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. for what purpose does the the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? ms. watson: madam speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to the bill h.r. 2142. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlewoman include an amendment with her resolution? ms. watson: yes, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 2142, a bill to require the review of government programs at least once every five years for purposes of assessing their performance and improving their operations and to establish the performance

improvement council. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from california, ms. watson, and the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california. ms. watson: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. watson: madam speaker, i now yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. watson: madam speaker, i rise today in strong support for h.r. 2142, the government efficiency, effectiveness, and performance improvement act by congressman kyaire -- kyyar -- cuellar. i believe the measure before us would strengthen the oversight and policc processes in place for evaluating the effectiveness of agency programs.

the issue of performance-based budgeting has been long viewed as the next step to pursuing a framework for managing agency resources and justifying our program funding decisions. these issues were discussed extensively during the subcommittee on government management, organization, and procurement hearings on h.r. 2142, this past april. as well as during our subcommittee markup on may 5. as a result of these efforts, i believe the bill before us is a more nimble and effective tool for agency performance measurement activities. developing valuable performance and evaluation criteria is a difficult and time consuming

process, but i believe the bill before us will push our agency -- agencies to more ably identify pertinent goals for measuring a program's true value. i want to thank all the relevant stakeholders who participated in the development of and the modifications to the bill that is before us today. and i definitely want to thank congressman cuellar and chairman towns for their hard work and diligence in the development of h.r. 2142, and i would ask my colleagues to support this measure and i also want to thank the staff for their hard work and the time they have spent trying to bring to the floor this particular, very important measure. and with that, madam speaker, i

would ask that -- i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from utah is recognized. mr. chaffetz: madam speaker, i'd like to yield as much time as he may consume to my distinguished colleague from pennsylvania, mr. platts. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. platts: thank you, madam speaker. i appreciate the gentleman yielding. madam speaker, i rise in strong support of this legislation which takes important steps to eliminate federal government waste and inefficiencies. i served as the chairman of the oversight and government reform subcommittee on government management finance and accountability for four years where i focused my efforts on making the federal government more accountable.% my subcommittee held numerous hearings which all too often accounting errors such as overpayment for services or redundant payments were discovered or where programs were not effectively fulfilling their intended mission. at a time when the national debt

is over $13 trillion, it has never been more apparent that the federal government must spend tax dollars wisely. federal programs must be monitored to ensure our investments are presenting clear results and those programs not performing effectively must be reformed or eliminated. one of the reasons we find ourselves in such substantial debt today is federal programs never end. both high performing and low performing programs continue on year after year after year. often with increasing funds. the frl government needs a clear evaluation process for each program. the results of which would be used to provide members of this house with information needed to determine which programs should continue and which should not. the legislation we are considering here today similar to legislation that i introduced in the 108th and 109th session of congress would require all federal agencies work with the office f management and budget to clearly identify outcome-based goals and submit

an action plan to achieve these goals. agencies would be required to conduct accordingly performance assessments, outlining how effectively they are working to meet the stated goals and all information would be available to the members of the house and senate anti-american people. in addition -- and the american people. in addition the g.a.o. would be tasked with performing frequent and detailed evaluations outlining how effective each agency has been in achieving their goals. g.a.o. would also assess whether the goals are appropriate and determine if program is providing direct value to the american people. this impartial review of federal programs will ensure agencies are being good stewards of our federal taxpayer dollars. i strongly commend my colleague, representative cuellar, for introducing this bill to ensure that federal resources are spent efficiency and -- efficiently and waste is minimized. now more than ever while americans are cutting extraneous expense from their budgets, the federal government must do the same.

i hope my colleagues would join me in supporting this important effort. i urge a yes vote and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady rom california is recognized. ms. watson: madam speaker, i would now like to yield two minutes to the representative from texas, mr. henry cuellar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. cuellar: thank you, madam chair. thank you very much, madam chair, for the leadership that both you and chairman towns have provided in the committee oversight, and of course your staff has worked so hard making sure that we get this passed. my staff also worked very, very hard on this, on the committee also i certainly want to thank ranking member issa for his input and for his amendment also that we accepted. of course his staff also for getting this work done. certainly want to thank the other stakeholders, g.a.o.,

o.m.b., blog -- blue dog coalition, other folks who worked to make this into a bipartisan bill. in particular i want to point out to my friend, tom platts, who has been working on this particular bill the last few sessions, building the foundation and we went and looked at his bill and looked at some of the other things that we were working on and put it together as a bipartisan bill. h.r. 2142 creates a government that works with the people, commonsense concept that emphasizes a couple of things. one, increases government accountability while federal agencies must identify cost cutting, outcome based growth that have a direct impact on the american people. shines light on ineffective federal programs to root out wasteful spending whether they are held accountable. and more importantly senior management will be held

aacountable for this work. g.a.o., oversight on the use of taxpayers dollars, wasteful spending requires the g.a.o. to perform frequent detailed evaluations of the agency implementation of this legislation. and finally, if i can say this, it would not add to the federal deficit. as you know the c.b.o. says it does not affect the direct spending or revenues. moreover dregsary costs will be offset by savings from a more effective management of agency lower costs. mr. chaffetz, just to make sure what we did working with my friend, mr. issa, we added some specific language and i quote, funds to reporting -- may i have 15 seconds. ms. watson: i yield 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields and additional 15 seconds. mr. cuellar: we added language that agencies shall report the

requirements of this act out of the existing budget. so this addresses the issues mr. chaffetz, some other folks, and i think this will be a good bill we can all support in a bipartisan way. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from utah is recognized. mr. chaffetz: madam speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. chaffetz: currently dealing with high unemployment, record budget deficits, a debt that seems insurmountable. the challenges this congress face can not be more clear. we must cut wasteful spending. we have to do it. we have no other choice. the federal government spending to reduce our nation's debt is paramount to our successful future. if we want to be the world's economic and military superpower, we are going to have to change the way we do business in washington, d.c. performance-based budgeting can be an effective tool to do just that. they can make clear what federal programs are not performing and

then it can spell out what federal programs are duplicative in nature. performance based budgeting dictates we identify the problem and enact a solution. it's not enough to just recognize there's a problem. mostal of us can step forward and say we are spending too much money. but the question is, the core question becomes what are the changes that -- what are we going to make? one of the challenges that we see within the bill is that it's not necessarily performance-based bugging -- budgeting because the question becomes what are you going to do about it? it sets out to diagnose a problem that we already know exists but does not necessarily follow through and prescribe a cure. we know there are duplicative and nonperforming federal programs. we know this. we need to finish the job and actually cut those programs. to be complete the bill must suggest that. in its current form this bill does not necessarily help us rein in these programs. for example, just last week in our information policy subcommittee we held a hearing

in the national historical publications and records commissions, a program that appears to give grants duplicative of grants in the national archives and records administration. i questioned then and ask it again today why should we continue to fund this duplicative program? it costs the committee nothing to find out this duplication. why if we cannot trim $10 million of federal spending without -- why should we authorize $150 million to be spent? what exactly do we expect for it do bring in return? the congressional budget office estimates this bill will cost the federal government to spend $150 million to determine what many people already know. we have federal government programs that are not performing and duplicative, but the bill before us leaves wasteful programs intact. as we came to the floor, one of the amendments that was offered and i really truly do appreciate, the sponsor of the bill, mr. cuellar, added language that says, quote, agencies shall fund the reporting requirements of this act out of existing budgets and

authorized to make necessary reprogramming of funds, end quote. sincerely appreciate it. in every way, shape, and form. this goes a huge way to making this palatable to a lot of conservatives concerned about spending an additional $150 billion. i still question why it takes so much money for people to do the jobs they are supposed to dofment please know the sincerity in which the sponsor is offering this is greatly appreciated in every way, shape, and form. i think it goes a huge way to causing a lot of people to be able to support this, particularly from the republican side of the aisle. cannot thank you enough for the attitude and approach and actual listening of that. for that we are very, very thankful. i do wish this bill would come under a rule, an open rule, it's hard to believe but as a freshman in this united states congress i will likely go through my entire freshman congress, the 111th congress, having never experienced, even

once, an open rule on the floor of the house of representatives. that's a shame. that's a shame. there should be a way for the mechanism where this bill is brought under a rule, open rule, where members on both sides of the aisle, can offer amendments and we can vote on those amendments. unfortunately that's not going to happen. we should not necessarily pass the bill that does not have tough enforcement mechanisms. we can and do much better than this. this body must make tough choices to eliminate wasteful government spending. it should not pass legislation. with great titles, a-plus on the titles given these bills. they are good. who is going to vote against efficiency, effectiveness, and performance. but it doesn't necessarily respect what's in the bill. my colleague, eric schock from illinois, offered a great amendment which was shot down which would put a sunsetting provision in programs not performing. the previous administration there was one site called

expectmore.gov. it did an assessment of programs. it was pushed by the office of management and budget. it had a dashboard indicator how these programs that were instituted by the congress, how they were performing based on their own set of criteria set in advance. in allowed the american people to actually have exposure. unfortunately expectmore.gov under the current administration is no longer maintained. the information is not up to date and consequently the american people do not have access to the information. i encourage the administration and support from both sides of the aisle to reinstitute this website. i want to conclude by quoting office of management and budget director, on may 24 this year, mr. orszag said, quote, we should never tolerate taxpayer dollars going to programs that duplicative or inineffective because in this face cal environment we cannot afford this. end quote. he's right. absolutely right. we cannot afford to let these programs go on and congress needs to step to the plate and do something about it.

. so i do appreciate the amendment that was offered of going a long way to get a lot of support. i do wish this bill would come under a rule, and i'll reserve the balance of my time, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. watson: yes, madam speaker, i'd like to yield three minutes to our most distinguished chair of the oversight committee, the gentleman from new york, representative edolphus towns. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for three minutes. mr. towns: thank you very much, madam speaker. i'd also like to thank the gentlewoman from california, the subcommittee chair, for yielding time to me. and i rise in strong support of this bill, h.r. 2142, and i also would like to thank congressman cuellar for his hard work in making this a reality today, congressman

plats who's worked on this for now many -- congressman platts, who's worked on this for now many, many years, and ranking member issa, the ranking member of the committee. after consultation we worked it out, and now we've come to this part and be able to move this legislation forward, which i %% think is an excellent bill. of course, the dialogue made it even stronger. i appreciate the commitment and determination of the gentleman from texas, mr. cuellar, for advancing this bill and his willingness to work with me, the ranking member of the oversight committee, mr. issa, and other members of the committee to make this bill stronger and to make certain that we're here today saying that this bill truly will make a difference. a number of changes were made to this bill during the committee process to address concerns raised by republicans and democrat members of the

committee as well as the office of management and budget and the government accountability office as well. h.r. 2142 would improve the efficiency of the federal government by requiring each agency to identify ambitious goals and perform frequent performance evaluations. the bill improves the transparency of the performance management process by requiring the results of performance assessments to be made publicly and available. the bill provides greater accountability by requiring agencies to consider input from congress and members of the public. and by requiring the government accountability office to perform frequent and detailed evaluations of the agency implementation. there are a few misconceptions about this bill, and let me just sort of talk to that for a moment. the first misconception is that

the bill costs too much money. the truth is that the bill will save the government money, and i want to repeat that. it will save the government money, not cost more money. c.b.o. says the implementing of this legislation could lead to a more febtive management of agencies at lower costs. so we'd be doing a lot even for other agencies. this bill will make the government more cost-effective because it requires agencies to evaluate their performance. this will allow agencies to identify waste, inefficiency and change what isn't working. this is what successful corporations do regularly, and this is what the government should do as well. this bill requires agencies to create new positions and, of course, on that note, being i do not have anything to yield back, i'll say to the gentleman

from texas and the gentleman from pennsylvania, thank you for this outstanding piece of legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. 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 is recognized. mr. chaffetz: i simply just want to note for the record that quoting from the c.b.o. report of june 7, 2010, regarding h.r. 2142, quote, finally implementing h.r. 2142 could, could lead to more effective management of government agencies and lower costs. any such savings would be found in future appropriations acts, end quote. the intention of this is good. i think in a bipartisan way we want the government to become more efficientt how do we do that -- but the intention of this bill i think is a positive one. with that i yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. watson: madam speaker, i'd like to yield two minutes to the distinguished member from

florida, representative allen boyd. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. boyd: thank you, madam speaker, and i thank the gentlelady from california for yielding. madam speaker, as a longtime advocate of restoring fiscal responsibility in washington, i rise in strong support of h.r. 2142. this is an issue, madam speaker, that i worked on for many years, including my time in the florida house of representatives, at which time i personally authored a bill which does many of the same things. and we affectionately came to know that bill as performance-based budgeting. that's a novel idea, isn't it? p.b. squared, as you know. many of you know that i am a member of the blue dog coalition. this bill is one step of many that will move us towards these goals of effective and efficient government. h.r. 2142 requires the people closest to the ground that are

directly involved in government programs to assess those programs and live up to the goals and standard that have been set for their programs. this is helpful to the federal agencies. it's helpful to the taxpayer and it's certainly helpful for congress in our oversight duties. given today's fiscal situation, it is more important now than ever for the federal government to be making tough decisions in order to make the most out of every single taxpayer dollar. each of us, no matter what our political leaning is, should be confident that the programs we support and that serve our constituencies are resulting in the biggest bang for the buck. i want to personally thank mr. cuellar from texas, mr. plltts. mr. cuellar, who is a fellow member of our blue dog task force, for introducing this bill, and his fellow member, mr. todd platts. i want to thank chairman towns and ranking member issa and the house leadership for their support of this initiative. the congress is taking strides

to instill a greater sense of fiscal responsibility over the last year including enactment of the pay-as-you-go language and a commission. this bill seeks tt ensure that we are acting as responsibly as possible as stewards of our taxpayer dollars. our efforts do not stop here, however. my blue dog colleagues and i have unveiled a 15-point blueprint for responsible fiscal reform. may i have an additional 10 seconds? 15? ms. watson: i will add what is requested, an additional 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. boyd: my blue dog colleagues and i have unveiled a 15-point blueprint for responsible fiscal reform. we will continue to eliminate wasteful spenged and move toward a balance -- spending and move toward a balanced budget. i urge a yes vote on h.r. 2142, and i yield back the balance of

my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from utah has yielded back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. watson: madam speaker, i again urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlelady yield? ms. watson: i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2142 as amended. favor. those opposed, no. -- 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 and the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. without objection, the title is amended.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from american samoa seek recognition? mr. faleomavaega: madam speaker, i move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, house joint

resolution 89 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the of the joint resolution. the clerk: house joint resolution 89, joint resolution recognizing the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the korean war and reaffirming the united states-korea alliance. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from american samoa, mr. faleomavaega, and the gentleman from arkansas, mr. boozman, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from american samoa. mr. faleomavaega: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman -- mr. faleomavaega: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to submit for the record letters between the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, the gentleman from california, mr. berman, and other committees of jurisdiction. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. faleomavaega: madam speaker, i rise in strong

support of this joint resolution, and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. faleomavaega: madam speaker, this resolution before us today, house joint resolution 86, recognizes the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the korean war and% reaffirms the strong united states-republic of korea alliance. this resolution ill help ensure that the bonds we forged in blood during the korean war will never be forgotten. today, the united states and the republic of korea's relationship is stronger than ever, encompassing social, economic security and diplomatic relations. last year's joint vision statement between our two nations provided an important reminder to the importance of the bilateral relationship between our two countries. our two countries are working as closely as ever on the problems of north korea, which is critically important since north korea continues its

fabrications, including nuclear missile tests, and just recently, the sinking of the south korean ship, the cheonan, which resulted in some 46 sailors from this tragedy. with president lee chairing the g-20 meeting in south korea, this is certainly indicative of south korea's prominence in international trade and economic development. for our part, madam speaker, i have long supported the korea-u.s. free trade agreement to further such growth. i continue to hope that the congress will also pass this free trade agreement as soon as possible because it will re-enforce korea ties and creates american jobs. for the benefit of my colleagues, i want to note that this free trade agreement with south korea will provide somewhere between $11 billion and $20 billion in export trade between our two countries, which will be of tremendous

benefit to our country. i also want to thank my dear friend from new york, the gentleman from new york, congressman charles rangel, for his service to our country during the korean war, for his long and abled service in the house of representatives and for his authorship of this important resolution. i will also want to note our other colleagues who are also veterans of the korean war, congressman john conyers of michigan, congressman samuel johnson of texas, and congressman howard coble of north carolina. my apologies if i may have left out other members, but it certainly was not intentional, madam speaker, and i also want to thank them as well. congressman rangel fought in the korean war from 1950 to 1952 as a member of the 503 battalion all-black artillery unit in the second infantry division. late november, 1950, his unit en