Loretta Sanchez

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, just to talk a little bit about that, the gentleman spoke about the fact that they think the money is going to somehow be filtered through an administrative process and never get to the school system. The fact of the matter is that the building program is not talking about money from Washington. What it is really talking about is not sending taxes to Washington because it is a tax cut. It is a tax write-off on an income tax form. We have already got that program in place for some modernization of schools. We passed it in this highly touted 1997 Tax Relief Act that the other side voted for and some of us on this side voted for. The fact of the matter is that we have an existing program in school construction that says, if a local school district and the community decides it is important enough to modernize a school, and they take it upon themselves, they take the responsibility of doing that, that in fact, when they float the bonds, they will be able to get a tax break. The tax break will be equal to the interest that they would have had to pay for borrowing the money. That is a tax credit from Washington. There is no money that comes to Washington. So there is no administration process. It is one line sitting on a tax form. It is already there, because we already have the modernization bonds. Now what we want to do is to pass a program that would create new schools because some districts need more schools, not just modernization of their buildings.

Ms. SANCHEZ. There was a certain point that the gentleman from Arkansas brought up, and I sort of want to expand a little on that. Whenever I listen to the Republican side of the Congress talk about this, it almost seems as if they want to pit private versus public. There is a reason why the majority of us are looking after the interests of public schools, because over 90 percent, I think it is 92, 94 percent of all children in America go to a public school. Does that mean, for example, that I do not like private schools? That is not the case at all. I am probably the most perfect example here of a public- private partnership when it comes to education. First of all, I am the only Congressperson who went to Head Start. That is a Federal program, I think one that works very, very well. I went to a public school system in Anaheim. I went to a private 4-year university, Chapman University, right in my area. I went there with a Pell grant, with student loans. Those are two Federal programs; with a Cal Aid grant, that is a State program; with a scholarship from Retail Clerks Local 324 because I was an ice cream scooper in my first job and I was a union member and they wanted to help me with my education. I also received a private scholarship from a man named Bob Prawley, a trustee at Chapman University who made sure every year I had enough money so I could finish 4 years at Chapman and get my degree in economics. And then I went on to get my M.B.A. out here at American University in Washington, D.C. And who paid for that? Student loans and the Rotary Club of Anaheim, California. You want to talk about public-private? I know what that is about. So it is not like I am sitting here saying I do not like private schools. In fact, the fact of the matter is I work very hard with many of the private schools in my district. Let me tell my colleagues a case in point. Modern Day Catholic High School in my district, behind it is a local neighborhood, very good neighborhood. I had a few calls from people there. Actually I had a group who came in and talked to me in my congressional office. They said, you know the kids park their cars in the neighborhood. Well, you know, maybe that is a problem, people do not want to see cars, you know, of the students. But that was not the problem they came with. They said, we think there are drug houses in our neighborhood, and unfortunately we think that some of the people they saw too might be some of the students, and so can you help us with this situation of getting the parking out of our neighborhood so that we do not have these drug houses? So what did I do? I went and I searched for more information. I went to Modern Day, and when I sat down with the principal and the vice principal I told them the concerns of this particular neighborhood, and they said to us, well, you know, we do not think it is really our kids who are making the drug houses be there, and I said, okay, well I can understand that. They said, but you know there is a solution to the problem of the parking. They said as soon as Bristol Street is widened, which is the frontage road right there to the school, we will be able to build a parking structure so that all our students can park in this parking structure. And I said to them, well, what can I do to help accelerate that? They said, one, get the funds to build Bristol Street and widen it, and secondly, we have a capital fund going for the parking structure because it is a private school. I said, well, I cannot solicit funds for you, but I can sure mention it to my Catholic friends since I am a Catholic and say, you know, school down the way might, you know, need some help with a parking structure they have got going. So what happened? In this transportation bill that you were talking about earlier we got a very important project funded in the city of Santa Ana, the widening of Bristol Street. We pushed it. It broke ground for the project 3 weeks ago, and Modern Day is halfway to the amount of money that it needs. It has got a capital fund going to build the parking structure. And so here we have solved a problem of, one, the neighborhood, unhappy; two, a parking structure that the school needed; and three, a very important arterial that goes through the area that needed to be widened for traffic purposes, and we have solved a problem, and it is a win for the neighborhood, it is a win for the school, it is a win for the city, it is a win for the people who use the road. So I am not sitting there saying I cannot do anything for private schools. What I am talking about is working together in a good manner, but first and foremost, we need to be worrying about the public schools and the fact that the majority of our students, over 90 percent go there, and that is why we are talking about public school funding here tonight.

Ms. SANCHEZ. I would like to elaborate a little bit about why modernization and new schools are so important. I alluded to the fact that our school districts are actually working very hard with the little that they have. They have created new classrooms out of what were not classrooms. They have put portables on school grounds to have more children come in. They have done other things. They have gone on different tracking. That means instead of the regular school year that you would have, September to sometime in June, there are now four different tracks and they go year round, so that while a student is on vacation for 3 weeks, a different set of students is using those buildings. Our school districts have done that. The other thing that they have done is to also go into double sessions. The elementary school district of Anaheim had to do that in July of this year. While it is important to understand that we need to modernize facilities because maybe it might have asbestos or maybe the roof is falling in or maybe we have got curtains and too many kids in the classroom or maybe there is no air conditioning and now because we are going year round in southern California we are hitting 100 and 102 degrees, we need air conditioning, et cetera. But the fact of the matter is that there is also a safety issue. When you have two sets of students going to school, one earlier in the morning and then one starting later in the morning but going later at night, when you get to the short days of the year, you are sending your kid in the dark to walk home. This is about personal safety for our children. It is also about personal safety within the classroom. Last night I talked about the fact that in Anaheim an elementary school district only has three telephone lines in. There is very little communication to each individual classroom on an on-time basis. So if something is happening in a classroom and, remember, some of these schools are rather large. There is a far-off classroom and there is a gun in that class or there is a teacher in that class who has got an off period who is grading papers and some intruder comes in, there is no way to get a message to the principal or the rest of the school that something is happening in one of these classrooms and that is dangerous, also. That is why we need to think about phone lines into the classrooms and intercom systems and everything that we do not have, at least right now we do not have it in Anaheim. So it is also about safety.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Michael Fleet on his retirement from the Santa Ana Police Department. Mike began working for Santa Ana Police Department on September 14, 1970 as a police officer. In September of 1986, he was assigned to work in the Canine Unit as a handler. Officer Fleet and his canine, Carlos, were assigned to work narcotic enforcement where Officer Fleet remained for the duration of his career. Mike and Carlos achieved national records for drug seizures. They seized over $56 million in drug monies and over 20 kilos of cocaine. In 1991, Mike and his partner, Carlos, were awarded Uniformed Officer of the Year from the Drug Enforcement Agency. During his career as a police officer, Mike distinguished himself as a hard-working and dedicated law enforcement officer. He has earned the respect and admiration of all of his colleagues in the law enforcement community for his commitment to the city of Santa Ana. Mike is known to many around the department as a ``Dad'' for the generosity and compassion he shows to all of his colleagues. A true cowboy at heart, Mike enjoys riding horses and listening to country music in his free time. I am very proud of you, Mike, for all your bravery and your selfless dedication to your career and your community. Have a wonderful retirement!

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. I thank my colleague. You know, you were talking earlier about the fact that right here in this room we represent some of the States that have the largest increase in student enrollment, and it is amazing when you see those figures because your State is one of those, mine is, yours is also Nita. But the fact of the matter is that the people that I represent, the children that I represent in California and Anaheim, my own hometown, Santa Ana and Garden Grove, when we look at the rate of enrollment in these school districts, it is twice that of the five fastest growing States in enrollment across the United States. In fact, I get to go back to my elementary school, an elementary school that probably was about 550 students when I attended, maybe built for about 600, maybe 700 at the most. These schools have 1100--a thousand children at them, and when you have a school district that grows at a thousand children, additional students a year, that is really a new school you need to be building. Now you know I have heard my colleagues on the other side say this is a very local issue. Well, normally I would say, yes, school construction should be as local as it gets. After all, it goes in your neighborhood, you care what it looks like, it affects the value of your home, and more importantly it affects the value of the future of your child. So it is a local issue. But you know in the State of California we decided awhile ago that building would be done at the State level, and we funded at the State level. In the last few years we have not funded it at all, which has created an incredible backlog not only of schools that need modernization, but new schools for the children and the enrollment that we have, and that is why we need to step in and say this is a national crisis, this is about our national security because our children are the future when we deploy them as troops, when we have problems of software engineers, when we need these high tech jobs that we are counting for the future. They are about our children being educated. It is about the security of the United States for the future, so we need to be involved. I will tell you another reason we need to be involved. You were talking about a $1.8 billion school construction bond in your state. On November 3rd, we have a $9.2 billion bond issue that we are going to ask the voters in California to approve for school construction, the first one in a long time. The largest bond we have ever had. Why? Because we are so far behind. And yet that is not going to take care of the rest of the problems that we have, the rest of the money that is needed for school construction and renovation. In fact, if we pass that $9.2 billion at the state level, the only way for a school district like Anaheim City school district to get part of that money to help them build their schools is to match it 50-50, which means you have to locally find part of the solution. So when my colleagues on the other side say, ``This is a local issue,'' you are right, it is a local issue. And the initiative that the President has, I know it very well, and you described it very well earlier, is about the Federal Government helping local people make the right decision; helping local people decide, yes, I am going to invest in my local school district, I am going to build that school we need. When they do that, they will have in partnership, for example in Anaheim, the State of California with a little bit and the interest from the United States Government. This is not about taking your money in taxes and bringing it to Washington and then maybe sending it back to the school district. It is a tax cut. It is saying you get a one for one dollar write-off when you file your income tax return. So this is a tax cut. It is saying do not send your money; keep it in Anaheim and build the schools that you need for our children. That is what our initiative is about. So when people say we do not want locals to take responsibility, they must take the responsibility that, yes, they are going to build the school. We just need to help them. There is another reason why I believe we should be involved. As you both know, I was in the financial markets. I helped schools districts to build schools. What I did was finance them for them. So I know all the innovative financing techniques and how schools raise the money and how you can build it. And let me tell you, when the Federal Government is a part of the equation that builds schools, the money, the cost, the interest cost, goes significantly down. So we are giving them our stamp of approval to go ahead and build. They must raise local monies to do so and state monies to do so, and then they get a lower interest rate anyway, so the amount of money they need to spend on schools is even lower. It is a win-win-win for everyone. I know that the Democrats have fought for this, because I sit on the Committee on Education and Workforce. I have seen and I know because I put forward a bill that would do that. This is patterned after something we already have, the quality zone bonds that we passed last year, and it is working in California. I had a school district from Fresno, California, come in and tell me we needed to build an elementary school, that it was going to cost us $12 million. We saved our money, we had a little bit over $3 million saved in our pot, and by using the program that we put into play in August, their cost, because of the lower interest costs, because of the government security, will be about $4 million for the same school. It was amazing when they showed me the program they have to build this school. We need to help. Even if we pass bonds at the state level, a school district like Anaheim needs the Federal Government to make itself a partner with the local area. I think my colleague wanted to address an issue there.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Let me explain a little. I am a businesswoman. That is the background I come from. I am in the finance area. Look at all the downsizing that has gone on in our United States. A lot of people have now begun their own businesses. Let us say tomorrow you decide to go and start your own business. Probably the first place you are going to do it from is your own home. Many people are doing that. You go home, you decide you are going to set a room aside. What would be the first thing you need? Well you need contact to the outside world. So how many phone lines would you put in that one room in your home to start a new business? Well, you would not put one. Most people would put at least two, three, maybe four. Let us see, you need one for your computer, you need one to access out to the Internet, you need one to receive calls, maybe one for your fax, maybe one to call out. You are going to put at least three lines in your own home for yourself to start your business. Now, can you imagine if I would tell you that the elementary schools in the City of Anaheim have three phone lines into their entire school? A school where you have a principal, and probably about three or four administrative-type people, and then you have, what, maybe 60 to 80 teachers, what I would call middle managers. Then you have the employees, maybe 20 or 30, and really the client, the people who are in the classroom. You have 800, 900, 1,000 people in a particular spot every day, and the schools there only were built with three lines into the school. So that means if I am a parent and I am calling in to say my child is sick, I might get a busy signal, because if the PTA happened to buy a fax machine for that school and they have a fax and something is being faxed out, and the principal is there and she is on the line talking to another parent or the school district or to somebody, someone outside of the school, and I am calling in as a parent trying to say my child is sick today, and maybe there is more than one sick child that day and the other mother is calling in at the same time, guess what? The line will be busy. You would never do that in your own personal one-room business, so why do we allow our children to have inferior, inferior, offices when they go to school? We need to modernize. We need to bring it up. How can we have our children on the Internet, on computers in the classroom, so they can have the high-tech jobs of the future that we are all counting on? That is what globalization is about. We continue to say we are going to get rid of some of those other jobs and in their place we are going to put higher paying high-tech jobs for our children. How can they be skilled to have that type of a job if they started out for six or seven years without even a phone line into their classroom? This is what I believe America has not seen. Enough business people have not gone into the classroom to come out and shake their head and say, ``You know, we need to do something about this.'' That is what our school construction program is about, modernizing, building new facilities, giving our kids the same kind of office we would expect to have a fighting chance to start our business.

Ms. SANCHEZ

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

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pay tribute to Dr. Harold L. Cebrun, Sr. who has dedicated thirty years of service to education. During his thirty year career as an educator, Dr. Cebrun has lived his life according to his personal beliefs. He once stated, ``We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.'' By deed and example, Dr. Cebrun demonstrates this belief in all his actions. Dr. Cebrun has been an active participant and leader in education, athletics and youth sports programs. As a young man Dr. Cebrun was an outstanding student athlete at Yates High School in Houston, Texas, and throughout his college career at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His academic career earned him a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education and Sociology, a Masters degree in Intergroup Education and a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology and Education Administration. He began his educational career in 1967 as a substitute teacher. He retired as the Superintendent of Schools for Compton Unified School District. During his thirty year tenure as a teacher he taught elementary, junior high school and high school. He was also a coach for basketball, baseball, and track, high school principal, and director of student services. In July of 1997 Dr. Debrun started a new career as athletic administrator. He was selected as Assistant Commissioner of Athletics for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section and, notably, is the first African-American Administrator to serve in the CIF office since the organization began in 1913. Dr. Cebrun is a leader in the war against ignorance striving always to share his wealth of knowledge with schools, school districts, businesses and corporate executives. He is an eloquent speaker and consultant who views are sought by many organizations. His expertise in team building, team management and effective leadership has earned him the respect and admiration of peers and community leaders. Colleagues, please join me today in paying tribute to an exceptional educator and mentor--Dr. Harold L. Cebrun, Sr.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to congratulate Herman Fink of Santa Ana, California, on his 102nd birthday. As a well-known Santa Ana resident, Mr. Fink has lived on the same street (Flower Street) in Santa Ana for 59 years. During that time he has become known as ``the Honorary Mayor of Flower Street'' to all those who live around him. An avid world traveler, Mr. Fink has been to the farthest reaches of the world. He has traveled to nearly every land on earth, from Egypt to Australia, from France to South America. He loves to travel and has lived his life as an adventure, seeking out the treasures of discovery and savoring the immense richness of many foreign lands. Herman Fink was married for 67 years to his wife, Clara. Theirs was a perfect marriage, according to his only daughter, Lorraine Ellison of Garden Grove, California. Many happy years of marriage, a lovely daughter, two granddaughters and two great grandchildren have filled his life with love and joy. To this day, Mr. Fink lives in his own house in Santa Ana. He is in excellent health and his days are filled with friendship. At his birthday party on September 26, his favorite restaurant beamed with love and friendship. Herman Fink is a man who is loved by many people, a genuine testament to a life well-lived.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the time previously allotted to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk a little bit about school construction, since many of my colleagues are doing that tonight, and I would like to say that I think I have the most experience in this House with respect to school construction. How many of my colleagues can say that they have constructed six classrooms for the Solvang Elementary School District and redid the bathrooms for the little girls and little boys in that school? Or how many of my colleagues can say they found the money to build a $64 million state-of-the-art tech high school in Antioch, California. Or how many of you can say that you have issued COPs or gone before Standard & Poors or Moody's to get ratings for any of these school districts? Well, I can say that. I can actually say that I have helped build probably over 30 schools in the State of California. Therefore, I think I understand pretty well what happens with the financing equation of school construction. Let me tell you that the relationship in the State of California, my state, is that of local and state for school construction. In fact, what used to happen was initially, in the beginning, local schools would be built with local taxes from local areas, and then when the local schools were not able to do that, it became a state issue, and in fact the state was working on that. Of course, now we have the problem that the state and local municipalities are not able to build the schools fast enough in California, and, yes, it has become a Federal issue. In fact, the President's proposal that we have before us that he brought to us in January, I am very well aware of, because I have sat with him and discussed the bill that I introduced in this House, H.R. 2695, and many of those initiatives are in his proposal. Now, many of my colleagues on the other side have said tonight, what? We are not in the school construction business. Well, let me tell you, in particular to the gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs), who spoke earlier about national security and our defense, it is of utmost national security that our children be educated. Because of that, the Federal Government must become involved when there is a gap and when we need to fix a problem. Secondly, we are in the school construction business. In fact, last year, in the Tax Relief Act that was signed in August by President Clinton we had the CZAB bonds, the academy bonds that we now use to renovate schools. So we are in the school construction business. Secondly, I have heard some of my colleagues say this is a local issue, Loretta. This should not be done. I am reading here in Congress Daily from yesterday, ``House Majority Leader Armey says, prohibit the President's school construction initiative, because we want the decision to be made at the local level.'' The President's initiative does make that a local level issue. Why? Because the local school district needs to stand up and say, we need to build a school; because local taxpayers need to stand up and say, yes, we will tax ourselves in order to build a new school. What happens with this initiative is that we help them to stand up and take responsibility. Third, people say that this is an administrative nightmare. Let me tell the Members, it is not an administrative nightmare. In fact, I had five superintendents come in from California just about a month ago, talking to me, of course, about school construction, because they know I understand that language. In fact, they came in and they talked about all the initiatives and all the projects that they are getting done under the CZAB bonds. Let me tell the Members, one said, Loretta, CZAB is already there. It is on the tax forms. We give the tax incentive there on the form. Secondly, they said, the approval has been so simple. As long as we meet the requirements, we send in one piece of paper to the Board of Education and we send one piece of paper to the Education Department out here, and we get it approved. They have been working on it. Fourth, someone said earlier that only the President's friends will get these bonds. That is not true. Of the seven initiatives that are already bond issues going on with the CZAB program in California, let me tell the Members, San Diego Unified School District, building John Adams Elementary School, reconstructing it, that is in the district of the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray). He is a Republican. Glendale Unified School District, Hoover High School. That is in the District of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rogan). Clovis Unified School District, the district of the gentleman from Fresno, California (Mr. Radanovich). This is for those places where we need to build more schools. I hope the people will really take a look at the President's initiative.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor Thelma Gammell on her 103rd birthday. Thelma is a resident of Santa Ana, California. She was born in South Dakota and grew up on the South Dakotan prairie. Her family worked hard. A closely knit family, they enjoyed life in an old-fashioned way. Thelma and her sister played with their dolls and ``kitten playmates.'' And when it snowed, the whole prairie became their playground. Thelma is a joy to know. Witty, humorous, full of the spirit of life. Her life has been one of many wonderful adventures. She met her husband, John Gammell in 1912, and the two of them lived in several states--North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska-- before moving to Laguna Beach, California. Their son and daughter were born in Wyoming. In Laguna Beach, John worked as a carpenter and Thelma worked as a pottery designer. After retirement, they traveled, visiting their friends in the Midwest. In 1967 her husband passed away. Thelma became an active volunteer for the Santa Ana Senior Center and has continued to volunteer for the past 13 years. Everyone who knows Thelma is captivated by her charm and her outgoing personality. She has truly graced our world by her life. Please join me today in wishing this most remarkable woman a very happy birthday.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the Labor- HHS-Education appropriations bill. With a veto threat hovering over this measure, I cannot understand why a bipartisan compromise has still not been reached. There are too many provisions that are just unacceptable, not just for Democrats, but for our kids, for our schools and for our families. Rather than hiring more teachers, building more schools, reducing class size, this bill instead shortchanges our schools. It provides $2 billion less, less than the administration requested for education programs. It cuts Goals 2000 in half. It eliminates the Summer Jobs Program. It cuts school to work opportunities. Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on. Eliminating the Summers Jobs Program will deny the world of work for half a million youth. My colleagues talked earlier about a camp. Do not send them to camp. Teach them how to be a productive citizen. Does the majority party really want our youth out on the streets instead of learning good work habits? This bill is just not fair. Until changes are made, I urge my colleagues to vote against the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill.

Ms. SANCHEZ

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona. I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Ortiz from Texas.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Thank you, Mr. Ortiz. You know, one of the great things about Esteban, and I do not know if you know this, Esteban, is that you are from, grown up in, I think in Arizona, from a small mining town, and the next mining town over, Kearny, is where much of my family comes from. So you are heralded not only in California where you have represented the 34th so well, but you are also known very well in Arizona, and of course we know you in California. I know you because of my family in Pico Rivera who support you and understand the important issues that you have brought forward for the people of that district; for example, when we have been taking a look at transit in Los Angeles and ensuring that our transit system, whether it be buses or a fixed rail, would come to the communities of East Los Angeles, and you have been there fighting consistently for that. I recall just this past year right before we approved the transportation bill the fact that you were out in Los Angeles fighting to ensure that moneys would be devoted for the transit for those of working class and lower income families. And so we really appreciate that from you, Esteban. I yield to my colleague from Texas, Mr. Ortiz.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Redmond).

Ms. SANCHEZ. I thank the gentleman from New York. I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would agree with the fact that Esteban has always been a big asset in any travel that we have done. In fact, he not only knows the English and Spanish, but of course is very fluent in French and has just been an asset whenever we have traveled. So it is all of these assets that compose this that we know that it has been such a privilege to have you here in the House. Our colleague from California.

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California that he made about how Esteban is one of those people that has always opened doors for people, and I know that my colleague believes that, and I do, too. I remember the first time I met you, Esteban, it was at an event for you; and I walked away saying this guy is talking about everything that I believe in, the opportunities for people to excel. It made me want to join you here in Congress and make changes. So I think that is prevalent to almost anybody who has run across the path of Esteban Torres. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Thank you, Mr. Campbell, and next I have the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood).

Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say to the gentleman that there were many of our colleagues who wanted to be here tonight to pay their respects and to let the gentleman know how important he has been to their lives, but unfortunately, because of schedules, were not able to attend. So from them I just convey the best of wishes, and I yield the rest of the time to the gentleman from California (Mr. Torres).