This last week, last Monday on Veterans' Day, our holiday, I had a chance to go to one of our middle schools in my district, Burbank Middle School, and I rise to congratulate a young Burbank Middle School constituent, Cynthia Plascencia…

H.R. 1776, the Buffalo Bayou National Heritage Area Study Act, begins a process of helping the people of Houston and east Harris County recognize the cultural significance of our community. The Buffalo Bayou waterway was the starting point…

Mr. Speaker after September 11, the American people came together, Democrats, Republicans, rural, urban, East, West, North, South, white, black, Hispanic and Asian. The American people wanted this, and they demand it from us. But today is…

my concern about this, and I do not serve on the Committee on Ways and Means, but this seems like we have returned to partisanship. We are back to it is either my way or the highway because the bill had very little Democratic votes. After…

I know the concern for my colleagues about the lack of the language and the concern that we have not had the time to look at this, but also know the devil is what is going to happen between now and next Thursday when we come back in. It is…

I rise today, like a lot of my colleagues, with a heavy heart for anyone who has suffered from yesterday's tragic and cowardly attack. Yesterday was one of America's darkest hours. Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families of the…

first I want to say that I respect the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) and the hard work that he has done; but I also disagree with the language that was agreed to, and I can stand here on this floor and still respect him but disagree…

I looked forward to this day when we could have a Patients' Bill of Rights on the floor, but after seeing what happened, I am so disappointed and so frustrated, and I think that is what is going to happen with the American people. Instead…

we finally have a debate today on the Patients' Bill of Rights but it is not a good deal. In the dark of night we have an agreement that is masquerading as a Patients' Bill of Rights, but it is a patients' bill of wrongs. For example, one…

It is not the governor, it is the problem with California's distribution system. That is why there needs to be more pipelines, newer pipelines. In fact, we have a letter dated July 17 from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to the…

Mr. Chairman, I am glad to follow my colleague from Washington, because I have also been to ANWR, and maybe we went to 2 different places, because when I was there in the first week of August, it was snowing; it was a blizzard. Maybe he…

If we use cost-of-service-based on anything, that is price caps; and that works in a regulated environment. But what California did, they wanted to take advantage of deregulation and have a State deregulation, that was flawed to begin…

The reason this is not a problem in other States is that no other State has come to the FERC or the Federal Government to ask for assistance like California has. But in looking at the problem in California, it seemed the disparity in the…

I rise in support of H.R. 4 and want to commend the leaders on both sides, particularly in the Committee on Energy and Commerce that we worked on, what I consider a reasonable energy package. This legislation is long overdue and sorely…

California is an exception, because we have lots of intrastate pipelines running through the State of Texas, running through lots of States in the Union, but California has taken the Hinshaw exemption from 1954 and carried it much further…

Mr. Chairman, I rise to continue the process that I think this bill begins, and that is rescuing the State of California by removing an important hindrance in delivering more natural gas into their State. In the wake of the California…

Mr. Chairman, we have a list from the last 10 years of complaints and protests of pipeline expansions in California, and each time the California Public Utility Commission did not allow for that pipeline expansion. That is the 10-year…

I am happy to join him in calling for immediate passage of a real Patients' Bill of Rights. We have a real opportunity to pass a meaningful Patients' Bill of Rights this year. After 5 years of heated debate, the U.S. Senate passed a…

Our surveys in my own district, very urban, 60 percent of the people have group insurance under Federal law. Even though the legislature passed something 4 years ago, most people get their insurance under Federal law. That is why we have…

I rise tonight to encourage our House leadership to bring the Patients' Bill of Rights to the floor as soon as possible, hopefully next week. The Senate took historic steps before the July 4 recess to pass a bipartisan, meaningful…

I hardly ever disagree with my ranking member on appropriations, but I do not think this amendment is about retaliation. I think it is about a real energy debate we need to have here on this floor. I agree, Florida probably does not want…

Mr. Chairman, I am concerned about the level of funding for flood control projects, particularly the Greens Bayou and Hunting Bayou, all of which flow through my district in Harris County. Greens Bayou flooded nearly half of the 30,000…

like my colleagues, I represent an area that tragically succumbed to Tropical Storm Allison in northeast Harris County. I want to thank my Texas colleagues for putting this resolution together, but mainly to the hundreds and even thousands…

there are 17, from my understanding. Again, in Texas, we do not have any hesitation at all about going to the courthouse when we feel aggrieved, and so after 4 years, only 17 lawsuits. We have not had an overwhelming number of lawsuits…

We have thousands of immigrants who come to this country with the hope that they will be able to fulfill their own American dream. They want to work, pay their taxes, and contribute to their and our society. They want to raise their…