To date, nearly 100,000 Hispanics have died with AIDS. Since Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the United States, our challenge is even greater.

Small businesses drive this economy and it is unacceptable that the President's budget proposal does not give them the tools they need to be successful.

For my constituents, owning a home is the culmination of many years of hard work and the realization of the American Dream. At no time should a local entity take those years of hard work solely to increase their tax revenue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Peace Corps as it reached its 45th anniversary on March 1, 2006.

Over the last five years, the Administration and the majority in Congress have appropriated less than $900 million for port security grants - despite the Coast Guard's determination that $5.4 billion is needed over 10 years.

Education should be one of our top funding priorities; talking about it does not help the teachers and students who desperately need promises fulfilled.

Teachers are our greatest public servants; they spend their lives educating our young people and shaping our Nation for tomorrow.