John Sarbanes

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher on the occasion of his 80th birthday. His musical contributions have touched the people of Maryland for many years, and the story of Leon's life is a testament to both the inspirational power of music and the indomitable nature of the human spirit. As a young man, Leon was acclaimed as a once-in-a-generation musical talent, and by his mid-twenties, Leon had become one of the world's most-respected and sought-after piano soloists, creating a number of timeless interpretations of classic works that are admired to this day. When a rare neurological condition stripped him of the use of his right hand, he refused to allow the condition to limit his work and continued to contribute to classical music. As a conductor and director, Leon inspired and energized other musicians from such distinguished organizations as the Baltimore Symphony, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Peabody Conservatory, the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, and the Kennedy Center's Theater Chamber Players. As a teacher, Leon imparted his own knowledge, passion, and skill to many musicians who now carry the weight of his musical legacy. As a performer, Leon performed the definitive left-handed interpretations of numerous works, inspiring many composers to create new works for the previously underutilized left hand. After years of special treatments, Leon returned to Carnegie Hall in a truly inspiring culmination of years of determined effort. The recipient of countless awards and accolades, Leon Fleisher has been a true gift to the people of the 3rd district of Maryland, and the field of classical music in general. His performances and personal story remain powerful, and on the occasion of his 80th birthday, I thank him for all he has done, and all he will continue to do, to advance both the world of music and the capacity of the human spirit.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Telework Improvements Act of 2009. Telework allows workers to perform their duties and responsibilities from home or at another work site removed from their regular place of employment. The Telework Improvements Act encourages a uniform and consistent telework policy across the federal government, while imposing strict oversight and accountability that will ensure the success of this pragmatic yet innovative workforce management policy. First and foremost, this bill is about good government. According to an estimate by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, in the next five years approximately 550,000 federal employees--almost 30 percent of the federal workforce--will leave government, largely through retirement. Broadband and other technological advances have made remote work arrangements widely possible and the government should use telework as a powerful recruitment and retention tool to compete with more highly paid private sector jobs. The flexibility that telework provides will make a career in government more attractive to the next generation of civil servants. Telework will also help mitigate congestion in high-traffic areas such as the National Capital Region--reducing carbon emissions from vehicles and improving the quality of life for all commuters. I commute from my home in Towson, Maryland to our nation's capital, tracing the length of my district. Each day, I sit in suffocating traffic with thousands of federal employees and other commuters. The gridlock results in lost productivity, less time spent with families, and pollution that poisons our air and alters our climate. If we offer an innovative alternative so that some in the federal workforce can avoid these commutes through telework, not only will we improve their quality of life, we will relieve the overall strain on our regional transportation infrastructure and improve the daily commute for all area workers. Select agencies within the federal government like the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Defense Information Systems Agency, and the General Services Administration have shown strong leadership-- from agency heads down to individual managers--by putting in place an efficient and effective telework policy. They have demonstrated extraordinary results and are a template for other agencies to follow. But even though telework has been available to federal employees for over a decade, there are no uniform policies in place. Agencies are hampered by a lack of guidance and training for federal employees who wish to telework. Uneven application among managers and supervisors has too often rendered telework policies ineffective. Finally, the absence of uniform data collection and meaningful oversight make the best practices employed by agencies with effective telework programs all but impossible to implement elsewhere in government. To address these flaws, the Telework Improvements Act of 2009 will: instruct the Office of Personnel Management to develop a uniform, government-wide telework policy for federal employees; ensure that federal employees who wish to telework and are eligible to telework are able to do so for at least 20 percent of the hours they work in a two- week work period; designate a Telework Managing Officer within every agency and department to oversee telework; provide greater access to and opportunities for telework training and education to both employees and supervisors, while providing employees electing to telework with greater protection against discriminatory punitive treatment by supervisors and managers; require the Office of Personnel Management to compile government-wide data on telework; and require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate agency compliance, produce an annual report to Congress and make that report publicly available on the internet. In closing, I would like to salute Congressman Frank Wolf for his vision and tireless advocacy for telework in the federal government. Over the last decade, he has put telework on the map as a management option within the federal workforce and I thank him for his leadership. I would also like to thank Congressman Gerry Connolly for joining Congressman Wolf and myself in writing this legislation. Though Congressman Connolly is new to this body, he is not new to telework. As Chairman of the Fairfax County, Virginia Board of Supervisors, Congressman Connolly instituted a far-reaching telework policy--performing a great service to the employees of Fairfax County and offering a model solution for the federal government. Finally, I would like to thank Congressman Danny K. Davis for his support. Congressman Davis and I introduced a similar piece of legislation in the 110th Congress. As chairman of the Federal Workforce Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Congressman shepherded this crucial legislation through the House of Representatives, but unfortunately the measure stalled in the Senate. We are hopeful that we will get a bill to the President's desk during the 111th Congress. Madam Speaker, the federal government should lead the way as a model employer and embrace innovative personnel policies that increase productivity while striking the right balance between family and work. By enacting the Telework Improvements Act, we have the opportunity to bolster the federal workforce, reduce traffic and carbon emissions, and improve the quality of life for our dedicated civil servants all in one fell swoop. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this pragmatic, commonsense legislation.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 188th Anniversary of Greek Independence Day and the valiant Greek struggle to cast aside the shackles of imperial oppression. For those who believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, March 25, 1821, resonates through the annals of history as a seminal moment in the epoch of democracy. From ancient Greece the world came to speak of the founders of democratic thought--Cleisthenes, Themistocles, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and countless others. When our founding fathers contemplated the establishment of the United States of America they looked across time and geography to the shores of ancient Greece. Thomas Jefferson and others who studied the Democratic philosophies of the ancient Greeks knew that in their teachings lay the formula for a just and free society. In 1776 the sacred flame of liberty illuminated the shores of America, and when in 1821 the mother of democracy awoke and sought to liberate herself from the dark conquest that had befallen her, America cheered her on. During the Greek struggle for independence, many Americans felt a kindred spirit with the Greeks, and gave the name of a Greek Independence War hero to the town of Ypsilanti, Michigan. It is only natural that the fraternal bonds of liberty between America and Greece have been present from the first day of the establishment of each country. History shows that Greece is one of America's greatest allies, from the passing of the ancients' democratic philosophy to the modern Hellenic Republic's fighting alongside the USA in every major struggle since its inception. Long before the United States took on the Nazis in WWII, the only countries standing in the way of the Nazi onslaught were Greece and the United Kingdom. Greece paid a dear price for its steadfastness, losing 10 percent of her entire population, and nearly all of the ancient Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. The heroic acts of the Greeks were evident everywhere, from the daring removal of the Nazi flag that floated above the Acropolis, to the unparalleled resistance movement that resulted in the first defeat of an Axis Army when the Greeks pushed Mussolini's troops across the Albanian frontier. Greece has come a long way in 188 years. In 2004 Greece did an outstanding job hosting the Olympics. She has been an important ally in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and is the beacon of democracy in the Balkans, serving as one of the largest investors, business and job creators throughout all of Southeastern Europe. Greece is a proven democracy and proven ally of the United States. Greece is a country that can be counted on to support the high ideals of freedom and liberty, and is and always has been a staunch American ally.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Chairman Miller, Americans everywhere should thank you and they should thank Congresswoman McCarthy, and all of those who are part of this GIVE Act and made it happen, because it stands for a very simple and elegant proposition and purpose, and that is that if Americans want to serve, they ought to be given that opportunity. The GIVE Act creates many different dimensions of service that Americans can pursue. I'm very proud to have worked closely with Congressman Phil Hare in introducing the Vet Corps component of this service corps. I want to thank Chairman Miller for working to include that in the final version of the bill. We owe so much to our veterans. We can never fully repay the debt that we owe them, but we can try. The way we can try is to create a service corps program like Vet Corps that is going to make sure that when veterans return from their service, we have an opportunity to serve them and that they in turn can serve the broader communities and serve other military families and other veterans. The statistics are alarming. The unemployment rate for returning veterans is as high as 18 percent. We can give them the training and the opportunity to become engaged and re-engaged in our communities through service corps programs like Vet Corps. I'm so very pleased that that is part of this opportunity here. I'd also like to say before I yield back that I enjoyed working with Congressman Jay Inslee on the Clean Energy Corps, which is going to provide opportunities for young people to get involved in improving energy efficiency and the green revolution.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Baltimore Reads--an organization that has worked tirelessly for the past 20 years to combat illiteracy. Their goal is to help participants gain the necessary skills for self-sufficiency, employment, and life-long learning in order to achieve economic and social empowerment. For 20 years, Baltimore Reads has been striving to meet these goals and, for many participants, has been a means to achieve them. Since 1992, Baltimore Reads has distributed more than one million books to schools and disadvantaged families. At the Ripken Adult Learning Center, their educational facility in downtown Baltimore, more than 325 students attend classes at proficiency levels ranging from non-readers to GED candidates. With their programs in high demand, they have plans to expand to more locations and add Internet classes. Today, thousands of Baltimoreans have the basic skills necessary to succeed in life because of Baltimore Reads' efforts. I strongly support Baltimore Reads' vision of a 100 percent literacy rate in Baltimore. I would like to take this opportunity to commend them on their work and wish them another 20 years of success.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Well, I thank the Representative from Florida for convening us to talk about this incredibly important stimulus package. The Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act is our opportunity to put America back to work in the short run and to invest in things that make sense in the long run, and I really look at that package through four different lenses. The first is that it's going to save jobs. It's going to save a tremendous number of jobs, just the State stabilization portion of this bill. What many people don't appreciate is that all across the country States right now are making their budgets. They are constitutionally obligated under their State charters to balance those budgets. If they don't get the assistance that is represented by this stimulus package, they're going to have to make Draconian cuts to their budgets. That means police officers losing their jobs, safety officers, fire officers and others, teachers. All the people that make the economy work, that make these States function are going to be potentially in jeopardy. So the first element of this that's so critical is that we're going to save hundreds of thousands of jobs across this country. The second lens to be applied is that we're going to create new jobs, and that's going to be done both directly and indirectly. Directly it's going to happen, for example, through these infrastructure projects. That is going to put a lot of people to work. It's going to create a lot of new jobs, and it's also going to invest in things that we need to be doing. We need to be repairing our bridges and our tunnels and our highways. We need to be improving mass transit. All of that can happen as a part of this stimulus package, but it's also going to create jobs indirectly because it's investing now in a green economy. It's investing in new energy technologies that are going to create the next generation of jobs in this country, and that can happen very quickly. So, again, it meets this prescription of having two impacts: one, to create jobs in the near term; two, to invest in things that we want to do anyway in this country. The third important element of this, of course, is to stimulate demand more broadly, and that can be done through the tax cut component of the bill. There is significant tax relief that is being offered to the working families of America. Ninety-five percent of the working families across this country are going to receive a tax cut. That means more money in their pocket. It means they can go out and they can purchase the things that they need, not purchase in excess which unfortunately was what has been happening in recent years, but to go out and purchase the things that they need and to stimulate the economy in that fashion. And the final piece of this, which in my mind is almost the most important, is that it's going to help people get through this very, very difficult economic period that we're in. We are facing a grave situation in this country, and there are many people that are living on the edge. There are many people that have fallen over the edge. This bill includes needed resources to support Medicaid programs across the country, to extend unemployment benefits and unemployment insurance to people who have lost their jobs. There are a lot of people that are suffering. There are a lot of families that are hurting right now across America, and one of the goals of this legislation is to help them get through this very difficult period. Yesterday, I was with Secretary Salazar, the new Secretary of the Department of the Interior. We did an event at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, which is located in my district in Maryland, to highlight the upgrading of facilities that can occur at that wildlife refuge in the near term using some of this stimulus resource. It's going to create jobs there. It's going to upgrade those facilities, which is a long- term investment in our wildlife refuge system across the country. So there are many different objectives that are being satisfied as a result of this investment. A hundred thousand jobs in Maryland are projected to be saved or created as a result of this legislation. That is too critical for me and the other Representatives of my State to look away from. That's why we're going to so strongly support this bill. And in closing, let me say that President Obama is not going to lead us out of this economic recession, and this Congress is not going to lead us out of this economic recession. What we are going to do is we are going to give the American people the tools and the opportunity and the hope so that they can lead us out of this economic recession. I am so confident that if we put our hopes and dreams into the American worker and we give them the tools to do the job, they're the ones that will lead us through this thing. And that's what this stimulus package is all about: giving the American worker the resources, the opportunity, the tools to lead us out of this difficult, difficult economic time.

Mr. SARBANES. I think I have about 45 seconds. I just wanted to say this. I have been here 3 years. I don't know how long my career in this body will be. None of us do. I am convinced that this is the most important vote I will ever cast on an economic measure that faces our country. And I will have to explain that vote for many years to come. And what I will say to people is, I did what I thought was right. And I think it is the right thing to do to pass this, for the American worker, for families across this country who are suffering, for people who just want a job so they can contribute. And that is why I am going to support the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network (CBGN), a program that connects those who live in the Bay watershed to the natural, cultural and historic resources of the Bay and thereby encourages individual stewardship of these resources. The legislation I am introducing today is identical to the bill that passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming and bipartisan vote of 321 to 86 during the 110th Congress. Unfortunately, we were not able to get the bill to the President's desk but I am hopeful that we will complete our work on this legislation during the 111th Congress. Since 2000, Gateways has grown to include more than 150 sites and over 1500 miles of established and developing water trails in six states and the District of Columbia. Through grants to parks, volunteer groups, wildlife refuges, historic sites, museums, and water trails, the Network ties these sites together to provide meaningful experiences and foster citizen stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay. Madam Speaker, for a very modest investment, the Gateways program helps foster the citizen stewardship that will be necessary to advance Bay cleanup and maintain the gains we hope to make in the coming years. By reauthorizing the Gateways program and providing access to the beautiful sites that make up the network, we can help develop the next generation of environmental stewards, which is one of the best ways to truly ``Save the Bay.'' I hope that my colleagues will support this legislation so the Park Service can continue to play a key role in the Bay cleanup effort.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to share the award winning entry from the Meritalk ``On the Record Inaugural Speech Contest.'' Meritalk is an online community that seeks to promote civic discussion and serve as the crossroads for IT and public policy. This contest challenged American authors to write a speech highlighting what they would like to hear from the President-elect on Inauguration day. This a wonderful example of how the Internet can help Americans become more aware of and involved in government. I would like to congratulate the winner, Ms. Katherine Grayson, on writing a very eloquent speech and I hope she remains engaged in the important issues facing our country. I'd also like to share her contest entry with you today. ``My fellow citizens of the world. I cannot greet you today using the phrase ``My fellow Americans,'' for though, assuredly, America is facing its greatest challenges in half a century, we now are part of a much vaster order with challenges that put even our own, here at home, into proper perspective. We stand at the precipice of a New Age; an age in which we clearheadedly acknowledge that the world has become a network as intricately intertwined as a web. In ways too numerous to count, we now are connected to one another across this land, across the seas, across the airwaves, across cyberspace. The era of rattling sabers at one another or constructing foreign policy as though we dwell inside fortresses, is long over. Our world today is indeed a complex and inexorably interwoven network of threads, and to survive and flourish within it, no successful international policy will ever again be identified as ``foreign.'' Once we only dreamt of such connectedness with the world; now we truly are a global network of nations, states, citizens, and the children everywhere who are our hope for the future. Yet by clinging to attitudes of the past, we have been slashing away at this fragile new mesh of mankind and weakening it, the world at large, and our own position in that world. Shall we continue to allow this planet to become a more and more dangerous place, with aggression, resentment, and even silence between countries expanding as rapidly as their arsenals do? Or shall we at last--and with the determination of what has long been the greatest nation on this Earth--seek to strengthen the ties between the world's nations, and help to construct, finally, a lasting fabric of world peace and understanding? All of you who hear me today, wherever you may be, must be partners in this quest to make the world a refuge for all. We are now inextricably tied to one another, wherever we are, and rather than curse the condition of our connectedness, we must protect that connectedness at all cost. Now we are partners in the mission to end the scourge of terrorism and the outrageous inequities of life that feed it: poverty, powerlessness, the daily struggle to survive. It is just too easy for us to think of ourselves as separate ``constituencies'' of the world, nameless people lost in faceless masses hoping to be served by their leadership. From today, henceforth, we are partners in the mandate to make the world a much less dangerous place; to bring a New Age of peace and understanding to our fellow men and women, wherever they may reside on our planet. We are partners in the challenge to bring the peoples of the world together, rather than shut them out through our fear and our ignorance. These are no small challenges. But neither are they dreams. How shall we set about to change the world as it must change, if we are to endure in the decades and centuries to come? First, by re-forging and strengthening the fabric of our lives here at home. To put it plainly, right now we are no example for the other nations of the world. Through a long series of misjudgments and missteps, wrongheaded international decisions and self-interested actions here at home, our nation has come to forfeit that position and that privilege. We must face the fact that we have lost our way; that in the cycles of history, we have suffered a downward turn. Clearly, our economy--once the envy of the world--is in trouble. We must confront this truth head-on. And while quick fixes and mammoth infusions of capital are bandaids designed to temporarily stabilize floundering financial vessels like Fannie Mae and AIG, as in most critical financial downturns we need to look to the core of these very serious problems and re-examine, re-tool, and rebuild the fundamentals of our economic structure, if necessary. And I strongly believe it is necessary. Yet what are the fundamentals of that system? They are capitalistic, to be sure. But that term, capitalism--which once had the sweet ring of democracy to it--has come to take on a sour taste indeed. Since when do the tenets of capitalism dictate that company CEOs can become robber barons? Where is it written that employees can lose their pensions to the senior management of the corporations they have dutifully served for decades? Which principles decreed that hardworking, law-abiding folks should lose their homes and life savings because the mortgages they took out were based upon Wall Street hocus- pocus of which they could have no knowledge or understanding whatsoever? Why does capitalism preclude a government's ability to ensure that all citizens are provided adequate health care and social security so that they neither succumb to illness nor die homeless on the street? And which founding father (who had himself fled from the tyranny of taxation without representation) declared that the best way to build a financially able and resilient society was to tax the working backbone of the nation until it collapsed under the weight of those taxes--all the while giving tax cuts and breaks to the wealthiest citizens, corporations, and conglomerates? No nation on Earth has ever flourished for any length of time by bleeding the lifeforce of its own inception. We should know this; our nation was born out of rebellion against such tyranny; we have supported other nations of the world in their quests for similar freedoms; we have railed against such injustices thrust upon other peoples of the world. We must return--with haste and urgency--to those principles we have fought and died for, and which we know to be just, fair, and right. We must return--without a moment's hesitation--to those principles, which we know from centuries of proof, build a strong nation of happy, prosperous, contributing citizens; that backbone that is the framework upon which any free and thriving nation must be built. I have not been brought to this moment today, here at this podium before you, to tell you this because I believe it is what you want to hear. I am here today, telling you this, because on November 4th, you knew in your hearts that a swift, decisive return to the principles of America for all its citizens--not an America for only the wealthiest citizens--is the way to rebuild our nation, and to begin to rebuild our relationships with the other nations of the world. Let this be the moment in history when the phrase, ``The Rich and Powerful'' is relegated to its proper, smaller place in the world scheme, and the phrase ``Power to the People'' returns to its rightful position, above all else. For it was not until the people took back their power through a fair and just democratic process--as you did this past November--that ``power'' in this country could regain perspective at last. In the world today, ``power'' simply cannot denote the right of some to profit at the expense of others. ``Power'' must stand for the ability to make change happen for the long-term health and survival of our nation, and as a model for making change happen for the health and survival of our planet and the nations of our world. We know that it was the driving need for change that brought us here today. I did not spend these past two years chanting ``Change!'' because I thought it was the best way to get elected. I have fought for that change and will continue to fight for it because only through fearless, courageous, unmitigated change can we right our foundering ship quickly, decisively, with long-lasting results that must not be delayed. There is not one moment to waste. The need is critical, pervasive, and non-partisan, and we cannot tolerate time spent for political parties to bicker or equivocate. You are the partners in this change. This is not Congress's change; it is yours, and your voices must be heard. My question to you is: How quickly do you need this change? How quickly--and most importantly, how effectively, for lasting benefit--do you want your jobs, homes, livelihoods restored? How quickly and solidly do you want the United States of America to be respected in the world theater once more? How soon do you want your sons and daughters to return from wars which should never have been waged? How rapidly do you want the fear between nations to de-escalate, and fear of terrorism and nuclear arms buildups to dissipate? How soon do you want to fling wide the doors of misunderstanding between cultures that fear each other, and let in the fresh clean air of tolerance and acceptance? In what timeframe do you want to see the nations of the world cooperate with each other for mutual benefit, and thus remove the very need for state-driven or state-supported terrorism? And when is it that you would you like to see our planet's environment begin to recover from the ravages and ills which now place it in peril of ecological collapse? I ask you now: Which day do you want to be a safer day for your children? The tomorrow after tomorrow? Well, I have children too, and I need that day to be today. So, today is the day that--together--we will set about to change our world. And though we will begin here at home at once, we will aggressively and immediately pursue our new international initiatives simultaneously. These next 100 days may be dizzying for Congress here on Capitol Hill, but we will expect nothing less from its members than their full and intensive attention to every new idea, every new plan, every new proposal put before them. I promise you that I will compel democrats and republicans to work together with me, hand in hand, with blind eyes to red or blue, and eyes only on the target ahead. I promise you that we will use our new connectedness with each other and the world, in ways that have never been seen before, to make change happen. And we will not rest until we make serious, impactful, and lasting headway. I call upon you--not just the people of America, but the peoples of the world--to make your voices heard; to see these needs are met; to convey your sense of urgency for the triumph of our country, our world, this beloved planet. This time, broad, bold, far-reaching measures are needed, and we will not be held at bay by the petty prevarication or self-interest of the few, or by the endless squabbling over minutiae-- not when there is so much, and the lives of so very many, at stake. Tomorrow I lead the charge, full-throttle toward our next decade in this Brave New Age. But it is together that we will make it reality. Let no man or woman on Earth stand up before us and say it cannot be done. Yes, it can.''

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge Lieutenant Joe Ross of the Howard County Department of Fire & Rescue Services, who has recently received two distinct honors. Lieutenant Ross has been named Howard County's 2008 Employee of the Year as well as Career Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Provider of the Year by the American Legion--Department of Maryland. It is right to take time in the Congress to thank someone for a job well done. Today we pause to recognize a man who goes above and beyond the call of duty. Lieutenant Ross has worked as a medical professional with Howard County Fire and Rescue for almost 10 years. Before that time he worked for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department and served in the United States Navy. Ross currently serves as an instructor of advanced cardiac life support and pediatric advanced life support at the James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center, training not only his peers, but also nurses and doctors from area hospitals. His fellow citizens have recognized the value of his work to Howard County and the quality, skill and dedication that he brings to his work every day. Madam Speaker, Lieutenant Ross's contributions to our community deserve our recognition and we in Maryland thank him for his service.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. May I inquire as to whether the other side has any more speakers?

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with the gentlewoman that I am and I know my party is pro-American energy. In fact, the more I listen to testimony on the other side, the more convinced I am that this legislation that we're debating right now is exactly what we need to make sure that the advances with respect to energy technology are there. With respect to education stakeholders and their view of No Child Left Inside, this is a list of over 700 organizations nationally representing 40 million members. Many of these organizations are education organizations who understand how important it is for our young people to get this sort of opportunity. We can all agree, Democrats and Republicans, in this debate that we've been having over energy for the last few weeks and months that it's important for us to develop alternative sources of energy, renewable sources of energy. To do that, of course, we're going to need the scientists and the entrepreneurs who can make it happen, and they are not going to land on a spaceship from outer space. We are going to have to develop them right here, and the next generation is where we are going to find those scientists and those entrepreneurs that are going to make those sort of advances. But they are not going to be able to do it if we don't put the resources behind the kind of environmental education that this will provide. And then just the last point I wanted to make is, yes, there are field trips that will be funded by this, but a lot of what this has to do is getting kids outside, and you don't have to take a bus from inside of the classroom to outside of a classroom. You can walk. And a lot of these young students are doing things right there in their own backyard, right there around their school, right there in a stream that's a quarter mile away, and they can use the walk. The idea is to get them outside and experiencing the environment. It is my pleasure now to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke), a member of the Education and Labor Committee and someone who brought a very important amendment regarding environmental justice to this bill in the committee.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. SARBANES. Just to reiterate, Mr. Speaker, I oppose this motion vehemently. This bill will provide so many benefits to the next generation, public health benefits by getting our kids outside and into nature and active, economic development benefits because we're going to be educating the next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs that are going to make the difference when it comes to pursuing alternative sources of fuel and renewable sources of fuel. It will engage kids in learning, activate all their senses. And finally, finally, it's going to raise awareness about the environment. The only way we're going to save our environment, save treasures like the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland is if millions of people develop good habits when it comes to the environment. Our children are the ones that are going to do it, but they can only do it if we provide them with this educational support. I urge my colleagues to vote against the motion to recommit. I yield back.

Mr. SARBANES. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, there are two ways to effectively kill a bill. One is to make a motion ``promptly,'' which would send it back to committee. That is not what has happened here. This is a ``forthwith'' motion which brings it right back with the instructions that have been put on it. But the other way to kill a bill is to put instructions on it that essentially gut it and completely undermine what it is supposed to do, and that is the nature of this particular motion to recommit. I object to it on a number of grounds. First of all, the provision relating to priority with respect to LEAs, there are a number of eligible entities under this bill that can participate in the competitive grant process, local education agencies, State educational agencies, higher education institutions, nonprofits and so forth. They all should be part of the same competitive bidding process to get these dollars to try to fund environmental education. Secondly, I object because this second provision that has to do with lobbying in fact will end up having the effect that some of the very organizations that are in the best position to provide good strong environmental education to the next generation will be prohibited from delivering. And as far as that goes, it means that A and B are internally inconsistent because A would give a priority to the very kind of organization that B seeks to prevent from getting these funds. So it doesn't make sense on its face. So I would urge very strongly that my colleagues oppose the motion to recommit forthwith. This is a good bill. It is an important bill. You don't have to take my word for it. There are 750 organizations across the country that are part of the No Child Left Inside Coalition. This is made up of public health advocates, sportsmen, environmentalists, educators, all recognizing the need to provide this critical education to the next generation.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Chairman, again, I would urge the passage of this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SARBANES. Does the gentleman have any additional speakers? I'm prepared to yield back, and I would reserve the right to close.

Mr. SARBANES. Madam Chairman, this amendment would seek to strengthen and improve the legislation in a number of ways. First, it clarifies that funds that are issued under the National Capacity Environmental Education Grant Program, which is the new program that's being created here under the U.S. Department of Education, that those funds can be used to address environmental justice issues that may arise in low-income communities. We heard earlier from Representative Clarke of New York, who has made this issue a passion of hers and introduced the underlying amendment in the mark-up at the committee level. This is an important additional element for the bill. Secondly, the amendment clarifies that funds used to develop and implement new policy approaches to environmental education will include a discussion of the benefits and the costs to the environment and to consumers with respect to increasing the supply of energy produced in the United States from a variety of sources. This is, again, an important amendment. It signals, I think, that good quality environmental education--almost by definition--is going to focus the next generation on dealing with these very challenging issues and what the proper balance needs to be between developing our energy sources and conservation and other environmental issues, which is, frankly, at the heart of much of the debate that we're having these days. So this is also, I think, an important addition to the bill. And thirdly, the amendment that we are proposing here provides that the policy approaches developed under this bill must also include a discussion of the best strategies for reducing energy consumption. Again, any meaningful environmental education should include looking at all of these various policy approaches. With that, Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 3036.

Mr. SARBANES

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to rise today to speak in support of the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008 which I was privileged to sponsor and which really, I think, sets a new foundation for focus on environmental education in this country as we move forward at a critical time in our Nation's history. Before I speak to the merits, I want to make sure that I thank Chairman George Miller, chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, for his strong support of the No Child Left Inside Act and for being a champion throughout his career for environmental education. His involvement in this bill and his strong support signals that we are setting a foundation today to make sure that when it comes time to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act next year that environmental education will be a critical and important component of that reauthorization. I also want to thank Chairman Dale Kildee, chairman of the subcommittee that had jurisdiction over the No Child Left Inside Act, as well as Chairwoman McCarthy whose committee has jurisdiction with respect to the National Environmental Education Act which this extends. We persuaded Chairman Kildee to conduct a field hearing in Maryland at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, and we did it outdoors. I am not sure that he had done that before, but it went off beautifully. We got very, very powerful testimony from children and parents, teachers and environmentalists and other advocates for this legislation. I want to salute the coalition, the No Child Left Inside Act Coalition, which consists at last count of more than 700 organizations across the country, national organizations, regional organizations, and local organizations who came together to support this important piece of legislation representing over 40 million members in these organizations. That coalition, and this gives you a sense of what this legislation means, that coalition included public health advocates, environmentalists, educators, sportsmen, zoos, parks and other outdoor education centers, faith-based organizations, as well as businesses. I want to give some special recognition to my home State of Maryland and their role in leading and helping organize this coalition and to the Governor of Maryland, Governor O'Malley, and the Secretary of Education, Nancy Grasmick, for also stepping up and doing at the State level what we are trying to effect across the country. Finally, I have to salute the children and parents who came to the rallies and to the hearings that we have conducted on No Child Left Inside Act over the last year because it was in the eyes of those children, in their whole body language and the enthusiasm and excitement they had when they were outdoors participating in these environmental activities. That was reason enough for us to be steadfast in supporting this legislation and moving it forward. And of course, the many parents who I think look at the fact that their children are spending so much time indoors on television, the Internet, video games, and remember a time when they used to play outside and want to get their kids back out and into nature. Let me just briefly address the contents of No Child Left Inside, what it seeks to do. It is an extension of the National Environmental Education Act, and it has a number of key components. The first is to enhance the teacher training programs and teacher development programs that have existed and been overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency. We've enhanced them in this bill so that there's more of a focus on training teachers on how to deliver environmental education at the school level. We've enhanced it by putting in new provisions to recruit teachers, particularly in underserved areas to enter the field of environmental education. In addition, this bill establishes, or asks, rather, that States across the country develop environmental literacy plans, in other words, a framework on how that State is going to make sure that when children graduate from high school, they have a fundamental awareness of the environment and the need to preserve our environment. Lastly, and I think in some ways most importantly, this creates a new grant program, a National Capacity Environmental Education grant program which will allow local and State education associations, institutions of higher education and nonprofits, to apply competitively for grants that would fund a variety of environmental education initiatives, including developing new policy approaches to environmental education, developing curriculum framework, academic content standards and achievement standards focused on environmental education, and replicating and distributing information about tested and model programs that get children into nature and really have them experiencing the environment. I'm so very pleased because I think this legislation reflects the commitment in this body, in this House of Representatives, in the people's House, but it also reflects the commitment that exists across our Nation today to environmental education and to the importance of focusing on the environment and getting our children out and into nature. There's many, many benefits of this legislation and the programs that it will fund. I will turn to those shortly, Mr. Chairman. For the moment, I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Chairman, I just want to point out that one of the things that is so exciting about this bill and the advancing of environmental education that it represents, and we heard this in some of the hearings we conducted, is you're going to get young people very interested in the environment from the standpoint of what business opportunities, economic opportunities exist. And some of these folks are going to go out and come up with cutting-edge ideas in terms of energy, new energy technologies and so forth. In fact, we heard from one young man who testified that when his interest in environmental education developed, he took that and he channeled it into his own start-up business which is looking at biofuels. And so I expect to come from this sort of legislation which gets our kids focused more on environmental education all sorts of new economic opportunities and things that advance us when it comes to energy. Before I yield, I just want to make one other point. This legislation, in my view, is really responding to initiative and creativity that is coming forth from the citizenry all across this country. Many communities and schools have, on their own, sort of stepped forward and started to pilot things in the environmental education arena. But they need some help. They need some resources to jump that up to the next level. I view as a very appropriate role of government to step forward and offer some leverage and help facilitate good ideas when they emerge from the public. It's been 27 years since the U.S. Department of Education had a meaningful role with respect to environmental education. This bill will make sure that that happens, and that's one of the reasons we're so excited about it. At this time I would like to yield, Mr. Chairman, 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), a member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Chairman, I do want to thank Ranking Member McKeon and Congressman Castle for their support here today for the bill, as well as in committee, and thank Representative Castle for his very helpful amendment during the markup. Ms. Woolsey just a moment before mentioned just how this brings children alive, and I want to make one point before I yield to Representative Andrews. That is, we had testimony in our hearings for all those who are concerned about this, you know, whether introducing in a meaningful way back into our curriculum things like environmental education and other subjects are somehow going to detract from this important focus on math and reading proficiency, for example. The testimony that we had from one teacher was that her fourth graders are writing grant applications to local foundations for funding that can help support local projects that they're involved in with their local watershed right there in their own backyard, backyard streams and so forth. And nothing is enhancing their reading and verbal proficiency more than engaging in that exercise. But it's all motivated by their love of the environment. It is my pleasure now to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews). (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)