Steve Israel

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, as the House begins the process of reauthorizing the Water Resources Development Act, I wanted to inform my colleagues of correspondence between myself, the gentleman from New York, Mr. Grucci, and the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Les Brownlee. Mr. Grucci and I wrote to the Assistant Secretary in June to note the fact that, in our opinion, the Army Corps of Engineers has not suitably complied with Section 342 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1999. I ask that our letter of June 19, 2002 be printed in the Record at this point. Today my office received a reply from the Assistant Secretary, which I now ask be printed in the Record. In his reply, the Assistant Secretary noted that the Army Corps ``deferred all investigations on the Fire Island Interim project in July 2001'' due to the State's desire to focus on the Fire Island Reformulation project, which is slated to end in November 2005. I bring these letters to the attention of my colleagues to help them in their deliberations on the Water Resources Development Act. Congress of the United States, Washington, DC, June 19, 2002. Hon. Craig Manson, Assistant Secretary for Fish & Wildlife and Parks, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC. Hon. Les Brownlee, Under Secretary of the Army and Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Works, U.S. Department of the Army, Washington,

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, many of us will travel to New York this Friday to pay homage to the victims of last September's terrorist attacks. Even more meaningful to the surviving families than traveling to New York will be this House's commitment to ensuring that victims' families will have the same opportunities they had before their loved one was killed. After losing their sole source of financial support, many families are worried that they won't be able to afford college or stay in the neighborhood they have lived in for years. Because of an interpretation of the current laws governing the Victim Compensation Fund, the amount that each victim's family will receive will be lowered by the amount they will get in Social Security survivors' benefits. My legislation, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Family Benefits Fairness Act, permits the victims and their families of the terrorist attacks to receive the compensation we meant to provide them when we passed the Victim Compensation Fund. Public support for the victims and their families has been consistent and heartfelt. Americans continue to support the families who lost their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers or friends. We need to ensure that their lives are not further devastated by losing the financial position they had before the attack. My legislation shows the victims that the United States Congress continues to understand their great loss. The bill demonstrates that we are going to treat the families of those who died in the attack fairly. We will make sure that the children of the victims grow up to be successful with faith that American values are unwavering. The Victim Compensation Fund must not offset the amount a family receives from Social Security. My bill changes the statute to make clear that survivors' benefits will not be offset by the Special Master. This will help ensure that this terrible loss will not result in decreased standards of living or lost opportunities for their children.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, we also share the desire to see that something like September 11 never happens again. As a Member would whose district lies about 40 miles from what we now call ``Ground Zero,'' the consideration of the Homeland Security Act holds a very special importance for me. My district lost over 100 people on that tragic day. One of the great pleasures of serving on the Committee on Science with the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), the chairman of that committee, is the bipartisan manner in which he has guided the committee. I take pride, as I am sure he does, that legislation produced in the Committee on Science bears the input and the collaboration of all of its members. This was true when we debated those areas of the Homeland Security Act that fell in the purview of the committee and passed an amendment to create an advisory committee of the first responders, specifically in the Office of Science and Technology. Let me explain why this is so necessary. As I said before, my Congressional District is about 40 miles from Ground Zero. Lots of first responders live there. Lots of first responders lived there, until September 11. Our first responders have something unique and something special to offer the new Homeland Security Department, particularly in the areas of researching and developing new sciences and new technologies to save and protect lives, including their own, in engineering issues, in identifying research and budget priorities for new emergency equipment, even the apparel that protects them. The compromise that was developed in the committee creates an advisory committee of 20 first responders. They would be selected by the Under Secretary of Science and Technology. They would be eminent in emergency response, research, engineering, and new product development. Mr. Chairman, the fact is that first responders will be the end users. They are the customers of the new technologies and sciences that are developed in the Office of Science and Technology, and they deserve a place at the drawing board. I offer this amendment in the belief that we should value our first responders, but also accept their invaluable advice.

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. ISRAEL. I yield to the gentlewoman from California.

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this conference report, but with a word of caution. This bill offers new rules and regulations. The fact is that we had rules, and they were ignored. We had laws and they were broken. We had regulations and they were worthless. We had laws on the books, and the books were cooked. Now we have new laws, and I am sure we have plenty of lawyers already parsing the words and figuring out ways around them. Mr. Speaker, all of the new rules and regulations will not be effective if the fox continues to guard the henhouse. The words in this bill will be no more than words if regulators continue to look the other way. With this bill has to come true reform in how the White House and the SEC and the Justice Department enforce those laws. The American people played by the rules. They have seen their retirements delayed, their college tuition funds depleted, their downpayments disappear. Now they will be watching how serious Washington is, not on the day that we pass this bill, but in the years going forward when it must be enforced. We will be judged not by what we pass today, but by how it is enforced tomorrow.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, as a New Yorker I know that on the hottest ticket on Broadway has been a comedy, The Producers. The tragedy with recent financial scandals is that we are running the plot line of The Producers in real life. In The Producers, the accountant, Leo Bloom, is sent to conduct an independent audit of the producer, Max Bialystock. Bialystock begs the accountant to find a way to fudge the books to enhance his earnings. So the accountant finds a way to sell 2,000 percent of stock options in Bialystock's company, losing his independence and becoming part of a scam. The difference is only on Broadway and in the movies do the accountants and CEO's go to jail. In real life, no one has gone to jail, no personal bankruptcies in senior management, no disgorgements, no accountability. Just victims who have lost it all. Unlike in The Producers, no one is laughing, not our senior citizen, not our middle class families who are watching their children's tuition funds disappear, not hard-working taxpayers who have to put their retirements on hold. The American dream is turning into an American tragedy right before our eyes and no one is laughing.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution urging mandatory steroid testing in Major League Baseball. I rise as a Member of this body, but, more importantly, as a father and as a huge baseball fan, particularly of the New York Mets, which, I will take this opportunity to add, play much better in the second half than in the first half. Mr. Speaker, all around us people are losing faith in their politicians, their corporations and their retirements. We cannot let them lose faith in America's national pastime, baseball. We cannot allow the clouds of doubt and skepticism to hang over every at-bat by every 40-home-run hitter. Mr. Speaker, I grew up on Long Island worshipping Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman and Tommy Agee and Cleon Jones and Art Shamsky. I started, I am very proud to announce, the Ron Swaboda fan club in my neighborhood. I was the only member of the Ron Swaboda fan club in my neighborhood, but that is what young people are supposed to do. Instead, according to one report, 12 percent of high school boys are taking steroids. Baseball should be a field of dreams, and not a den of drugs. This should not be just another collective bargaining issue, because baseball is not just another business, like Enron or WorldCom. Baseball is special and has a special historic obligation to lead by example, to tell people who are young that you do not have to enhance your performance by using drugs that are dangerous, illegal and morally offensive; that you can excel the good old-fashioned way, with hard work. The only way that baseball can send a serious message that it will not tolerate steroids is to institute mandatory drug testing for steroids. I take this position as a Member of Congress, as a father, and as a very proud fan of the New York Mets, much to the consternation of my constituents on Long Island.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and friend from Long Island for bringing this important resolution to the floor today. I have two daughters and they do not like it much when I talk about them publicly, but in the wake of September 11, both of them asked me many questions. They asked me why I was attending so many memorial services and funerals. They asked why did this have to happen. They asked why did some people die and not others. That is a question that we have been asking ourselves every day since September 11. It is a question that we will continue to ask ourselves every day in the future, and each of us has our own answers inspired by our own faiths and beliefs and experiences. We may not know why except for this. For the fire and rescue workers who died that day, it was their job to save lives. When everyone was running away from danger, they rushed towards it. Aboard a jet over Pennsylvania, a group of ordinary citizens banded together to force their plane down to save our Capitol but to end their own lives. They were heroes. Why did they do it? They knew that the terrorists were not simply trying to end our lives. They were seeking to end our way of life. They knew that those terrorists wanted to bring that plane down on the Capitol itself, destroying not only the dome of this building but the very foundation of our democracy, and rather than fleeing danger, they accepted it to save a way of life, to save our way of life, and we all know what that way of life is, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Speaker, what was built by Washington and Adams and Jefferson has been saved by the heroes that we recognize today, people like Ray Downey of Deer Park and Glen Pettit of Ronkonkoma and John Viggiano of West Islip and 100 others in my district on Long Island who lost their lives. Every day, firefighters across this land risk their lives to protect us. We are right to honor them with the Congressional Gold Medal and coins mined by the United States Mint, a coin that will include the phrase ``In God We Trust.'' I want to again thank the gentleman for bringing this to the floor. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. King) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella), the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) for their bipartisanship work on this bill.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my friend from Staten Island in recognizing the heroes who worked outside the view of cameras over the last year. The people who worked at Fresh Kills had a terrible task. More than 1,000 workers toiled at the landfill, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They sifted through all 1.62 million tons of debris from the World Trade Center site. they sifted through a national tragedy, looking for the remains of national heroes. They searched for body parts, personal items, and evidence from what is history's largest crime scene. These workers recovered approximately 20 percent of all the victim remains. 188 of the 1,215 World Trade Center victims whose remains have been identified and returned to their families were recovered at the landfill. More than 54,000 personal items were recovered: wedding rings, photographs, driver licenses, keys; reminders of lives lived and tragically cut short. These workers helped the victims' families by giving the families something to hold. These items could never replace the lost ones, but could help give some closure and peace. On July 15, 2002, the cleanup and recovery operations at Fresh Kills Landfill came to a somber conclusion. We will however, be eternally grateful to the workers at Fresh Kills. We know it wasn't an easy job. But these workers lived up to the best ideals of service by helping so many families.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to manage time on the Keep Monticello on the Nickel Act, legislation that preserves the portrait of Monticello on the nickel. All Americans are familiar with the role that Thomas Jefferson played in our Nation's founding. Jefferson was the third President of the United States, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the founder of the University of Virginia. One of the foremost intellectuals in American history, Jefferson produced many of his finest writings at Monticello, his picturesque mansion outside of Charlottesville; and it is appropriate that we preserve the mansion on our Nation's coinage. Our distinguished colleague from Virginia (Mr. Cantor) has put forward a plan to mint to commemorate the plans of Lewis and Clark for 3 years and revert to the Monticello for 2006. That is a reasonable compromise. We support the Cantor legislation. I urge my colleagues to support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, there are times when we can make a difference and sometimes it is the difference between life and death, and today is one of those days. We are considering a resolution that could begin a process that will save the lives of thousands of American women with ovarian cancer and women all over the world over the next several years. The resolution before us, which I introduced with the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), distinguished colleague, calls on the National Institutes of Health to conduct a complete multi-institutional trial of a potentially huge breakthrough in the early detection of ovarian cancer. My colleagues have heard the statistics. About 75 percent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer receive that diagnosis in the advanced stages of the disease when survival rates are only 20 percent. Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of gynecologic cancers. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among American women. One out of every 57 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Last year nearly 14,000 women in America died from ovarian cancer. The statistics are alarming, but we can do something about them tonight. Thanks to Peter Levine and Dr. Ben Hitt, a reliable method of early detection may be near and that early detection takes the survival rate from 20 percent to 95 percent. This is something that saves lives. These are statistics that we can improve. The resolution calls for a full field test of the new ovarian cancer early detection process, and if that full trial of the simple blood test for ovarian cancer proves effective, I am going to fight to require that the blood test be given to all women as part of their annual gynecological exam and that Medicare/Medicaid and private insurance fully cover the procedure. It is a tough approach, but the time to act is now. In this case we can do something about the statistics. We can do something to save thousands of lives. We can make a difference. Our Nation has found the resolve and the resources to tackle the most difficult problems on earth, to produce the most advanced technology, to produce the most sophisticated weapons we need to protect our national security, and now we have an opportunity, using a simple stick upon a finger, to protect the health security of nearly 14,000 women. Now is the time for us to find the resolve and the resources to protect our people and our women from the ravages of ovarian cancer. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the leadership of the Committee on Commerce for their bipartisan support. I want to thank the leadership of the entire Congress for their bipartisan support for this legislation that does put women ahead of politics. I urge my colleagues to support this important resolution.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, as a freshman Member of the House Financial Services Committee, I'm still new enough to hope that both sides of the aisle truly want to accomplish meaningful corporate reform. But I'm not naive. A few months ago, in the wake of Enron, many of us on the Committee offered amendments to the majority's corporate governance reform. We offered an amendment to stop the conflicts between analysts and investment bankers. The majority defeated it. We offered an amendment to ensure independence of auditors. The majority diluted it. We offered amendments to achieve true structural reform and end corporate thievery. The majority delayed it. And now, in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes, suddenly the majority has seen the light and felt the heat of an expansive population of angry Americans who are watching their retirements dissipate. The President has asked us to get a bill on his desk--while members of his Administration deal with a daily barrage of reports on their own conduct as the corporate leaders of Haliburton, Harkin, Enron and others. Tonight we have a choice. We can continue to allow the majority to defeat, dilute and delay true protections of Main Street investors and retirees. Or we can draw the line with the Sarbanes bill that puts people ahead of politics.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Chairman, I commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) and the gentleman from New York (Chairman Boehlert) for their work on this important legislation. It was bipartisan from the beginning; and on such an important issue, that is the way it should be. Mr. Chairman, I lost over 100 constituents in the rubble of the World Trade Center. In the days after September 11, their families wanted to know why our national intelligence and our airport security were not strong enough to withstand the attack. Now their families are asking whether our building, fire and safety codes were strong enough to withstand the attack. They want to know if we learned anything from the collapse of the Federal building in Oklahoma, or did bureaucracy simply file a report on some shelf, only to be opened in the scrutiny of September 11. They want to make sure that the lessons lost on September 11 will never be lost again. Since September 11, we have responded to the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in many ways. Militarily, we have eviscerated al Qaeda. We have replaced the Taliban theocracy with a secular interim government that will lead Afghanistan to democracy, we have started to revamp our airport security systems, we have passed the Comprehensive Bioterrorism Act and the PATRIOT Act. On Capitol Hill, we have erected steel barricades and shatterproof glass to protect Members of Congress; but we are still asking our police, our fire, and our emergency workers around the country to risk their lives running into buildings without really knowing what they need to know about the technical conditions of those buildings. We need to know what can be done to make our buildings more structurally sound and control the intense fires caused by airplanes or bombs, and what precautions should be taken to minimize the weakening of steel, even under the most catastrophic conditions. Mr. Chairman, I went to the wreckage of the World Trade Center with President Bush a few days after the attack. We have an obligation to those lost in that rubble and to everyone who enters a skyscraper in this new age of terrorist warnings to shine some light, to get some answers, and to act on what we have learned. Protecting our skyscrapers and economic security is just as important an issue as flying F-16s over the Capitol Building in Washington. That is why the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner), and I have asked the Office of Management and Budget to allocated the $40 million needed to complete a comprehensive study. When the Committee on Science held a hearing to study the progress of the investigation of the collapse, there was unanimity among the witnesses on the need for a comprehensive assessment and research agenda to address evacuation procedures, emergency response, and structural analysis of the World Trade Center. We need to give scientists the resources that they need to make and conclude this full, comprehensive study. Mr. Chairman as the gentleman from New York said, we were not ready for a building disaster like the one at the World Trade Center. This legislation will help us find the answers that our families are looking for and prepare us for a more secure future. We will always look at the site of the World Trade Center and ask why. Now it is our obligation to know how, and this bill gives us the tools.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and certainly his leadership will be missed. Mr. Speaker, I represent a middle-class, middle-income district on Long Island, New York. The people I represent play by the rules. They pay their taxes. They pay their dues. They raise their kids with the values of hard work and fairness. They know the value of real punishment for real crimes. And they know there is no difference between stealing with a gun and stealing with an accountant's pencil. The worst crime that was committed in this crisis was the theft of time. The worst crime is that people's retirements were stolen away from them because the value of their 401(k)s, their pensions, their retirements will plummet as a result of this scandal, adding more time of hard work and paying taxes. This was the theft of time and that cannot be forgiven. People's retirements have been stolen. And where is the punishment? Ken Lay and his cronies continue to walk freely. There have been no personal bankruptcies for senior management. There have been no jail sentences, no disgourgements. There has been no accountability, but plenty of American corporations even today will continue to register themselves in Bermuda to escape paying their fair share of American taxes to support our troops in Afghanistan. The American people will be looking at this House of Representatives wanting an assurance that we will return this country and its businesses to fair play and playing by the rules.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, on June 30th, I was honored to attend a ceremony where the Post Office in Deer Park, New York was renamed for New York Fire Department Chief of Operations Ray Downey, one of the many firefighters lost in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2002. In fact, Chief Downey was the most senior member of the Fire Department killed that day. As you may recall, Mr. Speaker, this House voted in December to rename the Post Office. I wanted to share my remarks from that day with the House: Our country has been reunited with the tragedy of September 11th. And we should be. But I want to tell you about something that I experienced on September 12th. Something that has stood out in my mind, above everything else that occurred that week. It was a unique week in American history--unprecedented tragedy, unprecedented heroism. For me, one moment stands out even more than the evening of September 11th, when I stood with my colleagues on the steps of the Capitol, that we were told was a target of terrorists only hours before, holding hands and singing God Bless America as the sun descended over the dome and over one of America's most horrific days. A moment stands out even more than September 13th, when I sat with President Bush in the White House Cabinet room and we talked about the battle to come. More than September 15th, when I went with the President to the site of the World Trade Center, where we lost Ray Downey and 3000 innocent victims of terror. It stands above that evening, when I cast the proudest vote of my career: the vote authorizing the President to do what had to be done for the protection of our children and survival of our values and our way of life. Of all those extraordinary experiences, one really stands out . . . from September 12th. I was on the Floor of the House. And we had just heard from CNN or AP that Ray Downey didn't make it. I went to a phone, and I called Ray's daughter, Marie Tortorici. It would be the very first of what turned out to be over 100 condolence calls I would make as a Member of Congress to the families of my constituents who died from terror on September 11th. ``I'm sorry,''I told Marie. And here's what she said: 'We still have hope. We still have faith. We are praying and we want you to pray also. And so, I went back to the floor of the House, and addressed the Congress, and asked them to say a prayer for the Downey family. In their darkest hour, the Downey family still had hope, still had faith, still had prayer. And this is what Osama bin Laden and those who live in the darkness of nature don't understand about our country, who we are, what are our values, and where we summon our strength. When I visited with the President on September 14th I saw the destruction the terrorists caused: the twisted metal and the shattered glass and the smoky, acrid ruins. But I also saw the signs of the true America. Rescue workers who had planted tiny American flags in their battered helmets. Their arms were weary from digging for three straight days and three straight nights, but not so weary that they couldn't pump their arms into the air and chant USA, USA, USA when the President arrived. I spoke to two workers: one from Huntington Station and the other from Islip. I said, how long have you been here? They said, since the building went down. I said, how long will you stay, they said, we're not leaving. This is something al Qaeda could never understand or appreciate. When Americans saw bloodshed, we lined up for hours to give blood back. When we feel fear, we turn to our faith. We unfurl our flags. When Ray Downey's family was in trouble, they responded with hope and with faith. Because that's what Ray was all about. When Ray Downey saw a building come down, he headed for it. When Ray Downey saw a building collapse in Oklahoma City, half a country away, he headed for it. That's what made him special. Not a hero looking for accolades. Just an American doing his job in the best way he could with a courage forged by hope and faith. That will inspire generations of Americans yet unborn. When I went to the floor weeks later and asked my colleagues to cosponsor the bill that named this post office, they lined up to sign it. Republicans. Democrats. From New York. From Oklahoma. From California. When I asked Senator Clinton to introduce it in the Senate, she rushed it. And when I asked the President to sign it, he said, ``how soon.'' Ray Downey had a way of bringing us together. In sports . . . in the Fire Department . . . in Deer Park. We could really use him in Washington right now. We may not have him physically. But we will always have his spirit of hope, and faith and strength to guide us. And when generations to come visit this post office and say, ``who was Ray Downey?'' The answer will be clear. He was a kind, gentle and loving man who died so that others would live. He was one of those guys who gave his life to make us the home of the brave . . . and the land of the free. And when I think of him, as I do often, I recall the words from Romeo and Juliet: And, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. God bless the Downey family. God bless America.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I was absent from votes this morning so that I could be in New York to be with my children as they go away for the summer. I missed two votes. Were I here I would have voted as follows: Rollcall Vote 267, on Approving the Journal: ``yea''; and Rollcall Vote 268, that the House Adjourn: ``no.''

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be in Washington yesterday. Four recorded votes were taken by the House; if I were here, I would have voted as follows: Rollcall No. 252: a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.J. Res. 95, designating an official flag of the Medal of Honor and providing for presentation of that flag to each recipient of that Medal of Honor, as amended. I would have voted ``yea''; Rollcall No. 251: a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3971, a bill to provide for an independent investigation of Forest Service firefighter deaths that are caused by wildfire entrapment or burnover. I would have voted ``yea''; Rollcall No. 250: a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3786, the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Boundary Revision Act of 2002. I would have voted ``yea''; and Rollcall No. 249: a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3937, to revoke a Public Land Order with respect to certain lands erroneously included in the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, California. I would have voted ``yea''.

Mr. ISRAEL

Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 40th Anniversary of the Bunger Surf Shop and acknowledge the pioneering efforts Charlie and Janet Bunger have made on behalf of surfing on Long Island. In 1962, Charlie Bunger built his first surfboard in his garage on Indiana Avenue. Three years later, Charlie and his business partner, Kevin Kelly, opened the retail end of Bunger Surf Shop in Copaigue, New York. At the time, the Bunger Surf Shop produced over 1,000 boards a year with only 15 employees. Throughout the next thirty years, the Bunger family expanded their business to Bay Shore, West Babylon, and Babylon. Today, you can still find Charlie, Janet and their four children, Theresa, Susan, Charlie Jr., and Tommy, covered in foam dust and dripping in resin as they construct and design world renowned surfboards. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to bring to the attention of Congress Charlie Bunger's induction into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame. Charles Bunger has distinguished himself as one of the premiere surfboard manufacturers on the East Coast and the Bunger Surf Shop has become an icon in Babylon Village. The Bungers are pioneers in the field of surfing and their contributions to the sport and to the Second Congressional District of New York will not be overlooked.