Ciro Rodriguez

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Exactly. And I think that as we look at especially next year, which is an election year, I can already see the administration going out there. I would like to see what he is going to be saying, responding to the fact that he promised our seniors a prescription drug coverage, and we still have not seen one that is a responsive approach. I would like to hear what he is going to be saying when he talks about the quality of care in this country, when we have one of the best care systems in the world; and yet it is not affordable, and it is not accessible. I can already see them blaming the debt on the economy, when in reality they have created the economy and they have created it with irresponsible tax cuts.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. The reality was that their first priority was the tax cut their first year, and this year, and possibly next year. Their priority is the tax cut. After the tax cut and after the budget is gone, there is no need to talk about anything else, because that is the priority. It was not about solving the problems on education, solving the problems of our seniors in Medicare and the problems we were encountering there, solving the difficulties of prescription drug coverage; but it was all about tax cuts, which tells me that their priorities are not in terms of solving problems out there, but to basically look in terms of how they can benefit those that provided for their campaigns, the wealthiest of this country.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for coming out here tonight. I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) for being here with me tonight. I want to also thank the leader for being here tonight. Let me share a couple of statistics that I have. One of the things that I would like to share with Members is just some data out there. The total job loss since President Bush took office has risen to a staggering 2.5 million private jobs, while cutting taxes for the rich and not extending the unemployment insurance. The median Hispanic household, I will share that, being chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will receive about $30 as a result of the Bush tax cut, $30, in comparison to the others. So we have some real startling statistics that basically reflect that the reality is that this tax cut is a real irresponsible tax cut when there is no money there, when we are not paying down our debt. It just does not make any sense for us to be doing that. I also wanted to share that at the same time that we are deciding to make the tax cut we are not being responsible in meeting the needs of our veterans, meeting the needs of our seniors in prescription drug coverage, or meeting the needs of Medicare. I am just going to wait and see what this President says when he is coming up for reelection next year. Today, and I want to share with the Members, because we had an opportunity to hear some testimony in our Committee on Veterans Affairs from Dr. Wilensky, who did a report. She assured, or indicated, that the reality was that the present situation ``is not acceptable,'' referring to our veterans programs. One of the realities with our veterans programs is that depending on where they live throughout this country, they might not have access to the quality care that is available in other areas of the country, so we have what we call disproportionate forms of care in the VA. There is a real need for us to provide additional resources. This particular report talked about the fact that the VA had not prioritized and was not meeting the needs of our veterans, because at this particular time our veterans, those World War II veterans and Korean War veterans and our Vietnam veterans, are reaching that age where they need us. The demographics show that there is a need for us to come up to the plate and be able to provide those resources. Instead of doing that, we are just doing the opposite, not coming up to the plate, cutting taxes instead of putting those resources with our veterans where they need it the most. I also want to share that we are also beginning to cut our nursing home care for veterans and put caps on that. We continue to have problems with homeless veterans, which is an atrocious situation that we ought to be working to solve. Instead of the tax cuts, we ought to be considering that. In fact, instead of providing the $2 billion for health care for the Iraqi people, we ought to be looking at those $2 billion for our veterans services. When veterans are out there fighting and defending our country, a lot of them will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders. Even New Yorkers and the people in the Pentagon and throughout this country after the terrorist attack, we really need to look at resources in the area of health to help these people cope with post-traumatic stress disorders. I would attest that especially for the people at the Pentagon and the people in New York, there is a real need for us to reach out to them. I know that a lot of them might be going through nightmares and those characteristics of what later on might be defined as post-traumatic stress disorder. So we cannot take that lightly. Events such as this, and our soldiers as they encounter and get engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere throughout this world, they will suffer from those engagements in a lot of different ways. We have to be there for them, and we have not done that. When it comes to homeland defense, we could easily have put some resources there that would have created and helped stimulate the economy, because our States are hurting. We need money in homeland defense. Our first defense is going to be those local firemen out there throughout this country, those local policemen throughout this country, those local health care providers throughout this country. I think it is important that we provide them with the access resources they need. Homeland defense also has needs, especially the Coast Guard. We have been negligent in not being responsive with our Coast Guard. They need additional resources. The INS and the Customs people also. One of the things terrorists would want to do is not only instill fear in us, but also create a problem in our economy. We have to create a balance between security and trade. I represent the Mexican border, and we have to make sure that we continue to have trade. That becomes important.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. That is what I find very difficult to comprehend, is if you really want to stimulate the economy, then you would put it in the hands of those individuals that would, as soon as they get it, spend it. There is no doubt that these are the type of individuals that would go out there and buy a pair of shoes that they need, buy additional groceries they might need, that would be getting additional items for the house. These are not people that are going to receive $400 and, like the wealthiest and others who are going to receive a lot more, that will just decide to keep it there and not spend it. So we question this, and I think all the economists do, and I was even looking, prior to this, even Greenspan talked about the fact that he did not think it was a good idea to do this. Yet the administration chose to go and do that anyway. So I think our economy is in deep trouble, and I do not foresee it getting any better. In fact, I was trying to figure out why would they be doing that. The only thing I can figure out, at a time when we are at war, that they are really basically wanting to put us on a real spot in terms of some of the programs, and it does put us in trouble funding the educational programs that are needed, the health care needs of our constituencies and our seniors, the needs in terms of our Medicare and Social Security recipients. Because I know that there is a real push there to try to privatize Social Security, and I know there are investment bankers that are looking to get their hands into that. So that really concerns me, that there might be other motives involved in the process.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. They knew full well, because they had initially submitted the over-$700 billion tax cut, and then they settled on that other. But what concerns me is that in the process of having this so-called oversight, I am wondering how many other oversights we might have that we are still not aware of. I know that there were a lot of special interests out here walking the halls and looking at loopholes they were looking for in terms of their own special interests, so I am just concerned about what other oversights we might have for some of those special interests that were roaming the halls during that time that were looking at that tax cut. It really bothers me, and also in a way it kind of irritates me to think that someone would stoop to that low a level not to consider these individuals that are hardworking Americans that are out there making $26,000 or less, but still hardworking. So would their kids not qualify for that child credit while someone else's would? It is incomprehensible.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, the State of Texas has lost one of its great voices, a leader with passion and energy working to improve the lives of the people she represented. We mourn the death of Texas Representative Irma Rangel who served nobly in the Texas Legislative for more than 25 years. She was a trailblazer as the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the Texas House of Representatives and the first woman to serve as chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. We will miss her strength, courage, vision, and her straight talk. A close friend, an advocate for poor families and women in South Texas, Representative Rangel consistently fought to improve the quality and accessibility of education for her constituents. Her advocacy helped create the school of pharmacy at Texas A&M University- Kingsville, the first professional school in South Texas. She also was a driving force in securing passage of the 10 percent plan, which makes the top 10 percent of students in every high school eligible for admission to any state college or university, in the wake of the devastating Hopwood decision. Her commitment to the people and families of South Texas, especially in improving access to higher education, has left a lasting legacy, Irma Rangel will be remembered as a women who, through her lifetime of work and service, demonstrated her commitment to community. We will all miss her.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to reintroduce the Hispanic Health Improvement Act along with my lead cosponsor Congresswoman Hilda Solis. This legislation is a comprehensive bill aimed at improving Hispanic health in the United States. As the fastest growing population in the U.S., Hispanics now comprise close to 13 percent of the total population. Yet, they continue to face numerous challenges in accessing quality care. Hispanics make up 23 percent of the total uninsured population. According to a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, nearly 37 percent of Hispanics under the age of 64 are uninsured. Sadly, 31 percent of Hispanic children are uninsured. Access to affordable, quality health care is a challenge--this includes economic challenges, language barriers, cultural differences, citizenship status, even location plays a key role. And we know that it has a direct relation to health disparities. Hispanics continue to suffer disproportionately from chronic and infectious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. We need targeted public policy changes to reverse these trends in both the short-term and the long-term. I believe we can do so by greatly expanding insurance and other coverage, by addressing specific diseases that disproportionately impact the Hispanic community (and other communities of color), and by making institutional changes in our health professions and training so that more doctors are sensitive to the particular needs of the Hispanic community. The Hispanic Health Improvement Act offers a variety of different strategies for expanding health care coverage, improving access and affordability, reducing health disparities and strengthening our nation's health care workforce. While I consider each provision in our bill to be important, I am just going to highlight some of the more urgent ones. In order to address the lack of health care coverage, we examined ways to expand existing programs like SCHIP and Medicaid. While this is not a new idea, it will have an enormous impact on the Hispanic population. The legislation provides for the expansion of the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover uninsured low-income pregnant women and parents. In addition, it provides states the option to enroll legal immigrant pregnant women and children in Medicaid or SCHIP, and other individuals based on need. The bill also provides for a number of measures to reduce health disparities. First and foremost, it requires an annual report to Congress on how federal programs are responding to improve the health status of Hispanic individuals with respect to diabetes, cancer, asthma, HIV infection, AIDS, substance abuse, and mental health. Increased funds are provided for targeted diabetes prevention, education, school-based programs, and screening activities in the Hispanic community. Similarly, the bill provide for targeted funding for programs aimed at the prevention of suicides among Hispanic girls. Access and affordability are key components to improving Hispanic's health care status. The bill provides for grants to expand dental services in medically underserved areas. Provisions are included to support promotoras, or community health workers, who work to improve the health of women and families. A special emphasis is placed on border health by authorizing $200 million to improve health and infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border. Communities along the border often experience health care provider shortages making them medically underserved areas. The last title of the Hispanic Health Improvement Act focuses on the reduction of health care disparities by addressing the lack of providers who can provide culturally competent and linguistically appropriate care. The bill provides for increased funding for HRSA's health professions diversity programs. It also seeks to promote the training of bilingual health professionals and creates a Center for Linguistic and Cultural Competence in Health Care within OMH. The Center would carry out programs that promote and facilitate the provision of health-related services, education, and training in a culturally competent manner. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support and cosponsor the Hispanic Health Improvement Act. As the Hispanic community continues to grow, the implementation of these provisions will take on an even greater importance. The consequences of inaction will be felt for years to come in greater health care needs, lower productivity, and higher rates of mortality and disability.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concerns about the ongoing delay in the release of telecommunications competition rules. It has been three months since the Federal Communications Commission issued their ruling on the regulation of broadband technology, and we are still waiting for the rules of competition determined by that ruling to be released. This delay leaves local phone companies and internet service providers without the information they need to make good business decisions. Without knowing the rules under which they must operate, they cannot make determinations about how and where to invest in research and development of new services and new technologies. However, the ultimate losers in this situation are American families and businesses who want and need reliable broadband service. The telecommunications industry is the backbone of our nation's economy. Not only are hundreds of thousands of America's workers employed in telecommunications, but the services that these companies provide are vital to every business in the United States. Without the ability to quickly and accurately move data, commerce is threatened, and our position in the global marketplace is weakened. I urge the FCC to act immediately to release the rules for competition. Without these rules, the telecommunications industry cannot move forward with development of the broadband infrastructure that will keep our economy and our nation on the path to recovery and growth.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, all is not well in the Republic. Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security raised the terrorist alert level to orange. The threat of another terrorist attack on the United States has grown. That is why so many of us are wondering why the Department of Homeland Security took a time-out from the war on terror to help the Texas Department of Public Safety track down the private plane of State Representative Pete Laney. Today we discover the shocking news that the Texas Department of Public Safety has destroyed all the documents, all records, all photos relating to the hot pursuit of Texas Democrats. Mr. Speaker, we need answers to the basic questions. Who ordered the use of Federal law enforcement resources to hunt down the lawmakers in Texas? Was it politically motivated? Have we returned to the Nixon area of Federal executive power for political ends? And now we must know why the Department of Public Safety destroyed all records. It might help in answering a lot of these questions. Today I rise to ask the district attorney of Austin to look and investigate why the Department of Public Safety decided to move and destroy these records. It is criminal, and we need to investigate.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a bad idea, and I will tell you why. We are proud of our military. They are over in 100 countries throughout the world, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Philippines to South Korea, and they are overextended. We cannot afford to send our military personnel to the border. The ones who are responsible for that is the new Department of Homeland Security. The idea of military presence on the border is not a new idea. We have had that, and it has been devastating. In 1997, a Marine anti-drug patrol shot to death a young man, Esquiel Hernandez. You tell Mrs. Hernandez if that was the right thing to do, to have Marines down there, when this young man was in high school, taking care of his goats on the border. He was shot by a Marine. The child was an American citizen. In addition to that, our number one and number two trading partners are Canada and Mexico. If you are a terrorist, one of the things you want to do, you want to distract and make sure the economy goes into disruption. This is not the way to do it. We need to make sure that we continue to work with our friends, both in Mexico and Canada, and this is the wrong way and the wrong approach to take. Now is the crucial time for us to work with Mexico and Canada. These two countries are our partners. We have to be secure and make sure that Canada is secure and that Mexico is secure in order for us to be secure. And we have got to continue to make that effort. We live in a culture where we interact on the border, and I live on the border. I am not in Colorado with the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo).

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, there is a light of hope in Texas. There are 51 heroes who have stood up. For so many Texas legislators to agree and walk out demonstrates the depth of their commitment, the strength of their purpose, and the nobility of their cause. This is not just about a map. It is about democracy and participating and the rights of minorities to have a voice in the process. It is about education. It is about health. It is about priorities that confront Texas. Rather than just waste time on divisive redistricting schemes and pushing on from the Washington level, they have decided to do the right thing and make sure that the priorities get straightened out. I take pride to recognize Representative Gabi Canales, Representative Timoteo Garza, Representative Ryan Guillen, Representative Mike Villarreal, Representative Carlos Uresti, Representative Ruth McClendon, Representative Roberto Puente, heroes of Texas.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand here today in the U.S. House and say congratulations to our heroes, our 53 heroes in Texas of the Texas House of Representatives. They are fighting for some basic principles, the heroes of democracy. Texas Democrats have used the last tool provided to them. For so many of them from the Texas House to agree to walk out demonstrates the depth of their commitment, the strength of their purpose, and the nobility of their cause. This is not just about a map. It is about a democratic process, participation in the rights of the minority to have a voice in the process. Republicans in Texas need to learn that having power and using it wisely are not the same thing. Rather than waste time on divisive redistricting schemes pushed on by the Washington Republican leaders, Texas Republicans should have focused on the truly pressing business before the Texas legislature and before Texas, such as issues of balancing the budget, such as the issues of encouraging economic growth, such as the issues of enhancing educational opportunities both for public education and higher education, as well as providing health care access to our children and families. As Texans, we recognize that we have the largest number of uninsured in Texas, and we recognize that we need more resources. We ought to be trying to solve those issues rather than doing what is being done now. So I want to take this time to congratulate them in putting their personal interests aside. These 53 Democrats, members of the Texas House of Representatives have said enough is enough. ``Basta.'' United, these brave Texans have hailed and created and made move and have inspired all of Texas to do the right thing. I want to take this time to recognize the newspapers and the editorials that have been in their favor. When we look at the Houston Chronicle editorials, the San Antonio editorials. And if I can, I will read the San Antonio Express-News editorial which summed it up when they said `` . . . the House has pushed through a variety of measures that have more to do with the enthusiasms of ideologues than with the good of the State. A totally inadequate State budget is the most egregious sin.'' ``Coming in a close second is the blatantly partisan congressional redistricting scheme . . . concocted up by White House political guru Karl Rove and U.S. Representative Tom DeLay . . . '' the Express-News indicated. Taking these cues from the majority leader's office here in Washington, Texas Republicans want to deny Texas voters the choice they have to make. They want to impose a congressional quota. Texas voters said no, and now Texas Democrats say no. If we look at my particular district, I am given close to 20 or 30 additional counties. At the present time I represent San Antonio and south; and if we look at the map, my district is completely wiped out and given to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa), who will go now all the way to Austin. My district from San Antonio was stretched 600 miles to the borders with New Mexico and takes 40-something thousand people from El Paso. If we look all the way from San Antonio all the way down to El Paso, over 600 miles. So when we look at those types of interests and we look at what has been done by the maps, we know that they are maps basically for purposes of grabbing power. The law says that the States have an obligation to draw their lines during the process of the census. If the State chooses to do this now, it will set a very negative precedent. It will basically say that anytime someone else takes power and decides to gerrymander or knock off someone because they choose to get angry with them, they can redraw the lines at any time during the decade and come back and be able to change their lines so that someone else will not win. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the members, especially those that I am really proud of, especially Representative Carlos Uresti, Representative Puente, Representative Guillen, and Representative Villarreal, and Representative Kino Flores.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, there is a little saying that goes that if you dig yourself into a hole, one of the only ways to get out of that hole is to stop digging. Well, the Republicans have dug ourselves into a hole, including us, and promised jobs with the first $1.3 trillion tax cut that we had the first year of the administration. Where are the jobs? The only way we can get out of it is to stop digging. Unemployment is growing, the Federal deficit is growing, the sense of frustration and despair among hard-working Americans is growing. The only thing that is not growing is the economy. And the tax bill we are debating today fails to deliver on the promise of new jobs. The President and the Republicans here in Congress are continuing to push for more and more tax cuts and, at the same time, not allowing us to have the opportunity under a democratic process to be able to submit our own alternative. The tax cut bill we are debating today does little to alleviate the problems facing our families. While the bill under consideration today promises jobs and growth, the tax cuts are targeted primarily at the wealthiest of this country. It is greed, and that greed is going to choke the economy.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) for taking this opportunity to talk about suicide and the mentally ill. I think one of the difficulties that we encounter is the fact that when it comes to the mentally ill, it is usually one of the last that we talk about, and in fact it is usually an afterthought in terms of providing resources that are drastically needed for not only for the mentally ill but for the issue in terms of preventing suicides. Mental disorders are common in the United States, and we sometimes do not realize how common they are. There is an estimated 22 percent of Americans age 18 and older and one out of five adults who suffer from diagnosed mental disorders throughout a year. Tragically, mental disorder is often linked with suicide. Of the 29,350 people who died by suicide in the year 2000, more than 90 percent of the people who killed themselves have diagnosable mental disorders, commonly depressive disorders as well as substantive abuse disorders and other dual diagnoses. At this time I would also like to focus my remarks on critical segments of our population, and that is our veterans. Today while we continue to deploy troops in Iraq, it is important to remember that the wounds of combat that would disable and harm our troops are not merely just physical. Many combat wounds will affect the minds, the brain, and the spirit of our Armed Forces and their loved ones. So often we forget that long after the visible battle wounds are healed, many veterans continue to suffer not only physically but also mentally. For our heroes of today as well as yesterday's stress-related conditions like post-traumatic stress disorders, PTSD, and depression can be among the most chronic and disabling of the illnesses. For example, more than 30 percent of veterans, Vietnam veterans, have experienced PTSD at some point after the war experience. I have heard alarming statistics just the other day in some testimony on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, a witness testified that a great number of Vietnam veterans that did not die during Vietnam, of which we lost over 59,000 lives, committed suicide after they came back than soldiers lost in the battle in that conflict. Given these alarming statistics, it is shameful that we have not appropriated sufficient funds to provide our heroes with the care that they need. From 1996 to 2000, programs for PTSD, or the homeless substantive abuse programs, and serious mental illness grew approximately 5.5 percent overall in the number of patients that they served, but the resources shrank approximately 13.5 percent for the budgets for the mentally ill that are veterans. In addition to the painful experience of dealing with their mental disorders and especially PTSD and others, many of these veterans find themselves on the street. Homelessness is prevalent in this segment of veterans. A large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of posttraumatic stress disorders and substance abuse, compounded by the lack of family and social support networks. Although accurate numbers are challenging to identify since no one really keeps the national records on homeless veterans, but the VA estimates that on any given night we will find 300,000 veterans that are homeless, and more than half a million experience homelessness throughout the course of any given year. This is important to note: Of the homeless that are out there, 40 percent report mental health problems. In order to properly serve these veterans we must be committed to a comprehensive approach to the treatment and we must appropriate sufficient resources in dollars. Veterans need a coordinated effort that provides secure housing and nutritional meals; essential physical health care, substance abuse aftercare, and the mental health counseling; and personal development. And one of the things about substance abuse is a lot of the times the mentally ill, as they try to cope with their depression, as they try to meet and cope with the problems that they are encountering, they self-medicate, and that is why a lot of them go into substance abuse. As a Member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I am proud of the work that we put forth and passed in Public Law 107-95, which is the Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act, a year and a half ago, to properly address this shameful issue. This truly comprehensive legislation sought to end homelessness among veterans within a decade, but we have got to continue to move forward. However, just this week we held an oversight hearing where we invited Deputy Secretary McKay to provide us a status report on the implementation of the Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act. The news is not that good. If we continue at this pace, we will not reach our goal in 10 years. Rather, it will take 25 years. This is not acceptable. Especially now after we have seen also the veterans from the Gulf war and now we have the veterans from Iraq, and we encounter to have veterans who are fighting the war on terrorism, we have to make sure that as they leave the Armed Forces that we are there for them, and I am disappointed that the VA has not moved on the critical programs such as the creation of special needs grants for women, veterans especially, and the chronically mentally ill, the ones who real seriously ill and need that service, as well as the fragile elderly and the terminal ill. We must move on the creation of specialized treatment programs for these veterans that are in need. These critical programs have not yet been designed, and it is difficult and it is hard, but we need to continue to move. In closing, let me just say that I want to thank my colleagues once again for raising this issue and mentioning the importance of zeroing in on the issue of suicide and the issue of the mentally ill. As a social worker personally with clinical experience and training, I am proud to echo the concerns of my colleagues and to urge this body to devote adequate resources and to implement programs which speak to the needs that are before us and of those that are forgotten, yet critical segment of our society, and that is the mentally ill and those who commit suicide. And I want to add one additional thing. As we talk about suicide, I know the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) has done significant work for the Latino young ladies, Latinas, who are prone to commit suicide, in the need to reach out to our young. We have forgotten Columbine. We have forgotten the fact that we still have young people throughout this country that need assistance, and when it comes to our young, we have not done what we should do, and that is to make sure we have the programs to reach out to them. Most of the time throughout this country, the only resources they have is after they get into the criminal justice system. And that is too late. We need to make sure we have programs that reach out to our young. I want to congratulate the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) for her legislation and her efforts in providing that assistance in the area of Latina suicide and health care. One of the other areas that I would like to mention that sometimes goes unnoticed, and that is the issue of depression. As people suffer from depression, women and young, men, young people and the elderly, it is an issue that we do not see as a mental health issue, but it is an issue that hits us without us realizing it. Just like the work burnout. By the time one realizes it, they have gotten into trouble, and a lot of times people lose their jobs because they get burned out and do not have the energy. But people suffer from depression, and it is important for us to work on those areas. And I just want to mention one other item because I think it is important. As we look at the issue of terrorism and as we look at the problems and the things that we have been confronted with, what has occurred here not only at the Pentagon but what has occurred in New York, those in individuals in New York, those individuals at the Pentagon, as well as others, we need to make sure we reach out to them because they have experienced what a lot of us have not, and in so doing, they are also going to be suffering from nightmares. They are also going to be suffering from coping with a situation that they themselves went through, and so they are going to be having what we might consider post-traumatic stress disorders of which they need to be able to deal with. So as a society and as a community in these United States, we need to put the resources in those areas. And once again I want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano) for having taken the time for us to be here tonight and I want to congratulate her in bringing up this issue that is usually left in the back burner. Mr. Speaker, when we talk about health care a lot of times as an afterthought we talk about mental health, and that is unfortunate. We really need to put that on the front burner. We need to make sure we bring it forth and provide the resources. I thank the gentlewoman for having me here tonight.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, educators from Fenley-Flanders Elementary, which is located in my Congressional district, have been preparing their third grade classes for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. The Express News from San Antonio followed third grade teacher Alma Martinez and her eleven students as they prepared for the test, which they took on March 4, 2003. During Spring Break the results of the test came back, and an overwhelming majority of Ms. Martinez's class passed the test, which allows them to advance onto fourth grade. Starting this year, third graders will be among the 2 million elementary, middle and high school students taking a TAKS test. Students who do not pass the exam will have two more opportunities to pass the TAKS test. I would personally like to congratulate Ms. Martinez and her third grade class on an outstanding job in the preparing for and taking the TAKS test and their advancement onto the fourth grade next year. Schools are a reflection of our community and it takes everyone working together to make them quality institutions. The administration, teachers, staff, students and their families should be commended for their hard work and dedication in preparing the children of Fenley- Flanders Elementary for their performance on the TAKS tests.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I take this hour tonight to talk about a critical issue back home and that is the issue of access to health care and quality care. In a Nation where we have some of the greatest research and the greatest strides that we have made in health, we still do not have individuals able to have access to health care. The Hispanic Health Improvement Act is a comprehensive bill that we have filed aimed at improving Hispanic health in the United States. Hispanics are now the fastest-growing community and compose 13 percent of the United States population; yet they make up 23 percent of the total uninsured population, and nearly 37 percent of Hispanics under the age of 64 find themselves uninsured. We need to make sure that we address the problems of the uninsured. We need to make sure that we address the problems of access to health care. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased tonight to also be joined by the vice chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano). I am extremely pleased that we have this opportunity and the gentlewoman joins me here tonight, and I want to recognize the gentlewoman at this point in time.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for being here tonight, and I want to thank the gentlewoman for her work in this area. I know the gentlewoman has worked extremely hard. I was extremely pleased that when the gentlewoman came in she recognized a problem in the Latina community in terms of the young ladies committing suicide, and she filed the legislation and took it over, and I want to personally thank her and hopefully get some resources in this area. Again, I want to take this opportunity to thank the gentlewoman for being here and sharing her concerns. I know the gentlewoman represents her district well.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to also take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the quality of access to health care in this Nation. Today, I had the opportunity of joining many of my colleagues at a rally to bring awareness to the uninsured in this Nation. There is a real need for us to come to grips with the fact that we still have not addressed the problems of the uninsured. We still have not addressed the problems of our seniors and prescription drug coverage. We still have not addressed the problems regarding funding in Medicaid and Medicare, as well as the SCHIP program. Our States are having a great deal of difficulty, not to mention the difficulty of our consumers and our people that are falling ill. Unfortunately, too many Americans continue to lack health insurance. Insuring the health of all Americans must be a priority for our Nation. There are many myths about the uninsured and why they lack health insurance. Many people to not realize just how many Americans are affected by the lack of health insurance. People believe that the uninsured are unemployed and simply choose not to purchase health insurance. Nothing could be further from the truth. The uninsured represent 41 million people. And in any one given year, we have, at some time, up to 75 million in this country that are uninsured. We have 14.6 percent of our population that falls into this category. Even 25 percent of the moderate income families cannot afford health insurance. Nearly 25 percent of all uninsured are children. Let me just point out that if someone does not work for government, and by that, whether it be Federal Government, State government or local government, and if an individual does not work for a major corporation, the bottom line is they find themselves without access to insurance. Those working for small companies, or who work in rural America, do not have access to health care. So there is a real need for us to address this problem and come together. Eight out of ten uninsured Americans are from working families. Eight out of ten. So the majority of our people that are uninsured are those that are working yet find themselves not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, yet not having enough resources to be able to address the problems when they find themselves ill. Hispanics especially fall into this category. Over 33 percent of all Hispanics are uninsured compared to 10 percent of the non-Hispanic white population. And that percentage rises to 34 percent for nonelderly Hispanics. Hispanics rely on many of the Federal programs that provide their only access to health care, as do millions of low and moderate income individuals and working families without health insurance. Over 19 percent of all Hispanics depend on Medicare for their health care. So the majority that are seniors are in Medicare, but there is a large percentage of them where this is the only thing they have. Over 35 percent of all Hispanic children depend on the State Children's Health Insurance Program that we help fund, yet our States are having difficulty throughout the country. At one point, in Texas the State talked about just wiping out the whole State Children's Health Insurance Program, and that would be devastating. These programs serve many Hispanic families and many Americans throughout this country, but there are still far too many eligible families that are not enrolled in these programs. For Hispanics there are unique barriers that prevent access to quality health care. There are levels of fear and confusion that deters many eligible Hispanic families from enrolling in these programs. This fear stems from the complicated laws barring legal permanent residents from access to safety nets that taxes help support. And I am referring to legal permanent residents. These are individuals that are here legally, working, yet have not become citizens and they find themselves with difficulty in terms of having access to this care. We need to increase coverage and enrollees in all Federal programs to provide insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs. There must be flexibility and incentives for the States to increase enrollment in times of economic recession as the population increases. And we must also ensure that our health care systems can provide linguistically and culturally appropriate health care by giving minority students the opportunity to enter into the health profession. I would like to also call attention to the bill that was mentioned earlier that allows for coverage of the uninsured. This week we will be introducing the Hispanics Health Improvement Act, as has been mentioned. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) as well as other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will be introducing the legislation, and we are going to be talking about some of the concerns that we have had. As the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Napolitano) has indicated, Senator Bingaman has been gracious enough to introduce companion legislation in the Senate. This landmark legislation is based on a previous Hispanic Health Act, which I personally introduced in the 106th Congress and on existing legislation that Senator Bingaman has championed in the Senate. The legislation offers a variety of different strategies for expanding health care and coverage, as well as improving access and affordability and reducing health disparities. While I consider each provision in our bill to be important, I am just going to highlight some of the more urgent ones. In order to address the lack of health care coverage, the legislation provides additional resources between 2003 and 2010 for the expansion of the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program, the SCHIP, to cover the uninsured low-income pregnant women and parents. So we are talking about going and making sure we cover women that are expecting kids and their parents. In addition, it provides States the option to enroll legal immigrant pregnant women and children in Medicaid as well as the SCHIP. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus considers the expansion of both Medicaid and the SCHIP eligibility to be a critical legislative priority for improving Hispanics' health. The legislation provides also additional resources for targeting diabetes prevention. We target $100 million for diabetes. Diabetes is an illness that hits Hispanics disproportionately as well as African Americans. The importance of education school-based programs are critical in the screening activities in the area of diabetes. This is especially important in our Hispanic communities. The targeted grant funds of $100 million from our legislation would also provide support for those who would work in the community to help educate the community and individuals who suffer from diabetes to be able to deal with the issue. Lastly, we would seek to reduce health care disparities by addressing the lack of providers who can provide culturally competent and linguistic appropriate care. The bill provides for increased funding also for HRS health professional diversities. Let me just say that right now one of our problems, one of our difficulties is in the area of health professions, there is a real need for us to begin to prepare individuals in this area. We are still not producing the number of doctors that we need in this country. We are not producing the number of nurses that we need in this country. We are not producing the number of health professionals in this country. There is a disproportionate number of Latinos and Hispanics in the health professions. So we need to concentrate on making sure that we provide the resources in order for that to occur. And as my colleagues know, the President, in his 2003 budget proposal, eliminated virtually all funding for these important programs that allow this opportunity. In addition to promoting the diversity that is needed in health care, these programs support the training of health professionals in the fields experiencing shortages. I did not mention the area of pharmacy, dentistry, the allied health, all these areas promote access to health care services in medically underserved communities and there is a real need for us to do this. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also considers increasing funding for these programs as a high priority. As the Hispanic community continues to grow, the implementation of these provisions will take on an even greater importance. The consequences of inaction will be felt for years to come in greater health care needs, lower productivity, as well as higher rates of mortality and disability. Let me take this opportunity to just indicate how important it is to make sure that we come up and address these issues. I know the President is going throughout the country talking about another tax cut. The first year of his administration was spent on a $1.3 trillion tax cut. That effort was basically spent on the first year. He then spent a great deal of effort on the war, and now he is spending a great deal of effort on taxes when, in reality, here we have a problem that we have chosen not to respond to; we have chosen not to address. This is a problem that our States are having that we could help with, not only with the budgets in our States throughout this country, but also help to respond and address the problems that confront us. The proposal by the administration to take both the SCHIP program, the Medicaid, as well as the disproportionate share is a proposal that hits at the most vulnerable of this country. The disproportionate share is the money that goes to those hospitals, Mr. Speaker, that provide that care for those indigents that are out there. That money is proposed to be put into a block grant. The SCHIP program, as you well know, is the money that goes to the working Americans that are out there that takes care of the children in case they find themselves in need, and that program is also being proposed to be put into a block grant. And not to mention the Medicaid program, the most needy one, the one that goes to the most needy of this country, that helps those that are in most need and that helps hospitals and clinics for their reimbursement rates. Those three programs are the ones that target the most needy of this country, yet those are the ones he wants to take and lump up into one block grant and send it out to the States and destroy the few programs that are out there that have been addressing some of the problems that exist. The proposal to take both the SCHIP, the Medicaid, and the disproportionate share, those are the three most important programs that hit at the most needy of this country and the programs that provide resources for the hospitals to continue to provide that care. For us to put that into a lump sum and send it out is going to be devastating, especially if additional resources do not come to bear on the problem that seems to be getting worse instead of better. Since the administration has taken over, the reality is that the number of uninsured has increased. And based on the numbers of the individuals that have lost their jobs, those numbers can only get worse as time goes on. Mr. Speaker, I know the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Napolitano) talked a little about mental health. I want to share this because a lot of time we do not talk about the mentally ill. Mental health is usually an afterthought, and it is an area we really need to look at and consider seriously. We quickly forget what happened at Columbine. We quickly forget the problems that we do have, a lot of homeless individuals out there, almost one-third to 40 percent of whom suffer from mental health problems. We still have a lot of homeless veterans that suffer from mental illness, from post- traumatic stress disorders. Mr. Speaker, if we look in terms of what has happened after 9-11, what occurred not only at the Pentagon but what occurred in New York and what has happened throughout this country, we really need to look at this issue, because when people have experienced things such as that, especially those individuals at the Pentagon and in New York City, those individuals are going to be going through some stress. There is no doubt that some of them will go through post-traumatic stress disorders. So there is a need for us to concentrate on the area of mental health and reach out to some of our young people. We do not concentrate in mental health with our young and we really need to provide some resources as well as some research in that area. We have too many young people committing suicide. We need to see how we can address that issue. Sometimes, basically, they use alcohol and drugs as a way of self-medicating when the real problem lies in the area of mental health problems. So as a Nation we really need to see how we can address those issues, and I am hoping that we can prioritize mental health as an important issue. I know that we have filed some legislation on social work legislation that deals somewhat with this, especially right after Columbine, in looking at our young people and working with our schools, in reaching out to our communities in the area of mental health, to making sure that our community can cope and our youngsters can deal with situations. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of other issues I wanted to touch base on. Mr. Speaker, one is the area of AIDS. In the area of AIDS, we have found that we have made some significant strides, yet the numbers in the minority community have continued to expand. They have continued to grow. In that area, we need to go out and reach out. We have, especially in the Hispanic community, in the Latino community, we do not have the community-based organizations that other community groups have, and there is a real need for us to make sure that we try to address those needs. So we need resources in the area of AIDS to address those problems. When it comes to communicable diseases, and we are hearing about the problems in China and those diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases, when we hear about those types of problems, we need to treat those, and we need to treat those worldwide. If we do not do that, those viruses will keep growing. Unless we deal with those and attack those as quickly as possible, tuberculosis knows no borders. Whenever we travel in the global economy, we need to make sure that we treat those as if they were here because of the fact that they are communicable diseases. They are serious diseases that impact us, and there is no doubt that AIDS does kill. It reminds me of a young man who said, I thought we dealt with the issue of AIDS and it is gone. It is still here, and it still kills. We need to educate our young people on the issue of AIDS. On tuberculosis, in the late 1980s in the State of Texas, we were going to close the hospital for tuberculosis because there were no patients. We had basically defeated this disease, and yet now we have other strands that we are unable to deal with. The reason we have other strands is, number one, people did not take the medication appropriately and other viruses were able to survive and mutate; and the fact that we have a lot of homeless that were able to contract the disease and nothing happened, they were not treated the way they should have been. Now we have problems with tuberculosis once again, a very serious disease that has an impact on all of us. On diabetes, it is an area that concerns me, and it should concern all of us. The majority of people that go blind is because of diabetes, and most of the time it is preventable. A large number of people who lose their limbs is because of diabetes, and a lot of times it could have been prevented. The quality of life of individuals, not to mention the cost, both to the individual and to the community as a whole when somebody loses their eyesight or their limbs, and so it becomes really important that we provide resources for prevention, that we provide resources in the area of diabetes. I wanted to take this opportunity tonight to talk about some of those issues that we are extremely concerned about. In addition to that, tomorrow for the first time the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will also be having a day that we call El Dia de Los Ninos, the Day of the Children. Children's Day. It is usually celebrated in the Mexican community. I know Mexico celebrates it, and we celebrate it in Texas. It is a day that we celebrate as April 30, Children's Day. It is a day that we take time to honor our children. Tomorrow we are going to be having some hearings on honoring our children, and I wanted to take this opportunity to honor our children tonight by also talking about the needs of our children. Members have heard the statistics in terms of the uninsured kids out there; but also our kids need access to some of the services in the area of mental health, as well as some of the preventive kinds of services. I wanted to take this opportunity to let the community know that tomorrow the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will be having hearings and panels to talk about children. Part of the discussion on children will be on the criminal justice system, the fact that we have a large, disproportionate number of our children that fall into the criminal justice system that we need to look at; and it is serious when we have an industrialized country such as ours. The numbers are just astronomical in terms of the numbers in our criminal justice system. We need to see what we can do to address the problem and how we can work with our children. I also wanted to take this opportunity as we talk about our children to talk about the issue of Head Start. Head Start has been a program that has been extremely helpful. It has been a program that has been there for our children despite the fact that it only addresses 40 percent of the kids that qualify. It is a program that, based on most of the research that is out there, has been responsive and has really given those kids a head start on education. So when we look at those programs that have been good for our kids and children, Head Start has been one of those programs. Head Start has been under the Department of Health because it is a program that works with our parents. So it helps parents in reaching out to the kids. That is also extremely important for us. The administration is choosing to basically destroy Head Start and send that money to the Department of Education. The reason why we established Head Start was specifically because States have been unwilling to provide that early childhood education that was needed, and that is why we have Head Start, not to mention the Department of Education does not go into the areas of health as the Department of Health does. I would hope and we will continue to push forward to make sure that the monies for Head Start remain and with the Department of Health, and that the program remains with the Department of Health. It has had its own boards throughout this country, and it has provided an opportunity for these youngsters to get a head start on education as well as a head start in the area of health, for parents to be educated about the importance of nutrition, about the importance of access to good quality care, as well as the importance of what they eat and do not eat. So those issues are important for our children, and as we celebrate tomorrow Children's Day, we are going to celebrate and talk about some of the needs of our children. The Hispanic community, the median age is about 25.9. We are one of the youngest populations in this country, and it is a growing population. So there is a real need for us to concentrate on our young. Sixty-five percent of Hispanic children are under the age of 18 and live with both parents. So here we have 65 percent still live with both parents, which is a much higher number than the rest of the population. So there is a lot of positives. Hispanic kids, there is a great deal of positive when it comes to their attitudes towards family, their attitudes towards adults and their parents, and also their attitude in terms of the respect to elders. I think that we need to continue to honor them and recognize our children as an asset, and as we do throughout this country as Latinos, we recognize our children on April 30. Tomorrow we are going to take that opportunity. We call it El Dia de los Ninos, where we are going to have hearings and talk about some of the needs of our kids. As we talk about the needs of our kids, there is a study that will also be released, and it is called Suicide in Latino Children and Adolescents, and it is a very startling problem that talks about some of the difficulties that we are encountering, some of the areas of suicide where it was almost unseen in the Latino community, and that has been climbing. One of the biggest problems in terms of death in this area is, number one, heart deaths. Suicide is number eight. In addition to that, there are still too many other items there that rank in terms of suicide rates. One of the rankings of the top States based on the suicide rates, Nevada is rated number one, Alaska number two, Wyoming number three, Montana four, Arizona five, New Mexico six, Oregon seven, Idaho eight, Utah nine, and Maine is number 10 in terms of USA State suicide rates. It is important to see some of those States with kind of small populations, rural areas. It kind of throws off some of the stereotypes that we hear about. Suicide was the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, and responsible for 31,000 deaths, which was more than 50 percent the number of homicides in the U.S. I want to read that again. Suicide was responsible for 31,000 deaths, which was more than 50 percent the number of homicides in the U.S. In the same year, there were approximately 20,000 deaths by homicide. Each year in the U.S. approximately 500,000 people require emergency room treatment as a result of attempts to commit suicide. There is a need for us to concentrate resources in the area of mental health. It is also important to know that the rate of suicide for various ages, gender, and ethnic groups has changed substantially. Between 1952 to 1996, a 44-year period, the reported rated of suicide among adolescents and young adults tripled; but yet from 1980 to 1996, the rate of suicide from age 15 to 19 increased by 14 percent, and among persons between the age of 10 to 14 years, it went up by 100 percent. This area is an area that we really need to look at. I am hoping we do not have another Columbine before we concentrate attention. We lose attention right away after the incident occurs. We need to look at reaching out. In that same light, and as we talk about the importance of access to health care, I want to briefly touch base on our veterans. Especially after Iraq and after our soldiers come back, there is a real need for us to reach out to our veterans. Anyone who has that kind of experience has to go through some degree of stress, and a lot of our veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and so there is a need for us to concentrate resources. I was extremely pleased when the House took the opportunity to recognize our troops in Iraq and we did a resolution. But that same day around 3 in the morning the following day, we also passed a budget that cut $15 billion from our veterans affairs and from services to our veterans for the next 10 years. That kind of recognition of our troops and that kind of action does not reflect what we ought to be doing. We need to make sure and hold ourselves accountable to have the resources there for our veterans. I am also disappointed with a lot of the games that are being played. It has been talked about that we are dishing out $121 million to prepare our VA hospitals for them to prepare in case of a terrorist attack; yet that $121 million comes from direct services. We really need to make sure that we provide additional resources. In addition to that, I am extremely disappointed also that at the same time we hold veterans and the administration accountable for terrorist attacks, and we expect the VA, which has one of the best health systems in this country with clinics and hospitals throughout this country, and it would be the best one equipped to respond, yet we have not provided the resources that they need in order to make that happen. And there are little games that are being played that, yes, provide the resources. The reality is that every single veterans organization has asked just for this year alone an additional $3 billion, not to mention next year and the following year. Right now we need $3 billion additional resources just to take care of our veterans here in this country. At the same time, we allow $2 billion to go to the Iraqis people for health care. Of that, close to $80 billion supplemental that we did. It would be interesting for some of the Members here to look at what that $80 billion is going for in Iraq, to build some of the schools when at the same time we have not taken the time to look at providing resources to build our own schools. It also provides resources to build up their hospitals when we have not provided our money and we are cutting our disproportional share for our own hospitals in country. It just does not make sense, Mr. Speaker, and it does not make sense for the President to go around this country to talk about the irresponsible tax cut when the money is not even there and we have not taken care of our debt. We need to take care of our debt. We need to pay for this war. We have got to make sure that we provide for our veterans. We have got to make sure that we provide for our future, which is our kids, and we have got to make sure that we provide access to healthcare for all Americans who find themselves in that difficulty. It is embarrassing to be here and say that we have the best healthcare in the system; yet it is unaffordable and unaccessible to the majority of Americans when 41 million find themselves without access to insurance. That is un-American, and we really need to ensure that we can make it accessible to all of them. As I conclude here tonight, I want to just indicate how important it is for us to refocus our attention in the area of healthcare. We need to make sure, and I appeal to all Americans, that we need to put people, both Republicans and Democrats, on the line on the House, on the Senate, and those in administration, to make sure they do the right thing for our seniors when it comes to prescription drug coverage. We have not done that. We have had a lot of talk, but there has been nothing. And people have asked me back home and they continue to ask me ``Mr. Rodriguez, what are you doing on healthcare?'' And I tell them the problem is the President is interested in a tax cut. If that happens, there is nothing else to talk about when the budget predetermines everything. So we need to make sure we zero in on the issues of healthcare and addressing the problems. And we get elected to address problems and we are expected to address those problems. So I am hoping that we, at some point, begin to not only dialogue about healthcare, but address the problems. I am sure the administration, when the election year comes around, he is going to talk a great deal about healthcare. But the key is what are we doing about it? What kind resources are we putting into it? Because the bottom line is we can say everything we want to say, but what have we done? So when all is said and done, I would ask that we hold all the Congressman and all the Senators accountable, as well as the administration, including myself, as to what we have done to basically solve the problems that confront our communities with the uninsured that we find in this country.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Securities and Exchange Commissioner Roel C. Campos for the dignity with which he has assumed his responsibilities at the SEC. The City of Harlingen, Texas, his hometown, has proclaimed April 10th as Roel C. Campos Day to celebrate the success of their native son, someone who has worked hard, stayed true to his values, and found success as an Air Force officer, a lawyer, a prosecutor, a businessman, and now the first Hispanic commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sworn in on August 20, 2002, Commissioner Campos has proven himself an independent-minded commissioner who advocates for protecting investors and eliminating corporate abuses. Both Democrats and Republicans have been impressed with his commitment to restoring fairness and integrity to the financial markets. Mr. Campos also focuses on supporting emerging companies and minority entrepreneurs. He has used his position to make the securities industry and corporations aware of the changing demographics of America, and the great potential the Hispanic, African American and Asian American communities have to offer in the financial markets. These important segments of American society have historically been overlooked by corporate America. Commissioner Campos, born in Harlingen, Texas to Mexican American parents, was the first in his family to attend college. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1979, an M.B.A. from UCLA in 1972, and a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1971. Mr. Campos began his career serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. After his stint in the U.S. Air Force, he worked for major law firms in Los Angeles as a corporate transactions/securities lawyer and litigator for fifteen years. Beginning in 1985, he served as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. After several years as a federal prosecutor, he returned to private practice and co-founded El Dorado Communications, Inc. He is married to Mini Villarreal and has two sons. I commend Commissioner Campos for his efforts on behalf of minority communities, businesses and investors. His actions demonstrate his commitment to expanding opportunities for all Americans, regardless of background. His dedication to proper enforcement actions against those who commit corporate fraud will help restore the American people's confidence in our financial institutions. Perhaps most important, though, is that his impressive resume and achievements have not changed the strong character of this man from South Texas. I appreciate his commitment to people, his understanding of the challenges that so many Americans face, and his desire to create an SEC that responds to their needs. Roel C. Campos is a true asset to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American people.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to express my opposition to the Udall amendment to H.R. 6, which strikes section 14029 from the Energy Policy Act of 2003. Let me say, one of the things that has been indicated in terms of the glut, and that is correct, but I want to indicate that the domestic uranium industry arose and expanded in response to government pleas that the private industry establish sufficient uranium to meet the American nuclear defense needs as well as the energy needs. However, in the 1990s the Russian Highly Enriched Uranium Agreement and the privatization of the U.S. Enrichment Corporation worked unintentionally to create an overwhelming glut. Mr. Chairman, that is true, but that same glut caused the prices in the market to drop and the industry to have serious problems at below- production costs. The funding in section 14029 responds to the numerous obstacles stemming from these government actions which led to the drastic supply/demand imbalance that has occurred in the uranium industry that has left competitive domestic producers unable to survive. That is why we need these resources, because at the present time the gentleman is correct, there is a glut. There is too much. That is why we need assistance and resources to help out. Mr. Chairman, what these resources do basically is authorize funding for research at existing sites to make uranium recovery safer for people and the environment, and also to provide redress for impacted domestic uranium industries, by assessing the decontamination, by looking at the decommissioning, by reclamation and other environmental remedial costs. So when you look at what we are trying to do, it is basically trying to correct the situation we find ourselves in.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, thank you for allowing the opportunity to be here tonight. This month is health care month and I wanted to take the opportunity to come up here tonight to talk a little bit about health care. And as chairman of the National Hispanic Congressional Caucus, I wanted to specifically emphasize Hispanic health care. I want to thank also my colleagues who are both on the Hispanic Caucus who have been working extremely hard in the area of health care, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gonzalez) and others. Hispanics are now the fastest-growing population in the United States and comprise 13 percent of the total population. Yet they continue to suffer disproportionately from health disparities and face many barriers in access to quality health care. Over 33 percent of the Hispanics are uninsured. That is one out of every three find themselves without access to insurance, compared to 10 percent of the non-Hispanic whites. Let me just add that the uninsured population continues to grow, continues to become even worse as with the economy as well as with the fact that we have not been supportive of some of those programs. And I would also add that those people who are uninsured are the ones that are out there. They are working Americans trying to make ends meet but find themselves working in small companies, find themselves working in rural America, find themselves not working for a major corporation or governments, so they find themselves without access to insurance. Yet, they are working. They do not qualify for Medicaid because they are not poor enough because they are making money, but then they do not qualify for Medicare either because they are not senior enough. So here they are in between, working Americans, yet find themselves unable to afford health care. Yet in a country that has the best health care system in the world, it is not affordable; and it is not accessible to working Americans. When it comes to children, the numbers are equally sad. Hispanic children have the highest uninsured rate in the United States, with the child population one out of every four, 24.1 percent. So we have a situation that not only hits the uninsured but it also hits the most vulnerable, our children. Over 35 percent of all Hispanic children depend on State Children's Health Insurance, or what we have call the SCHIP program, for health care needs. We know that the uninsured have limited access to care. And we also know that the uninsured suffer disproportionately from diseases that can be prevented, treated and even cured. And that is what is so sad, some of these diseases can be prevented; some of these diseases can be treated and some can be cured. And then I look at the numbers where I see the statistics that show that in 1 year an estimated 2 million Hispanics were diagnosed with diabetes and another 1 million were estimated to have undiagnosed diabetes. And so here now we have the data to be able to diagnose diabetes at a very early age. We have the information. We have the potential of making a difference. We have the capability of being able to provide the data that is needed. And I want to let you know that in the area of diabetes, I have been well educated in that area. When I served in the Texas House, I was in the public health committee, and I recall very distinctly finding out the data. When we looked at the disease, diabetes, at the number of people that go blind, the number of amputees usually as a result of diabetes, a large percentage of them, and, ironically, enough, in those areas it is an area that can be prevented, especially now that we can diagnose it at an early age, where we can work with those youngsters, work with those families so they do not have to suffer later on where they might lose a limb or go blind. We also have when we see statistics that show 20 percent of persons living with AIDS are Hispanics, we know we have a serious problem if we do not start to address the state of Hispanic health with targeted prevention programs, treatment programs. With the strains that the health care system is currently experiencing, then we will have even more dramatic problems. In the area of AIDS, we have made some significant strides. In fact, the data show that the numbers overall have been going down, and that is good and the statistics have shown it. But when it comes to minorities, especially African American and Hispanics, we find within ourselves it is growing disproportionately. And so AIDS has not gone away. It is still there. It is still a killer, and it is still one of the areas that we need to concentrate on. And it is also an area where we identify it as one of those infectious diseases such as tuberculosis that we really need to concentrate on, no matter whether it exists in this country or anywhere else. So eventually we will have to deal with it. So it becomes important that we zero in on AIDS and see what we can do. One of things I wanted to mention about AIDS is that in our Hispanic community throughout this country one of the difficulties is that a lot of communities have what we call community-based organizations, and we have a few but our programs were not initially, we do not have as many as other community groups do. And so you find in the Hispanic community a lack of community-based organizations that are not funded. You have some groups, but they do not have sufficient resources. And so when they try to compete for the Federal dollars, for the State dollars, they find themselves a disadvantage because they were not there from the very beginning; they were not there when these other organizations were given these seeds monies to be able to start those programs to be able to make a difference. I also wanted to take this opportunity also to talk a little bit about the Hispanic Health Improvement Act. Through the caucus, we organized, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, has organized based on task forces. We have a task force that is headed by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis), but we have worked on that task force to come up with our own Hispanic Health Improvement Act; and we have been working on this for some time now. It is a comprehensive bill aimed at improving Hispanic health in the United States. The legislation offers a variety of strategies for expanding health care coverage, for improving access and affordability, which is key, for also reducing health disparities as well as strengthening our Nation's health care workforce. Let me just add that this particular piece of legislation is a piece of legislation that I have personally been working on for a little bit since I came up here almost 6 years ago; and it has evolved into a piece of legislation that is pretty comprehensive over all and touches on a lot of areas that the Hispanic community has been encountering and the difficulties in the disparities. One of the things that we did about a year ago was we did a conference where we asked every Member, both Republican and Democrat, that had any significant number of Hispanics in their districts, we invited them to a conference, and we had the conference in San Antonio. We had great participation, not only from the legislature, but also from each of the Members' staff. We invited one or two members from each of the staffs. And there we were able to come up with additional recommendations that were extremely helpful in beginning to finalize our piece of legislation and begin to address the responses that we needed in order to make that happen. This legislation provides for the expansion of the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is known as SCHIP, to cover the uninsured low-income pregnant women and parents. Right now the SCHIP as we well know does not cover women that are pregnant, that are uninsured; and we also know the importance of covering them is key. It also provides the flexibility to States that want to enroll legal permanent resident children and pregnant women. And once again, these are legal permanent resident children and pregnant women. We do not have that in the present legislation, and it is important. It is important that that also occurs. There must also be flexible incentive for States to increase enrollment in times of economic recession and as the population increases. It is important, the proposal, that the administration has right now is to basically take the SCHIP program, the Medicaid program and what we call the disproportional share and put it into one lump sum, which is most of the needy programs in this country, and then send it to the States but then it caps it. Our program allows for the flexible incentive that if the numbers increase, you are able to put additional resources. Especially in those areas where the population is growing, it is important that we provide access to that capability. And we know that population fluctuates every 10 years or so because we draw our lines based on that for political representation. So we also know that the numbers of the ones that are in need also grow. The legislation also addresses the future needs of our health care system and provides increased funding for health resources services, administration health professions, diversity programs; and we must ensure that our health care system can provide both linguistically and culturally appropriate health care. You might say, well, what does that mean? I just want to give one example. I recall a couple of years ago, it has been about 3 years ago when we had a hearing and I remember some testimony that was provided by one of the doctors who said that she had a client, and during that hearing she indicated that the client had been informed that she had been positive for AIDS. But in Spanish it was translated AIDS is positivo. If you just tell someone they are positive without explaining in Spanish as to what it means in terms of what it means to be positive, in Espanol you say ``esta positivo,'' that means everything is okay. So when you just get it in writing, she assumed that everything was okay. Well, that particular patient had a child and contracted AIDS. And so we have got to be able to communicate. We have got to be able to reach out. And a lot of times our health professionals might not be both linguistically or culturally appropriate in terms of being able to communicate, and sometimes our education assumes a great deal on the part of the patient, and that needs to be considered. These programs also promote diversity and support training professionals in the fields that are currently experiencing shortages. The bill also targets approaches that will help improve the health care of Hispanic communities in those areas and to make sure we address some of those needs. Let me take this opportunity to talk a little bit more about our piece of legislation because when we talk about the importance of shortages in our Nation's health care, the bill begins to look at addressing the needs of what exists. And we know that right now there are thousands and thousands of nurses that are needed. We need nurses. And we need to make sure that we have the resources to make that happen. So this bill calls for beginning to look at providing those resources to make that happen. We have got to begin to educate our health care professionals. We have got to produce our own health care professionals. We need doctors. Let me give an example, and I think I have shared this before, but I have got to keep saying it because we still do not do anything about it. We always complain about immigration. We always indicate that there are too many people coming from abroad, and prior to 9/11, we had a little less than 300,000 people come from abroad. This is the professional category, 300,000. In that category, Mr. Speaker, we have approximately 5,000 doctors. If we look at the data, Mr. Speaker, we graduate 12- to 13,000 each year; yet, we bring in 5,000 doctors each year. We are a brain drain on the rest of the world. At the same time, we tell people, young people who want to go into medical school, to qualify, we tell two of them, sorry, we do not have any room for them. So at some point we have to produce our own. We have got to produce more doctors, more health care professionals. We need more dentists and pharmacists. We need more nurses, and so we need to begin to provide those opportunities for some of our people in this country to be able to provide that access that is needed. In addition to that, the bill also calls for improving access and affordability to medically underserved areas. The border area is one of the most underserved areas in the Nation, and it is an area that requires a great deal of help. It is an area that requires a great deal of assistance, and we need the resources to provide access to health care. I represent San Antonio down to the Mexican border where I have La Salle, Zapata, Starr and Hidalgo, and in those counties there was a recent study that has just been done. In fact, I am going to have a chance to meet the author and discuss it. It is a good friend of mine, and we will discuss the findings; but Dr. Ortiz was telling me that on the survey that he had done of individuals in Hidalgo County, as I recall, and there might be some from Starr County also, that is also on the border, that when they were asked, where did they get access to their health care, 50 percent of them, they were Americans who were asked, where do they get their access to health care, it was in Mexico. We complained about people coming from Mexico, accessing our services, and yes, they do come over and access our service, but a large percentage of them also go to Mexico to access service, both for prescription drugs, for dental services and for just general health care. So it is important to note that we still in this country have not been able to meet the needs in those underserved areas. Our rural America is having a great deal of difficulty getting access to good quality care. With the advent of the HMOs and the health care systems, those systems are unwilling to go into rural America because they do not see the profits there. They do not see the way they are going to be able to make a profit, and most of them find themselves in urban areas. So rural areas, the options are very limited to some of the constituencies in our rural communities throughout this country. There is a real need, and this particular bill provides some resources to begin to look at those underserved areas and begin to provide access to be able to get those resources. Also, thirdly, the bill increases resources that are needed to combat Hispanic health disparities. I want to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of those disparities. One of them is the area of diabetes, and I know I mentioned to my colleagues earlier that diabetes is a very important issue that confronts Latinos and others, but I wanted to just mention some of the statistics in the area of diabetes. In 2000, an estimated 2 million Hispanics had been diagnosed with diabetes, and another 1 million are estimated to have undiagnosed diabetes. Approximately 10 percent of all Hispanics have diabetes; that is one out of 10. That is a pretty significant number when we see one out of 10 Hispanics that suffer from diabetes. For those that are 50 or older, the data goes up to 30 percent that have diabetes. So as they reach the age of 50, it is 30 percent. That is almost three out of 10. So it increases dramatically. Hispanics, on the average, are almost two times more likely to have diabetes than non-Hispanic whites. So diabetes is definitely an area that we really need to look at, an area that we really need to concentrate on, and I am hoping that we are able to get the resources that we are asking under the Hispanic Health Improvement Act to be able to respond to those needs. Remember that this is an issue and this is an illness and a disease that causes people to lose their limbs. It causes people to go blind, and their quality of life is hampered. It is an area that in a lot of cases can be prevented, and there are some beautiful programs out there. Dr. Trevino's program in San Antonio that works with kids in the San Antonio ISD school district and others, these are good programs, viable programs. I have been blessed that in my district, in Starr County was where some of the first studies that were done in the area of diabetes, where they are able to now identify those youngsters in elementary school that have the signs or the possibility of diabetes; and so we need to make sure that we go forward in that area. The other area that I have mentioned to my colleagues that is also a disparity that I would like to just kind of address a little more, and that is the area of both HIV and AIDS. Twenty percent of persons living with AIDS are Hispanic, 20 percent, despite the fact that we only represent 13 percent of the population. So we see the disparity, and that 20 percent is significant. The AIDS incidence rate per 100,000 population, the number of new cases of diseases that occurred during a specific time period among Hispanics in 2000 was 22.5, more than three times the rate for whites. So in the area of AIDS, we are disproportionately hit, and according to projections made by the Harvard School of Public Health, by the year 2050, the number of new AIDS cases among Hispanics will surpass that of whites. When it comes to AIDS and HIV, we have an area that we really need to begin to look at how we are going to concentrate, how we are going to be looking at meeting some of those needs of those individuals. Once again, there is need for basic grants to start up those community-based organizations that do not exist in our communities. They exist in some of the other communities, but in ours, we still do not have the community-based organizations. The other areas of disparity are the issues regarding cancer, the issues of asthma, substance abuse and mental health. Let me briefly, in the area of mental health a number of studies suggest that the mental health of Hispanics decreases as Hispanics adapt to the U.S. way of life. That is kind of interesting, that as they become more Americanized, the mental health problems supposedly decrease. Hispanic youth experience, proportionately, more anxiety-related though, and delinquency problem behaviors with both depression and drug use than do non-Hispanic white youth. In fact, many refugees from Central America experience kind of trauma-related traumas in the homelands where they come from with the civil wars, and so a lot of them are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders. It is one of the areas that we know especially with our veterans that it is something that needs to be worked on. It is something that needs to be treated, and it is similar to, for example, what happened in New York after 9/11. There is no doubt that we ought to be working with a lot of New Yorkers there and the families because of the issue of post- traumatic stress disorder, and it is something that stays with someone. If anyone has gone through any experience such as that, it is something that changes their life. It is something that dramatically causes a person to change, and in some ways, they are even unconsciously doing certain things without realizing why they are doing it and why they think in certain ways because of the impact of that traumatic experience. So it applies not only to veterans in the war, but it also applies to things that we witness, things that we have experienced. So post- traumatic stress disorders among young Latinos also has increased, along with the issue of depression. Among Hispanics with mental disorders, fewer than one in 11 contact mental health specialists. So a lot of Hispanics who do suffer from mental health difficulties do not contact for assistance, are not in our mental health programs throughout this country, are not getting the service that they need, while fewer than one in five contact general health care providers, but one in 11 failed to contact. Among Hispanic immigrants with mental disorders, fewer than one in 20 use the services. So the numbers go even lower as they first come into this country. They tend not to utilize the services. Let me talk a little bit on mental health. Mental health is one of the areas that for some reason in this country, just like in health care, but more so in mental health, it is an area that we have been reluctant to fund. It is an area that we have been reluctant to provide assistance to, an area where a lot of our youngsters suffer from depression, where a lot of our women suffer from depression, where we have forgotten quickly what happened at Columbine, and so those things are still there. Those problems still exist, and there is a need for us to reach out to our young people. There is a need for us to work with our communities and our schools to see how we can help, and there is really a need for us to reach out. There is data to show that Latinos, Hispanics, a large number of them, in fact, the number of suicides among Latinos is growing. So it is an area that we need to really kind of look at real close. So I wanted to make sure that I emphasize that our program also talks about the mentally ill as well as substance abuse. Let me also briefly talk about another disease which is heart disease. Heart disease claims the lives of 30 percent of, more than 107,000, Hispanic Americans who die each year, 107,000, 30 percent are Hispanics. Among Mexican American adults, about 29 percent of men and 27 percent of women have cardiovascular diseases. Among those with high blood pressure, Mexican Americans are much less likely than non- Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks to be aware of it and be treated. So not only do they have high blood pressure, but a large number of them are not even aware of the problem, and they feel okay or think they feel okay and they continue to act in the way they do, and so they are unable to get it treated. It becomes real important that we provide the preventive care that is needed, to provide the access to those services that are important. So I wanted to emphasize those specific programs that we have and indicate the importance of that. Let me also take this opportunity to also talk briefly about the prescription drug coverage. For access to health care, we know at one time, when both Medicaid and Medicare were established, we could have argued, well, prescriptions were maybe not that important at that time. Although for our indigent, we have provided access to prescription drug coverage, but we have not done that for Medicare, and I know that the President has come up with a proposal on Medicare for prescription drugs, but we also know that that proposal is inadequate, and everyone knows it and everyone recognizes that. It is a proposal that is just out there that is a facade, that does not really address the needs of our seniors that are suffering from Medicare. For Hispanics, most of our Hispanic Americans that find themselves in their twilight years, the majority only have Social Security and nothing else and find themselves only with Medicare and no Medicare- Plus or any other, and so it becomes real important that we start to begin to look at a prescription drug plan that helps to address the needs of our seniors and our seniors are in need. Our seniors are having a great deal of difficulty, and every time I go to a senior citizen center, every time I am at church, people will approach me about the importance of prescription drugs and the importance of making it accessible to our seniors. The ironical thing about it is, once again, here we have a country that has come up with some beautiful health care programs, some beautiful responses to some of our diseases; yet our people do not have access to them and they are not affordable. So I would ask what good does it do to have all the information, all the good prescriptions that are out there to address the needs of some of our problems when people do not have access to them, and they are not affordable? So there is a real need for us to reach out to those seniors and make that accessible. The importance of the prescription drugs to our seniors is key. We know that that is one of the main ways of addressing the needs of our seniors. We know that that is one of the few ways that they can deal with their problems. So it becomes important that we come up with a program that addresses the need of prescription drug coverage for our seniors, and we know that the President's proposal is not adequate. The Bush budget basically sacrifices the health of our Nation to provide tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent. The Bush budget fails to adequately address the problems of the 41 million Americans that find themselves uninsured. Nearly 25 percent of all uninsured are children. Even 25 percent of the moderate-income families cannot afford health insurance. And eight out of 10 uninsured Americans are working individuals. We have to keep that in mind. These are people that are trying to make ends meet. These are people trying to work to go after that American dream, yet finding themselves without health insurance, unable to provide the resources when they do find themselves in need of medications. I wanted to stress one more time that in the area of health care for our seniors we find ourselves in the Congress and in the administration with an unwillingness to respond to a program that addresses their needs. We ought to recognize that the private sector has even indicated that they cannot make a profit from our seniors, Mr. Speaker. We know that they spend a little bit over $1,000 on prescriptions, and we know that the private sector has a rough time. The only ones they can make a profit on are those healthy seniors that find themselves in a situation where they are not that sick. But as soon as they do get sick, they are not good for our insurance companies because they cannot make a profit. And that is fine, Mr. Speaker. Insurance companies are there as a for-profit operation. They are there to make a profit. So we should not expect them to provide access to our seniors. But it is the responsibility of the government to provide for its most vulnerable. These individuals have been there for us in the past. These individuals have worked all their lives. Now it is our obligation and our responsibility to provide for access to that health care. In the same dialogue, when we talk about health care, I wanted to take this opportunity to also talk about our veterans at a time when our veterans are growing in numbers. With a lot of the World War II veterans, the Korean veterans, as well as the Vietnam veterans reaching that age, the demographics show there are a large number of veterans; and that number is increasing. So it is important for us to step up to the plate. Yes, we have provided some minimal increases throughout the years, but it is not sufficient. So I wanted to take this opportunity, because of the fact that we do have our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and Colombia, but more so in Iraq, to just express that our thoughts and our prayers go out to all our soldiers that are out there, and we wish for their quick and safe return. We know that we are going to be victorious. We know we are going to be able to make that happen. We want that to occur as quickly as possible, and we are going to try to provide them with whatever resources they need. But we must also honor our veterans services. We honor them by ensuring that they have access to quality benefits and services once they come home, and that is important. With our troops in the field, and, sadly, with many Americans already experiencing the war's devastating effect, it is shameful that this House passed a budget resolution cutting $15 billion from veterans disability compensation programs and $9.7 billion from veterans health care at the same time, Mr. Speaker, that our soldiers began Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is clear that this proposal will have a devastating effect on the VA health care and benefits program, and it would serve as a further insult to millions of veterans already facing reductions in their health care, in their compensation, in their pensions and education benefits. The administration's budget was already inadequate to meet the health care needs of our veterans, and now the House Republicans have gone further and cut $844 million above the President's request for veterans health care next year. Not only was the President's budget inadequate, but the House chose to go beyond that and cut even further. The proposal, which was approximately $1.3 billion above the 2003 appropriations, would not even cover the inflationary impact and anticipated salary increases for the VA health care workers. Mr. Speaker, the budget relies on unrealistic management efficiencies and increased copayments. Despite the fact that there are arguments that there was money added, it is based on certain management efficiencies that they are going to be able to achieve. So it is not even real dollars. It is based on increasing copayments for our veterans and a new annual enrollment tax on certain veterans using the VA health care system and other inefficiencies, such as eliminating 5,000 VA nursing home vets. Mr. Speaker, that is the bill that we voted out, one that would cut and eliminate 5,000 nursing home beds. The budget resolution also calls for cutting $15 billion over 10 years. That is $463 million just in 2004 alone in the VA mandatory spending under the guise of eliminating fraud, waste and abuse. Well, 90 percent of the spending for the VA health entitlements is paid out of monthly payments to disabled veterans and their survivors. I personally do not consider payments to war disabled veterans, pensions for the poorest disabled veterans, and the GI bill benefits for the soldiers returning from Afghanistan to be fraud, waste or abuse. I recently joined my colleagues on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, led by our Republican colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), in a bipartisan recommendation to the Committee on the Budget, which would have added $3 billion. So I want to thank Chairman Smith for his sincere effort at trying to do that, just to add for next year, for veterans discretionary programs, including medical care and research, construction, and programs that fund the administrative cost of other important benefits such as compensation, pension and education programs. I urge all my colleagues to do the right thing as we move forward and to look at this veterans budget and be able to do the right thing. In conclusion, as I talk about the veterans program, we also had a study that was done by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Principi, who I hold in great esteem; and this particular study was called the ``Report of the Preparedness Review Working Group to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.'' This report basically talks about some of the problems that we are encountering and the need to look at how we begin to prepare ourselves in case of a major problem. Since the 9-11 attacks, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been forced to address issues that it never received funding to undertake. The VA continues to serve as a backup provider for the Department of Defense in times of war, and it is also part of the National Disaster Medical System. It is responsible for several roles within the Federal response plan, including providing assistance with procurement, assisting in the management of the national stockpile of anecdotes, which is key and important, and other pharmaceutical and information management technologies that support emergency medical care to veterans as well as active duty military and civilians. In order to fund such activities, Mr. Speaker, funds are currently being diverted from the VA patient care system. I had an opportunity to provide an amendment to the supplemental last Thursday, the supplemental for $77 billion. Two billion dollars of that is going for health care for the Iraqis; and I asked that of those $2 billion for the Iraqis that we look at $90 million, of which $70 million was going to be used to help pay for the cost that has already been incurred by the VA since 9-11. That was just $70 million, but I was not able to do that. The other $20 million was to begin to start off a piece of legislation that I helped author, that we passed but has not been funded, to establish four health centers throughout the country that will be able to respond for homeland defense in the area of health. Right now, after the study, the emergency preparedness budget that was sent recommended $248 million that they need now, and those dollars are not there. And in fact, we are taking $122 million away from existing services to try to do this. That is taking away from our veterans that need the service now that are reaching that age where they need us the most. In order to fund such activities, funds are currently being diverted. And we have to stop that. We have to be able to provide the resources for homeland defense, to be able to get the pharmaceutical stockpiles that are needed for a national emergency. Our health care system, the VA, is one of the best in the country. It covers every region in the United States. And so there is a real need for us to provide them with the resources for the stockpile for pharmaceuticals that they need for antidotes and other things. They need not only the pharmaceuticals but they also need the training. Our personnel need the training. They need the resources to make that happen. Every time we go code orange or whatever the code might be, there are certain levels where they need a police force to fortify. They need security personnel that go on overtime, not to mention the fact that because we have gone into war we find ourselves in a situation where a lot of our nurses and a lot of our doctors, a lot of our health professionals are not only working for the VA but are in the military. So we are finding a great deal of difficulty in filling those slots, and to the point that they are looking at contracting out some of the services. That is why those resources are needed. In addition, in order to activate those four critically needed bioterrorist centers that would help us, we needed that $20 million. The VA's many areas of expertise on such diverse topics as biomedical research, post-traumatic stress disorders, war-related illnesses, as well as environmental hazards, including both treatment of environmental exposures such as Agent Orange, ionizing radiation, as well as Gulf War illnesses, make it poised to make significant contributions to detect and diagnose and treat a lot of our soldiers as well as our constituency if we ever have to. But they need the resources in order to make that happen. So I would appeal to the Members and to the Republicans to reassess the budget of the VA. Now, I know they will argue, and the average constituent out there will hear, no, we just added $122 million. They do not mention that the $122 million came from existing services. They are coming from the services that are being provided for our veterans. And right now is when our veterans, the numbers and the demographics are growing. This is when we need them the most. So I wanted to take this opportunity tonight to talk about health care, since this month is Health Care Month, and I wanted to take an opportunity to mention our veterans. Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me say that our prayers and thoughts are with our soldiers. We pray for their swift and quick return back to their loved ones.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Chairman, let me indicate that since the 9-11 attacks the VA has been forced to address issues and has never received any funding to undertake that. My amendment would allow the VA to be able to get additional resources that they need in order to take care of some of that cost and be able to respond to the time of war, also in part to the National Disaster Medical System. The VA is responsible for several roles within the Federal response plan. The VA is currently diverting its scarce funds from the VA patient care mission to fulfill this mission. I know that the other side would indicate that $122 million has been allocated, but it is coming from existing patient service. In fact, the VA has recently come out with a report, and on that report it basically indicates, and I have the figures here, that there is a real need for right now, just in terms of getting ready to prepare and what it costs, $248 million dollars, and that report was put together by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Principi. So I would ask that as we look at providing the supplemental that we not only look at our veterans but the fact that the VA is also responsible to taking care of the healthcare of our military personnel. There are also already some real costs involved with the war, and that cost has been estimated at a very conservative figure of $70 million since 9-11. So part of the $90 million is $70 million that I am asking that we take and be able to provide to the VA that has a system of hospitals and clinics throughout this country in order to prepare. The other thing that I want to add is that in responding to the war, they have lost a number of nurses, a number of personnel, and they have had to be able to reach out and contract out for additional staff. So that cost has not been there. It is basically using existing resources to get prepared for the war. So this $90 million will go a long way in helping. The other $20 million that is part of that $90 million allows an opportunity to identify four centers throughout the country; and those four centers will be ready to respond in case of a major disaster. I also want to indicate that the VA has many areas of expertise in such diverse topics as biomedical research, as post-traumatic stress disorders, as war-related illnesses, environmental hazards and others.

Mr. RODRIGUEZ. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.