Michael Castle

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill H.R. 6079, the ``Hedge Fund Study Act.'' I want to thank both Chairman, Oxley, and Chairman Baker for the Financial Services Committee's support for this study and efforts to address the evolving hedge fund industry.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, if I had been present to vote on Monday, September 25 and Tuesday, September 26, 2006, I would have voted in the following way: Yes--H.R. 5059--New Hampshire Wilderness Act of 2006 Yes--H.R. 5062--New Hampshire Wilderness Act of 2006 No--H.R. 5092--Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act of 2006 No--H.R. 4772--Private Property Rights Implementation Act of 2006 Yes--H. Res. 989--Commending the United Kingdom for its efforts in the War on Terror, and for other purposes Yes--H. Res. 1017--Affirming support for the sovereignty and security of Lebanon and the Lebanese people Yes--H. Res. 1038--Rule providing for H.R. 2679--Public Expression of Religion Act Yes--H. Res. 1039--Rule providing for S. 403--Child Custody Protection Act No--S. 403--Child Custody Protection Act Yes--H. Res. 723--Calling on the President to take immediate steps to help improve the security situation in Darfur, Sudan, with a specific emphasis on civilian protection Yes--H. Res. 992--Urging the President to appoint a Special Envoy for Sudan

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to pay tribute to Ms. Lisa Blunt-Bradley in recognition of her service as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League. The Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, MWUL, actively works to assist the disproportionate number of African-American, Latino, and other ethnic populations who remain susceptible to wide-ranging disparities in income and educational attainment for themselves and their children. Under Lisa's leadership, the MWUL has built opportunities for people of color by setting the tone of the public policy discourse, engaging in principled advocacy, and creating strong community partnerships. In 2004, Ms. Blunt-Bradley became President of the MWUL and under her leadership the organization successfully implemented the Achievement Matters Education Program. The Achievement Matters Campaign is an academic achievement initiative that will provide community and school- based interventions for children in Wilmington from grade 6 through to graduation. The program is designed to provide underprivileged children with the skills they will need to be competitive in the job market of tomorrow. Ms. Blunt-Bradley's successful career did not begin at the MWUL; she has a long legacy of successful advocacy work. The American Council of Young Political Leaders honored Ms. Blunt-Bradley with the Gary L. McPherson Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003. Additionally, prior to working at the MWUL, Ms. Blunt-Bradley served as Secretary of Labor and Deputy Secretary of Health and Social Services for the State of Delaware. In those roles she oversaw the day-to-day management of the largest agency in the State of Delaware with approximately 4,500 employees. Her supervisory responsibilities included providing services to individuals with disabilities, and providing emergency shelter for the homeless. In addition, as the State agency's liaison to the Delaware General Assembly, she worked on issues such as child support enforcement legislation and regulation of managed healthcare. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to once again commend Ms. Blunt-Bradley on her success while at the helm of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League. Lisa's constant professionalism, tireless leadership, and appetite for hard work have improved the lives of countless children and adults in Wilmington and throughout the State of Delaware.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to pay tribute to Sergeant Vincent Fiscella a 17-year veteran of the Delaware State Police and the 2006 recipient of the Legacy of Honor Award presented by the Ronald G. Williams Foundation. In 2003, The Ronald G. Williams, Jr. Foundation instituted the ``Legacy of Honor'' Award to recognize Delaware law enforcement officers who distinguish themselves through exemplary integrity and devotion to character. Sergeant Fiscella is a very worthy recipient of this award and I'm proud to honor him today. Sergeant Fiscella also serves as the President of the Delaware State Troopers Association. The Legacy of Honor Award was created in memory of Delaware State Trooper Ronald Williams who was dedicated to the ideals of honor, duty, loyalty and service to others. Sergeant Fiscella joins two other distinguished individuals who have received the Legacy of Honor Award: Chief Kevin McDerby of New Castle County Police and Major Joseph Papili of the Delaware State Police. Sergeant Fiscella's desire to become a Delaware State Trooper was born out of a will to be a part of an organization with rich tradition and history. Since 1923, the Delaware State Police have been serving the people of Delaware and now more than ever, the importance of effective law enforcement is apparent. Thankfully, there are officers like Sergeant Fiscella serving and protecting our communities. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to once again, commend Sergeant Fiscella on his achievement and thank him and all law-enforcement officials for all the tireless work they undertake to make our streets and communities safe places to live. I'm sure Sergeant Fiscella is and will continue to be an inspiration to his colleagues and future law- enforcement officers.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It gives me great pleasure to rise today in support of S. 3534, the YouthBuild Transfer Act. I have been working with my Senate colleagues, the administration, the YouthBuild community, and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for over a year, and I am pleased that we are here today to finish our work and send the transfer to the President. YouthBuild began as a community-based organization in 1978, was later replicated in other cities, and ultimately authorized by Congress in 1992. The program provides grants for job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youth who help construct or rehabilitate housing for low-income or homeless families and individuals in their respective communities. Each year, youth who participate in YouthBuild receive a combination of classroom and job skills development and on- site training in a construction trade. Today there is a national network of more than 225 local YouthBuild programs which have served more than 54,000 young people and built more than 14,000 units of affordable housing in 44 States since 1994. In my work on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, it is clear that our high schools still have room for reform and that graduation rates are a significant problem. This program fulfills a small niche and is making a difference not only in degree attainment but also skills. Since 1992, the program has been operated out of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Given the fact that the program is at its core an employment and training program for disadvantaged youth, today's bill will delete the program from HUD's jurisdiction and transfer administrative responsibilities to the U.S. Department of Labor. The ultimate goal of the transfer is to improve services to youth. This is accomplished through the transfer but also in a number of ways, including establishing a stronger linkage to the Workforce Investment Act, WIA, One-Stop System's specialized resources, expertise and market knowledge, particularly in connecting the individuals to supportive services and placing individuals in education, training, or occupations in demand. In addition, the bill authorizes additional education and workforce investment activities including occupational skills training, internships and job shadowing, alternative secondary school services, community service and peer-centered activities, and comprehensive guidance and counseling. While enhancing these services, the YouthBuild program will maintain its mission to provide affordable housing for low-income and homeless individuals and families. Eligibility is targeted to a more specific youth population by including, in addition to meeting the current-law requirements of being between the ages of 16 and 24, and not having finished school, being in one or more of the following categories: a member of a low-income family, foster care youth, youth offenders, disabled youth, children of incarcerated parents, and migrant youth. To ensure that other at-risk youth have access to the program, an exemption to the eligibility requirements will be expanded to allow secondary schools to refer students to a YouthBuild program that leads to the attainment of a secondary school diploma. This is an easy program to support. Not only does it address housing needs in our communities, but also addresses important educational workforce needs by providing meaningful opportunities for at-risk youth to acquire the basic education and job skills needed to advance to productive employment and higher education. It is not often the case that a program meets two important needs. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to continue their support of the program by passing this. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 3534) to amend the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to provide for a YouthBuild program.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for his kind words. I hadn't thought about the jurisdictional aspects of this bill until he raised it for it. I cannot really take much credit for it since I am both the receiving and the giving end of this. But I do agree with his kind words about the legislation. He has been a behind-the-scenes pusher for this legislation for all of this time. In fact, frankly, without his support we would not be where we are today. He is absolutely right: nobody is ever willing to yield jurisdiction on anything around here. So it is a sign of the times, perhaps, that we can move something forward. I have no further speakers and I am prepared to yield.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of what I think is a very good piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on S. 3534.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to pay tribute to Colonel Richard Stephen Gebelein upon his retirement from the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps after 26 years of faithful and distinguished service. Colonel Gebelein's legal career began upon his graduation from Villanova University School of Law in 1970. After law school, Colonel Gebelein served as a law clerk on the Delaware Chancery Court, deputy attorney general for the State of Delaware, State Solicitor of the Delaware Department of Justice, and as the Chief Deputy Public Defender. In 1979, Colonel Gebelein began his military career when he became a member of the United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps with the HHC 261st Signal Command of the Delaware Army National Guard. After serving as Delaware's Attorney General from 1979 to 1983, Colonel Gebelein was appointed to the bench of the Delaware Superior Court. Colonel Gebelein's appointment to the bench required that he become what's known as an M-Day Soldier, or a part-time drilling soldier. However, Colonel Gebelein continued to bolster his already impressive credentials by graduating from the United States Army War College and earning a degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Colonel Gebelein has also been integral in improving services provided to soldiers in the Delaware Army National Guard. Colonel Gebelein devised the system used for processing administrative discharge boards and courts martial at the Delaware Army National Guard. In 2004, Colonel Gebelein was called-up and went to Afghanistan and served as the Rule of Law Officer for the Staff Judge Advocate Combined Forces Command--Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom Colonel Gebelein served in Afghanistan for 8 months and shortly after his return to the Delaware Superior Court, his expertise as a premier international jurist was recognized; based on the quality of his character and knowledge in international legal matters, Colonel Gebelein was invited to address the United Nations forum on International Humanitarian Law and Peacekeeping Operations. Colonel Gebelein currently serves as an International Judge for War Crimes and Organized Crime and Economic Corruption on the Criminal and Appellate Divisions of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to express my deep personal thanks to Colonel Gebelein for his service to the United States Army, the Delaware Superior Court, and the citizens of Delaware. Colonel Gebelein's distinguished career is a testament to his impeccable character, intelligence, and integrity. I'm proud to call him a friend, but I'm grateful that he is a Delawarean.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to pay tribute to Francis Alfonse Ianni, who is celebrating his 75th birthday this month. Throughout his life he has worked to protect and enhance the well being of the Delaware community and I join so many others in expressing thanks. Frank began to serve his country at the early age of 13, enlisting in the Delaware State Guard in 1945. He quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant and transferred to the Delaware National Guard, where he served as a Staff Sergeant. He attended Valley Forge Military Academy and was designated as a distinguished, military graduate. In 1954 he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant to the 82nd Airborne division. Overseas, he served in Greenland, West Germany, and two tours in Vietnam. Upon his return, he continued to serve in the army as a Special Assistant for the National Security Council Affairs, and later, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In 1977, he went on to become the Adjunct General of the Delaware National Guard. His dedication to protecting others transcends well beyond his military service. In 1981 he retired from the Delaware National Guard and accepted the position of Director of the Delaware Office of Highway Safety. While holding this position he was responsible for numerous significant advances in protecting our community, including: the Driving Under the Influence Law, Seat Belt Law, and Child Safety Seat Law. He also initiated the first sobriety checkpoints throughout Delaware, and was responsible for the first Alcohol Awareness Programs conducted around the holidays. Even after leaving the Office of Highway Safety, Frank continued to be an active and benevolent member of the Delaware community. He taught as an Adjunct Professor at Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, teaching courses in business and political science until his retirement in 2000. He has also served on numerous boards including the Delaware Blood Bank and the Delmarva Chapter of the American Red Cross. I congratulate and thank him for his valuable contributions and exemplary record of service on behalf of the State of Delaware. Thank you, for all you have done and continue to do for the people of our State.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), another individual who has probably done as much for young people as anybody in this country and in his lifetime in a variety of capacities.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder), another member of the committee who is always fighting for children in a whole variety of ways, be it dealing with drugs and those things, or education itself. (Mr. SOUDER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. Speaker, it obviously gives me great pleasure to be here today and to rise in support of the conference report to the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon) for his leadership in getting us to this end point, and the majority leader who is no longer head of the committee (Mr. Boehner) for his work, the gentleman and gentlewoman from California both present here right now, Mr. Miller and Ms. Woolsey, for their bipartisan spirit, and our colleagues in the other body. I am blessed to be on a couple of committees where there is bipartisan spirit at least some of the time, and we are able to get a few things done and this is one of them. The Perkins Act aims to prepare youth and adults for the future by building their academic and technical skills in preparation for postsecondary education and/or employment. The bill we are considering today enhances Perkins by ensuring both secondary and post-secondary students participating in the program are acquiring rigorous academic and technical skills, and will have the opportunity to transition into further education and/or successful employment. The Perkins Act governs widely supported programs of both the secondary and postsecondary level. For example, nearly all high school students complete at least one vocational education course, and approximately 26 percent of students are considered vocational concentrators, those students who focus on a single occupational area. In my home State of Delaware, we have five career and technical high schools that enroll a total of 5,500 of the 29,500 total high school students. At the postsecondary level, the Perkins Act supports a broad array of options primarily at the community college level, including Delaware Technical & Community College. In the 1999-2000 school year, over 50 percent of all students enrolled at the less than 4-year postsecondary level reported that they were majoring in vocational areas. Today's conference report seeks to build upon reforms made in past reauthorizations, and seeks to enhance this popular program to ensure its success in years to come. The legislation before us today makes significant reforms to academic achievement and accountability to ensure students have the skills necessary to enter the workforce or continue to an institution of higher learning. As I mentioned, there are five career and technical high schools in Delaware. While all these schools met adequately yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, there is more to be done in academic achievement in these schools and schools across the country. Today, we will improve vocational and technical education by increasing the focus on academics in conjunction with the skill attainment that is incumbent of the program. One of the unique attributes of vocational and technical education programs is their ability to show students a path that could end in a certificate, credential, employment, military, or postsecondary education. The Tech-Prep program within the Perkins Act is intended to focus on a well-defined link between high school and at least 2 years of postsecondary education. Research has shown, however, that funds are rarely, if ever, used to meet this goal. Rather, funds are often used for purposes within the larger vocational and technical education program. Therefore, the conference agreement revises requirements of the program in order to ensure articulation agreements between secondary and postsecondary institutions are, in fact, being implemented. Along this same track, we include a new requirement for State development of career and technical programs of study for career and technical program areas. These sequences, of course, will incorporate a nonduplicative progression of both secondary and postsecondary elements which will include both academic and vocational and technical content. Local recipients at both the secondary and postsecondary level would adopt at least one model sequence of courses as developed by the State. I believe this will also help drive program improvements by ensuring that States clarify the progression of academic and vocational technical courses needed for the postsecondary education, training, or employment of a students choice. It is clear that we are making some significant and positive changes for the schools and students impacted by this program. One of the biggest changes that I think we are making is for Congress to finally make the switch from vocational and technical education to career and technical education. In my opinion, this was an important statement for the Congress to make. While the President has proposed another avenue for high school reform in the Perkins Act, I believe strongly that the reforms we consider today go a long way in driving program improvement and ultimate success for students across the country. The dialogue surrounding high school reform is important and is happening in earnest. I trust that the conference agreement will complement these efforts as a result of the changes in the bill. I believe it will help States, community colleges, and other postsecondary education institutions and local educational agencies to better meet the needs of students participating in career and technical education. I urge my colleagues to support this report so we may send this bill to the President for his signature. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume in closing. Mr. Speaker, the conference report before us is a good one and one worthy of very strong support here. Passage of it will demonstrate our commitment to the millions of students who count on the career and technical education programs we are aiming to strengthen. Career and technical education is a fundamental part of our efforts to improve academic achievement at all levels so our Nation remains competitive in the 21st century global economy. And this conference report sharpens the Perkins program's focus on both rigorous academics and technical achievement. It protects and enhances local control at a State and community level. And it seeks more opportunities for coordination between secondary and postsecondary career and technical education. This conference report would not be possible if not for some key staff members at the Education and the Workforce Committee: Whitney Rhoades, Stephanie Milburn, Lucy House, Rich Stombres, and Susan Ross on the committee staff, and Denise Forte and Lloyd Horwich from the minority staff have worked tirelessly to get to this point where we are today. I would like to thank Sara Rittling of my staff who has worked on this as well. For those not familiar with the process around here, without that staff, I am sure Ms. Woolsey and I would probably agree, we would probably never get a bill like this written. Their work is exemplary in this particular case. And I would just like to thank them for their determination and expertise. Again, I thank my colleagues on the committee on both sides of the aisle for their efforts on this conference report, and I do urge its final passage.

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), who is the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that handles education funding and is probably as interested in education as anyone in this building. (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Chairman Barton for yielding, but I also want to thank him for his great work on this important legislation, H.R. 4157, which I support; and also the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) has worked on this for some time, and will be speaking shortly. With recent reports estimating that medical errors may be responsible for up to 98,000 deaths and 1.5 million medication errors each year, there is no doubt in my mind that the time has come to move towards an electronic health records system. I am pleased this legislation officially establishes the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, because it is absolutely vital that the Federal Government take the leading role in establishing such a system. Without a strategic Federal plan, I worry that each State will be left to their own devices and we will end up with a patchwork system. I am hopeful that the standards which are set will be easily adaptable for the States and regions that are already working on such connectivity. In my State of Delaware, we have established the Delaware Health Information Network. It has secured a $4 million contract with the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality to establish an e-health system in our hospitals, physicians' offices, and laboratories. Eventually, we hope this will be extended to our nursing homes and community health centers as well. Because Delaware is such a small State, it is quite possible that our network can spread across the Mid-Atlantic region to include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and that is why we have been working so hard to get it right and to make sure interoperability truly exists. A national health electronic infrastructure could truly be lifesaving for the millions of patients who access our health care system every day, as we have seen in our VA hospitals. There is real opportunity here to have electronic patient records, with appropriate private protections, electronic prescribing, real-time understanding of prescription interactions, and improved outcomes. I am hopeful this bill will be swiftly conferenced with the Senate version so every State may get involved. Real achievement only comes when we improve health care, reduce costs, and start saving lives.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished majority leader very much for yielding. I would just ask everybody, be they at home or here, look to your left and look to your right. There is one of those three people who probably has some form of illness which could be helped by good medical research, and we believe that is embryonic stem cell research. It is ironic that the President is vetoing a piece of legislation that many of us here on this floor believe is the most significant piece of legislation that he could have signed in the course of time that he has been President of the United States of America. I am disappointed in that, but I would rather look at the bright side of things in the sense that we have advanced, I believe, the cause of medical research in this country. We have had alternative proposals in terms of embryonic stem cell research. We have had a focus on it. There is a greater education about stem cell research than we ever had in this Congress before and certainly across the United States of America. Hopefully this will end up with greater research being done as far as the NIH and Federal medical involvement in that research is concerned. The debate has sort of shifted. Back in May of 2005 when we had this debate, we talked about adult stem cells and how they could be better than embryonic stem cells. I think we all should recognize that there is some very good research on adult stem cells, which has been around for a long time, but we should realize now that the debate has turned to how are we going to obtain these pluripotent embryonic stem cells which can help research so much more than anything else we could possibly do. So there had been some progress as far as that is concerned. A couple of points I want to make, and one is that everybody knows this research is about embryos. What is an embryo? It is a 5-day-old blastocyst no bigger than the point of a pencil. The ones that we are dealing with would never be implanted in a woman and are slated for medical waste. That is very important to understand. The decision has been made by the individuals who created that embryo to have it go into medical waste; and then they make the decision instead of doing that, it will be used for medical research. So these will never become people because that is a decision that has already been made and is behind us at that particular point in time. It is also very important to point out that this legislation does not fund derivation or the so-called killing of the embryo to obtain the embryonic stem cells. That has nothing to do with this. This simply funds the research, the potentially life-saving research, for the one in three, the 110 million Americans who have been referred to. We are not going to stop here. I would just like to address those 110 million people and their families. We are not going to stop here. We are going to continue to advance research. We have offered alternatives to the White House before. They did not want those alternatives. They did not want this legislation. We will go back to that process. We will do everything in our power to help the patients nationwide who might need help. I think there is more commonality of opinion on this than there was before. Hopefully there will be more openings than we have had heretofore as well. I know that embryonic stem cell research will progress and eventually be a benefit to mankind. My concern is delay. It is going to happen at some point. It is a time issue. It is a temporal issue, but we are going to have this research. We are going to improve medical research opportunities for everybody. I just want to quote Ben Franklin at the 1787 Constitutional Convention: ``I have often in the course of the session looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.'' That is how I feel about stem cell research: One day the sun will rise on it, and people will be helped.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for the wonderful job he has done on this. We started on welfare reform in Delaware very early on, long before the Federal Government started to look at it, and, obviously, it involved people having to go to classes and having to go to work. It was rather unique at the time. I remember going to the first class, it was 19 people, 18 women and a man, and I sort of trembled. I was Governor of Delaware and I was a little nervous about that because I figured they wouldn't be receptive at all. My mind was completely turned around going to that class when those 19 individuals said thank you for giving us the opportunity. They were being educated at that point. I went to their graduation later. They then went on to get jobs, and they subsequently went off welfare and became contributing citizens. I can't tell you the value of this program, the self-esteem of individuals who have been through this. You can look at the statistics, be it 40, 50, 60 percent, in the various States, and that is about where it is, for the reduction of people on welfare. And you say perhaps it saved money, although, frankly, it doesn't save a lot of money. It costs a lot to educate and day care and everything else. But the bottom line is that we have actually helped individuals. Indeed, it is a program which I think Republicans and Democrats have been supporting and should take credit for. And I certainly give some credit to President Clinton, because I worked with him as a Governor on this program as well. But it has made a huge difference in their mindset. It has made a huge difference in their families' mindset. It has made a difference in the children of these individuals, who see their parents going off to work and earning a living, perhaps having a little more spending money and being able to hold themselves high as far as their immediate society is concerned. This has been a highly successful program. It is true, I think, what Tommy Thompson said about it, and that is it is perhaps the greatest social reform program we have seen in this country. Every now and then something comes along which really can make a difference in the lives of people. I just would like to thank all those who worked on this, and I worked with some of them, mostly members of the Ways and Means Committee when they were working with Clay Shaw and others, because there was a lot of opposition to this. But, indeed, it is a program which worked, it is a program which should be continued and expanded if possible, and it is a program for which I think we will always look back and be able to take some good positive credit for.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I hope I have the right bill. I am a little confused, too, the way bills are flying through here. I do rise in support of the bill the chairman has spoken of, S. 3504, legislation which is aimed at preventing so-called fetal farming; and while such fetal farming may not be taking place now, I applaud my colleagues for being forward thinking and targeting such an exploitive practice now. This legislation is critical because it places ethical restrictions on what can and cannot be done in federally funded research. Ethical guidelines are absolutely critical to guide all federally funded research. That is exactly why Representative Diana DeGette and I have been pressing strongly for President Bush to sign H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, into law. Contrary to popular belief, H.R. 810 does not increase funding for embryonic stem cell research, nor does it fund the creation or destruction of embryos. Rather, it allows researchers access to the best and most promising stem cell lines, while creating for the first time an ethical construct to guide this research at the National Institutes of Health. H.R. 810 has strict financial prohibitions in place, and it prohibits the creation of embryos for research purposes. It enables the creators of the embryo to first make a decision about what they want to do with leftover embryos, which are really 5-day-old blastocysts, no bigger than the tip of a pencil. If they choose discard, it allows them the option to donate these embryos to research, instead of medical waste. No money can exchange hands throughout the process. The legislation only allows federally funded research on stem cell lines derived ethically with private funds. No Federal funds can be used. Mr. Speaker, biomedical research is something that must be carefully monitored and rigorous guidelines must be established. That is exactly what this bill, S. 3504, aims to do, and it is what H.R. 810 aims to do. I ask my colleagues to support the underlying legislation and to urge President Bush not to veto H.R. 810.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I do rise in opposition to S. 2754, which is the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act. This is authored by good friends and people I respect greatly, Senator Santorum and Senator Specter and particularly the gentleman in this House who is here on the floor, Mr. Bartlett, for whom I have great admiration. But I have looked at it considerably, and after many discussions with him and others, I disagree this is the way to go about this, and I must oppose it. Put simply, the legislation mandates the National Institutes of Health to support highly speculative research, some of which has been deemed unethical by the President's own Bioethics Council, and this mandated research may violate current law because embryos will be destroyed with Federal dollars. While I appreciate the fact that this legislation acknowledges the very real fact that embryonic stem cells have more potential for treatments and cures than adult stem cell research, and I think that is a very important point, I might add, this legislation is a delay to cures. Why is it a delay? It requires researchers to develop new ways to create or isolate embryonic stem cells before the research with embryonic stem cells can even begin. So you add a whole additional step to the process. And in speaking with Dr. Leon Kass, the former director of the President's Bioethics Council, it could take years to develop these isolation techniques, which means the research is being held up even further. Why not go with the tried and true method of isolating embryonic stem cells from 5-day-old blastocysts created for the purposes of IVF, no bigger than the tip of a pencil, that would never be implanted in a woman and are slated for medical waste. And then let the research begin immediately. It would be one thing if these methods were scientifically proven, but they are not. And if they are not, they may never be. My friend from Maryland may talk about single-cell biopsy and its promise in mouse stem cell research, but the Bioethics Council deemed that particular procedure unethical as well because it may very well lead to the destruction of the embryos. Why not leave the current law alone? The National Institutes of Health can already fund research grants examining alternative methods of derivation. In other words, most of this can be done without being mandated. There is absolutely no reason to mandate this research. I ask my friends who support embryonic stem cell research to vote against this legislation. It is a distraction for the NIH. It is a distraction for our researchers. And it is a delay to cures, which is most important. The only legislation which provides a direct path to potential cures is H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. Put together, this bill would mandate research, some of which the President's own Bioethics Council has concluded is unethical. And for those who have raised this issue repeatedly, it permits the possibility of destroying embryos as part of the mandated research. I would encourage all in the House to oppose this legislation.

Mr. CASTLE

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I would like again to thank the gentlewoman from California. It is her initiative that brings us here to the floor today to recognize this excellent program, and I encourage everyone to support it. I yield back the balance of my time.