The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SUNSET MEMORIAL” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1452-E1454 on July 14, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUNSET MEMORIAL
______
HON. TRENT FRANKS
of arizona
in the house of representatives
Monday, July 14, 2008
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Madam Speaker, I stand once again before this House with yet other Sunset Memorial.
It is July 14, 2008, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, and before the sun set today in America, almost 4,000 more defenseless unborn children were killed by abortion on demand. That's just today, Madam Speaker. That's more than the number of innocent lives lost on September 11 in this country, only it happens every day.
It has now been exactly 12,957 days since the tragedy called Roe v. Wade was first handed down. Since then, the very foundation of this Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 50 million of its own children. Some of them, Madam Speaker, cried and screamed as they died, but because it was amniotic fluid passing over the vocal cords instead of air, we couldn't hear them.
All of them had at least four things in common. First, they were each just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone, and each one of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each one of their mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never be quite the same. And all the gifts that these children might have brought to humanity are now lost forever. Yet even in the glare of such tragedy, this generation still clings to a blind, invincible ignorance while history repeats itself and our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless of all victims, those yet unborn.
Madam Speaker, perhaps it's time for those of us in this Chamber to remind ourselves of why we are really all here. Thomas Jefferson said,
``The care of human life and its happiness and not its destruction is the chief and only object of good government.'' The phrase in the 14th Amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It says, ``No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.'' Madam Speaker, protecting the lives of our innocent citizens and their constitutional rights is why we are all here.
The bedrock foundation of this Republic is the clarion declaration of the self-evident truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every conflict and battle our Nation has ever faced can be traced to our commitment to this core, self-evident truth.
It has made us the beacon of hope for the entire world. Madam Speaker, it is who we are.
And yet today another day has passed, and we in this body have failed again to honor that foundational commitment. We have failed our sworn oath and our God-given responsibility as we broke faith with nearly 4,000 more innocent American babies who died today without the protection we should have given them.
So Madam Speaker, let me conclude this Sunset Memorial in the hope that perhaps someone new who heard it tonight will finally embrace the truth that abortion really does kill little babies; that it hurts mothers in ways that we can never express; and that 12,957 days spent killing nearly 50 million unborn children in America is enough; and that it is time that we stood up together again, and remembered that we are the same America that rejected human slavery and marched into Europe to arrest the Nazi Holocaust; and we are still courageous and compassionate enough to find a better way for mothers and their unborn babies than abortion on demand.
Madam Speaker, as we consider the plight of unborn America tonight, may we each remind ourselves that our own days in this sunshine of life are also numbered and that all too soon each one of us will walk from these Chambers for the very last time.
And if it should be that this Congress is allowed to convene on yet another day to come, may that be the day when we finally hear the cries of innocent unborn children. May that be the day when we find the humanity, the courage, and the will to embrace together our human and our constitutional duty to protect these, the least of our tiny, little American brothers and sisters from this murderous scourge upon our Nation called ``abortion on demand.''
It is July 14, 2008, 12,957 days since Roe versus Wade first stained the foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own children; this in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Title IV of Senate Resolution 4, agreed to by the Senate on February 4, 1977, calls for establishment of a system for a computerized schedule of all meetings and hearings of Senate committees, subcommittees, joint committees, and committees of conference. This title requires all such committees to notify the Office of the Senate Daily Digest--designated by the Rules committee--of the time, place, and purpose of the meetings, when scheduled, and any cancellations or changes in the meetings as they occur.
As an additional procedure along with the computerization of this information, the Office of the Senate Daily Digest will prepare this information for printing in the Extensions of Remarks section of the Congressional Record on Monday and Wednesday of each week.
Meetings scheduled for Tuesday, July 15, 2008 may be found in the Daily Digest of today's Record.
MEETINGS SCHEDULED
JULY 1610 a.m.
Environment and Public Works
Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's licensing and relicensing processes for nuclear power plants.
SD-406
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
To hold hearings to examine global nuclear detection architecture, focusing on ways to build domestic defenses to combat a possible future attack.
SD-342
Judiciary
To hold hearings to examine the Administration's detainee policies and the fight against terrorism, focusing on sound legal foundations.
SD-226
Rules and Administration
To hold hearings to examine administrative and management operations of the United States Capitol Police.
SR-30110:30 a.m.
Aging
To hold hearings to examine smart ways Americans can save for their retirement.
SD-56211 a.m.
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
To hold hearings to examine racism in the 21st century, focusing on understanding global challenges and implementing solutions.
B318, Rayburn Building2 p.m.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine the human capital crisis at the Department of State, focusing on its global implications.
SD-3422:30 p.m.
Armed Services
To receive a closed briefing on the status of negotiations with Iraq on a strategic framework agreement and a status of forces agreement.
SR-222
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Children and Families Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine childhood obesity, focusing on declining health of America's next generation (Part
I).
SD-430
Foreign Relations
To hold closed hearings to examine North Korea's declaration of the Six-Party Talks.
S-407, Capitol
Energy and Natural Resources
Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine S. 2354, to direct the
Secretary of the Interior to convey 4 parcels of land from the Bureau of Land Management to the city of Twin
Falls, Idaho, S. 3065, to establish the Dominguez-
Escalante National Conservation Area and the Dominguez
Canyon Wilderness Area, S. 3069, to designate certain land as wilderness in the State of California, S. 3085, to require the Secretary of the Interior to establish a cooperative watershed management program, H.R. 3473, to provide for a land exchange with the City of Bountiful,
Utah, involving National Forest System land in the
Wasatch-Cache National Forest and to further land ownership consolidation in that national forest, H.R.
3490, to transfer administrative jurisdiction of certain Federal lands from the Bureau of Land
Management to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to take such lands into trust for Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk
Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria, H.R. 3651, to require the conveyance of certain public land within the boundaries of Camp Williams, Utah, to support the training and readiness of the Utah National Guard, H.R.
2632, to establish the Sabinoso Wilderness Area in San
Miguel County, New Mexico, and S. 2448, to amend the
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to make certain technical corrections.
SD-366
JULY 179:30 a.m.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Investigations Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine financial institutions located in offshore tax havens, focusing on ways to strengthen United States domestic and international tax enforcement efforts.
SD-10610 a.m.
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Business meeting to markup an original bill entitled,
``The Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and
Divestment Act of 2008.''.
SD-538
Finance
To hold hearings to examine leveraging innovation to improve health care quality for all Americans.
SD-215
Indian Affairs
To hold an oversight hearing to examine tracking sex offenders in Indian country, focusing on tribal implementation of the Adam Walsh Act (Public Law 109-
248).
SD-56210:30 a.m.
Environment and Public Works
To hold hearings to examine ways to make the nation's highways safer for travelers.
SD-40811:30 a.m.
Judiciary
Business meeting to consider S. 3155, to reauthorize and improve the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act of 1974, S. 2746, to amend section 552(b)(3) of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act) to provide that statutory exemptions to the disclosure requirements of that Act shall specifically cite to the provision of that Act authorizing such exemptions, to ensure an open and deliberative process in Congress by providing for related legislative proposals to explicitly state such required citations, S. 3061, to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2008 through 2011 for the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, to enhance measures to combat trafficking in persons, S.
2838, to amend chapter 1 of title 9 of United States
Code with respect to arbitration, S. 3136, to encourage the entry of felony warrants into the NCIC database by
States and provide additional resources for extradition, S. 1276, to establish a grant program to facilitate the creation of methamphetamine precursor electronic logbook systems, and S. 3197, to amend title
11, United States Code, to exempt for a limited period, from the application of the means-test presumption of abuse under chapter 7, qualifying members of reserve components of the Armed Forces and members of the
National Guard who, after September 11, 2001, are called to active duty or to perform a homeland defense activity for not less than 90 days.
SD-2262 p.m.
Appropriations
Business meeting to markup proposed legislation making appropriations for the Departments of State, Foreign
Operations and Related Programs, Agriculture, Rural
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related
Agencies, and Military Construction and Veterans
Affairs, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009.
SR-3252:30 p.m.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Disaster Recovery Subcommittee
To hold hearings to examine major disaster recovery assessing the performance of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) since October 2007.
SD-342
Foreign Relations
To hold hearings to examine the nominations of Mimi
Alemayehou, of the District of Columbia, to be United
States Director of the African Development Bank,
Kenneth L. Peel, of Maryland, to be United States
Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, and Miguel R. San Juan, of Texas, to be
United States Executive Director of the Inter-American
Development Bank.
SD-419
JULY 229:30 a.m.
Armed Services
To hold hearings to examine the nominations of Michael
Bruce Donley, of Virginia, to be Secretary, General
Norton A. Schwartz, for reappointment to the grade of general and to be Chief of Staff, and General Duncan J.
McNabb, for reappointment to the grade of general and to be Commander, United States Transportation Command, all of the United States Air Force.
SR-32510 a.m.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
To hold hearings to examine ways for America to gain energy security.
SD-342
JULY 239:30 a.m.
Veterans' Affairs
To hold an oversight hearing to examine the Department of
Veterans Affairs, focusing on responding to the needs of returning United States Guard and Reserve members.
SR-418
