Marcy Kaptur

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to rise to honor a man who made a difference. I wish to pay tribute to the extraordinarily generous life of American patriot Eddie Boggs, an exceptional educator and music man from Sylvania, Ohio, and Toledo. Eddie was a man held in particular affection by the thousands of people whose lives he touched so positively. Some said his being embodied the Midwestern caring spirit we each wish that we could emanate to those whose paths we cross. Eddie was actually born in Soldier, Kentucky, and came north to attend the University of Toledo, where he received his master's degree and devoted his life to teaching and to his family. He was a musician and a composer, a great humanitarian, and an indefatigable social studies teacher who was recognized as Educator of the Year in 2005. The Toledo Blade says of his life: His smile, his sparkling blue eyes, his servant's heart and infectious love of life is the Eddie that we remember. He was an educator on so many levels for nearly four decades, inspiring and caring about thousands and thousands of his students and fellow citizens. Even after retiring from teaching, he did not really stop working. Eddie became a licensed tour guide. An engaged citizen, he made the extra effort year after year when he was a teacher and afterwards to bring hundreds and hundreds of students from Timberstone Junior High, for example, to visit the Capitol. It was always a grand and unforgettable occasion. Eddie would stand outside the east front here with his guitar, winding his way among hundreds and hundreds of students and begin singing, and his resonant and clear voice would filter across the Capitol lawn. It always seemed the sun was shining as the students gathered under the oak trees and the linden trees. These were unforgettable moments. In Eddie's so-called retirement, he also furthered his love of music by performing nationally with the New Christy Minstrels. He composed songs of his own. He played over a thousand songs. His music never stopped. He was one of the best known entertainers in northeast Ohio and southeast Michigan. Eddie's wife, Chris, stated: Eddie got 26 hours out of a 24-hour day. That is how Eddie was, a positive man. In addition to teaching and performing, Eddie contributed mightily to the community through fundraising, and through the Christmas season he would organize a Christmas variety show that would raise more than $250,000 for area charities. This man was a real citizen. Mr. Speaker, Eddie is a gift that keeps on giving for us who had the joy of knowing him and sharing in his life. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family: his wife, Chris; his daughters, Allison, Sara, and Grace; his grandchildren, Landon, Jackson, Kate, Grant, and Nola; his mother, Pearl; and mother-in-law, Pat; his brothers and sisters and extended family. Eddie's music will always play in our hearts. He lifted us to be a better and more caring people. May God give his family comfort, and may Eddie's life inspire others to emulate his goodness. [From Toledo Blade, Jan. 11, 2014] Eddie A. Boggs, 1945-2014, Musician Had Positive View on Life (By Mark Zaborney) Eddie A. Boggs, 68, a longtime Sylvania educator and a musician who became one of the best known entertainers in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, died Thursday in Ebeid Hospice Residence, Sylvania. Mr. Boggs learned in May, 2013, that he had non-Hodgkins' lymphoma, his wife, Chris, said. Through treatment and hospital stays, he performed when he could, most recently Dec. 7 in Fayette, Ohio. Since retiring in 2007 from education, he toured regularly as a member of the New Christy Minstrels, the folk-style group formed in the early 1960s. At the hospital for a biopsy and spinal tap, he asked whether he'd be able to make a Dec. 31 flight. ``That was his way of coping,'' his wife said. ``Eddie got 26 hours out of a 24-hour day. That's the way Eddie was, a positive man.'' Also in retirement, Mr. Boggs was a licensed guide, leading tours to Washington--often by school groups--and other destinations. Most nights, weekends, and summers throughout the last 40 years, Mr. Boggs performed in public, singing the songs he wrote or the 1,000 he memorized, playing guitar or banjo or mandolin, and connecting with audiences. ``I always know there's somebody out there who can play greater or sing it better than me, but nobody who loves it more than me,'' he told The Blade in 2008. ``I guess the music is the vehicle, the means to an end to reach out to people.'' Mr. Boggs organized an annual Christmas season variety show, which raised more than $250,000 for area charities, and a family-friendly New Year's event in Sylvania for several years. He also established the Lake Erie West Hall of Fame for the performing arts. He was master of ceremonies for Sylvania's annual fall festival. ``Everywhere he went, somebody knew him,'' his wife said. In 2007, he was among local finalists in the Jefferson Awards for Public Service. ``He was a positive, outgoing individual,'' Sylvania Mayor Craig Stough said. ``He was positive in his outlook to everybody.'' Mr. Boggs became a social studies teacher at McCord Junior High School in 1973 and, later, a guidance counselor at Timberstone Junior High School. He was recognized as an ``educator of the year'' in 2005. ``He went that extra mile to make sure that new kid or teacher felt welcomed,'' his wife said. He was born Aug. 10, 1945, in Soldier, Ky., to Elmer and Pearl Boggs. The family moved north, and he was a graduate of Mansfield High School. A counselor told him he wasn't smart enough for college. He went to work in the steel mill--but he took the night shift while attending the Mansfield branch of Ohio State University. ``That's why he went into education--he said he didn't want anybody to ever hear they weren't good enough to do something,'' his wife said. After two years, he transferred to the main campus in Columbus and received a bachelor's degree. He also had two master's degrees from the University of Toledo. Surviving are his wife, Chris Boggs, whom he married Sept. 20, 1991; daughters, Allison Boggs, Sara Roemer, and Grace Barton; mother, Pearl Boggs; sister, Ernestine Obney; brothers, Carl, Verlin, and Glenn Boggs, and five grandchildren. Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. Sunday in the Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Flanders Road Church of Christ, where he was a member. The family suggests tributes to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Thank you, Congressman Garamendi. Thank you for bringing us together as you so often do. We are so fortunate that you are here and bringing us together as voices from the heart of America here in our Nation's Capital to talk about what is on the minds of the vast majority of the American people, and that relates to their family life, how they are going to survive in this economy. In listening to the statistics that Congresswomen Schakowsky and Hahn were relating, what has happened to family life in this country, because many times if you read articles, you see families can't hold it together. Why? Because of money, because of their inability to hold the household together because the jobs just vaporized. And when you have trade deficits for 30 years in our country, and we have an average of 15 factories closing every day, jobs vaporize. It doesn't matter where you live--whether it is Ohio, California, Florida, New York--American people have felt directly the impact of this global economy, and many times they can't hold the social unit of the family together. Many, many of the women who are supporting their children now have done so because of fallout in the economy. What you say about the gender pay gap is absolutely there. I was very surprised to learn in Ohio, as a result of a study done by Progress Ohio, that, in fact, one of the major companies, I think the largest company in our country, Walmart, employs about 4,500 people in Ohio. And of their employees, those employees that work for minimum wage, or probably less if they are part-time, they apply for food stamps, for SNAP assistance. So they are trying to support their families. Just those in Ohio are using $23 million in Federal food support because they can't earn enough to feed their families. And this type of corporate behavior is repeated over and over and over again, so essentially what is happening is the Federal Government ends up subsidizing low wages because the workers can't earn enough to support their families. I am fortunate enough to come from a working class family. Our mother worked; our grandmother worked. Thank God for Franklin Roosevelt, because I think what our family has lived represents the story of a vast numbers of Americans. Our grandmother could hardly speak English. She worked in hotels, in kitchens, peeling carrots and potatoes and so forth, washing dishes, paid the immigrant workers the very least. And then her husband always out of work, taking in tenants in their home. And they lived in 13 different places because they could never manage to own anything, trying to just hold it together with a sick daughter and a husband who often lost his job. So that was Grandma on one side of the family. Then our mother, who became the sole support of her parents--and five children in that family--working at age 13, going across town to clean homes and so forth, it wasn't until the Democrats under Roosevelt passed the minimum wage that she began earning something more than she earned before. Do you know what happened in the first place she worked, which was a little luncheonette on Broadway in Toledo, Ohio? When the minimum wage was passed initially, her boss, who wasn't such a nice guy, would cash her check and then pocket the difference between what she used to earn and what she then earned in the workplace. That was before we had the Department of Labor fully developed and we had inspectors on the job and so forth. This is what American working women have dealt with for generations. And so I have to say, I am so proud I am standing on the shoulders of families like my own to be a voice for these women and these families whose economic struggle is excruciating. It is excruciating. Many of them don't have cars. Our own mother, she was brilliant. She should be here, not me. She never got her high school equivalency until after she went on Social Security. And there were two things she had in her billfold when she died. One was her library card because she was brilliant, but the other one was her Social Security and Medicare card--because of Democrats. Because of Democrats, she could die with dignity. I think about the families across this country, and I am so proud to be a voice for them here. I want to thank you very much for standing up for a raise in the minimum wage so that people who are struggling out there don't have to be on food stamps and EBT coupons because they are trying to earn their way forward. They should earn a decent wage, that working family life, paid sick leave. I took care of our mother when she was ill. I know how hard it was to try to work and to care for someone who was so ill. I just left a funeral home over the weekend in Ohio where a former county engineer, George Wilson, lost his beautiful wife, Pat, to Alzheimer's. And what were you saying, Congressman Garamendi, what this took for that family and that working daughter to try to hold everything together. It is such a cruel illness. So any help for caregivers across this country, for making caregiving a profession where you earn a decent wage, however we figure out how to do that, we are going to need it in the coming years. So I support my colleagues in their efforts to raise the minimum wage, to close the gender pay gap, to make sure that there is paid leave, to make sure that we work as a society to find ways to care for those who are ill. I know that with men such as yourself and those who are on the floor this evening, and with women who have now been educated and able to fully participate in this society and to express the needs from coast-to-coast, we will change this country for the better. Thank you so very much for coming down here this evening. I agree with you that when women succeed, America succeeds, but we can't do it without our men.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last week marked the 20th anniversary of NAFTA's going into effect. The North American Free Trade Agreement was a hard-fought fight here in this Congress with a very close vote. In 1994, when it narrowly passed under a rule not allowing amendment, called Fast Track, America was promised that NAFTA would be a great jobs boon for our country and our economy. Exactly the reverse has happened. The NAFTA promises made have all been broken. First, on jobs: the administration at the time promised that NAFTA would initially create 200,000 new jobs. In reality, America has now lost, after 20 years, about 1 million jobs related to NAFTA's impact, and the old sucking sound actually happened. Our jobs were off-shored, sucked away. More than 680,000 American jobs have gone to Mexico alone. Yes, that great sucking sound continues to happen. About 60 percent of the jobs lost, of the million jobs lost overall, were lost to Mexico in the manufacturing sector. These were middle class jobs that came from places like Cleveland, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Buffalo, and the list goes on. They were good paying jobs in our country that had provided living wages, medical benefits, and employer contributions to retirement programs. America was also promised that NAFTA would fuel dynamic trade in tearing down trade barriers and creating trade surpluses for our country which means that we actually would export more than we imported with jobs created as a result. Well, guess what, the trade barriers that NAFTA was supposed to tear down have actually created massive trade deficits--red ink--for our country. If one looks back at the passage of NAFTA, prior to its passage, America actually had a trade surplus with Mexico. That is more U.S. exports out that Mexico imports in. But then with NAFTA's passage, we began to start really going deep into the hole of jobs being off- shored. And then with other trade agreements like free trade with communist China--which isn't free by any measure--we see that America's trade deficits have accumulated annually to historic levels never experienced by this society before. The cost of this has been huge. Since NAFTA took effect, the annual U.S. trade deficit has increased by 5 times, a 500 percent increase from $98 billion in the red to $534 billion in the red. Each billion dollars of trade deficit accounts for anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 lost jobs depending if it is in the retail sector or the industrial sector. Our cumulative trade deficit over the 20 years due to NAFTA-- get ready for this--is $1.5 trillion. If you want to understand why America has a job deficit and a budget deficit at the Federal level, it is because we have off-shored so many jobs through these trade agreements that are passed under the Fast Track procedure. The year before NAFTA took effect, America actually had a $1.6 trillion trade surplus with Mexico; but every year after NAFTA took effect in 1995, that trade surplus with Mexico was turned into a $15.8 billion trade deficit in the first year. And every single year, it has simply gotten worse. By 2012, our trade deficit with Mexico ballooned to $61.6 billion. So every year, the hole got deeper. What a failure NAFTA is on the jobs front and on the trade front. Finally, supporters of NAFTA claimed that NAFTA would open markets for American exports to Mexico. I will tell you one thing Ohio saw. Ohio saw pork production that used to happen in Ohio platformed down near Mexico City where environmental regulations, if they exist at all, are certainly not enforced. And we look at companies like Mr. Coffee that were sucked out of Cleveland and moved to Mexico. We saw suppliers in the automotive industry being relocated from our country to Mexico and Canada with U.S. middle class jobs just vaporized one factory, one farm at a time. It is as though the lights are being shut out from coast to coast in neighborhood after neighborhood. Mr. Speaker, the legislation that I have introduced, H.R. 191, the NAFTA Accountability Act, basically says that these trade agreements have to work in America's interest, starting with NAFTA; and where these agreements have failed, adjustments must occur in order to stem the off-shoring of any jobs so we can begin re-creating middle class jobs in this country again. The NAFTA trade model must be replaced, fast track must be sidetracked, and jobs in America must be created again to rebuild our middle class.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Congresswoman Lee of Oakland, thank you so much for raising the consciousness of a Nation again. I rise to join my colleagues tonight in support of raising consciousness about how important the programs have been over the years to reduce poverty in our country since the half-century-old effort of the war on poverty started by Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, who wanted to replace despair with opportunity. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to place into the Record an executive summary of the Council of Economic Advisors, dated January 2014, that summarizes the great progress that has been made: poverty in our country declining by more than a third since 1967 because of important programs that Democrats created--Social Security, Medicare, the earned income tax credit, and unemployment compensation, which is being tested as we speak here today. The speaker from Ohio, where unemployment has just gone up, should bring up that bill to extend unemployment benefits that impacts millions of Americans across our country. People who understand the value of work, they don't want any subsidy, they want a job--they want a job. The most important work we can do is to create jobs, but when they can't get a job, then to give them their earned benefits. What is great about this evening is I was thinking back to the 1960s--I was pretty young back then--but there was a book written by Michael Harrington, ``The Other America.'' For whatever reason--maybe it was because President Kennedy was President--that book became almost like a small Bible. People read it and it raised their consciousness. I can remember President Kennedy campaigning in the mines in West Virginia and raising consciousness again about the conditions of miners and what they were enduring. It is very important that we have that same kind of effort across our country to raise consciousness about how important these programs are for our children, for our seniors, for those who are out of work. By working together we, as a people, really do make a difference. Congresswoman Lee, I want to thank you tonight for being part of that clarion call to raise consciousness of people who really care. The majority of Americans really do. As they are listening to Wall Street announce bigger and bigger and bigger bonuses, they know that there is a war on the middle class right now. So many Americans are falling out of that middle class. They know something is wrong. They want us to champion jobs here in Washington, D.C., and they want to make sure that that safety net is there for them if they hit the skids. I just thank you so very much for doing this. I thank all of my colleagues who took the time tonight to be here and to issue a clarion call for consciousness for jobs in this country, for extending unemployment benefits, for maintaining Social Security, for maintaining the earned income tax credit, and making sure that our vigilant efforts continue to eliminate poverty in this country. [From The Council of Economic Advisers, Jan. 2014] The War on Poverty 50 Years Later: A Progress Report Executive Summary ``Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope--some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.'' --President Lyndon B. Johnson, January 8, 1964 Fifty years ago, in January of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a ``War on Poverty'' and introduced initiatives designed to improve the education, health, skills, jobs, and access to economic resources of those struggling to make ends meet. While there is more work to do, in the ensuing decades we have strengthened and reformed many of these programs and had significant success in reducing poverty. In this report, the Council of Economic Advisers presents evidence of the progress made possible by decades of bipartisan efforts to fight poverty by expanding economic opportunity and rewarding hard work. We also document some of the key steps the Obama Administration has taken to further increase opportunity and economic security by improving key programs while ensuring greater efficiency and integrity. These steps prevented millions of hardworking Americans from slipping into poverty during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Poverty has declined by more than one-third since 1967. The percent of the population in poverty when measured to include tax credits and other benefits has declined from 25.8 percent in 1967 to 16.0 percent in 2012. These figures use new historical estimates of the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) anchored to today's poverty thresholds. The SPM is widely acknowledged to measure poverty more accurately than the official poverty measure, which excludes the value of refundable tax credits and benefits like nutrition assistance and has other limitations. By anchoring the measure to today's poverty standards we are able to ask how many people in each year since 1967 would have had inflation-adjusted family resources below the 2012 SPM poverty thresholds. Despite real progress in the War on Poverty, there is more work to do. In 2012, there were 49.7 million Americans grappling with the economic and social hardships of living below the poverty line, including 13.4 million children. While the United States is often seen as the land of economic opportunity, only about half of low-income Americans make it out of the lowest income distribution quintile over a 20-year period. About 40 percent of the differences in parents' income are reflected in children's income as they become adults, pointing to strong lingering effects from growing up in poverty. This significant decline in poverty is largely due to programs that have historically enjoyed bipartisan support and increase economic security and opportunity. A measure of ``market poverty,'' that reflects what the poverty rate would be without any tax credits or other benefits, rose from 27.0 percent to 28.7 percent between 1967 and 2012. Countervailing forces of increasing levels of education on the one hand, and inequality, wage stagnation, and a declining minimum wage on the other resulted in ``market poverty'' increasing slightly over this period. However, poverty measured taking antipoverty and social insurance programs into account fell by more than a third, highlighting the essential role that these programs have played in fighting poverty. Programs designed to increase economic security and opportunity lifted over 45 million people from poverty in 2012, and led to an average of 27 million people lifted out of poverty per year for 45 years between 1968 and 2012. Cumulatively these efforts prevented 1.2 billion ``person years'' of poverty over this period. Social Security has played a crucial role in lowering poverty among the elderly. Poverty among those aged 65 and older was 35 percent in 1960. Following rapid expansions in Social Security in the 1960s and 1970s, poverty among the elderly fell to 14.8 percent in 2012. These programs are especially important in mitigating poverty during recessions. Despite an increase in ``market poverty'' of 4.5 percentage points between 2007 and 2010, the poverty rate, appropriately measured, rose only 0.5 percentage points due to both existing programs and immediate actions taken by President Obama when he took office in response to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. ``Deep poverty''--defined as the fraction of individuals living below 50 percent of the poverty line has declined as a result of these programs. Without government tax credits or other benefits, 19.2 percent of the U.S. population would have been in deep poverty in 2012, but only 5.3 percent were in deep poverty when these benefits are included. Programs that strengthen economic security and increase opportunity continue to be essential in keeping millions of Americans out of poverty and helping them work their way into the middle class. Social Security benefits reduced the 2012 poverty rate by 8.5 percentage points among all individuals, and by 39.9 percentage points among those aged 65 or older. Tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) reduced the 2012 poverty rate by 3.0 percentage points among all individuals, and by 6.7 percentage points among children. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)-- formerly known as the Food Stamp Program--reduced poverty in 2012 by 1.6 percentage points among all individuals, and by 3.0 percentage points among children. Unemployment Insurance (UI) reduced poverty by 0.8 percentage points in 2012. Antipoverty programs have been increasingly oriented around rewarding and encouraging work and are an important source of opportunity for low-income working families. Both the EITC and the partially refundable component of the CTC increase the reward to work, offsetting payroll taxes and providing a supplement to labor market earnings. Research has shown this increases work and earnings, and increases participation in the workforce, particularly for single parents. Some traditional antipoverty programs have been redesigned to encourage and promote work. The vast majority of Americans receiving nutrition assistance have a job or are either too young to work, are over age 65 or are disabled. Meanwhile, bipartisan welfare reform signed by President Clinton in 1996 strengthened work requirements and put a greater emphasis on employment. Despite concerns that antipoverty programs may discourage employment, the best research suggests that work disincentive effects are small or nonexistent for most programs. Programs that help fight poverty and provide economic security touch a wide swath of Americans at some point in their lives. Programs that fight poverty help a broad range of Americans get back on their feet after economic misfortune. For example, about half of taxpayers with children used the EITC at some point between 1979 and 2006, and over two-thirds of Americans aged 14 to 22 in 1979 received income from SNAP, AFDC/TANF, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or UI at some point between 1978 and 2010. Social Security Old Age and Survivors' Insurance, Social Security Disability Insurance, and UI are available to all Americans with a steady work history. These social insurance programs play an important role in keeping out of poverty those who retire, experience a work-limiting disability, lose a parent or spouse, or lose a job through no fault of their own. The economic and social benefits from these programs go beyond just helping reduce poverty in the current generation. Increased access to SNAP for children has been found to lead to better health and greater economic self-sufficiency in adulthood. Increased family income in childhood from the EITC and CTC leads to higher student achievement. The long-term effects of Head Start and other high-quality preschool programs include higher educational attainment, employment, and earnings, and lower rates of teen pregnancy and crime, as beneficiary children become teenagers and young adults. President Obama's policies to restore economic security and increase opportunity have helped reduce poverty. The Affordable Care Act ensures all Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance, by providing the resources and flexibility states need to expand their Medicaid programs to all people who are in or near poverty as well as financial help so hardworking families can find a health plan that fits their needs and their budgets. The President significantly expanded the refundability of the Child Tax Credit, making it available to millions of working parents who were previously ineligible. He also expanded the EITC for larger families, who face disproportionately high poverty rates, and for low-income married couples. Together these expansions benefit approximately 15 million families by an average of $800 per year. The President is proposing to make these tax credit improvements permanent and also to raise the minimum wage. The Administration has advanced investments in early learning and development programs and reforms for coordinated State early learning systems. President Obama has proposed the expansion of voluntary home visiting programs for pregnant women and families with young children; Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships to improve the quality of care for infants and toddlers; and high-quality preschool for every child. President Obama has advanced reforms of the nation's K-12 education system to support higher standards that will prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace; pushed efforts to recruit, prepare, develop, and advance effective teachers and principals; and encouraged a national effort to turn around our lowest-achieving schools. The Administration has also put forward proposals to redesign the Nation's high schools to better engage students and to connect 99 percent of students to high-speed broadband and digital learning tools within the next five years. President Obama has proposed Promise Zones where businesses partner with local communities hit hard by the recession to put people back to work and communities can develop and implement their own sustainable plans for a continuum of family and community services and comprehensive education reforms. President Obama has proposed increased employment and training opportunities for adults who are low-income or long- term unemployed, and summer and year-round opportunities for youth along with reforms to our unemployment system to make it more of a re-employment system, and community college initiatives to reform our higher education system and support training partnerships with business in high-demand industries. Other achievements include making college more affordable by reforming student loan programs, raising the maximum Pell Grant, and establishing the American Opportunity Tax Credit which is the first partially refundable tax credit for college; placing 372,000 low-income youth into summer and year-round employment in 2009 and 2010; improving access to school meal programs that help children learn and thrive; and extending minimum wage and overtime protections to nearly all home care workers to help make their jobs more financially rewarding. The fundamental lesson of the past 50 years is that we have made progress in the War on Poverty largely through bipartisan efforts to strengthen economic security and increase opportunity. As our economy moves forward, rather than cut these programs and risk leaving hardworking Americans behind, we need to build on the progress we have made to strengthen and reform them. Going forward, we can't lose sight of the positive part government can continue to play in reducing economic hardship and ensuring access to economic opportunity for all citizens. At the same time, sustainable improvements are only possible if we create jobs and speed the economic recovery in the short run, raise economic growth in the long run, and work to ensure that the benefits of a growing economy reach all Americans.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as we end this particular legislative session, I just wanted to rise and say that, on the one hand, the vast majority of Members voted to run the government of the United States prudently and within budget and to operate as adults over the next 2 years; on the other hand, the lack of a provision in that bill to accommodate those who are unemployed across this country is a sad commentary on the leadership of this House. In the State of Ohio where Speaker Boehner hails from, over half of the counties in Ohio are above the national unemployment average of 7 percent, which is way too high for the country as a whole. For us as a Chamber not to be able to include, especially before Christmas and the holiday season, the extension of unemployment benefits even for a few months for people who will now face Christmas and the new year with even more worry and hardship is unconscionable for this Nation. I just know that we are capable of better. I would suggest to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee that if you shaved 1 percent off of every account in the discretionary part of the budget, you would be able to find the money to extend the benefits for 3 more months, and then we can look toward a more permanent solution from the Ways and Means Committee. I am thankful for the opportunity to make this important statement for the Record. America can do better for our unemployed.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the political turmoil in Ukraine demands the world's attention. It is now 5 p.m. in Kiev where protesters in Independence Square are regrouping after a night of violent crashes with Ukrainian security forces. As of now, the security forces have begun to pull back from the crackdown; and despite intimidation and threats of violence, the opposition has retained control of Euromaiden, the name given to Independence Square in a clear sign of solidarity with Europe. The United States has sided unequivocally with those Ukrainians who are demonstrating for an independent Ukraine, for their rights to free assembly and free speech under provisions of international law, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our Secretary of State has called upon the Government of Ukraine to respect the rights of all people and expressed the disgust of the United States with the use of force against peaceful protesters as unbefitting a democracy. As Secretary Kerry noted, the right to free assembly is ``a universal value, not just an American one.'' The House Ukrainian Caucus, which I cochair with Mr. Levin and Mr. Gerlach, has expressed its support for the rights of the Ukrainian people to exercise their rights to political speech and free assembly. Yes, these are difficult, yet hopeful, times for Ukraine, which is trying to find its rightful place among the community of nations despite daunting domestic challenges. The country is gripped by uncertainty, which is exacerbating an already difficult economic situation. The current crisis was triggered by the decision of the current political leadership to pursue free trade with Ukraine's eastern neighbor, Russia, rather than neighbors to the west, the European Union. Regardless of the political discord in Ukraine, this Congress should urge all parties to settle their internal disagreements peacefully and without violence. Ukraine's soils historically have been showered with the precious blood of their country men and women at a higher rate than most human beings could even imagine. The brilliantly recounted ``Bloodlands,'' written by Yale scholar Dr. Timothy Snyder, tells their story. Yes, though Ukraine's very name means borderland, she too often has been a bloodland. May this not happen now. Ukraine must adapt to embrace a world in which her own independence from interference surpasses any other priority. She should be free to engage all directions, east, west, south, and north, without fear of retaliation. She is a bridge to all nations, and therein will lie her prosperity. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter writes in today's Financial Times: Two decades of independence, of growing pride in rediscovering Ukrainian history, and of observing the country's western neighbors economically benefiting from their European connections is creating a new mindset. That mindset is not embracing anti-Russianism, but it is asserting Ukraine's own historic identity as culturally an authentic part of a larger Europe. Mr. Brzezinski believes the current political change in Ukraine is part of an historically significant, yet inevitable, political transformation. He believes Ukraine and Russia, too, will eventually orient to the west. I have ultimate respect in his opinion and pray he is correct. Those of us who love Ukraine have longed for the day when it is no longer a prisoner of geography, hemmed in between Germany and Russia, but a free and willing member of the community of democratic nations. Perhaps one day Ukraine will break free of the shackles of domination of the past. Perhaps one day Ukraine's geographic location will be an asset, not a liability, a day when Ukraine looks both east and west and, in fact, in all four directions. But as we can see from the images coming to us from Kiev, the road will not be smooth. We know the future lies with freedom and with democracy and with opportunity, not repression in isolation; but that is cold comfort in the streets of Ukraine today. The United States Congress must stand forthrightly with the liberty- loving people of Ukraine during this difficult hour. At this time of testing, the people of Ukraine and the people of the United States should be inspired by the words of Ukraine's most famous poet, Taras Shevchenko: Then in your own house you will see true justice, strength and liberty. There is no other such Ukraine.'' [From the Financial Times, Dec. 10, 2013] Russia, like Ukraine, Will Become a Real Democracy (By Zbigniew Brzezinski) Come what may, the events in Ukraine are historically irreversible and geopolitically transformatory. Sooner rather than later, Ukraine will be truly a part of democratic Europe; later rather than sooner, Russia will follow unless it isolates itself and becomes a semi-stagnant imperialistic relic. The spontaneous outburst of distinctive Ukrainian patriotism--sparked by the mendacity of a corrupt and self- enriching leadership ready to seek Moscow's protection-- signals that commitment to national independence is becoming the dominant political reality. This is especially the case among the younger Ukrainians who no longer feel that they are linguistically or historically just a slightly deviant part of ``Mother Russia''. Yes, linguistic divisions persist and some parts of Ukraine still feel closer to Russia. But it is striking that even some of the most outspoken espousers of a European vocation have only recently embraced the Ukrainian language as their own. Two decades of independence, of growing pride in rediscovering Ukrainian history, and of observing the country's western neighbours economically benefiting from their European connections is creating a new mindset. That mindset is not embracing anti-Russianism but it is asserting Ukraine's own historic identity as culturally an authentic part of a larger Europe. That is why, one way or another, Ukraine will unavoidably come closer to Europe. It is striking that even in neighbouring Belarus, ruled by the authoritarian Lukashenko regime, a similar western orientation is beginning to surface. Neither country is motivated by hostility towards Russia, but each senses that its independence as well as its cultural identity points increasingly in a westward direction. In the next months some sort of a deal between the EU and Ukraine can still be contrived. To facilitate it, the EU must be more receptive to Kiev's need for economic and financial support. Ukrainians have to realise that European taxpayers are not enchanted by the prospect of paying for the misdeeds and corruption of the current Kiev elite. Belt-tightening will be the necessary precondition for an agreement as well as a test of Ukraine's resolve in asserting its European aspirations. Kiev will also need to show that the outcome of elections is not determined by the imprisonment of political rivals. The impact of this on Russia will be felt over the longer run. Moscow's current geopolitical goal, shaped by President Vladimir Putin's nostalgic obsession with the country's imperial past, is to recreate in a new guise something akin to the old Russian empire or the more recent Soviet ``union''. Mr. Putin seems to harbour the naive notion that the leaders of the post-Soviet states will genuinely accept a subordinate role in a Kremlin-led entity. Some of the leaders do pay occasional lip service to that formula--but out of necessity, not conviction. All prefer independence: it is more pleasant to be presidents, prime ministers, generals, ambassadors and economic moneymakers at home rather than to be the provincial equivalents thereof in a larger Russian empire. The historically proven fact is that national statehood, once attained, is infectious and almost impossible to undo except through massive external force. Today's Russia is in no position to assert a violent restoration of its old empire. It is too weak, too backward and too poor. Its demographic crisis makes matters worse. The fact that the newly independent Central Asian states favour increasingly comprehensive arrangements with China is another concern for Russia, reawakening long lingering territorial nightmares. It is only a question of time before it becomes evident to Russia's social elites that Mr. Putin's heavy-handed efforts have very limited prospects of success. Sooner or later, he will no longer be president. And not long thereafter Russia-- and especially its emerging new middle class--will conclude that the only path that makes sense is to become also a truly modern, democratic, and maybe even a leading European state.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the gentleman and say that I walked into the Kiwanis pancake breakfast in Berea, Ohio, the other day and out of a crowd of probably a thousand people, a gentleman said, Congresswoman, Congresswoman, and came up to me and threw his arms around me. He said: Thank you so much for voting for the Affordable Care Act. I just got a plan 10 times better than I ever had--ten times better. My wife had a $5,000 deductible and I had a $5,000 deductible. I am a small business person. I now have a $1,000 deductible. I have much better coverage. Preventive health care is covered. I cannot believe how much better my plan is than what I had before. It made me feel so good. We had breakfast together. The pancakes and sausage were great, by the way. It made me feel so good because I knew that in his business as a shoemaker and his wife as an alterations person in that same business, they would be protected as they grow older before they go onto Medicare. They have worked so very hard in their lives. They went to the Web site, and guess what? It worked. And so across America there are small business people saying thank you to those in Congress who voted for an Affordable Care Act that is working.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, critics said it couldn't be done. They said the Federal Government ``refinancing'' of the American automobile industry couldn't work. Thankfully, for the economy of our country, they were wrong, wrong to denounce President Obama for his courageous decision to save America's auto sector. Yesterday, Treasury announced it was selling its last stake in General Motors, the same General Motors that critics derisively called ``Government Motors.'' Now the verdict is in: the automotive rescue was a huge success. Led by House Democrats, 237 out of 435 Members of this House voted to save America's auto industry. The President and Democrats made a bet on the auto communities, and it paid off with dividends. Today, the auto sector supports one in 17 private sector jobs in this country and one in eight jobs in Ohio. The workers at the Toledo Transmission Plant and the Parma Metal Center thank President Obama and the Members of Congress who were willing to take the heat and do the right thing. The U.S. auto industry is back thanks to the President's leadership and those 237 Members of this House. Onward, USA.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Congressman Garamendi, I would like to commend you for the leadership that you have shown on the jobs front here. Your coming from California, that vast, vast State, I think brings such a perspective to all of us. And Congressman Enyart comes from a rough and tumble region of Illinois. We in northern Ohio identify with your cause and are one with you in your cause. If there is an ad in our district for a job--or for maybe 10, 20, or 30 jobs--thousands of people apply. It is incredible to see. And you mentioned in your earlier remarks how many veterans are unemployed. About a week ago, at one of the food banks that I represent, 1,050 veterans showed up to get a bag of food to keep it together for another week. If you look across this country, there are many whose glass is only half full, and it is not for lack of effort or service to this country. It is still a lack of jobs. During the Bush years, we hemorrhaged over 8 million jobs as a result of the recession. We have gained over 7 million of those now, but we still haven't come back to the 8 million, even though we have had 44 months of consecutive job creation, as Congressman Enyart mentioned, at about 200,000 a month. But that is not enough to employ all those who remain unemployed and those who are underemployed, those who literally have to apply for SNAP coupons to help their family afford food because they are not paid enough. And what I see happening over the last quarter century is that even though those who have capital--big resources--and they invest money and they make a lot of money for their shareholders and themselves, the people that they hire are falling further and further behind. And they expect the government to compensate for low wages. And so if we have SNAP coupons, there are millions of people who receive them who are working for minimum wage. They don't make a living wage. If you look at health benefits, it used to be that you got your health insurance through your place of employment. But guess what, that is all turned upside down. Now the companies are saying, Let the government pay for it. We have to do this because they do not make access to health insurance as a part of the employment package that is offered to their employees. Some still do; but my goodness, how much has changed. The same is true with retirement: defined benefit as opposed to defined contribution plans. People used to get a benefit in their retirement that the corporation provided. They just didn't hog everything to those at the top, but the pyramid has gotten very pointed; and the money flows up, and it isn't flowing down. We have an attrition in the middle class. Every single American knows it. Now, if you look at the Congress and the very worthy legislation that you have introduced, I say to myself, What has happened here? I read one magazine that said for the new Members that were elected-- and it was quite a sizeable class--the average worth of those new Members was about a million and a half dollars. Think about that. The pyramid we see in the corporate sector is reflected right in here. Fewer and fewer people are getting elected from the middle class. And I don't come from the middle class. I came from the working class. We looked up to the middle class. So I know what part of America I came from. So many people here, honest to God, are good people, but they are so privileged. They have myopia. They can't help it. They really can't identify with the struggle of ordinary families, and the other part of it is they look down because they have never walked in the shoes of those who have gotten an unemployment slip or a pink slip. I remember when our dad came home with those. I used to have to sit by our dining room table and figure out how much would we spend on food, how much would that be worth, how long would he be unemployed. It was a very hard thing for our family. He actually had to sell his little store because he didn't have health insurance, and he went to work in a company on the line in a factory for one reason: to get health insurance for his family. Not for himself, but for his wife and two children. There are so few here who actually have walked in those shoes. So we do have a problem here. That same pyramid is operating. If I could just finally mention the value-added investment in manufacturing. Manufacturing now comprises about 13 percent of our economy--the jobs--but it packs a much larger wallop for what it provides because it really does create something that didn't exist before. It isn't just shifting product around. It is actually creating something. The decline in manufacturing as a percent of our total economy has declined so much in the last 25 years. We are now trying to pick it up, with the President's help; and we are seeing that in the automotive industry. Just this week, General Motors paid back and is flying on its own now again. All of us who supported that refinancing of General Motors are cheering and cheering and cheering wherever we can-- certainly in the communities that we represent. But I can remember when the other side didn't vote for it; and they would have killed all those jobs in our country, the community, the people that work in them. So I say to the gentleman, I thank you so very much for standing up for job growth in this country. Thank you for standing up for manufacturing, because for every one of those jobs added, we create new wealth for our country, and we help America to come out of the slump in manufacturing that she has experienced over the last quarter century. I just hope that in the new trade bills that come before us we will have jobs as our first priority and market opening abroad that keeps our products out. Again, I want to thank the gentleman. I support your legislation and I support your efforts for investment to create wealth, whether it is infrastructure on the public side or whether it is infrastructure on the private side. Those are the jobs that really create the new wealth and expansion of jobs for America.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, today I rise in opposition to H.R. 3309. This bill hurts innovation by small business and many American inventors with less than 5 patents. My amendment to exempt them from the strictures and inherent costs of this bill was not made in order. Issues with this bill: Proponents of the bill claim that H.R. 3309 attempts to fix the issue with patent trolls. However, there is no evidence that patent trolls make up more than a very small percent of the civil suits brought in court--probably less than 5 percent. The bill does however make it more difficult and for the vast majority of inventors and much more expensive for the ``little guy'' to sue for patent infringement. Small inventors simply cannot afford to defend themselves. Truly, this is un-American. Fee shifting and ``loser pay'' rules ensure that only wealthy inventors and large business are able to protect their patents. Many small inventors and entrepreneurs simply cannot afford the cost of civil litigation and the potential cost of paying the legal fees for losing a lawsuit. Why throttle the most important source of innovation in our Nation? Six national higher education associations including the Association of American Universities, Association of American Medical Universities, Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, and the American Bar Association and the Association of University Technology Managers oppose this bill. More than half of the U.S. economic growth since World War II is the result of technological innovation resulting from federally funded research. Universities are worried that this bill will hurt their ability to turn their federally funded research into the commercial sector because of how difficult it will be to defend their patents in court with the new fee shifting rules. The American Association of Justice is ``deeply concerned with the continued inclusion of burdensome mandatory fee shifting, unfair limitations on discovery and impediments on the discretion of the courts.'' The bill should be sent back to committee. It should review in particular the development and improvement of rules of procedure and case management to address the concerns over abusive litigation practices so we can address the real issues with patent law without making unnecessary changes that hurt small business and individual inventors.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to associate myself with the Special Order opposing any fast track deal for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the TPP trade agreement as it is called. It is simply the same old trade model since 1975 that has caused this country to rack up over $9 trillion of trade deficit--more imports coming in here than exports going out. An incredible debt. We talk about the budget deficit. The reason we have a budget deficit is because we have a trade deficit and the outsourcing of jobs from coast to coast. There is simply no reason to bring up a deal under the fast track procedure which will not permit amendment on this floor--a deal negotiated in secret by yet another Presidential administration. Americans know how the middle class has been shrinking, how incomes have been shrinking, how production from coast to coast has been outsourced. I associate myself with the remarks with the Special Order this evening that calls on the administration to rebalance our trade accounts. They could take up a bill that I have authored to rebalance America's trade accounts and take a look at all of these nations with which we have amassed these huge, huge deficits while our production is being outsourced. Madam Speaker, let's table the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Let's table fast track and develop a brand-new trade model that benefits the United States of America and its people again so their incomes can rise.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. So, here is a ``Jeopardy'' question for you, Mr. Speaker: How many days is the Republican majority now overdue in getting its work done to produce a budget for the Nation for 2014? Our Nation needs a budget to operate the Government of the United States for the upcoming year, and by law, April 15 was the deadline by which the budget was to have been completed, but that hasn't happened. Now it is December 4, so that means that their bill is 234 days overdue. In fact, technically, the Federal fiscal year began on October 1. The majority's bill is actually 7 months and 20 days overdue. A parking ticket that old might land you in jail. Not making your car payments for 7 months might likely result in your car's being repossessed, right? The Budget Committee is supposed to finish its one bill by April 15, but it just can't seem to find a way to do it. Then, if it were to have done that, the Appropriations Committee, which depends on the Budget Committee for a total budget number, could get its work done to produce not just the one but the 12 bills it is mandated to move through to passage to run the Federal departments of the Government of the United States of America--everything from the Forest Service, to the veterans' clinics, to the Social Security Administration, department after department. The American people are waiting for this House, led by the Republican majority, to get the job done of producing the 2014 budget. America doesn't need any more beauty pictures of committee chairs prancing and posturing in front of cameras. They need to go into the committee rooms and get the work done. The majority is 234 days overdue. Tomorrow, it will be 235 days overdue. My goodness. There are only 26 days left in this calendar year. Even Santa Claus must be shaking his head in disbelief. Talk about running the ship of state aground. Let the majority produce the budget bill. It is way over time. Don't hold up our Republic anymore. You are 234 days overdue, and we are all counting.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it has been reported that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $13 billion settlement of the civil suit filed by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Housing Finance Agency in order to resolve several investigations into their mortgage securities finagling. JPMorgan and it affiliates knowingly misrepresented the value and quality of the mortgage bonds that it sold to the housing finance agency. Compared to the trillions that Wall Street banks have extracted in home equity from the American people, a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase doesn't come close to repaying the American people what they are owed back. More cases need to be filed to mete out justice and recoup what has been wrongly taken. Of the $13 billion settlement, $4 billion will be for the Federal Housing Finance Agency which will go to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. How that filters down to the street, to the ordinary homeowner, we can't predict. Two billion will be credited through JPMorgan's reduction of principal on mortgages in areas hardest hit by foreclosures like Detroit and cities like Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio. JPMorgan Chase currently holds--get this--nearly 1 million mortgages: 208,000 mortgages considered seriously delinquent and an excess of 700,000 which are underwater. That's too much power over our marketplace in too few hands. Five hundred million of the settlement will be credited for the removal of blight from neighborhoods through demolition, reducing interest rates, and offering new loans to low-income borrowers. My goodness, every community in America could use some of that. That's very little money for a very big hole. This settlement may appear like a big step. It's a small step in the right direction. However, let me put these figures on the record. Last year, JPMorgan Chase made $21.3 billion in profits--and that doesn't count what's in their reserves. A settlement of $13 billion therefore is barely half of what JPMorgan made in all of last year after expenses. In fact, this settlement of $13 billion is equal to exactly half of what they had already set aside, $26 billion, for legal fees since 2010. By the way, they make their money by charging all of us high fees, or paying us nothing on our savings accounts and certificates of deposit. Moreover, the settlement will also be largely tax deductible for the bank, as well. Although the tax law does not allow fines or penalties paid to the Federal Government to be tax deductible, that only accounts for $2 billion of the settlement that the bank has to pay in civil penalties to settle their legal claims. That leaves $7 billion in compensatory damages that the bank could claim, for guess what? In tax deductibles. Imagine that. This greatly reduces the impact this settlement has on correcting their bad behavior and mitigating the damages it has to pay in the lawsuit. Imagine if homeowners were allowed to deduct the damages they have incurred as a result of Wall Street's misbehavior. Now, there's an idea. Here are some figures to ponder: Over the last couple years, the CEO of JPMorgan has taken home anywhere from $23 million plus bonuses, plus stock options, on an annual basis. Mary Erdoes, the CEO of their asset management division, last year it was reported was paid $15 million plus $5 million in bonuses--bonuses. This is before they have settled all of these mortgages that they hold belonging to the American people. Matthew Zames, their co-chief CEO, $17 million plus $6 million in bonuses, and Daniel Pinto $17 million in salary alone plus $8 million in bonuses, not counting all their stock options, cars, you know, all those things that they're given in their privileged positions. The American people are really sick of this. They really want justice. We need more legal cases filed, and Congress should reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act by passing H.R. 129, the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2013. This will end what caused the financial crisis-- too much power in too few hands, and the power to create money irresponsibly. Our country should never again have to endure this kind of collapse because of the mistakes that they made. Mr. Speaker, I think it's time for community after community to replicate those legal cases that have been successful in extracting repayment to communities and to harmed families across our country. Our U.S. Attorney, our housing organizations across this country, those Attorneys General who are awake in our 50 States, we need to go after the source, the source that created the collapse that our communities are still suffering from. They must be held accountable for the mortgages they still hold, and recoup for millions and millions of our people the home equity that was taken from them so cruelly.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as cochair of the Ukrainian Caucus here in the House, I rise today to condemn the violence currently igniting in Ukraine at the hands of Ukraine's top government officials. Their targets are peaceful protesters and dozens and dozens of journalists who have been harmed. Shouldn't President Yanukovych and the Ukrainian Government be working hard to encourage and ensure a more open society rather than repressing their own citizenry? Shouldn't they be building a society in which Ukrainians can assemble and freely voice concerns regarding the future of their country? Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, some have estimated over a million people, have taken to the streets in Kiev this past week out of frustration at their government's abandonment of the European Union Association Agreement. As protests escalated through this weekend, journalists and demonstrators were met with a violent police crackdown. Many were brutally beaten and burned by tear gas. For many years now, Ukrainians have called for and continue to desire a government and country that embraces democracy, liberty, and respects human rights. Those citizens in the streets and all Ukrainians deserve the opportunity to peacefully demonstrate. They should not fear government retaliation. Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me say that I continue to support the Ukrainian people's European aspirations and their demands for democratic reform. Let the people of Ukraine move forward and face west and east and north and south with no fear of reprisal.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Ukrainians have been coming to the United States since the Industrial Revolution when immigrants came to cities like Cleveland for jobs. Here they established communities with their own churches, businesses and social clubs. Many also felt the need to perpetuate the language and culture of their ancestral home. And so, starting in the first decade of the 20th Century, the first Ukrainian Heritage Schools were born. The current Heritage School, ``Ridna Shkola,'' whose 60th anniversary we celebrate this year, was founded in 1953 by immigrants who found refuge in America after they had been driven from their homeland by the devastation of the Second World War and the repressive policies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Because they had been active in cultural institutions in their Homeland, the Soviets who conquered Western Ukraine in 1939 targeted them for execution or deportation to Siberian labor camps. Also targeted were the ``Ostarbeiters,'' Ukrainians forced to work as slaves in the Nazi economy. Stalin saw them as tainted by Western influences and after the war assigned them to a similar fate. Those who could fled--first to the Displaced Persons Camps of post- war Austria and Germany and ultimately to a new life in Cleveland and other cities in the U.S. and Canada. The bitter circumstances of their immigration reinforced the refugees' determination to perpetuate their identity and culture. There is no exact English correlative for the term ``Ridna Shkola.'' Roughly it means, ``Our own native school'' and already in 1950, informal classes began at Cleveland's Ukrainian National Home in Tremont. In the fall of 1953, educators and leaders formally established the ``Ridna Shkola'' Association led by Ivan Fur, a grocer whose real vocation was the Ukrainian community. In January 1954, ``Ridna Shkola'' was incorporated as a non-profit organization in the state of Ohio and joined the Educational Council of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) which to this day coordinates a nationwide network of Ukrainian Heritage Schools. The first director of Cleveland's ``Ridna Shkola'' was the distinguished scholar, Volodymyr Radzykevych, author of the three-volume ``History of Ukrainian Literature'' and several children's books. For many years, Professor Radzykevych was the librarian at the Ukrainian section of the Jefferson Branch of the Cleveland Public Library. Once it was established, ``Ridna Shkola'' met every Saturday during the school year at Tremont Elementary School before moving to Merrick House a few blocks away. Enrollment grew from 95 students in 1954 to 307 in 1963. That's when the school moved to Parma, following the demographic trends of the Ukrainian-American community to the suburbs. Since then, several thousand Ukrainian-American students have attended ``Ridna Shkola'' with more than a thousand completing the rigorous ``Matura'' which tests students' knowledge of Ukrainian language, history, literature, geography and culture. From the very beginning ``Ridna Shkola'' was distinguished by a highly-qualified faculty: Hryhoriy Golembiowsky, Mykhaylyna Stavnycha, Olena and Marian Dub, Mykhailo Zhdan, Yaroslava Pichurko, Myroslava Mychkovska, to name a few. There have been scores of others over the past 60 years--all deserve mention, but they are too many to list. Directors (principals) included Vasyl Ivanchuk, Stepan Wolanyk, Viroslav Kost, Petro Twardowsky and George Jaskiw. Today, the majority of teachers and students at Ridna Shkola are from the most recent Fourth Wave of immigrants to the U.S. Critical to its operation are the administrators, people who make sure children have books, collect tuition, pay faculty and resolve a thousand details. For many years, Lida Parc in Cleveland fulfilled this role, insuring a smooth operation. The school also depends on a solid corps of volunteers and, of course, parents who wake their children every Saturday morning and drive them to school. The school is supported by the Ridna Shkola Society, a group of parents and other supporters who raise money, take care of administrative tasks and organize events associated with the school year--weekly classes, graduation exercises, annual celebrations. Today, Chrystine Klek heads the Society, following such dedicated leaders as Kost Melnyk, Vasyl Ilchyshyn, Evhen Nebesh, Evhen Palka, Bohdan Milan, Luba Mudriy and George Jaskiw. It is impossible to assess the importance of Ridna Shkola. Many a college application and professional resume lists Ridna Shkola and the ``Matura.'' Untold numbers of Ridna Shkola graduates have gone on to careers in journalism, politics, government, medicine, law, business, media, diplomacy, etc. where they applied their knowledge of Ukrainian, as well as the lessons and skills they acquired in ``Ridna Shkola'' something their parents forced on them and they unwillingly accepted, only to later acknowledge how beneficial it all was. And now a quarter century after Ukraine's independence, it's clear the huge difference Ridna Shkola made not only in the lives of its graduates, in the Ukrainian-American community but also the positive impact on the country their parents and grandparents left under such bitter circumstances. Best wishes to Ridna Shkola on its 60th Anniversary and all the best in the years to come!

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, with great affection at this Thanksgiving season, to honor, remember, and celebrate the life of Representative ``Lindy'' Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs, of New Orleans, Louisiana, who passed from this life earlier this year on July 27, 2013, but whose accomplishments and legacy continue to inspire her family, her constituency, her colleagues, and all whose lives she so generously influenced. ``Lindy'' was born in Pointe Coupee Roads, Louisiana, on March 13, 1916. She was the only child of Roland Claiborne, a wealthy sugarcane plantation owner and prominent lawyer, and Corinne Morrison. Her nurse nicknamed her ``Rolindy'' because she thought Lindy resembled her father more than her mother. Following her father's death when she was only two years old, Lindy and her mother went to live in New Orleans with her maternal grandparents. The Morrison family's roots can be traced back to the Mayflower. Lindy's grandmother Morrison had a great influence on her and lived to be ninety-seven, as did Lindy. Her mother remarried when Lindy was six to a man who owned a cotton plantation. This is where Lindy said she was introduced to politics, as the plantations controlled much of the politics of the state. This is also where Lindy was introduced to enduring, gracious, hard- working women. She said, ``The women on plantations were absolutely remarkable. They had an autonomous situation. They had to do everything in the house . . . and everything had to be done in time for a huge mid-day dinner. Then, in the afternoon . . . they created their own cultural environment. They had musicals, and they had book reviews . . . it all occurred within those houses.'' With no work these women weren't willing to do, it never occurred to Lindy that women couldn't accomplish whatever they set their mind to. Lindy matriculated at Newcomb College in New Orleans, the first women's college in Louisiana and the sister school to Tulane University, where she majored in history and education. During her freshman year at Newcomb, she met Thomas Hale Boggs, who was the editor of the Tulane University newspaper where Lindy served as women's editor. In January 1938, at age twenty-one, she married Hale and, through university connections, Hale and Lindy embarked on a political career as part of the grass-roots reform movement that took place in Louisiana in the late 1930s. With Lindy's indefatigable support and help, Hale was elected to Congress in 1941, eventually rising to majority leader. When Hale's plane tragically crashed in 1972 on a campaign trip in Alaska, not only did Lindy find herself raising their three children alone, but she also found herself running for his vacant seat, saying, ``I woke up and just found myself running one morning; I never made a conscious decision to run.'' Later, she would reflect: ``When the various people were trying to persuade me to run . . . Lady Bird Johnson [wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson] . . . called and talked to me for a long time about how I had an obligation and all of these things. Then when she thought maybe she had convinced me, she said `But darling, do you think you can do it without a wife?' I've told her many times, it was very hard without a wife.'' In March 1973, Lindy Boggs was elected to the House of Representatives in a special election. Her victory made her the first woman to represent Louisiana in the House and the first Catholic elected from a State that had never elected a Catholic to any major state office. Lindy was at first appointed to the Banking and Currency Committee, where she played a key role during the markup of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. She cited her experience as a newly widowed woman seeking credit as her motivation to add ``sex or marital status'' to the provision barring discrimination on the basis of ``race and age, and their status as veterans.'' Without informing the other committee members, Lindy added those words and made copies of the revision for her colleagues, saying, ``Knowing the Members composing this committee as well as I do, I'm sure it was just an oversight that we didn't have `sex' or `marital status' included.'' The bill passed unanimously. It was this persistence and skill at indirect pressure that marked Lindy's style as a progressive southern woman working to advance the cause of humanity, acting as a champion of civil rights in her diverse district. In 1976, she became the first woman to preside over a national political convention. In 1977, she was elected to the House Committee on Appropriations. At her retirement she remained the longest serving female member of that committee after serving 12 years. That same year, she helped to co-found the Congressional Women's Caucus, later serving as its secretary. When Lindy was elected to Congress, only 16 women were serving in the House out of 435 members; by her retirement, there were 29. In the early 1980's, Lindy helped create, and served as a member of, the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families. From 1985 to 1989, she served as the chair of the Bicentenary of the U.S. House of Representatives. In January 1991, at age 75 and after 18 years of service, Lindy Boggs retired from Congress to care for her daughter Barbara who was dying of cancer. In July of the same year, the House named a room off the Rotunda in her honor: The Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women's Reading Room. In retirement, Lindy remained politically active, writing her autobiography Washington Through a Purple Veil in 1994. In 1997, President Clinton appointed the 81 year old as the first woman U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, a position she proudly served until 2001. Of the accomplishments she was most proud of, she cited bills she co- sponsored on behalf of minorities, women, and children; her efforts to improve education from the elementary to the college level; her work on the children's task force on crisis intervention; her efforts to open the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.; establishing the Office of Historian of the House of Representatives; and achieving Margaret Chase Smith's dream of making the rose the national flower. Lindy Boggs's gracious southern charm, strong faith, sense of humor, quiet persistence, deep social conscience, and firm belief in what's right made her one of the most influential and extraordinary women of our time. She is dearly missed by all who knew her, and by all who have benefited from her extraordinary work. Personally, I hold many wonderful memories of Lindy and her unending kindness. When I was first elected to the Appropriations Committee, as the only other woman on her side of the aisle, she made sure I sat next to her to coach me on the unique rules of the Committee. She always took the time to say hello and give an encouraging word. She offered Members rides home, she invited them to participate in Caucus functions of which she was a part, and she worked hard to bring people together across the aisle in every way she could. She made the House a more human place. May her surviving children--Cokie Roberts and Thomas Hale Boggs--as well as their spouses, children, grandchildren, family and friends draw strength at this time of bereavement from her incredible life and accomplishments. Truly, this was a woman for all seasons, a woman of extraordinary measure. Personally, she endured the loss of her father and husband, and then two of their children, Barbara Boggs Sigmund, who had been elected Mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, and infant William Robertson Boggs. Always, Lindy kept her eyes on the horizon and endured. She assumed responsibility after her husband's passing for continuing their brilliant partnership as progressive, elected Representatives from the State of Louisiana during times of enormous social change and broadened civil and human rights. And, she raised her young children on her own. Lindy's ascension to key Congressional Committees, often as the lone woman, carved a swath forward for gender equity in our nation. Her appointment as the first woman Ambassador to the Vatican in the last quarter of her life mark her total service to the people of the United States as one of the longest and most generous in the history of our nation, extending well over half a century. She was a patriot of the first order. Her legacy will live on in the legislation she passed and in the inspiration and encouragement she imparted to all those whose lives she touched so selflessly. May God bless her and place her among the stars that shine from the highest points in the cosmos. And to her family, a most sincere thank you for sharing her with the nation, and with the Congress, these many decades.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the dedication of the new Erie-Ottawa International Airport in Port Clinton, Ohio. This new facility has been made possible through the Port Authority's leadership and the sacrifices and dedication of local citizens who understand what it takes to build a strong community and nation. Their contributions, along with a $1.7 million federal Airport Improvement Grant, have resulted in adding an important new facility along our precious Lake Erie coast for economic growth. To celebrate this event, citizens gathered during Veteran's Day weekend to mark this historic occasion at the new hanger. At the invitation of the airport's dedicated and visionary Director Stan Gebhardt, all gathered witnessed the first flight from Pelee Island, Canada. The plane was piloted by Griffing Flying Service president Tom Griffing, with passengers Erie County Commissioner Tom Farrell and Ottawa County Commissioner Jim Sass who worked across county lines to bring new growth potential to our coast. Upon landing, they were greeted by numerous local, state and federal officials as well as members of the public who marked the occasion with a special ceremony. In honor of the occasion, a new US flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol for presentation to the Airport Authority. Let me offer warmest congratulations to all those who piloted this significant project to completion. The new facility and adjacent buildings will allow for improved air service, more hanger storage, expanding commercial development around the airport's perimeter, and enhanced opportunities for tourism and commercial development. May the years ahead bring new opportunity as well as adventure to those who recognize Ohio as America's state where air flight began. Onward and upward!

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to pay tribute to the life of Helen Moss, who passed from this life on Saturday, November 9, 2013. Helen Moss was an indefatigable and socially minded community leader on many fronts. The living partnership she and her husband, Richard, formed were constant forces for community betterment across the Cleveland region. Dedicated to success and committed to the pursuit of innovative research, Helen created the Helen Moss Cancer Research Foundation in 2000. The purpose of the foundation is to encourage and support education in Integrative Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Care in Northeastern Ohio. She chose to turn her final heroic struggle into continuing good for her community: in 2012, she helped to establish the Parker Hannifin/Helen Moss Cancer Research Foundation Professorship in Integrative Oncology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. In addition to her support of health research, Helen played an active role in the local community. She was elected as a councilwoman for the Village of Bratenahl in 2001. Additionally, she was selected to be the President of the Ohio Ballet in Akron in 1982 and was appointed to the Ohio Arts Council in 1986. An elegant woman, strong, and vitally engaged citizen, she held a precious appreciation for beauty--in the arts, in the built environment, in literature and music. Helen was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 2009. Helen Moss leaves to cherish her life and legacy her husband Richard Fleischman, their four children, grandchildren and extended family and friends. We join them in honoring the life and service of an exceptional woman.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, now that the Republican shutdown is over, Congress should be addressing the most pressing issues facing our Nation--faster economic growth, putting our people back to work at living-wage jobs, balancing the budget, and investing in our future. But so far, there is no Republican budget deal completed to set the frame for all of this, to give confidence to businesses that they can invest, and to assure the American people that there is some certainty that Congress has done its job. The first step is completion of a responsible budget resolution for 2014 which starts in just a few weeks; and, in fact, the Federal fiscal year started October 1. From that resolution would follow, if we had regular order in this House, 12 appropriation bills constrained within the limits of that important budget. But rather than completing the budget bill, I observed the chairman of the House Budget Committee making political speeches out in Iowa rather than getting the job done here. My message today is get the job done of the Budget Committee. We know that the economy will grow when more people are working; and when that happens, the Federal debt will go down. The first chart I have here actually shows that during the Clinton years when employment went up, we were able to balance the budget. It was followed during the Bush year with the terrible recession where unemployment went up and, guess what, the budget deficit increased and our accumulated debt grew at extraordinary proportions. Now, think about what happens to the U.S. debt when unemployment goes up; and during the Bush years, we had over 8.8 million jobs that were eliminated because of the Great Recession. When people don't have a job, they aren't paying taxes. They aren't buying a new car or spending money at department stores or other consumer spending that drives employment growth and job creation. Increased wages drive investment. Moreover, people who don't have a job are likely relying on government for help--unemployment benefits that are extended, or other parts of the Federal safety net, the social safety net such as health insurance, and health care. That causes a drawdown in Federal spending. So the message to my Republican colleagues is get the job done. That's the only way you are going to be able to reduce the debt. We cannot balance our budget with unemployment hovering at over 7 percent nationally. Although the Obama administration has successfully led 42 months of consecutive job creation compared to the Bush years when we went so much into the hole, we still have not dug ourselves out and replaced those 8.8 million jobs that were eliminated. That is a lot of jobs. Over 2 million manufacturing jobs alone were eliminated. If we think about that, we have done a good job month by month. in crawling out of the recession. But the pace of this is not what I would call robust, but it definitely has been steady. Piled on top of this gigantic effort to try to create jobs is a nagging trade deficit. In my part of America, people know well what job outsourcing has occurred to foreign countries. We have had continuing hemorrhaging of U.S. jobs because of trade agreements like NAFTA, China PNTR, Korea, all in the negative, all in the red, not in the black. We have not had a positive trade balance in this country since 1975, and the numbers show it. The deficits just keep getting worse. Can you find anything made in America any more? There is $9 trillion in accumulated trade deficit since 1975. That actually equals half of our long-term debt because our monthly trade deficit now hovers around $39 billion more imported goods coming in there than we are able to export. This means more foreign goods, fewer U.S. jobs. Over time, these foreign subsidized products from closed markets replace American products and the jobs that go with them. The word ``outsourcing'' has become all too familiar. Mr. Speaker, if my Republican colleagues want to tackle the Federal debt, then they need to bring a completed budget deal to the floor. It is months, almost a year, too late. We need to tackle the Federal debt by growing jobs. Bring economic growth and jobs bills to the floor. We need to no longer bring trade deals to this floor that result, through fast track, in the kind of job killing that we have had over the last quarter century. Shouldn't we focus on what the American people have been saying to us year after year after year: it is the economy; it is job creation. This institution ought to be focused laser beam on what the American people are telling us. Why is that so hard to do? I urge my colleagues on the Budget Committee, get back to work. Stop the politicking around the country; get those committees reaching compromises between the House and the Senate. Let's get the big frame; and then let's, through regular order, bring up the 12 appropriation bills within those budget restraints so we can eliminate the debt by making this economy grow fully again.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dick Boers, who passed from this life on Wednesday October 2, 2013. Dick's family and friends will remember him in a memorial service at the Toledo Botanical Gardens on October 15, 2013. Dick Boers was ``a man for all seasons.'' A horticulturalist and landscape architect, Dick was instrumental in the establishment of the Toledo Botanical Gardens, then known as Crosby Gardens. He was later named Trustee Emeritus of the Gardens' Board and was affectionately known as ``Mr. Crosby.'' The gardens were a signature achievement in a distinguished career. Born in 1941 in Rochester, New York, Richard Boers graduated from Cornell University. He was pursuing his graduate degree at the University of Michigan when he was recruited by the City of Toledo as a seasonal park designer. In 1965 he was named the City's Forestry Commissioner, at age 25 the youngest in the city's history and the youngest in the nation. Dick spent the next thirty years in the City of Toledo's Parks Department. A dedicated public service, Dick's efforts during his tenure were evident and everywhere. He was widely credited with ``greening up'' industrial Toledo. Even as he served the City and the citizens of Toledo, Dick was a respected member of several professional organizations and his talent was sought by many. The Toledo Blade noted that ``A sign in Dick's office summed up who he was, `There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.'' Philosophers' words indeed, and characteristic of Dick's wisdom. Dick Boers' efforts of his lifetime are all around us in our city. His legacy is a gift of beautiful landscapes to be enjoyed for generations to come. When the flowering pear trees burst into bloom in early spring in downtown Toledo, and along the city's thoroughfares, we shall fondly remember Dick Boers. When the annual arts festival is held at the Toledo Botanical Gardens, we shall say thank you to Dick Boers. When native plant species like the blue lupine displace invasive species, we express appreciation to Dick Boers for beautifying our parks and environs. For every part of nature he tended and stewarded to the next generation, we say thank you always to Dick Boers.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the Lebanese American communities in our district, who are celebrating the 70th anniversary of Lebanon's independence. On November 22, 1943, Lebanon obtained its independence from France. Shortly thereafter, Lebanon became a founding member of both the United Nations and League of Arab States. Signaling its commitment to the idea that human rights were global and that it was ready to be a full partner in the post World War II world, Lebanon participated in the drafting of one of the UN's most distinguished documents--the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United States and Lebanon have been blessed by a historically strong friendship, owing in part to the emigration of Lebanon's sons and daughters. They embraced America and followed the words expressed by the poet Kahlil Gibran, that ``To be a good citizen is to acknowledge the other person's rights before asserting your own, but always to be conscious of your own.'' The contributions of those early immigrants and those who followed helped to build our nation. Since 1965, over 135,000 new immigrants have come from Lebanon. Ohio has one of the largest Lebanese American communities in our nation and our citizens are richer for it. The Lebanese community willingly shares its culture and values; the result has been innumerable contributions to the arts, sports, medicine, politics, education, science and industry. In fact, Toledo, Ohio became the first major city in America to elect a citizen of Lebanese ancestry to the position of Mayor, Mr. Michael Damas who served with distinction. As one of the world's early cradles of civilization, Lebanon has persevered, both suffering hardship and sharing in prosperity. Remarkably, the spirit of its people shines through. I join the people of Lebanon, those of Lebanese ancestry around the world, and the Lebanese American community in celebrating Lebanese Independence Day.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I join my fellow Co-Chairs of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, Reps. Sandy Levin and Jim Gerlach in rising today to support the passage of H. Res. 402, supporting the European aspirations of the people of the European Union's (EU) Eastern Partnership countries, and to express continued support for Ukraine as it moves closer to signing the EU Association Agreement. In order for Ukraine to progress democratically and economically, it is imperative that the conditions of this agreement, as jointly initialed by the EU and Ukraine, are fully met--in law and in practice. The critical November 28-29 Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania is quickly approaching, bringing with it the deadline for signing the Association Agreement. Accordingly, we urge the U.S. Department of State to advance all appropriate opportunities for cooperation with Ukraine to address the remaining required reforms, including electoral and rule of law reforms as well as issues related to selective justice, particularly the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Along with the clear democratic and economic benefits, we believe these reforms, coupled with international monitoring and oversight, provide the best opportunity to ensure free and fair elections in Ukraine in 2015 and beyond. Consistent with our support for H. Res. 402, we applaud the EU's progress--much of it through the Eastern Partnership program--in helping to build democratic, prosperous, and stable societies throughout Eastern Europe and the Caucuses. Building on that progress is in the national interest of the United States; consequently, we call on the U.S. Department of State to direct needed resources to help support Ukraine's European choice.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to submit a recent New York Times article titled, ``Ruling on Katyn Killings Highlights Russia- Poland Rift,'' by Alan Cowell and Andrew Roth, regarding the Katyn Massacre of 1940. In so doing, we call continued attention to the atrocities committed in Stalinist-controlled Russia inside the Katyn Forest and surrounding areas, events which continue to deeply resonate within the world consciousness and haunt Polish-Russian relations. In 1940, the Soviet secret police was directed by Joseph Stalin to systematically murder approximately 22,000 Polish military officers, prisoners, and intellectuals in and around the Katyn Forest. A U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee was tasked in 1951 with conducting an investigation into the Katyn killing and concluded that the Soviets were responsible for the mass murder. In 2010, after decades of denial and despite protests from its Communist members, the Russian Parliament approved a statement that ultimately acknowledged Stalin's responsibility in perpetrating these heinous crimes. Thus, in September 2012, I issued a formal announcement that the US National Archives and Records Administration, at my request, opened newly declassified compilations and Katyn documents held in storage by the government of the United States. Yet, this past October, while reaffirming in its ruling that Russia had failed to meet obligations to properly investigate the massacre, The European Court of Human Rights found it had no jurisdiction over the massacre and that it ultimately held no duty to investigate the events at Katyn. The Polish people and freedom-loving Americans deserve better. Humanity deserves better. As pointed out in the New York Times piece, in its ruling and in failing to demand a complete and thorough investigation into these events, the ECHR fails to fully condemn this genocide, setting a disturbing precedent for the future and provides no comfort to those families of the victims. As Pope Paul VI so eloquently stated, ``If you want peace, work for justice.'' Justice remains unserved. Thus, I call upon Russia to declassify, once and for all, its 2004 decision to close the investigation into the Katyn Massacre. Let the world of nations continue to work in conjunction with the Polish government and victims' families to uncover the truth of what happened in the Katyn Forest and nearby killing fields. The whole truth will enlighten future generations so that they learn from these heinous crimes, heal the fissures of tyranny and prevent atrocities of the future. [From the New York Times International, Oct. 22, 2013] Ruling on Katyn Killings Highlights Russia-Poland Rift (By Alan Cowell and Andrew Roth) London.--In the long-simmering and emotional debate over a notorious mass killing during World War II, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Monday that Russia had failed to comply with its obligations to adequately investigate the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police in 1940. But the court said it had no jurisdiction over the massacre itself or on the subsequent treatment of the relatives of the dead, prompting an outcry in Poland and expressions of satisfaction among officials in Moscow, underscoring the deep and lingering divisions inspired by the mass killing in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. ``We are rather disappointed by this verdict,'' said Poland's deputy foreign minister, Artur Nowak-Far, according to Agence France-Presse. ``The ruling does not take into account all the arguments of the Polish side that have here a great moral and historic right.'' Andrzej Melak, president of the Association of the Families of Katyn Victims, called the judgment ``scandalous,'' adding that it was ``inadmissible and incomprehensible.'' ``The failure to condemn this genocide and the impunity of its perpetrators led to it being repeated in Rwanda, the Balkans and it will be repeated again,'' he said. ``Poles will not accept a ruling like this.'' But in Moscow, Georgy Matyushkin, the deputy minister of justice and its envoy to the European Court on Human Rights, told the Interfax news agency that the ruling showed that ``the court does not have the conventional duty to investigate the events at Katyn'' and that it would thus be ``illogical'' for it to address allegations of improper treatment of the victims' relatives. ``The Russian authorities from the very beginning said that these events are located outside of the frame of the jurisdiction of the European court from the point of view of the time frame,'' Mr. Matyushkin said. ``And this point of view was accepted by the European court.'' The Polish prisoners, including nearly 5,000 senior Polish Army officers, disappeared in late 1939 and early 1940 during a period of German-Soviet cooperation, when Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland. In April and May 1940, they were taken to the Katyn woods, near Smolensk, west of Moscow, where they were executed and then buried in mass graves there and in two other villages. After decades of denial, Russia admitted responsibility for the massacre in 1990, and opened a criminal investigation. The investigation was closed 14 years later, but much of its findings were classified and no one was publicly held responsible. Relatives of the victims complained to the court in 2007 that the Russian inquiry had been ineffective and that the Russian authorities had displayed a dismissive attitude to requests for information about the event. The case was brought by 15 Polish citizens who are relatives of 12 victims of the massacre--police and army officers, an army doctor and a primary school headmaster--according to court filings. The court's highest panel, the Grand Chamber, ruled unanimously that ``Russia had failed to comply with its obligation'' under the European Convention on Human Rights to ``furnish necessary facilities for examination of the case,'' according to a statement from the court in Strasbourg, France. But the ruling said the court had no jurisdiction to examine complaints over the killings themselves because the massacre took place a decade before the rights convention became international law and 58 years before Russia acceded to it, in 1998. That period was too long for a ``genuine connection'' to be established between the killings and Russia's accession to the convention, the ruling said. The court rejected an application for awarding damages. The court also ruled that there had been no violation of the convention's provision prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment as it relates to the suffering of families of ``disappeared'' people. That part of the ruling overturned a lower court's ruling in 2012, which found that that provision had been violated in the cases of 10 of the 15 Polish family members. In its ruling, the Grand Chamber said Russia had not offered a ``substantive analysis'' for keeping the decision to classify the decision to close its investigation. ``The court was unable to accept that the submission of a copy of the September 2004 decision could have affected Russia's national security,'' the ruling said. Nikita V. Petrov, a historian for the Memorial human rights group, which has sought to declassify the decision, called the ruling a ``light reprimand'' that would do nothing to further the investigation. ``It's like telling a criminal, `You haven't behaved yourself very well,' '' he said. ``But it does not say that a crime is still taking place, because the government is hiding information about past criminal activities like the Katyn case.'' The massacre has continued to haunt Russian-Polish relations. In April 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president and 95 other members of Poland's political and military elite to a commemoration of the massacre crashed over Smolensk, killing everyone on board, The crash led to mutual recriminations over an event intended to help heal the wound. In November 2010, the Russian Parliament approved a statement holding Stalin and `other Soviet leaders responsible for the Katyn killings. Despite protests from Communist Parliament members, the State Duma acknowledged that archival material ``not only unveils the scale of his horrific tragedy but also provides evidence that the Katyn crime was committed on direct orders from Stalin and other Soviet leaders.''

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it is with gratitude but heavy heart that I, on behalf of the people of the United States, the Polish Caucus of this House, and our region of Ohio, in particular, extend deepest sympathy to the people of Poland on the passing of ex-Premier of Poland Tadeusz Mazowiecki. During his exceptional and transformative life, Premier Mazowiecki played a leading role in ushering in the first era of liberty that Poland had been afforded in modern history. Poland has assumed a pivotal and leading role in the European Union. History is still recording its rich, elegiac, and poignant history in the struggle to defeat tyranny and give rebirth to freedom. As The New York Times reported this week, Premier Mazowiecki became the first non-Communist to head an Eastern Bloc nation since the late 1940s. Solidarity in Poland grew with his engagement as Poland led the anti-Communist movement in occupied Europe. Premier Mazowiecki's leadership of Poland at a time of critical change toward a democratic state has secured for him a permanent place in the history of a free Poland in Europe. He lived to see Poland's admission to NATO and Poland's growing cooperation within the world of nations. An accomplished literary figure, intellectual, and Roman Catholic thinker and writer, Premier Mazowiecki embodied the meaning of a renaissance man. His imprisonment by the Communist Party for his progressive beliefs never dampened his spirit. He was a freedom fighter in word and deed. Mr. Speaker, may his legacy inspire future generations to live with the courage and intellectual rigor he demonstrated in each decade of his life; and may white eagles fly over his memory and Poland's historic accomplishments as she walks with free nations in liberty's march. [From the New York Times, Oct. 28, 2013] Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Ex-Premier of Poland, Dies at 86 (By Douglas Martin) Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who went from editing small Roman Catholic intellectual publications to becoming prime minister of Poland--and the first non-Communist to head an Eastern bloc nation since the late 1940s--died on Monday in Warsaw. He was 86. The Polish government announced the death. President Bronislaw Komorowski, ordered flags on government buildings to be flown at half-staff. Mr. Mazowiecki, a journalist by profession, worked quietly for years to ease restrictions on individual rights and helped form the Solidarity trade union movement, which gained the leadership of Poland's national legislature in August 1989. By the end of that year, the Berlin Wall had fallen, Communist governments in Moscow's other satellite states had collapsed and the Cold War division of Europe was over. In a message of condolences, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who grew up in Communist East Germany, said that Mr. Mazowiecki made ``an unforgotten contribution to overcoming authoritarian injustice and to the unity of Europe.'' In the summer of 1980, a chain of labor disturbances rocked Poland. The focus was the Gdansk shipyard, where Lech Walesa led a strike to demand higher pay and the restitution of a fired worker. Mr. Mazowiecki (his full name is pronounced tah-DAY-oosh mah-zoh-VYET-skee) helped broaden it into an antibureaucratic social movement that became known as Solidarity. He and his friend Bronislaw Geremek, a historian, persuaded 64 leading intellectuals, scholars, scientists and cultural figures to sign a petition that read in part: ``In this struggle the place of the entire progressive intelligentsia is at their side. That is the Polish tradition, and that is the imperative of the hour.'' Mr. Walesa thanked Mr. Mazowiecki and told him that he had a continued need for help from intellectuals in addressing government officials. Mr. Mazowiecki helped write the historic Aug. 31 agreement that ended the strike and established Solidarity by guaranteeing workers' rights to form independent trade unions with the right to strike. The Communist government nonetheless felt threatened by Solidarity's mounting influence, and declared martial law on Dec. 13, 1981, making Solidarity and other pro-democracy groups illegal. As tanks rolled through Warsaw, Mr. Mazowiecki was arrested and imprisoned for more than a year. After his release, he was again one of Mr. Walesa's closest advisers. The Polish economy worsened, and in 1988 Mr. Walesa and Mr. Mazowiecki coordinated a strike at the Gdansk shipyard. That strike brought no concessions. But a second, bigger strike brought the Communists to the negotiating table. The Polish primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, appointed Mr. Mazowiecki a mediator, and he arranged the series of talks between the Communists and Solidarity that led to plans for quasi-free parliamentary elections in which a newly legal Solidarity would be allowed to participate. In the June 1989 vote, Solidarity won overwhelmingly in the districts it was allowed to contest and, after parliamentary maneuvering with minor parties, was able to form a government. Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, head of the Communist government, asked Mr. Walesa for three candidates, of which he would select one as a Solidarity prime minister. He chose Mr. Mazowiecki. Many believed the Vatican influenced his choice, given Mr. Mazowiecki's role as an influential editor of Catholic weeklies and monthlies that promoted the social gospel underlying Solidarity's ideology. Mr. Mazowiecki's V-for-victory sign to the chamber on appointment became the symbol of Poland's triumph over Communism. The Communists retained control of the armed services, the police and the secret service, and Mr. Mazowiecki had to pledge to keep Poland in the Warsaw Pact, Moscow's military alliance. Still, he said in 2004, ``I had this very strong conviction that we will make it, that we will be able to build the foundations for a democratic state.'' He promised no ``witch hunts'' against the old government, saying it was ``right and wise'' to offer democracy to all Poles. When asked if he would be a Catholic prime minister or a prime minister of Solidarity, he replied: ``Is there any contradiction between the two? I would like to reconcile the two.'' At first, Mr. Mazowiecki told an interviewer, he was ``terrified.'' With Poland facing staggering foreign debt, hyperinflation and a bankrupt treasury, he had reason to be. He had no choice but to accept harsh, unpopular conditions-- including a wage freeze and an end to consumer subsidies--to secure a $700 million loan from the International Monetary Fund. With no economic experience and little charisma, he was defeated when he ran for president in 1990. Mr. Walesa was elected. Tadeusz Mazowiecki was born on April 18, 1927, in the city of Plock, in central Poland. His brother died in a Nazi concentration camp in World War II. Mr. Mazowiecki studied law at the University of Warsaw but did not graduate. In 1953 he began editing a Catholic weekly, but was eventually fired because of his opposition to the Communist government. He started an organization of Catholic intellectuals and a new Catholic monthly. In 1961 he was elected to the Polish Parliament, where he led the opposition to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and unsuccessfully pushed for an investigation of the police massacre of striking Gdansk shipyard workers in 1971. As a result, he was barred from running for re-election in 1972. He then devoted himself to building alliances between the intelligentsia of the left and the fledgling Polish labor movement. Mr. Mazowiecki, a tall, gaunt man with large, sad eyes, went on to hold various official and unofficial posts in Poland's government. In 1992 he was appointed envoy of the United Nations to war-torn Bosnia. He resigned in 1995 over what he regarded as the international community's insufficient response to atrocities there. He was married twice; both wives died. He had three sons, Wojciech, Adam and Michal.