Steven LaTourette

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for his comments. I urge our colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4315) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3695 Green Road in Beachwood, Ohio, as the ``Larry Small Post Office Building.''

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 4315.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. LaTOURETTE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 1794) to designate the Federal courthouse at 145 East Simpson Avenue in Jackson, Wyoming, as the ``Clifford P. Hansen Federal Courthouse''.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5267) to designate the United States courthouse located at 100 Federal Plaza in Central Islip, New York, as the ``Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse.''

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I want to commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley) for not only introducing this resolution but also pushing so hard to make sure that it was brought to the floor today. I also want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough), who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Service of the Committee on Government Reform, and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), who is the ranking member. Also thanks go out to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), the chairman and ranking member, for their support as well. Mr. Speaker, this is a good resolution. I urge the House to support it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H. Con. Res. 396.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4519 amends the Public Buildings Act of 1959. There are currently 113 child care centers and GSA controlled facilities serving almost 8,000 children throughout the United States. H.R. 4519 was introduced by my colleague and the chairman of our subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Franks). I would like to insert in the Record at this point in time that the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Franks) is not only very proud of this legislation, the gentleman has been the leading light in making sure that this legislation came to the floor; and but for the pea soup that now envelops Washington, he would be here controlling the time on this bill. Mr. Speaker, this bill instructs the General Services Administration to inform parents or guardians of children attending a child care center located in a GSA-controlled building of the current Federal agency tenants in that building. This important information is something that the parents of children enrolled in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1995 were not aware of. This legislation in itself will not prevent senseless acts of violence. It will, however, allow parents to be better informed when choosing a child care center for their children. This bill also requires the GSA to inform parents with children enrolled in child care centers of the level of security of the building, which is to be consistent with the Vulnerability Assessment and recommendations from the study made by the Department of Justice. Other provisions included in the bill require GSA to report to Congress with recommendations for increasing safety and security and to assess windows and the dangers of flying glass hazards in GSA- controlled child care centers. The bill's short title, ``Baylee's Law,'' is named after Baylee Almon, a 1-year-old killed while attending the child care center located in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City at the time of its bombing in 1995. Aren Almon-Kok, Baylee's mother, has focused her energies toward creating a foundation that works to make people aware of the dangers of flying glass and to also make child care centers throughout the United States safer for children to attend. I support this important measure, Mr. Speaker, and urge my colleagues to support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my loquacious friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) for his comments. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the balance of my time be yielded to the chairman of our subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Franks) to dispense as he sees fit.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (4519) to amend the Public Buildings Act of 1959 concerning the safety and security of children enrolled in childcare facilities located in public buildings under the control of the General Services Administration, as amended.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make an observation, a real-life example that touches the State that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) and I share and show why the Franks bill is going to be so important. We have a Federal building located in Cleveland, Ohio, and it has one of the 113 child care centers located within it. Our committee has a rule that, and I believe the threshold is $1.8 million, if the GSA wants to engage in a remodeling program over $1.8 million, they need to come before the Congress and get the consent of Congress. The folks in Cleveland, Ohio, worked very hard to be under that $1.8 million threshold so that they could construct a child care center within the Federal building in Cleveland, Ohio. Their proposed site, in order to come in under this limit to avoid the scrutiny of the Congress, was over the loading dock down there in downtown Cleveland. We all remember how the explosives were delivered to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in a truck. One of the wonderful things that the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Franks) has done by proposing this legislation and one of the good things that will happen when the Congress passes this legislation is this Vulnerability Assessment. When parents who send their children to child care centers in Federal buildings, not only when they have the opportunity to know whether or not the Internal Revenue Service is located within the building, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the CIA, or whoever may be a tenant in the building, they will also have the opportunity to know where that facility is located and what the risk is of a truck being delivered to a loading dock in a situation that could present quite a danger to their youngsters. So this is a good bill, not only from that standpoint, but as I mentioned during my earlier remarks, Mrs. Almon-Kok has spent a considerable period of time working on the hazards of flying glass, and this is going to have implications not only for what happens at child care centers at GSA-controlled structures, but I think it is going to have long-standing consequences for centers not in GSA control where children may be located for a period of time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5109. Mr. Speaker, today is a great day and a wonderful day for the 39,000 VA nurses who care for our Nation's ailing veterans, and I want to thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for making this day possible. In May of last year, I joined with a number of colleagues to introduce legislation called the VA Nurse Appreciation Act. The premise of the legislation was simple, to guarantee that VA nurses get the same annual raise as virtually every other Federal worker; no more, no less, just pay parity. It seems impossible to fathom, but for much of the last decade, VA nurses across the country have been getting short shrift when it comes to Federal pay raises. When the Nurse Pay Act was passed about a decade ago, it did exactly what it was supposed to do. It allowed the VA to dramatically increase nurse pay so that salaries were comparable with the private sector. That law, so well intended and fully supported by the Congress, eliminated a dire nursing shortage and restored stability to VA hospitals across the country. Sadly, when budgets became tight, VA medical center directors began using the broad discretion of the law provided in a way that the Congress never intended. Local pay surveys designed to document the need for higher raises than the GS increases were suddenly turned into a tool to withhold raises or award absurdly low raises. Mr. Speaker, it is no walk in the park being a nurse at a Veterans' Administration facility. The hours are long, the job is stressful, and the veterans can be very sick with a whole host of medical conditions not normally seen in other hospitals. But the women and men who have devoted their careers to caring for our Nation's heroes are a dedicated lot. Despite years of meager annual raises or no raise at all, these 39,000 VA nurses did not turn their backs on our veterans or even think of withholding care. Mr. Speaker, we are now enjoying the greatest economic prosperity in a generation and unheralded budget surpluses; yet we still have VA nurses out there who received no annual pay raise for 2, 3, 4, or, in some cases, 5 consecutive years. It is a miracle that more nurses have not abandoned the VA. This legislation, H.R. 5109, is a wonderful step in correcting that inequity, and I again commend the chairman of the committee and the ranking member, the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member of the subcommittee. I am most appreciative of their interest in the issue and their willingness to correct this injustice. Special thanks are also due to the AFGE, which has worked tirelessly to make this day possible, together with the ANA and NOVA. This change in law cannot come soon enough either. All evidence points to a looming and critical shortage of nurses. Right now the average VA nurse is 47 years old, about 5 years older than the national average. We do not attract new nurses with a promise of no annual increase. Mr. Speaker, this has been a long, hard fight. This is a good bill with many wonderful provisions. I again want to thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) for correcting an inequity. I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 4975, and that H.R. 4975 be re-referred to the Committee on Government Reform.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest), an outstanding representative and the author of the legislation.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4104) to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize funding to carry out certain water quality and barrier island restoration projects for the Mississippi Sound, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of H.R. 4104, introduced by the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is to authorize financial and technical assistance for water quality restoration activities in the Mississippi Sound. H.R. 4104 provides a framework for voluntary and cooperative efforts to restore the Mississippi Sound by identifying the Mississippi Sound as an estuary of national significance recommended for inclusion in the National Estuary Program, and also creating a Mississippi Sound program within EPA to coordinate and provide assistance to State and local efforts, to reduce pollution and restore the ecological health of the Sound. I want to commend the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) for moving this legislation to the floor so expeditiously, and I support the legislation, and I urge an aye vote. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, we have no requests for time. I also urge passage of the bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, S. 835 as amended is a package of 10 House-passed water quality bills. H.R. 3313 is the bill of the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson), the Long Island Sound Restoration Act which the House passed on May 9 of this year by a vote of 391-to-29. H.R. 3039 is a bill that was authored by our late colleague who was so well memorialized today, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bateman), the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act which passed the House on April 12 of this year by a vote of 418-to-7; H.R. 1775, offered by the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest), Estuary Restoration Act of 2000, which just passed the House by voice vote; H.R. 1237, the bill of the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) to reauthorize the national estuary program which the House passed on May 8 by voice vote; H.R. 673, offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch), Florida Keys Water Quality Improvement Act, which passed the House on May 3 of this year by a vote of 411-to-7; H.R. 2957, offered by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Act of 2000, which passed the House on May 3, 2000 by a vote of 418-to-6; H.R. 1106, offered by the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Thurman), Alternative Water Sources Act of 2000 which passed the House on May 3 by a vote of 416-to-5; H.R. 2328, offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney), a bill to reauthorize the Clean Lakes program which passed the House on April 12, by a vote of 420-to-5; H.R. 4104, offered by the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), the Sound Restoration Act which just passed the House by voice vote; H.R. 3378, offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray), the Tijuana River Valley Estuary and Beach Sewage Clean Up Act of 2000 which just passed the House about half an hour ago. This legislation addresses identified needs and will provide significant improvements to the quality of our Nation's waters. I want to thank all of the bill sponsors and all of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, in particular our chairman, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), the outstanding representative, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the chairman of our subcommittee, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Borski) for their hard work in bringing this legislation to the floor. I think that S. 835, which we now consider, again demonstrates the quality and quantity of work that is done in a bipartisan fashion by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The fact that there are 10 bills rolled into one Senate bill is a tribute to the outstanding leadership that we have on the committee from our chairman and also the ranking member and confirms, I think, the suspicion that in a time of partisanship these two outstanding bipartisan gentlemen are joined at the hip and they are more interested in getting things done to build America than they are in scoring political points. The House has already expressed its overwhelming support for these individual bills. I urge all Members to support this omnibus legislation. We hope to work with the Senate expeditiously to send this legislation to the President's desk. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the Senate bill (S. 835) to encourage the restoration of estuary habitat through more efficient project financing and enhanced coordination of Federal and non-Federal restoration programs, and for other purposes, with a House amendment thereto, insist on the House amendment, and request a conference with the Senate thereon.

Mr. LaTOURETTE

Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 3378, H.R. 1775, H.R. 4104 and S. 835.