schakowsky: it's an embarrassment. ms. hirono: as costs go up and up and up, there is no end in sight. frankly, to rely on the private health insurance carriers to resolve this problem which has been with us -- remember when i came here and my mother didn't have health insurance, it was a number of decades ago, i won't tell you how many, but the problems remain. and that is why the progressive caucus is very much focused as we focus on reducing costs and maintaining access and choice for our doctors and health care plans and really focusing on affordable, quality health care that we want to have a public option, a public option to give the people of our country a choice as to whether or not if they have their current private carrier insurance and they're happy with it, they can stay with that. but for those who want to have another option, who want to see competition in the health insurance market through a private or a public -- excuse me, a public option, that's what the progressive caucus wants to see. this is why so ma

schakowsky: i was a community organizer. mr. ellison: this public option, congresswoman schakowsky, any views you would like to share before you launch into any prepared remarks? . ms. schakowsky: i've had people come into my office day in and day out saying they can't get the health care they need, they have a child or disability or a

schakowsky: of course. ms. hirono: when you talk about the people who are getting to medicare, our country is a rapidly aging country. hawaii has one of the fastest-aging populations in the entire country. so the issue of health care coverage and how we're going to do it is very much on people's minds. when you talk about, you know, how are people supposed to take care of their long-term care needs? that is a huge, huge concern in our country. and so, what we should be also talking about is, how are we going to help our elders age in place as opposed to having to be institutionalized where the costs are so much greater? so there are so many choices that we can be making that truly enables the people of our clint to sleep soundly at night knowing their needs will be cared for. ms. woozesee: one of the things we're going to -- ms. woolsey: one thing we'll hear is we can't make the insurance companies compete with a public plan. it won't be fair to the insurance companies. excuse me, the insurance companies have a

i think it is a really great modification and i want to thank senter schakowsky and her staff for working hard to do that with the amendment before us would eliminate the entire program and mr. chairman, i think one of the things we have heard over and over is we have a crisis in primary care and we know the severe shortage of primary-care providers prevent americans from accessing high-quality care. i first hear it in rural communities and now he read in my urban areas. we have to encourage students to go to primary care and decrease expense and potential risk they take in doing so is a fundamental way we can steer medical students into primary care so i would ask the members of the committee to reject this amendment because it eliminates the whole program and hopefully this afternoon we will be able to offer the amendment with senator murkowski that i think what modify and present a very good so what we forward. >> mr. chairman. this would not eliminate the program. this would keep the program the way it is at the current time. nobody wants to eliminate this program. the reason i bring

schakowsky, a member of the health subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the the gentlewoman from illinois is recognized tore two minutes. miss sha -- for two minutes. ms. schakowsky: i rise today in strong support of h.r. 1256, the family smoking prevention and tobacco control act. i do it with enormous gratitude to chairman waxman for working for years to get legislation of this sort that would improve public health by strengthening the regulation of tobacco products. there are a lot of of diseases that we don't have the cure for today. there's lots of resources put into medical research that hopefully will find a cure to cancer and to aids and other terrible diseases. but we do know how we can prevent over 435,000 tobacco related deaths that occur each year. and that is by preventing smoking. over 44 million smokers in the united states of america, in illinois alone, 24.3% of adults and 29.2% of youths smoke tobacco. in illinois 16,000 people die from smoking related illnesses, 29,000 adults and children die of secondhand smoke

schakowsky. the speaker pro tempore: gentlelady for one minute. ms. -- the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. schakowsky: for over the century the united states has embraced on energy policy based entirely on fossil fuels that have had several dangerous consequences for today. this outdated policy has compromised our national security by making us reliant on foreign oil, has led the united states to lag behind other countries in the research and development of new energy text nolings that would -- technologies that would created more jobs. now we have an opportunity to change directions. when i was back in my district last recess i could feel the crackling of new innovation. s.n.c. electric is making our electric grid much smarter and more reliable. northwestern university is asking entrepreneurs who are usings nanotechnology and using it to the electric window. and those 260 skilled workers from star window was rehired with help from the recovery bill that we passed. this is a few of the thousands of success stories around the country,

schakowsky: i'm pleased that mr. skelton included one of my amendments in en bloc number two and one in en bloc number three. it would gyp date the database which collects information about civil, criminal and administrative proceedings that result in the conviction or finding of fault against u.s. businesses holding government contracts. currently access to the database is limited to chairman and ranking members of certain committee. the second requires annual reporting on individuals responsible for overseeing contracts, include regular ports of how many dollars are each contracting officer is responsible for. and a report on how many contracting officers are themselves contract employees. in 2008, the g.a.o. found that 42% of army contract specialists are themselves contracts. the amendment would ensure that we have access to information illustrating changes in the contract oversight workforce that will help us in improving defense contracting. i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentl

schakowsky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. schakowsky: it's nearly a decade ago that in my district a hate monger came with a gun and pointed it at young men and women, people, families, leaving their synagogue at the beginning of the sabbath. when he wasn't able to kill anybody there, he drove down the street and saw an african-american standing in front of his house with his children in skokie, illinois, and shot and killed ricky birdsong a community leader and beloved member of that community. we made some progress in extinguishing anti-semitism and hatred, we've certainly worked toward it. yet yesterday, at the holocaust museum a place dedicated to remembering the lives of senselessly killed millions of people. another shooter was there. but standing in his way was officer johns, officer stephen tyrone johns who died in defense of tolerance in our country, against intolerance in our country and saved probably the lives of many, many people in doing so because that shooter was going on to kill others. we owe him and his fam

schakowsky: mr. speaker, i rise in support of house resolution 505 honoring the life of dr. george tiller and condemning his brutal murder at church. i thank representative slaughter for this resolution. dr. tiller was a husband and a father, he studied at the university of kansas school of medicine, and searched his country as a united states navy flight surgeon intern. despite attacks and threats against him, he continued his service as a tireless advocate for women's health and women's rights. on may 31 he was brutally gunned down in broad daylight in his place of worship by an extremist who took the law into his own hands. enough is enough. it is time for us to condemn this act of violence and state forcefully we will not condone murrer -- murder, threats, or intimidation in the future. in addition to my condolences to the family, i extend my gratitude to them for his life, his courage, his unyielding support for women, their health, and freedom to exercise their constitutional rights. i yield back. soil the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from north carolina. mr.

going to stand here and be part of the dialogue, but i think congresswoman hirono and congresswoman schakowsky bring something new and fresh tonight. so i hand back to -- mr. ellison: who would you like to yield to? ms. woolsey: i yield to congresswoman hirono from hawaii. ms. hirono: thank you very much. we are going to be focusing on health care tonight for this hour and i just wanted to share with all of you a little bit of my background, because i know what it's like not to have health care. i came to this country as a immigrant. my mother brought me and my brothers to hawaii, lucky me, and raised us as a single parent. and we didn't have much. and she worked for many years in a job that did not have any benefits, innovation, no health care. and i remember growing up that migratest fear was that my mother would get sick and if she did, she wouldn't be able to go to work and if she didn't go to work there wouldn't be any money for food or rent. today, in our country, over 45 million people have no health insurance. i know what that's like. our current system does not serve these millions of

gentlewoman from illinois, this schakowsky. >> thank-you, mr. chairman, and congratulations, dr. hamburg. in -- i come to this issue within lot of history and also this particular issue with a lot of emotion. and my good friend, nancy donnelly, whose only child, alex, was lost because of the eating hamburger with e. coli and then dedicated her life to creating an organization -- safe tables our priority -- has sort tirelessly for food safety. year after year, we have people coming before us telling these devastating story is end every time we say we're going to do something it never happens again and yet it does. in february we heard testimony from peter hurley whose young son was made ill by eating austin peanut butter crackers that were found in millions of homes. and we're all shocked by documents presented at that hearing that showed that the pca knew that their products were tainted and yet released them into the food supply anyway. as of the discussion draft that is before us includes provisions that will seriously avila the many gaps in our current food system. i wanted to

were trying to obfuscate what the actual pull or election results would be part of the other is that schakowsky himself was trying to undermine the electoral process. the first sounds more likely but the basic fact is the polls in the territories are probably not a very reliable per great then of the margin of error by would not trust them further than i can throw them. the ada you'll get a straight answer from palestinians who are just as concerned trying to live day today or supporting violent organizations and not sure which they will choose their trying to figure out the end result of an election very difficult. >> host: we have difficulty understanding america in the west we see ideology as one category and religion as another. with hamas it seems to me and religion and ideology are fused and it cannot be broken apart for you see that very clearly with the hamas charter which is one might say admirably candid and explicit about its aims and makes it very clear and the spokesperson as well they see no possibility not just as a political position but as a religious position they cannot see t

i remember doing an interview with jan schakowsky who said i think rod blagojevich i think it's realistic that he's running for president and many of hess contemporaries at that time, you know, agreed with her and when you look at the fact that there was another young politician who was exactly the same age who'd been elected to the illinois legislature at exactly the same age, with not much national, if any -- no national experience, then became elected to the u.s. senate at the same age that rod blagojevich was when he elected to become the governor and guess what? he's our president. [laughter] >> it wasn't that unrealistic. >> no, it really wasn't. if you look back at the first inauguration -- first inaugural speech that rod blagojevich gave, it was a wonderful, stirring, uplifting, you know -- this is a new -- a dawn of a new era in illinois. the politics of old is over. this new era of cooperation, getting things done. it was an amazing moment. i don't know if you were in springfield for that. you certainly saw it and reviewed it. but it was really quite a moment when blagojevich to

schakowsky for questions, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. after hearing the testimony i want to thank the winners is more for sharing this. i wanted to talk about rescissions for unrelated medical conditions. i understanding they scoured the records to find anything, but ms. beaton, let me understand what happened. after your insurance policy began, you developed breast cancer and the insurance company decided to investigate your application but it didn't find any evidence that's you had anything before you got your policy, did

lucas senator schakowsky, she is nodding your head and the reason she is as we did on the save america act. that is a bill that brought the best of conservatism and liberalism together in the hopes will get seven or eight millender additional volunteers that will save this country jones of dollars. and i enjoyed working with her and, of course, our beloved chairman as well from this committee. senator dodd, i don't know how use it to all this but i respected, we are close friends and i expect you to use her immense influence to listen to me is the biggest be a bipartisan bill. thank you so much. >> i been listening to you per 25 years. >> you are a lucky guy. >> i keep saying to myself every day that i feel the same led. >> thank you. senator casey. it is a pleasure, we served together on the banking committee and now you are here as a real asset to the institution the max mr. chairman, thank you very much and they're grateful for your leadership here and as we have her from so many of our colleagues about senator kennedy i think it is evident the impression that we hold for him but al

and i also want to thank representative january schakowsky and donna christensen on their hard work on environmental issues to help reduce health disparities. it's a good bill, mr. speaker. and i urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of it. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan. mr. camp: i yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman, mr. davis. mr. davis: this will rise the price of a gallon of gas, push food prices to new heights and increase the cost of every consumer product. this is a national energy tax. this will punish middle-class farmers and across the nation. america needs a comprehensive energy plan, not a national energy tax. local, state and federal officials have stressed the need for policies to create jobs. this cap and trade proposal will fail to do that when america needs them. we will lose jobs, manufacturers will move their plants to other countries with cheaper energy and lower taxes, hurting american workers and the environment globally. in the past years i have watched house

senator schakowsky, thank you again. as in the other day senator rakowski was generously hubbell on the tobacco and that alone i have said over and over again, that set up this debate in some ways because with so many people to tobacco and no one knows a better than dr. coburn as well as the position and i really thank you for that. that is a 15 year-old debate that one on and we're going to have some regulation of that industry which is a major step and prevention said thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman, thank you for your leadership on that issue and so many. and your willingness i guess to step up. i don't know how many options you had when senator kennedy calls and asks you to take over the reins. but it is appreciated it recognizing which you have in front of you the wake of this task, the responsibility i think we would all agree that in terms of the issues that are first and foremost on the minds of americans, if it is not the impact of the economy on a daily lives is health care. and how that impacts of the fam

schakowsky: i really applaud congresswoman gwen moore for her passionate remarks on behalf of this amendment. in the aries years since the overthrow of the taliban, women in afghanistan have made many strives forward. two women have announced their intention to run for president this year. however, many women in afghanistan continue to fight for the basic human rights, violence against women, rape, forced marriages continue in the country's most unstabled regions. we saw images of stone being thrown at women. afghanistan's future will depend on its women, building more stable and healthy and thriving communities. the women of afghanistan have borne the brunt of years of warfare but they'll also form the underpinning of a peaceful afghanistan. this amendment recognizes that limiting the rights of women is counterproductive to all of our efforts to help afghanistan move forward from the devastating damage of taliban rule. i urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up for the women of afghanistan who are suffering, who deserve our help and i yield back the balance of my tim