E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 109 CONGRESS, FIRSTSESSION Vol. 151 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005 No. 118 House of Representatives The House met at 12:30 p.m. and was cluding his own mother, perished at greatest lesson, Mr. Speaker, was that called to order by the Speaker pro tem- the hands of the Nazis. even out of such horror, some good can pore (Mr. MARCHANT). Upon his liberation, Mr. Wiesenthal come. f relentlessly and often singlehandedly His message of tolerance is one that tracked down over 1,100 Nazi war crimi- must continue to be honored, respected DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO nals and saw that they were brought to and taught. If someone who suffered so TEMPORE justice. Without his tenacity, such greatly can turn his life into a positive The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- mass murderers as Adolf Eichmann and force for change, surely the rest of us fore the House the following commu- Franz Stangl may never have been held can take his lesson to heart and never nication from the Speaker: accountable for their crimes against forget the dark past in the hope of WASHINGTON, DC, humanity. building a brighter future. September 20, 2005. But Mr. Wiesenthal’s legacy is not f I hereby appoint the Honorable KENNY limited to atoning for the past. He also RESPONDING TO LAST WEEK’S MARCHANT to act as Speaker pro tempore on knew the importance of educating fu- this day. ture generations to ensure that similar COMMENTS OF MAJORITY LEAD- J. DENNIS HASTERT, atrocities would never again take ER REGARDING AFFORDABLE Speaker of the House of Representatives. place. HOUSING BILL f He established the Simon Wiesenthal The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Center to foster tolerance and under- ant to the order of the House of Janu- MORNING HOUR DEBATES standing. The Center, headquartered in ary 4, 2005, the gentleman from Massa- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Los Angeles but with offices through- chusetts (Mr. FRANK) is recognized dur- ant to the order of the House of Janu- out the entire world, has made great ing morning hour debates for 5 min- ary 4, 2005, the Chair will now recog- contributions to efforts to combat rac- utes. nize Members from lists submitted by ism, anti-Semitism, terrorism and Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. the majority and minority leaders for genocide. I have had the great privi- Speaker, it would be fruitless for any morning hour debates. The Chair will lege, as has Governor Schwarzenegger one of us to dedicate himself or herself alternate recognition between the par- and both President Bushes, of visiting to refuting every inaccuracy that is ut- ties, with each party limited to not to and working with the Wiesenthal Cen- tered on this floor, so I reserve that ef- exceed 30 minutes, and each Member, ter over the years to advance their fort for those of particular public pol- except the majority leader, the minor- noble mission. icy significance, and I want to address ity leader, or the minority whip, lim- Additionally, the Wiesenthal Center’s some comments by the gentleman from ited to not to exceed 5 minutes. Museum of Tolerance hosts 350,000 visi- Texas, the majority leader, last week The Chair recognizes the gentleman tors annually, including 110,000 chil- as he was justifying the hostage taking from California (Mr. DREIER) for 5 min- dren, vividly educating them on the that has occurred with the bill that utes. history of the Holocaust and the im- would create an affordable housing f portance of defeating bigotry and rac- fund through Freddie Mac and Fannie ism in our time. For as Mr. Wiesenthal Mae’s profits. We have, as you know, HONORING THE LATE SIMON himself once said, ‘‘The history of man rules that urge us—not urge us—insist WIESENTHAL is the history of crimes, and history that we refrain from impugning each Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise can repeat. So information is a defense. other’s honesty. I will simply note that today to honor one of the great pro- Through this, we can build, we must the gap between what the majority moters of tolerance in our time, Simon build, a defense against repetition.’’ leader said and reality was unusually Wiesenthal, who we learned has passed Mr. Speaker, Simon Wiesenthal rep- large even by the standards of political away at the age of 96. Mr. Wiesenthal, resented the best of humanity. Born debate. First of all, he quite inac- who spent 4 years in Nazi concentra- into unspeakable tragedy, he refused to curately said that nothing in the bill tion camps, dedicated his life to seek- ignore his responsibility to those who, regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ing justice for those who were unable unlike him, did not outlive the Holo- that came out of our committee, the to seek it for themselves. While Mr. caust. His dogged determination was Financial Services Committee, on a 65– Wiesenthal survived the Holocaust and the strongest voice of the victims. Ac- 5 vote, that nothing in that bill would was rescued by American troops in countability and education, not re- have provided aid to the people who 1945, dozens of his family members, in- venge, were his aims. Mr. Wiesenthal’s were stricken by the hurricane. He 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. H8103 . VerDate Aug 31 2005 07:18 Nov 16, 2006 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORDCX\T37X$J0E\H20SE5.REC H20SE5 CCOLEMAN on PROD1PC71 with CONG-REC-ONLINE H8104 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE September 20, 2005 was, of course, quite wrong. The basic majority’s ability to run out the clock. they are people who come from bases, mechanism which we are now talking In the past when they have had tough some of which have been recommended about putting to the aid of the people votes, we have waited 3 hours, 2 hours, for closure by the base closing commis- who lost their homes was in the origi- more time as I have noted than it sion. I think that does fly in the face of nal bill. That is, the bill as it came out takes us to evacuate the building in what we believe is the idea of having a of committee said that 5 percent of the case of a threat when they twist arms strong military, the idea of having a profits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and put on pressure. Apparently even citizen-soldier, the idea of not having a would go to affordable housing. Note they recognize that support for using draft because we have these bases that that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s some of the profits of these private cor- provide the kind of capability when profits by everybody’s agreement are porations, which profits are enhanced these men and women are called upon increased by a series of associations by Federal help, that putting that to to do the hard work as they did in Af- they have with the Federal Govern- affordable housing, particularly now ghanistan. We see now in Afghanistan ment. Everyone acknowledges Fannie when we have this need for housing in millions of people have gone to the Mae and Freddie Mac can borrow Louisiana, that they could not hold the polls and voted and they do have de- money from the public more cheaply rollcall open long enough to twist mocracy there. The same will be true than other entities, and we have said enough arms to get there. Well, that is of Iraq very soon, thanks to the cit- that in return for the arrangements democracy. Let us have the vote on the izen-soldiers. that allow that to happen, we will im- floor. This report is flawed because it does pose certain restrictions on them. It is I would just add this, Mr. Speaker as not take into account a Federal law on not a confiscation of private property; I close. There is a lot of concern about the books that says that bases cannot it is the recognition that these entities how we are going to pay for the aid be closed without the Governor of the profit and we want something in re- that we all believe should go to Lou- State authorizing the closure of that turn. There had been a lot of agree- isiana. We have one small piece, hun- base. The base closing commission ig- ment that we were not getting enough dreds of millions, but it is still hun- nored that law. They bypassed that in return. We thought one thing we dreds of millions, and in most contexts law. I believe there now is in some could do was to take 5 percent of the that is not small, we have got a way to courts in this country opinions that after-tax profits and put it towards af- deal with the housing needs of those say that these bases should not be fordable housing. people without in any way impacting closed unless the Governor of that In the bill that was there, it is true the Federal budget. Again, that mecha- State agrees to that. But the base clos- that the bill that we passed before the nism was in the bill when it came out ing commission ignored that.