Frank Wolf

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in calling on the Egyptian government to respect human rights and religious freedom by supporting the res which I have just introduced. Each year the United States gives Egypt approximately $1.5 billion in foreign military assistance--with no strings attached. No strings attached. The United States gives Egypt $1.5 billion a year and the Egyptian government continues to arbitrarily detain and brutally torture human rights and democracy activists, bloggers, and members of opposition political parties in its attempt to suppress dissent. The United States gives Egypt $1.5 billion a year and the government of Egypt continues to show utter and blatant disregard for human rights and religious freedom. The United States gives Egypt $1.5 billion a year and Egypt continues to allow weapons to be smuggled to Hamas through elaborate networks of underground tunnels. The United States gives Egypt $1.5 billion a year and Egyptian government deploys an arsenal of Washington's heavy hitter lobbyists to peddle excuses for the deplorable conduct of the Egyptian government. If you speak to the Egyptian on the street, you will find that they long for freedom. They long to speak without censure, assemble in absence of fear and worship in peace. So I call on the Egyptian government to respect these fundamental rights. We too often forget how we are blessed to live in the United States of America. But to whom much is given, much is required. America has a responsibility to the world. President Ronald Reagan once said that the Constitution is ``a kind of covenant. It is a covenant we've made not only with ourselves but with all of mankind.'' We have a rare opportunity before us. The fact is that we not only have the opportunity, we have the obligation to stand up for freedom where it is stifled, and to seek out justice where there is tyranny. This nation was founded upon the principle that every man is endowed with certain inalienable rights. These are the principles which led this nation to rise to greatness. Let us not turn our backs on these principles now. This resolution will put Congress on the right side of history. I urge its passage.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. I just want the Members to know that the son of former Congressman Duncan Hunter, now currently Congressman Duncan Hunter who just spoke here about the flag drape policy with regard to our fallen soldiers who return to Dover Air Force Base, served in Iraq in combat and served in Afghanistan in combat. I think that the Obama administration ought to listen to people who serve.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, today the President released his budget request which projects a $1.8 trillion deficit this year and a $533 billion deficit for 2013. Yet, the Congressional Budget Office ran a deficit projection using a baseline which assumed the policies in the President's budget request contends that the FY 2013 deficit will be a staggering $715 billion. President Obama's pledge of cutting the deficit in half is important, but it will still be at record levels. In this morning's Washington Post, Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget, said she would like ``To see them [the Obama Administration] go much further in terms of fiscal responsibility in actually closing that deficit gap.'' More to the point, Brian Riedl, budget analyst for the Heritage Foundation, says, ``It is easy to cut the deficit in half after you've quadrupled it.'' Today's Politico features an article titled, ``Arguments Lost in Blizzard of Billions,'' which contends--and I agree--that Congress is so desensitized to numbers that ``a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about--well, pretty soon no one has a clue what you're talking about.'' Have we forgotten that we have over $56 trillion in unfunded obligations through Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid--already saddled on the back of future generations--$11 trillion of debt? Do elected officials know that Standard and Poor's Investment Service predicts the loss of America's triple-A bond rating as early as 2012? When Secretary of State Clinton was in Beijing last week, she asked the Chinese--who now holds the paper of about 1 of every 10 American dollars--to keep buying our debt. I never thought I would see the day when the United States was forced to hold a tin cup in China mortgaging the future for our children and our grandchildren to some of the worst human rights violators in the world. We are in a crisis today. Main Street is suffering. Americans everywhere understand our country is in serious trouble--we are sinking--and it is on this Congress' watch. The 111th Congress is doing nothing. Confidence. The definition of ``confidence,'' according to Webster's Dictionary, is ``faith or the belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way.'' ``Act'' being the key word. Americans are under the belief that elected officials will work together to solve the Nation's most pressing problem. But if Congress is paralyzed by partisan bickering, what happens to the word ``act''? Entitlement spending and the massive debt we're leaving to our children and our grandchildren are pressing issues of economic and moral--this is a moral issue. The Tenth Commandment says, ``Thou shalt not steal.'' Well, this generation is stealing from the next generation. Every day the canyon of debt widens and deepens, and yet elected leaders--many hiding behind the mantra of regular order--seem to think the problem will magically go away. The fact is, congressmen give speeches and say, ``I'm all for this. I'm concerned. But let's go through regular order.'' When it goes through regular order and it goes through the Budget Committee, when it goes through regular order and it goes through the Ways and Means Committee, it is dead. This Ways and Means Committee this year will not act unless they're forced to act by changing the process. With that, Mr. Speaker, we have to act to get control of our debt for our children and our grandchildren.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, today the State Department released its annual Human Rights Report, an exhaustive report which documents the human rights abuses of countries worldwide. The report highlights several disturbing global trends in the area of human rights and goes on to say that these trends ``confirm the continuing need for vigorous United States diplomacy to act and speak out,'' and, yet, America's leading diplomat, Secretary of State Clinton, could not find it in herself to publicly press the Chinese Government on their human rights abuses during her recent visit. Which begs the question, has the situation improved so dramatically so as to justify relegating human rights to the back burner? Was last year a banner year for the Chinese Government marked by tremendous reforms and greater freedom? Has a new day dawned for the people of China? The answer is no. We need look no further than the State Department's own report that came out today that says such notions could not be further from the truth and would be laughable if the reality of the situation wasn't so sobering. A few excerpts from the report: ``The Government of China's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas. The government . . . tightly controlled freedom of speech, the press (including the Internet), assembly, movement and association.'' ``Authorities committed extrajudicial killings and torture, coerced confessions of prisoners, and used forced labor. In addition, the Chinese government increased detention and harassment of dissidents.'' For people of faith, the situation was especially grim: ``Authorities disrupted church meetings and retreats; detained, beat, and harassed church leaders and church members.'' ``Harassment of unregistered Catholic bishops, priests, and laypersons continued, including government surveillance and detentions.'' This is the State Department's report that came out today. For North Korean refugees the report had this to say: ``Authorities stepped up efforts to locate, detain, and forcibly return North Koreans to North Korea,'' basically gulags where they will be persecuted. On forced labor it said: ``Forced labor remained a serious problem,'' and on and on. I am running because of the time. For Tibet, here is what the report said: ``The government's human rights record in Tibetan areas of China deteriorated severely during the year. Authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial detention,'' and then it goes on with much others. The list goes on. I marvel that there can be such a disconnect between the systematic documented abuses of the Chinese government, the importance, as stated in the report, of the U.S. Government speaking out on behalf of those living under repression and the shocking silence of Secretary Clinton. The Chinese Government could barely contain their excitement about Secretary Clinton's silence. AP reported that ``China gave U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a glowing review.'' No wonder they gave her a glowing review because she didn't say anything following her weekend visit, during which she steered clear of human rights issues. China doesn't want our Secretary to speak on human rights, but that's the very reason why they should speak out on human rights. In fact, Mr. Speaker, silence in itself is a message, not just to the Chinese Government but to the Chinese people whose struggles are outlined in grim details. Martin Luther King said, and I quote, ``In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'' For the Secretary of State to be silent on the issue of persecution in China, where there can be a number, can you imagine, Mr. Speaker, how a Catholic bishop, or a Buddhist monk or a Protestant pastor or a Muslim Uighur was in prison and the prison guards came around and said, ``See, your Secretary of State was in town and she never even raised the issue.'' The way to do this, Mr. Speaker, in ending, is the way Ronald Reagan did it in the eighties. Every time President Reagan would go or any Secretary of State would go to Moscow, or whatever, they would speak out on behalf of human rights. Our embassies were islands of freedom. And so I ask the Secretary to make it clear: Is this a retreat on human rights? Did you just make a mistake? But the sound and the silence is reverberating, and it will also have an impact on dictators around the world because they will see the Secretary going to China and not speaking out. Ahmadinejad will do what he wants with regard to the Baha'is, Egypt will do what it wants with regard to the Coptic Christians and on and on, and the world will be a much more dangerous place.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Sometimes it takes a crisis to move Congress to action, and we are in a financial crisis today and have reached the point where Americans everywhere understand that our country is in serious trouble. We are sinking, and it is on this Congress' watch, and it is this Congress' obligation to fix it. Main Street USA is suffering. Businesses are closing. Wages and hours are being cut back. Restaurants that once bustled with customers are half empty, and the only waiting line starts at the unemployment office. How did we get to these frightening times? Look at the numbers. For years we've been spending and spending beyond our means, mortgaging the future for our children and grandchildren--over $56 trillion in unfunded obligations through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The national debt is $11 trillion. Standard & Poor's investment service predicts the loss of our triple-A bond rating as early as 2012. Imagine the headlines when that day comes. China now holds the paper of 1 of every 10 American dollars, and we saw for the first time the Secretary of State punting when she was in Beijing, never raising the issue of human rights and religious freedom. Imagine how the Catholic bishops and Buddhist monks who are in prison felt when they heard that the Secretary, because of pandering to the Chinese in wanting them to buy our paper, never raised this issue. Yet this Congress has done nothing but spend, spend, spend and talk, talk, talk. Congress is made up of parents and grandparents. Yet it seems that this Congress is prepared to push all of this onto our children and our grandchildren. Why won't Congress act? Why has Congress failed to act? What is Congress afraid of? Over the weekend, President Obama said, `` . . . we can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.'' I could not agree more, and time will tell if this administration and this Congress will embrace the process that leads to a solution. The process that will lead to a solution is the bipartisan commission that Congressman Jim Cooper and I have proposed with every spending program on the table with tax policy. Congress would vote up or down on the commission's recommendations. If any Member from either side, from my side who is not on this bill or from the Democratic side who is not on this bill, has a better idea that will work--a better idea rather than just a rotary speech, a better idea that works--put it forward. Don't hide behind the process. There always seems to be an excuse. The American people are experiencing a crisis of confidence and expect this Congress to act. When we gain control of the reckless spending, we will be able to rebuild our economy. We will have a renaissance in America, and we will see a brighter and a stronger America--stronger for us, stronger for our children and stronger for our grandchildren. As Ronald Reagan said, we will literally have a renaissance when we get control of this spending, But I ask you, and every Member who serves here has to ask themselves: How will history judge the 111th Congress if it does not deal with this issue? Your children and your grandchildren will come up and say, you know, ``Grandpop or Grandmom or Dad or Mom, weren't you there during the 111th Congress when we had $11 trillion of debt? When the Chinese had such influence on this country that this Secretary no longer spoke out on human rights and religious freedom when there were 30-some Catholic bishops in jail? When we saw all of this going on with unemployment? What did you do when you were there? Were you there?'' Yes, I think you were. What would you do? This Congress will be a total failure, and it will be our children and our grandchildren who will pay the price, and history will judge it very, very poorly.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican guidelines on earmarks, I submit the following statement for the record regarding H.R. 1105, the Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act. Requesting Member: The Hon. Frank R. Wolf. Bill Number: H.R. 1105. Provision: State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance, Byrne Justice Assistance Grant. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force. Address of Requesting Entity: One Park Center Court, Manassas Park, VA 20111. Description of Request: In response to increasing gang activity in northern Virginia, a multi jurisdictional law enforcement task force was established in 2003 to more effectively respond to gang activity. As a result of the task force's efforts, criminal gang activity has declined by more than 50 percent. In order to sustain and maintain these impressive results, the task force requested $2.5 million in funding, which is included in H.R. 1105. Bill Number: H.R. 1105. Provision: State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance, Byrne Justice Assistance Grant. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Northwest Virginia Regional Gang Task Force. Address of Requesting Entity: P.O. Box 49, Berryville, VA 22611. Description of Request: In response to increasing gang activity in the Shenandoah Valley, this task force was established to coordinate and share information with their counterparts at the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the entire northern Virginia region is a hotbed of gang activity. In order to better fight gang activity in this area, the task force requested $750,000 in funding, which is included in H.R. 1105. Bill Number: H.R. 1105. Provision: Capital Investment Grants. Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. Address of Requesting Entity: 1 Aviation Circle, Washington, D.C. 20001. Description of Request: H.R. 1105 provides $29.1 million to be used for extending the Metrorail system through Tysons Corner to Washington Dulles International Airport. Northern Virginia continues to be one of the country's fastest growing areas, but with that has come the distinction of being the second worse traffic congested region in America. Congressional funding to bring a much needed mass transit system linking the West Falls Church Metro station to Washington Dulles International Airport was first approved in FY 1999.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to add my voice to the chorus of human rights organizations who have expressed shock and disappointment at Secretary Clinton's comments during a recent Asia trip indicating that human rights will not be a priority in her engagement with China. We need to look no further than the Sharanskys and the Solzhenitsyns of recent history to know that bold and public proclamations on the importance of liberty, freedom and absence of repression are cause for great hope to those political prisoners who languish behind bars. Words have power, the power to inspire or deflate, to give vision or stifle hope. But for words to inspire the hope for a day when the Chinese people can worship freely, where the press is not censored, where political dissent is permitted, they must first be spoken. Silence itself is a message. Martin Luther King, Jr. said famously, ``In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'' America has always been a friend to the oppressed, the persecuted, the forgotten. I pray our allegiance has not changed. This administration must make the solid rock of freedom their foundation, rather than the sinking sand of repression. Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Washington, DC, February 23, 2009. Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State, Washington, DC. Dear Secretary Clinton: I write to share my dismay, also voiced by a number of leading human rights organizations, at your comments during your recent Asia trip indicating that human rights will not be a priority in your engagement with China. These statements come on the heels of the U.S. failing to participate in the United Nations review of the human rights record of China, among other worst offenders. Both are deeply troubling commentary on this administration's commitment to human rights, and are undoubtedly disheartening for scores of Chinese citizens, including the imprisoned Catholic bishops, persecuted house church leaders and repressed Tibetan Buddhists. Certainly there is a place for pragmatism in diplomacy. It may be that the Chinese government, when confronted with its gross human rights violations, would dismiss U.S. concerns and tell us not to interfere in their ``internal matters.'' But we need look no further than the Sharanskys and Solzhenitsyns of recent history to know that it is equally pragmatic to believe that bold, public proclamations on the importance of liberty, freedom, and the absence of repression are cause for great hope to those political prisoners who languish behind bars. In short, words have power. They have the power to inspire, or deflate; they have the power to give vision or to stifle hope. But for words to inspire the hope for a day when the Chinese people can worship freely, where the press is not censored, where political dissent is permitted--they must first be spoken. Silence is itself a message. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, ``In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'' America has always been a friend to the oppressed, the persecuted, the forgotten. Has our allegiance changed? Words are, of course, strengthened by policy, and policy is shaped by personnel. You have a number of important decisions before you in this regard: Will the new U.S. ambassador to China be singularly focused on good bilateral relations, and increased trade--or will that diplomat tirelessly work to ensure that our embassy is an island of freedom in a sea of repression? Will the assistant secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor be someone known and trusted by the human rights community? Will the new ambassador for International Religious Freedom worship with the underground church and press the Chinese government to respect this first freedom? This administration is young and finding its sea legs. My hope is that the solid rock of freedom will be your foundation, rather than the sinking sand of repression. I urge you to change course, lest this country itself be changed. I am reminded of a story told by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel which speaks to this very point: ``One day a Tzadik came to Sodom; He knew what Sodom was, so he came to save it from sin, from destruction. He preached to the people. `Please do not be murderers, do not be thieves. Do not be silent and do not be indifferent.' He went on preaching day after day, maybe even picketing. But no one listened. He was not discouraged. He went on preaching for years. Finally someone asked him, `Rabbi, why do you do that? Don't you see it is no use?' He said, `I know it is of no use, but I must. And I will tell you why: in the beginning I thought I had to protest and to shout in order to change them. I have given up this hope. Now I know I must picket and scream and shout so that they should not change me.' '' Sincerely, Frank R. Wolf, Member of Congress.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the conference report to the economic stimulus legislation. I understand that Americans are hurting. Many have lost their jobs, are unable to pay their mortgage, don't have health insurance and are struggling to make ends meet. Small businesses have especially felt the brunt of the recession. Congress needs to come together with the president to restore confidence in the economy and create a climate conducive to job growth. But instead of a narrowly focused effort to stimulate the economy through targeted programs to put more money in the hands of taxpayers and create jobs, this massive spending bill--the largest in our Nation's history--creates new programs and bolsters others, many of which have nothing to do with economic recovery. I don't question the urgency of congressional action to stimulate the economy, but I do question the priorities in this package and its price tag. I have never been more concerned about the future of our country. The unprecedented amount of borrowing and spending in this package will place a tremendous burden of debt on present and future generations. This economic stimulus package was not only an opportunity to look at short-term solutions to help jump-start the economy and assist struggling taxpayers and homeowners, but also a historic opportunity for Congress to address the long-term financial plan for our country. I have been speaking out for several years about getting mandatory spending under control. Congressman Jim Cooper and I have authored bipartisan legislation, which I first introduced in 2006, to set up a national commission to review our nation's long-term economy, including entitlement spending, discretionary spending and tax policy, and recommend a plan to Congress to get America on a sustainable financial path. The Securing America's Future Economy (SAFE) Act would address this financial crisis and solve it with bipartisanship. The SAFE effort differs from others because it requires an up or down vote in Congress on the commission's proposal, similar to the process for closing military bases enacted in 1988. As the piece of the budget pie continues to grow to pay for entitlements, spending for discretionary programs shrinks. That means fewer dollars for education, for medical research, for investment in technology, for national security, for transportation, and a myriad of other programs on which Americans rely. Not only is it unacceptable to shoulder our children and grandchildren with a crushing debt burden, I believe it raises serious moral questions. Is it right for one generation to live very well knowing that its debts will be left to be paid for by others? I reached out to both Democrats and Republicans to push for a bipartisan entitlement reform commission to be considered as part of the stimulus package. The SAFE idea has garnered growing support. I offered the SAFE Commission as an amendment when the stimulus legislation was marked up in the House Appropriations Committee, and again when the Rules Committee decided which amendments would be made in order for consideration on the House floor as a part of House legislative package. I was disappointed that my amendment was not even allowed to be debated by the House. I am deeply concerned about the divisiveness in Congress and believe that a bipartisan commission may well be the only way to mandate action on long-term budget controls. President Obama has indicated his willingness to reach across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions. I have always believed that working together in a bipartisan manner is what the American people expect of their leaders. The Congress had the chance in this measure to take a bold step for America's future financial security and instead we are going down the same road of adding to the deficit and national debt with questionable programs that are touted to create jobs and stimulate the economy. We can do better and we must do better--for our children and our grandchildren's future. Mr. Speaker, I insert with my statement an op-ed from yesterday's Washington Times by Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation who understands the urgency of Congress and the administration coming together to stop the financial tsunami that threatens the financial future of our country. [From the Washington Times, Feb. 12, 2009] Butler: Congress Needs Cover to Reform Entitlements (By Stuart Butler) The price tag is stunning. Pegged at nearly $800 billion--a figure that doesn't even include interest payments--the so- called ``stimulus'' bill sets an all-time record for deficit spending by a single bill. Congress has gotten away with deficit spending in the past, because foreign investors were willing to buy U.S. bonds to cover the debt. But the size of this bill will send our deficits sky-rocketing, to the point where overseas investors may have second thoughts about lending us more. And that's the good news! The bad news is there's a far bigger problem threatening to undermine overseas confidence in America's finances. That's the looming fiscal tsunami due to wash over us as baby boomers start retiring in ever-growing numbers and start claiming Social Security and Medicare benefits Congress has promised them. They are promises even the most robust economy could not afford to keep. Some lawmakers fear that Congress is incapable of addressing this problem, given the way it currently does business. They say the entitlement tsunami needs a very different approach. They are right. Let's understand the situation. Over the next 10 years, Congress says the stimulus will cost about $800 billion we don't have. In its single most expensive year--2010--Congress will borrow just over $350 billion to create ``energy- efficient visitors centers'' and otherwise ``stimulate'' the economy. That's a lot of money. But let's look at what Medicare alone must borrow--every year--to cover the gap between what it spends and takes in through premiums and payroll taxes. It's already costing taxpayers almost $200 billion this year. Within 10 years, yearly borrowing will hit the equivalent of $285 billion in today's economy. In 20 years it will be close to $600 billion, with hundreds of billions more from red-ink saturated Social Security and Medicaid spending. And we are worrying about a peak of $350 billion for the stimulus?! Two congressmen, Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, and Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee Democrat, don't believe Congress has the stomach to rein in such staggering shortfalls in these politically sensitive programs. To give weak-kneed politicians the cover they need, Mr. Wolf and Mr. Cooper propose a bipartisan commission to recommend long-term structural changes in entitlement programs. Commission proposals would be sent to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Mr. Wolf and Mr. Cooper reckon their commission would get members off the hook of voting line-by-line for unpopular changes. And a bipartisan commission means both parties get the political pain and gain of taking tough action. Now, we've had budget commissions before. Sometimes they consist of top congressional leaders who meet behind closed doors and produce few real program changes but more real taxes. Or they produce a report that goes nowhere. But the Wolf-Cooper plan has two stages that may change the political dynamic. Before the commission even meets to talk turkey, for several months it would hold a national conversation across the country, with town meetings and other ways to gauge public sentiment. Only then would the commission begin its work. Armed with this public support, Mr. Wolf and Mr. Cooper reason, lawmakers could vote ``aye'' with political protection. This ``public mandate'' stage is modeled after something called the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour. The tour consists of representatives from the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group, as well as the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution, together with former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. This left-right panel has held dozens of large meetings around the country, talking with tens of thousands of Americans. As a ``made member'' of the tour, I can tell you how Americans are likely to react to a commission seeking their views: People want the truth about our fiscal future. If they get the facts in a nonpartisan way, first they are stunned and then they want action. The elderly, as well as young Americans, are willing to support tough steps on Medicare and other programs--if they are first brought into a serious conversation. And they doubt that more money sent to Washington would be used to avoid future deficits. They are sure it will be spent. Here's a thought. Let's say President Obama were to back the Wolf-Cooper two-stage commission. Imagine if he and congressional leaders from both parties were to hold their own tour. They would jointly give Americans the full picture of the future tsunami and an honest description of the major options from all sides. And imagine they asked the American people what to do. Then, say, a commission put together a package of reforms based on the people's mandate and sent it to Congress for a vote. That's the kind of commission report that could work. The kind of change you can believe in.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I would like to bring to my colleagues' attention some deeply disturbing news coming out of Tehran. Tehran's deputy prosecutor recently announced that the revolutionary court will hear the cases of seven members of the Baha'i faith accused of spying for Israel. The continued systematic persecution of the Baha'is by the tyrannical government of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is unacceptable and must stop. I ask that a report from the Agence France Press be inserted into the record, as well. Iran To Try Bahais for Spying for Israel Tehran (AFP)--Iran will soon try seven members of the banned Bahai religion on charges including ``espionage for Israel,'' the ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday. ``The charges against seven defendants in the case of the illegal Bahai group were examined . . . and the case will be sent to the revolutionary court next week,'' deputy Tehran prosecutor Hassan Haddad was quoted as saying. Haddad said the charges included ``espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic.'' Iran and Israel are arch-enemies, and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map. In late January, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said Iran had arrested six adherents of the Bahai faith on the same charges. Earlier last month, the Fars news agency said the ex- secretary of Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi's office was detained for links with an organisation of the Bahai faith, adding that the ex-staffer was a Bahai herself. Haddad did not say if the seven being charged were the same as those arrested in January. Followers of the Bahai faith, founded in Iran in 1863, are regarded as infidels and have suffered persecution both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Bahai teachings emphasise the underlying unity of major religions, with history having produced a succession of divine messengers, each of which founded a religion suitable for the times. Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the last prophet sent by God. This is in direct conflict with Islam, the religion of the vast majority of Iranians, which considers Mohammed to be the last prophet. In late 2008, Iran reported the hanging of a Bahai man for rape and adultery. The European Union has expressed ``serious concern about the continuing systematic discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Bahais on the grounds of their religion.''

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. I rise today to call on the Obama administration and Secretary of State Clinton to appoint a special envoy for the genocide that is taking place in Darfur. Senator Brownback and I were the first Members of Congress to go to Darfur. The genocide continues, and yet there's almost the sound of silence. This is a photo that Sam and I took of a village that had been bombed and the janjaweed come riding in on horseback. This is the janjaweed. They ride in, the Antonov bombers come over, they drop bombs here on these Russian-made bombers, then Soviet Hind helicopters come in and gun the people down. Then, the janjaweed people like this on horseback or camel come in, they rape the women, they burn, they torch the villages, then move on. Now, President Bush put a lot of time in this effort. Unfortunately, it was not concluded. But I want to commend the Obama administration for appointing a special envoy for the Middle East, former Senator Mitchell and also former Ambassador Holbrooke, for a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. But why not a special envoy for the people of Sudan and for Darfur? We call on them in a letter that went out today, particularly, and also asking Secretary Clinton to, when she goes to China, to publicly and privately urge the Chinese to help bring about the end of genocide. The Chinese have the largest embassy in Khartoum. They sell the weapons, the guns and all, to the Khartoum government, that are later given to the janjaweed to then continue this effort. Five years of genocide. And, Secretary Clinton, when she was a Senator, voted, I'm sure, for the first Brownback amendment that designated this activity in Darfur as genocide. So, in closing, Madam Speaker, I commend the administration for Mitchell in the Middle East. But when the people of Darfur are looking, they say, Special envoy to the Middle East, special envoy to Pakistan. Why not? Why not? I urge them today, before the end of this month, hopefully, even before the end of this week, a special envoy to help the people of Darfur.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, this is an ad that appeared in newspapers around the country. It is an iceberg. We can see what is going to happen. It says: ``Today's economic crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. ``$56 trillion. ``We must focus on a much larger yet less visible threat: the $56 trillion in liabilities and unfunded retirement and health care obligations (that's $483,000 per U.S. household), and the dangerous reliance on foreign lenders that threaten our ship of state. ``Fortunately, the Obama administration and a growing number of congressional leaders recognize the urgent need to address these challenges with entitlement, budget, spending, and tax reforms. We believe a capable and credible approach is necessary: an action- oriented, bipartisan commission that will engage the American people, that will consider all options and that will make sensible recommendations that will be guaranteed to be put to a vote in Congress. ``Meeting today's challenges is very important, but addressing these structural challenges is crucial to navigating a better future for our children and grandchildren.'' The question is, Madam Speaker, will this Congress deal with the greatest economic crisis that we have faced for the last 50 years?

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. The United Nations Human Rights Council is now conducting reviews of the human rights record of 16 countries, among which are China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Russia. And I was shocked and, quite frankly, disappointed to learn that the new administration has failed to fill its seat and has washed its hands of even questioning these countries. How can America be silent about four of the worst offenders of human rights and religious freedom around the world? China has been designated by the State Department's annual Religious Freedom report as a country of particular concern since 1999. No administration comments. Saudi Arabia has received this designation, too. Again, no comments from the new administration. The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom placed Cuba on their watch list. Again, no comment from this administration. The administration made a pledge to place human rights at the top of its agenda, and yet they're absent at this very critical point. This is a bad start for this administration in the area of human rights and religious freedom.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I know it sometimes takes a crisis to move Congress to action. We are in financial crisis mode today, and while there never is a convenient time to make hard decisions, the longer we wait, the more dramatic the required remedy will be. Americans everywhere understand that we are in trouble. When you wrap your head around the following facts and figures, it's stomach-turning that things have gotten this bad--over $56 trillion in unfunded obligation through Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; the national debt nearing $11 trillion; and China, which violates human rights and has Catholic priests and evangelical pastors in jail, and has plundered Tibet, now holds the paper on 1 out of every 10 American dollars. David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office, has said that the sum of these statistics equals storm off our coast that is strong enough to ``swamp our ship of State.'' The narrative that accompanies the staggering statistics, I believe, is even more compelling. Entitlement spending is squeezing the life out of every discretionary dollar this committee appropriates: Math and science initiatives, so that our children receive the education that will enable them to compete in the global economy; medical research initiatives that will help us find the cure for cancer, autism, and Alzheimer's; infrastructure projects to build safe roads and bridges. All are at risk if Congress continues to keep its head in the sand while the financial tsunami moves closer to shore. In recent weeks, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that the Federal budget deficit will balloon to $1.2 trillion this fiscal year alone. That doesn't include the $800 billion economic stimulus package recently passed by the House, a package which I believe represents a missed opportunity for Congress to address the Nation's financial future in a truly bipartisan manner. Congressman Cooper and I have been speaking out about the dangers of runaway spending and the need for lawmakers to come together to tackle this issue. We joined together to introduce bipartisan legislation in the last Congress to create a commission to review Federal spending, with everything--entitlement and tax policy--on the table. The SAFE Commission, short for Securing America's Future Economy, will look beyond the Beltway for solutions, holding at least 12 town meetings, one in each of the Federal Reserve districts, over a span of 12 months, in order to hear directly from the American people. After having a supermajority of the commission's members in agreement on the package of recommendations, the House would vote up or down on the commission's recommendations. Modeled after the Base Closing Commission process, Congress would be forced to act. I offered the SAFE Commission as an amendment to the House-passed stimulus when it came through the Appropriations Committee and, because it failed more in the process rather than the substance, I also submitted it to the Rules Committee, the ability to offer the amendment, and I was disappointed that the Rules Committee denied full debate on this measure, which is a bipartisan measure which would have given every single Member of the House who understands the dangers of runaway entitlement spending the chance to be on the record on this issue. You may ask why Congress would need a commission with teeth to deliver its responsibilities. Quite frankly, I worry that the Congress is not up to the job, and we will allow our children and our grandchildren to languish in a political divide. The SAFE Commission process gives us the necessary push to get the job done. One of the most compelling statements I have read about our current state of affairs comes from an unlikely source. Richard Fisher, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, has called our situation ``catastrophic,'' noting that, ``doing deficit math is always a sobering exercise.'' He said, ``It becomes an outright painful one when you apply your calculator to the long-run fiscal challenge posed by entitlement programs.'' It's out of the ordinary for the Federal Reserve to publicly express an opinion on fiscal policy matters, but these are not ordinary times. In closing, make no mistake. This could well be the hardest economic issue our Nation will ever be faced with. But we cannot afford to wait to act. The futures of our children and our grandchildren hang in the balance. This is an economic, it is a moral, and a generational issue, and I believe Congress, this Congress has the ability to come together and do what the American people want us to do. If we do not do it, if we do not do it, history will judge the 111th Congress in a very harsh manner.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. I thank the gentleman for yielding the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 549, the National Bombing Prevention Act of 2009. However, I have some concerns about language included in this bill regarding the enhancement of explosives detection canine resources and capabilities. I'm concerned and worried that this provision could unintentionally harm established Federal canine training facilities and even weaken existing training standards. Currently, the Customs and Border Protection agency runs two world- class canine training facilities under its Canine Enforcement Program, in addition to a USDA facility in Florida. One of these facilities is located in my congressional district in Front Royal, Virginia, in what is viewed as the Shenandoah Valley. I strongly encourage Members to visit this exceptional program, staffed by dedicated Federal employees, before making any comprehensive reforms to this model program. The Canine Enhancement Program already serves the needs of the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal agencies. It is so highly regarded that many of our closest international allies--and I was out there. Egypt had their people out there training and many others--send their canine program officials to the Front Royal facility for training. Mr. Speaker, rather than reinventing a program that already demonstrates exceptional results, I hope that we can work with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection to address these issues as this legislation moves forward.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I think this bill really ignores the major issue that we are really facing. Our Nation is fundamentally broke, but we have $57 trillion of unfunded obligations. The Ways and Means Committee, with all due respect, is doing nothing about dealing with this issue. I have a bill in with Jim Cooper and Senator Conrad, Senators Conrad and Gregg have it over on the Senate side, that creates a bipartisan commission similar to what we did on the Iraq Study Group with every spending program, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and tax policy. Some on my side won't like that, a tax policy on the table, and we give the commission 1 year to go around the country holding public hearings, coming up with a proposal to require, to require this institution that has fundamentally failed to do its responsibility. Now, China holds a large portion of our debt. People talk about it, but yet nobody does anything about it. If the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee gets on the train in Washington and takes it to New York City and looks to the right and to the left, the factories are in decay. There is graffiti all over the walls, the windows are broken. You come through my old neighborhood in Philadelphia, and it's in decay. By doing this, by getting control of our spending in a way that would honestly do it in a bipartisan way, I would tell the Chair of the committee, we would bring about a renaissance in this Nation whereby we would have the ability to invest in Alzheimer's research and autism research and cancer research and manufacturing to create new jobs that really show that America is back. So I think the failure of this bill is that this provision is not in it. The last issue is, I call it the father amendment or the mother amendment or the grandmother/grandmother amendment, all of us at some time are going to get an opportunity, and we are going to leave here. And our grandkids are going to say, you know, Dad, when you were there, or Mom, when you were there, or Grandpop, when you were there, or Grandmom, when you were there, did you know that China was buying our debt up? Did you know the Saudis were buying our debt up? Did you really know, Grandfather or Grandmother, that our factories were in decay? Did you know that they controlled our debt? Did you? Did you, Pop? Pop, did you do anything about it? Dad, did you do anything about it? And the answer is, as of now, this Congress, and let me just say, both political parties, have fundamentally failed. So you are going to have to tell your kids and your grandkids, no. When I was there, as of January of 2009, we did nothing, and we allowed our country to fall into decline. This amendment ought to be, it ought to be in the Republican substitute, and it's not, and I voted against the Republican substitute. It ought to be in this, and it's not, and I voted against this. And if this does not pass, Barack Obama will preside over the decline of this Nation when he is running for reelection as President of this Nation in 4 years.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I know that each Member of this body, Democrat and Republican, understands that our country is in trouble. The CBO recently projected that the Federal budget deficit for the fiscal year, which started last October, will balloon to $1.2 trillion. This number, which Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad called ``jaw- dropping,'' does not include the $825 billion stimulus plan we are scheduled to consider in the House this week. David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General, has said, ``We should not just engage in timely and targeted stimulus. We need to put a process in place that will enable elected officials to make a range of tough decisions,'' and this institution does not make tough decision, ``that have been delayed for too long.'' Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, has called our situation ``catastrophic,'' noting that ``doing deficit math is always a sobering exercise. It becomes an outright painful one when you apply your calculator to the long-term fiscal challenge posed by entitlement programs.'' Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke has said, ``The quality of the future we will endow to our children and our grandchildren will depend in important measure on how well we rise to that occasion.'' I could stand here all day quoting different experts about our Nation's grave long-term outlook. I believe that most Americans know that our country is facing dire economic conditions that will continue to deteriorate unless we change our current course. The fact is the American people are ahead of the Congress. As elected officials and Members of the 111th Congress, we have an obligation, a moral obligation, to find solutions to the long-term nightmare that our children and grandchildren will wake up to should we choose to do nothing. We are talking about over $56 trillion in unfunded obligations through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the national debt nearing $12 trillion, and China now holding the paper on 1 out of every 10 American dollars. America is now being sold to China. Does that make this Congress feel very good? By letting the stimulus legislation pass the House without addressing the underlying problem of out-of-control spending, we are evading our responsibility as Members of Congress. David Brooks said this package has no ``strategic vision.'' He said it has a relatively modest short- term impact, and then he said ``there is no sunset.'' Is it right for us to ignore the fact that we are mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future? We must set up a difficult bipartisan mechanism to deal with the underlying problem of autopilot spending and show the American people that we can make the difficult choices. There is a bipartisan plan already on the table to review Federal spending in every area, entitlements and tax policies. It garnered the support of 110 Members in the last Congress, Republican and Democrat. You have heard me talk about it many times. It is the Cooper-Wolf SAFE Commission plan, similar to a Senate effort led by Budget Chairman Kent Conrad and Ranking Member Judd Gregg. We offered the bipartisan SAFE Commission as an amendment when the Appropriations Committee marked up the stimulus last week. It failed on a mostly partisan vote. I will go to the Rules Committee on Tuesday to ask that the amendment be made in order so that it can be voted on by the full House during the stimulus debate. If we look the other way now, Congress will have fundamentally failed the American people. Congress will have to explain to the American people that when it had the chance to act in the best interests of future generations, meaning children and grandchildren and existing generations, it chose to do nothing. Make no mistake. This could well be the toughest economic issue our Nation will be faced with, but we can't afford to wait. The future of the children and grandchildren hang in the balance. I will end with President Obama's words from his inaugural address. He said that the current state of affairs is the result of ``our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the Nation for a new age.'' He went on to say that ``our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions, that time has surely passed.'' I could not agree more. For years I encouraged the Bush administration to adopt this process. They did not. We have also reached out to the new administration and his economic team. This is an economic, moral, and generational issue, and I am astounded as we prepare to debate the stimulus on the floor that we are doing so without having bipartisan entitlement reform as part of the underlying package.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. I want to acknowledge what the gentleman is saying is accurate. I have here a $100 billion bill, a Zimbabwe bill, which was printed by the Federal Reserve in Zimbabwe in June or July of 2008. So what the gentleman is saying, this $100 billion will not even buy a loaf of bread.

Mr. WOLF. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, ``The Christian owner of a car repair shop was killed execution-style in Mosul, police said Saturday, raising concerns about the possibility of new attacks against religious minorities in the northern city.'' This chilling excerpt was taken from a recent AP story, which went on to say that the attack ``followed a pattern of violence and intimidation that sent thousands of Christians fleeing from their homes in Mosul this fall.'' This is not the first time that we have seen targeted killings. We need to look no farther than the 2008 kidnap and murder of Archbishop Rahho of Mosul, an Assyrian Christian of the Chaldean Church, or Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Christian priest who was fatally shot in a drive-by attack in April of 2008. These high-profile killings are indicative of wider-scale persecution and fear experienced by this suffering community. The numbers tell the story. According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Iraqi's Christian population has fallen from as many as 1.4 million in 2003 to between 500,000 and 700,000 at present. The report says that, ``While Christians and other religious minorities represent only approximately 3 percent of the pre-2003 Iraqi population, they constitute approximately 15 percent and 20 percent of registered Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria respectively, and Christians account for 35 and 64 percent, respectively, of all registered Iraqi refugees in Lebanon and Turkey.'' What we are witnessing here is the tragic extinction of an age-old faith community. The patriarch Abraham came from a city in Iraq called Ur. Isaac's bride, Rebekah, came from northwest Iraq. Jacob spent 20 years in Iraq, and his sons, the 12 tribes of Israel, were born in northwest Iraq. A remarkable spiritual revival as told in the book of Jonah occurred in Nineveh. And the events of the book of Esther took place in Iraq, as did the accounts of Daniel in the Lion's Den. For months, I unsuccessfully urged the Bush administration to develop a comprehensive policy to address the unique plight of Iraq's struggling ethno-religious minorities, specifically the Christian community. We have pressed for one person in the embassy to work on these. The Religious Freedom Commission has also asked for things like this, but now we are seeing that the creation and filling of this position must be, must be, among Secretary Clinton's first priorities. In July of 2008, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration & Refugee Services said this about the minority religious community: ``These groups, whose home has been what is now Iraq for many centuries, are literally being obliterated, not because they are fleeing generalized violence but because they are specifically and viciously victimized by Islamic extremists and, in some cases, common criminals.'' These minority communities face marginalization or even extinction. U.S. policy must reflect the unique political and security reality of these minority communities. I urge Members of Congress, and I want to compliment Congresswoman Eshoo from California who has been very active on this, but other members, to weigh in with the newly confirmed secretary and ask her to take dramatic action to save the Iraqi Christians. An article in Christianity Today by Philip Jenkins described what is happening in Iraq this way: ``What we are seeing then is the death of one of the world's greatest Christian enterprises.'' Just this week a delegation of Chaldean bishops urgently appealed to Pope Benedict XVI for the church to create a strategy to prevent Christians from leaving the region. I urge people of faith to stand, and I urge Members of Congress to press the secretary to appoint one person to deal with this issue. And, lastly, I say where, where; oh where, oh where is the church? Oh where, oh where is the Christian church in the West when the Christians in Iraq are being slaughtered? [From the Associated Press] Christian Killed in Northern Iraqi City (By Sameer N. Yacoub) Baghdad.--The Christian owner of a car repair shop was killed execution-style in Mosul, police said Saturday, raising concern about the possibility of new attacks against the religious minority in the northern Iraqi city. The body of the 36-year-old man, who was shot in the head, was found Thursday, according to police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Another Christian man, an engineer in the city's water department, was kidnapped in early January but was released four days later after his family paid a $50,000 ransom. Nobody claimed responsibility for the killing or the kidnapping, but they followed a pattern of violence and intimidation that sent thousands of Christians fleeing from their homes in Mosul in the fall. Bassem Balu, an official with the Democratic Assyrian Movement, sought to maintain calm, saying the motives for this week's killing were not yet known. The movement is the largest Christian party. ``For the time being, I do not think that this will slow the return of the Christians to Mosul,'' he said. ``I hope that this murder won't signal the start of a new campaign against the Christians in Mosul.'' Some Mosul residents have filtered back since the fall exodus, but others remain with relatives in the safer countryside or have sought refuge in neighboring Syria despite government pledges of financial support and protection. Reflecting the continued fear, Christian candidates running for the Jan. 31 provincial elections have not been campaigning in Mosul but were limiting their activities to Christian areas outside the city. Saad Tanyous, one of the candidates seeking a seat on the provincial council, said Christians were not even putting posters on the walls in Mosul. Christians have frequently been targeted amid the fierce sectarian fighting that broke out after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, although the attacks have ebbed with a sharp drop in overall violence. Churches, priests and businesses of the generally prosperous, well-educated community have been attacked by militants who denounce Christians as pro-American ``crusaders.'' In an exodus which began after the 1991 Gulf War and escalated dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has lost more than half its Christian population of some 1 million. The body of Paulos Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, also was found in March following his abduction by gunmen after a Mass. Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, remains one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq despite security gains. Gunmen also killed two Iraqi soldiers on a foot patrol in the city Saturday afternoon, police said. Tensions have been rising ahead of the provincial elections, which are aimed at more equitably distributing power and stemming support for the insurgency. Haider al-Ibadi, a Shiite lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party, condemned Friday's assassination of candidate Hashim al-Husseini south of Baghdad. ``This crime should not go unpunished and we call upon security forces to chase the killers as soon as possible and put them on trial,'' he said, calling for stepped-up protection for candidates.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I would like to share with our colleagues an editorial in the New York Times highlighting the case of Iranian human rights activist, and Nobel Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi, who faces harassment and intimidation at the hands of the Iranian government. She is not alone. According to the most recent State Department Human Rights Report, ``[Iran's] poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous, serious abuses . . . Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals and held political prisoners and women's rights activists. There was a lack of judicial independence and of fair public trials. The government severely restricted civil liberties, including freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, movement, and privacy. The government placed severe restrictions on freedom of religion. Official corruption and a lack of government transparency persisted.'' We must continue to stand with human rights defenders like Shirin Ebadi, who is bravely confronting her own government's injustices. [From the New York Times, January 2, 2009] The Woman the Mullahs Fear (Editorial) Men hold all of the meaningful levers of political power in Iran, but it is a woman they fear. If not, why is the mullah- led government trying to shut down the operations of Shirin Ebadi? Ms. Ebadi, a lawyer and her country's leading human rights activist, is the first Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. On Monday, the authorities stormed her private office, seizing her computers and her clients' documents. A week earlier, they closed her Center for Defenders of Human Rights, a coalition of human rights groups and other activists whose members had planned to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When she was awarded the peace prize in 2003, the Nobel committee called Ms. Ebadi ``a courageous person'' for standing up against Iran's bullying government. In the years since, she has endured repeated death threats from radical groups and regular government intimidation. That courage has never faltered. With presidential elections scheduled for June, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies apparently decided they could not risk letting Ms. Ebadi continue the work she has done with distinction (and without pay) for the past 15 years--exposing government violations of human rights and defending human rights and democracy activists. No doubt the authorities were unhappy with a report produced by her center that was cited recently by the United Nations' secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, when the General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution condemning Iran's human rights record. But we suspect their ambitions go far beyond trying to suppress one report. They are clearly hoping to intimidate Ms. Ebadi and all other independent voices in Iran. That must not be allowed to happen. We condemn Tehran's mistreatment of this woman of extraordinary honor and courage. We urge the United States, Europe and other major powers to keep pressure on Iran to ensure that no further harm comes to Ms. Ebadi and that she remains free to do her essential work. If Tehran wants relief from international criticism about its human rights record, it must start by adhering to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and respecting the rights of all of its citizens.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, our financial situation is at a critical mass. Everywhere you look, everything you read, more bad news, no end in sight. Of massive budget shortfalls President-elect Obama has said, ``If we do nothing, we will continue to see red ink as far as we can see.'' Last week, the Congressional Budget Office projected the Federal budget deficit will balloon to $1.2 trillion this fiscal year, and that does not include the economic stimulus package proposed by the incoming administration. These staggering numbers are deeply troubling today and pose a dire choice for our children and our grandchildren. Simply put, our Nation is slowly going broke. Without a change of course initiated by Congress, we will follow what Comptroller General David Walker characterized as a financial ``tsunami strong enough to swamp the ship of state.'' It will sweep our children and our grandchildren off their feet, leaving far less opportunity for future generations. Out-of-control spending is not just an economic issue, it is a moral issue also. Is it right for our generation to live very well, knowing that future generations of Americans will inherit a broken system in the form of massive debt, Social Security and Medicare obligations, unsustainable spending and commitments that cannot be kept? Entitlement spending has such a tight grip on the rest of the Federal Government that every day the 111th Congress waits to act is another day that vital discretionary programs, domestic and international, are in jeopardy. That is what we are facing today. Everyone, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, should be alarmed. As parents and grandparents, we should care that without adequate resources our children won't receive the first-class education they need to compete in the global market. Already the tests show that one-third of U.S. students lack the competency to perform the most basic mathematical computations. People should care that scientists at the National Institutes of Health who are so close to finding cures for devastating disease might not have the funding they need for medical research and breakthrough clinical trials that will change the way we live. Cancer, Alzheimer's, autism will all remain shortchanged if we do not have the discretionary funding necessary to put together the pieces. Think about the roads, the highways, the bridges. Our children and grandchildren may wake up in a dismal scene. These scenarios only scratch the surface on how concerned we should be about America's future. The ramifications of out-of-control spending reach far beyond our shores. I have always believed in the biblical admonition that to whom much is given, much is required, and have supported efforts, as have many in this Congress, to fight global hunger and poverty and disease. For example, U.S. Government funding for global HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria was nearly $20 billion over the last 5 years. The recent 5-year reauthorization commits $50 billion. While that is good news for millions hurting around the world, it places America in the position of fulfilling a moral obligation to keep these vulnerable populations alive. Yet where will the money come from if America's foreign assistance dollars continue to shrink because the mandatory spending is taking a growing piece of the pie? Ecclesiastes 5:5 says, ``It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.'' I fear, Madam Speaker, that the vow will not be able to be fulfilled because of the deficit spending that we have no way to deal with. The economic stimulus being shaped by the administration offers an opportunity, and Jim Cooper and I have a bipartisan bill, eight Republicans and eight Democrats, that puts all spending on the table and forces, and forces the Congress to act. Many Members of the Congress go home and love to give the speeches at the Rotary Clubs talking about how bad the deficit is, but yet when they come back to Washington they do nothing about it. So next week, Madam Speaker, I will offer an amendment in the appropriations bill to put the Cooper-Wolf language into law whereby we can get control of this runaway spending.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I continue to be deeply concerned about America's mounting deficit spending and Federal debt and have been working for the past several years to engage this administration in embracing a bipartisan plan to reverse course and get our country on a sound and sustainable financial path. I introduced the SAFE Commission concept for the first time during the 109th Congress on June 7, 2006. In the 110th Congress I teamed with Jim Cooper, and we introduced the bipartisan SAFE Commission legislation again. A similar Senate effort was led by Budget Chairman Kent Conrad and ranking member Judd Gregg. Following the SAFE bill's introduction, I reached out to Treasury Secretary Paulson about getting our fiscal house through more than a dozen letters from July 12, 2007, to April 10, 2008, updating the administration on progress that was being made with the bill. I submit for the Record a sample of that correspondence. I have been encouraged with the growing support for the SAFE proposal from leading newspaper editorials to think tanks to syndicated columnists to business organizations. I remain deeply disappointed that this idea was not embraced by Secretary Paulson. I hope that the Obama administration will understand the urgency for bipartisan action to address this nation's long-term budget challenges, especially as we deal with the current financial crisis, for the sake of our children and grandchildren. House of Representatives, Washington, DC, July 12, 2007. Hon. Henry Paulson, Secretary, Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC. Dear Secretary Paulson: As you know, Senator Voinovich and I reintroduced the Securing America's Future Economy (SAFE) Commission Act in January. I wanted to follow up with you and share the enclosed letter I wrote to the president asking that the administration embrace this idea. I think about our children and grandchildren and it is disheartening that critical issues are falling by the wayside because Congress today is so polarized. I believe that a bipartisan commission operating outside the halls of Congress that would mandate action is the answer to getting our fiscal house in order and diverting financial crisis in this country. The SAFE Commission bill has 32 cosponsors to date. I am committed to continue working with my colleagues to enact this legislation on a matter of such importance to our nation's future. Best wishes. Sincerely, Frank R. Wolf, Member of Congress.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor today to raise the issue of the dire financial situation facing our country. We must come together to face the reality that America is living on borrowed dollars to the tune of $11 trillion in debt and $54 trillion, soon to go higher, in unfunded liabilities with entitlements. We must offer a bipartisan solution to these long-term financial challenges. In recent days, there have been calls to consider the long-term budget controls in tandem with any economic stimulus package offered. The respected Heritage Foundation released a report last Friday, entitled ``Stimulus Legislation Must Include Budget Reforms to Address Long-term Challenges.'' The report offered support for budget control mechanisms that would be set up through the Cooper-Wolf SAFE Commission legislation in the House and the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action effort proposed by Budget Chairman Kent Conrad and Ranking Member, Senator Judd Gregg, in the Senate. The Heritage publication, which I submit for the record, notes that SAFE ``would have the advantage of a two-step process. Its first phase would be a series of nationwide public hearings to talk frankly about the long-term fiscal problems and the tough options for fixing it and build public support for congressional action on a broad plan of action.'' As our colleagues may recall, the SAFE process would culminate in legislative recommendations to Congress, and like the BRAC process for closing bases, Congress would be required to vote up or down on the plan. I know there have been questions raised about incorporating long-term budget controls in a short-term stimulus aimed primarily at job creation, but I would argue--and many would argue--that the time is now here to begin to confront the underlying problem of autopilot spending. I don't know about other Members, but my constituents continue to share their frustration with Congress' seeming to know only how to spend money with no regard for the future. We need to listen to the American people and show them that we can lead and that we can make the difficult choices. The longer we wait and the more consuming entitlement program spending becomes, the more draconian our choices will be. We are mortgaging the future for our children and grandchildren. The bottom line is we cannot deal with the short-term financial problems without thinking about and dealing with the long-term solutions. The SAFE Commission is not a new idea. Over 110 Members of Congress cosponsored the legislation in the last year. The Heritage Foundation, the Brookings Institution and the Concord Coalition all helped draft the bill. Jim Cooper and I joined bipartisan forces in the last Congress, and SAFE has continued to garner support from other leading voices, including the business community--the Virginia and Tennessee Chambers of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Federation of Independent Business. We all know that it will take all of the political courage that we can muster to reject the partisan and special interest demands and to do what is best for the country. If other Members have a better bipartisan idea that can pass the House, they should be introducing it, and it should be included in the stimulus package. Not acting on this issue is effectively supporting either the ``do nothing plan'' or the ``maybe this problem will fix itself plan'' or the ``let's just bury our heads in the sand plan,'' but the numbers don't lie. The Nation's future outlook is sobering. Just in the short term, CBO projects that the Federal budget deficit for this fiscal year alone, which started in October, will balloon to $1.2 trillion and perhaps higher. We offered this SAFE idea as an amendment to the FY09 Financial Services spending bill last June. Unfortunately, we came up one vote short of passage. Congressman Allen Boyd, the founding member of the Blue Dog Coalition, spoke eloquently from his heart in support of the amendment, asking us to envision ourselves 20 years from now, sitting on the front porch and telling our grandchildren about the days we served in Congress. What will we tell our grandchildren--that we looked the other way, knowing that out-of-control entitlement spending would threaten the living standards of future generations? The stakes for the country's future may have never been so high. This is clearly an economic issue, but it is also a moral and a generational issue. Abraham Lincoln once said, ``You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.'' I believe the moral component of this issue goes to the heart of who we are as Americans. This is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It is an American issue. If we can't find a way to come together on this fundamental issue, I will have serious questions about our ability to find bipartisan solutions that will work for the good of the country. I am asking our colleagues today to come together, to know that while we served in Congress we did everything we could in our power to provide the kind of security and way of life for our children and for our grandchildren that our parents and grandparents worked so hard to provide for us. This challenge, too, goes out to the leadership in Congress and to the soon-to-be Obama administration to make this a truly bipartisan effort. Put the SAFE Commission process in the stimulus package and on the fast track to enactment. I have never been more committed to an issue and to helping to find bipartisan solutions to address our long-term financial sustainability of this country. The American people expect nothing less. [From the Heritage Foundation, Jan. 9, 2009] Stimulus Legislation Must Include Budget Reforms To Address Long-Term Challenges (By Alison Acosta Fraser) Congress and President-elect Barack Obama have set their sights on a massive economic stimulus bill crammed full of spending projects intended to ``jolt'' the economy into recovery. By some counts this package may reach $1 trillion, or nearly 85 percent of the total of all budget bills passed last year.\1\ This is not the way to spur economic recovery. But even if it were, Obama already recognizes he faces a difficult challenge: how to keep the stimulus focused on short-term deficit spending and avoid a huge, long-term expansion of the federal government--and with it a dramatic increase in the staggeringly large unfunded obligations due mainly to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. To deal with that challenge, Obama should work with fiscally responsible Members of Congress to include four key budget reforms in any stimulus legislation: 1. Put long-term obligations from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid front and center in the budget process; 2. Establish a bipartisan congressional commission to develop a package of long-term reforms for entitlements; 3. Establish equitable policies for assessing and enforcing spending and revenues changes in the budget; and 4. Create a long-term budget for entitlement spending. Spending and Deficits Hit New Records. Federal spending is projected to top 25 percent of GDP in 2009, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBE), the highest it has been since World War II, and that is before any stimulus legislation. The deficit is projected to reach $1.2 trillion by the end of this year, and any stimulus would likely push the deficit to more than $1.6 trillion. Similar large deficits are projected to continue into the future.\2\ Such deficits are a loud alarm to which policymakers must listen: Federal spending is out of control. But even they ignore the deeper fiscal problems of Social Security and Medicare. These programs together, not even counting Medicaid, have an unfunded obligation that is equivalent to a mortgage of $43 trillion.\3\ Future generations will be forced to pay for those obligations through higher taxes unless the programs are modernized. Budget Restraint. While making the case for his massive short-term stimulus proposal. President-elect Obama acknowledged the threat entitlements pose to the economy, noting, ``If we do nothing, then we will continue to see red ink as far as the eye can see.'' He called budget reform ``an absolute necessity,'' and he has pledged to confront the problems from Social Security and Medicare in his budget. Budget writers in Congress are also alarmed. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), called the deficit ``jaw dropping,'' and House Budget Committee Chairman Jack Spratt (D-SC) was suffering ``sticker shock.'' \4\ They and their ranking member counterparts have encouraged lawmakers to tackle the long-term budget problems posed by these entitlement programs. Conrad and Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) have urged Congress to link the stimulus with action to address the long-term budget crisis.\5\ If President-elect Ohama is serious about fiscal responsibility, he and responsible Members of Congress must insist on budget reforms to prevent further deterioration of an already alarming long-term budget problem and require action to tackle these challenges directly. To that end, he and responsible lawmakers should insist on these four key budget reform measures being included in any stimulus package: 1. Put long-term obligations from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid front and center in the budget process, with an up-or-down vote on any budget that will increase debts on future generations. Such a measure could easily be incorporated into the annual budget resolution. This would provide a more accurate and transparent assessment of the federal government's commitments and provide all Americans with a vivid picture of the problem. All major policy changes should be scored over the long term to indicate what impact they would have on the total unfunded obligations of the government. That would provide lawmakers and the public with a better understanding of the true long- term costs of new legislation. And to put Members on record on their attitude to burdening our children and grandchildren, they should have to vote during the annual budget process if the proposed budget will increase long-term obligations.\6\ 2. Enact a bipartisan congressional commission to develop a package of long-term reforms that will make these programs affordable. Bipartisan legislation to implement this type of commission was introduced in the previous Congress: the SAFE Act (H.R. 3654), co-sponsored by Representatives Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Frank Wolf (R-VA), and the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act (S. 2063), co-sponsored by Conrad and Gregg. Under both bills, a commission would craft detailed recommendations for a fast-track vote in Congress. The SAFE Act would have the added advantage of a two-step process. Its first phase would be a series of nationwide public hearings to talk frankly about the long-term fiscal problem and the tough options for fixing it and to build public support for congressional action on a broad plan of action.\7\ 3. Establish equitable policies for assessing and enforcing spending and revenues changes in the budget. Any budget enforcement mechanism is based on changes in projected spending and revenues. The CBO projects a spending baseline by assuming that all the laws authorizing spending--such as the highway or farm programs, or even appropriations--will be extended year after year and spending levels will continue even if they expire regularly under existing law. But when it comes to taxes, the CBO's baseline is current statute, and any rates reductions, deductions, credits. etc., that arc scheduled to expire are assumed to do so. The lopsided result is that spending is given a free ride under the baseline while any reduction in the growth of taxes is assumed to be temporary This skewed baseline means current ``PAYGO'' rules are biased toward tax increases. Thus, for any enforcement mechanism to be considered fair and to be effective, it must be based on the same baseline treatment for both spending and revenues. Indeed, Obama's own advisors have already criticized this lopsided policy treatment, which stacks the deck in favor of higher spending and higher taxes.\8\ 4. Create a long-term budget for entitlement spending. Unlike ``discretionary'' programs such as defense and education, ``mandatory'' entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security are not budgeted annually. Entitlement spending grows on auto-pilot, in conjunction with the programs' regulatory framework, so there is not an open or transparent consideration of priorities or budgetary trade- offs. And since spending levels are simply the product of individuals using their entitlement, there is in a sense no budget just a projection of likely total costs. And as they grow unchecked, these entitlements crowd out other programs and priorities. This must change, by constraining entitlement programs with a real budget. To be sure, retirement programs require longer time horizons and planning than typical discretionary programs so that beneficiaries will not face unexpected annual changes in benefits. Therefore, Congress should create a long-term framework for a constrained entitlement budget that would be periodically evaluated to ensure that these programs are sustainable and affordable over the long term. This could be done by creating a long-term budget window--for example, 30 years. All spending would be reviewed every five years, and the commission could recommend measures for Congress to ensure that the programs live within this budget framework.\9\ There are many reasons to be concerned over the unprecedented stimulus spending now being proposed, including the ineffectiveness of Keynesian pump priming, the perils of such an immense hike in government spending, and the creation of new permanent government programs. With the first baby boomers recently retiring, America is experiencing the first waves of the entitlement tsunami. The stimulus legislation could set the stage for a permanent sea of red ink and an even larger tsunami of debt. Substantive budget reforms are needed to prevent such a scenario from occurring. Truly Serious? If President-elect Obama insists on a massive spending bill, he must ensure it does not result in huge permanent new government programs and thus potentially trillions of dollars in new burdens on our children and grandchildren. He must demonstrate his commitment to tackle the long-term entitlement challenges by working with Members of Congress to build sound budget process reform measures into the stimulus legislation. If he does not do so, the young Americans who voted for him should question how serious he is about protecting their financial future. endnotes 1. Estimated FY 2008 appropriations $1.154 trillion, prior to all enacted supplementals. Office of Management and Budget, ``Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2009: Historical Tables,'' Table 5.4, at www.whitehouse.gov/ omb/budget/fy2009/hist .html (January 9, 2009). 2. See Brian M. Riedl, ``CBO Budget Baseline Shows Historic Surge in Spending and Debt,'' Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2193, January 7, 2009, at http://www .heritage.org/research/budget,wm2193 (January 9, 2009). 3. Department of the Treasury, ``2008 Financial Report of the United States Government,'' December 15, 2008, p. 41, at http://fms.treas.gov/fr/index.html (January 9, 2009). 4. Lori Montgomery, ``Congress Urges Spending Restraint,'' The Washington Post, January 8, 2009, at http://www. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/ AR2009010701156.html?hpid=topnew (January 9, 2009.) 5. Senators Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg. ``A Fiscal Battle on Two Fronts,'' The Washington Post, January 5, 2009, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/ 04/AR2009010401436_pf.html (January 9, 2009). 6. Alison Acosta Fraser, ``Federal Budget Should Include Long-Term Obligations from Entitlement Programs,'' Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum No. 1004, June 22, 2006, at http://ww.heritage.org/Research/Budget/em1004.cfm. 7. Alison Acosta Fraser, ``The SAFE Commission Act (H.R. 3654) and the Long-Term Fiscal Challenge,'' testimony before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, June 25, 2008, at http://www .heritage.org/Research/Budget/tst062508b.cfm. 8. J.D. Foster, Ph.D., ``Obama to CBO Revenue Baseline: Nuts--and He's Right!,'' Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 2019, August 11, 2008, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/ Budget/wm2019.cfm. 9. Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., Alison Acosta Fraser and Other Authors, ``Taking Back our Fiscal Future,'' Heritage Foundation White Paper, March 31, 2008, at http://www .heritage.org/Research/Budget/wp0408.cfm.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, it is my privilege to honor my constituent, Cadet Colonel Robert Wilson of Chantilly, Virginia, for his remarkable achievements as a member of the Civil Air Patrol. At a Pentagon presentation and award ceremony on January 5, Cadet Wilson was presented with the General Carl A. Spaatz Award. The Spaatz Award is the Civil Air Patrol's highest cadet honor, presented to cadets who demonstrate extraordinary leadership, character, fitness, and aerospace knowledge. For every 1,000 cadets, only 2 achieve this distinct honor. Robert first joined the Civil Air Patrol in January 2004 where he served with distinction in the Fairfax Composite Squadron of the National Capital Wing. Upon graduation from high school, he chose to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, to obtain his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. Robert joined the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps and is a member of the Arnold Air Society. He plans to continue his education and training to be of service as a U.S. Air Force test pilot. On December 18, 2008, Robert successfully completed the Carl A. Spaatz Exam, the final stage of a long and grueling journey through 16 rigorous skill tests. Having overcome this final obstacle, he now joins the ranks of the Civil Air Patrol's best and brightest as a recipient of the General Carl A. Spaatz Award for outstanding cadets.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today in memory of Father Richard John Neuhaus who passed away on January 7, 2009. Father Neuhaus was a man of great intellect and a prolific writer who defined the terms of the modern debate regarding the role of religion in public life. His work inspired a countless number of individuals and his legacy which is grounded in his deep faith in God will live on for years to come. The following piece which appeared in the January 19 edition of Newsweek is a fitting tribute to the life and work of Father Neuhaus. [From Newsweek, Jan. 19, 2009] Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009--An Honorable Christian Soldier (By George Weigel) Father Richard John Neuhaus's work will be remembered and debated for decades. As a Lutheran pastor, he was one of the first civil-rights activists to identify the pro-life cause with the moral truths for which he and others had marched in Selma; he set the terms of the contemporary American church- state debate and added a new phrase to our public vocabulary with his 1984 bestseller, ``The Naked Public Square.'' As a Catholic priest, he helped define new patterns of theological dialogue between Catholics and evangelicals, and between Christians and Jews. The journal he launched in the early 1990s, First Things, quickly became, under his leadership and inspiration, the most important vehicle for exploring the tangled web of religion and society in the English-speaking world. All of this suggests that Richard Neuhaus was, arguably, the most consequential public theologian in America since the days of Reinhold Niebuhr and John Courtney Murray,