Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and support September 20-26 as National Pollution Prevention Week.

The new science shows that brain development determining lifelong learning begins much earlier in infants and children than was previously believed.

The absence of viable options for working families to educate their children at the most important stage in life demands our immediate attention.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all of my colleagues join me in saluting the District of Columbia State Council of the Knights of Columbus for a century of selfless service and patriotism.

I rise to introduce the Universal Pre-Kindergarten and Early Childhood Education Act of 1999 (Universal Pre-K)

Kazakhstan is a former Soviet Republic that held great promise early in this decade for moving toward democracy and a free market economy. But there has been a steady and alarming deterioration in recent years.

The Nazarbayev regime has employed authoritarian methods to threaten and silence the witnesses who will testify today.

No democracy, especially the United States government and this Congress, should tolerate such conduct.

This is an unacceptable way to treat an opposition leader.

The Congressional Human Rights Caucus is deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Kazakhstan and has called this briefing today to take a closer look at recent developments.

A fundamental component of U.S. policy in Kazakhstan is promotion of democracy and human rights.

I urge my colleagues to support this vital legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the twenty years of work of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.

As we engage China economically, we should work to engage China in a policy that allows Tibetan peoples, cultures, and beliefs to flourish.

The continued extension of normal trade relations (NTR) to China will do much to benefit the United States domestically, while engagement with China remains the most powerful means of advancing our interests abroad.

Yet only further engagement with China will allow the United States the opportunity to advocate on behalf of its own interests and those of the Chinese people.

I rise to express my opposition to House Joint Resolution 57 disapproving the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment (or normal trade relations) to the People's Republic of China.

Approximately 400,000 American jobs depend on trade with China.