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.
“PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S3049-S3051 on May 17, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS
The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:
POM-11. A resolution adopted by the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois urging Congress to vote against the F-35 alternate engine appropriations measure; to the Committee on Armed Services.
House Resolution No. 73
Whereas, the federal government, now more than ever, needs to eliminate wasteful spending programs from its budget; and
Whereas, the federal deficit recently hit $13.5 trillion; and
Whereas, the Department of Defense will spend $708 billion on defense spending in the 2011 fiscal year for both base defense programs and overseas contingency operations to promote the safety and welfare of our nation; and
Whereas, Congress has planned to appropriate $465 million for an alternate GE F136 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in the Defense Appropriations Bill; and
Whereas, the Department of Defense has already contracted the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, which has gone through multiple series of testing and development; and
Whereas, no military aircraft in the past three decades has been procured with multiple engine suppliers; and
Whereas, developing the alternate engine would cost $2.9 billion dollars over the next two to three years; and
Whereas, having multiple engine suppliers will require additional spending for two sets of parts, two production and maintenance lines, and additional personnel and training, which will lead to the production of fewer Joint Strike Fighter planes; and
Whereas, President Barack Obama, with urging from military officials and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, vows to veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the alternate engine appropriation is included in the bill; and
Whereas, defense spending can be used more efficiently for more vital military programs; therefore, be it
Resolved, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Seventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That we encourage the members of the Illinois congressional delegation to vote against the F-35 alternate engine appropriations measure; and be it further
Resolved, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to President Barack Obama, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, and the members of the Illinois congressional delegation.
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POM-l2. A resolution adopted by the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois urging Congress to enact legislation that creates a mortgage foreclosure moratorium; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
House Resolution No. 10
Whereas, the mortgage foreclosure crisis deepened after it was disclosed that several large home mortgage lenders utilized procedures that were legally insufficient to support foreclosures; and
Whereas, after problems were revealed about the manner in which foreclosure affidavits were processed, the uncertainty about the true ownership of mortgages, and the questionable legal standing of the entities that initiated foreclosure proceedings, 2 of the nation's largest residential lenders announced that they were each beginning a self-imposed mortgage foreclosure moratorium; and
Whereas, although this crisis has its origins in numerous events, practices, and policy decisions, a central element of the foreclosure problem is the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), an electronic registry of land records which was created in 1998 by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and several large U.S. banks; and
Whereas, today MERS is listed as the agent for mortgage lenders on documents for 65 million home loans, which represent about 60% of the mortgages in the United States, and is the agent for about 97% of the home mortgages created between 2005 and 2008; and
Whereas, although MERS boasts on its Web site that it
``simplifies the way mortgage ownership and servicing rights are originated, sold and tracked'' which ``eliminates the need to prepare and record assignments when trading residential and commercial mortgage loans'', housing counselors and advocates have documented patterns of abuse and fraud by mortgage servicers that utilized MERS; and
Whereas, joining MERS at the center of the foreclosure crisis is the practice of ``robo-signing'', the process of generating thousands of affidavits often by unskilled and unqualified employees who neither read nor certified the underlying documents, which are used to obtain summary judgments in foreclosure proceedings; and
Whereas, since a large volume of mortgages were digitized, there have been countless instances of original promissory notes being lost or misplaced; in lieu of producing the original promissory notes in the foreclosure proceedings, servicers simply provided ``robo-signed'' affidavits that state that the loan servicers own the notes; and
Whereas, court records in mortgage foreclosure cases have documented egregious examples of: falsified documents; ``fee padding''; misapplication of mortgage payments; and improper, unnecessarily expensive insurance assessments, which, in turn, precipitated defaults on otherwise up-to-date loans and wholly improper mortgage foreclosures; and
Whereas, the effect of all of these problems and the resulting consumer confusion cry out for a nationwide moratorium on pending and new mortgage foreclosures; therefore, be it
Resolved, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Seventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That we urge Congress to enact legislation that creates a mortgage foreclosure moratorium to allow a thorough review of foreclosure actions, provide meaningful opportunities for homeowners to renegotiate their mortgages so as to avoid foreclosure, enact further reforms, and allow the entire housing market to return to normalcy; and be it further
Resolved, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to President Barack Obama, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, and each member of the Illinois congressional delegation.
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POM-13. A resolution adopted by the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois urging Congress to enact legislation relative to compelling lending institutions to provide mortgagors modifications to home loans before foreclosing on residential properties; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
House Resolution No. 45
Whereas, the United States continues to experience an unprecedented number of mortgage foreclosures and these, in turn, have contributed to a real estate market that has declined in a precipitous fashion; and
Whereas, when a residential mortgagor defaults on his or her mortgage, it is common for the lending institution involved to obtain the property back from the mortgagor by way of receiving a deed in lieu of foreclosure or by foreclosing and then purchasing the property at a foreclosure judicial sale; and
Whereas, in recent years, it is not unusual for a lending institution to have a large inventory of foreclosed properties and this has often led to a lending institution repeatedly resorting to selling a foreclosed property at a
``short sale'' price, which means that the sale price for the individual home is significantly less than the mortgagor's purchase price or even the amount of the mortgagor's outstanding loan at the time of the foreclosure; and
Whereas, the credit rating of a person whose home has been foreclosed is often very low and this means that even if the person could afford a more modestly priced property than the foreclosed home, the former homeowner is unable to qualify for a loan under today's standards; and
Whereas, if a lending institution that expects to sell a foreclosed residential property at a ``short sale'' price were compelled to offer to the mortgagor modifications in the terms of the mortgagor's home mortgage loan, the mortgagor would, in many cases, be able to afford the home under the modified loan terms and remain in his or her home; in that case, the lending institution would avoid adding to its foreclosed properties inventory, the residential mortgagor might be able to remain in his or her home, the real estate market would be improved because fewer ``short sale'' properties would be depressing home prices on the market, neighborhood blight and crime would be reduced due to the decline in empty and vandalized homes, and all of these circumstances would tend to stem the tide of neighborhood deterioration that is due to the large number of foreclosures and vacancies; therefore, be it
Resolved, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Seventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, That we urge Congress to pass legislation that would compel any lending institution, before foreclosing on a residential property occupied by a mortgagor, to provide the mortgagor with modifications to the home loan that are reasonable for the mortgagor and that include, but are not limited to, an interest rate reduction, a term extension, or other changes to the elements of the home loan, provided that the homeowner is interested in remaining in the home and qualified for the modified loan terms; and be it further
Resolved, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to President Barack Obama, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, and each member of the Illinois congressional delegation.
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POM-14. A joint memorial adopted by the Legislature of the State of Washington relative to public access to the upper Stehekin Valley within the North Cascades National Park; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Substitute Senate Joint Memorial 8004
Whereas, The United States Department of the Interior manages one-fifth of the land of the United States and offers unparalleled recreational opportunities throughout the nation, affirming the nation's intent to set aside certain areas of outstanding scenic and scientific value for the employment of present and future generations; and
Whereas, the National Park Service is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior and manages the 394 units of the national park system. Annually, more than 500 million people visit the national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges, and recreational sites; and
Whereas, Tourism is an important component of the Washington state economy and is sustained, in part, by our national parks and forests, including Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, and the Olympic National Park; and
Whereas, National parks provide significant economic benefits to local communities, many of which are almost solely dependent upon visitors to these parks; and
Whereas, the North Cascades National, Park honors Washington state's natural and cultural heritage and provides valuable educational and recreational opportunities for our citizens; and
Whereas, the primitive road to Cottonwood Camp was built over 100 years ago in the late 1800s and existed prior to the creation of the North Cascades National Park in 1968 and the Washington Parks Wilderness Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-668); and
Whereas, The road leading to Cottonwood Camp provides revered access to exceptional day hikes and fishing opportunities in the upper Stehekin Valley by the residents of eastern Washington, as well as for many people across this state and beyond; and
Whereas, the National Park Service developed a shuttle system utilizing this primitive road corridor to facilitate more than 2,500 people per year access to the upper Stehekin Valley from eastern Washington; and
Whereas, the upper portion of the road between Car Wash Falls and Cottonwood Camp has been closed for many years due to historical flooding events of the Stehekin river in two key areas, destroying a critical link for hikers, horseback riders, and other recreationalists between the Lake Chelan National Recreation area, the Stephen Mather Wilderness trailheads, and the North Cascades National Park; and
Whereas, the closure of this primitive road has restricted access for the old and young alike to witness the grandeur of this special place in a day hike from eastern Washington; and
Whereas, allowing the National park Service to relocate and rebuild the upper Stehekin Valley Road on higher ground with no net loss of acreage to the park or the Wilderness would preserve the park's existing use as identified in the 1988 Washington Wilderness Act and would mitigate the negative environmental impact of the road washing out;
Now, therefore, Your Memorialists respectively pray that the United States Congress, the United States Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service work cooperatively with Washington state to ensure that all citizens have the continued opportunity to access the upper Stehekin Valley within the North Cascades National Park by reestablishing this primitive road to keep this essential recreational access corridor open: Be it
Resolved, that copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior, the Director of the National Park Service, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.
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POM-15. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the State of New Jersey urging Congress to create a post-deployment assistance program for veterans at Fort Monmouth; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Senate Resolution No. 82
Whereas, since October 2001 approximately 1,600,000 Americans have been deployed for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom; and
Whereas, for the first time since the Vietnam War, American troops have been engaged in protracted and sustained ground combat and are under a continuous threat of insurgent attacks; and
Whereas, since the deployment of military personnel after September 11, 2001, 5,602 Americans have rendered the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedoms and 38,899 Americans have been wounded in combat as of July 22, 2010; and
Whereas, countless American soldiers have returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the horrifying and life-threatening experiences they endured during deployment; and
Whereas, post-traumatic stress disorder can lead to suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, marital problems, anger management issues, violent behavior, insomnia, employment problems, and even criminal behavior; and
Whereas, the impact of deployment to a combat zone is not limited to the soldier, but can also have serious psychological ramifications for the soldier's spouse and children; and
Whereas, our nation is forever indebted to our veterans and their families for the tremendous sacrifices they have made to protect the freedoms that all Americans enjoy, and therefore it is our national responsibility to care for veterans and their family members who suffer from psychological conditions caused by deployment to a combat zone; and
Whereas, for over sixty years, the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School at Fort Monmouth has trained some of America's bravest men and women for a life of service and dedication to our country; and
Whereas, based upon the recommendations of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission of 2005, the Department of Defense has declared that the military facility at Fort Monmouth, including the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School, is in surplus to federal needs and will be closed in 2011; and
Whereas, the school is an ideal place to house a federally funded program designed to assist veterans with post-deployment issues and provide them with the proper psychiatric, psychological, medical and social care that they so clearly deserve; and
Whereas, local veteran groups, such as Veterans Helping Veterans, are the ideal types of organizations to administer this program because of their similar experiences and their unique understanding of the stress and trauma caused by deployment to a combat zone: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, by the Senate of the State of New Jersey:
1. The United States Congress and Department of Defense are respectfully urged to create a federally funded program that provides post-deployment assistance for veterans at the current U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School facility at Fort Monmouth.
2. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution, signed by the President of the Senate and attested by the Secretary of the Senate, shall be transmitted to the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, every member of Congress elected from this State, and the Secretary of Defense.
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POM-16. A resolution adopted by the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution relative to designating a permanent national memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring World War I service; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
POM-17. A resolution adopted by the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution relative to a proposed Constitutional amendment giving Congress the power to protect the flag of the United States; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
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