Eliot Engel

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me again say that this is another example of bipartisan cooperation on the Foreign Affairs Committee. I want to again thank Chairman Royce for being such a great partner in ensuring that important legislation like this passes our Foreign Affairs Committee and the floor of the House in a very bipartisan way. I am proud to support H.R. 938. It reaffirms our mutually beneficial relationship with our great ally, the Jewish State of Israel, at a critically important time. I want to again thank my colleagues, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutch), for authoring this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support this. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutch).

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of H.R. 938, the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, the chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, and Mr. Deutch, the ranking member of that subcommittee, for authoring this legislation and for working tirelessly over the past year to further refine some of the provisions. This legislation comes at a critical time in the history of the U.S.- Israel relationship. On every border, Israel faces instability, at best, and violence and chaos, at worst. Syria remains engulfed in a horrific civil war that has left more than 140,000 people dead. Israel's neighbors, including Lebanon and Egypt, are plagued by instability. Iran has not yet abandoned its pursuit of nuclear weapons capability and continues to terrorize the world with its support for violent extremism. Iran is the leading supporter of terrorism around the world. And, under the threat of rocket fire from Gaza, Israel is now considering new options under a framework for peace with Palestinians and the Arab world. Hamas still controls the Gaza Strip, and their disregard for human life is well known. The U.S. cannot afford to sit idly by. We must be engaged in each of these issues and support our ally, Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. This legislation before us today is critical because it sends a clear and unmistakable message to America's foes: America stands with Israel. Let me repeat that: America stands with Israel. Now is the time to reaffirm the vital importance we place on the U.S.-Israel relationship and to pursue new ways to improve our partnership at every level. Let me say the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is not a one-way street. It is a two-way street. We share a love for democracy; we share a love for human rights; and we share a love and understanding that we share things that are so important to both countries. It is not, again, just a one-way street. It is a two-way street. There is more collaboration between the United States and Israel on everything, each and every day. The relationship deepens, the coordination deepens--coordination in terms of military, in terms of intelligence sharing, in terms of so many other things. Israel is the best ally the United States has, not in the Middle East, but in the world. Specifically, this bill will build on our robust defense cooperation, increase U.S.-Israel collaboration on cybersecurity, expand U.S.-Israel energy cooperation, and reaffirm our commitment to Israel missile defense programs, which have saved many innocent lives, such as the Iron Dome. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 938, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to repeat what I said before, that I hope all member states of the Organization of American States will similarly call on the Venezuelan government to abide by their OAS Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Democratic Charter. This is a very bipartisan resolution. I agree with everything that the gentlewoman from Florida said. In fact, I agree with everything that all of the speakers on both sides of the aisle have said. The United States stands for freedom in the world, and I think it is very important that the Congress of the United States speaks out loudly and clearly when people's rights are being trampled on, as is the situation in Venezuela today. So again, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros- Lehtinen), and I want to thank Chairman Royce, who once again has shown in such a bipartisan way that members of the Foreign Affairs Committee work closely together because both parties share a love of freedom and democracy. Both parties care very much that freedom and democracy around the world takes root. I can think of nothing more bipartisan than to stand up for freedom and democracy all over the world, and when a country has its rights trampled by the government that is supposed to protect it, it is time that we in the United States Congress say enough: we are not going to sweep this under the rug. We are going to speak out loudly and forcefully against it. I again thank Ms. Ros-Lehtinen and Chairman Royce. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutch).

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 488, a resolution supporting the people of Venezuela as they protest peacefully and calling for an end to recent violence, and I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to recognize my good friend, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) for offering this important resolution, but more so for her dedication for so many years to these important issues. It has been a pleasure working with her through the years. The eyes of the world are on Venezuela as President Nicolas Maduro and his security forces crack down on peaceful protesters. It is an absolute tragedy that 17 people have been killed and 261 people have been injured during recent protests throughout the country. It sounds a little bit like Ukraine, doesn't it? I was particularly disturbed when the government issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez on trumped-up charges. Mr. Lopez turned himself in on February 18 and is currently being held in a prison at a military facility. And, by the way, the elections that supposedly elected Mr. Maduro, as far as I am concerned, are in question because there never was a real recount. The ballots were destroyed before there could be a recount. I am so deeply troubled by the crackdown on press freedom in Venezuela. The Colombian news network NTN24 was recently taken off the air after it broadcast footage of the protests. Journalists from CNN were also threatened with expulsion. Today's resolution makes it clear that Congress stands with the Venezuelan people and against all acts of violence and undemocratic actions. I am pleased that President Obama and Secretary Kerry have also spoken out forcefully in condemning violence in Venezuela. Let me be clear. It is not just the United States that has been taking notice of recent events in Venezuela. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a statement on February 14 which ``expresses its concern over the serious incidents of violence that have taken place in the context of protest demonstrations in Venezuela, as well as other complaints concerning acts of censorship against media outlets . . . and acts of alleged political persecution.'' Last week, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Venezuelan Government to release jailed opposition members and protesters and to end the violence. I hope all member states of the OAS, the Organization of American States, will similarly call on the Venezuelan Government to abide by the OAS Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Finally, let me say that the only way out of this crisis is through dialogue. Our resolution makes this absolutely clear by encouraging ``a process of dialogue between the Government of Venezuela and the political opposition to end the violence.'' I stand with the people of Venezuela in calling for an end to the senseless violence, and I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 488, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I think this is a good time to reflect on a couple of things. One is certainly Iran. The other is certainly Ukraine. I think that the American people obviously have a very important stake in what is going on in both countries. In Ukraine, in Kiev, we see people marching for freedom, demanding the kinds of freedoms that we, in the United States, are used to, the freedoms that we hold so dear in our country; and we saw the people initially being countered by brutal police attacks on them. But you know, Mr. Speaker, the right prevailed, and the people in the streets won, and they clearly said that they don't want to have Russian domination; but, instead, they want to look toward the West, rather than look East. The European Union has been negotiating with Ukraine for some time, and their president, now deposed, said that he would rather work with Russia into the Russian Customs Union, which is sort of, in my opinion, a rekindling of the old Soviet Union. That angered many people in Ukraine, and they took to the streets. I hope that the European Union continues to make overtures to Ukraine. I think now is a very, very critical moment, in that the United States has a role to play with our European allies, to try to tell the people of Ukraine that we would like them to look Westward and that, in looking Westward, there will be opportunities for their country. I am concerned that if there are too many stringent rules and regulations put up before a country can affiliate with the EU--and at the same time, Putin is saying here are these billions and billions of dollars, which makes it seem like it is a lot easier to go with Putin. This is one of those rare visceral moments where I think action by the United States and our allies in the European Union will make the difference for generations to come; and I would hope that we would deal with Ukraine in a benevolent manner, so that they would be able to say: yes, we want to look Westward, and it is going to help our economy, it is going to help our people. There are serious problems in Ukraine. Their economy is in shambles. And, of course, there has been a total lack of freedom and democracy, and the people of Ukraine demand no less. I think that Secretary Kerry was absolutely right and the President was absolutely right in telling Russian President Putin that he had better think twice before he considers any kind of military intervention in Ukraine. That is not something that can be or should be tolerated, and Russia must understand that it cannot be business as usual, that if they make any military moves into Ukraine, it is going to cost them a great deal in their relationships with the United States and with our European allies in the European Union. It can't be business as usual--which leads me to Iran. We are in very delicate negotiations with Iran right now. The one thing that everybody in the P5+1 agrees on is that, at the end of the day, Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. I have been very critical of the Iranian regime through the years and continue to be so. What irks me especially is that, while they are negotiating with us, they are continuing to wreak havoc in all different parts of the world. Iran remains the leading supporter of terrorism throughout the world. In fact, if we look just next door into Syria--and we know the Syrian civil war is a real mess. We have jihadists pouring into that country, even more so than they poured into Iraq at the height of the Iraq war. We have all kinds of foreign fighters. Assad was on the verge of being kicked out of power by his own people. He was losing the civil war. We had the Free Syrian Army, who are the people who really are for democracy in Syria, and Assad was losing that war. Then what happened, Mr. Speaker, Iran unleashed its proxy--its terrorist proxy--Hezbollah into Syria; and Hezbollah entered the war in Syria on the side of Assad; and that turned the war, unfortunately, to Assad's favor. So now, we are in a position where Assad doesn't want to negotiate, doesn't want to sue for peace, certainly doesn't want to negotiate his own exit from power in Syria, which we all thought was imminent just a few months ago; and he feels he has the upper hand because his ally, Iran, has changed the course of the war in there by unleashing their proxy, Hezbollah, a terrorist group, to fight on the side of Assad. So Assad has essentially become an Iranian puppet in his own country, and that is Iran continuing to do all kinds of mischief while they are negotiating with us, ostensibly, so that they would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon at the end of the day. We know that the Israelis have taken matters into their own hands, and when they see weapons are being transferred to Hezbollah, they will do what they need to do to protect their own security. So I think--the way Putin must understand that he cannot have it both ways, I think that the Iranians need to understand that as well. Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. They are a theocracy, and I think that we all believe that their having nuclear weapons would cause a proliferation of nuclear weapons all throughout the area, the Middle East. Certainly, if Iran were to have a nuclear weapon--and that must not happen--Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, so many other countries would feel the need as well to get nuclear weapons; and we would start a chain of events that--who knows how it would end? So I believe that we have to be very, very crystal-clear. I hope that these negotiations of the P5+1 with Iran bear fruit, but I think Iran must understand that we are not backing off, we are not going back, that nothing short of their not being able to produce a nuclear weapon is acceptable; and Iran must dismantle its nuclear weapons program. That is not something that just the United States wants. That is something that the negotiations are really and truly all about. I have said before that it troubles me that, while we are negotiating with Iran, Iran continues to enrich uranium. It would seem to me that if Iran had good intentions, it would at least understand that if the purpose of the negotiations is that, at the end of it, Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, then it didn't seem so great for me to say to Iran, while we are negotiating, while we are talking, and while we are talking about you not having a nuclear weapon, you need to stop enriching while the talks are going on. Now, Iran refused to do that because they wanted a loosening even further of sanctions if they were to stop enriching, and to me, it shows a malevolent intent on the part of Iran. So I just think that, in our negotiations, we have to be resolute, and we have to be clear that, at the end of the day, Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. At the end of the day, Iran must dismantle its program, and at the end of the day, we have to make sure that there is no light between us in terms of the P5+1 and that we are all demanding the same thing from Iran. I think that we are united on this. I believe that everyone understands that, for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, it is totally and absolutely unacceptable. The United States has many interests in the Middle East; and I think it is very important that we work closely together with our partners-- Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and others who also believe very strongly that Iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. So, Mr. Speaker, I think it is important, as these negotiations are going on, that we set these parameters and that Iran must understand that it is unacceptable for them to have a nuclear weapon. We may have negotiations. They may have a new president. He may be a little softer than the previous president; but let's remember, he was allowed to run in the Iranian elections, and that means that, as moderate as some people would like to believe he might be, six hard- liners were allowed to run. He may be the most moderate of all the hard-liners, but he is hardly a moderate. All the moderates were disallowed to run for office, and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei clearly calls the shots. So everything is very delicate, and we hope and pray that these negotiations work well. I support the negotiations. I support the administration. But the bottom line, again, is that Iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. I see that our minority whip is here, and I would like to invite him to join me. (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 447, a resolution I authored supporting the democratic and European aspirations of the people of Ukraine. I would first like to thank my original cosponsors, Chairman Ed Royce and Representatives William Keating, ranking member of the Europe Subcommittee; and Marcy Kaptur, Sandy Levin, and Jim Gerlach, of the Ukraine Caucus, for their invaluable help in crafting this bipartisan resolution. I also thank my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), for his remarks and agree with everything he said. The United States has been a staunch supporter of a democratic, prosperous, and sovereign Ukraine. At this moment we must stand with the people of Ukraine more than ever before. As the world has watched, over the past several months, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Ukrainian citizens have turned out in Kyiv and cities throughout the country to exercise their democratic rights and express their views. The initial impetus for the demonstration was the Ukrainian Government's unexpected rejection of an offer from the European Union for closer political and economic ties. This rejection represented a reversal of government policy and, in the view of a great many Ukrainians, a lost opportunity for Ukraine to strengthen democratic institutions and values and increase economic opportunities. In addition, the demonstrators have turned out not only in support of closer relations with Europe, but also more fundamentally in support of democracy, good governance, human rights, and basic human dignity. The fact that they have done so in an overwhelmingly peaceful manner is very, very impressive. It is also inspiring. Sadly, there have been exceptions to the peaceful nature of the protests. These include police violence on several occasions late last year, the disturbing pattern of beatings and abductions of journalists and civil society activists, and the most recent and tragic violence in January. Following this dramatic increase in tensions last month, the most recent developments in Ukraine give some cause for hope. I welcome the fact that meaningful talks appear to have begun between the government and opposition leaders. I would also like to applaud the admirable efforts of the Obama administration and our European partners to deescalate tensions and support this dialogue. Nevertheless, the situation in Ukraine remains highly volatile, and it is imperative that we actively support a peaceful, negotiated end to this crisis. This resolution advances to that goal by strongly condemning all acts of violence, irrespective of their perpetrators. Let me also take this opportunity to condemn all acts of extremism in Ukraine, all acts of hatred, and all acts of anti-Semitism. Moreover, the resolution calls on all individuals to behave responsibly. In particular, it calls on the Ukrainian authorities to respect and uphold the democratic rights of the citizens of Ukraine. It also states that those who authorize or engage in violence should be held personally accountable for their actions, including by targeted sanctions, if appropriate. This is why I welcome the recent actions by the Department of State to revoke the visas of several individuals linked to the violence. The resolution further urges the Ukrainian Government to bring to justice those responsible for violence against peaceful protesters, journalists, and civic activists, and to take additional steps to deescalate tensions. Finally, the resolution urges all parties to continue the substantive and sustained dialogue to peacefully resolve the crisis and address the legitimate desire of millions of Ukrainian citizens for a democratic, European future looking West, not East. In sum, the passage of this resolution would send a strong message of support to the people of Ukraine. At this critical moment, they should know that the United States and the United States Congress stand with them as they seek to build a democratic, prosperous, and secure Ukraine, respecting human rights and dignity and anchored firmly in Europe. I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 447. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. (Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline), a very distinguished member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, how much time do I have?

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the cochair of the Ukrainian Caucus, an original cosponsor of this resolution, and she and I had the opportunity many years ago to travel together to Ukraine.

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), a very distinguished member of both the Budget and Ways and Means Committees and a member of the Ukrainian Caucus as well.

Mr. ENGEL. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I want to continue to urge my colleagues to support the resolution. As anyone can see, this is a very bipartisan resolution. It is very important. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert my statement into the Record in support of extending unemployment insurance for 1.6 million Americans. We really have to have compassion for people. People are starving. We need to help them. That is what Congress should be all about.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 3824 to end the Republicans' unconscionable refusal to extend unemployment benefits that protect 137,315 workers in my home State of New York.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, January 12, 2014, at 4:53 p.m. marked the fourth anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake that rocked the island nation of Haiti, the poorest country in our hemisphere. Though much has been written about it, it is difficult to describe the devastation left by the quake. I travelled to Haiti soon after it struck and can scarcely describe it myself. Casualties numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and an even greater number of dwellings were destroyed. Haiti's already poor infrastructure was decimated. The international community did respond, with the U.S. leading the charge. Our initial disaster relief was nothing short of heroic, and prevented significant further harm in the days and weeks following . Relief eventually gave way to recovery and then reconstruction. Four years out, the U.S. remains heavily involved and engaged in the process of building Haiti back better. The Foreign Affairs Committee, where I am ranking member, has been active in this process. We commissioned a GAO report to give us an assessment on U.S. assistance, which found, among other things, that the administration was not providing sufficient information to the Congress to fulfill its oversight role. We then sent a bipartisan staff delegation to look into specific problems GAO found, and soon after held a full committee hearing on the matter. Capping that oversight process, this past December the House overwhelmingly agreed to bipartisan legislation to address some of these issues, and sent the bill to the Senate. The Assessing Progress in Haiti Act of 2013 is authored by a recognized champion advocating on behalf of the people of Haiti, Barbara Lee of California. It enjoys strong bipartisan support, such as from Foreign Affairs Chairman Royce. It seeks to fill the information gap by requiring the State Department to report on various aspects of our assistance program, and includes a Statement of Policy that articulates the direction we believe that assistance program should take. The reality is that a multi-year and multi-billion dollar commitment, borne of the generosity of the American people, calls for ongoing vigilance --- both in terms of accountability as well as policy direction, and I believe H.R. 3509 goes a significant way to achieve that goal. I intend to work with my colleagues in the Senate to see that this legislation becomes law in the next few months. I believe the Haitian people, who have endured more than their fair share of misery at the hands of this horrific natural disaster, deserve nothing less.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. I have no further speakers, Mr. Speaker, so I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of H.R. 3527, the Poison Center Network Act. Mr. Speaker, this important legislation, which passed the Energy and Commerce Committee by unanimous consent in December, reauthorizes the national toll-free phone number, media campaign, and grant program which have helped make poison centers an incredibly successful program. First passed in 2000, national poison center legislation was championed by our current Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Mr. Upton, and our former colleague, Ed Towns. Since then, the national poison center legislation has been reauthorized twice, and I am proud to say it remains a very bipartisan product. Chairman Terry, thank you for your leadership on this issue over the years and your hard work on this reauthorization. This is a good, bipartisan bill, and I am pleased to have had the opportunity to work on it with you. Poison exposure is a leading cause of unintentional injuries in the United States, and it was the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths in 2010. According to a recent Lewin Group report, poisonings accounted for over 2.1 million emergency room visits and 438,000 hospitalizations in the year 2009 alone. I think most of us with children remember either having a magnet on our refrigerator or a sticker on our phone providing the contact information for the poison center in our area. The experts that staff our Nation's network of 56 poison centers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. In 2012, poison centers handled, on average, 9,200 cases per day for a total of almost 3.4 million cases over the course of the year. Over 90 percent of calls into poison centers were due to a poison exposure in someone's home, and approximately half of all cases involved children under the age of 6 who were exposed to toxins in their home. In my home State of New York, we have two poison centers that, between the two of them, field over 164,000 calls per year. The New York City poison center found that 88 percent of all exposures to a dangerous substance occurred within someone's own residence. Many of these calls were related to the accidental ingestion of various cleaning products or detergents, but in 2012, the New York City poison center also fielded over 2,000 calls regarding prescription painkillers. For the upstate New York poison center in 2012, 85 percent of calls were related to unintentional poisonings, 62 percent involved children under the age of 5, and, most importantly, 82 percent of cases could be managed over the phone and did not require a visit to a doctor or a hospital if hospitalization is necessary. In 2011, poison centers helped avoid an estimated 1.7 million unnecessary health care visits and have been shown to decrease the amount of time an individual spends in the hospital. While a visit to the emergency room can cost hundreds of dollars, and a hospitalization can cost thousands, a phone call to a poison center only costs around $30, which shows poison centers continue to be a smart public health investment. I think it is also important to note that poison centers are an incredibly valuable resource to health care providers. Poison centers provide access to board-certified medical toxicologists which can assist with the triage, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with known or suspected poisoning. Poison centers are a true partnership between Federal, State, and local governments, as well as in the private sector. In 2011, poison centers obtained only 13 percent of their funding from Federal grants, while 62 percent came from State and local government and 25 percent from private funders like hospitals and insurers. Adequate funding from all sources is important in order to continue to provide high-quality experts and services in the name of poison prevention for our constituents. Mr. Speaker, by all accounts, poison centers have been an incredible success and a program that we should all be proud to be a part of. In addition to my gratitude towards Mr. Terry, I would also again like to thank Chairman Upton for his leadership on this issue, as well as Ranking Member Waxman, Chairman Pitts, and Ranking Member Pallone for their assistance in bringing this bill, first, before the Energy and Commerce Committee and to the floor today. As the lead Democrat on this bipartisan legislation, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, Dennis S. Rodman of NBA fame has announced that he and 10 or so other basketball players are going to North Korea, he said, to visit his friend, the notorious butcher and dictator, Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Bringing American basketball to North Korea, a rogue state which has nuclear weapons, which starves its own people and imprisons them and throws them in jail, bringing American basketball there and sitting down with a dictator like Mr. Kim would be the equivalent of taking Adolf Hitler to lunch. This is really a terrible thing, a terrible idea, and it makes us gloss over the terrible suffering of the North Korean people and just ignore it and say, Well, we are going to play basketball and we are going to make this guy look legitimate. In a rambling discussion today on one of the networks, Rodman said that he didn't even care that an American, Mr. Kenneth Bae, was imprisoned in North Korea. At the very least we would hope that this American who is imprisoned for no reason by this brutal dictator would be released. We should not be clinking glasses or playing basketball with this dictator. We should be demanding that an American citizen who committed no crime be released.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, Eileen Mason arrived in Larchmont in 1968 in pursuit of a good local school for her three year-old daughter, Alison, and later a son, Gregory. Eileen was very active in the PTA. As Health and Safety Chair at the Murray Avenue School, she spearheaded the drive which although failing to reinstall the traffic light, resulted in the school system's first school crossing guard. From 1972 to 1983 she worked to create after school clubs for ``latch-key kids'' and help mainstream students with disabilities. In 1980, she was chair of the Middle States High School Evaluation team for School and Community. Eileen became interested in the cable franchise proposals in the late 'seventies while doing publicity for several local organizations including the Girl Scouts, The Garden Club of Larchmont, the Woman's Club of Larchmont and the PTA. Offering news to the community has been the focus of her thirty years with LMC-TV. Her own original programs started with ``It's Your Community'' and the establishment of water control measures at the Reservoir and coastal zone management and environmental concerns. She produced a series on Save the Sound, a Connecticut organization based in Stamford, as well as programs for the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County. Other organizations benefitting from her coverage are the League of Woman Voters, Summit, Cancer Support Team, Girl Scouts, Kemper Memorial Park Preservation, Hispanic Resource Center, Mamaroneck Library's Children's Department and Larchmont Public Library's Friends, Rye Arts Center, Memorial Day and Holocaust Memorial events. For the past twelve years she has produced monthly programs for Larchmont-Mamaroneck Interfaith Council. I congratulate Eileen Mason who is being awarded the Special Recognition Award for her extraordinary contributions to LMC-TV productions as a volunteer.

Mr. ENGEL

Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, the Yonkers Commission on Human Rights is celebrating 50 years of working to affirm the rights of all citizens to full equality before the law as part of its commitment to eliminating racism and to empowering women. The Commission on Human Rights was created on October 1, 1963, by the City of Yonkers with a charter that delineated the need for protection from human rights violations and the essence of human rights education for Yonkers residents and businesses alike. The organization actively promotes human rights awareness and outreach in the Yonkers community through special events and activities, serving as a model for dialogue, discussion and coalition building to eliminate racism and intergroup hostilities. The Yonkers Human Rights Commission fosters mutual respect and understanding among all racial, religious, and ethnic groups in the community, and strives to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on sex or age. It undertakes studies that aid in improving relationships among groups. It inquires into incidents of tension and conflict among or between various racial, religious, and nationality groups, and takes action to ease such tensions and conflicts. The Human Rights Commission not only seeks to alleviate tensions but to actively promote goodwill among neighbors and communities. For a half century the Yonkers Human Rights Commission has worked for equality for all in employment, housing, public accommodation, credit, and education. It is an outstanding example of what can be accomplished locally to enhance all of our lives. I am proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Yonkers Commission on Human Rights, and congratulate it for the work done for our community.