Michael McNulty

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield to my friend, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford).

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Madam Speaker, due to a prior commitment back in my congressional district March 30, I missed rollcall votes 94 and 95. Had I been present and voting, I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall vote 94, the motion to recommit on H.R. 3908, and ``no'' on rollcall vote 95, the vote on final passage for H.R. 3908.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in very strong support of this joint resolution of which I am proud to be a cosponsor. I agree with the author of this resolution and the other Members who have spoken in saying that it is high time we remove any remaining perception that this is a forgotten war. I am very proud of the fact that in the 21st District of the State of New York, it is certainly not forgotten. We have beautiful memorials to the Korean War veterans both in Albany and in Troy; and on the first Monday of every month, Mr. Speaker, in Albany, we salute a distinguished veteran. We do the same thing on the second Monday of every single month in Rensselaer county to keep the memories alive and to give thanks. And so today I salute and pay tribute to the more than 54,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to our country, a sacrifice which my brother made in a succeeding war. I also salute those who are still alive today from the Korean era; and there are many, like my friend Ned Haggerty who is twice the recipient of the Purple Heart. This is a good resolution, also, for us to generally stop and pause and get our priorities straight and to remember that had it not been for the men and women who wore the uniform of the United States military through the years, we would not have the privilege of going around bragging about how we live in the freest and most open democracy on earth. Freedom is not free. We paid a tremendous price for it. That is why when I get up in the morning as my first two priorities, I thank God for my life and then I thank veterans for my way of life. Today, I especially thank those from the Korean era.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Chair's approval of the Journal.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), the Democratic leader, for yielding me the time. Well, here we go again. My friends on the other side of the aisle want to give away surplus revenue before the surpluses even materialize. I support marriage penalty tax relief. I will save the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller), my friend on the other side of the aisle, the time and trouble of citing the statistics in my district. There are 51,222 married couples in my district, and they would get relief under the Rangel substitute which I intend to support. But I would also point out that more than twice as many people, 112,262 constituents in my district receive Social Security and Medicare benefits; and they will not get protection under the Republican bill. We have had 30 years of deficit spending. There is enough blame to go around for all of that and the tremendous national debt that has resulted. Now we have an era of surpluses, and we are going to decide what to do with the extra money. But what is the size of the surplus? I am amused by all these guesstimates. Six months ago, the CBO said that it was going to be a trillion dollars, and we all started to divvy up that money. Then a few weeks ago, because of this robust economy that we are experiencing, they revised that figure and said it was going to be almost double that, $1.9 trillion. We all got excited about that until I picked up the New York Times and read an article by Bob Reischauer called the ``Amazing Vanishing Budget Surplus.'' As I went through his article, which I thought was pretty well thought out, and he took away the Social Security portion of that surplus, which is the bulk of the surplus, and moderately revised down some of the over-optimistic assumptions. He concluded that our 10-year budget surplus could actually be as low as $100 billion. Now, I can understand people thinking that it will be more than that, and I am among that number. But do we really think it is going to be 20 times that? We all say that we are in favor of saving Social Security, saving Medicare, providing prescription drugs for the elderly, and paying down the national debt. We all say that. But if we do that, what, if any, money will be left? I think Bob Reischauer's projection is low. But what if he is right? Let us take that as an example. This one bill, I would say to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller), this one bill would put us $82 billion in deficit. Just this one bill! So I support the Rangel substitute. I will vote against this irresponsible bill, and I will say to the gentleman from Illinois, I know how many married couples are in my district. I am going to protect them and the seniors.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Jim Ford is Swedish? I thought he was an Irish monsignor. Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that when I first came here in 1988 and met Jim Ford, I thought he looked like an Irish monsignor so I referred to him as monsignor. Little did I know that for years before I came to the House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill also called him monsignor. So over the past 11 years, I have carried on that tradition. But whatever the title, we are all very grateful to you, Dr. Ford, for your advice and counsel and friendship through the years. We thank you for Marcy and your great family and the tremendous support they have also been to us. I particularly thank you for the service of your son Peter who has protected me in Sudan and Kuwait and various hot spots around the world. I think if we sum it all up, we could use the words of scripture to describe your service here in the House of Representatives over the past 20 years: ``Well done, good and faithful servant.''

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I yield to my good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) to explain to the House why we are considering this matter at this time.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. McNULTY. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I shall not object, I rise simply to commend my colleague the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds) for bringing my resolution to the floor, and to speak for a moment about its merits. Mr. Speaker, Dr. Jerri Nielsen was stationed at the South Pole during this past Antarctic winter, and by virtue of self-examination discovered a lump in her breast. She performed a biopsy. She concluded that she had breast cancer. She administered chemotherapy and tried as best she could to endure the Antarctic winter until a plane could come and rescue her and give her more comprehensive medical treatment. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this resolution is to point out the heroism of those who went to rescue Dr. Nielsen. They are the members of the Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing, which is located in my congressional district in Glenville, New York. This mission departed the Samuel S. Stratton Air National Guard Base on October 6th, arrived at the South Pole on October 15th, traveled 11,410 nautical miles, and was led by Major George McAllister, Jr. Mr. Speaker, this trip was historic in that Major McAllister and his crew became the first persons ever to land at the South Pole so soon after an antarctic winter. I know a little bit about the dangers faced by the members of the 109th, Mr. Speaker, because I have traveled with them both to the North Pole and to the South Pole. Of course, when I went with them, it was in the middle of the Antarctic summer, which is our winter. So when I was there in January of 1994 it was a balmy 40 degrees below zero. But in the Antarctic winter, the record low temperature is 128 degrees below zero. A complex piece of machinery like a C-130 cannot operate in that kind of temperature. But Major McAllister and his crew went in as soon as possible, rescued Dr. Nielsen, and Dr. Nielsen is now receiving the treatment that she needs. So on this particular occasion, I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds) for allowing us to consider this resolution, and I would like, Mr. Speaker, just to mention the names of those who comprised that lifesaving crew. They are Pilot Major George R. McAllister, Jr.; Senior Mission Commander Colonel Marion G. Pritchard; Co-pilot Major David Koltermann; Navigator Lieutenant Colonel Brian M. Fennessy; Engineer Chief Master Sergeant Michael T. Cristiano; Loadmasters, Senior Master Sergeant Kurt A. Garrison and Technical Sergeant David M. Vesper; Flight Nurse Major Kimberly Terpening; and Medical Technicians Chief Master Sergeant Michael Casatelli and Master Sergeant Kelly McDowell. Mr. Speaker, I thank all of my colleagues for this opportunity to salute these true American heroes, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this joint resolution.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for yielding me this time, and I thank both of my friends from California for bringing this resolution to the floor. I strongly support it. Mr. Speaker, 1989 was a wondrous year to be alive, and the events which we celebrate actually started in Poland. After many years of struggle during which Lech Walesa and his followers spent their time under martial law, house arrest, or actually in jail, democracy prevailed in the great nation of Poland. And then, as others have said, the movement quickly spread throughout Eastern Europe. I will never forget as long as I live the specter of Erich Honecker, then the leader of East Germany, standing up before the world and making this pronouncement: ``This is where it stops. It shall not happen here,'' meaning the democracy movement. Within weeks of his making that statement, he was no longer the leader of East Germany. He was replaced by Egon Krenz, who decided to adopt the ``moderate hard line,'' which roughly translated meant they were going to try to appease the democracy movement but preserve the communist system. He too was quickly dispatched, and we know the rest of the story. Mr. Speaker, I was at The Berlin Wall when the people were out there with their hammers and chisels tearing it down piece by piece. You can imagine how I felt, this child of the Cold War, brought up in Green Island, New York, population 2,500, taught by the good sisters of St. Joseph who had a monthly drill where we were required to drop to the floor, get under our desks and prepare for the air raids by our totalitarian enemies. And that had an impact on me, Mr. Speaker. One day I would be thinking about my hopes and dreams and aspirations and how I wanted to be like my father and go into public service, and the next day we would have one of these drills and I was scared. It had a tremendous impact on me to think that some world leader somewhere could make a decision which would end humankind as we knew it. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful that I have lived to see the day when my four daughters and my three grandchildren and young people all over the world can look forward to growing up in a more peaceful world. As I was standing at the Berlin Wall watching it being torn down, I knew I was present for a great moment in history. I felt like the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind). I wanted some commemoration of that. I noticed as people were chipping away at the wall and the pieces were falling they would catch them and put them in their pockets as little mementos. And I said to myself, I think I would like to do that. Already, capitalism being in evidence, there were vendors out there selling pieces of the Berlin Wall. Ever the skeptic, I said ``how do I know that those pieces came off the wall?'' So I looked around and capitalism being further in evidence, there was a guy walking back and forth with hammers and chisels renting them out. So I went over with my military escort who spoke German and we made a deal and I paid some money and I grabbed a hammer and chisel and did what the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) did. I chipped away at that wall and helped tear it down and brought back some of those pieces to give them to veterans of our Armed Forces who I knew would cherish them. I later went through Checkpoint Charlie, or the remnants of it, and talked to people in East Berlin and was just totally amazed by what they were telling me about what was happening. I came back to the other side. I was to be briefed by our commanding general, and before he could say anything to me I started talking and I could not stop talking about how excited I was at what I had just heard and witnessed. He just said to me: ``Mike, I wish you were with me the first day they opened up free access through Checkpoint Charlie. They had a ceremony and everybody was lined up on our side and as the people came through from East Berlin, they were very polite to the politicians and other diplomats that were in the line. But they saw my uniform and they came to me and one after another, they told me, `You tell your government, but particularly you tell your soldiers, how grateful we are for their vigilance through the years. Had it not been for their vigilance, we would not be enjoying this new freedom today.' '' Mr. Speaker, at that moment in my life I was never more proud to be an American. So, to me, Mr. Speaker, it is no coincidence that Freedom Day is so close to Veterans' Day. We should remember what happened after those events, too, namely the breakup of the Soviet Union into individual democratic republics. I was in one of them on their Independence Day: Armenia. What a great thrill it was to be with them the day after their referendum as they danced and sang--(the gentleman from New York spoke in Armenian), long live free and independent Armenia. Let us remember all that, but especially let us remember the soldiers who are responsible for the freedom that is enjoyed now by hundreds of millions of people around the world who had been denied it all their lives.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, this week we celebrate the 224th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, and also we mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. These two events have a lot to do with each other. If we think of all of the wondrous things that have happened over the past 10 years, the collapse of the Communist system in Eastern Europe, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Soviet Union into individual democratic republics, we cannot help but reach the conclusion that freedom is not free. We paid a tremendous price for it. I believe that we should remember every day that had it not been for the men and women who wore the uniform of the United States military through the years, we would not have the privilege of going around bragging about how we live in the freest and most open democracy on the face of the Earth. So today when I think of these two great events, I give thanks to all of those who made the supreme sacrifice, and all of those who wore the uniform of the United States military. I start this day as I do every day, thanking God for my life and veterans for my way of life.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. McNULTY

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.