Sue Myrick

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I would inquire of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) if he has any other speakers.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Committee on Rules met and granted a normal conference report rule for H.R. 3338, the Fiscal Year 2002 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. The rule waives all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration. In addition, the rule provides that the conference report shall be considered as read. Mr. Speaker, this should not be a controversial rule. It is the type of rule we grant for every conference report we consider in the House. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), who is managing this rule for the minority, understands the importance of a strong national defense, and I am sure I do not need to convince him or anyone else that this bill is important, now more than ever before. At a time when we are facing terrorism at home and engaged in combat abroad, we need to give our government the tools to defend us overseas and at home. This bill does just that. It provides our military with $317 billion in much-needed support, including a 4.6 percent pay raise; and the supplemental portion of the bill will bolster our fight against terrorism by providing much-needed funding for border patrols, port security, bioterrorism prevention, and the FBI. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, this bill contains our strong support for the people of New York by providing another $8.2 billion in disaster assistance, including $2 billion in community development block grants. Mr. Speaker, we are about to go home for the holidays and after the events of this fall, I cannot think of a better thing to do before we leave town than to provide for our armed forces, for our fight against terrorism, and for the victims of September 11. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 324 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. This morning, the Committee on Rules met and granted a rule providing for further consideration of S. 1438, the fiscal year 2002 Department of Defense Authorization Act. The rule waives all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration. The rule also provides that the conference report shall be considered as read. Mr. Speaker, this rule allows us to finish up our work on the defense bill. All of us, on both sides of the aisle, recognize that we must provide for our military in this time of crisis. Indeed, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) who is managing this rule for the minority, has always been a strong advocate for our men and women in uniform. The American people realize how important this is because we can leave nothing to chance. The primary purpose of the Federal Government is to defend our citizens, and the military is our primary source of that defense. We must act quickly to give our men and women in uniform the tools that they need to patrol our borders and to prevent terrorist attacks. So let us pass this rule and pass the underlying defense bill. At the end of the day, we will have provided $343 billion to our Armed Forces, the largest increase in support for our military since the mid-1980s. These funds include $7 billion to fight terrorist, and at this crucial time in our history, this bill is most important. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 316 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 305 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Committee on Rules met and passed this resolution providing that it shall be in order at any time on the legislative day of Thursday, December 6, 2001, for the Speaker to entertain motions that the House suspend the rules relating to the following measures: One, the bill, H.R. 3008, to reauthorize the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program under the Trade Act of 1974; and, two, the bill, H.R. 3129, to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2002 and 2003 for the United States Customs Service for antiterrorism, drug interdiction, and other operations, for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, for the United States International Trade Commission, and for other purposes. Mr. Speaker, our textile workers are hurting and they are hurting bad. In the last year, 60,000 textile workers have lost their jobs, 20,000 of them in North Carolina alone. The industry has done its best through technology to compete, but they have not had a level playing field. These folks are the best our country has to offer. They are working hard to make ends meet. When they get laid off, they do not come whining to the government, they say maybe we could have done something better or different, but then they go out and get two jobs to make ends meet. Mr. Speaker, someone has to stick up for these folks because the government does have something to do with these layoffs. Our textile workers are hurting because of low-cost foreign imports, and many of these imports are illegal. Asian countries avoid our quotas by shipping their goods through other countries. That is unacceptable, and it is time for it to stop. For years, our government has turned a blind eye to it. The Customs authorization bill that we will consider today will help fight these illegal textile transshipments. It provides the Customs Service with $9.5 million for transshipment enforcement operations. These funds must be used to hire 72 new employees who will be stationed both here at home and abroad to enforce our textile trade laws. It is high time for the government to start taking our textile industry seriously. This bill will not solve all of our problems, and it will not come anywhere close to solving our problems as we see them today, but at least we are getting somewhere and we are making some headway. Mr. Speaker, the other bill we are going to consider today is a renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. This program gives job training and education benefits to workers who lose their jobs because of trade. To be honest about it, I have always had mixed feelings about TAA because my friends back home would rather have a job than a handout and being unemployed. We should be working first and foremost to save our American jobs. But quite frankly, that said, TAA is important to someone who has lost their job. And today's bill improves the program in two important ways. First, it extends job training benefits so they last the same number of weeks as unemployment benefits. What a novel idea. 104 weeks. Second, the bill forces the Department of Labor to decide TAA requests within 40 days instead of 60 days so that workers can get their benefits more quickly. Is that enough? No way. TAA is not a substitute for a job, but it should be expanded so that secondary workers get help. Secondary workers are the supplier, those folks down the road who do business with the mills, and that has been a big issue in my district, people who have not qualified for help. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has promised us that she will use emergency funds to provide TAA to secondary workers, and we should acknowledge her commitment; but we should put secondary worker coverage in the law so we do not have to rely on the whim of the next Secretary of Labor or the next one or the next one. Mr. Speaker, let us pass this rule so we can give help to our hurting textile community. We have a long way to go, but now we have folks listening and we are making some progress. This is all a start. Sure, a very small start, but it is a start. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to participate in the following votes. If I had been present, I would have voted as follows: November 29, 2001, rollcall vote 459, on approving the Journal, I would have voted ``yea''. November 30, 2001, rollcall vote 465, on agreeing to the conference report for H.R. 2299, I would have voted ``yea''.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. There were some nice reminders and hometown ties there that are important to a lot of people. It is really true, because as we look back on this tragic episode, it seems like everywhere one went in the weeks following, people were saying, golly, I know somebody. There were ties to somebody, this person knew this person who knew that person, and it touched all of us so dramatically all around this country, literally. I know that people around the world were touched because there were people in those towers from 60 different countries, and a lot of people today are still, I know, wondering why. There are a couple of people I wanted to just say a word about. Again, I did not know them, but Mary Lou Hague had North Carolina ties. She was a graduate of the University of North Carolina in 1996, and she was a Tri Delt there. She was really from West Virginia, and was the kind of girl who went to New York and just loved every minute she was there during the 3 years; everything she did, she loved. Her friends and her family remember that when she loved something, she just loved it very big. She loved Michael Jackson so much that she spent $1,500 to see him the last weekend of her life. A lot of people would say, wow, $1,500 is a lot of money to do that, but it was something that was important to her. She loved 1980s music and Twizzlers, which she gave up for Lent; carried them in a bag with her to church that last Sunday so as soon as she was out of church, she could eat some Twizzlers. Anyway, her friends say she just had a Miss America smile, and she was one of those people that definitely got people's attention, and her share of attention all the time. She had decided, even though she lived in New York and loved it, that she probably would like to move back and meet a southern guy back home in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and have a dog. She was one of the people that was on the 89th floor of the second tower to be hit, and her entire floor, according to her mother, Liza Adams, was wiped out. But everybody that knew her says they want to remember her as what she was. She was recalled doing her ``happy dance,'' where she would wave her arms in the air and go out onto the dance floor hollering, ``Woo-hooo.'' She was just one of those people that energized everybody around her. There was another gentleman named Frank Schott. His wife, Dina, said she could set her watch by his habits. He was up every morning at 5:20, he got the train at 6:09, and every evening at 7 o'clock the door opened and he came into the house, and immediately changed his clothes and went out into the garden to pick his vegetables. She said he never stopped. Then while his wife got the children ready for bed and bathed them, he would cook dinner. Of course, she said that was wonderful, because what woman would not get used to her husband cooking dinner every night? Then on weekends he would jog and ride the bike and play with the kids, and a lot of times he took them into work with him on Saturdays, because they loved to ride the train. But I thought this was what was so interesting about his wife's comments. She said, ``If he had survived what happened and knew of the hate that I have for what these people did, he would say, `Ah, don't be so hard on them.' '' She said he would always say, ``You can't judge a whole group of people for the actions of a couple of bad apples. I just know that is what he would say.'' I think that is a good lesson for a lot of us for whom it is hard when something like this happens not to harbor hard feelings, and especially as we go into this holiday season, where so many of us are fortunate to have our families around us and with us; and there is nothing more difficult than having to go into a holiday when you have lost a loved one, and especially when you have lost a loved one in a senseless, tragic situation like the people in New York and Washington did. So I hope that all of us, as we look toward the holidays and the joy that we will have, will remember these people and just say a little prayer for the fact that God will give them grace to get through this difficult time that is coming upon us.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), who has done all this hard work on this bill.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that both the current Mayor of New York and the new Mayor of New York have stated that they have plenty of money right now and they do not need extra above and beyond what we are currently providing them in these bills. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), who has worked tirelessly to bring this bill to the floor today.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.