House Proceeding 04-13-10 on Apr 13th, 2010 :: 0:23:25 to 0:43:25
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0:21:05 to 0:23:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Randy Neugebauer

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Randy Neugebauer: fellow text ann. i have had the -- text ann. i have worked with fred and seen his devotion to this great american institution.

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Philip Hare: i recognize fred and many successes the holocaust museum has seen in recent years. thank you for your service. i look forward to your continued future leadership. the speaker pro tempore: mr. hare of illinois. mr. hare: speaker.

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Speech By: Philip Hare

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Philip Hare: i rise to recognize my chief case worker, va shelton, who will retire at the end of this month after 25 years of service to our nation. guinea, as she is known, handled one of the most important jobs,

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Philip Hare: outreach veterans. my predecessor fought for our nation's heroes. i have sought to continue that legacy, but the concept has always been ginny, who has dedicated her entire career to the men and women in women. she is known for countless hours explaing rights to veterans

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Philip Hare: who are looking to exercise them. she built invaluable relationships with v.a. staff and putting herself in the best position to advocate for the constituents who sought her help. she study yesterday hard and made herself on v.a. disbuilt health care and other benefits. for ginny, serving our veterans

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Philip Hare: was a labor of love whether on the phone or over a drink, ginny listened and learned about the lives of our veterans. she was not only an advocate but a friend. she recognized hyped every case file was a human being and when it comes to our veterans,

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Philip Hare: justice delayed is justice denied and ginny wasassionate about the veterans' homelessness. she was active in the local standdown, an event where heroes are provided hair cuts, food, medical care, a place to stay for the night and counseling. she believed that our nation should have a standdown 365 days a year.

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Philip Hare: inspired by her efforts, i introduced a bill last year to reduce veterans' homelessness. and she was instrumental in helping me secure outpatient care. veterans will use this facility during the first year of operation. many veterans will no longer have to travel hours just to

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Philip Hare: receive basic care. and ginny managed my nomination to america's service academy, fully investing herself in the process to ensure that they get the best care possible. and she treated each applicant as if they were one of her own kids. i know one of her favorite

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Philip Hare: things to do is visit the academy and see the men and women who will be our future warriors. she has been a beautiful friend to my wife and i. her late husband jack is very proud of her today. there are many things i will miss about ginny, her sense of humor, that voice, her

0:26:37 to 0:26:50( Edit History Discussion )

Philip Hare: invaluable advice and guidance but our veterans will miss her the most. her retirement is the end of an era. she leaves the legacy marked by

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: unselfless work and the work for our veterans. ginny shelton is a hero. thank you so much for 25 years of wonderful work. i yield back, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: mr. burton of indiana. ms. ros-lehtinen: madam speaker, i claim tore claim the time. the speaker p tempore: ms. ros-lehtinen will claim mr.

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Speech By: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: burton's time. ms. ros-lehtinen: i thank my good friend from texas, judge poe for the time as well. this morning, my good friend, congressman ron klein and i held a press conference at the little havana nutrition and activity center where we unveiled our

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: medicare fraud bill. this hurts our most vulnerable citizens. our south florida community knows firsthand the hardship that it creates. in 2008, approximately 703 million in false medicare claims originated from south florida.

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: last year, that figure rose to $952 million fr south florida. our community needs to say in no uncertain terms that fraud and abuse in medicare will not be tolerated and that our seniors will not be preyed upon by vandals. that is why congressman ron klein and i filed the medicare

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: fraud enforcement and prevention act. this legislation will help curb the fraud in the medicare system. it will not only toughen the penalties on those individuals who engage in fraud, but it will also help implement new screening procedures and biometric checks for all medicare claims and services.

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: medicare fraud is not isolated to cases that involve rogue individuals. unfortunately, the reality is that more and more medicare fraud is being perpetrated by groups that are organized and are sophisticated in their techniques. this bipartisan bill will help

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: catch up existing rules and regulations with the reality of today's threats. fraud and abuse cost the medicare system billions of dollars each year. it costs the system in fact, $60 billion every year. it harms the health care industry as a whole and it undermines the market for

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: legitimate health care products. it hurts legitimate suppliers who cannot compete with their income by billing for services that they never rendered. fraud undermines public confidence in health care providers. the klein-ros-lehtinen bill will

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: create a strong deterrent for would-be criminals by doubling the fines and jail time for those convicted of scamming the medicare system. it reeighths a new offense for illegally dispensing a medicare i.d. and establishes a penalty of three years in prison and fine equivalent to the dollar

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: amount stolen from medicare. the klein-ros-lehtinen bill doubles the been atlanta for m violating the anti-kickback statute from five to 10 years in prison and from $25,000 to a $50,000 fine. the klein-ros-lehtinen bill will

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: create a pilot program that will implement biometric technology to ensure that medicare beneficiaries are physically present to receive those services. this bill mandates strict background checks for medicare suppliers that would be carried out before they start cashing

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: those taxpayer checks. since its inception in the year 2007, miami-dade county's interagency helped stem the tide of medicare fraud. it has gotten more than $220 million in court-ordered

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: restitution to medicare from defendants in 87 separate cases. the task force has saved medicare approximately $1.75 million in phony claims submissions. but, madam speaker, there is much more that needs to be done. the bill that ron klein and i

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: have filed today will help give law enforcement the tools necessary to make even more arrests and to crack down on fraud in a more efficient and effective manner. it will direct the secretary of health and human services to provide real-time access to data regarding fraud that will then be given to local law

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Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: enforcement officials. the klein ros-lehtinen bill directs the g.a.o., the government accountability office to follow up with medicare contractors and report back to us in congress with

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Lynn C. Woolsey: recommendations to make this system work even better for seniors all across the country. i thank the speaker for the time. and i thank jud poe for the time as well. i yield back, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: ms. woolsey of california. ms. woolsey: madam speaker, a war that is illegitimate with no

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Speech By: Lynn C. Woolsey

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Lynn C. Woolsey: continued justification inevitably will be managed irresponsibly. but sometimes the excesses and the incompetence continue to shock me. the pentagon is now investigating a gue-spy operation that allegedly used

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Lynn C. Woolsey: private contractors to carry out attacks on militants and paid them inappropriately, using illegitimate information-gathering program as a cover. it seems the pentagon official named michael furlong was gathering intelligence about the

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Lynn C. Woolsey: wherebs of top insurgents with the goal of hunting them down and killing them. and the whole time he was claiming to be involved in an above-board project to give us a better understanding of afghan society and culture. the cia, the united states

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Lynn C. Woolsey: government -- the united states government's gitimate intelligence-gathering agency felt that its work was undermined by mr. furlong's investigation and it shut him down and prompted the investigation. you know, you've gone off the deep end when the cia thinks

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Lynn C. Woolsey: your covert operation is beyond the pale. no one can say for sure who was supervising or approving his operation and apparently some of the money he was given control over has gone missing. mr. furlong was something of a cowboy actually.

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Lynn C. Woolsey: according to news accounts, he liked to brag about having a notorious iran-contra on the payroll and likened his characters to fictional characters.

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Lynn C. Woolsey: this is not a movie. there are grave life and death consequences to the decisions made inside the pentagon. and while a movie costs us maybe $10, 12, thi war in afghanistan is costing us millions every single day. it's bad enough that this congress has repeatedly asked to

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Lynn C. Woolsey: sign another check to pay for a war that is bankrupting our country and failing to advance our national security interests. but then we learn that the money being authorized, which i have consistently voted against, is being used on secret and illegal operations for which there is no

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Lynn C. Woolsey: transparency or accountability. and this is just the latest example of private contractors being used to carry out questionable wartime activities, to get around the rules governing military operations. it's an encouraging sign, however, that the pentag has begun to look into furlong's

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Lynn C. Woolsey: operaon and this episode has prompted secretary gates to order a review of all the military's information operations programs, to make sure everything is on the up and up. i'm expecting the oversight mmittee of this body to ask some tough questions. i can't imagine how we can debate another supplemental

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Lynn C. Woolsey: unless we demanded and received answers about mr. furlong's firing and other possible wrongdoing. it has to stop, madam speaker. it's time to rein in the contractors and it's time to bring our valiant troops home. we know there's a better way to fight terrorism and rebuild afghanistan.

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Lynn C. Woolsey: it's time to turn our approach to national security upside down. we need a smarter strategy, we need to show american compassion, not american aggression. we need a humanitarian surge, not a military surge. instead of troops we need to send aid workers and other

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Lynn C. Woolsey: civilian experts. that is the best counterterrorism approach of all. that is what will give afghan people hope for a better life.

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Ted Poe: that is what will build a durable peace. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. jones of north carolina. >> request permission to take the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas can re his time at this time. mr. poe: thank you, madam speaker. i bring you news from the third front and that's the war for

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Speech By: Ted Poe

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Ted Poe: this nation's national security on our southern border with mexico. we are engaged in three conflicts, -- conflicts, three wars, the one in afghanistan, the one in iraq and the border war on our southern border. the $40 billion a year illicit drug trade in mexico has resulted in a vicious wave of

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Ted Poe: violence in northern mexico. over 18,000 mexican nationals have been killed in recent years by the criminal drug cartels. most of those innocent civilians but also many of them are the competition among the drug cartels. and they're fighting for control of the roots that -- routes that lead into the united states

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Ted Poe: where those drug cartels can sell their wares. just a few days ago there was a bombing at the united states embassy just on the border. recently a pregnant u.s. embassy employee and her husband were murdered right in front of their young daughter and other witnesses.

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Ted Poe: and in 2008 there were 1,500 murders in juarez, mexico, alone, and this year over 500 people have been killed. to put it in perspective, in 2008 there were only 300 murders in all of houston, a city that dwars the size of juarez, mexico, and the violence is escalating. good people are abandoning the

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Ted Poe: border cities in mexico and fleeing further into the interior and some are fleeing to the united states to stay with relatives all because of the violence on the u.s.-mexico border. and people in this country say that the violence on the border won't come into the united states live in blissful ignorance of realit

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Ted Poe: it's already here. in the el paso sector of the border patrol in texas our agents are being targeted by the azteca hitmen for the juarez drug cartel. the azteca gang is a group of individuals who work for the drug cartel, the juarez drug

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Ted Poe: cartel, and their primary admission is to enforce the ability to bring drugs in the united states. and now we understand our border patrol agents in the el paso sector are bng targeted to be shot and kidnapped and murdered by these hitmen. they're after our border patrol agts. and recently -- as recently as

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Ted Poe: today, we've learned that there is a $250,000 bounty on our border patrol agents for their murder and for their kidnapping. the drug cartels are putting out these hits on our border patrol agents because they are enforcing the rule of law and keeping the drug cartels out of this country to the best of their ability.

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Ted Poe: this is serious. this is violent. and it's being perpetrated by the drug car tills against -- cartels against americans both in mexico and in the united states. unfortunately too many people in washington, d.c., are closing their eyes to reality. they don't see that the violence

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Ted Poe: has already spread intthe united states. madam speaker, there are 14 counties in texas that border mexico. and recently i called each of those 14 sheriffs and asked them this question. how many people in your county jail are foreign nationals charged with crimes in the united states other than

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Ted Poe: immigration violations? how many are charged with felonies, misdemeanors, crimes of violence? and they told me that 37% of the people in the border county jails in texas are foreign nationals charged with crimes. not immigration violations. so we see that the crime in mexico on the border is coming

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Ted Poe: into the united states and affecting our border counties. and these counties are not rich, wealthy counties, they don't have the money to try, prosecute and house these individuals. we shouldn't wait until something tragic happens before we do something about it. there are border incursions every day by these criminal drug cartels and now there are reports that the drug cartels

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Ted Poe: are cloning border patrol vehicles so that they can bring drugs into the united states. recently there were two incursions by mexican military helicopters across the texas-mexico border in the united states. and their intentions are still unknown. so, it's important, madam speaker, that we do what is necessary to protect the dignity

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Ted Poe: of our nation. the first duty of government is the national security to protect the people. the texas governor and other governs ask for the national guard to go to the border, to help secure and protect the dignity of our nation. i think we should send the national guard to the border. we need to do what is necessary because it is the duty of government to protect the people.

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Ted Poe: and that protection starts at the border and it's time we wake up the reality of the way the world is, that the drug cartels are serious about being violent

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Marcy Kaptur: and about being criminals. and that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: ms. kaptur of ohio. without objection. ms. kaptu madam speaker, this past saturday, one of america's longest and strongest ally, the

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Speech By: Marcy Kaptur

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Marcy Kaptur: republic of poland, suffered a horrendous loss. a plane carrying 97 passengers crashed in russia, including polish president, the first lady , a man who led a government in compile during the communist era, the deputy speaker of

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Marcy Kaptur: poland's parliament, the head of the national security bureau, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, the army chief of staff, along with the president of poland'sational bank, and a host of other public service -- servants, including an activist

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Marcy Kaptur: who started a strike that led to the formation of solidarity. all modern leaders of the polish nation, they were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, proud all, now logs to -- to this -- lost to this life but not to history. yet again, the forest embraces the collective tragedy of