Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, today I recognize A.O. Reed & Company, as it is honored by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO, at its 12th annual Worker's Memorial Dinner with its Spirit of Cooperation Award. A.O. Reed, founded in 1914, is one of the largest and most respected locally owned construction companies. The company has been in continuous business in San Diego for over eighty years, and it is responsible for some of the largest, most complex projects in the San Diego area, including the East Terminal at Lindbergh Field, Hyatt Regency San Diego, San Diego Marriott Hotel, Kaiser Hospital, Salk Cancer Research Facility, Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Marine Biology, California State Prison, Idec Pharmaceutical, and Callaway Golf Ball Facility. With this Labor Council Spirit of Cooperation award, we honor their long-standing support for the trade union movement. A.O. Reed employees are compensated with wages and benefits that lead the industry. Their employees receive the best training available through state-approved apprenticeship and journeyman training programs. A.O. Reed management has demonstrated an admirable commitment to the collective bargaining process. A.O. Reed is also a consistent leader in charitable giving. They donate labor and materials to those in the San Diego community who are in need of plumbing and mechanical services. This award recognizes their contribution to San Diego and honors their partnership with Plumbers and Pipefitter Local 230 and Sheetmetal Workers Local 206. My congratulations go to A.O. Reed & Company for these significant contributions.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) for yielding me the time, and the gentlemen from California (Mr. Gallegly) for bringing this bill to the floor. I, too, rise in support of H.R. 3293, which creates a plaque to honor Vietnam veterans who died as a result of the Vietnam War, but who are just not eligible under the rules to have their names placed directly on the Vietnam War Memorial. Like my own bill, H. Con. Res. 134, this will honor the many individuals who served in the armed forces in Vietnam and who later died as a result of illnesses and conditions associated with service in that war. Many Vietnam veterans, for example, have died from exposure to Agent Orange or from posttraumatic stress syndrome. A small plaque will be placed on the 13-acre parcel that surrounds the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but not on the Wall or in front of the Wall. In this way, the plaque will not interfere with the integrity of the Memorial, but will add a place for families to mourn and remember their loved ones who served honorably and who died years after the war because of their service. This bill has been endorsed by many veterans groups, including but not limited to the Vietnam Veterans of America, the VFW, AMVETS, Vietnam Women's Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Association, American Gold Star Mothers, and the Agent Orange Widows Awareness Coalition. I join the 290 cosponsors of this bill from a bipartisan call for passage of this bill, and I thank, again, the gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly) for his leadership.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an intolerable situation in America today, the lack of prescription drug insurance coverage in our Medicare program. Seniors are simply not receiving the prescription drug coverage that they so desperately need. Prescription drugs did not play a significant role in health care when Medicare was created back in 1965, but today the advances in pharmaceuticals have made prescription drugs a fundamental part of the typical senior's health care. While seniors represent only 12 percent of the population, they account for more than one-third, more than one-third, Mr. Speaker, of the prescription drugs used in our country each year. The typical American who is 65 or older uses 18 prescription drugs a year, and 85 percent of the beneficiaries of Medicare fill at least one prescription per year for such conditions as osteoporosis, hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes, or depression. It is obvious, Mr. Speaker, that the need is there for prescription drug coverage. We must defend the seniors of America from the rising costs of medicine, which monthly worsens the situation for those without prescription drug coverage. The price for the 50 drugs most commonly used by seniors increased at nearly twice the rate of inflation last year. The prices for prescription drugs rose faster than any other category of health care, increasing by more than 15 percent, while total health care costs rose by less than 6 percent. In my San Diego Congressional District on the United States-Mexico border, thousands of our citizens are forced to cross the international border to find the drugs they need at a much lower cost. Why is such a trip necessary for American citizens? How can seniors find the money that they need to purchase these vital drugs? Many are on fixed incomes. Many do not have the choice of a high paying job with good private medical plans. Think about your parents; think about your grandparents. We are forcing them to choose between food on the one hand and essential prescription drugs that protect their quality of life on the other. Mr. Speaker, this is a choice that no American should have to make. The President has proposed a plan that would extend prescription drug coverage to all seniors, provide lower premiums for Medicare beneficiaries and contain the rising costs of pharmaceuticals. Let us work together to make life-saving prescription drugs available to all of America's seniors.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I join my other colleagues today to discuss one of the greatest unrecognized tragedies of the 20th Century, you have heard it by the previous speakers, that is the Armenian genocide. April 24th marks the 85th anniversary of the start of the first genocide of the 1900's. Before the Holocaust there was the Armenian genocide. It took place between 1915 and 1923 in the Ottoman Empire. In April of 1915, a weak Ottoman Empire ordered mass deportations of Armenians. This was carried out swiftly and systematically on official orders from the government of the Ottoman Empire. Forced marches resulted in the deaths of over 1 million Armenians. Armenian men of military age were rounded up, marched for several miles and shot dead throughout eastern Anatolia. Women, children, and the elderly, many subjected to rape, were forced to leave their homeland and move to relocation centers in the Syrian desert. During these long marches, no food, water, or shelter was provided. Many died of disease or exhaustion, and survivors were subjected to forcible conversion to Islam. The annihilation of such a large portion of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire led to the loss of many lives and the dream of an Armenian homeland. Surviving Armenians fled to the then Soviet Union, the United States, and other parts of the world in pursuit of their basic freedoms. Many Armenians live and work in my congressional district in San Diego. Their history and story need to be shared and embraced. Today, our NATO ally, Turkey, has repeatedly denied the execution of over 1 million Armenians. The denial of this atrocity has proved beneficial for Turkey's foreign policy. The murder of Armenians, a massacre based on cultural and religious beliefs, goes on officially unnoticed, and the United States maintains a favorable relationship and strategic partnership with Turkey. Mr. Speaker, because of these reasons, I have joined my colleagues in cosponsoring House Resolution 398, the United States Training on and Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Resolution. This resolution provides training and educational materials to all Foreign Service and State Department officials concerning the Armenian genocide. It is time for our country to stand up and recognize this tragic event. When Hitler conceived of the idea to exterminate the Jewish population, he noted the lack of consequences by saying, ``Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?'' Mr. Speaker, today I and my colleagues speak of the annihilation of the Armenians, and we ask our other colleagues to join in this cause. The story of the Armenian genocide, the forgotten genocide, deserves to be told and understood. We owe it to the Armenians. We owe it to mankind.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, today I testified before the VA, HUD Appropriations Subcommittee. In that testimony which follows, I emphasized our duty to provide adequate funds for the vital programs that serve our Nation's veterans. I am pleased that the administration's budget for the year 2001 recognizes that the men and women who have served in uniform deserve an adequate budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA], and I believe that the efforts of many members of the House VA Committee and the efforts of our veterans' service organizations, specifically in formulating the Independent Budget, have been instrumental in producing a much better budget proposal than last year. I want to acknowledge these efforts. The $1.4 billion increase in the health care budget will assure our aging and disabled veterans who need medical care--especially long-term care, emergency care and specialized services--that their needs are a high priority. However, I join my colleagues and the authors of this year's Independent Budget in objecting to the proposal that $350 million of new resources for medical care authorized by the recently passed Veterans Millennium Act be deposited to the Treasury. Funds collected from veterans for the provision of veterans' health care should be used to enhance the health care for veterans--not as a substitute for appropriated dollars. I also want to emphasize my continuing concern that the VA is not adequately meeting the benefit and health care needs of veterans who served in the Gulf war and who now suffer from various diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities. It has been almost 10 years since the men and women of our armed services were sent to the gulf! The veterans of the Gulf war are sick with illnesses whose causes and cures remain a mystery. We must not relax our efforts to fund necessary and appropriate research. I join the authors of the Independent Budget in supporting an increase in funding for VA medical research, and specifically request that the medical research budget be increased by $65 million as recommended in the Independent Budget and that at least $30 million of that increase be directed to research involving the health of Gulf war veterans. As our veterans population ages, the need for long-term care increases. One means of providing access to such care is through the funding of State Veterans Homes. A new home will be opening in April in my congressional district, and already there is a waiting list. I want other areas to have the same opportunity as the veterans in the San Diego region will have with the opening of this new home. Therefore, I am opposed to the proposed decrease in funding for State Homes and urge this committee to provide adequate funding for this critical program. I am also pleased that this administration has recognized what Members of Congress have known for years. Additional personnel are needed if the VA is to promptly and accurately adjudicate claims for compensation and pension benefits. This budget will help to provide a well-trained corps of adjudicators to replace those who are nearing retirement age. I want to emphasize that the continued loss of experienced adjudicators over the past 7 years together with an increased workload in the number of issues which must be decided in each claim have led to serious problems of quality and timeliness. The increased staffing in this budget is essential to stem the tide of deterioration in claims processing. As a former college professor, I recognize the value of a quality education for our Nation's veterans. I am disappointed that no increase for the G.I. bill is provided in the administration's budget. The G.I. bill currently provides far less than is needed to obtain an education at a public institution, and I support raising the basic education benefit. I have joined with The Partnership for Veterans' Education, a coalition representing a number of associations advocating on behalf of veterans, in calling, as a first step, for an increase in the basic monthly stipend from $535 to $975 a month. Veterans comprise about one-third of our Nation's homeless population, but only 3 percent of HUD funding for the homeless is directed to specific programs for homeless veterans. I strongly urge this committee to heed the testimony of Ms. Heather French, Miss America 2000, and allocate $750,000 from the HUD fiscal year 2001 appropriation to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans to provide technical assistance to homeless providers. This assistance is critically needed to help veteran specific homeless programs receive a fair share of Federal funding for our Nation's homeless veterans. I also urge the committee to fund the Department of Labor's Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program [HVRP] at its authorized level of $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2001. These programs are effective in placing homeless veterans in taxpaying jobs. They work and should be funded. The administration's budget proposal recommends paying full disability benefits to Filipino World War II veterans who reside in the United States. Currently, these brave veterans who were drafted into service by President Roosevelt receive only half the amount received by their counterparts--U.S. veterans with whom they fought side by side to defeat our mutual enemy. I support this increase as an important step toward equity for Filipino World War II veterans. However, more is needed. Because Congress, in 1946, rescinded the health care benefits for most of these veterans, Congressman Gilman and I have introduced legislation, H.R. 1594, to provide access to VA medical facilties--both in the United States and in the Philippines-- for Filipino World War II veterans. Health care is a crucial need for these men who are now in their 70s and 80s! $30 million is all that is required to provide health care access to Filipino veterans, with the same priority status as veterans currently using the VA. I request that this amount be added to the fiscal year 2001 budget. As we honor our veterans during their lives, so must we honor their remembrance in death. The administration's increase in funding for the National Cemetery System will improve the appearance of our cemeteries by a long-overdue and much needed renovation of grounds, gravesites, and grave-markers. I urge this committee to fund the National Cemetery Administration and the State Cemetery Grants at the levels recommended by the House Veterans Affairs' Committee. Again, may I say that the proposal before you represents a fine starting point. I hope that my suggestions will be useful as the members of this committee work toward a budget that gives our Nation's veterans a fair deal.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I introduced a resolution, House Resolution 461, to ask for the freedom of Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak as well as the lifting of the ban on the Kurdish language and culture in Turkey. Now, these names may be unfamiliar to some, but the names I just read are those of Kurdish parliamentarians, Kurdish Congress members who have been in prison, yes, Mr. Speaker, in prison as Congresspeople for the last 6 years. The language and culture that they represent are the Kurds, an indigenous people of the Middle East who live in an ancient land called Kurdistan. These representatives are in prison solely because they are Kurds, and the Kurds are not free because their land is ruled by Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Now, this body has previously heard of the name Leyla Zana who, according to The New York Times, is the most famous Kurdish dissident in the world. This country has heard of the Kurds because Saddam Hussein gassed them with his chemical and biological weapons in 1988 and threatened to do so again in 1991. But neither this country nor this body has really paid any attention to the plight of the Kurds living as they still do on their ancient lands and still persecuted now even as I speak by the governments in Ankara, Damascus, Tehran, and Baghdad. Mr. Speaker, I am going to restrict my commentary today to Turkey, because it is a country we honor as an ally, we support as a friend and we favor as a partner. Turkey boasts of having a sophisticated U.S. arsenal in its inventory: M-16 machine guns, M-60 battle tanks, Cobra attack helicopters, and F-16 fighter planes. American Special Forces in fact train Turkish commandoes in Turkey. Turkish leaders are fond of referring to their people as an ``army nation'' and talks are now under way to supply Turkey with an additional 145 attack helicopters worth $4 billion. Now, is Turkey really worthy of these investments? Have our fighter planes, our attack helicopters, our battle tanks, and our machine guns protected the liberty of its citizens? Why are we training Turkish commandoes who are known to behead their victims and haul their dead bodies behind armored vehicles? In Turkey today, Mr. Speaker, I note with trepidation that liberty is under assault. Cultural genocide is the law of the land. A way of life known as Kurdish is disappearing at an alarming rate. Mr. Speaker, we are not always as a country indifferent to the plight of the Kurds. Our 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, supported the right of subject peoples to self-determination. In an address to the Senate on January 22, 1917 he said: No nation should seek to extend its policy over any other nation or people but that every people should be left free to determine its own polity, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful. Three months after this statement, the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies. The war cry ``making the world safe for democracy'' resonated with subject peoples all over the world and families from North Africa to Central Europe and people who named their sons after our President. But the prophetic words of President Wilson were disregarded, especially in the Ottoman provinces. The Armenians were massacred and the Kurds were subdued after the emergence of the Turkish republic. What followed has been chronicled as nothing other than a slow-motion genocide. In Turkey, a people known to historians as the Kurds and a land known to geographers as Kurdistan simply disappeared from the official discourse overnight just 1 year after the inception of the young Turkish republic. The Kurds, said the Turkish officials, were not really Kurds but mountain Turks and their land was not really Kurdistan but eastern Turkey. This act of social engineering and historical revisionism has been propagated as the law of the land ever since. Thousands of Kurds have died in rebellion after rebellion. Millions have been uprooted. Some wish to raise a Rest in Peace sign over the entire Kurdish nation. Perhaps of all the stories that have come out of the Kurdish land administered by the Turks, that of Layla Zana captures the essence of what it means to be a Kurd in Turkey. She was born in 1961 in a small Kurdish village near Farqin. Her earliest recollections of the Turks were either as tax collectors or as soldiers. In elementary school the lone Turkish teacher that she had told her she should learn Turkish because it was the language of the civilization. She was able to go to school for only 3 years. Then she worked on a farm, helped out in the house and occasionally heard of the name Mehdi Zana, who was her future husband, as the rising star of Kurdish politics. In fact in 1976, she married Mehdi Zana and moved to the largest Kurdish city in the world known as Amed, or Diyarbakir, in northern Kurdistan. In 1977, Mehdi Zana was elected to the post of mayor of the city. Turkish officials were appalled. Here was an ardent Turkish nationalist who managed to earn the trust of his fellow Kurds. The city Amed was put under siege. Its funds were frozen. Mayor Zana appealed to his European colleagues for help. French mayors responded by giving 30 buses and trucks filled with office supplies and for a short while the bus fares in the city were simply abolished. Leyla Zana's education in politics began in those tumultuous years. On September 12, 1980, a general in the Turkish army named Kenan Evren declared himself the supreme leader of the country. He deposed the elected government and dissolved the parliament. His soldiers then began arresting dissidents, especially the Kurds. The rising star of Kurdish politics, Mehdi Zana, was high on their list. Twelve days later, he was arrested without any charges being posted. And for the next 8 years, he would be tortured in the infamous Diyarbakir military prison. He would witness the death of 57 of his friends. But through it all he did not break, he endured as did his wife and small children. Mehdi Zana was kept in prison for 3 additional years in various Turkish prisons in Turkey proper. He has chronicled his ordeals in a book entitled Prison No. 5, now available in bookstores in this country as well as on amazon.com. I had the fortune of meeting this nonviolent champion of Kurdish rights a couple of years ago and was humbled by the generosity of his feelings toward his tormentors. Like President Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Mehdi Zana does not seek revenge. He wants peace for himself and his family and his people. In words that still haunt me, he urged me to speak out against the slow motion genocide against the Kurds. ``The Armenians,'' he noted, ``were massacred. The Kurds are being put to permanent sleep.'' Mr. Speaker, Leyla Zana's schooling consisted of adversity, torture, humiliation, and State-sanctioned persecution that has never slackened to this day. She had given birth to a son when Mehdi was the Mayor of Amed and would later give birth to a daughter after her husband's arrest. She would learn Turkish the hard way, from the police who harassed her for being the wife of a popular mayor, and the courts who ruled that he was a trader and deserved to die. In 1998, she herself was thrown into jail and endured abuse, humiliation, and torture for organizing the wives of Kurdish political prisoners to demand visitation rights. Although behind bars, the authorities, fearing a chain reaction, gave in to these mothers' demands, and Layla Zana has related this brush with the police as a turning point in her awakening as a political activist. She began reading voraciously, wrote for various publications, passed a proficiency exam for a high school diploma; in fact, the first Kurdish woman to do so in her city. These were the years when the wall in Berlin came down, the Soviet Union let go of its subject nations, the Cold War that had dominated international politics was supplanted with a rapprochement between the East and the West. The winds of change that brought democracy to former communist nations, people now hoped with visit the lands administered by ``our dictators'' in such places as South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey. We all know that South Africa has made its transition to democracy. And just last year, the official world welcomed one of its smallest nations to the fold, the people of East Timor. But the Kurds, the Kurds, thus far, have been kept off of this forward march toward liberty. The adversaries of the Kurds and their misguided friends have managed to define them as the misfits of the world. But this cause of liberty is a just one, and the veil of oppression over the Kurds must come down. There was a time when the prospects of peace and reconciliation between the Kurds and the Turks almost became a reality. In October 1991, the country held a general election. Twenty-two Kurds were elected to the Turkish parliament. The names I mentioned when I first began tonight, Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak were part of that group. Hopes were raised that these newly and duly elected representatives would be the mediators with the Turks and peace and justice might once again come to the land of the Kurds. But these hopes were dashed when Mehmet Sincar, a newly-elect Kurdish member of the parliament, was murdered in broad daylight on September 3, 1993. One year later, 6 Kurdish parliamentarians were arrested for their advocacy of a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish question. Six others, who were feeling the sword of Damocles hanging on their shoulders, fled abroad to seek political asylum in Europe, and the remaining nine Kurdish deputies in the parliament either resigned from their posts or changed parties to save their lives. An all-out war was then declared with devastating results. Turkish troops using American weapons wanted to silence the Kurdish resistance once and for all. The Kurdish cease-fire offers were spurned. The Kurdish villagers were forced to either take up arms against their family members, the Kurdish rebels, or face the consequences of the destruction of their villages. Over 3,400 villages have been destroyed; 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed; 3 million Kurds have become refugees. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago our distinguished colleague from Illinois (Mr. Porter) sent out a ``Dear Colleague'' letter which was signed by 153 Members of the 105th Congress to President Clinton urging him to intervene on behalf of Leyla Zana. A year later, in fact, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) visited her in Turkish prison and urged the Turkish authorities to do the same. Unfortunately, nothing came of these efforts. Her imprisonment continues and the intransigence of the Turks is still at an all-time high. The Porter letter, which was dated October 30, 1997 addresses some of the concerns of the resolution I have introduced in this Congress, and I would like to read that ``Dear Colleague'' for the Record. It states: ``Dear Mr. President: We want to draw your attention to the tragic situation of Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman ever elected to the Turkish parliament. Mrs. Zana, who is the mother of two children, was chosen to represent the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir by an overwhelming margin in October 1991. She was arrested by Turkish authorities in March of 1994 in the Parliament Building and subsequently prosecuted for what Turkish authorities have labeled ``separatist speech'' that is stemming from her exercise of her right to free speech in the defense of the rights of the Kurdish people. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 1994 and remains in Ankara today. One of the charges against Mrs. Zana was her 1993 appearance here in Washington before the Helsinki Commission of the United States Congress. We find it outrageous that although she was invited to participate at the request of Members of Congress, her participation was one of the activities that led to her imprisonment. Mrs. Zana's pursuit of democratic change through nonviolence was honored by the European Parliament which unanimously awarded her the 1995 Sakharov Peace Prize. In addition, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have raised concern about her case. ``Mr. President,'' the letter goes on, ``Turkey is an important partner of the United States, a NATO member, and a major recipient of our foreign aid, but its abuse of its Kurdish citizens and their legitimately-elected representatives is unacceptable. Mrs. Zana's majority Kurdish constituency gave her the mandate to represent them, but the government of Turkey has made an unconscionable effort to stop her. Her voice should not be silenced. This is just one of the many cases in which the Turkish Government has used the power of the State to abuse people, based on their political beliefs. We ask you and your administration, Mr. President, to raise Mrs. Zana's case with the Turkish authorities at the highest level and seek her immediate and unconditional release so that we may, once again, welcome her to our shores.'' Mr. Speaker, that was the letter that 153 of us wrote recently. Since then, Amnesty International has adopted Leyla Zana and her duly-elected members of parliament as prisoners of conscious. In 1995 and 1998, the Noble Peace Committee that assigns its prestigious Peace Prize to people who embody our most deepest aspirations for a more tolerant world acknowledged that Leyla Zana was one of their finalists. The City of Rome has awarded her honorary citizenship. European organizations have bestowed on her numerous awards of their own. In 1867, Mr. Speaker, a great American, Frederick Douglas, in his ``Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage,'' summarized the situation of his family which is akin to what this resolution is demanding from the Turkish Government. Reflecting on Mr. Douglas's historical remarks, I was reminded of my encounter with Mehdi Zana and how he too echoed the same sentiments as our own great emancipator. Mr. Douglas wrote that, ``We have marvelously survived all of the exterminating forces of slavery, and have emerged at the end of 250 years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful and forgiving. We now stand before Congress and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply asking for a better future.'' Simply asking for a better future. Mr. Speaker, my resolution, supported at this time by my esteemed colleagues, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), calls for a better future for the Kurds. In that future, public service is not rewarded with punishment, but honored with gratitude. In that future, languages are not banned, but cultivated as a gift of God to a people and of a people to its offspring. And only in that future, Mr. Speaker, lies the promise of peace and justice for the Kurds and a brighter future with the Turks. Mr. Speaker, I ask my friends to support us as we help the peoples of Turkey to leap into the future for the good of themselves, as well as our battered humanity. Mr. Speaker, asking for a better future is what we are doing here tonight.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, there they go again. The majority is once again bringing up legislation that purports to help the average hard- working, taxpaying American but in reality is just more relief for their well-to-do friends and business partners. The gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) watches television. He is telling his friends that the price is right, yet he is putting all of America into jeopardy. We cannot continue to widen the gap between those who have and those who have less. Just like the majority's so-called marriage penalty relief, this tax cut/minimum wage increase does just that. It actually widens the income gap. Billions and billions in tax cut benefits for the majority's rich friends and one dollar to America's working people; one dollar to America's working people. All Americans should share in the prosperity of this booming economy, not just America's corporate CEOs. The Democratic substitute would allow those at the low end of the wage scale to share in this prosperity. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to remember the priorities of the average American. Let us raise the minimum wage, save Social Security and Medicare, pay down the national debt and stop helping the wealthy under the pretense of helping the average hard- working American. Mr. Speaker, the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats but it is very clear that if this is approved the majority's proposal will leave an awful lot of smaller boats stuck in the muck of economic misery. Defeat this bill and let us have all America set sail on the ship of prosperity.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say that we must stop the splintering of American families that resulted from the so-called immigration reform act passed in 1996. We must stop deporting hardworking legal, I repeat, legal immigrants who are raising stable families only because they committed a minor infraction years or even decades ago. We must stop hauling away parents in the middle of the night in front of their children, and we must stop denying these people now in detention the most basic constitutional rights that we in America believe everyone should have. Yet that is exactly what the 1996 immigration law does. It redefines the term ``aggravated felony,'' which sounds so horrible to cover virtually every crime ever committed. It is retroactive, covering crimes decades ago. It denies basic constitutional protections such as bail and visitation rights. Again, I repeat, we are talking about legal immigrants, immigrants residing in this country in a legal fashion. The law that was passed in 1996 removes the authority of immigration judges to take into account a person's contributions to our society as well as any past misdeeds. The law removes Federal judges' oversight over the immigration process. It allows INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service, deportation officials to pick someone up after they apply for citizenship, put them in detention maybe in the middle of the night without their relatives knowing where they were and hold them without bail. Mr. Speaker, this is America. This has to stop. We must start to restore justice and fairness to immigration proceedings. Let me just give my colleagues a few examples of how this law is splintering families in the San Diego area. Just yesterday, I received a letter from 13-year-old Aida. Her father had always been a good provider; but in the middle of the night, he was picked up by the INS, handcuffed in front of his children and deported. Now his family has to rely on welfare. Allan is 34 years old and came to the United States when he was 16. He was arrested for grand theft in his 20s and served a 3-year sentence. But today, many years later, he faces deportation despite doctors' diagnoses of attention deficit disorder and possibly Tourette's syndrome. Several doctors said he should be treated for mental illness rather than being incarcerated further for crimes for which he has already paid his price. Juan, who is 44, has been in the United States since he was a young man. He was convicted of drunken driving and served 7 months of a year sentence. This sentence was expunged from his record by California courts, but still the INS picked him up at his home at 2 in the morning. He served more time in detention while waiting for deportation than he did for his original DUI. I repeat, Mr. Speaker, this is America. Here we do not allow unconstitutional actions. Here, actions do have consequences; but we have a system of checks and balances to ensure that no branch of government can ride roughshod over our rights. Mr. Speaker, I propose to roll back the draconian provisions of this 1996 law. My own bill, H.R. 3272, the Keeping Families Together Act, would do the following, and I repeat, this is for legal immigrants. It would restore the previous definition of aggravated felon so people would not be dragged into jail for very minor crimes. It eliminates the retroactivity sections so minor crimes from decades ago are not counted against the immigrant. It restores previous standards so as to allow a judge to take into account community ties before deciding on deportation. It eases mandatory detention requirements for immigrants who have completed their sentences or probation. It reinstates the authority of Federal courts to review immigration matters. And it does ensure, Mr. Speaker, that murderers, rapists, and terrorists, true aggravated felons, the people we want to deport, would still be deported. Mr. Speaker, we need to start here. We need to start to restore fairness so that our Pledge of Allegiance truly means with liberty and justice for all. We must stop the practices that would shame anyone who reveres our constitutional system.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor and in thanks to two powerful ``Bills.'' Not the legislation we introduce here, but as in Bill Richardson and Bill Hedden, for their work to move the largest uranium mine tailings pile that has ever threatened the drinking water in the United States. Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson, and Bill Hedden, the Utah Conservation Director of the Grand Canyon Trust, are two lifesaving ``Bills'' who have shown incredible leadership in pushing to move a uranium tailings pile that currently sits only 750 feet away from the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. A few days ago, Secretary Richardson unveiled an innovative agreement that would result in moving the tailings pile that is slowly leaching radioactive waste into the Colorado River. And just last night, our other hero, Bill Hedden, was honored by the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, for his tireless efforts to move this poisonous pile. Both men see how important it is to move the tailings pile, which is as big as 118 football fields, rather than capping it in its place. This capping would only ensure that the poisonous waste would continue to leach into the Colorado River for up to 3 centuries. Because of these visionary ``Bills,'' 25 million people who live down the Colorado River and who depend on it for their drinking water not be doomed to poor ``bills'' of health from the pollution. Our ``Bills'' are working to ensure that one-seventh of the United States, including Las Vegas, Arizona, and the Southern California urban areas of Los Angeles and the city I represent, San Diego, will have water free from this pollution. Our hero ``Bills'' are trying to save us from the bill that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or the NRC, was trying to stick us with. The NRC said that capping the poisonous pile was good enough. The NRC did not care that they were sentencing our children, our grandchildren, and great grandchildren to 270 years of having this radioactive waste leach into our water supply. These white-hatted ``Bills'' know that our Nation must protect our water, our animals, and our beautiful National Parks that we have set aside because they are our treasures. As one of our ``Bills,'' Secretary Richardson, said a few weeks ago, ``The time to act is now. Radioactive waste sits at the gateway of two National Parks, Arches and Canyonlands. This area is a geological wonderland, nested in a valley with scenic red cliffs and rugged, beautiful desert terrain. The Department of Energy has the expertise and experience to relocate the material in a secure, permanent location that is safely away from the Colorado River and our National Parks.'' Mr. Speaker, I tip my hat to these two courageous ``Bills,'' Secretary Richardson and Grand Canyon Trust's Bill Hedden, for saving us the bill of misery, ill health, and heartache that would go with permanently enshrining this huge pile of waste in the backyard of our National Parks where it would surely and forever pollute the Southwest's drinking water. I commit, Mr. Speaker, and I hope my colleagues will join me in this pledge, to push through legislation that will make the work of these visionary ``Bills'' a reality. We must pass our bill necessary to put the jurisdiction for this poisonous pile where it belongs, in the hands of the Department of Energy.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I too rise in full support of the conference agreement on long-term veterans' health care, and I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), chairman of the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans Affairs for leading us in a bipartisan bill that we could all support. As the gentleman said, this bill improves and enhances virtually every major program administered by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. As the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Benefits, there are two provisions I particularly want to mention. Legislation I sponsored in the 105th Congress restored eligibility for dependency and indemnity compensation to former DIC recipients who had lost eligibility for this benefit when they remarried. My provision in Public Law 150-178 restored DIC benefits if a subsequent marriage ended. I am very pleased that section 502 of this agreement expands that legislation and will restore CHAMPVA medical coverage, educational assistance, and housing loan benefits to this group of surviving spouses. Additionally, I am very pleased that section 901 of this bill reauthorizes and increases funding for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program. I am very satisfied with the compromise in the bill that gradually increases funding to $20 million per year that will enable the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service to effectively administer the program, and the increased funding level will give thousands of homeless veterans the assistance they need to reenter employment. Finally, I want to commend the conferees for including the House- passed provision which enables veterans to receive chiropractic care through the health care system. Chiropractic is the most widespread of the complementary and alternative approaches to medicine in the United States. Each year, nearly 27 million patients seek the services of doctors of chiropractic, receiving safe and effective and appropriate care from highly trained State-licensed providers. The research record continues to validate the use of chiropractic for a wide range of conditions. In practically all areas of the Federal health care system, Congress has recognized this rule of chiropractic care by providing beneficiaries with access to services. The VA has chosen not to make chiropractic routinely available to veterans, thereby limiting their choice and their ability to be an active participant in their own health care. This agreement ensures that the VA will develop, with licensed doctors of chiropractic, a policy that will provide veterans with access to this care. It ensures that veterans, like patients in every other health care system, will have the ability to make health care choices that best address their needs. It affords veterans the best of both worlds by integrating conventional medicine with complementary medicine, so I am pleased to support this provision of the bill. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2116 is an excellent agreement that will enhance the lives of millions of veterans and their families. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this measure.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today first to thank my distinguished colleague Congressman Silvestre Reyes for bringing this tribute to the floor today. Silver, you have provided a daily, living example to us in the House of the professionalism and dedication of this great 75-year- old organization. The Border Patrol is one of the most important law enforcement organizations in my community of San Diego. It is responsible for keeping our border community safe. Because of the Border Patrol, our country and our communities are protected. We are protected against criminals who would cross the border; we are protected against drugs that could flow across our border; because of Operation Gatekeeper, we are protected against the flows of desperate immigrants running across our backyards and up our freeways; we are protected because Border Patrol personnel, from the inspectors to the agents put their lives on the line daily to keep ours safe. For 75 years, the Border Patrol has acted as one of the first lines of defense for our country. I want to thank the members of the Border Patrol and especially honor the 86 members of the Patrol who have lost their lives so ours could be safe. It is a fitting tribute to them, this day before Veteran's Day--they are our Veterans in the war to protect our Border.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans) for yielding me this time, and I thank the chairman for getting this resolution to the floor so quickly, and the ranking member for his support, and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) for this marvelous resolution. I think we have heard how important and how worthy Zach Fisher was, and without understating those achievements I would like to take a few minutes of the time that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has on the floor today to recognize another person who I think is an honorary member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and that is the staff director of the Subcommittee on Benefits of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs on the Democratic side, Jill T. Cochran. She is retiring from this institution after 25 years of service. Many of us have been taught about the benefits that the veterans are due, from Jill Cochran. I would say her investment in our veterans is legendary. She served for our esteemed colleague, former Member, Congressman Sonny Montgomery, and made a major contribution to the development of the Montgomery G.I. bill. She helped to formulate the Transition Assistance Program for separating service members to ease their transition from military to civilian employment. She worked closely on updating the Reemployment Rights for Veterans Program. She has had a great interest in Vocational Rehabilitation Program for Disabled Veterans, just to mention a few of the areas which she has contributed. She has received awards for her service to veterans for virtually every organization that serves veterans in our Nation. She has worked for such Chairs and ranking members as Bill Hefner, Marvin Leath, Wayne Dowdy, Tim Penny, Sonny Montgomery, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), and when he was a Congressman, Senator Tom Daschle. A mere recitation of Jill's accomplishments do not do her justice. She is a brilliant staff member who is warm and caring, funny and totally charging. She cares deeply about her work, her colleagues, and the Members of Congress for whom she works. But most of all, she cares for our veterans. She, I think, is worthy of the praise of many of us who want to express our gratefulness for her service on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. So I join my colleagues, both on our committee and the Congress as a whole, to thank Jill Cochran for her professionalism, her dedication, her contribution to the veterans of our Nation. We will miss her.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take my special order at this time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, tonight I am asking the Speaker of the House and the leadership of the Republican Party to respect the will of the American people, respect the demands of the American people, respect the vote of this House of Representatives, and quickly appoint conferees on H.R. 2723, the Patients' Bill of Rights. This country cannot wait any longer for the vital health protections included in its important legislation. We cannot afford to have only those opposed to those protections at the table negotiating. To do so would guarantee that these hard-fought protections would just be negotiated away. It would be criminal not to include Members from the majority who listened to the pleas from their constituents. It would signal the intent of the leadership of this House to ignore the protections that we fought so hard to include in the bipartisan patient protection plan. So I ask the Speaker, I ask the House leaders not to prejudice the conference from the beginning. The Patients' Bill of Rights included life-saving protections that must be embraced and not thrown out. The people have spoken, and we must listen. They said they wanted their HMOs to be accountable for decisions that HMO bureaucrats forced, and we listened. They said they wanted an effective appeals process so that decisions could be challenged and lives saved, and this House listened. They pointed to States like Texas that have had both strong appeals process and accountability. The result of these protections is that few plans and no employers have been sued. This House listened. We took note, and we took action. The people said that they wanted to continue with their cancer doctors and obstetricians during the course of treatment or pregnancy, and this House listened. They said they wanted to be able to take their children to the closest emergency room when an emergency struck, and this House listened. They said they wanted their doctors to be able to talk freely with them about their treatment and the medications they needed without feeling gagged by their health plan, and this House listened. Mr. Speaker, this House of Representatives listened to the American people. Please do not turn a deaf ear to those pleas. This life and death issue is too important to play politics with. I urge that a conference that includes supporters of Patients' Bill of Rights from the majority party be held. They listened, Mr. Speaker. Will you listen? I yield back so that the Speaker and the majority will listen to the American people.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to submit an article by my colleague, the distinguished Ranking Member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Mr. Lane Evans. This article, about needed changes in the Montgomery GI Bill, appeared in the November 1999 issue of the Association of the United States Army's AUSA News. Montgomery GI Bill Needs a Boost We are enjoying a balanced budget for the first time in a generation. Now is the prudent time to make badly-needed changes in the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB). Army and other service recruiters and the commanders of the Armed Services' Recruiting Commands see the MGIB as the most important recruiting incentive for the Armed Services. Yet congressional leaders have refused to fund an upgrade, despite a recruiting crisis today that will be tomorrow's manpower crisis. The House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Benefits held hearings this year on the Montgomery GI Bill Improvements Act of 1999, H.R. 1071, which I introduced, and the Servicemembers Educational Opportunity Act of 1999, H.R. 1182, introduced by Chairman Bob Stump. Both bills would appreciably increase benefits provided by the Montgomery GI Bill. The testimony we received during those hearings was far-reaching, and it confirmed two things: 1. GI Bill enhancements are sorely needed, and 2. My H.R. 1071 is a significantly stronger bill. Commanders and recruiters from all of the Armed Services told the Benefits Subcommittee that they face brutal recruiting challenges this year which will continue into the future. Vice. Adm. Patricia A. Tracey, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, said that it is a buyer's market out there. What most young Americans are not buying is military service. As a result, the military has become increasingly unable to compete with colleges for the caliber of high school graduates it needs to operate today's complex weapon systems and equipment. The Army missed its recruitment goal of 48,700 during the first half of 1999 by more than 7,300. Its ``write-rate'' is the worst in the history of the all-volunteer force, and the annual goal will be missed by ten times last year's figure. Admiral Tracey told us that ``money for college'' is consistently the primary reason young men and women give for enlisting. All the recruiters backed her up. To my mind the recruiting problems we see now reflect the diminished buying power of the Montgomery GI Bill. College costs have quadrupled in the last 20 years. The basic GI Bill benefit, however, has increased only 76 percent since the program was enacted. No wonder America's young people aren't buying military service. The 21st century job market will demand a college degree--but they have a great many opportunities to pay for a college education without facing the rigors, the risks and the sacrifices of serving their country in the Armed Forces. Most of us who are veterans today grew up looking for ways to serve our country--and wearing the uniform was a good career move, too--whether for a few years before going on to a civilian job, or as a life's work. That ethic is dying, and Congress is doing nothing to reinforce it. The GI Bill today simply does not provide enough education assistance to attract the numbers of high quality high school graduates the Army and the other services need. Today, potential recruits see the Montgomery GI Bill as an inadequate educational benefits package compared to the commitment required by the Armed Services. As a result, the military has become increasingly unable to compete with colleges. The Armed Forces are accepting lower- ability recruits in an effort to meet recruiting goals. Recently Patrick T. Henry, Army Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs said America has to understand that the Army is not an employer of last resort. I agree, but if we experience continuing recruiting shortfalls, our military may soon become just that. The Armed Forces must have high quality recruits, defined as those who have a high school diploma and who have at least average scores on tests measuring math and verbal skills. The Department of Defense says about 80 percent of high quality recruits will complete their first 3 years of active duty, while only 50 percent of recruits with only a GED will finish basic training successfully and complete their enlistment. The General Accounting Office notes that it costs at least $35,000 to replace every recruit who leaves the service prematurely. We must restore MGIB's effectiveness in recruiting the number of high quality young men and women the Armed Forces need and providing a competitive readjustment educational benefit for veterans. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 10-year cost of enhancing the Montgomery GI Bill (H.R. 1071) to be $5 billion over 10 years. This $5 billion 10-year cost to recruit the high quality young men and women required to maintain our national defense and provide these veterans the opportunity to obtain the best education for which they can qualify after their military service is one-half of 1 percent (.005) of the 10-year nearly $800 billion tax cut congressional leaders are trying to enact. A single tax break--such as the five-year extension of a temporary tax deferral on income life insurance companies, banks and securities firms earn abroad--will cost the government that much in lost revenues, according to congressional calculations. Shame on Congress and its Republican leaders if, in their lock-step march to give tax relief to those who need it least, they pass national security by. Shame on Congress and its leaders, too, if they fail to find the relatively smaller amount we need to attract the new soldiers--and sailors, airmen and marines--this country needs to remain strong and free.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call my colleague's attention to the role of women-owned businesses in our economy, particularly in my home State of California. It is with great pride that I recognize California as No. 1--both in the number of women entrepreneurs and as the fastest growing state for women minority entrepreneurs. Representing these women in the Business Women's Network (BWN), a giant network of 2,300 women's associations representing 32 million women. I have joined in the BWN's newly formed congressional committee, spearheaded by Chris Warnke and Robin Read, to support businesswomen throughout the United States, and I want to recognize the BWN for its outstanding record in uniting businesswomen. The entire nation will be watching the International Summit of the Business Women's Network on October 18 and 19, 1999, where women from over 90 countries and from 48 states will come together in celebration of the more than 9 million women entrepreneurs today, of which 1.1 million are minorities. The female labor force is making great strides. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that 72 million women will be working by the year 2005, representing 63 percent of women 16 and older. As the decade draws to an end and a new millennium approaches, I want to recognize women entrepreneurs as the fastest growing segment in our economy. Congratulations to the Business Women's Network on the occasion of their International Summit.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Chairman, I can't believe how beholden to special interests the majority is. We are presented with a bipartisan bill, H.R. 2723, which is supported by the American Medical Association and 300 other organizations, yet the Republican leadership is trying to sink it. Our bill offers vital patient protections in a way that has been shown to not raise costs. H.R. 2723 will return control of our health care to physicians. We, as patients, will have access to specialists and an appeals process. And managed care operations will be held accountable for any decisions that endanger our health. These important provisions must be embraced, not feared. Mr. Speaker, I urge support for H.R. 2723.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the San Diego Housing Commission on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. During these two decades, the Housing Commission has helped to provide approximately a half million San Diegans with quality housing opportunities. In the process, neighborhoods have been revitalized and the economy vastly improved. The Housing Commission has invested billions of dollars in San Diego, resulting in the development of 10,000 apartment units--including nearly 5,500 designed for lower income San Diegans--and in the stabilization of rents for thousands of San Diegans through rental assistance. The Housing Commission has been a leader in our nation. Its approach to developing and managing its 1,860 public housing units has earned it acclaim and national awards. The awards recognize the Commission for the design and maintenance of its properties and for the Commission's philosophy of distributing public housing throughout the city. The residents in San Diego public housing benefit from the Housing Commission's programs that have set national standards in helping residents achieve self-sufficiency. The six learning opportunity centers at the Commission's sites provide a way for residents to escape dependence on welfare. The residents are active partners with the Commission in improving their lives--the Small Business Administration and San Diego Chamber of Commerce Welfare-to-Work Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998 was won by a Housing Commission resident, Yohannes Miles, who became a painting contractor. Needless to say, Mr. Miles is now a former client of the Commission--he has moved into his own home! The Housing Commission has improved our whole City. It has helped more than 8,000 families rehabilitate their homes and has paved the way for 3,100 low- to moderate-income people to purchase their first home. The Housing Commission employees are dedicated--15 have been with the agency since its founding. In its 20 years, Commission employees have helped the agency win countless national awards and honors, including high performance ratings each year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the first Award of Excellence for Enduring Design from the National Association of Redevelopment Officials, and an award for consensus building in developing public housing. I want to wish the employees and the officials of the San Diego Housing Commission, and the forward thinking city leaders who started the agency, a happy anniversary. May you provide many others with the basic opportunity and right of housing in San Diego in the years to come.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I, too, rise in strong support of H.R. 1663, the National Medal of Honor Memorial Act. As a Californian and original cosponsor of the bill, I am very pleased that H.R. 1663 recognizes the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California, as a national Medal of Honor site, and I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert) for his efforts in that regard. I was also cosponsor of an amendment offered in full committee by the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson) to recognize two additional national Medal of Honor sites, one at the White River State Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the other at the Congressional Medal of Honor Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, which we just heard about. As many people know, the Medal of Honor is the first military decoration formally authorized by the American Government to be worn as a badge of honor, and it was created by this Congress in 1861. Senator James Grimes of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Naval Committee, proposed legislation to require that a medal of honor, similar to the Victoria Cross of England, be given to naval personnel for actions of bravery in action. His legislation, which was signed into law by President Lincoln on December 21, 1861, established a Medal of Honor for enlisted men of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Subsequently, legislation was enacted extending eligibility for the medal to Army-enlisted personnel as well as officers of the Armed Services. Senator Robert F. Kennedy once said, ``It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.'' Those extraordinary Americans who have won the Medal of Honor have, through their acts of remarkable courage, certainly shaped the history of our country and our world. We are doing the right thing today by honoring these courageous citizens. I am proud to be a cosponsor of H.R. 1663 and urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about a situation in San Diego, California on the border with Mexico, and I rise to object to a move by our very own Environmental Protection Agency to attempt to block a plan, a plan to treat 50 million gallons a day of raw sewage that flows from Mexico into the United States, a plan that was unanimously supported by this House of Representatives. The plan involves treating Mexican sewage that is flowing into the United States in Mexico. What can make more sense? But the EPA supports a less comprehensive plan to build sewage treatment ponds in the United States. And to get its way, the EPA seems to be extorting support for the U.S. plant from Mexico. In fact, the EPA has told Mexico that if the sewage treatment ponds are built in the United States by their plan, rather than the House of Representatives plan, the EPA would have $9 million left over to help Mexico with Tijuana-area sewage projects. And if the treatment plant were to be built in Mexico, according to the plan approved by this House, with a private firm's money, EPA says Mexico gets no money from the U.S. Government for their infrastructure needs. Mr. Speaker, that simply does not make sense. It is extortion, if I may speak bluntly. If a private firm builds a plant in Mexico, then the EPA would have its entire fund of $54 million available for infrastructure improvements in the Tijuana/San Diego area. It is hard to believe that the Environmental Protection Agency would not even consider working together with Mexico in this way to solve an international problem. And to make matters worse, the International Boundary and Waters Commission, known as the IBWC, is a partner in this extortion. This is the bureaucratic sabotaging of a plan that the House voted unanimously to pursue. It thwarts the Mexican government's fair and open review of a proposal that promises environmental benefits to the United States and clean water for Mexico. It is an outrage, Mr. Speaker, that this win-win international solution for the problem of sewage that has plagued us and our area for 50 years may never be fully explored. The EPA has a 2-year history of obstructing the consideration of any other proposal to conduct sewage treatment at our border. Mexico is where the sewage starts and Mexico, by right, owns the water from any treatment plant. Why is the EPA opposed to building treatment ponds, then, in Mexico? I cannot understand how an agency such as EPA, which I support in the main and which is charged with protecting the environment of the United States, can be preventing a long-term or comprehensive solution to this problem. The gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray) and I share the problem of Mexican sewage on the beaches and in the riverbeds of our districts. We have asked EPA, we have asked IBWC to work with us and to work with this House to solve the problem. We want those agencies to assure the Mexican government that they can undertake a fair review of this House's proposal without facing the possibility of loss of infrastructure help. We want the Mexican government, as supported by the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray) and myself and hopefully with EPA and IBWC, to get Mexico to do a fair, objective review of this proposal and tell us how long it would take and what steps have to be done to implement it. Mr. Speaker, the bureaucrats in EPA and IBWC have employed spectacularly poor judgment on this issue. Let us hope that they come to their senses soon. We look forward to continuing to work with them to create a long-term solution that will protect the environment of our districts in San Diego, of the international border in the southwest corner of our Nation.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mark Salo on his 25th anniversary with Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties in California--the second largest affiliate of Planned Parenthood in the Nation. Mark has been active in the family planning movement since the late 1960's, beginning as a volunteer counselor with the Seattle-King County, Washington Family Planning Program. He graduate from the University of Washington in 1970 and, since 1974, has served as the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood for San Diego and Riverside Counties. In this capacity, he oversees the management of 15 family planning centers. Mark and his fellow Planned Parenthood staff members and volunteers are dedicated to providing a complete spectrum of reproductive medical care and educational programs to families in the San Diego and Riverside areas. Through a unique partnership with the Pro Salud family planning organization in Tijuana, 30,000 of our Mexican neighbors are also receiving these services. Mark Salo is regarded as a national family planning leader and has received recognition for his impact on family planning, both locally and nationally. He was the recipient of the 1989 Ruth Green Award, an award presented by the National Executive Directors Council to an outstanding Planned Parenthood director, chosen for his remarkable record in board development in public affairs, fund raising and planning, and service to Planned Parenthood of America. His other professional and volunteer activities include serving as a member of the Foundation Committee of Rotary International and of the board of trustees of the Museum of Man in San Diego, treasurer of the San Diego AIDS Project, and a graduate of L.E.A.D. of San Diego, which trains a select group of the leaders of our city's volunteer and nonprofit organizations. Mark has said that his family did not believe in government intrusion in private life. ``We believed firmly that people are fit to make moral decisions independent of government interference.'' His life and work with Planned Parenthood have put his words into action. I am pleased to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Mark Salo on the 25th anniversary of his service to Planned Parenthood and to the greater San Diego and Riverside communities. I want to recognize his dedication to the fundamental right of each individual to voluntary reproductive self-determination and his belief that such self- determination will enhance the quality of life, family relations, and population stability.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise today to express my admiration and thanks to a leader in San Diego. Dr. Terry Straeter has been a part of our community and given of himself for many years. I am honored to have been invited to participate in an important event to be held this week at the National Air and Space Museum to pay tribute to this innovative and dedicated man. Dr. Straeter got his start at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the 1970s, a time when our missions to the moon were coming to an end and NASA was once again looking to ``push the envelope'' in space exploration. Serving at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Terry was performing much of the important research that would lead to more and more innovation. But then, San Diego got lucky. Terry went into the private sector, holding several posts with General Dynamics, eventually coming to beautiful San Diego to lead a group of tremendously dedicated men and women serving at Marconi Information Systems and Marconi Integrated Systems. And quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, our community has not been the same since Terry and his lovely wife Jinny arrived. Terry is a strong supporter of our United Way campaign. He takes precious moments of his day to work with kids and help them to understand how important our free market economy is by participating in Junior Achievement. He has reached out to those children whose lives are affected by the daily challenges of diabetes by serving as the Corporate Recruitment Chairman of the 1998 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation's ``Walk to Cure Diabetes.'' And all the while running one of the most successful and innovative high technology companies in our city, the State of California, and indeed, within our nation. I am proud to offer my congratulations to Dr. Terry Straeter on this important occasion when we will honor him in a glowing tribute at the National Air and Space Museum. Terry, we appreciate you and we thank you for your service.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, in April of 1999 I was proud to join the distinguished chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman), in introducing H.R. 1594, the Filipino Veterans' Benefit Improvement Act. I rise today to urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Preliminary steps have already been taken toward restoring fairness to the veterans of World War II who are of Filipino descent. In 1996, Members of this House and our colleagues in the Senate passed concurrent resolutions to recognize these brave veterans for their service and contribution toward the successful outcome of World War II. In October of 1996, President Clinton issued a presidential proclamation recalling the courage, the sacrifice, and the loyalty of the Filipino veterans of World War II and honoring them for their contribution to our freedom. Hearings have been held in both the House and the Senate on the issue of benefits for Filipino World War II veterans; and the President included a line item in both FY 1999 and FY 2000 presidential budgets for Filipino World War II veterans. Then just 3 months ago, the Filipino Veterans' SSI Extension Act, H.R. 26, was incorporated into H.R. 1802, which passed this House. This bill will allow Filipino World War II veterans who are currently on SSI and living in the United States to return to the Philippines if they wish to do so, taking a portion of their SSI with them. Many are currently living alone and in poverty, financially unable to bring their families to the United States, nor to return to their homeland. Most importantly, H.R. 1802 will allow those who wish to return to the Philippines to be with their loved ones in their final days, but it also saves the U.S. Government money, money that could be used to balance the costs of the bill that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) and I have introduced, the Filipino Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act. These actions are important first steps in our quest for justice and equity. Now is the time to build upon these steps and restore the benefits that Filipino World War II veterans were promised when they were drafted into military service by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. With their vital participation so crucial to the successful outcome of this war, one would assume that the United States would be grateful to their Filipino comrades. So it is hard to believe that soon after the war ended, the 79th Congress voted to take away the benefits and recognition of Filipino World War II veterans in what was called the Rescissions Act of 1946. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) and I, along with 209 cosponsors of last year's Veterans Equity Act, are now asking our colleagues to correct this injustice that these veterans have endured for over 50 years. Because the Filipino World War II veterans are in their seventies and eighties, their most urgent need is for health care. Our bill that we have introduced will provide access to VA medical facilities for these veterans, both in the United States and in the Philippines. We have designed the bill so that it will also provide greater access to VA medical facilities in the Philippines for U.S. veterans who are living abroad. In addition, the bill will also increase the service-connected disability compensation from what is called the peso rate to the full dollar amount for Filipino World War II veterans living in the United States, as called for in the President's budget. The rationale for a lower payment simply does not exist for the veterans who are now U.S. citizens. All this can be achieved, Mr. Speaker, for $36 million a year. This should be included in our final budget negotiations. I would urge my colleagues to support this cost- effective humanitarian measure. Taken together, these acts are the steps we must take during this session of Congress on behalf of our brave colleagues who serve side by side with the forces from the United States. The House has passed the SSI Extension Act. Let us now join together in a bipartisan effort to restore health benefits to the Filipino World War II benefits. Let us pass H.R. 1594, the Filipino Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Veterans' Millennium Health Care Act. This bill improves the VA health care system in many ways. For example, it will extend long term care and emergency care services, provide sexual trauma counseling, expand care and treatment for veterans who have been recognized by the award of the Purple Heart. In addition, I am especially pleased that this legislation ensures that the Veterans Administration (VA) will work with licensed doctors of chiropractic care to develop a policy to provide veterans with access to chiropractic services. Even though chiropractic is the most widespread of the complementary approaches to medicine in the United States, serving roughly 27 million patients--and even though Congress has recognized chiropractic care in other areas of the federal health care system (Medicare, Medicaid, and federal workers compensation), VA has chosen not to make chiropractic routinely available to veterans. This bill changes that. As a Member representing a portion of San Diego County, I am also pleased that H.R. 2116 includes a biomedical research facility for the VA San Diego Healthcare System to accommodate current and pending research programs on diabetes, immunology, hypertension, Parkinson's Disease, AIDS, and memory. I encourage my colleagues to support and vote in favor of the Veterans' Millennium Health Care Act.