today I rise to salute the bravery of Border Patrol agents working along the Mexican border. I recently returned from a week-long trip to the Mexican-California border, where I had the opportunity to ride along with our Border Patrol…

the number one problem facing small businesses today is the skyrocketing cost of health insurance. Association health plans are a big part of the solution. I met with many small-business people from my hometown of Orlando, Florida, and…

reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act today is literally a matter of life or death because it is helping us to win the war on terrorism. Since we passed the PATRIOT Act in 2001 we have convicted 212 terrorists and $136 million in terrorist assets…

in light of the comments by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the comments of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) to at least make a good-faith effort to try to increase the maximum Pell grant award during the conference process…

let me begin by just putting this issue in a bit of a historical perspective. Looking at this chart, it reflects the Pell grant maximum awards over the past 10 years. And you can see, 10 years ago, in 1986 the maximum Pell award was…

I am pleased that both Republican and Democrats have accepted my amendment and that it has passed today as part of the unanimous consent agreement. Mr. Chairman, I believe it was a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars by the U.S. Department…

I rise today to honor Kelsey Ryan, a 9-year old little girl from Celebration, Florida, my home district. Kelsey is a true hero to her community and her country. We are honored that she is here with us today. Kelsey possesses a…

reclaiming my time, and certainly she can get her own time to respond, but, no, there was a lady who was invited to testify before the committee representing herself. She certainly did not represent 100 percent of all minorities in the…

reclaiming my time, with respect to what was considered by the committee, the committee, minority members included, got a full hearing. Everybody got to ask questions twice. They then had three provisions added to the original Small…

the death tax kills small family-owned businesses, it makes financial planning nearly impossible, and it is an unfair form of double taxation. The death tax is itself the leading cause of death for over one-third of all small, family-owned…

Mr. Speaker, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act is a commonsense piece of legislation that will make our communities safer by allowing qualified law enforcement officers to carry their concealed firearms across State lines. Criminals…

that scenario you just posed about someone taking some kind of improperly labeled diet drug has nothing to do with this legislation. That claim would still go forward and be unimpacted. This legislation specifically is narrowly targeted to…

to go back to the gentleman from Washington's (Mr. Inslee) question about the diet drug, I have explained it does not apply. It talks about ``a person's consumption of a qualified product.'' What is that? That is food under the definition…

Why do people allow mad cow burgers to be sold? I do not know that any company does knowingly allow mad cow burgers to be served.

Mr. Chairman, I am asking my colleagues to vote no on the Watt amendment dealing with the pending lawsuits. This amendment was raised at the Committee on the Judiciary. The gentleman made similar, consistent arguments, and it was shot down…

Mr. Chairman, I am going to ask my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Andrews amendment on several grounds. This amendment opposes additional regulations on the food industry, increasing their cost of doing business and threatening…

Mr. Chairman, the food industry is the largest private sector employer in the United States, providing jobs for 12 million American citizens. The consequences of these obesity lawsuits against the food industry is that consumers will pay a…

First, in terms of the bill's substance, the gist of this legislation is that there should be common sense in the food court, not blaming other people in the legal court. We need to get back to the old-fashioned principles of common sense…

today I am introducing the No Financial Aid for Sex Offenders Act for 2003. It is a national embarrassment that we are handing out taxpayer dollars for pedophiles and rapists to take college courses while hardworking young people from poor…

I support this Iraq supplemental because it specifically includes language which I insisted on, which prohibits any American taxpayer dollars from being used to pay Iraq's foreign debts. Americans would be justifiably outraged if a dime of…

I rise today to support he National Mentoring Month Resolution introduced by Congressman Tom Osborne. This resolution recognizes and supports the efforts of mentoring programs across our Nation. It embraces the notion that volunteer…

I rise today on this solemn occasion to speak in support of the joint resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. The choice before us is clear. Do we sit back and allow Saddam Hussein to keep his weapons of mass destruction and…

I rise this afternoon to salute one of the most beloved and valuable citizens in central Florida, Mr. Jim Turner, who is marking 30 years on the job this summer. It is not just any job. Jim Turner is the morning show host on AM 580 WDBO in…

Mr. Chairman, this is a straightforward amendment relating to the disclosure of attorneys' fees. Simply put, if there is a settlement or a judgment for the plaintiffs in a class action suit, the plaintiffs' attorneys shall be required to…

What he does not point out is that the class members themselves in this plaintiffs' suit are bound to class actions unless they affirmatively opt out. Defendants, in contrast, actually hire and fire their attorneys. There is a stark…