times." it was difficult to have information when you are on the ground and ten at the end of the day reading a 700-word write-ups. at most i would have to look at my -- the messages being funneled through my facebook. it's a matter of calling around on fixed line networks and just figuring out what the rumor mill is saying and then making a snap decision, do we go or not go? and then we had the snipers on the rooftops being ordered to shoot. the state's television was -- kept on broadcasting these are illegal demonstrations. everyone who goes there will be dealt with extremely hashly. >> calling whom? you call around and you say what's substantial or not, who do you call? >> well, i call people that i knew when i lived there or people that i'd met in the demonstrations who were clearly taking some kind of leadership role. .

university dormitories with one of the student protest leader is glued to his cell phone, directing people where to go, the idea of stretching the police so they would not all focus on one area, tiring the mouth, or these impromptu traffic jams that you saw, which were not so impromptu because they blocked the passage of those columns of riot police that would go and basically sort of engaged in firefighting. this is also something that came up when i was in my interrogation cell where the younger in teradata said to me that i'm a work for the intelligence ministry, but it was all hands on deck during the post-election on rest -- unrest, and i was on a motor bike riding behind the guy who was steering,

and the only thing to protect myself was a tear gas canister into a radio -- and a two-wave radio, and it adjusted as the places where there were threatening to overwhelm the security forces. it was an interesting game cat and mouse, but you did not know at the time who was the cat and who was the mass. most of the time, it was the security forces, but it was interesting to be in jail and get the glove side of that. >> wish to point out -- it was interesting to be in jail and get the foot side -- the flipside of that. you have people who would really messages when it was difficult for them to put things on their web sites or get information out. . >> several others most who are

in this country now and are very closely tied to the opposition movement. so they would also be able to act as spokes people and pass information. use your own sense whether the footage is so raw that it's -- i think it's impossible to fake. you see people screaming, death dot dictator. you see people being hit and you see people dying on the street an you know this is real. so it is for all the efforts that the iranian government has made, they have not been able to shut off this kind of communication. it continues. monday is national students day

in iran. i checked, it goes back to 1953 when the iranian armed forces stormed tehran university where there was a protest demonstration. i guess against the reinstallation of the shah and killed three students. the islamic government has national student day every december 7. there will be demonstrations despite the fact that the government has rounded up scores of student activists. everybody knows this is the day when you go out on campus and i'm pretty sure they will protest. then we have two days after christmas is the most important muslim holy day and another day when people are allowed to go out on the streets. the iranian calendar will continue to set up opportunities for protests. there's nothing the government can do about that. >> question back in the back.

microphone will come around. >> i have a question i guess for you both. i was struck by the comment that you felt that you were in a new iran when you arrived there in 2009, a very different iran than two years earlier in 2007 and you gave some hints. could you contrast the two a little more. and explain what you think the changes were. and i suppose from that point of view, particularly as an outsider like i am, i read things and go to lectures like this, were their signs along the way that these pressures were building? >> i think one of the biggest signs that there was going to be a sea change was in 2002, but several years after the election and basically set off that

firestorm of reformism, which in some points actually resembled some kind of rock concert, the fervor which people embraced them, there was a meeting of the conservatives and it was said, we are on the ropes and we have to find a way of getting back and we are going to start slowly. and they started with the parliamentary elections or city councils and they built up to 2005 and to the presidency itself, which was contested and won by somebody who was relatively unknown ahmadinejad but was very much a known quantity within these circles. how did this affect ordinary life in iran? i arrived a few months before ahmadinejad was elected president and there was panic and breast beating at the time,

but very few things changed on the surface of things at least if you lived in certain parts of tehran. traveling around the country, people are fed up. the reformist experiments had largely had been judged to have been a failure and they wanted something different. obama gets elected on the slogan of change and ahmadinejad got elected on the slogan of change, too. and he invested a lot of money. and in those years, there was bounty and there was a lot of infrastructure, which created a bubble and created inflation which made people dissatisfied with ahmadinejad again. but certainly when i was doing it this time on a friday and thursday before the elections, people would say to me, we're going to vote for ahmadinejad again because we want to give him the opportunity to finish what he started. and i would get this in parts of

tehran and also in other parts because it seems from several people i have spoken to who are no fans of the islamic republic that will ahmadinejad was going to win it and they believed he was going to win it in the first round, which was shocking to me having come from a steady diet of goings on in the streets of tehran. but i went there to cover and i can't speak for tehran because that's where i lived. but by the time i went back there in january of 2008, things had changed and you could see how people dressed, for example or the way in which they had conversations or what was important. i don't know if that was just the effect of three years of ahmadinejad or sanctions beginning to bite or inflation or the steep rise in the price

of goods was due to ahmadinejad's mishandling of the economy or both. >> my sense is that the protest of the elections was driven by a sense of rage in an election stolen. it's interesting to look back and ask the question, who won the election. you suggested that there was the view of some that ahmadinejad support and this gets to how the question was presented in the west, presented in the media and do you have a sense what were -- >> it is impossible to say after visiting south tehran for a day because after that, everything changed and we were kind of running up to keep up to speed

with what was happening in the streets. going back to the cultural thing. there are so many problems with a foreigner in iran trying to say who won. the fact that are you going to gravitate towards people that think like you, because quite frankly, most of my friends and they remind me of the generation i grew up with in greece. there are a great many similarities. why would i gravitate towards someone who comes from a different background and look at me suspiciously for being who i am and being union married, i'm 28, which i was at the time, all of these things don't fit in. so i'm very wary of saying i say this happened because i saw this. because what i'm seeing is

tempered by who i am. >> i don't think we know. i think the only thing we do know that the government behaved in such a suspicious manner that it is natural to suspect they did steal the election. they announced a landslide win for ahmadinejad about an hour after the polls closed which is ridiculous in a country that had paper ballots. there were a number of reports that ballot boxes were taken away from the polling stations instead of people having counted the ballots which had been the normal procedure. and when he talks about the changes in the society and the kind of creeping oppression, it caught us by surprise, because iran did have relatively free elections for a country of that kind. people would always say that the

fraud took place before the vote because they would limit the number of candidates, but then the votes would be accurately counted. and you know, what we saw beginning in 2005 was, you know, some election fraud, some manipulation, even at that time, there were reports that ahmadinejad should not have made it into a second round. it's natural to be suspicious and given the numbers also, 63%, especially when you had two other very viable candidates. they were quite popular in some circles and they had results showing that these gentlemen did not do well in their native provinces, which is somewhat hard to believe. so i think some people suggest that it was really reversed, that musavi had 63%. when you look at the last time iran had a relatively free

election, you had hatami win by 60% or 70% of the vote and maybe some of those people had moved over towards a more conservative position, but it's hard to believe that so many of them did to give ahmadinejad that total. perhaps the first time he had novel ti value but the second time, everyone knew he brought sanctions. i was last in iran in march of 2008 and people were -- and i went to south tehran and outside and even in poor neighborhoods, there didn't seem to be this kind of love for ahmadinejad. so i do find it hard to believe that he won. >> and there is a theory, which is a compelling theory but there is no evidence about it but i'm throwing it out there, if you follow the pronouncements of the officials before the elections, they were concerned about the

possibility of a revolution that they kept talking about it. and also the driving energy behind the crackdown and the justification for the crackdown in tehran that this theory goes, it's not extraordinary to believe that there was no ballot stuffing or there was a lot of ballot stuffing, but that is not important because ultimately the votes were never counted. and a result was manufactured, which had a comfortably large margin between the first candidate and the second candidate and which would put the possibility of a revolution beyond any shadow of a doubt because it would give the victory directly to the incumbent so there would be no necessity of another seven days of potential violent campaigning and a second round but also it would put it in his favor that they wouldn't be able to take it to the streets and challenge the election as it was. this would dovetail that many

officials have spent a lot of time studying revolutions and how to deflect them. perhaps there was an impression or idea that something was being cooked up and they totally came up with false figures. >> couple more questions. á civil rights movement and larger movement capturing. i just would love to hear your comments. thank you. >> i think it's become very broad and very deep. with a lot of different participants. you can tell from the slogans chanted now in the demonstrations which are nobody really chants for musabby anymore. it's move to death to the

dictator. and that can be ahmadinejad. that can be the supreme leader. it is a broad challenge to the system that certainly is reminiscent of what happened back in 1978 and 1979. i think with all the study of velvet revolutions, the security forces should have remembered something about their own society which is that iranian people don't like to have their intelligence insulted. nsulted and they have a very strong sense of justice and injustice. and reveer their martyers and you have a movement that has created martyrs and narrative of injustice. you saw that ahmadinejad called people dust and dirt. iranians don't take well to being insulted. so how many people will have the courage to continue, one doesn't know the time frame.

but there has been the fundamental breach here of the relationship between government and people, which was not terribly strong frankly before the election, but still existed to some extent or you wouldn't have seen that level of participation. 85% participation in an election is a dream in terms of legitimizing a system. and yet now it is boomerranning against them. >> i would tend to agree with you. the three years i lived there. these people could have been part of my own generation in aggetens, coming to age and having different expectations. this is an idea that has been put forth. and the interesting thing that is said of all the people that have come on to this new reality

is the old timers thatville jumped into the band wagon and the younger ones from the second generation that are letting this go because they are fighting this cultural shift, but it does seem that perhaps time would be on the side of the civil rights movement people only that it has to be handled in a very delicate and sensitive way and absolutely clear there shouldn't be foreign intervention. this is the bread and butter of the islamic regime and this is just the natural organic process that should take its time. >> iran started this process back in 1905 with a constitutional revolution. so they have been struggling for more representative and fair system of government longer than any others in that part of the world. and you the question was about imperial history, but go back

and talk about the sort of thwarted effort to achieve a representative government. >> other questions here? >> i'm a freelance journalist. my question is how do you see the recent developments in turkish-iranian relations? and i'm curious what do you think that means for the political dynamic for the greater -- for the broader middle eastern region, what this new trend means to you? >> basically, it's interesting living in istanbul, we had ahmadinejad visiting a couple of weeks ago and ahmadinejad visited before. he was in tehran last month.

he got a special meeting with the supreme leader who doesn't give these meetings very easily. last time was with putin. ahmadinejad keeps on coming to istanbul because part of the standard diplomatic protocol is to visit and ahmadinejad might have an issue with a staunchly secular founder of a republic in which religion has no place. now the fact that they are doing this repeatedly is interesting in itself. and aside from that you have all the economic cooperation that has been vastly flowering in the past few years. we have seen recently that perhaps the sale of the 10 unmanned vehicles are going from israel to turkey and that relationship might be edging

back on track again. certainly what there appears to be doing is lines in an intelligent. we have thrust and influence with these actors that you don't necessarily agree with that you don't have so they will listen to us. on the other hand, this plays very well with the muslim world. turkey is about to take over and they will need the goodwill that they can have. at the same time, turkey is increasing its place as a regional actor. it's got a nonprominent place in the u.n. security council and finally, domestically in turkey, this is playing out in a very interesting way. i saw a video before i came here of turkish protestors burning pofters of king ap duala

reportedly over the recent saudi bottom barredment in yemen. now i have no idea why this is happening in majority sunni turkey, majority sunni secular turkey, but shows there are many changes happening throughout the region that perhaps are more under the radar than they should be. >> one last question. >> do you see hard line islamization in turkey in the face of u.s.? >> when you force people to be one thing, they'll react against it. iranians over the past 30 years are getting more secular whereas

the trend was more religion. >> i mean in turkey. >> i understand. i'm giving an example of its neighbor. if you take that template and apply it to turkey, it does seem as if things are moving in a more religious direction. at the same time, turkey is a country that is feeling at ease with it self. it spent the last 80 years engaged in a project that could be described as cultural schizophrenia. we are more western than eastern. we had this in greece where part of the preparations for entering the e.u., everyone studied in england. or italy. west is good and east is bad, backwards. in our case, islamic, therefore,

bad. this is an argument that can be used in turkey. but it seems that turkey is becoming increasingly comfortable with who it is. you have new debates about the minorities and you have armenia and turkey. you have the turks to criticize and the head of the o.i.c. and nato -- it's a very interesting and subtle game that is being played and the ultimate question is, is this looking after our own interests as well as cultural or is it fully a cultural agenda of, we're finally coming home and i don't think anyone can give an answer to right now. >> thank you all for coming and thanks for the questions and thank you for these excellent presentations. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> a live look at the u.s. capitol on a sunny day here in washington, d.c. both the house and senate in session today. the house gavels in about 30 minutes. 2:00 eastern with seven noncontroversial bills on their calendar. those include some bills on ovarian cancer and water and energy research. we expect votes about 6:30 eastern. the senate is in a break right now but they'll be back. they started earlier today. or they continued earlier today working on the 8 -- $8,48 billion -- $848 billion health care bill. you can watch all the live senate debate on our companion network, c-span2. now an event with president

obama's chief science advisor, john hold ren -- holdren. he talks about efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the conference in copenhagen approaches. this portion is just over a half-hour. >> i just want to introduce another of our distinguished participants who requires no introduction to this group i won't take our time by offering one. i'll only say on a more personal note how much i have appreciated

john's guidance over the years that i have known him since i was an assistant of his and since and also in his support of innovations journal. and so without further ado, let me introduce the assistant for the -- to the president of the united states for science and technology, and director of the white house office of science and technology polcy, john holdren. >> thank you. it's a pleasure to be here and it was a very short walk because we were just having a lunch for the indian prime minister across the street at the state department which i had to leave a few minutes early. i'm going to run through just a very few wordy slides very quickly to provide a basis for what i trust will be a vigorous question and answer period. i'm going to spend i hope less than half the time on the presentation and then we'll

talk. i don't want to bore this group with a recitation of what we know about climate science, how fast it's happening, how it's manifesting itself. my assumption is folks in this room know that already quite well. i'm going to start in the last third of my normal talk on this subject with our options. and there are only three as i have been writing and saying a lot lately. one is mitigation. the steps that we take to reduce the pace and magnitude of the amount of climate change caused by human activities. the second is adaptation. the steps you take to reduce the adverse impacts resulting from the changes in climate that you failed to avoid with mitigation. and the third is suffering. not to put too fine a point on it. suffering the adverse impacts that are not avoided by either mitigation or adaptation. there are quite a few possibilities in both

categories. mitigation possibilities. obviously we can reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and soot from the energy sector. we can go after the land use sector and particularly deforestation. reduce deforestation, increase reforestation. we can modify agricultural practices to reduce emissions and build up soil carbon. and there's some things we might decide to do still quite controversial. one would be geoengineering to create cooling effects offsetting greenhouse heating. the most innocuous and simple molest although limited approach to that would be increasing reflectivity of the parts of the earth's surface we also modified by putting buildings on them and put white roofs instead of black roofs on our buildings. another possibility would be to scrub the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere technologically. sometimes called artificial trees. sucking the co-2 in particular out of the atmosphere. quite expensive compared to

sucking it out of the stack gases of power plants, but maybe not impossibly expensive, particularly because the zpear doesn't care where you remove the co-2 from it. so we could build these things in places where it's particularly cheap to build them. lots of adaptation possibilities as well. we can change what we grow and where. we can develop heat, drought, and salt resistant varieties of drops. we can strengthen our defenses against tropical diseases. build new water projects. dikes and storm surge barriers, avoid further development on flood planes and near -- plains and near sea level. many of these rings are often called whereby continue win. they are things to make sense to do even if you weren't concerned the climate is changing. key point about these three options is that mitigation and adaptation are both essential. partly that is the case because there is no feasible amount of mitigation that can stop climate

change in its tracks. adaptation efforts in fact are already taking place around the world and we need to expand them. but it is an unfortunate reality that adaptation becomes more difficult, costlyier, and less effective as the magnitude of the climate changes to which you are trying to adapt grows. if you asked somebody who lives on a low lying island state that's mostly two meters or less above sea level, you don't adapt to two meters of sea level rise, you evac wit. -- evacuate. the bottom line is that we need enough mitigation to avoid an unmanageable degree of climate change. that is a degree of climate change that we cannot manage with adaptation. we need enough adaptation to manage the unavoidable. that is to manage the degree of climate change that we simply cannot do enough mitigation to evade. that then of course begs the question, how much mitigation is

enough? as you in the room well know, there has been a long debate on this subject. a few years ago many people thought that 500 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent, which in very round numbers we think gives about a 50% chance of keeping the global average temperature increase above preindustrial below three degrees celsius, that now looks on the basis of our current understanding of the climate system and ecosystems that depend on it unlikely to be good enough to avoid an unmanageable degree of climate change. there's been accordingly more and more focus on a somewhat lower number, 450 parts per million of co-2 equivalent which correspondent -- cord dense again in -- correspondent again in round numbers. that would certainly be more prudent than the higher number but it's still not a guarantee.

it's not correct to talk about such a level as safe. the in the sense we know if we could achieve this that everything will be fine. we do not know where the tipping points in the climate system are. the thresholds, the nonlynnairities, where if you cross it you discover a small additional input. a small additional disturbance generates a large response. there are a number of such tipping points potentially in the climate system. there's been a lot of work describing them in recent years. one of them would be the complete loss of the arctic sea ice, drastically changing the reflectivity of the earth surface, that would change climactic patterns over the northern hemisphere. another tipping point would be acid filing the ocean with its uptake of part of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the point that shell forming organisms can't do that anymore.

that would produce catastrophic disruption in marine food chains. another tipping point is warming the tundra and permanenta frost to the point you get this great outbelching of carbon dioxide and methane. there is as much carbon under neath as there is in the atmosphere now. and there is very real concern that as some point the heating of those northern soils and permafrost will release a large quantity of this stuff. again the rub is we don't know exactly where that point s it could be at four degrees c, it could be three, it could be two. it could be one and a half. so we are not in a position of being able to say for sure that 450 parts per million is good enough. it's much more prudent than 550. there is again as many of you will know a body of opinion that has been growing in the last couple of years led by the very

distinguished climatologist who says we should be aiming for 350 parts per million which is considerably less than the 387 parts per million of co-2 alone which is in the atmosphere today. the reason that that particular position has not attracted more adherence despite the fact that lower is in some sense clearly better, the sense that it's clearly better is the chance of avoiding unmanageable climate change impacts, but there are relatively few people who think it is practical to get to that level on any time scale of policy interest. so i look a little more closely at the 450 part per million target. that correspondents to the two degree sea level that has been embraced by the leaders in the g-20 countries. and doing it when you look at the numbers would require leveling off global emissions, total emissions globally of the

heat trapping substances by about 2020 and declining thereafter to about 50% below the 2000 level by 2050. if you think about a plausible distribution of the responsibility for getting that done between the industrialized countries and the developing countries, the industrialized ones like the united states having contributed something in the range of 3/4 of the cumulative burden of this stuff in the atmosphere up until now, and being in a better position economically and technologically to take drastic action to reduce emissions, seems likely that what we would need to do to get the world emissions to be going down in absolute terms by 2020 would be to have the industrialized countries going down by 2015 which would allow the developing countries a little more room, they would only need to be declining as a group after 2025. a decade lag for which there is a wonderful precedent, the

decade lag was also what the developing countries were granted in the montreal protocol for reducing emissions of ozone depleting substances. this is a much harder problem but but i like the simtry of the 10-year lag. if we think about what it might take to get this done, what we actually need to do, there are a number of steps we need. we need to remove first of all the barriers to win-win solutions. there are a fair number of things out there that are win-win solutions in the sense that the costs of taking them are more than repaid by the benefits other than reducing climate change risks. saving energy in ways that saves a lot of money, for example. also reduces carbon emissions. but there are barriers to those win-win solutions. barriers that are classic in economics text. and i make a bough to tom shelling. perverse subsidies and regulation that is favor

practice that is actually don't make sense is another. the second thing we need to do is put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. you could do it with a tax, cap and trade, in the u.s. political system at the moment it's clear that cap and trade is the only thing that has a flying chance. and the point of this is to make costlyier solutions pay off. i sometimes talk about this in terms of the fruit tree metaphor. the win-win solutions are the low-hanging fruit or the fruit lying on the ground waiting to be picked up. and removing the barriers is like taking the fence out from around the tree. the -- what you achieve with a price on greenhouse gas emissions you motivate reaching higher into the tree. reaching for some of the higher hanging fruit because it becomes economic to do so once you are penalizing the greenhouse gas emissions. and the third approach is an approach to lowering the highest hanging fruit in the tree, that is doing an increased amount of

energy technology research, development, and demonstration in order to bring down the costs of options for reducing greenhouse gas emission that is are too costly even with the kinds of prices on greenhouse gas emissions that you can imagine a company and trade system generating in the relatively near future. most of the people who look systematically at this question of how much we need to increase the investments come to the conclusion that we need something like a two to fourfold increase in public direct expenditures on the kinds of r&d that the private sector is unlikely to do, plus tax incentives, including, for example, as the president has proposed, making the research and experimentation tax credit permanent in order to create incentives for more private sector effort. some other things we ought to be doing and starting to do one is to expand partnerships, public and private and international for getting advanced energy technologies deployed.

it's not enough to get this done in the industrialized countries. we have to get it done all around the world. and people are now i think very sensibly talking about some sort of international fund to facilitate the deployment of low and no carbon options in developing countries. and we need finally to achieve a new global agreement for mitigation and adaptation in the post 20 gulf period, the period after the kyoto protocol compliance period ends in 2012. that should be aimed as i have tried to suggest earlier, at reducing global emissions in absolute terms, getting them to start to come down by 2020, and it needs to include compensation for avoided defor thestation. that is not to put too fine a point on it, paying countries not to cut down their tropical forests because very plainly the current set of nick incentives is if we don't pay countries not to cut them down, most of those

tropical forests will be gone well before this century is out with disastrous impacts both on the prospects for controlling climate change, on habitat for bio diversity-biodiversity. just a few words about congress and compen hagen. what we need from congress is legislation that will get the united states on a path to level off emissions by 2015 and decline steadily thereafter. and what's needed at copenhagen, the conference coming up in less than a month now, is at least a global political agreement under which the major developing countries agree to join the industrialized nations on declining emissions trajecttories with developing countries getting in decline no later than 2025. that may sound far-fetched to some. i have been involved in great many private conversations with

the climate change negotiators and advisors to the leaders of the major developing countries. and i think we still have a chance of getting this in copenhagen. that's my personal view. the president's science advisor is not allowed to have a personal view. will i express one here. the obama administration's strategy has a number of ingredients in it. one is to promote recognition that we should not be thinking about this problem as climate change policy versus the economy. but climate change policy for the economy. the proposition being, number one, that the costs of action for the united states and the world will be far smaller than the costs of inaction. and secondly, that we can reduce costly and riskly ill imports and dangerous air pollution with the same measures we employ to reduce climate disrupting emissions. there are a lot of win-wins in the package ever things we need to do for which we should take

credit. the final point in this category is that the surge of innovation that we are going to need in clean energy technologies and energy efficientcy -- efficiency is going to create new businesses and jobs and help drive economic recovery, growth, and global competitiveness. the second part of the strategy obviously is to work with the congress, including using that message that i just summarized, it is not versus the economy but in part for the economy. work with congress to get competitive energy -- comprehensive energy climate legislation that will put the united states on the trajectory and do it with maximum co-benefits. i'm not saying there are no economic costs to doing this. not saying there are no social costs to doing this. any substantial change will have some economic cost. it's going to have some social cost. we have made these cree sees in the past to do what we needed to do to achieve larger goals in the society's interests.

i'm hoping and the president's hoping we can get the congress to embrace that again. the bill we got out of the house, the waxman-markey bill is not perfect. but it's a good start and it possibly can be approved in the senate and in conference. this is certainly an area where the perfect can be the enemy of the good. if we sit around for another five years arguing about the perfect proposal, we will in fact have no chance any longer to level off and begin to decline in our emissions in the united states by 2015. the other thing we are doing is working with other major emitting countries, those include industrialized countries like ourure peaian -- our european partners, japan, and developing contry, very conspicuously china, india, and brazil to build technology cooperation and individual and joint climate policies that are consistent with avoiding the unmanageable.

and a third for us to develop adaptation strategies and capacities both domestically and internationally in order to be able to manage the unavoidable. this has goton less attention than the mitigation side, avoiding the unmanageable until recently, again i think the current view and correct view is to regard these two as equally important. we need mitigation and adaptation in large measure, both n. order to minimize the amount of the third option which experience which is suffering. final lirks we are aiming to get as far as we can in copenhagen, even if it completely binding and global agreement has to wait for the next round. in other words, the fact that it seems now unlikely to get the whole job done that we initially hoped to be achieved in copenhagen doesn't mean we he can't get a lot done there on the path that we need to be on. and that's what we are aiming to do. i will stop there. and throw it open to questions, comments, and cries of outrage.

there are microphones on both sides. please go to the mike and please introduce yourself before you ask your question. >> i'm ralph sinclair. one thing that has not come up at any time today has been the question of the population of the earth. the pressure on earth is equal to the population times their aspirations. the aspirations we are talking about here is somewhat, the population we have not addressed. i wonder if that's not something that should be factored into all these ewations? thank you. >> number one, something over 35 years ago i wrote a paper with

paul ehrlich that said, a triple product, not just population times aspirations. you can put it population, times consumption per person, times environmental impact or in this particular case greenhouse gas emissions per unit of consumption. so aspirations can be higher to the extent that technology gets better. if i don't accept it's just population times aspiration. i say we can play with technology and deliver more of the goods and services to which people aspire with lower impacts on the environment, climate, and otherwise, if we are smart. we don't know how and we'll never discover for rather fundamental reasons ways to reduce the impact per unit of material consumption to zero, but we can make it much smaller than it's been. with that modification i accept the proposition that population someone of the three crucial physical variables in this equation. and it needs to be looked at. we did so in the report of the

u.n. scientific expert group on climate change which -- whose subtitle i stole for this talk. the subtitle of that report was, avoiding the unmanageable and managing the unavoidable. in there we did a number of calculations just to show how much easier it would be to deal with the climate change problem if the global population in the year 2100 were say 7.5 million rather than 12.5 billion. which is the range of respectable estimates from low to high that the u.n. population folks now put forward as conceivable. nobody's got a good crystal ball on what the population will do, but the good news about population growth is what has been learned in the last 30 years or so is the best lever on population growth is to improve the condition the women around the world. more education, more opportunities, bert health care

for women and the population growth rate goes down. that is certainly the best lever on that particular issue that we have. >> i'm andrea, m.i.t. graduate. i also serve on the loudoun county board of supervisors. local government. first of all i want to thank the administration for your support of the energy efficiency and conservation block grants because there's basically energy innovation going on all over the country right now and i hope everybody here clues in and goes and speaks in front of their board the grants are due in january. but i just introduced to our board of supervisors adaptation as a concept last night. and i worry a lot about the politics of adaptation because the resolution -- what can we predict and plan for at the local government level? and we are talking about major amounts of money for that

infrastructure. do you have any thoughts on that? >> actually we have quite a few thoughts. i have some, my colleagues have some. i don't know how many of them i could disgorge here in a q and a period. first of all there has been a lot of concern about the politics of adaptation over the years. and it actually led to a circumstance where many people were reluctant to say the word until relatively recently. the fear was talking about adaptation would lead to people's concluding that's the whole answer and we don't have to do anything else. i think we are pretty much past that now. if you look at the recent major reports that -- the new world development report for 2010 at the world bank, our previous report for the u.n. i mentioned. the ipcc. all the serious groups that focus on this in a systematic way have come to conclude we have to take adaptation seriously as a partner with mitigation in the process. then the second part of your question suggests it comes down

to the usual, the devil is in the details. exactly how do we do it? how much of it do we do? how do we pay for it? let me rather than taking the whole q and a period try to go into that recommend to you that you look up on the web this report on climate change and development by the u.n. scientific experts group on climate change. you can find that at the u.n. foundation website as well as some official u.n. ones and also the world development report of the world bank is out a week or so. the 2010 world development report. there's a lot of information and insight there about what might be involved. another place to look is the report of a few months ago by the u.s. global change research project. on global climate change impacts on the united states that talks quite a lot on a regionally desegregated basis about what we could be doing. over here. >> the department of

transportation. i recently orchestrated a series of speeches. but one of the slides that came up, i'll get to this, was policymakers are from venus scientists are from mars. the whole point being that there's a lot of potential in modeling, climate modeling that as policymakers we see them as black boxes and wait for the results to come out and be published. whereas if we were engaged with the scientists we may be privy to relevant science on black carbon which is still a little uncertain, so woo-f we say we want to increase the use of diesel vehicles in the fleet we'll weigh that with the understanding the increased black carbon may increase warming. i guess what i am getting at is

we had a really good discussion on that and how we could work with nasa and it would only cost about 115,000 k. but i'm just a peon. let me rephrase that i'm lower in the totem pole in the structure. our management may not see the significants of when -- significance of when they put out our plan and we have our environmental goal, the benefit of having box next to it that shows the model results and this reduction will mean this amount of lower sea level rise. possibly the administration could recommend a little bit of funding. >> tend of the game this is a funding question. now i get t i was wondering where that was going. there are a lot of different questions embodied in your observation. one of the most important ones i think is how one gets policymakers engaged in analytical exercises that are relevant to the policy choices they face earlier in the game rather than simply presenting

them with gigantic volumes of full detail. much of which no policymaker will have time to penetrate. and there are some innovations in this domain that are quite interesting. there is a model called sea roads which is a way to test different assumptions about remedies for climate change in a manner that is quite transparent. senator kerry, the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, is now a fan of using sea rose, plays with it himself on his laptop to try different things out. i learned a long time ago you get a lot farther at the intersection of science and engineering with public policy if you get the policymakers involved in the process, of talking right up front what kind of answers you need. what are the questions you need answered. what are the kinds of tools available to do t how can we set this up in a manner that focuses on the needs of the policymakers and they get it vested in a way

that cause them to pay more attention to the results. the same is true as we develop better and better computer tools, highly visual graphic tools which policymakers can play with themselves with their science advisors at their elbow. yes. >> george mason university, as long as we are talking about innovation and rethinking policy, i'd like to get fundamental and point out that the u.s. seems to be the only advanced nation that uses its prime policy debating forum to create detailed operational policy for very critical efforts such as environmental familiarization, and i am aawear this sounds like perhaps a hypothetical question, but i'm wondering if there hasn't been consideration on the fact that

all of the bipartisan commissions that have dealt with tricky subjects have usually come out with far more cogent and agreed upon parameters or solutions or understanding than the congressional bills that are piling up with thousands of pages. even if one passes something, how is innovation and change in response to new conditions going to come about with documents that are created in such a laborous and -- laborious and difficult fashion. >> i said later the science advisor to the president is not allowed to have personal opinions. perhaps the topic i'm least allowed to have them is the organization of the united states congress. so i will only say without prejudice to the congress since we have three branches of government that the whole policy

-- whole process of policymaking and policy interpretation has been likened by leaders going back to apra ham lincoln as akin to the process of making sausage. the pop -- proposition being if you like sausage and respect the law you should never watch either one being made. i won't say more than that. i think there's room for improvement. over here. >> science and technology policy for international academy of sciences. my question is, could you say something about the obama administration's plan to promote the low-carbon meeting technologies in small developing countries. >> that's a tough one because very frankly we have been focused up until now more on the largest developing countries because we need china and india and brazil to step up in

copenhagen to get the rest of the developing world to come along. we have been in intensive discussions with the chinese and indians and brazilians and less intensive discussion was smaller developing countries. but we do have a lot of ideas about the kinds of technology that is would work and the kinds of joint activity that is could promote -- joint activities that could promote the development of those activities across the developing world. i hope we have enough success in copenhagen and enough demonstrations of the merits of cooperation and the initial projects we are setting up with a larger countries in order to make this a snowball that will grow and spread over time. >> this weekend on c-span2's book tv we'll tour arlington national cementtary, including section 60, where soldiers from the iraq and afghanistan wars are buried. it's part after history of the

cemetery with author robert poole. on afterwards, see the comparisons and similarities and seemingly unrelated cultural situations. and sunday on in-depth, join our live conversation with joy hakim and her works on u.s. history and science. for the entire skid schedule of this weekend, go to booktv.org. >> a live picture on your tv of the u.s. capitol here in washington. the house about to gavel in. they'll start their workweek. seven noncontroversial bills on the calendar today. including one on ovarian cancer, another one deals with energy and water research. we do expect members to take a break before they return for some recorded live votes at 6:30 eastern time. in fact some of the house members will be joining the president and vice president we understand about 4:00 this afternoon for a meeting between the president and vice president biden and congressional

leadership. we expect the house to come in and be out we would guess before 4:00. the senate continues their debate when they come back from their break. they are on a break right now. they'll be back this afternoon to continue day two of their work on the health care debate. amendments being offered. weep keel you posted here on c -- we'll keep you posted here on c-span. of course you can watch it live on c-span-2. president obama addresses the nation tonight and we'll have our coverage beginning here on the c-span networks at 8:00. let's get-g live to the floor of the u.s. house. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., december 1, 2009. i hereby appoint the honorable

jesse l. jackson to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father coughlin. chaplain coughlin: seasonal cold winds and the hesitancy to name deep seeded fears draws inward, lord god. it is time for outdoor furniture and some plants to be brought inside. oil and gas are no longer for moving away from hard realities but remain costly for the comforts of home. some lonliness as family values take priorities. be with us, lord, as the stripping winter a-- approaches. close us anew with hope as we

prepare for your future coming of more light, integrity and peace for you, our lord, are in all so we repeatedly call upon your holy name now and forever. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from maryland, the majority leader, congressman hoyer. mr. hoyer: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask our colleagues and our friends in the gallery to join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of our country. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a

communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, madam, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on november 23, 2009, at 9:26 a.m. that the senate agreed to without objection amendment house concurrent resolution 214, appointment ronald reagan centennial commission. with best wishes i am, signed sincerely, lorraine c. miller, clerk of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the distinguished majority leader rise? mr. hoyer: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. hoyer: i thank the speaker. mr. speaker, our capital city is mourning the death of one of its leading citizens. a man i was proud to call my friend, abe poland. my thoughts and sympathy are with his wife, irene, and his

sons, robert and jim. abe's business skill, his philanthropy changed washington, d.c., for the better. and indeed his legacy extends far beyond this city. it is a legacy that will long outlive abe poland himself but i rise today to honor the man behind it. abe was the son of a russian immigrant who came to this country speaking no english and he rose to become one of this city's most successful developers. he was a boy whose fondest memories were paying 25 cents to sit in the bleachers at washington senators' games. and even when he brought basketball and the hockey teams to washington, he kept his childhood passion for sports. the same work ethic that sent him to local railroad yards at 4:00 in the morning to buy supplies for his father's contracting business helped make him a fortune. building howing for thousands. for some that would have been enough but for abe it was only the beginning.

like his father, morris, whose generosity earned him the nickname charity in the jewish community, he is among those traditions. there are thousands and thousands who owe him thanks whether or not they knew him firsthand. there are sons and daughters of 9/11 victims whose education abe helped pay for, d.c. affordable housing that abe built. speaking in 1997 of the centerpiece of washington's downtown rebirth, abe said this, i walked through that building and i get toors in my eyes. i got -- get tears in my eyes. i got everything in my life on the line. it was his money that helped pay for that building. my advisors think i'm nuts but i wanted to do something special for my town. indeed, abe poland's life was something special for this town, for sports, not only in

this town but in america, and for his country. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. smith: mr. speaker, to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. smith: mr. speaker, as part of a nationwide effort to pass the right kind of health care reform, a constituent from austin, greg holliday, has written an open letter to congress. he represents the organization, commonsense texans. quote, my name is greg holloway. i speak not only for myself and my family but also for over 100,000 other texans with whom i collaborate and who i know share my views. you tell us that you are concerned about health care for our disadvantaged citizens. we are too. we wrote a plan published by the austin american statesman that would immediately allow up to $100 billion annually to be

sent directly to private health care and health insurance for the needy without a raise in taxes. you ignore any of our alternatives and instead raise taxes, increase costs and draft a bill that excludes millions and provides no meaningful health care benefits until 2013. stop this bill and give us health care reform that will help, not hurt, our country and its citizens, end quote. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from arizona rise? >> i request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. kirkpatrick: mr. speaker, the holiday season should be a joyous time for all as we celebrate with our loved ones and count our blessings. unfortunately, many families have been hit hard by the downturn and are feeling the

pinch during this special time. far too many people in my district are out of work and even more are making due with less. it will be a challenge for them to make sure their children have a memorable holiday. i am confident they will do and remind their families what's really important, faith, family and health. but it should remind us how important it is for congress to help create jobs. partisan bickering cannot stand in the way of creating jobs and helping these families. there is much we can do to create new opportunities in arizona and across the country, and we can't just wish for things to get better. we must actively work to make things better and that must be our top priority. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise?

mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, 30 years ago on november 28, 1979, i was honored to help break ground on the michelin tire corporation plant in lexington, south carolina. michelin, the tire manufacture, has an annual sales of $7.25 billion, and they employ close to 18,000 american workers. over 7,000 of those jobs are in my home state. for over 30 years, michelin plants have been successful due to hardworking south carolinians and today they specialize in world-class car and earth mover tires. in addition to providing jobs, michelin is an involved corporate citizen. another extraordinary achievement, yesterday we broke ground on the biomass co-generation project at the savannah river site. c.e.o. george sacreleis, has helped in this.

in colon conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? mr. kucinich: mr. speaker, i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. kucinich: today, our president will announce an escalation in afghanistan. as many as 35,000 additional troops costing an additional $35 billion to prop up a government which most acknowledge is indefensiblely corrupt. we need to redefine our national security. our national security will not be found in occupations which fuel insurgencies. our national security will not be found by paying off contestants in afghanistan who are with us one day and who shoot out our soldiers the next. we can secure our borders without expanding them across

the world, and we can redefibe our national security by making sure that every able body person in america has a job by helping people save their homes and protect their savings and their investments and their retirement security. we need new thinking and a new course of action. not further into afghanistan but out. not further away from the concerns of the american people but focusing on what's important here at home. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from nebraska rise? >> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the estate tax, also known as the death tax, has been a drag on families for decades. it threatens our nation's farms and ranches, the very businesses which produce 86% of agriculture products. ranchers work for their very existence yet the death tax can take it away. it lowers incentives for small

family businesses. in other words, it punishes success. this flies in the face of the very principles upon which our country was founded. the estate tax is inappropriate and it needs to be eliminated once and for all. doing so in the right way would lift a tremendous weight off the shoulders of america's family-owned small businesses, farms and ranches. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise to congratulate the university of wake forest. it dates from 1832 which the president sold 13,000 acre lands to establish the wake forest manual labor institute to train future ministers. the institution later became wake forest college. dr. jones described wake forest as one of the best communities

in the state. the inhabitants without a single exception or sober, moral and thriving in their circumstances and not a few educated or intelligent. that is still true of wake forest although they moved to winston-salem in 1956. the southern baptist convention moved to wake forest maintaining wake forest's reputation as a town of higher learning and faith. wake forest is now a progressive community of more than 27,000 residents. "forbes" magazine ranked them as one of the fastest grofinge suburbs in america. the residents of wake forest boasts a vibe rent downtown with more than 100 businesses and a rich and maintained historic district. i join the residents of wake forest for their sen continental celebration. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: ferm 1. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one

minute. mr. poe: mr. speaker, the navy's elite commando unit, the seals, captured one of the most notorious terrorists in iraq. he had their bodies burned and hung from a bridge in fallujah. but instead of celebrating and honoring their bowled accomplishment, the military has -- their bold accomplishment, the military has said that the navy seals punched him in the mouth and now he's whining about a fat lip. even if the navy seals punched this murderer in the mouth, they're overreacting. punching is allowed, so is shooting. instead of court marshal, the seals should be getting a medal. it seems they are more concerned about his bruised lip instead of the seals doing their job. the job of the american military is to fight wars. they're supposed to defeat the enemy. they break things. that's what they do. the military needs to be trying this terrorist for the murder of americans instead of court marshaling the seals for successfully accomplishing their mission and that's just the way it is. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? mr. boozman: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. accept my apology, please. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to congratulate dr. gregory salamow for being the 2009 united states professor of the year. dr. salamow, the dwrished professor of physics and part of the optical society of america joined the faculty at the university of arkansas in 1975. since then he's regularly demonstrated extraordinary leadership and commitment to his students in area of study. he continuously works to have interdisciplinary research and education by establishing new degree programs and courses which have provided greater educational and career opportunities for students and faculty. his research is widely published and his hard work makes him a model of success for students as well as for

fellow educators. i commend dr. salamow for his passion, for educating and wish him success in all future endeavors. i ask my colleagues to join me in honoring an educator whose accomplishments and devotion to the university of arkansas have not gone unnoticed. and with that i yield back the balance of my time. . >> according to president reports we are now going to send 34,000 more troops to afghanistan in addition to the 68,000 already there. the pentagon tells us it costs $1 million a year for each soldier there, or $1 billion for each 1,000. this means we will be spending over $100 billion a year on top of an almost half a trillion we have spent on the 88-year-old afghanistan war already. i know that like any gigantic bureaucracy, the defense department always wants more money and more employees. this is getting ridiculous. fiscal conservatives should be the ones most horrified by all

of this spending. on top all this we still have 120,000 troops in iraq and are still spending megabillions there. and the pentagon is so bureaucratic that we are told it will take several years to fully withdrawal if we ever do. president eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex, but i think even he would be shocked. this is all about money and power, but we can no longer afford to lose so many lives and spend and borrow so much money. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for within min -- one minute. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. i was at fort benning when in 1979 the president ordered a rescue mission. but he micromanaged. he dictated they didn't need 12 helicopters, just go in with eight. they knew they didn't get six, they would have to abort. they got there with five and the aborted mission cost us lives. back in the 1960's president johnson tried to micromanage

vietnam from washington. what a terrible mistake. and now it appears that the president will need to fire general mcchrystal because it is imperative that the president have generals he can trust. general mcchrystal says the impact of time on our effort in afghanistan has been underappreciated and we require a new way of thinking about it. he said i believe in short-term fight will be decisive. failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term, next 12 months, while afghan security capacity matures risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible. fire him if you don't trust him. should have been acted on three months ago. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the distinguished speaker of the house from california rise? the speaker:: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the distinguished speaker is recognized for as much time as she may consume. the speaker:: i rise today to recognize the 21 stth annual

world aids day and remember, reflect those we have lost and recommit to ending hiv-aids. this year's theme, universal access and human rights, is a call to action. a sign of the continued urgency of this moral challenge and a reminder that hiv-aids is still with us. in a very major way. the fight to end this disease must go on. the moral case alone is reason to act, but we also know that the spread of infectious diseases, especially hiv-aids, can destroy the very fabric of nations and create a fury of despair. american leadership is essential to preventing suffering and instability in a developing world. since the first world aids day in 1998, we have made enormous progress. in 1988, we have made enormous progress. we have dramatically increased resources for both domestic and international hiv-aids

prevention care, treatment, and research. these investments have provided lifesaving and retroviral treatment to millions of people while also taking critical steps to prevent millions of new h.i.v. cases. reiterating our commitment, congress recently passed in a bipartisan way and president obama signed into law the ryan white hiv-aids treatment extension act, continuing this essential lifeline of care, treatment, and support for more than half a million low-income americans living with this disease. and around the same time the president lifted the ban on entry of individuals with hiv-aids into our country. this was good news for all who were concerned about the global aids conference that's going to be held in the united states in 2012. when congress and the president make the dream of health

insurance reform a reality for all americans, we will improve access to lifelong medications and open the door of high quality medical care to more low-income, uninsured h.i.v.-positive individuals before they confront the nightmare of full-blown aids. it's better for their health and lower cost for all of us. today on world aids day, we remember all that we have lost, but also all that we have to hold on to. our hope u. our optimism, and steadfastness and our determination to fight against this disease. to respond to the needs of the people who have it and one day and hopefully that will be soon, to end the hiv-aids disease. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the speaker pro tempore: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. madam, pursuant to the

permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on november 30, 2009, at 10:53 a.m. that the senate passed, senate 1472, with best wishes i am, signed, sincerely, lorraine c. miller, clerk of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the speaker pro tempore: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. madam, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of ruling 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on november 20, 2009, at 11:48 a.m. appointment, social security advisory board, with best wishes, i am, signed, sincerely, lorraine c. miller, clerk of the housement the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. madam shall. this is to notify you formally

pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of the house of representatives that i have been served with a subpoena for testimony issued by the united states district court for the eastern district of virginia in connection with a criminal case now pending in the same court. after consultation with the office of the general counsel, i have determined that compliance with the subpoena is consistent with the precedents and privileges of the house. signed, sincerely, muhammad abamine, legislative assistant. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker. house of representatives. madam, this is to notify you formally pursuant to rule 8 of the rules of the house of representatives, that i have been served with a subpoenaer for testimony issued by the united states district court for the eastern district of virginia in connection with a criminal case now pending in the same court. after consultation with the office of the general counsel, i have determined that compliance with the subpoena is consistent

about the precedents and privileges of the house. signed, nakita george winkler, legislative assistant. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. record votes on postponed questions will be taken after 6:30 p.m. today. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. lynch: good afternoon, mr. speaker. i move the house suspend the rules and agree to resolution, 742. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 742, resolution congratulating the warner robbins little league softball team from warner robbins, georgia, on winning the 2009 little league softball world series. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentleman from utah, mr. cha fits, each will control 20 minutes.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and add any extraneous materials. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i now yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i would like to yield at this point to the lead sponsor of this resolution, mr. marshall of georgia, for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: gentleman from georgia is recognized for five minutes. mr. marshall: i don't think it will take me five minutes to cover this one. the resolution simply congratulates the warner robbins little league world softball team on winning the 2009 little league softball world series. their victory follows fairly hard on the heels of a victory in 2007 by the warner robins little league boys team and the little league world series. baseball series. and so it's quite a treat that warner robins now is the only city in the united states that

has had teams successful on both the girls sides and boys side as little league world champions. i think it's particularly poignant that not only do all members of the georgia delegation co-sponsor as original co-sponsors, this bill, but many members of congress are also a co-sponsor of this bill. i want to specifically recognize debbie wasserman schultz. she at the time that she signed on to the bill was suffering from an injury that she incurred playing softball in the, i hope to be, annual, but it was the first annual softball game to raise money for charity among women here in the house of representatives. so we are all softball fans, baseball fans, we are delighted that the warner robins girls team was successful this year. we hope they have great sucks is -- success in the future in their individual lives. no doubt they value their education very highly and they are focused on school as much or

more so than athletics. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back to the gentleman from massachusetts. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah, mr. chesapeake bay fits, is recognized. mr. cha fits: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman. >> i rise today to congratulate the 2009 little league softball world championship team from warner robins georgia. they competed against six other teams from the united states and teams from around the world including italy and canada. the juaner robins team went undefeated throughout tournament play and clinched the championship by defeating the team from crawford, texas. congratulations to that team as well. these players showed tremendous desire to win and demonstrated true sportsmanship while ultimately going on to win the softball world series. there were many notable achievements in the field the remarkable efforts by the entire team and leadership of their

dedicated manager and coaches. this victory was the culmination of hundreds of hours of practice and playing and winning many games during the regular season. the win was of considerable interest because to the citizens of warner robins, georgia, it made the community the first with a little league to have won both a baseball and softball world series championship. we should be proud of these young women who showed that teamwork and the never give up spirit can accomplish much. not only in the game of softball but also as a winning strategy in life. with so much turmoil in the world, it's great to see young women step up and achieve such significant. i hope they carry that through the rest of their lives and recognize this great moment and the team effort it takes to truly be successful. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, we have no further speakers at this time. but i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his

time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, we have no further speakers. we yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah yields back the balance of his time of the the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: in closing, i just want to ask members on both sides to support mr.er marshall and his resolution to congratulate the warner be robins, georgia, 2009 little league softball world series winner from his hometown. and yield back the balance of hur time. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 742. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass house resolution 3634. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3634, a bill to

designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 109 main street in swifton, arkansas, as the george kell post office. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes thea. massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. . the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lynch: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like now as chairman of the house subcommittee over jurisdiction over the united states postal service, i'm pleased to present 3634 for consideration. this measure will designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 109 main street in swifton, arkansas, as the george kell

post office. this resolution was sponsored solely and principally by my friend, representative marion berry of arkansas, and i'd like to yield to him for five minutes for presentment of this resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for five minutes. mr. berry: i thank the gentleman from massachusetts and thank the speaker. i rise today in support of h.r. 3634, my bill would name the u.s. post office in swifton, arkansas, for george kell, a native son of the first congressional district. throughout his life, george kell distinguished himself as a broadcaster, a businessman and a public servant. he enjoyed a long career in major league baseball with the athletics, tigers, red sox, white sox and/or yoles. during his 15-year playing career, kell made the all-star

team 10 times and established himself as one of the greatest third basemen in the history of the american league. for his accomplishments he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame. after his retirement from baseball, kell returned to the detroit tigers organization as their tv announcer, a position he held for almost 40 years. his broadcasting career allowed him to connect with generations of new fans who were too young to ever see him play the game despite all of his accomplishments in baseball, george kell was simply a good friend and neighbor to those who knew him best. throughout his life he kept returning to his hometown of swifton, a place he loved like no other. he was an active and respected member of the community, serving on the arkansas highway commission for 10 years and his career gave him the opportunity to see it all. but he knew there was no place like home.

kell died in swifton in march of this year at the age of 86. it was a tremendous loss that was felt by his friends and family and the state of arkansas. george kell's enduring popularity is evidence by the fan mail he continued to receive long after his retirement. it is a fitting tribute that we name the swifton post office where he went regularly to correspond with his fans across the country after this great citizen. it's the least we can do for a friend and native son of the first congressional district of arkansas. and i'll urge that the house pass h.r. 3634. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arkansas yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. chaffetz: thank you, mr.

speaker. i rise to support h.r. 3636 which designates the postal facility located at 109 main street in swifton, arkansas, as the george kell post office. george kell played baseball for 15 years and in that time established his place in history as one of baseball's greatest third basemen. over the span of his career he played with the athletics, orioles, the red sox, white sox and not only was he a 10-time all-stars he was also elected to the baseball hall of fame. his passion for the game continued. it led him to become the broadcaster for the tigers. he broadcast every game from 1959 to 1996 missing obviously only one season in 1964. he was well loved and respected by fans and players alike. it's appropriate that we honor this local icon by supporting 3634. mr. speaker, i'd like to reserve the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah reserves the balance of his time.

the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. whenever a former member of the red sox is recognized, i have to join in those accolades, and i'm very pleased to support the resolution offered by my friend, mr. berry from arkansas. george clyde kell distinguished himself as an exceptional professional baseball player over the course of 15 major league seasons and his later life, as has been mentioned, as a beloved broadcaster for the detroit tigers. mr. kell made his major league debut with the philadelphia athletics in 1943 playing in one game and became a consistent starter over the following two seasons. notably, mr. kell was traded to steroid tigers early in the 1946 season when he finished with a .322 batting average and thereby began establishing himself as a hall of fame caliber third baseman. over the course of his distinguished career, mr. kell was selected as an all-star 10

times, as has been mentioned, and hit at least .300 in nine major league seasons and led the third baseman in percentages seven times. mr. kell's finest season came in 1950 when he set a career high with 101 runs batted in and 114 runs scored. in addition, mr. kell holds the distinction of getting the closest batting race. he captured the batting crown in 1949 on the final day of the regular season during which he went 2-3 against future hall of famer bob lemon of the cleveland indians and succeeded in edging out legend ted williams for the batting title by .002. mr. kell was traded to my own boston red sox in 1952 and a multi-- in a multiplayer deal and set a career high in home

runs. god bless him. following his stint with the red sox, mr. kell played for the chicago white sox and completed his career with the orioles. mr. kell helped to groom his successor, a third base fellow arkansas native, brooks robinson, who would later join mr. kell as an inductee in the baseball hall of fame. it was during that ceremony that mr. kell said how incredible it was for two arkansas natives to travel the same path to this same place. although he ended his career in 1957 he never truly left the game. as has been noted in 1958 he began broadcasting on cbs' "game of the week" and joined the detroit tigers broadcast team teaming with van patrick and earn drn ernie hollowell.

mr. speaker, regrettably, george kell passed away in swifton, arkansas, on march 24 of this year at the age of 86. although he's no longer with us, mr. kell's memory will be living on through his family and son as well as the couptless baseball fans that he entertained as both a player and a broadcaster. let us honor mr. kell by designating the postal facility in his hometown of swifton, arkansas, and the george -- as the george kell post office. and i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us and join mr. berry in sponsoring and supporting his resolution. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield as much time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from arkansas, mr. boozman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. boozman: thank you, mr.

speaker. i rise in support of h.r. 3634, to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 109 main street in swifton, arkansas, as the george kell post office. i want to thank my friend and colleague for -- and the senior member of the arkansas delegation of the house for bringing this forward. and this is very, very important and certainly very well deserved. as has been noted, george kell was a professional baseball player, broadcaster, businessman from swiftton, arkansas, literally made a household name of himself in arkansas as one of the greatest third basemans in the 1940 eansd 1950's. in 1957, to be closer to his family, he retired. he then went on to become a detroit tigers broadcaster for nearly 40 years. in 1983, he joined the baseball greats when he was nominated for national baseball hall of fame by the veterans committee. during his career, george always kept arkansas close to his heart.

during his time in the majors, he bought farmland in swifton, which he worked on in the offseasons and continued farming after he retired from playing baseball. even when he was broadcasting for the detroit tigers, he still called swifton home, commuting 1,000 miles from arkansas for games. george remained committed to his home in arkansas and helped his community. in 1962 he bought a car dealership in newport, arkansas, and later became sole owner of the budding business. after hearing dale bumper speak, george jumped on the campaign trail helping the little known candidate to win the fworchor's race. george was then appointed to the state highway commission where he served for 10 years, four of which as chairman. george was an arkansan through and through and certainly a favorite son. and so it couldn't be more fitting to name the swifton postal facility in his honor.

he will be missed by family and friends and, again, i want to thank cockman berry for his work in bringing -- thank congressman berry for his work in bringing this resolution to the floor. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i don't believe we have more speakers on our side so i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, with no more spoorks, we yield back the balance of our time. -- no more speakers, we yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: i want to ask my colleagues to support this resolution and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3634. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the

affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. the point of no quorum is withdrawn. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to resolution 3667. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3667, a bill to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 16555 springs street in white springs, florida, as the clyde l. hillhouse post office building. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all

members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and add any extraneous materials. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i now yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. as chairman of the house of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the united states postal service, i'm pleased to present house resolution 3667 for consideration. this measure will designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 16555 spring street in white springs, florida, as the clyde l. hillhouse post office building. house resolution 3667 was introduced by my friend and colleague, mr. crenshaw of florida and was favorably reported of the house oversight committee by unanimous consent on october 29, 2009. in addition, house resolution, h.r. 3667 enjoys the support of the entire florida house delegation. a native of the town of white springs, florida, clyde l. hillhouse dedicated his life to public service as a member of

the united states air corps during world war ii and laettner his life as postmaster of his beloved white springs community. shortly after joining the united states military in 1940, mr. hillhouse was deployed to the pacific theater of operations during world war ii. notably, mr. hillhouse participated in the heroic defense of the island of the american filipino forces against the japanese forces seeking to advance on manila bay. the island fell to japanese forces in mid 1942 and mr. hillhouse subsequently became one of approximately 75,000 american and filipino prisoners of war taken in the baton peninsula. during his over 3 1/2 years in captivity, mr. hillhouse bravely survived the infamous baton death march as well as periods of slaved labor in the philippines and on the japanese

main land. in recognition of wounds he received during the action in the philippines, mr. hillhouse was awarded the purple heart in 1984 and also received the bronze star for his sdwrished military service. -- distinguished military service. following his return to white springs, mr. hillhouse continued his commitment to public service as a dedicated employee of the united states postal service. for nearly 30 years. specifically, mr. hillhouse served as postmaster of white springs from july 14, 1947, until his retirement on january 19, 1973. in addition to his service as postmaster, mr. hillhouse was active in the white springs community as a long-time volunteer fire chief and as a member of the veterans of foreign wars organization. mr. hillhouse passed away in his house in white springs at the age of 84. mr. speaker, clyde hillhouse's life stands as a testament to the bravery and dedication

exhibited by the men and women of the united states military, and it is my hope that we can honor this exceptional soldier and public servant through passage of this resolution to designate the white springs post office in his honor. mr. speaker, i ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join in supporting h.r. 3667, along with mr. crenshaw, the lead sponsor, and i reserve the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the yast utah. mr. chaffetz: i yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from florida. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. crenshaw: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. speaker, i rise today in support of house resolution 3667 . it's a bill to honor clyde l. hillhouse, by designating the post office at 16555 spring street, white springs, florida, after this world war ii hero who devoted his life to public service.

clyde leroy hillhouse was born on february 11, 1914 in hamilton county, florida. a small county halfway between jacksonville and tala hassey. on -- tallahassee. on october 10, 1940, when he was only 25, he answered the call to serve his nation in patriotic service. he enlisted in the united states army air corps. he was assigned to the 27th bomb group and departed with his unit for duty in the philippines in november of that year. mr. hillhouse and his fellow airmen from the 27th bomb group were trained as infantry soldiers and fought as has been pointed out in defense of bataan and corregidor island from the invating japanese forces. after -- invading japanese forces. after the fall of the corregidor island, he was captured and held as a p.o.w. by the japanese forces and survived the infamous baton-baton -- bataan death

march. for over two years he was assigned to slave labor, unloading ships in ma little nila. in july of 1944, he was sent to japan on a freighter where he was kept as a prisoner until his release at the end of the war. like so many people in his generation, mr. hillhouse returned to his life and his family after the war in white springs with little discussion about the torture and atrocities that he has endured and witnessed as a prisoner of war for 3 1/2 of 1/2 years. in fact, mr. hillhouse continued his public service and became an employee of the united states postal service. both he and his wife worked at the white springs post office from july 4, 1947 until his retirement in 1973. mr. speaker, i believe that as elected members of congress we have an obligation and duty to honor and protect the veterans

of our nation. those who put their lives on the line so that we as americans can have the security and freedom that we enjoy in this great country. deserve the utmost recognition. and i believe the designation of this post office is a fitting tribute to a man who valiantly served in the armed services, survived slave labor, and p.o.w. camps, and continue to serve this nation as postmaster. so i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, we have no further speakers on this matter. we continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, mr. hillhouse was obviously a great american. one of our best. we urge the adoption of h.r. 3667. and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from

massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker thank you, mr. speaker. in closing i ask members on both sides of the aisle to support mr. crenshaw and his resolution. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3667. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i oob to the vote on the grounds a quorum is not present and i make a point of order a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 727 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 727, resolution supporting the goals

and ideals of national ovarian cancer awareness month. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and add any extraneous material. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. at this point i would like to yield to the chief sponsor of this legislation, the gentleman from new york, mr. israeli -- mr. israel, for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for five minutes. mr. israel: i thank my very good friend. i rise in support of of this resolution. i'm very proud to have sponsored it and very proud to serve as a co-chair of the congressional cancer caucus. mr. speaker, this year 21,500 peoplewomen will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. 14,600 of those will have lost

their lives. some of those women who would have lost their lives could have been saved with advanced diagnosis of the ovarian cancer. this is a silent killer. the sad fact is if you are fortunate enough to receive advanced diagnosis of ovarian cancer, the survival rate is as high as 90%. if you receive your diagnosis in the latter stages of the disease, the survival rate falls to less than 45%. mr. speaker, in addition, 75% of all ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in the latter stages of the disease. that is too late for too many women in america today. mr. speaker, several years ago i sponsored similar legislation and ran into a woman at a rally and she said, congressman israel, i am in stage four of ovarian cancer. your resolution may be too late for me, i'm here because i hope it's not too late for my daughter. mr. speaker, no mother in america should have to think in

those terms. this resolution provides women with the tools they need to recognize ovarian cancer, to get an advanced diagnosis of ovarian cancer, to be educated about it. i want to thank chairman towns for his support of this resolution. the gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro, who is an ovarian cancer survivor. the principal co-sponsors, the gentleman from california, mr. issa, the gentleman from indiana, mr. burton, and the ovarian cancer national alliance for their critical help with this resolution. and with that i yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts controls the time. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i yield for such time as she may consume to ms. delauro, the lead sponsor of this resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from connecticut is recognized for as much time as she may consume. ms. delauro: i thank the gentleman for this time. the gentleman from massachusetts for this time.

i thank the gentleman from new york for his leadership on this issue and it is an honor to serve with him. he has been a champion of the cause of cancer and in particular ovarian cancer. i strongly urge my colleagues to support the ovarian cancer awareness resolution. this is an easy call for me because i know firsthand that awareness saves lives. 23 years ago i was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. i was lucky. i had an excellent doctor who detected the cancer by chance in stage one. i underwent radiation treatment for 2 1/2 months. and i'm fortunate to say i have now been cancer free ever since. standing here before you today i know that i am one of the lucky ones. my life was given back to me. and changed at the same time. and i know that had my doctors not caught my cancer at this earliest stage, the final

outcome may have been very, very different. that is why it's so important that we pass this resolution, help raise the awareness about so varian cancer. 10 women in the united states are diagnosed with a gine logical cancer every hour. 26,000 women succumb to these terrible cancers each year. and women who detect their ovarian cancer in stage one are more than four times likely to beat it than those who find out in stages three and four. of course there are other steps we should also take. we need to refund johanna's law this year, re-authorize it for future years, and we need to make sure our affordable health care for america act becomes the law of the land. so that all americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance and can get the cancer screenings that they may need to save their lives. but today we can do our part by standing up against ovarian

cancer and passing this resolution. cancer is indiscriminate. it does not care about your age or family, your sex, race, or religion. it reminds us that we are all human and that, yes, we are vulnerable. and that we must all come together, man and woman, young and old, democrat or republican, to fight it on every front. i urge my colleagues to support this resolution, to support life, to help to support to save lives. i yield the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from connecticut yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. chaffetz: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you to the gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro, the strength and inspiration she provides to so many women who are unfortunately having to deal with this. thank you. thanks for sharing your story.

i rise today in support of house resolution 727, supporting the goals and ideals of national ovarian cancer awareness month. ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all gynecological cancers and the fifth leading cause of death among women in the united states of america. ovarian cancer will occur in one out of every 57 women. this year practically 20,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and more than 15,000 will unfortunately die from it. currently there is no reliable early detection it's for ovarian cancer. in june, 2007, for the first time a national consensus statement on ovarian cancer symptoms was developed. it's described the symptoms thereby making it easier for women to learn and remember them. however because of the lack of reliable screening tests, 75% of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in an advanced stage, resulting in only a survival rate of less than 45%. this has to change. it is critical to the victims of ovarian cancer and their loved ones that a reliable screening

test be developed to detect this dreaded cancer in its early stages. in the meantime, the ovarian cancer national alliance holds a number of events to increase public awareness of ovarian cancer and educates women about the importance of knowing its common signs and symptoms. during these events, they stress the importance of routine doctor visits and robust scientific research. during this time and throughout the year, we need to renew our commitment to fighting this illness that devastates all that's been touched by this cancer and takes too many lives of women throughout the united states. i urge my colleagues to support this important resolution, house resolution 727. my own mother passedway from cancer, it was breast cancer, cancer kills too many americans. roughly 1,500 people a day in this country will be affected by it. i think it's a shame that we don't give more national importance to fighting the war against cancer. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from utah reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from utaher for his remarks. i want to thank the gentleman from new york, mr. israel, and the gentlelady from connecticut, ms. delauro, for their leadership on this resolution. mr. speaker, ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest forms of women's cancer as noted by the center for disease control and prevention, ovarian cancer is now the eighth most common cancer and fifth leading cause of cancer death among women in the united states. as has been noted earlier, in addition, and which has been commented on by the american cancer society's annual cancer facts and figure, over 21,500 new cases of ovarian cancer will have been diagnosed and approximately 14,600 women will have died from ovarian cancer in 2009 alone. moreover, the american cancer society additionally notes that a woman's risk of developing

invasive ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about one in 71. and estimates that a woman's lifetime chance of dying from invasive ovarian cancer is about one in 95. despite these troubling statistics, with early detection and proper management, ovarian cancer can be highly treatable as noted by the american cancer society about three in four women with ovarian cancer survive at least one year after diagnosis, and almost half of the women with ovarian cans remember still alive at least five years after diagnosis. . after it's spread outside the ovary, the surrifle -- survival rate sf 95%. however, if detected early, we know that less than 20% of ovarian cancer is found at an early stage. the ovarian cancer coalition notes that ovarian cancer can

strike women of any race and at any age, though women over the age of 55 and who have never been pregnant, have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer or have a personal history of cancer are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with the disease. accordingly, let us take this opportunity through the passage of house resolution 727 to increase the awareness regarding this serious form of cancer and encourage all women to work with their doctors in order to maximize the possibility of early detection. and this resolution has even greater importance in light of the health care debate that goes on in the senate right now. accordingly, i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting house resolution 727 and we continue to reserve the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: thank you, mr. speaker. i urge the adoption of house resolution 727, urge its adoption, thank the chief sponsor, mr. israel, and all

those who have put their heart and soul behind this and urge the adoption of this resolution. with that we yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. having no further speakers on our side, i want to thank mr. israel and ms. delauro for their leadership on this and i urge that all members support house resolution 727, and we yield back the balance of my time. -- and we yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass how the resolution 727 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 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. without objection, the title is amended. mr. lynch: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts

requests the yeas and nays. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 743. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 743, resolution honoring the life of frank mccourt for his many contributions to american literature, education, and culture. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and add any extraneous materials. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lynch: mr. speaker, i yield

myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i am pleased to present house resolution 743 for consideration. this resolution honors the life of frank mccourt for his many contributions to american literature, education and culture. the measure before us was introduced on september 14 by my colleagues, representative chris murphy of connecticut, and mr. joseph courtney from connecticut, and was favorably reported out of the oversight committee on october 29, 2009, by unanimous consent. notably, this measure enjoys the support of over 50 members of congress. at this point i'd like to yield to one of the lead sponsors of this resolution, mr. courtney of connecticut, for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from connecticut is recognized for five minutes. mr. courtney: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, mr. lynch, for your efforts to bringing this resolution to the floor today honoring a great american, a great writer and a great human being. as the co-sponsorship indicates, there is a connecticut threat because -- through this resolution because

at the time of his passing, frank lived in rocks burry, connecticut, where a memorial service was held just a few weeks ago. congressman chris murphy attended that service and would like to be here but had some business back in his district. so i just want to at least convey his strong support for this resolution because of the strong feeling within northwestern connecticut where frank resided and just love and affection that the people of that state, which was his adopted state, had for frank. as the resolution indicates, frank had an amazing american life. he was born in the u.s. but moved as an infant back to ireland, was raised in limerick, which became the subject of "angela's ashes," a book that won prizes from all over the world, was translated into 17 languages, was read in over 27 countries. he later moved back to the u.s., served in the u.s. army, actually through the g.i. bill got his education, became a

teacher and then, again, an amazing story of becoming an undiscovered peril as a writer late in life when he published "angela's ashes" in his 60's and began became an internationally acclaimed author. it's a book about a very sort of small slice of humanity. it's a story about childhood poverty in limerick, a small, medium-sized community in ireland. he wrote a story that really touched people from all over the world of the challenges that families face under the most difficult circumstances and ultimately, although a very harsh account of his life, an inspiring book about his mother, angela mccourt. he wrote a second story about "tis" which was a story about immigration. coming back to the u.s. as

really a native irish citizen at the time and fending his way through america. but, again, a story which was full of some pretty rough scenes but at the end of the day it really is an american story about someone coming to this country, being able to have the opportunity to pursue their dreams, to have the tools and opportunity, again, to become an extremely successful teacher. and that was the third book, "teacher man," which was the story about him going into the public school system in new york city. his story about his first day in the classroom is something that every teacher i have ever talked to has described as one of the most amazing, accurate accounts of the fear that you feel walking into a classroom and trying to figure out a way to connect. and in his instance, again, someone with a heavy irish accent, going into a high school teaching lit is

hilarious. i ask everyone to read that amazing story. frank, again, a guy that had a second career in life as a writer, was somebody who shared that experience. he raised money for charities all over the u.s. he supported people in the community like chris murphy and myself out on the campaign trail. and i would just close by saying that one of my most vivid moments as a new member of congress is the day we invited frank to come to the hill. we set up a little breakfast down at the members' dining room, invited members to come. he sat in a room with complete strangers, obviously members of congress have pretty big egos and kind of like to talk themselves. you could have heard a pen drop. he told stories and charmed people for really an hour and a half and it was just magic. and that really was what frank was. he was somebody who because of his amazing imagination and his humanity and his sense of humor was able to walk into a room

full of strangers and just completely charmed them and transformed them. it's a memory that i think the congress does well to memorialize and honor today. and as we deal with issues like immigration and education, his example, i think, is an inspiring one for all of us who are involved in these challenges. and his life, i think, really tells us that we are a great country and we can succeed if we give people the opportunities to really blossom and show what they're really made of. with that i'd urge support of the resolution and yield back to mr. lynch. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from connecticut yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. chaffetz: i hope my colleagues will honor and support h.res. 743. born in 1930 in brooklyn, new york, mr. mccourt was a public school teacher.

he was a veteran drafted in the army during the korean bill and used the g.i. bill to enroll in new york university. he also earned a masters degree. mr. mccourt taught in staten island and at new york city technical college and at the university of new york. it was in his 60's that he sat done and chronicled his childhood memories. despite his insistence that it was a modest book, modestly written, "angela's ashes" became an overnight word of mouth success. it became a motion picture. he received an award for his work. he passed away this past july 19 and today we honor the contributions he made not only to the educational system but to american culture and literature. with that, mr. speaker, i'd like to reserve the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from utah reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. the measure before us, as eloquently reported by the gentleman from connecticut, mr. courtney, and also co-sponsored by chris murphy, honors francis "frank" mccourt, who was born on august 13, 1930 in brooklyn, where his irish immigrant parents had hoped to make a better life in the midst of the great depression. mr. mccourt and his family relocated to limerick, ireland, when he was 4 years old, only to sink deeper into poverty. as noted by mr. mccourt, his family's circumstances was so dire that he often dreamed of becoming a prison inmate so he can be guaranteed three meals a day and a warm bed. the death of three of mr. mccourt's six siblings in early childhood, his father's abandonedment and his family's continued poverty are only some of the hardships that plagued mr. mccourt's childhood until

19 when he took his savings and boarded a ship to new york. he joined the united states army and was stationed in germany during the korean war. while his formal education ended at the age of 13, mr. mccourt nevertheless gained admission in new york university and earned a degree in english education in 1957 on the g.i. bill. one year later mr. mccourt began teaching at the age of 28 at ralph mckey vocational high school on staten island, thus beginning his 30-year career teaching in the new york city public school system. after earning a masters in english from brooklyn college in 1967, mr. mccourt began teaching creative writing at manhattan's stifereson high school in 1972 where he remained until his retirement in 1987. though his popular teaching style and initial literary endeavors, mr. mccourt became a beloved teacher at the stiverson and was known throughout the school someone

you needed to meet if you wanted to become a writer. some of his students became a writer. in 1977, mr. mccourt and his brothers, malachi, adopted the series of autobiographical sketches that opened up broadway and they took the play to several other cities. this project motivated mr. mccourt to continue his reflections on his past and he put pen to paper and began the work of his childhood memoirs following his retirement from teaching. in 1996, it marked the publication of mr. mccourt's pulitzer prize-winning memoir, "angela's ashes," as has been detailed earlier today. the challenges and impact of his childhood that had on his life and the life of his -- the people in limerick, mr. mccourt's beautifully written and honest tale, struck a chord

in all's background. he said, when i look back on my childhood i wonder how i survived it all. it was, of course, a miserable childhood. the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. not only did his style have an effect on his readers, but it was a testament to mr. mccourt's himself. he said he learned the significance of my own insignificant life. he followed "angela's ashes's" with two more books dealing his life and six years later he wrote "teacher man" about his life as a public school teacher. regrettably, he passed away on july 19, 1979 at the age of 78. he is survived by "angela's ashes," his brothers, his daughter and three grandchildren. mr. speaker, let us remember and honor frank mccourt for his inspiring and influencing -- excuse me -- inspiring and influencing millions with his works and his contributions.

i urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting house resolution 743 and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, i'd like to reserve the balance of our time, please. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from massachusetts. >> at this time, i'd like to recognize the gentleman from new york, mr. bishop, for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. bishop: thank you, mr. speaker, i thank the gentleman from massachusetts for yielding and i thank the authors of this resolution. frank mccourt is justifiably known to the country and the world primarily as a writer. i knew him as a teacher. i was provost of southampton college of long island university and we offered a masters in creative writing and

hired frank mccourt to teach in that program. he taught in that program every summer from 2002 through 2008 and he was preparing to teach in the summer of 2009 when he died. to describe him as a great teacher is to not do him justice. he was an extraordinary teacher. he was inspiring, he was inspired, he was engaging, and he was incredibly effective. the work shop he offered was called memoir writing. it was always the most heavily subscribed of all the work shops we offered. there was always a waiting list. alan alda worked on his memoirs as a student in frank mccourt's class. anne bancroft was a student in frank mccourt's memoir writing class that class was a textbook

in how to teach, how to engage student, how to turn them on to a subject matter and how to get the most out of them, the very essence of teaching. he did it with enormous humor, with great charm and almost effortless in his ability to connect with students. so i am delighted that the congress, i hope that the congress will unanimously pass this resolution. he was a man richly deserving of any accolade he might receive. he will be terribly missed and served as an example of what good teaching is and how valuable good teaching is to our nation's students. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts reserves. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: we have no additional speakers. i would urge the passage of house resolution 743.

it's an honor for me to participate in the proceedings and urge the adoption of this resolution. with that, i yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: i thank the gentleman for his kind remarks, i want to thank mr. courtney and mr. murphy, and the gentleman from new york, mr. bishop, for their wonderful work on this resolution. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is, will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 743. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirm firmtive, the bill is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise mr. courtney: i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 329 to improve the efficient soif gas turbines used in energy generation as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report he the title of the bill. the clerk: a bill to establish a research, development, and technology demonstration program to improve the efficient soif gas turbines used in combined cycle power generation. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. >> i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and

extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. tonko: i give myself such time as required. my bill establishing a research, development, and technology demonstration program to improve the efficient soif natural gas turbines used in generation systems. the department has a similar public-private partnership in the late 1980's. this is essential if we're to be the energy leaders of the world. currently, the united states uses natural gas for 20% of our power generation. that percentage is most likely to grow. efficiency is paramount in turbines. the most effective combined cycle systems today are capable of reaching 60% efficient

sthism goal of this bill is to develop systems that achieve up to 65% efficiency. the energy and fuel savings created by more efficient turbines will help rate payer save more than a billion dollars a year in fuel costs alone. deployments of 55% efficient turbines throughout the country would result in reductions in fuel use, leading to savings of $180 billion through the year 2040. energy efficiency should be our fuel of choice. a fuel we need to drill and mine like we currently drill for oil and mine coal. that's exactly what this bill does, mr. speaker. it makes energy efficiency our fuel of choice. just one percentage point improvement in efficiency would result in co-2 emissions reductions of 4.4 million tons per year, as well as palpable

reductions in harmful emissions. in addition to the environmental benefits and energy and fuel savings, this bill promotes united states technology leaership, putting our -- leadership, putting our country in position to create and retain high value domestic jobs in turbine manufacturing. furthermore, many technologies developed in this program can be retrofitted onto the existing fleet of turbines this will create thousands of domestic jobs. there are potential jobs in our labs, in our factories and in our construction sector this bill is a positive step toward restoring our energy, economy, creating clean energy jobs and enhantsing our energy security. getting this legislation to the floor today would not have been possible without the help of my colleagues on the house science and technology committee. after the full committee markup of this bill we continued to

work to address the concerns of my colleagues, mr. hall, mr. bilbray, and merchandise kosmas. we were able to expand the scope of the bill to include single cycle turbine systems as well as combined cycle. i want to thank them for working with me to create a stronger bill. we also modestly expanding the authorization levelers in bill to reflect the inclusion of simple cycle turbine systems. i want to thank ranking member hall, his staff, and all my science and technology committee colleagues. our chairman has been most helpful. i want to thank mr. england for understanding the importance of this legislation and joining me as a co-sponsor of this bill. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. hall: i yield myself such time as i might consume and i

rise in support of h.r. 3029 to establish a research, development, and technology demonstration program to improve the efficiency of gas turbines used in combined cycle power generation systems. now the bill we're considering on the floor today is a slightly different version than the bill that was passed out of the committee on science and technology on july 29 of this year. two changes were made between committee and floor consideration. the first is the addition of simple cycle gas turbine efficiencies to the combined cycle gas turbine efficiency already called for in the bill. this addition allowed for increased competition as well as beneficial efficiencies across the spectrum of gas turbines. the second change increases the annual authorization level from $65 million to $85 million for fiscal years 2011 through 2013.

that will expand eligible participants in the r&d program. prior to committee consideration of h r. 3029, the text, as introduced on june 24, 2009, was included in h.r. 2454, the american clean energy and security act of 2009. which passed the house two days later. in the event this that -- that this version passes the house, we would prefer that this language be substituted in place of the language included in h.r. 2454, should that bill go to conference with the senate. natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel and is a highly efficient form of energy. it has fewer impurities and its combustion results in less pollution and has therefore become a popular choice for energy generation. while we currently have an abundant supply of natural gas in our country, we should try to use our resources in the

most efficient way. this will -- this bill will help us do that. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves thism gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: i'll continue to reserve the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. hall: i yield back the balance of my time, we have no more spikers. the speaker: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. let me again thank those on the committee and subcommittee respectively, chairman gordon, chairman baird for their tremendous help in this matter, along with ranking members on the committee. before we close this today, i think it's important to acknowledge the new mexico letters of support we have received, we have letters of support from the gas turbine administration, general electric, strategic powers systems inc.

having strong industry support is vital if we're going to be successful in moving forward with an innovation economy. we must work together to move our energy and our economy together toward the future. if thill underscore the value -- this bill will underscore the value of natural gas turbines with an added 5% efficiency that will result in billions of dollars in savings that will come from the efforts of the bill. i yield back the remainer of the time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3029 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. without objection, the title amended. mr. tonko: i call for the yeas

and nays. the speaker pro tempore: those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? mr. tonko: i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3598, the energy and water research integration act, as ameppeded. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 359 a bill to ensure water intensity in the department of energy's energy research, development, and integration program to guarantee efficient, reliable, and sustainable delivery of energy and water resources. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko, and the gentleman from texas, mr. hall, will each

control 20 minutes. mr. tonko: i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under considering. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. tonko: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. tonko: demand for energy and water resources is stressing our environment and economy. innovation in resources that stress the nexus of these two is crit c58 to our country this bill requires the secretary of energy to consider water-related issues in the department's energy research programs. additionally, h.r. 359 creates an energy-water architecture council to improve energy and water resource data collection, reporting, and technological

innovation. chairman gordon and ranking member hall have worked hard to improve this bill on its way to the floor. to ensure appropriate use of taxpayer dollar the bill includes direction to the secretary of energy to develop a strategic plan to focus the department's efforts on the most energy and water intensive program and projects with the most potential to achieve the purposes of the bill this legislation is the product of recommendations heard at five science and technology committee hearings on water and several reports from the national academies, the government accountability office, the national technology council and the department of energy, with letters of support from the water innovations alliance, the noh2o inc. this takes important steps to deal with our water and energy resource challenges. i encourage all my colleagues to join me in support of h.r. 3598 and i reserve the balance

of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. hall: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. hall: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 3598, the energy and water research integration act. and i agree with mr. tonko, the gentleman from new york, as well as h.r. 3029, the bill we are considering on the floor has been amended since passed out of the committee of science and technology. i supported the intent of the bill as introduced which is to ensure the water intensity in the department of energy research, development and demonstration programs. and through the process of regular order, h.r. 3598 improved. for example, two amendments agreed to during the full committee markup clarified that the language of the bill should not be the basis for any

federal new regulations and should not increase any financial burden on any state, local and tribal governments. however, few concerns remained and during the markup, chairman gordon graciously worked with our side to make changes and improvements to the committee passed version. and what we are considering today is the result of negotiations to draft a good bill acceptable to all. this amendment version of h.r. 3598 requires the secretary of energy to assess the energy research, development and demonstration programs and projects of the department of energy and identify those where it's appropriate to integrate water consideration. the secretary shall then develop a strategic plan, outline the r&d needs for the programs and projects identified under the assessment. after this plan is developed, the secretary would have the authority to apply the

strategic plan to those appropriate projects identified as the most energy and water intensive and with the most potential to minimize freshwater withdrawal and consumption, increase water use efficiencyy and utilize nontraditional water resources, among other considerations. the amended bill also requires interagency, nonduplication and coordination. in addition, the amended bill establishes in coordination with other relevant federal agencies an energy water architecture council that would promote and enable data collection, reporting and technological innovation. ensuring adequate water supply from municipal and agriculture use and also energy production should be a primary area for focus of our country. almost all of our energy sources, including the renewable energy require water to be productive and conversely most water processes requires

water to be useful. this bill is timely and needed in order to use both resources efficiently and responsibly. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: mr. speaker, i'll continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york rmb and announces to the house his approval thereof. -- reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. hall: mr. speaker, i yield myself two minutes to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. hall: mr. speaker, before we end debate today, i want to take a moment to say thank you to a policy advisor of mine that will be going on maternity leave shortly after and will be likely not returning to the hill for a while. elizabeth chapel has been on my staff since september, 1994, helping me to serve the people of the fourth district of texas. she is originally from my hometown in rockwall, texas, and i hired her as an intern

from the university of texas. i told her back then that she could be my intern for three months and then we would see where we went from there. at the end of these three months, she came to me and asked if she had to leave and i told her, baby doll, you can stay as long as you like. she must have liked it because over 15 years later she's leaving me not for another job on the hill but for the only job better than helping the folks in texas, that's motherhood. elizabeth and her husband, christopher, are expecting a baby boy at the end of january and i look forward to meeting him and hope he'll be my intern during the year 2020. elizabeth has served as my -- in my personal office and as my senior energy policy advisor on the committee on science and technology and the committee on energy and commerce, two committees which i'm very -- with some very complex issues. she's done a stellar job, a very heavy workload she's

carried with style and grace. elizabeth has been a real asset to my work. i want to take the opportunity to say thank you and wish her the best of luck as a mother. i'm sure she'll be just as successful at that job and i thank the chair and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: yes, mr. speaker. let me on behalf of the democratic members of our science and tech committee wish elizabeth chapel the very best in the steps to come and may also share the sentiment that child be gifted with the sense of humor that so obviously prevails at the science and tech committee. we wish you the best. we have no further speakers on behalf of the bill on our side, mr. speaker. however, i'd like to take this -- make this final point of

encouraging our colleagues to support h.r. 3598, which would put a primary focus, rightfully so, on water-related issues as the department of energy committee deals with the energy and technology research. to do that optimizes the outcome, i think, is a very strong bill. i congratulate the chair and the ranking member on behalf of the work they've done on 3598. and with that i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3598 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule

in the first place, keeps them out of the hospital, that will keep a check on rising costs in both public and private health care markets. now, it does this in a number of ways. i won't go into all of them. but among the most important is that this bill requires insurance companies to cover highly effective preventive services with no copayments or deductibles. no copayments or deductibles. now, this is critical because we know that all too often people forego their yearly

does continue. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span iridium. >> "washington journal" continues. host: tom merikricks writes a bg called "best defense." you wrote in your recent blog,

three things that we need from obama in afghanistan. you wrote most importantly, "is his heart in it?" what did you mean by this? guest: i think that obama is a great speechmaker and in some ways that i ways that i the question is eloquent. the question is, willie also give -- will he also give success after this long internal debate? does he think this is something that is worth doing or is he began writing about it? if there is any sense that it is not -- or is he begrudging about it? is there any sense that it is not in his heart and soul? host: would indicate to you that his heart is in it? guest: i think it is the words that he should not use.

it uses the phrase, a "exit strategy" then you yourself focused on getting out, people will sense that. people will sense fear and insecurity. if it is just, we're going to mess around here a little bit and then we are leaving, i think especially the opponents in afghanistan -- not just the taliban, but the corrupt and abusive members of the afghan government -- will say, ok, hunkered down for 12 months and we will see the americans are of here and have our own way. -- see the americans out of here and have our own way. host: why isn't 12 months long enough? it might guest: beat, but it takes time to -- guest: it might be, but it takes time to win the trust of people. it takes time to get rid of corruption in the government.

host: what do people need to ask about president bush not asking the people to sacrifice? does the president need to ask of people to sacrifice? guest: think it would be a good idea. since 9/11 it would be a good idea to get the american people involved in this thing. we see this is especially out of the democrats, talking about paying as you go in the war. i think that would have been a good idea. we got in trouble by essentially put in the iraq war on a credit card and of the chinese government owns an enormous amount of american government debt and is going to be coming due. i think some of it heavily next year. bringing home the american people, the cost of the war is important. a lot of american people are involved in this. my nephew is at it -- is that officer during candidates: and

will go to -- candidate school and will go to afghanistan next year. host: the "washington post" proposes that you have a vote -- a 40 cent gas tax to help pay for this escalation in data -- in afghanistan. the politics of that? guest: i'm not sure how the politics will play out. i try to avoid discussing domestic politics because when i hear political pundits discussing security i wonder -- they sound so bad that i wonder if i sound that stupid. host: why do they sound so bad? guest: because they do not know what they're talking about. as a reporter that covers the military and has done it for 20 years, to people -- to see people talking about counterinsurgency casually without ever having seen it on the ground, it reminds me of

what it would be like to read about a political campaign without ever talking to voters and what not. with that said, i think it would have been a good idea after 9/11 to say, this whole thing involves partly being in the middle east for oil. thomas friedman has talked about this eloquently in his columns in the new york times. we should have begun back then to try to win this country from its addiction to middle eastern oil. -- and eight years later we have not done that. host: before i get to phone calls, i want to show our viewers -- you said there were three things the president obama needs to address tonight. at one of the other three is how we are relating to the security problems in pakistan. why is that a bigger worry for you? guest: i love afghanistan. i lived there as a kid. in fact, these are the national

colors of the afghan 5 on my tie today. as far as natural -- national interest cannot there's only one reason -- as far as national interest, there is a one reason we care about afghanistan and that is pakistan. what we cannot live with is the security situation in pakistan deteriorating rapidly. it has been@@@@@@@ @ @ @ " you don't want islamic extremists coming together with nuclear weapons. that's a possibility in pakistan. as long as afghanistan is in turmoil, that will spill over into pack san antonio. host: so what do you want the president to say tonight on pakistan? guest: i don't know. i think that's the hardest problem. what he has to do is somehow get pakistan move serious about

countering terrorism inside its own borders and truth be told, part of the pakistani government until this day still supports the taliban. the internal intelligence organization is really playing a double game here that we have never been able to stop. and if anybody can do it i think obama probably has a good chance of intervening. but it's a tough act to do. chance of intervening, but it is a tough act. host: thomas ricks is with us for about 45 more minutes. phoenix, ariz., democrats line, your the first call. caller: i think what applies about jobs in the u.s. could also apply in afghanistan. my idea is 100% employee only companies where a person would say, let's get 200 people together and they either get my

car loans or they have money of their own and they could be paid back through deductions. in afghanistan we do not need no bid contracts. and what we need to do was put the people to worked just like we do here so that people can join forces to build manufacturing and solar and turbine. in colorado, they build them 100% there and install them. host: we will leave your comment there and get a response. guest: i think she has a point. micro loans can make a huge difference, especially in third world countries. i have seen this in haiti where there was a situation where a

woman would walk 7 miles every day to buy bread for dollar and then come back and sell abroad for a total of a $50. -- sell the bread for a total of $2. 50% of the profit was in interest every day. all you had to do was loaned these women two dollars for one year and a no interest loan and it would double their income every day. microphones can make a huge difference. -- microbes loans can make a huge difference. you can change people's lives with several projects, paving a road, building a schoolhouse, paying a teacher for one year, having a non corrupt police officer. these can make huge differences in the quality of people's lives. host: is the president expected to address a situation like that this evening? guest: i think he will address

some of that and say it is not just in military operation. in fact, it is just a preamble to what you want to do. in many ways, our biggest enemy is not the taliban, but the corrupt government. if you can get better government -- and that is very much a civilian effort -- then you can change the nature of afghanistan and stop having the afghan government drive people into the arms of the taliban. host: that is the third thing that you said we need to hear from president obama tonight. why is this more troublesome than the taliban? guest: because the daud is really a consequence of the afghan government. if the afghan -- because the taliban is really a consequence of the afghan government. if the afghan government did what it was entrusted to do, then the tollison and would not be a problem.

-- the taliban would be irrelevant to the daily life of most afghans. host: wisconsin, gene, an independent line, good morning. caller: i was just wondering with afghanistan being such a big problem and the reason why we are over there is to protect the u.s., i was just wondering -- we have gotten the aerospace pretty well taken care of, but how can they do not have a better check on the canadian border and the shores and the southern border? i do not quite understand. when i leave my house i lock the front door and leave -- and i do not leave the back door open. it seems very strange to me that if you are over there primarily trying to straighten out

afghanistan and protect the united states, why aren't we protecting the borders? guest: it actually brings home the difficulty of the task we are asking the afghan government to do. the afghan-pakistan border is a mountainous area in which there are a lot of taliban extremists and al qaeda and those of to mr. -- up to mischief. when we asked them, we need to keep in mind the difficulty that we have inadequate policing our own borders. i have been in doubt how so and watch people walk across the rio grande river on a monday morning commute, curing their lunches. these are people that not only -- carrying their lunches. these are people that expect to cross over every week. we do not see people coming across and detonating bombs in major cities, so i think it is a

similar problem, but qualitatively a much different problem. host: when you talked about the three things that we need from obama in afghanistan, one of your readers noted that they would like to hear from david patraeus on this issue. why is that? guest: i admire david patraeus quite a lot as a general and i think that he approached the u.s. army's approach in iraq during to much work and understanding it, and also as a commander in forcing down a new idea of counterinsurgency down through the ranks. that said, it struck me that he was very active in selling this new policy in the spring of 2007. president bush and leaned on him a lot. i remember writing an article for the "washington post" about how general patraeus had been mentioned by president bush at least once a week for something

like 36 running weeks, a total of 53 times. patraeus was very visible at that point. to my mind, he has been almost invisible on iraq and afghanistan for the last few months. this may be a good thing. this may be, the president does not need me to be out in front. but i do have a sense that patraeus was so active in the iraq policy for 2007 for president bush, after tonight, after the president's speech, i would expect him as a good officer to do the same thing for president obama in the coming weeks. why use host: think he has been -- host: why do you think he has been a "invisible?" guest: i think he felt that it was best to keep his head down and reminding people that president obama had not yet come to a decision. discretion was the better act for him until this point. the question is now, ok, the president has now made up his mind, what are you going to do

now? the next host: call, fla., republic -- host: the next call, florida, a democrat line. caller: good morning. i was wondering -- of course, we have to listen to the president tonight to see exactly what he has in mind. what is really happening is a tremendous problem within pakistan. pakistan has been developing this al qaeda and the taliban for the past 30 years or so. and in the process, india lost over 65,000 people in kashmir. it is the taliban the killed over 65,000 people or more in kashmir. in reality, we are at war. we are fighting for india. why are we not asking india to take part in this right now?

it could be a terrible problem for india before it becomes any problem for the u.s. it is almost like we're trying to fight the in the award. where we doing that without asking for direct help from india? and we can hire indian troops to fight in afghanistan under our command. guest: this is one thing i like about going on c-span is that you really do get thoughtful and informed questions. the caller as to the heart of a problem in many ways. the military and pakistan continues to think that the biggest threat it faces is not terrorism, but india. in fact, there is evidence that some of the billions of dollars of aid that we have given them since 9/11 has gone to improving pakistan's nuclear

arsenal. this is a terrible thing. you really do not want them to be spending the aid money that we give them to build nuclear weapons. what we need to get is a pakistan that reorients away from confronting india and more toward dealing with its internal stability problems, its corruption, and it's taliban. india can play a big role in data in reassuring pakistan that it is not a confrontational and may. the way to do that would be to solve the kashmir problem -- a confrontational and me. the way to do that would be to solve the kashmir problem. i think india does have a huge role to play here. the caller is right, indeed has a much more direct interest. if pakistan breaks up -- and it has never really been a coherent country, but it is becoming less coherent now. the northwest frontier has always been kind of an outlaw area, but now balukistan and

other areas are looking at a tumultuous and unstable. yes, if pakistan breaks up and has nuclear weapons loose with is almost extremists, it would be an immediate problem for india. i do not think india would stand by and let that happen. i think it would intervene and then you would have a war and a civil war probably in pakistan. if you want to stop afghanistan, you need to solve pakistan. if you want to stop pakistan, you need to get peace between pakistan and india. host: is there a discussion within the obama administration on getting india to have more of a public role in the pakistan- afghanistan equation? guest: when richard holbrook came in as the special envoy to deal with all of this, india was installed the that somehow kashmir was being thrown into

this basket and made it clear that they were unhappy with that idea and that holbrooke would not be the american envoy to deal with all of these problems, especially kashmir. but i do not -- i do think there is an understanding in the u.s. government that there is a parlay in these problems and need to do with the olad and not just -- with the whole of them and not just a piece. host: next call, karen on the independent line. caller: i oppose the war in afghanistan and i also oppose the war in iraq, and i was proven right. those of us who happen opposed -- who have opposed the war in iraq have been proved dramatically right. i would ask mr. ricks, does he see that obama would never be able to tell us that we should support the war in afghanistan

because of our common sense was proven so right over all of dependence and the generals on tv and the congressmen who have this -- u.f. roane $1 trillion at the warner iraq that we could use so much better -- who have thrown $1 trillion at the war in iraq that we could use a much better, we could never support that. guest: there's a book about the war in iraq called "fiasco" and it still state that the war in iraq was the biggest mistake in the history of american foreign policy. even now, we only have a dim sense of what its ultimate cost to this country in blood, treasurer, credibility and influence. i do not think the war in iraq is over. i think we may only be halfway through watching this play out. i think next year in iraq is going to be a worrisome year. host: explain that quickly.

guest: in iraq next year, you are bringing down american troops very quickly. you are trying to all national elections, and you have iraqis posturing themselves for a post- american future. all of the ingredients for a civil war in iraq@@@@@@"': -- i think the next year in iraq, 2010, will be like 2003 and 2007, a real turning point year. .

run about afghanistan that i am about iraq for two reasons. first, iraq does not strike me as having a coherent national identity. it is still very much its part, the kurds, shiites, sunnis. and afghans do still have a national identity, despite their years of warfare. the sec and more important reason is afghanistan has experienced is limited extremism in the government in kabul and the vast majority of afghans did not like it. they do not like the corrections and abuses of the kabul government, either. if you force them to make a choice, they might pick the taliban. there was a good interview in the stars and stripes with an afghan soldier who said, we did not like the taliban, but at least they did not break our little boys like the police do.

that is a chilling point. host: next call, grand rapids, minn., robert on the democrats' line. caller: did you write a book about the history of the united states and overkill in interventions dating back to 1894 with the overthrow of hawaii? and secondly, i think it is rather arrogant and 94 of the united states, especially the civilian leaders -- and naive of the united states, especially the civilian leaders, to think that we can go into afghanistan and stabilize the country when it is unattainable. as soon as we leave, whoever is in charge will resort to the brutal methods that have kept people in power and control their for centuries on end.

-- and control there for centuries on end. i believe going into afghanistan was a tragic mistake. if they would have kept the aspects of the police force, a strike force targeting just those people -- but as soon as we put boots on the ground there, just like ain iraq, we kicked a hornet's nest. we will suffer those contracts -- those consequences for decades to come. guest: i agree with you. the u.s. through military action cannot make afghanistan a table -- a stable country. i think what the president will say tonight is that it can create conditions in which afghans can begin to do that. what you have to do is hold back the taliban, contain them, and also have american troops adjacent to the afghan police, afghan soldiers, in the hope

that -- and i have seen this. daud in iraq -- that when you have more american troops -- and i have seen this in iraq -- that when you have more american troops, it improves the behavior of afghan officials. for example, i am told that there are five checkpoint between dnr and the south -- between cancer heart and the south. in those checkpoints, truck drivers are shaken donndown. you could have american troops side-by-side with the afghan officials and they will stop shaking down every truck that comes through. because that is a tax on the people that come through and there a cure -- a poor people. you could improve the behavior of the afghan government and deter the taliban, stop this

vicious cycle that drives their people into the arms of the taliban. that does not end the problem, you're right. what it does is say, now the afghans have a problem -- a chance to stand up a police force and an army cured by live in afghanistan. it was not always a brutal and violent government. in the 60's and 70's it was actually a golden era. it is a myth that these people have been fighting each other for centuries. until the soviet invasion of 1979, they have a brother peaceful 20th century. -- they had a rather peaceful 20th century. host: thomas recalls' blog -- thomas ricks' blog is called a

piece at a time. next caller, please. caller: i do not believe that how much money we have promised them they will deal with their borders because they're more afraid of india than the afghan border. personally, if you think it is okay for the taliban to run parts of the country -- i mean, they kill women for showing an ankle and they beat them badly. i personally cannot put up with the murderous thugs. you are willing to leave them in charge of parts of the country where women are treated like they are? guest: i agree with your characterization of the taliban. their murderous thugs. in fact, i recommend to

everybody a terrific movie about the taliban era in afghanistan. it is called osama. it has nothing to do with osama bin laden, but it is about a little girl living under the taliban. it is a really great movie. the other movie i would recommend is called "afghan star." it is a documentary about the post taliban. it really brings home a good sense of the diversity and the viciousness of afghan culture. -- the by viciousness of afghan culture. -- but vivaciousness of the afghan culture. we're not going to change the culture of afghanistan, and if the local people say we want the taliban, fine, you can have the taliban in your province. i think eventually they will

fall away. but you do not want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. you want a good enough to compromise. it's a taliban is willing to come in and be part of the government and to stop the fighting, is that great? no, but it is a compromise. host: why did you live in afghanistan? guest: my father wound up teaching at harvard as a psychologist and the 1960's he was teaching at columbia university and got tired of all of the riots and wanted to go overseas. i was a teenager. i just love the country. i knocked all around it. my parents were kind of irresponsible. are knocked off a round of afghanistan by bus and visited

nall over. i went back in 2002 and also in 2004 for a quick visit. i used to go skiing in the -- in afghanistan. i was a member of the afghan ski patrol, junior grade. it is a beautiful country. take colorado and give it bounced twice as big. that is the essence of afghanistan. -- give its mountains twice as big. that is the essence of afghanistan and heart is more like, say, and albuquerque. -- kandahar is more like say, of albuquerque. up in the north where the air strike was recently that killed

a bunch of people was the oldest greek city state ever found, a colony of ancient greece built in what is now northern afghanistan. host: ofville, north carolina, steve, good morning. caller: 5 questions about the culture of a waziristan. are these people committed to the global jihadist, which always makes al qaeda welcome there? or is there a sense that there are foreign fighters picking a fight with us? guest: is always the hope. our trump card with are tired -- with our credit is that eventually they step on -- witor trump card with al qaeda is that eventually they step on people's toes. they eventually crank of the locals.

the problem in waziristan is that they have been there long enough that they seem to have become part of the local life, the local culture. the question is, at this point after 25 years, are members of al qaeda seen as outsiders in waziristan? apparently, they're not. they're seen as part of the local scene. was your is dan, i think my generally as a culture just once -- waziristan, i think, generally as a coach as was their independence. they do not want to be messed with. -- generally once their independence. they do not want to be messed with. i think that is one reason americans have been so reliant on predator drone strikes to go in there. host: mckinney, texas, good morning. caller: my question is, how does the opium trade affect the

country and why isn't it talked about more? guest: it is talked about, but usually in despair in terms because there are no good answers to it. we, as americans, with our government have played a role in creating the trade, not just as consumers of heroin, but creating the fields were the year when it is grown -- were the poppies are grown. in the 1950's, america, out of the goodness of its hard, built two big dams on the home and robert -- on the helmand river that prevented it from just going out and give our birding. now that it is dead end of a of -- going out and the decorating. now that it is danced and reservoirs, a and have a a bit fields.

you cannot just go interrupt that trade and not alienate the people. this was done in turkey in the 1950's where the government came in under international pressure and regulated the trade and the opium crop was brought up and used for non-evil means to provide painkillers to third world hospitals around the world. host host the president speaks tonight, live coverage on c span 2 and go to the internet and our radio station to listen in to the president's speech. after that, later this week, there will be several hearings

up on capitol hill about his strategy. on wednesday, secretary of state , hillary clinton, secretary gates and admiral mullen and house foreign affairs committee in the afternoon. they will return on thursday to testify before the senate foreign relations committee and house armed services committee. what will you be listening for out of those hearings? guest: if i were covering them as a reporter, at that point, listen to what the members of congress are saying as to what the witnesses are saying. the witnesses will basically be following what the president says in his speech and maybe elaborating on it a little bit. what i really want to hear is what the congressional democrats have to say. are they going to say, president obama, sorry, we're not going along with you,

mr. ortiz: are they going to say, we're going to give you 12 months and then out of there or say tell us how this works and at least give the notion a chance. i think the president has a real problem with his own party and will be interesting to watch this week. >> go to our website for our schedule in covering these hearings. tennessee on the republican line, you're next. caller: good morning, c-span and i appreciate what c-span does for the american citizen and provides an insight into the three branches of our government. mr. risks, i want to ask him something related to -- let me ask you this first, were you born in 1948? 'm sorry i look federal. i was born in 1955.

caller: i was born in 1948 and when i was in israel, that is the topic i think should be on obama's mind tonight along with all the other problems of are going on in afghanistan and iraq. we think that if you look at what i consider some important numbers, but in my research, the no. 48 refers to the 2012. that is a doomsday coming. my thought is, is there a real concern on nuclear attack for them? they would ask the american government to allow a complete removal of all the people there. of all the people in israel. israel would do it over a three- year time frame or selso and mod

to establish a conversation here in america. guest: i agree with the caller can provide a huge fan of c- span. i think it would be a better country if we got rid of all of the news and commercials. that is a good starting point. my concern on israel is that i do not understand where they are right now, how they plan to get out of their current strategic plight. i am a supporter of israel and i worry about the gaza war. also, clearly, they have real worries with iran. iran, i think, is the biggest winner in the iraq war. iran has really benefited from the in -- from the removal of saddam hussein and the weakening

of iraq as a state, and especially the of the bushmen of a shi'ite domenicdominated gove. essentially what we have done is removed -- and especially the establishment of a shiite dominated government. essentially, what we have done is removed its opponents in the area. i think israel rightly is worried by the increased threat presented by iran. you're seeing is an interesting ways. for example, in yemen, there's fighting going on over the caribbean peninsula. and what you are seeing is some confrontation between the radian states and iran, i think because iran is -- between the radiant states and iran, i think because iran is feeling frisky. even countries across the marra

over to morocco expressed some concern over this. host: next call from michigan, go ahead. caller: with the situation between the taliban and the al qaeda in pakistan, should our country be concerned about al qaeda getting intense arm pakistan's nuclear-weapons? and if so, -- getting its hands on pakistan's nuclear-weapons? and if so, where are we -- why are we moving that arsenal out of that country? guest: i do not know that the pakistan government would allow it. pakistan, when we ask about this, assures us that they are

divided of and that someone could not simply walk in and take one. as they face india, there is concern that they would be green these things together. these things are always most horrible when they are being transported. you are bringing together components in a moment of crisis and with the government is confused and so on. that is a difficult and worries some scenario. and in india, they have said, with the cannot allow these nuclear-weapons to be floating around as they are being moved. so, they intervene at that point. the best argument would be for land mines. landmines are politically unpopular these days, but as a weapon of last resort, what you might want to do if you are worried about components of the pakistani nuclear arsenal is fly in and drop airdropped mind, i

think they're called gaiters, and drop them in large numbers around the weapons bunkers. simply to vote -- to not allow access to them. american minds simply disarmed after six months. that for you do not have little kids 25 years later -- that way you do not have little kids 25 years later blown themselves up wandering around. host: the associated press has reported that the official number of troops to reset will be 30,000. what happens next when it comes to deploying troops? how does that work? guest: it is difficult to move a lot of troops into afghanistan very quickly. it will be slower than a lot of people think. there are logistical problems getting in there, feeding them there, giving them a place to

sleep. i think you will see the troop numbers go up relatively slowly. then what you do is you start going out and what counterinsurgency. calls a stain approach -- what counterinsurgency calls a stain approach, you go into one area and change the nature of life in that small area and expand it out words. 30,000 troops is not a lot of troops. what you will see is trying to secure a major population areas. afghanistan has five major cities. and you will, will we try to secure those areas, and probably also the large rally near the pakistan border -- the large a valley near the pakistan border, that is where you put most of your troops. the rest of it is for counter terror. you cannot put troops in every village. use of the sick, in those areas

where we find a and taliban are al qaeda -- you simply say, in those areas where we find it taliban or rocket activity, we will send garver to urgency troops. -- where we find taliban or al qaeda activity, we will send counterinsurgency troops. your troop casualties will go up. the question at the end of the 12 months is, what do you have to show for it? host: what you think the obama administration needs to show for it? what are the markers? guest: the real madrid's are certainly not anything military. it is not how many taliban did you kill. that is not what you want. you want to make them irrelevant. the real question is the quality of life for afghans. our schools open? do people vote? do people feel safe going to market? will people talk to american troops? one of the measures i like in

iraq when i saw counterinsurgency on the ground work, -- was, were the local people telling american troops about roadside bombs they saw planted? i chose not only that they have the intelligence how to -- that shows that they not only have intelligence of how to talk to the americans, but that they are less afraid of the americans than the other side. the big worry is that you go in and do not have enough of a presence to sustain it there and then you pull out and those who helped you get punished. host: atlanta, republican line, steve joins us. caller: my question is, how much you think the afghanistan war has to do with the oil pipeline in the caspian basin, which is operated by the unical

corporation of which hamid karzai used to be a consultant? and a pregnant -- president bush previously had tried to -- and i know president bush previously had tried to nullify the contract between unical and argentina. how much you think the war has to do with protecting that oil pipeline over everythin else? > guest: there's no question in my mind that the iraq war is largely about oil. that is what makes the part of the oil -- of the world important to us. if this course of america -- if this were south america, even cambodia we could walk away from more easily than the middle east. there are always these conspiracy rumors about unocal and so on.

there is gas up in the central asian region, but afghanistan is a resource for country. -- is a resource poor country. host: garrett from massachusetts. caller: i was wondering three or writing for the "washington post" -- through your writing for the "washington post" you know if there is a technological of vantagadvantage to try to ger outcome in afghanistan? guest: on the question of technology, the answer is, unfortunately, i do not think so. the job i really doing right now is writing the history of the

last 50 years of american military operations since world war ii. one of the things that you see is a constantly looking for technological solutions. we are very technological and we like the idea of fixes through technology. the problem is that our problems are not technological. they are human. in fact, we have spent at least $10 billion in the military on finding technological answers to roadside bombs. they were at least temporarily successful. could you jam the radio waves that turns on and ignites the bomb? could you somehow detect bombs better and so on? it turns out the best way to detect a roadside bombs is to talk to the locals and make them feel secure and make it so that the enemy cannot plant bombs. this is what has been referred to as the sea of people. if you drive up the sea of the people in which the insurgents when, he is like a fish of water

-- if you dry up the sea of the people in which the insurgent swims, and he is like a fish out of water. you would not solve these wars through technological means. it is going to be true human beings, understanding cultures, languages, and honestly, showing a bit of humility. the beginning of wisdom with the iraq war was saying, let's ask the iraqis the best way out of this mask. i think that will be the beginning of wisdom in afghanistan as well. use the troops for security, but ask afghans for a solution. i have heard the argument that the afghan form of government of a village councils and so on with consensus, is actually closer to the ancient greek form of democracy than our current form of democracy.

host: it has been reported that the president yesterday spent time on the phone talking to other allied leaders about getting more of a commitment from them, from the troops. the french president has apparently told the president no more troops from france. what is your reaction to that and his request for more troops from these allied leaders? guest: my personal gut reaction is, fine, the french are always more of a problem than a help. this has been true since world war ii. i am writing about eisenhower and he told somebody at the end of world war ii and that his greatest enemy at the end of the war was france. the germans were part of the problem, but the people that ingraham were the french. -- that ingrahaangered him for e french. i think canadians and the birds have taken hits, -- and the

brits have taken hits, and the austrians as well in smaller numbers. but i think on the ground, militarily, they are more problems than they have solved. in fact, the areas that have been secured by french or german troops, what you're going to do is have them there talking to local leaders and so on, but when you want to go out to do terror, you do american special operations troops to do the raids and the real sold during -- and the real soldiering. host: the last question on the democrats' line from new jersey. caller: i would like mr. ricks to address a number of issues. number one, isn't it true that we are inserting ourselves into

an ethnic conflict between the passions and the south -- between the pashtun is in the south and the rest of the ethnic groups in the northern part of the country, which are the uzbeks, the turkmenistan's , et? the pashtun have been fighting for centuries against foreign occupiers. host: we're going to take the first point because we're running out of time. guest: the caller is correct. there is a real problem there with the ethnicity. and the belief with the pashtun is that the tajiks have been kind of lording it over them in recent years. it is a problem that we have to address.

i think sensitivity to ethnicity is really important, but i also think afghanistan can be stable and has been stable. it has been most stable when there is a pashtun rule in kabul. yes, you do 1 pashtun representation and even leadership in the government, but not taliban leadership. the question is, how do you get that? host: to read more of thoma >> house members still taking a break. earlier, the u.s. house debated seven noncontroversial bills including one on ovarian cancer and one on water and energy research. members returning at 6:30 p.m.

for recorded votes and speeches. more live coverage here on c-span. u.s. senate continues debate on its health care legislation and moving towards first votes on amendments later today. the associated press reports a bipartisan amendment to increase insurance benefits for women through yearly screenings gets the first senate vote later today. the amendment co-sponsored by mikulski and senator snow would include a variety of yearlyy screenings and was inspired by recommendations last month that women undergo fewer mammograms. a vote on this amendment may take place around 6:00 p.m. eastern. live coverage of the health care debate on c-span 2. president obama will address the nation as he announces his decision regarding u.s. policy in afghanistan. not only will we carry that live on the c-span networks but will

open our phone lines for your reactions as well at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and a program note, at least three congressional hearings are now scheduled to talk about the president's plan including ones hosted by the senate armed services committee, the foreign affairs committee. all of these will be live on c-span 3. check our website for further details at c-span.org. we discussed u.s. policy in afghanistan this morning. this is after an hour. >> we are in the mcgowan theater. the corner stone set in 1933 and opened in 1935 and we welcome congressman connolly. am from d.

do you believe that the low progress in afghanistan is due to lack of strategy from our troops, or an inherent problem? guest: i think the current problems we're having in afghanistan have their roots in the fact that the previous administration under george bush and his secretary of defense made the decision to invade iraq, which have not been involved in 9/11, was not her brain al-qaeda terrorists. by doing that, they diverted resources we duffers ledesperatd the in afghanistan. they were in afghanistan took a backseat to the invasion of

iraq and the subsequent activities that went on in iraq, including almost close to civil war in that country. for longtime, the united states was pouring resources into iraq, not afghanistan. the taliban and al-qaeda used that six years or seven years to basically rebuild, regroup, retrain in the protected areas along the border. we pay the price for that today. the question now is what do we do to try to restore some semblance o post/11 order in afghanistan, and can we try to stabilize the situation? host: president has said there will not be a timetable, but there is an exit strategy. what do you think it needs to be? guest: our goals in afghanistan

have to be minimalist, but clear. i do not think we are building democracy in that part of the world. afghanistan is a tough nut to crack. 80% a live rat creek is a very mountainous terrain. -- it is 80% illiterate. many people relate more to their tribe than a nation called afghanistan. we need to be clear about our goals. one of the goals is that we cannot allow the taliban to return to power. i think that would be catastrophic for u.s. interests, and have cascading impact in that corner of the world. we need to remember that is what we do in afghanistan and what we do not to in afghanistan will have profound effects in the region, personally in pakistapan

pakistan. >> good morning. a minute ago you were talking about the goals in afghanistan. by sending more troops over, is that exactly what we are doing? are we trying to stabilize the government in afghanistan, or is it more the hunt for the taliban and al-qaeda? guest: it is more to restore control over large parts of afghanistan, especially in the south, where we have been lacking resources. i went to afghanistan in february after i was sworn into office. the shortage of resources was apparent than. pursuant to the previous question, i do not think it is so much a lack of strategy as the ability to execute.

we are trying to build up the capacity of a central government. we are trying to be equipped afghan troops to take over responsibility and security of their own country. we just need more capacity. it's a very big country and it is very remote. that is part of general mcchrystal's strategy and president obama's strategy. host: do you think it will work? guest: if i knew the answer to that, i would be making a lot more money than i am making. we have to look at what options are. i have some faith that after careful deliberation, the president and his cabinet and the national security council and joint chiefs of staff have agreed to more limited goals. it is not an open-ended commitment. i do not believe this is another vietnam. so long as we can articulate our

strategies, yes, i believe we can succeed. host: your colleague said let's have a war tax to pay for this. do you support the idea? guest: i certainly support the idea that wars need to be paid for. your previous speaker made reference to burgeoning federal deficits pretty did not tell you that three decisions made by his colleagues in the previous administration added $6 trillion to the deficit when we were in a surplus. there were the unfunded wars in iraq and afghanistan, the simply on funded medicare part d, and the bush tax cuts. they were not paid for. that added $6 trillion to the debt. the idea that if we are going to be involved in wars, we have to pay for it, is certainly the right principle.

host: next question. >> if we were to pull out of iraq right now, without having a negative effect on our country? guest: yes. it is not an option for the united states. we have not only it made commitments to a lot of people in afghanistan, including the liberation of women in afghanistan -- to pull out now would put a lot of folks at jeopardy if the taliban were allowed to come back to power. secondly, we have pressed the pakistani government to get much more aggressive about going after the safe harbors that have allowed the taliban and al-qaeda to report in the previous unpoliced parts of the tribal west. pulling out from afghanistan, while some people may think

desirable, would have serious consequences in the region. pakistan is not afghanistan. pakistan is a nuclear power. host: how many of you are involved in some way in student government? you're involved in your own version of student government treat your the president of the freshman class. what does that mean? guest: by the way, i was president of my high school and vice president of my college. i was also president of my graduate school class as well. it's a great way to start in politics. it teaches you a lot about how things work. i have been elected to the president of the freshman class of congress. it is about 40 members. i organize meetings and tried to get speakers, and tried to see that there can't be some common ground that we can use as some leverage. for example, on health care bill

that was finally passed by the house, i led the effort to look of what is called the pay for. senator charles grassley talked- about tax increases in health- care. the tax increases in the house bill, unlike the senate bill, is essentially on millionaires. a family has to earn $1 million or more before any surtax charged 6 in. -- before any surtax charged kicks in. we thought that was a fair way to pay for taxes. previously the threshold had been much lower. we' led the revolt to try to make sure the least amount of folks in america would be affected. host: we have a lot of students from louisiana and texas.

our next few were is walter from louisiana. caller: i have a statement and then a question for this gentleman. and for the students in the audience. i find it unconscionable and hard to believe that any group of suppose it learned individuals in the government body can be so naive and dumb for so long. you mentioned that the taliban needs to be stopped. what right do we have to be telling another country who they can be governed by? second, the taliban had nothing to do with 9/11. as a matter of fact, i doubt seriously that the cia creation have much to do with. for the children in the audience, and for this

congressman, i would expect you get up to speed. write this down. look up able danger. look up civil edmonds. lookup willie rodriguez. host: i'll stop to their true to his point on the taliban and al- qaeda, do you respond? guest: he referred to this audience as children. these are young men and women. that is okay. you can applaud for yourself. [applause] in my time here already, there are young men and women who are very well informed. this gentleman is into denial as to how 9/11 transpired. terrorists plots that led to the tragedy of 9/11 in the united states were hatched in training

camps run by al-qaeda, and protected by the taliban in afghanistan. the idea that this is all about our trying to impose our will on another country in terms of what kind of government they are going to have is completely false. we have an interest in what goes on in afghanistan precisely because of what happened on 9/11. unlike what the caller suggested, there's nothing i leanaive about people in congres concerned about that. our job is to protect the homeland and make sure that tragedy never occurs again. securing afghanistan from the return of the taliban and those elements that provided that safe harbor for 9/11, i think it is a minimalist goal of the united states, and very much in our national security interest.

>> if there's a possibility that a draft is going to be happening in the future, what would be the percentage of citizens to go? guest: i am old enough to have been subjected to the draft. we now have an all volunteer military. i think it is working pretty well. i do not think there's any likelihood in the near term of the return of the draft. that is a very hypothetical question tree i've lived through the draft, and it had its good points and bad points pretty universal military service exists in some other countries. we have chosen to go the route of all long-term military. so far, it seems to be working well. host: how many of you are concerned that there's the

potential of a draft and that it could affect uyou? >> within the current health care reform legislation, there's been talk of certain aspects of hillary health care. is this true? somebody cannot purchase private health care if they are under the public health care plan. guest: senator grassley was here just before me. i was really disappointed to hear words like socialism and the citation of bogus studies suggesting somehow that this public option will force people into a government run program. it is absolutely untrue. in the health care reform legislation, anyone who is currently insured would not

qualify, would not be allowed to go into the public option. every major study that looked at this, including the congressional budget office, shows that at the most of the 37 million uninsured americans we are trying to bring into health care coverage, maybe 6 million at most would decide to go into the public option. we are looking at creating an exchange for people who do not have any options. that menu would have 12, 15, or 20 choices in terms of private insurance they could pick from, and one choice would be the public option. if you do not like what is available to you and you want to go into that one for whatever reason, you can select that

option. no one is forced to use it. people cannot cancel their current insurance program and russian to the public option. it bothers me to hear that kind of misinformation repeated. -- people cannot cancel their current insurance program and theirush into the public option. we would not be going through all of this difficult conversation if it were all about a government takeover of health care. that would be an easy debate to have. i would be on the other side. i would be with senator grassley on that one. we are building on the current private employer insurance system in america. we're trying to make that system available to more people. the single failure of our health-care system is that 37 million -- 46 million fellow americans have no health

insurance. everyone of us pays a price for that in uncompensated care. the primary portal into the health-care system for those 46 million americans is the emergency room. that raises the health care costs for the rest of us. it's estimated that $1,100 is buried into the premium cost of every insurer family in america to cover for those who have no health insurance. we are trying to change that. a great country needs to make sure that everybody has access to decent health care. that is what we're trying to do. words like socialism to frighten people -- it is not right. to see a distinguished member of congress use those words is very disappointing to me. there's no legislative proposal in the house or senate to go to a single payer system like canada or like the united kingdom. that is not.

the american. that is not what we are going to do. host: the national archives located between constitution and pennsylvania avenue. there are about two hundred questionstudents to an industryo welcome victor. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. from my understanding, there are approximately 100 al-qaeda in afghanistan. i do not know of that is correct or not. i have no problem with 35,000 troops. i am a former veteran.

i've volunteered in 1981. when the draft had ended -- i have gone in on my own accord to serve my country. i have no problem with the 35,000 troops. i do oppose private contractors. i think they should eliminate them. for every troop, you can get four soldiers. for every contractor -- they're not going to pick up a rifle. a cook for a medic -- or a medic can pick up a rifle. guest: it makes a good point about the use of private contractors, which characterized the involvement in iraq. one of the reasons the bush administration resorted to their

extensive use of private contractors to perform what had been largely military roles, was because they do not have enough troops in iraq. they made the decision to go on the very low anend that we would be greeted as liberators, and that we would not need as many trips. that was false. they were unwilling to increase the troops in the intervening years. they then used private security firms to perform lots of broad security functions that became quite controversial. you are right. we need to take a fresh look at that and make clear lines of distinction.

host: another question in the room. >> i am from san antonio, texas. if this health care bill was passed, i assume it would be difficult to put into effect immediately. how long do think it would take for the possibly future law to take full effect across the nation? guest: many of the provisions in this bill will take some time to the up and running. i talked about that exchange, the creation of the menu of options. that will take a few years. in the house bill, the full bill takes in by 2013. some provisions will be phased in. the full bill is basically up and running by 2013. in the senate, they have moved back to 2014.

it will take a few years per all the provisions of this legislation to take effect. we will see when the senate passes this bill, and in the conference with house, what the final phase will be. many of us want to get the reforms up and running as quickly as possible. making sure that it is illegal for health insurance companies to cherry pick to based on previous existing conditions. that is a practice whereby even if you are insured -- by the way, 45% of all americans who currently have health insurance have a pre-existing condition of some sort. it may be asthma, diabetes. in some cases -- insurance companies have to find acne as a pre-existing condition did they have defined pregnancy as a pre-

existing condition to define coverage. that kind of capricious behavior is very damaging to american health care consumers. host: art from san antonio, texas. good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i called to ask the representative a question. before i do, i am forced to make a very brief statement in response to an earlier caller for the benefit of the young men and women in the audience. . whether it be 3,000 or three million americans, they want

them dead, no matter what it takes, we have to go after them and the taliban supports their freedom to come after us as long as those two entities are out there, we, as americans, to all of those young ladies and men in the audience are in danger. therefore, i ask representative connolly if, in fact, he will support the number of troops being sent over to afghanistan and the mission to eliminate the threat of al qaeda and the taliban to the americans regardless of -- host: we appreciate your call. guest: i want to hear what the president has to say tonight, but i'm favorably inclined with respect to the president's request. i believe it is in u.s. national security interests. none of us wants to be involved

in a war any longer than we have to be, but i believe 9/11 made it crystal clear that we cannot afford to let al qaeda and its taliban allies come back to power in afghanistan. if we do, we do so at our own peril. host: two more quick questions. >> it seems like the democratic party seems too critical of the republican party as far as not providing alternatives for health care. the question i have to ask is more towards the afghan war, what kind of alternative option does the democratic party have as preventing a power vacuum in either afghanistan or iraq? guest: i would hope that the issue of afghanistan and iraq isn't a matter of democratic party versus republican party. we're all americans. we all suffered the tragedy and pain of 9/11