Tom DeLay

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. That is correct, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. I do not want to prejudice the action of the Committee on Rules, and I have no idea and I am not advised as to what considerations the Committee on Rules may or may not do as far as amendments are concerned.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. There are ongoing discussions. There will be more discussions about that. Our tentative plan is to move a short-term continuing resolution that would fund government programs through October 8. This would give us an additional week to complete appropriations conference reports before we make decisions about how to best complete all the fiscal 2005 bills. Appropriations, both in the House and the Senate, are having many discussions. Generally, both Democrats and Republicans are wishing to get the appropriations process done before we leave for the elections. How we do that is speculative; and, frankly, the date of the CR is speculative. It could be October 8. It could be October 15. It could be November 20. All of this is tied together with the understanding that we are trying to get the appropriations bills all finalized and done before we leave here for the elections.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. Within the last 2 weeks, the White House has submitted a request for emergency supplemental funds to deal with the damage caused by Hurricane Frances. The gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) advises me that a revised request is on its way from the White House to account for Hurricane Ivan. Once we receive that request and complete assessing those needs, it is possible to move forward with a supplemental. Whether that be freestanding or included in some omnibus bill, I think, is too early to tell.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. I will start by saying the House has not given up. We want to get this bill done. We have been working to get it done, and we hope to have a conference report for the Members before we adjourn. In the interim, we may have another short-term extension of the highway programs, and hopefully we will have a decision by the first of next week. In order to get the full 6-year highway bill done, I think a decision will have to be made by the first of next week as to how we would proceed.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would further yield, I totally agree with the gentleman. And as his side has been part of the negotiations and the other body has been in intense negotiations, I think the gentleman knows that a number has been agreed on by at least the principles, Democrat and Republican; and I do not want to cast aspersions on anyone, but the trouble with the bill is not in this House. The trouble with the bill is over in the other body, and they are going to have to come to some sort of understanding amongst themselves in order to get this bill.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, is there a particular color of that house?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I just have to slightly disagree with the gentleman in that the house that is colored white, I cannot say they have agreed to the number of the bill, but I do know that they played a significant part in holding down the spending on the bill and particularly spending that would add to the deficit. And I must say, without getting into a lot of detail, that has been set aside. The other body is just having problems coming to some agreement amongst themselves. We are ready to move on our side. I serve on the conference committee. We are ready to move in the House. Unfortunately, the other body is not ready.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would further yield, actually it would be much less because, as we all know and history has proven, as we give tax relief and tax cuts, revenues go up as a result of those tax cuts. So our tax cuts are more than covered by revenues that are gained.

Mr. DeLAY. Yes, it certainly did. If the gentleman would further yield, it happened in 1981, it happened in 1986, it happened in 2001, it happened in 1997, it happened over the last 3 years.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I do not remember too many tax cuts in 1993. I remember a lot of tax increases, without Republican votes.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding to me. The committees have been working, and many committees have been working in a bipartisan way. I think a bill will be introduced in the next day or two, possibly tomorrow; and the committees have been instructed to mark up that bill, and I think that bill covers 12 different committees. Next week, and we hope to have the final product ready to come to the floor either by the end of next week or the following.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 795) and I ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. tomorrow; and, further, that when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 on Tuesday, September 28, 2004, for morning hour debates.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, this week the Republican congressional majority will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the legislative agenda that helped win our majority in the 1994 elections. There will be both praise and criticism of our tenure in the majority, though on the whole, the record shows the benefits our stewardship has brought the Nation in the last decade. In the last decade, welfare has been reformed, taxes have been cut four times, Medicare has been secured and our health care system strengthened, our military has been restored to its rightful place atop our national agenda, the budget came into balance, public schools have been called to account for decades of underachievement, and our economy has grown 69 percent. It was doubted so much could be accomplished in 20 years, let alone 10. But while many will seek to argue over our accomplishments of the last decade, the responsibility of those of us in the majority is to focus on the next decade. If the last 10 years have shown the American people that Republicans can govern, the next 10 years must show them that Republicans should govern. So, rather than looking back on an old agenda, we must look forward to a new one, of equal principle and utility, an agenda not just of words but deeds, to protect and defend the security, prosperity and families of the United States. An agenda not just of tax relief but of fundamental, national tax reform. Not just of preserving our health care and retirement systems for the greatest generation, but of fundamentally rethinking those systems for all generations. Not just of helping small businesses succeed, but of passing sweeping lawsuit abuse reform and universal regulatory reform to get predatory lawyers and busybody bureaucrats off small businesses' backs once and for all. Not just of bandaging over the social wounds inflicted by a culture of death, but of taking up the cause of America's armies of compassion and our Nation's emerging culture of life. Not just of defending our Nation, but of proudly fighting for it, and the ideals upon which it was founded, anywhere and everywhere they are threatened. It has been a good 10 years, Mr. Speaker. But the celebrations this week do not mark an end, but a new beginning, and a new era of ever more ambitious and worthy ideas, so that we may leave our Nation better than we found it. That is the purpose of this institution, the goal of this Republican majority, and the driving force behind our agenda for the next 10 years.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Chairman, he will take the money. He will take the money. There is no such thing as industry in Cuba or family income or tourism or any other economic term that we understand in this country. The only word that describes the economic policy of Fidel Castro's terrorist regime in Cuba is theft. Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's bloodthirsty hands. Every dollar of trade with his country is a dollar of trade with his regime, that vile confederation of sycophant contract-killers that he calls a government. That government exists for one purpose, the oppression of the many for the enrichment of one. If we lift the trade embargo or the travel ban, and American capital flows into Havana Harbor, he will take the money. American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar but at the cost of their national honor. We will tell four decades of Cuban dissidents, dead or alive, in prison or in exile, that their cause was never quite worth fighting for, that freedom is just another commodity to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. We will tell both our allies and our enemies that America's moral courage has an expiration date. And we will give credence to the great communist lie that all history is economic. We cannot and we must not say any such thing, Mr. Chairman. Fidel Castro is a terrorist, a murderer and a thief. He funds and otherwise supports international terrorism and the downfall of American democracy. He mercilessly oppresses dissent in his country, with the help of a secret police that has been responsible for the murder of more than 100,000 Cubans since he took power in 1959. He is not a leader but a Mafia don, greedy, corrupt and evil. We are not blind. We know commerce with Cuba means commerce with Castro which means more bullets, more machine guns and torture chambers to satisfy his lust for power. Lifting the embargo and opening American tourism and even this amendment to Castro's prison-island would represent a surrender to evil and provide a successful playbook for every terrorist on Earth. It cannot be done. History is not all economic, Mr. Chairman. Generations hence will not judge us by our wealth but by our courage. History, true history, Mr. Chairman, is not economic. It is moral. That is the standard by which we will be judged and the standard we should apply in this vote today on these amendments. I urge all my colleagues to stand with free men the world over and vote no on these amendments.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, so many times in our lives, blessings appear to us without our knowing. At other times, Providence just slaps us in the face. In the summer of 2002, a young man named Scott Erwin, a senior at the University of Richmond, came to work in my office as an intern and made an immediate impact on my staff. To the staff assistants who supervised him and the senior staff who gave him his assignments, Scott revealed himself in short order as a special young man, a man of intelligence, humor and gumption. He was the kind of man who was going to make a difference in the world and leave it better than he found it. Toward that end, while Scott's classmates spent their senior year taking gut courses and working on their graduate school applications, Scott went to Iraq. He transported a class on American democracy, which he had developed and taught as a student at Richmond to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, where he taught the class to Iraqi university students. He showed them how the institutions and history of American democracy might be translated into Iraqi culture to help the liberated Iraqi people build a democratic society of their own. On his way back from class one Wednesday this past June, Scott's car was ambushed by terrorists, either Saddam loyalists or foreign killers. They riddled the car with bullets, killing two of those inside. Scott himself was hit three times, once in each arm, once in the abdomen. His life was saved twice in those terrifying moments, once by the translator sitting next to him who pulled him under the seats and once by a very small battery he was carrying near his identification card over his heart which deflected the bullet that would have otherwise killed him. Iraqi police scared off the terrorists and Scott received immediate medical attention. He was soon flown to Germany and then home to the United States, where he is still recovering from his wounds and the surgeries conducted to save his life. It makes you wonder how you spent your senior year in college. As I said, Mr. Speaker, sometimes Providence is not a breeze but a hurricane. Sometimes it comes in the shape of a battery, and sometimes it comes in the shape of an intrepid 22-year-old serving his country and all countries in the cause of human freedom. Scott Erwin came to work for me in 2002 and gave my office a jolt of enthusiasm and wit, to say nothing of extraordinary candlepower. Those are the traits he took with him to Iraq and the traits he brings with him every day to physical therapy as he continues to recover. Today, Scott Erwin is back at the University of Richmond, still fighting, still working, finishing his degree in political science and the classics. He does not know I am even here speaking these words about him, and maybe that is how he would prefer it. But these words deserve the saying just the same. So, Scott, wherever you are, on behalf of everyone in my office and everyone here on Capitol Hill, thank you for your service, thank you for your courage, and we all look forward to seeing what you do with both of them in the future. Good luck, Scott, and God bless you.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, frivolous, parasitic lawsuits are a clear and present danger to the economic health of the United States. They clog our courts, generate billions of dollars in administrative fees, artificially raise insurance premiums, kill jobs, stifle investment and innovation and otherwise produce little else for American society but headaches and lawyer jokes. It has been and remains a principle of the Republican congressional majority to rein in trial lawyers and their predatory, self-serving litigation, thereby protecting American jobs and companies from their crippling effects. The pestilent culture of hyper-litigation now corrupting our legal system may be championed in the name of ``the little guy,'' but the only thing little about its true beneficiaries is their shame. Plaintiffs and defendants are merely a means to an end for the trial lawyers, who get fat off the pain of one group or the hard work of the other. The time for reform is now, Mr. Speaker, and this week, the House will continue its long-term strategy of taking back America's legal system from the ``Lords of the Ambulance Chase.'' Today we will take up four bills to rein in lawsuit abuse. We will pass bills specifically protecting interscholastic sports organizations from lawsuits concerning their athletic rules; protecting volunteer firefighters from lawsuits that discourage generous Americans from donating equipment to them; and protecting volunteer pilots who come to the aid of their communities in times of crisis. And more comprehensively, Mr. Speaker, we will take up legislation presented by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, which will impose mandatory penalties on those who file frivolous lawsuits. This bill will also prevent clever lawyers from shopping around for favorable judges and venues wholly unrelated to the case, it will remove the ``free pass'' provisions in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that many lawyers hide behind once their claim is exposed as a farce, and it will better hold lawyers accountable for their behavior during the discovery process. In short, Mr. Speaker, these bills together will further help take back the judicial system for legitimate plaintiffs, real defendants, principled lawyers who serve the ideals of their honorable profession, our national economic health, and, finally, for justice itself.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Lamar National League All-Stars of Richmond, Texas. I congratulate them on their magnificent performance in the Little League World Series this year. I want to thank Jim Michalek, the team's manager, not only for leading the Lamar All-Stars to Williamsport for the second straight year, but for doing it the right way, by teaching his players the fundamentals of baseball and of teamwork and sportsmanship. If he keeps this up, I would not be surprised to hear the Astros want him in their dugout next year. Mr. Michalek and his coaches, Tommy Abraham and Bobby Murski, gave more than their time and energy to this team. They gave themselves to it, and the character the boys displayed during their tournament run showed the Houston community and our Nation once again that there is no substitute in a boy's life for the strong influence of good men. I want to thank them for their dedication and example. As for the players, Joey Scheurich, Dustin Moehlig, Chance Murski, Stephen Michalek, Tyler Ford, Steven Crawford, Cody Abraham, Ray Cervenka, Randal Grichuk, Christian DeLeon, Matt Daniels and Daniel Homann, well, I am certainly glad these young men are from my district. They did Richmond and Fort Bend County proud this year, and I am honored to represent them and their families in Washington. It is often said that sports teach kids important lessons about life. Well, Madam Speaker, I think the Lamar All-Stars taught us a thing or two this year. Throughout their season, they modeled the virtues of hard work, persistence, courage and determination. Their amazing performance this summer is a testament to their talent, certainly, but, most of all, a testament to their character. I offer every player, coach, parent and friend who followed the Lamar All-Stars this year my congratulations for their success, and, more importantly, my thanks for their example.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me this time. I appreciate his comments and his leadership in bringing this resolution to the floor, and I appreciate the bipartisan way he has done it, and appreciate the support of the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos). And I really want to associate myself with the gentleman from California's (Mr. Lantos) final remarks that no matter what we hear on this floor, Americans are united in this war and are united in how we approach the national security of this Nation. But I also want to say especially to those soldiers on the ground in harm's way, those young men and women that are fighting all over the world, most particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to the families of those that have sacrificed their loved ones that the remarks made by those opposed to this resolution reflect a very small, tiny, tiny minority in this country. We are united in this country in support of those troops, and, most importantly, they need to understand that what they are doing is right, what they are dying for is right, and we greatly appreciate their sacrifice. Mr. Speaker, by the way, the vote on this resolution will prove me right, that they are a very tiny minority. Mr. Speaker, 3 years on, it is hard to believe so much time has passed, for September 11, 2001, still resonates in our hearts and minds as if it were yesterday. Yet at the same time, the panging memories of that day call out to us across the ages: 8:47 a.m. when the first plane hit; 10:05 a.m. when the South Tower collapsed; the look on the President's face when he heard the news; the image of firefighters carrying the lifeless body of their chaplain; Mayor Giuliani, mask in hand, covered in ashy debris; the blood and the rubble; the attack on the Pentagon; the rumors, the panic, the fear, the desperate search for survivors; the defiant raising of the flag at Ground Zero; Flight 93, Todd Beamer, ``Let's roll.'' ``Roll'' we have, Mr. Speaker, from that day to this on land, on sea, and in the air. Our enemies have been named and their sponsors warned, and America has risen. The cause of human freedom has stood anew athwart the forces of oppression and cruelty and violence. History and Providence have called out again for the free people of Earth to stand against evil, and the citizens of this Republic have kept their charge. On September, 11, 2001, America stared evil in the face, and though our eyes filled with tears, we did not blink. We did not fear ``though the Earth be shaken and mountains quake to the depths of the seas, though its waters rage and foam and mountains totter at its surging.'' We did not fear because we knew, even as the fires smoldered beneath the rubble, that we would stand, that we would fight, and that we would be heard. We mourned that day the deaths of 3,000 of our countrymen at the hands of terror, and we mourn today more than 1,000 more whose lives have been taken by the same. We honor their courage, and we honor their sacrifice, and we give thanks and praise to our Creator that such men and women lived. Three years on the recovery continues. The Pentagon has been repaired. The fields of Pennsylvania have been cleared, and Ground Zero has begun its resurrection. Unforgotten names have been read and reread, flags flown, and wounds reopened and healed once again. Memorials great and small have been planned and dedicated. But, Mr. Speaker, monuments to freedom are never made of marble, but of action. Heroes like the 9/11 Lost, the firefighters and passengers, the cops and rescue workers, the moms and dads, are truly honored not by words, but by deeds. The resolution before us today, Mr. Speaker, enumerates those deeds and the progress of the global struggle they have served. Three years on and the world has changed. Terrorist networks across the globe have been disrupted, and two-thirds of al Qaeda's leaders, managers, and facilitators have been arrested or killed. Terrorist regimes have been ended in Afghanistan and Iraq, ended by the finest coalition of states and soldiers ever assembled. The threat of that coalition led another terrorist regime in Libya to end its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Terrorists the world over are on the run, unable to organize, plan, or reconstitute their pre-9/11 training and operations. The war against terrorism, which was waged since at least the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and probably long before, was joined on September 11, 2001, and in the 3 years since, the tide of that conflict has turned. The United States has committed itself to the proposition that the security of our Nation and the ultimate survival of civilization depend on the aggressive prosecution of this war everywhere at all times until this war is won. There will be no negotiated settlement in this conflict, no signatures on a piece of parchment. Drums will continue to beat, and blood, much as we may not wish it, will continue to be shed. But, Mr. Speaker, struggle is the only honorable course before us. The murderers of 9/11 are the enemies of all that is good and true in this world. And even through our tears this week, we still see clearly the justice and necessity of our cause. The ideology of our enemies, a violent corruption of their religion, and the cult of death that they worship have no place in civilized society, whether of the East or West, and it is now the policy of our Nation and our allies to repel this evil so that generations hence may be free from days like those that we live now. It is said that 9/11 was ``our Pearl Harbor.'' It was also said that ``Pearl Harbor'' was ``our parents' Alamo'' and that the Alamo was ``Texas's Valley Forge.'' We fight today, Mr. Speaker, so that our children and our grandchildren decades from now need not come to the well of this House and remember a horrible day of their own as ``our 9/ 11.'' Three years on, Mr. Speaker, and we fight everywhere and anywhere we must. For the soldiers in Baghdad, their faces marred with sand and sweat and blood, they are fighting the same evil and upholding the same virtues as the Special Forces in Tora Bora and the guards at Guantanamo, fighting the same evil and upholding the same virtues as the men aboard Flight 93 and the firefighters in the South Tower and the rescue workers at the Pentagon. It is one and the same conflict. It is one and the same conflict, in which one and the same courage will purchase for this Nation one and the same victory. Support this resolution before us, my colleagues, and reaffirm our commitment to remember those that we lost and those that they left behind, those who protected us and those who died trying, those who remember and those that we cannot forget, who it was that started this war and who it will be that wins it, so that every September 11 from now until the end of the age, free men of the world can look to this Nation, the last, best hope on Earth, and know that when evil struck and the earth trembled beneath us, here America rose, here freedom stood.