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Restoring Privacy to Young People
For Immediate Release - Thursday, March 17, 2005

Good afternoon, I'm Jim McDermott and I represent Seattle. Let me be clear. I own styling gel, but I left it home today. And before I had white hair, I sported a look not all that dissimilar from those here today.

Let me recognize my good friend and colleague Pete Stark, who represents Freemont, California.

I also want to introduce some very interesting young men from Pittsburgh. They are Justin Sane, Chris #2, Chris Head and Pat Thetic. I first met this Punk band- Anti Flag- last fall when they led a nationwide drive to get young people registered to vote.

If you want to know why voter turnout among young people last November was so large, these people are a big part of the reason. The future belongs to them and they are taking charge of it, and not a moment too soon the way things are going around here.

Pete and I are veterans. I served in the U.S. Navy and Pete in the United States Air Force. We support our soldiers. Don't let anyone mislead you into thinking otherwise.

We're here today to call attention to something that has no place in a free society and no place in a volunteer army. Under a provision buried in the No Child Left Behind law, military recruiters have access to private student information.

High schools across America are drug-free, alcohol-free and weapons-free; they should also be military-free. Every branch of the military has a multi-million dollar advertising budget; there's plenty of money and plenty of access without invading privacy.

When they are not doing concerts, Justin Sane and Pat Thetic are writing op-ed pieces that are appearing in major newspapers across the country.

Recently, Justin Sane wrote in an op-ed, "It's no secret that military recruitment is down, retention is down and U.S. forces are spread paper-thin."