Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 113 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 113 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 159 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 No. 51 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was Then on March 19, just after supper- Law enforcement officials, prosecu- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- time in Colorado, the top prison chief, tors, and judges do the work that many pore (Mr. WEBSTER of Florida). Tom Clements, heard a knock at his people just don’t want to do, or will do. f door. When he opened the door, he was They deliver justice to criminals know- shot point blank; and he died in the ing that they face the threat of retalia- DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO doorway of his own home in his own tion when they administer justice. TEMPORE blood. Clements’ suspected killer, Evan These public officials enforce the rule The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- Able, resurfaced in Texas weeks later of law for those who live outside the fore the House the following commu- and died in a shootout with law en- law. nication from the Speaker: forcement officers in north Texas be- That’s why I’m introducing the WASHINGTON, DC, cause he promised that he would not McLelland-Hasse Line of Duty Act. April 16, 2013. ever return to prison. Senator CORNYN has introduced a simi- I hereby appoint the Honorable DANIEL Just 11 days later back in Kaufman lar bill in the Senate. This bill would WEBSTER to act as Speaker pro tempore on County, Texas, District Attorney Mike beef up protections for prosecutors and this day. McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were judges who are in danger of retaliation JOHN A. BOEHNER, Speaker of the House of Representatives. sitting at home when their home was and who are threatened with intimida- invaded by intruders. Mike was shot 20 tion. It boosts the punishment for kill- f times, and his wife, Cynthia, was also ing these officials or their family mem- MORNING-HOUR DEBATE murdered. They were assassinated and bers or conspiring to commit these The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- murdered in their own home. District crimes against these individuals. The ant to the order of the House of Janu- Attorney Mike McLelland had vowed legislation also allows them to carry ary 3, 2013, the Chair will now recog- to bring the scum to justice that had firearms in Federal facilities and Fed- nize Members from lists submitted by killed his assistant district attorney, eral courts and other jurisdictions for the majority and minority leaders for Mark Hasse, but the assassins got all of their own self-protection. morning-hour debate. them first: three fallen law enforce- Courthouse prosecutors and judges The Chair will alternate recognition ment officers and one family member. risk their lives every day to administer between the parties, with each party And just yesterday, a woman in jail justice and create order in our commu- limited to 1 hour and each Member in Texas is accused of trying to hire a nities. This legislation promotes secu- other than the majority and minority hit man to kill Assistant District At- rity for those that secure justice for leaders and the minority whip limited torney Rob Freyer, a friend of mine, the rest of us. to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall and to also injure the district attorney Because justice is what we do in debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. in Montgomery County, Texas, to America. f mimic the Kaufman County shootings. And that’s just the way it is. These attacks, Mr. Speaker, are real- f THE McLELLAND-HASSE LINE OF ly attacks on the symbol of the rule of DUTY ACT law in the United States. These at- PREVENTABLE PATIENT DEATHS The SPEAKER pro tempore. The tacks also hit home for me and others The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from of us who have worked at the court- Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. POE) for 5 minutes. house. I spent part of my life as a pros- Minnesota (Mr. ELLISON) for 5 minutes. Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on ecutor and a judge in Texas. Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I want to January 31, Kaufman County, Texas, Bad guys come through the court- come to the House floor today to ad- Assistant District Attorney Mark house charged with everything from dress what I think is a serious issue Hasse had just pulled into work at the stealing to killing. And I, like many facing all Americans without regard to courthouse. He got out of his car and others, had threats on several occa- race, color, party, region of the coun- he started walking through the park- sions; but fortunate for me, law en- try, or anything like that. The issue ing lot like he did every day, but Mark forcement officers in Houston, Texas, that I want to talk about is trying to never made it to the courthouse to made sure those threats were never prevent patient deaths. prosecute any other cases. He was am- carried out. But as we’ve seen this Back in 1999, the statistics show that bushed, sprayed with bullets, and mur- year, sometimes the bad guys are suc- about 98,000 people a year died from dered in the parking lot. Officials are cessful in attacking and killing folks preventable medical deaths, prevent- still uncertain of who murdered him. that work at the courthouse. able deaths in hospitals and things like 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. H2029 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 01:09 Apr 19, 2013 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD13\RECFILES\H16AP3.REC H16AP3 bjneal on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE H2030 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE April 16, 2013 that. That number has grown. We’re within our power to eliminate and pose the war, as those who thought it now at about 200,000 people a year who stop. I want to salute the people who justified, are all sorting through what die in hospitals because of preventable attended the Patient Safety, Science & happened. More important, we are death. That’s about 3,800 people every Technology Summit, who came to- united in our support for our men and week, which is basically the equivalent gether to try to bring real attention to women in uniform who fought that he- of two jumbo jet passenger airplanes this problem. roic effort regardless of our feelings crashing and killing all of the pas- A good friend named Joe Kiani about the war’s justification or his- sengers. brought this issue to my attention. tory’s verdict. The fact of the matter is that this is He’s a person who has given a lot of We have an obligation to all those something that we as a Nation need to time and attention to try to figure out who served to smooth their reentry and step forward and do something about. how we can save families from tragic to minimize the price they paid for It’s something that is in our power to incidents such as what happened to that war. do something about. The thing that we Lenore’s family. And, of course, every- But there is another group who put need to do to prevent these preventable one has something that they can do to themselves at risk for the wars in Iraq deaths is to coordinate. It is possible to prevent these serious problems. and Afghanistan. I am speaking of the eliminate these deaths. It is possible Iraqi and Afghan nationals who worked b 1010 through a series of measures to even with the American soldiers—thousands eliminate them completely. At the end of the day, our goal should who were shoulder to shoulder with our What we need to do is first of all look be to make zero the number of deaths troops, often in the most difficult of at this problem in a holistic way. in hospitals, to make preventable circumstances. They provided services There’s not one magic thing that is deaths something of the past, and to as guides and interpreters that lit- going to stop all of them, but a series bring Americans to attention so that erally made the difference as to wheth- of small things that are going to pre- we can focus our technology, our proce- er our soldiers lived or died. vent and eradicate these preventable dures, our energy, and our love and at- I’ve talked to returning servicepeople deaths. tention on trying to make sure that no who made clear how important it was The first thing I think we need to do family suffers these tragic incidents that they had that help and how grate- is to come together to figure out how anymore. 200,000 deaths is too many. ful they were to the Iraqis and Afghans to connect our technology, the people One is too many. Zero should be our who played those vital roles. I’ve and ideas and figure out how to cooper- goal. Let’s stop preventable hospital worked with some of those soldiers to ate and, most importantly, make a deaths. try and bring to America—to safety— some of those people who worked with commitment to prevent these deaths f from happening.