Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is based on a simple, commonsense idea: it is easier to avoid an iceberg if you see the iceberg coming. We didn't see the UAE ports deal coming. We didn't see the Chinese effort to acquire UNOCAL coming. We didn't see the Bahamas nuclear security outsourcing contract coming. These business deals all raise serious homeland security concerns, but the bigger homeland security issue may be free trade agreements. Trade agreements open our markets to be sure, as they should, but they also open our ports, our infrastructure, and our transportation lines. The United States Trade Representative recently concluded free trade agreements with Peru and with Colombia. Peru is home to two groups listed by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations. Colombia is home to three groups listed by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations. Yet U.S. law does not require any systematic review of security issues raised by these or any other free trade agreements. It doesn't have to be that way. We need not simply vote for a trade agreement and then keep our fingers crossed hoping that there are no security concerns around it or attached to it. My amendment, the Trade Related American National Security Enhancement and Accountability Amendment, offers a responsible alternative. It simply reduces the Department of Homeland Security Management and Operations funding by $500,000 then increases it by the same amount. The intent is to earmark these funds for the Department of Homeland Security to, one, coordinate with the Justice Department and the State Department on a security review of the Peru free trade agreement and the Colombia free trade agreement; second, to analyze and report to Congress on any security issues raised by these agreements. This amendment would in no way delay the implementation of either free trade agreement, but it would give Congress a look at the security issues raised by these agreements. If you believe, as I do, that avoiding the iceberg is easier if you see it coming, please join me in supporting this commonsense reform.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take my Special Order at this time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of the summer driving season, the time of year when high gas prices will most harm families struggling to stretch family budgets already at the breaking point. More than 31 million Americans will take to the Nation's highways this weekend for long trips. Each of those miles will cost consumers dearly at the pump because of misguided energy policies. The simple fact is that the White House and the Republican Congress knew before they passed it that America's dependence on foreign oil would increase under the Bush energy bill. But there is hope. On Saturday, I joined my colleague, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, in Cleveland to announce our plan for a better, brighter future. Our plan invests in ethanol and other biofuels grown in the Midwest, not drilled for in the Middle East. It requires increased production of flexible fuel vehicles capable of burning an 85 percent ethanol blend called E-85. It requires increased investment to make E-85 more available in America's service station. It creates incentives to encourage early adoption of these commonsense technologies that are ready to be put into production today. Our plan also expands the tax credits for consumers who buy especially efficient hybrid cars, and it cracks down on gasoline price manipulation. It makes it crystal clear to Big Oil that manipulation, either direct price gouging or withholding supply to drive prices up, is against Federal law. Not slap-on-the-hands kind of antiprice gouging legislation, but serious penalties and fines that will make the oil industry pay attention. It also redirects Federal support to help rebuild the energy industries of the future. Rather than subsidize Big Oil, we should be helping farmer-owned biofuels, innovative hybrid, and fuel efficiency component manufacturers, and other emerging energy industries to grow, the kinds of jobs perfect for Ohioans who know so much about manufacturing and Ohio farmers who have contributed so much to our State. This is about energy in my State, and it is about jobs in Ohio. With our natural resources and real leadership on energy policy, Ohio can become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy. Our plan is to invest in research. In the 1940s, the Manhattan Project brought the Nation's best scientific minds together to develop the means to end a global catastrophe. In the 1960s the Apollo Project brought the Nation's best minds together to help our country reach a bold new goal. Our plan creates a new advanced research project agency for energy, a mission-driven task force based on those successes, to help us build an energy future that is both economically and ecologically sustainable. Those are not the only things we should do to protect consumers. We should also create public gasoline reserves to discourage supply manipulation by Big Oil and provide a cushion for consumers. We know whenever there is an interruption in supply from a hurricane, from a disturbance in the Middle East, or from a refinery fire, we know that the oil companies take advantage by spiking the price even higher than the supply interruption would suggest. I suggested this idea to create public gasoline reserves 3 years ago. Senator Durbin has a similar idea pending in the Senate for the last year or so. The Consumer Federation of America and the AAA have both testified that a gas reserve system would help consumers. The White House is actually talking about the idea now. Talk is cheap, gas is not; but the White House could be on board and help move this proposal. This is a pocketbook issue for America's working middle class. At our event in Cleveland, Senator Reid and I were joined by two mothers from northeast Ohio who know firsthand how hard it is to keep up with these gas prices. Reverend Lois Annich, a Presbyterian minister, called it ``a social injustice of the highest order'' that families were struggling to pay higher gas bills while Big Oil was posting record profits: $8 billion last quarter for ExxonMobil while its CEO earned $18,000 an hour, while Ohio minimum wage earners who buy that gasoline are making $10,000 a year. And Jennifer Tucker, a working mother of two, explained how rising gas prices were making her family's economic future less secure by making her nursing education harder to afford. Lois and Jennifer, millions of Americans just like them, know what I know: that it is well past time that this Congress and this Bush White House start putting the interests of the American people ahead of the interests of Big Oil.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the Republican-controlled Congress recently passed a tax bill which President Bush signed saying, ``With this bill, we are sending the American people a clear message about our policy.'' I couldn't agree more. This bill makes America's tax policy into a cruel game of Monopoly designed to make winners of the super-rich and losers of America's working middle class. Under their tax scheme, working middle-class families get the chance card and don't fair so well under the Republican bill. They get about $20. Not enough to fill their gas tanks. But trust fund millionaires with an average income of more than $5 million draw the community chest card. They get $82,000. Enough for a brand new limousine. The President was right: the Republican tax bill does send a clear message about their policy: millionaires win, working middle-class families lose, and America needs new leadership.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, today, the House will consider an amendment offered by Congressman Tim Ryan, who represents the city of Akron, Ohio with me. The Ryan amendment will restore $5 million in the 2007 Defense Authorization bill for the High Altitude Airship (HAA) Program. The HAA is being built at the Lockheed Martin Airdock in Akron. The HAA is an unmanned lightweight vehicle, which will operate above the jet stream to deliver continuous over-horizon communication. In position, an airship will survey a 600-mile diameter area without the risks associated with manned aircrafts. The HAA will be used for missile defense, but also to provide border surveillance and emergency communication tools to improve homeland security. This project is expected to create close to 100 jobs, protect more than 500 current jobs, and bring some $130 million in technology development investments to the Akron area. I am proud to support the HAA Program. It positions Summit County at the heart of the development of this national security technology and will strengthen Ohio's economic base. Though I wish the House Armed Services Committee had authorized full funding for the HAA, the Ryan amendment provides an opportunity to keep this critical initiative moving forward. I appreciate the Chairman's support in this effort and urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting for the Ryan amendment.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow what Dr. Burgess says, but GAO says 60 percent of the calls to 1-800 Medicare they have given out wrong information, and I wish our government would get organized before they penalize seniors for not being organized. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Madison, Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin), who has worked hard to make this bill written by the drug companies a better bill, a better law.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2\1/4\ minutes. Here are the facts. They aren't pretty. It is the evening of May 10. That means there are three working days left until the part D enrollment deadline. If you are one of the more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries who lack coverage and you are not on Medicaid, this deadline is binding on you. Unless you enroll by the 15th, you face a late penalty that increases each month until you do enroll. Your next enrollment opportunity isn't until November, but the penalty rises anyway. When and if you do enroll, the accumulated penalty will be added to your monthly part D premium. Most beneficiaries who sign up in November will pay a 7 percent penalty for as long as they have coverage. Why should seniors be tied to the original deadline when the part D program missed its own deadline? Part D was supposed to be up and running by January 1. Unless you believe that mass confusion, major computer glitches, daily bad press, hit-or-miss consumer assistance qualifies as up and running, then part D was not up and running by January 1 or February 1 or March 1. It is barely up and running now. Why are Medicare enrollees being pressured into a drug plan? Where is the line between pressure and coercion? And what right does the Federal Government have to let the drug industry and the insurance industry, and what right does the President have and the Republican leadership in Congress have to let the drug companies and the insurance industry write this bill, pass in the middle of the night and then penalize seniors when they are confused by this bill? If some seniors are wary of enrolling, who can blame them? Aided by a less than hospitable Web site, a blizzard of insurance company marketing materials, an overburdened Medicare hotline, seniors are being asked to choose a drug plan that they simply can't understand, that no one can understand very well. State and local agencies trying to help Medicare beneficiaries, including my office and the office of Mr. Green and Mr. Allen and Mr. Stark and Mr. McDermott, are doing the best we can. But navigating part D hasn't been easy for any of us. There are 400,000 Medicare beneficiaries in my State who have not signed up. They shouldn't be pressured. They shouldn't be penalized. Seniors didn't ask the Republican majority to bypass Medicare and build a drug coverage obstacle course. Seniors didn't ask the Republican majority to let the drug companies write the bill and let the HMOs shape Medicare policy. That was this body's decision. That was the President's decision, based on huge numbers of HMO and drug company contributions. Seniors have to live with it. Giving them time is the least that we can do.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green), who has pointed out the problems in this program with the drug industry and all but has been a leader in trying to fix it.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I would like to be the next to last speaker under the rules. So whichever of you wants to go. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the difference may have been our legislation was written by senior advocates while theirs was written by the drug companies and the HMOs. I yield 2 minutes to my friend from Maine (Mr. Allen), who has fought to make this program work way better than the drug companies and the insurance companies designed it to.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin). (Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Chicago, Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), who has been fighting in her district to explain this bill and to improve it.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am confused by that. Are you saying 72 percent chose to sign up of those eligible?

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield half of my time to the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark).

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I am confused. Did they choose to sign up, or were some forced to sign up from Medicaid?

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, may I ask my friend their plans?

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I would correct my friend from Connecticut. Not all low income seniors can enroll without penalty, only some low income seniors can enroll without penalty. I hear her bragging that two-thirds of the time, two- thirds of the time you call 1-800 Medicare you get correct information. That means one-third of the time you do not. So we are not penalizing the administration for not being able to get this law up and running correctly. Nobody has lost their job over that. But we are going to penalize seniors who have not made up their mind because of this confusing law, because they were getting wrong information from the 1- 800 Medicare number that we talk about on the floor. We are going to charge seniors as much as a 7 percent penalty for the rest of their lives if they do not get this together by November. Mr. Speaker, a Republican pharmacist in my district said to me, he said, ``President Bush might as well have handed a blank legal pad to the drug industry and said write this new Medicare law.'' Congress and the President wrote a confusing plan at the behest of the HMOs and the drug companies, and then Congress and the President are saying that seniors should have to pay a penalty, seniors in Cincinnati and Dayton and Columbus and Toledo and Mansfield and Chillicothe and all over my State and all over Connecticut and all over Georgia and all over Minnesota have to pay a penalty because the drug industry and the HMOs and those lobbyists in Washington got this Congress to write a law like that. That hardly seems fair. Mr. Speaker, I would just ask my friends on the other side of the aisle, please ask President Bush to extend this deadline so seniors do not have to pay a penalty for this very confusing new drug law.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, March 8, 2006, marked the death of Frieda M. Fry, age 94, an honored resident of my district. Her passing prompts me to remark on this remarkable woman, and how she exemplifies qualities that we should encourage in all of our citizens. A lifelong citizen of Summit County, and 50 year resident of Richfield Township, Frieda was wife of Federal Administrative Law Judge Walter Logan Fry, who preceded her in death in 1978. Judge Fry served long and well in federal service, culminating with his appointment to the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals, DHEW, including 3 years as ALJ in charge of the Cleveland, Ohio, Office. Frieda was born in Barberton, Ohio, and traces her roots to the Swiss and German settlers of the early eighteenth century. She graduated from Akron East High School in 1929; and received the Diploma for Elementary Teaching from Kent State College (now University) in 1931. From 1931 to 1935, she taught Fourth Grade at the Betty Jane School in Akron. Beginning in 1941, she taught elementary grades for the Boston Rural School District in Peninsula. Beginning in 1962, she taught elementary grades at Hillcrest Elementary School in Richfield, Ohio. Mrs. Fry's interest in learning began early. Son, W. Logan Fry, recounts: ``mother told us that when she was a little girl, she would spend half her allowance on lunch--and the other half on books. Books opened the whole world to her. At her death, her personal library included books on art, science, religion, medicine, psychology, nature, history and the cultures of the world.'' Following Judge Fry's death in 1978, Mrs. Fry traveled five continents. She traveled across China; visited small textile factories in India; rode on the backs of elephants in Kashmir; and experienced the smells of the opium dens of Katmandu. On this later trip, a very finely dressed gentleman with a well-trimmed mustache, who described himself as a diplomat, asked if she had any daughters--and volunteered to care for them generously if she did. Mrs. Fry politely declined, but continued in a mutually rewarding conversation. In Russia, she attended a performance of the Moscow Ballet on a wintry Christmas Eve; and enjoyed the circus in Uzbekistan. The jet flight to Tashkent, with goats and chickens on the passenger list, was a harrowing but thrilling experience. Frieda made many trips to Germany and Switzerland. On one such trip, with daughter Nancy Fry Laessig, two German citizens on a facing train car seat said, in their native language: ``Look at those two Americans, they don't even know the difference between the Danube and the Rhine.'' Nancy translated, and Mrs. Fry shot back: ``We are guests in your country, you should be telling us all about your country, not disparaging your guests.'' That led to a deeper conversation, and her German critics soon became friends, sharing ideas and experiences until their train arrived in Zurich. Mrs. Fry also traveled in and across Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Germany, France, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, among others. Moreover, as part of Richfield's ``Mundialization'' program, she entertained friends from Wolfach, Germany; and visited them in their own homes in Wolfach. (In the 1960s, Richfield, Ohio became America's first `world town,' followed by Minneapolis, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Boston, among others.) Frieda Fry placed her beacon atop of her basket; and has served as an example for two generations of her own children. Grandson Michael Fry who competed for the United States in Amateur Rope Skipping Competitions in Korea, Australia, Belgium and Canada; granddaughter Bonnie Laessig who traveled across Norway with her paternal grandfather, artist Robert Laessig; granddaughter Holly Laessig who studied language and culture in Bangkok, Thailand; granddaughter Rachel Mitton Fry who studied language in Tel Aviv and biochemistry in Munich; and granddaughter Elizabeth Anne Fry who studied Russian in Moscow, built homes in South Africa with President Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity and, last year, taught elementary students in Tanzania. The qualities that Frieda M. Fry demonstrated in her daily life are well suited for all Americans--the delight in learning, the calling to teach and spread knowledge, and the engagement with the people with whom we share our planet. For her, 9/11 was not a call to isolation and retreat, and certainly not an excuse to erect rigid barriers designed to bar students, artists, immigrants and refugees from our shores. Frieda Fry embraced the people of the world, and their diverse cultures. We will all miss her.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I will close and yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Mrs. Capps for their commitment to public health and for bringing this resolution to the floor today. Our health care system depends on the 2.7 million registered nurses who have dedicated themselves to providing the highest quality of care in our hospitals, in our clinics, in our long-term care facilities and our doctors' offices. To recognize the dedication of these women and men, we celebrate their accomplishments during National Nurses Week held every year during the week leading up to the May 12 birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. This year, National Nurses Week highlights nurses' strength, commitment and compassion. These qualities are rare, and they help explain why our health care system would falter without the contribution of registered nurses. Nurses are the center of our efforts to improve the Nation's health. They are at the front lines administering care, educating the public, helping patients and the families cope with the challenges of injury and illness. Unfortunately, as we hear too often, we are facing a serious shortage of nurses; and that shortage is growing, so much so that the Department of Health and Human Services recently predicted a shortage of more than 800,000 nurses, keep in mind we have 2.7 million nurses today, a shortage of 800,000 nurses by the year 2020. With fewer and fewer trained hands and minds at the bedside and in the doctor's office, leaving overworked nurses to handle more and more patients, we can only expect the availability of quality health care to decline. We need to invest in attracting and training a new generation of nurses and to foster retention for those who are already practicing. Resolution 245 honors the goals of National Nurses Week, raises the awareness of the vital role that nurses play in our health care system, and focuses attention on the unmet challenge that we face as the shortage of nurses intensifies. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee for bringing this measure to the floor. I thank Eddie Bernice Johnson, and I am pleased to support it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I first of all commend my colleagues, Linda Sanchez of California, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Strickland, for continuing the fight for free trade in this country, fighting for jobs, fighting to protect American jobs and protect American communities. There are not nearly enough voices in this Chamber for fair trade policies, and I thank them for their courage and their outspokenness. Two nights ago, I stood on Route 32 in Jackson, Ohio, a small community in southeast Ohio, with more than a dozen workers outside a plant where many of them had worked for more than two decades. Husbands stood with wives; mothers and fathers joined the group. Some people brought their children. Generations of steelworkers from southern Ohio gathered to talk about their community and to talk about their family values and to talk about change. That night, we talked about their families and the children they have raised on a steelworker's union salary. We talked about the retirement security they helped invest in over the years and always assumed would be safe with the company that they thought they could trust, and we talked about the uncertain future they now face as they stood by the side of the road outside of the plant. The workers at the Meridian Automotive Plant in Jackson, Ohio, are not standing there tonight on Route 32 because they are on strike. They did not walk off the job. Despite being the most productive Meridian workers in three countries, in any of their plants in the U.S., in Michigan and Ohio and North Carolina and Mexico, these Ohio workers have been locked out of their jobs, abandoned by flawed trade policy, betrayed by their management, whom they trusted, and victimized by failed leadership in Washington, some of whom they have voted for. After NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a dozen years ago opened the door to cheap labor in Mexico, corporations like Meridian shipped jobs to countries where they could cheat foreign workers of good health benefits and a retirement plan, and now they want to lower labor standards in Ohio. Meridian has tossed hardworking Ohioans on to the street literally along the road on Route 32 in Jackson to deny them health care and retirement plans that they have been investing in for decades. The CEO of Meridian lives in a $2 million mansion. His most productive workers in his company stand alongside of Route 32. Current U.S. trade policy rewards the outsourcing of Ohio jobs, encourages the exploitation of workers overseas and promotes the profiting of CEOs on the backs of workers and small businesses throughout our country. For too long, they have been told American jobs must fall victim to the necessary evils of globalization. We have been led to believe that our future is not in our hands. I do not buy that, and those workers alongside the road in Jackson, Ohio, do not buy that. That night, the workers and I talked about family values and the merits of hard work. We talked about their children. Some are in college. Some are about to go to college. Most thought they could go to college before the lockout. Some may not be able to go now. We talked about a steelworker's mother who had worked for years, who was part of the bargaining committee for the steelworkers, had deferred income so they would have a comfortable retirement, and that retirement is about to be taken away. We noted the parade of honking horns in support of the workers and the proof that the community in Ohio actually means something. They told me that people in the community brought food, brought water and, most importantly, brought with them encouragement for the locked out workers that wanted to be inside the plant working. That night, we talked about change. We talked about changing economic policies that allow management to pit worker against worker. We talked about changing trade policy that sells out our values for CEO mansions and private planes. We talked about the Exxon CEO who makes $18,000 an hour. These locked out workers have to figure out how to get anywhere on $3 a gallon of gas. We talked about a drug company executive whose stock plummeted 40 percent since he was CEO but who took an $80 million package out the door with him. We agreed that it is time to change the future of Ohio by fighting for workers and families. It is time that an honest day's work in this country means a good day's pay. It is time to invest again in American workers and American small businesses and American communities. It is time to fight for family values.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), the sponsor of this resolution.