Henry Cuellar

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for the work she has done. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the important contributions of Joseph P. Loftus Jr. who lived in San Antonio, Texas and passed away recently on September 4th, 2005. Mr. Speaker, Joe Loftus Jr. was a fine American citizen who served in the aviation and space activities division of government for 47 years. He wasn't always in the spot light, but he was behind the scenes on the Mercury capsules and the Apollo lunar missions. Because of his efforts, NASA created the Orbital Debris Program Office. He had an international reputation for his expertise on orbital debris research and he was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Metal twice and upon his death, the Distinguished Service Metal. When Mr. Loftus retired, NASA lost a smart, dedicated employee whose talents were in many fields. Eric Hoffer, an American author once wrote, ``Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from'' Joe Loftus Jr. has returned to where he came from and he will be greatly missed. Mr. Speaker, thank you for the time to address the House on this somber but momentous occasion.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin and the gentlewoman from California for this opportunity to present this amendment. I believe this amendment is acceptable to the chairman and the gentlewoman from California. Chairman Sensenbrenner and Congresswoman Waters, thank you for this opportunity to present my amendment to H.R. 4128, the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2005. I will not spend much time describing my amendment, which is acceptable to the Chairman and Congresswoman Waters, because the concept is simple. My amendment will require all Federal agencies and departments to submit a report to the Attorney General verifying that all rules, regulations, and procedures of that agency are in compliance with the provisions of H.R. 4128. There is a saying in business: ``what gets measured gets done.'' H.R. 4128 is an important and timely bill, and it will do a great deal to help protect private property rights in this country. My amendment will strengthen H.R. 4128, by making sure that the practices and procedures of Federal agencies are quickly and uniformly brought into compliance with the new law. My amendment will require all Federal agencies and departments to review their practices with regard to eminent domain, and to submit a report to the Attorney General verifying that all rules, regulations, and procedures of that agency are in compliance with the provisions of H.R. 4128. This amendment will help to make the transition clearer, and will introduce an added dimension of accountability into the process. As a believer in responsible government, I always have and will continue to hold our bureaucracy accountable for knowing the law and following it correctly. This simple reporting requirement will ensure that it is done in a timely fashion. H.R. 4128 is a good bill, and my amendment will help to ensure that it is enforced quickly, uniformly, and fairly.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Lilia Perez for her contributions to the Laredo, Texas community that recently resulted in the opening of a community center bearing her name. Lilia Perez is a native Laredoan who grew up, attended school, and has worked her entire life in Laredo. A few short years after studying Business Administration at Laredo Junior College, Lilia was elected to the Webb County Community Action Agency Board, where she represented the poor of Laredo for over thirty years. In 1982, Lilia Perez was elected a Commissioner of Webb County, making her the first female Commissioner in the county's history. Lilia has also served on the South Texas Region Community Development Block Grant Review Committee and the City of Laredo Planning and Zoning Commission. Continuing her devotion to her community, Lilia was appointed to the South Texas Retired Senior Volunteer Board. Lilia's service to seniors and the poor led the City of Laredo to name their newly-built Community Center in her honor. The Lilia Perez Community Center was financed through the Community Development Block Grant Program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Community Center opened on September 30th, and provides meeting and storage facilities for seniors in the Laredo community. I am honored to come before you today to recognize the contributions of Lilia Perez to Webb County, and I wish the Community Center the best as it serves our elderly citizens in Laredo.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Raul Rodriguez for his work to improve the quality of life in the U.S.-Mexico border region as he prepares to end his tenure as the Managing Director of the North American Development Bank. The NADBank is jointly operated by the United States and Mexico, financing and developing needed environmental projects in the border region, such as water and wastewater treatment plants. Raul has guided the expanding NADBank since October of 2000. Under Raul's leadership, the NADBank has grown dramatically. It now provides over $703 million in financing and assistance for 89 infrastructure projects in the U.S.-Mexico border region, including technical and financial assistance projects in border communities that would not otherwise have been feasible. The North American Development Bank is assisting on a set of projects whose total cost is estimated at over $2.4 billion, a level of investment that may have been impossible to achieve if not for the efforts of the NADBank. Prior to joining the NADBank, Raul was the Executive Director of the Mexican Foreign Trade Bank, and he served as Mexico's Trade Commissioner in Canada during the NAFTA negotiations. Raul also served as a professor for several years. Thanks in large part to the contributions of Raul Rodriguez, the NADBank is more able to make a positive impact in the border region than many could have ever imagined. I thank Mr. Rodriguez today for his hard work and dedication, and I wish him the best as he continues to serve our border community.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and also the ranking member. I believe this amendment is acceptable both to the chairman and the ranking member. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner and Ranking Member Conyers for putting together a good bill that will benefit the justice system in the United States. Mr. Chairman, my amendment--number 40--to this bill will authorize appropriations for the newly structured Border Violence Task Force in Laredo, Texas. My amendment will authorize appropriations of $10 million per year for the duration of the bill to provide for equipment, personnel, administrative, and technological costs. This authorization is necessary to provide the Border Violence Task Force the resources it needs to combat border violence. My amendment will allow the Attorney General to designate the lead on the Border Violence Task Force that is currently being lead by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This task force is an inter-agency law enforcement effort on the Federal, State, and local level to combat escalating violence on the United States-Mexico border. As the largest land port of entry in the United States, Laredo is a critical component of our Nation's economy. I have been working with officials from both sides of the border to help establish a collaborative solution to the violence, and the Border Violence Task Force is the result of that effort. Our shared border with Mexico is one of our Nation's greatest cultural and economic assets. Unfortunately, in the past year, the growth and security of the border region has been threatened by a wave of violence. This violence has affected communities on both sides of the border, and has resulted in the highly publicized kidnapping of over 35 American citizens. If we are to restore peace and prosperity to our border communities, we need to act now. Last May, I organized a Border Violence Task Force in Laredo, TX, to deal with border violence. The group included experts from the FBI; the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Customs and Border Protection; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Marshal; the U.S. Attorney, the DEA, the State Department, U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, the Department of Public Safety-Narcotics, the Department of Public Safety-Intelligence, the local Webb County Sheriff, and the Laredo Chief of Police. This Task Force has met a few times and the Special Agents-in-Charge in the region have agreed to work in a joint effort to develop a plan of action to address the escalating violence along the Mexico-United States border in Laredo, TX. The task force will develop initiatives and strategies dealing specifically with the problems in the border region. The group will work in partnership and cooperation with each other maximizing their strengths and expertise. This authorization represents a critical step forward for law enforcement in the border region, and the increased security and growth it will bring to the border will benefit communities throughout the Nation. I urge you to support the law enforcement officers on the United States-Mexico border who are working to keep our border communities safe.

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, my amendment to H.R. 3402--number 39--will authorize the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Gang Intelligence Center. This effort builds upon a $10 million appropriation given in fiscal year 2005 for the establishment of such a center, and will permanently ensure the presence and operation of this critical information network. A version of this amendment was unanimously approved in H.R. 1279, the Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005. My amendment adds $10 million in authorization for the National Gang Intelligence Center for each fiscal year of the bill, which mirrors the $10 million appropriation given for fiscal year 2005. In order to fully encompass the scope of gang intelligence collection and capabilities, my amendment not only includes collection and dissemination involving law enforcement from Federal, State, and local agencies, but also corrections agencies and penal institutions at the Federal, State and local levels. The addition of these components will allow for intelligence gathering from entities involved in post-prosecution activities such as community-based corrections and incarceration. My Congressional District, the 28th of Texas, is both rural and urban, and has the added concerns of the violence and drug trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. Along the border there is violence in Nuevo Laredo in Mexico that spills over into Laredo, in my district. For the pervasive gang problem, we definitely need a system of intelligence collection and sharing. Increasingly, gangs operate on an interstate and even international level. Our law enforcement agencies are often handicapped in their gang enforcement efforts by a lack of clear communication and ready information. What is needed is a central clearinghouse, to coordinate the efforts of various law enforcement and corrections agencies to combat violent gang activity. An information-oriented approach to gang violence has been highly effective in my home State of Texas, and I am confident that it will be effective on a national level as well. I urge passage of my amendment that will help our Nation's law enforcement professionals keep the tools they need to keep our communities safe.

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. CUELLAR. That is correct.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Chairman, I want to focus on the extra provisions dealing with the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs. These programs are among the most essential, providing comprehensive education, health care, child care services to the families who often have literally nowhere else to go. I am familiar with this, working with the Texas Migrant Council in my district, Laredo, Texas. This year we are breaking new ground by mandating at least 5 percent of the Head Start budget to go to migrant and seasonal programs. I want to thank the chairman and the members of the committee for this. This increase even by 1 percent means a lot, going from 4 to 5 percent. It would permit Migrant and Seasonal Head Start to serve as many as 10,000 additional children. This is a case where a small increase in funding can make a big difference to a lot of children, changing the path they are on. I want to emphasize that this program is extremely important. I know that for the migrant farm worker population facing a unique set of challenges, working on a seasonal basis, migrant families often have to move from State to State during the year, making it extremely difficult for the children to get in and remain in high-quality educational programs. When they are in the fields, parents often work 12 hours a day or more, making it very difficult for child care. This is why this provision is extremely important. This program is important, and I know because I am also the son of migrant workers. I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member (Ms. Woolsey) for the work, and the committee members for this new additional funding for the seasonal migrant workers.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Iowa and the gentleman from Pennyslvania, also the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) who joined us, also. I also want to thank you for your leadership, taking us, this particular delegation, the delegation that you took us on took us to different parts of Iraq that other delegations had not gone to, especially the southern part of Iraq. I would like to talk about three things that are really what I would call snapshots of this particular trip that I think are important to share with us here today. The first one, of course, has to do with the reconstruction projects. Sometimes I believe the media does not give it enough time to focus on the reconstruction work, the schools, the clinics, the hospitals, the electrical plants, the water plants that are built, those types of projects that really have changed the daily lives of the Iraqi people. When you are talking about a child that for the first time sees a board that you can actually get some sort of stick and write on, the blackboard, it is something they have seen for the first time, you are changing the lives of those young Iraqi children that will really make a big difference. I think you would agree with me that as we are able to get them educated, as we are able to see them, able to teach them the principles of democracy, the principles of being able to associate, that we really are making some changes that will transform not only Iraq but the Middle East and that will have a ripple effect to the other countries. I think you would agree with me on that particular point. The other point that I would like to talk about is also the commitment of the Iraqi people. I think the gentleman from Pennyslvania did a great job when he talked about the Iraqi businesspeople, men and women. All they want to do is they want to be able to have a business, be able to secure a future for their children and for their families. They want to be able to send their children without having to worry about being blown up in some bomb going to school. They just want to make sure they have a normal life just like you and I and a lot of folks want to have. I think seeing that in those Iraqi businesspeople, both men and women, was something that was very enlightening. The other thing that the gentleman from Pennyslvania touched upon which I think is important is the commitment of the judiciary. Having an independent judiciary is extremely important. If you recall when we were talking to the judges and we talked to three different judges, what we call the investigating judge, the judge that will do the trial work and, of course, the appellate judge, that gave us a pretty good sense of the work, the very difficult work that they have to do. I remember one of the comments they said. They said, all we want is we don't want the Iraqi politicians to get involved in our job. We want to make sure we do our job in an independent manner. That is important, because think about this. Those judges are probably targeted. They are people that do not want them to do their job. They do not want them to try Saddam, the evil dictator. They want to make sure that they don't do their job. But what they wanted, these jurists, all they wanted to do was to be free from any influences and do their job. I think that has to be admired, especially under those very difficult circumstances. The last point that I want to mention is also the commitment of our soldiers. When you think about it, when we were at that hospital in Germany, we had soldiers that had been injured, soldiers that were hurting. When we asked them what they were thinking about, the first thing they wanted to say was, I want to get well so I can go back and take care of my buddies and be with my buddies and my friends. That is a commitment of the U.S. military, that even when they are down, they are ready to get back and go back in the field so they can finish their job and the mission because they believe in what they are doing there. The last point that I want to bring about is, I have been in different town hall meetings and people asking us when are our American soldiers coming back. As I told them, and I think we all realize this, we need to finish the mission. We need to make sure that that country is stabilized, because we took out a power structure that was not taking care of its people, and we cannot leave that vacuum there. We need to make sure that we put a structure there, a structure of government, a constitution, the rule of law, the principles of a constitution so the people can follow the rule and the laws there. Once we establish that law there, then I think we can start bringing our soldiers home. I think the constitution and especially that election or that vote on October 15 is going to be extremely important. The elections on December 15 when they elect their representatives, that will be extremely important. But also the building up of the Iraqi military is important. I remember when I started back here with the gentleman from Pennyslvania back in January, we asked the question of the Department of Defense, how many soldiers do we have, Iraqi soldiers? At that time I recall it was about 120,000. We were informed last month that they had about 180,000. Sometime by the end of the year they should have over 200,000 soldiers, Iraqi soldiers. As one of the generals told us, when one Iraqi soldier stands up, one American soldier can go ahead and sit down. It means that the faster we can build the Iraqi military security forces then the faster they can start taking care of their homeland, and that is extremely important. So I certainly want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) very, very much for the opportunity that he provided the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) to go down there to see, first of all, the morale of our soldiers, to see the commitment of the Iraqi business people, the jurists, the people that want to have normal lives so they can have a future there. Certainly I want to thank him for giving me an opportunity to see the reconstruction projects, the schools, the clinics, the hospitals, the water plants, the electrical plants, to make sure that they can have the basic utilities that sometimes we take for granted. I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) for the opportunity and certainly the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent), one of my freshmen colleagues, for having an opportunity where we are able to ask the questions and share our thoughts and ideas in a bipartisan way. Because, again, we want to do the best thing for our country, and we certainly want to do the best thing for the Iraqi country over there, also.

Mr. CUELLAR. Just one minute more, and I thank my colleague for yielding to me, Mr. Speaker, and then I will let him close after this. Thanks to my colleague from Iowa and also to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent). And my colleague was right, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Dean Popps, we all had different conversations; and if you will recall, one of the conversations that we had was how do we get the free enterprise system to work? How do we get foreign investment to come in? It is hard to attract foreign investment to Iraq if they do not have a constitution or the basic laws, if they do not have some of the basic things we take for granted. In other words, who is the owner of the property? Where is the title to the property? How do you borrow money if you do not have collateral to go in? So there is a lot of work that needs to be done. But I have a lot of faith in the Iraqi people, and especially having had that opportunity to talk to some of the business people and some of the folks there. It gave me the optimism and the faith that we are doing the right thing. And I think once we finish this mission, then we need to do everything to bring our soldiers back safely to the United States, the men and women from all across the United States. And, of course, I have to say that Texas had a large delegation there from San Antonio, Laredo, a couple of the places, New Braunfels. But again I do want to say thank you to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) for this opportunity, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent), and of course our doctor, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), who also went with us. This is something that allows us to make better decisions here in Washington, being able to go and see what is happening in Iraq firsthand. So I thank my colleagues.

Mr. CUELLAR. If the gentleman does not mind me interrupting for a second, I am from Laredo, Texas. It is one of the hottest places in the country, 104, 105, 107 degrees, but I have to say that being there at a place where it was 125 degrees, and I think that was a cool day compared to some of the days, that has to tell us that our soldiers have to go through very difficult times, but at the same time, the morale was good. They were doing their job, and they believed in what they were doing.