Lincoln Diaz-Balart

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information regarding earmarks I received as part of the FY 2009 Omnibus. Commerce, Justice, Science Requesting Member: Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart Bill Number: H.R. 2847, the FY2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act Account: Department of Justice, COPS Law Enforcement Technology account Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Miami-Dade County Public Schools Address of Requesting Entity: 1450 NE Second Avenue, Miami, FL 33132 Description of Request: I have secured $600,000 to upgrade law enforcement equipment for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Police Department. In their mission to protect the children of our community, the MDCPS Police Department has increasingly turned to new technologies. In 2005, laptop computers were purchased through grants and installed in officer's vehicles. These upgrades allow officers to decrease paper-based work by 80% and spend considerably more time at the public schools. Requesting Member: Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart Bill Number: H.R. 2847, the FY2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act Account: Department of Justice, Juvenile Justice account Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Florida Venture Foundation Address of Requesting Entity: 782 NW LeJeune Road, Suite 348, Miami, FL 33126 Description of Request: I have secured $400,000 that will be used to provide economically disadvantaged young adults with the opportunities to obtain educational experience that will enhance their employment skills. The Youthbuild Outreach program complements high school education by providing on-site construction training to at-risk youth. Not only does Youthbuild Outreach help youth in distressed communities with needed skills, upon graduation the program assists in employment referrals and job placement. Local entrepreneurs will contribute to the program through the creation of mentoring and protege relationships, including peer review groups. This community inclusive effort will benefit the Miami-Dade County and Broward County Public Schools, as well as local unemployment. Requesting Member: Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart Bill Number: H.R. 2847, the FY2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act Account: Department of Justice, COPS account Legal Name of Requesting Entity: City of Hialeah Address of Requesting Entity: 501 Palm Avenue, Hialeah, FL 33010 Description of Request: I have secured $250,000 to enhance the City of Hialeah police department's current radio system which does not allow for radio interoperability among other law enforcement agencies, especially important during times of statewide response to natural disasters, domestic security incidents or multi-agency jurisdictional public safety efforts. The XPS radio system would bridge the current gap and achieve interoperability with the State of Florida by replacing and upgrading fixed end, portable and mobile radio communication equipment. Requesting Member: Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart Bill Number: H.R. 2847, the FY2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act Account: Department of Justice, Juvenile Justice account Legal Name of Requesting Entity: ARISE Foundation, Inc. Address of Requesting Entity: 824 US Hwy 1, Suite 240, North Palm Beach, FL 33408 Description of Request: I have secured $550,000 which will be used to educate at-risk youth. Established in 1986, ARISE has trained over 5,800 certified life skills instructors who have gone on to teach over 4,000,000 documented hours of evidence-based life skills lessons. Specifically targeting high-risk youth, ARISEs goal is to stop the cycle of crime and violence while offenders are young enough to learn life lessons--and ultimately, to reduce rates of recidivism, drug abuse and violence while building skills to keep juveniles in school and out of harm's way. The ARISE Life Management Skills Lessons provide both training and program materials for teaching such lessons to incarcerated youth through interactive methods that help develop positive social and emotional skills needed to break the cycle of violence and crime that would otherwise doom many of today's juvenile offenders. Further, it provides demonstrable outcome measures on the value of expanding this statistically proven, award-winning, professionally managed intervention program. Requesting Member: Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart Bill Number: H.R. 2847, the FY2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act Account: Department of Justice, Byrne Justice Assistance account Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Miami-Dade County Address of Requesting Entity: 111 NW 1st Street, Suite 1032, Miami, FL 33128 Description of Request: I have secured $150,000 to be used for the creation of a mortgage fraud task force (MFTF) national model to train law enforcement individuals in those identified communities which represent the ten highest concentrated areas affected by mortgage fraud. The Miami-Dade County MFTF will serve as a national model based on its proven performance. The national model will be coordinated by Miami-Dade County and administered by the United States Department of Justice. The anticipated benefits include a more effective process of dealing with and prosecuting mortgage fraud in Miami-Dade County and nationwide, and eventually, a decrease in the occurrence of mortgage fraud.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of our time to the ranking member, Mr. Dreier. (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Yes.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, with regard to the point made by the distinguished chairman as to the strings on the military aid to Pakistan, I hope and expect that that will be engaged in during the debate with the ranking member, who very clearly in the Rules Committee pointed out that the strings are still excessive. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Lee).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Thank you. I yield 2 minutes again to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would inquire how much time remains.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Royce).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my good friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), for the time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. First I would like to say a word about the session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, OAS, held last week. It was an embarrassment. Fidel Castro in Cuba wants the U.S. to apologize to him for having kept the U.S. market and its millions of tourists and billions of dollars in financing from him and for having denied him full diplomatic recognition for decades. He also wants the international community to kneel before him and apologize, which is what the OAS did last week. Fidel Castro has been recruiting advocates, spies, defenders, cronies, and servants for years. The ideological and psychological fascination and dependency that Hugo Chavez has on Fidel Castro has allowed Castro to utilize Chavez's billions of petro dollars to purchase many important defenders. It is part of the public record that a suitcase of Chavez cash heading to Mrs. Kirchner in Argentina was recently intercepted by authorities before reaching its intended destination. Castro has purchased advocates and spies through the years via the always-present threat of blackmail after trips to totalitarian Cuba, where the regime tapes visitors in compromising situations, as confirmed by Interior Ministry defector Roberto Hernandez del Llano and Cuban counterintelligence defector Major Roberto Ortega. Castro also serves as a banker for illicit money possessed by those who seek to avoid detection by the anti-laundering mechanisms set up by the international community. It matters not if the money's source is political corruption or narcotrafficking. Through his mastery of the semantic of anti-American Marxism- Leninism, he has also conned others into being his spies. No other state sponsor of terrorism--no other state, in fact--has had more spies arrested and convicted in the United States in the last decades as Fidel Castro's dictatorship. Let us remember Ana Montes, one of the top analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency who was arrested in 2001 and subsequently convicted of espionage in Federal court and whose treason led to the deaths of many, including U.S. Special Forces Sergeant Gregory Fronius. And just last week, Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, a long-term State Department official and his wife with access to classified documents, were arrested for spying for their beloved hero, the Cuban tyrant. Hugo Chavez's absolute dependency on Fidel Castro for every major decision, even for his phrases and gestures in international forums, is unprecedented. While the Soviet Union used to send Castro economic aid and also orders and instructions, Chavez sends Castro billions of dollars and receives orders from him. What the world witnessed, first at the April Summit of the Americas and then at last week's meeting of the OAS, was a culmination of years of preparation in the purchase and cultivation of advocates and defenders by Fidel Castro. Castro's defenders know full well that chapter II, article 3d of the Charter of the Organization of American States requires the existence of representative democracy in all of the countries of our hemisphere and that the Inter-American Democratic Charter of 2001 carefully spells out the collective steps to be taken when an American republic's democracy is even threatened. They know that Cuba, under Castro, was the only country in our hemisphere where free elections have not been held in over 50 years and where dungeons are full of nonviolent political prisoners who are subjected to hell on Earth each day of their lives. They know that under Castro Cuba is a personal island-estate, a ranch, a personal landholding or homestead, a totalitarian fiefdom owned by one man with a brother who enjoys the title of head of State and carefully carries out his brother's orders. At the OAS meeting of last week, we witnessed an example of the Obama administration's diplomatic incompetence and its appeasement of the enemies of the United States. The administration went along and agreed to violate the OAS Charter and the OAS Inter-American Democratic Charter in an action that constituted a grotesque and unmerited betrayal of the oppressed people of Cuba. The Obama administration says that the OAS resolution was a great victory because even though paragraph 1 of the ``resolved'' clause unilaterally lifted the exclusion of the Cuban military dictatorship, in paragraph 2, the dictatorship was allowed to initiate a process of dialogue to reenter the OAS in accordance with the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS. In other words, in the first sentence, the OAS ripped up and threw in the garbage can the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS, including its charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter. And then in the next sentence, it invited the Cuban military dictatorship back in in accordance with the practices, purposes, and principles of the OAS. Some victory. I mention this in the context of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act because the American taxpayer should not be paying for almost 60 percent of the putrid embarrassment which is the OAS. I recognize that on funding international organizations, the administration will get its way, just like the Bush administration would get its way whenever someone in the OAS would propose ending the exclusion of the Cuban military dictatorship and the administration would simply say, That's a nonstarter. But here is the heart of the issue with regard to U.S.-Cuba policy: The U.S. Congress must continue to condition access by the Cuban regime to the billions of dollars in U.S. tourism and massive investment in trade financing to the liberation of all political prisoners, without exceptions; the legalization of all political parties, without exceptions, labor unions and the press; and the scheduling of multiparty elections. That is critical leverage for a democratic transition to take place in Cuba when Fidel Castro dies, for he is the ultimate source of absolute personal totalitarian power in that enslaved island, like a modern day Caligula or Nero, and that moment is approaching. We must keep in mind the effect of unilateral concessions such as last week's shameful OAS action on Fidel Castro. How does he react to such unilateral concessions? The repression is more intense than ever; the brutality, more savage than ever. The alliance with Chavez, the Iranian dictatorship, the Syrian regime, Middle Eastern terrorists, and with the North Korean dictatorship is closer than ever. That is what must be kept in mind about unilateral concessions to the Cuban military dictatorship. Now, specifically with regard to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, earlier in the year Secretary Clinton testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee that she had challenged the State Department to reform and innovate and save taxpayer dollars. I found the Secretary's statement to be quite appropriate. Unfortunately, the majority has decided to ignore that challenge and instead today has brought forth legislation that authorizes increased spending by 35 percent without increased transparency, accountability, and efficiency. This legislation will also increase U.S. taxpayer funding authorized for the United Nations by nearly one-third without requiring the United Nations to undertake necessary reforms to improve efficiency and stop blatant corruption. While failing to place accountability standards in this bill, the majority decided to include provisions in the Pakistan Assistance Act-- which is also being brought to the floor with this one rule--that will micromanage U.S. policy toward Pakistan. In a letter to the Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mullen wrote that ``the degree of conditionality and limitations on security assistance to Pakistan'' in the legislation ``severely constrains the flexibility necessary for the executive branch and the Department of Defense given the fluid and dynamic environment that exists in Pakistan.'' This rule bringing forth two pieces of legislation limits the number of amendments that the House will be allowed to debate. Out of the 85 amendments submitted to the Rules Committee, the majority decided to make 27 amendments in order. I understand that the majority has a responsibility to move legislation and manage the time on the floor, but if we look at the amendments the majority made in order, they do not fully address the scope and range of issues of concern to House Members. For example, amendments that would prohibit funds from being used by the State Department to encourage U.S. courts to dismiss claims brought against European insurance companies to recover compensation from Holocaust-era insurance policies, or, for example, to re-list the North Korean tyranny as a state sponsor of terrorism were prohibited from being debated. I don't understand why the majority blocks a debate on such important amendments. I don't know if they're afraid of debate or protecting the Members from tough votes or afraid of the democratic process, or all of the above. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield again 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder), who is extremely concerned about this issue, and rightfully so.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, first I'd like to thank my friend, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter) for the time. And I yield myself such time as I may consume. First, Mr. Speaker, if I may, I'd like to remember and ask the House to recall that today is June 4. Twenty years ago a massacre occurred in Beijing. Thousands of students and other pro-democracy activists were murdered. Subsequently, they were rounded up, those who had not been murdered, who had been in the square, and thrown in dungeons and tortured. And so it's been 20 years, but we cannot forget. The regime is still in power there. They haven't had much reason to regret their murders and their systematic oppression of the people. But over you, in something that distinguishes this Congress, we read the words ``In God We Trust.'' And I do. I trust that justice will be done, and that those who committed the murders at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 will be brought to justice. We can never forget, Mr. Speaker. With regard to the rule being brought forth today, bringing forth important legislation to the floor today, in order to protect our transportation systems after the cowardly attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law on November 19, 2001, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. That legislation created the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, improving aviation security and restoring public confidence in air travel. The underlying legislation that's being brought forth today for consideration by the Congress, by this rule, authorizes $7.6 billion in appropriations for the TSA during the fiscal year 2010, and provides a 6 percent across-the-board increase for fiscal year 2011. In their report to Congress, the 9/11 Commission criticized the existing process for allocation of Federal homeland security grants. The report recommended that, ``Homeland security assistance should be based strictly on an assessment of risks and vulnerabilities,'' and that the distribution of the grants ``should not remain a program for general revenue sharing.'' I have long worked to make certain that homeland security assistance follows the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and that funds are distributed through risk-based assessments. As such, I am pleased that this legislation requires TSA to update Congress on its implementation of a risk-based system for allocating security resources. The underlying legislation would establish an Aviation Security Advisory Committee to assist and make recommendations to the Secretary with issues pertaining to aviation security. It also establishes an Air Cargo Working Group to provide recommendations for the implementation of the cargo screening initiatives proposed by the TSA to meet the 100 percent air cargo screening mandates set forth in the ``Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act.'' I am pleased there is a provision that provides for the reimbursement of airports that took the initiative and used their own funding to install explosive detection systems after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Those airports installed the systems after receiving assurances from the Federal Government that they would be reimbursed for these expensive yet very important protection systems. Unfortunately, after all these years, we're still waiting for the Federal Government to provide the promised reimbursement. I congratulate our colleague, Mr. Bilirakis, for having this important provision included in the legislation. While I plan to support the underlying legislation, Mr. Speaker, I must express concerns that the legislation was really rushed to the floor by the majority. On such an important issue as the safety of our transportation systems, one would think the majority would want the input of the very agency affected by the legislation. And yet it decided it was more important to move forward than to wait until the administration, the new administration, had selected a TSA administrator who could provide Congress the necessary input and new ideas on how Congress can improve the agency. So the majority, it can be said, used excessive haste to rush the bill to the floor. On Thursday, May 14, the majority announced that the House would consider the Transportation Security Administration reauthorization bill the week of May 18. However, at the time of the announcement, the legislative language of the bill was nowhere to be found. The majority kept the text, as you know upon which amendments are based or can be based, hidden under lock and key until late on Monday, May 18. And just as they released the text, they set a hard and fast deadline of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, for Members to submit their amendments. What this did was give Members, in effect, one business day to read the legislation that reauthorizes the TSA and draft and submit amendments. The majority justified their short amendment deadline by saying that the Rules Committee was going to meet the next day, Thursday, to report a rule for amendments, with the idea that the bill would be on the floor on Friday, May 22. But the House decided to leave for the Memorial Day district work period on Thursday evening, without considering the TSA bill, and rather than allowing Members more time to review the bill, the majority pushed ahead, eliminating the opportunity for Members to further review the legislation and propose amendments to improve it. I bring this up, Mr. Speaker, because it is not an anomaly on the majority's part, but it's business as usual. Since the majority took power in Congress in January 2007, Members have been given an average of one business day or less to submit amendments than we did when we were in the majority. And that's important because it's important for people here representing their constituents to have time to read legislation before having to introduce amendments to try to improve the legislation. I am pleased that the majority agreed to allow an amendment that I introduced in the Rules Committee for consideration. However, there were other amendments from Members on both sides of the aisle that were blocked. For example, the majority blocked an amendment by Representative Souder that would require the TSA to place all of the detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility on the no-fly list, an amendment that I'm sure would have overwhelming support on the floor. So I would simply urge the majority to allow an open process, as it promised in its campaign, and not just on noncontroversial legislation such as this one. This is legislation, in terms of the merits of the legislation, it was brought forth in a bipartisan manner within the committee. The chairman, Mr. Thompson, is known to work in a very respectful and bipartisan manner with all of the members of his committee, and I think all of us are grateful for that and commend him for it. So I would urge, though, that not only on noncontroversial legislation but also on upcoming, for example, health care and climate change legislation, that openness be allowed in the House. It's important. It's, I think, required by the spirit of the democratic process. So both of these upcoming pieces of legislation, energy, health care, they will obviously have far-reaching consequences for our constituents and for the economy, and so I would hope that on such important issues the majority does not block the opportunity for Members of the House to bring forth their amendments seeking to improve the legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this point I would like to thank everybody who has participated in this debate. I think it's been very fruitful, and I think it's been important. I mentioned before that when I first spoke on this legislation that process is important because it affects fairness, obviously, but it also affects legislation. We are dealing today--we are bringing to the floor legislation that I am sure will pass by an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis. It's important legislation. It's been drafted through the committee process in a bipartisan fashion, and that's commendable. I mentioned that on legislation like this--and quite frankly, also, on legislation that's coming to the floor soon that's more controversial--openness, as much as possible, is advisable. We saw an amendment described by Mr. Souder that is important because it basically, as it was explained by Mr. Souder, his interventions would take out of the hands of the President the ultimate determination of whether somebody currently held at the detention center in Guantanamo could be placed or not on the No Fly List, and it would say that automatically those people would be on the No Fly List. And that's important. It's an example of why process is important because being denied--Mr. Souder is being denied the opportunity to present the amendment. I think that's unfortunate. Anyway, as I say, the underlying legislation is one that I'm certain will pass with great bipartisan support. And again, I reiterate my gratitude to all colleagues who have debated on the rule, and, obviously, I look forward to the debate on the underlying legislation. Having said that, I yield back my time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it's my pleasure to yield 5 minutes to a distinguished colleague who works ceaselessly for the security of the American people. Unfortunately, a very important amendment that he came to the Rules Committee on to be made in order, was denied on a party line vote by the majority, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would ask my friend if he has any other speakers.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment, and I ask unanimous consent that my amendment be modified in the form I have placed at the desk.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to thank the distinguished chairman of the committee for his consideration and another clear demonstration of bipartisanship on this House floor. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer an amendment that is a matter of simple fairness to airports that are installing congressionally mandated In- Line Explosive Detection Systems, known as EDS. Airports that were offered TSA discretionary funding for EDS projects in 2008 were not treated equally. This was due to funding language that, in effect, pitted airports against each other, depending upon who was awarded in fiscal year 2008 or fiscal year 2007 appropriations. In the fall of 2008, TSA had funding at its disposal from fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2008 to distribute EDS reimbursement funds. Some airports received Federal discretionary grants for 90 percent of the costs of installing the EDS for airport baggage systems from the fiscal year 2008 appropriations. At the same time, other airports were given grants for 75 percent of their costs from fiscal year 2007 appropriations. Both of these awards were distributed at the same time, in the fall of 2008. Miami International Airport, which is located in the district that I am honored to represent, and several other large airports around the country fell into the 75 percent category, and these airports are now at a competitive disadvantage which increases costs to the airlines and, of course, to the flying public who ultimately pays the bills. The TSA and the OMB made an arbitrary funding decision. They picked winners and losers based on no known criteria. This amendment simply restores fairness to TSA's discretionary funding of EDS projects and assures that these critical airport security projects can be completed in a timely basis. Again, I'd like to thank Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member King and their staffs for working with my office to perfect this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I yield back.