Pete Hoekstra

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Robert Potter, President of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 951, upon his retirement. A graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, Robert Potter won election nine times as President of UFCW 951. Since 1980, he grew the organization from an unaffiliated union of 6,000 members into one of the largest local unions in Michigan and the largest UFCW local in the United States. Today, UFCW 951 represents more than 35,000 members in an exemplary fashion: with innovative programs, a diverse and dedicated staff and professional management systems. Robert Potter proved over the course of his career to be a skilled and pragmatic negotiator, facilitating several labor agreements that have preserved thousands of employee salaries and ensured the sustained prosperity of numerous businesses. In the early 1980s, he structured contracts with Kroger in West Michigan that allowed the grocer to remain profitable through today. The same contract model still guides other area employers. He also negotiated complex contracts covering all Michigan operations of Meijer, Inc. for 10 bargaining cycles without a single strike. Robert Potter graciously shared his talents beyond his UFCW service by holding several officer positions within organized labor, including Vice President of both the Michigan State AFL-CIO and the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO. He also won election and re-election as an officer of the Michigan Economic Alliance of Business and Labor, serving from 1990 to the present. Robert Potter's accomplishments and leadership will not soon be forgotten, and his years of dedicated service and expertise will continue to shape the UFCW long after his retirement. As Chairman of the Committee for the Future of the UFCW, he helped to guide the group that will undoubtedly play a significant role in ensuring the UFCW's future success. Mr. Speaker, please let it be known that on this 27th day of September in 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledges the contributions and achievements of Robert Potter.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as well as the ranking member of the committee, for the great work that we have been able to do together and the support that I have gotten from various individuals, as well as Mr. Frank, Mr. Coble, Mrs. Maloney. We have put together a very effective bipartisan team to work on this issue. My colleague from Wisconsin calls me the Johnny-come-lately to this issue, and he was working on this well before I did. I feel honored to have him call me the author of this bill, and I am only the author of this bill because in all the other things that the chairman of Judiciary Committee is working on he has given me the opportunity to lead on this issue. But I very much appreciate the work that we have done with Mr. Conyers as well. It has been a very, very effective group.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I will reclaim my time. I am sure Mr. Scott is going to have a little bit more time. If I could complete my statement, I recognize the difference, but I would hope that folks on both sides would recognize the tremendous effort that we have put in bringing together a lot of different folks to address the issues, both from the workers and the industries that may be affected, but also the individuals in the prisons. This effort is also supported by Prison Fellowship, that has a very great passion for making sure that people who have found their way into our prison systems, that when they come out, that they have developed the skills that have enabled them to integrate effectively back into society. I think, with the support that we have developed, it is a clear indication that this is a well-balanced approach between those competing interests. I will close with my comments. It is just good to be able to stand here on this bill, to be able to work with the chairman and to be able to work across the aisle and to take a look at the consensus that we have developed on this bill. It is how the House should work. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill that has come through the Judiciary Committee. Let us move this forward and let us work together to get something done in the Senate as well. Mr. Chairman, H.R. 1965, the Hoekstra-Frank-Maloney-Sensenbrenner- Conyers-Coble Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act of 2006 will bring fundamental, comprehensive, and balanced reform to Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (FPI). Because of FPI's status as a mandatory source, non-inmate workers and the firms that employ them are completely precluded from having the opportunity to even bid on $800 million in Federal contracting opportunities. Non-inmate workers and the firm's that employ them are denied the job opportunities funded by their tax dollars. That is why the bill is supported by a broad Coalition of business groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce NFIB, and NAM. That is why the bill is concurrently supported by many unions in organized labor including the Teamsters, UAW, UNITE-HERE, Machinists, Carpenters, and UFCW. Because of FPI's mandatory source status, FPI's captive Federal agency customers cannot get the best value for the taxpayer dollars entrusted to their care. That is why H.R. 1829 enjoys the support of federal managers represented by the Federal Managers Association. The justification for FPI's mandatory source status is that inmate work opportunities helps combat idleness and better prepares inmates for a successful return to society. Neither of those cited benefits are linked to the corrosive manner in which FPI is currently permitted to operate in the Federal market. Frequently cited is the statistic that inmates participating in prison industry program are 24% less likely to return to prison. That finding is drawn from the report on a multi-year study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Post-Release Employment Project (PREP). What the proponents of the status quo forget to mention is that the same PREP study demonstrated that inmates participating in remedial and vocational educational programs were 33 percent less likely to return to prison. Such programs better prepare inmates for a successful return to society, but FPI does not use one dime of its gross profits, which were $117 million in Fiscal Year 2004, to fund such educational programs. No, those gross profits are devoted exclusively to FPI's expansion. Thanks to the work of my friend from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) the bill expands the opportunities for Federal inmates to participate in remedial and modern hands-on vocational training programs. Those that are more likely to reduce recidivism. Similarly, the H.R. 2965 provides alternative work opportunities for inmate by authorizing them to do work for non-profit entities and units of local governments and special purpose districts, like school districts. During the Committee's consideration of the bill a Work-based Employment Preparation Program for Federal inmates. This program will provide Federal inmates with FPI's current model's cause real problems. H.R. 2965 provides the fundamental, comprehensive, and balanced solutions. I urge my colleagues to support our bill.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Michigan.

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

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Well, thank you very much, and it is because of this kind of cooperation. My objective is still to get our other colleague over there, Mr. Scott, onboard. We have evolved this bill a long way to try to get Mr. Scott to be onboard in terms of the phase-in and phase-out of the provisions of this bill, the number of other work opportunities that we have put into this bill, the opportunities to work with not-for-profits and those types of things, but we are not quite there yet. Are we there?

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Reclaiming my time, I think the bill allows the Attorney General and gives the Attorney General the responsibility to make sure that the Attorney General can take the actions necessary to keep prisons safe and to allow workers or prisoners to get the skills that they need. We have put together a very, very good coalition, the business groups, the Teamsters, the organized labor, UAW, UNITE-HERE, Machinists, Carpenters and a lot of other folks.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a member of our leadership, Mr. Kingston.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to our colleague Mr. Issa.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 2 minutes to our colleague, Mrs. Davis.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to roughly the next hour of time that we will spend here on the floor, myself and our ranking member and the members of the Intelligence Committee, to remember those who died, those who served on 9/11, the tremendous work of hundreds of thousands of people in our military forces and the folks who are working in the intelligence community that have helped keep this country safe over the last 5 years. I know that there are disagreements about some of the strategy, some of the particulars, some of the execution and those types of things, but much as in my home district on Monday, I hope that that spirit can continue through the next hour. Monday was kind of one of those days where we recognized that in many ways it was kind of a sacred day. People took the day off from partisan politics, and we reflected back on what happened 5 years earlier when we were so brutally attacked, where almost 3,000 Americans lost their lives. Many of us recounted the places where we were, the things that we were doing, and how in comparison those things were so minor to what happened and how that transformed America. And perhaps for so ever a brief moment, or briefer than what we would have hoped or envisioned, it brought America together and focused us on who we are and focused us on the threat that we had faced, that we now face, a threat that we had all witnessed and experienced maybe as early as 1979 when the embassy in Iran was seized. Perhaps it was when Hezbollah attacked our Marine barracks in 1983. But regardless of the times leading up to 2001, we recognized that that was history, 9/11 is today, and that we were going to be facing some serious challenges in the future. And this is very, very hard. It is a different kind of enemy than we had ever faced before. It is an enemy that does not wear uniforms. It is an enemy that does not have a government as we know it. It is an enemy that does not represent a specific geographic territory. It does not have a capital. It does not have bureaucracies. It has not signed on to any international agreements, as ironic as it may sound, international agreements as to how we will fight and conduct wars. It is an organization that celebrates the deaths of its suicide bombers. It is in sharp contrast to who we are and what we have done. We responded. The ranking member and I, along with Senator Lieberman and Senator Collins, worked on a project that many said could not be done, on a project that for almost 50 years had never been done, which was the reform of an intelligence community, an intelligence community that needed to respond to the threats that radical Islam posed. We have made much progress in that area. But as we both had said in a report that was issued in a bipartisan way from our committee, there is still much work to be done. The bottom line is we continue to be a Nation at war. We continue to be a Nation at risk. We continue to, I believe, be a Nation that is united in a desire to win this war, recognizing that there are real differences about how we will fight this war to be successful and to be consistent with American ideals. Because the biggest tribute that we can leave to the victims of 9/11 is to make sure that we win this war but also to make sure that we do not change how we are as we go about winning that war. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt), another member of the Intelligence Committee

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the majority whip, Mr. Blunt.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. I would like to yield 2 minutes to my colleague, a member of the committee, Mr. McHugh.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I welcome to this discussion and debate my colleague from the State of Michigan (Mr. Conyers), who is also a great cosponsor of our Federal Prison Industries legislation, which we will consider tomorrow. You have good friends on the Intelligence Committee, my friend. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 2 minutes to my colleague from the State of Alabama (Mr. Everett). (Mr. EVERETT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to my colleague from the great State of Michigan (Mr. Rogers).

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, since 9/11, we have made a tremendous amount of progress against this war on radical Islam. We have recognized that it is a war. We are not sure exactly when this war began. Did it begin in 1979 when radical Islamists took over our embassy in Iran? Did it begin in the early 1980s, when Hezbollah attacked our barracks in Beirut, killing over 240 Marines? Did it begin in the early 1990s, when the World Trade Centers were attacked for the first time? Or did it begin when our embassies in Africa were attacked, our barracks in Saudi Arabia, the USS Cole? Or did it really finally begin on 9/11 in 2001? How about when bin Laden issued his fatwa in 1996, where he declared war against the West? Since 9/11, there has never been any question that we are a Nation at war. While for much of the 1990s we ignored this threat and did not respond effectively to it, since 9/11 we have. We have put in place many things where we have recognized that we face a very dangerous and a very different kind of enemy than we have ever faced before. We have recognized that this is a global enemy. Take a look at the progress we have made in fighting this very strange enemy. It was only 4 weeks ago that a very similar plot was disrupted and stopped in the United Kingdom: a global plot, with leadership, financing, and direction perhaps coming out of Pakistan, and the perpetrators of the plot living in the United Kingdom. A very different and a very dangerous type of terrorist. A home-grown terrorist. These were not people going through the U.K. from some other country, these were people whose parents, maybe their grandparents, had moved to the U.K. They had gone to their schools and established their families, they were working. But 4 weeks ago, they were in the final stages of putting together a plot that might have taken down 10 to 12 planes with a loss of life that would have been as great as what we suffered on 9/11. The plot was stopped. Why, because we had foreign intelligence communities of Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. working seamlessly together. That couldn't have happened on 9/11. We also had foreign intelligence working with law enforcement. There is no wall anymore between foreign intelligence and law enforcement. Again, it is a seamless operation enabling people to work effectively together. On a third principle, we are now on offense. No longer will radical Islam have a safe haven where they can plan, where they can train and prepare to attack the West again. Our intelligence community, our armed services, they are on offense finding these individuals where they are. And our intelligence community and other law enforcement agencies have put in place the tools necessary to wage this war effectively. That's the testimony and the testament to the people of 9/11. We have responded to that, to the horrific attack of 9/11. Those are the things that we as a government can do. It hasn't been perfect. This is a very, very difficult enemy but we are making progress. These are the things that man can do and government can do as we try to create a world that will be safer for our families, for our kids, for our neighbors and that will make the world a safer place. But one of the things that I believe that many who died on 9/11 believed, and their families believe, and one of the things that is very interesting is that one of the most common things between the Islamic faith, the Jewish faith and the Christian faith is that we all view Jesus as a great teacher. As a closing comment I would like to leave a quote from the book ``Light Force'': ``I pray that the message of the Prince of Peace will again be a light from Bethlehem to all corners of the world.'' Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in honor of Juke Van Oss for 55 years of broadcasting on WHTC 1450 in Holland, Mich. On Aug. 12, Juke celebrated 55 years of service to the station and his community. Juke began his career in radio during World War II on the Pacific, Front, transporting a radio for his infantry troop and transmitting codes. When the war ended, he returned home and continued to foster his interest in radio, obtaining his amateur license and later securing a job as a radio engineer for WHTC at 27 years old. It was not until one morning that the announcer failed to arrive on time that Juke was able to sit at the microphone. An instant favorite of listeners, Van Oss began hosting his own morning show, and for the past 45 years he has hosted ``Talk of the Town.'' Juke has become a household name and a local celebrity in the Holland area through his years behind the mic at WHTC. When Juke started broadcasting in 1951, the United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York, ``I Love Lucy'' debuted on CBS and Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit the ``Shot Heard 'Round the World'' game-winning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the National League pennant. Mr. Van Oss is not only a radio personality, but a community servant. He has served as a member of the Saugatuck Schools Board of Education and Village Council, including three years as Mayor, as well as President of the Chamber of Commerce and a seat on the Region 8 Criminal Justice Planning Council. Mr. Speaker, please let it be known that on this Sept. 7, 2006, that the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledges the achievements of Mr. Van Oss and wishes him the best in his upcoming years of broadcast.

Mr. HOEKSTRA

Mr. HOEKSTRA. I thank my colleague for yielding. And maybe we can have a little bit of a dialogue about the trip that we had. It is kind of interesting. It was your first opportunity to be in country. It was my eighth trip into the theater, and I probably spent close to 20 days on the ground now in Iraq. And you are flying in from Kuwait, and I think you and I both had an opportunity to be up in the cockpit with the pilots. And I think the pilot, he had been on assignment a number of times, and I believe this might have been his eighth tour. It was something like that. So he spent a good part of the last 3 years flying C-130s back and forth between Kuwait, Baghdad, around the theater inside Baghdad to Jordan, probably to UAE and various places. But what really struck me was the first two soldiers that I met, the conviction and the enthusiasm that they still felt for the mission. I mean, each time I go, the litmus test to me is kind of what are our soldiers saying? This C-130 pilot, he is flying our troops back and forth, and he says, We are here. I keep wanting to come back. We need to win this mission. We need to stay until it is done, and we are doing the right thing and we are making progress. And I think for a couple of reasons, these folks interact with the pilot maybe not as much, but they hear the stories of our troops on the ground as to the interaction that they are having with the Iraqi people and the appreciation from the Iraqi people. And I hope this is one of the things that Prime Minister Maliki talks about next week, about the genuine appreciation of the Iraqi people for the progress and the support that they have received. They see that appreciation. The other thing that I think they see is they see the horror of the other side. These are terrorists who attack civilians. Our troops understand their viciousness, and they understand the nature of these people, that they are not just attacking in Iraq, but I mean there is all this talk now about what is going on in Lebanon. 1983 is when our barracks were blown up, 23 years ago, Hezbollah. Even before that, terrorist groups have been attacking U.S. interests, Western interests around the globe. And I think our troops see the need to confront this and to defeat it and that they genuinely believe that if we step away and do not confront it, it will move back to the homeland. We go on the ground to Baghdad, get met at the airport by someone who interned in my office about a couple of years ago, interned in my office, went to Hope College in my district, got to be a good friend with a number of the people in the church that we go to, so he went to our church. He is now embedded not in the international zone where you and I were, he is embedded with Iraqi troops that have been trained. So there are like eight to ten U.S. troops with a large group of Iraqi troops, and he says, Man, am I glad I am here. He hadn't been there long, but he said, You know, this is where I wanted to be. This is where I want to be right now. I am working with Iraqi troops. I have been to their homes. I have been to their families. We need to do this, and we need to see the mission through. And like I said, he had just been there a couple of months. And like I said, this is a kid that I know. If he did not feel that way, he would have told me. But he had just gotten there, and they also see the sacrifices that the Iraqi people are making. There have been a lot more Iraqi troops, police and citizens that have been killed over the last number of months than U.S. troops. They are willing to go to the front lines. They are willing to pay the price and make the difference. You and I both saw, there is lots of work to be done. It is not a pretty picture on certain occasions. The day we were there, the folks went in and got the chairman of the National Olympic Committee. Maybe you have talked a little bit about some of the other things we observed. We can talk about the training of the troops, the need to secure Baghdad. I heard you talk about Kurdistan. But there is lots of work to do. It is two steps forward, one step back. But it is clearly a war against radical Islam that is moving forward, that needs to be completed.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. A couple of things. You are a hero, and you are a target.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. If the gentleman will yield, that is a conclusion that we probably reached on a bipartisan basis, that it is absolutely essential to as rapidly as possible train up the Iraqis and transfer sections of the country to Iraqi troops with U.S. advisers. They know the neighborhood, they know the culture, and I think they have the desire and conviction to win. We need to provide them with the training and the resources, but then get them at the front lines so that the Iraqi people in the communities see them. This is their opportunity to get the country back. I think the other thing you said, it was my first time to Kurdistan. There was never a need to go there before. Now you can see what happens in a period of 14 years. Remember, what was the number, 182,000 Kurds had been killed by Saddam. Iran was active in creating mischief. There was an ethnic cleansing going on in the southern part of Kurdistan. But over a period of 14 years, they have got political stability. The two major parties have come together to form a unity government, the economy is doing well and the security situation is good. So if the rest of the country can see Kurdistan as a model and embrace the kinds of reforms, I think that is the other thing that happened in Kurdistan. They are doing the things that are attracting foreign investment and foreign confidence in what they are doing. Because you cannot rebuild Iraq with just U.S. money. You need to get the private sector coming in, and Kurdistan is doing that in the laws they are shaping to encourage and welcome foreign investment into their area. You do it in the south and the rest of the country, you have got oil, you have got agriculture, you have some manufacturing, but you have got to put in place the right legal framework.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. That is all about securing Baghdad right now.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. But you can walk down, what is it called, Sniper Alley?

Mr. HOEKSTRA. I forget where I go sometimes.

Mr. HOEKSTRA. That we could walk down Sniper Alley Sunday night, and that we could walk through the streets of Sarajevo in Bosnia, and that we could walk through the streets of Bosnia on Monday morning, and, you know, that it was a vibrant city, people sitting at the cafes, drinking coffee and getting their country moving forward. Again, problems, high unemployment rate, slow economic development, but secure.