George Miller

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Dean Rex R. Perschbacher on the occasion of his retirement as the Dean of the UC Davis School of Law. Dean Perschbacher served as Dean and in the Dean's office longer than anyone in the history of the UC Davis School of Law. He served for 10 years as Dean from 1998 to 2008. Before becoming Dean, he served for five years as associate dean for academic affairs in the School. Dean Perschbacher is best known for strengthening the 40-year-old UC Davis School of Law's reputation as one of the nation's best public law schools. Students are recruited nationwide, and the School is frequently honored for the diversity of its faculty and student body. Under his leadership, the Law School recruited 26 ladder-rank faculty members, expanded the clinical program, started a master's program in international commercial law, and established an outreach program for underserved college students--many of whom have gone on to law school. He worked with campus, university, and state officials to secure campus and state funding for the first significant expansion to the School's facilities since the completion of the Law School 40 years ago. He built a strong foundation of alumni philanthropy and volunteerism upon which the next generation of leadership at UC Davis School of Law can expand and is credited with increasing private giving over tenfold. During his tenure, the School added five endowed chairs and professorships, bringing the total number of seats to six. He also raised more than $3 million in private donations for the building expansion and renovation project. Dean Perschbacher taught at UC Davis since 1981 with an emphasis on the areas of Civil Procedure, Professional Responsibility, and Clinical teaching. He received the Law School's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992 and a Special Citation Affirmative Action and Diversity Achievement Award in 2001. He has published articles in the areas of civil procedure, professional responsibility and lawyers' negotiations. He is co-author of United States Legal System: An Introduction (1st and 2d eds.); Cases and Materials on Civil Procedure (1-5th eds.); California Civil Procedure; California Legal Ethics (1-6th eds.), and Problems in Legal Ethics (3-8th eds.). The Dean has also been involved in law school accreditation activities having served for six years on the American Bar Association's Accreditation Committee; and on two separate standing committees of the Association of American Law Schools, AALS, and two section executive committees. Currently, he is Chair of the AALS Section of the Dean. From 1990-1996, he served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Services of Northern California and two related boards. He has also served on the Governing Committee on Continuing Education of the Bar from 2000-2003. Dean Perschbacher received his J.D. degree from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he was Articles Editor of the California Law Review and elected to Order of the Coif. After graduation, he served as law clerk to The Honorable Alfonso J. Zirpoli of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Later he entered private practice with Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe in San Francisco. He has taught at UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), the University of Texas, Santa Clara University, and the University of San Diego law schools. Madam Speaker and colleagues, now is the appropriate time for us to acknowledge Dean Perschbacher for his years of work and service to UC Davis and the broader legal community. Please join me in thanking him and wishing him the very best as he enters retirement.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to praise a public servant who is finishing 20 years of outstanding service to the Congressional Research Service. Members of Congress and their staff who are engaged with Federal education and disability legislation have benefited from the wisdom and professionalism of Richard Apling, Specialist in Social Legislation Rick joined CRS in 1988 and has worked with Members of Congress and their staff on many of our most critical education issues. Rick has received numerous outstanding performance ratings as well as the gratitude of all of the Members and staff whom he has served throughout his career at CRS. Rick earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College, two master's degrees from the University of North Carolina, and a doctorate in education from Harvard University. Previous to joining CRS, he worked as a middle school history teacher and as a senior research associate at two private sector firms, senior research associate at Advance Technology, Inc., and at Policy Studies Associates. Since he began his service at CRS 20 years ago, Rick has been a nationally recognized expert on numerous aspects of major Federal education policy. Rick has been the lead policy analyst responsible for a variety of important and complex education programs and statutes, particularly the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. Rick has also been responsible for a number of the larger programs authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA, including the Impact Aid program, and the increasingly important and complex issues of assessments and accountability for students with disabilities at the intersection of the ESEA and IDEA. Rick is a leader in developing analytic capacity within the entire Education and Labor Section of CRS' Domestic Social Policy Division. He never fails to provide valuable input to colleagues; he has advised staff from throughout Domestic Social Policy Division, DSP, on allocation formula programming and a wide range of data analysis issues and has frequently served as a very effective mentor for junior staff. Rick is a thoughtful, responsive and hard-working civil servant who has supported Members of Congress and staff with his tremendous depth of knowledge, history and analysis--always with a wry smile and incredible patience. His ability to research details and explain complex information is unparalleled, and no matter how tight the deadline or how stressful the situation, Rick always responds in a friendly and composed manner. Rick's work is an outstanding example of high-level analytic support for the legislative process, and collaboration and leadership in capacity building. He will be missed greatly, but his influence will continue to be reflected through support of Congress' deliberations by the many remaining CRS staff whom he has mentored or advised, who will carry on his tradition of service. I am proud to thank Rick Apling publicly on behalf of this Congress for his many contributions to our Nation and, in particular, on behalf of students with disabilities.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, today, the House has an opportunity to restore Congress' intent to allow flight attendants, pilots, and reserve flight crew members to take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 without fear of losing their jobs. Passage of H.R. 2744, the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act, will ensure job protection for these workers when they need to time off to recover from an illness or care for newborn children or sick family members. While millions of American workers are guaranteed up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave, narrow Department of Labor regulations have rendered more than 200,000 flight crew personnel unable to take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The problem is that flight crew workers are not paid or scheduled for work in the same manner as industries that are governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Currently, the minimum threshold to qualify under the Family and Medical Leave Act is based on working at least 60 percent of a normal 40-hour work week--or 1,250 hours annually. However, most fulltime flight attendants' and pilots' work schedules are calculated based on their ``in-flight'' time--generally only those hours spent while the plane is moving. They are not paid for the time spent between flights or during layovers. This means that an average flight attendant spends approximately 13 hours on-duty for every 5 hours of actual flight time. But only those 5 hours are counted towards their FMLA eligibility. Work schedules for full-time flight attendants, pilots, or reserve personnel make it almost impossible to meet the minimum 1,250 threshold because of their unpaid time doing pre-flight and post-flight work activities. The problem is that flight crew workers are not paid or scheduled for work in the same manner as industries that are governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Currently, the minimum threshold to qualify under the Family and Medical Leave Act is based on working at least 60 percent of a normal 40-hour work week--or 1,250 hours annually. However, most full-time flight attendants' and pilots' work schedules are calculated based on their ``in-flight'' time--generally only those hours spent while the plane is moving. They are not paid for the time spent between flights or during layovers. This means that an average flight attendant spends approximately 13 hours on-duty for every 5 hours of actual flight time. But only those five hours are counted towards their FMLA eligibility. Work schedules for full-time flight attendants, pilots, or reserve personnel make it almost impossible to meet the minimum 1,250 threshold because of their unpaid time doing preflight and post-flight work activities. On average, a flight attendant is scheduled for 960 in-flight hours each year, and according to FAA regulations, pilots are prohibited from flying more than 1,000 hours a year. The legislative history is clear that airline attendants and pilots were meant to be covered when Congress enacted the original legislation in 1993. The Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act clarifies that flight attendants and pilots are entitled the benefits afforded by the Family and Medical Leave Act. The legislation provides that airline attendants, pilots and reserve personnel meet the hours of service requirement in the Family and Medical Leave Act if they work or are paid 60 percent of the airline's monthly work schedule and if they work or are paid for at least 504 hours. This number represents about 60 percent of the monthly work schedule of a typical airline. Hard working flight attendants and pilots should be able to take needed family and medical leave, and they deserve the protection of the law in securing their jobs when they return from tending to their personal and family medical needs. I would like to thank Congressman Timothy Bishop for introducing this important piece of legislation. I also thank the ranking member of the Education and Labor Committee, Mr. McKeon, for working with us to help craft a true bipartisan bill.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Conference Report on H.R. 2419, the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007. With the U.S. economy faltering and food prices rising, this conference agreement takes critical steps to reduce hunger, ensure that healthy foods are included in federal nutrition programs, and meet the nutritional needs of many low-income Americans. To help low-income families hit especially hard by high food prices, this legislation invests more than $7.8 billion in the food stamp program, now renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This commitment will slow the erosion of food stamp benefits caused by increasing food prices, provide food assistance to recipients without requiring them to spend down their education savings accounts and retirement plan assets, and increase food assistance to households with high child care expenses. The bill also invests $1.25 billion in commodity purchases for food banks, which will strengthen emergency food assistance programs' efforts to serve needy families. Our nation is facing a growing child obesity epidemic--an issue that demands strong efforts to improve the quality and nutritional value of foods offered through school meal programs. H.R. 2419 includes important provisions that will expand children's access to healthy foods during the school day, and that will help inform our efforts to reauthorize the nation's child nutrition programs next year. I am also pleased that this report increases the volume of fresh fruits and vegetables available through federally-supported domestic nutrition programs, and, as part of that, invests more than one billion dollars in expanding the fruit and vegetable snack program. Thanks to this significant investment, the snack program, targeted primarily to low- income children and to schools that disproportionately serve low-income families, will now provide thousands of students in every state with greater access to healthy foods. This bill also supports local food systems and farm-to-school programs by encouraging child nutrition programs to use a geographic preference when purchasing foods--allowing schools and other programs to select more nutritious agricultural products such as fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, eggs and meat. In addition, it will require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a national survey of the foods purchased by the school lunch programs. Science and research overwhelmingly tell us that providing our children with healthy, nutritious foods from the earliest years on is one of the best things we can do to help our children succeed. I am very pleased that all of the child nutrition provisions throughout this bill retain a focus on providing healthier foods and nutritional benefits as supported by scientific research. When we last reauthorized the child nutrition programs in 2004, we required children in low-income households receiving food stamps to be automatically enrolled for free meals at school through a process known as ``direct certification.'' This simplification reduces work for school administrators, eliminates a duplicative application process for low-income families, and improves the accuracy of the school meal enrollment process. We had hoped that school districts, states, and the USDA would do everything in their power to make sure that every eligible low-income child would benefit from this simplification. Unfortunately, the evidence to date indicates that the implementation of this provision has been inconsistent. The USDA must act more aggressively to help states and school districts reach all children who could benefit from this coordination of efforts. This bill will ensure that we get information from USDA that will allow us to monitor this progress and promote best practices through their new annual reports on direct certification. While this conference report contains many positive accomplishments, I am disappointed that it does not include a proposal from the House- passed bill that would ensure that public employees conduct eligibility determinations for food stamp benefits. Without this proposal, the food stamp determination process will now be open to for-profit companies, many of which may be more focused on boosting efficiency and revenue than serving the best interests of vulnerable Americans. The House provision would have re-established longstanding and productive public-private partnerships that help ensure that the right balance of private contractors and public employees are included in this process. It is frustrating that this was excluded from what is otherwise a very strong conference report. By making the right investments to strengthen the quality of foods provided to our Nation's children, this bill is a down payment on a healthier future for this country. I would especially like to thank Chairman Peterson, Congressman Goodlatte, and Senators Harkin and Chambliss for their hard work on this conference agreement. The House Education and Labor Committee is committed to building on this effort to improve child nutrition in this country, and to ensure that the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast program, and the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children (WIC) are available to all eligible children and families. I urge the passage of this bill.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today and invite my colleagues to join me in honoring Philmore Graham, of Vallejo, California, for his many years of service to our Nation and our community. Mr. Graham has provided remarkable leadership to our young people during his lifetime, especially by founding and then expanding the Continentals of Omega Boys and Girls Club. Philmore Graham, the ninth of ten siblings, was born August 29, 1938, to now deceased parents, John Archie and Louise Graham, in Laurinburg, North Carolina. He attended Laurinburg and Lincoln Heights High Schools and was a well-rounded student with a 3.9 grade point average. He was president of his class from eighth grade through the completion of high school, was captain of the football team, played basketball and was principal for a day. Philmore's father died when he was age 4 and his siblings and he missed the first 6 weeks of school to pick cotton and help their mother buy food and clothing for school. His hatred of picking cotton inspired him to do well in school because their mother would remind them that their choice was either go to school or continue to pick cotton. Philmore graduated from Tennessee State University with bachelor of science degrees in mechanical and metallurgical engineering in May of 1962. He has done graduate studies in material science at UCLA and UC Berkeley. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force through the University's ROTC program. While in the Air Force, he served as a project engineer for the Titan Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Program at Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California, from 1962-1965. During his tour of duty here, he worked in the Materials Engineering Department and developed a number of material specifications for missile components. He received a Superior Accomplishment Award for completing a record number of projects updating the Titan and Atlas Missile programs. Philmore also worked in the community while at Norton Air Force Base. In 1964, he spearheaded the project to establish a new chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Pi Rho Chapter, in San Bernardino, California. The chapter offered scholarships and social-economic programs to the community under his leadership. He was selected as ``Chapter and District Omega man of the Year.'' Philmore received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force in August 1965 and accepted a position with Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, in October 1965, where he directed the Foam Salvage Vessels Research and Development Program. He received a Superior Accomplishment Award for developing an economical method of testing the flotation material in the laboratory rather than the costly ocean testing. In 1972, Philmore was promoted to technical support branch head of the Nuclear Inspection Division of Mare Island Nuclear Submarine Overhaul Program. He received a third Superior Accomplishment Award for Outstanding Supervision of Training, Technical Support and Records of Naval Nuclear Work. From 1979 to 1983, Graham worked as an internal auditor for the Nuclear Reactor Division of the Nuclear Engineering Department and was assigned as the Director of Training for the department and supervised the training of some 250 engineers and technicians. In 1986, he was promoted to Supervisor, Nuclear Engineer and became the first and only African American supervisor in the Nuclear Engineering Department's history of Mare Island Naval Shipyard. During his administration, the Department received the highest grades to date on written exams during an audit from Washington, DC, and Philmore was awarded one of the highest monetary awards in the history of the Nuclear Engineering Department's incentive awards program for outstanding performance in upgrading the training program. Philmore continued his work in the community by establishing a new chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity in Vallejo. In 1966, he started the Continentals of Omega Boys Club with six boys; it has grown to more than 500 members and is now called the Continentals of Omega Boys & Girls Club, Inc. The organization is considered one of the top boys and girls clubs in the country. The club has produced a number of doctors, lawyers, businessmen, educators, engineers, skilled workers, and many other outstanding citizens. Academics is the major focus of the club and more than 70 percent of the membership achieve school honor rolls each year. More than 200 members have attended colleges and trade schools across the country and Philmore and members have received more than 63 awards for outstanding community contributions during the club's existence. When he retired from Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Philmore devoted himself completely to the club, growing it into the valuable asset it is today. Through the years Philmore was nominated for a multitude of awards and is the proud recipient of the NAACP Outstanding Citizen of the Year, Good Neighbor Award, Salute to America Lifetime Merit Award, Profile of Excellence Award, Martin Luther King, Jr., Humanitarian Award, ``Who's Who'' among Black Americans, Outstanding Young Men of America and several selections as Omega Man of the year and Citizen of the Year for the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Philmore has always been active with Friendship Baptist Church in Vallejo, where he served 10 years as superintendent of Sunday Church School and has taught Sunday School for 37 years, including his years in high school. He was married to the late Jamella Nelson Graham and they have two children, daughter, Deidre LeNore Graham and son, Montoya Reed, both graduates of Tennessee State University. Deidre obtained degrees in English and criminal justice and Montoya' earned a BS degree in biology and has done graduate study at TSU in animal science. Madam Speaker, because of Mr. Graham's devotion to his family, his community, and his country, I am delighted to have this opportunity to recognize his tireless efforts and ask all Members of the House to join me in wishing him well.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1156, I call up the bill (H.R. 493) to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment, with a Senate amendment thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield my 10 minutes to the Chair of the Commerce Committee, Mr. Dingell.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California, the subcommittee Chair of Ways and Means, Mr. Stark. (Mr. STARK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sestak), a member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania, Ms. Allyson Schwartz.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Shea-Porter), a member of the committee.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), a subcommittee Chair in the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews). (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Linda T. Sanchez), a member of the Education Committee.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today we are celebrating, or we will shortly with a vote on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, known as GINA. And today we celebrate it with a great sense of unanimity and agreement about this legislation. But that clearly was not always true over more than the past decade. This legislation has been controversial to some. It has had a shifting body of opponents to it over those many years. There are many who tried to ascribe attributes to this legislation that either wasn't intended to address or didn't exist at all. But the opposition was formidable. But when we celebrate the passage of this legislation today, we must also celebrate the spirit of two women in the House of Representatives that persevered through all of the political debate, as hot it was from time to time, through all of the controversy, through much of the ignorance and misinformation about the legislation, but who, throughout that entire decade, understood the promise of this legislation, both to those who would not be discriminated against in the future, but also the promise in terms of medical research and information that would become available to promote, not only cures and treatment, but greater scientific understanding of the genome and our make-ups and its impact on our health. And those two women were Congresswoman Louise Slaughter from New York, and our colleague who is with us in the Chamber today, Judy Biggert from Illinois. It's one thing to stand here and say we all agree today. But that wasn't the case, and that was what they kept pushing against year after year to get the Congress to understand the importance of this legislation. We come to that understanding rather late, when you consider that many of the States have taken the steps, many Nations have taken this step, but it's terribly important that we do it so people will be assured that no worker will be discriminated against because of his or her genetic information. As I mentioned, 41 States have already led the way in passing laws to prohibit discrimination to individual health insurance markets. 34 States have passed laws to prohibit employers from discriminating in the workplace. And the Federal Government has banned discrimination against Federal Government employees. Every American deserves this protection. In the last two decades we've seen incredible scientific advances in the diagnosis and the treatment of once untreatable, undetectable conditions. Scientists now have the incredible ability to identify genetic markers for disease that could and may never occur. Genetic testing can also help prevent diseases by identifying them early. Despite this amazing potential of genetic testing, advancements have been stifled out of fear of what some may do with the results of those tests. Many Americans forego testing because of that fear, the fear of losing their jobs, the fear of losing their health insurance. We pit that against the knowledge, the discovery and the treatment that would have been possible to those individuals, but the fear prevented them from coming forward. And this is not an isolated fear. A 2006 research study showed that 85 percent of the respondents believe that without protections, employers would use genetic information to discriminate. 64 percent believe that insurers would use the information to deny critical coverage. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act is clear. Title I of the bill prohibits group health plans and insurers from collecting or requesting genetic information with narrow exceptions. It also protects the privacy of this personal information. Title II of the bill prohibits employers from collecting or using their employees' genetic information. It also prohibits employers from discriminating against employees in hiring, firing and other terms of conditions of employment based upon the genetic information. This final bill makes it clear that, even though employers may not be held accountable for violations committed by health plans under title I, employers remain fully liable for any violations of title II, including violations involving health benefits. It is well settled in this country's employment discrimination laws, such as title VII, the Age Discrimination Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, that it is unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees in their health benefits. We intend for the courts to continue to interpret employer obligations under GINA similarly to all other civil rights laws. GINA will protect workers like David Escher, a former worker at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, who discovered his employer was trying to prove his injury was caused by a genetic disorder rather than work-related injury. This is precisely the type of discrimination and misuse of genetic information that we seek to prohibit in this bill. The protections provided by GINA are long overdue, and Representatives Slaughter and Biggert have fought, over this last decade, for these important changes, these important provisions in the law. And I want to thank them for all of their hard work. I also want to take a moment to thank the members of my staff, Michelle Varnhagen, Mark Zuckerman, Brian Kennedy, Jody Calemine and Michael Gaffin for all of their efforts. From Congressman Andrews' staff, Carlos Fenwick. Congresswoman Slaughter's staff, Michelle Adams, Cindy Pelligrini. From Congresswoman Biggert's staff, Brian Petersen, Jaime Vickery. And from Congressman McKeon's staff, Ed Gilroy and Jim Paretti. From Congressman Dingell's staff, Pete Goodloe, Jeanne Ireland, Jessica McNiece, Gregg Rothchild, and John Ford. From Congressman Frank Pallone's staff, Bobby Clark. From Congressman Rangel's and Stark's staff, Cybele Bjorklund and Deb Mizeur for all of their assistance. And in the Senate, from Senator Kennedy's staff, Dave Bowen, Portia Wu and Lauren McFerren. And from Senator Snowe's staff, Bill Pewen. And from Senator Enzi's staff, Ilyse Schuman and Keith Flannagan. And legislative counsel, Ed Grossman, Larry Johnson and Henry Christrup, for all of their assistance and all of the effort that they put in to making the changes and the distinctions between the actions in the House and the Senate, and all of the controversy that this brought with them. With that, I'd like to reserve the balance of my time so that Ms. Biggert may make her closing remarks. And again, I want to thank her so much. Her membership on our committee makes us very proud. And her political toughness to see this through to the end, along with Louise Slaughter, is a wonderful story that we celebrate also with the passage of this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I also would be remiss if I did not thank Dr. Francis Collins for all of his work and assistance and guidance to the Congress on this matter and for everything else he does in such a wonderful fashion.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 340) to make technical corrections in the enrollment of the bill H.R. 493.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 5715) to ensure continued availability of access to the Federal student loan program for students and families.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days in which Members may insert extraneous material on H.R. 5715 into the Record.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5715, the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008, as amended by the Senate. Earlier this month the House acted swiftly to pass this bipartisan legislation to ensure that students and families will be able to continue to access Federal loans they need to pay for college, regardless of what happens in the Nation's credit markets. Over the past few weeks, the President has also voiced his support for this legislation. I am glad that the President has recognized the importance of this legislation, and am very pleased that with today's vote, we will have an opportunity to send to him this bill for his signature. The bill we are considering today now includes some of the amendments added by the Senate to strengthen the purpose of the legislation. I want to thank Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi for all of their support for this legislation and all of their efforts to get it through the Senate on a timely basis. Because today's vote is timely, the sooner we get this legislation to the President's desk, the sooner it can be implemented by the Department of Education. This week, many incoming freshmen will be reviewing their financial aid packages and making decisions on where they plan to attend college this fall. For many of these students, their families are already worried about paying bills in today's economy. They shouldn't also have to worry about whether Federal aid they depend on to pay for college will actually be there this fall when they need it. Over the past few months, we have been closely monitoring what has been happening in the financial markets, and we have heard from stakeholders across the political and economic spectrum: The Department of Education, college financial aid officers, lenders, financial analysts, and students. Not surprising, we have heard varying predictions. Some believe that the lenders will continue to face trouble accessing capital for loans, and others believe that the markets will ease up. Fortunately so far, the credit crunch has not prevented any student parent from getting the Federal loans for which they are eligible. But we believe that it is only prudent to prepare for the possibility that the ongoing stress in the Nation's financial markets could jeopardize access to student loans. In addition to the provisions already passed overwhelmingly by the House earlier this month, the legislation before us today includes additional measures approved by the Senate amendments. This amended legislation assures that loans made through the lender-of-last-resort program are made with similar terms and conditions as other FFELP loans. It makes the Secretary's authority to designate entire institutions as a lender-of-last-resort program temporary. It ensures that guaranty agencies and lenders operating under the lender-of-last-resort program are subject to the same rules regarding inducements and conflicts of interest that other FFELP lenders are subject to. It safeguards the lender-of-last-resort program from abuses by requiring guaranty agencies and lenders acting as lenders of last resort to report on loans made through the program. It protects taxpayers by requiring reporting on the cost of the lender-of-last- resort program as compared to the current loan program. Finally, the amended legislation reduces low-income students' reliance on Federal student loans by directing all loans generated by this legislation into the Academic Competitiveness and SMART grants. I believe that these additions will enhance this bill by providing further protection for parent borrowers, boosting aid to low-income students, increasing accountability in the lender-of-last-resort program. Now more than ever, families deserve every assurance that we are doing all that we can to make sure that they will continue to be able to finance their children's education. I am confident that our efforts, coupled with proper planning in the Department of Education, will help ensure that students are able to get the financial assistance they need to attend college this fall. I would like to thank Mr. McKeon, our committee's senior Republican, Mr. Hinojosa, the subcommittee Chair, Mr. Keller, the senior Republican on the subcommittee, and all of their staff and all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their commitment to acting promptly on behalf of America's students and families. Again, thank you to Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi for their support. I urge my colleagues to join us in swiftly passing this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa), the chairman of the subcommittee.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 493.