Dave Weldon

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 1753.

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1753) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 419 Rutherford Avenue, N.E., in Roanoke, Virginia, as the ``M. Caldwell Butler Post Office Building''.

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1753, introduced by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) on May 8, 2001, designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 419 Rutherford Avenue in Roanoke, Virginia, as the M. Caldwell Butler Post Office Building. Pursuant to the policy of the Committee on Government Reform, all Members of the House delegation of the Commonwealth of Virginia are cosponsors of this measure. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to pay tribute to a former Member of this institution, M. Caldwell Butler. Like many young men of his generation, Mr. Butler served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II. After completing his military service, Mr. Butler graduated from the University of Richmond and later received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He began his career in public service in the Virginia House of Delegates, serving from 1962 until 1972, where he served as minority leader. Mr. Butler was subsequently elected to the United States Congress in 1972, where he served the people of the Sixth District of Virginia for 10 years. Mr. Butler was a member of both the Judiciary and the Government Operations Committees during his time in the House. After retiring from Congress, Mr. Butler continued in his service to country and community by serving as a member of the board of directors of the John Marshall Foundation and on the board of trustees of the Virginia Historical Society. Mr. Speaker, it is a fitting tribute to name a post office in Roanoke, Virginia, after the distinguished gentleman who represented that city and who selflessly served the interests of his constituents in both the State house and in Congress for so many years. I urge our colleagues to support this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying bill. I just want to say a few numbers loud and clear for everyone to hear. Over 2 million people are dead. Over 4 million people have been displaced. Mr. Speaker, these are not just numbers. These are individuals. These are people: women, children, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. We hear these numbers from far away, from Africa here in Washington; and for too long the plight of these oppressed people in the Sudan has just been ignored. It is imperative that we recognize the total devastation that has been going on and that we take serious action against these oppressors. This is a civil war in the Sudan that has been going on for 14 years and wreaking devastation on the Sudanese people. The National Islamic Front government of the Sudan has been on a rampant campaign against its own people. The Sudan Islamic fundamentalist regime has brought killings, evictions, and slavery to its own people. The regime is on a deliberate campaign of genocide against the black Christians and other non-Islamic people in southern Sudan. Eyewitnesses have testified over and over again before Congress about the Sudanese government's active efforts to promote slavery, torture, rape, mutilation, and killing. Mr. Speaker, myself and other House Members have been taking action to bring this genocide into the limelight and focusing our efforts on stopping this brutality. H.R. 2052 is a good bipartisan measure that will facilitate famine relief efforts and a comprehensive solution to the war in the Sudan. Mr. Speaker, although the Islamic government has claimed that they will end the bombing of civilian targets, as was previously stated by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the evidence is directly in conflict with that claim. The impending famine in the south and the improved military technology of the government threaten millions more of these poor, defenseless civilians in southern Sudan. Mr. Speaker, we need this bill, and I encourage all my colleagues to vote for the rule and to vote in support of the underlying bill. Most importantly, I encourage my colleagues to continue their engagement on this issue. To simply vote for this bill and forget about the problem is not doing enough. We must remain engaged.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is the only provision that would offer hope to low-income children trapped in failing schools. The underlying bill will provide, in my opinion, only marginal improvement, if any, to public education. Public schools are a monopoly, and they face little to no consequences for failure. If I brought a bill to this floor proposing we put restaurants and supermarkets in the control of the government, nobody would support it, because everybody knows quality would go down. We have a serious quality problem in the public education system in many of our poor neighborhoods and inner cities, and we are going to just throw a little bit more money at it; a little bit of competition would go much, much further to help the problem. We have seen what happened in Florida with Governor Jeb Bush's A+ program. We need to have it throughout our own whole country. It is the best hope for poor families trapped in failing school systems. It is not a little more testing, a little more money.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in recognizing and paying tribute to the achievements of those involved in electronic technology as part of our nation's space program from 1950 to 1969. As was originally stated in President John F. Kennedy's ``Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs,'' delivered on May 25, 1961, our space program was an effort of monumental proportions in terms of scientific advancement, financial commitment, individual dedication, as well as personal and organizational sacrifice. The dividend of the efforts represented by this IEEE Milestone designation and other honors is the peace, without nuclear confrontation, which our nation and others throughout the world have been so blessed to have experienced. As this is the 37th IEEE Milestone designation in the world, and the only one to recognize the United States space program, we applaud the advances in electrical and electronics engineering which this international honor represents. The citation for the Milestone plaque is as follows: Electronic Technology for Space Rocket Launches, 1950-1969 ``The demonstrated success in space flight is the result of electronic technology developed at Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center, and other sites, and applied here. A wide variety of advances in radar tracking, data telemetry, instrumentation, space-to-gound communications, on-board guidance, and real-time computation were employed to support the U.S. space program. These and other electronic developments provided the infrastructure necessary for the successful landing of men on the moon in July 1969 and their safe return to earth.'' I urge all of my colleagues to join with me as we celebrate this IEEE Milestone which recognizes the men and women of our nation's space program.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to be able to rise today and speak in support of our Nation's manned space flight program. Most Americans are aware of the tremendous work that is done on a daily basis by the men and women who work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Many of the contractors and educators that are involved, and the people who are working in the program today, are some of the same people who have been involved with it for many years or they stand on the shoulders of those who began in the early days of the program, from Mercury to Gemini, Apollo to Sky Lab, the Shuttle program, and now the new International Space Station currently orbiting the Earth today with a crew of three, hopefully someday soon to be able to grow to a crew of six. The space program, in many ways, has been emblematic in the United States of the technological prowess and our expertise in science; but it is more than that I think for America's culture. I think burning in the heart of every American is the pioneer spirit, the pioneer spirit that settled this Nation, the pioneer spirit that caused many of our ancestors to come to the United States to try to carve out a better way of life. But I really think it is something that burns in the hearts and minds of all human beings everywhere; to explore the unknown or to go to a new place. And while there are many places on this planet we call our home, planet Earth, that remain to be explored, areas like Antarctica and the bottoms of our oceans, truly the realm of outerspace is the limitless area of exploration. In many ways today we are in our first baby steps in these programs, like the space station program, where we are just learning the basics of how to live and do business and to operate in the environment of space. I think it is something that we must do and we must continue to do. I believe that were we, as Americans, to abandon our space program, to abandon manned space flight would be to turn our back on the very essence of what makes us Americans and our desire to research the unknown and discover new places. I talk to teachers all over this country; and they tell me over and over again, when they are dealing with their students and they are trying to motivate them and encourage them to study areas of math and science, and I think my colleague from Texas, who was a teacher, will speak later and verify this from his own experience as a teacher, there is nothing that excites our kids more to study in these critical areas of math and science than our space program. This is an area where the United States needs to be doing more. When I travel around my congressional district, the Space Coast of Florida, the Treasure Coast, I hear over and over again from businessmen, people who are trying to start new companies, that one of the most difficult things they face is to find people who are properly trained in engineering or sciences; that we are just not turning out enough of them. So it is critical that we keep our young people motivated. And the teachers all over America tell us that one of the things that motivates them the most to studying in the realm of the math and science fields is the space program. They tell me that they can actually take the material that they are being taught in the classroom and apply that to how we go about the process of exploring space and living in space; and, furthermore, that that in turn can help us raise up a new generation of scientists and engineers that will help us to explore the unknown. Finally, let me additionally say another good reason we need to be in space is just the whole realm of spinoffs. Most Americans are not familiar with the fact that much of the technology involving pacemakers and prosthetic devices, like prosthetic hips, the material science involved in that are direct spinoffs from our space program. Indeed, there is a company in my congressional district that is developing a product that could cause every air-conditioning unit in the United States to run 15 percent more efficiently, which is a direct spinoff from our space program. I have actually been told if this product proves to be as successful as it is anticipated to be that that improvement in efficiency in the air-conditioning units in homes and businesses all across America would more than save enough money to pay for our entire space program, from its very beginnings from the early days of Mercury right through to the present. So there is a lot going on in space, there is a lot of future there, and I believe every American supports what our men and women are doing in the space program. I rise today to congratulate all those working in this field and encourage all of my colleagues in the House to continue to support our manned space flight program.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Hyde amendment. I would encourage all of my colleagues who support the right-to-life and who also are opposed to Federal funding for abortion to support the Hyde amendment, to support the Hyde language. As most people know, I practiced medicine for many years before I came to the U.S. Congress. Though I never performed abortions, I did have the opportunity to witness abortions being performed in my medical training. While I know some people who defend the right to abortion do so more or less seeing it as the better of two evils, protecting the right of the woman for reproductive autonomy versus the right to life, there is no question if you ever actually go into the operating suite and actually see an abortion being performed, really in any of the techniques that are used, that it is extreme violence against an unborn baby. It is brutal, it is most certainly very painful. The anatomical data, the embryology, what we know about the fetus in the womb based upon our understanding of what we see using ultrasound, ultrasonic techniques, I just spoke to a radiologist recently in my district who described to me how you can clearly see when you do amniocentesis and some of these other procedures in the womb, you can see these babies reacting. This is clearly, I think for me personally, a no-brainer. Keeping in mind that there are millions of Americans who are pro-life, should we be using taxpayer dollars to go to these international family planning organizations who perform abortions? Now, they will tell us, and we are going to hear it on the floor today, oh, they use the American money, the Federal money, for fax machines and IUDs and other contraceptive purposes, and use this other money. As we all know, money is fungible, you can move it around. I think this is a very, very good amendment. It is a very, very well thought out amendment; and I would highly encourage all of my colleagues, this is very, very consistent with our long-established policy in not funding abortions. We should not be funding abortions overseas. Furthermore, these organizations use their money to lobby foreign countries to repeal their pro-life laws. Should American taxpayer dollars be used for something like that? I say no. Support the Hyde language. Support the President of the United States.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Chairman, today I rise in strong support of the amendment offered by my colleague, Majority Whip Tom DeLay. This amendment to H.R. 1646, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act is important if we are to overturn a last minute act by the previous Administration. By signing the U.S. onto the International Criminal Court just a few hours before leaving office, Mr. Clinton chose to subject U.S. troops and our military actions to second guessing by international judicial bureaucrats appointed by an international body. Mr. DeLay's amendment provides legal protections to ensure that American citizens, especially U.S. military personnel, are not prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for actions undertaken by them on behalf of the U.S. government. This amendment prohibits (1) U.S. cooperation with the Court except to free American citizens or those of our allies; and (2) providing classified information to the court. In addition, it requires that countries receiving U.S. military assistance (other than NATO, non-NATO allies and Taiwan) must exempt Americans from prosecution or arrest by the court on their soil. Finally, it requires that the U.N. Security Council exempt American military personnel engaged in assessed U.N. peacekeeping operations from prosecution by the Court. A brief look at recent actions by the United Nations demonstrates how foolish it would be to sign up to this treaty. The United Nations just recently removed the United States from the Human Rights Commission, and placed on the commission Cuba, China and Sudan. Cuba is run by a dictator who has no regard to human rights and imprisons people at his will. China oppresses religious freedom and detains individuals without due process. And, the government of Sudan has killed 2 million Christians over the past few years. Sudan also still engages in slavery. Those who are arguing that the United States should sign up to a treaty that allows these nation's to put American citizens and service members on trial, are putting these brave men and women in jeopardy. The United Nations conference ignored U.S. objections and endorsed a plan for establishing a permanent international criminal court. the American representatives at the negotiations on this treaty, under pressure from the Republicans in Congress, sought to obtain a guarantee that U.S. military service personnel and agents could never be held liable to this court. This was rejected. This represents a dangerous potential for usurping national autonomy, and I will continue to work to see that this proposal is fully rejected. Our Founding Fathers warned us about foreign entanglements. Certainly, ceding national autonomy falls into this category. I will continue to oppose any effort to permit the U.S. to join this ``court.'' I am pleased that President bush has expressed his objections, and the U.S. Senate has made it clear that it would reject this treaty. Mr. DeLay's amendment will be an important step in stopping this problematic agreement.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 10. As a proud cosponsor of this bill I am pleased that we are moving forward with this legislation at the outset of the 107th Congress. Last year this bill received overwhelming support in the House and Senate. We now have a President, George W. Bush, who indicated his support of the bill and his willingness to sign it into law. It is critical that we do all that we can to help Americans better prepare for their retirement. H.R. 10 makes it easier for small businesses to offer retirement plans, allows workers to save more of their income for retirement. It makes it easier for an increasingly mobile workforce to carry their retirement benefits from one job to another, makes pensions more secure, and cuts the red tape that has hamstrung employers who want to establish pension plans for their employees. With regard to individual retirement accounts (IRAs), the bill increases that annual contribution limit from $2,000 to $3,000 in 2002, $4,000 in 2003 and $5,000 by 2004. Thereafter, the contribution limit is indexed for inflation. The current $2,000 limit has not been increased since 1981. Additionally, taxpayers that are over 50 years of age are allowed to contribute up to $5,000 a year beginning immediately in 2002, allowing these older Americans to make ``catch up'' contributions for retirement. This bill includes over 50 provisions to improve the retirement security of American workers. I am pleased that this bill enjoys broad bipartisan support, and I look forward to its passage.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the issue of human cloning. What would it be like if we had five Michael Jordans to suit up an entire team? Or what if there were two of you to accomplish more in a 24-hour day? The prospect of human cloning has been the stuff of science fiction novels for years. However, on February 27, 1997, Ian Wilmut from the Roslin Institute in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep, a feat which has triggered international debate on the issue of human cloning. Since that time, scientists have cloned mice, cows and pigs. Richard Seed announced he would clone a human being. President Clinton called for a 5-year moratorium on human cloning and advised the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to review human cloning. They recommended that cloning humans for reproductive purposes is unsafe and unethical. I would certainly agree. If you speak to Dr. Wilmut, he will tell you that they had something on the order of 230 or more attempts to produce Dolly, with most of those attempts ending in miscarriage, but many, many of them resulting in the birth of sheep with very, very severe birth defects. To even consider doing such a procedure for the purpose of creating a human being is immoral and unethical in the worst possible way. However, cloning technology is available that could allow biotechnology companies and researchers to produce human embryos in the lab. This issue of cloning human embryos, I must stress, is not an issue of fetal tissue research or an issue of stem cell research. It is an issue of cloning human embryos. This year, Panos Zavos of the University of Kentucky and his Italian colleague, Severino Antinori, have begun the work of creating a global consortium for the purpose of producing a human clone. Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, the Director of Clonaid, which has part of the Raelian extraterrestrial movement attached to it, has stated that they have already been offered substantial sums of money to begin the process of working on developing children through the process of human cloning. I believe the time now is right and the time is ripe for the Congress of the United States to act, and that is why I have introduced legislation today that would make human reproductive cloning, as well as embryonic cloning, illegal in the United States of America. Now, I want to stress that some people who favor embryonic cloning like to refer to this as therapeutic cloning. Indeed, this term has already been established in the press. I have had two reporters bring this issue up. Therapy implies that there is some sort of useful purpose for these embryonic clones. I would assert that if you look at the medical literature, there is no defined therapeutic purpose for cloning human embryos today in science. Therefore, this term is a misnomer. The proper term is destructive cloning, or embryonic cloning, the cloning of a human embryo, the cloning of a human embryo for the purpose of just merely doing research on it and then further to proceed to just simply destroying it, or destructive cloning. I think this process displays a profound disrespect for human life, and it needs to be made illegal in the United States of America. Many countries in Europe have already taken action on this issue and have made human cloning illegal. This is what my bill attempts to do. The bill has been introduced in the Senate as well by the Senator from Kansas, Sam Brownback. I would encourage all of my colleagues to consider seriously getting much more well informed on this issue and signing on to my legislation. It is timely. It is right. We need to do it.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield for a question?

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker why is the Rangel bill not indexed for inflation?

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, my concern is if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not eliminate the death tax, that this is just going to be another problem in 10 years; that is all.

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this substitute and in strong support of the underlying bill. Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you about a family in my congressional district in Kissimmee, the Sextons. They had a floral shop. Their uncle had a busy floral shop. He passed away and willed his shop to them. They had 17 employees, and the IRS came calling. They sold off as many assets as they could, but ultimately they had to take out a bank loan of $100,000 to pay off the IRS. What did they do to handle that? They had 17 employees, they laid off 5 permanently. They went to the 12 remaining employees and said, you will have to take up the slack for the other five employees that have left, which those 12 people did do. Then they completely ended all of their programs of donating money to local charities in the community. With that, they have been able to get through. Now, the substitute, I will point out, might provide some more immediate relief, but in 10 years with inflation, we are going to be back where we are today. This is a very punitive tax, the inheritance tax. It is morally wrong to tax somebody at death after they have paid taxes their whole lifetime. The money in those estates has been generated after tax, and it is a double taxation at the time of death, and that is morally wrong. It costs jobs. It costs jobs in Kissimmee, Florida. It causes ranches and family farms to be cut up and sold off for development. That is why we have the environmentalists supporting our bill. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote no on the substitute, and vote for the underlying bill.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to salute Scott Guidry of Satellite Beach. He is a constituent of mine who is being held in China against his will. The EP-3 military aircraft is sovereign U.S. territory. Under the 1944 Chicago Convention signed by China, that is considered sovereign U.S. territory and should be returned to the United States. China has chosen to ignore that agreement, along with many others over the years. I would encourage every American who is going to go shopping over the next few days to look at the labels on the products they are going to purchase and see if it is made in the U.S.A. or it is made in China. I would encourage every American to stand in solidarity with all those servicemen being held against their will and send a message to our friends in China that they are doing something they should not be doing. We certainly join with all the families of all those airmen, naval officers, naval enlisted, who are being held overseas with our thoughts and prayers that we are with them. It is time that they be sent back.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill before us. It is immoral to tax marriage, but that is what our current tax law does. Americans should not be forced to pay higher taxes just because they get married. For years the Republican lead Congress has struggled to repeal this immoral tax. Unfortunately, President Clinton would not allow us to repeal this tax. I am pleased that President Bush has proposed and pledged to sign into law, legislation to repeal this tax. Some in Washington believe that the federal government is entitled to this money. I disagree. Every dollar that comes into Washington comes out of someone's pocket. This bill recognizes this and focuses on getting rid of this tax that unfairly penalizes one segment of the American people--those who get married. This bill will provide marriage tax relief to 53,000 couples in my Congressional District. The bill before us also doubles the child tax credit to let parents keep more of what they earn. It is expensive raising children today. Unfortunately, the child deduction in the tax code has not kept pace with inflation. Today this deduction amounts to less than half of what it would be if it had kept pace with inflation since the 1950s. We begin to further address this erosion, by doubling the per child tax credit from $500 to $1,000. This will provide tax relief to the parents of 84,000 children in my Congressional District.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to have one of my constituents, the Reverend Willie Lockett, helping us this morning by offering today's morning prayer. The Reverend Lockett holds degrees from the University of Illinois, Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and the Interdenominational Theological Center. In addition to being a learned minister, he is truly a man of all seasons. He has been a teacher, a salesman, a civil servant, and most importantly a pastor. He is a leader in our community in helping organizations like the United Negro College Fund, the NAACP, the American Heart Association, South Brevard Sharing Center, and South Brevard Habitat for Humanity. He also has a long history of working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Dr. King from 1955 through 1975. His ministry over 36 years is a testament to the power of faith and commitment to one's God and community. I thank the Reverend for his service to us today and for over three decades of service to our community and to our Nation.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today, I am pleased to join Representative Jerrold Nadler and several other Members of Congress in introducing Vaccine Injured Children's Compensation Act of 2001 (VICCA). Over the past year, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has been subject to several congressional hearings. I have met with parents, doctors, and attorneys who have been involved in the current program seeking compensation for injuries that resulted from vaccines. Serious vaccine injuries are, thankfully, very rare. However, some children suffer serious adverse reactions to vaccines. In a small number of cases these are very debilitating reactions. We must work aggressively to understand why some children suffer adverse reactions so that we may develop precautionary measures to reduce adverse reactions. I am a strong proponent of vaccination. I believe it is important that children be vaccinated against these devastating diseases. Widespread vaccination has and will continue to spare our nation from the scourge of epidemics. Our nation benefits from widespread vaccination. Those of us who are healthy are the beneficiaries of national vaccination efforts. As such, I believe very strongly that we as a nation have an obligation to meet the needs of those children who suffer adverse reactions. I also believe that our federal public health officials should do more to ensure that we are doing all that we can to reduce the number of children who have adverse reactions. We must work aggressively to understand why some children suffer adverse reactions so that we may develop precautionary measures to reduce adverse reactions. I will continue to pursue this effort with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I was pleased when a Democrat controlled Congress and Republican President Reagan worked together in bipartisan fashion in 1986 to establish the VICP. VICP was established to ensure that our nation continues to have a strong vaccination program while compensating those families when a child suffers a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine. Back in the mid-1980s there was a real concern that due to lawsuits brought against vaccine manufacturers, some manufacturers would stop making their vaccines available leaving the American public without important vaccines. The Vaccine Injured Children's Compensation Act of 2001 (VICCA) would make a number of substantive and administrative changes to the VICP, in an attempt to restore the program so that it fulfills the promises that were intended. A broad coalition of Members of Congress from across the political spectrum has joined together to address these concerns. The bill clarifies that this program is to be a remedial, compensation program, which is consistent with the original intent expressed by Congress in the House Report accompanying the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Today, the program is too litigious and adversarial. VICCA makes changes regarding burden of proof. Currently, the burden of proof is such that some children may not be receiving compensation that is due them. I believe we should bend over backwards to ensure that every child who was injured receives compensation. The intent of the program was to provide compensation for all claimants whose injuries may very well have been caused by the vaccine. The program needs to fully recognize that strict scientific proof is not always available. Serious side effects of vaccines are rare and as such, it is often difficult to prove causal relationships with the certainty that science and medicine often expect. Indeed there may be multiple factors that lead to an adverse reaction in some children and the program should recognize this. VICCA ensures that this is taken into account and it ensures that when the weight of the evidence is balanced, we err on the side of the injured child. Our bill will also make it easier to ensure that the costs associated with setting up a trust for the compensation award are a permitted use of the funds. This is important in ensuring that these funds are available to provide a lifetime of care for the injured child. The bill also stops the practice of discounting to ensure that the value of an award for pain and suffering is fully met. We also recognize the important need for counseling in helping parents and siblings of a profoundly injured child cope with these new challenges. The impact of these injuries go well beyond the child who is injured. This bill will ensure coverage of counseling services. The bill also ensures the payment of interim fees and costs to claimants attorneys. Under the current program, families and attorneys are often forced to bear these expenses for years while a claim is heard. Attorneys for the claimants are going to be paid for their fees and costs at the end of a claim, regardless of whether or not they prevail. Thus there is no logical reason why they should not be allowed to petition for interim fees and costs. This provision simply ensures a more fair process for the claimants, by ensuring that the injured child can have good representation while pursuing his or her claim. It ensures that they are able to put their best case forward. The current practice hinders the ability of many claimants to put their best case forward. This should not be the case in a program that was established to ensure provisions for children who have been injured. Finally, the bill makes a number of changes to statutes of limitation. The program should serve the purpose of compensating those who were harmed. Thus, it is important to ensure that it is as inclusive as possible to ensure that injured children are compensated and fully cared for.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to say a few words thanking Forrest McCartney for his service to the nation. I have the privilege of representing Florida's Space Coast, and Forrest has been a tremendous part of our community for many years. But, more importantly, his contributions to our nation's space program are remarkable. Forrest retired on March 2 from his position as Lockheed Martin's chief of launch operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base, a fitting end to an illustrious career. Forrest McCartney was born in the town of Fort Payne, Alabama. He left rural Alabama to earn degrees in electrical engineering from Auburn and nuclear engineering from the USAF Institute of Technology. Over the decades, Forrest served his nation in many ways. He retired from the Air Force as a Lt. General, and moved on to serve as the Director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center from 1986 through 1991. In 1994, he became a vice president for Lockheed Martin Astronautics in charge of space launch operations. His military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and one oak leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal and Air Force Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters. He is the recipient of the General Thomas D. White Space Trophy and the Military Astronautical Trophy. McCartney is a member of the board of trustees for the Florida Institute of Technology and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from that institution. He also received NASA's Distinguished Service Medal and is one of five recipients of the National Space Club's Goddard Memorial Trophy presented in March 1989. In 1991 he received the AIAA von Braun Award for Excellence in Space Program Management and NASA's Presidential Rank Award. In 1992 he received the Debus award from the Space Club in Florida, and in 1993 he was the sole recipient of the Goddard Trophy. I think it's safe to assume that his wife and two daughters are very proud of their father. The State of Florida and the entire nation owes Forrest McCartney a debt of gratitude for his service. Forrest, on behalf of all of my colleagues in the U.S. Congress, we wish you well in your retirement.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 333, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2001. In recent years despite the trends downward, bankruptcies remain too high. I remain deeply troubled by this. I am very concerned that filing for bankruptcy continues to be much higher than it should be, and I believe that today many Americans are filing for bankruptcy again as a financial planning tool. Filing for bankruptcy should be reserved for Americans who have been generally responsible but have gotten in over their heads primarily for circumstances that they could not control, such as the loss of a job, high medical bills, a disability in the family that puts a tremendous strain on the family budget, and other such circumstances. Earlier this week, I had the members of the credit unions in the State of Florida come into my office. As we all know, credit unions are membership-owned financial institutions, owned by working people. They support this bill. Why is that the case? Because they are increasingly seeing bankruptcies of convenience, bankruptcies used as a financial planning tool. These are people who have been often irresponsible in their spending habits. And who picks up the tab for these bankruptcies of convenience? All of the other members of the credit union, through higher interest rates and reduced benefits. Just to cite as an example what the credit unions are telling me that they are seeing more and more often is people who run up large credit card bills at places like Disney World, on trips to theme parks and trips to very, very nice hotels in the days and weeks prior to them filing for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, thousands of other hardworking Americans in those credit unions do not go to those kinds of places simply because they cannot afford it. But nonetheless they are paying for those trips by those people. I realize that this is a very difficult issue, but I believe that the bill that we have on the floor today strikes the proper balance. It is a good bill. It protects consumers. That is what we should be primarily concerned about. It protects all Americans fairly. I encourage all my colleagues to support this rule, which is a very, very fair and good rule, and support the underlying bill.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts) for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand on the floor of the House today to honor our former President, Ronald Reagan. Today is an appropriate day to consider this bill, because it is President Reagan's 90th birthday. Today, we wish him the very best. We have the opportunity to honor a man who made us proud again to be Americans. As was stated, I have introduced this legislation to designate this Post Office at 2305 Minton Road in West Melbourne, Florida, as the ``Ronald W. Reagan Post Office of West Melbourne.'' This Post Office is in Florida's 15th Congressional District, and I am pleased that every member of the Florida Congressional Delegation has signed on as a cosponsor of this bill. Last year, I introduced similar legislation and it passed the House on October 27. Due to time constraints, the Senate was unable to give final approval to the bill prior to its adjournment. However, now it is more appropriate than ever for this House to pass this bill again. Former President Reagan is a true American hero, and naming this U.S. Post Office after him is a fitting way to honor his legacy. Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. He was a man with many ambitions, growing up a Midwestern boy in hard economic times. He worked his way through Eureka College. He started his career as a radio announcer; and in 1937 went to Hollywood where he appeared in more than 50 movies. He became president of the Screen Actors Guild and was involved in fighting Communist influences in Hollywood. In 1966, he was elected the Governor of the State of California by a margin of more than 1 million votes; and then was elected governor again in 1970 to another 4-year term. In 1980, Reagan was elected to serve as our 40th President. Ronald Reagan set our Nation on a path to prosperity. He was a strong moral leader and made Americans proud to be Americans. The economic policies he pursued in the 1980s set a firm foundation for the economic prosperity that we have experienced over the last decade as well. Ronald Reagan reinvigorated the American people through smaller government, putting a lid on inflation, and strengthening our national defenses. President Reagan's persistence in achieving peace through strength carried our Nation to its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity. President Reagan negotiated a treaty with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to eliminate medium-range nuclear missiles. Mr. Reagan went to Berlin and challenged Mr. Gorbachev to ``Tear down this wall.'' His 8 years of persistence paid off; and as a result of his tireless fight for freedom, the Iron Curtain fell shortly after he left office. President Reagan certainly followed through with his 1980 campaign pledge to restore ``the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism.'' I am happy that we are considering this legislation today, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support this effort to name this post office in my congressional district in Ronald Reagan's honor.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, it is a real pleasure for me to be able to rise and speak in support of this resolution, and join my two distinguished colleagues from California, Mr. Cox and Mr. Rohrabacher, who are both alumni of the Reagan administration. Later this afternoon I will have a bill on the floor that further honors the legacy of Ronald Reagan by naming a post office in my congressional district after our 40th President. I feel very strongly that what we are doing today and what we are doing as part of the Reagan Legacy Project in items like naming a post office after Ronald Reagan are extremely important. Ronald Reagan was a man who was harshly criticized by the liberal Democrat-leaning press in the United States throughout his Presidency. Much of his legacy will be defined by those press reports, and, as well, by those historians who, in addition to journalists, tend to be overwhelmingly liberal, Democratic-leaning, anti-Republican and anti- conservative in most of their philosophy. So therefore, I think it is extremely important that people such as ourselves raise our voices and try our best to get the truth out. In this regard, I was extremely pleased just Sunday to pick up a copy of the Washington Post, a newspaper that had been, I think, harshly critical of much of the Reagan administration initiatives, and lo and behold, there was a favorable story in there indicating that when we actually sit down and read some of Ronald Reagan's papers that are being made available to the public, lo and behold, we find that he was actually smart; that he actually had very, very good insights into what he was doing. To see this indeed printed by the Washington Post to me was extremely gratifying. Ronald Reagan indeed was one of the greatest Presidents in our Nation's history, and I believe was one of the greatest of the 20th century. As was very, very well outlined by my colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, in his comments earlier, he came to office at a time when we had very high inflation rates, high unemployment, low morale. We had been through some very difficult years. His policies were successful not only in ending the Cold War and turning that economic crisis around, but probably, more importantly, lifting the American spirit. We are living under the legacy of the policies that he introduced back then still to this day. Economists attribute the strong economy of the nineties to Alan Greenspan and the policies of Ronald Reagan. It is therefore fitting that we honor him on his birthday in this way.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, every American who pays taxes deserves a tax cut. With consumer confidence starting to slump and the economy starting to slow down, the Congress and President needs to work in a bipartisan manner to pass meaningful tax relief for the American people. Cutting taxes is essential to strengthening our economy. With President Bush, we have a greater opportunity to get tax relief to the American people. President Bush has a tax relief proposal that will cut taxes for every American who pays taxes. This proposal will spur economic growth in two ways: first, it will put more money in the wallets of the American people; second, it will take money off the table in Washington, making it more difficult for the government to grow out of control. Mr. Speaker, we need to reduce marginal tax rates; we need to eliminate the death tax; we need to eliminate the marriage penalty; and we need to have a charitable tax deduction. A series of changes needs to be made in the Tax Code to make it more fair and simpler for all Americans.

Mr. WELDON of Florida

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today I honor a great American who has played a major role in our nation's space program. Ed O'Connor was selected in 1990 to lead the newly established Spaceport Florida Authority, and he retired late last year. It was his leadership, vision, and tireless energy that enabled Florida to preserve and secure its place in the world as ``the place for space.'' Spaceport Florida Authority is a recognized leader among state spaceports, and it also plays a critical role in recruiting new space- related industries to Florida. Through Ed O'Connor's leadership, the Authority gained international recognition as the first state agency to conduct space launches from its facilities, and has enabled historic partnerships between the State of Florida, NASA, the Air Force, and the commercial and academic space communities. His service to the space program, however, started long before then. He has a long and distinguished record of service to our nation in the United States Air Force, including directing the Search, Recovery, and Reconstruction Team supporting the Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger accident. Upon retiring from the Air Force in 1987, Colonel Ed O'Connor joined Martin Marietta as manager of the Commercial Titan Launch Program. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to represent Florida's Space Coast in the United States Congress, and I am honored to represent distinguished citizens such as Ed O'Connor who have given so much to our nation. While he will be retired, anyone who knows Ed doesn't expect him to slow down one bit. I'm certain he will continue to be a great source of knowledge and ideas for the nation's space goals.