Nancy Pelosi

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. That is not definite yet?

Ms. PELOSI. I understand no votes until 2:00 p.m. Will the investor tax bill be scheduled next week, and if so, what day?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, does the majority leader wish to share with us how long the next CR will last?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, so it is not the usual consultation with Puff the Magic Dragon?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, the hour is late. Other than the vote on Iraq today, we have not accomplished anything much in this body since July. Since there is no question we will have a lame duck, would my colleague wish to share with us when that might begin?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for his comments.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a remarkable Californian, who has left an indelible mark on the law and the community through his work in both the courtroom and the classroom. Edwin Heafey, Jr. was a founding partner of the Oakland-based law firm Crosby, Heafey, Roach and May. With his father, brother and a law school classmate, Edwin Heafey built the firm from eight attorneys to 250 attorneys, and six offices throughout the state of California. Edwin Heafey was a lawyer's lawyer, among the last of the breed who could rightly claim to be an expert in fields ranging from business law to personal injury law and who had 150 trials under his belt to prove it. He represented Alameda County in the Oakland Raiders' $100 million antitrust dispute with the National Football League, and some of his big cases helped shape product liability law in California and across the country. In these cases and others, he was a fierce advocate, but one known for his good humor and courtesy as much as his expertise and tenacity. His knowledge of the law was as encyclopedic as his respect for it was immense. Edwin literally wrote the book on trial procedure. As a professor at Boalt Hall law school in Berkeley for 17 years, he helped train the next generation of trial lawyers. As a teacher and, for many, as a mentor long after graduation, Edwin Heafey seeded the California legal community with talented young people steeped in both his knowledge and his uncompromising ethic. Edwin Heafey held himself to the highest standards and believed that the law--and his law firm--could be a significant force for social as well as legal justice. The Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May Foundation has made hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of grants to non-profit organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. Grant recipients have included such organizations as Second Chance Adult Literacy Program, Los Angeles Youth Conservation Corps and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. In addition, every year dozens of Crosby Heafey lawyers provide pro bono legal services totaling thousands of hours. They represent asylum seekers from Central America, Tibet and Haiti and seniors who have been taken advantage of or abused. They help people with AIDS to plan their estates and provide legal representation to low-income people who would otherwise go unrepresented in discrimination cases, landlord-tenant disputes and consumer problems. The firm Edwin Heafey helped found is unique in another respect. While many big companies preach the virtues of diversity, few actually achieve a truly diverse workforce. Through commitment to the recruitment and retention of minority and women lawyers, the 2002 issue of Minority Law Journal ranked Crosby, Heafey, Roach and May as the 10th most diverse of the nation's 250 largest law firms. For that, and for so much more, the East Bay of California and indeed, the legal community nationwide, has much to be thankful for from Edwin Heafey Jr. Edwin Heafey succumbed to cancer this summer, leaving behind his beloved wife, Mary, two children, three stepchildren and four much- adored grandchildren. His family, the closest people to him, gave the best description of him that I can imagine in a card written shortly after their loss. They called him ``fun, a phrase maker, the problem solver. He repaired relationships, created opportunities, built careers.'' He was ``an enthusiastic scholar, learned educator, builder of a band of mutually devoted companions into a law firm.'' He was, in sum, ``quite a guy.'' I could not agree more.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Dr. George E. Lindsay, who helped generations of Californians to appreciate the splendor and the mystery of their natural world. Dr. Lindsay died this summer at 85 years old. Dr. Lindsay held many titles throughout his long and notable career. He was a highly decorated World War II veteran, a botanist and biologist. He was an expert on the natural life of Baja, California, on succulent plants and on dolphins and whales of the Pacific Ocean. More formally, he was the director of San Diego Museum of Natural History, and, from 1963 to 1982, the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences. But I think the title he would most appreciate would be one that does not appear on his resume. First and foremost, George Lindsay was a teacher. His method of instruction was indirect, but far-reaching. The goal of his lessons was to impart not only knowledge, but respect for our natural heritage and a commitment to conservation and stewardship. Under his watch, the Academy of Sciences, which is located in San Francisco's beautiful Golden Gate Park, grew into one of the largest natural history museums in the world, known for its enthralling and informative exhibits. Among his many projects was the renowned fish roundabout, which since 1977 has fascinated and amazed visiting children by bringing them as close as humanly possible to the strange and wonderful world of the ocean. As head of the Academy, he oversaw the creation of the dramatic entranceway, in which visitors are greeted by a massive dinosaur skeleton. And with his wife, Geraldine, he launched a docent program that offered members of the community in-depth lessons in natural history which they then passed on to others as museum guides. Perhaps Dr. Lindsay's greatest lesson was taught to Charles Lindbergh, the famed flyer who joined him and other naturalists on a scientific expedition to the Islands of the Sea of Corte in 1973. Lindbergh was already a committed naturalist by that time, and he was overwhelmed by the beauty and fragility of the islands Lindsay showed him. Lindbergh then used his immense fame and popularity to spread the word and development of awareness of the need to protect the islands of the Sea of Corte and the Pacific Islands of Mexico and California. Four years after Lindbergh's death, a decree was issued protecting all of the islands of the Gulf of California. Dr. Lindsay has credited Lindbergh's intervention for that move, which saved the immense natural beauty of the Sea of Corte from destruction and development. And certainly some credit is due. But a great teacher stands behind every great student. On that trip, more than 30 years ago, George Lindsay did for Charles Lindbergh what he has done for millions of visitors to the magical city of San Francisco. He opened a student's eyes to the world around us.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) for the purpose of inquiring about the schedule for next week.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for that information. I thank and hope he will convey the gratitude of the Members of the House who wish to attend the funeral of our dear friend and colleague, Congresswoman Patsy Mink, in Hawaii. I thank the Speaker and our distinguished minority leader for accommodating the request and making that possible. I had some questions about the schedule. On the question of the Iraq debate, issues of war and peace are the most important decisions we make. In 1991, every Member was given the opportunity to speak for 5 minutes. What is the thinking of about how much debate we will have on this important resolution? I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Is the gentleman prepared to inform us whether alternatives will be allowed to the President's proposal?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, does the gentleman have any knowledge of the plans for next Friday? Will the House be in session?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information. What is the gentleman's latest prediction from the leadership on his side on when the House will adjourn before the election, and do you believe we will return for a lame duck session?

Ms. PELOSI. On a final note, I would say, Mr. Speaker, that we have eight appropriations bills still to consider, including the very important one dealing with education, our number one national priority; also, the appropriation bills that deal with veterans, medical care, transportation, and agriculture. In addition, this House urgently needs to address our worsening economy. One and one-half million workers have exhausted unemployment benefits, jobless claims are the highest since May, pension plans are eroding on a daily basis, and health care is not being addressed. We need to bring these substantive issues to the floor. We must not leave for this election without addressing these urgent needs.

Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for his valuable contribution, and I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) for the information on the schedule. Mr. Speaker, I think that every day that goes by, this body appears to be more irrelevant to the concerns of the American people. The jobless rate is increasing, employment insurance is exhausted, we have not funded the education bill, and there are so many issues that we must deal with that are immediate concerns to the lives of America's working families. This House has to provide leadership and stop making up excuses for not doing the people's business.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3450, the Health Care Safety Net Improvement Act. By reauthorizing the Community Health Centers program and the National Health Service Corps, this important legislation will preserve and expand access to culturally and linguistically appropriate primary health care services for the millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans who rely on these programs. Just this week, the Census Bureau released figures showing that the number of uninsured Americans increased by 1.4 million last year to a total of 41.2 million, or 14.6 percent of the total population. Community Health Centers create a cost-effective alternative to the emergency room for those without adequate access to health care by providing comprehensive primary and preventive care to 12 million people each year, including 5 million uninsured Americans, in more than 3400 urban and rural communities. H.R. 3450 will expand the availability of cancer screening and housing service at Health Centers, and create new grants to increase access to health services in rural areas. Existing shortages in the health professions, especially in nursing, have strained all aspects of the health care system. The National Health Services Corps helps increase the number of trained health professionals available to meet the personnel needs of safety net providers by providing scholarship and loan repayment support to 2500 health professionals, who then agree to serve in Community Health Centers and other locations in underserved communities. H.R. 3450 also authorizes the Healthy Communities Access Program, which has demonstrated ability to strengthen our health care safety net through improved information systems, telecommunication, integrated networks, and better care management. Coordination of care is an issue that is consistently raised as one of the challenges associated with reducing the number of uninsured Americans. The Healthy Communities Access Program is the only federal program designed to address this need, and today's legislation will ensure that it is preserved. In my district, the San Francisco Community Clinics Consortium has used these funds to build a system that will link community health centers to each other and to family planning clinics, Ryan White grantees, and all of our city's providers that serve uninsured San Franciscans. The result is a cohesive system of care that includes a common registration system, installation of electronic medical record software, standardization of referral systems, and integration of behavioral health care with primary care. Expanding access to quality health care is one of our most important responsibilities in Congress. I urge my colleagues to vote in support of H.R. 3450.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time and for joining the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie) for having this resolution on the floor tonight. My condolences go to Patsy's family; and our condolences, of course, go to the people of Hawaii who have suffered a great loss. For almost a generation, anyone who served in this House of Representatives has had the privilege of serving with Patsy Mink, has had the honor of calling her colleague. Anyone who knew her, worked with her on a daily basis, had his or her day brightened by the communication from Patsy. She was a patriotic, committed, dedicated American. She was enthusiastic about America's children. She worked her heart out for them. She literally gave her life ministering to their needs, visiting a clinic for poor children where she contracted chicken pox. It just does not seem real that we have lost such a valuable, valuable person on this Earth. I know it was intended by the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie) and the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for this to be a resolution with an hour of time, but the people of Hawaii should know because of the outpouring of love for Patsy Mink, it has not turned out to be an hour of debate on a bill, but a vigil in honor of a beloved Member of Congress. We all know how much the people of Hawaii thought of Patsy Mink. We want them to know how much Members of Congress revered her, respected her as a person, and are mourning her leaving us so deeply. I am sure colleagues have spoken about her incredible leadership on title IX. She conceived this idea and worked very hard for its passage, and then an accident that harmed her dear daughter, Wendy, called her away from the floor on the day of the vote, and the bill lost by one vote. True to her family values, she left immediately to go to her daughter's side. Patsy did something so incredible. She came back to Congress at a future time and persuaded the speaker, then-Speaker Carl Albert to bring the bill up again. That was not the normal regular order, but he did, and it then passed. And now generations of young women in our country can tear down the ``no girls allowed'' sign off the school locker rooms and, in fact, corporate board rooms, because it started momentum for women and girls. I thank Patsy for being a mentor to so many of us, a joy in our lives. Even when Patsy was fighting in her toughest time, and she would be fighting as hard as she possibly could, she always did it with a smile. She always did it with a smile. So she attracted people to her. She attracted people to her point of view. She attracted people to her State, which she loved; and some of us will be talking about Patsy for a long time to come. We will never forget her. We will always be inspired by her, and we know that although she is no longer with us physically, that Patsy Mink lives. She lives in the spirit of young girls playing sports all over America. She lives in the school rooms of America for all she did for America's children. She lives in the spirit that she leaves us with as she departs in such an untimely fashion. Again, many of us will be going on Thursday, returning Friday night. The plane leaves at the close of business. I hope many Members will join those of us who are going to Hawaii to bid to our dear Patsy Mink, aloha.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 941, the Rancho Corral de Tierra Golden Gate Boundary Adjustment Act. This bill contains several provisions that will enhance preservation of our natural and cultural resources in California. I applaud my colleague from California, Representative Lantos, for championing the expansion of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County. This bill would add close to five thousand acres to the park, including Rancho Corral de Tierra, one of the largest undeveloped properties on the San Francisco Peninsula and one of the few remaining ranchos from the era of Spanish land grants. This acquisition, conducted through a public-private partnership, will allow the park service to protect spectacular views, three complete watersheds, and habitat of rare and endangered species and plants. Of great importance for the future of the park, S. 941 also reauthorizes the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore Advisory Commission. The Commission was established thirty years ago to provide for the free exchange of ideas between the National Park Service and the public, and it has ably carried out this mission. I wish to acknowledge and thank all the members of the Commission for their dedicated service to the GGNRA and public, with special thanks to Chairman Richard Bartke and Vice Chair Amy Meyer. The GGNRA is one of the most complex parks in the country, and its diversity and vibrancy is due in no small part to the efforts of the Advisory Commission. I look forward to working with Rep. Lantos, my colleagues on the Resources Committee, and my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that this bill is signed into law before Congress adjourns this year.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member for yielding me time and for his great leadership on behalf of America's families. I also commend the distinguished Chair of the Committee on Appropriations for his leadership and the two of them for bringing this continuing resolution to the floor. The sadness of it all, though, is that the continuing resolution is needed at all. For the weeks that we have come back here from the summer August break, this Congress has been in session from Tuesday night until Thursday afternoon. We have had plenty of time if we had worked a full week to do the people's business, to pass the appropriations bills that are our responsibility by the end of this fiscal year and the start of the new one. Instead, we are here passing a short-term continuing resolution, and there will be another one and there will be another one because this House has ignored the needs of the American people, the needs for a growing economy, for prescription drug benefits, for access to quality health care, for educating our children; and that is the point on which I would like to focus. I rise on behalf of America's children who deserve every opportunity we can give them and on behalf of their parents who deserve to know just where the parties really stand as opposed to what they say they stand for. Nowhere is the contrast between Republican rhetoric and Republican reality so stark as in the oft-repeated promise to ``leave no child behind.'' The reality is that the Republicans want to cut our investment in education to a level far below what is authorized in the Leave No Child Behind Act, $7 billion less of an investment than that which was promised by the President. Despite countless Presidential photo ops and despite the little red school house built outside the Department of Education at massive tax payer expense, I might add, the reality is that the Republican Party plans to leave millions of children behind. The fact is that the Republicans do not want to debate appropriations bills because they do not want the public to see that their education budget would underfund the No Child Left Behind Act, which the President heralded as his great achievement by $7.2 billion, and that is the President's recommendation and that is why some Republicans will hold up this bill from coming to the floor. The President's education budget stops in its tracks 6 years of steady progress in Federal support to local schools, dead in its tracks. The investments in education under this budget are down to less than 1 percent. How are we going to grow our economy if we will not grow our investment in public education? There is no tax cut you can name or benefit or credit or anything that you could name that grows the economy more than investing in education. There is nothing that is more dynamic to the budget than investing in education. We are not only doing a disservice to the children, we are doing a disservice to the taxpayers. There is nothing you can name that would grow the economy more than investing in education. All the research, Mr. Speaker, tells us that children do better in smaller classes and, indeed, they do better in smaller schools. And yet the Republicans want to freeze funding for these cost-effective programs. What they have in the budget is enough to provide, for example, after-school programs to only 8 percent of the 15.2 million low-income children who could benefit from them. I refer you to this chart. Look at this. We are gaining in enlightenment. We are giving after-school guidance for children. It is good for their education. It is good for their health. It is good for their future. And here we come into this budget and take a downturn in after-school programs for America's children. This is really, really a tragedy. We cannot turn our backs on the millions of children who just last year we were promising to rescue, and we cannot turn our backs on the economic future of our great country. When we make a decision in this body we should think of America's children. We should think of growing our economy. There is a commonality of interest.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I take this time for the purposes of inquiring about the schedule of next week, and I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. From what I can tell from what he read, next week we will have another week of heavy lifting: a House resolution on special elections, sense of the Congress on making tax relief permanent, a continuing resolution reflecting the fact that we have not finished our business, and the Pledge of Allegiance Reaffirmation Act. We all want to reaffirm our Pledge of Allegiance, but we can do that by pledging allegiance not only to the Flag but to the American people. They are still crying out for us to take action, to grow the economy, to create jobs, to educate our children, to provide a prescription drug benefit, access to health care, protect Social Security, preserve Medicare, give us a prescription drug benefit under Medicare; and we are having resolutions and hoping to complete our work on the defense bill. I have some questions for the gentleman. Will the resolution on Iraq be brought up on the floor next week? If not, when do you think it will be brought up? Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. Can the distinguished gentleman inform us when H.R. 3450, to reauthorize community health centers, might be scheduled? Twelve million Americans who are served by the centers are waiting to hear. I was hoping it might be a suspension on Tuesday.

Ms. PELOSI. To the best of the gentleman's knowledge, will there be votes next Friday?

Ms. PELOSI. We have given up Monday of next week already?