Loretta Sanchez

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, agree or disagree with the merits of reproductive freedom, the fact remains that women of the United States have a constitutional right to these services. So why do we choose to place our overseas female soldiers and military dependents into a subclass of citizenship? Currently servicewomen may fly back to the United States to obtain reproductive services, but only after they have authorization from a commanding officer and can find space on military transport. If your daughter, your wife, sister or friend had to make this tough reproductive choice and was stationed overseas, do you believe that as adult women they should be required to disclose this to their commanding officer? Would you want to put her on a plane alone? Our servicewomen and dependents overseas deserve better. My amendment allows military personnel and their dependents serving overseas to use their own private funds to obtain safe, legal abortion services in overseas military hospitals. No Federal funds would be used. The amendment will only affect U.S. military facilities overseas. My amendment will not violate host country laws, nor does it compel any doctor who opposes abortion on principle to perform one. It will, however, open up reproductive services at bases and countries where abortion is legal. Vote for the rights of our servicewomen and dependents abroad. Vote for this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to my friend, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman), the co-sponsor of this amendment.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, just for the gentlewoman's sake, the individual who would get the abortion done would have to pay for the abortion herself. This is not a public expense. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), my colleague on the committee.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Rivers).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the remaining time. Mr. Chairman, I want to read a little portion of a letter that I received from a woman who has spent 10 years in the Army serving her country, this country. She wrote about the fact that she had an unwanted pregnancy and the details of what she had to do in order to come back to this country to receive that reproductive service. She writes, ``I can remember thinking at the time how unfair it was that I had to resort to these drastic measures. Had I been in the States, it would not have been this way. I can remember being resentful of my fellow male comrades who were able to have vasectomies paid for by the military in Germany, and yet I had to use my leave time and own funds to fly back to the U.S. for what is also a reproductive choice. Women in the military are denied their right to control their reproductive process while abroad, although men in the military enjoy the same rights abroad as they do in the States.'' And she ends, ``Please continue to fight for our service women. I was one of them, and I feel we are entitled to the same rights as our servicemen, or at least that is what I thought I was fighting for.''

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Chairman, I offer amendment No. 7.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak out against the Administration's proposal to change the federal student loan consolidation rates. Last week it was reported that college loan rates could tumble to roughly 4 percent after July 1. A student with $20,000 in debt would be able to save $5,000 on a 20 year repayment plan with a fixed rate of 4.13 percent. Just as millions of Americans are preparing for large savings on their student loans, the Administration decides to pull the rug out from under their feet by coming out with a proposal that prevents them from locking in low interest rates. It seems as though this Administration wants to prevent students from moving ahead, after falsely leading them to believe that they would not be left behind. Due to the efforts of Democrats in both bodies of Congress, the Administration was forced to withdraw their proposal. I am pleased that we were able to prevent this potentially devastating proposal. However, I am still angry that the Administration would try to finance their initiatives at the cost of students struggling to get ahead. I encourage my colleagues to oppose any future measures that would make it more difficult for America's students to afford a college education.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the Southern California Railway Museum at Fullerton, California. Railroads have played a major part in how the west was won. The history of the American railroad is an amazing story, rich in colorful characters and anecdotes. It is also a history of amazing feats of strength and courage: The railroad was built by men who had to face many obstacles. More than 20,000 men built the Transcontinental Railroad which linked the East Coast with the West Coast. In truth, the story of the Transcontinental Railroad is one of the most heroic in American history. Some of the dangers that the railroad workers faced were long 12 hour work shifts, searing summer heat, Indian attacks, and most dangerous of all, the lawless and violent makeshift towns that erupted at the end of the line. Most of the workers were immigrants with over 10,000 Chinese workers. Other nationalities included Irish, German, Dutch and Czechoslovakian. In addition, thousands of Civil War veterans worked on the Union Pacific. The United States had long been divided by its 3,000 mile cross country distance. In order to reach the West Coast of the United States, travelers had to venture around Cape Horn, South America. It was a perilous journey filled with great trepidation. The other route to California meant crossing miles of land through dangerous Indian country or even facing the perils of starvation, weather, and accidents. In 1862, the Congress passed the first of several Railroad Acts, finally choosing a route from Omaha to Sacramento. With the foundations in place for a route across the States, and with the design expertise of genius Theodore Judah, a brilliant young engineer who found a way to lay tracks across the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, the race to build the Transcontinental Railroad across the country had begun. Two companies began the transcontinental construction of the tracks which the ``Iron Horse'' would travel--The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. On May 10, 1869, the two railroads met in Promontory Point, Utah, for the official ceremonies where a gold spike was driven into the ground to commemorate the six years of hard, grueling work which culminated in the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The railroads have since played a very important, crucial part in the expansion of the West, both in population and economic opportunities. In addition, the railroads have long captured the imaginations of young and old alike, who are mesmerized by the sound of a train whistle and the beautiful powerful trains which are truly a part of American history and folklore. Please join with me today in recognizing the importance of keeping the history of the railroad alive and to promote the education of America's children in the great traditions of the railroad. I commend the Southern California Railroad Museum in Fullerton, California, for its many contributions to the preserving the important historical artifacts detailing America's railroads and for teaching the children in our community about their American legacy.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, as a former investment banker and a small business owner, I am well aware of the complexities that are involved with pensions and with private investments. I believe that most bankers and business owners try to do a good job for their clients and employees; but many Americans invest too much of their money in their company's stock, unaware of the type of problems that arise, like the ones that we have seen with Enron. The Pension Security Act opens a dangerous loophole that allows self- interested people at investment firms to serve as principal financial advisers to employees and to offer conflicted advice. We saw this as an example in the Merrill Lynch case detailed in the Washington Post and other major newspapers. The Miller-Rangel substitute would offer employees independent financial advice when company stock is offered as an investment option under their pension plan. This is just one example of how the Miller- Rangel substitute offers real reform to our pension system and how the base bill fails to give employees control over their money. Mr. Speaker, employees have already lost too much. We must pass legislation that gives them more security for their retirement, and I urge my colleagues to reject the base bill and to vote for the Miller- Rangel substitute.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, it is my great privilege to rise today as the House considers H.R. 1366, legislation which will name a U.S. post office in Santa Ana, California, after a friend, a mentor, and an inspiration to many of us in Orange County, Hector G. Godinez. I would like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cox), and the majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), and all my colleagues in the California delegation and the members of the Committee on Government Reform for their support and efforts in bringing this bill to the floor today. Today we have the opportunity to provide a fitting tribute, not only to Hector but to his entire family. Hector Godinez was a public servant and an activist whose life was dedicated to the betterment of Orange County and to the advancement of the Mexican American community. Hector Godinez was born on the grounds of San Diego Mission in 1924. He was the son of field workers, and his family moved to Santa Ana a year later, making this his permanent home. Growing up in Orange County, Hector attended ethnically segregated local schools where Hispanics were sent to the Mexican schools and set apart from Anglos. Immediately after high school, inspired by the news of Pearl Harbor, Hector joined the Army, serving as a sergeant in General George Patton's Third Army. He is the recipient of five battle stars, one Purple Heart, and one Bronze Star for heroic achievement. Hector was wounded during the battle in Germany and was given an honorable discharge. Upon returning to the United States in 1945, Hector experienced firsthand the adversities that Mexican Americans were facing in the work force in California. Through a Federal program created to help partially disabled veterans gain government jobs, he became a letter carrier in Santa Ana. In 1959, Hector was denied a promotion in Santa Ana by the postmaster. He was told that Anglos would be resentful of a Mexican American working in their community. However, by the early sixties, Mr. Godinez had been granted an appointment as Santa Ana's postmaster, making him the country's first Mexican American postmaster. From there, Hector worked his way up to become the Southern California district manager for the United States Post Office, managing more than 44,000 employees and an operating budget of $750 million. At the time of his death in 1999, Hector had fulfilled a 46-year career of service with the U.S. Post Office. I would be doing Hector Godinez' memory a disservice if I failed to recognize the many other contributions that he made to our community because of a lifelong commitment to volunteerism. Hector was a founding member of the Santa Ana LULAC, a base of activists who were dedicated to addressing issues within the American system for improvement of conditions for Americans of Mexican descent. Through this organization, he and his fellow activists were responsible for Mendez versus Orange County Board of Education. This is a landmark lawsuit, one in which these Hispanics took on the establishment in Orange County so that our schools would not be segregated. And, in fact, California desegregated its schools 6 years ahead of the rest of the Nation. It was because of this lawsuit. This lawsuit was the basis for Brown v. Board of Education at the national level. Hector also organized and became the chairman of the board of the first State-chartered minority bank. He served as a trustee for the Rancho Community College District for 17 years, and he served on the board of KOCE/50; that is, our county's public broadcast television station. He was the first Hispanic to be named the president of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, and a founding member of the Santa Ana Redevelopment Board. He also chaired the Orange County Boy Scouts. He received a number of degrees, including his Master's, which he received in 1980. Witty and loyal, Hector was known for his dedication to his friends, his collection of cowboy boots, and his affinity for Stetson hats. Hector has been the recipient of the NAACP's Human Rights Award and the Western Region's Community Service Award, and he was among the first recipients of the Postmaster General's Award for Executive Achievement. He was distinguished by the National Association of Postmasters, the National League of Postmasters, and the National Association of Postal Supervisors. Hector was survived by a wife of 53 years, Mary; four children: Hector Ron, Robert, Linda Godinez Miller, and Gloria Mumoz; and nine grandchildren. Hector Godinez was a man who not only persevered over economic hardship and racial prejudice, but who used these experiences to fuel his fight to improve the lives of so many Mexican Americans and all the people of Orange County. Throughout his life he never stopped fighting, giving, or learning. Orange County is better off for Hector's life work. I myself got to work with Hector before he died, and in fact, I must say that Hector was a Republican. But on the day that I decided to run, he came to me and he said, ``This is important for our community, and it is important for Orange County, and I will support you.'' Today I hope that the rest of my colleagues will support in passing this tribute to him by passing this legislation.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor eight undergraduate science students from the University of California, Irvine for their award-winning work at the student poster competition at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Annual Meeting. Biological sciences majors Rafael Gonzalez, Matilde Gonzalez, Sylvia Jaramillo, and psychology major Bonnie Sue Poytress won first place recognition for their posters. Biological science majors Cheryse Furman, Kathi Lynn Hamor, David Hernandez, and Sarah Lopez earned honorable mentions for their entries. The AAAS is the world's largest organization of scientists. The AAAS Annual Meeting offered an interdisciplinary blend of more than 130 symposia, plenary and topical lectures, poster presentations and exhibits. The poster session included about 300 posters presented by national and international undergraduate and graduate students. Scientific posters provide a visual snapshot of a research project, using a brief amount of text and extensive visuals to explain the work. These posters are usually presented with others of a similar topic and are judged for the quality and originality of the data. I am extremely proud to represent such talented minds! Please join me in honoring these eight UCI undergraduate students for their hard work and achievements.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the Girl Scouts of the USA who are celebrating their 90th anniversary this week. Girl Scouts of the USA is the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls. There are 3.7 million Girl Scouts--2.7 million young women and 915,000 adult members. The first group of Girl Scouts was organized by Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts, on March 12, 1912. The Girl Scouts were chartered by the U.S. Congress on March 16, 1950. Girl Scouts help girls develop their full individual potential; relate to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect; and contribute to the improvement of society through their abilities, leadership skills, and cooperation with others. With myriad enriching experiences, such as fields trips, sports, skill-building clinics, community service projects, cultural exchanges, and environmental stewardships, the girls are able to fulfill the Girl Scouts mission. Please join me in honoring the Girl Scouts for their continued effort in making girls grow stronger and develop their full potential.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I was attending an important business meeting in Mexico with President Vicente Fox on March 7th dealing with International Women's Day. Had I been present and voting, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 51 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 52.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I was attending important business in my Congressional District on March 6th, which included activities relating to the Primary election in California. I request that the Congressional Record reflect that had I been present and voting, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 48, ``no'' on rollcall No. 49, and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 50.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 47 on March 5, 2002 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor the accomplishments and contributions of black Americans to this Nation. February is Black History Month. Established in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, Black History Month raises awareness of the history of black Americans in our schools and across our Nation. As a child, Mr. Woodson had to earn money for his family, and so he was not able to start school until very late in life. His motto of ``it is never too late to learn'' is something that all of us can use every day in our learning and growing, especially when it comes to the history of this Nation. February is also a significant month for the birthdays of great African Americans, pioneers in many ways to our Nation. These include the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Eubie Blake, the NAACP, and the first Pan African Congress. During Black History Month, we should take the time to continue learning about the contributions, the struggles and the perseverance of African Americans here in our Nation. Our country would not be as culturally diverse without their contributions.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise and honor Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America for their 90th Anniversary. Hadassah is the largest women's and Jewish membership organization in the United States. Henrietta Szold, the Jewish scholar and activist, who was dedicated to Judaism, Zionism, and the American ideal, founded the organization in February 1912. Her goal was to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity, and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society. Today, Hadassah's efforts are enhancing the quality of American and Jewish life through its promotion of education, health awareness, and unity. Hadassah's greatest achievement to date is their network of world- renowned medical and educational institutions in Israel. It provides the highest quality of health care to countless individuals throughout the Middle East, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Please join me in honoring Hadassah for their continuous efforts in improving the life of Americans as well as the rest of the world.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from California. It has been a pleasure to have him here in the Congress and to work together as Blue Dogs on issues that really affect us. I always tell my friends who ask me, what do the Blue Dogs do, I tell them, we are sort of like the bean counters, the accountants, the people who really want to set the record straight about what is happening with the money issues of the Congress. We do not want to do a lot of smoke and mirrors; we just want to talk about what it takes to do what we want to do and have a fair vote up and down on what we want. I was happy to hear my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), talk about the fact that a year ago, as we discussed this large tax cut that was passed mostly with Republican votes and signed by the President, that many of us who have been in the financial industry, and I was an investment banker, many of us said, we need a plan. Whenever we go and look at the future of what is happening, we have to have an idea of what we are going to do with the money, and if we have overruns, where we are going to get that money. We have to have cushions to what we are doing. Many of us said to that tax cut that the biggest problem with it was it was done on rosy projections at a time when all of us knew that the economy was stalling on us, and we just knew that those numbers were not going to work. So here we are today. Last year, no politician, no policymaker, none of us could have imagined that we would be here talking today about raising the statutory debt ceiling. At that time, the administration and the Congressional Budget Office were predicting that no increase was going to be necessary in this until 2008, if at all. What a difference a year makes, and it was not about 9-11. Yes, we are spending a little more on defense and on home security, but that is not what this is about. This is about raising the debt ceiling and raising it without a plan in place. When I used to issue debt for agencies or for companies, when I would put bonds out there, one of the things that we had to do was write a prospectus and talk about what we were going to do with the money, why we were borrowing it, how we were going to make the money back, and how we were going to make the payments on that debt in order to bring the debt down. But here, this administration wants a $750 billion increase, and they do not even have a plan. So I agree with the rest of the Blue Dogs here tonight that we need a plan, and we need to keep pushing for a plan. We do not need to increase this to $6.7 trillion, an increase of $750 billion. Since 1940, the debt ceiling has risen by over 12,000 percent, and here we go again. The money right now, $5.95 trillion, that is the debt ceiling we have right now. It is even hard for people to imagine back home what $5.59 trillion is. I tell people, if they imagine all the people in the world, and each one of those owed $1,000, every man, every woman, every child in the world, they would get close to what that debt ceiling is. So where does it stop, with $750 billion this day, another $750 billion the next year? What about the budget that we have from the President right now, the one that says he wants to extend these tax cuts? We are going to have to keep increasing this debt ceiling because our debt is going to keep going up. One of the problems is, the more debt we get, the more interest we have to pay, the more we add to our debt. Think about those credit cards we have. When we make that minimum payment every month, the interest rate makes it be more the next month, so we keep making payments, but what we owe on the credit card is more and more and more as every month comes along. That is what we are doing to ourselves when we do not make a plan, a fiscally-responsible plan about how we are going to balance our spending with the revenues that are coming in. To my colleague, the gentleman from California, I thank him for allowing me to come down here and talk a little bit about how people back home understand how important it is to pay down this debt, not continue to increase it; and how, if they have to go to their bank to get a loan, they need to tell them how they are going to pay it back. I think most Americans across this great country understand that sometimes, in a time of war, we need to borrow and we need to make sure that we win this war. But they also want that plan. They want us to be fiscally responsible.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to William R. Mills, Jr. upon his retirement after fifteen years with the Orange County Water District (OCWD). Mr. Mills was born on April 19, 1937. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1959 and went on to receive a Master's Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Loyola University at Los Angeles in 1983. Mr. Mills started his engineering career as a Second Lieutenant, Engineering Officer in the United States Marine Corps from 1959 to 1963. From there, he began a lifetime dedicated to water resource planning and development, and his efforts have proven invaluable to water supply systems in Southern California and throughout the world. From 1963 to 1966, he worked as a Civil Engineer for the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, Water Conservation Division. In 1966, Mr. Mills went on to work as a Civil Engineer for the California Department of Water Resources, until he was offered a job as President of the Planning and Development Division of the Planning Research Corporation in 1967. There he spent seventeen years directing a staff of 400 as they worked to generate water resource and wastewater reclamation investigations and designs. In the three years prior to his employment with the OCWD, Mr. Mills owned his own water-consulting firm. He was named Water Leader of the Year by the Association of California Water Agencies in 1992, received the Engineer of the Year Award by the Orange County Engineering Council, and was given the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service by the American Desalting Association in 1996. Furthermore, in 1999, he was awarded the Leadership in Engineering and Water Resources Award from the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering. He currently serves as chair of the Association of Ground Water Agencies and is chair of the Association of California Water Agencies' Water Quality Committee. During his tenure at OCWD, Mr. Mills has been responsible for developing a long range plan for the district aimed at decreasing the agency's dependence on imported supplies and improving the quality of surface and groundwater supplies. He was instrumental in promoting a program which uses recycled water for irrigation. To date more than $200 million has been spent on the construction of water recycling plants, groundwater renovation projects, and improvements in the district's extensive groundwater recharge system. OCWD is currently in final design of the Ground Water Replenishment System, an innovative system that will use high-tech filtration to purify waste water, then pump it back into the county's ground-water basin. OCWD's groundwater reservoir provides about 75 percent of the water needs for two million residents. Thanks to the hard work, dedication, and skill of Mr. Mills, OCWD is known internationally for its innovative groundwater management programs and for promoting advanced waste water treatment technologies. Colleagues, please join me in praise of William R. Mills' career as a globally-renowned, innovative, and forward thinking water expert dedicated to the improvement of water recycling and water storage systems for Southern California. He has dedicated his life to improving the well-being of Southern California's water and of water systems throughout the entire world. Mr. Mills is an asset to his community and to our country, and I am proud to recognize him for his contributions to the well-being of our nation's water.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad this morning that our Chaplain spoke about religion as a human and civil right. When U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently accepted his Nobel Peace Prize, he urged all nations to focus more on human rights in a quest to end poverty, end conflicts and foster democracy. It is for those reasons that I am circulating a Dear Colleague letter requesting the Nobel Peace Prize Selection Committee nominate the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do and Father Nguyen Van Ly of Vietnam for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do is the secretary-general of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He has been under house arrest since June of 2001, after announcing his intention to escort the ailing 83-year-old Buddhist patriarch Thich Huyen Quang to Ho Chi Minh City for urgently needed medical care. Similarly, in May of last year, Father Ly was placed under house arrest and banned from running his church for providing testimony to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which urged this Congress to delay ratification of the bilateral trade agreement until Vietnam eased its restrictions on religion. In recognition of their courage, sacrifice and belief, I hope all Members will join me in signing that letter.