America's State and local law enforcement agencies are on the front lines combating and preventing crime every day. In the last decade, their dedication and service and innovative policing programs have led to a 34 percent decrease in…

Mr. Speaker, I rise today, as do my colleagues, to commend Virginia State University on the celebration of their 125th anniversary. This resolution honors Virginia State University's continued resolve to provide an excellence in education…

I rise this afternoon among a sea of voices that I quickly confess I do not understand. Now, some of them are my friends and some of them are very good people and I don't want to make any mistake about it. I understand the pressures they…

I was unable to be present at the vote for H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on final passage. ____________________

due to my attendance at a funeral for a family member of my staff I was unavoidably detained from voting on H.R. 4411, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on final passage…

most of us believe we are sent to Washington, DC, to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the people we represent. I rise today with deep concern that the inaction of two Federal agencies is threatening the welfare of my constituents…

I think, if one is around here long enough, they get to the point where they do not believe they could be shocked by anything. But when I heard the other side a while ago say that they believe that giving arts and crafts to violent gang…

I just wish today that we would hear the same passion for the victims of gang crimes as we have heard on the other side for those who commit violent gang crimes. You know, we have heard a lot about the cost of locking up violent gang…

one thing that both sides of the aisle, I think, can agree on today is that we should not be here today debating this amendment. I was thinking as I was sitting here, if we could go back in time to the days when they were laying the very…

right above the Chair's head today are four words, ``In God We Trust''; and time after time in this country, we have seen in times of storm or war or illness the American people have embraced those words and believed in them very strongly…

Several days before Christmas, the phone rang at Angel Flight, and the voice on the other end of the line said she only had 4 weeks to live. Her only hope was receiving an experimental drug treatment in San Antonio, but with a mountain of…

Mr. Speaker, in the face of insurgencies in Fallujah and other hot spots in Iraq, what is it that keeps our soldiers fighting for freedom and democracy? In addition to the trials of war, our soldiers in Iraq wake up with the same problems…

Mr. Speaker, I can just tell you this afternoon that if you asked any soldier, sailor, airman or Marine serving in the Iraq theater what is most important to the morale and welfare of our forces, the answer you will get from them, and you…

I think one thing that September 11 shows very clearly is that we are going to fight this fight. The question that is left is just where are we going to fight the fight, whether we are going to fight it on our soil, we are going to fight…

It is an important thing and we appreciate your leadership on this. I appreciate your conducting this special order tonight, because as you know so oftentimes the men and women fighting in Iraq never get their voices heard here. We hear a…

despite the negative chants we hear from those refusing to take off their partisan uniforms, there is good news when it comes to the economy: 6 consecutive months of job growth; 364,000 new jobs in the last 6 months; and the largest…

all too often the voices whining about what they find wrong with our planning, our troops, or our military tend to drown out their great successes. But when I went to Iraq, I found our troops were proud that they had liberated 24 million…

I rise today with great anticipation that our Nation is nearing the end of a tragic chapter in our American history, one in which the most helpless among us are vulnerable to the most heinous crimes. I believe that, with the passage of the…

what really amazes me when you listen to the debate on this bill is the huge disconnect between the rhetoric we hear and what the bill actually before us is about. This bill is not about choice, and this bill is really not about abortion…

the issue that we face this afternoon is very simple. It is whether or not the American flag is of such importance to the American people that their elected Representatives should have the right to protect the desecration of that flag. I…

as many people are now aware, the largest increase in defense spending in two decades, is not really an `increase' so much as it is a `payment past due' on a defense budget that was significantly under-funded in the 1990s. This outstanding…

Ours is still at a point where it is too early probably for us to statistically be able to answer that. We believe that is what the numbers are indicating. But let me tell you an even more compelling fact: I spend a lot of time going…

Mr. Speaker as an original cosponsor of this resolution and a Representative of the Tidewater region of Virginia, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 279. I recently was honored to participate in the homecoming celebration of the USS…

I rise in support of H.R. 2739, which would require the United States to take positive steps to ensure that Taiwan is afforded an opportunity to participate in the World Health Assembly in May 2002. Taiwan, with its population of 23.5…

as a member of the House Science Committee and an original cosponsor of this bill, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3178, the Water Infrastructure Security and Research Development Act. In October, as the Anthrax scare was at its zenith, I…