Chaka Fattah

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I inadvertently voted against the Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 3, which instructs conferees to increase funding for the Transportation/Highway bill. The motion would increase the minimum guaranteed rate of return to 92 percent, while ensuring that each state receives no less than what is provided under the bill. I request that the record reflect that I support the motion and I intended to vote for it.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the West Philadelphia High School for taking top honors in the Technology Competition at the National 2005 Tour de Sol. The National 2005 Tour de Sol, a nationwide competition, allows students and entrepreneurs to showcase their efforts to design vehicles that approach zero carbon emissions and use renewable fuels. The Tour de Sol highlights the largest innovations in alternative-energy technology and advanced fuel vehicles, showcasing the future of the clean-energy and transportation industry. The cars are put through rigorous tests to assess emissions, fuel economy, and other technical standards. The Tour de Sol provides a key platform for vehicle manufacturers, students, and entrepreneurs to demonstrate future designs and current products that aim to reduce oil and carbon emissions to zero. This year, over a dozen teams from all over the United States and Canada participated in the Tour de Sol Championship, which began in 1989. The competition aims to inspire students and businesses to design, build, showcase, and use concept vehicles that push the envelope and work toward the ultimate goal of the event. The winner of the coveted ``Greenest Vehicle'' was awarded to one of the only high school teams to enter the competition, West Philadelphia High School, for their electric car called The Saturn. The team beat university and private teams from around the country for developing a vehicle that demonstrates high energy efficiency. The Saturn ran the equivalent of 280 miles per gallon of gasoline, with a greenhouse gas reduction of nearly 80 percent. I salute the students, faculty and team sponsors who worked tirelessly over the past two years to construct a hybrid vehicle that uses biodiesel fuel instead of gas to create a cleaner environment. I applaud your efforts and congratulate you on a winning design that makes all Philadelphians proud.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia for her comments and her insight and assistance as we move through. Let me conclude my remarks, and I will be prepared to yield back the balance of my time. But let me just state, there is a lot that I could talk about that is in this bill in terms of help and assistance and innovation and creativity, but I think that a lot has already been said about the advances in the District's fiscal health and a lot of work that has been done. I want to highlight just the college assistance program, the resident tuition program, which I was one of the original cosponsors of with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) some 5 years ago. It is an amazing program. It has been very successful. And I want to return to what I was saying about the chairman of this committee. He has visited schools and committees, been out in neighborhoods and at the waterfront in the District. He has been active and aggressive in terms of trying to have the insight necessary to make some of the decisions that have to be made in this process; and I want to publicly thank him for his leadership on the subcommittee. It has been a pleasure to work with him this year on this process. And I want to thank, again, the staff. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to thank the majority chairman of this committee. He has done extraordinary work in bringing to the floor a bill that has, I think, almost unanimous support in this House, not because it is a perfect bill but because it has been a perfect process, that is, a process that has been inclusive and that has been driven by the determined and public-spirited leadership of the chairman. There are initiatives like the $6 million school library initiative and other initiatives that have the personal trademark of the chairman to try to improve the life chances of young people in this District. There are others that I will refer to momentarily. I just want to thank the chairman for his extraordinary leadership and a process that has been perfect in terms of making sure that all of the issues that are important here in the District have been listened to and responded to. There has been a complete hearing process. I would like to thank the staff both on the Democratic side and on the majority side. Joel Kaplan has led the committee's work. Martha Foley. I would like to thank, obviously, Michelle Anderson on my staff and Rob Nabors for his excellent leadership and guidance as we have moved through this on the minority appropriations staff. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, you would not know by today's discussions that the President, the other candidate for President, Senator Kerry, and all of the Nation's leaders have been telling us that we are at war, that we are in this war on terrorism, because there has been no discussion about that today, even though on the front page yesterday of one of the Washington newspapers it says that our number one enemy, al Qaeda, is meeting with and making arrangements with local criminal gangs here in D.C., for whatever purposes. You would not know that we are at war. You would not know this was on the front page of the papers yesterday. You would not know that because of all of this discussion here today about allowing people to have arms. I am just trying to imagine the Inaugural parade next year here in the District, as people have now had this ability to go arm themselves to the teeth, even people who might have purposes that are untoward in terms of our activities. I am going to just say that this is a new type of cowboy, where they take the stage coach, they get themselves in a gun-restricted area, and let the women and children and the God-fearing people of this city stay off.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee, who has done a yeoman's job in working and providing leadership to the Congress on the critical issues facing the District. A great Nation indeed requires us to have a capital that is responsive in both substance and symbol to the Nation and to the world, and the chairman has worked long and hard with his staff on this bill. I would accept his comments as my own opening comments on the bill, because I think it puts into perspective the approach that he has taken, which is that we have worked in a bipartisan fashion; and I think we have a product that is worthy of unanimous support here in the House as we move this bill through the process. I join with him again, although I will not name them all, in complimenting the staff who have really done a great job. This would not have been possible without the help and advice and counsel of the delegate, the person elected by the residents here in the District to represent their interests; and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) has been invaluable to both the chairman and me as we have worked through this process. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, consuming whatever time I may, just to make a few brief remarks before I yield to the delegate, the District operates unlike any other city in our country, because it has the responsibility to be the home of the Nation's Federal Government. There are no problems that exist in the District that have been solved elsewhere in the country. Whatever problems exist in this city exist other places. But the District has, in a unique way, been able to tackle its fiscal problems far better than any other city in the country: a 7-year balanced budget, bond ratings that have been elevated by all three of the rating agencies, and a cash reserve, I say to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), that any city would be the envy of. The city's leaders, I would say, deserve all of the credit; that is, the Mayor, the city council, and the civic leadership here have worked so very hard. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and I and others, like our chairman, have been involved in important ways, whether it is the financial relief bill or the college access program, the chairman's initiative on libraries that he has allowed me to join with him on; but it is really his initiative to make sure that in our elementary schools here in the District that there is real access to material that will help inspire reading as a lifelong activity of the young people here. All of that is important, but the District has had to operate without the benefit of a State government. It has had to operate with the increased cost of being the home of the Nation's Capital, and again, its own leadership has brought it to this moment when I think we can have a bill come to the floor without controversy and move through, because it is out of respect for their hard work. Mr. Chairman, I yield 7 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to say that I would like to commend the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) for his great service to the House as chairman of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. I served with him for many years on the committee. I cannot find a way to support his amendment today; but if he were to offer, for instance, to reduce by even a greater percent the reconstruction dollars of 20 billion we sent to Iraq, I would be prepared to vote to cut those dollars. But here in the Nation's Capital I believe that there are too many needs to be met. I still have great respect for my colleague. Colorado has a warm place in my heart. My wife is from Colorado; but I would oppose this amendment.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. If the American people want to buy more of what we just heard, they are going to get a chance in November. But if they want to really think about the fiscal future of this country, then think about how we have moved from hundreds of billions of surpluses to hundreds of billions of deficits. Think about what Treasury Secretary O'Neill said in his book when he raised the concern about this deficit spending by the majority and by the Republican party. He said that Vice President Cheney said, oh, do not worry about deficits. It did not hamper Reagan, when we quadrupled the national debt. Now we are raising the debt limit 3 times, up to $8 trillion, so that our children and our grandchildren will have to pay for the cost of our expenditures. And he said well, we do not want to have PAYGO affect tax cuts, we just want it on the spending side because it is philosophical. Well, it was philosophical about whether the earth was flat or not, or round. The facts are stubborn things, Reagan said, and I remember that. Because when we think about the real facts: 44 million Americans without health insurance, millions without jobs, a 50-year high on mortgage foreclosures, an historic high the third year in a row on personal bankruptcies. This majority has controlled spending and tax cuts for the last 10 years. They come on the floor and want to blame it on what they affectionately refer to as ``the other side.'' Where is the willingness to be accountable, to take responsibility for their own actions? The majority has decided to take this country on a course of fiscal irresponsibility. What we need to really think about now is whether we want to continue to go in that direction, whether we want to continue to have future generations having to pay for the choices we are making today, or whether we are prepared to pay for our own choices.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the ranking member for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, the majority started this country on a ride a few years ago, and the signposts along the way are fairly clear. We have a record-high deficit, hundreds of billions of dollars; we have a record trade deficit; we have a 50-year high on mortgage foreclosures; we have 3 years in a row of historic highs in personal bankruptcies. And yet, they suggest that we should operate on the same forecast that they were operating on when they started out on this trip, when they said we had 10 years of surpluses coming our way, trillions of dollars; and we can afford to give the wealthiest among us a tax break. So they did that, and they do not see the other signposts: $200 billion for a war in Iraq. They do not look at the other signposts along the road that show that we have lost millions of jobs. Now we have replaced 1 million-or-so of those jobs that we lost, and they want to say that we have created new jobs. They are a long way off from creating a new job that is a net new job, but they do not want to talk about that. They do not want to look at these signposts. They want to keep going down this road. What the Obey resolution suggests is we should take a different course. We should say to millionaire taxpayers that rather than take $124,000 in tax cuts, take $24,000. Let us pay our way for this war. Let us pay our way in terms of investing in the needed resources of our country. Albert Einstein said a long time ago that we have to have a different level of thinking to solve problems than the level of the thinking that we used when we created these problems. This program that the Republican majority has taken us toward as a country is leading us to fiscal bankruptcy. This majority has to understand that we have to take into account that we live in a different forecast now, with dark clouds on the horizon. We are at war. We should pay the costs now, and we should do it by saying a little less tax cut for those who are doing very, very well. That is what the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) does. I ask that this resolution be supported.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I give notice to the House today that I have offered a piece of legislation that would have the Department of the Treasury analyze a proposal to transform our system of taxation and to move us away from this very complicated, burdensome form of taxation that now raises the revenues necessary for governmental purposes, to a transaction fee in which we would utilize the great power of our economy to tap into economic resources in a way in which we could transform our country, respond to the needs of all of our people in a responsible way, but to do it without the necessity to pry into the private lives of our citizens or to audit their financial behavior. This proposal as we present it would have the Treasury prepare a study of this idea. It is offered after a great deal of research and effort. We hope that it will find in the workings of the House the kind of urgency that should be there, given our failure to respond to this problem in any real way for a very, very long time. It is the 90th birthday of the income tax in our country. It started at 2 pages, it is now tens of thousands of pages. Today we can begin not just to curse the darkness but, as has been said, light a candle.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the conference agreement of H.R. 1, the Medicare and Prescription Drug bill. This conference agreement provides limited benefit to vulnerable low income senior citizens and people with disabilities. In fact, the plan prohibits Medicaid from filling in the gaps in the new Medicare drug benefit, as Medicaid does now for other benefits. Given the ongoing state budget crises, up to 6.4 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities could receive less help with their prescription drug costs than they do now. The proposed plan bows to drug industry pressure and prevents Medicare from negotiating better prices. It also adopts a policy that will prevent access to lower-cost drugs available in other countries, allowing drug companies profits to skyrocket at the expense of patients. Millions of Medicare beneficiaries will be forced to pay more for Medicare if they don't give up their doctor and join an HMO. Although the bill's proponents claim it will be limited, as many as 7 million seniors could be forced to participate. Finally, the conference agreement proposes the creation of Health Security Accounts, which are tax shelters for the wealthy. This creates an unprecedented tax loophole that would undermine existing employer coverage and add to the ever-growing number of uninsured. These funds should be used to prevent employers from dropping coverage or to improve the drug benefit. I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this conference report.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, as we would have wished that there would have been at least one Republican that voted for the Clinton economic plan, there are times in which clarity on these issues is not as readily available. But I want to thank the chairman for all that he has done, and we hope that in this conference that we will do at least as much as the gentleman was able to get the House to do.

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

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I will conclude by saying that I would hope there would come a day we could guarantee that every American youngster would be able to qualify for a Pell Grant or some vehicle for them to go on to college. The gentleman has done a lot of work with me on GEAR UP and other projects, and we are doing a lot, but there is more to be done because millions of our young people in this country do not yet know with a certainty that they can go to college, and we have not, in this time of high tuition increases, kept pace. That is all we are asking tonight; that we do as much as we can do at this moment in time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the sponsor of this motion for all the work that he has done. And let me say, I do not believe there is anyone in this Chamber who would be more enthusiastic about fully funding and making available higher education opportunities than the gentleman from Ohio, who is the chairman of this subcommittee. I think that none of us come to this floor tonight, at least I do not, as part of some partisan attempt to win a few debating points. The future of the young people in our country is much too important for us to make this a partisan back and forth. I went to a number of institutions, but before I went to the University of Pennsylvania and to the Kennedy School at Harvard. I went to the Community College of Philadelphia. I went there able to enroll with the basic educational opportunity grant, a Pell Grant recipient, when I started out as a college student. I have at home tonight two young children, one 5 years old and another just 8 weeks old, and two older ones who have matriculated most of their way through higher education, one through law school and another who is finishing a business education at a university home in Pennsylvania. I served with the gentleman who just spoke from Pennsylvania for a long period of my years in the Pennsylvania Senate and House, and during that time served in a leadership role at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, where over a million young people were provided, through State grant assistance, the opportunity to go to college. We just launched in Philadelphia an effort where we secured some $40 million through local funds to make sure that every graduate of our public schools knows with a certainty that they can go on to college. This question of the future of our Nation is not just one for my daughters at home, Cameron and Chandler, but it is really the shaping impulse of the future of our country that we not focus so much on the next election but that we focus on the next generation. We need these young people to be college educated in order to have an economy that works. I do not think anyone would suggest that since not one Republican voted for the Clinton economic plan that somehow they were not for 20 million new jobs, or they were not for balanced budgets, or they were not for the surpluses that were generated during the Clinton years. Those Democrats that found some question about this appropriations bill earlier in this session were voting because they wanted more done, not less done. And we come here tonight to join with the chairman and to say that at a minimum the conference committee, which both of us serve on, should do at least as much as the House has suggested that we do.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Cheltenham Township Twinning Celebration and the Charter Signing Ceremony at the annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 11, 2003. Located on the northwest border of Philadelphia in the heart of the Northern Greater Philadelphia Region, Cheltenham Township is a mixture of distinctive neighborhoods, tree-lined streets, abundant parks, convenient shopping districts, and apartment complexes. Cheltenham's multiethnic community dates back to Quaker emigrants who settled in the area around 1690. Two of these new settlers came from Cheltenham, England, and thus the name was established. Historically famous for the spa waters that drew King George III for a visit in the late 1700s, Cheltenham, England, is a mostly urban town located on the edge of Cotswold Hills retains much of its stylish Regency architecture. Having established a long-standing friendship, the Lord Mayor and Mayoress of Cheltenham, England, along with other councilors and dignitaries, will visit Cheltenham Township to formalize their friendship in an official ``twin city'' relationship in an effort to expand opportunities for residents in each community to get to know one another. I would like to insert the following language of the Twinning Charter into the record: Cheltenham Twinning Charter Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, USA, and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK, having already established a long- standing tradition of friendship and goodwill through visits and exchanges for more than 50 years, do hereby formally resolve: To continue to foster and develop mutual understanding and respect between the people of Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, USA, and the people of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK; and To encourage and assist youth and adult organizations, clubs, companies, groups and all classes of people in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, USA, and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK, to communicate and exchange visits with each other, thereby developing human and cultural relations and maintaining a firm foundation for future understanding, respect and friendship for all time. Now, therefore, we do solemnly declare in the names of our citizens this Twinning Charter between Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, USA, and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK. Done on October 11, 2003, in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, USA. Mr. Speaker, I commend both Cheltenham Township of Pennsylvania and Cheltenham of Gloucestershire, UK, in their efforts to foster goodwill between its people. Their relationship will undoubtedly grow as its citizens build upon their common bond.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to enter into the Record a new story from the Florida Naples Daily News which headlines ``Private School with Ties to Terrorists gets State Money'' through a private tuition voucher program. And I appreciate the comments from the gentleman from Washington State. It is true that the mayor supports dollars for vouchers which I disagree with. It is also true, and I think fair to say, that this is not the proposal that the mayor supports. He supports a three-pronged approach that is not what is going to be before us today, and I sincerely appreciate all the work that the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) has done on behalf of the District, but this is not a proposal that the mayor supports nor is it a proposal that the City Council supports. So to say this has the support of the District, I think, is really kind of twisting things slightly. [From the Florida Naples Daily News, July 18, 2003] Private School With Ties to Alleged Terrorist Gets State Money Tampa.--Senate Democrats urged Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday to cut off payment to a school co-founded by a professor accused of being the North American leader of a worldwide terrorist organization. The school received $350,000 last year through a state program that pays private school tuition for some students. A February grand jury indictment against Sami Al-Arian, the alleged leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and seven others says the school was used as a base of support for the organization. The indictment said the purpose of the organization was ``to assist its engagement in, and promotion of, violent attacks designed to thwart the Middle East Peace Process.'' It said the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is responsible for 100 murders in Israel and its territories. Al-Arian, who is being held in jail without bail and denies any connections to terrorism, co-founded the school in 1992 and served as its director and chairman of its board. The school's treasurer, Sameeh Hammoudeh, also was indicted and is being held in jail without bond. He and Al-Arian allegedly encouraged people who wanted to send money to Palestinians to write checks to their school. The Palm Beach Post reported in its Thursday editions. Last year, the 300-student Islamic Academy of Florida received more than 50 percent of its revenue from the state program, Florida PRIDE, which uses corporate donations to pay for poor students to attend private schools. ``The disclosures that more than $300,000 of this money went last year to a school suspected of terrorist ties raises the frightening specter that Florida's taxpayers may be unwittingly funding extremist organizations intent on the destruction of our nation and its allies,'' Senate Democratic Leader Ron Klein and Senator Dave Aronberg wrote in their letter to Gov. Jeb Bush. Denise Lasher, spokeswoman for Florida PRIDE, said officials conducted an independent audit of the school after the indictment was released and found no misuse of funds and no connection between the scholarship money and terrorist activity. She said the school received more than $300,000 in federal grants for computers and its free- and reduced-price school lunch program. ``It was unfortunate that there was someone at the school accused of doing something illegal, but that doesn't mean the school has done something illegal,'' she said Thursday. But although Florida PRIDE found that all of its scholarship money was going to the school, Hammoudeh was paid for his services as school treasurer, and the indictment states that school supplies and equipment were used in the Jihad operation. It is unknown whether Al-Arian was being paid. Corporations that donate to the program receive a dollar- for-dollar tax break. The program gave out nearly $50 million in scholarships last year. Since the program began, large corporations such as WCI Communities Inc., Gulf Power Co., Florida Power & Light and Verizon Wireless have donated to the program, but how much and to which program is not public information. Critics of the corporate tax credit scholarship program are concerned that there is no government oversight of the schools that take the money. In their letter to Bush, Klein and Aronberg called for a review of the program and of the schools. Under the May 2001 law, the Florida Department of Education cannot dictate curriculum or monitor how students are progressing academically. But Lasher insisted the schools teachers and students and teachers are top notch academically. Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, jokingly said in May that he could start a school for witches under the law and receive corporate tax credit scholarships. ``The intent of this program was to help poor kids. The intent was never to make opportunistic entrepreneurs wealthy,'' said King, who also ordered a study of the program. Despite the accountability concerns, Bush remained a supporter, saying last week that it was a ``proven success,'' based on the students receiving the scholarships. Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the Tampa school is well respected. He noted that the University of South Florida is also mentioned in the indictment. But USF, where Al-Arian was a professor and Hammoudeh was an instructor, is not listed as one of the bases of support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Administrators at the Islamic Academy did not return phone calls Thursday. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Mr. FATTAH. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to enter into a colloquy with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and return to my question. As I understand the language, and I read it, it says that any religiously affiliated school could get dollars under this program and it can be controlled and connected to a religious organization and it can promote its religious purpose; and then it goes on to say it could hire any number of people who follow their religious beliefs and that they deem necessary and that they can include religious references in its mission statement and other governing documents. All I am trying to determine is whether or not that is completely wide open, or whether there is a list of some type that either already is approved or would be approved of which religiously affiliated entities could operate schools in the District.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, just a factual question, on page 9, the language at the bottom where it refers to religiously affiliated schools, is my reading of this to say that this bill would allow for religiously oriented schools to utilize these scholarships that are being provided?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?