Jim McDermott

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel).

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York, Joe Crowley.

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California, (Ms. Bass).

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

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Chairman, on rollcall Nos. 504, 505, 506, I missed these rollcalls because I was giving Awards at the HIV AID convention to the Red Ribbon Awardees for UN AID. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes'' on all 3. Amendment No. 6 Offered by Mr. Holt

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the True Cost of Coal Act of 2012 that protects the American taxpayer from bearing the costs of transporting coal for private companies to sell. If you were to listen to the coal companies, you would hear them decry the decline in domestic coal consumption. And while it is true that our domestic appetite for coal is waning, much of the rest of the world is still hungry for it. U.S. coal producers and suppliers are considering the construction of up to 9 coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon. These terminals will have a combined annual export capacity of 170 million tons of coal. To put this in perspective, the U.S. exported just 26 million tons of coal in 2011. This sharp increase in coal exports will be transported primarily through Oregon and my home State of Washington. Without question, this staggering increase will have serious implications on the Northwest's environment, safety, commerce, and public health. But what does it take to ship 170 million tons of coal through the Pacific Northwest annually? We're talking about a 1.5 mile long train packed with coal travelling thousands of times a year next to pristine waterfronts and through cities along the Puget Sound--each train spewing up to 500 pounds of toxic coal dust into the environment while increasing traffic on already congested rail tracks. These trains will run straight through the heart of my district, the city of Seattle, wreaking havoc on people's health, the environment, commerce and shipping, and traffic. All of these costs will be endured for the sake of transporting coal that we get no benefit from. And who will pay for this added cost? Without legislation like this, the taxpayers will pay the costs of mitigating the negative impacts of coal. As traffic increases, and public health risks are exacerbated, coal companies will continue to reap the profits of cheap coal, mined from public lands, and remain largely free from responsibility for any of the negative impacts. This means that States and local governments will need to raise taxes to pay for the additional crossings, the environmental cleanup, and increased health costs. It is time we opened our eyes to the true cost of coal. This legislation would impose a 10 dollar per ton excise tax on all extracted coal. This money will go to mitigating the negative impacts of coal transportation, and ensure the true cost of coal is paid for by the responsible parties, and not the taxpayers. The money is allocated to the affected States, who are in the best position to determine how best to use their funds. Make no mistake, these coal exports are not about jobs, they are about profits. The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that it costs about $20 per ton to ship coal mined from the Powder River Basin to the Pacific Northwest. The EIA also has data that shows the average price per ton of coal exports is $148 per ton. I cannot emphasize enough that none of the profits will go to helping the affected communities. It's time we shine a light on the true cost of coal and protect the American taxpayer from the negative impacts of transporting coal through our States. I have dedicated my career to keeping Washington and the Northwest a place where the environment, public health and efficient transportation do not get trumped by narrow interests. In 1980, I led the successful ``Don't Waste Washington'' initiative, to keep Washington from becoming the country's nuclear waste dumping ground, and 30 years later I remain just as committed to keeping it that way.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss today's vote on the bill to approve and implement the Obama administration's offshore drilling plan. Holding this vote today was a political stunt by the Republican majority--nothing more. No committees have reviewed the plan, and it was brought to the floor without any consideration. The Obama Administration's plan would supplant the Bush Administration's plan which is currently in place and I voted for the bill today, not wanting to play political games with our environment. Despite any reservations I have with the details of the Obama Administration's plan, the current administration correctly excluded lease sales in the Atlantic, Pacific or North Aleutian Basin. The Republicans offered an alternative plan that would, without question, cause significant harm to the environment. Voting yes today on this better package was the right thing to do. Protecting our environment is not a game. Today I voted to move us forward from the terrible environmental policies of the previous administration, and I will continue to advocate and vote for stronger environmental protections.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, wonders never cease. I picked up The Hill this morning, which is a local newspaper that most people read once in a while, and there were the words of one of the best Republican doctors that ever served in the Congress. Bill Frist has said he's encouraging his Republican colleagues to embrace the insurance exchange which is central to President Obama's health care plan. He said: Originally it was a Republican idea. The State insurance exchanges will offer a menu of private insurance plans to pick and choose from, all with a required set of minimum benefits to those without employer-sponsored health care insurance. Now, here's a Republican doctor who was the Majority Leader in the Senate. Contrast him to who we have there now. We have 31 times in this body tried to repeal this, and here you have a Republican doctor who was Majority Leader of the Senate saying we ought to do it. Read it and weep.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Thank you, Mr. Boswell. Mr. Boswell and I saw the Vietnam war in different ways--he, by flying a helicopter and me, by being a psychiatrist dealing with people who came home. And I feel strongly that suicide prevention and the intervention must become, in military speak, a core mission of the military. This week's Time magazine, as you see from that front page, describes military suicides as an epidemic. I would like to take $10 million out of a $19 billion fund in this amendment to go beyond the funding for existing suicide prevention services and toward modifying the culture that keeps some from seeking help. We must also note that any progress in suicide prevention will be fleeting if we don't focus on reducing the stigma associated with seeking psychological health services among our Active Duty people. I believe the Pentagon can do more to eradicate barriers to mental health care. This means ensuring that mental health and substance abuse issues are treated as medical issues and are taken out of the realm of personnel matters. This means ensuring that seeking and receiving psychological health care does nothing to jeopardize a soldier's security clearance or prospects in his future career. I would also urge the Pentagon to ensure that a portion of this money goes toward hiring, development and retention of top-tier psychological health talent for our military at this time. It is the tale of cost of this war that nobody calculates when we go to war. What do we do when the people come home? We forget them. We think they should pull themselves together and go back to their regular life. And many of them can't do it without some help. We need to provide it. They become desperate, figure there's no hope and take their own life. That shouldn't happen to a 24-year-old kid, man or woman, who has been in Afghanistan or Iraq giving to our country what we ask from them. Their willingness to risk the whole business of going to war has to be dealt with when they come home. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I love this cartoon. According to the Republicans, we're out here raising the biggest tax on people ever. Now, in this cartoon, you'll see the woman got into her car. She didn't put her seatbelt on. It was a choice, right? She's now being fined. But she says, ``No, it's the biggest tax increase in history.'' That's what's going on here today. It is a joke. With the individual mandate, everybody gets a choice whether you're going to put your health care safety belt on or not, the principle of personal responsibility: If you can buy health insurance and can afford it, you have to buy it or pay a penalty; now, otherwise, you're passing the cost on to us. You're a freeloader. The Republicans are glorifying freeloaders, people who say they don't want to pay if they can. Now, the Speaker said, Don't spike the football if we win in the Supreme Court. What you should have said was, Don't kick the watercooler. What's going on on the floor today is another pointless, time-wasting exercise. It's the 31st time the Republicans have tried to repeal the bill. Now, as a psychiatrist, I'm qualified to say this: One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The game is over. The referee, John Roberts, blew the whistle. It's over, guys. Why don't we have the Speaker call us when we're ready to get down here and talk about real things like jobs and the economy and stop giving people the idea that they're going to be scared to death. Less than 1 percent of Americans will choose to be irresponsible and not buy health insurance if they can. Vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Rotary International and others for their efforts in vaccinating children around the world against polio. I also rise to encourage continued commitment and funding by the U.S. Government to the global effort to eradicate polio. In this regard, I want to thank Senator Dick Durbin for his leadership in bringing this timely resolution to the Senate. Polio is a highly infectious disease that primarily affects children and for which there is no known cure. It can leave survivors permanently disabled or paralyzed. Eradication of polio is a high priority for Rotary International, whose membership extends across the country and in more than 170 countries. I am proud to represent the Rotarians of the 7th congressional district of Washington, who have generously given their time and financial support to the global fight against polio. The U.S. Government is the leading public sector donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The Centers for Disease Control and the United States Agency for International Development have been at the forefront in the U.S. Government's work to eradicate polio both nationally and internationally. Polio is now endemic only in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Over the past week, it has become more difficult for international organizations to distribute polio vaccines to children in Pakistan. There is a critical lesson for the U.S. Government to learn. When humanitarian workers are used for intelligence collecting purposes, as we saw in Dr. Shakil Afridi's case, it erodes trust and undermines legitimate humanitarian work. The immediate and long-term consequences of the CIA's ill-conceived project with Dr. Afridi are grave. The immediate consequence of Dr. Afridi's bogus vaccination program run by the CIA was that the Pakistani Taliban in northern Waziristan have since used it as an excuse to ban polio vaccinations to 161,000 children. The long-term impact is that it will be fodder for conspiracy theorists that American espionage is everywhere and that medical programs could have sinister motives. The tragic impact of CIA's operation is that thousands of Pakistan's children who could have been vaccinated will suffer or die from polio. As we recognize our achievements in eradicating polio, I urge my colleagues to look at countries where polio is still endemic and work to ensure that intelligence agencies are not using medical workers as tools to collect information.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the University of Washington Men's Crew Team for winning the 110th Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships (IRAs) on June 2, 2012. From the moment that they began their grueling training, the University of Washington Huskies exemplified sportsmanship, athleticism and perseverance. Their discipline was rewarded when the Huskies won all five events at the IRAs--the first time in IRA history that a single program has swept five races. This victory marks the first time in more than 70 years that the Huskies have won consecutive national titles, and it finishes a season where the Huskies won every race in which they competed. The Men's Varsity Eight--Sam Ojserkis, Dusan Milovanovic, Alex Bunkers, Ryan Schroeder, Mijo Rudelj, Sebastian Peter, Sam Dommer, A.J. Brooks, and Robert Munn--easily surpassed the standing record for the IRA championship. In fact, every Husky boat also set a championship record on their way to victory. As we celebrate the long tradition of crew at the University of Washington, I want to commend Coach Michael Callahan, and all of the talented athletes of the Husky Men's Varsity Crew Team for their truly historic season. I wish them continued success in the future.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. They're going to pay for it by having the IRS claw back the subsidy to middle-income families who will be in the new health plans. The Treasury will pay these subsidies directly to the health plan so the individuals won't even know it happened. So they will be invisible to the newly insured, but at the end of the year, middle class people are suddenly going to get a bill from the IRS for something they never knew went there. So, in other words, we're going to let a hundred-billion-dollar industry pull out of a deal and pay for it by requiring working people across this country to write a check to the IRS. Welcome to Republican- style health reform. Vote ``no'' on this bill. It's simply another way to try and repeal ObamaCare. Mr. Obama cares. He passed a bill. The Republicans have done nothing since they have been in charge.

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I never cease to be amazed. I think I've seen the silliest thing in the world and then I come out here and they've done it again. Sometime in the next 23 days, the Supreme Court is going to make a ruling on whether the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. If they throw it out, as the Republican Party at prayer is hoping, this tax will have never existed. It will be gone because it's never been implemented. It's not affecting anybody. This is a PR stunt for the election. The Republicans are helping the device industry back out of a deal they made during health care reform. In May 2009, the president of AdvaMed, which is the professional organization of the device manufacturers, signed a letter to President Obama stating: ``We are ready to work with you'' to do health reform. The industry later agreed to the excise tax, knowing the cost would be offset by the new demands for devices created by the 30 million new people who would be insured. That was the deal they made. You can't make a deal with a Republican and think it's going to last. It surely won't. And all the other sectors of the health care industry made similar deals. Unlike the Bush-era Congress, the Democrats insisted their legislation be paid for. We paid for the whole thing. Well, guess what? AdvaMed now wants out of the deal. They never meant it. They were a flim-flam operation when they came in in the first place. They also claim that, Oh, my God, we're going to lose 43,000 jobs. You know who did the study? AdvaMed contracted with somebody to do a study; and lo and behold, they lost 43,000 jobs. Bloomberg had an independent consultant look at it, and they find that there is no evidence that there will be any jobs lost whatsoever. That was entered into the Record during the earlier debate, and I won't do it again. The demand for devices will remain steady even after the tax kicks in, and the tax does not only apply to devices made in America and shipped overseas. It applies to every one of them. There's no way you're going to get out of it. So the argument about offshoring jobs is just political nonsense. They want to call this is a jobs bill--we're saving 43,000 jobs. They were never in doubt, never in question. That a company is laying off somebody today in anticipation of a tax that goes in effect in 2013, folks, 6 months from now that might be repealed by the Supreme Court, you cannot tell me that the management of these companies are that foolish.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, I introduced the Ensuring Child Care for Working Families Act to help low-income workers stay in the workforce. My bill creates a guarantee of Federal child care assistance for children up to the age of 13 in families with incomes up to 200 percent of the Federal poverty level. This program would be matched with State funds and administered by the State. Low-income families and single parents have been bearing the brunt of this recession. They want to work, but often can't afford reliable and appropriate child care, so they are forced to either leave their jobs or to leave their kids in unhealthy or dangerous environments. For many poor people, there simply are no better options. In the 1990s, Federal assistance for child care programs was established to address this very problem. It was created to help low- income families transition from welfare to paychecks. Over the years, funding for this program has dwindled, despite growing demand. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the TANF legislation, was passed in 1996 to ``end welfare as we know it.'' But we failed to provide the necessary support services to enable poor working families to succeed. One of those services is high-quality child care. Today, only one of six children eligible for Federal child assistance receives it. Twenty-two States have waiting lists for child care. And families in 37 States were in worse circumstances in February of 2011 than they were in February of 2010 as the child care waiting list continues to grow, copayments rise, eligibility tightens, and reimbursement rates stagnate. After three decades of wage stagnation in this country, with paychecks failing to keep up with the cost of health care, housing, and education, child care has become an unaffordable necessity for too many Americans. A related problem that we also must acknowledge is the gender wage gap. Women only earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the Census Bureau. Yet two-thirds of the women are now either the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in their family. So when there are wage gaps, entire families suffer. That means less money for food on the table and everything else that a family needs to survive. Two days ago, Senate Republicans blocked a bill introduced by Senator Barbara Mikulski that would strengthen the Fair Labor Standards Act's protections against pay inequities based on gender. As President Obama said, Republicans have once again put ``partisan politics ahead of women and families.'' This is wrong. Republican Senators ought to explain to their constituents why they did not vote for Senator Mikulski's bill. Let me be very clear: equal pay for equal work isn't just a woman's issue--it's a family issue. For the millions of American women whose families depend on their earnings, reliable child care is vital. It's time to level the playing field for working women. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5188 so that all parents, particularly working women, have the child care they need to stay on the job.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to remind my colleagues about the ongoing problem of hazing in the United States military. Hazing, particularly racially motivated hazing, undermines our military. Multiple suicides in 2011 by service members of color after suffering hazing drew increased attention to this problem. These incidents involved dehumanizing service members through racist taunting, harassment and physical assault. Private Danny Chen, 19, a Chinese American, took his own life in Kandahar, Afghanistan in October 2011 after being hazed. Investigators found that he had been physically assaulted and taunted with racial slurs. Eight soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, assault and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Private Chen. In his annual holiday message on December 23, 2011, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta condemned hazing in the military. He later directed military commanders to review hazing policies and ensure compliance. At the outset of this year, our colleagues in the Congressional Tri- Caucus called for public hearings and hosted a forum on the issue. In March, the Armed Services Committees' Subcommittee on Military Personnel hosted a hearing on this subject and heard testimonies from U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard representatives. Those testifying all agreed that hazing is wrong and should not be tolerated. However, the hearing also highlighted the need for greater transparency and regular oversight in order to ensure real, measurable success in combating hazing within the ranks of our military. Thankfully, a portion of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 calls for annual reports by the U.S. Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security as well as a report by the Comptroller General, which will create help define hazing as well as create systematic means by which data about hazing can be collected and tracked. As a result of these reports, we will have the common language, tools, data and communication needed to better prevent hazing in our military. By learning from our failure to protect Private Chen and other victims, we also hope to honor their memory. Mr. Speaker, we owe an immense debt to our brave members of our military who risk their lives for our national security. I join my colleagues in their steadfast effort to make sure that Congress does its due diligence to ensure that hazing has no place in our armed services.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, as I listen to this debate, I am not sure if we are talking about India or China, but where are we talking about here? The Republicans have set up another straw man. This bill is another Republican attack on women's rights at the same time it's masquerading as an antidiscrimination bill. It's about as cynical and deceptive as anything I've seen on the floor. I ask the proponents of this bill: If you care, Mr. Speaker, if they care about discrimination against women, why did they vote in the last Congress against women's rights to challenge gender-based pay discrimination? Why did you also vote to allow health insurers to continue charging women higher premiums based on their sex? These votes are on the record. That's what you think of women. My friend, this bill is not what it claims to be. It is not about fighting discrimination against women. It is the opposite. It is another Republican intrusion into a woman's right to choose. Women should be able to make such sensitive and private decisions with their families, their doctors, and their God, free from the fear of the police. What are you going to do, set up a registry every time they do a sonogram and they decide what the baby is, girl or boy, they are going to post it and then they are going to follow? If that woman then decides to have an abortion, well, she is getting rid of a girl, so we are going to criminally charge her with making that decision on the basis of the sex of the child. That's what kind of nonsense you are setting up. For people who don't want government in people's lives, who argue over and over and over about keeping the government--in fact, we don't want ObamaCare. We don't want government in our lives at all. But in this one, you want them to go right into the personal mind of the woman and decide and criminally charge her. Do you think that's going to do any good? You simply are attacking women's rights. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Berman/Manzullo bill to reform how we promote exports. This is a great down payment on a whole host of reforms we can make to how the government works with U.S. businesses to create jobs by exporting our goods and services. We have enormous business opportunities in overseas markets, and we have overwhelming data and analysis that shows that other countries have been doing a better job at promoting their exports and that we can easily do much better. Today's bill will focus our export promotions activities and reduce obstacles to exporting without spending any more money. As you may know, Mr. Reichert and I also have a bill with a couple of additional export promotion provisions that also have no cost and are uncontroversial. Because of a quirk in the tax code we are getting inaccurate data on services exports that could be up to one-third wrong. We need to fix it. We also need to have a better annual report and plan from the TPCC on how the government's overall export work is matching up with the needs of U.S. businesses. I'd ask the members for their support in continuing to push on this bill, to get it through the Senate, and on other measures too, like what Mr. Reichert and I have put together--costless improvements we can make to improve exports and create jobs.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Chair, I rise today to introduce my amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013 to encourage and strengthen information and data sharing between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense related to environmental exposures of service members. Attributing a medical diagnosis or set of symptoms to an environmental exposure can be challenging, especially exposures that occurred years or decades in the past. Of course, this is a big concern and source of frustration for service members, veterans and their families. We have seen this challenge time and again in our Nation's history, whether it is understanding Agent Orange exposures or the Gulf War Syndrome. Today's service members may be exposed to hazards including air contamination resulting from burn pits, industrial toxic chemicals, chemical and biological warfare agents, toxic contaminants such those resulting from munitions containing depleted uranium, and others. The long-term health consequences of these hazardous environmental exposures remain uncertain. A recent Government Accountability Office report looked at the Pentagon's policies regarding environmental exposures and identified a need for a comprehensive plan on environmental exposures of service members, including recommendations for what the Defense Department can do to identify and address possible health risks resulting from environmental exposures. The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 under consideration by the House this week contains a provision requiring the Defense Department to develop a comprehensive plan on researching and documenting environmental exposure incidents to members of the Armed Forces. However, this provision does not explicitly connect this plan to the ongoing health information data sharing between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. My amendment addresses this by having the Defense Department include in their plan a comprehensive status update on their sharing of environmental exposure data with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This information should be available to the VA to be examined over time, over decades even, to address exposure-related questions and identify possible origins and causes of disease. Data sharing should be done in a timely, ongoing, and updateable manner so that the Department of Veterans Affairs is alerted to hazardous exposure events and information on environmental exposure events can be updated when there is new information. Mr. Chair, the goal of my amendment is to enhance interdepartmental coordination and collaboration so that active duty members of the armed forces and veterans exposed to harmful toxins as a result of their military service get the answers, attention and treatment they and their families need.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Chair, last year, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 that granted unprecedented powers to the president, including ability to indefinitely detain without trial American citizens suspected of terrorism. I strongly opposed this provision and voted against passage of the entire Act. On December 15, 2011, after the bill had passed, I spoke on the House floor condemning these dangerous and unnecessary measures. I was concerned that our civil liberties would erode if we leave the interpretation of the law to the commander-in-chief. As we continue our counter-terrorism efforts at home and abroad, we are leaving enormous leeway to the current president, the next president, and the president after that to gather intelligence and detain individuals without charge or trial. Today, government surveillance is more intrusive than ever. Congress, which once seemed poised to shut Guantanamo Bay, has instead passed bipartisan law after law ensuring its indefinite operations. In my district, the Seattle Police Department recently acquired surveillance drones, but no policies have yet been drafted to guide their use. It is not clear whether these drones will be used only to collect evidence on specific crimes or become an invasive, all-encompassing surveillance operation without proper oversight. This week, we're voting on the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013, and the House had an opportunity to challenge some of these far-reaching provisions in current law. Earlier this morning, I voted for the Smith-Amash amendment to the FY13 NDAA, which would strike Section 1022 of the FY12 NDAA and amend Section 1021 to eliminate indefinite military detention of those detained in the United States. In short, this amendment would explicitly ban any president or government official from ordering the military to place anyone in the country into indefinite detention without charge or trial. It also reaffirms due process protections for all persons within the United States. I am deeply disappointed that this bipartisan amendment did not get enough votes to be adopted into the FY13 NDAA.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill with the support of Congressman Reichert to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our country's export promotion efforts. Over the next decade exports will be this country's biggest growth engine for jobs. Even though most everyone knows that, everyone also agrees the United States does not do a great job of promoting our exports. But with commonsense no-cost reforms, we can take big steps to change that--and create jobs faster and compete better with other countries. There are about 20 agencies in the Federal Government working hard to promote our exports--and they're all overseen by an effort centered in the called the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, TPCC, created by President Clinton in 1993. The fact that most people have never heard of it says a lot about why we're not succeeding. My bill would put more energy into their efforts. First, this bill would make sure the TPCC and all the agencies it coordinates has a single plan every year, sets clear goals and ensures the export efforts of all of these agencies are coordinated and do not overlap. Second, my bill would require an annual report to businesses and Congress that looks back on the government's efforts to promote exports, the private sector's progress, where the Federal Government's work succeeded and came up short, how we're competing with other countries and what our next steps are. Finally, my bill gets businesses and the TPCC much better data so we actually know how we are doing. Right now our Services export and import numbers are up to 35 percent off because Congress does not let the statisticians in the Commerce Department see all the data they need. Businesses want accurate economic data and people who promote our exports have to have it too. This is a place where Congress is in the way and we should fix it. More than 50 other countries promote their exports and most of those countries do a better job than we do. This bill would go a long way towards making us number one. This bill would cost the American taxpayer nothing, but go a long way towards making our export efforts more efficient, more accountable, and would help us create more jobs here at home. Thank you.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the late Mr. Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi and to celebrate his Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor. As a student at the University of Washington during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mr. Hirabayashi resisted the internment of Japanese Americans by refusing to board a bus to an internment camp and by questioning the constitutionality of an imposed curfew. Mr. Hirabayashi challenged Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Japanese American internment during World War II. Along with Mr. Hirabayashi, Fred Korematsu and Minoru Yasui brought lawsuits before the Supreme Court. Though Mr. Hirabayashi lost his first case in 1943, he would go on to win in 1987 as the evidence proved there was no military reason for the exclusion order. As Mr. Hirabayashi noted ``there was a time when I felt that the Constitution failed me, but with the reversal in the courts and in public statements from the government, I feel that our country has proven that the Constitution is worth upholding. The U.S. government admitted it made a mistake. A country that can do that is a strong country. I have more faith and allegiance to the Constitution than I ever had before.'' As the representative of Seattle, I am proud this high honor will be presented, albeit posthumously, to Mr. Hirabayashi. He had the bravery and strength to stand up for civil rights during a time when racism was widespread against Japanese and people of Japanese descent. I join many in honoring Mr. Hirabayashi for his courage.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a great epidemiologist and immunization champion Dr. William Foege and to celebrate his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Dr. Foege's commitment to public health throughout his career--particularly in the area of promoting child survival and immunization worldwide--is nothing less than extraordinary. In 1966, Dr. Foege served as a medical missionary in a remote part of Nigeria where he encountered the devastating disease of smallpox. He campaigned tirelessly for a more aggressive response to this terrible disease. In the absence of sufficient vaccine supply, Dr. Foege developed a strategy called ``surveillance and containment'' to combat the spread of smallpox. An innovative strategy, his focus on ``hot zones'' was remarkably successful and led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1979. Dr. Foege's work led him to become the Chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Smallpox Eradication Program and in 1977 he was elevated to Director of the CDC where he remained an aggressive champion for childhood immunization and continued his leadership in the fight for the eradication of smallpox. Dr. Foege's accomplishments and awards are many and span his long career. After leaving the CDC, he formed the Task Force for Global Health (1984), which continues today as a critical nexus for the establishment of international collaborations to promote child wellness and survival. The impact that Dr. Foege and the Task Force has had on the world through childhood immunizations to prevent polio, measles, river blindness, and many other diseases has been nothing short of astonishing. In 1986, Dr. Foege joined the Carter Center in Georgia serving as their Executive Director until 1992. He is a professor emeritus at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta and an affiliate professor of epidemiology in my District at the University of Washington (UW), School of Public Health. In 1999, he became senior medical advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he remains an emeritus fellow. With this record of accomplishment and service, it is clear why UW chose to name their Bioengineering-Genome Sciences building after Dr. Foege. To this day, Dr. Foege continues to educate the world on domestic and international health policies through his writing and speaking engagements. His is a career defined by service and rooted in science. Dr. Foege's enthusiasm and talent for global health continues to generate and influence future generations of public health professionals. I am delighted that he has been awarded this honor.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent the most diverse Congressional District in Washington State--more than 100,000 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders live in the 7th Congressional District. Fourteen percent of my constituents are of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent. Their contributions throughout Washington State and across our country have been integral to our Nation's success. During this commemorative month, we also should remind ourselves of past treatment of these groups, which has been marred by discrimination and bigotry. This year marks the 70th year since the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the 130th year since the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Only by learning and remembering our history can we hope to avoid repeating its difficult lessons. I applaud the efforts of organizations dedicated to telling the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Seattle's Wing Luke Asian Museum, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Filipino American National Historical Society, and the Japanese American Legacy Project are among those committed to preserving and narrating the stories of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who helped to shape our common history. I have been privileged to introduce numerous measures to honor the legacies of Asian Americans in my district including legislation to designate a federal courthouse in Seattle, the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse. Mr. Nakamura, a member of the storied 442nd Regimental Combat Team, posthumously received the Medal of Honor in recognition of his extraordinary bravery during World War II. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders long have made and continue to make very meaningful contributions to our country and to our society. This month, we honor them.