DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, THE JUDICIARY, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 07, 2004)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 701 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 4754.
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Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Clerk read as follows:
Amendment Offered by Mr. Crowley:
Page 2, line 7, after the dollar figure insert "(reduced by $50,000)".
Page 2, line 11, after the dollar figure insert "(reduce by $50,000)".
Page 33, line 21, before the semicolon, insert "(increased by $50,000)".
Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Chairman, it is with no great joy that I rise to offer this amendment. My amendment seeks to transfer $50,000 from the Department leadership account funds at the Office of the Attorney General and shift those funds to the Public Safety Officers Benefits Program under the Office of Justice Program. These funds should be used by the Office of Justice Programs to provide the resources to issue the Public Safety Officer's Medal of Valor posthumously to the 414 public safety officers who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
After those awful events of September 11, our whole Nation unified together as one people.
We looked with long-deserved respect at our police and fire fighters and emergency medical technicians, as well as court officers, for their heroism and their bravery.
Remember, Mr. Chairman, these are the people who were running into the buildings when everyone else was attempting to escape those buildings. As a posthumous honor for these fallen heroes, I worked with Republicans and
Democrats to pass a resolution 2 ½ years ago, expressing the sense of Congress that the Public Safety Officers Medal of Valor be presented to the public safety officers who had perished for outstanding valor above and beyond the call of duty during the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11.
That resolution unanimously passed by a vote of 409 to 0. Then under Senator Leahy's leadership in the Senate, he secured passage of a resolution in that body which was identical to the one that passed here with the unanimous vote just a short while later. While nonbinding, these resolutions put the Congress on record as urging special recognition through the issuance of the Medal of Valor for those individuals. In fact, the authorizing legislation of the Public Safety Officers Medal of Valor allows the special recognition and permits the Attorney General to issue, "and in extraordinary cases," an increase in the number of recipients in a given year for this award.
September 11 was an extraordinary case, and the heroism we saw that day was more than extraordinary. Unfortunately, after a number of meetings with the Attorney General's office and several calls to the White House, still after 2 ½ years, no action has been taken, nor is it apparent that any action on this issue is forthcoming.
Last year, thank you to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) and to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano), at my request, they graciously included language in their bill urging the Attorney General to posthumously award the Public Safety Officers Medal of Valor to the 414 public safety officers who perished on September 11 of 2001. I do not understand the holdup of the issuance of this medal.
While I do not begrudge those brave officers who have already received these honors in 2002 and 2003, I believe that the Attorney General should immediately issue these same awards to our heroes of 9/11.
When this amendment passed, and I understand through a negotiation with the majority, they are willing to accept this amendment, it would have been the third time that this House has acted to instruct the Attorney General's Office and the administration to issue the Medal of Valor to those men and women, public safety officers, who fell on 9/11.
We have a medal in place already. We do not need to create a new medal to give to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and demonstrated the highest acts of bravery on that day. If those who fell on 9/11 do not deserve this medal, I do not know who would. It would be an honor for those who have received it already and an honor for those who will one day receive this medal to know that they are among the 414 men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice in bravery on 9/11.
Now, it is my understanding in conversations with the administration that there is a hold on issuing this, after 2 ½ years of foot-dragging on issuing this medal, that there may be an attempt to create a new medal to give at maybe another time. I do not want to specify. I do not know when that time may be, but I would hate to see that this be done for political purposes.
Two and a half years have gone by. Enough time has happened and dragged by. These men and women and their families have been through so much already. They have been anticipating the receipt of this medal, and yet the administration has failed to cooperate and issue this medal to these 414 families who so deservedly are expecting this medal.
I think it is time to put politics aside and stop dragging feet and have this medal that is already in existence. We do not have to create another one. We do not have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a new medal.
One exists today, already, to give to those families and the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in such a brave way on 9/11.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the amendment. My dad was a policeman in the city of Philadelphia over 28 years. We will, one, accept the amendment, and what we will do is try to do more than that. We will try to work with the gentleman and his office and call down to the Justice Department.
I will personally place a call to see, I mean, why should we wait until this bill gets signed? Why should we not do something next month, do something in September, do something quickly?
So, one, we will accept the amendment, so it is accepted; but, two, we will make a call and work with the gentleman's office, if he can work with our staff, and we will try to see if we can make a call by the end of this week so he will get some sense of relief.
Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. WOLF. I yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the chairman's demonstration of desire to make this a reality by what he has just said on the floor, and I too am the son and the grandson of a police officer. And I think most people know that my first cousin was killed on 9/11, John Moran, as well as numerous friends of mine who were police officers and fire fighters. So there is a personal element to this issue as well.
I do appreciate the gentleman's offer to verbally contact the administration and the Attorney General's Office, and I hope, again, that something can be done after 2 ½ years of really, if nothing else that I can describe, just dragging feet. I wish I had a better answer as to why this has not taken place already. It is not the Senate. It certainly is not you, Mr. Chairman, or anyone in this House.
We have spoken unanimously in the past, and as I said before, this is the third time on the floor that we will have spoken. So I appreciate the gentleman's advice and his counsel on what he will do on his side to make this a reality before this goes any further.