Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you, Mr. Altmire. Here is the bottom line. There is a dramatic and stark difference between the Republicans' priorities and the Democrats' priorities. There is one priority, and only one that you will ever hear from the other side, and that is to continue to fund the war in Iraq, continue to put our troops in harm's way, continue to have their families separated from them, continue for them to have longer and longer tours of duty, more and more strain, more and more tours of duty. Here are our priorities. We passed the largest increase in veterans benefits in the 77-year history of the VA. We passed legislation to increase the minimum wage. We passed legislation to expand access to health care for 10 million children. We passed legislation to cut the student loan interest rate in half. The list goes on. And what do you hear from the Republicans? Nothing. You hear, let's put more money into the war in Iraq. Let's lengthen the time that the men and women fighting on our behalf spend there. Let's send them over there for more and more tours of duty. Do you ever hear anything from that side of the aisle in terms of an agenda, in terms of getting anything done? All I hear is ``no.'' All I hear is, ``not going to do that.'' All I hear, again, is, ``Yes, Mr. President. Whatever you say, Mr. President.'' Our criticism of them, Mr. Meek and Mr. Ryan, if you remember, in the 30-Something Working Group in the 109th was that they were the bobblehead Republicans who did nothing more than shake their head up and down and do whatever the President said. And nothing has changed. Well, guess what. A year from now, which is just about a year from now, they will be called to account just like you said, Mr. Meek, and we will see just how many fewer Republicans there will be here that serve in this chamber, because I think the American people have had it up to here. I would be happy to yield to the gentleman.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Just in response to Mr. Goodlatte regarding the Special Counsel, I appreciate the comments of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton). Special Counsel is an essential element to this legislation because right now you have no less than eight different entities and agencies that have something to do with the grants and the coordination and the prosecution and the pursuit of child exploitation crimes and particularly child pornography. It is imperative that we have a single go-to entity, a single leadership position in the Department of Justice to ensure that there is someone who is responsible to Congress for the accountability, for the coordination, to make sure that it is elevated to the highest level of priority at the Department of Justice where clearly right now it is not. And I again want to thank my colleague Mr. Barton for working with us on this legislation. This is an issue that transcends party. It is an issue that transcends process. When you have 500,000 known individuals out there pursuing our children on-line, Internet predators, any of our children could fall victim just by a click of the computer. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you I have a 4-year-old who goes on-line with the most basic of Web sites, and you just never know, and we need to make sure that we have a massive effort to coordinate and put resources into going after child exploitation and child predators.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield as much time as he may consume to the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Conyers.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, just last week we learned that police arrested a senior executive at the National Children's Museum right here in Washington, DC, for distributing child pornography over the Internet. This headline floored me, but it is a good example of a problem that has gotten completely out of control. The Internet has facilitated an exploding multibillion dollar market for child pornography. Tragically, the demand for this criminal market can only be supplied by graphic new images, and these can only be supplied through the sexual assault of more children. I rise today to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3845, the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2007. This bill addresses an issue that is central to the goals of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New Direction Congress, and one that should be at the top of everyone's agenda, the protection of our children. Our children deserve a future that is healthy, prosperous, safe, and bright, but our children are vulnerable when they are on line. If this bill becomes law, we have the potential to save many thousands of children from sexual abuse and exploitation. I want to start by thanking my friend and colleague, Joe Barton of Texas, for working with me on this bipartisan legislation, and for his counsel, his very good counsel, as the lead Republican sponsor of the bill. In the last Congress, Congressman Barton, then the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, conducted a series of hearings on this topic. Not only did those hearings expose the dearth of Federal resources devoted to investigating and prosecuting child exploitation crimes, but they also brought together an extraordinary group of parents who formed an organization called the Surviving Parents Coalition. In June of this year, I had the opportunity to visit with this very special group of parents. When I sat down with Mark Lunsford, Erin Runnion, Ed Smart, Marc Klaas, Mary Kozakiewicz, and other founders of the Surviving Parents Coalition, I was not prepared for what they had to tell me. They shared with me their own horrific stories of how their children were abducted by sexual predators. As we all know, some of these children will never come home. As the mother of three young children myself, their stories broke my heart, and as a Member of Congress I felt compelled to act. What surprised me most about these brave parents was their message about child pornography and child exploitation. What they said was this: If you want to prevent predators from hurting other children like ours, the way to do that is to go back through the Internet and get them. As we learned last month with the apprehension of a child predator in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the first time we have the technology and the evidence not only to find these predators, we have the technology to rescue their victims as well. A 2005 Justice Department study found that 80 percent of child pornography possessors have images and videos of children being sexually penetrated. Another 21 percent possess images of bondage, sadistic abuse, and torture. The children depicted in these photos are very young. Eighty-three percent of child pornography possessors have images of children younger than 12, and another 19 percent possess images of infants and toddlers. There are even Web sites that provide live pay-per-view rape of very young children. Let me be clear. This is not about obscenity or pornography; these images are crime scene photos, created by a thriving industry that uses children as a sexual commodity. I want to thank Chairman John Conyers for holding a hearing on Internet predators in October. At that hearing, Special Agent Flint Waters of the Wyoming State Police, a highly respected child exploitation investigator, testified that right now there are nearly 500,000 identified individuals in the United States trafficking child pornography on the Internet. That's half a million people right here in the United States. And law enforcement knows who they are, and they know where they are. But what shocked me the most and what compelled me to get involved in this issue is that, due to a lack of resources, law enforcement is investigating less than 2 percent of these known 500,000 individuals. Less than 2 percent. What was even more shocking is that it is estimated that if we were to investigate these cases, we could actually rescue child victims nearly 30 percent of the time. It is clear that our current efforts are not working. We need a national campaign with everyone joining the fight: that means the full weight of law enforcement, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Congress, the executive branch, parents and victims advocacy groups and Internet service providers. Alicia Kozakiewicz, whose testimony at the October Judiciary hearing moved us all, is a living, breathing reminder of the lives that we can save. Alicia is not just a victim; she is a survivor. Alicia told us how over a period of months she was groomed by a 45- year-old predator pretending to be a teenage girl. When Alicia, who was 13 years old at the time, agreed to meet her cyberfriend in real life, he kidnapped her from her suburban Pittsburgh driveway and held her captive in his Virginia dungeon, where he performed unspeakable sexual acts upon her day after day and broadcast it over the Internet. Just when Alicia told us she had given up all hope, she was finally rescued by FBI agents. The FBI found her because the Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children task force, or ICAC, had the technology to lift the digital fingerprints of this perpetrator's crime and to discover the location where he held her captive, chained to the floor. The PROTECT Our Children Act will help provide the safety net we so desperately need by creating statutory authority for these highly successful ICAC task forces which support State and local law enforcement agencies. It will supplement this local effort with hundreds of new Federal agents who will be solely dedicated to crimes against children. It will also provide desperately needed forensic crime and computer labs so agents can uncover troves of electronic evidence, locate these perpetrators, and bring them to justice. Finally, the bill will create a special counsel within the Department of Justice who will be responsible for planning and coordinating our child exploitation prosecution efforts across the Federal agencies. At the October Judiciary Committee hearing, a representative from the FBI told us two things, Mr. Speaker, that boggled my mind. First, he told us that the number of agents being exclusively assigned to these cases is actually shrinking; and, second, that they are giving millions of dollars that Congress has appropriated to combat child pornography to programs that have nothing to do with child protection. Should we be shrinking critical staffing power and diverting badly needed funds at a time when we are investigating less than 2 percent of known traffickers of child pornography? We can do better, and we must do better. Mr. Speaker, the time has come to reorder priorities at the Department of Justice, and the PROTECT Our Children Act will do just that. Our mandate here is clear: we must prevent predators from hurting our children. Again, I want to thank Ranking Member Barton for his leadership, his concern, and his compassion for our children and their safety, not just on this issue but on the Pool Safety bill that we worked together in the 109th and the 110th Congress, and I truly appreciate his leadership and effort on this bill and many others. Mr. Speaker, this is what Congress can do when we come together in a bipartisan fashion. And maybe it's our children that can be the catalyst for the change that we need in America. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3845) to establish a Special Counsel for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, to improve the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, to increase resources for regional computer forensic labs, and to make other improvements to increase the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute child predators, as amended.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, December 7th marks the 40th anniversary of the mass movement for Soviet Jewish freedom, and the 20th anniversary of the Freedom Sunday Rally for Soviet Jews on the National Mall in Washington, DC. To honor the movement, I am proud to co-sponsor H. Res. 759, a resolution celebrating both of these milestones. We remember these moments to commemorate all of those who struggled and died for their freedom and to celebrate the efforts of advocacy groups that tirelessly campaigned for Soviet Jewry. Twenty years ago, on December 7, 1987, more than 250,000 people rallied in Washington, DC to support freedom and amnesty for Jews living in the Soviet Union. The human rights campaign resulted from more than two decades of human rights violations and utter lack of freedom for Jews in the Soviet Union. The governmental policy on Soviet Jews violated even the most basic of human rights, including freedom of religion, freedom of movement, and the freedom to study ones culture, language and heritage. Soviet Jews were at risk of arrest, exile to Siberia and harassment for exercising their right to practice their religion or celebrate the Zionist movement. However despite the odds and risks there were many brave Soviet Jews, who worked clandestinely and tirelessly to spread Zionism, and raise Jewish consciousness among Soviet Jewry. The movement to raise awareness of the Soviet Jewish plight became a global effort in the 1980s due to the work of many American advocacy groups. My heart is warmed by the work of groups that organized protests, petitions, demonstrations, and rallies in United States and all over the world. Through these united efforts, we have witnessed historic progress over the past 20 years, successfully opening the doors for millions of Soviet Jews who had been held as virtual prisoners within their own country. The movement also helped to cement Jewish solidarity, raise charity and unite Jews from all over the world. However, the struggle for religious freedom continues today in many other countries. Activists labor tirelessly in the United States and abroad to fight anti-Semitism and religious discrimination wherever it exists. It is incumbent upon us to remember the lessons from the movement for tolerance and religious freedom in the Soviet Union as we continue the fight for religious rights around the world. I commend Congressman Waxman for this timely and important resolution recognizing this milestone, and I support the ongoing efforts of those promoting religious freedom worldwide.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Homeowners' Defense Act of 2007. Over the past few years, most Americans have witnessed devastating images of natural catastrophes strike our fellow citizens, from wildfires in California, tornadoes in the Midwest, to the hurricanes hitting the Gulf States in Florida, and wondered if they might be next. Even as the recovery begins after these disasters, for many, a new nightmare of rising insurance rates and dropped policy coverage begins. However, thanks to the sponsor of the Homeowners' Defense Act of 2007, Congressmen Ron Klein and Tim Mahoney, many homeowners across America will be spared a similar nightmare. This bipartisan bill, and it is good to see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle from Florida here as well, this bipartisan bill provides a critical tool that will help provide a fair and equitable solution to this crisis. I cannot think of an issue that is more important to the economic survival of the homeowners of my State of Florida than dealing with the homeowners insurance crisis. Thank you, Congressmen Klein and Mahoney, and thank you to Chairman Barney Frank for bringing this bill to the floor today. It has been a long time in coming. I urge Members to support it.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, on October 31, 2007, I missed the following rollcall votes because I was attending to personal family matters in my District: rollcall vote No. 1024, the McCrery substitute amendment to H.R. 3920, the Trade and Globalization Act, rollcall vote No. 1025, passage of H.R. 3920, the Trade and Globalization Act; and rollcall vote No. 1026, the motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 3043, the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. If present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall Nos. 1024 and 1026 and ``aye'' on rollcall No. 1025.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, on October 29, 2007, I missed the following rollcall votes because I was attending to other congressional matters in my District: rollcall vote No. 1010, passage of H.R. 3224, the Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2007; rollcall vote No. 1011, passage of H. Res. 573, Recognizing and commending the efforts of the United States public and advocacy groups to raise awareness about and help end the worsening humanitarian crisis and genocide in Darfur, Sudan; and rollcall vote No. 1012, passage of H. Res. 747, Recognizing the religious and historical significance of the festival of Diwali. If present, I would have voted ``aye'' on each measure.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, on October 24, 2007, I was unavoidably detained for rollcall votes No. 998, a motion ordering the previous question on the Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 505, and 999, providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 505) to express the policy of the United States regarding the United States relationship with Native Hawaiians and to provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity. If present, I would have voted ``aye'' on both measures.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of a special young hero in my district. Jazmyne Robinson is only nine years old, yet when she found her two year old brother floating face down in the family swimming pool, she had the presence of mind to call her father for help and then immediately dial 911. Keeping her composure, she gave her address to the operator and remained on the phone until help arrived. The unconscious two year old was rushed to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where he made a full recovery after one month in a coma. It is important that Jazmyne is recognized not only for her heroism, but so that her life-saving actions can set an example for others. Touched by Jazmyne's heroic deed, and her baby brother's miraculous recovery, the Baby Otter Swim School in Fort Lauderdale presented the family with a gift package of free swim lessons and two water safety DVD's. The surviving toddler is no longer afraid of the water and loves to swim. Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending. The Center for Disease Control estimates that nine people die every day due to unintentional drowning. It is the second leading cause of death for children ages one to fourteen, and in California, Arizona and Florida, it is the number one cause of death in children under five. The importance of drowning prevention and swimming pool safety cannot be emphasized enough. We must all work together to dramatically lower the drowning statistics in the United States and around the world. Jazmyne Robinson is an example that no one is too young or too small to benefit from pool safety and drowning education. Her heroic efforts were rewarded with a medal of honor from the Baby Otter Swim School at a ceremony with the Pembroke Pines Mayor and Broward County Commissioners. Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1721, The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, a bill that I sponsored which seeks to prevent incidents like the one that would have taken the life of Jazmyne's brother had it not been for her heroism. Our nation is touched by Jazmyne's courage and fast action.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Thank you. It is wonderful to be here with my good and long-time friend, Mr. Meek of Florida, and our relatively new friend, Mr. Altmire from Pennsylvania. I have to tell you, Mr. Altmire, it has been such a pleasure to have the 41 new freshmen Members of our Democratic Caucus join us in being able to move this country in a new direction. It has really injected a vibrancy, a new vibrancy, an energized vibrancy, into our caucus. You guys are fresh from the campaign trail, as Speaker Pelosi always talks about. You came with stories from the grass roots and talking about things that people in America care about. Oftentimes what happens in this institution here, we get a little stale and crusty. When we are all making, many of us, policy thousands of miles away from our constituents. Myself and Mr. Meek, we are a thousand miles from our constituents. You are a good 2 or 3-hour drive from yours. Mr. Murphy is a little further than that. It becomes easy to be desensitized to what the real needs and concerns are. We get wrapped up in how important Congress supposedly is, and that is when it gets dangerous. That is what happened to our friends on the other side of the aisle when they were in charge over the last 2 years. They were engulfed by a culture of corruption. They really engaged in the priorities of K Street and the priorities of the wealthiest people in America instead of the priorities of the average working family, and that is what SCHIP is all about. That is what the Children's Health Insurance Program is all about. It is about getting basic health care, not to people who make a lot of money, not to people who have private health insurance as the President has said who would supposedly drop it if they were suddenly eligible for SCHIP, but for people who are the working poor, the people who fall in the huge gap that exists between not qualifying for Medicaid and not being able to afford to buy either the insurance that your employer provides you or buying it on your own. So what that means is that if you don't have a children's health insurance program that your child is eligible for and that your child has access to, then you are using the emergency room as your primary means of health care. So I am so glad we had the infusion of energy from your class, Mr. Altmire and Mr. Murphy, so we could make sure we could pass bipartisan legislation like the Children's Health Insurance Program. Mr. Meek referred to the President's comments about how Congress needs to get to work. Again, it is funny. It is humorous. It is actually sad. I joined Congress in the 109th Congress, the term before Mr. Murphy and Mr. Altmire, and a couple of terms after Mr. Meek. We were in session in the 109th Congress a total of 89 days. Now how many days are there in a year?

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Why don't you give out the Web site.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It's important to point out that you pay for your children's health care.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Ryan, I'll just remind you that our weather is still always better than yours.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. That's okay because we are all pretty worked up about this. This is really important when it comes down to making sure. I have kids too. And Mr. Altmire has kids. One day Mr. Murphy and Mr. Ryan are going to have kids. It really matters to all of us. But one of the important points that we have not made is how effective this program is. The SCHIP program, the Children's Health Insurance Program provides health care to kids who need it and who wouldn't have it if there wasn't an SCHIP program, and there won't be an SCHIP program if we don't make sure we override the President's veto or pass a bill and make sure we keep putting it on his desk until he signs it. I think it's interesting, the President likes to call himself The Decider. So it's time for him to decide which of the families he thinks shouldn't get coverage, don't deserve health insurance. How about this family? The Wilkerson family in St. Petersburg, Florida. This is personal, this is the Mom speaking. This is personal not only to us, but for millions of parents across the United States, said Bethany's mother, Dara, in a telephone call Monday with reporters about why she and her husband, Bo, are allowing such a focus on their daughter. Dara Wilkerson said Bethany had to have heart surgery in 2005 when she was 6 months old after doctors told them she had been born with two holes in her heart and a valve that didn't close as it should. The Wilkersons said their annual household income is about $34,000 from their jobs, and they cannot afford private insurance. But even if they could, Bethany's pre-existing condition, the heart problem she was born with, made enrollment in a private plan impossible, her mother said. Thanks to Florida's version of SCHIP, the State KidCare program, she said Bethany gets the care she needs to recover from her lifesaving surgery. Those are the kinds of kids that get coverage that wouldn't get it if not for the SCHIP program. Those are the kinds of kids that our colleagues who choose not to vote to override the President's veto tomorrow are going to deny. And that's the last thing I wanted to say as we wrap up since we've got five of us here tonight, and I don't know who to throw it to.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. The only thing I want to jump in on, Mr. Altmire, is that the bottom line is that the track record of this administration is that generally the facts are not on the side of their argument, so they have to make it up. I mean, that has been their M.O. the entire, we are on 7 years now, their entire administration. When the facts aren't on your side, make it up. And just like Mr. Meek has said repeatedly on this floor during our working group sessions, make it up and repeat it over and over and over again, and hopefully people will believe it is true. Only the people are on to them now.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. But we digress.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Actually, Mr. Ryan, I think the last time they were in the World Series they lost to the Marlins, come to think of it.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I will take that under advisement, Mr. Speaker, but that is something that I would like to look into on my own and would be happy to follow up with the Parliamentarian. Thank you.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, my understanding of the rule that you just cited is that Members need to refrain from making direct accusations of the President's being deceptive or referring to the President as a prevaricator or any other word that might apply. What I did on the House floor this evening was read from a newspaper editorial's opinion. I did not directly make any reference. So I wanted to make sure that we clarify that that was not a violation of the rules.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.