mr. fortenberry was asking about. mr. lewis was here and he had a number of different stories on a single transaction. >> told the shareholders that this merrill deal with a great deal for them and persisted in that story even in december after he found out about $9 billion additional deterioration into frankly my amazement and shock he never bothered to tell the shareholders the news that led him to add extra assertion he made that it was so dire that he might invoke the nuclear option of the mac klauss. and then he told us basically that, using his words, he did not use the word fret but he said there was heavy pressure from the fed and treasury to go through with this deal, with the assurance that the american tax they payer would back up any of these toxic assets from marolt. and i will just ask one specific question about that. one of the assertions to the board was that the treasury and fed have confirmed they will provide assistance to the corporation to restore capital and protect the corporation against the adver

mr. fortenberry. this was incorporated into the william which will berforce trafficking victims protection reauthorization act and became public law in december, 2008. we further opined on this matter in the child soldiers accountability act of 2008 which became law in october of last year. however, a sense of congress reaffirming that the use of child soldiers is unacceptable must be supported. i applaud my good friend from texas for bringing this important issue to our attention. again, it is right and just to do so. i encourage our colleagues to support this amendment. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlelady from texas. ms. johnson: i have no requests for time. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. berman: will the gentleman yield? ms. johnson: yes. mr. berman: i just want to express my strong support for this. this issue is an important one and i appreciate you raising it along with other contributions of other members on this issue and i strongly support the resolution.

mr. fortenberry. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. . today. mr. speaker, a muslim cleric once whispered to me, do not forget the goodness of america. america is justice. while much has changed in the world in recent years, the core ideals that made the united states a generous, principled, and prosperous nation, the commitment to justice for all remain unchanged. we are now entwined in a more interdependent world which entails a potential for great good or great harm. we can innovate to build sustainable capacities to help all persons achieve their full potential or we can find ourselves in a race against time in seeking to prevent advanced technological capacities such as nuclear weapons development from serving tyrannical purposes that aim to destroy and subjugate free people. while not always popular i believe it is essential to engage other nations as a force for good in the world by maintaining a robust and effective diplomatic and assistance framework. this is why i do support some of the more aggressive proposals contained in this measure s