ms. berkley: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. all time has expired. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house concurrent resolution 266. those in favor signify by saying aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, and the concurrent resolution is agreed to and -- ms. berkley: mr. speaker, i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. . the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, and the prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentlelady from nevada rise? ms. berkley: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, house res. 1538, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1538. resolution co

ms. berkley, and the gentlewoman from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, each will control 20 minutes. ms. berkley: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous trl on the resolution under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. berkley: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of h.con.res. 266, expressing the sense of congress that taiwan should be accorded observer status in the international civil aviation organization, the icao. as co-chair of the congressional taiwan caucus, i have seen firsthand the amazing progress taiwan has made in its economic and political development. throughout the 1970's and 1980's, taiwan's economy grew by more than 10% per year and is now the united states' ninth largest overall trading parking lot for the with two-way trade in 2008 valued at $61.6 billion. taiwan also is the sixth largest destination for u.s. agricultural exports, about $2.5 million annually. meanwhile, taiwan has developed one of the strongest democracies in the region, having had several p

ms. berkley. two tight minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. berkley: let me tell you something about the state of nevada. we have the highest unemployment rate in the country, 14.5% unemployed. our fellow citizens with no jobs to go to and no jobs to seek. we have the highest mortgage foirk rate in the country. -- forecast rate in the country. -- foreclosure rate in the country. unemployment benefits are not a handout. it's not welfare. it's giving a helping hand to our fellow citizens that need it the most, to get them where they are now which is without a job to where they're going to be when there's an economic recovery. the gentleman from northern nevada had an amendment in the rules committee that said unobligated stimulus money should go to pay for this. how many times does he have to hear that there are no unobligated funds in the stimulus bill? for any nevadan to condemn the stimulus bill is to ignore what's going on in the state of nevada. let me tell you what the stimulus package did for us. it put $700 billion into our education syst

ms. berkley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from nevada is recognized for two minutes. ms. berkley: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. mr. chairman, i rise in support of this bill. i especially want to thank chairman edwards and ranking member wamp for providing the resources our nation's veterans desperately need and providing additional funding for f.y. 2012. this advanced funding helps the v.a. advance critical programs. we must take care of our brave men and women who serve this country and this funding goes a long way to address many of their needs. i also want to thank the chairman and ranking member for including report language on veterans' burial benefits. i am concerned about the burial benefits provided to our nation's veterans by the department of veterans affairs. because the benefits are not indexed to inflation, their value continues to diminish with each passing year. as a result, families in state veteran sem tears have been left to the increasing costs. in f.y. 2009, the subcommittee included my report language urging the v.a. to assess the viability of i

ms. berkley: i'm going to be putting into the congressional record an article in -- which says early disaster response in haiti, the israeli field hospital experience. it talks about the israeli defense forces' medical corps field hospital was fully operational in 89 hours after the earthquake struck and was capable of sophisticated medical care. in the 10 days the hospital was operational. the israelis treated over 1,100 patients, hospitalized 737 patients and performed 244 operations. at the same time the iranians were shipping scud missiles through syria to hezbollah to rearm them on the northern border of israel. the turks were trying to create an international incident with their ridiculous flotilla. the iraqis, the sunnis and the shiites kept killing each other. in pakistan, the government seems to be immobile when it comes to the terrorist attacks in that country. in afghanistan the taliban keeps killing americans and hamas continues to terrorize its own palestinian people in the gaza. all of that while the israelis are actually doing something important for humanity. i yield back the