Jim McGovern

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may be given 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on House Resolution 697.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions). All time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only. General Leave

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remaining time. Mr. Speaker, as we're about to adjourn for the August recess, I think it's important to note that this is a Congress that accomplished a great deal. We have passed 12 of our appropriations bills. We passed the historic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is keeping teachers and police officers employed, and stimulating economic growth throughout this country. We have passed an energy bill that, if signed into law, will create thousands and thousands of new green jobs as well as free us of our dependence on foreign oil. We have extended SCHIP, which means that more and more children have access to health care. We passed the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Equity Act bill to address the issue of discrimination of women in the workplace. Yesterday we passed a food safety bill. So we did all of this in spite of resistance and in spite of obstructionism by many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. But I think it is an indication that this is a Congress that has accomplished a great deal. Let me just say finally, Mr. Speaker, with regard to the underlying legislation, that if you like the status quo, if you want to embrace the same old, same old when it comes to corporate misbehavior, then vote against the rule and vote against the bill. If you want things to change, if you want to ensure corporate responsibility, then please support the underlying bill championed by Chairman Frank. With that Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on the rule. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, as we debate health care reform legislation, my Republican friends say things are fine just the way they are. ``Take two tax breaks and call me in the morning,'' is their prescription. This in spite of the fact that premiums have doubled in 9 years, growing three times faster than wages; this in spite of the fact that the average American family already pays an extra $1,100 a year in premiums to support a broken system; this in spite of the fact that 46 million Americans are uninsured. When my Republican friends say that the American people don't deserve health reform, my response is: Are you kidding?

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, Sudan has been ravaged by intermittent civil war for four decades. Over the last 20 years, more than two million people have died in Southern Sudan due to war-related causes and famine, and millions more have been displaced from their homes. In January 2005, after two and a half years of negotiations, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) of the South and the Government of Sudan signed a final peace agreement known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). According to the United Nations, U.S. officials and Sudan observers, the implementation of the CPA has been selective and at times deliberately slow. With national elections scheduled for April 2010, the implementation of the CPA is critical Yesterday, on Thursday, July 30, 2009, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing on ``Ensuring the Human Rights of the People of Sudan: Implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.'' The distinguished witnesses testifying before the Commission were Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Head of Mission, Government of South Sudan Mission in the United States; Roger Winter, former Special Representative on Sudan, Department of State; John Norris, Executive Director, the ENOUGH Project; and Amir Osman, Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations, Save Darfur Coalition. Mr. Osman, a native of Sudan, fled his home country in 2003 because his work on human rights had put his life at risk. He was resettled in the United States in 2006 through the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, moved to Washington, D.C., and joined the Save Darfur Coalition. It is my privilege to share his testimony with my colleagues. Save Darfur Coalition--Testimony of Amir Osman Good afternoon. Chairman McGovern, Chairman Wolf, thank you very much for inviting me to testify today on this very important issue before this very important commission. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the critical issues currently facing my home country of Sudan. It was a difficult decision for me to flee Sudan in 2003. I left because my work on human rights had put my life at risk. As a refugee living in Egypt, I continued to advocate for peace, justice, and democracy in Sudan at the American University in Cairo and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. I specifically focused on the genocide in Darfur during those years. After being resettled to the United States in 2006 through the UNHCR, I moved here to Washington and joined the Save Darfur Coalition to aid its international advocacy efforts. As co-senior director of policy and government relations, I help design and implement the coalition's international policy, advocacy and outreach to foreign governments, and international partner organizations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I also focus on the human rights situation in Sudan and the peace processes in Darfur and South Sudan During the past decade, President Omar al-Bashir and his inner circle have transitioned from an ideologically driven regime to one whose primary aim is self-preservation. The regime now makes human rights compromises when it feels compelled to do so. The regime's continued abuses have been well-documented by human rights organizations. Regular warnings have been issued about illegal detentions, unfair trials, press censorship, and the routine harassment of journalists. In addition, current laws do little to protect victims of gender-based crimes. The most urgent human rights challenge in Sudan today, however, continues to be the crisis in Darfur. Three million displaced civilians continue to suffer as a result of the genocide that began in 2003. While the systematic destruction of villages has largely ended, the people of Darfur continue to live in a lawless, dangerous environment, where rape continues to be a daily terror. On March 4th, the Sudanese government demonstrated its ability to cut off humanitarian aid at any moment from the 4.7 million Darfuris who depend on it. The mass violence committed by the Sudanese government several years ago has been replaced with the harassment, detention, torture, and murder of Sudanese civil society leaders. This violence led a significant number of the Sudanese human rights defenders to flee the country shortly after March 4th. Such abuses must be stopped. The suffering in Darfur resembles in many ways the war in Southern Sudan. Both Darfuris and Southern Sudanese have experienced the bombing of villages and mass civilian displacement. The Sudanese government's use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war and its divide and rule tactics amongst Southern rebels have also been repeated in Darfur. At the same time the Sudanese government was launching its genocidal campaign in Darfur, it was negotiating with the SPLM an end to the conflict in the south. Bashir made the calculation that the international community would turn a blind eye to Darfur in the effort to get the CPA signed. His calculation turned out to be largely correct. Bashir's favorite tactic is to delay true reforms by creating crises that distract the international community, allowing Bashir to never actually fulfill any of his promises. The international community enables Bashir by focusing on the crisis of the moment rather than a comprehensive solution. The NCP is using cooperation on the implementation of the CPA as leverage to resist international pressure on Darfur. And it is working. The United States and the international community have failed to develop policies suited for dealing with a regime which lacks a fundamental willingness to transform into the democratic state envisioned by the CPA. Sudan issues will not be resolved satisfactorily between just the NCP and SPLM or the NCP and the Darfuri rebels. All of Sudanese civil society must be empowered to participate in these processes. The United States must understand that Sudan's crises cannot be managed forever or resolved individually. Only when the international community demands serious judicial and democratic reforms will there ever be a chance to resolve South Sudan and Darfur and move towards lasting peace. Policymakers have too often focused on the South to the detriment of Darfur, or Darfur to the detriment of the South. But Darfur and South Sudan are not separate problems; they are the result of a single problem: the undemocratic, centralized, and abusive nature of the ruling regime. Only when this problem is addressed will peace be forthcoming. There is an urgent need for a coherent and comprehensive strategy to guide Sudan to a more democratic and peaceful future. Such a strategy requires that important and difficult choices be presented to the NCP. The Sudanese government must be forced to choose between cooperation and confrontation. If they cooperate by ending the violence in Darfur, ensuring accountability through cooperation with the ICC, and fully implement the CPA, they may be allowed to reap the benefits of becoming a responsible member of the international community. If they continue to delay implementation of the CPA and continue to attempt to divert and distract the international community by using one conflict as leverage against the other, they must face real consequences. While we here in Washington sit and debate policy, the people of Sudan continue to suffer. This policy debate should not be complicated. The United States and its allies must force Sudan's hand and then commit to seeing this through. We have played Bashir's game too long to be fooled any longer.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on this day I intend to support the bill, but I raise these concerns because I firmly believe they need and deserve more discussion and more debate. Congress has been too quiet on the issue of Afghanistan, and that needs to change. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and in support of the fiscal year 2010 Defense appropriations bill, which the House will take up shortly. With the passage of this bill, we will have completed all of our appropriations bills, and we will have successfully overcome Republican obstructionism and attempts to undermine the legislative process. So I think this is good news for the people of the country that we are actually getting our work done, which is something that they were not able to do very successfully. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3326, by and large, is a good bill. It provides support for our military families, and it provides our troops with the funding and the equipment they need to successfully perform their duties and to carry out their assigned missions. I want to congratulate Chairman Murtha and Ranking Member Young for their bipartisan work on this bill, but, Mr. Speaker, I do not support this bill without significant reservations. I believe that this Congress has not yet come to grips with what our policy is in Afghanistan. This House recently passed an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that provides billions and billions of dollars for the war in Afghanistan, a measure that I opposed, but I believed then, as I do now, that it is a mistake to spend billions and billions of dollars more for a war that has no clearly defined mission. My concern deepened when I recently read reports that indicated that General McChrystal believes we will have to expand our forces and, thereby, expand our mission in Afghanistan, meaning more money and more troops right now just to get the job started. I still have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we're getting sucked into something where the mission and goals are vague and where it is unclear how it will end. Mr. Speaker, that's why we need an exit strategy. We need a clear definition of when this policy comes to an end and when our troops can come home, not a date certain but an explanation as to when the military part of this operation comes to a close. I remain skeptical about our policy in Afghanistan. I think this administration needs to provide Congress, this Nation and our military families with more clarity on this issue. If they don't, I believe Congress needs to demand it. Like all of my colleagues, I have had many conversations with the men and women who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan--sometimes when they are about to deploy, sometimes when they have just come home, sometimes when they come to my district office, and often because we just run into one another at a coffee shop, at a diner, at a community center or on the street. I believe that we owe them a great deal for their service. We owe them the respect of looking them in the eye and of telling them that we know exactly what we are doing when we vote for money and missions that will send them directly into harm's way-- someplace from where they may not return safe and sound to their families and to their loved ones. I'm not asking for a protest vote on this bill. On this day, I intend to support the bill.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the de facto government in Honduras and President Zelaya should accept the San Jose Accord proposed by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. The Arias proposal includes the return of President Zelaya, formation of a unity government, a general amnesty for political crimes by all parties, and moves forward the date of the upcoming elections. The U.S. should impose tough sanctions on the de facto government that carried out the coup. The U.S. should suspend all MCC funds, cancel visas for members of the de facto government and their families, and freeze all their assets in the United States. President Zelaya must also accept the terms of the Arias proposal in order to restore democracy in Honduras and avoid greater conflict and bloodshed. Not a single, solitary government in the world recognizes the coup government. It's time to end this stalemate and move forward. The Arias proposal puts the Honduran people first, treats all parties with respect, and offers a peaceful resolution. It's not too late for President Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti to accept it.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank my colleague for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this rule and in support of the underlying statutory PAYGO legislation. As a member of the Budget Committee, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, and I want to thank our incredible chairman, John Spratt, for all of his hard work. Now, some of my colleagues may be asking themselves, Why in the heck is a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts speaking in support of PAYGO? Well, it's true, Mr. Speaker, that I have never been mistaken for a Blue Dog. I support this legislation because I despise this debt just as strongly as any Member of this House. I support this legislation because I have two young children, and I don't want to saddle them with a bankrupt Nation. I support this legislation precisely because it helps support the programs that I care most deeply about. Every single dollar that we spend on interest on the debt is a dollar that we can't spend on health care. It's a dollar that we can't spend on education or environmental protection or on transportation projects or tax breaks for middle class Americans. It's a dollar we can't spend on supporting our servicemen and -women or ending hunger. In short, every dollar we spend on this debt is a dollar that we cannot invest in the American people, and that is why we need this bill. I am also pleased that this bill before us today protects the most vulnerable Americans. The bill protects Social Security, veterans programs, food stamps, and child nutrition programs and other essential services. Now, we hear a lot of rhetoric from the other side about how awful the deficit is, and they're right. But here's a question: Where were you for the last 8 years? Why did you allow PAYGO to expire when you were in the majority? Where were you when the Bush administration inherited a surplus and proceeded to squander it on tax cuts for the wealthy few? Now, if someone wants to argue that bigger tax breaks for millionaires is good economic policy, that's fine, but under this bill, they will be forced to acknowledge the cost of those tax cuts and show how they would pay for them. I don't think that's too much to ask. This bill before us at long last will take a good long look at wasteful subsidies and special-interest tax loopholes. Mr. Speaker, all of us, Democrats and Republicans, like to talk a good game about deficit reduction, but this is where the rubber meets the road. It's our time to put our votes where our rhetoric is. It's time to pass statutory PAYGO. It's time to dig this economy out of the ditch that the Republican leadership created, and I urge my colleagues to support this good bill.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentleman, my colleague from Georgia, for yielding me the time and for his kind words, and I also want to thank Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Chairman Collin Peterson and their staff for quickly scheduling this bipartisan resolution for consideration today. Mr. Speaker, this resolution honors the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service for 40 years of fighting hunger in the United States. There are more than 36 million food insecure or hungry people living in America today. The Food and Nutrition Service, or FNS, is the lifeline for the hungry in our country. The mission of FNS is to provide children and needy families better access to food and a more healthful diet through its food assistance programs and comprehensive nutrition education efforts. FNS does this by administering the Food Stamp, now called SNAP, program and child nutrition programs that include the school and summer meal programs. Without these programs and without the dedicated staff at FNS, millions of people in this country would be facing hunger and malnutrition. Their work and dedication should be commended, and I am pleased to be the lead sponsor of this resolution honoring the 40th anniversary of the Food and Nutrition Service. I am also pleased that my good friend and colleague, the gentlelady from Missouri, Jo Ann Emerson, is a cosponsor of this resolution. Unfortunately, my good friend could not be here for this debate, but she is a strong supporter of FNS. Mr. Speaker, over the past 2 years we have seen a major expansion in our Nation's antihunger programs. SNAP has been expanded twice: first, in the farm bill, which expanded both the eligibility and the purchasing power of the program; and second, in the Recovery Act, where the SNAP program benefits were accelerated to stimulate the economy and help families better afford food during this economic downturn. This year, we expect to see the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Programs: WIC, the school breakfast lunch, child care, afterschool, and summer meal programs. And FNS is in the forefront of these programs. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased with the work FNS has done for the past 40 years, but this is also an opportunity to look to the future. And I'm encouraged by the new administration, the leadership of Secretary Vilsack and his team at USDA. They are exploring ways to fight hunger, and I'm looking forward to developing a strong working relationship with Secretary Vilsack. And while I'm pleased that USDA and FNS have worked so hard at responsibly implementing the antihunger programs authorized in the farm bill and in the Recovery Act, I am very concerned that there hasn't been more done on President Obama's pledge to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. I encourage the Secretary to use this 40th anniversary recognition to rededicate USDA not only to ending child hunger in the United States, but to start working with Members of Congress and other stakeholders on ways to improve the Federal antihunger programs. I believe the Secretary should convene a Cabinet-level working group consisting not only of members of the administration but also congressional leaders in order to brainstorm on ways the administration and Congress can work together to combat hunger in our country. We need to show that the goal of ending child hunger by 2015 is something that this administration is committed to achieving. I also encourage USDA and FNS to look into using their regulatory authority to make it easier for eligible families and individuals to sign up or be recertified for SNAP and other Federal antihunger programs. In Massachusetts, we are seeing backlogs of new applications that last upwards of several weeks between submission of the application and approval or denial of that application. The issue is the increasing number of people who are becoming eligible for SNAP at the same time as current SNAP participants need to be recertified in order to continue participating in the program. The result is a backlog of cases for State administrators, causing lengthy delays that result in denial of food to hungry people. Finally, I strongly encourage the White House to convene a conference on food and nutrition in order to bring together our Nation's leaders and stakeholders on hunger and nutrition. We need to put into place a strategy, a comprehensive strategy, to end all hunger in this country, and we need to do so while improving the availability of nutritious food. That will take Presidential leadership. I hope President Obama will convene this conference soon. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate FNS on 40 years of great work. Once again, I thank Chairman Peterson for his willingness to move this resolution through the process quickly. I want to thank my friend, Mr. Scott, for all of his leadership.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. I want to thank my friend for yielding and for his leadership on these and so many other important issues. I wanted to rise as well in support of the resolution by my colleague from Georgia, Mr. Gingrey. I think it's an important resolution, and I think the Hunters for the Hungry organization deserve praise for their work trying to respond to a real need in this country, and that is the issue of people who are food insecure or are hungry. This is a problem that is getting worse in the United States of America, I am sad to say, and this is an issue that we need to talk more about on this House floor. And I appreciate and I support the efforts of hunters and a whole bunch of other volunteer organizations across the country in their efforts to respond to this crisis, and we need to do everything we can to congratulate them, express our appreciation and urge them to do more. I would also add that I think we have a moral imperative to do more as a country and as a government to respond to this need. There are more than 36 million Americans who are food insecure or hungry. Every one of us should be ashamed of that fact, and we need to respond to this crisis, and we need to do more than we are doing now. I'm the co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, and we are urging all Members of Congress to take only 1 hour, at least 1 hour, out of their busy schedules during the August recess and visit a hunger relief organization, visit a food pantry, visit a food bank, and see firsthand what is happening. And what people are going to see, what my colleagues will see is not only the incredible work that is going on to help respond to this crisis, but the fact is that these food banks and these food pantries are chock full. They're at capacity. They cannot respond to the need that they are faced with. And so as we debate other legislation down the road, I hope we will keep these people in mind, but I did want to rise to congratulate and to thank my friend Mr. Gingrey for his leadership on this issue. I think it is important that we do what we can to acknowledge the good work of people who are in the forefront of fighting on behalf of people who are food insecure and hungry, and I want to thank him.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, House Resolution 653 provides for consideration of H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act, under a structured rule. The rule provides 1 hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Natural Resources. The rule makes in order a manager's amendment and a substitute amendment from the ranking member, my former Rules colleague, Mr. Hastings of Washington. The manager's amendment is debatable for 10 minutes, and the substitute is debatable for 30 minutes. The rule also provides one motion to recommit, with or without instructions. Madam Speaker, H.R. 1018 is a bill that restores important protections for wild horses and burros. The bill received full consideration in the subcommittee and the full committee. Markups were held. Republican and Democratic amendments were offered and accepted through the regular order. Madam Speaker, this bill will reverse a misguided and controversial rider that was adopted as part of the fiscal year 2005 omnibus appropriations bill. The provision was slipped into the bill in the dead of night when the Republicans were in control, reversing long- standing Federal policy that protected wild horses from being sold at auctions and subsequently shipped to slaughter plants. Last summer, the Bureau of Land Management announced that it would consider killing as many as 30,000 healthy wild horses and burros in BLM holding centers across the United States. The ROAM Act, H.R. 1018, introduced by Chairman Rahall, will restore long-standing protections by prohibiting the sale and wholesale killing of wild horses and burros; prioritize cost effective on-the-range management, over-roundups, saving millions of tax dollars; facilitate the creation of sanctuaries for wild horses and burro populations on public lands; strengthen the BLM's wild horse and burro adoption program; and protect wildlife by requiring a thriving natural ecological balance on the range. Madam Speaker, these wild animals are rounded up in huge numbers by BLM only to languish in holding pens, threatened with sale or slaughter. H.R. 1018 will minimize these stressful, inhumane roundups, and promote adoption for those horses and burros who are taken off the range, banning the sale of wild horses and burros by the BLM, as well as the transfer of these animals for the purpose of processing into commercial products. Legislation similar to H.R. 1018 passed the House in 2007 by a landslide, bipartisan vote of 277-137. Unfortunately, this measure has never been signed into law. It is time we end this inhumane practice once and for all. This bill is important for the protection of our Nation's wild horses and burros. I urge adoption of the rule and the bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on House Resolution 653.

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx). All time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only. General Leave

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 653 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. McGOVERN. I reclaim my time, Madam Speaker. I appreciate the gentleman's observation. But my point was that not only did Mr. Chaffetz not appear before the Rules Committee, but no member of the minority party on the Rules Committee offered his amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. That was an interesting exchange. Unfortunately it didn't represent or reflect reality. The fact of the matter is, Madam Speaker, when Bill Clinton left the White House, he left George Bush with an enormous surplus. George Bush took that surplus and frittered it away on wars that were not paid for and $1.6 trillion in tax cuts that drove us deeper into debt. The economy spiraled down. My friends on the other side basically turned their backs on what was happening to average people all across this country. And in November of 2008 the American people spoke; and what they made clear is this: That my friends on the other side of the aisle, my Republican friends, do not know best. At every level of government, they were rejected, they were turned out of office because people were sick and tired of their policies that, they believed, drove this economy into a deep ditch. What people want are answers. They don't want the same old, same old. They don't want more tax cuts for the rich. They don't want more indifference toward middle- class working families or total indifference toward those who are struggling in poverty. They want us to try to fix this economy. My friends take delight in trying to poke holes in the policies of President Obama, saying, Well, you know, he promised that we would create X amount of jobs. We are falling short of that. Well, it turns out that this ditch that they dug is deeper than many of us thought. But by most standards, most economists are actually seeing that things are beginning to turn--maybe slower than we would like, but they are beginning to turn. We need to continue these policies. We need to help working families in this country. We need to fix health care. We need to lower costs for families. People are paying too much for health care in this country. They're tired of the past Congresses that were more interested in pleasing insurance companies than they were in helping average families. They want us to deal with global climate change and to try to help pave the way for new jobs in the area of green technologies. So we're going to move forward. I should also tell my friends, and as they know, that as we debate this bill, there are committees meeting, there are briefings going on on a whole number of issues from health care to the economic recovery. I'm sorry that they don't want to stay around and do that work, but that's what they were elected to do. We're going to stay here, and we're going to do the people's work until it is done. With that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, before I yield to the gentleman from West Virginia, I would just like to point out to the gentlelady from North Carolina, who has been a constant critic of the stimulus package, that some $8 billion of that total is earmarked specifically for North Carolina. Some of the money that has already been spent, Madam Speaker, and has been used to be able to prevent the firing of teachers. Without receiving that money, States and communities would end up firing hundreds and hundreds of teachers, which would mean that class sizes would increase and in some cases even double, denying our kids the kind of quality education that we want them to have. Some of that money went to help shore up our law enforcement, our police officers, our firefighters. So to the best of my knowledge, the people of North Carolina haven't said, Don't give us the relief. Don't give us the aid. We need help because, quite frankly, this economy is in such bad shape--and I will repeat-- because of the policies of the Republican administration that held the White House for 8 years, that basically turned its back on average working people in this country. We are trying to fix the mess that they created, and we're going to do that. I would now like to yield 5 minutes to the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall).

Mr. McGOVERN. I'm happy to yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. McGOVERN. I reserve my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. If anyone on the other side of the aisle wants to defend the same-old-same-old policies of George Bush, then go ahead and do it. But the fact of the matter is that in November, 2008, the American people spoke overwhelmingly against and rejected those policies. The economic policies of the Republican Party and of George Bush drove this country into a ditch, and we are trying to dig ourselves out of it. I reserve my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, we are here today because we are doing the work of the American people. And we are doing what the American people asked us to do. As we debate this bill on the floor, there are major markups in the Education and Labor Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee on health care. There are also hearings and markups going on on two major appropriations bills. So there is a lot of work going on here, a lot of important work, of trying to dig ourselves out of this mess that this President inherited. It is interesting, again, to hear my friends on the other side of the aisle talk about fiscal management and about the need to control deficits and debts when they voted for tax cuts for rich people that weren't off-set. They voted for wars that weren't paid for. And there was silence. And the economy got worse and worse and worse. On November 2008, the American people said, enough, we need to change course. The American people want us to deal with health care. The Party of No says, no, can't do health care. They are trying to scare people, again, away from a national health care reform bill that will control and lower the cost of health care for average Americans. People want us to deal with the issue of climate change and creating green jobs. And the Party of No says, no, we can't do that. They don't want us to deal with that issue. No, no, no, no. Well, the reality is the American people want us to deal with the issues of law enforcement, with the issues of immigration and with a whole number of issues. And the Party of No says no. They vote against everything. They are against everything. So here we are. We are dealing with this issue today. I think this is a commonsense bill. The chairman of the Resources Committee explained that there was a hearing and there was a markup at full committee. I would urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the previous question and ``yes'' on the rule.

Mr. McGOVERN. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a remarkable leader in the Clinton Community, Gerald Gaw. Gerald Gaw, Superintendent of Clinton. Public Schools, will be retiring this week after 32 years of service to the children of the Clinton Public School District. Gerald dedicated his career to serving his community, beginning as a middle school math teacher at the age of 27. Throughout the past thirty years, Gerald nurtured students as both a middle and high school teacher before serving as principal of first the Clinton middle school and then Clinton High School. In 2004, Gerald was recognized for his outstanding work when he was selected for the position of Superintendent of Schools, where he has helped the school district thrive. Gerald was born and raised in the small Clinton community. Throughout his many years in the school district, he would often find himself teaching children whose parents had been his students or interacting with school committee members who had cared for him as a child. Gerald was committed to playing his part in the small community too, nurturing the children of Clinton for the futures that lay ahead of them. Educating children is Gerald's passion, a passion that thousands have benefited from during their time in Clinton schools. Gerald was one of the first principals to work in the new Clinton High School and was largely responsible for the transformation of the new building into a state-of-the-art educational facility. As the MCAS standardized testing was initiated across Massachusetts, Gerald promoted high achievement throughout the school, implementing new programs intended to prepare students for success. Among Gerald's many talents, foremost was his compassion and his ability to connect with students. Reaching out to students from difficult backgrounds or those who needed just a little extra help was a mission Gerald added on to his already long list of responsibilities as an administrator. Whether it was talking with students during lunch hour, encouraging them in the classroom, or working out with them in the gym, Gerald was known for befriending children who needed a positive presence in their lives. As principal, Gerald coached a Pop Warner football team, and even as superintendent he tried to spend as much time as possible with the children. As he enters retirement, Gerald is looking forward to going back to the classroom as a math teacher at a college. Gerald will be missed by the faculty and thousands of students whose lives he shaped in a multitude of ways. I wish him and his wife Carol, along with their three sons, many happy years in a well deserved retirement. Madam Speaker, I know all of my colleagues join me in thanking this remarkable man for his many years of dedication to the people of the Clinton.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I move to table the appeal of the ruling of the Chair.