of all, they have arcane rules, but they can be waived at any time through unanimous consent. one thing to watch is whether that trio of filibustering senators, those threatening to filibuster, will deny harry reid unanimous consent on any one of these smaller procedural issues that will come up and try to drag this out as long as possible. is with "usa korte today," a congressional reporter. iq as always for being on "washington journal." senate is in session on c-span two. the house is just coming into here. that is the end of our show for today. thanks for being with us. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., april 11, 2013. i hereby appoint the honorable virginia foxx 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 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. 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 the minority whip imited to five minutes each, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for five minutes. mr. poe: thank you, madam speaker. the regulators continue their reign of regulation terror on businesses across america. jerry mckinney from crosby, texas, wrote me this. i work in the industrial

chemical business, and i see the result of government regulations like those from the e.p.a. these costs my company good money, and they don't have any positive effects. larry, a doctor in kingwood, texas, said this to me. small businesses need relief from the ridiculous osha standards. our veterinary practice is having to spend hours and money trying to decipher all the regulations some bureaucrats have dreamed up just to justify their jobs. madam speaker, the fourth branch of government meddles in every aspect of our lives. in the name of saving us from ourselves, the regulators regulate, regulate, and when they're through they regulate some more without with regard to the consequences of these expensive government mandates. sometimes they put businesses out of business because of their regulations. dana from southeast texas

writes me this. i owned a business, bought a bowling center, my dream job, in 2007, was totally unprepared with the amount of regulation and fees and taxes. i employed 32 people and i went bankrupt in october of 2012 because of this. i have the drive and the desire and a great business plan for a new business. it would employ 20 to 30 people, but i'm not sure i want to dive back into all this. michael from houston said, where should i again? real estate market is flooded with, yes, new regulations. it seems that banks are prevented from foreclosing on homeowners who are basically living in the house for free for several years. susan, a small business owner in texas, says this. our small business is operated on a -- has operated on a shoestring for several years. we started way back in 1978 but i fear the end is near.

we manufacture 400 products but they're all made from the same materials, but now the new product safety regulations require we certify every product to the tune of about $500 per product even though they're all made from the same materials. do the math. $175,000 or more just to get these same products that we've been making since 1978 certified by the federal government. add on the health care fines and the rising cost of gasoline and the rising property and sales taxes and income taxes, well, you know the rest of the story. madam speaker, this ought not to be. regulators putting businesses out of business by dreaming up new silly rules that don't solve any problem. the regulators dream up new rules to add to the 100,000 commandants every day.

regulators regulate. that's what they do. that's what they like to do, but their addiction to power, to new unnecessary rules must stop. burdensome expensive federal regulations cost $2 trillion a year. what does that mean? that's the same amount of money all american citizens and corporations paid in income tax in 2008. $2 trillion. a lot of money. regulators have no concept of the cost of running a business. they don't even understand the rules and business costs that can put some american businesses out of business. so congress should approve any regulation that reaches a cost threshold or has an economic impact. that's why i'm an original author of the raines act. it allows the rules of the unelected or the rules would not take effect. if a new rule affects the economy and the united states

over $100 million throughout the country, congress must approve this new rule or it does not take effect i -- by the rule makers. so it's time for congress to rein in the out-of-control government and start regulating regulators, and that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. davis, for five minutes. mr. davis: thank you, madam chairman. madam chairman, on sunday, april 6, at 11:00 a.m., america lost five of our best and brightest in afghanistan when the convoy they were traveling in, along with an afghan doctor, was attacked by a suicide bomber. ne of them, 25-year-old ann t. smeddindall, who grew up in the

seventh congressional district where her family still lives, became the first u.s. state department officer to die in afghanistan since the 1970's. she had less than four months left to serve in afghanistan. a brave american was determined to brighten the life of learning of books written in the native tongues of the students she never met but whom she felt compelled to help. secretary of state kerry said bull and she was met by cowardly terrorists that was determined to bring darkness and death to strangers. ann was killed while delivering donated books, textbooks to children at a new school. ann, who could have remained relatively safe in the embassy,

delivering these books were essential to her mission. just -- to explain to the afghan people the similarities, a muslim holiday that celebrates giving and sharing and thanksgiving. both gives thanks to life's blessings and she discussed how she and her family celebrated back at home. ann recently worked on a campaign to end gender violence by producing and distributing videos to the press across the country and was rewarded for when she and her colleagues saw photographs of afghan men in markets wearing purple ribbons, a symbol of the campaign. her parents, tom and mary, said the foreign service was a calling and afghanistan was her second deployment, an

assignment for which she volunteered in venezuela. she died, her parents said, doing the job she thought must be done. she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war. they said, we are consoled knowing she was doing what she loved and she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world. before she joined the state department, ann served on the board of directors for the allman cancer fund, spending a summer cycling across the united states to raise money and awareness. she was full of life and hope. she rode her bicycle from the red sea to the dead sea. she was once photographed with

a boa constricter around her neck in south america. the residents of the seventh congressional district join me in honoring her life and work, her bravery, her focus on using public diplomacy for positive change, her vision of the human potential wherever it might be sets a standard that it behooves all of us to try and emulate. today, a flag is being flown across the united states capitol in her honor in recognition of her service to our country. my thoughts and prayers are with her parents, brothers, sisters and friends during these difficult days. she is indeed a hero. i thank you, madam speaker and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. perry, for five minutes.

mr. perry: thank you, madam speaker. i'm wondering who will speak for underprivileged women, not only in the united states but very particularly in philadelphia, and i'm here today to talk about an uncomfortable subject which no one seems to want to talk about. it is the trial in philadelphia. the media doesn't want to talk about it. fox, not bs, cnn, not the leaders of this nation, not the president. and it is uncomfortable. and i ask you to bear with me while i read to you some of the things, the testimony that comes from this trial. because i feel we must. this man is charged with killing seven babies and murdering one woman. prosecutors believe he killed hundreds of infants and destroyed the related records, so we'll never know. he induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in

the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and killing those babies by cutting into the back of their necks. he called it snipping. sherry west testified on monday that one newborn at the clinic was 18 to 24 inches long when it was killed. there were scores more. at least one mother died following an abortion in which he punctured her uterus and then sent her home. he left an arm and a leg in the fetus of a woman and told her he didn't need to see her after having developed a temperature of 106 degrees. he left women sterile. the clinic wreaked of animal urine. furniture and blanket were stained with blood and instruments were not sterilized, according to the grand jury report. these women are the most

vulnerable women in our society, and they were indeed most likely at their darkest hour and they went to this clinic to seek help and they did not know that this man was not qualified nor was his staff qualified to perform any of the procedures they performed. there were bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses scattered throughout the uilding and he kept feet for no medical purpose. these women came because they were probably the product of violent home lives where they felt they had no options and they came to this care provider who was essentially unregulated. this does fall into the purview of the united states attorney general because these patients oftentimes travel across state lines and this is an isolated incident. t would be disingenuous that caregivers fall in this category. we know if there is one there likely will be others.

none of his staff were licensed nurses or doctors and a eenager gave anesthesia with narcotics. he allegedly aborted and killed babies in the sixth and seventh month of pregnancy and charged more for bigger babies. he allegedly ushered white women in a slightly cleaner area because he thought they would be more likely to file a complaint. the abortions of the biggest babies allegedly were scheduled for sundays when the clinic was closed. the only person allowed to assist with such cases was his wife, pearl. she was one of nine employees charged with him as well in this and she has not obtained a lawyer at this time and he allegedly took the files home with him from the patients that he dealt with and then disposed

of them. i would say this, it gives me great pain and sorrow to have this entered and read into the record, but since the media outlets refuse to cover this because it's uncomfortable because it might not meet with their agenda and because many of leaders of this country refuse to discuss it, i think it's important that we have it read into the record so that this history and their stories don't remain untold, the stories of these women in their most desperate hours and the stories of these little babies that will never know the privilege of being an american, that will never realize their dream and i would make this charge today, mr. president, your silence is deafening. are you so blind, are you so intractable, are you so extreme that you, yourself, can't even call this out for what it is, something that is reprehensible, pro-life or pro-choice, this is reprehensible. it is worthy as a father as i am of two little girls, it is

worthy of your attention, it is worthy of your leadership, it is worthy of your direction. madam speaker, i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, for five minutes. ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to address the house. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. . jackson lee: today the bodies of this congress have an opportunity to save lives. in fact, they have a historic moment. they actually have the ability to act for once after a tragedy of the proportions of newtown, having not acted over the years. after conlum wine, theater in aurora, horrific tragedy of virginia tech. and many, many others, including

that of our colleague in arizona . i am hoping as we stand here today that the right consciouses of those who have the opportunity in the other body to pass sensible gun legislation will do so. and in order to aid them, to listen to the voices of the people, 50 members of the united states house of representatives have asked for those in the other body not to filibuster any gun legislation, but to have an up or down vote. the reason we say that is because the massive numbers of oss of children, 80-some children, who die every year, every month by gunshot. the thousands of teenagers who pick up guns to resolve differences.

and the people killed by guns since the assassination of martin luther king and john f. kennedy. this is a nation that is not safe. tragedy that happened in my area a few days ago, the slashing of students by another student at a community college, just imagine, 14 people were injured, if that person had an assault weapon with multiple rounds. similar to the heinous act that occurred in newtown and the 155 rounds were shot in five minutes. i'm hoping that this letter will --e those senators to the to not to filibuster and let us have an up or down vote. i also rise today to encourage us to do the right thing and to vote no on the national labor relations board legislation that wants to stop the president from

his presidential authority, that is to make sure that the government runs by appointing people to the nrlb through recess appointments, among others. just like president george bush did 140 times. to make recess appointments. to be able to move the government forward. in contrast to the d.c. court of appeals decision that ruled that the president, our president, could not, three other decisions, other court decisions said you can. we need to vote no on this legislation. it is destructive. it is only to stall government. and it is only to stop the work of the nrlb where workers and corporations come together to solve their problems. what we should be doing is working to create jobs. that's what americans want us to do. they want us to make it in america. they want us to build up manufacturing. they want us to create and pass legislation as we introduced yesterday with hoyer, 38 pieces of legislation that we all are joining to support -- create

jobs. one thing they don't want us to do is to pass anything with a changed c.p.i. on social security, because social security is solvent and those people are not the fault of any deficit, any debt. they are hardworking people. i will not ever vote for change c.p.i. and i'm not a whiner. i frankly see those people in my district who are supported by social security and medicare of which they earned because they worked for it. they did not have it as a handout. seniors are important and seniors believe in young people. and so we should protect our seniors, and we should invest in education, and i salute the president for his early pre-k initiative that every child should have the opportunity to be in a pre-k program supporting our teachers. so here we are. this is what we should be doing. we should be promoting job creation to bring down unemployment and to get those who are underemployed and those who completely have gone out of

the marketplace. they can be hired. they have skills. including -- we should continue to invest in education, including higher education, making it easier for parents to get the parent-plus loan to send their children to college and putting the burden on colleges to make sure that these young people finish college and not go in and get debt and therefore come out with a large debt and no degree. this is what america's about. investing in young people. protecting our seniors. and realizing that the changed c.p.i. is not the way to go on social security. it's to save it because they earned it and it is the build america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the the gentlewoman from alabama, miss sewell, for five minutes. ms. sewell: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to -- ms. sewell: i rise today to pay tribute to a beloved high school

debate coach who is an extraordinary mentor to me and so many others. coach billy tate, as he was known, as an accomplished speech and debate coach in alabama and tennessee for over 40 years. coach tate sadly passed away suddenly on saturday, april 6, 2013, at the age of 69. leaving behind a legacy defined by his commitment to developing the oratorical skills of future leaders. at the time of his death, coach tate was a five diamond debate coach at montgomery belle academy in national vi, tennessee, where he taught speech -- nashville, tennessee, where he taught speech and winning debate teams for 30 years. he was an outstanding teacher anders pirational leader in the national forensic league, the oldest and largest honor society for high school students in speech and debate. during his career, coach tate

had multiple national finalists and policy debates. in 1999 his policy debate team reached the national finals and in 2006, coach billy tate made coaching history as two of his policy teams closed out the national finals winning the first ever co-championship in policy debate. you know, he was an extraordinary individual. note only -- not only did he teach his students so brilliantly, in his spare time he loved bridge. he was a devoted sun who always saw to the care of his beloved mother in selma. coach tate also managed to keep up with his debate students through the years and relished in their life's successes. he demanded excellence from his students, teaching them not only the importance of debate prep and strategy, but also took great pride in exposing his students to the very best restaurants, and that included

important table etiquette that accompanied such an experience. although coach tate spent the bulk of his career at montgomery belle academy in nashville, he began his speech and debate experience in 1975 at selma high school in his beloved town of selma, alabama. i know that his students at montgomery belle academy believe they had his best coaching years, but i'm here to tell you from personal experience that the 1970's and 1980's at selma high school, honed his craft and greatly influenced his strategy. he produced some of the finest high school debaters in the state of alabama had ever seen to date, and i am proud to say i was one of those students. billy tate was my debate coach for he three years at selma high school. for a public high school in rural alabama we dominated the competition and won many state championships. for many years the walls of the

high school library were lined with hundreds of debate and speech trophies won by the teams coached by billy tate. debate was more than an average extra kirk rick cue lar activity, it was a serious discipline and those of us who have been privileged of being coached by him knew it was a serious time commitment, a commitment of both time, money, and talent. to be on billy tate's debate team, a student had to commit to attending summer debate camps and countless weekend travel to tournaments all across alabama, mississippi, tennessee, and georgia during the academic year. it was not the average debate class. i know that my life journey would not have been possible were it not for my debate experience under the tutelidge of -- tutele inge of coach billy tate. i know i speak on behalf of all debators at selma high school and montgomery belle academy in expressing our sincere gratitude

for coach tate's guidance, his dedication, and unwavering belief in our ability. i especially dedicate this tribute to the selma high school debaters i had the privilege of competing with, tom, lawrence, and , max, john, lesley, crystal to name a few. to say thank you to coach tate seems woefully inadequate but i do take comfort in knowing that his legacy will live on through those of us he influenced. may coach billy tate always be remembered for the excellence that he he inspired in all of us. today -- that he inspired in all of us. today i ask my colleagues in the united states congress to join me and the hundreds of debaters he taught in his 40 years of coaching in celebrating the life and legacy of a native alabaman and a nationally renowned debate coach, mr. william "wood" tate jr.

thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky, mr. yarmuth, for five minutes. mr. yarmuth: madam speaker, i rise to honor the university of louisville cardinals who went to a second straight final four this season and returned home national champion. going into the ncaa tournament the question was whether the cards' stifling defense would be enough to win it all. well, we'll never he know because the country's best defense became the best offense, too. shooting 52% to a tournament best 79.5 points per game. that's more than crazy, it's ridiculous. during the past month russ smith hardly took a shot he couldn't make. setting louisville's new tournament scoring record and earning the respect and affection of a city. the all-american, regional

m.v.p., and defensive phenom no longer cares who is scoring longs as long as the jersey reads louisville. louisville first, cards forever, they mean it. we saw it when the team rallied around their injured teammate, kevin ware, as he repeated i'm fine, just win the game, before being carted off the court during the elite eight. we saw it when they came together to win for ware. before that the cards won with ware. on this team kevin was one of eight cardinals that scored double figures in the tournament game. that doesn't even include the players who sat this team's -- set this team's unlikely rallies. all year steven matched rebounds from future nba big men denied them in the paint and set precision picks strong enough to stop a truck. and the freshman harold provided

a constant spark off the bench. the only thing close to matching his natural ability. siva embodies the louisville spirit. happier setting up his teammates than knocking it down himself. he reminded a nation he can also drop 18 points on the player of the year in the championship game. unselfish but a thief, he'll graduate with a school record for steals. the record-setting shot blocker and monster rebounder used the jump shot to fool defenders and find teammates. han none tied the single season dunk record. cutting down the nets in atlanta was great. but they should give shane the back boards because he owned them all night. this team also showed tremendous perseverance. wayne overcame two shoulder surgeries to reach the starting lineup. it's a good thing, he hit threes to start the cards' scoring in

both championship halfs. but the final four's breakout start was the most outstanding player, luke hancock, who scored his career high in the semifinal and broke it two days later. he didn't use the force, he was a force. and nothing would stop him from winning for his father, kevin ware, and as always for lieu slil. -- lieu vim. that's what coach rick pitino taught this team. he's done everything. built a team and mentored men we should be proud of. like pitino, jeff walls will tell you this isn't about one person or team. it's about a program and community. trust him, that mad scientist led louisville's women to four straight ncaa tournament upsets, including what is considered to be the biggest upset in college basketball history. . sharp shooting of many others and the unbelievable toughness of monique reid and harper, the

national runnersup crashed nearly every party around. they define an extraordinary program. only three coaches in ncaa history have gone to a men's and women's basketball final in the same season. louisville's the first to add a b.c.s. bowl victory to the mix. but if you think it's the last, you don't know athletics director. the sparkling new facilities, outstanding coaches and stellar student athletes in competition and class, tom has every sport at the top of their game and climbing. the university and the community have thrived along with them, continuing a proud tradition that began with hickman and rocketed under the top under the great denny kraum. i congratulate the university of louisville with the third's men's national championship. go, cards. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the

-- the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from illinois, ms. buss oast, for five minutes. -- ms. bustos, for five minutes. madam os: thank you, speaker. i rise to talk about the issue facing my district and our country and that is boosting american manufacturing and creating jobs here at home. just this create, i introduced a bill called the american jobs matter act. this commonsense bill would enable the federal government to find out how contracted work would impact american jobs. contractors would be able to include how their offers would create american jobs.

my bill would raise the importance of creating jobs at home in our country and building our manufacturing industry here as federal contractors are considered for their jobs. it would also help ensure that taxpayer money is being used to create jobs in places like rockford, in places like galesburg and peoria. and in cities and towns across my district, across my state and across our country, not overseas. i'm proud to say that this bill has been incorporated into congressman hoyer's make it in america plan, which seeks to romote american workers, jobs, innovation and infrastructure. madam speaker, we need to do more to create jobs and support american manufacturing. my bill does just that. thank you and, madam speaker, i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from hawaii, ms. gabbard, for five minutes. ms. gabbard: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. gabbard: madam speaker, i rise today to address the recent developments and the growing instability on the korean peninsula. today we're seeing an increasingly belligerent hostile stance by the north korean regime toward its perceived enemies. for many this may sound like a far off annoyans, saber rattling coming from the east, however, nothing can be farther from the truth for families in my home state of hawaii and in guam who sit as named threats by the increasingly aggressive and unpredictable regime led by kim jong-un. he's had threats and even unprovoked attacks on south korea in recent years.

this new leader has adopted many of the same destructive policies of the past and his pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic capabilities. he's revealed the willingness to sacrifice the safety and needs of the north korean people in order to advance his ostile, unproductive agenda. rather than caring for his people, he establishes a military-first doctrine. along with guam and alaska, hawaii's been placed within the crosshairs of this intensifying threat. it's crucial for the united states and hawaii in particular to take these threats from north korea seriously. we cannot be complacent. we cannot afford a mistake that puts the lives of our families at risk. intelligence in previous missile launches have shown that hawaii, guam and alaska are within range of north korea's intercontinental ballistic nuclear capabilities. intelligence suggests that north korea may be planning multiple missile launches in

the coming days, beyond the two missiles it has fueled, raised and positioned along its east coast. our nation's focus and commitment to the security and stability of the asia-pacific region faces a serious test as we rebalance and realign our presence in the region, it is vitally important we get it right in terms of strategy as well as resourcing. the united states has an important interest in maintaining peace on the korean peninsula as well as in the asia-pacific region. we must stand together with our allies in the region ready to respond to any contingency, and we must take a forward-leaning approach to address this imminent threat to prevent further provocations and to protect our families and our national assets. the international community has clearly stated its opposition to his actions and threats, but we need to ask more of those influential nations that have remained quiet.

china in particular should be playing a strong role as a deterrent of north korea's military ambitions. we're also seeing a destabilizing affect outside of the region as a result of the dangerous partnership between the two isolated rogue states of iran and north korea. as the regimes are working together to develop more powerful weapons, missile delivery systems and nuclear capabilities. it would be safe to assume that by addressing the threat in our country by north korea we are also affecting iran and their nuclear ambitions. i commend our military commanders for their firm and confident resolve that they've shown in response to the endless posturing and provocative behavior of north korea. however, from a u.s. policy standpoint, it's time to make a serious change. such a change must be comprehensive, carving a new path forward using diplomatic and military means in order to break the cycle of threats that has existed for far too long. the carrot and stick approach

we've taken in the past have not effectively deterred north korea's nuclear ambitions. to the contrary. we continue to facess can lated threats that now ex-- face escalated threats that now extend beyond the region. the threat of missile attacks on the u.s. is likely to grow, i'm deeply concerned about the president's proposed cuts to the missile defense budget in fiscal year 2014. this is a portion of the budget that should be increased, not decreased, to ensure the safety and security of our people. in the coming days and months, i look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in pushing for action and resources to ensure that hawaii and our country is protected and any potential attack is prevented. thank you, madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly, for five minutes. mr. connolly: thank you, madam speaker. during the past two weeks, i met with local employers and

constituents who express continued frustration of the negative effects of sequestration in our community. republicans and democrats alike spent most of the past year warning of the dire consequences these cuts would have on our economy, and yet the recently adopted continuing resolution for the rest of the fiscal year bakes in those very harmful cuts. i share my constituents' frustration which is why i voted against the self-inflicted wound on our economy. my northern virginia district will be disproportionately impacted because of the high concentration of military facilities, employees and businesses that partner with the federal government. we do cybersecurity, custodial services and everything in between. i met with a number of these employers. they expressed real concern that the lingering uncertainty over sequestration threatens job security and the ability to remain competitive economically. i fear the consequences of

sequestration and what that will mean to small businesses that don't have the same resources as larger counterparts to weather these steep cuts. i visited one company with 200 employees who are developing a laser system for nasa through the small business administration grant. their technology is being deployed with a contract with the defense department to better protect our troops in the field. they're worried about cutbacks. the small business administration's fiscal 2013 budget will be reduced by more than $92 million as a result of sequestration. and more than 1/4 of those cuts will come from the small business loan program, directly affecting small businesses, veteran-owned businesses, female and minority-owned businesses and their ability to hire. as my colleagues know, the federal government has a small business contracting goal of 5% and we have fallen short of

that goal in the last six years. sequestration will make it hard to achieve that goal. i met with my local chamber of commerce to discuss its desire to expand the metro system here in the capital to accommodate future growth and development in the region. our community has the highest concentration of megacommuters in the country. there is no question we need to invest more in our regional transportation network, and yet this particular proposal enjoys bipartisan support but under sequestration it's headed nowhere because the new program under the federal transit administration will be cut by as much as $100 million because of sequestration. whether it's cuts in small business assistance or transportation, sequestration is reducing our investments in the very things that create jobs and provide for our competitive advantage in the future. local realtors i met expressed concern about the uncertainty of sequestration of putting the brakes on sales just as

regional and national housing markets are finally showing signs of robust recovery. the slowdown in the federal spending is already creating a drag on local economies. a 22% drop in defense spending shaved nearly three points off economic growth in the last quarter and c.b.o. projects it could be half of the growth otherwise projected in all of 2013 because of sequestration. madam speaker, i don't argue the cuts are needed, but sequestration uses a mindless meat ax approach in which nothing is spared and nothing is differentiated. i've long called for members of the house to work together in a bipartisan fashion and in a balanced way balance between revenue growth and discreet spending cuts to move forward and reduce the debt. this week's delivery of the president's budget is a heartening sign because he does just that. i hope we'll heed his budget. i hope we'll try to work with the president to achieve a balanced approach that replaces this mindless sequestration. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. green . mr. green: thank you, madam chair. it's an honor to be with you this morning, and i thank also the many persons who have labored long and hard to help fulfill dr. martin luther king jr.'s dream. he devoted his life to transforming neighborhoods into brotherhoods, and i'd like to speak to you today about this concept because to do this, to transform neighborhoods into brotherhoods, we must become neighbors. we have to have communities where all persons are a part of the fiber and fabric of the various communities that we live in. dr. king was in memphis, tennessee, in 1968, and he was there on this mission of bringing people together. he was there to help with some issues related to workers and

workers' rights, and unfortunately on april 4 of 1968, dr. king was assassinated. his life's work did not end, however. his dream is still alive, and because he dared to transform neighborhoods into brotherhoods, the president of the united states at that time, president johnson, took up the fight for dr. king and within seven days a piece of legislation passed through the house that dealt with discrimination as it relates to where people live. this legislation had bipartisan support. the democratic supporter was senator walter mondale, very well-known figure in american politics. the republican supporter was an african-american, by the way, who was a member of the senate,

the honorable edward brook. these two senators had for years been trying to pass this legislation to eliminate discrimination in housing, and they had had some degree of success, but they were not able to get the legislation passed. well, in 1968, seven days after dr. king's death, the fair housing act of 1968 passed, prohibiting discrimination based upon race, color, religion, national origin as it relates to the sale or the financing of housing. . in 1974 it was amended to include sex discrimination. in 1988 it was amended to prohibit discrimination based upon physical or mental handicap. as well as familial status. the housing fairness act that i have introduced models this

piece of legislation. it, too, deals with discrimination that is invidious with reference to refusing to grant to a person, sell housing , a person, negotiate housing to make housing available. to set different terms for some than for others. o falsely deny that housing is unavailable when it is available. this kind of discrimination still exists, but it's important for us today to realize that it impact onch having an persons that many of us do not assume are victims of housing discrimination. the f.y. 2011 statistics, latest available to me, note that 27,092 complaints were filed

with programs associated with the fair housing initiative. and of these complaints, about 12% to 54% of them were complaints based upon disability. based upon disability. it's important for us to focus on disability for a moment. because many of our veterans returning from wars, persons who chose to go to distant places, that don't always return the same way they left. their them have given lives and others have survived but they have survived and they are handicapped. many of them returning will be discriminated against because there are people who discriminate against people who are handicapped. they may not know that it's a

veteran. but whether they know or not, the act of discrimination is still harmful. and i will submit to you that it makes sometimes tears well in the eyes of people who understand how our veterans have fought for us. so i'm here today to make an appeal that we support fair housing initiatives and that we do all that we can to transform neighborhoods into brotherhood. thank you, madam chair. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in reces

a vote on the rule's bill scheduled between 1:30 and 2:00 eastern. live coverage when lawmakers return at noon eastern. meanwhile, over in the u.s. senate, members this morning are talking about gun legislation. they are -- they will be voting shortly on the legislation on moving forward to the legislation. john cornyn of texas, the minority whip, speaking on the floor. the legislation includes background checks for gun sales, tougher penalties for gun trafficking and school safety grants. 60 votes will be needed to break a threatened republican filibuster on the bill. since several democrats are supposed to vote against their party, many support the bill advancing to the next stage even though they may ultimately vote against the bill on passage when it takes place a few weeks from now. looking at the white house schedule today, press secretary

jay carney holds a briefing with reporters at about 11:30 eastern. the president is remaining in town. at 2:10 this afternoon he'll participate in the medal of onor ceremony for the late capin. 's receiving the award posthumously. next up on c-span, we will take you live to the house intelligence committee. that's the director of national intelligence, james clapper, on your screen. the committee holding a hearing looking at worldwide threats, and director clapper among the witnesses this morning. live coverage here on c-span. >> many of which of course have come falling in the hands of the opposition. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director. ms. schakowsky. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman, and i thank you all

gentlemen for participating in this open hearing. i think it's important and of such great benefit for the american people. i have some questions for you, director brennan, about drones. in your confirmation hearing, you suggested that the united states publicly disclose when american drones strike kills civilians. the ggested that perhaps drone operation sudden at some point at least be transferred from intelligence to the military. i am wondering if you've taken any steps or if you plan to immediately take actions to increase transparency about drone strikes to make any move of that -- of that program. you also stated at that time your belief that the idea of establishing a special court to review potential targets for lethal strikes was worthy of

discussion. i wondered if any discussions had begun on this issue. >> well, congresswoman, when i was in my confirmation hearing, i was a sitting white house official and i was asked questions about policies that the administration was pursuing. right now i am director of the c.i.a., and so my comments at that time were reflective of my position at the white house as well as my comments about the u.s. government's counterterrorism program overall. so i would say right now that i am at the helm of the c.i.a. and will carry out policy guidance as directed by the administration and i will continue to focus our efforts on making sure that terrorists are mott able to carry out murderous attacks against our citizens, whether it be overseas or domestically. >> i wonder if you can comment on this. on tuesday an article stated a

significant number of individuals killed in drone strikes in pakistan were not leaders of al qaeda or affiliated groups, and the article states that hundreds of suspected low-level militants were killed in strikes. i wondered if you could address concerns that we don't always know who we're targeting and claims that the scope of these attacks -- and claims that the scopes of these attacks is much wider than have been suggested -- than officials have suggested. >> there are a lot of things that are printed in the press that are inaccurate in my mind and misrepresent the facts, and i'm not going to talk about any specific activities in any part of the world. again, as my responsibility as director of the c.i.a., i am going to make sure that we do whatever we can to work with our partners overseas to take these individuals off the battlefield that are fighting to kill american citizens. >> let me ask you this.

is there any way that you can define and distinguish between targeted strikes and signature strikes by drones? >> i would refer to the comments that were made by a number of u.s. government officials, public low in speeches, including when i was at the white house. i am not going to engage in any type of discussion on that today here, congresswoman. >> ok. let me ask -- i got more questions here. t me ask you also, mr. brennan, as you know the senate intelligence committee report on former c.i.a. detention interrogation practices is under review within the administration, and the agency comments were originally due back to the committee on february 15. though the reply has now been delayed indefinitely. on march 7 in "the new york times," former c.i.a. senior

analyst said that if any person can take this on it would be you, director brennan. it's you in that, "the institution would benefit from the eventual declassification and release of the study." with a is the current status of the review of the report, and can you please just, if you could, discuss the importance as a leader of the -- the leader of the c.i.a. of its release? >> well, clearly it's an important report that was issued by the senate select committee on intelligence. i have as recently as early this week spoken with the chairman and vice chairman of the committee telling them that i am in the process of reviewing the document and will be getting back to them shortly. this is a 6,000-page document that has millions of pages behind it in terms of what was reviewed and so it's my

obligation as the director of the c.i.a. to make sure that my response back to them is going to be thorough, as accurate as possible and convey my views about what that report portrays about c.i.a.'s past practices, what we have learned from that experience, running the program as well as from that report, and also to identify things that i might think that the committee may have -- committee's report might not accurately represent. >> thank you and yield back. >> thank you very much. mr. westmoreland. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. brennan, director, you were in the white house and this white house seems to have a strategy that they want egotiated peace in syria and just i guess let assad step down.

do you think that's a good policy or plan for syria? >> congressman, i am an intelligence officer when i was down at the white house, a policymaker, and recognized my responsibility as an intelligence officer is to provide them with the best darn intelligence as possible to advance national security. i am not going to comment on whether i agree or disagree with any type of policy, perspectives of this administration. >> ok. well, let me ask you this, then. what is your opinion of assad stepping down and the fact that , you know, he's just going to step down? >> i think as director clapper said in his opening comments, there's pressure that is being' plide on him. he's getting support from a number of outside entities, and that pressure's going to

continue. we have a policy position in this government that it's time for assad to go. the bloodshed that's taking place in syria continues, and the implications of the region as a whole are profound, and the sooner we can bring some type of security to that country i believe that's in our interest, it's in the interest of the regional states and i'm concerned about the fracturing of the country that's allowing certain groups to gain strength because they have agendas inside of syria and potentially outside that i think are contrary to the u.s. national security interests. >> i guess i'm asking the question wrong. what chance percentage-wise do you think that assad would step down? >> i think as director clapper said and i'll ask director clapper to comment, his days are numbered. it's when the pressure will be

sufficient on him that either he is going to voluntarily step down or he will meet his fate as a result of the pressure that is being applied on him from inside that country. >> his own perspective is that he believes he's got the upper hand, that he's winning, that -- and he's also said that he was born in syria and he's going to die there. he appears to be -- and to the extent we've been able to do any psychological analysis, very committed to seeing this through, and does not seem to be interested at this point in leaving or voluntarily stepping down. >> thank you. also in syria, you know, it seems like -- and i don't know -- there are so many as you mentioned in your testimony, so many different factions of the rebels over there. what do you think the chances

e of the moderate rebels being able to protect any interest that they would have in the new government if assad does leave or is thrown out ver the well-financed, trained islamic extremists over there that does include some of the al qaeda elements? > well, the al qaeda extension from iraq, is punching above its weight. relatively small numbers compared to the total opposition. . they have a presence in 13 of the 14 provinces in syria. they are organizing themselves or they can to perform municipal services, to include the, in some cases, the imposition of

shari'a law. that said, there are increasing indications that the moderate islamists are getting wise to this and are not comfortable with it, and that there are -- there are indications of demissiveness among the sunni opposition groups. how that will play out, hard to say. that's something we are watching carefully. >> thank you. i yield back, mr. chairman. >> mr. schiff. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, congratulations, director, on your new post. two questions, one for director brennan, one for director clapper. director brennan, this is a combination intel and policy question, i would be interested in your thoughts in either dimension. what we think the iranians are concluding from the fact that gaddafi had no nuclear weapons and he is dead and buried, that

north korea does, that kim jong , reckless, inexperienced, but nonetheless in control of his country. what do you think the iranians are concluding from this? and how do we make sure that the iranians don't wrong the -- draw the wrong conclusion? is there anything we can do to make sure they don't. director clapper, you may have seen that maliki wrote an op-ed recently in the "washington post," among other things he said iraq opposes any arms transfers to either side in syria. do you buy it? or do you believe that maliki and the iraqi government is knowingly and willfully allowing flights of arms over iraqi territory to supply the assad

regime? is a much different type of country than libya and north korea. that said, though, i think iran like the rest of the community watched with interest as far as what was going on in libya, came together against the gaddafi government. also watching north korea as far as what the international community had done as far as sanctions and other types of pressure on the north korean government since it has not fulfilled its responsibilities as a state. but iran has its own aspirations and sees itself as the extension of the persian empire. it is pursuing its programs, including nuclear front, in a manner that is inconsistent with its international obligations as well. therefore i think there has been a determined effort on the part of the international community and this government to let the

iranian government know there are certain things that we will not comment. even though they are watching what happened in libya and what's going on in north korea, i think there is a new set of circumstances and conditions that apply to iran that they understand full well the implications of continuing down the path right now. >> answer your second question on maliki's article in "the washington post," i did see it and i think if you'll bear with me i'd rather answer that in a closed sense. >> certainly. loath me just ask a different -- let me just ask a different question then, turning to pakistan, afghanistan. what is the motivation you think of the had a canny network? and how do you assess their trajectory? are they growing in power and influence? have they been weakened? what do you think makes them fight? >> let me start, i'll ask others to join in.

the network is probably the most iolent group of the taliban. as to what te extent they pay full allegiance to omar. generally they do. they are quite anti-western. and they are probably -- have the reputation of the most violent kinds of attacks against isaf and particularly the united states. of late, they have lost a couple of their key leaders, and so that is, i think, restrained somewhat their historical aggressiveness, but their motivation, i think, is uncompromised. >> as director said, the member of the tally ban but they have a long history of autonomy in that

area. it goes along the border between afghanistan and pakistan. they have adamantly opposed any type of foreign intervention in that region, and by foreign, aso talking about government well as the afghan government. but because of the coalition troops that are there, they are fighting along with the taliban. and they are among the most lethal and the most violent groups in the area there. so one of the things we are looking at is as the taliban moves forward, the hakani is going to stay with them or some separation as far as political agendas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director clapper i remained concerned about the files from the balance la bad raid. specifically, what is it, where what has been done with it, where is it? what more is being done with it? maybe some of this we can get into closed session as to the

specifics. but i'd like for you to give an assessment from your perspective of the different agencies that fall under you. how would you grade the intelligence community's job that they have done with these files in terms of combing through all of them and doing a thorough job, if you can give a bakse assessment grade of what's been done so far. >> would say at least a b-plus or a-minus. i think to start with when the -- in the immediate aftermath of jointid, we established a task force composed of nine components of the intelligence community. as soon as we received the media from the raid to triage it, that was clearly a community effort, and to go through it as quickly as we could to determine if there were any immediate threats that -- or threat plotting, sort of the executive agent to form

the documents is the c.i.a., and they -- they continue to look at the material. as well at sent come, organization originally -- centcom, organization originally established by -- then director petraeus, now part of the j-2 operation was going through very, very detailed basis all the documents, almost in an academic research context, to read out any further findings from these documents that might bear on a threat. i recently met with -- along with the deputy of the nctc, national counterterrorism center, with a representative from the combating terrorism center at the united states military academy at west point, about what we could do to move out -- move ahead on

declassifying these captured about ts since there was 17 documents totaling 300 pages released immediately to this organization, and i do think there is a good call, a good reason for us to declassify to the extent we can, we don't in any way justify current operations, current -- u.s. intelligence operations or sources or methods, and to make this available more widely for academic research. >> i'd like to make myself available. i'd like to see some of this raw intelligence, if possible. i mean that may answer some of my questions. in terms if somebody could walk me all the way through it exactly what it is and what you guys have been doing with it. >> there were at least 400 -- over 400 intelligence reports

that were issued in the initial aftermath. immediately after the raid. i don't know what that number is since then. >> i think you know what i'm getting at, right? there's been rumors in the press, stories in the press that the administration has used these documents to basically instead of connect the dots, that al qaeda is continuing to flourish around the globe or greater al qaeda network, it's been used to disconnect the dots. i just want to put that to bed because i have great confidence in you and the agencies. i guess our job as members of the oversight committee to make sure we put these rumors to rest out in the public. >> to be candid i haven't heard that, but i certainly can arrange a briefing for you on how these documents have been managed from the time they were acquired. >> i appreciate that. >> again. just because the director mentioned the effort by central command, one of the things that

i can assure everybody is that the secondary exemploymentation -- exploitation, if you will, the second fades of what we are doing to take this a exploited information, that is being shared around certainly in our military channels. i know throughout the intelligence community, for any lessons learned, anything we can takeway from that. not only with central command but with our africa command, european command, and other -- certainly military organizations around the world. i don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but i know there have been hundreds of additional reports that have been subsequently published that has allowed us to understand what we have been facing for some time. i would add that as the director brennan said earlier, we are a learning organization and we absolutely take the kinds of information that we are getting out of this reporting to learn and continue to adapt.

>> thank you, general flynn. mr. chairman, if i may, i'm going to submit a question for the record related to anthrax and bilogical weapons -- biological weapons and i open someone can get back to me on. i yield back. >> thank you. ms. sewell, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i also want to thank you gentlemen for your service to our nation as well as is for your appearance here today at the hearing. what this committee considered yesterday was a cyberbill, and i guess i really want to direct my first question to you, director clapper, regarding cyberattacks and whether or not you think what we can do to make sure that hose attacks are thwarted. >> our role in the intelligence community is to provide the intelligence across the board.

i will say both the f.b.i. and the department of defense, specifically d.o.d., for that matter all of us have a role to play in providing that policymakers, operators, etc. i also completely agree with i think underlying tenet of the bill that you passed yesterday, which recognizes the importance of partnership between the government. we certainly collectively cannot do it all. and we do need the help and assistance and cooperation of the civil sector. and so that's -- i guess that's all i'd say to answer the question. >> if each of you could just talk a little bit about the greatest cyberthreats from your perspectives. is it foreign governments? is it it terrorists?

is it criminals? where is the biggest threat? >> let me start and others can contribute. any time you're assessing threat, there are obviously two dimensions. one is the capability, and the other dimension is intent. certainly from a capability standpoint in terms of ability --reek damage to the country wreak damage to the country, we are more concerned with the potential of the nation state, and obviously, we have called this out publicly before, russia and china probably the most capable from a nation state perspective have the capability to attack. this is separate, of course, from espionage. the electronic or cyberespionage. as we all know that's going on quite voluminously, particularly by the chinese. other threats, though, from

other countries, who don't have that capability but might have a more malevolent intent are also concerned to us which we do watch. and then it tails off to hackers, criminals, organized crime, which probably represent more r capability but a aggressive intent. let me stop and ask if others -- bob, do you want to comment? >> picking up on where general clapper started, i do believe the greatest threat now comes from nation states. i would add iran because i think that's in the public realm as well. and that we have seen expansion of the use of tools such as service attacks. but there are other tools that are out there that are being developed and could be developed that would as opposed to tying

up data or delaying the transmission of data, wipe out data. >> do you think that the government is currently organized appropriately to address these threats? >> i think we are reaching that point, but we are to a certain extent the same situation we were in the wake of september 11 in terms of understanding that we have to work closely together to address it. n.s.a., f.b.i., d.h.s. to name the three principals who each have a role to play. and in the past when it was the counterterrorism threat, the other substantial partner had to be state and local law enforcement when it came to counterterrorism. in the realm of cyber, it is the private sector. and the necessity of assuring very swiftly we get information exchanged between the private sector and each of our agencies and vice versa, i might add. >> one of the things about the cyberthreat we face is it's so

diverse. not just from in terms of the different types of actors that are engaged from nation states to organized criminals, and those capabilities are growing up. but distributed to service attack, d-dots attacks. the externally beb sites of banks are brought down. the more, much more concerning types of threats as far as being able to get malware into systems for deletion purposes. concerns about different types expeditions, looking at critical infrastructure and trying to bring down those systems which could have critical impact on this country. in addition, we have the i.p.r. theft, intellectual property rights going on on a daily baycy, identity theft. there are so many different types of things. there needs to be a whole of government approach. but these capabilities are growing -- >> who takes lead

responsibilities on these attacks? he know it's integrated response. -- i know it's integrated response. >> i think it's also what is the aspect of the lead? when you look at the cyberthreat, vulnerabilities, and mitigation steps. the intelligence community is doing whatever we can to assess the threat and get the intelligence on it so that we can provide it to those departments and agencies with responsibility for addressing the vulnerabilities that exist in the networks out there. and also make sure we take the mitigation steps necessary. f.b.i., n.s.a., d.h.s., intelligence community, department of defense, all of us are working together depending on the element of it. that's why having some additional authorities in the government that will allow us to engage in private sector i think is what director clapper and mueller are emphasizing. >> i would just -- my quick answer is, nation states. for sure. one of the other things, and i think this legislation that was

pushed out yesterday is going to go a long way, but one of the things that i am very concerned about, one of the things that we do support, is intelligence acquisition, to our acquisition programs within the defense department, and the theft of our defense industrial base is one of my sort of -- there is something that keeps me up at night, i want to ensure that as we provide the best intelligence that we can on the types of weapons systems that our defense department needs, we want to make sure that we outmatch our threats, our adversaries, as much as we can. and that's one of the areas that i definitely remain concerned about. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, very much. mr. connolly. >> thank you for being here this morning. general flynn, your al qaeda comments earlier, we hear publicly statements that al qaeda is on the run. we broke their back. or they are been to be defeated.

yet we see that the affiliates continue to appear to flourish. you got the issue yesterday with al qaeda and iraq and dropping the really poor secret they are affiliated. yemen and across the country. that part of the world. could you talk to us about your thoughts. can we have a strategic defeat of al qaeda? and what would that look like if that were the case? >> to answer the question, i would just say that this is a -- an ideology that we face, and i think that we have been very clear about defining that ideology. believe that this loosely affiliated organization, set of franchises, the way we have described it in the past, and as we look forward and look at what we are facing now in -- outside of just the afghanistan-pakistan theater of operations in some

these other areas that director clapper highlighted in his opening testimony, i think we have to be very concerned about the interdependence if you will, the interconnectedness of some of these different groups, these affiliates or these looser groups that are out there. a.q. described them as wannabes as an example and how they receive things like funding or how they get involved or become interested in, certainly, in some of the training activities that we know are, in fact, occurring n. places across north africa or -- occurring in places across north africa or other places. we have to be concerned about how these organizations do work together and how well connected they are. i think that we pay very close attention to that, and i think that our insights today are far better than they were just a few

years ago. and our ability to have an impact i think has been described here today is actually pretty good. we need to stay on top of this, especially that we truly understand this ideology we face. >> the comments about a.q.i., can you give us your thoughts on the strength of that organization in syria? would that be the predominant public facade group? >> talking about -- >> yes. >> i can go into detail in closed session on their numbers in relation to the rest of the opposition if that's what you mean. the numbers themselves are not indicative of their real influence. >> just want to add that i would offer, we are working very closely within the intelligence community, and how we would

define it is to use a military term, how we define the order of battle. what does this -- what's the organizations, plural, that make this variety of coalition organizations that -- what do they look like in terms of their disposition, composition. those kinds of things. i know we are working through that in the intelligence community today so we have a better idea as we move down the road with operations in syria. >> let me switch gears. general clapper and director mueller, can you give the american people the assurance that perpetrators of benghazi killings, that we've got a full-court press on to find who they are and find them and bring justice to them? or in the alternative bring them to justice? >> i can assure you that is certainly the case ever since that incident happened we have had individuals on the ground building up relationships with unterparts in the libyan

service. i have been there twice myself to make certain that we are doing all we can to work with the libyan government to identify those individuals who are responsible to bring them and to bring them to justice. will say that they have been responsive. the investigations are ongoing. and are being pressed forward. this is a law enforcement effort as opposed to our efforts against al qaeda and those types of things? so this is more learment approach? >> i wouldn't say any of these approaches are all law enforcement. we are a component of it. but there are other agencies who work together to make certain that the individuals are brought to justice. in each of these cases we do not preclude any possible outcome. we happen to have the capabilities, whether it be

forensics or in putting together investigations to be able to put the investigations together for whatever purpose or used, whether it be prosecution or some other use. >> the department of defense is -- the king these suspects, perpetrators, and we can go into -- the general can speak to this in closed session in more detail. >> i wanted to highlight the assessment -- acknowledgement to the american people we haven't lost sight of the issue. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here today. i'm sorry i was late and i'm told that you haven't talked about the question i want to ask. at least you haven't talked about it the way i'd like you to talk about it. and that's north korea.

can you give us some idea why there is so much disparate -- disparity amongst those in the intelligence community as to what's going on over there and what sort of capabilities they have? you'll hear from one individuals and there will be a near crisis. and the next individual there will be uncertainty. is there any common thought on what's happening? >> well, i think there may be individuals out there that have their opinions and the intelligence community is a big organization, a lot of people. i think institutionally, organizationally, there is pretty fair agreement. i also have to say that north korea, of course, is now and always has been one of the, if not the toughest, intelligence targets. as john brennan pointed out earlier, of course we don't have

a big track record on the new leader, there is not much history there. he didn't have the grooming period which only ran about two or three years, unlike his father who had about 10 or 15 years of grooming prior to his ascension to the senior leadership role. as far as what's happening as we were discussing earlier, the main objective here for kim jong il is to solidify his leadership and position. a lot of what he's doing is both for internal domestic consumption as well as external consumption. i think even he realizes the extremist condition that north korea is in with its economy. in fact, we are seeing indications that some portions of the k.p.a., korean people's

army, as they do every year, are being taken away from military duties in order to attend to their agricultural responsibilities. their harvest last year was 6% lower than the previous year. and a lot of the donor aid that they were going to get is not going to be forthcoming because of their bye lidge rent -- their belligerent rhetoric and actions they have taken. i think we can go into more detail if you like in closed session. i think we have a reasonably good insight into what's going on. not to say it's perfect. we do not have good detail on kind of the inner sanctum and the -- what is his long-term objective. i'm not sure he has one other than to prove his position. >> what quapibilities do they have as far as reaching strategic places where either americans live or work?

well, they have obviously done three nuclear underground tests. they have displayed, although never tested, what they claim to be an intercontinental lipids -- intercontinental ballistic missile, deployed launchers for the vehicles but not the missiles themselves. so that's an area we watch very, very carefully, as to what their eal capability is. we can go into more key tail -- detail in closed session. >> thank you. i have no further questions. >> thank you, mr. chair. welcome, mr. brennan, to the committee. thank all of you for being here. i join mr. lobiondo, it is really an honor to be able to

meet with the intelligence community all over the world. we thank them for their work. my questions are regarding iran and obtaining the nuclear weapon. i'd like to ask some questions about that. before i do that, i'd like to ask a question of director brennan, when the white house conducted their armed drone strikes in north africa, particularly in eastern libya, prior to the attack on our mission in benghazi on 9/11 last year, did the white house notify the state department of the armed drone strikes before they were made? >> armed drone strikes in libya? i'm unknowing of such and would defer to the white house to address your question. >> were there any armed drone strikes in northern africa made by the white house? >> the white house doesn't have a drone capability responsibility, whatever. >> did they have any directives toward having armed drone

strikes in north africa? >> again, i don't know what it is specifically you are referring to, but again i would defer to the white house on whatever happened at that time. >> the u.a.v.'s that were over -- flying over libya were military and were unarmed. >> so were there any armed drone strikes that were made in north africa prior to 9/11? >> in libya? >> i'm asking in north -- i'm asking director brennan. were there any armed drone strikes made by the united states in north africa prior to 9/11? >> we usually don't talk about any type of specific actions, but again i don't know what you could be referencing. >> i'm just wondering if the state department was aware or if the military was aware or if the c.i.a. was aware. if we aren't going to talk about that, that's a question i'd like to know. going back to iran, what is our red line regarding the iranian

nuclear weapon development program? and i would ask director brennan. what is our red line? >> that clearly is a policy question. that's one of the things that the intelligence community is trying to make sure that policymakers are fully informed about developments inside of iran and their nuclear related pursuits. >> but regarding the nuclear weapon program, and our intelligence capability, again we have a wonderful against community, but we weren't aware of the bombing in 1993 at the world trade center tower. we weren't aware before 9/11 occurred in 2001. we weren't aware of the arab spring development. and we weren't aware of the attack on the mission in benghazi. how do we have confidence that we will know when iran has amassed the capability of developing a nuclear weapon? i ask that because the president

said last month that it would take approximately a year for iran to develop a nuclear weapon once they had made that decision. last week we know that the current negotiations have gone without any breakthrough or any development. so i'm very concerned about our intelligence capability of knowing with a high degree of certainty when iran has either made the decision to develop nuclear weapons or has obtained nuclear weapons. >> i think this subject much better talked about in closed session. >> i would look forward to that. i abbreviate that. could you comment on -- i appreciate that. could you comment on what is happening -- we talk about uranium development with iran's program, but they are also building a heavy water reactor capable of producing plutonium. what's the status of the heavy water reactor?

>> again, this would be a subject for closed session, i think. >> i look forward to that. i yield back, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. mr. pompeo. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here this morning. i read last week that thes last m-1 tank left europe in march. makes it feel like a dinosaur. there is no doubt that the threat has dramatically changed. i'll talk a little bit is of some of the change. we have major drawdown in afghanistan to be completed by the end of next year. can any of you speak to the challenges that presents to intelligence collection as a result of our drawdown in afghanistan in 2014? >> as the other components of our presence there, the military d the diplomatic and the

footprint we'll have residual in afghanistan. that is not -- has not been fully decided that. some of that will depend on the details of the negotiations, b.s.a. negotiations going on between our government and the afghan government. it's our intent, though, to maintain, sustain sufficient intelligence presence there so we can certainly monitor any terrorist activity that would potentially pose a nation threat to the homeland. >> maybe we've got -- i'm interested in how we'll accomplish that with that much smaller footprint. how we'll accomplish that. >> we can talk about that in closed session. i just say in general, obviously it's not going to be as robust as it is today simply because of

we won't have the presence in as many locales. however this comes out, however it's negotiated, as we do now. >> appreciate that. changing subjects again. we spent a lot of time talking about cyberattacks and threats. can any of you speak to the fact that we now have others engaged in those activities? have we seen diminished activity in old school, human efforts, human espionage trying to recruit folks to give our information to the bad guys? has that declined as cyberespionage has increased? >> that's something if we could discuss in closed session. >> thank you. >> i will make the point that quite obviously there is a substantial increase in cyberespionage across the board. that's been remarked upon and indicated in a number of ways. >> last question, we talked a lot about north korea. can you give me the intelligence community's view of what's going

on in the north korean population? that is what do we know how the people are reacting to this more bodry. we talked about the army and what it's doing. what intelligence do we have about the impact of american policy and food aid and what that might create pressure on the regime. control that is exerted over the korean -- north korean population is amazing. it's orr wellian -- orwellian. there is a lot of capacity, i think, to endure hardship in north korea. here is a cult approach in north korea, always has been, kill ill ong il and sun before him. -- kim ill sun before him.

i think one of the indicators for me personally about the state of conditions in north korea is the number of north koreans that find a way to vote with their feet. who leave north korea. when i served there 20-plus yearsing a as director of intelligence for u.s. forces korea for two years, we might see one or two detectors a year. that was a big deal. now it is a pretty steady stream of defectors. nd that in a regime that has tremendous control over its people's activities, movements, that is -- i think that is a tremendous indicator of the real estate of affairs in north korea. >> thank you. thanks, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> get a follow up on mr. pompeo's question. mr. director, could you talk about the counterintelligence threat, our nation states conducting human intelligence

operations targeted against u.s. businesses and the u.s. government here in the united states? >> absolutely. there is nary a week goes by we are not finding some indication of espionage in one form or another from the principal nation states that we have problems with. they are well-known to all. and that is still a substantial problem. we have substantial percentage of our national security resources allocated to counterintelligence. that is the specific, more personal counterintelligence, not the cybercounterintelligence. >> so the public reported assessment there are as many spies in the united states targeting the united states would in fact exceed the size of that footprint during the cold war. >> i'd have to look at that. that particular analysis i have not seen. the other aspect i would add,

though, is that the traditional presence is, while substantial, is far more effective because it can be combined with the cyber initiatives as well to maximize and leverage their capabilities in ways it did not have before. >> can you talk just briefly, the f.b.i.'s been very successful on economic espionage cases in the past. we have had some great runs on stopping some huge thefts, can you give us the flavor of those cases? >> we had one out of hawaii in which a successful prosecution, individual sold substantial secrets relating to development of our defense capabilities. was sentenced to substantial number of years. we just had a case in chicago. i would have to get you the

statistics. they get publicity, they get publicity incident by incident, and really what we should do is do a better job of rolling them up and giving the committee a fuller picture of the activity we have had, thrick over the last two years. >> i just think it's important for the public to understand there is an aggressive posture against human intelligence, economic espionage being conducted in the united states. you mentioned the case in chicago. there was a case in indianapolis. a case in new jersey. it's fairly aggressive and robust and the numbers have gone up and the number of catches, if you will. >> yes. absolutely. one other aspect that's not necessarily, september 11, the relationships between ourselves and the other intelligence community addressing this particular phenomenon has grown substantially. we were work very, very closely with the agency and others. the threat is picked up by others in the community as

opposed to just dropping off the radar screen. we are, i believe, far more effective than we have been in the past. but that threat is out there substantial. >> thank you. director brennan, i think i was confused by your remarks. did you say that iran believes it's in a different place than north korea and others? or you believe they are in a different place? i think i misunderstood what you said. nuclear posture. >> i think clearly north korea has already tested nuclear devices. detonated them. iran is in pursuit of that nuclear weapons capability. so they see themselves at a different point i think than the north koreans. but clearly they have ambitions in the middle east region that go back millennia. and i think they are trying to build o upon -- build upon their past. so they are looking at what's going on in north korea, but they put themselves in a

different place than the north koreans. >> what do you make of their putting in more sophisticated centrifuges, public announcement thereof? what are you trying to tell the international community when they do that? >> i think it just demonstrates they haven't been dissuaded from continuing along this path and more sophisticated centrifuges, capabilities, that they are applying to their nuclear program is, again, an indication of their determination, but also the seriousness of the situation. >> what would be your assessment of the dash, that time between weaponization and being able to -- detonation and weaponization of a nuclear device. do you have any sense of that? i know the president said a year. i'm curious if the intelligence community has a different assessment. we have heard several different assessments both from our allied partners and own intelligence services. i'm curious where you would find yourself on that spectrum. >> i think the president's

statements are clearly anchored intelligence analysis provided to him. those assessments that we have made comport certainly with the president's statements on that. >> the assessments we see doesn't necessarily comport with that maybe we can explore that. that would be good to clear that up. it's important. so you sense that they haven't been dissuaded. do you see any mistakes that we made in the north korea march to a detonation that we could avoid in iran? is there something different do you think that we could do, capability wise? >> mr. chairman, i think i would refer to my intelligence position which is i need to make sure the president and policymakers and this committee and others have the best intelligence possible about what the iranians are doing and that's where intelligence is so important to make sure that the right decisions are made so that we don't get past a point that we would like not to go. >> if you would disagree with the assessment on capabilities

available and not used or used, and that dash time frame you would have no problem telling the white house the differences, would you not? >> absolutely not. whether or not it's a dash to weapon, or dash to fissile material sufficient for devices, there are many different components of that. maybe there is -- we can clear this up in closed session. > look forward to that. the syrian -- do you think that, director, that we are in a position in syria if assad falls in the very near future, what percentage do you give us in trying to secure pep weapons, us and the international community, to secure not only the chemical weapons but the stockpile of sophisticated conventional weapons? >> i'm not sure how to make a call like that. >> you should be able to make it based on our commitment to capabilities and resources in the region and our relationship with our arab league partners

and others. >> all those factors would have to be considered. certainly our own capabilities and what other capabilities could be brought to bear on the international community and getting in the policy realm here. it would be very, very situational to render an assessment on how well we could secure any or all of the wmd facilities until syria. >> the -- general flynn, quickly, the defense clandestine service hags sparked some -- has sparked some interest, they had some controversy. could you talk a little bit about what your defense for the defense clandestine service are, what you think the mission is and should be and how that's integrated with the other services? >> thanks for asking the question, too. just for everyone, really the core precepts of why we are doing this is to move to a

closer integration with our partners that are sitting at this table right here. namely the c.i.a. and f.b.i. additionally it is to enhance career paths in a skill set that we definitely have within the department of defense and within the intelligence community within the department. for the officers and intelligence professionals that have been working in that career field, particularly in places like iraq and afghanistan, and have gotten extraordinary experience. a ould also offer that it is shift from really, i would say, sort of conis base, if we learned anything with the threats director clapper laid down at the beginning, we have to have -- get ourselves closer to the werge the intelligence is better there. and i would say that those are

the couple of the core precepts. there are others. and we can get into specifics in closed session as to exactly where we see the -- our efforts to be in the future. >> director, we'll keep going around the world here if we can. there are open reports of how perilously close some minor skirmish, between china and japan, over their islands and that dispute. how would you assess that situation today? >> i think that is a very difficult situation. i think it's our belief, our impression that both countries, however, while they feel strongly about their sovereignty claims, also, i believe, want to do all they can diplomatically to avoid a real clash.

exactly how they are going to play out particularly, and actually both countries, i think remains to be seen. but the indications from their movements and behavior are to try to avoid a -- an act of hostility. >> the -- when the chinese dropped certain technology around the island they took that as an act of aggression. i'm curious how that's not a more aggressive act. >> i'm not sure exactly what you are referring to. the one case that i -- i'm not sure if you are referring to the lock on if -- of the -- >> we'll follow up in closed session. this is all through open source reporting. every spring under the father, when the flowers came ut and the

sabers got rattled and there was a distinct pattern to his activity where people had a sense of understanding of how far he would go or wouldn't go. do you -- from the profile that we have seen, there are some things not consistent with his father. i wonder if you could talk about that and how long you think it will take us to get those paterns down and if you think he's exceeded the pattern of reversal his father demonstrated almost yearly. he apparently, i think, shares his father's own personal version to the chinese -- aversion to the chinese. unlike his father i think he's the chinese from stration with him and their discomfort with his behavior. i'm not sure what else you had in mind. unless you mean his contrast with his father. >> clearly he's off pattern with

his father. that's where i think even folks who specialize in the region say if you are ever going to be concerned, this is the time. i'm curious your assessment. >> i agree. there is no telling how he's going to behave. he impresses me as i am pet with us. -- impetuous. not as inhabited as his -- inhibited as his father became about taking aggressionive action. the pattern with his father was to be provocative and back off we haven't seen that yet with kim yun. >> do you get any feel for the direction -- >> in his grooming period he spent most of that, to the extent he had one, with the military and security services. clearly they have influenced him. i do think that his uncle and

his aunt do have some tempering influence on him. i also found it very interesting that the minister of economics that he just appointed was someone who was purged in 2007 for apparently being too capitalist minded. and -- so clearly he does recognize, since he spent time in the west, he went to school in switzerland, that economically north korea is in an extremist situation. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. if the new economics minister avoids another purge. >> if the chinese were actually to seal their southern border, north korean's northern border, from the black market trade in both luxury goods and more importantly fuel what, kind of an impact do you think that would make? >> as i indicated earlier, to the extent that anyone has

remaining leverage, we have kind of used up most of our sanction options with the u.s. and rest of the west. to the extent there is leverage remaining, to be exerted against the north koreans, it's clearly from the chinese. 65% of north korea's imports are from china. so there are vulnerabilities there if the chinese wanted to exert leverage, they certainly could. they have done this in the past when they had -- encountered at least temporarily. so they do know how to exert those levers. >> do you get a sense that the south china sea issues that china is aggressively pursuing at the angst of some of our other pacific rim allies, given the north korea, given the japanese, certainly the rhetoric and what appears to be aggressive posturing, is that

influencing their decision on korea at all do you think? >> no, don't think so. i think they see that as a separate thing. though it does bear on their great sensitivity about containment. so i think they will continue to try to exert themselves, particularly with the energy claims that they have exerted in -- which compete with some of the countries in the south china sea. at the same time china's sort of in a dilemma to a certain extent with respect to north korea since north korea has always been for them a buffer state. so on the one hand they like to promote more tempered behavior and reform in north korea, but they don't want to go to the xtent of prompting an upsheefl -- upheaval and to turn -- to

facilitate a unification of north and south korea which of course would put esksly the republic of core re-- essentially the republic of korea if it went that way right on its border. geopolitically china is very sensitive about having that buffer state in north korea. >> rest of my questions for classified setting. mr. ruppersberger. >> thank you very much. first thing, i think we can all agree, i hope, one of the most serious threats facing our country now, other than weapons of mass destruction, are cyberattacks. as we are speaking now we are having thousands of cyberattacks. it's been said by the cybercommand, they estimate in the last two years that we have lost over $400 billion in american money, american trade secrets. the loss of jobs. even to the extent that it's been stated that china has cyberattacks, fertilizer

companies, because they are in competition with our fertilizer companies. i think right now we have different types of attacks, economic attacks. i think it's been mention add little bit today, we are concerned about destructive attacks. it's been reported that iran had an attack on iramco, one of the largest oil companies in the world, and took out over 30,000 of their computers in one attack. and even though they are not as sophisticated as other countries, that iran could really have a successful attack in our banking system, our bridge systems, and stock market, whatever. now, with that said, i'm asking the question first, general clapper when, it comes to sishe, do you consider our economic security a critical part of national security? >> absolutely. >> good to hear. ok. director mueller, i know the last hearings we had, opening

hearing, i asked the question what do you feel are the most severe threats to our country at this time and in the future. i think your comments, if i recall, you felt that weapons of mass destruction and cyberattacks were some of the most serious issues facing our country's national security, our domestic national security. do you still feel that way today? >> i do. i would say counterterrorism remains, given -- it remains our number one priority given what's happening in the country he going through the arab spring, north africa. nd yemen, somalia, and other countries in transition. but right now cyberis swiftly coming beside counterterrorism. principally from nation states but also terrorist groups. >> let me say this, getting back to cyberissue again, isn't there a good possibility that

terrorists can hire people or try to cyberattack as one of the weapons? >> yes. >> can you give an example? >> there has been -- information about efforts of terrorist groups to enlist the individuals that go out and recruit, individuals have cyberskills with the hope and expectation of being able to use those cyberskills for a terrorist attack. and i can be more specific in the closed session, but there are terrorist groups who have gone so far as attempted to go into systems, to the point where they can know that they can lie there for a period of time and at some point in time in the

future launch a cyberattack. at the point of time they feel would be most beneficial. there have been -- we have seen indications, intelligence of this. i do not believe at this point in time we have sni particular -- any particular group that is in possession of that capability at this juncture. >> it could be purchased, though, could it not? >> yes. >> there was testimony here today, we talked about the issue, different threats that were out there, talk about nation states such as china and russia and individuals like that. >> this hearing continues live. follow it online at c-span.org. the u.s. house is gaveling in momentarily. to begin debate on rules for a bill that would aim to limit the actions of the national labor relations board. a rule vote expected this afternoon. sometime between 1:30 and 2:00. meanwhile, across the capitol in

the u.s. senate, the senate has agreed to move forward with debate on gun control legislation. the vote was 68-31. 16 republicans joining 50 democrats and two independents in favor of moving -- cloture and moving to debate. those two democrats voting against cloture were mark begism of alaska and mark pryor of arkansas. you can follow that on our companion network, c-span2. live to the house floor here on c-span. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy.

chaplain conroy: let us pray. dear god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. bless abundantly the members of this people's house. during this season of new growth, may your redemptive power help them to see new ways, to productive service, fresh approaches to understanding each other, especially those across the aisle and renewed commitment to solving the problems facing our nation. may they and may we all be transformed by your grace and better reflect the sense of wonder, even joy at the opportunities to serve at -- that are ever before us. the issues of our day are a challenge for a nation who claims your blessing. may we not forget the reminders to your chosen people of once having been oppressed foreigners.

in the admonitions of scripture that we might be entertaining angels in the strangers among us. help the members of this house to find a balance that meets the demands of our beliefs with the practical realities that challenge us as a complex nation. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory. amen. the speaker: 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. for what purpose does the entleman from new jersey rise? mr. sires: i demand a vote on the speaker's approval of the journal. the speaker: the question is on the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the journal is stands approved. mr. sires: i request the yeas and nays. the speaker: the yeas and nays are requested.

all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question are post poned -- post pobed -- postponed. the pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman from michigan, mr. walburg. mr. walberg: please join me in the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan rise? does the gentleman ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute? o ordered. mr. walberg: mr. speaker, president obama finally released his 2014 budget this week. two months late and trillions of dollars short.

similar to last year's plan, it taxes more to spend more. while the president claims his budget will reduce the deficit in a balanced way, it won't ever balance. not in 10 years, not ever. the president's plan is $8.2 trillion of new debt. it also includes a $1.1 trillion in new taxes. hardworking taxpayers don't deserve more taxes. they deserve a budget that allows them to keep more of their own money and not worry about financial debt being placed on their children and grandchildren. house republicans have passed such a budget. one that balances. a proactive budget that eliminates the deficit while also providing economic security for employers and employees. a sustainable safety net for the poor and those retiring and a secure future for our children and grandchildren. americans know what it takes to create a balanced budget for their own families.

and their own businesses. and they deserve the same from their government. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the entleman from illinois rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, the founder of earth day was asked in 2005, just before his death, at the age of 89, if earth day should be celebrated. mr. quigley: our work's not fibbished. as we enter wildfire season, watershed infrastructure that would mitigate future contamination of local rivers and reservoirs is still being rebuilt from last season. and funding for rebuild is only now being allocated, having been delayed under sequestration, affecting lives and homes. we have yet to craft an agenda that talks of a multi-year transportation plan or climate change and of course the green legislator at heart would love to see tools like the antiquityies act as a

job-creating mechanism rather than creating -- spending time on the floor fighting against rolling back nepa as we're doing this week with h.r. 678. unnecessarily at the expense of supporting hydropower as we should. no, our work's not funnish -- finished. there's a lot more to be done. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, in 2009 the united states surpassed russia in becoming the world's largest producer of natural dwals. due to recent technological advancements, large deposits of natural gas, mainly shale gas, are now being harvested. through the use of hydraulic fracking, previous inaccessible hydrocarbons are now seeing the light of day. mr. boustany: having the henry hub located in the center of the third congressional district, i'm fully aware that the market price of u.s. natural gas is at an all-time low and much lower than asian and european natural gas prices.

while this fact presents challenges, it also provides an opportunity for our nation to fast become a global energy hub by exporting one of our most abundant natural resources in the form of liquefied natural gas or l.n.g. with domestic demand being met, exporting l.n.g. leads to job creation at home, a reduction in the national trade deficit, and an increase in revenues for the federal government. as a member of the house ways and means subcommittee on trade, these are all value-added benefits for our nation. the domestic natural gas boom presents the united states with an enormous economic opportunity and geopolitical opportunity. our nation should seize this opportunity and not let it past. it's in the public interest. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? without objection. mr. higgins: mr. speaker, this week i took part in a town hall meeting in buffalo, along with the alliance for american

manufacturing, to discuss the importance of manufacturing jobs to our region and to our nation. with western new york's dedicated work force and history of manufacturing success, we are ready to grow our economy with the resurgence of advanced manufacturing industry. but to do this our workers and businesses need a willing partner in their government. this congress must make investing in our infrastructure and investing in our people top priorities. robust funding to rebuild roads and brings, along with fostering -- bridges, along with fostering job training programs and passing legislation in the house democrats' make it in america agenda will enable us to compete with any other nation in the world. mr. speaker, investing in american manufacturing creates jobs and reduces the deficit. there is much work to be done and there are americans who need the work. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the entleman from nebraska rise? without objection.

mr. fortenberry: mr. speaker, we engage in so much washington speak in our debates. words like sequestration, continuing resolutions and debt creaming. and the structure of our debate can be so offputting to many americans so let's try to be a little more straightforward. the reality though is that we have a huge mismatch between revenues and expenditures. we all know that this is a struggle but we have to get our fiscal house in order just like american families do, businesses do and even local governments do. but instead of hashing through the same hold debates, perhaps there is an easier way forward. right here, mr. speaker, is a general accountability office report that came out this week. it's a new report that builds upon former reports. there are more than 300 areas where we can tackle redundant spending across the federal government. so here's the right place to start, mr. speaker. delivering a smarter and more effective government while also saving money. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the entleman from virginia rise? without objection. mr. moran: mr. speaker, throughout the united states and red and blue states alike, we have speed limits for travel on public roads. these laws are good public policy because they prohibit behavior that can endanger the lives of others. but imagine if we blocked our police from using speed detection devices so they could never prove that you were speeding. or if we only allowed the use of those devices on certain roads. such a policy would make speed limits mere suggestions, with no consequences for those who violated the law. it sounds ridiculous but this is exactly the strategy we currently use to prohibit the purchase of firearms by criminals and those with serious mental illness. federal law bans the purchase of guns by dangerous people but massive loopholes in our

background check system permit at least 40% of purchasers to evade the law without detection by law enforcement. the n.r.a. and their supporters often claim that we need to enforce the laws on the books. agreed. and universal background checks are designed to do just that. provide an actual enforcement mechanism. and that's what the congress should do because 90% of the american public want us to do it. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker this week the president hosted a star-studded concert at the white house for his friends, featuring music of otis redding and others. one of otis redding's lines in his sitting on the dock of the bay sums up my thoughts on the president's budget. looks like nothing's going to change, everything remains the same. mr. jordan: just like the senate, the president's budget raises taxes, increases the debt and never, ever, ever

balances. the obama budget has a trillion dollars in new taxes, on top of the trillion-dollar obamacare tax and the $600 billion fiscal cliff tax from earlier this year. the obama budget spends $46 trillion, borrows another $8 trillion, increases the national debt $25.4 trillion over the next 10 years. and after all those taxes and all that spending, we still have a budget that never, ever, ever balances. mr. president, we can't borrow forever. we can't keep spending more than we take in. these problems are staring us right in the face but the big spenders in washington are just sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey rise? without objection. mr. sires: mr. speaker, i rise today to commend the contributions of the biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies in new

jersey to hurricane sandy relief activities. new jersey companies in the biopharmaceutical field have donated an estimated $11.1 million toward sandy relief efforts. the new jersey biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies made contributions to a large number of organizations including the american red cross, americares, feeding america, the salvation army, save the children, united way and the hurricane sandy new jersey relief fund. they also coordinated to ensure they did not interrupt the supply chain of critical life-saving drugs as well as teamed up with local pharmacies to provide free and discounted prescriptions to affected patients. in addition, individual companies performed a variety of services in the immediate aftermath of sandy, including the distribution of hygiene kits, provided generaters to local municipalities, deployed emergency decontamination units, preparing food for first

responders. working to supply hospitals, pharmacies and retailers with supplies to their patient and customers -- patients and customers. we thank the biopharmaceutical industry of new jersey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina ise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, there is much that can be said about the president's proposed budget but i think ordinary taxpayers need to know its impact on jobs and the economy. the tax increases that president obama pushed through in january has slowed the economy and contributed to a loss of 24,000 tail jobs in march, a very dismal jobs report. consumers have less money in their pockets the inevitable results in fewer jobs. apparently president obama has not learned from this mistake. his budget contains almost $600 billion and even more in new

taxes. at a time when millions of americans are giving up hope of finding a job, and exiting the work force, president obama's budget will only inflict more pain on our families. house republicans have passed a responsible budget that leads to balance while also preserving social security and medicare. let's work together for a fiscally accountable government that will help restore jobs to american families. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, today the senate is taking up commonsense legislation to help reduce gun violence in america. i have and always will be a staunch supporter of the second amendment and i strongly support the constitutional rights of my constituents to own guns. this bipartisan legislation to expand background checks does

not infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. instead, it strengthens our existing system of background checks to help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous offenders. mr. kildee: 40% of guns sold in the united states currently don't go through background checks. failing to act means that just anyone can continue to buy weapons at gun shows or over internet without being subject to a background check. the vast majority of americans support background checks. democrats and republicans support background checks. the vast majority of responsible gun owners support background checks. it's commonsense legislation, it should be enacted, it will make our country safer. i urge the house to take this up as soon as the senate completes its work. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from montana rise. >> to address the house for one

minute. revise and extend. >> without objection. mr. daines: mr. speaker, last week i was home in montana, to highlight the important role that natural resources play in our state's economy. in fact, i put 3,000 miles traveling in our great state. one question i was asked repeatedly was when will the keystone pipeline be approved? we all know the tremendous economic impact the keystone pipeline would have and the jobs that would be created, but when i was in glass go, montana, i learned of a relatively unknown benefit with the pipeline. an electric co-op there is slated to provide electricity. if the pipeline is built, this rural electric co-op will be able to spread their burners with the pipeline and hold straits steady for their ,000-plus customers. if the pipeline is not approved, they told me that the customers will see upwards of a 40%

increase in their utility rate over the next 10 years. as i have said time and time again, this is common sense. keystone means jobs. another step towards energy independence. it means lower utility rates for rural montanans, hardworking montana families. president obama, it's time to approve the keystone pipeline. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? without objection. >> thank you very much. i rise to thank the faith-based communities in this country for praying, for a humane and just immigration reform. mr. cardenas: we heard from the chaplain today and we all probably thought there were three references. the first one was from leviticus 19. treating the foreign born as your own. we heard the hebrews treating the stranger, because you don't treat him well because he may be the angel among you. mr. vargas: lastly, matthew, 25

treating the stranger because that's how you're going to be judged. i want to thank each and every pastor, each and every priest, each and every rabbi that has been praying for us on this issue. i think that hardened hearts are changing here. certainly the debate that we have been having has been humane. much of the leadership has come from a bipartisan group of democrats and republicans with open hearts, and i appreciate that. and that has not happened by itself. it's happened because of the prayers, the supplication of all of these people around the nation saying we have to do something that matches our values. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the entleman from missouri rise? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the president just released budget calls for higher taxes, more spend, and bigger government, all of which would make it more difficult for hardworking workers to find

jobs. more troubling is the budget simply does not balance. every family must balance its budget and we in washington should, too. we can't continue to spend money we don't have and it's not right for the president to take more to spend more. several weeks ago i proudly supported a republican budget that provides for a balanced budget while fostering a healthier economy and creates jobs. the president's budget holds any reforms of spending cuts hostage in exchange for more tax heights. mr. luke myer: the american people are -- proposal eyer: this which is months overdue isn't serious. mr. speaker, i'm from the show-me state and this budget doesn't show me anything. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee rise. mr. cohen: to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. the gentleman from ohio

mentioned the concert the president hosted with pbs and the grammys on tuesday. and did a poor imitation of justin timberlake on "sitting on the docks of the bay." i want to put a particular shoutout to cyndi lauper, she's special. she did another otis reading song, "try a little tenderness." it was a phenomenal performance. she's special, she did an album called memphis blues in 2010, one of the best albums. year. she's had b.b. king and charlie musclewhite on the album. she's a phenomenal lady. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana rise? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. after decades of washington

irresponsibility, americans are facing nearly $17 trillion of debt and struggling through a deficit driven unemployment crisis. unfortunately, this administration isn't offering solutions. yesterday president obama interdutiesed a budget that never, ever balances. and will only make these problems worse. too months after he missed the long deadline, president obama reintroduced a reheated version of the same failed tax, borrow, and spent policies that created this mess to begin with. mr. stutzman: president obama's budget raidses taxes by $1.1 trillion, adds another $8.2 trillion to the national debt, and doesn't come close to addressing the long-term stability of our country's safety net programs. under the president's plan, taxpayers can expect consequences of endless deficits and future downgrades. house republicans are offering a real solution. we have put forward a reasonable plan to actually balance the

budget in 10 years. not because we are interested in spread sheets and timetables, but because americans shouldn't have to wait any longer for success and prosperity. let's balance the budget and put our trust in hardworking americans. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the entlewoman from ohio rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, elementary schools, high schools, movie theaters, universities, and shopping malls have all been scenes of horrific incidents where innocent lives were lost along with our sense of security. miss beaty: we -- mrs. beatty: we in congress have done little to change the way we address gun violence. i want to change that. while massacres such as the one that occurred in newtown draw significant attention to the issues of gun violence, it is a persistent problem throughout the nation. according to a recent johns

hopkins university survey, a silent majority of americans, gun owners, and nongun owners alike, support several initiatives to slow gun violence. for example, 89% of all respondents and 75% of those identified as n.r.a. members support universal background checks for gun sales. president obama's plan also calls for a ban on military assault weapons and high capacity machines. like the kind they have been commonly used in so many of the mass shootings we have witnessed in the united states. we could never present all crimes for gun violence, but we can work together to find ways to limit the loss of lives with commonsense solutions. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina ise? without objection.

>> mr. speaker, over the past two months federal official after federal official has talked about the need to furlough employees due to sequestration. yet the government continues to hand out millions of dollars in bonuses to federal employees. 75% of senior executive service employees receive bonuses at an average of $13,081. regular blue color federal workers are facing furloughs while senior employees are cashing in. the f.a.a. has been talking about 90-minute waits for passengers, yet in fiscal year 2011 they handed out $40,000 bonuses to more than 86 different employees. this is unacceptable. in the recent o.m.b. guidelines don't go far enough. the commonsense in compensation

act bill i am introducing today would prohibit those bonuses for the rest of fiscal year 2013 and cap them at a maximum of 5% of the salary going forward. mr. meadows: i urge my colleagues to co-sponsor it. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise? without objection. ms. wilson: mr. speaker, it's now been 830 days since i arrived in congress and the republican leadership has still not allowed a single vote on serious legislation to address our unemployment crisis. i have news for my colleagues, unemployment is our true deficit. by getting americans trained and

back to work, we can increase our tax base and stop our borrowing. by reducing unemployment we can stop our epidemic of foreclosures. regardless of the assistance you receive, you cannot keep your home if you do not have a job. my state is the nation's foreclosure state, and my hometown in miami is the foreclosure capital. mr. speaker, unemployment is destroying families and depressing property values. it is devastating our people and dragging down our recovery. our mantra should be in this congress, jobs, jobs, jobs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, thank you very much. members of congress have just come back from two weeks of recess being at home.

mr. sessions: and group after group after group that i spoke with talked about exactly the same thing that the previous speaker and others have talked about, and that is jobs. job creation and the opportunity for our children and sometimes our spouses to get back into the jobs marketplace. and i remind people of dallas, texas, that there is really a tale of two states or two cities. and one is dallas, texas, and chicago, illinois. the state of illinois versus texas. texas over the last few years has created more jobs than the other 49 states combined. the reason why we have done this is because we chose not to do the path that illinois has done, and that is raising taxes, lowering job expectations, and performance, and the ability for people to want to invest in that state and their future. mr. speaker, that's exactly the

same background and philosophy that our president and democrats are having. to run jobs out of america. i stand for the texas model, lowering taxes and making sure we have jobs. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise. . without objection. ms. hahn: mr. speaker, i'm happy that finally we are moving forward on gun violence prevention legislation in this country. and i really applaud our senators, for coming together finally in a bipartisan fashion, to push forward to expand background checks in gun shows and for online purposes. and this is a strong first step toward a meaningful solution to end gun violence in this country. and i hope the house dish hope we take this up soon and pass this legislation. but i think we need to do more.

and if losing 20 young innocent lives doesn't shake us up to end this epidemic of gun violence that has plagued our nation's neighborhoods, schools and churches, then nothing will. if we harden our hearts to the tears and the testimonies of the parents of newtown, here with us this week, then we're telling every family that has been shattered by a gun and every family that has been shattered by this kind of violence that if we don't act we're washinging our hands of their agony -- washing our hands of their agony. i hope that we still have a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines. but this is a good first start. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. saving medicare and social security for future generations is something republicans and democrats can and should agree on. the house republican budget preserves social security and medicare for current seniors

and future generations by beginning the work of making incremental cost-saving reforms. president obama, however, sees the threat to medicare and social security solvency as a chance to get more of what he wants, while medicare and social security are going bankrupt, the president is refusing to consider reforms to save our senior safety nets, unless he's allowed to raise taxes in exchange. when it comes to tax increases, how quickly the president forgets. the president just got done raising taxes on the american people on january 1. the american people send enough of their hard-earned money to washington each year and more should not be taken from them to enable further travails and misguided stimulus. reforms to save medicare and social security are critically important to future generations of americans. they should be treated as more than bargaining chipping by the president. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time.

for what purpose does the gentlelady from nevada rise? without objection. ms. titus: mr. speaker, i rise today to celebrate the life of jean who recently passed away. a true public servant to the end, jean served nevada throughout her life, first as a high school teacher, then a city councilman and finally as a four-term assemblywoman in the nevada state legislature beginning at the young age of 74. while in the legislature, she worked hard to defend the rights of women and children as well as to protect the environment and nevada's beauty which was painted by her husband, cliff, and many beautiful watercolors. the second -- the family has been a fixture in nevada politics for four generations. jean's legacy continues through her son who is a state senator today. he put it perfectly when he said simply, she loved nevada. my mother always had a smile on

her face and she never had a bad day. i miss her personally and nevada mourns her loss. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? without objection. >> over the past break, i had the chance to go home to the beautiful georgia nine where i was born and raised and one of the things i find when i go back is refreshing, i go back and people seem to want to find answers. they find answers to the problems in their life. they want to know what is happening and they do not understand inside the beltway thinking. this simply adds more and more talk and more and more rhetoric. over the past week i have sat in two committees in which the government's own inspecters have found waste, have found duplication, have found fragmentation in which everything is going in a way in which people back home don't understand. mr. collins: sometimes we come to this well and we say, people, we need to come together.

what we have to understand is what we have just heard the last two weeks is from people in our district, is that they want to see action. they don't understand sequester, when you've got all this money sitting out there that is being wasted and duplication and programs such as three programs to study catfish. as i said in the committee the other day, i've fished for catfish all my life. i don't understand why we need that much inspection. what we need now is action to cut the waste. we've proposed a balanced budget from the republican perspective. we're going to continue to fight to put our fiscal house in order and with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the entleman from new jersey rise? the gentleman is recognized for ne minute. mr. payne: madam speaker, the gun debate we are having is not about politics or political means. it is about doing what's right for -- by our families, protecting our children and

reducing the gun violence that persists in the streets of my district every single day. if congress has the power to prevent some of this senseless violence, then we have a moral obligation to do so. background checks are an absolute must. criminals and the mentally ill shut shud not be able to go -- should not be able to go online or walk into a gun show and walk away with a gun. my bill, the safer neighborhoods gun act, provides a 25% markup on guns traded in. creating an incentive to get the mostly -- most widely used guns in crimes off of our streets. it's not complicated. these are commonsense reforms. and the victims of gun violence and their families deserve a vote. so i urge my republican colleagues to bring this legislation to the floor. we owe it to the american people and new jersey families should not have to wait any longer for commonsense reform. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. payne: i'll yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new hampshire rise? without objection. >> this week marks the 50th anniversary of a terrible submarine disaster. the u.s.s. thresher, the first in gnaw class of subs designed to answer the soviet threat in the cold war, lest the world's greatest ship yard, to conduct sea trials on april 10, 1963. disaster struck and america lost 129 of their finest men that day. ms. shea-porter: i honor these men who are on eternal patrol and i honor their families, their wifes and their children, some of whom never met their dads. their sacrifices did lead to a sub safety program. one of the surviving children wrote a song about his dad and he said, a man whose love is stronger than the tide that's taken you away. let's pause and remember these great men and their families. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, i'm here because of an angel. angel was just an ordinary teenager. she loved basketball, she liked to hang out. in fact, she's all she was doing on a balmy night in west palm beach, just hanging out, when she was violently killed by a man devoid of humanity, armed with a gun. ms. frankel: and so, instead of addressing -- dressing angel for her prom, her mother dressed her for her funeral. instead of attending angel's graduation, her family visited her gravesite. isn't it time to take the guns out of the hands of criminals

and mad men? isn't it time for this congress to stop the senseless gun violence? mr. speaker, let us vote. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. for what purpose does the entleman from illinois rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, this week mr. hoyer launched his make it in america initiative to strengthen our manufacturing sector and spur job growth. american manufacturinging has been a bright spot in our economic recovery. but too often i hear from my district that a lack of skilled workers is limiting their opportunities to for growth. -- for growth. mr. snyder: in our 10th district we have nearly 700 manufacturing facilities employing over 98,000 people. these businesses and our country will remany globally

competitive only if we continue to develop and train our work force with the skills necessary for the highly technical work the 21st century economy requires. shideshide that's precisely why -- mr. schneider: that's precisely why i support this. this commonsense legislation promotes collaboration between industry leaders, colleges and job training programs to prepare students and workers with the precise skills and jobs where talented people are most needed. america works and the make it in america agenda is a comprehensive approach we need to ensure success for american workers and manufacturers. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: mr. speaker, by direction of the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 146 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 15, house resolution

146, resolved that upon the adoption of this resolution, it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h.r. 1120, to prohibit the national labor relations board from taking any action that requires a quorum of the members of the board until such time as board constitutes a quorum shall have been confirmed by the senate, the supreme court issues a decision on the constitutionality of the appointments to the board made in january, 2012, or the adjournment sine die of the first session of the 113th congress. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. in lieu of the amendment in the nation of a substitute recommended by the committee on education and the work force, now printed in the bill, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of rules committee print 113-6 shall be considered as adopted. the bill as amended shall be considered as read. all points of order against

provisions in the bill as amended are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervenings motion except one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on education and the work force and two, one motion to recommit with or without instructions. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized for one hour. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from colorado, mr. polis, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. during consideration of this resolution all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. foxx: house resolution 146

provides for a closed rule providing for consideration of h.r. 1120, the preventing greater uncertainty in labor-management relations act. although the rules committee listed amendments last week, we received only two amendments. one democrat, one republican. neither of which was germane to the bill. mr. speaker, my colleagues on the house education and work force committee and i have been hard at work conducting oversight and challenging the national labor relations board on its anti-job agenda. in january 2012, president obama made three so-called recess appointments to the national relations board while congress was not in recess, in violation of the constitution. the u.s. court of appeals for the district of columbia recently ruled these appointments were unconstitutional. this decision calls into question every action the board

has taken since these so-called recess appointments were made. the bill before us today, h.r. 1120, would provide greater certainty for employers and unions by requiring the board to cease all activity that requires a three-member quorum and prohibits the board from enforcing any decision made since the appointments in question were made in january, 2012. it is important to note also what this bill does not do. it does not prohibit the national labor relations board's regional offices from accepting and processing charges of unfair labor practices. the bill also allows the board to resume activities if one of the three following conditions is met. the u.s. supreme court rules on the constitutionality of recess appointments, a quorum of the board is confirmed by the

senate, or the expiration of the recess appointee's terms at the end of this year. finally, h.r. 1120 ensures any action approved by the so-called recess appointees is reviewed and approved by a future board that has been constitutionally appointed. the president has recently nominated three individuals for senate confirmation, in atillings to the two -- addition to the two he nominated in february. the bill before us remains necessary as a commonsense pause button on the board's activities while the legal uncertainty is resolved. it will give employers and unions the certainty they need to operate in the interim. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule and the underlying bill. i reserve the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentlelady for yielding the customary 30 minutes. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. polis: mr. speaker, i rise today in opposition to both the rule and the underlying bill. the bill is inaccurately named, in fact quite to the contrary the bill should be called the creating greater uncertainty in labor management relations act. throwing into question actions of this board, decisions on both sides, as well as agreements that have been reached through the process in the interest of both business as well as working americans. two weeks ago congress approved a continuing resolution on a bipartisan basis to prevent the federal government from closing. there were give and takes, there were things in it from both sides that weren't perfect.

but nevertheless the majority and minority in this house, the republicans and democrats, work together in good faith, successfully, to prevent a government shutdown. consistent with what the american people wanted and consistent with any responsible stewardship of the public trust. after achieving that i was initially optimistic that when the house reconvened this week we might be able to build on the spirit of compromise. perhaps tackling the difficult issue of fixing our broken immigration system and replacing it with one that works that restores the rule of law, perhaps dealing with some of the gun safety issues being debated across society. perhaps dealing with tax reform and bringing down our rates and broadening the base. perhaps dealing withp finally -- with finally balancing our budget deficit. instead here we are back in congress picking up where we were before we were together on the continuing resolution,

passing pointless bills for presumably political reasons, bills that have no sign of passage in the senate, bills that have a direct veto threat from the president of the united states, which is in his statement of administrative policy, which i entered into the record last night in the rules committee. and just as importantly, a bill that has no positive impact on the most important issue facing our country today, job creation, economic growth. mr. speaker, this bill is an attack on american workers, this bill is an attack on american businesses. pure and simple h.r. 1120 would effectively shut down the national labor relations board, invalidate all 569 decisions that the nlrb made between january 12 and march of this year. my colleagues claim this is a response to the d.c. circuit court decision. but when have we ever enshrined

an intermediate court decision into statute? it makes absolutely no sense. this court decision found that nearly all recess appointments are invalid, but the reality is the decision of the d.c. circuit conflicts entirely with judicial precedent and past practices. president reagan made 232 recess appointments. george h.w. bush made 78. george w. bush made 171. so far president obama has made 3 . -- 32. far less than his predecessors. every president since reagan has appointed a member of the nlrb through a recess appointment. in the absence of legislative action, any responsible chief executive takes the prerogative to make our laws and system of government work. if this body failed to pass immigration reform, the president might build upon a deferred action program and try to do what he can for detention

reform. we need to change the laws. failing that, what can the president do besides trying to make those laws work? in the absence of replacing no child left behind with a federal education law that gets accountability right and expands and replicates what works in public education and improves what isn't working, in the absence of doing that, the president and secretary duncan have taken the prerogative to grant waivers for states on a statutory framework that we know is insufficient and doesn't work. so, again, it's no surprise that in the absence of picking up nominees, the president used his recess appointment power to make sure that the important functions of government could continue. when have we ever as a house responded directly to intermediate circuit court decisions by instantly making them statutes? look, the majority of this house of representatives wasn't so confident in the d.c. circuit when it said that obamacare was

constitutional. we didn't see bills instantly to say obamacare is constitutional because the d.c. district court said it was constitutional. what about when the d.c. district court upheld the constitutionality of civil unions in washington, d.c.? was there a bill from my colleagues on the other side to instantly say that civil unions are constitutional? look, this is in process through the judicial branch of government. we need to wait until the supreme court has decided if they'll even rule in this case before we decide what to do on a statutory basis. the executive branch needs to make the mechanisms of government work to the best of their ability. the legislative branch makes the laws. the judicial branch determines if either of the other two branches impugn the rights of one another or of the american people. it's a system that served us well since our founding and one that this bill flies in the face of. again, despite this bill's title of preventing greater uncertainty in labor management

relationships, it actually achieves the exact opposite, creates greater uncertainty in labor management relationships. it throws judicial precedent and nearly 600 nlrb rulings into limbo. american businesses would be severely harmed if this bill were to become law, which of course there is no chance of, won't be taken up by the senate, the president would veto it, but were it to become law, like many other political measures that have been pursued in this body, would generate regulatory uncertainty, that would hang over business, hurting their valuation, preventing hiring of new employ years, hurting the public marketplace. impacting entrepreneurs, employers, and workers to the detriment of our economy, destroying jobs in this country. without a forum in which to mediate disagreements, labor and management alike have no recourse to iron out their differences and less incentive to iron out their differences. passage of this bill could cause more strikes from workers, damaging businesses, and hurting workers.

the underlying bill could very well be named the strike promotion act. instead of allowing members and encouraging both sides of labor management disputes to offer improvements and find common ground, quite the contrary destroys the very incentives that they have to reach agreement. mr. speaker, it's too bad that the nlrb has become such a political punching bag because i and many of my colleagues would certainly enjoy the opportunity to debate commonsense proposals, to improve the relationship between employers and employees. we want to have a debate about the nlrb, let's have that debate directly, not through some imposition of -- into judicial prerogative. let's bring in representatives from businesses and labor organizations, let's hear from workers and businesses across america. look, if there is improvement to be made to the process that can lead to quicker response times, that can lead to fairer adjudication, if there is

improvements in american businesses and american workers can agree on to make the process work better for economic grothe and prosperity -- growth and prosperity, let's do it. this bill does none of that. lead to more strikes. leads to greater economic uncertainty. leads to destruction of jobs. leads to an interruption in the ability of the chief executive of this country, whomever he or she may be. from implementing the law to the best of their ability. and it's a bill that will is frankly a waste of our time to even debate here in the floor of the house since we know it has no chance of passage. this bill is purely put before us for political intentions to perhaps satisfy some fringe element somewhere that likes this bill and likes the vast rights of workers, but there is a lot of important work for us to be done. work that is too important for us to waste our time on this form of political posturing

which only stands to destroy jobs, hurt the economy, and create greater uncertainty, damaging american businesses and american workers. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from north carolina. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, we need jobs in this country. there are nearly 12 million americans unemployed and anxious to find work. president obama and the senate democrats' policy of higher taxes, record spending, and bigger government have failed to create jobs or boost economic growth. put simply, this economy's growing too slowly to replace the millions of jobs lost. the failure of the president's run away spending, deficits, and debt is being felt by every family struggling to put food on the table and pay their mortgages. the march 2013 labor force participation rate is the lowest since 1979, and the one month ncrease in march 2013 of

663,000 new people not in the labor force is the largest increase ever recorded for the month of march since this data started being collected in 1975. if these individuals, quote, not in the work force, end quote were counted in the official unemployment rate, that rate would increase to 11.2%. additionally there are 47.3 million americans receiving food stamps, which is equivalent to 15% of the population, and represents by far the largest number in history. this number stands in stark contrast to when president obama took office and there were only 31.9 million americans using food stamps. today nearly one in seven americans is on food stamps. what a sad commentary about our country. all these statistics ultimately say the same thing. everyday americans will keep struggling until our economy

turns around. fortunately for the american people, house republicans have a plan for helping restore economic growth and create jobs throughout the country. the liberal elite simply cannot understand that more spending does not mean more jobs. reckless deficit spending, mounding -- mounting debt, higher tax, higher energy price, and rampant uncertainty all have job creators playing defense. campaigning for another failed stimulus and more job destroying tax, president obama has repeatedly and falsely asserted that, quote, congress isn't willing to move, end quote, legislation to facilitate job growth. while the president plays politics, house republicans have been working and approving legislation to promote economic growth and job creation. the republican plan for growth pears down barriers to job creation because jobs are priority number one. as farther ---part of this plan

we are working to cut job-killing red tape that costs small businesses $10,585 per employee each year. reduce gas prices and create jobs by producing more american energy, which is important since every penny increased per gallon of gas costs consumers $4 million per day. simplified job-killing tax code that cost americans $168 billion in 20810, just to comply with it. prevent job-killing tax hikes on small businesses, reduce uncertainty by tackling the debt crisis with responsible spending cuts, and the republican plan will get washington out of the way and put american job creators back on the offense. growing jobs and eliminating the deficit go hand in hand. to balance the budget we need both spending cuts and real economic growth. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from colorado.

mr. polis: sound like i agree with the gentlelady on many of our national priorities. for goodness sake, leapt's reform the tax code, bring down gas price, my constituents are complaining about them. balancing the budget, making sure that we have a business climate that's friendly for small businesses. why aren't we talking about any of that on the floor of the house today instead of enshrining a d.c. district court decision in a statute to the detriment of job creation, american business, against many of those great concepts that my colleague, dr. foxx, espoused. there's got to be a connection here. the american people are smart enough to make it. it's great to pay lib service to all these wonderful things, but what are we doing with our lemming time, taxpayers pay for here on the house? we are trying to prevent the president from implementing the law that congress has made. with that, mr. speaker, i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. andrews. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for three minutes. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous