Mark Kirk

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, for the last 2 years, I've worked to kill funding for the bridges to nowhere, one connecting Alaska to an island with 50 people and the other to an island with just 22. These federally funded structures would be almost as long as the Golden Gate Bridge, and would be taller than the Brooklyn Bridge. Never in the history of the Congress has so much money been spent for so few. Now, last year the House Appropriations Committee backed my amendment and put this House on record against funding the bridges to nowhere. We also completely deleted the Federal earmark that required spending on these projects, and that was the right decision. The Federal Government spends too much, and higher spending leads to higher taxes, higher taxes to a smaller economy and fewer jobs, and we should not follow that road. But that is the direction that the Bridge to Nowhere leads. This year was different. A new party and a new leader promised change here in Washington. Amazingly, under the Republicans, this House came out against funding the Bridge to Nowhere. But under the Democrats, the Appropriations Committee now voted to block an amendment cutting off funding for the bridges. Under this Congress, leaders promised to kill pensions for Members of Congress convicted of a felony, but after 7 months, no such reform has been enacted. And now, under this Congress, many Members promised back home to kill the bridges to nowhere, but under this bill, they will be funded, and funded for years to come because these bridges will take at least $400 million to build the structures. And one of the bridges is already $37 million over budget, a number that will likely rise. Madam Speaker, my amendment to kill the funding for the bridges to nowhere is technically out of order because, according to our Parliamentarian, he says it violates clause 3 of rule XXI because it would trigger Alaska losing funding guaranteed by the previously enacted transportation bill. The Appropriations Committee, my committee, is at its best when it decides to appropriate taxpayer money and also when it decides not to appropriate taxpayer money. Amazingly, it is not in order to offer an amendment to this appropriations bill to deny appropriations. Our rules do not make sense, of course, unless you support the Bridge to Nowhere or like government spending. We will be at this again next year, and we'll look closely at the cost overruns already with the bridges to nowhere and their burden on American taxpayers. But today, a simple amendment to block funding for the bridges to nowhere, an amendment that would be overwhelmingly approved if offered, cannot be offered because a point of order would be leveled against it. Americans should know that, despite promises to reform this House under new leaders, the new leaders of this House has flipped the House of Representatives from being anti-Bridge to Nowhere to now being for the waste of taxpayers' money.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, the Great Lakes are the source of our drinking water for 30 million Americans, and the Congress has enacted new laws to protect the Great Lakes ecosystem, including the Great Lakes Legacy Act and the Regional Collaboration. This is why we were surprised, no, stunned, when British Petroleum applied for the rights to increase its pollution of Lake Michigan. A 35-percent increase in ammonia dumping, a 54-percent increase in the dumping of suspended solids. BP is one of the most profitable companies on Earth. Their plans include a $3 billion upgrade to the facility, but they presented excuses from their own paid consultant that they had to increase their pollution of the lake. Now, tomorrow the Congress will take up a resolution condemning BP and the actions of the State of Indiana that approved this pollution. BP is a company spending millions to brand itself as a friend of the environment, but we know what BP stands for, ``Bad Polluter.''

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, last month, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and toy company RC2 announced a recall of 1.5 million various Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys because they might contain dangerous amounts of lead. Lead poisoning causes vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, anemia, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, irritability, fatigue, constipation, difficulty sleeping, headaches and coma. It can even be fatal. The toys on recall are made in China and are retailed throughout the United States. In March, a wave of pet deaths revealed toxic chemicals in Chinese- manufactured pet food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigated and nearly 100 brands of pet food made with the ingredient were ordered recalled. A few weeks ago, consumers were advised to discard all toothpaste made in China after federal health officials found toothpaste containing a poison used in antifreeze. Then it was Thomas the Tank Engine. Just about every family with young kids in America knows Thomas the Tank Engine well. On Tuesday, about 40 tubes of potentially toxic toothpaste fraudulently labeled Colgate ``Triple Action'' were pulled from the shelf of a discount store in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Congress needs to send a clear notice to importers that goods which threaten the safety of kids will be left to rot on America's docks. That is why I am introducing H.R. 3100, the bipartisan Import Safety Act of 2007, to increase penalties for willful violators of federal regulations on imported goods and increase our commitment to overseas inspections by the FDA and the Commission. This will increase the ability of the U.S. Government to halt the importation of pet food, toothpaste or children's goods that could present a danger to Americans.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Reclaiming my time, the gentleman is a very powerful chairman. If he supports this project, they will come. But I worry about setting the precedent of everyone else naming things after themselves.

Mr. KIRK. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I just think that putting our constituents first is what this place should be all about, and putting our country first. The gentleman from New York is a distinguished combat veteran, with 38 years service in this House. But we have seen people leave this House to great glory, and to even be elected President or ambassador, captains of industry. And other of our colleagues have gone straight from this Chamber to jail. And the decision is best made by history. The collective wisdom of our rules is that, in general, we don't name things after ourselves when we are great and powerful, but no independent judgment could be leveled. I support this project. I think this project is a good one. But I would just ask would the gentleman entertain a unanimous consent request simply to remove his name to advance this project, but to delete the current ego from this?

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Chairman, I thank my colleague from Illinois for yielding. I rise in opposition to this amendment because he is exactly right. A detailed review of the Shedd Aquarium shows that it has now become the center for Great Lakes advocacy. We are in the middle of a battle to stop the increase in ammonia and wastewater dumping by British Petroleum, the first new polluter in Lake Michigan. The Shedd is the fort with which we advocate for this protection of the crown jewel of the Midwest ecosystem, and I think this is an essential way to go forward to make sure that we protect the drinking water for over 30 million Americans.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, despite promises that are only 6 months old, the cause of cleaning up the Congress has ground to a halt. We should kill pensions for Members of Congress convicted of a felony. And after passing a shadow bill in January, this action has completely stalled. No action in February, March, April, May or June. Now the real surprise. Despite promises of spending reform, Congressional leaders blocked efforts to stop funding the construction of the bridges to nowhere. That's right. Democratic leaders in Congress now support building the bridges to nowhere, one structure, connecting to an island with just 50 people, the other to an island with only 22, at a cost to the U.S. taxpayer of over $1 billion. Only 6 months into a new Congress, and now Congressional leaders do not want to kill pensions for Congressional felons, but do want to build the bridges to nowhere.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the 10th Congressional District of Illinois School Conservation Corps Act of 2007, a bill crafted by America's future leaders. I believe it is critical to engage younger generations in our civic process in order to help them begin to build a better tomorrow. Earlier this year, I invited students from all across my district to participate in a Model Congress. The best and brightest high school students from around northeast Illinois turned out to spend a weekend listening to expert testimony, debating policy, and passing legislation on climate change and environmental conservation. One of the bills the students considered establishes a pilot program in the 10th District of Illinois for the Secretary of Education to launch and support a School Conservation Corps. Any group of 10 students and an advisor may form a chapter of the Corps to receive grants to participate in various environmental protection and restoration activities. Assuming the roles of actual Members of Congress, the students debated many provisions of the bill, including the types of activities that shall be performed, the amount of initial and matching grants that may be made available, and the parameters of the program's evaluation and expansion. I am proud to announce that with minor drafting changes, the bill I rise to introduce today is the same bill passed by the talented students of the 10th District on April 22, 2007. I want to recognize Lauren Blake and Will McGauran who played the majority and minority leaders of this Model Congress. These students, who will both be seniors at New Trier High School next fall, worked hard to build partnerships and find compromises to pass the legislation before them. The complete Model Congress comprised of the following students, who each played a critical role in the proceedings: Edward Alvarez, Charles Arnowitz, Frank Austin, Carolyn Barnett, Andrew Barr, Steven Blumental, Josh Brown, Emily Buehler, Melissa Burns, Arvin Canda, Lauren Cannizzaro, Douglas Carr, Amy Cleveland, Angelica Cleveland, Simone Coburn, Bruce Codell, Jordan Cohen, Elyse Conklin, Dan Cowin, Semeka Cunningham, Joseph Delvin, Peter Drogos Phyall, Ellen Eichner, Gustavo Esquivel, Maria Estrada, Teresa Fabila, Brad Fink, Kevin Finkle, Sherrie Fortson, Stephanie Fortson, Rebecca Fowler, Rachel Fybel, Roberto Garcia, Ana Gaytan, Aaron Goldstein, Alex Gordon, A. William Greene, Jake Grubman, Ray Gu, Robbie Gustafson, Patrick Hamann, Ryan Hamilton, Jacob Hanson, Brad Heinz, Adam Herbert, Jordan Heyman, David Isaacson, Joshua Jackson, Rachel Jackson, Lauren Jensen, Ari Kasper, Ruth Kee, Courtney Kennedy, Jacob Klein, Julia Kohn, Noah Kraff, Noam Kupfer, Geno Kurolapnak, Jake Lapping, Alex Lazakis, Austin Lin, Tyler Litke, Thomas Lovinger, John Maigler, Lauren McCall, Michael McCall, Monte Monaco, Neal Muller, Brooke-Lynn Navarro, Ariel Olswanger, Lauren Olswanger, Aaron Parker, Ami Pekaj, Stacey Podovik, Kiran Pookote, Jonathan Prohov, John Reid Sidebotham, David Reiss, Nils Robbins, Ben Rose, Ari Ruffer, Maya Samuel, Matt Schuelke, Ayal Sharvit, Samara Silverman, Matt Skalski, Matthew Sloan, Sarah Smith, Karolina Strack, Ilana Strauss, Kathryn Swanson, Gideon Sylvan, Steve Tapas, Lindsey Taylor, Anne Tomsky, Sam Travers, Roxanne Tully, Maddi Vering, Robert Wald, Rachel Weiss, Lauren Whalley, John Yang, Gale Young, Dominique Young, Jonathan Youshaei, John Zender, and Michael Zucker. Members of the United States Congress should take cues from all these students on how to work in a more bipartisan manner to accomplish the most pressing issues that face Americans. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and invest in tomorrow's leaders.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, today I am pleased to join with Congressman Lipinski to introduce the Great Lakes Water Protection Act. This bipartisan legislation, supported by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, National Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Foundation, National Parks Conservation Association, Great Lakes Aquatic Network, Audubon Society and more, would set a date certain to end sewage dumping in America's largest supply of fresh water, the Great Lakes. More than forty million Americans depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, food, jobs, and recreation. We need to put a stop to the poisoning of our water supply. Cities along the Great Lakes must become environmental stewards of our country's most precious freshwater ecosystem. The Great Lakes Water Protection Act gives cities until 2027 to build the full infrastructure needed to prevent sewage dumping into the Great Lakes. Those who violate EPA sewage dumping regulations after that federal deadline will be subject to fines up to $100,000 for every day they are in violation. These fines will be directed to a newly established Great Lakes Clean-Up Fund within the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Penalties collected would go into this fund and be reallocated to the states surrounding the Great Lakes. From there, the funds will be spent on wastewater treatment options, with a special focus on greener solutions such as habitat protection and wetland restoration. This legislation is sorely needed. Many major cities along the Great Lakes do not have the infrastructure needed to divert sewage overflows during times of heavy rainfall. More than twenty-four billion gallons of sewage are dumped into the Lakes each year; Detroit alone dumped over thirteen billion gallons of sewage into Lake Huron in 2005. These disastrous practices result in thousands of annual beach closings for the region's 815 freshwater beaches. Cook County beach closings nearly tripled from 213 in 2003 to 613 in 2004. According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a 92-day period from June 1 to August 31 in 2005, there were 87 days of beach closings in my District alone. This trend is echoed throughout the Great Lakes region and is one we need to reverse. Protecting our Great Lakes is one of my top priorities in the Congress. As an original cosponsor of the Great Lakes Restoration Act, I favor a broad approach to addressing needs in the region. However, we must also move forward with tailored approaches to fix specific problems as we continue to push for more comprehensive reform. I am proud to introduce this important legislation that addresses a key problem facing our Great Lakes, and hope my colleagues will support me in ensuring that these important resources become free from the threat of sewage pollution.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Barbara Whitney Carr, the president and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden for over a decade. Barbara Carr presides over one of America's preeminent public gardens located in Glencoe, Illinois. For over a century, the Chicago Botanic Garden has been a sanctuary for over 2.2 million plants, including over 8,000 unique species. The 23 unique gardens spread over 385 acres include horticultural displays, natural habitats, and lakes that attract more than 750,000 visitors annually. By embracing its mission to promote the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world, the Garden has become one of the finest botanic displays in the country and one of the 10th District's most stunning features. Barbara led a 10-year master plan for the garden and launched a capital campaign that saw 15,000 donors contribute a total of $148 million. This drive led to construction and renovation of eight new gardens and the restoration of nearly 6 miles of shoreline. She also oversaw completion of the Botanic Garden Center, Children's Learning Center and the renovation of the 100,000-square foot Regenstein Center. Thanks to Barbara's leadership, the garden is now partnered with some of the leading academic institutions in Illinois. She created an academic affairs program that now offers a master of science in plant biology and conservation, a master of landscape architecture and a bachelor's degree in horticulture. Barbara spearheaded the effort to develop a partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, to preserve endangered prairie plant species and has launched a major science initiative including collaboration with leading organizations. Madam Speaker, Barbara Whitney Carr is a remarkable woman whose dedication helped to make the Chicago Botanic Garden one of the finest institutions in the country and an essential place of tourism, education, and beauty within the 10th District. I wish her all the best in her retirement and thank her for her years of service.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. Pence for bringing this amendment and I support it. I do not think that we should spend taxpayer dollars to resurrect the 1929 doctrine, which was imposed by the old Federal Radio Commission. Several Senators now say they don't like free speech on radio and TV, and they are looking to exhume the body of a 1920s-era radio regulation because they do not want Americans to hear. This 1920s radio regulation, appropriately called a ``doctrine,'' was put into law by President Herbert Hoover. Remember, during that time, Western powers also signed a Kellogg pact that outlawed war, Alaska and Hawaii were not States, Mickey Mouse got his first cartoon, and Joseph Stalin became the unquestioned ruler of the Soviet Union. This 1929 radio regulation that these Senators want to dig up was written when there was no TV, no cable, no Internet, not to mention no satellite or MySpace or YouTube. As kids today would say, this doctrine is so 20th century, and it should not be part of our 21st century.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Last night Iranian citizens burned gas stations in Iran, protesting President Ahmadinejad's gasoline rationing plan. Yes, Iran is running out of gasoline. Despite being a leading OPEC oil producer, Iran is heavily dependent on gasoline from abroad. This is the key weakness of Iran. The Iranian government has promised to attack Israel. It is the chief funder of Hezbollah and Hamas. It threw U.N. inspectors out, and says that it is enriching uranium. Last night Congressman Rob Andrews and I introduced bipartisan legislation, H.R. 2880, calling for more gasoline restrictions on Iran. After last night's gasoline riots, a policy of the U.S., working with our allies, could become the diplomatic key to bring pressure on Iran to stop funding terror and building nuclear weapons. Running out of gasoline. This is a danger for Iran's rulers and an opportunity for our diplomats.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Chairman, reclaiming my time, this is a very good bill. I want to thank both these gentlemen. I want everyone who is part of the 40 million Americans that depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water to know that this appropriations bill is pro-Great Lakes.

Mr. KIRK. Madam Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Madam Chairman, I rise today just to support this legislation which increases funds, provides programs that protect our national forests and parks and enhance our clean water infrastructure. The bill also provides more than $1.3 billion for Great Lakes restoration and protection programs and an increase of $32 million over fiscal year 2007. Providing water, jobs, food and recreation for more than 40 million people, the Great Lakes are one of our Nation's most valuable natural habitats. It is critical that we continue to support programs and provide funds that ensure the restoration and preservation of this National treasure. Now, in this bill we fund the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which is a critical component of this ecosystems restoration. It provides funds for the cleanup of the most polluted sites in the region. There are 26 of these sites designated officially as areas of concern located wholly within the United States and then five more inside Canada. From six of the projects that we receive funding since the program's inception, the EPA estimates that over 1.2 million cubic yards of contaminated sediments will be removed. Madam Chairman, I really want to thank Chairman Dicks and ranking member Tiahrt for working with me to increase funds above the President's request to provide $37 million for this program, which is an increase of over $7 million last year. I also want to thank these gentlemen for providing an increase of roughly $3 million to the National Great Lakes Program Office to fund additional staff to implement the Legacy Act. The aid will help us to eliminate the backlog in reviewing proposals to speed up the cleanup of polluted sites. Madam Chairman, I just want to thank the two gentlemen. I am in favor of this legislation.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana for yielding. He makes a good point. I am actually for this bill coming forward, but we need to send an important signal. The administration has said that they are going to provide direct aid to the Palestinian Authority and provide $40 million to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. U.S. taxpayers should not be forced to finance a culture of ``welfare terrorism.'' This morning, Secretary Rice agreed to work with us in upgrading the auditing regime of UNRWA, and we hope that that will include an end to Cash Assistance payments to terrorists and martyr families, with a full independent audit of UNRWA programs outside the U.N. structure. We have looked in the past at our errors, in the 1990s, when the U.S. poured hundreds of millions of dollars into assistance for the Yassar Arafat government and the return on taxpayer investments was very low indeed. In haste, we should not repeat our errors made just a few short fiscal years ago.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, I want to rise and maybe remove some of the partisan tension as a Republican Member in support of this amendment that otherwise, without action, the global gag rule would cut off critical providers of family planning assistance. In this Congress the issue of illegal immigration is at the top of our agenda. And women in developing countries consistently report that they would like to have two to three children rather than five to seven. As population pressures rise, so does the move to enter the United States, legally or illegally. To reduce the illegal immigration pressure on our borders, we need short-term solutions like border enforcement, and long-term solutions like backing voluntary family planning to help women in developing counties have the smaller family that they want. The global gag rule has been used to cut off the International Planned Parenthood Federation because it used less than 1 percent of its own privately raised funds for abortion-related services. And when we cut off IPPF, we might have another provider of family planning assistance to the women of Mexico for example, like the UNFPA, but we cut them off too. Mr. Chairman, I would argue that the American people would strongly agree with the principle that if Mexican women wanted to have fewer children, then we should help them. Voluntary family planning would boost child survival rates. It would also lower the rate of growth of Mexico's population. A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico. It would also reduce the environmental pressure on Mexico's ecosystem. But a slower rate of growth would also reduce the long-term illegal immigration pressure on America's borders. We should adopt this bipartisan amendment. We should help women in developing countries have the smaller families that they want. We should also adopt policies which reduce the population pressure on our own borders with a policy that supports the rights of women and lowers the pressure on our environment. I commend the Chair for offering this amendment.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. I want to thank Mr. Wolf and our chairwoman for building a bipartisan bill that I think we all should support. This legislation funds critical programs that advance our values overseas, it supports key allies of the United States, and it meets many of the humanitarian aspirations of the American people to do our part to relieve human suffering. As a staffer, I helped found the global program on AIDS in 1985, and in this bill we have record funding to accomplish a great humanitarian mission of fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In this legislation, we support our best ally in the Middle East, Israel, now caught between two satellites of Iran: Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. In this bill, I helped sponsor language that increased the audit responsibilities over UNRWA programs in the West Bank and Gaza, a $2 million audit especially to look at incidents in which an al Qaeda cell was allowed to form in a UNRWA camp now bedeviling the Government of Lebanon, and where we saw Gaza Islamic University, a U.S.-funded foreign assistance recipient who is running in its chemistry lab a cell of Iranian military officers training students in the chemistry of making suicide bombs. In this bill, I also helped fund increasing assistance in the Frontier Autonomous Tribal area of Pakistan. This is a program of almost theologic importance to the people of the United States because it is in north and south Waziristan and surrounding areas, that we think the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, is hiding. And with this $20 million assistance package, we will bring new links and new friends in this region to help complete the arrest and bringing to justice of Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden for the murder of 3,000 Americans. In this bill we also preserved new funding in fiscal year 2007 to help Christian communities in Iraq. There are still 600,000 Christians in Iraq, now concentrating in the Nineveh plain. The $10 million designation we do there is a great help to these communities. This bill makes a major forward step also in supporting a new democracy program for Syria, that one day that murderous and pernicious dictatorship may one day be replaced; and also backing women's rights programs in Iran, another country in need of a serious democracy make- over. Lastly, this bill continues funding for Radio Free Asia and a voice supporting Western values, democracy, and human rights in a critical part of the world. Before I was elected to Congress, I was a staff member with this subcommittee. I want to thank Christine Kojac and Rob Blair, Mike Ringler and Nisha Desai, Clelia Alvarado, Steve Marchese, Craig Higgins and Michele Sumilas, Mark Lopes, Lucy Heenan, Molly Miller, and my staff member, Richard Goldberg, for their work on this legislation. In sum, this appropriations bill is bipartisan. It is supporting the interests of the United States, and it is strongly backed by our allies. It makes peace more likely and achieves important humanitarian goals of the United States.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Consumer Product Safety Commission and toy company RC2 announced a recall of 1.5 million Thomas & Friends railway toys because they might contain dangerous amounts of lead. Lead poisoning causes vomiting and diarrhea, convulsions, anemia, a loss of appetite, abdominal pain, irritability, fatigue and coma. It can even be fatal. The toys were made in China and were retailed throughout the United States. First, it was pet food, then toothpaste, now Thomas the Tank Engine. Just about every family with kids in my district has a Thomas the Tank Engine. We need to send a clear notice to importers that goods that threaten the safety of kids should be left on America's docks. That's why I'm introducing legislation this week that prohibits the importation of any product from an importer of processed food or retail goods that the Secretary of Health and Human Services has determined contains unsafe levels of contaminants. Mr. Speaker, we need to do this to defend America's families, especially its children.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Chairman, on rollcall No. 489, I was inadvertently detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.'' Amendment Offered by Mr. Price of North Carolina

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, last night Michael Macalindong of Fox Lake, Illinois, was charged by Federal authorities with luring a 15-year-old minor to his home. This happens too often in America. What is new is that Macalindong used a social networking site, Facebook.com, to attack a minor child. Congress can do something about this. Sexual predators now use MySpace.com and Facebook.com to attack not dozens of children but thousands. In the last Congress, we overwhelmingly passed the Deleting Online Predators Act by a vote of 400-15, but this act stalled in the Senate. The House should now take up this bill again, now with over five dozen cosponsors, to protect children. The danger posed by predators online in Facebook and MySpace have turned those sites into a virtual hunting ground. This was not part of my childhood, but it is now part of growing up in America. Our laws are falling behind the cyberthreat to kids, and Congress should pass the Deleting Online Predators Act.

Mr. KIRK

Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, as we begin the work of this Congress, we should follow several key principles. Our first principle, which should be the main work of this House, should be focused on key major issues before the country; the second principle is that we should be effective and enact solutions for the American people; and the third is that we should use this debate to build consensus to deploy bipartisan action on behalf of our country. One commentator looking at the record of the current Congress said that we are packing two days of debate into a four-day workweek. When you look at the record of this Congress so far, you can see that we have taken action on 13 bills to name a Federal building or post office or to build a road, we have enacted five bills to extend preexisting laws that were already on the books or passed last year, and we have passed eight bills cosponsored by a large number of Republicans or passed entirely without opposition. It is not an impressive record of work so far. And when you look at the actions of this Congress, you can see many pieces of legislation on which there has been no action in this Congress, despite a great need by the American people. One of the key pieces of legislation that passed in the 109th Congress was the Deleting Online Predators Act. This is a bill which would protect children from online predators, especially those who use social networking sites like MySpace.com, the number one website on the planet, where the Center For National Missing and Exploited Children reports that at any one time there are 50,000 sexual predators online trying to get the attention of children. This legislation, the Deleting Online Predators Act, passed the House of Representatives last year by a vote of 410-15. It stalled in the Senate, and as of yet in this Congress there has been no action whatsoever. In the last Congress, we also passed the Student and Teacher Safety Act. The Student and Teacher Safety Act was endorsed by the National Education Association and would say that for any registered full-time teacher in America, that they have complete discretion to search a book bag or a locker to make sure that the classroom was gun-free. As a former teacher myself and as someone who has worked with many teachers, I think it is appropriate for the Congress to use a teacher's full-time professional judgment to make sure that their classroom, their workplace, was a safe place to be, not just for teachers, but especially for children. When we have seen attacks in places like Winnetka, Illinois, or Columbine, or even Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, we can see that there is a need to fully empower teachers with the right to search to make sure that their facilities are safe. The Student and Teacher Safety Act passed the House unanimously in the last Congress, was delayed in the United States Senate, and no action has been taken this year. The Congress in the last term also passed the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act. We have seen throughout America, especially in suburban communities, rapidly disappearing green and open space. It is very important for us to defend the National Park System. In fact, I think the country should set a long-term goal of doubling the size of the National Park System. But we also want to make sure that we preserve green and open space close to where Americans live, in the suburbs. This act would establish new and local grant programs to help protect suburban open space. Without action by the Congress, in 20 years time, many of the areas where we currently see green and open space could be an unending series of strip malls, removing an ambience, hurting our environment and delaying our ability to take effective action on global climate change. This legislation passed unanimously in the last Congress, but this Congress has failed to take any action on it. One of the critical issues before this Congress is whether to pay Members of Congress who have been convicted of a felony and who have lost all of their appeals and beyond the shadow of a doubt stand condemned before the American people, and yet still collect a pension for their service in the Congress. We have seen Members of Congress, like Dan Rostenkowski or Bob Ney or Duke Cunningham or James Traficant, all completely convicted by a jury of their peers beyond the shadow of a doubt, Members of Congress who lost or did not exercise any of their appeals, who are currently or have served in jail, and yet today or in months past have collected their congressional pensions from the jailhouse ATM. In 1996, the Congress passed comprehensive reforms to kill the pension for any Member of Congress convicted of any one of 21 separate public integrity felonies. It was a bipartisan victory, with the full support of Speaker Hastert and Speaker Pelosi. This legislation, once again, was delayed and killed in the United States Senate. Today we have seen Members like Congressman Jefferson from Louisiana, indicted on 16 felony counts, and, but for this legislation, would have a right as a nine term Member of Congress, if convicted and if losing all of their appeals, to collect a $50,000 a year pension, even if convicted for betraying the very taxpayers that pay that pension. The Congress in February passed very limited pension reform legislation which wouldn't kill the pension for a Member of Congress on conviction of 21 felonies, but instead would only kill that pension for conviction of any one of four felonies. And basic felonies like wire fraud and income tax invasion would still allow the payment of a congressional pension. Despite limited action by the Congress in January both in the House and Senate, legislation to kill the pension of a Member of Congress convicted of a felony has been completely stalled, completely stalled in February, in March, in April, in May, and now in the first weeks of June with no action and potential actions against other Members of Congress convicted of a felony. In my view, the hundreds of thousands of dollars paid each year to Members of Congress convicted of a felony are a travesty and should be stopped by the elected representatives of the American people to defend the taxpayer. All of this details the lack of a substantive agenda by this Congress which should be put before the American people working on issues that they care about, on key challenges before their families. As I have outlined, beyond naming some Post Offices, designating some roads, and passing legislation on which there is little to no debate, this Congress has not done much yet and right now is falling beneath its potential as a great deliberative body of one of the world's premier democracies. What I would like to do tonight is lay out a new agenda, an agenda that would be meaningful to many Americans and taking on key problems before them. This action was proffered before in the enactment of the suburban agenda last year which took action on a number of key items like the School Safety Acquiring Faculty Excellence Act authored by the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter). That bill basically took up the issue of Jessica Lunsford who was killed by someone employed by a school who had never had a background check. Despite his clear and demonstrable criminal record, this man was allowed to be in close contact with children leading to a tragic result. The School Safety Acquiring Faculty Excellence Act passed the Congress and allowed every school in the country access to national criminal databases in order to ensure that every activity was taken to make sure that people who are put in close contact with children did not represent a clear and present danger to their safety. The Congress also took on the issue of open space by passing the Charitable Donations For Open Space Act. This improved the treatment of conservation easements and other open space donations critical to preserving green and open space in the suburbs. We also looked at the issue of helping families with expanding college costs by expanding permanently the charter of so-called 529 college savings account. In my home State of Illinois, these are called ``bright start accounts.'' And by permanently extending these tax deferred savings plans, we helped Americans with their college savings. With those pieces of legislation, and the ones I talked about earlier which passed the House in an overwhelming bipartisan fashion but were killed in the Senate, we laid out a work plan for the Congress strongly supported by the American people with overwhelming bipartisan support on the Republican and Democratic side. But as I detailed, key pieces of legislation remain to be enacted like the Deleting Online Predators Act, like the Two Student and Teacher Safety Act, like the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act. Persistence is a value strongly rewarded in the United States Congress, and following on that value, we have laid out a new suburban agenda for this year. The suburban agenda outlines a number of key pieces of legislation that directly meets the needs of American people in bipartisan ways to make sure that we are working on the key issues of the day and move the ball effectively, building bipartisan consensus. Key items on the suburban agenda include the Gang Elimination Act by Representative Reichert, which looks at a key problem in the United States which is of internationally connected drug gangs representing major franchises in criminal activity, moving to the suburbs, potentially overwhelming suburban law enforcement communities. While large cities like New York or Chicago have large gang intelligence units and years of experience in dealing with international drug gangs, drug gangs that are now moving to the suburbs can quickly overwhelm a small police force like the one in Waukegan, Illinois, that is facing a criminal empire that comprises thousands of potential gang members, and links to a number of countries. The Gang Elimination Act calls for the Justice Department to identify the top three national drug gangs and lay out a 4-year strategy for taking those drug gangs down. This is something entirely appropriate, to lay out a mandate for whoever is our next President of the United States to make sure that we remove this threat to the American people. If you added up all of the documented gang members who are in the United States, it would total the size of the seventh largest army on the planet. The average gang shooter in my State of Illinois is in the 7th grade, and this is a threat that the Federal Government in Washington can help law enforcement deal with. A second piece of the suburban agenda is the 401 Kids Family Savings Account Act by the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert). We look at key figures like 70 percent of Americans fear it will be more difficult for their children to remain in the middle class than it was for them. You have to simply ask the question: How likely or how easy will it be for your children to afford the very house that they are being raised in? Access to college in our view is a critical step to making sure that your children have a chance to be full and successful members of the middle class. When we have seen universities like George Washington University now totaling $50,000 a year for tuition, we can see a substantial roadblock in the way of the future success of one's son or daughter. The 401 Kids Family Savings Account, and previous legislation modeled after it, would allow every American to build success upon success. One of the best things that the Congress has done is to allow every American working with the opportunity to establish a 401(k) retirement program to build tax deferred savings for their families. Tens of millions of Americans have now established those 401(k) programs, and we would like every American to have a chance, an opportunity, to establish a 401 kids account for their new son or daughter, from the first day they are born, tax deferred savings for college, for the first-time purchase of a home or for starting a new business. This would not only help boost the savings of the United States, but it would be a dramatic way to upgrade the financial education of American children because these 401 kids account statements would come into parents and allow each one of them to sit down with their son or daughter and see how a disciplined pattern of savings and investment could build a lifetime of good habits for that child. One of the other pieces of legislation is the Health Insurance For Life Act by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent). The Health Insurance For Life Act would basically look at a key problem in today's America which is that the average American family, especially in the suburbs, will have seven jobs over their lifetime, and we still have thousands of Americans exercising their COBRA rights to continue their health care coverage. Under Federal law if you have been covered by an employer-provided health care plan, if you lose your job, you can still continue health care and insurance for your family for at least 18 months at your own expense. But many Americans hit the end of that 18- month limit and they will not be allowed to have a safe place to cover their family without extension of these rights. The Health Insurance Portability Act, otherwise known as the Health Insurance For Life Act of 2007, would allow families at their own cost to continue their health care insurance so there is always in a seven- job career a safe place for their family to be covered. And there would always be an option to maintain that coverage. As I mentioned before, one of the key parts of our agenda is the Deleting Online Predators Act because throughout America we have not seen a reduction in people who would seek to use the new and powerful tools of the web and the Internet, and especially social networking sites, to reach out and attack children. It is already common knowledge through the culture, and especially through shows like Dateline NBC, that we have seen repeat offenders, even on the same network news show. The suburban agenda also includes other key items. The one at the bottom is very important for the mid-21st century, and that is the Senior Safety For Dignity Act. The Senior Safety For Dignity Act updates a set of bill of rights for Americans who need nursing home care to ensure that they maintain their dignity. This is legislation put forward by Mrs. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida. The Senior Safety For Dignity Act is very important because in our country the baby boom is aging. The first baby boomer collects a retirement check in 2009. The number of retirees in America will go from 35 million to almost 90 million, and the need for nursing home care in our country will grow. We need to upgrade the bill of rights for Americans in nursing homes because of the large expansion in capability that we will need in our country and to make sure that the quality of care is maintained. One of the experts in this Congress is my colleague, a physician and a Member from Georgia, Dr. Price, who can comment on a number of these key issues.

Mr. KIRK. We have seen consistently that while events in Iran or Iraq, while issues concerning global climate change, and of course the immigration bill in the Senate are all front-burner issues, but for American families, education, health care, protecting the environment and saving for college are important issues.

Mr. KIRK. One solution would be to have the government take over everyone's health care and to make sure we take action that breaks the link between you and your physician and insert a large bureaucracy that currently runs the post office and now put it in charge of your health care. Many of us think that that may not be the way to go. The way to go is to make sure that for many Americans, they like the health insurance plan that they're on, and then they would like to carry that through the five to seven jobs that they will have in the 21st century.

Mr. KIRK. I just worry. Right now, the Congress took very limited action to kill the pensions for Members of Congress back on January 23, but then see stalled action. We have taken no action on ethics reform, killing pensions for Members of Congress convicted of felonies in February, no action in March, no action in April, no action in May, no action now for the first few weeks of June. You worry because senior Members of Congress have the largest pensions, and they are in charge of this place. Why is it that we are delaying action on this critical reform? I always thought that the most important thing about such a reform is to prevent crime. You know, if you kill the pension for a Member of Congress convicted of a felony, you almost turn their family members, their spouses, into adjuncts of the Ethics Committee, because they are worried about their future retirement income. That's as it should be, keeping everyone on the straight and narrow. The State of Illinois is not seen as the cleanest State in the Union. Yet even under our State law, we kill the pension for public officials convicted of a felony, like even Governor Ryan, who just lost his appeal to do that. I worry, though, that we haven't taken any of these actions. We have stalled actions on all of these items, with an overwhelming number of Republicans, Democrats and independents, wanting action on health care and making sure that we can afford college, and so far this Congress has fallen short of its potential.