Sue Myrick

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest).

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.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Canady), for bringing this bill forward as well. Mr. Speaker, I too rise in support of Kristen's Act. I introduced it because Kristen Moderfferi, who was a constituent of ours in Charlotte, North Carolina, disappeared in 1997. She was a very bright, hard- working young lady and attended North Carolina State University. She had just finished her freshman year; and like so many other college students, she decided she wanted to go to another city to spend the summer and work and have a new experience. So she moved to San Francisco. She enrolled in photography class at Berkeley and got a job at a local coffee shop. She began settling in and making new friends. However, on Monday, June 23, which was just a mere 3 weeks after her 18th birthday, she left her job at the coffee shop and headed to the beach for the afternoon. She has not been seen since. When her panicked parents called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, they heard the unbelievable words, I am sorry we cannot help you. They were shocked to discover that because Kristen was 18 the Center could not place her picture and story into its national database, or offer any assistance whatsoever. In fact, there is no national agency in the United States to help locate missing adults. Unfortunately, the Moderfferis are not alone. The families of thousands of missing adults have found that law enforcement and other agencies respond very differently when the person who has disappeared is not a child. So that is why I introduced Kristen's Act. It will provide funding to establish a national clearinghouse for missing adults whose disappearance is determined by law enforcement to be foul play. As with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, this bill will provide assistance to law enforcement and families in missing persons cases of those over the age of 17. It is simply unfair that people must cope with a missing family member, which is so traumatic, and I know personally what the Moderfferis have gone through, and have to conduct the search on their own without skills or resources. I will say that the Moderfferis literally went to the ends of the Earth to just exhaust every opportunity they could to try and find their daughter, and were completely frustrated at most every turn. Kristen's Act does send a message to these families that they deserve help to locate endangered and involuntarily missing loved ones. Endangered missing adults, regardless of their age, should receive not only the benefit of a search effort by the local law enforcement but also the help of an experienced national organization. By passing this bill today, families will never again have to hear they cannot be assisted because their loved one is too old.

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, due to my duties at the presidential debate last night, I was unable to participate in the following votes. If I had been present, I would have voted as follows: Rollcall vote 526, on the Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 2415 to enhance Security of United States missions and personnel overseas, I would have voted ``yea;'' Rollcall vote 525, on agreeing to the Conference Report for the Agriculture and Rural Development Appropriations, I would have voted ``nay;'' and Rollcall vote 524, on ordering the Previous Question to waive points of order against the Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 2415 to enhance Security of United States missions and personnel overseas, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I do want to reiterate that this means this bill will go straight to the President for signature.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, the amendment of the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) is not going to be included on this bill, just for clarity; but I do want to say that I will do everything in my power to make sure that the very important issue is included in a bill this year. I want to thank the Women's Caucus for coming forward and saying that they are willing to work on this as well because we all understand how important it is to women that we get this done, and men, too, relative to prostate cancer. I also want to thank everyone on both sides of the aisle for their cooperation on this and making it possible to see this bill come to fruition this year, and also thank the Breast Cancer Coalition for their support and other groups on the outside, and especially the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lazio), who has been a real champion of this and spent a lot of hard work on this issue over the past year. Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute Offered by Mrs. Myrick

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

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Kelly).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) my friend. (Mr. COBURN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose 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 rule, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Committee on Rules met and granted a rule waiving all points of order against a motion to concur in the Senate amendment to H.R. 4386, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 with an amendment. Mr. Speaker, the rule provides for 1 hour of debate in the House on the motion equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Commerce. The rule also waives all points of order against the amendment printed in the Committee on Rules report. Mr. Speaker, this rule allows us to finally pass a very, very important bill. The Breast Cancer Treatment Act will allow low-income, uninsured women to get treatment for their breast and cervical cancer. Right now, uninsured women can receive free Federal mammograms and pap smears; but if they find out they have cancer, they are on their own. There is nothing worse than being diagnosed with breast cancer or cervical cancer and then being told, sorry, there is nothing we can do to help. That is ridiculous. It is very, very expensive to get chemotherapy and radiation, which are the treatment options we have available today. I know this because I just finished that treatment through my own battle with cancer. It is also a very emotional battle when one is told they have this disease and just diagnosed with it and somebody should not have to worry that they are not going to be able to get the treatment they need. Because they naturally would think, I am going to die. What is going to happen to me? I was very lucky because I was able to afford health insurance. This bill is for working women who have no insurance, and it is crucial that we do our part to help them with the tough time in their lives. In my own State of North Carolina, 20,000 women have been screened for breast cancer through the government's free mammogram program. And up until now, many of these women have been left out in the cold. Now, as soon as we get this bill to the President, these women will have health. And there is another issue in this bill which we are going to be addressing and we both have speakers on both sides of the aisle, and that is the human papilloma virus. We are going to be talking about that. And then, as we go through the process, I am going to move at the end of the rule to make an amendment to the bill. And I want to make that clear. So we need to pass this rule and, more importantly, let us get this bill to the President. 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 628 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen).

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

Mrs. MYRICK

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon).

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, 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. Mr. Speaker, only yesterday the Committee on Rules met and granted a normal conference report rule for H.R. 4205, the Fiscal Year 2001 Department of Defense Authorization 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. This should not be a controversial rule. It is the type of rule that we grant for every conference report that we consider in the House. But more importantly, Mr. Speaker, this should not be a controversial bill. Once and for all, we are taking care of military retirees by giving them TRICARE for life and by improving their prescription drug benefit. Our military retirees were promised lifetime health care coverage when they enlisted, and so it is about time that we fulfilled our promise to them. Also, at long last, we are taking care of our men and women in uniform. We are getting them off of food stamps and out of substandard housing. Finally, we are providing for our Nation's general welfare by giving our military the tools they need to win on the battlefield. I urge my colleagues to support this rule and to support the underlying bill. Now more than ever we must provide for our national security. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Scarborough).

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings). (Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 616 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

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

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