Lynn Woolsey

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of this WRDA conference report. This bill has two very important authorization projects for the residents of Marin and Sonoma counties in my district in California. Along with the committee's majority leadership, I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Borski) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and their staffs for all the work they have done, as well as my Bay Area colleague on the subcommittee, the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher) for her assistance. It has taken some hard work of each of them and for the Petaluma community, but I am delighted that this conference report is a home run for my city. On behalf of the city government and my neighbors in Petaluma, I greatly appreciate the effort of the committee to work through a complex situation. This new authorization for the Petaluma River Control Project will keep residents and businesses safe. It will also make affordable the protection that residents need without putting an unfair financial burden on the city. I realize this authorization is not, however, all about me and about my city. This authorization is about the blueprint for restoring the Florida Everglades. The people I represent are very supportive of this restoration of such an important ecosystem, and we are looking forward to it being restored to its natural glory. Mr. Speaker, it is going to be fun to work together and vote together on a bipartisan issue. I thank my colleagues for my gift, and I thank them for making this possible for our Nation.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Holt motion to instruct on H.R. 4577, because we cannot expect our children to get a first-rate education in second-rate and third-rate school buildings. A recent GAO study on the condition of America's schools found that 60 percent of schools in America need at least one major repair or they need renovation. On top of that, and we have said it today, even though it is not part of this, on top of repairs and renovation, we also have a great need for new schools, in my home State alone, in California, more than 30,000 additional classrooms will be needed in the next 8 years. What is the message that we are sending our young children, when their communities boast new, shiny shopping malls and new sports stadiums, while we tell them that they must try to learn in overcrowded, crumbling schools? This is the time, Mr. Speaker, for us to show our children that they are absolutely as important as a new mall or a new stadium. A vote for the Holt motion is a vote for this Nation's most precious resource, our children. Our children are 25 percent of our population. Our children are 100 percent of the future of our Nation.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I strongly object to H.R. 5528, The Omnibus Indian Advancement Act, because this bill does not protect Marin and Sonoma Counties in California from casino development. Section XIV of the bill, which discusses the restoration of the Coast Miwok tribe in the Sixth Congressional District of California, rightfully restores the Miwoks' tribal status but does not protect Marin and Sonoma Counties from gambling. That is not acceptable. In June, H.R. 946, The Graton Rancheria Restoration Act, my bill to restore the Miwoks' status and protect the community from casino development unanimously passed the House. Now, in the last days of the session in the dark of night this hastily written omnibus bill that undoes the work of this House and does not protect my constituents is brought to the floor. In their effort to finish up their work for the year, the authors of this bill have hung Marin and Sonoma Counties out to dry and undone my work. An act of Congress took away the Miwoks' status nearly 40 years ago. Now the Miwoks' need an act of Congress to restore their status and to provide them the health and education benefits they deserve. By working with the tribe, the community and the House Resources Committee, I passed H.R. 946 that carefully balanced the needs of the Miwoks and the needs of the community. Under the bill I wrote and this House passed, everyone would have come out a winner. Now, without notice, the other body has undone this House's strongly supported efforts on behalf of the Coast Miwoks. If this bill becomes law, there will be nothing stopping the Coast Miwoks from building a Vegas-style casino in the rolling hills of Marin and Sonoma counties--no matter how much the community objects. Under current federal law, Indian gaming is prohibited except in states, like California, that allow gambling. In those states, governors are obligated under federal law to negotiate a compact with any recognized tribe that wants to start gaming. As everyone knows, federal law has precedence over state law in all circumstances. Therefore, without a specific federal prohibition against Miwok gaming, like the one contained in my bill, H.R. 946, the Graton Rancheria Restoration Act, at any point the Miwok could set up gaming in the North Bay; all they would have to do is ask and the governor would be obligated to negotiate a gambling compact with them. Mr. Speaker, my constituents strongly oppose gaming. As their representative, I strongly oppose this bill. The pressure to wrap up work for the session is no reason to ignore my communities' needs.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, what kind of message do we send our children when their community and when this Nation boasts new, elegant shopping malls and new expensive sports stadiums while our kids are forced to learn in overcrowded, crumbling schools? I support the Lowey motion to instruct because we cannot expect our children to get a first-rate education in second-rate and third-rate school buildings. Mr. Speaker, a recent GAO study found that 60 percent of our Nation's schools need at least one major repair or they need replacement. It is time to show our children that their school is equally as important as a new mall or a new stadium. It is time to show our children that they are important. We must vote for the Lowey motion. It is a vote that makes our children, 25 percent of our population but 100 percent of our future, our highest priority.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in paying tribute to Bill Clay. I have known Bill Clay best as my ranking member on the Education Committee for the past six years. During that time, I have seen firsthand Bill's tireless efforts for working families in this country. Whether he is fighting to increase the minimum wage, to protect workers from overtime abuses, or improve workplace safety, Bill Clay cares about American workers. And he cares about their children. He is a leader in our efforts to make sure that every American children has a safe, sound school to go to, with small classes and well-trained teachers. In Labor and Education Committee hearings, and here on the House floor, Bill Clay speaks up for those Americans who cannot always speak up for themselves. American working families have always been able to count on Bill Clay to do the right thing. They will miss him in Congress, just as those of us who serve with him will, too. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson.) The time of the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands has expired.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Yes, sir, I did.

Ms. WOOLSEY. I did not, until it came to my attention more clearly. You know how fast we shoved that through the committee, because each of us that had things, like my ``Go Girl'' bill, and I was very, very seriously concentrating on that.

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would like to say that this gentlewoman supports public education. I am not against private schools, I have no problem with religious schools; but our public schools are underfunded, and to take anything away from the funding of public schools at this time is a huge, grave mistake. If we vote on this later today, on H.R. 4271, I urge my colleagues who care about public education in America to do the same and vote against this bill.

Ms. WOOLSEY. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, good grief. Here we go again. Members from both sides of the aisle joined together to craft a good bipartisan bill, the National Science Education Act, a bill that addresses an important national need which is improving science education. A bill that includes many innovative programs, such as my ``Go Girl'' initiative, which encourages girls to study and pursue careers in math, science, engineering and technology. The Democrats on the Committee on Science and the Committee on Education and the Workforce had to fight really hard to convince the Republicans on the Committee on Education and the Workforce to let ``Go Girl'' stay in the bill, and we prevailed, and the bill is better because of that. But H.R. 4271 still includes a poison pill, a poison pill that no Member who cares about public education in America wants to vote for. In section 4, H.R. 4271 will give Federal funds directly to private and religious schools to hire teachers. This appears to violate our Constitution, and it absolutely takes precious dollars away from public schools. It would be easy to change this provision. In fact, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle were asked to do just that before the bill came before us today on the floor, but they have refused. So with regret for the students and the public schools that could benefit from the good programs in this bill, I cannot support H.R. 4271, unless the section 4 language regarding private schools is corrected.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, when I first came to Washington, I was determined to make education our Nation's number one priority. That commitment has not changed. What has changed is my understanding of what it takes so that our children are ready to learn when they enter the classroom. We can have the best schools and the best teachers in the world; but if our children do not enter the classroom ready to succeed, those schools and those teachers and those students will fail. Let us face it, if today's children are lucky enough to have two parents living with them, chances are both parents work outside the home, they work long hours, they commute long distances, and it is our children who are being left behind. It is certainly not their parents' fault. They are working and commuting long hours to support their families. But it is our children who are paying the price because their parents need to earn a living. That is not right. Parents should not have to choose between financial stability and their children's emotional stability. We need to help parents bridge the gap between work and family so their children are ready to learn when they enter the classroom. Mr. Speaker, we know that learning does not start on the first day of kindergarten. Children are growing and changing from the very day they are born. Study after study has shown that the first 3 years are critical to a child's development. Provisions need to be made for families so that they can be together at these critical times so parents can be with new babies and newly adopted children. Paid family leave is a key tool we can use to make sure that children get off to a positive start and that their parents can be with them at these critical times. And by providing parents with voluntary universal prekindergarten programs, we will give them the chance to get their children on the right track. Programs like Head Start and Early Head Start show us that pre-K programs work. All parents should have the option of enrolling their children in a structured, quality, voluntary pre-K program. With parents working hard, children are spending more and more time in child care. Ensuring that quality child care is available to all children will go a long way to making sure that our children are ready to learn when they go to school. We need more good child care, including care for children under the age of 3 and for night and weekend workers. But it is not just young children who are coming to school unprepared. Older children face challenges also. Title XI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which I wrote and saw signed into law in my first term, needs to be expanded. It needs to be expanded to allow schools to use more Federal funds for in- school support services for students and for their families. Services such as after-school programs, mentoring programs, tutoring and counseling help young people address their angers and their frustrations and their fears before they have tragic consequences, and these programs ensure that young people are ready to learn when they enter the classroom. Also, Mr. Speaker, students cannot learn when they are hungry. It is proven that those students who eat breakfast do better on tests, they are more well-behaved in school, and they miss less time from school than those who do not eat breakfast. We need to make sure every child starts the day off with a good meal. My pilot Federal breakfast program, which is underway in five school districts across the Nation, is the first step toward a universal school breakfast program. We must also make quality education accessible to all of our children. That means building new, modern schools that are welcoming to those with disabilities as well as to those without. That means making sure that no one is left behind. In the high-tech global economy, however, those without a high-tech education, those without high-tech skills will be left behind. That is why we must make sure that minorities and women are encouraged to study math, science, technology, and engineering. Females make up slightly more than 50 percent of this country's population, but less than 30 percent of America's scientists are women. My ``Go Girl'' bill will create a bold new workforce of energized young women in science, math and technology careers.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, in Marin County, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the district that I represent, 150 women out of every 100,000 were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1991 and 1996. A 1994 Northern California Cancer Center study showed that Marin County has the highest breast cancer rate in the country. An alarming number of women are dying in Marin and across this country. We need to know why, and we need to make sure that all women have the care they need to survive this disease. The Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act would help protect women and save lives. This bill should not be encumbered by the words that the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) will try to add to the debate this morning or this afternoon. This bill has 270 cosponsors. It should be passed as it was presented.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the women of America want the other body to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. This landmark legislation, which the House has reauthorized, has saved lives and rescued countless women from the vicious cycle of family violence. From 1993, when the act was enacted, to 1997, the rate of intimate partner violence fell and the number of female victims of intimate violence dropped. American women have VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act, to thank for these gains. But there is so much more that needs to be done. In 1998, three out of four victims of intimate-partner homicide were women. The number of women killed by an intimate partner increased 8 percent between 1997 and 1998. Women need VAWA so they can protect themselves and their children from domestic violence. The Violence Against Women Act saves lives. I urge our colleagues in the other body, pass VAWA before the end of this session.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4807, to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act. This reauthorization is very important to our Nation. It is particularly important to my constituents in the North Bay across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and for all of the people in the entire San Francisco Bay region. This act provides crucial services for care and treatment for individuals with HIV and AIDS. To date, the CARE act has worked to dramatically improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and for their families. It has reduced the use of costly inpatient care as well as increased the access to high-quality care for underserved populations. By supporting this important legislation, Mr. Speaker, we are ensuring that the thousands of Americans living with HIV/AIDS can continue to receive the care and the treatment that is absolutely necessary for their comfort and for their survival. Mr. Speaker, we must spare no effort to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. By reauthorizing the Ryan White CARE Act, we are taking a positive step to successfully dealing with this very deadly disease. We must adopt the reauthorization.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, due to an event in my District, I missed roll call votes #503-505. Had I been present, I would have voted: Roll Call #503--Yea. Roll Call #504--Yea. Roll Call #505--No. Regarding H.R. 3088, I wholeheartedly agree that victims of rape should be able to learn whether their assailant could have passed on the HIV virus to them. That's why I support addressing this issue in the Violence Against Women Act, and support women who have been raped and want to undergo an HIV test. However, H.R. 3088 could force innocent individuals to undergo HIV tests and have that information involuntarily disclosed to others. This Congress should not force the accused to undergo an HIV test until he has been proven guilty. Under this legislation, an individual who is indicted and may be able to prove his innocence would still be forced to undergo an HIV test. This bill has not been considered by the Judiciary Committee, and I believe that it strongly violates the principle that Americans are innocent until proven guilty.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, many, many of our seniors must choose between buying food and buying medicine every day and every week of their lives, and we know that that is not right. But what are we doing about it? What are we doing in this Congress as we come to the end of the 106th Congress? My Republican colleagues would suggest that private insurance companies take over this issue, but from 1995 to 1999 this country has doubled what is spent on prescription drugs, from $65 billion a year to $125 billion a year. Prescriptions are a fact of life. Do we really believe that private insurers are willing to take on the burden of 18 prescription drugs on average per year for a senior citizen? Of course not. If it were at all profitable, private insurers would already be all over this market. Instead, we need to expand Medicare. We need to include the guaranteed prescription drug benefits through a good program that has been working for us for 30 years.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I delivered the keynote address at the Geothermal Resources Council's 2000 Annual Meeting. As a long- time advocate of alternative and renewable energy sources, I was honored to be recognized for my work in this field and privileged to share my thoughts with the more than 450 attendees from across the globe representing geothermal professionals and businesses. As a result, I missed rollcall vote No. 487. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. It was a hearing with Dr. Ed Ziegler, the father of Head Start, that started me on the road to preparing children for school, even though I know my major effort is that all children have the best education in the world, but getting them ready for this education. We had a child care hearing and, of course, he was there to talk about the successes and some of the learning experiences of Head Start. Dr. Ziegler said, before we even started, ``I have learned that no matter how good we make Head Start, if we don't take care of our children and have parents involved with them the first, from zero to 3 years old, the best Head Start programs in the world will have less of a chance of success.'' When I talk about universal preschool, I use Head Start as my model. So the gentleman is right. We have to make that available, on a voluntary basis. We do not want to force people to send their children to preschool if they can keep them home and want to.

Ms. WOOLSEY. I think what the gentleman is referring to, teaching the parents at Head Start, is parents being the first teacher. That is where it starts and that is where it ends with our children. The better the parent knows how to parent and how to teach their children by example in general, the better that child is.

Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, I thank the gentleman for inviting me to be part of this conversation with him this afternoon on this special order. I will be talking about my ``Go Girl'' bill, but before I do that I have a few other thoughts on education that I would like to share with the gentleman in this conversation. Because I think it all works together, by the time I get to my ``Go Girl'' thoughts, and how important it is that we have women in math, science, and engineering in this country. When I first came to Congress in 1993, my number one priority was to make education the number one priority in this Nation, and I was honored and delighted to be placed on the Committee on Education and the Workforce with the gentleman from Indiana. We sat side by side, if I remember correctly, and that was when the gentleman's first child was being born. So now 8 years later, the gentleman has a much larger family, and I have a few different ideas about education. My commitment has not changed, but what has changed is my understanding of what it takes for our children to be ready to learn when they enter the classroom. We can have the best schools and the best teachers in the world, and we must; but our children will not enter the classroom ready to learn if we do not take some steps that are missing right now. If we have the best schools and the best educators, it will not matter if they are not ready to learn. So let us face it, if today's children are lucky enough to have two parents living with them in their home, chances are that both parents are in the workforce, they work outside of the home, and it is our children that are being left behind. It is not parents' fault. They are working hard, they are commuting long hours, they are working long hours, and they are doing that for one reason only and that is to support their families. The fact is that 66 percent of our mothers with children under age 6 are working; 77 percent of mothers of school-aged children have jobs. Compared to 30 years ago, parents are spending nearly 52 fewer days a year with their children. Fifty-two days less a year with their children. That is almost 2 months in time. So we have to give parents the tools they need to bridge the gap between work and family so that their children will be prepared to succeed when they become adults. I would suggest that there are some tools that we must include so that parents can do a better job and so that we can do a better job for parents and relieve some of their pressures. First of all, I believe we need to have universal voluntary preschool. I also would support paid family leave, school breakfasts, and quality child care programs, thinking of those four programs as being key to preparing children to be ready for school when they enter the classroom. I am the Chair of the Democratic Caucus's Task Force on Children, and we are heading up an effort to ensure that our children's needs are considered in every vote we take in this Congress, and that we develop a comprehensive children's agenda that will help to prepare our children for the challenges that they will face now and the challenges that they will face as adults. Paid family leave is a key tool. It is a tool we can use to make sure that our children get off to a positive start. Study after study has shown that the first three years are critical to a child's development. Provisions must be made for families to be with their children at this critical time at the beginning of their lives. I have introduced legislation with Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut to allow States to establish paid leave programs so workers can care for newborns or newly adopted children. We know that the Family and Medical Leave Act has done a lot to help families, but most families cannot afford to go without a paycheck. In fact, a recent study found that nearly two-thirds of employees who needed family leave did not take it because they could not give up their family's income. It is our children who are paying the price because their parents need to earn a living, and that is not right. Parents should not have to choose between financial stability and their children's emotional stability. We also have to look at the fact that learning does not start on the first day of kindergarten. Children are growing and changing from the day that they are born. By providing parents the option of participating in a voluntary universal preschool program, we will be giving all children, not just the parents who can afford to send their children to preschool, but all children a chance to start school ready to learn. Programs like Head Start and Early Head Start show us that pre-K programs work, and parents should have the option of enrolling their children in a structured, quality pre-K program. As I have said, with parents working hard, children are spending more and more time in child care. So we must ensure that child care is available to all children and that child care will be able to ensure for these children that they will be ready to learn, also, so that the child care is quality child care, and oh, my, would it not be nice to pay child care workers what they really should be earning? But in particular, I want to talk about parents with infants and toddlers. They have the hardest time finding quality child care because they are working, especially those in the workforce that work nontraditional hours, weekends and nights, we need to do more so that there is child care available for children under age 3 and for parents that work nights and weekends. But it is just not young children who are coming to school unprepared. Our children in school also face challenges. Now, we have title XI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which I wrote and saw signed into law in my first term in 1995. We need to expand title XI, because title XI allows schools to use more of their Federal funds for in-school support services, so that their students and families have those services available and convenient to them, services such as after-school programs, mentoring programs, tutoring and counseling programs, really services that could help young people address their fears, their angers, their frustrations before they result in tragic consequences like we have experienced this last year at our high schools. Also, students cannot learn when they are hungry. It is proven that students who eat breakfast do better on tests, they are more well behaved in the classroom and they miss less school than those who do not eat breakfast. In spite of the good economy and because parents are so busy, many children, not only poor children, start the day off without breakfast. My pilot Federal school breakfast program which is under way in five school districts around the country is the first step toward universal school breakfast. So even within the classroom, many children face challenges. They face challenges that make it hard for them to receive a quality education, and we must have quality education accessible to all children. So that means building new, modern schools that are welcoming to those who are disabled, that provide the technical background and experience and equipment that they need so that they are all learning on a level playing field. And in the high-tech global economy we have, those that graduate without computer skills are going to be left behind, pointblank, they will be left behind, as if we were teaching kids without books or without pencils or without paper. That is why we have to make sure that minorities and women do not continue to lag in training in math, science and technology. Females make up slightly more than 50 percent of our country's population, but less than 30 percent of America's scientists and less than 10 percent of engineering graduates are women. That is why I have introduced, now we will talk about Go Girl, that is why I have introduced the Go Girl bill to encourage a bold new workforce of energized women who will go into math and science and technology careers, careers that pay well, careers that are in great demand. Go Girl is legislation that will create a mentoring program to help girls from the fourth grade, because it is shortly after the fourth grade when they become sixth graders and on that for some reason girls lose interest in science and math. We have to do something to encourage them to become interested and to stay interested in high tech careers. I do not believe, as our colleague said earlier, that education is only a job for our teachers. We have to have parents involved in their children's education. It has been proven that parental involvement is what makes the difference quite often in a successful student and a failing student. Parental involvement needs to be made a national priority for all schools, all families, and all people. These are just some of the fundamental ideas that I have that I think we in Congress can do something about to ensure that education in America is the best in the world. We must not only look at school buildings but we have to have school buildings. We also have to look at the problems children face before they enter the classroom. Only by seeing the whole picture can we give every child a chance to learn and a chance to succeed. Children are only 25 percent of our population but they are 100 percent of this Nation's future. Our children must have every opportunity to succeed because there are going to be many challenges in this 21st century. Their future depends on it and the future of this Nation depends on it.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the Coburn motion to instruct. It is no secret that many who support this motion would not only take contraception from schools but would also remove the option from all health clinics. So to say that school health services are not needed is just another anti-choice action. We know that numbers of teenagers across the country rely on school- based health clinics for their health services and for health care information. Local decision-makers and community representatives, those who know their teenagers' health needs, not the Federal Government, should have the right to decide the services their school health clinics will offer. These individuals are elected by the local constituencies. These schools will tell their school districts what they want. Local decision-makers are the ones who know the needs of their teenagers. They deserve the right to address those needs. Allowing access to emergency contraceptive care gives teens the ability to act responsibly; act before they become pregnant so that they do not become pregnant. Let us help teens prevent unintended pregnancies. Let us give our local schools and local health clinics the right to decide for their communities. I urge my colleagues to oppose the Coburn motion to instruct.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following letter for the Record. Congress of the United States, Washington, DC, May 15, 2000. Zhu Rongji Zongli, Premier of the People's Republic of China, Guowuyuan, Beijingshi, People's Republic of China. Your Excellency: We are writing to express our strong concern regarding the incarceration of Zhang Jie and to request that you urge the appropriate officials to release information related to his imprisonment and state of being. Zhang Jie was a 23-year old unemployed worker from Jinan, Shangdong Province, when, on June 5th, 1989, he was alleged to have organized a rally and denounced the killing of protestors in Tiananmen Square the previous day. Zhang Jie was given an 18-year sentence for ``counter revolutionary incitement.'' Jie was last reported in 1992 to be in Shangdong Prison Number 3, also known as Weifang Shengjian Machinery Works. Given our understanding that Zhang Jie was exercising his basic right to freedom of expression--and neither undertook, nor called for, any violent action--we are seriously disturbed by the severity of his sentence. We are also concerned that those involved in international humanitarian efforts to secure his release have been unable to learn anything about his condition. This is all the more distressful when we hear that workers such as Zhang Jie have been subjected to harsh treatment. The American people await some sign of progress from the leadership of the People's Republic of China in the treatment of those who speak out on matters of conscience. We call on you to personally ensure that the proper authorities will cooperate and look forward to our request for information on Zhang Jie's's status. Sincerely, Lynn Woolsey, Luis V. Gutierrez, Martin Frost, Tom Lantos, George Miller, Peter De Fazio, Juanita Millender-McDonald, Major R. Owens, ------ ------, Nancy Pelosi, Christopher Shays, Sam Farr, Cynthia McKinney, Pete Stark, Sherrod Brown, Lloyd Doggett.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3632, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Boundary Adjustment Act. I appreciate my colleague Mr. Lantos' hard work to bring this bill to the floor today and am proud to have worked on it with him and our other Bay Area colleague, Ms. Pelosi. Mr. Speaker, this bill will authorize open space parcels, located between existing Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) lands and the lower-income community of Marin City, to be included within the GGNRA. This pending acquisition would create the first direct access to the GGNRA for the residents of Marin City. It will also fulfill a GGNRA ``parks to people'' legislative mandate to establish park access to as wide a socioeconomic constituency as possible. In addition, H.R. 3632 allows for these parcels to be preserved in an undeveloped state that protects habitat, ridge top trails and scenic views of San Francisco Bay for the public's continued enjoyment. Including these parcels within the GGNRA boundaries is strongly supported by the Marin County Board of Supervisors, the Marin County Open Space District and local conservation organizations. Open space preservation is a key priority for my constituents. But H.R. 3632 will also set aside lands in other parts of the Bay Area for the public's continued enjoyment. Only 20 miles south of the parcels in my district, new space in San Francisco--the urban heart of the Bay Area--will also be included in the GGNRA. Even further south, in a part of the Bay Area that is also experiencing pressure on its open space, Mr. Lantos has worked hard to include parcels in Pacifica within GGNRA boundaries. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3632 today. It is crucial that open space in the Bay Area can be preserved and enjoyed by generations of children to come.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Norton amendment. I am appalled that this House is trying to stop the D.C. City Council from implementing a measure they've already approved! This is a true sign that some of my colleagues want to trample the rights of the city council and people of this district. I know that the people of our districts wouldn't stand for this! The language in this bill that prohibits health care coverage for contraceptives discriminates against the women of D.C.--just because they live here. We must stand up for the rights of all women to have access to contraceptive coverage, by voting to allow access to contraceptives here in the District of Columbia. Contraceptive care gives our mothers and families the ability to make important choices that affect their lives. And, we know that unwanted pregnancy and abortion rates drop when women have access to preventive reproductive health care. Let's let women make decisions about their reproductive health with their doctors. I urge my colleagues to support the Norton amendment to make contraceptive coverage accessible to the women of D.C.

Ms. WOOLSEY

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Professor Morihiro Saito, a professor of Aikido, who has offered his services to my constituents in the 6th Congressional District of California during his many visits to the North Bay over the last 25 years. During that time, Professor Saito has brought the message of peace, harmony and intelligent reconciliation of conflicts to the people of California. On September 22, 2000, a seminar will be held in San Rafael, California, to promote the art of Aikido. More than 300 people are expected to attend from around the world. I am proud to again welcome Professor Morihiro Saito to our area. I would like to welcome our world guests to this seminar. I, along with the Aikidoists in California, would like to express my appreciation and gratitude for Professor Morihiro Saito's years of service and dedication to teaching and instructing. It is truly remarkable that in such a short period of time a handful of Aikidoists has grown into tens of thousands of practitioners, from around the world, promoting Aikido's message of peace, harmony and nonviolent conflict resolution. Mr. Speaker, it is my great pleasure to welcome Professor Morihiro Saito to California's Sixth Congressional District.