Sue Myrick

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter), the chairman of the Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the National Association of Insurance Women, International. The National Association of Insurance Women, International has achieved an illustrious record of professional achievement and dedicated service to its clients and the nation and is deserving of public recognition and commendation. This highly esteemed association is composed of 359 local organizations numbering approximately 13,000 members, all of whom are competent women and men employed in various fields of the insurance industry. Constantly creating good will through integrity and dedication, the National Association of Insurance Women, International has grown remarkably since it was founded in 1940, with some 39 women representing 17 regional insurance clubs. The major purpose of this effective organization is to encourage and foster educational programs designed to broaden the knowledge and the understanding of the insurance field and to cultivate increasing friendship, loyalty, and desire for service among its members. The National Association of Insurance Women, International includes within its code of ethics the laudable pledge of service that is honest, thorough, gracious, and professional. This organization has been recognized as a vital resource by the Independent Insurance Agents of America, the American Association of Managing General Agents, the Insurance Institute of America, and the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters. I am honored to recognize the National Association of Insurance Women, International and commend its members on their 41 years of dedication and hard work.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the situation in the Middle East that is of grave concern to all of us. Since September 11th, we have had a taste of normal life in Israel. Americans have experienced the fear, the terrorist alerts, the military and police presence at airports and public sites and we don't like it. Yet we must have it because we are at war with terrorists just as Israel is at war with terrorists. We must stand by Israel as they work to eliminate terrorism in their homeland and as we try to do the same thing in the United States. We must stand by Israel as they fight for their very own survival and as we fight for ours. As President Bush said in his address to Congress, we must root out terrorism worldwide and all those organizations that support it. It is time we firmly support our Israeli friends in their fight against terrorism. We must join Israel now and continue this fight until the wrath of terrorism is ended.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), who also serves on the Committee on Rules. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would remind the House that the minority does have a motion to recommit, as always. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to my friend, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During the consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for purposes of debate only. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Committee on Rules met and granted a closed rule for H.R. 476, the Child Custody Protection Act. The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the bill. It provides consideration of H.R. 476 in the House with two hours of debate, equally divided and controlled between the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary. Finally, the rule provides for one motion to recommit, with or without instructions. Mr. Speaker, the Child Custody Protection Act is important to any parent who has a teenaged daughter. We all hope that our teenaged daughters have the wisdom to avoid pregnancy, but if they make a mistake, a parent is best able to provide advice and counseling. Also, more importantly, the parent knows the child's past medical history. For these reasons, my home State of North Carolina, along with several other States, requires a parent to know before their child checks into an abortion clinic. This law is needed because of stories chillingly similar to the story of a Pennsylvania mother and the tragic story of her 13-year-old daughter. Several years ago, a stranger took Joyce Farley's child out of school, provided her with alcohol, transported her out of State to have an abortion, falsified medical records at the abortion clinic, and abandoned her in a town 30 miles away, frightened and bleeding. Why? Because this stranger's adult son had raped Joyce Farley's teenaged daughter, and she was desperate to cover up her son's tracks. Even worse, this may all have been legal. It is perfectly legal to avoid parental abortion consent and notification laws by driving children to another State. In fact, many abortion providers in States where there are no parental consent laws actually advertise in the yellow pages in States where consent laws have been passed. It is wrong, and it has to be stopped. The Child Custody Protection Act would put an end to this child abuse. If passed, the law would make it a crime to transport a minor across State lines to avoid laws that require parental consent or notification before an abortion. Right now, a parent in Charlotte, North Carolina, must grant permission before the school nurse gives their child an aspirin. They have to call and give permission for their child to have an aspirin, but a parent cannot prevent a stranger from taking their child out of school and up to Maryland, for instance, for an abortion. It is total nonsense. So let us do something to protect the thousands of children in this country. Let us pass the child custody Protection Act, and put a stop to the absurd notion that there is some sort of constitutional right for an adult stranger to be able to secretly take someone's teenaged child into a different State for an abortion. I applaud my friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), for continuously fighting this fight. I urge my colleagues to support this rule and to support the underlying legislation. 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, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 388 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield so much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen). She is the author of this legislation and we thank her for that.

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, I reserve the balance of my time.

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, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 380 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes 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 the resolution, all time yielded is for the purposes of debate only. Yesterday, the Committee on Rules met and granted an open rule providing for consideration of the bill, H.R. 3925, the Digital Tech Corps Act of 2002. The rule waives all points of order against consideration of the bill and provides for 1 hour of general debate, equally divided and controlled between the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Government Reform. The rule further provides that the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Government Reform now printed in the bill, modified by the amendments recommended by the Committee on the Judiciary be considered as an original bill for the purpose of amendment. Finally, the rule authorizes the Chair to accord priority in recognition to Members who have preprinted their amendments in the Congressional Record, and provides for one motion to recommit, with or without instructions. H. Res. 380 is an open and fair rule. It allows any Member who wishes to offer an amendment every opportunity to do so. Mr. Speaker, this bill is aimed to bring a bit of common sense to the Federal Government, and heaven knows there is not a lot of that going around these days. It would allow IT managers in the Federal Government and the private sector to essentially exchange information in order to see how the other side works and learn from it. Federal workers would be exposed to the private industry's best practices management, while the private employees would get the opportunity to see the challenges that Federal workers face. Currently, the Federal Government lacks the ability to compete with the high-paying jobs of the private sector. The government is constantly struggling to recruit and retain employees with the expertise and the latest and newest information technologies. So the inevitable is happening. The government keeps losing some of the best and the brightest to the cushiest and the highest-paying private sector jobs. Unless this is addressed, the technology gap will continue to grow and the Federal Government will continue to be on the losing end. However, if this bill passes, the private sector will win as well. These employees will get to see firsthand how the government operates and the challenges its IT managers deal with on a routine basis. Mr. Speaker, as I said, hopefully we can learn from one another. I commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) for recognizing this problem and crafting this bill to ensure that the Federal Government can be as efficient as it possibly can. I urge my colleagues to support this rule and to support the commonsense legislation it underlies. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and work of one of my constituents, Dr. Joe Craig. Dr. Craig has spent his entire life working to better the lives of others. Since 1978, he has traveled overseas to the poorest of regions, including Africa and Latin America, to provide free medical and dental care. This is a special year for Dr. Craig because he is 70 years old and will be conducting his 70th and final overseas medical mission. Dr. Craig's altruistic work also extended to his local community of Charlotte, North Carolina. He greatly helped our local Charlotte community by providing free dental services to recovering drug users and alcoholics and by counseling dozens of families through marriage and family problems. He also volunteered in the Charlotte Police Crime Lab in the 1960s before a full-time chemist was hired. Dr. Craig is a perfect example of the selfless call to volunteerism recently highlighted by President George W. Bush. For this reason, I am honored to recognize Dr. Craig for his life work and congratulate him and his family for his 70 years of dedication to making this world a better place.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I think over this next period of hours we are going to be hearing a lot of rhetoric about Social Security and what is happening to Social Security. It seems to be the keynote of the day. I just wanted to commend the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle), the chairman of the Committee on the Budget, for what he has done in bringing this budget forward. I came here, like a lot of others, in 1995, with the commitment that we are going to balance the budget; and in 1997 we were able to achieve that, and we have been doing that every year since. And Chairman Nussle is keeping us on that path. We have paid down debt; and, yes, we can move the numbers around, people seem to be good at that, but we have paid down almost a half trillion dollars in debt so far, and that is really a good start. We are going to be paying down more, and we have a commitment to continue to do that as well as protecting Social Security over these next few years. And I will say that anybody who is receiving Social Security today, or is close to receiving Social Security or Medicare, should not be misled in any way by people saying, oh well, it is not going to be there for them. They are perfectly fine. We are talking about the future, which we are going to be working on. I cannot help but make the comment that if previous leaderships over the past 30 years, before we took over in 1995, had not spent the Social Security surplus specifically for other government programs, they used it every year, if that had not happened, that money would still be there and we would not be having any argument whatsoever of whether there was enough money for Social Security. That point seems to get lost when we are doing debate. So, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention and again commend Chairman Nussle for the good job he has done in protecting our future with the war and our homeland defense and our economic security; and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the rule and ``yes'' on the budget.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Susan B. Anthony and her contributions to the struggle for women's rights many, many years ago. March is Women's History Month and the perfect time to recognize this incredible woman who truly shaped our country's history and society. She remains one of our Nation's greatest champions, not just for the rights of women but for the rights of all Americans. In addition to the work she did for women and women's rights, she was a leading advocate against the evil of slavery in her day. Another piece of her legacy that is often brushed over but equally important is her commitment to the rights of unborn children. She opposed abortion because she championed equal rights for all. She did not see a difference in fighting for women's rights and protecting the right to life for all children. She fought for both. As we think back on Susan B. Anthony's tireless work to promote the dignity of all life, let us renew our own commitment to fight for equal rights, especially for unborn children who have no voice to fight for themselves.

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: Rollcall vote 41, on approving the Journal, I would have voted ``yea.'' Rollcall vote 42, on providing consideration of H.R. 1542, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to participate in the following vote. If I had been present, I would have voted as follows: Rollcall vote No. 35, on approving the Journal, I would have voted ``yea.''

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: January 23, 2002: Rollcall vote 3, on passage of H.R. 2234, the Tumacacori National Historical Park Boundary Revision Act, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of good things going On in our communities that you don't necessarily hear about in the news. Recently, a friend in Charlotte, Dan Ramirez, went above and beyond the call of duty to help a young man, dying of leukemia, get home to his family. Greyban Saenz, a 24 year old native of Honduras, wanted to be with his family. The Buddy Kemp Cancer Caring House in Charlotte contacted Dan the Monday before Thanksgiving to see if there was anything that he could do to help. Dan didn't think twice. He jumped right in to help find an affordable flight and someone to accompany Greyban on that flight. He worked through Thanksgiving, and got Greyban a flight, met him at the airport, made sure he was safely on the plane, and he even translated the doctor's discharge papers' into Spanish. Dan did all this for a man he had only known for 5 days. Greyban flew home to his family the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. Dan later said that as sick as Greyban was, he was animated and excited that morning. Glad to going home. I'm thankful for people like Dan Ramirez who go the extra mile to help someone in need. It's people like that make America strong.