Dale Kildee

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Michael Bieber as he retires from the United Auto Workers. Mike is the Assistant Director of UAW Region 1-D. A celebration in his honor will be held in Bay City, Michigan, on July 14th. As a third generation UAW member, Mike joined the UAW Local 167 when he started working at the General Motors Diesel Equipment Division in Wyoming, Michigan, in 1979. He transferred to UAW Local 2151 when he moved to the Rochester Products Division in Coopersville. He was the Alternate Committee Person on the B-shift and a Shop Committee Person for 4 years. Elected as President of the Local at the age of 27, he held that position for 6 years. In 1993 he was appointed to the International UAW staff serving in the Secretary-Treasurer's office until he was named the Assistant Director by Director Donald Oetman in 2002. In addition to his work with the UAW, Mike is active in the United Way of Ottawa County and serves on the Michigan Association of United Way Executive Board. He is a Democratic Party Precinct Delegate and the Vice-Chair of the Kent County Democrats. He is married to Jamee and is the stepfather to five children, and has five grandchildren. Madam Speaker, please join me in congratulating Michael Bieber for being a diligent, conscientious proponent of the rights of working men and women everywhere. He has exhibited an abiding commitment to improving the workplace, the community, our country and our world. I wish him the best as he embarks on this new phase of his life. Bio--Michael Bieber Michael Bieber was appointed as Assistant Director of UAW Region 1-D in June of 2002 by Director, Donald Oetman. Mike is a 3rd generation UAW member. Mike became a member of UAW Local #167 in 1979 when he went to work at the General Motors, Diesel Equipment Division in Wyoming, Michigan. In 1981 Bieber transferred to the newly formed UAW local #2151 representing workers at the Coopersville, MI location of Rochester Products Division of G.M. He served the Local as an Alternate Committee Person on the B-shift and as a Shop Committee Person for 4 years. Despite his relative youth, Bieber was elected as President of the Local at the age of 27. He served in that capacity for six (6) years. He was appointed to the International UAW staff in May of 1993 and served under the jurisdiction of the Secretary- Treasurer's office until he became Assistant Director. Bieber has served on many community and labor organizations in Western Michigan. He has been very active with the United Way in Ottawa County and currently serves on the Michigan Association of United Way executive board. He is active in the Democratic Party as a Precinct Delegate and currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Kent County Democrats. Mike is married to his wife, Jamee. Mike is the stepfather to five (5) children and they have (5) grandchildren.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in honoring the City of Davison on receiving the Exemplary Source Water Protection Award from the American Water Works Association. Every year the American Water Works Association presents this award to a municipal water system for developing and implementing effective source water protection programs. This award signifies that the City of Davison has met the highest standards of excellence in their pursuit to supply the residents of Davison with clean, safe water. In July of 2005 Davison's water treatment plant went online and has the capacity to treat up to 2.5 million gallons per day. Working cooperatively with Davison Township and Richfield Township, the City of Davison has implemented a cooperative effort to protect the ground water on which many rely. The new program includes provisions to reduce the number of abandoned wells that pose a serious threat to the health of the aquifers. The City of Davison, knowing that residents play an important role in protecting the water supply, has worked to reach out to the community in their Source Water Protection Program. In the program Davison encourages residents to be stewards of the water supply by limiting the amount of lawn chemicals and fertilizers that run off and enter the water system. Additionally, Davison has endeavored to educate and inform the community that simple maintenance of septic and home plumbing systems can benefit both the community and the individual by reducing water usage and contamination. The city is assisting residents identify and plug old wells that pose a dangerous risk to the health and safety of the community. Madam Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in congratulating Mayor Fred Fortner, the Davison City Council, the staff, volunteers and residents for receiving this award. Through their commitment to hard work and education they have demonstrated good stewardship of this vital natural resource. American Water Works Association, Denver, CO, March 4, 2008. Ms. Andrea L. Schroeder, City of Davison, Davison, MI. Dear Ms. Schroeder: I am pleased to inform you that your utility has been selected as the recipient of the Exemplary Source Water Protection Award for medium-sized systems. This award recognizes organizations in North America who have developed and are implementing exemplary source water protection programs. In recognition of this honor, an award will be presented to you during the Atlanta Annual Conference in June. Details regarding the presentation will be sent to you later by Linda Moody. The Association's Officers and Directors join me in congratulating you on this honor. Sincerely, Gary J. Zimmerman, Executive Director. The City of Davison Source Water Protection Program: Protecting Your Drinking Water Resources Davison's new $3.5 million dollar water groundwater treatment plant was put on-line in July 2005. The plant receives water from the City's five groundwater wells and can treat up to 2.5 million gallons per day using filtration, softening and reverse osmosis. Through cooperative efforts from Davison and Richfield Townships, Davison's Source Water Protection Program identifies and manages threats to the city water supply. Please call the DPW offices to learn more. Protect drinking water--our future depends on it. How Does Groundwater Become Contaminated? Abandoned wells, leaking underground storage tanks, industrial and transportation activities, dumps and landfills, agricultural activities, and homeowner activities. How Can I Help?

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to day to honor Reverend Dr. Reginald Flynn as he is installed as the new pastor of Foss Avenue Baptist Church. The Installation Service will take place on Sunday, June 22nd, in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. Reverend Dr. Flynn was raised in the Flint area, graduating from Beecher High School in 1984. He attended Kalamazoo Valley Community College and served in the United States Navy. After receiving his honorable discharge he relocated to Columbia SC. He received his bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of South Carolina. He was the executive assistant at the United Way of South Carolina. He was picked by the South Carolina Department of Social Services and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to coordinate a statewide faith-based foster care and adoption program called South Carolina Families for Kids and he went on to become the recruitment director of the adoption advocacy program, One Church, One Child of South Carolina. He went on to work for IAP Worldwide Services, an international emergency management firm, and for Merck and Company. He is the founder and president of CourTay Properties, LLC, a real estate investment company. Pastor Flynn received his license to preach the gospel from Reverend Dr. Charles B. Jackson, Sr., at Brookland Baptist Church in Columbia and earned his master of divinity degree from Erskine Theological Seminary. He was ordained by the Gethsemane Baptist Association and has completed pastoral assignments at Beulah Baptist Church, and Temple Zion Baptist Church. He was elected by his colleagues to serve as vice president and principal training instructor for the Mt. Hebron Progressive Association's Congress of Christian Education. He has also served as the adjunct professor of religious studies at Benedict College. In December 2008 he will receive his doctor of ministry degree in pastoral leadership and Urban Studies from Columbia International University, graduating with honors. Married to First Lady Deloris Flynn, the couple has two children, Courtney and Taylor. Madam Speaker, please join me in congratulating Reverend Dr. Reginald Flynn as he is installed as pastor of Foss Avenue Baptist Church. The sacred and solemn Installation Service is the joining of a pastor and congregation to fulfill God's holy will. May Pastor Flynn and Foss Avenue Baptist Church serve Our Lord, Jesus Christ, for many, many years to come.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. Thank you again for all you have done for us, for enriching this body, for, as I say, making myself a better person, making this body a better body. May the riches of God's blessings go with you as you return home. Thank you very much. God bless you.

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I would ask the pages to come up here and occupy the seats in the Chamber. Anywhere you want, either side. Maybe the next time you occupy that seat, you will be a Member of this body. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to express my personal gratitude and the gratitude of the entire House to all the pages who have served so diligently in the House of Representatives during the 110th Congress. This is the 16th Congress that I have served in. I have been Chairman of the Page Board or ranking member for about 20, 23, 24 years. I was appointed by Tip O'Neill. That is probably ancient history to you. That is very recent history to me. Mr. Speaker, I have attached a list of the fine young people who have served this House as pages and will include their names as part of the Congressional Record. U.S. House of Representatives Pages Spring Class of 2008 Adriana Daniela Aguilar, TX; Claire Jumanna Ashcraft, CA; Cole Salim Ashcraft, CA; Hannah Elizabeth Barkley, MS; Maurice Patrick Barry, MA; Erika Lauren Bertrand, NE; Amber E. Cassady, TX; Charles E. Coe, PA; John Cowart, FL; Maggie Carlisle Cupit, MS; and Matt Cyr, TN. Carlos DeLaTorre, TX; Stephanie Diaz, HI; Brandon Estes, FL; Kelly Jo Fuller, GA; Shara Guarnaccia, NJ; Philmon Ghirmai Haile, WA; Jane Elizabeth Hamm, OK; Kathleen Shea Howard, NC; Michael J. Janusa, TX; Evan R. Johnson, IA; and Matt Jolley, UT. Tara Marie Kelly, MA; Esther Kofman, CA; Satchel Clay Kornfeld, OR; Lauren LaVelle, CA; Thomas Lerum, CA; Brian Licata. NJ; Victoria Linville, TN; Jessica L. Malekos-Smith, CA; Jill E. Marshall, NY and Tara Mason, MO. Elizabeth Milner, MS; Elizabeth L. Monsma, CA; Tiana Moore, CA; Jesse Mark Neugebauer, NE; Kaleigh Elizabeth Nolan, NY; Courtney Shene Owens, SC; Daniel Pavlovic, CA; Emma Peel, TX; Jacob William Peeples, MA; Ashley S. Pierce, DC; and Wylee M. Price, NM. Miles Pulsford, KY; Andre Renaldo Fernandez, PR; Elizabeth Ann Reynolds, WA; Yi Ping Caitlin Patricia Roberts, VA; Max D. Robertson, NC; Jason Oliver Roman, NY; Jeffrey P. Schumacher, OH; Lea Shipman, AK; Hannah Leigh Shuman, FL; and Katie Smith, CA. Feddie Justin Strickland, SC; Lianna Stroster, MI; Alexandria Christian Templeton, AL; Callie Sioux Tysdal, SD; Timothy Wainwright, PA; Megan Walden, CA; Nicki Warner, WV; Gabriel M. Weinstein, MD; Nicole M. Westergaard, IA; and Kiyan H. Williams, NJ. To the Page Class of Spring 2008--Thank you and good luck! I am sure you will pick up several copies of that Record when you go home. We all recognize the important role that congressional pages play in helping the U.S. House of Representatives operate. This group of young people, who come from all across our Nation, represent what is really good about our country. To become a page, these young people have proven themselves to be academically qualified. They have ventured away from the security of their homes and families to spend time in an unfamiliar city. Through this experience, they have witnessed a new culture, made new friends and learned the details of how government operates. As we all know, the job of a congressional page is not an easy one. Along with being away from home, the pages must possess the maturity to balance competing demands for their time and for their energy. In addition, they must have the dedication to work long hours and the ability to interact with people at a personal level. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, they face a challenging academic schedule of classes in the House Page School. You pages have witnessed the House debate issues of war and peace, hunger and poverty, justice and civil rights. You served this House during a time of war. Many pages have never experienced that. You have seen the awesome responsibility Members of this House have when they vote on that question of war and when they vote on the funding of that war. You have witnessed a great deal of real history. You have seen Congress at moments of greatness, and you have seen Congress with all its human frailties. You have witnessed the workings of an institution that has endured well over 200 years. No one has seen Congress and Members of the Congress as close up as you have. I am sure that you will consider your time spent in Washington, D.C., to be one of the most valuable and exciting experiences of your lives, and that with this experience you will all move ahead to lead successful and productive lives. Mr. Speaker, as Chairman of the House Page Board, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring this group of distinguished young Americans. You certainly will be missed. Individually and collectively, you are great. I try to walk by the desk and say hello to you. I see you in the hallway carrying flags or whatever your mission may be. But individually and collectively, you are great. In closing, I would also like to thank the members of the House Page Board who provided such fantastic service to this institution. Myself as Chair; Congressman Rob Bishop, the Vice Chair; Congresswoman Diana DeGette; Congresswoman Virginia Foxx. One nice thing about the congressional members is we are not only members of the Page Board, but we like one another. We get along really well, and that is very helpful. We have also the Clerk of the House, Lorraine Miller; we have the Sergeant at Arms, Bill Livingood, as a member; and we have two members who are not directly attached to the House; Ms. Lynn Silversmith Klein, who is the parent of a page, and Mr. Adam Jones, a former page. I want to thank you for your service on the House Page Board. It has been really a great experience for me. And I want to thank our departing pages. I can really say this: You have influenced us. You have inspired us. We look at you and say most of what we do here is going to affect you more than it affects us. I really have great hope for the future when I look at you. This House I can say because of that is a better House, because of you. I thank you. I yield first to the Vice Chair of the Page Board, my friend from Utah. Rob, come forward here.

Mr. KILDEE. Thank you very much, Mr. Bishop. You know, it is interesting. We have friendships across the aisle and we do cooperative things across the aisle. I remember very early in your career here you came up to me and you said, I have an amendment I am going to offer in the Resources Committee, and could I talk to you about it and maybe get your help? I looked at it and it made good sense. We do that. We do that more than what people realize. I appreciate working with you. I yield now to the majority leader, Mr. Hoyer, the gentleman from Maryland, and a dear friend.

Mr. KILDEE. Thank you, Mr. Hoyer.

Mr. KILDEE. Much of the joy that I get from serving on the Page Board through the years is the pages. But you have heard the two Republican Members speak, and we indeed are friends and I really enjoy meeting with them. Our meetings, none are bipartisan, they are nonpartisan. The bottom line is you, and they are really friends of mine. If you will make your concluding remarks, and then I will wrap it up.

Mr. KILDEE

Mr. KILDEE. We've looked over the Reichert amendment and we accept the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition, although I do not intend to oppose the amendment.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I rise in strong support of this legislation. I was pleased to join Mr. Chandler and Chairman Miller in introducing H.R. 3021, and to work with my chairman and Representatives Loebsack, Andrews, Hare, Holt and McCarthy to introduce the committee substitute. I especially acknowledge Mr. Loebsack's great depth of knowledge and the perseverance he has brought to this bill. This legislation will bring critically needed resources to schools around the country to provide students, teachers, principals and others with safe, healthy, modern, energy efficient and environmentally friendly learning spaces, and will help our local, State and national economies by creating jobs for thousands of workers to build these improvements. Some years ago, Madam Chairman, in my district, a Federal judge ordered a jail to be torn down because it was unfit for human habitation. Yet, many local educators told me that jail was in better shape than some of the schools where they work so hard every day on behalf of their students. By providing the resources to ensure that situation never happens again, this bill would send children the message that we truly value every one of them. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, we're all concerned with fiscal responsibility, but I can recall a tough political vote I took the first year of President George W. Bush. That was on about a $2 trillion tax cut, $2 trillion. That's $2,000 billion. This bill will cost $6.5 billion a year. That tax cut was $2 trillion. There's various ways we have to be fiscally responsible, and I submit that tax cut, in my humble opinion--and I voted ``no'' on it and went back home and faced some wrath, not that much, though--I voted ``no'' on that because I also have a sense of fiscal responsibility. Now you talk about IDEA. I think you will concede that no one's been a stronger advocate of full funding for IDEA than myself.

Mr. KILDEE. I would be glad to yield.

Mr. KILDEE. On that, let me indicate I have a list of groups here who support both full funding of IDEA and support this bill. I will just read a few of them: the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of School Administrators, the Council of Great City Schools, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Parent-Teacher Association. So these are groups who support both full funding of IDEA and full funding of this. With that, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt), a member of our committee. I thank the gentleman from California for his kind words.

Mr. KILDEE. May I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, may I inquire as to how much time remains on each side.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. KILDEE. I yield the gentlelady 30 additional seconds.

Mr. KILDEE. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt), a member of the committee.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Mitchell).

Mr. KILDEE. I yield the gentleman 30 additional seconds.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, could I ask again how much time each side has remaining.

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Patrick J. Murphy).

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. KILDEE. Madam Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge). (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)