mrs. blackburn as well, mr. jolly i thought for that very helpful statement, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from vermont yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from tennessee is coiz. mrs. bckrnthk yo m speaker. at this time i yield one minute to a member of the veterans committee who has worked through this issue with some veterans, mr. costello of pennsylvania. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. mr. costello: thank you. mr. speaker, i rise today in support of h.r. 471. we've all seen reports in our local newspapers about the fight against prescription drug abuse by our local law enforcement officials and the damaging effect that prescription drug abuse has on families and communities across this country. according to the c.d.c. since 1999 the amount of prescription painkillers prescribed and sold in the united states has quadrupled. there is indeed a trend in abuse of prescription painkillers, whi

mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the recognition and the opportunity to revise and extend my remarks and to address the body of the house. mr. chairman as my colleagues all know, this is the week that the american people will strike that check to the internal revenue service to pay their taxes. now, what has ended up happening through the years as this tax that came on our books about 100 years ago and was to be a 1% temporary tax hasgrn and grown and grown and it continues to eat a greater share oour incomes. i hear from constituents every single day every single day about the unfairness and the overreach of the i.r.s. they are so fed up with this beuse what they observe is government continues to grow and the bureaucracy continues to grow and what happens? it just takes away bits and pieces of our freedom every time that bureaucracy expands, and that is the rson that this week we in the house he set aside ti to make cerin hat we're addressing those concerns that we hear from our constituents. this is a

mrs. blackburn: to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. mrs. blackburn: i'm glad we're talking about doing good things for the american people and today i rise to recognize and pay tribute to the general federation of women's clubs. tomorrow, april 24, is recognized as federation day. and it is the 125th anniversary of the women's club federation. this organization has such an interesting beginning. jane crowley, who was a journalist was denied attendance at a dinner in new york to honor charles dickens and it was denied because of her gender so she got busy with that and she organized a women's club convention and on april 24, 1890, 63 clubs around the country came together to form the federation to focus on helping our communities. they have over 90,000 members and last year did 100,000 different community service projects with 4.5 million volunteer hours. they're coming to tennessee in june for their convention. we look forward to welcoming them and celebrating doing

mr. brady: madam speaker, i want to thank my colleagues jim mcdermott, and marsha blackburn for joining me in leading the fight to make this middle class tax provision permanent. this provision is about tax fairness and equal treatment. if taxpayers and income tax states can deduct their state and local income tax, so should residents of sales tax states. that in america is just fair. this provision helps hardworking taxpayers keep a little more of what they earn, which is ever more important to families given the stagnant paychecks over the past number of years. more than 10 million american taxpayers in nine states depend on this commonsense deduction, and the dollars that stay in the local community help grow their economy rather than grow washington's economy. a permanent state and local sales tax deduction provides certainty to american families makes federal budgets scorekeeping more honest, and removes the as tirrisk from this temporary provision so the pro-growth tax reform can advance. it's certainly important to texas since its been restored, my neighbors have saved more than $10