Mike Pence

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, as Congress this week considers the largest expansion of Medicare in 35 years, we should begin with the understanding that Medicare has actually cost the American taxpayers 7\1/2\ times in real dollars what it was projected to cost. And while the needs for some prescription drug for some seniors is very, very real, it is important also to recall that 76 percent of seniors in America today have prescription drug coverage. I would offer that our reforms this week should be about focusing solutions at the point of the need. Let us help our seniors near the poverty level with urgent and sufficient prescription drug coverage. Let us reform Medicare so it will be there for the future without placing an undue burden on our children and grandchildren. Let us otherwise do no harm to the private sector foundation of the greatest health care system in the history of the world. For all these reasons I will oppose a universal drug benefit in Medicare. By agreeing to a prescription drug benefit for all seniors rather than just those in need, Congress threatens our Nation's fiscal stability, our own private prescription plans, and the survival of our free market health care system. One more massive Federal entitlement is, simply put, a prescription for disaster.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, as the Congressman who represents Muncie, Indiana, and Delaware County, home to the most famous cat in the world, I rise today for the awesome and important duty to pay a happy birthday wish to Garfield. Not President Garfield, but someone probably more famous in this day and age than that, a large, orange, slovenly, lazy cat, born in the mind of an Indiana native by the name of Jim Davis who, along with Garfield and literally dozens of artists and artisans, make their home near Muncie, Indiana, the world headquarters of Paws, Incorporated. It was, in fact, today in 1978 that the Garfield strip debuted in 41 U.S. newspapers. Several months after its launch, the Chicago Sun-Times abruptly canceled the Cat. Over 1,300 angry readers, it is reported, immediately demanded that Garfield be reinstated. As they say, the rest is history. Today, 263 million readers across the globe read Garfield in 2,570 newspapers every day. Recently, Guinness World Records named this cat, Garfield, the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world. It all comes proudly from east central Indiana. It is said that people relate to Garfield because Garfield, in many ways, is them. ``He's a human in a cat suit,'' his creator Jim Davis likes to say. Garfield loves TV and he hates Mondays. He would rather pig out than work out. In fact, his passion for food and sleep is matched only by his aversion to diet and exercise, a cat after my own heart. He would like mornings better if they started later, coffee ``strong enough to sit up and bark,'' and, he pledges regularly, ``I'll rise but I won't shine.'' Jim Davis, born in July of 1945 in Marion, Indiana, was raised on a small Black Angus cow farm. He graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he majored in art and business and he is the founder and president of Paws, Incorporated, a full service licensing studio created and established in eastern Indiana. They have received numerous awards, including four Emmys and the National Cartoonist Society award, just to name a few. So I rise today in the midst of serious debates and serious discussions to pay tribute to a very large, orange American tradition, here shown bursting out of his birthday cake on this, the 25th anniversary. I will never forget, Mr. Speaker, as I close, Jim Davis and I first became acquainted 15 years ago. He told me of all the offers he had had through the years to move Garfield, which is internationally syndicated, maybe to Los Angeles or maybe to New York, more recognized as media centers than the cornfields of eastern Indiana, and Jim Davis said to me, ``Mike, I always turn them down, because you have to have a sense of humor to live in Indiana.'' Let us hope Jim Davis and this big orange cat always live in Indiana. They are a source of pride, not only their creativity and their energy, but their philanthropy and their commitment to the quality of life for the families of our region. We thank you, Jim. Congratulations to you and that big, fat, lazy cat.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, Marilyn (Isaacs) and Norman Cooper were high school sweethearts in Brooklyn, NY, who spent their first married years together at Fort Gordon, Georgia, during Norman's military service in the Korean Conflict. Returning to New York together, with little more than each other, they successfully built a thriving pest control business and raised a loving family. Their passions for art, food, culture and adventure have taken Marilyn and Norman Cooper to the far reaches of the globe. While hiking the Andes, heli-skiing in New Zealand, on safari in Africa, lecturing in Japan or trekking in Tibet or India, they have developed an appreciation for the diversity of the world, as well as the common bonds of all humanity. Marilyn and Norman Cooper have always sought to better the world around them, whether helping dissidents escape the Soviet Union during the cold war, volunteering for the Children's Blood Foundation in their hometown of Rye, NY, raising funds for the United Jewish Appeal, or helping other entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. Their enduring legacy includes three children and seven grandchildren, each imbued with their values of compassion, curiosity, intellect, creativity, love and the responsibility to help make the world a better place.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I was amazed to hear the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) speak in this Chamber just a few short moments ago and use the word ``cover-up'' to describe the action that we took in the House Committee on International Relations yesterday. The truth is that some Democrats just will not take yes for an answer. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) offered a resolution asking for the White House to turn over all information relative to the weapons of mass destruction for inspection by the Congress. The White House, at the urging of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, is doing just that. All documentation on the WMD program of Iraq will be available to every Member of Congress at the House Select Committee on Intelligence. We rejected the Kucinich resolution because it was mute, as the ranking Democrat member of the Committee on International Relations says. It is not a cover-up, Mr. Speaker. Some Democrats just will not take yes for an answer.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the Bible tells us that pure religion is this: ``To look after widows and orphans in their distress.'' And I rise tonight, preparing to catch up with my wife and our three small children for dinner, feeling compelled in my heart to stand up on behalf of a young American woman and her two small children who at this very hour are hold up in the U.S. consulate in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. I rise to tell the story of Sarah Saga and her two little girls, this American woman, and to demand State Department action. As a member of the Committee on International Relations, I am obviously fascinated to see the House of Saud and the Government of Saudi Arabia engaging in a public relations campaign here in America. In markets across the country, our television screens are being flooded with a message that Saudi Arabia is a ``modern nation''; that America and Saudi Arabia have ``shared values.'' Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to the United States, is part of a public relations offensive to change the image of the Saudi Government. But I would offer today, as is documented in today's editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, we do not need words, Mr. Speaker; we need actions by the House of Saud. Sarah Saga's story began long ago. She found herself trapped in Saudi Arabia at the age of 6 when her Saudi father defied a U.S. custody agreement by simply refusing to return her to America after she visited her father in 1985. There she has languished ever since. Yet she never gave up on America or her American mom. This 6-year-old, now grown into a 23-year-old mother of two, used a computer to track her long-lost mother via the Internet and to tell her of her hopes for escape. She has made her way to the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, and there she languishes. Absent aggressive State Department actions and negotiations, there she will languish still. Sadly, hers is just another story of another American woman who is trapped in Saudi Arabia, told that she is able to leave so long as she leaves her children behind. That is outrageous and utterly unacceptable. Prince Bandar told the Wall Street Journal back in September that it was ``absolutely not true'' that any American women were held against their will in Saudi Arabia. But the story of Sarah Saga tells otherwise. So I rise tonight not to speak to the House of Saud, but rather to speak to the State Department of the United States of America and to the Bush administration and to Secretary of State Powell. As we negotiate a road map for peace in the Middle East, let us speak plainly to our allies in Saudi Arabia about the minimal expectations we have about American citizens and their progeny in their midst. Sarah Saga and her two small children must be permitted to leave Saudi Arabia and make that long, at last, homecoming, delayed 17 years, to be in the home of her birth, the United States of America.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, last month this Congress, with the President's leadership, undertook to pass a tax relief measure that would get this economy moving again. Today, we will continue that good work with the All-American Tax Relief Act of 2003. While some come to this floor, as we even heard this morning, and suggest that Republicans do not care about children, about 6.5 million families and 12 million children that they say were left out of the refundable per child tax credit, the truth is, Mr. Speaker, as we all know, it was Republican leadership that saw to it that that tax cut was already in place, set to take effect in 2005; but we will accelerate that today. We will also encourage marriage by eliminating the marriage penalty. In the tax credit we will assist veterans and the heroes in space, we will do justice, we will love kids, and we will provide the compassionate Republican leadership that is so characteristic of this institution when we adopt the All-American Tax Relief Act today.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to file a supplemental report from the Committee on International Relations to accompany the bill H.R. 1950, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), who just addressed this body, raised the issue that I suspect we will hear again and again before this Congress. Where are the WMDs, and who do you believe? Did the Bush administration mislead the American people? Well, in answering the question of who you believe, I believe Saddam Hussein, Mr. Speaker, who in 1991 after being soundly defeated in the Persian Gulf War admitted to the U.N. agency responsible for monitoring the cease fire that he possessed 10,000 nerve gas warheads, 1,500 chemical weapons, and 412 tons of chemical weapons with 25 long-range missiles. Even President Clinton when he bombed Baghdad in 1998 said he did so to ``attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological programs in its capacity to threaten its neighbors.'' As a State Department official told the Committee on International Relations last week, there was no change in the assessment of the WMD program from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration. Those weapons were there. The program was there. The President led America aright in this war.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I was in the grocery checkout line buying some Motrin for my ailing 8-year-old daughter late this Saturday night; and the woman next to me, seeing me wearing something of a Republican T-shirt on the weekend but not recognizing me as a Congressman, said, ``I guess your President is in some hot water over weapons of mass destruction.'' And that seems to be what many on the other side of the aisle and many in the national debate would like to say about the President, that somehow this administration either directly or indirectly intentionally or unintentionally exaggerated the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the WMD program of the Nation of Iraq during the months and weeks leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is an extraordinary assertion, and as I went on to describe there in the checkout line last Saturday night and rise today to describe, it is patently untenable and ignores the real and demonstrable history of the nation of Iraq and the region. First, a lesson in history. We go back to 1981 when Israel was forced to bomb Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak. In fact, the United Nations established at that time that Iraq had begun a nuclear weapons program and, in their words, chemical and biological weapons capability systems. In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the last Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein and his regime as a part of the cease fire agreement acknowledged extensive biological and chemical weapons programs; and I cite now from UNSCOM's sources, the U.N. agency responsible for overseeing the cease fire of Iraq, that Iraq itself acknowledged 10,000 nerve gas warheads, 1,500 chemical weapons, and 412 tons of chemical weapons agents. Last week before the Committee on International Relations, John Bolton, the Under Secretary for Arms Control at the U.S. State Department testified before us; and I asked him very specifically, Mr. Speaker, whether or not the assessment of the WMD program in Iraq changed significantly from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration. He hesitated and then very carefully said it had not changed in any significant way and that in many respects the Clinton administration assessed the WMD program in Iraq precisely the same as the Bush administration did. Citing those hundreds of tons of chemical and biological agents that Iraq admitted it had in 1991, Under Secretary of State John Bolton said, ``Both administrations said these materials were unaccounted for.'' In fact, when President Clinton bombed Iraq in 1998 after they expelled our weapons inspectors, he justified the bombing by saying ``it was necessary to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological programs and its capacity to threaten its neighbors.'' So said President Bill Clinton. So those who would say that in the 5 years leading up from the time Iraq expelled weapons inspectors to the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom that somehow, even though he refused to admit it, Saddam Hussein willingly and privately destroyed his enormous cache of weapons of mass destruction, ignore common sense, ignore history, the truth is, Mr. Speaker, we would have to believe the worst of George W. Bush and the best of Saddam Hussein to believe that there was not an extraordinary program of biological, chemical and even a nascent program for nuclear weapons being developed in the nation of Iraq and the capital of Baghdad. Facts are stubborn things, and reciting those facts that Iraq admitted to in 1991 and establishing a decade-long pattern of deception and denial confirms, as our Iraqi survey group continues to scour that country for further evidence of a WMD program, I remain confident, as the President said yesterday, that we will not only continue to find evidence of a program, the mobile labs, the biological and chemical suits and the syringes that were found with antidotes for chemical deployments, but the day will come in the very near future, I am confident, that U.S. and coalition forces will find the elusive evidence of a program of weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I am pro-life. I do not apologize for it. I do not demonize people who hold a different view; but I would say respectfully to the previous speaker, to the gentlewoman, that this really is not a debate about a woman's right to choose or the right to life. It does not really find itself divided in that way. Survey after survey proves the point. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule and the underlying ban on partial-birth abortion because this is just an antiseptic term for a barbaric procedure. As the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democratic Senator, said, memorably, partial-birth abortion is ``near infanticide.'' We can have arguments about this bill, about its constitutionality. The gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Chabot) has gone to great lengths to improve this legislation, and we are confident that it is superior to the Nebraska bill that failed constitutional muster. We can argue the medicine, and we can argue the facts; but the one thing that is inarguable is that this practice is inherently, morally wrong. What is not arguable is that the practice of delivering a newborn child alive, feet first, holding it in the birth canal squirming while the back of its head is stabbed with a suction device is evil. That, Mr. Speaker, is not arguable. Today we will follow our colleagues at the other end of this building to take one more step to render that practice unlawful and make that which virtually every American knows in his heart to be evil and morally wrong also illegal in America. Justice has always been defined in this Nation and every society by how they deal with the innocent and those who do them harm. Of the innocent and defenseless we are urged to do what we can for the least of these. Banning partial-birth abortion is the least we can do for the least of these.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, today is a day of history and opportunity for the world and for the war-torn region known as the Middle East. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and was yesterday greatly encouraged when five Arab leaders pledged to actively fight what they called the culture of extremism and violence in the region. I am also encouraged by Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas who has called for an end to violence against Israeli citizens. But I was astounded this morning when the network television shows were all stressing what our President today in Jordan must demand of our ally, Israel. The truth is, as we welcome this day of history and opportunity, we must be clear that any progress toward peace must require that Palestinians first recognize Israel; second, renounce terrorism; and, third, dismantle the infrastructure of murder within their midst. Then and only then can our Nation ask our ally Israel to make the concessions necessary for the advancement of peace.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, as the President arrived in Europe during this recent and historic journey, culminating, we hope, in progress today in the nation of Jordan, several days ago he was greeted with what can only be described as a hysterical European press attack on what were called the lies and distortions of this administration relative to its pronouncements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the months leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. After that hysteria in the European press, even some editorial pages in the United States have gone forward with similar recriminations and I thought that it would be useful tonight, Mr. Speaker, to rise and talk about the facts of weapons of mass destruction. I do so having literally just come this morning from a briefing by the Under Secretary for Arms Control for the United States Department of State, Mr. John Bolton, perhaps one of the most distinguished and informed leaders in our Nation, on the subject of arms control and weapons proliferation. Mr. Bolton spoke before us today of the efforts within Iraq, the Iraq survey group, that he believed would bear fruit soon, in his words, in finding both evidence of a WMD program and also ultimately weapons of mass destruction themselves. He said that he believed that we would be soon finding weapons and the means of production in due course. But where comes his confidence, Mr. Speaker? Perhaps it comes with a brief recitation of the history of the region. People are very quick to forget, especially in the European press that seems to suggest that this idea of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction was somehow invented out of whole cloth. Many seem to forget that it was Iraq themselves, 18 April 1991, that provided an initial declaration required under U.N. resolution 687 declaring themselves, Iraq declared themselves in the possession of chemical weapons and materials and 53 al Hussein and Scud type long- range ballistic missiles. At that point in April of 1991, they denied the presence of any biological weapons. By May, Iraq submitted a revised declaration covering additional chemical weapons and a refinement of the missile declaration. And then after pressure from UNSCOM, Iraq admitted in August of 1991 that they had a biological research program for defensive military purposes. According to UNSCOM estimates, Iraq acknowledged that they were in possession of 10,000 nerve gas warheads, 1,500 chemical weapons and 412 tons of chemical weapon agents. 1991. As Under Secretary Bolton said today, it has been the unchanged position throughout the Clinton administration and through the Bush administration that those weapons are unaccounted for to this day. Both administrations held, in Mr. Bolton's words as a representative of the State Department, precisely the same view of these weapons, that were not invented by some political spinmeister in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, they were admitted to by the regime in Baghdad, who went on year after year delaying inspections, denying their presence and refusing to prove their destruction, leading up to the 1998 expulsion of U.N. weapons inspectors, resulting in President Clinton's attack on Iraq with cruise missiles. And President Clinton, of course, gave the reason at that time that he needed to ``attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological programs and their capacity to threaten their neighbors.'' And so I thought it important tonight, after hearing on the International Relations Committee, Mr. Speaker, from John Bolton, the Under Secretary of Arms Control, that there is confidence that the Iraq survey group at the State Department will bear fruit. We will continue to find evidence, like the mobile labs, like the unarmed aerial vehicles, we will continue to find evidence of a WMD program in Iraq. That confidence arises not from the heart of the White House or the West Wing, but, rather, from the pronouncements of the regime in Iraq about their own possession a decade ago of hundreds of tons of chemical and biological agents. The facts speak for themselves.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is with equal amounts of profound pride and sympathy that I come to the floor this morning. I rise to honor a noble American . . . Lance Corporal Matthew R. Smith, a Marine Corps reservist from Anderson IN, who was killed Saturday, May 10, while serving his country in Kuwait. Lance Corporal Smith lost his life in a vehicle collision while running supply missions between Iraq and Kuwait. Lance Cpl. Smith was just 20 years old. He is survived by his father David, his mother Patricia, and by his brother Mason. Lance Corporal Smith was assigned to Detachment 1, Communications Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group based in Peru, IN, an outfit he had served selflessly and courageously since enlisting in June of 2001. Lance Corporal Smith's father David said that his son had an intense love for the Corps, and his fellow Marines. Mr. Smith told the Indianapolis Star, ``How many people on this Earth die doing the job they know they were put here to do.'' His Aunt Vicki added, ``He died doing what he believed in.'' Lance Corporal Smith was a student of history--he was enrolled at Indiana University before he was called to active duty--an interest he vigorously embraced in his free time, in the classroom, and as a member of the Social Studies Academic Team. His school teachers recall a young man often expressing blunt, straight-forward and in-your-face viewpoints which they always found to be well researched and sophisticated for his age. He was also an accomplished athlete; he spent time during high school playing rugby and was active in other outdoor activities. Mr. Speaker, Lance Corporal Smith joins the 137 other proud and distinguished Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice--these wonderful men and women gave their lives in defense of freedom, a freedom we all too often take for granted. May God bless the family of Lance Corporal Smith during this difficult time, and may they experience the prayers and thanks of a grateful nation. May they rest upon the promise of Jeremiah 31:13, ``I will turn their mourning into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.''

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, I think this is a great debate. As a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, as someone trained in constitutional law, I find the passion that I hear on this floor today for the First Amendment truly inspiring, and I respect it immensely. In fact, would that we had heard that same passion for protecting the free speech rights of Americans when last year this Congress adopted severe limitations on campaign speech in the so-called campaign finance reform legislation. But that is a battle for another branch of this government and another day. I rise today, rather, Mr. Speaker, to try and express from my heart what I believe this amendment means to millions of patriotic Americans who support it, and I do so with a sincere heart, to speak to those millions of patriotic Americans who oppose it. After surviving the bloodiest battlefield since Gettysburg, a squad of Marines trudged up Mount Suribachi on Sulfur Island with a simple task: to raise the American flag above the devastation below. When the flag was raised by Sergeant Mike Strank and his men, history records that a thunderous cheer rose from the troops on land and on sea, in foxholes and on stretchers. Hope returned to that field of battle when the American flag began flapping in the wind. It is written, Mr. Speaker, that without a vision, the people perish. The flag was the vision that inspired and rallied our troops on Iwo Jima, and I would offer to you humbly today, the flag is still the vision for Americans who cherish those who stood ready to make the necessary sacrifices. It may well be why every single veterans group in America is scoring the vote in favor of the flag resolution today. I would offer that by adopting this flag protection amendment, we will raise Old Glory again. We will raise her above the decisions of the judiciary that was both wrong on the law and on history. We will raise the flag above the cynicism of our times. We will say to my generation of Americans those most unwelcome of words, there are limits. Out of respect for those who serve beneath it and for those who died within the sight of it, we must say there are boundaries necessary to the survival of freedom. Let us raise the American flag to her Old Glory again.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, when America's farmers and ranchers found themselves devoid of a proper safety net while facing record low prices, they found an advocate in Larry Combest. As Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Larry utilized his trademark discipline to develop a balanced farm bill, seeking the input of countless producers. His efforts resulted in a flexible farm policy that will provide stability to American agriculture producers for years to come. Larry's leadership and strong voice will be sorely missed not only by his constituents in West Texas, but by all of rural America. Further, Mr. Speaker, those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Larry hold him in the highest regard not only as the visionary behind American farm policy, but also as a friend. Larry and his lovely wife Sharon were among the first people to welcome my wife and me to Washington when I arrived for the 107th Congress. They extended neighborly compassion and sound guidance, the very things you'd expect from a West Texas couple. Karen and I are truly grateful for their friendship. Mr. Speaker, I wish Larry Combest the best in his coming retirement.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is with equal amounts of profound pride and sympathy that I come to the floor this morning. I rise to honor a noble American, Lance Corporal Matthew R. Smith, a Marine Corps reservist from Anderson, IN, killed Saturday, May 10, while serving his country in Kuwait. Lance Corporal Smith lost his life in a vehicle collision while running supply missions between Iraq and Kuwait. Lance Cpl. Smith was just 20 years old. He is survived by his father David, his mother Patricia, and by his brother Mason. Lance Corporal Smith was assigned to Detachment 1, Communications Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group based in Peru, IN, an outfit he had served selflessly and courageously since enlisting in June of 2001. Lance Corporal Smith's father David said that his son had an intense love for the Corps, and his fellow Marines. Mr. Smith told the Indianapolis Star, ``How many people on this Earth die doing the job they know they were put here to do.'' His Aunt Vicki added, ``He died doing what he believed in.'' Lance Corporal Smith was a student of history--he was enrolled at Indiana University before he was called to active duty--an interest he vigorously embraced in his free time, in the classroom, and as a member of the Social Studies Academic Team. His school teachers recall a young man often expressing blunt, straight-forward and in-your-face viewpoints which they always found to be well researched and sophisticated for his age. He was also an accomplished athlete; he spent time during high school playing rugby and was active in other outdoor activities. Mr. Speaker, Lance Corporal Smith joins the 137 other proud and distinguished Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice--these wonderful men and women gave their lives in defense of freedom, a freedom we all too often take for granted. May God bless the family of Lance Corporal Smith during this difficult time, and may they experience the prayers and thanks of a grateful nation. May they rest upon the promise of Jeremiah 31:13, ``I will turn their mourning into gladness.I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.''

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I oppose the Sanchez amendment. This is one of the nights in my life that I regret that I am not a woman. I am just another white, middle- aged Republican rising to speak on the issue of abortion. But I know I speak tonight for millions of American women who cherish the right to life, who believe that abortion, as I do, is morally wrong and choose not to see their taxpayer dollars, directly or indirectly, subsidize or promote abortion at home or abroad. It truly is what we are about tonight. For while I oppose abortion, and we have heard passionate eloquence on the pro-life message, I oppose the Sanchez amendment because it is morally wrong to force millions of American men and women who oppose abortion at home to finance it abroad. Now the amendment of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta Sanchez) seems to acknowledge this sensitivity and the fact that surveys show the overwhelming majority of Americans, even if they support the right to an abortion, do not believe that taxpayer money should be used to fund it. In fact, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta Sanchez) just said, in correcting my colleague from Arizona, that no public funds will be used specifically for abortion, but what is obvious to anyone who would understand this process is that while perhaps the act is not funded by the taxpayer, the hospital is, the search for a physician is, the infrastructure where the act would be conducted is. Therefore, taxpayer dollars will indirectly fund abortion at military bases overseas. This is in violation of a basic principle that you do not force millions of Americans who find the procedure of abortion morally wrong to pay for it with their tax dollars in a coercive manner. If it is wrong to fund abortions directly with taxpayer dollars, it is wrong to do it indirectly as well. So I rise in opposition to the Sanchez amendment because we ought not to do indirectly what we would not be willing to do on this floor directly. America should continue, our military bases should continue, in the disposition of American taxpayer resources to choose life.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it's been almost three months since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to approve the Triennial Review decision and still no written order has been issued by the Commission. Mr. Speaker, the Triennial Review offered the FCC the unique opportunity to boost the Nation's economy and not only save jobs--but create jobs as well. The Commission, however, responded to the challenge by issuing a ruling that is contradictory--largely deregulating broadband on one hand while, on the other, continuing the enormous regulatory burden of requiring large local phone companies to lease their lines at below cost rates to competitors. While I applaud the Commission's deregulatory view on broadband, the lack of common sense in requiring one company to literally subsidize its competitors is beyond comprehension. In conclusion, the FCC has succeeded in creating uncertainty in the marketplace, and uncertainty on Wall Street typically converts to financial disaster. The order that is now being written at the FCC will consist of several hundred pages of regulatory detail. I urge the Commission and its staff to finish its work on the Triennial Review order as quickly as possible so we can begin the tedious legal process of examining these details. Let us not forget that the jobs of thousands of hard-working men and women, and the renewed health of our Nation's economy, are at stake and deserve more than to be held captive by the red tape of the Federal bureaucracy.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, on Monday I had the profound honor of being the first Hoosier to welcome President George W. Bush to the great State of Indiana on his very first visit there. As the President trod the sawdust of the Indiana State Fair Grounds, he was greeted with ovation after ovation from a State full of conservative, profamily Hoosiers that appreciate his leadership at home and abroad. But we were especially grateful that the President addressed his message to the issue of jobs. Ever since the last year of the Clinton administration, the economy of the State of Indiana has been in steep decline, with manufacturing jobs exiting the State, exiting the country. President Bush came and said he was in Indiana to talk about jobs. He extolled the leadership of this Chamber last week and called on all of Congress to pass his Jobs and Growth Act, and so do I this day. We were grateful to welcome President Bush to Indiana, but more grateful still for his focus, putting out-of-work Americans back to work.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, despite what the economists tell us America is in recession. My districts in eastern Indiana has seen job loss since the final days of the Clinton administration and that economic collapse has gone forwards unabated. The time for another pro-growth tax cut is now. The Jobs and Growth Act is such a measure. Now, we have heard already this morning, Mr. Speaker, that cutting taxes on capital gains and dividends is nothing more than a tax cut for the rich. But as a Pittsburg pipefitter said of the same cut in capital gains taxes advanced by President Reagan 20 years ago, ``It may be a tax cut for the rich but I ain't never been hired by a poor man.'' President Kennedy was probably a bit more eloquent when he defended his cuts in the capital gains tax. He said, ``A rising tide lifts all ships.'' Now that the war is behind us, America needs the tide of our economy to rise again. Let us put politics aside, speed tax relief to working families, small businesses and family farms. Let us pass the Jobs and Growth Act today.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, America stands with Israel. This weekend as the Secretary of State begins a key phase of negotiations in the road map for peace, I am confident he will remember this core value of the American people. America is not a neutral party in the negotiations in the Middle East. We are not, nor do we aspire to be, an honest broker. America stands with Israel. In this vein yesterday in the Committee on International Relations, we adopted the Lantos amendment to the State Department authorization bill demanding a Palestinian first approach to concessions. The Palestinian Authority must first recognize Israel's right to exist, hunt down terrorists and dismantle terrorist infrastructure before Israel can be expected to make any concessions on the path to peace. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and I pray that Prime Minister Abbas and his Cabinet will defeat the terrorists within their midst and choose life for their people in that war-torn region.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is written, if you owe taxes, pay taxes. No law-abiding American anywhere would argue the point. But one of my predecessors in this Chamber, Jack Kemp, also famously said, what you tax you get less of, what you subsidize you get more of. Today in America as our economy continues to list under the strain of overtaxation and overregulation for the past decade, we are taxing capital gains and investment in savings; and eastern Indiana, that I serve here in Washington, is getting less for it. Families, small businesses and family farms are hurting as jobs evaporate in communities across eastern Indiana. Many in this town are playing politics, demagoguing the President's drive to pass additional tax relief and put Americans back to work; but it is time to set politics aside. We need to bring real tax relief on income inheritance, marriage, savings and investment in America. We need to turn this economy around. Our recovery is stalled. Our Nation is impatient. It is time we heed the President's call for economic renewal and pass the tax relief package now.

Mr. PENCE

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Pitts amendment, and along with the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), ranking member, whom I have labored with on other issues and will labor still, I was there in the East Room of the White House when the President of the United States described a compelling and compassionate vision for addressing this pandemic AIDS crisis in Africa. The President insisted that we not just send billions of dollars to Africa, but we send values that work; and he encouraged us in this Congress to put a priority on the values of abstinence and monogamy before condom distribution in that room. In fact, in a statement of administration policy, Mr. Chairman, the administration said they, quote, ``support additional provisions that would prioritize the abstinence component of the ABC approach which has been successfully implemented in Uganda.'' The administration supports the Pitts amendment; and those who would embrace this vision of abstinence and endorsement of faithfulness in marriage and then condom distribution must, and by all means should, support the Pitts amendment to this bill.

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Smith amendment. Mr. Chairman, in Congress we talk. It is what we do. But in Africa at this very hour, as the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) just said with passion, there are Catholic Relief workers and Christian missionaries in medical missions elbow deep in a crisis that has struck 42 million souls and rising, the AIDS pandemic. Only by passing the Smith amendment will we make certain that not only those who would be willing to come to the aid of people, but the overwhelming majority of those who are thanklessly, and without the klieg lights of publicity or public support, are coming to their aid at this very hour. Only by creating a conscience exception for faith-based organizations to say that they can accept some of this $15 billion that will avalanche from Washington, D.C. into Africa without violating their own moral conscience, will we ensure that those who do the work continue.