John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1712) providing for consideration of the bill H.R. 5566 and the Senate amendment thereto.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. I wanted to welcome Judge Poe back after the hurricanes that he predicted. And there's nothing more gracious than starting off the session with an ``I told you so'' lecture. And so I am going to be remembering everything that the gentleman said and try to take it to heart as much as I can.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 716) recognizing Gail Abarbanel and the Rape Treatment Center, and for other purposes.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, Gail Abarbanel is the director of the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center's nationally known Rape Treatment Center. In 1974, the center became one of the first hospitals in the United States for establishing a protocol for treating victims of sexual assault. Today, under the leadership of Ms. Abarbanel, the Rape Treatment Center serves as a national model for its exemplary treatment, education, and prevention programs. She is also responsible for innovative programs such as the Stuart House for sexually abused children and the Verna Harrah Clinic to provide state-of-the- art medical care and forensic exams to rape victims. She was a driving force behind efforts to change the way rape and other sexual crimes are viewed in society and how victims are treated by law enforcement officials and medical personnel, and, most importantly, the judicial system itself. I commend Representative Patrick Kennedy for introducing this resolution to recognize Ms. Abarbanel's groundbreaking work on behalf of sexual assault victims. I urge Members to support the resolution. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1376) to restore immunization and sibling age exemptions for children adopted by United States citizens under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption to allow their admission to the United States.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this measure, the International Adoption Simplification Act, corrects two problems and inconsistencies with respect to adoptions of foreign children by United States citizen parents. The bill would harmonize age requirements for children subject to inter-country adoptions, irrespective of whether the child's home country is a signatory to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions. Currently, the law contains two age requirements related to the adoption of foreign children. The general rule is that an adoption must be finalized before the child turns 16 in order for the child to qualify for legal status in the United States. The law also provides an exception to this age requirement for the siblings of such an adopted child. This exception, meant to keep siblings together where possible, provides that the sibling of an adopted child may also get legal status in the United States as long as the sibling's adoption takes place before his or her 18th birthday. Now, strangely enough, this exception is available only if the sibling comes from a country that has not signed the Hague Convention. The exception is not available to siblings from signatory countries. Please do not ask me why this exists in the law. But Senate 1376 remedies this problem by expanding the sibling age exception to signatory countries. This will harmonize the law and allow adopted siblings to remain together, irrespective of whether the sending country is a signatory to the Hague Convention. S. 1376 also harmonizes immunization requirements with respect to international adoptions. Currently the law requires adopted children to have certain vaccinations prior to arrival, but there is an exemption for children under 10 years of age if the adoptive parents certify that necessary vaccinations will be obtained within 30 days of entry. This exemption was enacted in 1997 by Congress to prevent parents from having to subject their children to numerous and sometimes unsafe immunizations in foreign nations, allowing them to safely immunize their children in the United States instead. As with the age cut-off requirement, this exemption applies only to children adopted from countries that are not signatories to The Hague Convention. It doesn't apply to children from signatory countries. And so, once again, the Senate bill fixes what could be called a nonsensical discrepancy by expanding the exemption to apply to all children, regardless of whether their own country is a signatory to The Hague Convention or not. I want to thank Lamar Smith, our ranking member on Judiciary, and our subcommittee chair, Zoe Lofgren of California, for their bipartisan support of this measure. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6397) to amend section 101(a)(35) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for a marriage for which the parties are not physically in the presence of each other due to service abroad in the Armed Forces of the United States.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker and Members, the Marine Sergeant Michael Ferschke, Jr. Memorial Act, introduced by Representative John Duncan, is a simple but, I think, important measure that will help active duty members of our Armed Forces serving overseas--as well as their spouses. Under current immigration law, when a marriage takes place between two persons who cannot both be physically present during the ceremony, the marriage is deemed not valid until it is consummated. There are no exceptions to this provision, even in cases where it sometimes results in clear injustice. And so we learned about this legal requirement through the case of Sergeant Ferschke, a United States Marine stationed at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, who, in March of 2007, while on the base, met a Japanese woman named Hotaru Nakama at a birthday party for a mutual friend. They dated for over a year before Sergeant Ferschke was deployed to Iraq. Shortly before his departure, they learned that they were going to have a baby, and they spoke about getting married, moving back to the United States and raising a family together. Two months after Sergeant Ferschke arrived in Iraq, the couple was married through a ceremony conducted over the telephone; but 1 month later, Sergeant Ferschke tragically, in combat, gave the ultimate sacrifice. The United States military recognizes this marriage, and Mrs. Ferschke has been assisted in raising their son by the payment of a death gratuity, but the marriage, itself, cannot be recognized under our immigration laws because it was never consummated after the marriage ceremony. Now, this legislation doesn't entirely eliminate the consummation requirement. It simply eliminates the requirement for active duty members of our Armed Forces who are serving abroad by creating a narrow exception in cases where the failure to consummate the marriage is caused by a physical separation due to active duty military service abroad by one of the parties to the marriage. This is a reasonable provision that will provide some measure of support and comfort to members of our Armed Forces serving abroad. So I commend our colleague John Duncan for introducing this measure. It was championed by our Immigration Subcommittee chairwoman, Zoe Lofgren, and our ranking member, Lamar Smith, and Jim McGovern. I thank them for their strong bipartisan support of the measure. I urge support of this measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material to the measure under discussion.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this measure, entitled the Copyright Cleanup, Clarification, and Corrections Act, is a commonsense, proactive response to unintended errors and confusion in copyright law. This bill updates and improves the way the Copyright Office conducts its business by making some changes, mainly streamlining the copyright registry process by authorizing the Copyright Office to accept electronic signatures when users file documents. It also eliminates the requirement that the Copyright Office keep a hard copy of a directory they already make available to the public online. This hard copy has taken over several shelves in their office but is seldom consulted by the public. The measure before us also clarifies some ambiguities in the copyright code. For example, in 1997, Congress amended the copyright code to clarify that copyright owners do not forfeit their rights in a work if they distributed it prior to 1978 without a copyright notice. However, while Congress made this fix for musical works distributed by phonograph, it neglected to specifically identify dramatic and literary works that were also distributed by phonograph. We make that correction in this bill before us. Finally, it corrects in this measure a number of technical errors, just dotting the I's and crossing the T's. I support the legislation. I commend the committee that worked on it. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution now under consideration.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1713) recognizing the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges desegregating a previously all-White public elementary school.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind Judge Poe that if he had been around during the Hayes-Tilden episode, 50 years wouldn't seem so long to him, either. I now turn to John Lewis and yield him such time as he may consume.

Mr. CONYERS. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that we were able to reveal this important part of American history, not just through our colleagues but through our countrymen. I share the spirit of the remarks of my friend on the Judiciary Committee, Judge Poe.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, international trade is an integral part of the Southeast Michigan economy, with nearly $113.3 billion worth of surface trade passing between the United States and Canada at the Detroit-Windsor border every year. I am, however, concerned that other nations' unfair trade practices have significantly hurt American workers. This is why I rise in support H.R. 2378, the ``Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act,'' which will address currency manipulation. Countries such as Japan and China have both manipulated their currencies and hurt American exporters. For example, Japan's currency has been undervalued by up to 25 percent in the past. This means that a car imported from Japan for $20,000 has a hidden subsidy of up to $5,000. According to General Motors' chief economist, Mustafa Mohatarem, ``Japan's policies provided anywhere from a $2,000 to $14,000 cash windfall for each of the 2.2 million vehicles Japan's automakers exported to the U.S. in 2006.'' Even worse, China has undervalued its currency by up 40 percent in the past, which has put American manufacturers at a severe disadvantage. China's currency manipulation also attracts foreign investment into China and away from American manufacturing facilities. A recent study found that the U.S. has lost more than 2.3 million jobs since 2001 just as a result of the U.S. trade deficit with China. On a recent trip to China, President Obama urged the Chinese Yuan to appreciate and prevent global imbalances. The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act will take important steps in helping to address these unfair trade practices. The Act would empower the Department of Commerce to make findings that identify currency manipulation as an export subsidy. Today's legislation would make it easier for the Department of Commerce to add a countervailing duty to offset the amount of the export subsidy from currency manipulation. I believe American manufacturers can have honest and fair competition with foreign imports and thrive in global markets. Mr. Speaker, in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we hailed the investments in green and renewable technologies. However, many Americans green technology firms are being hurt by currency manipulation and other subsidies. Just last week, the Steel Workers filed a petition with the United States Trade Representative regarding China's currency manipulation and other subsidies to the green technology manufacturing industry. If the United States is to lead in this industry as well as revitalize our manufacturing base, we need to make sure American firms can compete on a level playing field in the international market. I urge my colleagues to support today's legislation.