Charles Melancon

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Chair, I rise today on behalf of thousands of families in Louisiana and across the nation who have been devastated by the fraud of Allen Stanford and his financial companies. Earlier this year, men and women who had played by the rules and worked hard to prepare for retirement and their children's futures learned that they had been cheated out of a lifetime of savings. While we continue in our efforts to make these families whole, we have a responsibility to ensure that this kind of fraud never again happens in the United States. The investor protections included in H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act are a monumental step toward this goal. One thing we have learned through this tragedy is that the greed of criminals like Stanford is matched only by the danger of deregulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which was designed to prevent this very situation, is deeply flawed. The bill we are now considering reforms the agency and strengthens its authority to effectively and forcefully protect investors and our securities markets. In addition, the bill creates incentives for whistleblowers to expose crooks like Stanford. Through a new whistleblower bounty program, we will reward individuals who provide tips that lead to the prosecution of fraud. Finally, under this bill, every financial intermediary who provides advice to an investor will have a fiduciary duty toward them. This standard will force broker-dealers and investment advisers to put first, their customers' interests--not their own pocketbooks. American citizens need the confidence that their government will act quickly and forcefully to protect their hard-earned savings. The investor protection measures in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will provide families the security they need to prepare for the future.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, today I come to the floor to talk about an issue which I think makes a lot of sense: home health care. Being from a rural area in Louisiana, home health aides provide a tremendous benefit to my constituents, many of whom live 25 minutes or more from the nearest hospital. I believe home health care provides a necessary service to those who need a little extra assistance meeting their health care goals. A new report by Avalere Health found that home health use saved Medicare $1.71 billion from 2005 to 2006. That's a real savings while providing good health care. Here is an example from my district. Jimmy Jordan's life was saved when his mom's home health care nurse, Rochelle Mixon, noticed he was suffering from congestive heart failure. Since being released from the hospital with his own home health care service, he has lost 170 pounds and improved his diabetes. He no longer uses a wheelchair and has improved mobility. Jimmy says he owes his life to the care he has received from his home health care team. I believe in home health care, and I urge my colleagues to support these providers as we move forward with the debate on health care reform. Home health makes a difference and saves money. There is no better combination than that.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, whether serving in Congress or as Governor or working as a private citizen, Dave Treen always put Louisiana first. Dave was bipartisan, a middle-of-the-road compromiser who never forgot that there were greater principles worth fighting for beyond party and politics. He will be remembered fondly by all of us who knew him as a warm, wonderful person and a committed reformer. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Having been a Kappa Sigma, that was one of the places where we had common interest and bond. Dave Treen will be sorely missed. He was a gentleman, an honorable person, and he loved this body when he served here, and he will be well remembered as Governor of the State of Louisiana.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, many of us have heard the terrible story of Jamie Leigh Jones, the employee of a U.S. defense contractor who was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by coworkers while working in Iraq in 2005. Instead of being allowed to seek justice, Jamie Leigh was held in a shipping container by company employees so she couldn't report the crime. When Jamie Leigh returned to the United States, she learned that a clause in her contract barred her from taking her case to court. Instead, it forced her into a company-run arbitration process; the same company that failed to protect her in the first place. It is our responsibility to make sure that this horrific story can never happen again. No American citizen should ever have to sign away his or her rights to justice in order to get a job. Not a dime of taxpayer money should go to companies that would rather sweep an assault under the rug than allow our justice system to work. The Franken amendment will forbid Federal dollars from going to companies that engage in these practices. If we fail to enact this measure, we have failed to protect the rights and values we were sworn to uphold when we took our oath of office. We cannot let this happen again.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we do not begin paying our bills today, we will continue to short- change future generations who face higher taxes and cuts to Federal investments in priorities such as education, health care and national security. In order to ensure our long-term fiscal sustainability, we must all work together and return to the proven, effective pay-as-you- go rules that brought our Federal budget to balance in the 1990s. We now have a President who is committed to changing the fiscal course of this country. Together, we are committed to putting an end to the reckless fiscal policies and out-of-control spending of the past that has given us the record deficits we see today. To that end, the President has charged Congress with passing statutory PAYGO, and we have an obligation to see that this critical piece of legislation reaches his desk for signing. Our Federal Government simply cannot continue to live beyond its means, mortgaging our future on the backs of our children and our grandchildren. Reinstituting statutory PAYGO will send a message to the American people that their government is serious about putting the country back on stable economic footing. The time to act is now. The President has put his words into action and I look forward to working with the Blue Dogs and my colleagues in the House and the Senate to make statutory PAYGO a reality again in this country.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. I thank my friend. I thank Mr. Flake for his leadership on the issues of fiscal responsibility. As a Blue Dog Democrat, I appreciate the importance of fiscal responsibility; and getting our fiscal house in order is the best way to come out of this recession quickly, a recession caused by 8 years of irresponsible spending. And I am aware that my friend was one of the few people that continued to hawk his side of the aisle. Part of fiscal responsibility is the need for legislators to prioritize spending, spending on projects that improve our constituents' safety, health and their livelihood. This institute will be working toward developing standards and guidelines for seafood safety as well as methods to advance sustainable fishing practices. In fact, this project dovetails nicely with the work being done in Energy and Commerce as we speak regarding the food safety bill and the issues that confront us. The rash of food-related illnesses and the deaths in the past few years highlight the vulnerability of our country and what we face from unsafe food sources and imports. Louisiana is the number one producer in the continental United States of the most valuable commercial shellfish and finfish species, providing about one-third of the Nation's commercial seafood species. Our working coast sends fresh seafood around the country, including States in the West like Arizona. I remember spending one Mardi Gras week in meetings in Phoenix and enjoyed fresh crawfish from Louisiana in Arizona restaurants. And that was because of the fact that our people in Louisiana try to bring the freshest and the best to the rest of the country. So it's imperative that we have the ability to ensure that this valuable resource be kept safe and sustainable. Why should we be using taxpayer funds? The seafood industry in Louisiana--and in many parts of the country, not just Louisiana--is a conglomerate of many small, single-owner businesses. Sometimes a member of the industry owns a single boat, and that is part of the industry that we know in south Louisiana along the entire gulf coast. And if you go throughout the fishing industry in the United States, you will find that does not differ a lot. Many beneficial domestic policies have strong, positive impacts on all of our constituents. In the case of food safety and sustainability, all of our constituents--regardless of whether they're from the north, the west, the south, the east, middle-America--share in the peace of mind that they can feed their families with clean, healthy, safe food. While those benefits are shared by all, it makes sense that the costs be shared as well. This project that we're discussing today focuses funding on food safety and sustainability in the location that produces a large portion of the Nation's seafood. By prioritizing the funding of the Institute for Seafood Studies at Nicholls State University, we are responsibly investing in a food supply that we can all enjoy. This is not just a Nicholls State University, a Third Louisiana District, a south Louisiana thing. This is about safe seafood, whether it's shrimp, whether it's fin fish, regardless. It's about the study and the making sure that the products that are delivered to America are safe for the people to consume. With that, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment and hope that the Congress of the United States will recognize the importance of the working coast. We're not the Sun Coast, we are not the Sand Coast, we are not the Condominium Coast. We are the coast of the United States that produces over 30 percent of the seafood, and good quality, safe seafood that we hope to preserve.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Thank you for the allotment of time, Mr. Boyd. Let me start by saying that a budget resolution is not a binding document. It is a guideline, it is a principle, it is to give guidance to the Congress and to the administration. It has no taxes that are included in it. There are, in fact, spending cuts included in it. Working with Chairman Spratt, who has been diligent in trying to put together a good spending package, a good budget package, we, as the Blue Dogs, have consistently asked for help in trying to bring control over the spending that has occurred in this country over the last 8 years that has given us the deficit we have. If you go and take a look at the last budget that President Bush put forward, add into that the offline budgets, the offline spending that he had, if you put them together then you'll find President Obama's budget in roughly the same numbers. We are not fooling the American public anymore. We are trying to say to the American public, This is what your government has been spending and you deserve to know that. And as a Blue Dog, what we're saying is we're here to work with people to try to make this government work for the American public and the taxpayers of this country. We have gone for too long with deceit and trying to trick the American public by thinking that they are not watching what was spent in the war, by not paying attention that the alternative minimum tax was funded out of budget, that we were just borrowing and spending, borrowing and spending. And if we keep this up, there will come a day when China will tell us when we can borrow and when we can spend, and I think I would rather have the dictate come from the American public rather than the country of China that holds our debt.

Mr. MELANCON. Thank you, Representative Boyd. A budget is only as strong as those who are here to enforce it. The Blue Dogs have been committed to fiscal responsibility and accountability for over 15 years, and we will be here to make sure that the House follows this blueprint for putting our government and the economy on a fiscally sustainable path. We are here to work with all in this Congress for a budget, for a country, for a government that works for the people again.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this time to commend Mr. Robert P. Page, an outstanding citizen and business leader from Houma, Louisiana. He is about to complete his term as president of the National Association of Insurance Agents. Mr. Page has distinguished himself throughout his career as a professional insurance agent, even serving as president of the Professional Insurance Agents of Louisiana, and he has exhibited only the highest standards of honesty, integrity and professionalism. Despite suffering personal losses as a result of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, Mr. Page has provided uninterrupted service to the clients of his insurance agency in Houma, going above and beyond the call of duty to assist his fellow citizens, who also suffered devastating losses as a result of the hurricanes. Mr. Page is a tireless advocate of developing a national consensus to come up with a better mechanism to deal with natural catastrophes throughout the United States, serving as a founding member of the Professional Insurance Agents Natural Task Force. With his years of hard work and dedication, Mr. Page has earned the respect and admiration of his many colleagues throughout the insurance industry, as well as exemplified the motto of his insurance association, ``Local Agents Serving Main Street America.'' Therefore, I would like to congratulate and commend Robert P. Page of Houma, Louisiana, upon the successful completion of his term as president of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. I apologize for being tardy in arriving on the floor. I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time explaining to my constituents some of the false information that is getting put out there as though the deficits showed up yesterday at our doorstep unbeknownst to anyone before. Some 8 years ago we had an estimated $5.6 trillion surplus projected out over the next 10 years. As we stand here today, that surplus has turned to a deficit in excess of $10 trillion, and that is on budget. I know I don't need to explain that to you, but off budget I guess it is another several trillion dollars. Then if you go and use the accrual form of accounting, as businesses do, and people that are in the business world would understand, we are at $56 trillion and growing deficit, not talking about the number of jobs. So if we are out here in an economy, and of course a lot of what I hear from people is there is so much waste in the stimulus bill, the things that were there are a miniscule part that were made to sound like it was a whole package wrought with nothing but people's special projects. As we move to try and remove some of those things and get a viable bill that addresses stimulating the economy and putting people back to work and addresses the needs of trying to keep the United States economy from collapsing, because if we don't do that, I think the irony is that people around the world are looking to the United States while each one of their governments are trying to figure out what it is that they need to do to stabilize their economy. They are watching the United States because we are the kingpin. If we fold, we are going to be the tail that wags this dog, and we are going to be the people who can hopefully keep our Nation afloat and keep the rest of the world hoping that we keep away from a depression as our forefathers, my parents and grandparents experienced, and a few who still live today remember. When we start looking at what has occurred in this Nation, the relevant parties that were running the government over the last 8 years, borrowing money, spending money, right now the fourth largest item in our budget is the interest on the money that our government has borrowed, and 40 percent of our debt is held by foreign countries. We are already leveraged. We are a country that used to be a gross producer of agriculture. We used to be able to hold our own in manufacturing and energy independence. We are none of those any more. As we move forward, placed in our lap is not the opportunity, but placed in our lap is the disaster that has been laid at our doorstep, and now we have to figure out how to get us back, how to stabilize this economy, how to fill that gap of the trillions of dollars that has been robbed from it so that we can move forward so that my children, my constituents' children, and all of the constituents in this country's children and grandchildren can hope to have a better future. We shouldn't be the people that have to be the bearer of bad news. What we have facing us today, as you have shown, just in 1 year, 3.6 million jobs lost, some 500,000-plus in the last month, that is not government working for the good of the people. So we have a lot that we need to do. I thank you for the opportunity to join you here on the floor here this afternoon.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be on the floor tonight with my fellow Blue Dogs, and we were just going to make some remarks and talk about the Blue Dogs' concern with fiscal responsibility in previous Congresses and in Congresses going forward. Over the long haul, the Federal budget has been in a downward spiral with the national debt growing faster than the economy. With this grim fiscal outlook, it is more important than ever that Congress and the administration work together in a bipartisan manner to address the needs for long-term fiscal sustainability. Back in this 1990s, under the administration of Bill Clinton and with the cooperation of the Congress led by the Blue Dog Coalition, PAYGO rules were put into statute, put into law that required that the Congress of the United States pay for that which they wished to spend. So no new spending could be appropriated and spent without the author or the party or the group that wanted to propose new spending finding a means or a place to cover the cost. About 8 years ago, the PAYGO rules were abolished out of statute, and since that time and in the period of 8 years, the Government Accounting Office in the projections for 10 years out showed that the budget was estimated to have a surplus of $5.5 trillion in the next 10 years. As I stand here today with my colleagues, we are now projecting an excess of $10 trillion deficit. That's a $15.5 trillion swing. And if you actually looked at government accounting, or if you looked at accrual accounting rather than government accounting, you will find that--those of you that are in business out in this country will know that a $56 trillion deficit projected is the real number. Because of the deficits that exist in so many programs, entitlements and others, we have spun ourselves or spent ourselves into a hole that will take us quite a while to climb out of. I have one grandson. His name is Jack, and he's 2\1/2\ years old. For Christmas, I got one of those video frames that changes the pictures out. And it is one of the greatest things that my family could have given me because Jack's there every day to remind me of the reason why I need to be here, why the Blue Dogs have continued their attack on the budget, why they have continued the march and the drumbeat of PAYGO and fiscal responsibility when neither side of our Congress would face up to the facts. If in fact we are to leave them a good world, we need to face up, just like every American does, to the bills that confront us; and we can't spend more than we take in. We need to, as was done back in the 1990s, go back to statutory PAYGO, live within our means, make sure we have the money to pay for those things which are good for our country-- not squander the future for our children and our grandchildren--but to make sure that their future has a potential to be a bright one, as mine was, because of my parents' and my grandparents' efforts during their time. I would like to ask my friend, Congressman Baron Hill, to make a few comments.

Mr. MELANCON. Thank you, Congressman Boyd, my friend from Florida. You know, one of the ironies is that some four-and-a-half years ago, or five-and-a-half years ago now when I made the decision to run for the vacated seat in the Third District of Louisiana, which is of course the coastal district that was hit by both Katrina and Rita and then subsequently this past year by Gustav and Ike, we have a lot of foreigners showing up on the shores of Louisiana these days. I ran, of course. People referred to Democrats as tax-and-spend Democrats. One place that I always thought that I had some relationship to Republicans was in fiscal matters, and ironically after getting here and finding out the situation of our deficit and its continuing to grow. I've learned too that we as Democrats or my predecessors as Democrats may have been tax and spend, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will go down in history I believe as borrow and spend. You can't continue to print money and continue to elevate the debt on this country. And particularly when you look at the debt of this country as we stand here today, in 8 years this deficit has grown to a size that is larger than all the cumulative deficits for all administrations from George Washington to the start 8 years ago. That's amazing. The fourth largest item in our budget is the interest that we pay on the money that we borrow. Forty percent of the debt that we owe, the people that hold the treasuries and the bonds for this country's future are held by China. I wonder why we're so nice to our friends in China. So, as we move forward, we need to look at a fiscal policy, but we also in a time that is unparalleled, we have to be looking at what do we do to preserve the economy. This bill, as we've talked about that's presently moving through the Congress, is not a perfect bill. I, in fact, voted for the substitute presented by the Republicans. I don't know that I can agree with either of the bills as being a perfect bill, and no one, because of the nature of the animal we're dealing with, can say that the problems will be solved. If you go back to 1929 when the market collapsed, 2 years later Roosevelt was elected. Between that time, the Congress and the administration in Washington said the markets will correct themselves; we need not do anything. Roosevelt came into office, started the CCC, the WPA. People talk about socialized government. That was probably as close as you will get to it. Checks were paid to people for work that they did, but they managed to put food on the table, however scarce. They managed to have a roof over their head, to clothe their children, to be able to continue going forward. It was not a glorious time. It was one of the blackest times in our history. But by--I hate to say this--by coincidence a law came toward the end of the 1930s, and as a manufacturing country we got our economy going back. And then after World War II we got out of that, laws were passed by this Congress, enacted by this Congress, signed into law by the President that had preceded us that would have protected America and America's economy, had all the regulatory agencies been doing the job that they were supposed to have been doing through these periods of time. There's been a movement towards deregulation, and I'm for deregulation, but when you put together people and money you breed greed. And what we have caused here was the greed of people and not just in this country. We are faced with a worldwide situation, one that resembles what happened in the period of 1929 into the 1930s. And after listening to my parents through the years, talking with my grandparents as I grew up, I don't think that I want to be labeled a person who did nothing, a person who said the market will correct itself, a person who said they will fend for themselves, a person who leaves a debt that my children and grandchildren and my friend's children and grandchildren will never ever be able to repay if we don't start the march in the right direction this day, in this Congress, in this administration, in this city, in this great country.

Mr. MELANCON. Yes, I will.

Mr. MELANCON. I thank my friend from Florida, and in closing, let me just say there's an expression that you will hear in Washington, and it's called kicking the can down the street and refers to one party or another party or one administration or another administration or one politician or another politician taking the issue and just moving it down the road and trying to avoid having to face the hard issue of picking it up and resolving what the issues need to be. We can no longer, as a government of this great country, kick the can down the road. We need to pick it up. We need to face the issues. We need to do it in a bipartisan way. We need to go back to regular order, take bills the way they used to be, where people debated them, they negotiated them. And a good deal or good bill has always been, in my mind, one where both parties either leave unhappy or both parties leave happy. When one party leaves happy and the other one isn't, then it's not a good deal, and it particularly is not a good deal for the great American citizens that put up with what has gone on through the decades. We need to reform the way we do our business by going back to regular order, by making sure that there's transparency in our government, that people that are in this body have an opportunity to participate in the legislative process and pass bills that can muster votes from both sides of the aisle. Then we can say we're starting to act like American citizens and American politicians should. So with that, Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity for the Blue Dog Coalition to be here tonight.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this time to commend Mr. Robert P. Page, an outstanding citizen and business leader from Houma, Louisiana. I wanted to recognize him today as he is in the final months of his term as the President of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents. Mr. Page has distinguished himself throughout his career as a professional insurance agent and he has exhibited only the highest standards of honesty, integrity and professionalism, serving as the President of the Professional Insurance Agents of Louisiana. Despite suffering personal losses as the result of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, Mr. Page has provided uninterrupted service to the clients of his insurance agency in Houma, going above and beyond the call of duty to assist his fellow citizens who suffered devastating losses after each storm. Mr. Page has worked tirelessly to develop a mechanism to deal with natural catastrophes throughout the United States, serving as the founding member of the Professional Insurance Agents Natural Catastrophe Task Force. With his years of hard work and dedication Mr. Page has earned the respect and admiration of his many colleagues throughout the insurance industry. He has embodied the motto of his insurance association, ``Local Agents Serving Main Street America'' Therefore, I'd like to congratulate and commend Robert P. Page of Houma, Louisiana upon the successful completion of his term as President of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3221. Since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, many families in south Louisiana have been working hard to rebuild their homes and piece back together their lives. Yet, as if this challenge wasn't tough enough, our complicated tax code burdened them with an additional financial difficulty. Today, we'll remove this road block to recovery for tens of thousands of families in my State. Unsure if the state of Louisiana would be issuing grants to rebuild homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many individuals claimed a casualty loss deduction on their income taxes. However, nearly a year later, when the Louisiana Road Home program began issuing rebuilding grants--grants which have historically been tax-free--many recipients were also told that they would have to pay taxes on these grants, as a result of an unintended consequence of our tax code. This bill will fix that section, making sure hurricane survivors don't have to pay taxes on their rebuilding grants. It allows recipients who have previously deducted losses on their Federal income taxes to simply amend their returns. Individuals who have already paid taxes on their recovery grants will also be allowed to amend their current tax returns to reflect the new law. This change will save homeowners thousands of dollars--dollars that are essential for the ongoing recovery of our State. I commend the Chairman and ranking member on this important and timely bill, and I thank them for including this vital fix. Our people are not asking for a windfall. They are simply asking that they pay their fair share and be allowed to use their grants to rebuild their lives. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to recognize the retirement of John Milazzo as the chairman of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU). Elected to the NAFCU Board in 1999, John has been a leader in the credit union community both nationally and within my great state of Louisiana. For the past nine years, Mr. Milazzo has been balancing his time as a NAFCU Board member, including the past two years as the chairman of the NAFCU Board, against his responsibilities at Campus Federal Credit Union, where he has been the president/CEO since 1985. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, Campus Federal Credit Union is a $320 million multibranch credit union serving 39,000 members that is known for its use of technology and innovation to improve operational efficiency. Throughout his tenure as chairman of the NAFCU Board of Directors, Mr. Milazzo worked tirelessly to enhance the federal credit union charter by working with Congress for regulatory relief legislation for credit unions. As chairman, he has also helped maintain NAFCU's status as a leading credit union trade association. John has been an active credit union advocate on local, state and national levels, having served on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Financial Institutions Advisory Committee and as chairman of the Southern Financial Exchange and now serving as a member of Fannie Mae's National Advisory Council. Many would think that the work he does for credit unions would be enough to fill a day, but that is not the case. Mr. Milazzo is a dedicated family man who finds time to volunteer with the United Way Campaign and the Community Fund for the Arts. He is a current member of Kiwanis International and previously served as club president and former district lieutenant governor of the organization. He is also a Eucharistic minister and member of the finance committee of Saint Anne's Catholic Church. A graduate of Louisiana State, he may also be one of the most loyal LSU Tigers fans in the nation, and he continues to serve the LSU community through Campus Federal Credit Union. It is with great honor that I rise today to congratulate Mr. John Milazzo on his fine work throughout his illustrious tenure as chair of NAFCU. I have worked with him on issues that are important to the credit union community in the past, and I am committed to continuing this relationship. I have no doubt that, with Milazzo's more than 20 years of experience in the credit union community, his departure will leave a great void. Congratulations on your retirement from the NAFCU Board, Mr. Milazzo.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, tonight I happened to talk to my 2-year-old grandson, Jackson, in his home in south Louisiana. He is just 2 so we didn't talk a lot of details about his pap and what his pap was going to be doing tonight. But I thought it fitting to call him before speaking in favor of this motion to instruct. For the next couple of years, he will play with just about anything put in front of him. He will clap blocks together, chip paint off of model cars, and I will bet chew on anything that is handy. We owe it to him, his mother, his dad, his grandmothers, his other grandfather, and to me, to do what we can to make certain the toys he plays with won't make him sick. It's that simple. We have that responsibility, and I believe this underlying bill gets us closer to fulfilling it. Mr. Speaker, I am proud of this bipartisan bill. It passed out of the committee 51-0 and passed the House 407-0. It bans lead beyond the tiniest amounts in products intended for kids 12 and under. That is an important age, as kids are exposed to so many different toys and products as they grow up. I believe the House bill takes this into account, and I am proud to support it. Mr. Speaker, this motion is a good one. I thank my friend from Illinois for offering it. I urge that the House support the motion to instruct offered. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 943) remembering the space shuttle Challenger disaster and honoring its crew members, who lost their lives on January 28, 1986.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on House Resolution 943, the resolution now under consideration.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to support House Resolution 943, a resolution honoring the astronauts of the space shuttle Challenger and honoring its crew members, who lost their lives on January 28, 1986. And I congratulate Mr. Hodes for preparing this resolution. The tragic loss of the Challenger and her crew of seven serves as a continuing reminder that space flight is anything but routine. As we continue to explore outer space, we here on the ground must do our part to ensure that we have learned the lessons of the Challenger accident and work tirelessly to make space travel as safe as possible for future generations of explorers. In addition, I believe we can best honor the sacrifices of the crew of the Challenger made by our commitment to renewing America's space program, continuing the Nation's journey into space, a goal to which they dedicated their lives. Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate that we pause today to honor the memory of the Challenger crew, and I urge all my colleagues to support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Hodes).

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on House Concurrent Resolution 287, the resolution now under consideration.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on House Resolution 907, the resolution now under consideration.