the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 382, the nays are 23, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent request, i request unanimous consent to place into the records -- i was absent earlier today due to prior commitment schedule, before we knew the house would be in session, on the votes i missed.

on h.r. 2715, to provide greater authority to the cpsc and enforcement of product safety laws, had i been present i would have voted yes. on h.r. 398 to amend the immigration nationality act to toll during national and active duty services abroad and armed forces i would have voted yes. on h.r. 1933, to amend immigration market act to modify requirements i would have voted yes. while i do recognize the shortage of nurses in our country, i would hope that we should focus on providing more incentives of students here to become nurses. on the motion ordering the previous question on rule s. 365 i would have voted no. on h.r. 384, the rule for providing consideration of s. 365 i would have voted no. on the journal vote i would have voted yes and i ask unanimous consent that the statement be placed in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman's

statement will appear in the record. >> thank you. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to 22 united states code 6913 and the order of the house of january 5, 2011, the chair announces the speaker's appointment of the following member of the house to the congressional executive commission on the people's republic of china. mr. smith, new jersey, chairman. the clerk: mr. smith of new jersey, chairman. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the chair at this time will recognize for special order speeches without precedent -- prejudice to the ability of further legislative business. for what purpose does the

gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: permission granted. mr. poe: mr. speaker, this was a good day and one of the reasons it's a good day is because gabby giffords is back. mr. speaker, she is one of the best things in this congress. to me she came back tonight, cast her vote, the first vote since her -- since she was attacked and she is the perfect example of bipartisanship. i've had the privilege to work with her on the issue of border security and while she was in the hospital recovering in my hometown of houston, texas, her staff in arizona hosted me so i could go down to the border and see firsthand the problems of border security in arizona. and i think she is a model for the attitude that we should all have because she is ten arnse and she is re-- tenacious and she is relentless in her love for america and her desire to do what's right and represent the

people in arizona that elected her here. so, welcome back, gabby giffords. you were missed and we're glad you're back. and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: are there further requests for one-minute speeches? for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? >> request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: consent granted. without objection. mr. frank: mr. speaker, earlier this year a group of members sent a letter to president obama urging him to grant clemensy at this point and commute the sentence for jonathan pove earth. he spied on the united states on behalf of israel. he should not have done that and he was punished. but the punishment for that espionage has gone on longer than being comparable. i believe there is a personal

argument for the clemensy. and there is also the fact that american-israeli relations are always important and are particularly important now. we are asking the israelis to take some steps towards a negotiated peace. it may or may not be impossible for them to take. knowing that america recognizes the strength of that friendship is a important factor of our persuading them of that. the fact that he has served so long, we're not asking him to be barded -- pardonned, we're not condoning his crime. we're saying in addition to the personal argument, it would be a sign of u.s.-israeli relations that i think would help strengthen the climate for peace. and i will be submitting a copy of the letter we sent to the president for inclusion. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.

under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from arizona, mr. franks, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. the gentleman is recognized. mr. franks: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i would also like to take this moment to just thank god that gabby giffords has returned to this floor. you know, it so happens that just a few feet from here was the last time i'd seen gabby when she left the floor prior to this tragic accident or this tragic attack on her and it just occurs to me that once in a while in this life we find an example where tragedy is transcended by the human spirit and triumph and the grace of god and this is one of those days

and i just congratulate her with everything in me that she has come back and she has the prayers of the entire delegation and i know the entire congress as she goes forward to complete recovery and we are all very, very grateful today. this is a wonderful celebration for every member of this congress, it's a celebration for just the cause of this republic because we believe that everyone has the right to have the freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble and this is what she was doing when she was attacked and for her to come back this way as she has is a triumph of the first magnitude and we are also very, very proud of her and welcome her back with all of our hearts. mr. speaker, i have another subject tonight that i want to talk about. and that is the recent challenges that we have faced

over the debt limit raising and the effort on the part of many of us to place a balanced budget into the bill that went across to the senate, that would have required a balanced budget to be in our constitution. because, mr. speaker, some of us believe that it is the only way that we are going to finally in this country deal with the challenges of deficit spending and with the burgeoning debt that threatens to crush this country in a way that no military power has ever been able to do. mr. speaker, some of us have talked about this difficult problem for a very long time and it seems that over and over again history repeats itself and we never really deal with it like we should. but this time, mr. speaker, we have placed something before the american people that i think that they are going to hang onto and i believe that there is great hope in the coming months that we will continue to

striving for this balanced budget amendment and i hope that the people of america are paying attention. because we cannot repeal the laws of mathematics, this challenge will damage this country in the most profound way if we don't deal with it while we can. mr. speaker, let me just say this, that all financial budgets will eventually balance. that's a fact. no individual, no family, no business and no government can indefinitely continue to spend more money than they take in without someone having to make up the difference, mr. speaker. and that includes the budget of the united states government. neither mr. obama nor congressional democrats can repeal this law of mathematics. the federal budget of the united states government will eventually balance. as all of them do. either -- whether it's a person or a government or a business. when they continue to spend

money that they don't have, someone sooner or later has to make up the difference. the question with our federal budget is whether the white house and those of us in this body will balance this budget ourselves by wise policy or national bankruptcy and financial ruin will do it for us. from the day barack obama walked into the white house he has with breathtaking arrogance, mr. speaker, absolutely ignored economic and financial reality. it took america the first 216 years of its existence to accumulate the debt that barack obama has accumulated in the short 2 1/2-year span of his presidency. during his short time in office he has increased our federal debt by nearly $4 trillion, mr. speaker. and just to put that nearly $4 trillion in new debt in perspective, let me just put it this way. if all of a sudden a wave of responsibility swept through this chamber and we stopped all

deficit spending and began to pay installments of $1 million per day to pay down the nearly $4 trillion debt that barack obama has created in just 2 1/2 years it would take us more than 10,000 years to pay off just the mr. obama's accumulated debt in 2 1/2 years. it would take us more than 10,000 years, mr. speaker, to do that if we paid it off in $1 million a day. and that's if we don't have to pay one dime in interest in the process. but you see, mr. speaker, we are not paying mr. obama's debt down at $1 million per day, we are going deeper into debt, more than 4,000 times that much every day. and that's under mr. obama's own submitted budget and deficit projections. and then when speaking of the effort to reduce the deficit, the president has the human being riss to tell conservative -- hubris to tell conservative republicans to take a balanced

approach and to eat our peas. if there's anything more catastrophically out of balance than our federal budget it is the arrogance to competency ratio of this white house. we have watched as president obama ran up a trillion-dollar deficit for the first time in history and then break that record the very next year. and then say that we would have, according to his own projections, a trillion-dollar-plus deficit for, quote, years to come. we have watched as the obama administration promised that if we would just allow them to spend $800 million on their stimulus package the economy would rebound. and unemployment would never reach 8%. well, of course that didn't happen. and then we watched this administration bring us obamacare or the health care takeover by government. and, mr. speaker, let me just suggest to you that at the time of that debate there was a lot of discussion over what private employers would do to their own insurance plans in the face of

this government takeover of health care. some people thought, well, 5%, maybe 10% of the health care plans in the private sector would be dropped by corporations, would be dropped by employers. but, mr. speaker, that projection's a little bit further off than we thought. the people that have asked the question have answered the question of whether or not they would drop their health care plans being employers, they have said that as many as half of them would do that now. the reason i mention that is because if that's true, the cost of doing that the cost of absorbing that to the federal government will be another $2 trillion on top of the trillion dollars that was already in the bill. so obamacare itself could cost us $3 trillion. and mr. speaker, that's just in the next 10 years. so i would just say to you, mr. speaker, this administration

has really done for deficits and debt what stone he think did for rocks. there is no one that has more pressed this deficit spending than the obama administration. but mr. speaker, the people have awakened and they're tired of this administration telling them two plus two equals 13. as we find ourselves raising the debt ceiling yet again, some of us as conservative republicans want sod badly to give the american people and the states in this nation the historic opportunity to adopt the balanced budget amendment to the constitution, to put this country -- country back on the track to fiscal sanity once again. replace the balanced budget -- so we placed the balanced budget amendment in two separate pieces of legislation, passed them through this body, sent them to the senate, only to have president obama and

senate democrats to allow them up for a vote. either up with of them, they refused to vote on them. in both instances, president obama's cricks to the process were threats to veto both plans, sight unseen. mr. speaker, i wish i could just get this one question answered. if nothing else that they would answer, i wish the squad mrgs would answer one question. what is it, what is it that the president and democrats find so radical about a balanced budget amendment? this is something that 49 states have and every family in america has to have sooner or later. a simple balanced budget amendment that says we cannot go into the debt in an infinite way that threatens not only our children's future, we talked about how this threatened our children's future and i will tell you, being the father of two little twins that are going to have their third birthday before long, that has great pull in my soul that i don't

want to see this crushing debt placed on their shoulders. but i would say to you, mr. speaker, that now we are starting to face a challenge that is going to come in this generation, this time, and it may not be so far off. greece has set an example for the world as to what can happen when people simply don't pay attention to their fiscal challenges. but the failure of both -- and the failure and cooperation -- the failure of leadership from democrats on this issue has been baffling to me, mr. speaker. unbelievably, it has been 822 days since senate democrats proposed -- not passed but merely even proposed a budget. an individual practicing such irresponsibility, living without a budget while paying for everything with borrowed money would meet certain financial ruin. why do we believe our nation

will fare any better under the same preposterous policy? and now, mr. obama and the democrats have falsely said that the balanced budget amendment is a republican plan to destroy social security and medicare. what a false, terrible, despikeable -- despicable thing to say. the balanced budget amendment is the only honest chance to reform and save those programs in our country from bankruptcy and economic failure, mr. speaker. throughout this process, mr. obama and the liberal media sought to force tax increases on the people and job creators of this nation by suggesting that republicans were not willing to address the revenue side of this equation. that isn't true either, mr. speaker. just because republicans are not willing to increase job-killing tax rates doesn't mean we don't understand the revenue side of this equation. we just know that increasing the rate of taxes will decrease

the productivity of this nation and we will ultimately decrease the revenue that comes into this government. it is the economic equivalent of putting dirt in ice cream. it is a disastrous recipe to embrace in the name of balance. but i hear over and over again, balance, balance. there's nothing more balanced, mr. speaker, than a balanced budget amendment to the constitution -- to our constitution. history has demonstrated time and time again that the best way to have revenue coming into this country is to get out of the way and let the people and private sector increase the number of jobs for the american people. this has always resulted in increased productivity in this amazing nation. mr. speaker, we don't need higher taxes, we need more jobs and more taxpayers. mr. obama and the democrats have constantly said we need to take, again, this, quote, balanced approach which is code

for increased taxes. but mr. speaker, again, the truly balanced approach to this problem is a balanced budget to the constitution. by passing a balanced budget amendment, we can restore hope and confidence in capital markets inside the united states and all over the world because they will see that in the long run, america is going to make it. it may take the states six or seven years to ratify this constitutional amendment to balance the budget but we owe it to the states and people to give them this chance to save their nation. in the meantime, we can work here to expand this economy and balance the budget so when the amendment is finally ratified, we'll be ready to go forward as a nation to embrace greater days than we've ever seen. we have a rare opportunity that may never come again, to do something truly historic to save this nation and its people from economic ruin this battle is not over. the american people are beginning to realize they are already paying a very high price for electing barack obama

to the presidency. 23 they make the profound error of re-electing him in the next election, our families and all americans will face economic, constitutional, and a national security crisis that will dwarf the challenges we face in these moments. if democrats and the president are not willing to give the people this chance by helping republicans pass a balanced budget amendment in the congress, the resulting consequences will be theirs alone, mr. speaker, and i believe the people will hold them accountable for whatever financial disaster may follow. long ago, mr. speaker, thomas jefferson said, i will quote him, he said, i wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our constitution. i would be willing to depend upon that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its constitution. i mean, an additional article from the -- taking from the federal government the power of

borrowing, unquote. he said that right after the constitution itself had been finished. he wanted one more amendment and unfortunately, as you know, he turned out to be right but his contemporaries failed to listen to him about the balanced budget amendment. i would just say to you, mr. speaker, it is not too late for those of us in these moments to listen to his words. i believe the american people are listening today, and i believe they call upon their leaders now to do something truly historic and pass a balanced budget amendment to the united states constitution in the days ahead. god help us to do it, mr. speaker. with that, i would like to yield to the gentleman from iowa, mr. king and i may have to -- he may have stepped off the floor briefly, mr. speaker. let me just say, mr. speaker, that i know that this has been a challenging week and i believe our lead