the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 230 and the nays are 177. the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the resolution is adopted. ms. foxx: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from north carolina. ms. foxx: on that i request the

yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays l&@

the speaker pro tempore: on th

-- on this vote --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 226 and the nays are 179. the resolution is agreed to. without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to h.res. 560 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 560, resolution expressing support for all iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and rule of law and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution. members will record e%r

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 405, the nays are one with two members voting present. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? >> mr. speaker, by direction of the committee on armed services, i present a privilege red port to acompmy --

accompany house resolution for filing under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: clerk will report the title. the clerk: resolution directing the secretary of defense to transfer to the house of representatives the fiscal year 201030-year -- 2010 30-year shipbuilding plan as required by section 231 of title 10, united states code. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? >> by direction of the committee on armed -- mr. boozman: i -- by direction of the committee on armed services i report a resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the chair: the -- the clerk: the plan relating to long-term aviation plans of the department of defense as required by section 231-a of title 10 united states code.

the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise? ms. wasserman schultz: pursuant to house resolution 559, i call up h.r. 2918, appropriations for the legislative branch for fiscal year 2010 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the lytle. the clerk: a bill making provisions for the legislative branch for fiscal year 2010 and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursnt to house resolution

559, the bill is considered read. after one hour of debate on the bill, it shall be in order to consider the amendment printed in house report 111-161, if offered by the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. mccarthy, or her designee, which shall be in order without intervention of any point of order or demand for division of the question, shall be considered read and shall be debatable for 0 minutes, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. the gentlewoman from florida, ms. wasserman schultz, and the gentleman from alabama, mr. aderholt, will each control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 2198. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered.

the gentlelady will suspend. house will come to order. members please bring their conversations off the floor. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. wasserman schultz: i yield myself such time as i may consume. madam speaker and mens, i'm -- and members, i'm proud to present the legislative branch appropriations bill to the house. the jurisdiction of this bill is incredibly important. we as members have responsibility not just for the institution, but for the staff that work for this institution and to preserve the facilities that help support this institution. we have endeavored to do that responsibly and i believe we have accomplished that goal. it has been an incredible privilege and pleasure to work with my colleague, the gentleman from alabama, mr. aderholt. we have crafted a bipartisan bill, worked together every step of the way, and i just wanted to acknowledge him at

the very outset to thank him for all his good work and tell him what a pleasure he has been to work with. madam speaker, i also want to thank, on behalf of if i may, the house of representatives, all of the staff that work not just for the house of representatives but for every legislative branch agency because this bill is designed to support them. this bill is designed to make sure they can do the work they need to be able to do for the record for -- in order for us to serve our constituents in the most effective way possible. on behalf of the house of representatives, both myself and mr. aderholt -- >> the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the gentlelady will suspend. members will take their conversations off the floor. house will be in order. the gentlewoman from florida may resume. ms. wasserman shulingts: on behalf of the house of representatives, if i -- ms. wasserman shulingts: on behalf

of the house of representatives if i may, we owe a true debt of gratitude. we as members of the house of representatives get quite a bit of the glory are and attention and focus, but it is our staff, both the ones who work for us in our own member offices, but also throughout this chamber and across every legislative branch agency that are toiling in the wilderness, so to speak, and are the unsung heroes that make the wheels of the legislative process turn we can't think them enough. this is a bill that attempts to fulfill our responsibilities at two different levels. we focused on two main tasks in the legislative branch bill. we tried to provide the right balance of funding in a prudent way for each existing office, agency and program to support the day-to-day operations of the congress. the bill provides a total of $3.68 billion, 6.8% above 2009 levels. a majority of those funds go to two greatest priorities in the

bill. life safety issues because if we don't address the back log of life safety and deferred maintenance that exists in all our facility we won't have the facilities to work in and the treasures of the facilities we work in every single day is what our role is in the legislative branch. we must preserve them through the generations as they have been preserved for us to work in today. in addition, the bill, as tra is tradition, reserves funds for later action by the senate on their issues to operate the senate. that is customary. we have been able to provide for all mandatory cost increases and a limited number of program enhancements as well. in spite of the fact we were able to do that, there are a number of things we were unable to do because our focus in the markup on this bill was to fund the got to haves, not the nice to haves. there are so many nice tvs we could have and that make sense

and would be appropriate but we wanted to make sure we crafted a frugal and fiscally responsible piece of legislation which is why the bill, as drafted, as written, is 281 -- is $281 million below the amount requested a source of pride for all members of the committee. let me summarize a few key amounts. the bill includes $1.4 billion for the operations of the house. an increase of $75 million or 5.8% over the 2009 enacted level but $120 million below the amount requested. we have appropriated $660 million of this amount for the m.r.a. of interest to members and as was discussed during the rule we also include in that -- within the budget an allocation for the clerk of the house of $4.6 million to finally replace the antiquated 33-year-old voting system that we use here electronically in the chamber so we no longer have to have it

held together by the duct tape that its inner workings are held together by. $325.1 million is provided for the capitol police. that's sufficient to maintain their current officer strength. there was a request we did not fund to increase the number of officers. it was felt although the capitol police is working diligently toward getting their fiscal house in order and chief morris is to be commended for that, they are not quite there yet and arding to the strength of theirs for did not make sense until they -- of their force did not make sense until they get a handle on their overtime and who is where in the capitol police structure. $607.4 million is included for the library of congress a 6.6% increase over the 2009 level. it includes $22 million for the library to fund their high priority initiatives, which also includes $15 million for technology upgrades. it also includes the full

amount, lebs will be interested to know, requested for the copyright office, there is a tremendous back log in the copyright office which the committee add report language to address. we are concerned about the back log and will be pushing to get a handle on it as well as full funding for the books for the blind program. the bill includes $146.2 million for the government printing office. a 4% increase. finally it provides $4.8 million for the g.a.o. they have tremendously increase responsibility, that's a 5.2% increase. we need to make sure they can conduct the accountability responsibilities they have and they do such a good job doing. beyond the core funding for the day-to-day operations, we've largely focused on two long-term priorities as well. we are first taking a more aggressive approach to dealing with the backlog of deferred maintenance needs of our aging capitol complex. as we have said and i risk saying this on the house floor,

this is not the sexiest of committees in the -- of the 12 appropriations committees, but it's one that's incredibly important for us to be able to preserb the institution and the facilities in the institution we serve in. the bill includes funding for 23 high priority projects requested by the architect of the capitol. beyond the immediate needs, the bill includes, and this is something that's a great source of pride to the members of the committee and we want to thank chairman obey for his leadership on this $60 million to establish a new historic buildings revitalization trust funds. we have a number of major, major facilities projects coming up, including the renewable of the canon office building, as well as the restlation of the capitol dome, which will cost in the range of $100 million, that's not a hit this budget can take on a year to year basis, so we're going to begin to bank funds in that trust fund and only allow the appropriation for that project

-- for those projects out of that trust fund. we tried to deal, most importantly, i think, the challenge of retaining the best and brightest that come and work for us in the house of representatives. we are fortunate to have young people who are brilliant and who put aside a lot of other opportunities to devote themselves to public service and come to work for us. what happens is inevitably, because we are not competitive in the benefits we provide or the pay we give them we end up losing them. we train them we get them ready and we end up losing them down the road to other career alternatives. we're committed to dealing with this retention problem in the legislative branch appropriations bill and we did several different things in order to be able to do that. we increased funding for the m.r.a. accounts to grow salaries. it is important that we be able to pay, not astronomical suns to our staff but an appropriate amount of salary to make sure we hold on to the best and

brightest we are able to attract. it includes two additional benefits not currently provide we felt were important. we have been trying to get a sense from employees what their needs are and this bill anticipates two of those. we fund $3.5 million for a tuition reimbursement program for all house employees and $1 million in child care benefits for our lower income employees. making sure that we can take away the angst of not having quality child care or being able to afford child care is an important thing for us to be able to do for our very valuable staff. again, i want to thank mr. aderholt and mr. lewis, the ranking member of the full committee, for their incredible cooperation. it has been an absolute pleasure to work with them. i want to thank both of our staffs who really work so hard every day to make us look good. this is -- these bills are not crafted overnight, madam speaker, and there is painstaking effort and detail that goe