dornam prior to f.y. 1989, his amendment called for the district of columbia to use the use of congressional funds appropriated funds, something that we have to do because of article 1 of the constitution, give the district of columbia money to operate with. and the disconnect between using those funds inadvertently for abortions was shut down by congressman dornpian's amendment. this was an amendment that has been faithfully in place with the exception of a few years in the clinton administration. now with the president's new budget he wants to cleverly allow for the district of columbia to use federally funded money for abortions. i would now like to turn some time over to my very dear colleague, an individual who has been at the forefront of life issues. life issues not just recognizing the value of a child, both inside and outside the womb, but the value of children all across

the world, including his fight for a father to have his child come back i believe from brazil. . >> that's why i was late getting here. ms. -- mrs. schmidt: thank you. take all the time you need. >> barack obama said he is seeking common ground and wants to reduce the number of abortions. sadly almost everything he's done as president of the united states has expanded abortions internationally as well as domestically by executive order, as well as by his embedding into his administration a virtual who's who of abortion leaders. people from the organizations who are now running agencies of the government of the united states. these are the people who ran the organizations for abortion rights now they're there.

the district of columbia for years has not provided, and our hope is will continue not to provide any funding for abortion except for rape, incest, and life of the mother that language, as you have pointed out, was crafted by congressman bob dornan and it was a game that was played for years. i'll never forget the game that was played. the language would say no federal funds could be used to pay for abortion. but they would allow, because we congressionally authorized local fund system of the bottom line was, the net consequence was abortion on demand, unfettered, was paid for by public funds by taxpayers. barack obama keeps saying he wants to reduce abortions. the common ground on reducing abortions is proscribing, prohibiting funding for abortion. the gutmacher organization, the research arm of planned parenthood, and planned parenthood itself continues to

say about a third of the abortions don't occur when public financing is not available. as a result of the hyde amendment, as a result of an amendment i offered back in 1983 that pro-- proscribed funding under the us a pises of the federal employees benefit plan, the dornan amendment and other amendments actually permitted, facilitating ho -- facilitated those children who otherwise would have been aborted because public financing of abortion wasn't there that's true common ground. taxpayers don't want to subsidize chemical poisoning and dismembering of unborn children. you can talk, people can talk all they want. the cheap so fistry of choice is that it does not bring into the visibility that it deserves the very act of abortion, which is the maiming, ultimately the killing of an unborn child. s the year 2009. we know more about the magnificent life of an unborn

child than ever before. microsurgeries are being done. these unborn children are the littlest patients. they can get blood transfusions. unfortunately, in some hospital rooms and clicks, they are being dismembered, chemically poisoned and being starved to death in the act of abortion which then is suggested to be a benign act. it is anything but. it's not compassion, it shows no sense of justice. the public should not be forced , compelled to finance the aabortion in the district of columbia or anywhere else. i yield back to my friend. ms. is submit: may i ask the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. mrs. schmidt: i would like to say this is a sensitive and important issue, the public has spoken outen the fact they don't want federal funds used for abortion. the president as a candidate and when he took office and in subsequent speeches said he

wants to work to reduce the number of abortions. to do that is not to allow for federal funds. i would only hope this administration would match their words with their action. i thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from colorado, mr. polis, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. polis: thank you, madam speaker. we are truly on the verge of a historic moment. we're moving closer and closer to finally achieving legislation that will put us on the right path toward true energy independence and true environmental protection. legislation that at the same time will grow our economy through clean energy jobs and by promoting investigation. in cutting edge american technology and through addressing the costly damages to our public health, economy, and environment that is coming

and will come from a changing climate. the republican party just doesn't seem to get it. they don't seem to understand that the american people know that the costs of inaction are far higher than the costs of action. and the same scare tactics and lack of creativity or faith or science or the american innovation lost in the last election won't fool the american people. madam speaker, the minority party has chose ton put this debate in oversimplified and disingenuous terms. they've decided to call our clean energy future a tax because they don't think the american people can figure out the truth that endangering our economy, our public health and our environment is what a truly taxing our nation. madam speaker, what the republicans are espousing is a tax of inaction. the republican inaction tax will cost our country many, many middle class careers. the republican inaction tax will mean harm to family farms, harm to water sources, and harm to the fastest growing sector

of american jobs, clean energy infrastructure. this republican inaction task means higher energy costs for families who won't be able to weatherize their homes or invest in energy efficiencies. the republican inaction tax will pass along growing debt tour children by leaving behind opportunities to invest in innovative sectors and businesses that we're promoting in this american clean energy and security act. the republican inaction tax will mean further devastation to our real estate market and melting solar icecaps and rising sea lefrls can cost our nation hundreds of billions of dollars in lost real estate value. this republican inaction tax will cost the american people nearly $137b99 trillion annually or 1 -- nearly 1.3 trillion annually 13% of the

tax. it's time to discuss what's really in this bill. i'd like to welcome my good friend in new mexico, martin heinrich, who has a lot to say about. mr. heinrich: we normed the environmental coalition because we believe in america's promise to become a global leader in environmental strategies. leadership and innovation is he hallmark of american success. in 1961 when president john f. kennedy said our country would lead the world by landing an american on the moon, within eight years, his goal was achieved with the apollo project. today that same innovation is present in the emerging clean energy economy. madam speaker, the opportunity for america to create thousands

of clean energy jobs that will build our 21st century economy cannot be understated. evidence of that clean energy job growth, a key component of our local economic recovery, is already visible on the ground in communities like the -- like the new mexico first congressional district, which i represent. part of this clean energy cluster growth is a result of the vast natural resources new mexico has to share. we are second in the nation in solar energy capacity and 12th in the nation for wind energy production potential. but we also have invested heavily in our human capital. one example of this success is the work being done in partnership with sandia national laboratories, which has been at the center of multiple renewable energy advancements across our country, including the creation of a high performing biofuel that can be used in military aircraft.

with sandia's help, thousands of jobs in new energy field have been created in communities, in our community by companies like advent solar and mcorp, which makes concentrated solar photo voltaics. just a month ago, i participated in the grand opening of a $100 million solar manufacturing plant in albuquerque, which is on track to employ 1rks400 people. solar array ventures is billled -- building a factory to employ a thousand people. in the rural east side of our congressional district, hundreds of people have been at work with good-paying jobs on the near-complete 100 mega watt high lonesome mesa wind pradget. madam speaker, these jobs are part of a thriving clean energy cluster that is leading our community toward economic recovery. i'm proud to report that albuquerque's clean energy job

growth recently earned us a second place national ranking in kiplinger's 2009 list. albuquerque was recognized for leading the nation in key job growth areas of tomorrow. the potential to create these kinds of clean energy jobs across our nation cannot be denied. i am proud that the 111th congress has already started investing in our clean energy future. in the american recovery and reinvestment act, we invested more than $60 billion to help jump start the clean energy jobs of tomorrow. these investments include building trands mission lines to carry solar and wind to communities in need, improving battery technology and training a new clean energy wororce and increasing energy efficiency to help our country use less energy while we strengthen our economy. i'm proud to have sponsored the clean energy promotion act, a bill that will expedite the

review of wind and solar energy pk projects on our public bureau of land management land. i also co-sponsthord national renewable energy standard legislation that's included in the current legislation to increase our country's generation of energy from renewable sources. madam speaker, in new mexico's first congressional district and the -- and across the country, we are at a crossroads. we can either cede leadership in clean energy innovations to countries like germany who is the leading solar generator in the world, even though it has the same average solar exposure as alaska, or we can jump start clean energy. we can use the same innovation that let us put a man on the moon. let's choose the path of

innovation, the path that led to american success throughout history. now is the time to take bold action on our energy policy. i yield back to my friend from colorado. mr. polis: i've heard supporters of this republican inaction task trying to argue this bill costs jobs, that somehow it's bad for the economy. a lot of what you're talking about a solar plant hiring $1,400 people in our district, job growth on the infrastructure side, it sounds to me like by passing this bill it's going to lead to more job growth in your district. is that what you're finding? mr. heinrich: i believe that's the case. what we've seen is that in the midst of this recession, the good nunes our horizon has been the quality high tech jobs in the renewable energy sector. mr. polis: earlier on, as we were walking the floor, we were talking about american ingenuity and innovation and what's possible with solar cars, i thought you could share

with us the story of what's possible. the strength of america has been innovation and ingenuity. i think this is playing to our strength as a country in terms of what's possible. mr. heinrich: as someone who got my degree in mechanical engineering back in the mid 1990's, i actually participated in a solar car team, just a group of college students that got together in the early 1990's, built a carbon fiber, lightweight solar powered vehicle we raced across the united states gerns teams from stanford and michigan and other colleges around the country. i always thought to myself, if we could do that in 1993, 15 years ago, a bunch of college students who didn't even have our degrees yet, then you the, to think of the potential that we have today with the technology and the real support of policymakers like yourself, i think the opportunities for science and for business are

absolutely endless. mr. polis: we've been joined by our colleague from new york, mr. tonko. would you like to join the conversation? mr. tonko: sure. let me thank you, mr. polis for managing our discussion on the floor. it's a pleasure to join you. i know you've been an outspoken voice for greening up our thinking as it comes to energy and the environment and the economy, three areas that are critical right now that face a crisis of some dimension and we can resolve those crises simply by moving forward with progressive policy. i thank you for providing the leadership here this evening on the floor and to join with you and our friend and colleague, representative heinrich, because you know, you're surrounded here by two mechanical engineers in background, education background. mr. heinrich: that doesn't happen on the floor very often. mr. tonko: it doesn't. it's good for us to step back and look at these issues from

an academic perspective. and to respond to them in technological terms. that's real leadership and the president, the speaker of the house nancy pelosi, leaders across the board here in the house and rank and file members have joined together to speak forcefully about just what we can accomplish if we set our sights on this innovation economy that is sparked by a green energy arena and the numbers of jobs that we can create in this clean energy career ladder. . it's a way to provide opportunities for those emerging members of the work force and train and retrain our existing work force as we look at the opportunities out there, they are immense. and representative polis, you talked about the fear and despair approach taken by some as they try to message in very negative terms the work that's being done in this area. well, a $475 billion bill that

finds money going to foreign imports for fossil-based fuels could be referenced as a tax. we might say we are paying our bills for the energy supply we need, but it's taxing our economy and more importantly it's taxing households. families that could otherwise be producing here in america the supplies we need with american jobs, american no-how, american intellect. as i listened to our representative from new mexico, as representative heinrich spoke of that global race back in -- from the decades ago from the 1960's, having heard sputnik over and over again in the elementary classroom and having seen us in a race somewhat narrower than today's race would be, you had russia, the u.s., all competing to land a person on the moon, but a vision shared by a very eloquent, articulate leader of this nation, john f.

kennedy, allow the us -- allowed us to come together in this nation and provide the kind of energy that's required to get us to thinking in positive and progressive terms t spretched our thinking. it provided loftiness to the outcoms and created career opportunities for many. that same race, global race is upon us today. and it's not like we have a choice to enter into the race. we have no choice but to be part of it. and the pressure is on for us to win. when china invests $12.7 million per hour in its greening up opportunities, that's a signal to us that we can and we must do better than we are today. and whoever emerges, whichever country emerges, the leader, the winner of that race will then be that go-to nation that will export energy intellect, energy innovation, energy ideas.

the energy capital that we can build will be extremely valuable for all of our american families. i as you know had worked at nigh serta -- nicerta before i worked here. i chaired in the new york assembly for 15 years and assumed the role of president and c.e.o. of new york state energy research and development authority. projects that found us utilizing our wind, our sun, our earth, our soil, and our water enabled us to create energy supplies for new york state. hydroken netic power that was produced simply by the turn by lens of the east river along the shortline of the island of manhattan is there as a demonstration project. and r&d project that as a prototype holds promise, great promise when deployed into the manufacturing and commercial sectors. the opportunity for geothermal where i witnessed at the

culinary institute of america, six new dorms and lodges as they are referred to utilizing geothermal as an energy source. and using the constant temperature of the earth far below us was a simple and novel idea, almost cavelike in its concept, but it is providing modern day usage. and certainly wind, solar, p.v., all being utilized in new york state as much as 1,100 megawatts worth of wind power. this is possible. it's very possible. and the jobs that we can create are countless as we go forward and it provides energy security, energy independence, and therefore i believe critically important to us, national security. we won't be putting our sons and daughters in harm's way because we won't be in the battle zone fighting over the commodity of oil and fossil-based fuels. mr. polis: what you're talking about sounds great. i mean the great spirit of american innovation, jobs being created, improving our security.

do you think that if we fail to enact this policy that will be a blow to a lot of this activity, economic activity, security activity? mr. tonko: absolutely. you know we'll have to pay some other nation for their ideas . when we spoke the other day with the sea caucus, both of you made mention, with the sustainable energy and environment coalition, the green dogs so to speak in the 111th congress, we heard from the most recent energy minister, past energy minister, that a lot of american no-how and american patents were being utilized in denmark. if we are coming up with this intellectual capacity and brainpower, what a shame if we don't invest it in our own -- for our own benefit. so the time is now to move. the time is long past that we have a comprehensive energy plan for this nation. and it was one of the motivations for me to run for congress so that we could come here and do those sound policies

that will move us into a new era of energy thinking. eclipsing us from a political generation of denial. mr. polis: i think with regard to all of the great economic activity you are talking about, when we are talking about the cost of not taking action, it's not only -- it's not only an environmental cost. it's not only the direct impact of global climate change. we are also talking about disrupting a lot of these science and research, economic activities, undermining our known national security, all these other costs. i -- it's frustrating when people try to say this costs money. you have to look at the cost of not taking action which is far greater, orders of magnitude greater than what we are talking about here. which is a practical way to boost this industry and create green jobs. mr. tonko: one of the great investment was a huge investment in ren r&d.

you need research and development and deployment are economic tools. you are using very bright minds with clever ideas putting that lab experiment together and then we need to further commit to the deployment stage. you cannot just research and develop, you then need to take that success story of which there are many and deploy them into manufacturing and the commercial use of those ideas. that's what this agenda is about. and it's not maintaining this spirit of $475 billion per year of american dollars, call it a tax, call it an investment, call it paying your bills, whatever it is, it's cash leaving us to help another economy that isn't providing any benefit because these are many -- in many cases unstabled governments and some of the most troubled spots in the world. mr. polis: we'd like to welcome our good friend, mr. connolly from virginia. mr. connolly: i'm so pleased to

join my fellow green dogs to talk about the subject. i couldn't help but pick up if i may to our friend from new york, mr. tonko, the point he was making about the power of research and development, r&d dollars, in innovative technology. let's just take the potential power of the advanced battery research. what could that do? well in the auto mowive -- automotive industry, advanced lithian bat terrorist could get you plug-in vehicles that get an average of 100 miles per gallon. if every vehicle in america got an average of 100 miles per gallon you almost wipe out the need for any imported oil in america. it's not science fiction. it's around the corner. but it needs an extra investment. it's an investment with an enormous potential return that would more than return dollars to u.s. taxpayers and of course contribute to the economy. similarly advanced battery

research is desperately needed to essentially bring the solar industry in the united states to that next step. what we lack in solar right now is the ability to really store the sun. and if we could have a breakthrough, again it's not rocket science, if we could have a breakthrough in advanced research so we could extend storage capacity so on sunny days we could store that energy on overcast days, nuclear weapons climates that aren't as warm as say the southwest where our friend, mr. heinrich, comes from in new mexico, we could absolutely transform the solar industry and make it a practical, either slement or alternative, for households and business all across the united states. what could that do in terms of job creation and reviving the manufacturing sector of the united states? an almost endless return on a

very wise investment of dollars. mr. tonko: if i might, to the comments -- two of the comments made by representative connolly of virginia, i thank him for his insight, two of those comments -- to those comments i would add that as we achieve those efficiency outcomes, we are also cleaning the environment. we have the moral responsibility to make certain that our children, our grandchildren, generations that will follow us, do not get handicapped by some sort of of situation out there like climate change, global warming, the carbon footprint that will destroy our environment. the air we breathe is essential. as stewards today of the environment that we inherited, we must pass it on to further generations, future generations in a state that is acceptable. clean and better improved so that we can achieve that. while we are on the battery

situation, i would just make quick mention of g.e. their corporate headquarters are in sken neck taddy which is housed in the 2st district -- 21st districts of new york state. they have announced to build an advanced battery manufacturing sector in the capital district region of new york. that will provide some 350 to 400 jobs for a state-of-the-art battery that will deal with sodium chloride and nickel as a combination, ating -- adding to the diversity, there are lit yum -- lithium and other batteries being encouraged, this provides diversity sound for our mix, good for our energy choices. that battery will be able to be used for heavy vehicles that is important. it can be used for intermittant energy storage. and it can be utilized also for energy generation.

so that the transportation sector, the energy generation and energy storage areas can all be addressed by this battery innovation. that is the key that can unlock the door to immense potential and opportunities of all kinds. so we are at the cusp, i believe, of tremendous discoveries here that will allow us to compete effectively in this global race to be the energy go-to nation. mr. polis: we hear about these wonderful things, battery storage technologies, jobs being created in new mexico and new york, clean electric vehicles, what we are talking about and the nexus to why this is important and what american families need to know, is the american clean energy and security act is the enabling law that allows all of this to occur. all of this great stuff that we are talking about, the job creation, the clean cars, the storage. this will all be dealt a huge blow if congress fails to act. that's why the stakes for this debate are so important. mr. heinrich. mr. heinrich: i think this whole

issue of research and development is absolutely crit cam because we have fallen behind the entire world in things that we were at the very front edge of just a few years ago. we can do so much better. when you look around at the american innovation in new york, new mexico, virginia, and colorado there is no more innovative people in the world than the american entrepreneur. i had the -- i was lucky to have the majority leader visit my district last year, so i took him out to sandia national labs. one of the places involved in the basic research and development that is rebuilding our energy economy and pushing us forward to the leadership position in the world that we deserve. and one of the things we looked at at sandia national labs was actually a process where they take solar energy and a carbon dioxide feedstock, what is currently a problem, it's