Gary Ackerman

Mr. ACKERMAN

Mr. ACKERMAN. I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill because it will give congressional approval to civil nuclear cooperation with India. Let me tell you what that means. It means that the IAEA will be able to inspect two-thirds of India's civilian nuclear facilities because those facilities will be under IAEA safeguards and all future nuclear facilities will also be under safeguards. It means that India, for the first time ever, has committed to MTCR guidelines. It means that India, for the first time ever, will adhere to the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines. It means that we can send a clear message to rogue states, nuclear rogue states, about how to behave because it shows that responsible nuclear powers are welcomed by the International Community and not sanctions. It means that we can finally achieve the broad, deep, and enduring strategic relationship with India that all of us in this House support. So if you wanted all of these things when you voted overwhelmingly for it 2 years ago, then vote for it again tonight. There are two options before us today. One is to throw away all of the work that's been done and just keep the status quo. India would then pursue its national interests, as it's been doing, outside of the nonproliferation mainstream and we get to inspect nothing. The other is to make a deal with India, and the United States and the International Community will get a window in perpetuity into two-thirds of India's nuclear facilities and all of its future nuclear facilities. The choice is clear, Mr. Speaker. It's time for 21st century policy towards India, and it encourages India's emergence as a global nuclear power and solidifies our bilateral relationship for decades to come. This bill is that new policy, and I urge everyone to support it.

Mr. ACKERMAN

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio, Dennis Kucinich.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Speaker, in considering this bill, this package of sanctions and divestment authorities for states and localities, we should keep foremost in our minds we are in a race. I am not referring to our upcoming elections, but rather the race between the civilized world and the nuclear ambitions of Iran. One of us will win, and one will lose. If the world wins, Iran will not become a nuclear weapons state, there will not be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty will not collapse. If Iran wins, the chief sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East, the patron of Hamas and Hezbollah, a hegemonic nation led by fanatical religious zealots will be able to threaten the global economy and the security of the United States and the civilized world from behind a nuclear shield. And we are just about to lose this race. Iran is not only ahead, it is sprinting to the finish. Its proliferation potential is now a simple math problem. Iran is now producing 2.5 kilograms of low-enriched uranium per day, and has produced an estimated 200 to 250 kilograms of LEU just since this past May. For a crash bomb program, Iran could use the LEU as feedstock, dramatically shortening the time to produce nuclear weapons grade uranium. With 700 to 800 kilograms of LEU set into centrifuges, Iran could produce the 20 to 25 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium required for a crude atomic bomb. Other estimates suggest that 1,000 to 1,700 kilograms of LEU would be necessary. Regardless of whether it is 700 or 1,700 kilograms, Iranian proliferation is no longer a question of if, but when. The President has known about this threat since day one. He has known, and done next to nothing. The Bush administration has adamantly refused to use existing U.S. sanction laws against foreign companies investing in Iran's oil sector. But far worse, the Bush administration has actively worked to stop Congress from adopting the tough and necessary legislation that we have before us today. Why? Do they believe that the past 5 years of slow motion, U.S.-in- the-back-seat diplomacy is about to make a huge breakthrough? In the light of Russia's recent announcement that they have no intention of supporting additional UN Security Council sanctions in Iran, I would like someone to explain how this huge breakthrough is supposed to happen. With our administration tied up in an ideological knot, opposed to U.S. sanctions and unwilling to engage effectively itself, the question for Congress is what can we do to stop Iran. With so little time, our thinking on this problem needs to change. Options that years ago may have seemed reckless, like sanctioning firms in allied countries and applying unilateral economic levers, now have been become essential if we are going to be successful in peacefully getting Iran to back down. Likewise, continuing doggedly with the current take-no-chances, small-carrots-and-no-sticks diplomacy which the Bush administration has insisted on, today looks like a roadmap to disaster. Iranian proliferation is mere months away. That fact makes what is feckless, by definition, reckless. I am not calling for another war. I do not want air strikes or a blockade. I want to avoid all that. But if we don't want war, and we really don't want a nuclear Iran, then we have an obligation to use every peaceful, diplomatic, political and economic weapon at our disposal. If you don't want bombs, then you have to have an alternative, and that is sanctions. Abjuring sanctions is a de facto call to those who want arms. I am very grateful to Chairman Berman and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for their efforts in bringing this critical package of sanctions of legislation to the floor today. It deserves the enthusiastic support of every Member of the House, and there isn't a moment to lose.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) from the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Mr. ACKERMAN. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield now to the gentleman from New York, the distinguished gentleman from the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Engel, 1 minute.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield to the gentleman from California, the distinguished chairman of the full committee, Mr. Howard Berman.

Mr. ACKERMAN

Mr. ACKERMAN. 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 Special Order in honor of the retirement of Representative Mike McNulty.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, this is a bittersweet moment for me and for all of the members of the New York State delegation specifically and the Members of the House of Representatives in its entirety because our good friend, and my best friend in the Congress, Mike McNulty, after 20 years of laboring in the vineyards here in Washington, getting on a flight every single week, coming down to Washington, going back home, representing the people of his district so diligently, will be leaving us at the end of this, his tenth Congress. He is going to be sorely missed. They said, people don't have friends in Washington. This is truly an outstanding misstatement in the case of Mike McNulty. He has friends galore on both sides of the aisle that he has met and kept and maintained close relationships with throughout his entire political career, which is not just the 20 years that he has spent here with us. At the age of 22, Mike entered politics, one of the youngest mayors in the history of anyplace in America. He went from the supervisor of Green Island to the mayor thereof, represented those people for so many years before being elected to the New York State Assembly, and proudly served as their assemblyman before coming here. We have many members of the delegation who wish to speak, some of whom are here tonight, Mr. Speaker. I will fill in and continue some of my remarks, but I want to get some of them up to the microphone at this late hour. I guess we will start with Mr. Hinchey, if you are prepared to start us off.

Mr. ACKERMAN. We're indebted to Congressman Maurice Hinchey, known to most of us as ``Mo,'' for his remarks about our good friend, Mike. And now, representing our downstate constituencies, the gentleman from New York representing the Seventh Congressional District, the chief deputy whip of the House, Joe Crowley, a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Now from the 24th Congressional District of the Empire State whose constituents are contiguous to Mike's--also a Mike--Mike Arcuri.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to advise our colleagues--and just put Mike McNulty on the alert because he never gets caught off guard--that when we all finish, we are going to ask him to honor us by saying a few words, if he would. Now, from the distinguished gentlewoman from the 18th Congressional District, chairman of the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and Related Programs of the Committee on Appropriations and Homeland Security, Nita Lowey.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Thank you very much, Nita. It's not quite Green Island, but the gentleman from Long Island would like to say a few words about being a member of the Mike McNulty fan club, Steve Israel, a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. ACKERMAN. I just want to remind the gentleman that he is still alive. Thank you very much, Mr. Israel, for that eloquence. Now, one of the newer members of our delegation, a celebrity in his own right, is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, on Transportation and Infrastructure, on the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and on Veterans' Affairs, the Honorable John Hall.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Ladies and gentlemen of the House, I'm not addressing the Speaker as I should because it's quite unusual for those of us here on the floor who are controlling the time to get a request from the Speaker pro tem who wishes to step down from the chair in order to address the House. So, Mr. Speaker, it's my privilege and pleasure to yield some time to the representative from the Fourth District of Pennsylvania, a member of the House Committee on Small Business, of the Committee on Education and Labor and of Transportation and Infrastructure, the Speaker pro tem, Congressman Jason Altmire.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I can use some of the remaining time, this is a very fast-moving place. There are a lot of people who have been pretty hard- charging around here over the 26 years that I've been here and certainly over the history of the Congress, and we'll remember a lot of them because they're loud and boisterous, thundering; some people would say ``eloquent'' when referring to some, but all too often, we don't notice the quiet heroes who make all of the difference, who come here to our Nation's Capital, not for self-aggrandizement but unashamedly to full time represent only and exclusively the interests of the people who sent them here. Such a person is our friend Mike McNulty. You'll forgive us, Mr. Speaker, for having the braggadocio as New Yorkers, as we're supposed to have, I'm told, to be ever so proud of Mike McNulty and of all that he represents and will always represent. I was going to read a good part of his biography, much of which has been alluded to by some of our Members here, but I think I will bypass that, because those are all historical notes, and just talk about Mike for a couple of minutes. Mike is truly one of the heroes to anybody who has ever met him. Much has been made of the fact that he was the youngest town supervisor, mayor, at the time of his election some 39 years ago, and has been in public service for his entire life. But it is not just being the youngest, but being one of the best, being one of the most humane, being one of the most compassionate. And I must say as a fellow Eagle Scout, I have always been in awe of Mike because he became an Eagle Scout at the age of 12, not something very easily accomplished. If you know anything about Mike, you know that is even more extraordinary, because when Mike was born in 1947 to Mr. and Mrs. Jack McNulty of Green Island, they were so very, very proud of Mike, as they were of their other children, having great hopes and aspirations that he would be able to achieve and accomplish and make his mark on the world. And then when he was 2 years old they found out that he had the scourge of our time, of our generation, that he had polio, that he was not able to walk. What a challenge that is for a family. What a challenge that is for a young man, not to be able to run around with his friends and grow up in the same way and do the same kinds of things with such ease that other people have. And yet Mike persevered and made a full recovery. I daresay that there are probably not too many people in the House except those who are close to Mike that even knew that he had polio. And those accomplishments, not just the physical accomplishments of being able to get past that, but of being able to contribute to our society, to make a mark and to make a difference, without bringing any of the baggage that so many of us would probably bring to our careers and the rest of our lives. Not a note of bitterness, not a mark of anger, not a sign of why me, but always what can I do to help you, what can I do to contribute to society. I try to think of words, as we all have, that would describe Mike . I go back to the time we were Boy Scouts, in very different places, and he is the embodiment of trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, at least with the taxpayers' money, brave, clean and reverent. He is all of the above. He is a man of great integrity, respected in this House by everybody. I don't know a person of the 435 Members of this House who doesn't truly hold Mike McNulty in the highest of esteem. And he is very different in his approach to his job than so many other people that we can think of, presently and historically, people to whom we subscribe sharp elbows, as the word is; people who would push other people out of the way to get in front of the cameras, to beat them to the microphone, to get out a press release, to claim credit for something. Mike has always been content just to get the job done, absent the big lights and the big crowds. This is a place of show horses and showboats, and among this crowd, Mike is a workhorse and a work boat. People would be absolutely astonished to know that it has been Mike McNulty for these years who has often fought on their behalf successfully to maintain Social Security, something that in a few years hopefully he is going to enjoy for many, many, many years to come, and the work he has done on so many other things without taking credit. Mike is about not taking credit. And in a place where there is very little of that going around, he is virtuous and a virtuoso. One of the newspapers on Capitol Hill does this story every once in awhile about the Obscure Caucus. Well, Mike is the chairman, as they always call him, of the Obscure Caucus. Not because of lack of contribution, but because of lack of spotlight; because of diligent work; because of doing his homework; because of always being prepared, for always being effective, for always getting things done. He is the quiet man around here, a very quiet guy, very respectful. He is very religious, loves his church and its values that he holds very dearly. He doesn't wear them on his sleeve, but it is something that is very important to him. But so is respect for everybody else and their beliefs. I remember traveling up to Albany once to one of the major synagogues in that town to participate, and Mike being the Man of the Year. The Rabbi told me Mike goes to synagogue on the Jewish High Holidays. He is given a place of honor, a seat of his own. It doesn't violate the gift rule. He is the kind of person that we all want our kids to grow up to be, somebody who is respectable and respectful. I traveled with him to Ethiopia with our dear friend Mickey Leland. Mike didn't flinch. It didn't concern him that it was a lot more strenuous a trip for the Sub-Sahara region of the dark continent than it would be for most anybody else. He didn't blink. We flew in small planes, in and out, up in the Gandhara region, participating in the saving and rescue of the Ethiopian Jewish community that fled to Israel. His work for the Irish people is legendary. His work for all people is admired by each and every one of us. His family loves him, and there is not a conversation that I have ever had with Mike that he doesn't mention my kids by name. I mentioned his children, his wife, Nancy, their great marriage, his five grandchildren of whom he is so proud and who I always see winding up in the newspapers upstate, as we call it, in pictures. These are his grandchildren, pictures with presidents and VIPs and movie stars, and every once in awhile they let Mike get into the picture. Mike is going to be leaving Congress, and we are going to miss him. But he is going to go home to Nancy and the kids and the grandchildren and Big Jack, as his father is called. Mike has been in public life for I think four different decades. His dad, Big Jack, has been in public life for seven. He still gets around, so proud of Mike, and Mike is so proud of him. You know, there is a song, and I won't sing it here because it is against the rules and we certainly have previous speakers that sing a lot better than I do, but this song, the words of which are ``climb every mountain, ford every stream; follow every rainbow, until you find your dream.'' Mike has shared his dream here with his friends and the American people, and now he follows his rainbow home, home in Albany, where he also served as speaker pro tem, chaired the New York State Assembly probably more than anybody in anyone's recent memory, as he did here during the early years when Democrats controlled the House; doing that not just because he knew the rules of the House better than anybody else, but because he thought it was his job to let other Members go home after putting in a full day's work, and he was willing to shoulder the responsibility, as you do tonight, Mr. Speaker, in keeping the House open while other Members prepare for tomorrow's day's work. So, Mike, as you follow that rainbow back to Nancy and the kids, knowing that you have a long career of some other kind, I hope, many offers I am sure, will come in, you are a quiet prize that the public will not allow to leave their midst. We are all going to miss you, buddy. I am going to miss you especially. Thank you for your service here, which ends this session, and thank you for your friendship, which will endure forever. Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to coax the recalcitrant, reticent, quiet Mr. McNulty to the microphone.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, as Mike prepares to wrap up this part of his career, return home at the top of his game, under his own terms, under his own steam, we wish him Godspeed. We will be up to visit. Can't say that we are drinking buddies, Mike, but we are certainly eating buddies, take-out in good restaurants up your way. Come down here and back into the city. We will be putting together a group of guys and gals just to hang out.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, we yield back.

Mr. ACKERMAN

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam 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 resolution under consideration.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield to the majority leader, Mr. Hoyer, 1 minute.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution and yield myself as much time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, this resolution pays homage to the lives lost on the 11th of September in 2001 and recognizes this anniversary as a time of solemn commemoration. It extends deepest condolences to the friends, families and loved ones of the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks; it expresses gratitude to the leaders and citizens of other countries who assisted, supported, and stood by the United States in the aftermath of the attacks; and it honors the Nation's first responders, Armed Forces and others whose valiant efforts are a credit to their country and who continue to keep us safe. Each of us remembers exactly where we were on 9/11 when we heard the tragic news. We remember the days of unity that followed when we acted together to protect this country from those determined to harm us and undermine our way of life. Last year, we took a major step in furtherance of that goal by enacting, with bipartisan support, legislation to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, in both its domestic and foreign policy dimensions. By doing so, we addressed major security vulnerabilities and improved our homeland security across the board. I call on the President to continue his work to fully implement that act. Al Qaeda remains a serious threat to the United States. In particular, the al Qaeda leadership that was responsible for ordering the attacks on September 11 has been reconstituted in the tribal areas of Pakistan. From that safe haven, they continue to pose danger to the world and increasingly threaten American troops in Afghanistan. And this is more than just a military campaign. In the battle against extremists, ideas matter as much as ammunition, and this Nation must employ its soft power--its moral, economic, financial, diplomatic and cultural resources--to the very fullest. The global realities of the 21st century require us to use the full range of nonmilitary tools as a fundamental pillar of our national security. We in Congress must support full funding for our international affairs programs. They bolster our national security by allowing us to work with foreign partners to track down terrorists overseas, to secure dangerous weapons wherever they are found, and to help stabilize fragile states. Madam Speaker, this country is in the midst of a competitive election campaign. The stakes could not be higher. But today we set aside all of that to remember what unites us is greater than that which divides us. We all love our country and seek to keep it safe in these perilous times. Madam Speaker, none of us will forget what happened 7 years ago today. We will always remember the victims of 9/11 and the loved ones who survived them. We still have unfinished work. Congress still needs to act, and hopefully soon, to provide the care to the people who rushed to Ground Zero to help others, as well as the thousands who worked on the ``pile'' in the aftermath to rebuild the site. We owe those heroes of 9/11 the care and compensation they deserve. We will always honor the first responders who lost their lives that day--and those in uniform who risk their lives today and every day to defend America. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to recognize now for 3 minutes the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to recognize for 2 minutes a very distinguished Member from Long Island, a member of the Committee on Appropriations (Mr. Israel).

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased now to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished chairwoman of the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, the distinguished Nita Lowey.

Mr. ACKERMAN. Madam Speaker, a very thoughtful general once observed that the loss of 1,000 lives is a statistic, but the loss of one life was a tragedy. There were thousands of tragedies that occurred 7 years ago today. I want to talk about one of them. It was a very long week here in Washington, that week of 9/11. It took three or four times the usual time for me to get back to New York. It was late at night. I was able to get a cab in New York to take me down to the World Trade Center, to the pier where they had set up all of the emergency work. I went there at that hour to find my wife, who was a mental health worker, one of those people who were asked to come down and volunteer. As I waited for her to do the things that she and so many other people were doing, I walked around. There was a long, huge wall with pictures on 8\1/2\ by 11, on napkins, on flyers that were drawn up, people who had pictures of their loved ones, their husbands, their wives, their children, if anybody saw them. There were firemen walking around trying to console women who did not know yet if they were widows. There were little dolls alongside the wall on the floor stretching for two blocks along this pier. They all had notes on them. They were from children who suffered the loss of parents in the Murrah Building disaster. And these notes all said things like, ``When I was in trouble and frightened, someone gave me this doll to make me feel better. I send it to you and hope that you feel better.'' A fire chief came over to me and asked me if I would go over and just stand by this gentleman who was all alone at the wall. It was probably midnight. And this fellow in unique garb, he was a Hassidic Jew, dressed in the traditional big brim black hat, looking very much like the Amish do with the long black coat, he stood in front of one flyer without blinking. The only thing he did was move back and forth, back and forth, staring at this picture. I just stood next to him. And after a minute he spoke to me, without even looking at me, just staring at the picture on this flyer that looked like a younger version of himself, and he said, ``That was my brother.'' He, I was told, was there every night doing this. ``He was my brother. He called me to say good-bye.'' ``I told him,'' he said, ``that he had to get out of that building. He had to get out right away.'' And he said to me, ``I'm sitting holding hands with the young man who works in the cubicle next to mine, a young Puerto Rican kid who lives in a wheelchair, and there is no way for him to get out of this building. I told him he would not die alone, and I am just calling to say good-bye.'' There is nothing anyone could say, nothing I could say. I just stood there. There are thousands of stories, there are thousands of lives, there are tens of thousands of people who were immediately impacted by relatives who died that day, who are heroes as well, some of whom knowingly, some of whom unknowingly went to their deaths, in addition to all of those who rushed into the building to save those that they could. As we remember the first responders, as we remember the people who dug in that pile for so many days and weeks and months, risking their own lives, putting their health at risk and danger, as we know today, an issue that still has to be addressed, we remember also those who caused all of that anguish and pain, all of those thousands of tragedies, who changed history in that one incident, and rededicate ourselves to not being only strong, but smart, as we confront those threats and honor the memory of all those who were lost and all those who tried to help on that day.