that usually will make the news as it should because it is not the norm. it is not regular for that to happen. we'll highlight those. we'll be vigilant on making sure our public servants are doing what they are supposed to be doing in serving the public, whether it's the local, state, or federal level public servants are a significant part of the fabric of this country and we cannot be the great nation we are today without their tireless efforts on our behalf. madam speaker, it is my honor to support this resolution today which commends the service of the millions of americans who serve our country daily. i urge my colleagues to support this resolution and also encourage all americans to take some time to thank public employees. for all they do to improve the lives and strengthen our country. madam speaker, i appreciate the time and reserve the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from smeast

recognized. mr. lynch: i don't believe we have further speakers, i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: we have no further speakers, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: i want to thank the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, for his support of this resolution and co-sponsorship and i want to urge my colleagues to support house resolution 1247 and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on toppings of resolution 1247. 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 resolution is agreed to and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? mr. lynch: i move that the

house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 1722 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 1722, a bill to require the head of each executive agency to establish and implement a policy under which employees shall be authorized to telework and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, madam speakerism ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and add any extraneous materials. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: as chairman of the house subcommittee with jurisdiction over the federal work force, postal service and district of columbia, i'm pleased to present h.r. 1722 for consideration.

it seeks to expand and improve act sets to telework among federal employees government-wide. this measure was introduced by my friend and colleague john sarbanes of maryland along with myself, frank wolf, jim moran, dutch ruppestberger and danny davis on march 25, 2009. the bill was amended and favorably ordered by the committee on march 10, 2010. telework continues to be underutilized by federal agencies. h.r. 1722 provides for improvements to increase the number of federal employees that participate in telework programs. some of the most notable aspects require agencies to develop telework policies to allow authorized employees to telework. it authorizes them to develop telework folcies and to

annually evaluate agency telework programs and requires the office of management and budget budget to issue guidelines on information security guidelines and to says ig nate a telework management officer to effect implementation of telework plans. it also seeks to incorporate the importance of telework into the planning of agencies, notably, the office of telework management estimate the cost of lost productivity -- that telework would have reduced the cost during the snowstorm by $20 million. telework is critical if it will become a more prepared agency. this is offered with an amendment making tech nickal corrections.

a bill similar to h.r. 1722 was passed by this body in the 110th congress. i urge my colleagues to take action to move telework forward by passing h.r. 1722, the telework improvement act of 2009. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah is recognized. mr. chaffetz: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: h.r. 1722 would require each executive agency to establish a policy under which employees may be authorized to telework without diminishing employee performance or agency work. at the patent and trade office, millions have been saved in office space due to increased telework. it's also a way to attract reandtain highly qualified, skilled and motivated employees. as the baby boomer generation begins to retire, this will be

essential in ensure thinking government can attract the next generation of employees. it will require a publicly available telework website and a confidential hotline and email adrets to report abuse. -- address to report abuse. it will make sure that telework is included in continuity planning. we saw the amazing amount of snow that fell on washington, d.c. if we had more extensive telework plans in place, the cost to the government would have been certainly diminished. we must ensure that privacy and security is maintained. that is paramount. it's one of my deep concerns as we reviewed this bill in committee. the privacy and security is maintained at all costs and that there be specific rules and regulations in place that are highly enforceable to secure -- to make sure that the information is secure and private. i believe that this bill appears to take those factors

into consideration as it's fully implemented. historically the federal government has not been at the forefront of deploying technology to permit alternative work environments, lagging behind the private sector in recruitment and retention tools. this will help close the gap. i want to thank my colleagues for their work on this as they seek to make sure these types of policies are put into place and that we as a federal government with the millions of federal employees are doing the right thing and expanding this type of work and making sure we have the proper rules, regulations and the safety and security that we need for the confidential information that our federal employees deal with. madam speaker, i ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill and i reserve the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: at this time it gives me great pleasure to recognize representative john sarbanes, the gentleman from maryland, who is the lead

sponsor on our side in support of this legislation. i recognize him for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for five minutes. mr. sarbanes: i want to thank chairman lynch for yielding his time. i want to thank him for his support of this very important bill. also, congressman jerry connolly is going to speak, i believe, and he's been very supportive. we have bipartisan support on this bill. i think it's a common sense approach. i'm delighted we have it on the floor today. we've been working for some time to try to strengthen the telecommuting-telework policy across our federal agencies and this legislation will make sure we have a good, strong policy in place. for starters, it's going to instruct the office of personnel management to develop a uniform, government-wide telework policy for federal employees. we haven't had this in place before. we've had agencies that have

pursued telework, some with great success. but we haven't had a uniform approach and emphasis on telework in all of our federal agencies and o.p.m. will make sure that happens. i want to say as an aside, jon barry, new head of the office of personnel and management, is onboard with this. he's on the leading edge. he's as excited as we are that this legislation is on the floor today. this is really about good government. there's information, in fact, the nonprofit partnership for public service has released a study that indicates that in the next five years, approximately 550,000 federal employees, almost 30% of the federal work forest is going to retire. -- owork force is going to retire or leave government. we need the best and brightest folks to come in and take their place. that's a responsibility we have. we need to be competing in the

workplace, in the market, for the most talented people. one way you do that is to show you have flexible policies and the telework is part and parcel of the federal work force. the u.s. patent and trademark office, the defense information systems agency and some other agencies have really led the way. they've made this state of the art within their workplace, telework and they're showing what can be done at the highest levpls. we believe other agencies can come to the table and demonstrate the same thing. it's going to improve productivity. in those agencies where this has been implemented, you're seeing productivity go up, not just among those teleworking but across the entire work force because it's a cultural shift in terms of how performance is measured. all my colleagues have mentioned the continuity of operations dimension of this, which was illustrated in ways that could hardly have been more compelling by the snowstorms that we experienced

in february, and because there was telework within some of the federal agencies, they were able to save a tremendous amount of money in terms of lost productivity. so we're very excited about this opportunity, just some other details of legislation i'd like to mention before i yield back. the appointment of a telework managing officer within each agency to be the point person, to be the resource, make sure that the policy is in front of the policies of that agency so they understand what kind of opportunities are available to them. training and education for both supervisors and employees. government-wide evaluation on a periodic basis. the government accountability office will be part of that to make sure we're moving toward these telework compliance goals that are being set forth. so we're excited about this opportunity, we look forward to our federal agencies embratesing this new policy, and taking this telework to the next level. with that, i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from utah is recognized. mr. chaffetz: i yield five minutes to my distinguished colleague from the state of west virginia, mrs. capito. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from west virginia is recognized for five minutes. mrs. capito: thank you, madam speaker. i'd like to thank the gentleman from utah for yielding me time and i'd like to thank the sponsor of the bill. as a co-spon or of this legislation i rise in support of h.r. 1722. i represent the eastern panhandle of west virginia that continues to welcome new residents seeking the lower cost of living and family environment west virginia offers. many of these new west virginians work in the washington, d.c. area for the federal government. telework would further improve the quality of life for these commuters. teleworking would allow them to perform their duties and responsibilities from home or another work site. we actually have a remote telework facility in jefferson county, where they would be removed from their regular

workplace. telework would be good for the families because it provides employees the flexibility they may need to meet daily demands. it's an environmental bill because i believe it will reduce traffic congestion and air pollution as well as cut gasoline consumption. additionally, employees benefit from the increased productivity. i think the private sector has studies out there showing that telework can be much more productive for the overall organization. improved morale, fewer sick days, -- sick days used, worker retention and less office space. it is critical the federal government continue to keep pace and serve as a mood el for telework. several agencies within the federal government have established efficient and effective telework policy bus h.r. 1722 requires each executive agency to establish a policy under which employees would be authorized to telework

to the maximum extent possible without diminishing employee performance or agency operation of as both speakers stated many law enforcement, home security and emergency preparedness agencies on all levels of government advocate formal agency policies because they aid in continuity and planning for crises, such as the february snowstorms that crippled the washington, d.c., area. i know that telework may not work for every job but there are jobs today that lend themselves to telework. nearly 20 million americans telework today and at least 40% of american jobs are compatible with telework. i believe that instead of sitting in traffic for hours during the daily commute, time is better spent sitting down to dinners with the family, helping kids with homework and other important events that happen during the day which teleworking would allow many federal employee pleaus to be able to do on a regular basis. i urge passage of this legislation and yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: thank you, madam speaker. i would like to at this time yield five minutes to the gentleman from rirge virginia, mr. connolly, an original co-spon or and tireless champion of this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized. mr. connolly: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank my friend from massachusetts who has shepherded this legislation at this point. the telework improvements act will help us meet five critical policy goals, reduction and dependence on foreign oil, recux in congestion, improvement in retention and improvement in the operations. i want to thank congressman john sarbanes, for his introduction of this

legislation. the office of personnel director, john berry, and, of course, the ranking member on the subcommittee, my friend from utah, mr. chaffetz. telework is an essential part of federal personnel policy because it can help recruit and retain federal employees. it can help continuity of -- and air pollution, important here in the nation's capital. with 47% of the federal work force eligible for retirement sometime over the next 10 years or so, we must provide benefits that attract highly qualified employees. many private companies already provide better telework benefits than does the federal government. we must not fall behind. the ability to work from remote work stations relies on its regular use. telework is an important and cost-effective components of efforts to reduce congestion, greenhouse gas pollution and

smog. according to the telework exchange, if 20% of americans teleworked, we could eliminate 67 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and reduce imports by 40%, madam speaker. these greenhouse gas emissions, which is critically important to protect the health of our region's residents. only 6% of eligible federal employees currently telework on a regular basis. even though the white collar work force in our region is perfectly suited for telework. by contrast, my county, fairfax county, the largest suburb, 20% of our eligible work force telecommutes at least one day a week. the telework improvements act provides a vehicle to increase telework participation, establishing a telework managing officers for each agency and integrating a continuity of operations planning performance metrics. if i had my way, frankly, we

would set a 20% goal for federal agency and hopefully that's an issue we will revisit at some point. as an expression of support for this legislation, the office of personnel management and office of administrative changes to improve telework policy. this followed an oversight hearing in which john berry received questions from committee members about telework and the introduction of this act. since then we have had multiple severe snowstorms and the nuclear summit hosted by president obama here in the district of columbia, all of which demonstrated the importance of telework. during the snowstorms, federal workers saved taxpayers $30 million each day in lost productivity that otherwise would have been lost because of a telework program already in place. that represented the equivalent of a 30% telework rate, which is achievable on a regular basis if we commit ourselves to a more robust effort. targets like these have already been undertaken by leaders in

the private sector. at&t, for example, has achieved a telework participation rate of 33%. contrasted with 6% in the federal government. and estimated that many companies save as much as $2,000 per employee for year in reduced absenteeism as a result of telework. initiatives are making positive initiatives. it's clear we need to do more. in subcommittee markup, i introduced an amendment to work with other federal agencies to ensure that telework is always part of the continuity of operations of management planning. should this pass we'd be better prepared for future snowstorms by having employees work remotely. this legislation seems more important when the attempted bombing in times square took place.

i appreciate chairman limp's willingness to work -- lynch's willingness to work with us on this. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from utah is recognized. chafechafe -- mr. chaffetz: madam speaker, it's my honor to yield him five minutes to discuss this issue. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for five minutes. mr. wolf: i thank very much. thank you for yielding the time. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend, if i may, and i want to thank mr. sarbanes for his leadership on this issue, for bringing this out. most of the issues have been covered, but i'd say there's nothing magic about strapping yourself into a metal box and driving 0 or 30 miles when -- 20 or 30 miles when you can telework. i think the important part of

this legislation is the fact that mr. sarbanes mr. have someone in each agency, a senior -- will have someone in each agency, a senior person there. it's important for the american people to know the productivity, the studies have shown that productivity of people who are teleworking is very, very high. so you're really getting a lot for the government and for whoever is the employer. secondly the environment and the congestion in this region and other regions is very important. and lastly, the american family under such attack, the opportunities for moms and dads to spend more time with their families, singing in a church choir, playing in little league and for being active. i thank the gentleman and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: madam speaker, i don't believe we have any

further speakers on our side on this, but i'll continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah is recognized. mr. chaffetz: madam speaker, just a brief comment and then i'll yield back the balance of our time. i'm very supportive of this piece of legislation. i think it's important for the continuity of government in our operations. i do think it can be a cost saving measure for a lot of our agencies, but it's not necessarily right for every single employee. i don't want this to be perceived, and i think the legislation does this, in any way means, shape or form for this to be an excuse to spend more money within our own human resources department. i am a little bit worried about the scoring of this. certainly big agencies, large agencies will need to have somebody who help shepherd this and move this forward. but for the smaller agencies, some of the other agencies, it doesn't necessarily warrant that. and i do appreciate during the process being able to offer an amendment that would allow for some flexibility within the different agencies so that they have the internal control and

doesn't necessarily have the excuse to necessarily go out and hire another person to try to manage this. but with that said, i do believe in support the piece of this legislation because i said before, the continuity of our government, this is a critical component to that, but it is also incumbent upon the executive branch to make sure that we have the safety, security and the privacy components firmly in place. and i believe that o.p.m., the office of personnel management, will do that. this legislation strengthens their ability to do that, and that's why i'm supportive of it. i appreciate the good work on both sides of the aisle. i look forward to supporting this. i urge my colleagues to do the same. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah yields back his time. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank the gentleman for his thoughtful comments and his leadership on this issue. i do want to just try to address the scoring aspect of this for those who are, as

rightly as they should be, sensitive to the budget. our understanding from the estimate provided by the congressional budget office is that this provision would cost approximately $30 million over five years. however, i think it's important to point out that during the recent unexpected snowstorms in the washington, d.c.-northern virginia areas this past winter, february, we saved $30 million per day. so the program cost $30 million over five years, and in one snowstorm, severe one, albie it, we saved $-- albeit, we saved $31 million per day by having the telework function. i want to thank mr. sarbanes and mr. connolly for their work on our side and the bipartisan work showed by the gentlelady from west virginia, mrs. capito, and mr. wolf as well.

i think they did a fine job, and i ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support h.r. 1722, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1722 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative -- mr. broun: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia. mr. broun: i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. 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, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. brown: i move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, 1301, as amended, supporting the goals and ideals of the national train dane. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1301, resolution supporting the goals and ideals of national train day. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: madam speaker, i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on resolution 1301. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. brown: -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized.

the gentlewoman will suspend. we ask members take conversations off the floor of the house. there are many going on and the whispers are turning into a roar up here. the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: thank you, madam speaker. i rise in support of this resolution and yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. brown: we are experiencing a renaissance we have not seen in 50 years. all forms of rail, including amtrak, are seeing increased ridership numbers. in fact, in 2009, amtrak welcomed aboard over 27.1 million passengers, the second largest annual toll in amtrak's history and average of more than 74,000 passenger rides and

more than 300 amtrak trains per day. for me as chair of the rail subcommittee, the eventual goal is to have high-speed, inner city passenger and commuter rail lines connected nationwide to serve as the next generation to our form of transportation. moreover, as the system is realized it will not only serve as a tremendous benefit to our nation's transportation needs, but it will also be a superb asset to getting people back to work by creating quality jobs in our economic manufacturing sector. in some areas like where the sunset limited to use to operate, it is the homeland security issue. if the united states was hit by a natural or man-made disaster, we need a functional system to help those out of harm's way.

rail is the best way for us to address the environmental and energy related challenges we face today. freight railroad, for example, has made major gains and fuel efficiency through training and improved locomotive technology and, indeed, a train can take up to 280 trucks off of our highways and one gallon of diesel fuel can move a ton of freight an average of 414 miles , a 76% increase since 1980 while general electric has recently unveiled the world's first hybrid loke owe motive. in addition, passenger rail's ability to reduce congestion is well-known, and their ridership numbers are increasing steadily each year. one full passenger train in fact can take out up to 250 to 350 cars off the road.

passenger rail consumes much less energy than automobiles and commercial airlines. as we have seen with the horrible oil spills on our gulf coast, with an estimate of 5,000 barrels floating out to sea every day, it is clear we need a new way of doing things in the transportation arena. our committee has hit the rail. having a national dialogue with america about the future of u.s. transportation systems. just two weeks ago, i led a whistle-stop rail tour to promote high speed and inner city passenger rail in the united states. we started in washington, traveled to upstate new york and ended up in chicago where we conducted a major hearing on rail issues. we are planning adecisional events in texas, california, oregon and throughout the united states. all along the way we saw millions of dollars going to improve our transportation

infrastructure and creating jobs for the local work force. in particular in upstate new york, rail manufacturing could replace the good jobs in those towns that were sent overseas. just thursday, i rode with amtrak as they tested the current fle-east coast rail line from jacksonville to miami for passenger service. on monday, we have the latest in a series of high speed rail hearings in miami, florida. every we've gone, we've gotten strong support for amtrak service and high speed rail. the only complaint that i've heard was that there wasn't enough money and it wasn't coming fast enough. over the past 50 years, the federal government has invested nearly $1.3 trillion in our nation's highways and more than $484 billion in aviation. unfortunately, since 1970, when congress created amtrak, we have just invested $67 billion

in intercity passenger rail, including amtrak. now i've always assured everyone that the $8 billion in the recovery dollars was just a down payment and there will be more planning and construction dollars coming inspect near future. but we need to get serious about funding high speed rail. with just $1 billion budgeted for fiscal year 2011, we need to find a dedicated re-knew source so states, operators, stake holders and others aren't afraid to make investments in infrastructure and manpower. i feel so passionate about it, i spearheaded a letter that over 100 members signed to president obama, requesting the include a dedicated source of revenue in the transportation re-authorization policy objective that the administration is developing. we still have a lot of work to do before the first passenger high speed train is in the

united states but we are off to a great start with the investment made in the recovery act. i encourage all my colleagues to show their support for this resolution and the new age of rail in america. this is a giant step in the right direction. let's roll, baby, roll, toot, toot, that's it, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: i appreciate the enthusiasm of the chairwoman of the subcommittee. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. shuster: the ceremonial golden spike hammered in utah on may 10, 1869 marked the completion of the trands continental railroad, one of the greatest engineering masterpieces, spearheaded by republican president abraham lincoln. it also marked the birth of what would become the greatest rail network in the world. 141 years later, we are still

reaping the benefits of our ancestors' vision. the united states now has other 140,000 miles of railroads making up the transportation backbone of the nation. our railroads are environmentally friendly, producing significantly less pollution than other modes of transportation. a train can haul one ton of freight 436 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel, it's three times cleaner than a truck. trains also help alleviate the congestion on crowded highways across america. one train can take 280 truck office the road. rail has also had a comeback since the losses in the 1970's. it's been an unparalleled success. we must take great care to cake care of the regulatory environment that has allowed railroads to thrive and resist an effort that would undo the progress this industry has made.

two years ago, president bush signed into law an amtrak re-authorization that will take this cubtry into the future. it makes important reforms to amtrak and creates a role for the private sector in the passenger rail industry. the amtrak re-authorization law, the first in more than a decade, created the framework for public-private partnerships for the construction and operation of high speed rail corridors all over this nation. high speed rail promises safe, fast, convenient service all while helping to alleviate aviation and highway congestion. the railroad industry is vitally important to this country and this economy and i urge the passage of h.r. resolution 1301 to celebrate national train day on may 8, 2010. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. brown: how much time do we have? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida has 14

minutes remaining. ms. brown: i yield as much time as he main may consume to the chair of the committee -- as he may consume to the chair of the committee, our transportation guru, mr. jim oberstar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized. mr. oberstar: i thank the gentlewoman for yielding. thank you, madam speaker. i tip my hat also to the member of congress whom i call ms. amtrak, ms. passenger rail, whose passion is evident to -- is evident, who worked tirelessly day and night, week after week to advance the cause of passenger rail in this country and has been very successful at it. mobilizing public opinion, igniting public imagination and i appreciate the comments of the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster who is -- who has been a very constructive and enthusiastic partner in shaping passenger rail.

i would say to the gentleman, while the bush administration twice submitted bankruptcy budgets for amtrak, twice proposed putting amtrak up for sale in the private marketplace, there were members on both sides of the aisle who joined together, including the gentleman, to restore funding for amtrak to keep it going and the gentleman's fingerprints are all over the amtrak authorization bill that president bush signed. the same president bush who once said we should terminate amtrak, signed the bill with a whole new future for amtrak. mr. mica as well, who is unfortunately not here on the floor, but who nonetheless played a very significant role in shaping a new future for

amtrak. as the gentleman from pennsylvania said, opening the door for private investment in each of the corridors that we crafted in the amtrak authorization. the pacific railway act over 148 years ooling really is the beginning point for our discussion today and for all discussion on passenger rail. that was the day that president lincoln signed the legislation that gave the central pacific railroad the right to build rail lines from sacramento east and chartered union pacific to build rail lines from there beast. -- from there, west. i encourage anyone who is

interested to make a trip to sacramento to make a visit to the rail museum in that city. it is a splendid panorama, a stunning sweep of history of development of both freight and passenger rail, how the railroads were built, the people who built them, the ethnic diversity of those who worked on the -- on laying of the track and the competition going from west to east and east to west. it's -- it's a stricking march through history. it gives the viewer a deeper appreciation of a rich history of freight and passenger rail. the joining of the two just seven years later, in 1869, which in those days was remarkable, i think today, with modern equipment, we might have

built the two lines a lot faster but 1,776 miles of the central pacific and the union pacific joined at promonitory summit in utah. the first, not long after, the transcontinental trip took 83 hours and 39 minutes from new york city to san francisco. by 1910, which is really the peak time for passenger rail, 95% of all intercity travel was by rail. by 1920 the railroads carried a 1,200,00000 passengers -- 1,200 ,000,000 passengers.

it's interesting that in 1920, cars accounted for 50 miles of travel a year for average citizen and 450 miles a year for train. but 10 years later, 10 years later that had just turned around. americans were driving over 1,600, nearly 1,700 miles a year in their cars, only 200 miles a year by train. that continued to progress until after world war ii, the railroads saw more advantage in freight, passenger traffic was dropping off and the railroads joined with the u.s. post office to take the overnight mail off the passenger service, the r.p.o.'s began to disappear, that reduced revenue to the railroads, railroads could petition the i.c.c. for

discontinuance and by the end of the decade of the 1960's, passenger rail was on life support and congress created the national railroad passenger corporation, which we know today as amtrak. there's now a rail revival happening across the land. that is what this resolution is intended to do, support the goals and ideals of national train day. everywhere i travel, and almost every city that ever had a rail service, there is either a caboose or an old locomotive at the entrance to the community. people celebrate their rail history. but they also want to bring back active service. just as in transit, we're -- americans are voting with their feet. a million new transit riders a day system of with passenger rail, we all remember the

tragedy of september 11, 2001, when the only way you could travel intercity, apart from your automobile, was on amtrak. and the revival of interest in both transit and in intercity passenger rail has just gone apace since then. president obama made a commitment to intercity passenger rail, putting $8 billion on the table in the stimulus package. that was more in one year than amtrak had received in several years. it's a down payment, as he said, as chairman broun said -- chairman brown said and others have observed. now we're seeing the implementation of those funds by the various corridors to which those stimulus dollars

were allocated. it is up to us, and our committee will continue to hold oversight hearings, observing the implementation of those funds to ensure they're wisely invested, that the commitments made are followed through. that we will move america along. we are starting slowly. goodness, there is passenger rail track that is part -- that is only 35 miles an hour today because that's passenger rail going on freight rail track that has been allowed to deteriorate. there are other corridors where the -- where freight rail has been built up and the investment in the corridor has been robust and where there is room for passenger rail but we have to separate the two. and we recognize that. that we have to have passenger rail partnering with freight rail, the gentleman from pennsylvania has been quite a strong advocate for that, and we all recognize we need to move more goods by rail for

economy's sake, for environment's sake and by the way, i'll say to the gentleman that 436 miles on -- 436 miles a ton on a gallon of fuel was updated yesterday, they say it's now 483 miles on a gallon of fuel for a ton of freight. well, loke motives are -- well, locomotives are improving in their efficiency. track beds are improving. the european economic community, the european union, the transport ministry has a $1.4 trillion, 0-year investment plan. they're -- 20-year investment plan. they're halfway through of

building high-speed inner city passenger rail. real high speed. 00 miles an hour. -- 200 miles an hour. we'll get there eventually. we're almost back to where we are in 1890 in making the investment in passenger rail except those corridors which remain for freight in which passenger is a lively, active participant or a possibility have been upgraded, and now we need to make the next step upgrades to class six, seven and eight rail where we can have speeds in excess of 150 miles an hour. it will take a huge amount of capital investment. but spain has committed $140 billion into their high-speed rail system. $140 billion for a cup with 42 million people -- with a country with 42 million people.

that's an emormous commitment on their part and shows visionary commitment to their future. they'll have 220-mile inner city passenger rail system. we can do no less in america. we should do no less in america. china is completing an 800-mile-plus mile rail from shanghai. in that boston-richmond corridor, 36 million. in the beijing-shanghai nearly 100 million people. you will travel that in four hours for the steel-on-steel. all the european systems with we can't let them get so -- systems, we can't let them get so far ahead of them.

we'll catch up. when they say they will say the national train day moved us in this direction. the members of congress, both sides of the aisle, the partnerships we formed, keeping vigil over the future of rail can take credit for moving america along that path toward a great -- recapturing our past and making it a greater future. i yield back to the gentlewoman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: i have no further speakers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. brown: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. shuster: i'm prepared to yield back if they're finished with -- ms. brown: i yield back the balance of my time. mr. shuster: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: all time having been yielded back, the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1301 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 -- mr. broun: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia. mr. broun: i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays have been requested. 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, the 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. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, proceedings will resume on votes -- proceedings will resume on motions to suspend the rules previously postponed. votes will be taken in the following order. house resolution 1320, house resolution 1272, and house resolution 1301.

in each case by the yeas and nays. the remaining postponeded votes will be taken tomorrow. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pascrell, to suspend the rules and agree to h. resolution 1320, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were recorded. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1320, resolution expressing support for the vigilance and prompt response of the citizens of new york city, the new york police department, the new york police department bomb squad, the fire department of new york, other first responders, the federal bureau of investigation, united states customs and border protection, united states attorneys office for the southern district of new york, the department of homeland security, the department of justice, the new york joint terrorism task force, the bridgeport police

department, detective bureau, patrol division and other law enforcement agencies in connecticut to the attempted terrorist attack in times square on may 1, 2010, their exceptional professionalism and investigative work following the attempted attack, and their consistent commitment to preparedness for and collective response to terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 418. the nays are zero. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to, and without

objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the reconsider is laid on the table. the speaker: the house will come to order. the chair would ask all present to rise for the purpose of a moment of silence.

all rise for a moment of silence. the chair asks that the house now observe a moment of silence in remembrance of our brave men and women in uniform who has given their lives in the service of our nation in iraq and afghanistan and their families and of all who serve in our armed forces and their families.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair will receive a message. the messenger: madam speaker, a message from the president of the united states. the secretary: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i am directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, five-minute voting will continue. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentlewoman from california, ms. chu, to suspend the rules and agree to h. resolution 1272, on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1272, resolution commemorating the 40th anniversary of the may

4, 1970, kent state university shootings. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 414.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 415. the nays are zero. present are two. 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 oklahoma rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. members, the chair would like to recognize the gentleman from oklahoma. for what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma rise? mr. boren: i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized. mr. boren: madam speaker, yesterday we had a big event at the prince georges county skeet and track club. we had the annual congressional sportsman foundation and congressional sportsman caucus shoot-out, and i have some awards to announce. first of all team captains were

myself and paul ryan on the republican side. and the winner of the sporting clays competition was congressman paul ryan. the top trap gun, dan boren. top skeet, chris carney. the top democratic shooter was congressman mike thompson. the top republican was congressman john klein. the top gun was duncan hunter. let me say this, madam speaker, duncan hunter's father tried to be the top gun for many years and never was able to accomplish it. so it was very nice that his son was able to win that award. but the most important award for the second year in a row the democrats won 225-209.

i would invite al republican members to visit 216 cannon in my office to visit the trophy at any time. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the unfinished business -- without objection, five-minute voting will continue. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown, to suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1301 as amended on the which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1301, resolution supporting the goles and ideals of national train day. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house

proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on the speaker pro tempore: on this vote --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 296. the nays are 119. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

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 later. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. brown: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, house resolution 263, authorizing the use of the capitol grounds for the

district of columbia special olympics law enforcement torch run. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the concurrent resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 188, house concurrent resolution 263, concurrent resolution authorizing the use of the capitol grounds for the district of columbia special olympics law enforcement torch run. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include additional material on house concurrent resolution 263. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. brown: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman may proceed. ms. brown: i am pleased today to support house concurrent resolution 263, which authorizes the use of the

capitol grounds for the 25th annual district of columbia special olympics law enforcement torch run. the capitol police, along with the d.c. special olympics, will participate in the torch run to be held on june 4, 2010. law enforcement officers who are part of the extended volunteer network that supports this special olympics carry the olympic torch across the capitol grounds throughout the district of columbia. the d.c. special olympics expects over 1,500 law enforcement officers to participate in the torch run, which will be a .3-mile course from the capitol grounds to fort mag near. it is designated to raise funds to support year-round activities to support d.c. special olympics. it allows area residents with intelligent disabilities to participate in competition

sport activities in order to test their abilities against their peers, develop confidence and improve their health. the d.c. special olympics will work closely with the d.c. police and the architecture to make sure it is fully compliance with the rules with the capitol grounds. the event will be free and open to the public. i urge my colleagues to support me -- join me in supporting this resolution. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman may proceed. mr. shuster: this resolution authorizes the use of the capitol grounds for the district of columbia special olympics torch run to be held on june 4. it will be part of the journey through the d.c. special olympics summer games. it is dedicated to enritching the lives of children and adult -- enritching the lives of children and adult -- enriching

the lives of children and adults. the chief of police of wichita, kansas, saw an urgent need to raise funds and increase awareness of the special olympics. the torch run was adopted by the national association of chiefs of police. today, the torch run is the largest grassroots effort that raises awareness for the special olympics program. the event in d.c. is one of the many law enforcement torch runs throughout the country and across 35 nations. leading up to the summer special olympics. i urge my colleagues to support the passage of this resolution. and i yield -- i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. brown: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. ms. brown: excuse me, i want to yield to my colleague from rhode island, mr. langevin. mr. -- mr. kennedy.

mr. kennedy: i want to thank the gentlewoman from district of columbia. the special olympics has been an important part of destigmatizing developmental disabilities and those suffering from intellectual challenges. and no one would have imagined years ago that folks who otherwise would be living in the shadow of our society, those with cognitive and intellectual disabilities would now be so integrated into our society in large measure due to the opportunity that special olympics gave them to participate fully in our society through sports. and so special olympics represents so much more than competition on the field. but it does represent something so important to our society and that's opening up opportunities for folks who need to be

treated with human dignity because they're like you and me. they just have other challenges, intellectually, all of us have different challenges. and these are folks who have been so stigmatized and shamed because of their intellectual challenges, that they have been shut out of society, but not for the special olympics. they have been embraced. they have been loved by all those huggers at the end of the competition, and they have been part of so many of our most moving moments in our country's efforts to have sports be a competitive endeavor. and i want to thank my cousin, timothy shriver, whose international president -- who's international president of the special olympics for the dynamic leadership that he offers for this organization and for all the sacrifice he makes to carry on his mother's legacy as the first president of special olympics. and now he's doing it with his

own style of leadership that is equally charismatic and energetic. and with that i want to thank the police for embracing special olympics. both of them are our heroes. the law enforcement community and our special olympians and what a great match and the torch run should be a terrific event. i thank my colleagues for allowing me to speak. ms. brown: will the gentleman yield for a question? i want to thank the gentleman from rhode island, mr. patrick kennedy, for your leadership throughout the years. and how many years have you supported it? mr. kennedy: before i could even remember, my aunt eunice, thought i was near the special olympics. wherever i traveled, even around the world she made sure that i asked the local presidents or prime ministers, if we met with government officials, do they have a program for people with intellectual challenges. often they would say, oh, we don't have those problems.

and, you know, it shows that now china recently was the host of the international special olympics. and yet just years ago the abortion rate in china of babies that had intellectual disabilities was, you know, enormous. now, they're embracing people with intellectual disabilities. what a turnaround in attitude and the respect for human life and dignity of the human person. that's what's been possible through special olympics. ms. brown: i want to thank you for your leadership, not just for america but for the world in this area. mr. kennedy: well, thank you for your leadership, corrine. ms. brown: thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. i reserve the balance of my time. sorry. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: well, i just wanted to thank and congratulate my colleague, mr. kennedy from rhode island, for his leadership in special olympics throughout the years and his service in congress.

i know he'll continue that work after he leaves congress. but also want to thank the shriver-kennedy family for the great support and the effort they've put forth over the years in supporting such a worthwhile program that the special olympics is. thank you, mr. kennedy. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: i yield now the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house concurrent resolution 263. those in favor will say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended and the concurrent resolution is agreed to and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. brown: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and agree to concurrent resolution 247,

authorizing the use of the capitol grounds for the greater washington soapbox derby. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the concurrent resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 189, house concurrent resolution 247, concurrent resolution authorizing the use of the capitol grounds for the greater washington soapbox derby. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include additional material on house resolution 247. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. brown: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. i am delighted to support house concurrent resolution 247 which authorizes the use of the capitol grounds for the greater washington soapbox derby.

i would like to acknowledge the effort of mr. hoyer, whose been such a great and consistent champion for his constituents for this event. house concurrent resolution 247 consists with all events using the capitol grounds. this event is open to the public and free of charge. the organizations will work with the capitol police and architect of the capitol. i support concurrent resolution 247 and urge passage of the resolution, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. shuster: as the gentlelady stated, this resolution authorizes the use of the capitol grounds for the 69th annual washington soapbox derby in june. this event occurs annually on the capitol grounds, and i know that the majority leader, mr. hoyer, has been a tremendous supporter of this event every

year. the soapbox derby allows children to really showcase their efforts, their dedication, their work and their creativity as they compete for these trophies. the winners of each division are qualified to compete in a national soapbox derby, which occurs in akron, ohio. so i urge all my colleagues to support the passage of this resolution and urge -- as i said, urge my colleagues to support it. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. brown: i reserve the balance of my -- i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. shuster: we have no further speakers. we're prepared -- ms. brown: we do have one speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. brown: i want to point out that the soapbox derby, which mr. hoyer has been the sponsor

for a number of years, is an event that has been put on for a number of years and the purpose is to prepare young people from the age 17 to -- 8 to 17. mr. hoyer, thank you. thank you. the leader is here, mr. hoyer, and i would -- was trying to explain your great leadership with the soapbox derby, and i'm glad you're here. how much time do we have? the speaker pro tempore: 18 minutes. ms. brown: i yield as much time as the leader may consume. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. i thank mr. shuster for helping bring this bill to the floor. thank my dear and good friend,

corrine brown from florida, who does such an extraordinary job. mr. speaker, speaker peters, i rise as a proud sponsor of this resolution which i have worked on for a long period of time. it is a facet of capitol hill that we have to pass a resolution to approve and allow the greater washington soapbox derby association to hold the 69th annual greater washington soapbox derby to be held on capitol grounds. i'm sure ms. brown and mr. shuster explained, it will be on june 19. since 1938, when norman beat out 223 other races to win the inaugural washington race, soapbox derby racing has had a long history in our nation's capitol. over nearly seven decades, thousands of the region's young people have come to washington to take their place in a great race and a great tradition. whether they were racing down new hampshire avenue or at the current site coasting down

capitol hill, the event's essential ingredients have remained the same, home-made, gravity powered cars and the spirit of competition. america's soapbox derbies have been called the greatest amateur racing event in the world. the boys and girls who participate, many of them sponsored by community groups, police departments and fire departments, don't just gain knowledge, they learn about competition. i'm proud to point out that my district has been the home to a string of soap box derby champions. in 2007, a neighbor of mine won th maryland race and beat out 550 other local champions. in 2008, courtney rail, also from mcsville also won the

greater maryland race and won the national race at akron, ohio. finally, last year he brother justin made it three greater washington wins in a row for washington's fifth district. this is not fixed, i want to tell you. these are just great kids. we are excited about the soap box derby. june's race will be the continuation of a proud tradition for our country and its capitol. i thank chairwoman brown and ranking member shuster for etheir support in bringing this legislation to the floor. i yield back the balance of my time. ms. brown: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: i said you've supported this every year. i meant every year you were in congress, you haven't been around for 69 years, so we appreciate your leadership on this and look forward to a

great race. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. brown: i yield the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house concurrent resolution 247. 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 concurrent resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. brown: i move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution 1278 as amended to support the recognition of april as national safe digging month. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 191, house resolution 1278, resolution in support and recognition of national safe digging month, april, 2010. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from florida, ms.

brown, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. shuster, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on house resolution 1278. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. brown: i rise in support of this resolution and yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman may proceed. ms. brown: i rise in strong support of house resolution 1278 a bill to dez igs nate the month of april as national safe digging month. the pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration, along with other state and stake holders across the nation, have are come together to support this dez igs nate. if approved, it will mark the third-year anniversary as april 11 as call before you dig recognition day.

they are encouraging all homeowners to call 811 before you dig to prevent loss of critical infrastructure and services and other dangers. evacuation damage continues to be a leading cause of deaths. there are hundreds of thousands of underground utility lines damaged in evacuation in the united states. 35% of which occurs as a direct result of people not calling before digging. according to the organization, the one-call notification system has help red deuce the percentage of evacuation damages caused by fail your to locate prior to underground digging to 35% in 2009. clearly the numbers speak for themselves. indeed, it is extremely important to call 811, the call

before you dig line, and in such -- it's such an easy way for individuals and companies to save lives, the environment and even save money and investment. i encourage my colleagues to support this resolution and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. shuster: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman may proceed. mr. shuster: i rise in support of resolution 1278, a resolution expressing support for the goals and ideals of national safe digging month. i introduced this resolution to encourage people to call 811, the nationalwide call before you dig number, before conducting any digging or excavating activities and to help draw attention to the problem of excavators and homeowners damaging underground utilities. the state utility regulators such as the common ground

alliance took part in public awareness campaigns to alert people to have he -- of the dangers of not having utilities located before digs. each year, 600,000 utility lines are accidentally damaged in excavations. many of these could have been easily avoided if someone dialed 811 and had all the underground utility lines in the area marked. when someone calls 811, they are connected with a call center that works with utility companies to have lines marked. many lines, such as cable and utilities, are buried only inches underground. every weekend hundreds of people lose cable television service because they cut a line

while putting in a new mailbox. while this can be inconvenient, striking an undergruned pipeline can be deadly. there are more than one million miles of underground electric lines in the united states. they are usually buried deeper than telecommunication lines but can be easily instruct in road construction and home improvement projects. spring marks the beginning of the construction season and the time of year when most homeowners are taking on home improvement landscaping projects. as homeowners and landscapers move forward, it is important they remember to call 811 and have all lines marketed. since i'll be home this weekend and planting trees, i told my family to call 811. if my son garrett is listening,

please call 811 so we do all the right things when we plant tree this is weekend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. mr. brown: i reserve the balance of my time. mr. shuster: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida. ms. brown: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1278. -- excuse me, house resolution 1278 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 and the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the reconsider is laid on the table.

the chair lays before the house the following communication. the clerk: to the congress of the united states, i am pleased to transmit to the congress pursuant to section 123-b and 123-d of the atomic energy act of 1954 as amended 42 u.s.c. 51-b, the act, the proposed agreement between the united states of america and the government of australia concerning people's uses of nuclear energy. i'm also pleased to transmit my written approval, authorization and determination concerning the agreement and an unclassified nuclear proliferation assessment statement concerning the adwreement. in accordance with sections 123

of the act as amended by title 12, the foreign affairs reform and restructuring form of 1998, a classified annex to the mpas, prepared by the secretary of state in consultation with the director of national intelligence, summarizing relevant classified information will be submitted to congress separately. the joint memorandum submitted to me by the secretaries of state and energy and a letter from the chairman of the nuclear regulatory commission are also enclosed. the proposed agreement has been proposed in accordance with the act and other applicable law. in my judgment, it meets all statutory requirements and will meet all the foreign policy interests of the united states. it provides a comprehensive framework for peaceful nonproliferation with

australia. it has an initial term of 30 years from the date of its entry into force and will continue after that for additional periods of five years each unless terminated by either party on six months' advance written notice at the end of the additional -- initial 30 year term or at the conclusion of any five-year period. the proposed agreement permits transfer of information, material, equipment, including reactors, and components for nuclear research and nuclear power production. it does not permit transfers of restricted data, sensitive nuclear technology, sensitive nuclear facilities or major critical components of such facilities. key nonproliferation controls with respect to material, equipment and components subject to proposed agreement. australia is a nonnuclear weapon state party to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, m.p.t.

australia completed a safeguards agreement and other protocol with the internationalal atomic energy agency. australia is a party to the physical protection of nuclear material which provides for the protection, use, storage of nuclear material. it is a member of a group whose nonbinding guidelines set standards for the responsible export of nuclear commodities for peaceful use. its nuclear nonproliferation policies and practices, including nuclear export policies and practices is provided in the ntas and ntas classified annex. ive considered the views and recommendations of interested agencies in reviewing the propose aid greement and determined its performance will promote and will not be an unreasonable risk to the common

security. accordingly i have authorized its execution. i urge me congress give it favorable consideration this will constitute a submital for consideration of both sections 123-b and 123-d of the act my administration is prepared to begin immediately the consultations with the senate committee on foreign relations and the house committee on foreign awares -- affairs as provided in house 123b. the 60 days of continuous session review provide for in section 123-d shall commence. signed, barack obama, the white house, may 5, 2010. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed. the chair will now entertain one-minutes. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise?

ms. ros-lehtinen: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman may proceed. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you so much, mr. speaker. i rise in solidarity with a wonderful and determined south florida woman, millie munoz. millie has dystonia a little-known movement disorder that causes a person's muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily. the trademark of this is repetitive, patterned and uncontrollable movements. since childhood, millie went from doctor to doctor and told -- was told there was no real problem. finally in the summer of 2006, she was diagnosed with generalized dystonia. shortly thereafter she went from climbing the great pyramid to being in a wheelchair and bed-bound. luckily, in 2008, she had deep brain stimulation surgery which provided some relief. today, millie has a feeding

tube and braces on her legs. and she is as resilient and determined as ever. together, we must raise awareness on this disorder and support the research that can find a cure for this silent internal storm. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman may proceed. mr. thompson: thank you. mr. speaker, last week the republican members of the education and labor committee sent a letter to chairman miller asking that the chief actuary at the medicare agency testify before the committee. the report from richard s. foster estimating the affordable care act includes a number of adverse implications from employer-sponsored group health plans, which make it worthy of consideration by the committee. the report shows that the act will cause health expenditures to grow by $311 billion over

the baseline projections. the report raises the possibility of a substantial cost shift of private payers, such as employer-sponsored plans as health care provider will seek to recoup payments under the medicare program. i'm concerned that small businesses will be inclined to end this plan allowing workers to qualify for heavily subsidized coverage at taxpayer expense. as a member of the committee, i urge the chairman to allow this request for the chief actuary to testify on this new law and its implications for business. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair will entertain any further requests for one minutes. seeing none, for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into the following members may be permitted to address the house, revise and extend their remarks and include therein extraneous

material. dr. paul for may 6. myself, mr. poe, for may 12. mr. jones for may 12. mr. moran for may 12. mr. wolf for today. dr. gingrey for today. and mrs. schmidt for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? >> thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into the following members may be permitted to address the house for five minutes, to revise and extend their remarks and include therein extraneous material. mr. price from north carolina, mr. etheridge from north carolina, mr. driehaus from ohio, ms. woolsey from california, mr. pascrell from new jersey, mr. faleomavaega from american samoa, ms. kaptur from ohio, mr. grayson from florida, mr. defazio from oregon and mr. quigley from illinois. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered.

under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, and under a previous order of the house, the following members are recognized for five minutes each -- mr. moran. kansas. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> request unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman may proceed. mr. poe: mr. speaker, a friend of mine in texas, john, sent me a recent article from "the tucson weekly" written by leo banks. the article shines a bright light on the life in arizona north of the border and the shock after the murder of arizona rancher robert crentz. the murderer shot rob and then his dog and then headed back to mexico. rob's sister, susan pope, says things have gotten so bad she can't honestly remember the last time she felt secure.

the pope's home is in the mountains and has been broken into three times. susan works as a bus driver and teacher at the one-room apache elementary school. that elementary school has been burglarized so many times that nothing of value remains there. how can you teach children in an atmosphere like that? they say everybody there knew something like rob crentz murder was about to happen. suzy morales lives near know galles. she says when she -- lives near nogales. she says when she cooks dinner she sees people on a trail 75 feet from her front door. another trail 50 feet from her back yard exists. when suzy spots the paramilitary squads she runs into her bathroom with her cell phone, hides and shuts the door. she has to keep her voice down so the drug cartels don't hear her calling for help and she carries a .357 magnum with her

at all times. homeland security secretary napolitano, however, says arrests are down on the border patrols or the border's 250-mile tucson sector. those arrests are not numbers of actual crossers, however, and these misleading statistics are used to save border security -- say border security is working. however, the truth is just the opposite. the people who got away from officially numbered arrests outnumber them 3-1. frontline lawmen will tell you it's more like four to 5-1 get away. they bolster 625 miles of fencing now in place but only 310 miles of that is fence. the rest of it, 318 miles, is vehicle barriers that don't stop anybody on foot. foot traffic still pours over the mountains south of sierra vista to the tune of 1,500 a week, according to local citizens who count them by

placing hidden cameras on the trails. rancher john ladd counted some 350 illegals on his san jose ranch over a period of 18 days before this newspaper interview. he said he's on the phone with the border patrol on an average of three times a day, seven days a week to report groups crossing his ranch. as one resident said, quote, we're under the gun all the time. there are people watching us all the time. the smugglers have scouts on the hills watching us, watching customs and watching the border patrol. they're terrorists, they're militaryistic and they get a high out of all of this. as long as they can get away with it it's ok in their mentality. they say the most dangerous thing you can do as a citizen is reach for your cell phone if seen by one drug dealer. if you encounter the wrung guy, he might think you're calling border patrol, he might shoot

at you. when guys work in the corrals sometimes miles from the house their wives go along too. they're afraid to be alone in their own home. that is no way to live, mr. speaker. people on the border are under siege by the crime cartels. the people smuggling operations have been taken over by the drug cartels, and the coyotes and the drug cartels work together to smuggle people and drugs across the border all in the name of money. to cross around douglas the rate has gone up to $2,200 per person. when they don't have the money to pay the drug smugglers and the coyotes they carry drugs as payment across. one county sheriff said in a recent senate testimony, quote, i guarantee that every group coming across the border today has a gun. just friday a deputy sheriff was shot by narcoterrorists carrying ak-47's in a county 70 miles north of the border. those ill-informed elites that

don't reside in a border state but lives in new york or san francisco live in never-never land. the border is not safe. ask people who live on the border both mexicans in mexico and americans in the united states. those residents call the border a war zone. the united states protects the borders of other nations. it's about time we protect our own border. and that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. price. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? >> to claim mr. price's time and ask unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman may proceed. mr. driehaus: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to pay tribute to one of cincinnati's great citizens, donald spencer. donald spencer's philosophy in life was when you leave this world it should be beater place because you have lived.

he certainly made this world a better place. donald spencer lived life to the fullest and touched many as a community leader, a teacher and a real estate broker. he was born march 5, 1915, and he died yesterday, may 4, 2010. donald spencer was the first african-american real estate broker with the cincinnati area board of realtors but teaching never left his blood. a life-long resident of cincinnati, he helped pave the way for african-americans in education as well as real estate during his career. having graduated from wal nut hill high school before earning his bachelors degree and masters degree from the university of cincinnati by 1940, mr. spencer embarked on an 18-year teaching career at douglas, stow and bloom high schools. he opened his real estate office concurrently with the last six years of teaching. five years later he was well

established as donald a. spencer and associates. the firm eventually grew to 23 on its staff and prospered for 30 years. first with an office in walnut hills and later in avendale. he was named president of the real estate tores association. a staunch supporter of cincinnati public schools, mr. spencer chaired the 2001 campaign. successfully passing the november tax levy. in 2003 he served with case. cincinnati's support of active education which led to the passing of the $340 million levy to develop 30 new schools and renovate the remaining 3 is buildings. a lifetime member of the naacp, mr. spencer was active his entire adult life in civic, religious and other organizations. a member of kappa alpha psi

fraternity. he served on the board of ohio university for two years as its president, the ohio valley goodwill, the fenway club, family housing developers. he was the founding board members of the cincinnati parks and a member of the walnut hills school association. he was part of the cincinnati board of housing appeals, the task force on racial isolation in cincinnati public schools and cincinnati's historic conservation board. he was a 30-year trustee at mount sinai united methodist church, now the new vision united methodist church. among his many honors, donald spencor in 1997 received the civic gumption award from the civic charter committee. in 2001 the cincinnati park board developed the donald a. spencer overlook inieden park, one of our jewels, to recognize his many years to the park

system. mr. spepser received the founder -- mr. spencer received the founder citation, one of only 14 people to receive the honor in the university's 200-year history. he leaves behind his wife, miriam,. when you look at the folks in cincinnati and you look at the people that make a difference, the spencers are the first couple of cincinnati. mr. spencer will be dearly missed and he was a treasure to all of us in cincinnati. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. jones of north carolina. the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. jones: mr. speaker, thank you very much. yesterday i was humbled but also pleased that the house of representatives passed legislation that would rename the department of navy to be the department of navy and marine corps. and i want to thank 426

co-sponsors of this legislation for joining us yesterday. and, mr. speaker, the history on this issue is this is the house of representatives, not with a vote on the floor of the house, but in the committee, the armed services committee, has put language in the house armed services authorization bill that would do the same thing and that is to say that the department of navy would become the department of navy and marine corps. the reason yesterday was very important that we would have this vote on the floor of the house was to say to the senate, who for 10 years has stopped this effort to recognize two great services, the navy and marine corps, which are known as one fighting team and would carry the name the department of navy and marine corps, it would say to the senate, please take a look at this and please look at this seriously because this is important to a large number of people in both the navy and marine corps. there is no cost to this.

this does not affect the budget. it doesn't affect even the stationary. it would just make it so that in the future as changes come about it would be known as the department of navy and marine corps. and, mr. speaker, i want to tell a story about a news conference about six weeks ago, the marine corps league held a news conference in the cannon office building to announce their support of this legislation. at the news conference we had senator pat robert, a retired officer who put in a companion bill in the senate. in addition we had former commandant al grey speak on behalf of this legislation. we had a four-star marine general, general zinni, speak in behalf of this legislation. and we had a young man, eddie

wright, who lost both hands in iraq for this country. he told a compeling story. he said, i love the navy, i love the corpsmen who came on the battlefield and save midlife. then we had a father from dick lynn, from richmond, virginia. dick lynn's son was in iraq -- killed in iraq. he told the story of his father a world war ii navy veteran and the fact that in culpeper, virginia, his son, a mayne rein, is buried next to his grandfather and -- a marine, is buried next to his grandfather and dick lynn told of having he headstone that says united states navy on his grandfather's headstone who is deceased. his grandson's headstone says, united states marine corps. we can see, beside me is a post over an actual condolence letter from the united states

navy to the family of a marine captain who was killed in iraq. it says the secretary of navy, washington, d.c., with the navy flag. i took the names out of the condolence letter for this poster. on behalf of the department of the navy, please accept my very sincere condolences. mr. speaker, the navy and marine corps are one fighting team and deserve to be respected as one fighting team by carrying the name navy and marine corps. mr. speaker, if this bill is accepted by the senate what we would see in a condolence letter would be the secretary of the navy and marine corps with the navy flag and the marine corps flag and it would say, dear marine corps family, on maff of the department of navy and marrone corps, we

extend our condolences. that's the story that mr. lynn tried to say at the news conference, why cannot the senate understand the importance of paying the respect with the recognition to the marine corps which the navy has the army has, the air force has. this is a very simple change of three words with no cost to the american taxpayer. mr. speaker, in closing, i'd like to say that there's a national website, it's called marinecause.com. sergeant lee ermey who served in the marine corps, in the movie account steel metal jacket" he's in that movie, he's also on the history channel on "lock and load," he's our spokesman on this website. i hope the american people will join in this effort.

mr. speaker, i will yield back the balance of my time. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back mr. etheridge of north carolina. the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. etheridge: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks and include extraneous material. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. etheridge: i rise today to say a heartfelt thank you to the teachers across the country. this apple is but a symbol of my gratitude for all the teachers -- for all that teachers have given to me i've been fortunate enough to live the american dream. my teachers were ones who made it all possible. whether it was ms. barber, who told me in my early years at cleveland school or coach bruce, who told me that it was not enough just to work hard but that you had to work smart.

or coach fred mccall who helped me focus my hard work in college both on and off the basketball court. or any of those who came in between. my teachers helped shape who i am. i recently received a letter from a teacher in johnson county who was worried about our children. she said, in these tough budget times, cutting funding in education now means shortchanging an entire generation of learners for the future. i urge my colleagues today to join me in thanking teachers and working to support funding for the teachers who will shape our nation's future. as americans, let us work to

make every day a day we say thank you to the teachers who mold the future. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. mr. calvert of california. for what purpose does the gentlelady from ohio rise? >> i request permission to address the house for five minutes and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. schmidt: today i rise to recognize not only those who competed in the flying pig marathon but the winner from our area. let me tell you the conditions 18,000 participants faced on sunday. 6:30 a.m. in the morning, torrential downpour with the forecast of a 90% chance it wouldn't let up. unfortunately, they were right. as 18,000 of us decided to go,

at least part of the distance, 6,000 of us decided to go the full 26.2 mile distance. you know, the flying pig marathon was the brain child of bob coughlin, 12 years ago. 25,000 people participated in the weekend event. it took an enormous amount of folks, including 3,000 volunteers to help make that event happen. for all of us who participated, we want to say thank you. i think this year's winner, brian list, really wants to say thanks to those who helped because his dream came true. this young man, a milford high school graduate, cross country participant in high school, cross country participant in college, came back to his hometown to raise a family and continue to pursue his dream of running. this was his fourth try at the marathon in cincinnati he never really thought he had what it

took to actually be a winner. but on sunday, he was. he posted a great time, two hours, 32 minute, 20 seconds. he followed his dream, his heart, and achieved his goal. i am so proud of him. i don't want to not recognize lauren arnold from colorado, the female winner, but i do want to brag about brian because as a runner, i know what it takes to go the distance. and he certainly did that for us. you know, in conclusion, i'd like to say that for most of us, i think we adopted barry manilow's song, "i made it through the rain" but i know for brian and lauren they were more like gene kelly, because at the end they were "singing in the rain." i want to thank those who participated, especially the volunteers but i want to thank

especially bob coughlin for putting it together. pigs do fly at least once a year. next year, the first sunday in may, will be the 13th. let's home next year's weather is like it's been for 11 of the 13. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois rise? >> to address hoe thus house for five minutes and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> now seems a fitting time to look back on the state of israel and look back on it accurately. much attention has been paid to new construction in jerusalem. lost were basic facts about

settlements and the historical context that must be remembered. mr. quigley: i want to set the record straight and outline six key facts about settlements. number one, the construction under debate is not in arab east jerusalem but in a jewish neighborhood in northern jerusalem. not only has this area never been governed under palestinian authority, but there's never been a question as to whom the land belongs. under every possible two-state plan, including the plan produced by president clinton at camp david in 2000 and the scenario in the letter from president bush to prime minister sharon in 2004 this area would be part of israel. number two, jerusalem is not a settlement. jerusalem has been a jewish majority since 187 0. every -- 1870. every israel government since 1970 has recognized jerusalem as the sovereign capital of

israel not part of the west bank. to reduce jerusalem to anything less undermines the very foundation of israel. number three. settlements are not an obstacle to peace. this is where remembering history is especially important. twice israel has given up land and removed settlers in an effort to make peace and each time, peace was rejected. 1980, after its peace accord with egypt, israel removed settlements from the sinai peninsula but peace was reject. again in 2005, settlers were forcibly removed from gaza, but peace was rejected. settlements can be dealt with in any future negotiation through land swaps and border adjustment. but the issue of settlement should never prevent the two sides from sit do you think to negotiate. the 10-month moratorium on new construction in the west bank issued by prime minister

netanyahu is unprecedented. despite staunch domestic criticism and incredible political risk, prime minister netanyahu announced a 10-month moratorium on building in the west bank. the move was praised by the obama administration. the u.s. envoy said it was significant saying, for the first time ever, an israeli prime minister will stop all building in the west bank. yet the palestinian authority has refused to resume negotiations. in the past, settlement construction did not prevent negotiations. in fact, yasser arafat and mahmoud abbas continued with negotiations while settlements continued to be built. only palestinians and israelis together can form a lasting peace. ultimately the conflict must be

resolve through the direct talks between the two parties. requiring preconditions for negotiation simply allows the parties to avoid direct dialogue and ultimately a resolution. any rhetoric that prevents the parties from resuming negotiations must be tempered. number six, this constant focus on settlements distracts us from the greater threat a nuclear iran. the most significant threat to middle east security is iran obtain agnew clear weapon. iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would surely spur nuclear proliferations throughout the middle east and result in terrorist groups obtaining nuclear weapons. our focus now must be on preventing iran from become agnew clear power, not on debates about jerusalem's construction policies. yes, settlements must be addressed but they'll addressed in any peace process negotiation. we know this because over the years, numerous proposals to solve the settlement issues

have been floated and israel twice has been willing to take action, pulling citizens out of sinai and gaza. but settlements cannot be an excuse not to negotiate. settlements cannot distract us from the looming threat of a nuclear r.n. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. burton from indiana. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? mr. diaz-balart: i seek unanimous consent to speak for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. diaz-balart: i rise to honor an honorable educator and scholar from bogota, colombia. in his long and highly acclaimed professional rear, after receiving a doctorate in law with a specialization in socioeconomic science, he has been an exceptional jurist and act democrat igs.

it led him to defend from the outset the values and principles of western civilization, the defense of which is manifested in the formation of professionals educated in the same principles. he's been an ardent defender of democracies and a fighter against totalitarian and populist regimes that seek to destabilize governments. he's stood out for his unwavering and constant defense and the control of international forms -- norms that regulate them. to further this cause, he established the human rights institute in collaboration with academic institutions in three continue tents. -- continents. regarding the united states of america, with the university founded by his father in 1984 and which he presides since 2003 have always been of friendship and defense of the

post-lats and values of the great nation. the university was the main academic institution in colombia that supported and assisted with the entire negotiation process between the united states and colombia. it maintains close relationships by means of specific shared programs and projects with many american universities such as florida international university, florida atlantic university, georgetown university, american university and the new york university school of law. it was the leader in the creation of joint degree programs with american universities as well as innovative and groundbreaking agreements benefiting both the united states and colombia. the congressional hispanic leadership institute, which i am honored to chair, will also enter into agreement of -- agreement with the university. he's held presidential appointment, including supervisor of corporations,

national electoral judge and associate judge of the national constitutional court of colombia. he was recently named by president uribe of colombia as member of the committee on political reform. he's received many important distinctions, including the order of democracy and the degree, one of the highest civilian honors of the colombia, granted by the colombian house of representatives. for my late father, for my brothers and for me and my wife, our friendship with rodrigo and his wife is an extraordinary honor. thank you, mr. speaker. >> the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. pascrell -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. pascrell from new jersey. mr. pascrell: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. pascrell: i rise this afternoon to speak on an issue

that for too long we've known about and done little to nothing to address either side of the aisle. and that issue is our growing trade inequity. continually puts american manufacturers at a disadvantage and has cost too many americans their jobs. i introduced bipartisan legislation with my colleague, representative walter jones, h.r. 2927. we have republicans on this bill. we got democrats on this bill. it offered one path toward growing our equal trade inequity, but instead of thoughtful debate, we're instead confronted by misinformation and in this case an entirely unfounded and false fear of new taxes being imposed. so, mr. speaker, i want to state for the record that h.r. 2927, the border tax equity act, has a singular mission, to stop the offshoring of american

jobs. it does not oppose a value-added tax. in fact, this legislation is geared to fight a value-added tax imposed by foreign nations on american-made products. the border tax equity act stands up against foreign export subsidies and trade barriers that offshore u.s. jobs. who's talking about this? when are we going to begin to protect american jobs? we can have all of the job creation, all of the stimulus. if we don't go to the heart of the issue we are going to lose any manufacturing edge that we have. we are not a service job country. we need to have service and we need to have manufacturing jobs. otherwise, god forbid, if we ever went to war, we'd have to buy our tanks from china right now.

we have dismantled our manufacturing base. we have destroyed the information of manufacturing in this country. let me make it clear. when i say export subsidies, what i'm talking about is our trade partners, our allies, many of them, and some not our allies, give rebates and monetary givebacks. i call them kickbacks. to their own manufacturing companies. with a deal like that it's impossible for our manufacturers to be on an even playing field and to compete or to stay in business. this is the heart of our trade inequity. free trade, hum bug. doesn't go to the center of the issue. it seems that lately many have been confusing this bill with legislation that promotes a value-added tax when in fact the border tax equity act seems to be leveling the playing

field for u.s. producers. when are we going to give a break to manufacturers, both large and small, in the united states? when are we going to stop saying that free trade is the panacea to creating jobs in thes united states? take a look at what nafta did to this country. take a look at how many jobs we lost, not only in the united states but in mexico. it is a disaster. the border tax equity neither imposes a value-added tax norad vow indicates for the imposition -- nor advocates for the imposition of one. let me repeat, it does not impose a value-added tax. me and walter jones introduced this legislation to help economic growth. that's at the center of recovery. trade barriers is a must if america is going to kick-start manufacturing job creation and double our exports in the next five years. i also hope that this bill would shed light on our need to counter foreign border

adjustment tax schemes that encourage offshoring of production of u.s. goods and services. here's a perfect example. the rising exports subsidies and trade barriers of foreign border adjusted taxes are a key contributor to the loss of 5.7 million manufacturing jobs in the last decade. it's a prime reason why u.s. industrial output is less today than it was 10 years ago. this increase in global gross domestic product of 50%. foreign border adjusted tax schemes are designed to make u.s. produced goods and services less competitive by making exports to the united states cheaper, cheaper, cheaper so it can build more wal-marts, more wal-marts, more wal-marts and put more people out of jail in the united states of america. that is a fact. not fiction. the speaker pro tempore: the time has expired. mr. pascrell: so, mr. speaker,

i ask that we get the facts on what we're talking about and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from american -- excuse me -- ms. ros-lehtinen from florida. the gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you very much, mr. speaker. thank you, mr. speaker. during the past few years the financial service industry has endangered the american dream of capitalism, and each day we learn more about those responsible. it wasn't small business or the owners of these businesses or the entrepreneurs who harmed it but the wall street firms that manipulated the system and the securities and exchange commission, s.e.c., that allowed greed to destroy the economy. s.e.c. inspector general david kotz in his recent report said that the s.e.c. bears total responsibility for nearly $70 billion of investor losses due

to the stanford and madoff ponzi schemes. thousands of additional innocent victims were allowed to lose their life savings while they mistakenly believed that the s.e.c. was actually regulating the securities market. what's worse is that even today the wall street is trying to manipulate the laws to avoid their responsibilities under the 1970 securities investor protection act, and the corporation intended to carry it out, the sipc securities investor protection corporation . sipa provides $500,000 insurance to investors against the fraud or dishonesty of an s.e.c. regulated broker. it would allow brokers to hold their securities in their street name. for example, if you brought securities through merrill lynch instead of your name appearing on the stock certificate it was held in

merrill lynch's name. this allowed the brokerage firms to enjoy an enormous amount of additional revenue because they could treat those securities as their own. the quid proquo for giving up the protection of having securities in your own name was sipc insurance. sipc insurance was created to protect against a dishonest broker who either steals the customer's security or steals the customer's money and never actually purchases the securities. today, 40 years later, wall street controls sipc because the broker dealers are members of sipc. as a result, sipc has spent more money fighting investor claims than it has paid out to investors. therefore, persecuting rather than protecting investors. sipc has the power to assess each member .25% of revenues

but instead has charged its members, many of whom were large firms, only $150 per year for the privilege of promising millions of customers that they were insured. thus, wall street figured out a way to have its cake and eat it too. it advertised insurance but in reality never funded it and, therefore, could not provide enough funds to cover the victim's claims when madoff collapsed. today, sipc is paying the trustee and its law firm $1.5 million each week to persecute investors by depriving them of insurance and by threatening to sue those who took mandatory withdrawals from their i.r.a. accounts. i'm referring to the clawback that the sipc trustee has threatened against thousands of

innocent investors whose only mistake was relying upon their sipc broker-dealer confirmation and their monthly statement. sipc refuses to honor the legitimate expectations of customers who relied upon their confirmation and statements. if investors can't rely upon those documents, the entire stock market could collapse because no customer would ever have proof that he owned any securities. i'm asking that we hold wall street responsible for sipc insurance. every dollar that sipc doesn't pay and every dollar that i sipc trustee claws back increases the i.r.s. theft law to which an investor is entitled. thus, after not only pay sipc premiums for 19 years, wall street is cleverly attempting to pass their financial obligation back to the government. we cannot let this happen.

i'm aware that the bankruptcy court has ruled in sipc's favor on this issue, but as we all know, the court sometimes gets things wrong. madoff investors are entitled to an immediate amendment to sipa to clarify that it was never congressional intent that a customer of an s.e.c. regulated broker-dealer would be subject to a clawback suit. mr. speaker, i will have further remarks on this important topic that's of great importance to my constituents later on next week, and i thank you for the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from american samoa. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> to address the house and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. earlier today we voted on memorializing the tragic events that took place 40 years and

one day ago at kent state university. americans today, most americans are too young to remember what happened then, but i think that those of us who lived through that time and many others who thought about it or saw afterwards what happened have this picture in their minds. mr. grayson: this is marianne vecchio, kneeling over jeffrey miller at kent state when four students were shot by american soldiers. i think we would honor them by remembering how and why they died and that's what i propose to do now. in 1968, richard nixon ran for president. he said he had a secret plan to end the war. that plan was so secret that apparently even nixon himself didn't know what it was because when he was elected he simply expanded the war. in november of 1969, the massacre exposed to the whole world, not just to americans,

but to the whole world the sheer brutality of the war in vietnam. the following month in december of 1969, the draft was instituted. american college students and others, everyone of a certain age, everyone knew that they would have to serve in vietnam unless the war had ended. and then on april 30 of 1970, the first war ever announced on tv, president nixon announced the invasion of cambodia by u.s. forces. almost immediately there were protests at universities all around the country. including at kent state. and those protests grew and grew day bidet. and the right wing immediately mobilized against these protests. in ohio the governor said, quote, they're the worst type of people that we harbor in america, these students protesting against the war. i think that we're up against

the strongest well-trained militant revolutionary group that's ever been assembled in america. and president nixon chimed in by saying that the antiwar protesters were pawns of foreign communists. and so it was that four days after the announcement of the you invasion of cambodia -- of the invasion of cambodia, there was a protest that took place at kent state university in ohio, 20,000 students collected, assembled peaceably, to protest and the national guard was called in to drive them away. first the national guard attacked them with tear gas, students took the tear gas canisters and threw them back at the national guard. the national guard drew its bayonets and charged the students and forced them to a different location but they still didn't disperse. so at that point they shot them. four americans died that day including jeffrey miller. the protests continued, in fact

they grew. almost 1,000 universities were shut down all across the country for the only time in american history -- country. for the only time in american history we had a national student strike all over the country. at jackson state 10 days later 10 more students were shot dead by the national guard. and the thing that i remember most from that time is this sign . written on a bed sheet and dropped from a dormitory window outside of new york university in new york. this noble sign, they can't kill us all. let's take a closer look. they can't kill us all. now, then as now together, both

times, there are people all around the world and especially people in america who want to live in peace. who think that no war is better than two wars, who think that we voted to end war, not to continue it. and for all those people, we know in our hearts they can't kill us all. there are people who think we should be concentrating on education and not war and we know they can't kill us all. there are people who think that we should be concentrating on our health, our own bodies, improving our living standards, rebuilding america instead of war and they can't kill us all. there are people who believe not only in america but all over the world that we should be striving every day toward peace, toward peace, not toward war and they cabinet kill us all. i yield -- can't kill us all. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. franks from arizona.

for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? >> mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes, revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this year's sell -- year celebrates the 100th year for the boy scout of america. and that means there's been a century of youth living the scout law and the scout promise. scouts have made a difference in their communities with their dedication to five of scouting's core principles. leadership, character, community service, achievement and love of the outdoors. today, mr. speaker, i rise to celebrate two men from my county who will be honored at the boy scouts good scout dinner on friday, may 7. local homebuilder robert poll will be presented with the good scout award by the district of the boy scouts of america. a long-time scouter, glen e. smith will be awarded the community service award.

poll will be honored for his charitable work because he says, and i quote, the three things i really care about, one, kids, two, health care, and three, education. end quotes. he has been chair of the center county united ways 2004 campaign, co-chair of the state college ymca's capital campaign and supported the development of the s&a stadium and baseball fields. he served for 1 years as chairman of the board of the -- 12 years as chairman of the board of a statewide nonprofit organization for children who need additional support and who would benefit from positive human contact. bob poll is a distinguished alumni of penn state and currently sits on the board of visitors and the college advisory board. the good scout award has been presented to local residents who have made a commitment to giving back to the community through charitable works since 1974.

past recipients include joe and sue baterno. glen e. smith from plent gap, pennsylvania, is called scouter glen. he's been in scouting for more than three decades as a youth and an adult. the john m. crire community service award is scouting's way of saying thank you for service to youth and the community through scouting. smith has served on boards of review and has been the true committee chairmanner to troop 66 in pleasant gap. he has served on the mountain district committee and as a unit commissioner. his love of cooking is well known and he has served as head cook for such events as the national jam borees and for many years running he's organized a memorial day weekend trip to a canadian scout camp. smith is resy yept -- recipient of another award. in recognition for outstanding service to the community and youth, presented glen smith with the silver beaver award.

his service to youth extends beyond the boy scouts to include being an assistant leader in girl scouts and working with youth in his church. it is my great pleasure to recognize these two outstanding individuals for their service to the community and i will be present as boit scouts award them their service award on friday and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. ms. kaptur of ohio. without objection, the gentleman from oregon is recognized for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm proud of portland, oregon, my hometown, leadership as mesh's sustainability capital. and thanks to the po, rt of portland, we acquired another symbol of that sustainability. the port of portland is one of five major consolidated port authorities in the united states

and one of the greatest economic engines of our region. it operates in international -- an international airport, a major sea port, general aviation ports and several thousand acres of industrial profit. and for the first time, its entire administrative work force will be housed in one location, a beautiful new structure that's not only iconic but is also cost effective, environmentally friendly and expecting to be certified lead gold. virtually every employee has access to natural light, sits in open visible cube kls including the executive director and is surrounded by the kind of sustainable development features that oregon is known for. all of the building's wastewater is treated using a living machine, a sort of indoor wetlands. and the water is reused in

restrooms and the cooling tower. there are 200 pipes sunk 340 feet into the ground to use the earth's temperature to dramatically lower the energy costs required to heat and cool the building. by locating 450 administrative employees in one praise, it eliminates -- place, it eliminates 15,000 hours of interoffice communitying every year which saves the port millions of -- commutes every year which saves the port millions of dollars in operating expenses and improves efficiency at the same time. and i would dare say the satisfaction of its many employees. good news that no taxpayer dollars were used in construction of this marvelous new facility. the port's customers, airlines, shipping companies and others,

will not experience any increase in their cost. indeed, they will share in cost reductions. my commendation to the port of portland commission and its employees for a job very well done. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. king from new york. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> i would like to ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks, to include extraneous material. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> mr. speaker, tonight i wanted to discuss an important issue that is significantly impathing our economy, but has not received nearly enough attention and action by the administration and this congress. if the issue is not addressed it will continue to drag down and harm an already shaky national economy. i'm referring to the deterioration of the commercial sector.

i'm talking about property that can be found in every community in america, retail properties, office space, industrial facilities, hotels and apartments. mr. calvert: similar to the residential crisis we faced, the commercial sector faces strains. commercial real estate values throughout the united states are collapsing, going down as much as 40% to 50% in some regions. we have seen this happen in parts of southern california in my own congressional district, i know we've seen it in many other parts of the country, from new york to idaho and nevada to florida. most experts predict that the declining trend in commercial real estate values will continue through 2011 and 2012. many economists are concerned by this trend and because of the health of our commercial real estate market, has a direct and lasting impact on the stability of thousands of small businesses, small and midsized banks, which could result in significant job losses across

the country. the commercial real estate sector provides more than nine million jobs and generates billions of dollars in federal, state and local tax revenue. additionally, many property owners are under water, analysis by deutch bank indicates that almost 1.4 -- $is.4 trillion in -- $1.4 trillion in commercial loans will trick late over the years. others will struggle with financing. the congressional oversight panel created by congress in 2008 to review the current state of our nation's financial markets and regulatory system dedicated an entire report to the commercial real estate liquidity crisis commercialed -- titled, commercial real estate losses and the risk to financial stability, which was released on february 11 of this year. the report estimates that bank losses alone could range as high as $200 billion to $300 billion. the panel wrote, quote, a significant wave of commercial mortgage defaults would trigger

economic damage that could result and retouch the lives of nearly every american, unquote. this week and next, many of my fellow colleagues in congress will be visited by members of the national association of realtors. as part of their annual meeting in washington, d.c. they will talk about how the commercial real estate market is in the midst of serious financial crisis and share stories of how small business across the country continue to suffer. many of my colleagues and economic experts agree that the continuing crisis in the commercial real estate market could lead to a double dip recession. due to the growing economic threat of the faltering commercial real estate market, i spearheaded a bipartisan effort with my friend from pennsylvania, congressman kanjorski, to raise these concerns to secretary tim geithner and federal reserve chairman ben bernanke on february 29 of this year. the letter, signed by 77 of our colleagues, called for the establishment of a clear method of measuring the effectiveness of recently announced commercial

real estate loan modification guidance. furthermore the letter called on secretary geithner and chairman bernanke to institute metrics that will allow banks to more clearly differentiate performing versus nonperforming loans in order to treat them appropriately. on february 17 of this year i once again joined mr. kanjorski to offer a letter addressed to the heads of the fdic, o.c.c. and ncua to bring to their attention our concerns and highlight the findings of the february 11 congressional oversight panel commercial real estate losses and the risk to financial stability. the letter, quote, urged the regulators to work together and work with the treasury and fed to minimize the impact, the problems we will have to our economy, unquote. on march 16 secretary geithner testified before the house appropriations committee regarding the f.y. 2011 budget economic outlook. at the hearing i asked the secretary directly what steps he intended to take to address the liquidity problems in the commercial real estate sector.

his response was, quote, we have a ways to go to get through the broader adjustment in the commercial real estate that is still ahead of us, unquote. the administration must take deliberate action to enhance liquidity in the commercial real estate market, to avoid the derailment of economic recovery. congress can play a role in advancing solutions by closely examining the current status of commercial mortgage market lictwidity through oversight hearings and with the federal reserve chairman bernanke and other regulators. i call on the financial services committee to hold such a hearing by the summer to reveal the true state of this sector of our economy and discuss regulatory and legislative fixes. the hearing on march 17 in chicago is a good start. but more attention needs to be made. the spotlight of oversight is what congress needs toot at this time. i truly hope the administration will take the necessary steps to prevent further economic damage to provide a fix for commercial real estate. with that, thank you. i yield back the balance of my

time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. defazio from oregon. . defazio from oregon. mr. paul from texas. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> address to -- the house for five minutes and revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to express my support for one of the last remaining space shuttle or by tall. the shuttle program can be counted among our nation's greatest achievements. they created vehicles to ferry astronauts, experiments and supplies back and forth from space to earth. they have done so now over 100

times with three more flights to go. the flight mission of columbia, challenger, atlantis, discovery and endeficient our are our nation's proudest achievements and this has captured the nation's imagination and taught us more about our universe and ourselves than we ever thought possible. as the program concludes, the decision on whether it will be slated that been given to the nasa administrator. houston is intrensic to space flight and we are asking to give it a final home. i grew up in houston where the johnson space center is located. i spent my childhood in living with astronauts and wanting to be one. i attended rice university where john f. kennedy made his

declaration that this country would be the first on the moon. and while many things have changed since i was young, children in clear lake still have similar dreams. they learn about the history and importance of nasa and they are inspired by nasa's achievements every day. their parents, coaches, sunday school teachers are the engineers and scientists who are the backbone of our space program. some of them are even astronauts who have to miss a game because they are taking a trip to the international space station. a few weeks ago, i enlisted the help of students to explain to the administrator why one of the retiring or by ters should be placed on permanent display. thousands of children responded to the challenge and wrote letters to the administrator. the letters were funny and heartwarming.

they expressed maturity beyond their years and first-hand knowledge of houston's lasting contributions to the achievement of nasa. i was amazed by the passion and dedication and their longing to have one of the orbiters make its home in their neighborhood. they wrote of their personal connection they feel and the joy and pride they feel when they called their friends and family from all over the country and invited them to come on down to houston to see one of the space shuttles. one wrote, with so many in the community involved, it only makes sense to have the shuttle retired where so much training takes place. houston deserves that. another, it would be a good feeling to be standing feet away from a retired shuttle which really went into space. another drew this picture to

show how beautiful the shuttle would look in rocket park. another asked how space city can be complete without a space shuttle. and another reminded the administrator about the tragic loss meant to the houston community. the orbiter will remind them and a fitting memorial and although our nation lost 14 heroes, the people of houston lost co-workers, neighbors, friends and family members in those tragedies. and they will become the astronauts of the future. another, the daughter of an astronaut knows that if texas is the home of one of the retired space shuttles, i can remember

my father's launch. the contributions of the houston area make our home a logical and appropriate steward for one of the shuttles. houston is space city u.s.a. and there's no better place for a shuttle to be. mr. speaker, i ask the administrator to hear the request of these students not just in houston but in providing them with a future in space. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. posey from florida. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia rise? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. wolf: thank you, mr. speaker. if president obama is ever going to find his voice on sudan, it better be soon. these were the closing weeks two weeks ago from a columnist.

having traveled to sudan in 198 , my interest in this country has spanned the better part of 20 years. i have been there in july of 2006 with senator brownback. we were the first congressional delegation to visit darfur where genocide is taking place. we saw their tactics from car tomb in the south where 2.1 million people perished. i remain grateful for president bush's leadership in bringing an end to the bloodshed with the historic signing of the c.p.a., but that peace is now in jeopardy. fast forward to 2009. i was part of a bipartisan group in congress who called for the appointment of a special envoy shortly after president obama was elected. what was once a successful model for sudan is not having the desired effect today and i'm not alone in that belief. last week, six respected n.g.o.'s ran ads in the "washington post" calling for

secretary clinton and ambassador rice to exercise personal and sustained leadership on sudan in the face of a stale mate of policy. today, i join the chorus of voices in calling on the president to empower secretary clinton and ambassador rice to take control of this policy in sudan and oversee quarterly deputy meetings to ensure options for consequences on the table. i call on the president himself to exercise leadership in this regard consistent with the explicit campaign promises he made about sudan promises which to date ring hollow. there is renewed callings for leadership about the history and record about the war criminals at the helm of car tomb. in addition to the massive human rights abuses perpetrated by the country's leader, sudan remains

on the state department's list of state-sponsored terrorism. those same people gave safe haven to bin laden. he lived there from 1991 to 1996. this country's engagement with sudan and the apparent pleasing of the president has failed to recognize the true nature of bashir and c.p.a. today, i sent a letter to the president which i submit to the record seven policy recommendations calling for urgent action. when the administration released its policy, secretary clinton indicated that benchmarks would be applied to sudan. that progress would be assessed, and any party will be met with credible pressure in the form of disincentives leveraged by our government. but in the face of national elections that were neither free

or fair and in continued violation and bash ir's failure to cooperate with the international criminal court, there are no disincentives. this is the worst case scenario and if history is a guide, to fail. more than six months have passed since the release of the sudan strategy and implementation has been insufficient at best. during the campaigns, then candidate obama said, quote, washington must respond to the ongoing genocide and the ongoing failure to implement the c.p.a. with consistency and strong consequences. these rings ring truer today than ever before, but the burden for action, the weight of leadership now rests with this president and this administration alone. the stakes and there are lives at risk, the stakes could not be higher. i close, mr. speaker, with a slight variation on the words of

the columnist. if president obama is ever going to find his voice on sudan, it had better be now. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. gingrey from georgia. for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama rise? >> i rise to ask for unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to refocus our attention on fuvending shortfalls in the federal emergency management agency. on march 24 in the house, we here in this location passed nearly $5.1 billion in emergency funding to help fema meet its obligations. this money is not allocated for future disasters or bureaucratic costs but money that fema has promised to put lives back in

order after federally-declared disasters. the senate has refused to act. our constituents can't wait any longer, nor should they have to wait. the recent flooding in tennessee and the oil spill in the gulf of mexico underscore the need to pass emergency funding for our disaster management agency. these events are startling in scope and certainly require assistance from the federal government. how can we expect fema to respond to future disasters if they have yet to meet their obligations from over a year ago? mr. speaker, every day, my office hears from local emergency managers, mayors and county commissioners who express frustration over the fact that they are waiting for the money fema promised them. these are not people who expect a handout, but simply asking about the emergency assistance they were granted, months and in some cases, over a year ago. henry county, which is in my

congressional district in southeast alabama is a good example of how fema's budgetary issues have been affected. henryp county started a project to replace a large drainage structure under county road 2 that was damaged during last spring's floods. fema approved the project but has not been able to distribute money to the county. in addition, the county wrote that they are still waiting for reimbursement for three other road projects that resulted from flooding in december of 2009. a small county is waiting on two different payments from fema, one from a disaster that occurred over a year ago and i'm sure the stories are similar in other areas of our great country. we are still debating this issue while spring floods are out in full force and hurricane season is less than a month away. we cannot forget about the promises we have made as we

brace for the next disasters to strike american soil. last year saw record disasters around the country, floods soaked the southeast. firefighters in the west and snows blanketted the northwest and northeast. fema used up its budgeting resources and congress must act to provide our communities with the funds they were promised. mr. speaker, i am a committed physical conservative and i believe we should closely watch every dollar we spend. i welcome a debate to reduce federal spending and the way fema operates to make it more efficient. the debate is not for our community to wait. in closing, let me once again the senate to act on this very pressing issue as the summer nears, we simply can't afford to ignore this problem any longer. the senate needs to do what the house has already done and pass very quickly emergency funding for fema and pass it quickly so

they don't have to wait any longer. mr. speaker, thank you. and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from missouri, mr. akin, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader mr. akin: thank you, mr. speaker. it's a pleasure to be able to join you and my colleagues and others who are gathered here to talk about something that has been on our minds for some considerable time now, many months, even a matter of a year and a half to two years. and that is the subject of the economy and jobs and what's really going on in america.

i'm a person who's of the baby boomer type cycle. i'm 62. there are many people such as myself in america that have done a lot of work and tried to save our money and all of a sudden something seemed to go wrong in the economy, we lost a lot of money in 2008 and there's a real concern out there about jobs, the economy and what's going on in the policies. and so i thought, and we have an hour, we don't have to do everything in one minute or five minutes, but we have a full hour today, that i would open the subject, i would invite my other republican colleagues to join me, you may see sum coming in before long -- some coming in before long. and i want to talk about this whole situation. and i'd like to go back to how is it that we were kind of cruising along, things seemed to be going pretty well by about 2006 or so with the economy, 2007, and then all of a sudden in 2008 we really seemed to have come to grief on a reef, so to

speak? what went on? well, let's go back to an interesting article in "the new york times," not exactly a conservative oracle, it was september 11, not in 2001, but september 11 in 2003. "the new york times" reported this, that there is a new agency proposed to oversee fannie mae and freddie mac. well, why would there be a new agency to oversee freddie and fannie? well, freddie and fannie were these quasi-governmental agencies and their job was to help provide americans with affordable loans so americans could buy houses. and so here we have in this article, it says, the administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis over a decade ago. oh, my goodness. president bush is saying we need to overhaul freddie and fanny. they were private-quasi-public.

it gave a lot of people concern that maybe freddie and fannie were not in good shape economically. then the question becomes, if they're not in good shape, what would that mean? that would mean, guess what? the american taxpayer maybe asked to bail out freddie and fannie. so the president is saying, i need more authority to make sure that freddie and fannie don't do dumb things that cost us a whole lot of money. so that's bha the president's saying -- so that's what the president's saying in this article, again, that's 2003. following that we read further in the article and we have another interesting situation here, where we have the gentleman now who is in charge of trying to fix these wall street institutions, that is our current congressman barney frank. and this was his statement in the same article in 2003. these two entities, fannie mae

and freddie mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis. the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing. so, this is something we have a clear party line difference. the president is saying, freddie and fannie are not managing things properly, they are a risk to our economy and you have a democrat who is now the ranking guy in this committee that's saying, no, they're fine. that freddie and fannie are just fine. well, of course, hindsight is always 2020 ---20. tfls -- 20-20. it was obvious that waffs said here by congressman frank is wrong. they were in trouble. they did mismanage things. and they have now been taken over by the federal government, more or less, and guess who has to pick up the tab? you guessed it, the american taxpayer. now, how did this whole

situation develop and what happened? well, part of what happened was, people came to the conclusion, some number of years ago, that it would be nice if people could get loans to buy houses. and what happens for the people who don't have very good credit ratings? how about the people who are a bat security risk? what are we going to do with them? well, we're going to say, you can get a loan, too. that's what he's saying in terms of affordable housing. so somehow in the name of compassion we came up with this idea that the government was going to allow people to get loans and not check whether the person had a capacity to repay the loans. and at the height of the big bubble that was going up on home prices, just about anybody, regardless of their credit rating or anything else, what job they had, could go in and get a loan to buy a great big house. it worked pretty well for a couple of years. could you go in and buy a house and then wait a couple of years, the price of the house would double and you'd sell it and buy

some other big house and could you pyramid your money up even though you're borrowing money, you don't have any way to pay it back. because these loans were so good you wouldn't have to pay anything for a number of years at all. could you get a loan and say you don't have to pay anything for a couple of years at least. so you could buy something, it would appreciate, could you sell it and move on and do that and so people were starting to do that with houses. the trouble was, of course, that the bubble burst and all of the house of cards came tumbling down. now, the -- we understand what caused the problem originally was the concept that the government requires the banks to make loans to people who can't afford to pay. that's a bad policy. because when people can't pay, somebody's going to have to pick up the tab and guess what happened? you guessed it once again, it was uncle same passes it on to the taxpayer to pick up the tab for this failed policy. so, you want to ask, how do we end up with this 10%

unemployment? how do we end up with a very weak economy? how did we get into this trouble? the trouble was caused about 90% by the u.s. government. it was caused by people who meet in this chamber and various administrations. at the end of the clinton administration, the clintons decided that what they were going to do was to increase the percentage of those bad loans that banks had to approve. what did the banks do with them? they passed them on to fannie mae and freddie mac. what happened to fannie mae and freddie mac? wall street sliced and diced the loans up and sold them all over the world and freddie and fannie then get into big problems. now, what was the political organization that forced all of these loans to be made to people who couldn't afford to pay it? you guessed it. it was acorn. acorn that was involved in a lot of voter fraud, but also was involved in forcing banks, locally, to take loans they shouldn't have taken. so this is a piece of what happened. the other piece was the policy

of the federal reserve. the federal reserve, because of the recession that we came into in 2001 when i was first elected, the federal reserve decided to increase liquidity but particularly what was happening, greenspan decided to reduce the interest rate. now, this idea of increasing liquidity is the equivalent of the crack cocaine of economics. what it is is it's a government in the old-fashioned word, you'd say the government is running the printing presses. well, that's what we did. we ran the printing presses but we also reduced the cost of money to very low, to about 0%, and held it there for some period of time by dumping loss lots and lots of dollars into the economic -- time of by dumping lots and lots of dollars into the economic system, people would say, i'm getting these dollars for a very low interest rate, what can i invest in? hey why not invest in the housing business? i can borrow money at a couple percent or even less and get

back, i can double my money almost in the housing business, in a certain number of, three, four years. so why not do it? everybody did for a while. until this very low interest rate, the high level of liquidity, and, boom, you get another bubble. it's like the high-tech bubble, because we're using liquidity to try and pull ourselves out of problems of the we'll come back to that in a little while. so what was it that really caused the economic crisis? first of all, it was lousy policies set right here in congress about making loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them and then holding freddie and fannie accountable for what they're doing. and by doing that we ended up with the beginning of the recession. now, the -- following that we start to go into a recession and the idea then was just in bush's last year or so and when i was here we had paulson come to us and say, hey, look, everything's in trouble, you guys have got two choices.

either the entire world economic system is going to melt down, i mean, the earth's going to crack, the hail stones are going to come from heaven, i mean, the going to be terrible. and the whole -- and that's going to be riots in the streets because the dollar bill won't work anymore and the banking system will collapse. or your other alternative is, give me $700 billion in unmarked bills in a brown paper bag. those are your two choices, congress, and we're going to the public and letting everybody know and if you do the right thing hopefully will there -- there will not be this terrible calamity. so congress was supposed to give $700 billion to hank paulson. well, did he really need that? no, he didn't need it. in fact, it was part of the same mistake that we make frequently here and that is that every time there's a problem economically the government has to jump in

and fix it. it's bailout fever. and this was, of course, the beginning of the big wall street bailout. and unfortunately some republicans supported that idea, along with most of the democrats and we took $700 billion away from the american taxpayer to buy these supposedly troubled assets that had been created by wall street. well, it's pretty hard to buy something when there isn't a market in it. and so we took $700 billion out of the market, about $350 billion supposedly spent during bush's last year, another $350 billion in obama's first year and that was the beginning of our big spending and again it's based on this concept that the government should jump in and fix everything and that the government is going to be able to fix the u.s. economy. that turns out to be a troubling assumption. and it continued to get us in trouble over the last year or two, which has then made the economic situation even worse. and the next thing that happened

was we, after we did this wall street bailout, we decided that what we had to do next was a stimulus package and this is -- the proposal was that we're going to do this stimulus. now, the whole concept of stimulus is pretty much, pretty much like the idea of, if you have a pair of boots on, what you're going to do is reach down, grab your boot straps and lift hard and if you lift hard enough you can float around the room. this is the concept in economics, it was known as keynesianism. and it was the idea that if the federal government spend as whole lot of money it will make the economy better, when you have a tough combhe. if you think about that from a commonsense point of view, picture you're trying to run your family and you realize, hey, there's really some economic problems our familiar is having. so the solution is, go out and just spend money like mad. now, would you think that would be a very smart idea? well, most commonsense people,

certainly people from my state and the state of missouri would say, that's not very smart just to go out and spend a whole lot of money. that is that idea been tried before? well, yes it has. it was tried by henry morgenthau back when lord keynes was first proposing this theory. it's a lovely theory if you're in government because the theory says you can just spend lots and lots of money that's not your money and the people in politics, they think that's nice because people like it when i spent lots of government money. the problem is that henry morgenthau, who was secretary of treasury under f.d.r., managed to use this policy to take a recession and turn it into the great depression. and so he came at the end of eight years, before the house ways and means committee here, and henry morgenthau says that, we have tried this theory of spending money. we've spent and spent and spent and we have not seen any change in unemployment, we had terrible unemployment and a huge debt and

deficit to boot. so, this is a guy right alongside with lord keynes that's saying, this didn't work. we tried it for eight years and it just created the great depression in america and so we should learn something from history. but, no, we decide what we're going to do is we're going to come up with the, quote, stimulus bill. another $700 something billion, $787 billion. and here's where we have our new president here. he says like any cash-strapped family we'll work within a budget to invest what we need and sacrifice what we don't. the things on this side of the chart sound pretty good. if i heard somebody say that that was my president, this is a pretty good idea, this is what the president said at the beginning of the year. the only trouble is there's this huge gap between what's said and what's done. so what we do, we start with, is it any real serious budget

reform? no, it's not a budget reform at all. in fact, what's happened in terms of the federal spending? have we learned anything after the stimulus bill? what should we have learned from the stimulus bill? we were told that if you do not pass the stimulus bill, if you don't pass it, here's what's going to happen, so you better look out. if you don't pass the stimulus bill, this is wheats going to happen to unemployment -- what's going to happen to unemployment, this line here. but if you pass the stimulus bill, here's what's going to happen. it will keep this unemployment down and so we were told that if you don't pass the stimulus bill, unemployment could go as high as 8%, you see. . it was based on the silly idea if you spent lots of money, it would be.

if f.d.r. had been doing it, it would have been concrete in it, roads. this had food stamps and aid to states that overspent their budget. we spent $787 billion on this stimulus bill and guess what happened? look at the red line. this is the actual unemployment. you think a whole lot of government spending is going to fix unemployment? absolutely not. if we didn't learn our listen, we got another chance to do it again. here we go. same dumb idea, still doesn't work. not going to work. the unemployment jumps up and more than 10%. these numbers are pretty conservative because if you have been looking for a job more than a year, you aren't counted any more in these statistics. people who have not had a job in a year, maybe they have given up and aren't counted in these numbers.

this idea of government spending which is the lovely idea we came up with and it doesn't work and so we have unemployment. i'm joined by dr. price. and he is really on top of some of these things and i would like to ask you to join in the conversation here this afternoon. mr. price: i thank the gentleman from missouri for his leadership and especially to highlight the remarkable challenges that we have in the economy and the challenges that face americans all across this land. pointing out as that chart does that the quote, solution, unquote, has, in fact, made things worse. here we are with the nation being promise add little over a year ago that if we spent hundreds of billions of dollars in an earth effort to try to get the nation back moving from an economic standpoint and wouldn't see an unemployment rate of 8%.

that's the amount -- mr. akin: we won't pass it 8%. mr. price: 9.7% and has been higher than that. the take-home message is what they're doing doesn't work. i told a fellow the other day, i said they are thinking about doing a new jobs bill. they tried millions and then they tried billions. i guess we are going to move to gazillions. mr. akin: we are working on trillions. mr. price: it's money that we don't have and that's trubling for american people because the policies that have been put in place not only don't work but destruction to job creation, which is frustrating to those of us on our side of the aisle because if you follow american

principles can create jobs. what does that mean? . it means spending less. you got a great chart right there and people rail on the amount of spending that was done at the last administration and we did as well. but if you might share with folks the numbers that have happened since speaker pelosi and her crowd have taken over. mr. akin: right. i appreciate you're -- your bringing that up. americans aren't buying this idea that by spending tons of money, the federal government is going to make everything better. maybe some ivory tower people, but most know it doesn't make any sense. republicans spent too much money. and the worst year was bush's last year in office. and our deficit was $459 billion. that's this box here. the reason it's red is because

this is when the pelosi congress took over, george bush with the pelosi congress and all the years that president bush spent too much money, this was his worst year. and we follow that up with 2009 and this $459 billion jumps to $1.4 trillion. now that's when you really think about it, that is really a trip ling of the amount of deficit -- tripling to the amount of deficit. mr. price: they say the picture is worth 1,000 words. that picture is worth over 1 trillion words. that's money we don't have and puts greater deficits and debt on the back of our kids and grand kids and mortgaging the future. right now, we are seeing the consequences of reckless and irresponsible spending at a national level in another nation, greece, right now.

and if you look at the trajectory, the spending path we are on and the deficit and debt path, we aren't far behind, the incredible responsibility that is now being addressed in the nation of greece. the american people that's wrong. they know they can't go to the garage and print money, right? and that's what the federal government does. that's what the obama administration has done. those red columns there, those red lines there demonstrate clearly that the deficits and debt being run up by the obama administration, speaker pelosi and the majority party are unparalleled in history. mr. akin: people think politics is complicated. it doesn't have to be nearly as complicated as people think it is. if you look at the difference between parties, the democrats, their solution is that the government has to be bigger and

spend more money and they think that the solution is the government. and we think that the problem is the government. and this thing is an indication that with a completely democrat house and senate and president, this is what happens. we triple this amount of deficit to the point now that when the federal government spends $1 today, 41 cents of that dollar is borrowed. i wanted to touch a little bit, aside from just this insane level of spending, money that we don't have, which is taxing our grandchildren -- i have some grandchildren. and i don't like the idea of taxing them any more than paying taxes myself. my background is engineering and the manufacturing business. and you know, this idea about unemployment is not that complicated. it's really very basic. anyone who has tried to run a lemonade stand knows how

businesses work. if you want to kill jobs, this is like an insectticide. these are the things to create unemployment. and the tragedy is we are doing all of them. all the things that were calculated to create unemployment. now, i guess the good news is that the jobs that would have been created here by american businesses are simply going to be done in plants that are overseas. and so jobs go to other countries. we'll still use our own intelligence. in st. louis, we have a guy who is president of emerson electric and has all kinds of divisions and technologies. they create tons of jobs. he says, look, we'll still grow and our stock will do well, but won't be jobs in the u.s. but somewhere else. it's not very complicated.

the first thing is, if you have a tremendous amount of uncertainty, you don't know what nutty thing the government is going to do next. the businessman will say, i'm not going to make any big decisions, because i'm not sure whether the last couple of dollars i have in reserve i will need for some other hair-brain idea that these guys in washington come up with. if there is any economic uncertainty of any kind, that will undermine job creation. if there's a slowdown, that doesn't help because you don't have the orders coming in. and here's the big one, excessive taxation, because what obama has promised, he will tax people in that $250,000 bracket. i don't make that much money. do i need to worry? oh, yes. because the people who are making $250,000, these are guys who are owning small businesses

that make all the jobs and the guy who is making $250,000, you say i don't feel sorry for him and you better, because that money could have put a new wing on the building, new machine, new process, which is going to hire more people. if you kill him, he won't invest in his business. i yield to my good friend from georgia. mr. price: you mentioned that our good friends on the other side of the aisle looked to government as the solution to everything. and they do. they believe that washington and that government has a better answer. we sometimes get criticized for saying that government can't do anything. there are some things that government ought to be doing, they ought not be owning banks, automobile companies, running our health care system, ought not be deciding whether there is any risk at all in the market. our friends on the other side believe that the government ought to control all of those things. and when they control all of those things, you decrease the

entrepreneurship and genius of the american people. when you have big government, you have small citizens. when you have small government, we have big citizens. we believe in big citizens as opposed to big government. checks and balances are necessary. you wouldn't have these kinds of crazy things going on if there were checks and balances here in the federal government and the people across this land know that. they know that runaway government is not what they desire. so they look to washington and they say, my goodness, what the heck are they doing? we have to put checks and balances in place. mr. akin: the president says here, but families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions and the federal government should do the same. oh, yeah. let's look at the policies, wall street bailout, $700 billion.

stimulus, 700 billion. in this house, that goofy cap and tax bill, which is going to put the government in charge to try to reduce co-2 by making the federal government in charge of the federal building codes. you couldn't add an addition unless you made sure it was safe from a global warming point of view. and there goes another billions of dollars in taxes and socialized medicine we just got done with, which is absolutely the biggest government takeover. 1/6 of the u.s. economy. the government can't run medicaid and medicare in the black. so we take overall of health care. we talk about the families tightening their belt. what is the federal government going to do? they are going to go on a spending spree. what does it do? kills jobs. what does it do?

here's the question for you, thinking back, thinking back of what phenomenon in human history should human beings be most concerned about, the problem of war or the problem of big government? that's an interesting question. why do we have this face in big government? is there anything historical to suggest that they are a solution or is it more to suggest that they're a problem? mr. price: in the area of health care which i know a little bit about having practiced medicine over 20 years, what we have seen is the intrusion of federal government into the practice of medicine and health care is only destructive to all of the principles that we hold dear for health care. whether it's affordability, accessibility, quality or the responsiveness of a system, innovation or choices, all those kinds of things that we as americans hold dear in health

care, they get destroyed with the federal government. and you know that. that's what results in that economic uncertainty for the businesses of health care. i've got -- i can't tell you how many letters i received that have told me from my colleagues, my former medical colleagues, who since the bill has been passed and signed into law, these are people in the prime of their career, the ones who are taking care of thousands of patients across this land who said look, with the federal government, i'm going to close my practice, i'm leaving and that challenges the accessibility problem or i'm going to limit the number of patients that i see that have some type of government health care because of the intrusion. and in fact, virt -- virtually all of us will have government health care, or third and something that you touched on, which is the alternative for business-minded individuals in an economy like this where the an economy like this where the politicians are picking th