Donna Christensen

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 692, commending the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands for their contributions and sacrifices to the United States nuclear testing program. Mr. Speaker, as fellow islander, I feel a kinship to the people of the Marshall Islands and sympathize with them for the suffering they endured for our benefit. Between June 30, 1946 and August 18, 1958, our government, after evacuating the residents, conducted an intensive program of nuclear testing on Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. These tests, which were the equivalent of more that 7,200 Hiroshima bombs, caused significant damage to the health of the people of the Marshall Islands, as well as, to the lands, vegetation, lagoons and surrounding ecosystems. In addition to rendering all of Bikini and most of Enewetak uninhabitable, radioactive fallout from nuclear testing on Bikini and Enewetak accidentally spread to other populated areas of the RMI. It is believed that these tests on Bikini and Enewetak caused high rates of thyroid, cervical and breast cancer throughout the Marshall Islands, with more than a dozen Marshall Islands atolls seriously affected. In 1998, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimated that 6,300,000,000 billion curies of radioactive iodine-131 were released to the atmosphere as a result of the testing in the Marshall Islands. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. government accepted responsibility for the injuries to the people of the Marshall Islands and provided financial and other assistance to the RMI as compensation for the harm done as a result of our nuclear testing. Six years ago, the Republic of the Marshall Islands government submitted a Changed Circumstances Petition to the United States Congress related to U.S. nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands atolls of Bikini and Enewetak during the 1940s and 1950s. The Petition requests additional compensation for personal injuries and property damages and restoration costs, medical care programs, health services infrastructure and training, and radiological monitoring. The Petition bases its claims for compensation upon ``changed circumstances'' pursuant to Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association. The Compact of Free Association, enacted in 1986, governs the economic and strategic relationships between the United States and the RMI. The Section 177 Agreement granted $150 million as part of a ``full and final settlement'' of legal claims against the U.S. government, and provided for possible additional compensation, if loss or damages to persons or property arose or were discovered that could not reasonably have been identified as of the effective date of the agreement, and if such injuries rendered the provisions of the Compact ``manifestly inadequate.'' The Petition argues that ``new and additional'' information since the enactment of the Compact--such as a wider extent of radioactive fallout than previously known or disclosed and more recent radiation protection standards--constitute ``changed circumstances.'' Mr. Speaker, we should support the petition of the RMI calling for recognition of a ``changed circumstances''. Our country owes a great debt to the people of the RMI for the sacrifices they made on our behalf and we must, as called for by H. Res. 692, assist them in extricating themselves from the legacy of the nuclear age and the burden of providing testing grounds for nuclear weapons.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of the Iraq war, House Republicans have rubber-stamped every war supplemental the President has sent to Congress with very few questions about how the money is being spent. House Democrats have repeatedly tried to get Republicans to join us in supporting the creation of a select committee to investigate government contracting. The committee would be similar to the Truman Committee during World War II, which, under Democratic Senator Harry Truman's leadership, held hundreds of hearings and fact-finding missions into contracts approved by the Democratic Roosevelt administration. Truman did not see this as a partisan issue, and said, unlike Republicans today, he took his oversight responsibilities seriously. The Truman investigation saved the American taxpayer an estimated $15 billion. Just think how much money we could save the American taxpayer today. Under Halliburton's two largest Iraq contracts, Pentagon auditors found $1 billion in questioned costs and $400 million in unsupported costs, and these discoveries are from Pentagon auditors. Just think what we could discover from a real congressional investigation. It is time for the Republican rubber-stamping to end.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This bill, H.R. 4192, would give the home most closely associated with the 42nd President of the United States the designation that other Presidents have had. It is about naming this boyhood home as a national historic site. It is not about policy, and in 2002, Members on both sides of the aisle, regardless of any disagreements they may have had over any of President Reagan's policies, came together and wholeheartedly supported the designation of the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home as a national historic site. In his Presidency, William Jefferson Clinton gave many Americans who were at that time left behind and left out and left on the fringes of American society reasons to hope. It is fitting that we recognize his 8 years of service to this country as our President and designate his home in Hope, Arkansas, as the Clinton Boyhood Home National Historic Site. I would urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, as we have supported so many others for Presidents in the past. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder), my colleague.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross).

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, the gentlewoman has strayed again from the subject matter of the bill before us. I would ask that she confine her remarks to the subject matter of the bill before us at this time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I make a point of order.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I would state that the gentlewoman from Florida should confine her comments to the subject matter of the bill before us.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I make a point of order.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, H.R. 4192 was introduced by my colleague from Arkansas Mr. Ross. Although former President Clinton lived in several other homes during his childhood, this home in Hope, Arkansas, is the one most closely identified with his youth and early development. Former President Clinton's upbringing in Hope played a prominent role in his political campaigns. He summed up his sense of the community with the well-known phrase, ``I still believe in a place called Hope.'' Madam Speaker, inclusion of this site within the National Park System is consistent with numerous Presidential sites previously authorized, including that of the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home in 2002. Madam Speaker, I would also note that H.R. 4192 is supported by the entire Arkansas congressional delegation, and also has the support of State and local officials. We support H.R. 4192 and urge the adoption of this legislation by the House today. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Upper Colorado and San Juan endangered fish recovery programs are often cited as examples of good agency performance under the Endangered Species Act. The Department of the Interior has worked closely with State agencies, water users, and environmentalists to implement these fish recovery programs. The programs are tightly managed and effective. S. 1578 will increase the cost ceiling for these important activities and will ensure the programs will continue without interruption. Madam Speaker, we strongly support the passage of S. 1578.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, the majority has explained this legislation adequately. The bill provides the Secretary full discretion regarding Federal participation in this study and requires a local cost share that is consistent with longstanding Bureau of Reclamation policy. Madam Speaker, we have no objection to the passage of H.R. 1190. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, H.R. 2383 recognizes the service of the late C.W. ``Bill'' Jones to the California Water Commission and his 2 years of service as president of the Delta-Mendota Water Authority. This legislation rightly renames the Bureau of Reclamation's Tracy Pumping Plant, which raises water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the Delta-Mendota Canal, after Mr. Jones. We on this side of the aisle have no objection to the enactment of H.R. 2383. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, the President's budget is bad policy and bad medicine for Americans. It fails to reduce the costs of health care and prescription drugs and it fails to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. It is simply unacceptable that the President continues to ignore these pressing needs, but it is inexcusable that the President plans to make our health care problems even worse. The President would inflict more pain on American seniors by slashing Medicare funding. His budget cuts $36 billion from Medicare payments to hospitals and home health providers over the next 5 years, which would severely limit seniors' access to much-needed health care and would force some seniors to pay more in premiums for that health care. The Bush budget also cuts vital funding for medical research, research needed to discover health care cures for the future. Although the National Institutes of Health is responsible for much of our country's medical advancements, the President proposes real cuts in that budget for the second year in a row. This is not a blueprint for fixing America's health care system. Instead, it can destroy it. Congress should reject this blueprint.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, to be young, gifted, and Black during the first quarter of the 20th century presented unique and overwhelming challenges that not many African Americans could transcend. Among those who did was the distinguished physician, Dr. Axel Carl Hansen. He has been a recognized researcher, scholar and expert in the field of ophthalmology for over 50 years. The combination of his unique commitment to human egalitarianism and equal educational opportunities for African Americans interested in ophthalmology has been a perennial beacon of light to those entering and those within the profession. Dr. Hansen was born in my district, on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on March 4, 1919, and received his elementary education in the private schools of the island. His college-preparatory training was obtained at the Charlotte Amalie High School in St. Thomas, from where he graduated in June 1937. His leadership and scholastic skill were evident early in life. In his senior year in high school, he was president of his class, editor of the school's weekly newspaper, The Reflector, and editor of his class yearbook, The Last Carib. A member of the Quill and Scroll Journalist Society, he received the national society's ``honorable mention'' for a news article he wrote and published in The Reflector and won first prize from the Virgin Islands Daily News for an essay, ``Nature's Masterpiece'', which appeared in the initial issue of The Virgin Islands Magazine. He was one of two members of his graduating class to receive the honor society's Forum Award for outstanding accomplishments. In the fall of 1937, Axel Hansen left the Virgin Islands to attend Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he graduated with a baccalaureate degree. He received his M.D. degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville in March 1944 and pursued internship and 1 year residency at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis in ophthalmology and otolaryngology. Dr. Hansen, following that post-graduate training, was recruited by Dr. Charles Drew, the famous African American pioneer of blood storage, to return to St. Croix, Virgin Islands and assist in the delivery of medical care. As a municipal physician and general practitioner there, one of his responsibilities was the medical care of patients with leprosy. He modernized the treatment of that disease in the Virgin Islands by substituting the new sulfone drugs for the long used, but less efective, chaulmoogra oil. Returning to the United States in 1946 to further his training in diseases and surgery of the eyes, ears, nose, and throat, Dr. Hansen spent 2 years at Meharry Medical College's George W. Hubbard Hospital. The year 1948-1949 was devoted to advanced training in the specialty at Provident Hospital in Chicago and the University of Chicago. Upon completion of his training he returned to Meharry Medical College as a full time instructor and he began a private practice. Later, during a 3-year sojourn in the Virgin Islands, he served a year as president of the medical staff at the Knud-Hansen Memorial Hospital, and was the founder and first secretary of the U.S. Virgin Islands Medical Society. In 1960, Dr. Hansen was appointed Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology at Meharry Medical College and rose to the rank of Professor and head of the Department of Ophthalmology. He also served as medical director of the College's Hubbard Hospital for 6 years. In 1968, he reported the first two cases of Norrie's Disease--a rare eye disease--in the United States, and has published several medical articles on that and other subjects. His creativity has not been limited to medicine. Dr. Hansen also published a self-illustrated book of original poems, and a book, From These Shores, which consists of biographical profiles of influential individuals from the Danish West Indies. The physician became the first African-American ophthalmologist to be certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology in the State of Tennessee. He is a Diplomate of that Board, a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. Among his many citations are the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Fisk University. In 1987, he was the commencement speaker at his alma mater, Charlotte Amalie High School, from which he had graduated 50 years earlier. Dr. Hansen retired from Meharry in 1985 as a Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. In 1996, the American Academy of Ophthalmology awarded him the Academy's Outstanding Humanitarian Award, the second African American to receive that honor. Today, Dr. Hansen is retired and living in Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask that the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives join me in honoring this esteemed physician, educator, author and humanitarian.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief. I associate myself with all of the accolades that have been given before. I rise, Mr. Speaker, to bring the condolences of the people of the Virgin Islands and the people of the Caribbean to this beautiful woman, Coretta Scott King, a woman of courage, a woman of strength, a woman of compassion, and a woman of history. She worked side by side with her husband, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and we are forever grateful for both of their sacrifice and both of their service.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to Section 3145 of H.R. 4241, the proposed Reconciliation Spending Cuts Conference Report, and to express my unequivocal opposition to that provision and the base bill. That section will just provide added cause to reject the report, because it would require everyone--everyone-- applying for Medicaid to produce a birth certificate or passport to prove citizenship. Supporters of this provision talk a good game. And, on the surface, their rationale seems plausible and reasonable. They claim that Section 3145 will save a great deal of money by restricting undocumented residents from lying about their citizenship and falsely obtaining Medicaid services. However, Mr. Speaker, proponents of Section 3145 do not discuss is a comprehensive study by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General. This July 2005 study found no compelling evidence that illegal residents were lying about their citizenship status in order to qualify for Medicaid. So it is nothing more than another barely veiled attack on immigrants--our fellow human beings--and it would also have adverse impacts on other American citizens as well. For many of us here, the idea of obtaining a passport or a copy of a birth certificate does not sound difficult. However, for many Americans--particularly low-income Americans in rural communities, low- income racial and ethnic minorities and elderly Americans--getting a passport or a copy of a birth certificate is very difficult and sometimes even impossible. Even the cost is a barrier for some. But further complicating the process for some Americans, particularly those who are low-income, racial and ethnic minorities and/or born in rural areas, is the fact that when they were born, their families may not have had access to hospitals--they may not be able to get birth certificates and therefore passports simply because they were born at home. As you know, during much of the last century, many hospitals and health clinics--especially in the south and in areas entrenched in segregation and discrimination--would not admit minorities, especially African Americans. This long history of discrimination created barriers to health care access that continue to affect the health and health care of racial and ethnic minorities today. It is the same discrimination that now still makes it difficult for so many low-income African Americans senior--and other seniors of color--to obtain the required documentation they would need under this provision to obtain Medicaid services. Mr. Speaker, let's not be a part of allowing discrimination to create additional barriers to health care for immigrants or other Americans of color. Further, were section 3145 to pass, it will be states and counties who will determine how to enforce it and who to ask for the additional documentation. My concern is that this provision will put low-income Americans at the mercy of individuals whose assumptions about their status put them at great risk for discrimination. It would attack everyone's civil liberties. Mr. Speaker, Section 3145 is based on a completely false and slanderous assumption about immigrants in this country, and it is nothing more than another anti-immigrant provision among the many egregious ones that are being debated on the floor today. There are repercussions for health in general. If enacted this provision would also have extraordinarily detrimental effects on the health and health care of many American citizens, it will increase the already unacceptably high numbers of uninsured Americans, and consequently, it will exacerbate health disparities--both racial and ethnic, and rural--as well as worsen the health and well being of many American citizens. In our focus on section 3145, we don't want anyone to get the wrong impression that this is one bad provision in an otherwise good bill. Nothing could be further from fact. What it does is just make a conference report that is shaping up to be a terrible bill already, even worse. Just today I received a letter from the national Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. It read in part: ``The role of government is to protect its people and work for the common good. This is not the time for the budget reconciliation process to create greater hardships for those who are already experiencing great suffering. To do so is not only unjust; it is a sin. It violates all the fundamental Christian principles of loving thy neighbor, caring for the poor, and showing mercy. As religious leaders, this violation is unacceptable to us.'' This is a reference to the entire budget reconciliation bill, and whether one is Baptist, Catholic, Jew or Moslem the words ring true. It is rotten to the core, and this country, which pledges to be one ``under God'', should not let the Immigration/Border Security Bill or any part of the inhumane budget reconciliation or spending cut bill as it is now written become the law of this land.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Chairman, I too want to commend Chairman King and Ranking Member Thompson for their work on legislation which passed on a voice vote out of our Homeland Security Committee and which is included in this bill before us today. Mr. Chairman, securing our Nation's air, land, and sea borders is a difficult, yet critical, task. While H.R. 4437 takes some good steps in addressing this problem, such as authorizing more Border Patrol agents and creating a new Border Patrol unit in my district, it also includes a number of harsh and contentious provisions which makes it impossible for it to receive the same kind of bipartisan support that was achieved in the Homeland Security Committee. So while I am pleased that the passage of this bill would mean that over 175 miles of unprotected and open borders in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a gateway of choice for smugglers into the United States, would finally receive protection from a newly established Border Patrol unit, I remain deeply concerned that H.R. 4437 would be excessively harmful to immigrants, families, businesses, and communities. It was a much better bill when it left out of the Homeland Security Committee. And I would hope that as we continue the process of moving this bill through Congress, we would find a way to develop a consensus on the final form that the legislation would take, which would protect our borders without doing harm to immigrants and Americans of all backgrounds.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition to H.R. 3010--the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill for FY 2006. Just like the conference report that preceded it, and was rejected in the House on November 17, 2005, H.R. 3010 finances tax cuts for this Nation's millionaires and billionaires--those who have the most--on the backs of those who have the absolute least. We, as a Nation, can and should do better. H.R. 3010 strips critically important dollars from education, health care, job training and social programs--the very same programs that already were underfunded, and the very same programs that help our most vulnerable residents and those who have fallen on hard times have a chance to achieve the American dream. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3010 undermines the value and importance of education by cutting No Child Left Behind by $779 million. What's worse, the revised version will leave 3.1 million children without adequate reading and math help and instruction--two academic subjects that are among the most important and in areas where the United States lags behind other countries. H.R. 3010 will leave 6.9 million children without adequate special education services, and cuts safety and drug-free programs by 20 percent! Additionally, H.R. 3010 breaks its promise to low-income students who achieved what some may have thought impossible: working extremely hard to earn acceptance into college. The revised version does not increase the Pell Grant. Instead, it freezes it for the 4th year in a row, all while tuition at public colleges and universities has increased 34 percent in the last 4 years. Furthermore, H.R. 3010 freezes all other student financial aid support and programs. Well, Mr. Speaker, as a parent and as someone who deeply values education, I am not willing to tell hard working kids who are using education as a vehicle to better their situations and their futures that I did not hold up my end of the deal. Mr. Speaker, I am obviously disheartened by the disastrous cuts to education programs that are included in H.R. 3010. However, as a physician who knows--first hand--how important health care access is to health and well being, and how beneficial health professions training programs are to diversifying the rising pipeline of health care providers, I am horrified at the extensive cuts to health care programs, which include the following: Cutting $153 million from Title VII health professions training programs; Putting an essential end to the President's community health center initiative; Freezing most Ryan White CARE Act programs that provide medical and dental care, and extend often life-saving support service programs to people living with HIV/AIDS and the families who care for them; Eliminating the Healthy Communities Access Program, a program that was designed to meet the health care needs of this nation's ever- growing uninsured citizens; and Cutting the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant--which helps states provide mothers with important prenatal care and offer preventive health care and medical treatment to children, including those with disabilities and special needs--by $24 million. Mr. Speaker, I know what these cuts to health care programs will do: they will increase the already unacceptably high numbers of uninsured Americans; create insurmountable barriers to necessary health care services and treatments for our most medically-needy and medically- underserved citizens; exacerbate the racial and ethnic as well as the rural health disparities that plague and cost our health care system; and leave hundreds of thousands of hard working and decent men, women and children in poorer health with less access to health care. And, Mr. Speaker, all of this just to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this country. As a physician, as the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust and as a parent and grandparent, these funding cuts to education, health care, job training and other important social programs have me convinced that if we do not change our funding priorities, then we--as a Congress--will be playing an instrumental role in sending this Nation down the wrong path. And, Mr. Speaker, that is not a legacy that I am interested in leaving, and I encourage my colleagues--on both sides of the aisle--to oppose H.R. 3010.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 975 will lead to more uniform enforcement of the criminal laws on our public lands. Original cosponsors of this legislation include Representatives Mark Udall and Diana DeGette of Colorado and Jim Matheson of Utah, all Members who understand the value of our public lands and take seriously our responsibility as stewards of those lands. They are to be commended for their efforts to bring this measure to the floor today. Mr. Speaker, we support H.R. 975.