host: fred guterl executive editor scientific american, the piece, the cover story is the future of science, 50, 100 and 150 years from now. thank you so much for being with us from new york city this morning. guest: it's my pleasure. host: we now go to the floor of house of representatives. that's all for "washington journal" this morning. the house is in for morning hour and at noon for legislative usiness. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. january 2, 2013. i hereby appoint the honorable

david rivera to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 17, 2012, the chair will now recognize members from lists smithed by the majority and minority leaders -- submitted by majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and minority whip limited to five minutes each, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer, for three minutes. mr. hoyer: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, it was to my

profound disappointment that i learned last night that the house would adjourn the 112th congress without providing assistance to the victims of superstorm sandy. i am joined today, mr. speaker, by many of my colleagues from the jurisdictions that -- whose people received the most damaging blow. though my district did not sustain the extreme damage that those in new york, new jersey, and connecticut did, the president declared several maryland counties eligible for federal assistance from this storm. but it was minor, and my citizens are not in dire circumstances. but the citizens of some who we'll hear from today are in that condition. those counties joined hundreds in the 1,000-mile diameter of this storm, the largest geographicically in the history

--geographically in the history of the atlantic hurricanes. now at best the speaker said that sandy's victims will need to wait until the next congress to receive assistance. wait. they say to millions who are in pain and in distress. we should not be waiting, mr. speaker. we should be voting this very morning, which i tell you, mr. speaker, i expected to happen from my discussions with the majority leader. as i said last night, i went with congressman greg meeks to breezy point and the rockaways in new york. what i saw there, mr. speaker, in sandy's aftermath defied description and demanded action. to those who say that fema has not yet disbursed all the funds

it has to assist families and businesses, i would tell them that they deeply underestimate the damage in these areas and the wide range of assistance required to alleviate the pain and suffering. i saw the mountains of degree that the corps of engineers have begun to move from neighborhoods. that degree represents people's lives, homes -- debris represents people's lives, homes, and businesses. with this legislation we would have provided up to $1.6 billion for the corps to continue removing debris so families could continue rebuilding would we have borrowed that money? yes, just as if the furnace went out and the temperature was at zero, you would immediately replace the furnace to keep the family safe and borrow the money to do so. yes, we would have had to repay it, and we will.

this bill would have allocated $6 million in emergency aid for food banks, food banks to make sure that people in the richest country on the face of the earth have some sustenance for them and their children. i saw an area of breezy point where more than 100 homes were devastated by fire when an electric transformer malfunctioned. the many firefighters who lived in that neighborhood could not get additional help from surrounding areas due tote severe flooding. they battled mightily and saved many lives, but there is little left, indeed, none of their homes. i saw local businesses, mr. speaker, which had been there for years completely destroyed, waiting for the $620 million in s.b.a. assistance this bill would have provided. we talked a lot about not imposing burdens on small business by additional taxes. these small businesses are out of business without our help.

we walk away today from nearly $4 billion in assistance to help reconstruct places which is critical to the areas' economic recovery and important to prevent further storm damage. finally there is also the toll on transit and infrastructure, including inundated subway and traffic tunnels which were referred to last night. this bill would have provided up to $10.9 billion for transit, and $2.2 billion for highways to help make sure that the area is not just cleared of water but repaired. if small business is going to be able to operate, it will be because consumers and customers can get to them and get to the schools and get to the hospitals and get to their families. waiting to act until later this month when members are here and ready to vote last night is not , is not the right choice. no member of this house who

traveled to the northeast could see the damage until anyone in those areas to wait, wait for us to act. wait for us to help. wait for us to come to your aid. we cannot and we should not wait. we must not walk away. mr. speaker, i urge the speaker of this house to reconsider and to act immediately. now, now, now is the time to act. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. stearns, for five minutes. mr. stearns: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that after my five minutes the balance of what i have here can

be part of that speech. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. stearns: mr. speaker, good morning. we have had a very good session of the 112th congress, and we got through it last night, and i think all of us are -- regardless how you voted, feel a certain relief that we can move on in this country and start to tackle the huge amount of deficit we have. this is going to be my last speech on the floor. i had the opportunity yesterday to put a speech in dealing with what i felt were some of the problems in this country dealing with deficits and i quoted a lot from thomas jefferson who aptly realized how troublesome and serious the amount of borrowing by this congress and past congress could do to this country. and he inherited similar

situation when he became president, and how he solved it is one of the reasons that i felt it important to put in the record his acute sense of urgency and how he went about solving the deficit he inherited. i talked about that last night in my speech. and the second thing i also talked about was this whole idea changing economics -- keynesian economics and the problem we have is continuing the stimulus, stimulate the economy with either q-1, q-2, q- with these qualitative easing that chairman bernanke is doing and how that is ultimately hurting this country, but also i thought i would speak briefly today on some of the accomplishments that i have had over the 24 years, and some of these are very important, i think, for my district and of course i think for the country. the first one i'll mention is the cross barge canal. this is 86,000 acres tied up at the federal government,

president nixon wanted to do the crossbar barge canal, then ultimately he decided against this, this amount of land was tied up in the federal register and helped with charlie bennett, a congressman from jacksonville at that time, sponsored a bill to take that 86,000 acres and move that back to florida where it was originally located. so we dee authorized the canal and president bush signed into law my bill november 29, 1990. the second major piece of legislation i very proud of is the telecommunication act of 1996. i was on the conferee with the senate. i had many amendments involved with that, particularly with the broadcast side. it provides competition, reduced regulation, and started this whole innovation in our telecommunication industry, and it was a great honor for me to serve and to be contributing to that great bill which created

all the new jobs in this country. the third one was the veterans millennium health care benefits act, was signed by brinbrin on march 10 -- president clinton on march 10, 2000. this bill was to provide extended care services for our veterans to make improvements in health care programs at the department of veterans affairs. i was chairman of the health subcommittee at the time and i was able to advance this bill and i'm very proud that president bill clinton signed this. the fourth bill was the cardiac arrest survival act of -- president clinton signed this on november 13, 2000. it prevents as many as 50,000 unnecessary deaths each year in the united states by using what's called a.e.d.'s, which are automatic external defibrillators. this is now allow -- this has now allowed people to be trained to save lives. this act was very important and i'm glad that it was signed as

my bill. the fifth one that i'm very proud of that president bush signed is dealing with asthma conditions. self-administration of medication was prevented in schools because they had no drugs allowed and so many children had asthma and they needed epy pen or -- epi pen or abeauty rol, and if it wasn't available they could go into asthma attack. this bill allowed that-tsh these nurses and people at schools to have this type of treatment. the sixth one is the protection of lawful commerce in arms act. it was signed by president george w. bush october 26, 2005. it basically provided civil liability action, protection for companies who are manufacturing, distributing, or imported firearms or ammunition for damages that caused cities and states was suing the manufacturer. it was nuisance suits and i'm

glad president bush signed it. my last one that i'm very happy to talk about is the bill that president clinton signed. it was h.r. 5109, which basically administered the veterans health administration to help personnel. in closing, mr. speaker, i want to thank jack, my chief of staff, for his 20 years of service. paul for his 17 years. sherry for her 10. and shawna williams for her 14 years of service. they did extraordinarily good job and i thank them. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. nadler, for he three minutes. -- for three minutes. mr. nadler: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, sometimes events occur that are so out of the ordinary, so unusual as to defy belief. such is the decision of the speaker last night not to permit this house to vote on relief on aid for the three states and some other areas

that were devastated by hurricane sandy. i have been in this house for 20 years. there have been many disasters, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires and every single instance this house has voted aid for the appropriate -- necessary states. in every single instance. usually within a week or two. never more than three. it has now been nine weeks since october 29 when hurricane sandy devastated three states and parts of more. nine weeks. the senate passed the bill to aid us. the house was ready. the bill was prepared, an amendment was prepared. we were assured the bill would be on the floor last night or today. the last minute the speaker without even talking to republicans -- not to mention democrats from new york, refusing to meet with them, suddenly pulled the bill and said we wouldn't have a vote.

as if the people in new york and connecticut and pennsylvania and new jersey are not in aid. as if thousands of people are still not without heat, without water, and just thousands of small businesses don't need loans and aids so that they don't go under, as if thousands of people do not need help to rebuild their homes, clear the trash from their properties, and hundreds of municipalities don't need aid to finance this activity, having used up all their budgets for that purpose, we are told by the chairman of the appropriations committee, we'll get a bill on the floor later this month in the next congress. it's already nine weeks. it's already an unprecedented length of time. why? are new yorkers and pennsylvanians and connecticut residence and new jersey residents less american than the people we aid in the midwest and south when we vote for aid for those people because they are the victims of natural disasters? .

how can we treat an entire region of the country this way? it's the most disgraceful action i've seen in this house in the time that i've been here. we're told that while fema has money until march. it's not just fema, it's the small business administration that needs the appropriation now to help small businesses now. it's the army corps of engineers that needs the authorization and appropriation now to help the municipalities an help the people who have victimized. there's no excuse for this. none. it is a betrayal of the people of those states, it is a betrayal of the people of the united states, it's a betrayal by the speaker personally of the member of this house not to permit a vote. i've never seen an action like it, i hope i never see it again. i urge the speaker to reconsider and rectify this decision today because today is the deadline to avert going down in history as shameful.

i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. grimm, for five minutes. mr. grimm: thank you, mr. speaker. it's very difficult to stand here and have to speak to my constituents knowing that we're going to break, we're going to end this congress, and i'm going to go and walk the streets in midland beach new york south beach, in tottenville, and i'm going to meet with homeowners i have been meeting with for nine weeks now and i can't tell them that everything is going to be ok. because as of right now, everything is not ok. in fact, it's far from ok. i don't often agree with my

colleague that just spoke, mr. nadler, on a lot of substantive issues. but i have to agree with him today. that is not an easy thing for me to do. because there was a betrayal. and there was an error in judgment. that is going to cost, i think, the trust of the american people, not from me, body as a whole as we move forward. i couldn't be more proud to be an american. i used to tease people that i bleed red, white, and blue. since i was young i knew i would serve in the military. and i did. i would have given my life for this country time and time again. and even later on, i put myself in harm's way serving with one

of the greatest investigation. a huge honor. and i really, really felt when i took my oath as a member of congress that it would be a level of service that would even outweigh my prior service because i was going to be in a position to help my fellow americans every way that i could and to actually go out and touch my friends and neighbors, even those that didn't support me or had different political ideologies, i was going to be able to use the work ethic i inherited from my father to make their life a little better. that's why i took this job. to make people's lives a little better. to make life in the united states a little better. and i'm not able to do that

today. and i don't understand why. and i think it's inexcusable that we did not have this vote and bring those that are suffering, those men and women that are looking at their children right now and they're not sure what to tell them because they've lost their small business, their only source of income. and why is that important? well, because the s.b.a. and fema and all the government officials that hit the ground when superstorm sandy hit explained that if you didn't get money into the hands of these small businesses almost immediately, then most likely they would go under. if you didn't start rebuilding right away, people start to become depressed and they lose hope. let's not even discuss the

economic impact. so to delay this vote even for another day is something that will resonate not only with the people that have been affected or are suffering and have lost everything but i think it will resonate with the american people for a long time. i think it will make them wonder what we are here for and what is the role of the federal government? what is the role of the congress? and maybe most importantly, can they trust us? so it is with a heart felt apology that i apologize to my constituents, to my fellow new yorkers in need, those in new jersey, connecticut, and pennsylvania, i did all that i could, i will not stop, i will not relent and i will continue to push for this vote to come as quickly as possible but there is no rime or reason and it is inexcusable that it has

not come already and you are in my thoughts and my prayers and i will be there on the gound as soon as i get back to new york to help as much as i can, knowing that i'm not helping nearly enough because we don't have the funding to do so. i want to thank my colleagues across the aisle that have been exemplary. it has been an honor to work so closely with you on these efforts. it has been not only bipartisan but bicameral. governors, mayors, all across the aisle have weighed in. and that is something that i will treasure and will continue to do as we move forward knowing -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. grimm: that is something we have to do as we move forward. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman

from new york, mr. crowley, for three minutes. mr. crowley: thank you, mr. speaker. last night, republican leadership reneged on the commitment to vote on aid for the families in states devastated by superstorm sandy. they were told it's because republicans -- we were told it was because republicans just couldn't stomach any additional votes in this congress. i wonder if those same people walked along the beaches of long beach in long island, breezy point and bell harbor and rock it is away beach, staten island or se seaside heights in new jersey if they could stomach the devastation they would witness. stomach the lives that were lost. stomach the homes that have been destroy or the family that was been displaced, stomach the businesses that are closed and in many places have been lost. in the weeks after the storm,

my republican colleagues told us, not all, by the way, i want to point out that mr. grimm, mr. king, mr. dold, and others were very, very helpful. but the leader shipe -- leadership i'm talking about told us with us and would support us. but i guess those were only words because last night we learned the truth. thanks to their actions, there's no additional federal assistance to help hardworking people rebuild and restart their lives. now i'm not a cynic but i do wonder, what if we told republicans that a few millionaires and billionaires' lives were destroyed by this storm, whether they'd want to help all the families hurting because of sandy? i wonder what if republicans were promised that by providing aid to families in need that in turn they would get a tax break? would these incentives have changed their minds?

would it have prompted action? because it truly does appear that their only priority is helping those that have the most. republicans in congress brought this house to a new low last night. the banner other the speaker's chair says, in god we trust. god alone cannot help these people rebuild but the american people cannot trust the republican congress to help either. the only thing the republican leadership did is serve up false promises to the families, false guarantees, many know my cousin john moran was killed on 9/11. he came from the rockaway community. there was a monument on the beach, dozens of mononumets along the rockaway peninsula. they were destroyed by hurricane sandy. it didn't stop my family and

his neighbors to go out and sift through the feet of sand to find that memorial with that -- it was that precious they didn't wait for the federal government to come help pull them up by their boot strap they did it themselves, they continue to do it. they're humble people, proud people throughout the entire region affected by this. they will recover but sadly to say, no thanks to the 112th congress. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. dold, for five minutes. mr. dold: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today and i know we've talked a lot, i've heard from my colleagues about sandy and i want to talk about that. i want to talk about last night we were able to avoid the fiscal cliff. the american public at least the constituents that i talked to -- that i talk to on a regular basis are looking for certainty, looking for us to find common ground, looking for

us to move the country forward. i'm a small business owner, mr. speaker. i need a -- i meet a budget and a payroll and i employ 100 people. for me, that's 100 families. it's a role and responsibility i take very seriously. why i do believe the federal government should play as little role as possible in the lives of americans, they do need to play a role. they need to be able to provide those things that americans cannot provide for themselves. whether that be infrastructure, whether that be common defense, justice. these are some of the things i think we do share a lot of common ground with. mr. speaker, i spent some time in long island, new york, recent he and also in new jersey. the devastation that sandy has caused that region is nothing short of remarkable. and while i do believe we have a spending problem that has been going on frankly in this house on both sides of the

aisle for a long time, there are those times when we need to come together as an american people and say we have americans out there that cannot provide for themselves, that have been deaf stated, that need a helping hand. do enge they'll repay that? i do. we have an opportunity, mr. speaker, to come together as americans, republicans and democrats together, to try to help provide need. my colleague joe crowley was up here talking about the devastation on the beaches, michael grimm and i'm sure most of the new york and new jersey delegations which will come up here will talk about the devastation that's happening in their communities. i do believe that we have a role to play. and i do believe that action needs to happen and happen quickly. now, there are many on my side of the aisle that believe we shopt be spending a nickel more

than we have to. while i agree we need to tighten spending and that this body needs to treat spending and those dollars as if they were their own, we can't needlessly ask taxpayers to put more resources in to have them squandered. let me tell you, mr. speaker, these dollars will not be squandered. i believe they're desperately needed, at a time when many americans have lost hope. there is that opportunity for us to stand united together to provide that hope for the american public. it may be new york and new jersey and connecticut and pennsylvania today, but it may be a different part of the country tomorrow. now as we look forward, mr. speaker, as the 112th congress comes to a close, we have a heck of a lot more work to be done as a country. and i for one hope that we can talk about reining in the out

of control spending but it's not going to happen with one party or the other. it's going to have to be about bipartisanship. and i do hope we can bring pieces of legislation on this floor like simpson-bowles in that framework to talk about revenue increases, whether that be through reforming the tax code and talking about whether we can rein in spend, how we can reform things to make sure we have a social safety net which is so vital. i believe we need to have that social safety net and strengthen that social safety net so it's there for future generations, i also think, mr. speaker, as we look at health care, we have to start thinking outside of the box. and certainly i have enjoyed working with rob andrews on american center for the cures, an idea that we need to be looking at how do we solve and cure some of these diseases we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on treating each and every year.

whether it's diabetes, alzheimer's, parkinson's, if we came up with a cure for these types of diseases, think about where we'd be then and where we could put additional resources into the vital areas our goth needs to fund. i am optimistic, mr. speaker, i'm optimist exthat our best days are ahead and i also know people are fed up with the idea of partisanship and i fear we're going further partisan that we're anchoring to the extremes as opposed to coming to the center. my hope is that this body can focus more on what we agree on as opposed to what we disagree on. that's what the american public is looking for. that's what i hope this congress can flish in the 113th and beyond. i want to take this last moment to thank so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their friendship, for their support, and i certainly look forward to continuing the friendship in future years. thank you and i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. lowey, for 2 1/2 minutes. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, the republican do-nothing leadership has an opportunity to do something, something very important today to help the more than 17 million americans who were devastated by hurricane sandy. one of the worst storms in u.s. history. more than nine weeks ago. the senate has sent us a good bill. we are ready to act. we have the bipartisan votes to pass it. and yet the house republican leadership has said there will be no votes today. the last day to pass this legislation without delay before we have to start all over again in the new session of congress tomorrow. let me be very clear, republican leadership has turned their backs on new yorkers. they have turned their backs on those suffering without homes, businesses, struggling just to get by.

they have no valid reason for delay. only the dysfunction with which they lead this body. this record storm resulted in the death of over 100 americans. the coast of new jersey, new york, connecticut have been devastated. other surrounding states have sustained significant damage. in 2005, this body came together, passed a federal disaster assistance bill to help the gulf recover from hurricane katrina two weeks after the storm. congress acted to assist those who suffered damage in hurricane gustav, ike, within one month. the governors of our states, democrat and republican, have assessed over $82 billion in damages. the senate bill would have provided $60.4 billion. not everything that was requested, but a detailed, thoughtful disaster assistance plan to help these communities

rewilled. -- rebuild. more than nine weeks since the storm hit house republican leadership is doing nothing after giving us nearly virtual assurance just yesterday that we would consider this assistance bill today. when a disaster hits on american soil, we as a congress have the responsibility and tradition of working together, democrat and republican, to help communities rebuild. our citizens are counting on us to help them recover from this storm and mitigate future disasters. i urge, i respectfully urge house leadership to reconsider their decision. support the victims of hurricane sandy. put politics aside. do the right thing. people are waiting. people need this assistance. let's bring the bill to a vote today. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. king, for five minutes.

mr. king: thank you, mr. speaker. at the outset let me thank you for your service during the time of congress and thank you very much for your remarks here this morning. i think it's important to set the record straight. last night many of us came to the floor and rightfully said that the conduct of the republican leadership was disgraceful, it was indefensible and immoral. i think it's important to lay out the facts as to how we reached this situation so we are not put in the position of name-calling or somehow we are angry or feelings are hurt. this goes far beyond any of that. the fact is that as congresswoman lowey said, within 10 days after katrina, $60 billion was appropriated. that ended up going over $130 billion. it's now nine weeks and nothing has been proachted at all by this congress for the people of -- appropriated at all by this congress for the people of new york, new jersey, connecticut, long island which i represent. the fact is that over the last five, six, seven weeks we did everything that the republican leadership asked us to do.

governor cuomo came down, i was at the meeting. he met with the speaker. governor kristi came down, mayor bloomberg came down. he met with the majority leader. we were asked to submit detailed document. they all submitted absolute documentation. when we asked is there anything else required? no. you have given us all we need. when the bill came from the senate we were told there was some pork in the bill. that was taken out of the bill. the bill was going to be voted on on the house floor was exactly in compliance what the republican leadership asked us to do. let me just say at this time in my dealings with him, majority leader cantor has been very straightforward, very direct. last night i know that he was fighting to get the bill on the calendar. it was the speaker, for whatever reason, walked off the floor and said that the bill was being pulled. i don't enjoy saying this. i consider myself a personal friend of john boehner. and john boehner personally has been very helpful to me over the years. it pains me to say this. but the fact is dismissive

attitude that was shown last night toward new york, new jersey, connecticut typifies, i believe, a strain in the republican party. i know this is not the place to discuss politics, but that politics seeps over into a governmental decision that was made. i can't imagine that type of indifference, that type of disregard, that cavalier attitude being shown to anyone other part of the country. when people we are talking about real life and death situations here, just have the speaker walk off and not tell us. he tells an aide to the majority leader who tells us that we tell the majority leader that the item that means life and death was taken off the calendar and is gone for the session? they say it's going to be brought back in january. the fact is, let's be real. we are not in session next week. the following week we are in session for two days. the following week is the inauguration, session for two days. then we have the state of the union. committees haven't even organized yet. and does anyone believe if they wouldn't vote for theth 60.4

billion last night that the appropriations committee is suddenly going to get religion and going to vote for the full amount when we know what their attitude is? that somehow going to new york, new jersey, connecticut is corrupt money? when money going to their states is allowable? i would just say that these people have no problem finding new york when this comes to raising money. it's only when it comes to allocating money they can't find the ability to do it. i'm standing here on the house floor tonight saying it's a moral obligation as republicans, as democrats, as americans, i spoke to governor kristi, governor cuomo, we have been in constant contact with mayor bloomberg, we cannot believe that this cruel knife in the back was delivered to our region. i have to go home this weekend and next week and the week after and see the hundreds, thousands of people who are out of their homes, who don't have shelter, who don't have food, and they are living with relatives, friends, living in trailers. this is not the united states of america. this should not be the

republican party. this should not be the republican leadership. i'm asking the speaker, tell these people somehow become very sanctimonious when it comes to dealing with new york and new jersey that they are an obligation to do what they have to do. that's provide the aid and relief that we need. if there's one penny that they have a problem with, let us know, don't walk out in the dark of night and ignore us. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone, for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. pallone: let me thank mr. king, my colleague from new york, for his remarks. i really appreciate what he said that this is not a republican or democratic issue. it shouldn't be politicized. natural disasters and responding to them are what i have seen over my 25 years in congress are what bring us together to try to help people. and the speaker should not use this opportunity to tear us apart.

i was here last night when we got the word through congressman king that the speaker was going to pull this bill. and what the message said was, well, we can do this in january. we'll do it sometime later in january. in the new congress. as congressman king said, we can't wait. my district was devastated by this storm. i would ask that speaker boehner, come to sea bright, new jersey, crife through sea bright, new jersey, the town that last less than 2,000 people. the business district is totally destroyed. one or two stores have reopened. the rest are closed. most of the people still have not been able to return to the town. go to union beach, new jersey, also in my district, where you can see that now everything is exposed. we still have people that do not have a place to stay. that are looking for apartment or staying in motels or looking for a trailer to be placed next to their home and still don't have it. we need to do -- rebuild now. we need to act now. we can't wait for the next congress or another couple

weeks or another couple months. what i don't understand, mr. speaker, is how is it possible that this has become a political issue? it is clear that we are here today, we can vote on this. the votes are clearly there. we should have an open debate. that's what democracy is all about. and all of a sudden because the tea party or some conservative element is worried that they have to vote on another spending bill, all of a sudden the speaker says we can't do this today. this is politicizing a situation that should not be political. and it is another example of what i call the do-nothing congress. this congress did very little. it has fewer bills passed in anybody's memory. rather than go out on this negative note about not bringing up an emergency because of the hurricane, one of the devastating natural disasters, why not do something positive on a bipartisan basis, mr. speaker, bring this up. let us have an open debate. we are still here. and don't let this congress die

on this negative note. let it build on a positive note so when we come in and sworn in on thursday that we can show that we can work on a bipartisan basis. i have never seen anything like it. to me it is just deplorable. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. rivera, for five minutes. from florida, i apoll guise. mr. rivera: mr. speaker, as we close on the 112th congress, i wish to express my gratitude to the residents of florida 25th congressional district for having given me the honor and the privilege to serve them as their elected representative in the united states congress. when my constituents first elected me to come to congress, they did so with what i thought was a very clear mandate as to what the focus of the 112th congress should be, and that is to restore fiscal responsibility to the federal government and begin moving our economy forward to create jobs. here in the u.s. house of representatives, i believe we have strived to meet the

challenges that out-of-control spending has created in the form of yearly deficits and long-term debt accumulation. the 112th congress and passage of the free-throw agreement with colombia, panama, shows what kind of economic growth and job creation policies can be aggrieved when we place the long-term interest term interest before the short-term consideration. unfortunately too often in the 112th congress our efforts here in the u.s. house of representatives to restore fiscal responsibility of the federal government have not been met with the same sense of urgency by our governing partners in the united states senate or the white house. last evening's vote regarding the so-called fiscal cliff is yet another example of washington's willingness to forgo making difficult long-term decisions regarding spending in deference to short-term fixes that do not solve our looming debt crisis. and that same debt crisis, that is the real fiscal cliff that our nation faces.

because whether we realize it or not, the more our nation climbs its mountain a debt, a mountain we ourselves are creating, the higher the cliffs will be. i urge future congresses i urge future congresses to take up this challenge with renewed vigor and urgency. i want to encourage my colleagues in the 113th congress to apply that sense of urgency to another issue, immigration reform. i realize what a contentious effort this is but i suggest that making this effort is crucial to america's future. we need a sustained commitment to afford opportunity for all americans at least for young people, young people who through no fault of their own are now in limbo due to their undocumented status. young people who have been educated in our school system, yuck -- young people who are willing to achieve further

academic excellence, who are willing to serve our military and risk their lives. can we not at least say if someone is willing to die for america, the least we can do more. i end my remarks where i began, expressing my deep sense of gratitude for the honor and privilege granted me to serve in the united states congress. i have been blessed with a superb staff of dedicated professionals. my previous chief of staff, steve vermilion, may he rest in peace mitigating circumstance current chief of staff and my entire d.c. office staff mitigating circumstance district director and my entire district office staff have all served this congress, the people of florida's 25th congressional district, and our nation with honor and distinction my friends, supporters and constituents have blessed with e-- blessed me with their confidence. finally my gratitude to my family and particularly my mom, daisy who is a saint who i love

dearly, and who i sacrifice everything so that i have the opportunity to serve and achieve the american dream. only in america can a child of a political refugee, a kid born on the wrong side of the track can grow up and be elected to serve in the united states house of representatives. america is indeed the greatest country mankind has ever known. god bless you speaker and my colleagues, may god bless the house of representatives and my god bless the united states of america. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. bishop, for two and a half minutes. mr. bishop: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in solidarity with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle against the house republican leadership's outrageous decision to refuse emergency assistance for our states to recover from the strongest storm to ravage our

region in generations. it's simply unconscionable that this chamber would walk away from a region desperate for assistance in its greatest hour of need. we cannot accept this shockingly ka louse indifference of the leadership to the suffering, the human suffering that our fellow citizens continue to endure. the leadership's decision stands in stark contrast to the immediate decisions to provide relief in the wake of every disaster that has befallen this nation over the past many years. it comes in stark contrast to our nation's call to provide well over $100 billion to louisiana and the gulf states following that tragedy. the first $62 billion of which was on its way to the gulf states within two twheesks storm. more than two months after our region was struck, our constituents are still waiting for help. our states are overex-tened and our constituents have reached the limits of their tolerance. they deserve more than the federal government's refusal to help, particularly after the

senate's strong bipartisan approval of the aid we need. our leadership has decided to pass up an important investment against future losses. -- losses. many of our districts remain exposed to future damage. my own district experienced two relatively routine storms in late december but nonetheless those storms compounded the massive erosion along the south shore of long island. we simply cannot afford any further breaches, flooding, overwashing or storm damage without incurring significant losses to our infrastructure and to our economy. mr. speaker, let me close with this. what do i say when i go home to my constituents, in a working class community on the bay with 5,000 home, about a thousand of which sustained damage, many of which are unreparable. do i say the republican

leadership consider it entirely appropriate for their tax dollars to be used for repair in new orleans, tuscaloosa or anywhere else in the country where a natural disaster has occurred or do i tell them that in their hour of need the republican leadership has decided to walk away? that's the message the republican leadership is sending to my constituents. they deserve better. the residents of all the stats that was -- state that was raveplged by the storm deserve better and we must bring this bill to a vote immediately. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, for two and a half minutes. the speaker pro tempore: thank you, mr. speaker. as the 112th congress ends with a whimper, not a bang, not so much finished as worn out, i was prepared to come to the floor this morning and talk about some of the unfinished business that we kicked down the road with a proposal last

night a serious deficit reduction, the debt ceiling, tax reform. one thing i didn't expect to be confronted with was what you have been hearing from my colleagues today. that we do not have the time to address the disaster relief for hurricane sandy which everybody thought was a given. this is the crew that came to town shouting, read the bill, they were going to have 72 hers, regular order, move in a fashion, they gave us 154 pages, 24,000 words, nobody had read. but we at least thought we would be dealing today with this emergency assistance. i'm stunned, frankly, that we find ourselves in this situation. but we have 24 hours left. how hard would it be to take up a bill that was already

overwhelmingly passed by the senate? how hard could it be, based on the bipartisan expression last night of support for a bill that almost everybody hated and had reservations, but we come together for something they thought was important for the country. remember when rebuilding and renewing america was a bipartisan objective? maybe we could take a little bit of that spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation last night and rise to the occasion in the next 24 hours to do something for the people who deserve our help and support. obusine of the new congress and we ought not to go home this week until this matter is addressed. thank you and i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio, mr. kucinich, for two and a half minutes. mr. kucinich: thank you, mr. speaker. wife elizabeth, who is here in the gallery, for her consummate support during my service in the united states congress. and to thank the people of ohio's 10th congressional district for their constant support as well as their great congressional staff both at a district and at the d.c. level. also, before i make further remarks, i want to express my support for my colleagues from new york and new jersey. and their tireless efforts on behalf of their constituents who have suffered so grievously from hurricane sandy. we must unite for the people. and that's really the idea of the united states. the unity of states.

but it's even deeper than that. it's expressive of the unity of people. it's all for one, one for all. our nation's first motto, e pluribus unum, out of many, one, stresses the pow over unity. the idea of human unity is implicit in this nation. in my visits across america, i discovered that there is an underlying unity which binds us as americans, which calls us forward to a higher purpose. i've also come to understand our politics divides people. the poll teches of polarization and hyper partisanship has become quite destructive, nearly incapacitating our government. yet at such a a time the hunger for unity is the greatest but the ideological difference

between us widens. we need a new politics in america which unites people, which sets aside partisan differences for the greater goofed the country, which strives to reconnect with the great nches of the nation and the goodness of the american people. now what would that politics look like? the rhetoric would change to one of mutual respect. the questioning of motives would end. the poison system of pay to play would be transformed by public financing. our government would be rededicated to addressing the practical aspirations of the american people for jobs, for health care for all, for education for all, for retirement security for all and for environmental security. we need a new politics which creates jobs and celebrates the dignity of work. our government must raise the status of working people and protect their rights. our government must stress wealth creation over taxation, investment over debt, health over illness, peace over par

war, liberty over surveillance. we have the exass i have to choosing and choosing again as we are involved in the most creative endeavor of human achievement, actulizing the highest principles on which the nation was founded. unity, one nation, under god, liberty and justice for all. a new america is waiting to emerge, let us call it forward with the same sense of wonder and expectation that the founders first evoked the united states of america. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair reminds members to refrain from references to occupants in the gallery. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. rangel, for two and a half minutes. mr. rangel: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. rangel: i was just asking my friend joe crowley, is there

a legislative possibility that we could brick this to the floor? i think everybody has enough compassion with the speaker with what he's been through with his own party trying to get some bills to the floor to understand that anything, even something this enormous could have fallen between the cracks. what a great opportunity to say, let's try to put these pieces together. in any event, nobody has said it's impossible to do it. if it's just a question of pride in terms of party unity, yang of anything at this time that would be better served than to have all of america, especially, thank the speaker for reconsidering trying help the lyes of tens of thousands of american -- of american people. once again, i don't know what my chances are going to be getting into heaven but the

absence of listening to the compassion and support of the religious community is deafening to me. i know their position about same-sex marriage and women's control of their bodies and those things and i say if you write the book, you have the rules, do what you have to do. but when it comes to caring for people, not new york, new jersey, connecticut, not just the united states but all other the world, can't there be some people who have compassion to know that these are what god expects us to do? that's why we say in god we trust. because we're supposed to take care of fiscal calamities which we failed but the compassion is not in the parties it's in the people. and these people could be your neighbors today and someone else's neighbor tomorrow and this great united states, what a great insurance policy to

have. to have friends from different communities, different backgrounds to know as we say in the hood, we got your back. that's what it's all about. people all over the world when they have a problem, no matter what the political differences are, know that america will have enough compassion to put aside those differences and to send our men and women and our firefighters over there to do what? to help. how do we possibly explain to our kids and grandkids that when it came to americans, when it came to people who fought and died for this country, we not only didn't help but worse than that, we turned our back on them. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. lobiondo, for five minutes. mr. lobiondo: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate the opportunity to be here today.

i did not think this was going to be necessary. but the superstorm sandy relief bill, heard a lot of people talking about it, this isn't about us as members of congress. this is about our constituents. do you have any idea what it's like when someone's life is ripped from their hands? lives are lost? all personal property is lost? businesses are lost? and the hope of the federal government coming in is what is keeping them alive and motivated? and now, with no explanation, the rug is pulled out from all of us, but most of all our constituents. this is a disaster on top of a disaster. we, all of us, i think i speak for all of us, when katrina hit, 10 days later, $60 billion.

$100 billion altogether. now we have to hear from people in florida, louisiana, and texas and alabama and yes, some people from california and the midwest when they have a disaster and we were there for them that the rules are going to change for us and it is now not an emergency and the federal government doesn't have a role in this? absurd. absolutely absurd. . an emergency and disaster means emergency and disaster. and that's what we had. go back and look at the videos. go back and see how people were devastated. the people had something we have never seen before. and we are expecting the federal government to play their role and be there. that's the minimum that's expected. we were torn to put together a package in a bipartisan way. people are crying out for bipartisan action. we had this. republicans and democrats, shoulder to shoulder, working together, forming a package,

giving a little bit here, giving a little bit there. working on other members of the building the votes. promising, anticipating that we would have, today, to finish -- the finishing part of this, and i'm convinced we had the votes. i'm convinced we would have moved this forward. and for us in new jersey every day that's lost is a bigger disaster. this isn't about people getting a suntan. this is about jobs and the economy. a $40 billion tourism business that relies on the summer season. who is going to come and vacation in a community that doesn't have a beach and whose town was devastated that normally comes there? the answer is nobody. so the bigger disaster is going to come in a couple months from now. and the money into the pipeline is what we needed now. we needed it five minutes ago. we needed it two weeks ago. we don't need it a month from now. we need the federal government to step up so people's lives

can be put back together. we are all hit hard enough with the recession. on top of that now we have to deal with the anxiety and the failure of congress to act to provide what is normally provided? and why is all of a sudden new jersey, new york, and connecticut, and pennsylvania, why are we the first states that have to answer to some new rules or some new formula that's going to come out about how we do these things? i don't ever remember a question with katrina, about $60 billion was too big a number. i don't remember that they were showing how -- i remember how they were showing people's lives were devastated. why are our constituents any less important than the constituents of the past who had the devastation? all of this is real. and we need to find a way to move forward. so, yes, anger, frustration. this is all built into this.

we are going to stay united. we are going to work together. we are going to find a way to move this forward. we need to make this absolutely crystal clear. this is not about people in congress, this is about constituents whose lives were ruined. we need to do the right thing and we need to do it now. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york mr. meeks for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. meeks: thank you, mr. speaker. i last night when i came to the floor for the first time since i have been in this body my heart was hurting. i understand politics. but this should not be about politics. this should be about

leadership. the first thing i want to do is say to the speaker, come walk with he me, mr. speaker. come walk with me. let's walk the beaches of the rockaway peninsula. you'll see a place where every soul, no matter whether you was rich or whether you were poor, no matter whether you were black or whether you were white , every individual, no matter what your religious belief was, every individual was affected by this storm. everyone, come walk with me, mr. speaker. and talk to the people, look into their eyes, understand their needs. come walk with me, mr. speaker. maybe then you can have the leadership that is necessary to get this bill passed today. come walk with me, mr. speaker. if you can't walk with me, mr. speaker, for any reason, then go walk with michael grim.

if it's a partisan issue for you, because it's not for me, go walk with michael grim from staten island, mr. speaker. you will see the same pain that the people in the rockaways have. it's the same pain because they are the same people. they are american people. and this is the united states of america, and this is the people's house. we make jokes all the time about the senate. the senate stood up and passed the bill. this is the people's house, mr. speaker. we are supposed to do the right thing for the people. the american people. i'm proud to be on the foreign affairs committee, going all over the world talking about what we got to do and how we help folks and how we help other individuals all is well what we have as americans. we have americans, mr. speaker. who are crying out for help. who are saying that they don't know where the tomorrow is. we have americans, mr. speaker, that right now, with the same

god, we are having another disaster. they are asking me as their member, we need the government to help us. where are you? mr. speaker, we need leadership. come walk with me, mr. speaker. come walk with me and see the american people that are suffering. the speaker pro tempore: the chair now recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. murphy, for five minutes. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, thank you also for your service and friendship to our country. watching the media, mr. speaker, and hearing a lot of distortion of what happened in the house chamber yesterday. let's recall that on december 31 at midnight taxes went up for every taxpayer. massively. the fiscal cliff. by the end of the evening the house came together, working with the senate, and reduced taxes for 99% of american

taxpayers. we kept taxes lower for dividend income, capital gains. we maintained the higher child tax credit. we helped keep the marriage penalty from hurting families. and we did this in a permanent way. this is a big win. we have a lot of work to do, but that was a big win. now, the president also promised that he would work with us to have further cuts in spending. we should hold him to that promise on both sides of the aisle. we have several serious issues to come in this congress. the 113th congress. we have to deal with the debt ceiling. spending cuts. implementation and regulations in the health care law. improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government. now, it's easy for people to look at any piece of legislation, i actually challenge people to find some piece of legislation here that

was perfect. any major bill has flaws. even a rose has thorns, they say. but let's understand we will see success when we work together. not when we continue to snipe at each other's heels. the challenges before us will only be dealt with by the courage we find within us. to find a common ground between us. and fight together for a better america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. andrews, for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. andrews: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, we are here this morning, we are here for the fellow citizens who didn't put up a christmas tree or light a menorah or celebrate their holiday at home this year because they have no home. we are here for the boardwalk

merchants who are not going to be starting their businesses up again this memorial day along the boardwalk because there is no business and there's no boardwalk. we are here because a lot of people's lives are devastated. it's important to understand what we are and are not asking for. we are not asking that every member of this chamber follow our lead and vote yes in favor of the bill the senate has already passed. we are simply asking that every member of this chamber have the opportunity to vote on that bill. president kennedy said governing is choosing. we are prepared to choose an investment in the recovery of our neighbors and our country. we respect those who would make a different choice. but we cannot abide by those who would say they would make the choice of doing nothing at

all. letting the clock run out on this congress which means we have to start all over again. all over again. the people that i talked about for whom we are here this morning, they need to start all over again. they need to get back to their homes, back to their businesses, back to their lives. and as we delay, we delay that possibility for them. every member has the right to exercise his or her own conscience on any piece of legislation. no member has the right to deprive the rest of us of the same opportunity for our constituents. we should meet today. we should vote today. we should move forward today. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. reed, for five minutes. mr. reed: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. reed: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today, mr. speaker, to

join my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. i come from a district in new york that was not impacted by hurricane sandy, but i come to this floor today, mr. speaker, to express my frustration, my disappointment, and the decision that was made to not bring up the hurricane sandy supplemental aid for the people of new york, new jersey, connecticut, our fellow citizens as americans who have suffered devastating impacts. now, mr. speaker, i understand what some of the dynamics of the bill is about. i understand that the senate has put forth a bill that many on my side of the aisle have expressed concern about. pork type of activity that the senate continues to engage in with fisheries and smithsonian funding and things like that that don't really have much to do with hurricane sandy, but that's a separate issue that could be -- could have been addressed and should be

addressed by this body in cleaning up that bill and getting the aid, getting the resources to the people that are suffering today. and that was the intended plan. that we were going to let the will of the house speak. clean up the bill that the senate had produced, but most importantly, done what is right for our fellow citizens. because if there is not a better purpose of the federal government, that is for the federal government to stand with our citizens when they are suffering the most. especially, mr. speaker, when they are suffering from a natural disaster such as that of hurricane sandy. i ask, and i join with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, again for our leadership to change the

decision that was made to let the clock run out on this congress and deal with this issue tomorrow. we don't have the luxury of waiting until tomorrow. these people are suffering today. i talked to my colleagues of the districts that were impacted by this devastating storm, and i have heard the horror stories. i have heard the stories of suffering of the many millions of people that were impacted in new jersey and new york, outside of my district. and i think it is right and it's just and it's proper for us to hear the stories of those individuals and make sure that we stand with them and take this bill up now rather than kick it to the next congress. the and god knows when we actually get to it in that congressional session. i join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, let us do

what is right, mr. speaker, bring this bill to the floor and get on with the business of attending to our fellow citizens as americans. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pascrell, for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. pascrell: i want to wish you the best. i'm glad there's one more democrat, but i'm not glad that you're leaving. you are a gentleman. look, i don't think that this is time for a debate. as we say in jersey, it is time , calmly, cooley, to take the -- coolly, to take the gloves off. that's the time. there's no precedent here -- there is precedent here. i would suggest to the governors that they should

bring us to court. bring us to court. it's fitting. not only did we pass the money for katrina in a very short period of time, part of it was by both voice vote. can you imagine? part of it was by a voice vote. within a very short, few days, after that disaster. . so mr. cantor voted for katrina aid, mr. boehner did, mr. ryan did, mr. mccarthy did, as did nearly every member of the congress from new jersey, -- from the new jersey-new york region. new jersey and the other states hit by sandy are some of the biggest donor states, that is, we send a lot of taxes, a lot of taxes, to the federal government.

now we need our colleagues to step up to the plate. as everyone knows, sandy caused significant damage. in bergen county, north jersey, my district, first responders had to evacuate entire towns when the hackensack river rose over a berm. the police department will be housing trailers. let them come to north jersey, let them come to connecticut and the shore of jersey. let them come to long island and staten island and pennsylvania, maryland, let them come. let them see. one of the many people in that community whose house was decimated by that high water, look, we are unfortunately dealing with a schizophrenic leadership on the other side. let's call it what it is.

let's not mince words. state and local finances are already stretched too thin. limited or no ability to rebuild it alone. because the storm resulted -- tb resulted in depressed tax clecks. we've been working with the house ways and means committee to draft legislation modeled on tax relief. mr. speaker, as i said, good luck to you, god bless your family and god bless all of you for coming here this morning. we have a shortened week but our work is still ahead of us but this is time to stop debating and take the gloves off. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. griffith, for five minutes. mr. griffith: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise on a different subject, one i think that we can all be pleased about. i rise and submit remarks in honor of virginia state police

trooper philip battle a devoted public servant. in the early hours of friday, december 28, 2012, trooper battle saved three lives from a burning home. trooper battle was actually assisting the saltville police and smith county deputies in search for a stolen car that had been involved in an earlier police chase when he noticed an orange hue off in the distance. he decided to investigate. when trooper battle reached the area in question, much to his surprise, he saw a home engulfed in flames. he banged on the door but there was no answer. he made the selfless decision to enter the building and investigate. he began yelling and making noise. his activities in the house awoke the three residents who had no idea that their hem was burning down around them. his activities after waking them led to their ultimate escape from the home and from the fire. they're all in good health.

their lives were saved and the lives of two of their pets were also saved. trooper battle's heroic actions in service to the community are to be commended. i am honored to pay tribute to him. please join me in thanking trooper battle for all he has done for the people of southwest virginia and mr. speaker, if i may, it has been my experience in working with the state police other many decades that they always respond and find -- in fine fashion and rise to the occasion. trooper battle is just another battle in the long history of the good work and he roy rowism of the state police. thank you, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from connecticut, ms. delauro, for two and a half minutes. ms. delauro: writing at the time of katrina, a harvard professor called the constitution, quote, a contract of citizenship that promises

first and foremost protection. that government will help and i quote, citizens to protect their families and possessions from forces beyond their control. in america he writes, a citizen has a claim of right on the resources of his or her government when they simply cannot help themselves. when disasters strike they test whether the contract is respected and the sit -- in the citizen's hour of need. when the levees broke the contract of american citizenship failed. mr. speaker, the levees broke, they broke in connecticut, in new york, and in new jersey. government is about helping families recover and rebuild from major disasters like superstorm sandy.

this house majority decided not to allow a vote on such disaster aid funds so desperately needed to recover and repair from this storm. hurricane sandy was one of the most severe storms to hit connecticut in our state's history. all across our region families' houses were destroyed and lives were upended. and whether it has been a fire in the west a tornado in the midwest, a hurricane in the gulf coast, or a storm in the northeast trk this body acted. we didn't say no. it was a resounding yes. to help. because it is the central responsibility of this institution to act on behalf of the american people. yet here we are two months since sandy destoyed thousands of homes and businesses, took

100 lives across this nation, this house majority said no on a vote for disaster assistance to help millions of people get back on their feet again. the republican leadership has broken that contract of leadership. -- of citizenship. they have said to my constituents, they said no to the rest of the towns in connecticut. and in new york and new jersey. they broke the contract of citizenship, they said you are on your own. my friends, our people cannot be on their own. we have a central responsibility to act on behalf of the american people when they are overwhelmed in circumstances that they had in control over. let us act, let us act today to restore that basic confidence in american government. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. holt, for two and a half minutes. pll holt: you heard it. our constituents' lives were devastated by the sandy disaster. it's now been about nine weeks since hurricane sandy brought the winds and the tidal surges. in central new jersey and connecticut, in new york, people are hurting. towns have exhausted their emergency funds and exhausted their borrowing capacityful in other disasters such as the disaster associated with katrina or are wild fires or with any number of other natural disasters this body has acted. yet today, the speaker is going

to allow the 112th congress to adjourn before passing the much-needed disaster relief package. the senate acted on this bill. the aid package here was well constructed, it was ready, all we needed was a vote and the delay is significant. it adds significantly to the hurt. it is not an exaggeration to say that lives are on the line. people are living wherever they can. they don't have the shelter. they don't have the businesses. they don't have their lives. and the speaker just walked away -- walks away. that compounds the disaster. the delay compounds the disaster. it's been said, well, fema has

the money already in their account that will last for many weeks. but we're not just talking about fema. we're talking about h.u.d. you know, more than $1 billion, actually billions, of housing aid, the army corps of engineers. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, the agriculture department for food and emergency watershed protection. the e.p.a. for safe drinking water. all of this was in this well-constructed package. it's often been said the governing principle of republican leadership is, you're on your own. that might actually be a conscientious principle, they really believe in their heart that your social security should be privately invested or you should pay for college without government help. but this, to say you're on your own after a disaster, is

inconsiderate, it breaks our trust, it violates an understanding, and it hurts people. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from new york, mrs. maloney, for two and a half minutes. mrs. maloney: mr. speaker, this kind of petty partisan posturing is absolutely disgraceful. it's an act of spiteful indifference that will go down in history as a low point in a low era shame on this house. this house acted quickly after katrina voting over $60 billion in less than two weeks. it acted quickly for ike and gus tave and the tornadoes in alabama. we were there for other regions of the country, this country has to be there for the northeast, 24 states were

affected, it has been called the second worst natural disaster in the history of the -- of our country, affecting over 17 million people in the most densely populated area of america. we cannot turn our back on this entire region. every governor, every mayor, has talked to the republican leadership, they were assured the money would be there. we cannot rebuild or start to repair without the resources being in place. the northeast are donor states. we give far more to the federal government in taxes than what comes back to us. yet when the natural disaster struck our people, we lost lives, we lost businesses, homes, complete devastation of the largest subway system in our country, moving eight million people a day. where is the aid and where is

the support? mr. speaker, introduce the senate bill tomorrow, let's come back into session, vote it on friday, let's put the aid in place, the american way of being there to help people. you can't pick and choose that certain areas get disaster relief but the area that is the most hard hit in the history of our country does not receive the disaster aid that has been there for other people? we have been there for you, you need to be there for the northeast. it is devastated. we need federal aid. you cannot repair hospitals, subway systems, major infrastructures without the support of the federal government. mr. speaker, do not turn your back on america and a region of america, you need to support in a bipartisan way the aid that

is so desperately needed for the most densely populated area in our country after the woors -- second worst storm in the history of our country. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. smith, for five minutes. mr. smith: mr. speaker, the two-tiered amendment disaster relief bill we hoped to wring to the floor to get us to the $60 billion so desperately needed to assist families, businesses, and municipalities devastated by superstorm sandy, our appeal, and it's a bipartisan appeal, is that there is still time to bring this vital legislation to the floor for a vote and to the president for signature. numerous towns in my district as well as our friends in new york and further north, are still coping with and recovering from the most destructive storm ever in our region and perhaps the second or third most costly in all of american history. today's families lack housing, businesses are in shambles, and

municipalities have been decimated. in new jersey, some 346,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed with 22,000 units rendered absolutely uninhabitable. 11,000 housing choice vouchers will be needed to ensure residents have a roof over their head this winter. approximately 100,000 new storm-related unemployment claims have been filed in new jersey. 100,000. buzz of the storm. over 235,000 people from new jersey have registered with fema for individual assistance. 75% of new jersey's small businesses were adversely affected. 10% of which, or nearly 19,000 businesses, sustained damage of $250,000 or more. far in excess of the loss to businesses from katrina. total business losses are estimated to be a whopping $8.3

billion. . furthermore an estimated 10,000 structures statewide will need to be demolished in 1,000 sites across new jersey will require remediation after hazardous materials discharged. 51 schools sustained serious damage, including six that will not reopen this school year. transit, roads, bridges have been damaged to the tune of $2.9 billion. which includes 294 damaged railcars and 75 damaged locomotives. one of the main roads that runs through my district, route 35, will require an estimated $120 million to repair. power and gas lines are expected to cost roughly $1 billion. the peak power outages left 28.4 million people in the dark. waste and water will be required and sewer, about $3 billion to repair and to protect. hospitals, assisted living, and other health facilities will -- have seen over $150 million

worth of storm damage. these facts, there are many more, underscore the devastation unleashed by sandy, and it is without precedent. i say to my colleagues that no recovery is ever accomplished in a single year, but it's about predictibility and the certainty of funds to rebuild and restore. that ensures that the work proceeds immediately, comprehensively, efficaciously, and without interruption. mr. speaker, for days and weeks like many of my colleagues after that horrible storm hit, i have hundreds of thousands of men and women who despite crippling losses were happy to be alive and determined to rebuild. i'll never another get one resident who came up to me the day after hurricane sandy, or superstorm sandy and said i have lost everything, but at least i'm alive. we need to now backstop these individuals.

we need to make sure these moneys are there, they flow quickly, be sure they can rebuild and the homes, businesses, and municipalities that have done yeoman's work gather and unite behind them. problems assisted those with hurricane katrina in 2005 in a mere two weeks. we are now past two months. we need to be clear, the president didn't send this up until december 7. there was a loss of several weeks. we do have a bill. it's about 25% less than what the states have said they needed. they said about $80 billion. it's down approximately $60 billion. it is less. le i have seen and run through the numbers our state has sent to this body as well as to the president. they are very well vetted. chris christi used to be a u.s. attorney. many of people are all former prosecutors. they hate waste, fraud, and abuse. and they are trying to ensure that the money is there in the

amounts needed to make a difference. finally, let me say, mr. speaker, we need to act. as my colleague before me said a moment ago, new jersey, especially new york, we are contributing states. we get back far less from the federal government than we pay in every year. that's a good thing. we have very, very good businesses and really provide employment for our people. but we have been devastated. and i would hope that the speaker will bring this to the floor as quickly as possible, hopefully today. tomorrow, but as quickly as possible because the people who have suffered the victims deserve no less. yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentlelady from california, ms. pelosi, for 2 1/2 minutes. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, here we are again today in wander of the decision

we -- wonder of the decision we think has been made by the republican leadership in the house not to bring legislation to the floor that addresses the needs of those affected by sandy. here's the thing. everyone who heard about this since last night when so many members from the new york, new jersey, connecticut, pennsylvania, oriole delegations came to the floor to speak -- other delegations came to the floor to speak about this said don't tell me that. don't tell me that. don't tell me that even though everyone had seen very clearly the devastating damage that was caused by sandy and the need for people to have assistance that the house would not take up the bill. don't tell me that even though the senate passed a very strong bill addressing the well documented needs of the people of the affected region that the house is not taking up the bill, don't tell me that although the region, the leadership, the governors of

new york, governor cuomo, governor of new jersey, governor christi, governor of connecticut, the mayor of new york, mayor bloomberg, and others have immediately addressed the needs to the extent possible by them in their areas and have documented the need very carefully as to what federal participation was needed. don't tell me that the house of representatives is going to ignore that. mr. speaker, much has been said about the need for more civility in politics and in government. and that civility perhaps relates to how we speak to each other and how we curve our enthusiasm about issues we care a great deal about and perhaps question motivation of others, but the real civility that people expect is how this congress treats them. and treats their needs. and never is that tested more clearly than in time of a

natural disaster, because that's when people feel most helpless. that's a time when they see whether the government is there for them or not. that is the time -- they are not going to be made hole, most of these people. -- whole, most of these people. hopefully what they replace may be a good substitute and maybe they can open the door to something new for them, but by and large, by and large it's a long road back. by that first few steps of it, emergency relief that was provided by the localities that now need to be compensated for, the next stage of recovery is so essential to the character of a community, as mr. tonko said, after the storms last year, the character of the community in his district, and that was, 2011, here we are at the end of 2012 having some of the same regions hit again, hit

again by nature. with the suddenness and is he varity -- severity and power of water, someplaces fire and just earth shattering, earth, wind, fire in terms of how it affects people. as i said last night nature pulled the rug out from under people literally and figuratively in their communities and in their homes. in their schools and workplace. and then are we to say to them, now congress is going to pull the rug out from under you in terms of your hopes and expectations of meeting the needs? don't tell me that. don't tell -- he we can't tell our constituents that. -- we can't tell our constituents that. that would not rise to the level of civility for us to turn our backs and ignore their needs. it's just plain wrong. i'm hopeful that perhaps those making this decision have not been affected by almost every

place that we are talking about, katrina, california, earthquakes, drought, flood, fire, you name it. the northeast being hit once, twice within 2011, 20 12 with missouri, iowa, i visited in iowa. the floods there. devastating. it's really hard unless you see it to understand the impact that it has. at the most, the most compelling reason is to look in the eyes of people who ask, what are we going to do to help? how can we help them? and what is our answer? we are just too busy. it's not a priority. that's just not civil. let's honor our responsibility which is again the price tsh- people place our trust, they don't like government, they don't want this, they don't want that, but in times like this, time of emergency, it's really when we prove our worth.

let's prove our worth and urge the speaker to bring this legislation to the floor quickly dealt with while the senate is still there. can be sent to the president for his signature. and hope can flow from here instead of a sense of wonderment of don't tell me that. let us be able to tell people we feel their pain. we know what they are going through. we can never really know. we can never really know, but we can certainly appreciate their interest in our doing what is right for them. so again i hope and pray, really hope and pray, we pray for these people. we pray for them all the time. in our prayers. we pray for them. how much prayer would it take for this congress to find it in their hearts and in their heads to do the right thing. let's pray that we don't have to tell them that we weren't

there for them. with that, mr. speaker, yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from south carolina, mr. wilson, for five minutes. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, last night house speaker john boehner released a statement outlining his main objective for the new year, stating, quote, now the focus turns to spending. the american people re-elected a republican majority in the house and we will use that in 2013 to hold the president accountable for the balanced approach he promised, meaning significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt, end of quote. our national debt has grown to an outrageous $16 trillion. this is not only endangers our national security, senior citizens are threatened with

devalued dollars. and it also places our children and grandchildren and future generations at risk of higher taxes with little or no access to the entitlement programs to which they have faithfully contributed. house republicans understand and are dedicated to solving our nation's debt crisis over the next year by reforming our tax code, preserving and protecting our entitlement programs, and controlling our spending. congratulations to coach steve spurrier, the president, and his wonderful wife and the u.s.c. gamecocks and the coach and the president and his wife and the crimson tigers for extraordinary bowl victories. in conclusion, god bless our troops, and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko, for 2 1/2 minutes.

mr. tonko: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house, revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. well, just yesterday americans celebrated new year's day. they ushered in 2013. as we rang in the new year, the usual message of hope that accompanies new year, any new year, rang hollow for millions of americans. because of actions taken at the close of that new year's day here late last night. people were met with the devastating news that we were not going to take up a measure that would respond to superstorm sandy. and so i rise today to ask that the leadership of this house, the people's house, to respond accordingly to the needs of people. i make this request not through some political calculus, but rather through the lens of

caring and concern and compassion, which ought to be the hallmark of this great institution. we ought not forget that the role we play here calls upon our moral responsibility to engage our actions and our compassion and empathy for the people we represent or perhaps do not represent directly. because we, i believe, need to relate through that measurement of compassion to family, friends, neighbors, and yes, at times, total strangers. i make this request sensitized by a district situation, in my district, the 21st congressional district at the time, in upstate new york, just about a year plus before the devastation of sappedy -- sandy. the torturous treatment of mother nature through irene and lee on that congressional district, my congressional district, stole lives, wiped

away livestock, flooded homes, tore away the hopes and dreams of individuals, and found people abandoned, having lost everything for which they ever worked. and i witnessed how people responded to that tragedy. they picked up and mustard the stress that they required government to be their partner at that very dark moment in their lives. having witnessed that pain, having visited those communities and having talked with the people, shared tears with the people i understand that now this situation in a much more densely populated area of our state and in neighboring states require our assistance. the immediate assistance to respond with compassion. . mr. speaker and leadership of this house, i implore you to respond with come passion and

empathy and bring us to the floor to acknowledge and support the funding for superstorm sandy. with that, i withdraw my request and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. courtney, for one minute. mr. courtney: thank you, mr. speaker. when hurricane sandy struck on october 29 in eastern connecticut's long island sound with 90-mile-per-hour winds and high tide, it created a path of destruction never seen before. homes were wiped out, utility infrastructure was wiped out, transportation infrastructure was wiped out but what was to inspiring about it was the first responders acted, police, fire, coast guard, governors of connecticut, local and municipal official, they acted. in the weeks since then, the senate has act. president obama declared an emergency on october 30. the department of homeland security act the only place that hasn't acted is the house of representatives. which last night in the dark of

the night the speaker announced he was abandoning the people of northeastern america and allowing the hurricane sandy relief bill to die. that is unacceptable. the people who acted, the first responders, the care givers, the local official, they deserve better and the local officials, members of congress from the northeast, bipartisan, they deserve better. the speaker must reverse his decision. it is time to act today. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for one minute. mr. poe: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: mr. speaker new york 1985, 13-year-old lavinia masters went to sleep in her bedroom, which should be the safest place on earth for her children. but a few hours later she was awoken by an outlaw who sexually assaulted her with a

knife to her throat. she went to the hospital and they got d.n.a. evidence. but that evidence sat on a shelf for 20 years while the outlaw was on the loose. when the d.n.a. was tested, it was found that kevin turner committed this crime. justice could not occur for lavinia because the statute of limitations has run out. there are thousands of -- hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits untested in the united states. that's why i introduced the safer act, we can pass it today with unanimous consent that bipartisan piece of legislation. new yorker, texan, democrat, republican, speaking different languages, it doesn't get much more bipartisan than that. this act will allow funds to be used to test untested sexual assault kits for d.n.a. evidence so justice can be done for victims.

and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. heinz, for one minute. mr. hinds: i remember two things of the day sandy hit my community. the devastation and damage we have so detailed this morning in this chamber. but i remember something else. which was the response of the people who stood up and said, i will help. the firefighters of old greenwich, the red cross in bridge port, the schools that were open to address the fact that people didn't have homes. mr. himes: let me tell you about lieutenant russ mury of the easton fire department who left his wife and two daughters behind that night to go serve the people of easton. i attended his tunall -- funeral several days latering he was killed that night doing what is best about all of us. which is we stand up and say we will help in times of crisis.

every charitable instinct, every dignified thing, everything that is noble about what those people did that night is deny bird the decision of the republican leadership to not bring up sandy today and leave desperate and vulnerable people hanging. mr. speaker, reverse your decision now and let's do the right thing by our people. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expire. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from new york, ms. clarke for one minute. ms. clarke: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to express my feelings of anger, frustration and disbelief that the republican leadership has failed to fulfill this promise on emergency supplemental disaster aid for the victims of superstorm sandy. even though we were able to put our political differences aside to prevent an economic disaster, i am stunned and saddened that this compromise came at the ex-pension of much-needed relief. like my colleagues from the northeast, i feel bedrayed.

305,000 housing units were destroyed, 260,000 businesses were affected. it pains me to say the travesties that have affect murder hometown of brooklyn, new york. i'm in disbelief at the callousness with which this matter has been dispensed with. it's truly an embarrassment, a sad day, that the house of representatives has become a body so entangled in political one upmanship that it cannot come to the aid of merps whose lives have been turned upside down this bill would have not only helped rebuild intrastructure but begun the healing process that is so sorely needed today. please bring this matter to the floor for a vote. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york.

lele the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. hoyer: can we have one additional minute for mr. serrano. the speaker pro tempore: the de-- debate may not continue past 11:506789 mr. hoyer: is it in order to ask for unanimous consent to extend for one minute that time? the speaker pro tempore: unfortunately, the chair cannot entertain that request in morning hour. mr. hoyer: i ask unanimous consent that all members may revise and extend their remarks on the issue that has been before the house in these five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection so ordered. mr. hoyer: thank you. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declaires the house in rece

guest: we are in a situation where most people recognize that policies aren't sustainable. we have a growing and aging population. we are going to need to not only raise more revenue, but we have to change how we do business. and having the circumstances around the cliff with the expiring provisions, with the sequestration, and with the conclusion of the congress, was an opportunity to do something more substantial. and instead all we did was kick this down the road, an overused term, but that's what we did. we didn't address the debt ceiling which should have been a part of any major agreement. we are going to be in the middle of that for the next two months.

and we have taken a situation where the american public were focused on the big picture, and the president had leverage and we settled for a third of a loaf? a quarter of a loaf? we didn't really change how we do business, and we institutionalized this political hostage taking for the new congress that starts tomorrow. host: our twitter feed and says march madness 2013 is coming. the debt ceiling and hostage taking, get ready. guest: i that i that's a fair approximation. in fact we have three cliffs that are facing us because the government operations run out in march. we have already gone over the cliff as far as the debt ceiling is concerned. and you can horse around a little bit and use a little bit of sleight of hand but the clock is ticking. we are going to have to address it. the sequestration was just postponed for two months. it's going to be a troubling

time and there's some real changes in my republican colleagues coming forward that doesn't auger well for a you talk about sequestration as a new opportunity to do some of the heavy lifting you wish had gotten done. >> it's not going to be as effective. it has stubbed its toe, bloodied its nose, maybe a few people learned something. we also had people leaving that might be able to not look over their shoulder about being lugarred in a primary.

up to $450,000 for couples. the tacks duo up for those who make above the thresholds. the social security tax for the payroll tax holiday ends, we'll see that go up. do you agree with all those items goip all those items needed to be addressed but look at the detail there is. for example, the doc fix is absolute lunacy.

it's something we fix every year unless there's a complete collapse of the legislative process, we'll torment medicare -- medicaid providers for another year who are apprehensive. there's a permanent patch for the alternative minimum tax. but this is a tax that needs to be fundamentally reformed or repealed. remember the scoring mavens decided it didn't cost us anything to make the patch permanent. why shouldn't we take this unfair tax and eliminate it altogether. part of the details that institutionalizes the horse traded and over the course of

the next few days, we'll find out a whole bunch of other things that got stuffed in there by staff of various senate offices that joe biden and mitch mcconnel never talked about. do you really think they got into the details about how we're going to treat rum excise taxes for the virgin islands and puerto rico for expensing certain movie -- movie and entertainment costs? i think not. i think we're going to find that there are more like that buried there that none of us were aware of on the fleefer this house last night. host: let's hear from our callers, john from lexington, kentucky, on the democrats line. caller: i have a couple of quick thoughs that are a little more foundational. one of them had to do with, there's a sense that there was a mandate on the part of the republicans to be able to continue to push what they did in the house. i wanted your thoughts on it.

one of them has to do with, i don't think the american public understands how congressional districts are apportioned and how people -- how they are -- i hate to use -- host: i think we lost john. guest: for years i have advocated for an independent commission. there are states taking it out of the hands of the politicians to pick their voters and instead let the voters pick the politicians. this has been going on for years in iowa, my friend, former colleague, jim leech and i had written about that. it's happening in california, in arizona, even a little bit in florida. that is part of the problem.

nationally they got more than a million more votes than republicans who ran for the house of representatives. yet they come into this with a 5-vote margin and there are some areas where in north carolina there were more votes for democrats than republicans but there are only 20 -- 27% of the representatives are democrats. it confuses the notion of mandate. the president won decisively, the president picked up ground and we had a million more votes nationwide for the house of representatives. that doesn't sound like much of a national mandate to continue the policies of the republicans over the last decade or so.

host: let's go to the republican line, david from ohio. i would love to be able to buy my children ferraris or the president kept on saying he wanted a balanced attack. to this problem. which i agree that you had to increase the revenues, but you also got to address the spending. when you don't have the money to do the things that you guys want to, you got to start to cut back. $1 for every spending cut you got $41 worth of revenue. if i did that in my house, using

a credit card to get by for a while, eventually those bills will come due. my question to you guys is, when are we going to use common sense and say, look, we cannot afford this anymore. guest: i agree and disagree with david. first of all there are lots of things that we can do to reduce spending, and ironically i think there are republican -- see the rest of this segment, c-span video library. live to the floor of the u.s. house. 7 the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. the chair: let us pray. god -- -- god of the universe we give you thanks for giving us another day. as the members of the people's house gather on the final day, we ask your blessing on them.

may the nation's people be grateful for the service rendered in their past two years but also justified in their hope that those returning for the new congress and those joining them will must've greater accomplish. s to benefit our great nation. bless as well those who leave congress this day. may they be successful and productive in whatever their future endeavors. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings, and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from new york, mr. crowley. mr. crowley: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the speaker pro tempore: under clause 5-d of rule 20, the chair announces to the house that in light of the resignation of the gentleman from south carolina, mr. scott, the whole number of the house is 431. the chair will entertain up to two requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? without objection. mr. serrano: thank you. mr. speaker, as the only new york sitting member of the appropriations committee, what i saw last night is something that i hadn't seen before. whenever a disaster hits any part of this country, we always got together and found the funds to deal with the issue. we didn't worry about what section of the country was for

or what kind of disaster. we came together and we did it. in addition, there is something that happened last night that doesn't bode well for this house. that is if there is one thing we still have in this house despite our problems is when we give our word we keep it. we were given their word that that bill would come up last night or no later than today. to walk away from the people of new york, connecticut, and new jersey, to walk away from all of these people who are suffering right now is really shameful. but there is still time. that bill can come before us today and we can pass it today. and that's the call. don't turn your back on the victims of sandy. come together as a country, as a congress, and take care of this now. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection.

mr. plats: i rise -- mr. platts: i rise today my final time as a retiring member just to express my gratitude to the people of the 19th congressional district of pennsylvania for allowing me the privilege for the last 12 years to serve. i'm a 12-year guy and it's hard to believe 12 years have come already, but it's been a great privilege to serve with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. it's been an experience i will forever remember. and in addition to my constituents back home, my wife is in the gallery today and certainly have conveyed my thanks to her for standing by me all these years. certainly a family commitment. it's one we have been honored to have and do the best of our ability in serving the people of our community. a final comment while i love what i have done and been proud to serve, i also understand that what i do, what we do pails in -- paltse in

comparison to those in service in uniform as a nation and citizenry we always keep the men and women in uniform in our thoughts and prayers along with their families so we can be blessed here as americans. thank you again and god bless. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? mr. dicks: to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. dicks: mr. speaker, i rise today to thank my constituents in washington's sixth district for supporting me over the last 36 years. i want to thank leader pelosi and whip hoyer for supporting me as ranking democratic member on the house appropriations committee. and most of all the democratic caucus for allowing me to chair the interior appropriations subcommittee and the defense subcommittee. i want to thank chairman hal rogers and chairman bill young for working together to restore regular order in the appropriations committee and strengthening america's

military strength and especially supporting the men and women serving us in our services. i will miss my colleagues in the house, but will remember my friends in this great institution, the people's house. i yield back my time.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clau >> a number of members speaking about that last night after passage of the fiscal cliff bill and two more hours of that this morning on morning hour. the senate did approve $60 billion in relief last friday. we'll have more live coverage of the house when the 113th session of congress begins tomorrow at noon eastern and more of the 112th congress as they have yet to gavel the session to a close. live coverage of congress and

the house here on c-span. >> you don't always find many newspaper editors in any era embracing investigative reporting. the point we have seen over the years is not just economic, it's the discomfort that investigative reporting often causes in a newsroom. because it's troublesome. it's that more than the economics. if you have going to ruffle the feathers of somebody powerful, that gets those people running in to complain to the publisher, and their stories are legion over the years about those things happening. we were very fortunate through the 1970's and almost all of our careers to work for people who were really strong and upright in that area, and let the chips fall where they may. >> the pulitzer prize winning investigative team of donald barlet and james steal, we'll take your calls, emails, and tweets on in-depth. the pair o who began their work in the 1970's are co-authors of

eight books. watch live sunday at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2. >> i primarily watch the house and senate. i used to work in the senate so i tend to flip over there every now and then. especially if there is something important going on. coverage of the floor on the networks you are not going to see that. c-span has it. c-span is where you can find something that's important that's going on that's not otherwise covered. even listen to c-span radio in my car. >> bob schiff watches c-span on directv. c-span, created by america's cable companies in 1979. brought to you as a public service by your television provider. >> last month the economist magazine hosted an all day festival in new york city titled the world in 2013. one of the discussions focused on how data gathering is being used to save lives and privacy concerns have arisen. speakers include the chief

digital officer of new york city, and the president of the polytechnic institute in troy, new york. just over 20 minutes. >> i just wanted to -- give a little introduction to the session we are about to start. we have been hearing all day about data and how it's increasingly powerful force in our life. the speakers that are going to be coming on after me are going to talk exactly about that and we are looking forward to a lively debate. the first speaker is going to be the honorable shirley ann jackson. she's the 18th president of rensular polytech nique institute in troy, new york. this is the oldest institute in the united states and it's my great pleasure to announce her.

>> good afternoon. you know there's a significant transformation under way globally in the way we make predictions, make products, make connections and ultimately make progress or not. the transformation i'm speaking of is being driven of course by the extraordinarily rapid expansion and availability of data from multiple sources and ever more powerful analytical and computational capacity that is generating yet new information. let me begin quickly with a vignette that may be a harbinger of things to come. as superstorm sandy, i'm sure you know a lot about it, was beginning to gather steam in the caribbean, five days before it slammed into new jersey and new york, u.s. forecasters were predicting a monster storm but uncertain of its path. by most indications this

unusually powerful and complex form would graze the coast but move back out into the north atlantic. however there were steady reports of the european model, predicting a sharp left turn into the coast of new jersey and new york with potentially devastating consequences. now, the u.s. and european models eventually converged, but the europeans got it right first. giving a little more time for those in sandy's path to prepare, no doubt saving lives. the difference in the early predictions were the inputs and the capacity of the computers doing the modeling. it is intimated by what happened with the sandy forecast, newly available information, how it is accessed, will become ever more vital as a force that shapes and changes our world. big data driven innovation will be a driver for changes in science and society over the next 50 years, in much the same way as quantum science was to technological and economic

development in the 20th century. moreover, there is a rapidly growing network of networks, the so-called internet of things, on which our daily lives depend, including power, water, retail, financial, manufacturing, and of course social networks. together these comprise what the director of the high performing computing center, dr. carruthers described, as a human sustainability network. all driven by the interplay of data, physicist thames, high performance computing, and analytics. i predict that big data and network science are going to merge. marrying the internet of data with the internet of things in new ways and this will be world changing. just as in the 1800's there was a shift from electricity as a curiosity to a commodity made possible by the emergence of electrical engineering, so, too, now are we in the midst of a shift in data as a commodity and

more importantly data as a resource in ways not previously imagined. data is growing at a volume much greater than the tools available to process it, but new tools are being engineered that will enable us to take massive amounts of structure and unstructured data and create useful information. during the past three years, in fact a number of government data , federal government data sets available on data sharing sites has grown from 57 to more than one million. the numbers expected to exceed 10 million by 2015. dr. jim and his team, he is one of the creators of the semantic web, collaborating with the white house, have developed smart interfaces that allow government data from a huge variety of sources to be combined in unexpected and beneficial ways. now the infrastructure and technology they have created is -- makes it possible for others to mash up data sets, and to develop more than 1,200

applications that are now driving public polcy. now, if we take full advantage of these emerging technologies, new opportunities will be created by the ability with smart analytics to anticipate and predict events and to mitigate them. now, the intersections and interactions are complex. the outcomes can be powerful and risky. powerful in that we will be able to see connection that is we would not have seen otherwise and have bitter -- better predictive capabilities, particularly on the trending of things, but risky in that interconnectivity can lead to sometimes abhorrent and certainly unintended consequences like flash crashes. so as we saw all too clearly in the devastating ways with energy communication and transportation systems in the aftermath of sandy, interconnectivity represents enormous intersecting opportunities and intersecting vullnerbleses -- vulnerabilities with cascading consequences.

predict the left of -- level of these networks will grow rapidly in the next year and beyond. and if we are able to take advantage of the ubiquity of data, the interconnectivity of data and things and powerful new analytical and computational tools to stay ahead of the curve, the future is ours. but there may be questions about the value of new digital information. so i further predict that because of the ability to gain new information and insights from data and implicitly the ability to marry data with things, new economic models will emerge around data driven information and innovation, both data at rest and data at motion and there will be growing and new tensions and conflicts around the modernization of data, particularly with respect to ownership, privacy, and security. but we have to ask questions of whether our economic modeling

processes can even keep up. how will this shake out? only time will tell. thank you. [applause] >> it's our pleasure to introduce rachel house. she's chief digital officer, and that means she's working to modernize the relationship between the government and the public. in order to help engagement. [applause] >> thank you so much. i'm very happy to follow the honorable shirley ann jackson because i agree so much with everything she just said. so i'll be fairly brief and tell you a couple of stories, but essentially new york city itself has a very data driven mentality and data driven mayor in mayor bloomberg, and so what we see is our prediction and in some ways already starting to realize is

that in the coming years governments will use data to help to improve the way that we deliver services to the public, to help to anticipate problems before they become problems, and ultimately to save lives. and a few way that is it will do this is first by internally capping the potential -- tapping the potential of the vast stores of data we do have access to and making sure that agency to agency, we are able to share that data. then we want to make sure city to city and government to government we are sharing data. and perhaps the most exciting frontier of this is when we open up these data resources to the private sector, to civic innovators who can help us come up with solutions that perhaps we can't do on our own. a couple examples of this include. so work being done by a fantastic guy called mike flowers, check him out in the city of new york. the city today has over 900 open data sets available to the public and mike uses data to

find ways to help save lives. one way that he has done this is by correlating data sets that have previously never come together from the department of buildings, census, tax office, and the finance bureau, we have been able to find a way to reduce firefighter injuries by 15% because mike and his team can identify an increased likelihood there's been an illegal conversion of an apartment building by looking at the number of people, for instance, on the tax record who say they live in one place. in addition, mike and his team have been able to reduce very significantly the amount of time it takes an ambulance to get to some -- people in need the way they visit, they look to the map. saw there were clusters all over and couldn't figure out why they were clustering in the same places. it turns out people who are operating ambulances needed three things 24/7, food, coffee, and place to go to the bathroom. and by finding other places throughout the five places where you can serve those three needs, they were able to reduce the response time by minutes of an

ambulance, which is a very critical amount of time. finally, going back to hurricane sandy, the city of new york has now for two years exposed the hurricane evacuation zone data sets to the public, and this is incredibly critical for us because when mayor bloomberg issued an order to evacuate, we had such an influx of traffic that our servers were struggling to keep up with the request for people trying to find out which lurk evacuation zone they were in. fortunately, we had shared that data with google crisis group, with "the new york times," with wnyc.org, with the full public and was able to use it and they had built a fully functions, interactive hurricane zone map to serve that function and helped us do our job. we estimate served 10 to 20 times more people than we would have on our own. ultimately big data creates this potential, much like government that we are able to accomplish

so much more together than we ever could on our own. thank you very much. [applause] >> one of the questions i want to ask you about with hurricane sandy, i was wondering if you could talk about what you learned from the hurricane about designing the city for collecting data and how to use data as well. >> absolutely. so we have learned an enormous amount also with hurricane irene. we were already starting to share that data. in the days coming -- approaching hurricane -- as we saw is hurricane sandy approaching the city, we knew it was critical we had that data out there in a format able to be used. of course the office of emergency management changes where those hurricane evacuation zones are based on the weather system that's coming in and different conditions and where the waters are. so they first rapidly had to establish the new hurricane evacuation zones and get it out there in a format that was

critical. what we found, we have already done a couple of post more thames with google crisis group and other civic nonprofit volunteer groups that want to be helpful and help to serve the public, is that it's critical we have the infrastructure in place beforehand and that we have the data, we have it in a standard way, we have it in a real time format so that they always have the most up-to-date data. data changes very quickly. and it is often stored in different waste and different -- has different titles, different quat gorizations, and it can be difficult to bring together two different data sets if there's not that level of normalization. >> after gathering all this data you started to say, well, there are key parts of the city that are fragile and need to be more resilient and maybe we could see that. >> i think that that's one of the things that we are actually

actively doing right now. google is a good partner. but we are also looking at ways that we can collect that data potentially from the public, which is a very new thing for government to consider how do we make sure it's authoritative enough and factual enough when it comes from the average citizen, but at the same time how do we acknowledge that in new york city we have one of the most connected, technologically savvy populations in the world and they could be a very powerful source of data if they are willing to help with that effort. >> if i could step back a minute and draw you both into the conversation. i was struck by the incredible power of the vision that you paint. but also something very kind of troubling about everything that you are doing and that because we are talking about government institutions holding this vast a data, what's fundamentally going to be troubling to people, it's not just privilegecy -- prifecy,

it's a huge issue, it's a question of how much is noble? and i think human beings we'll are expected a certain amount of prifecy. we don't expect the government to be able -- privecy -- privacy and know how many crimes, parking tickets, permits, all the things that are becoming layer upon layer, and on top of that you have what they buy. >> that of course is out of the barn. i think the real question is how do we create a kind of common wheel, a collective viewpoint about how we use data to improve the way we live. now, let me just go back just for a half minute to hurricane sandy, because it really illustrates a number of the points that i was trying to make. first of all, you have already

talked about essentially some elements of the logistics of disaster response. there is an ability to be much more sophisticated about that and do modeling not only beforehand but in real time. but to engage, as you said, citizens in helping to feed those models. that requires a lot of capability, infrastructure, and computational power. the second is part has to do with predictive capabilities. and the models actually don't just depend on data on the internet. they come from things. from satellites, from buoys, from weather stations, from airliners, even commercial airliners, etc. and the issue becomes how do you bring all of that together in powerful ways that can improve predictive capability, as well as perhaps having smart networks where what happens in one part

of the network doesn't just come in in a dumb way into a central point but can inform what happens to the other things in that network. the final piece which i think is very powerful in terms of planning, because you talked about how to build cities better, but if you have -- how many -- what's the population of new york? 8.3 million people already living here, then there's another kind of internet of things that can play into all of these, and that really has to do with infrastructure modeling and monitoring. and that pro-- becomes it's own internet of things. when you then marry that which can really tell you something about how the infrastructure is really holding up and performing, even holding up and performing in normal circumstances, but especially when you have untoward events, that can play into the disaster response model. that is that marriage of the

internet of data with the internet. >> so the building is going to be making 9-1-1 call as well as the human being? >> de facto. >> if something's about to collapse, you can sensor it, you can know it. why would you send firefighters or emergency response people into some facilities that is about to collapse? >> did you answer my question about how -- >> orwellian? >> did you say that we need to come to some kind of consensus? is that what you are saying -- or are you saying -- >> we need more conversations about the common good, about the common wheel. and to animate those discussions with examples. and then the question is, how do you protect your privacy?

in the beginning it starts with you. so many of us have so much of ourselves out there, whether it's facebook, twitter, whatever so that's what we have to think about. in a way once the digital footprints are created, they last for a very long time. but maybe there is a cloak of privacy that comes from the ubiquity of data itself, that it becomes so much there that it is of less interest. >> what i found intriguing about the political campaign pt extent to which it was possible to marry the data and really kind of predict where versions were and how to get them. call it whatever you like.

in a sense it doesn't really matter whether they know exactly how i'm going to vote, but they know that i won't buy a hummer or that i have a prius. they may be able to guess that i'm much more likely to donate for volunteer for the democrats, stuff like that. that in itself, it seems to me i don't even have to give away very much. and you already know me. that's what i kind troubling. maybe you could talk about the economic consequences. >> you can see this program in its entirety in the c-span video library. the u.s. house has gaveled back in for further business as this session comes to a close. live now to the floor of the house. consideration? the gentleman from virginia. >> i reserve the right to

object, i will not object but i'd like to thank the gentleman from texas for his work and his colleague from texas, mr. poe and our colleague from new york, mrs. maloney, their hard work on this bill which would make funding for the testing of d.n.a. rape kits and eliminating the rape kit backlog more possible. a lot of people will be made much safer because of this and i thank the gentleman for his leadership and yield back the balance of my time and withdraw my objection. the speaker pro tempore: the reservation is withdrawn. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 3250, an act to amend the d.n.a. analysis backlog to provide for editing -- auditing sexual assault back logs and establishing a sexual assault registry and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: is there further oklahoma to the consideration of the bill. the gentleman from texas. >> i have an amendment at the desk.

the speaker pro tempore: chelerk -- the chloric will report the amendment. the clerk: this act may be cited as the sexual assault -- mr. smith: i move that the reading be dispensed with. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the bill is read for the third time, passed and without objection the title amended. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? mr. smith: i move to take from the speaker's table s. 2586 with the senate amendment thereto. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: an act to expend application of certain space launch provisions through 2013. senate amendment. strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following, section 1, short title, this act may be cited as the space exploration sustainability act. section 2, assurance of core

capabilities -- mr. smith: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the reading is dispensed with. is there objection to the original request from the gentleman from texas? hearing none, without objection, the senate amendment is agreed to and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. . the gentleman from illinois. >> i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from illinois. >> i move that we adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until 11:00 a

>> swearing-in of new members. we'll have live coverage when that gets under way here on c-span. up next, some more from the economist magazine's festival titled the world in 2013. a panel from the all day forum took a look at cybersecurity and threats in the coming year.

former national security council counterterrorism advisor, richard clarke, talked about chinese cyberespionage and the u.s. vulnerabilities to a possible iranian cyberattack. just over 20 minutes. >> our next session is on the table subject of cyberwar in 2013. let's hope it doesn't actually come to real war, but dick clark is the president of good harvard consulting, and the author of "cyberwar, the next threat to national security and what to do about it." please welcome dick clark and his predictions. [applause] . >> thank you, good afternoon. when i was in the intelligence business, i told presidents and secretaries of state that i don't make predictions.

they didn't like that. nor did they like my prediction. predictions are difficult. i can say a few things about cybersecurity and cyberwar in the next year. we can say with high confidence that hundreds of millions, billions in fact of dollars will be stolen next year by cybercriminals who will not get caught. cybercrime pays. we can also say with high confidence that cyberespionage, the theft of intellectual property, research and development, even transactional information, will result in the loss to companies, again, of billions of dollars. as nation states, thrick china, steel information from american and european companies, and give it to chinese companies.

in short, we pay for the r&d, and they get it for free. hard to compete without going on, but that will go on next year as it's been going on. what about cyberwar? secretary of defense leon panetta said in this city last month that we are at a pre-9/11 moment when it comes to cyberwar. he said there are people with capabilities who are plotting to use them against us. he was referring to iran, but he didn't say it explicitly. iran had just engaged in the attack on the saudi oil company, wiping clean 30,000 computers. in the largest wipe attack so far seen. and the iranians have been behind on the attack on a series of u.s. backs, flood attacks, 10

times larger than anything that's been seen before. that knocked u.s. banks off line one day after another, one bank after another. if the united states and israel bomb iran next year to stop the iranian nuclear program, i think we can say with high confidence that iran will retaliate not just in the arabian gulf, but also since israel or the united states will have attacked their homeland, iran will attack in our homeland. not with terrorism, but with cyberwar. knocking out banking perhaps, knocking out electricity perhaps, causing havoc and getting away with it because we cannot defend successfully today against that kind of attack. [applause] . >> that's a sobering thought to start a conversation with.

as it happens by coincidence there were two pages in this week's economist, which you should all have on the subject of cyberwar. i think it's helpful, first of all, just to -- if you could help us, walk us through what exactly is meant by cyberwar, because you yourself mentioned cybercrime, cyberespionage. there tends to be a blurring of these lines. what exactly do you mean by cyberwar? >> i think there are four distinction phenomenon. you can remember them easily by use the word chew. the cybercrime, which is very successful and is the theft of money, happens all the time. there's cyberhactivism, the h, which is anonymous, wiki leaks, other groups, that steal information to publish it for political reasons. there's cyberespionage, which is what i think is the most serious

thing today. and that is the theft of not money but information. particularly information from private companies and from universities. research and product information. that gives certain countries like china an unfair economic advantage. and then there's cyberwar which we really haven't seen very much of yet. arguably you could say that when the united states destroyed some nuclear centrifuges in iran, physically destroyed them, with a cyberattack, that that was war. for me the definition of war is disruption, destruction, or damage. not just turning out the lights, but destroying the generator so it can't come back on. destroying the transformer so it can't come back on. we have demonstrated that that can be done.

in experiments. in fact you could go to youtube and look up the aurora, idaho experiment and see a big electrical generator blowing itself up because of cybercommands that were given to it. leon panetta, secretary of defense, talked about commands that cause trains to derail, commands that cause refineries to catch fire, and basically everything we do all day long these days is connected to a network. and we do have the machines talking to machines and machines controlling machines. we haven't secured it. >> let's just stick with the w for a moment. it's still at the stages, is it not, where no one has died in a cyberwar, is that right? >> i think that's probabilityly right. >> not to diminish it. >> very important point. very important point. because for a lot of americans,

particularly after 9/11, we have a body bag mentality about the importance of these things. if it's a national security issue, we think people have to die before it's important. and if that's our criteria, fine. but that says that all the espionage that's going on, all the economic damage that's going on, isn't important because no one's dying. if new york city were thrown into darkness, if the lights went out and stayed out for a week, if wall street had all of its data corrupted, the u.s. economy was thrown into a tailspin, people may not die as a result of that. but if you're in a house where you can't get food because the rail system has been disrupted, or the power system has been disrupted, and you can't get money out of the a.t.m. machine, you are in a cold house without heat, without power, without

communications, without money, without food, you might be upset. >> but there's also an element is there not, cyberelement of conventional warfare would be quite important in future, in the early stages. the first thing you might try to do is knock out capabilities of your enemy or have them knocked out or worried they might be knocked out. your own might be knocked out. >> in 2008 when russia invaded georgia, the nation, not atlanta, >> that would be taking cyberwar to a new -- >> as the russians tanks crossed the border into georgia, simultaneously cyberattack hit georgia. and knocked out its telecommunications, its banking, connectivity to the outside word. you're right, cyberwar will probably always be part of a larger war. and cyberwar i think will only

happen when a nation going to go to war anyway. no nation going to say, i have a new chinese cyberweapon. let's go out and go to war see if it works. we have had nuclear weapons since 1945, nine nations have them. no one has used one since 1945. so if the united states and iran get into a shooting war next year, which is highly possible, they'll probably -- there will probable be a cyberdimension to it. >> i won't talk about the united states' role and who is doing or might do cyberwar to whom. the united states is obviously not an innocent bystander in all this. you mentioned it's practiced if one supposes a degree, has a degree of cyberwar capability. who else, who are the superpowers of cyberwar? >> well, the c.i.a. says there are between 20 and 30 countries that have sign iser warfare

units with significant offensive capability. nations that have announced that are the usual suspects, china, russia, israel, the united kingdom, germany, north korea has it, believe it or not. i was in brazil last month talking to their cybermilitary unit. a lot of people have it. the interesting trend here is that the skill sets required to do offensive cyberwar are proliferating rapidly. while we could have said 10 years ago it was essentially the united states and russia that have the capabilities, now it's far broader because it's cheap. it's relatively cheap to do compared to any other form. >> i learned from the economist this week there is actually a demand in the united states headed by someone called general

keeth alexander. >> we have a four star general running something called cybercommand. it has 27,000 people in it. it has a navy component, which is the 10th fleet. 10th fleet has no ships, it has no boats. it's in cyberspace. we have 20th air force which has no airplanes or missiles. it's in cyberspace. >> couple of other things then we'll open it up to the audience. you talked mainly about cyber, what might be called cyberoffense, there is also the question of cyberdefense. how good is the united states relatively speaking at each of those? >> the united states is very good at cyberoffense. as it demonstrated. the attack package was supposed to destroy itself after it killed the certainty fugse and didn't -- centrifuges. it didn't. it escaped and ran around the

internet. you can find it on the internet if you want to download it. i wouldn't suggest that. it will only destroy ukrainian nuclear power plants, if you don't have one of those you are probably already. -- all right. the united states is very bad at defense, as is everybody else. the nature of the technology is such that there's what we call offense preference. and it costs thousands of times the amount of money to defend as it does to attack. >> the opposite of cyberwar would presummably be cyberpeace. how could you get -- how do you get to cyberpeace? is there a cyberequivalent of arms control? >> i believe there is, i may be the only one who does. nations are beginning to talk informally about things that they could do to reduce tensions. and both the united kingdom and united states have opened talks

with russia on cyberrisk reduction, which is communications channels, transparency measures. i think we have to begin the small steps. i think we can have sign iser arms control. frankly when -- cyberarms control. frankly when we began ukenar arms control, i was involved in that, people said we would never get there. they said that about biological arms control and chemical arms control. we got all those. it just took 10 or 15 years. maybe we should start now. >> let's take some questions from the audience. one in the third row back. lot of questions. third row there. then the gentleman at the middle there. >> hello. i feel like the things that you have said i have heard it about 12, 13 years ago with the year

2k problem. said wall street was going to go down. banks will be wiped out. nothing happened. you can crash a car by -- it's designed into the system. i'm not -- i'm thinking these are by design that you can -- i feel -- i'm a little bit on the skeptical side. i feel like is it that easy to come and blow up stuff? >> is it cyberhype? >> well, first of all in y 2 k i would love to know what would have happened had we not spent billions of dollars changing everything before that date rolled over. and it's hard to tell, but we did around the world, particularly here in the united states, spend billions of dollars fixing the y2k bug before that date rolled around,

which may have something to do with why nothing happened. i don't know. i hope there's hype. i hope i'm wrong. other people seem to agree with me, though. we are spending a lot of money to have this cybercommand, other countries have these cybercommands, that suggests to me they're probably right. >> the one in the middle. >> hi. i would like to know if your perspective on the concept of full spectrum dominance, that's military concept of domination of air, land, sea, space, and the cybersphere, and whether that's realistically achievable. >> i find it very disturbing that in the last few years this phrase has crept into the u.s. military's parlance of dominance. it's kinky to have them -- our

admirals talking about dominance. now, i think it's also a little arrogant, frankly. what we should talk about is cybersecurity, offensive cybercapability, defensive cybercapability. but we turn an awful lot of people off in this country and around the world when we have generals and admirals running around talking about dominating the cyberdomain. we need cooperation from a lot of people around the world. and in this country to achieve cybersecurity. and militarizing the issue and talking about how the u.s. military have to dominant the cyberdomain is not helpful. >> one in the middle. lots of hands going up. take two or three questions together and we can give you-- right in the middle here. then the gentleman in front of you as well.

>> thank you. this year -- what's wrong with china doing the same thing? >> let's take this one. >> my question is related to the big data panel. they said that 2013 big data will merge with the physical network of things. will that make the u.s. more vulnerable to cyberattack? or does that give us more possibilities to defend ourselves? a good question. >> on the china question, the question was, what's wrong with china spying? i don't think there's anything wrong with china spying. what i think is wrong with what china is doing in violation of the w.t.o. rules and others, is having its government go out and spy on private sector companies here in the united states and in

europe and take that information that they get from those private sector companies and give it to allegedly private sector companies in china who then sell their products in the united states. so the u.s. stockholders and u.s. taxpayers pay for the r&d, the chinese companies get it for nothing, and then sell their wares in the united states. that's an unfair economic advantage. the united states does not do that. the united states does not hack its way into rolls royce engines and give the information to general electric engines. you can believe that or not, but i spent a lot of time with u.s. intelligence and can i tell you we don't do that. with regard to big data and the network of things, it's the network of things that makes us vulnerable. the fact that most internet traffic today is not people talking to people, but it's machines talking to machines. and those machines automatically

do things when given certain commands. and all of those networks are connected to the internet. the electric power companies will tell you that their command and control networks are not connected to the internet, and every experiment the u.s. government has conducted has been able to get to the command network from the internet. >> we probably have time for -- take a couple of questions. lady here. and down here at the front. we'll take those questions together. >> going back to the topic of cyberwar, what are the implications when you talk about the vulnerability, especially for an attack, and how difficult it is to defend, when we are requiring military equipment increasingly that is dependent on computer programs and codes like f-35's and that sort of thing. >> and this one. one more from the front here.