ms. kaptur: please. mr.llison: we may see as many as 10 million homes go into foreclosure from the beginning of this crisis to the end. you know, how important to the average homeowner is this settlement? is it going to help them? i yield back to the gentlelady. ms. kaptur: i think what's going to happen to this is even though a million homeowners are likely to be helped and several hundred thousand get some recompence, maybe be a $2,000 per household, it's going to precipitate more foreclosures as the system continues to progress and that is a deep concern of mine because these banks have not been noted for treating customers well and according to the justice department, however, the agreement does not prevent any claims by individual borrowers who wish to bring their own lawsuits and i think it's incumbent upon lawyers across this country, our progressive caucus, to look for legal recommend disto continue to gain sweet justice for those who have been so harmed. mr. ellison: flealed. as we know -- if the ge

ms. kaptur, for five minutes. ms. kaptur: thank you. mr. speaker, it's overtime for wall street megabanks, their c.e.o.'s, speculators, and sharpies to come and scrub the floors of homeless shelters across this country. that are crammed with people who have lost their homes. let's make those wall street bankers sign up to work with habitat for humanity to restore housing in neighborhoods across our nation. wouldn't that be sweet justice? once they paid back the billions that they owe the american people whose homes they raided of equity, let's put them to work. you know, wouldn't it be great to see the c.e.o. of goldman sachs, i think his name is lloyd blankfein, out there with buckets and scrub brushes, come to toledo, come to cleveland, come to america, the part you have hurt so deeply. wouldn't it be great? let him be joined by josh bolten who was there when the bush administration handed the toxic paper to the people of the united states. well, come on down, angelo, from countrywide. i think a little hard work would help you a whole lot

ms. kaptur: if the gentleman would yield at that point. when that bill was passed, i would venture to say 99 percent of congress didn't know it was in there. it was buried in an omnibus appropriation bill. nobody even knew it was in there. so that was sort of the final straw that broke the camel's back. i wanted to say to the gentleman, i'm sure minnesota verified this to me, like ohio, business after business tells me, marcy, we can't get a loan. the normal banking system isn't working. and what they are trying to do at the federal level is focus attention, just on the secondary market activity, rather than the loan originators. so they are saying, oh, the problem with it fannie mae and freddie mac. fannie mae and freddie mac why second in line. first in line were the originators, the very institutions we are talking about here, citicorp, ban of america, goldman sachs is involved in that, wells fargo, hsbc, all these institutions, and they originated through their intermediaries like countrywide was involved and then when the loan was mad

ms. kaptur. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for four minutes. ms. kaptur: i thank my esteemed colleague, mike michaud of maine, for allowing me to join him and to rise in support of his motion to instruct conferees on a payroll tax cut extension bill that strikes a section that undermines the normal procedures of unemployment compensation to people who are out of work as it diverts those funds to other purposes. here we have the hardest of hearts that exist in this house, the majority on the other side of the aisle, who allow the market -- allowed the market to crash in 2008, putting millions of people out of work, and then throwing millions more out of their homes and turning a coal eye toward them and then propose to cut heating assistance to those who are struggling across this country an then a majority on the other side voting to not extend unemployment benefits to the victims. i didn't see any enthusiasm over there for prosecuting the big banks on wall street and those who had committed the fraud that got us into this mess in the first place. n

ms. kaptur: mr. speaker, first i join with my female colleagues in supporting full health coverage for every single woman in our nation. and i also rise to condemn the actions of syria's assad government which are truly appalling. america and this house should not be sitting silent as thousands of syrian civilians are slaughtered by their government. assad is not a man of peace as some in this body have asserted. he is an international war criminal. his blood-stained hands should be shunned the world over. the united nations now believes that over 100 civilians are being murdered daily, including women and children. estimates vary as to how many civilians have been killed since assad's regime launched its brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in syria on the spring of last year. cnn is reporting as many as 9,000 people have been killed in the last year, yet the leadership of this house remains silent. the senate passed a resolution in mid february, why haven't we? i and my colleague, congressman

ms. kaptur: i rise in great privilege to wish a very happy birthday that will come on february 23, to one of our most distinguished members, congressman louis stokes of cleveland ohio, he will turn 87 on february 23 and truly he deserves recognition during this black history month, and i pay him his due honor. he grew up in difficult circumstances in public housing. his widowed mother had to raise her two sons one of which, louis became the first african-american congressman ever elected from the state of ohio and his brother carl, first african-american mayor of cleveland, ohio. can you imagine that family? can you imagine their struggle? i wish to place in the record tonight some of his story but one of the tremendous accomplishments that he achieved as an attorney was trying many cases in front of the u.s. supreme court including a case which created ohio's first mostly minority congressional district and later in life, he had the opportunity to run for that seat. he changed the face of this country. imjust so pleased to call him our friend and take the time to fully recognize the admi

ms. kaptur: i want to thank dr. christensen for holding this very, very important special order as we begin black history month here in the united states. and say how proud i am to serve with her. her backbreaking work in health care, leading us for coverage for all, to congresswoman sheila jackson lee, i had not heard that story, what she personally has lived and helped push america forward to a new day. it is nye distinct pleasure and honor to be here with them tonight. i wanted to participate in this special order because of what we are going through in texas and ohio, in florida, around this country, with redistricting. and it's true that ohio, because population hasn't grown, has to lose two seats. but we have seen a redistricting like none other. and i wanted to put some of this on the record because i think scott scolers around the country and young people -- scholars around the country and young people studying could really take a look at what has happened in this recent redistricting that i think has a subt

ms. kaptur: yes, mr. speaker. i rise today to join my sisters in the state of ohio, women elected officials, small business owners, women activists across our state to speak out against a tax on the ability of women to get full health coverage in this country. imagine we can land a astronaut on the moon, we can target and eliminate osama bin laden, but we can't seem to figure out as a society how to make sure that women have full health choices in the insurance programs of our country. it seems that some people just want to keep women in the corner and not see the struggles that they have had in preventive health care, in full choice for the medications that they take in order that they be able to live full and productive lives. our grandmother had 16 children. several of them died. she lived to the age of 93. in those days there were almost no medications and more women died in childbirth than were lost and soldiers were lost in world war i. i think the world has moved beyond closed thinking on women's health. i