Duke Cunningham

Mr. CUNNINGHAM

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. The gentleman is correct. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, all I would say is some of the things we work with in Congress are on a bipartisan basis, and this is one of them. Quite often when you are taking a look at the amount of dollars available from the Federal Government to go to specific programs, then we can reach a consensus on both sides of the aisle. I would like to thank the new gentleman to the committee, the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Blumenauer], for his partnership, as well as the gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink], who has worked diligently on this particular bill, and the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Kelly], and a host of others. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for a colloquy with the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Fawell]. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Fawell].

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, the gentleman is correct. There will be other changes in the future. This is one. That particular school district was West Point, which is one of our academies that was impacted due to a special significance. It was not my district or any particular district, but it was a military academy that was being affected. But I agree. To be fair, we need to make sure that one district does not get all of the dollars, and that it is equalized. We will revisit this in the next Congress.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3660. This bill will provide an important piece of proenvironment legislation which will assist our local communities to build and design water reclamation and recycling projects. My district in San Diego County is almost entirely dependent upon imported water for its industrial, residential, and agricultural water supply needs. The majority of the imported water that reaches my congressional district originates in northern California or the Colorado River and is transported through a series of aqueducts and pipelines that cross over the San Andreas earthquake fault. As such, water supply in northern San Diego County is a limited resource that is consistently at risk due to drought, demands elsewhere in the State, and natural disasters. To minimize the potential risks to our water supply, water districts in my congressional district have embarked on a number of water conservation and reuse initiatives designed to reduce demand and provide alternative supplies for nonpotable applications. One of these initiatives is the north San Diego County Area Water Recycling Project. This project is a cooperative effort between the Leucadia County Water District, the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority, the Olivenhain Municipal Water District, and the city of Carlsbad, CA. When completed, the combined production of the two treatment plants will be up to 25 million gallons per day of recycled water. This water can be used for landscaping, golf courses, schools, nurseries, agricultural irrigation and industrial applications. Reclaimed water is an increasingly important element in California's water supply. Regional reclamation projects like this are expected to meet a large portion of California's future water supply needs. Implementation of these projects will reduce the San Diego region's reliance on imported water and produce both economic and environmental benefits for all Californians. I would like to thank the committee and the chairman for bringing this bill forward and ask that my colleagues support H.R. 3660.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, you want real tooth and nail to really vote for the bill. A lot of us fly a lot, and I am an aviator myself, and in this bill it gives the FBI the authority and the power to protect our airways. It strengthens the security at airports, and under the RICO statutes terrorists will fall under the same kind of stringent examination that our racketeers do. Let me tell my colleagues about a problem. This body and the Senate mandated to the President that he not ship arms to Bosnia. There are over 12,000 Mujahidin, Hamas and Jihad fighters in Bosnia, and I talked to intel. They are real concerned that those weapons are going to end up all over the world now. Did we forget that the World Trade Center was blown up by a Hamas terrorist and a cleric? We need to put some tooth in our bill, not just this one, but down the line. The real challenge is to start here and let us work together and finish the rest.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from California [Mr. Lewis]. (Mr. LEWIS of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Graham].

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Hutchinson], who drafted this same bill in Arkansas, which Governor Clinton then signed.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the great gentleman from Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson. (Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Nevada [Mrs. Vucanovich], chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mrs. Johnson]. (Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California [Mr. Bilbray].

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, the last speaker said that we intend to beat up, demoralize. My colleagues on the other side, we have gone through this legislation, and I have sat down with them. They know there is no intent or nothing in this bill that would do that. This is an honest attempt to combine and empower the American people, and especially those that have limited English skills to help them. Mr. Bill Emerson, the late Bill Emerson, has 200 cosponsors on this bill, 200 cosponsors. They are not mean. They are not after anybody's hide. But they believe that we can help the American people. Bill Emerson did not have a mean bone in his body. I would say that instead of divide, in one of the hearings a gentlelady from India said that when the British were there, that there were over 300 and some languages in India and more than that in the dialects, and they actually adopted a foreign language, English, as their common language when the British were there, and it tied that country together. When the British pulled out, and even today, those different groups are segregated and India is gridlocked because they do not have a common language. My wife teaches Spanish. Both my daughters are fluent in Spanish. I want to send them, if I can afford it, to Spain or Mexico City. I want them to immerse, because I do believe that the future of this country involves trade, it involves that we learn a lot of different languages. The gentleman said that we cut the program for education. No, what we cut is the Federal Government. We send the block grants down to the States and allow actually more money, and take away the Federal rules and regulations from the education process. Governors have told us they can do a better job. I look across the Nation, and there are 320 languages in this country and a thousand dialects. We encourage those folks to learn, and I want Spanish-speaking or Chinese-speaking, I want them to speak those languages at home. This bill does not prohibit that. What the bill does, it says that the official language of the government, of the Federal Government, shall be in English. That empowers people, just like the example that I used that for our swearing-ins. The bill says that when a person is sworn in as a citizen to this country, to the United States of America, that that be done in English. To me that is a powerful, that is a very powerful symbol. That is not mean-spirited. that means to empower those individuals. In my own district, many people do not speak English. They are not empowered. I ask support for this bill.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment, as modified.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, is there someone in opposition to the amendment to claim the time?

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. The Chairman, I think we have agreement on this particular amendment. It clarifies that the bill does not affect native American languages or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, that are in IDEA, the special education program, that we want to make sure that children in special education can communicate in this way, and it excludes that. The intent of H.R. 123 is not to hinder the preservation of native American languages. It is to encourage fluency in the language of American opportunity, English. This is a technical change that eliminates the limiting reference to documents. This resolves a committee dispute over whether coins labeled ``E Pluribus Unum'' are documents, and would be authorized. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, that is not all this bill does. Only one-tenth of 1 percent of all Federal documents go out under current law. But law is more than just law, it is symbology. How many of my colleagues watched Kerri Strug in the Olympics win a gold medal? When seeing that American flag come down, I bet many of my colleagues had tears in their eyes. That was powerful. That was power. That empowered not only Kerri Strug and the gold winners, but the American people. How many of my colleagues have ever witnessed or participated in a swearing-in ceremony? I have, many of them; and I want to tell my colleagues when they stand up and they hold up their hand, that is powerful and it is strong and it empowers those immigrants and the rest of the American citizens. That is important. It is not just law, it is empowerment of our children. Mr. Speaker, I look at over and over, there are 320 languages, over a thousand dialects, and the reason for the bill, this is the Bill Emerson bill, that there is an increasing number of American citizens that do not understand, write, or communicate orally with the English language, and we are saying that in the thirties and the forties and the fifties there was a different attitude, that when one came they learned English, and over a period of time that number is reduced, and we want to empower our children. We are not building a wall, we are tearing down a wall, because if I was mean-spirited, I would say: Stay where you are. Don't learn the English language. Stay wherever you want in your little communities and not have a portion of the American dream. But no, Mr. Speaker, we are not doing that. Governor Clinton in Arkansas signed a bill just like this one. Eighty nations in the world have signed their own language is a common language.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, this is for the purpose of unanimous consent, to change the language on one of the amendments, like we did with Mr. Emerson.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, it is their side's amendment. I am trying to accommodate the gentleman, not us.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. It is right there before the gentleman.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my unanimous-consent request.

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to proceed in order under the rule to accommodate the gentleman.