Marcy Kaptur

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt) for his outstanding national leadership for his question of the integrity of our vote and wish to join him in support of H.R. 2239, his measure to instill voter confidence and increased accessibility of 2003 by requiring a voter-verified permanent record or hard copy under title III of the Help America Vote Act that we passed back on October 29, 2002. The bill does need perfection, and it is to the gentleman from New Jersey's (Mr. Holt) great credit that over 132 Members of this House already signed on as co-sponsors of this measure. It is a pleasure to join the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall), the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price) here this evening, and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) in supporting this measure. Let me just say that the goals of the original act were to provide funds for new voting equipment and training and that the Election Assistance Commission that was established as a national clearing house for Federal elections was expected to do many things that they have not done to date, simply because they were appointed too late. In fact, a year late. They were not confirmed in their position until December 9 of last year. And the first public meeting of the commission was just about one month ago on March 23. Therefore, when counties in our congressional district looked to the Federal Government for information about secure voting systems, and which electronic voting devices can really be trusted, guess what? There is no advice, because the commission has not completed its work. And in fact as we meet here today, the public comment period on the various State election plans that have been submitted to the Federal Register for comment which will end on May 8 allow for the States to self-certify. Those comments are just given back to the Secretaries of the various States and then Federal money begins to kick in, $2.3 billion for election training, $650 million for equipment; but the point is that there are not Federal standards by which we can judge this equipment. This has never happened before across our Nation. There are many delays associated with those appointments to the commission, and several deadlines in HAVA have already been missed in that act. I will submit those for the record tonight. It is important to say over two dozen States have requested and granted a waiver for compliance with the HAVA voting equipment requirements until the first election after January 1, 2006. I would say to many elections officials across this country and across my own State of Ohio who have asked me, go to the act. We can provide this to you. You do not have to buy this equipment this year if you do not believe it is secure. If you do not believe the smart cards are trust worthy, you do not have to buy those machines under the act that we passed here. There are no Federal standards in place yet so you have no guidelines. So why make decisions prematurely? We want to make sure that that equipment works once you bring it on line, and you have to think about the long-term costs of the maintenance of the electronic equipment. Right now the act does not provide for storage costs at a certain humidity, which many of those electronic systems do require. You have to also think about the training of the booth workers who will be working this year. The training money has not gone out yet. Who will do the training? What kind of training? Will we be sufficiently trained on this new equipment by November or should you use your traditional system that has been in place through this year and then move the HAVA legislation and then the equipment and so forth on board for elections after January 2006? I just wanted to mention the gentleman from New Jersey's (Mr. Holt) tremendous work in this area, specifically as regards the paper trails and how you recount from a device that sends its votes into cyberspace. We currently have several places in the country where elections have been conducted on this equipment and the votes cannot be recounted because the votes are in space. There is no paper record. There is nothing in the machine you can go back to. It only repeats what it did before. There is no paper record. And I totally support your efforts to try to get an auditable, verifiable paper trail. With all of the money we are spending, well over a billion dollars in this country, why can we not get it right the first time and make sure that whatever is necessary to provide that machine with intelligence so we can audit that trail is available? In the State of Ohio, I will end and just say, we have a State requirement that if an election is within one half of 1 percent, we must recount. It is Ohio's statute. We must do this. If we have votes in cyberspace, there is no way that we can accomplish this state-mandated test. So I want to thank the gentleman for taking on this major effort. And believe me, you have my support in the Committee on Appropriations and in any other way to try to get these machines to function the right way and to get our poll workers the proper training before the election in which any of this equipment is brought on line. Rush Holt has introduced H.R. 2239, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003, to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of the Help America Vote Act. The bill now has 132 cosponsors. Congressman Holt will speak more about his bill later. HAVA was signed into law on October 29, 2002. Its goals were to provide new voting equipment in those communities where it is needed and wanted; to provide training programs for election workers and voter education programs for the public; and to establish an Election Assistance Commission to serve as a national clearinghouse and resource for the administration of Federal elections. Under the Act, the four Commissioners were to be appointed by February 26, 2003. Their nominations were not even sent to the Senate until October 3, 2003, and they were not confirmed until December 9, 2003. The first public meeting of the Commission was just about 1 month ago, on March 23rd. As we meet here, the public comment period on State Election Plans is underway. At the conclusion of this period, State Election Plans can be self-certified by the States and they will begin to receive more than $2.3 billion for election training and assistance, in addition to the $650 million that has already been put out to the states. Due to the delays in the appointment of the commission, several deadlines specified in HAVA have already been missed: Recommendations and voluntary guidance on Section 302 provisional voting requirements (October 1, 2003); Recommendations and voluntary guidance on Section 303 provisions on computerized statewide voter registration list requirements and mail registration requirements (October 1, 2003); Human Factors Report to the President and Congress (October 29, 2003); EAC adopts voluntary guidance recommendations relating to Section 301 Voting Systems Standards Requirements (January 1, 2004); First Annual EAC report to Congress (January 31, 2004); A report and recommendations to the President and Congress for facilitating military and overseas voting. Additionally, 24 states have requested and been granted a waiver for compliance with HAVA voting equipment requirements until the first Federal election after January 1, 2006. Testing by NIST on voting machines, and its obligation to help develop tough standards for this new equipment, was suspended for 2 months this year because of the lack of federal money. The Commission is thankful that NIST has been able to identify $375,000 to help the Technical Guidance Development Committee get underway. But no recommendations are expected for another 9 months, while the Commissioners themselves recognize that State and local election authorities are looking for federal guidelines to help them develop their own standards. Over the course of the past year, there have been many concerns raised regarding the security of new voting equipment. Will there be a paper trail that can be used for recounts? Can the summary data stored on the memory components of equipment provide a source for a recount in which voters can have confidence? Expert opinion is divided, and several states, including Ohio, California, Maryland and others, are looking into adopting state legislation that will build upon HAVA's minimum requirements. The Commission itself is scheduled to hold a hearing regarding concerns about election equipment and other start-up issues on May 5th. The Technology Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee, which had planned to hold a hearing on similar concerns on April 28th, has now delayed their hearing until May 12th.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege today to offer respectful words for history to pay tribute to John Conrad Kaptur on behalf of the entire Kaptur family--his wife Rita; children Stephen, Christopher, Renee, James/Christine, Kenneth, Regina/Jeff; sisters Virginia, Lillian, Christine; and the grandchildren Nicole, Michael, Cassandra, Ashley, Brittany, Jacob, and Lucas. Let us honor his beautiful life. Surely, he is loved. His children observe: ``Dad has a smile that would immediately tell all that he was happy to be in company with you. He enjoyed a good joke and always enjoyed a brewed cup of tea. `Refreshing,' he would say. John was a gentleman, also a strong man, a man who exemplified the motto by which he lived: `always faithful.' Our own father, his uncle, said of John, `He knew how to be a man.' '' Born in 1925, John was a devoted son of Szepan and Mary. He was his parents' first and only born son and the eldest of 16 children, an American of Polish heritage. He grew up attending St. Stanislaus Church and Libbey High School in tough economic times. He knew struggle. He worked hard. He possessed the drive, inventiveness and skill for which Kaptur men are known. His kindness was rooted deeply in his early years when people survived by holding onto one another. He valued family--to celebrate life and to weather the rough times. At 79, he was the patriarch of the Kaptur family. John was a tot when Wall Street crashed in 1929 ushering in the Great Depression of the 1930s. No jobs were to be had. For people today, it is hard to describe how hard life was back then--before America had a minimum wage, before there was enough to eat for so many families, before there was Social Security and Medicare. That was the world into which John was born. He never forgot. But he always kept moving forward. He was so talented. He possessed the Kaptur man's physique-- sturdy, square jawed, full of wanderlust, but steady, with a heart of gold so big his body could hardly contain it. At 17, following in his father's footsteps, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps--the elite, special branch of the U.S. Armed Forces especially trained for amphibious assault. He served in the Pacific Theater during World War II--first training at Camp Le Jeune in New River, North Carolina. In September, 1942, he departed on a troopship out of San Diego as a member of the 3rd Marine Division for the Bouganville invasion of American Samoa. He contracted a mosquito borne illness in late 1943 after the Guadalcanal invasion. A natural leader, he rose in rank in the Corps and later in the Reserves from Private First Class, to Lance Corporal, to Corporal, to Sergeant, and Staff Sergeant. He served honorably 12 years in the Corps and Reserves. He was a patriot. When I look at his beautiful family, I repeat the Marine Corps saying: ``The marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand.'' John maintained a keen interest in world events and helped shape them. In his mid 30s, John married Rita Mominee. What a match this has been! Smiles, a house full of activity, travel, joy. Together, they raised a magnificent family: 4 boys--Stephen, Christopher, James, Kenneth--and finally a girl--Regina. What a blessing he was able to watch them grow up and flower into adulthood. He enjoyed every minute. During his long life, he also experienced the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, Sputnik and the landing of the first man on the moon, the collapse of the Soviet Union, where his own father had served in Marine Corps in Vladivostok, and he ushered in the 21st century. All the while, John kept steady with his family and garden blooming, a man of quiet strength, a gentleman, good, and kind. To ease the sorrow, we should think about what each of us can do in his name, as a living prayer. For he will come to us now in a new way, not on our time but on his time. His children, through Regina, say about him: ``Dad was proud to be Catholic and to have served in the United States Marine Corps. His talents were many.'' After working nearly four decades in industrial production planning at Dura Corp. and later, retiring from Chrysler-Jeep as a planner in the engineering division, he quickly went out to do plumbing. ``The love of people and good conversation made me want to do it,'' he said. He always worked a hard day supporting his large family. He most loved his family. He celebrated his 45th wedding anniversary not long ago with his wife, Rita, along with his family. What a strong and devoted spouse Rita has been. Jim and Christine shared their home for that event, just as they did for the wake after his Christian burial. Dad was very proud of Jim's accomplishments as a Paramedic/ Toledo Firefighter and the perseverance he has to move up. He found great comfort in his knowledge. He would always take a nap in the afternoon so he could stay up to welcome Ken home from a hard day's work, and talk about the Lottery. When the day came to around 3 o'clock he would look for Chris to come by and have some good conversation. For Steve, he was very thankful for the skills it took to fix his car or use his trailer. As he was fathering all these boys, he became so very proud of their hard work and perseverance on a job. Regina knows her dad is proud of her accomplishments and the love, care, and comfort she had for him in his time of need. ``Dad taught me respect, compassion, diplomacy, perseverance, and the ability to know people and to have the psychology of life. Most of all, he taught me to love a human being, no matter if they were challenged or not.'' Then there are the grandchildren: He loved each and every one of them--Nicole, Michael, Cassandra, Ashley, Brittany, Jacob, Lucas. Whether John wanted to play hockey in the driveway, or bump the tree with the tire swing, or pick up sticks in the yard, or take a walk to the grapes, or even around the block. He may have just wanted a conversation with you, he loved you all. And I might add, our last conversation, just a few days ago, was about getting together with the grandchildren for dinner when he was feeling better. And the grandchildren couldn't have come without the loving daughters-in-law and son-in-law he gained: Renee, Christine and Jeff. Regina writes: ``I was very glad to have spent the time with Dad these past few months and through all his surgeries. I would not have wanted it any other way. So much value was built in the quality time we had. He recalled everyone in the present and in the past. Never was a cross word said. His words were always very kind. Dad had the best doctors and they always took our phone calls without hesitation and went beyond to meet our needs. Dad was always open to their suggestions that would help him. He had told the doctors: `Let's do it--I am a patient man.' With tears in my eyes, I watched as God wrapped his arms around Dad and said to him, `My precious child, come with me. You surely were a treasure on this earth, but now I need you in Heaven.' So God reached out and showed him the bright light, and said, `I will reunite you all again some day.' With tears in all of our eyes we will meet him again in heaven where he will greet each one of us with a smile and say, `It's great to see you.' `Thank you for coming' `Can I get you a cup of tea, or perhaps a Coop e'Kava and cookie?' '' Poem Because you went first and I remain, To walk the road alone. I live in memories garden, Dear, With happy days we've known. In Spring I wait for roses red, When faded, the lilacs blue. In early Fall when brown leaves fall I'll catch a glimpse of you. Because you went first and I remain, For battles to be fought. Each thing you touched along the way Is now a hallowed spot. I hear your voice, I see your smile, Tho blindly I now grope. The memory of your helping hand Now buoys me on with hope. Because you went first and I remain, One thing I'll have to do: Walk slowly down that long long path, For soon I'll follow you, I want to know each step you took, So I may take the same, For some day down that lonely road, You'll hear me call your name.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life's work of George R. Tucker, retiring as the Regional Director and Executive Secretary of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Ohio Council 8, AFL-CIO. Mr. Tucker has spent his career furthering the goals of organized labor in the struggle to improve the lives and livelihoods of the brothers and sisters and thus, make our Nation stronger. AFL Founder Samuel Gompers explained in an 1898 speech, ``To protect the workers in their inalienable rights to a higher and better life; to protect them, not only as equals before the law, but also in their health, their homes, their firesides, their liberties as men, as workers, as citizens; to overcome and conquer prejudices and antagonism; to secure to them the right to life, and the opportunity to maintain that life; the right to be full sharers in the abundance which is the result of their brain and brawn, and the civilization of which they are the founders and the mainstay. . . . The attainment of these is the glorious mission of the trade unions.'' His words ring as eloquently true in the dawn of the 21st century as they did in the waning of the 19th century. His words provide the blueprint by which labor leaders like George Tucker have always led, setting the economic and social achievements of the membership as a whole as their primary goal. George Tucker completed high school at Toledo's Woodward High School and followed that with service in the United States Navy. After more than two decades ``in the trenches,'' he became the staff representative for AFSCME's Ohio Council 8 in 1984. In 1987 he took on the responsibilities of Regional Director, adding Executive Secretary in 2002. Other offices Mr. Tucker has held during his tenure with AFSCME Ohio Council 8 are Secretary-Treasurer and Regional Vice President. At the same time, he has served the Toledo Area AFL-CIO on its steering committee and executive board and as President. He also holds a position on the national AFL-CIO's advisory board. Mr. Tucker gives of his time and talents to the United Labor Committee, Northwest Ohio Center for Labor Management Cooperation, Toledo Labor Management Citizens Committee, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. In all these pursuits, he has championed the causes of better wages, benefits, and working conditions for the thousands of workers whose lives he has touched. Mr. Tucker has not limited his service to the union movement; he is also a community leader. He has ably and actively served on the boards of the local EMS, Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Ohio Public Employers Lawyers Association, the Private Industry Council, United Way, Lucas County Democratic Party, Toledo Port Council, and the Down River Inter-City Hockey Club in Detroit and the Greater Toledo Amateur Hockey Association. He is a member of American Legion Post 110, Destroyer Escort Sailors Association, Augsburg Lutheran Church, and the Placers Car Club. Reviewing the exhaustive list of George Tucker's civic activities, it is clear his retirement is most deserved and maybe a little bit welcome. We wish him a most enjoyable journey on this new path in his life. We hope he is able to spend time with his wife and their children and grandchildren, and pursue golfing and the hobby of antique cars with the same vigor with which he has pursued his public life. Even though he may be officially retiring, we know we can continue to count on George Tucker's learned wisdom and personal counsel. Our community has been bettered immeasurably as a result of his dedication and good cheer. Onward, friend.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting to listen to some of the remarks on the floor this evening. We had a gentleman, one of our Members from California, say how good the economy looks to him. And yet if you read the newspaper today, U.S.A. Today indicates Gateway is going to be closing all of its stores around our country, the struggling PC computer maker, and laying off 2,500 more workers. In the same newspaper we see a headline, ``No Shortage of Oil, Saudi Arabia Says.'' Saudi Arabia sought to quiet critics of OPEC's decision this week to cut oil production, arguing there are ample supplies, despite decade-high gasoline prices. Their foreign affairs advisor to the Crown Prince said there is no shortage of crude oil. I would like to draw my colleagues' attention to this chart, which shows that the United States since the mid-1980s and every succeeding year has amassed more job loss and greater trade deficit than ever before in the history of our Nation. This year, the trade deficit is going to go over $580 billion. This is an unbelievable number. That means more imports coming into our country than our exports going out. We are exporting jobs and we are importing products from every other place in the world. Someone ought to really pay attention in the executive branch, and the Members of Congress who brag how great this is better pay attention to the fundamentals that are driving us in the wrong direction. One of those fundamentals involves rising gasoline prices and rising petroleum prices because we are not energy independent here at home. We need a President and we need a Congress that will make America energy independent again. Here is another chart. This chart shows over a period of 25 years every single year the amount of petroleum that we consume and how much every year comes from abroad. The Middle East, OPEC, controls half of what flows into this economy. Every time a U.S. consumer goes to the gas pump, at least 7 or 8 cents of what you spend per dollar for every gallon you buy goes to Saudi Arabia, a very undemocratic place, one of the worst dictatorships in the world, no matter how much sweetener they try to put on it; 2 or 3 cents goes to Kuwait and Iraq, all places without democratic governments in place. It has been happening for a long time. It just did not start. But it has been getting worse, and the job loss in our country has really been getting worse. Good jobs with benefits that people can depend upon, retirement programs that cannot be taken away, and a chance for children to go on to college without becoming debtors, the hole we have been digging has been getting deeper every year. A gentleman writes a letter to the editor today to U.S.A. Today. He is from out in Michigan. He says that everybody wants free trade, but it seems strange to me that the most powerful Nation on this earth can do nothing to stop the collusion, he says, among the organization of petroleum-exporting countries and our own oil companies to drive up the price of oil. Here in Washington last night I was watching the television, and Chevron-Texaco had this big ad about how great they were except for one thing, all that oil comes from someplace else and contributes to this rising share of imported petroleum and to the amassing trade deficit that is a damper, a huge damper on creating wealth inside this economy because we are siphoning it out of our own pockets and giving it to someone else. Imagine if we put those dollars to work to create a new industry across rural America, the biofuels industry, where we ripen ethanol production, soy diesel production, at a level where our farmers could be earning money from the marketplace, not from the Federal Government subsidy that goes to them. Imagine if we really were serious about fuel cell production, imagine if we really tried to bring modern hydrogen production to this country and push our photovoltaic production from the sun, energy from the sun to the limit, to the limit. NASA has done a great job of helping us move the technology to where it is today, but that is where America needs to move. We do not have to have more job loss. We do not have to have rising trade deficits. We need a government in this country that is going to make us energy independent again and begin creating jobs here at home for the future. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record additional extraneous material. Pressure OPEC to Lower Gas Prices Everybody wants free trade. But it seems strange to me that the most powerful nation on this earth can do nothing to stop the collusion I see among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and our own oil companies to drive up the price of oil (``OPEC votes to cut oil output, starting today,'' News, Thursday). Why can't the U.S. work with our non-OPEC industrialized allies and other nations that also need a steady supply of cheap petroleum and take retaliatory economic action by withholding essential goods and services, or even military action? We need to give the OPEC cartel a taste of its own medicine. Donald Seagle, Ishpeming, Mich.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I was so interested to hear the prior gentleman's remarks from California about jobs. He has been one of the primary Members of this institution that has helped to outsource our jobs all over the world, China, India, Mexico; so I am sorry he has left the floor. But I guess I could say, here we go again, another episode in the outsourcing of American jobs. And this one is especially outrageous, because it involves our U.S. taxpayer dollars. The Richmond Times Dispatch in Virginia reported yesterday that the big bank, J.P. Morgan Chase and Company, which administers the Bush administration food stamp program for Virginia and 37 other States, has been exporting administrative jobs since 2001. Why would the Bush administration select a big bank anyway to administer the U.S. food stamp program, rather than use not-for-profit institutions like credit unions and other financial intermediaries located across this country? Today now, the Associated Press reports that food stamp beneficiaries in 43 States already get help with problems such as replacing lost cards by calling toll-free numbers, and these toll-free numbers connect them to companies that have contracts with State governments, and those companies have outsourced the calls to foreign countries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it would consider permitting a State government to hire private contractors to sign up people for food stamps, even though the Federal law says U.S. Government workers should handle the job. Madam Speaker, this policy by our U.S. Department of Agriculture is not only inappropriate; it is outrageous, particularly when you look at growing food stamp rolls because of unemployment in this country and this administration not extending unemployment benefits to people. It is also outrageous because of the growing ranks of the unemployed, 9 million unemployed workers in this country. Just in Ohio, 347,000 people without work, and many more having quit looking, so they are not even counted anymore. Why not put unemployed Americans at work at these call centers inside our country, instead of shipping out these service calls, outsourcing the work to other countries like India? Something is haywire when we allow multinational corporations to take our U.S. taxpayer dollars and give them in the form of government contracts to companies that then outsource the work to foreign workers and foreign countries. It is absolutely indefensible, when so many of our taxpayers cannot find jobs. It is ironic. American workers who lose their jobs to unfair trade practices might have to talk to somebody overseas in order to get their food stamps. Think about this one: when we asked the Under Secretary, Mr. Bost, yesterday before our committee whether he would consider working with the Department of Labor to go into these pockets of unemployed people in our country and let them do the call center jobs, he never attempted it, and it did not really seem to appeal to him. This issue came up during our agriculture meeting yesterday, and as the ranking member I asked USDA officials, since they were not willing to hire Americans, would they be willing to support a ban on outsourcing these U.S. jobs to call centers, primarily in India. The USDA, that we pay for, we pay for their salaries, U.S. taxpayers, we pay the salary of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, of the gentleman who was testifying before us, they said, no, they would not ban sending the work overseas. Now, the Republican practice of outsourcing American jobs cannot end one moment too soon. Madam Speaker, the two articles I wish to place in the Record that document what I am saying is an article in the Associated Press by Ira Dreyfuss, and the headline reads: ``Private Contractors May Handle Food Stamps,'' and also an article that was in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The headline reads: ``Food Stamp Calls Routed to India. A Firm That Runs Part of the Virginia Program Outsourced Call Center to India.'' Madam Speaker, it would be nice to have some attention in one of the largest programs that this government funds, over $50 billion a year in various food programs, about two-thirds of that in the food stamp program, and try to help some of our own people earn some money in this country so they would not have to be on food stamps and they could have good jobs right here in the good old USA. [From the Times-Dispatch, Mar. 23, 2004] Food-Stamp Calls Routed to India firm that runs part of the Virginia program outsourced call center (By Tyler Whitley) When food-stamp recipients in Virginia have a question about the program, they get answers from someone in India. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., a giant bank-holding company that administers a key part of the program for the social-services departments in Virginia and 37 other states, has outsourced its call center to the Asian nation. Maurice Jones, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, estimates that six or seven jobs could be created in Virginia to handle the 10,000 calls a month that are now made to India by Virginia's 195,000 food-stamp recipients. He said the Warner administration inherited the outsourcing from the Gilmore administration, which signed a contract with another banking giant, Citicorp, in February 2001. Louis Rossiter, secretary of health and human resources under then-Gov. Jim Gilmore, said the jobs were not being sent abroad when the contract was signed. Rossiter said Citicorp had a near monopoly on the business at the time the contract was signed. The decision to send the jobs abroad was not the state's but the contractor's, Citicorp. It subsequently sold the food-stamp electronic-transfer program to J.P. Morgan, Jones said. Jones said the calls have been going overseas since October 2001. A disgruntled local official complained about the situation recently to The Times-Dispatch. When the state's five-year contract expires in 2006, Jones said yesterday, he hopes the 38 states can put pressure on the bank to return the call centers to the United States-- perferably to Virginia. Outsourcing, largely ignored until recently, has become a major political target in the 2004 presidential campaign. Although it is not a new phenomenon, Democrats are blaming the shipment of jobs to lower-wage countries abroad for the slow pace of job creation during the economic recovery. Trevelocity, which provides airfares and travel service over the Internet, recently announced it is closing a call center with about 250 jobs in Diskenson County in Southwest Virginia later this year and sending most of the business to India. It estimated it could save $10 million from the move. Richmond-based Circuit City Stores Inc. also has begun outsourcing jobs to India. Its customer-service toll-free line now goes to India. According to the American Legislative Issue Campaign Exchange, a Wisconsin-based organization, 22 states are considering legislation to prevent job loss because of outsourcing by requiring state and local government contracts to purchase only American goods and services. The U.S. Senate has voted to do the same on federal contracts. ``I'm a firm believer that you ought to take care of your own people first,'' said Del. Clarence E. ``Bud'' Phillips, a Democrat who represents Dickenson County. Phillips said he will introduce legislation next year to bar the state from entering into contracts that ship jobs abroad. If the jobs are returned to the United States, bank officers have told him that Virginia will have to pay a higher fee for the services, Jones said. Jones said he recognizes the irony that someone in Virginia might be receiving food stamps because he lost a job through outsourcing. ``In an ideal world, I wish we could have a call center in Virginia staffed by present or former food-stamp clients,'' he said. Food-stamp coupons are not longer given out. The federal government now issues electronic benefit-transfer (EBT) cards, which operate much like debit cards. A food-stamp recipient gets a card from the state Department of Social Services with a limit on how much the person can draw. J.P. Morgan handles the monetary transfers for a fee paid by the state. J.P. Morgan has call centers in Bangalore and Pune, India, and a center for automated calls in Delaware, Jones said. He said only about 10,000 of the 400,000 monthly calls made by Virginians go to India, where people handle the inquiries. The rest go to the automated call center. Repeated calls for comment to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in New York City were not returned.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, January 20, 2004 saw the unexpected passing of a beloved member of Toledo, Ohio's medical community, a philanthropist, mentor, and friend to many, a wife, mother, sister and grandmother. Mary Beth Hayward, RN, MSN, passed from this life at the age of 65. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mary Beth was the only daughter of George and Evelyn Ludwig. She received her undergraduate RN from St. Mary's College and her Master of Science in Nursing from Catholic University, graduating from both magna cum laude. She followed graduation with a teaching position at Georgetown University's School of Nursing. That same year, she married John Hayward, a strong union lasting nearly 42 years. In 1966, the Haywards moved to Toledo, Ohio, and Mary Beth began teaching advanced medical and surgical care nursing at the former Mercy School of Nursing. In 1974, Mary Beth joined the faculty of the Medical College of Ohio, where she remained for the next 30 years until her untimely death. A visionary leader in the nursing profession the MCO associate professor pioneered the development of new teaching methods including online courses. She was a member of MCO's Faculty Senate, and a testament to her teaching was the 18 Excellence in Teaching awards she received during her tenure. A leader in her profession, Mary Beth at the time of her death was president of the Northwest Ohio Nurses Association and secretary of the Ohio Nurses Association Board of Directors. She was a member of the International Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau, and president of the Ohio League for Nursing for a 2000-2003 term. Along with her husband and singly, Mary Beth was a respected community leader. She' gave service to the Kidney Foundation of Northwest Ohio, Sunset Retirement Communities, the Junior League of Toledo, the Toledo Bar Association Auxiliary, and Hospice of Northwest Ohio. In addition to this service, she could be counted upon to lend her support to many other causes. Mary Beth Hayward leaves a legacy in nursing and in our community. Yet her strongest legacy is her family. Our prayers remain with her husband John, her children Beth, Mary Bridget, John, Thomas, and Ethan, her eight grandchildren, her brother William, and many more family and friends. Lofty words and poetic phrase could easily be used to describe the life of Mary Beth Hayward, but the eulogy noting her passing encapsulates her perfectly, ``She loved God, she loved life, she loved her family, and she loved teaching. She was a force for good who gave much and took little.''

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, following the election debacle in Florida in the 2000 Presidential race, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act to improve election systems across the country; but lately I have met with many election officials who are largely unaware of what that law actually says, and tonight I would like to clarify some of its provisions. Importantly, HAVA will make money available to the Sates for new voting machines, but HAVA does not require States and localities to replace systems if they are satisfied with the ones that they have. All those jurisdictions have to do if they want to keep their equipment is just provide voters with instructions how to correct their ballot if they make a mistake before that ballot is cast and counted. So the law that Congress passed permits paper ballots if jurisdictions want to use them, it permits punch cards, it permits lever machines, it permits a central count voting system. Those are not outlawed. Indeed, I am putting in the Record tonight title III, section 301 from that act that explains to local election officials what the law actually says. They should not be afraid. There is no Federal pressure to do what they do not want to do. Some States have decided to go ahead with replacing equipment before this year's Presidential elections even though there are no standards in place at the Federal level to guarantee if they purchase new machines, particularly electronic machines, that they will be secure. And 23 States, including Ohio, have thus received a waiver and are not required to have new systems in place until the first Federal election in 2006, nearly 2 years from now. There are problems with new electronic voting machines that we did not know when this legislation was initially passed. Some, particularly the primary sponsors of this legislation, say we should leave it alone. They say let the Election Assistance Commission that was talked about in the law do its work. They say let the National Institute of Standards and Technology do its work, let us not have Congress ask any questions right now. Well, that would be all well and good if those entities had the resources to carry out their job. But the Election Assistance Commission has been formed very late. In fact, a year late. Virtually every deadline that it was given for the issuance of voluntary guidelines to help our local election officials for reports to Congress and for assistance to State and local election authorities has been missed. Today, the commission had its first public meeting, despite the fact it has no permanent office, no equipment it can call its own, no staff beyond the four commissioners and its detailees, and not even enough money to pay for rent for its offices, nor money to pay for the publication tomorrow of State election plans in the Federal Register. It had to depend on the generosity of the General Services Administration for this step required by the Help America Vote Act. Election plans must be published, but the commission has no authority to require changes in them. Public comments will be directed to State election authorities who are free to certify themselves as having met the requirements of HAVA, which essentially at this point has no standards. So in 45 days with their own certification and no input from the commission, they will begin to receive more than $2.3 billion to spend with no security standards and no guidance beyond the limited verbiage in the act itself. If this were any other Federal program, how many of our colleagues would be here condemning it? Testing by the National Institute of Standards and Technology on voting machines and its obligation to help develop tough standards for this new equipment was suspended for 2 months this year because of the lack of Federal money. The commission is thankful that NIST has been able to identify $375,000 to help the technical guidance development committee get under way, but it is only getting under way. No recommendations are expected for another 9 months while the commissioners themselves recognize that State and local election authorities are looking for Federal guidelines to help them develop their own standards. In fact, AP writer Robert Tanner said this weekend, and I will place the entire article in the Record, ``High-tech voting machines can miscount election results through a software bug or a crashing computer. What is even more troubling, they can be manipulated if someone hacks the computer software. And the biggest problem is without a paper ballot, there is nothing tangible to recount.'' To offer some level of guidance, the commission today voted to hold its own hearing on election voting technology within 35 days. I applaud the commission for doing so, but nothing is more important than our right to vote. We must take the time to get this right. Mr. Speaker, I urge State and local election officials to read my remarks in the Record. Election Fix Stymied by Delays, Computer Doubts, Confidence Gap Editors Note--Problems with the election system in Florida left the winner of the 2000 presidential race in doubt for more than a month, and prompted widespread calls to reform the way the nation elects its leaders. Yet nearly four years since George W. Bush won in Florida by 537 votes, reform has been spotty. This story is part of the AP's ongoing coverage of electoral problems across the country. (By Robert Tanner, AP National Writer) The discord of Florida 2000 is hard to forget. Angry crowds yelling at local election officials, a paralysis that virtually halted other political work, accusations of a stolen presidential election that echo today. But the many promises that followed the 36-day stalemate have not produced a nationwide solution to the glaring flaws exposed in the way we cast votes and count them--and another presidential election is just months away. There's blame enough to go around. Pick any of the following, or all: President Bush and Congress; the voting machine industry; local election officials. (You can add computer scientists, the media, even mistake-prone voters.) It's true some changes have been made: Roughly 50 million registered voters, or slightly more than a quarter nationwide, will be able to cast ballots on the latest touchscreen equipment this year. But that leaves the glass half-full, at best, especially with the biggest reforms so far now coming in for criticism. In particular, those ATM-style electronic voting machines-- once trumpeted as the solution to voting problems--are now under fire from some computer scientists and lawmakers. That, in turn, is slowing further reforms and weakening confidence in the system even more. ``You have resistance, sort of natural resistance, to change,'' said Ken Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state. Legislators in his state, worried about security, want an end to electronic machine purchases, even if punch cards remain in many counties. In critics' eyes, the problems have been worsened by electoral officials blind to the dangers of a broken system or influenced by political aims, and caring too little about damage done to voters' trust. Others see the slow progress as healthy--that's the way democracies work, they argue, by publicly hashing out problems. Either way, the bottom line is that another razor-thin presidential election could again leave a victor unclear, a system unable to smoothly resolve the problem, and a skeptical and angry public. The pitfalls break down into three broad categories: cash, computers and confidence. After the 2000 crisis, promises of electoral reform didn't translate into quick action. It took nearly two years for Congress to pass the law giving states money and direction to buy new machines, and improve voter registration and training. The problem was the policy-makers were pulled in different directions--minority and disabled voters sought federal standards to ensure all had equal access to the polls, while state election officials argued local control would best serve widely different communities. Experts produced nearly a dozen studies, including recommendations from a Gerald Ford-Jimmy Carter commission (some of its top ideas, like making Election Day a holiday and giving all felons the right to vote after serving their sentence, were promptly ignored). Money for the states to implement reform took even longer: Of $3.8 billion promised, states have only received $650 million so far. The commission that was to be created to dole out money and advice was delayed by arguments between the White House and Congress. Members weren't appointed until December, less than a year before the 2004 election. ``I put the largest blame on Congress itself,'' said Kim Brace, an elections expert who consults with states. ``They built up a lot of hope in the rhetoric side and fell through dramatically on the action side. And certainly on the dollars.'' the delays continue Critical technical work on voting machines, tasked to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, was suspended for two months this year because of a lack of federal money. The institute's job? Make sure standards are tough for computerized touchscreen voting machines. And that leads to the heart of the fight: Critics, including some prominent Democrats, say the ATM-style machines are a bigger danger than punch cards. Source of the infamous ``hanging chad'' ballots that left Florida election commissioners trying to divine voter intent from bumps on the cards. Laterly, those warnings have been heard: Besides Ohio, officials are reconsidering or delaying the switch to new machines in California, West Virginia, Utah, and more. ``Why trade one imperfect system for another imperfect system?'' David Wilde, a councilman in Salt Lake County, asked when questions were raised there about switching to touchscreen machines.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last week the administration announced a record $541.8 billion trade deficit for the year 2003. That means 541.8 billion more dollars' worth of imports coming into our country than our exports going out. That is over one-half trillion dollars, the largest in the history of this country. We are exporting jobs, we are not exporting products. In fact, this number is so big, it is bigger than the last record deficit set in the year 2002. These are staggering numbers. Let us take a step back and look at them again. $541.8 billion or almost half a trillion dollars being lost to foreign competitors. This is not just pocket change. With each additional billion, America loses another 20,000 jobs here at home. In fact, since President Bush took office, America has lost 2.2 million more jobs, mostly due to our jobs being shipped offshore. Meanwhile, taxes are going up for the majority of Americans as only a wealthy few benefit while the majority of our people are paying higher gas taxes, higher property taxes, higher excise taxes, more money for their health insurance, and higher tuition if their children are lucky enough to go on to college. Consumer confidence is plummeting. Disapproval of the President's handling of our economy has reached 59 percent, a career high, in a recent ABC News Washington Post poll, and there is no reason to wonder why. The Bush administration tells us we can trade our way to a better, stronger economy. But let us look at the record. Since NAFTA passed, unfortunately in 1993, a very flawed trade agreement, we have not had a trade surplus with Mexico. In fact, the surplus we had has plummeted into a giant deficit as more and more of our jobs move south of the border. Every single year since NAFTA passage, we have had a growing trade deficit with Mexico. The United States signed a trade deal with China in 2000. Before the trade deal, we already had a $68 billion deficit with China. Guess what, since the trade deal, it has doubled to over $124 billion in just 3 years. Every time we enter into one of these flawed trade agreements, our balance of payments goes in the wrong direction. What does it tell you, it tells you that the model of trade we are using is seriously flawed. Is anyone in this city paying attention? When it was only manufacturing jobs being shipped out, some self- styled trade experts claimed this was the way to modernize our economy. I am not quite sure how cutting our core will modernize us, but that did not matter when we had all those service sector jobs to depend on. But not so fast. Now we hear from the jobs of accountants, medical technicians and other formerly untouchables, those are on the line. So where does the future of America lie and how do we stem this job loss? When we started losing manufacturing jobs in automobiles and other core economic sectors, the economists assured us we were in for a so- called information economy, but now the jobs in the information economy are moving to India, so where are the new jobs supposed to come from? Well, the Bush administration had several great ideas over the last couple months. First, one of the President's top advisers suggested that outsourcing our jobs was actually a good thing. The administration resorted then to a sleight of hand: When you are losing the game, change the rules. So they proposed reclassifying fast food workers as manufacturing workers. Nobody gets a new job, just a new title. So when a fast food employee is adding pickles to your Big Mac, that must mean he or she is ``working on the line.'' I will give them points for creativity, but the American people surely cannot be fooled. Six months ago President Bush, with the fall elections in sight, announced he would be appointing a manufacturing czar. Now, that is not a bad idea to help a little bit, even though 6 months later as our economy still lags behind the administration's own rosy predictions, we still do not have that manufacturing czar in place because his name was pulled because that potential employee had one small problem: As he was letting American workers go, he was building a factory in China. That is right, the man that President Bush wanted to put in charge of stemming the flow of jobs overseas was busy sending our jobs overseas. Mr. Speaker, I have been coming to the floor asking for fair trade, good trade, balanced trade, not just free-for-all trade. Please, let us put a human face on trade.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the lack of job growth in America continues to reverberate, the jobless recovery they call it. That means even as investment increases, new jobs are not created. Now, there might be a recovery for a few in the financial elites that sit in our corporate board rooms, but it is still a recession around the kitchen tables of America's working families. So where are our jobs? Millions of Americans are asking the Congress and they are asking the President, Where are the jobs? Toledo Blade reported this weekend: ``Unemployment rises across Ohio.'' Toledo, the major community in my district, Toledo's rate of unemployment hit double digits, over 10 percent; and even rural counties, not accustomed to unemployment rising, those numbers are now increasing across the State of Ohio. Even America's economists are starting to wonder what is going on. When the Labor Department released the most recent job data last Friday, showing a mere 21,000 payroll jobs created in February, economists were left dumbfounded, shaking their heads. Alan Blinder, a former member of the Federal Board of Governors, told the Wall Street Journal, and I quote, ``From an historical perspective, the lack of job growth is stunning, given what is happening to the gross national product.'' Productivity is high, economic activity is up, interest rates are still very low, but even Ohio's Republican governor was forced to admit no job growth. So, where are our jobs? Sales at U.S. retail stores rose by 6.7 percent in February, and the consumer continues to keep our economy afloat. But how long can that last? Household debt is climbing. The Federal Reserve reported on Friday that consumer credit outstanding grew at an annual rate of 8.6 percent in February. Households in America have refinanced everything and they have maxed out on their credit cards and they have borrowed to keep up their spending levels. They have been carrying the load up till now, but they simply cannot do it by themselves. We have got to start creating jobs in America, and that starts at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Last month, President Bush promised that the economy would create 2.6 million jobs by the end of this year. Instead, we have seen almost 3 million jobs disappear since he was installed in office. Now, America suffers twin deficits that are sucking the lifeblood from our economy. We have a $.5 trillion budget deficit and a $.5 trillion trade deficit. At the same time, these twin deficits total more than $1 trillion sucking life and economic strength out of our economy. That is a $1 trillion in the wrong direction every year under President Bush. The failed economic policies of the Bush administration are choking any hoped-for economic recovery, destroying wealth and saddling future generations of Americans with more debt than they can possibly afford. How irresponsible. The failed economic policies of the Bush administration are the reason for the lack of jobs in America. Where are the jobs? They are being outsourced and exported to Mexico and China and other low-wage countries. Some have called this Bush-onomics. But if you are a multinational corporation looking for low-wage workers, they roll out the red carpet for you. They even say outsourcing jobs is a good thing. The Bush administration will even drive down the value of the dollar to help their bottom line. But if you are a family in Toledo or Cleveland or Akron, you are out of luck. Our workers are sitting around the kitchen table asking a simple question: Where are the jobs? And I hope they are also asking who are they going to elect to the job of the Presidency of our Nation and to this Congress come next November.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the gentleman from Tennessee's (Mr. Cooper) time.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask, is this the final amendment in the series, and then will we move to final passage?

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Ms. KAPTUR. If the gentleman could clarify, he has stated then that because of the World Trade Organization, the WTO requirements, this is why we are having to pass this bill?

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the gentleman very much for yielding and would just wish to ask him this question. If there are additional staff that will be working directly for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, then why does this bill permit commercial entities to do the review process, which means you are outsourcing or contracting out work that should legitimately be done by the office?

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from California for allowing this institution to function as it should and to allow those who disagree with this bill an opportunity to speak. Mr. Chairman, across our country we see the dismantling of jobs and business in this country. This particular bill, H.R. 1561, dismantles the Patent and Trademark Office as we have known it. If one reads article 1, section 8, it says, the Congress shall have the power to secure for inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. Throughout the over 200-year history of our country, that has been done through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The bill before us on page 11 reads, the Director can provide that searches be done by commercial entities. That is not what the Constitution says. That is not the U.S. Patent Office. That is a commercial entity. Yes, searches will be outsourced from the U.S. Patent Office. You could say they would be contracted out. That is not the U.S. Patent Office. We have plenty of examples in this world of copycatting of inventions, of counterfeiting of intellectual property, particularly by the Chinese and by patent thieves and by submarine patents. There are plenty of things going on in this world that contracting out or outsourcing of the Patent Office does not help because you cannot secure the honesty or the integrity of those instrumentalities. And though the bill says business concerns, it does not say corporations, it says business concerns organized under the laws of the United States that indeed can be a foreign corporation, because a foreign corporation operating inside the United States, be it Chinese, Japanese, Bangladeshi, Indian, whatever, is defined as a U.S. corporation. That is not the Patent and Trademark Office of the United States of America. Patent holders actually will not know if their search is being outsourced or contracted out and they will not know to whom. And in terms of the fees being charged, the additional tax being put on small inventors and small companies, all this bill has, with all due respect to the Committee on Small Business, is a study. It does not stop those fees and taxes from being imposed. It increases them. How in heaven's name does this make America any more secure? I might point out to my dear friend from Wisconsin, as good a Badger as he is, that indeed the Japanese patent system and the European patent system are not the American system. We have the protections here, which is why other countries want to file their patents here. We do not want to harmonize with systems unlike ours. We want them to be like us. Why are we doing this? And if a patent search takes a while, that is a good thing. It protects my rights, particularly my rights as a small inventor. So I would say with all due respect to the authors of this legislation, changing the U.S. Patent Office, why? Why dismantle it after over two centuries of success? I deeply thank the gentleman from California for yielding me this time. At least we had the opportunity to put our views on the record. I would ask my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 1561.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, and I thank the gentleman from California for those comments, but it is interesting because our submarine technology happened to end up in the hands of the former Soviet Union through a subsidiary of a company operating here and also in Europe. It does not matter if U.S. citizens are in those jobs; what matters is who owns the company. And beyond that, why should we be outsourcing anything from the Patent and Trademark Office? I totally oppose this bill. At least I want on the record that there was one Member standing to say that the constitutional protections to America's patent holders and inventors should not be breached. It has been working. Why change it? Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Ms. KAPTUR. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this is a very important point, and I respect my dear colleague from California (Mr. Berman), but the facts are we are outsourcing patent review procedures from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In other words, it is going to go to private companies, not the government of the United States, protected by what the Constitution demands. It is going to be outsourced to companies. The question is what is a U.S. company? If we look into the law, a U.S. company operating within the boundaries of the United States, even if it is Honda Motor Corporation, is a U.S. company. Foreign corporations operating within the United States are defined as U.S. corporations because they operate within our soil. But they are not U.S. corporations, because their profits are booked back to their home country. So I have a real problem with this. Number one, we should not be outsourcing the jobs from the Patent Office. That is the most important line that we are breaching here. Never before in the history of this country has this been done. It has never been done. And then we are saying, well, you know, it will be a U.S. company. But then look to the law. How do we define what a U.S. company is? Any company operating within the boundaries of the United States? It could be Honda, it could be Toshiba, it could be Daemler, it could be any company.

Ms. KAPTUR. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I would like to strongly oppose this bill, H.R. 1561, and I do so because it is based on our good old Constitution, which says the Congress shall have power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries, and from the very founding of the republic that knowledge has been housed in the U.S. Patent Office where inventors around our country had confidence that those inventions belonged to them, protected by the Constitution of our Nation. So important patents are listed, patents inventors, congressional protection. Today, we have a bill before us, H.R. 1561, that really is another episode in the outsourcing of American jobs. Yes, the outsourcing craze continues. It is like a virus that cannot be stopped. The American people cannot understand why their officials in Washington do not step in and put an end to this nonsense, but guess what, now the Federal Government is getting into the act and the outsourcing of jobs from our government, in this case the U.S. Patent Office, has infected the heart of American ingenuity. Mr. Speaker, the bill before us authorizes the Patent and Trademark Office to outsource work. There is some palliative, feel-good language about companies being organized under the laws of the United States in the bill, but under U.S. law Honda is a U.S. company, Toshiba is a U.S. company. Saudi companies, if they operate on U.S. soils, are U.S. companies. That does not give me a lot of comfort. This is an insult to the entrepreneurs and inventors of this country. As someone who comes from the State of Ohio, home of Thomas Edison and Charles Kettering, the thought of outsourcing patent application reviews from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is inconceivable. One might think that with this outsourcing, well, the price is going to go down to inventors. Are they going to get anything out of this? That is the way the free trade fundamentalists try to tell the story, send the work overseas if it can be done, send it out of the government, but guess what. They are going to raise the cost to patent holders. So the same old bankrupt theory is at work. Patent application reviews will be outsourced, but the price to the small inventor or the small entrepreneur would not decrease. In fact, they put an additional fee, an additional tax on them. Currently, a small entity pays $385. The proposed fee would be $675 with an e-file and $750 without an e-file. Total fees for the life of a patent currently are $4,160, which is a lot of money for a small inventor. The proposed fee with an e-file would raise it to $4,875. Call it what you want, fee increase, user fee adjustment, search fee. I will tell my colleagues what it really is. It is another tax, and a tough one, on the very people who are trying to invent America's future, the very people on whom we are counting for the intellectual moxie to fuel the information-based economy or knowledge-based economy that the experts say are supposed to lead us out of the doldrums that this economy is in. The people in this country who tinker with objects and machines and ideas, why should they be taxed and why should we want to outsource anything from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? If my colleagues vote for this bill, they are voting for a tax increase, and a rather large increase at that, on the best and brightest minds of our country. It is bad enough they want to outsource such an important function such as patent application search and examination. This is so important that it still remains right here in the Constitution of our country, and now we are talking about outsourcing constitutional responsibility. That in itself is an outrage, but to raise taxes on our inventors and our bright minds actually, in this environment, verges on insanity. Where does it stop? Where does it stop? I urge my colleagues to vote against H.R. 1561.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I wish to place in the Record this evening a poll done by the University of Maryland that shows that even high- income Americans, those earning over $100,000 a year, now have lost their enthusiasm for free trade and the loss of jobs in this country as they perceive their jobs are now threatened by white collar workers in China, in India and other countries, and rising anxiety exists across all income bands in our country relative to free trade. So it is as much of a curiosity as anything that the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Mr. Greg Mankiw, caused an uproar recently when he said the practice of shipping out our jobs, outsourcing U.S. jobs, is good for our country. How can shipping out our jobs be a good thing? Not surprisingly, Mr. Mankiw was forced to backtrack and profess his sympathy for anyone who had lost a job. My goodness, that is the least he could have done. Predictably, Mr. Mankiw was defended by free trade fundamentalists like The Washington Post and some of his fellow economists. But something has changed profoundly in America over the past 10 years, and I would say it is reality. Reality has set in coast to coast. NAFTA is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and we are seeing the impact of failed NAFTA-style trade policy throughout our country and continent. It is no longer just in Ohio and Michigan, although the Great Lakes States are undoubtedly the epicenter of the job-loss earthquake. It is not just the Carolinas or Massachusetts, where the job losses have been so staggering. And it is not just vehicles, cars and trucks and the massive auto parts industry. It is not just machining businesses, and it is not just machinery in general. In fact, the damage to our economy from outsourcing and the doctrine of free trade is no longer confined to just the manufacturing sector. Something has changed in America, and it will undermine and eventually destroy public support for NAFTA-style trade agreements. Suddenly, it is not only manufacturing jobs that are being outsourced to Mexico, to China and other low-wage platforms. Now outsourcing is beginning to bite into whole new sectors of our economy, where the promise of future job growth once lay. Indeed, the loss of jobs in manufacturing has been dramatic over the past several years. Look at these sectors: apparel, 37 percent of the jobs lost; textile mills, 34 percent; primary metals, down 25 percent; machinery, down 22 percent. But the decline in what has been called knowledge-based industries has been dramatic too: computer and peripheral equipment, down 28 percent; communications equipment, down 39 percent; semiconductors and electronic components, down 37 percent; electrical equipment and appliances, down 23 percent; telecommunications, down 19 percent; data processing, down 23 percent. During the NAFTA debate, the free trade fundamentalists promised that high-wage, high-benefit jobs would be replaced by high-wage jobs in the computer sector. In other words, automotive industry jobs would be replaced by computer jobs. Wrong. As economist Paul Craig Roberts wrote recently in the Washington Times, ``For years, as U.S. multinationals moved manufacturing offshore, Americans were told their future was in `knowledge jobs.' Today, knowledge jobs are being moved offshore more rapidly than even manufacturing jobs were moved away.'' The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers said last week that in 2003, the U.S. jobless rate for computer scientists and systems analysts has reached an all-time high of 5.3 percent. That is roughly in line with the national unemployment rate of 5.6 percent. In Ohio, the unemployment rate is 6.2 percent, in my region of Ohio, over 8.4 percent, and in some counties of Ohio as high as 18.5 percent. But the burden of proof is now in the proponents of NAFTA-style trade agreements. If outsourcing is sending the jobs of highly trained computer scientists, computer programmers and medical diagnosticians overseas, then where are the new jobs supposed to come from? It is hard to believe, but Vice President Cheney said, ``If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last 2 or 3 years, the kind of tax increases that both Messrs. Kerry and Edwards have talked about, we would not have had the kind of job growth we have had.'' I would just ask the Vice President, where is the job growth? I do not see any job growth. And that is what the average real American is asking too, where are the good new jobs going to come from? Where? Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the poll I referred to earlier. [From USA Today, Feb. 24, 2004] Poll: Enthusiasm for Free Trade Fades; Dip Sharpest for $100K Set; Loss of Jobs Cited (By Peronet Despeignes) High-income Americans have lost much of their enthusiasm for free trade as they perceive their own jobs threatened by white-collar workers in China, India and other countries, according to data from a survey of views on trade. The survey by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) is one of the most comprehensive U.S. polls on trade issues. It found that support for free trade fell in most income groups from 1999 to 2004 but dropped most rapidly among high-income respondents--the group that has registered the strongest support for free trade. ``Free trade'' means the removal of barriers such as tariffs that restrict international trade. The poll shows that among Americans making more than $100,000 a year, support for actively promoting more free trade collapsed from 57 percent to less than half that, 28 percent. There were smaller drops, averaging less than 7 percentage points, in income brackets below $70,000, where support for free trade was already weaker. The same poll found that the share of Americans making more than $100,000 who want the push toward free trade slowed or stopped altogether nearly doubled from 17 percent to 33 percent. Rising anxiety about free trade and shipping out of U.S. jobs could intensify an already fierce political battle this election year. In the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has gained ground on front-runner Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., by hitting Kerry's support for free-trade agreements that critics say have cost American jobs. The two have bitterly accused each other of supporting past agreements. Whoever the Democratic nominee, he is expected to use the trade issue against President Bush, whose administration has generally been supportive of free trade. The poll was released last month, but breakdowns by income level were performed at the request of USA TODAY. The results are based on responses from more than 1,800 U.S. residents. The margin of error is 2.3 to 4 percentage points. The findings suggest that anxieties about free trade long held by lower-income Americans and blue-collar workers--who have been losing jobs to cheaper labor markets abroad--have spread up the income ladder. The findings come as the U.S. job market remains sluggish and accounting, computer programming, radiology and other high-end service jobs are being lost to workers abroad. ``This is huge,'' said Steven Kull, director of the Maryland polling unit. He said the PIPA poll shows most Americans remain supportive, or at least tolerant, of free trade, but with big caveats. ``They're not saying, `put on the brakes,' '' he said. ``But they are saying, `Don't step on the gas. Don't rush. We need to make adjustments. We need more time to adapt to these changes.' ''

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening to give voice to the voiceless. Millions of Americans are filling out unemployment forms and are filling our unemployment rolls. Many more are dropping off the lists because they simply see no hope and no prospects for jobs in the future. According to recent reports, in the last 3 months, more than 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than 15 months, for over a year. We have not seen record numbers like this since 1983. Jobs are becoming scarcer. In my own State of Ohio, we have lost 264,700 jobs since President Bush took office. And last week in our district, Dixie Cups, owned by Georgia Pacific, announced its closure; 207 more Americans will be without work. Nationwide, we have seen the disappearance of over 3 million private sector jobs. Now the Bush administration appears to be supporting outsourcing of even more of our jobs overseas. It used to be that it was only the workers on the line who had to worry. Now, in Silicon Valley, the high-tech areas of the country have to worry, too; and in our medical community, if we are to read the President's report, even radiologists and those in medical tech are feeling the pain and will feel the pain. We are not just talking about the manufacturers and the farmers anymore. Even the previously sacred service sector jobs are under threat. Even telephone solicitors are now being outsourced to India and to Ireland as the ranks of our unemployed continue to grow. Earlier this week, the top Bush economic advisor, the head of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, stated, outsourcing of jobs is a form of free trade, and that is probably a plus for the economy in the long run. It is hard to read those words and really think he believes them. What is going on in the minds of the people over there at the White House? Maybe the President needs to get out from behind his desk in the Oval Office, travel around the country and meet with real workers who are worried and the millions who are out of work. Just last month President Bush came to my district. Unfortunately, his motorcade did not make any stops in our community where he had an opportunity to meet these people, those who are really worried and those who have been out of work for a very long time. If he had done that, he might have heard from people who used to work at Dixon- Ticonderoga, manufacturing school supplies and whose jobs have been moved to Mexico; nearly 2,000 workers from Phillips Electronics, who had the same thing happen to them; or Georgia Pacific-Dixie Cup, the workers who just lost their jobs last week; or those at Acuity Lighting in Vermillion, Ohio, whose jobs are being moved to Matamoros, Mexico; or the workers from Spangler Candy out in Williams County in Bryan, Ohio, whose jobs have been moved and more will be moved to Mexico, making candy canes and various sugar candies; or any number of workers on the line in our tool and die shops who have been moved out of those shops and on to the unemployment lines. But, instead, for him it was just another campaign stop in Ohio. In fact, the day after his visit, the unemployment rate in Ohio ticked up again. My constituents know what is important, a dependable job with a decent wage. They want to help their children complete their education, first high school and, if possible, college beyond that; and they want to be able to depend on a pension that will be there for them when they need it. But, instead, we are turning our students into debtors, our pensions are becoming more risky, and it is harder and harder for our kids to go on to school. The 2003 trade deficit will set a record of nearly half a trillion dollars, more products being made, more services being done in other countries rather than here at home. Over a half a trillion dollars. Imagine if we could invest that here at home. The Federal deficit, as a result, is also at record highs. And what is the President's plan to secure Social Security and Medicare for our generations and beyond? More budget-busting tax breaks for the super rich, while wages for ordinary people are stalled or declining or they are thrown on to unemployment lines. Again, I really do have to ask, what is the White House thinking? I have repeatedly called for a new Declaration of Independence for our country, a declaration of economic independence for our families, for our workers. We must ensure first the economic security of our Nation. It must be one of our Nation's number one priorities. Instead, leading Republicans think it is a great idea to send more of our jobs overseas. It makes me wonder what kind of future is in store for our future generations. This Congress must draw the line in the sand here. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up for working families immediately for the extension of unemployment benefits and no more stealing from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay off the White House's pet projects; no more tax breaks for the super rich; no more unfair trade deals like NAFTA; and no Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors that had the idea of sending more of our jobs overseas is the answer to these problems.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I would like entered into the Congressional Record an article about a wonderful man, Jim Findlay. [From the Toledo Events Magazine, Jan. 2004] More to the Story Entrepreneur adds two chapters to autobiography (By Sue Van Fleet) If a life can be said to correspond to the pages in a book, then it was time for Jim Findlay to add a few more chapters. The well-known entrepreneur. and philanthropist had written an autobiography in 2001. ``In the Company of Friends'' almost resembles a scrapbook, its text interspersed with photos, letters, poems, quotes and newspaper clippings. Findlay was the chairman and co-founder of Impact Products, a business in Sylvania Township that provided supplies to the sanitary maintenance industry. But only six months after the book was printed, the company was sold to Park Avenue Equity Partners. At the time of the sale, Impact Products had 160 employees and more than $40 million in sales. ``Since the motivating purpose of the book was to create a permanent record of the company, I felt it would be important to talk about its sale'' Findlay said. Impact had become an employee-owned company in 1986 with the establishment of an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program). In March 1998, Findlay and his children sold their remaining interest to the ESOP trust, making the employees 100 percent owners of the company. ``Since I was leaving, they then had an opportunity to sell and get a 15 percent premium over what we were valued at,'' Findlay said. ``So I encouraged them to do so, so they could diversify their holdings rather than have it all in Impact, which they did.'' Impact's employees averaged about $156,000 each from the sale, an amount that varied according to their seniority. ``So they did good, and they really should, because it was the employees that made the company,'' Findlay said. ``I've always felt very strongly that if you take care of the employees, they'll take care of the customers. We've always shared with them:' The company brought in estate planning professionals and investment firms for seminars and individual counseling sessions to help them make good decisions regarding their investments. ``Over the next two weeks there were a lot of new cars in the parking lot,'' Findlay said. ``And a lot of them were able to buy homes and do some things that they weren't able to before, so, I was very proud to be able to do that for my employees.'' If he had to do it over again, would he have gone the ESOP route? Findlay says yes, but with some reservations. For instance, as the company's stock price increased, it created a debt that would have to be paid to employees who decided to tender their stock upon retiring or leaving the company. Findlay also fretted that he was putting his employees at excessive risk since so much of their personal investment was tied up in one asset. Both these problems were eliminated with the sale of the company to Park Avenue. On the plus side, the ESOP gave every employee ownership in the company, increasing their motivation and giving Findlay a way of thanking them for their part in Impact's success. It also made it possible for he and his wife, Celia, to establish several trusts and provide gifts to charitable organizations. ``So we were able to do some things while we're living rather than do it all after we passed away,'' he said. The second chapter Findlay added to the new edition is titled ``The Rest of the Story.'' In it he details some of the many awards that came his way in late 2001 and 2002. Both Celia and Jim Findlay are graduates of the University of Toledo, she in education and he in business. They have set up scholarships at UT in both disciplines and have supported UT with both time and money over the years. In August 2001, the university named a building on its Scott Park campus after them. The Findlay Athletic Complex houses the baseball, softball and soccer facilities. Jim Findlay was also awarded an honorary doctoral degree from UT and received the Alumni Association's Gold `T' Award, which recognizes alumni who have served the university and the community. He was especially touched when he was invited to the home of UT President Dan Johnson and his wife, Elaine, following the commencement ceremony in which he received his honorary degree. ``How could an average student and an ordinary Joe be the guest of a college president and receive from his hand the highest honor the university can bestow?'' Findlay wrote in his book. ``. . . Surrounded by the happy voices of a company of friends, consisting of wife, children, grandchildren and esteemed friends, I knew that whatever the future might hold, I have known and experienced the deep joy of blessedness.'' In October 2002, Findlay was honored by manufacturer reps at the annual convention of the International Sanitary Supply Association, receiving the first ever Manufacturer Representative Distinguished Service Award. Findlay has been a standout in terms of how he treats his reps, notably having the only corporation in his industry with a 401(k) plan for them. ``My manufacturer reps are the ones who did the selling and put us on the map,'' Findlay said. ``I've always felt extremely close to them. If the law would have allowed us to do so, I would have made them part of the ESOP'' Although Findlay has enjoyed a life full of many successes, there were two things he didn't accomplish that he had wanted to: the establishment of an Impact Charitable Foundation and the creation of an Impact School of Continuing Education. They were close to launching the school for their employees when the company was sold. The foundation may yet come to fruition as others work toward that end. Seven years ago, Findlay started Findlay Business Partners Ltd., which leases storage and office warehouses. With units at 3315 Centennial Rd. and 3545 Silica Road, the business is run by his children. His son Jon is president, while daughter Sarah and son James Jr. are vice presidents. When asked what he is most proud of, he mentions being able to pass the business complex on to his children, as well as the scholarships he has set up for business and education students at UT and for minorities at Toledo Christian School. Although much of the book details Findlay's business, it also covers his childhood, time in the service, college years, relationship with his church and UT; and family. At the end of the book he provides an update on the health of his wife, Celia, whom he calls the love of his life. She is in the fifth round if chemotherapy for carcinoma of the endometrium. ``My greatest, most fervent hope for all families is that each child will choose a lifetime partner as well as I did,'' he writes in the 16th chapter. He and the former UT homecoming queen were wed on Jan. 28, 1949. ``Relationships are what it's all about,'' Findlay said. ``I don't need yachts or luxury cars--I don't live too high. Success is about building relationships with people and being fair in trying to treat everybody alike.''

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on the remarks of my colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), about the unbelievable report that this White House has produced in which the President's top economic adviser, not an intern who is studying for a master's degree or a bachelor's degree, his top economic adviser says, ``Outsourcing of jobs is just a new way of doing international trade. And that's a good thing.'' Well, coming from the State of Ohio, I would like to say to this President, bring 'em on. Come right over to us. The day after the State of the Union address, the President flew and landed in Toledo, Ohio, my home district, a State in which hundreds of thousands of people are out of work, with people where he has cut off their unemployment benefits and has not extended them. They cannot find jobs. There are people in my church who stopped looking. They do not know where else to go. We have some jobs available to work in our primary election March 2, and I have been telling people to at least apply at the Board of Elections to work for $85 a day. At least it is one day's wages. The job scene out there is really rough, and it is extraordinarily rough in the State of Ohio. The day after the President left, the unemployment rate in Ohio ticked up. Then last week, just a few days after he left, another plant closure was announced in Sandusky, Ohio. The little Dixie Cups, everybody knows Dixie Cups, 207 more people permanently out of work, people who have families to support, people who depend on their check, people who depend on their health benefits and people who depend on the retirement benefits that they had worked so hard for, some for as many as 30 years. What is going on in this great land? I turned the news on the other night. Domino Sugar in New York City, closing down. The yellow and white bags have been a fixture in our family since I was a little kid and learned how to bake from my grandmother. Gone. Just north of the line of where I live in the State of Ohio, Electrolux up in Greenville, Michigan, 2,700 jobs permanently gone, closed down. What is happening under this presidency? Nearly 3 million manufacturing jobs out the window, and the President's top adviser in a written report says that the movement of American factory jobs, along with white collar work, is a good thing. Where do these people live? You know what? I have a hunch most of them are the privileged children of privileged parents. They do not have any idea of what struggle is really about. And the rest of us who think we know something about struggle have to be polite, we have to be refined, we have to have upper-class and middle-class behavior, when you really want to take the people who took your jobs and level them. That is what it feels like when you lose everything, when people in your district lose their health benefits. A company in my district called Pilkington was promised that their health benefits would be there in their retirement years. Now they are being charged $170 more a month for their health benefits. I talked to some of these folks over the weekend, 80-years-old, 84-years-old. Their hands shake. Promises were not kept. I would say to the President of the United States, it would have been a good thing had he ever had to work for a living. If he had, his chief economic adviser would not have prepared a report which was in the L.A. Times and the headline read, ``Bush Supports Shift of Jobs Overseas.'' The Seattle Times says, ``Bush Report Sending Jobs Overseas Helps the United States.'' In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a city that knows a whole lot about outsourcing, ``Bush Economic Report Praises `Outsourcing' Jobs.'' And way down in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel, ``Bush Says Sending Jobs Abroad Can Be Beneficial.'' I would tell my colleagues whose job I would like to send abroad, and we have about 7 or 8 more months to do it. I would really like to see any President who says this to the people of Ohio carry a single vote in our State. Mr. Speaker, I really am very proud to be a Member of this Congress, and I try to be a voice for the people who have been so adversely affected. I urge every American who is out of work and everyone who is worried about their jobs being outsourced to register to vote, vote in your primaries, vote in the general election on November 2. Let us change the direction of this Nation once and for all.