burden the chilling effect of this amendment to the department of defense may be forced to reduce efforts to assist wounded warriors and otherwise help service members solve their problems. . i commend them for their worthy goal. but in the lesson taught me by my professor, mr. fratcher, reading it makes it impossible for the department of defense to comply with it. so consequently, i seriously strongly oppose this amendment. the chair: the gentleman from missouri reserves. the gentleman from missouri. mr. akin: i yield one minute to the gentleman from the armed services committee, mr. mckeon. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for one minute.

mr. mckeon: this would require the secretary to report on nondisclosure agreements in deform o.d. the use of nondisclosure agreements is a new and troubling effort to silence our members of the military. congress cannot sit back and let the department of defense stiff arm us. congress has the constitutional duty oraise and support armies, to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. we can't allow the department of defense to allow us -- to prevent us executing our constitutional duty. i understand the gentleman has problems with the language, but i urge him to support the amendment and work on this in congress. we need to know what we need to know to do our duty. with that, i ask support of our amendment and yield back the

balance of my time. mr. skelton: i yield one minute to my friend this gentleman from new jersey, mr. andrews. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. andrews: here's the concern i have about this amendment. let's say we have a servicemember suspected of sharing information with another country or somebody he shouldn't share it with and those who investigate the defense enter into a confidentiality agreement not to share the information. as i read this, within two weeks of that agreement, they would have to report it to congress. i don't see any language that says the disclosure would have to be done not to damage the investigation. last difference between transparency and are redundancy.

we need transparency to do our constitutional job but if we have paralysis, we'll impair the executive branch from doing its job. we support the idea of the amendment but oppose the amendment. the chair: the gentleman from missouri has one minute remaining and the other gentleman from missouri has 1 1/2 minutes remaining and the right to close. mr. akin: i very much appreciate the cooperation that's always exissed on the armed services committee. i hate red tape and paperwork and am very open minded to work along these lines. i think our concerns are very much the same on this issue and i look forward to working with you. unfortunately, in trying to get the thing drafted the way we wanted, we ran out of time today. we're just going ahead, offering the amendment. but i look forward to working

as we have time in the weeks ahead. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from missouri. mr. skeleton: the bill that we send to the senate and subsequently to the president for his signature is supposed to mean exactly whate says. it's in the english language, it's clear, and we expect the department of defense to follow it to the letter. those we direct, duty -- those we direct duties to, to fulfill those duties correctly and to send them a message that cannot be fulfilled, sadly, that this amendment requires, is just wrong. consequently, i oppose this and hope that it will not pass. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from missouri. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

in the opinion of the chair, the noes have it. mr. akin: if i could ask for a recorded vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18 further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from missouri will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri rise? mr. skelton: mr. chairman, pursuant to h.res. 572, i offer amendments en bloc entitled number two. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendments en bloc. the clerk: amendments en bloc consisting of amendments numbered 10, 11, 23, 28, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 56, and 58. offered by mr. skelton of missouri. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 572, the gentleman

from missouri, mr. skeleton and the gentleman from missouri, mr. -- and the gentleman from california, mr. mckeon will each control five minutes. mr. skelton: i urge adoption of the amendments and i yield two minutes to mr. kratovil. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. kratovil: i rise in support of the en bloc amendment and i -- two specific amendments i offered are included and i urge my colleagues to support the measures. the first urges stability and security in afghanistan. it requires a comprehensive assessment othat improves our understanding of the role being played by our coalition partners in afghanistan. my amendment requires that any specifics shared with nato countries as well as non-nato

troop contributing nations regarding the following -- mutually agreed upon goals, strategies to reach those goals and troop and resource levels. it also requires a listing of unfulfilled commitment of partners and the data for each reconstruction team from anywhere but the united states. current law permits installations to receive financial incentives for energy management measures, only from electric utility not a third-party provider afpbledruse air force base was poised to accept $300,000 for reducing their usage but was advised they had no authority to accept from any entity over than a yulity. my amendment would give them the authority to accept incentives from third-party

providers. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield myself such time as i macon susme the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mckeon: while i will not oppose the amendment, i rise in opposition to express concern with the way the amendment is drafted. it would remove funding from lightweight torpedos to convert two vehicles for use. a separate amendment in the base bill directs the maritime administration to con summit with the navy before disposing of these vessels, should the maritime administration receive title to them through default on the throfpblee navy stated they may have are an interest in the vessels would but would likely have to make significant

imprumpletes in them to render them useful. should the navy determine that these vehicles have military utility, i would not object to the navy leasing and converting these commercial ferries. but i do ask the chairman and the gentleman from mississippi to work with me in conference with the other body to find an alternate offset for this. though the g.a.o. indicated there may be more than $50 million in excess funds for the lightweight torpedo program, the navy is in gaucheuations to precure at least 30 more torpedo upgrade kits with part of this money. in addition, they're moving to a full and open competition for the upgrade kits starting in 2010. the reduction is more than a third of the request and would substantially limit the navy's ability to complete this pam and continue to buy more upgrade kits.

the navy is using the pressure of the future computation is get the best price possible on upgrade kits this year. the upgrade kits are necessary to provide -- to upgrade grade the torpedos against quiet submarines. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey. >> i'm pleased to yield one minute to the gentlady from illinois, ms. schakowsky. the chair: the gentleman is -- the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. schakowsky: i'm pleased that mr. skelton included one of my amendments in en bloc number two and one in en bloc number three. it would gyp date the database which collects information about civil, criminal and

administrative proceedings that result in the conviction or finding of fault against u.s. businesses holding government contracts. currently access to the database is limited to chairman and ranking members of certain committee. the second requires annual reporting on individuals responsible for overseeing contracts, include regular ports of how many dollars are each contracting officer is responsible for. and a report on how many contracting officers are themselves contract employees. in 2008, the g.a.o. found that 42% of army contract specialists are themselves contracts. the amendment would ensure that we have access to information illustrating changes in the contract oversight workforce that will help us in improving defense contracting. i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from missouri. mr. akin: i rise now to yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from kentucky, congressman whit

field. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. whitfield: i rise to support the en bloc amendments. all of us know all too well that many one nene -- young men and women returning from iraq and afghanistan have suffered serious physical and emotional injuries. camp lejeune, camp pendleton, fort campbell, kentucky, and walter reed have rehabilitative programs that includes the therapeutic use of animals to treat these wounded warriors and preliminary results show the programs are particularly effective. in the en bloc amendment, i have an amendment that directs the department of defense working with h.h.s. and the veterans' administration to conduct a study to determine whether the use of therapeutic -- the therapeutic use of

animals to treat these wounded warriors should be expanded to other facilities and military installations around the country. i urge support of the en bloc amendment and this amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey. >> i yield one minute to mr. cummings of maryland. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cummings: thank you for yielding. i rise in strong support of a great bill, fiscal year defense of 2010. by including the national guard and reserves, we ensure that d.o.d. does not present quonk an incomplete recommendation regarding the misrepresentation of the -- the representation of gender and ethnic specific groups within the armed

services. my passion is to ensure that our armed services are representative of america and of the leadership -- and that the leadership line he reflects our diversity and this amendment ensures when the study and competition of this is calculated, the national guard and reserve are included. we can and must do better for the sake of future gender and ethnic-specific groups that will join the ranks to ensure minority representation and leadership. with that, i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: we'll reserve the balance of our time. the chair: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new jersey. >> i yield one minute to our friend and colleague the outstanding new member from florida, mr. grayson, one minute. the chair: the gentleman from florida is recognized for one minute. mr. grayson: thank you.

thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the chairman of the committee that's allowing these amendments to go forward. this is a great bill and in particular i'm happy to say we have a good amendment here that will finally get a hold of the subject of cost everruns. i worked in defense procurement for 20 years and worked fighting war profiteers in iraq before i came here. one of the dirty, dark secrets of testifies contracting is that contractors buy. in that's a term used by contractors to explain the situation where they compete for a time and materials contract or a cost reimbursement contract, they propose a certain cost or price, knowing they can't meet that cost or price, they get the contract and overcharge the government. we need to get a fix on this so we can end it. the first amendment i offered to this bill is an amendment to have the g.a.o. identify cost overruns on a systematic basis and report to congress in 90

days. i hope that will give us a good fix on the scope of the problem and explain what we can do to end this terrible tragedy that ends of cheating the taxpayer and the troops. the chair: the gentleman from california. . mr. mckeon: i continue to reserve. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey. mr. andrews: i yield to mr. lipinski, one minute. mr. lipinski: i want to thank chairman skelton for accepting this amendment. this is to recover the 564 men to died in the a battle and still unaccounted for. in 19431,100 service men were lost in 76 hours as the island was taken from the japanese. it resulted in make shift graves now missing. acting now to find and relocate the bodies are particularly important because the development on the small island threatens the search. most importantly mired marine william nevin has documented the likely location of many of

the unaccounted for remains. they have used ground penetrating radar to find remains. unfortunately d.o.d. has no plans to do research. i would like to commend a vietnam marine for this issue. the chair: without objection. mr. lipinski: i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from california has seven minutes remaining. and the gentleman from new jersey has 4 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. mckeyon: -- mr. mckeon: we have no further speakers. mr. andrews: it's my pleasure to yield one minute who is the gentlelady of the chair of the water resources subcommittee, the gentlelady from texas, ms. johnson. the chair: the gentlewoman texas is recognized for one minute. ms. johnson: let me thank the leadership of the committee for this fine bill. i have an amendment that requires the department of defense to report on the need

for and availability of mental health care services for service members and their families that are stationed overseas. many face depression and post dramatic stress syndrome and are suicidal risk while trying to recover and readjust their lives. we have had re of this because we have had so many militaries members to have to go back to the same war. more than one time. and only a small percentage of them have been able to get any support. i thank our chairman for accepting this amendment and i ask unanimous consent to put into the record my entire statement. the chair: without objection. who seeks time? the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: at this time i yield one minute to my friend, the gentleman from maryland,

mr. lar baynes. -- sarbanes. the chair: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for one minute. mr. sarbanes: i want to salute chairman skelton on this bill and accepting an amendment we crafted that would promote efficiency in the federal procurement process. this amendment would create a procurement professionalism advisory panel. my interest in this comes from two perspectives. one was serving on the oversight and government reform committee last session and seeing many instances of fraud and abuse we can do something about. and also working with contractors in my district who want to make sure that their partner on the other side of the table, the federal government, is strong and has good procurement. so this advisory panel will focus on whether the government's procurement personnel have adequate resources, are adhering to high ethical standards, are receiving high quality professional development and otherwise being the best that they can be which will ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the procurement process. with that i yield back my time. the chair: the gentleman yields

back the balance of his time. the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: i yield one minute to my colleague, the gentleman from new york, mr. weiner. the chair: the gentleman from new york is recognized for one minute. mr. weiner: thank you very much. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. let me express the great gratitude to the chairman and ranking member for including language that i had suggested and also to improving general transparency in the bill. language that i inserted that hopefully will be part of the manager's amendment when passed will ask the g.a.o. the fundamental question not only how much do the wars in iraq and afghanistan cost to our federal terps. but how much cost localities like my where literally hundreds of thousands of hours have been lost by broughtic new yorkers, particularly in homeland security jobs like police and fire and e.m.s. going off to fight on the front and jet the city taxpayers still wind up paying for it. it is hundreds of thousands of hours that have been lost. obviously the primary cost of the war is the lost life and injured men and women who serve for us.

we should always keep them in our thoughts and prayers. there also is a growing cost to localities, particularly ones with profound numbers of employees that new york city does, how much this is costing. the g.a.o. will have to come back to us, tell all of us in our localities how many reservist vs. gone off and the local taxpayers wind up picking up the cost. these are posh things to know and i thank the chairman to include it. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california has seven minutes remaining. and the gentleman from missouri has 1 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. mckeon: we continue to reserve. the chair: the gentleman from california continues to reserve. the gentleman from missouri has 1 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. skelton: mr. chairman, this is an excellent series of amendments that we have placed en bloc and i want to express my appreciation not only to the staff but to the minority, to

the ranking member on the work that they have done in agreeing to these amendments and making this effort today move forward very, very smoothly. with that i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from missouri yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield back. the chair: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from missouri. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to.

mr. skelton: mr. chairman. the chair: the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: at this time i ask unanimous consent to reorder

amendment number 20 -- the chair: the gentleman will suspend. mr. skelton: en bloc number 4 and give notice now to do so. the chair: notice has been given. it is now in order to consider -- mr. skelton: parliamentary inquiry. what was the ruling on the previous recommendation?

the chair: notice was given to take amendment number 20 in a different order. mr. skelton: i thank the chair. mr. cummings: i have an amendment. the clerk: -- cord the clerk will designate the amendment. does the gentleman from maryland seek to offer an amendment? mr. cummings: i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 24, printed in house report number 111-182, offered by mr. cummings of maryland. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 572, the gentleman from maryland, mr. cummings, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: thank you very much, mr. chairman. i extend my deep thanks to chairman skelton for working so closely with me on this amendment and i applaud his leadership of the armed sr. visses committee. -- services committee. as chairman of the subcommittee on maritime and transportation, i convened two hearings to

examin maritime piracy including one in maine after two u.s. flag vessels, the mass alabama and liberty sun both of which were carrying u.s. food aid were attacked by somali pie lats. the attack against the alabama left the american captain hostage to the pirates. he was freed only the decisive intervention of u.s. military forces. incidents of piracy in the horn of africa region are increasing. according to the intentional maritime bureau in 2008, there were 111 actual and attempted somali pirate attacks resulting in the hydrogenings -- hijacks of 42 vessels. by mid may of this year, there had already been 114 actual and attempted somali pirate attacks resulting in 29 successful hijacks. nonetheless despite the obvious threat to the united states

mariners, department of defense has been inexpleckably reluctant to directly secure u.s. flag vessels transiting the horn of africa region. even when they are carrying government-owned cargos. while i have no doubt that our military would respond immediately if another u.s. flag vessel is attacked, the timeliness of their response could be hindered if navy assets are far from the scene. further, it's truly preferable to prevent an incidents from occurring rather than respond to a hostage situation. however the d.o.d. has repeatedly argued including in testimony before my subcommittee that the area in which the pirates operate is so vast the navy simply cannot prevent every attack by conducting patrols and the vessels should protect themselves. this perspective assumes that the only way the military can protect merchant shipping from pirates is to stage vessels across the entire million square mile theater of operations. frankly, there are other ways to protect our merchant fleet.

united states maritime administration estimates that approximately 54 u.s. flag vessels transit the horn of africa region during the course of the year. of these about 40 will carry u.s. government food aid, cargos, and 44 have the ability to carry u.s. military cargo. only a handful of these vessels are estimated to be at serious risk of attack by pirates due to their operating characteristics. given these figures, my amendment would require the department of defense to embark military security personnel on u.s. flag messles carrying united states government cargos when they transit pirate invested -- infested waters if they are deemed to be at risk of being boarded by pirates. mr. chairman, the maritime -- u.s. maritime labor unions collectively testified before my subcommittee in support of the immediate provision to u.s. flag vessels by the government of the force protection necessary to protect any --

prevent any further acts of piracy against them. in keeping with that position, the transportation department of afl-cio, the marine engineers beneficial society, and others support this legislation. the maritime unions also wrote in their testimony when a vessel flies a united states flag, it becomes an extension of the united states itself regardless of where it is in -- is operating in the world. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from maryland reserves the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? mr. mckeon: while not opposed to the amendment offered by the gentleman from maryland, i claim the time in opposition to express some reservations i have about the amendment. the chair: without objection, the gentleman from california is recognized for fufe minutes. mr. mckeon: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mckeon: mr. cummings' amendment would require the secretary of defense to place military personnel on u.s. flag vessels operating in high-risk piracy areas of the world's oceans. the gentleman's intention is