Roy Blunt

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. If the gentleman will continue to yield, this is one of the most important topics we will deal with, one of the most important debates we will have this year. Both the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Energy and Commerce have been working hard for months now on a bill. That bill appears to be very near completion. We hope to have that bill on the floor before we take a district work break later this month.

Mr. BLUNT. We are working with the Committee on Ways and Means on that bill and intend to have that bill up the two heavy working days, Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

Mr. BLUNT. I do not know which will come first.

Mr. BLUNT. Again, I have announced that we intend to bring that bill to the floor next week. Again I would expect that would be on Wednesday or Thursday.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the Committee on Ways and Means, the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Camp) for bringing this important resolution to the floor in such a timely fashion. I introduced this resolution 2 weeks ago, and I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert), our majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), our conference chairman, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Pryce), the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) for joining me in this effort. This is a timely effort. It is a discussion we need to have. It is a discussion that, frankly, in the European community has gone on for too long. In October 1998, the European Union did a tremendous disservice to American biotechnology by issuing a ban on the importing of agricultural biotech crops. Although this action was supposed to be a moratorium, it has lasted now for close to 5 years. In my opinion, this is no longer a moratorium, but a ban which is clearly a violation of Europe's WTO obligations and needs to be reversed as soon as possible. The damage that this moratorium has done is dramatic, to say the least. For example, since the moratorium went into effect, U.S. corn exports have diminished from a high of 1.56 million metric tons to approximately 23,000 metric tons last year. This has resulted in the loss of close to $1 billion in corn sales. The tragic thing is that there is no basis, scientific or otherwise, that can justify such an economic hardship on our corn farmers and on other farmers of other products that take advantage of new technology. On May 13, the administration took the first steps toward rectifying this situation by filing a World Trade Organization case against the European Union over its illegal 5-year moratorium on approving agricultural biotech products. Despite repeated assurances from European officials that the moratorium would be lifted, there is no sign of any change in policy. In fact, there is ample evidence that this policy will continue. The position that the European Union and many of its member countries took regarding our efforts to provide food to Africa is also mentioned in this resolution. The idea that starving people would not be allowed to have access to the same kinds of products that American consumers use every day is an idea that is unacceptable. The Subcommittee on Research of the Committee on Science, chaired by the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Smith) will be looking carefully at this issue tomorrow, with the Speaker as the leadoff witness. My colleagues and I introduced House Resolution 252 because we believe that the Bush administration is correct in this area and needs to take the appropriate action on behalf of our Nation's farmers and on behalf of sound science by challenging this moratorium on agriculture and food biotech products.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the memories of two individuals who made important contributions to Missouri agriculture, Wayne Butler and John Sparkman. As friends and neighbors, these men will be remembered for the indelible impression they left on Missouri's farmsteads and ranches. These men exemplified the strength of our Nation through their passion for community involvement. Wayne was a cattleman and forage producer who understood the importance of community service. John was a dairyman and outspoken advocate for issues impacting Missouri agriculture. Over the years, southwest Missouri and I benefited greatly from the leadership, wise counsel and combined experience of Wayne and John. Both men served as the president of the Greene County Missouri Farm Bureau Chapter and as members of my Southwest Missouri Agriculture/ Agri-Business Advisory Committee. Thomas Jefferson said, ``The spirit of our citizens will make this government in practice what it is in principle, a model for the protection of man in a state of freedom and order.'' Wayne and John were men of faith, family and community. They will be missed; however, their love and dedication to Missouri agriculture will endure.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Larry Combest on his nearly twenty years of service for the people of Texas. He has had a wonderful career helping others at the local level, helping others as a Congressman and helping others as the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He has served this House of Representatives and our country well. He will be truly missed. As a freshman member I had the pleasure of serving with Larry on the Agriculture Committee. During this time, I found him to be a wealth of information regarding agriculture policy and I relied on him heavily on many issues that were debated in the committee. As Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Larry made great efforts to consider the diversity of America's agriculture, which helped us to create a broad and sensible agricultural policy. Larry has traveled to southwest Missouri to meet with students and to seek advice from farmers where I live. He has worked tirelessly for the future of agriculture in America. One of the best examples of this effort is found in ``The Farm Security Act of 2002''. In developing this landmark legislation, Larry organized numerous field hearings throughout the country in an attempt to understand what America needed in sound farm policy. He also felt that it was necessary to talk to farmers and local people seeking grassroots advice. As a result of this Chairman Combest helped develop a road map that will improve agriculture policy and help secure the future of our Nation. I stand here today to congratulate Chairman Combest on his years of service and to wish Larry and Sharon the best as they begin a new chapter in their lives.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. economy rides on the telecommunications network now more than ever. We are ever more dependent on the Internet and our telecommunications networks to conduct business. This makes our telecommunications infrastructure a potential terrorist target. One way to guard against the destruction of our telecommunications network is to have multiple, competing networks in place. If one goes down, the other can be used. While telecommunications companies often build in redundancy in their networks, it would be better from a security standpoint to have separate, independently operated networks. Government policy should encourage facilities-based telecommunications competition. This was one of the main goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. A Federal Communications Commission regulation, however, actually discourages facilities-based competition. This regulation known as the Unbundled Network Element Platform (UNE-P) allows a competitor to use an incumbent's network at a steep discount, sometimes up to 55 percent. Since this is a platform, the competitors do not have to build any of their own facilities. The huge discount makes it much more economical for a competitor to use the incumbent's network than to build its own facilities. It also makes it more difficult for an incumbent to financially justify the expense of deploying new facilities, as competitors will be able to piggyback off the facilities and take customers away from the incumbent, without the competitors spending any money for capital improvements. The Chairman of the FCC tried to get rid of this policy in February, but was stymied by a 3 to 2 vote of his fellow Commissioners. The FCC needs to rethink this policy. Without competing facilities-based networks available, a major terrorist hit to an incumbent's telecommunications network could bring the U.S. economy to a standstill.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the gentleman that the House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 for morning hour and at 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list of those bills will be sent to the Members' offices by the end of this week. Any votes called on those measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday we may consider additional bills under suspension of the rules, as well as H.R. 766, the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act. On Thursday and the balance of the week, we plan to consider H.R. 1261, the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act and the President's economic growth and jobs package that the Committee on Ways and Means will mark up early next week.

Mr. BLUNT. The President's economic growth bill, which will do things that stimulate the economy and create jobs by reducing people's tax burden, will come up next Friday. My understanding is that the chairman and the ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means have reached an understanding and will be marking that bill up on Tuesday, file the report on Thursday, and we will have floor action on that bill on Friday.

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend's request. I think I should leave that up to the Committee on Rules, but tradition would certainly indicated that that would be normally the case.

Mr. BLUNT. We would hope to be done by 2 p.m. I hope as the week progresses we may get agreement to start Friday an hour earlier, at 9, but that will be something we will work out with our friends on the other side during the week. And if that is the case, I do not see any reason to believe that we would not be done by 2 o'clock or so on Friday.

Mr. BLUNT. Again, I think that will be left up to the Committee on Rules. I think an announcement was just made about that Act by a member of Committee on Rules, and that will be a decision that they will make pursuant to the announcement that was just made.

Mr. BLUNT. My friend, it is one of those many things that are out there now. Our committees are doing their work. There are several bills that are ready through the committee process. We are trying to find time on the floor for several bills and that is one of them.

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Monday next.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns on Monday, May 5, 2003, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, for morning hour debates.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I am pleased to be here with the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman) to recognize this important institution. Free enterprise and what free enterprise means to the world is best learned at the earliest possible time, and that is exactly what Students in Free Enterprise does. It is located in my district in Springfield, Missouri, but is truly all over the world. There are over 1,400 chapters in 33 different countries; and in many of those countries, the SIFE chapter, the Students in Free Enterprise chapter, becomes the first time the door is really opened in the lives of many students to the whole idea of free enterprise, the whole idea of a competitive system and individuals who are able to move forward largely based on their own capacity and their own talents. SIFE offers students the opportunities to develop leadership, to develop teamwork, to develop communication skills through learning, practicing, through teaching principles of free enterprise that are valuable in improving the standard of living for millions of people in the world. SIFE chapters compete against each other in national and now even international competitions to see which chapters can come up with the most competitive ways to talk about and to expand the concepts of free enterprise. This is an idea that is supported by businesses around the globe. More than 185 top corporate executives sit on SIFE's board of directors. That board is led by Alvin Rohrs, who has given 20 years of his life toward growing this organization from literally a handful of campus units in America to 1,400 universities in 33 different countries. SIFE teams teach important concepts through educational outreach projects. They teach market economics, entrepreneurship, personal and financial success, business ethics, and benefit their community as they plan for the future of their community. Each year SIFE competitions are held worldwide, drawing together thousands of students, all of whom are there to honor one concept, the concept of free enterprise, the concept of capitalism, the concept that we have such a great opportunity through SIFE and many other ways to demonstrate in the world today. I am pleased to join the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman) as he encourages our colleagues to adopt this resolution honoring Students in Free Enterprise.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to rise in support of this resolution and in opposition to the deplorable behavior we see in Cuba today as evidenced by these so-called desires. That people whose only desire is freedom would be swooped up in these kinds of numbers and brought to trial at a time when it is clear in the mind of the dictator that we are looking at other things, shows just how wrong he is. Once again this regime is showing its true colors. These actions continue to be proof of Castro's horrific record of repression, that no matter how much we argue and no matter which side we are on in other debates, people agree on this floor today, it continues to be the kind of commitment that Castro makes to his people, a commitment to repress them. The Castro regime has chosen this particular time because they thought we were looking elsewhere. We show on the House floor today that we are not looking elsewhere, that we continue to look at Cuba, we continue to hope for the liberation of Cuba, we continue to hope for the greater freedom for the Cuban people. The civilized world cannot stand quietly by and tolerate these terrible abuses of individual rights. As we try to bring freedom to another country, we have to continue to stand for freedom in this hemisphere. And today we join the President of the United States, the European Union, and many others, including the Catholic Church, who have condemned these actions. I urge the huge vote on this resolution as we send an important message to Castro.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I would be pleased to have a discussion with my friend from Arizona. Is that allowed, Mr. Chairman, under this arrangement? I certainly think the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) is right that we need to look for a long-term settlement to this issue. To continue to handle it as we have, in a crisis moment, is not the right way to do it. To look at the long term, some tax relief is an option to look at the new obligations that the Federal Government has, in my view, to review our long-term sense of airline security. Until September 11, 2001, there was a widely held and generally defensible view that the fees that passengers paid for airline security were being paid for the purpose of protecting the passengers; and so it was a pure user fee, and it seemed to be defensible in that regard. We now know that we use our security system to secure people who not only are not on the plane that day but who may never be on the plane; and I think the gentleman senses that we need to review that structure to review the additional costs that airlines have assumed because of the new demands of airline security. To look for a more permanent solution to this is absolutely the direction we should take, and I certainly will commit to work with the gentleman on those issues and to try to solve them legislatively for the long term rather than to continue to have to deal with these short-term ways to deal with this issue.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. As my friend from Virginia just said, I share his admiration and appreciation for the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), one of the true heroes of this Congress, a person who has defended our country, who thinks about those who are in harm's way, who appreciates what they do only as one who has bravely stood there, appreciates what they do, and I appreciate his sense that this is a topic that we need to discuss because we do need to discuss it; and our friends in Turkey need to hear the discussion. We have been disappointed with their actions in recent days. In fact, someone just stood up a minute ago, another friend of mine, and said Turkey disappointed us when we needed them most. I think that would be hard to evaluate when we needed Turkey the most because we have needed Turkey often and we have needed Turkey for a long time, and they have been there on all previous occasions. If we were going to have a debate on this floor about who was the most valued NATO ally, certainly our friends in Great Britain today and in this moment would rank at the top of that list, and they would be widely appreciated. But if we had to look over the history of NATO, certainly as we had that discussion, we would have to have that discussion, and it would have to involve Turkey. Turkey, because of its location, has been at the focal point of so much of the world's chaos and in the last 5 decades has been at that focal point as well. Turkey, who during the 45 years of the Cold War stood facing the Soviet Union on the north, the bulwark of stopping the advance of those that we saw who opposed our way of life and what we did at that time, they stood so firmly and so strong that we prevailed in that great conflict of ideology. Now Turkey has had to turn and face the south as the hotbed of the world borders Turkey on the south, and they face the south as a great and dependable friend of ours. Certainly Turkey has had a change based on their democracy. The government has changed. The government is working hard, in my opinion, to continue that strong friendship with the United States. They do need to be part of the European Union. They have been discriminated against for many reasons. They need to move in the right direction. We need to encourage that both economically and socially and politically. This continues to move Turkey in that direction. It continues to show that we appreciate those who 90 percent of the time and plus in the last decades have stood with us.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my gratitude to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter) as well as the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) for bringing this resolution on the floor and doing it so quickly after the latest round of atrocities that we see from Saddam Hussein and his regime. Once again, he showed us just how evil his regime is by the treatment of American POWs in this war. What has happened to Iraqis for decades now we have seen happen to Americans, torture, murder, setting examples so that a tyrant can continue to subjugate his people. This regime has clearly violated the Geneva Convention. They have apparently murdered imprisoned American soldiers. They have exploited POWs and their families by broadcasting images of these captives on TV and in a broadcast where they also display the bodies of those who died at their hands. Saddam Hussein's actions in this war demonstrate, once again, just how depraved he is. He has ordered the murder of his own people. He has attacked his neighbors. He has used weapons of mass destruction. Every day that passes in this war unearths a new atrocity from this tyrant. Iraqi citizens were fired on today as they attempted to throw off their oppressors. News reports were that anti-aircraft weapons were turned on people in the streets to take one more step in a series of steps by Saddam Hussein to take freedom away from his people. Our young people continue to fight courageously for the liberation of Iraq. My thoughts and prayers, the thoughts and prayers of so many in our country go out to everyone involved, those who have given their lives and the families of those who have given their lives in this effort already, the families of those who are prisoners, the families of those who are injured. They should take pride in the commitment that these brave men and women who serve us so well have made, and made, as we have so often done, not selfishly on our part but selflessly reaching out to try to secure freedom for others. I applaud our troops. I join in this resolution that condemns the behavior of this regime as it violates the standards of civilized society once again.

Mr. BLUNT

Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see this bill on the floor today. We will hear many reasons today why this is a problem that needs to be dealt with but some reason about why is not the time. Now is the time to deal with this issue. Now is the time to put patients first, to see that our delivery system begins to function again. There are a dozen States that are in crisis mode and a dozen others that are about to get there. The gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) mentioned the people we had in town yesterday to talk about the importance of this bill, the two families that were here talking about what had happened to their families, not because they were in some isolated spot where one would assume care would not be available, but care was not available because we do not have this situation under control. We had one family, a mother, a wife, two teenage children whose husband and father is no longer able to care for that family because instead of care being available, as it would have been just months ago minutes from the accident, care was now available 6 hours later because that person had to be moved. We had one person talk about her dad in Las Vegas, Nevada, one of the fastest growing communities in the country, was in a car accident and could not get care because the trauma center had just closed because of this problem. That family's father is gone. Mr. Speaker, any of us who vote on this legislation today could find ourselves, no matter how urban and concentrated the area we are traveling to in the next few days would be, in the situation of those families. Or we can see those we love and care about, no matter how we think they would be in imminent contact with health care, find that health care was not available because we have not dealt with this problem. Today we have a chance to do that. Chairman Greenwood and Chairman Tauzin and our friends on the Committee on the Judiciary brought this bill to the floor. It is a bill we need to pass today. I am pleased we have this opportunity.