George Miller

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I inadvertently voted ``aye'' on rollcall No. 564, an amendment to the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, H.R. 2643. I intended to vote ``no'' on the amendment, which would have imposed an unacceptable cut to the National Endowment for the Arts. I am pleased that my colleagues did not support this amendment, and I congratulate the gentleman from Washington, Interior Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks, who provided such important support for the arts and humanities in his subcommittee's legislation.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to thank him and the ranking member for bringing this bill to the floor and certainly thanking the staff that has worked with all of the Members on this legislation. I think this is a very good bill. I think this bill reflects the priorities of America, that we would once again start reinvesting in the Clean Water Revolving Fund so that people and communities can meet their obligations for clean water. And as millions of Americans set out across America with their families to visit the national parks, this bill makes legislation about the importance of those national parks, about the value of those national parks and the importance that we lay out a plan over the next 10 years to restore them and to reinvest in them so that the visitors a decade from now will have the same experience or a better experience when they visit the national parks as people do today. The national parks have far too much neglect in terms of the backlog of projects that need to be done, to enhance them, to improve them and to protect the national parks. The stateside of the Land and Water Conservation allows the Federal Government to be a partner with local communities on their priorities for the protection of open space and the enhancement of recreational opportunities, to improve the quality of life in our communities. We have seen this very, very successful program to enhance the communities, to enrich the experience for families in those communities. Finally, I would say in the Indian education programs where again as Indian tribes and others have more and more say in the education of their young people, where they're bringing about very innovative programs, to see us again invest in those programs. What we see now is we have a record number of Indian children who have gone on to college, who are enrolled in college, who are getting advanced degrees. We've got to continue to improve that program and this legislation does it. I also want to thank the committee for recognizing the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Park. This is a park that's growing in popularity. It tells the incredible and magnificent story of the women who came to the shipyards in California to build the ships to win the war in the Pacific and what that meant to us as country, as a culture, what it meant to the integration of the workforce during World War II, and certainly what it meant in terms of supplying our troops with the materials necessary to win the war in the Pacific. We have seen women from all across the country come with their daughters, with their granddaughters, with their great granddaughters and explain to them, this is where I worked, this is where we built and launched a ship a week in these shipyards. It's remarkable the ceremonies that are held there, to see these women, to come there and to leave their historical documents, to leave their letters home, to leave their welders' cards and their ironworkers' cards with the museum, and now we will be able to share all of that with the public as part of a greater effort in the National Park Service to develop the home front national park system all across the country where those who were on the home front during the war enabled us to successfully win and prosecute the Second World War. I want to thank the committee and the members.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, last Friday was the first anniversary of the MINER Act, which the Congress passed last year in the wake of the tragedies at the Sago, Aracoma Alma and Darby coal mines. Much progress has been made over the last year. For example, thanks in particular to the efforts of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, critical funding was provided to help develop new technologies for mining which were thought to be out of reach only a year ago. Funds were also provided to hire additional inspectors for underground coal mines. These funds were well spent, and the investment will save miners lives. Moreover, implementation of the requirements of the MINER Act, while slower than anticipated, has started to gain traction, as questions about its provisions have been addressed and as this Congress has exercised its oversight authority. But important as these actions are, they were intended as only a down-payment on what is needed to clean up years of neglect and backsliding by this Administration and an industry that had become, by its own admission, overly complacent. The need for supplemental action is more clear than ever, as too are the details of the supplemental action that is required at this time. Accordingly, I am joining Chairman Rahall and others today in introducing new legislation, the Supplementary Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, or S-MINER Act, to build on our initial accomplishments by taking the next steps. The S-MINER Act has four basic sections. The S-MINER Act would supplement emergency response plans. The MINER Act required mine operators to put in place detailed emergency response plans to prevent a recurrence of the tragedies at Sago, Aracoma Alma and Darby. Based on what we have learned over the last year, the S- MINER Act would tighten up some of the requirements to ensure that effective action is taken promptly. For example, the S-MINER Act would: In light of technological progress, speed up the dates by which mine operators have to install improved underground communication systems and refuge chambers; Ensure that requirements on how to seal abandoned areas of a mine, already scheduled to be issued in December of this year, meet recently developed NIOSH recommendations; Require the 52-year old standard on conveyor belt flammability to be updated consistent with NIOSH recommendations, and ban the practice of ventilating mines with intake air run over these conveyor belts (``belt air''); and Require the installation of underground gas and smoke monitoring systems, and require miners working alone to carry multi-gas detectors to protect them from otherwise undetectable toxic atmospheres they may encounter. And the bill would require a study by the National Academy of Sciences of the technology needed to help protect underground miners from the harmful potential consequences of lightning above the mine, the asserted spark that set off the Sago tragedy. The S-MINER Act would supplement enforcement authority. The MINER Act established some new penalties to encourage mine operators to take mine safety and health requirements seriously and address problems before they become worse. Based on what we have learned over the last year, the S-MINER Act would supplement these actions to enhance their effectiveness. For example, the S-MINER Act would: Clarify the authority of inspectors to be free of interference and to issue withdrawal orders in emergencies; Enhance penalties not adjusted by MINER Act; Respond to GAG findings of deficiencies in the penalty assessment process; and Provide MSHA with subpoena power equivalent to that of other agencies. In addition, the S-MINER Act would establish an independent ombudsman to ensure proper attention to miner complaints of unsafe conditions and to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. The S-MINER Act would supplement rescue, recovery and incident investigation authority. The MINER Act ensured that prompt notice of serious accidents be provided immediately to the Department of Labor, and that the number of available rescue teams be enhanced. Based on what we have learned over the last year, the S-MINER Act would supplement these actions to enhance their effectiveness. For example, the S-MINER Act would: enhance mine rescue and recovery operations by providing for a national call center; require timely notice to MSHA of ``near misses''; and require mine operators to provide certain logistical support for rescue teams. The bill would also require the procedures for accident investigations to be standardized, ensures witness coercion and conflict of interests are avoided, and provides for any investigation by MSHA to be supplemented by an investigation of the independent Chemical Safety Board when requested by authorized representatives of miners or families. The S-MINER Act would revise the respirable dust standards established 40 years ago. MSHA has struggled in the last decade to update badly needed improvements in critical health standards actually set by the Congress in the 1977 Mine Safety and Health Act, and has not been successful. Miners are once again developing symptoms of black lung and other deadly diseases of the past. For miners, this situation constitutes an emergency. Accordingly, the bill would update the rules the Congress set 40 years ago by adopting long-standing recommendations of NIOSH for these rules. Specifically, the S-MINER Act would: reduce the amount of coal dust to which miners can be exposed in accordance with NIOSH recommendations; require miners be equipped with the new personal dust monitors (PDMs) developed and certified by NIOSH, and authorize miners to adjust their activities to avoid overexposure; and update the procedures for compliance sampling by the Department of Labor and for operator surveillance sampling utilizing the PDM. The S-MINER Act would also set an independent standard for silica exposure (the current limit is entwined with the coal dust limit) in accordance with NIOSH recommendations. In addition, Madam Speaker, I am also joining with Chairman Rahall and others today in introducing the Miner Health Enhancement Act of 2007. As I mentioned, MSHA has struggled in the last decade to update badly needed improvements in critical health standards actually set by the Congress in the 1977 Mine Safety and Health Act, and has not been successful. While the S-MINER Act would deal with the most well- recognized of these issues, there are other 40-year-old health standards established by the Congress that also require attention. The Miner Health Enhancement Act of 2007 would: require MSHA to use the existing asbestos standard applicable to most American workers under OSHA rather that the weaker standard for asbestos now applicable; require MSHA to utilize the hazard communication standard issued by the last Administration after extensive rulemaking without the amendments adopted early in this Administration that weaken the currency of the scientific information provided to mine workers; and require MSHA to update the list of permissible exposure limits in its air contaminants standard to reflect the recommended exposure limits established by NIOSH. Last year we acted with urgency but too late; this year, it is our hope to enact needed reforms before the next tragedy occurs. As we focus this year on how to address this country's energy problems, let us not forget to provide for the safety and health of the workers who provide the raw materials that power this economy.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding and I thank all of my colleagues who have spoken on this resolution and certainly to Barbara Lee, my colleague from California, who has been such a not only supporter and the author of this resolution but all of our efforts to change the situation in Darfur. I had the honor to accompany Congresswoman Lee and our Speaker to Darfur a year ago February and saw the incredible devastation and the brutality and the genocide that is taking place there and vowed to do whatever I can to see if we can change it. I have been wearing this green band to save Darfur for over a year and a half. But this band will not save the people of Darfur, all of my constituents, thousands of my constituents who have marched throughout the Bay area, who have come across the country to march to save Darfur will not save Darfur. What will save Darfur is the nations of the world owing up to their responsibility to reject this genocide, to stop this genocide, to stop this holocaust against these people and get the government of Sudan to do so. Of course today we are here to call upon the nation of China to owe up to its responsibilities, given its huge influence, its economic influence, its military influence, its resource influence in Sudan, to use that influence to get the government of Sudan to start to sit down and to negotiate with all of the parties to end the arms trade that is taking place, to stop the economic engagement until such time as these people in Darfur are once again made safe, until these people in Darfur are once again allowed to return to their villages, to their families and start to put their lives back together and to end the genocide. That's what is necessary to be done. My colleague Mr. Goodlatte referred to the Olympics. It's hard to believe that the world is going to look upon the host of the Olympics and see there at the same time a nation that is underwriting a genocide. That is absolutely on a daily basis by its inaction and then by its positive actions underwriting and allowing the genocide to go forward. It's not that China can stop this alone, but in concert with the rest of the nations of the world that have called out for an end to this genocide, to take actions against the economic activity and the military activity in Sudan. Congresswoman Lee has pushed the effort of divestiture that has been followed up in many States and cities and universities and other entities. This has got to continue to stop the genocide that now so many of my colleagues have witnessed firsthand on those terrible, terrible visits to Darfur where we see the worst of humanity and the violence against these individuals and their families and their children. It has got to stop. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this bipartisan resolution to the floor to help us try and end the genocide in Darfur.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, this is a great day for America's workers. Today the House once again passes the minimum wage increase--and this time we expect this bill to be signed by the President. America's minimum wage workers have been waiting a long time for a raise. The last time they saw an increase was nearly 10 years ago. Since that last increase, in 1997, the value of the minimum wage has dropped to its lowest level in over half a century. Last summer, I had the honor to meet a woman named Sheryl Wade in Louisville, Kentucky. Sheryl told me at a forum about life at the minimum wage. She couldn't afford housing for herself and 3 sons. She had to move in and out with relatives and friends. Her boys had to constantly change schools and change friends. She could not afford health care. Sheryl is a hardworking American, sick and tired of barely living paycheck to paycheck, not making enough to get by. Mr. Speaker, her day has come. When we increase the minimum wage with this bill, from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over 2 years, the poorest working families in this country will see a $4,400 increase in their annual income--enough to pay for 15 months of groceries for a family of three. Thanks to this increase, in 2009, a family of four will move from 11 percent below the poverty line to 5 percent above the poverty line. Thanks to this increase, 13 million workers will see their pay go up, directly or indirectly. That includes 7.7 million women and 3.4 million parents. Over 6.3 million children will see their parents' income rise. This raise in wages is long overdue. Thanks to the hard work of religious, civil rights, labor, and community organizations--and American voters and working families--it is finally coming to pass. I'm proud of the work this Democratic Congress has done. This House, under new leadership, is putting working families and America's middle class first. What a change that is--and we've only just begun.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, last night the House adopted the Altmire-Udall amendment to provide military families with very simple but much needed support while loved ones are away on combat duty. Under the amendment that was agreed to, a worker can take family and medical leave to deal with the issues that arise as a result of a spouse, parent, or child's deployment to a combat zone like Iraq or Afghanistan. Under this amendment family members can use the leave to take care of issues like making legal and financial arrangements and making child care arrangements or other family obligations that arise and double when family members are on active duty deployments. Supporting the troops is more than a bumper sticker. We must support the troops with all of the support that they need so their families can continue to function during the difficult times of deployment. These deployments and extended tours are not easy on families, and two-parent households can suddenly become a single-parent household and one parent is left alone to deal with paying the bills, going to the bank, picking up the kids from school, watching the kids, providing emotional support to the rest of the family. You have got to deal with these predeployment preparations. This amendment is a good amendment. I hope that the House will support it with the passage of the legislation. Last year, tragically, it was thrown out in the conference committee and was given no consideration by the majority party of the last Congress.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, how remarkable and refreshing this budget is. Finally a budget that ends the Republican commitment to endless seas of red ink and deficit spending. Finally a budget that ends the Republicans' commitment to squandering the $5 trillion that they inherited from the Clinton administration. But more remarkable about this budget is it takes us in a new direction. It takes us in a direction where once again we see ourselves as a country and a national government investing in young people in this country, investing in their education, investing in the effort to make college more affordable for families and students who have to borrow money. That is what this budget does. With a $9 billion increase over and above the President's budget, for the first time we are able to change the trendlines from reducing the expenditure on behalf of students with disabilities, on behalf of the elementary and secondary education of America's students, on behalf of job training. That is what this money does. This is an investment in the future of our young people. This is an investment in the elementary-secondary education system of young people in this country. This is an investment in reducing the cost of college. That is a markedly different direction than we have been going over the last 6 years, where we just headed headlong into seas of red ink, where it overwhelmed everything else the government was about to do, where it started taking its toll on the education budgets of this country, where we denied the opportunities for people to have an affordable student loan, where we now see in excess of a quarter of a million young people deciding they won't be able to borrow the money, they won't be able to pay it back, and so they have decided maybe they will have to postpone or defer a college education permanently. This budget also gives us the opportunity to address in a comprehensive fashion the reducing of the cost of college, to remake the student loan program, to get rid of these mindless, endless subsidies that the previous budgets have contained for the lenders, subsidies that fueled the corruption that we have seen in the program. This is a remarkably refreshing, exciting budget for this country, for its young people and for its future.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, last January when the President was suggesting the need for the escalation of the numbers of troops in Iraq, he also told us that while we would provide the troops under his policy, the Iraqis would provide a series of benchmarks which they would meet to end the insurgency and to bring their country together politically so that the insurgency can be dampened down or ended. Now we are told by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it would be wrong to hold the Iraqi Government, the Malaki government, to those benchmarks because it would take away their flexibility, while President Bush said that if they did not meet these benchmarks in January, they would lose the confidence of the American people. President Bush had it right. They haven't met the benchmarks. They are not holding up their end of the bargain. The Parliament is not meeting. A third of them are living in London, not in Iraq, and they have lost the confidence of the American people. How is it that the Secretary of State and the President of the United States can continue to believe that we should continue to send American soldiers to die in Iraq when the Iraqi Government won't meet the benchmarks which were supposed to be the bedrock of this new policy, this new direction, that has turned out to be the same old stay-the- course policy where American soldiers die and the Iraqi Government dithers away day in and day out and not meeting the new policies to bring a unified Iraq together? It is unacceptable to the American people. It is unacceptable to our soldiers. It is unacceptable to their families. And we ought to end this policy now.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 890) to establish requirements for lenders and institutions of higher education in order to protect students and other borrowers receiving educational loans, as amended.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to insert materials relevant to H.R. 890 into the Record.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation, H.R. 890, the Student Loan Sunshine Act of 2007. I offer this legislation along with Mr. McKeon, the senior Republican on the Education and Labor Committee; and Mr. Hinojosa, the subcommittee Chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee on the Education and Labor Committee. This legislation would protect students and families from the corrupt practices and abuses that for too long have been allowed to run rampant within the student loan industry. Ensuring that our Nation's student loan programs are working as effectively as possible to help students and parents pay for the cost of a college education, it is paramount to the goals of this Nation recognizing the importance of students' achieving a college education so they can fully participate in American society and the American economy. And working to make that more accessible and affordable has been the long-term goal of both parties of this government. But now what we see is that this program has been badly corrupted. This program has started to be hollowed out by the activities of lenders, of universities, of individuals within the government, individuals within the university system, individuals within the lending community. For 6 years this administration has been put on notice of these activities taking place in the student lending program with ever-mounting evidence and public statements and concerns echoed by members within the administration from the previous administration calling to the problems that were occurring within the student loan programs. It is becoming increasingly clear that the student loan program has been hijacked by third parties who saw that they could run this program to their financial benefit. Unfortunately, that meant that it was being run to the detriment of the students and the families who are borrowing the money who are struggling to pay this money back so that they could achieve a college education. We introduced this legislation first in February when it was disclosed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that he was expanding an investigation into the relationships between lenders and colleges and universities across the country. Throughout the previous years, stories have surfaced about inducements and kickbacks and conflicts of interests, bribes and payoffs ranging from sending college employees on exotic vacations to staffing school financial aid offices during the busiest time of the student aid calendar. These inducements are offered by lenders to secure a spot on the preferred lender list, a list that supposedly presents to the students and to their families that this is a list of trust, that these are the best loans available for a number of reasons to those students. But we now learn that securing a position on a preferred lender list was really, in many instances with many universities and with many lenders, an act of corruption, not an act of transparency, not an act of honesty, not an act in the best interest of the students and/or their parents, and not in the best interest of achieving the lowest possible cost for those students' education. But entry into the preferred lender meant more than just having this coveted spot. It meant a near guarantee of business. It meant an opportunity for lenders to prey on families and offer them private loans. It also meant that students weren't given the best information, the most accurate information. It also meant increased cost to the students and to their families. Since we first introduced this bill, ongoing investigations at the Federal and State levels and by news organizations have shed new light on the scope of the corruption and the conflicts of interest surrounding these lists that are undermining the Federal student loan aid program that millions of borrowers have come to depend upon. We have learned more about the astonishing degree to which lenders buy their way into colleges and universities through excessive inducements, which is the polite word, or what might be termed ``bribery,'' which might be a better word, in order to boost their marginal profits. All of this, all of this was known to the Department of Education. Suggested changes were left behind by the Clinton administration to this program. Department employees raised these concerns and others with the Department of Education, and no action was, in fact, taken. And what we see, of course, is that less protection was provided to students and to their families. We have learned that these inducements include college officials being paid to serve on lender advisory boards and receiving stock in the companies. We have learned that these conflicts of interest do not end with college financial aid officers. It has been revealed that at least one public official in the Office of Federal Student Aid, the arm of the Department of Education that runs the student aid program, held hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock in a major student loan company. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lenders and schools must be held accountable for any practice that compromises the trust that students and parents deserve to have in our Federal student aid program. Today, by passing the Student Aid Sunshine Act, we are taking clear and important actions to put an end to the corrupt practices and conflicts of interest that for too long have been allowed to dominate this industry. We call on lenders, institutions and the Department of Education to also take appropriate action to end these practices, and we insist that they recognize their fiduciary responsibility to the students and their parents who are the borrowers of this money, the borrowing of money that they struggle to pay back for many years afterwards. I am proud to be joined by my colleagues on the Education and Labor Committee, Buck McKeon, the senior Republican, and, again, Ruben Hinojosa of the Subcommittee on Higher Education to bring to the floor a stronger, more comprehensive, bipartisan Student Loan Sunshine Act. This bill will prevent these egregious practices from occurring in the future by reinstating trust in our schools through strict codes of conduct, guaranteeing loan options and ensuring the best loan possible, ensuring equal and timely processing of loans, giving students full and fair information when taking out and repaying loans, protecting students from aggressive marketing practices and inserting the fiduciary responsibility for all parties to these agreements. Further, this bill bans all gifts, participation on advisory boards and risk-sharing agreements between lenders and schools and ensures greater transparency and accountability when schools recommend lenders for the students. I urge all of my colleagues to join us in voting for this legislation. Today, I think we can take this critical step toward returning these programs to the very people they were intended to serve, students and parents who are borrowing this money. It's time to protect these students and parents and end the exploitation and the abuses of the student loan program. Again, I want to thank my colleagues on the committee for all their assistance in drafting this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. Mr. Speaker, I failed to acknowledge and I want to acknowledge Mr. Keller's help in the drafting of this legislation. He is the senior Democrat on the Higher Education Subcommittee. I would like to yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the Chair of that subcommittee, Mr. Hinojosa.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his remarks and for his leadership on this. I thank Mr. McKeon and Mr. Keller for all of their cooperation, for their suggestions and for the introduction of the bill soon after this came to light by Mr. McKeon. I think it was very helpful in our discussions with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. I certainly want to thank him for his diligence and the speed with which he responded to this information. Tragically, much of this information has been available for a considerable period of time. Tragically, what we now are making against the law, the conduct we are now changing almost became the preferred way of doing business among many of the colleges and universities and the lenders which they utilized on behalf of their students. It is just inconceivable that when people understand, and it is brought to our attention every day, the decisions that students and their families have to make about whether to pursue a college degree, the costs that are incurred, the sacrifices that are made by working families, by all families, by the students, many of whom then work part time and full time to augment the cost of that college, when that sacrifice and those determinations and decisions are made by those families, to have that process corrupted by some of the largest corporations in America, some of the wealthiest corporations in America, that they would see somehow a way to skim off, to skim off the profits and the costs at the expense of these students and of the taxpayers that put up the money. The reason we guarantee these loans is to try to drive this money to the students and their families at the lowest possible cost so that they can afford to go to college; they can afford to take a job and pay back the cost of their college. That is the public purpose. Now that public purpose has absolutely been prostituted by the Department of Education, by many of the lending institutions and by many of the colleges and much of the personnel that works for them. This legislation is a first step, a bipartisan step to stop those practices in their tracks, to get this program right side up for the benefit of the families and the students who are borrowing the money. To serve notice on the institutions, the lenders, the institutions of higher education and the people who work in these programs that this will no longer be tolerated. Once again, this program has to come to the point where it is again serving the families and the students who are making this sacrifice to achieve a college education at the lowest possible cost. That is the public interest, that is the public purpose, and we will not have that corrupted. We will not have that corrupted, either by the public agencies or the private agencies that are engaged in this program. The next step is to bar those agencies if they continue in this practice. That would be a horrible thing to do for those institutions, but we will not allow this to continue. And as we consider the Higher Education Act, we are going to continue to pursue ways in which we can reform this program and make it work for those for whom it was designed, the families and the students. I want to thank the staff on both sides of the committee that were so helpful in understanding the programs and the changes that needed to be made, that went through the evidence and responded in this legislation, so that the House of Representatives could go on record that we will not allow this to happen on our watch.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I urge the House to pass H.R. 890, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I am pleased today to introduce an important piece of legislation, the Teacher Excellence for All Children Act: the next step our country needs to take to ensure that every child, in every classroom, is taught by an excellent teacher. First and foremost, I want to thank our teachers for their dedication and commitment to taking on the overwhelming demands of their profession. We ask them to perform miracles every day in our underfunded and overcrowded system. And we owe it to them and to their students to provide more than rhetoric about our commitment to encouraging talented people to enter the field and stay there. Let me also thank the organizations, and their members, who go to work every day with the commitment to help our schools and our students succeed. They are a great constituency for this legislation, and I appreciate all of their input into this bill. Thank you to the Alliance for Excellent Education, the American Federation of Teachers, the Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the Business Roundtable, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Children's Defense Fund, the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, the Council of Urban Boards of Education, the Education Trust, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, the National Council of La Raza, National Council of Teachers of English, the National Council on Teacher Quality, the National Education Association, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, New Leaders for New Schools, the New Teacher Center at DC-Santa Cruz, Operation Public Education, Teach for America, and The Teaching Commission. We all remember the difference that outstanding teachers have made in our lives, but we also know that students who most need the best teachers are least likely to get them. There are many reasons why people decline to enter the teaching profession or decide not to remain there including reasons such as low pay, lack of meaningful professional development, lack of respect, inappropriate working conditions, or little opportunity for advancement. By failing to address this problem, Congress is shortchanging our children and costing taxpayers an estimated $2.2 billion annually to replace teachers who have left the profession. We need to act immediately to ensure that we have an adequate supply of exemplary teachers for the next generation of students. My 43 colleagues who are original cosponsors and I are prepared to respond to this challenge facing American education with an innovative approach that matches the seriousness of the challenge with the ``The TEACH Act of 2007''--the next step our country needs to take to ensure that every teacher, in every classroom, teaching every child, has the supports they need to help their students succeed. The single most important factor in determining a child's success in school is the quality of his or her teacher. We all remember a teacher--or even several teachers--who made us proud of ourselves for what we accomplished and helped us face our future with hope and confidence. Imagine if every one of our teachers over the years had given us that same strength. The TEACH Act will accomplish four critical goals: Increase the supply of outstanding teachers. Ensure all children have teachers with expertise in the subjects they teach. Identify and reward our best teachers. Keep the best teachers and principals in our schools. This bill is a major legislative initiative that will attract our most talented teachers to our nation's classrooms where they are needed the most--and encourage them to stay there. Over the next decade, we will need to hire more than two million new teachers to serve in our public schools. Yet today, we have no national plan for attracting outstanding students into the teaching profession, or keeping them there. My bill addresses this need by helping school districts to pay more competitive salaries and by offering up-front tuition assistance to talented undergraduates committed to a career in education, to established teachers working in fields like math and science, where the teacher shortage is most acute, and to retirees with math and science expertise who would like to join the ranks of our nation's teachers. The TEACH Act also offers up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness to highly qualified teachers who are working in high priority communities. We know that too many teachers do not receive adequate preparation or training for their jobs to improve during the first years on the job. As a result, over half of new teachers leave the profession within five years. The TEACH Act helps new teachers transition into the classroom and build their skills through state-of-the-art induction programs that include proven strategies such as structured mentoring, common lesson-planning, and intensive professional development. This bill also helps veteran teachers improve their skills through peer mentoring and review programs. My bill also addresses the problem that poor children are far less likely to be taught by expert teachers. Nearly three-quarters of math classes in high-poverty middle schools are taught by teachers who lack a major--or even a minor--in math. The TEACH Act provides higher pay for outstanding teachers and principals who transfer into the hardest- to-staff schools where they can help the children who need them most. Making sure these children are taught by a well-trained teacher is crucial. The TEACH Act also helps create true career ladders that allow teachers to advance in the profession as they gain new knowledge and skills. The bill would augment the salaries of teachers who seek out opportunities to advance their own professional development and to mentor colleagues who are new to the profession. We also know that nothing is more important in attracting--and keeping--outstanding teachers than outstanding principals. My bill raises standards and improves recruitment and training for new principals. Teaching is not just another job. Teaching is a career that must be satisfying itself, that must attract the best people, and that must instruct our children to succeed in an increasingly competitive world. We can have a dynamic and exciting future for America's schools and their students. We have the national resources. Now, we must make the commitment. We must dedicate the necessary resources, demand the necessary results, and stay with it to the end to make sure that every child in America has a teacher we can all be proud of and that every teacher in America can say they are proud of us too for the support we give them. I would also like to acknowledge three reports that were particularly useful. The Teaching Commission's report, Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action; the Center for American Progress report, Ensuring a High Quality Education for Every Child by Building a Stronger Teaching Force, and the National Academy of Education report A Good Teacher in Every Classroom: Preparing the Highly Qualified Teachers Our Children Deserve. All three reports were extremely instrumental, particularly in identifying practices that are working well and need to be taken to scale. The TEACH Act will take us where research and experience say we need to go: stronger teachers, stronger principals, and stronger schools. I look forward to achieving the vision of a better school system for all of our children.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman and Members of the House, today we take up the Head Start Improvement Act of 2007. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation, as it was last year when it was brought to the House floor. And in that vein, I certainly want to begin by thanking the staff on both sides of the aisle that have worked very hard to bring this legislation in this form with the cooperation of the members of both sides of the committee, the majority and the minority. I begin by thanking Mr. Lloyd Horwich, who is working for Mr. Kildee; Stephanie Milburn, with Mr. McKeon; Sarah Rittling, working with Mr. Castle; and Molly Carter and Ruth Friedman of the majority staff. This staff knows this program backwards and forwards. They have worked long and hard with the Head Start community, with the States, with Governors, with local communities, to make sure that, in fact, we have a program that we can be proud of, that we can continue to place our faith in, and does what we want, which is to give children from impoverished families and communities the opportunity to have a head start and to come to kindergarten school ready, if you will, with the skills necessary to take advantage of the opportunity that will be presented to them when they start school. Head Start has been the premiere early education program in this country for more than 40 years. It has served more than 20 million children and families in that time. It is a highly successful research- based, comprehensive childhood development and early education program for low-income children from birth to 5 and for their families. Both Head Start and Early Head Start help our country's most disadvantaged children become better prepared to succeed in school and in life by addressing the needs of the whole child and providing services such as health and nutrition in addition to the educational curriculum. Its design has always been based in science, and the bill before us builds on the strong foundation again by turning to the best science to renew and improve the Head Start program. Head Start remains a cornerstone of this country's effort to close the achievement gap, to combat poverty, and to provide all its citizens with the opportunity to thrive. Today more than 12 million children in America live in poverty, 20 percent of them under the age of 6. Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to struggle in school, face physical and mental health problems, and see fewer economic opportunities throughout their life. The bill before us is central to achieving the goals of No Child Left behind because the achievement gap that appears later on in elementary school begins before these children reach kindergarten. Head Start is one of the most evaluated Federal programs, and research concludes that Head Start works. Recent findings from the congressionally-mandated Impact Study found that after less than one school year, Head Start narrowed the achievement gap by 45 percent in prereading and 28 percent in prewriting. The study also found that Head Start helped to improve some of the important parenting practices, including helping to increase the frequency with which parents read to and with their children. Another large-scale study on Head Start found that children made significant gains during the Head Start year, and made even greater gains over the kindergarten year. By the end of kindergarten, Head Start graduates were essentially in the national norms in early reading and writing, narrowed by the achievement gap in vocabulary and general knowledge and early math. I am encouraged that the research concludes that Head Start is doing what we expect and demand that it should do to help prepare children to succeed in school. However, this research shows that there are many new ways to improve Head Start, and I believe we accomplish that in the bill before us. The bill before us will help more children arrive at kindergarten ready to succeed by improving the program quality and expanding access to more children. This bill includes many improvements to build on the latest research in brain and child development. The bill also recognizes that key to the first-class Head Start programs is teachers. This is absolutely imperative, and this bill works hard to make sure that we continue to provide for improvement and professional development of the teachers in the Head Start program. We increase the teacher qualifications by directing the majority of new funds for program improvement activities, including significant new funds to increase teacher salaries; requiring that all programs use research-based practices to support children's preliteracy and vocabulary skills; requiring a full time staff to develop career ladders and professional development plans; directing the Health and Human Services agency to implement an observational assessment tool that will evaluate classroom quality and provide immediate feedback for programs on their strengths and weaknesses; improving the professional development and training and technical assistance systems so that they are better grounded in science and more responsive to local training needs; and requiring the Secretary to reevaluate and update current early learning standards and assessments using the best science available. The point is this: This is a major revamping of the Head Start program, with an emphasis on quality, with an emphasis on outcomes, with an emphasis on the assessments and how these programs are doing so that we can provide the continuous improvement of these programs, and we can provide continuous high-quality programs to the children who are in need of these programs. It's only then that we can be assured that Head Start will continue to earn its reputation as the premier early childhood education and development program in this Nation. It is only then that we can say to the taxpayers that this continues to be a very wise investment of the dollars in the children of this Nation in providing them access to the kinds of programs that are necessary if they are going to be able to take advantage of the educational opportunities in K-12, if they are going to be able to close the gap between themselves and middle-income kids, if they are going to be able to go to school with those skills. I believe that this legislation does that. This legislation builds on what was tried and worked on in the last session of Congress under the leadership of Mr. Castle, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Boehner, myself and Mr. Kildee. This is a continuation of that process, and that's why it received the overwhelming bipartisan support when it was reported from the committee. I hope that my colleagues will lend it the same kind of support at the end of this debate and the amendment process. With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I yield 4 minutes now to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), subcommittee chair and responsible for bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green). (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa). (Mr. HINOJOSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)