Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a true prescription drug plan that would cover all the seniors in America. Under Medicare, a Democratic prescription drug benefit would be voluntary and universal. Every senior would have access, no matter where they live or what their income. Soaring prices for prescription drugs are putting medicine out of reach for millions of seniors. Many of them are being forced to choose between paying for prescription drugs or paying for food. No older American should be faced with that decision. The House Republican prescription drug plan is a sham proposal that provides no real guarantee at all. Let us do the math, Mr. Speaker. Republicans argue that they have a $2,500 gap in coverage. That gap is bad enough, but the reality is even worse. Here is the math that will compare apples to apples. Under the Republican drug plan, the beneficiary pays as follows: a $250 deductible, and then a $150 coinsurance for the first $1,000 of drugs, and then a $500 coinsurance for the next $1,000 of drugs. Add that up and that is $900 out-of- pocket spending for the first $2,000 worth of prescription drugs. But that is not the end of it. You then have to calculate how much additional money a beneficiary must spend out of pocket to get to the $4,500 out-of-pocket limit that the Republicans have. That is $3,600. The gap for which the beneficiary is 100 percent on the hook in the Republican Medicare bill is $3,600. After a beneficiary obtains $2,000 worth of drugs, they get no more coverage from the Republican Medicare drug plan until they spend another $3,600 out of their own pocket. Therefore, before Medicare pays another cent, a beneficiary must obtain $5,600 worth of prescription drugs for the year. That is pretty complicated, and that is what the Republicans are counting on, that they will just use some words and you will not be able to do the math. But you have got to understand it. The Republican Medicare proposal has even greater gaping holes than they want to admit. Under their plan the benefit is so limited that it will not be worthwhile for many middle-class seniors to even enroll, it will not cover all seniors, and there is even a bigger problem. The Republican plan forces seniors to shop for and buy a private insurance plan, a plan which virtually every insurance company in America says they will not even offer because it is not worth it, and so seniors will have to go without coverage at all. We know this model does not work. It did not work in 1965, and that is why we created Medicare to begin with. The insurance companies, as I said, say it will not work either. The Health Insurance Association of America said it will not offer drug-only policies. The Republican prescription plan does nothing to slow prescription drug prices from continuing their upward spiral, and the Republican plan is simply guaranteed to fail. There they go again, putting words on a bill which has no meaning for the average American today. Learn how do the math, everybody, because this is going to be a basic debate in America over the next few weeks. We need to pass a meaningful prescription drug plan that uses Medicare to make drugs affordable and provides a universal voluntary benefit for all seniors.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for yielding me the time. I thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) for introducing this very important resolution. I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Jo Ann Davis) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for their eloquent statements on behalf of law enforcement officers and how much they mean to our Nation. I rise today, though, to point out an irony and hope to get support from my colleagues for law enforcement officers in our Federal agencies. I hope that those who are on the floor today know that there are law enforcement officers throughout the Federal Government who protect us day and night. They may be in INS. They may be in U.S. Customs. They may be postal police. They may be police officers for the Veterans Administration. They work to protect our airports, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court. They are members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. These are law enforcement officers who do not have law enforcement status in terms of their pay and their retirement benefits. Mr. Speaker, these are people who are trained to carry a weapon. They wear bulletproof vests. They have a badge. They face the risk every day that police officers in our cities and States have to face. I have watched mainly the inspectors at the U.S.-Mexico border in the district I represent in San Diego. I have watched members of the INS and U.S. Customs literally face death in confrontations with those who are trying to cross the border illegally or those who are trying to bring drugs and probably at some future point with terrorists; and yet I say again they are trained as law enforcement officers. They have the risk of law enforcement officers, but they do not have the status of law enforcement officers. That means that they do not get either the pay or the retirement benefits of those who are so classified. Mr. Speaker, we talk today about honoring our law enforcement officers, and how their names are engraved at the National Law Enforcement Memorial several blocks away. It is ironic that some of these people that I refer to in the Department of Customs or INS, their names are engraved on the Law Enforcement Memorial, and they are recognized as law enforcement officers when they died, but we do not recognize them as such when they are living when we should pay recognition to them. I hope those who are honoring our law enforcement officers today will look at H.R. 1841, the Law Enforcement Equity Act. It has over 180 sponsors, Democrat and Republican, from all across the country. I think it is time as we think today of our peace officers and law enforcement officers all over this Nation who have died in the line of duty, as we recall September 11 and the bravery of our peace officers there, I think it is time to say to our officers throughout the Federal Government, let us recognize them, too. Let us classify, and take the training that they have been given and the risks that they face, and give them the status that they deserve. I hope as we all vote for this resolution on the floor, we will think about H.R. 1841, the Law Enforcement Equity Act, and move forward in those situations also.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak for a few minutes to a problem that I know faces congressmen all over this Nation. That is the lack of national burial space for our veterans of our Armed Forces. I live in San Diego County, where we have almost 300,000 veterans. The national cemetery at Fort Rosecrans is out of space. There is no place for an honorable burial of a veteran in his or her hometown. We have to drive 100 miles or so to Riverside County, and that is just not what most families want to do with their loved ones. We have figured out an innovative solution in San Diego County that I want to share with my colleagues and hope that they help us pass a resolution from this Congress which would instruct the Department of Veterans Affairs to help us with this innovative solution. I have introduced H.R. 4806, the Honorable Burial for Veterans Act, along with my colleagues and the San Diego County delegation, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa). Each and every veteran in our county is concerned that upon his or her demise, interment may become a source of frustration for family and close friends. Many families are left with an impossible dilemma: cremation, where only a few spaces actually exist in the columbarum, or a ground burial at a cemetery a 2-hour drive away. We should not force this decision on the families of our Nation's veterans. When we called on them to serve, they did not hesitate. Now, in their last hour, a grateful Nation should not hesitate to assist their families. My colleagues and I want to build a second National Cemetery in San Diego, and we are on the list to do that. In fact, it may take a decade or more before we get around to doing that cemetery on the VA list. In the meantime, we should not abandon our veterans' families in their time of grief. My bill would provide San Diego with an interim solution. A local effort among the private sector and local authorities and veterans' organizations has produced what I would consider to be an excellent pilot program. Two parcels of land, about 20 acres each, have been identified in the northern and southern parts of our county in what are now private cemeteries. They have offered this land to the Veterans Administration free of charge to become what we will call satellite cemeteries to the National Cemetery in our county. We have a generous offer of land from the Service Corporation International which would be donated to a 501(c)(3) organization, the Veterans Memorial Center and Museum in San Diego, who will then turn that over to the Department of Veterans Affairs. I thank all the folks who have tried to come up with this solution back in San Diego: the general manager of the Glen Abbey Memorial Park; the regional president, western regional president of Service Corporation International, Richard Sells; and to Colonel Jesse Ugade, Brigadier General Robert Cardenas, Captain Tom Splitgerber, and David Brown, co- publisher and editor of the Veterans Journal of San Diego County, because they have devoted enormous hours in an attempt to find a solution for San Diego's veterans. My bill would authorize the establishment of this satellite cemetery pilot project. It is not the ideal solution, but we have to wait for two decades to get that ideal solution for families who have served our Nation. With our limited Federal budget, families can in fact be helped by an innovative and creative effort to meet our national needs. The Veterans Administration had a negative reaction when this first was broached to them. Any bureaucracy, it seems, does not look at innovative ideas with a very encouraging light. So I hope to get a bill passed by Congress which would direct the VA to do this. Certainly providing a final resting place for our brave veterans must be one of our top priorities. I hope my colleagues will support this bill to see how it works in San Diego because it might be useful in their own communities also.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to remind the Members of this House that on Thursday, June 13, at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, there will be a hearing before the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, conducted by the honorable gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran), who happens to be in the room tonight, who is the chairman of that subcommittee, on the issue of health care for Filipino World War II veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is not a normal hearing, Mr. Speaker, but it is the culmination of almost 60 years, 60 years, of a struggle for justice and honor. During World War II, the brave Filipino soldiers were drafted into our Armed Forces by President Franklin Roosevelt. After being called into service, the soldiers served side by side with forces from the United States mainland, exhibited great courage at the epic battles of Bataan and Corregidor, and were instrumental in contributing to the successful outcome of the war. They held up the Japanese advance far beyond their calendar so we were able to prepare and harass the Japanese with guerrilla warfare during the whole time of the Japanese occupation. And what did we do after we won the war in the Pacific and in Europe? We unceremoniously deprived these soldiers of the veterans' benefits due them by the Congressional Rescissions Act passed in 1946. Whereas there was almost a quarter of a million soldiers involved in that war from the Philippines, today there are only 60,000 who are still alive. Their last wish, Mr. Speaker, is to have the honor and dignity of being recognized by the United States as a veteran of World War II. At this hearing on Thursday, June 13, literally a living American history will be presented to the American public. We will have testimony, both oral and written, from Filipino World War II veterans, some of whom are survivors of the infamous Death March of Bataan. We will hear testimony from Filipino veterans' organizations and from veterans' service organizations, like the American Legion, the Vietnam Veterans of America, and the Disabled American Veterans. The ambassador from the Philippines, the Honorable Albert Del Rosario, will be a witness, as will several Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. A special guest witness will be Lou Diamond Phillips, born in the Philippines, and an international star, with roles in movies, television and theater. Phillips is most well-known for his role in ``La Bamba,'' for which he received great critical acclaim. He has also starred in ``Stand and Deliver,'' ``Young Guns,'' and ``Courage Under Fire.'' We welcome him and all the others who will be testifying to the need to provide Filipino World War II veterans with the recognition that is their due. Mr. Speaker, let us recognize the bravery and gallantry of Filipino veterans. Let us give them equity, because their bravery helped us win World War II. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran), for having this hearing, and I invite all the Members of this House to attend the historic June 13 meeting.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to salute a remarkable woman from my hometown of San Diego, CA. On Saturday, June 1, 2002, Judy Beal, President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9509, will be honored as San Diego's Labor Leader of the Year by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council. While a native of National City, CA, in my Congressional District, Judy grew up in a small town 75 miles east of San Diego, Jacumba, CA. She earned her Associate Arts Degree in Criminal Justice Administration at San Diego City College, and then attended the George Meany Center for Labor Studies at Antioch University, earning a B.A. Degree in Labor Studies. Judy began her career working for Pacific Telephone in El Centro, CA in 1964. Within two weeks of beginning her employment, she joined the Federation of Women Telephone Workers (FWTW) and became an active steward. While in El Centro, she worked with Cesar Chavez to organize migrant workers. She transferred to San Diego and, when FWTW merged with CWA, Judy became actively involved. In CWA, Judy has held many positions including Lobbyist, Organizer, Steward, District Steward, Assistant to the Chief Steward, Chief Steward and Local 9509 President for the past 6 years. During her Union career, Judy has negotiated approximately 25 labor contracts, plant closure agreements, work share programs and wage re- openers. She has written training material and instructed classes for basic and advanced stewards, collective bargaining, organizing, and labor law for both, the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act. She has lobbied in Sacramento, CA and Washington, DC for numerous bills pertaining to the needs of working families. Judy is a staunch supporter of life long learning and has promoted education by constantly looking for new areas within the technical environment to offer training to members and their families. Mr. Speaker, thousands of San Diegans enjoy a higher quality of life because of the efforts of Judy Beal--San Diego's Labor Leader of the Year.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time. I want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra) for their strong defense of the liberties of our citizens no matter where they are. And I would say to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) who has become so expert on what is going on at the border, I was at the border with him in San Diego and I was at those hearings and I did those tours. And there was nothing in those hearings that could lead me to the conclusion that he has stated here in favor of the basic bill. I represent a border district. I represent the southernmost area of California that borders Mexico. After next year I will represent the whole California/Mexico border. In fact, I represent the border crossing in which there are the most people crossing of any place in the world; and I have represented this area for a decade and a half. So I think I know something about what is going on there and what we can achieve and what we can protect. I think we can do both. We can provide customs with the tools that they need to do their job, and we can protect the constitutional rights of my constituents and citizens from all over this country. We had a very good bill, I am told, that would have received a large vote in support; but the bill that came to the floor sacrificed privacy under the guise of security, and so we have the Waters substitute, which I am speaking in favor of. The immunity that is requested has not been really supported by customs. They have not made the case of why the current standard of qualified immunity is insufficient. Officers are already protected from the unwarranted claims as we have heard many times before. As far as the mail goes, we inspect mail that comes into this country because we do not know what it might contain. But with the mail going out, our privacy should not be unduly invaded. As we have heard several times, customs can search the mail already if they get a warrant. They can hold the mail if it is suspicious. But we should not authorize a wholesale opening of mail without a warrant. Mr. Chairman, in these United States of America even in 2002, even after September 11, we should not try to guarantee the security of our Nation by crushing the civil rights of our people. This is not the way to go. Support the substitute. Vote down the basic bill.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I thank the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), for his enthusiastic and incredible farsightedness in sponsoring this legislation which will set up, as we have heard, four new emergency medical preparedness centers within the Department of Veterans Affairs. These centers obviously expand what is already a leadership role in the areas of emergency preparedness, research, education and prevention of bioterrorism and is consistent with the challenges that VA is already meeting at both the local and national level. In the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11, the VA, of course, was front and center, contributing its expertise wherever possible, especially in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in New York City and right here in our own backyard. VA research has long been recognized as ground breaking, with benefits that extend beyond our reach and improve the lives of veterans and countless others. As we have heard from our chairman at the VA medical center in my hometown of San Diego, they have found a promising treatment for smallpox. This kind of effort will save potentially thousands of lives and highlights the kind of contributions that the VA is already making to our public health and safety. We should take VA's existing infrastructure and strengths to even greater heights. That is what H.R. 3253 does. At earlier meetings of our subcommittee and committee, concerns were expressed whether the funding for these new centers would impinge on the funding of our already-strapped funds for our veterans and their medical and benefit needs now. I was glad to hear that the chairman has said that the cost of these centers will come from antiterrorist funds already appropriated. With that concern met, I think we should all vote for H.R. 3253. It will help us prepare for the future. Let us support this measure.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time, I thank the chairman for bringing us this bill, and I thank especially the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran), for making sure that we had this bill passed in the coming year. Mr. Speaker, I also thank the chairman for his kind words about Ms. Cowins. We are looking forward to seeing her in San Diego. I am sorry the Navy got her. I wanted to hire her for a job here. But we will see if they can keep her there. Mr. Speaker, we have heard about how necessary this construction is for the VA and how critical the construction needs are for our health facilities. There has been a gross underfunding of VA facilities for the past decade, and this is meant to start to catch up. The average age of our VA facilities is over a half century old. An aging infrastructure, like aging bodies, needs more than a band-aid and an aspirin. So this would allow the VA to carry out 10 major construction projects. I was pleased to know that 3 of these are in California, as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs said, in San Francisco and Los Angeles and in my hometown of San Diego, and I am pleased and relieved that we are able to do this for the San Diego Medical Center in San Diego County. In fact, this is one of the 6 health care facilities that will be authorized to meet safety codes in the event of an earthquake. The projects would improve the structural integrity of a building that serves a growing metropolitan veteran population each year and houses almost 2,500 VA employees. This bill would also raise the threshold for what are called major construction projects to those that cost more than $6 million, thus allowing the Secretary more flexibility for approving minor construction projects and keeping pace with the rising cost of construction across the country. I believe that we have an obligation to help the VA maintain a safe and decent health care system. I would also urge our committee to consider legislation down the line to meet new needs in our National Cemetery System. While the VA does not have enough funds to meet the needs around the country, I would urge upon our committee to examine new ways of looking at this. For example, in San Diego, 2 private cemeteries have agreed to cede over to the Veterans Administration land on which veterans from San Diego could be buried. We have called these satellite cemeteries, and we will be introducing legislation to try to get these authorized in the coming year. While the VA administration has tentatively said that that gives them new bureaucratic problems, I believe that veterans around this Nation deserve an honorable burial right in their hometowns. If we have to find new ways to do that, then this House ought to do that. So, Mr. Speaker, we are here to approve H.R. 4514. Our veterans deserve no less, and I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, we have had in this Nation in recent weeks several high-profile train accidents, one in Southern California and one in Florida. In light of these accidents and in light of ongoing problems with railroad safety, I have asked the chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroad on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Quinn), and his ranking member, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Clement), to hold a hearing and consider new legislation on railroad safety. As my colleagues know, an Amtrak auto train crashed and derailed near Crescent City, Florida, last month. While the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating, we have to wonder if the four deaths and over 100 injuries could have been prevented by the previous enactment by this body of real railroad safety legislation. In the Southern California crash, a Burlington Northern engineer and conductor missed a yellow light that should have signaled them to slow their freight train down. Instead, they barreled head on into a Metrolink commuter train, killing two people and injuring almost 200 more. We simply cannot tolerate any more of these preventable accidents. Various investigators in the media have looked at these accidents. In Los Angeles, the KCBS station said in a report: ``Apparently there was no warning, no audible alarms, no automatic breaking system on the Burlington Northern train in Southern California. It all came down to one yellow traffic light and only two pairs of eyes. If they had seen that yellow signal, they would have had time to stop and prevented the accident.'' According to the Federal Railroad Administration, the number one cause of train accidents today, and there is one every 90 minutes in this country, Mr. Speaker, is human error. And most of that human error comes from fatigue. We know that. And yet this body has not acted. The leading expert in this Congress on railroad safety is my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar). He has introduced in the past, and he will introduce again tomorrow, a bill which should have been enacted many, many years ago. This year it is called the Railroad Safety Reform Act of 2002. The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and I will introduce this tomorrow in this body. The bill goes into fatigue of employees of railroads; it goes into how employees and witnesses ought to be protected against any intimidation by railroad owners. It talks about grade crossing safety and passenger service safety standards, rulemaking and enforcement, and talks about technology. Unfortunately, my colleagues, the technology on railroads in this Nation today, the freight railroad system specifically, goes back to the 1930s. We have to do a better job of protecting both the employees and our constituents from railroad accidents in the future. We can regulate, as we do with the airline industry, hours of work, amount of rest that is needed, amount of warning before people have to go on in shifts. Today, there are no such schedules. People can be required to go to work with just 2 hours' notice. If they work less than 12, they only have 8 hours off the next day. If they work more than 12, they are only guaranteed 10 hours off. These rules do not even take into account travel time from the worker's home. So the folks who are driving these trains, who are working as conductors, can be dead tired, literally dead tired, with the rules that we have today. If I may quote one more time, Mr. Speaker, from the KCBS-TV report. They interviewed several employees from trains that have had accidents, and they acknowledge that they are tired. Their eyes are open, but they are just not there. There was one time a guy had fallen asleep and looked over and found his fellow conductor had also fallen asleep. Both of those in the locomotive were asleep at one time. One of the engineers says he averages 330 workdays a year. My colleagues, we have to take these accidents seriously. Let us have this hearing. Let us mark up the bill of the gentleman from Minnesota and let us pass the Railroad Safety Reform Act of 2002.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I be removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 448.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) for yielding me the time. I rise in support of the Kucinich and Progressive Caucus substitute to H.R. 3763. This substitute restores integrity to investor-owned companies by ensuring that the investors and taxpayers and employees get an accurate assessment of a corporation. We know that the Enron debacle demonstrated how corrupting the so- called free market is when corporate officials and auditing firms are intertwined. When we create the Federal bureau of audits we remove this corrupting influence, and appointments for 12 years remove the temptation of Congress to tamper with the watchdog duties. So let us remove the conflict of interest between corporations and auditing firms they can hire and fire. We can guarantee shareholders accurate and impartial information about their investments, and that is the true free market solution to this problem. The underlying bill is more than a no no bill. It is a no no no no no no no no no bill because does the bill help the SEC recover ill-gotten gains from corporate executives? No. Does it make CEOs responsible for their companies' public disclosures? No. Does it help the SEC send those who commit fraud to jail? No. Does it bar bad executives from serving in other companies? No. Does it make auditors independent? No. Does it ensure the oversight board is independent? No. Does it give the oversight board a clear mandate? No. Does it require auditors to be rotated? No. Does it close the revolving doors between accountants and their clients? No. The underlying bill could be termed the Ken Lay Protection Act. We can no longer have the fox guarding the hen house. The Kucinich amendment fixes the problem.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 95, I was attending a U.S./ Mexico conference on border environmental issues. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 94, I was attending a U.S./ Mexico conference on border environmental issues. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 93, I was attending a U.S./ Mexico conference on border environmental issues. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to honor Tadele Worku, recipient of the 2001 Yoshiyama Award for Exemplary Service to the Community, presented to him by The Hitachi Foundation at an awards ceremony on Monday, March 18, 2002 in Washington, DC. The Foundation named ten high school seniors nationwide as recipients of this prestigious award--ten young people who exemplify the best in creativity, accomplishment, and service to their communities. Tadele is a 2001 graduate of Hoover High School in my home town of San Diego, California. He is receiving this award to recognize his contribution to the Ethiopian community in San Diego. Upon his arrival as a refugee from Ethiopia four years ago, he became aware that Ethiopian children in his neighborhood did not know how to read and write their native language. Tadele set to work to develop a tutoring program for these children. While their parents attended church, he worked with their children, teaching the Ethiopian alphabet and language and exposing them to the Ethiopian literature, tradition, and culture. In addition, Tadele provided tutoring in math and science to the children who needed assistance. He also worked with young adults in the computer center of the local library and volunteered in a San Diego homeless shelter. By becoming so involved in service to others, Tadele has truly become a part of his new community, a bond which has helped him overcome a difficult exile from Africa where his mother and grandfather were killed and his father incarcerated for their political beliefs. The Yoshiyama Award, which Tadele has received, was established in 1988 with a gift from Hirokichi Yoshiyama, former president and chairman of Hitachi, Ltd., the company that established The Hitachi Foundation in 1985. The goal of this non-profit, philanthropic Foundation is to promote social responsibility through effective participation in global society. The Hitachi Foundation is proud to highlight the achievements of the young people of our country, the leaders of their generation. I am pleased to take this opportunity to congratulate Tadele Worku on this prestigious award and to thank him for his compassionate commitment to his community.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. I thank the Chair for bringing us this bill. I speak in favor of the bill, and I want to talk to part of the bill that has not been fully vetted yet. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth), if he is interested in security at a time of war, let us remember that in this bill we have 1,000 extra INS inspectors authorized to help us secure the border, 200 INS inspectors and investigators each year added for the next 5 years. I will tell my colleagues, I represent the biggest city on the southern border, San Diego. Soon I will represent the whole California border with Mexico. We are interested in securing at this time of war; but we are also interested in making sure our economy stays strong, and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) ought to know, since his own State is also involved in this, that the legal crosser from Mexico, the shopper, the family member, the person going to school, the legal crosser, sustains our border economy to a great degree. My communities in Calexico and Tecate and San Diego rely 90 percent on the legal crosser to keep our economy going. We can do both, Mr. Speaker. We can have the security that we need, and we can have the free movement that our economy also requires. That means we need more people and we need better technology to guard the borders. That is what this bill is moving toward. We are moving toward more inspectors so we can make sure that we keep out illegal people, drugs and terrorists; but we also need for people not to have to wait 3, 4, 5, 8 hours at the border for a legal crosser to go to school legally, to shop legally, to see their family members legally. That is what the border communities are interested in. Yes, security; yes, protection. But let us have that binational culture that is so much a part of our southern border, not just cut off at this time of emergency. We can do both, Mr. Speaker. We can keep the security. We can keep the flow for commerce that is necessary. I support this bill.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 50, I was conducting official business in my San Diego, California district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 48, I was conducting official business in my San Diego, California district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 49, I was conducting official business in my San Diego, California, district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 47 (H. Con. Res. 305) I was conducting official business in my San Diego California district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I have introduced this evening legislation that calls for a special prosecutor to be named to look into the whole Enron mess. Sure, this is a business scandal, and congressional committees are looking into reforms of our auditing practices of public corporations and the safety of employee pension plans. But this is a scandal that goes far beyond that. This is a scandal that shows the pervasive corruption in American politics. My legislation asks for a special prosecutor to look into the relationship between Enron and the manipulation of the stock market and its value per share; to look into the relationship between contributions by Enron to the President, the Vice President, Cabinet officers, other administration officials, and congresspeople. I am asking the prosecutor to look into the influence of Enron on Federal and State legislation, including, in particular, the effort to deregulate energy markets, both in States and in the Nation as a whole. Finally, I ask for the prosecutor to look into the relationship between Enron and our whole Federal and State regulatory system. When we went through the energy crisis in California in the summer of 2000 and since, many of us claimed that this was not a supply and demand crisis but a crisis of manipulation of our market; and, in fact, that criminal manipulation resulted in the theft of anywhere between $20 billion and $40 billion from California ratepayers. Enron and a small group of its friends in the energy industry were the perpetrators of this crime. We took evidence of that crime, many of us in California, to our supposed protector, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They investigated, or so they say, the situation, and they found no wrongdoing. In fact, now that the spotlight is burning brightly on Enron, FERC has suddenly announced that they are going to look into this matter again. Why, after an investigation which was smoke and mirrors, do they say, ``Let us look again''? I think this FERC, what I call the Federal Enron Rubber-Stamping Commission, wants to preempt other investigations and stop a real look into the relationship between Enron and the crimes that were committed in the electricity market in California. So we cannot let FERC, the Federal Enron Rubber-stamping Commission, take over this investigation. We must give this to an independent and thorough investigation by a special prosecutor. We have to go beyond the congressional investigations into the business practices of Enron and the problems that they caused, the tragedies they caused, because this is a bigger problem, and the American people should not allow this investigation to stop with only a few business reforms instituted and maybe one or two folks thrown into jail. They must demand the investigation of the whole corruption of our political system. We know about the contributions to both administrations in recent history. We know about the contributions to congresspeople. We know about the separate meetings Enron had with the Vice President and the energy task force of the White House over an 8-month period to determine the energy policy of this Nation. We know that the seventh biggest company in the United States, with revenues of over $100 billion, was making our energy policy. We know that Cabinet members came from Enron right into this administration. We know that the CEO of Enron, Ken Lay, personally submitted names and interviewed candidates to be members of our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We know the connections, close connections, between this administration and Enron. It was those connections that caused this scandal, and it was the connections between Enron and State legislatures and State legislators and State regulatory commissions and Federal regulatory commissions that caused their success. Not only the failure of Enron is what ought to be investigated but why they flew so high for so long and allowed the stealing of so many billions from so many people. So we have to look at Enron with a neutral, unbiased look. It seems to me that neither the administration nor this Congress can do that, so that is why I am calling for a special prosecutor. Enron must be fully examined so the American people can understand why and how our political system has been hijacked.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time to me, and I thank the chairman for bringing us this bill. I represent San Diego, California, home of the biggest border crossing between any two nations in the world. What we need more than anything is the dual job of stopping terrorists, but allowing the legal traffic to flow in an orderly fashion. Our businesses, our families, depend on a flow of traffic that can be predictable and it is regular. What the chairman has done, as I understand it, is put 200 more positions for INS inspectors annually for the next 5 years, which will allow us to do both the security and the flow that is absolutely necessary. I join the chairman in his regret that a jurisdictional dispute prevented Customs inspectors from being included in this bill, and I also join the gentleman in his call to bring that bill to us as quickly as possible. I am also pleased that the extension of the laser visa boarding crossing card has been extended for a year that will allow us to make sure that people can get that card and use it properly. I am disappointed that at the last minute, for some reason, section 601, what was section 601, that granted law enforcement status to INS inspectors, was removed. This is an absolute necessity, not only for the INS but for Customs and for many other Federal agencies. I hope that we can bring back that long-awaited adjustment of status for these law enforcement officers. We honor them if they die on the Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C., but as they live, they are not accorded that status. I join the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) in their regret that the 245 extension has been removed, but I thank the chairman for giving us the resources over the next few years to allow us to keep the Level I alert that is so absolutely necessary to keep out terrorism, but to allow the border to have the resources necessary to have the flow of legal traffic. I thank the gentlewoman for her time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding time to me; and I thank him for his always eloquent support for human rights around the world, and in this case tonight, for the victims of land mines. I thank him again for calling on this legislation. This legislation must reach the floor. We support the gentleman in that. Mr. Speaker, when bipartisanship reigns in this body, we do good things. We can bring the bill of the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) to the floor. We have brought the motion of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) to the floor reaffirming our friendship with the Philippines. I thank the gentleman for doing that. He and I were the first Congresspeople, in fact, to go to the Philippines to greet the new President when she took over last February, and we gave the greetings of this whole Congress and our support for her. We reaffirm that support in this resolution today. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask this body, however, to take one concrete move towards reaffirming that relationship that goes beyond this resolution. This resolution is wonderful, and we will get support for it. But the gentleman from California (Mr. Gilman) and I, supported by the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) and others in this room, have tried to get to the floor of this House the Filipino Veterans Equity Act, a bill which would truly reaffirm our friendship with the Philippines. More than 50 years ago, which this resolution talks about, 55 years ago Filipino soldiers were drafted into the United States Army by the President, President Roosevelt. They served well. In fact, we were able to hold up the Japanese advance through the efforts of the Philippine Army, under the direction of Douglas MacArthur. We were able to hold up the Japanese advance, throw off their time table and that helped us win the war in the Pacific. But how does this Congress react to thank the Filipino soldiers? We passed a law in 1946 to withdraw all the benefits that they were entitled to as veterans of the United States Army. Mr. Speaker, they were drafted into the Army. They fought honorably. They died in great numbers. They were with us through the whole war, the Bataan Death March, the Battle of Corregidor, and yet what did we do? We withdrew their benefits. It is 55 years later. Many of these brave soldiers are in their late 70's and early 80's. They are not going to be with us much longer. The best way we can reaffirm our ties to the Filipinos is to pass the equity act that has been sponsored by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman). This would say to the Filipino veterans, you were veterans, you have the honor and dignity that comes with that, so let us truly reaffirm our friendship and pass the Filipino Veterans Equity Act. I do thank the gentleman for his motion. The Burnhams are being held. We have to get them released. We have to help President Arroyo in her efforts to stamp out terrorism in her nation. Salamat, my colleague. And I say to our friendship, mabuhay.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to recognize and honor Mr. Dennis O'Dell of San Diego County who has been selected as the winner of the 2001 Maxine Waters Award for Courage, to be presented by AMVETS Post #66 on January 12, 2002 in Cathedral City, California. Dennis O'Dell is a resident of my Congressional District. He was born in September, 1949 in Maryville, Missouri to Doris V. Shell O'Dell and Norman C. O'Dell. His father was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the European-African-Middle East Theater Campaign Medal, along with others honors. Dennis was raised in El Segundo, California and attended El Segundo High, El Camino College in Torrance, and Penn Valley College in West Los Angeles. He served in the United States Marine Corps and received his honorable discharge in 1969. He began a career as a policeman in Missouri in 1979 and, after being wounded three years later, he became a business owner in Missouri. However, his roots were calling him back to California, and he returned in 1983, working for a Security Company in Beverly Hills and for the Santa Monica Airport Police. In 1986, he went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs as a Police Officer, was promoted to Police Detective a year later, and to Criminal Investigator in 1993. While working on criminal cases at the West LA VA Medical Center, Long Beach VA Medical Center, and the Sepulveda VA Medical Center, he had a conviction rate of 90%. He retired from the VA Police Department in 1995 after re-injuring his old wound while arresting three suspects who were attempting to sell drugs on the VA hospital grounds, and he has dedicated the past several years to veterans' causes. He is also a champion of the rights of workers, serving for several years as Union President/Business Agent of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Local 1061, at all veterans' hospitals in Southern California. He won 90% of his labor grievances with management during his term and helped to bring the Union local out of trusteeship and return it to the members. Dennis has been a Life Member of the California Narcotic Officers Association and of AMVETS Post#2 in Culver City. He is a member of the VVA Chapter #53 in Redondo Beach, the American legion Post #46 in Culver City, the Marine Corps League of San Diego East County, the Hermosa Beach Veterans Memorial Commission, the AMVETS National Committee on Homeless Veterans, the Advisory Committee of the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, and the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Committee. He has held elective office of the California Democratic Veterans Caucus. He serves on the Board of New Directions, a long-term program for homeless veterans with drug and alcohol addiction with a spectacular success rate of 85%. He helped New Directions raise $5 million to restore a 60,000 sq. foot, three story building with the assistance of Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Senator Dianne Feinstein, and helped to guide the donation of a new state of the art kitchen by AMVETS Department of California Service Foundation. Dennis is immediate Past State Commander of AMVETS, which has over 10,000 members in California. During his term, more women, people of color and gays joined AMVETS than any period in history. He also served AMVETS as Post #2 Commander, District 2 Finance Officer, Southern Area Commander, California Department Commander, and Trustee of the AMVETS Department of California Service Foundation. Through his participation in these many organizations, his achievements for veterans are too numerous to mention. He helped to get Veterans' Memorials in Hermosa Beach and in Palm Springs, and wheel chair buses for the VA in West Los Angeles and for the State Veterans Home in Chula Vista. He has handed out over 4000 blankets to homeless veterans, he started a web site for California AMVETS, and helped in writing a Veteran Plank for the California Democratic Party Platform. The Maxine Waters Award for Courage, which Dennis is receiving, is named for Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Representative of California's 35th Congressional District who has been invited to attend the award ceremony. Dennis made headlines when he gave a key to Congresswoman Waters so she could make an unannounced inspection of a VA hospital locked-down psychiatric ward. The Congresswoman found the conditions deplorable, and sweeping reform took place. Dennis has shown other courageous action by walking with Maxine Waters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, with the news media, from his union headquarters to the Director's Office of the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center to hand over thousands of pages of documents to the Director showing the alleged misappropriation of funds and misuse of VA land at this Medical Center. He undertakes these courageous actions despite the fact that he has had severe heart problems. As a Member of the House of Representatives Veterans' Affairs Committee, I thank Dennis O'Dell for his dedication and for his achievements on behalf of our nation's veterans. I am pleased to recognize Dennis O'Dell for his service to veterans and to congratulate him as the recipient of the Maxine Waters Award for Courage.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1291, the Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001. The bill includes much needed increases in benefits for our Nation's veterans, and I would like to comment on a couple of them. First, I am very pleased that the provisions in my bill, H.R. 442, were substantively included in the larger bill. H.R. 1291 would increase from $50,750 to $60,000 the maximum amount of the home loan guaranty available to veterans and servicemembers under the Department of Veterans Affairs' home loan program. This increase is necessary to keep pace with the rising cost of housing, particularly in areas where the cost of housing is higher than in other parts of the country. This action is part of our duty to provide adequate funds for the vital programs that serve our Nation's veterans. The amount of this guaranty has not increased since 1994. During the past seven years, the cost of housing has increased nationwide, and in some areas it has skyrocketed! Benefits for veterans must keep up with such increases if we are to keep our commitment to our veterans. My bill, H.R. 442, would have provided a VA home loan guaranty increase to $63,175 which would allow a maximum amount for a home loan of $252,000. Although the amount of increase in H.R. 1291 is slightly less than in my bill, due to paygo requirements, I welcome this interim step which will allow the maximum amount for a home loan to rise to $250,000. Further increases are needed before this valuable program can regain its intended utility, and I fully intend to keep fighting for these increases in the future. Likewise, I am supportive of the provision to restore educational assistance to participants in VA programs who are receiving benefits for classes that they are unable to complete because they have been called to duty to support the nation in times of global conflict. And, while I am convinced we can and must do more, this bill will provide a sorely needed increase in the amount of educational benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB). Veterans must remain one of our top priorities! I urge my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 1291.