Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 108 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 108 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 149 WASHINGTON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2003 No. 166 House of Representatives The House met at 12:30 p.m. and was MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE The message also announced that the called to order by the Speaker pro tem- Senate has passed a bill of the fol- A message from the Senate by Mr. pore (Mr. PENCE). lowing title in which the concurrence Monahan, one of its clerks, announced of the House is requested: f that the Senate has passed with an S. 1824. An act to amend the Foreign As- amendment in which the concurrence sistance Act of 1961 to reauthorize the Over- DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO of the House is requested, a bill of the TEMPORE seas Private Investment Corporation, and for House of the following title: other purposes. The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- H.R. 1261. An act to enhance the workforce f fore the House the following commu- investment system of the Nation by nication from the Speaker: strengthening one-stop career centers, pro- MORNING HOUR DEBATES WASHINGTON, DC, viding for more effective governance ar- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- November 17, 2003. rangements, promoting access to a more ant to the order of the House of Janu- I hereby appoint the Honorable MIKE comprehensive array of employment, train- PENCE to act as Speaker pro tempore on this ing, and related services, establishing a tar- ary 7, 2003, the Chair will now recog- day. geted approach to serving youth, and im- nize Members from lists submitted by J. DENNIS HASTERT, proving performance accountability, and for the majority and minority leaders for Speaker of the House of Representatives. other purposes. morning hour debates. NOTICE If the 108th Congress, 1st Session, adjourns sine die on or before November 21, 2003, a final issue of the Congres- sional Record for the 108th Congress, 1st Session, will be published on Monday, December 15, 2003, in order to permit Members to revise and extend their remarks. All material for insertion must be signed by the Member and delivered to the respective offices of the Official Reporters of Debates (Room HT–60 or S–410A of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through Friday, December 12, 2003. The final issue will be dated Monday, December 15, 2003, and will be delivered on Tuesday, December 16, 2003. None of the material printed in the final issue of the Congressional Record may contain subject matter, or relate to any event that occurred after the sine die date. Senators’ statements should also be submitted electronically, either on a disk to accompany the signed statement, or by e-mail to the Official Reporters of Debates at ‘‘[email protected]’’. Members of the House of Representatives’ statements may also be submitted electronically by e-mail, to accompany the signed statement, and formatted according to the instructions for the Extensions of Remarks template at http:// clerkhouse.house.gov/forms. The Official Reporters will transmit to GPO the template formatted electronic file only after re- ceipt of, and authentication with, the hard copy, and signed manuscript. Deliver statements to the Official Reporters in Room HT–60 of the Capitol. Members of Congress desiring to purchase reprints of material submitted for inclusion in the Congressional Record may do so by contacting the Office of Congressional Publishing Services, at the Government Printing Office, on 512–0224, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. By order of the Joint Committee on Printing. ROBERT W. NEY, Chairman. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H11161 . VerDate jul 14 2003 01:28 Nov 18, 2003 Jkt 029060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A17NO7.000 H17PT1 H11162 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE November 17, 2003 The Chair will alternate recognition occur at truck rest stops, where the LOOMING DIABETES EPIDEMIC between the parties, with each party driver leaves the vehicle. The process CAUSING HEALTHCARE CRISIS limited to not to exceed 30 minutes, can amazingly take but a few minutes. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- and each Member, except the majority These professional criminals are usu- ant to the order of the House of Janu- leader, the minority leader, or the mi- ally licensed truck drivers, who can ary 7, 2003, the gentleman from New nority whip, limited to not to exceed 5 hot wire a truck quickly and effi- Mexico (Mr. UDALL) is recognized dur- minutes. ciently. ing morning hour debates for 5 min- The Chair recognizes the gentleman The legislation that I have proposed utes. from Florida (Mr. STEARNS) for 5 min- will seek to finally give both law- Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. utes. makers and law enforcement officials Speaker, the headlines shout out: f the tools they need to combat this ‘‘Healthcare crisis looms.’’ ‘‘Diabetes growing crime. Cargo theft does not re- epidemic.’’ ‘‘Increase in childhood obe- STEMMING THE SPREAD OF ceive the attention it deserves because sity.’’ Solutions abound, but the one CARGO THEFT very little concrete information exists which could make a real difference, Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, billions today concerning this problem. There prevention, is only paid lip service. We and billions of dollars are sapped from currently is no all-inclusive database say ‘‘an ounce of prevention is worth a our economy each year by cargo theft. that collects, contains or processes dis- pound of cure,’’ but then we fail to re- It is a staggering problem, and, at the tinct information and data concerning invent our health policy to make pre- same time, a problem that really no cargo theft. My bill would require the vention a cornerstone. one is aware of. creation of such a database that will The facts are ominous, unrelenting Every day, millions of cargo carrying allow State and local law enforcement and tell it all: trucks transport their contents across officials to coordinate reports of cargo An obesity epidemic started in the the highways of our districts. And, theft, helping them prove to law- early 1980s and equally impacts all age every day, millions of dollars of goods makers just how severe this problem groups. Nearly one in four Americans are stolen from these trucks, often really is. are obese. Obesity is highly predictive times with violent results. Also, after speaking with officials in of diabetes. One in three children now being born Mr. Speaker, this week I will intro- my Congressional District, it has be- in the United States ultimately will duce legislation that will seek to ad- come clear to me that stricter criminal become diabetic. dress the growing tide of cargo theft in penalties are needed in order to keep hopes of bringing awareness of this Diabetes incidence increased 61 per- criminals from turning to cargo theft. cent in the last decade; 76 percent for problem to the national spotlight. My bill does just this, requiring that With the prevalence of cargo theft people in their thirties. the United States Sentencing Commis- today, insurance companies have An alarming British study reported sion determine what sentencing en- placed a heavy burden on the trucking one-third of 5-year-old girls were over- hancement must be made. industry. The costs associated with in- weight and showing signs of developing Finally, this legislation would ensure vestigation, insurance payments, are Type II diabetes, formerly called adult that cargo theft reports would be re- only exacerbating what is already an onset diabetes. flected as a separate category in the industry crisis. The Surgeon General in his December Typical targets for cargo theft often Uniform Crime Reporting System, the 2001 report left no doubt where we are include shipments of clothing, pre- data collection system used by the headed. ‘‘Left unabated, overweight scription drugs, computers and jewelry. FBI. Currently no such category exists, and obesity may soon cause as much A truckload of computer micro- resulting in ambiguous data and the in- preventable disease and death as ciga- processors can be worth millions of dol- ability to track and monitor trends. rette smoking.’’ The healthcare costs to deal with lars. A single pallet of pharma- Mr. Speaker, Members in this Cham- these trends are overwhelming and ceuticals, another common target, can ber need to be aware of this problem, a unaffordable. The National Institutes be worth upwards of $2 million dollars, problem not only specific to the large of Health has estimated that diabetes and cargo containers are capable of port cities of this country, but a prob- costs the United States close to $138 carrying dozens of such pallets. lem specific to all Congressional dis- billion each year in direct and indirect The high value-to-volume ratio of tricts. Flowing up and down I–75, costs. Let me repeat, $138 billion. We these goods has encouraged criminals through the heart of my district, cannot afford to double, triple and previously involved in drug dealing to thieves transport goods to and from quadruple these costs. Even if we could move into this area of activity, where Miami. Billions of dollars are being find the resources, would this be a wise they run less risk of detection and suf- sapped from our economy, and this body is doing little to stop it.