John Larson

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer Members to the ``Technical Explanation of the Tax Technical Correction Act of 2007,'' JCX-119-07, prepared by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, for a description of the legislative intent behind the technical corrections contained in title IV of this bill, H. Res. 884. Mr. Speaker, at this time I recognize one of the leaders in this body and part of the Firefighter Caucus, the gentleman from New Jersey, my dear friend, Mr. Pascrell, for 2 minutes.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire how much time we have left.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I recognize the gentlelady from New York City, Ms. Clarke, for 1\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, at this time I recognize the gentlelady from San Diego, California, Susan Davis, for 1 minute.

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

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I recognize the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) for 1 minute.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), a member of the committee.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the preeminent authority in this Nation on mental health, and someone who has spoken with great passion and dignity on this floor as a cosponsor, along with Mr. Ramstad, of important legislation, Mr. Kennedy from Rhode Island, for 2 minutes.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) who brought with us to the committee compelling testimony from Victoria Johnson.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank Mr. Rangel, Mr. Neal and Mr. McCrery, and since this was a bipartisan effort, all the hard work that went into this on both sides of the aisle. This legislation comes at a time when most of us are preparing to head home for the Christmas holidays. Mr. Speaker, I can't tell you how our hearts all go out to those men and women who serve in our military who have sacrificed so much on our behalf. It is getting more and more difficult for many Americans to make ends meet. Why shouldn't we be doing everything we possibly can to make it easier on our military, our veterans, our first responders and their families? We should be making it easier, as this bill does, for those earning combat pay to qualify for an earned income tax credit. We should make it easier for veterans to get housing, disability assistance, and other benefits. This bill makes it easier for the spouses of fallen soldiers to draw from a loved one's retirement savings without penalty. And it makes tax breaks from State and local governments to volunteer first responders Federal income-tax free. It wasn't lost on Chairman Rangel, Chairman Neal or the entire Ways and Means Committee, as I said previously, that with respect to the events that took place on September 11, it wasn't the military, the FBI, the CIA, the INS that responded at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, or in the fields of Pennsylvania. It was first responders. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, it is so vitally important that this legislation pass so that we provide an opportunity for those first responders who are so in need of the very rudiments that our government provides them in order to provide the great depth of service covering over 70 percent of the country in terms of the service they provide for this Nation to make sure that what little incremental benefits they get from their municipality, their county, or their State are not taxed by the IRS. So I am proud to be part of this legislation that we move forward. And with that I reserve my time.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 2 minutes to a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. McDermott, from Washington State.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the preeminent authority on smart growth in this country, Mr. Blumenauer from Oregon, who cares deeply about veterans concerns in that State and all across the country, for 2 minutes.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, let me rise and join the sentiment expressed by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds), and I think everybody on our committee, in expressing not only the sheer joy and delight of having a ranking member and the chairman of the committee work as closely as they have throughout the year, whether we agreed or disagreed. It is quite a contrast from previous years. I think that Mr. Rangel deserves an incredible amount of credit for the manner in which he has conducted himself, as does Mr. McCrery, as evident by the concern that has been expressed by both sides as we take up this important legislation today. Further, let me add, as has been expressed here by many, we should make sure that this bill is taken up in the Senate. They have a responsibility over in that body to make sure that they address the concerns of so many in our military, as eloquently expressed here today by so many Members on and off the committee who care deeply about issues that impact veterans and our volunteer firefighters as well. I also want to thank the members of the Ways and Means staff, and especially Eileen Shatz, who is serving for her last week on the Ways and Means Committee; Janice Mays; John Buckley; Aruna Kalyanam, who has been here throughout the day; Kase Jubboori; Mildeen Worrell, who have all done great work on behalf of the committee; Chairman Neal, who also has been outstanding with this legislation and the hearings that he conducted in our committee; Melissa Mueller from the subcommittee staff, who was key. And also from my staff, I want to thank Amy O'Donnell. We call her the tax missionary. And also John Renfrew and Jackie Primeau, who have done such an outstanding job.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. 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 materials on H.R. 3997, as amended.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, let me join and thank my colleague and classmate Stephanie Tubbs Jones for organizing this tribute to Julia Carson. President Kennedy was fond of saying that communities reveal an awful lot about themselves in the memorials they create and in the people that they honor. This evening my colleagues, led by Stephanie Tubbs Jones and the Speaker of the House, the majority leader, and the delegation from Indiana have stood tall in honoring the memory of Julia Carson. Memory is what distinguishes us from every other creature on the face of the Earth. It's humbling listening to the reminiscing that took place this evening. We have lost a number of people since I have been in Congress, wonderful, remarkable, dedicated citizens to this great country of ours. Julia brought that warmth and dignity to this office. It was an honor to be with her and know her. I often think at services such as this it's a shame she wasn't here to hear us all talk about her, and for those of us in this body who didn't get the opportunity to say good-bye, it's principally the ability to reminisce and the memories that so many of our colleagues have brought to this floor that make her come to life and live on. Not in memorials, though I am sure memorials will be created. Not in buildings named, because I'm sure that those things will follow. But those memorials that mean the most are those that are principally carried in our hearts. And listening to Baron and Steve talk earlier and all the Members who spoke here, what a rich, rich life. What a wonderful person. She has gone home to Indiana, but she will never leave us. God bless Julia. God bless this country. I thank everyone here for the memorial that you created this evening.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation, and I would like to associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Frank, Mr. Bachus, Mr. King, and all those who have spoken so eloquently on this floor. Mr. Frank made two points; one essentially about the need for this legislation and the process we must go through. We all understand, for the economy to grow, banks need to make loans. In order for banks to make loans, they have to have insurance. What this provides, as Mr. King says, is a security backstop for the Nation, not only in New York City but all across this great country of ours. Mr. Frank made a second point as well about the process here, quoting Madison as being the problem here with our colleagues on the other side. I want to commend Senator Dodd for his willingness to go forward, and also Mr. Ackerman for pointing out the need for the reset provision, 15 years being better than 7, and the importance of including group insurance as well. These were all vitally important to the success and ongoing future of this Nation and the great City of New York. So I commend my colleagues, each and every one of them on the Committee on Financial Services, and thank them for this compromise piece of legislation that we know will go much further in the next session.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. I thank the gentlelady from Ohio. And I also join in commending and thanking Mr. Rangel and Mr. Neal for their efforts in making sure that this legislation came to the floor. Let me further associate myself with the remarks of the distinguished gentlelady from Ohio. By the end of next year, 2 million foreclosures will occur in this country. That's 2 million people and families whose lives and finances will be uprooted, 2 million communities affected. That's why it was so important for this committee to act. We should not add to their burden. We have to make sure that we preserve the American Dream for them. The Ways and Means Committee reacted swiftly and reasonably to this crisis and said what we could do was make it easier for those who get a raw deal or are having a hard time. We could start by not making them have to pay taxes on money they will never see. And that is the beauty of this bill. Also contained in this bill is a provision that helps firefighters and first responders. It wasn't lost on Mr. Rangel, or Mr. Neal either, that it wasn't the FBI or the CIA or the armed services who responded at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or the fields of Pennsylvania. It was volunteer firefighters. But the IRS, in its wisdom, chooses to treat income that they receive from their county, their State or their communities in terms of rebates on property tax or other equipment as ordinary income. That is flat-out wrong. And again, I commend the leadership for making sure that we address these issues.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an extraordinarily important issue, one that, quite frankly, is not often discussed on this very floor and needs in so many ways to be brought forward, not only to the attention of the Members of this body, but a dialogue that needs to reach out all across this country to discuss the devastating trends of youth violence. I am pleased to note that colleagues today, including Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Bobby Scott, Yvette Clarke, Donald Payne, Sheila Jackson-Lee and Linda Sanchez, will be coming to the floor under these 5-minute Special Orders to also address this issue of youth violence. There isn't a day that goes by that we don't thank our veterans for the sacrifice that they have made and note the loss of life that has taken place in Iraq and in Afghanistan and the wounded. And we take great pride, and rightfully so, in this Chamber for making sure that we are providing for our veterans, providing especially for those that come home with post-traumatic stress syndrome, and addressing these concerns in a meaningful and significant way. And yet here in our own country, in our cities, in our suburbs, most recently out in Nebraska, violent deaths and shootings take place and seemingly go unnoticed. John Lewis traveled with me to Hartford, Connecticut, to address there a group of citizens concerned about violence in the neighborhood, where in 2006, 16 shootings took place in a single week. At that hearing, a Vietnam veteran, Steven Harris, stood up and said, I appreciate what Congress is doing on behalf of veterans and providing them with post-traumatic stress syndrome relief. But what about the kids in my neighborhood who have to deal with this on a regular basis? What about the youth all across this country who are perishing? There are incredible statistics, Mr. Speaker, that this body needs to discuss in a way that will send hope out to our communities and our neighborhoods. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds overall. Homicide is the leading cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 10 to 24 and the second leading cause of death for Hispanics of that age. Guns are a factor in most of these homicides. In a nationwide survey of high school students, 6 percent reported not going to school on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to and from school. Children who have witnessed violence in their communities are vulnerable to serious, long-term problems. This country stood and paused and we said the world had changed forever after September 11. But for grandmothers in their communities, the world had changed before that, because this kind of senseless violence continues. This Nation, this Congress, must solve this problem. The problem cannot be addressed explicitly through incarceration. We have ample amounts of punitive measures that exist on our books today. What we don't have is a comprehensive approach to it, reaching out into these communities, assisting and helping and providing the plans such as Bobby Scott has outlined, ``From Cradle to College,'' that provide the hope, that provide the leadership for communities coming together in a manner in which they care about our children. We are aware of what is happening all around the world, and we can come to this floor and chronicle it. But in our own cities, in our own States, we must begin to speak and save our children there.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Farmington Company for 27 faithful years of service in the insurance industry. Based in Farmington, Connecticut, this local company has proven hard work is more than a virtue. In 1980, two Connecticut men, Bob Burke and Brad Collins, recognized that the majority of America--the Nation's lower and middle wage earners were underserved by the insurance community. Understanding the opportunity of meeting the insurance needs of the average American, Bob and Brad moved forward to develop a company founded on the basic principle of ``people helping people.'' The product of hard work and vision, the Farmington Company has grown to national and industry-wide recognition. As a fledgling enterprise, the two-man operation of the Farmington Company targeted the New York and New England regions. Now, 27 years later, the Farmington Company is still led by Bob Burke, the company president and Brad Collins, the executive vice president. The company employs more than 150 staff members that provide services to thousands of individuals across the United States. The 27-year record of success for the Farmington Company can be attributed to the heart of the operation--the company's dedicated and talented employees. Most notably, it is the hard work and leadership of people like Sales Vice President Doug Mantz, Senior Vice President Carol Rosenblatt, the New England branch president Jay Hershman, regional directors like Ed Calitri and John Lenihan, director of corporate services Steve Frankel and finance vice president Chris Thaurau that define the success of the Farmington Company. In the insurance capital of the world--the State of Connecticut--we are proud of companies like the Farmington Company that have long worked to create and expand meaningful insurance opportunities for those who normally couldn't or wouldn't get insurance. A business built on basics, the Farmington Company understands the needs of both employers and employees, and most importantly the needs of the community. As a company defined with success, I would like to also recognize how the Farmington Company gives back to the community. Whether supporting the important work of the Jimmy Fund or participating in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign, the Farmington Company lives up to their motto of ``people helping people.'' On their 27th anniversary, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring the achievements and important contributions of the Farmington Company. I applaud their work in Connecticut and across the country.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. Our colleague Artur Davis on the committee, in direct inquiry, in talking and eliciting a response, said the following: 138 million Americans will be filing taxes. Under 50,000, under 50,000 of them, will be filing with carried interest. And you know what? They are going to make, I believe, $936 billion. With this act that we are passing today, we are going to impact 23 million people, many of whom are going to be earning as little as $40,000. Now, here's the deal, the people who earned $936 billion, next year, God forbid, they are going to be making $934 billion. Makes you tremble. Your party has become part of the Save the Schwarzman Seven instead of looking out for the interests of our people.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Chairman, let me associate myself with the remarks earlier today of Mr. Inslee and commend two of our colleagues for an extraordinary job they have done in putting together this thoughtful piece of legislation, one that I think we all understand and recognize is much needed throughout the country because of the natural catastrophes we are bound to face. I also want to commend them for being willing to work with everyone on both sides of the aisle and reach out on what are some thoughtful questions that have been posed to them and the continued manner in which they embrace a solid piece of legislation and make it stronger. To those ends I rise in strong support of the Murphy, Matsui, Bean and Larson amendment that I think goes a long way towards doing that. I commend Mr. Klein and, again, Mr. Mahoney for working to make sure that a good bill becomes even stronger. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Mr. Bernard Rader, a true American hero who valiantly served this country in World War II. Today and everyday, we owe members of our military--soldiers like Bernard Rader and so many of his generation who faced grave danger in order to restore freedom and preserve the dignity of mankind, our sincerest debt of gratitude. I had the privilege to first meet Mr. Rader in Normandy, France in 2004, on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. It was then that I first learned of this man's extraordinary story of survival and heroism. A Private First Class with the 30lst Regiment of the 94th Infantry Division, his unit was ambushed and forced to surrender to the Nazis in October 1944. As a Jewish soldier, he feared his fate as a prisoner of war. Surviving his imprisonment, Bernard was returned to the Allied forces in one of the few prisoner exchanges to take place between the Germans and Americans during World War II. For service to his country and in recognition of his combat wounds, Bernard received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. On November 6, 2007, Bernard was personally thanked by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and awarded the Legion of Honor, in recognition of his sacrifice for the Liberation of France. I join the many in honoring Bernard Rader--this Nation remains indebted to his service. Madame Speaker, I would like to offer Bernard Rader's powerful and personal story for the Congressional Record. I am submitting ``The Ambush'', an article published in the Hartford Courant, which chronicles Bernard's war experience and faithful return to France with his family 60 years later, as described by his son Robert Rader--who I'm proud to note is from Connecticut's First Congressional District. I urge my colleagues to join me in thanking Mr. Bernard Rader for his service to this nation and for sharing his heroic story with all of America. [From the Hartford Courant, July 25, 2004] The Ambush (By Robert J. Rader) Dad and the two other veterans strained to pick out their comrades from the pictures of basic training at Fort McCain. ``Remember this one? What was his name?'' Their eyes, now 60 years older, strained at the fuzzy prints. ``Have you heard from Higgins or Schulman or Boyd recently?'' We were on a ferry from Lorient, on the western coast of France, to Ile de Groix. During World War II, the port of Lorient remained in Nazi hands till the day after Germany had surrendered. All three men had been imprisoned by the Nazis after being captured in an ambush in October 1944: two of them were held on the Ile de Groix, the third--Dad--on the mainland. The boat glided swiftly across the water. The day was overcast, with mist rising from the sea, but the sun would soon burn the mist off and, as we reached the island, break through. The three veterans--my father, Bernard I. Rader; Kermit Harden; and Bob Moore--sat on benches in the cabin and talked about the men who died. They remembered the food the French people sneaked to them at a time when few had much to feed their own families. And they talked about the young American Red Cross officer, Andrew Gerow Hodges, who had braved getting shot by mistake, either by the Germans or the Americans, to arrange one of the few prisoner exchanges on the Western Front in World War II. They dubbed their trip ``The Andrew Gerow Hodges Tour.'' The ferry nosed past a massive cement building that still contained submarine pens. The low-slung building, several football fields in size, had been built with walls 20 feet thick to withstand heavy Allied bombing. The weather-beaten structure was a monument to the slave labor that had struggled to build it with wartime speed. This would probably be the last time the three veterans, all over 80, would make this trip to visit the countryside where their young lives had taken such a crucial turn. Many of their buddies who had wanted to come could not. Hodges was not in good enough health to make the trip. They would see the site of the ambush, where their patrol had come under fire and their comrades had been slain, and the places where they had been held prisoner. They would thank the French people for the help they gave them. They would converse again with the people of Ile de Groix, and leave a plaque expressing their thanks on the wall to the entrance of Fort Surville on the island, where Harden and Moore had been imprisoned for 47 days in 1944. They wanted to pay tribute to their five friends killed in the ambush by visiting the cemetery at St. James, where they rest forever. And they wanted to honor Hodges--without whom, they believe, they would not be alive today. They wanted to tell the story of what happened so many years ago and how he came to get them out. With those goals in mind, the three veterans and their wives and children had come back to Brittany. We family members listened as the men recounted their war experiences, as soldiers have done since long before World War II. Many veterans of that war, who are now dying off at the rate of over 1,000 a day, never talked to their families about what they had gone through. But Dad did not shy from discussing his war experiences. He watched World War II movies with interest (we knew if there was a swastika on the cover of a videotape we'd rented, he'd be interested), and, despite the stroke he suffered in 1999, has spoken at libraries, schools and other sites, telling his story and encouraging other veterans to tell theirs. Mom has been his main support, helping him in every way with these ``gigs'' and explaining what had happened when Dad could not find the words. Dad was trained as an infantryman and made private first class by the time he shipped out to England on Aug. 6, 1944. After further training, his unit sailed on a Liberty ship for France, came ashore at Utah Beach on Sept. 3 and marched to Brittany. He served as a sentry there, helping to keep the Germans contained while the Allies pushed through France to Germany following the D-Day invasion. On the October day he and his unit set out on patrol, only to be ambushed and captured, he tasted combat for the first time. Dad began reacquainting himself with old buddies over the past few years, as he became more proficient than we ever thought he would be at email. He got in touch with a number of those who had been in his company and was contacted by others after I wrote up his story and posted it on the 94th Infantry Division's web site. I thought it was important for me to share this one last, great adventure with my parents. Curious about the war, and an amateur historian, I knew I had to tag along. I expected that this would be an emotional trip. It did not disappoint. The ferry landed in the harbor at Ile de Groix, about five miles from Lorient. On this beautiful, green island the Germans had set up artillery to protect their position in the port. They had also set up a prison for captured soldiers. It is hard to believe that such a picturesque place would be ideal for a prison. But its remoteness from Allied troops, together with its closeness to the fortified mainland city, made it a perfect location for a prison, with virtually no opportunity for escape. The island had a far different mood on May 26 of this year, when our little tourist group boarded a bus to travel to a lane out in the country. The unpaved road, bordered by fields where flowers grew wild, had been renamed in honor of the 94th Infantry Division when Dad and some other veterans came here four years ago. Our group of veterans and their families were joined by about 30 town officials, journalists, former members of the French Resistance and others. We walked about 100 yards down the lane and came to an area with ancient, weather-beaten walls on both sides. Ahead was the entrance to Fort Surville: a narrow archway the prisoners had been marched through 60 years ago. On one wall we noticed an American flag covering something on the wall. Strangely, it had 36 stars. The mayor explained that the flag had been sewn in 1944 by a Frenchwoman, whose daughter now joined us. It was to show support for what she hoped would be the eventual liberation of the island by the Americans. It was kept in the chimney of the house where the woman lived. She had no access to a real American flag, so had guessed at the number of stars. When a German was in her house and asked her what the colorful cloth was doing in the chimney, she said that it was used, like paper, to wrap meats that were being cured. Had the Germans known the truth about what she had done, she would certainly have been punished. The mayor made a speech, the first of many we would hear, extolling the amity between the French and American people. He gave thanks for what these soldiers had done in helping to liberate France. He then reached up and gently pulled the flag down, exposing the plaque the veterans had donated, and warmly presented the flag to the three veterans. They accepted it with some reservation. Their first thought was that it was such a wonderful work by an Ile de Groix citizen that it should stay on the island. But rather than taking a chance of insulting their hosts, they decided to bring it home and exhibit it in the Museum of the 94th Infantry at Fort Devens, Mass. It was then the turn of the three veterans. They, too, talked about the friendship and love of Americans and the French. And they dedicated the plaque, which they had paid for and which my family designed and had made in France. It was black with gold letters, written in English, French and Breton, the language of the region. It was for those who had helped them by giving them apples, eggs and potatoes surreptitiously while they were held on this island. It read: ``To the people of Ile de Groix, who gave us so much, when they themselves had so little. Company K, 301st Regiment, 94th Infantry Division.'' The outpouring of love on both sides struck me as being in sharp contrast to what I had been hearing about the French and Americans since the U.S. decided to invade Iraq. We were feted no fewer than six times by representatives of local French governments. While I heard criticism of President Bush, there was no doubt in my mind that there still existed a love for the people who had returned freedom to them in 1944 and 1945. It seemed to me that we in the United States seemed to be quick to answer French policy on Iraq with mockery (remember ``Liberty fries?''), while the French people I met were gentle in counseling us about Iraq. As citizens of a country that has had its own problems fighting guerrilla wars in Vietnam and Algeria, they made their opinions known with a sense of deja vu. While Americans remember that we helped save France in World War II, maybe we forget that it was France that saved George Washington and the American rebels during our Revolution. The many receptions we attended all featured champagne, some food (from a few crackers and cookies to a three-hour marathon lunch) and many local government officials. I found it great fun, especially trying to use my high school French to converse with the inevitably non-English-speaking people who would sit with us. I joked with my parents about how the French seemed to have such trouble understanding their own native language. We began to joke that certainly there would not be a day without a local reception and a picture in the local French newspaper of the three ancient combatants the next day. And believe me, we kidded the vets about being ``ancient combatants'' many times. Dad had been held in the hospital in Lorient because of his wounds. We rose early one morning to visit it. Lorient held a key submarine facility for the Germans and was considered, along with two other ports, so hard to capture that the Allies contained it, instead of attacking it, from 1944 until 1945. The submarine pens were bombed without effect, so the Allies decided to make the city as uninhabitable as possible for the Germans. Their planes dropped 250,000 incendiary bombs on the city, destroying 90 percent of it. A young, pony-tailed French hospital worker gave us a tour of the bunker the Nazis built on the grounds of the facility to protect injured German soldiers and sailors. He then brought us up to the second floor of the hospital, where Dad, who had been hit by a concussion shell, had been nursed back to health. Because the hospital was being modernized, the wing where he had been held was empty of patients. The rooms were bare, but clean and painted in dull, institutional colors. It took awhile for Dad to recognize the room he had been held in so many years ago, but at last he did, and when he looked out the window, his memories flooded back. He remembered, he said, that the Germans were all around and that he couldn't leave the second floor. Outside there were more German soldiers, but there was also a Frenchwoman who saw him looking out the window. She must have known he was a prisoner, because she cupped her left hand and on it, with the fingers of her right, drew the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of the Free French. It was a sign to my father that he and the handful of prisoners in the hospital were not alone. As he said, when he thanked the Lorient officials for their reception, that woman had given him something as important as food: She had given him hope. I get chills when I hear that story. I imagine Dad, a wounded 20-year-old, unsure of what the future would bring, lying in a hospital, surrounded by Nazi soldiers. During the ambush, he had taken off his dog tags and his friend, George Boyd, had buried them, since they identified Dad as a Jew. In the hospital, he kept a picture of Jesus above his bed and was careful never to reveal his religion. That afternoon, we drove out to the town of Etel, which sits at the mouth of the Etel River, which back in 1944 was on the front line between the Allies and Germans. It was here that the exchanges of prisoners took place. The veterans again told the story of what had happened. Allied prisoners held by the Germans had gotten word through to U.S. forces that they had nothing to eat. According to a Red Cross account, the 94th Infantry's commanding general asked Hodges to see about getting supplies to the POWs. Hodges began making regular trips across German lines. Though he was under the Red Cross flag, he was often at risk of being shot by one side or another. He finally realized a prisoner exchange would make more sense. To his surprise, the Germans agreed. Allied commanders agreed, and on the morning of Nov. 17, the first exchange began. Eventually 147 soldiers were swapped in four exchanges, on a one-to-one basis, with men of equal rank. The Germans refused to turn over one British officer who had escaped several times. They wanted five German soldiers with Iron Cross decorations in return. Hodges then asked the Germans, ``If you are such good military men, how could one British officer be worth five of yours?'' After banging on the table, the German officer relented. We have photographs of Dad being exchanged and old, yellowed newspaper clippings announcing the event. I had always imagined the exchange in black and white, as in the photos, with the ``jollyboat'' carrying 10 men at a time going back and forth across the river. But, now, in Etel, where the water was blue and the dock cement- yellow, I imagined my Dad moving from black and white into color. Though his wounds were mostly healed, he was on a stretcher because he had gotten the flu a few days before; he was coming back to the American side, no longer a prisoner. He was overjoyed and his future was again before him, in all the colors you can imagine. There is no way to repay the debt Dad feels to Hodges. What can you give to a man who has saved you from the very depths of misery and the verge of starvation and found a way to bring you back to the full color of life? Dad believes that the way to repay him in part is to tell the story of Hodges' courage. And he does: to newspaper reporters, to kids at schools, to people interested in what happened during the war and even to some people who made the mistake of sitting next to us at an Indian restaurant that night. The next day we headed out, on a rented bus, to where the ambush happened. We were led by Frank Perammant, a Frenchman who was 14 years old at the time of the ambush and befriended a number of the American soldiers because he wanted to learn English. He remembers them going out on patrol on the cool, crisp morning of Oct. 2, 1944, because they walked right by his home. Our bus first stopped on the side of the road, and Perammant led us over to a plaque mounted on a stone wall marking where an American lookout had been killed a few days before the ambush. As he explained what had happened there, we walked along the side of a house and along a fence, where he said the American soldiers had come from. And then we drove perhaps a quarter-mile down the road to the ambush site, in the tiny hamlet of Kerdudal. As we got off the bus and the veterans looked around, the questions started: ``Where were the Germans? Where were their lines? What direction were you coming from?'' Back in October 1944, the Americans, who were containing the Germans in the Lorient ``pocket,'' heard there were a number of Germans interested in giving themselves up. They set out, about 50 of them, walking through country crisscrossed by hedgerows--ridges 6 feet high topped by thick, virtually impassable hedges. As they walk forward, disaster strikes: A scout is shot at the beginning of the line and the patrol comes under heavy attack. As the Americans are driven back, Dad bandages the leg of a wounded Free French lieutenant and drags him 500 yards to a road bounded by two high hedgerows, where the Germans cut off their retreat and pin them down with automatic weapons fire. The men fight for six hours as the Nazis pound them with 88s, mortars, machine guns, grenades and rifle fire. The Americans call in artillery, but the fighting is so close that they are hit by the friendly fire. They find out later they are outnumbered 12 to 1. About 3 p.m., Dad sees a concussion mortar shell land 50 yards away, right in the center of the road they are in. The next falls 25 yards away, and he knows he will be hit by the third. It throws him like a rag doll to the ground. He's helpless and bleeding from shrapnel wounds in his legs, hands and right arm. He is in shock, not knowing if he'll live or die, and, the fight blasted out of him, spends the next two hours of the battle lying on the side of the road. As I stand by the side of the road, I imagine I am in the scene. I hear myself call out to this 20-year-old kid, numb and wounded and lying on the ground, ``Hey, you'll be OK, this will work out, hang in there--you'll make it!'' I tell him that he'll live many more years and have a wonderful family and grandchildren. As though I am the father, I shout expressions of love and hope to this helpless boy lying there motionless. By 5 p.m. it's clear reinforcements can't break through, and those who can still fight are out of ammunition. One soldier puts a white bandage over his rifle to signify surrender. He stands up and raises the rifle. A German machine-gunner apparently does not realize that he is trying to give up and he fires. The American is cut in two. Finally, the Germans understand and the Americans surrender. The Germans take the Americans into captivity, with Dad in a wheelbarrow pushed by his friend, George Boyd. Two months later, Dad would write a detailed account of the battle in a letter to his parents and sister Gloria. He described the aftermath this way: ``It doesn't matter much but we caused the enemy nearly four times our number casualties . . . The Germans themselves respected us to the extent of not searching us for weapons (taking our words for it) and not forcing us to hold our hands up, telling us we were too good a bunch of fighters to be shamed in such a way. I don't know for sure if I killed and I don't want to. It's hard to write because I hate to remember but I know you want to know just what happened. . . .'' As I return to real life in 2004, the three veterans can't tell exactly where they were during the ambush. Perammant pointed out it was here the first shots were fired. The vets were not so sure. The land has changed. There are no more hedgerows; they were flattened out over 60 years ago by farmers who decided that flat land was easier to farm. Trees had grown where before there were none. A few old houses were still there, maybe the only surviving objects that could bear witness. A French couple, working in their ever-so-peaceful garden, were kind as they listened to the story, and said they thought the dirt road they pointed out was the one on which the men were led away. We walked down this cart path, retracing, the veterans trying to remember. There are no battle markers here; the only other thread to the past is the recollection of the three men. The story they tell about the ambush is what makes it real. A half an hour later, we're sipping hot chocolates and Cokes at a little cafe as if what happened on this land 60 years ago was ancient history. But something in me has been deeply touched by seeing where this pivotal event in Dad's life had happened. As I sit in my hotel room and think about why I am so touched by this ordinary piece of French countryside, I realize that seeing the ambush site somehow connected me to my father on a new emotional level. I feel I have come face to face with Dad as he was 60 years ago, when he went through the worst experience of his life. In some almost mystical way, seeing him at the ambush site, at the hospital and at the scene of the exchange made my view of him and my connection to him more complete than anything I had ever experienced. And it gave me a view of my family history more alive than it had been in the stories I have heard since I was a child. Returning with him to Brittany wasn't about glorifying war; it was more about sharing a part of the most frightening moments in his life in a way that was so real, so close. It was like reliving a part of his life through his eyes. They were now not just heroic tales of days long ago; they were as recent and real as the reports we see on the 6 o'clock news. I've often heard that men fight battles not for their countries or for apple pie. When they are in a foxhole or pinned down in a hedgerow, they fight for themselves and their buddies. When they are gone, buried in a foreign land, who remembers them? Their parents have long since passed away. Their wives or sweethearts have moved on to others. And life has continued. So the veterans thought it important to say goodbye to their buddies who died in the ambush in Kerdudal. We drove to the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in St. James, a beautiful burial ground, smaller than the more famous one overlooking Omaha Beach, but just as well-kept. On a beautiful spring day, we walked among the too-many crosses and stars of David until the veterans found the graves of the five men to whom they had come to pay their respects. They stopped next to the cross over the grave of the soldier killed when attempting to surrender during the ambush. In the quiet, as we watched, they each stood on one side of the cross and Kermit read a prayer written by the soldier's brother-in-law. The haunting, final sound of Taps was heard across the cemetery as the veterans stood with their hands over their hearts. And tears ran down Dad's face. The veterans remembered this man, as they remembered all the men who had died that day in October. Each buried comrade was a real person with dreams and emotions and, they thought, their whole lives to look forward to. Each was more than just one of the thousands of crosses and stars of David planted in straight rows in the American cemeteries in Europe. Dad has wondered aloud to me why he lived when his friends did not. Why could he come home and they lie in the cemeteries of France? There's no answer to these questions. Maybe it was luck; maybe fate or God intervened. But surely it was important for him to say goodbye one last time and to remember. I watched him as he stood with his eyes closed and wiping the tears from his face. Maybe it is just an automatic human reaction, but I felt my own chest tightening and the tears welling up in my eyes, too. But it was not only for the men we were honoring that I found myself choking up. It was also for Dad and what he had done. He had survived the intervening decades and now, at an age when so many of his colleagues won't attempt much more than a trip to the supermarket, he had accomplished the four goals he had when he had set out: he had seen the land again; he had thanked the French people; he had said goodbye to his friends; and he had honored Hodges. While the trip was not over, for Dad, the journey was complete. Mom and I were so very proud of him. For me, it was a trip of a lifetime. I had relived the worst day of Dad's life, in Kerdudal, and the best, in Etel. I had seen what he had gone through in a way that no book and no movie could ever recreate. I also had learned again from Dad how to thank those who had served at a time of need, to honor those who have fallen for our country and for those who showed tremendous bravery in helping their fellow men. This journey to the past was a gift from my father. For an instant, he gave me the ability to touch the past and see him and these places as they once were. I could relive with my Dad that time of his life when he was young and strong and thought he was invincible. That is a gift few sons ever get to share with their fathers. I will always be grateful that I had that chance.

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I want to extend as well and compliment Chairman Rangel, Chairman McDermott, and especially Chairman Neal, for the timely manner in which they have handled very important legislation that addresses veterans, but specifically to Mr. Neal because it was not lost on him in this piece of legislation that we also needed to address an important segment of our society, our volunteer firefighters. It wasn't lost on Mr. Neal that volunteer firefighters protect approximately 38 percent of America's population and more than 70 percent of our land. It wasn't lost on Mr. Neal that volunteer firefighters save taxpayers nearly $37 billion annually with their efforts. Two-thirds of the 1.2 million firefighters in this country are in fact volunteers. More importantly, it wasn't lost on anyone in this body that it wasn't the FBI, the CIA or the Department of Defense, it was our front line defenders, first responders that were there at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and in the fields of Pennsylvania. It's to them, of course, that we owe this debt of gratitude. It was lost, however, on the IRS that when States like mine in Connecticut moved to provide a rebate on their local property taxes, that they sought to tax it and make it ordinary income on behalf of these brave volunteers. This legislation corrects that. I want to commend the Mitchell brothers, both John and Billy, from South Windsor, Connecticut, John McAuliffe of Whethersfield, and Chief Phil Crombie, who are the genesis of this idea and concept and brought it to my attention. Madam Speaker, I again thank Chairman Neal for making it all happen.