mr. speaker brown and mr. speaker scott. >> good morning. my name is sharon and i'm vice chair of the district 11 council and a 4 year resident which is located in the heart of district 11. i do not come forward to test by earlier because my neighborhood has never seriously been in danger of being split into another district. but i wanted to take this last opportunity to speak, to publicly thank the task force for not just listening to the public, but to actually hearing all the folks who came to testify. and for your commitment to keeping neighborhoods whole. for you reuniting the other neighborhoods that were split 10 years ago. i also wanted to thank the consultants and kay for all their work in getting the draft maps and the boundaries up on the website so quickly. and lastly i would like to thank any fellow council members who came to testify so passionately but respectfully for their neighborhoods in district 11. so far we have only lost population in those areas we all agreed to sacrifice to keep district 11 whole. it is an honor to s

mr. speaker brown and mr. speaker scott. >> good morning. my name is sharon and i'm vice chair of the district 11 council and a 4

mr. speaker brown and mr. speaker scott. >> good morning. my name is sharon and i'm vice chair of the district 11 council and a 4 year resident which is located in the heart of district 11. i do not come forward to test by earlier because my neighborhood has never seriously been in danger of being split into another district. but i wanted to take this last opportunity to speak, to

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from florida, mr. miller, and the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. mr. miller: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. miller: again, thank you for the recognition. as chairman of the committee of this house committee on veterans' affairs, i rise in support of h.r. 4114, the veterans' compensation cost-of-living adjustment act of 2012. this critically important piece of legislation authorizes the cost of living increase for disabled veterans in receipt of compensation payments from v.a. and clothing allowance payments and other compensation for survivors of veterans who die as a result of service to this country. the amount of the increase will be determined by the consumer price index which also controls the cost-of-living adjustment for social security beneficiaries. i want to thank my colleague from new jersey, mr. runyan, the chairman of the subcommittee on disability assistance and me

brown: mr. speaker, thank you very much for leading this discussion on health care. you know, you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. and as we begin to discuss repealing of the health care law tomorrow, i would like to discuss just how exactly the affordable care act benefits all americans. although not a perfect bill, and i have been elected in congress for 20 years and i've never seen a perfect bill, but a perfect beginning, and the reason why it's not perfect is because you make compromises throughout the process. this is a perfect start and a tipping to obtain universal health care has been a primary goal of every single president and congress since the days of president franklin dell nor roosevelt. who -- delano roosevelt, who fought for quality health care and health reform for all americans and now, 75 years later, after the supreme court ruling just over a week ago, our nation has finally attained that goal. did you hear me? after 75 years, every single president has tried to implement some form

mr. secretary. it gives me great pleasure to introduce our last speaker who deserves tremendous credit for bringing us here today. after being appointed by governor brown to the high-speed rail port, dan richard has made extraordinary progress to make california high speed rail a reality. the skill at building a consensus around high-speed rail and commitment and leadership as chair of the board set a new tone to address serious issues in a transparent and purposeful way. and he got results. results that we have the pleasure of celebrating today. the california high speed rail system will be a wise investment promises to generate long-term trends and economic benefits for california. please join me in welcoming the california high speed rail chairman dan richard. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, maria. that is very kind. i want to take a few moments. i wanted to acknowledge a couple of people here from the california high speed rail authority, first, my colleague, the former mayor of redwood city, a superb board member, a terrific guy, jim hartnett. [applause] and also we recently appointed a new ceo to the authority. will be his job to get the orga

, when lisa brown stood on the floor of the house of representatives in michigan, objecting to yet another anti- reproductive rights bill, and at the end of her remarks, she said, mr. speaker, i am glad everybody is so interested in my vagina, but no means no. lisa brown was censured by the speaker of the house, told that her burbage was inappropriate, that the use of the word " regina" was a bad thing to do on the floor of the house of representatives of michigan. it was not two weeks later 5000 people showed up, 5000 women showed up on the steps of been capitol to say "vagina!" another explained to ledges where there's -- to legislators that if you cannot say yet, you have no business regulating it. women are paying attention. the gender gap is large and growing larger every week, and is getting larger, because the mask has been ripped away from the extremists, and women are seeing in all of its raw ugliness their real agenda that right-wing of extremists have in store for us. the mask has been ripped away. women and men are horrified and people are mobilizing. the third reason i know we can win this fight is because we're all going to have each other's backs. [applause]

mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i've enjoyed the previous speaker's very interesting -- i want to shift gears and talk about senate 1728 which is the stolen valor act of 2012. as many of you know the supreme court recently struck down the stolen valor act saying lying about military awards, services is protected by our first amendment rights. the court has ruled but let's be clear, it's wrong and cowardly for people to make fraudulent statements in order to receive distinctions they have not earned. let me say that again. it's wrong and cowardly for people to make fraudulent statements in order to receive distinctions they have not earned. as a 32-year member of the army national guard still serving, i feel very strongly about this issue and believe we need a federal law to punish those who seek to benefit from making false claims and steal the true valor of our heroic men and women in uniform. my bipartisan, bicameral stolen valor act of 2012 reminds me of the bill we worked on, the insider trading bill. we have an opportunity once again to send a ve

speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cicilline: madam speaker, i rise today to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the leadership alliance. the leadership alliance, established by brown university in 1992, is a national academic consortium of leading universities and minority-serving institutions with the goal of developing students. through an organized program of research, networking and mentorship at critical transactions along the entire academic training pathway, the leadership alliance prepares young scientists and scholars for graduate training and apprenticeships. today it has mentored more than 2,400 undergrass including 43 rhode islanders. brown university has mentored 386 leadership alliance participants, 35% of whom have received a graduate-level degree. i'm proud to stand in support of this initiative that identifies, trains and mentors tral entered, under-represented -- talented, under-represented, underserved communities. i commend the leadership alliance including brown university for 20 years of mentoring a diverse and competitive research and scholarly work force. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does th

speakers to speak in the order that i'm listing them. senator klobuchar followed by senator menendez, senator sherrod brown, senator levin and then myself. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. shaheen: thank you. the presiding officer: senator klobuchar. ms. klobuchar: thank you. i want to thank the senator from new hampshire for her great leadership in this issue. i am a cosponsor of the disclose act, and i really hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will strongly reconsider their vote today so that we could actually go to a vote on this bill so that we can actually debate this bill, because by using a filibuster to basically stop debate on something that is so important that we are getting calls on from all over minnesota, people asking me in two parades yesterday what is going on, what are these ads that we're seeing on tv, and they have a right to know who's paying for them, what these groups are called, no matter what their names are, and who's paying for those groups and who's paying for those ads. that just isn't happening today. i am a he whoer to focus today -- i'm here to focus today on the public's distrust of our political process and our need

speaker boehner, house minority leader pelosi, senate minority leader reid and senate minority leader mcconnell,, my colleague, corinne brown, senators hagan and burr, and to the commandant of the united states marine corp, and mrs, thank you for being here. welcome to friends and family and to all the men and women today who are in uniform and to those who have served and their families. i stand here today because once upon a time there were giants that walked this country. these were men who were giants not because of their stature but because of their comportment. these were giants because of their honor and integrity and impeccable character. they were giants because of their resolve, their commitment to a country that had not yet committed to them. through history we know not all of their names, but we know them from the groups upon which they were organized. the 54th fighting massachusetts, the buffalo soldiers of the 9th and 10th calvary, the hell fighters from harlem, 369th infantry regiment, 614th gamecocks, 761st black panthers, the tank destroyer battalions, the 322nd fighter group tuskegee airmen, 55th parachute infantry regiment, the triple nickels, the smoke jumpers. these were the giants from the