Ric Keller

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I am here to talk about border security solutions. I recently spent a week along the Mexican-California border to see firsthand how bad the problem of illegal immigration is, and, more importantly, what Congress can do to fix it. So how do we fix the problem? First, we need to crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. Jobs are the magnet drawing illegal aliens across the border. Second, we need to complete construction of the double fence for 700 miles along the border near populated urban areas. It worked in San Diego. Third, where mountains and rugged terrain make completion of a double fence impossible, we need to have a virtual fence which consists of infrared cameras that enable agents to see the entire border. Finally, we need more Border Patrol agents. Although Congress has already tripled the number of Border Patrol agents since the late 1980s, more are still needed. Madam Speaker, the House recently passed a tough border security bill that implements these solutions. I urge the Senate to act now.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 4911.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4911) to temporarily extend the programs under the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4911, the Higher Education Extension Act of 2006. This bill will provide a clean extension of the Higher Education Act for 3 months. This extension will allow us to finish our important work on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and expand college access for millions of American students. As the new chairman of the 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee, which is the subcommittee with jurisdiction over higher education, I am proud of the work we have done so far in reauthorizing the Higher Education Act. We have started the reauthorization process already through the passage of important higher education reforms in the Deficit Reduction Act. We strengthened student loans and cut excessive subsidies to lenders. We have increased loan limits to give students more access to the money they need, and we have reduced fees so students can keep more of what they borrow. There is important work yet to be done. The Committee on Education and the Workforce has successfully marked up H.R. 609, the College Access and Opportunity Act. I look forward to working with my colleagues in passing H.R. 609 to continue building the Pell grant program, help control the rising cost of college, and increase college access for all students. Mr. Speaker, this is a clean extension that will allow the current programs of the Higher Education Act to continue past their current March 31 expiration date. Programs like Pell grants are the passport out of poverty for millions of American students. We must not break our commitment to higher education. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 4911, and I look forward to working to pass a comprehensive higher education reauthorization bill later this year. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), the chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the impact illegal immigration has on taxpayers. Today, we have 11 million illegal aliens in the United States. Last year, our Border Patrol agents arrested 1.2 million illegal aliens attempting to enter the U.S. from Mexico. Illegal aliens continue to enter the U.S. from the Mexican border at the rate of 8,000 per day, and I saw that firsthand on a recent trip to the Mexican border. The economic impact of illegal immigration on taxpayers is catastrophic. Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $45 billion a year in health care, identification, and incarceration expenses. The cost of the estimated 630,000 illegal aliens in my home State of Florida is about $2 billion a year, meaning every family in my congressional district pays a hidden tax of $315 each year, yet they still face artificially depressed wages because of illegal immigration. The House has recently passed a tough border security bill to address this problem, and I urge the Senate to act now to protect taxpayers.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, putting the UAE in charge of our ports is as crazy as outsourcing our Border Patrol to Saudi Arabia. We have two Achilles heels: our Mexican border and our seaports. The UAE says that they are our friends. Here is some straight talk: the UAE gave us two terrorists on 9/11. They provided the money for the attacks of 9/11. They recognized the Taliban on 9/11. They refused to freeze Osama bin Laden's assets after 9/11. They have voted against us at the U.N. 90 percent of the time since 9/11. And today they announced that they will threaten the United States of America if we block this transaction. If these are our friends, what the heck does an enemy look like? Mr. Speaker, we have but one choice: block this ports deal. We should not outsource our national security to anyone.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act, because it is a commonsense way to protect our schoolchildren from pedophiles. Isn't it a matter of common sense to allow a local school district in Orlando, Florida, to do criminal background checks on coaches, janitors and teachers who work with our children to make sure they are not convicted pedophiles from Georgia or some other State? Isn't it common sense to protect young schoolchildren in the first place by keeping these pedophiles locked up with lengthy prison sentences? Isn't it common sense that coddling repeated sex offenders with self- esteem courses and rehabilitation doesn't work, and that locking them up works? It is high time that we crack down on molesters by implementing these commonsense reforms. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 4472 today.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, and I just want to say I intend to vote for this. I think it is worthy of being designated as an historic site.

Mr. KELLER. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and for his leadership on child safety issues. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Child Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act because it is a commonsense way to protect our school children from pedophiles. Isn't it a matter of common sense to allow a local school district in Orlando, Florida to do criminal background checks on coaches, janitors, and teachers who work with our children, to make sure they are not convicted pedophiles from Georgia or some other State? Isn't it common sense to protect young school children in the first place by keeping these pedophiles locked up with lengthy prison sentences? Isn't it common sense that coddling repeated sex offenders with self- esteem courses and rehabilitation doesn't work, and that locking them up does work? Madam Speaker, the best way to protect young children is to keep child predators locked up in the first place, because someone who has molested a child will do it again and again and again. Last year, two young Florida girls, 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde, were abducted, raped, and killed. In both cases the crimes were committed by convicted sex offenders who were out on probation. This law imposes a mandatory minimum punishment of 30 years for those who commit violent crimes against children, as well as a punishment of life in prison or a death sentence when that crime results in a child's death. It is high time that we crack down on child molesters by implementing these commonsense reforms, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 4472.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act today is literally a matter of life or death because it is helping us to win the war on terrorism. Since we passed the PATRIOT Act in 2001, we have convicted 212 terrorists, and we have frozen $136 million in terrorists' assets. Reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act is purely a matter of common sense. Is it not common sense that we give law enforcement the same tools to go after terrorists as they now have to go after Mafia dons and drug dealers? Is it not common sense that we can now share data between the intelligence community and the law enforcement community? Is it not common sense that we track deadly terrorists, even though they cross jurisdictional lines or switch cell phones? I am pleased that the Senate recently voted 89-10 to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act. This legislation provides 30 new civil liberty safeguards and strengthens our port security by providing law enforcement authorities with new authority to secure our ports. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the PATRIOT Act.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for 5 minutes.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I had the honor and privilege of being selected as chairman of the 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee on the Education and Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over higher education. I am here to give the American people some straight talk about higher education. Some have said we might have cut financial aid for college students. The truth is we have expanded access to college for our neediest students through the record growth of the Pell grant program. Pell grants are the foundation of Federal student aid. As someone who attended college with the help of Pell grants and as chairman of the Pell Grant Caucus, I know how important they are for our Nation's low- income students. Since I was elected to Congress in 2000, Pell grant funding has increased by 74 percent, from $7.6 billion to $13.2 billion today. The maximum grant has gone from $3,300 in 2000 to $4,050 today, the highest level in the program's history. The number of students receiving Pell grants has increased from 3.9 million in 2000 to 5.5 million today. We have paid down the Pell grant shortfall and secured this great program for many years to come. Mr. Speaker, the straight talk is that Pell grants are helping more students go to college than ever before. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle realize that a first-class education is a child's passport out of poverty. As chairman of the 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee, I will fight to make sure that all children, rich or poor, have the opportunity to go to college and realize their American Dream. I look forward very much to working with my Democratic and Republican colleagues in a bipartisan manner to make higher education better for all of our students in the future.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, today I rise to discuss the impact that illegal immigration has on the ranchers along the Mexican border. I recently spent a week along the Mexican-California border to see firsthand how bad the problem was and what Congress could do to fix it. I sat down in the living rooms of four different families who own ranches along the border. One couple, Ed and Donna Tisdale, documented on home video 13,000 illegal aliens crossing their property in one year alone. The Tisdales had their barbed wire fences cut by illegals running off the family's cattle. When their dogs barked to scare off intruders, the dogs were poisoned. Another rancher told me about numerous break-ins at his home while his family slept, as illegal aliens tried to find food and clothing. One morning his daughters had gone out to feed their pet bunny rabbits, only to find them skinned and taken for food by illegal aliens trying to escape to a nearby highway. Madam Speaker, the House has recently passed a tough border security bill. I urge the Senate to act now to address this problem.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H. Res. 668.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It gives me great pleasure to rise in support of House Resolution 668, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of Texas Western's 1966 NCAA basketball championship and recognize the groundbreaking impact of the title game victory on diversity in sports and civil rights in America. Texas Western's victory occurred 40 years ago, 1966, during the midst of the civil rights movement to end discrimination against blacks. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed institutional racial segregation. In Vietnam, blacks were fighting and dying alongside their fellow white soldiers. Blacks were not, however, playing basketball at many schools in the South, where de facto segregation still reigned. For Don Haskins, coach of the Texas Western Miners men's basketball team, a person's race did not matter. To him ability on the basketball court mattered more than the color of the player's skin. To Coach Haskins, the only thing that really mattered was winning. This was the philosophy Coach Haskins used on the night of March 19, 1966. That night the Texas Western Miners made history by defeating the number-one-ranked, all-white University of Kentucky Wildcats for the NCAA basketball championship, a game of historical significance because no other college team at the time had ever started five black players in a major championship contest. In fact, when Texas Western defeated Kentucky 72-65, a game still celebrated as one of the biggest college basketball upsets in NCAA history, there were no black basketball players in the Southeastern or Atlantic Coast Conferences. This remarkable triumph helped shift the national perception of black athletes and helped bring about the widespread desegregation of college sports. In turn, the desegregation of college sports helped to spread greater equality throughout American society. Mr. Speaker, the man behind Texas Western's success is Don Haskins. His 38-year reign at Texas Western, now the University of Texas El Paso, allowed him to become one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history. He amassed a 719-354 record, 32 winning seasons, seven Western Athletic Conference Championships, four Western Athletic Tournament titles, and 21 post-season appearances. In 1997, Coach Haskins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He retired from coaching in 1999. Coach Don Haskins is truly a living legend in college sports. He believed that as a coach he should recruit the best raw talent he could find no matter the player's race, background, or life story. If not for the colorblind dream of Coach Haskins to win basketball games with his team's most talented players, history may not have been made on the night of March 19, 1966. I want to thank my colleague from Texas (Mr. Reyes) for introducing this legislation and bringing forth a lesser known, yet significant, piece of history in college athletics. I am happy to join my colleagues in celebrating the 40th anniversary of Texas Western's 1966 NCAA basketball championship. I ask my colleagues to support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 677) recognizing the creation of the NASCAR- Historically Black Colleges and Universities Consortium.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 677.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 677, a measure to recognize the creation of the NASCAR-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Consortium. I thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers) for offering this legislation and for his support of this important partnership. It is fitting that we are considering this resolution on the final day of Black History Month, 4 weeks during which our Nation has celebrated the countless contributions of African Americans to our Nation's history. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country. In fact, President Bush once noted, ``Our Historically Black Colleges and Universities opened the door to knowledge when other doors were barred. And today they offer exciting opportunities to young people to contribute to their country.'' While compromising only 3 percent of our Nation's 2- and 4-year institutions, HBCUs are responsible for producing 28 percent of all bachelor's degrees, 15 percent of all master's degrees, and 17 percent of all first professional degrees earned by African Americans. And through its new partnership with the popular sport of NASCAR, the impact of HBCUs is sure to grow. The new NASCAR-HBCU Consortium will promote diversity throughout NASCAR, including its marketing, service, and engineering departments. This is particularly meaningful as our Nation seeks to increase the number of students studying math and science in college. According to the Department of Education's most recent figures, only about 9 percent of students receiving a bachelor's degree in math or science are African Americans, so the creation of this consortium could not have come at a better time. The United States must produce more students interested in math and science in order for our Nation to excel in an increasingly global economy. HBCUs are sure to be at the forefront of this effort. Mr. Speaker, I applaud NASCAR for recognizing the contributions HBCUs have made to American education and culture and, more importantly, the contributions they will make in the future. I am proud that the House has taken the lead in promoting the efforts of this consortium, which will ensure new and exciting career opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students attending HBCUs. I ask my colleagues to support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the author of this important resolution, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers).