proponent an an opponent. shall not be be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to demand for division of the question in the house or in the committee of the whole. d, all points of order against amendments printed in the report of the committee on rules or amendments en bloc described in section 3 of this resolution are waived except those arising under clause 9 or 10 of rule 21. . section 3, it shall be in order at any time on the chair of the committee of armed services to offer amendments en bloc consisting of amendments in the report on the committee of rules not earlier disposed of. amendments offered en bloc pursuant to this section shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for 20 minutes equally divided by the chair and ranking minority member on the committee of armed services or their designee, shall not be subject

to amendment and shall not be subject to demand of division of the question in the house or the committee of the whole. the orange proponent of the amendment included such amendments en bloc may insert a statement in the congressional record immediately before the disposition of the amendments en bloc. section 4, the a chair of the committee of the whole may recognize for consideration of any amendment printed in the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution out of order printed, but not sooner than 30 minutes after the chair of the committee on armed services or a designee announces from the floor a request to that effect. section 5, at the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment, the committee shall rise and report the bill to the house with such amendments as may have been adopted. any member may demand a separate vote in the house on any amendment adopted in the committee of the whole to the bill or to the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the

bill and amendments thereto to final passage without any intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or without instructions. section 6, the clerk shall, a, add the text of section 2990 as passed by the house as new matter at the end of h.r. 2647. about b, conform the title of h.r. 2647 to reflect the addition to the engrossment of h.r. 2990. c, assign appropriate designations to provisions within the engrossment and, d, conform provisions with short titles in the engrossment. section 7, upon the addition of the text of h.r. 2990 to the engrossment of h.r. 2647, h.r. 2990 shall be laid on the table. section 8, during consideration of h.r. 2647, the chair may reduce to two minutes the minimum time for electronic

voting under clause 6 of rule 18 and clauses 8 and 9 of rule 20. the speaker pro tempore: the the gentlewoman from from maine is recognized for one hour. ms. pingree: mr. speaker for the purposes of debate only i yield the customary 30 minutes to the the gentleman from florida, mr. diaz-balart. all time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. pingree: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. pip ms. pingree: house resolution -- ms. pingree: house resolution provides for h.r. 2647 national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2010 unged a structured rule. last week the armed services committee reported the bill favorably to the house by unanimous vote.

the final vote came at 2:30 in the morning after 14 hours of debate. during that time, the members of the committee did not see to eye on every issue, but we did not split by party lines on every vote and we had delivering views on how to devote limited resources to endless challenges. in the end we agreed that we must take steps to keep our country safe and military prepared. we must work to eliminate wasteful spending and restore fiscal discipline and must provide our troops and families with the care they need and quality of life that is worthy of their sacrifice. mr. speaker, h.r. 2647 makes significant progress on all these fronts. it strengthens our national security by focusing resources on the most immediate and severe threats to our troops and our country. the bill enhances efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction by increasing funding for cooperative threat

reduction program and fully supporting the department of energy's nonproliferation programs. the bill cuts extensive spending, excessive spending on flawed missile defense programs and instead, invests more resources and systems that are proven to work and strategies that meet immediate threats. h.r. 2647 also takes an important step forward in strengthening accountability and increasing oversight of the defense contracting process of the the bill grows the size of the civilian acquisition work force, which will reduce our reliance on defense contractors and cut down on wasteful spending. the bill improves quality of life and care for our men and uniform in uniform, by expanding to access to education and training and increasing funding for family housing programs and by expanding tricare coverage for members of the reserve and their families prior to

mobilization. after seven years of conflict in afghanistan and iraq, this bill provides a basis for ensuring that the plans for progress are sound and that the objectives for victory are clear. the bill requires frequent reports to congress on the objectives and measurements for success in iran and afghanistan and the process of withdrawing our troops from iraq. the bill will assess strategic plans for iraq and afghanistan. congress must do everything in its power to ensure that our military strategies are working and our ultimate goals are achievable. i believe we can always do more, but i also believe that this bill provides a starting point for that process. lastly, mr. speaker, while this bill addresses broad strategic issues and threats across the globe, it has a direct impact on our districts. while communities across the

country are working to recover from this recession, other communities are preparing for tougher times ahead. in 2011, scores of military bases will close for good as a result of brac. these bases have been the backbone of communities and provided jobs, tenants, customers and neighbors, which will now be lost in a matter of years. h.r. 2647 expands the use of no- cost economic conveyances as a tool to restart communities affected by base closure. this provision allows the department of defense to transfer property to a local redevelopment authority at no cost if the land will be used for purposes of economic development. at a time of declining property values, devastating job loss and trickling economic hardship, we must provide communities with every possible tool to redevelop and re-organize.

this bill will assist in that effort. i am looking forward to completing our work on this year's defense authorization and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves her time. the gentleman from florida is recognized for 30 minutes. mr. diaz-balart: i would like to thank my friend, the the gentlewoman from from maine for the time and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. diaz-balart: while our men and women are in uniform and risking their lives in war zones, we in congress need to support them. i am proud to once again support the bipartisan national defense authorization act to honor and support the brave men and women of the united states armed forces. i also wish to commend and congratulate both armed services chairman skelton and ranking member mckeon for their commitment to put partisanship aside to get this important bill

to the floor. the national defense authorization act, which passed unanimously out of the armed services committee authorizes $550 billion for the activities of the department of defense. it also provides $130 billion to support our combat operations in iraq, afghanistan and other fronts on the war on terror. our men and women in uniform and their families have sacrificed dearly to protect the united states. that is why i'm pleased that the bill will provide our troops with a $3.-- 3.4% pay raise. furthering our commitment to our troops, the bill extends tricare eligibility to reserve members so they can receive full tricare coverage 1880 days before they

go on active duty and provides almost $2 billion for family housing programs to expand and improve the quality of military housing. the bill authorizes the expansion of the size of the military by 15,000 army troops, 8,000 marines, over 14,500 air force personnel and approximately 2,500 sailors in the navy. i would like to thank the committee and distinguished chairman for including my request for funding, authorization for construction of a new permanent headquarters for the united states southern command that is located in the congressional district that i'm honored to represent. currently, the department of defense is leasing the land for socom from a private individual. the funds authorized by this

bill will be used to build a new headquarters on land adjacent to the current location and leased from the state of florida. for the grand sum of $1 per year. this provision is extremely important to my community because socom personnel and supporting services have contributed over $1.2 billion and over 20,000 jobs to south florida's economy. mr. speaker, while i support the underlying legislation, i have deep reservations about the majority's decision to block full restoration of missile defense funding. this comes as north korea's demented despot continues to mock global condemnation of his

nuclear program and threatens the united states and our friends and allies with mass destruction. just today, an official from the north korean central news agency, a mouthpiece for the dictatorship said and i quote, if the u.s. imperialists start another war, the people and army of north korea will wipe out the aggressors once and for all. at the same time, the iranian tyranny, while it massacres its own people on the streets, continues to threaten to wipe israel off the face of the map. it is clear to me that the world faces a grave and i believe imminent threat from both of those dictatorships in north korea and iran. now is not the time to cut missile defense. since the beginning of military aviation, the united states has wisely invested in our military

air superiority. and in recent military operations, we've clearly seen our investments pay off. our military air superiority safes the lives of our men and women in uniform and also safes the lives of countless civilians. unfortunately, the obama administration feels that it is not necessary to continue our long history of development in air superiority and is calling for the termination of the f-22 fighter aircraft production, even though the chief of staff of the air force publicly called for continued production of f-22's. now thankfully the armed services committee successfully reinstated over $300 million to at least keep alive f-22 production. unfortunately, i am shown at this time a statement of administration policy where it

reads that if the final bill presented to the president contains this provision, keeping alive the f-22 production line, that the president's senior advisers would recommend a veto. mr. speaker, i think that's most unfortunate. i'm concerned that the majority failed to support a repeal of the so-called widow's tax. this provision penalizes surviving spouses of service members who die on active duty or from service-related conditions, by forcing them to accept a dollar-for-dollar reduction in order to receive tax-free indemnity ti and compensation from the agency of veterans affairs. i have co-sponsored two pieces of legislation with mr. buyer to remedy this injustice and i hope congress will soon address it.

now as supportive as i am of the underlying legislation, i must oppose the rule brought forth by the majority. prior to the consideration of the rule, members from both sides of the aisle submitted 129 amendments to the rules committee. the vast majority of amendments, 79, were introduced by members of the majority party. last night, the majority on the rules committee decided to make in order for discussion on this floor 2/3 of the majority amendments and 1/3 of the minority amendments. last week, when members of the minority submitted a number of amendments to the commerce, justice, science appropriations bill, the minority claimed that the majority were using dilatory tactics and shutting down amendments. this week when majority members offered a large number of amendments, the majority rewarded them for doing their

jobs and representing their constituents, by allowing 51 of their amendments for debate at the house. my members on this side of the aisle were once again punished by the majority for doing their jobs and were only allowed 11 amendments. the majority got about five times the number of amendments made in order than the minority. and i think that's unfair. . what does the majority gain by using such an unfair process? in reality nothing more than ending comity and diminishing the stature of this house and its members. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from maine. ms. pingree: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield three minutes to the gentleman from iowa, a member of the committee on armed services, mr. loebsack. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. loebsack: mr. speaker, i

thank the the gentlewoman from maine for yielding. i would also like to thank in particular chairman skelton and ranking member mckeon for their leadership in crafting this legislation before us. this year's national defense authorization act takes significant steps forward in supporting our national guard and reserve. earlier this month iowa observed the one-year anniversary of the floods that devastated large parts of my district. the iowa national guard played a critical role in the response to those floods and their heroic work is a testament to the vital function the national guard plays in domestic disaster response, even as their role and operations abroad increases. nationwide more than $700,000 national guard and reserve soldiers have been cold to duty since september 11 2001 much. as the national guard continues to transform into an operational reserve, it is

essential that they are properly resourced for both their overseas and homeland missions this. bill provides $6.9 billion. $600 million more than the president's request. to address equipment shortfalls in the reserve components. it also extends health care coverage for the national guard and reserve and makes essential investments in national guard facilities. including the fairfield, cedar rapids, and middletown facilities in my district. i am very proud also that the ndaa includes an amendment i offered with ms. bordallo to improve national guard readiness by requiring the secretary of the army to report to congress on the creation of a trainee's transens and students account. at any given time 13.3% of the army national guard is nondeployable. and this account would serve as

a temporary unit for these soldiers. in so doing it would end the practice of borrowing sold frers one unit in order to improve the readiness of another. and will improve both morale and overall readiness. i strongly urge support for the rule and for the underlying bill. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. diaz-balart: it's my privilege to yield three minutes to the distinguished republican whip, mr. cantor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. cantor: i thank the speaker. i thank the gentleman from florida. mr. speaker, today we are considering the rule for a bill to develop and deploy defensive capabilities for the protection of the american people, our stationed men and women and our allies. the rising threat from north korea and iran highlights why our national security strategy must include a comprehensive multilayered and robust missile

defense program to protect our homeland. both of these rogue nations, mr. speaker, provocatively flaunt their growing capabilities with long-range missiles and nuclear programs. just last week we learned that north korea is planning to launch a missile towards the u.s. around the fourth of july holiday. to repeat phrase used by our president just last week, these regimes pose a grave threat to the safety and security of our citizens and our allies. yet the bill which is the subject of this rule, mr. speaker, sustains an inexplicable $1.2 billion cut from the missile defense budget. mr. speaker, the question before us is very simple. how do we reconcile gutting missile defense when it will defend against what our own president rightfully calls a grave threat?

it simply doesn't make sense. the cuts include a 35% reduction to the ground base mid course defense program, a system located in alaska and california for the purpose of protecting this country against the type of missiles north korea is gearing up to launch. this is not the time to be reducing our commitment to missile defense. we must find the current missile defense system -- we must fund the current missile defense system that protects us today and the forward-looking programs that will protect us tomorrow. mr. speaker, we must restore the $1.2 billion cut from the missile defense program today. i yield the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from maine. ms. pingree: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, the chair of the committee on financial services, mr. frank. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. frank: mr. speaker, i cannot remember the last time i was as deeply disappointed in

the actions of people with whom i generally agree and continue to admire as i am by this rule. president obama to his credit has become the first president to try to put on to military spending the same kind of notion that resources are limited, that people apply elsewhere. military spending in which old threats are continued to be dealt with while new threats are dealt with make it impossible for us to talk about curtailing a deficit without doing savage damage elsewhere. to his credit president obama and secretary gates said we do not need to build more f-22's. was conceived to defeat the soviet union in war. it's over. it's a wonderful weapon. it just has a terrible defect for a weapon. no enemy. no military mission. it will never be fired in anger. it is bad enough that the committee by only a 31-30 vote

undercut this president's effort to begin to apply fiscal discipline everywhere. sure military is important, but health care is important. and highway safety is important. and local police are important. all of those impinge on our life and all must be dealt with with discipline in the fiscal area except military against the past. i was particularly disappointed when the rules committee because of some in the leadership decided not even to allow us to debate it. a major initiative of the new president to curtail excess military spending is overturned by one vote in committee and we are not even allowed to debate it. i have to say to my republican friends, it is clear to me their interest in open debate is selective. they are for open debate anything they want to debate. they were opposed to this amendment coming on as well. there is no consistency or principle let's have open debate. let's get what we want and forget about the rest. it has been said that truth is the first casualty of war.

apparently integrity and consistency are the first casualties of a military bill. i heard members a say few months ago, an economic recovery program, federal government spending can't bring jobs, federal government spending adds to the deficit, it doesn't bring jobs. lo and behold the f-22 became a jobs bill. it's what i call weaponized keynesianism. only if you're building weapons, particularly ones not used, is there a stimulative effect on the economy. secondly we are told we have to deal with the deficit. the president made a beginning in trying to curtail military spending on weapons he says we do not need. if this bill goes through as it apparently will because we could not even debate it, his efforts will be undercut. the floodgates will be opened. and any effort to have reasonable constraints on military spending as we have on police and fire and emergency medical and other things that are important for health and safety will be undercut. this is a terrible decision and

a terrible precedent. of course to add injury to injury, they did it by taking money out of environmental cleanup. mr. diaz-balart: i simply want to point out to my friend -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida. mr. diaz-balart: i wanted to point out to my friend that despite the fact that we support the committee having maintained the production line for the f-22, we made a motion in committee for an open rule that would have permitted the gentleman's amendment. mr. frank: would the gentleman yield? mr. diaz-balart: i will yield. mr. frank: i will acknowledge that. i was in error. it had been reported to me there were votes against it. i apparently got bad information and i thank the gentleman for that futile gesture on my behalf. mr. diaz-balart: i thank the gentleman for his debate despite the fact that we are in disagreement on this issue. he's a great parliamentarian. and it's an honor to serve with him. at this time i yield three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from washington, mr.

hastings. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank my friend from florida for yielding time. mr. speaker, there is no greater priority for the federal government than the defense of our nation. and the defense authorization bill is a vehicle for setting military priorities for our country. but this bill also has jurisdiction over the nation's defense nuclear waste cleanup program administered by the department of energy. the environmental management program within the department is responsible for cleaning up the waste of our nation's nuclear weapons production sites. production sites like hanford in my district that secured our nation's victory in world war ii and in the cold war. as a result of that work, these sites are now contaminated with massive volumes of radioactive and hazardous waste. the federal government has a legal obligation to clean up

these sites. as this bill has moved through the process, there have been several proposals by both democrats and republicans to boost specific military projects by reducing the authorization for nuclear waste funding. mr. speaker, let's be clear on what these proposals are really about. it's about setting our nation's defense priorities and not a judgment on the merits of cleaning up our nuclear waste sites. the nuclear cleanup program is being used as a piggy bank for these priorities since, mr. speaker, it's the only sizable source of funds within this bill that doesn't directly fund our troops or equipment. now, mr. speaker, i know why nuclear cleanup is being used by both parties as a piggy bank. i absolutely don't support those actions and i will vote against those actions. but in doing so i want to be clear that it is in the

appropriations process where cleanup money becomes real. insufficient funding in the appropriation process would have real and serious consequences on cleaning up these sites. the cleanup program simply cannot sustain continued appropriation reductions without jeopardizing progress, breaking legally binding commitments to states, and increasing long-term cost to taxpayers. mr. speaker, for 15 years i have worked in a bipartisan way to raise awareness of the federal government's cleanup obligation and to remind my colleagues again that the effort at these sites help us when both world war ii and the cold war. i will continue to stand up for cleanup where needed. in doing so, i am determined that the effort to promote cleanup be a bipartisan effort. with that i thank my friend from florida for yielding. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from maine. ms. pingree: mr. speaker, i yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from arizona, a member of the committee on armed services, ms. giffords. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for three minutes. miss giffords -- ms. giffords: i rise today in support of this bill and to raise the ranking member and the subcommittees and the staff for getting this bill right. this week we are having a great debate about energy in our country. most americans don't realize the department of defense is responsible for approximately 80% of all the energy used by the federal government. the final bill that we were able to pass out of committee this week includes groundbreaking language to encourage continued advances on responsible energy. working with the department we included a series of new reporting requirements. we increase the use of electric and hybrid vehicles. we speed up the development of biofuels. and we encourage