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, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 429 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 Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), 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. The rule waives all points of order against the conference report to accompany H.R. 2559, Military Construction Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004, and against its consideration. The rule provides that the conference report shall be considered as read. This conference report provides funds for all types of construction projects on military installations here in the U.S. and abroad. The projects range from barracks and housing to training ranges and runways. Mr. Speaker, we are asking a lot of our military today, and our military personnel on active duty know they will be deployed overseas and perhaps on dangerous missions. So we want to provide them a quality of life for themselves and for their families that will allow them to serve, knowing their families will be taken care of with good health care and good housing. We must honor the most basic commitments we have made to the men and women of our Armed Services. We must ensure a reasonable quality of life to recruit and retain the best and the brightest to America's fighting forces. Most importantly, we must do all in our power to ensure a strong, able, dedicated American military so that this Nation will be ever vigilant and ever prepared. I would like to take a moment to highlight some of the key areas of the bill. First, $1.2 billion is provided for troop barracks. This is a $58 million increase from last year's level. This sends a positive message to our unaccompanied personnel stationed all around the world that their quality of life is a priority. It also provides $2.7 billion to operate and maintain existing housing units and $1.1 billion for new housing units. Military families also have a tremendous need for quality child care, especially single parents and families in which one or both parents may face lengthy deployments. To help meet this need, the bill provides $16.5 million for child development centers. In conclusion, we have focused our efforts on programs that directly support the men and women in our Armed Forces. We would like to do more, of course. We always have and we will always try to do that. The bottom line is this: With this conference report, we meet the military's critical infrastructure needs and their efforts to improve the quality of life for our men and women in the Armed Forces. To that end, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and support the conference report. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 428 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I come here today in support of the reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration at Commerce. We in the Ninth District of North Carolina have had great success with the programs from EDA. Most importantly, EDA helped my district come together and formulate a comprehensive economic development plan for the next decade. This was the first time all of the economic development officials, business leaders, and community developers came to one place and really discussed where they saw our counties going and what was needed to ensure economic success. Our area has been hit extremely hard by job losses, particularly in the manufacturing and textile sectors. The help that the EDA has provided and will continue to provide has given my district a vision for the future and a way for each citizen to become involved in its community. I thank the EDA for their help and assistance and commend them for the important work they do in districts like mine all around the country. If the EDA is given the resources provided in this bill, it will result in the creation of approximately 623,314 jobs and the leveraging of $46.4 billion in private-sector investments over 5 years. With job challenges facing all of our districts every day, how can we not support a bill that will result in this many jobs being created? I support this bill and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay respect to one of the most distinguished athletes in North Carolina's history. Last Friday morning, October 17, 2003, North Carolina bid farewell to Charlie ``Choo-Choo'' Justice, who passed away at the age of 79. The people of North Carolina remember Charlie from his days of playing football at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1946-1949. In his four seasons Charlie scored 234 points, accounted for 64 touchdowns, and rushed for 2,634 yards. In 1948, and 1949, Justice was runner up for the Heisman Trophy, which recognizes the best college football player in America. Many people who saw Charlie play say that he was the most exciting football player they have ever seen. After college, Charlie went on to play professional football from 1950-1954 with the Washington Redskins. Although he only played for a short time, his retirement from football brought him many honors. In 2002, he was selected as one of the Redskins 70 greatest players of all time. He was also bestowed with the great honor of being the first athlete inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame where greats such as Michael Jordan are now honored. Charlie ``Choo-Choo'' Justice will be remembered long after his death for his talents and skills on the football field. However, the people who knew him in his hometown of Cherryville, NC will remember him for his commitment to improving the community, helping others, and his love for his family.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I would like to honor and recognize Charlotte City Councilman John Tabor. On October 28, 2003, John will be receiving the Leadership Charlotte Schley R. Lyons Circle of Excellence Award. This award recognizes a Leadership Charlotte graduate who demonstrates outstanding leadership qualities, and whose ideals are in line with that of Leadership Charlotte. The award John is to receive is truly deserved. For over a decade he has served the Charlotte community as a long-standing member and Chairman of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission, on the Leadership Charlotte and Chamber of Commerce Leadership board, and as a member of the American Institute of Architects. He also sits on different committees for the North Carolina and Charlotte American Institute(s), and he is involved in many regional and local architectural projects, most notably the Blumenthal Arts Center. Currently, he serves as a Charlotte City Councilman and represents District 6. I commend John for his service to the Charlotte community, and congratulate him on receiving this prestigious award. His wife, Lee, and his children, Allie and John Paul, are also to be commended on their great sacrifices so that John can work to make Charlotte a better place to live and work.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Chairman, first and foremost, I want to say that I fully support our troops. I am so proud of the job they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are sacrificing greatly overseas so we don't have to fight the war on terror here on our shores. To bring this conflict to a successful conclusion, $65.2 billion of this supplemental request is essential to help provide every resource our men and women need. That being said, I work for the people of the 9th District of North Carolina and they cannot understand why the remaining $21.6 billion of the Iraq Supplemental may not be given in the form of a loan. Iraq contains the second largest oil reserve in the world and will have an astonishing $5 billion surplus at the end of this year--all this, while we have record deficits in our own country. For decades to come, America's children will be paying for this reconstruction grant on behalf of the Iraqi children. That is unconscionable! Again, that country has the great wealth of oil. They can pay us back. The majority of this bill will provide for our troops and that is good. It was my strong desire to have the opportunity to debate and vote on the defense money and the Iraq reconstruction money of this supplemental in separate bills. However, we don't have clean bills in this House; so we don't have that opportunity.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time, and I thank the chairman for bringing this bill forward in good form. I supported going into Iraq. In fact, I served on the President's working group for Iraq, and I think it was the right thing to do. I believe it was still the right thing to do, and I support our troops, the men and women in uniform over there giving their all for us. There is no question about that. I want them to see that they have all the resources that they need at this difficult time in their lives to protect themselves and to protect us. And we need to remember, we are over there fighting so we do not have to be fighting here on our own shores. But I come from a district where there has been a great deal of hardship lately, a lot of job loss, and my people, frankly, do not understand why this cannot be a loan instead of a grant. A lot of them say to me that this just does not make any sense. Iraq has all that oil. I think it has the second largest oil reserves in the world. They are going to be running a surplus in their oil reserves very soon, I think by the end of next year. So if they would pay for part of their reconstruction, they buy into the process, and literally they have a commitment there to help with their own freedom. I work for the people of the Ninth District of North Carolina, and they feel very strongly about that, and I feel very strongly that I would like to see this be a loan as well. That is why I support the Pence amendment. I would like to have a vote on this amendment, so we could express our opinions and the thoughts of our people at home. I do support the underlying bill.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

Mrs. MYRICK. I just have one more speaker.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Sullivan).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett). (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Jo Ann Davis).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes and 10 seconds to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I have about five more speakers.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We have had a lot of debate this morning on this issue, and we will have a lot more debate on this issue as we go through the actual bill and not just the rule; and I hope the American people can see what we are talking about. I still find it very hard to believe as a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother that anybody could allow this horrific procedure to happen to their child. So I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the rule and to vote in favor of the underlying legislation so it can finally be passed into law and signed by our President. 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 am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Lewis).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purposes of debate. Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday the Committee on Rules met and granted a rule to provide for the customary 1 hour of consideration for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Conference Report of 2003. The rule waives all points of order against the conference report to accompany S. 3 and against its consideration. It also provides that the conference report shall be considered as read. This conference report makes it illegal in the United States for a physician to perform a partial-birth abortion. As an original cosponsor of this legislation, I am very pleased to see this conference report reach the floor of the House of Representatives. I have been waiting for this day to come since 1995. I am sure that President Bush is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to put an end to this horrific act of human violence by signing this legislation into law. Finally, we have a President in the White House who will not veto this monumental legislation. I also want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the Rotunda for passing this important legislation. I must say, as a mother and a grandmother, it is astonishing to me that this horrible practice is even remotely legal in America today, and as we will no doubt hear on the floor today, it is practiced all too often in there country. Partial-birth abortion is the procedure where a pregnant woman's cervix is forcibly dilated over a 3-day period. On the third day, her child is pulled, feet first, through the birth canal until his or her entire body, except for the head, is outside the womb. The head is held inside the womb by the woman's cervix, and while the fetus is stuck in this position, dangling partly out of the woman's body and just a few inches from a completed birth, the abortionist inserts scissors into the base of the baby's skull, and the scissors are opened, creating a hole in the baby's head. The skull is either then crushed with instruments or a suction catheter is inserted into the hole and the baby's brain is suctioned out. Since the head is now small enough to slip through the mother's cervix, the now lifeless body is pulled the rest of the way out of its mother and the baby's corpse is discarded, usually as medical waste. The vast majority of partial-birth abortions are performed on healthy babies and healthy mothers. Congressional findings have shown that the procedure is not medically necessary and actually poses a significant threat to the mother's health and her future fertility. This conference report would also punish those who perform the procedure with fines and prison terms of up to 2 years. Husbands or parents of women younger than 18 would be able to sue for damages. Although language banning this procedure was struck down in the past by the Supreme Court, this new legislation has been tailored to address the Court's concerns. The five-justice majority in Stenberg v. Carhart thought that Nebraska's definition of partial-birth abortion was vague and could be construed to cover not only abortions in which the baby is mostly delivered alive before being killed, but also the more common ``dilation and evacuation,'' D & E method. The conference report defines partial-birth abortion as an abortion in which ``the person performing the abortion deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the naval is outside the body of the mother for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.'' The tighter definition not only clarifies the procedure so that the court will not reject it, it also draws attention to the violence of partial-birth abortion by describing how far out the baby can be. We have changed the bill, adding findings of fact to overcome constitutional barriers, and I am confident it will survive judicial review. This is a historic day for the American people. A civilized society cannot tolerate the barbaric nature of the partial-birth abortion procedure. Mr. Speaker, the public wants this bill in overwhelming numbers, believing in their hearts that we as a Nation are better than this. We are a better people. To that end, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying conference report. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Renzi).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 383 and ask for its immediate consideration.