mr. engel of new york. mr. engel: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise this evening to re-affirm the strength of the u.s.-israel relationship. both of our countries have shared values, both of our countries are democracies. israel is the only democracy in the middle east. i know there have been some difficulties during the past few days when vice president biden visited israel. there was an announcement of the expansion of a neighborhood in north jerusalem. the timing of that announcement was wrong. but i don't think we should blow the timing of that announcement out of proportion. we should not have a disproportionate response to israel. we need to be careful and measured in our response. and i think we all have to take a step back. the relationship remains rock solid. the obama administration and the administration of prime minister netanyahu have been cooperating on a number of things containing iran, the goldstone report, making sure that israel retains its quality edge in the region and there has been good cooperation between t

mr. engel: madam speaker, i'm proud to be a member of congress that never as proud as i am tonight. tonight, we are finally going to pass comprehensive health care for the american people. my friends on the republic can -- republican side of the aisle say the bill is flawed. not once did they try to pass health care. not even as they say we should do now. no longer when we get sick will the insurance companies say, sorry, we can't cover you. no longer if you lose your job or change your job, can you not keep your health insurance. you will be able to keep it. if you have a pre-existing condition, you won't be denied. if you are 26 years old, you can stay on your parents' policies. no annual cap or lifetime cap. we help seniors by closing the doughnut hole. we save money, c.b.o.-scored. everyone wins with this bill, but especially the american people. i'm proud that we are passing comprehensive health care. the current system is not sustainable financially and what we are doing means that everybody wins. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gen

mr. engel: i thank my good friend and fellow new yorker for yielding to me. i want to commend him for the work he's done and i want to commend my friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from california, ms. waters, for this bill and i rise like all my colleagues in strong support of h.r. 4573 which pushes for the cancellation of debts owed by haiti to multilateral financial institutions. i'm the chairman of the western hemisphere subcommittee and i also have a large haitian population in my district in spring valley, new york, and i am honored to say that last friday i traveled to haiti and you can see the devastation in the newspapers, you can look at it on television, but until you're there in person you cannot imagine how horrible it is. and the other thing you see are thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people in the streets with nothing to do, no place to go, no place to go to work, no place to call home, tense and -- tents and tents and rows of tents and shacks and things put up for people to seek the shelter and people just in the s

mr. engel: madam speaker, i'm proud to be a member of congress that never as proud as i am tonight. tonight, we are finally going to pass comprehensive health care for the american people. my friends on the republic can -- republican side of the aisle say the bill is flawed. not once did they try to pass health care. not even as they say we should do now. no longer when we get sick will the insurance companies say, sorry, we can't cover you. no longer if you lose your job or change your job, can you not keep your health insurance. you will be able to keep it. if you have a pre-existing condition, you won't be denied. if you are 26 years old, you can stay on your parents' policies. no annual cap or lifetime cap. we help seniors by closing the doughnut hole. we save money, c.b.o.-scored. everyone wins with this bill, but especially the american people. i'm proud that we are passing comprehensive health care. the current system is not sustainable financially and what we are doing means that everybody wins. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gen

mr. engel: mr. speaker, i thank the gentlelady for yielding to me and i rise in strong support of her resolution, 1186, designating april as national distracted driving awareness month. secretary lahood said that distracted driving is a deadly epidemic. on his report on distracted driving, the national highway traffic safety administration estimated that fully one quarter of traffic accidents involve distracted driving. these crashes resulted in nearly 6,000 fatalities and over half a million injuries. this is why i so strongly support the gentlewoman, ms. markey's, resolution, and why i introduced my own legislation. electronic devices have become part of our daily lives. many of us use blackberries, cell phones and pages daily. but it's obvious anyone who uses those devices, that a person becomes distracted while using them. the growing number of people texting or reading emails while driving puts everyone on the road at risk. my legislation, which would provide money for driver education and high