Together with Ranking Democrat Ed Markey and the staff of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I have worked for more than a year to gather and analyze data about safety and environmental violations committed by oil and gas companies.  Our report, “Drilling Dysfunction: How the Failure to Oversee Drilling on Public Lands Endangers Health and the Environment,” has just been released, and its findings are alarming.

The report finds that from 1998 to 2011, more than two thousand violations were handed out by the U.S. Department of Interior to oil and gas companies drilling on taxpayer-owned lands.   More than 500 of these violations were classified as “major” by committee staff, including 293 violations related to non-functional blowout preventers and 113 citations for deficiencies in casing and cementing programs.

Yet the enforcement of safety rules was erratic and inconsistent, and all told, the Interior Department collected only $273,875 in fines.  That’s roughly equal to a single minute’s worth of oil company profits – the equivalent of levying a 10-cent fine against someone who earns $50,000 a year.

Can anyone seriously argue that these fines are sufficient to deter wrongdoing or that they reflect the very real risks that drilling poses to the environment and public health?

On Monday, my friend and colleague Rep. John Lewis visited Trenton to speak with area children and share stories from his remarkable life.

As you may know, Rep. Lewis was a leading light of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as an architect of and keynote speaker at the 1963 “March on Washington.”  As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he led a national wave of student activism and sit-ins – and despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, he has remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence.

During his time in Trenton, Rep. Lewis spoke movingly about one of the most crucial civil rights issues of our time:  the continued discrimination against gays and lesbians in our community who wish to marry.  In his words:

“Dr. King used to be asked when it came to the question of interracial marriage, he said, ‘Races don’t fall in love and get married, individuals fall in love and get married.’ If two men want to fall in love and get married, two women, it’s their business. It’s not the role of the federal government or the state government to intervene. It is a question of human dignity, a question of human rights. I think the day will come in New Jersey and across our country when we look back on this period and say we’re just silly. We’re just foolish. Let’s do what is right, what is fair, and what is just.”

On Wednesday, Wikipedia and hundreds of other websites participated in a one-day blackout, removing services from the internet to protest the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  On that day alone, more than 1,000 New Jerseyans contacted me to oppose the legislation.  They are right to be concerned:  as written, SOPA would undermine the security, competitiveness, and freedom of the internet.  Although the problem of online piracy – the theft of copyrighted music, movies, and writing – exists, SOPA is a poor solution.

In an unusually specific clause in our Constitution, the framers provided copyright protection for people who compose and create "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts."  In their genius they recognized that, by granting exclusive copyrights to creative individuals, the government actually could enhance creativity and communication throughout society.

Nowadays, technology has pushed down the cost of illegal copying, leading to a dramatic increase in infringement.  So what to do?  Ban photocopies?  Ban computers?  Ban the internet?  That would be foolish.  Yet SOPA veers too far toward the extreme of hampering useful technology.

Under SOPA’s extremely broad language, entire websites – such as YouTube or Wikipedia – could be removed from the internet if even one or two users posted pirated material.  The mechanism for these takedowns would compromise the internet’s infrastructure, the domain name system, in a way that would leave users more vulnerable to fraud.  Even worse, SOPA would allow copyright holders to demand punitive actions without first facing an open hearing in a court of law.  Groups as diverse as the American Library Association, Human Rights First, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Freedom House have warned against the bill’s stifling effect on the internet.

We can find a better approach to preventing theft of creative products without killing the creative process or public communication.  Existing law already enables copyright holders to demand that U.S. websites remove infringing content.  That protection could be expanded by allowing the International Trade Commission to cut off payments, after a fair and transparent process, to websites that willfully and primarily infringe on copyrighted material.  A bipartisan alternative striking this reasonable balance is making its way through Congressional committee examination.

Yesterday, I joined the nation’s top library official, Susan Hildreth of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), to visit public and school libraries in Monroe, East Brunswick, and Princeton.

America’s libraries are more widely used today than at any other point in history, with more than three quarters of Americans having visited a library in the last year.  Yet these are trying times for libraries.

Even as libraries have lost funding from towns, counties, and states, they have experienced a surge in demand due to the millions of Americans looking for jobs and finding them using library services.  In fact, an IMLS survey found that 30 million Americans used a library to address career and employment needs in 2009.  The demand is not just for computers, but also for qualified librarians who can offer guidance on how to set-up an e-mail account, use resume formats, and file an online job application or unemployment claim.

As Director Hildreth and I saw in our visits, New Jersey libraries are working hard.  In Congress I have introduced the Workforce Investments through Local Libraries (WILL) Act to integrate libraries into our job training efforts. My bill has been endorsed by the American Library Association, and I am very hopeful that it will be passed into law as Congress works to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act later this year.

The epidemic of suicides among America’s veterans is measurable in very grim numbers.  Before this day is out, 18 more veterans will have taken their own lives.  That is the daily average, it is intolerable, and it has to stop.

Fortunately, last week Congress took a stride toward ending suicide’s toll.  It approved $40 million that I had secured to support military suicide prevention efforts, including outreach through TV, print, and new media, as well as direct suicide intervention.  This represents a dramatic increase in the resources of the VA and the Pentagon for the prevention of suicide.

For years I have been deeply concerned about suicide among our veterans and active duty troops – a concern driven in part by a tragedy in New Jersey.  Sergeant Coleman Bean of East Brunswick served two combat tours in Iraq.  In between and after those tours, he sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet the help that he so desperately needed never came, and he died by suicide in September of 2008.

Even now, too many American veterans are suffering the same unbearable trauma that led Sergeant Bean to take his own life.  My hope is that this new funding will ensure that, at Christmas and throughout the year, many of their stories will end much differently – that, as Sergeant Bean’s mother Linda recently put it, they and their families will continue to “enjoy the profound and unbroken blessing of ordinary days.”

If you are a veteran who is struggling with the emotional, physical, family, or career consequences of your service, please call 1-855-VET-TALK (1-855-838-8255), 24 hours a day. The call is free, and all counselors are veterans.

About a year after SFC Scott Smith died in an explosion in Iraq in July of 2006, his wife, Lynn Smith of Frenchtown, learned that not all of his remains had been included in his funeral.  In her grief, she sought an answer from the Pentagon:  What had happened to his remains?

After years of persistent questioning, she learned from a military official that her husband’s remains had been cremated, mixed with medical waste, and unceremoniously sent to a Virginia landfill.

Earlier this year Lynn asked me to help to find out whether other soldiers had suffered her husband’s fate.  After months of delay, the Pentagon has finally revealed that at least 274 soldiers were desecrated in this way.

I suspect that the true figure is much higher.  The Pentagon tells me that counting the full number of soldiers dishonored is impractical because it would require “a massive effort.”  I am outraged.  We proudly spend tens of millions of dollars and undertake every effort to find the remains of missing soldiers, even those that have been missing in southeast Asia for decades, yet the Pentagon cannot search their files to learn what happened to the remains of Americans who died recently?

At a very minimum, Congress should hold formal hearings and condemn the Air Force's mishandling of the remains and take steps to repair the dishonor to soldiers and disrespect to families.  They also should establish an advisory panel, including families, to help prevent this sort of scandal from ever happening again.

As we seek out gifts for the children in our lives, we would hope to have confidence that the toys on store shelves are safe.  Three years ago, when toxic chemical levels were identified in toys imported from China, Congress passed legislation strengthening the protections ­enforced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, yet a new report found that unsafe products remain on store shelves.

Yesterday, I joined the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) to release their 26th annual “Trouble in Toyland” report.  The report identified specific toys with excessive levels of toxic substances like lead, cadmium, or phthalates; toys with sound levels that could harm children’s hearings; and toys with parts so small that they pose a chocking hazard.  Read their full report online.

Parents cannot be expected to test every product for lead or cadmium, but they want to know the toys that they are giving their children are safe.  They need watchdog agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as organizations like PIRG that make sure the watchdogs are on duty.

By Robert Strauss

Katherine Kish was only a little worried. It was the day after a torrential spring storm had left fallen trees and pools of mud in the area around Marquand Park on U.S. 206. Princeton Mayor Mildred Trotman and U.S. Representative Rush Holt were scheduled to participate in a dedication ceremony for Kish’s organization, Einstein’s Alley, an economic development initiative of financiers, researchers and academics that support Central Jersey tech businesses.

“It was miserable,” says Kish, “but I know Rush, and I knew he would be there.” The mayor made it, too, but as she was leaving, her car became stuck in the mud.

“Rush didn’t take a second before taking his jacket off and putting his shoulder to the car, finally helping push it out,” recalls Kish. “That says it all about Rush. Always at an event, pushing science and education any way he can—and then never being embarrassed or hesitant about getting in there and doing dirty work.”

Einstein’s Alley—an initiative inspired by Holt—is indeed up the seven-term congressman’s alley. The only physicist in Congress, he is an advocate for math and science education, biomedical research, children’s health, sustainable energy and farmland protection, as well as social causes such as human rights and women’s right to choose.

“Rush has made science cool, accessible, not geeky, just by being a sensible advocate,” says Kish. “He knows how important an understanding of science is all around the country, but especially here in New Jersey.”

Or as Holt’s campaign bumper stickers read, and as Paul Krugman, the liberal New York Times columnist and Princeton professor of economics and international affairs, proclaimed proudly in his blog: “My congressman IS a rocket scientist.”

“He is the go-to guy for science in Congress,” says Valerie Thomas, a Georgia Tech industrial engineering professor who served as a Congressional Science Fellow in Holt’s office in 2005. “There is no one who takes on those difficult issues in science in Washington like Rush.”

To read the rest of the article, please visit njmonthly.com.

On this Veterans Day, we extend our thanks as a grateful nation to the men and women who have defended our freedom.

Each of the 22 million American veterans has a unique and extraordinary story.  Today, I’d like to share one story about a remarkable veteran in our community.

Carl DeAngelis joined the Army in September of 1942, at the height of the Second World War.  His training was a time of great sorrow:  his mother died shortly after his enlistment, and Carl’s service prevented him from attending her funeral.  Yet it was also a time of surprising joys.  One day, unexpectedly, a fellow soldier pulled a photo of his sister from his wallet and showed it to Carl.  “I’m going to marry her,” Carl announced – and sure enough, after the war, he did.

Carl fought in Normandy, dodging bullets that sped just inches away from him.  Later, he served on guard duty in France, where he was assaulted one evening outside a bar.  Carl was forced to shoot in self-defense, and only later did he learn that the FBI had been seeking his assailant for a long time:  this man, Carl was told, was wanted in a series of deaths.

When the war ended, Carl came home and started a family with Flora Terranova DeAngelis, the girl in the picture, and they have been married for 65 years.  Now Carl is 90 and living in a rehabilitation home on Staten Island.  Yet even after so many decades, the story of his military service remains unfinished. Carl had earned seven medals for his faithful and dedicated service – but he never received any decorations at all.

Last night, I sponsored legislation to prevent businesses with ties to Iran from raising funds in the United States.

The radical clerics that control Iran’s government are constantly searching to get the money and goods they need to stay in power and to threaten our interests and, through their terrorist intermediaries, to threaten the interests of our ally Israel.  A bill that was brought before the House this week could, unfortunately, offer the Iranian government an opening.  The bill is intended to make credit more available to American small businesses but could inadvertently provide money to businesses with ties to the Iranian government.

My amendment sought to do only one thing:  to expand existing prohibitions against funding Iran-tied businesses to include the new small business credit program.

This seemed to me to be as simple, as straightforward, and as noncontroversial an idea as could be imagined – yet it was rejected in the House on a party-line vote.  All 187 Democrats present voted for it.  Not a single Republican voted in its favor.

How is it possible that party loyalty has come to matter more than the effort to reject state sponsors of terrorism?

You have often heard me say that the American Dream belongs to all of us.  Occupy Wall Street has, over the past month, gained the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans who seem to be saying the same thing.  They are expressing many different ideas but are united by a conviction that is impossible to deny:  that unless we act now, America will no longer be a land of equality, that our middle class will not have a fair shake, and that Washington’s policies will tilt ever more fiercely in favor of the most privileged among us.

The protestors feel in their gut that our nation is less fair and equitable than it was a generation ago, and the evidence proves them right.  Nearly 25 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed.  The typical working-age family’s earnings are no higher today than they were almost two decades ago.  And according to one study by a Federal Reserve economist, inequality has become so entrenched that a poor family would need nearly 10 generations – more than 200 years – to achieve middle-class income.

Put another way, if you are poor today, then you may reasonably hope that your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren will finally climb into the middle class.  Is that what the American Dream has come to?

Imagine a New Jersey manufacturer that, in the middle of the last century, rose to prominence as a premier supplier of vacuum tubes for hi-fi radios.  What do you suppose that company looks like today?

You’re probably picturing an industrial dinosaur, shriveling into irrelevance.  Yet that is not the story of MICRO in Somerset.  Rather than following the vacuum tube into extinction, MICRO evolved.  It plowed some of its profits into research and development, and today it employs 300 New Jerseyans to build medical devices and aerospace parts for customers all around the world. Similarly, Ranger Industries by investing in chemical research evolved from making old fashioned rubber stamps and ink pads to specially inks for the craft market and employing 70 people.

As I saw recently when I toured small and mid-sized manufacturers across central New Jersey, a common characteristic of successful companies like MICRO is investment in research.

Holt Is Longest-Serving Member with Lifetime Perfect Record

 (Washington, D.C.) – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has just announced its 2011 National Environmental Scorecard, and U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) again received a 100 percent rating, maintaining the lifetime perfect record that he has held since he began serving in Congress in 1999.Holt is the longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives to have received a 100 percent rating in each year of his service.

Dear Neighbor,

It is my honor and privilege to represent the people of Central New Jersey and to work to improve your quality of life. On this website you will find a sampling of my efforts to make the American system work on behalf of you and more than 700,000 of your neighbors. Part of the genius of the American system is that the person representing you legislatively in the national political give and take is also responsible for tending to your individual and local concerns.

The needs and concerns expressed to your Representative are as diverse as the people in these five counties, ranging from job creation to food safety, from research on diabetes to transportation efficiency, from protecting clean air to honoring our soldiers. Some of the concerns are very specific and personal, some more conceptual and global. I value our communication and need to hear from you about the issues that affect you and your family.

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (WI-04) today led a group of 44 Members of Congress in expressing disappointment in the anti-scientific decision by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to limit the availability of Plan B emergency contraception.

 Last week, Secretary Sebelius overruled career scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who had recommended that emergency contraceptives be sold over-the-counter. As the Members wrote, “Science has confirmed that the drug is safe and effective with appropriate use and health experts have demonstrated that an age restriction is unnecessary. Your decision marks the first time a Health and Human Services Secretary has overruled FDA scientists. This is a profoundly troubling outcome from an Administration that stated science should be the foundation for such decisions. As you look ahead to future decisions affecting the health of millions of women, including those relating to birth control access, we urge you to put science first.”

On Tuesday, December 6, I had the opportunity to speak with thousands of residents of central New Jersey in a telephone town hall event.  We discussed a range of issues pending before Congress, including job creation, the Veterans Administration, medical research, the environmental impact of fracking, and more.

To listen to an audio recording of our conversation, click here.

Earlier today, I was pleased to join the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group to unveil their 26th annual "Trouble in Toyland" report about toy safety.  The full report is available online.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the TRAIN Act. This misguided legislation would undermine the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to enforce the Clean Air Act and significantly limit the federal government's ability to ensure that the air we breathe is safe and pollution-free.

Mr. Speaker, nearly two-thirds of Americans say that job creation should be Washington's top priority. But no one here needs an opinion poll to learn that. I am sure all my colleagues are hearing what I hear by mail, fax, e-mail, Twitter, phone calls, Facebook, and passersby on the street. Everyone is saying, ``Congress, get on with it! Make jobs! Get America to work! Get my husband, my cousin, my daughter to work.'' And, yet again, the Republican majority in the House is playing political games--wasting time debating a senseless resolution when we could, and should, be doing the work that the American people sent us here to do: creating jobs and revitalizing our economy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the outsourcers' bill of rights.

This bill would be devastating to workers across this country and kick off a new race to the bottom. The outsourcers' bill of rights is a naked attempt to directly interfere in a pending Labor Relations Board case. Now, there is much to be said about workers' rights and the importance of protecting them; but in the short time I have, let me just say a little bit about what this means for the American economy.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act, H.R. 2218, which is a bipartisan bill to reform and strengthen the charter school program.

I recently gave the graduation speech at the Princeton Charter School, a high quality charter that opened its doors more than a decade ago and was recognized as a blue ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education in 2004. And I was pleased to see the success there. But I urged them to make sure they are well-integrated in the public school system in their community.

Madam Chair, I rise in reluctant support of this bill.

This bill is, by the conventional standards of the House, an appropriate vehicle for meeting many of the routine needs of the Intelligence Community. However, it completely fails to undertake the kind of probing, large-scale reassessment of the structure, mission, and purpose of our intelligence enterprise in a post-bin Laden era. I regret that Congress has not shown the stomach for the kind of thorough, comprehensive, and brave review of intelligence activities that was undertaken by the Church Committee in the 1970's. Given the events of the last decade, such a review is both long overdue and very badly needed. Despite my strong reservations about what this bill does not but should do, I will support this bill.

Together with Ranking Democrat Ed Markey and the staff of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I have worked for more than a year to gather and analyze data about safety and environmental violations committed by oil and gas companies.  Our report, “Drilling Dysfunction: How the Failure to Oversee Drilling on Public Lands Endangers Health and the Environment,” has just been released, and its findings are alarming.

The report finds that from 1998 to 2011, more than two thousand violations were handed out by the U.S. Department of Interior to oil and gas companies drilling on taxpayer-owned lands.   More than 500 of these violations were classified as “major” by committee staff, including 293 violations related to non-functional blowout preventers and 113 citations for deficiencies in casing and cementing programs.

Yet the enforcement of safety rules was erratic and inconsistent, and all told, the Interior Department collected only $273,875 in fines.  That’s roughly equal to a single minute’s worth of oil company profits – the equivalent of levying a 10-cent fine against someone who earns $50,000 a year.

Can anyone seriously argue that these fines are sufficient to deter wrongdoing or that they reflect the very real risks that drilling poses to the environment and public health?

On Monday, my friend and colleague Rep. John Lewis visited Trenton to speak with area children and share stories from his remarkable life.

As you may know, Rep. Lewis was a leading light of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as an architect of and keynote speaker at the 1963 “March on Washington.”  As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he led a national wave of student activism and sit-ins – and despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, he has remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence.

During his time in Trenton, Rep. Lewis spoke movingly about one of the most crucial civil rights issues of our time:  the continued discrimination against gays and lesbians in our community who wish to marry.  In his words:

“Dr. King used to be asked when it came to the question of interracial marriage, he said, ‘Races don’t fall in love and get married, individuals fall in love and get married.’ If two men want to fall in love and get married, two women, it’s their business. It’s not the role of the federal government or the state government to intervene. It is a question of human dignity, a question of human rights. I think the day will come in New Jersey and across our country when we look back on this period and say we’re just silly. We’re just foolish. Let’s do what is right, what is fair, and what is just.”

On Wednesday, Wikipedia and hundreds of other websites participated in a one-day blackout, removing services from the internet to protest the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  On that day alone, more than 1,000 New Jerseyans contacted me to oppose the legislation.  They are right to be concerned:  as written, SOPA would undermine the security, competitiveness, and freedom of the internet.  Although the problem of online piracy – the theft of copyrighted music, movies, and writing – exists, SOPA is a poor solution.

In an unusually specific clause in our Constitution, the framers provided copyright protection for people who compose and create "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts."  In their genius they recognized that, by granting exclusive copyrights to creative individuals, the government actually could enhance creativity and communication throughout society.

Nowadays, technology has pushed down the cost of illegal copying, leading to a dramatic increase in infringement.  So what to do?  Ban photocopies?  Ban computers?  Ban the internet?  That would be foolish.  Yet SOPA veers too far toward the extreme of hampering useful technology.

Under SOPA’s extremely broad language, entire websites – such as YouTube or Wikipedia – could be removed from the internet if even one or two users posted pirated material.  The mechanism for these takedowns would compromise the internet’s infrastructure, the domain name system, in a way that would leave users more vulnerable to fraud.  Even worse, SOPA would allow copyright holders to demand punitive actions without first facing an open hearing in a court of law.  Groups as diverse as the American Library Association, Human Rights First, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Freedom House have warned against the bill’s stifling effect on the internet.

We can find a better approach to preventing theft of creative products without killing the creative process or public communication.  Existing law already enables copyright holders to demand that U.S. websites remove infringing content.  That protection could be expanded by allowing the International Trade Commission to cut off payments, after a fair and transparent process, to websites that willfully and primarily infringe on copyrighted material.  A bipartisan alternative striking this reasonable balance is making its way through Congressional committee examination.

Yesterday, I joined the nation’s top library official, Susan Hildreth of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), to visit public and school libraries in Monroe, East Brunswick, and Princeton.

America’s libraries are more widely used today than at any other point in history, with more than three quarters of Americans having visited a library in the last year.  Yet these are trying times for libraries.

Even as libraries have lost funding from towns, counties, and states, they have experienced a surge in demand due to the millions of Americans looking for jobs and finding them using library services.  In fact, an IMLS survey found that 30 million Americans used a library to address career and employment needs in 2009.  The demand is not just for computers, but also for qualified librarians who can offer guidance on how to set-up an e-mail account, use resume formats, and file an online job application or unemployment claim.

As Director Hildreth and I saw in our visits, New Jersey libraries are working hard.  In Congress I have introduced the Workforce Investments through Local Libraries (WILL) Act to integrate libraries into our job training efforts. My bill has been endorsed by the American Library Association, and I am very hopeful that it will be passed into law as Congress works to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act later this year.

The epidemic of suicides among America’s veterans is measurable in very grim numbers.  Before this day is out, 18 more veterans will have taken their own lives.  That is the daily average, it is intolerable, and it has to stop.

Fortunately, last week Congress took a stride toward ending suicide’s toll.  It approved $40 million that I had secured to support military suicide prevention efforts, including outreach through TV, print, and new media, as well as direct suicide intervention.  This represents a dramatic increase in the resources of the VA and the Pentagon for the prevention of suicide.

For years I have been deeply concerned about suicide among our veterans and active duty troops – a concern driven in part by a tragedy in New Jersey.  Sergeant Coleman Bean of East Brunswick served two combat tours in Iraq.  In between and after those tours, he sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet the help that he so desperately needed never came, and he died by suicide in September of 2008.

Even now, too many American veterans are suffering the same unbearable trauma that led Sergeant Bean to take his own life.  My hope is that this new funding will ensure that, at Christmas and throughout the year, many of their stories will end much differently – that, as Sergeant Bean’s mother Linda recently put it, they and their families will continue to “enjoy the profound and unbroken blessing of ordinary days.”

If you are a veteran who is struggling with the emotional, physical, family, or career consequences of your service, please call 1-855-VET-TALK (1-855-838-8255), 24 hours a day. The call is free, and all counselors are veterans.

About a year after SFC Scott Smith died in an explosion in Iraq in July of 2006, his wife, Lynn Smith of Frenchtown, learned that not all of his remains had been included in his funeral.  In her grief, she sought an answer from the Pentagon:  What had happened to his remains?

After years of persistent questioning, she learned from a military official that her husband’s remains had been cremated, mixed with medical waste, and unceremoniously sent to a Virginia landfill.

Earlier this year Lynn asked me to help to find out whether other soldiers had suffered her husband’s fate.  After months of delay, the Pentagon has finally revealed that at least 274 soldiers were desecrated in this way.

I suspect that the true figure is much higher.  The Pentagon tells me that counting the full number of soldiers dishonored is impractical because it would require “a massive effort.”  I am outraged.  We proudly spend tens of millions of dollars and undertake every effort to find the remains of missing soldiers, even those that have been missing in southeast Asia for decades, yet the Pentagon cannot search their files to learn what happened to the remains of Americans who died recently?

At a very minimum, Congress should hold formal hearings and condemn the Air Force's mishandling of the remains and take steps to repair the dishonor to soldiers and disrespect to families.  They also should establish an advisory panel, including families, to help prevent this sort of scandal from ever happening again.

As we seek out gifts for the children in our lives, we would hope to have confidence that the toys on store shelves are safe.  Three years ago, when toxic chemical levels were identified in toys imported from China, Congress passed legislation strengthening the protections ­enforced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, yet a new report found that unsafe products remain on store shelves.

Yesterday, I joined the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) to release their 26th annual “Trouble in Toyland” report.  The report identified specific toys with excessive levels of toxic substances like lead, cadmium, or phthalates; toys with sound levels that could harm children’s hearings; and toys with parts so small that they pose a chocking hazard.  Read their full report online.

Parents cannot be expected to test every product for lead or cadmium, but they want to know the toys that they are giving their children are safe.  They need watchdog agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as organizations like PIRG that make sure the watchdogs are on duty.

On this Veterans Day, we extend our thanks as a grateful nation to the men and women who have defended our freedom.

Each of the 22 million American veterans has a unique and extraordinary story.  Today, I’d like to share one story about a remarkable veteran in our community.

Carl DeAngelis joined the Army in September of 1942, at the height of the Second World War.  His training was a time of great sorrow:  his mother died shortly after his enlistment, and Carl’s service prevented him from attending her funeral.  Yet it was also a time of surprising joys.  One day, unexpectedly, a fellow soldier pulled a photo of his sister from his wallet and showed it to Carl.  “I’m going to marry her,” Carl announced – and sure enough, after the war, he did.

Carl fought in Normandy, dodging bullets that sped just inches away from him.  Later, he served on guard duty in France, where he was assaulted one evening outside a bar.  Carl was forced to shoot in self-defense, and only later did he learn that the FBI had been seeking his assailant for a long time:  this man, Carl was told, was wanted in a series of deaths.

When the war ended, Carl came home and started a family with Flora Terranova DeAngelis, the girl in the picture, and they have been married for 65 years.  Now Carl is 90 and living in a rehabilitation home on Staten Island.  Yet even after so many decades, the story of his military service remains unfinished. Carl had earned seven medals for his faithful and dedicated service – but he never received any decorations at all.

Last night, I sponsored legislation to prevent businesses with ties to Iran from raising funds in the United States.

The radical clerics that control Iran’s government are constantly searching to get the money and goods they need to stay in power and to threaten our interests and, through their terrorist intermediaries, to threaten the interests of our ally Israel.  A bill that was brought before the House this week could, unfortunately, offer the Iranian government an opening.  The bill is intended to make credit more available to American small businesses but could inadvertently provide money to businesses with ties to the Iranian government.

My amendment sought to do only one thing:  to expand existing prohibitions against funding Iran-tied businesses to include the new small business credit program.

This seemed to me to be as simple, as straightforward, and as noncontroversial an idea as could be imagined – yet it was rejected in the House on a party-line vote.  All 187 Democrats present voted for it.  Not a single Republican voted in its favor.

How is it possible that party loyalty has come to matter more than the effort to reject state sponsors of terrorism?

You have often heard me say that the American Dream belongs to all of us.  Occupy Wall Street has, over the past month, gained the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans who seem to be saying the same thing.  They are expressing many different ideas but are united by a conviction that is impossible to deny:  that unless we act now, America will no longer be a land of equality, that our middle class will not have a fair shake, and that Washington’s policies will tilt ever more fiercely in favor of the most privileged among us.

The protestors feel in their gut that our nation is less fair and equitable than it was a generation ago, and the evidence proves them right.  Nearly 25 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed.  The typical working-age family’s earnings are no higher today than they were almost two decades ago.  And according to one study by a Federal Reserve economist, inequality has become so entrenched that a poor family would need nearly 10 generations – more than 200 years – to achieve middle-class income.

Put another way, if you are poor today, then you may reasonably hope that your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren will finally climb into the middle class.  Is that what the American Dream has come to?