Carolyn McCarthy

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Chairman, with that, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, as we have been working through this bill, through our hearings and everything else, and listening to the volunteers that work in AmeriCorps and other aspects of volunteering, and also listening to our young people from communities that are underserved on how they want to serve and be part of it, before my colleague from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) talked about how we've done away with summer jobs. We see in our communities today more and more of our young people joining gangs and getting into trouble. We see that our juvenile justice system and our prisons are being overflowed, unfortunately, with young people. This is a program that can help them. You know, I look at our country and I marvel at how people volunteer and give their time to help other people that are in need. With the programs that we're putting forth and through the work of the subcommittee and through the work of my colleague Mr. Platts from Pennsylvania, we have put together a great bill. This is a bill that can help people to the future. This is a bill that incorporates our elderly and our young. So, it's something that I think we should all be proud of. And certainly I'm hoping that we're not going to have any controversies further down the line. And may I just say one thing: A number of speakers have gotten up and talked about the FISA bill. Let me say this to the American people: With the continuation that we have, this country is being protected. And we are trying to work it out with our colleagues from the other side and the administration. But let me make one thing very clear, the country is being protected. The intelligence committees can do what they need to do, and our intelligence community is getting information at that. With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my colleague on the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Klein).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Thank you. We support this amendment, as it seeks to support the fostering of service among generations of a family. It is easy to imagine the kind of benefits that grandparents and their grandchildren would gain by not only spending time together, but serving others. The earlier children are introduced to service, the more likely they will volunteer throughout their life. Speaking as a grandparent, and I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) for introducing this, when I take my grandchildren with me and I try to explain the work that I do, and to see them get involved and be interested in the work that I do I think is a great thing. The volunteering work that we do, and we bring the grandchildren with us, it opens up their eyes for a number of reasons. A lot of the work that we do is serving in underserved areas and to be able to see that these young children, my grandchildren, 7 and 9, are out there in the community and seeing children less fortunate than them. But to take it back even then to their classroom and say maybe we can do something, when you have Grandparents Day in school with your grandchildren, and you're fostering the sense of volunteerism. So I thank the gentleman very much for bringing this to our attention. I certainly am in full support of it. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Chairman, I'd like to yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from New Hampshire (Ms. Shea-Porter), a member of the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. We support this amendment, as it continues to support the integration of priority for national service. Everyone gains when they speak to others from a different generation and learn how things have changed over the years. And yet, at the same time, how many things remain the same. Fostering communication between people increases the connection for all of the community. This piece will add a section to the bill that is the sense of Congress that the Corporation for National and Community Service should make the maximum effort possible to coordinate with the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide opportunities for young people enrolled in NACS programs to collect oral histories from senior citizens in the communities they serve. With that, I would like to yield 2 minutes to Mr. Anthony Weiner from New York.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This is a great day for national service. It has been 15 years since we reauthorized our national service laws. As chairwoman of the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee, I am pleased to speak in support of H.R. 2857, the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, the GIVE Act. I am also pleased to say that the administration and the service community support the GIVE Act. I would like to thank Chairman Miller for his continued strong support and work on this reauthorization. I would also like to extend my thanks to the ranking member of our committee, Mr. McKeon, for his hard work. Finally, I would like to thank my good friend and ranking member of the subcommittee, Mr. Platts, for his work on this reauthorization. Later I will speak on my manager's amendment, which is also a bipartisan effort. National service has a distinguished and strong history in our Nation. The benefits of service cannot be disputed. Evidence shows that service and volunteering lowers school dropout and crime rates, lowers costs associated with the aging population, and improves health among the elderly. Volunteering is a cost-effective way of working to solve the challenges facing our Nation today. That is why the passage of the GIVE Act is necessary. One of the most effective volunteer organizations in this Nation is AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps volunteers offer a range of services focused on low-income and disadvantaged communities. Our legislation recognizes their invaluable work and increases the number of participants to 100,000. The GIVE Act also encourages programs to recruit underrepresented populations to serve, including scientists and engineers, young people in our aging-out foster care, children at risk of delinquency, and other disadvantaged young people. I truly believe that expanding national service, particularly to disadvantaged youth, is an effective way to combat things like youth gangs and violence, and the evidence bears it out. If we are serious about reducing gang violence, we must take the first step and offer children an alternative. This legislation creates a Summer of Service program which gives middle school and high school students an opportunity to become engaged in a positive way within their community. Through the Summer of Service program, our Nation's young people will have a chance to serve with others their own age while improving their community. Research shows that if students are engaged in service at an early age, they continue to serve throughout their life. We are strengthening the mission of the first responder volunteer program, the National Civil Community Corps by requiring more intense disaster and emergency relief training during down periods in order to be better prepared in a time of crisis. We are all aware of what our Nation faced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the NCCC was there to respond, and continues to recover today. The GIVE Act will help our Nation become better prepared for future disasters by training and preparing more emergency volunteers. The GIVE Act creates in the corporation an office of outreach and recruitment. The new office will establish a reserve corps made up of those who have gone through the program and are alumni. The reserve corps alumni will be called on during emergencies, disasters, or other times of national need. We've heard people asking over and over again during our hearings, why aren't we using former volunteers? The new outreach office will work to connect over 500,000 former volunteers who can be resources for recruitment. The GIVE Act lowers the age of participation in the National Senior Service to 55 years old. By lowering the age, we are encouraging retiring Americans to participate in national service and giving older Americans the opportunity to lead us into the future. Our Nation's retiring and retired adults are a rich resource that cannot be overlooked. Every American, old and young, has skills that improve the day-to-day functions of our society. The GIVE Act encourages individuals to get involved, creates a deeper commitment to service, and makes our Nation more like what it should be. I want to again thank Chairman Miller for his deep commitment to national service, Ranking Member McKeon and Congressman Platts for their work with us on this bipartisan activity. And I urge my colleagues to support this much needed legislation. Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) for yielding. We support this amendment. We look forward to the results of the commission as we continue to increase the number of Americans who participate in national service and work to overcome challenges in our Nation's communities.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hare), a member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak to the manager's amendment to H.R. 2857, Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, the GIVE Act. As chairwoman of the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee, I am pleased to offer a bipartisan manager's amendment to H.R. 2857. I am also pleased to say that the administration and the service community support the GIVE Act. I would like to again thank Chairman Miller for his continued support and work on this reauthorization. I would also like to extend my thanks to the ranking member of our committee, Mr. McKeon, for his work. Finally, I would like to thank the ranking member of my subcommittee, Mr. Platts, for his work on this reauthorization. I also would like to thank the staff who have worked many hours on the bill. For the majority, Deborah Koolbeck, Denise Forte, and Alexander Ceja, and for the minority, Brad Thomas and Susan Ross. This amendment increases the ability of the Corporation for National and Community Service to tap into the pool of potential volunteers, which gives us a better opportunity to meet challenges facing our Nation's communities today. Some of the changes in the manager's amendment include: the amendment improves the reach and capacity of the Summer of Service. This program is aimed to increase civil responsibility and community service among 5th-12th graders through summer service-learning programs. Getting younger kids involved in service is a good investment. Studies show that the earlier we get folks involved in the volunteer service the more likely they will stay in for their lifetime. We have improved the National Civilian Conservation Corps, or the NCCC. This valuable program has a focus on disaster preparation. NCCC and volunteers have helped during disasters like Katrina. Because of the disaster focus, there is a need for supervisors and training instructors with a background in law enforcement, rescue and emergency and disaster preparedness. The amendment allows retired law enforcement, fire and rescue personnel to be part of the management of the NCCC. My amendment makes the Retired Senior Volunteer Program a competitive grant program by 2013. I believe competition spurs innovation, and this will strengthen the program. Also included in this amendment are incentive grants for the Senior Corps program. These grants are designed to bolster the capacity of current exceptional Senior Corps programs. Given that the RSVP program is becoming a competitive process, it is expected that the RSVP programs which meet the eligibility requirements will be a majority of incentive grant applicants and recipients. Finally, I have also worked with Mr. Altmire, Mr. Sestak, and Mr. Souder and have included changes that they suggested in the manager's amendment. I want to thank them for their great ideas. Our national service laws were last authorized 15 years ago. We have worked with our colleagues across the aisle and with the service community to renew the spirit of service in our Nation through the GIVE Act. I hope you will join me and support my amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I thank the gentlewoman from California, and I thank Mr. Shays. Mr. Chairman, we are in full support of this amendment. The GIVE Act seeks to improve national service and to do so in innovative, creative ways. And this amendment does just that. We are grateful to Ms. Matsui and Mr. Shays for bringing forth this amendment.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong support for H. Res. 951, a resolution condemning the ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, and for other purposes. I am proud to have been a cosponsor of this resolution and helped gather support for its consideration on the House floor today. This resolution is very timely as Israel faces new and increasing threats to its security. Palestinian rockets have been fired from Gaza and hit Israeli communities on an almost daily basis. More than 200,000 Israeli citizens are within range of these Palestinian rockets. In 2005, as part of an effort to move the peace process forward, Israel removed all of its civilian and military personnel from the Gaza Strip. There was hope that a Palestinian state could emerge and co- exist peacefully alongside Israel. However, Hamas has taken control and instead of working toward peace and efforts to improve the lives of the Palestinians, has decided to inflict terror upon Israel. In recent weeks, the Israeli communities of Sderot and Ashkelon have been especially hard-hit, resulting in numerous casualties and psychological trauma to its citizens. Furthermore, just this week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council that Hizbullah has 30,000 rockets in southern Lebanon--10,000 of the rockets are long-range and 20,000 are short- range. Israel faces many threats on multiple fronts. The resolution before us appropriately condemns the rocket attacks on Israeli citizens and supports the right of the Israeli government to stop the rocket attacks on its citizens. While Israel has shown restraint in dealing with the Palestinians, along with a willingness to work towards peace, the Israeli citizens who are under attack are looking toward their government to protect them. We must support the efforts of the Israeli government to keep its people safe. I am grateful that we have the opportunity to consider this resolution on the House floor and send a strong message that attacks against Israeli citizens are not acceptable. Israel is one of America's closest allies and we must do all that we can to ensure the security of the state of Israel and its people. Terrorism is not acceptable here and is not acceptable around the world. Americans, Israelis, and others should be free to live their lives without fear of being attacked. Children should be able to go to school and not have to worry about a Palestinian rocket attack. I urge all of my colleagues to stand up for safety and security and send a message to the International community. Pass H. Res. 951.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I thank the gentleman from Texas. I stand in strong support of H.R. 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act. Our Nation's future is in our education, and we must ensure our students have access to affordable higher education that will prepare them to excel in the global economy. I want to thank Chairman Miller and his staff for all the hard work that they did to get this bipartisan bill out of committee and to the floor and also to Ranking Member McKeon. I would also like to thank the chairman for including some key priorities of mine. The legislation authorizes Project GRAD USA as an ongoing Federal program. This national program has successfully increased the number of low-income students to attend college and earn degrees. We are also providing opportunities for nurses as our Nation faces a severe nursing shortage by creating programs to increase the number of nursing students and nurse educators. Degrees also from rabbinical schools which will be able to continue to be recognized at the equivalency of a bachelor's degree. We all understand the need for increased campus security. This legislation will improve current campus safety policies to ensure students are protected and will include improvements to emergency response policies and whistle-blower protections for students. Career and technical schools will offer a great alternative to traditional 4-year colleges and are especially helpful to students in my district. By passing this bill, we will improve current law for career colleges and technical school students by providing students with more opportunity to attend these vital institutions and enter the global economy with marketable skills.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Commerce be discharged from further consideration of the Senate bill (S. 1916) to amend the Public Health Service Act to modify the program for the sanctuary system for surplus chimpanzees by terminating the authority for the removal of chimpanzees from the system for research purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the Senate bill (S. 2436) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify the term of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, a few minutes ago, H.R. 2640 was passed in this House. This legislation was passed in the year 2002. Late this afternoon, the Senate passed H.R. 2640, which is the NICS bill. Madam Speaker, this is something that I have been working on for over 11 years to try to reduce gun violence in this Nation. I'm happy to say that, with working with the NRA, the Brady Center, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Coburn from Oklahoma and Mr. Schumer from New York, we have finally come together to pass legislation which, in my opinion, is going to save many lives. This particular piece of legislation, which many of my constituents and people around the country that watch this know that I've been talking about at least once a week for the last number of years, to me, this is the best Christmas present I could ever receive. Two weeks ago was the 14th anniversary of my husband's death, and five others. My husband and son were coming home from work, and unfortunately my husband was killed and my son was seriously injured. And it was down the road that my son was recovering that I promised him that I would do all I could to help a family not go through what myself and many other families go through, unfortunately, on a daily basis. And that day has come. We have seen the Virginia Tech shootings. We have seen the shootings in other parts of the country in the last few weeks. This bill can help save lives, but it also shows that when opposite sides work together, which we should all be doing here in this Congress for the American people, we can do some good. As I said earlier, I worked with the NRA and I worked with the Brady Center, and we came together with an understanding of putting our differences aside to work out a good piece of legislation. This is a proud moment for Congress. This is a proud moment for the American people to see how we can work together. I know that there are many on both sides of the issue that feel that some of us are just trying to take away their right to own guns. That has not ever been my intention. I have always just wanted to have gun safety issues put forth so we could save people's lives. This piece of legislation, the NICS Improvement Act, will do that. There was a little confusion going back that we were going to be hurting our veterans . That is not true. Working with Mr. Coburn, and certainly Mr. Dingell, we have shown that it is not going to take away the right of our veterans coming home to be able to own a gun. We have clarified the language so that there is no misunderstanding. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the issue on how we can reduce gun violence in this country because the more we can reduce gun violence, hopefully we can also cut down the 30,000 people that die every year. I had mentioned last week that since I've been in Congress, 330,000 people have died. That's not counting the amount of people that are injured every single year and what it does for the health care costs of this Nation. When we spend over $2 billion a year on health care costs for those that survive, there is something wrong. I am hoping that down the road I can continue to work with the NRA and continue working with the Brady Center to come up with commonsense solutions on how we can save lives without getting into the rhetoric of us trying to take away their guns or guns don't kill. That is not the debate. The debate is how are we going to keep the guns away from people that shouldn't be able to own guns. Madam Speaker, I wish everybody a merry Christmas. This will save lives, and this is devoted to the victims that have been hurt over these many years. I'd like to thank my good friend Congressman Dingell for all of his hard work in making this moment a reality. I'd also like to thank my friend Senator Schumer for carrying this legislation through the Senate. Today is five years in the making. On March 12, 2002, a senseless shooting took the lives of a priest and a parishioner, Mrs. Tosner, at the Our Lady of Peace Church in Lynbrook, New York. The man who committed this double murder had a disqualifying mental health condition and a restraining order against him, but passed a background check because his personal history was not entered into the NICS database. This same scenario happens every day. The shooter in the Virginia Tech massacre was prohibited from purchasing a firearm. Unfortunately, flaws in the NICS system allowed his record to slip through the cracks. He was able to purchase two handguns, and used them to brutally murder thirty two individuals. We saw this trend continue last week with shootings in Nebraska and Colorado. Individuals who shouldn't have access to guns are getting them with ease are our killing innocent people. The NICS system is supposed to prevent this from happening, but a database is only as good as the information put in it and many states don't have the resources to keep the NICS database up to date. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, is deeply flawed. Millions of criminal records are not accessible by ICS and millions others are missing critical data, such as arrest dispositions, due to data backlogs.The primary cause of delay in NICS background checks is the lack of updates due to funding and technology issues in the states. Many states have not automated the records concerning mental illness, restraining orders, or misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence. Simply, put, the NICS system must be updated on both the state and federal level. According to a Third Way report, over ninety one percent of those adjudicated for mental illness cannot be stopped by a background check due to flaws in the system. But this issue allows other barred individuals to purchase firearms. Twenty five percent of felony convictions do not make it into the NICS system. That is why I introduced the NICS Improvement Act. My bill would require all states to provide the NICS system with the relevant records needed to conduct effective background checks. It is the state's responsibility to ensure this information is current and accurate. They must update the records to ensure violent criminals do not have access to firearms. However, I recognize, many state budgets are already overburdened. This legislation would provide grants to states to update their records into the NICS system. States would get the funds they need to make sure records relevant to NICS are up to date. While the NICS system does have major flaws, it is responsible for preventing thousands of barred individuals from purchasing firearms. Approximately nine-hundred and sixteen thousand individuals were prohibited from purchasing a firearm for failing a background check between November 30, 1998, when the NICS system began operating, and December 31, 2004. During this same period, nearly forty nine million Brady background checks were processed through NICS. By improving upon the NICS system, we can stop criminals from falling through the cracks. Today, we are one step closer to bringing the records of millions of barred individuals into the NICS system. No system will be perfect, but that does not mean we should not work to make improvements. This is good policy that will save lives and should be passed by the House. My legislation imposes no new restrictions on gun owners and does not infringe on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. In fact, similar legislation passed the House in 2002. Today, Congress will stand up for the victims and pass common-sense legislation. This is the best Christmas present Congress could give those whose lives have been changed by gun violence. This legislation will help ensure that people who are legally ineligible to purchase a gun will not be able to purchase them. This bill poses no new burden on law-abiding gun owners or gun sellers. It simply enforces current law. This legislation has the widest range of support imaginable. The National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign have endorsed this legislation. We have worked across both partisan and ideological aisles to make this bill law. The cooperation from members of both parties and from people on both sides of the gun issue should serve as a model for this Congress. We can work together to find common sense solutions to our problems. These problems shouldn't divide us, but bring us together to make our country a safer and better place. Personally, this is a very important moment for me. I have been fighting for common sense gun laws for 14 years since my own life was changed forever by gun violence. Tonight, I'm one step closer to the goal of making sure other families never have to experience what mine did 14 years ago. Madam Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to speak on this issue that is so important to me and other Americans whose lives have been affected by gun violence.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2640, S. 2436, H.R. 4839, and S. 1916.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2640) to improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and for other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Ways and Means be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 4839) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make technical corrections, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, today I rise with a very heavy heart. Yesterday, our Nation witnessed yet another act of gun violence, this time at a mall in Omaha, Nebraska. I know my colleagues from Nebraska are going to be talking about this later. My hearts go out to them for the people that they represented. Eight people were murdered in the rampage. Five others were wounded, two critical. These victims did nothing wrong to deserve their fate. They were mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. They were just trying to do their shopping, and many of them were working at the mall. But the actions of a crazed gunman changed that in a matter of seconds. Yesterday's shootings was a terrible tragedy. But unfortunately events like this happen almost every day. Every year we lose over 30,000 people to gun violence. Take a second to think about that. Every year, 30,000 victims. I have been here for 11 years. That is 330,000 people that have been killed because of gun violence while I was in Congress. When you want to put that in perspective, that is the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Three hundred and thirty thousand victims. When you think about it, what these families are going to be going through in the months ahead with the holidays coming, the pain they are going to be facing, the community, the pain they are going to be facing, I know a lot about that. Tomorrow is December 7. December 7. It was 14 years ago that we had the Long Island Railroad massacre. On that particular day, six people died, one of them my husband. On that day, 19 people were injured, my son critically. Fourteen years later, he is still suffering from that. We, as a Nation, have to start looking how are we going to have this dialogue? I have never tried to do anything to take away the right of someone legally to be able to own a gun, and yet because of the way the laws are in this country and the way we do things backhandedly in this country, it is so easy to get guns. If you want to talk about what the health care costs are, it is over $100 billion a year the health care costs for those that survive these kind of incidents. Think what we could do with that money. Maybe we could educate our young people and reach out to them a little bit better so they don't go into the world of violence. Maybe they won't join gangs. Maybe a good mental health program for this Nation so those like the gunman wouldn't have fallen through the cracks and gotten the help that he needed. We, as a Nation, on a daily basis, face inconveniences. Tonight when I fly to go home, I will be getting on a plane. I am going to be going through security, all in the name of security and safety. When you go to get your driver's license, long lines. We do this for security and safety. It is an inconvenience. Getting a passport today is an inconvenience. Can't we serve a little bit of inconvenience and come together to make sure that those that are getting guns have the right to have a gun by passing background checks? Can't we make sure with a little inconvenience that we don't make it so easy for these guns to float throughout our cities and come into some of our cities illegally? We cannot save everybody. I understand that. But think about if we could cut it down to maybe just 15,000 people a year dying. As far as I am concerned, one person dying is one too many. I promised my son as he was recovering many years ago that I would do whatever I could to prevent another family from not going through what our families did. And here it is 11 years later. Here we had a terrible tragedy yesterday in Nebraska. Not long ago, we had a terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. Before that, we had another terrible tragedy at another mall in the Midwest. We can think about all these terrible tragedies that are happening more and more not just in our inner cities now but in places in our country that we never thought we would ever see gun violence. This Nation needs to decide what it is going to do to stop this rampage of unnecessary killings of innocent people. Three hundred thirty thousand people killed in the 11 years I have been here, I hope we can do better. I pray for the families. I pray for the communities.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, today I rise with my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson), the sponsor of H.R. 2517, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act, and urge my colleagues to support the reauthorization of the Missing Children's Assistance Act. I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Lampson, for his continued leadership on this issue. Mr. Lampson is founder of the Missing Children's Caucus and has worked tirelessly to support the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. His passion for protecting our Nation's children inspires others to get involved and work to create safe places for our young people, including on the Internet. This bipartisan reauthorization continues the work of the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Child Protection Division's missing and exploited children's programs, including funding for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Furthermore, this legislation continues the authorization for National Incidence Studies, known as ``NISMART.'' According to CRS, the first NISMART study ``provided the first nationally representative, comprehensive data on the incidence of missing children.'' The second NISMART study resolved some methodological challenges of the first study, and included runaway or throwaway children as well. These studies have helped law enforcement, Federal agencies, and nonprofits in their work to prevent children from going missing or to help children get home. Missing children are some of our most vulnerable young people, and this work is critical in protecting this population. This legislation works to help protect not only children who go missing, but it also works to protect our children who are sexually exploited, a horrendous thought for any of us to consider, and yet it is part of our reality. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children serves not only as a national clearinghouse and resource center on missing children but also serves that same purpose for exploited children. Among multiple programs, NCMEC operates as a CyberTipline for tips and leads on child sexual exploitation. The CyberTipline allows for citizens and electronic communication providers to report incidents of various types of child exploitation, including online enticement of children for sexual acts, child prostitution, and child pornography. This reauthorization expands the reach of the CyberTipline to include categories of exploitation that connect with new technologies or activities. I want to share a success story from the Child Victim Identification Program at NCMEC. This program reviews child pornography to gain clues that will lead to the identification of a child. In this particular case in 2005, those reviewing these horrendous images also found images of a young boy partially clothed, including a photo of him in his Boy Scout uniform. They were able to read the patches on his uniform and discovered he was in the Nassau County Boy Scout Council, which I represent here in this Congress. The program has set procedure which led them to contacting law enforcement, who identified this child and later arrested a suspect. From this story, there are two points I want to make. First, this program does wonderful, and yet very difficult, work to protect and save children who are being exploited. Secondly, these crimes happen everywhere. Since its inception in 1984, NCMEC has received 173 reports of missing children in Nassau County, New York, and 4,319 for New York State. Of those 4,319 children who went missing, 4,146 were recovered. H.R. 2517 strengthens the ability of the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and its programs, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to work to eradicate child pornography, guide efforts for online safety for children and unite families. These programs also support the work of law enforcement, including training law enforcement on multiple issues around missing, runaway, throwaway and sexually exploited children. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals, the United States Postal Inspectors, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement all have detainees at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Until all children are safe from predators in our society, this work must continue and we must reauthorize the Missing Children's Assistance Act. Before I close, I want to thank the staff who worked on this reauthorization: Abby Shannon in Mr. Lampson's office, Deborah Kookbeck, Ruth Friedman, Denise Forte of the majority staff of the Committee on Education and Labor, and Kirsten Duncan and Susan Ross on the minority staff of the Committee on Education and Labor. H.R. 2517 is bipartisan effort and I urge my colleagues to support the passage of this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) who has been certainly at the forefront on trying to protect our children. I thank him for his work.