Tim Murphy

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 412, H.R. 5749, to provide for a program of emergency unemployment compensation, I was mistakenly recorded as voting ``no.'' I should have been recorded as voting ``yea'' on final passage. I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 5749.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Oil prices are climbing to record highs, gasoline is over $4 a gallon and climbing towards $5, food prices are up and rising, and family budgets stretch their limits. And how do we handle this? We beg OPEC to produce more oil. The Saudis say they will call a meeting. Venezuela says they want $200-a- barrel oil. Foreign speculators say let's hope the market will fall. Americans say, what about America? What about American energy? Why not explore for the trillions of barrels of America's oil off our coast, America's shale oil? Saying ``no'' to Americans is not an energy policy. Begging other nations is not an energy policy. Americans get it. Congress needs to get it too. American oil, American jobs, American control of its own destiny and returning America to be the greatest Nation on Earth and not a nation that has its hat in its hand saying please help us.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Deal and I thank Mr. Green for this very, very important bill, this Health Centers Renewal Act to provide some very, very important coverage for some of our most needy citizens. You know, when people oftentimes will comment upon how many people in America don't have health care, who recognize that actually many of them are covered by programs such as Medicaid, they may or may not know it, or SCHIP or some choose not to have health insurance. But there are also those millions of Americans who simply are not low-income enough for Medicaid. They don't have children, so they're not covered by SCHIP. And they're not old enough for Medicare. Where do they go? Well, community health centers provide the very health care that they need, give them health care home, give them peace of mind. It is a place where, for a low fee, they can have ongoing health care, know that they have a doctor who knows them, and dentist and psychologist and other ones who provide the vital care for them, and it keeps costs down. Keeps costs down tremendously. I believe some 30 percent of people who go to community health centers do not have health care insurance, and of those who do attend, it maintains even lower costs for Medicaid patients. So it is savings at all levels. But unfortunately, there are huge vacancies with community health centers. Those vacancies have to do with normal family physicians or psychiatrists or OB/GYNs, and that has led to backups. That has led to delays in appointments. And the question is, is there a way we can resolve that? Well, here's something we discovered that was odd, and this bill corrects that. Strangely enough, if physicians want to volunteer at a free clinic, they can do so, and they're covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act. On the other hand, if they are paid medical staff at a free clinic, they're not covered under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Reverse that for a community health center. If they're paid staff at a community health center, they're covered under the Federal Tort Claims Act, but if they want to volunteer, they are not. I introduced a bill, H.R. 1626, the Family Healthcare Accessibility Act, a couple of years ago to correct that, and I am pleased that Mr. Green has put this into this bill. That basically provides that physicians and other health professionals, nurse practitioners who want to volunteer are covered. What does this mean? That means lower costs for clinics, and that means that physicians, for example, who may want to give some of their time each week or each month, a clinic will be there with welcome arms. It has not been something that's been allowed before, but it does provide lower health care costs. It is a way for physicians and other primary practitioners to be able to give back to the community. It is a way to lower health care costs. In this Nation, where there are 760 primary care physician openings, 290 nurse practitioners openings and 310 dentist openings just a couple of years ago--and those numbers may have climbed--this provides a way that we can fulfill those needs at basically no cost. I thank the chairman, I thank Ranking Member Deal and everybody else who has been part of this bill in making this a working bill to help bring health care costs down, help bring health care to America's needy citizens and help bring a health care home for so many Americans.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I submit the following: Requesting Member: Congressman Tim Murphy. Bill Number: H.R. 5658, the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. Account: Title XXVI, Guard and Reserve Forces Facilities. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Pennsylvania National Guard. Address of Requesting Entity: Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, USA. Description of Request: Authorization of $3,250,000 for planning and design of the Combined Support Maintenance Shop in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, is included in the bill. This new complex will consist of approximately 130,000 square feet of administrative and supply areas, and nine general purpose and 12 specialty maintenance work bays to regionally maintain Army National Guard ground vehicles located in Western Pennsylvania. The project will allow consolidation and closing of four inadequate maintenance facilities in the Pittsburgh area. The Army National Guard and the Commonwealth will benefit by reduced operating and maintenance costs associated with the closure of four inefficient facilities as well as utilizing an Energy Management control system. Soldiers will benefit by being provided a state-of-the- art, efficiently functioning work space to maintain combat vehicles.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Well, last week the House and Senate adopted a policy that admits that supply does matter. We voted to stop putting 70,000 barrels of oil each day in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the world's consumption of oil. Then Iran announced it was going to slow down production. In the meantime, the U.S. has massive supplies of oil that we're saying ``no'' to, and Congress continues to say we're not going to drill. Well, ``no'' is not an energy policy. Begging the Saudis for oil is not an energy policy. Just yelling in cathartic sessions at oil executives is not an energy policy. America's families know, America's truckers know, let's drill for our own oil. Let's use America's own resources. Let's lower the price of gasoline and make this affordable.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Greater Latrobe Ice Cats who were crowned Pennsylvania Ice Hockey State Champions on Saturday, March 29. This is the first championship won by the Ice Cats in their 28-year history and only the second time in school history that a team has won a state championship. The Ice Cats defeated the Conestoga Pioneers at Memorial Arena in Johnstown. Head Coach Ron Makoski, who led the team to victory, reminded the players that, win or lose, playing in a State championship would be something that each of the players would remember for the rest of their lives. I have no doubt that each of these players will remember this experience with great pride. So congratulations to the Ice Cats, the players, the coaches and parents for capturing the Pennsylvania Cup Class AA Championship. I know the school and community join me in best wishes to the team for their tremendous victory and distinguished season.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Seeing as we have no more speakers, we're willing to close at this point and again draw attention and thank Mr. Hinchey for his support on this resolution. I ask all Members to be supportive of it. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I now yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), a leader and advocate on women's health issues.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I also thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) for her thoughts and input on this bill, which I'm pleased to be a cosponsor today. Appropriately, National Women's Health Week began this Monday, May 12, the day after Mother's Day, and this past Monday was National Women's Checkup Day. To this end, we encourage all women to discuss with their doctor the importance of regular checkups, self exams. We also should note that the government has a Web site on this; it's www.womenshealth.gov/whw. There they recommend several tests that women should get on a regular basis. Also like to mention, as we're focusing on women's health, as my colleague, my friend from California stated, this is also of interest and importance to men. Whether you're fathers or spouses or relatives, it's important to also be supportive of women's health and be supportive of exams they may need to have. As we focus on this, I want to mention a few other conditions that impact women and the importance of Federal research funding. Fibromyalgia, for example, is a chronic pain illness characterized by widespread musculoskeletal aches, pains and stiffness, soft tissue tenderness, general fatigue and sleep disturbances. Depression is another very important condition to highlight. Women, during and after pregnancy, for example, are at much greater risk to develop depression, and folks who have a chronic illness are at risk to develop depression. Oftentimes, we neglect these important symptoms and aspects of health care when meeting with a physician. It is very important to review any concerns that anyone has, that women have when they have their annual exams, such as sleep problems, changes in appetite, mood changes, persistent sadness and other things. These are treatable conditions and not ones to shun in bringing up and discussing openly and honestly with their physician. We have other things to comment on this, but at this point I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 258, I inadvertently voted ``nay.'' I intended to vote ``yea.'' Personal Explanation

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, on Saturday, March 15, the Jeannette High School basketball team from my district won the State's Class AA championship. The Jeannette Jayhawks became the second high school in all of Pennsylvania history to reach the achievement of winning both the state basketball and state football championships. Led by players Terrelle Pryor, Shaw Sunder, and Jordan Hall, and Coach Jim Nesser, the Jayhawks won a game that will go down as one of the best in PIAA history and cap a remarkable season in which the team went 25-4. This is a great accomplishment for a small school district in southwestern Pennsylvania which has excelled in the classroom. McKee Elementary was named a Blue Ribbon school, and all the district's schools received the Keystone Achievement Recognition this year, with the school district getting the bronze medal. Congratulations to the entire Jeannette school district and to the entire Jeannette community.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, recently I met with a number of independent truckers in my district who said that many of their businesses cannot survive the current cost of diesel fuel. And many of my constituents have also said they cannot continue to pay these rising prices of gasoline, the rising prices of food. What much of this comes down to is: Congress has to end its embargo on American oil. To say we cannot drill in the gulf coast, the Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast, in the Colorado area with the shale oil, or Alaska, has reached a point where OPEC has continued to grab us by the throat and continues to fund both sides of the war on terror. Americans understand that whoever controls the supply can demand whatever price they want. And now with gasoline being over 70 percent of the cost of oil, isn't it time that America took control of its own economy and began to use its own resources in an environmentally responsible way? Let's end the embargo on American oil. Let's take back control of our economy. Let's take action on this.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues today to support H.R. 5613, the Medicaid Safety Net Act. There's a lot of misinformation about what this bill does. Here are the facts. When CMS put forth regulations to cut Medicaid service to save money, Mr. Barton's and Mr. Dingell's leadership not only prevented its cuts, but we actually saved more money than the cuts did. We can't keep doing business in Washington the same way. Cutting services to save money the easy way, but not always the right way. We cannot cut programs for seniors on fixed incomes, for disabled children, for the medically needy. Without this bill, North Carolina loses $2.5 billion, Missouri $1.4 billion, Florida $665 million. But with this bill we provide health care and cut waste, fraud and abuse. I encourage the President to look past the rhetoric, withdraw his veto threat and encourage my colleagues to support this bill and support families in need.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 218, I inadvertently voted ``yes'' and had intended to vote ``no.''

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that my name be removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 1665.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member. The CBO doesn't score savings. If it did, it would note that drug and alcohol addictions cost $400 billion each year, that depression costs employers $51 billion each year, that depression increases the risk for chronic illness, and that chronic illness and untreated depression doubles the cost of health care. It would also note that caffeine withdrawal and jet lag are not something that insurance companies pay for. In fact, they are not medically necessary. It is not occurring here. But let's see what really happens with a person with mental illness, and I am saying this as a psychologist, as someone who has seen this time and time again, how the symptom really works. A person with a deadly disease such as anorexia or bulimia withers away until malnutrition and dehydration puts them in the hospital. Once the hospital stabilizes them, they come out. Maybe they will have a visit or two with a counselor or psychiatrist or psychologist. Maybe their primary care physician will put that person on some medication. And 75 percent of psychotropic drugs are prescribed by nonpsychiatrists, by people not trained in the field, because they don't have treatment possibilities under their health care plan. I oftentimes have a somewhat tongue-in-cheek agreement with obstetricians: I don't deliver babies, and they don't treat mental illness. Unfortunately, that may be all the plan allows for. But let's look at us as Members of Congress. Out of 435 Members of Congress, out of the 10,000 employees on our side of the Hill, we know that there are hundreds, thousands of people, quite frankly, who at some point in their working career will have some mental illness. What do we do with a well-trained employee? Do we say, you're fired? Do we say, go out and suck it up? Do we send them out into the unemployment system? Do we send them out into the welfare system? Do we take our children and send them out to the educational system and say, let the school take care of it? If it is a family member, do we say, well, be part of the criminal justice system, perhaps go into the emergency room system? No. We have the situation as Members of Congress where we can say, no, you can get help and you can get treatment. Why not for the rest of the country? Why not look at this as a cost- saving measure? This is more than just a compassionate measure. I speak as someone who has treated the mentally ill all my professional life, for 25 years. I know time and time again, when the people who are trained in this field to do something are told, no, you can't see this patient anymore, what do you say to the autistic child's parents? What do you say to somebody suffering from depression? What do you say to that person with anorexia or bulimia or any host of other problems when you have to say you are not covered, and so they are treated by someone with nothing in terms of experience in that field? If we really want to save money, if we really are looking at things to help business, let's look at and see what AT&T and Pepsi and PPG and other corporations have said, that it saves them millions of dollars in indirect costs, billions of dollars. Let's be honest about this. If we leave the system the way it is, we will see more wasted money. We will see more deaths. We will see more people mistreated or lacking treatment. Let's do the right thing.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank my friend from Tennessee for yielding. Madam Speaker, when we look at the economy that our Nation is facing and what we should be doing about it, quite frankly, in the area of energy, what we need to see is our Nation take on the issue of energy as a scientific challenge of our time. Really, it should be nothing less than the Apollo Project of our time where our resources for research and development and our educational institutions look to answer the question: How do we make our country energy secure in a way that is respectful of the environment and our public health? I was noticing today that oil is trading at $100 a barrel. This will probably continue to climb. It will continue to climb as long as we continue to embargo our own oil resources off the Atlantic Coast, the gulf coast, the Pacific Coast, the Western States, and Alaska. And, yes, we need to do a great deal to improve the efficiency of automobiles. We need to do a great deal to improve the efficiencies of our highways, which waste massive amounts of fuel. But in terms of our economy, we cannot continue to have our families suffer the high prices that come when we say we will continue to be more and more dependent upon importation of foreign oil sources. We also are more and more dependent upon the marketplace with regard to natural gas. When we see our chemical companies shutting down plants in America and instead saying they'll build plants in the Mideast because the cost of natural gas is so much cheaper there, perhaps 25 cents to $1 per million Btus, whereas here it may fluctuate to $6 or $8 or $10 or $12, it is something that's costing jobs and costing our economy. It is something that is costing jobs and costing our economy. It is difficult to see our President of the United States go and talk to Saudi leaders and ask them to increase production of oil recognizing that we are at their mercy as OPEC continues to set prices. We can change that by saying we will explore in environmentally responsible ways Americans' oil resources. Let's look, for example, to shale oil in Colorado. Estimates are 2 trillion barrels of oil there, 2 trillion barrels of shale oil. We cut that off in our omnibus spending bill. This is forcing us to continue to import oil, some 60 percent. We limit development on natural gas. We also have situations where we are hurting our coal development. Our energy bills that we are facing this week and have faced for a while have not done much to improve our use of coal, but we have some 300 years' worth of coal. What we ought to be doing is focusing our research and development dollars into using coal and cleaning it up so it does not have emissions, so it does not have large levels of CO2s, so it does not pollute. That is a scientific challenge of our time. That is something we should be challenging our students as they go through school to think about how they can solve these issues, how they can create clean energy from our abundant resources of coal, how they can continue to find ways of using oil resourcefully and with environmental respect. This is not something we are doing enough of. So what happens? It costs families more to go to work, it costs families more to feed their families. Look at what is happening with wheat prices. Yes, there are problems with wheat production in other parts of the world, but a big part of those costs has to do with the cost of transporting things. Last summer, flour was sold at about $16 per hundredweight. Now it is $40 or so, probably climbing to $60. How will we handle it if a loaf of bread doubles on top of the increased prices people have to pay driving their cars to get to the grocery store? It is too much of a burden. If we treat our energy needs as our Apollo project of this 21st century, of this decade, we would find jobs and more jobs and more jobs come out of this. The best economic stimulus package is a job. That is where we should be focusing. What can we do to build our infrastructure there? What kind of jobs come from building energy power plants? What happens when we start to put all our laborers, carpenters, ironworkers, boilermakers and electrical workers to build these plants? Let me tell you how big this demand is. We have 400 old coal-fired power plants with inefficient or no pollution controls on many of them. We need to replace those 400 coal power plants, and because our energy demands of this country are going to double by 2050, we have to build an additional 400. We have to replace 100 nuclear plants and build an additional 100. What that means is, starting in 2010, a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open up a new coal-fired power plant every 2 weeks and a new nuclear plant every 2\1/2\ months. These are massive jobs for America. We should be making those investments so we have those jobs. And the best thing we can be doing is finding ways to clean up our resources. Why, the Pittsburgh coal seam alone, as my friend from Tennessee knows, overlaps my State of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. And that is just one of our vast resources. Let's focus our energy on doing what is right for the long-term for America, for America's jobs and America's economy, and stop saying ``no'' to energy security.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, here's today's grisly toll. 235,626 cases, 11,661 deaths, and a cost of $5.89 billion. What I'm talking about here are the number of people who obtain and die and the overall cost of infections in our hospitals every year, from MRSA, from pneumonia and other infections. It is time that Congress got serious about this. In the last 3 years since I've first introduced this bill, 90,000 people have died each year from infections they pick up at hospitals. It is time we pass the Healthy Hospitals Act, H.R. 1174, and work to make sure our hospitals are safer.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, we are facing massive problems with regard to the price of energy. Energy costs money, and expensive energy costs jobs, and we are seeing that now happen in our economy. We are standing at a critical crossroad, and if we fail to deal with our energy needs in a responsible way, we will face not only the concerns about the environment, but we will face and we are facing economic recession threats and major job losses. Earlier today, the Department of Commerce released December's trade deficit numbers, which, once again, strongly underscored the need for American energy independence. The good news is that the trade deficit shrank by 6.9 percent to $58.76 billion. But the bad news is that energy imports continue to make up over half of our trade deficit, over half, 55 percent. In November, it was the reason why we had major increases. We continue to see risk that oil was sold for only $50 a barrel a year ago and gas into $2.50, and is going to continue to climb. As long as we continue down this road of importing foreign oil to the United States, we will be allowing OPEC nations to call the shots for our economy and becoming more dependent upon hostile countries for oil. When OPEC manipulates production, rural oil prices soar. And our President is left to go and ask Saudi leaders to produce more oil, more Saudi oil, not more American oil. We have Venezuelan leader, President Hugo Chavez, threatening to cut off oil to the United States and Exxon. If they were to do that, the price of oil would increase throughout the world. Chavez himself predicted the cost per barrel would double to $200 and increase our prices. Such a move would show all of these oil-producing countries that they can control our actions by shutting down our access to oil. We've already seen natural gas prices manipulated by Russia. We've seen these energy prices increase. But when we buy oil from countries with a history of supporting terrorism, the worst part about this is we are funding both sides of the war on terror. Meanwhile, what has Congress done in the last year or two? Well, it's put on an embargo on our own oil. It's blocked exploration for American oil. Congress has voted to prevent oil production, oil drilling in the Atlantic coast, the gulf coast, the Pacific coast, Colorado and Alaska. These bans on drilling for our own oil are particularly preposterous in light of the fact that China and Cuba are drilling within 60 miles of our Florida coast while we are not allowed to drill off our coast. The U.S. contains 70 percent of the world's shale oil reserves, enough to supply our country with energy for hundreds of years if we are allowed to use it. But rather than turning to this resource that can lead us to energy independence and energy security, we once again turn our backs to it. Last year, we cut off access to 2 trillion barrels of shale oil in the western States in the omnibus spending bill. Such policies have forced us to continue this increase of importing oil. What happens is the impact upon the American family in terms of costs. We see increased costs for food as we also try using corn for ethanol. But when 20 percent of corn is being used for ethanol, we see the cost of food go up. We see the costs of transporting food go up. We see the cost of wheat climbing because not only is it a concern with regard to shortages of wheat coming from other nations, but it's also a huge concern on the cost of transporting that wheat. So what was $16 per hundred weight last year for wheat for our bakers to use their flour, now it's $40, with anticipation to climb much more. How will Americans react when they know that while Congress continues to embargo the American oil resources, a loaf of bread is going to climb from $1.50 to $3 a loaf. Americans don't understand why we cannot drill for our own oil. Yes, we need to do so many things to clean up the air. Yes, we need to make sure we are investing in clean coal technology so that the 300 years' worth of coal we have in this Nation can be used to cleanly produce electricity. We have to make sure we are using clean nuclear energy. We have to make sure that natural gas is used for what it's supposed to be as a chemical product to make fertilizer rather than producing energy at a very high cost and thereby allow us to use it for making fertilizer and other products that can help also reduce the cost of our food products. But instead, we continue to say no to American oil, and it just doesn't make sense. Here is what America's going to face by 2050: our energy demands are going to double. That means we have 400 coal-fired power plants that need to be rebuilt and an additional 400 built. We have 100 nuclear power plants that need to be rebuilt because they are old, and we need to build an additional 100. That means starting in the year 2010, we have to open up a new clean coal power plant every 2\1/2\ weeks and a nuclear plant every 2\1/2\ months, and we haven't even started building them yet. It cannot be done. Instead, what we are probably going to face is rolling brownouts because the efforts we are doing are not going to suffice. I hope this House will move forward, take the embargoes off coal, and begin to really move towards clean coal technology and stop the embargo on oil.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 65, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, December 14, 2007, the varsity football team from Thomas Jefferson High School in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, won the Class AAA State football championship in Hershey, clinching the Jaguars' second title in 4 years. With a final score of 28-3, the Jaguars finished a perfect season. Zach Decicco, Thomas Jefferson's quarterback, threw for 137 yards and two scores, ran for 11 yards and a score, and picked off a pass on defense. Coach Bill Cherpak became just the third head coach in western Pennsylvania history to achieve a perfect win record in more than one appearance at the State championship game in Hershey. Thomas Jefferson High School and the West Jefferson Hills School District also excel in academics, ranking in the top 20 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts. Congratulations to coach Bill Cherpak and the Thomas Jefferson High School Jaguars for being champions on the field and champions in the classroom.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I would also like to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for assistance in putting a very important part into this bill. Universities have no trouble finding parents when it comes time to ask for the tuition check. And, sadly, schools can find parents when tragedies occur, such as Virginia Tech, when it comes time to call a parent to give them bad news on what happened to their student. But one of the greatest fears parents have is their students' safety while they are at the university or college. And a while ago, when a gunman killed 32 people and wounded others, it was just one of the tragedies that occurs on campus. There are many other stories as well. In my district in Pennsylvania, Charles and Debi Mahoney lost their son, Chuck, to suicide. And as he suffered from depression, his fraternity brothers, his ex-girlfriend, and college therapist, et cetera, all knew he was in danger and warned the college. But a legal barrier under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, known as FERPA, prevented the school from notifying Chuck's parents, who could have gotten him the help he needed. Unfortunately, Chuck's story is not unusual. Each day an average of three college students commit suicide. While in college, 11 percent of men and 9 percent of women consider suicide. While they may not all act on their thoughts, we need to ensure schools are able to contact parents to get them the help they need not only for the safety of the child but also of others on campus. Parents may be in the best position to help students suffering from significant mental illness by providing emotional support, medical history, coordinating care with various mental health and medical professionals, and long-term follow-up. Parents will be around long after the school is gone. Today we are breaking down the legal barrier preventing schools from communicating with parents. Section 865 of the bill before us today is modeled after the Mental Health Security for America's Families in Education Act, H.R. 2220, which I authored. It will prevent future campus tragedies by requiring the Secretary of Education to clarify FERPA so schools can contact parents when a student is at risk of suicide, homicide, or physical assault. It will also protect schools acting in good faith from liability. This is a good bill that will make college campuses safer. It will give families peace of mind.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the compassion and passion of my friend from Rhode Island who has been such a leader in mental health parity. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Ferguson), another great leader whose heart goes out to those in need of mental health issues.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. We're gathered here today to debate or support H.R. 4848, a bill which extends that which Congress has passed before, and that was an important bill for its time. It's an important bill to extend for, in doing so, we acknowledge the innate value of helping those suffering from mental illness. We acknowledge in Congress that for those who suffer these afflictions, they may be relieved of that suffering through receiving necessary treatment. In compassion, we as a body extend our hand in support of those who suffer the pains of mental illness. We acknowledge that their illnesses are real, and that the appropriate treatments give them hope to slough off the yoke of their illness and again become a fully productive member of our Nation, our workplace and our family. The significance of this act may be overshadowed by other events of the day, but it is essential that we not fail to appreciate the value of this moment, not only in terms of what this bill does but what it does not do and, moreover, why we need to enact this law at all. First to the reasons for this bill. As John Adams said, ``Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'' He made that comment not because our Constitution is a vehicle to support any particular religion; rather, he noted the inherent inadequacies of any body of laws, and that they cannot replace the moral light that should guide us when no law has yet been writ to define that path. Indeed, we cannot legislate common sense, we cannot mandate morality, and we cannot litigate compassion. We can, however, establish laws to define the limits of what can be tolerated. And where the laws do not apply, we hope that the goodness and faith that guides our hearts is sufficient to drive us to do the right thing. Unfortunately, when it comes to dealing with mental illness, our society, our culture and our government has failed to do the right thing. We have spent billions, hundreds of billions, I dare say, over the years to help those with mental illness, but we have remained short-sighted at best, or blind at worst as to what we truly must do. It is my wish that people would be personally guided by their own sense of justice and compassion to do the right thing in the treatment of mental illness. Instead, we remain willfully and woefully ignorant to the causes, the diagnoses, and the treatment of mental illness. We have denied its very existence, perhaps wasting our hope in the hope it would go away. We have instead tried to wish away its effects. We have minimized the impact, trivialized the causes, and criticized the patients. We have used words to make mental illness the butt of cruel jokes. We have used words like ``crazy'' or ``retarded'' or ``idiot,'' as if attaching a derogatory label would free us from the responsibility for helping or treating those with these illnesses. I ask you: Would we use such disparaging remarks to describe persons with cancer, with diabetes, with heart disease? Could demeaning words make any of those diseases disappear or less painful? Can derisive words motivate someone to seek help? No, instead they drive the person further into the shadows to deny their own illness, to avoid treatment and not even help themselves. In many ways, we have not advanced very far beyond the days of the Salem witch trials when those with mental illness were ignorantly tried as criminals, sentenced to death, or cruelly treated with torture. Think this is not true today? Well, think again. Our prisons are filled with persons who suffer from mental illness. Our courts are packed with victims of child abuse or sex abuse. Our churches are filled with those who are praying to be relieved of the terrible strains befalling them. Families break up. Jobs are lost. Children fail in school and lives are lost from untreated mental illness. And yet we continue to deny it is there and place barriers between the patient and the cure. In my many years of practicing psychology, I have never, never met a patient who was cured by denial. But denial is the common treatment for so many when it comes to acknowledging or treating mental illness. Listen, you cannot whisper it away, for even in the silence, even in the darkness, mental illness cries out for help. One in five Americans will suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. One in 10 young people suffer from mental illness severe enough to cause some form of impairment. Untreated drug and alcohol addictions cost Americans $400 billion each year. A Rand study estimated that depression alone cost employers $51 billion per year in absenteeism and lost productivity. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. More years of life are lost to suicide than any other single cause except heart disease and cancer. Thirty thousand Americans commit suicide annually, and half a million attempt it. Among college students, three die each day from suicide. The Federal Government estimates that about 12\1/2\ million people have alcohol problems. It costs businesses $134 billion a year in lost productivity. Does treatment work to help people with mental illness? Yes, it does. Studies of depression in the workplace have shown thousands of dollars of savings per employee when they receive treatment. We note that when 80 percent of health care costs are used to treat chronic illness, that the risk for depression doubles among those who are chronically ill and not receiving treatment. The cost doubles as well. The combination of appropriate medication and treatments have been very effective in treating anxiety, depression, bipolar illness and behavior disorders. But when health plans do not pay for appropriate professional care, where does the treatment come from? Seventy-five percent of psychiatric medications are prescribed by non-psychiatrists. Now look at that in the context of other illnesses. Would we tolerate it if 75 percent of insurance plans said that most babies would be delivered by people with minimal training? How about requiring that brain surgery is done by those who only had a few weeks of training in medical school. Would we accept that? We would not. This bill extends what we have done before. It helps in a small but important way. But it does not move us to where we need to be. Perhaps the lesson here is that there are many things we need to do for ourselves, many things we need to do to reach out to others and help. But it does not cure the barriers. It does not identify which diagnoses need to be treated. We will need to do more. Eventually we as a Nation need to come to terms with what needs to be done. The cost savings of providing the right treatment are huge. The costs of continuing to provide the wrong care, or denying care, are massive. As Benjamin Franklin said, ``By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.'' Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.