last four years. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania yields back. the gentleman from florida reserves. the gentleman from west virginia is recognized. mr. rahall: i yield two minutes to a distinguished member of our economic subcommittee, the gentlelady from district of columbia, eleanor norton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. norton: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i thank the chairman for coming forward. enough of the outrage on both sides if i may remind us all that's precisely what the american people told us during recess they didn't want to hear. i do want to correct one item that the prior gentleman just in error he just made, there were no jobs in the american recovery act. there were three million jobs made from the american recovery act. and if there had been more funds in that act, we wouldn't be here today with the american jobs act trying to get more money to avoid a double dip recession. . this bill is not what the american people deserve and i

apologize to them, that we have had to lower our standards. but it does save us from another jobs catastrophe like the one we experienced in july. it saves a million transportation jobs, imagine furloughing that many people, if this bill, the surface transportation bill, had run out on the 31st of this month. each is very short-term, but both are clean, both are about yesterday's business, about yesterday's airports, because they don't bring us enough money to bring us forward into the 21st century, about yesterday's infrastructure. and yet it's hard to think of bills that would be on this floor during this time that is tearing such a burden to get stuff does, they're carrying the jobs burden, all by itself, this bill is.

a million jobs in surface transportation, something -- at least 100,000 jobs at the airports. it's keeping modernization, the air transportation infrastructure to continue, that's what we lost when there was a two-week furlough. and it's keeping our infrastructure from deteriorating. not what we deserve, you don't always get what you deserve, and we got to fight to make sure the american people get just that. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from west virginia reserves. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. mica: i'd like to yield to one of our vice chairs, the gentleman from new york, mr. hanna, 1 3/4 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from is -- the gentleman is recognized for 1 3/4 minutes. mr. hanna: thank you. i'm pleased to speak in favor of

this bipartisan, bicameral deal, to extends the two-year important transportation programs at current funding levels. the four-amongst extension of the f.a.a. programs will allow us to iron out the final details of a long-term re-authorization. as a pilot myself, i know firsthand the benefits and efficiencies this will bring to our airports and airways. as well as our out of date d control system. i am particularly pleased to be extending the highways and transit program for six months in order that we can ensure we have adequate time to pass the chairman and the committee's long-term plan. new york and the country need long-term certainty and a steady stream of funding. we we have spent too much time focusing on shovel-ready projects with little or no lasting economic or employment benefits. i look forward to borking over the next six months to pass a

long-term re-authorization that will empower states to take on major projects including bridge replacements, highway interchange improvements and investments in our nation's transit systems as well as those in upstate new york. these are the types of projects that have the potential to provide jobs for years to come and to grow our economy in the long-term. 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 florida reserves. the gentleman from west virginia is recognized. mr. rahall: may i have a time check, please, mr. speaker? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from west virginia has nine minutes remaining. the gentleman from florida has 11 fourts minutes remaining. -- 1 1/4 minutes remaining. mr. rahall: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for two minutes. mr. blumenauer: i appreciate the gentleman's courtesy. i listened to my friend from pennsylvania who is concerned about the recovery act. well, a number of us voted against it because it was too heavily weighted for tax cuts in an attempt to get republicans to participate. and all of them voted no.

if you would have worked with us we could have increased the amount of money devoted to infrastructure. but this same myopia we see when you refused to support a broad bipartisan support for the f.a.a. in the senate. it passed 89-7 or something like that and we can't work with them to increase the investment for aviation. it's sad. all you have to do is talk to the contractors in your district to find out that the recovery act kept them in afloat. contractor after contractor know that it made a difference but it's time for to us stop dancing around. we ought to approve the approach in a bipartisan way with the senate and we ought to step up and invest more in surface transportation, not in less -- not less. we will find that there is broad agreement with the business community to the u.s. chamber,

organized labor, environmental groups, local government. this is the way that we will put more americans to work, you seem to acknowledge it, but you're not working with us in the spirit of chairman bud shuster or chairman bill young, don young, who were willing to stand up and be counted in the need for more resources. we're facing a 34% reduction with the bill that the republicans are dealing with now in the appropriations process and you're not going to be able to get a decent six-year authorization when you're slashing investments where america is falling behind. i think we ought to take this very good kleenex tension -- clean extension, use the six months to be able to build on a foundation of the original ice tea, right size it -- may i have an additional 30 seconds? mr. rahall: i yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. blumenauer: accept the recommendations of broad, bipartisan commissions that we

need to be spending more, deal with the deficit reduction the way that it happened with ronald reagan, with bill clinton, that includes more infrastructure investment, agree with the senate approach, we'll be able to put millions of americans to work and stop the partisan bickering that we don't need to do. it's not partisan in the senate, it doesn't have to be partisan here. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from west virginia reserves. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. mica: i yield myself 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the seconds.n is recognized for 15 mr. mica: just to set the record straight, i went to the democrat side, the other side of the aisle when we proposed the stimulus legislation, asked to double the amount for infrastructure, i think i got 14 or more votes from the other side of the aisle, but i had the motion to recommit. i offered it and it was not accepted. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida reserves. the gentleman from west virginia is recognized. mr. rahall: mr. speaker, i yield one minute to the distinguished

gentleman from georgia, mr. hank johnson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. ranking member. i rise in strong support of this bill which will keep people working, building our infrastructure. failure to pass this bill would put politics first and mean unnecessary economic pain for millions of americans. we've seen in the past that stop signs and guard rails have been put out, traffic jams have been started and now we want to blame the drivers of the car for the traffic jam that the other side commits -- commenced. it doesn't make any sense. but let's go ahead and pass this i recommend or i commend my brother on the other -- brethren on the other side of the aisle for putting it forward, clean bill. in georgia the highway bill provides more than $97 million a

month for infrastructure jobs, employing more than 22,500 georgians. i urge my colleagues to support this bill so we can move past this stalemate and pass a long-term bill. thank you. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from west virginia reserves. the gentleman from florida is recognized. the gentleman from florida reserves. the gentleman from west virginia is recognized. mr. rahall: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from new york, mrs. maloney. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized for two minutes. mrs. maloney: i thank the gentleman for yielding and thank the ranking member and chairman for their leadership on this important bill, the surface and air transportation program extension act. this act includes a clean six-month extension of our nation's critical highway and transit programs, the funding provided to this extension to state departments of transportation and local transit agencies will keep americans working and our economy moving while congress acts to re-authorize these critically

important programs. this extension is necessary to our nation's economic health and getting americans back to work. i applaud the bipartisan work of our chamber's leadership in bringing this to the floor, however i believe that once the extension is passed we should focus on bringing true high speed rail to the northeast corridor. as a representative of the citizens of the great city of new york i understand the significant economic and transportation value of having high speed rail option that would serve the northeast megaregion. such an initiative would not only create high-paying construction jobs in the near term but would spur economic development and growth throughout the region and in the long term. the northeast region contains 20% of the nation's population in just -- and just 2% of the land area. this density is evidenced by the

fact that 70% of all chronically delayed flights originate in the new york area air spice while 60% of the northeast region's road miles are considered heavily congested. at a time when highway and air modes are nearing capacity levels and jobs are at a premium, high speed rail for the northeast corridor must be a serious consideration of this congress, it would help our economic development and move our country forward in the 21st century, competing in the global market. i yield back. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from west virginia reserves. the gentleman from florida continues to reserve. the gentleman from west virginia is recognized. mr. rahall: the gentleman from florida have the right to close, mr. speaker? the speaker pro tempore: that's correct. mr. rahall: then i'm prepared to yield toure final speaker -- yield to our final speaker. the gentlelady from florida, the ranking member on our subcommittee on railroads, i

mrs. broun our final time. the speaker pro tempore: -- ms. brown our final time. ms. brown: first of all i want to thank mr. mica. i want to thank mr. rahall for bringing this clean f.a.a. bill to the floor, this extension. we deserve a well-funded multimobile transportation system. business leaders, construction companies, labor groups and rider advocates all agree that transportation infrastructure is critical to putting people back to work and improving our crumbling transportation system. transportation and infrastructure fund is absolutely critical to the nation as properlyy funded, serve as a tremendous economic boost and job creator. the fact is that the department of transportation statistics show that for every $1 billion invested in transportation we generate 44,000 jobs and $6.2

billion in economic activity. indeed our nation long-term prosperity requires that we invest in our infrastructure. for example, china is currently spending 9% of their g.d.p. on infrastructure, about $300 billion, while we're spending less than 2%. clearly this lack of investment has led to a crumbling infrastructure. the american society of civic engineers in the 2009 report gave the united states a grade of d. it's time for this congress and our committee to get serious about putting people back to work, there is no better way to do this than funding transportation at a level that is truly improving our system. we can no longer afford the status quo if we want to compete internationally with countries who understand the importance of

infrastructure. let's pass this bill, let's finish a long-term f.a.a. and surface re-authorization bill. i ask the governor of florida -- as the governor of florida says, let's put people to work. i want to insert into the record an article that was in the "orlando sentinel" yesterday, this is a recovery that is going to take time, the economists say, but he points out the importance of the infrastructure and putting people to work. with that, mr. chairman, once again i want to thank mr. mica and mr. rahall and the committee and the staff and let's get to work and let's put the american people back to work. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. without objection, the gentlelady's request is granted. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. mica: has all time been yielded from the other side? the speaker pro tempore: all time is yielded back from the gentleman from west virginia. mr. mica: then i'll close. thank you, mr. speaker, and we do need to move forward.

this isn't the time to bicker, this is the time to put people to work, this is the time to pass long-term re-authorization. i said earlier, this cannot be another band-aid, we've had 21 extensions, this is the eighth transportation bill extension. and my dad used to say, you know, john, it's not how much you have, it's also how you spend it. we have to learn lessons. as of september 1, 2011, just a few days ago, 35% of the limited amount of transportation stimulus dollars for infrastructure still remained in washington, so it's not just spending people's money, it's spending it wisely. the other thing, too, is thoast the money we spent, 82% of it went for short-term employment. those jobs have come and gone, little repaving, little jobs

here. we need long-term commitment. so i'm committed to do whatever it takes to pass a six-year transportation bill and a four-year f.a.a. authorization. the people of this country deserve no less than having responsible action by this congress to move these important infrastructure and job creating programs forward and we're going to do it, mark my word. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2887. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant to house resolution 392 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on

the state of the union for the further consideration of h.r. 2218. will the gentleman from kansas, mr. yoder, kindly take the chair? the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the further consideration of h.r. 2218 which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill to amend the charter school program under the elementary and secondary education act of 1965. the chair: when the committee of the whole house rose on thursday, september 8, 2011 a request for a recorded vote on amendment number 8 printed in part a of house report 112-200 by the gentleman from iowa, mr. king, had been postponed. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, proceedings will now resume on those amendments printed in part a of house report 112-200 on which further proceedings were postponed in the following order -- amendment number 7 by mr. holt of new jersey, amendment number 8 by mr. king of iowa.

the chair will reduce to two minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote after the first vote in the series. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 7 printed in part a of house report 112-200 by the gentleman from new jersey, mr. holt, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 7 printed in part a of house report 112-200 offered by mr. holt of new jersey. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of a request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be 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

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 190 and the nays are 218.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 195 and the nays are 220 and the amendment is not adopted. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 8 printed in house report 112-200 by the gentleman from iowa, mr. king, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 8

printed in house report 112-200 offered by mr. king of iowa. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a two-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 chair: on this vote the yeas are 43. the nays are 374. the amendment is not adopted. the question is on the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute, as amended. those in favor please say aye.

those opposed, please say no. the ayes have it. the amendmented is adopted. -- the amendment is adopted. accordingly, the committee rises. the speaker pro tempore: mr. chairman. the chair: mr. speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union has had under consideration h.r. 2218 and pursuant to house resolution 392, i report the bill back to the house with an amendment adopted in the committee of the whole. the speaker pro tempore: under the rule the previous question is ordered. is a separate vote demanded on any amendment -- if not the question is on adoption of the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it and the amendment is agreed to.

the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed will say no. the ayes is it. third reading. the clerk: a bill to amend the charter school program under the elementary and secondary act of 1965. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. conversations will be taken off the floor. the house will be in order. the house will be in order.

the house will be in order. please take your conversations off the floor. the house will be in order. members, please clear the aisle. please vacate the well. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from hawaii seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i have a motion to recommit at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: is the gentlewoman opposed to the bill? ms. hanabusa: i am opposed in its current form. the clerk: ms. hanabusa of hawaii moves to recommit the bill to the committee on education and the work force with instructions to report the same back to the house forthwith with the following amendment. page 20 after line 15, insert the following:j, background checks to protect students from sexual and violent predators.

one, background check. each state entity that receives a grant under this section shall have in effect policies and procedures for charter schools receiving funds under the entities programs that, a, require that criminal background checks be conducted for school employees that include, i, a search of the state criminal registry or -- in the state in which the school employee resides in each state which such school employee previously resided. >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that we dispense with the reading. the speaker pro tempore: is there objection? ms. hanabusa: i object, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will read. the clerk: 2-i, in search of a state-based and child neglect abuse registry in which the school employee resides and each state in which such school employee previously resided. 3-i, a search of the national crime information center of the

department of justice. four, a federal bureau of investigation fingerprint check using the integrated finter print system and, six, a search of the national sex offender registry established under the adam walsh child protection and safety act 42 u.s.c. 169-19. b, prohibits the employment of an individual for a position as a school employee if such individual, i, refuses to consent to the criminal background check described in subparagraph a. 2-i, makes a false statement -- ms. hanabusa: mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the clerk: 3-i, has been convicted of a felony consisting of, one, homicide, child abuse or neglect. three -- the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will suspend. the house will be in order.

the clerk may continue. the clerk: three, a crime against children including child pornography. four, spousal abuse. five, crime involving race or sexual assault. seven, kidnapping. battery or a drug-related offense committed within the past five years or, seven, has been convicted of any other crime that is a violent or sexual crime against a minor. c, require that a charter school that receives information from a criminal background check conducted under this subsection that an individual who has applied for employment with such school as a school employee is a sexual predator report to local law enforcement that such individual has so applied. d, required that the criminal background checks described in subparagraph a be periodically repeated and, e, provide for a timely process by which a

school employee may appeal the results of a criminal background check conducted under this subsection to challenge the accuracy or completeness of the information produced by such background check and seek appropriate relief for any final employment decision based on materially, inaccurate or incomplete information produced by such background check but that does not permit the school employee to be employed as a school employee during such process. two, definitions. in this subsection, a, school employee, the term school employee means, i, an employee of or a person seeking employment with a charter school and who has a job duty that results in exposure to students or 2-i, an employee of or a person seeking employment with a for-profit or nonprofit entity or local public agency that has a contract or agreement to provide services with a charter school and whose

job duty, one, is to provide such services and, two, results in exposure to students. b, sexual predator. the term sexual predator means a person 18 years of age or older who has been convicted or plead guilty to a sexual offense against a minor. >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? mr. kline: mr. speaker, i reserve all points of order against the motion. the speaker pro tempore: the point of order is reserved. the gentlewoman from hawaii is recognized for five minutes. ms. hanabusa: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, let us be very clear that this is a final amendment to the bill which will not kill the bill and if adopted will still allow the bill to go to final passage. this is an attempt to make a bill better. regardless of how we may feel about the underlying bill we can all agree that nothing -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady will suspend. the gentleman is correct. the house is not in order. will the house please come to

order? the gentlelady from hawaii deserves to be recognized. the house will come to order. the gentlelady from hawaii may proceed. ms. hanabusa: thank you, mr. speaker. again, this is not an attempt to kill the bill. the bill will not be killed. if this amendment is adopted it will allow the bill to go forward to final passage. this just makes a statement that we should all be able to agree with and that is that we are to protect our children from sexual predators and abductors. what this amount does is to say anyone who receives a grant in support of the high quality charter schools requires that such -- each state entity that receives a grant under this section shall require a criminal background check to be conducted on such school employees. it also prohibits the employment of any individual for position in such schools where there's a nonprofit that does contract with the school, the school itself until the

criminal background check is done. and if you refuse to do so you cannot be employed. and if you're convicted of a felony -- now, these are important points that we are protecting them from -- homicide, child abuse or neglect, spousal abuse, sexual abuse, kidnapping, arson, physical assault or battery, drug related offenses or crimes against a minor. this is what this bill requires. now, in 2010 the g.a.o. said we don't have any federal bills that protect our children. here we are, we're going to allow for grants to be given to charter schools. why not just support this amendment which in fact will make this a better bill? what it will do is it will say no one, no one shall work with our children until such time that they have done a criminal background check. and the bill also permits that if you believe somehow you've been wrongfully accused that you can appeal. but during the period of time

of that appeal, we are also protecting the children because you are not going to be able to work with them until such time that your appeal is done. think about this. this is a statement that we are saying, we're going to make the schools better. we're going to make charter schools safe for the children. how can we not support such a measure? and that is why, mr. speaker, i ask that the members here support this motion to recommit and be very clear this does not stop the bill. this is like a final amendment. . vote for it, which i think we all should vote for it, it will go to final passage. this is not going to, in essence, kill the bill. it will let it go forward. with that in mind i can't imagine how anyone who sits in this chamber can't be in support of this amendment. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlelady from hawaii yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? mr. kline: i withdraw my reservation on the point of order and address the m.t.r. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman rise in opposition? mr. kline: i do. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. kline: mr. speaker, we are all concerned about the safety of our students and schools, and all our schools. ensuring our students are in a safe environment is a critical part of the duties of our teachers, principals, administrators, school authorities, but whether the students attend charter schools or traditional public schools, all of our students and parents deserve to know the schools are providing a safe environment for them. that's why this issue is best considered when we look at the full elementary an secondary education act later this fall, the law that governs all public schools. this motion would single out charter schools from the rest of the public schools, something we

have worked very hard in a bipartisan way to avoid. therefore i urge my colleagues to vote against this motion, reject this motion to recommit, and support the underlying bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on the motion to recommit. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the noes have it. ms. hanabusa: i request a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote is requested. those in favor of a recorded vote will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. pursuant to clause 9 of rule 20, the chair will reduce to five minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on the question of passage. [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 189 and the nays are 231. the motion is now adopted. -- not adopted. the question is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the bill is adopted. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? a recorded vose is requested. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be 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 365. the nays are 54. the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: sir, i have accepted

the nomination of the democratic caucus to serve on the committee on education and the work force for the remainder of the 112th congress. i hereby submit my resignation for the committee on small business. signed sincerely, jason altmire. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the resignation is accepted. for what purpose does the gentleman from connecticut rise? >> thank you, mr. speaker. by the direction of the democratic caucus, i offer a briveraged resolution and ask for its -- privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 398. resolved, that the following named member be and is hereby elected to the following standing committee of the house of representatives. one, committee on education and the work force, mr. altmire. mr. larson: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be considered as read and printed in the record.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the resolution is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. mr. larson: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the house will be in order. the speaker pro tempore: for

what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? ms. jackson lee: mr. speaker, on yesterday i was detained in my state on official business and i'd like to refer to roll call vote 699 on monday, september 12, 2001. i request unanimous consent for the following vote to be placed in the record at the appropriate place. roll call 609 on a motion to suspend the rules and agree to h.r. 26 to amend the united states code, i would have voted aye. roll call vote number 700 on a motion to suspend the rules and agree to h.r. 2633, to amend the united states code on time limits for appeals, i would have voted aye. on 699, this was regarding the practice of investigatory assistance and i would have indicated i would have voted aye. 701, h.res. 1316, to protect the safety of judges by extending the authority of the judicial conference to redact sensitive information, i would

have voted aye. i would appreciate the including of these votes at the appropriate place. i ask unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the chair lays before the house the following personal request. the clerk: leaves of absences requested for mr. barletta of pennsylvania for today and mr. reyes of texas on monday, september 12. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. the chair is prepared to entertain one-minute requests. for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition?

ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. jackson lee: members fly a lot, mr. speaker. and so i am delighted to know that we have moved on saving and coming together around the f.a.a. extension. just a few weeks ago i gathered at the airport that i represent, houston intercontinental airport, to listen to the workers and those who secure our nation's airports. from flight attendants to flight pilots or airline pilots, to machinists, to friends that were supporting them, the sea fairers, to communication workers, and an array of individuals who work every day led by leadership from the

afl-cio, those who work at the airport, city officials were all saying i cannot believe that you would allow $90 million to go awry and construction jobs on airports around america to be unutilized. it is time that we move forward with the f.a.a. authorization. it is also time to appreciate collective bargaining which is an important element of this, and as well to recognize and respect the various needs of the f.a.a. i still believe there should be mandatory two air traffic controllers at every airport, and the mandatory time of rest. we need to ensure the traveling public's safety on the nation's airlines. it is about time and i congratulate this house for moving forward on the f.a.a. authorization. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: are there further requests for one-minutes? under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the

gentleman from texas, mr. poe, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. poe: mr. speaker, in the united states throughout this entire land, there are 3,500 shelters. 3,500 shelters. and these shelters aren't animal shelters, according to the humane society, there are at least 3,500 animal shelters in our nation. rescuing those animals primarily dogs and cats, and making sure that they have some safety. i have dalmations. in fact, one of my dalmations was from a shelter.

dalmation rescue in dallas, texas, is where i got it. p,500 -- 3,500. bear that number in mind, mr. speaker, because in the same united states of america there are five shelters, five for minor sex trafficed victims in this country, 50 beds in the whole nation is what i understand that there are to take care of minors, primarily young girls, who are trafficked throughout the united states for sexual pleasure. maybe we have gotten our priorities out of sync. you know, sex trafficking is nothing more than modern day slavery, and it is a epidemic in some parts of the world, and it even is coming to the united

states. it's that crime to me that no one wants to talk about. i spent a lot of time at the courthouse in houston, texas, as a prosecutor in felony court, as a criminal court judge for 22 years. i heard a lot of cases, but this case of someone kidnapping a minor child and transporting them across the united states for sex slavery is one of those cases that is difficult to understand why it occurs in this nation. and many people, many people in the academic areas, and others don't want to admit that takes place in this nation. but human trafficking does take place, whether it's with minors or whether it's with adults. primarily, mr. speaker, it's with women. i have traveled to the eastern european nations as a member of

the foreign affairs committee, and have discussed with people in the ukraine, romania, bulgaria the problem those nations have when their young women are sold to other nations in sex trafficking. here's the way it works on the international scale. one way it works. in many of these eastern european countries, young women can't get work, can't find jobs. and so they will learn either through the internet or from an ad in the newspaper that if they go to a certain country they will be promised a job. and so they leave their home of the ukraine, romania, and they go to some foreign country. they meet up with a person, it's a male, of course, and he promises he will take care of them and that they will get a job doing something. of course what they end up doing

is becoming a piece of property for that male so that that person can sell that young female into sex slavery. back home where they come from, their families many times never know what happened to their daughter or their sister. they have just disappeared. off in some other country. and that takes place in that form in many countries throughout eastern europe and other nations as well. and unfortunately those who keep statistics estimate that overseas the customers, the ones that use that sex trafficked victim, about 25%, i understand, are americans. that go overseas for the purpose of engaging in prostitution as a

customer of some person that's trafficked internationally. but let's bring it back closer to home. what's taking place in the united states. being from houston, texas, the location of houston, texas, where it is on the map, and its closeness to other nations south of the border, makes it, unfortunately, a hub for internationally sex trafficked victims. they come into the united states either stay in houston or trafficed to some other parts of the united states. and it has become a hub, one of the hubs in this country, for that awful dastardly crime. and it works this way, this is one of the ways it works. young women, either adults or minors, in some foreign country, are smuggled into the united

states illegally by someone who promises that he kets them in the united states he's got -- that he gets them in the united states, he's got a job waiting for them. and in some cases these young women have paid this person to smuggle them into the united states. and once they are in the united states, they become the property of that vex trafficker. -- sex trafficker. and he forces them into exploitation. he uses threats against them it's as simple as if you don't cooperate i'll have my friends in the country of where their family is, i'll have them kill your family. 14-year-old girl, what decision does she make? doesn't speak the language. she's in the united states. and this person says either you cooperate and work for me, or i will make sure your parents are killed. and many times they choose the

only alternative they think they have, and that's to become a sex slave and be tracked -- trafficked into the united states and allow that person to use them as property in the sex trafficking business. you know, when they come into the united states, they are promised a better life, a good job, but that doesn't really happen to some of them. there are many stories, i'm going to talk about just two, two young women. gabriel, that's not her real name, she was working to support her family in colombia. and she was told by a friend, male friend, who recently moved to the united states that she could make a whole lot more money in the united states if she came to the united states. and so she took him up on the offer to let him get her into the united states, but as soon as she arrived here, that same friend forced her into prostitution. she couldn't afford to come into the united states, so he said,

well, i got you here, you got to pay your way. and the way you pay me for getting you here and the cost of me getting you into the united states is you are going to have to become a prostitute and you are going to work for me, the pimp. if you don't, i'll harm your family back home in colombia. for five years, five years that young girl was moved around in different brothels, houses of prostitution. she said after she was finally rescued she had no contact with the public, and she really didn't even know what city she was in. after years of servitude, i.c.e. raided the brothel where she was held and gabriel was rescued. she was one of the fortunate ones because she was referred to services where she received counseling and helped to find housing and care for her own child, and also find a job. but sadly this type of trafficking occurs in the united states.

people, women, come into the united states looking for freedom and prosperity, a job they can send money home back to their families, but they end up being property of someone else who sells them. for sexual favors. there are all kinds of ways that this is done. they are trafficked through massage parlors which advertise themselves as legitimate businesses, and in reality they are illegal sex rings. part of that issue, massage parlors, occurs in the city of houston. where women, primarily adult women, are smuggled into the united states from asian countries, don't speak the language, they are used in massage parlors which are nothing more than a front for illegal sex rings. and the problem that they had is this, this is a complicated problem. it's not an easy solution. they come into the united states, they are smuggled here, they don't speak the language, they come from a country where the police are corrupt, nobody trusts the government, and they

find themselves in the united states where law enforcement tries to help them, and they don't cooperate. because they come from a culture where the police, law enforcement, are corrupt. and they do not understand that they could get help in the united states. that situation occurs, these massage parlors, occur in someplaces in one of those is in houston, texas, where constable ron hickman has put his special teams together to try to stop this epidemic that's occurring in parts of our state. and these trafficking individuals, the traffickers, they are smooth operators and they will do anything to get around the law and intimidate the victim to cooperate. while victims are brought from overseas into our country, children in our own back yards are forced into -- back yards -- backyards are forced into a life of exploitation. i started off talking about

minor sex victims, s.e.c. trafficked victims. how there are so few shelters for them. let's distinguish the types of victims we are talking about. we have the international victims who come into the united states smuggled in to the u.s. and they are transported around the united states for sexual favors. then we have people that are already in the united states, citizens, or people that are here legally, who are moved from city to city in the united states. so those are domestic trafficked victims. here's the big distinction, mr. speaker. generally speaking if a person is brought in to the u.s. as a trafficked sex victim, and she gets involved in prostitution and she's rescued by federal authorities, she's treated as a victim of crime. and there are someplaces to place that rescued victim.

but the rules don't seem to be the same and aren't the same in some cases for domestic trafficked victims. for example, if a victim is taken from houston, texas, kidnapped, and taken to another state in the united states, and is forced into prostitution by some pimp, and law enforcement gets involved, and they find her, many cases she's treated as a criminal. she's arrested for prostitution. . she's not treated as a victim. now, in all deference to our law enforcement folks who does a good a job as they probably can, there is no place to put that trafficking victim as a victim of crime. so she's put in the criminal justice system. many cases the juvenile justice system because there is no place to put her. there are no shelters.

there are no safe houses. there are no beds for those types of victims. and, of course, it's a problem of resources, but it's something that we need to understand how difficult that is on a minor child who is a victim of crime to be shoved into the general public or general population as a juvenile or in the criminal justice system to get her out of that system and treat her like a victim. and, of course, she has a whole life ahead of her, and it starts out she's in the criminal justice system. and once that happens, next time she's seen or picked up by law enforcement, even with good intentions, she's put back in the criminal justice system or the juvenile system. so we have a standard here where we need to understand that we need to treat the victim of that traffic, the young woman, the minor child in some cases, they need to be treated as victims of crime and

not criminals. we'll get to the criminals and who they are in just a minute. you know, traffickers use and contact very vulnerable young women. many times they abuse, they manipulate these young women. the children -- these girls primarily, they come from all families but sometimes they are homeless. they're runaways or in some cases throwaways, as some call them, and they're very susceptible for trafficking. they really have no place to go in our society and in our culture, they have no place to go. and so when they're roaming the streets and somebody comes up to them and treats them nice, promises he'll take care of them, give them a place to stay and give them money, they're susceptible to that. once they get into that environment they become a slave. they are a slave in 2011, and

our culture needs to understand that. the pimps in men cases will do anything. they will beat them. they will abuse them. they will drug them and they will manipulate them through old-fashioned brainwashing. take the story of maria. maria was an 11-year-old girl, mr. speaker. 11 was her actual age, and she was raised by her grandmother in los angeles. when her mother died and when she was very young her father was not involved in her life. her mother died when she was young. her father wasn't involved in her life. and this young girl, as most girls, in my opinion, needed a male -- strong male figure to help her. was looking for someone since she didn't have a father figure around. she didn't know this male figure would be someone who would treat her as a sex slave. one day this individual approached her, treated her nice. he was 28 at the time.

and he took her shopping, bought her new clothes, treated her nice, took her to his house and as soon as he went into that house with her she didn't realize she would never return, never to her own home. he treated her well at first but soon he had other girls who lived in the house take her to a house of prostitution, for lack of a better phrase, and show her how to be a prostitute. because, you know, she was 11 years of age. and she later learned she was making about $1,500 a night that she turned over to this 28-year-old pimp. later, she said she was beatened and brainwashed and stuck in this life and trafficked throughout the united states. her pimp got all the money, making her believe this was the way it should be and he deserved the money while she was being raped by multiple men each and every night. he told her he owned her and

she believed it because she was 11. she was still maturing into society. and what was right and what was wrong was all being taught differently to her. maria was arrested on multiple occasions and didn't even know her grandmother and sister were looking for her until the first time when she was arrested at the age of 14. fortunately for maria there was a place for her to go to receive specialized services and she was able to get counseling and eventually able to get out of this life of being a slave. she finally believed that she had some self-worth where she believed before she had no worth as a person. part of the problem, mr. speaker, or -- is we don't have enough places for young women like maria. 50 beds, only five shelters. i understand. so the united states as a nation, as a culture, as a people, the greatest place on earth, we need to understand that we have to deal with this

issue. it's only going to get worse. and ignoring the problem will not solve the problem. and of course all different branches of law enforcement must work together, local, state and federal on this issue. and especially on the issue of the fact that international trafficking victims in the united states seem to have some places to go when they're rescued and domestic trafficking victims don't. especially those who are minor trafficking victims. the victims of traffic and the violence protection act of 200was the first large-scale federal law to address human trafficking in this country. what the law does is this -- it addresses both the global and domestic trafficking problem as -- and also establishes an annual trafficking and persons report that analyzes the issue of global country-to-country trafficking and places countries on a list. tiers, is what it's called, of the first offenders. i think we should know who the

worst offenders are. the worst offending nations in the whole world that are kept up with -- all countries are kept up with on human sexual trafficking slavery are -- here they are -- algeria, burma, the central african republic, cuba, new guinea, iran -- i repeat that one -- iran, north korea, kuwait, lebanon, libya, madagascar, saudi arabia, the sudan, venezuela, yemen and zimbabwe. these are the worst countries for these international sex trafficking. this authorization was re-authorized in 2008 as the william wilberforce trafficking victims re-authorization act. we've improved the laws over the years and it's time we make

international trafficking, domestic trafficking as an issue, a human rights issue, a children issue, whatever you want to call it, it's wrong and we have to deal with it in this country. and we cannot put an end of it until we are aware of the fact that it does occur. just like the old days when we used to say -- many people used to say when i was a judge, oh, gangs aren't a problem. you know, there are no gangs in the united states. yeah, well, we found out that was wrong. and the same issue when it comes to human sex slavery, it is still -- it is occurring and it will only get worse unless we do something about it. our laws must identify the people in the system, and i think it's important that we take the child, the trafficking person and treat them as a victim of crime. we have to have that mindset, that in many cases we are a victim of crime as we as a

culture need to recognize that and treat them that way and rescue them from that environment. that's the problem duty that we have. rescue that child, get them out of that environment and help them. and let me tell you, these are hard people to work with. these young women are hard. they are difficult. the agencies that work with them find them very difficult to work with. but that doesn't mean we should give up on them. so we take the victim and we work with them and treat them like a victim. then we take the customer, the person that pays for the service, pays the slave to perform some sexual activity, we take that person and we prosecute those individuals. and when they're convicted, i think their photographs ought to be on the internet. line them up. let the country know who these people are that live in this nation, that buy sexual favors

from children, show who they are, but prosecute those people. too often in the area of prostitution, you know, there are even some states that want to abolish it as a crime. too often we center on the prostitute and in some cases the prostitute, unlike the cases i'm talking about, is committing a crime. they're doing it because they want to. they're not forced to do it. that's a different situation. we center on the prostitute. very seldom do we prosecute the male, the person who uses the service. our society better start prosecuting the person that needs to be prosecuted. and then we deal with the trafficker, the slave owner, and there is no punishment that is strong enough for the slave owner in this country. go after them. make them know they're not going to do business in the united states and traffic international victims or domestic victims in this country. we will not stand for it. but let's come down hard on those guys and go after the other ones, too, who use that

service and treat the victim as a victim. people who use that service, they need to know we are going to find out who they are and we are going to publicize their names because that's the demand that's created in this country. we cannot continue to let those who abuse children continue to roam our streets. and we need to treat victims as such. i am the chairman of the victims rights caucus along with jim costa of california. we raise awareness of victims of crime as well as the domestic trafficking victims when they are treated as criminals when they should be treated as victims of chrome. we need to make sure that both international and domestic traffickers are treated as victims and have assistance provided to them. we must make sure that the victim in this case is rescued. that as a society that's the first thing we try to do is rescue them. as i mentioned earlier, it's my

understanding there are only about 50 beds for minor sex trafficking victims in the united states and five shelters. we need to solve that problem and help those organizations that work with victims of crime have resources to house and treat and take care of those very special people. there are many organizations that are trying to help in the area of rescue, stopping trafficking victims. i'd like to mention those before i finish, mr. speaker. of course, i mentioned contabble ron higman of pretinket four in houston, texas, in dealing with massage parlors who are trying to prosecute people involved in that. but rescue the victims that are very difficult to work with because they don't come from a culture that they don't work with law enforcement. another organization is the aero ministries in texas. the ymca international

services. children at risk in houston that does a great job. they do exactly what their name says. they look -- try to take care of kids, children that are at risk. houston rescue and restore. aero ministries, redeem ministries. on the national level, there are other organizations, the sherrod hope international. the rebecca project for human rights. polaris project, catholic charities, humanity united, world vision, international justice mission, vital voices, the coalition to end slavery and sex trafficking, free the slaves, not for sale campaign and break the chain command. and there's that great organization that's rain as well. mr. speaker, we as a culture, as a society, as a country, as a people, i think that we are judged. we are judged as a people.

the united states claims that to be the world leader in human rights and i think we are the world leader in human rights and we should continue to be because we've been blessed with so much. we should try to protect that dignity of humans throughout the world. but especially humans here. but we are judged not by the way we treat the rich, the famous, the popular, the powerful. we're judged by the way we treat the elderly, the weak, the poor, the children, victims of crime. that's how we're judged. not by the way we treat these other people. and so i hope that we understand the necessity, the importance of taking care of our greatest resource, and our greatest resource is children

in this country. no matter who they are or what's happened to them in their life, but we need to take care of them. especially those young that are in the year 2011 become the slaves of someone else for money. let's take care of this issue, mr. speaker, and stop this crime against humanity in this country. and be the world leader. and that's just the way it is. i yield back the balance of my time, mr. speaker. for the chair to do as it wishes with the remainder of my time. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from indiana, mr. burton, will control the remainder of the time. mr. burton: thank you, mr. speaker.

how much time remains? the speaker pro tempore: 33 minutes. mr. burton: thank you very much. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. mr. speaker, you know, a lot of times when people ask me, why do you have a special order when the chamber's not in session? and it doesn't appear anybody's paying any attention? we all have monitors back in our offices and many of our members who are not in attendance get a chance to hear what other members have to say during special orders and it also allows us, if people across the country happen to be paying attention to what's going on in washington, it gives them a chance to see and hear some of the issues that we're talking about. one of the things that really concerns me that i hope

everybody's concerned about is the terrible spending problem we have here in washington and that spending problem and what that spending problem causes. you know, when you spend more money and you print more money and it gets into circulation, that's called inflating the money supply. and when you inflate the money supply ultimately that means that everything that money buys goes up in cost. the trucks, that transport our goods and -- the trucks that transport our goods and services across the country have to pay more more for diesel fuel, more for licenses, more for anything else, and all those costs are passed on a to the people whose products they carry. and those people who make those products have to make a profit so they have to raise the price of those products to the people

who buy those products, whether it's a supermarket or a clothing store, whatever it is. and then when the consumer goes to buy those products that are transported they have to pay more for them. and that's what we call inflation. now, we have in the last couple of years during the obama administration and the last part of the bush administration passed a bailout bill and a stimulus bill that have cost collectively close to $2 trillion and that doesn't cover the other programs that have been increased thus costing more money to the government and the taxpayer. and then just recently because we had these terrible crises on wall street and the banking crisis that we've had we had the bailout which cost well over $1 trillion when you talk about the

interest that's added to it. and because the economy continues to founder and we have -- flounder and we have unemployment that's above 9%, the fed decided to have what they called qe-1 and qe-1 was quantitative easing which increased the money supply again by several hundred billion dollars. and then we had quantitative easing or qe-2, which has raise the amount of money in circulation and exacerbated the problem that we're all facing today. and so i'd like to talk just a little bit about how this affects the average person. mr. bernanke who is the head of the federal refresh board, he said that we don't have to worry about inflation, he said that long-term the inflation rate's not going to get above 1.7% to 2%. but let's just look at what the average person has to pay when they go to the store or the gas

station to buy products. milk, and everybody drinks milks, especially if you have kids, milk has gone up 38% since last year. that means if you buy milk, for every $1 you're spending it cost $1.38 as opposed to last year. that's inflation. the price of sugar, and sugar's used in cookies and cakes and all the things that we use on a daily basis, chewing gum, everything, the price of sugar has gone up 20% since last year. that's inflation. the price of corn, which is used in feed for our animals, it's used in gasoline now, it's used on a daily basis by people across this country, corn has gone up 62% in the last year. so for each $1 that you spent for year, it costs now $1.62.

and as of august the cost of beef, ham burger, steaks, whatever you buy, went up 13% over last year and that amounts to about 52 cents a pound. so when you buy a pound of hamburger, it's going to cost about $62 -- 6 -- 52 cents more than a year ago. that's killing the american people. they tell us we do not have inflation and anybody that goes to buy groceries or any commodity that's transported across this country is paying a heck of a lot more than they did last year. so when the administration and the fed and the treasury department say we don't have an inflationary problem, talk to your wife, husband, talk to your wife. wife, talk to your husband when he goes to buy gasoline. and everybody knows that the amount of money they're making is not keeping up with inflation . and that's why we have to get control of spending here in washington. we have to get control of the entitlements, we have to get control of every government

agency and we have to get rid of a lot of government agencies that are not doing anything to really help our economy or our country. you take, for instance, the department of education. everybody says, well, we need to have a department of education. why? education is supposed to be conducted at the state and local level. controlled by the state and local governments. but we have an education department and what has the education department contributed to our society? the quality of education has gone down, down, down to where we're one of the least educated, as far as the quality of education is concerned, least educated countries in the western world, in the industrial world. so the department of education really isn't doing anything except gobbling up an awful lot of our taxpayer dollars. and there's a whole host of agencies like that, that we need to get rid rid of because we don't -- rid of because we don't have the money to pay for them. and yet the government, the

president came up the other night and he spoke in this chamber and he said, we're going to have to spend another $447 billion for a jobs bill. and it's the same old story being written again and again by the administration, that's what we tried to do with the bailout and the stimulus bill and these other things. remember the shovel-ready probablies the president said, well, we didn't have as many shovel-ready projects as we wanted to and as a result we didn't see anything except more and more unemployment. throwing money at the problem does not solve the problem. all it does is it costs the taxpayers more money, either in taxes or in a hidden tax that they pay when they go to buy food, clothes, groceries or gasoline to get to and from work. and that's the problem that we have right now. the president has a socialistic,

european approach to government. he believes that government ought to control health care, he believes that government ought to control the energy sector and if we passed what was called cap and trade, which would deal with the energy and the owe metion of co-2 into -- omission of co-2 into the atmosphere, it would raise the cost of electricity and everything else that we use dramatically. in fact, he said himself during his campaign or even before that that cap and trade would essentially cause the prices to skyrocket for energy. just another thing that the american people have to pay for. we don't have the money in our pockets, people's salaries aren't going up, we have a huge number of people unemployed, we're paying unemployment to them on a weekly basis, so that they can survive, they don't have the money, but the government keeps spending and spending and spending and we can no longer afford it because it's

going to hit us with higher taxes, that's what he talked about right here last week, more taxes that we don't have, more spending that we can't afford which leads to more inflation that people are feeling right now. and if people don't believe me, who may be paying attention to this and i'm talking about my colleagues back in their offices, talk to your wife and husband when they buy gasoline or go to the store. the average inflation rate right now i would guess is somewhere around 13% and that's something we cannot afford. it's going to kill this economy and kill this country as the country that we've known all of our lives and what we're passing onto our children is a lower standard of living than we've had and we cannot afford that any longer. what we need to do is streamline government, go back into our entitlements, medicare, medicaid and social security, and figure out better ways, better ways, not eliminating them, but better

ways to solve that problem. and this house has sent plan over to the senate that would do that in an efficient and economic way and not bankrupt the country. and solve that problem. we need to go through every afghan government and if they're not doing their job, or if they're not necessary, get rid of them. cut them out. reduce the size of government. cut government spending. and then in addition to that we ought to do like ronald reagan did when he came into office and we had double-digit inflation, double-digit unemployment and double digit interest rates. it was -- double-digit interest rates. he came in and he said, instead of raising taxes, as they said he had to do, because they said, that would bring revenue into the treasury, he said, no, we're going to cut taxes. and the reason he did that was because if you raise taxes, you take money out of business, you take that money out of people's pockets and that's money they can't spend, if they don't spend, they can't buy, in they can't buy, we don't produce and if you don't produce more and

more people who do the producing are laid off and going to the unemployment line. conversely if you cut taxes you give business and industry more money to invest, you give individuals more money to spend, they can buy more and invest more and we produce more because people can buy it and that creates jobs and when we create jobs we create more taxpayers and we went from $500 billion in tax revenue you understand reagan to $1.3 trillion, almost triple, because we cut taxes and stimulated economic growth. this administration believes in more government control over our entire economy and our society. and that's the reason we're in the mess we're in today. because government cannot create something unless it takes something away. we can't give jobs that the government creates unless we take it from you, the taxpayer. and that means either raise taxes or spend money we don't have and print it and that

creates inflation which is a hidden tax on everybody in this country. the bottom line is this country's in a very difficult situation. i serve as chairman of -- chairman of the subcommittee on europe and eurasia. i'm going to be going to greece in cusme weeks. they have a socialistic economy. they're going down the tubes right now. they're trying to find some way to bail themselves out. they're raising taxes, they're raising taxes on everything, electricity, everything they can. they're cutting the benefits to the people that work there. because the benefits have been too high. and the people -- and the government can't afford them. all of these things, the salaries are being cut, and what's happening in greece? it's going belly-up. and the effect of it is on all of the other countries that have investments in greece, the banking, the financial institutions, all of them are really in trouble and they're talking about a potential domino

effect because of the failure of greece and because of the socialistic approach that they've taken. italy's in trouble, portugal's in trouble, spain's in trouble, even france is in trouble. because they've invested a lot of money through the financial institutions into greece. so the whole european continent's in trouble because of the socialistic approach to government. the thing that's kept america so strong all of our lives is free enterprise, the profit incentive, for a business man or a person to say, i want to make something of myself and they open a gas station or a store and they work their tails off and they have a chance to make their lives better. but when government starts taking over everything it ruins it. that's what's happening in many countries in europe, especially greece. and so if any of my colleagues are paying attention, on the democrat side of the aisle or who are independents or on the republican side, i hope that you will realize the number one thing we have to do right now is get this government under

control. we need to cut regulations so businesses isn't strangled by the regulations that's costing them more and more money, that they have to pass onto the consumer or they have to fire people because they can't afford them. we've got to cut taxes to stimulate economic growth and that will bring more money into the treasury. just like it did under president reagan. and we've got to make sure that we eliminate unnecessary spending in these agencies of government like the department of education. get rid of them. because they're not doing anything except gobbling up our money. if we do that we're going to turn this country around and we will remain the greatest country in the history of mankind. if we don't, if we continue down the road that this administration is taking us down, moving us towards socialism, toward government control of our health care, energy, everything, then we'll see the quality of life that we've enjoyed go right down the tubes.

it's up to the american people and it's up to us in congress to take the bull by the horns and deal with this. so i say to my colleagues, please pay attention to what i've said tonight. you may not agree with everything, but if you'll study the things that i've studied and look what's going on in europe, you'll understand very clearly that what i've said has merit and we need to do it. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. tonko: thank you. it's an important topic these days when we refer to jobs. jobs in america, jobs that we retain, jobs that we create. the overwhelming issue right now in the minds and hearts of

constituents across this country i firmly believe is about the dignity of work. jobs that need to be strengthened out there in number so as to provide for the opportunity for people to dream the american dream. the american dream of homeownership, of education for their children, higher education so as to unleash the skills and talents and passions of next generations of workers, training, retraining programs to enable the human infrastructure required as an investment in the worker zone of america is an important aspect of the investment that we need to make through policy reforms and policy strengthening and resource advocacy that we can do here in the halls of congress, on the floor of the house of representatives to enable us to fill those coffers with the

quality investments that need to be made from a human infrastructure perspective to a capital infrastructure and certainly to a physical infrastructure. as we go forward, it allows this country to utilize its intellectual capacity, to use the brainpower of these united states to enable us to compete and compete effectively in a way that it acknowledges that the job market, the jobs created, the jobs retained through advocacy here in washington can speak to the ultimate highest priority that people have established for all of us who are serving regardless of political persuasion or philosophical mindset as we serve this nation, we can best provide for an outcome of jobs that are created in this society. there is no stronger need. there should be no stronger commitment. the president showcased that

when he was hosted here in the house of representatives with the joint session of congress, and the room was filled, the gallery was packed as people witnessed the very passionate speech from the leader of the free world. as president obama laid forth his vision, his plan, his initiative, his goals for the american people, the house of representatives and members of the united states senate got to hear firsthand what that effort is all about. and so people listened with intent to move forward with that blueprint for our future, a blueprint that would strengthen our economy and have an impact across the world. we have this opportunity now to work in a multipartisan way, in a bicameral response to what the president has highlighted to be his plan for jobs here in

america. and i was happy to note that amongst his arguments, amongst his priorities happens to be the creation of an innovation economy, a response perhaps to an innovation economy that finds us as an idea society investing in those ideas, investing in those ideas that gets moved along perhaps to a prototype that moves along to a manufacturing sector. i before entering the halls of congress, before elected -- being elected to the house of representatives served as president and c.e.o. at nyserta, the new york state energy and research authority. it's nationally recognized for its cutting edge work being done in the science and tech aspects of high tech. we, by the way, in the district that i respected, the 21st

congressional district in new york state, much about the capital region and mow hack valley and scoherry valley of upstate new york have been dubbed recently by brookings institute to be the hottest territory, the strongest hub, the most active region in the country for green-collared jobs growth. that's a feather in our cap. if someone wants to see investment happenings it's there in the capital region of new york. it took a partnership with academia and state government and federal government, yes, but it also was a partnership with the private sector where great investments were made by the private sector in this high-tech agenda, in this science and tech agenda. nanoscience, semiconductor, and now that is somewhat clustering in its concept to draw more and more startups and entrepreneurial efforts and workers who are clustering in this way, academia getting

invested in the research aspects. i mention that because the innovation economy is something that receives high focus and an ordinary amount of attention made in the president's speech. i agree with his assessment that whoever wins this global race on innovation will emerge the exporter, the kingpin, if you will, of the global economy, intellect and innovation and ideas that will enable us to in a way mimic the success stories of the space race, a global race that finds fewer partners but found the united states of america being victorious. and that all began, i believe, with a setback. sometimes failure is a misunderstood gift.

in this case through the sputnik moment america in its defeat had to stand up and dust off its back side and commit with passion, with passion, as the words of john f. kennedy, we have to invest in the space race, not because it's easy but because it's hard and that attitude, that tone, that passion, that commitment, that resolve produced a winning moment, a winning moment when we were the first to achieve the daunting task of landing a person first on the moon. as a nation we took great pride in that event that happened some 40-plus years ago. and it was more than the magic moments of landing a person on the moon and the infamous quote that talked about man's small step and human -- the giant

leap for mankind. it was the unleashing of technology and untold aspects of our world, of our society where technology reached communications and energy generation and education and health care, to name a few segments of activity out there. that was a profound statement made by america and her brainpower, america and her will, her will to invest in her people and in a mission that brought us together as a nation where everyone joined in the efforts to fine tune the best way by which to pursue that mission. what happened really raised america, her leadership potential, her leadership recognition in the global community became profoundly enhanced. it wasn't technology entering these different segments of our

society but bolesering all these aspects, -- bolstering all these aspects, impacting, not just americans but people worldwide, the quality of life that we enjoy, the opportunity to strengthen service, to be able to bring us together in almost a village capacity as a world simply because of technology. well, today i would remind my colleagues in the house of representatives and our partners down the hall in the united states senate that we had that same moment, that same challenge, that same need to resolve with passion again to go forward, to go forward with a mission that allows us to invest in a clean energy society and a clean energy economy into an innovation agenda. think of it. we have so many opportunities here. we have committed so many times over to public and private

aspects of research and development, of investment of research that leads to ideas or ideas that are built by that research to a greater capacity and then shared in a way that builds and develops the proowe types that then creates -- prototypes that then creates the manufacturing. we've seen it in the chips manufacturing in my district, perhaps the largest such construction of a chips manufacturing facility in all of america is taking hold in the region, in the area that i call home. that is enabling us to think beyond usual terms. we're thinking of chips that apply to agriculture, chips that apply to health care, chips that apply to the education world. that is a marvel in and of itself and it's enabling the best minds to cluster in an area like that which i represent in the 21st congressional district in

upstate new york in the capital region. that's the investment that i believe america not only requires but that americans are demanding of their leaders, leaders that occupy these feat here in washington and the halls of congress. that's what there are' asking for, that sort of investment -- they're asking for, that sort of investment, that sort of magical quality that we have seen throughout her history. it's replete with sagas of success that began oftentimes with hyphenated americans in their first generation of connection to these soils investing in the brightness of ideas coming from blue-collar workers who enabled us to take a region like that which i represent and allow it to inspire our westward movement and our industrial revolution because in the heart land of the 21st congressional district

we were the host to an erie canal, barge canal history, and what that pathway, that waterway announced, pronounced with its own presence is the opportunity to build the ports of new york that then gave birth of communities doubled mill town that became the epicenter of invention and innovation. it was the first high-tech revolution taking place in the 2 isst district of -- 21st district of new york. it was all these product lines conceived and then realized in the marketplace around the world. and these product lines inspired continued progress. that's the sort of ilk that is american and uniquely american. that is the sort of investment that enabled us to produce these tremendously powerful

chapters in our nation's history. and it should be the inspiration. these moments should be the inspiration for us to do the correct thing today. for us to understand that we do not cut our way to prosperity. we do not cut our way to opportunity. but certainly we can invest our way to opportunity and invest our way to a new economy, a stronger outcome, an investment in our working families, an opportunity for people to truly dream the american dream. that's how we will survive. that's how we will meet the text in the present moment. the president has challenged congress, and rightfully so. this is not the time for political gamesmanship. this is not the time for simple negative response or rejection of a political kind.

this is about working as a team, executive branch with legislative branch, republicans with democrats, senators with house of representatives membership. that's what we can accomplishment here if we set our hearts and our minds and our souls to an agenda that is in keeping with the tradition, the deeply rooted and powerful tradition of job creation in our society. think of it, throughout our years, whether it was president lincoln and the development of rail or governor dewitt clinton in new york with the development of the erie canal or the development of an interstate system or president roosevelt and the corps that went throughout the great criff ours, state by state, and built the infrastructure that really was a need for this country at a time when we were hurting from a grossly high unemployment

statistic. that's america at her best. at her brightest. it's her shining moment. and the president is imploring all of us, as members, as leadership in the house, to allow for america to have her next shining moment. challenges in difficult times can produce the most deep and profound and uninhibited, unrestricted behavior. and we have that opportunity. we have that opportunity here to respond with this innovation economy. it takes investment. as i indicated when i served as president and c.e.o. of nicerta and before that with the new york legislature, it took appropriate policy and then an investment that would enable us to respond in a traditional

terms. to move forward with the kinds of intellectual response to deeply rooted concerns. think of it. we dismantled a monopoly situation for utility purposes, electric utility purposes, and chose, through aned a miven -- through an administrative order to go forward with a competitive quality in our utility outreaches in new york state. a system design for monopoly settings that had to be adjusted to electronic -- electrons from region to region and state to state and then from country to new york state. so that took improvement that needed to be made in policy and in resource advocacy. i saw from my positioning in nyserda the benefits that came when we invested in research and development. now, granted all the stories,

all the situations, all the scenarios within the research and development opportunities are not necessarily success stories. but without the dive into that opportunity we'll never feel the splash of success. and so many of those situations become a winning outcome. and when we have such an outcome we're able to move forward and allow for us to even dream of the notion of enhancing our energy independence. we cannot remain so glutinously dependent upon fossil-based fuels to be our solution for our energy crisis. we simply cannot. we cannot. we need to make certain that we comince innovation cycles that enables us to dream outside the ordinary, to think beyond the

barrel, think outside the barrel, in the case of energy reform. and those formats, those transformations need to again encourage the investment in higher education, in education, because we need had, as early as the precase setting, to encourage the development of our students, especially with the short fall of engineers that we're producing in our society and scientists, you know, education in itself has a need for many reforms, but one of the targeted areas of concentration needs to be the increased numbers of individuals, especially in atypical formats with young women and students of color who need to be encouraged to pursue along the pathways of engineering and science. then we go forward with that cultivation of ideas, that begins with the investment in the intellect of america and what i witnessed were wonderful

opportunities. we had witnessed all sorts of improvements to renewables, that was part of the nyserda agenda. we saw all sorts of opportunities like kinetic hydropower where we would actually be able to do turbine-type settings, not an ordinary wind turbine activities, but beneath the surface of water. to oose use the turbulence of water to crank out energy supplies that we require. in state like new york, it holds vast potential. it holds tremendous potential. and the r&d commitment was there. the refinements came through the democratic of energy lab where they reviewed the product, saw where some of the weaknesses might be, engineered the assembly, the design of the turbine itself and the assembly of that turbine, designed it, redesigned it, and now we grow

more and more committed to the opportunity for some of this use ofture lance -- turbulence of water to respond to our energy needs. that's just one small sampling in one agency and one state of how we can grow the opportunities. investing in battery manufacturing that enables us to respond to that lynch pin that is our connecter to investment into the future, that enables us to again draw this energy independence agenda together in a way that not only grows our economy and protects our consumers and strengthens american job opportunities but really creates a cutting-edge sort of job opportunity where for the first time these jobs appear on the radar so that we can begin to provide hope to individuals who may have that genius within them and who will pursue that as a career path. but it begins with individual voices in the house, speaking to those issues of jobs and creation of jobs and investing

in innovation economy, investing in workers. and certainly no one has been stronger in that attempt than my colleague, my friend from connecticut's third district, representative -- kentucky's third district, representative john yarmuth has been a champion on the floor, he's been a champion at home speaking on the need of jobs in america, making it in america which is a mantra he and i and our colleague notice democratic caucus have adopted and, representative yarmuth, it is great to have you join us for this hour. welcome and i know you have been such a strong voice for jobs, not only for kentucky but for americans from coast-to-coast. mr. yarmuth: i thank my friend from new york. it's a great pleasure to talk about the subject that's on every american's mind and that is, how do we rebuild america, how do we put americans back to work and how do we recreate the kind of america that we all once admired and will admire again? and you've talked about a very incredibly important element of the job creation agenda and that

is research and development. it's clear that the jobs that we look forward to in the next generation and the generation after that are jobs that probably don't exist today. we're going to find and we're going to discover them and if we don't do it, they will be invented somewhere else. and that's why the initiatives that you've been talking about in the energy field are so critical. i'd like to talk today about a job opportunity that exists right now. and the president referenced this in his speech last thursday night and i thought he was incredibly powerful and articulate in doing that. because what he did was connect the dots and when he talks about infrastructure and jobs, that's something that most americans can understand. when we build the interstate highway system that created an awful lot of jobs. and it also established an infrastructure that has enhanced our commercial activity throughout this country for more

than a half a century. and now today we have a gap in that interstate highway system and it happens to be in my community. just last friday the bridge called the sherman-minuteton bridge which spans the ohio river between louisville, kentucky, and new albany, indiana, was shut down because of structural deficiencies. so when the president speaks of infrastructure deterioration throughout the country and the thousands and thousands of bridges that need to be repaired, he didn't know at that time, the next day one would become more than an abstract theory, it would become reality. we saw this unfortunately in minnesota. we hopefully have averted a similar disaster in my community but in the meantime this bridge which was built 15 years ago, which was examined just two years ago and judged to be

structurally fine, but because of advances in analysis of certain steel products they did a different kind of analysis this year, found cracks in the support system and had to shut the bridge down. now what has this done? i-64 which begins in virginia and runs through lexington, kentucky, and louisville, and onto st. louis, it's a major, major east-west artery of this country, and this country, both civilian and commercial traffic, about 90,000 vehicles err day go across this bridge -- vehicles per day go across this bridge. most of them in morning go into louisville, most of them in the afternoon go out of louisville in indiana. all that have traffic is being diverted onto i-65 we have a great centrally located community in lieuville, three interstates converge there. i-71, i-61 and i-64 and they all con verge in a pretty similar spot except now all that traffic

that can no longer go on i-64 across the sherman-minton has to go across the i-65 bridge. that bridge is already taxed to its extreme, it's operating at 25% more than it was envisioned to hold. now, 90,000 more vehicles are going to be coming across that bridge every day. so we don't know yet what's going to transpire with that sherman-minton bridge, whether it can be repaired, whether it's going to be to have to be condemned and rebuild. but we do know that if we had been making the kinds of investments in keeping our infrastructure current and modern and in making those investments over time, we would have had many, many thousands more people at work and we probably would have avoided this situation. so now this is both a very serious commercial and personal inconvenience and i don't want to go quite so far as saying it's a disaster but it's a very

serious problem in my community. but it also will be something that we can put lots of americans back to work as we either fix it or replace it. and, again, we are at a time now where we have example after example, thousands of these around the country. we are at a juncture where we can borrow money to do this at historically low levels and we can put tens of thousands of americans back to work. so i ask -- the theory as as espoused in the president's speech thursday night has become the reality in my community. it can become a reality of rebuilding america for all of us. with that i yield back to the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: let me ask you your reality with my reality. one scenario being a couple of decades old now. in 1987 a bridge collapse aid long the new york state freeway system because of flooding. this came along the creeks, that you could walk across, perhaps in some years during the month of august.

it had the c.f.s., the flow equal to niagara falls with this flooding. and it wiped out a bridge and i believe just about all of the tragedies, all of the loss of life which was some 10 or 11 people, were not from the area. so we're all at risk with these deficiencies to which you alluded. so it's important for to us keep up the investments. but as we speak this year, we saw some 500-year records broken with hurricanes from ravages of the waters of irene and the floods from the tropical storm lee. wiped out infrastructure galore and so now there is a need, a demand to have these types of infrastructure restored and rebuilt. otherwise the economy suffers. i saw what rail meant to jobs in my district through the course of time. i saw what the canal meant, not only for jobs in my district but in the westward movement, the industrial revolution. so, infrastructure is important.

i dwells on innovation economy, but you're so right to bring up the need for infrastructure and those improvements and i thank you, representative yarmuth, for your thoughts and hang with us because this is an order where we want to talk about job creation. we're joined by yet another outspoken voice from maryland's third district, representative john sarbanes is an outspoken advocate for job creation in our society. he knows that from the maryland experience we need jobs. from the new york experience by which i measure it all we need jobs. representative sarbanes, thank you for being a leader in the house and advocating for not only make it america but job creation of all times -- types here from the house of representatives. sash sash i want to thank -- mr. sarbanes: i want to thank the gentleman for assembling us here today to talk about this critical issue of jobs. if you talk to the average american, the issue they put at the top of the list, and frankly it's the issue they've had at

the top of their list for months now, is the issue of jobs and creating jobs to get the economy moving again. you know, you're just talking about the infrastructure issue. and it would be one thing if our infrastructure was in terrific shape, right? if we were sort of 100% repair right now and everything was new and shiny and then we had this economic crisis and we were looking around for ways to create good jobs, to get ourselves back on our feet. and there wasn't these infrastructure projects out there to provide those jobs. but that's not the case. as you point out, as congressman yarmuth just pointed out, you can look out your window and you can see evidence of the crumbling infrastructure across the country. so do we call that fortuitous? i don't know how you view it.

but at a time when we're trying to create jobs in this country, the fact that our infrastructure needs to be rebuilt is a tremendous opportunity for the country. and i commend the president, because in his address the other night he put rebuilding the infrastructure front and center. not again just because it's a job creation effort, although that's the number one premium that i think people are focused on, but because it has to be done. the amount of productivity this country is losing, because of the waste and inefficiency of having this crumbling infrastructure is mind-boggling, so at the same time you're rebuilding the country and creating jobs that way you're also strengthening the country so that going forward we can be more efficient, we can be more productive. i want to extend this notion of rebuilding this country beyond

just the physical infrastructure because i think it also applies to the idea of strengthening our country in terms of building capital. we know we have to invest in human capital. i think some of us are embarrassed when we look at these comparisons with other countries around the world in terms of how our students do when it comes to math or science or other important subject areas where the united states really should be at the forefront, we should be on the cutting edge so we can be competitive but we're not there. so what do you do about that? well, you rebuild the country in terms of investing in human infrastructure, in human capital and making the next generation as competitive and skilled as it can possibly be. yesterday i was in baltimore. we were celebrating adult education and literacy week. there are 90 million people, according to the research, there are 90 million americans who would benefit from literacy

and in particular adult education opportunities. when you're in an economy where things are moving fast, where some opportunities disappear and other ones appear, you need to be able to go back through our community college system and other resources to get our skills ready to meet the new challenge. we ought to be investing in that, and i commend the president because when he came here the other night not only did he talk about strengthening the physical infrastructure of the country but he talked about the importance of investing in the human capital of this nation. and i think every single american out there understands the imperative of rebuilding america. that can be our mantra. and when you rebuild america, what do you do? you restore the american dream.

the greatest frustration that people are feeling these days is they say, i worked hard, i played by the rules but i'm not getting the opportunities to move ahead. and when you rebuild this country you restore that american dream, you get us back to where we need to be as a nation, and that's what the american jobs act is intended to do. and i think that's what the agenda that the democratic party here in congress is putting forward with the president. i'm glad to support that, so i thank you for pulling us together today to focus on this very, very important issue of job creation. mr. tonko: well, representative sarbanes, i couldn't agree with you more. i know what happens when we retrain, retraining, apprenticeship programs, in pre-k through 12, in research centers, i witnessed the

inspiration that a clean room science course provided for a young man, 30, 35 years old, unemployed, ready to leave our area when he saw this clean room science at the local community college which was an investment from the federal government, he did a u-turn in his stated plan. this was something that was exciting. this was something that spoke to his heart and soul. this was something he wanted to engage in, and that's the opportunity that we can give people here. the storyline of america is basic. as you say, get me that american dream. let me unleash my skills, my talents. let me raise a family, build a home and dream that american dream, and we owe it to america and people have placed their faith in this jobs agenda. i can't tell you how many times, and i know we've talked, we've heard it from our colleagues people believe it in the make it in america opportunity.

they believe in tethering that dream, that american dream so that households, middle class -- let's take those values of the middle class and make it happen. we're happy you joined us and here is another partner of ours, a colleague who has led us oftentimes during special order on making it in america on jobs, none other than california's 10th district representative, john garamendi, representative garamendi, we often talk about the east coast-west coast. the message is unique. it's commonplace, across this country. thank you again for your leadership on the floor on job creation. mr. garamendi: mr. tonko and mr. sarbanes, thank you for being here. i'm delighted i'm able to join you today talking about infrastructure. earlier today just a couple ours ago my office, we had representatives from the city of davis near sacramento and another community, woodland, both of them in yolo county.

they came. they talked about a water infrastructure project. the water systems in those communities for 150 years have depended on groundwater. the groundwater is going bad. they need to develop a new water system, about $300 million, $400 million. and they cannot continue with the present system. they need help. but they also in doing that are going to be able to employ a vast number of people and put in place the infrastructure those communities need. we are talking about the university of california-davis campus with about 180 students. we are looking at over two million construction workers, men and women that could build that water system for those communities, they're out of work. two million are out of work, and the president came here on -- last week and said americans want to go back to work. they want a job and put forward

to this body, to the senate, the house a proposal, the american jobs act, the american jobs act, putting americans back to work. you want to deal with the deficit? take tax takers, people that are unemployed, and make them taxpayers. put them to work, and we can do this and simultaneously solve the long-term deficit problem of this nation by growing the american economy once again with, as you were saying, mr. sarbanes so well, infrastructure projects. you were talking about east coast-west coast, mr. tonko. 2,700 miles of american jobs almost unfit for travel. this is the kind of project that the president wants. $50 billion to rebuild the american transportation system so that we can travel. yes, mr. tonko. mr. tonko: the ravages, the

floods in portions of our country or the tragedies in texas with the many fires. you know, as the president proposes this infrastructure improvement, there are those who are hurting right now, who have been severely impacted by the waters of hurricane irene that went so far northeast and inland that they broke centuries worth of record keeping. mr. garamendi: well, mr. tonko, you and i were right here in the back of this house chamber earlier today and you were sharing with me the stories, the reality in your district. these are your constituents who have been harmed and we have our colleague, peter welch from vermont, who is also talking about the extraordinary damage done to the infrastructure in vermont. as we rebuild those communities as part of this american jobs act, people go to work in and those communities are able to once again stand on their own.

share with us some of the things you have seen from your own district and the needs for infrastructure reproliferationment in your community. mr. tonko: well, it's amazing because there are situations -- i'll first go to peter's district, representative resm's district in vermont where route 4 has been wiped out. it's just about removed from the map, and what was just a couple miles worth of activity for some people to travel to work now becomes this tremendous securitiest route that may even take you down into massachusetts and back into eastern vermont to get to the location. it has made life nearly impossible. i have seen the numbers of bridges wiped out in upstate new york, a tremendous amount of bridges, blocks that have been compromised in the area that i represent. i talk about the erie canal activity. the second phase of that canal development are now tremendously devastated by the

powerful force of water. homes that have been knocked out but the infrastructure, landslides and roads that are disappearing and different opportunities now that are really demanding. demanding of an investment like this in order for us to go forward. and as representative sarbanes made mention, this is a part of the equation for success of jobs. not only to improve and repair and instruct some of this -- construct some of this infrastructure but jobs in general. it's part of the equation of success. you have to move that product line. you have to deal with those freight issues. it's incumbent on us to respond. if politics gets in the way here it's grossly regrettable. it's unacceptable to hold back this nation simply because you choose to do a knee jerk political response to a plan outlined by a president who has

shown a vision here that is laser sharp about what needs to be done. mr. garamendi: you're absolutely correct. the president's american jobs act, which i'm embracing and i believe the democratic party has embraced, is one that is focused like a laser on the immediate challenge that america has. and that is employ americans. put americans back to work. another thing that's in the bill, and let me just pull this one up, this is about schools. 44% of the principals across this nation and all the schools across the nation have reported that their school in one way or another is not satisfactory for the students. bathrooms are not working, the playgrounds are falling apart, the roofs are leaking. we need to make america's schools physically strong and pleasant for the students to be in. so this is a major piece of it. this also is improving the science laboratories.

and the president has lined out about -- i'm trying to get the -- i forgot the number. i think it's about $30 billion to rebuild the american schools. it's not just the schools that are going to benefit from that and the children that are in those classrooms and on the playgrounds, but it's the americans that need jobs and they'll get those jobs rehabbing and rebuilding those schools. mr. tonko: you know, representative sarbanes talked, representative garamendi, about human infrastructure. it begins with sound schools that are not crumbling over the students' heads but also the investment in education. just recently during our august district work period i did a tour, numbers of tours -- a number of tours in my district with manufacturing, but one story pops into mind where a manufacturer in skoheri, a very rural county in my district, a cat center, center for advanced

technology, to come up with an idea to come up with automation so he can remain competitive in the global sweepstakes but he needs people who have specifically trained and educated to run this automation aspect within his assembly process. and so it becomes very important that this human infrastructure is critical. you know, i'm reminding -- i'm reminded all the time about a century old saga, stories of manufacturing and decades' old stories of what we used to manufacture in america. well, after doing it someplace else, the daunting challenge to america, to a sophisticated society is build the products not on the radar screen. that takes intellect, that takes genius that is cultivated in our schools and universities and research centers and then we create that product line that is brand new. but then the sophisticated society responding to a manufacturing challenge, and it

begins with the human intellect, it begins with human infrastructure. representative sarbanes, you are so on target with that investment on capital infrastructure, physical infrastructure and indeed human infrastructure. so thank you for bringing that. mr. sarbanes: if the gentleman will yield. i just want to echo this idea of investing in manufacturing in this country. the economists will tell you that a manufacturing job has a greater multiplier effect on the economy than any other kind of job that you can produce. so when you're investing in manufacturer mfing, when when you're creating mfing jobs, when you're making it possible for americans to make things in america, you're having the maximum impact possible on the broader economy. so it makes sense to do this. congressman garamendi referred to the repair and investment in our public schools across the

country that the president wants to do. 35,000 public schools would benefit to have projects waiting to move forward. in other words, think about this, this is not a situation where you decide first that you're going to go out and build infrastructure and then you got to go first do the design and the plans and everything else. i worked in maryland for eight years with the baltimore city public school system. which at that time needed about $1.5 billion worth of repairs just to get back to sort of what would be an acceptable standard in terms of the physical plan of the baltimore city school system. they know what they have to do. those plans are complete, all the design specks are done, all they need is the resources to make it happen. they can start on those projects tomorrow.

are there workers out there to do it? you bet. there's millions of unemployed construction workers out there and others who are ready to step up and fill that void. so this is something you can do right away. that's the beauty of it. that's the beauty of what's been presented to us. mr. garamendi: would you yield for a moment? mr. sarbanes: yes. mr. garamendi: they could start tomorrow if congress acts today to pass the american jobs act. because the resources, that is the money, would be there tomorrow. the day the president signs this bill those men and women can go to work rebuilding those schools. and there's one other thing that's in the president's bill that i am really excited about because we've been talking about this forever and a day around here and that is make it in america. there is a buy america provision in this legislation so when they go out and buy the paint, redo the air conditioning system, the heating and air conditioning system, those are going to be american-made paint,

american-made air conditioners and heaters. that's the kind of thing we can do, we can use the american taxpayer money to rebuild the american manufacturing industry, just as you said. we can do it. it's billions of dollars of american money in transportation, bridges, roads, buses, trains, used for american-made equipment. making it once again in america. this is exciting, this is really rebuilding the manufacturing base. mr. tonko: to representative sarbanes' point, every year that's wasted, that's allowed to pass by, youngsters in the third, fourth, fifth grade, whatever, will never have the experience they ought to. so we're letting down the workers of tomorrow by this delay, by this resistance, this recals trance of a political order that's unacceptable. just make the point that the owner of the facility that i

toured in the county, he reaches the community colleges routinely because he needs that upgraded skill set. there are manufacturing jobs across this country for which they need skilled labor and if we we walk away from that investment in human infrastructure, we denied progress for this country. we've been joined by an outspoken advocate for jobs, and i mean a very loud voice because we've heard the volume cranked up, the chair of our democratic caucus and the representative of connecticut's first congressional district, and that is none other than representative john larson, representative larson, thank you for joining us in this special order. mr. larson: i'm honored to join the gentleman from new york, the gentleman from california, the gentleman from maryland. martin luther king once described the need to act as the fierce urgency of now. nothing is more important to the american people, nothing is more

important to anyone listening to this broadcast than seeing this country go back to work. representative garamendi talked very eloquently about make it in america. people want to see jobs created in this country and want to see americans back to work because we all know that when we put america back to work, by making things here in america, that it provides the opportunity for every american to succeed. the president has called upon congress to act. he did so in a speech last week. we need to respond now. he did so in bipartisan fashion, citing bills that have come from both sides of the aisle. congress as an institution should be about the vitality of ideas that you heard expressed

here this evening, but then turned into a plan of action that sees us lowering our unemployment rate. it is simply unacceptable that congress would dawdle while 14 million americans are unemployed and a sum total of 25 million americans are underemployed. the time schedule that congress has here should be expanded so that we're working every day to see that americans are put back to work. 14 million americans are crying out for the president's proposal to be enacted, to see this body take action. they are tired of the endless

bickering between both sides and want to see action taking place in this body. my colleagues have outlined very specific proposals that will achieve those goals. we've just witnessed one of our colleagues who spoke so eloquently and i'm referring to mr. tonko from new york state about what has happened to his community, his district, the very character of which was changed because of a calamity, more than a 500-year level storm that ravaged the states of connecticut, new york and vermont and left people not only destitute in terms of their very homes and their livelihoods but again seeking what is fundamental to this country, a

certain sense of fairness in shared sacrifice, in commitment to helping out fellow americans. what better way than rebuilding our country and starting, starting with those communities that have been ravaged. the youth that could be employed immediately in our urban and rural areas, the rebuilding, as mr. garamendi has said, of roads and bridges and sewage systems and fire departments and public schools with broadband, to light up the desktops of our children and the blackboards or whiteboards, if will you, of our teachers so we can once again assume our rightful position as the preeminent economic leader in this global economy. we have professor and dr. joseph stig let speak before the caucus today. and he said it very clearly. that job creation equals deficit

reduction. we are not talking across the aisle here, we need to come together as americans. we witnessed this past weekend what can happen when america decides to be unified in common cause as we did and as we responded after the events of september 11. we need to respond to the crisis at hand which is 14 million americans that are unemployed. the devastation that it has wreaked on our economy, what it's meant to our housing, what it's meant to our education system, what it's meant to our manufacturing base that mr. garamendi has talked about time and again on this floor. that's what we have to do, is reinvest in americans and in doing so, as dr. stiglet, the preeminent economist in this country, has kealted, we can both -- indicated, we can both reduce our deficit by more than

25% and put america back to work. what we need is action from this congress. from this house of representatives. bring the president's bill to the floor. if you won't bring the president's bill to the floor, then engage the select committee that has a very specific time frame with deadlines and dates and no cloture votes in the senate, no poisoned amendments in the house, an up or down vote on jobs, that's what the american people are demanding. that's what you gentlemen have so eloquently put forward here. mr. tonko: chairman larson, we have precious few moments left. i'll make a few comments then yield to my gentlemen colleagues as we close this special order hour. to me, you know, you've identified it well. this country has had throughout its history its shining moments. this is our opportunity to invest in america's next shining moment. it will take commitment by the

legislators here on the hill in washington and encouraging and inspiring and in building a tone that brings us together to think as one as a nation, generation to generation to generation, region of the country to region of the country, political persuasion to opposite political persuasion, philosophy of difference to the philosophy of another kind, moving together, coming together, understanding this is our defining moment, it's our moment to create, our next shining example of america at her best. representative sarbanes, thank you for joining us. mr. sarbanes: thank you again, congressman tonko, for pulling us together this afternoon. i just want to make a couple of points. echoing what congressman larson said, if you look at just what happened over the last couple of weeks in terms of the disaster that hit the eastern seaboard and you can look over the last few months across this country and see those sort of disaster effects happening to people,

nobody would question that the federal government has an important role to play in coming to the assistance of people that are in that dire situation. whatever your larger philosophy is about whether government should be large or small and so forth, everyone agrees that government should be on the side of people that are facing such a desperate situation and should act quickly. so if we accept that proposition we also ought to think about the 14 million people, john, that you referred to who basically are facing an economic hurricane every single day. and it is the role, the appropriate role, the necessary role of the federal government taking those taxpayer dollars and saying, we're going to turn and help our fellow citizens in need and we're going to do it quickly and we're going to do it in way that not only helps them but is also good for the broader economy and we'll put people

back to work. let me just finish with this last thought. i hope people watching this discussion, and i hope people keep track of who's going to be supportive of the american jobs act and who's not. because there are going to be people in this chamber who vote against it. and drag their feet. and the reason i want people to pay attention is because people are getting cynical out there. and hope that it will cure some other cynicisms so see that there are folks yet here in washington who are absolutely determined to try to come to the assistance of people that are looking for good job opportunity out there. so pay attention because there are people here who want to do the right thing and hopefully that will stop you from becoming so cynical. with that i yield back the balance of my time. mr. tonko: thank you very much. to chairman larson and then representative garamendi to close. chairman larson. mr. larson: thank you again, paul, for organizing this special order. and i think john sarbanes said

it well. the gentleman from maryland spoke eloquently about the need for us to act and the need for us to act now. it has been a storm, it has been a hurricane for the 14 million people that are unemployed and for their families and all americans are asking is the simple dignity that comes from being able to look across the table at your spouse and your family and let them know that they are safe and secure because you have a job and you are providing for them. thank you. mr. tonko: you're welcome. representative garamendi to close. mr. garamendi: mr. tonko, thank you for bringing us together. yesterday the president delivered to this chamber a comprehensive american jobs act. employment for perhaps two, maybe more than two million americans, immediately available as soon as this congress acts.

and it is fully paid for, will not add to the deficit, it is fully pate for through a series of -- paid for through a series of tax increases on the super wealthy and the oil companies finally having to give up our tax money that they've enjoyed for more than a century. as a subsidy. we can do this. we must do this. we must put america back to work. and in doing so we will be able to deal with the deficit because americans have come once again, taxpayers, and we have created the critical investments in individuals, in education, in infrastructure and in small businesses all of whom will benefit from the american jobs act. it's our responsibility, it is our opportunity, it is america's opportunity to go back to work. mr. tonko, thank you for bringing us together. i yield back. mr. tonko: it's been a pleasure and honor to work with you gentlemen. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the speaker recognizes the gentleman from texas; mr. gohmert, for 30 minutes. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. this is a tough time in our american history. i was a history major at texas a&m, i had a scholarship. i had been inspired by american history in high school by sam parker, my teacher, my scout master. so i know a little bit about our history. i know a lot about world history as well. and it's important to take things in perspective, especially speeches here in washington, and take them from the perspective of how it all fits together. now, we have been in this

chamber, sitting right back there on the aisle, and we had the president of the united states standing right there, i was on a direct line of sight, eye-to-eye with the president, except his eyes cut right into the teleprompter each time he looked my way so i don't think we ever made eye contact. but he kept telling us, over and over, 16, 17 times, i didn't count them, i've been told, but he said, we've got to pass this bill right now, right now. this bill, right now. unfortunately, last thursday, when the president was saying we've got to pass this bill, right now, there was no bill. there was no plan. he talked about his plan, he talked about his bill. they didn't have it quite ready yesterday until later and we kept harassing the white house saying, we want a copy of the bill. we need a copy of the bill you

said pass the bill now. do we not get to even have a copy of the bill before we have to pass it? or would it be ok if we could, you know, see it before we pass it. it might be a good idea to file it at some point if we're going to pass a bill. just my thinking. so the white house was kind enough late yesterday to email a copy of the bill, we got it up on our website at gohmert.house.gov for others who are intrigued by the promises that have been made and what it actually does. let's see, it's called saving obama's job -- no, i'm sorry, american jobs bill. that's the name of it. it's interesting to hear somebody talk about their bill, and then get it and dig through. i think i finished about 5:00 this morning going through all 155 pages of the bill and it's

most interesting, some of these things i'm going to have to talk to people who have more expertise in particular areas, some things it's pretty obvious what they say. you know, page six, he gets right into payroll tax relief and again as the person who came up with the idea for a tax holiday as a way to stimulate the economy back nearly three years ago, and as a person who in january of 2009 told the president personally about my idea for a tax holiday, moody's rated a tax holiday as increasing the g.d.p., looked like more than other stimulus proposals, that was back in 2009, before this president squandered $4.5 trillion above and beyond the amount, around $2.2 trillion a year, that was coming in.

shocking that we can go through that much money. of course, we had two years, the first two years, with the same party in power in the house and senate as was in the white house, as is in the white house, and as i found my first term in 2005 and 2006, sometimes when you have the same party in the white house and in the house and senate, if the people in congress are not adequately restrained and cannot adequately restrain themselves, it ends up being a big spending frenzy and in 2006, again, my sec year in congress, we spent over $160 billion more than we took in. democrats across the aisle, rightfully,er to after republicans, how could you -- tore after republicans, how

could you spend more than $160 billion more than we had coming into the treasury? they were right to do so. we should not have spent $160 billion more than we had coming in. ironically, the president, president bush, in 2008, had a bill passed by the democrat controlled house and senate, a stimulus bill that opened the door a bit to these stimulus frenzies and $40 billion of that, $160 billion, as i recall, was going to be going to people who didn't pay any taxes, income taxes, as a rebate, which caused me to ask the president, how do you give a rebate to people who didn't put any bate in? then after that, we had tarp. and president bush -- president george w. bush is a good man. he's smarter than most people

in this town wanted to give him credit, one of the wittiest people you'll ever be around but he made the mistake of listening to, until now, the worst treasury secretary in the history of the country, hank paulson, and paulson said, give me $750 billion and i can fix things. well, that was a mistake. anybody that read that bill would understand, that was not a bill that should have ever passed. if more people on the house floor had read the bill, i am confident, i know they couldn't have brought themselves to vote for it but they didn't read it. many didn't. well, that's why i spent most of last night going through the president's jobs bill. he does have some payroll tax relief. but compared to the payroll tax relief i was proposing, we were

told it would be close to, if you just gave people all of their tax money in their check, it didn't need to come back from washington, it would be in the check, if we passed it and the president had signed it on a thursday, it would have been in their friday check. all of the money, all the taxes they paid. and that would have stimulated the economy more than -- and we wouldn't have needed the government to say, hey, let's bail out g.m. and let's bail out chrysler, because if people had had their own money, they could have gone down and bought a car from the car manufacturer and dealer that they wanted to buy from. instead of just throwing money at the car industry. and i appreciated the g.m. commercial saying, we paid our money back, unfortunately, that was not true, it was a misrepresentation. still money owed.

but anyway, i guess he would do well in washington with that kind of mentality. but the payroll tax provided, the relief provided here, is just a fraction of what i was suggesting in late 2008, 2009, and the president in fact when i told him the idea in january of 2009, said, that's a great idea. have you talked to larry? talking about larry somers, who was right behind him at the time. i said i'd love to talk to larry somers about it. somers gave me a card, it says give me a call he never took my calls. i waited a week and then he didn't call me, i felt hurt, you know, like high school days when you're trying to ask somebody on a date and they say, let me get back to you. well, i was snubbed. he didn't get back to me. ok, well, not the first time. i relentlessly called and kept

getting, i was given, eventually, to some young man who sounded like his voice was still changing but anyway, telling me to leave a message and i didn't leave messages and larry, as the president referred to him, never got back to me and i understand he's not over there now. but they didn't -- they called a tax holiday back in those days that got just a few bucks in people's pockets. nothing like the stimulus would have been if people had been able to keep their own money, all of it, for a couple of months. now, this wasn't my motive. my motive was to stimulate, but there was a secondary occurrence that would have happened, had we had a real tax holiday, even for two or three months. it would have been that workers

across america, including union workers, would notice, many of them for the first time, it would really come home, how much money they're sending to washington every month, and how much better their lives would be if they didn't send that much money to washington every month, if they had their own money to give to their own charitable causes, they had their own money to bail themselves out, their own money to stimulate their own household. everybody would have been better off. but that's not the tack the president chose. he got what was originally touted to be an $800 billion stimulus and he also had about $450 billion of the original tarp that he and secretary geithner were able to find ways

to squander and anyway, we were told if we did not pass the president's stimulus package back in early 2009, he said the unemployment rate, mr. speaker, might go as high as 8.5%. that 8.5% sounds pretty good. people remember him saying, well, gee, you pass this, the unemployment will be around 8% at the worst, wrong. but if you don't pass it, it could go as high as 8.5%. i'd take that 8.5% right now and have everybody that got that money give it back. it was for the most part wasted. people back then were told by the president, it's a stimulus bill. it's all about infrastructure. we're going to have this money going to infrastructure. well, there was only a tiny pittance of what may have been more like $1 trillion that went to infrastructure.

anyway, that goes through page 16 with that part. and we get into the first responders stabilization and there is $5 billion for one program, $4 billion for another program, $1 billion for the attorney general first responder stabilization fund. i guess $4 billion is for the attorney general to carry out a competitive grant program. it keeps being lost on people here that america's better off if you don't force people at the point of imprisonment and i.r.s. persecution to give all this money to washington and then we'll dole it out as we

see fit. the economy does better when you let people keep their own money and only bring just as much as necessary. don't try to run everybody's lives. but at page 17, we're going to give all this money to the attorney general's office and let them dole it out as they see fit and we've seen that it usually goes, if you're a friend of the administration, you're going to do well. if you're not, they're going to sick on you all the power of the bureaucratic, whether it's e.p.a., all these administrations -- administration's tools and you'll pay a price. we're finding that out in texas. now you go to the next, page 18, you've got elementary and secondary schools, they're supposed to get money. but of course, it's going to come through washington because we know best. and we're going to dole some

money to the states, we're going to dole some to state and local applications as indicated on page 19, but you can't miss this. it's throughout the bill, page 20, here we go again. we saw it with the fiasco in california this administration giving away $500 million that can't be accounted for now, just squandered, well we're going to do that some more. maybe if we keep throwing money at a bad idea, it'll somehow, someday, some way get a little better so page 20 has us prioritizing green practices, kind of like a bankrupt spain has done. now, there's money in here, page 21, and this is nice because money, even for private schools, but only if they have a child poverty rate of at least 40%. so then we go, you got community

college modernization and more green jobs within the colleges, page 23, and you go on and on, as i -- i mean, i went through this, it does go on and on. but then we're told, you know, we are going to invest this time we really, really mean it. we say we really meant it back in january of 2009, that we're going to have infrastructure and that's going to bring us out. we said it, we didn't spend it on infrastructure, we squandered it, acorn, all these different groups, but this time we really, really, really mean it and so, let's see, that looks like -- that's, ok, $2 billion for that program. and it's interesting, we got all this money we're going to put toward highways and what not. now, anyone, mr. speaker, that believes this was all going to go straight to infrastructure missed the point.

because then we get over to page 40 and you get to the real jobs. now, this is where the jobs are really created. started on page 40. it's called the american infrastructure financing authority. if you love fannie and freddie, you're going to love the american infrastructure financing authority. let's see, page 41, you find out , seven voting members appointed by the president, well, he's going to create -- he's good at creating jobs, look at all the government jobs he's added so, that's who i want having appointed, he's appointed all these people from universities who have never created jobs in their lives so they're perplexed why their programs aren't working. he does have the head of ge that's helping him with that -- g.e. that's helping him with that jobs program and china is grateful. china is very grateful to the head of g.e. because he's created lots of jobs, they're just in china and not here.

maybe he'll get to be on this board as well. but it's another government program and let's see, i want to make sure i get this right. let me see, board of directors will be deemed incorporater of aifa, that's american infrastructure financing authority. but that will make for some good reading. i wouldn't read it right before going to bed because you might not be able to go to sleep. then we get over to page 56 and this talks about the funding of the american infrastructure financing authority. and thed a minuteive fees, that's -- and the administrative fees, that's section 257. then we get into, hereby aprointed aifa to carry out this act for loan guarantees, and for administrative costs, $10 billion that will remain available until expended.

then you have some other moneys there. that's good news because, you know, you can spend that for administrative costs and fortunately in washington we don't run up much in the way of administrative costs. now, one thing that some people have talked about to raise a little bit of revenue is to sell some of our broadband spectrum and then we also know that there are those in washington who are not happy that the f.c.c. has not been able to have a fairness doctrine so they can dictate what goes on the air. well, not to worry. because people it seems are growing more and more to broadband than the radio waves and television waves, we're getting more and more broadband stuff, so we have the answer to the lack of a fairness doctrine that the f.c.c. has wanted to under this administration but we've been able to avoid it this far. there's nothing about a fairness doctrine in here but fortunately

you, get to page 75 you find out we're going to establish, i love this name, public safety broadband corporation, next page, 76, you find out, it's established a private nonprofit corporation and you're going to have some members who know how to run a government operation and create government jobs, of course it kills jobs in the private sector, but creating government jobs and that's down here, you've got the secretary of commerce, secretary of homeland security, attorney general, we're talking real job creators here, and others who will be on that board, so people can feel better about that, if you don't think we have enough government control of things, well, this bill, you're going to love it, more government control , more government corporations, because the thing that many missed and it jumped out at me

as i sat back there and the president spoke, when he says, we want to work side by side with business. for people who have ears and hear, that means this president wants to be your business partner. well, that scares some folks. and that's why i think you saw the market go down the next day. people who understand how real jobs in the real world are created know that the government being partners with people trying to generate jobs is a job killer. we don't need a government to be partners, side by side, working with business. the government as designed by the founders and as we're supposed to be carrying out is supposed to be a referee, to

make sure people play fair and if the government had made sure people were playing fair instead of dictating every detail of their existence, then they would have noticed that bernie madoff was cheating people. but the government, you know, our bureaucracy was too concerned with dictating how people live, what they -- they forgot about their job as referee and i've highlighted so much stuff as i went through the night and i won't bore you with all of this, mr. speaker. let's see, public safety roaming priority access, f.c.c.'s going to get to report on efficient use of public safety spectrum. there's all kinds of -- oh, extension of extended benefit provisions. good stuff there. now, i've been a fan of retraining people when there are jobs in one sector and people have lost jobs in another and

there are no jobs with that -- the training they have. that's a good idea. it's better money than just throwing out unemployment reimbursement, if you can train people to have a real job. this bill spends billions of dollars, we've got the reemployment now program, that's a new federal -- re-employment now program, that's a new federal bureaucracy, a new federal program. we got the state plan, page 98, we got the bridge to work program at 99. we're going to retrain people for jobs, we don't have jobs that they can fill but we're going to spend a lot of time training them for jobs that don't exist. when we'd be better off encouraging the real job creators, the small business folks, into creating jobs and then train them for that, but, no, we're going to suck more capital out of the financial

community, into the government, so we can train people, retrain people for jobs that don't exist. now, then we have the page 106, the short time compensation program and its purposes -- short-term compensation program means a program in which participation of employers reduce the number of hours worked by employees in lieu of layoffs. such employees whose workweeks have been reduced by at least 10% are then eligible for unemployment compensation. you lose 10% of your work time, guess what? we're now opening up a new avenue for unemployment compensation. 10%'s all it takes of the reduced. employers, i've talked to so many saying, i'm asking my employees, i don't want to fire anybody, i'm asking them to hang on, we're all reducing what we're taking in, and we're going

to try to get through this without firing anybody, but, you know, everybody's had to take a cut. well, this will make them eligible for unemployment compensation which raises their unemployment insurance rates they have to pay which means they're going to have to lay off somebody in order to pay the additional unemployment insurance rates. of course then you've got temporary financing of short-term exenscagsesation agreement, page 109 -- compensation agreements, page 109, we have grants, subsidizing unemployment for low income adults. instead of sucking all this capital out of the private sectorer, it would seem like we would want to help create more jobs. well, if you're not satisfied with all the jobs that are created by the new government programs, new government agencies, it's wonderful that we've got something better than fannie and freddie for

infrastructure financing, that's great. but i understand that lawsuit filing is down significantly around the country. our constitution tells you, and we know in our hearts that it's wrong to discriminate against people based on race, creed, color, national origin, gender, those things make sense. we shouldn't discriminate. and those are protected classes. we've also added no matter what your sexual preference, your sexual orientation, no matter what your oriented toward sexually, because the democratic majority would not allow us to define sexual orientation to exclude illegal activity. which know sexual orientation is a protected class now. we are adding in this bill a new

protected class called unemployed. title on page 129, prohibition of discrimination in employment of the basis of an individual's status as unemployed. and it says right here in the findings that we find that denial of employment opportunities to individuals because of their status as unemployed is discriminatory and burdens. it goes on and explains this in preceding pages. soed good news is, if you're unemployed and you goes to apply for a job and you're not hired for that job, see a law lawyer, you may be able to -- see a lawyer, you may be able to file a claim because you got discriminated against because you were unemployed. now, some would point out legitimately that will discourage people from doing interviews of people unemployed because if they do they've got a claim, may have a claim to make

against the employer for discrimination based on the fact that they were unemployed. so i think this will help trial lawyers who are not having enough work because it can open the door, you know, we heard from friends across the aisle in the preceding hour, 14 million people out of work. that's 14 million potential new clients that could go hire a lawyer and file a claim because they didn't get hired even though they were unemployed. and we've heard the president demonize billionaires and millionaires and why are the republicans so strong on trying to bail out the rich friends? well, what we've learned here in this town in recent years is that if the very wealthy don't mind being called names they will be enriched and even engorged. for example, we know that wall street executives have been called fat cats by this

administration and demonized yet the little secret behind the scene's joke is, don't mind being called names, this administration has brought more profit to wall street than goldman sachs has ever seen in their history. and wall street executives, their families gave to president obama 4-1 over john mccain so of course they got a good little deal going there and also demonize oil and gas industry even though, you know, you love british petroleum because they were going to endorse the cap and trade bill. and you demonize them and then you stick provisions in this bill that have no affect on the big major oil companies, they will only affect, these provisions at the back of page 151, they will not affect the big majors like british petroleum except that because they will destroy the ability of

independent producers that produce much or maybe most of the oil and gas in the continental u.s., it would drive them out of business, it will dry up investment, there's a restriction on -- this is repeal of the oil and gas working interest exception, so there's things in here that's going to dry up the independent oil companies' ability to function and the pay-for we were told over and over, this is all paid for, is on page 155. here it is. get ready. the budget control act of 2011 is amended by striking $1.5 trillion that the supercommittee is going to have to find in cuts and inserting $1.95 trillion. so this pay-for, it's all paid for, it's all paid for, and what's all paid for is the new supercommittee is now ordered under the president's built to find another $450 billion to pay for his bill, so it's all paid

for, amen. there are so many more problems i haven't had a chance to get to and there are some things i probably missed even as i went through this, but there is such bad news for america in here, union workers, watch out, this may be the end of your jobs. but it's ok because the unions are growing by getting more government employees, not the hardworking folks in the regular unions, these are the government unions. it should say, instead of america's job bill, saving the president's job bill, but this is a disaster for every other thinking person in america and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the

chair recognizes the distinguished gentleman from north carolina, mr. mchenry, for 30 minutes. mr. mchenry: thank you, mr. speaker. today i rise to pay tribute to an amazing young lady from my district taken from us far too soon and far too young. jennifer rose was a resident of morris -- of mooresville, north carolina, in my district and had just graduated from high school in may. she was looking forward to beginning college as part of the honors program at the high point university in the fall. jennifer and her twin sister stef knee served as interns in my district office in hickory last year. my staff still talks about them and the great work they did and their wonderful personalities and their real gift for service. both jennifer and stephanie's interest and passion for learning the inner workings of

government and the district office and the political process were far beyond their years. but it was in dealing with constituents and helping people that both general -- both jennifer and stephanie truly blossomed. in fact, they had an ability to speak to constituents, many of whom were upset about a problem they were having or an encounter they had with a government agency or perhaps veterans' benefits or a similar program weren't working for them. calmly they'd document their issues and take good care that most life-long caseworkers would envy. it was as if they'd been on the job for years. it was no surprise that jepfer exceled in this type of work. whether at school, or church, or everyday life, helping people was a hallmark of jennifer's life.

in fact, she and stef knee had just returned from peru with a group of their fellow graduates from south lake christian academy, where they helped build classrooms and held bible study classes for indigent children. jennifer and stef knee, you know, they come from a great family. i've known their parents, jeff and lisa, for several years an i'm honored to count them as friends. they're some of the town's most outgoing and charitable people and with fine parents like these, it's no wonder that jennifer, stephanie and their oler sister samantha turned out to be the fine young women they did, incredible, special young ladies. but tragedy struck this family and the entire community over the july 4 weekend when jennifer and stephanie were involved in an automobile accident. sadly, jennifer was taken on a

that -- on that day and stephanie was injured but thankfully, thank the lord, she survived. thousands later turned out for jennifer's memorial service and funeral. and people asked, why did so many people, thousands of people, come out to this extraordinary 18-year-old young lady's funeral? and it was, i think, put in the best words by the head of school at south lake christian academy, wane parker. -- wayne parker. he said, jennifer was full of joy that easily drew others as she allowed her love of the lord to shine through her. jennifer was a fine young lady, an impressive individual, and i was honored to know her. my staff still has the highe of

praise that they got to work with her and i say to jeff and lisa, i say to you, you did a wonderful job raising that fine young lady. and i say to not just jeff and lisa, but samantha and especially stephanie, that the lives jennifer affected, you could never count. but she had a wonderful and amazing impact in her brief time on this earth. and her service will not be forgotten. and so, with that, i want to pay great honor and to remember jennifer rose neruto for the wonderful person and wonderful individual she was in her brief time on this earth. i want to say thank you for the

opportunity to have known her. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina yields back his time. does the gentleman from north carolina have a motion? mr. mcren hi -- mr. mchenry: i move that the house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the mogs to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m.

and a homeless person has lost all of those contacts. >> i think the most common stereotype is that folks are homeless because they're not trying hard. that they're lazy or victims of their own lack of initiative. >> so should the federal government spend our tax money to help these people? >> i think there's definitely an important role for the government to play in ending poverty and ending homelessness. people really feel like the government should stay out of social service work and the churches should be doing it all, or people should just be on their own and there shouldn't be help for them anyway. i don't believe that. >> that's one of the winners from last year's studentcam competition. you can see all the winning videos online at studentcam.org. now this year's studentcam is under way, the topic, the constitution and you. get more info at zuents

cam.org. >> secretary of state hillary clinton said no embassy personnel were injured in the attacks today on the embassy in kabul, afghanistan. her comments came at the beginning of a news conference updating a report on religious freedom around the world. later in the event, the assistant secretary of state and the u.s. ambassador at large took questions from reporters. the briefing is just over half an hour. >> good morning, everyone. here with me today are michael pose for the, our assistant -- posner, our assistant secretary for human rights and labor, suzanne johnson cook, our ambassador at large for international religious freedom, and members of their teams. they will brief you on our efforts to promote religious freedoms and will take your questions afterwards.

before i begin on this important topic, i want to address the situation in afghanistan, where there was an attack on our embassy in kabul today. it appears that a number of afghan civilians have is been hurt and we, of course, will do all we can to assist them. there are no reports of casualties among embassy personnel at this time. we are following this very closely, also the unfolding situation in the area, including at nato headquarters, which for those of you who have been in kabul, you know is across the street from our embassy compound. we will take all necessary steps not only to ensure the safety of our people, but to secure the area and to ensure

that those who perpetrated this attack oare dealt with. but i want to say a word about our civilians who serve at our embassy. it is of course state department, diplomats, usaid, experts, it's a whole of government effort and there are civilians across, from across our government who are there with the sole purpose of assisting the people of afghanistan in a transition toward stability, security, and prosperity. the civilians who serve are dedicated, brave men and women, committed to advancing our mission. they will not be intimidated by this kind of cowardly attack. while they work hard every day along with their afghan

colleagues to help children go to school, to help save mothers' lives at childbirth to build roads to assist farmers, the opposition, violent extremists, the taliban and their allies engage in a constant effort to threaten and to undermine peace and progress of the afghan people. so we will be vigilant but we will be continuing with even greater commitment to doing all we can to give the afghan people who have suffered so much a chance at a better future for themselves and their children. now as you know, the protection of religious freedom is a fundamental concern of the united states going back to the earliest tais of our republic. it remains so today. as we look around the world, in

fact, we see many countries where governments deny their people the most fundamental human rights, the right to believe according to their own conscience, including the freedom to not believe or not follow the religion favored by their government. the right to practice their religion free i do hi without risking discrimination, arrest, or violence, and the right to educate their children in their own religious traditions and the freedom to express their beliefs. in iran, authorities continue to repress sue fee muslims, evangelical christians, jews, baha'is, sunnis, and others who do not share the government's religious views. in china,ity bet tan buddhists,