Jim Cooper

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my friend, Dixie Taylor-Huff, for her years of selfless service and dedication to the health and welfare of all Tennesseans. Dixie, who hails from Lebanon, is the honored recipient today of the American Health Care Association's Joe Warner Patient Advocacy Award. This award recognizes civic leaders who have shown exceptional dedication to the welfare of elderly and disabled Americans and who have been especially successful in raising awareness of such issues among local, state, and federal policymakers. We are all grateful to Dixie for her outstanding efforts and applaud her national recognition. Dixie's leadership in the healthcare field and beyond has benefited countless lives in our great state. As the owner and operator of several skilled nursing facilities and home healthcare agencies, Dixie has long been a leader in the field of long-term health care. Her expertise has led several governors to seek her counsel by appointing her to various commissions and task forces dedicated to these issues. As the former president of the Tennessee Healthcare Association, and as a regional vice-president of the American Health Care Association, she has been a passionate and effective advocate for State and Federal policies to improve the quality of long-term care. In addition to her work in health care, Dixie has served as a prominent civic leader in our district. As a trustee for both Cumberland University and Volunteer State Community College, she has been a vocal proponent of affordable high-quality public education. She is now the immediate past-president of the Nashville Women's Political Caucus and is treasurer of the Tennessee Democratic Party. I know that our colleagues in Tennessee value her greatly, and it is with the deepest respect and pride that I, on behalf of the people of the 5th District of Tennessee, seek to recognize this remarkable citizen. Dixie, thank you again for your contributions to our great State and congratulations.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the heroes of the Army's 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). This famous division needs little introduction. Brave members of the ``Screaming Eagle'' division have fought for their country in countless towns and cities in the 62 years of the division's service to America. In earlier wars, and in places such as Normandy, Eindhoven, Bastogne, and the A Shau Valley, thousands of brave Americans have fought while proudly wearing the emblem of the 101st on their left sleeve. Today I honor a new generation of heroes from the 101st. After almost a year overseas in the Persian Gulf and in Iraq, thousands of the brave men and women of this storied unit have returned home. Of course, thousands of other US troops--soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines-- have also served in Iraq or serve there today, including more than a thousand members of the Tennessee Army and Air National Guard. However, today I pay special tribute to the members of the fabled ``Screaming Eagle'' division in honor of their return to Tennessee. These soldiers have seen a great deal since they were last home at Fort Campbell. First came the excitement of a rapid deployment and intensive training in Kuwait. For veteran and new recruit alike, this was a time of mixed emotions. On one hand, I'm sure they all felt the excitement of being on the verge of doing what they've trained for years to do: fight and win our nation's wars. At the same time, the thought of real combat was surely a source of worry and concern. Throughout the division, soldiers asked themselves the same question that soldiers have asked for centuries: When the time comes, will I measure up? When my buddies need me, will I be there for them? And most importantly--will I make it home? Then came the first phase of the war in Iraq--the drive to Baghdad. During this phase of the war, the 101st fought in dozens of towns and cities. As is often the case in war, they encountered challenges they did not expect. But, as is also often the case in war, the fighting spirit and ingenuity of the American soldier overcame these challenges. In back alleys, across barren desert, on vital bridges, in tall buildings, and lowly huts, the troops of the 101st Airborne Division lived up to the reputation of previous generations of ``Screaming Eagles.'' On the road to Baghdad they added new towns--like Karbala and Najaf--to the already long list of places where members of the 101st Airborne Division have made us proud. Once Baghdad fell and Saddam went into hiding, the war entered a new, and in some ways more difficult phase--a guerilla war against remnants of Saddam's regime. For this phase the 101st was assigned an enormous and diverse section of northern Iraq, where they had the challenging dual mission of continuing to fight the enemy while also starting Iraq on the long road to democracy and economic reconstruction. Though it should not come as a surprise, the soldiers and leaders of the 101st showed that they were once again up to the challenge. The 101st succeeded in missions as diverse as building schools, training policemen, repairing utilities, and distributing new currency--all the while continuing to conduct combat operations against insurgents. The members of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) clearly deserve our thanks for their fine service in Iraq, but so does another group of patriots--the families at Fort Campbell and elsewhere that had to stay behind. So, while I congratulate the men and women of the ``Screaming Eagle'' division, I want to also add my personal thanks to the family members and friends of the brave troops who served in Iraq. Mr. Speaker, I think I speak for all members of Congress when I congratulate the 101st Division on a job well done in Iraq, and I pray for the safe return of all our troops serving overseas.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, in honor of Black History Month, I am pleased to speak today in recognition of Nashville's distinguished role in the history of the Civil Rights movement. Forty-four years ago this week, a group of young Nashville college students came together to organize the Nashville sit-ins, a nonviolent campaign to desegregate the city's lunch counters. From that moment in 1960, and from that campaign's extraordinary leaders, emerged a passion for justice and equality that helped to guide the civil rights movement. Nashville was a principal training ground for some of the nation's most important leaders in the civil rights movement, many of whom were schooled in the techniques of nonviolent protest by the Rev. James Lawson. Rev. Lawson was the second African-American admitted to Vanderbilt University's Divinity School, and his famed workshops on nonviolent resistance later earned him a reputation as ``the teacher of the civil rights movement.'' Lawson's students came to include such prominent figures as Diane Nash, Dr. James Bevel, Dr. Bernard Lafayette, and Rev. C.T. Vivian, as well as my distinguished colleague, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. As students and young activists, they formed the organizational core of Nashville's civil rights movement, which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. later described as ``the best organized and most disciplined in the Southland.'' Nashville's lunch-counter protests began on Feb. 13, 1960. Three months later, after a dramatic confrontation with then-Mayor Ben West, the students earned their first major victory when six Nashville lunch counters began serving African-Americans. The Nashville protests came to serve as models for later protests throughout the South, and its leaders, Ms. Nash, Dr. Bevel, Dr. Lafayette, Rev. Vivian and Mr. Lewis, went on to make pivotal contributions to the success of the civil rights movement, including the Freedom Rides of 1961 and the historic protests in Selma, Alabama. This weekend, a number of the original leaders of Nashville's movement will be reuniting both to commemorate the anniversary of those first organized sit-ins and to honor the opening of the new Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library. This library, located at 615 Church Street in Nashville, now stands in place of several downtown restaurants that refused to serve African Americans before the historic protests. Dr. King best summed up the legacy of the Nashville movement when he came to visit shortly after the protests succeeded in desegregating Nashville's lunch counters. He said, ``I came to Nashville not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community.'' It is with great honor and pride that I pay tribute today to the men and women of Nashville whose leadership and courage in the fight for racial justice still serve as inspiration to us today.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I addressed the House last night on the subject of President Bush's State of the Union message and compared his words on that evening in this Chamber just some 3 weeks ago in which he said he would present to us a budget which paid for the war, and let me read his words exactly. ``In 2 weeks, I will send you a budget that funds the war.'' Well, 2 weeks later, the President failed to do that. He failed to include any of the cost for the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan in his budget. You might think that is just a conflict, maybe a miscommunication with speech writers. But yesterday on the Senate side in a very important hearing the service chiefs of the Marines, Army and Air Force all said that this funding gap, the possible failure of our forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to have the money that they need come this fall, could create serious consequences. Let me read the article from today's New York Times. ``In an unusual display of difference with the White House, the top officers of the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force all raised questions on Tuesday about how the Bush administration plans to pay for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq after the current financing runs out at the end of September. ``Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, three of the four chiefs of the Armed Services expressed concerns about a financing gap, perhaps of 4 months, for the two missions, whose combined cost is about $5 billion a month. ``They were left out of President Bush's budget request for the 2005 fiscal year, with the administration saying it would make a supplementary request for up to $50 billion probably next January, after the elections this year. ```I am concerned,' General Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army Chief of Staff, said in response to a question from Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, `on how we bridge between the end of this fiscal year and whenever we could get a supplemental in the next year.' ``General Michael W. Hagee, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and General John P. Jumper, the Air Force Chief of Staff, agreed with General Schoomaker's concerns.'' A little further down in the article, General Schoomaker stated, ``We are all concerned about maintaining continuity of operations. We want to make sure that we minimize the bridge.'' He emphasized that the timing and mechanics of seeking a supplemental spending bill were up to the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and White House officials. He said that he was simply describing the possible consequences for the Army. Mr. Speaker, America knows we are at war. We know that 120,000 of our men and women in uniform are in daily, constant danger in Iraq, and 10,000 more troops are at danger in Afghanistan. Yet none of the cost of this war is in the President's budget. The President has said that he will get a supplemental request to us after the election. That is probably not time enough, according to these top military officials. Our men and women in uniform deserve better treatment. They deserve full funding, full continuity of funding, and full, honest accounting of how much this operation costs, and the American taxpayer is ready to step up to those needs. We should not hide the true cost until after the election and risk undercutting our men and women in uniform in the field when they are at war because of politics in this political season. Let us do better in this House to fully fund our men and women in uniform.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight to make one very simple point. Sometimes the simplest points are the most powerful. Families across America are probably eating supper about this time, a little worried about the future of the country, wondering whom they can trust. Well, just a few weeks ago in this Chamber, we had the great speech of the year, the President's State of the Union message. And the President walked down this aisle in a crowded Chamber, most of the House and the Senate and the Supreme Court and other dignitaries were here. It was broadcast, of course, live on national television. And at this podium right here the President spoke and delivered a powerful message. There were many lines where there was applause; and one of them was this one, because we knew on that day, on January 20, that the President would be delivering his budget. That is a very complicated document. It is thousands of pages long. It takes months to prepare, and probably on that very night it was already at the printers, the type being set. Well, perhaps the President was poorly served by one of his speech writers, but one of the lines in the President's important message was this one: the President said on the night of January 20 in this Chamber, he said that ``in two weeks I will send you a budget that funds the war, protects the homeland, and meets important domestic needs.'' Well, in 2 weeks he did send us a budget. It arrived here on February 2. Most of us have had a chance, especially those of us who have the privilege of serving on the Committee on the Budget, to dig through that budget and find what is in and what is not there. And to our surprise and disappointment, especially after the President's remarks just a few weeks ago in this Chamber on live national television, the budget does not fund the war. In fact, to read the President's budget, you would think that we are not at war at all. Now, the President's budget does include over $400 billion to fund our Defense Department, and that is good; and most of this Chamber will support it and support it strongly. But that is largely a peace-time budget. That number would have been the same whether we were involved in fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq or not. So the budget that the President promised us that funds the war, and presumably he meant here the war on terrorism, the war where 120,000 of our troops are currently serving in Iraq and 10,000 of our troops are currently serving in Afghanistan, presumably the President meant the war most Americans worry about when they go to bed and pray about when they wake up in the morning because almost every day there is a casualty. I think American families want the truth. We support our President. We want him to succeed. We want our Nation to succeed. We want our troops to win in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we need to be told the truth. We need to be told the extent of the sacrifice that we are being asked to make. The rumor around here is that we will be asked after November's election to come up with another $50 billion to fund the war. I will probably support that. I supported the $87 billion supplemental request that the President asked us to support because we cannot leave our troops hanging in the fields. We have to support our men and women in uniform, and I am delighted to do that. But should we not be told the cost up front? In the President's budget, which he promised to deliver to us and which would fund the war, he has essentially a zero figure for funding our men and women in uniform. Zero, nada, zilch, nothing. Well, that is not accurate. That is not fair. That is not honest. I think that undermines the support of our men and women in uniform who are out there risking their lives for us and for our freedom every day. And in our budget, our central planning document for this government, we have nothing for them. Many of us are aware of the shortcomings of supplies for our troops already. Our troops did not have the bullet-proof vests that they have needed to protect themselves in Iraq. Many of our vehicles, our Humvees and Bradleys, did not have sufficient spare parts. We did not have sufficient equipment to try to deal with the IEDs, the improvised explosive devices, that our troops are threatened with every day. There are many needs that our troops have that we have not adequately funded and that we should fund and that the American taxpayer, I think, would be glad to pay for. But we have to be told the price. And it is only fair and honest to tell us the price before the election, not to hide it until after election day. Mr. Speaker, I think most Americans as they sit at home eating dinner, and as we try to do our jobs in this body, want to listen to and believe the President's message, want to follow as much as we can what he asks us to do because he is our Commander in Chief, but he has got to tell us the truth.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege today of honoring Kathy Cloninger, the new Chief Executive Officer for the Girl Scouts of America. Ms. Cloninger is a native of Nashville, Tennessee in my district. She has been a longtime advocate for the Girl Scouts and has an accomplished history in not-for-profit leadership. Before her recent appointment to the post of CEO, Ms. Cloninger served as the head of the Girl Scout Council of Cumberland Valley in Nashville. During her tenure there, Girl Scout membership in our region rose to more than 25,000 girls--an increase of nearly 40 percent. She was also responsible for creating an outreach program that tripled the number of African American Girl Scouts, increased the participation of Hispanic girls, and brought more than 1,000 girls in public housing into the program. In Nashville, Ms. Cloninger also helped to found the Association of Non-Profit Executives and has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Center for Non-Profit Management, Leadership Nashville, and the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville. She has also held top-level positions at the Kellogg Foundation and the YWCA. With more than 3.7 million current members, the Girl Scouts have been a cherished American institution for the past 90 years. The qualities of leadership, values and social conscience that the Girl Scouts instill in their members have served as guideposts for many generations of girls and young women, including in my own family. I am proud to say that my wife, Martha, and my daughter, Mary, have been Girl Scouts members and continue to be supporters of this fine organization. I have every confidence that Ms. Cloninger will continue her excellent leadership of the Girl Scouts on the national level. In our present times, it is now more important than ever to maintain organizations and programs that provide positive leadership and encouragement for our nation's young people. In light of her proven record and her devotion to the ideals of the Girl Scouts, I have no doubt that Kathy Cloninger will prove to be an excellent role model and leader to guide our young girls into the 21st century. On behalf of the people of the fifth district of Tennessee and your hometown, Nashville, I am proud to extend to Ms. Cloninger my warmest wishes and congratulations.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, this is a very sad day for this House. I bring a unique perspective, I think, to this legislation because I represent probably more hospitals than any other Member of this body. Because Nashville, Tennessee, is the headquarters town for most of the for-profit hospitals in America. We also have a leading academic medical center and many nonprofit hospitals with some 300 health care companies headquartered in our city. We are Health Care U.S.A. I have also been a professor of health care policy at Vanderbilt Business School; the last 7 years studying these issues. And in my prior service in Congress, I was one of the leaders in trying to craft bipartisan health care policy, getting Democrats and Republicans to work together, to do the right thing for our Nation's seniors and for all of our citizens. This bill, which we were finally allowed to see a few short hours ago, is a travesty. First of all, very few, if any, Members really know what is in it. There simply has not been enough time. And our seniors deserve better than a martial law rule. Why not at least the regular 3 days, so Americans can see what is in this bill? What is the other side afraid of? What are they afraid of? Sunshine is the best policy. Sunshine is the best disinfectant for what may or may not be in this bill. Now, I had a head start, I have been trying to follow proceedings closely over the last several months of the conference from which all Democrats have been excluded in the House. But I have tried to pick up bits and pieces here or there. I have tried to read everything available on this. And the best I can tell, the policies in this bill come up way short. Now, our hospitals in Nashville are proud of the 3 to 5 percent of the bill that covers their activities, but the rest of the bill, the other 95 percent, has severe policy shortcomings that I am afraid the other side feels cannot stand the light of day, cannot stand full debate. So our seniors deserve better, Mr. Speaker. Let us give them a better bill. Let us take the time to do it right.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I have a particular interest in the provisions of the Energy Bill Conference Report regarding modernizing the management structure of the Tennessee Valley Authority, in Title XIV Miscellaneous, Subtitle C, of H.R. 6. Senator Frist introduced a version of these changes earlier this year (S. 1351), and I introduced my own version (H.R. 3044) several months later. The two bills were substantially similar. I was very disturbed to discover that two key provisions that had been in both Senator Frist's and my bills have been omitted in the Energy Bill Conference Report. These provisions concern the intended bipartisan nature of the new nine-member board--no more than five members of one party, and four of the other, and the requirement that prospective board members believe in the mission of TVA, as described in the TVA Act. Without these key provisions, modernizing the TVA board could become, at worst, and entirely partisan enterprise and/or an effort to privatize TVA or disrupt TVA's historic mission. Due to the last minute drafting of this legislation, and the waiving of the customary 3-day layover rule for such bills to be studied carefully by members, which I just voted against an hour ago, mistakes like this have been made. I was not a member of the Conference Committee and had no access to the drafting of the language, and was only given a copy of the language less than an hour ago. This hurried legislative process is an outrage and deprives both parties the ability to have properly drafted legislation. I intend to work with my colleagues to remedy these errors of omission so that the original language and intent of Senator Frist's and my legislation can be restored to the bill. In the meantime, it is important for all participants in the board modernizing process to honor the omitted provisions so that there is no danger of partisanship on the board, or of damage to TVA's historic mission. I will be watching very carefully in order to protect the interest of TVA ratepayers.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me this time. This is a very important topic. I am a cancer survivor myself, but I think every family in America has been touched by serious illness, and the NIH can help if it is properly funded. We are very grateful for the increases in the past. I celebrate the leadership of the gentleman from Ohio; he is a great Member of this body. But I worry that others in his party who call themselves compassionate conservatives have left out the compassionate part. To freeze the NIH budget at a time like this does serious damage to the research efforts that are going on all across this country, literally harming the futures of so many of our citizens. It is not the gentleman's fault. He has done the best that he can. We all know that in this nonbinding motion that we are all about to vote for, it will really amount to very little change in that budget. We can and must do more. We must influence the President's budget- making process right now for his budget for next fiscal year. We need to make sure that we have no more freezes like this, no more inadequate increases, because the need is too great, whether it is cancer or heart or stroke or ALS or cystic fibrosis and a myriad of other diseases. People do not have the time to wait. So it is very important that we tackle these issues. I would hope that the gentleman, as he votes for this nonbinding motion to instruct, and his colleagues, will do more than just put that vote up on the board and pretend that they are for a big increase, because we all know that in the President's budget this last year, there was not a big increase. There was not really much more than a freeze, and we have to do better than that. So this is a time for us to really dig deep, to do the quiet, behind- the-scenes work that is necessary to make sure that our NIH budget genuinely increases to meet the terrific need, not only in our country, but around the world, because as the gentleman knows, we are inventing the cures for diseases around this world. [From the Tennessean.com, Nov. 7, 2003] Representative Jim Cooper: Don't Let Congressional Budget Cuts Slow the War Against Cancer (By Representative Jim Cooper) Patty Corlew lives on a quiet street in Mt. Juliet. She's a wife and mother. She works part-time. She helps out at Boy Scouts and is someone folks describe as a solid friend and good neighbor. Patty Corlew is not someone you'd likely expect to be a protestor. Fortunately, you'd be wrong about Patty Corlew. ``My boys were almost 2 and almost 6 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thanks for these last nine years. I only wish my friend Mary and Elizabeth and others could have shared them with me and watched their children grow and become grandmothers like I hope to become. Please find a cure.'' Patty Corlew is speaking out. She's added her name and her story to the growing list of Middle Tennessee-area cancer survivors who are concerned about the proposed level of funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) currently pending in Congress. Those of us fortunate to live in Middle Tennessee don't have to look far to see the potential impact of a slowdown in NIH funding. Nashville is home to two of the leading medical research institutions working in partnership with NIH and its National Cancer Institute (NCI). At the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, a team led by Dr. Ray DuBois was the first to establish the link between colorectal tumors and an enzyme known as COX-2. Their findings helped explain why people who took large quantities of aspirin or drugs like ibuprofen over long periods of time had a lower incidence of colorectal cancer. Dr. DuBois is now the leader of a national study exploring whether COX-2 inhibitors might be used to prevent colorectal cancer as well as a variety of other cancers. Meharry Medical College recently launched a long-term study of racial disparities in breast cancer. Women from minorities are more likely to die of breast cancer today even though they are less likely to get the disease. According to Dr. Ana Grau, cancer surgeon and director of The Breast Health Center at Metro General Hospital at Meharry, the center is determined to improve breast cancer survival rates for all women. In another study, Vanderbilt-Ingram and Meharry are working together to answer one simple but important question: Why are African Americans, and all people in the South, at greater risk of developing and dying from cancer than other ethnic or regional groups? The NIH-supported study will track more than 100,000 participants over five years to determine what lifestyle factors may be related to higher cancer rates for minorities and all residents in our region. As these examples indicate, NIH is providing help and hope to millions of Americans today. Without the appropriate funding, however, future discoveries like these may be threatened. In each of the past five years, NIH funding has increased by 14-15%. Last year, during congressional hearings, NIH leadership said the current pace of medical breakthroughs could only be maintained if NIH funding continues to grow at a level of 8-10%. Yet the House and Senate Conference Committee is expected to support the Bush Administration's NIH request: an increase of just 2.7%. Like Patty Corlew, I am a cancer survivor. I was fortunate to discover my cancer early. And I am blessed to live in a community where cutting-edge cancer research and treatment is something we almost take for granted. The examples described here of research being conducted at Vanderbilt-Ingram and Meharry are only three out of many promising studies currently underway at each institution. And Vanderbilt-Ingram and Meharry are not alone in working at the frontier of cancer research. More than 80% of NIH funding now goes to support research conducted at universities around the country. In the next few weeks, Congress will be asked to decide the future direction of NIH work, whether the pace of disease exploration should continue at the aggressive level of recent years. In these tough economic times, every budget decision must be evaluated carefully. We must consider not only costs, but potential return on each taxpayer dollar we commit. How do you measure the value of good health and quality of life? As a member of the House Budget Committee, I am very concerned about the current trend in government spending. I strongly believe we cannot continue to ignore the rising deficit. But I also believe we cannot turn our backs on the progress currently being made in medical research. On the issue of NIH fund, I stand with Patty Corlew.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, the Congress of the United States is honored today to have Pastor James Thomas, the reverend of Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church, to deliver the opening prayer. Pastor Thomas has been a force for good in the Nashville community since 1964 when he hitchhiked from Texas with $4 in his pocket to attend American Baptist Theological Seminary. N O T I C E Effective January 1, 2004, the subscription price of the Congressional Record will be $503 per year or $252 for six months. Individual issues may be purchased at the following costs: Less than 200 pages, $10.50; Between 200 and 400 pages, $21.00; Greater than 400 pages, $31.50. Subscriptions in microfiche format will be $146 per year with single copies priced at $3.00. This price increase is necessary based upon the cost of printing and distribution.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I appreciate the gentleman's kind remarks about the legacy of a truly great man. It is not everyone who not only makes the front page of the hometown newspaper, the only front page I have ever seen entirely in black, but who also makes the front page of Time Magazine, People Magazine and, yes, no less than Rolling Stone itself. There were some comments in here from some truly remarkable artists who have this to say about the passing of Johnny Cash. Bob Dylan said, ``Johnny was and is the North Star. You could guide your ship by him, and he is the greatest of the greats, then and now.'' Merle Haggard said, ``He was like Abraham or Moses, one of the great men who will ever grace the Earth. There will never be another man in black.'' Kris Kristofferson pointed out he thought, ``The power of his performance came from the tension between this man who was deeply spiritual and also a real wild man.'' The fact of Johnny Cash's passing has been noted by people around the world with great sadness, but I thought one of the best obituaries in his honor was written by a noted music author, Peter Guralnick; and it appeared in The New York Times. He said as follows: ``Only those who were there at the beginning can remember how different he really was. The records, when they first started coming out on the Sun label in 1955, in the wake of Elvis Presley's success, sounded `so unusual,' said the Sun session guitarist Roland Janes, `that I never would have dreamed he could have even gotten a record played on the radio. But he set country music on its ear.' ``It was the voice that compelled attention from the start. It was a voice that the founder of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, compared to the blues singer Howlin' Wolf's in its uniqueness, the unimpeachable integrity and originality of its sound. But it was the conviction behind the voice that really allowed Johnny Cash to create a body of work as ambitious in its scope as it was homespun in its sound. ``He carried that conviction with him from the time he first entered the tiny Sun studio in Memphis in the fall of 1954. He was just out of the Army, selling home appliances door-to-door and playing with a trio of musicians barely conversant with the instruments that they were playing: a guitarist who played one note at a time because he did not know any other way to do it, a base player who had just switched over from the guitar and had not yet learned how to tune his instrument, and a steel guitar player who would drop out of the picture altogether before they even made a record. They worked and worked until, after nearly 6 months, they finally came up with something that reflected the honesty, originality, and, above all, the spontaneity and emotional truth that both Sam Phillips and Johnny Cash particularly prized. This low-tech approach was the perfect vehicle certainly for the plain- spoken quality of Johnny Cash's message, but the method of delivery does not come close to explaining the majesty or the ambition of his art. ``To understand that, one has to factor in the power of imagination. John Cash, he was named `Johnny' by Sam Phillips, grew up in the Federal `colony' of Dyess, Arkansas, a social experiment with a socialist setup really, as Johnny Cash himself described it, that was done by President Franklin Roosevelt for farmers who had lost out during the Depression. One of the most vivid memories of Dyess was the day Eleanor Roosevelt came to town to decorate the library, a momentous occasion not simply for the glimpse it afforded of Mrs. Roosevelt but for the opportunity it subsequently afforded Johnny Cash to indulge in what would become a lifelong passion for reading. He read James Fenimore Cooper and Sir Walter Scott in particular at that time and everything he could find on the American Indian, not so much to escape as to enjoy the sense of discovery. He carried this exploratory spirit with him into the world, a world in which he achieved a degree of celebrity and fame far beyond anything he might ever have imagined and long past the point that most people would gladly have settled for the simple definition of success. ``He used his success, in fact, to provide a voice for the downtrodden, the lost souls and lost causes that might otherwise have found no place in the American dream. He used his knowledge and passion for every sort of music, for the blues of Robert Johnson, the gospel music of his fellow Arkansan, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Texas folk songs collected by J. Frank Dobie, to set out in new and inventive directions of his own. When he got a network television show in the late 1960s, he not only presented such unlikely countercultural figures such as Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to a predominantly country audience, he also regularly incorporated a vivid lesson in musical and social history in a filmed sequence called `Ride This Train.' ``Johnny Cash's imagination took him along widely divergent paths. There was, as he often remarked, no safe harbor for the creative soul. He was tormented by demons that he could not always control, but he never sought excuses. He simply sought the truth. ``This was what continued to give Johnny Cash's music relevance over the years. Through imagination he possessed a gift for empathetic transference; unlike many artists, he was able to take on other voices and make them his own. His music celebrated the power of the individual, but his emphasis on directness and simplicity made a complex, and sometimes contradictory, message accessible to all. His, as Sam Phillips once said, was the truest voice because it was so irremediably his own, but it was a universal voice, too, for the very way in which it incorporated a constant sense of striving and struggle, an irreducible awareness, and embrace, of the human stain.'' Mr. Speaker, Johnny Cash was like no other. As I mentioned earlier, his loss was mourned around this globe. From young people who like ``Nine Inch Nails'' and the song ``Hurt'' and who thrilled to the video, perhaps one of the best ever made, to the oldest of country music fans who remember tuning in to the Grand Ole Opry in their youth. So we appreciate this moment, and I appreciate the chance to join with my Tennessee colleagues and my colleagues from Arkansas and people around this great country who are in this Congress and who have come up to me in the last couple of weeks to honor the memory of the great Johnny Cash. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers at this time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, many of our colleagues wish they could be here today, particularly our friend, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross). I yield such time as he may consume to our friend, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), who is here today.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for yielding me this time. We have a number of speakers on this side, and I would like to yield to them. I am particularly appreciative of the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon). Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon).

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask for my colleagues' support of a resolution that I have introduced to honor the memory of one of America's greatest musical heroes, Johnny Cash. The music of Johnny Cash has literally touched the lives of millions of people in America and around the world, and that has spanned several generations. In my hometown of Nashville, Music City, U.S.A., he is revered as a legend among legends. With a career spanning some 5 decades and with 70 recording albums and with 1,500 recorded songs, Johnny Cash was clearly a defining force in American music. We will miss him for much more than the long list of songs that he added to the American classics. We will miss him as a great human being, a champion of the poor, the hopeless, the downtrodden, and the imprisoned. Because he was raised in poverty himself, the Man in Black spoke to everyone and for everyone. So I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Con. Res. 282 to honor the memory of Johnny Cash.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his comments. The gentleman is the youngest Member of Congress, an honor I held about 20 years ago this day. We appreciate his eloquence on this important issue.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I have the right to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), an eloquent speaker, a colleague and friend of mine who, in fact, represents the congressional district I used to represent.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I have one speaker remaining in addition to myself. How much time remains on my side?

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would hope that the listeners could see through the rather emphatic rhetoric of my good friend from Pennsylvania, because may I remind him that the conference committee has not even bothered to meet on this issue. The Senate is controlled by Republicans, the House is controlled by Republicans, and they have not found time in the last 93 days to meet on this issue. Let me read the quote from the White House Press Secretary: ``The President wants to sign the Senate legislation,'' not the House legislation, the Senate legislation, ``and hopes that Congress will get it to him quickly.'' This was on June 9 of this year. ``The President believes that what the Senate has done is the right thing to do, a good thing to do, and he wants to sign it.'' So cut through all the rhetoric, cut through all the b.s. I have not seen a Committee on Ways and Means majority member carrying this much heavy water since they tried to defend the police action taken by a member of that committee a month or so ago, only to have the chairman of the committee come to this floor to apologize for his action. Do the right thing. Do what the White House has asked you to do. Do what the Senate has passed 94 to 2. Are Republicans compassionate? Can they govern this country? Can they be decent to our own children? That is the issue we are debating tonight. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bell), a genuine leader on this issue.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Tonight we are about to have an hour of debate on whether, in fact, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are the compassionate conservatives that they claim to be. Is there any compassion in their bones? We are not debating whether the U.S. Senate is compassionate, because they have already voted by a bipartisan vote of 94 to 2 to do the right thing. We are not debating whether President Bush and the Republican White House is compassionate because they have already urged House Republicans to do the right thing and do it quickly. But it has been 93 days that House Democrats have been waiting, that the President has been waiting, and that Senate Republicans have been waiting; and still there is no action from the other side of the aisle. What is the issue? The issue is the child tax credit. If you are going to be a compassionate conservative, if you are going to be compassionate at all, surely you will take care of the children in our society. Surely you will take care of the children whose parents are relatively poor, parents who earn between about 10 and $20,000 a year. That is the issue at stake. That is what the American people have been waiting for for 93 days. The other side could take action. In fact, we could probably pass it tomorrow if they would finally act. But the Republican leader has been quoted as saying, it ain't going to happen. Other Republican leaders have been saying things to indicate what has in fact happened, that the conference on this has not even bothered to meet. They have not even bothered to pretend that they care. So that is what is at stake in this debate, and that is why we are bringing it to the attention of the American people. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished minority whip.

Mr. COOPER

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), the ranking member of the subcommittee.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn).

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume to note once again that my friend, the gentleman from Oklahoma, is being unfair. We are not trying to stop enforcement of EITC. We are trying to do it in a fair and balanced way so that the IRS can go after where the big money is as well as where the small money is. And the gentleman is unfair as well because it is not just a little bit of paperwork. They have to find folks who will certify that their own children have been living with them for 6 months, and they disqualify relatives and neighbors and building managers. So who else can they turn to, people who do not know them? And under penalty of perjury, they want an absentee landlord to sign a piece of paper saying someone's kids have been living with them? Why not a simpler approach? Why not say, in the situation of a divorce or legal separation, why not go to the court and find out who has custody of the children and get a certificate there and make that work? That would be a simple, fair way to do it. But, no, the IRS has not chosen that path. There are other simpler ways of solving this problem, and that is all that we ask. Even the IRS acknowledges that. That is why they have, on their own initiative, delayed and downsized their proposed program. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), my good friend and colleague and cosponsor of this key amendment.