Timothy Walz

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Madam Speaker, every time I get the privilege to speak on this floor, I am truly humbled. I am humbled by the knowledge of what we, as a Nation, have done. Each one of us in this body realizes that the strength of this Nation and our democracy lies in the extraordinary nature of our people. I come from the heartland of this great Nation, the places where the Great Plains begin and the Mississippi River begins to flow. Mankato, Minnesota, is my home town. That was the ``big town'' where the Ingalls family went to shop for school clothes in Laura Ingalls Wilder's ``Little House on the Prairie.'' My congressional office is located at 227 Main Street in Mankato. That is just a couple of blocks down from where America's first Nobel laureate, Sinclair Lewis, lived when he wrote his novel ``Main Street.'' Minnesota is also the home of F. Scott Fitzgerald. And I feel truly blessed to have the friendship of Garrison Keillor and his iconic ``Prairie Home Companion.'' Each of these writers had a special gift to describe a place. As a child of the prairie and a geographer, place is something I have spent my entire life trying to understand. I teach high school geography, and invariably whenever I tell people that, they flash back to some really bad memories of having to memorize capitals. And I explain to them, that is location, and it is only a very small part of geography. Place, on the other hand, is knowing the people and what is in their heart. Minnesota recently lost another great writer. He was one of the most thoughtful and insightful tellers of place I have ever seen. Bill Holm was born in Minneota, Minnesota, in 1943. Minneota is a small town in southwest Minnesota where my father-in-law, Valgene Norwood Whipple, is still the high school boys basketball coach. Bill was of Icelandic descent, and he never lost his love for his proud ancestral home, spending his summer in Iceland. He went to college in St. Peter, Minnesota, at the great Swedish College of Gustavus Adolphus, named for the Swedish King and patron of literature and learning. Bill went on to the University of Kansas, became a Fulbright Scholar in Reykjavik, as well as a Bush Foundation fellow. He taught at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, and he wrote several books and volumes of poetry. That is his biography. What Bill truly did was tell the soul of a northern people, a proud stoic people, who not only settled the harsh prairies of Minnesota, but built the vibrant culture and strong unique communities. One of Bill's works that touched me the most was a small volume called ``The Music of Failure.'' It is a journey of place and people that leaves one feeling incredibly thankful for family, friends, neighbors and this Nation, and puts into perspective what is truly important. I would like to spend a minute or so and let Bill's own words from ``The Music of Failure'' tell a little of his place. ``Farmers go to bed early, or at least they used to when I was a boy. Small towns in Minnesota close by 6, the cafes frequently by 4. People eat at home where you can save money. By 10, the streets are silent, only the liquor store is open, its lonesome Hamm's sign proclaiming a few that are still up. Nothing but blue flickering TVs behind drawn blinds, and a random pattern of yard lights stretching off into the prairies. By midnight, nothing. Drive on these county roads, and you can imagine that trolls have kidnapped the entire human race, leaving only electricity behind. Your headlights are a ship's beacon, lighting up a few breakers on the grass ocean, as the car rocks along toward whatever port you have business in. I like driving late at night on these roads without traffic. It provides me with a valuable corrective against human arrogance.'' Bill understood place and he understood what made this Nation so strong: it was the people and their resilience. He also understood that not all of us saw the world the same way. There are two eyes in the human head--the eye of mystery, and the eye of harsh truth--the hidden and the open. The woods eye and the prairie eye. The prairie eye looks for distance, clarity and light; the woods eye for closeness, complexity, and darkness. The prairie eye looks for usefulness and plainness in art and architecture; the woods eye for the baroque and ornamental. Dark old brownstones on Summit Street in St. Paul, they were created by the woods eye; the square white farmhouses and the red barn are the prairies eye. Sherwood Anderson wrote his stories with a prairie eye, plain and awkward, told in the voice of a man almost embarrassed to be telling them, but bull-headedly persistent to get the meaning of the events. Faulkner, whose endless complications of motive and language take the reader miles behind the simple facts of an event. He had a woods eye. One eye is not superior to another, just different. When he wrote his book and the book I am reading from today, ``The Music of Failure,'' he was trying to get at the heart of what this Nation was about, what the soul was about, and he talked often about when he was a young man trying to understand how we judged failure. One sentence summed it up for many of us: At 15, I could define failure in Minnesota by dying here and going nowhere. What Bill Holm understood was this Nation had a way to make itself great, reinvent itself and move to the future. Bill, rest in peace. Yours was not failure.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. I rise in sadness today and also in hope, as we commemorate the Armenian genocide that happened in the second decade of the twentieth century. There is nothing easier than to forget the victims of history, and nothing more tragic, and for those very reasons, there is nothing more important than to remember them. And that is what we are here for. The genocide of the Armenian people is a fact of history. It is a sad fact of history. But the very fact that we are here, together in the U.S. House of Representatives addressing the issue is reason for hope. Armenians' determination to carry on, and in the United States' historic support for them, and in our joined determination to make sure that we recognize the facts of history--there is great humanity and hope. I remain committed to the public recognition of the fact of the Armenian genocide. It is the only way to make sure we are forever vigilant to prevent genocide in the future. I have hope, that we can all move forward, not in an exercise in collective guilt, but in the simple recognition of what happened, that a genocide was perpetrated upon the Armenian people, and that such a thing, quite simply, never should have happened and must never happen again.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to say a few words about our new budget that we'll be debating and voting on this week, and on fiscal responsibility. This country is in the midst of an economic crisis the likes of which few have ever seen. The Recovery Act this House passed in February was the first major step in our response to that crisis. It cannot be the last. We must not go back on the progress we have begun. The budget we will consider will address the crisis. It will begin the transformation of our economy so that it emerges stronger than ever, and we will do it in a way that gets us on the path toward fiscal balance. This is an incredibly difficult challenge. No one likes deficit spending. I come from southern Minnesota, a fiscally conservative place, and it's no accident that we have preserved ourselves from some of the worst excesses of this economy. But this plan and this budget before us have just the right mix. It invests in key priorities like health care, education, and energy independence to get our economy moving, and it cuts the deficit by two- thirds by 2013. What is not fiscally responsible is to support the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. That I will not support. If the alternative to this budget is basically the same plan, tax cuts to the super-rich and no efforts to address health care that we know does not work, that's not fiscal responsibility. That's the height of fiscal irresponsibility. On the other hand, if this budget will help create the vital economic growth that we have lost, I will support it.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 234, expressing support for designation of a ``Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.'' The very fact that we are deliberating about a ``welcome home'' for Vietnam veterans in 2009, decades after our participation in that conflict came to an end, says it all. Don't get me wrong. Those veterans eminently deserve that welcome, and the thanks for serving our Nation that comes with it. But it remains far too long overdue. Those veterans should have been welcomed home from day one. And yet, as the resolution says, ``the Vietnam War was an extremely divisive issue among the people of the United States'' and so ``members of the United States Armed Forces who served bravely and faithfully for the United States during the Vietnam War were caught upon their return home in the crossfire of public debate about the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War.'' I want to thank those veterans not just for their service to our Nation in Vietnam, but for their service to our Nation upon their return, service that forms the backbone of support for veterans today. As we have confronted yet another divisive war these last few years, we have welcomed our returning servicemen and--women differently, honoring them appropriately and immediately. And that is largely because of those veterans of Vietnam. As a 24-year veteran myself and as a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, I have seen a remarkable thing happen. Time and time again, I have heard Vietnam veterans--from witnesses at committee hearings and elsewhere--make clear that we cannot let one generation of veterans abandon another. We have to make sure this new generation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans do not have to go through all the hardships we know all too well are awaiting them if we do not act to prevent them. Whether it be access to VA health care, the specific mental health issues that some veterans face after the war, the problem of homelessness among veterans, preventing our veterans from ending up incarcerated, or even the public perception of veterans and the way veterans think about and understand themselves as veterans--we know the dangers that are out there, thanks in no small part to Vietnam veterans working together, and we know we have to act aggressively to make sure we fulfill our commitment to our newest veterans. For my part, I see no more important task as a member of Congress and of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. But I also have to say, I think something else has started to happen as we as a country have worked to honor and do justice to the veterans of our current conflicts--regardless of how we feel individually about the war itself. I think just as Vietnam veterans have done for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans what World War I veterans did for World War II veterans, supporting the next generation of veterans, I think our society's treatment of our newest veterans has begun a really renewed appreciation for and a different, more positive public perception of Vietnam veterans themselves. What you all went through when you came home is something that never should be repeated. And it should not have happened in the first place. But it says something about you as a group and America as a society that we have finally, I think, started to move away from the ugliness of that time, and from the stereotypes and cliches about Vietnam veterans. The new congressional majority that I was a part of forming in 2006 committed to making our military and our veterans an absolutely top priority. And we did that last Congress, and we continue to do that in this new Congress. Last Congress, we passed the largest veterans funding increase in history, increasing pay for our military and providing them with more of the protection they need when they go into battle, passing into law a historic new GI Bill that should do for our 21st century veterans what the original GI Bill did after World War II. And we will continue that work in this Congress, putting America's veterans first and working to provide them with the care and benefits they deserve. The debt we owe those who serve our country honorably in the military is never fully paid. But we owe that obligation to our veterans, and it begins with a full welcome home. The Nation can never fully repair the damage done with the failure to immediately and fully welcome home our veterans from Vietnam. But it is never too late to continue recognizing the obligation we owe you, and thanking you for what you have done and what you continue to do.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today and know that this Congress has started tackling the issue of health care reform in a real, meaningful way. Already this Congress has passed legislation that will provide health insurance to millions of uninsured children, bring health care into the 21st century with new health information technology, and start us on the path of providing high-quality care at a lower cost. My home State of Minnesota has been a leader in this. In my district, the Mayo Clinic, in particular, is a renowned medical institution that has always been at the forefront of efforts to reform and improve health care. They helped pioneer the use of electronic medical records. Electronic medical records reduce the time patients spend in waiting rooms filling out forms, and they also let doctors access a patient's history immediately, reducing errors. They cut down on administrative costs, saving our entire system billions of dollars. In addition to leading the way on medical technology, Mayo has been a leader in providing high-quality care. As we move forward on health care reform, we need to acknowledge our current rewards quantity over quality. We can look to Mayo, which has been lauded for its ability to produce the highest quality outcomes at the lowest possible cost. I am proud to represent my district, and I think we can lead the way to meaningful reform.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to express my appreciation for the great work the American Legion does for our Nation's veterans. As a proud Legionnaire myself, this morning, I had the great honor of addressing the Commander's Call. This afternoon, I will meet with fellow Minnesotan Legionnaires Brad Lindsay, Bill Goede and Marie Goede, Floyd Kumerow, Robert Hirmer, and Chuck Kruger. As a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, I look to the American Legion for guidance on the priorities of our Nation's veterans. It is because, every day, the Legion is out there, working with our veterans. They understand what is needed. I see it as this Congress' responsibility to work with the VA budgets that are not just sufficient but timely to make sure that they're predictable and that we serve our veterans the way we should. We have an absolute responsibility to knock down the backlog of claims that our veterans are facing, and we need to ensure that the recently enacted GI Bill is put to use as it should be. In all of this, the American Legion is a crucial partner. There is another side to the Legion that doesn't get mentioned that much. It is the daily activities serving our veterans and their communities. From their great civic education programs, Boys and Girls State, to youth baseball and other programs, this is the truly great work the Legion does, and I want to commend them. We are all better for it. Our Nation's veterans are better for the work the Legion does.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, last night President Obama issued a call for action from this Nation. He clearly laid out the economic situation that we are in right now, but, more importantly, he laid out a plan for growth, a plan that started a week ago with the passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. What it did was it staunched the bleeding of jobs that we were losing at a rate of 600,000 in January, but it made a much more important investment in the future. President Obama laid out his priorities for the next budget, an investment in education, an investment in energy security and an investment in reining in the cost of health care. I represent the southern Minnesota district that includes the Mayo Clinic. I also represent a district that is a leader in wind production and biofuels, not just nationwide but internationally. I also had a guest last night, Chuck Ehler, the superintendent of a small school, Rushford-Peterson, in my district. That community was devastated by flooding that had a Federal disaster in 2007. It's a 103- year-old building. The people and the citizens who will fuel our economic recovery are those citizens trying to learn in a building that will not work. We must invest in the future. That's how we repair our economy.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Madam Speaker, you hear everyone in this body talking about strengthening our economy, leading in innovation and creating that entrepreneurial spirit. But to do this, there is one thing we must do to ensure a solid base for our economic future, and that is to provide the best education possible for our children. Like most States, my State of Minnesota is facing a severe budget crisis. Without Federal assistance, the largest community in my district, Rochester, Minnesota, will have to cut up to 35 teachers. That is home of the famous Mayo Clinic, which is also a place that uses research on mice to cure some of the most debilitating diseases in this country. What it means to our local schools is that students will get less time to become those researchers of the future and less attention from their teachers. I recently watched a video from my district from the United South Central Schools showing children entering a crumbling literally 1932 building. I know in my 20 years of teaching, children do much better when they're in a safe and efficient environment. We're going to get the opportunity to invest in America's future, to invest in that economy and to invest in those children. The stabilization money will do exactly that. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' for America's future.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. I thank the gentleman, and again, it's a privilege for me to speak with each of these Members who represent this great country: 435 congressional districts, 300 million Americans, all with a dream that this country, by working hard, by making good choices, you can achieve those things that are not asking for the world, maybe have a home, be able to own that, be able to have a job that pays a living wage, be able to send your kids to college and see them live that dream. That's what we're asking for, and as the gentlewoman said, now is the time for opportunity. All of us grew up in this Nation hearing the stories of whenever it got tough, the perseverance of the American spirit survived. Whether it was Valley Forge, whether it was Gettysburg, whether it was the deepest, darkest days of segregation in this country, we come out the other end. Well, the American people need to know this chapter is not yet written. The end is not guaranteed. We have come to be somewhat complacent that it will work its way out. We need leaders like President Obama. We need the American public to stand up and say, We can get this right. And, as the gentlewoman from Ohio said, I am optimistic. In southern Minnesota, we are leading the way in wind production. My district is the home of the Mayo Clinic. We are going to find a cure for the diseases that cause so much anguish in this country. We have groups like the Hormel Institute, public-private partnerships teaming together to find the cures for cancer, for diabetes, for other things down the road. Those innovations will bring this country back. Those innovations will take us off this dependency on cheap imported goods while American jobs are outsourced and a living wage is crushed down. We heard that the auto industry failed because people made a living wage. Those are the type of things that aren't solutions. They are talking points for politics. The group of people who got here today, here's what they care about: Making sure the voice of the people in their district is heard, making sure that we have a level, fair playing field, and we reward work and creating something. That is what we are asking for. This piece of legislation moves us in that direction. I thank the gentleman for his passion and the gentlewoman from Ohio and all others who gathered. We're all in this together. The opportunities are there. But the time to do something is now. This piece of legislation is it. I yield back to the gentleman.

Mr. WALZ. I thank the gentleman from Florida, and I thank you for leading this conversation. I think the American public, what they're seeing is they're seeing a cross-section of this country. Listening to the gentleman from New York, listening to the gentlewoman from Ohio, from Connecticut, from Kentucky, talk about what they're hearing amongst the people. And I can tell you when we go back home--and I live in a small house in Mankato, Minnesota, in southern Minnesota. The house in front of me has been foreclosed for a year and a half. The property value on my house has dropped about 50 percent. We're seeing that across the country. The pinch of this economy coming down and the frustration amongst the American people is palatable. You can feel it. They are frustrated, and they are angry. And the questions they are asking is this: ``How come it seems like I'm working harder and getting further behind, and when I turn on the television, somebody else is taking a trip to the spa? Somebody else is getting a private jet? Somebody else is getting something for failing when I seem to be making the right decisions? I'm paying my mortgage. I'm trying to save money to send my child to school, and I'm not asking for the lottery. I'm not asking for a ten- bedroom house. I'm asking to try and achieve the American dream.'' And I think it's important to remember, we're as frustrated as you are. The Members you hear speaking today come from that. This is the people's House. This is where the voice of regular Americans is expressed. Before coming to this House, my job in May of 2006, I was teaching high school and had done it for 20 years and never made more than $50,000 a year. I have proudly served our Nation in the National Guard, but I asked the same questions, too. How are we not getting further ahead? When I talked to someone about trying to get my two small children, Hope, age 8, Gus, age 2, how do I save for college? I said, ``Well, then I will have to sell my house and live in a box because that is impossible for us to do that.'' The lifeblood and the ladder to success of the middle class was the ability to educate our children, to get a good public school education, to go to a good trade school or to a good college to try and move up. Those things are becoming further and further from us. And the frustration that is felt in this country is because we have a system that did not respect those things, that did not put things in place to help the middle class. We were told if we helped and gave tax cuts to the wealthiest, wisest amongst us, they would rain down on us all of those blessings to get us there. Well, what's happened is the average worker has lost $2,000 in real salary over the last 10 years. We are working longer hours. The American people deserve better. They are the most productive, most innovative people in the world. The middle class that built this country is now feeling the pinch. This piece of legislation is the down payment on putting things back in balance. We're not against a free market. You will hear people come in here and talk about it. But there is no free market when those at the top are benefiting from everything, when those at the top are not being held to the same standards as those who are actually doing the labor. And this piece of legislation and the gentleman--we've heard from many of them--I heard the gentleman from Kentucky talking about this being a parachute. My colloquialism, coming from a land of 10,000 lakes, is it's a life preserver. And that's what it is. This isn't going to get us to where we need to go. What's going to get us is people standing in this people's House and hearing these Members talk: talk about the truth, talk about where the issues are, make real sacrifices. Don't ask the American people to believe talking points. Don't regurgitate the same old stories to them. Tell them where the economy is at. Speak to them as President Obama spoke to us about where we need to go, and then have the courage to say, ``If it's not working, we need to readjust.'' This piece of legislation is going to be about $1,000 for 95 percent of the public. It's going to refund education and make sure that we're doing the things we need to do to build for the future. It's going to start moving us off our dependence on foreign oil and the tyranny of oil that drags us into conflicts we have no business in. Those are the types of things we can adjust. We can bring this back in, and we can debate in this House how we get there. Very valid points. I can tell you this deficit troubles me deeply. But the fact of the matter is right now the private sector is not creating jobs. The private sector doesn't have capital, and we were slowly spiraling down. More layoffs, more people that are going to go hungry, more people that are going to depend on the government to get things that they don't want to. These are proud people. They want to work hard, be compensated fairly, and do the things that they enjoy doing with their families trying to move forward. This piece of legislation can do that. I say it time and time again--I heard the gentleman talk about it from New York--you stand here long enough and you listen to this long enough, and you will hear people re-talking about the issues and trying to frame it in a certain way. The fact of the matter is this: our economy is not working correctly. The middle class is feeling the brunt of this. We are bleeding jobs, and we are slowly pulling things down making it more difficult for the middle class to achieve the American dream. This piece of legislation stops the fall or throws the life preserver, yet let's us readjust, get a handle on health care costs, make it easier to invest in education, make sure people are rewarded for doing the right thing--not for simply speculating--and get back to innovation and entrepreneurship. So the gentleman from Florida, I want to thank you for continuously hosting these discussions, for gathering people from across this land, for making sure the people's representatives stand here and speak what's happening in southern Minnesota, what's happening in Connecticut, what's happening in Ohio, and to get the American public to understand this is not about politics; this is not about games; this is not about who's winning the House and how we can drive down support of the House. You people have a 14 percent approval rating. Here is what I'm here to tell you. If we have a 14 percent approval rating, our Democracy is in trouble. We must speak the truth, we must be bold, we must move this legislation, and we must find solutions for the American people. That's what our purpose is. That's the greatness of this country. And the gentleman has brought together people who express that from across the country. With that, I appreciate the gentleman's time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer this amendment and, interesting, listening to my colleague on the other side of the aisle, while I did not support the underlying bill in the first place, I think we may part company at that point, because I want to thank the chairman for the work that he has done. Because the one thing I hear is, and I heard it yesterday as we watched our new President be sworn in, now is the time to put the childish political bickering aside. Offer us something that works. If you don't want someone in the boardroom, don't take the money. But the American public is asking us and the economists are asking us what needs to be done to move this economy. I do not support the money going. I do not believe that the American public was served well in it. It does not mean that I am not willing to offer changes to improve it overall. So my amendment, and what I ask the chairman to accept in this amendment, is to ask for the oversight that needs to be there. Not for the Members of this body and not for the accountants, but for the American public. If an institution is going to take this money, then have the courage to publish it online so every person in every library and every home can go and see where their taxpayer dollars are being spent. And if that is simply an intrusion into the private sector, simply don't accept the money. But I see them beating down the doors of this Congress and beating down the doors to try and get them. So my goal, and I believe the chairman's goal all along has been, it was working with the previous administration who put these proposals forward. The chairman did the time-honored practice of this body of reaching compromise for the good of the American public. So what I ask, Mr. Chairman, is looking retrospectively into the $350 billion that was spent and then forward, that these institutions be required, through the Secretary of the Treasury, to put and post online how each and every dollar of this money is being spent. And what I believe is you will get transparency, you will get the accountability, and I think in the spirit of what my colleague is saying, you will have a great incentive for the market then to work fairly on an even playing field, making sure that we, once again, put those things in place that actually make our financial system work, actually free up credit and get our economic system moving. So we are here to work on those problems that most affect average Americans. We may disagree on how to get there, but there is no denying we are at a point in our Nation's history where political bickering won't get us there, where nontransparency to the public is the wrong way to go. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for having this opportunity to put forward this amendment. The amendment is very simple, and it simply states online publication of periodic reports. The Secretary shall make publicly available on the Internet each report made in accordance with paragraph one. That simply says, at least quarterly, they will put out how they are spending our money. I want to thank the chairman for giving me this opportunity. I want to thank the ranking member for coming today and debating this issue. We owe it to our constituents to solve this.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Madam Speaker, I, too, rise in support of SCHIP legislation. At a time when million of Americans are losing their jobs and companies are doing everything possible to cut costs, more and more families face the horrible prospect of going without health insurance. During these uncertain economic times, this Congress should invest in those most vulnerable and hardest hit. For the past 11 years, the Children's Health Insurance Program has done exactly that by reducing the number of uninsured children by providing them access to private health insurance. Without this coverage, many of these children would go without critical health care attention that allows them to live productive and prosperous lives. Over the last 2 years, this Congress has worked to expand the program by 4 million children. Twice we passed bipartisan legislation that was vetoed by President Bush. But now we have another opportunity to ensure those 11 million children. President-elect Obama has promised to sign this legislation. Today, this Congress should once again do what's right and help support America's children and our future.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, it is true: The Bush-Cheney energy plan has been a giant success, but for big oil companies, not the American people. America is still addicted to foreign oil, and gas prices are through the roof. It's time for a new direction in our energy policy. This week, House Democrats are bringing up that legislation. I was proud to work with a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans to craft a piece of legislation. Many of those ideas are incorporated into this plan. It invests in renewable energy, responsibly increases domestic supply by opening up the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling and releases oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. One thing it does that is very good, it eliminates unnecessary tax breaks and subsidies to Big Oil and asks them to pay their fair share of royalties so we can invest in renewables. All Americans, Republicans and Democrats, who believe it is time for our country to move in a new direction towards energy independence should join us and move this ball forward. This legislation will create millions of good-paying American jobs in the renewable energy industry, and it will begin to break the stranglehold of foreign oil over this Nation.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, it was one year ago today, at 6:05 p.m. this evening, that an eight-lane steel truss span bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. I'm sure we all remember that strange and surreal sight of a bridge laying in the very river it used to span and the images of vehicles that were crushed in the debris. As a school teacher, for me the most poignant and terrifying image was that of a school bus balanced over the abyss as it was about to plunge into the steel and concrete below, but whose occupants were thankfully all unharmed. Unfortunately, not everyone on that bridge made it home safely; 13 people were killed in the tragedy. That those numbers weren't higher was due in no small part to the hundreds of firefighters, police, emergency personnel and ordinary citizens who rushed to the aid of their fellow Americans. Their direct actions immediately following this tragedy saved lives and eased suffering. Ordinary residents of Minneapolis displayed extraordinary courage on August 1. We are here today to note this sad occasion and to remember those who were lost. Construction on a new bridge is underway. It will be wider, longer, more reliable and safer. And I thank my colleague who spoke earlier, Mr. Ellison, for his leadership on that, but it won't bring back those who tragically died. Let us learn from this disaster and ensure it never happens again.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a new bill, the Veterans Travel Program Reform Act of 2008. I'm proud to be joined by my colleague from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) in introducing this legislation. Many of our veterans incur significant costs traveling to and from VA facilities to receive their health care treatment. This is especially true because of skyrocketing gas prices, and it's a big problem in rural areas like southern Minnesota. While some veterans are reimbursed for their travel, the rate they receive is way below what Members of this body receive when we travel in our cars. That is simply wrong. What's more, current law requires the VA Secretary to raise the deductible that veterans have to pay when the mileage reimbursement goes up. Many of our veterans travel--and travel long distances--and end up paying for it out of their own pocket. This bill would fix these problems by making it more generous and fair in the reimbursement. It would set the mileage rate at the same rate that other Members of Congress and other Federal employees receive. It would eliminate the deductible, and it would eliminate the restrictions on eligibility so more of our veterans would be able to receive that. Mr. Speaker, our veterans served us, now it's time we serve them. I urge my colleagues to join me.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker last week, I introduced legislation that will allow tens of millions of middle class taxpayers to keep more of their hard earned dollars. My Middle Class Tax Fairness Act will help Americans who are being squeezed by high gas prices, high grocery prices, the high cost of health care, and the high cost of college tuition. It is unfair that hard-working Americans go to work every day and pay their taxes while corporations and the wealthy exploit loopholes in our tax code to avoid paying their fair share. That's not right--our tax system should be fair all around. People's paychecks are not keeping pace with rising costs. In fact, the average household income is about $800 less than it was just 5 years ago, while the price of gas has doubled in that same amount of time. All across southern Minnesota, people tell me of the challenges that they face in our weakening economy: choosing between medication or basic groceries because their paycheck doesn't accommodate both, or dipping into their savings accounts just to help pay for a tank of gas. Meanwhile, our tax code is full of government waste and unnecessary give-aways to big corporations. Oil companies will receive an estimated $13 billion in subsidies over the next 10 years, despite the fact that they are posting record-breaking profits. Foreign corporations that operate in the United States set up dummy headquarters in tax haven countries to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. But middle class Americans sure aren't getting those kinds of breaks. It's time for a change. It's time to put hard-working families first. My Middle Class Tax Fairness Act will repeal these unnecessary and wasteful subsidies and close these tax loopholes. It provides a real tax break for middle class families by doubling the standard deduction for taxpayers for the next two years. This will provide an average tax cut of $750 for 61 million taxpayers this year alone. My legislation will also expand access to the Child Tax Credit, helping an estimated 13 million children who will either become newly eligible or receive increased benefits from the tax credit. The Middle Class Tax Fairness Act will also help offset the rising cost of property taxes for millions of Americans by allowing taxpayers who take the standard deduction to lower their taxable income by taking their property taxes into account. This will benefit more than 32 million homeowners in the United States who did not receive a property tax deduction on their taxes. Finally, my legislation will help pay down nearly $60 billion of our national debt, to help address the fiscal mismanagement that has contributed to our stagnating economy. A few days ago, I talked to a young woman in Rochester, Minnesota named Nicole. She's 29 years old and commutes twenty miles to work every day to her job as a legal assistant. Nicole and I estimated that under my proposed legislation, she would save $832 on her 2008 taxes. I also met with another couple, Diane and John. They have a six year- old daughter and recently purchased their own home. We figured that my Middle Class Tax Fairness Act would allow them to take advantage of the new property tax standard deduction and save them more than $1,280 on their 2008 taxes. These numbers may not be the billions of dollars that oil companies and foreign multinationals are used to saving on their taxes, but they represent real help for tens of millions of middle class Americans who are struggling to get by. It's the easiest thing in the world for a politician to promise someone a tax cut. But it's much harder to do it in a fiscally responsible way that is paid for. My legislation does just that, and I urge my colleagues to help me in the effort by cosponsoring my Middle Class Tax Fairness Act.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Thank you to the chairman, the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) and thank you to Ranking Member Moran who is here today. I rise in strong support of H.R. 6445, but I rise proudly amongst this committee of what the American people I think would be proud to know, this is one committee where both Republican and Democrats are here for a single purpose, and that is to serve our veterans in the best way possible. So I thank the ranking member and the chairman for doing exactly that. I rise to speak on the portion of this bill that I introduced as the Veterans Pain Care Act of 2008. I was moved to introduce this bill after listening to countless stories, as many Members have, of problems of chronic and acute pain among our veterans. The single largest cause of disability claims among veterans is acute pain. It erodes the quality of life, it makes work very difficult, and it does not allow our veterans to get back to the point in their life where their quality of life is as high as it possibly could be. This bill requires the Secretary of the VA to develop and implement a comprehensive policy of pain management for veterans who are enrolled in the VA health care system, and more importantly, or equally important, is to carry out a program of research, training and education on chronic pain. By directing the VA to update its pain management policies and in light of experience, research and evolving practices, this bill will lay a foundation for ongoing improvements in pain care management for our veterans. In that way, we can work to fulfill what I believe is an absolute moral obligation to care for these veterans with the most innovative, best practices and pain management possible. This bill has broad support from a large number of pain care organizations that include patients, providers and numerous veterans service organizations. I thank all of them for their indispensable support and hard work in moving this bipartisan piece of legislation. I would also like to express deep appreciation for the Veterans' Affairs Committee staff on both the majority side and the minority side for working out this piece of legislation. It truly is a compromise. It truly is a piece of legislation, the entire bill, H.R. 6445, that transcends politics and gets at the heart of what the public wants us to do, come together as Americans to pass good legislation that prioritizes this Nation's veterans at the top and cares for them in a fiscally responsible manner that allows them to return to their daily lives after they have served us. It is the very least our country can do, and I am proud to be associated with it.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, the gentleman on our side of the aisle who just spoke from Illinois laid out the exact situation that's happening in our economy. That's why today I'm proud to introduce the Middle Class Tax Fairness Act, which will allow the average taxpayer to keep more of their hard-earned dollars. In this slow economy, it's unfair to put the load of taxation right on the backs of the middle class. Middle class Americans are being squeezed by high gas prices, high cost of groceries, high health care costs, high tuition costs, and their paychecks, as you heard, are not keeping up with the rising costs. And in fact, the speaker was right; they're actually $1,000 less than they were 5 years ago. Meanwhile, our tax code is full of government waste and unnecessary giveaways to the richest 1 percent. Today, I am introducing legislation that will restore balance to our tax code and do something unusual: help reduce the national debt. My bill will be a jump-start to this slumping economy. It will double the standard deduction for the next 2 years, providing an annual savings of $750 to 61 million Americans. It will expand access to the child tax credit and provide relief on property tax. My legislation allows the middle class to keep their income and does so in a fiscally responsible manner, by fully being paid for. Madam Speaker, it is easy to offer a tax cut. It's harder to pay for it. Join me.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. I thank the ranking member and the chairman of the committee, not just for this very good piece of legislation, which I stand in support of and offer this amendment to, but I would like to thank the chairman for his leadership. Madam Chairman, August 1 of last year was a tragic day for the country but especially for those of us in Minnesota, as you've heard the chairman talk about the stunning nature that a bridge could fall in Minnesota. And I've heard many people afterwards refer to it as a wake- up call for many people. If that's true, one person has never slept on this issue, and that's the chairman. He has spoken about this. He has talked about the need for infrastructure rehabilitation and improvements for decades. And leadership is not reacting to a situation, it's being proactive and anticipating and doing the things necessary. So I thank the chairman for that. Madam Chairman, we in Minnesota this year are celebrating our sesquicentennial. One hundred and fifty years ago this year, our great State joined this great union. And of all the beautiful places across the expanses of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the North Star State, the U.S. Postal Service issued their stamp, their commemorative stamp, and it came out on May 17 of this year. This stamp highlights one of the most beautiful parts and one of the most recognizable icons of this country, the winding Mississippi River near Winona, Minnesota, as it separates the Minnesota side from the Wisconsin side. This bridge in the foreground is the Highway 43 Bridge. This was issued on May 17. And less than 3 weeks later, on the evening of June 3, the Minnesota Department of Transportation issued an immediate critical warning on the bridge and closed the bridge to all traffic. Because of the tragedy of August 1 of last year and because of Chairman Oberstar and the changes that happened in the Minnesota Department of Transportation, an accelerated inspection, critical inspection, of these bridges happened, and it was found that the gusset plates had eroded on the Minnesota 43 Bridge. This iconic photo that just came out, it was also eroding in the same manner that led to the collapse of the 35-W Bridge. This bridge closure was done with caution. It was done with professionalism. It was exactly the right decision to make. But when thousands and thousands of commuters woke up on the morning of June 4, they were stuck in a pretty difficult situation. There are 11,000 vehicles a day that cross this bridge. Over 3,000 people depend on their livelihood for jobs that were literally minutes across, and because of the closure now, they had to travel between 25 and 35 miles to the alternative crossing and then back over again, adding between 100 and 140 miles a day and hours to their commute time. It basically shut down all commerce in one of the larger cities in our district and shut down a major corridor between our two great States of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Other problems were emergency vehicles and response times were dependent on this bridge being open that were no longer there. And while commuters were dealing with high gas pries, the city was dealing with emergency vehicles, commerce was being shut down to a crawl or to nothing, I do commend the City of Winona, the County, the State officials under Commissioner Sorel for responding as quickly as they possibly could. What they needed to come up with was they needed to figure out a mitigation plan in very short order. They needed to figure out what they were going to do, determine how long they were going to have to set that up, and this was a situation that fell under very little Federal control and very little Federal help could be offered to the people that were there. And we ended up bringing in ferries and barges and different things, buses, and people worked through it and got it done. What my amendment says is let's be more proactive on this. This is going to happen in the future. There are going to be emergency shutdowns. We hope that we get to the point where we don't end up inspecting a bridge when we almost see it at a point where it can't be driven on. But the case needs to be we need to proactively plan, especially on these federally aided highways. This amendment asks the Secretary of Transportation to report to Congress within 15 days of the issuance of a critical finding the results of a bridge closure. The report from the Secretary will include an assessment of the economic impact of the closure as well as the impact on regional transportation and transit patterns. The amendment requires the Secretary to recommend solutions to mitigate these impacts. The State and the City were able to do this, but it was really a big reach, especially where there were Federal funds involved. It was a Federal aid highway. So I'm hopeful that we will never use this. I'm hopeful that no other locality will be stuck in this situation. I am pleased to tell you that because within hours of this happening, Chairman Oberstar was on the site, standing on the bridge, inspecting it. The community and the State pulled together, and the bridge is now open for limited traffic again and is getting back on. It's scheduled for repair as we speak and should be finished by the end of summer. But I thank the chairman and the ranking member, and I would ask that the diligence be done to make sure this doesn't happen to another locale.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, Americans continue to suffer the pain at the pump due to 7 years of missed opportunities and outdated policies. President Bush's energy plan was literally written by the oil companies, giving more public resources and billions in subsidies to the same companies that are raking in record billions in profits while Americans are reeling. That was the plan then; that's the plan now. Every day, we hear our friends on the other side of the aisle demanding that we need to drill more holes. What we don't hear is anyone demanding that they drill on the 68 million acres they have. Legislation on the floor today will force those companies to produce oil and gas diligently on the 68 million acres of the public land, your land, that they already have. Experts say there are 4.8 million barrels of oil which would nearly double total U.S. production. Madam Speaker, drilling has been the Republican slogan for years, and it will be so today. Today is finally their chance to put that slogan to the test, to tell Big Oil to drill now and to use it, or lose it.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 439, H. Con. Res. 372, Supporting the goals and ideals of Black Music Month and to honor the contributions to our Nation made by African American singers and musicians, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, over the last couple months, House Democrats have been working with real solutions to lower pump prices for the American people, smart legislation that invests in renewable energy and temporarily halted the sending of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserve. This week, we will continue with real solutions to give relief to people across this country. We will consider legislation today to prevent price gouging by unscrupulous companies. Later in the week, we plan to take up a bill that will tighten the Enron loophole that allows speculators in the dark markets in places like Dubai to drive up oil prices without having any oversight. Rampant speculation is estimated by most economists to be driving up oil $30 a barrel. And on Thursday, the House will consider legislation that tells Big Oil to either use it or lose it. This bill would bar oil companies from this fictionist red herring of saying they need more land. They have 68 million acres of the public land that they are choosing not to drill on even though oil is under it. These bills deserve and need to have bipartisan support to truly help the American people.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, yesterday I talked to a farmer who told me he just purchased fuel to power his irrigation pumps. The cost for 2 weeks of that fuel, $33,000 worth of diesel. This Nation's people and economy are reeling because of high energy costs, and yet some in this House offer nothing but the same old political games, the exact games that put us in this position. Let's be very clear: No one is saying we shouldn't be producing and using domestic supplies. But false solution land grabs and politics aren't going to get us to energy independence. Oil companies today are sitting on 68 million acres of Federal land, your land, Madam Speaker, that could produce up to a decade-and-a-half worth of all the fuel this country needs. Yet they are not drilling. Future generations deserve that we provide real solutions that not only include domestic production, but provide innovations and alternative technologies and crack down on speculation. Yesterday, Madam Speaker, China increased their fuel prices by 17 percent, and the price of oil dropped by $6 a barrel. By anybody's best estimate, that is more than drilling in ANWR would drop the cost. Madam Speaker, we deserve solutions that extend to the next generation, not the next election.

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.