Bernie Sanders

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. I have been on several occasions to Machiadora, and what a sad sight it is. When you go there you see these modern factories, and then a mile away from these modern factories, not only by American interests, but European interests, Japanese interests, a mile away from those modern factories you see people literally living in cardboard shacks because their income is so low, their wages are so low that they cannot afford decent housing, even by Mexican standards, being exploited terribly. But that is what we are seeing, a huge shift in manufacturing from the United States to China and to Mexico. And do you want to hear one of the ironies is that many of these corporations who have gone to Mexico are now leaving Mexico in order to go to China, because they do not want to pay Mexican workers $1 an hour. Go to China. You can pay people there 50 cents an hour. It is a very serious problem currently existing in Mexico, and it is part of that whole race to the bottom. American workers, that is where our competition is. That is what this President, this Congress has said. Your competition are desperate people earning pennies an hour and if you don't lower your standard of living, they are going there. Is that a sensible policy for the middle class of this country? Obviously it is not. Nobody here is not concerned about the poor people in the world. We want to see those people being able to feed their kids, have decent jobs, have health care, have education. But you don't have to destroy the middle class of this country in order to improve the standard of living of poor people around the world. We can do both. We can raise the standard of living of American workers and improve the lives of poor people around the world rather than engage in this race to the bottom. I would like to mention to my friend, we can stay on the trade issue, but I know he has been very involved and we have worked together on this issue of the greed and the rip-offs being perpetrated literally today by ExxonMobil and the other large oil companies. I think just today, if my memory is correct, ExxonMobil announced that in the last quarter, the last 3 months, they earned $10 billion in profits which as I understand it is more than any corporation in the history of the United States of America; $10 billion. They are not the only large oil company to be earning record-breaking profits. In my State of Vermont, which obviously gets very cold in the wintertime, we are seeing a lot of senior citizens, lower income people, middle-income people, who are going to be having a very, very difficult time heating their homes this winter because the price of home heating oil is soaring. What I see in my State, a very rural State, where it is not uncommon for workers to travel 100 miles to and from their jobs, paying now $2.60, $2.70 for a gallon of gas, that is what I see. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil has just earned more profits than any other corporation in the history of the United States and every other major oil company is also earning record- breaking profits. I wonder why the President of the United States has not said to the CEOs of the major oil companies: Come on into my office. Let's go into the Oval Office and let's talk about how you're going to lower gas prices, lower home heating oil prices so the American people don't have to take their paychecks or their limited incomes and give it to the large corporations. I know my friend has done a lot of work on this issue.

Mr. SANDERS. Let me interrupt my friend and tell you, I do not know if you have been to Mexico to view this.

Mr. SANDERS. My friend mentioned the argument in favor of the permanent normal trade relations agreement was this. China is a huge country, with enormous numbers of consumers. Think about the potential market that we are going to have by selling product to China, all the jobs that we are going to be creating. That was the argument. Well, it turns out I was in China a couple of years ago. We actually met with, I believe the gentleman was the head of Wal-Mart China. We went to Wal-Marts, and we talked to a number of their executives including, I think, the head of Wal-Mart China. Somebody asked a question of them. They said, will you please tell us, we are in your store here, it is a huge store, and in many respects it looks like an American Wal-Mart store. Somebody asked them, tell me, I am looking around, and I see all of these American products from soaps to basketballs to whatever it is. What percentage of the products here in Wal-Mart China are made in the United States of America and brought to China? The guy was a little bit sheepish. He really did not want to hear that question. He said 1 percent. Now obviously why would anybody, any large corporation, make a product in the United States and send it to China when you can produce it in China with wages substantially less than they are here.

Mr. SANDERS. I think we are running out of time. Maybe we can just kind of wrap this up by saying this. This is a great, great country, and the concern that many of us have is that despite people working harder and harder, despite new technology being there that makes us more productive, for some of the reasons that we have discussed tonight, and many of the others that we have not discussed, what we are seeing in America is that the middle class is becoming poorer. Millions of American families today desperately want to be able to send their kids to college so that their kids will have a better income and standard of living than they do. They cannot afford to do that. What we are seeing is families being stressed out, because both husbands and wives are working incredible hours in my State in Vermont. It is not uncommon for people to be working two or three jobs trying to cobble together an income. We did not touch on health care, and the disintegration of our health care system, 46 million Americans without any health insurance whatsoever, tens of millions more who are underinsured, people who are dying because they cannot accord to go to a doctor, and their illnesses become so severe that they are incurable by the time they walk into the doctor's office. We did not touch on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which makes huge contributions to the political profession, mostly to the Republicans, and the result being that we end up paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs; and the passage of a Medicare prescription drug bill, which does not allow Medicare and 43 million recipients to negotiate with the drug company, so drug prices will go up and up. The bottom line here is, in my view, that unless ordinary Americans, middle-class, working people, begin to stand up and fight back to reclaim this country from a handful of wealthy and powerful interests, who are using their power to make themselves wealthier at the expense of almost everybody else, unless we turn that around, the future of this country is not great for our kids and our grandchildren, everything being equal. Our kids will have a lower standard of living than we will. I would like to let my friend from Oregon conclude.

Mr. SANDERS. We have got to stop it.

Mr. SANDERS. The House and the Senate and the White House. They have it all. Let me just conclude by thanking my friend from Oregon for being with me today.

Mr. SANDERS. I believe, roughly speaking, although I do not have the exact words in front of me, but what he said is something like, if a product can be made less expensively abroad than in the United States, it makes sense to do that. So essentially what he is telling us, and this is the President of the United States' economic adviser, what he is saying to every corporation in America is, hey, dummy, they pay 50 cents an hour there, $15 an hour here, where are you going to go? Go. So what you have is the Bush administration essentially telling corporate America that they should throw American workers out on the street and move abroad. I remember a couple of years ago, one of the largest corporations in America is, of course, General Electric. The fellow who is head of that corporation is a guy named Jeff Immelt. Mr. Immelt spoke to some GE investors and he said, and I roughly quote here, not the exact quote, he said, when I look at the future of General Electric, I see China, China, China, China, and China. Why not? Why would you want to pay an American worker a decent wage? Why would you want to reinvest in Oregon or in the State of Vermont when you can hire people abroad for 50 cents an hour or $1 an hour, and they go to jail if they stand up for their political rights? It sounds like a great place to do business to me.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I wish to extend congratulations to Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans, Vermont, on its 75th anniversary. Our democratic society depends for its very existence on an educated and informed population. In that respect, there is no task in our society more important than educating our youth. For three-quarters of a century, BFA has been doing just that for students in St. Albans and surrounding towns in Franklin County: educating area students academically and preparing them to fully participate in our American democracy. So it is a particular pleasure for me to recognize the magnitude of this achievement: for 75 years Bellows Free Academy has taught the young citizens of St. Albans and its neighboring towns. Those seven and a half decades have seen the high school serve as a binding force in the community, bringing it together behind sports and drama and whole variety of activities. They have seen generation after generation of young people fully prepared by BFA for the challenges of the adult world, young people whom BFA has taught and trained so they can find satisfying work and take their place as active and concerned members of their communities. Of course, any institution is really only a reflection of the dedication and commitment of all the people involved with it. So recognition of BFA's 75-year history is really a recognition of the administrators, teachers, and, of course, students--present and former--who themselves are a living testament to the important role that BFA has played and continues to play in the lives of so many since its founding. At time of this celebration, let me offer the wish that many, many more decades of rich and productive accomplishment lay ahead for Bellows Free Academy, its students, its teachers and its support community.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. And how many minutes have elapsed? How many minutes have elapsed since the vote was called?

Mr. SANDERS. How long was this vote for?

Mr. SANDERS. My understanding is this was a 5-minute vote; is that correct?

Mr. SANDERS. Fourteen for a 5-minute vote. I thank the Chair. Parliamentary Inquiries Mr. MARKEY (during the vote). Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure, a great pleasure, for me to inform you, my colleagues in Congress, and through you the entire nation, about the kind of public service and dedication found in Vermont and, I suspect, in other villages, towns and cities throughout America. Aileen O'Neil has been the town clerk of Woodford, Vermont for 36 years. For well over three decades she has met the needs of the people in her town of 421 citizens, keeping the town going and its records up to date. Her long and dedicated service was recently recognized by the Vermont Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Association, for they named her Vermont's Town Clerk of the Year. During all of those 36 years Aileen O'Neil has done what needs to be done, with care, with courtesy, and with a concern for the public life we share with one another. What she told a newspaper reporter recently is a model for all of us, for I think each of us would like to be able to say, while still at work after so many years, ``I love my job. I've loved my job all these years. It's a purpose in life for me.'' We are lucky to have her, both as a town clerk in Woodford and as an example for all of us.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I wish to commend the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association for its efforts this past weekend in its 2005 Green Buildings Open House. The Open House consisted of tours of ``green'' energy facilities in homes and businesses, in all the New England States, as well as in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In Vermont, there were tours in Burlington, Cavendish, Hartland, Montpelier, Strafford and White River Junction, as well as in Northern, Central and Southern Vermont. The tours included a great variety of sites, including homes, businesses and schools. Alternative energy sources included solar (active and passive), wind, micro-hydro, as well as alternate construction methods and alternative fuel vehicles. We are overly dependent on fossil fuels. Not only does dependence pose environmental problems ranging from air pollution to acid rain to global warming, it also puts our national security at risk, requiring foreign policies driven more by the needs of oil companies than by the interests of American families and small businesses. But there are ways to conserve our environment and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. We can better insulate our homes. The dollars invested in energy conservation pay off over and over again, in reduced energy consumption and reduced costs for heating and cooling. We can find and develop clean and renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, water and geothermal. They are domestically produced, infinitely renewable, and non-polluting. And we can learn to use more energy-efficient appliances in our homes and offices. Developing sources of alternative energy and conserving the energy we currently use are smart policies, not only because fossil fuel is encumbered with many problems, but because long-term conservation and alternative energy are more efficient. And moving along those lines creates jobs, jobs here at home, good paying jobs. So I extend my congratulations to the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association and the many homeowners and building owners, as well as the guides for these tours, who worked to show us all how much can be accomplished if we have a vision of a better and more energy- sustainable future.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, Burlington, Vermont, as I know from my years as Mayor, is one of America's most livable cities. One of the primary reasons for its preeminence and livability is the vibrant arts scene in Vermont's largest city and in the surrounding region. Be it music, dance, theater or film, Burlington is and has been alive with creativity. The same is true for writing of all sorts, so we celebrate a notable moment when much of this writing was showcased at the first Burlington Literary Festival. I extend my congratulations on the inaugural Burlington Literary Festival, to its sponsors Burlington City Arts, Burlington Magazine and the Fletcher Free Library, to festival organizer Susan Weiss, and to the many, many writers who participated. In particular, I want to highlight that the Festival was dedicated to Katherine Paterson of Barre, Vermont. She is, with all due apologies to Grace Paley and the extraordinary writers who attended the conference, the most honored of all contemporary Vermont authors, with not one but two National Book Awards, not one but two Newberry Medals--and the Hans Christian Anderson Medal as well! When she writes for children, she takes their intellectual, ethical and political capacities with high seriousness. Social issues, international dimensions, and, if I am correct, a revisiting of the Bread and Roses strike in her next book: this is not escapist literature, but instead writing which draws its young readers into the world they live in, even as they encounter the remarkable characters and circumstances that enliven the domain of fiction. But Katherine Paterson knows that life asks more of us than writing, important as writing surely is. She established the ``Read to Live'' program to bring books, story-telling and other activities to Venezuelan communities which had been damaged and devastated by massive flooding. That program was so successful in giving children a sense of community and hope that it has been a model for programs in Indonesia for children left homeless by the tsunami, and is serving as a template for programs that will help the children or New Orleans and other cities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. We are proud to have Katherine Paterson living and working among us in Vermont, creating with the many other writers in attendance at the Burlington Literary Festival the imaginative fabric of American life. We wish her, and all, the very best as they continue to create in words both the America that is, and the America that can be.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I wish to tell you a story, and in so doing commend a wonderful grassroots project in northern Vermont. It is a small story and a simple one, but it says volumes about the generosity and support of the people of Vermont, and the care that the citizens of our nation as a whole extend to those who are bravely serving in our military forces. Sharon Waterhouse, of Richford, Vermont decided to sew a Christmas stocking for her son, Josh, who is serving in Iraq with other members of the Vermont National Guard, and stuff it with small Christmas gifts. It immediately occurred to her that she could sew stockings for his whole unit, all 32 of his fellow Vermont National Guard members. But Ms. Waterhouse didn't stop there. Since she loves to sew, she set a course to make 500 stockings, asking her aunt, Andrea Bowden, to help get donations to stuff them. Michelle Long of the Guard Family Readiness Group pitched in to arrange the shipping. The Richford Legion and CF's Diner chipped in by setting out donation jars to help buy supplies. And others have volunteered to help sew, including students from Enosburg High School, along with their teachers Jessica Leo and Kaye Mehaffey. Sharon Waterhouse herself is sewing between 300 and 400 stockings, and with the help of other generous hands, she hopes to provide stockings for the entire Vermont Guard contingent--over 1400 soldiers-- serving in Iraq. There are moments when our brave men and women in uniform, facing daily dangers in Iraq which we can scarcely imagine, need to know that their nation understands the sacrifices they are willing to make on the Nation's behalf. What Sharon Waterhouse and the many others working along with her have done is give those soldiers a clear sign that we in America greatly appreciate their dedication and courage.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to bring to your attention, to the attention of the House, and to the attention of the Nation, the remarkable step forward made by the Washington Electric Co- operative in Vermont. This week they opened a new facility which produces electricity from methane, a gas formerly burned as a useless byproduct of the landfill in Coventry, VT. It is a wonderful example of Yankee inventiveness--and Yankee frugality. The new facility, which costs a relatively modest $8.5 million, will produce enough electricity for one-third of the Washington co-op's customers, a percentage expected to rise to half when the plant is fully operational and tuned to take advantage of all the methane produced by decomposition in the landfill. In a time of soaring energy and electricity prices, the co-op has not raised electricity prices for 5 years. Rates are not expected to rise in the next 5 years either, because the new powerplant operates economically and the electric utility makes good use of renewable energy certificates. This is a wonderful lesson for the Nation, which is increasingly pressed by both shortages of fossil fuel and by soaring prices for energy of all sorts. We need to find sources of alternative energy which can meet our needs for power. Contrary to what the large oil companies tell us, not only are such alternatives available now, those alternatives are often far more economical than using fossil fuels. Whether it is methane power, wind power, solar power, geothermal power, or the use of hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative to gasoline in cars, we must cut out dependence on foreign oil now. We will be better off environmentally, our national security will be enhanced, and--as the Washington co-op has so boldly demonstrated--we may well be better off economically as well. In short, we need an energy revolution by breaking our dependence on fossil fuels. I am very, very confident our small State of Vermont will lead this. We will be noticed by not only the country but the world. My congratulations to the Washington Electric Co-Op for showing America, with its new facility in Coventry, what can and should be done to make our energy sources secure and sustainable.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, there is not a lot that I can add to what my colleagues have said about the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, about the hundreds of lives that have been lost and the billions of dollars in property damage that has been experienced. But perhaps in the midst of this horror, there might be a silver lining. And if there is a silver lining, it might be that we begin to take a hard look at some of the realities of America, realities that are very rarely talked about here on the floor of the House or in the media. Clearly, one of the realities that we did observe in New Orleans is that there were thousands and thousands of people there who could not flee the flood because they did not have money, they did not have a car, and they had no place to go. And some of them died because they are poor. But poverty exists well beyond New Orleans. The fact of the matter is that millions of Americans today live in abject, humiliating poverty. And, tragically, in the last 5 years alone, since President Bush has been in office, the number of poor people in America has grown by 5 million. So not only are we not addressing the problem of poverty; it is becoming significantly worse. And at a time when a lot of my colleagues talk repeatedly about family values, some 17 percent of the children in America live in poverty, which is by far the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. Some of the other industrialized countries have poverty rates of 3, 4 percent. We are over 17 percent. So if there is a silver lining in Hurricane Katrina, it may be, it may be, it might be that we refocus on the needs of ordinary Americans, and we make fundamental changes in the priorities that have been established in this country in the last 5 years. Mr. Speaker, it is not just that poverty in America is increasing; it is that the middle class in this country is shrinking. We all know about the explosion in technology. We all know that worker productivity in America is rapidly rising; but in the midst of that, what we are seeing is that real wages, inflation accounted for wages, for millions and millions of workers is going down. People are working two jobs, they are working three jobs, and yet they are further behind economically than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Mr. Speaker, in America when we talk about priorities, when we talk about our kids, we have got to ask ourselves about our educational system and why it is that throughout this country, in Vermont and virtually every other State in America, our child care situation in America is an absolute disaster. Every psychologist will tell you that the most important years of a person's life are the first few years, and yet in America today we have kids being warehoused in America in facilities where there are inexperienced, underpaid teachers and people who are minding the children. We have millions of other Americans today who would like to go to college, but cannot afford the $35,000 or $40,000 a year that it costs. To my mind we are wasting huge amounts of intellectual capital by not making college available for all Americans. It is a national disgrace that for the first time in recent years, fewer low-income kids are going to college than used to be the case. Mr. Speaker, while the middle class is shrinking, poverty is increasing. While some 46 million Americans have no health insurance, while the average American today is paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, there is another reality taking place in America, and that is that the wealthiest people in our country have never had it so good. What we are seeing today in America is the widest gap between the rich and the poor of any industrialized nation on Earth, and it is wider in America today than at any time since the 1930s. Mr. Speaker, to my mind a great nation is measured not by the number of billionaires it has, not by the number of nuclear weapons that it has, but in fact how we treat the least amongst us, the elderly, the sick and the poor. By that definition, we are not doing very well at all. Mr. Speaker, while average Americans were struggling last year just to keep their heads above water economically, maybe to make a few bucks more than inflation was taking away from them, the CEOs of the Forbes largest 500 corporations in America saw a 54 percent increase in their compensation; 54 percent for the CEOs of the largest corporations, while millions of Americans are seeing a decline in their standard of living. Mr. Speaker, in the midst of the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, in the midst of a period when we are going to be spending tens of millions of dollars rebuilding the gulf coast, at a time when we are spending $300 billion in Iraq, our Republican friends and the President of the United States want to repeal the estate tax and provide hundreds of billions of dollars more in tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent who are the only people who will benefit from the repeal of the estate tax and half of those benefits are going to the richest one-tenth of 1 percent. Yes, we can cut Medicaid by $50 billion. Yes, we can underfund the Veterans Administration so the veterans go on waiting lists all over America. Yes, we can have children sleeping out on the street. There is no money to take care of those needs, but apparently we have hundreds of millions to give to the wealthiest 2 percent, which will drive up our deficit, drive up our national debt and leave all of that to our children. I would hope that common sense will prevail and that the President and Republican leadership, at a time of a record-breaking national debt, record-breaking deficits, will not give huge tax breaks for people who do not need them. Instead, let us move forward to lowering our deficit. Instead, let us pay attention to the middle class and low- income Americans who need help. So once again, Mr. Speaker, if there is any silver lining in the disaster and the horror of Hurricane Katrina, it might be that today we begin reevaluating our priorities.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city of Burlington Electric Department. What an incredible achievement! One of the great experiences I had as Mayor was seeing, close up, how much it mattered to Burlington's citizens that we had public power, and not a for-profit corporation, delivering the electricity our city's households and businesses need. The results are clear. Burlington today has some of the lowest electric bills in the state. And that is no small matter when families are hard pressed by increasing gasoline and fuel oil prices, and the difficult economy that is faced by so many. When the goal of a department is to provide the best quality service at the lowest possible cost, rather than huge profits and big CEO compensation packages, amazing things can happen. Through innovative and creative management and by utilizing aggressive energy efficiency measures, electricity use in Burlington is 1 percent below what it was in 1989--saving Burlington customers some $6.7 million a year. Burlington is using less power at a time of economic growth--a remarkable achievement. Since 1995 average rates have decreased by 17 percent. Clearly there is something very right about the Burlington Electric Department which the rest of Vermont and America can learn from. Several years ago I brought a number of the most innovative electric departments in the country together for a meeting in Washington. I was very proud that the BED showed itself to be one of the very best in the nation. Given the major energy crisis that our country now faces, I am confident that BED will continue to come forward with bold and innovative ideas to protect our rate-payers and our environment. Whether it is in the normal operation of business, or dealing with power outages from an ice storm or a blizzard, the employees of Burlington Electric serve the people of Burlington with real dedication. Whatever the job is, they get it done. To Mayor Clavelle, Barbara Grimes, BED's General Manager; to the Electric Commission; and the City Council; and most especially to the men and women who not only work for the Electric Department but make it work for all of Burlington: Congratulations on BED's hundredth anniversary.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, we understand what happened today. Tell me why you will not allow that amendment to come up for a vote, despite the fact that the majority of the Members support it.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this rule and to the underlying legislation. I rise in opposition not just because an important amendment that I offered, along with the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall), and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo) was not accepted by the Committee on Rules, but because this very same amendment has already been passed on the floor of this House by a 51- vote margin just a few weeks ago. On June 15, by a vote of 238-187, this body voted overwhelmingly for the exact same amendment which would stop the FBI and other government agencies from going into our libraries and book stores without probable cause. We voted on that by a 238-187 vote; and now, a few weeks later, this provision is not included in the bill, and the Republican leadership has refused to allow the Members to even vote on it. This, my friends, is an outrageous abuse of power and denies the majority of Members here the right to put into the bill what they want. There is no excuse for that. If you wanted to speak against it, let it come up, argue against it. But it has passed once; it will likely pass again. But the Republican leadership has not allowed that issue to be debated. This whole discussion about the USA PATRIOT Act deals with two issues. Number one, every Member of this body is pledged to do everything that he or she can to protect the American people from the horrendous scourge of terrorism, but some of us have more confidence in our law enforcement agencies and the American people than others do. We believe that we can fight terrorism and protect the American people without undermining the basic constitutional rights which make us a free country. Let all of us remember that in the 1940s innocent Japanese Americans, without any pretext, were herded into internment camps. In the 1960s, a President of the United States had a file on him, President Kennedy, by the FBI. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr., who some of us consider to be one of the great heroes of the 20th century, was hounded and investigated by the FBI. The issue today is how do we effectively fight terrorism, but do it in a way which protects the constitutional rights which make us a free country. I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This tripartisan amendment is being cosponsored by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler), the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo), the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Boren), the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), and the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro). It also has the strong support of the AFL-CIO, representing 13 million American workers, the Transportation Trades Department, the Professional Airway Systems Specialists and the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists. Mr. Chairman, on February 1, 2005, the FAA awarded a $1.9 billion contract to Lockheed Martin to close 38 out of 61 automated flight service stations across the country and privatize 20 others. This contract is not scheduled to go into effect until October 1, 2005. If this contract is implemented, over 1,000 highly trained air traffic control specialists will be in danger of losing their jobs, and the retirement benefits of some 2,500 Federal aviation workers will also be in jeopardy. Mr. Chairman, this privatization scheme is a bad idea, a wrong idea for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the question of air safety, something that is on the mind of every Member of Congress and every American person who flies. Flight service stations are crucial to the safety and security of our Nation's air space. They provide a host of critical services to more than 600,000 general aviation pilots, as well as providing assistance to military and commercial pilots. Air traffic control specialists advise pilots on such information as terrain, pre-flight and in-flight weather information, suggested routes of flight, altitudes and indications of turbulence or icing. As a matter of fact, when this country was attacked on September 11, 2001, the key national security function of air traffic control specialists was on full display. During that national tragedy, air traffic control specialists communicated crucial information to planes in the air and on the ground and were responsible for restarting air traffic in the days following. In addition, Mr. Chairman, keeping airplanes out of restricted air space is the responsibility of air traffic control specialists. Further, air traffic control specialists are critical to protect our airways during a natural disaster. When hurricanes hit the southeast last year, flight service stations remained open, and air traffic control specialists remained working to ensure the safety of airline passengers, even though other FAA facilities were shut down. Mr. Chairman, it is my very strong opinion that we should not be compromising air safety by privatizing air traffic control specialists to a corporation, Lockheed Martin, whose main function in life is making a profit. When passengers get on a plane, when passengers take off and land at an airport, they want to know that everything possible is being done to protect the safety of those flights and not that operations have been turned out to the lowest possible bidder. Interestingly enough, Mr. Chairman, Congress has already passed a provision prohibiting three flight service stations in Alaska from being privatized, and that provision has been signed into law by the President. Mr. Chairman, I support that law and believe that what is good for Alaska, a State highly dependent on air travel, should be good for the rest of the country and that we should prevent flight service stations across the country from closing, which is exactly what this amendment will do. Mr. Chairman, the second important reason that we should pass this amendment is that at a time when millions of American workers are worried that the pensions that have been promised to them will not be there when they retire, we must show that Congress will not be complicit in that process and that we will stand up for them when their pensions are going to be slashed. Mr. Chairman, if this amendment fails, not only will 1,000 highly trained air traffic control specialists be in danger of losing their jobs, but the retirement benefits of some 2,500 Federal aviation workers, most of whom are over the age of 40, will be in jeopardy. That is wrong. The Federal Government must set an example to the private sector. When we promise a Federal employee that he or she will get a pension, that promise must be kept. If we do not keep our promises regarding pensions to Federal employees, how can we expect that United Airlines or other major corporations will keep their promises? Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to how many more speakers the gentleman from Michigan has?