Mr. Speaker, on December 2, 1980, 25 years ago this month, four American church women were murdered in El Salvador by members of the El Salvadoran military. In 1984, five national guardsmen were tried, convicted and sent to prison for these murders.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of their deaths, the resolution before us commemorates the lives and work of the Maryknoll Sisters, Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan. It extends our most profound sympathy and support to the families, friends and religious communities of these four women. It encourages us to find inspiration in their lives and work and calls upon the American people and religious congregations to participate in local, national and international events marking the 25th anniversary of their deaths.

The resolution also recognizes that progress has been made in El Salvador following the war, but reminds us that the work of these missionaries on behalf of the poor remains unfinished. Therefore, it calls on us as a Congress to engage ourselves and relevant U.S. agencies to continue to support and collaborate with the Salvadoran government and other private nonprofit and religious groups working to reduce poverty and hunger in El Salvador and to promote educational opportunity, health care and social equity.

I would like to commend Mr. McGovern for bringing this resolution to the floor. It is a fitting tribute to four inspiring American church women who worked on behalf of some of the poorest Salvadorans, including refugees and children left homeless during El Salvador's internal struggles. I think we could all learn a lesson from the events of 25 years ago and work even harder to ensure that democracy remains strong in Central America and elsewhere so that such events can never be repeated. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise today in strong support of this concurrent resolution that expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should actively support efforts in Nicaragua to move that country towards an immediate and full restoration of a functioning democracy.

Further, the resolution calls on the United States and the international community, including the Organization of American States, to actively support the government of Nicaragua and civil society as they work to establish the necessary conditions to ensure a free, fair and transparent electoral process.

Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, Latin America and the Caribbean, with the notable exception of Cuba, made remarkable progress towards democracy. I believe much of the credit for this progress is due to the courageous leadership of many democracy-minded people in the region who grew weary of the brutal dictatorships, but also the dedication of people like former President Ronald Reagan and others in the U.S. and elsewhere who invested in the future of these countries by helping to plant the seeds of democracy and nurturing them over time.

That investment is paying off, but we should be under no illusions that the work is complete. The truth is that, 15 years after the Managua Spring, democracy and freedom in Nicaragua are being eroded. While democracy is still holding on, it is not without its opponents, and in Nicaragua, the alarm bells are ringing.

Right now in Nicaragua, the hard left and the corrupted right are making common cause in attempting to bring down the democratically elected government of Enrique Bolanos. Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in alliance with convicted former president Arnoldo Aleman has entered into an arrangement known as the Pact that poses a real and present danger to every democratic institution in that country, from the national assembly, the national electoral council, to the supreme court right on down.

For example, the Pact, through its control of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, tried to strip President Bolanos of his constitutional powers through what is known as the Stability and Governability of the Country Law. In October, however, the assembly, under pressure from the international community and perhaps the introduction of this resolution, voted to postpone this law until after President Bolanos leaves office in January of 2007.

Delaying the governability law has allowed Nicaragua to avoid an immediate constitutional crisis. But as President Bolanos said quite clearly during a recent visit with members of our subcommittee here in Washington, which I chair, the future of Nicaraguan democracy remains under threat and that the United States needs to pay attention before it is too late.

I believe that we must do what we can to ensure that the upcoming elections in Nicaragua are free and fair. Passage of this resolution will send a loud and clear message to the political elements that are attempting to subvert Nicaraguan democracy that the United States does not abandon friends who have stood so strong for the value of democracy.

While the recent actions of the Ortega-Aleman Pact indicate they may have abandoned their immediate efforts to overthrow President Bolanos, we should be under no illusion that they have given up their longer-term goal of returning Nicaragua to the days of oppression and dictatorship. So many Nicaraguans died during the years of violence and civil war for the dream of a free and democratic Nicaragua. Their sacrifice should not be in vain. We must work with the democratic forces of Nicaragua to ensure that Nicaragua continues to thrive and benefit for the people of that nation.

The resolution before us sets out a path which I believe and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle believe will ensure that democracy remains viable in Nicaragua. I urge my colleagues to show their support for democracy in Nicaragua by supporting this resolution.

Let me just end by saying, thank you to Mr. Lantos, my very good friend, for his leadership and his hard work on this and a lot of other legislation. Let me just say that Mr. Lantos and I were both here back in the 1980s when the war took place in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and we saw the horrible result of dictatorships. We saw the horrible result of civil war, and democracy has changed that whole region down there. And we think it is extremely important that we do everything we can to support democratic institutions so that we do not have the bloodshed that we saw back in the 1980s and we do not see the massive flight of people leaving that region to get to the United States and elsewhere to get away from those wars. So I think this resolution sends a strong message. Once again, I thank Mr. Lantos.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 444--a resolution I am proud to be a co-sponsor of--offered by my good friend Congressman Ralph Hall of Texas. H. Res. 444 is a straightforward bill which expresses the House of Representatives' support for the goals and ideals of National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, and it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death among women living in the United States. Currently, half the women diagnosed with ovarian cancer die within 5 years. This is a national tragedy, and what makes it even more tragic is the fact that many of those deaths could have been prevented if more women and their doctors knew the risk factors and recognized the early warning signs of ovarian cancer and other gynecological cancers.

When it is detected early, ovarian cancer is very treatable, unfortunately, as I mentioned, ovarian cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to diagnose because symptoms are sometimes subtle and maybe easily confused with those of other diseases. As a result, only 29 percent of ovarian cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed in the early stages. When the disease is detected before it has spread beyond the ovaries, more than 95 percent of women will survive longer than 5 years. But, in cases where the disease is not detected until it reaches the advanced stage, the 5-year survival rate plummets to a devastating 25 percent.

As there is still no reliable and easy-to-administer screening test for ovarian cancer, like the Pap smear for cervical cancer or the mammogram for breast cancer, early recognition of symptoms is dearly the best way to save a woman's live. Without increased education about ovarian cancer and recognition of women who are at higher risk for developing ovarian cancer, many women and their doctors will continue to ignore or misinterpret the symptoms of the disease.

Along with many of our colleagues, I know first-hand how terrible cancer can be and how easily this insidious disease can be misdiagnosed. I applaud Congressman Hall's tireless efforts to raise awareness of this terrible disease and I urge all of my colleagues to support this resolution.

I hope before this Congress adjourns for the year that we can follow-up this critically important legislation with a vote on Johanna's law, the Gynecologic Cancer Education Act--H.R. 1245. Johanna's law takes the logical next step by directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out a national campaign to increase the awareness and knowledge of women with respect to gynecologic cancers, which shall include: (1) Maintaining a supply of written materials to provide information to the public on gynecologic cancers; and (2) developing and placing public service announcements to encourage women to discuss their risks of gynecologic cancers with their physicians. The bill also requires the Secretary to award grants to nonprofit private entities to test different outreach and education strategies for increasing such awareness among women and health professionals.

With a national public service announcements campaign describing risk factors and symptoms and encouraging women to talk to their doctors about their risk of gynecological cancers, I am confident that we can increase early detection of these deadly cancers, and, when possible, help women reduce their risk of ever contracting them in the first place.

Any woman is at risk for developing a gynecologic cancer. We owe it to our mothers, our wives and our daughters to do all we can to both raise awareness of these terrible diseases and to fund the research necessary to stamp out this kind of cancer once and for all.

I know I get a big kick, Mr. Speaker, out of listening to my colleagues come down here and talk about the sky falling. After 9/11 we had an economic downturn and tourism suffered and all the ancillary industries suffered, airlines suffered and the economy started going down. We had scandals on Wall Street, and those scandals led to further economic problems. President Bush suggested to the Congress that the way to stimulate economic recovery and growth was the same thing that President John F. Kennedy did back in the 1960s, and that was to cut taxes. And so we cut taxes.

And because we cut taxes, there has been growth in the economy for the past several years. The unemployment rate has been down. The economy has been growing. Everything has been going well.

Now we have been hit with some other things that are very, very disconcerting. We had the Katrina hurricane, and we had another hurricane that hit Florida recently. These hurricanes are going to cost a lot of money. Some people think it will cost $60, $70, or $80 billion before it is over. It will not be the $250 billion that was talked about, but it will be around $50, $60, or $70 billion at least.

Now I would like to say to my Democrat colleagues, for whom I have great respect, to join with us in the next few days in passing a cost-savings bill, a cost-savings bill that will cut about $50 billion out of spending. That $50 billion can be used to offset some of the costs for the Katrina disaster and the other disasters we have experienced recently.

I know it is going to involve some hard decisions. I heard one of my Democrat colleagues just a few minutes ago come down and start talking about some of the programs that are going to have to be cut. And I admit there will be difficult choices to be made, but that is what we are all about around here, making difficult choices, difficult decisions. It is extremely important that we make the hard choices so we control spending and make sure we do the right things for economic growth in this country.

The way to do that is when we have this cost-savings bill come before the body in the next few days, my Democratic colleagues who are concerned about the deficit, who are concerned about spending, who are concerned about Katrina and the costs involved, join with us in this cost-savings bill to save about $50 or $60 billion in rescissions and across-the-board spending cuts. Because if you do that, we can keep this country on an even keel. So please join with us when this bill comes to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to make a comment about what you just said about the New York Times article. When you see what was said at the beginning there, written in the New York Times, you immediately feel like, well, this young man was saying, you know, this is something we should not be doing, and I am just pushing my chances. But when you read the whole article, it is clear that he thought the life that he was giving for the freedom of those people was worth it.

Mr. Speaker, he said in the last part there: "To me, that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom. Now this is my mark."

I mean, I cannot believe that there are distortions like that in the media. It makes me just cringe when young men and women pay a price like that and write to their loved ones why they are doing it and why it was so important that they made that sacrifice and then have them be mischaracterized by a newspaper that has a preconceived idea of what ought to be done over there. It really, really bothers me.

Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, my colleague, Duncan Hunter, who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, gave me this Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith of the United States Army. I was reading this and I was thinking about the sacrifices that these young men and women have made to protect people and to make sure that these people get the freedoms that we have enjoyed for so long. It says: "Sergeant First Class Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by rocket-propelled grenades and a 16-milimeter mortar rounds. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a 50-caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order

Mr. Speaker, it really bothers me when I see people come down here and start in one way, giving an offhanded compliment to our soldiers and sailors and marines who are over there fighting and say, you know, we really respect them; and then with the other hand they say, oh, we ought to get out of there right now. We ought to withdraw tomorrow. We ought to get everybody out of there, because this is a lost cause.

It is just not a lost cause. They went over there to do their duty and to stop worldwide terrorism, and this is the focal point. It is really bad that we have people in this body on the other side of the aisle, in my opinion, that say, you know, they are doing a great job and we really support them and, at the same time, the sacrifices that have been made should be for naught, we ought to just bring them home.

We are in a world war against terrorism, a world war, and this is the major battleground right now. The reason we are not being attacked in large part here in the United States, in my opinion, is because these young men and women are making these sacrifices over there, in the middle of the storm, where terrorism has its genesis, where Iran and Syria and other countries are supporting terrorism. They do not want democracy to flourish over there, because they know their days will be numbered if democracy succeeds. Our young men and women who are fighting over there are making their days numbered, in my opinion.

I would like to just make one quote from Sir Winston Churchill, when I think about my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and they start talking about how we have to get out of there right now. Sir Winston Churchill, who was one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, he said in a speech that he made entitle "We Shall Fight on the Beaches," which is very famous, he says: "Wars are not won by evacuations." You do not win by retreating.

The Iraqis now have almost 190,000 men in their armed services and their police forces over there. They are taking up more and more of the fight every single day. As soon as they become battle-ready and they can protect themselves, you are going to see us starting to bring our troops home. But we are not going to capitulate. Not under this President, we are not, and not under the majority that we have in this Congress.

Now, if the more liberal Members of this body want to cave in, if they want to assuage the enemy and pat them on the back, then that is what is going to be their legacy to this country and to this world; but I do not want to be a part of that, and I do not think my colleagues on this side of the aisle want to be a part of it either.

Let me just say one thing that is not being reported by the media that should be, and it should be reported thoroughly and fully. Things are getting better in Iraq.

There are now 196,000 Internet subscribers. There used to be almost none. Now there are 44 commercial television stations. None existed under Saddam Hussein when he buried alive up to 100,000 people and killed over 400,000 people. There are more than 100 independent newspapers and magazines and 72 commercial radio stations. None existed before under Saddam Hussein. There are now 3,404 public schools, all kinds of projects, police and fire stations, health facilities, and new reconstruction projects going on. Things are moving in the right direction, but they are not being reported by the media in this country.

So, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. I would just like to end by saying that the war against terrorism is one that we cannot and must not lose, and our fighting men and women are paying the supreme price over there right now, defending not only the rights and freedoms of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are also protecting us as well. So I would just like to say God bless them and thank each and every one of them for what they are doing.