mr. rodriguez went on a second trip to mexico in 1956 bringing with him some of his paintings hoping to exhibit during his trip. he found the appropriate venue to display his art, but was faced with a problem, no frames for his paintings. ever resourceful, peter, and relying on his background in advertising and window display used black yarn to draw frames around the paintings. in the 1975 he opened up the museum to present the artistic expression of the mexican people regardless of their birth nation from the informed perspective of the people themselves. as a museum expanded, it began to attract the attention of a broad scope of individuals including art collectors, and, thus, began to form a permanent collection now consisting of over 14,000 pieces. as the collection grew, so did the number and scope of exhibitions presented to the public. the community has come together to nurture and vision building a resource for the arts and the cultures and a home for generations to come. peter's legacy is closer to realization as the museum board and the arts and redevelopment commission have worked ha

mr. rodriguez of texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. rodriguez: i rise in support in support of this bill and i thank chairman price for his work on these issues. the chairman has joined me on the board. i represent more border than anybody else in the congress, 785 miles and we have had the opportunity to tour all the way from texas to san diego, including the northern border. and i want to thank him for his bringing forth this piece of legislation. let me just indicate that this is a major piece of legislation that's critical to making sure that we secure or border. if anything is important, it's to make sure that this country remains secure. earlier this month, the house passed a supplemental appropriation bill that continued to fund our operations both in iraq and afghanistan and included $701 million in much needed border security funding. this is the funding that our men and women on the border are asking for and the need to get the job done. we all know that violence in mexico has escalated, and we need to ensure that u.s. borders

mr. rodriguez: thank you very much. i wanted to take this opportunity to come down to the house floor and congratulate our chairman, congressman chad edwards, on his efforts in this y. i feel really elated in term it's of the amount of resources that we have been able to put for our veterans. having been on the veterans' committee and the appropriations side and the authorizing side, i had the opportunity to witness the situation that we suffered on when we had to do the co-payments and require our veterans to come up and pay co-payments. we cut category eight veterans from that, in addition not only that, but we asked them to pay for additional fees for services and in the last three years, you know, it's been a turnaround and this bill provides resources there for the first time, it allows an opportunity for us to be able to look at our infrastructure and improve on those areas that are out there. we have a good number of hospitals out there that are lacking on infrastructure and i'm hoping that in the few fur we cont

mr. rodriguez: mr. speaker, madam chairman, i stand here today in support of my legislation, h.r. 4438, a bill to authorize the expansion of the san antonio missions national historic park boundaries and to authorize the boundary study that would identify possible lands for inclusion in the park within bear county. this bipartisan piece of legislation is co-sponsored by all three of my colleagues from san antonio, congressman charlie gonzalez, congressman lamar smith, and congressman henry cuellar. my colleagues in the senate, senator kay bailey hutchison, has also introduced companion legislation. the san antonio missions is the largest concentration of catholic missions in north america, and served as some of the most well private representations of spanish colonial history. influence and cultural in the southwest. it is on this foundation that the city of san antonio was established and today the nations serve as an important reminder of the connections to the city's rich past. built along the san an

mr. jose rodriguez who will now take the floor on behalf of the council. ve the floor. >> thank you, very much, mr. president. we have to be accountable and take stock of the rotating spanish presidency over the last half year. when i came before this chamber in the beginning of that half year, i told the distinguished members that there were two overarching -- objectives. first of all, the entry into the treaty. the treaty is aimed at the unity of europe and directly linked with this goal of unity among europeans, the second goal was to foster a for sturdier economic unions among our economy is in such a way that the european union could be in ottawa on condition to return the welfare state. those were the overarching objectives. when it comes to the implementation of the lisbon treaty, the spanish presidency has loyalty to strengthen our sector and so as to strengthen the institutions which we have bestowed upon ourselves in the treaty. the presidency of the european council, which is there to strengthen its representation and efficiency of its political