would late behr elected as a texas state senator. in 1980, he was elected to the united states congress to represent the fourth district of texas, where he has represented that district with distinction. one of the things, you ever traveled in ralph's district and stop at the 7-eleven or place to get a little gas and mention the name ralph hall, people's faces light up. i bet everybody in rock wall county has met ralph hall in fact, probably everybody in ralph's district has met ralph. because one of the things he was diligent about doing was making sure people in his district felt represented. since his election, he's worked tirelessly here in congress on a number of issues and i had the honor and privilege to serve on the house science, space, and technology committee with ralph, and one of the things i appreciated most about ralph, and i think most of us appreciated is ralph's sense of humor. that didn't stop him from asking

very direct and grilling questions of witnesses that would come before our committee. sometimes there would be a tense moment. but ralph always had something funny or a story to tell that broke the ice. you've seen a number of members of the texas delegation here today, particularly the republican delegation and every thursday, we have lunch together. talk about what's good for texas. but what was always a thing that we always looked forward to, we couldn't wait until ralph got there so that we could -- ralph could share a funny story. and you know, one of the things that i'll miss most about ralph is those times when he'd be on the floor or he would be at lunch, sharing those stories. now one of the things about ralph is that as he got older, he got wiser. and in fact he, got so wise, in 2004, he realized he needed to be a part of the republican party and so he switched from the democratic party to the republican party. we were so glad to welcome him

to that. so as i said, it's been an honor and a privilege, ralph, to be part of your team on the science, space and technology committee. it's been a great honor to be one of your colleagues, but more importantly, ralph, we want to thank you for your friendship and kinship and most importantly your service to this great nation and to the state of texas. so with that, we say, ralph, job well done, god bless you and we ook forward to seing you soon. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from lubbock. i now recognize the congressman from the 25th district of texas, mr. roger williams. under the newest configuration, he's the only congressman represent that district. they must love him. mr. williams: i'm honored to stand here today and say a few

words about our most treasured friend, mentor, and leader, ralph hall. his service to country and his fellow man are full of victories as we have heard and hailts -- highlight taos numerous to count. he flew planes in world war ii. once the next congress convenes, we'll misthe only two remaining world war ii veterans in congress, also including congressman dingell. ralph hall has an appreciation for america that few of us can understand. he understands sacrifice. he understands service. he understands putting one's self aside for the greater good. he's always been an accomplished businessman, having served in a number of executive roles in the private sector. he brought his business savvy to congress, which contributed to him being one of the most respected and well-liked members we've had. his ability to bring humor was not just to get a laugh but

bringing different viewpoints together ralph has served north texas well and deserves recognition for his accomplishments. i am grateful to have served with my friend and patriot whose leadership, spirit, and statesmanship will be greatly missed. i wish him the best as he continues to serve texas, america, and his community back home. i will always pray for ralph and his family. i yield back. mr. barton: thank you, congressman. we would now like to recognize the congressman from the firth congressional district, deep east texas, soft spoken congressman louie gohmert. mr. gohmert spst it is an honor to be here honoring ralph hall. he has been my congressman for many years and in fact after being on the bench for -- mr. gome effort:. -- mr. gohmert: it is an honor to be here honoring ralph hall.

he has been my congressman for many years. and in fact after being on the bench, i thought i should legislate, wouldn't do it from the bench. i talked to him and told him as long as he was my congressman i had no need to run because he would represent me well. then we had redistricting in 2003 and it opened up a different district. but i felt that way then. if he had stayed my congressman, i'd never had a need to run, so some may wish we didn't have redistricting. as i hear people talk about his age, i think about ralph saying that when he turned 90, somebody on his staff said, congressman hall, would you rather we didn't mention to people that you're 90? and he said, no, i'm fine with that. i'd a lot rather you say, he's 90, than doesn't he look natural? and having been with ralph

yesterday, there in rockwall, as he's going through rehab, actually he, doesn't look natural at all he looks great. and just look forward to the days when he's fully out of the wheelchair and that rod in his leg is not bothering him as much as it is now. we miss him very much. and he did provide me a quote too, that struck him, having been chairman of the science committee. he said, and this is a quote ralph sent, we are reminded of the responsibility given to us by the scripture engraved on the hearing room wall of the science committee from proverbs 29:18, where there is no vision, the people perish. ralph's eyesight was 20/20. he could see where we've been. he could see where we were going. and it was an honor and pleasure and real privilege to serve with my friend ralph hall.

i yield back. mr. barton: i thank congressman gohmert. i'd now like to recognize the gentlelady who represents part of dallas county, the honorable eddie bernice johnson who comes from the same hometown i do, waco, texas. ms. johnson: thank you very much. i'm delighted to join you in saying some words about ralph hall, my friend. it has been my honor and privilege to serve with my colleague and friend and we had some laughs just recently when i visited him about our history nd working together in elected office. our relationship goes back to when i was in the texas house and i left the texas house in the 1970's. talking about things that we remember. i really regret that he's not here today, but he wanted to be and he planned to be, but he's not going to make it today.

but as all of you who have had the pleasure of serving with ralph, we are missing out -- as all of you have had the pleasure of serving with ralph, we are missing out on stories and jokes, some of them really funny and some can't be said in some places. so i won't try to match him in story telling but i'm going to tell you a little story that happened when ralph switched parties. called him and called him and called him and called him, and i couldn't get through, nor did he return my calls, until i finally said, well just tell him i still love him, i don't care what party he's in. so 30 seconds later, he returned my call. and he said, i just couldn't take another bawling out from a woman. he said, i've gotten it from my sister, i've gotten it from my wife. i said, but you know what,

probably no one understands more than i do, because i've been watching your numbers. it never interfered with our relationship. when he was chair of the science, space, and technology committee, two of the years he was chair, i was ranking member. he never hesitated to reach across the aisle to try to reach consensus. and really, the kind of spirit we need now, and i will miss him for that. i will miss him because of the history we both shared. our districts used to come right next to each other, now there are a couple that come between us, but it won't divide our friendship and i look forward to our continued friendship for many years to come. i have learned so much from him. i remember when i first came, he was the person who taught me how to make arrangements to go home every week with the airline that we use and also taught me how to find rooms -- how to find routes

and shortcuts how to get where you're going on this hill, which is complicated when you first get here. he will be missed. the space exploration program will be forever grateful to him. the science committee research and all of its -- and all it stands for will always have a part of his history -- a part of its history, ralph hall. i appreciate the opportunity to have had a chance to work with him, to know him and his family, and to wish him well. thank you. mr. barton: we now want to recognize the congressman from fort bend county, sugarland, texas, a navy pilot himself, as ralph hall was in world war ii, he honorable pete olson.

the gentleman's time is expired. mr. olson: mr. speaker, i thank my friend for that kind introduction. may 3, 1923.

ralph hall is born in fate, texas. there could not be in the whole world a better name to describe a man's life than being born in fate, texas. fate touched ralph in many ways. ralph as a young man in rockwall, texas, pumping gas as a teenager, guess who drove up and bought gas from my friend, ralph hall? bonnie and clyde. the gangsters. yes, sir, i yield my friend.

mr. barton: i have repeatedly asked him to prove that and he has absolutely failed system of that is an urban myth of the fourth congressional district. mr. olson: reclaiming time, my didn't aid, we saw him, know who they were, he got a quarter, a huge tip. the paper was there right beside the door he, saw this man and this woman, he pumped gas for hose two felons. he told his boss and they called the sheriff, the sheriff said, thank you so much for calling, i've got a call about two stray dogs, once i catch those dogs, i'll go after bonnie and clyde. fate and ralph hall. ut fate didn't stop there.

as was mentioned, ralph was a naval aviator, a pilot, in world war ii. he did flight training in pensacola, florida. he was there with the marines. a guy named ted williams. batted .403 in 1941. mr. barton: would the gentleman yield on that point? while the bonnie and clyde story is more fiction than fact, ralph would have had -- ralph would have been pumping gas at the ripe old age of 8 or 9 years old for that to be true, the ted williams story is fact and it is true. mr. olson: i thank my friend. the point is, ralph nose ted is

there. baseball game against army. i'll take all their paychecks. i got ted williams. then david comes, knocks on ted's door. he had some fishing gear. let's go fishing. ralph tried to stop him. ted, ted, i've told my wife i'm coming home with a big paycheck. i bet my whole paycheck on this game. ralph held the fence up so ted williams could go awol. maybe he lost the game and ralph had a rough night at home with mary ellen. fate touched ralph hall one more time. as a chairman of the nasa committee here in congress,

ralph hall and his friends were great americans. this picture shows the greatest. a man right there named neil armstrong. the first american to walk on the moon. colonel tom stafford, another apollo restaurant. right by the microphone there, captain gene. went to the moon twice on apollo -- apollo 10 and apollo 17. fate touched ralph hall's life. fate touched our lives by giving ralph hall to us. he is america's best. he's texas' best. ralph, we love you. god bless you. fair winds and following seas.

mr. barton: i thank the gentleman from sugar land. , mr. ecognize mr. green green. mr. green: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm not so sure about a noted texas landmark but i want to thank you for asking and scheduling this special order for our good friend, ralph hall. i rise to pay tribute to a great american who dedicated his life to protecting and serving our nation in the great state of texas, representative ralph hall, a true gentleman. ralph began his commitment to service second decades ago when he joined the united states navy. served as an aircraft carrier pilot in world war ii, returning to texas after the war, ralph became -- began private law practice in rockwall, texas, are we served as county judge in the 1950's and represented that area in the texas state senator --

texas state senate from 1962 to 1972. that's when i first met ralph hall, because in 1970 he ran for lieutenant governor in texas, in the democratic primary. and there were few other folks in that race. ralph didn't make it out of the -- into the runoff. but ralph was elected to congress in 1980 as a conservative democrat, where he served our state honorably on energy and commerce committee and the science committee where he was chairman from 2011 to 2013. in 2003, ralph became a republican. his votes were always conservative, though. my job in the 1990's as a deputy whip on the democratic side was the whip texas members. so i'd go to ralph and he was a distinguished gentleman and that's just not a title, he really was. he would tell me, he said, what do you want me to do? i said, well, i want to you vote this way. he said, you know, i can't really do that. i said, well, can you vote

late? ralph was always a conservative, no matter what democratic or republican label he had. i had the honor of serving with ralph in congress since 1993 and on the energy and commerce committee since 1997 and ralph has always been a true gentleman to me and to all i've ever saw him work with. i will best remember ralph as a true hero of texas who is a committed public servant, either in uniform or elected official, and always stayed true to his beliefs and did everything he could for his constituents. mr. speaker, congressman hall will be sorely missed by all of us and i want to thank him for both his hard work and dedication for years, but more importantly for his friendship to a lot of members, not just texans, but a lot of members in congress. and ralph will be very fondly remembered. i thank my colleague for yielding to me. mr. barton: now i want to recognize the distinguished congressman from i believe

flower mound, texas, in denton county, the honorable michael bureau jells. mr. burgess: thank you, chairman. thank you for calling this hour together. of course the ranks of those who are able to capably deliver a narrative in this house suddenly have gotten a little thinner. i had the opportunity to sit down and visit with mr. hall just a few days before thanksgiving. i know how intense was his desire to be here and be able to talk on the floor today on his own behalf. sadly that didn't come to pass. i hope you're able to watch today. i hope you're able to hear the accolades of all of your colleagues. we miss you, ralph. we wish you nothing but the best going forward. again, the ranks of the capable narrative deliverer here in the house of representatives has gotten a little thinner at the end of this term. chairman, thank you for the recognition. i'll yield back. mr. barton: thank you. now we want to recognize congressman from corpus

hristi, texas, mr. farenthold. mr. farenthold: thank you, chairman barton. it's great to be here to talk a moment or two about my good friend, ralph hall. when i was first elected to congress a few years back, ralph was one of the first people that i met being a texan and he has the kindest heart and always has a smile on his face and a good joke ready at hand. people ask me, what do you see your career as congress, who do you look up to, where do you see your career in congress going think? said, i might want to grow uper to ralph hall. then -- grow up to be ralph hall. then some of his adversaries said he was too old to be in congress and ralph jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. i had to rethink of growing up to be ralph hall after he jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. but it's a testament to the dedication and courage he has.

ralph was committed to serving texas and the folks that he represented and he would go to any length, including jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, to continue to serve. it was an honor and a privilege to have spent four years of my life as a colleague of ralph's. it's been the greatest four years of my life and it's an honor and privilege to have served with him and he truly will be missed. and i appreciate the opportunity, chairman barton, to be on the floor today to acknowledge my friend and quite frankly one of my strongest mentors here in congress, ralph hall. god bless you, ralph. we're going to miss you. mr. barton: thank you. now i recognize the gentleman from the 14th district of illinois, congressman hultgren. mr. hultgren: chairman, thank you so much. it is such a privilege to be able to say a few words for my

good friend and my chairman, chairman of the science committee when i first was elected to congress four years ago, had the privilege of serving under chairman hall on the science committee. a couple memories that i have. so many committees that i went to where the committee would stop because we were laughing so hard with a statement or comment or joke perfectly timed that chairman hall would put in and so enjoyed that time so much. my wife and i had an incredible privilege this summer. we have among ourselves here in congress some wonderful people we get to serve with. a few of them truly are heroes. and one of those heroes is ralph hall. had the privilege of going to the 70th anniversary of d-day to recognize those world war ii veterans and ralph hall was with us on that trip. we all loved being there, but everybody wanted to be with ralph hall. again, a true hero. and to be in that place with

ralph hall was a great, great honor for my wife and i. my greatest memory since i've been here, over the four years, was with chairman hall. and that was in the science committee and having the privilege of sitting about 10 feet away from armstrong and the first man to walk on the moon and the last man to walk on the moon. people who changed the trajectory of this nation and this world. and having the opportunity to talk with them and get to know them and to hear their amazing story, but also the humility that they had, that same humility that chairman hall has, just a privilege to serve. and, ralph, we love you. i wish so much that you could be here today to be able to express your own heart for the privilege i know that you felt serving in this incredible place, serving the wonderful constituents you have in texas. but i want you to know that we love you, we miss you, we're praying for you and we're excited to see, hopefully soon,

a full recovery for you and looking forward to having you back here and hearing those great jokes once again. so, ralph, want to let you know that we're pulling for you and excited again for all that you've done and all that you're going to do. with that i yield back to the chairman. mr. barton: thank you. wield now like to yield to the gentlelady from houston, texas, congresswoman sheila jackson lee. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much. i thank the chairman for yielding. and i thank him for holding this special order for a very dear friend to all of us, ralph hall. i guess my opening remarks would be that if you took the greater percentage of all of us members of the house of representatives, everyone would rise up and say, my good friend ralph hall and really mean it. for he was a good friend and is a good friend to all of us, on both sides of the aisle. i came to the united states congress, i went to the science committee and there was ralph

hall. fighting for the issues that were not only impacting the nation but were impacting our great state. no one could doubt that ralph hall was a champion for texas, a champion for the space exploration program. i used to love getting with him on the floor of the house and strategizing how we could continue to make sure that our space exploration continues and the great research that is done in nasa goes on. certainly as a member of the energy and commerce committee, he was astutely concerned about the issues of energy, but also health care and many others. he loved his family and he forever reminded me of a time when he came to houston and he had to see his grandson whoist now grown and -- who is now grown and i'm sure one of ralph's favorite grandsons, if you will. he loves his family. when he had to get a ride to the hospital where his grandson was. and of course we're so grateful that he recovered. but he always tells everyone

that i went 30 miles out of my way to take him to that hospital and i can say to you, i did it with joy. but he was always grateful and thankful for friendship and kindness and he was kind. and i must say that if he didn't have a career in the united states congress, he could be a stand-up comic. because his timing was everything, his jokes were unique. i don't think they were written anywhere. and of course he was always saying them. let me also say, since he's had such a long history, he reminded me of his friendship with the honorable barbara jordan and his friendship with mickey leland, two of the predecessors of my particular district. and then i would offer to say the same remarks that were mentioned just earlier about how excited -- exciting it was to be in normandy for the 70th commemoration and have our own special iconic hero, ralph hall, who was honored by the

french and honored by many. he was a regular hero and a dynamic hero, as we went about the town. so my hat is off to ralph. i know that he will be well. i know that he knows that we love him. but more importantly, let me salute him as a great american who has served his nation with dignity and honor and respect and integrity and who walks the pathway of a congressional person that respects the dignity and integrity of this house and as well the friendship of democrats and republicans, because he calls everyone an american. i yield back. mr. barton: thank you. i thank the gentlelady. now i want to recognize the congressman from the 14th istrict in texas, randy weber. mr. webster: i thank the gentleman, -- mr. weber: i thank the gentleman, mr. speaker. you may have heard about the revered halls of congress but let me say there's no more revered hall of congress than that of ralph hall.

you know, let me tell you why that is. ralph hall was a true texan and a great american. he's a great example to us all. as a true texas gentleman, time and time again i've seen him demonstrate the art of tact and he once described that art of tact as making someone feel at home when you wish they were. as a true texas gentleman he, could do that. as a true texas gentleman, i saw him time and time again use the art of diplomacy he explained to me he, said, randy, diplomacy is being able to tell someone to go to hades and make them happy to be on their way. ralph had that gift. ralph hall, and i'm going to list some descriptions of him, alphabetically. he was american, through and through.

he was charming. he could turn that charm on. he was committed. he was serious about what he did. elegant. he was a picture of elegance. you could see the way he moved and the way he worked. funny. gosh, he was so funny. the fact is, i think he was cut out to be a comedian but he was probably sewn together wrong. he was funny at times. gracious. a true texas gentleman. a mentor to us. could be stern when necessary. strong. did i mention texas through and through? witty. in short, ralph was a great example, mr. chairman, mr. speaker, i end with this acronym. en i think of ralph, r-a-l-p-h, i think of ralph. he was real, he was republican. r and then a, he was american. i think of l, he was a leader.

then i think of p, ralph was principled. and then i think of h. he was a hero. he is a hero. and i'll end with this. his last name, hall, h stands for hero. a stands for american, and l -- both the l's stand for the lasting legacy he's going to leave here in the halls of congress. when it comes to the halls of congress there is none better than ralph hall. ralph, we love you, we bid you a great american -- we bid you a great american and great texan farewell but only temporarily. don't be a stranger. mr. speaker, i yield back. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman. we now want to recognize from california's 48th district in orange county, the honorable dana rohrabacher. mr. rohrabacher: i have served

in the house of representatives now for 26 years and i have met good people and bad people and i met people i agree with and who i like, and people i disagree with and i like. and we are reflective of the american people. people ask me, what do you think about the united states congress? i always say, i reflects what the american people are all about. this is the house of representatives, where we represent all of these parts of our country. well, ralph hall was one of those representatives who represented the goodness in america and the greatness in america. ralph hall was, first and foremost, i believe, an american was a patriot and put that above every other one of his considerations. i was proud to know ralph, and he is still with us, we shouldn't think of him being

gone from the earth, he's still here and i hope he's listening right now, because we wish him all the best. ralph hall is a great american still and he has left his legacy here behind. i worked with ralph on the science and space -- space, science, and technology as they call it. and ralph has made enormous contributions to the well being of our country in terms of both on two areas in particular, we know of, i worked with ralph, number one he, did more to help direct america's space program and keep it a viable effort on the part of the united states to utilize space for the benefit of human kind and of course for the purpose of the united states to become a dominant power in the next frontier. ralph, his leadership was

indispensable to creating the potential that we have today of accomplishing great things in space and the things that we have already accomplished, ralph was right in the middle of it, making sure that that job got done. he was also very involved with energy development. i know that there's a little bit of confusion, just because someone is from texas that they're going to be backing up the oil companies and things such as that. ralph was a guy who, yeah, he believed in the oil industry. he was grateful to the oil industry for the good things it has provided us, the fact that energy and production of energy is so important to our national well being. but he was also a man who understood that science was going to develop new methods of energy and was always pushing our committee and the science committee to be on the cutting edge of research and development

and you know, when you get people here, running for congress they run for congress because they have strong ideas and ideals, often which they don't agree with one another. you can imagine trying to get legislation through committees and through -- on the floor of the house, etc., when you have people who are having to interact but have different points of view. well, tensions at that moment can be a blockage to making things better. and ralph, if anything else, was he guy who was able to take -- eliminate the tension in the air that was getting in the way of getting something done because he had the best sense of humor of any other member i have ever, ever come across. ralph, by doing that, kept this body a product i body and weren't at each other's throats and one last note. my father was a pilot during world war ii.

and he flew in the pacific. i have a very special place in my heart for ralph hall and all those guys because ralph hall too was a pilot in world war ii in the pacific. he's the godfather to us all. ralph, we respect you, we honor -- honor you, we love you, we are grate to feel you for what you meant to our lives and what you've done to help make our country better off. thank you and god bless. mr. barton: thank you congressman. i now want to recognize from the fifth district of dallas, texas, committee, of the mr. jeb hensarling. mr.sen sar ling: i -- mr. hensarling: i rise to honor this great patriot from texas, mr. ralph hall. i feel most inadequate to the task. there are a number of members who come to the house floor and

some provide humor. few have provided more humor than ralph hall at times when this body critically needs it. some members come to this body and they become more respected. certainly that is ralph hall. some are well liked. that is also ralph hall. some distinguish themselves for their accomplishments. and ralph hall will take second place to no one on what he's been able to accomplish in his house career. and then there's a handful, mr. speaker, of true american heroes. ralph hall served our nation with courage and distinction in world war ii. and my point, mr. speaker, is that i'm not sure i know of any member who combines them all, respectability, likeability, humor, effectiveness, and being true american hero.

we will miss ralph hall, we will miss his wit. but you know, mr. speaker, even many so, i think i will miss -- even more so, i think i will miss his wisdom. there are times we debate issues, either among the texas delegation or the house as a whole, and occasionally the voices get a littled how, the debate gets confused and almost out of nowhere, ralph hall comes in and imparts his wisdom and it is like a ray of sunshine piercing the darkness and i'll say, yes, that makes sense. and we come together as members of congress for the good of america. and i heard the previous speaker about it, there's so much we could say about ralph and his accomplishments, but how ironic in some respects that the oldest member of the house was so much on the cutting edge of science

and technology and has helped this institution lead america into this century. when ralph hall has spoken, when he has led so many have followed. so there are many reasons that it is a privilege to serve in the united states house of representatives but one of the great privileges is the people that you meet. there have been none nicer, none wiser, and more accomplished than ralph hall. mr. speaker, i will miss, texas will miss, america will miss ralph hall when he leave this is body. i yield back. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman. now i recognized from round rock, texas, the distinguished ohn carter, for two minutes. mr. carter: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i

rise today to speak about my friend, ralph hall. an amazing man. he's been just about anything adventuresome you could think about in your life. s the man that tells us he was a little boy when bonnie and clyde went through. -- this is the man that tells us he was a little boy when bonnie and clyde went through. truth. he's telling the and he was a fight reporter, and i newsom people turned down a ung man named cassius clay because they thought he had a glass jaw. he once ran for attorney general d he said he looked in the mirror, thought he saw the attorney general and it turned out it was oodooth guy he was

seeing in the mirror. he has served in this house as both a democrat and a republican and is loved by both parties, is respected by both parties. and he had an amazing talent for carrying humor around as a tool of friendship. i just wanted to share one small thing that was just -- it livened up a crowd like i've never seen before. we were at the laying of the keel of the aircraft carrier george herbert walker bush. there was about 50 or so people sitting in chairs in the hot sun. and they put a bottle of water under each chair. i was sitting next to ralph on the front row and he looked down there underneath his chair and saw that bottle of water and all these people were sweltering behind us, waiting for the thing to start and he reached down, picked up the bottle of water he, got up, turned around to the crowd behind him and said, somebody noise put a bottle of

water beneath the chair. who got the scotch. and the crowd started laughing and everybody relaxed and the ceremony began. ralph made friends like nobody else. he is my friend. think everybody in this house considers him a friend. he's a great american, a great texan and i'm going to miss him dearly. i yield back. mr. barton: i thank the gentleman. may i inquire how much time we have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has eight minutes remaining. mr. barton: eight minutes. i want to yield myself se balance of the time. -- yield myself the balance of the time. we have had a number of congressmen come on the house floor and tell anecdotes about ralph and how funny he was and how smart he was and they're all, at least the ones about how smart he was, very true. we've heard the urban myth about waiting on bonnie and clyde which i do not believe is true.

we've heard about ted williams and ralph and ted playing on the same baseball team in world war ii. that is true. we've heard about the offer to serve as fight promoter for cassius clay who later became muhammad ali, and that's true. a few more you may not know. he was good friends with the hunt brothers in dallas and clint murchison, the original owner of the dallas cowboys. at one time he was asked to be yen counsel for what we call the nfl today. -- -- to be general counsel for what we call the nfl today which he turned down. i got to know ralph when i got elected in 1984. he and i served districts that touch each other. we both live in our districts in texas and so we became good buddies because we were always on the first flight after the last vote to texas at the end of the week and on the last flight

before the first vote to washington at the beginning of the week. and once we built up enough frequent flier miles, we used to fight when there was a complimentary upgrade, we never spent taxpayer dollars to fly in first class, but we would fight over who got seat 4-f. and because ralph sweet talked the special service people at american airlines, he always won. the only time i've ever gotten seat 4-f on american airlines is when ralph was not on the plane. . you heard about the fact that he used to be a democrat and he was until 2003 or 2004, when he switched parties. well, one of the first times that i realized how important ralph hall was when the first esident bush won the -- was,

when the first president bush won the election to become president of the united states, they held a club on behalf of the national republic campaign committee so the republicans in the congress, which were in the minority, could have a meeting with the incoming president. we thought that was pretty special. and there was a star in the crowd -- stir in the crowd and we thought it was the president coming in and it was. the president walked into the room, the eisenhower lounge, is republicans will know on the first floor of the nrcc, but before the president began to speak there was another stir and through the door that i've never seen used, who do you think came into the club than ralph hall? now, what's surprising about that is that at the time ralph hall was a democrat. and ralph hall had endorsed george h. bush for president

when he was a democrat and so he got special recognition at that meeting. there have been many great members from texas that served in the house. our creation as a state in 1845 , mr. speaker. some of the ones in my tenure that have -- i've enjoyed working with, people like bill arch aer of houston, -- archer of houston, jay pickle, steve bartlett, sam hall, but none has been more beloved and none has been more effective than ralph hall. of rockwall, texas. i have some other things to say, but you i see that congressman smith is here and congressman culberson. so i'm going to put the rest of mine in the record. does mr. waxman want to speak on ralph? in that case, i'll yield one

minute to mr. waxman, the chairman emeritus and current ranking member of the energy and commerce committee. mr. waxman: i thank you. i did want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to ralph hall. particularly for his early years in the house of representatives, when he was a democrat. he came on the energy and commerce committee early and we sometimes think about democrats or republicans. he became a republican. he had been a conservative democrat. but everybody on both sides of the aisle held him in the highest respect because he was a man of integrity and honesty. when he gain of you his word, you could count on it -- when he gave you his word, you could count on it. ralph and i became friends and i hope that friendship will continue into the future and i nt to express to him and his constituents, his family and his friends my admiration for him as a person and my respect for him as a legislator.

i know it's common to say, even though we didn't agree on all things -- it didn't make any difference. he always tried to do what he thought was right and he always as a result earned my and everyone else's respect for it. so i thank you for yielding to me. mr. barton: i want to yield one minute to mr. smith, the chairman of the science committee right now in the house. mr. smith: i thank the gentleman from texas, my colleague, mr. barton, for yielding me time. i just want to say, today we honor the distinguished service of our friend and colleague, ralph hall of texas. if there were a congressional hall of fame, representative hall would be a first-ballot inductee. as many years of -- his many years of service were highlighted at the end of 2012 when he became the most senior member of congress to ever cast a vote in the house of representatives. his career has spanned 34 years and since he was 19 years old he's made his contributions to our country.

as a lieutenant in the navy during world war ii, he served as a pilot and since then has never hesitated to accomplish a mission. has made him a distinguished member of congress and a very effective chairman of the science, space and technology committee. throughout his time in congress, ralph hall has served this institution with style and humor. ralph hall always said, i'd rather be respected at home than liked in washington. ralph has actually achieved that rare combination of both. we thank him for hiser is to congress, to the great -- for his service to congress, to the great state of texas and to our country. ralph asked me to pass along this comment. quote, i'm especially partial to my friends in the texas delegation who represent their districts so well and whose integrity and hard work have benefited not only our state but also our nation. i thank you for your friendship and countless acts of congress, end quote. i yield back. mr. barton: i'd like to yield one minute to the gentleman

from houston, texas, mr. culberson. mr. culberson: thank you, mr. barton. i want to be sure -- i just -- it's such a privilege to be here and honor ralph hall. the proverbs tell us that our good name is worth more than all the gold and silver on earth and that is certainly true of ralph hall. someone who i immediately bonded with when i came to congress in 2001. ralph was a mentor, has been a teacher, a dear, good friend and i could always, as we all could, count on ralph to do the right things for the right reasons and to be a man of his word, whose first priority throughout his time here was to do right by the state of texas. and as lamar said so ably, ralph always believed it's better to be respected at home, make sure that the folks at home knew what a good job he was doing for them and it's a real privilege for me to be able to serve with that good man and we will surely miss him and what a privilege for me to be here tonight to honor him on this special evening and i yield back. mr. barton: i'd like to yield one minute to the chairman

additional minute? mr. barton: i yield whatever time we have left to the gentleman -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman cannot -- the time cannot -- mr. upton: i just want to say ralph hall is an amazing man. i served with him on t

madam speaker, i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. rahall: in one minute, the congress of the united states continues to attract some of the minds.st mind and eegest they are are our staff and because of time constraints, i can't go through all of them but i will insert them into my record. started lic record with robert c. byrd. ratored as an elevator op for senators-only and i know about responding to the mail and

during the long hours and thankless task to keep this place running for the people they are elected to serve. and they are our staff. the l put their names in record. suffice it to say, i appreciate their hard work and labor as do the people of west virginia. i have served on two committees, the first one was called the public works and transportation committee and then changed to transportation and infrastructure committee. house d on the house and resources committee and chaired the subcommittee on mines and mining and serving on that house resources committee. i do appreciate, mr. speaker, that all of us in this body are all bridge builders. we have tried and i have tried

hard to build bridges between our coal miners in our state between our advantaged and disadvantaged and to provide jobs and protect jobs in our fields and the air we breathe. we all seek the world of peace. i'm proud of my record in my 38-year record in protecting and black lung benefits and safety for our coal miners. soughtry leff from excessive helped ons, and i building our infrastructure, whether transportation, technology. have created vital white

waufer rafting areas and which s it is called the new river george. my grandfathers came to this country and worked hard. they lived the american dream. i traveled the middle east including with president clinton in the december, 1988 when he became the first u.s. president to set foot. i met with queens, kings and war lords, you name it in this region. and many times were not in sync with our policy. i have long advocated for human rights, dignity and relief. madam speaker, i do leave this body with a great sense of pride and a great sense of accomplishment and what we have been able to do for the people of west virginia.

i do appreciate my colleagues to reflect with me on what has been a remarkable personal journey and serve the people. assist ant to the democratic whip through the watergate years and through the 38 years, it has been both exciting and frustrating, full of fast-paced days and long drawn-out nights. it has been full -- at sometimes tears,, sometimes laughter and has been an experience that i truly appreciated and loved every minute of it. and i want to say in conclusion, i thank god. i thank my family for their support. this is the 10th anniversary and

we celebrate knowing there has been a great ride in this institution. my late father stood behind me. my 89-year-old mother now living in my hometown and my brother and sisters have always been there, my three children have always been behind my career and all three of my grandchildren. that's what's it all about. making this place a better place for our children and grandchildren to live in. my heart felt thanks go out to the people of west virginia. i fought for our courageous coal miners and happy to see that those issues noticed by the coal miners will not be honored in most cases and the coal miners will be able to keep their jobs. i have been deeply to keep their

jobs. and stand up for our american heroes and veterans. i thank our working men and women, our seniors, who strengthened this nation with their contributions. and may god bless our teachers who shape the future of our youth. in concluding this chapter in my life, i offer my thanks to you, each of you in this body, my colleagues, for the experiences for representing the diversity and lifetime of lessons for the trials that you have shared and taught me. i have had the high honor of serving the servants. thank you and god bless this house of representatives. god bless our country and i yield back the balance of my time.l if they need it.

that latest cr bill could be delivered today or tomorrow and delivered to the white house today or tomorrow to be signed before saturday night's deadline. the claire booth luce policy was discussed with virginia republican represent david brat. he was sworn into office on november 12. here he talks about his campaign

strategy as well as other interests on federal spending and immigration. this is 40 minutes. i. good afternoon, everyone, i want to give a special thanks to our co-host for this monthly event. heritage today is represented by laura truman, who's the director of strategic operations for heritage. and i want to thank each of you for joining us today. those of you watching on cspan all over america and all over the world. i want to welcome you to the special december edition of the conservative women's network. as most of you know, cwn usually features top women speakers in the conservative movement. but every december, it is our tradition to feature a special gentleman speaker and this year we're so pleased to have david

brat, the new united states congressman from virginia. as many of you know, congressman brat defeated former majority leader eric cantor in the primary last virginia for the southwest congressional district. he was sworn in last month and he'll be bringing some much needed economic expertise to the national policy discussions. congressman brett is a product of the rural midwest and has long believed in the values of faith, family and a strong work ethic. he obtained a masters in divinity from princeton theological seminary and then earned a phd in economics from american university. in 1996, he began teaching economics and ethics at virginia's randolph macon college where he chaired the -- he served the commonwealth of

virginia in a number of capacities also. he served two governors on the joint advisories panel. his peers elected him as president of the virginia association and the governor also appointed him to the virginia board of accountancy, a man of deep faith, dave attends catholic church with his wife laura and his two children. please join me in welcoming congre congressman david brat. >> thank you all for having me, that was a nice introduction, saving my throat a little bit. we have had an exciting week. you all have been following the news. i'll get to that after i frame some of my biography and the background as to how i got to where i am.

i'll frame it up in a few pieces, where we are at today with the republicans and the votes that are coming up that just occurred yesterday and in the week prior, but thank you all very much for having me, it's an honor to be here at heritage, i have been a long time follower at heritage and it's great to be with you here today. first of all, my biography is well captured there, and over the last ten months of campaigning. ten months stump speeches i basically opened it up and said how would you like to spend someone to congress to bring both economics and ethics up to d.c. amount and that combination of economics and ethics hits a nerve in the country right now because people do get a sense of that we're on the wrong track. that's all you had to stay is are we on the right track and/or the wrong track, every house in

the senate district were off track. i combined those two themes over a lifetime. i went to hope college in michigan. i went to seminary, i was going to teach systematic theology and a large part of that is ethics fits in there philosophically. and while i was in seminary, i came down here to wesley seminary for a political semester and there was a guy writing on economics and ethics in one book. i got very interested in that and sometimes that happens on the left and that term justice is a tricky one, it's got a long pedigree, but it's been shaped to end up kind of in the leftist tradition, or the leftist moral descriptions lately and i think it has a longer pedigree that

features the judeo christian pedigree. so i pursued those themes in seminary and then went on from wesley, right up to american university, i said hey i want to pursue these even further through american economics, you get the city all around you, you get to interesting talks about world class people all across the board. and so pursued that through my phd and then i was lucky enough to apply and find a great job down in richmond, virginia, i have been there for the past 19 years. this would have been my 19th year teaching economics and ethics. i was the chair of the econ and business department, but i also chaired the ethics minor for a new years. john allen over at kato helped

me build a program and the moral foundations of capitalism so that kind of puts the two together in the same way, then i got a chance to work in a general assembly for about the last eight or nine years in virginia politics, got to know a lot of how the political system works and then just wasn't happy with some of the things that were going down in my area, in the seventh district, so i approximate put my hat in and the people thought it was good to send an economist up to d.c. so that in short is kind of the biography and who i am and why i ran. but i'll get a little bit more specific now, when i ran in virginia, i ran on the republican creed, how many virginians are here? oh, very good? how many of you know the virginia republican creed. it's not perfect but it's good. i'll go over with it you.

[ inaudible ] very good, okay, good, that's what i'm going to get at today, very good. let me go over that creed with you a little bit. starts off, the first is most important to me, adherence to the free market system, because that one really draws a red line, right? and people in business or whatever even students of economics sometimes don't understand what that means, adherence to the free market system. all of human history, up until 1800 made how many dollars a year per person? $500 about, right? basically subsistence level, for the entire world, for all of human history. something changed at about 1800. and what was that? good, very good, adam smith if you want to put a name to it. adam smith, 1776, that was in the works right, the history of ideas for 100, 200 years prior.

but tote's finally had to choose the free market system. there's always been markets, go back to the ancient greeks and roman where is they have been trading chickens and cows. so it's a very different thing, doing business, right, or economics or whatever is very different from choosing socially, and running your society by a free market system. that's the big deal. that kind of came hand in hand with other fundamental shifts that had to be in place ahead of time. you had to choose to the rule of law, private property rights, the liberty tradition. coming out of john lock and all the way through. in my district, i forgot to mention, i am fortunate enough to come from a terrific that ---going back to james madison in my district.

those are some names that go along with that liberty tradition. all of this fits more broadly into that judeo christian tradition. i say well it's nice of you all to come around about 1900 with this liberty idea. you guys come along lately. right, so i appreciate everything they're doing. i have a tlot of good libertarin friends, but there was some heavy lifting for many years to set that up and i think the heritage association is familiar with that long tradition. and all that go into a scenario that's hard to describe in a sound bite. i'm just on point one, you can see how long this point's going to go. this is point one in the virginia -- -- to show you how

complex it is, so when the president asks you a question about a simple bill that's familiar with the free market, it's hard to put that into an answer. so that's the hard part, but i gave 15 to 20 minute economic homilies, was my stump speech that i gave night after night for ten months. i'll end this part by saying this is the good news. the republicans, the conservatives have the strongest, best argument for the country right now. what's happened in the last 20 years since i started teaching at randolph macon. the chinese and the indians were making roughly $1,000 per capita. what's happened? what radical choice has been made in the last 20 years that's made all the difference for global poverty reduction and improvement in people's lives

and what isn't? to the chinese and the indians have chosen the free market system, right? and the irony of ironies is while they're choosing the free market system, the united states of america is choosing to backtrack, right? we're clogging the arteries at every turn, obama care, regulatory overreaches of $1.5 trilli trillion, et cetera. we can go over and over and over and over. that's the policy choice of choosing the flee market system. the human welfare games, the efficiency try angles and whatever. that choice to choose the free market system dwarfs all the public policy decisions globally 12 times over. the welfare game. our side has a hard time explaining this to the average voter, to the average american, to the average global citizen that this system is good for humanity, period. and i went to seminary, so i

believe that 7 billion to 8 billion people on this planet are all children of god. but the basic frame work and the basic logic is there from the beginning. i want this for the whole world. all of god's children, christmas is coming up. there's number one, i'm going to go through the rest of the creed real quick, second is equal treatment under the law, everyone's equal under the law. third rule is fiscal responsibility, at all levels of the government, federal, state, local. four is adherence to the constitution. i just had a tough few days trying to stay true and vote on that, adherence to the constitution. the presidential overreach on amnesty, executive amnesty, that wasn't just a simple public policy choice at the margin

about dollars and sense and policy differences. the reason that was such a big deal to me is because of this four point in the republican creed, adherence to the constitution and to constitutional principles. i think that end run violated constitutional principles and that's why i stuck very firm to the votes on that issue over the last couple of days. fifth, peace is best preserved through a strong national defense. ronald reagan's on the walls out here. so i know you all get that one. and sixth, finally a lot of times not mentioned in public policy principles, faith in god is represented by our founders, absolutely is essential to a strong moral fiber. all the presidents i have been reading since everyone's sending me carts of books on prayers of the presidents. you go back and you read the basic books, the basic speeches of the founding generation, the great people we all revere in this room. and they were not ashamed or

bashful about it. they didn't wear it on their sleeve, they weren't pushing it. there's a separation of church and state, no establishing the church. but part b of that is absolute and free exprex of your faith, as part of the freedoms baked into our constitution and the first amendment. so a lot of people were very much attracted to that, the economics and the ethics. just in a nutshell, some of the biggest problems we have in the country, under bullet point 3 is the debt and the deficit. medicare and social security are all insol vent until 2024 or so. the next generation, and i see a

bunch of you silting out here, we better get on it. and i don't know if it's really that technically a difficult economic problem we need to solve or it's more ethical it's the political will to engage in those very tough problems in those entitlement programs. people from every county to term limit myself to 12 years, and i pledged to put in a fair or a flat tax. and so a few specific pledges as well. that's the basic frame work that i ran on. and so over the past month i have tried to vote, along with those principles, the press always has, they don't quite believe me, they say how are you going to vote on this? i said, well, i laid it out very clear. i voted on these six principles

in the republican creed, and i'm going to vote on those principles and really that's what i'm going to try to do. and the people back home will keep me honest and help me to do that. how am i doing on time? are you with me for a few more minutes? so that's who i am and there's the race, those are the principles i ran on. and this week voting and being up here, last week i was sworn in. so i was up here with 50 of the rookies, the congressmen men and women in my entering class. and the press says what's the most unexpected part of being up here, and i think it's been the warmth and graciousness of the other members, right, the freshman group, democrats, republicans were together. so the first two weeks we all

had events every night and on some of the issues, public policy, how does congress work and everything, that was great. and the senior members of congress also, where you have to go up i'm a regular season. a picture going up to the podium that you see in the entire congress, and you have to give a speech, right after they swear you in. put yourself in those shoes. so the entire virginia delegation came behind me and was very gracious to me and the rest of the sr. members made me feel very welcome. so that truly was unexpected as to how i was received so i'm very thankful and i'll just kind of leave it at that. and then while i was orienting, my predecessor stepped down early and that was a gracious move on his part. so i got to start off not only

going through freshman orientation but also serving as a member of congress. so that was a lot to learn quick. and so we had to do all of that and then i had to talk votes, so the tax extender vote came up, that was a tough one. you're faced with a tough choice. if you don't vote for it, taxes go up on all my constituents, if you do vote for it. 20% of it was wind. conservatives tonight like picking winners and losers and a lot of people back in my district don't like it. so that was a tough vote. so i voted for that package because i thought the overall net was positive.

and the greatest greater issue there was, i don't want our defense authorization bill cluttered with other pieces, because eventually if you follow that authorization with this, that and the other thing, that's eventually going to hold our defense funding hostage, in some way, shape or form, you know it's coming, so on principle, i tried to separate that one. and on the omnibus, we all were pushing for a short-term cr, so the republicans could be in a better bargaining position coming up january or february, and that didn't happen, the omnibus went through, and a group of 75 senators tried to put an amendment on that omnibus bill to restrict the president's overreach on the executive amnesty. and so we went to rules and rules had made already kind of a stated position that they

weren't going to accept any amendments and so i was disappointed in that process, when your new member, not having the chance at all, right, a 1,600 page bill comes up, you is to read it in a day or two, you find out it didn't deal with fundamental things you ran on, then you have to deal with writing an amendment, and the amendment piece is closed off, because the time is so shortened, we have one day left and we're going to vote on it. that amendment went down, and in that case is rules didn't allow that. and the next day i voted for the rule on the bill as well as voting no on the bill itself. primarily on that constitution issue, there were plenty of other policy issues i differed there, but the overriding logic was linked to the unconstitutional part of the executive overreach. and so from there, and i'll

close it out and be happy to take questions from all of you. but if you're interested in following me, obviously and the people of my district go to dave brat.com and share ideas with us, and i'm going to try and put out economic papers, white papers, weekly that summarize my voting position, maybe daily if we can do that. my chief is over here, so i offer them work by the wheel bare row full by to the day. i said go do this, and go do that and we'll see what we can do. but i would obviously love to do that and share our economic logic, that's kind of to the important part where your voters understand how are you voting? what's the logic behind your vote? and then i am to the only economist in the house, and so i would love to be able to start doing some economic education, my stump speech for 10 months, i would ask audience after audience, 50 to 100 people,

every night, have you ever heard to the number $127 trillion and the answer was no, no idea. so if that's the country's biggest issue, which i think it is, newspapernewspaper ---numer is. so $127 trillion, right, and no one knows that number. that's a problem, and what's the problem? it's an education problem, right? our country does not know that that number is coming due and that's just the unfunded pieces of liability, that's not the cost of the program. that's just the unfunded liabilities that we promised in law, and that's 2/3 of the budget, the nondiscretionary part that you can't touch unless you change the law. and that 2/3 is growing, so

you're left with one-third, and the military is being pinched and everything is being pinched and i think you all know the state governments are being pinched and that trickles down to the local levels that are being pinched. and that's the context, in that context, everybody knows the bottom line is there's no money that's going to be falling from the clouds any time soon. it's game over. what's the gdp growth rate? and the last five years offist productive is also sub par. how are we doing in education compared with the chinese and

the indians? not so hot. so our economic forecast for the next 10, 20 years is not bright either. we need to turn that all around. i'm an opt myself, you've got reagan on the wall out there, and he had tough economic times when he came in so it can be done. i think i better end there while i'm on a positive note. it can be done, i didn't say how, but that's the next talk. thank you very much for having me today, it's an honor to be here. >> we have time for a few questions, we have laurel conrad here, who just graduated from cornell, she's the new lecture director at the institute.

i'm barbara bouie whitman, as -- i have a couple of questions, really. i'm going to cheat and sneak them in. the first one is procedure going forward, but the other part is left over from last night. the procedure going forward has to do with can we get a good, solid economist who believes in the right things to head the cbo and do dynamic scoring? second question is from last night. i got an e-mail from ken kuchinelli that stated that you were the only republican who got it right.

in politics, we always when we're trying to get people excited, say that the worst has already happened. how do we gets out of what happened last night? >> eyes is the shortan with yes -- that will help a little bit, but that doesn't get you to the $127 trillion so i won't get too optimistic on that. we'll do better on that i'm trying to get on the joint economic committee as well so we can work on some of those issues. and i will put the whole omnibus piece in a broader context so you can understand. i just came up here, i wasn't involved in the process going through. so for the members, they have certain pieces in that omnibus that they're shepereding through and they believe in. i came through in some ways easier than that.

the omnibus was not the republican method on the other side. with r we -- the failure came on the senate side in the democrat chamber. they would not take up any appropriations bills, right? they just wouldn't take them up. so that failure of working through the normal process, regular order failed not due to us. paul ryan over the past year

says always put in a budget, the democratic senate has not. i'm not making excuses for anybody, but we're in a very tough spot, and we were forced into that omnibus package and there is a lot of moving pieces and i don't intend as the rookie up here to know all of that. and so, i know the members from virginia, they're all of fine character and i think we're going to do the right thing in the rules committee and the speaker did promise that they will take up the amendment early

in january. so it was a matter of a lot of moving pieces, i said no just on the constitutional piece, that if you know something is illegal, i don't want to move forward at all. >> all t we stripped all of his the executive overreach had 12 pieces to it so we refunded all 12 of those pieces.

>> i just wanted to know what your thoughts are on including something against obama's executive action on immigration in the current lawsuit that the house filed against president obama? i'm not an expert, i'm not an economist, so i'm not a lawyer so that's my preremark. that's where other members of the virginia delegation will come in on that piece, but i'm in favor of moving across on all fronts, the lettigislative piec the funding piece, the judiciary piece, so i don't have too much in the way of specifics to offer you on that, other than to say i want to do all of the above

other than the timing on it, which piece is going to be most effective. but already, you know in virginia, there's 1,000 federal positions already funded and in place, and they're already getting the green cards going, the social security cards are already in process and that's the down side to the omnibus funding the government even through the end of february, rili right, i think the obama executive action had a 50-day limit on it and we go beyond that. at the end of that 50 days everything can be execute and that's why i'm concerned and why i voted no, i wanted some resolution prior to that 50-day cut off. and the piece that you're talking about, the lawsuit will take more time than that.

>> in the new congress coming up do you see congress working with president obama or president obama working with the republicans? >> i don't know if i want to pick a direction, but i will say i hope we do work together on the big pieces. i think it's important, in economics. how many of you had an economics class. you're supposed to ranging your preferences in order. so i'll just say, if you're thinking economically, you need to put the biggest pieces, the most important pieces in rank order and go down those in order. so president obama on the republican side, i don't think there's any way to deny the $127 trillion number. everybody knows that number one, and then the debt piece, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said, what's the greatest threat to our military, he said the u.s. debt.

so people of good will on either side, there are ways to solve this problem. and the third thing i think that the democrats can work on is education. i hope to be on the education committee, that's a bipartisan issue, it's clear we're not succeeding, the u.s. now on test scores, international test scores is underneath the median score, right? or toward the bottom, in the industrialized world, or near the bottom on math and science test scores. that doesn't even begin to talk about the fact that our kids don't know what a business is. we're kind of the medieval post world war ii manufacturing kind of world view, instead of being in this dynamic economy world

view. the kids are not being trained, they don't know what a business is, they don't know what a entrepreneur is. so they're learning what all this stuff is. so businesses are complaining about the work or skills development, we can do something about that, the business folks are coming into the schools at the seventh and eight grade legals so skill the kids in to work for those companies. that's a motto we have to look at it. and it doesn't cost any money, believe it or not, so that's a nice motto, you skill up the students to work in their own area, 40% of college kids can't find a job in their own area they majored in, 40%, so that's a big deal. and i didn't get into the amnesty issue, but that's one of

the reasons i'm pretty tough on that issue i don't want anymore short run band aid issues. so when you have a labor force problem, and our economy is not back to normal steady state growth by any means, and the worst part of the economy is the labor market. how do you solve that? we need to skill up our own kids. we don't need to import people from abroad. people always want to talk about $5 mi5 5 billion or $10 billion. after world war ii, we propped them up with a marshall plan, we learned from world war i how not

to do it. and now they're our friends, right? so we turned arch enemies into our friends, that's our goal, that's what we have to do. so immigration in my mind kind of stands for that short run banged aid approach, where businesses look for short-term earnings and that logic is putting our company in a terrible hold right now. i used to put in my stump speech, the ceos in the country right after world war ii, because as general motors goes, so the nation goes, that was the logic, the ceos knew they were at least implicitly involved in charting gdp growth for the nation and they had a social and ethical responsibility to do that. we can make earnings, profits within any environment. right? we can go global, we can make money over there, we can make money over here. so individually, corporately they do okay, but it's not tied

back to the u.s. gdb growth, and the welfare of the country as a whole. that's the long answer. >> in most colleges and universities, and we have some students here that could attest. most of the pronecessary sorries are liberal and left wing, with some wonderful exceptions, okay. >> yep. >> i was curious the reaction of your fellow professors at your college, when a freedom oriented liberty talk and a professor like you was elected to congress. what did they all say? >> i can't say that on live tv. that, i'll just put it that way, their collegial, right? we used to debate all the time and we had fun. and the left gets more mad at you the more effect tiff you get. so when i got this effective,

they weren't very happy. and i challenge my liberals, if you all want to have fun with liberals someday, it's a fun thing to do o i enjoy them. go to the lunch table and ask where the word liberal comes from, any guesses? liberty, right? if you want do go deeper, get into to the what ethics will you name, right? what ethics are you teaching to the kids? right, there's no such thing as ethics, everybody with me on that? there's jewish ethics, buddhist ethics, there has to be an ethical testimosystem. i'm not particular in pushing one tradition one tradition, but

that's what a liberal education is being open to all the ethical system systems that's a liberal arts education, most kids coming out of school aren't familiar at all with a liberal arts tradition. i'll just leave it there on that one. we need to reinvigorate -- some of the best universities have no curriculum whatsoever. kids at 18 years olds i guess are so wise, they can choose their life plans ahead of time, right? so i'm a conservative, i really don't buy that theory of education. >> we want to give you a couple of gifts to thank you for coming by. we're sure glad you're up there on capitol hill talking about liberty and representing all of us.

what we do is we promote conservative women who believe as you do. this is our 2015 calendar, with some of the great wirm who have spoken for us in the past year. and we also have a mug, you're going to appreciate this. this is a famous saying from claire booth. >> no good deed goes unpunished. >> and we also have the her tajs foundation, you'll love this gift, it should be right there on your desk, instead of way over on your bookshelf. it's the heritage guide to the constitution. let me show everybody that one. oh, it's heavy. more light reading this evening. thank you all very much for having me. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you so much.

am i still on tv? i always forget to give my wife a round of applause. with live coverage of the house on cspan 2, here on cspan 3, we complement those hearings by showing you the most relevant hearings and public events including six unique series, the civil war's 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields and key events, american artifacts, touring museums and historic sites to discover what artifacts reveal about america's past. history bookshelf, with america's best known history

writers, and lectures and history, with top college professors delving into america's past. and our new series, real america, featuring archival government and educational films from the 30s to the 780s. funded by your local cable or satellite provider, watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> coming up at 11:30 eastern, it's the justice for all march. the families of eric garner, michael brown, tamir rice and trayvon martin are expected to be there. it begins at freedom plaza here in washington and continues to the capitol for a rally where leaders and family also outline a legislative agenda for congress. you can watch it all live on cspan. on the next washington journal,

we'll preview the justice for all march scheduled for saturday, al sharpton will join us to talk about that, and later, larry pratt for the gun owners of america will be here for public opinions on guns, washington journal live every day at 7:00 a.m. on our companion network, cspan. . the senate foreign relations committee met thursday to consider a resolution authorizing the use of military force against isis. the measure offered by outgoing committee share bob menendez would allow for the use of ground forces in certain situations, the committee approved the legislation by a vote of 10-8, it now requires a full vote of the senate, something senator menendez said he would seek before the current congressional session ends. this is just under two hours.

so let us u now move to my proposed resolution authorizing the use of the united states armed forces against isil. i have a manager's amendments that corporates a number of amendments which features versions of amendments from senator boxer, senator kuhns and senator carter and other who is may wish to offer amendment as well. and following the unanimous agreement of the members of the committee, we work expeditiously to stand up a process and invite administration officials to engage with this committee on an isil aumf. this work followed a series of consultations with administration officials to discuss the necessary elements of an aumf over the past several months and repeated invitations to our most senior diplomats and

military leaders to actively engage in hearings and briefings on this committee on the anti-isil strategy. ulgt matly secretary of state kerry presented this legislation on tuesday, regarding the authorization of military force against isil and we appreciate his franking and substantive testimony. what we heard from secretary kerry is that the administration largely supports the aum ferks text before us with some reservatire reservati reservations. meaning individuals or organizations fighting for or on behalf of isil. it limits the forces so that in will be no large scale ground combat operations. as i said yesterday, if the president feels he needs that, he should ask for it and this congress can consider it. this limits the authorization for three years and requires the

administration to report to congress every 60 days, as drafted, the next limits the authorization of force by not allowing ground combat operations for the protick -- intelligence operations, or -- air strikes, operational planning or other forms of advice and assistance. the president has said that this will be a multiyear campaign, but i do not believe the aumf should be unlimited, a three-year time frame would allow this president and a new president time to assess the situation and make responsible decisions together with congress about whether and how to continue military action. and with that, laying a foundation, i know there's much more to discuss. let me call upon the distinguished ranking member for his comments. >> mr. chairman, thank you, and i again want to thank you for last week, deferring -- i do

appreciate that, i think we have honest, thoughtful upons about this issue i think the hearing we had this week was helpful in that process. i also want to thank you for the way you have led this committee. i think this is a committee that for many, many decades was one of the most sought after commissions in the u.s. senate. it delayed operations because it was not dealt with, and i these over the two years that you have been here, you've elevated the committee substantially and i think all of us are very proud to serve on this committee, proud of the leadership that you have shown, proud of the bipartisanship and again we have passed some bills out where people really work together, the hong kong bill and others to

make things happen, hopefully today on the floor we'll pass out of the ukraine bill that we passed unanimously in september. i thank you for your leadership and i thank you for conducting these meetings in the way that brings out the% in the united states senate. and to danny, congratulations to you. we thank you for the way you ha have -- i -- this is as has been mentioned, probably the most important type of legislation that we will ever deal with. i have no earthly idea how the administration plans to go about degrading and destroying isis in syria. i have no earthly idea.

mcgurk yesterday who is the assistant over in the house said that there is no way, no way, that the moderate opposition could defeat assad. no way. i read today in the washington post where ambassador ford talked about what a fantasy it was to think about that. so, i know there have been some attempts by my friends on the other side of the aisle to place some limitations on what it is that we're doing, but what we have no idea of at present, no idea, is how the administration even tends to go about doing what it is we plan to do in syria. i think we have some understandings in iraq. we have zero understanding in syria. we've talked about the fact that since world war ii we've had so

many conflicts where we and administrations go forward with activities that end up having an outcome that is far from where we began. and yet in this case -- and i know the chairman has tried to have testimony, has tried to have people come in here. i know we could subpoena and maybe that's what we need to do this next year to make sure that we actually have people come in and explain to us where we're going, but i don't think there's a person on this committee that can lay out with any degree of specificity how we plan to go about doing this thing of degrading and defeating. we have no idea. so in many ways, as senator mccain has mentioned, it's almost -- it almost reeks of the incrementalism, if you will, that began with vietnam years ago. it seems to me that one of our great responsibilities here is to -- when administration needs an authorization to go forward,

is for us to tease that out, to understand, to get a sense of what they're attempting to do and whether it's plausible or not. we had a leader that was in just two weeks ago. he is sharing with us that many of our allies in the region, people are involved with us today think we need to be taking on assad right now for this to work. and yet the secretary came in the other day and said that's not going to happen and yet assad is the magnet for isis to exist in syria today, the magnet. we have no idea what attempts are going to be made there. and yet other hand, we want turkey to be involved with us in what is essence a no-fly zone and yet turkey probably is not near as interested in isis as they are assad itself and yet we

have not sat -- we have not had any testimony that explains how we plan to go forward. on the other hand, in a way of trying to limit what we're doing, i know that the chairman and people on your side of the aisle have attempted to talk about no boots on the ground. you've put a limit on the length of time. you've defined associated forces in a more narrow way than typically is defined and we had the secretary of state come in and say that the president won't agree to that. he came in and testified here and gave some excellent testimony actually, better than i thought he was going to be able to give, and yet the aumf is being offered today they won't support. it has no chance in the world -- even if we had time, we know it's going nowhere, it's going nowhere because we're going be out of here in two days.

but even if we had time, with ewe know the administration would not support what is before us today. and as i ubs it in a manager's package, many of us have been to the white house and tried to deal with the old one which is 60 words, which was written in a rush, september 18th of '01, many of us have talked about changing that in such a way to meet today's situations and yet as i understand it, the manager's amendment instead of doing that sun sets it. so we have nothing to replace it but we're going to sun set the old one. so i would just say that, look, i don't want to harden sides. i believe there are some changes that need to be made. i think there's some understandings that need to be had. i'm disappointed that we are where we are. i wish we knew more about where we were going. i cannot support and will not

support the aumf as it's written today knowing, knowing that this administration that, let's face it, at a minimum has been cautious, has been cautious in its foreign policy activities that said to this committee, this won't work for them. this won't work for them. so, what i would propose is we vote, we deal with this today. i have thought about tabling this because i don't like our motioning the table. i don't like this process. i don't like where we are. i appreciate the strong feelings that everyone has, but i just as soon go ahead and vote and be done with this and hope that the goodwill we have here today on so many other issues will carry into next year. we'll figure out a way to have a process where each of us can articulate to our constituents how we're going to go about defeating and degrading isis. that we would know that first

and then we would vote on authorization that would cause our nation to go forward in an appropriate way. so mr. chairman, thank you for your leadership. i know there will be some debate over what i just said and look forward to carrying this forward today. >> mr. chairman? >> thank you. i'll recognize you in a moment. let me just make some very brief remarks. and i appreciate the nature of both your views and yoush goal. as i said at the hearing, if we wait for an administration -- this or any other one, to send us their language on an authorization for the use of military force and they never do it, then by virtue of not doing that they have a veto over the constitutional imperative and per ogtives on the power to declare war. i'm not going -- i for one, i speak only for myself, i am not

going to submit my responsibility to the people of new jersey or the nation to any executive who doesn't send you an aumf and by not doing so would conduct a war without authorization of the congress. secondly, while i certainly want to be as closely insynch as i can with this commander in chief or any other commander in chief, i do not believe that the soul purpose of congress is to send an authorization that that president will sign only because they totally agree with it because it may be a different view of the congress that there will be elements that maybe he'll choose to veto it. but it is the congress's imperative to ultimately make that decision as to how we're going to send america's sons and daughters into harm's way. and while one will try to get there and be in synch, i'm not sure at the end of the day there was a fundamental disagreement with the executive that congress should just succomb to what the

ex congress wants. i don't know how long we're going to stay here and maybe i would urge our leadership to this committee passes out an aumf to have that debate on the floor of the united states senate and to try to push forward. but let's be honest, i don't think we would have gotten anybody to crystallize their ideas about where they are -- there is comedy and where there is difference unless we hadn't started this process. and i think that does a service to the american people at the very least the debate can begin and people can start to think very hard about what our engagement is going to be here and under what set of circumstances and what risks. but i respect the ranking chair's views. we have a fundamental disagreement about the timing in terms of moving forward and trying to create a process that ultimately maybe will get us in synch. i don't know at the end of the day whether that can be achieved with the executive branch. before i call on any other

members because i want to do it as part of the manager's amendment so at least we can be poise and then i'm happy to entertain all member's comments. let's begin a process here. it does a number of things. it includes an amendment to add to the language addressing horrific abuse is by isil to women and girls and the hearing that senator boxer held with -- >> senator paul. >> was, i think, incredibly ill lusttive of the incredible terrifying acts that isil commits and particularly against women and girls. it includes language from senator coops that would make importance of finding a way to paying the way. it would sunset the 2001 aumf after three years of enactment unless it has been reauthorized.

this period of duration mirrors the text of the isil's specific authorization. so, i just want to say that on that point, it is -- i think it's tremendously important that we work together in a serious way to refine the 2001 aumf. and i think a three-year window is a responsible amount of time in which to do that. i support the three-year sunset because i think without a forcing mechanism we would find it virtually impossible to come to an agreement on how to refine that 2001 authorization. i'm willing to entertain comments. >> mr. chairman, i'm so respectful of every member of this committee. each of us has very strong