Zoe Lofgren

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. At this point, I would also like to thank Chairman Thompson of the Homeland Security Committee for his hard work on this bill. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I would reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. My amendment is a simple one. It allows the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to use a secondary authentication system to verify the identity of individuals who are applying for transportation worker identification credentials when those individuals have failed in their biometric verification due to the quality of their fingerprints. Since this is the Department of Homeland Security, these credentials are called TWICs. And it is necessary currently, in the bill and under law, to have your fingerprints taken to enroll to get this TWIC. However, and this is very interesting, Stanford University has done the research. It turns out that about 5 percent of the population is unable to have their fingerprints taken. Now the reasons for this can be many; genetics, age, there is an ethnicity component, illness, hard labor. And when that happens, what that means is that individuals who would otherwise need the card will not be able to get the card unless this amendment is adopted. I'll give you an example of an individual who has been impacted. George Thomas of Houston, Texas. Mr. Thomas is 85 years old and he is the president of Higman Marine Services. Higman Marine has been in the inland towing business since 1917. When Mr. Thomas applied for his TWIC card, he was told that his skin was too thin to have his fingerprints read and to come back in a couple of months to apply again. Well, what happens to Mr. Thomas, his company, and all his employees? What happens to his business without the president able to comply with TWIC requirements through no fault of his own? The TWIC procedure already requires TSA to send pertinent parts of the enrollment record to the FBI as well as within the Department of Homeland Security so that appropriate terrorist threat, criminal history and immigration checks can be performed. This amendment authorizes the Secretary of DHS to perform a secondary check if a person's prints cannot be read instead of telling them to come back in a couple of months. This would mean an additional check of the name, but in the future, when the technology has been accepted for broad use, it could also include the use of other biometrics, such as iris, facial or retina scans, voice recognition and the like. It merely gives discretion to the Secretary to either do the name check, or use alternative biometrics. The point of this amendment is to enhance security, but also to allow workers who are applying for TWIC to avoid being rejected unfairly. I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment as well as the underlying bill. I would like to thank the chairman, Mr. Oberstar, and also Mr. Cummings for their wonderful work on this bill. Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Before I yield back, let me just note that I have no motivation to weaken the security of the----

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I will just note there is not much of a closing. We are in agreement on this amendment. I appreciate the support. I look forward to working further on this. Certainly, we don't want to weaken our security, but we don't want hardworking people who just can't get their fingerprints taken to be put out of a job. So we are of one mind on this. I thank the committee, all the Members. Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5036) to direct the Administrator of General Services to reimburse certain jurisdictions for the costs of obtaining paper ballot voting systems for the general elections for Federal office to be held in November 2008, to reimburse jurisdictions for the costs incurred in conducting audits or hand counting of the results of the general elections for Federal office to be held in November 2008, and for other purposes, as amended.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make a couple of comments. In the last several years, the United States has spent at least $240 million to make sure that democratic elections in other countries met the same standards that we're hoping elections will be held to here. And so, obviously, every dollar that we have is precious tax money, but I would hope that we would be at least as interested in protecting the integrity of the elections in America as we are in protecting the integrity of the elections in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the like. Secondly, I was not a member of the House Administration Committee when Mr. Mica, the gentleman from Florida, was. But I was on the Florida 13 Task Force, and we reached a conclusion. It was unanimous and it was bipartisan, and I don't second-guess them. We had GAO go in and they gave us a report, and we accepted that report. But had there been a paper trail we wouldn't have had to have the GAO go in and examine these machines. And I would finally note that the gentleman is right. If you can mess it up, it will be messed up. But at least, with a paper ballot, you can discern intent. And if somebody circles the name instead of fills it in, and there is a recount, you can see what a voter meant to do. You cannot see that with an electronic machine. So with that, and I understand the points being made, but I would hope that we can come together and support this bipartisan bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I urge that we pass this important legislation today. I will confess that I am disappointed that the ranking member is not today in support of this measure. We, on the majority side, accepted every amendment offered by Republicans in the committee mark-up on this bill, and I had hoped and expected that we would be able to continue to work together and support this measure on the floor. We reported the original Holt bill out of the committee over 1 year ago, and in that time, between now and then, we have worked with Secretaries of State, the National Association of Counties, disability rights groups, voting rights groups, civil rights groups, to try and get a measure that could garner broad support across the country. And I believe that we have that measure before us today. I will say that the White House issuing an SAP today, after a year's work, I think, is really bad faith. We have worked very hard, and to come out at the last minute is really very unprofessional. I'd finally like to say that the dollar amount estimated by the Congressional Budget Office is a worst-case scenario. There's no way that that would be the full amount. But even if it were, I would ask Members to think of this: Isn't the American democracy worth as much as the Iraqi or the Pakistani democracy? Aren't we willing to spend as much to make sure that our precious American votes are counted as we are the votes of foreigners in other countries? I would hope that as we consider our responsibility as Members of Congress to our wonderful America and our wonderful country, that the answer to that would be yes and therefore, a ``yes'' on the whole bill. There have been various quotes made today, but I think back of the second Californian to ever be President of the United States, his phrase was not used about voting, but it was this: Trust but verify. That's what the Holt bill would do. It would trust but verify, and I hope that Members today can come together and support the Holt bill. I would like to commend once again Congressman Holt for his enormous efforts that brought us here today.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I thank the gentleman, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. We don't have additional speakers. I wonder if the gentleman has additional speakers.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 5036 and to include extraneous matter.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5036, the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act 2008, is a bill that provides State and local governments the opportunity to have safe, secure and auditable elections in this, the election, year. I commend Congressman Holt and his bipartisan cosponsors for their continued dedication to the issue of election reform. This bill recognizes that 2008 is quickly approaching and options must be provided to ensure the integrity of the vote. Our election process must be open and transparent to ensure public confidence. We are now 8 months from the general election and cannot place State and local governments in a position to require change. Therefore, the bill is 100 percent optional. State and local governments can choose which provisions they can successfully implement. Opting in entitles the State or jurisdiction to reimbursement. In committee, several changes were made to this bill through bipartisan cooperation, and I want to thank Mr. Ehlers for his support during the committee markup. Changes were also made to meet the concerns of disability groups, as well as State and local government. H.R. 5036, as amended, reimburses jurisdictions for retrofitting paperless touch-screen voting machines, or DREs, with systems that produce a voter verifiable paper record, allows for reimbursements for jurisdictions to obtain backup paper ballots in the event of failure of electronic voting systems and authorizes reimbursement for jurisdictions which conduct a manual audit of a Federal and any State and local election in November, 2008, in no less than 2 percent of the precincts. During the markup, all the amendments offered by the Republicans were accepted by voice vote, and those four amendments were to allow for audits to commence within 48 hours after States or relevant jurisdictions involved announced the unofficial vote count. It requires no hand count to commence until at least 8 hours after the polls close and requires the ballots to be in a secured location until the hand count commences, and ensures that the hand-counting teams, when conducting a hand count of the election results, have equal representation from both political parties of the candidates who received the two greatest numbers of aggregate votes cast, and requires that after the hand count is complete the ballots be run through a tabulating machine or scanner for verification of the tally, if such a machine or scanner is available. Having a voter verified paper trail with an automatic routine audit will go a long way to increase voter confidence and deter fraud. Post-election audits are an essential tool to increase voter confidence in the election process. While the bill authorizes such sums as necessary, the CBO has come back to us with a score of $685 million, about what we expected, and a sum that was in the original Holt bill. The CBO score, however, anticipates the participation of everyone in this bill. I think it is highly unlikely that every jurisdiction will participate in every aspect of the bill, since they have the opportunity to do nothing or to pick and choose portions of the bill. It is clear that the actual score or total would be less. I would note that we are spending over $10 billion a month in Iraq and that we have spent a total of $1.32 billion on democracy-building programs in Afghanistan and Iraq. The CBO figure is certainly less than that. It seems to me, if we can't protect our elections at home, really, how are we supposed to be a model of democracy without safe and secure and auditable elections. The country could end up revisiting the contentious and mistrusted count of 2000 and, even more recently, in the contested election of District 13 where people could not verify votes through an actual written ballot. The bill reported out of committee makes the changes requested by the minority to the legislation but keeps the core purpose of the bill, providing a voter verifiable paper and auditable paper trail. If this bill is enacted promptly, jurisdiction should have adequate time to purchase and implement the voting system upgrades and the other provisions of this bill and provide voter confidence in the integrity of the 2008 election. I urge all of my colleagues to support this option bill, this bipartisan effort. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the author of the bill, Congressman Rush Holt from New Jersey, who has been tremendously diligent in pursuing these reform measures. Really, without his persistence, we would not be here today. I would recognize him for 5 minutes.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I would just urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. It has bipartisan support.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, the National Center for Victims of Crime reports that approximately 23 million Americans are victimized by crime each year. Of these, more than 5 million are victims of violent crime. Victims of crime can suffer from a broad range of adverse effects, ranging from the physical to the psychological. Some experience financial distress resulting from a disruption in employment. Unfortunately, some of the most vulnerable of our society are also among those who are most commonly the victims of crime. People of color suffer disproportionately from violent crime. The poor and uneducated are often the target of financial schemes. And, sadly, children are victimized more than any other group. A just society demands that we always bear in mind the suffering that crime victims endure and work to reduce the incidence of the crime that causes that suffering. This bill will increase public awareness about the effects of crime on its victims and their families as well as our communities. As part of today's debate, I would also like to point out that the Office for Victims of Crime offers a full array of assistance help for crime victims. By supporting this office and its programs on an ongoing basis we can help ensure that victims are afforded their legal rights and the necessary assistance to overcome the effects of being victimized by crime. I encourage my colleagues to support H. Res. 1053. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, it is an honor to recognize my colleague from California, the author of this bill, Congressman Jim Costa, for 5 minutes.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I wonder if the gentleman from Ohio has additional speakers.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I would urge my colleagues to support this resolution. It's bipartisan. It's important. I just recalled, as I was listening to both Mr. Poe and Mr. Costa taking the lead and I thank them both for that, my more than 10 years on the Victim Witness Assistance Board, when I was in local government, and the tremendous need there is for people who have been victims and then who are also witnesses to receive the assistance from society that they need so much. So I appreciate the efforts of both gentlemen and our colleagues who are in this caucus and urge support. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I thank Mr. Conyers, Mr. Smith, and Mr. King. Madam Speaker, I am proud to be the author of H.R. 5570, the Religious Worker Visa Extension Act of 2008. Immigrant religious workers add vitality and depth to communities of faith throughout America. They provide much-needed help to people of all faiths. America is a great and diverse land. Our religious institutions, our churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, cathedrals, face daunting challenges today. They must reach out to more people from more countries and cultures than ever before. Religious workers serve these communities well and ably to the benefit of their communities and their many faiths. I have no doubt that religious communities in America will continue to have the need to find devoted people of faith to help them meet the needs of their members. In Jewish community schools across the country, highly skilled religious instructors from Israel plant the fertile seeds of faith in our children. Mormon missionaries from around the world come to the U.S. to serve their community and deepen their faith. In Catholic dioceses around America, nuns from around the world provide needed community services and teach our children well. Muslim imams call their communities together to promote their faiths and a greater understanding of their beliefs. Protestant churches of every denomination benefit from the touches of religious workers in their diverse communities. The call to faithful service in the United States will continue to grow as this Nation becomes more diverse. Because of this growing need, I introduced this bill. It follows my efforts in years past from the 105th and 106th Congress to permanently reauthorize the special immigrant nonminister religious worker visa program. I called those bills the Mother Theresa Worker Act in honor of her great service which inspired us and benefited the world. I believed then as I believe now, that the special immigrant nonminister religious worker visa program represents an important and even critical piece of our immigration laws and that it should, like other religious worker programs, not sunset. After four successive reauthorizations of this program in 1994, 1997, 2000 and most recently in 2003, each without a single substantive change in the program, I again introduced a bill to permanently reauthorize the program. However, as part of the process of putting the bill through the regular order and subjecting it to the robust discussion inherent in the legislative process, I offered an amendment worked out with the minority in the subcommittee to significantly reduce the potential for fraud in the program. As mentioned by the chairman of the full committee, it requires DHS to issue its regulations. It limits the reauthorization to 15 months. If the department fails to issue regulations, it requires the Inspector General to issue a report on the effectiveness of the regulations. And rather than the permanent extension, as I had sought, Mr. Smith and I worked out a compromise of 7 years of the regulations that are authored. Finally, after additional discussion with the minority over the last several days, we have agreed that the Inspector General's report should also contain an analysis of a random sample of nonminister special immigrant cases to determine whether they are still employed by the religious organization that petitioned for them, and if not, the reasons for their departure from such employment. I am confident that these steps will make the issue and concern of fraud unnecessary because we will eliminate that problem. I had an exit interview, if you will, with the director of the USCIS last week. Dr. Emilio Gonzalez is going back to his family in Florida. And he told me that with the initiation of site visits, which is something that should have happened long ago, the actual number of applications for this visa has dropped significantly, which is an interesting phenomenon. So I think that we are well underway in eliminating any problems with the program so that our country can enjoy the richness that religious workers bring to our communities. I thank the chairman for yielding to me.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I just want to make a couple of comments. I think it is important to note that the various analyses of this program back in the nineties and early in this century actually preceded reauthorization when Republicans were in the majority. We had a reauthorization with no changes at all in 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2003. So this is the first time we have actually had changes in the bill to address the issue of fraud, and I think is it is appropriate we do so. We want to welcome religious workers to our country, but we don't want to be scammed. So I think we have done the balance on this. I would note that I believe, as does the ranking member, that the Catholics probably do have a low rate of fraud, but there is no way to know that, because the sample of 220 was so small that there was no way to pull out any one denomination as being more problematic than another. I would ask unanimous consent that the e-mail from the USCIS making that point to me be included in the Record.

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I would note also that, anecdotally, the non-affiliated may in fact be part of the issue, and here is the problem that may have happened. If there is no site visit to the petitioning church, you don't know whether it is a phony post office box or whether it is St. Joseph's Cathedral in downtown San Jose. So now that the Department of Homeland Security has done site inspections, anybody can see the beautiful St. Joseph's in downtown San Jose, and you can also find out there is something funny here because there is not a real church or it is just a post office box. And I think that is what has led to the dramatic decline in some of these more problematic applications. I would note also, and I look forward to talking to the ranking member about his reciprocity bill, but let me just express a caution. Right now, Russia will not allow our evangelicals into their country to proselytize. I think that is the wrong thing for the Russian government to do. I think it denies the Russian people the opportunity to be exposed to those who believe that Christ is their personal saviour. But I don't think we ought to deny the Russian Orthodox believers in California the opportunity to receive assistance from Russian Orthodox religious workers simply because the Russian government has hostility towards religion and our government does not have hostility towards religion. So I look forward to discussing this further with the ranking member, but I would want to add that cautionary.