Frank Wolf

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, we wanted to bring some sort of information here because I was listening back in my office. In the CR under consideration today are two provisions providing the Securities and Exchange Commission with additional authorities and resources to protect investors. That is already in the CR. The second provision allows the SEC to fund the start-up expenses of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to begin to provide the additional necessary scrutiny in corporate accounting. There was also a bill put in earlier today, I believe it has been put in, which does the following: with regard to the fiscal year 2003 Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill, and the gentleman from Massachusetts was referring to this, it includes $776 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission. That is the level that is authorized by the Sarbanes-Oxley bill. It is $209 million, I will tell the gentleman, above the President's request; and it is higher than the amount that was in the Senate bill. In addition to fully funding the SEC's pay parity cost, the funding will include an increase of $100 million for information technology initiatives such as enhanced automated analytical tools, an integrated document management system, a central data repository and various e- government projects. It will also, I will tell the body so they feel very comfortable in voting for what the gentleman was talking about on the CR, the funding level will also provide for hundreds of additional accountants, attorneys and examiners to substantially increase oversight of auditors and audit services, enhance the commission's investigative and enforcement capability, improve disclosure of information to investors, and perform various other oversight duties. So that bill has been introduced and is in the hopper tonight.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that in the engrossment of the bill, H.R. 5603, the Clerk be directed to make the technical and substantive modifications that I have placed at the desk.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 11 a.m. on Thursday, October 24, 2002; and further, that when the House adjourns on October 24, 2002, it adjourn to meet at 11 a.m. on Monday, October 28, 2002.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution. I understand the concerns that have been raised about the United States taking action against the Iraqi regime; but I believe that the President, as Commander in Chief, should have the flexibility he seeks in responding to the very real threat that Saddam Hussein poses to freedom. We witnessed the vulnerability of America on September 11, 2001, when hijacked jetliners were used as weapons of destruction in New York City, and even close to this Capitol just across the Potomac River at the Pentagon. The families of several dozen people who live in my congressional district gave their lives that day knowing all too well the evil of terrorism. The devastation of 9-11 must never again be allowed to come to our shores. We must take all appropriate action to stop terrorism and tyrants who would do harm to America and allies. That action includes enforcing the more than a dozen resolutions of the United Nations which calls for the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. America also saw the face of terrorism in 1998 when two American embassies in east Africa were bombed by terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden, killing 12 Americans among the 230 who died. Because of my concern at that time about the emerging threat to our country, I authored the legislation to create the National Commission on Terrorism. Quite frankly, it was hard to get the Congress interested at that time, but we were successful in establishing a bipartisan commission to assess the terrorist threat and recommended a response in June 2000. The Bremer Commission said: ``U.S. policies must firmly target all states that support terrorists.'' The State Department clearly lists Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism. Evidence shows, and we have heard the debate today, that Saddam Hussein's dictatorship has provided headquarters, operating bases, training camps, and other support to terrorist groups. The President has made the case to the American people, to the Congress, to the United Nations, and to our allies that Saddam Hussein poses a clear, lethal threat to our Nation and the world. He has failed to live up time after time to U.N. resolutions. Saddam Hussein has used chemical and biological weapons on his neighbors and even on his own people. Evidence shows he has tried for years to develop nuclear weapons; and if he gets a nuclear bomb, I believe he may use it on America or our Armed Forces somewhere around the world. It is critical that Congress come together united now behind the President to approve this resolution before us today to give the President authority to enforce through the United Nations Security Council all relevant Security Council resolutions applicable to Iraq and obtain prompt and decisive action by the Security Council to ensure that Iraq abandons its strategy of delay, evasion, noncompliance, and promptly and strictly complies with all relevant Security Council resolutions. America is a peace-loving Nation, and we have never sought war. We never seek the use of force; but when we are attacked or our security is threatened, we will and must act in the Nation's best interests. Our Nation was attacked on September 11, 2001; 3,000 people were killed. We acted swiftly to declare war on terrorism. We are in a long and difficult battle. As the President has declared, the war on terrorism includes not only the terrorists who attack us, but also the nations that harbor or give aid. We must work to exhaust all peaceful options to enforce the will of the United Nations in disarming Iraq. But if those peaceful means fail to accomplish that goal, America must stand up for freedom and security, as history has witnessed our great Nation doing in past causes to fight evil, and forcefully remove Saddam Hussein and the threat he brings. This is a difficult challenge before us. The fight for peace and freedom is never easy, but we must respond to this call for action. The challenge before our President, the Commander in Chief, and before this Congress as the representatives of the United States is sobering. To cast a vote to send America's troops into harm's way to face what could be the supreme sacrifice for freedom is our most solemn duty. But to wait and do nothing could lead to weapons of mass destruction being used against the United States, our allies and others, resulting in the death of thousands and thousands of people. It is not a vote we seek with eagerness, but we all must do what we believe in conscience is the right thing to do; and I believe the right thing to do is to help make the world a safer, more secure and peaceful place where people can live in freedom without fear of tyrants and terrorists.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, also keep in mind that Osama bin Laden, the source of terrorism, lived in Sudan from 1991 to 1996. I rise in strong support of H.R. 5531, the Sudan Peace Act, that will be helpful in promoting a just peace in war-ravaged Sudan. The war in Sudan has been monumental. Over 2 million people, mainly Christians, but some Muslims, have been killed during the last 20 years. The people of southern Sudan have borne the brunt of the pain, death and destruction of the war while frankly the rest of the world stood by and watched. The southerners have been the victims of the Government of Sudan's intentional and indiscriminate aerial bombing attacks. Government planes have repeatedly dropped bombs on southern civilian population centers, hospitals and international humanitarian offices. Innocent men, women and children have been blown apart for no reason except that they live in southern Sudan. The Khartoum regime, which welcomed Osama bin Laden, has routinely used food aid as a weapon in its war with the southern-led opposition, repeatedly denying much-needed humanitarian and medical assistance to millions of its own countrymen. The Khartoum regime has recently yet again, just a couple of days ago, shut down the primary and largest international humanitarian effort in Sudan, Operation Lifeline Sudan, cutting off Sudan's airspace of virtually all flights into southern Sudan. This shutdown has resulted in the denial of much-needed food and medical assistance to millions of the suffering and needy. Oil, as the gentleman from New Jersey said, in southern Sudan is being exploited by the Sudanese Government resulting in a scorched Earth, death and destruction. Attacks occur on sleeping villages by Russian-built, government-flown attack helicopter gunships that ride along the route of the pipeline and literally just gun down the women and the children. Posses come in and raid and kill the men, rape the women, and take the children away. The government has also used army soldiers on foot to attack sleeping villages early, early in the morning. A humanitarian-aid worker interviewed several survivors of these attacks reporting on one attack on three villages where more than 6,000 Christian farmers live, located on the border between the Southern Blue Nile and Eastern Upper Nile in Sudan: ``The government set up the attack overnight so that the inhabitants were killed at dawn as the village awakened. The solders reportedly used .50 caliber machine guns, assault rifles and other heavy caliber automatic weapons. Children were gunned down as they ran away, and many wives last saw their husbands attacking the machine gun emplacements with axes, machetes and hoes in order to buy time for their wives to escape. Those women who made it to freedom then walked more than 10 days through the bush, with only trees to eat, in order to reach the safety of a friendly village compound in the Eastern Upper Nile. They were severely malnourished, so much so that they could not provide their infants with any breast milk. There were no SPLA soldiers stationed in the three villages.'' So they were bombing and killing civilians. This legislation rightly condemns the Government of Sudan for condoning slavery. There is slavery in Sudan; and the world, other than the United States and a few others, has just sat by and done absolutely positively nothing. In closing, in summary, I want to thank a number of the Members that have really been involved: the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo); the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne); the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde); the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos); the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), a champion of this bill working on human rights; the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), who took this issue on, who had a better bill than this bill but has pursued and pushed this; Senator Brownback; the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce), chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa; Senator Frist; the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton); and others who have been so active. I also want to thank, if it is not a violation of the rules, President Bush for taking a personal interest in this and as appointing the envoy, former Senator Danforth. I want to thank Secretary Powell and the people in the State Department that are working on this.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5335, to designate the Federal Building and United States courthouse at 200 West 2nd Street in Dayton, OH, as the ``Tony Hall Federal Building and United States Courthouse.'' As you know, Mr. Speaker, our former colleague Tony Hall was nominated by President Bush to be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies located in Rome, Italy, and resigned his seat as the representative of the 3rd District of Ohio last month to take his post in Rome, where he will be able to continue his passionate work as a leading advocate for ending hunger and promoting food security around the world. I want to thank Congressman David Hobson of Ohio for introducing H.R. 5335 to honor Tony in his hometown of Dayton by attaching his name to the federal building and courthouse there. It is an appropriate recognition for the nearly 24 years of service in the House and the 10 years of service in the Ohio General Assembly that Tony Hall provided to the people of Dayton and surrounding areas. We already miss Tony in the House, but I know that he is absolutely the right person to serve as the United States representative to the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development, all agencies of the United Nations which assist international hunger-relief efforts. Tony Hall's name is synonymous with the cause of alleviating hunger both domestically and worldwide. He believes that food is the most basic of human needs, the most basis of human rights, and he passionately worked to convince others that the cause of hunger, which often gets lost in the legislative shuffle and pushed aside by more visible issued, deserved a prominent share of attention and resources to assist people who are the most at risk and too often the least defended. He also worked as a tireless advocate for the cause of human rights around the world and focused his attention on the illicit diamond trade in Sierra Leone. He convinced me to travel with him to Sierra Leone in later 1999 to see how the machete-wielding rebels there have intimidated men, women, and children by hacking off arms, legs, and ears. He led the effort in bringing to the attention of Congress the conflict diamond trade and authoring legislation to certify that the diamonds Americans buy are not tainted with the blood of the people of Sierra Leone and other African nations. We also traveled together in January to Afghanistan with Congressman Joe Pitts as the first congressional delegation to that country since the war on terrorism. We visited hospitals, an orphanage, schools, and refugee camps. We met with U.S. diplomats and soldiers; with local leaders and officials with direct responsibility for humanitarian problems and refugees; with representatives of United Nations and private relief organizations; and in Pakistan with refugees and members of religious minority groups. Tony is never deterred in his effort to help make a positive difference in the lives of suffering people. In his years in Congress, he traveled to wherever the need arose and met with whomever he could to effect change, taking risks few would take, with his own comfort and safety never entering his mind. I believe Tony's life destiny is to be a servant. During 1966 and 1967, he taught English in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer. He returned to Dayton to work as a realtor and small businessman for several years, but before long, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives where he served from 1969 to 1972, and then to the Ohio Senate, serving from 1973 to 1978. On November 7, 1978, Tony was elected to the House of Representatives from the 3rd District of Ohio and served with distinction for over two decades. Tony Hall is an inspiration to everyone fortunate enough to know him. He has a wonderful combination of compassion and passion filled with spiritual purpose--compassion to see the suffering in the less fortunate in the world and the passion to work to do something about it. I urge a unanimous vote in support of H.R. 5335, to recognize the dedicated public service of Tony Hall by naming the federal building and courthouse in Dayton, OH, in his honor. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Executive Commission on China released its inaugural report today. I am one of nine commissioners from the House. Because of my concerns that this report inadequately addresses the Government of China's continuing human rights abuses, I could not vote to support it. I want to share with our colleagues my dissenting views on the report. Dissenting View While this first report by the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) contains some worthwhile recommendations and observations on the continued human rights abuses in the People's Republic of China, I do not believe it sufficiently describes and addresses the degree to which these human rights abuses can be laid at the feet of the Government of China. In a recent letter to all CECC commissioners, human rights advocate Harry Wu outlined several human rights issues in China that should have been included or discussed with more vigor and analysis in this report. I share in Mr. Wu's analysis. For example, the section of the report on village elections gives the impression that the practice of village elections may be a positive development in a transition to democracy in China, without seriously analyzing whether or not the Communist Party may use village elections as a method of establishing control in the rural regions. The report says that ``critics of the process say that the Communist Party manipulates the outcome[s[rsqb]'', but it does not adequately assert that China's rulers may use village elections as part of a strategy to maintain control. On another matter which Mr. Wu raises, it is perplexing that the report fails to reflect the debate this year in Congress and in the Bush Administration about China's planned birth policy, particularly regarding whether or not the Administration would withhold funding from the United Nations Population Control Fund. This important issue is not addressed in this, the first, report of the commission and is conspicuous by its absence. The commission recently held a hearing on this subject, and I believe the report should address in detail China's planned birth policy. Similarly, I agree with Mr. Wu that the report fails to discuss China's state-sponsored harvesting and trafficking of prisoners' organs, where a common thief can be executed in order for his organs to be sold for transplanting. Can you imagine being imprisoned for a minor offense and ending up being shot in the head and having your kidneys or corneas removed to be sold? Congress has held numerous hearings on this issue and the news media has written about this issue, but the report fails to discuss this horrible practice. I also believe the recommendations on religious freedom should be stronger. While these recommendations may be well- intentioned, they lack the necessary depth of discussion in addressing the Chinese Government's continued persecution of believers of all faiths--Roman Catholics, Protestants, Falun Gong practitioners, Muslim Uighurs, and Tibetan Buddhists. Furthermore, I am concerned that this commission may not be willing to be a direct advocate on behalf of human rights and religious freedom, through letters or conversations with Chinese officials. As I stated at a commission hearing this year, this panel should follow the model of the Helsinki Commission and be vocal in its advocacy for individual cases and human rights in general. I agree with John Kamm, president of the Dui Hua religious freedom organization, who has done more than almost anyone I know for human rights in China, who said at a commission hearing, ``The model should be the Helsinki Commission . . . I foresee a day when this commission . . . is an arsenal of human rights.'' The Helsinki Commission does not hesitate to write directly to leaders of member countries advocating human rights and religious freedom. The Helsinki Commission has done more than almost any other entity to bring freedom, hope and democracy to the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries. The CECC ought to follow this successful model. But, clearly, this has not yet occurred, and it is almost as if the CECC is afraid that it will offend the China Government. If I were a prisoner in China today, I wonder if I would have the same amount of trust and hope in the CECC to take up my case with Chinese officials as Soviet dissidents had in the Helsinki Commission, which was a tireless advocate with officials in the former Soviet Union. While there are those of us on the commission on differing sides of the China PNTR issue, I am concerned with the perception that many of the commission's staff are more skilled in the areas of business and trade than in the area of human rights. As the law that created the CECC states, monitoring China's compliance on respecting human rights is a primary task of the commission. I believe the commission's efforts would be enhanced if staff expertise were more balanced, especially to include more staff who have the passion for promoting human rights in China. While I know that the commission staff is composed of competent and skilled professionals, and they are people of integrity, I have been very disappointed with their shortcomings in human rights and religious freedom advocacy. For the reasons outlined above, I believe this report has some serious gaps in its coverage of human rights in China and I cannot sign the report. This commission was created with a mandate to promote human rights in China. Unfortunately, I do not see this happening. Human rights organizations have expressed similar concerns to me and some have even questioned whether the commission should continue to exist. I have similar questions regarding the continued viability of the commission. Lastly, an observation: the fundamental problem in China in regard to the government's human rights abuses and restriction on human liberty is not the ``law'' in China, but the ``regime'' in China. The root problem in China is not just a faulty legal system, but a corrupt, totalitarian, oppressive, communist ruling regime that consistently violates human rights and religious freedom of its own citizens--Roman Catholics, Protestants, Falun Gong practitioners, Muslim Uighurs, Tibetan Buddhists or almost anyone who strives to worship and live with liberty.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, first of all I want to congratulate the chairman for all the good work and his patience in dealing with a very, very difficult issue. I just heard the gentleman from Michigan say about blaming. I really think it is inappropriate to kind of start blaming people, and I think it is important that we work together. The good news is we will resolve the issue. I think what is complicating this matter is that we are coming close to an election time and generally that sometimes creates problems here in this body which is in essence a political body. The chairman has been working very hard. All the subcommittees have been working hard. I think the leadership on both sides will come together after we finish the election in November, and I think we will leave here doing the people's business. I am optimistic with regard to that. This resolution is important because, in our area, we are going to be funding embassy security which everyone wants to do and do well so we do not have another Tanzania or another bombing in Kenya or Karachi, which we had. We also are funding the FBI. The FBI obviously is a fundamental backbone of the homeland security issue. Within that we have language training. We have the technology for Trilogy so the FBI can share the data, the information. We are also funding the INS. Who would not want to do that particularly at this very, very difficult time? Also, this money will be very helpful in these days of hearing about Enron and WorldCom, the Securities and Exchange Commission is funded through this. This is a good thing to do. It ought not be controversial. This is not new. No one should assume that this is the first time that this has ever happened, that the Congress has passed continuing resolutions. My sense is that we may actually pass fewer continuing resolutions this year than has been done in the past. Let us do this. Let us find a day that we can recess, come back and finish the people's business before the end of the year so the government can work well. I think we will do that. I again thank the chairman for his patience in a very, very difficult job and all the Members that are working together, knowing that we will resolve this and do the people's business.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to personally thank the gentleman from Iowa for staying with this and having the courage, and, as people back in Iowa ought to know, that because of him this thing is up. I also thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce), who unfortunately is going to be leaving us, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte). Because of them this bill is here. To vote against this bill would be unbelievable. If anyone votes against this bill, I will not understand it. I just appreciate the gentleman from New York's comments on the critical nature with regard to the terrorism. The FBI has testified there is a huge potential for offshore gambling sites being used for money laundering, for terrorist and criminal activities. We have said it. Terrorist and criminal activities. Again, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) should be thanked by everyone in the country. The gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) should be thanked by everyone in the country, as should the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte). They have made a difference and will save a lot of lives and will really put a stake in the heart with regard to terrorism. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 556 and want to commend my colleagues Jim Leach, John LaFalce, and Mike Oxley and Virginia colleague Bob Goodlatte for their partnership, their hard work and persistence to get this bill to the floor today. The legislation before us has at its heart the kind of consensus building and compromise that I believe can attract the level of support needed to pass this important measure to give law enforcement agencies the tools they need to stop the criminal activity associated with unlawful Internet gambling. In 1999, The National Gambling Impact Study Commission issued a report urging Congress to pass legislation ``prohibiting wire transfers to known Internet gambling sites, or to the banks that represent them.'' As the author of the legislation that established the Commission, I have maintained a keen interest in following through on its recommendations which included addressing the explosive growth in Internet gambling. According to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, gambling on the Internet is especially enticing to youth, pathological gamblers, and criminals. There are currently no mechanisms in place to prevent youth--who make up the largest percentage of Internet users from using their parents' credit card numbers to register and set up accounts for use at Internet gambling sites. In addition, pathological gamblers may become easily addicted to online gambling because of the Internet's easy access, anonymity and instant results. Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, director of addiction studies at Harvard University, likens the Internet to new delivery forms of addictive drugs: ``As smoking crack cocaine changed the cocaine experience, I think electronics is going to change the way gambling is experienced.'' Finally, Internet gambling can provide a nearly undetectable harbor for criminal enterprises. The anonymity associated with the Internet makes online gambling more susceptible to crime. In 2001, Chairman Leach and Chairman Goodlatte listened to the Commission's request and introduced two separate bills to fight illegal Internet gambling. Over the August recess, provisions from the two measures were combined into an amended version of H.R. 556, the Leach- LaFalce Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is before us today. This balanced compromise worked out between the Financial Services and Judiciary committees makes it a crime to accept payment for illegal Internet gambling transactions by credit card, check, or electronic funds transfer. Under the bill, banks and credit card companies would be required to block payments to Internet casinos and other illegal Internet gambling operations. As a testament to the fairness of this bill, it has attracted the support of the major issuers of credit cards including Bank of America, MBNA America, American Express, Citigroup, and Discover Financial Services, among others. The negative consequences of online gambling can be as detrimental to the families and communities of addictive gamblers as if a bricks and mortar casino were built right next door. Internet gambling is affiliated with a host of social ills, including gambling addiction, bankruptcy, divorce, and even suicide and just as with traditional forms of gambling, the costs must ultimately be borne by society. As the gambling commission noted, one of the most troubling aspects of Internet gambling is that many of those enticed into addictive online gambling behavior are school-aged children with no previous exposure to gambling. Internet gambling also has been linked to specific cases of corruption in professional and amateur sports. As a result, H.R. 556 has been endorsed by a host of anti-gambling organizations, including the American Family Association, Christian Coalition of America, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, the Traditional Values Coalition, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Football League and Major League Baseball, among others. There is one final and perhaps most critical issue that unlawful Internet gambling raises--Internet gambling has been linked by the FBI to organized crime and international money laundering. The FBI has testified that there is a huge potential for offshore gambling sites to be used for money laundering for terrorist and criminal activity. The FBI and law enforcement organizations including the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and the Fraternal Order of Police agree about the necessity for this legislation to thwart Internet gambling operators attempts to launder money and engage in terrorist and other illegal activities. Mr. Speaker, it is time for this Congress to address the growing problems associated with illegal Internet gambling. I urge a unanimous vote for H.R. 556, and again want to express my deep gratitude to Mr. Leach, Mr. LaFalce, Mr. Oxley and Mr. Goodlatte for their commitment and their work to pass this legislation.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4944, a bill to create the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. I want to personally thank my good friend, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen), for moving this bill so much. I really want to thank him. I also want to acknowledge our former colleague, French Slaughter, who has passed away, for creating this idea. I want to acknowledge the gentleman in the chair, Mr. Goodlatte, who has been such a help. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4944, a bill to create the ``Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park.'' I want to thank Chairman Hansen and the Resources Committee staff for their valuable assistance in moving this bill. I also want to recognize the efforts of one of our former colleagues: the late D. French Slaughter who served in the House from 1985 until 1991. He help lay the ground work for the creation of this park. This legislation is the result of the tireless work of a number of people and organizations, including the National Park Service, local elected officials and landowners in the Shenandoah Valley, and prominent historians and preservationists. An outgrowth of the efforts of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District Commission established by Congress in 1996, the park will help preserve and interpret the rich history of the Shenandoah Valley. In addition to preserving the site of the Civil War Battle of Cedar Creek--it was the last battle of the 1864 Civil War Valley campaign, marking the end of Confederate power in the Valley and its timing just three weeks before the 1864 presidential election also unquestionably influenced the magnitude of President Lincoln's reelection--the park will help tell the story of Native American burial grounds in the region, the influence of German settlers who migrated to the area along the Great Wagon Road and the creation of massive wheat plantations that foreshadowed the Valley's future as the ``Breadbasket of the Confederacy.'' Historic Belle Grove Plantation also will be within the park's boundaries. It was built by Major Isaac Hite, who served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and married Nelly Conway Madison, the sister of President James Madison. Belle Grove is one of the many outstanding mansions of the Shenandoah Valley and like other period houses built in that region, the design shows Thomas Jefferson's influence from the Tidewater and Piedmont areas, and also Classical Revival elements, an architectural innovation of the day. The park also will help protect the historic scenic landscape of the region which features panoramic views of the Blue Ridge mountains, natural areas and waterways in the northern Shenandoah Valley. The proposed park boundary includes approximately 3,000 acres at the intersection of Frederick, Shenandoah and Warren counties and is based on the 1969 boundary established for the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Landmark. What makes this park even more special is that it will serve as a model for future national parks because: It is based on partnerships and local community involvement; Private organizations, families, and individuals will continue to live and work within its boundaries; Landowners hold their right to sell their land whenever and to whomever they choose; No land will be condemned or taken by eminent domain; The Park Service will only purchase land from willing sellers; and Finally, land use and zoning decisions within the park's boundaries will continue to be administered by local authorities at the county or municipal levels. This park will go a long way toward preserving an important part of our Nation's rich heritage and history. It also has the full support of the local community. I urge support for H.R. 4944.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, welfare reform is working. The 1996 welfare reform law has been a huge success in promoting work and giving thousands of needy families a chance to share in the American dream. Just take a look at some of the yardsticks which measure the success of the welfare reform law: Child poverty has fallen sharply. Since 1996, nearly 3 million children have been lifted from poverty; the African-American child poverty rate is now at a record low. More parents are working. Employment by mothers most likely to go on welfare rose by 40 percent between 1995 and 2000. Dependence fell by unprecedented levels. Welfare caseloads fell by 9 million--from 14 million recipients in 1994 to just 5 million today. As positive as that good news is, we also recognize that there is still more work left to do. We need to help the 58 percent of recipients who are not working or training for a job. We need to end the cycle of family break-up and encourage families to form. We need to continue to assist the 2 million families who remain dependent on welfare. I was pleased to vote with large bipartisan majorities of the House and the Senate to pass the 1996 law. I again voted just this past May with a majority in the House for H.R. 4737, the Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act of 2002, to strengthen and extend the 1996 reforms for 5 years. H.R. 4737 is on the Senate calendar. The President is waiting to sign this legislation to continue the progress we have made to support low- income families' efforts to go to work and give children a chance to succeed in life. Before the 107th Congress adjourns, we can and should have a final vote on this measure. It's the right thing to do for the 2 million families who remain dependent on welfare.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, on August 27, 2002, one of the leading advocates for the persecuted passed away. His name was Rev. Steven Snyder and I knew him well. Steve cared as much as anyone I know for the persecuted. His efforts and labor on behalf of the voiceless and the persecuted, raised awareness of cases and problems in far away places that few would have known without his voice. Mr. Speaker, I will insert following these remarks an article from the Washington Times which describes how Steve made such a difference with his life. Steven was the founder and president of International Christian concern, an organization dedicated to raise awareness of and to advocate for the plight of persecuted Christians around the world. Prior to founding International Christian Concern, Steve was the director of Christian Solidarity International, where he also was a strong and vocal advocate for the persecuted. Steve was a pioneer in exposing to the world the horrible persecution and brutality that is occurring to people just because of their religious beliefs. Steve's efforts and his voice resounded in the halls of power throughout the world. His advocacy and speaking out on the persecuted, influenced Members of Congress and government officials from around the world to intervene and become involved in what would have otherwise been unknown issues. In order to see and learn first-hand of persecution, Steve risked his life many times by personally traveling to very dangerous parts of the world, where he not only was a witness to human rights abuses, but where he also brought hope and love to the suffering. Steve was a remarkable man who did incredible things in his 53 years for the suffering all over the world. Steve will be sorely missed. He deserves the words from Matthew 25, ``Well done, good and faithful servant.'' We send our condolences to his wife Connie and four children Sarah de Vuyst, Lori Slaubaugh, Joshua Snyder and Sean Snyder. [lsqb]From the Washington Times, Aug. 29, 2002[rsqb] Snyder Dies at 53; Advocated Christian Freedom Abroad (By Larry Witham) The Rev. Steven L. Snyder, a tireless global traveler and advocate for voiceless Christians abroad who faced religious persecution under communist and Islamic regimes, died Monday night of an infection. He was 53. The evangelical minister, a native of the San Diego area, began his advocacy work as the U.S. director of Christian Solidarity International, which in the 1980s focused on persecution under communism. In 1995, he founded International Christian Concern to extend the work to Islamic countries. The Silver Spring resident and father of four was acknowledged yesterday as a pioneer voice on the topic of Christian persecution when it was not high on Washington's human rights agenda. Mr. Snyder also took risks to penetrate such countries as Sudan, Vietnam, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, China and Pakistan to bring out accurate information, documents and video footage of underground churches or persecuted minorities. ``He was a faithful servant of people persecuted for their faith,'' said U.S. Ambassador at Large for Religious Liberty John V. Hanford III, who had met and worked with Mr. Snyder in 1985. ``He stayed with it despite the constant discouragement that comes with human rights work.'' ``Steven labored in this vineyard long before the movement against persecution captured the imagination of evangelicals,'' said the Rev. Richard Cizik, Washington director of the National Association of Evangelicals. ``What a faithful friend he was of the persecuted.'' Friends and human-rights workers who knew Mr. Snyder noted his on-the-ground work, desire to highlight those who suffered rather than himself, and a kind of perpetual sad look in his eyes from seeing such grim events abroad--and so little interest at home. ``When not many people cared about this issue, he worked at it faithfully and strenuously,'' said Paul Marshall, a scholar of religion with Freedom House. ``He didn't just report, he went to dangerous places. He did his research with his boots on.'' Dr. David Harding, a family physician who is on the six- member board of International Christian Concern, traveled to Indonesia with Mr. Snyder in November to provide medical aid to Christians being persecuted by Muslims on the island of Sulawesi. ``Steven is going to be very difficult to replace,'' Dr. Harding said. ``He made every effort to get the facts right, and he had a way of finding all the right people and getting at the truth of a situation.'' Pat Bradley, a St. Louis businessman who first met Mr. Snyder in 1999, recalls their two-week fact-finding tip to Sudan in February 2000. ``For two days we drove into the south from Uganda on what we thought was the bumpiest road in the world, until we got to Sudan's roads,'' Mr. Bradley said. ``Between us we had seen bad places, but by far this was the worst.'' It was 105-degree bush country, he said. ``These people had literally nothing. No food or clothing. They were victims of a scorched-earth policy, and some were tortured.'' On return from Sudan in 2000, Mr. Snyder drafted a detailed report for Capitol Hill and the State Department, and made it available to news organizations. During a trip to China in 1999, Mr. Snyder brought in Bibles and met with leaders of the underground church. Some of the people who went to hear his presentations remember the vivid images and footage he brought back of nighttime river baptisms. Staff at the State Department yesterday also took the news with sorrow. One staffer asked a reporter whether Mr. Snyder had worked at State because everybody knew him. ``Steve was a foot soldier for religious freedom,'' said Tom Phar, director of international religious liberty at the State Department. ``He traveled the world working on behalf of people being persecuted for their faith. He was an effective advocate and a good friend.'' On Monday afternoon, Mr. Snyder was rushed to the Holy Cross Hospital emergency room with a high fever, and friends recall that because the diagnosis was severe he asked them to ``pray for a miracle.'' He did about 7:45 p.m. Mr. Snyder lost his spleen in an operation six years ago, and doctors said that weakened his ability to fight the infection, which rapidly taxed his entire system. He is survived by his wife, Connie Snyder of Silver Spring, and four children: Sarah de Vuyst of Ukraine; Lori Slaubaugh of Rollin, N.D.; Joshua Snyder of Boulder, Colo.; and Sean, 16. Visitations may be made tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. at Collins Funeral Home at 500 University Blvd. W. in Silver Spring. A funeral service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at Immanuel's Church at 16819 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations ``to help the persecuted church'' be sent to International Christian Concern, 2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Box 941, Washington, DC 20006-1846.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, as our nation approaches the one-year anniversary of the unspeakable acts of terror against America on September 11, 2001, I join with my colleagues Representative Tom Davis and Representative Jim Moran to recognize some of the people in the northern Virginia area who were among the first health care responders to the attack on the Pentagon. We attended on September 3 an event recognizing those associated with the Inova Health System for their heroic efforts on September 11 and I share today the remarks of Jolene Tornabeni, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Inova Health System, as well as a copy of a resolution adopted by the Virginia General Assembly commending Inova Health System. Recognizing Inova's Heroes (By Jolene Tornabeni) As we approach the anniversary of September 11, no doubt every one of us can remember where we were and what we were doing when the planes crashed in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. Throughout Inova Health System, the memories of that day remain fresh in our memories as well. At a time when most people wanted to be home with their families and loved ones, our staff showed its true strength of character. Hundreds of employees, nurses and physicians dropped what they were doing and volunteered to help. It was an immediate response that came from the heart. Today, I'd like to recognize just some of those people who are Inova's heroes. From Inova Alexandria Hospital.--Shortly after the American Airlines plane hit the Pentagon, hospital staff swung into gear readying beds, operating rooms and supplies. Inova Alexandria Hospital treated more patients from the Pentagon that day than any other Inova facility, caring for 24 people who were injured at the scene. Among the many heroes that day are Emergency Department Chairman Dr. Marty Brown, vice chairman Dr. Tom Clark and the ER staff who were at the front end of caring for the patients as they arrived at the hospital. Dr. Clark cared for Virginia State Police Trooper Michael Middleton who sustained severe smoke inhalation while trying to rescue injured Pentagon workers. In addition, emergency nurse Sherry Hemby is also with us today. I'd like to recognize pulmonologist Dr. Tom Smirniotopolous and nurse Ellen Smith. They both cared for Trooper Middleton during his long recovery at Inova Alexandria Hospital. Also, emergency physician Dr. James Vafier. On September 11, he was working in his role as medical director for the Alexandria Fire Department at the Pentagon. On site, he was appointed the physician in charge of civilian medical response at the Pentagon. Keeping order that day at Inova Alexandria Hospital were Steve Fuoco, the director of engineering, who served the hospital's command center, and Greg Brison, director of security. I'd also like to recognize hospital administrator Ken Kozloff for all of his efforts and a job well done by his entire staff. All told, Inova treated 27 patients on September 11. Inova Mount Vernon hospital treated one injured civilian. Our thanks go out to hospital Emergency Department chairman Dr. Michael Shuster and hospital administrator Susan Herbert. Many thanks also go to the emergency department staffs at Inova HealthPlex in Springfield where two patients were treated, and the staff of Inova Fairfax Hospital. As the area's Level I trauma center, Inova Fairfax Hospital freed up dozens of hospital beds and readied itself to handle many, many patients that day. Sadly, their services were not needed. Next, I'd like to recognize Dr. Dan Hanfling, the director of Emergency Management and Disaster Medicine for Inova Health System. On September 11, Dan was called to the Pentagon to assist in the search and rescue in his role as medical team manager of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team--which falls under the auspices of FEMA--the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Dan spent a week at the Pentagon helping coordinate the federal response to the disaster. Since 9-11, Dan has helped spearhead and focus Inova's disaster preparations across our system of hospitals and emergency care centers. Dan also serves as the medical director of Inova AirCare, our medevac helicopter program which played a critical role at the Pentagon on September 11th. Minutes after the Pentagon was hit, the helicopter flight crew of nurse Margie Roche, paramedic Chuck Crocker and pilot Pete Russet flew to the Pentagon to fly out the injured patients. That initial flight is memorialized forever in a well-publicized Reuters photo seen around the world in magazines and now a book. The photo depicts Inova AirCare against the backdrop of a burning Pentagon. The helicopter shuttled much needed supplies to the scene that day, and, at the request of military leaders on the scene, remained at the Pentagon throughout the night. As that day unfolded, the community's goodwill became abundantly evident as hundreds of people showed up at Inova Blood Donor Services'offices ready to roll up their sleeves and donate. Thanks to the leadership of medical director Dr. Jeanne Lumadue and administrative director Terri Craddock, Inova Blood Donor Services pulled in volunteers to help handle the onslaught and keep the offices open well past normal business hours. They collected more than 700 units of blood that day, which is just amazing. In all, they handled more than two thousand donors and returned more than 5,000 calls from interested donors in the initial days after the attack. It was not long after September 11 that our country faced a second threat to our sense of security in the anthrax-laced letters mailed around the country. Inova Fairfax Hospital took center-stage in this national drama after diagnosing two patients from the Brentwood Postal Facility in Washington, DC with inhalation anthrax. Emergency physicians Cecele Murphy and Denis Pauze relied on their instinct and medical training to make a diagnosis most doctors could not imagine making in their lifetimes. Thanks to them, and to physician assistant Ashna Nayyar and the entire ER staff, both men are alive today. All of these people mentioned today and, in fact, all of the physicians, employees and volunteers throughout Inova Health System, are our heroes for the work they did on September 11 and its aftermath. We also have heroes outside of our organization in the men and women of our community's police, fire and EMS agencies, particularly in Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria. Over the past year, we have been grateful for their continual support and advice on preparedness. 2002 Session

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, we come to the House floor today to pay tribute to our colleague, and Members will have an opportunity to put extensions in remarks, and we are doing this because obviously Congress is coming to a quick end tomorrow. Tony was nominated by President Bush, and it is a credit to President Bush, too, nominated as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Agencies located in Rome, Italy. He is awaiting final Senate confirmation which could come in a matter of days. Once confirmed, he will resign as a representative of the Third Congressional District of Ohio and take his post in Rome where he will be able to continue his passionate work as a leading advocate for ending hunger and promoting food security around the world. He will be greatly missed in the House, but I know he is absolutely the right person to serve as the United States representative for the World Food Program, the Food and Agricultural Organization, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, all of the agencies of the United Nations, which assist in international hunger relief. This is a bittersweet time for me. I have had the privilege and honor to call Tony my colleague for two decades. He is my best friend in Congress. We have been part of a small group that has met for 20 years. Bill Emerson was in that group. Bill and Tony went to Ethiopia in 1994. A lot of what the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) did, he got me interested in a lot of issues that I would not have been interested in. That group meeting every Tuesday for 20 years, almost like a band of brothers, has made a big difference in certainly my life. Tony is one of the most decent, sincere, dedicated people that I know. And he finds his strength from his deeply held faith in God and by following the teachings of Jesus. In the Bible, in James, it says be not only hearers of the word, but also doers. Micah 6:8 said, ``He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.'' Tony Hall is a man of great faith, and he not only hears the word, but he does the word. He takes his faith into his every-day life, whether it be hunger in Sudan or Ethiopia, whether it is conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone or Liberia, whether it be human rights in Kosovo or Bosnia or anywhere else in Eastern Europe. I would say, and the Record should show, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) is the best example that I know of what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 25 when he talks about feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, serving the poor. So as I said, it will be bittersweet to see my good friend leaving this body; but clearly I think everyone can say on both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, well done. You have been faithful to all those principles.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, a legend in the 10th District of Virginia died on Friday, July 19. The headline on Monday, July 22, from The Washington Post may have said it best in describing the life of a stalwart defender of preserving the rural and historic lands in northern Virginia. It was, ``Annie Snyder: She Held Her Ground.'' Annie Snyder, a 53-year resident of Prince William County, passed away at age 80. She was one of my constituents from northern Virginia and many believe she single handedly in the late 1980's stopped the development of a shopping mall which threatened the Manassas National Battlefield Park. As the Post reported, she ``led battles against great odds and powerful foes'' in her quest to protect the hallowed grounds of the Manassas Battlefield and other threatened historic lands. Affectionately known as ``Annie,'' she led me into what became known as ``The Third Battle of Bull Run,'' as I introduced legislation to take the land which threatened the battlefield, make it federal land and incorporate it into the park. But it was her fighting spirit, perhaps from her days of serving in the Marine Corps, that won the day. She had a motto, ``Never, never, never give up.'' And she never did, in fighting for the causes in which she believed. The Post said it well: ``She maintained a `Semper Fi' attitude toward civic involvement until the end.'' On my office wall is a photo she sent me after the legislation was signed into law. The statue of General Stonewall Jackson standing tall on the Manassas Battlefield ground is in the lower left corner and a bolt of lightning in the center of the picture draws from the sky into the ground. She wrote on the photo: ``When lightning struck Manassas, you were there. Thank you. Annie Snyder.'' Mr. Speaker, on behalf of northern Virginians, we remember the life of and say ``thank you'' to Annie Snyder for going into battle to preserve the lands she held so dear. We also express our sympathy to her husband of 57 years, Pete, of Gainesville; her six children, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, we come to the House floor today to pay tribute to our colleague from Ohio, the Honorable Tony P. Hall. As you know, Mr. Speaker, Tony was nominated by President Bush to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations food and agricultural agencies located in Rome, Italy. He is awaiting final Senate confirmation, which could come in a matter of days. Once confirmed, he will resign as the representative of the 3rd District of Ohio and take his post in Rome where he will be able to continue his passionate work as a leading advocate for ending hunger and promoting food security around the world. Tony will be greatly missed in the House of Representatives, but I know that he is absolutely the right person to serve as the United States representative to the World Food Program, the Food and Agricultural Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development, all agencies of the United Nations which assist international hunger-relief efforts. This is a bittersweet time for me. I have had the privilege and honor to call Tony Hall my colleague for two decades, but more importantly, I have come to call Tony Hall my best friend in Congress. Many people don't understand how a Democrat from Ohio and a Republican from Virginia, who more often than not are on the opposite sides of votes in the House, can share a friendship. But it's been easy to be Tony's friend because he is one of the most decent, sincere, loving, dedicated people that I know. He finds his strength through his deeply held faith in God. I have come to know him well through our weekly Bible study together, where we have shared personal moments about our families, our lives, our work in Congress. We've had weighty and serious discussions, we've laughed together and we've shared tears. As a public servant, Tony embodies Christ's teachings in Matthew 25: ``For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink . . . inasmuch as you did it to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'' His life's work is consumed with spiritual purpose. Tony Hall's name is synonymous with the cause of alleviating hunger both domestically and worldwide. He believes that food is the most basic of human needs, the most basic of human rights, and he has passionately worked to convince others that the cause of hunger, which often gets lost in the legislative shuffle and pushed aside by more visible issues, deserves a prominent share of attention and resources to assist people who are the most at risk and too often the least defended. But Tony hasn't limited his humanitarian work to hunger issues. He is a tireless advocate for the cause of human rights around the world and most recently has focused his attention on the illicit diamond trade in Sierra Leone. He convinced me to travel with him to Sierra Leone in late 1990 to see how the machete-wielding rebels there have intimidated men, women and children by hacking off arms, legs, and ears. He has led the effort in bringing to the attention of Congress the conflict diamond trade and authoring legislation to certify that the diamonds Americans buy are not tainted with the blood of the people of Sierra Leone and other African nations. We also traveled together in January to Afganistan with Congressman Joe Pitts as the first congressional delegation to that country since the war on terrorism. We visited hospitals, an orphanage, schools, and refugee camps. We met with U.S. diplomats and soldiers; with local leaders and officials with direct responsibility for humanitarian problems and refugees; with representatives of United Nations and private relief organizations; and in Pakistan with refugees and members of religious minority groups. Tony is never deterred in his effort to help make a positive difference in the lives of suffering people. He has traveled to wherever the need arises and met with whomever he can to effect change, taking risks few would take, with his own comfort and safety never entering his mind. I believe Tony's life destiny is to be a servant, though in his college days, if he'd had a little larger frame, he may have had a career in football. An Ohio native, in 1964 he received his A.B. degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and while at Denison, he was a Little All-American tailback and was named the Ohio Conference's Most Valuable Player in 1963. But his inner voice and his servant's heart directed him to what would become a career of service. During 1966 and 1967, he taught English in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer. He returned to Dayton to work as a realtor and small businessman for several years, but before long, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives where he served from 1969 to 1972, and then to the Ohio Senate, serving from 1973 to 1978. On November 7, 1978, Tony was elected to the House of Representatives from the 3rd District of Ohio and has served with distinction since. Tony Hall's worldwide hunger relief quest began in earnest in 1984 when he first visited Ethiopia during that nation's Great Famine. What he saw then, especially the faces of emaciated children, was indelibly etched in his mind, forever transforming him and instilling a passion that drives him in his quest to help feed the starving people of the world. In 1993 this House, in what has been described in Politics in America as ``a wave of frugality,'' abolished the Select Committee on Hunger, as well as three other select committees. Having served as chairman of the Select Committee on Hunger and having worked in 1984 as the principal supporter of the legislation which created the Select Committee on Hunger, Tony Hall fought to keep the committee alive because of its importance as a forum to raise the cause of hunger and the very survival of vulnerable populations. In an effort to use this disappointing event as a means to elevate the problem of hunger, Tony embarked on a 22-day water-only fast. He was also dismayed that congressional leaders would not even let the House vote on the matter. But through his perseverance, the momentum of this fast led to the creation of two new hunger entities: the Congressional Hunger Caucus and the Congressional Hunger Center, which I was honored to co-chair with Tony here in the nation's capital. Those forums allowed Tony to continue the fight against hunger, to ensure that issues of both domestic and world hunger remain at the forefront of national debate, and to accomplish what always was the goal of the Select Committee on Hunger: to push responsible policies and to generate a national sense of urgency to solve hunger once and for all. His humanitarian work also has focused on efforts to improve human rights conditions around the world--in the Philippines, East Timor, Paraguay, Romania, and the former Soviet Union. In 1983 he founded the Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors. He was the principal U.S. nominator of East Timor Bishop Carlos Belo, winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. Tony himself was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy for hunger relief programs and improving international human rights conditions. He is the author of legislation supporting child survival, basic education, primary health care, microenterprise, and development assistance programs in the world's poorest countries. But while Tony's name is known far and wide for his hunger and human rights work, he also has been a stalwart representative for the people of the 3rd District, vigorously defending his district and its largest employer, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. He was the principal author of legislation enacted in 1992 to establish the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. Also in 1992, Tony introduced successful legislation extending the life of the Dayton Area Health Plan which provides health care services to more than 42,000 low-income residents of Montgomery County, costing taxpayers $1 million less than a traditional health care program. He was a leader in Congress in support of the Air Force Science and Technology program, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson. He wrote legislation passed in 1993 which laid the foundation for the privatization of the Energy Department's Miamisburg Mound Plant, a former defense nuclear facility. He has supported legislation to create high tech jobs in the Dayton area that combine the region's strengths in aerospace and automobile manufacturing. He is the author of legislation to improve safety for police and emergency workers assisting stopped vehicles on highways. The people of his district also know well his work on hunger issues because it was there in 1984 that he founded Saturday Meals for Seniors, a weekend hot lunch program for seniors in need in Dayton which has fed over 10,000 meals at group sites and to shut-ins every year since. In 1985 Tony introduced legislation incorporated in the 1985 Food Security Act to promote gleaning programs, which gather the produce left behind after commercial harvests, to feed hungry people. He also organized annual gleaning projects in Dayton, beginning in 1986 which salvaged 77 tons over a three-year period, and helped organize gleaning projects throughout Ohio. Also in 1985, Tony organized STOP HUNGER . . . FAST!, a broad-based, community-wide effort in Dayton, which raised $330,000 that year for hunger relief efforts in the U.S. and Africa. There are so many examples of how Tony Hall's passion and principles and Christian values have made a positive difference in the lives of those suffering from hunger around the world for over two decades. His efforts have included work to convince the community of nations that food must never be used as a weapon against hungry people. Tony Hall's legacy of fighting hunger spans from Dayton, Ohio, through Washington, D.C., on to the Horn of Africa and around to North Korea. In 1982, two years before his work to create the House Select Committee on Hunger, to call attention to wasted food that could be used for hunger relief, Tony organized a media event and luncheon serving only food salvaged from trash cans and then worked for passage of legislation which outlined steps to make food available to hungry people that would otherwise be wasted. In 1984, following reports of massive famine and starvation, Tony visited relief camps in Ethiopia and revisited the country again in 1987, after working tirelessly during that time to investigate efforts to head off a repeat of Ethiopian famine and encourage early action to prevent loss of life in not only Ethiopia but other drought-stricken nations in sub-Saharan Africa, and urge Ethiopian leaders to allow famine relief to reach all the people of Ethiopia, including regions affected by civil war. Legislation Tony authored passed the House in 1985 calling on the U.S. to support measures aimed at immunizing the world's children against six major childhood diseases. Tony successfully led efforts in Congress to earmark $38 million in FYs 1986-1990 to fund vitamin A programs in developing nations, in light of significant evidence linking vitamin A to improvements in children's health. Tony visited Haiti with the Select Committee on Hunger in 1987 and again with the Congressional Hunger Caucus in 1993 to investigate humanitarian assistance projects. Following the 1993 visit he helped to secure U.S. Agency for International Development support to assist a leading non-governmental organization to begin feeding over a half million more malnourished Haitians. In 1988 Tony visited Bangladesh during the devastating flood and upon his return, worked for passage of legislation to aid Bangladesh's recovery from the flood. In 1989 Tony visited Sierra Leone and convinced Executive Branch officials to change food assistance programs to better serve humanitarian needs. Tony contacted leaders in Ethiopia calling for a summit to address the issues of providing humanitarian assistance to conflict situations and the issue of children as victims of war in the Horn of Africa. The summit was held in April 1992. For his hunger legislation and his proposal for a Humanitarian Summit in the Horn of Africa, Tony Hall and the Hunger Committee received the 1992 Silver World Food Day Medal from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He also is the recipient of the United States Committee for UNICEF 1995 Children's Legislative Advocate Award, U.S. AID Presidential End Hunger Award, and 1992 Oxfam America Partners Award. In 1984, he received the Distinguished Service Against Hunger Award from Bread for the World, the highest award given by the organization to recognize efforts to fight world hunger. In 1988, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded Tony Hall its Presidential End Hunger Award ``for continued demonstrated vision, initiative and leadership in the effort to achieve a world without hunger.'' He is also a recipient of the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award and received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Asbury College and Eastern College and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Loyola College. In 1994, President Clinton nominated Tony Hall for the position of UNICEF Executive Director. In May 1994, Tony led a Presidential Delegation to the Horn of Africa and was the first U.S. legislator to visit Rwanda. He focused efforts with the Congressional Hunger Caucus to convince the administration to formally recognize that genocide was occurring there and take the lead in the United Nations to establish an international tribunal to bring those responsible for the murder of thousands of Rwandans to trial. After visiting what at the time was the largest refugee camp in history on the east side of Rwanda, he strongly advocated immediate and improved cooperation by all international donors for the relief of Rwandan refugees and convinced administration officials to visit sites of humanitarian disaster in Rwanda leading to the assistance being provided today. Tony's concern for those suffering in famine-stricken areas took him to North Korea where he first visited in August 1996, just weeks after North Korea's ``breadbasket'' region was hit by a flood which reduced the country's harvest by half and left the people there vulnerable to a massive food shortage. He returned to North Korea in April 1997 on a humanitarian mission to focus attention on the 5 million people at risk of death from starvation from an imminent famine. To help spur an international response to help the starving North Korean people, Tony traveled to South Korea and Japan in August 1997 to promote additional humanitarian aid. He spoke to the largest church in South Korea and encouraged private efforts to the North. He also urged Japanese officials to consider a larger role in aiding people suffering from severe food shortages and suggested that Japan's surplus rice could leverage price donations to aid people facing starvation in North Korea. Troubled by continuing reports of worsening conditions for the Korean people and not satisfied that the necessary reforms were in place to avert the crisis the Koreans were facing that was unlike any since the famine that claimed 30 million people in China nearly four decades ago, he made his third visit to North Korea in October 1997 to again call on the world to focus its attention on the disaster unfolding there. Perhaps what Tony so effectively conveys when he works to help end the suffering of the world's hungry people is his personal conviction that lending humanitarian aid is above politics. In his discussions with North Korean leaders about their country's acceptance of peace talks, they expressed concern about the agenda for the talks and that food aid would be used as a political weapon during the talks. He assured them that the United States had a long tradition of providing food aid solely on a humanitarian basis, which he personally considers a point of pride, and that this policy will continue, and he urged them to begin formal negotiations on the peace talks with that assurance. He made his fourth trip to famine-stricken North Korea in November 1998, traveling to cities in the far northeastern part of the country and a town south of the Pyongyang capital, visiting orphanages, schools, hospitals, and an ``alternative food'' factory, before returning to Pyongyang for meetings with senior North Korean government officials and aid workers. He reported that grave-covered hillsides and overflowing orphanages were the most visible changes there since he visited a year earlier. He observed that the food donated by the United States and others is helping to save the lives of children in North Korea, but that food alone won't cure the ills there. Stopping the dying will take a new focus on health--one sufficient to combat the debilitating effects of contaminated water and an almost complete lack of medicine and one he found missing in the current approach of the government of North Korea. He also reported that private and United Nations health initiatives are impossibly underfunded. Yet in his visits throughout the countryside, where no one can escape the ravages of famine, Tony Hall found something in this fourth visit with the North Koreans that made him realize that his efforts to help turn the tide toward a brighter future for these suffering people were bearing fruit. He found--hope. He called ``heroic'' the efforts of ordinary North Koreans to overcome their difficulties, as he saw an ``alternative food factory'' which turns leaves and twigs into the noodles that are becoming a staple in the diets of too many people. He saw people working at all hours of the day and night, moving the cabbage harvest, gathering twigs for kitchen fires, and gleaning already cleanly picked fields. Denuded hills and rows of crops planted three-quarters up the hills were clear evidence of their desperate efforts. And when he had the chance to speak with ordinary citizens through his own interpreter and out of the presence of his government ``minders,'' the shyness he had seen in earlier visits was replaced with absolute determination in their voices to overcome their troubles. Even faced with slow starvation, the telltale signs of which show on skin darkened by malnutrition, these brave people have hope, a hope that Tony Hall in his work as a humanitarian ambassador has helped instill by showing the people of North Korea that the community of nations cares and is there to help them in their time of need--``When I was hungry, you gave Me food.'' Tony's passion took him to southern Sudan in Africa in May 1998 where famine was threatening 700,000 Sudanese people in a nation torn by a 15-year civil war and where 2 million lives had already been lost. His own eloquent words in June 1998 from his trip observations may best reflect why Tony Hall is the right person to now be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. world food programs: ``What I witnessed in Ethiopia convinced me that there was no greater service, besides to the people who elect me to Congress, than to those people who are so desperately poor that they can't even feed themselves. I have been to dozens of countries since then, to some of the regions hit hard by both natural disasters and man-made ones. But it was not until I visited the forgotten nation of Sudan two weeks ago that I saw conditions as terrible as those in Ethiopia. The humanitarian aid reaching those people is a drop in the bucket of what is needed. If we are sincere about stopping the death toll from climbing from two million--to three million people--we have to do more. The people of southern Sudan need food and medicine. But they also need peace, and we should not squander the narrow window that may now exist to bring an end to this hideous war . . . Anyone who has seen the terrible condition of the people in southern Sudan feels the same determination I do to find a way to bring peace--and relief--to them.'' Tony's call for an immediate cease-fire and heightened diplomatic attention to Sudan's peace process, and his urging of the United States and other friends of the peace process to step in and enhance and support invigorated negotiations, struck a chord. It's taken some time, but fueled by one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts in history, with the United States providing the greatest share of aid, today's headlines report that breakthroughs in peace talks in Sudan could very well pave the way to end the 19-year civil war in which more than 2 million people have died. Tony Hall speaks for those in so many desolate places in the world who can't speak for themselves. Playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, ``You see things; and you say, `Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, `Why not?''' Tony Hall says ``Why not?'' and follows those words with action. Why not work to stop the suffering of the poorest of the poor? Why not help to feed the starving people? Why not help the desperate people of Sierra Leone or the Sudan? George Bernard Shaw also said, ``The worst sin towards our fellow creature sis not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.'' There is no fiber in Tony Hall's body that knows indifference. He is the essence of humanitarianism, the embodiment of service to mankind, a follower who daily lives Christ's teachings as he seeks ways to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. His leadership and his vision embrace and offer succor to those in need, even in the most remote corners of the world. His concept to end hunger serves as a beacon to light the way. His achievements in providing lifesaving food to so many is the road map to ending starvation. His efforts to end human misery the world over inspire others to take up that cause. Tony Hall is an inspiration to everyone fortunate enough to know him. He has a wonderful combination of compassion and passion filled with spiritual purpose-compassion to see the suffering in the less fortunate in the world and the passion to work to do something about it. Today is a bittersweet time for me, to be sure. My best friend in Congress is leaving, but he will now have the world's stage to continue his life's work of helping to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate in our world. Godspeed, my dear friend.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Moran amendment, and also acknowledge the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) for her work on this amendment and all of the hard work she does for Federal employees. To meet OMB's quotas, agencies can contract out these Federal employee jobs without even conducting a public-private competition to determine what the best deal is for the American taxpayer. These targets have absolutely no demonstrated managerial, scientific, or economic justification. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) is exactly right, they were picked to meet an arbitrary quota. That is not the way to run the government. Under these quotas, the IRS and the Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI which is in the forefront of the battle with regard to terrorism, will all be required to meet the same targets. With the current response effort with the war on terrorism, that does not make any sense. This one-size-fits-all mandate does not consider the unique needs of different agencies and certainly harms the ability of Federal agencies to effectively carry out their mission. For instance, Customs Service, working under heightened levels of security, so much so that the President wants to put it into the new Department of Homeland Security, has no flexibility under these arbitrary quotas. The Moran amendment would give Federal agencies the flexibility to contract out as much or as little of government work as they feel is necessary to meet the mission requirements. I urge Members to join us in supporting the amendment of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), which recognizes that decisions about how best to deliver government services at the lowest cost to taxpayers should be driven by unique agency mission requirements and not some arbitrary, numerical target or quota that no one understands.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for the great job of this conference report, and I rise in strong support. The bill includes $175 million to improve the ability of the FBI to synthesize and interpret data and intelligence collections from investigations. The funding will support technology upgrades and allow the FBI to hire additional cybercrime counterterrorism and counterintelligence analysts. The bill also provides $81.3 million for the INS, including upgrades for the border patrol agents and immigration inspections who are also on the frontline, and $25 million for an Absconder Initiative, to find and remove more aliens who have been ordered deported and who have not followed those orders. I want to thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) for his good efforts with this action and with regard to this issue. As we all saw in the tragic events of September 11, we depend on our State and local police, fire, EMS and HAZMAT people to respond to acts of terrorism. Their heroism and preparedness has saved many lives and will likely save many more. The bill provides $2.1 million for State and local first responder equipment, exercise and training, and including $50 million to provide communities across the country with interoperable emergency communications equipment. The SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, requires an infusion of resources to strengthen oversight and enforcement and preserve the integrity of the financial markets. This bill provides $40.2 million for the SEC, $20.2 million above the request, including funds for the immediate addition of 125 staff positions in enforcement and corporate oversight and key information technology upgrades. This will begin to provide the SEC with the resources they need to combat corporate fraud and to protect the savings and retirement investments of millions of American families. The conference report also includes $318.1 million for embassy security and public diplomacy. The diplomatic staff is hard at work right now under very difficult and dangerous conditions in south Asia and elsewhere. This bill will provide for an expedited construction of fully secured replacement embassy facilities in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Recently, a lot of attention has been focused on improving our public diplomacy's efforts, including the gentleman from Illinois' (Mr. Hyde) legislation H.R. 3969, which passed the House yesterday. We are not doing an adequate job of telling America's story, and it is a great story to the world. To improve this effort, the bill includes $40.1 million for information and exchange programs of the State Department, Radio Free Afghanistan and the Middle East Broadcasting Initiative. In addition, the bill includes $55 million for the enhanced security of the Federal judiciary in response to terrorist and other high threat trials, including $10 million for the Supreme Court building and $37.9 million for the U.S. Marshals Service. The bill also includes authorization and funding for the closed circuit transmission of the Moussaoui trial to victims of the September 11 attacks. Finally, the bill includes $37 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop an information technology security framework for the Federal Government. Lastly, these additional funds for fiscal year 2002 are vital for carrying out our continued homeland security, international and corporate oversight responsibilities, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the legislation that disapproves granting Vietnam normal trade relations, and I appreciate the faithfulness of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) on this issue. The government of Vietnam is a gross violator and abuser of human rights. It persecutes all faiths, Buddhists, Roman Catholics and Protestants. The State Department's most recent annual report on international religious freedom cites that ``police routinely arbitrarily detained persons based on their religious beliefs and practices. Groups of Protestant Christians who worshipped in house churches in ethnic minority areas were subjected to detention by local officials who broke up unsanctioned religious meetings. Authorities also imprisoned persons for practicing religion illegally by using provisions of the penal code that allow for jail terms of up to 3 years for abusing freedom of speech, press or religion.'' There are an estimated 2 dozen religious prisoners today as we debate this resolution. According to the State Department's report on religious international freedom, a Roman Catholic priest, Father Ly, has been in prison for several years and it is almost like nobody knows who Father Ly is, because he testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Vietnam persecutes believers. It abuses those who fought alongside those in the United States. This Congress and this administration want to now give them normal trade relations. Vietnam should not get normal trade relations until its human rights record substantially improves. Furthermore, there are now 348 detainees from Vietnam in U.S. custody, violent prisoners that are in United States prisons. These are Vietnamese prisoners who have finished their term, are violent, and yet the Vietnam government will not take them back. They will not take them back. I believe that we should press the State Department and the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Ambassador in Vietnam ought to be speaking out on this issue. The silence coming out of our embassy in Vietnam is deafening. The silence is deafening. Mr. Speaker, Members who vote to grant Vietnam normal trade relations in the belief that engagement and trade will improve Vietnam's records ought to speak out. Anyone who votes for this, speaking out publicly to the Vietnamese government, will help raise attention to the human rights problems and put pressure on the Vietnamese to stop persecuting Catholics, Protestants, and Buddhists.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this resolution that calls on the People's Republic of China to cease its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and I want to thank Rep. Ros-Lehtinen for introducing this legislation. Falun Gong practitioners in China continue to suffer at the hands of China's officials. The State Department's most recent annual human rights report cited that thousands of organizers and adherents of the banned Falun Gong movement continue to be held in reeducation-through- labor camps or in prison. The report says that over 200 Falun Gong practitioners died in detention as a result of torture or mistreatment. It is incredible to think that the Chinese Government tortured and killed over 200 Falun Gong practitioners--200 men and women--for practicing their religious belief. As evidenced by the $83 billion trade deficit the U.S. has with China, the Chinese government has not been afraid to manufacture more products for sale overseas. The Chinese authorities are not afraid of making money or of selling products, but they seem to fear any organized religion in their country. According to the Cardinal Kung Foundation, there are at least 12 Roman Catholic bishops in Chinese prisons under house arrest or in hiding. Numerous Protestant House Church leaders and worshipers in China have been imprisoned and detained. Large numbers of Muslims from the Uighur people group in China are in prison because of their faith. Young Muslim Uighur boys and girls are not even allowed to enter a mosque until they are 18-years-old. The Chinese government has imprisoned hundreds of Tibetan Bhuddist monks and nuns because of their faith. It is time for the state-sponsored and state-led persecution of believers in China to stop. It is time for the innocent to stop suffering and for believers in China to be allowed to worship freely, without fear of imprisonment. I support this legislation that calls on the people's Republic of China to stop its persecution and urges the U.S. government to use every appropriate forum, public and private, to speak out against these human rights abuses.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to honor the life of Vice Admiral Thomas J. Kilcline, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 76. He was a resident of McLean in northern Virginia. Admiral Kilcline was a decorated naval officer who served his country for four decades. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1949, he quickly became a distinguished naval aviator, flying in Korea and commanding a tactical carrier-based squadron in Vietnam. Rising through the ranks, he became commander of the Naval Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines and later commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Philippines. He also spent time as the head of naval officer distribution in the Bureau of Naval Personnel. He managed flight test programs at the Navy's test center at Patuxent River in Maryland and later was the program manager in charge of the acquisition of RA5C aircraft in Washington, D.C. Many members may remember him in his position as the Navy's chief of legislative affairs from 1978-81. Ultimately, he ascended to become the commander of Naval Air Forces in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. After retiring from the Navy in August of 1983, Admiral Kilcline served as the national president of The Retired Officers Association for nearly 10 years. At the time of his passing, he was a member of the Board of Directors for Alloy Surfaces, Inc. and Kilgore Flares, two defense-related companies. Additionally, he and his wife were active members of Saint John's Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, and the Cursillo Movement. Tom Kilcline and his devoted wife of 52 years, Dornell, were the parents of four children and the grandparents of seven. Thomas J. Kilcline was a true American patriot who served his country with distinction. On behalf of the entire House, we extend our deepest condolences to his family, to his friends, and to the thousands of Navy personnel who were fortunate enough to have known and worked with him.

Mr. WOLF

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman on the other side. To read from the Boston Globe, here is what it said: ``Congress in the Reagan administration embraced Indian gambling as a vehicle to foster tribal self-sufficiency in 1988, after a decade of steadily cutting per capita spending on six major programs for Native Americans from 6,000 to 3,000 measured in 1997 dollars, a time when spending on social services aimed at the rest of America was on the rise.'' It goes on to say, ``The result is untold riches for a few smaller tribes. Annual revenues are 100 million or more for a couple of dozen of additional tribes near major urban centers and continued poverty for the vast majority of Indians spread across rural America.'' We are talking, Mr. Chairman, as I said, 43 percent unemployment. If we had 43 percent unemployment in our district, we would be upset. We would say let us study it. We would be saying let's storm the Bastille doors to do something. But today we are complaining about a study to see. Thirty-three percent live below poverty. Why would not we want to find out today? You have different computers in your offices than you had 5 years ago. Did you say we do not want to study new computers? We do not want to change? So a study was done 5 years ago. We do it again today. But would it not be worth it to spend $200,000 to do it? The suicide rate is 37.5 percent. The national average is 13 percent of those ages 15 to 24. I urge defeat of the Hayworth-Kildee amendment and urge that we can move on and study these issues so we can truly come together. And let me say there are Indian tribes who have gambling and who do not have gambling who were on this commission, good people. And I spoke to my friend, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth), saying we can come together, if I happen to be successful, come together and try to find out the very best minds that are around in the country to see if we can come up with some new ideas to really make life better for these people who have suffered so much. I thank the gentleman on the other side for the debate. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to control the time in opposition.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise in opposition to the amendment. Let me just say that what the gentleman said, the scope of this is totally new. Totally. There has never been a study of these issues with regard to the tribal relationship regarding the surrounding communities. I worked at the Department of Interior for 5 years under Secretary Morton. I am sure for those who have ever gone on any reservation they have seen the utter despair that is on those reservations. This amendment, Mr. Chairman, will hurt Native Americans. Eighty percent of the Native Americans in this country, 80 percent, have never received one penny from gambling. The Hopi, the Navajos, most of the tribes do not want gambling; but in many respects this has given an opportunity and allowed the country and allowed the government and the Congress to neglect Native Americans. Indians and Native Americans have suffered more and have not been treated well by this Congress and not been treated well by this administration or previous administrations. The poverty level that afflicts Native Americans, they are in the 36 percent category. The gentleman says there have been other studies, but they have not worked; and we all know and anyone who has been on an Indian reservation knows that what has been tried has not worked. Why do Members oppose something that is going to study something to see if we can do something to help Native Americans? With regard to stroke, they have one of the highest rates in the country, so that is not working; and the study over there is not working. Lung cancer, the highest; breast cancer, the highest; suicide, the highest. So the policies of the Congress and the policies of both Republican and Democrat administrations have not worked. Why do Members oppose something that will bring members all together to come up with a study to help them? The death rate among Native Americans is higher in seven major categories. Alcoholism, the death rate is 627 percent higher than other categories. TB, 533 percent higher than other categories. Diabetes, 249 percent higher than other categories. Accidents, 204 percent higher than other categories. Homicide, it is dangerous, 63 percent higher than other categories. Housing, and those Members who have been on Indian reservations know that housing is miserable; it is absolutely miserable. We all like to live in a good house and our constituents like to live in a good house. Why can they not have the same opportunity? Crime is twice the national average on the reservation. Education is miserable. This is a commission, and what the amendment of the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) does is strike this. It says we are going to put our head in the sand and say we do not know how bad alcoholism and education is. We are not going to look at it. We have seen the movies, and the gentleman from San Diego has talked about the movie ``Wounded Knee'' and other things, we have seen the movies; but we are not going to look at it and see if we can come up with something different. Maybe an economic development administration, maybe an EDA like what has been used in Appalachia, maybe something constructive, something new that we can do to help. We must not be afraid to at least look at it. The 13-member commission will include representatives of State Governors. That should not frighten us. Attorney generals, members of the Departments of Treasury, Interior and Commerce, and the National Indian Gaming Commission, they are going to be participating. A local or municipal government official, a small businessperson from areas near the reservation, two representatives from nongambling Indian tribes, and they should be heard from. We should not just hear from those who have gambling and also two representatives from tribes that are operating gambling casinos. And thanks to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), we will work with others who represent Indian interests. So what will this commission do? It will take a thorough look at the living standards on Indian country, including health care, infrastructure, economic development, and education and housing. Now that is not a bad thing. That is not a bad thing to look at. If Members lived on some of these reservations, Members would not object to us looking to see if we could come up with some constructive ideas to see if we could improve the situation. The commission will look at the effectiveness of current Federal programs designed to improve standards in these designated areas. That is not a bad thing. That is not a bad thing to look at. That will not hurt. That will not hurt. Go on an Indian reservation and ask them whether they object to us seeing if we can improve housing and education and health care. Whether they have gambling or not, they will not object to this. Crime control on Indian reservations, we all like to live in a safe community. Would it hurt for Congress to look at crime on Indian reservations? What would be wrong with that? What would be wrong with looking at crime on Indian reservations? We would also look at the influence of non-Native American private investors on the Indian Federal recognition process. We know there have been Inspector General reports that the process is becoming corrupt. We know it. The Wall Street Journal knows it; the Boston Globe knows it. The London Day in Connecticut knows it. Papers know there are problems here. They know in the previous administration, one person came in the day after the administration left and signed the recognition thing. And non-Indians are exploiting those in certain cases and taking advantage of them. So what would be wrong with looking at that, the economic, the environmental, the social impact? So after an 18-month review, the commission will submit to Congress a report containing legislative recommendations as to the welfare of Native Americans, including health care and infrastructure and housing and education. I, frankly, think we in the government have failed Native Americans. I think we have used the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 to provide gambling as a staple of Native American policies. Since that act, our investment in Federal programs intended to improve the health and welfare of tribes has declined significantly. Mr. Chairman, gambling has been an excuse to reduce the commitment of the Federal Government to the Nation's first citizens. A bad excuse. The overall portrait of America's most impoverished group continues to be dominated by disease, by unemployment, by infant mortality, and by school dropout rates that are among the highest in the Nation. We can do something today to make a difference in the lives of the Nation's first citizens. We can quit hiding behind gambling as a panacea for Native Americans and take action to improve their health, their lives, and their welfare. I do not believe that those Members supporting the amendment believe any differently. I think we should do this. I urge defeat of the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson).