>> when the oil spilled started. , they explained that they would not be able to ventilate the shaft until the middle of august. my question is, why hasn't someone requested an output from the other wells that bp has in the area to see if that shaft is just a ventilation to see if they can suck out more from the surrounding wells out there. ? >> thank you. we appreciate it. you are seeing a live picture from the hearing room. line andl continue on on xm satellite radio. we are going to bring you live coverage of the house of representatives.

"washing journal" will be back tomorrow morning with other issues in washington. thank you for being with us.

. the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father coughlin. chaplain coughlin: lord, our god, in you there is no beginning, no end. you truly are a dynamic presence, ever self-revealing, guiding at all human events. show your presence in the midst of our empowering activities and empty frustrations. may the priorities and the work of this congress reveal your goodness to the nation and make all aware of divine providence

behind every problem and obstacle as well as every delightful gift for you are our life and our salvation now and forever. amen. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the chamber her approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the jouunal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentlewoman from north carolina, congresswoman foxx. ms. foxx: please join me in the pledge to our wonderful flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chair will entertain up to 10 requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise?

mr. kucinich: good morning, madam speaker. i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. kucinich: what if the b.p. gusher in thh gulf is unstoppable? this is a challenging question which is making its way through various blogs. what if millions of barrels of oil continue to flow uncontrolled from the hole in the seabed? we should be preparing now for a worst-case scenario. we should be mobilizing our nation now, developing new comprehensive plans for sustainable alternative energy, for environmental protection, for public health, for preservation of species, for security, for rebuilding our economy and repairing commerce. we shoulding challenging our fellow citizens and ourselves to take part in charting a new course for our nation. we have unlimited vision unclouded by greed or partisan advantage.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, the american people are tired of washington politicians turning a deaf ear to their wishes and concerns. two days ago congressman dave camp put forward a proposal to repeal the provisions of the government health care takeover that demands americans buy government-run insurance. but this popular proposal was defeated by washington liberals by a vote of 187-230. people in my home state of south carolina do not want an out-of-touch washington bureaucrat forcing them to buy government-run insurance. we support the lawsuit of attorney general henry mcmaster. washington bureaucrats do not know what is best for south carolinians and their families. the government mandate is unconstitutional. i have a solution.

siding -- the swap act to repeal the government takeover and replace it with an affordable solution that continues to cover pre-existing condition. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the tpwhobal war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> mr. speaker, i rise today once again to urge passage of a final bill to impose tough sanctions on iran. a final bill is long overdue. the house passed the iran sanctions act last year and the senate passed the comprehensive iran sanctions accountability in january. iran is not stopping its ruthless quest for nuulear weapons while congress continues to deliberate. we simply cannot allow iran to obtain nuclear weapons. we must act quickly and boldly

from preventing that from happening. mr. mitchell: it would not impose a dire threat to israel, an important ally in the region, but to the united states as well. we need to act, we need to act now. i hope the conferees will complete their work quickly so that the final iran sanctions bill can be enacted soon. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlelady from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: i ask permission to address the house for one minute, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. over the past weekend president obama sent a letter to congress. he said we need to spend $50 billion as quickly as possible in order to jump-start private sector job creation. i'm not sure if the president's read the unemployment reports lately, but 16 months since his $1 trillion stimulus bill became law the private sector is still struggling under the tax and regulatory burden of an ever-expanding federal government. unemployment is at 9.7%, and frankly, the last thing the private sector needs is the

fear of higher taxes to pay for more wasteful government spending. what this country needs as quickly as possible is for house democrats to put forth an annual budget and for congress and the president have the courage to make real spending cuts. we can't call it emergency spending so it doesn't have to be paid for because eventually it will have to be paid for and the american taxpayers know that day of reckoning is coming. it's time for democrats in this chamber to stop talking about fiscal discipline and actually do something about it. as your majority whip said over the weekend, this economy is your baby. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. carnahan: thank you, mr. speaker. small businesses are the engines of our economy and their success is critical for our economic recovery and long-term economic growth.

60% of new jobs are created by small businesses, and over half of this country's economic growth since world war ii has been from innovation and new technologies. we can and should empower the businesses and entrepreneurs who make our economy go by creating favorable conditions for businesses to start to expand and to put people back to work. that's why i urge my colleagues to support the small business jobs and credit act designed to increase small business lending, help small businesses hire new workers and expand their operations. when i talked to small business owners back home in missouri, the number one issue they identify as an obstacle to hiring people is access to credit. we must continue to focus on promoting our small businesses to grow this economy and to get people back to work. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? mr. pitts: i ask permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection.

mr. pitts: the economic damage in the gulf continues, but it seems like the administration wants to move on to other things before the leak is stopped and the oil cleaned up. the president spent a significant part of his speech tuesday night talking about imposing new costs on energy and cap and trade climate legislation. we all know how important it is to have less dependence on fossil fuels, especially from foreign sources, and encourage clean energy production. the question is whether we do that by imposing new costs on the american people because of global warming. we should not impose new taxes on energy just based on the hope that clean energy will become more cost feasible. i don't have to remind anyone that we have unemployment near 10%. making it expensive to run factories and run businesses won't bring back jobs. we need clean energy and i'm proud to see hydroelectric projects move forward in my district. what we don't need are job-killing taxes on what b.p. chairman calls the small people that will make it even more difficult to recover jobs, not

only along the gulf coast, but across our nation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey rise? mr. sires: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. sires: mr. speaker, i rise today to express my outrage of fidel castro's recent anti-israel's comments. in response to the flotilla in may, fidel asserts that israelis will like to send palestinians to be cremated like the nazis did to the jews. he ignore antley ignores the holocaust. to suggest that they will inspire a nazi-inspired genocide of the israelis is bad. this was widely distributed throughout the cuban regime. his offensive comments clearly puts prejudice and anti-semitic

positions at the front of the regime. i ask my colleagues to continue to work with israel towards a peaceful solution for the israeli and palestinian people, and i encourage my colleagues to view castro's comments for what they are, the dangerous scheme of a brutal dictator designed to hurt the people of israel and -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time is up. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? mr. boozman: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. . mr. boodsman: i rise today to honor harrison fire chief john neal who has devoted his life to the people and is now retiring from duty after 21 years of service. during his time as chief, john has exhibited his ability to lay the groundwork to ensure the people of hairson's --

harrison's safety by ensuring better building inspections and instituting more free fire situations along with assisting of better public education of fire safety. he went above and beyond and worked with all of the fire departments in boone county, making the county a much safer place to live. chief neal is an outstanding leader, john has been married for 30 years and has five children and he looks forward to spending more time with his grandchildren. i wish him continued success in his future activities. and today i ask my colleagues to join me in honoring chief john neal who will be missed but i'm confident will continue his dedication to his community and his state. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlelady from arizona rise? >> to address the house for one minuue. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. kirkpatrick: in these difficult economic times, the -- miss gifford: today seniors are

staying on the job longer not just because they want to but because they have to. that's why i'm introducing two bills that will begin to address some of the challenges we see facing our older work force. the older americans job opportunity blueprint act expands the work opportunity tax credit already available to over a dozen specific parts of our employment pool that will now benefit employers in hiring older americans. the first time in our history almost 20% of our work force are 55 years and older. very different than we have had in the past. i've also introduce add back to school work act which will give seniors financial assistance to take courses if they want to change their careers or make them more competitive in the work force. congress has focused a lot of our attention on future entrants into the u.s. work force, but the reality is seniors are putting off retirement until much longer and it's time that we change the way our nation thinks about retirement. i'm excited to introduce these two pieces of legislation that

will give older americans a chance to continue working. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, congress is now two months late in passing a federal budget and the majority has shown no indication considering one any time soon. this fiscal irresponsibility on display in washington is affecting american citizens and further damaging our economy and job growth. in fact we hear the budget isn't late it's actually not coming at all. and the majority may avoid considering one altogether to evade calling attention to an addition to reckless spending. give that the federal debt has gone up by nearly $2.4 trillion since january, 2009, and congressional democrat leaders fear they will soon be forced to account for their reckless spending. america needs a pro-grown

economic policy to promote job growth and business development. mr. coffman: instead we face massive deficits and excessive government bailouts. and the clock ticks on and increasingly late budget, i will continue to fight for government accountability and reform. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan rise? >> request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> mr..speaker, yesterday i testified before the ways and means committee about u.s. trade with china. because i'm tired of seeing millions of american jobs lost to china because of blatantly unfair trade practices. china's playing us for fools regarding the government procurement agreement, the g.p.a. upon joining w.t.o. in 2001 china said it would sign the g.p.a. as soon as possible. nine years later it still hasn't happened. since that time we have lost 2.4 million american jobs. 68,000 in michigan.

4,700 jobs in my district alone due to china's unfair trade. it's time that we get tough. we need to show china that we are willing to be strong until they open their procurement markets to us. i have introduced h.r. 5312 as a way of addressing the issue. to limit the amount of u.s. government procurement of chinese goods to the amount of american goods purchased by the chinese government. mr. schauer: how about fairness for a change. how about no more u.s. census materials paid for by our tax dollars made by chinese workers. please join me in protecting american jobs. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i want to talk about debt and spending. this nation today is in $13 trillion of debt and the democrat majority intends to spend another $1 trillion to add to that debt limit by the end of this year.

$14 trillion of debt. that's unconscionable. you look at the budget that's coming from this administration, it was proposed this year. $3.8 trillion, and we only had $2.2 trillion in ref nue. that's $1.6 trillion in deficit spending. all of it on the credit card. and the credit card is maxed out. people back home ask me why do you keep spending? why does the congress keep spending like this when you don't have the money? i think there are two reasons. i think one is the democrat majority wants to grow government as much as it can while it still has the supermajority to do so. the second reason is they really want to overhaul our tax system and they want to do that by creating an economic crisis to justify implementing a v.a.t. tax and reaching back to the high rates of taxation we had in the carter administration. mr. rogers: this is unconscionable behavior, and if it doesn't make you mad, it ought to. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise?

>> request one minute. and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. >> it's time for america to end its addiction to oil. mr. garamendi: our national security is at stake. we spend $1 billion a day sending our money overseas to the oil companies. many of them owned by foreign nations. some of whom are not at all friendly to america. i hear a lot of whining from the republican side of the aisle about we can't do that. well, we cannot continue doing what we are doing today. we see the risks, $20 billion worth of economy destroyed along the gulf coast. big oil has had its day. $12 billion. you want to save some money on that side? let's retrieve the $1 billion subsidy we send to the oil industry every day. it's time for us to move to renewables. it's time for us to protect our coast on the west coast. we do not want new federal oil leases and therefore the west coast oil protection act must be

passed. no more federal leases off the west coast. move to renewables. let's retrieve our $12 billion annual subsidy that we give to big oil. let's not send $1 billion a day of our money to foreign countries. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. smith: mr. speaker, americans say the growing national debt is the greatest threat to our country, according to a recent gallup poll. since democrats took control of congress in 2007, the national debt has grown by $3.5 billion a day. since president obama took office the debt has increased by $4.8 billion a day. to control spending and reduce the national debt we need a responsible budget that addresses our fiscal crisis. but as american families make tough choices with their household budgets, the democratic majority in the house

has yet to even propose a national budget. if a budget is not approved this year, it will be the first time since the budget act became law in 1974. congress should listen to the american people. get government spending under control, and approve a national budget. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker, i rise today after weeks of outcry for action to acknowledge that b.p. has caved to press sure and discuss the steps bies b.p. to put working families and small business ahead of shareholders and short-term corporate profits. had b.p. acted with rigor and i teg grit -- integrity from the beginning, we would not be forced to having this conversation now. however their short sightedness has demanded a swift and aggressive response which the president has provided.

in the short-term we must step -- stop the oil from continuing to spill and subsequently clean up our shores making b.p. pay the tab. our energy future is bright. it is filled with diversity with clean energy and american jobs for american workers. let us heed the devastating message this disaster sends to us. let us build the strongest, powerful, and competitivive clean energy in the world. we must rise to the challenge. our children's future depends on it. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? >> request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to voice my strong support for israel in its right to depend herself and her people. mr. reichert: against potential terrorist threats. as world watch israel took action to prevent a flotilla from reaching the gaza strip because hamas terrorists could smuggle in weapons that could be used to take lives of innocent

people. israel is a good friend. and a true ally to america. we must not turn our back on israel at this critical time. we must stand with them. we must support them and the right to protect and defend the safety of their people and sovereignty of their nation. the israeli government just announced the decision to appoint an independent public commission to review the circumstances surrounding the flotilla raid. this commission will be headed by a retired israeli judge and will include two israeli experts in international law and two high ranking foreign observers. this action demonstrates israel's commitment to act within the law to hold itself accountable and good faith to the international community. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois rise? >> ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today with

the news of the death of stewart from illinois. mr. hare: he weighs one of the most respected community leaders , public service is a belief that politics could be a driving force for positive change in the lives of everyday americans. it's a legacy that will be sorely missed in rock island that stewart loved and called home. as a child of the great depression stewart and his family faced great poverty. it was a powerful influence on him and i'm sure formed much of his success as an attorney and founding force of the rock island democratic party. as one of the greatest advocates much working men and women i nye, i think his legacy will be that other fems didn't face the hardships he knew. whether it was working people or the vast number of clients he represented, it is a legacy of great success. stewart had a huge impact on my life. he was a valuable teacher who led by example and i learned by witnesses firsthand the contributions he made to the democratic party. numerous charities and local

governments. above all i was proud to call stewart my friend. my thoughts go out to stewart's family, especially his beloved son arthur. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. you know the whinings of the economists and lessons of greece and other debt burdened european countries collapsing under the weight of their cradle to grave welfare systems have done nothing to restrain the democrats in washington. they fail to heed the warnings from abroad and continue to simply declare that out-of-control spending as emergency spending to try to cover up their fiscal irresponsibility. as a constitutional conservative with grave concerns with the democrats' out-of-control spending, i support a different plan. i say balance the budget. cut the deficit, pay down the

debt, fire the czars, and grow the economy. with president obama in control, the term g.d.p. has taken on a whole new meaning. growing democrats programs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> we are two weeks into the hurricane season and already the first tropical depression has formed in the atlantic. if one of these storms strikes the gulf of mexico with millions of barrels of oil on top, the results will be disastrous to the communities on the gulf. mr. boyd: to make sure our region is prepared to deal with the effects of hurricane or tropical storm could have, this past monday i held a joint oil spill hurricane planning conference in bay county, florida. the conference brought together representatives from federal and state response -- emergency response agencies, military leaders, and key local

stakeholders to discuss the hazards aotherated with the hurricane's impact on the oil spill and the threats posed to our area by having oil propelled inland. working together we identified several planning and action items that need to be taken to better brace for the effects the storm would have on our communities with oil in the gulf of mexico. i plan to deliver these action items to the president and urge him to incorporate these recommendations into a federal hurricane preparedness and response plan so that our communities and people can be better protected. north florida is already dealing significant economic and environmental distress from the b.p. oil spill. it's our responsibility to take steps to safeguard our region. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. . for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? mr. perlmutter: thank you, mr. speaker. by the direction of the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 1448 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution.

the clerk: house calendar number 204, house resolution 1448. resolved, that during further consideration of the bill h.r. 5297, to create the small business lending fund program to direct the secretary of the treasury to make capital investments in eligible institutions in order to increase the availability of credit for small businesses, and for other purposes, pursuant to house resolution 1436, it shall be in order to consider the amendments printed in the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution as though they were the last two amendments printed in part c of house report 111-506. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado is recognized for one hour. mr. perlmutter: for the purpose of debate only, i yield the customary 30 minutes my colleague from north carolina, congresswoman foxx. and all time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized. mr. perlmutter: thank you. i also ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to reeise and extend their remarks on house resolution 1448. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. perlmutter: mr. speaker, house resolution 1448 is a structured rule providing further consideration of h.r. 5297, the small business lending fund act. it provides for consideration of two amendments which were initially cleared as pay-go compliant but were subsequently deemed to violate the pay-go after the first rule was adapted. -- adopted. these amendments have been revised to comply with pay-go rule and this rule treats them as a part of yesterday's rule. mr. speaker, in 2008 after years of lax regulation and wall street roulette, our nation's economy fell off a cliff. within a matter of months many wall street giants fell and they took the livelihoods of

thousands of small businesses with them. since that time we've taken bold action to stabilize the economy, invest in economic growth and we are in the process of putting in place new rules to protect against the casino-like atmosphere that existed on wall street. but for small businesses they're still feeling the pinch. accessing capital to build, grow, diversify and hire new employees remains a pressing challenge. in september of 2008, there was an earthquake on wall street, and the aftershocks are still being felt on main street, and the purpose of this bill is to help those small businesses deal with the aftershocks of that credit crunch from a year and a half ago. the underlying bill, the small business lending fund act, establishes a process for community banks to lend responsibly to small businesses. because of a mistake, two of my

colleagues, representative schrader and representative miller, were precluded from offering their amendments as reported in yesterday's rule. this rule merely allows for consideration of their modified amendments so we can perfect this legislation and get our nation's small businesses back to work. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my colleague for yielding time, and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. just two days ago i came before this body in opposition to a rule providing for consideration of h.r. 5297, bail affectionately known as tarp 3. at that time i expressed concerned over the cost of this bill and the democrats' ability to run this house in an orderly fashion. if the process for considering this legislation and accompanying amendments had been more thoroughly vetted, we

could have avoided meeting today altogether. but apparently in adding to the budget-busting tarp 3 legislation, some amendments did not have pay-go rules. schrader and miller amendments were not pay-go compliant. due to the timetables used for those savings, the amendment failed to meet the first five-year window of pay-go. the rule did not contain any pay-go waivers. therefore, the amendments now need either to be redrafted or have the pay-go rule waived. despite the pledge made in a document entitled "a new direction for america," when then minority leader pelosi promised that, "bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate

consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives," it's worth mentioning that there were 57 amendments submitted to the rules committee for h.r. 5297. of those 37 were democrats, 17 republicans and three bipartisan. of those 57 submitted, there were 17 amendments made in order. only one of which was republican. therefore, i recommend voting against this rule, not only in opposition to the underlying legislation, but also to protest the partisan process for which it is being considered. and with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: he reserves his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, while the ruling democrats claimed undertarp 3

bill is about helping small businesses, it's rule just another bank bailout. -- under tarp 3 bill is about helping small businesses, it's just another bank bailout. they are not even trying to pretend they're capable of budgeting or even governing this country. certainly the ruling democrats would be served on focusing passing a budget than considering the bill before us today. so what's the next step for the democrats? in an apparent effort to help shield their vulnerable members from having to endorse their unconscionable approach to budgeting during an election year, the ruling democrats are now planning to togo the congressional budget process altogether. this during a time when voters are looking for real solutions and accountability. how's that for leadership? and with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from colorado.

mr. perlmutter: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: continues to reserve. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: mr. speaker, i now yield such time as he may consume to the republican whip, the distinguished gentleman from virginia, mr. cantor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for whatever time he may consume. mr. cantor: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentlelady. mr. speaker, the youcut program continues to pick up steam across the country. as the american people reject the spend now, pay later philosophy that has long dominated washington. this week's youcut winner was developed by my colleague, the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz. it would amend federal law to allow for the expedited sell of wasteful and unaffordable federal properties saving

taxpayers up to $15 billion. president obama himself indicated his support for selling unneeded properties in a directive released the day after mr. chaffetz's youcut proposal was unveiled. today my colleagues on our side of the aisle joined together and called upon the house to support this easy, straightforward way to reduce spending. let us remember then senator obama's 2006 words of support for removing barriers to the disposal of excess federal property. and he said, regardless of what side of the aisle we sit on, we all agree we are in dire financial straits, and we need to manage our assets in the most cost-effective way possible to close the gap. mr. speaker, america is at a crossroads.

it is time for us all to act together in a bipartisan fashion to stop the runaway spending and to get our fiscal house in order. i urge the body to defeat the motion of the previous question so that we can actually begin to change the culture here in washington against the runaway spending, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciated the comments of the whip. i think what we got to do is let's talk about reality here. reality is when george bush left office january of 2009 this country was losing 780,000 per month. ms. foxx: will the gentleman yield? mr. perlmutter: not yet. not yet. 780,000 jobs per month.

last month we gained 400,000 jobs. that's a swing of over 1,100,000 jobs per month. but on top of that, not only did the bush administration leave this country in a terrible lurch with jobs, it left this country with a terrible lurch and a terrible deficit of $1.3 trillion. $1.3 trillion. the republicans would have america have mass amnesia, forget where we were. in 2007 we had -- we spent $141 billion in iraq. today, they're telling us, hey, let's sell off part of the country and pay off our debts. we were spending $141 billion in iraq, not paying for it. this year we're going to draw that down to $65 billion. republicans would have us forget.

let's talk real money. i should agree, we should never be wasting money in this country. every dollar should be worthwhile and real. but we're going to spend $77 billion less in iraq than under george bush and at the end of the republican rule of congress. so here we've improved employment by some 1,100,000 jobs per month. we were left with a terrible deficit by president bush of $1.3 trillion. we're drawing down iraq and saving real money, but instead they come up with a propaganda -- pardon me. withdraw that. come up with an advertising program of youcut to sell this -- sell assets of this country. so with that i'd yield to my friend from north carolina. i reserve the balance of my time. i don't yield to her. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado reserves his time.

the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. you know, my colleague from across the aisle, all of my colleagues across the aisle always fail to mention that in the last two years of the bush administration democrats were in charge of congress. the president can't spend any money. only the congress can spend money. and so they conveniently leave out the fact that when they took over the congress our economy was doing great, absolutely great. and from the moment they took over the congress in january of 2007 things started going downhill. the $1.3 trillion deficit came about as a result of our colleagues across the aisle spending, spending, spending. they've lost touch with the real world. the other thing my colleague points out is 400,000 jobs were

created last month. he fails to mention that almost all of those jobs were created by the census hiring temporary people who will no longer be employed after the end of this year. so they're government jobs. the american people are seeing through these tales that are being told by our colleagues across the aisle of how wonderful they've made the economy. they know that we have a 9.7% unemployment rate. they know that the deficit for the republican-led congress from 1996 to 2007 was only $1.2 trillion in 12 years. this democrat congress racked up in two years a $3.2 trillion deficit. my goodness. the american people again can see through this, mr. speaker.

they're not going to be fooled by this rhetoric. and with that i would like to yield three minutes to my colleague from utah, mr. chaffetz. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. chaffetz: thank you, mr. speaker. as members of congress, our constitutional mandate is to be stewards of the taxpayers' dollars. with over $3 trillion and counting, this government has failed miserablely in the task. savvy businesses identify excess and other performing assets and eliminate them. our government must do the same. the american people agree, this week's winning youcut proposal would incentivize federal agencies to identify and eliminate underuality lies structures. according to the o.m.b. director, peter orszag, the federal government has 69,000 buildings and structures that meet this criteria. the total value of this excess property is nearly $19 billion. .

the one time sale would generate reve news. the long-term savings would be more substantial. our real estate portfolio would allow the federal bureaucracy to function more effectively and efficiently and most importantly the taxpayers will not be on the hook for underused, sometimes vacant federal property. current law prohibits the disposal of wasted federal property and cashing in on the savings. the property must first be offered off as no cost to other government agencies to state and local governments, to nonprofit organizations, and others. only at the end of this process is property offered at a competitive public sale. federal taxpayers have missed opportunities to generate revenue and to reduce the deficit. for example, the federal government has conveyed at no cost a building in los angeles for a mob museum. a mob museum. one in massachusetts was conveyed for a public high school where tuition is over

$29,000 a year. a building in florida that's a federal government now leases back at a cost of over $100,000% a year. the proposal would direct o.m.b. to sell these properties and transfer 80% of the proceeds to reduce the federal debt. this would result in approximately $15 billion in debt reduction. the remaining 20% of the proceeds would act as an incentive to agencies to quickly dispose of the excess property. even president obama is starting to appreciate the need. on june 10 he issued a presidential memorandum to department heads direct hing them to, quote, accelerate efforts to identify and eliminate excess properties. he went to say, both taxpayer dollars and energy resources are being wasted to maintain these excess assets. we seem to be in agreement with the president. we urge the democrats to join us. today congress can carry out the wishes of the american people, and take significant steps in getting our fiscal house back in

order. i urge my colleagues to support this pros posal. it's just common sense. thank you, mr. speaker. -- proposal. it's just common sense. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: i remind the speaker and others that we are here on the small business lending bill not on mr. chaffetz's proposal or any proposal like that. may have merit at another time when that bill itself is brought forward, but we are here to talk about the small business lending bill which provides community banks, smaller banks with funds to make credit available to the small businesses on main street that were hurt by the crash on wall street. so i would just remind the speaker as to what this bill, the underlying bill is, and with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. i think perhaps my colleagues

across the aisle needs to be reminded we are actually here to debate -- because of two amendments that violate their vaunted pay-go which means we are talking about the deficit and we are talking about the sorry economy that the democrats have brought to this country. now i'd like to yield four minutes to my colleague from tennessee, mr. duncan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. duncan: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the the gentlewoman from north carolina for yielding me this time. and we have been told that this is the time the majority wanted us to discuss this proposal by the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz. so that's why we are doing this at this time. i want first of all to commend mr. chaffetz for his proposal which would save taxpayer money and which would potentially account -- cut into the huge deficit -- huge debt we have in

a very significant way. as he mentioned we have a national debt of over $13 trillion now. the congress recently voted to raise the debt limit to $14.3 trillion. 245es an -- that's an incomprehensible figure. what it means is in a few short years we are not going to be able to pay all our social security, veterans pensions, and civil service pensions and all the things we promised with other own people. congress in those years will not politically be able to come in and cut the benefits but print more money. and people will find that their pensions that they were counting on will buy a third or half of what they expect. this is an issue that i have been interested in for quite some time when i found out as far back as 1999 that the bureau of land management had identified three million acres they did not want because it was difficult to manage, inaccessible, unnecessary, and expensive. so i introduced legislation in both the 10 th and 107th

congresses to dispose of some of this property to gain some money for the federal government. the federal government today owns approximately 30% of the land in this country. state and wlol governments own -- and quasi-governmental agencies own or control another 20%. in other words you have half the land in some type of public ownership. yet we keep taking more and more. a few million more acres each year off of the tax rolls. at the same time that the schools and the police and everybody's coming to us wanting more money, we keep decreasing the tax rolls. this sounds great for a politician to create a park, but we have created so many parks now at the federal, state, and local level we can't even begin to get the use out of them to justify these parks unless our people somehow find a way to go on permanent vacation. then "usa today" reported that there are 1,667 land trusses --

trusts, and there 1,400 nature conservancies taking over more and more land. so much that "usa today" on its front page reported that they are taking over approximately 6.2 million acres a year equivalent to half the size of the state new jersey each year, adding to that hundreds of millions of acres that are already under 8 some type of federal, state, or local ownership decreasing the tax rolls. i introduced a bill with my colleague from the other side, dennis moore, in the last congress called the federal real property disposal enhancement act. the office of management and budget had found 21,000 federal properties that the federal government no longer wanted. totaling -- worth $18 billion. and $9 billion of those were real property assets that the federal government wanted to dispose of.

but it's so complicated and so bureaucratic to dispose of it at this present time that it's cheaper for these agencies to keep this property that they are not even using. jim nussle, the direct of office and management and budget at that time in the last congress recently sent me a letter and endorsed the bill that i introduced in the congress and senator tom carper, democrat from delaware, and senator tom coburn had introduced in the senate. and the goal of the o.m.b. was to dispose of $9 billion in unneeded real property. can i have some additional time? ms. foxx: absolutely. i yield another 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. duncan: and director nussle wrote at the time i introduced that bill with congressman moore he said to reach this objective i believe we must improve and streamline the current process the federal agencies face in disposing real property assets. therefore i applaud your

introduction of h.r. 3049 which would establish a five-year pilot program for expediting the disposal of properties no longer needed by the federal government. we have got to wake up, mr. speaker, and realize that private property is the foundation of our freedom and our prosperity. yet we are slowly doing away with it in this country and we need to reverse this trend and this action by mr. chaffetz will help start that process and save taxpayer money. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: thank you, mr. speaker.%% i would just quote from a letter we received from the independent community bankers of america. on behalf of the 5,000 members of the independent community bankers of america, we strongly support passage of the proposed small business lending fund act of 2010. we are here on the rule to allow for that bill to go forward. i would like to remind the speaker and others that that's the purpose of the hearing today. with that i yield three minutes

to my friend from kentucky, mr. yarmuth. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. yarmuth: i thank my friend from colorado. i remember back in the movie, the american president, one scene where michael douglas' character is being criticized by one of his staff members, he says the view pretty good from the cheap seats. and i have to sit here and say, you know, my colleagues the view's pretty good from the cheap seats. because if you think back upon what we inherited, those of us who are now trying to drive -- pull that car out of the ditch, which is the economy, and try to improve things for the american people, how deep in that ditch it was. we are talking about 700,000 jobs lost per month. we are talking about an inherited projected deficit of $10 trillion. that's what the obama administration and this congress has been trying to repair. what has been the response from my colleagues on the other side? it has been solely, well, this

isn't a good idea. this isn't a good idea. this isn't a good idea. we are spending too much money, let's cut taxes. we tried that. been there, done that. and that's what brought us to the ditch. what have we done in this congress? what have we done to take that car out of the ditch and get it back on the road? we had taken, by every measure possible, we passed the american recovery reinvestment act, we put $300 billion back in the hands of the american taxpayers. that's something our colleagues on the other side are -- forgot to mention that that money, most of that money, 40% of the so-called stimulus package went back to the american taxpayers to spend. now, we -- i had the privilege of chairing, co-chairing the congressional task force on american competitiveness. two days ago we had a forum here. we had people from companies as large as general electric and ford to very small start-ups.

without an exception, every one of those businesspeople said that we would be in such worse shape were it not for the american recovery and reinvestment act. you can't imagine. all of the progress or much of the progress they had made in sustaining or growing their businesses has become attributable to support from the american recovery and reinvestment act and the government has to continue to play a role. and one reason they said, it was very interesting, in the global economy we are not necessarily competing in a free market atmosphere. we are competing with a lot of state supported industry. so, for instance, when general electric, which is bringing back 400 jobs from china to my district, to build a energy efficient hybrid water heater, they did it because support through the recovery act enabled them to make that difference

that they were trying to balance the economics because of a state supported system in china. the support they got through the reinvestment act made up that difference. and now they are bringing 400 jobs back. one minute? mr. perlmutter: yield one more minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. yarmuth: thank you. they are bringing back 400 jobs. they are planning to bring back more jobs. again because of the government's help. now, as i said at the outset, there are two ways to approach this decline. we can say the government has no role. we can say all the good government should do is get out of the way and the private forces will recover the economy. as i said, been there, done that. hasn't worked. the steps that we have taken, the steps that we propose to take in this small business act, the subject of this rule, are steps that we believe are worth trying that will be an affirmative effort to grow jobs in the small business segment of

the economy, to make capital available, to provide tax incentives. yes, to my friends on the other side, tax incentives to motivate small business operators, to grow their businesses, to start new businesses. these are the steps that this congress and thhs administration are taking to grow the economy. it is better than fitting in the cheap seats and say we want to go back to the agenda that put us in the ditch. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. you know the gentleman from colorado reminds us to stay on the topic, then he yields to someone who spends most of his time blaming a person who is not even any longer in office. that is the theme of our colleagues across the aisle. no sense of responsibility or accountability on their part. they passed the disastrous stimulus which all it did was put us deeper into debt. hasn't done anything to help the economy.

they talk about more government control. well, what about the m.m.s. department? they were the ones who were supposed to be checking out whether -- what b.p. was doing was ok. they signed off on all the permits and let them drill. that's what the growing the government does for us. now, mr. speaker, i would like to yield one minute to my colleague, ms. jenkins. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. . ms. jenkins: the u.s. has lived beyond its means for too long and it will take commonsense ideas to restore responsible spending in washington. but we can start by identifying what we need to fulfill the duties of the federal government and eliminate everything else. the federal government is the largest property owner in the u.s. according to the o.m.b., we have $18 billion in assets that we do not need.

rather than selling unnecessary assets, like the american people do to live within their means, the federal government gives property free of charge to other government entities and nonprofits, including a building in las vegas to use as a mob museum. the american people have spoken. we cannot continue ignoring our debt. i urge my colleagues to stand with the folks at home to use common sense and vote to sell excess federal property and take a necessary step towards a sustainable future. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: thank you. i remind my friend from kansas that when you cut taxes from the wealthiest people in america, you prosecute two wars without paying for them, and you failed to police wall street so it becomes a big casino and results in a crash leaving this country in terrible debt and you turn a

budget upside down. those are the policies that brings a country and brings small businesses to their knees. the country, because of various steps taken, we've come out of the terrible dip of the last months of the bush administration to where we're adding jobs. we have a long way to go. we lost millions of jobs and many small businesses were hurt in the process. the purpose of the bill that is to be voted on today is about providing funding to smaller banks so that small business will have credit and people will get back to work. providing a platform for small business to really get back on its feet and put the people back to work, so many of whom lost their job in this recession that was caused by the two tax -- the tax cuts -- the two wars without payment and the failing to police wall street. with that i would reserve the

balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: mr. speaker, every time my colleague wants to blame the economy on the former president i'm going to remind him that the democrats were in control of this congress the last two years that president bush was in office. you can talk all you want to about what the jobs -- jobs numbers were the last pont. the democrats were in control of the congress and they caused the problem. i yield four minutes to my eloquent colleague from texas, mr. gohmert. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. gohmert: i thought she was yielding to me. she said somebody eloquent. sorry. anyway. anyway, i'll take the time. when we talk about wall street, one of the things that really gets me, if you look at the numbers and why there wasn't more reform of wall street,

what we find out is actually both to the obama campaign running for president and to our friends across the aisle, the executives on wall street, despite what sometimes seems the conventional wisdom, the executives on wall street give to the democrats and to the obama campaign 4-1 over republicans. it's an amazing thing to see. and if you look at that, then you begin to understand a little better why there may be games being played but there was no real reform of wall street that was going on. and that also brings up the issue of british petroleum. some might wonder, why in the world would the president of the united states wait all these weeks, week after week after week to even meet with british petroleum to even call them down? well, they've gotten rough on

them lately, talking. but it turns out the more you dig, it's like wall street, turns out british petroleum was this administration's greatest ally in fighting what is a preventive problem, global warming. turns out the cooling is happening. the snow down in africa is pointing to that as well. but british petroleum was meeting with senator kerry and they were pushing this global warming bill. they needed an oil company to help give this ridiculous bill that was being pushed, so-called energy bill, they needed an oil company to give them credibility. of course they didn't want to come down on them. of course they want to talk about wall street and getting tough and the fat cats, but as far as doing anything, it's just talk. that's why goldman sachs had their biggest profit in their whole company's history last

year as the democrats controlled the house, the senate and the white house. and i'm trying to dig. we found some contract. but i'm wondering how much of that was government money coming from this coping and this administration -- congress and this administration into the coffers. the contracts indicates that. as far as the oil spill, you got companies and countries around the world willing to help. president bush, for all the criticism, actually within three days of the katrina hurricane had suspended the jones act so foreign countries could send ships and send help and go ahead and give us all the assistance they could. this administration still has not suspended the jones act. we had the netherlands within days. they know something about

building barrier eye lansdz. this administration said, no, we don't want that. allow millions and millions of dollars to pile up. you look a little deeper and find, oh, gee, after the president said that about the cozy relationship that existed between big oil and the regulators, turns out the very person that we were told by the inspector general who knew the most about that price adjustment language being pulled off of offshore leases in 1998, 1999, left the clinton administration when they went out so we couldn't really talk to them, investigate. turns out she works now with the department of interior with the minerals management. go figure. look, there is a mess going on. there's a lot of things we can do to quit killing jobs. if that 700,000 jobs were being lost when the democrats had this majority and compassion does not equal giving away

money. we got to stop it. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlemannfrom colorado. mr. perlmutter: mr. speaker, how much time does each side have? the speaker pro tempore: the %% gentleman from colorado has 19 minutes. the gentlelady from north carolina has 8 1/2. mr. perlmutter: i'd ask my friend from north carolina how many more speakers she may have. ms. foxx: we have at least two more speakers, mr. speaker. mr. perlmutter: i just would say, again, reading from the letter from the independent community bankers of america, read the first sentence. the act, the small business lending fund act, the act would offer capital to interested community banks to use to increase small business credit. we urge the house to pass this legislation. the nation's 8,000 strong community banks are well-positioned to leverage this fund and have established relationships with small

businesses in their communities to get credit flowing. on down it says notably, leveraging the $30 billion funds with community banks would potentially support many times that amount in loan volume to small businesses as much as $300 billion in additional lending. by reducing the dividend cost on the capital investment as lending increases, this program helps to ensure more community banks have both the incentive and greater capacity to increase total loans to small businesses. that's the purpose of this rule , to pass the underlying bill, which is to increase credit to small businesses and get them back on their feet and help continue to add jobs as we have over the course of the last 14 or 15 months. when we were at the very depth of the recession, losing 780,000 jobs to april where we gained 290,000, may, 400,000

jobs, that's what this is about, putting people back to work, getting this country back on a strong financial footing. with that i'd reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. i now would like to yield three minutes to my distinguished colleague from utah, mr. bishop. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. bishop: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate the gentlelady from north carolina yielding me this time. we are here today to talk about a rule that will qualify certain amendments to solve a properly problem, a mistake that the majority made in here. but why not use this rule as an

opportunity to something really more to resolve ongoing problems? if one could look at the far map i have of the united states over there, everything in land is land and property owned by the federal government. ronald reagan looked at that and said, you never see something like that except in the soviet union. i hate to say this, but in 2007 o.m.b. did staudy and said that of that $18 billion worth of that property is excess. it is useless it is needless. this year peter orszag updated that report and said there are 14,000 buildings that the federal government buildings own that are excess and 55,000 buildings that are underutilized and not necessary. "the washington post" did an editorial and said until the district of columbia can get hold of all the excess land and buildings owned by the federal

government and put those to economic use, the economy of the washington, d.c., would never grow. those of us in the west have been saying that for a long time. in fact, this year i introduced two land transfer bills. in each bill both the forest service and the b.l.m. as well as the army corps of engineers owned land that they did not use, they did not need, they didn't even know about it. one par sell of land was sold to the federal government in the 1940's for $1, and the forest service did not know they had that land. the local officials understood that this land is useless and these buildings are useless unless they are put to some kind of profitable need. the d.c. bureaucrats, though, said their policy is no net loss of land or real estate. in fact, the only way they will give up something is if they get more in return. that is pure insanity. use this rule to go against the excesses of land and the excess buildings that we have so that

we can send a true message to tthe business community and the money lenders who have money to invest in this economy that we really are serious about the debt by taking of the excess and using it to pay down the debt, that we are serious about building a business climate here that will encourage people to invest in this country and do that first by saying we will retire our excess property and use it to build down and take down this debt. i yield back to the gentlelady. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: again, remind everyone that this bill, the rule and the bill are about small business lending. again, i'd refer to the letter from the independent community bankers. icba believes that the proposed small business lending fund act supports their recommendations, and this fresh program approach will attract a broader spectrum of community banks to boost small business lending and job growth. we applaud the new program focused on getting funds to

main street small businesses using main street community banks. we're here to try to get money to the -- to small businesses throughout the country using the smaller community banks, regional banks. the purpose is to get them back on their feet, get them growing. we're not here to talk about selling off assets of america. we're here to talk about getting small businesses back on their feet. with that i'd reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd now like to yield two minutes to our distinguished colleague from georgia, dr. price. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. price: i thank the gentlelady for yielding and for her leadership on issues of the utmost importance to the american people. my friend says we're not here to talk about the debt that has been created in this nation. we're going to talk about

money. we're going to talk about the taxpayers' money, and this bill, this underlying bill that is being discussed right now spends another $33 billion. that's right, mr. speaker, another $33 billion of hard-earned money from the american taxpayers, but it can't come from the american taxpayer because we have so much deficit. it has to come from where? from china or japan. mr. speaker, the american people are sick and tired of what's going on here in washington. just this week the american people said in a survey that the greatest threat to this nation which had been -- they believe had been terrorism, is now debt. debt. . what they are saying is stop the madness. what the republicans have done in an attempt to be fiscally responsible and try to encourage our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to stop the madness is institute the youcut program. it's a

republicanwhip.house.gov/youcut. this week the american people going to this website saying stop the madness. cut in this week's area. this week's winner will save $15 billion by selling excess federal property. property that's not being used right now. sell it for $15 billion. every single week what we do is to try to identify those programs, those areas of the federal government that are recklessly spending the hard-earned taxpayers' money. and this week there are five more new nominees that will be announced. i would encourage my colleagues to go to the website. republicanwhip.house.gov/youcut and vote for whether or not they want to prohibit hiring of new i.r.s. agents to enforce the new health care law saving $10 billion. whether they want to terminate exchanges in the whaling and trading partners program, another merely $90 million in savings. i ask for an extra minute. mr. fox: i yield another minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. price: or you could vote to

terminate taxpayers' subsidized political party conventions. that's right that's right, mr. speaker, we spend tens of millions of dollars paying for democrat and republican party conventions. that's crazy. or you could vote to require collection of unpaid taxes from federal employees, $1 billion we could save there. or terminate the funding for the ndic, $440 million. mr. speaker, this debate is not just about whether or not we are acting spobsably here. it's -- responsibly here. it's what we are doing with the hard-earned taxpayer money. we are talking about money here and this bill that you are talking about spends an extra $33 billion that we do not have. in fact, there's money appropriated aaready through the tarp program. over $500 billion of money available. you could use some of that if you wanted to be fiscally responsible. but, mr. speaker, we haven't seen that kind of leadership out of the majority party. mr. speaker, the youcut program allows the american people to assist in identifying those

things that they believe are wasteful in our federal government. this bill, this bill is an opportunity through the p.q. to be able to cut, cut the excess federal properties. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: i remind my friend, the height of the iraq war we spent $141 billion. as we draw down troops, down to $65 billion. a savings of $76 billion a year. that is money. these things we can find other places to save where there is wasteful spending, $76 billion in iraq. that's what this congress is finding. that's what this president found. instead of going into a war and not paying for it, $76 billion. with that i yield two minutes to my friend from kentucky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. yarmuth: i thank the gentleman from colorado. i know the american people who are watching this month have their head spinning because all we have heard for a year and a

half now from our colleagues on the other side is, tarp was a disastrous program. tarp was a disastrous program. they are running ads in our district about how horrible it was. and you hear we have some advocating we take money from tarp and get it to small businesses. i think that's a good idea. i'm for that. i want to clarify something because he's misstating the impact of the underlying bill here. this bill ddes not add anything to the deficit. this bill is paid for. and the $30 billion in loan facilities that we are actually making available to small banks throughout the country actually generates a surplus for the treasury. that's the profit maker for the treasury. and there's no cost unless the money is actually borrowed. if the money is borrowed and paid back with interest, then the taxpayers actually benefit. so it's one thing to talk about deficits and argue about who is responsible and so forth, but to actually misstate the actual facts about the underlying bill is disingenuous. i would like to make one more

comment because we talk about, my friend from north carolina mentioned earlier, you keep blaming the former president. no, we actually keep blaming the former 12 years of republican control of the congress because that's the period of time in which the really disastrous policies for the economy were implemented and were approved. the two tax cuts that mostly went to the wealthiest americans. $7 trillion of debt projected debt because of the unfunded prescription drug plan. and of course the war funding. i know that president bush dealt for two years with a democratic congress. we did control the congress. we sure didn't have a veto-proof congress. every time we wanted to implement the policy or change the president's budget he threatened a veet he yo. yes, we did have control of the congress but we didn't have control of the nation's economy. for 12 years the republican congress did -- for six years of that they had control of all three branches of government and that's where the true damage was done. we have an important piece of

legislation to pass. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield myself one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. for one minute. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. my colleagues across the aisle talk about trying to create jobs. i point out to my colleagues that trying isn't doing it. what happens is you pass the stimulus to create jobs, omnibus appropriations to create jobs, bank bailouts, health caree cap and trade all those things to create jobs. you are trying but you're not doing. wwat you are doing is you're creating government jobs. this is the chart that the american people want to look at is how many government jobs you are creating. you have also create add deficit in two years -- created a deficit in two years three times the size of the deficit the republicans created in 12 years.

you are so selective how you talk about history. clinton was president for part of that time. you say he had a surplus at the end of his term. but you never give the republicans the credit for that. but then you talk about our being in charge of the congress. you're very selective with your statistics. you have tried and you failed. you have not created jobs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. ms. foxx: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves her time. members should address their remarks to the chair. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: i want it make sure the record is clear that the amendments that are presented in today's rule are in full compliance with the pay-go rule and that is why we are proceeding with this second rule. with that i reserve the balance of my time. i'd ask my friend if she has any other speakers. if she just wants to close. ms. foxx: i'm prepared to close.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado reserves his time of the the gentlelady from north carolina is recognized for two minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that the text of the amendment and extraneous material be placed in the record prior to the vote on the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. foxx: mr. speaker, i'm going to urge my colleagues to vote no on the previous question so that i can amend the rule to allow all members of congress the opportunity to vote to cut spending. republican whip, eric cantor, recently launched the youcut initiative which gives people an opportunity to vote for federal spending they would like to see congress cut. hundreds of thousands of americans have cast their votes and this week they directed their representatives in congress to consider h.r. 6535. according to the republican whip's youcut website, quote, the office of management and budget estimated in 2007 that the federal government is holding $18 billion in real property that it does not need. rather than selling this property, however, federal law usually requires it first be

offered often at no cost to other government agencies, to state and local governments, to nonprofits, and others. the federal government has conveyed at no cost a building in laughs -- las vegas that is intended to have the mob museum. land in massachusetts for a private high school where tuition is over $29,000 a year. and a building in florida the federal government now leases back at a cost of over $100,000 a year. this proposal would amend federal law to require a expedited process for selling unneeded federal property with 80% of the proceeds used to reduce the deficit. in order to provide for consideration of this commonsense legislation, i urge my colleagues to vote no on the previous question and no on the rule. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. the gentleman from colorado. mr. perlmutter: mr. speaker, small businesses cannot grow if they aren't -- if credit's not available to them. over the course of the last year and a half, credit has tightened substantially. this bill provides for a loan

fund to small community banks and regional banks so that they can work with their small businesses throughout the country. so this is not focused on wall street but is focused on main street so we can get small businesses really back strong and prosperous and hiring people back so that this country is on a full and vibrant financial footing. i would just remind the speaker we have strong support from a whole variety of organizations with respect to the bill, the national small business association, the small business majority, the national association of realtors, the independent community bankers of america, the american bankers association, and a number of other organizations. our nation's small business vs. waited long enough -- businesses have waited long enough for much needed capital and we won't make

them wait any longer. this credit crunch has taken its toll and now it's time to focus on main street. with that i urge a yes vote on the previous question and on the rule. i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. on that i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule 20, this 15-minute vote on ordering the previous question will be oled by five-minute votes on adoption of the house resolution 1448, if ordered, and the motion to suspend the rules and adopt

house resolution 14 -- 1429. 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 241, the nays are 179. the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. on that i request a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote is 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 a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their vote 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 237, the nays are 179. the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentlewoman from california, ms. watson, to suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1429 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1429, resolution celebrating the symbol of the united states flag and supporting the goals and adeals of flag day.

-- ideals of flag day. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules understand agree to the resolution. members will record their vote 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 418. the nays are zero. 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. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has agreed to s.j.res. 32, recognizing the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the korean war and reaffirming the united states-korea alliance in which the concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 1436 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 5297. mr. the gentleman from texas, mr. cuellar, kindly take the chair.

the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 5297 which the clerk will report the title. the clerk: a bill to create the small business lending fund program to direct the secretary of the treasury to make capital investments in eligible institutions in order to increase the availability of credit for small businesses, and for other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole rose on wednesday, june 16, 2010, amendment number 17 plinted in part c of house report 111-506 offered by the gentleman from texas mr. al green, had been disposed of. pursuant to house resolution 1448 it shall be in order to consider amendment printed in house report 111-507 as such amendments have been in part c of house report 111-506. each amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report by a member designated in the report. shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally

divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent and shall not be subject to amendment and shall be subject to demand for division of the question. it is now in order to consider amendment number 1 printed in house report 111-508. for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 1, printed in house report number 111-508, offered by mr. schrader of oregon. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 1448, the gentleman from oregon, mr. schrader, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from oregon. mr. schrader: thank you. mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. -- i yield myself five minutes. this amendment basically authorizes funding and establishment of the small business borrowers assistance program to provide temporary assistance for a lot of the

struggling small businesses out there in america. the small business borrower assistance program will provide these small businesses who take out 7-a loans under $300,000 with a reserve fund they can use at their discretion to help pay principal and interest payments if they should hit a rough spot in their business cycle. eligible small business borrowers will automatically be enrolled in the program unless they request otherwise. it's very easy and unbureaucratic. once a borrower's been enrolled, the small business administration will place an amount equal to 6% of the loan principal in reserve for the borrower. this means a borrower who obtains a $300,000 loan will have $18,000 placed in reserve to help them pay principal or interest payments. these funds can be applied to both of those at the borrower he a discretion. to be eligible for the program, borrowers must obtain a qualifying loan within one year after the s.b.a. issues final

regulations. this is a temporary bill to help us through the recession. the s.b.a. must issue those final regulations within 180 days after enactment of the program and that's to make sure that the program itself is available in the crunch time. to prevent funds from being used for purposes other than paying down the balance of a small business loan, disbursements will be made directly to the lenders or loan servicers. additionally, the small business administration will have the authority to remove borrowers from the program who commit fraud or material representation. mr. speaker, this is just another great tool in the toolbox for our small businesses to help them get back on their feet and be the engines of economic growth. i would like to yield two minutes -- reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i rise in opposition. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes.

mr. graves: mr. chairman, i rise in opposition to the amendment offered by the gentleman from oregon. small business owners are going to be enrolled automatically in a program that sets aside 6% of a value s.b.a. guaranteed loan to pay off as was described. while i appreciate very much the gentleman's effort to reduce the financial burden on smmll business owners, there aree numerous problems with this program. first it forces business centers to opt out a federally mandatory set aside fintsdz. this will reduce the amount of capital available because disbursements are made from the bank or loan servicer instead of small businesses. second, by requiring an opt out it suggest as federal agency, s.b.a. is better at managing a small business rather than its owner. a conclusion that i obviously strongly dispute. third, loans under the 7-a loan program are just that, mr. chairman. they are loans. it seems rather absurd to have the s.b.a. automatically

setaside funds to pay off a loan it's just approved. fourth, the size. loans of the program is limited to those businesses with loans less than $300,000. i wonder why these favor over small business owners, you may need a slightly larger amount of capital. by making the program available for loans of less than $300,000, it suggests small business owners are at that level are less credible -- creditworthy and incapable of managing their finances as opposed to a business requiring a larger loan. all these points, mr. chairman, are points that i make. i just strongly dispute the reason for this program. for that reason i oppose the gentleman's amendment. gun i appreciate very much his efforts and what he's trying to do. i can't agree with this at all. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from missouri reserves the balance of his time of the the gentleman from organize yopon. mr. schrader: i would like to yield two minutes to the chairwoman of the small business committee. the chair: the in just a moment new york is recognized.

ms. velazquez: thank you, mr. chairman. i thank the gentleman for yielding. my colleagues, we have spent much of this debate discussing ways to help the banks. but now it is a time that we talk about helping small businesses. the schrader amendment does that by providing entrepreneurs with incentive to expand their business. it does so by giving business owners maximum flexibility to contain those debts, to purchase equipment, hire workers when they need to do so. if we add this amount during the early stages of their recovery, a manufacturer will be able to purchase a new machine, tools it needs, and could hire a few more salesmen. it is absolutely critical to get small businesses off the sidelines and take -- as they create 2/3 of net new jobs over the past 10 years.

unfortunately the federal reserve senior office survey continues to report that demand among small firms has decreased. the most recent nfib report also confirms this. only 32% of small business borrowed last quarter which is near the record low. when small business take out loans, there is less employment and, by giving them access to financial backstop, the schrader amendment will give them the confidence to turn this around. with this in mind it is no surprise that the small firms are not active in the capital market we lose jobs. and this is exactly what happened between 2007 and 2009 when self-employment declined by 7.5%. if we do not want to -- we must

embrace the policies contained in the schrader amendment. i ask my colleagues to support this amendment. thank you. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from oregon reserves the balance of his time of the the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i don't have any other speakers. again i would like to reiterate. this is just a give away. that's all it is f we want to help small businesses, let's reinstate bonus depreciation. let's shorten appreciation to buy new equipment, to add new jobs. let the government get out of the way. i creasing their taxes in a time when the -- increasing their taxes in a time when the deficits are running high is not the way to help small businesses. with that again i oppose the amendment and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from missouri yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon. mr. schrader: i appreciate the gentleman from missouri's concerns. do i take issue with them. to prevent fraud and abuse,

unfortunately that does happen in tough economic times, these payments are made to the lenders to make sure they go back to where they are supposed to be as the taxpayers have authorized under this amendment and bill. the 7-a program is the most popular program out there. it's something banks are familiar with. and it is the small struggling businesses that are likely to take a loan out for under 300,000 that are most in need. this program is targeted tell more rarery -- temporary, and timely. small business lending in my state is half of what it was two years ago. we need everything in the tool box so they lend to small businesses, this state, this country is willing to back them up and help these small businesses pay their loans if they need to during tough stretches and times. i think if you are in favor of small business and lending and want to make sure they have access and the program we are establishing with the $30 billion goes to small business, you want to vote yes in favor of this amendment. i urge a yes vote. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from oregon yields back the balance

of his time. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from oregon. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. it is now in order to consider amendment number 2 printed in house report 111-508. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? mr. miller: i have an amendment at the desk made in order under the rule. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 2 printed in house report number 111-508, offered by mr. miller of north carolina. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 1448, the gentleman from north carolina, mr. miller, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. mr. miller: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. miller: mr. chairman, this bill is the right idea.

we will not have a strong recovery until small businesses can again get ordinary loans to expand and hire new workers. but this bill leaves out an important industry. in past recessions the first industry to suffer from the recession and the first industry to come out of it was residential construction. home building. there is a reason that housing starts and building permits are leading economic indicators. home building will not lead us out of this recession no matter what we do. too much of the foolishness that led to the financial crisis was connected to housing. there are some markets that are hopelessly overbuilt. the inventory of new housing is a 42-year low, but in many markets there is a substantial overhang of existing houses and a shadow inventory of homes destined for foreclowshire. there are many markets where there is a real demand for new housing. and we won't have much of a recovery if we drrr residential construction along. home building has been 16% of our g.d.p.

we can't tell 16% of our g.d.p. just to hang out until we get things figured out. because of foolish real estate lending a few years ago, many community banks are under great pressure from banking regulators to scale back on all real estate lending. including sensible projects where there is a market for new housing. . community banks are even calling in construction loans. we've gone from indiscriminant lending to an indiscriminant refusal to lend that's killing jobs. week of lost three million jobs in home construction and related industries in the last five years. the jobs we lost are jobs for the working man. carpenter, plumbers, electricians, masons, painters, landscapers, roofers. we've got to put those americans back to work. in the words of allen jackson, there's nothing wrong with a heart and a hammer, the kind of world that sticks this world

together. our amendment adds construction and land development loans to the loans that qualify as small business lending you under the program so we can put the working man back to work. god bless the working man and woman. i now reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from north carolina reserves the balance of the time. the gentleman from texas. for what purpose? >> i rise in opposition although i'm not opposed to the amendment. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. neugebauer: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate what the gentleman's amendment is trying to do. i think the intent if this bill goes forward is that all small businesses would be eligible under this program, but i think the gentleman's trying to show the fact that land developers and homebuilders in america are also small businesses and should be able to participate under this program. and as a former developer and builder myself, i'm sympathetic to the difficulties of many of these in the construction and

housing business, i think we have to be careful here not to send a signal that would encourage an oversupply in the marketplace and further hurt the industry and job creation. also, would have to remind my colleagues, though, something we talked about yesterday is that this is a $30 billion lending fund. the united states treasury does not have $30 billion and that's the reason they have these auctions every week and we're going to have to go borrow another $30 trillion which is going to increase the national debt by another $30 billion. i had the same concerns about the bill that we had yesterday. we're not sure that thls the right prescription for small businesses. week of seen record liquidity in many of the financial institutions and as i talked to many banker friends of mine and also the small businesses, basically what's really holding back the country is sales.

the american people are cutting back. they're balancing their budgets but unfortunately the federal government is not balancing its budget. in fact we're going to have a $1.6 trillion deficit this year and we just went over $13 trillion in debt in this country. we're approaching a time in this country, and god for bid wrrks our g.d.p. and national debt will be the same number. so, i appreciate what my colleagues are trying to do, but i believe if you really want to help small businesses bring some certainty to the economy. right now many businesses are uncertain about what this body will do to them next. they've imposed massive increases in the cost through their health insurance, uncertainty about wwat the cost of utilities are going to be in the future, with cap and trade, and so this overall uncertainty is creating a lot of angst in the marketplace and it's affecting the american consumers and certainly the people that affect the small businesses the most are the american consumers. the people who are going to buy houses, people who are going to

buy cars, buy televisions. so while i understand where the gentleman is coming from and support his intent to put -- make sure this program is all inclusive, i do not support the underlying bill. again, when we say that this is really not going to put the taxpayers at risk, i remind my colleagues that in fact 91 banks that received tarp money, and by the way, this is another tarp program, this is tarp ii, and another 91 banks missed their dividend payment in may and so what does that say? that the treasury's ability to pass out this money to banks that are not in trouble is somewhat questioned. because in fact when 91 banks miss their dividend payment, evidently there's not something going well in that bank. so all of this is -- many people voted against tarp i. i believe a number of people are going to vote against tarp ii. because that's not the right prescription to get our country back going and with that i

reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from north carolina. mr. miller: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield to mr. baca such remaining timed a he may consume. the chair: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. baca: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i rise in support of this amendment, thank mr. miller for this amendment which will open the programs that include housing production loans to homebuilders, which are primary small businesses. as we continue to see some positive signs in the economy, our housing market and, i state, the construction industry shows signs of distress, moreover the increase of foreclosures has created a perception of overstock inventory in the housing market. however, this is not true everywhere. but the perception has forced the industry to shrink. cutting back, i state, cutting back on jobs and projects to save money. this downsizing has made our economy troubles worse. we must create an opportunity for jobs.

in order to have a complete recovery and aspect of housing market needs to be supported. i state, needs to be supported and that includes construction. the construction industry has been a consistent source of jobs for the american people and especially for latino community and many others. in 2006, employment in the construction sector was at 7.7 million and just two years, the number has dropped to 5.6 million. the drop has been felt hardest in states like nevada, florida and my home state of california where the housing crisis forced the construction industry to come to a stand still. in fact, we are now seeing latino unemployment over 30% in the state of california and then in my district, 17% overall for everywhere -- everyone. in the committee's testimony, the national association of

homebuilders stated that the bill will do little to produce jobs and free up credit for builders. if our goal is to pass legislation that will work to create jobs, we must target our sources where they are most needed and i state, where they are most needed. this amendment will address these concerns that include housing production loans, housing production loans to our nation's homebuilders who are comprised primarily of small businesses. our housing collapse let our country into this economic crisis, creating incentives to allow housing markets to strive will help bring us out of this recession. i thank mr. miller for his hard work on this amendment. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i yield back the balance of my time, mr. miller. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas. mr. neugebauer: mr. chairman, i don't have any more speakers and

i yield back my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time having been expired, the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from north carolina. %- those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. mr. neugebauer: mr. chairman. the chair: the gentleman from north carolina. mr. miller: on that i demand a recorded vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from north carolina will be postponed. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, proceedings will now resume on those amendments printed in part c of house report 111-506 and house report 111-508 on which further proceedings were postponed in the following order, amendment number 1 in part c of house report 111-506

by mr. israel of new york, amendment number 12 in part c of house report 111-506, mr. cray of louisiana, and amendment number 2 in house report 111-508 by mr. miller of north carolina. the chair will reduce to five minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the question -- the unfinished business is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from new york, mr. israel, on which the aae prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 1 printed in part c of house report 111-506 offered by mr. israel of new york. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be coonted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device.

members, this is a 15-minute vote. 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.]