperation.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall
establish rules and procedures under which the Commissioner
of Internal Revenue shall provide documentation to--
(i) the applicant, upon request, to establish the payment
of all taxes required under this subsection; or
(ii) the Secretary, upon request, regarding the payment of
Federal taxes by an alien applying for a benefit under this
section.
(9) Deposit of fees.--Fees collected under this paragraph
shall be deposited into the Immigration Examination Fee
Account and shall remain available as provided under
subsections (m) and (n) of section 286 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1356).
(10) Deposit of penalties.--Penalties collected under this
paragraph shall be deposited into the Temporary Worker
Program Account and shall remain available as provided under
section 286(w) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
[[Page 14907]]
SEC. 603. ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW, REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS, AND
JUDICIAL REVIEW FOR ALIENS WHO HAVE APPLIED FOR
LEGAL STATUS.
(a) Administrative Review for Aliens Who Have Applied for
Status Under this Title--
(1) Exclusive review.--Administrative review of a
determination respecting nonimmigrant status under this title
shall be conducted solely in accordance with this subsection.
(2) Administrative appellate review.--Except as provided in
subparagraph (b)(2), an alien whose status under this title
has been denied, terminated, or revoked may file not more
than one appeal of the denial, termination, or rescission
with the Secretary not later than 30 calendar days after the
date of the decision or mailing thereof, whichever occurs
later in time. The Secretary shall establish an appellate
authority to provide for a single level of administrative
appellate review of a denial, termination, or rescission of
status under [this Act].
(3) Standard for review.--Such administrative appellate
review shall be based solely upon the administrative record
established at the time of the determination 38 on the
application and upon such additional newly discovered or
previously unavailable evidence as the administrative
appellate review authority may decide to consider at the time
of the determination.
(4) Limitation on motions to reopen and reconsider.--During
the administrative appellate review process the alien may
file not more than one motion to reopen or to reconsider. The
Secretary's decision whether to consider any such motion is
committed to the Secretary's discretion.
(b) Removal of Aliens Who Have Been Denied Status Under
This Title.--
(1) Self-initiated removal.--Any alien who receives a
denial under subsection (a) may request, not later than 30
calendar days after the date of the denial or the mailing
thereof, whichever occurs later in time, that the Secretary
place the alien in removal proceedings. The Secretary shall
place the alien in removal proceedings to which the alien
would otherwise be subject, unless the alien is subject to an
administratively final order of removal, provided that no
court shall have jurisdiction to review the timing of the
Secretary's initiation of such proceedings. If the alien is
subject to an administratively final order of removal, the
alien may seek review of the denial under this section
pursuant to subsection 242(h) as though the order of removal
had been entered on the date of the denial, provided that the
court shall not review the order of removal except as
otherwise provided by law.
(2) Aliens who are determined to be ineligible due to
criminal convictions.--
(i) Aggravated Felons.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of this Act, an alien whose application for status under this
title has been denied or whose status has been terminated or
revoked by the Secretary under clause (1)(F)(ii) of
subsection 601(d) of [this Act] because the alien has been
convicted of an aggravated felony, as defined in paragraph
101(a)(43) of the INA, may be placed forthwith in proceedings
pursuant to section 238(b) of the INA.
(ii) Other criminals.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of this Act, any other alien whose application for status
under this title has been denied or whose status has been
terminated or revoked by the Secretary under clauses
(1)(F)(i), (iii), or (iv) of subsection [CITE: 601(d)] of
[this Act] may be placed forthwith in removal proceedings
under section 240 of the INA.
(iii) Final denial, termination or rescission.--The
Secretary's denial, termination, or rescission of the status
of any alien described in clauses (i) and (ii) of this
subparagraph shall be final for purposes of subparagraph
242(h)(3)(C) of the INA and shall represent the exhaustion of
all review procedures for purposes of subsections 601(h)
(relating to treatment of applicants) and 601(o) (relating to
termination of proceedings) of this Act, notwithstanding
paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
(3) Limitation on motions to reopen and reconsider.--During
the removal process under this subsection the alien may file
not more than one motion to reopen or to reconsider. The
Secretary's or Attorney General's decision whether to
consider any such motion is committed to the Attorney
General's discretion.
(c) Judicial Review.-- Section 242 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act is amended by adding at the end the following
subsection (h):
``(h) Judicial Review of Eligibility Determinations
Relating to Status Under Title VI of [this Act].
``(1) Exclusive review.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), including
section 2241 of title 28, or any other habeas corpus
provision, and sections 1361 and 1651 of such title, and
except as provided in this subsection, no court shall have
jurisdiction to review a determination respecting an
application for status under title VI of [this Act],
including, without limitation, a denial, termination, or
rescission of such status.
``(2) No review for late filings.--An alien may not file an
application for status under title VI of [this Act] beyond
the period for receipt of such applications established by
subsection 601(f) thereof. The denial of any application
filed beyond the expiration of the period established by that
subsection shall not be subject to judicial review or remedy.
``(3) Review of a denial, termination, or rescission of
status under title VI of [this Act].--A denial, termination,
or rescission of status under subsection 601 of [this Act]
may be reviewed only in conjunction with the judicial review
of an order of removal under this section, provided that:
``(A) the venue provision set forth in (b)(2) shall govern;
``(B) the deadline for filing the petition for review in
(b)(1) shall control;
``(C) the alien has exhausted all administrative remedies
available to the alien as of right, including but not limited
to the timely filing of an administrative appeal pursuant to
subsection 603(a) of [this Act];
``(D) the court shall decide a challenge to the denial of
status only on the administrative record on which the
Secretary's denial, termination, or rescission was based;
``(E) Limitation on review.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), including
section 2241 of title 28, or any other habeas corpus
provision, and sections 1361 and 1651 of such title, no court
reviewing a denial, termination, or rescission of status
under Title VI of [this Act] may review any discretionary
decision or action of the Secretary regarding any application
for or termination or rescission of such status; and
``(F) Limitation on motions to reopen and reconsider.--The
alien may file not more than one motion to reopen or to
reconsider in proceedings brought under this section.
``(4) Standard for judicial review.--Judicial review of the
Secretary's denial, termination, or rescission of status
under title VI of [this Act] relating to any alien shall be
based solely upon the administrative record before the
Secretary when he enters a final denial, termination, or
rescission. The administrative findings of fact are
conclusive unless any reasonable adjudicator would be
compelled to conclude to the contrary. The legal
determinations are conclusive unless manifestly contrary to
law.
``(5) Challenges on validity of the system.--
``(A) In general.--Any claim that title VI of [this Act],
or any regulation, written policy, or written directive
issued or unwritten policy or practice initiated by or under
the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security to
implement that title, violates the Constitution of the United
States or is otherwise in violation of law is available
exclusively in an action instituted in the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia in accordance
with the procedures prescribed in this paragraph. Nothing in
this subparagraph shall preclude an applicant for status
under title VI of [this Act] from asserting that an action
taken or decision made by the Secretary with respect to his
status under that title was contrary to law in a proceeding
under section 603 of [this Act] and paragraph (b)(2) of this
section.
``(B) Deadlines for bringing actions.--Any action
instituted under this paragraph,
(i) must, if it asserts a claim that title VI of [this Act]
or any regulation, written policy, or written directive
issued by or under the authority of the Secretary to
implement that title violates the Constitution or is
otherwise unlawful, be filed no later than one year after the
date of the publication or promulgation of the challenged
regulation, policy or directive or, in cases challenging the
validity of the Act, within one year of enactment; and
(ii) must, if it asserts a claim that an unwritten policy
or practice initiated by or under the authority of the
Secretary violates the Constitution or is otherwise unlawful,
be filed no later than one year after the plaintiff knew or
reasonably should have known of the unwritten policy or
practice.
``(C) Class actions.--Any claim described in subparagraph
(A) that is brought as a class action shall be brought in
conformity with Public Law 109-2 and the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure.''
``(D) Preclusive effect.-- The final disposition of any
claim brought under subparagraph (5)(A) shall be preclusive
of any such claim asserted in a subsequent proceeding under
this subsection or under subsection 603 [of this Act].
``(E) Exhaustion and stay of proceedings.--No claim brought
under this paragraph shall require the plaintiff to exhaust
administrative remedies under subsection 603 of [this Act],
but nothing shall prevent the court from staying proceedings
under this paragraph to permit the Secretary to evaluate an
allegation of an unwritten policy or practice or to take
corrective action. In issuing such a stay, the court shall
take into account any harm the stay may cause to the
claimant. The court shall have no authority to stay
proceedings initiated under any other section of the INA.''
SEC. 604. MANDATORY DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION.
(a) In General.--Except as otherwise provided in this
section, no Federal agency or bureau, nor any officer,
employee or contractor of such agency or bureau, may--
(1) use the information furnished by an applicant under
section 601 [and 602] of the
[[Page 14908]]
[--] or the fact that the applicant applied for such Z status
for any purpose other than to make a determination on the
application, any subsequent application to extend such status
under section 601 of such Act, or to adjust status to that of
an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence under
section 602 of such Act;
(2) make or release any publication through which the
information furnished by any particular applicant can be
identified; or
(3) permit anyone other than the officers, employees or
contractors of such agency, bureau, or approved entity, as
approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security, to examine
individual applications that have been filed.
(b) Exceptions to Confidentiality.--
(1) Subsection (a) shall not apply with respect to--
(A) an alien whose application has been denied, terminated
or revoked based on the Secretary's finding that the alien--
(i) is inadmissible under sections 212(a)(2), (3),
(6)(C)(i) (with respect to information furnished by an
applicant under section 601 or 602 of the [--]), or (6)(E) of
the Act;
(ii) is deportable under sections 237(a)(1)(E), (1)(G),
(2), or (4) of the Act;
(iii) was physically removed and is subject to
reinstatement pursuant to section 241 (a)(5).
(B) an alien whose application for Z nonimmigrant status
has been denied, terminated, or revoked under section
601(d)(1)(F);
(C) an alien whom the Secretary determines has ordered,
incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the
persecution of any person on account of race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
political opinion;
(D) an alien whom the Secretary determines has, in
connection with his application under sections 601 or 602,
engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation, concealment of
a material fact, or knowingly offered a false statement,
representation or document;
(E) an alien who has knowingly and voluntarily waived in
writing the confidentiality provisions in subsection (a); or
(F) an order from a court of competent jurisdiction.
(2) Nothing in this subsection shall require the Secretary
to commence removal proceedings against an alien whose
application has been denied, terminated, or revoked based on
the Secretary's finding that the alien is inadmissible or
deportable.
(c) Authorized Disclosures.--Information furnished on or
derived from an application described in subsection (a) may
be disclosed to--
(1) a law enforcement agency, intelligence agency, national
security agency, component of the Department of Homeland
Security, court, or grand jury in connection with a criminal
investigation or prosecution or a national security
investigation or prosecution; or
(2) an official coroner for purposes of affirmatively
identifying a deceased individual, whether or not the death
of such individual resulted from a crime.
(e) Auditing and Evaluation of Information.--The Secretary
may audit and evaluate information furnished as part of any
application filed under sections 601 and 602, of [--], any
application to extend such status under section 601(k) of
such Act, or any application to adjust status to that of an
alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence under section
602 of such Act, for purposes of identifying fraud or fraud
schemes, and may use any evidence detected by means of audits
and evaluations for purposes of investigating, prosecuting or
referring for prosecution, denying, or terminating
immigration benefits.
(f) Use of Information in Petitions and Applications
Subsequent to Adjustment of Status.--If the Secretary has
adjusted an alien's status to that of an alien lawfully
admitted for permanent residence pursuant to section 602 of
[--], then at any time thereafter the Secretary may use the
information furnished by the alien in the application for
adjustment of status or in the applications for status
pursuant to sections 601 or 602 to make a determination on
any petition or application.
(g) Penalties.--Whoever knowingly uses, publishes, or
permits information to be examined in violation of this
section shall be fined not more than $10,000.
(h) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to limit the use, or release, for immigration
enforcement purposes of information contained in files or
records of the Secretary or Attorney General pertaining to an
applications filed under sections 601 or 602, other than
information furnished by an applicant pursuant to the
application, or any other information derived from the
application, that is not available from any other source.
SEC. 605. EMPLOYER PROTECTIONS.
(a) Copies of employment records or other evidence of
employment provided by an alien or by an alien's employer in
support of an alien's application for Z nonimmigrant status
shall not be used in a prosecution or investigation (civil or
criminal) of that employer under section 247B (8 U.S.C.
1324a) or the tax laws of the United States for the prior
unlawful employment of that alien, regardless of the
adjudication of such application or reconsideration by the
Secretary of such alien's prima facie eligibility
determination.
(b) Applicability of Other Law.--Nothing in this section
may be used to shield an employer from liability under
section 274B of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1324b) or any other labor or employment law.
SEC. 606. ENUMERATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with
the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, shall
implement a system to allow for the prompt enumeration of a
Social Security number after the Secretary of Homeland
Security has granted an alien Z nonimmigrant status or any
probationary benefits based upon application for such status.
SEC. 607. PRECLUSION OF SOCIAL SECURITY CREDITS FOR YEARS
PRIOR TO ENUMERATION.
(a) Insured Status.--Section 214 of the Social Security Act
(42 U.S.C. 414) is amended by:
(1) amending subsection (c) by deleting ``For'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subsection (e), for''; and
(2) adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(d)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) and subsection
(e), for purposes of this section and for purposes of
determining a qualifying quarter of coverage under 8 U.S.C.
1612(b)(2)(B), no quarter of coverage shall be credited if,
with respect to any individual who is assigned a social
security account number after 2007, such quarter of coverage
is earned prior to the year in which such social security
account number is assigned.
``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect to any
quarter of coverage earned by an individual who satisfies the
criterion specified in subsection (c)(2).
``(e) Subsection (d) shall not apply with respect to a
determination under subsection (a) or (b) for a deceased
individual in the case of a child who is a United States
citizen and who is applying for child's insurance benefits
under section 202( d) based on the wages and self-employment
income of such deceased individual. ``
(b) Benefit Computation.--Section 215(e) of such Act (42
U.S.C. 415(e)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (1);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and
inserting ``;and''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) in computing the average indexed monthly earnings of
an individual, there shall not be counted any wages or self-
employment income for any year for which no quarter of
coverage may be credited to such individual as a result of
the application of section 214(d).''
(c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)
that provides for a new section 214( e) of the Social
Security Act shall be effective with respect to applications
for benefits filed after the sixth month following the month
this Act is enacted.
SEC. 608. PAYMENT OF PENALTIES AND USE OF PENALTIES
COLLECTED.
(a) The Secretary shall by regulation establish procedures
allowing for the payment of 80 percent of the penalties
described in Section 601(e)(5)(B) and Section 602(a)(I)(C)(v)
through an installment payment plan.
(b) Any penalties received under this title with respect to
an application for Z-1 nonimmigrant status shall be used in
the following order of priority:
(1) shall be credited as offsetting collections to
appropriations provided pursuant to section 611 for the
fiscal year in which this Act is enacted and the subsequent
fiscal year; and
(2) shall be deposited and remain available as otherwise
provided under this title.
SEC. 609. LIMITATIONS ON ELIGIBILITY.
(a) In General.--An alien is not ineligible for any
immigration benefit under any provision of this title, or any
amendment made by this title, solely on the basis that the
alien violated section 1543, 1544, or 1546 of title 18,
United States Code, or any amendments made by the [NAME OF
THIS ACT], during the period beginning on the date of the
enactment of such Act and ending on the date on which the
alien applies for any benefits under this title, except with
respect to any forgery, fraud or misrepresentation on the
application for Z nonimmigrant status filed by the alien.
(b) Prosecution.--An alien who commits a violation of
section 1543, 1544, or 1546 of such title or any amendments
made by the [NAME OF THIS ACT], during the period beginning
on the date of the enactment of such Act and ending on the
date that the alien applies for eligibility for such benefit
may be prosecuted for the violation if the alien's
application for such benefit is denied.
SEC. 610. RULEMAKING.
(a) The Secretary shall issue an interim final rule within
six months of the date of enactment of this subtitle to
implement this title and the amendments made by this title.
The interim final rule shall become effective immediately
upon publication in the Federal Register. The interim final
rule shall sunset two years after issuance unless the
Secretary issues a final rule within two years of the
issuance of the interim final rule.
[[Page 14909]]
(b) The exemption provided under this section shall sunset
no later than two years after the date of enactment of this
subtitle, provided that, such sunset shall not be construed
to impose any requirements on, or affect the validity of, any
rule issued or other action taken by the Secretary under such
exemptions.
SEC. 611. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated to
the Secretary such sums as may be necessary to carry out this
title and the amendments made by this title.
(b) Availability of Funds.--Funds appropriated pursuant to
subsection (a) shall remain available until expended.
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress
that funds authorized to be appropriated under subsection (a)
should be directly appropriated so as to facilitate the
orderly and timely commencement of the processing of
applications filed under sections 601 and 602.
Subtitle B--DREAM Act
SEC. 612. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Development, Relief,
and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2007'' or the ``DREAM
Act of 2007''.
SEC. 613. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Institution of higher education.--The term
``institution of higher education'' has the meaning given
that term in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965
(20 U.S.C. 1001).
(2) Uniformed Services.--The term ``uniformed services''
has the meaning given that term in section 101(a) of title
10, United States Code.
SEC. 614. ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS OF CERTAIN LONG-TERM RESIDENTS
WHO ENTERED THE UNITED STATES AS CHILDREN.
(a) Special Rule for Certain Long-Term Residents Who
Entered the United States as Children.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law
and except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, the
Secretary may beginning on the date that is three years after
the date of enactment of this Act adjust to the status of an
alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence an alien who
is determined to be eligible for or has been granted
probationary or Z nonimmigrant status if the alien
demonstrates that--
(A) the alien has been physically present in the United
States for a continuous period since January 1, 2007, is
under 30 years of age on the date of enactment, and had not
yet reached the age of 16 years at the time of initial entry;
(B) the alien has earned a high school diploma or obtained
a general education development certificate in the United
States;
(C) The alien has not abandoned the alien's residence in
the United States. The Secretary shall presume that the alien
has abandoned such residence if the alien is absent from the
United States for more than 365 days, in the aggregate,
during the period of conditional residence, unless the alien
demonstrates that alien has not abandoned the alien's
residence. An alien who is absent from the United States due
to active service in the uniformed services has not abandoned
the alien's residence in the United States during the period
of such service.
(D) The alien has--
(i) acquired a degree from an institution of higher
education in the United States or has completed at least 2
years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor's degree
or higher degree in the United States; or
(ii) The alien has served in the uniformed services for at
least 2 years and, if discharged, has received an honorable
discharge.
(E) The alien has provided a list of all of the secondary
educational institutions that the alien attended in the
United States; and
(F) The alien is in compliance with the eligibility and
admissibility criteria set forth in section 601(d).
(b) Treatment of Period for Purposes of Naturalization.--
Solely for purposes of title III of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.), an alien who has
been granted probationary or Z nonimmigrant status and has
satisfied the requirements of subparagraphs (a)(1)(A) through
(F) shall beginning on the date that is eight years after the
date of enactment be considered to have satisfied the
requirements of Section 316(a)(1) of the Act (8 U.S.C.
1427(a)(1)).
(c) Exemption From Numerical Limitations.--Nothing in this
section may be construed to apply a numerical limitation on
the number of aliens who may be eligible for adjustment of
status.
(d) Regulations.--
(1) Proposed regulations.--Not later than 180 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall
publish proposed regulations implementing this section. Such
regulations shall be effective immediately on an interim
basis, but are subject to change and revision after public
notice and opportunity for a period for public comment.
(2) Interim, final regulations.--Within a reasonable time
after publication of the interim regulations in accordance
with paragraph (1), the Secretary shall publish final
regulations implementing this section.
SEC. 615. EXPEDITED PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS; PROHIBITION
ON FEES.
Regulations promulgated under this subtitle shall provide
that no additional fee will be charged to an applicant for a
Z nonimmigrant visa for applying for benefits under this
subtitle.
SEC. 616. HIGHER EDUCATION ASSISTANCE.
(a) Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1623) shall
have no force or effect with respect to an alien who has been
granted probationary or Z nonimmigrant status.
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.), with respect to
assistance provided under title IV of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.), an alien who adjusts
status to that of a lawful permanent resident under this
title, or who is a probationary Z or Z nonimmigrant under
this title and who meets the eligibility criteria set forth
in section 614(a)(1)(A), (B), and (F), shall be eligible for
the following assistance under such title IV:
(1) Student loans under parts B, D, and E of such title IV
(20 U.S.C. 1071 et seq., 1087a et seq., 1087aa et seq.),
subject to the requirements of such parts.
(2) Federal work.--study programs under part C of such
title IV (42 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.), subject to the
requirements of such part.
(3) Services under such title IV (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.),
subject to the requirements for such services.
SEC. 617. DELAY OF FINES AND FEES.
(a) Payment of the penalties and fees specified in section
601(e)(5) shall not be required with respect to an alien who
meets the eligibility criteria set forth in section
614(a)(1)(A), (B), and (F) until the date that is six years
and six months after the date of enactment of this Act or the
alien reaches the age of 24, whichever is later. If the alien
makes all of the demonstrations specified in section
614(a)(1) by such date, the penalties shall be waived. If the
alien fails to make the demonstrations specified in section
614(a)(1) by such date, the alien's Z nonimmigrant status
will be terminated unless the alien pays the penalties and
fees specified in section 601(e)(5) consistent with the
procedures set forth in section 608 within 90 days.
(b) With respect to an alien who meets the eligibility
criteria set forth in section 614(a)(1)(A) and (F), but not
the eligibility criteria in section 614(a)(1)(B), the
individual who pays the penalties specified in section
601(e)(5) shall be entitled to a refund when the alien makes
all the demonstrations specified in section 614(a)(1).
SEC. 618. GAO REPORT.
Seven years after the date of enactment of this Act, the
Comptroller General of the United States shall submit a
report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives, which sets forth--
(1) the number of aliens who were eligible for adjustment
of status under section 623(a);
(2) the number of aliens who applied for adjustment of
status under section 623(a); and (3) the number of aliens who
were granted adjustment of status under section 623(a).
SEC. 619. REGULATIONS, EFFECTIVE DATE, AUTHORIZATION OF
APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) Regulations.--The Secretary shall issue regulations to
carry out the amendments made by this subtitle not later than
the first day of the seventh month that begins after the date
of enactment of this Act.
(b) Effective Date.--This subtitle shall take effect on the
date that regulations required by subsection (a) are issued,
regardless of whether such regulations are issued on an
interim basis or on any other basis.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums as may be
necessary to implement this subtitle, including any sums
needed for costs associated with the initiation of such
implementation.
PART II--CORRECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS
SEC. 620. CORRECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS.
(a) In General.--Section 208(e)(1) of the Social Security
Act (42 U.S.C. 408(e)(1)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ``or'' at the end;
(2) in subparagraph (C), by inserting ``or'' at the end;
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the following:
``(D) who is granted nonimmigrant status pursuant to section
101(a)(15)(Z-A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act,'';
and
(4) by striking ``1990.'' and inserting ``1990, or in the
case of an alien described in subparagraph (D), if such
conduct is alleged to have occurred before the date on which
the alien was granted such nonimmigrant status.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a)
shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month that
begins after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Subtitle C--Agricultural Workers
SEC. 621. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Agricultural Job
Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act of 2007'' or the
``AgJOBS Act of 2007''
[[Page 14910]]
PART I--ADMISSION OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS
SEC. 622. ADMISSION OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS.
(a) Z-A Nonimmigrant Visa Category.--
(1) Establishment.--Paragraph (15) of section 101(a)), of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)), [as
amended by section 601(b), is further amended by adding at
the end the following new subparagraph:
``(Z-A)(i) an alien who is coming to the United States to
perform any service or activity that is considered to be
agricultural under section 3(f) of the Fair Labor Standards
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203(f)), agricultural labor under
section 3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the
performance of agricultural labor or services described in
subparagraph (H)(ii)(a), who meets the requirements of
section 214A of this Act; or
``(ii) the spouse or minor child of an alien described in
clause (i) who is residing in the United States.''.
(b) Requirements for Issuance of Nonimmigrant Visa.--
Chapter 2 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. 1181 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section
214 the following new section:
``SEC. 214A. ADMISSION OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS.
``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Agricultural employment.--The term `agricultural
employment' means any service or activity that is considered
to be agricultural under section 3(f) of the Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203(f)) or agricultural
labor under section 3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 or the performance of agricultural labor or services
described in section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a).
``(2) Department.--The term `Department' means the
Department of Homeland Security.
``(3) Employer.--The term `employer' means any person or
entity, including any farm labor contractor and any
agricultural association, that employs workers in
agricultural employment.
``(4) Qualified designated entity.--The term `qualified
designated entity' means--
``(A) a qualified farm labor organization or an association
of employers designated by the Secretary; or
``(B) any such other person designated by the Secretary if
that Secretary determines such person is qualified and has
substantial experience, demonstrated competence, and has a
history of long-term involvement in the preparation and
submission of applications for adjustment of status under
section 209, 210, or 245, the Act entitled `An Act to adjust
the status of Cuban refugees to that of lawful permanent
residents of the United States, and for other purposes',
approved November 2, 1966 (Public Law 89-732; 8 U.S.C. 1255
note), Public Law 95-145 (8 U.S.C. 1255 note), or the
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-
603; 100 Stat. 3359) or any amendment made by that Act.
``(5) Secretary.--Except as otherwise provided, the term
`Secretary' means the Secretary of Homeland Security.
``(6) Temporary.--A worker is employed on a `temporary'
basis when the employment is intended not to exceed 10
months.
``(7) Work day.--The term `work day' means any day in which
the individual is employed 5.75 or more hours in agricultural
employment.
``(8) Z-A dependent visa.--The term `Z-A dependent visa'
means a nonimmigrant visa issued pursuant to section
101(a)(l5)(Z-A)(ii).
``(9) Z-A visa.--The term `Z-A visa' means a nonimmigrant
visa issued pursuant to section 101(a)(15)(Z-A)(i).
``(b) Authorization for Presence, Employment, and Travel in
the United States.--
``(1) In general.--An alien issued a Z-A visa or a Z-A
dependent visa may remain in, and be employed in, the United
States during the period such visa is valid.
``(2) Authorized employment.--The Secretary shall provide
an alien who is granted a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa an
employment authorized endorsement or other appropriate work
permit, in the same manner as an alien lawfully admitted for
permanent residence.
``(3) Authorized travel.--An alien who is granted a Z-A
visa or a Z-A dependent visa is authorized to travel outside
the United States (including commuting to the United States
from a residence in a foreign country) in the same manner as
an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
``(c) Qualifications.--
``(I) Z-A visa.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the Secretary shall, pursuant to the requirements of
this section, grant a Z-A visa to an alien if the Secretary
determines that the alien--
``(A) has performed agricultural employment in the United
States for at least 863 hours or 150 work days during the 24-
month period ending on December 31, 2006;
``(B) applied for such status during the 18-month
application period beginning on the first day of the seventh
month that begins after the date of enactment of this Act;
``(C) is admissible to the United States under section 212,
except as otherwise provided in paragraph (4);
``(D) has not been convicted of any felony or a
misdemeanor, an element of which involves bodily injury,
threat of serious bodily injury, or harm to property in
excess of $500; and
``(E) meets the requirements of paragraph (3).
``(2) Z-A dependent visa.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, the Secretary shall grant a Z-A dependent
visa to an alien who is--
``(A) described in section 101(a)(15)(Z-A)(ii);
``(B) meets the requirements of paragraph (3); and
``(C) is admissible to the United States under section 212,
except as otherwise provided in paragraph (4).
``(3) Security and law enforcement background checks.--
``(A) Fingerprints.--An alien seeking a Z-A visa or a Z-A
dependent visa shall submit fingerprints to the Secretary at
such time and in manner as the Secretary may require.
``(B) Background checks.--The Secretary shall utilize
fingerprints provided under subparagraph (A) and other
biometric data provided by an alien to conduct a background
check of the alien, including searching the alien's criminal
history and any law enforcement actions taken with respect to
the alien and ensuring that the alien is not a risk to
national security.
``(4) Waiver of certain grounds of inadmissibillty.--In the
determination of an alien's eligibility for a Z-A visa or a
Z-A dependent visa the following shall apply:
``(A) Grounds of exclusion not applicable.--The provisions
of paragraphs (5), (6)(A), (7), and (9) of section 212(a)
shall not apply.
``(B) Waiver of other grounds.--
``(i) In general.--Except as provided in clause (ii), the
Secretary may waive any provision of such section 212( a),
other than the paragraphs described in subparagraph (A), in
the case of individual aliens for humanitarian purposes, to
ensure family unity, or if such waiver is otherwise in the
public interest.
``(ii) Grounds that may not be waived.--Except as provided
in subparagraph (C), subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of
paragraph (2), and paragraphs (3) and (4) of section 212(a)
may not be waived by the Secretary under clause (i).
``(iii) Construction.--Nothing in this subparagraph shall
be construed as affecting the authority of the Secretary
other than under this subparagraph to waive provisions of
such section 212(a).
``(C) Special rule for determination of public charge.--An
alien is not ineligible for a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent
visa by reason of a ground of inadmissibility under section
212(a)(4) if the alien demonstrates a history of employment
in the United States evidencing self-support without reliance
on public cash assistance.
``(d) Application.--
``(1) In general.--An alien seeking a Z-A visa shall submit
an application to the Secretary for such a visa, including
information regarding any Z-A dependent visa for the spouse
of child of the alien.
``(2) Submission.--Applications for a Z-A visa under may be
submitted--
``(A) to the Secretary if the applicant is represented by
an attorney or a nonprofit religious, charitable, social
service, or similar organization recognized by the Board of
Immigration Appeals under section 292.2 of title 8, Code of
Federal Regulations (or similar successor regulations); or
``(B) to a qualified designated entity if the applicant
consents to the forwarding of the application to the
Secretary.
``(3) Proof of eligibility.--
``(A) In general.--An alien may establish that the alien
meets the requirement for a Z-A visa through government
employment records or records supplied by employers or
collective bargaining organizations, and other reliable
documentation as the alien may provide. The Secretary shall
establish special procedures to properly credit work in cases
in which an alien was employed under an assumed name.
``(B) Documentation of work history.--
``(i) Burden of proof.--An alien applying for a Z-A visa or
applying for adjustment of status described in subsection (J)
has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
that the alien has performed the requisite number of hours or
days of agricultural employment required for such application
or adjustment of status, as applicable.
``(ii) Timely production of records.--If an employer or
farm labor contractor employing such an alien has kept proper
and adequate records respecting such employment, the alien's
burden of proof under clause (i) may be met by securing
timely production of such records under regulations to be
promulgated by the Secretary.
``(iii) Sufficient evidence.--An alien may meet the burden
of proof under clause (i) to establish that the alien has
performed the requisite number of hours or days of
agricultural employment by producing sufficient evidence to
show the extent of that employment as a matter of just and
reasonable inference.
``(4) Applications submitted to qualified designated
entities.--
``(A) Requirements.--Each qualified designated entity shall
agree--
``(i) to forward to the Secretary an application submitted
to that entity pursuant to paragraph (2)(B) if the alien for
whom the application is being submitted has consented to such
forwarding;
[[Page 14911]]
``(ii) not to forward to the Secretary any such application
if such an alien has not consented to such forwarding; and
``(iii) to assist an alien in obtaining documentation of
the alien's work history, if the alien requests such
assistance.
``(B) No authority to make determinations.--No qualified
designated entity may make a determination required by this
section to be made by the Secretary.
``(5) Application fees.--
``(A) Fee schedule.--The Secretary shall provide for a
schedule of fees that--
``(i) shall be charged for applying for a Z-A visa under
this section or for an adjustment of status described in
subsection (j); and
``(ii) may be charged by qualified designated entities to
help defray the costs of services provided to such aliens
making such an application.
``(B) Prohibition on excess fees by qualified designated
entities.--A qualified designated entity may not charge any
fee in excess of, or in addition to, the fees authorized
under subparagraph (A)(ii) for services provided to
applicants.
``(6) Limitation on access to information.--Files and
records collected or compiled by a qualified designated
entity for the purposes of this section are confidential and
the Secretary shall not have access to such a file or record
relating to an alien without the consent of the alien, except
as allowed by a court order issued pursuant to [ ].
``(7) Treatment of applicants.--
``(A) In general.--An alien who files an application under
this section to receive a Z-A visa and any spouse or child of
the alien seeking a Z-A dependant visa, on the date described
in subparagraph (B)--
``(i) shall be granted probationary benefits in the form of
employment authorization pending final adjudication of the
alien's application;
``(ii) may in the Secretary's discretion receive advance
permission to re-enter the United States pursuant to existing
regulations governing advance parole;
``(iii) may not be detained for immigration purposes,
determined inadmissible or deportable, or removed pending
final adjudication of the alien's application, unless the
alien is determined to be ineligible for Z-A visa; and ``(iv)
may not be considered an unauthorized alien (as defined in
section 274A) until the date on which [the alien's
application for a Z-A visa] is denied.
``(B) Timing of probationary benefits.--
``(i) In general.--Subject to clause (ii), an alien who
submits an application for a Z-A visa under subsection (d),
including any evidence required under such subsection, and
any spouse or child of the alien seeking a Z-A dependent visa
shall receive the probationary benefits described in clauses
(i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A) at the earlier of--
``(I) the date and time that the alien has passed all
appropriate background checks, including name and fingerprint
checks; or
``(II) the end of the next business day after the date that
the Secretary receives the alien's application for Z-A visa.
``(ii) Exception.--If the Secretary determines that the
alien fails the background checks referred to in clause
(i)(I), the alien may not be granted probationary benefits
described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A).
``(C) Probationary authorization document.--The Secretary
shall provide each alien granted probationary benefits
described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A)
with a counterfeit-resistant document that reflects the
benefits and status set forth in subparagraph (A). The
Secretary may by regulation establish procedures for the
issuance of documentary evidence of probationary benefits
and, except as provided herein, the conditions under which
such documentary evidence expires, terminates, or is renewed.
``(D) Construction.--Nothing in this section may be
construed to limit the Secretary's authority to conduct any
appropriate background and security checks subsequent to
issuance of evidence of probationary benefits under this
paragraph.
``(8) Temporary stay of removal and work authorization for
certain applicants.--
``(A) Before application period.--Beginning on the date of
enactment of the AgJOBS Act of 2007, the Secretary shall
provide that, in the case of an alien who is apprehended
prior to the first date of the application period described
in subsection (c)(l)(B) and who can establish a nonfrivolous
case of eligibility for a Z-A visa (but for the fact that the
alien may not apply for such status until the beginning of
such period), the alien--
``(i) may not be removed; and
``(ii) shall be granted authorization to engage in
employment in the United States and be provided an employment
authorized endorsement or other appropriate work permit for
such purpose.
``(B) During application period.--The Secretary shall
provide that, in the case of an alien who presents a
nonfrivolous application for Z-A visa during the application
period described in subsection (c)(l)(B), including an alien
who files such an application within 30 days of the alien's
apprehension, and until a final determination on the
application has been made in accordance with this section,
the alien--
``(i) may not be removed; and
``(ii) shall be granted authorization to engage in
employment in the United States and be provided an employment
authorized endorsement or other appropriate work permit for
such purpose.
``(e) Numerical Limitations.--
``(1) Z-A visa.--The Secretary may not issue more than
1,500,000 Z-A visas.
``(2) Z-A Dependent visa.--The Secretary may not count any
Z-A dependent visa issued against the numerical limitation
described in paragraph (1).
``(f) Evidence of Nonimmigrant Status.--
``(1) In general.--Documentary evidence of nonimmigrant
status shall be issued to each alien granted a Z-A visa or a
Z-A dependent visa.
``(2) Features of documentation.--Documentary evidence of a
Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa--
``(A) shall be machine-readable, tamper-resistant, and
shall contain a digitized photograph and other biometric
identifiers that can be authenticated;
``(B) shall be designed in consultation with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Forensic Document
Laboratory;
``(C) shall serve as a valid travel and entry document for
an alien granted a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa for the
purpose of applying for admission to the United States where
the alien is applying for admission at a port of entry;
``(D) may be accepted during the period of its validity by
an employer as evidence of employment authorization and
identity under section 274A; and
``(E) shall be issued to the alien granted the visa by the
Secretary promptly after final adjudication of such alien's
application for the visa, except that an alien may not be
granted a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa until all
appropriate background checks on each alien are completed to
the satisfaction of the Secretary.
``(g) Fine.--An alien granted a Z-A visa shall pay a fine
of $100 to the Secretary.
``(h) Treatment of Aliens Granted a Z-A Visa.--
``(1) In general.--Except as otherwise provided under this
subsection, an alien granted a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent
visa shall be considered to be an alien lawfully admitted for
permanent residence for purposes of any law other than any
provision of this Act.
``(2) Delayed eligibility for certain federal public
benefits.--An alien granted a Z-A visa shall not be eligible,
by reason of such status, for any form of assistance or
benefit described in section 403(a) of the Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of
1996 (8 U.S.C. 1613(a)) until 5 years after the date on which
the alien is granted an adjustment of status under subsection
(d).
``(3) Terms of employment.--
``(A) Prohibition.--No alien granted a Z-A visa may be
terminated from employment by any employer during the period
of a Z-A visa except for just cause.
``(B) Treatment of complaints.--
``(i) Establishment of process.--The Secretary shall
establish a process for the receipt, initial review, and
disposition of complaints by aliens granted a Z-A visa who
allege that they have been terminated without just cause. No
proceeding shall be conducted under this subparagraph with
respect to a termination unless the Secretary determines that
the complaint was filed not later than 6 months after the
date of the termination.
``(ii) Initiation of arbitration.--If the Secretary finds
that an alien has filed a complaint in accordance with clause
(i) and there is reasonable cause to believe that the alien
was terminated from employment without just cause, the
Secretary shall initiate binding arbitration proceedings by
requesting the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to
appoint a mutually agreeable arbitrator from the roster of
arbitrators maintained by such Service for the geographical
area in which the employer is located. The procedures and
rules of such Service shall be applicable to the selection of
such arbitrator and to such arbitration proceedings. The
Secretary shall pay the fee and expenses of the arbitrator,
subject to the availability of appropriations for such
purpose.
``(iii) Arbitration proceedings.--The arbitrator shall
conduct the proceeding under this subparagraph in accordance
with the policies and procedures promulgated by the American
Arbitration Association applicable to private arbitration of
employment disputes. The arbitrator shall make findings
respecting whether the termination was for just cause. The
arbitrator may not find that the termination was for just
cause unless the employer so demonstrates by a preponderance
of the evidence. If the arbitrator finds that the termination
was not for just cause, the arbitrator shall make a specific
finding of the number of days or hours of work lost by the
employee as a result of the termination. The arbitrator shall
have no authority to order any other remedy, including
reinstatement, back pay, or front pay to the affected
employee. Not later than 30 days after the date of the
conclusion of the arbitration proceeding, the arbitrator
shall transmit the findings in the form of a written opinion
to the parties to the arbitration
[[Page 14912]]
and the Secretary. Such findings shall be final and
conclusive, and no official or court of the United States
shall have the power or jurisdiction to review any such
findings.
``(iv) Effect of arbitration findings.--If the Secretary
receives a finding of an arbitrator that an employer has
terminated the employment of an alien who is granted a Z-A
visa without just cause, the Secretary shall credit the alien
for the number of days of work not performed during such
period of termination for the purpose of determining if the
alien meets the qualifying employment requirement of
subsection (f)(2).
``(v) Treatment of attorney's fees.--Each party to an
arbitration under this subparagraph shall bear the cost of
their own attorney's fees for the arbitration.
``(vi) Nonexclusive remedy.--The complaint process provided
for in this subparagraph is in addition to any other rights
an employee may have in accordance with applicable law.
``(vii) Effect on other actions or proceedings.--Any
finding of fact or law, judgment, conclusion, or final order
made by an arbitrator in the proceeding before the Secretary
shall not be conclusive or binding in any separate or
subsequent action or proceeding between the employee and the
employee's current or prior employer brought before an
arbitrator, administrative agency, court, or judge of any
State or the United States, regardless of whether the prior
action was between the same or related parties or involved
the same facts, except that the arbitrator's specific finding
of the number of days or hours of work lost by the employee
as a result of the employment termination may be referred to
the Secretary pursuant to clause (iv).
``(4) Record of employment.--
``(A) In general.--Each employer of an alien who is granted
a Z-A visa shall annually--
``(i) provide a written record of employment to the alien;
and
``(ii) provide a copy of such record to the Secretary.
``(B) Civil penalties.--
``(i) In general.--If the Secretary finds, after notice and
opportunity for a hearing, that an employer of an alien
granted a Z-A visa has failed to provide the record of
employment required under subparagraph (A) or has provided a
false statement of material fact in such a record, the
employer shall be subject to a civil money penalty in an
amount not to exceed $1,000 per violation.
``(ii) Limitation.--The penalty applicable under clause (i)
for failure to provide records shall not apply unless the
alien has provided the employer with evidence of employment
authorization granted under this subsection.
``(i) Termination of a Grant of Z-A Visa.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary may terminate a Z-A visa
or a Z-A dependent visa granted to an alien only if the
Secretary determines that the alien is deportable.
``(2) Grounds for termination.--Prior to the date that an
alien granted a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa becomes
eligible for adjustment of status described in subsection
(j), the Secretary may deny adjustment to permanent resident
status and provide for termination of the alien's Z-A visa or
Z-A dependent visa if--
``(A) the Secretary finds, by a preponderance of the
evidence, that the grant of a Z-A visa was the result of
fraud or willful misrepresentation (as described in section
212(a)(6)(C)(i)); or
``(B) the alien--
``(i) commits an act that makes the alien inadmissible to
the United States as an immigrant, except as provided under
subsection (c)(4);
``(ii) is convicted of a felony or 3 or more misdemeanors
committed in the United States;
``(iii) is convicted of an offense, an element of which
involves bodily injury, threat of serious bodily injury, or
harm to property in excess of $500; or
``(iv) in the case of an alien granted a Z-A visa, fails to
perform the agricultural employment described in subsection
(j)(l)(A) unless the alien was unable to work in agricultural
employment due to the extraordinary circumstances described
in subsection (j)(l)(A)(iii).
``(3) Reporting requirement.--The Secretary shall
promulgate regulations to ensure that the alien granted a Z-A
visa complies with the qualifying agricultural employment
described in subsection (j)(1)(A) at the end of the 5 year
work period, which may include submission of an application
pursuant to this subsection.
``(j) Adjustment to Permanent Residence.--
``(1) Z-A visa.--Except as provided in this subsection, the
Secretary shall award the maximum number of points available
pursuant to section 203(b)(1) and adjust the status of an
alien granted a Z-A visa to that of an alien lawfully
admitted for permanent residence under this Act, if the
Secretary determines that the following requirements are
satisfied:
``(A) Qualifying employment.--
``(i) In general.--Subject to clauses (ii) and (iii), the
alien has performed at least--
``(I) 5 years of agricultural employment in the United
States for at least 100 work days per year, during the 5-year
period beginning on the date of enactment of the AgJobs Act
of 2007; or
``(II) 3 years of agricultural employment in the United
States for at least 150 work days per year, during the 3-year
period beginning on such date of enactment.
``(ii) Four year period of employment.--An alien shall be
considered to meet the requirements of clause (i) if the
alien has performed 4 years of agricultural employment in the
United States for at least 150 work days during 3 years of
those 4 years and at least 100 work days during the remaining
year, during the 4-year period beginning on such date of
enactment.
``(iii) Extraordinary circumstances.--In determining
whether an alien has met the requirement of clause (i), the
Secretary may credit the alien with not more than 12
additional months to meet the requirement of that clause if
the alien was unable to work in agricultural employment due
to--
``(I) pregnancy, injury, or disease, if the alien can
establish such pregnancy, disabling injury, or disease
through medical records;
``(II) illness, disease, or other special needs of a minor
child, if the alien can establish such illness, disease, or
special needs through medical records; or
``(III) severe weather conditions that prevented the alien
from engaging in agricultural employment for a significant
period of time.
``(B) Proof.--An alien may demonstrate compliance with the
requirements of subparagraph (A) by submitting--
``(i) the record of employment described in subsection
(h)(4); or
``(ii) such documentation as may be submitted under
subsection (d)(3).
``(C) Application period.--Not later than 8 years after the
date of the enactment of the AgJOBS Act of 2007, the alien
must--
``(i) apply for adjustment of status; or
``(ii) renew the alien's Z visa status as described in
section 601 (k)(2).
``(D) Fine.--The alien pays to the Secretary a fine of
$400; or
``(2) Spouses and minor children.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, the Secretary shall confer the status
of lawful permanent resident on the spouse and minor child of
an alien granted any adjustment of status under paragraph
(1), including any individual who was a minor child on the
date such alien was granted a Z-A visa, if the spouse or
minor child applies for such status, or if the principal
alien includes the spouse or minor child in an application
for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent
resident.
``(3) Grounds for denial of adjustment of status.--The
Secretary may deny an alien granted a Z-A visa or a Z-A
dependent visa an adjustment of status under this Act and
provide for termination of such visa if--
``(A) the Secretary finds by a preponderance of the
evidence that grant of the Z-A visa was the result of fraud
or willful misrepresentation (as described in section
212(a)(6)(C)(i)); or
``(B) the alien--
``(i) commits an act that makes the alien inadmissible to
the United States under section 212, except as provided under
subsection (c)(4);
``(ii) is convicted of a felony or 3 or more misdemeanors
committed in the United States; or
``(iii) is convicted of an offense, an element of which
involves bodily injury, threat of serious bodily injury, or
harm to property in excess of $500.
``(4) Grounds for removal.--Any alien granted Z-A visa
status who does not apply for adjustment of status or renewal
of Z status under section 601 (k)(2) prior to the expiration
of the application period described in subsection (c)(l)(B)
or who fails to meet the other requirements of paragraph (1)
by the end of the application period, is deportable and may
be removed under section 240.
``(5) Payment of taxes.--
``(A) In general.--Not later than the date on which an
alien's status is adjusted as described in this subsection,
the alien shall establish that the alien does not owe any
applicable Federal tax liability by establishing that--
``(i) no such tax liability exists;
``(ii) all such outstanding tax liabilities have been paid;
or
``(iii) the alien has entered into an agreement for payment
of all outstanding liabilities with the Internal Revenue
Service.
``(B) Applicable Federal tax liability.--In this paragraph,
the term `applicable Federal tax liability' means liability
for Federal taxes, including penalties and interest, owed for
any year during the period of employment required under
paragraph (l)(A) for which the statutory period for
assessment of any deficiency for such taxes has not expired.
``(C) IRS cooperation.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall
establish rules and procedures under which the Commissioner
of Internal Revenue shall provide documentation to an alien
upon request to establish the payment of all taxes required
by this subsection.
``(6) English language.--
``(A) In general.--Not later than the date on which a Z-A
nonimmigrant's status is adjusted or renewed under section
601 (k)(2), a Z-A nonimmigrant who is 18 years of age or
older must pass the naturalization test described in sections
312(a)(I) and (2).
[[Page 14913]]
``(B) Exception.--The requirement of subparagraph (A) shall
not apply to any person who, on the date of the filing of the
person's application for an extension of Z-A nonimmigrant
status--(i) is unable because of physical or developmental
disability or mental impairment to comply therewith;
(ii) is over fifty years of age and has been living in the
United States for periods totaling at least twenty years, or
(iii) is over fifty-five years of age and has been living
in the United States for periods totaling at least fifteen
years.
``(7) Priority of applications.--
``(A) Back of line.--An alien may not adjust status to that
of a lawful permanent resident under this subsection until 30
days after the date on which an immigrant visa becomes
available for approved petitions filed under sections 201,
202, and 203 of the Act that were filed before May 1, 2005
(referred to in this paragraph as the `processing date').
``(B) Other applicants.--The processing of applications for
an adjustment of status under this subsection shall be
processed not later than 1 year after the processing date.
``(C) Consular application.--
(i) In general.--A Z-A nonimmigrant's application for
adjustment of status to that of an alien lawfully admitted
for permanent residence must be filed in person with a United
States consulate abroad.
(ii) Place of application.--Unless otherwise directed by
the Secretary of State, a Z-A nonimmigrant applying for
adjustment of status under this paragraph shall make an
application at a consular office in the alien's country of
origin. The Secretary of State shall direct a consular office
in a country that is not a Z-A nonimmigrant's country of
origin to accept an application for adjustment of status from
such an alien, where the Z-A nonimmigrant's country of origin
is not contiguous to the United States, and as consular
resources make possible.
``(k) Confidentiality of Information.--Applicants for Z-A
nonimmigrant status under this subtitle shall be afforded
confidentiality as provided under section 604.
``(1) Penalties for False Statements in Applications.--
``(1) Criminal penalty.--Any person who--
``(A) applies for a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa under
this section or an adjustment of status described in
subsection (j) and knowingly and willfully falsifies,
conceals, or covers up a material fact or makes any false,
fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations, or
makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same
to contain any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or
entry; or
``(B) creates or supplies a false writing or document for
use in making such an application,
shall be fined in accordance with title 18, United States
Code, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
``(2) Inadmissibility.--An alien who is convicted of a
crime under paragraph (1) shall be considered to be
inadmissible to the United States on the ground described in
section 212(a)(6)(C)(i).
``(m) Eligibility for Legal Services.--Section 504(a)(11)
of Public Law 104-134 (110 Stat. 1321-53 et seq.) shall not
be construed to prevent a recipient of funds under the Legal
Services Corporation Act (42 U.S.C. 2996 et seq.) from
providing legal assistance directly related to an application
for a Z-A visa under subsection (b) or an adjustment of
status under subsection (j).
``(n) Administrative and Judicial Review.--Administrative
or judicial review of a determination on an application for a
Z-A visa shall be such as is provided under section 603.
``(o) Public Outreach.--Beginning not later than the first
day of the application period described in subsection
(c)(1)(B), the Secretary shall cooperate with qualified
designated entities to broadly disseminate information
regarding the availability of Z-A visas, the benefits of such
visas, and the requirements to apply for and be granted such
a visa.''.
(c) Numerical Limitations.--
(1) Worldwide level of immigration.--Section 201(b)(1) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(b)(1)), as
amended by [ ], is further amended--
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``subparagraph (A) or
(B)'' and inserting ``subparagraph (A), (B), or (N)''; and
(B) by adding at the end, the following new subparagraph:
``(N) Aliens issued a Z-A visa or a Z-A dependent visa (as
those terms are defined in section 214A) who receive an
adjustment of status to that of an alien lawfully admitted
for permanent residence.''.
(2) Numerical limitations on individual foreign states.--
Section 202(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1152) is amended by adding at the end the following
new paragraph:
``(6) Special rule for Z-A nonimmigrants.--An immigrant
visa may be made available to an alien issued a Z-A visa or a
Z-A dependent visa (as those terms are defined in section
214A) without regard to the numerical limitations of this
section.''.
(d) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) is
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 214
the following:
``Sec. 214A. Admission of agricultural worker.''.
SEC. 623. AGRICULTURAL WORKER IMMIGRATION STATUS ADJUSTMENT
ACCOUNT.
Section 286 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1356) is amended by adding at the end the following
new subsection:
``(y) Agricultural Worker Immigration Status Adjustment
Account.--
``(1) Establishment.--There is established in the general
fund of the Treasury a separate account, which shall be known
as the `Agricultural Worker Immigration Status Adjustment
Account'. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, there
shall be deposited as offsetting receipts into the account
all fees collected under section 214A.
``(2) Use of fees.--The fees deposited into the
Agricultural Worker Immigration Status Adjustment Account
shall be used by the Secretary of Homeland Security for
processing applications made by aliens seeking nonimmigrant
status under section 101(a)(15)(Z-A) or for processing
applications made by such an alien who is seeking an
adjustment of status
``(3) Availability of funds.--All amounts deposited in the
Agricultural Worker Immigration Status Adjustment Account
under this subsection shall remain available until
expended.''.
SEC. 624. REGULATIONS, EFFECTIVE DATE, AUTHORIZATION OF
APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) Regulations.--The Secretary shall issue regulations to
carry out the amendments made by this subtitle not later than
the first day of the seventh month that begins after the date
of enactment of this Act.
(b) Effective Date.--This subtitle shall take effect on the
date that regulations required by subsection (a) are issued,
regardless of whether such regulations are issued on an
interim basis or on any other basis.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums as may be
necessary to implement this subtitle, including any sums
needed for costs associated with the initiation of such
implementation.
PART II--CORRECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS
SEC. 625. CORRECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS.
(a) In General.--Section 208(e)(1) of the Social Security
Act (42 U.S.C. 408(e)(1)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ``or'' at the end;
(2) in subparagraph (C), by inserting ``or'' at the end;
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the following:
``(D) who is granted nonimmigrant status pursuant to
section 101(a)(15)(Z-A) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act,''; and
(4) by striking ``1990.'' and inserting ``1990, or in the
case of an alien described in subparagraph (D), if such
conduct is alleged to have occurred before the date on which
the alien was granted such nonimmigrant status.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a)
shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month that
begins after the date of the enactment of this Act.
______
SA 1441. Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mr. Baucus, and Mr. Obama)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S.
1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Strike title III and insert the following:
TITLE III--UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT OF ALIENS
SEC. 301. UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT OF ALIENS.
(a) In General.--Section 274A (8 U.S.C. 1324a) is amended
to read as follows:
``SEC. 274A. UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT OF ALIENS.
``(a) Making Employment of Unauthorized Aliens Unlawful.--
``(1) In general.--It is unlawful for an employer--
``(A) to hire, or to recruit or refer for a fee, an alien
for employment in the United States knowing, or with reckless
disregard for the fact that, the alien is an unauthorized
alien with respect to such employment; or
``(B) to hire, or to recruit or refer for a fee, an
individual for employment in the United States, unless such
employer meets the requirements of subsections (c) and (d).
``(2) Continuing employment.--It is unlawful for an
employer, after hiring an alien for employment, to continue
to employ the alien in the United States knowing, or with
reckless disregard for the fact that, the alien is (or has
become) an unauthorized alien with respect to such
employment.
``(3) Use of labor through contract.--
``(A) In general.--An employer who uses a contract,
subcontract, or exchange to obtain, or to continue to obtain,
the labor of an alien in the United States knowing, or with
reckless disregard for the fact that, the alien is an
unauthorized alien with respect to performing such labor,
shall be considered to have hired the alien in violation of
paragraph (1)(A) or (2).
[[Page 14914]]
``(B) Information sharing.--The Secretary shall establish
procedures by which the employer may obtain confirmation from
the Secretary that the alien is not an unauthorized alien
with respect to performing such labor.
``(4) Defense.--
``(A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (B), an employer
that establishes that the employer has complied in good faith
with the requirements of subsections (c) and (d) has
established an affirmative defense that the employer has not
violated paragraph (1)(A) with respect to such hiring,
recruiting, or referral.
``(B) Exception.--Until the date that an employer is
required to participate in the Electronic Employment
Verification System under subsection (d) or is participating
in such System on a voluntary basis, the employer may
establish an affirmative defense under subparagraph (A) by
complying with the requirements of subsection (c).
``(b) Order of Internal Review and Certification of
Compliance.--
``(1) Authority to require certification.--If the Secretary
has reasonable cause to believe that an employer has failed
to comply with this section, the Secretary is authorized, at
any time, to require that the employer certify that the
employer is in compliance with this section, or has
instituted a program to come into compliance.
``(2) Content of certification.--Not later than 60 days
after the date an employer receives a request for a
certification under paragraph (1) the employer shall certify
under penalty of perjury that--
``(A) the employer is in compliance with the requirements
of subsections (c) and (d); or
``(B) that the employer has instituted a program to come
into compliance with such requirements.
``(3) Extension.--The 60-day period referred to in
paragraph (2), may be extended by the Secretary for good
cause, at the request of the employer.
``(4) Publication.--The Secretary is authorized to publish
in the Federal Register standards or methods for
certification under paragraph (1) and for specific
recordkeeping practices with respect to such certification,
and procedures for the audit of any records related to such
certification.
``(c) Document Verification Requirements.--An employer
hiring, or recruiting or referring for a fee, an individual
for employment in the United States, shall verify that the
individual is eligible for such employment by meeting the
following requirements:
``(1) Attestation by employer.--
``(A) Requirements.--
``(i) In general.--The employer shall attest, under penalty
of perjury and on a form prescribed by the Secretary, that
the employer has verified the identity and eligibility for
employment of the individual by examining a document
described in subparagraph (B).
``(ii) Signature requirements.--An attestation required by
clause (i) may be manifested by a handwritten or electronic
signature.
``(iii) Standards for examination.--The employer has
complied with the requirement of this paragraph with respect
to examination of documentation if a reasonable person would
conclude that the document examined is genuine and relates to
the individual whose identity and eligibility for employment
in the United States is being verified. If the individual
provides a document sufficient to meet the requirements of
this paragraph, nothing in this paragraph shall be construed
as requiring an employer to solicit any other document or as
requiring the individual to produce any other document.
``(B) Identification documents.--A document described in
this subparagraph is--
``(i) in the case of an individual who is a national of the
United States--
``(I) a United States passport, or passport card issued
pursuant to the Secretary of State's authority under the
first section of the Act of July 3, 1926 (44 Stat. 887,
Chapter 772; 22 U.S.C. 211a); or
``(II) a driver's license or identity card issued by a
State, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or
an outlying possession of the United States that--
``(aa) contains a photograph of the individual and other
identifying information, including the individual's name,
date of birth, gender, and address; and
``(bb) contains security features to make the license or
card resistant to tampering, counterfeiting, and fraudulent
use;
``(ii) in the case of an alien lawfully admitted for
permanent residence in the United States, a permanent
resident card, as specified by the Secretary that meets the
requirements of items (aa) and (bb) of clause (i)(II);
``(iii) in the case of an alien who is authorized to be
employed in the United States, an employment authorization
card, as specified by the Secretary that meets the
requirements of such items (aa) and (bb); or
``(iv) in the case of an individual who is unable to obtain
a document described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii), a
document designated by the Secretary that meets the
requirements of such items (aa) and (bb).
``(C) Authority to prohibit use of certain documents.--
``(i) Authority.--If the Secretary finds that a document or
class of documents described in subparagraph (B) is not
reliable to establish identity or is being used fraudulently
to an unacceptable degree, the Secretary shall prohibit, or
impose conditions, on the use of such document or class of
documents for purposes of this subsection.
``(ii) Requirement for publication.--The Secretary shall
publish notice of any findings under clause (i) in the
Federal Register.
``(2) Attestation of employee.--
``(A) Requirements.--
``(i) In general.--The individual shall attest, under
penalty of perjury on the form described in paragraph
(1)(A)(i), that the individual is a national of the United
States, an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence,
or an alien who is authorized to be hired, or to be recruited
or referred for a fee, in the United States.
``(ii) Signature for examination.--An attestation required
by clause (i) may be manifested by a handwritten or
electronic signature.
``(B) Penalties.--An individual who falsely represents that
the individual is eligible for employment in the United
States in an attestation required by subparagraph (A) shall,
for each such violation, be subject to a fine of not more
than $5,000, a term of imprisonment not to exceed 3 years, or
both.
``(3) Retention of attestation.--The employer shall retain
a paper, microfiche, microfilm, or electronic version of the
attestations made under paragraphs (1) and (2) and make such
attestations available for inspection by an officer of the
Department of Homeland Security, any other person designated
by the Secretary, the Special Counsel for Immigration-Related
Unfair Employment Practices of the Department of Justice, or
the Secretary of Labor during a period beginning on the date
of the hiring, or recruiting or referring for a fee, of the
individual and ending--
``(A) in the case of the recruiting or referral for a fee
(without hiring) of an individual, 5 years after the date of
the recruiting or referral; or
``(B) in the case of the hiring of an individual the later
of--
``(i) 5 years after the date of such hiring;
``(ii) 1 year after the date the individual's employment is
terminated; or
``(iii) in the case of an employer or class of employers, a
period that is less than the applicable period described in
clause (i) or (ii) if the Secretary reduces such period for
such employer or class of employers.
``(4) Document retention and recordkeeping requirements.--
``(A) Retention of documents.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, an employer shall retain, for the
applicable period described in paragraph (3), the following
documents:
``(i) In general.--The employer shall copy all documents
presented by an individual described in paragraph (1)(B) and
shall retain paper, microfiche, microfilm, or electronic
copies of such documents. Such copies shall be designated as
copied documents.
``(ii) Other documents.--The employer shall maintain
records of any action taken and copies of any correspondence
written or received with respect to the verification of an
individual's identity or eligibility for employment in the
United States.
``(B) Use of retained documents.--An employer shall use
copies retained under clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A)
only for the purposes of complying with the requirements of
this subsection, except as otherwise permitted under law.
``(5) Penalties.--An employer that fails to comply with the
recordkeeping requirements of this subsection shall be
subject to the penalties described in subsection (e)(4)(B).
``(6) No authorization of national identification cards.--
Nothing in this section may be construed to authorize,
directly or indirectly, the issuance, use, or establishment
of a national identification card.
``(d) Electronic Employment Verification System.--
``(1) Requirement for system.--The Secretary, in
cooperation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall
implement an Electronic Employment Verification System
(referred to in this subsection as the `System') to determine
whether--
``(A) the identifying information submitted by an
individual is consistent with the information maintained by
the Secretary, the Secretary of State, the Commissioner of
Social Security, or the official of a State responsible for
issuing drivers' licenses and identity cards; and
``(B) such individual is eligible for employment in the
United States.
``(2) Requirement for participation.--
``(A) New employees.--The Secretary shall require all
employers in the United States to participate in the System,
with respect to all employees hired by the employer on or
after the date that is not later than 18 months after the
date of enactment of this section.
``(B) Other employees.--Not later than 3 years after such
date of enactment, the Secretary shall require all employers
to verify through the System the identity and employment
eligibility of any individual who--
``(i) the Secretary has reason to believe is unlawfully
employed based on the information received under section
6103(l)(21) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and
[[Page 14915]]
``(ii) has not been previously verified through the System.
``(3) Other participation in system.--Notwithstanding
paragraph (2), the Secretary has the authority--
``(A) to permit any employer that is not required to
participate in the System under paragraph (2) to participate
in the System on a voluntary basis; and
``(B) to require any employer or class of employers to
participate on a priority basis in the System with respect to
individuals employed as of, or hired after, the date of
enactment of this section--
``(i) if the Secretary designates such employer or class of
employers as a critical employer based on an assessment of
homeland security or national security needs; or
``(ii) if the Secretary has reasonable cause to believe
that the employer has engaged in material violations of
paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of subsection (a).
``(4) Requirement to notify.--The Secretary shall notify
the employer or class of employers in writing regarding the
requirement for participation in the System under paragraph
(2) or (3)(B) not less than 60 days prior to the effective
date of such requirement. Such notice shall include the
training materials described in paragraph (8)(E)(iv).
``(5) Registration of employers.--An employer shall
register the employer's participation in the System in the
manner prescribed by the Secretary prior to the date the
employer is required or permitted to submit information with
respect to an employee under this subsection.
``(6) Additional guidance.--A registered employer shall be
permitted to utilize any technology that is consistent with
this section and with any regulation or guidance from the
Secretary to streamline the procedures to facilitate
compliance with--
``(A) the attestation requirement in subsection (c); and
``(B) the employment eligibility verification requirements
in this subsection.
``(7) Consequence of failure to participate.--If an
employer is required to participate in the System and fails
to comply with the requirements of the System with respect to
an employee--
``(A) such failure shall be treated as a violation of
subsection (a)(1)(B); and
``(B) a rebuttable presumption is created that the employer
has violated subsection (a)(1)(A), however, such presumption
may not apply to a prosecution under subsection (f)(1).
``(8) Design and operation of system.--
``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall, through the
System--
``(i) respond to each inquiry made by a registered employer
through the Internet or other electronic media, or over a
toll-free telephone line regarding an individual's identity
and eligibility for employment in the United States; and
``(ii) maintain a record of each such inquiry and the
information provided in response to such inquiry.
``(B) Initial inquiry.--
``(i) Information required.--A registered employer shall
with respect to hiring or recruiting or referring for a fee
any individual for employment in the United States, obtain
from the individual and record on the form described in
subsection (c)(1)(A)(i)--
``(I) the individual's name and date of birth;
``(II) the individual's social security account number;
``(III) the identification number contained on the document
presented by the individual pursuant to subsection (c)(1)(B);
and
``(IV) in the case of an individual who does not attest
that the individual is a national of the United States under
subsection (c)(1)(A)(i), such alien identification or
authorization number that the Secretary shall require.
``(ii) Submission to system.--A registered employer shall
submit an inquiry through the System to seek confirmation of
the individual's identity and eligibility for employment in
the United States--
``(I) no earlier than the date of hire and no later than
the first day of employment, or recruiting or referring for a
fee, of the individual (as the case may be); or
``(II) in the case of an employee hired before such
employer was required to participate in the system, at such
time as the Secretary shall specify.
``(C) Initial response.--Not later than 3 days after an
employer submits an inquiry to the System regarding an
individual, the Secretary shall provide, through the System,
to the employer--
``(i) if the System is able to confirm the individual's
identity and eligibility for employment in the United States,
a confirmation notice, including the appropriate codes on
such confirmation notice; or
``(ii) if the System is unable to confirm the individual's
identity or eligibility for employment in the United States,
and after a secondary manual verification has been conducted,
a tentative nonconfirmation notice, including the appropriate
codes on such tentative nonconfirmation notice.
``(D) Confirmation or nonconfirmation.--
``(i) Confirmation upon initial inquiry.--If an employer
receives a confirmation notice under subparagraph (C)(i) for
an individual, the employer shall record, on the form
described in subsection (c)(1)(A)(i), the appropriate code
provided in such notice.
``(ii) Tentative nonconfirmation.--If an employer receives
a tentative nonconfirmation notice under subparagraph (C)(ii)
for an individual, the employer shall inform such individual
of the issuance of such notice in writing, on a form
prescribed by the Secretary not later than 3 days after
receiving such notice. Such individual shall acknowledge
receipt of such notice in writing on the form described in
subsection (c)(1)(A)(i).
``(iii) No contest.--If the individual does not contest the
tentative nonconfirmation notice within 10 days of receiving
notice from the individual's employer, the notice shall
become final and the employer shall record on the form
described in subsection (c)(1)(A)(i), the appropriate code
provided through the System to indicate the individual did
not contest the tentative nonconfirmation. An individual's
failure to contest a tentative nonconfirmation shall not be
considered an admission of guilt with respect to any
violation of this Act or any other provision of law.
``(iv) Contest.--If the individual contests the tentative
nonconfirmation notice, the individual shall submit
appropriate information to contest such notice under the
procedures established in subparagraph (E)(ii) not later than
10 days after receiving the notice from the individual's
employer.
``(v) Effective period of tentative nonconfirmation
notice.--A tentative nonconfirmation notice shall remain in
effect until such notice becomes final under clause (iii) or
a final confirmation notice or final nonconfirmation notice
is issued through the System.
``(vi) Effective period of final notice.--A final
confirmation notice issued under this paragraph for an
individual shall remain in effect--
``(I) during any continuous period of employment of such
individual by such employer, unless the Secretary determines
the final confirmation was the result of error or fraud; or
``(II) in the case of an alien authorized to be employed in
the United States for a temporary period, during such period.
``(vii) Prohibition on termination.--An employer may not
terminate such employment of an individual based on a
tentative nonconfirmation notice until such notice becomes
final under clause (iii) or a final nonconfirmation notice is
issued for the individual by the System. Nothing in this
clause shall prohibit the termination of such employment for
any reason other than such tentative nonconfirmation.
``(viii) Recording of contest resolution.--The employer
shall record on the form described in subsection (c)(1)(A)(i)
the appropriate code that is provided through the System to
indicate a final confirmation notice or final nonconfirmation
notice.
``(ix) Consequences of nonconfirmation.--If the employer
has received a final nonconfirmation regarding an individual,
the employer shall immediately terminate the employment,
recruitment, or referral of the individual. Such employer
shall provide to the Secretary any information relating to
the individual that the Secretary determines would assist the
Secretary in enforcing or administering the immigration laws.
If the employer continues to employ, recruit, or refer the
individual after receiving final nonconfirmation, a
rebuttable presumption is created that the employer has
violated subsections (a)(1)(A) and (a)(2). Such presumption
may not apply to a prosecution under subsection (f)(1).
``(E) Responsibilities of the secretary.--
``(i) In general.--The Secretary shall establish a
reliable, secure method to provide through the System, within
the time periods required by this subsection--
``(I) a determination of whether the name and alien
identification or authorization number provided in an inquiry
by an employer is consistent with such information maintained
by the Secretary in order to confirm the validity of the
information provided; and
``(II) a determination of whether the individual is
authorized to be employed in the United States.
``(ii) Contest and self-verification.--The Secretary in
consultation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall
establish procedures to permit an individual who contests a
tentative or final nonconfirmation notice, or seeks to verify
the individual's own employment eligibility prior to
obtaining or changing employment, to contact the appropriate
agency and, in a timely manner, correct or update the
information used by the System.
``(iii) Information to employee.--The Secretary shall
develop a written form for employers to provide to
individuals who receive a tentative or final nonconfirmation
notice. Such form shall be made available in a language other
than English, as necessary and reasonable, and shall
include--
``(I) information about the reason for such notice;
``(II) the right to contest such notice;
``(III) contact information for the appropriate agency and
instructions for initiating such contest; and
``(IV) a 24-hour toll-free telephone number to respond to
inquiries related to such notice.
[[Page 14916]]
``(iv) Training materials.--The Secretary shall make
available or provide to the employer, upon request, not later
than 60 days prior to such employer's participation in the
System, appropriate training materials to facilitate
compliance with this subsection, and sections 274B(a)(7) and
274C(a).
``(F) Responsibilities of the commissioner of social
security.--The responsibilities of the Commissioner of Social
Security with respect to the System are set out in section
205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act.
``(G) Responsibilities of the secretary of state.--The
Secretary of State shall establish a reliable, secure method
to provide through the System a confirmation of the issuance
of identity documents described in subsection (c)(1)(B)(i)(I)
and transmit to the Secretary the related photographic image
or other identifying information.
``(H) Responsibilities of a state.--The official
responsible for issuing drivers' licenses and identity cards
for a State shall establish a reliable, secure method to
provide through the System a confirmation of the issuance of
identity documents described in subsection (c)(1)(B)(i)(II)
and transmit to the Secretary the related photographic image
or other identifying information.
``(9) Protection from liability.--No employer that
participates in the System shall be liable under any law for
any employment-related action taken with respect to an
individual in good faith reliance on information provided by
the System.
``(10) Administrative review.--
``(A) In general.--An individual who is terminated from
employment as a result of a final nonconfirmation notice may,
not later than 30 days after the date of such termination,
file an appeal of such notice.
``(B) Procedures.--The Secretary and Commissioner of Social
Security shall develop procedures to review appeals filed
under subparagraph (A) and to make final determinations on
such appeals.
``(C) Review for errors.--If a final determination on an
appeal filed under subparagraph (A) results in a confirmation
of an individual's eligibility to work in the United States,
the administrative review process shall require the Secretary
to determine whether the final nonconfirmation notice issued
for the individual was the result of--
``(i) the decision rules, processes, or procedures utilized
by the System;
``(ii) a natural disaster, or other event beyond the
control of the government;
``(iii) acts or omissions of an employee or official
operating or responsible for the System;
``(iv) acts or omissions of the individual's employer;
``(v) acts or omissions of the individual; or
``(vi) any other reason.
``(D) Compensation for error.--
``(i) In general.--If the Secretary makes a determination
under subparagraph (C) that the final nonconfirmation notice
issued for an individual was caused by a negligent, reckless,
willful, or malicious act of the government, and was not due
to an act or omission of the individual, the Secretary shall
compensate the individual for lost wages.
``(ii) Calculation of lost wages.--Lost wages shall be
calculated based on the wage rate and work schedule that
prevailed prior to termination. The individual shall be
compensated for wages lost during the period beginning on the
date the individual files a notice of appeal under this
paragraph and ending on the earlier of--
``(I) the date which is 180 days thereafter; or
``(II) the day after the date the individual receives a
confirmation described in subparagraph (C).
``(11) Judicial review.--
``(A) In general.--After the Secretary makes a final
determination on an appeal filed by an individual under the
administrative review process described in paragraph (10),
the individual may obtain judicial review of such
determination by a civil action commenced not later than 30
days after the date of such decision, or such further time as
the Secretary may allow.
``(B) Jurisdiction.--A civil action for such judicial
review shall be brought in the district court of the United
States for the judicial district in which the plaintiff
resides, or has a principal place of business, or, if the
plaintiff does not reside or have a principal place of
business within any such judicial district, in the District
Court of the United States for the District of Columbia.
``(C) Answer.--As part of the Secretary's answer to a
complaint for such judicial review, the Secretary shall file
a certified copy of the administrative record compiled during
the administrative review under paragraph (10), including the
evidence upon which the findings and decision complained of
are based. The court shall have power to enter, upon the
pleadings and transcript of the record, a judgment affirming
or reversing the result of that administrative review, with
or without remanding the cause for a rehearing.
``(D) Compensation for error.--
``(i) In general.--In cases in which such judicial review
reverses the final determination of the Secretary made under
paragraph (10), the court shall compensate the individual for
lost wages.
``(ii) Calculation of lost wages.--Lost wages shall be
calculated based on the wage rate and work scheduled that
prevailed prior to termination. The individual shall be
compensated for wages lost during the period beginning on the
date the individual files a notice of appeal under paragraph
(10) and ending on the earlier of--
``(I) the date which is 180 days thereafter; or
``(II) the day after the date the individual receives a
reversal described in clause (i).
``(12) Compensation for loss of employment.--For purposes
of paragraphs (10) and (11)--
``(A) Limitation on compensation.--For purposes of
determining an individual's compensation for the loss of
employment, such compensation shall not include any period in
which the individual was not present in, or was ineligible
for employment in, the United States.
``(B) Source of funds.--Compensation or reimbursement
provided under such paragraphs shall be provided from funds
appropriated that are not otherwise obligated.
``(13) Limitation on collection and use of data.--
``(A) Limitation on collection of data.--
``(i) In general.--The Secretary shall collect and maintain
only the minimum data necessary to facilitate the successful
operation of the System, and in no case shall the data be
other than--
``(I) information necessary to register employers under
paragraph (5);
``(II) information necessary to initiate and respond to
inquiries or contests under paragraph (8);
``(III) information necessary to establish and enforce
compliance with paragraphs (5) and (8);
``(IV) information necessary to detect and prevent
employment-related identity fraud; and
``(V) such other information the Secretary determines is
necessary, subject to a 180-day notice and comment period in
the Federal Register.
``(ii) Penalties.--Any officer, employee, or contractor who
willfully and knowingly collects and maintains data in the
System other than data described in clause (i) shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and fined $1,000 for each violation.
``(B) Limitation on use of data.--Whoever willfully and
knowingly accesses, discloses, or uses any information
obtained or maintained by the System--
``(i) for the purpose of committing identity fraud, or
assisting another person in committing identity fraud, as
defined in section 1028 of title 18, United States Code;
``(ii) for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining employment
in the United States or unlawfully obtaining employment in
the United States for any other person; or
``(iii) for any purpose other than as provided for under
any provision of law;
shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction shall be
fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for
not more than 5 years, or both.
``(C) Exceptions.--Nothing in subparagraph (A) or (B) may
be construed to limit the collection, maintenance, or use of
data by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or the
Commissioner of Social Security as provided by law.
``(14) Modification authority.--The Secretary, after notice
is submitted to Congress and provided to the public in the
Federal Register, is authorized to modify the requirements of
this subsection with respect to completion of forms, method
of storage, attestations, copying of documents, signatures,
methods of transmitting information, and other operational
and technical aspects to improve the efficiency, accuracy,
and security of the System. The Secretary shall minimize the
collection and storage of paper documents and maximize the
use of electronic records, including electronic signatures.
``(15) Annual gao study and report.--
``(A) Requirement.--The Comptroller General of the United
States shall conduct an annual study of the System.
``(B) Purpose.--The study shall evaluate the accuracy,
efficiency, integrity, and impact of the System.
``(C) Report.--Not later than the date that is 24 months
after the date of the enactment of this section, and annually
thereafter, the Comptroller General shall submit to Congress
a report containing the findings of the study carried out
under this paragraph. Each such report shall include, at a
minimum, the following:
``(i) An assessment of System performance with respect to
the rate at which individuals who are eligible for employment
in the United States are correctly approved within each of
the periods specified in paragraph (8), including a separate
assessment of such rate for nationals and aliens.
``(ii) An assessment of the privacy and security of the
System and its effects on identity fraud or the misuse of
personal data.
``(iii) An assessment of the effects of the System on the
employment of unauthorized aliens.
``(iv) An assessment of the effects of the System,
including the effects of tentative confirmations on unfair
immigration-related
[[Page 14917]]
employment practices, and employment discrimination based on
national origin or citizenship status.
``(v) An assessment of whether the Secretary and the
Commissioner of Social Security have adequate resources to
carry out the duties and responsibilities of this section.
``(e) Compliance.--
``(1) Complaints and investigations.--The Secretary shall
establish procedures--
``(A) for individuals and entities to file complaints
regarding potential violations of subsection (a);
``(B) for the investigation of such complaints that the
Secretary determines are appropriate to investigate; and
``(C) for the investigation of other violations of
subsection (a) that the Secretary determines is appropriate.
``(2) Authority in investigations.--
``(A) In general.--In conducting investigations and
hearings under this subsection, officers and employees of the
Department of Homeland Security--
``(i) shall have reasonable access to examine evidence
regarding any employer being investigated; and
``(ii) if designated by the Secretary, may compel by
subpoena the attendance of witnesses and the production of
evidence at any designated place in an investigation or case
under this subsection.
``(B) Failure to cooperate.--In case of refusal to obey a
subpoena lawfully issued under subparagraph (A)(ii), the
Secretary may request that the Attorney General apply in an
appropriate district court of the United States for an order
requiring compliance with such subpoena, and any failure to
obey such order may be punished by such court as contempt.
``(C) Department of labor.--The Secretary of Labor shall
have the investigative authority provided under section 11(a)
of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 211(a)) to
ensure compliance with the provisions of this section.
``(3) Compliance procedures.--
``(A) Prepenalty notice.--If the Secretary has reasonable
cause to believe that there has been a violation of a
requirement of this section and determines that further
proceedings related to such violation are warranted, the
Secretary shall issue to the employer concerned a written
notice of the Secretary's intention to issue a claim for a
fine or other penalty. Such notice shall--
``(i) describe the violation;
``(ii) specify the laws and regulations allegedly violated;
``(iii) specify the amount of fines or other penalties to
be imposed;
``(iv) disclose the material facts which establish the
alleged violation; and
``(v) inform such employer that the employer shall have a
reasonable opportunity to make representations as to why a
claim for a monetary or other penalty should not be imposed.
``(B) Remission or mitigation of penalties.--
``(i) Review by secretary.--If the Secretary determines
that such fine or other penalty was incurred erroneously, or
determines the existence of such mitigating circumstances as
to justify the remission or mitigation of such fine or
penalty, the Secretary may remit or mitigate such fine or
other penalty on the terms and conditions as the Secretary
determines are reasonable and just, or order termination of
any proceedings related to the notice. Such mitigating
circumstances may include good faith compliance and
participation in, or agreement to participate in, the System,
if not otherwise required.
``(ii) Applicability.--This subparagraph may not apply to
an employer that has or is engaged in a pattern or practice
of violations of paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of subsection (a)
or of any other requirements of this section.
``(C) Penalty claim.--After considering evidence and
representations offered by the employer, the Secretary shall
determine whether there was a violation and promptly issue a
written final determination setting forth the findings of
fact and conclusions of law on which the determination is
based and the appropriate penalty.
``(4) Civil penalties.--
``(A) Hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized aliens.--
Any employer that violates any provision of paragraph (1),
(2), or (3) of subsection (a) shall pay civil penalties as
follows:
``(i) Pay a civil penalty of $5,000 for each unauthorized
alien with respect to each such violation.
``(ii) If the employer has previously been fined 1 time
under this subparagraph, pay a civil penalty of $10,000 for
each unauthorized alien with respect to each such violation.
``(iii) If the employer has previously been fined more than
1 time under this subparagraph or has failed to comply with a
previously issued and final order related to any such
provision, pay a civil penalty of $25,000 for each
unauthorized alien with respect to each such violation.
``(iv) If the employer has previously been fined more than
2 times under this subparagraph or has failed to comply with
a previously issued and final order related to any such
provision, pay a civil penalty of $75,000 for each
unauthorized alien with respect to each such violation.
``(v) An employer who fails to comply with a written final
determination under paragraph (3)(C) shall be fined $75,000
for each violation, in addition to any fines or other
penalties imposed by such determination.
``(B) Recordkeeping or verification practices.--Any
employer that violates or fails to comply with the
recordkeeping requirements of subsections (a), (c), and (d),
shall pay a civil penalty as follows:
``(i) Pay a civil penalty of $1,000 for each such
violation.
``(ii) If the employer has previously been fined 1 time
under this subparagraph, pay a civil penalty of $2,000 for
each such violation.
``(iii) If the employer has previously been fined more than
1 time under this subparagraph, pay a civil penalty of $5,000
for each such violation.
``(iv) If the employer has previously been fined more than
2 times under this subparagraph, pay a civil penalty of
$15,000 for each such violation.
``(v) An employer who fails to comply with a written final
determination under paragraph (3) shall be fined $15,000 for
each violation, in addition to any fines or other penalties
imposed by such determination.
``(C) Other penalties.--Notwithstanding subparagraphs (A)
and (B), the Secretary may impose additional penalties for
violations, including violations of cease and desist orders,
specially designed compliance plans to prevent further
violations, suspended fines to take effect in the event of a
further violation, and in appropriate cases, the criminal
penalty described in subsection (f).
``(5) Judicial review.--An employer adversely affected by a
final determination may, within 30 days after the date the
final determination is issued, file a petition in any
appropriate district court of the United States. The filing
of a petition as provided in this paragraph shall stay the
Secretary's determination until entry of judgment by the
court. The burden shall be on the employer to show that the
final determination was not supported by substantial
evidence. The Secretary is authorized to require that the
petitioner provide, prior to filing for review, security for
payment of fines and penalties through bond or other
guarantee of payment acceptable to the Secretary.
``(6) Enforcement of orders.--If an employer fails to
comply with a final determination issued against that
employer under this subsection, and the final determination
is not subject to review as provided in paragraph (5), the
Attorney General may file suit to enforce compliance with the
final determination, not earlier than 31 days and not later
than 180 days after the date the final determination is
issued, in any appropriate district court of the United
States. In any such suit, the validity and appropriateness of
the final determination shall not be subject to review.
``(f) Criminal Penalties and Injunctions for Pattern or
Practice Violations.--
``(1) Criminal penalty.--An employer that engages in a
pattern or practice of knowing violations of subsection
(a)(1)(A) or (a)(2) shall be fined not more than $75,000 for
each unauthorized alien with respect to whom such a violation
occurs, imprisoned for not more than 3 years for the entire
pattern or practice, or both.
``(2) Enjoining of pattern or practice violations.--If the
Secretary or the Attorney General has reasonable cause to
believe that an employer is engaged in a pattern or practice
of employment, recruitment, or referral in violation of
paragraph (1)(A) or (2) of subsection (a), the Attorney
General may bring a civil action in the appropriate district
court of the United States requesting a permanent or
temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order
against the employer, as the Secretary deems necessary.
``(g) Adjustment for Inflation.--All penalties in this
section shall be increased every 4 years beginning January
2011 to reflect the percentage increase in the consumer price
index for all urban consumers (all items; U.S. city average)
for the 48 month period ending with September of the year
preceding the year such adjustment is made. Any adjustment
under this subparagraph shall be rounded to the nearest
dollar.
``(h) Prohibition of Indemnity Bonds.--
``(1) Prohibition.--It is unlawful for an employer, in the
hiring, recruiting, or referral of an individual, to require
the individual to post a bond or security, to pay or agree to
pay an amount, or otherwise to provide a financial guarantee
or indemnity, against any potential liability arising under
this section relating to such hiring, recruiting, or referral
of the individual.
``(2) Civil penalty.--Any employer which is determined,
after notice and opportunity for mitigation of the monetary
penalty under subsection (e), to have violated paragraph (1)
of this subsection shall be subject to a civil penalty of
$10,000 for each violation and to an administrative order
requiring the return of any amounts received in violation of
such paragraph to the employee or, if the employee cannot be
located, to the Employer Compliance Fund established under
section 286(z).
``(i) Prohibition on Award of Government Contracts, Grants,
and Agreements.--
``(1) Employers with no contracts, grants, or agreements.--
[[Page 14918]]
``(A) In general.--If an employer who does not hold a
Federal contract, grant, or cooperative agreement is
determined by the Secretary to be a repeat violator of this
section or is convicted of a crime under this section, the
employer shall be subject to debarment from the receipt of a
Federal contract, grant, or cooperative agreement for a
period of not more than 2 years in accordance with the
procedures and standards prescribed by the Federal
Acquisition Regulations. The Secretary or the Attorney
General shall advise the Administrator of General Services of
such a debarment, and the Administrator of General Services
shall list the employer on the List of Parties Excluded from
Federal Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs for a period
of the debarment.
``(B) Waiver.--The Administrator of General Services, in
consultation with the Secretary and the Attorney General, may
waive operation of this subsection or may limit the duration
or scope of the debarment.
``(2) Employers with contracts, grants, or agreements.--
``(A) In general.--An employer who holds a Federal
contract, grant, or cooperative agreement and is determined
by the Secretary to be a repeat violator of this section or
is convicted of a crime under this section, shall be subject
to debarment from the receipt of new Federal contracts,
grants, or cooperative agreements for a period of not more
than 2 years in accordance with the procedures and standards
prescribed by the Federal Acquisition Regulations.
``(B) Notice to agencies.--Prior to debarring the employer
under subparagraph (A), the Secretary, in cooperation with
the Administrator of General Services, shall advise all
agencies or departments holding a contract, grant, or
cooperative agreement with the employer of the Government's
intention to debar the employer from the receipt of new
Federal contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements for a
period of not more than 2 years.
``(C) Waiver.--After consideration of the views of all
agencies or departments that hold a contract, grant, or
cooperative agreement with the employer, the Secretary may,
in lieu of debarring the employer from the receipt of new
Federal contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements for a
period of nor more than 2 years, waive operation of this
subsection, limit the duration or scope of the debarment, or
may refer to an appropriate lead agency the decision of
whether to debar the employer, for what duration, and under
what scope in accordance with the procedures and standards
prescribed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation. However,
any proposed debarment predicated on an administrative
determination of liability for civil penalty by the Secretary
or the Attorney General shall not be reviewable in any
debarment proceeding.
``(3) Suspension.--Indictments for violations of this
section or adequate evidence of actions that could form the
basis for debarment under this subsection shall be considered
a cause for suspension under the procedures and standards for
suspension prescribed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
``(4) Determination of repeat violators.--Inadvertent
violations of recordkeeping or verification requirements, in
the absence of any other violations of this section, shall
not be a basis for determining that an employer is a repeat
violator for purposes of this subsection.
``(j) Miscellaneous Provisions.--
``(1) Documentation.--In providing documentation or
endorsement of authorization of aliens eligible to be
employed in the United States, the Secretary shall provide
that any limitations with respect to the period or type of
employment or employer shall be conspicuously stated on the
documentation or endorsement (other than aliens lawfully
admitted for permanent residence).
``(2) Preemption.--The provisions of this section preempt
any State or local law--
``(A) imposing civil or criminal sanctions upon those who
hire, or recruit or refer for a fee, unauthorized aliens for
employment; or
``(B) requiring the use of the System for any unauthorized
purpose, or any authorized purpose prior to the time such use
is required or permitted by Federal law.
``(k) Deposit of Amounts Received.--Except as otherwise
specified, civil penalties collected under this section shall
be deposited by the Secretary into the Employer Compliance
Fund established under section 286(z).
``(l) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Secretary.--Except as otherwise provided, the term
`Secretary' means the Secretary of Homeland Security.
``(2) Unauthorized alien.--The term `unauthorized alien'
means, with respect to the employment of an alien at a
particular time, that the alien is not at that time either--
``(A) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence;
or
``(B) authorized to be so employed by this Act or by the
Secretary under any other provision of law.''.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--
(1) Amendments.--
(A) Repeal of basic pilot.--Sections 401, 402, 403, 404,
and 405 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (division C of Public Law 104-208;
8 U.S.C. 1324a note) are repealed.
(B) Repeal of reporting requirements.--
(i) Report on earnings of aliens not authorized to work.--
Subsection (c) of section 290 (8 U.S.C. 1360) is repealed.
(ii) Report on fraudulent use of social security account
numbers.--Subsection (b) of section 414 of the Illegal
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
(division C of Public Law 104-208; 8 U.S.C. 1360 note) is
repealed.
(2) Construction.--Nothing in this subsection or in
subsection (d) of section 274A, as amended by subsection (a),
may be construed to limit the authority of the Secretary to
allow or continue to allow the participation of employers who
participated in the basic pilot program under sections 401,
402, 403, 404, and 405 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (division C of Public
Law 104-208; 8 U.S.C. 1324a note) in the Electronic
Employment Verification System established pursuant to such
subsection (d).
(c) Technical Amendments.--
(1) Definition of unauthorized alien.--Sections 218(i)(1)
(8 U.S.C. 1188(i)(1)), 245(c)(8) (8 U.S.C. 1255(c)(8)),
274(a)(3)(B)(i) (8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(3)(B)(i)), and 274B(a)(1)
(8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(1)) are amended by striking ``274A(h)(3)''
and inserting ``274A''.
(2) Document requirements.--Section 274B (8 U.S.C. 1324b)
is amended--
(A) in subsections (a)(6) and (g)(2)(B), by striking
``274A(b)'' and inserting ``274A(c) and (d)''; and
(B) in subsection (g)(2)(B)(ii), by striking ``274A(b)(5)''
and inserting ``274A(c)''.
(d) Amendments to the Social Security Act.--
(1) Section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
405(c)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subparagraphs:
``(I)(i) The Commissioner of Social Security shall, subject
to the provisions of section 301(f)(2) of the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007,
establish a reliable, secure method to provide through the
Electronic Employment Verification System established
pursuant to subsection (d) of section 274A of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (referred to in this subparagraph as the
`System'), within the time periods required by paragraph (8)
of such subsection--
``(I) a determination of whether the name, date of birth,
and social security account number of an individual provided
in an inquiry made to the System by an employer is consistent
with such information maintained by the Commissioner;
``(II) a determination of the citizenship status associated
with such name and social security account number, according
to the records maintained by the Commissioner;
``(III) a determination of whether the name and number
belongs to an individual who is deceased, according to the
records maintained by the Commissioner;
``(IV) a determination of whether the name and number is
blocked in accordance with clause (ii); and
``(V) a confirmation notice or a nonconfirmation notice
described in such paragraph (8), in a manner that ensures
that other information maintained by the Commissioner is not
disclosed or released to employers through the System.
``(ii) The Commissioner of Social Security shall prevent
the fraudulent or other misuse of a social security account
number by establishing procedures under which an individual
who has been assigned a social security account number may
block the use of such number under the System and remove such
block.
``(J) In assigning social security account numbers to
aliens who are authorized to work in the United States under
section 218A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the
Commissioner of Social Security shall--
``(i) to the maximum extent practicable, assign such
numbers by employing the enumeration procedure administered
jointly by the Commissioner, the Secretary of State, and the
Secretary of Homeland Security;
``(ii) in all cases, record, verify, and maintain an
electronic record of the alien identification or
authorization number issued by the Secretary and utilized by
the Commissioner in assigning such social security account
number; and
``(iii) upon the issuance of a social security account
number, transmit such number to the Secretary of Homeland
Security for inclusion in such alien's record maintained by
the Secretary.''.
(2) Section 205(c)(2)(C)(i) of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. 405(c)(2)(C)(i)) is amended by adding at the end the
following: ``Any State that utilizes a social security
account number for such purpose shall enter into an agreement
with the Commissioner to allow the Commissioner to verify the
name, date of birth, and the identity number issued by the
official the State responsible for issuing drivers' licenses
and identity cards. Such agreement shall be under the same
terms and conditions as agreements entered into by the
Commissioner under paragraph 205(r)(8).''.
(3) Section 205(r) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
405(r)) is amended by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
``(9) Notwithstanding this section or any agreement entered
into thereunder, the Commissioner of Social Security is
authorized to
[[Page 14919]]
disclose death information to the Secretary of Homeland
Security to the extent necessary to carry out the
responsibilities required under subsection (c)(2) and section
6103(l)(21) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.''.
(e) Disclosure of Certain Taxpayer Identity Information.--
(1) In general.--Section 6103(l) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following
new paragraph:
``(21) Disclosure of certain taxpayer identity information
by the social security administration to the department of
homeland security.--
``(A) In general.--Upon written request by the Secretary of
Homeland Security, the Commissioner of Social Security or the
Secretary shall disclose directly to officers, employees, and
contractors of the Department of Homeland Security the
following information:
``(i) Disclosure of employer no match notices.--The
taxpayer identity of each person who has filed an information
return required by reason of section 6051 or section 6041(a)
for tax year 2005 and subsequent tax years that end before
the date that is specified in subparagraph (F) which
contains--
``(I) 1 (or any greater number the Secretary shall request)
name and taxpayer identifying number of any employee (within
the meaning of section 6051) or any recipient (within the
meaning of section 6041(a)) that could not be matched to the
records maintained by the Commissioner of Social Security, or
``(II) 2 (or any greater number the Secretary shall
request) names of employees (within the meaning of such
section) or recipients (within the meaning of section
6041(a)) with the same taxpayer identifying number,
and the taxpayer identity of each such employee or recipient.
``(ii) Disclosure of information regarding use of duplicate
taxpayer identifying information of employees.--The taxpayer
identity of each person who has filed an information return
required by reason of section 6051 or section 6041(a) for tax
year 2005 and subsequent tax years that end before the date
that is specified in subparagraph (F) which contains the
taxpayer identifying number (assigned under section 6109) of
an employee (within the meaning of section 6051) or a
recipient (within the meaning of section 6041(a))--
``(I) who is under the age of 14 (or any lesser age the
Secretary shall request), according to the records maintained
by the Commissioner of Social Security,
``(II) whose date of death, according to the records so
maintained, occurred in a calendar year preceding the
calendar year for which the information return was filed,
``(III) whose taxpayer identifying number is contained in
more than one (or any greater number the Secretary shall
request) information return filed in such calendar year, or
``(IV) who is not authorized to work in the United States,
according to the records maintained by the Commissioner of
Social Security,
and the taxpayer identity of each such employee or recipient.
``(iii) Disclosure of information regarding
nonparticipating employers.--The taxpayer identity of each
person who has filed an information return required by reason
of section 6051 or section 6041(a) which the Commissioner of
Social Security or the Secretary, as the case may be, has
reason to believe, based on a comparison with information
submitted by the Secretary of Homeland Security, contains
evidence of such person's failure to register and participate
in the Electronic Employment Verification System authorized
under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(hereafter in this paragraph referred to as the `System').
``(iv) Disclosure of information regarding new employees of
nonparticipating employers.--The taxpayer identity of all
employees (within the meaning of section 6051) hired and
recipients (within the meaning of section 6041(a)) retained
after the date a person identified in clause (iii) is
required to participate in the System under section
274A(d)(2) or section 274A(d)(3)(B) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act.
``(v) Disclosure of information regarding employees of
certain designated employers.--The taxpayer identity of all
employees (within the meaning of section 6051) and recipients
(within the meaning of section 6041(a)) of each person who is
required to participate in the System under section
274A(d)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
``(vi) Disclosure of new hire taxpayer identity
information.--The taxpayer identity of each person
participating in the System and the taxpayer identity of all
employees (within the meaning of section 6051) of such person
hired and all recipients (within the meaning of section
6041(a)) of such person retained during the period beginning
with the later of--
``(I) the date such person begins to participate in the
System, or
``(II) the date of the request immediately preceding the
most recent request under this clause,
ending with the date of the most recent request under this
clause.
``(B) Restriction on disclosure.--The taxpayer identities
disclosed under subparagraph (A) may be used by officers,
employees, and contractors of the Department of Homeland
Security only for purposes of, and to the extent necessary
in--
``(i) preventing identity fraud;
``(ii) preventing aliens from unlawfully obtaining
employment in the United States;
``(iii) establishing and enforcing employer participation
in the System;
``(iv) carrying out, including through civil administrative
and civil judicial proceedings, of sections 212, 217, 235,
237, 238, 274A, 274B, and 274C of the Immigration and
Nationality Act; and
``(v) the civil operation of the Alien Terrorist Removal
Court.
``(C) Reimbursement.--The Commissioner of Social Security
and the Secretary shall prescribe a reasonable fee schedule
based on the additional costs directly incurred for
furnishing taxpayer identities under this paragraph and
collect such fees in advance from the Secretary of Homeland
Security.
``(D) Information returns under section 6041.--For purposes
of this paragraph, any reference to information returns
required by reason of section 6041(a) shall only be a
reference to such information returns relating to payments
for labor.
``(E) Form of disclosure.--The taxpayer identities to be
disclosed under paragraph (A) shall be provided in a form
agreed upon by the Commissioner of Social Security, the
Secretary, and the Secretary of Homeland Security.
``(F) Termination.--This paragraph shall not apply to any
request made after the date which is 5 years after the date
of the enactment of this paragraph.''.
(2) Compliance by dhs contractors with confidentiality
safeguards.--
(A) In general.--Section 6103(p) of such Code is amended by
adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(9) Disclosure to dhs contractors.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of this section, no return or return
information shall be disclosed to any contractor of the
Department of Homeland Security unless such Department, to
the satisfaction of the Secretary--
``(A) has requirements in effect which require each such
contractor which would have access to returns or return
information to provide safeguards (within the meaning of
paragraph (4)) to protect the confidentiality of such returns
or return information,
``(B) agrees to conduct an on-site review every 3 years
(midpoint review in the case of contracts or agreements of
less than 3 years in duration) of each contractor to
determine compliance with such requirements,
``(C) submits the findings of the most recent review
conducted under subparagraph (B) to the Secretary as part of
the report required by paragraph (4)(E), and
``(D) certifies to the Secretary for the most recent annual
period that such contractor is in compliance with all such
requirements.
The certification required by subparagraph (D) shall include
the name and address of each contractor, a description of the
contract or agreement with such contractor, and the duration
of such contract or agreement.''.
(3) Conforming amendments.--
(A) Section 6103(a)(3) of such Code is amended by striking
``or (20)'' and inserting ``(20), or (21)''.
(B) Section 6103(p)(3)(A) of such Code is amended by adding
at the end the following new sentence: ``The Commissioner of
Social Security shall provide to the Secretary such
information as the Secretary may require in carrying out this
paragraph with respect to return information inspected or
disclosed under the authority of subsection (l)(21).''.
(C) Section 6103(p)(4) of such Code is amended--
(i) by striking ``or (17)'' both places it appears and
inserting ``(17), or (21)''; and
(ii) by striking ``or (20)'' each place it appears and
inserting ``(20), or (21)''.
(D) Section 6103(p)(8)(B) of such Code is amended by
inserting ``or paragraph (9)'' after ``subparagraph (A)''.
(E) Section 7213(a)(2) of such Code is amended by striking
``or (20)'' and inserting ``(20), or (21)''.
(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) In general.--There are authorized to be appropriated to
the Secretary such sums as are necessary to carry out the
amendments made by this section.
(2) Limitation on verification responsibilities of
commissioner of social security.--The Commissioner of Social
Security is authorized to perform activities with respect to
carrying out the Commissioner's responsibilities in this
title or the amendments made by this title, but only to the
extent funds are appropriated, in advance, to cover the
Commissioner's full costs in carrying out such
responsibilities. In no case shall funds from the Federal
Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal
Disability Insurance Trust Fund be used to carry out such
responsibilities.
(g) Effective Dates.--
(1) In general.--The amendments made by subsections (a),
(b), (c), and (d) shall take effect on the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(2) Subsection (e).--
[[Page 14920]]
(A) In general.--The amendments made by subsection (e)
shall apply to disclosures made after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(B) Certifications.--The first certification under section
6103(p)(9)(D) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as added
by subsection (e)(2), shall be made with respect to calendar
year 2008.
SEC. 302. EMPLOYER COMPLIANCE FUND.
Section 286 (8 U.S.C. 1356), as amended by sections 402(b)
and 623, is further amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection:
``(z) Employer Compliance Fund.--
``(1) In general.--There is established in the general fund
of the Treasury, a separate account, which shall be known as
the `Employer Compliance Fund' (referred to in this
subsection as the `Fund').
``(2) Deposits.--There shall be deposited as offsetting
receipts into the Fund all civil monetary penalties collected
by the Secretary of Homeland Security under section 274A.
``(3) Purpose.--Amounts refunded to the Secretary from the
Fund shall be used for the purposes of enhancing and
enforcing employer compliance with section 274A.
``(4) Availability of funds.--Amounts deposited into the
Fund shall remain available until expended and shall be
refunded out of the Fund by the Secretary of the Treasury, at
least on a quarterly basis, to the Secretary of Homeland
Security.''.
SEC. 303. ADDITIONAL WORKSITE ENFORCEMENT AND FRAUD DETECTION
AGENTS.
(a) Increase in Number of Personnel.--The Secretary shall,
subject to the availability of appropriations for such
purpose, annually increase, by not less than 2,200, the
number of personnel of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement during the 5-year period beginning on the date of
the enactment of this Act.
(b) Use of Personnel.--The Secretary shall ensure that not
less than 25 percent of all the hours expended by personnel
of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement shall be
used to enforce compliance with sections 274A and 274C of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a and 1324c).
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary for each of the fiscal
years 2008 through 2012 such sums as may be necessary to
carry out this section.
SEC. 304. CLARIFICATION OF INELIGIBILITY FOR
MISREPRESENTATION.
Section 212(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I) (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I)), is amended by striking ``citizen'' and
inserting ``national''.
SEC. 305. ANTIDISCRIMINATION PROTECTIONS.
(a) Application of Prohibition of Discrimination to
Verification System.--Section 274B(a) (8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting
``, the verification of the individual's work authorization
through the Electronic Employment Verification System
described in section 274A(d),'' after ``the individual for
employment''; and
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``in the case of a
protected individual (as defined in paragraph (3)),''; and
(2) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the following:
``(3) Antidiscrimination requirements of the electronic
employment verification system.--
``(A) In general.--It is an unfair immigration-related
employment practice for a person or other entity, in the
course of the electronic verification process described in
section 274A(d)--
``(i) to terminate or undertake any adverse employment
action due to a tentative nonconfirmation;
``(ii) to use the verification system for screening of an
applicant prior to an offer of employment;
``(iii) except as described in section 274A(d)(3)(B), to
use the verification system for a current employee after the
first day of employment, unless a waiver is provided by the
Secretary of Homeland Security for good cause, or for the
reverification of an employee after the employee has
satisfied the process described in section 274A(d); or
``(iv) to require an individual to make an inquiry under
the self-verification procedures established in section
274A(d)(8)(E)(iii).
``(B) Preemployment screening and background check.--
Nothing in subparagraph (A) shall be construed to preclude a
preemployment screening or background check that is required
or permitted under any other provision of law.''.
(b) Increase in Civil Money Penalties.--Section 274B(g)(2)
(8 U.S.C. 1324b(g)(2)) is amended in subparagraph (B)(iv)--
(1) in subclause (I), by striking ``$250 and not more than
$2,000'' and inserting ``$1,000 and not more than $4,000'';
(2) in subclause (II), by striking ``$2,000 and not more
than $5,000'' and inserting ``$4,000 and not more than
$10,000'';
(3) in subclause (III), by striking ``$3,000 and not more
than $10,000'' and inserting ``$6,000 and not more than
$20,000''; and
(4) in subclause (IV), by striking ``$100 and not more than
$1,000'' and inserting ``$500 and not more than $5,000''.
(c) Increased Funding of Information Campaign.--Section
274B(l)(3) (8 U.S.C. 1324b(l)(3)) is amended by inserting
``and an additional $40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008
through 2010'' before the period at the end.
(d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act
and shall apply to violations occurring on or after such
date.
______
SA 1442. Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Durbin, and Mrs. Boxer)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S.
1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Beginning on page 287, strike line 12 and all that follows
through line 35 on page 296, and insert the following:
(6) Fees and penalties.--
(A) Processing fees.--
(i) An alien making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a processing fee
in an amount sufficient to recover the full cost of
adjudicating the application, but no more than $1,500 for a
Z-1 nonimmigrant.
(ii) An alien applying for extension of the alien's Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a processing fee
in an amount sufficient to cover administrative and other
expenses associated with processing the extension
application, but no more than $1,000 for a Z-1 nonimmigrant.
(B) Penalties.--
(i) An alien making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay, in addition to
the processing fee in subparagraph (A), a penalty of $1,000.
(ii) An alien who is a Z-2 or Z-3 nonimmigrant and who has
not previously been a Z-1 nonimmigrant, and who changes
status to that of a Z-1 nonimmigrant, shall in addition to
processing fees be required to pay the initial application
penalties applicable to Z-1 nonimmigrants.
(C) State impact assistance fee.--In addition to any other
amounts required to be paid under this subsection, a Z-1
nonimmigrant making an initial application for Z-1
nonimmigrant status shall be required to pay a State impact
assistance fee equal to $500.
(D) Deposit and spending of fees.--The processing fees
under subparagraph (A) shall be deposited and remain
available until expended as provided by sections 286(m) and
(n).
(E) Deposit, allocation, and spending of penalties.--
(i) Deposit of penalties.--The penalty under subparagraph
(B) shall be deposited and remain available as provided by
section 286(w).
(ii) Deposit of state impact assistance funds.--The funds
under subparagraph (C) shall be deposited and remain
available as provided by section 286(x).
(7) Interview.--An applicant for Z nonimmigrant status must
appear to be interviewed.
(8) Military selective service.--The alien shall establish
that if the alien is within the age period required under the
Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 451 et seq.)
that such alien has registered under that Act.
(f) Application Procedures.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
prescribe by notice in the Federal Register, in accordance
with the procedures described in section 610 of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 and the procedures for an alien in the United States to
apply for Z nonimmigrant status and the evidence required to
demonstrate eligibility for such status.
(2) Initial receipt of applications.--The Secretary of
Homeland Security, or such other entities as are authorized
by the Secretary to accept applications under the procedures
established under this subsection, shall accept applications
from aliens for Z nonimmigrant status for a period of 1 year
starting the first day of the first month beginning no more
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section.
If, during the 1-year initial period for the receipt of
applications for Z nonimmigrant status, the Secretary of
Homeland Security determines that additional time is required
to register applicants for Z nonimmigrant status, the
Secretary may in his discretion extend the period for
accepting applications by up to 12 months.
(3) Biometric data.--Each alien applying for Z nonimmigrant
status must submit biometric data in accordance with
procedures established by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
(g) Content of Application Filed by Alien.--
(1) Application form.--The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall create an application form that an alien shall be
required to complete as a condition of obtaining Z
nonimmigrant status.
(2) Application information.--The application form shall
request such information as the Secretary deems necessary and
appropriate, including but not limited to, information
concerning the alien's physical and
[[Page 14921]]
mental health; complete criminal history, including all
arrests and dispositions; gang membership, renunciation of
gang affiliation; immigration history; employment history;
and claims to United States citizenship.
(3) Security and law enforcement background checks.--
(A) Submission of fingerprints.--The Secretary may not
accord Z nonimmigrant status unless the alien submits
fingerprints and other biometric data in accordance with
procedures established by the Secretary.
(B) Background checks.--The Secretary shall utilize
fingerprints and other biometric data provided by the alien
to conduct appropriate background checks of such alien to
search for criminal, national security, or other law
enforcement actions that would render the alien ineligible
for classification under this section.
(h) Treatment of Applicants.--
(1) In general.--An alien who files an application for Z
nonimmigrant status shall, upon submission of any evidence
required under subsections (f) and (g) and after the
Secretary has conducted appropriate background checks, to
include name and fingerprint checks, that have not by the end
of the next business day produced information rendering the
applicant ineligible--
(A) be granted probationary benefits in the form of
employment authorization pending final adjudication of the
alien's application;
(B) may in the Secretary's discretion receive advance
permission to re-enter the United States pursuant to existing
regulations governing advance parole;
(C) may not be detained for immigration purposes,
determined inadmissible or deportable, or removed pending
final adjudication of the alien's application, unless the
alien is determined to be ineligible for Z nonimmigrant
status; and
(D) may not be considered an unauthorized alien (as defined
in section 274A(h)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(3))) unless employment authorization under
subparagraph (A) is denied.
(2) Timing of probationary benefits.--No probationary
benefits shall be issued to an alien until the alien has
passed all appropriate background checks or the end of the
next business day, whichever is sooner.
(3) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to limit the Secretary's authority to conduct any
appropriate background and security checks subsequent to
issuance of evidence of probationary benefits under paragraph
(4).
(4) Probationary authorization document.--The Secretary
shall provide each alien described in paragraph (1) with a
counterfeit-resistant document that reflects the benefits and
status set forth in subsection (h)(1). The Secretary may by
regulation establish procedures for the issuance of
documentary evidence of probationary benefits and, except as
provided herein, the conditions under which such documentary
evidence expires, terminates, or is renewed. All documentary
evidence of probationary benefits shall expire no later than
6 months after the date on which the Secretary begins to
approve applications for Z nonimmigrant status.
(5) Before application period.--If an alien is apprehended
between the date of enactment and the date on which the
period for initial registration closes under subsection
(f)(2), and the alien can establish prima facie eligibility
for Z nonimmigrant status, the Secretary shall provide the
alien with a reasonable opportunity to file an application
under this section after such regulations are promulgated.
(6) During certain proceedings.--Notwithstanding any
provision of the Act, if the Secretary determines that an
alien who is in removal proceedings is prima facie eligible
for Z nonimmigrant status, then the Secretary shall
affirmatively communicate such determination to the
immigration judge. The immigration judge shall then terminate
or administratively close such proceedings and permit the
alien a reasonable opportunity to apply for such
classification.
(i) Adjudication of Application Filed by Alien.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary may approve the issuance of
documentation of status, as described in subsection (j), to
an applicant for a Z nonimmigrant visa who satisfies the
requirements of this section.
(2) Evidence of continuous physical presence, employment,
or education.--
(A) Presumptive documents.--A Z nonimmigrant or an
applicant for Z nonimmigrant status may presumptively
establish satisfaction of each required period of presence,
employment, or study by submitting records to the Secretary
that demonstrate such presence, employment, or study, and
that the Secretary verifies have been maintained by the
Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service,
or any other Federal, State, or local government agency.
(B) Verification.--Each Federal agency, and each State or
local government agency, as a condition of receipt of any
funds under section 286(x), shall within 90 days of enactment
ensure that procedures are in place under which such agency
shall--
(i) consistent with all otherwise applicable laws,
including but not limited to laws governing privacy, provide
documentation to an alien upon request to satisfy the
documentary requirements of this paragraph; or
(ii) notwithstanding any other provision of law, including
section 6103 of title 26, United States Code, provide
verification to the Secretary of documentation offered by an
alien as evidence of--
(I) presence or employment required under this section; or
(II) a requirement for any other benefit under the
immigration laws.
(C) Other documents.--A Z nonimmigrant or an applicant for
Z nonimmigrant status who is unable to submit a document
described in subparagraph (i) may establish satisfaction of
each required period of presence, employment, or study by
submitting to the Secretary at least 2 other types of
reliable documents that provide evidence of employment,
including--
(i) bank records;
(ii) business records;
(iii) employer records;
(iv) records of a labor union or day labor center;
(v) remittance records; and
(vi) sworn affidavits from nonrelatives who have direct
knowledge of the alien's work, that contain--
(I) the name, address, and telephone number of the affiant;
(II) the nature and duration of the relationship between
the affiant and the alien; and
(III) other verification or information.
(D) Additional documents.--The Secretary may--
(i) designate additional documents to evidence the required
period of presence, employment, or study; and
(ii) set such terms and conditions on the use of affidavits
as is necessary to verify and confirm the identity of any
affiant or otherwise prevent fraudulent submissions.
(3) Burden of proof.--An alien who is applying for a Z
nonimmigrant visa under this section shall prove, by a
preponderance of the evidence, that the alien has satisfied
the requirements of this section.
(4) Denial of application.--
(A) An alien who fails to satisfy the eligibility
requirements for a Z nonimmigrant visa shall have his
application denied and may not file additional applications.
(B) An alien who fails to submit requested initial
evidence, including requested biometric data, and requested
additional evidence by the date required by the Secretary
shall, except where the alien demonstrates to the
satisfaction of the Secretary that such failure was
reasonably excusable or was not willful, have his application
considered abandoned. Such application shall be denied and
the alien may not file additional applications.
(j) Evidence of Nonimmigrant Status.--
(1) In general.--Documentary evidence of nonimmigrant
status shall be issued to each Z nonimmigrant.
(2) Features of documentation.--Documentary evidence of Z
nonimmigrant status--
(A) shall be machine-readable, tamper-resistant, and shall
contain a digitized photograph and other biometric
identifiers that can be authenticated;
(B) shall be designed in consultation with United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Forensic Document
Laboratory;
(C) shall, during the alien's authorized period of
admission under subsection (k), serve as a valid travel and
entry document for the purpose of applying for admission to
the United States where the alien is applying for admission
at a Port of Entry;
(D) may be accepted during the period of its validity by an
employer as evidence of employment authorization and identity
under section 274A(b)(1)(B); and
(E) shall be issued to the Z nonimmigrant by the Secretary
of Homeland Security promptly after final adjudication of
such alien's application for Z nonimmigrant status, except
that an alien may not be granted permanent Z nonimmigrant
status until all appropriate background checks on the alien
are completed to the satisfaction of the Secretary of
Homeland Security.
(k) Period of Authorized Admission.--
(1) Initial period.--The initial period of authorized
admission as a Z nonimmigrant shall be 4 years.
(2) Extensions.--
(A) In general.--Z nonimmigrants may seek an indefinite
number of 4-year extensions of the initial period of
authorized admission.
(B) Requirements.--In order to be eligible for an extension
of the initial or any subsequent period of authorized
admission under this paragraph, an alien must satisfy the
following requirements:
(i) Eligibility.--The alien must demonstrate continuing
eligibility for Z nonimmigrant status.
(ii) English language and civics.--
(I) Requirement at first renewal.--At or before the time of
application for the first extension of Z nonimmigrant status,
an alien who is 18 years of age or older must demonstrate an
attempt to gain an understanding of the English language and
knowledge of United States civics by taking the
naturalization test described in sections 312(a)(1) and (2)
by demonstrating enrollment in or placement on a waiting list
for English classes.
[[Page 14922]]
(II) Requirement at second renewal.--At or before the time
of application for the second extension of Z nonimmigrant
status, an alien who is 18 years of age or older must pass
the naturalization test described in sections 312(a)(1) and
(2). The alien may make up to 3 attempts to demonstrate such
understanding and knowledge but must satisfy this requirement
prior to the expiration of the second extension of Z
nonimmigrant status.
(III) Exception.--The requirement of subclauses (I) and
(II) shall not apply to any person who, on the date of the
filing of the person's application for an extension of Z
nonimmigrant status--
(aa) is unable because of physical or developmental
disability or mental impairment to comply therewith;
(bb) is over 50 years of age and has been living in the
United States for periods totaling at least 20 years; or
(cc) is over 55 years of age and has been living in the
United States for periods totaling at least 15 years.
(iii) Employment.--With respect to an extension of Z-1 or
Z-3 nonimmigrant status an alien must demonstrate
satisfaction of the employment or study requirements provided
in subsection (m) during the alien's most recent authorized
period of stay as of the date of application; and
(iv) Fees.--The alien must pay a processing fee in an
amount sufficient to recover the full cost of adjudicating
the application, but no more than $1,000 for a Z-1
nonimmigrant.
______
SA 1443. Mr. LEVIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. ADMISSION OF CERTAIN NATIONALS FROM IRAQ AS PRIORITY
2 REFUGEES.
Subject to the numerical limitations established pursuant
to section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1157), the Secretary of State or a designee of the
Secretary shall present to the Secretary of Homeland
Security, and the Secretary of Homeland Security or a
designee of the Secretary shall adjudicate, any application
for refugee status under section 207 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) submitted by an applicant
who--
(1) is a national of Iraq;
(2) is able to demonstrate that--
(A) for a period of at least one year beginning after March
1, 2003, he or she served the United States Government inside
Iraq as an employee, volunteer, contractor, or employee of a
contractor of the United States Government; or
(B) he or she has a parent, spouse, son, daughter,
grandparent, grandchild, or sibling currently residing in the
United States who is a United States citizen, lawful
permanent resident, asylee, or refugee; and
(3) is able to demonstrate that he or she left Iraq before
January 1, 2007, and has resided outside Iraq since that
time.
______
SA 1444. Mr. OBAMA (for himself and Mr. Menendez) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of title V, insert the following:
SEC. 509. TERMINATION.
(a) In General.--The amendments described in subsection (b)
shall be effective during the 5-year period ending on
September 30 of the fifth fiscal year following the fiscal
year in which this Act is enacted.
(b) Provisions.--The amendments described in this
subsection are the following:
(1) The amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) of
section 501.
(2) The amendments made by subsections (b), (c), and (e) of
section 502.
(3) The amendments made by subsections (a), (b), (c)(1),
(d), and (g) of section 503.
(4) The amendments made by subsection (a) of section 504.
(c) Worldwide Level of Employment-Based Immigrants.--
(1) Temporary supplemental allocation.--Section 201(d) (8
U.S.C. 1151(d)) is amended by adding at the end the follows
new paragraphs:
``(3) Temporary supplemental allocation.--Notwithstanding
paragraphs (1) and (2), there shall be a temporary
supplemental allocation of visas as follows:
``(A) For the first 5 fiscal years in which aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an
immigrant visa, the number calculated pursuant to section
503(f)(2) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
``(B) In the sixth fiscal year in which aliens described in
section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an immigrant visa, the
number calculated pursuant to section 503(f)(3) of Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007.
``(C) Starting in the seventh fiscal year in which aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) are eligible for an
immigrant visa, the number equal to the number of aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) who became aliens admitted
for permanent residence based on the merit-based evaluation
system in the prior fiscal year until no further aliens
described in section 101(a)(15)(Z) adjust status.
``(4) Termination of temporary supplemental allocation.--
The temporary supplemental allocation of visas described in
paragraph (3) shall terminate when the number of visas
calculated pursuant to paragraph (3)(C) is zero.
``(5) Limitation.--The temporary supplemental visas
described in paragraph (3) shall not be awarded to any
individual other than an individual described in section
101(a)(15)(Z).''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall be effective on October 1 of the sixth fiscal year
following the fiscal year in which this Act is enacted.
(d) Worldwide Level of Family-Sponsored Immigrants.--
(1) Increase in level.--Section 201(c)(1)(B)(ii) (8 U.S.C.
1151(c)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by striking ``226,000'' and
inserting ``567,000''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall be effective during the period beginning on October 1
of the sixth fiscal year following the fiscal year in which
this Act is enacted and ending on the date that an alien may
be adjust status to an alien lawfully admitted for permanent
residence described in section 602(a)(5).
______
SA 1445. Mr. BINGAMAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 225, strike ``such limitation'' and insert ``the
limitations under clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (1)(D)''.
______
SA 1446. Mrs. BOXER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 304, strike lines 2 through 20 and insert the
following:
(ii) Application processes.--
(I) In general.--Except as provided in subclause (III), a
Z-1 nonimmigrant's application for adjustment of status to
that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence
must be filed in person with a United States consulate
abroad.
(II) Place of application.--Unless otherwise directed by
the Secretary of State, a Z-1 nonimmigrant applying for
adjustment of status under this paragraph shall make an
application at a consular office in the alien's country of
origin. A consular office in a country that is not a Z-1
nonimmigrant's country of origin may as a matter of
discretion, or shall at the direction of the Secretary of
State, accept an application for adjustment of status from
such an alien.
(III) Applications submitted from within the united
states.--
(aa) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security and
the Secretary of State shall permit a Z-1 nonimmigrant to
submit an application for an adjustment of status to that of
an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence from
within the United States if the country of origin of the Z-1
nonimmigrant authorizes the Z-1 nonimmigrant to submit the
application.
(bb) Requirement to register.--A Z-1 nonimmigrant applying
for adjustment of status under this subclause shall submit to
a consulate of the nonimmigrant's country of nationality in
the United States a registration of the nonimmigrant's
presence in the United States.
______
SA 1447. Mr. GRASSLEY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Strike subsection (c) of section 757 of the bill (relating
to impact on commercial motor vehicles).
______
SA 1448. Mr. COLEMAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. LANGUAGE TRAINING PROGRAMS.
(a) Accreditation Requirement.--Section 101(a)(15)(F)(i) (8
U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(F)(i) is amended by striking ``a
language'' and inserting ``an accredited language''.
(b) Rulemaking.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue
regulations that--
(1) except as provided under paragraphs (3) and (4),
require that an accredited language training program
described in section 101(a)(15)(F)(i) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act, as amended by subsection (a), be accredited
by the Commission on English
[[Page 14923]]
Language Program Accreditation, the Accrediting Council for
Continuing Education and Training, or under the governance of
an institution accredited by 1 of the 6 regional accrediting
agencies;
(2) require that if such an accredited language training
program provides intensive language training, the head of
such program provide the Secretary of Education with
documentation regarding the specific subject matter for which
the program is accredited;
(3) permit an alien admitted as a nonimmigrant under such
section 101(a)(15)(F)(i) to participate in a language
training program, during the 3-year period beginning on the
date of the enactment of this Act, if such program is not
accredited under paragraph (1); and
(4) permit a language training program established after
the date of the enactment of this Act, which is not
accredited under paragraph (1), to qualify as an accredited
language training program under such section 101(a)(15)(F)(i)
during the 3-year period beginning on the date on which such
program is established.
______
SA 1449. Mr. BROWNBACK submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In section 214(l) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1184(l)), as amended by section 425(b)(1), in
paragraph (4)(C)(iii), strike subclause (I) and insert the
following:
``(I) with respect to a State, for the first fiscal year of
the pilot program conducted under this paragraph, the greater
of--
``(aa) 15; or
``(bb) the number of the waivers received by the State in
the previous fiscal year;''.
______
SA 1450. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. ____. PLAN FOR THE CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF ARUNDO
DONAX.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Arundo donax.--The term ``Arundo donax'' means a tall
perennial reed commonly known as ``Carrizo cane'', ``Spanish
cane'', ``wild cane'', and ``giant cane''.
(2) Plan.--The term ``plan'' means the plan for the control
and management of Arundo donax developed under subsection
(b).
(3) River.--The term ``River'' means the Rio Grande River.
(4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Homeland Security.
(b) Development of Plan.--
(1) In general.--Subject to the availability of
appropriations, the Secretary shall develop a plan for the
control and management of Arundo donax along the portion of
the River that serves as the international border between the
United States and Mexico.
(2) Components.--In developing the plan, the Secretary
shall address--
(A) information derived by the Secretary of Agriculture and
the Secretary of the Interior from ongoing efforts to
identify the most effective biological, mechanical, and
chemical means of controlling and managing Arundo donax;
(B) past and current efforts to understand--
(i) the ecological damages caused by Arundo donax; and
(ii) the dangers Arundo donax poses to Federal and local
law enforcement;
(C) any international agreements and treaties that need to
be completed to allow for the control and management of
Arundo donax on both sides of the River;
(D) the long-term efforts that the Secretary considers to
be necessary to control and manage Arundo donax, including
the cost estimates for the implementation of the efforts; and
(E) whether a waiver of applicable Federal environmental
laws (including regulations) is necessary.
(3) Consultation.--The Secretary shall develop the plan in
consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary
of the Interior, the Secretary of State, and any other
Federal and State agencies that have appropriate expertise
regarding the control and management of Arundo donax.
(c) Report.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit the plan
to--
(1) the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the
House of Representatives; and
(2) the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the
House of Representatives.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are
necessary to carry out this section.
______
SA 1451. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 36, after line 17, add the following:
SEC. 139. REPORT REGARDING USE OF LEVEES.
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this
Act, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
shall submit to Congress a report regarding the use of flood
control levees under the control of the International
Boundary and Water Commission by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, which shall--
(1) discuss the purpose and importance of any such use of
such levees;
(2) describe the level of degradation of such levees as a
result of such use; and
(3) identify any formal agreements that may be needed
between the Department of Homeland Security and the
International Boundary and Water Commission or the Department
of State to ensure needed access to such levees.
______
SA 1452. Mr. LIEBERMAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
Subtitle __--Asylum and Detention Safeguards
SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Secure and Safe
Detention and Asylum Act''.
SEC. __02. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Asylum seeker.--The term ``asylum seeker'' means an
applicant for asylum under section 208 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158) or for withholding of removal
under section 241(b)(3) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)) or
an alien who indicates an intention to apply for relief under
either such section and does not include a person with
respect to whom a final adjudication denying an application
made under either such section has been entered.
(2) Credible fear of persecution.--The term ``credible fear
of persecution'' has the meaning given that term in section
235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)).
(3) Detainee.--The term ``detainee'' means an alien in the
Department's custody held in a detention facility.
(4) Detention facility.--The term ``detention facility''
means any Federal facility in which an asylum seeker, an
alien detained pending the outcome of a removal proceeding,
or an alien detained pending the execution of a final order
of removal, is detained for more than 72 hours, or any other
facility in which such detention services are provided to the
Federal Government by contract, and does not include
detention at any port of entry in the United States.
(5) Reasonable fear of persecution or torture.--The term
``reasonable fear of persecution or torture'' has the meaning
described in section 208.31 of title 8, Code of Federal
Regulations.
(6) Standard.--The term ``standard'' means any policy,
procedure, or other requirement.
(7) Vulnerable populations.--The term ``vulnerable
populations'' means classes of aliens subject to the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) who
have special needs requiring special consideration and
treatment by virtue of their vulnerable characteristics,
including experiences of, or risk of, abuse, mistreatment, or
other serious harms threatening their health or safety.
Vulnerable populations include the following:
(A) Asylum seekers.
(B) Refugees admitted under section 207 of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) and individuals seeking
such admission.
(C) Aliens whose deportation is being withheld under
section 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as in
effect immediately before the effective date of section 307
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-208; 110 Stat.
3009-612)) or section 241(b)(3) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)).
(D) Aliens granted or seeking protection under article 3 of
the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane, or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, done at New York, December
10, 1994.
(E) Applicants for relief and benefits under the
Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the amendments
made by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
(division A of Public Law 106-386; 114 Stat. 1464), including
applicants for nonimmigrant status under subparagraph (T) or
(U) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)).
(F) Applicants for relief and benefits under the
Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the amendments
made by the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (division B of
Public Law 106-386; 114 Stat. 1491).
(G) Unaccompanied alien children (as defined in 462(g) of
the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)).
[[Page 14924]]
SEC. __03. RECORDING SECONDARY INSPECTION INTERVIEWS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish quality
assurance procedures to ensure the accuracy and verifiability
of signed or sworn statements taken by employees of the
Department exercising expedited removal authority under
section 235(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)).
(b) Factors Relating to Sworn Statements.--Any sworn or
signed written statement taken of an alien as part of the
record of a proceeding under section 235(b)(1)(A) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(A))
shall be accompanied by a recording of the interview which
served as the basis for that sworn statement.
(c) Recordings.--
(1) In general.--The recording of the interview shall also
include the written statement, in its entirety, being read
back to the alien in a language that the alien claims to
understand, and the alien affirming the accuracy of the
statement or making any corrections thereto.
(2) Format.--The recording shall be made in video, audio,
or other equally reliable format.
(d) Exemption Authority.--
(1) Subsections (b) and (c) shall not apply to interviews
that occur at facilities exempted by the Secretary pursuant
to this subsection.
(2) The Secretary or the Secretary's designee may exempt
any facility based on a determination by the Secretary or the
Secretary's designee that compliance with subsections (b) and
(c) at that facility would impair operations or impose undue
burdens or costs.
(3) The Secretary or the Secretary's designee shall report
annually to Congress on the facilities that have been
exempted pursuant to this subsection.
(4) The exercise of the exemption authority granted by this
subsection shall not give rise to a private cause of action.
(e) Interpreters.--The Secretary shall ensure that a
professional fluent interpreter is used when the interviewing
officer does not speak a language understood by the alien and
there is no other Federal, State, or local government
employee available who is able to interpret effectively,
accurately, and impartially.
SEC. __04. PROCEDURES GOVERNING DETENTION DECISIONS.
Section 236 (8 U.S.C. 1226) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
(i) in the first sentence by striking ``Attorney General''
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(ii) by striking ``(c)'' and inserting ``(d)''; and
(iii) in the second sentence by striking ``Attorney
General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (2)--
(i) in subparagraph (A)--
(I) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(II) by striking ``or'' at the end;
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``but'' at the end;
and
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
``(C) the alien's own recognizance; or
``(D) a secure alternatives program as provided for in this
section; but'';
(2) by redesignating subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e) as
subsections (d), (e), (f), and (h), respectively;
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following new
subsections:
``(b) Custody Decisions.--
``(1) In general.--In the case of a decision under
subsection (a) or (d), the following shall apply:
``(A) The decision shall be made in writing and shall be
served upon the alien. A decision to continue detention
without bond or parole shall specify in writing the reasons
for that decision.
``(B) The decision shall be served upon the alien within 72
hours of the alien's detention or, in the case of an alien
subject to section 235 or 241(a)(5) who must establish a
credible fear of persecution or a reasonable fear of
persecution or torture in order to proceed in immigration
court, within 72 hours of a positive credible fear of
persecution or reasonable fear of persecution or torture
determination.
``(2) Criteria to be considered.--The criteria to be
considered by the Secretary and the Attorney General in
making a custody decision shall include--
``(A) whether the alien poses a risk to public safety or
national security;
``(B) whether the alien is likely to appear for immigration
proceedings; and
``(C) any other relevant factors.
``(3) Custody redetermination.--An alien subject to this
section may at any time after being served with the
Secretary's decision under subsections (a) or (d) request a
redetermination of that decision by an immigration judge. All
decisions by the Secretary to detain without bond or parole
shall be subject to redetermination by an immigration judge
within 2 weeks from the time the alien was served with the
decision, unless waived by the alien. The alien may request a
further redetermination upon a showing of a material change
in circumstances since the last redetermination hearing.
``(c) Exception for Mandatory Detention.--Subsection (b)
shall not apply to any alien who is subject to mandatory
detention under section 235(b)(1)(B)(iii)(IV), 236(c), or
236A or who has a final order of removal and has no
proceedings pending before the Executive Office for
Immigration Review.'';
(4) in subsection (d), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(B) by striking ``or parole'' and inserting ``, parole, or
decision to release;'';
(5) in subsection (e), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary'' each place it appears; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``or for humanitarian
reasons,'' after ``such an investigation,'';
(6) in subsection (f), as redesignated--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking
``Attorney General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (1), in subparagraphs (A) and (B), by
striking ``Service'' and inserting ``Department of Homeland
Security''; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``Service'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(7) by inserting after subsection (f), as redesignated, the
following new subparagraph:
``(g) Administrative Review.--If an immigration judge's
custody decision has been stayed by the action of an officer
or employee of the Department of Homeland Security, the stay
shall expire in 30 days, unless the Board of Immigration
Appeals before that time, and upon motion, enters an order
continuing the stay.''; and
(8) in subsection (h), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General's'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security's''; and
(B) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''.
SEC. __05. LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General, in consultation with
the Secretary, shall ensure that all detained aliens in
immigration and asylum proceedings receive legal orientation
through a program administered and implemented by the
Executive Office for Immigration Review of the Department of
Justice.
(b) Content of Program.--The legal orientation program
developed pursuant to this section shall be based on the
Legal Orientation Program carried out by the Executive Office
for Immigration Review on the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(c) Expansion of Legal Assistance.--The Secretary shall
ensure the expansion through the United States Citizenship
and Immigration Service of public-private partnerships that
facilitate pro bono counseling and legal assistance for
asylum seekers awaiting a credible fear of persecution
interview, as a continuation of existing programs, such as
the pilot program developed in Arlington, Virginia by the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
SEC. __06. CONDITIONS OF DETENTION.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall ensure that standards
governing conditions and procedures at detention facilities
are fully implemented and enforced, and that all detention
facilities comply with the standards.
(b) Procedures and Standards.--The Secretary shall
promulgate new standards, or modify existing detention
standards, to improve conditions in detention facilities. The
improvements shall address at a minimum the following
policies and procedures:
(1) Fair and humane treatment.--Procedures to ensure that
detainees are not subject to degrading or inhumane treatment
such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or harassment, or
arbitrary punishment.
(2) Limitations on solitary confinement.--Procedures
limiting the use of solitary confinement, shackling, and
strip searches of detainees to situations where the use of
such techniques is necessitated by security interests or
other extraordinary circumstances.
(3) Investigation of grievances.--Procedures for the prompt
and effective investigation of grievances raised by
detainees.
(4) Access to telephones.--Procedures permitting detainees
sufficient access to telephones, and the ability to contact,
free of charge, legal representatives, the immigration
courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Federal
courts through confidential toll-free numbers.
(5) Location of facilities.--Location of detention
facilities, to the extent practicable, near sources of free
or low-cost legal representation with expertise in asylum or
immigration law.
(6) Procedures governing transfers of detainees.--
Procedures governing the transfer of a detainee that take
into account--
(A) the detainee's access to legal representatives; and
(B) the proximity of the facility to the venue of the
asylum or removal proceeding.
(7) Quality of medical care.--
(A) In general.--Prompt and adequate medical care provided
at no cost to the detainee, including dental care, eye care,
mental health care, and where appropriate, individual and
group counseling, medical dietary
[[Page 14925]]
needs, and other medically necessary specialized care.
Medical facilities in all detention facilities used by the
Department maintain current accreditation by the National
Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). Requirements
that each medical facility that is not accredited by the
Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care
Organizations (JCAHO) will seek to obtain such accreditation.
Maintenance of complete medical records for every detainee
which shall be made available upon request to a detainee, his
legal representative, or other authorized individuals.
(8) Translation capabilities.--The employment of detention
facility staff that, to the extent practicable, are qualified
in the languages represented in the population of detainees
at a detention facility, and the provision of alternative
translation services when necessary.
(9) Recreational programs and activities.--Daily access to
indoor and outdoor recreational programs and activities.
(c) Special Standards for Noncriminal Detainees.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the distinctions between persons with
criminal convictions or a history of violent behavior and all
other detainees; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for a noncriminal, nonviolent population.
(d) Special Standards for Vulnerable Populations.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the unique needs of asylum seekers, victims
of torture and trafficking, families with children, detainees
who do not speak English, detainees with special religious,
cultural or spiritual considerations, and other vulnerable
populations; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for the populations listed in this subsection.
(e) Training of Personnel.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary shall ensure that personnel
in detention facilities are given specialized training to
better understand and work with the population of detainees
held at the facilities where such personnel work. The
training should address the unique needs of--
(A) asylum seekers;
(B) victims of torture or other trauma; and
(C) other vulnerable populations.
(2) Specialized training.--The training required by this
subsection shall be designed to better enable personnel to
work with detainees from different countries, and detainees
who cannot speak English. The training shall emphasize that
many detainees have no criminal records and are being held
for civil violations.
SEC. __07. OFFICE OF DETENTION OVERSIGHT.
(a) Establishment of the Office.--
(1) In general.--There shall be established within the
Department an Office of Detention Oversight (in this section
referred to as the ``Office'').
(2) Head of the office.--There shall be at the head of the
Office an Administrator who shall be appointed by, and shall
report to, the Secretary.
(3) Schedule.--The Office shall be established and the
Administrator of the Office appointed not later than 6 months
after the date of enactment of this Act.
(b) Responsibilities of the Office.--
(1) Inspections of detention centers.--The Administrator of
the Office shall--
(A) undertake frequent and unannounced inspections of all
detention facilities;
(B) develop a procedure for any detainee or the detainee's
representative to file a written complaint directly with the
Office; and
(C) report to the Secretary and to the Assistant Secretary
of Homeland Security for United States Immigration and
Customs Enforcement all findings of a detention facility's
noncompliance with detention standards.
(2) Investigations.--The Administrator of the Office
shall--
(A) initiate investigations, as appropriate, into
allegations of systemic problems at detention facilities or
incidents that constitute serious violations of detention
standards;
(B) report to the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of
Homeland Security for United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement the results of all investigations; and
(C) refer matters, where appropriate, for further action
to--
(i) the Department of Justice;
(ii) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(iii) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department; or
(iv) any other relevant office or agency.
(3) Report to congress.--
(A) In general.--The Administrator of the Office shall
submit to the Secretary, the Committee on the Judiciary and
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
of the Senate, and the Committee on the Judiciary and the
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives an annual report on the Administrator's
findings on detention conditions and the results of the
investigations carried out by the Administrator.
(B) Contents of report.--Each report required by
subparagraph (A) shall include--
(i) a description of the actions to remedy findings of
noncompliance or other problems that are taken by the
Secretary or the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for
United States Immigration
______
SA 1453. Mr. LIEBERMAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Insert the following:
Subtitle __--Asylum and Detention Safeguards
SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Secure and Safe
Detention and Asylum Act''.
SEC. __02. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Asylum seeker.--The term ``asylum seeker'' means an
applicant for asylum under section 208 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158) or for withholding of removal
under section 241(b)(3) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)) or
an alien who indicates an intention to apply for relief under
either such section and does not include a person with
respect to whom a final adjudication denying an application
made under either such section has been entered.
(2) Credible fear of persecution.--The term ``credible fear
of persecution'' has the meaning given that term in section
235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)).
(3) Detainee.--The term ``detainee'' means an alien in the
Department's custody held in a detention facility.
(4) Detention facility.--The term ``detention facility''
means any Federal facility in which an asylum seeker, an
alien detained pending the outcome of a removal proceeding,
or an alien detained pending the execution of a final order
of removal, is detained for more than 72 hours, or any other
facility in which such detention services are provided to the
Federal Government by contract, and does not include
detention at any port of entry in the United States.
(5) Reasonable fear of persecution or torture.--The term
``reasonable fear of persecution or torture'' has the meaning
described in section 208.31 of title 8, Code of Federal
Regulations.
(6) Standard.--The term ``standard'' means any policy,
procedure, or other requirement.
(7) Vulnerable populations.--The term ``vulnerable
populations'' means classes of aliens subject to the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) who
have special needs requiring special consideration and
treatment by virtue of their vulnerable characteristics,
including experiences of, or risk of, abuse, mistreatment, or
other serious harms threatening their health or safety.
Vulnerable populations include the following:
(A) Asylum seekers.
(B) Refugees admitted under section 207 of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) and individuals seeking
such admission.
(C) Aliens whose deportation is being withheld under
section 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as in
effect immediately before the effective date of section 307
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-208; 110 Stat.
3009-612)) or section 241(b)(3) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)).
(D) Aliens granted or seeking protection under article 3 of
the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane, or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, done at New York, December
10, 1994.
(E) Applicants for relief and benefits under the
Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the amendments
made by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
(division A of Public Law 106-386; 114 Stat. 1464), including
applicants for nonimmigrant status under subparagraph (T) or
(U) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)).
(F) Applicants for relief and benefits under the
Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the amendments
made by the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (division B of
Public Law 106-386; 114 Stat. 1491).
(G) Unaccompanied alien children (as defined in 462(g) of
the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)).
SEC. __03. RECORDING SECONDARY INSPECTION INTERVIEWS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish quality
assurance procedures to ensure the accuracy and verifiability
of signed or sworn statements taken by employees of the
Department exercising expedited removal authority under
section 235(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)).
(b) Factors Relating to Sworn Statements.--Any sworn or
signed written statement taken of an alien as part of the
record of a proceeding under section 235(b)(1)(A) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(A))
shall be accompanied by a recording of the interview which
served as the basis for that sworn statement.
[[Page 14926]]
(c) Recordings.--
(1) In general.--The recording of the interview shall also
include the written statement, in its entirety, being read
back to the alien in a language that the alien claims to
understand, and the alien affirming the accuracy of the
statement or making any corrections thereto.
(2) Format.--The recording shall be made in video, audio,
or other equally reliable format.
(d) Exemption Authority.--
(1) Subsections (b) and (c) shall not apply to interviews
that occur at facilities exempted by the Secretary pursuant
to this subsection.
(2) The Secretary or the Secretary's designee may exempt
any facility based on a determination by the Secretary or the
Secretary's designee that compliance with subsections (b) and
(c) at that facility would impair operations or impose undue
burdens or costs.
(3) The Secretary or the Secretary's designee shall report
annually to Congress on the facilities that have been
exempted pursuant to this subsection.
(4) The exercise of the exemption authority granted by this
subsection shall not give rise to a private cause of action.
(e) Interpreters.--The Secretary shall ensure that a
professional fluent interpreter is used when the interviewing
officer does not speak a language understood by the alien and
there is no other Federal, State, or local government
employee available who is able to interpret effectively,
accurately, and impartially.
SEC. __04. PROCEDURES GOVERNING DETENTION DECISIONS.
Section 236 (8 U.S.C. 1226) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
(i) in the first sentence by striking ``Attorney General''
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(ii) by striking ``(c)'' and inserting ``(d)''; and
(iii) in the second sentence by striking ``Attorney
General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (2)--
(i) in subparagraph (A)--
(I) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(II) by striking ``or'' at the end;
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``but'' at the end;
and
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
``(C) the alien's own recognizance; or
``(D) a secure alternatives program as provided for in this
section; but'';
(2) by redesignating subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e) as
subsections (d), (e), (f), and (h), respectively;
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following new
subsections:
``(b) Custody Decisions.--
``(1) In general.--In the case of a decision under
subsection (a) or (d), the following shall apply:
``(A) The decision shall be made in writing and shall be
served upon the alien. A decision to continue detention
without bond or parole shall specify in writing the reasons
for that decision.
``(B) The decision shall be served upon the alien within 72
hours of the alien's detention or, in the case of an alien
subject to section 235 or 241(a)(5) who must establish a
credible fear of persecution or a reasonable fear of
persecution or torture in order to proceed in immigration
court, within 72 hours of a positive credible fear of
persecution or reasonable fear of persecution or torture
determination.
``(2) Criteria to be considered.--The criteria to be
considered by the Secretary and the Attorney General in
making a custody decision shall include--
``(A) whether the alien poses a risk to public safety or
national security;
``(B) whether the alien is likely to appear for immigration
proceedings; and
``(C) any other relevant factors.
``(3) Custody redetermination.--An alien subject to this
section may at any time after being served with the
Secretary's decision under subsections (a) or (d) request a
redetermination of that decision by an immigration judge. All
decisions by the Secretary to detain without bond or parole
shall be subject to redetermination by an immigration judge
within 2 weeks from the time the alien was served with the
decision, unless waived by the alien. The alien may request a
further redetermination upon a showing of a material change
in circumstances since the last redetermination hearing.
``(c) Exception for Mandatory Detention.--Subsection (b)
shall not apply to any alien who is subject to mandatory
detention under section 235(b)(1)(B)(iii)(IV), 236(c), or
236A or who has a final order of removal and has no
proceedings pending before the Executive Office for
Immigration Review.'';
(4) in subsection (d), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(B) by striking ``or parole'' and inserting ``, parole, or
decision to release;'';
(5) in subsection (e), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary'' each place it appears; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``or for humanitarian
reasons,'' after ``such an investigation,'';
(6) in subsection (f), as redesignated--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking
``Attorney General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (1), in subparagraphs (A) and (B), by
striking ``Service'' and inserting ``Department of Homeland
Security''; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``Service'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(7) by inserting after subsection (f), as redesignated, the
following new subparagraph:
``(g) Administrative Review.--If an immigration judge's
custody decision has been stayed by the action of an officer
or employee of the Department of Homeland Security, the stay
shall expire in 30 days, unless the Board of Immigration
Appeals before that time, and upon motion, enters an order
continuing the stay.''; and
(8) in subsection (h), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General's'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security's''; and
(B) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''.
SEC. __05. LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General, in consultation with
the Secretary, shall ensure that all detained aliens in
immigration and asylum proceedings receive legal orientation
through a program administered and implemented by the
Executive Office for Immigration Review of the Department of
Justice.
(b) Content of Program.--The legal orientation program
developed pursuant to this section shall be based on the
Legal Orientation Program carried out by the Executive Office
for Immigration Review on the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(c) Expansion of Legal Assistance.--The Secretary shall
ensure the expansion through the United States Citizenship
and Immigration Service of public-private partnerships that
facilitate pro bono counseling and legal assistance for
asylum seekers awaiting a credible fear of persecution
interview, as a continuation of existing programs, such as
the pilot program developed in Arlington, Virginia by the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
SEC. __06. CONDITIONS OF DETENTION.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall ensure that standards
governing conditions and procedures at detention facilities
are fully implemented and enforced, and that all detention
facilities comply with the standards.
(b) Procedures and Standards.--The Secretary shall
promulgate new standards, or modify existing detention
standards, to improve conditions in detention facilities. The
improvements shall address at a minimum the following
policies and procedures:
(1) Fair and humane treatment.--Procedures to ensure that
detainees are not subject to degrading or inhumane treatment
such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or harassment, or
arbitrary punishment.
(2) Limitations on solitary confinement.--Procedures
limiting the use of solitary confinement, shackling, and
strip searches of detainees to situations where the use of
such techniques is necessitated by security interests or
other extraordinary circumstances.
(3) Investigation of grievances.--Procedures for the prompt
and effective investigation of grievances raised by
detainees.
(4) Access to telephones.--Procedures permitting detainees
sufficient access to telephones, and the ability to contact,
free of charge, legal representatives, the immigration
courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Federal
courts through confidential toll-free numbers.
(5) Location of facilities.--Location of detention
facilities, to the extent practicable, near sources of free
or low-cost legal representation with expertise in asylum or
immigration law.
(6) Procedures governing transfers of detainees.--
Procedures governing the transfer of a detainee that take
into account--
(A) the detainee's access to legal representatives; and
(B) the proximity of the facility to the venue of the
asylum or removal proceeding.
(7) Quality of medical care.--
(A) In general.--Prompt and adequate medical care provided
at no cost to the detainee, including dental care, eye care,
mental health care, and where appropriate, individual and
group counseling, medical dietary needs, and other medically
necessary specialized care. Medical facilities in all
detention facilities used by the Department maintain current
accreditation by the National Commission on Correctional
Health Care (NCCHC). Requirements that each medical facility
that is not accredited by the Joint Commission on the
Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) will seek
to obtain such accreditation. Maintenance of complete medical
records for every detainee which shall be made available upon
request to a detainee, his legal representative, or other
authorized individuals.
(8) Translation capabilities.--The employment of detention
facility staff that, to the extent practicable, are qualified
in the languages represented in the population of detainees
at a detention facility, and the
[[Page 14927]]
provision of alternative translation services when necessary.
(9) Recreational programs and activities.--Daily access to
indoor and outdoor recreational programs and activities.
(c) Special Standards for Noncriminal Detainees.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the distinctions between persons with
criminal convictions or a history of violent behavior and all
other detainees; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for a noncriminal, nonviolent population.
(d) Special Standards for Vulnerable Populations.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the unique needs of asylum seekers, victims
of torture and trafficking, families with children, detainees
who do not speak English, detainees with special religious,
cultural or spiritual considerations, and other vulnerable
populations; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for the populations listed in this subsection.
(e) Training of Personnel.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary shall ensure that personnel
in detention facilities are given specialized training to
better understand and work with the population of detainees
held at the facilities where such personnel work. The
training should address the unique needs of--
(A) asylum seekers;
(B) victims of torture or other trauma; and
(C) other vulnerable populations.
(2) Specialized training.--The training required by this
subsection shall be designed to better enable personnel to
work with detainees from different countries, and detainees
who cannot speak English. The training shall emphasize that
many detainees have no criminal records and are being held
for civil violations.
SEC. __07. OFFICE OF DETENTION OVERSIGHT.
(a) Establishment of the Office.--
(1) In general.--There shall be established within the
Department an Office of Detention Oversight (in this section
referred to as the ``Office'').
(2) Head of the office.--There shall be at the head of the
Office an Administrator who shall be appointed by, and shall
report to, the Secretary.
(3) Schedule.--The Office shall be established and the
Administrator of the Office appointed not later than 6 months
after the date of enactment of this Act.
(b) Responsibilities of the Office.--
(1) Inspections of detention centers.--The Administrator of
the Office shall--
(A) undertake frequent and unannounced inspections of all
detention facilities;
(B) develop a procedure for any detainee or the detainee's
representative to file a written complaint directly with the
Office; and
(C) report to the Secretary and to the Assistant Secretary
of Homeland Security for United States Immigration and
Customs Enforcement all findings of a detention facility's
noncompliance with detention standards.
(2) Investigations.--The Administrator of the Office
shall--
(A) initiate investigations, as appropriate, into
allegations of systemic problems at detention facilities or
incidents that constitute serious violations of detention
standards;
(B) report to the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of
Homeland Security for United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement the results of all investigations; and
(C) refer matters, where appropriate, for further action
to--
(i) the Department of Justice;
(ii) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(iii) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department; or
(iv) any other relevant office or agency.
(3) Report to congress.--
(A) In general.--The Administrator of the Office shall
submit to the Secretary, the Committee on the Judiciary and
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
of the Senate, and the Committee on the Judiciary and the
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives an annual report on the Administrator's
findings on detention conditions and the results of the
investigations carried out by the Administrator.
(B) Contents of report.--Each report required by
subparagraph (A) shall include--
(i) a description of the actions to remedy findings of
noncompliance or other problems that are taken by the
Secretary or the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and each
detention facility found to be in noncompliance; and
(ii) information regarding whether such actions were
successful and resulted in compliance with detention
standards.
(4) Review of complaints by detainees.--The Administrator
of the Office shall establish procedures to receive and
review complaints of violations of the detention standards
promulgated by the Secretary. The procedures shall protect
the anonymity of the claimant, including detainees,
employees, or others, from retaliation.
(c) Cooperation With Other Offices and Agencies.--Whenever
appropriate, the Administrator of the Office shall cooperate
and coordinate its activities with--
(1) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(2) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department;
(3) the Privacy Officer of the Department;
(4) the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice;
or
(5) any other relevant office or agency.
SEC. __08. SECURE ALTERNATIVES PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment of Program.--The Secretary shall
establish a secure alternatives program under which an alien
who has been detained may be released under enhanced
supervision to prevent the alien from absconding and to
ensure that the alien makes appearances related to such
detention.
(b) Program Requirements.--
(1) Nationwide implementation.--The Secretary shall
facilitate the development of the secure alternatives program
on a nationwide basis, as a continuation of existing pilot
programs such as the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program
developed by the Department.
(2) Utilization of alternatives.--The secure alternatives
program shall utilize a continuum of alternatives based on
the alien's need for supervision, including placement of the
alien with an individual or organizational sponsor, or in a
supervised group home.
(3) Aliens eligible for secure alternatives program.--
(A) In general.--Aliens who would otherwise be subject to
detention based on a consideration of the release criteria in
section 236(b)(2), or who are released pursuant to section
236(e)(2), shall be considered for the secure alternatives
program.
(B) Design of programs.--Secure alternatives programs shall
be designed to ensure sufficient supervision of the
population described in subparagraph (A).
(4) Contracts.--The Secretary shall enter into contracts
with qualified nongovernmental entities to implement the
secure alternatives program.
(5) Other considerations.--In designing such program, the
Secretary shall--
(A) consult with relevant experts; and
(B) consider programs that have proven successful in the
past, including the Appearance Assistance Program developed
by the Vera Institute and the Intensive Supervision
Appearance Program.
SEC. __09. LESS RESTRICTIVE DETENTION FACILITIES.
(a) Construction.--The Secretary shall facilitate the
construction or use of secure but less restrictive detention
facilities.
(b) Criteria.--In developing detention facilities pursuant
to this section, the Secretary shall--
(1) consider the design, operation, and conditions of
existing secure but less restrictive detention facilities,
such as the Department's detention facilities in Broward
County, Florida, and Berks County, Pennsylvania;
(2) to the extent practicable, construct or use detention
facilities where--
(A) movement within and between indoor and outdoor areas of
the facility is subject to minimal restrictions;
(B) detainees have ready access to social, psychological,
and medical services;
(C) detainees with special needs, including those who have
experienced trauma or torture, have ready access to services
and treatment addressing their needs;
(D) detainees have ready access to programs and recreation;
(E) detainees are permitted contact visits with legal
representatives and family members; and
(F) special facilities are provided to families with
children.
(c) Facilities for Families With Children.--For situations
where release or secure alternatives programs are not an
option, the Secretary shall, to the extent practicable,
ensure that special detention facilities are specifically
designed to house parents with their minor children,
including ensuring that--
(1) procedures and conditions of detention are appropriate
for families with minor children; and
(2) living and sleeping quarters for children under 14
years of age are not physically separated from at least 1 of
the child's parents.
(d) Placement in Nonpunitive Facilities.--Among the factors
to be considered with respect to placing a detainee in a less
restrictive facility is whether the detainee is--
(1) an asylum seeker;
(2) part of a family with minor children;
(3) a member of a vulnerable population; or
(4) a nonviolent, noncriminal detainee.
(e) Procedures and Standards.--Where necessary, the
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modify existing
detention standards, to promote the development of less
restrictive detention facilities.
SEC. __10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; EFFECTIVE DATE.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out
this subtitle.
[[Page 14928]]
(b) Effective Date.--This subtitle and the amendments made
by this subtitle shall take effect on the date that is 6
months after the date of enactment of this Act.
______
SA 1454. Mr. LIEBERMAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
In lieu of the matter proposed to be stricken, insert the
following:
Subtitle __--Asylum and Detention Safeguards
SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Secure and Safe
Detention and Asylum Act''.
SEC. __02. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Asylum seeker.--The term ``asylum seeker'' means an
applicant for asylum under section 208 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158) or for withholding of removal
under section 241(b)(3) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)) or
an alien who indicates an intention to apply for relief under
either such section and does not include a person with
respect to whom a final adjudication denying an application
made under either such section has been entered.
(2) Credible fear of persecution.--The term ``credible fear
of persecution'' has the meaning given that term in section
235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)).
(3) Detainee.--The term ``detainee'' means an alien in the
Department's custody held in a detention facility.
(4) Detention facility.--The term ``detention facility''
means any Federal facility in which an asylum seeker, an
alien detained pending the outcome of a removal proceeding,
or an alien detained pending the execution of a final order
of removal, is detained for more than 72 hours, or any other
facility in which such detention services are provided to the
Federal Government by contract, and does not include
detention at any port of entry in the United States.
(5) Reasonable fear of persecution or torture.--The term
``reasonable fear of persecution or torture'' has the meaning
described in section 208.31 of title 8, Code of Federal
Regulations.
(6) Standard.--The term ``standard'' means any policy,
procedure, or other requirement.
(7) Vulnerable populations.--The term ``vulnerable
populations'' means classes of aliens subject to the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) who
have special needs requiring special consideration and
treatment by virtue of their vulnerable characteristics,
including experiences of, or risk of, abuse, mistreatment, or
other serious harms threatening their health or safety.
Vulnerable populations include the following:
(A) Asylum seekers.
(B) Refugees admitted under section 207 of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) and individuals seeking
such admission.
(C) Aliens whose deportation is being withheld under
section 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as in
effect immediately before the effective date of section 307
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-208; 110 Stat.
3009-612)) or section 241(b)(3) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)).
(D) Aliens granted or seeking protection under article 3 of
the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane, or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, done at New York, December
10, 1994.
(E) Applicants for relief and benefits under the
Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the amendments
made by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
(division A of Public Law 106-386; 114 Stat. 1464), including
applicants for nonimmigrant status under subparagraph (T) or
(U) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)).
(F) Applicants for relief and benefits under the
Immigration and Nationality Act pursuant to the amendments
made by the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (division B of
Public Law 106-386; 114 Stat. 1491).
(G) Unaccompanied alien children (as defined in 462(g) of
the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)).
SEC. __03. RECORDING SECONDARY INSPECTION INTERVIEWS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish quality
assurance procedures to ensure the accuracy and verifiability
of signed or sworn statements taken by employees of the
Department exercising expedited removal authority under
section 235(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1225(b)).
(b) Factors Relating to Sworn Statements.--Any sworn or
signed written statement taken of an alien as part of the
record of a proceeding under section 235(b)(1)(A) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(A))
shall be accompanied by a recording of the interview which
served as the basis for that sworn statement.
(c) Recordings.--
(1) In general.--The recording of the interview shall also
include the written statement, in its entirety, being read
back to the alien in a language that the alien claims to
understand, and the alien affirming the accuracy of the
statement or making any corrections thereto.
(2) Format.--The recording shall be made in video, audio,
or other equally reliable format.
(d) Exemption Authority.--
(1) Subsections (b) and (c) shall not apply to interviews
that occur at facilities exempted by the Secretary pursuant
to this subsection.
(2) The Secretary or the Secretary's designee may exempt
any facility based on a determination by the Secretary or the
Secretary's designee that compliance with subsections (b) and
(c) at that facility would impair operations or impose undue
burdens or costs.
(3) The Secretary or the Secretary's designee shall report
annually to Congress on the facilities that have been
exempted pursuant to this subsection.
(4) The exercise of the exemption authority granted by this
subsection shall not give rise to a private cause of action.
(e) Interpreters.--The Secretary shall ensure that a
professional fluent interpreter is used when the interviewing
officer does not speak a language understood by the alien and
there is no other Federal, State, or local government
employee available who is able to interpret effectively,
accurately, and impartially.
SEC. __04. PROCEDURES GOVERNING DETENTION DECISIONS.
Section 236 (8 U.S.C. 1226) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
(i) in the first sentence by striking ``Attorney General''
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(ii) by striking ``(c)'' and inserting ``(d)''; and
(iii) in the second sentence by striking ``Attorney
General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (2)--
(i) in subparagraph (A)--
(I) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(II) by striking ``or'' at the end;
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``but'' at the end;
and
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:
``(C) the alien's own recognizance; or
``(D) a secure alternatives program as provided for in this
section; but'';
(2) by redesignating subsections (b), (c), (d), and (e) as
subsections (d), (e), (f), and (h), respectively;
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following new
subsections:
``(b) Custody Decisions.--
``(1) In general.--In the case of a decision under
subsection (a) or (d), the following shall apply:
``(A) The decision shall be made in writing and shall be
served upon the alien. A decision to continue detention
without bond or parole shall specify in writing the reasons
for that decision.
``(B) The decision shall be served upon the alien within 72
hours of the alien's detention or, in the case of an alien
subject to section 235 or 241(a)(5) who must establish a
credible fear of persecution or a reasonable fear of
persecution or torture in order to proceed in immigration
court, within 72 hours of a positive credible fear of
persecution or reasonable fear of persecution or torture
determination.
``(2) Criteria to be considered.--The criteria to be
considered by the Secretary and the Attorney General in
making a custody decision shall include--
``(A) whether the alien poses a risk to public safety or
national security;
``(B) whether the alien is likely to appear for immigration
proceedings; and
``(C) any other relevant factors.
``(3) Custody redetermination.--An alien subject to this
section may at any time after being served with the
Secretary's decision under subsections (a) or (d) request a
redetermination of that decision by an immigration judge. All
decisions by the Secretary to detain without bond or parole
shall be subject to redetermination by an immigration judge
within 2 weeks from the time the alien was served with the
decision, unless waived by the alien. The alien may request a
further redetermination upon a showing of a material change
in circumstances since the last redetermination hearing.
``(c) Exception for Mandatory Detention.--Subsection (b)
shall not apply to any alien who is subject to mandatory
detention under section 235(b)(1)(B)(iii)(IV), 236(c), or
236A or who has a final order of removal and has no
proceedings pending before the Executive Office for
Immigration Review.'';
(4) in subsection (d), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''; and
(B) by striking ``or parole'' and inserting ``, parole, or
decision to release;'';
(5) in subsection (e), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary'' each place it appears; and
[[Page 14929]]
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``or for humanitarian
reasons,'' after ``such an investigation,'';
(6) in subsection (f), as redesignated--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking
``Attorney General'' and inserting ``Secretary'';
(B) in paragraph (1), in subparagraphs (A) and (B), by
striking ``Service'' and inserting ``Department of Homeland
Security''; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``Service'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(7) by inserting after subsection (f), as redesignated, the
following new subparagraph:
``(g) Administrative Review.--If an immigration judge's
custody decision has been stayed by the action of an officer
or employee of the Department of Homeland Security, the stay
shall expire in 30 days, unless the Board of Immigration
Appeals before that time, and upon motion, enters an order
continuing the stay.''; and
(8) in subsection (h), as redesignated--
(A) by striking ``Attorney General's'' and inserting
``Secretary of Homeland Security's''; and
(B) by striking ``Attorney General'' and inserting
``Secretary''.
SEC. __05. LEGAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General, in consultation with
the Secretary, shall ensure that all detained aliens in
immigration and asylum proceedings receive legal orientation
through a program administered and implemented by the
Executive Office for Immigration Review of the Department of
Justice.
(b) Content of Program.--The legal orientation program
developed pursuant to this section shall be based on the
Legal Orientation Program carried out by the Executive Office
for Immigration Review on the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(c) Expansion of Legal Assistance.--The Secretary shall
ensure the expansion through the United States Citizenship
and Immigration Service of public-private partnerships that
facilitate pro bono counseling and legal assistance for
asylum seekers awaiting a credible fear of persecution
interview, as a continuation of existing programs, such as
the pilot program developed in Arlington, Virginia by the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.
SEC. __06. CONDITIONS OF DETENTION.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall ensure that standards
governing conditions and procedures at detention facilities
are fully implemented and enforced, and that all detention
facilities comply with the standards.
(b) Procedures and Standards.--The Secretary shall
promulgate new standards, or modify existing detention
standards, to improve conditions in detention facilities. The
improvements shall address at a minimum the following
policies and procedures:
(1) Fair and humane treatment.--Procedures to ensure that
detainees are not subject to degrading or inhumane treatment
such as physical abuse, sexual abuse or harassment, or
arbitrary punishment.
(2) Limitations on solitary confinement.--Procedures
limiting the use of solitary confinement, shackling, and
strip searches of detainees to situations where the use of
such techniques is necessitated by security interests or
other extraordinary circumstances.
(3) Investigation of grievances.--Procedures for the prompt
and effective investigation of grievances raised by
detainees.
(4) Access to telephones.--Procedures permitting detainees
sufficient access to telephones, and the ability to contact,
free of charge, legal representatives, the immigration
courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Federal
courts through confidential toll-free numbers.
(5) Location of facilities.--Location of detention
facilities, to the extent practicable, near sources of free
or low-cost legal representation with expertise in asylum or
immigration law.
(6) Procedures governing transfers of detainees.--
Procedures governing the transfer of a detainee that take
into account--
(A) the detainee's access to legal representatives; and
(B) the proximity of the facility to the venue of the
asylum or removal proceeding.
(7) Quality of medical care.--
(A) In general.--Prompt and adequate medical care provided
at no cost to the detainee, including dental care, eye care,
mental health care, and where appropriate, individual and
group counseling, medical dietary needs, and other medically
necessary specialized care. Medical facilities in all
detention facilities used by the Department maintain current
accreditation by the National Commission on Correctional
Health Care (NCCHC). Requirements that each medical facility
that is not accredited by the Joint Commission on the
Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) will seek
to obtain such accreditation. Maintenance of complete medical
records for every detainee which shall be made available upon
request to a detainee, his legal representative, or other
authorized individuals.
(8) Translation capabilities.--The employment of detention
facility staff that, to the extent practicable, are qualified
in the languages represented in the population of detainees
at a detention facility, and the provision of alternative
translation services when necessary.
(9) Recreational programs and activities.--Daily access to
indoor and outdoor recreational programs and activities.
(c) Special Standards for Noncriminal Detainees.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the distinctions between persons with
criminal convictions or a history of violent behavior and all
other detainees; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for a noncriminal, nonviolent population.
(d) Special Standards for Vulnerable Populations.--The
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modifications to
existing standards, that--
(1) recognize the unique needs of asylum seekers, victims
of torture and trafficking, families with children, detainees
who do not speak English, detainees with special religious,
cultural or spiritual considerations, and other vulnerable
populations; and
(2) ensure that procedures and conditions of detention are
appropriate for the populations listed in this subsection.
(e) Training of Personnel.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary shall ensure that personnel
in detention facilities are given specialized training to
better understand and work with the population of detainees
held at the facilities where such personnel work. The
training should address the unique needs of--
(A) asylum seekers;
(B) victims of torture or other trauma; and
(C) other vulnerable populations.
(2) Specialized training.--The training required by this
subsection shall be designed to better enable personnel to
work with detainees from different countries, and detainees
who cannot speak English. The training shall emphasize that
many detainees have no criminal records and are being held
for civil violations.
SEC. __07. OFFICE OF DETENTION OVERSIGHT.
(a) Establishment of the Office.--
(1) In general.--There shall be established within the
Department an Office of Detention Oversight (in this section
referred to as the ``Office'').
(2) Head of the office.--There shall be at the head of the
Office an Administrator who shall be appointed by, and shall
report to, the Secretary.
(3) Schedule.--The Office shall be established and the
Administrator of the Office appointed not later than 6 months
after the date of enactment of this Act.
(b) Responsibilities of the Office.--
(1) Inspections of detention centers.--The Administrator of
the Office shall--
(A) undertake frequent and unannounced inspections of all
detention facilities;
(B) develop a procedure for any detainee or the detainee's
representative to file a written complaint directly with the
Office; and
(C) report to the Secretary and to the Assistant Secretary
of Homeland Security for United States Immigration and
Customs Enforcement all findings of a detention facility's
noncompliance with detention standards.
(2) Investigations.--The Administrator of the Office
shall--
(A) initiate investigations, as appropriate, into
allegations of systemic problems at detention facilities or
incidents that constitute serious violations of detention
standards;
(B) report to the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of
Homeland Security for United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement the results of all investigations; and
(C) refer matters, where appropriate, for further action
to--
(i) the Department of Justice;
(ii) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(iii) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department; or
(iv) any other relevant office or agency.
(3) Report to congress.--
(A) In general.--The Administrator of the Office shall
submit to the Secretary, the Committee on the Judiciary and
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
of the Senate, and the Committee on the Judiciary and the
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives an annual report on the Administrator's
findings on detention conditions and the results of the
investigations carried out by the Administrator.
(B) Contents of report.--Each report required by
subparagraph (A) shall include--
(i) a description of the actions to remedy findings of
noncompliance or other problems that are taken by the
Secretary or the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and each
detention facility found to be in noncompliance; and
(ii) information regarding whether such actions were
successful and resulted in compliance with detention
standards.
(4) Review of complaints by detainees.--The Administrator
of the Office shall establish procedures to receive and
review complaints of violations of the detention standards
promulgated by the Secretary. The procedures shall protect
the anonymity of the claimant, including detainees,
employees, or others, from retaliation.
[[Page 14930]]
(c) Cooperation With Other Offices and Agencies.--Whenever
appropriate, the Administrator of the Office shall cooperate
and coordinate its activities with--
(1) the Office of the Inspector General of the Department;
(2) the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the
Department;
(3) the Privacy Officer of the Department;
(4) the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice;
or
(5) any other relevant office or agency.
SEC. __08. SECURE ALTERNATIVES PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment of Program.--The Secretary shall
establish a secure alternatives program under which an alien
who has been detained may be released under enhanced
supervision to prevent the alien from absconding and to
ensure that the alien makes appearances related to such
detention.
(b) Program Requirements.--
(1) Nationwide implementation.--The Secretary shall
facilitate the development of the secure alternatives program
on a nationwide basis, as a continuation of existing pilot
programs such as the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program
developed by the Department.
(2) Utilization of alternatives.--The secure alternatives
program shall utilize a continuum of alternatives based on
the alien's need for supervision, including placement of the
alien with an individual or organizational sponsor, or in a
supervised group home.
(3) Aliens eligible for secure alternatives program.--
(A) In general.--Aliens who would otherwise be subject to
detention based on a consideration of the release criteria in
section 236(b)(2), or who are released pursuant to section
236(e)(2), shall be considered for the secure alternatives
program.
(B) Design of programs.--Secure alternatives programs shall
be designed to ensure sufficient supervision of the
population described in subparagraph (A).
(4) Contracts.--The Secretary shall enter into contracts
with qualified nongovernmental entities to implement the
secure alternatives program.
(5) Other considerations.--In designing such program, the
Secretary shall--
(A) consult with relevant experts; and
(B) consider programs that have proven successful in the
past, including the Appearance Assistance Program developed
by the Vera Institute and the Intensive Supervision
Appearance Program.
SEC. __09. LESS RESTRICTIVE DETENTION FACILITIES.
(a) Construction.--The Secretary shall facilitate the
construction or use of secure but less restrictive detention
facilities.
(b) Criteria.--In developing detention facilities pursuant
to this section, the Secretary shall--
(1) consider the design, operation, and conditions of
existing secure but less restrictive detention facilities,
such as the Department's detention facilities in Broward
County, Florida, and Berks County, Pennsylvania;
(2) to the extent practicable, construct or use detention
facilities where--
(A) movement within and between indoor and outdoor areas of
the facility is subject to minimal restrictions;
(B) detainees have ready access to social, psychological,
and medical services;
(C) detainees with special needs, including those who have
experienced trauma or torture, have ready access to services
and treatment addressing their needs;
(D) detainees have ready access to programs and recreation;
(E) detainees are permitted contact visits with legal
representatives and family members; and
(F) special facilities are provided to families with
children.
(c) Facilities for Families With Children.--For situations
where release or secure alternatives programs are not an
option, the Secretary shall, to the extent practicable,
ensure that special detention facilities are specifically
designed to house parents with their minor children,
including ensuring that--
(1) procedures and conditions of detention are appropriate
for families with minor children; and
(2) living and sleeping quarters for children under 14
years of age are not physically separated from at least 1 of
the child's parents.
(d) Placement in Nonpunitive Facilities.--Among the factors
to be considered with respect to placing a detainee in a less
restrictive facility is whether the detainee is--
(1) an asylum seeker;
(2) part of a family with minor children;
(3) a member of a vulnerable population; or
(4) a nonviolent, noncriminal detainee.
(e) Procedures and Standards.--Where necessary, the
Secretary shall promulgate new standards, or modify existing
detention standards, to promote the development of less
restrictive detention facilities.
SEC. __10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; EFFECTIVE DATE.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out
this subtitle.
(b) Effective Date.--This subtitle and the amendments made
by this subtitle shall take effect on the date that is 6
months after the date of enactment of this Act.
______
SA 1455. Mr. LAUTENBERG (for himself, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Menendez,
and Mrs. Clinton) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:
On page 288, between lines 32 and 33, insert the following
new subsection:
(f) Adjustment of Status for Certain Victims of
Terrorism.--
(1) Specified terrorist activity.--In this subsection, the
term ``specified terrorist activity'' means any terrorist
activity conducted against the Government or the people of
the United States on September 11, 2001.
(2) Adjustment of status.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary shall adjust the status of
any alien described in paragraph (3) to that of an alien
lawfully admitted for permanent residence, if the alien--
(i) applies for such adjustment not later than 2 years
after the date on which the Secretary establishes procedures
to implement this subsection; and
(ii) is otherwise admissible to the United States for
permanent residence, except in determining such admissibility
the grounds for inadmissibility specified in paragraphs (4),
(5), (6)(A), (7)(A), and (9)(B) of section 212(a) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)) shall not
apply.
(B) Rules in applying certain provisions.--
(i) In general.--In the case of an alien described in
paragraph (3) who is applying for adjustment of status under
this subsection--
(I) the provisions of section 241(a)(5) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(a)(5)) shall not apply;
and
(II) the Secretary may grant the alien a waiver on the
grounds of inadmissibility under subparagraphs (A) and (C) of
section 212(a)(9) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)).
(ii) Standards.--In granting waivers under clause (i)(II),
the Secretary shall use standards used in granting consent
under subparagraphs (A)(iii) and (C)(ii) of such section
212(a)(9).
(C) Relationship of application to certain orders.--
(i) Application permitted.--An alien who is present in the
United States and has been ordered excluded, deported,
removed, or ordered to depart voluntarily from the United
States under any provision of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) may apply for adjustment of
status under subparagraph (A).
(ii) Motion not required.--An alien described in clause (i)
may not be required, as a condition of submitting or granting
such application, to file a separate motion to reopen,
reconsider, or vacate such order.
(iii) Effect of decision.--If the Secretary grants a
request under clause (i), the Secretary shall cancel the
order. If the Secretary renders a final administrative
decision to deny the request, the order shall be effective
and enforceable to the same extent as if the application had
not been made.
(3) Aliens eligible for adjustment of status.--Subject to
paragraph (7), the benefits under paragraph (2) shall apply
to any alien who--
(A) was lawfully present in the United States as a
nonimmigrant alien under the immigration laws of the United
States on September 10, 2001;
(B) was, on such date, the spouse, child, dependent son, or
dependent daughter of an alien who--
(i) was lawfully present in the United States as a
nonimmigrant under the immigration laws of the United States
on such date; and
(ii) died as a direct result of a specified terrorist
activity; and
(C) was deemed to be a beneficiary of, and by, the
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 (49 U.S.C.
40101 note).
(4) Stay of removal; work authorization.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary shall establish a process by
which an alien subject to a final order of removal may seek a
stay of such order based on the filing of an application
under paragraph (2).
(B) During certain proceedings.--The Secretary may not
order any alien to be removed from the United States, if the
alien is in removal proceedings under any provision of such
Act and has applied for adjustment of status under paragraph
(2), unless the Secretary has rendered a final administrative
determination to deny the application.
(C) Work authorization.--The Secretary shall authorize an
alien who was deemed to be a beneficiary of, and by, the
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 (49 U.S.C.
40101 note), and who has applied for adjustment of status
under paragraph (2) to engage in employment in the United
States during the pendency of such application.
(5) Availability of administrative review.--The Secretary
shall provide to applicants for adjustment of status under
paragraph (2) the same right to, and procedures for,
administrative review as are provided to--
[[Page 14931]]
(A) applicants for adjustment of status under section 245
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255); or
(B) aliens subject to removal proceedings under section 240
of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1229a).
(6) Cancellation of removal for certain immigrant victims
of terrorism.--
(A) In general.--Subject to the provisions of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.)
(other than subsections (b)(1), (d)(1), and (e) of section
240A of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1229b)) and paragraph (7) of this
subsection, the Secretary shall, under such section 240A,
cancel the removal of, and adjust to the status of an alien
lawfully admitted for permanent residence, an alien described
in subparagraph (B), if the alien applies for such relief.
(B) Aliens eligible for cancellation of removal.--The
benefits provided by subparagraph (A) shall apply to any
alien who--
(i) was, on September 10, 2001, the spouse, child,
dependent son, or dependent daughter of an alien who died as
a direct result of a specified terrorist activity; and
(ii) was deemed to be a beneficiary of, and by, the
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 (49 U.S.C.
40101 note).
(C) Stay of removal; work authorization.--
(i) In general.--The Secretary shall establish a process to
provide for an alien subject to a final order of removal to
seek a stay of such order based on the filing of an
application under subparagraph (A).
(ii) Work authorization.--The Secretary shall authorize an
alien who was deemed to be a beneficiary of, and by, the
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 (49 U.S.C.
40101 note), and who has applied for cancellation of removal
under subparagraph (A) to engage in employment in the United
States during the pendency of such application.
(D) Motions to reopen removal proceedings.--
(i) In general.--On motions to reopen removal proceedings
(except limitations premised on an alien's conviction of an
aggravated felony (as defined in section 101(a)(43) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43))), any
alien who has become eligible for cancellation of removal as
a result of the enactment of this section may file 1 motion
to reopen removal proceedings to apply for such relief.
(ii) Filing period.--The Secretary shall designate a
specific time period in which all such motions to reopen are
required to be filed. The period shall begin not later than
60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall
extend for a period not to exceed 240 days.
(7) Exceptions.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
this subsection, an alien may not be provided relief under
this subsection if the alien is--
(A) inadmissible under paragraph (2) or (3) of section
212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)), or deportable under paragraph (2) or (4) of section
237(a) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)), including any
individual culpable for a specified terrorist activity; or
(B) a family member of an alien described in subparagraph
(A).
(8) Evidence of death.--For purposes of this subsection,
the Secretary shall use the standards established under
section 426 of the Uniting and Strengthening America by
Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act) Act of 2001 (115 Stat.
362) in determining whether death occurred as a direct result
of a specified terrorist activity.
(9) Authority of the attorney general.--The requirements
and authorities under this subsection pertaining to the
Secretary, other than the authority to grant work
authorization, shall apply to the Attorney General with
respect to cases otherwise within the jurisdiction of the
Executive Office for Immigration Review.
(10) Process for implementation.--The Secretary and the
Attorney General--
(A) shall carry out this subsection as expeditiously as
possible;
(B) are not required to promulgate regulations before
implementing this subsection; and
(C) shall promulgate procedures to implement this
subsection not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
______
SA 1456. Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself and Mr. Cornyn) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. _. HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds that:
(1) The United States has a tradition of advancing
fundamental human rights.
(2) Because the people of the United States remain
committed to protecting individual freedom, there is a
national imperative to eliminate human trafficking, including
early or forced marriage, commercial sexual exploitation,
forced labor, labor obtained through debt bondage,
involuntary servitude, slavery, and slavery by descent.
(3) To combat human trafficking in the United States and
globally, the people of the United States and the Federal
Government, including local and State governments, must be
aware of the realities of human trafficking and must be
dedicated to stopping this contemporary manifestation of
slavery.
(4) Beyond all differences of race, creed, or political
persuasion, the people of the United States face national
threats together and refuse to let human trafficking exist in
the United States and around the world.
(5) The United States should actively oppose all
individuals, groups, organizations, and nations who support,
advance, or commit acts of human trafficking.
(6) The United States must also work to end human
trafficking around the world through education.
(7) Victims of human trafficking need support in order to
escape and to recover from the physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual trauma associated with their victimization.
(8) Human traffickers use many physical and psychological
techniques to control their victims, including the use of
violence or threats of violence against the victim or the
victim's family, isolation from the public, isolation from
the victim's family and religious or ethnic communities,
language and cultural barriers, shame, control of the
victim's possessions, confiscation of passports and other
identification documents, and threats of arrest, deportation,
or imprisonment if the victim attempts to reach out for
assistance or to leave.
(9) Although laws to prosecute perpetrators of human
trafficking and to assist and protect victims of human
trafficking have been enacted in the United States, awareness
of the issues surrounding human trafficking by those people
most likely to come into contact with victims is essential
for effective enforcement because the techniques that
traffickers use to keep their victims enslaved severely limit
self-reporting.
(10) The effort by individuals, businesses, organizations,
and governing bodies to promote the observance of the
National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness on January 11 of
each year represents one of the many examples of the ongoing
commitment in the United States to raise awareness of and to
actively oppose human trafficking.
(b) Sense of the Congress.--It is the sense of Congress
that Congress supports the goals and ideals of observing the
National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness on January 11 of
each year and all other efforts to raise awareness of and
opposition to human trafficking.
______
SA 1457. Mrs. FEINSTEIN submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on
the table; as follows:
At the end of title I, add the following:
SEC. __. TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS.
(a) In General.--
(1) Redesignations.--Chapter 27 of title 18, United States
Code, is amended by redesignating section 554 added by
section 551(a) of the Department of Homeland Security
Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 109-295; 120 Stat. 1389)
(relating to border tunnels and passages) as section 555.
(2) Table of sections.--The table of sections for chapter
27 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking
the item relating to section 554, ``Border tunnels and
passages'', and inserting the following:
``555. Border tunnels and passages.''.
(b) Criminal Forfeiture.--Section 982(a)(6)of title 18,
United States Code, is amended by striking ``554'' and
inserting ``555''.
(c) Directive to the United States Sentencing Commission.--
Section 551(d) of the Department of Homeland Security
Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 109-295; 120 Stat. 1390)
is amended in paragraphs (1) and (2)(A) by striking ``554''
and inserting ``555''.
______
SA 1458. Mr. WEBB submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 304, strike lines 2 through 20 and insert the
following:
(ii) Application.--A Z-1 non-immigrant's application for
adjustment of status to that of an alien lawfully admitted
for permanent residence may be filed in person with a United
States consulate outside the United States or with United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services at any location
in the United States designated by the Secretary.
______
SA 1459. Mr. WEBB submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 282, strike line 11 and all that follows through
page 283, line 8 and insert the following:
(b) Establishment of Z Nonimmigrant Category.--
[[Page 14932]]
(1) In general.--Section 101(a)(15) (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)),
as amended by section 401(a), is further amended by adding at
the end the following:
``(Z) subject to title VI of the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, an alien
who--
``(i)(I) has maintained a continuous physical presence in
the United States since the date that is 4 years before the
date of the enactment of the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007;
``(II) is employed, and seeks to continue performing labor,
services, or education; and
``(III) the Secretary of Homeland Security determines has
sufficient ties to a community in the United States, based
on--
``(aa) whether the applicant has immediate relatives (as
defined in section 201(b)(2)(A)) residing in the United
States;
``(bb) the amount of cumulative time the applicant has
lived in the United States;
``(cc) whether the applicant owns property in the United
States;
``(dd) whether the applicant owns a business in the United
States;
``(ee) the extent to which the applicant knows the English
language;
``(ff) the applicant's work history in the United States;
``(gg) whether the applicant attended school (either
primary, secondary, college, post-graduate) in the United
States;
``(hh) the extent to which the applicant has a history of
paying Federal and State income taxes;
``(ii) whether the applicant has been convicted of criminal
activity in the United States; and
``(jj) whether the applicant has certifies his or her
intention to ultimately become a United States citizen;
``(ii)(I) is the spouse or parent (65 years of age or
older) of an alien described in clause (i);
``(II) was, during the 2-year period ending on the date on
which the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity, and
Immigration Reform Act of 2007 was introduced in the Senate,
the spouse of an alien who was subsequently classified as a Z
nonimmigrant under this section, or is eligible for such
classification, if--
``(aa) the termination of the relationship with such spouse
was connected to domestic violence; and
``(bb) the spouse has been battered or subjected to extreme
cruelty by the spouse or parent who is a Z nonimmigrant; or
``(III) is under 18 years of age at the time of application
for nonimmigrant status under this subparagraph and was born
to, or legally adopted by, a parent described in clause
(i).''.
(2) Rulemaking.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall promulgate
regulations, in accordance with the procedures set forth in
sections 555, 556, and 557 of title 5, United States Code,
which establish the precise system that the Secretary will
use to make a determination under section 101(a)(15)(Z)(ii)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by paragraph
(1).
______
SA 1460. Mr. KYL (for himself, Mr. Specter, and Mr. Martinez)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 1150
proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself and Mr. Specter)) to
the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and
for other purposes; as follows:
Beginning on page 270, strike lines 31 and 32, and insert
the following:
``(3) Family-based visa petitions filed before january 1,
2007, for which visas will be available before january 1,
2027.--
``(A) In general.--The allocation of immigrant visas
described in paragraph (4) shall apply to an alien for whom--
``(i) a family-based visa petition was filed on or before
January 1, 2007; and
``(ii) as of January 1, 2007, the Secretary of Homeland
Security calculates under subparagraph (B) that a visa can
reasonably be expected to become available before January 1,
2027.
``(B) Reasonable expectation of availablity of visas.--In
calculating the date on which a family-based visa can
reasonably be expected to become available for an alien
described in subparagraph (A), the Secretary of Homeland
Security shall take into account--
``(i) the number of visas allocated annually for the family
preference class under which the alien's petition was filed;
``(ii) the effect of any per country ceilings applicable to
the alien's petition;
``(iii) the number of petitions filed before the alien's
petition was filed that were filed under the same family
preference class; and
``(iv) the rate at which visas made available in the family
preference class under which the alien's petition was filed
were unclaimed in previous years.
``(4) Allocation of family-based immigrant visas.--''.
______
SA 1461. Mr. KYL (for himself, Mr. Specter, and Mr. Martinez)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S.
1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 239, strike line 419(b)
On page 260, line 39 strike ``and''
On page 260, line 44, insert the following: ``;and
(iii) up to 40,000 will be for aliens who met the
specifications set forth in section 203(b)(1) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (as of January 1, 2007)
(iv) the remaining visas be allocated as follows:
(a) in FY 2008 through 2009, 85,401 will be for aliens who
are the beneficiaries of a petition filed by an employer on
their behalf under this section
(b) in FY 2010, 56,934 will be for aliens who are the
beneficiaries of a petition filed by an employer on their
behalf under this section
(c) in FY 2011, 28,467 will be for aliens who are the
beneficiaries of a petition filed by an employer on their
behalf under this section
(d) in FY 2012, 14,234 will be for aliens who are the
beneficiaries of a petition filed by an employer on their
behalf under this section
On page 265, line 16, insert the following:
(G) Any employer desiring and intending to employ within
the United States an alien qualified under (A) may file a
petition with the Secretary of Homeland Security for such
classification
(H) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall collect
applications and petitions by July 1 of each fiscal year and
will adjudicate from the pool of applicants received for that
fiscal year, from the highest to the lowest, the determined
number of points necessary for the fiscal year. If the number
of applications and petitions submitted that meet the merit
based threshold is insufficient for the number of visas
available that year, the Secretary is authorized to continue
accepting applications and petitions at a date determined by
the Secretary to adjudicate the applications and petitions
under this section.
Section 214(g) is amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection--
``(13) An employer that has at least 1,000 full-time
employees who are employed in the United States, including
employment authorized aliens, and employs aliens admitted or
provided status as a nonimmigrant described in section
101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) in a number that is equal to at least 15
percent of the number of such full-time employees, may file
no more than 1,000 petitions under subsection (c) to import
aliens under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) in any fiscal
year.''
______
SA 1462. Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Kyl, Mr. McCain,
and Mr. Graham) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:
In section 409, strike paragraphs (1) and (2) and insert
the following:
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) by striking ``(beginning with fiscal year 1992)'';
(B) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the
following:
``(B) under section 101(a)(15)(Y)(i), may not exceed--
``(i) for the first fiscal year after the effective date
described in section 401(c) of the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, 200,000; or
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, the lesser of--
``(I) the number for the previous fiscal year, as adjusted
in accordance with paragraph (2)(B); or
``(II) 600,000;
``(C) under clause (iii) of section 101(a)(15)(Y), may not
exceed 20 percent of the annual limit on admissions of aliens
under clause (i) of such section for that fiscal year; or
``(D) under section 101(a)(15)(Y)(ii)(II), may not exceed--
``(i) for the first fiscal year after the effective date
referred to in subparagraph (B)(i), 100,000; or
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, the lesser of--
``(I) the number for the previous fiscal year as adjusted
in accordance with paragraph (2)(A); or
``(II) 200,000.''; and
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through (11) as
paragraphs (3) through (12), respectively;
(3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
``(2) Market-based adjustment.--
``(A) In general.--With respect to the numerical limitation
in subparagraph (A)(ii) or (D)(ii) of paragraph (1)--
``(i) if the total number of visas allocated for that
fiscal year are issued during the first 6 months that fiscal
year, an additional 15 percent of the allocated number shall
be made available immediately and the allocated amount for
the following fiscal year shall increase by 15 percent of the
original allocated amount in the prior fiscal year;
``(ii) if the total number of visas allocated for that
fiscal year are issued before the end of that fiscal year,
the allocated amount for
[[Page 14933]]
the following fiscal year shall increase by 10 percent of the
original allocated amount in the prior fiscal year; or
``(iii) for any fiscal year after the first subsequent
fiscal year to the fiscal year in which the program is
implemented, if fewer visas were allotted the previous fiscal
year than the number of visas allocated for that year and the
reason was not due to processing delays or delays in
promulgating regulations, then the allocated amount for the
following fiscal year shall decrease by 10 percent of the
allocated amount in the prior fiscal year.
``(B) Y-1 nonimmigrants.--With respect to the numerical
limitation in subparagraph (B)(ii) of paragraph (1)--
``(i) if the total number of visas allocated for that
fiscal year are issued before the end of that fiscal year and
the total number of such visas was--
``(I) not more than 400,000, the allocated amount for the
following fiscal year shall increase by 15 percent of the
original allocated amount in the prior fiscal year; or
``(II) more than 400,000, the allocated amount for the
following fiscal year shall increase by 10 percent of the
original allocated amount in the prior fiscal year; or
``(ii) for any fiscal year after the first subsequent
fiscal year to the fiscal year in which the program is
implemented, if fewer visas were allotted the previous fiscal
year than the number of visas allocated for that year and the
reason was not due to processing delays or delays in
promulgating regulations, then the allocated amount for the
following fiscal year shall decrease by 10 percent of the
allocated amount in the prior fiscal year.''.
______
SA 1463. Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Kyl, Mr. McCain,
and Mr. Graham) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:
In section 409, strike paragraphs (1) and (2) and insert
the following:
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) by striking ``(beginning with fiscal year 1992)'';
(B) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the
following:
``(B) under section 101(a)(15)(Y)(i), may not exceed--
``(i) for the first fiscal year after the effective date
described in section 401(c) of the Secure Borders, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, 200,000; or
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, the lesser of--
``(I) the number for the previous fiscal year as adjusted
in accordance with paragraph (2); or
``(II) 400,000;
``(C) under clause (iii) of section 101(a)(15)(Y), may not
exceed 20 percent of the annual limit on admissions of aliens
under clause (i) of such section for that fiscal year; or
``(D) under section 101(a)(15)(Y)(ii)(II), may not exceed--
``(i) for the first fiscal year after the effective date
referred to in subparagraph (B)(i), 100,000; or
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, the lesser of--
``(I) the number for the previous fiscal year as adjusted
in accordance with paragraph (2); or
``(II) 200,000.''; and
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through (11) as
paragraphs (3) through (12), respectively;
(3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
``(2) Market-based adjustment.--With respect to the
numerical limitation set in subparagraph (A)(ii), (B)(ii),
and (D)(ii) of paragraph (1)--
``(A) if the total number of visas allocated for that
fiscal year are issued before the end of that fiscal year,
the allocated amount for the following fiscal year shall
increase by 15 percent of the original allocated amount in
the prior fiscal year; or
``(B) for any fiscal year after the first subsequent fiscal
year to the fiscal year in which the program is implemented,
if fewer visas were allotted the previous fiscal year than
the number of visas allocated for that year and the reason
was not due to processing delays or delays in promulgating
regulations, then the allocated amount for the following
fiscal year shall decrease by 10 percent of the allocated
amount in the prior fiscal year.''.
______
SA 1464. Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Kyl, Mr. McCain,
and Mr. Graham) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him
to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration reform
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:
On page 224, between lines 29 and 30, and insert the
following:
(3) by amending paragraph (3), as redesignated by paragraph
(2) of this section, to read as follows:
``(3) The numerical limitations of paragraph (1)--
``(A) shall apply to principal aliens and not to the
spouses or children of such aliens; and
``(B) shall not apply to aliens seeking nonimmigrant status
under section 101(a)(15)(Y)(i) for a fiscal year who have
been granted nonimmigrant status under such section during a
previous fiscal year.''; and
______
SA 1465. Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. Kyl, and Mr. McCain) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 157, strike lines 34 through 39, and insert the
following:
(2) Overstay.--Except as provided in paragraphs (3) and
(4), an alien who knowingly remains in the United States for
more than 30 days after the expiration of the period of
authorized admission for such alien shall be--
(A) imprisoned for not less than 60 days; and
(B) barred permanently from receiving benefits under the
immigration laws of the United States.
On page 150, strike lines 4 through 20.
On page 286, beginning on line 4, strike all through line
10, and insert the following:
(iii) for humanitarian purposes, to ensure family unity, or
if such waiver is otherwise in the public interest, the
Secretary may, in the Secretary's discretion, waive the
application of paragraphs (1)(C), (2)(D)(i) (when the alien
demonstrates that such actions or activities were committed
involuntarily), (5)(A), (6)(A) (with respect to entries
occurring before January 1, 2007), (6)(C)(ii), (6)(D),
(6)(F), (6)(G), (7), (9)(B), (9)(C)(i)(I), and (10)(B) of
section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and
In Section 1. Effective Date Triggers,
On page 3, line 43 insert the following:
(d) the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
shall promptly identify, investigate, and initiate removal
proceedings against every alien who was admitted to the
United States under Section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii) (as amended by
Title IV); Section 101(a)(15)(Y); or Section 101(a)(15)(B)
(admitted under the terms and conditions of Section 214(s))
of the ACT, and who has exceeded the alien's authorized
period of admission or otherwise violated any terms of the
nonimmigrant classification in which the alien was admitted.
In conducting such removals, the Secretary shall give
priority to aliens who may pose a threat to national
security, homeland security, or public safety.
Parent Visas:
(a) Paragraph 506(b) is amended by striking ``$1,000'' and
inserting ``$2,500''
Fee for the new trigger language regarding the
establishment and deployment of a Y departure tracking
system.
(a) Paragraph 218A(e), as created by the Secure Borders,
Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, is
amended as follows:
(1) In subparagraph (3)--
(A) To redesignate paragraphs (C), (D) and (E) as
paragraphs (D), (E), and (F), respectively;
(B) To add a new paragraph (C) to read as follows:
``(C) An Exit Tracking Fee, in an amount set by Secretary
at a level that will ensure recovery of the full costs of
providing the Y nonimmigrant visa exit system described in
section 1(a)(6) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity
and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and any additional costs
associated with the administration of the fees collected'';
and
(C) To add a new paragraph (G) to read as follows:
``(G) Deposit and Disposition of Departure Fee.--The funds
described in subparagraph (C) shall be deposited and remain
available as the Secretary may prescribe to carry out the
purposes as described in 218A(e)(3)(C).''
Affidavit requirements:
(a) Amend paragraph (i) of section 601
(1) in subparagraph (2)
(A) amend paragraph (D)(ii) to read as follows:
``(ii) set by notice in the Federal Register such terms and
conditions and minimum standards for affidavits described in
(C)(VI) as are necessary, when such affidavits are reviewed
in combination with the other documentation as described (A)
or (C), to reliably demonstrate and provide for verification
of the identity of any affiant or verification of the
physical presence, identity, or employment information
averred to by the affiant, or to otherwise prevent fraudulent
submissions.''
Background Checks--
Section 601(g)(3)(B) is amended by adding ``and any other
appropriate information'' after ``biometric data provided by
the alien.''
Section 601(h)(2) is amended by adding prior to the period
at the end of the subsection: ``unless that the Secretary
determines, in his discretion, that there are articulable
reasons to suspect that the alien may be a danger to the
security of the
[[Page 14934]]
United States or to the public safety. If the Secretary
determines that the alien may be a danger to the security of
the United States or to the public safety, the Secretary
shall endeavor to determine eligibility for Z status as
expeditiously as possible.''
Security Checks/Electronic Registration System--
(a) add a new section to title VI to read as follows:
SEC. 626. ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR THE PRE-REGISTRATION FOR
APPLICANTS FOR Z AND Z-A STATUS.
The Secretary of Homeland Security may establish an online
registration process allowing applicants for Z and Z-A
nonimmigrant status to provide, in advance of the application
described in paragraph 601(f), such biographical information
and other information as the Secretary shall prescribe for
the purpose of (1) providing applicants with an appointment
to provide fingerprints and other biometric data at a DHS
facility, (2) initiating background checks based on such
information, and (3) other purposes consistent with this Act.
Treatment of Certain Criminal Aliens
Strike page 47, line 38-page 48 line 2 and insert:
``(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act
and shall apply to any conviction that occurred before, on,
or after enactment of this Act.''
Exit System Trigger for Y Visas--p.3, line 25 add as
section 1(a)(6):
(6) Visa exit tracking system: The Department of Homeland
Security has established and deployed a system capable of
recording the departure of aliens admitted under section
101(a)(15)(Y) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, at
designated ports of entry or designated U.S. Consulates
abroad.
Strike section 111(a) in its entirety and replace with
(a) Section 215 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, (8
U.S.C. 1185) is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (h);
(2) by moving redesignated subsection (h), as redesignated
by paragraph (1) to the end;
(3) by redesignating subsections (d), (e), and (f) as
subsections (e), (f), and (g); and
(4) by inserting after subsection (b) the following:
``(c) Collection of Biometric Data From Aliens Entering and
Departing the United States--
``The Secretary shall require aliens entering and departing
the United States to provide biometric data and other
information relating to their immigration status.
``(d) Collection of Departure Data From Certain
Nonimmigrants--
``(1) The Secretary shall require aliens who were admitted
to the United States under section 101(a)(15)(B) (under the
terms and conditions of section 214(s)), section
101(a)(15)(H)(ii), or section 101(a)(15)(Y) to record their
departure at a designated port of entry or at a designated
United States consulate abroad.
``(2) Aliens who do not record their departure as required
in paragraph (1) shall be entered into the database as
overstays within 48 hours of the expiration of their period
of authorized admission.
``(3) The information in this database shall be made
available to state and local law enforcement pursuant to the
provisions of section 240D.''
Line edit amendment:
On page 49 lines 7-8 strike ``, which is punishable by a
sentence of imprisonment of five years or more''
On page 49 line 44 to page 50 line 10 strike ``Unless'' and
all that follows and insert:
Any alien whom--
``(i) a consular officer, the Secretary of Homeland
Security, or the Attorney General knows or has reason to
believe to be or to have been a member of a criminal gang (as
defined in section 101(a)(52)); or
``(ii) a consular officer, the Secretary of Homeland
Security, or the Attorney General knows or has reason to
believe to have participated in the activities of a criminal
gang (as defined in section 101(a)(52)), knowing or having
reason to know that such activities will promote, further,
aid, or support the illegal activity of the criminal gang;
``is inadmissible. The Secretary of Homeland Security or
the Attorney General may in his discretion waive clauses (i)
or (ii).''.
On page 50 line 16 through page 50 line 22, strike ``Any''
and all that follows and insert:
Any alien whom--
``(i) there is reasonable ground to believe is or has been
a member of a criminal gang (as defined in section
101(a)(52)); or
``(ii) there is reasonable ground to believe has
participated in the activities of a criminal gang (as defined
in section 101(a)(52)), knowing or having reason to know that
such activities will promote, further, aid, or support the
illegal activity of the criminal gang;
``is deportable. The Secretary of Homeland Security or the
Attorney General may in his discretion waive clauses (i) or
(ii).''
On page 51, strike lines 8-12 and insert: ``(ii) the alien
is, or at any time after admission has been, a member of a
criminal gang (as defined in section 101(a)(52)); and''
On page 51, line 24, redesignate (e) as (f). On page 51,
line 24, redesignate (f) as (g). On page 51, line 23 insert:
(e) Effective Date.--The amendments made to subsections
(b), (c) and (d) shall apply to--
1. Any act or membership that occurred on, before or after
the date of the enactment of this Act, and
2. all aliens who are required to establish admissibility
on or after the date of enactment of this section, and to all
aliens in removal, deportation, or exclusion proceedings that
are filed, pending, or reopened, on or after such date.
On page 289, line 35-36 strike ``gang membership,
renunciation of gang affiliation;'' and insert ``gang
membership;''
Misdemeanor Crime for Knowingly Overstaying Visa and
Parole:
On page 52, line 10 strike ``or''
On page 52, line 18 strike the period after ``shipping
laws)'' and insert ``; or'' On page 52, line 18 insert:
``(D) knowingly exceeds by 30 days or more the period of
the alien's admission or parole into the United States.''
On page 53 redesignate subsections (b) and (c) as
subsections (c) and (d) and insert on line 25: .
(b) Special Effective Date.--Subsection (a)(1)(D) of
section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as
amended by this Act, shall apply to all aliens admitted or
paroled after the enactment of this Act.
Deposit and Spending of Penalties and Fines in Titles VI--
1. Add a new subsection (z) to section 286 as follows:
(z) Immigration Enforcement Account.--
(1) Transfers into the Immigration Enforcement Account--
Immediately upon enactment, the following amount shall be
transferred from the general fund to the Immigration
Enforcement Account, $4,400,000,000.
(2) Appropriations--
(a) There are hereby appropriated such sums that are
provided under subsection 1 to remain available until five
years after enactment.
(b) These sums shall be used to meet the trigger
requirements set forth in title I, section 1.
(c) To the extent funds are not exhausted pursuant to (b),
they shall be used by the Secretary of Homeland Security on
one or more of the following:
1. Fencing and Infrastructure;
2. Towers;
3. Detention beds;
4. Employment Eligibility Verification System;
5. Implementation of programs authorized in titles IV and
VI; and
6. Other federal border and interior enforcement
requirements to ensure the integrity of programs authorized
in titles IV and VI.
2. Strike section 608 and replace with the following:
SEC. 608. PAYMENT OF PENALTIES AND USE OF PENALTIES
COLLECTED.
(a) The Secretary shall by regulation establish procedures
allowing for the payment of 80 percent of the penalties
described in Section 601(e)(6)(B) and Section 602(a)(I)(C)(v)
through an installment payment plan.
(b) Any penalties received under this title with respect to
an application for Z-1 nonimmigrant status shall be used in
the following order of priority:
(1) the first $4.4 billion of such penalties shall be
deposited into the general fund as repayment of funds
transferred into the Immigration Enforcement Account under
section 286(z)(1).
(2) penalties in excess of $4.4 billion shall be deposited
and remain available as otherwise provided under this act.
On page 4, strike lines 12 through 26, and insert the
following:
(2) Smuggling investigators and ice personnel.--
(A) Smuggling personnel.--During each of the fiscal years
2008 through 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall,
subject to the availability of appropriations, increase by
not less than 200 the number of positions for personnel
within the Department assigned to investigate alien
smuggling.
(B) Increase in full-time united states immigration and
customs enforcement personnel.--
(i) In general.--In each of the fiscal years 2008 through
2011, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall increase by
not less than 1,250 the number of positions for full-time
active duty forensic auditors, intelligence research
specialists, agents, officers, and investigators in the
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry
out the removal of aliens who are not admissible to, or are
subject to removal from, the United States, to investigate
immigration fraud, and to enforce workplace violations.
(ii) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out
the provisions of this subparagraph.
(C) Conforming amendment.--Section 5203 of the Intelligence
Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-
458; 118 Stat. 3734) is repealed.
On page 140, beginning on line 4, strike ``In each of the
five years beginning on the date of the enactment of this
Act, the appropriations necessary to increase to a level not
less than 4500'' and insert the following: ``In each
[[Page 14935]]
of the two years beginning on the date of the enactment of
this Act, the appropriations necessary to hire not less than
2500 a year''.
Beginning on page 290, strike line 13 and all that follows
through page 291, line 1, and insert the following:
(1) In general.--An alien who files an application for Z
nonimmigrant status shall, upon submission of any evidence
required under subsections (f) and (g) and after the
Secretary has conducted appropriate background checks--
(A) shall be granted probationary benefits in the form of
employment authorization pending final adjudication of the
alien's application;
(B) may, in the Secretary's discretion, receive advance
permission to reenter the United States pursuant to existing
regulations governing advance parole; and
(C) may not be considered an unauthorized alien (as defined
in section 274A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as
amended by section 302) unless employment authorization under
subparagraph (A) is denied.
(2) Timing of probationary benefits.--No probationary
benefits shall be issued to an alien described in paragraph
(1) until the alien has passed all appropriate background
checks.
Beginning on page 154, strike line 23 and all that follows
through page 155, line 8, and insert the following:
``(2) Exception.--The Secretary of Homeland Security may
waive the termination of the period of authorized admission
of an alien who is a Y nonimmigrant for unemployment under
paragraph (1)(D) if the alien submits to the Secretary an
attestation under penalty of perjury in a form prescribed by
the Secretary, with supporting documentation, that
establishes that such unemployment was the result of--
``(A) a period of physical or mental disability of the
alien or the spouse, son, daughter, or parent (as defined in
section 101 of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29
U.S.C. 2611)) of the alien;
``(B) a period of vacation, medical leave, maternity leave,
or similar leave from employment authorized by Federal or
State law or by a policy of the alien's employer; or
``(C) any other period of temporary unemployment that is
the direct result of a force majeure event.
``(3) Return to foreign residence.--An alien who is a Y
nonimmigrant whose period of authorized admission terminates
under paragraph (1) shall depart the United States
immediately.
``(k) Registration of Departure.--
``(1) In general.--An alien who is a Y nonimmigrant whose
period of authorized admission has expired under subsection
(i), or whose period of authorized admission terminates under
subsection (j), shall register the departure of such alien at
a designated port of departure or designated U.S. consulate
abroad in a manner to be prescribed by the Secretary of
Homeland Security.
``(2) Effect of failure to depart.--In the event an alien
described in paragraph (1) fails to depart the United States
or to register such departure as required by subsection
(j)(3), the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take
immediate action to determine the location of the alien and,
if the alien is located in the United States, to remove the
alien from the United States.
``(3) Invalidation of documentation.--Any documentation
issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security under subsection
(m) to an alien described in paragraph (1) shall be invalid
for any purpose except the departure of the alien on and
after the date on which the period of authorized admission of
such alien terminates.''. The Secretary shall ensure that the
invalidation of such documentation is recorded in the
employment eligibility verification system described in
section 301.
At the appropriate place in Title 3, insert the following:
14 days prior to employment eligibility expiration
employers shall provide, in writing, notification to aliens
of the expiration of the alien's employment eligibility.
______
SA 1466. Mr. BIDEN (for himself and Mrs. Clinton) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 56, strike line 9 and insert the following:
``(i) Victims of Battery and Extreme Cruelty.--The Attorney
General in the Attorney General's discretion may waive the
provisions of subsection (a) in the case of an alien to whom
the Attorney General has granted classification under clause
(iii), (iv), or (v) of subparagraph (A) of section 204
(a)(1), or classification under clause (ii), (iii), or (iv)
of subparagraph (B) of such section, in any case in which
there is a connection between--
``(1) the alien's having been battered or subjected to
extreme cruelty; and
``(2) the alien's--
``(A) removal;
``(B) departure from the United States;
``(C) reentry or reentries into the United States; or
``(D) attempted reentry into the United States.
``(j) Definitions.--In this section:
On page 71, line 6, strike ``and''.
On page 71, line 14, strike the period at the end and
insert the following: ``; and
(7) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(g) Application of VAWA Protections.--The restrictions on
relief under this section shall not apply to relief under
sections 240A or 245 on the basis of a petition filed by a
VAWA self-petitioner, or a petition filed under section
240(A)(b)(2), or under 244(a)(3) (as in effect on March 31,
1997), if the extreme cruelty or battery was at least one
central reason for the alien's overstaying the grant of
voluntary departure.''.
On page 150, strike line 9 and insert ``grounds of
inadmissability under section 601(d)(2) of the Secure
Borders, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Reform Act of
2007 unless the alien qualifies for relief as a VAWA self-
petitioner or qualifies for relief under sections 240A(b)(2),
101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) or under section 244(a)(3)
(as in effect on March 31, 1997).''.
On page 150, strike line 31 and insert ``601(d)(1)(A), (D),
(E), (F), or (G) of the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity,
and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 unless the alien qualifies
for relief as a VAWA self-petitioner or qualifies for relief
under sections 240A(b)(2), 101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) or
under section 244(a)(3) (as in effect on March 31, 1997).''.
On page 157, line 7, strike ``; or'' and insert a
semicolon.
On page 157, line 11, strike the period at the end and
insert ``; or
``(D) relief as a VAWA self-petitioner or under sections
240A(b)(2), 101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) or under section
244(a)(3) (as in effect on March 31, 1997).
On page 158, line 2, strike ``; or'' and insert a
semicolon.
On page 158, line 6, strike the period at the end and
insert ``; or
``(D) relief as a VAWA self-petitioner or under sections
240A(b)(2), 101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) or under section
244(a)(3) (as in effect on March 31, 1997).
On page 271, strike lines 19 through 21 and insert the
following:
(d) Petition.--Section 204(a)(1) of the Immigrations and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A)--
(A) in clause (i), by striking ``, (3), or (4)''; and
(B) in clause (vii)(III), insert after ``immediate relative
under section 201(b)(2)(A)(i)'' the following: ``(as in
effect on January 1, 2007)''; and
(2) in subparagraph (D)(i)(I), by striking ``a petitioner''
and all that follows through the period at the end of the
sentence and inserting ``an immediate relative''.
On page 279, line 14, strike ``; or'' and insert a
semicolon.
On page 279, line 18, strike the period at the end and
insert ``; or
``(iv) relief as a VAWA self-petitioner or under sections
240A(b)(2), 101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) or under section
244(a)(3) (as in effect on March 31, 1997).
On page 280, line 2, insert after ``terminated.'' the
following: ``The provisions of this paragraph shall not apply
to citizen and Y-1 nonimmigrant sponsors described in
subsection 214(d)(2)(c)(ii) or section 237(a)(7).''.
On page 303, line 9, insert after ``221 and 222'' the
following: ``of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1201 and 1202) unless the alien qualifies for relief as a
VAWA self-petitioner or qualifies for relief under sections
240A(b)(2), 101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) of such Act or
under section 244(a)(3) of such Act (as in effect on March
31, 1997).''.
On page 305, strike line 13 and insert the following:
(A) Restriction on visa issuance or adjustment.--
(i) In general.--An
On page 305, between lines 19 and 20, insert the following:
(ii) Exception for certain individuals.--The restriction
under clause (i) does not apply if the alien qualifies for
relief as a VAWA self-petitioner or qualifies for relief
under sections 240A(b)(2), 101(a)(15)(T), or 101(a)(15)(U) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act or under section
244(a)(3) of such Act (as in effect on March 31, 1997).
______
SA 1467. Mr. SCHUMER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. B-1 VISITOR VISA GUIDELINES AND DATA TRACKING
SYSTEMS.
(a) Guidelines.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act--
(A) the Secretary of State shall review existing
regulations or internal guidelines relating to the
decisionmaking process with respect to the issuance of B-1
visas by consular officers and determine whether
modifications are necessary to ensure that such
[[Page 14936]]
officers make decisions with respect to the issuance of B-1
visas as consistently as possible while ensuring security and
maintaining officer discretion over such issuance
determinations; and
(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security shall review
existing regulations or internal guidelines relating to the
decisionmaking process of Customs and Border Protection
officers concerning whether aliens holding a B-1 visitor visa
are admissible to the United States and the appropriate
length of stay and shall determine whether modifications are
necessary to ensure that such officers make decisions with
respect to aliens' admissibility and length of stay as
consistently as possible while ensuring security and
maintaining officer discretion over such determinations.
(2) Modification.--If, after conducting the reviews under
paragraph (1), the Secretary of State or the Secretary of
Homeland Security determine that modifications to existing
regulations or internal guidelines, or the establishment of
new regulations or guidelines, are necessary, the relevant
Secretary shall make such modifications during the 6-month
period referred to in such paragraph.
(3) Consultations.--In making determinations and preparing
guidelines under paragraph (1), the Secretary of State and
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall consult with
appropriate stakeholders.
(b) Data Tracking Systems.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 18 months after the date of
enactment of this Act--
(A) the Secretary of State shall develop and implement a
system to track aggregate data relating to the issuance of B-
1 visitor visas in order to ensure the consistent application
of agency regulations or internal guidelines; and
(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security shall develop and
implement a system to track aggregate data relating to
admissibility decision, and length of stays under, B-1
visitor visas in order to ensure the consistent application
of agency regulations or internal guidelines.
(2) Limitation.--The systems implemented under paragraph
(1) shall not store or track personally identifiable
information, except that this paragraph shall not be
construed to limit the application of any other system that
is being implemented by the Department of State or the
Department of Homeland Security to track travelers or travel
to the United States.
(c) Public Education.--The Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall carry out activities to
provide guidance and education to the public and to visa
applicants concerning the nature, purposes, and availability
of the B-1 visa for business travelers.
(d) Report.--Not later than 6 and 18 months after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit reports
concerning the status of the implementation of this section
to the Senate Committees on the Judiciary & Foreign Relations
and to the Committees on the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs of
the House of Representatives.
______
SA 1468. Mrs. McCASKILL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed by her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on
the table; as follows:
On page 123, strike line 5 and all that follows through
page 124, line 6, and insert the following:
``(1) Employers.--
``(A) In general.--Whenever an employer who does not hold
Federal contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements is
determined by the Secretary to be a repeat violator of this
section or is convicted of a crime under this section, the
employer shall be subject to prohibition from the receipt of
Federal contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements for a
period of not less than 5 years in accordance with the
procedures and standards prescribed by the Secretary. The
Secretary or the Attorney General shall advise the
Administrator of General Services of any such prohibition,
and the Administrator of General Services shall list the
employer on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal
Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs for the period of the
prohibition.
``(B) Waiver authority.--After consideration of the views
of any agency or department regarding an employer described
under subparagraph (A), the Administrator of General
Services, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland
Security and the Attorney General, may waive the prohibition
or may limit the duration or scope of the prohibition under
subparagraph (A) if such waiver or limitation is necessary to
the national defense or in the interest of national security.
``(C) Notification to congress.--If the Administrator of
General Services grants a waiver or limitation described
under subparagraph (B), the Administrator shall submit notice
of such waiver or limitation to each member of the Committee
on the Judiciary of the Senate and of the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives.
``(2) Contractors and recipients.--
``(A) In general.--Whenever an employer who holds Federal
contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements is determined by
the Secretary to be a repeat violator of this section or is
convicted of a crime under this section, the employer shall
be subject to prohibition from the receipt of Federal
contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements for a period of
not less than 5 years in accordance with the procedures and
standards prescribed by the Secretary. Prior to prohibiting
the employer, the Secretary, in cooperation with the
Administrator of General Services, shall advise all agencies
holding contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements with the
employer of the proceedings to prohibit the employer from the
receipt of new Federal contracts, grants, or cooperative
agreements for a period of not less than 5 years.
``(B) Waiver authority.--After consideration of the views
of any agency or department that holds a contract, grant, or
cooperative agreement with an employer described under
subparagraph (A), the Administrator of General Services, in
consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the
Attorney General, may waive the prohibition or may limit the
duration or scope of the prohibition under subparagraph (A)
if such waiver or limitation is necessary to the national
defense or in the interest of national security.
``(C) Notification to congress.--If the Administrator of
General Services grants a waiver or limitation described
under subparagraph (B), the Administrator shall submit notice
of such waiver or limitation to each member of the Committee
on the Judiciary of the Senate and of the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives.''.
______
SA 1469. Mrs. CLINTON submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
to amendment SA 1150 proposed by Mr. Reid (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself
and Mr. Specter)) to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive
immigration reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on
the table; as follows:
Insert the following after Section 126:
``SECTION 127. NORTHERN BORDER COORDINATOR.
``(a) In General.--There shall be within the Directorate of
Border and Transportation Security the position of Northern
Border Coordinator, who shall be appointed by the Secretary
and who shall report directly to the Under Secretary for
Border and Transportation Security.
``(b) Responsibilities.--The Northern Border Coordinator
shall be responsible for--
``(1) increasing the security of the border, including
ports of entry, between the United States and Canada;
``(2) improving the coordination among the agencies
responsible for the security described under paragraph (1);
``(3) serving as the primary liaison with State and local
governments and law enforcement agencies regarding security
along the border between the United States and Canada; and
``(4) serving as a liaison with the Canadian government on
border security.''.
______
SA 1470. Mr. LEVIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. ADMISSION OF CERTAIN NATIONALS FROM IRAQ AS PRIORITY
2 REFUGEES.
(a) In General.--Subject to the numerical limitations
established pursuant to section 207 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157), the Secretary of State or a
designee of the Secretary shall present to the Secretary of
Homeland Security, and the Secretary of Homeland Security or
a designee of the Secretary shall adjudicate, any application
for refugee status under section 207 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) submitted by an applicant
who--
(1) is a national of Iraq;
(2) is able to demonstrate that--
(A) for a period of at least one year beginning after March
1, 2003, he or she served the United States Government inside
Iraq as an employee, volunteer, contractor, or employee of a
contractor of the United States Government; or
(B) he or she has a parent, spouse, son, daughter,
grandparent, grandchild, or sibling currently residing in the
United States who is a United States citizen, lawful
permanent resident, asylee, or refugee; and
(3) is able to demonstrate that he or she left Iraq before
January 1, 2007, and has resided outside Iraq since that
time.
(b) Authorization of Additional Refugee Admissions.--
Section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1157) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(g) Admission of Certain Nationals of Iraq.--In addition
to any refugee admissions determined under subsections (a)
and (b),
[[Page 14937]]
there are 250,000 refugee admissions authorized for each of
fiscal years 2007, 2008, and 2009 for refugees who are
nationals of Iraq.''.
______
SA 1471. Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Grassley) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Beginning on page 242, strike line 37 and all that follows
through line 24, on page 250, and insert the following:
``(I) If the employer employs not less than 50 employees in
the United States, not more than 50 percent of such employees
are H-1B nonimmigrants and nonimmigrants described in section
101(a)(15)(L).''.
(e) Wage Determination.--
(1) Change in minimum wages.--Section 212(n)(1) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended--
(A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as follows:
``(A) The employer--
``(i) is offering and will offer, during the period of
authorized employment, to aliens admitted or provided status
as an H-1B nonimmigrant, wages, based on the best information
available at the time the application is filed, which are not
less than the highest of--
``(I) the locally determined prevailing wage level for the
occupational classification in the area of employment;
``(II) the median average wage for all workers in the
occupational classification in the area of employment; or
``(III) the median wage for skill level 2 in the
occupational classification found in the most recent
Occupational Employment Statistics survey; and
``(ii) will provide working conditions for such a
nonimmigrant that will not adversely affect the working
conditions of workers similarly employed.''; and
(B) in subparagraph (D), by inserting ``the wage
determination methodology used under subparagraph (A)(i),''
after ``shall contain''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall apply to applications filed on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(f) Prohibition of Outplacement.--
(1) In general.--Section 212(n) of such Act, as amended by
this section, is further amended--
(A) in paragraph (1), by amending subparagraph (F) to read
as follows:
``(F) The employer shall not place, outsource, lease, or
otherwise contract for the placement of an H-1B nonimmigrant
with another employer unless the employer of the alien has
received a waiver under paragraph (2)(E).''; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by amending subparagraph (E) to read
as follows:
``(E) The Secretary of Labor shall promulgate rules, after
notice and a period for comment, for an employer of an H-1B
nonimmigrant to apply for a waiver of the prohibition in
paragraph (1)(F). The decision whether to grant or deny a
waiver under this subparagraph shall be in the sole and
unreviewable discretion of the Secretary. In order to receive
a waiver under this subparagraph, the burden shall be on the
employer seeking the waiver to establish that--
``(i) the placement is for legitimate business purposes and
not to evade the requirements of this subsection;
``(ii) the employer with whom the nonimmigrant would be
placed has not displaced and does not intend to displace a
United States worker employed by the employer within the
period beginning 180 days before and ending 180 days after
the date of the placement of the nonimmigrant with the
employer;
``(iii) the nonimmigrant will not be controlled and
supervised principally by the employer with whom the
nonimmigrant would be placed; and
``(iv) the placement of the nonimmigrant is not essentially
an arrangement to provide labor for hire for the employer
with whom the nonimmigrant will be placed.''.
(2) Application.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to an application filed on or after the date the
rules required section 212(n)(2)(E) of such Act, as amended
by paragraph (1)(B) of this subsection, are issued.
(g) Posting Available Positions.--
(1) Posting available positions.--Section 212(n)(1)(C) of
such Act is amended--
(A) by redesignating clause (ii) as subclause (II);
(B) by striking ``(i) has provided'' and inserting the
following:
``(ii)(I) has provided''; and
(C) by inserting before clause (ii), as redesignated by
subparagraph (B), the following:
``(i) has posted a detailed description of each position
for which a nonimmigrant is sought on the website described
in paragraph (6) of this subsection for at least 30 calendar
days, which description shall include the wages and other
terms and conditions of employment, the minimum education,
training, experience and other requirements for the position,
and the process for applying for the position; and''.
(2) Department of labor website.--Section 212(n) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended by adding
at the end the following:
``(6)(A) Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this paragraph, the Secretary of Labor shall
establish a searchable website for posting positions as
required by paragraph (1)(C). This website shall be publicly
accessible without charge.
``(B) The Secretary may charge a nominal filing fee to
employers who post positions on the website established under
this paragraph to cover expenses for establishing and
administering the website.
``(C) The Secretary may work with private companies and
nonprofit organizations in the development and operation of
the website established under this paragraph.
``(D) The Secretary may promulgate rules, after notice and
a period for comment, to carry out the requirements of this
paragraph.''.
(3) Application.--The amendments made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to an application filed 30 days or more after the
date that the website required by section 212(n)(6) of such
Act, as added by paragraph (2) of this subsection, is
created.
SEC. 421. H-1B GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY AND REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Safeguards Against Fraud and Misrepresentation in
Application Review Process.--Section 212(n)(1)(K) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act, as redesignated by section
2(d)(2), is amended--
(1) by inserting ``and through the Department of Labor's
website, without charge.'' after ``DC'';
(2) by inserting ``, clear indicators of fraud,
misrepresentation of material fact,'' after ``completeness'';
(3) by striking ``or obviously inaccurate'' and inserting
``, presents clear indicators of fraud or misrepresentation
of material fact, or is obviously inaccurate'';
(4) by striking ``within 7 days of'' and inserting ``not
later than 14 days after''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following: ``If the
Secretary's review of an application identifies clear
indicators of fraud or misrepresentation of material fact,
the Secretary may conduct an investigation and hearing under
paragraph (2)''.
(b) Investigations by Department of Labor.--Section
212(n)(2) of such Act is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A)--
(A) by striking ``12 months'' and inserting ``24 months'';
and
(B) by striking ``The Secretary shall conduct'' and all
that follows and inserting ``Upon the receipt of such a
complaint, the Secretary may initiate an investigation to
determine if such a failure or misrepresentation has
occurred.'';
(2) in subparagraph (C)(i)--
(A) by striking ``` condition of paragraph (1)(B), (1)(E),
or (1)(F)'' and inserting ``a condition under subparagraph
(B), (C)(i), (E), (F), (H), (I), or (J) of paragraph (1)'';
and
(B) by striking ``(1)(C)'' and inserting ``(1)(C)(ii)'';
(3) in subparagraph (G)--
(A) in clause (i), by striking ``if the Secretary'' and all
that follows and inserting ``with regard to the employer's
compliance with the requirements of this subsection.'';
(B) in clause (ii), by striking ``and whose identity'' and
all that follows through ``failure or failures.'' and
inserting ``the Secretary of Labor may conduct an
investigation into the employers compliance with the
requirements of this subsection.'';
(C) in clause (iii), by striking the last sentence;
(D) by striking clauses (iv) and (v);
(E) by redesignating clauses (vi), (vii), and (viii) as
clauses (iv), (v), and (vi), respectively;
(F) in clause (iv), as redesignated, by striking ``meet a
condition described in clause (ii), unless the Secretary of
Labor receives the information not later than 12 months'' and
inserting ``comply with the requirements under this
subsection, unless the Secretary of Labor receives the
information not later than 24 months'';
(G) by amending clause (v), as redesignated, to read as
follows:
``(v) The Secretary of Labor shall provide notice to an
employer of the intent to conduct an investigation. The
notice shall be provided in such a manner, and shall contain
sufficient detail, to permit the employer to respond to the
allegations before an investigation is commenced. The
Secretary is not required to comply with this clause if the
Secretary determines that such compliance would interfere
with an effort by the Secretary to investigate or secure
compliance by the employer with the requirements of this
subsection. A determination by the Secretary under this
clause shall not be subject to judicial review.''.
(H) in clause (vi), as redesignated, by striking ``An
investigation'' and all that follows through ``the
determination.'' and inserting ``If the Secretary of Labor,
after an investigation under clause (i) or (ii), determines
that a reasonable basis exists to make a finding that the
employer has failed to comply with the requirements under
this subsection, the Secretary shall provide interested
parties with notice of such determination and an opportunity
for a hearing in accordance with section 556 of title 5,
United States Code, not later than 120 days after the date of
such determination.''; and
[[Page 14938]]
(I) by adding at the end the following:
``(vii) If the Secretary of Labor, after a hearing, finds a
reasonable basis to believe that the employer has violated
the requirements under this subsection, the Secretary may
impose a penalty under subparagraph (C).''; and
(4) by striking subparagraph (H).
(c) Information Sharing Between Department of Labor and
Department of Homeland Security.--Section 212(n)(2) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended by
inserting after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H) The Director of United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services shall provide the Secretary of Labor
with any information contained in the materials submitted by
H-1B employers as part of the adjudication process that
indicates that the employer is not complying with H-1B visa
program requirements. The Secretary may initiate and conduct
an investigation and hearing under this paragraph after
receiving information of noncompliance under this
subparagraph.''.
(d) Audits.--Section 212(n)(2)(A) of such Act, as amended
by this section, is further amended by adding at the end the
following: ``The Secretary may conduct surveys of the degree
to which employers comply with the requirements under this
subsection and may conduct annual compliance audits of
employers that employ H-1B nonimmigrants. The Secretary shall
conduct annual compliance audits of not less than 1 percent
of the employers that employ H-1B nonimmigrants during the
applicable calendar year.''
(e) Penalties.--Section 212(n)(2)(C) of such Act, as
amended by this section, is further amended--
(1) in clause (i)(I), by striking ``$1,000'' and inserting
``$2,000'';
(2) in clause (ii)(I), by striking ``$5,000'' and inserting
``$10,000''; and
(3) in clause (vi)(III), by striking ``$1,000'' and
inserting ``$2,000''.
(f) Information Provided to H-1B Nonimmigrants Upon Visa
Issuance.--Section 212(n) of such Act, as amended by this
section, is further amended by inserting after paragraph (2)
the following:
``(3)(A) Upon issuing an H-1B visa to an applicant outside
the United States, the issuing office shall provide the
applicant with--
``(i) a brochure outlining the employer`s obligations and
the employee's rights under Federal law, including labor and
wage protections; and
``(ii) the contact information for Federal agencies that
can offer more information or assistance in clarifying
employer obligations and workers' rights.
``(B) Upon the issuance of an H-1B visa to an alien inside
the United States, the officer of the Department of Homeland
Security shall provide the applicant with--
``(i) a brochure outlining the employer's obligations and
the employee's rights under Federal law, including labor and
wage protections; and
``(ii) the contact information for Federal agencies that
can offer more information or assistance in clarifying
employer's obligations and workers' rights.''.
SEC. 422. L-1 VISA FRAUD AND ABUSE PROTECTIONS.
(a) In General.--Section 214(c)(2) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(c)(2)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears
and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security'';
(2) in subparagraph (E), by striking ``In the case of an
alien spouse admitted under section 101(a)(15)(L), who'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subparagraph (H), if an
alien spouse admitted under section 101(a)(15)(L)''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(G)(i) If the beneficiary of a petition under this
subsection is coming to the United States to open, or be
employed in, a new facility, the petition may be approved for
up to 12 months only if the employer operating the new
facility has--
``(I) a business plan;
``(II) sufficient physical premises to carry out the
proposed business activities; and
``(III) the financial ability to commence doing business
immediately upon the approval of the petition.
``(ii) An extension of the approval period under clause (i)
may not be granted until the importing employer submits an
application to the Secretary of Homeland Security that
contains--
``(I) evidence that the importing employer meets the
requirements of this subsection;
``(II) evidence that the beneficiary meets the requirements
under section 101(a)(15)(L);
``(III) a statement summarizing the original petition;
``(IV) evidence that the importing employer has fully
complied with the business plan submitted under clause
(i)(I);
``(V) evidence of the truthfulness of any representations
made in connection with the filing of the original petition;
``(VI) evidence that the importing employer, during the
preceding 12 months, has been doing business at the new
facility through regular, systematic, and continuous
provision of goods or services, or has otherwise been taking
commercially reasonable steps to establish the new facility
as a commercial enterprise;
``(VII) a statement of the duties the beneficiary has
performed at the new facility during the preceding 12 months
and the duties the beneficiary will perform at the new
facility during the extension period approved under this
clause;
``(VIII) a statement describing the staffing at the new
facility, including the number of employees and the types of
positions held by such employees;
``(IX) evidence of wages paid to employees;
``(X) evidence of the financial status of the new facility;
and
``(XI) any other evidence or data prescribed by the
Secretary.
``(iii) Notwithstanding subclauses (I) through (VI) of
clause (ii), and subject to the maximum period of authorized
admission set forth in subparagraph (D), the Secretary of
Homeland Security may approve a petition subsequently filed
on behalf of the beneficiary to continue employment at the
facility described in this subsection for a period beyond the
initially granted 12-month period if the importing employer
demonstrates that the failure to satisfy any of the
requirements described in those subclauses was directly
caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of
the importing employer.
``(iv) For purposes of determining the eligibility of an
alien for classification under section 101(a)(15)(L), the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall work cooperatively with
the Secretary of State to verify a company or facility's
existence in the United States and abroad.''.
(b) Investigations and Audits by Department of Homeland
Security.--
(1) Department of homeland security investigations.--
Section 214(c)(2) of such Act, as amended by this section, is
further amended by adding at the end the following:
``(I)(i) The Secretary of Homeland Security may initiate an
investigation of any employer that employs nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L) with regard to the
employer's compliance with the requirements of this
subsection.
``(ii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security receives
specific credible information from a source who is likely to
have knowledge of an employer's practices, employment
conditions, or compliance with the requirements under this
subsection, the Secretary may conduct an investigation into
the employer's compliance with the requirements of this
subsection. The Secretary may withhold the identity of the
source from the employer, and the source's identity shall not
be subject to disclosure under section 552 of title 5.
``(iii) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish
a procedure for any person desiring to provide to the
Secretary of Homeland Security information described in
clause (ii) that may be used, in whole or in part, as the
basis for the commencement of an investigation described in
such clause, to provide the information in writing on a form
developed and provided by the Secretary of Homeland Security
and completed by or on behalf of the person.
``(iv) No investigation described in clause (ii) (or
hearing described in clause (vi) based on such investigation)
may be conducted with respect to information about a failure
to comply with the requirements under this subsection, unless
the Secretary of Homeland Security receives the information
not later than 24 months after the date of the alleged
failure.
``(v) Before commencing an investigation of an employer
under clause (i) or (ii), the Secretary of Homeland Security
shall provide notice to the employer of the intent to conduct
such investigation. The notice shall be provided in such a
manner, and shall contain sufficient detail, to permit the
employer to respond to the allegations before an
investigation is commenced. The Secretary is not required to
comply with this clause if the Secretary determines that to
do so would interfere with an effort by the Secretary to
investigate or secure compliance by the employer with the
requirements of this subsection. There shall be no judicial
review of a determination by the Secretary under this clause.
``(vi) If the Secretary of Homeland Security, after an
investigation under clause (i) or (ii), determines that a
reasonable basis exists to make a finding that the employer
has failed to comply with the requirements under this
subsection, the Secretary shall provide interested parties
with notice of such determination and an opportunity for a
hearing in accordance with section 556 of title 5, United
States Code, not later than 120 days after the date of such
determination. If such a hearing is requested, the Secretary
shall make a finding concerning the matter by not later than
120 days after the date of the hearing.
``(vii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security, after a
hearing, finds a reasonable basis to believe that the
employer has violated the requirements under this subsection,
the Secretary may impose a penalty under section
214(c)(2)(J).''.
(2) Audits.--Section 214(c)(2)(I) of such Act, as added by
paragraph (1), is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(viii) The Secretary of Homeland Security may conduct
surveys of the degree to which employers comply with the
requirements under this section and may conduct annual
compliance audits of employers that
[[Page 14939]]
employ H-1B nonimmigrants. The Secretary shall conduct annual
compliance audits of not less than 1 percent of the employers
that employ nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L)
during the applicable calendar year.''.
(3) Reporting requirement.--Section 214(c)(8) of such Act
is amended by inserting ``(L),'' after ``(H),''.
(c) Penalties.--Section 214(c)(2) of such Act, as amended
by this section, is further amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(J)(i) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a failure by an
employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (F), (G),
(H), (I), or (K) or a misrepresentation of material fact in a
petition to employ 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $2,000 per violation) as
the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the Secretary of Homeland Security may not, during a
period of at least 1 year, approve a petition for that
employer to employ 1 or more aliens as such nonimmigrants.
``(ii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a willful failure by
an employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (F), (G),
(H), (I), or (K) or a misrepresentation of material fact in a
petition to employ 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants
described in section 101(a)(15)(L)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per violation)
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the Secretary of Homeland Security may not, during a
period of at least 2 years, approve a petition filed for that
employer to employ 1 or more aliens as such nonimmigrants.
``(iii) If the Secretary of Homeland Security finds, after
notice and an opportunity for a hearing, a willful failure by
an employer to meet a condition under subparagraph (L)(i)--
``(I) the Secretary of Homeland Security may impose such
other administrative remedies (including civil monetary
penalties in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per violation)
as the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and
``(II) the employer shall be liable to employees harmed for
lost wages and benefits.''.
(d) Wage Determination.--
(1) Change in minimum wages.--Paragraph (2) of section
214(c) of such Act, as amended by this section, is further
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(K)(i) An employer that employs a nonimmigrant described
in section 101(a)(15)(L) shall--
``(I) offer such nonimmigrant, during the period of
authorized employment, wages, based on the best information
available at the time the application is filed, which are not
less than the highest of--
``(aa) the locally determined prevailing wage level for the
occupational classification in the area of employment;
``(bb) the median average wage for all workers in the
occupational classification in the area of employment; or
``(cc) the median wage for skill level 2 in the
occupational classification found in the most recent
Occupational Employment Statistics survey; and
``(II) provide working conditions for such nonimmigrant
that will not adversely affect the working conditions of
workers similarly employed.
``(ii) If an employer, in such previous period specified by
the Secretary of Homeland Security, employed 1 or more L-1
nonimmigrants, the employer shall provide to the Secretary of
Homeland Security the Internal Revenue Service Form W-2 Wage
and Tax Statement filed by the employer with respect to such
nonimmigrants for such period.
``(iii) It is a failure to meet a condition under this
subparagraph for an employer, who has filed a petition to
import 1 or more aliens as nonimmigrants described in section
101(a)(15)(L), to--
``(I) require such a nonimmigrant to pay a penalty for
ceasing employment with the employer before a date mutually
agreed to by the nonimmigrant and the employer; or
``(II) fail to offer to such a nonimmigrant, during the
nonimmigrant's period of authorized employment, on the same
basis, and in accordance with the same criteria, as the
employer offers to United States workers, benefits and
eligibility for benefits, including--
``(aa) the opportunity to participate in health, life,
disability, and other insurance plans;
``(bb) the opportunity to participate in retirement and
savings plans; and
``(cc) cash bonuses and noncash compensation, such as stock
options (whether or not based on performance).
``(iv) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall determine
whether a required payment under clause (iii)(I) is a penalty
(and not liquidated damages) pursuant to relevant State
law.''.
(2) Effective date.--The amendments made by this subsection
shall apply to applications filed on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(e) Prohibition on Outplacement.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (2) of section 214(c) of such
Act, as amended by this section, is further amended by adding
at the end the following:
``(L)(i) An employer who imports an alien as a nonimmigrant
described in section 101(a)(15)(L) shall not place,
outsource, lease, or otherwise contract for the placement of
the alien with another employer unless the employer of the
alien has received a waiver under clause (ii).
``(ii) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall promulgate
rules, after notice and a period for comment, for an employer
to apply for a waiver of the prohibition set out in clause
(i). The decision whether to grant or deny such a waiver
under this subparagraph shall be in the sole and unreviewable
discretion of the Secretary. In order to receive such a
waiver, the burden shall be on the employer seeking the
waiver to establish that--
``(I) the placement is for legitimate business purposes and
not to evade the requirements of this subsection;
``(II) the employer with whom the nonimmigrant would be
placed has not displaced and does not intend to displace a
United States worker employed by the employer within the
period beginning 180 days before and ending 180 days after
the date of the placement of the nonimmigrant with the
employer;
``(III) the nonimmigrant will not be controlled and
supervised principally by the employer with whom the
nonimmigrant would be placed; and
``(IV) the placement of the nonimmigrant is not essentially
an arrangement to provide labor for hire for the employer
with whom the nonimmigrant will be placed, rather than a
placement in connection with the provision or a product or
service for which specialized knowledge specific to the
petitioning employer is necessary.''.
(2) Application.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall
apply to an application filed on or after the date the rules
required section 212(c)(2)(L)(ii) of such Act, as added by
paragraph (1) of this subsection, are issued.
______
SA 1472. Ms. CANTWELL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by her to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
On page 238, beginning with line 13, strike all through
page 239, line 38, and insert the following:
(c) Granting Dual Intent to Certain Nonimmigrant
Students.--Section 214(h) (8 U.S.C. 1184(h)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``(H)(i)(b) or (c),'' and inserting
``(F)(iv), (H)(i)(b), (H)(i)(c),''; and
(2) by striking ``if the alien had obtained a change of
status'' and inserting ``if the alien had been admitted as,
provided status as, or obtained a change of status''.
SEC. 419. H-1B STREAMLINING AND SIMPLIFICATION.
(a) H-1B Amendments.--Section 214(g) (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking clauses (i) through
(vii) and inserting the following:
``(i) 115,000 in fiscal year 2008;
``(ii) in any subsequent fiscal year, subject to clause
(iii), the number for the previous fiscal year as adjusted in
accordance with the method set forth in paragraph (2); and
``(iii) 180,000 for any fiscal year;''.
(2) in paragraph (9), as redesignated by section 409--
(A) in subparagraph (B)--
(i) in clause (ii), by striking ``The annual numerical
limitations described in clause (i) shall not exceed'' and
inserting ``Without respect to the annual numerical
limitations described in clause (i), the Secretary may issue
a visa or otherwise grant nonimmigrant status pursuant to
section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) in the following quantities:'';
and
(ii) by striking clause (iv); and
(B) by striking subparagraph (D).
(b) Ensuring Access to Skilled Workers in Specialty
Occupations.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (6) of section 214(g) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)), as
redesignated by section 409, is amended to read as follows:
``(6) The numerical limitations contained in paragraph
(1)(A) shall not apply to any nonimmigrant alien issued a
visa or otherwise provided status under section
101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) who--
``(A) until the number of aliens who are exempted from such
numerical limitation under this subparagraph during a year
exceeds 30,000--
``(i) is employed (or has received an offer of employment)
at an institution of higher education (as defined in section
101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
1001(a))), or a related or affiliated nonprofit entity; or
``(ii) is employed (or has received an offer of employment)
at a nonprofit research organization or a governmental
research organization;
[[Page 14940]]
``(B) has earned a master's or higher degree from a United
States institution of higher education (as defined in section
101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
1001(a)), until the number of aliens who are exempted from
such numerical limitation under this subparagraph during a
year exceeds 40,000; or
``(C) has earned a master's or higher degree in science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics from an institution
of higher education outside of the United States, until the
number of aliens who are exempted from such numerical
limitation under this subparagraph during a year exceeds
20,000.''.
(2) Applicability.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall apply to any petition or visa application pending on
the date of enactment of this Act and any petition or visa
application filed on or after such date.
______
SA 1473. Mr. COLEMAN (for himself and Mr. Domenici) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1348, to
provide for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes;
which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of section 1, add the following new subsection:
(e) Information Sharing Between Federal and Local Law
Enforcement Officers.--
(1) Requirement for information sharing.--No person or
agency may prohibit a Federal, State, or local government
entity from acquiring information regarding the immigration
status of any individual if the entity seeking such
information has probable cause to believe that the individual
is not lawfully present in the United States. Such probable
cause includes the individual's failure to possess an
identification document issued by the United States or a
State.
(2) Requirement prior to implementation.--Subject to
subsection (a), with the exception of the probationary
benefits conferred by section 601(h) of this Act, the
provisions of subtitle C of title IV, and the admission of
aliens under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)), as amended by
title IV, the programs established by title IV, and the
programs established by title VI that grant legal status to
any individual or that adjust the current status of any
individual who is unlawfully present in the United States to
that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence,
may not become effective until the date that the Secretary
submits a written certification to the President and Congress
that the requirement set out in paragraph (1) is being
carried out.
(3) Rule of construction.--Nothing in paragraph (1) may be
construed--
(A) to limit the acquisition of information as otherwise
provided by law; or
(B) to require a person to disclose information regarding
an individual's immigration status prior to the provision of
emergency medical assistance.
______
SA 1474. Mr. REID submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1348, to provide for comprehensive immigration
reform and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:
Insert before section 426 the following:
SEC. 425A. BLANKET PETITIONS TO SPONSOR INTERNATIONAL
ATHLETES AND PERFORMERS.
Section 214(c)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8
U.S.C. 1184(c)(4)) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(F)(i) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide
for a procedure under which a petitioner for aliens described
in section 101(a)(15)(P) may file a blanket petition to
import such aliens (including their essential support
personnel) as nonimmigrants described in such section instead
of filing individual petitions under paragraph (1) to import
such aliens. Such procedure shall permit the expedited
processing of visas for admission of aliens covered under
such a petition.
``(ii) A petitioner may file such a blanket petition
seeking continuing approval to import the aliens as described
in clause (i), for itself and some or all of its parent
organizations, branches, subsidiaries, and affiliates
(collectively referred to in this subparagraph as `qualifying
organizations'), if--
``(I) the petitioner has an office in the United States
where the petitioner has been doing business for not less
than 1 year; and
``(II) the petitioner and the petitioner's qualifying
organizations--
``(aa) have obtained approval of petitions under paragraph
(1) for at least 10 aliens described in section 101(a)(15)(P)
during the previous 12 months;
``(bb) have worldwide combined annual sales of at least
$5,000,000; or
``(cc) have a United States workforce of at least 500
employees.
``(iii) A petitioner that meets the requirements of clause
(ii) may request a blanket advisory opinion from a labor
organization described in paragraph (6)(A)(iii).
``(iv) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the question of
importing any alien under a petition described in this
subparagraph shall be determined by the Secretary of Homeland
Security.
``(v) United States consular officers shall have authority
to determine eligibility of individual aliens outside the
United States seeking admission under blanket petitions filed
under this subparagraph for aliens described in section
101(a)(15)(P), except for visa-exempt nonimmigrants. Visa-
exempt nonimmigrants may seek a determination of such
eligibility from an authorized Department of Homeland
Security officer at a United States port of entry.
``(G) A petition approved under subparagraph (F) for an
alien described in section 101(a)(15)(P) shall be valid for
an initial period of time determined by the Secretary of
Homeland Security, which shall not exceed 2 years.''.
______
SA 1475. Mr. DURBIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 1409 submitted by Mr. Schumer (for himself and Mrs.
Hutchison) and intended to be proposed to the bill S. 1348, to provide
for comprehensive immigration reform and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
On page 6, after line 12 of the amendment, insert the
following:
(d) Fee for Recapture of Unused Employment-Based Immigrant
Visas.--Section 106(d) of the American Competitiveness in the
Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-313; 8
U.S.C. 1153 note), as amended by subsection (c)(1), is
further amended by adding at the end the following:
``(5) Fee for recapture of unused employment-based
immigrant visas.--
``(A) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
impose a fee upon each petitioning employer who uses a visa
recaptured from fiscal years 1996 and 1997 under this
subsection to provide employment for an alien as a
professional nurse, provided that--
``(i) such fee shall be in the amount of $1,500 for each
such alien nurse (but not for dependents accompanying or
following to join who are not professional nurses); and
``(ii) no fee shall be imposed for the use of such visas if
the employer demonstrates to the Secretary that--
``(I) the employer is a health care facility that is
located in a county or parish that received individual and
public assistance pursuant to Major Disaster Declaration
number 1603 or 1607; or
``(II) the employer is a health care facility that has been
designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area facility by
the Secretary of Health and Human Services as defined in
section 332 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C.
254e).
``(B) Fee collection.--A fee imposed by the Secretary of
Homeland Security pursuant to this paragraph shall be
collected by the Secretary as a condition of approval of an
application for adjustment of status by the beneficiary of a
petition or by the Secretary of State as a condition of
issuance of a visa to such beneficiary.''.
(e) Domestic Nursing Enhancement Account.--Section 286 of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1356) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(w) Domestic Nursing Enhancement Account.--
``(1) Establishment.--There is established in the general
fund of the Treasury a separate account which shall be known
as the `Domestic Nursing Enhancement Account.'
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, there shall be
deposited as offsetting receipts into the account all fees
collected under section 106(d)(5) of the American
Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000
(Public Law 106-313; 8 U.S.C. 1153 note). Nothing in this
subsection shall prohibit the depositing of other moneys into
the account established under this section.
``(2) Use of funds.--Amounts collected under section
106(d)(5) of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first
Century Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-313; 8 U.S.C. 1153 note),
and deposited into the account established under paragraph
(1) shall be used by the Secretary of Health and Human
Services to carry out section 832 of the Public Health
Service Act. Such amounts shall be available for obligation
only to the extent, and in the amount, provided in advance in
appropriations Acts. Such amounts are authorized to remain
available until expended.''.
(f) Capitation Grants to Increase the Number of Nursing
Faculty and Students.--Part D of title VIII of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 296p et seq.) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 832. CAPITATION GRANTS.
``(a) In General.--For the purpose described in subsection
(b), the Secretary, acting through the Health Resources and
Services Administration, shall award a grant each fiscal year
in an amount determined in accordance with subsection (c) to
each eligible school of nursing that submits an application
in accordance with this section.
``(b) Purpose.--A funding agreement for a grant under this
section is that the eligible school of nursing involved will
expend the
[[Page 14941]]
grant to increase the number of nursing faculty and students
at the school, including by hiring new faculty, retaining
current faculty, purchasing educational equipment and
audiovisual laboratories, enhancing clinical laboratories,
repairing and expanding infrastructure, or recruiting
students.
``(c) Grant Computation.--
``(1) Amount per student.--Subject to paragraph (2), the
amount of a grant to an eligible school of nursing under this
section for a fiscal year shall be the total of the
following:
``(A) $1,800 for each full-time or part-time student who is
enrolled at the school in a graduate program in nursing
that--
``(i) leads to a masters degree, a doctoral degree, or an
equivalent degree; and
``(ii) prepares individuals to serve as faculty through
additional course work in education and ensuring competency
in an advanced practice area.
``(B) $1,405 for each full-time or part-time student who--
``(i) is enrolled at the school in a program in nursing
leading to a bachelor of science degree, a bachelor of
nursing degree, a graduate degree in nursing if such program
does not meet the requirements of subparagraph (A), or an
equivalent degree; and
``(ii) has not more than 3 years of academic credits
remaining in the program.
``(C) $966 for each full-time or part-time student who is
enrolled at the school in a program in nursing leading to an
associate degree in nursing or an equivalent degree.
``(2) Limitation.--In calculating the amount of a grant to
a school under paragraph (1), the Secretary may not make a
payment with respect to a particular student--
``(A) for more than 2 fiscal years in the case of a student
described in paragraph (1)(A) who is enrolled in a graduate
program in nursing leading to a master's degree or an
equivalent degree;
``(B) for more than 4 fiscal years in the case of a student
described in paragraph (1)(A) who is enrolled in a graduate
program in nursing leading to a doctoral degree or an
equivalent degree;
``(C) for more than 3 fiscal years in the case of a student
described in paragraph (1)(B); or
``(D) for more than 2 fiscal years in the case of a student
described in paragraph (1)(C).
``(d) Eligibility.--In this section, the term `eligible
school of nursing' means a school of nursing that--
``(1) is accredited by a nursing accrediting agency
recognized by the Secretary of Education;
``(2) has a passage rate on the National Council Licensure
Examination for Registered Nurses of not less than 80 percent
for each of the 3 academic years preceding submission of the
grant application; and
``(3) has a graduation rate (based on the number of
students in a class who graduate relative to, for a
baccalaureate program, the number of students who were
enrolled in the class at the beginning of junior year or, for
an associate degree program, the number of students who were
enrolled in the class at the end of the first year) of not
less than 80 percent for each of the 3 academic years
preceding submission of the grant application.
``(e) Requirements.--The Secretary may award a grant under
this section to an eligible school of nursing only if the
school gives assurances satisfactory to the Secretary that,
for each academic year for which the grant is awarded, the
school will comply with the following:
``(1) The school will maintain a passage rate on the
National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses
of not less than 80 percent.
``(2) The school will maintain a graduation rate (as
described in subsection (d)(3)) of not less than 80 percent.
``(3)(A) Subject to subparagraphs (B) and (C), the first-
year enrollment of full-time nursing students in the school
will exceed such enrollment for the preceding academic year
by 5 percent or 5 students, whichever is greater.
``(B) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to the first
academic year for which a school receives a grant under this
section.
``(C) With respect to any academic year, the Secretary may
waive application of subparagraph (A) if--
``(i) the physical facilities at the school involved limit
the school from enrolling additional students; or
``(ii) the school has increased enrollment in the school
(as described in subparagraph (A)) for each of the 2
preceding academic years.
``(4) Not later than 1 year after receiving a grant under
this section, the school will formulate and implement a plan
to accomplish at least 2 of the following:
``(A) Establishing or significantly expanding an
accelerated baccalaureate degree nursing program designed to
graduate new nurses in 12 to 18 months.
``(B) Establishing cooperative intradisciplinary education
among schools of nursing with a view toward shared use of
technological resources, including information technology.
``(C) Establishing cooperative interdisciplinary training
between schools of nursing and schools of allied health,
medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, optometry, podiatry,
pharmacy, public health, or veterinary medicine, including
training for the use of the interdisciplinary team approach
to the delivery of health services.
``(D) Integrating core competencies on evidence-based
practice, quality improvements, and patient-centered care.
``(E) Increasing admissions, enrollment, and retention of
qualified individuals who are financially disadvantaged.
``(F) Increasing enrollment of minority and diverse student
populations.
``(G) Increasing enrollment of new graduate baccalaureate
nursing students in graduate programs that educate nurse
faculty members.
``(H) Developing post-baccalaureate residency programs to
prepare nurses for practice in specialty areas where nursing
shortages are most severe.
``(I) Increasing integration of geriatric content into the
core curriculum.
``(J) Partnering with economically disadvantaged
communities to provide nursing education.
``(K) Expanding the ability of nurse managed health centers
to provide clinical education training sites to nursing
students.
``(5) The school will submit an annual report to the
Secretary that includes updated information on the school
with respect to student enrollment, student retention,
graduation rates, passage rates on the National Council
Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, the number of
graduates employed as nursing faculty or nursing care
providers within 12 months of graduation, and the number of
students who are accepted into graduate programs for further
nursing education.
``(6) The school will allow the Secretary to make on-site
inspections, and will comply with the Secretary's requests
for information, to determine the extent to which the school
is complying with the requirements of this section.
``(f) Reports to Congress.--The Secretary shall evaluate
the results of grants under this section and submit to
Congress--
``(1) not later than 18 months after the date of the
enactment of this section, an interim report on such results;
and
``(2) not later than September 30, 2010, a final report on
such results.
``(g) Application.--An eligible school of nursing seeking a
grant under this section shall submit an application to the
Secretary at such time, in such manner, and containing such
information and assurances as the Secretary may require.
``(h) Authorization of Appropriations.--In addition to the
amounts in the Domestic Nursing Enhancement Account,
established under section 286(w) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act, there are authorized to be appropriated such
sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.''.
(g) Global Health Care Cooperation.--
(1) In general.--Title III of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.) is amended by
inserting after section 317 the following:
``SEC. 317A. TEMPORARY ABSENCE OF ALIENS PROVIDING HEALTH
CARE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.
``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall allow an
eligible alien and the spouse or child of such alien to
reside in a candidate country during the period that the
eligible alien is working as a physician or other health care
worker in a candidate country. During such period the
eligible alien and such spouse or child shall be considered--
``(1) to be physically present and residing in the United
States for purposes of naturalization under section 316(a);
and
``(2) to meet the continuous residency requirements under
section 316(b).
``(b) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Candidate country.--The term `candidate country'
means a country that the Secretary of State determines to
be--
``(A) eligible for assistance from the International
Development Association, in which the per capita income of
the country is equal to or less than the historical ceiling
of the International Development Association for the
applicable fiscal year, as defined by the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development;
``(B) classified as a lower middle income country in the
then most recent edition of the World Development Report for
Reconstruction and Development published by the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development and having an income
greater than the historical ceiling for International
Development Association eligibility for the applicable fiscal
year; or
``(C) qualified to be a candidate country due to special
circumstances, including natural disasters or public health
emergencies.
``(2) Eligible alien.--The term `eligible alien' means an
alien who--
``(A) has been lawfully admitted to the United States for
permanent residence; and
``(B) is a physician or other healthcare worker.
``(c) Consultation.--The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall consult with the Secretary of State in carrying out
this section.
``(d) Publication.--The Secretary of State shall publish--
[[Page 14942]]
``(1) a list of candidate countries not later than 6 months
after the date of the enactment of the Improving America's
Security Act of 2007, and annually thereafter; and
``(2) an amendment to the list described in paragraph (1)
at the time any country qualifies as a candidate country due
to special circumstances under subsection (b)(1)(C).''.
(2) Rulemaking.--
(A) Requirement.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall promulgate
regulations to carry out the amendments made by this
subsection.
(B) Content.--The regulations promulgated pursuant to
subparagraph (A) shall--
(i) permit an eligible alien (as defined in section 317A of
the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by paragraph
(1)) and the spouse or child of the eligible alien to reside
in a foreign country to work as a physician or other
healthcare worker as described in subsection (a) of such
section 317A for not less than a 12-month period and not more
than a 24-month period, and shall permit the Secretary to
extend such period for an additional period not to exceed 12
months, if the Secretary determines that such country has a
continuing need for such a physician or other healthcare
worker;
(ii) provide for the issuance of documents by the Secretary
to such eligible alien, and such spouse or child, if
appropriate, to demonstrate that such eligible alien, and
such spouse or child, if appropriate, is authorized to reside
in such country under such section 317A; and
(iii) provide for an expedited process through which the
Secretary shall review applications for such an eligible
alien to reside in a foreign country pursuant to subsection
(a) of such section 317A if the Secretary of State determines
a country is a candidate country pursuant to subsection
(b)(1)(C) of such section 317A.
(3) Technical and conforming amendments.--
(A) Definition.--Section 101(a)(13)(C)(ii) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(13)(C)(ii))
is amended by adding at the end the following: ``except in
the case of an eligible alien, or the spouse or child of such
alien, who is authorized to be absent from the United States
under section 317A,''.
(B) Documentary requirements.--Section 211(b) of such Act
(8 U.S.C. 1181(b)) is amended by inserting ``, including an
eligible alien authorized to reside in a foreign country
under section 317A and the spouse or child of such eligible
alien, if appropriate,'' after ``101(a)(27)(A),''.
(C) Ineligible aliens.--Section 212(a)(7)(A)(i)(I) of such
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(7)(A)(i)(I)) is amended by inserting
``other than an eligible alien authorized to reside in a
foreign country under section 317A and the spouse or child of
such eligible alien, if appropriate,'' after ``Act,''.
(D) Naturalization.--Section 319(b) of such Act (8 U.S.C.
1430(b)) is amended by inserting ``an eligible alien who is
residing or has resided in a foreign country under section
317A'' before ``and (C)''.
(E) Clerical amendment.--The table of contents of such Act
is amended by inserting after the item relating to section
317 the following:
``Sec. 317A. Temporary absence of aliens providing health care in
developing countries''.
(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services such sums as may be necessary to carry
out this subsection and the amendments made by this
subsection.
(h) Attestation by Health Care Workers.--
(1) Attestation requirement.--Section 212(a)(5) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(5)) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(E) Health care workers with other obligations.--
``(i) In general.--An alien who seeks to enter the United
States for the purpose of performing labor as a physician or
other health care worker is inadmissible unless the alien
submits to the Secretary of Homeland Security or the
Secretary of State, as appropriate, an attestation that the
alien is not seeking to enter the United States for such
purpose during any period in which the alien has an
outstanding obligation to the government of the alien's
country of origin or the alien's country of residence.
``(ii) Obligation defined.--In this subparagraph, the term
`obligation' means an obligation incurred as part of a valid,
voluntary individual agreement in which the alien received
financial assistance to defray the costs of education or
training to qualify as a physician or other health care
worker in consideration for a commitment to work as a
physician or other health care worker in the alien's country
of origin or the alien's country of residence.
``(iii) Waiver.--The Secretary of Homeland Security may
waive a finding of inadmissibility under clause (i) if the
Secretary determines that--
``(I) the obligation was incurred by coercion or other
improper means;
``(II) the alien and the government of the country to which
the alien has an outstanding obligation have reached a valid,
voluntary agreement, pursuant to which the alien's obligation
has been deemed satisfied, or the alien has shown to the
satisfaction of the Secretary that the alien has been unable
to reach such an agreement because of coercion or other
improper means; or
``(III) the obligation should not be enforced due to other
extraordinary circumstances, including undue hardship that
would be suffered by the alien in the absence of a waiver.''.
(2) Effective date; application.--
(A) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1)
shall take effect on the date that is 180 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act.
(B) Application by the secretary.--Not later than the
effective date described in subparagraph (A), the Secretary
shall begin to carry out subparagraph (E) of section
212(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1182(a)(5)), including the requirement for the attestation
and the granting of a waiver described in clause (iii) of
such subparagraph (E), regardless of whether regulations to
implement such subparagraph have been promulgated.
____________________
AUTHORITY FOR COMMITTEES TO MEET
committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet
during the session of the Senate on June 6, 2007, at 10 a.m., to
conduct a hearing entitled ``Paying for College: The Role of Private
Student Lending.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Committee on Environment and Public Works
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet in
order to conduct a business meeting during the session of the Senate on
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 at 10 a.m. in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate
Office Building.
The business meeting will consider the following agenda:
S. 506, the High Performance Green Buildings Act of 2007;
H.R. 1195, SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act;
H.R. 798, a bill to direct the Administrator of General Services to
install a photovoltaic system for the headquarters building of the
Department of Energy;
S. 635, the Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2007;
S. 1523, the Capitol power plant carbon dioxide emissions reduction
demonstration project bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Committee on Finance
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the
Senate on Wednesday, June 6, 2007, at 10 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate
Office Building, to hear testimony on ``Trade and Globalization:
Adjustment for a 21st Century Workforce.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Committee on the Judiciary
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senate
Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a hearing
entitled ``Patent Reform: The Future of American Innovation'' on
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 at 10 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building
Room 226.
Witness list
Panel I: The Honorable Jon W. Dudas, Undersecretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office,
Department of Commerce, Alexandria, VA;
Panel II: Mr. Bruce G. Bernstein, Chief Intellectual Property and
Licensing Officer, InterDigital Communications Corporation, King of
Prussia, PA; Ms. Mary Doyle, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and
Secretary, Palm, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA; Mr. John A. Squires, Chief
Intellectual Property Counsel, Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York, NY; Ms.
Kathryn L. Biberstein, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and
Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer, Alkermes, Inc., Cambridge, MA.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
[[Page 14943]]
Subcommittee on Water and Power
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Subcommittee on Water and Power of the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources be authorized to hold a hearing during the session of the
Senate on Wednesday, June 6, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. in room SD-366 of the
Dirksen Senate Office Building. The purpose of the hearing is to
receive testimony on the impacts of climate change on water supply and
availability in the United States, and related issues from a water use
perspective.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that floor
privileges be granted to Julie Blanks, a legislative fellow in my
office, for the remainder of today's session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
APPOINTMENT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair, on behalf of the Vice President,
pursuant to 22 U.S.C. 276h-276k, as amended, appoints the Senator from
Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, as a member of the Senate Delegation to the
Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Group conference for the first session
of the 110th Congress.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE EFFORTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE
MONUMENTS, FINE ARTS, AND ARCHIVES PROGRAM UNDER THE CIVIL AFFAIRS AND
MILITARY GOVERNMENT SECTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 223, which was
submitted earlier today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 223) recognizing the efforts and
contributions of the members of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and
Archives program under the Civil Affairs and Military
Government Sections of the United States Armed Forces during
and following World War II who were responsible for the
preservation, protection, and restitution of artistic and
cultural treasures in countries occupied by the Allied
armies.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to
reconsider be laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 223) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 223
Whereas the United States Government established the
American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of
Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas in 1943 to
promote and coordinate the protection and salvage of works of
art and cultural and historical monuments and records in
countries occupied by Allied armies during World War II;
Whereas the American Commission for the Protection and
Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas is
also known as the Roberts Commission, in honor of its
chairman, Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts;
Whereas, in connection with the establishment of the
Roberts Commission, the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives
program (MFAA) was established under the Civil Affairs and
Military Government Sections of the United States Armed
Forces;
Whereas the establishment of the Roberts Commission and the
MFAA provided an example for other countries, working in
conjunction with the United States, to develop similar
programs, and more than 100 foreign MFAA personnel,
representing at least seventeen countries, contributed to
this international effort;
Whereas the MFAA was comprised of both men and women,
commissioned officers and civilians, who were appointed or
volunteered to serve as representatives of the Roberts
Commission and as the official guardians of some of the
world's greatest artistic and cultural treasures;
Whereas members of the MFAA, called the ``Monuments Men'',
often joined frontline military forces and some even lost
their lives in combat during World War II;
Whereas, during World War II and for years following the
Allied victory, members of the MFAA worked tirelessly to
locate, identify, catalogue, restore, and repatriate
priceless works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts,
including masterpieces by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt,
and Vermeer, that had been stolen or sequestered by the Axis
powers;
Whereas the heroic actions of the MFAA in saving priceless
works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts for future
generations cannot be overstated, and set a moral precedent
and established standards, practices, and procedures for the
preservation, protection, and restitution of artistic and
cultural treasures in future armed conflicts;
Whereas members of the MFAA went on to become renowned
directors and curators of preeminent international cultural
institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the
Toledo Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, as
well as professors at institutions of higher education,
including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton
University, New York University, Williams College, and
Columbia University;
Whereas other members of the MFAA were founders,
presidents, and members of associations such as the New York
City Ballet, the American Association of Museums, the
American Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological
Institute of America, the Society of Architectural
Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the
National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National
Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected artists,
architects, musicians, and archivists; and
Whereas members of the MFAA have never been collectively
honored for their service and contributions to humanity, and
they are deserving of the utmost acknowledgment, gratitude,
and recognition, in particular the 12 known Monuments Men who
are still alive: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) recognizes the men and women who served in the
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) under the
Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the United
States Armed Forces for their heroic role in the
preservation, protection, and restitution of monuments, works
of art, and other artifacts of inestimable cultural
importance in Europe and Asia during and following World War
II;
(2) recognizes that without their dedication and service,
many more of the world's artistic and historic treasures
would have been destroyed or lost forever amidst the chaos
and destruction of World War II;
(3) acknowledges that the detailed catalogues,
documentation, inventories, and photographs developed and
compiled by MFAA personnel during and following World War II
have made and continue to make possible the restitution of
stolen works of art to their rightful owners; and
(4) commends and extols the members of the MFAA for
establishing a precedent for action to protect cultural
property in the event of armed conflict, and by their action
setting a standard not just for one country, but for people
of all nations to acknowledge and uphold.
____________________
ORDERS FOR THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2007
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the
Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m.,
later today, Thursday, June 7; that later today, on Thursday, following
the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date,
the morning hour be deemed expired, and the time for the two leaders
reserved for their use later in the day; that the Senate then resume
consideration of S. 1348 and there then be an hour of debate equally
divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees for
debate to run concurrently with respect to the Coburn amendment No.
1311, as modified, and the motion to invoke cloture on the substitute
amendment; that no amendments be in order to the Coburn amendment prior
to the vote; and that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate
proceed to vote in relation to the Coburn amendment No. 1311, as
modified; that upon disposition of the Coburn amendment, without
further intervening action or debate, the Senate proceed to vote on the
motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment; that Members have
until 10:30 a.m. to file any germane second-degree amendments.
[[Page 14944]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
ADJOURNMENT UNTIL 10 A.M. TOMORROW
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, if there is no further business today,
I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the
previous order.
There being no objection, the Senate, at 12:41 a.m., adjourned until
Thursday, June 7, 2007, at 10 a.m.
____________________
DISCHARGED NOMINATION
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
was discharged from further consideration of the following nomination
and the nomination was placed on the Executive Calendar pursuant to an
order of the Senate of January 9, 2007:
*MICHAEL W. TANKERSLEY, OF TEXAS, TO BE INSPECTOR GENERAL,
EXPORT-IMPORT BANK.
*NOMINEE HAS COMMITTED TO RESPOND TO REQUESTS TO APPEAR AND
TESTIFY BEFORE ANY DULY CONSTITUTED COMMITTEE OF THE SENATE.
[[Page 14945]]
EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS
____________________
TRIBUTE TO FORMER CONGRESSMAN EARL LEE HOGAN
______
HON. BARON P. HILL
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, on Sunday night, June 3, 2007, the U.S.
House of Representatives lost one of its own, a distinguished gentleman
from southern Indiana. Former Congressman Earl Lee Hogan passed away
Sunday evening, leaving behind a notable career of public service to
Hoosiers. Born in 1920 in Hope, Indiana, Earl Hogan represented the
Ninth District of southern Indiana from 1959 to 1961. As a young man,
Congressman Hogan served his country as a bombardier on a B-17 in the
Air Force, from 1940 to 1945. During his Air Force career, he was
awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and Air Medal
with three oak leaf clusters. Congressman Hogan had a long career in
law enforcement in Bartholomew County, serving first as deputy sheriff
and then sheriff. Following his congressional service, Congressman
Hogan took several positions focusing on rural development and
agricultural issues. I thank Congressman Hogan and his family for their
commitment and dedication to public service and all that they have
given to the people of Southern Indiana. Congressman Hogan will be
missed, but he leaves behind a record of service that speaks volumes
about this honorable man.
____________________
RECOGNIZING BENJAMIN JAMES DUDDY FOR THE AWARD OF EAGLE SCOUT
______
HON. SAM GRAVES
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Benjamin
Duddy, a very special young man who has exemplified the finest
qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the
Boy Scouts of America, Troop 444, and by earning the most prestigious
award of Eagle Scout.
Benjamin has been very active with his troop, participating in many
Scout activities. Over the years Benjamin has been involved in
Scouting, he has earned 28 merit badges and held numerous leadership
positions, serving as Assistant Senior Patrol, Den Chief, and Troop
Scribe. Ryan is also a member of the Tribe of Mic-O-Say. His tribal
name is Little Silent Stalking Snowy Owl. Ben is also a Brotherhood
member of the Order of the Arrow.
For his Eagle Scout project, Benjamin constructed over 160 feet of
fencing around a fishing pond. This safety fencing was erected to allow
handicapped campers access to enjoy the pond and minimize the danger of
accidentally entering the water. The project included distribution of 4
tons of gravel and reconstructing trail access to the pond. All of
Benjamin's hard work took place at the Tall Oaks Youth Camp in Linwood,
Kansas.
Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Benjamin
Duddy for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America and
achieving the highest distinction of Eagle Scout.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. JAMES L. OBERSTAR
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, last month the House of Representatives
voted on important legislation including VA health care bills, lobbying
reform legislation, and amendments to the fiscal year 2007 supplemental
appropriations bill.
During the consideration of these bills, I was in Minnesota to attend
the funeral Mass for my uncle, Frank Oberstar.
Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the motion to
recommit to H.R. 1100 (rollcall vote 408); I would have voted ``aye''
on H.R. 1100 (rollcall vote 409); I would have voted ``aye'' on H.R.
67, ``Veterans Outreach Improvement Act'' (rollcall vote 410); I would
have voted ``aye'' on H.R. 612, ``Returning Servicemember VA Healthcare
Insurance Act'' (rollcall vote 411); I would have voted ``aye'' on H.R.
1470, ``Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act'' (rollcall
vote 412); I would have voted ``aye'' on H.R. 2199 ``Traumatic Brain
Injury Health Enhancement and Long-Term Support Act'' (rollcall vote
413); I would have voted ``aye'' on H.R. 2239, ``Early Access to
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits Act'' (rollcall vote
414).
I would have voted ``aye'' to order the previous question on H. Res.
427 (rollcall vote 415); I would have voted ``aye'' to approve H. Res.
427 (rollcall vote 416). I would have voted ``aye'' to order the
previous question on H. Res. 438 (rollcall vote 417), and I would have
voted ``aye'' on H. Res. 438 (rollcall vote 418).
I would have voted ``nay'' on the Smith motion to recommit with
instructions on H.R. 2317 (rollcall vote 419); I would have voted
``aye'' on passage on H.R. 2317 (rollcall vote 420); I would have voted
``aye'' on the Conyers amendment to H.R. 2316 (rollcall vote 421); I
would have voted ``aye'' on the Chabot motion to recommit with
instructions on H.R. 2318 (rollcall vote 422); I would have voted
``aye'' on passage on H.R. 2316 (rollcall vote 423).
Because of my strong support for important and necessary funding for
VA health care; necessary assistance for the Gulf region and U.S.
farmers, and my support for an increase in the minimum wage, I would
have voted ``aye'' on House Amendment 1 to H.R. 2206, the fiscal year
2007 supplemental appropriations bill (rollcall vote 424. Because House
Amendment 2 to H.R. 2206 failed to provide reasonable accountability
provisions to measure the Administration's Iraq policy, I would have
voted ``nay'' on rollcall 425.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO MR. KIRTI DESAI
______
HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I would like to take the time to
recognize the most recent achievement of an outstanding member of the
New Jersey community, Mr. Kirti Desai. In a ceremony on Ellis Island on
Saturday May 12, 2007, NECO presented Mr. Desai with the Ellis Island
Medal of Honor.
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor recognizes individuals from diverse
ethnic backgrounds who have successfully maintained their cultural
heritage and traditions while making outstanding achievements in their
communities, personal lives, and professional endeavors. Since 1986 the
Ellis Island Medal of Honor has been sponsored by NECO, a non-profit
organization with a mission ``to honor our diverse Past, to advocate
for positive change in the Present, and to build strong leaders for the
Future.''
For over twenty years U.S. Presidents, artists, athletes,
businessmen, entrepreneurs, and humanitarians have been recognized with
this prestigious award. In receiving this award, Mr. Desai ranks among
an impressive list of past medalist recipients ranging from former
President Bill Clinton to famed athlete Muhammad Ali. With his own list
of notable achievements, Mr. Desai is well deserved in finding a place
among these outstanding Americans.
Mr. Kirti Desai, better known as Kenny, is the President, CEO, and
founder of TAK Group of Companies. With a Master's Degree in Civil
Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, a hard-work ethic,
and unstoppable determination, Mr. Desai built his business from the
ground up. Mr. Desai continued to expand his business into a
conglomerate encompassing an increasing number of markets, eventually
forming TAK Construction, TAK International, TAK Realty and Investment
Company, and Sycamore Manor.
While it is one thing to establish a business, it is quite another to
receive continuous recognition for its quality and success. In this
regard, Mr. Desai's companies have been recognized with the New York
and New Jersey Port Authority's Construction Company of the Year Award
and SBA Construction Award
[[Page 14946]]
from Washington, D.C. under the Clinton Administration. Successful
businesses such as these result from exceptional qualities of the
individuals behind them.
As an active member of a number of various philanthropic
organizations, Mr. Desai is as relentless in his commitment to his
community as he is to his business companies. Somewhere between
managing his business enterprises and raising three children, Mr. Desai
is a leader in cultural and educational institutions including serving
as a Director and Board member of the Bharitya Vidya Bhavan; the
Chairman of the Indian Culture Society of Union, New Jersey, and the
President of Vraj. He has even been involved in aiding the completion
of the Mahatma Gandhi Center and Hindu Temple in Wayne, New Jersey.
The New Jersey State Assembly and the Township of Clark, New Jersey
have already written proclamations acknowledging Mr. Desai's remarkable
achievements in his life. It is only fitting that I now also
acknowledge Mr. Desai's most recent recognition. I would like to thank
Mr. Desai for his contributions to the New Jersey community and
congratulate him on this Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
____________________
A TRIBUTE TO BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF PASADENA
______
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Boys and Girls
Clubs of Pasadena, which will be celebrating its 70th anniversary this
year. For the past 70 years, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Pasadena have
remained committed to their motto of ``Caring for our future, one child
at a time.''
Incorporated in 1937, the Boys Club of Pasadena, a member of the
national organization, Boys Clubs of America, began by serving a
Christmas dinner for 200 underprivileged boys in a rented space in
Pasadena.
By 1953, the Boys Club membership had reached 4659, a drastic
increase from 560 only ten years earlier. In the early 1960s, several
milestones were achieved; the Boys Club acquired its own property,
joined United Way of Los Angeles and received the National Program
Award for Excellence for its Science Series Program.
Continuing to expand its services, the 1970s saw the Boys Club of
Pasadena acquiring the Slavic Branch in Pasadena, becoming Pasadena's
sponsor of the Summer Hot Lunch Program for Children, which served over
400 meals daily to club members, and the Boys Club Scholarship Program
was formally established to aid young people with vocational,
educational or fine arts pursuits.
The Boys Club of Pasadena opened the first childcare facility
operated for pre-school children by any Boys Club. The Mackenzie/Scott
Child Development Center opened in 1989 and was licensed by State of
California for 88 preschool children. In 1990, the Center was accepted
into the State of California Food Program and was formerly recognized
by the City of Pasadena for excellence in child care.
In 1990, after the Boys Clubs of America changed its name to Boys and
Girls Clubs of America, the Boys Club of Pasadena changed its name to
the Boys and Girls Clubs of Pasadena.
Hilary Crahan became Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs
of Pasadena in 2004 and under her leadership the club has continued to
emphasize both formal and informal education. Currently, over 7200
children participate at the five sites: Slavik Branch, the Mackenzie-
Scott Branch, the Scott Child Care Center, the Performing Arts Center,
and the Orange Grove Learning Center. The more than fifty academically
enriching programs include music and arts education, sports, technology
training, leadership classes, and tutoring in math, English, and
science.
It is my pleasure to honor the Boys and Girls Clubs of Pasadena on
their anniversary of 70 years of dedicated service to the youth in the
29th Congressional District. I ask all members to join me in commending
their efforts.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN PETER BOYNTON
______
HON. STEVE ISRAEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. ISRAEL. Madam. Speaker, I rise today to honor Captain Peter
Boynton. Captain Boynton will retire on June 1, 2007 after serving as
Commander of Sector for the Long Island Sound, headquartered in New
Haven, Connecticut, since June, 2004. Captain Peter Boynton has
displayed a stalwart dedication to the safety and well-being of all
those who travel on his waters and coastline for years. The Long Island
Sound Sector includes 16 field units in Connecticut and on Long Island
with 490 active duty military and civilians, 180 reservists and 1,800
volunteers with the Coast Guard Auxiliary. In his position as Captain,
Boynton has been responsible for port safety and security, search and
rescue, marine inspection and pollution response in Connecticut, Long
Island and waters 200 miles offshore.
Captain Boynton has spent 10 years at sea on six Coast Guard cutters
including the icebreaker Mackinaw, the cutter Spencer and the tall ship
Eagle. He has commanded three cutters; Escanaba in Boston, Ocracoke in
Puerto Rico, and Cape Morgan in Portland, Maine. His seagoing service
includes spending five winters patrolling Georges Bank in the Gulf of
Maine, and his Ocracoke crew seizing 23 tons of marijuana and 2 tons of
cocaine in the Caribbean Sea.
Captain Boynton served at the White House as the Director for Global
Affairs on the National Security Council staff, coordinating national
policy for drug interdiction and migrant smuggling. He was also the
senior Coast Guard liaison at the Department of State, coordinating
international Coast Guard operations with the diplomatic community. He
served as the Chief of Intelligence on a multi-agency drug task force
in New York City.
Captain Boynton holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and an Ocean Engineering degree
from the Coast Guard Academy. Captain Boynton holds an unlimited
Master's License in the Merchant Marine. His military awards include
the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal and Presidential Service
Badge.
Captain Boynton has always gone above and beyond the call of duty,
specifically when it comes to paying the utmost personal attention to
the questions and concerns of the community. He has built a reputation
for listening to problems, answering questions, and finding solutions.
He has done an excellent job protecting the people who travel on the
Long Island Sound by being accessible to hearing and responding to
their needs. I applaud Captain Peter Boynton for his contributions and
dedication to the United States Coast Guard and the Long Island Sound.
____________________
PRAISING LT. GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON'S COMMITMENT TO MINORITY AND
WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES IN NEW YORK STATE
______
HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bestow praise to Lt.
Governor David Paterson of the great state of New York for his
commitment to empowering Minority and Women-Owned Businesses (MWBE).
His initiative to start this dialogue has shown the lack of contracts
that MWBEs receive from the major agencies and authorities in the
state. Lt. Governor Paterson's leadership in this initiative will help
to improve procurement practices in New York State by ensuring that
MWBEs receive contracts that they are fully capable of performing.
Lt. Governor David Paterson's commitment to MWBEs will benefit
businesses throughout the state just as the Upper Manhattan Empowerment
Zone has done for business development, jobs, educational and health
programs, and social services in Harlem, East Harlem, Washington
Heights and Inwood. Today I enter into the Record an article published
by the New York CaribNews highlighting the efforts of Lt. Governor
Paterson for the advancement of MWBEs in New York State.
[From the New York CaribNews, May 15, 2007]
Lt. Governor Pushes Agenda To Benefit Minority & Women-Owned Businesses
Albany, NY.--Taking an important step in fulfilling a
campaign pledge to usher in a new era of accountability in
the area of state government utilization of Minority and
Women Owned Businesses, Lt. Governor David Paterson convened
a meeting of executives from the state's major agencies and
authorities. This historic gathering of state decision makers
was part of a mandate issued in an Executive Order signed by
Governor Eliot Spitzer on February 18th which, among other
things, establishes an executive Leadership Council to
examine state procurement practices and increase the
utilization of qualified MWBE's.
[[Page 14947]]
Lt. Governor Paterson, who is leading the state's efforts
to improve its MWBE program told Executive Leadership Council
members, ``Last year the state spent over $11 billion in
discretionary expenditures and MWBEs only received 3% of
state contracts. This administration will reserve the
negative inertia of the past 12 years and push to build the
capacity of MWBE firms and increase the utilization of
qualified MWBEs.''
After laying out the vision for the new MWBE initiative,
MWBE Development Executive Director Michael Jones-Bey
explained the purpose of the Executive Leadership Council
sating that, ``This will be a forum to discuss best practices
for implementation of procurement policies. It is also a
means to hold agency executives accountable for compliance
with state MWBE procurement laws.''
For many in attendance the highlight of the meeting was
where agency executives made their presentations. Each
executive delivered a PowerPoint presentation reporting their
agency's previous quarterly utilization of MWBEs for
expenditures in the areas of construction, construction
consulting, commodities, and services. This was followed by a
presentation of their goals. This unprecedented public airing
of MWBE agency performance was followed by a general group
discussion of ways to tackle some of the common problems
encountered by agency executives.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO DR. JACOB EAPEN
______
HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. STARK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dr. Jacob
Eapen on being the 2007 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
Dr. Eapen, a resident of Fremont, California, is a pediatrician who has
spent countless hours through the years in community service. When he
hasn't been serving on various boards in or near Fremont, he has
provided medical assistance statewide and overseas. He has spent more
than 25 years giving back to a world too often in need.
His endless work has earned him local, state and national
recognition. His most recent award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, is
a prestigious honor given annually by the New York-based National
Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. The medal celebrates the immigrant
experience and seeks to honor Americans from a wide variety of
backgrounds for their positive and lasting imprint on society.
In previous years, the medal has been awarded to six U.S. presidents;
courageous heroes who created positive social change such as Rosa Parks
and Elie Wiesel and athletes, including Muhammad Ali. He is one of just
six Indo-Americans and one of 12 Californians to receive the Ellis
Island Medal of Honor this year.
Dr. Eapen was born in Trivandrum, Kerala, in southern India where he
grew up and received his medical degree. He earned his master's degree
in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. He spent
five years in Sub-Saharan Africa as a teacher and physician. He recalls
his days in Africa where he would arrive at the medical clinic at 8
a.m. and find 150 people waiting in line for medical help, including
some who had walked for hours. This experience fueled his passion to
value life and to make a difference in the lives of others.
He is currently an elected member of the Washington Hospital board of
directors and works as a practicing pediatrician in Newark with Alameda
County Health Services. Dr. Eapen has previously served as a board
member of the Association of California Healthcare Districts, medical
director of a local health care clinic, Alameda County public health
commissioner, U.N. high commissioner for refugees in the Philippines,
and as an adviser to Alameda County's Every Child Counts Commission. In
2004, he received the Medical Board of California's First Physicians
award.
I join Dr. Eapen's friends and admirers in congratulating him on
receiving his most recent award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. It is
well deserved and a fitting symbol of his endless commitment and
contributions to make a better life for others.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO RICHARD PATTENAUDE
______
HON. MICHAEL H. MICHAUD
of maine
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. MICHAUD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Richard
Pattenaude on the occasion of his being named chancellor of Maine's
public university system, after 16 years of dedicated service to the
University of Southern Maine. Richard's service to USM was
extraordinary, and I join his many friends, coworkers and the students
he taught in wishing him the best of luck in the next phase of his
career.
Richard's service to public education began in 1972, when he took a
job teaching political science at Colorado State University. His
service to Maine's educational system began in 1991 when he became
president of the University of Southern Maine.
Under his leadership, the University grew substantially in the
classroom. Richard helped to add 12 new undergraduate, 5 masters and 2
doctorate programs to the course catalog, he rewrote the University's
mission statement, and he led in the creation of the University's first
and second strategic plans. Richard's influence extended beyond the
classroom, however, and he made major contributions to improve USM's
campus. He constructed over 75 million dollars worth of state of the
art buildings and created more than 12 educational institutes--
including the Multi-Cultural Student Center and the Center for
Entrepreneurship--which responded to community needs.
Richard was truly successful in living up to his motto during his
time with Southern Maine--he ``worked hard, did well, had fun.'' His
leadership as the University's president will be missed, but the school
can rest assured knowing he will still be working diligently to make
Maine's public university system better for future generations of
students.
____________________
IN TRIBUTE TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL DONALD J. WETEKAM
______
HON. JIM MARSHALL
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. MARSHALL. Madam Speaker, I rise today as co-Chair of the Air
Force Caucus to honor Lieutenant General Donald J. Wetekam, Deputy
Chief of Staff for Installations and Logistics, for his long and
exceptionally distinguished military career.
General Wetekam entered the Air Force in June 1973 after graduating
from the U.S. Air Force Academy. A career logistics officer, Don has
commanded three maintenance squadrons, a logistics group and a
logistics center. He has served staff tours at both major command and
Air Staff levels, and served as Chairman, Army and Air Force Exchange
Service Board of Directors.
General Wetekam was responsible for leadership, management and
integration of Air Force civil engineering, security forces, logistics
readiness, supply, transportation, and aircraft and missile
maintenance, as well as setting policy and preparing budget estimates
that reflect enhancements to productivity, combat readiness and quality
of life for Air Force people.
Most importantly for the state of Georgia, General Wetekam served as
Commander, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB from 2002-
2004. I watched as he created an excellent team atmosphere that led to
use of LEAN and the introduction of unprecedented efficiencies at
Robins. This model was the precursor to such efficiencies throughout
the Air Force, culminating with Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st
Century (AFSO 21).
Finally, Madam Speaker, I should note for the record that, although
he has received numerous military awards, Don's Blues Brothers
imitation is rumored to be quite special. A mutual friend told me it's
the best he's ever seen, particularly the dance routine in ``the very
small, black pants.'' But that same friend added that he'd seen the
routine twice, which was ``to be honest, one time too many.'' So I'd
guess Don's second career won't stray too far from his current day job.
No doubt he will maintain his interest in running and NASCAR. He and
his wonderful wife Sherrie are community-oriented folks who are
involved in various charities. I hope they settle in Middle Georgia
where they will always be welcome. If they do, I'll run with Don, maybe
catch some NASCAR but certainly skip the Blues Brothers.
____________________
RECOGNIZING MILDRED AND LESTER GUDGELL
______
HON. SAM GRAVES
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize two
outstanding constituents of Missouri's 6th Congressional District:
Mildred and Lester Gudgell of Meadville, Missouri. Mildred and Lester
will celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary on June 7, 2007.
[[Page 14948]]
Mildred and Lester were married on June 7, 1947 in Trenton, Missouri.
They have raised five children: Nancy, Peggy, Benny, Paul and Ray, who
is now deceased.
Mildred and Lester Gudgell have been outstanding citizens of
Meadville and Northwest Missouri. They are dedicated and active members
of their community.
Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Mildred
and Lester Gudgell. Their marriage of 60 years is inspirational, and I
am honored to represent them in the United States Congress.
____________________
HONORING THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS
______
HON. BOB FILNER
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize and honor the National
Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 70 for receiving the
Volunteer Dedication Award given by The San Diego-Imperial Counties,
AFL-CIO.
NALC Branch 70 was chartered in 1970, and has had a tradition of
volunteering for charities, food drives, and legislative actions.
Unfortunately, due to the Hatch Act of 1939, the working letter
carrier was prevented from taking any significant volunteer role in
partisan political campaigns until 1993 when the Hatch Act was
reformed.
NALC Branch 70, the United States Postal Service (USPS), along with
the help of many other unions work together every year (on the 2nd
Saturday of May) to collect food from our customers for those in our
communities who are in need. This year will mark the 15th anniversary
of the NALC Food Drive.
In 1982 the NALC Branch 70 and the USPS established a national
program called Carrier Alert, of which Branch 70 is a member. This
program, in simple terms, allows elderly and disabled customers to sign
up for special attention from their letter carriers. When letter
carriers suspect there is trouble they report it. One phone call could
save a life; and in fact, lives have been saved through this program.
The neighborhood letter carrier is always eager to help monitor the
well-being of their customers. It is what letter carriers across the
Nation do every day, with or without a formal program.
NALC Branch 70 and the USPS once a year also work with the Lions Club
International by collecting eye glasses which are used to distribute to
the poor throughout the world and was awarded the International Order
of The Lion in 2005 by the Lions Club.
NALC Branch 70 understands it is not just about working together to
help their own union, but working together with others so that everyone
can have a better life. This is why the NALC Branch 70 is such a proud
and distinguished member of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor
Council.
____________________
IN HONOR OF THE STUDENT GRADUATES OF PARAMUS' D.A.R.E. PROGRAM AT WEST
BROOK MIDDLE SCHOOL
______
HON. SCOTT GARRETT
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, today, the Paramus Police
Department will hold its D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony with the students
of West Brook Middle School. More than 150 students are participating
in this important program that gives young people the support they need
to say no to drugs, underage drinking, and gang violence.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., began as a small
program in Los Angeles in 1983. Today, it is implemented in more than
75 percent of our Nation's school districts and in more than 43 other
nations. It uses positive peer pressure to help children defeat the
negative cultural influences that bombard them daily.
I am proud of the young boys and girls who participated in this
program at West Brook Middle School, and I would like to recognize them
all for taking this step toward positive citizenship:
Breanne Babin, Nicole Becker, Tamar Beylerian, Isabella Blanco-Rivas,
Nicholas Bushman, Julia Castronovo, Deborah Daoud, Arnold De Masi,
Anthony Gallo, Tiffany Hsiung, Alisha Jadhav, Stephen McGuire, Lauren
Mihalik, Christina Muller, Hayley Niland, Aisling O'Connor, Justin
Ordonez, Jacqueline Paizis, Kevin Perusse, Kimberly Portes, Nicholas
Ruso, Zacky Sungkar, Daniel Toppo, Maxwell Wagner, Matthew Warren,
Nadia Admani, Christopher Akdemir, Emily Aranda, Varun Bhatt, Miranda
Campbell, Gabriel Cepeda, Divya Dasani, Nadine Haddad, Connor Hagen,
Noel Hodgins, Brittany Hovan, Kwon-Sung Jung, Kathleen McGee, Leah
Paterno-Olivari, Michael Piquero, Brian Polsky, Diego Ramirez, Michael
Rullis, Akari Saito, Amitoj Sawhney, Nicole Sicari, Victoria Stabile,
Nicole Tomic, Mimi Tsang, Alok Vaidya, Shefalee Vohra, Brandon
Birdsall, Diana Blanco, Nicholas Bucci, Ryan Bucci, Steven Carrescia,
Justin Cochran, Mark Cristaldi, Rebekah Daniel, Joseph Dobrowolski,
Aleah Dotson, David Elhananov, Zinath Froogh, Michelle Kim, Emil Lopez,
Carla Nilo, Yusuke Oshimizu, Daniel Paolazzi, Rachel Rigolosi, Eric
Rosenzweig, Erika Soto, Athanasios Stepas, Michael Thompson, Gregory
Vaks, Zachary Yabroudy, Priyanka Abraham, Jafar Ali, Alexandra Arrighi,
Matthew Askling, Nicole Cagar, Alex Castro, Jesse Christie, Tyler Deas,
Nicholas Delgiorno, Ariana Dellosa, Nina Fiorilla, Dean Fujita, Oscar
Gonzales, James Hallihan, Nikolaos Haralambakis, Max Hopkins, Zalaikha
Javed, Sofia Koutsoumbis, Matthew Lahanas, Lindsey Lucas, Kayla Mees,
Janki Patel, Zachary Reuveni, Ryan Rivera, Liridona Shala, Pratyusha
Valiveti, Matthew Alpher, Jason Back, Parita Bhanderi, Thomas Bores,
Brooke Bukowski, Randy Casallas, Harold Choo, Matthew DeMatteo, Julia
Deutlmoser, Jana Devaney, Margaret Doyle, Joseph Faris, Laura
Heckelmann, Daniel Heidt, Yurina Iijima, Farah Kiki, Michelle Kim,
Elyse Krupinski, Maya Peterson, Victoria Petruzzella, Victoria
Poplaski, Justine Rizzitello, Adam Ron, Daniel Schauer, Emad Tirmizi,
Kevin Tirpanciyan, Lakhini Vyas, George Ayob, Jr., Shannon Barile,
Tiffany Buchen, Francis Ciambrone, Alexandra Cooney, Julia Cuomo,
Alyssa De Clemente, Julia Dellosa, Erika Dipasquale, Jessica Goldman,
Jessica Hazuda, Nicole Huaman, Sundesh Kodali, Kimberly La Vecchia,
Matthew Lemash, Brian Monticello, Timothy Moran, Deanna Napoli, Shivam
Raikundalia, Raquel Riggitano, Jacob Roth, Nicholas Salemme, Karan
Shah, Zainab Shahsamand, Donovan Spivey, Carly Turton, Shawn Abraham,
Joseph Akdemir, Asha Babu, Rachel Buchbinder, Allison Chang, Daniel
Chen, John Chinchar, Inderpreet Dhaliwal, Lindsay Diamond, John Diaz,
Sky Digirolamo, Stephanie Edelstein, Julia Gerogiannis, Michael Kim,
Gina Kisley, Joseph Lee, Daisy Lee, Grace Lim, Annika Nungra, Alyssa
Nungra, John Piccinich, Abraar Quraishi, Alexa Salinardi, Alexander
Shater, Courtney Smallze, Rebecca Song, Ashlin Twardzik, Parth Vaidya.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO FAYE COWART
______
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mrs. Faye Cowart.
Mrs. Cowart has served the community for 38 years as a leader in the
area of public education. As an outstanding educator in the Los Angeles
Unified School District since 1969, Mrs. Cowart has been dedicated to
the promotion of student success and educational achievement.
Mrs. Cowart has been a long time resident of Altadena, CA, and began
her career in education as a teacher in the Los Angeles School
District. After teaching for several years, she served as a Title I
Coordinator, Assistant Principal, and Compliance Coordinator in the
Specially Funded Programs Branch. In each of these endeavors, she
distinguished herself as a tireless advocate for improving the quality
of education for all of our students.
I ask all Members to join with me in congratulating Mrs. Faye Cowart
for her dedicated service and commitment to the promotion of quality
education. I am sure that each person positively affected by Mrs.
Cowart's service will also join me in wishing her much joy in the years
to come and great thanks for her time, her energy, and her efforts.
____________________
RECOGNIZING DANIEL VINCENT WILLIAMS FOR THE AWARD OF EAGLE SCOUT
______
HON. SAM GRAVES
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Daniel
Vincent Williams, a very special young man who has exemplified
[[Page 14949]]
the finest qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active
part in the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 167, and by earning the most
prestigious award of Eagle Scout.
Daniel has been very active with his troop, participating in many
Scout activities. For his Eagle Scout project, Daniel's leadership
helped to replace the wire fencing around the backstop and painting the
poles of the Winston R-VI School baseball field. This completes the
fifth Eagle Scout project that improves the baseball field.
Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Daniel
Vincent Williams for his accomplishments with the Boy Scouts of America
and for his efforts put forth in achieving the highest distinction of
Eagle Scout.
____________________
HONORING COUNCILLOR LEONARD F. O'LEARY OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
______
HON. JOHN F. TIERNEY
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. TIERNEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Councillor Leonard
F. O'Leary of Salem, MA. Councillor O'Leary recently announced that he
would not be seeking reelection. It will be the first time since 1984
when he was first elected as Councillor of Salem's Ward Four that the
O'Leary name will not appear on the ballot.
Lennie honorably served twelve consecutive, two-year terms, and his
twenty-four years on the Salem City Council rank him among the longest
serving City Councillors in Salem's long and storied history. He earned
the respect of his colleagues on the Council over the years as
reflected by their electing him Council President on four occasions
during his tenure.
Lennie's institutional knowledge made him a valuable resource on the
Council as he served as Chair on all of the Council's committees,
including the Finance Committee and Committee on Ordinances, Licenses
and Legal Affairs. He also served as the longtime Council Liaison to
the City's Board of Health. Councillor O'Leary served his country as a
member of the National Guard from 1961-1967, and he took great pride in
advocating in support of his fellow veterans while on the Council.
In his over two decade long Council career, Lennie was legendary in
his devotion to his Ward Four constituents, and he provided them with
reliable and responsive service. He kept them informed with regular
neighborhood meetings and tended to their every need whether by filing
measures to prohibit overnight parking of heavy vehicles in residential
neighborhoods or meeting with engineers and DPW crews to make sure road
work proceeded in a timely and reasonable manner. Lennie advocated
tirelessly for his Ward Four neighbors appearing at hundreds of Board
of Appeals, Planning Board, and Conservation Committee hearings to make
sure their concerns had a voice and were heard. He was rewarded by
support across his Ward that was broad and deep.
Lennie would be the first to admit that he did not do it all alone.
He would tell you that he had good friends and that he had good fortune
in working with four mayors and countless dedicated colleagues on the
Council. However, most important to Lennie was the full and untiring
support he received from his wife Mary, who often accompanied him to
those late night Council and Board meetings. Mary provided counsel that
he could trust.
This week in Salem, Lennie's colleagues, friends, neighbors, and
family will gather to celebrate and thank Councillor Leonard F. O'Leary
for 24 years of unselfish public service. It is a most appropriate and
deserving recognition for someone who has given so much of himself to
the City of Salem.
____________________
H.R. 198 ``RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH''
______
HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong
support of H.R. 198, which recognizes the significance of Black History
Month.
Madam Speaker, it is easy to forget the past, especially a past that
is so painful for so many. But I think we all recognize that the story
of blacks in America is one that is truly uplifting and gives us the
spirit to believe that any accomplishment is possible if we strive for
it.
I want to take this opportunity today to talk about the black history
that is too often ignored. Let me start by saying that we all revere
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. We love the leaders of the Civil
Rights Movement. I am deeply grateful that this Nation has a day to
honor Dr. King and that we have a Black History Month so that our
children may understand the struggle that black Americans had to endure
just to get to this point.
Madam Speaker, the history of blacks in America did not begin and end
with the Civil Rights Movement. We need to remind everyone that the
America we know today was built in substantial part by the skill,
labor, intelligence, and determination of African Americans. These
black pioneers succeeded despite the oppression they openly faced.
That's the history I want to talk about today. I want to talk about
black Americans whose accomplishments have sometimes been overlooked.
Their greatness in the face of adversity is what makes me so proud to
be an African American.
So many oppressed people have had to surrender their souls, their
hopes and their dreams because of the hardship they have been forced to
face. However, black history is full of men and women who faced their
hardships head on and refused to accept what they were told was their
destiny. Instead, they instead looked at what they were given and dared
to believe that not only could they improve upon it, but that they
could strive for achievements almost unimaginable to any American.
These great figures of black history are our past; they are our future.
They are our compass as we move forward into this new generation.
I am proud to be a member of Congress representing the great State of
Texas. In the 211 years of congressional history there have been 105
African American Members of Congress. We tend to think that before the
Civil Rights Movement black Americans had no ability to represent
themselves in government. Despite the tremendous obstacles of
intimidation and harassment that were faced by black Americans who
sought and won election to political office.
Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American member of
Congress. During the Civil War, he helped organize Maryland's first two
black regiments for the U.S. Army. In February 1870, he was elected
from Mississippi to the United States Senate seat formerly held by
Jefferson Davis. Hiram Rhodes Revels was in an extraordinary position,
not only was he the first African American in Congress only a few years
after the Civil War had ended, but he was representing a State where
black men had only been in positions of servitude.
His seat in the Senate did not come without great controversy; a
great debate arose in the Senate as to whether a man of color was
entitled to a seat in our Nation's legislative body. However, it was
the great Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts who made the closing
argument for Revels' admission, declaring: ``All men are created equal,
says the great Declaration, and now a great act attests to this verity.
Today we make the Declaration a reality.''
During his time in the Senate, Hiram Revels voted to forgive
officials from the secessionist States, who had broken their oaths to
uphold the Constitution, as he made great efforts to unite a war-torn
Nation. After leaving the Senate, Revels returned to Mississippi, where
he became the founding president of Alcorn College. His life was one of
tremendous achievement against the backdrop of the turbulent
Reconstruction era.
Almost 100 years after Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected to the U.S.
Senate, Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman
elected to Congress, when she was elected to represent New York's
Twelfth Congressional District in 1968 running on the slogan,
``Fighting Shirley Chisholm--Unbought and Unbossed.''
She reflected that spirit well during her 14 years in Congress.
During her first term she spoke out for civil rights, women's rights,
and the poor and against the Vietnam War. Her first term in Congress
was set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and the
women's movement for equal rights.
Shirley Chisholm had an understanding that during those turbulent
times the nation required a determined leader to represent the voice of
so many Americans who felt dismay at their treatment. She took an
extremely active role in changing the way women were to be judged from
that point on. She remarked that, ``Women in this country must become
revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional
roles and stereotypes.''
This is a sentiment that I myself take to heart. Women in this Nation
are now told they have a right to determine the kind of life they want
to lead; Shirley Chisholm was at the core of this movement.
On January 25, 1972, Chisholm announced her candidacy for President.
She stood before
[[Page 14950]]
the cameras and in the beginning of her speech she said, ``I stand
before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the
Presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black
America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the
women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am
equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses
or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.''
Shirley Chisholm did not win the nomination; but she went on to the
Democratic Convention in Miami and received 151 delegates' votes. More
than that, she demonstrated the will and determination of so many
Americans who had previously felt forgotten, she had lighted a fire
under so many who had felt disenfranchised.
Despite being separated by almost a century Hiram Rhodes Revels and
Shirley Chisholm led very similar lives. They both were in positions of
great responsibility during times when this Nation was under a great
burden. The true greatness of their story is not just that they
overcame the oppression they faced, but that they had the courage to
help remedy a Nation that in many ways had spited them. They refused to
bend their principles to the hatred they faced; they were true pioneers
in leadership.
They are my role models in Congress not only because they are African
American but because they represent the kind of leaders that America
has always needed at times of adversity, they had a spirit and a
courage that could not be broken, they had a vision of America that
exceeded most of their peers.
I am very proud to be a Member of Congress from the city of Houston,
a city that is home to NASA. This Nation has been blessed to have been
the pioneer in space exploration. However, one of our greatest
accomplishments has been that not only have we sent men to space, but
that we have sent different men and women who represent the spirit of
this great Nation.
Major Lawrence was the first African American astronaut who trained
at NASA. In 1983 Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly
in space. He went on to serve on three more NASA missions and logged
over 688 hours in space. Before becoming an astronaut, Maj. Guion
Bluford flew 144 combat missions in Vietnam. Tragically, Ron McNair
lost his life in the tragic Challenger accident, but we all will
forever remember his great accomplishments. Mae C. Jemison also became
the first African American female to fly in space.
In less than a century and a half blacks in America had gone from the
chains of slavery to the surface of the moon. Physically this is an
amazing accomplishment, but spiritually these great men and women
throughout black history could have accomplished what they did without
those who came before them. Each great black man or woman gave hope to
future generations and recognition to the fact that no amount of
oppression could suppress a true vision of a greater America.
The African American community continues to rise; this is still a
beginning for us not an end. The vision for America that so many black
Americans strived for is not yet complete. There are many more great
black minds and souls that this Nation will be blessed to experience. I
look forward to seeing our progress, I delight in our great history but
I am really looking forward to our future progress.
For all these reasons, Madam Speaker, I am pleased and proud to
support H.R. 198, which gives due recognition to the significance of
Black History Month.
____________________
STATER BROS. MARKETS: A HISTORY OF SUCCESS . . . PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
______
HON. BOB FILNER
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Stater Bros.
Markets chain for receiving the ``Spirit of Cooperation Award''
recently presented by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council,
AFL-CIO.
Stater Bros. Markets traces its beginnings back to a small grocery
store on West Yucaipa Boulevard in Yucaipa, California. Twin brothers
Cleo and Leo Stater purchased the original Stater Bros. Market with a
$600 down payment, and opened for business on August 17, 1936. By the
close of the 1940s, the Stater Bros. had expanded the chain to 12
locations, with 225 employees.
During the 1950s, Stater Bros. Markets had almost doubled to include
23 locations in the counties of San Bernardino, Riverside and Los
Angeles. In 1960, the company began the operation of a construction
business. This new division acted as a general contractor and became
responsible for all planning, supervision and construction of new
stores and other facilities. In 1979, scanning was introduced in the
stores and during this time there was a significant growth and
expansion for the company. During the 1970s, the number of store
locations more than doubled to a total of 83 supermarkets.
The year of 1980 was the largest calendar year of growth for the
company, with 10 supermarkets opening. In 1982, Stater Bros. launched
its first television advertising campaign. In 1999, Stater Bros.
acquired 43 additional supermarket locations, which included 33 former
Albertson's Supermarkets and 10 former Lucky Supermarkets. Ten of the
new locations were in San Diego County, giving Stater Bros. its first
presence in the area of my Congressional District.
By the year 2004, Stater Bros. had been awarded the ``Supermarket
Retailer of the Year'' twice, by the Progressive Grocer in 2001 and the
Grocery Headquarters Magazine in 2004. In 2005, Stater Bros. made the
``Fortune 500'' list for the first time and was the only Inland Empire
headquartered company to make the list.
Today, Stater Bros. is the largest privately owned Supermarket Chain
in Southern California with annual sales in 2006 of $3.5 billion. They
are highly deserving of the recognition that they are receiving from
our very distinguished labor council and an excellent, corporate
community partner.
____________________
IN HONOR OF THE WINNERS OF THE 2006-2007 INTERNET SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY FAIR
______
HON. SCOTT GARRETT
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend the
students of Don Bosco Prep High School in Ramsey, New Jersey, who
recently won first place in Information and Communication in the 2006-
2007 Internet Science and Technology Fair. The Class of 2008 students,
James Cahayla-Wynne, Walter Hickey, Alexander Hieronymi, Robert
Hoffmann, and John Kelly III developed an Integrated Navigation System
called ``On Target.''
As the students themselves have described it on their website,
www.ph3k.com: ``We resolve to design a multipurpose beacon, using GPS
(Global Positioning Systems) technology, that can relay both its
position and additional information about the surrounding environment,
to existing data centers. These data centers will then synthesize and
organize this raw data and forward it to the troops in the field who
need it.''
These very bright students were aided in their quest by very
supportive family, teachers, school administrators, and community
leaders--Mrs. Bernadette Kozak, LTC Steven Fleming of the U.S. Military
Academy, Fr. Lou Konopelski, and Mr. Paul O'Connor. As the George
Bernard Shaw quote on the Don Bosco website states, ``Life isn't about
finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.'' Clearly, the
faculty and staff at this school breathe life into those words each
day.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO THE FLINTRIDGE FOUNDATION
______
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Flintridge
Foundation, which will receive the 2007 Community Award presented by
the Gamma Zeta Boule Foundation at their Annual Scholarship Luncheon in
Pasadena, California on June 10, 2007. Each year, this award is given
to an individual or organization that demonstrates extraordinary
commitment and dedication to education and the community.
The Flintridge Foundation was created in 1985 and strongly upholds
the values of individuality, diversity, and creativity on which it was
founded. Francis and Louisa Moseley believed that the private sector
was well qualified to understand and quickly respond to the changing
needs of individuals and society as a whole, and out of that vision the
Flintridge Foundation was born.
Since its beginning, the Flintridge Foundation has provided
$23,531,290 in grants and has developed a conservation program that has
helped to conserve biological heritage and ensure the sustainability of
natural resources
[[Page 14951]]
by supporting the preservation and restoration of native ecosystems in
the Pacific Northwest.
For their success and commitment to promoting education, the
environment, and many other important priorities, I ask all Members of
Congress to join me in congratulating the Flintridge Foundation upon
receiving the 2007 Community Award.
____________________
RECOGNIZING ROSS ALLAN WILLIAMS FOR THE AWARD OF EAGLE SCOUT
______
HON. SAM GRAVES
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize Ross Allan
Williams, a very special young man who has exemplified the finest
qualities of citizenship and leadership by taking an active part in the
Boy Scouts of America, Troop 167, and by earning the most prestigious
award of Eagle Scout.
Ross has been very active with his troop, participating in many Scout
activities. For his Eagle Scout project, Ross's leadership helped to
build a new enclosed dugout on the third base side for the Winston R-VI
School baseball field. This completes the fourth Eagle Scout project
that improves the baseball field.
Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in commending Ross Allan
Williams for his accomplishments and for his efforts put with the Boy
Scouts of America forth in achieving the highest distinction of Eagle
Scout.
____________________
INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO SIMPLIFY THE TAX AND ELIMINATE THE
DRAWBACK FEE ON CERTAIN DISTILLED SPIRITS USED IN NON-BEVERAGE PRODUCTS
MANUFACTURED IN A U.S. FOREIGN TRADE ZONE OR DOMESTIC USE AND EXPORT
______
HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR.
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce a bill
designed to equalize the competitive playing field between domestic and
foreign users of certain distilled spirits used in the manufacture or
production of non-beverage products.
Non-beverage products include medicines, medicinal products, food
products, flavors, flavoring extracts and perfumes, all of which are
unfit for beverage purposes.
The bill does this by allowing users that demonstrate to the Treasury
Department that they are producing non-beverage products in a U.S.
Foreign Trade Zone to avoid the excise tax on distilled spirits, which
a foreign manufacturer of non-beverage product that uses distilled
spirits does not pay.
A Foreign Trade Zone is a restricted-access site authorized by the
U.S. Department of Commerce and supervised by U.S. Customs where
companies can use special Customs procedures for importing and
exporting materials and finished products. Zones are located in or
adjacent to a Customs port of entry and operated pursuant to public
utility principles under the sponsorship of a corporation granted
authority by the Commerce Department pursuant to the Foreign-Trade
Zones Act and regulations.
Authorized companies, of which there are many in New Jersey,
therefore will be subject to continuous regulation by the Commerce and
Treasury Departments as well as Customs.
The bill preserves necessary safeguards for the government as it
monitors which companies use distilled spirits for beverage purposes
and which companies use them for non-beverage purposes.
Such companies will be required to file regular reports with the
Department of Treasury showing that the distilled spirits are used in
the manufacture of non-beverage products. Currently, such manufacturers
pay an excise tax of $13.50 per proof gallon and then must file for
``drawback'' with the burden on the claimant to show eligibility for
drawback.
Under the drawback procedure, the government rebates all but $1 per
proof gallon, charging the companies a $1 administration fee. Companies
subject to this procedure can have considerable cash flow tied up in
this process for an appreciable period of time. Again, a foreign
manufacturer of non-beverage products is not subject to such tax and
consequently, is not burdened by the need to file for drawback.
The imposition of this tax and burdensome drawback process on
American manufacturers and producers put them at a competitive
disadvantage, which I believe we should eliminate, while preserving the
integrity of the government process to monitor the use of distilled
spirits.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO MARTIN COUNTY AND FAIRMONT, MINNESOTA
______
HON. TIMOTHY J. WALZ
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that
I congratulate Martin County, MN on two milestones it is celebrating
this weekend: the sesquicentennial celebration of Martin County and the
city of Fairmont, Minnesota, and the centennial celebration of the
Martin County Courthouse.
Martin County was founded 150 years ago, on May 23, 1857. The county
was named after Henry Martin of Wallingford, Connecticut, who was a
resident of Mankato at the time.
The first permanent residents of what is now Fairmont, Minnesota were
two men named E. Banks Hall and William H. Budd. In June of 1857, they
built their homes beside two lakes that today are named--appropriately
enough--Budd Lake and Hall Lake.
The town's original name was Fair Mount, which was later changed to
Fairmont. Fifty years after the founding of Martin County, the County
Courthouse was commissioned.
Construction on the Martin County Courthouse was completed on
November 1, 1907: The building is built from Michigan sandstone and
Indiana limestone and is topped by a dome that stands 108 feet above
the ground.
The total cost of constructing the Courthouse--including furniture,
plumbing and decorations--was just under $125,000.
Today, this Courthouse is the jewel of the city of Fairmont, where it
sits overlooking Lake Sisseton.
Throughout its 100-year history, the Martin County Courthouse has
made many changes, but it has not lost its original beauty.
I am pleased to join the State of Minnesota in congratulating Martin
County and Fairmont, Minnesota on this important milestone. And I wish
them continued growth and success for the next 150 years.
____________________
RECOGNIZING MR. WALLY BAILEY FOR HIS NATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN BUILDING
SAFETY AND FIRE PROTECTION
______
HON. JOHN BOOZMAN
of arkansas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Wally
Bailey, a resident of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and his group's recent
visit to Capitol Hill during this year's annual recognition of Building
Safety Week. On May 9, Mr. Bailey led a delegation of members of the
International Code Council to meet with Congress to discuss nationally
focused concerns in building safety and fire prevention. This year
ICC's delegation focused specifically on a proposal to create a
Community Building Code Administration Grant Program, and Mr. Bailey
spoke to me persuasively of how this program would expand and support
the quality and effectiveness of building code and fire code
administration in underserved areas of our country.
Mr. Bailey serves as President of the Board of Directors of the
International Code Council, a volunteer role to which he was elected in
national leadership of a membership association of over 42,000 building
safety and fire prevention professionals. It is this group that
develops the building and fire codes that are in use all across our
country for the construction and maintenance of our residential and
commercial buildings, including the homes and the business, schools,
and places of worship we visit regularly. These codes, created and
maintained through a voluntary consensus development process, are in
use by over 22,000 U.S. jurisdictions, including those who govern the
quality, safety and energy efficiency of building construction at the
local, State and Federal levels.
For the past three decades, Mr. Bailey has been a tireless advocate
for building safety through superior building codes and effective
building code administration. As the Director of Development and
Construction for the City of Fort Smith, he supervises activities of a
multi-disciplined department that governs codes administration,
inspections, plan review, property maintenance, historic preservation
and land development. As a matter of note, two years ago he celebrated
a quarter century of service to the City.
[[Page 14952]]
Since 1999, in addition to his work with the City of Fort Smith, Mr.
Bailey has served in leadership positions with the ICC, culminating in
his present role as President of the Board. Besides his being a
distinguished citizen of my District, in my opinion, ICC's membership
elected a leader who is an outstanding public safety professional and a
truly dedicated public servant.
I would also like to take this opportunity to recognize the rest of
the ICC delegation who visited Capitol Hill during Building Safety Week
2007, and thank them for their efforts to promote and defend a safe and
sound built-environment. Those individuals include: Board Vice
President Steven Shapiro, Board Secretary/Treasurer Adolph Zubia,
Immediate Past President of the Board Henry Green; Board members
Gregori Anderson, Edwin Berkel, James Brothers, John Darnall, William
Dupler, Gerald George, Greg Johnson, Barbara Koffron, John LaTorra,
Ronald Lynn, Doug Murdock, Ronald Piester, and James Ryan; ICC
Government Relations Advisory Committee members Rebecca Baker, James
Martin, Betts Nixon, Emory Rodgers, and George Wiggins; ICC Chapter
Leaders Paul Aston, Roger Axel, Kurt Kasson, Sheila Lee, and Tina
Rakes. Members of ICC's professional staff included its CEO Rick
Weiland as well as Dominic Sims, David deCourcy, Sara Yerkes, James
Tidwell, Mark Dinneen, Richard Kuchnicki, Laura Scott, Peter Feldman,
and International Accreditation Services President Charles Ramani.
____________________
ED MATTAS: ``AN INSPIRATION TO ALL OF SAN DIEGO''
______
HON. BOB FILNER
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Ed Mattas, who is
being honored with the ``Community Service Award'' by The San Diego-
Imperial Counties Labor Council of the AFL-CIO.
After graduating from Kearney High School in San Diego, California,
Ed started his Union career with Hazard Products in 1981. When Hazard
closed their manufacturing plant in 1985, he moved on to RCP Block and
Brick. While at RCP Block and Brick, Ed served as the Shop Steward.
Ed was then elected as Trustee to Teamsters Local 36 in 2001 and was
appointed Vice President in 2006. He was hired as the Training Director
for the San Diego County Construction Teamsters in 2002. Along with the
job came a tractor trailer that is funded by Teamsters Locals 36, 481,
542, and 683. These Locals have made it easy for him to make the
Teamster truck available for volunteer projects whenever possible.
Ed and his students have helped in many events in San Diego and
Southern California. These events include the Postal Food Drive, the
Christmas food and toy distribution, providing the hauling for the
Trail of Hope Charity to the Apache Indians, many projects in assisting
the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, and helping to transfer
food from the San Diego Food Bank to many needy organizations.
Ed Mattas truly has been an inspiration to all of San Diego.
____________________
HONORING CHRISTINE WARD-DIAZ, WINNER OF A PRESIDENTIAL AWARD FOR
EXCELLENCE IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE TEACHING
______
HON. SCOTT GARRETT
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute
to Christine Ward-Diaz, a science and math teacher at East Brook Middle
School in Paramus, New Jersey, and winner of a Presidential Award for
Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching this year.
As the Paramus Superintendent Janice Dime has noted, Ms. Ward-Diaz
``makes science learning come alive in her classroom.'' I had the
pleasure of visiting with Ms. Ward-Diaz last year with the EPA
Administrator, Stephen Johnson, to discuss energy conservation. Her
teaching style clearly invigorates her classroom and challenges her
students. The children were well-informed and excited to absorb as much
knowledge as they could from their teacher.
Christine Ward-Diaz holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education
from the University of Scranton and a masters in environmental studies
from my alma mater, Montclair State University. Her superior teaching
methods have long been recognized by her peers, earning her East
Brook's Teacher of the Year in 2004-05. The Presidential Award is the
federal government's highest honor for teaching excellence.
This statement in the Congressional Record will ensure her well-
deserved place in official history. But, more importantly, the
generations of students she inspires are a legacy in which we will all
always share. I commend Christine Ward-Diaz for her dedication to her
students and her community.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO MIKE GARRETT
______
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mike Garrett, who
will receive the 2007 Leadership Award presented by the Sigma Pi Phi
Gamma Zeta Boule Foundation at their Annual Scholarship Luncheon in
Pasadena, California on June 10, 2007. Each year, this award is given
to a community leader who demonstrates extraordinary commitment and
dedication to education and the community.
Raised in Los Angeles, California, Mike Garrett attended the
University of Southern California, where he excelled as a football
player and set numerous records. As an exemplary student athlete,
Garrett was named an All-American twice, awarded the prestigious
Heisman Trophy in 1965, and was inducted into the College Football Hall
of Fame in 1985.
Garrett went on to become a star in the American Football League
playing for the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers. He was a
two time AFL All-Star, and led the Chiefs to a Super Bowl Victory in
1969. Throughout his entire professional career, Garrett gained a total
of 8,049 yards and scored 49 touchdowns.
After his professional football career, Garrett attended the College
of Law at Western State University, where he earned his Juris Doctor in
1986. Garrett also held numerous professional positions, which included
Director of Business Development at the Great Western Forum, working at
the District Attorney's Office in San Diego, and doing color commentary
for USC football telecasts. In January of 1993, Garrett returned to USC
as the Athletic Director where he has helped the football program
regain its status as a dominant football power.
For his success and commitment to promoting education and athletics,
I ask all Members of Congress to join me in congratulating Mike Garrett
upon receiving the Sigma Pi Phi Gamma Zeta Boule's 2007 Leadership
Award.
____________________
INTRODUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DIGITAL TELEVISION CONSUMER EDUCATION ACT
______
HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues'
strong support of a bill that I am introducing, which would educate the
American people about the Nation's transition to digital television
broadcasting and help prepare them for the analog cutoff date in
February 2009.
As you know, Congress enacted a ``hard date,'' February 17, 2009, by
which our TV broadcasters must cease analog broadcasting and only
transmit in digital. On that date, anyone who relies on over-the-air
broadcasts will need a set-top box to receive and convert digital TV
signals in order for their analog TV to continue to work.
The benefits of transitioning to digital TV signals are enormous,
most importantly opening up desperately needed spectrum for first
responders. I believe the American people will support this transition,
but to make this transition a success our constituents need to know and
understand why this is happening.
The Federal Communications Commission has been tasked with the
responsibility of the success of this transition. If the Commission
does not approach the analog cutoff date with care and consideration of
the consumer, millions of TV viewing Americans will be left with a
black screen.
I am particularly concerned that the FCC is relying heavily on a
website to inform consumers about the transition and how to prepare for
the analog cutoff day. I believe that this is not enough. According to
the GAO, 21 million U.S. households rely on over-the-air television.
Many of these households have a
[[Page 14953]]
combined income of $30,000 or less and do not have immediate access to
the internet. I am not convinced that a website will help these
families obtain the necessary information to prepare for the
transition.
To facilitate this transition and make up for the lack of sufficient
education from the FCC, I am introducing the National Digital
Television Consumer Education Act. This legislation requires TV
retailers to place signs next to analog televisions that will include
an advisory that additional equipment is necessary after February 17,
2009 to continue using that TV. The bill also requires broadcasters to
air PSAs for more than a year to help educate the public about what is
happening and the set-top box subsidy program.
The DTV transition will impact every American. We must do everything
to ensure the success of this transition and help our constituents from
losing their television transmission in February 2009. I urge my
colleagues to co-sponsor this bill which will help prepare the American
people for the upcoming transition.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. MICHAEL C. BURGESS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, on Thursday, May 17, 2007, I missed six
recorded votes due to a family obligation in Texas. Had I been present,
I would have voted in the following manner.
H.R. 1427, Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007
Rollcall No. 378 H. AMDT. 203 (Bachus R-AL) Amendment No. 001--
``yes''; rollcall No. 379 H. AMDT. 205 (Hensarling R-TX) Amendment No.
003--``yes''; rollcall No. 380 H. AMDT. 209 (McHenry R-NC) Amendment
No. 007--``yes''; rollcall No. 381 H. AMDT. 21O (Kanjorski D-PA)
Amendment No. 008--``no''; rollcall No. 382 H. AMDT. 211 (Roskam R-IL)
Amendment No. 009--``yes'' and rollcall No. 383 H. AMDT. 213 (Garret R-
NJ) Amendment No. 011--``no.''
____________________
MARKING THE CENTENNIAL OF THE LIMA CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
______
HON. JIM JORDAN
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I am honored today to pay special
tribute to the outstanding women of the Lima Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution. The chapter marked its 100th anniversary
with a special reception on June 3, 2007.
Chartered on April 10, 1907, the Lima Chapter has served the people
of Lima in countless ways through the years. From their work in support
of servicemembers and veterans to their committed work with the youth
of Allen County, Ohio, the women of the Lima DAR have compiled a long
and distinguished record of service in times of war and peace.
Fifty-two women have served the Lima Chapter as Regent, starting with
Mrs. Clara Paine Ohler. The chapter's membership through the years has
included women from all walks of life who have distinguished themselves
in numerous ways through their service.
The Lima DAR is especially noted for its work in local schools to
promote civic education, reflecting the group's love of country and its
high regard for the gift of freedom that we all enjoy. They are true
examples of the DAR's high calling to cherish, maintain, and extend the
institutions of American freedom.
Madam Speaker, I invite all of my colleagues to join me in paying
tribute to the Lima Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. Our nation is better served through their hard work and
diligence. We wish them all the best at their centennial celebration.
____________________
INTRODUCTION OF THE MAJOR SCOTT NISELY POST OFFICE NAMING BILL
______
HON. TOM LATHAM
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to
honor Scott Nisely of Marshalltown, Iowa, one of America's heroes who
was killed in combat on September 30, 2006, while serving our country
in Iraq.
Scott Nisley served 22 years in the Marines as an officer on active
duty and as a reservist, retiring with the rank of major. He then
worked 12 years for the U.S. Postal Service in Marshalltown, Iowa. Due
to Scott's strong desire to serve his country, he accepted an enlisted
rank in order to fill a vacancy in the Iowa Army National Guard. Scott
had served a tour of duty during Operation Desert Storm as a marine in
addition to Operation Iraqi Freedom as a guardsman.
Scott's friends, family, coworkers and fellow soldiers and marines
attest to the positive and lasting impact he had on their lives.
Scott's life was a shining example of dedication to service, and a
strong commitment to his family, faith and country. The legislation I
am introducing with the support of my colleagues from Iowa--Leonard
Boswell, Steve King, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack--would name the
post office located at 309 East Linn Street in Marshalltown, Iowa, the
``Major Scott Nisely Post Office.'' The proposal was initiated by
Scott's coworkers at the Marshalltown Post Office, and I am proud to
help them make this timely and appropriate honor a reality. I strongly
encourage my colleagues to swiftly consider and pass this legislation.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF MAJOR GENERAL BENNIE E. WILLIAMS
______
HON. JAMES P. MORAN
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a
lifetime commitment of service to the United States of America. On June
15th, 2007, MG Bennie E. Williams of Fredericksburg, Virginia will
retire after 35 years of dedicated service in the United States Army.
General Williams was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the
Infantry after graduating from the Reserve Officers Training Corps
program at Morgan State University, where he earned his Bachelor of
Science degree in Education Administration and was designated a
Distinguished Military Graduate. He received his Master's degree in
Transportation Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, and
military education includes courses at the Command and General Staff
College, and the Army War College.
General Williams' initial assignments included a posting as Platoon
Leader and Motor officer for the 2nd Armed Division at Fort Hood,
Texas. In September 1975, he was Assistant Operations Officer and
Commander of the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 69th
Transportation Battalion, Korea.
In July of 1992 he assumed command of the 169th Maintenance
Battalion, 13th Corps Support Command, Fort Hood, Texas. From there he
deployed with his unit to Somalia in Support of Operation Restore Hope.
Following a year of study at the Army War College, he transferred to
Europe, and assumed command of the 16th Corps Support Group. From there
he deployed with his unit to Bosnia in support of Operation Joint
Endeavor. In July 1997, he assumed the duties of Chief of Staff for the
3rd Corps Support Command. In July 1998, he was transferred to Fort
Belvoir, Virginia and assumed the duty of Chief of Staff Transportation
Legislation at the Defense Logistics Agency, and was later named Chief
of Staff for Defense Logistics Support Command for Defense Logistics
Agency.
In September 2000, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General
and again transferred overseas and was named Deputy Commanding General
of the 21st Theater Support Command. He was later promoted to Major
General and was later appointed Director of Logistics Operations and
Readiness J-3/4, Defense Logistics Agency, in September of 2005, where
he has been able to bring his wealth of experience and singular talents
to bear on solving some of the most intricate sustainability and
logistics challenges faced by our nation's Armed Services.
His tireless and selfless dedication to serving his country is
represented by the many decorations he has earned including the
Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Defense Superior
Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the
Meritorious Service Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army
Commendation Medal with
[[Page 14954]]
Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal, the Superior Unit Award,
and the Parachutist Badge.
In closing I wish to commend General Williams for his many years of
distinguished service to our Nation, years spent protecting our
freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I wish him and
his wife, Lenora, Godspeed in his retirement.
____________________
A NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERN--UNATTENDED CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES
______
HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, criminal justice issues continue to plague
our communities to the point that they threaten our national security.
In this Congress we should make a commitment to address the issue of
illegal guns distribution, recidivism, crack-cocaine sentencing
disparities and systemic disenfranchisement of ex-offenders. We owe
this to the many, primarily minority, families that are destroyed every
year because of these devastating social ills that can be prevented.
First, the use of illegal guns is a serious problem across America.
Everyday illegal guns are used to commit violent crimes, particularly
in urban communities. The loss of life as a result of use of an illegal
gun has ruined families and communities. We can no longer stand and
watch as criminals illegally obtaining guns and use them to cause
havoc. I serve as co-chair on the Congressional Task Force on Illegal
Guns. Our focus is to address the Tiahrt Amendments, a series of
``riders'' in recent Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriation bills
that limits local law enforcement access to data on gun tracing. These
amendments which have become increasingly restrictive since Fiscal Year
2003 deny local law enforcement agencies the ability to identify
illegal gun traffickers.
National security encompasses addressing issues that lead to poverty
and hopelessness, for these feelings of despair threaten the safety of
all Americans. Preventing individuals who have served their time in
jail from obtaining employment, education and health care only leads to
the unfortunate alternative; resort to careers in crime. Almost all
states have in place a system of expunging records or providing a
meaningful chance for ex-offenders to rebuild their life. The federal
government has no such system. Therefore, I introduced H.R. 623, the
Second Chance Act of 2007, which provides that federal ex-offenders
have the same second chance as many state offenders. Federal first time
ex-offenders who prove that they have fulfilled all requirements of
their sentence, parole and supervised released have been completed;
they have obtained a high school or GED equivalency degrees; they have
remained free of drug and alcohol dependency; and they have completed a
full year of community service can qualify for re-entry into society
and have their records expunged.
In addition, the rate at which blacks and whites are sent to prison
for drug offenses continues to be grossly disparate and raises a clear
warning flag concerning the fairness and equity of drug law enforcement
across the country. We need to continue to build momentum to eliminate
the sentencing disparity that keeps defendants convicted of trafficking
crack in jail far longer than those convicted for powdered cocaine.
Under the existing law, a defendant convicted of trafficking five grams
of crack cocaine receives the same five-year mandatory penalty as a
defendant convicted of trafficking 500 grams of powder cocaine. In
addition, a mandatory minimum penalty of five years is automatically
imposed for possession of five grams of crack cocaine, whereas simple
possession of any quantity of any other substance--including powder
cocaine--is a misdemeanor offense punishable by a maximum of one year
in prison. To begin to address this, I introduced H.R. 460, the Crack
Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act, moves us one step closer to
eliminating the disparity in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine
offenses.
Finally, deprivation of the right to vote is not an inherent or
necessary aspect of criminal punishment nor does it promote the
reintegration of offenders into lawful society. Nationally, an
estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of
laws that prohibit voting by people with felony convictions. This
fundamental obstacle to participation in democratic life is exacerbated
by racial disparities in the criminal justice system, resulting in an
estimated 13 percent of Black men unable to vote. The impact on the
political power of the minority communities is nothing short of
devastating. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support
legislation that will help address the criminal justice issues that
have been left unattended for far too long.
____________________
HONORING GRAPEVINE ROTARY CLUB'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY
______
HON. KENNY MARCHANT
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. MARCHANT. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor the Grapevine
Rotary Club's 40th Anniversary. The Rotary Club organization was
started in Chicago, Illinois in 1905 and currently has approximately
1.2 million members associated with 32,000 Rotary Clubs worldwide. In
1964, Grapevine Mayor, Ira E. Woods had the vision of starting a Rotary
Club in the community. On June 22, 1967 a telegram was delivered from
Rotary International with confirmation of their charter membership.
Grapevine Rotary Club is an organization who benefits many people
both near and far. Locally, they assist needy students at Grapevine
Middle School with a mentoring program and sponsor many events,
including: a yearly essay contest, the Special Olympics at Grapevine
High School, the annual banquet for the Special Olympians, and the
yearly Senior Citizens Banquet. In years past they built a pavilion at
a local park. And, for the past 15 years, the Rotary Club has put up
American Flags on holidays along Grapevine's Main Street. They have
also supported local charities such as GRACE and Nash Farm.
They have helped others across the country such as in New Mexico
where they have worked with other Rotarians to purchase water rights at
the St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School on the Navaho
Reservation.
Globally, they have: helped donate fire trucks and ambulances to
Acuna, Mexico, Grapevine's sister city; supported cataract surgeries
and helped provide artificial limbs for the needy in India; assisted
students at a school in Tanzania and helped drill water wells in Peru
and Ghana. The club sponsors teacher exchanges throughout the world
including Latin America, Eastern Europe and India. The Grapevine Rotary
participates in the One World program with Russia to help promote world
peace.
Madam Speaker, it is with great pride that I recognize the tremendous
contributions to the individuals, organizations and communities that
Grapevine Rotary Club has benefited for the past 40 years. It is an
honor to represent this humanitarian organization in the 24th District
of Texas.
____________________
NICO FERRARO: AN INSPIRATION TO SAN DIEGO
______
HON. BOB FILNER
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Nico Ferraro, who is
being honored as the ``Labor Leader of the Year'' by The San Diego-
Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Nico was initiated into the union on June 15, 1971, and knew it was
for him. He went on to serve a five-year steamfitter apprenticeship
with the United Local 638 in New York City.
His urge to travel and see the country continually took him to
several western states until he eventually landed in San Diego. Nico's
political activism caught the attention of Local 230's officers and he
was elected to the Executive Board in 1989. In 1992, he was elected as
the Pipefitter Business Representative and served in that capacity
until his appointment to Business Manager in 1997.
As Local 230's Business Manager, Nico represents the various
divisions of the 1600 member local union in many ways. He is a Trustee
to the pension and welfare funds, the Secretary to the Joint
Apprenticeship Committee, President of the Southern California Pipe
Trades District Council #16, President of the San Diego Building
Trades, a member of the Board of Directors of the National City Park
Apartments' 460 unit complex, built and managed by the Building Trades
since 1968, and an Executive Board member to the Central Labor Council.
One of Nico's proudest positions was serving on the Board of Directors
of the Construction Tech Academy from 2002 to 2006. The academy is a
uniquely designed High School dedicated to Construction, Architecture,
and Engineering. The San Diego Building Trades honored Nico as the John
Lyons Labor Leader of the Year in 2000.
In his role as Business Manager, Nico is focused on organizing,
training, and political action. He is dedicated to improving the wages,
[[Page 14955]]
pension and working conditions of his membership and demonstrating to
all of San Diego the benefits of union membership. He has spoken on the
record before the Industrial Welfare Commission.
Nico is involved in all aspects of the Labor movement. He has had
numerous pro-union letters to various editors of San Diego newspapers
published. To enhance his career as a union officer, Nico enrolled in
the Labor Studies Program at San Diego City College. He completed the
program in 1994 and continued his studies, earning a Business and Labor
Studies Degree and graduating with honors in June 2000.
California Governor Gray Davis further honored Nico by appointing him
to the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Board, where he was asked to
determine the wages, work hours and working conditions for the mining,
drilling and construction industries.
Nico Ferraro truly has been an inspiration to all of San Diego.
____________________
HONORING THE REVEREND BILLY GRAHAM
______
HON. HEATH SHULER
of north carolina
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. SHULER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize an important
milestone in the historic ministry of the Reverend Billy Graham. On
Thursday, May 31, 1,500 of Reverend Graham's friends gathered for the
dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Among those friends were all three of our living former Presidents.
Reverend Graham's ministry has touched more people in this world than
could ever be able to attend such a dedication.
I am honored to have Reverend and Mrs. Graham as two of my
constituents in Western North Carolina. The Grahams moved to Montreat
many decades ago, and have made an indelible mark on the area. I have
the utmost respect for Reverend Graham.
The newly dedicated Billy Graham Library is appropriately built in
the shape of a barn, which no doubt reminds Reverend Graham of his
childhood on a nearby dairy farm. When Billy Graham was born some 88
years ago no one but God knew the influence he would have on the world.
Billy Graham has ministered to hundreds of millions of people across
the world, over 210 million of those contacts coming through the form
of live audiences. Reverend Graham has ministered to Congressmen,
celebrities, and heads of state. He has ministered to people without
regard to their wealth, political affiliation, social status, or skin
color; and he did it before such things were popular. Billy Graham has
stood for what is right throughout his long career. He paid Reverend
Martin Luther King's bail on numerous occasions, refused to speak in
Little Rock while school segregation was being insisted upon by the
state government, and he would not visit South Africa during Apartheid
until The government would allow a desegregated audience.
Reverend Graham commented at last week's dedication that ``I feel
like I've been at my own funeral, listening to all these speeches. I
feel terribly small and humbled by it all.'' That statement explains
the character of Reverend Graham better than anything I can say.
Madam Speaker, the legacy of Billy Graham will live on long after he
is gone, and I am proud to congratulate him on the opening of this new
library which will help to carry his legacy forward. Billy Graham has
served his Lord for a lifetime, and it is an honor to serve Reverend
Graham in the United States Congress. May God continue to bless Billy
Graham.
____________________
D/FW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT'S ``WELCOME HOME A HERO'' PROGRAM
______
HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON
of texas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to
pay tribute to the ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program at Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport. The ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program is a daily
gathering of volunteers to celebrate the homecoming of soldiers
returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. This program is one of
the Nation's foremost morale builders for our troops with over 150
civic organizations, governmental departments, and businesses
volunteering during its 3-year tenure. This tremendous effort has made
the ``Welcome Home a Hero'' program one of the largest ongoing
community service efforts in north Texas. These committed volunteers
have given of their time so that our troops, as well as their families,
can see how proud we are as a community, and as a nation, of their
service and sacrifice.
Madam Speaker, the north Texans that participate in the ``Welcome
Home a Hero'' program are the first people the troops see upon their
return to the United States, and they speak on behalf of all Americans
in thanking them and celebrating the safe return of each soldier. On
June 12, 2007, the 500,000th soldier will come home for a well-deserved
2 weeks of rest and recuperation, and I am proud to share that the
``Welcome Home a Hero'' program at Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport has been selected by the U.S. Military to host this
celebration. I extend my personal gratitude to the program's volunteers
for their efforts in supporting our dedicated men and women in uniform
who are proudly serving our Nation.
Madam Speaker, I am indeed honored to pause and pay tribute to these
wonderful volunteers and valiant soldiers who represent the very best
of the United States of America.
____________________
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTATION ACT
______
HON. MARK UDALL
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to introduce
legislation to implement the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group
(ISG)--also known as the ``Baker Hamilton Commission''--as a bipartisan
foundation for long overdue strategic change in our policy in Iraq.
I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues Representatives Frank
Wolf, Michael McCaul, and Daniel Lipinski--and 41 other Members--in
introducing this bill, and I am grateful for all their help in building
support for this legislation. Representative Wolf deserves special
recognition for the role he played in spearheading the creation of the
Iraq Study Group and in pushing forward its recommendations.
The ISG was created in March 2006 at the request of a bipartisan
group of Members of Congress, led by Representative Wolf, and was co-
chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former chairman of
the Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Lee Hamilton. In December
2006, the ISG released its recommendations and outlined a bipartisan
approach to bringing a responsible conclusion to the Iraq war.
What this legislation does is to take these recommendations and
establish them as official United States policy. Among the
recommendations outlined in the bill are a new diplomatic offensive in
the region that includes the creation of the Iraq International Support
Group; giving the highest priority to training, equipping and advising
the Iraqi military and security forces; assessing the full budgetary
and personnel impact of the war in Iraq on the U.S. military;
accelerating and increasing oil production and accountability including
equitable distribution of oil revenues in Iraq; implementing and
oversight of economic reconstruction programs in Iraq with the creation
of a new Senior Advisor for Economic Reconstruction; ensuring that the
President includes the cost of the war in his annual budget request;
and setting conditions that can lead to redeployment of U.S. combat
forces as early as the first quarter of 2008, including necessary
diplomatic, infrastructure and security benchmarks.
It is clear to me that a Democratic majority in Congress cannot
unilaterally legislate an end to this war and expect its architect and
champion--President Bush--to sign on the dotted line. In my view, the
only way to end this war--and to end it in a way that minimizes the
likelihood of greater regional bloodshed--is to broaden the tent of
opposition, and engage concerned Republicans in pressuring the Bush
Administration to change course. That is why I worked last year with
Representative Joe Schwarz on a resolution insisting on benchmarks for
Iraqi political stability and a process to hold the Bush Administration
accountable.
That is why I am introducing this bill today. Democrats and
Republicans must work together to change the course in Iraq, and
implementing the major policy recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq
Study Group is an overdue step in this direction.
As an early and consistent opponent of this war I do not believe that
embracing these recommendations is the only action we in Congress must
take, but it is important as a foundation. I, for one, will also
continue to push for a strategy of military disengagement in Iraq
[[Page 14956]]
and phased redeployment of our forces, because I do not believe we
should ask our soldiers to referee a civil war.
Ending American military participation in this war and managing the
consequences of the Bush Administration's failures will not be easy and
it will not come overnight, but it will come--and the ISG
recommendations offer a means of moving toward these goals.
Many of us embraced the ISG's recommendations when the report was
first released last year, and many of us believe that the report still
provides a comprehensive blueprint for a way forward in Iraq and the
Middle East, from both the military and the diplomatic perspective.
I do not believe the ISG recommendations or my bill will offer a
complete solution, but they will offer a start.
We went into war as a badly divided country; I hope we can end it
differently and that is my motivation in offering this bill today.
____________________
A TRIBUTE TO THE 2007 ELLIS ISLAND MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS
______
HON. DAN BURTON
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate
the 2007 recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The Ellis
Island Medal of Honor is presented annually by the National Ethnic
Coalition of Organizations (NECO), representing more than 250
organizations that span the spectrum of ethnic heritages, cultures and
religions. Since the organization's founding in 1986, approximately
1,700 American citizens have received Ellis Island Medals of Honor,
including six American Presidents, several United States Senators,
Congressmen, Nobel Laureates, outstanding athletes, artists, clergy,
and military leaders.
As we all know, citizens of the United States can trace their
ancestry to many nations. The richness and diversity of American life
makes us unique among the nations of the world and is in many ways the
key to why America is the most innovative country in the world. The
Ellis Island Medals of Honor not only celebrate select individuals but
also the pluralism and democracy that enabled our ancestors to
celebrate their cultural identities while still embracing the American
way of life. This medal is not about money, but about people who really
seized the opportunities this great country has to offer and who used
those opportunities to not only better their own lives but make a
difference in the lives of those around them. By honoring these
outstanding individuals, we honor all who share their origins and we
acknowledge the contributions they and other groups have made to
America.
In addition, NECO awards one International Ellis Island Medal of
Honor each year. This year's international honoree was Victor Phillip
Dahdaleh, Chairman, Dadco. Mr. Dahdaleh is Canadian.
And for the first time in its history, NECO presented a Global
Humanitarian Award to H. E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President
of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
When the immigrant station at Ellis Island, New York, opened on
January 1, 1892, it admitted 700 immigrants into the United States on
just its first day of operation. By the time the center closed in 1954,
17 million immigrants had passed through its doors. The Ellis Island
administration and staff, on average, processed up to 5,000 people per
day. Many of these newcomers had little or no knowledge of English,
hardly any money, and many arrived with only the clothes on their
backs. They arrived risking their lives in exchange for freedom and a
better way of life.
I, once again, commend NECO and its Board of Directors headed by my
good friend, Nasser J. Kazeminy, for honoring these truly outstanding
individuals for their tireless efforts to foster dialogue and build
bridges between different ethnic groups, as well as promote unity and a
sense of common purpose in our Nation. As Rosemarie Taglione, Executive
Director of NECO has said so eloquently on a number of occasions:
``NECO's message of tolerance and harmony among diverse ethnic groups
is, perhaps, even more important today than it was 20 years ago.''
Madam Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in recognizing
the good works of NECO, and congratulating all of the 2007 recipients
of the Ellis Island Medals of Honor. I also ask unanimous consent that
the names of this year's recipients be placed into the Congressional
Record following my statement:
Dr. Gregory Adamian, H. E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, George
Altirs, Peter Arnell, Dr. Elias Ayoub, Dr. Ernest M. Barsamian,
Michelle Bodden, Edgar Cahn, Leo Chen, Dr. Aram V. Chobanian, Jaekun
Chung, Mario Ciano, Denis A. Cortese, MD, Hon. Leslie Crocker-Snyder,
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh, Nicholas J. Daniello, MD, Dr. Joel Alan
DeLisa, Kirti Desai, Dr. Akshay Desai, Michael J. Dowling, James J.
Dowling, Blaise Durante, Hon. Jacob Eapen, MD, MPH, Mory Ejabat,
Richard A. Elias, MD, Hani Findakly, PhD, Arthur Flegel, Jon Fortgang,
Douglas Foshee, Philip Friedman, Cynthia R. Garrett, Obren Gerich, Joi
Gordon, Col. R. L. Grabowski, USMC, MSGT Nicholas G. Grand, USAF
(Ret.), Patrick Grant, Hon. Chuck Hagel, George Hamilton, William
Harrington, Esq., Richard Heckmann, Col. Jack H. Jacobs, USA (Ret.),
Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, Ik Joong Kang, Dr. Sarkis Kechejian, Don
Keenan, Do-Young Kim, David E. Kimmel, Jr., Dr. Steven S. Koh, George
J. Kostas, Les Kuczynski, Joan Kuyper-Farver, Irene Ladas, LTC. Larry
H. Lang, USAF, Rep. Tom Lantos, Dr. Edwin Pak-Wah Leung, Dr. John M.
Levinson, Hon. Guillermo Linares, Harvey Mackay, Patrick J. Martucci,
Thomas Mattia, CPT. Gary A. Maynard, USN, Mitchell Modell, Hon. Samuel
Mok, Todd Morgan, C. Warren Moses, Dr. Vance Moss, Dr. Vince Moss,
Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Maureen Murphy, Fereydoun Nazem, Hon. Liet
Nguyen, Col. Tracey E. Nicholson, USA, Fr. Michael O'Connell, Dr. Kiran
C. Patel, Antonio M. Perez, Asst. Chief Diana L. Pizzuti, L. Rafael
Reif, PhD, RADM Stephen W. Rochon, USCG, James Rogers, Michael Rogers,
Hon. Carlos A. Romero-Barcelo, Ali A. Saberioon, Carlos A. Saladrigas,
Dominick M. Servedio, Smita N. Shah, Donald Soffer, Dr. Patrick Soon-
Shiong, Toomas M. Sorra, MD, Debra Brown Steinberg, Esq., Daniel J.
Sullivan, Daniel J. Thomas, DDS, Gerald Turpanjian, Luis A. Valentin,
Tai Nin Wang, Richard J. Wolff, Mahvash Yazdi, Dr. Gazi Zibari, Mira
Zivkovich.
____________________
HONORING BILL FRANCE JR.
______
HON. JOHN L. MICA
of florida
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Mr. MICA. Madam Speaker. I rise today to pay tribute to William
Clifton ``Bill'' France, who passed away Monday, June 4, 2007, at his
home in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was my honor to have known and
worked with Bill France over the past years. Known by friends as ``Bill
Jr.,'' he was a legend in American motorsports.
The son of NASCAR's founder, he was born in Washington, DC on April
4th, 1933. His family moved to Daytona Beach in 1934 where his father,
William France, Sr., began establishing the world's most famous racing
circuit and a national sports phenomenon.
Bill Jr. graduated from Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach in
1951 where he played on the basketball team. He attended the University
of Florida and served in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1955.
After his service in the Navy, Bill Jr. found the love of his life,
Ms. Betty Jane Zachary, who became the mother of his two children,
Brian France and Lesa Kennedy. Both of his children and his wife were
instrumental in the success of what is now ``the most watched American
sport,'' NASCAR.
Bill Jr. did not begin his journey as CEO. He started working his way
up the ranks holding positions as a flagman, concierge, race scorer and
other jobs. In 1959, he even drove a bulldozer and a grater during the
construction of the Daytona International Speedway before becoming Co-
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
With the passing of Bill France, American motorsports has lost a
great leader, our country and State have lost an outstanding citizen
and I have lost a wonderful friend. He will be remembered as a
patriotic American, a pillar of our community, a respected businesman,
a compassionate husband and a loving father. To his wife Betty Jane,
his son Brian, his daughter Lesa France Kennedy, his brother James, his
three grandchildren and the all of the France family, we offer our
deepest sympathy.
Madam Speaker, it is my privilege to recognize Bill France's
contributions and ask all Members of the U.S. House of Representatives
of the 110th Congress to join me in remembering a great American.
[[Page 14957]]
____________________
RECOGNIZING MR. WALLY BAILEY FOR HIS NATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN BUILDING
SAFETY AND FIRE PROTECTION
______
HON. JOHN BOOZMAN
of arkansas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Wally
Bailey, a resident of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and his group's recent
visit to Capitol Hill during this year's annual recognition of Building
Safety Week. On May 9, Mr. Bailey led a delegation of members of the
International Code Council to meet with Congress to discuss nationally
focused concerns in building safety and fire prevention. This year
ICC's delegation focused specifically on a proposal to create a
Community Building Code Administration Grant Program, and Mr. Bailey
spoke to me persuasively of how this program would expand and support
the quality and effectiveness of building code and fire code
administration in underserved areas of our country.
Mr. Bailey serves as President of the Board of Directors of the
International Code Council, a volunteer role to which he was elected in
national leadership of a membership association of over 42,000 building
safety and fire prevention professionals. It is this group that
develops the building and fire codes that are in use all across our
country for the construction and maintenance of our residential and
commercial buildings, including the homes and the businesses, schools,
and places of worship we visit regularly. These codes, created and
maintained through a voluntary consensus development process, are in
use by over 22,000 U.S. jurisdictions, including those who govern the
quality, safety and energy efficiency of building construction at the
local, State and Federal levels.
For the past three decades, Mr. Bailey has been a tireless advocate
for building safety through superior building codes and effective
building code administration. As the Director of Development and
Construction for the City of Fort Smith, he supervises activities of a
multi-disciplined department that governs codes administration,
inspections, plan review, property maintenance, historic preservation
and land development. As a matter of note, 2 years ago he celebrated a
quarter century of service to the City. Since 1999, in addition to his
work with the City of Fort Smith, Mr. Bailey has served in leadership
positions with the ICC, culminating in his present role as President of
the Board. Besides his being a distinguished citizen of my District, in
my opinion, ICC's membership elected a leader who is an outstanding
public safety professional and a truly dedicated public servant.
I would also like to take this opportunity to recognize the rest of
the ICC delegation who visited Capitol Hill during Building Safety Week
2007, and thank them for their efforts to promote and defend a safe and
sound built-environment. Those individuals include: Board Vice
President Steven Shapiro, Board Secretary/Treasurer Adolph Zubia,
Immediate Past President of the Board Henry Green; Board members
Gregori Anderson, Edwin Berkel, James Brothers, John Darnall, William
Dupler, Gerald George, Greg Johnson, Barbara Koffron, John LaTorra,
Ronald Lynn, Doug Murdock, Ronald Piester, and James Ryan; ICC
Government Relations Advisory Committee members Rebecca Baker, James
Martin, Betts Nixon, Emory Rodgers, and George Wiggins; ICC Chapter
Leaders Paul Aston, Roger Axel, Kurt Kasson, Sheila Lee, and Tina
Rakes. Members of ICC's professional staff included its CEO Rick
Weiland as well as Dominic Sims, David deCourcy, Sara Yerkes, James
Tidwell, Mark Dinneen, Richard Kuchnicki, Laura Scott, Peter Feldman,
and International Accreditation Services President Charles Ramani.
____________________
IN HONOR OF THE WELCOME HOME A HERO PROGRAM
______
HON. PETE SESSIONS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. SESSIONS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Welcome
Home a Hero program at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Every
day, more than a hundred troops come through DFW on their way home from
Iraq and Afghanistan for Rest and Recuperation. Since Welcome Home a
Hero's inception in 2004, coordinated volunteers have gathered at the
airport each day to greet our brave men and women serving our country
and to make sure they receive the warm homecoming they have earned.
Welcome Home a Hero is a result of the dedication of the North Texas
Commission, the employees at DFW International Airport, the USO, the
Boy Scouts of America, local businesses and thousands of volunteers.
This program is one of the largest and most effective community
initiatives in north Texas, and its positive impact on the morale of
our troops has not gone unnoticed.
As the 500,000th soldier arrives at DFW International Airport this
month and the program approaches its 3-year anniversary, I want to
thank all involved in this valuable effort. The dedicated and selfless
participants of this valuable program are what make our country great.
The North Texas Commission, DFW Airport employees, the USO and all of
the volunteers should be proud of their leadership and accomplishments.
I am extremely grateful for their dedication to our troops and our
country, and I applaud the people of north Texas for taking the
initiative to create this program.
____________________
A TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL METTS
______
HON. BRIAN P. BILBRAY
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. BILBRAY. Madam Speaker, I would like to bring to your attention
today the many outstanding achievements of Mr. Michael Metts, the
outgoing president of the Carlsbad Hi- Noon Rotary Club. Michael's
leadership during 2006 and 2007 has contributed significantly to the
Hi-Noon Rotary Club and the community of Carlsbad. During his tenure,
membership exceeded one hundred people and the Hi-Noon Rotary Club
awarded $28,000 for high school scholarships. In addition, under his
leadership the Carlsbad Hi-Noon and Carlsbad Evening Rotary clubs
partnered to sponsor the annual Oktoberfest fundraiser, a community
event which provided over $26,000 to the Carlsbad Women's Resource
Center, The Boys and Girls Club of Carlsbad and Community Youth
Services.
During his presidency, a number of other projects were completed.
These projects included providing volunteers to help maintain public
and private property, provide food and clothing for the needy and the
homeless and assist in the distribution of food, clothing and toys to
needy Carlsbad families in conjunction with the Carlsbad Christmas
Bureau. A Children's Christmas party and dinner for very needy
elementary school students was also provided. In an effort to improve
literacy, badly needed bilingual dictionaries were provided and
distributed in English and Spanish speaking elementary schools. In
addition a book a week was contributed to a school library and mentors
were also provided for the ``City Stuff'' program. This program
promoted an understanding of the working of city government for young
Carlsbad school children.
Michael's leadership also contributed to the hosting of exchange
students from 11 foreign countries, the sponsorship of a Model UN
Project, the building of a house for a needy family and dental care and
financial aid for impoverished children in Mexico. Support was also
provided to our deployed service personnel overseas.
I hope my colleagues will join me in recognizing the many fine
achievements of Michael Metts. Without question, his leadership and the
fine work of the Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club are worthy of recognition
by the House today.
____________________
HONORING THE ARTISTIC ACCOMPLISHMENT OF VINCENT GIACALONE OF EMERSON,
NEW JERSEY
______
HON. SCOTT GARRETT
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend
twelve-year-old Vincent Giacalone of Emerson, NJ, whose artistic
submission to the UPS Store Design Dale's New Ride contest took the top
prize.
The contest was sponsored by UPS to raise awareness and funds for the
U.S. Marine Corps Reserves' Toys for Tots program, which distributes
toys to needy children across the nation each year. Since its beginning
in 1947, when Major Bill Hendricks led a group of Marine Reservists in
Los Angeles to collect and distribute 5,000 toys to needy children to
brighten up their Christmas, Toys for Tots has grown to be a program
almost synonymous with the holidays. Over its 59-Christmas-history,
Toys for Tots has distributed 370 million toys to more than 173 million
needy children.
[[Page 14958]]
Vincent's prize-winning artwork will emblazon NASCAR's Dale Jarrett's
#44 Camry at an October 28th race in Atlanta. This date marks the kick-
off of the fundraising campaign for the Toys for Tots Foundation in
2007. Since its inception 16 years ago, the Foundation has supplemented
the Marine Corps' local toy collections with more than 70.2 million
toys valued at more than $387 million and has provided valuable
promotion and support materials.
I commend young Vincent Giacalone for being a part of a program that
helps so many children his own age share in the spirit and joy of the
holidays each year.
____________________
HONORING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF UPS
______
HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO
of illinois
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. COSTELLO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to
join me in honoring the 100th anniversary of UPS.
In 1907, Jim Casey founded the American Messenger Company, in Seattle
Washington, with $100 borrowed from a friend. Within its first 12 years
in business, the company would change its name to Merchants Parcel
Delivery and then to United Parcel Service. That name lasted until 2003
when the company adopted the acronym, UPS, familiar to customers
worldwide, as its official corporate name.
The world has changed drastically in the 100 years since Jim Casey
started his delivery business in Seattle. UPS has not only adapted to
those changes but it has been an industry leader through the innovative
ways it conducts its business. In 1907, most deliveries of the American
Messenger Company were on foot. Longer distances required the use of
bicycles for transportation. Deliveries included, as the initial
company name implied, messages as well as parcel deliveries from
merchants and meals from local restaurants.
The reputation of the American Messenger Company grew because of the
guiding principle of the founder, ``best service and lowest rates.'' As
their reputation and business expanded, the company also increased its
territory, first to include the entire west coast, then to the New York
City market in the 1930's. Through aggressive battles with regulating
agencies, UPS finally expanded its territory nationally to be the first
package delivery company to have access to every address in the 48
contiguous states in 1975.
As the company's territory expanded, it had to also adapt to the
evolution of its core business. As the landscape of transportation and
communication improved dramatically in the early part of the 20th
Century, the need for messenger service declined. With gas and rubber
rationing imposed during World War II, many stores cut back on their
customer deliveries. Customer demand for rapid service necessitated the
need for air transportation. The need for real-time information on
delivery status required new technologies and information systems. With
each of these developments, UPS not only adapted, but led the industry.
Today, UPS is a global corporation that not only delivers packages
but provides management and information services to meet the growing
demands of their customers. UPS continues to be innovative. As an
example, they have the largest fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles in
the industry, traveling a combined 126 million miles since the year
2000. Through all of its growth and innovation, UPS remains true to its
founder, Jim Casey's slogan, ``best service and lowest rates.''
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the
management and employees of UPS as they celebrate their 100th
anniversary.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF JERUSALEM DAY
______
HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker. I rise today to join the Jewish people in
Jerusalem and throughout the world in celebration of Yom Yerushalyim,
Jerusalem Day.
On June 7, 1967, the 28th of Iyar 5727, the Israel Defense Forces in
the heat of the Six-Day War unified the city of Jerusalem under Jewish
control. At approximately 10 a.m. on that day, the earth shattering
proclamation ``The Temple Mount is ours. It is in our hands''
reverberated in the hearts of Jews across the globe. The dream of once
again being able to visit the Kotel, the Western Wall, and other
previously inaccessible holy sites of Jerusalem, had become a reality.
In the subsequent years to follow, Jewish people from every nation on
earth would make pilgrimages to the holy city of Jerusalem to visit its
revered sites and offer their heartfelt prayers.
Every stone in Jerusalem is saturated with Jewish history, every
street contains a story and saga from biblical times, as well as modern
times. Even though Jerusalem is a city laden with rich archeological
artifacts, and remnants of ancient times, it has become a thriving city
that has preserved its historic nature and adapted to modern life.
Beautiful shopping malls, fresh food markets and restaurants are
commonplace in Jerusalem, which emphasizes the enormous cultural
advancements that the modern State of Israel has made in its short
existence.
Perhaps one of the most moving aspects of modern day Jerusalem is its
abundance of Yeshivas, Kollels and the prominence of Jewish religious
life. It is truly inspiring to see Jews, young and old immersed in the
deep study of Jewish texts. Many Hasidic sects and other Orthodox
institutions based in my district have satellite branches in Jerusalem
and quite a few of my young constituents study Judaism in Jerusalem and
return to the United States invigorated from their experiences.
Madam Speaker, I am honored to recognize this very jubilant day and
reaffirm my unflinching support for the city of Jerusalem and the State
of Israel.
____________________
ANNOUNCING THE INTRODUCTION OF A RESOLUTION TO DESIGNATE THE THIRD WEEK
OF OCTOBER AS ``NATIONAL TEEN DRIVER SAFETY WEEK''
______
HON. CHARLES W. DENT
of pennsylvania
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. DENT. Madam Speaker, today I will introduce legislation to
designate the third week of October as ``National Teen Driver Safety
Week.''
Unfortunately, roughly 7,500 teenage drivers were involved in fatal
car crashes in 2005. The time has come for us to recognize this
terrible problem and consider effective interventions that will help
reduce the number of accidents involving teens.
On Monday, January 22, 2007, following a tragic accident that claimed
the lives of two Pennsylvania high school students, the Morning Call
compiled a report of fatal crashes involving teens that had occurred in
the Lehigh Valley region since 2001. This report indicated that there
were a total of 13 fatalities between 2001 and 2006, with alcohol
involved in two of the seven accidents reported. Other contributing
factors included racing and reckless behavior. Sadly, it appears these
events could have been prevented, enabling these children to reach
their destinations safely.
To address this troubling issue, the Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia is currently conducting research that will help develop
the best interventions to reduce the risk of crash injury for teen
drivers and travelers sharing the road with them. The alliance of CHOP
and State Farm Insurance Company, its partner in this initiative, is
nationally recognized for its research and outreach involving child
passenger safety. However, this year they have expanded their agenda
from the car seat to the driver's seat in an effort to address the
cause of motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of death among
American teenagers. Together, CHOP and State Farm have conducted
research indicating that teens often drive while distracted and
fatigued. I believe this alliance between CHOP and State Farm brings
together a wide range of expertise in research and outreach--
translating scientific evidence into actions that will help save lives.
It is important that Congress supports efforts to effectively educate
teens and families about ways to address these problems. This
resolution will support the goals and ideals of a week in which
intensive programming will be used to encourage teens to drive more
safely. By perhaps delaying exposure to risky driving conditions until
they have enough supervised driving experience, managing peer-to-peer
interactions around driving, and reinforcing the need to detect and
react to hazards more appropriately, teens will be better prepared to
drive responsibly.
Madam Speaker, teens are dying in crashes at a rate of four times
that of adult drivers and we must act now to prevent future tragedies.
[[Page 14959]]
____________________
HONORING CAPTAIN MARK SPONENBURGH
______
HON. DARLENE HOOLEY
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Ms. HOOLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise honor Captain Mark Sponenburgh, a
remarkable and distinguished constituent of mine from Seal Rock, OR. On
this 63rd anniversary of the ``D-day'' landings in Normandy, a ceremony
is being held in Washington, DC to celebrate the dozen remaining
``Monuments Men'' who served our country with honor and valor during
World War II. While Captain Sponenburgh was unable to attend today's
ceremony, I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the countless
contributions he has made to our country and community.
Over the years, Captain Sponenburgh has served others in a variety of
capacities. He volunteered for the U.S. Army in 1942 where he was
commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. Stationed in Britain, he served
campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, and Luxembourg before
requesting to be transferred to the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives
section program under the Civil Affairs and Military Government
Sections of the United States Armed Forces.
During World War II, Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler ordered covert
missions to locate and secure art from every region his regime
conquered in Europe. As a member of the ``Monuments Men,'' Captain
Sponenburgh joined an elite multinational force of more than 350 men
and women serving on frontline military units during and after WWII to
preserve, protect and liberate artistic and cultural treasures in
countries occupied by the Allied armies.
Responsible for having tracked, identified and catalogued millions of
priceless works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts stolen by
Hitler and the Nazis, the heroic deeds of these unsung heroes continue
to benefit us all today.
In addition to having studied and taught in Britain, France, Egypt,
and Pakistan, Captain Sponenburgh brought his many years of experience
and skills to the University of Oregon as well as Oregon State
University. Admired by his students for his passion and intellect, he
was sorely missed when he entered retirement.
I joined my colleagues in this chamber last month in passing a
resolution honoring the great contributions made by all members of the
``Monuments Men,'' but today I rise, Madam Speaker, to ask my
colleagues to join me in honoring Oregon's last living member, Captain
Mark Sponenburgh.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF D-DAY
______
HON. TIM MAHONEY
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. MAHONEY of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor our brave
military forces who on this day in 1944--63 years ago--landed on Utah
and Omaha beaches, 2 of the 5 beaches at Normandy on a mission known as
Operation Overlord, the D-day invasion.
Today we honor those who never made it ashore, drowning from the
weight of their gear or killed by the enemy as they struggled out of
the water. The ones who did make it fought valiantly on those
beachheads and further on through many campaigns in Europe during World
War II.
There are fewer and fewer of the Great Generation left with us today,
but their sacrifice for our country and their dedication to protecting
freedom and democracy lives on.
On this day, which commemorates the beginning of the Allied forces
effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World
War II, I ask that everyone take a moment to remember all of these
brave souls and salute them. We are forever grateful for their service
and their sacrifice to protect freedom for future generations.
____________________
INTRODUCING THE SANCTITY OF LIFE ACT
______
HON. RON PAUL
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Sanctity of
Life Act. The Sanctity of Life Act provides that the Federal courts of
the United States, up to and including the Supreme Court, do not have
jurisdiction to hear abortion-related cases. The legislation also
clarifies that State and local courts do not have to treat Federal
cases overturning State abortion laws as binding precedent.
Abortion on demand is no doubt the most serious sociopolitical
problem of our age. The lack of respect for life that permits abortion
significantly contributes to our violent culture and our careless
attitude toward liberty. Whether a civilized society treats human life
with dignity or contempt determines the outcome of that civilization.
Reaffirming the importance of the sanctity of life is crucial for the
continuation of a civilized society. There is already strong evidence
that we are on the slippery slope toward euthanasia and non-consensual
human experimentation. Although the real problem lies within people's
hearts and minds, the legal problems of protecting life stem from the
ill-advised Roe v. Wade ruling, where the court usurped the State's
authority over abortion. Congress can, and should, take a major step
toward restoring respect for all life by using the authority granted to
it in Article 3, Section 1 of the Constitution to rein in rogue Federal
judges from interfering with a State's ability to protect unborn life.
Madam Speaker, it is my hope that my colleagues will join me in
support of this bill. By following the Constitution and using the power
granted to the Congress by the Constitution, we can restore respect for
the sanctity of human life.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. JIM COOPER
of tennessee
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. COOPER. Madam Speaker, I was absent on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007.
Had I been present for votes, I would have voted ``yes'' on each of the
five votes taken: H. Res. 397, H. Res. 422, H. Res. 430, H. Res. 451,
and H. Res. 452.
____________________
A TRIBUTE TO OSWALD ``OZZIE'' TORRES
______
HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mr. Oswald
``Ozzie'' Torres who is being honored at the International Association
of Lions Club District 20-K1 Governor's Testimonial Dinner. Mr. Torres,
a native of Brooklyn, NY, is a successful Certified Public Accountant
who credits his achievements to his caring parents Osvaldo and Lydia
Torres.
Mr. Torres decided to follow in his father's footsteps and establish
a career in accounting. Together they are the driving force of the firm
Torres and Associates.
Mr. Torres has been a member in good standing of the Brooklyn Caribe
Lions' Club since 1995 and has received numerous recognition awards
from Lions Club International. Among those honors include; the
Progressive Melvin Jones Fellowship and the Robert J. Uplinger award
from District 20-K1.
Mr. Torres has been a presenter at many orientation sessions and
workshops speaking in both English and Spanish. He has served District
20-K1 as Chairman of International Understanding and Cooperation,
Leadership, Membership; Business Manager of the Kings and Queens
Publication; Zone and Region Chairman; Cabinet Secretary and Treasurer;
Vice-District Governor; and currently District Governor.
Mr. Torres has served the communities of both Brooklyn and Queens and
has previously been named ``Business Person of the Year.'' He is a
member and Executive Board Officer of the Boricua Festival of New York
and is an Executive Member of the Woodhull Hospital Auxiliary Board.
Mr. Torres is married to Melissa Torres and has two sons Michael and
Brandon.
Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize this pillar of our community
for all of his contributions.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to
Oswald ``Ozzie'' Torres.
[[Page 14960]]
____________________
HONORING THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE LATE PARREN JAMES MITCHELL
______
HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, today I rise to pay tribute to the life
and acheivements of Parren James Mitchell, the first black Congressman
to represent the State of Maryland, 1 of the 13 founding members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, CBC, and a champion of civil rights. Mr.
Mitchell was a powerful force in the 20th century resurgence of Black
political strength in the United States and I was proud to serve with
him in the Congress.
Born in Baltimore, MD, on April 29, 1922, Parren Mitchell was the
ninth of 10 children in his family. He earned a bachelor's degree from
Morgan State College in 1950 and was the first Black to earn a master's
degree from the University of Maryland--College Park in 1952, after a
successful suit that granted him fair admission, Mitchell returned to
his undergraduate institution to teach sociology and serve as the
assistant director of the Urban Studies Institute. He was also a
commissioned officer of the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II,
receiving the Purple Heart.
Having amassed more than 3,000 awards and 14 honorary degrees,
Mitchell was a leader in politics and business. He served on the
Supreme Bench of Baltimore City from 1954 to 1957 and as executive
director to both the Maryland Human Relations Commission and Baltimore
Community Action Agency.
Mr. Mitchell was elected to the 92nd United States Congress in 1971
and reelected for seven successive terms. As the first Black to head
the House Committee on Small Business, his greatest triumph was in
leading a fight to ratify bills providing special aid to Black business
owners on the grounds that Blacks had been subjected to discrimination
for generations. In addition to heading the Small Business Committee,
he was also Democratic whip at large, the senior member of the House
Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, and chairman of its
Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy.
In 1980, Mitchell founded the Minority Business Enterprise Legal
Defense and Education Fund, Inc., MBELDEF, whose accomplishments
include a successful lawsuit against Burger King in 1988 for
discriminatory practices in awarding franchises.
As a mentor to African Americans committed to improving American
civil rights, such as former president of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, Kweisi Mfume, Mitchell was
selflessly committed to uplifting his people and was even referred to
during his chairmanship of the CBC as ``the Little General.''
Parren is remembered in Congress as a soft-spoken yet eloquent
speaker with a large presence. Former Chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee Richard Lugar asserted it was Mitchell's
impassioned plea for sanctions against South Africa that persuaded him
to accept a tougher measure than the Senate originally backed in 1985.
Parren, along with other family members have dedicated their careers
to public service and specifically to representing the people of
Baltimore for many years. His brother, Clarence Mitchell, Jr., the late
civil rights activist, was the chief lobbyist for the NAACP for 30
years and was instrumental in the passage of several civil rights
bills. Two of his nephews, Clarence M. Mitchell III and Michael B.
Mitchell, Sr., were elected as Baltimore city councilmen and Maryland
State senators. His nephew, Keiffer Mitchell, is currently serving as a
Baltimore city councilman and plans to campaign for the upcoming
mayoral election in Baltimore city. His legacy of inspiring others to
serve the public still lives on.
In remembering the life of Parren Mitchell, I am grateful to have
known him personally and am confident that America is a better place
because he lived.
____________________
HONORING THE COMMITMENT OF HERB HICKS
______
HON. JEFF MILLER
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Herb
Hicks as he celebrates his 40th year of perfect attendance as a
Rotarian. A dedicated man, Hicks has been present for over 2,000 weekly
Rotary meetings.
Hicks helped found the Cantonment Rotary Club in 1948. He later
became the club's fifth president. Furthermore, Hicks has received the
honor of being named a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary, a privilege
reserved for those who have donated $1,000 to the club. At 93 years of
age, Hicks is the last charter member of the civic organization; yet he
continues to play an important role at his local Cantonment Rotary
Club.
Paul Frederick, current president of the Cantonment Rotary,
explained, ``Herb is one of the exemplars in this club. He leads by
example and attendance to Rotary functions is one thing this club
stresses. No one in this area has a longer perfect attendance record.''
He also pointed out that Hicks hosts an annual picnic for Rotary
members and family.
Hicks is very clear on his priorities, saying, ``I think Rotary is
important. I put church first and Rotary second in my life.'' Hicks
admits to cutting many business meetings short in order to be present
for his 12:15 p.m. Wednesday meetings. However, for circumstances that
were unavoidable, Hicks had a backup plan. Rotary International allows
missed meetings to be made up by attending other local Rotary club
meetings. Hicks divulged, ``I have attended make-up meetings everywhere
in the United States.''
In total, Hicks has been a member of Rotary for 59 years. The
dedication exemplified can only be explained by Hicks as he said, ``I
like the fellowship and I like what Rotary does, I like its world-wide
outreach and I believe in its principles and high ethical standards.''
To put it simply, Hicks asks, ``If you are not going to attend, why
belong?''
Madam Speaker, I would like to offer my congratulations to Hicks as
he has not only set a precedent for the Rotary, but also has challenged
the commitment of those before me today. I take pride in Hick's
determination, and I wish him all the best.
____________________
HONORING LEE HAYES OF THE TUSKAGEE AIRMEN
______
HON. TIMOTHY H. BISHOP
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. BISHOP of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor and recognize
a great American patriot and World War II hero, Lee Hayes, of the
renowned Tuskegee Airmen.
In 1941, the formation of the all African-American squadron based in
Alabama, the Tuskegee Airmen, was largely regarded as an ``experiment''
by the U.S. military to test the combat readiness of an all-black
fighting squadron. These brave servicemen demonstrated exceptional
selflessness and patriotism as they fought two wars for our country--
one against the enemy overseas and the other against segregation and
discrimination at home.
Among the honors bestowed upon the Tuskegee Airmen include 150
Distinguished Flying Crosses, 744 Air Medals, 14 Bronze Stars, and 8
Purple Hearts. Most recently, they were awarded the Congressional Gold
Medal, the highest honor that the legislative branch can bestow.
I am proud to call one of the Tuskegee Airmen a friend and neighbor.
His name is Lee Hayes. He was raised on Long Island and is a current
resident of Amagansett, New York. At 88 years young, Mr. Hayes was born
in Mannboro, Virginia. In the 1930s, Lee's family moved to eastern Long
Island, where he attended East Hampton High School.
Lee Hayes developed an interest in flying planes at a young age,
while keenly aware of the sad racial realities of the time. In his own
words: ``I never thought much about whether or not blacks fly airplanes
. . . It didn't occur to me that we didn't, and the more I thought
about it, the more I wanted to do it.''
After the Army drafted him and after scoring a 94 on the preliminary
examination, Mr. Hayes impressed his instructors by quickly learning to
fly the B-25 bomber. Mr. Hayes never entered combat, as the war ended
shortly before he finished his pilot training. He was honorably
discharged and returned to East Hampton.
Madam Speaker, it is truly an honor to represent Lee Hayes in the
U.S. House of Representatives. On behalf of a grateful nation, I
encourage my colleagues to join me in honoring Lee Hayes and the
Tuskegee Airmen for their extraordinary bravery and contributions to
our Nation.
[[Page 14961]]
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF CATHERINE BOHAN
______
HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Catherine Bohan,
for her outstanding efforts in educating children, and for her lifelong
commitment to family, colleagues, and friends.
Cathy has educated and enlightened our children and prepared them for
life's journey for approximately 40 years, including 13 years at Saint
Richard School where she currently teaches third grade. She has proven
herself a wonderful teacher, colleague and friend. Not only does she
teach at Saint Richard School, but she also makes a tremendous
contribution as member of the Liturgy Committee, a Eucharistic
Minister, a Praxis Pathwise Mentor, and a member of the Retreat
Committee.
Likewise, her services to Saint Clarence Church as RCIA Leader,
Eucharistic Minister, PSR Teacher and Pre-Cana organizer while at the
same time raising three beautiful children, is truly admirable. She has
been married to her beloved husband, Patrick, for 30 years.
Madam Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring Catherine
Bohan for her long and successful career as an educator and for her
dedication to and care for the future generations of Northeast Ohio.
____________________
A TRIBUTE TO REVEREND DR. CLARENCE KEATON
______
HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Brooklyn resident
Reverend Dr. Clarence Keaton. Reverend Dr. Keaton was born to parents
Clarence Keaton Sr. and Mary F. Keaton. Dr. Keaton is the forth of
seven children.
Reverend Dr. Keaton, affectionately known as Pastor of Pastors (POP)
by his congregants and ``Pastor Teacher'' by his peers, has marked
himself as a leader of change both in the clergy and throughout his
community. The Reverend Dr. Kenton's path to the church was nearly
derailed when during his youth, he became a gang leader. It was during
that time Reverend Dr. Keaton received his divine calling going from
leading gangs in the street to leading gangs to the church.
Reverend Dr. Keaton joined the ministry of Free Mission Apostolic
Church under the tutelage of Pester Walter L. Dunlap. It was here
Reverend Dr. Keaton taught for nearly a decade as a biblical
instructor. In 1983, Reverend Dr. Keaton was ordained and blessed to
establish the True Worship Church, and in 1985. Reverend Dr. Keaton's
ministry grew at such a rapid pace that by September 21, 2001 he
managed to build a new Cathedral on the property.
Reverend Dr. Keaton brings his divine wisdom to the community in a
way which fosters growth and brotherhood. He is a leader who recognizes
the plight of troubled youth and offers mentoring, guidance, and an
outlet in prayer. His ministry truly meets the need of the people
offering Computer Literacy classes, Deaf Ministry, Day Care Services, a
Church news letter entitled, ``The Voice of worship'', and a Web site
which keeps both the members and the community abroad informed of
upcoming events and services.
Reverend Dr. Keaton has been recognized for his great contributions
to the community, in an honorary doctorate of Divinity degree from
Jesus Saves Bible Institute; citations for outstanding community
service from former Councilwoman Pricilla Woolen, former Brooklyn
borough president Howard Golden and current Borough president Marty
Markowitz. Among his greatest honors are his wife Eartha Keaton, his
four loving children; Tersha, Shawn, Tiffany, and Clearance III and
amazing grandson, Kamari.
Reverend Dr. Clarence Keaton continues to serve as pastor and
overseer of True Worship Church as the Presiding Bishop and founder of
the True Worship Church Worldwide Ministries.
Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize Reverend Dr. Keaton's
tremendous contribution to his congregants and the community.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to
this wonderful man and his tireless contribution which is a testament
to the American spirit.
____________________
IN HONOR OF DR. KWAME NKRUMAH AND THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF GHANA
______
HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the life and
contributions of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and to acknowledge the 50th
anniversary of the independence of Ghana, which is being recognized and
celebrated this year. Kwame Nkrumah is the father of his nation, Ghana,
and its anniversary of independence is an appropriate time for us to
recognition his contribution. I introduce into the Congressional Record
an article from CaribNews by Michael D. Roberts.
Dr. Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909 in Ghana, the same country
he led to liberation from Great Britain and was elected as Prime
Minister in 1960. He attended college in the United States, studied
philosophy, and developed an interest in the ideas of Marcus Garvey.
Realizing the need for self government, he served as General Secretary
of the United Coast Gold Convention, a political party interested in
Ghana's independence. Involvement in this movement was unconventional
and by all means unpopular. Despite, the lack of popularity, Dr.
Nkrumah, had a vision not only for Ghana, but for all African
countries. His leadership inspired 23 other African nations to gain
independence in just 3 years after his election.
In addition to inspiring African countries to gain independence, Dr.
Nkrumah envisioned unity. His vision to unite African countries was
embodied with his influence in founding the Organization of African
unity, established on May 25, 1963. The organization focused on ways to
unify African nations and to speak with one continental voice. The
organization changed over the years and was replaced with the African
Union in 2001.
On March 6, 2007, Ghana celebrated the 50th anniversary of its
independence. Celebrations were held all over the country and attended
by world leaders. I pay honor and homage to Kwame Nkrumah for
dedicating his life to Ghana democracy and working towards unifying
African nations. His legacy and work still lives on with the
celebration of Ghana's independence 50 years ago.
[From CaribNews]
Kwame Nkrumah: The Man and His Times--Ghanaian Political Visionary,
Pan-Africanist and Advocate of African Unity
(By Michael D. Roberts)
The African Antecedent: Setting the Stage for Africa's
Independence
``Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up
with the total liberation of the African continent.'' Kwame
Nkrumah, Accra 1957.
Those words were uttered 6 years before the formation of
the Organization of African Unity (OAD) on the 25th May 1963.
It was an organization formed with the express purpose of
uniting all of Africa but from the onset those leaders who
signed this historic document in Ethiopia, were divided by
insularity and a profound lack of vision. That is all of them
except one.
Today his vision has been realized and modified, perhaps
for better or worse--no one knows--in the development of the
African Union (AD) that came into being in 2001. This new
organization replaced the OAU that many felt had did its time
and served its purpose but was unrealistic and lacked any new
mechanism for dealing with the vagaries of modern, emerging
Africa and the rest of the world.
But his vision and steadfast belief in African Glory has
made him a legend in his lifetime and clearly one of the
great sons of Africa. Today, he stands tall for his
contribution to African political consciousness and African
unity. He was a man whose ideas were far advanced for the era
in which he served. In 2007 Africa needs to revisit his life
and times. His name was Kwame Nkrumah. As Ghana's leader he
had developed a reputation of total commitment to the
improvement of not only the people of Ghana, but all of
Africa. In a very real way the building blocks for today's
modem Africa is the sacrifice and vision of leaders like
Nkrumah. Observe that on the eve of the signing of the
document that would formally ratify the OAU this was the
warning that Nkrumah gave to African leaders about the
powerful forces lined up against the continent:
``Our essential bulwark against the sinister threats and
other multifarious designs of the neocolonialists is in our
political union. If we are to remain free, if we are to enjoy
the full benefits of Africa's rich resources, we must unite
to plan for total defense and the full exploitation of our
material and human means, in the full interests of all our
peoples. To go it alone will limit our horizons, curtail our
expectations, and threaten our liberty . . . Unless we meet
the obvious and very powerful neocolonialists' threats with a
unified African front, based upon a common
[[Page 14962]]
economic and defense policy, the strategy will be to pick us
off and destroy us one by one.''
Nkrumah's prophetic and visionary words were based on his
profound study of how Europe colonized Africa and his
experiences abroad. His study of Garveyism, the ideology of
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, lent his thoughts and actions a sense
of African pride and independence. But more than that Nkrumah
demonstrated selfless leadership and completely dedicated
himself to the emancipation of his people.
____________________
HONORING THE RETIREMENT OF STEPHEN TOWNLEY
______
HON. JEFF MILLER
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor one of
Florida's finest, Mr. Stephen Townley, upon his retirement from the
public service system. May 9, 2007 marked Townley's 30th year of duty
under the United States Judicial Branch.
After graduation from the University of South Carolina in 1973,
Townley began his career as a probation officer in Milton, Florida.
Advancing rapidly, Townley was appointed a United States Probation
Officer in 1977 then was promoted 8 years later to United States
Probation Officer in the Northern District of Florida.
At the request of District Judge William Wilkins, the first Chairman
of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Townley aided the development of the
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. In this position, Townley worked to guide
fair criminal sentencing, ensuring just punishment and the safety of
his community. Later, Townley served on the Probation Officers Advisory
Group to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
In 1990, Townley was named Supervising U.S. Probation Officer and was
promoted 2 years later becoming the Northern District's first Deputy
Chief Probation Officer. During his last 8 years of service, Townley
held the position of Chief Probation Officer of the Northern District
of Florida. To his community, he embodies the epitome of loyalty, as he
strove daily to keep danger away from the public.
Madam Speaker, I would like to offer my sincere and heartfelt
congratulations to Mr. Stephen Townley on his 30th anniversary in
serving the public. For the past 30 years, he has dedicated himself
towards helping the residents of Northwest Florida and for that we will
be forever grateful. I wish him the best in his retirement.
____________________
HONORING COAST GUARD CAPTAIN PETER J. BOYNTON
______
HON. TIMOTHY H. BISHOP
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. BISHOP of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor and recognize
a committed and respected serviceman, retiring Coast Guard Captain
Peter J. Boynton, for his distinguished career.
Captain Boynton has much to be proud of in his 28 year long career
with the U.S. Coast Guard. Serving 10 years at sea aboard six different
cutters, his experience and commitment is not easily matched; and in
June 2004, Boynton accepted the Commander position of the Long Island
Sound sector.
As commander, he led 490 active duty military and civilians, 180
uniformed reservists, and 1,800 volunteers with the Coast Guard
Auxiliary at 16 operational units. From his command, Captain Boynton
oversaw a number of issues and missions involving coastal Connecticut,
the Long Island Sound, Long Island, and offshore up to 200 miles. These
included life-saving rescues, pollution responses, security
enhancements, ice breaking missions, and counter narcotics enforcement
operations.
Captain Boynton also served as White House Director of Global Affairs
on the National Security Council and at the Department of State as
coordinator of international Coast Guard operations. In addition, he
has served as Chief of Intelligence for a multi-agency drug task force.
Captain Boynton's successor for the Commander position had this to
say: ``Captain Boynton has been an outstanding Sector Commander who has
selflessly served the people of Connecticut and Long Island for these
past 3 years. I understand I have some big shoes to fill following his
retirement and I will work my hardest to continue Sector Long Island
Sound's track record of exemplary service to the maritime community''.
Captain Boynton will retire to Connecticut with his wife Susan, and
their three children. Madam Speaker, I thank and congratulate Captain
Boynton for his outstanding service and a highly distinguished career.
We wish him and his family continued success and a bright future in the
years ahead.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF THOMAS J. SCANLON
______
HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Thomas J. Scanlon
as the 2007 recipient of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Alumni
of the Year Award. His ongoing support of the School, as well as
commitment to the community, has made him a worthy recipient.
Since his graduation from Cleveland-Marshall in 1963, Tom has
dedicated his efforts to making Cleveland-Marshall a premier
institution for the study of jurisprudence. He has served as president
of the Alumni Association, and currently serves as a member of the
Dean's Committee. Tom has also devoted his time and energies to
improving the health and vibrancy of the Northeast Ohio community. Tom
has served, and still serves, as a trustee for numerous organizations,
such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, West Side Ecumenical
Ministry, and the Irish-American Association, just to name a few.
Madam Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring Thomas J.
Scanlon for his tireless dedication to Cleveland-Marshall College of
Law and Northeast Ohio. May his service and hard work serve as an
example for us all.
____________________
HONORING THE LIFE OF CONGRESSMAN PARREN MITCHELL
______
HON. AL GREEN
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I wish to honor the life of
Congressman Parren J. Mitchell who died on May 28, 2007. Parren J.
Mitchell, was a civil rights leader and a dynamic former U.S.
congressman who helped to establish the Congressional Black Caucus.
Congressman Mitchell was elected to the House of Representatives from
Baltimore in 1970 and was Maryland's first black congressman. This
great public leader from the state of Maryland served eight terms
before stepping down in 1986.
Born in Baltimore, MD in 1922, Mr. Mitchell was a graduate of Morgan
State College and earned a master's degree from the University of
Maryland. Mitchell had to sue the then-segregated University of
Maryland for admission to the graduate school, and won. Additionally,
he served as an officer in the 92nd Infantry Division during World War
II, during which time he was wounded and received the Purple Heart.
Prior to his election to Congress, Mitchell worked in the
administrations of Baltimore mayors Theodore R. McKeldin and Thomas J.
D'Alesandro III and Governor J. Millard Tawes. While active in state
politics he was known as a passionate defender of minority and civil
rights. Congressman Mitchell was also the brother of the late Clarence
M. Mitchell, Jr., who was head of the NAACP's Washington office, and
was one of Lyndon Johnson's chief advisors in the civil rights
movement.
As a congressman, Mitchell fought for legislation requiring local
governments to set aside 10 percent of federal grants to hire minority
contractors. Congressman Mitchell was a crusader for minority economic
rights and pushed forth to make economic empowerment a reality for
minority-owned companies.
Congressman Mitchell dedicated his life to the ideal of public
service. He served his country, his community, and his government with
the determination and courage that is exemplary of a true public
leader. He demonstrated his courage on the battlefield while fighting
for democracy abroad and he would utilize that same courage and zeal to
fight for equal rights and opportunities for all Americans here in the
United States Congress.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring the life
of Congressman Parren J. Mitchell.
[[Page 14963]]
____________________
RECOGNIZING SENATOR BOB ROVNER
______
HON. PATRICK J. MURPHY
of pennsylvania
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. PATRICK J. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise today to
honor Bob Rovner--the 2007 recipient of The Spirit of Life Award from
City of Hope. Mr. Rovner is being recognized by this outstanding
organization for achievements in his field and his exceptional service
to our community.
To be honored by a group with such a noble cause is a great
distinction, one for which Mr. Rovner is certainly worthy. For years,
City of Hope has been committed to the kind of medical research that
has brought hope to millions of people living with a lifethreatening
disease. Madam Speaker, Bob Rovner represents the type of spirit and
dedication that make organizations like City of Hope as successful as
they are. He has spent years championing worthy causes, helping to
publicly guide our community in a positive direction.
Mr. Rovner has spent his life performing an inspiring array of
accomplishments in public service. Mr. Rovner began his career as an
assistant district attorney under Sen. Arlen Specter and alongside Gov.
Ed Rendell. He was then elected as the youngest ever member of
Pennsylvania's State Senate, where he sponsored the Lottery Bill to
direct all oflottery's profits to benefit senior citizens. Mr. Rovner
went on to a successful business career and became highly involved in
the community, serving on the board of trustees for Temple University
and hosting several popular radio shows.
Beyond his impressive resume and his reputation for public service, I
can say from personal experience that Bob Rovner has affected many
lives for the better. Madam Speaker, Mr. Rovner's influence on the
community has been undeniable and his continued work will shape the
future of our region. Madam Speaker, I am honored to recognize Mr.
Rovner for this award, but I am more honored to consider Bob Rovner a
colleague and a friend, and I would like to thank him on behalf of
those whose lives he has touched.
____________________
THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BILL AND SUE LANDSKE
______
HON. PETER J. VISCLOSKY
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. VISCLOSKY. Madam Speaker, it is with great sincerity that I take
this time to recognize the 50th wedding anniversary of two of Northwest
Indiana's finest public servants, Mr. and Mrs. Bill and Sue Landske of
Cedar Lake, Indiana. For years, Bill and Sue have been fully committed
to the citizens they serve, with Bill serving on the Cedar Lake Town
Council and Sue serving as a State Senator for over 23 years. At this
time, I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their
lifelong service and also congratulate them on their 50 years of
devotion to each other.
Sue's service to her community extends far beyond her elected
position. A veteran of the National Guard Reserve, Sue was elected to
the Indiana State Senate in 1984. Senator Landske has remained fully
committed to her constituents, and she has even remained an active
member of several community organizations. For her efforts, Sue has
received many accolades, including the prestigious Sagamore of the
Wabash in 1980 and 1983. She has also been named Outstanding Republican
Senator, Business and Professional Woman of the Year, Lake County
Republican of the Year, and Jaycees' Citizen of the Year.
Not to be outdone, Bill Landske has been a constant fixture in his
community for many years. In recent years, Bill has extended his
service to the people of Cedar Lake as an elected official, where he
has taken on the role of Cedar Lake Town Council member. His resolve to
improve the quality of life for his constituents has been apparent
since he took office, and he has served his constituents with complete
dedication and professionalism.
Bill and Sue have shared many wonderful years together. They have
epitomized true devotion and unwavering commitment. However, while they
have remained fully dedicated to the people they serve, Bill and Sue's
greatest source of pride is their family, which includes four
daughters, Cathy (Don) Jones, Jackie (Jeffrey) Basilotta, Pam (Charles)
Snyder, and Cheryl (Pete) Boisson, and one son, Eric. Bill and Sue have
also been blessed with eight grandchildren: Matthew Jones; Leslie
Stoops; Jeff Basilotta; Caitlin, Jenny, and Kim Snyder; and Patrick and
Daniel Boisson. Bill and Sue's commitment to improving the future for
their community and all of Northwest Indiana is surely an extension of
their commitment to their grandchildren, whom they truly adore.
Madam Speaker, at this time, I ask that you and my other
distinguished colleagues join me in congratulating Councilman Bill
Landske and State Senator Sue Landske as they celebrate a remarkable
milestone, their 50th wedding anniversary. While their years of service
to the citizens of Northwest Indiana are to be commended, it is their
unselfish and lifelong devotion to each other that is worthy of our
deepest admiration.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS
of washington
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. Madam Speaker, while I was absent from the
House of Representatives last week due to the birth of my son, I would
like to state how I would have voted on the following pieces of
legislation if I had been able to be present: Rollcall No. 406--
``yea''; rollcall No. 407--``yea''; rollcall No. 408--``yea''; rollcall
No. 409--``nay''; rollcall No. 415--``nay''; rollcall No. 416--``nay'';
rollcall No. 417--``nay''; rollcall No. 418--``nay''; rollcall No.
419--``yea''; rollcall No. 420--``yea''; rollcall No. 421--``nay'';
rollcall No. 422--``yea''; rollcall No. 423--``yea''; rollcall No.
424--``yea''; rollcall No. 425--``yea.''
____________________
URGING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO SUPPORT CARICOM SUMMIT TALKS
______
HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to enter into the Record an
opinion editorial published in the CaribNews newspaper the week of May
17, 2007 titled ``Caribbean Aims to Cash in on Face Time with Bush''.
This article expresses the importance of the CARICOM Summit meetings to
be held in Washington, D.C. from June 19-21, 2007.
The heads of states of the 15 nations that comprise the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) will be in Washington meeting with the
Administration, as well as members of Congress. During their meetings
in Washington, they wish to discuss U.S.-Caribbean trade relations,
cooperation in education and security initiatives, immigration,
disaster preparedness and mitigation, and other issues arising from our
important relationships with our Southern neighbors.
A Summit of this magnitude and with the full leadership of CARICOM
represents the first of its kind under the Bush Administration. I
commend the Administration's initiative in establishing stronger and
more consistent relationships with island states whose strategic
importance has been recognized by their designation by former Secretary
of State Colin Powell as our ``third border.''
This Summit comes at an important time for the American people as we
celebrate the contribution of millions of Caribbean-Americans during
Caribbean American Heritage Month. It is estimated that over 2.6
million Caribbean-Americans currently live in the United States. People
from the Caribbean have contributed to the building of this great
nation as the earliest and largest source of Black immigrants to the
U.S.
It is important to recognize the Caribbean as strategically
significant to the U.S. in terms of security, international trade, and
education initiatives. Members of CARICOM serve as crossroads for major
air and sea routes between North America, Africa, Europe and Asia. It
is in our country's national security interests to make certain that
the issues of poverty, illiteracy and HIV/AIDS in the region are
addressed.
An unprecedented threat to the economic and social development of the
Caribbean Community is HIV/AIDS. With a rate of 1.2 percent in 2006,
Caribbean nations are second only to sub-Saharan Africa in adult HIV/
AIDS prevalence. AIDS is one of the leading causes of death among
adults aged 15-44 in the Caribbean, which threatens the Community's
ability to achieve sustainable development. Migration from the
Caribbean can contribute to the risk of HIV in the U.S., as
acknowledged in USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the
Caribbean Adolfo Franco's testimony in 2005, citing statistics that
Caribbean immigrants account for 46 percent of all immigrants testing
HIV positive in New York City. High mobility in the region necessitates
a regional approach in combating
[[Page 14964]]
the epidemic. By supporting legislation that will include all the
CARICOM nations in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR), we can expand our reach in fighting HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean
and at home.
Although CARICOM countries receive preferential trade treatment under
agreements such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), CARICOM views
its existing trading arrangements with the U.S. as no longer adequate.
The CBI preferences are set to expire in October 2008, which could
jeopardize an annual $8 billion worth of trade. The current CBI also
includes only eight of the 15 countries that comprise CARICOM, further
emphasizing the need to establish a new trading relationship. Serving
as a backdrop to the Summit this month is the establishment of a
CARICOM Single Market in 2006 and plans for full economic integration
in 2008. In terms of trade with the U.S., the CARICOM Single Market and
Economy (CSME) serves as an opportunity to strengthen ties and better
prepare the region for a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United
States.
In addition to U.S.-Caribbean trade revisions, there is also a need
to create a framework to manage the negative impact of the deportation
process on the CARICOM nations. Caribbean governments assert that
rising crime rates in some Caribbean nations can be attributed in part
to the large number of criminal deportees they receive from the United
States, with over 5,000 being sent from the U.S. to the Caribbean
between October 2005 and October 2006. High rates of crime and violence
in the Caribbean are undermining growth and investment, threatening
human welfare, and impeding social development.
Our national security is also threatened by a failure to manage the
deportation process. When deportees are sent to the Caribbean--many of
whom acquire assets and connections in the United States--they are
often sent empty-handed without a family support network in the
Caribbean. This situation breeds poverty among deportees, which can
make weak States vulnerable to terrorist networks and drug cartels
within their borders. According to the World Bank, murder rates in the
Caribbean are higher than in any other region of the world, and assault
rates are significantly above the world average. These challenges
compounded by narcotics trafficking, which is at the core of these high
rates, transcend national boundaries, threaten America's national
security, and require a coordinated regional response.
As Members of Congress, we have a significant opportunity to respond
to the economic and political challenges facing the nations of the
Caribbean, by encouraging educational exchange programs, promoting
trade and supporting legislation that provides funding to address the
HIV/AIDS situation in the region.
The issues I outlined today provide the foundation for a rich
dialogue between the U.S. and the Caribbean Heads of State. I encourage
my colleagues in Congress to play a significant role in fostering a
mutually beneficial relationship with our friends of the Caribbean
Community by supporting and participating in the CARlCOM events that
will be taking place on the Hill from June 19 through June 21.
Caribbean Aims To Cash In on Face Time With Bush
(georgetown)
On Jun. 20, Caribbean leaders will sit down with George W.
Bush for the first full summit meeting with a U.S. President
in a decade, and from all indications, they have a plethora
of issues to put on the table, chief among them trade and
disaster preparedness.
Since Democratic President Bill Clinton flew to the eastern
Caribbean island of Barbados for a day in May 1997, the two
sides have not met for any length of time at the Heads of
Government or state level, though they have formalized annual
and sometimes twice yearly meetings with secretaries of state
and other high-level officials.
Analysts say the June summit comes at a time of serious
anxieties for the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM), 10
of which form a free trade bloc that has functioned smoothly
over the years save for the odd row over some members'
protectionist policies. High-ranking CARICOM officials like
Assistant Secretary-General Colin Granderson and others agree
that the region would be remiss if leaders do not jump at the
chance of reinforcing their geopolitical importance to the
United States, being right in its backyard.
For one thing, the Ronald Reagan era Caribbean Basin
Initiative and its offshoot, the Caribbean Basin Economic
Recovery Act, governing trade with the U.S., are now subject
to annual unanimous approvals by each member of the World
Trade Organization (WTO), a development Governments say makes
them feel very insecure. Washington has also expressed its
discomfort with the fact that it has to ask every single
country to say yes to renewing the preferential trade deal,
which expires in two years.
Caribbean leaders and foreign ministers argue that trade
worth an annual average of eight billion dollars is operating
at the whims of WTO members and should have some formal, more
structured cover.
They are considering asking Washington to negotiate and
sign a U.S.-Caribbean free trade agreement, since it has
become clear that efforts to forge a hemispheric umbrella
agreement have collapsed under the weight of objections from
regional Latin American powerhouses like Brazil and
Venezuela, among others.
The region's Central American neighbors have already
negotiated their own deal with the U.S., but a definitive
position on the Caribbean may well emerge in the days leading
up to the summit.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF JUDGE SEAN C. GALLAGHER
______
HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Honorable
Sean C. Gallagher as the 2007 recipient of the Cleveland-Marshall
College of Law Alumni of the Year Award, and to celebrate his efforts
to make a safer and more just Northeast Ohio.
For over 25 years, Judge Gallagher has served the people of Northeast
Ohio with dedication and distinction. Whether a juvenile probation
officer, a prosecuting attorney, a court bailiff, a municipal court
judge, or an Ohio Court of Appeals judge, he has always had the
concerns and the safety of the community at hand. He has also dedicated
his time to numerous boards and associations to ensure that the legal
profession maintains its integrity and continues to produce thoughtful
and dedicated young attorneys.
Madam Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honoring Judge Sean
C. Gallagher as the 2007 Alumni Award recipient. May Cleveland continue
to benefit from his leadership and vision.
____________________
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY
______
HON. RICHARD E. NEAL
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, it is my honor today to
submit into the Congressional Record the history of the Our Lady of
Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Springfield, Massachusetts, as it
celebrates its centennial anniversary.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church is the focal point of the Italian-
American community in Springfield. I would like to take time today to
acknowledge this important anniversary and to extend to the
communicants of the Mount Carmel Church my best wishes for a strong and
prosperous future.
The Centennial 1907-2007 History of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman
Catholic Church
In the late 1800s, the Italian community in greater
Springfield, Mass., held religious services in the basement
chapel of St. Michael Cathedral. A separate church in the
South End, where most of the immigrants had settled, was an
increasing need. Bishop Thomas Beaven placed this hope in the
hands of the Stigmatine Congregation of Verona, Italy. Frs.
Anthony Dalla Porta, first pastor, and Alfred Ballestrazzi
came to the United States in May 1906. In 1907, a new Our
Lady of Mount Carmel Church was named. The building, seating
500 worshippers, cost $35,000. It opened on December 24,
1911. Nearly 1,000 families were members of the infant
parish. In 1919, five religious sisters, Daughters of Our
Lady of Mercy, arrived from Savona, Italy. They opened a day
nursery, sewing classes, and children's catechism
instruction. The church building was expanded in 1932.
Stigmatine Fathers William Ludessi, Erminio Lona, Charles
Zanotti, Peter Toretta, Paul Zanini, Camillo Santini, Carmen
Russo, Richard Scioli, and currently Robert White, have
served as pastors.
Mt. Carmel Church survived the Great Depression, the flood
waters of 1936, and the hurricane of 1938. Church societies'
fund-raising liquidated all debt by 1946. An elementary
school, staffed by the sisters, opened in 1948. In 1959, a
second major renovation of the church took place. The parish
entered its Diamond years with hope and pride in the future.
Weekly St. Anthony devotion remains steadfast. In 1991, the
new position of Pastoral Minister, open to a qualified non-
ordained person, was filled by Sister of St. Joseph Elizabeth
Matuszek. The quality of education, which the Daughters of
Mercy established, has kept the school open as one of
[[Page 14965]]
five Catholic schools left in Springfield. Its first lay
principal was Mrs. Claire Cote, who in 2002, achieved the
maximum ten-year accreditation by the New England Association
of Schools and Colleges, and opened a Preschool, an after-
school program, and a computer laboratory. Mrs. Carol
Raffaele succeeded Mrs. Cote in 2003, completing its interim
evaluation for accreditation. The computer lab went state-of-
the-art wireless. Library cataloging was computerized, and
offices were connected to the Internet. The school developed
a web page, www.mountcarmelschool.org. OLMC graduates
consistently score in the top percentile in standardized
tests. They thrive in high school, college, and beyond.
In Religious Education for our public school students, 26
CCD volunteers have been awarded the diocesan St. Pius X
Medal, every year since the inception of this honor.
Intergenerational Religious Education began with this
Centennial Year Generations of Faith. Families with children,
and adult households, came together for religious formation
sessions.
Lay ministry has expanded far beyond our worthy list of
certified lectors, special ministers of the Eucharist, choir,
and ushers. Women and girls have joined men and boys as altar
servers. Qualified laity help prepare candidates for the
sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and
Marriage.
Members continue fundraising efforts in this age of rapidly
escalating expenses. Bingo was a lucrative source of funds
from 1967 to 1997. The October Taste of Italy became a new
social focus and important fundraiser, first held in 1992.
``Bring your best Italian foods to serve at least 100'' was
the request. Participants respond to the zealous leadership
of Chairperson Rosemarie Costa. Hundreds come to affirm and
enjoy the culinary achievements of dozens of Italian cooks.
Clerical tasks have become computerized. Clubs and
Societies remain a consistent base of spiritual, social, and
economic vitality. The Women's Guild is an important body of
support for the parish. The Ministry of Caring of St. Vincent
DePaul extends the Works of Mercy to and beyond our parish
parameters. The Men's Retreat League continues its annual
weekend at Holy Family Retreat Center in E. Hartford, CT. The
parish Knights of Columbus are St. Gaspar Bertoni Council
5037. The Holy Name Society hosted the last of its coffee
hours in 1999. Youth Ministry proudly donated a $700
replacement tree to the church, and sent a contingent to the
Catholic Youth Conference in St. Louis in 1996. They donated
half their treasury to the Centennial Renovation Fund.
For the 90th anniversary in 1997, a $300,000 capital
campaign restored the slate roof and stained glass and
alabaster windows. New entrance doors were installed.
Centennial plans began in 2002, for spiritual renewal,
communications, and a $1.6 million capital campaign for
physical renovations. Peter Zorzi of Studio One Architects,
of our South End parish neighborhood, said, ``I can't count
how many Sundays I sat at 8:30 Mass imaging what I would do
to restore this church!'' With well-established competence
and experience, Studio One brought us an enduring enthusiasm
and a church of renewed beauty. Our gratitude for their
services is beyond measure.
We installed the Verdin Singing Tower Carillon from nearby
St. Joseph Church which closed. Its seasonal hymns resound
throughout the South End three times daily. All pews were
removed for restoration and resizing. Artists Salvatore Degli
Atti and Salvatore Rossi of Italy achieved the acclaimed
renovations. From St. Polycarp Church in Somerville, which
closed, we purchased marble altars and other appointments.
Architects redesigned the sanctuary space, completing
handicap accessibility.
Fifty travelers journeyed to Italy in honor of the
Centennial. The Communications Committee reached out to our
most senior members, inviting those 80 years of age and older
to submit memories and photos for the Anniversary Book. 101
responded.
A Mass of Thanksgiving for the Centennial was celebrated in
the renewed church on June 10, 2007. Principal Celebrant and
Homilist was Most Reverend Timothy A. McDonnell, Bishop of
Springfield. A dinner for 700 followed at the Castle of
Knights in Chicopee.
Since the 1907 South End origin of the parish, Interstate
highway configuration has dispersed members to many
surrounding cities and towns. Blessed with their heritage of
Catholic faith, a festive Italo-American spirit, and strong
and extended family, Mt. Carmel parishioners remain a vibrant
and proud witness to their heritage and faith in
Springfield's South End.
____________________
2007 FARM BILL
______
HON. SAM GRAVES
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. GRAVES. Madam Speaker, the 2007 farm bill is one of the most
important pieces of legislation this House will consider this year.
From such varied topics as rural development to nutrition to
conservation to energy to research to disaster assistance, the farm
bill will impact all of these issues and many, many more. In my
district, Missouri's sixth, we have a lot of farmers diversified in
different row crops and livestock. Many of my fellow farmers in
Northwest Missouri are soybean producers, so it is with this in mind
that I would like to draw this distinguished body's attention to a
letter I have recently received from the United Soybean Board, an
organization responsible for administering the soybean research and
promotion programs of the soybean checkoff program. We've heard a lot
about checkoff programs over the years, and I hope my colleagues will
find the following correspondence useful as we move forward with the
2007 farm bill.
May 24, 2007.
Hon. Sam Graves,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Graves: Thank you for your letter of
May 10, 2007, regarding the soybean research and promotion
efforts of the soybean checkoff program. I very much welcome
the opportunity now and in the future to provide you, other
members of Congress, and the soybean farmers of Missouri's
Sixth District and in other parts of our country, information
about our soybean checkoff.
As you know, at the urging of the nation's soybean farmers,
Congress created the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer
Information Act in 1990. Since that time, the United Soybean
Board (USB), of which I serve as Chairman, and 29 Qualified
State Soybean Boards (QSSBs), have invested soybean checkoff
funds to provide profit opportunities for all U.S. soybean
farmers.
Keeping in mind your suggestion for brevity, I am pleased
to provide answers to the specific questions you posed in
your letter about the accomplishments of the soybean
checkoff:
1. Recently, biodiesel seems to receive a lot of news
coverage. What role, if any, has the checkoff, national or
state, played in the development or marketing of this product
and what is the relationship of USB to the National Biodiesel
Board?
Simply put, America's soybean farmers, through our soybean
checkoff, established the biodiesel industry in the United
States. The Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council (MSMC), a
Qualified State Soybean Board (QSSB), funded the first
significant biodiesel research back in 1990. The USB, MSMC
and other QSSBs helped establish the National Biodiesel Board
(NBB) in 1992. The soybean checkoff continues to fund most of
the NBB-coordinated research and promotion that has made
biodiesel one of the fastest-growing renewable fuels in the
United States. According to NBB, biodiesel production in the
U.S. has increased from an estimated 500,000 gallons in 1999
to 225 million gallons in 2006. Our biannual soybean farmer
attitudes survey showed only 23 percent of all soybean
farmers used biodiesel in 2002. Our latest survey shows more
than 50 percent of all U.S. soybean farmers now use biodiesel
in their operations.
2. I know that export markets for American agricultural
products are very important to our nation's trade balance.
How involved have USB or the QSSBs been, if at all, in
developing these markets?
Since Congress established the national soybean checkoff
program in 1990, U.S. soybean exports have doubled. U.S.
Department of Agriculture figures show we exported 557
million bushels of U.S. soybeans in 1990. Last year, we
exported a record 1.1 billion bushels of U.S. soybeans.
The growth of U.S. soy exports to China serves as an
example of the kind of export development work accomplished
by the soybean checkoff. State soybean checkoff programs
funded the early reverse marketing activities in China to
change the country from an exporter into an importer of soy.
Shortly after Congress created the national soybean checkoff,
USB also contributed to those efforts, such as providing
technical information and support to China's poultry,
livestock and aquaculture industries on how to use soy as a
valuable protein source in animal feed. In 1995, these
efforts, funded with soybean checkoff dollars and market
development funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Foreign Agricultural Service, helped turn China from being a
soy competitor into a U.S. soy customer. China is now the
biggest export customer of U.S. soy. Most recently, working
with soybean checkoff farmer-leaders and staff, a group of
Chinese buyers signed contracts in the United States to
purchase 211 million bushels of U.S. soybeans, worth more
than $2 billion. USDA projects when the marketing year ends
later this year, China will buy over 400 million bushels of
U.S. soy. In addition to building markets for U.S. soy in
China, the soybean checkoff funds U.S. soy market development
efforts in 80 countries around the world.
3. As a nation, we are becoming increasingly health
conscious, and I know that soy is regarded as having positive
health benefits. What has the checkoff program done to
[[Page 14966]]
help document these health benefits if at all? In addition,
we are all aware of the issue of trans fats in the foods we
eat. Is this an issue for soybeans and if so, what has been
done to address it?
The soybean checkoff has been instrumental in funding the
necessary research to document the health benefits of soy.
Early on, state and national soybean checkoff organizations
funded the scientific research that helped lead to the U.S.
Food & Drug Administration's health claim in 1998 linking the
benefits of soy to reducing the risk of heart disease. Also,
USB's Soy Health Research Program has invested about $500,000
to assist scientists in submitting soy-related research grant
applications, which has helped secure more than $12 million
in research funds from the National Institutes of Health.
This 24-1 return on soy research investments seeks to
document how soy's role in a healthy diet can reduce the risk
of such diseases as breast cancer, prostate cancer and
osteoporosis.
Second, in the late 1990s, USB identified trans fat as an
issue that could have a major impact on the future
utilization of soybean oil. The checkoff established an
initiative to determine food industry trends and needs, which
eventually led to the creation of QUALISOY in 2004. This
collaborative U.S. soybean industry-wide effort helped
accelerate the development of new soybean varieties with oil
that requires little or no hydrogenation and, therefore, is
free of trans fats and ultimately lower in saturated fats.
This year, U.S. soybean farmers are expected to plant up to
1.75 million acres of these new varieties, which also provide
additional profit opportunities to U.S. soybean farmers.
4. We are also aware of the threat of Asian Soybean Rust to
the American soybean farmer. I am pleased that USDA so
quickly responded with specific programs to counter this
threat. How, if at all, were checkoff funds used to assist
this effort? How else, if at all, have either state or
national checkoff funds been used to benefit soybean
production, either by increasing yields or dealing with
pests?
Similar to our efforts to increase soybean exports, the
challenge to minimize the impact of Asian Soybean Rust
provides a good example of how checkoff investments made by
soybean farmers can be leveraged with federal government
dollars to benefit us--and ultimately all consumers--with a
safe, abundant supply of soy. Beginning in 2005, the soybean
checkoff helped coordinate and fund an early-warning system
for soybean rust through a cooperative effort with USDA. The
system includes an extensive series of sentinel plots planted
to soybeans that receive regular monitoring for rust and
other plant pests and diseases. This system keeps us well
informed about the spread of rust and helps us scout, monitor
and manage our crops to prevent or minimize yield loss from
this potentially devastating disease.
More broadly, finding solutions to soybean yield-robbing
pests and diseases traditionally has ranked as USB's second
largest investment area. For example, in 2001, USB-funded
researchers published breakthrough research identifying
specific genes in the Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN), the
leading cause of soybean yield loss from plant diseases. This
helped serve as basis for more durable SCN resistance in
soybean varieties. Just last year, researchers funded by the
soybean checkoff published genetic markers for two rust-
resistant genes. This allows soybean breeders to incorporate
these genes into breeding programs without laborious testing
against the harmful disease. We expect this to lead to new
rust-resistant varieties in the next four to five years.
These are just a few examples of how the soybean checkoff has
helped me and other U.S. soybean farmers prevent or reduce
soybean yield loss from harmful plant pests and diseases. No
doubt, these efforts have helped U.S. soybean production grow
from 1.98 billion bushels in 1991 to a record 3.18 billion
bushels in 2006.
5. I know that soy products have been featured in the
federal government's bioproducts support program. Are you
aware of what soy products have been featured in this effort
and if so, could you elaborate on how, if at all, national or
state checkoff funds have been utilized to develop any of
these products?
This is an area of special interest to me since I served
three terms as chair of USB's New Uses program and one year
as team lead of our Biobased Products Initiative. Our surveys
show U.S. soybean farmers believe developing new soy uses,
such as soy-based inks, plastics, lubricants, adhesives and
solvents, should be a top priority of our checkoff. The most
notable new industrial uses for soy developed by the soybean
checkoff include soy biodiesel and soy ink. But hundreds of
soy-based products, many developed with the help of soybean
checkoff-funded research, now also fill our ever-growing Soy
Products Guide, a catalog of soy-based bioproducts we publish
annually. Recognizing the purchasing power of the federal
government, the soybean checkoff has taken the lead in
familiarizing federal purchasing officials with the
availability and benefits of these products through workshops
held in the nation's capital. Last year, USDA finalized its
list of the first six categories of biobased items that would
be awarded purchasing preference under the federal
bioproducts support program. USB has funded research and
marketing efforts with companies that make up three of the
six categories, which include soy-based mobile hydraulic
fluids, roof coatings and penetrating lubricants. Late last
year, USDA proposed that more items be designated for
preferred federal purchasing. When finalized, we anticipate
that more soy-based bioproducts developed with the help of
the soybean checkoff, such as spray foam insulation, carpet
backing, electric transformer fluids, engine oils, cleaners
and other solvents, will receive preferred purchasing
designation.
6. The Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information
Act, as passed in 1990, called for regular ROI studies to
evaluate the return to soybean farmers on their investment in
the checkoff. Have those studies been undertaken, and if so,
what were the results? If these studies do not reflect the
additional funds that may have been leveraged through the use
of checkoff funds, please expand on that point as well. In
this same context, what evidence, if any, do you have that
soybean farmers continue to support the checkoff?
Evaluation remains a cornerstone of every soybean checkoff-
funded program. All USB-funded programs must have an
evaluation component. As required by law, the soybean
checkoff has also conducted regular return-on-investment
(ROI) studies. An independent study, conducted in 1998 by
Texas A&M, found that for every checkoff dollar invested,
U.S. soybean farmers earned an additional eight dollars in
net revenue. A similar study, conducted in 2003 by World
Perspectives and AgriLogic, found a 6:1 ROI. USB's next
regular ROI study will be conducted next year.
In addition to those noted above, numerous examples exist
of how we maximize checkoff investments by achieving outside,
matching funds to benefit all U.S. soybean farmers. For
example, state and national soybean checkoff international
marketing investments, which this year total $11.3 million,
achieved a matching investment of $14.2 million in Foreign
Market Development and Market Access Program funds through
USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. USB funding of the
development of the soybean genome map and development of
genetic markers helped lead to a nearly $5 million dollar
grant for soybean genomics research conducted by the National
Science Foundation. Soybean checkoff-funded genome research
also positioned soy to be chosen by the U.S. Department of
Energy's Joint Genome Institute as the next plant genome to
be sequenced, a project valued at $11 million.
The federal law that created the soybean checkoff requires
that U.S. soybean farmers have an opportunity every five
years to request a referendum on continuation of the program.
In 1999, less than 3 percent of eligible soybean producers
requested a referendum on the soybean checkoff. In 2004, less
than half of 1 percent of all eligible soybean producers
requested a referendum. USB conducted its first statistically
valid, biannual soybean farmer attitudes survey in 1997. At
that time, 65 percent of soybean farmers surveyed indicated
they supported the soybean checkoff. The most recent survey
conducted earlier this year showed 73 percent of U.S. soybean
farmers support the soybean checkoff.
7. And even though it is not directly related to the role
of the United Soybean Board, what, if any, role has it played
in the broader soybean or agricultural industry that members
of Congress should know about?
The 64 farmer-directors who serve voluntarily on USB
believe it's also our responsibility to help lead the U.S.
soybean industry. Since 2002, USB has brought together state
and national soybean checkoff and association leaders and
staff for CONNECTIONS, a joint planning meeting to help
establish our research and promotion priorities and
strategies for the following three to five years. Last year,
USB took the process a step further by engaging all players
in the U.S. soybean value chain to actively take part in Soy
2020. This U.S. soybean industry-wide effort created a vision
for the future of U.S. soybeans for the next twelve years. It
focuses on four key stages: a comprehensive environmental
scan that identified key areas of emphasis; analysis of
different possible scenarios for the U.S. soybean industry;
development of the vision and strategies to support each
scenario; and a formal launch, which took place earlier this
year.
Aside from this formal joint planning meeting, the farmer-
directors of USB have also committed to a leading cause in
U.S. agriculture--supporting the livestock and poultry
industries. The animal agriculture industry is inherently
important to the soybean industry, as it is our number one
customer, consuming nearly all of the domestically used
soybean meal. The USB-led Animal Agriculture Initiative is an
effort to build support among soybean farmers and leading
agriculture organizations, including the American Farm Bureau
Federation, the Animal Agriculture Alliance, and other
checkoff organizations such as the National Pork Board. This
combined, concentrated support will not only help protect the
domestic livestock and poultry industries from unnecessary
criticism and ridicule, but will also help
[[Page 14967]]
protect our number one market for soybean meal.
I am confident this information will help you and other
members of Congress understand how our self-help research and
promotion program has created new U.S. soybean demand and
profit opportunities for all U.S. soybean farmers. Please let
me know if we can provide any additional information for you
and your colleagues.
The 64 volunteer soybean farmer-leaders who make up our
board truly believe we have an effective, efficient and
farmer-driven soybean checkoff.
Respectfully yours,
Eric Niemann,
Chairman, United Soybean Board (USB).
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. SUE WILKINS MYRICK
of north carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mrs. MYRICK. Madam Speaker, I was unable to participate in the
following votes. If I had been present, I would have voted as follows:
June 5, 2007:
Rollcall vote 426, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution H. Res. 397--Condemning violence in Estonia and attacks on
Estonia's embassies in 2007, and expressing solidarity with the
Government and the people of Estonia, I would have voted ``aye.''
Rollcall vote 427, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution H. Res. 422--Calling on the Government of the People's
Republic of China to use its unique influence and economic leverage to
stop genocide and violence in Darfur, Sudan, I would have voted
``aye.''
Rollcall vote 428, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution H. Res. 430--Calling on the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran to immediately release Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, I would
have voted ``aye.''
Rollcall vote 429, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution H. Res. 451--Directing the Committee on Standards of
Official Conduct to respond to the indictment of, or the filing of
charges of criminal conduct in a court of the United States or any
State against, any Member of the House of Representatives by empaneling
an investigative subcommittee to review the allegations, I would have
voted ``aye.''
Rollcall vote 430, on motion to suspend the rules and agree to the
Resolution H. Res. 452--Raising a Question of the Privileges of the
House, I would have voted ``aye.''
____________________
CONGRATULATIONS, AMERICAN LEGION AUXILIARY OF SIKESTON, MISSOURI
______
HON. JO ANN EMERSON
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mrs. EMERSON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer my most sincere
congratulations to the American Legion Auxiliary of Sikeston, Missouri,
which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary. Every year in the
eight decades of the American Legion's existence in Sikeston, this
group of patriotic Americans annually makes multiple investments of
time, talent and treasure in our southern Missouri community.
The congressional district I represent would not be such a wonderful
place without organizations such as this one, many of which are
inspired by the Sikeston American Legion Auxiliary. Most notably, the
Sikeston American Legion Auxiliary takes a keen interest in enriching
the lives of young people. By sponsoring participants in Missouri Girls
State and contributing to programs like Sikeston's Teacher Appreciation
Week and the YMCA, the Sikeston American Legion Auxiliary makes a
profound investment in our future leaders. Neither does the Sikeston
American Legion Auxiliary forget those who served, supporting efforts
at the Missouri Veterans Home, the John J. Pershing Veterans Hospital,
the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery, and conducting an annual drive to
benefit local disabled veterans. There are so many other ways in which
the Sikeston American Legion Auxiliary lends its support to our
community, they are too numerous to list today.
Ultimately, the Sikeston American Legion Auxiliary embodies the
virtues of service. They are an active organization which is well-known
throughout the region for its year-in, year-out commitment to the care,
enrichment and betterment of the Sikeston community.
As a way of recognizing and honoring the important contributions of
the Sikeston American Legion Auxiliary, I am proud to commend them for
80 years of philanthropy in the Eighth Congressional District of
Missouri and to wish them all the best as they continue to endeavor in
the charitable service of our community.
____________________
CELEBRATING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND RETIREMENT OF ALETTE LUNDEBERG
______
HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. HONDA. Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize the contributions
and well-deserved retirement of Ms. Alette Lundeberg. Alette has served
the County of Santa Clara for 23 years, and has worked tirelessly for
decades as an advocate for poor and indigent peoples, founding numerous
programs for the underserved population in the community. Alette has
been a leading figure on welfare and refugee issues at the local,
state, and national levels.
Alette Lundeberg began demonstrating her leadership ability through
teaching in the 1970s as an instructor at San Jose State University and
De Anza College in Cupertino. She taught a graduate-level social
science course focusing on public service. In addition to teaching,
Alette worked as the Community School Director for the Sunnyvale
Elementary School District, where she established city-wide community
education programs for women.
From 1977 to 1979, Alette worked in the County Executive's Office of
Santa Clara as an Associate Management Analyst. She investigated and
mediated complaints of discrimination, analyzed legislation, and
prepared funding proposals.
In the 1980s, Alette started working with the Social Services
Agency's Refugee program. She was responsible for the $16 million
dollar annual budget and managed 130 staff members while collaborating
with local counties and states on legislation issues.
In the late 1990s, Alette was appointed as Administrator of Benefit
Services for the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency. She has
been responsible for the Agency's Employment Support Initiative, which
has been the planning arena for the California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids, a welfare program that assists California
families through services and cash aid. Aside from working as the
Administrator of Benefit Services, Alette has also been a Board Member
for numerous local community groups including the San Jose Development
Corporation, Planned Parenthood of Santa Clara County, and Asian
Americans for Community Involvement.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor this wonderful role model and
mentor: Alette was my teacher on women's issues. Alette has spent
countless years enriching the community through her leadership and
dedication. Alette Lundeberg's work has been inspirational to many in
the community and I offer her my best wishes for her much deserved
retirement and thank her once again for her work serving the people of
Santa Clara County.
____________________
HONORING GEORGE E. STEPP
______
HON. TOM DAVIS
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr.
George E. Stepp for 38 years of dedicated service to the youth of
Fairfax, VA.
Mr. Stepp began his career in 1969 as a social studies teacher with
Fairfax County Public Schools. He quickly and eagerly made the
transition to the administrative side when he was promoted to become
assistant principal at Falls Church High School. Mr. Stepp went on to
serve as principal at West Springfield High School for 6 years and Lake
Braddock Secondary School for 3 years. In 1989, he became the
superintendent of schools for area IV in the Fairfax County Public
School system. He served in this position until he retired to become
superintendent of schools for the city of Fairfax.
Over his career, Mr. Stepp has demonstrated an interest in his
students, a desire to help them succeed, and the ability to put these
aspirations into policies that create positive tangible outcomes. All
students, faculty and parents who have been through one of his school's
have expressed their heartfelt appreciation for the tireless work he
has undertaken on their behalf.
Madam Speaker, in closing, I would like to commend and congratulate
Mr. George E.
[[Page 14968]]
Stepp for all of his accomplishments. His legacy of success is found in
each and every student who has traveled through his halls, taken his
tests, and is now a contributing member of our community. While he will
be greatly missed, his retirement is well deserved. I call upon my
colleagues to join me in applauding George for these past
accomplishments and in wishing him continued success in the years to
come.
____________________
HONORING ARIZONA'S WILD HORSES
______
HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA
of arizona
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Arizona's wild
horses living in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests.
The residents of the State of Arizona deeply value these magnificent
wild horses.
These beautiful wild horses are truly the ``Living Symbols of the
West,'' as described by the Wild Horse and Burro Act passed by Congress
in 1971 to protect the wild horses of the United States.
The Rim Country wild horses date back to mounts brought by Father
Eusebio Kino, who began his 1653 mission to eastern Arizona by setting
out from the lands of my constituency in southern Arizona and traveling
across our State northeast to the ``borders of the lands of the
Apacheria which border on New Mexico.''
These original Spanish horses are the great ancestors of the Mogollon
Rim country wild horses. They were the mighty Andalusian war horse,
whose origins go back more than 28,000 years to the original Iberian
horse; the magnificent Spanish Barb; and the graceful and fluid Spanish
Jennet, the mount of many of the great kings of Europe; and the strong
bloodlines of these original horses appear almost unchanged in our Rim
wild horses 400 years later.
Our Arizona Rim wild horses are the direct descendents of the Spanish
horses prized by the conquistadors so highly that the foals were
carried in hammocks to protect their legs until they were old enough to
travel on the forced marches; and prized by the early cattlemen for
their endurance and heart and were the very mounts of the U.S. Cavalry
as they rode to protect and expand the American west.
The Arizona Rim Country wild horses living in Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forests are a most precious natural resource to be preserved
for our children and grandchildren who will be able to see them for
generations to come.
____________________
THE PGA OF AMERICA/DISABLED SPORTS USA MILITARY GOLF PROGRAM
______
HON. RON KLEIN
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize an
excellent new project to improve the lives of American soldiers who
were wounded serving our country: the Disabled Sports USA Military Golf
Program. The Wounded Warrior Project, Disabled Sports USA, America
Supports You and the PGA of America have created a new program that
aims to help rehabilitate veterans severely wounded in Iraq and
Afghanistan. By instructing these wounded warriors how to play golf,
the PGA and Disabled Sports USA teaches our disabled veterans a
fulfilling recreation pursuit.
These organizations provide invaluable services to our veterans.
Wounded Warriors offer programs nationwide that offer our severely
injured soldiers opportunities to rebuild their lives.
Disabled Sports USA, established in 1967 by disabled Vietnam veterans
to serve the war injured, has expanded to provide rehabilitative sports
programs to anyone with a permanent disability.
America Supports You was launched in November, 2004, by the
Department of Defense, and built a network of supporters that writes
letters, sends care packages and helps the wounded when they return
home.
And the PGA, America's largest working sports organization, comprised
of 28,000 men and women dedicated to growing, teaching and managing the
game of golf, has throughout its 91-year history provided instruction
and equipment to the military and employment opportunities to veterans.
I am proud to recognize these four organizations that are doing so
much to aid our honored veterans. I hope my fellow members of Congress
share my passion for the Military Golf Program. The program, and its
purpose of giving back to those who so nobly served our country, is
worthy of our praise.
____________________
PAYING TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN EDWARD HARDMAN
______
HON. JON C. PORTER
of nevada
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Captain Edward
Hardeman and The Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC)
Unit at Centennial High School in Las Vegas, NV for being named the
2007 Navy League Most Outstanding Unit in the nation.
Captain Hardeman oversees 215 cadets along with Senior Chief Tom
Borders and Petty Office Gail Johnson. The Naval JROTC Unit is in its
6th year at Centennial High School which received 7th overall in the
nation at the NJROTC National Drill, Physical Fitness, and Academics
Championships in Florida this past April. They were also awarded the
Captain Jim Harvey Best School Sportsmanship/Spirit Award for the 3rd
time in 4 years; a feat no other school in the Nation has ever
accomplished.
Centennial High School's Naval JROTC Unit has been awarded the 2007
Navy League Most Outstanding (Best) Unit in the nation by the National
Navy League, and is only the second unit in the nation to have been
unanimously selected for this honor. The NJROTC program has 625 units
throughout the world, including schools in Japan, Guam, and Spain.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to honor Captain Edward Hardeman and the
Naval JROTC Unit at Centennial High School for their tremendous
achievements.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.
of michigan
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I took a leave of absence on June 6,
2007, as I was in my district on personal business. The following list
describes how I would have voted had I been in attendance today.
Suspension bills: ``Yea,'' H.R. 1051, National STEM Scholarship
Database Act; ``Yea,'' H.R. 2559, Higher Education Act Extension Act of
2007; ``Yea,'' H. Res. 421, honoring the trailblazing accomplishments
of the ``Mercury 13'' women, whose efforts in the early 1960s
demonstrated the capabilities of American women to undertake the human
exploration of space; ``Yea,'' H. Res. 446, honoring the life and
accomplishments of Astronaut Walter Marty Schirra and expressing
condolences on his passing; ``Yea,'' H.R. 1467, 10,000 Trained by 2010
Act; ``Yea,'' H.R. 1716, Green Energy Education Act of 2007; ``Yea,''
H.R. 632, H-Prize Act of 2007; ``Yea,'' H.R. 964, Securely Protect
Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act; ``Yea,'' H.R. 2560, Human Cloning
Prohibition Act of 2007.
``Yea,'' H. Res. 453, rule providing consideration of H.R. 2446--
Afghanistan Freedom and Security Act of 2007.
Amendments to H.R. 2446: ``Yea,'' Lantos; ``Yea,'' Ackerman; ``Yea,''
Costa; ``Yea,'' Franks; ``Yea,'' Jackson-Lee: technical assistance;
``Yea,'' Jackson-Lee: women legislators; ``Yea,'' Kirk; ``Yea,''
Kucinich; ``Yea,'' Terry; ``Yea,'' Van Hollen.
``Yea,'' H.R. 2446, Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act of
2007 (final passage).
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. HONDA. Madam Speaker, on Tuesday, June 5, I was unavoidably
detained and was not present for a rollcall vote on that day. Had I
been present I would have voted: ``Yea'' on rollcall 426 for passage of
H. Res. 397, condemning violence in Estonia and attacks on Estonia's
embassies in 2007, and expressing solidarity with the Government and
the people of Estonia.
[[Page 14969]]
____________________
VETERAN'S DAY
______
HON. ZOE LOFGREN
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Ms. LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, this poem is in tribute to
Veteran's Day.
I think of your valor,
In being willing to take a stand for liberty,
I am speechless,
In light of your bravery,
I know your type,
Is not charmed, by show-offs, in the ranks,
Nonetheless
Please, lower your guard for a moment,
And hear a grateful nation's thanks,
It's not the battles you fight, it's signing the line, saying
you will.
____________________
HONORING DANIEL O. BERNSTINE
______
HON. DAVID WU
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. WU. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of Oregon's
great higher education leaders. Daniel O. Bernstine, president of
Portland State University, which is located in my district, will soon
leave Oregon to become the President and Chief Executive Officer of the
Law School Admissions Council.
During his ten years as president of Oregon's largest and most
diverse university, Portland State University has achieved many
milestones. While many refer to Dan as a builder, a fundraiser, and an
inspiring leader, I know Dan to be a student-oriented university
president and someone who has always worked to provide greater
opportunities for people through access to higher education.
As a president who walks his talk, Dan has opened the doors of higher
education to literally thousands of students. Over the past ten years,
enrollment at PSU grew from 14,000 students to over 24,000 students.
Another of President Bernstine's legacies at Portland State will be
the growth in faculty research. During his tenure, the University has
established several national research centers, including the Center for
Electron Microscopy and Nanofabrication, the Oregon Transportation
Research and Education Center, and the Center for Lakes and Reservoirs.
As a result of Dan's dedication to enhancing the research programs that
relate directly to the economic needs of the Portland metropolitan
region, Portland State's faculty research funding has grown from $17
million in 1997 to over $40 million this year. I think it is safe to
say that Dan Bernstine has helped generate one of the largest business
enterprises, through university research, in the Portland area.
Finally, I want to speak to the partnerships that President Bernstine
has fostered. Chief among them is his work to connect Portland State
University to the area's community colleges. He has been so successful
in building connections with the community colleges that I modeled
legislation (HR. 596) after the work that was done to provide students
with co-enrollment in Portland State and their local community college.
Again, this is another example of the incredible commitment Dan
Bernstine has to ensuring student success in higher education.
Daniel O. Bernstine came to Portland, Oregon in 1997 having served as
Dean of the Law School at the University of Wisconsin. I first met Dan
informally--before he had formally started at Portland State. I was
having dinner in Portland and overheard a conversation--Dan was
excitedly describing the various wonders and attributes of Portland
State and the region to his dinner guest. I later found out that he was
convincing, successfully, one of his staff from the University of
Wisconsin to join him at Portland State. Even before he had started his
first day, he was already a tireless advocate for Portland State and
the region. Since that time he has been a visionary leader for Portland
State and an active member of the community. One of his most
significant volunteer efforts involved chairing the Urban League where
he stabilized the organization and brought fiscal accountability to the
operations.
Dan Bernstine will be missed--for his work at Portland State, for his
enduring leadership in the community, and for his passion for opening
the doors of higher education to the community. I hope our friendship
and our yearly banters over the Stanford/Berkeley games will continue
when he moves to Pennsylvania.
Madam Speaker, please join me in honoring Dan Bernstine for his
contributions and in wishing him well in his new leadership
opportunity.
____________________
CONGRATULATING THE PLATTSBURGH STATE WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM UPON WINNING
THE 2007 DIVISION III NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
______
HON. JOHN M. McHUGH
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. McHUGH. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the State
University of New York at Plattsburgh (Plattsburgh State) Lady
Cardinals upon winning the 2007 NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey
National Championship, their first national championship and the third
won by Plattsburgh State in a team sport.
On March 17, 2007, Plattsburgh State, which is located in my
Congressional District, won the Division III National Championship when
it defeated the Middlebury College Lady Panthers by a score of 2 to 1
at the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena in Plattsburgh, New York. In that
game, Lindsay Brown and Shay Bywater scored goals for Plattsburgh
State, Assistant Captain Danielle Blanchard and Lindsay Littman both
added two assists, and goaltender Bree Doyle made 28 saves. Blanchard,
Bywater, and Doyle and were all named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team
and Blanchard, Assistant Captain Julie Devereux, and Doyle earned All-
American accolades.
Of note, Doyle, a two-time All American from Ogdensburg, New York,
ended her collegiate career with the Lady Cardinals with a 50-4-3
record in 58 games and as the program's all-time leader in winning
percentage (.904), goals against average (1.26), and save percentage
(.936). She also is the Lady Cardinals' single season-leader in
victories (23), games played (27), minutes played (1604.16), saves
(520), and save percentage (.937), all of which she set during her
junior year.
The Lady Cardinals team also included coaches Kevin Houle and Erin
O'Brien as well as the following players: Danielle Beattie, Laurie
Bowler, Ainsley Brien, Elise Campbell, Amber Ellis, Tiarra Garrow,
Sandra Grant, Gina Kozar, Assistant Captain Keltie Jones, Tara Kahn,
Kayla McDougall, Sam Menton, Lesley Ann Mitchell, Stephanie Moberg,
Captain Jessica Moreau, Claire O'Connor, Sarah Samson, Sharis Smith,
and Valen Timmons.
The Lady Cardinals completed the 2007 season as the first NCAA all-
Divisions undefeated women's team with a record of 27-0-2 and just the
fourth undefeated NCAA hockey team in history. They were ranked No. 1
in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll for the last 13 weeks, unanimous
on 12 occasions, and set or tied NCAA Division III records for winning
percentage (.966), home wins (18), and overall victories. Moreover,
their coach, Kevin Houle, who has a 96-16-6 (.839) record in his four
seasons at the helm, won the 2007 NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey
Coach of the Year. Houle was also named the NCAA Division III Women's
Ice Hockey Coach of the Year in 2006.
Madam Speaker, it is an honor to have the opportunity to congratulate
the Plattsburgh State Lady Cardinals ice hockey team for their
accomplishments. Accordingly, I now ask my colleagues to join me in
recognizing the entire Lady Cardinals hockey team for their remarkable
season.
____________________
PAYING TRIBUTE TO HEATHER WILDER
______
HON. JON C. PORTER
of nevada
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Heather Wilder a
recent recipient of the 12th annual Prudential Spirit of Community
Award from Nevada in 2007.
Heather Wilder is currently in the seventh grade at Ernest Becker
Middle School. Heather is being recognized for writing a series of 10
booklets to help foster children cope with fear, anxiety, and
uncertainty that often affect foster children. These informative
booklets are based on Heather's own experiences in the foster services.
She wrote the ``ABCs'' of foster care, and then with a grant from the
City of Las Vegas, she was able to print these booklets which were
distributed to orphanages, counseling centers, mental health hospitals
and the Department of Child and Family Services.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to honor Heather Wilder and her
achievements in providing hope and understanding in foster care
situations. I wish Heather continued success in her efforts.
[[Page 14970]]
____________________
TRIBUTE TO DR. LAWRENCE T. GERATY
______
HON. KEN CALVERT
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to
an individual whose dedication and contributions to the community of
Riverside, California are exceptional. Riverside has been fortunate to
have dynamic and dedicated community leaders who willingly and
unselfishly give their time and talent and make their communities a
better place to live and work. Dr. Geraty is one of these individuals.
On June 7, 2007, he will be honored as the Greater Riverside Chambers
of Commerce's Citizen of the Year at a celebration dinner.
Dr. Larry Geraty has led an impressive and interesting life. As a
child he traveled with his missionary family who lived and worked in
China, Burma, Hong Kong, Lebanon, England, Germany, France, Israel,
California, Maryland, Michigan and Massachusetts. After his young
travels, he obtained his bachelors degree from Pacific Union College
and went on to the Theological Seminary at Andrews University. Larry
served as a pastor before being invited to join the Andrews Theological
Seminary faculty. He studied Hebrew Bible and biblical archaeology at
Harvard where he earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree. Dr. Geraty
then returned to Andrews Theological Seminary as Professor of
Archaeology and History of Antiquity where he taught for 13 years. He
also led a series of major archaeological expeditions to the Middle
East.
In his distinguished academic career, Dr. Geraty has received many
honors including a Fulbright Fellowship and serving as advisor on
archaeology to former Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan. Dr. Geraty has
served as a leader on several societies such as the Vice President of
the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan. He has
lectured all over the world and is a contributing author to several
publications.
In 1985, Dr. Geraty became President of the Atlantic Union College in
South Lancaster, Massachusetts, where he earned the reputation as a
progressive academic administrator. For over 14 years, Dr. Geraty has
served as President and Professor of Archeology at La Sierra University
in Riverside, California. During his time in Riverside, Dr. Geraty has
become a staple of the community through his leadership and generosity.
He served on several boards including the Greater Riverside Chambers of
Commerce, United Way of the Inland Valleys, Mayors Higher Education/
Business Council, Raincross Club, Monday Morning Group, World Affairs
Council of Inland Southern California, Riverside Arts Council and the
Riverside Youth Action Executive Policy Board.
In 2000, Dr. Geraty received the P.E. MacAllister Award for
Excellence in Field Archeology from the American Schools of Oriental
research, and in 2001, he received the Charles Elliott Weniger Award
for Excellence at Pacific Union College.
In light of all Dr. Geraty has done for the community of Riverside,
including serving as the 2006-2007 Chairman of the Board, the Riverside
Chambers of Commerce has named Dr. Geraty their Citizen of the Year.
Dr. Geraty's tireless passion for community service, education and
faith has contributed immensely to the betterment of the community of
Riverside, California. He has been the heart and soul of many community
organizations and events and I am proud to call him a fellow community
member, American and friend. I know that many community members are
grateful for his service and salute him as he receives this prestigious
award.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF BARBARA ROMEY
______
HON. MIKE ROGERS
of alabama
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Madam Speaker, I respectfully ask for the
House's attention today to recognize the outstanding work of a
constituent of mine, Mrs. Barbara Romey, who was recently named an
Outstanding History Educator by The History Channel for her commitment
to history and her students.
Mrs. Romey teaches Social Studies at Central High School in Phenix
City, Alabama. She is known for teaching history in a way that helps
students connect and engage with current national and local issues.
Throughout her career, Mrs. Romey has helped shape her students into
successful and contributing members of the Phenix City community.
I congratulate Mrs. Romey for receiving this award, for her
commitment to excellence in teaching, and for her dedication to helping
better the lives of her students.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO MARSHAL MIZE
______
HON. ZACH WAMP
of tennessee
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. WAMP. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Marshal Mize from
my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, as he retires from the Board of
Directors of the Enterprise Center. Mr. Mize has been an outstanding
leader in our business and civic communities. Now that he will be
devoting more time to his family, I want to take a moment to recognize
his tremendous accomplishments and thank him for all he has done in
Chattanooga.
Marshal is a graduate of Georgia Southern University and served his
country honorably, achieving the rank of Captain in the U.S. Air Force.
After his military service, he went to work for the Ford Motor Company,
eventually starting his own dealership in Chattanooga where he received
countless awards for his leadership in sales and customer service. Mr.
Mize is currently the president, chief manager and owner of Chandler
LLC, a diversified company with interest in land, commercial real
estate, businesses and airplanes.
Marshal has served in numerous civic endeavors. His term as President
of the Chattanooga Rotary Club and member of the Board of Directors of
The Enterprise Center will both be fulfilled in June. He has been
active in the Chamber of Commerce, public television, Boy Scouts of
America and was awarded the 10-Year Major Giving Award by the American
Cancer Society. He serves as an elder and deacon of Signal Mountain
Presbyterian Church.
Marshal Mize is a shining example of integrity, loyalty and
outstanding leadership, and I am proud to recognize him today.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO HENRY P. JONES III
______
HON. MARION BERRY
of arkansas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. BERRY. Madam Speaker, I rise here today to pay tribute to a dear
friend Henry P. Jones III. Henry is the Past President and CEO of the
Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce and has served the organization
since January 1, 1981.
Under his leadership at the Chamber, Jonesboro has become Arkansas'
fastest growing city and is home to more than 100 industrial plants and
facilities. Henry has been involved in organizational management for
over 45 years and was the driving force behind Jonesboro's many
economic successes.
Henry Jones has a long list of accomplishments and distinctions. He
has been the past president of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce
Executives, the Arkansas Association of Development Districts and the
Economic Developers of Arkansas and is a past member of the Board of
the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. In 1989, he was presented a
Distinguished Service Award by the College of Business at ASU. In 1993,
he was awarded a Pioneer Award by the Economic Developers of Arkansas.
In 2002, the EDA presented him with the Outstanding Economic Developer
Award. In 2004, the ASU College of Business Alumni Association named
him the Business Executive of the Year.
Henry Jones has an impressive lifelong resume dedicated to public
service. I ask my fellow members of Congress to join me in recognizing
Henry Jones III for his tremendous contribution to Arkansas and our
country.
____________________
PAYING TRIBUTE TO MOLLIE SINGER
______
HON. JON C. PORTER
of nevada
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mollie Singer a
recent recipient of 12th annual Prudential Spirit of Community Award
from Nevada in 2007.
Mollie Singer is currently a senior attending Nevada State High
School. At the age of 4, she was diagnosed with diabetes and now it is
her goal to vigorously raise money and promote awareness of the
disease. Each year Mollie organizes a team to participate in the
[[Page 14971]]
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk to Cure Diabetes, her
efforts have raised over $100,000 for the foundation. Mollie also
organizes luncheons, picnics and other events to collect money for
medical research.
In addition to her efforts on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation, Mollie has educated the public by co-authoring a
booklet called ``The Road to a Cure'', produced a video diary, and made
public announcements. She has also formed a support group for those
diagnosed with the disease. For her efforts, Mollie will receive a
$1,000 award along with a silver medallion and a trip to Washington
D.C. for her dedication to volunteering for this very worthy cause.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to honor Mollie Singer. Her efforts to
raise awareness and find a cure for Diabetes are commendable. I wish
Mollie continued success in her efforts.
____________________
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Title IV of Senate Resolution 4, agreed to by the Senate on February
4, 1977, calls for establishment of a system for a computerized
schedule of all meetings and hearings of Senate committees,
subcommittees, joint committees, and committees of conference. This
title requires all such committees to notify the Office of the Senate
Daily Digest--designated by the Rules Committee--of the time, place,
and purpose of the meetings, when scheduled, and any cancellations or
changes in the meetings as they occur.
As an additional procedure along with the computerization of this
information, the Office of the Senate Daily Digest will prepare this
information for printing in the Extensions of Remarks section of the
Congressional Record on Monday and Wednesday of each week.
Meetings scheduled for Thursday, June 7, 2007 may be found in the
Daily Digest of today's Record.
MEETINGS SCHEDULED
JUNE 12
9:30 a.m.
Armed Services
To hold hearings to examine the nominations of Michael J.
Burns, of New Mexico, to be Assistant to the Secretary
of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological
Defense Programs, Vice Admiral Eric T. Olson, USN, for
appointment to the grade of admiral and to be
Commander, United States Special Operations Command,
Thomas P. D'Agostino, of Maryland, to be Under
Secretary for Nuclear Security, Department of Energy,
and Michael G. Vickers, of California, to be an
Assistant Secretary of Defense.
SD-106
10 a.m.
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
To hold hearings to examine the Universal Service Fund,
focusing on assessing the recommendations of the
Federal-State Joint Board.
SR-253
Environment and Public Works
To hold hearings to examine the health effects of
asbestos, focusing on methods of mitigating such
impacts.
SD-406
Judiciary
To hold hearings to examine rising crime in the aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina.
SD-226
2:30 p.m.
Foreign Relations
International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic
Affairs and International Environmental Protection
Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine the efficacy of the Foreign
Assistance Reform, focusing on successes, failures, and
the next steps; to be followed immediately by a full
committee hearing to examine the nomination of the
Reuben Jeffery III, to be Under Secretary of State for
Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs.
SD-419
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce,
and the District of Columbia Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine assessing telework policies
and initiatives in the federal government.
SD-562
Intelligence
To hold hearings to examine terrorist ideology.
SH-216
JUNE 13
9:30 a.m.
Veterans' Affairs
To hold an oversight hearing to examine Department of
Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and Department
of Labor cooperation on employment issues.
SD-562
10 a.m.
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Business meeting to consider original bills entitled
``The Higher Education Access Reconciliation Act'' and
``The Higher Education Amendments of 2007'', and other
pending calendar business.
SD-628
Rules and Administration
To hold hearings to examine nominations to the Federal
Election Commission.
SR-301
2 p.m.
Foreign Relations
To hold hearings to examine the nominations of Anne Woods
Patterson, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan, Nancy J. Powell, of Iowa, to be
Ambassador to Nepal, Joseph Adam Ereli, of the District
of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of
Bahrain, Richard Boyce Norland, of Iowa, to be
Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan, and Stephen
A. Seche, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Republic
of Yemen.
SD-419
JUNE 14
10 a.m.
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
To hold hearings to examine public safety and competition
issues, focusing on the 700MHz auction.
SR-253
2:30 p.m.
Intelligence
To hold closed hearings to examine certain intelligence
matters.
SH-219
JUNE 27
9:30 a.m.
Veterans' Affairs
Business meeting to mark up pending legislation.
SD-562
POSTPONEMENTS
JUNE 12
2:30 p.m.
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Interstate Commerce,
Trade, and Tourism Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine United States trade relations
with China.
SR-253