kits stay out and to get out -- kids stay out and get out of the sex trafficking trade. mannedy eerwiler. she had her foster care at the age of 15 and has remained in care, had remained in care throughout her extended foster care program. she testified about her personal experience in foster care and her exposure to the sex trafficking world. telisa james, former foster youth from kamehameha who was able to leave the system at age 14, after her aunt gave her a stable home. after hearing from her and many other experts, mr. doggett and myself introduced bipartisan legislation to help every state better protect youth and foster care from sex trafficking. this bill requires the states to identify victims and provide them with the services they need to heal.

it would also improve data on instances of child trafficking. on a preventative front, they will make sure that the youth can participate in age-appropriate activities so they are less vulnerable to trafficking. it encourages states to move forward -- moving children out of foster care and into permanent loving homes. the approach we're taking is practical. it's bipartisan. it's based on the states' experience. this bill incorporates the wide range of ideas gleaned from bills produced by the ways and means committee, like mr. paulsen, as well as ideas from over 150 pages of public comments that we received from our december discussion draft. i'm confident that this legislation will and sure -- ensure that states take the steps to understand the problem and keep kids safe while in foster care. i urge all members to support

this legislation. again, i want to thank mr. doggett, who joins me on the floor today. i want to thank chairman camp for his support, ranking member levin for his support and all those others who have signed onto the bill. we are here today, as i said, to protect vulnerable children in foster care and work to find them loving homes. that's why we're here. we're here to save lives. both parties have worked together. we've received support for this bill from the american bar association, national center for missing and exploited children, american public human services association, children's defense fund, human rights project for girls, national children's alliance and eight others. they proudly indicated their support for this important legislation. i invite all members to join us in supporting this important bipartisan legislation, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas.

mr. doggett: thank you very much. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. doggett: madam speaker, i join in supporting this bill to combat sex trafficking of children that are in the foster care system. when children come in to foster care, they are at risk for exploitation because of the abuse and neglect that they have already suffered in their original family, and because of the sense of isolation that they often feel when they have suddenly been removed from their home. those who prey on children, especially sex traffickers, know this and they take advantage of these youth. children are removed from their home, they're bounced around from one place to another often, and then in my state, when they reach 18, they're told they're on their own. and that is a situation that invites, especially for young women, the dangerous sex

trafficking which -- in which they are exploited. there is bipartisan support for this bill. it originated from a thoughtful hearing with some very strong witnesses describing the problem. we -- it's bipartisan. it's also a modest step forward. it is redirecting our welfare agencies, our child welfare agencies around the country in what they do. i think that it will provide some modest help in saving lives. it would do even more if instead of just new requirements for these states, we're adding new resources. it adds very little in the way of resources, but i think it will be helpful in directing the attention of each of these agencies in the various states to focus on this very serious problem. to give us the data to make the argument to do more in the future. because so many of these young people will eventually age out of the system after having been

moved around from one home to another, it's important that we help them be able to move into the work force. in that regard, there was a problem with the bill when one particular provision was removed from the bill because it cost about $1 million in additional administrative expenses and there was apparently no way found to cover that cost. i believe that providing a young person who ages out at age 18 from the foster care system with a birth certificate and a social security card is a worthwhile thing to do. mr. reichert, chairman reichert promised to work with us on this in committee and he has and that has been restored here in this bill. it has been restored, however, in a way that really borrows from another provision that is also important it our foster

youth and that is a provision called family connections. the family connection grants program is designed to try to connect children with grandparents, with other family members to help in the search for relatives of the foster children who might provide them a home. it provides only about $15 million a year, which is hardly enough to cover the need across the entire united states to provide better connection, and if this measure were fully adopted, there would no longer, under the republican budget rules, be a way to pay for the family connections program which is another vital way that we protect these foster youth. the children's defense fund, which does support the bill, wrote to us in committee to find a way to restore the provision that cost about $1 million a year and pointed out

that the same day that the committee would not provide $1 million extra per year it did find a way under the same budget rules to find not $1 million but $310 billion to cover for tax breaks. i believe this measure is helpful. it's a good step forward. it's a modest step forward that would vf benefited from not taking -- would have benefited from not taking from one in order to take from another to help foster children. we need to be doing more for our foster youth, not just in sex trafficking but in other ways more than we are able to accomplish under these strict budget rules today. there is inconsistency in saying we cannot find additional revenues for something as serious as this when we can borrow up to $310 billion for various corporate tax breaks, the first of which has already been approved here

in the house in our last week. with that i would reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. reichert: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank mr. doggett for his support and just as we were listening to each other and talking to each other regarding the issue that existed prior to bringing -- the bill to the floor, i'm interested in working -- continuing to work with mr. doggett on the other issues that he mentioned in his opening statement. now i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. black. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from tennessee is recognized. mrs. black: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker, i rise today in strong support of h.r. 4058, the preventing sex trafficking and improving opportunities for youth in foster care act, as well as each of the four additional bipartisan sex trafficking bills being discussed today.

the statistics about sex trafficking are shocking and it's not just happening abroad. these heinous crimes are being committed right here at home. in fact, the federal government reports that some 17,500 people are trafficked into the united states annually, making this a $9.5 billion industry each year. and worse, 50% of the victims that are trafficked into the united states are under the age of 18. with 60% of the trafficked youth happening in our foster care system. madam speaker, these are children in our communities whose innocence are being stolen away by the horrors of human trafficking. in just one county in my district, there are more than 100 cases of sex trafficking involving a minor in 2011, according to the tennessee bureau of investigation.

as a mother and a grandmother, my heart just breaks for those impacted by this epidemic, and i believe we have a responsibility to reverse this unacceptable trend. madam speaker, as an act of congress won't stop all forms of human trafficking, but we can do something. we can make the penalties stiffer. we can put another wall between the innocent victims and those who victimize them. we can pass h.r. 4058 and each of those other bipartisan measures aimed at targeting sex trafficking today. we can and we should. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. he gentleman reserves. mr. reichert: madam speaker, i think we're going to go with another speaker.

i think the other side has less. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. reichert: mrs. black is a member of the ways and means committee. i yield two minutes to mr. roskam from illinois, also a member of the ways and means committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized. thank you, madam speaker and i thank the chairman and the ranking member. you know, it's not often we see a major social movement bringing us both sides of the aisle together but that's absolutely happening right now and there is a boy yancey to that and -- boyyancy to that and the joy is recognizing that we as members of congress and the communities that we represent can do an amazing amount of good right now and the amazing amount of good is reflected in what's happening all across the country. in my constituency in the western suburbs of chicago, there is an organization called the west suburban anti-trafficking coalition. these are people who have come

together focused in on this issue, trying to bring attention to what's actually happening. we heard speaker after speaker regale against the trafficking itself, but there is a brightness to us coming together and there's something very good that's happening in my home state in illinois. cook county state's attorney anita alvarez is a national leader in her office, along with a member of her staff, jack blakey, who's the chief of special prosecutions, who've come together to come up with something that's known as the chicago model. what is the chicago model? what they're doing is they're coming in and they're saying that there has to be close coordination between victim services, law enforcement and prosecutors to the point where victims -- victim service advocates are accompanying along raids, coming alongside to make sure that these young people are rescued. and the approach also uses evidentiary and prosecutorial

methods that help minimize the exposure of a victim -- a victim's exposure in the courtroom itself to minimize her contact with her trafficker. did you hear that? there's something incredible that's happening in chicago that's leading the way, and it's protecting people and minimizing the exposure that victims have to traffickers. in other words, building up a legal case that doesn't have the victim as the focal point in terms of testimony but creating these types of evidentiary approaches. we can do something significant , and there is something significant that is happening today and that we are all reflecting the mood and desire on the part of our constituents to be fortright and aggressive in taking -- forthright and aggressive in taking on this scandal. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas is

recognized. mr. doggett: thank you, madam speaker. we're fortunate to have our cloge from california, the chair of the -- colleague from california, the chair of the congressional caucus on foster youth, who worked so diligently on this around the country, ms. bass, whom i yield three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized for three minutes. ms. bass: madam speaker, i rise in strong support of h.r. 4058. i'm proud to have worked with chairman reichert and have become an original co-sponsor of the bill. i also want to acknowledge the leadership of chairman camp as well as ranking members doggett, levin, to pass this important legislation, especially during national foster care month. as co-chair of the congressional caucus on foster youth, i've traveled throughout the country as part of a national listening tour. it's been devastating to learn that children involved in the child welfare system, particularly those who experience multiple placements, are especially susceptible to coercion and manipulation by traffickers. in los angeles, where i'm from, the probation department

reports that hundreds of young people, all minors, have been identified as victims of sex trafficking. 61% have been identified as foster youth. the los angeles star court, which specializes at -- which specializes in serving commercially sexually exploited youth, report an even higher percentage, 80% of the young people have been involved with -- have been foster youth. unfortunately, the child welfare system as a whole has not truly recognized trafficking as a crisis within the foster youth population nor in corporated protocols and systems to address the problem. few child welfare employees have been adequately trained and prepared to identify or respond to child victims of trafficking. fewer still have incorporated policies, protocols and case management techniques to serve this population. . agencies are not documenting the

trafficking, therefore the scope of the challenge nationwide is unknown. to address these gaps, the preventing sex trafficking and improving opportunities foster care act requires states to develop plans to provide services to child victims of trafficking as well as to train case workers on how to identify victims and coordinate services. the bill would ensure that agencies using existing data collection mechanisms, provide a national and state by state understanding of the prevalence of these problems. these are tremendous steps forward and i look forward working with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to move legislation that will further prevent exploitation and protect foster youth and all children from trafficking. it is significant that this bill helps to empower foster youth by giving foster parents to make decisions regarding their

activities. many can't attend a proposal or participate in sports. encouraging states to move quickly off of foster care into permanent families and providing development in the case plans and ensuring that older foster youth have access to critical documents. i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill as well next week, welcoming -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. >> i urge my colleagues in supporting this bill and welcoming nearly 70 foster youth to the hill for shadow day. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. reichert: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from

rom mr. minnesota, mr. pulsen, and stop ex employtation through -- exploitation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. paulsen: i thank the chairman and ranking member. members, more than 100,000 children are at risk of being trafficked for commercial sex in america and that's according to the national center for missing and exploited children. it is probably a conservative number. most at risk are the vulnerable including children in our foster care system. these are young girls aged 12, 13, 14, 15. these youth have been involved in the foster care system are more likely to become homeless at an early age. the large majority, large percentage of sex trafficking victims are runaways.

60% of those were in the foster care system at some point. madam speaker, in order to help prevent these youth from becoming victims, victims of sex trafficking, we need better information as to what is happening, where and to whom and identify the trends and fill in the gaps. there are provisions in this legislation that address those shortfalls. this bill is crucial for addressing the lack of reliable data and reporting to law enforcement as it relates to runaway youth from the child welfare system. the bottom line is, we need to help these victims before they become trafficked. i thank the chairman for his leadership along with the ranking member for their bipartisan efforts to move this legislation forward. i want to thank congresswoman slaughter for helping author with myself several of the provisions that were incorporated into this legislation. the good news is that this legislation is bipartisan and hopefully it will move forward in the senate as well and

absolutely an opportunity to save lives. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. doggett: i continue to reserve. mr. reichert: i yield one minute to the gentlewoman from missouri, mrs. hartzler. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. hartzler: thank you mr. reichert and mr. doggett for bringing this legislation to the floor. in 2013, the f.b.i. conducted raids on sex trafficking operations in 70 u.s. cities. the most startling finding is that 60% of the rescue child trafficking victims had lived in foster care or group homes. this has taught us a very important lesson to address such horrific injustices, we must improve the state of children and family services and increase awareness in the justice department. this works to address human

trafficking that the 400,000 youth in foster care have the resources they need to become contributors to american society. though human trafficking is a global issue we must remember it is happening throughout america. sadly even in places like my home state of missouri. just last november in jefferson city, a 28-year-old man was indicted for sex trafficking of a child under the age of 14, also earlier this year, a springfield man pleaded guilty to trafficking of a 17-year-old girl with learning disabilities. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. mrs. hartzler: i urge support. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. doggett: mrs. maloney has spoken already this afternoon in connection with another bill and i yield her two minutes to address the issues raised by this bill and the serious

problem of sex trafficking. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mrs. maloney: i rise in strong support of this bill. it is extremely important and there is no politics in sex trafficking. this body is often described as being bitterly partisan, but today that is not the case as voices on both sides of the aisle and hard work on both sides of the aisle have joined to work to try to make it better and try to stop this abuse. have already heard that and that trafficking human beings is a modern form of slavery and the incidents in foster children is tremendously high. a foster child angela came to my office one day and told me the story that at 10 years old the boyfriend of her foster mother

started selling her as a titute and her younger brother. she was horrified one day when she saw a picture of herself and younger brother in a magazine advertising that they were for sale. she spoke out at school to her counselor and they didn't believe her. and when the authorities from the welfare agency came to the home, she told them she was being abused and they told her to be grateful to her foster parents, why is she raising such problems. so there's clearly a need for educating and involving state and agencies in being more sensitive in identifying the victims of child abuse and child sex trafficking. it is something we do not want to acknowledge that it exists in our own country. but every time you see a child

on the street, a child prostitute, this is a tragic story behind that young girl or boy of intense abuse and regrettably too many of them come out of the american foster care system, a system that is supposed to protect them. this bill is incredibly needed and i congratulate ranking member doggett and the chairman for their hard work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. reichert: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. doggett: i yield two minutes to my colleague from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized. ms. jackson lee: i thank you for this work and work of the ways and means committee, which is a vital component to this approach that we have now embraced dealing with human trafficking. and the foster care system that

many of us have embraced that needs overhaul as a member of the foster care task force and caucus and member and founder of the congressional children's caucus and have been dealing with foster children and i served as the co-chair of the foster care task force in houston whose purpose was to give relief to then what was called foster care grandparents, grandparents involved in the foster care system. that's the friendly side of foster care. but it's very important to recognize that we are still facing that large gap of those youngsters who age out along with youngsters who are 12, 13 and 14, who have been in the foster care system all of their lives. we have heard the stories that they go from house to house, aybe some of them had 30 homes places where they have lived for a period of time that they have

been in foster care. and what i have seen as i have been on the streets of houston when we spend a night out on the streets going places where we knew children and young people would be sleeping, that these were children who had either aged out, run away or in foster care on the streets of houston. they are a number one target for the act of sex trafficking, child trafficking, human trafficking. i rise today to support this legislation, again as it adds to an overall omnibus approach to going after anyone who wants to hide behind the vulnerability of a child and take advantage of them. the fact that this bill provides they do resources so not find the most welcoming track, someone's ugly words that are to undermine them. i ask my colleagues to support this legislation because, in

fact, it stops those children from going into a life that will ruin their lives and to make them find a place. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. reichert: may i inquire how much time remains? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington has three minutes and the gentleman from texas has 7 3/4. . mr. reichert: i yield one minute to the gentleman from michigan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for one minute. mr. huizenga: we know barriers to age-appropriate activities increases human trafficking and negative outcomes that kids in foster care experience. i appreciate the authors of this bill would ensure that youth can participate in activities and

better connected with their communities and friends and less vulnerable to become victims of sex trafficking and all this is negativity and ugliness, i can talk about a ray of hope. beth and any christian services in western michigan and has operations in my district is an example of effective child welfare organization that dramatically improves outcomes for children this foster care. it comes along side families and welcome kids into their homes. and it's an organizational model that has proven successful. foster parents work with staff from community agencies toward identified goals for children in their care and empowering them to improve outcomes for those kids that are in their care. i thank you the author of this who is going to give the same opportunities to all foster children. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.

the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. doggett: i want to thank chairman reichert for his leadership on this measure. in this place we need to make what progress we can under the conditions we exist and make as much of it as possible. i hope the senate will respond to this measure. but in order to provide an effective response, we need to have the receive news to provide the resources along with the requirements to meet the needs of our foster youth. a few weeks ago, i met with a number of attorneys in san antonio who work with foster youth, particularly those who are aging out, as well as a number of community service groups, religious and nonreligious in their orientation. they describe immense problems that our foster youth face. and when they age out at age 18, only about 2% of those young people in the san antonio area ever end up in college. many of them do get a

substantial taxpayer subsidy over their lives. unfortunately, it's a subsidy in our jails and penal system after they are engaged in some harmful conduct. this bill is one step that we can take to address the exploitation of these young people, particularly young women. there are broader problems out there that need our attention, but i favor moving forward with the progress that we can make today to address this one critical problem. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. reichert: thank you madam speaker. i do believe that this bill can help end sex trafficking, especially partnered with all of the other legislation that we have been talking about today. it is a holistic approach and touches almost every one of the intricate issues in surrounding and protecting young children

from being victims of human trafficking and there is another bill after we are done today presented by mr. smith that will add to the power of the movement that we're making today, that will add to the voice that we are expressing today in support of young children and in support of families and protecting lives, madam speaker. we are going to save lives. i wondered when i was 31 years old on the banks of the river collecting the bodies of teenage girls if anybody cared. that question has been answered. we care. all the way to the united states capitol we care. we can make a difference. our daughters are not for sale, madam speaker. and the time is now. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 4058, as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4573, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 4573, a bill to protect children from exploitation, especially sex trafficking in tourism by providing advance notice of intended travel by registered child sex offenders outside the united states to the government of the country of destination, requesting foreign governments to notify the united states when a known child sex offender is seeking to enter the united states and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from california, mr. royce, and the gentleman from new york, mr. engel, each will control 20 minutes.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. royce: madam speaker, i'm going to ask that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their include any extraneous material for the record, if i could do that by unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. royce: i also ask unanimous consent to place into the record letters between myself and chairman goodlatte of the judiciary committee regarding this bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. royce: thank you, madam speaker. and i'll yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. royce: madam speaker, the international megan's law to prevent demand for child sex trafficking will bolster law enforcement efforts to combat a crime that is worldwide. it affects hundreds of thousands of young children every year. in particular, this bill addresses an issue of child sex

tourism in which adults travel overseas -- and they do this to exploit children in countries that are currently struggling to deal with this influx of child predators. and part of that influx are americans who are child predators. many children victimized by this appalling crime have also been trafficked, trafficked into prostitution, recruited or transferred or sold to be used sexually for someone's profit. now, this bill helps fight back. this bill takes care of a problem that exists in present where there are multiple u.s. agencies seeking to combat child trafficking but not with any coordination and not doing it in time to prevent those who

try to travel overseas. we could be much more effective. this bill officially recognizes an angel watch center within the department of homeland security's child exploitation investigation center. operation angel watch originated as a partnership with the u.s. customs and border protection and currently collects and analyzes the foreign travel date of convicted child sex offenders to determine whether notification to u.s. officials or foreign governments is warranted. so last year alone, angel watch sent 1,700 leads to 100 countries as part of this effort to proactively and strategically alert international law enforcement. angel watch's work is time sensitive. travel data is sometimes not made available within the 24 hours before a flight while other helpful collection

collected by the department of justice is in fact not even shared with angel watch or not shared soon enough. this bill solidifies the angel watch center as the important part of the u.s. response to child sex tourism and it improves the timeliness the center receives by requiring the justice department to share its travel records promptly. this will allow angel watch to better detect and to report the travel of child predators. i want to thank the bill's author, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. smith, for his persistent leadership and dedication to this issue. and i would also like to recognize the chairman and ranking member of the committee on the judiciary as well as the ranking member, mr. eliot engel from new york, for his assistance on this important measure. i'm proud to be a co-sponsor of this bill. i'd ask all members here to

support it and, madam speaker, i also want to say something briefly about other bills in today's anti-trafficking package that i've been involved with. one is h.r. 3505, the justice for victims of trafficking act, introduced by judge poe, our colleague from texas. i want to thank the committee on the judiciary for consulting with the foreign affairs committee to ensure that the bill makes progress, both at home but also abroad. in the human trafficking congressional advisory committee that i established last year in southern california, i hear directly from advocates and law enforcement and survivors themselves about the insufficient resources that law enforcement has as a tool available to rescue victims, available to prosecute traffickers here in the u.s. by ensuring a victim center allocation of resources, enhancing deterrence and

prioritizing the protection of child pornography victims, the act represents important progress in this struggle. and i also strongly support h.r. 4225, the stop advertising victims of exploitation, or save act, introduced by the gentlelady from missouri, representative wagner. in 2013, revenue from u.s. online prostitution advertising totaled an estimated $45 million. as underscored by arrests in 22 states, those ads, such as on backpage.com, sometimes involve the marketing of children of underage girls. this legislation will help stop that -- the use for this exploitation. in march, more than 40 of us in congress here wrote to urge attorney general eric holder to ke immediate action to end

backpage.com's facilitation of the buying and selling of people, including children. to date, we have not received a response. this legislation would produce that effect. so all five of the bills considered today represent important steps towards abolishing the injustice of human trafficking, protecting vulnerable individuals, restoring the dignity of those who have survived such exploitation. they deserve our strong support, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: thank you, madam speaker. i rise in strong support of h.r. 4573, known as international megan's law, and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. engel: thank you,. i would first, before i begin, like to commend our cloge, mr. critz smith of new jersey -- colleague, mr. critz -- mr.

chris smith of new jersey, for his and his staff's hard work on h.r. 4573. i can't begin to tell our colleagues how relentless mr. smith has been, his staff has been. this has been almost a personal crusade for him, and i know if it wasn't for the gentleman from new jersey we would not be this far on this legislation. so i really think our colleagues should know of his dedication and hard work on this matter. i also want to thank the judiciary committee for the bipartisan input in this bill. i know all of the parties worked hard to make sure that the bill is a practical and effective merckmism which will help make a difference -- mechanism which will help make the difference in the lives of those victimized. we worked closely with the judiciary committee as well. so this is a real good product with many inputs, bipartisan, from several committees, primarily foreign affairs and judiciary.

international megan's law aims to prevent child sex offenders and traffickers from exploiting vulnerable children when they cross international borders. in many countries, extreme poverty and gaps in law enforcement create zones of impunity where sex offenders exploit vulnerable children. sometimes local officials have no idea this is going on. sometimes they turn a blind eye, and sometimes unfortunately officials are even complicit in this crime. h.r. 4573 establishes an angel watch center within immigration and customs enforcement that would provide advanced notice to foreign countries when a convicted child sex offender travels to that country. the bill calls on the president to negotiate agreements with foreign governments that would encourage information and information sharing on known child sex offenders. around the world as many as 27 million people are victims of human trafficking, many of them

children exploited in prostitution. these are practices that amount to modern slavery. that violate our deepest moral values and they demand a timely and effective response. madam speaker, we need to do all we can to encourage governments around the world to live up to their responsibilities and confront this crime. protecting trafficked children requires timely victim identification, placing them in safe environments and providing them with comprehensive support services, physical and mental health care, educational opportunities, legal assistance and reintegration with family and community. no single government or single law will put an end to child sex tourism or child sex trafficking, but every step we take strengthens our ability to prevent these crimes, protect victims and punish those responsible. so madam speaker, i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 4573, and i reserve the balance

of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. royce: thank you, madam speaker. i yield five minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. smith, the chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on africa, global health, global human rights and international organizations, and he's also the author of this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for five minutes. mr. smith: thank you very much, madam speaker. first, let me begin by thanking the distinguished chairman ed royce from helping on combating human trafficking in general and strong support for this legislation today. he and his staff, i'm deeply, deeply grateful. and to eliot engel, the ranking member, he works as a team. it's one of the most bipartisan committees probably in the house. thank you for your leadership on this as well. and for your kind words a moment ago. i do deeply appreciate it. madam speaker, protecting women and children from violence and predatory behavior is among the highest duties and responsibilities of government. so today is truly an historic day, an historic day in the

struggle to end human trafficking, to protect the weakest and most vulnerable from modern day slavery. as prime author of the landmark trafficking protection act of 2000 and re-authorizations of that law in 2003 and 2005, i believe the five bills under consideration by the house today will significantly -- and i mean significantly prevent the horrific crime of human trafficking, protect and assist victims and prosecute those who exploit and abuse. we all know legislative priorities in the u.s. house of representatives don't happen by default, nor by happenstance and i single out majority leader cantor for his leadership in ensuring these five bills and there will be others i'm sure in their wake, that these five bills were brought to the floor where there were multiple

referrals to committees and skess and we worked with the judiciary committee and their staff as well as homeland security, which also was very supportive and it's that kind of coordination and leadership that makes what looks like an easy walk and this has not been an easy walk to come to the floor today with all the differences of opinion. we are united on the floor of the house of representatives today in saying in a bipartisan way, absolutely no to this crime of human trafficking. so thank you eric cantor for that leadership. it is deeply, deeply appreciated. madam speaker, h.r. 4573, the international megan's law is a serious attempt to mitigate child sex tourism by noticing countries of destination concerning the travel plans of convicted pedophiles and to

protect american children, the bill encourages the president of the united states and everyone else like the secretary of state to use bilateral agreements and assistance to establish resip row call notification so we will know when a convicted child abuser comes to the united states. in 1994, a young girl in my district, then my hometown of hamilton township, was lured into the home of a convicted pedophile who lived across the street from her home. megan, seven years old, was raped and murdered. no one including megan's parents or any of the other neighbors knew that their neighbor across the street had been convicted twice and jailed for child sexual assault. the combination of concern for at-risk children and those who abuse enacted megan's law public sex offender registries in every

state in the country. in 2006, chairman sensenbrenner, nationalized the whole idea and concept of a registry as part of his historic law, the adam walsh protection and safety act. mr. madam speaker, it is imperative to issue take the lessons learned to protect children and expand those to children globally. child presented dators thrive on secrecy and commit crimes children without any meaningful impuent. megan's law must go global to protect america's children and children worldwide. let's not forget the prevalence, the size of this abuse. nobody knows for sure exactly how many but the international labor organization estimates that 1.8 million children are victims of commercial sexual

exploitation around the world every year. it is worth noting that in 2010, the general accountability office issued a report entitled current situation result in thousands of passports issued to registered sex offenders and found 4,000 500 passports were issued to registered sex offenders in fiscal year 2008 alone. the g.a.o. emphasized that this number is probably underestimated due to the limitations of the data and that it was able to access and analyze. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for an additional minute. mr. smith: the law enforcement and media reports continue to document americans on the sex registries who are caught in central and south america and every place in the world. same horror movie replayed over

and over. we must warn destination countries so they can protect their children from sex tourism and we have the information. we've got the technology that's employed to protect children. madam speaker, i ask members to support this legislation. it's the second time that we have brought this bill to the floor. it is slightly different than it was in 2010. it passed then. it got no action in the united states senate. i hope all five of these historic bills are taken up in a very timely fashion by the u.s. senate, because protecting the weakest and most vulnerable, women and children and at-risk populations from this cruelty must be an imperative. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: i yield three minutes to the the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for three minutes. ms. jackson lee: i thank the

gentleman, ranking member on the foreign affairs committee and thank him for his multiple leadership on so many issues of compassion and passion and certainly this issue. i thank the chairman of the full committee as well and the author of this bill, mr. smith. i was on the judiciary committee when the megan's law was passed and now i'm on the homeland security committee. so i raise this question and that is, who equates sex trafficking and tourism? and that is what is going on internationally around the world. individuals who may have been convicted here in the united states, may be labeled here in the united states, can secure passports and have a full and flourishing and horrific ongoing experience by utilizing and abusing the children in foreign countries. many times these countries are developing nations. the names, we can call the roll. many times law enforcement are

collaborating with these sex tourists. there's an area set aside for these sex tourists. in fact, it is called that. they go there with impugn ti. abuse children, children who have no other way to go. it is the round circle of addressing this question. just today in the markup in the border security and maritime security committee, we discussed, as i indicated in earlier debate, the 60,000 children that come across the border to the united states unaccompanied. we mentioned the need to provide enhanced training for our c.v.p. officers while they are at the board. that will complement this legislation which establishes protocols to discern those individuals who are going into

our country that are convicted pedophiles. it is the megan's law international and relief for those who are being abused outside of our borders. i'm very pleased there is an angle watch -- angel watch center to assist and the effort has been made in this bill to ask our president to collaborate bilaterally to establish the link between their convicted sk predators -- sex predators and act here and around the world. i congratulate the proponents of this legislation. and i hope this will be one more step in saving one child's life. it may not be within our borders, but may be outside of our borders. and i can assure my colleagues that it is documented every day

sex tourism is a big business. and until we put a stop to it in some way, it will continue to grow. with that, i ask my colleagues to support this legislation, h.r. 4573 and i thank the proponents of the legislation and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. royce: i yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentlelady from ms. wagner and author of the save act, important anti-trafficking measure that was debated earlier this afternoon. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for a minute and a half. mrs. wagner: i rise today in support of h.r. 4573, the international megan's law to prevent demand for child sex trafficking. my good friend, chris smith, a champion on all rights and taking care of the most vulnerable has introduced this

important legislation in order to protect children at home and abroad for the scores of sex trafficking. h.r. 4573 will provide advanced notice of registered sex offenders to the governments of destination country and will allow the foreign government to scrutinize the sex offender's activity ensuring they do not gauge in the practice of sex tourism. they plan their trips by seeking out locations where the most vulnerable children can be found. many times in countries where law enforcement is ineffectively guarding against the problem. sex offenders should not be allowed to use foreign travel to hide their hideous crime. they should take the leading role. this is why i support h.r. 4573 because it will governments the information they need to prevent sex traffickers of taking advantage of gaps in law enforcement. i thank you and i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. he gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from new york. mr. engel: i thank chairman royce, jeff smith of new jersey and judiciary committee for their hard work on this legislation. again, i want to single out representative smith for being relentless in this bill. i appreciate the willingness of all interested parties to make the compromises necessary to ensure that this is a truly bipartisan product. the result is an important tool in the fight against child sex tourism and trafficking. i thank chairman royce as always and i urge my colleagues to support this bill. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. royce: you have heard today about the unconscionable child sex tourism industry which has been operating now for years

overseas and there are child victims home here, too. our efforts to identify incoming child predators will encourage them to alert us when the foreigners convicted of sex offenses against children attempt to enter the united states just as we are going to control the process on this side. so i thank mr. chris smith of new jersey and mr. engel of new york and i encourage members to support passage of the international megan's law to prevent child sex trafficking. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4573 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. royce: madam speaker, i move the house suspend the rules and pass house resolution 573 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: if the gentleman will suspend tore one moment. -- for one moment. the speaker pro tempore: proceedings will resume on motions to suspend the rules previously postponed. votes will be taken in the following order, h.r. 3530 by the yeas and nays. h.r. 4225 by the yeas and nays. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute

vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the have vote on the motion of the the gentleman from from virginia, mr. goodlatte to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3530 as amended on which yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3530, a bill to provide justice for victims of trafficking. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 408, the nays are zero.

the speaker pro tempore: the yeas are 409, the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended and the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the unfinished business is vote on the motion of the the gentleman from virginia and pass . r. 4225 on which yaped

the clerk: union calendar 433, bill toll amend title 18 united states code to provide for a penalty for selling advertising that offers certain commercial sex acts. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 392, the nays are 119. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and, without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? without objection. the house will be in order. members, please remove your conversations from the house floor. the house will be in order. members are asked to remove their conversations from the house floor.

for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass house resolution 573 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 573, resolution condemning the abduction of female students by armed militants from the terrorist group known as boko haram in northeastern provinces of the federal republic of nigeria. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from california, mr. royce, and the gentleman from new york, mr. engel, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. royce: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm going to ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. royce: i thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i might consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. royce: thank you. members, members of the house,

the world is now fully aware of the absolute terror of boko haram. over the last few months there have been over 500 schools burned to the ground by boko haram. struck by the brazen abduction of nearly 300 innocent school girls, people are now asking, what is boke harm? sadly -- boko haram? sadly for the communities in nigeria, they know the answer to that. they know what boko haram means to them. they know that the definition of boko haram is western education is a sin and they know that for this particular organization of particularly great importance is that young women not be educated. sadly for the communities in northern nigeria, they know

that boko haram believes that you can kidnap women, you can sell young girls, you can treat them as chattel, you can enslave them, but the one great sin is should you try to educate them. because should you try to educate them, you will meet the fate of over 100 teachers who have been slaughtered in northern nigeria for trying to educate young women. boko haram in total has killed some 4,000 individuals now. the communities in northern nigeria live in constant fear. losing any normalcy of life. most of the schools in whole regions have been shut down, community centers, farms, businesses have been boarded up and closed. even with the recent focus on rescuing these young women, boko haram has been able to

continue its reign of terror. its militants have relatively sophisticated weapons, they have ample funds, they have advanced training. this group is the van guard of a foreign-backed move to transform and radicalize nigerian society. as many nigerians have told me in the country. since the abduction of these 300 students, more girls have been kidnapped and more nigerian security units have been attacked. this group, my friends, is not going away. boko haram lives up to its name . they have killed, as i say, over 100 teachers, but over 500 students. they've denied tens of thousands of young nigerians an education, but they have a very

alternative framework for education or indoctrineation that they intend to supplant. and despite knowing the dangers, these young women were committed to their education, the ones that were abducted. this resolution importantly puts the house on record saying , we are committed to getting them freed. the resolution supports u.s. assistance to the nigerian government in trying to rescue these girls and calls for a more active u.s. role. tomorrow we will hear from a young woman who herself was idnapped by boko haram and escaped. but it is clear that the nigerian security forces are facing an uphill battle in the fight against boko haram. some of these problems are internal, some unprofessional and corrupt units that are poorly equipped, poorly

trained. and that's led some to say that we should not be involved. but, mr. speaker, it tells me that u.s. involvement is critical. without u.s. expertise, including intelligence sharing, it's clear that the threat from the u.s.-designated terrorist group will grow. and these girls will suffer, other girls will suffer. the region will be destabilized. u.s. forces are well positioned to advise and assist. they can advise and assist nigerian forces in the search and rescue of these girls. in this role, u.s. forces expertly trained to deal with hostage situations, trained in jungle environments, could help nigerians with intelligence planning and logistics up until the point the operation is launched. and if some u.s. laws would hinder such assistance, the administration should use its waiver authority under these

extraordinary circumstances. and -- an advise and assist operation would have the benefit of boosting morale and effectiveness of the nigerian forces. it would ensure expert planning, it would ensure the best chance of success of rescue. this isn't dissimilar to the operation against the lord's resistance army in eastern africa. where u.s. forces have been imbedded with local units, training and constraining joseph kony. and it has been used in the past to eliminate al qaeda -linked terrorists in north africa. and while these girls are foremost in our mind, there are larger crucials, too. indeed, -- considerations, too. indeed, commanders at the pentagon have stated that boko haram is, quote, a threat to western interests. and one of the highest

counterterrorism priorities in africa, they tell us. and that's especially the case given nigeria's position as the continent's most pop us will country and biggest -- populous country and biggest economy. this resolution is a show of solidarity with these young kidnapped girls, with their families and with the communities in northern nigeria who have lived under constant fear of boko haram for far too long. i reserve the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: i rise in strong support of h.res. 573 and i yield myself such time as i may consume. i would like to begin by thanking our former committee colleague and our colleague, ms. wilson of florida, for authoring this important resolution. i would like to thank our chairman of the foreign affairs committee, mr. royce, for

working with us on this piece of legislation in a bipartisan manner. this legislation condemns the abduction of nearly 500 school girls by the nigeriaian terrorist group boko haram and sports u.s. and international efforts to assist in their referry. on april 14, these school girls were doing what young women and girls do every day, studying with tests, playing with friends, building a future for themselves. that day, boko haram, which translates to western education is forbidden, abducted these girls, tore them away from their families and communities. today, more than a month later, we don't know where they are. our thoughts are with their families and we pray they are safely reunite wd their children snaps. this mass abduction is the latest atrocity.

they have launched hundreds of attacks and murdered over 5,000 people. the group has burned schools and killed students, attacked churches and mosques, murdered christian and religious leaders and set off bombs in the capital city. the united states and other international partners have offered assistance to bring the school girls home and we hope these efforts will prove successful. but we must recognize that nigeria's approach to continuering boko haram has not been effective. the nigeriaian military has alienated the population that could provide information about boko haram's activities. instead of fostering relationships, it has indiscriminate destruction, theft of personal property and indefinite attention and torture, all of this.

this serves all of this to help boko haram to recruit new members. i hope the nigeriaian government ill see this kidnapping as a wake-up call to counter their terrorism strategy and have a strategy to combat boko haram that includes better society. meanwhile, we in the united states must do all we can to ensure that these girls are returned home to their families safely and soundly. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important resolution. and i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman reserves. mr. royce: mr. speaker, i yield four minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. smith, the affairs of the foreign

subcommittee. mr. smith: i thank chairman royce for bringing this important resolution to the floor. i thank congresswoman wilson for her upon soreship and eliot engel for the bipartisanship that has been exhibited on this very important and timely resolution. nearly two months ago, a large group of uniformed men, boko haram terrorists kidnapped school girls from the girl's secondary school. this case has recently caught the attention of the international community and people worldwide are now and belatedly calling for swift action to recover these innocent young men. unfortunately, boko haram basks in the international attention and continues to release videos to demonstrate the leverage they believe they have gained by this and other kidnappings. boys caught by these terrorists are not kidnapped but scuted.

59 were killed in one state alone just this past february. mr. speaker, the government of new jersey continues to be slow to react. even after accepting much needed international security assistance. the nigeriaian government has asked for assistance in addressing this situation. a team consisting of personnel from state, department, justice and the f.b.i. by team was led by and nder david rodriguez sarah seawall who will testify tomorrow. this enhanced engagement is welcomed in light of weak efforts by the government of nigeria and police military security apparatus that have failed to operate in a very

divided manner and make enemies among the nigeriaian public because of their clumsy response. it is worth noting that for years, many of us and this has been bipartisan have been calling on the obama administration to declare boko haram a foreign terrorist organization. i held a hearing back in 2012 assist ant en secretary of state johnny carson why boko haram was not designated particularly in light of the killings that occurred of the u.n. facility. no good answers. we tried again. i went on a fack-finding trip in september of last year. my staff director and i and met with people who are the survivors of fire bombing attacks that occurred in their churches while they were at mass

or church sunday and we heard tales. ak-47who came and said an was put to his jaw and was told, renounce your faith. he said i'm ready to see my savior. the brutality of this organization, which now has some 300 young innocent women that are probably being raped and abused in so many ways, just underscores the need for concerted action first and foremost by nigeria and secondly by the international community. earlier today, five enforcing bills to combat human trafficking passed on this floor of the house of representatives. this is another viv i had, extraordinary, hard example of human trafficking of stealing young girls right from their school, putting them in trucks

and taking them into the bush, where horrible things are being done to them. we need to leave no stone unturned and if that means lifting in the sense of only working with those troops that are human rights certified to assist the military of nigeria, parts of the leahy amendment may have to be waived, we need to find these young girls back to safety. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. mr. royce: well, mr. speaker, i'm going to ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from new jersey be yielded the remainder of my time and he be allowed to control that time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. royce: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: thank you, mr.

speaker. it's now my pleasure to give one minute of time to our democratic leader, the gentlewoman from from california, ms. pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. pelosi: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank him, mr. royce, chairman of the committee. mr. smith and others who have brought this resolution to the floor. i'm especially proud of the work of congresswoman wilson for her work on the resolution before the house to condemn the abduction of female students by armed militants. thank you, congresswoman wilson. we have been fortunate to have the leadership of our congressional black caucus led by congresswoman fudge. congressman keith ellison and congresswoman barbara lee, among others, who have come and gone in the course of the debate. we have called the congressional black caucus the conscience of

the congress helping to rally our nation to the cause of these abducted girls and address the broader threat to women and girls around the girl. associate myself with the comments that have been addressed on the floor, trafficking of children that passed earlier. congresswoman sheila jackson lee was part of that. i rise today in support of the resolution introduced by congresswoman wilson and to stand in solidarity with the young nigeriaian girls who are still being held in captivity by the boko haram. their kidnapping is outside the circle of human behavior and it is a crime that cries out for justice. nor is the first time that boko haram have attacked young

nigeriaian students. they have murdered dozens of young boys, shooting and burning them, more than 50 of them to death in their boarding school. this is an afront to the human rights of men, women and children everywhere. it is important to note, mr. speaker, that we have a moral responsibility to help, certainly to find and recent cue these girls. we will not rest until we bring back our girls. but when we bring them back, we have to bring them back without the taboo or stigma that they had been kidnapped and assumptions made about their treatment. whatever that has been, i know that their families want to welcome them back with open arms. and we have to be a party to that. the worst thing, the most cruel form of torture for someone who has been kidnapped, as mr. smith knows as a champion of human

rights throughout the world, is to tell those who were kidnapped, abducted or raped that nobody cares for them anymore. nobody knows that they are kidnapped and nobody cares about them. and to these young girls, to say, because you have been kidnapped and certain assumptions have been made about your treatment, you will no longer be welcomed home, even if you are free. that's vicious. that's vicious. and i know a view not shared by the family of these girls. that should not be shared by anyone. as the resolution states women and girls must be allowed to go to school without violence and unjust treatment so they can take their rightful place as equal citizens and contributors to society. t is an outrage that they face intimidation simply for seeking an education. outrage that human trafficking

continues to threaten communities anywhere and i thank my colleagues for the participation and the long debate about trafficking that preceded this debate now. today we join together to say those girls held in captivity, we will not abandon you and stand up for you until justice is done. the thoughts and prayers of the world are with them, their families and their community. as i have said, capture and captivity of these girls captures the world in a very specific and different way and perhaps that difference will make a difference in how we deal with it. i again thank our colleagues to bring this to the floor and congresswoman wilson for her leadership and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from california. mr. smith: we reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is

recognized. mr. engel: it's my pleasure to give five minutes to the author of this resolution, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. wilson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. wilson: thank you, congressman engel. i would like to thank the leadership of the foreign affairs committee and original co-sponsors of this bipartisan resolution, congressman engel, congressman royce, congresswoman ros-lehtinen, congressman smith, congresswoman bass and the support of leader pelosi. i stand here today on the house floor demanding that we bring back our girls. i am outraged and heart broken over the kidnapping of hundreds of female students in nigeria by the terrorist group boko haram. these girls have now been away

from their home for more than a month. i cannot even begin to imagine what this is like for these girls, for their mothers, their not thers, their brothers, their entire village. we must end this nightmare. the abduction of these girls was committed to keep them from getting an education. the girls knew the dangers they might encounter. the school had previously been closed due to terrorist attacks, but they went to school any way. they went because they were determined to get an education, determined to build a better life for themselves and for their families. women and girls have the right to go to school without fear of violence and unjust treatment. i believe we must do everything

in our power to ensure the safe return of these precious young girls. that is why i introduced house resolution 573, to send a clear message to nigeria and to the international community, women around the world have the right to be free and live without fear. women should not be forced to risk their lives to get an education they want and deserve. house resolution 573 puts the u.s. house of representatives firmly on record condemning the atrocious attack and boko haram's violent attacks on civilian targets in nigeria. house resolution 573 seeks to hold those who conduct violent attacks accountable. house resolution 573 reaffirms our support for the assistance that the president and the administration is providing to help nigerians find the girls and calls for the development of a comprehensive strategy to

counter the threat of radical terrorist groups like boko haram. house resolution 573 calls for the safe return of these girls to an environment that protects children seeking to obtain an education. in these girls i see our daughters, our sisters, our nieces. i see their hopes and their dreams. these girls are strong, determined, courageous and understand the value of an education. and as a past principal i understand and we must support them. we know that girls who are educated make higher wages, lead healthier lives and have healthier families. education is truly a girl's best chance for a brighter future, not just for herself but for her family and her

nation. i have a large constituency of nigerians in my district. on saturday i participated in a rally to encourage nigerian to do more nathan to find the girls. my constituents were calling than in their frustration because -- bad luck jonathan in their frustration. bad luck jonathan was not doing enough was the call and rallying cry at the rally. i walked away from the rally with this shout that reads -- shirt that reads nigeria. and i walked away with my heart still full of worry, still full of concerns and i am puzzled. are they hungry?

are they sheltered? can they shower? can they take care of their womanly needs? have they been raped? have they been beaten? have they been sold? are they still even alive? god of our weary years, god of our silent tears, we are reliving the past. the past of the slave trade, the past of the torture and suffering that we endured. as slaves we should never, never relive the indignities of the past. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the chair would remind all members to make dane proper decorum in the chamber -- maintain proper decorum in the chamber. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. the gentleman reserves. mr. engel: thank you, mr.

speaker. it's now my pleasure to yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from florida, ms. frankel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. frankel: thank you, mr. engel, and thank you, congresswoman wilson, for this resolution. mr. speaker, what we've seen take place in nigeria, the crimes perpetrated by boko haram are simply unthinkable and appalling and there are some crimes against humanity that should not be tolerated, regardless of where they occur in the world. and the violent kidnapping of over 250 girls for the sole reason that they were seeking an education is one such crime. innocent girls who should be carefree, but instead are prisoners enduring the unimaginable. and in the 21st century, we

cannot let this kind of horror against children go unanswered. so first i want to thank president obama for sending the multidisciplinary team to nigeria where they are working with the united kingdom, france and israel to help resolve this crisis. i am proud to support this resolution condemning boko haram and calling for continued united states support to return these girls safely to their families and bring these terrorists to justice. thank you, mr. speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman is recognized. mr. engel: i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york -- the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. maloney. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. maloney: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for his extraordinary leadership on this issue and so many others.

and a great appreciation to the sponsor of this, my good friend, frederica wilson, who spoke with great feeling on the floor. we appreciate so much her leadership in this area and other areas. these young girls in nigeria were kidnapped from their school in the middle of the night, terrorized and held captive. and may now be sold like so many objects into a lifetime of forcible rape. there is no kind of crime more appalling, no offense worse, no act of depravity more harmful to the community of nations than this kind of mr. barrow:ism. but as horrible as this crime is -- of barbarism. but as horrible as this crime is, this is only a small fraction of the global trafficking in human beings. just today a report by the u.n. noted that trafficking forced

labor -- trafficking, forced labor and modern slavery are big businesses, generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year. it is a global enterprise that we must put out of business. they committed this terrible act in part because they wanted to send a message. well, let's send one back to them today. a message that the nations of e west will spare no effort, no expense in helping to return these girls safely to their families. we will pursue the perpetrators of this atrocity by every legal and lawful means, to the ends of this earth or until the end of their days. let us declare that the children of this world, here at home or in some far-flung corner of the world are not for sale. they're not to be used as slaves or as shields or as

barter. and all those who attempt to profit off this ancient evil will be considered the common enemies of humanity. my time is up. we will not stop until these girls are returned to their homes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. >> reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: thank you. it's my pleasure now to yield two minutes to the gentleman from minnesota, mr. ellison. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized. mr. ellison: allow me to thank the gentleman for the time and thank my dear friend, frederica wilson from florida, for bringing forth this important resolution. you know, mr. speaker, a number of people who across the country who are of the muslim faith contacted me and congressman carson who happened to be the two members of that

faith in this body and expressed to us how outraged and offended they were by the actions of boko haram. so what we did is said, well, you guys write a letter and we'll draft it, we'll get a lot of signatures on it and we'll send it to nigeria and that is what we've done. it's written in english and in the arabic language and we're trying to get it translated right now. and it has well over 30 leaders in the community. it just reads a little bit this way, because i doubt i'll have the time to read the entire letter. but it reads, we urge you to immediately release the young children you have uncon szenably taken. your actions -- uncon szenably taken. your action -- uncon szen -- stealing fication for these children, that education for girls goes against islam,

has no basis whatsoever in our faith and the profit mohammed, peace and love be upon him, wisely emphasized that every muslim man and woman has a duty to seek education and you have truly strayed from the path when your actions betray its first command, to read. you do not represent islam or what muslims know to be the teachings of islam. your attempt to transform a central tenant of islam into a vial lie used to kill and maim innocent nigerians of all faiths is transparent. you treat children like cattle, it is abhorrent and sinful to pretend to be a profit to whom allah has spoken. and it goes on. i don't want to -- i'll just -- the last sentence reads such as this. you'd like -- if you would like to follow the teachings of islam, listen to the global chorus that demands return. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for another 30 seconds. mr. ellison: if you would like to follow the teachings of islam, listen to the global chorus of voices that are

wanting you to return these children to their families and replace the evil in your heart with peace and learning and it goes on to be signed by myself, congressman carson and many others. we join our colleagues, both sides of the aisle, in the demand for the return of these precious children immediately. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new jersey continues to reserve. the gentleman from new york is once again recognized. mr. engel: thank you, mr. speaker. my pleasure to yield for two minutes the gentlewoman from california, ms. lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized. ms. lee: thank you very much. let me thank first of all our ranking member for yielding and for your leadership on so many issues, including this tragic issue that we're dealing with today. and also to chairman royce for continuing to ensure that these issues and these resolutions and bills continue to be bipartisan. and also i just have to thank

my colleague, congresswoman frederica wilson, for your steady and tremendous and clear and passionate leadership. this is such an important issue that yourself, congresswoman jackson lee and others continue to bring to the forefront and i just have to say once again thank you for this. this resolution puts the united states' congress on record expressing strong support for the people of nigeria, especially the parents and families of the girls abducted by boko haram. we join the international community in calling for the immediate and safe return of . ese innocent girls the world is shouting and we've seen this and heard this over and over again. bring back our girls. these girls were pursuing their education. these are crimes against humanity and cannot be tolerated. nigeria in partnership with the

international community must do everything it can to protect all children and men and women against such violent attacks. since 2013 more than 4,400 men, women and children have been slaughtered by boko haram. these are terrorists who have gotten away with murder. enough is enough. we must do everything we can to bring our girls home and to bring an end to boko haram's reign of terror. and i want to commend and thank our administration for once again being on the right side of history. i thank this -- i think this resolution encourages and supports what's taking place now within our own executive branch, but we must do more. and i believe both sides of the aisle have come together to support your legislation, to say, let's do more, let's bring our girls back and let's bring

this reign of terror by boko haram to an end. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the chair will receive a message. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has passed h.r. 2939, an act to award the congressional shimone peres. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: thank you, mr. speaker. may i inquire how much time both sides have? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york has three minutes. the gentleman from new jersey as 9 1/2 minutes. mr. engel: i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. i thank the e:

gentleman from new york for his leadership. the chairman of the committee from california and mr. smith from new jersey who is managing the bill, and i thank very much legislation,f this mrs. wilson, who has brought us together around a very important statement. members of the united states congress will have the ability very nd and to take a public view that the thugs of boko haram will no longer be table run rampant out the attention of the united states and the people around the world. i have, mr. speaker, the geographic area in which nigeria is in.

ghana, niger, o, cameroon. we wonder where these girls are now. it is important that we are condemning of this horrific act. we wonder where these children are. these are children who cannot consent to leaving home, to marrying, to changing their religion system of in one sweep we have sex trafficked girls, we have violated religious freedom, and we have taken children away from the bosom of their family. so as i hold up in my hand these names, many, who we should call, these are real people. i would ask today as we stand to support this resolution that we push for a relief fund for these girls.

we push for nigeria to establish its own special ops so that they can safely find these girls and we tell the islamic world, we tell al qaeda in particular, and we thank mr. ellison that to stop funding these groups. let me also indicate that it is important -- do you have an extra 10 seconds? mr. engel: i yield the gentlewoman 10 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. jackson lee: it's important for united nations peace keepers, the african union and others to realize this is a much larger issue. today i stand on the noor of the house and condemn boe coe rah ham -- ha ram and ask that these girls be brought -- boko haram and ask that these girls be brought back home. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. engel: i would like to thank

congresswoman wilson and chairman royce for helping move this legislation forward in a timely manner. the senate passed a similar resolution last week and i'm pleased we'll follow suit. we must do all we can to hold boko haram accountable for the massdzive abduction of schoolgirls and the many other terrorist attacks it has committed. our thoughts and prayers remain th the family and friends of the girls, and we will d everything in our power to get them home safely. urge i urge my colleagues to support this resolution. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from -- the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. let me just say that we are speaking with one voice tonight and that is on behalf of the young women, the young girl who was been abducted by boko haram. thankfully there's absolutely no divide between republicans or democrats and really the world.

the world is speaking out. this is absolutely outrageous. but it is part of a trend and a surge that is happening in many parts of the world, including in africa. in somalia, we know the terrible killing spree they went nonkenya, nairobi not long ago. al qaeda in the peninsula. groups in mali. and selecca in the central african republic and boko haram. we need, and it's called for in this resolution, number nine of the whereases in be it resolved, i should say, calls on the president to provide congress a comprehensive strategy to counter this egrowing threat posed by radical islamic terrorist groups. they are bad, mr. speaker, and they are getting worse. many of us have been calling in a bipartisan way for years that boe coe ha -- boko haram be

designated a foreign terrorist organization and it was belated. it took years to designate this organization this cruel, insensitive, murder russing or -- murderous organization. thankfully, at least now everyone gets it. unfortunately there are many, many victim whors suffering. the war on terrorism, mr. speaker, remains largely unfinished. and my hope is that this resolution and the commitment of the u.s. government, french and european allies and frankly people around the world, thetch chinese know because they were recently hit as well, will understand that boko haram has to be stopped. all means necessary have to be employed to mitigate, no, not mitigate derek stroy this threat to children, to women. let's not forget, here's a group that targets schools, literally abducted children, kills the men and boys and abducts young girls. just in may, in april, they

conducted the worst attack on bus stations throughout the air dwhreasm worst hit. it barely made the papers. boko haram is a murderous organization. it's about time we all did our part to ensure they end their reign of terror. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 573 as amended? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on h.r. 4435. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. pursuant to house resolution 585 and rule 18, the chair delair chess house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h.r. 4435. the chair appoints the gentleman from utah, mr. stewart, to preside over the committee of the whole. the chair: the house is not committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration -- is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h.r. 4435 which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill to authorize

appropriations for fiscal year 2015 for military activities of the department of defense and for military construction and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule the bill is considered read for the first time. the gentleman from california, mr. mckeon, and the gentleman from washington, mr. smith, will each control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield myself such time as i might consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mckeon: i rise in support of h.r. 4435, the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2015. first, let me express my appreciation to ranking member smith for his leadership and friendship. he's been an invaluable partner in upholding our committee's focus on providing for our men and women in uniform. i'd also like to thank our colleagues on the armed services committee for their professionalism and their hard work. i'm incredibly proud of the

bipartisan, transparent and inclusive process our committee undertakes each year. the bill under consideration today is a strong reflection of the bipartisan priorities and concerns shared by members of the committee and as a result of diligent oversight conducted throughout the year. it contains 154 amendments that were adopted during markup and that passed out of committee with unanimous support. the bill would authorize $521 billion for national defense and n additional $79 billion for overseas contingency operations, consistent with the 2013 bipartisan budget agreement. and the house passed budget. while we do not yet have the details of the request, our committee, the house budget committee and the administration all agreed that these funds will be required to support a residual u.s. presence in afghanistan, other ongoing

operations including in africa, the rest reset and retrograte of equipment for the -- for the active guard and reserve forces. the bill contains no earmarks. it provides vital national security resources for our troops while also main tirninge stewardship over the taxpayer dollar. the bill provides our war fighters, veterans and their families with the care and support that they need, deserve and have earned. it continues to advance the substantial reforms introduced in last year's ndaa aimed at preventing sexual assault in the military and it takes several steps aimed at improving the military's suicide prevention programs. the bill would increase troop pay while rejecting cuts to tricare, housing allowances and commissary benefits that would increase out of pocket expenses for military families. the legislation would provide our war fight wers the resources

and authorities they need to support an -- fighters have the and authorities they need to support an action in afghanistan. it also contains mechanism for u.s. funds, includes sound plans tied to resources and continues prickses on the transfer of detainees to the united states. i recently visited afghanistan and was encouraged by the progress of coalition forces and developments within the afghan society. nearly eight million kids are in school and a large percentage of those are girls. compared to the 700,000 that were attending school under taliban rule. we need the president to signal his commitment and remove the uncertainty that persists among the afghan people and our coalition partners which al qaeda and the taliban continue

to exploit. afghanistan cannot return to being a safe haven for al qaeda. in this era of declining resources, the committee was faced with difficult choices as we sought to preserve key capabilities and to ensure our armed forces could meet current threats and prepare for future challenges. the bill identifies savings in less critical areas that do not permanently damage the force or harm recruiting and retention. the legislation guards against achieving false short-term savings at the expense of vital long-term strategic capabilities. for example, it supports the refueling of the u.s.s. george washington, an aircraft carrier with 25 years of service life remaining and prohibits the early retirement of navy cruisers, dock landing ships and the air force u2 spy plans. these capabilities are vital to

our commanders in the pacific as well as elsewhere across the globe. it also addresses shortfalls and readiness by resourcing several unmet requirements in equipment, training and depot maintenance. and by fully funding flying our programs across the services. we must also get more defense for the dollar which is why the committee has initiated a comprehensive defense reform effort this bill begins that process with a series of provisions on institutional acquisitions, security, and strategy reforms. however, we must recognize that cost savings and reforms aloan do not compensate for the significant cuts to defense in recent years. the department of defense has seen over $1 trillion cut from its budget. this year's budget request is over $30 billion less than last year. the padding has been cut and the department is now cutting

into the bone. cutting end strength and readiness that are increasing risk to our forces and their core missions. while this bill makes tough choices, congress will be called upon to make impossible choices in years ahead. if sequestration is not addressed. for 52 straight years, the national defense authorization act has been passed and signed into law. congress has no higher responsibility than to provide for the common defense and with that in mind i look forward to passing this bill for the 53rd consecutive year, my last year as chairman and as a member of congress. serving as chairman has been the great honor of my career. i'm humbled by the many soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines whom i have met over the years. and by the sacrifices that they and their families make to keep

america safe. i'm thankful for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and very appreciative of our staff. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from california reserves his time. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. first of all, i want to join the chairman in thanking him for the working relationship that he and i have enjoyed now through four years and four national defense authorizing acts. it is one of the main principles of our committee, that it is bipartisan. that we work together and we produce a product every year. 52 straight years, national defents authorizing act. that doesn't -- defense authorizing act. that doesn't happen unless the chair of the committee takes the responsibility very seriously to make sure that our committee remains bipartisan. we've got a whole series of chairmen during my tenure that have done that and mr. mckeon has followed that tradition just as well as his predecessors.

he's worked very closely with us. we do not always agree but we work closely together, understanding that at the end of the day we have to produce a bill. so i thank him for that. recognize that this will be his last ndaa. in fact, this is the buck mckeon national defense authorizing act. as always, i also want to thank the staff. can't thank them enough for the work they do. the hours they put in. they spent yesterday going through 320 amendments. their expertise that they bring to this process is invaluable and someday i hope that the house administration committee recognizes that. and actually gives us the amount of money we need to keep them. just a little side note on a different piece of legislation. this is by and large a good bill with one significant problem which i'll get to in a minute. first of all, we are still at war in afghanistan as the chairman notes. i would say that i think at this point our continuing

commitment to afghanistan is up to the afghan people and most importantly up to the next afghan president. we need the bilateral security agreement to be signed. it's been agreed to, president karzai has refused to sign it, hopefully the next president will. but we have troops in harm's way and this bill prioritizes protecting them. nothing is more important than what we do here today. i'm also pleased that this bill prioritizes special operations command and cyberwarfare, recognizing as we heard on the previous piece of legislation about boko haram that the main threat that we face going forward is from terrorism and a similar ethic threats. i think we reflect that in this bill. i think that is incredibly important. however, we do have a budget problem. put simply, we have a lot less money now than we thought we were going to have. so that means that three years ago, when the pentagon was planning what they were going to spend over the course of a decade, they had a much larger number than they have now. a whole bunch of reasons why that number has gotten smaller,

but it has. it will get even smaller if eight more years of sequestration come to pass. the administration put out a plan three years ago, when they looked out 10 years and said, what should our strategy be? then they looked out 10 years and said, what are the likely resources? and when they put that plan out they said, we know we're going to have to live with roughly $500 billion less than we thought we were, we can do it, here's the strategy, here's the plan that fits that. since then, the budget has been shredded. it's been cut by even more. the plan they put forward now recognizes the fact that it doesn't fund what they would like to fund because congress passed a budget that cuts the defense department by more than they would like. in fact, the administration asked for an additional $28 billion this year, an additional $150 billion over five, in order to fully fund that. that apparently is not forthcoming. so what they did is they put forward a series of proposals to try as best as they could to save money, to save money in a

way that protects our force and they did it in a number of different areas. they proposed about $2 billion in savings over five years to various personnel accounts, they got rid of the a-10, they got rid of the u-2. they proposed laying up 14 ships. those were the main proposals up. and i'm sorry i forgot, and they proposed shifting air assets in the guard and reserve to save $12 billion over five years. those were the proposals they put on the table. the problem with this bill is that it rejects every single one of those proposals. and how do we make the money work on that? primarily by creating -- creative accounting on the guard -- accounting. on the guard and reserve, for instance, we say no changes can be made in 2015. well, they weren't planning on making changes in 2015 that were going to cause money but if this stops them from doing it going forward, they're put into a deep hole. on the 14 ships that they wanted to lay-up, we raid the modernization account to pay for keeping those 14 ships

operational. so we get creative about it, but next year the reckoning will come. frankly sequestration or no sequestration. if sequestration happens it's going to be really bad. but even if it doesn't we still will not have addressed the long-term needs of our budget. i'll have a couple of amendments, one on braque, one on those 14 ships that will give us an opportunity to i think make a better choice because the other way that we're able to preserve those programs is that we cut, from the president's budget, about $1. billion in readiness -- $1.8 billion in readiness. $1.6 billion is clear. he other was to save the a-10. basically we take $1.8 billion out of readiness which puts us down the path to a hollow force that none of us want. as we go forward to conference, we're going to need to make some of those tougher choices. but i do thank the chairman for his work, for what is contained in this bill. i look forward to debating the

amendments and look forward to, knock on wood, passing for the 53rd straight year a national defense authorizing act which is our primarily responsibility and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from washington reserves. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague, the vice chairman of the armed services committee, and the chairman of the intelligence emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee, the gentleman from texas, mr. fortenberry. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fortenberry: i thank the chairman for yielding and, had mr. speaker, i want to -- mr. chairman, i want to start by commending the leadership of chairman mckeon and ranking member smith and getting this bill to the floor in such a timely way. especially after the president's budget was quite late. but also in getting this bill here on a unanimous vote of the committee. none of us agree with every provision that's in this bill, but members of the committee were able to put aside personal preferences on individual issues to support a bill that benefits the nation overall.

and i hope that the house will do likewise. and i think it is important to emphasize that it has been a bipartisan effort with the chairman and the ranking member, also with the chairman of the subcommittees and the ranking member of the subcommittees working together, that has got us to this place. i think it is especially important that -- appropriate for this bill to be named for chairman mckeon. not only as a recognition for his leadership in this bill, but for his leadership of the committee throughout his tenure in some very challenging circumstances. some of those challenges have included our own budget issues, as was just addressed by the ranking member, as well as a myriad of threats around the world. and so this measure that does so much for our country's security will always be associated with the many contributions of chairman mckeon to our country's security. mr. chairman, this bill needs -- meets the budget targets of the house-passed budget

resolution and also the ryan-murray budget agreement. i agree with the ranking member, it does not solve our budget issues in the future, we still have to grapple with those. but this year it meets those requirements and it does so making some difficult choices. in addition, among the many provisions of this bill, are those that start to make a modest start on some defense reforms that are being worked on by both the house and the senate in coordination with the pentagon and with private industry. i think everyone recognizes that we have to find a way to get more defense out of the money we spend and there are some small but important steps to enable us to make greater progress in that area in the future, both by reducing overhead and by improving the way we acquire goods and services. this bill is also county county -- also active in all areas of responsibility for the subcommittee on intelligence and emerging threats and capabilities, including military cyber, science and technology, information

technology, defense intelligence, special operations, counterterrorism and irregular warfare and i agree with the ranking member on the importance especially of cyber and special operations. but in addition we've coordinated with other subcommittees on a number of provisions that touch on the areas i mentioned. and in fact i think the work among the subcommittees hand been closer than i've ever seen -- has been closer than i've ever seen it. in that regard i want to express my appreciation for my partner, mr. langevin, the gentleman from rhode island, for all of his insights and cooperative spirit, that make our work together so beneficial and rewarding. like the chairman, i appreciate all the work of the staff, of the subcommittee, and the full committee, and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, the ranking member of the emerging threats and capabilities and intelligence subcommittee, mr. langevin. the chair: the gentleman is recognized.

without objection. mr. langevin: i thank the gentleman for yielding and, mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 4435, the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2015. and i would like to begin by thanking chairman mckeon for his leadership of the committee and for all his years of dedication to national security and it's appropriate this act is named after him. i also want to thank and recognize the ranking member, adam smith, for his leadership on the committee as well. he deeply cares about national security and i appreciate the work that he has done on this mark. i also want to thank chairman -- congressman mack fortenberry. it has been a privilege working

with him. and as the ranking member of the ietc subcommittee, i do appreciate his bipartisan work and i'm pleased with the bill that we have produced this year. mr. speaker, the ietc portion of the bill authorizes approximately $7.6 billion for u.s. special operations command, authorizes necessary special operations forces to combat terrorism, are extended in the bill which also provides an additional $20 million for the combating terrorism technology support offices that gives our special operations forces the cutting-edge capabilities and technologies that they need. the ietc subcommittee also made investments in emerging technologies like electric weapons and i want to commend especially the navy's efforts to move technologies like rail guns in particular out of the labs and into the field. getting this game-changing technology into the hands of the nation's sailors and ultimately all of our war fighters will ultimately serve to realize the promise of

research investment. in addition to our focus on research and development efforts, we also must put investment into the education program, so there is a qualified science, technology and engineering and mathematics or stem talent pool to benefit the d.o.d. i'm particularly pleased that the bill provided a total of $55.5 million for the national defense education program. additionally, the ietc portion of the bill includes provisions to strengthen oversight of the intelligence community while ensuring combatant commander intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance requirements are met. last but certainly not least, the bill also supports cyberoperations -- mr. smith: i yield the gentleman an additional minute. don't be shy. you can let us know. we have some extra time. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. langevin: i thank the running back ranking member. hopefully i -- the ranking member. hopefully i won't use all of that.

the bill also supports cyberoperations at u.s. cybercommand while reducing redundant programs and increasing transparency and oversight. as recent revelations of cyber insdebs dents demonstrate, a trained and ready cybersforse have never been more integral to our national security. these are just but a few of the highlights in the bill, in trt of time i'll end there. we do want to again thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership. all the members of the armed services committee, as well as the staff of the committee for all the work they have put into this mark and i urge my colleagues to support the bill and i thank the ranking member. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. mckeon: i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague, member of the armed services committee, the gentleman from virginia, mr. forbes. the chair: the gentleman is ecognized. mr. forbes: i rise in support of

mckeon authorization act. i believe this bill provides the right authorities within the budget limits provided. i continue to be impressed by chairman mckeon's commitment and his zeal to complete the 54th annual national defense authorization act. his inspirational determination and effort to provide for our national security will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark for our future. i want to recognize my friend and ranking member of the subcommittee on the occasion of his retirement from the house of representatives. mike mcintyre has been a resolute supporter of the mep and women in uniform. after providing this service he will be sorely missed. as for the national defense authorization act of fiscal year 2015, i continue to be concerned about the trajectory of our national defense and believe our

national security will be irrep rahably harmed if we continue on our current path. history is full of nation states underestimated the dangers. while we support these men and women in words i feel that the real damage to our service members is being caused by the the flect of this administration and at times congress in terms of funding and effort. we must not stand idly by and watch the continued dismantling of the world's finest military. fars the subcommittee markup, i'm pleased we were successful in reversing the administration recommendation to eliminate an aircraft carrier by restoring $796 million for the long lead item procurement and detailed planning for the overthifle u.s.s. washington. we are taking the right steps to

retain strategic options for presidents. we also funded two virginia class sub marines and two ships. i want to highlight our incremental funding of the san antonio class of amphibious ship this will bring important support to our united states marine corps as we continue our strategic rebalance. i remain pleased with the direction of our projection sporses -- forces this bill provides strategic air force investments in terms of procuring c-130 j transfer variant, six tankers and significant research and development investors in the long range strike bomber. while we have a long way to go to reverse negative trends, i think this bill does a good job supporting our forces within the budget constrains -- constraints provided. we need to vigorously seek another path in the funding trajectory. i think this bill is another positive step on a long road to adequately support our national security and i would urge my

colleagues to support the howard p. buck mckeon national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2015. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from california, the chairwoman of -- sorry, the ranking member of the tack air and land forces subcommittee, ms. sanchez. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. sanchez: thank you, mr. chairman. i thank the ranking member and my colleagues from california, chairman mckeon in particular for all the work and guidance that he has given us as he leaves the congress at the end of this year. you in better set way bus thank you for the work you've done. i want to thank the chairman of the tactical air and land forces subcommittee, chairman mike turner for his leadership this

year. we worked in a bipartisan manner. we've had three critical goals in mind as we've done this, supporting our troops with the equipment they need, cutting wasteful spending and investing in our future. the subcommittee's portion of supports all of the high priority acquisition programs in the president's budget. billion provides $8.3 for the joint strike fighter and $3.8 billion for army aviation $1.4 billion for the ospreys and $99 million for the u.s. marine corps ground equipment. however, our subcommittee didn't just rubber stamp everything. we actually took a very careful look, took a look at what programs were working which ones were slow, what wasn't getting done and we were table identify more than $600 million in funding that we put in other

places in the bill. they were used to increase funding in numerous places where an effort to provide additional equipment for our military and preserve critical production capabilities for the future were there. specifically, the bill provides an additional $450 million for the ea-18g growler aircraft for the navy, $340 additional million in additional funds for the navy, $250 million for the national guard and reserve equipment account and numerous other investments. finally the chairman's mark includes important oversight legislation on numerous major d.o.d. programs to ensure that the congress has the information it needs. this is a good government bill, please vote for it. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields. the gentleman -- the chair: the gentlelady yields. the gentleman from california is recognized.

pll mckeon: i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague the gentleman from south carolina, mr. wilson. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. wilson: thank you, speaker, and thank you chairman mckeon for your leadership and congratulations on the deserved naming in your honor of the national defense authorization act. the military personnel provisions of h. -- of h.r. 4435 an open oduct of bipartisan process. h. reform 4435 provides our war fighters, veterans and military families the care and support they need, deserve and have earned. specifically this year's proposal continues to refine the department of defense sexual assault and response program while at the same time actively monitoring the department's implementation of the significant reforms enacted by congress in the past two years. in particular the mark requires performance evaluations for commanding officers to include

assessment os they have command climate pertaining to sexual assault. in addition, the mark would require the secretary of defense to conduct a review utilizing the services of an independent organization experienced in groastry retailage sthoifs defense commissary system and reverse some of the reductions to the commissary system. this also would express the sense of congress that the united states has a response to believe the continue to search for a miss -- for missing or captured members of the armed forces, leave nothing one behind. additionally this would standardize the collection, reporting and assess -- and assessment of suicide data involving member os they have armed services and their families. i have serious reservations about the end strength and force structure reduction of our military. america remains at war and will

continue a global conflict with murderous illegal enemy combatants. we must not forget the attacks of september 11, 2001, and september 11, 2012 in the global war on terrorism. this report does not incrude the administration for military retirees to pay more for health care. congressest tablied the modernization commission and we need to be informed of their analysis before proceeding with changes impacting military families. i want to thank ranking member davis and her staff for their input in this process. we were joined by active, informed, and dedicated subcommittee members supported by a professional staff. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation. the chair: the gentleman from south carolina yields. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: thank you, mr. chairman. yield two minutes to the

gentleman from north carolina, many mc-- mr. mcintyrement the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcintyre: the sea power and projection forces pors -- portion of this bill continues the subcommittee's tradition of strong, bipartisan support for our men and women in uniform. i want to thank chairman forbes for working together in an open and bipartisan manner. s that good bill. this is an extremely challenging time, we know, for the department of defense given the fiscal constraints it's being required to operate under. with this bill the armed services committee has attempted to strike the difficult balance of providing for the current force while also looking forward to the requirements of the future force. i'm pleased in particular this bill includes provisions that restore funding for the refueling and complex overhaul of the u.s.s. george washington, the first step needed to ensure we maintain the requirement of 11 aircraft carriers this bill also authorizes two virginia class submarines and an additional 96 tomahawk missiles. creates a national sea base

deterrence fund designed to provide the navy with flexibility when it begins construction of the ohio class replacement submarine. with this being my last defense bill before retiring at the end of this term, i want to thank my good friend randy forbes for his leadership as chairman of the subcommittee and his friendship through the years. i want to thank my friend and classmate adam smith and his great leadership and our gracious chairman, buck mckeon and the leadership he's given our committee overall and for his friendship as well and wish him well in his retirement. i'm glad these gentlemen i have named and those i served with on the subcommittee and full committee have shared the passion for making sure we do right by our men and women in uniform. with that, mr. speaker, i support the passage of this defense bill, i urge other members in congress to do the same and pray god's blessings be upon all those who serve and will benefit from this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the -- the chair: the gentleman yields.

the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague, member of the armed service committees, chairman of the tactical air and land forces subcommittee, the gentleman from ohio, mr. turner. the chair: the gentleman from ohio is recognized. mr. turner: thank you. i rise in strong support of h.r. 4435, the national defense authorization act of fiscal year 2015. i want to begin by thanking chairman mckeon and ranking member smith for their work in this committee being a bipartisan effort. i want to thank chairman mckeon, this will be his last bill, not only has he been a leader for our committee and congress, but he's ban tremendous mentor for so many of us in congress his legacy will leave a lasting impact not only in legislation affecting the department of defense, our national security and men and women in uniform but the members of congress who serb and certainly as we look to the future of the armed service committees, his legacy will be in his mentoring of the other members of the committee.

i serve as chairman of the tactical air and land forces subcommittee as well as co-chair of the sexual assault prevention caucus. i want to thank the subcommittee's ranking member, loretta sap czyz for her support in completing the markup of this bill the committee's focus has been support of the men and women of the armed forces and their families, provide them the equipment they need and the support they deserve. this bill helps maintain defense superiority and sustains the industrial base and main tan -- maintains effective support for our military. it contains funding for abrams tanks, tactical wheeled vehicles, body armor and unmanned aerial systems. it strikes the appropriate balance between equiping the military while providing aagressive oversight to ensure appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. the bill again this year takes a significant step in combating the issue of sexual assault in the military by incorporating the fair military act of 2014 a

bipartisan bill first introduced by my -- by myself and representative son gas. i would like to thank representative tsongas and representative davis, ranking member on the personnel subcommittee for their leadership on this issue and again i want to thank chairman mckeon and repive smith for their leadership that's allowed a bipartisan solution on sexual assault. under this bill, congress limits the use of the g good soldier defense which allows a defendant to cite unrelated, subjective factors such as military record and requires that commanders be assessed on their ability to create a climate where a victim can report a crime without fear of retaliation and ensures that changes in provisions regarding military assault from the f.y. 2014 defense bill applies to military service academies. and it provides the child custody protections that our men and women in uniform deserve. no longer will our men and women

in uniform face deployment worrying whether or not they have custody of their children when they return. i urge support of h.r. 4435. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from california, mrs. davis, ranking member of the military personnel subcommittee. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. davis: i thank you. to buck mckeon continues the committee focus on sexual assault and includes such provisions requiring the judicial panel to assess the use of mental health records in preliminary hearings and compare this with the civilian use. clarifying that the service academies, includeing the coast guard academy are required under the same requirements. review of the separation records

of service members who made unrestricted reports in determining whether such separation was in retaliation for filing said report. requiring performance appraiseals of a commanding officer to include whether a climate has been established in which allegations of sexual assault. and secretary of defense to modify rule 404 of the rules of evidence to clarify that general military character of an accused is not admissible except in accusedere the military of the offense is being charged. oversight of sexual assault remains a priority and we will continue to identify gaps that need to be addressed and to enable the department of defense to reduce these numbers. we all want to get to the same place, safe working conditions

nd harassment-free, sexual -assault-free environment for all. this bill gives us the opportunity to create a military or change can and must occur. and on other personnel matters, our bill does not include the proposed changes to housing allowances requested by the department of defense. as a result of that, department 1.5 need to address the $ billion savings it has taken in its 2015 budget. in addition the cola reduction that was -- mr. smith: i will yield the gentlelady 30 seconds. mrs. davis: the cola agreement left the department with an additional hole of $500 million and these savings will need to

be paid for. we must begin that discussion and i hope that the military compensation and modern ayesation commission will be the start of that. we know these are difficult times and difficult decisions need to be made to protect and sustain our all-volunteer force. it has been stated, ignoring these issues will leave the department to take significant -- cuts to our end strength and readiness. despite these concerns, this bill deserves passage. the chair: the gentlelady yields. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague, chairman of the strategic forces subcommittee, the gentleman from alabama, mr. rogers. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. rogers: i rise today in support of the national defense authorization act of 2015. this is an important annual bill

not just because as you heard it is the 53rd in the row but what's in the bill that our men a women in uniform that count. we support the israeli cooperative programs while continuing to make progress on u.s.-based co-production to strengthen our ally israel. we include resources for our system which is our only homeland missile defense capability. and nuclear weapons capability including programs that the president will support to ratify new start treaty which are $2 billion short of what was promised with several key programs, years behind in schedule. we initiated in this bill, the development of a competitively sourced next generation rocket engine. we won't let russia hold our programs hostage.

it is past time that we re-invigorate our rocket motor industrial base. we are able to begin a pilot program for a new ack which situation approach for procurement of satellite communication services and we begin the same process to deal with the scores of object sole et nonnuclear facilities. in taking a look at the amendments that were filed with the rules committee, it is clear to me that plenty of our colleagues are not happy with the tough choices made p by the two-year budget deal reached last year and i join them. as we debate these amendments over the next couple of days, i think members will see that those of us on the armed services committee have been warning for about a year. there are no more easy choices. we are just not counting into the muscle or bone but amputating vital limbs.

i have been warning every member of this body if you think the choices that we made were tough this year, wait until next year when sequestration returns. i wish to thank the ranking member, the gentleman and my friend from tennessee for his outstanding leadership on this subcommittee and i wish to thank chairman mckeon for what he has done for the men and women of our armed services,. i know if he had -- if he had to do it again, he would. i thank you for your service and look forward to working with you to seeing that the national defensization is signed into law this year. the chair: the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from massachusetts. strong strong i want to strong strong

>> i thank chairman mckeon for his decades of service in the house and leading the armed services committee. strong strong i thank ranking member smith for his leap to address the tough issues that address the military. this takes necessary steps towards eliminating sexual assault. i appreciate the efforts of congressman wilson and congresswoman davis to include the fair military act into this bill and i would like to thank y co-change and co-author, congressman mike turner. the fiscal year ndaa make sure service members are held to the highest standard and no more will the so-called quote good soldier, unquote prevent justice from prevailing. this makes strides towards addressing the epidemic of suicides surrounding our

military and requires the department of defense to establish a system to track all suicides and attempted suicides for active duty and reserves and family members so we can better understand the full scope of this tragedy. i would like to highlight the important work that this bill does with regard to research and development. in this era of increasing enemies and constrained budgets, the d.o.d. must deliver these capabilities to the field. key provisions will enhance the d.o.d.'s ability to recruit and retain the nation's best talent, talent needed to develop the resources that are key to keeping service members safe and successful around the globe. i was encouraged that this bill creates opportunities for investment in critical r&d programs.

this center finds ways to make sure our service members are fed and fed well in some of the world's most unforgiving climate. i thank the committee staff who worked closely with our staff to include these important provisions in the bill and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield three minutes and the chairman of the readiness subcommittee, the gentleman from virginia, mr. whitman. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. whitfield: thank you so much for your -- wyatt wyatt i rise in support of the authorization act which provides funding for ongoing operations in afghanistan and for our men and women on the front lines where they continue to fight and die each day. mr. wittman: most of the decisions we make impact them first and foremost. it's our constitutional

responsibility and should be our highest priority to ensure they have the training and equipment they need to come home safely. we must be committed to ensuring that our force is ready to respond. this bill attempts to limit operational risk while also balancing present and future readiness requirements with a damaging top line. when we legislate to an arbitrary budget number rather than to a national security strategy, we make ill-advised choices that impact our capability to respond to global threats such as the crisis in ukraine and russia and increasingly aggressive china. we call up our forces to respond at this point in time. our military options would be limited. that is why i oppose brac at this time. we don't have the money to fund it and higher priorities that

impact the safety of our troops and every effort and every dollar must be focus odd them. this must funding the marine corps ground forces, which are needed to secure embassies and military installations across the globe, a requirement made clear after the attack in benghazi, training and deepo maintenance, ensuring fleet training and increasing funding to retain its fleet asset. they don't alleviate my concerns about readiness shortfalls or risks to our war fighters. we asked a lot of our men and women who serve we must not ask them to go into a fight without the training and equipment. when i took my oath of office, i swore i would abide by the principles to ensure national

robust defense. this bill reflects this commitment we cannot lose sight of the fact that f.y. 2016 is looming and sequestration is the law of the land. the choices we have been forced to make will only exacerbate our readiness level. -- the national security requirements as outlined in the defense strategy far exceed the budget. i remain concerned about the readiness of our force, not just the men and women fighting in afghanistan but those stationed around the globe. we must ensure they are properly trained, equipped and prepared to meet the challenges on the horizon with overwhelming strength and superiority. time to fit see questions trainings and start budgeting to meet our defense strategy and not an arbitrary budget number. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from virginia yields. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: i yield two minutes

to the gentleman from california, a member of the committee, mr. garamendi. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. garamendi: thank you, mr. chairman. congratulations to the chair of the committee and ranking member for putting together a unanimous bipartisan bill. there is much to say in this bill that is good and i would like to say two things. i.s.r. capabilities of the military are maintained in this bill. the u-2 will continue to operate and provide critical intelligence to our military, operating now in africa, chasing after boko haram. this bill provides us with the continued ability to get to where we need to go. the k.c.-10 will remain in the force for the foreseeable future ntil it is replaced by the kc-46's. you need to be able to get there

and this bill provides for that. however, there are issues in this bill that we need to spend some time. 20 years since we have taken a ard look at the nuclear triad, extraordinarily dangerous part. nuclear weapons here and the triad bombers, i.c.b.m.'s and the submarines. how do they fit, how much do we need, how much do we need to spend upon them. the rebuilding of our nuclear weapons is a 20-30 years process. too much, enough, maybe? too much, probably. we also have to dispose of some 43 tons of unnecessary plutonium . how is that going to be done at the savannah facility. we ought to take a new look at that and there will be

amendments that will be proposed. and finally, the big elephant in the room. talking about afghanistan. 74 billion in this bill, not debated, not discussed. we must do that. it is our obligation as members of the house of representatives and representatives of the people of the united states to talk about what we are going to do in iran -- excuse me, in afghanistan. and that needs to be done. with that, i yield back my time. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield three minutes to my friend and colleague, member of the armed services committee, the gentleman from nevada, dr. heck. the chair: the gentleman from evada is recognized. mr. heck: i rise to thank the chairman for his years to have service to this nation, this body and his mentorship. and also to rise in support of

h.r. 4435. it's the result of an open process that reflects the bipartisan nature of the house armed services committee and the bipartisan support of our military men and women. though fiscal realities and constrained resources have forced taos make difficult tradeoffs, the committee maintained its commitment to those serving in uniform as well as to veterans and their families. in last year's ndaa, congress established the military compensation commission to evaluate and analyze reforms to pay in benefits this report, expected to be delivered in 2015, will inform the debate on the future of military and retiree compensation. as such i'm pleased the bill rejects the request to cut the pay and benefits of our troops which would have included significant reforms to tricare and cuts to housing and commissary benefits. any attempts to change pay and benefits before congress receives the report are premature and ill advisedism

applaud the committee for rejecting these proposals and remaining steadfast in support of service members, veterans and their families. h.r. 4435 also acknowledges the ork that the armed service committee has completed over the last year to address the deficient says made evident by the tragedy in ben gaw stheevepl department of defense has determined that being prepared for an uncertain, vol tir security environment, especially at remote diplomatic outposts is the new normal that confronts our nation this bill expresses concern that we don't have sufficient forces which this new normal requires. as such this legislation requires a sec -- requires the secretary of defense in consultation with the secretary of state and joint chiefs of staff, to submit a report on how it's changed the force posture and force structure requirements. that will ensure they receive

the support to protect posts in outlying areas. it's an important bill that strikes the appropriate balance between priorities in a fiscally strained environment. i urge my colleagues to support the howard p. "buck" mckeon national defense authorize augs act for 2015 and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. gayay go. -- mr. gal lembings go. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. gallego: i would like to thank chairman mckeon and ranking member smith for their leadership. i'm glad i've had the opportunity to work with and learn from each of them and i wish the chairman well in his future endeavors. this bill marks bipartisan agrement on national defense. not many members of congress can

say that. as a new member i'm proud to be part of that tradition. however the bill only buys us a little time. unless congress provides relief from sequestration, next year's decisions will be exponentially more difficult. yet we have to do everything, we must do everything, to be sure that our sons and daughters have what they need to be successful and safe both at home and abroad. that means training or weapons or materials or supplies or equipment or machinery, our sons and our daughters deserve the very best. texas is extremely proud of its connection to our militariened and -- military. important installations like fort bliss and laughlin air force base and joint base san antonio are important parts of our communities. we are home to many soldiers, say horse, air force and marines and both the civilian and military personnel who support

them. aye proud to support our men and women in uniform and i urge my colleagues to support this bill nd, like today, to work in a bipartisan fashion that ends sequestration tomorrow and from here on out. work in that same bipartisan fashion. may god's blessings be upon all the men and women in uniform who are impacted by this bill and with their families. mr. chairman, thank you. it was a pleasure working with you and ranking member smith as well. thank you so much and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from texas yields. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield one minute to my friend and colleague, a member of the armed service committees, the gentlelady from indiana, mrs. walorski. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. walorski: we have the strongest and best military in

the world. this bill works to ensure our military continue to have the best people, best training and best hardware. it guards against irresponsible cuts to pay and benefits, improves readiness and provides our men and women in uniform with a vital -- with the vital aircraft, ships and grown vehicles they need to fight and win in today's increasingly complex battle space. we also include several bipartisan, commonsense provisions that build on our important work last year to combat military sexual assault. we hold russia accountable for its aggression against ukraine and its treaty violations. groundwork ay the for comp reshensive -- comprehensive defense reform efforts including finding ways to stretch taxpayer dollars for defense of the nation. i urge my colleagues to support this bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlelady yields. the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: thank you, mr. chairman. i understand that you are down to your last speak her you're it?

ok. we are done as well. i'll go ahead and yield myself the balance of the time. i just want to again thank the chairman for his leadership and thank the folk who was done so much hard work in pulling this bill together and make two other points. to re-emphasize. we have heard a couple of times that this bill makes the tough choices. i can't see one at this point. we sort of dodged and bobbed an weaved. some of that i actually support. some of it made sense. one of the issues that we have to wrestle with on the committee is how do we preserb the industrial pace. when you're talking about making submarines or tanks or jet fighters if you don't keep making them, you can't say, we're going to shut it down for three years and start making them again because that work force is gone, the plants are gone. those decisions have to be made. i think at this point, on balance, in this instance, every single hard choice that the administration laid out on compensation, i know health care is difficult. i think the men and women who

serve in our military should have the best health care while they're serving and after of anyone in this country. and they will. but there is an important statistic. in 1996, your average service member paid 27% to of -- 27% of the cost of his or her health care this year it's 10%. why? because health care costs went through the ceil bug we didn't raise a single penny in cost for anyone serving in the military. is that sustainable? athals make cuts in some of the subsidiers in commissaries, subsidy srs housing. they look for places to save some money. again, no brac. the a-10 we keep. the ships we keep. i understand those decisions but that way.ilding up an and on guantanamo bay and closing it, one thing we are learning as we get fewer and fewer inmates in guantanamo, it becomes more and more expensive

to maintain what was supposed to be a temporary facility. aside from all the arguments about how the international community feels about guantanamo, arguments that president george w. bush made when he said he supported closing guantanamo is the sheer cost of maintaining that prison in such an obscure place. again, i'll offer that amendment and again we'll have a robust debate on it but one point i want to make on that amendment, we've heard people say, gosh, we can't release these people into the united states. we're not going to release them into the united states. we're going to lock them up as we currently lock up over 300 terrorists, countless mass murderers and some of the worst, most violent people this country knows. they're locked up in secure facilities. we can do the same with the dainls inmates that remain at guantanamo, keeping guantanamo open is not intimate both in terms of cost and in terms of our standing in the international community.

with that, i look forward to seeing how many of those 320 amendments the rule committees will throw at us. i look forward to a robust debate over the next couple of days or starting this evening and over the next couple of days. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: could you tell me how much time we have remaining? the chair: 2 1/2 minutes, sir. mr. mckeon: thank you, sir. i yield myself the time remaining. this has been a great portunity for an american to serve the community, to be able to come to come to this great land serve in the house of representatives, something i never contemplated growing up. something i never had thought about. but it's been a tremendous education and a tremendous opportunity a tremendous opportunity to meet some really

good people. i've heard in the polls that congress is like 13% rating that may be a little high. it may be lower than that. i know they said after -- well i heard somebody say that our rating was so low it's just basically family and staff and then after we cut the staff's health care, it probably was just down to family. fortunately, i have a large family. but i mentioned to members of the committee and those who are probably watching tonight have seen members of the committee that have talk tabt -- talked about the bill we have been working on. i hope they felt the strength of their commitment, their desire to do the things that their

constituents sent them here to do. i told members of the committee recently that if people at home if sit in on the markup, they could sit in on some of the discussions that members of the ommittee have had, i think our ratings would be much higher. these things that we grapple with aren't easy. they're not simplering yes and no answers to -- not simple yes and no answers to things we deal with. i know many of us, a couple of years ago, voted for the budget control act. which brought us sequestration. it also kept the government open because that was one of the parts of the vote. if we'd voted against it, the government would have been shut down. i think it was a bad choice that we had to make. assured that

sequestration would never happen. we found it happened and it's causing us much problem, a lot of problems with our national defense. the beauty of being able to serve on this committee is we get to serve with the men and women who really sacrifice much. the men and women and their families sacrifice much to look out for our interests both at home and abroad. i want to thank them. i want to thank all the members of the committee. i want to thank all of our staff for the tremendous work they do. five hours last night going through these amendments. they have been there constantly. they're all people of great expertise, great understanding of the issues that we face. with that, mr. chairman, i would like to ask all our colleagues closely ande debate

support this bill as we go to final passage. i yield back. the chair: all time for general debate has expired. in lieu of the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on -- services is printed in the bill, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of rules committee print 13-44 is adopted. the bill as amended should be considered as the original bill for the purpose of further amendment under the five minute rule and shall be considered as ead.

by the propenalty and opponent, shall not be subject to dand for division of the question. is now in order to consider amendment number one printed in house report 113-455. for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? mr. blumenauer: i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 1 printed in house report 113-455, offered by mr. blumenauer of oregon. . the chair: pursuant to house resolution, the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon.

mr. blumenauer: i, too, would offer my congratulations to the chair of the committee and the committee itself dealing with a very difficult situation. there are lots of pressures. they aren't faceless special interests but businesses, with unions, with the military itself, concerns for their families, the armed services that -- traditions, all of these things make for a very complicated situation. but i relate to something mr. smith said a moment ago, ranking member, talking about the really hard questions, are not really being addressed. we are sort of pushing them down the road with the administration and the pentagon offered them forward. we have yet to come to grips of costs for our nuclear capacity

over the next 10 years. well, i'm offering tonight an easy opportunity to deal with something that can make a big difference, to support thousands of brave men and women, who make up the air national guard, who have proven themselves especially over the last 13 years answering the call of duty in iraq and afghanistan in addition to protecting the wavering.ithout but i want to focus on one particular area in the air guard and reserves capacity to be able to -- to be able to meet their challenges. my amendment would call to question whether the house is ready to make a modest change in other funding levels to support the air guard. the amendment would authorize the secretary of air force to secure 10 active electronic

for the dar upgrades air guard's fleet. we have people around the country who are relying upon a variation of the oldest radars, which are late 1970's technology at went out of production in 1986. it limits their capacity to meet even the most basic of threats and has serious maintenance, not just capacity, but maintainance and operational problems. i would like to ask unanimous consent to enter this letter of support from the national guard association of the united states which is why they so strongly support this. chirment it will be considered under general leave. mr. blumenauer: an upgrade would provide significant technological advantage for

worldwide defense and operation, and this is very important, it's actually going to save money over the next 10 years. it's much easier and cheaper than to maintain the current outmoded radars. small upfront investments makes our f-15 fighter pilots safer and more effective, saves money in the long run. looking for offsets, it's obviously difficult to do, but what we have done is identify modest reductions in areas that are already far in excess of what the president has requested and in some cases, they are above an additional increment above that that has been offered by the committee in its proposal . i would hope that the house would approve this modest reduction in the seven accounts. it's not going to undercut our

nuclear deterrent but will make a huge difference for the men and women who serve in the air national guard and will save money. and i reserve. the chair: the gentleman reserves. for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama rise? >> claim time in opposition. >> i yield myself two minutes. this amendment is part of a long-running effort. disarma of unilateral meant try each year to cut. we see it in the appropriations bills and stand-alone bills. in february, the gentleman from oregon introduced h.r. 4107, the rein act and it would devastate by reducing i.c.b.m.'s and develop the delay of systems. cutting the number of ballistic

submarine missiles. d prohibiting the f-3 from being nuclear capable terminating several construction projects. the amendment we are considering today is part of the broader effort that you will see reflect nd that bill. it is part of the disarm america agenda that is dangerous to the u.s. nuclear security and our international stability. let's call this amendment what it is, a sly attempt to underattempt our nuclear deterrent by pitting us against the air national guard. it is a unilateral diss arma meant and i stand in opposition. over the last three years, the department of energy's nuclear weapons program is $2 billion short of the funding administration committed in 2010. the administration committed to this funding to win ratification

of the new start treaty. now it's a treaty, unwilling to request the money. we must hold the administration to its commitment, provide the money and oppose this amendment. i urge my colleagues to vote know no and i reserve. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. you have one minute remaining. mr. blumenauer: i reserve. mr. rogers: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio. mr. turner: i join chairman rogers to oppose this amendment. as we know this is one of the annual reoccurring representative blumenauer's reduction of nuclear efforts. and i would support reducing spending on nuclear weapons if we were talking about russia their funding on nuclear weapons which we know this isn't going to do this is an unfortunate

exercise of reducings unilateral exercise, which is a dangerous thing to do as mr. putin is continuing his efforts to escalate conflicts throughout the world and to increase his overall nuclear weapons capability. the bill already provides the $117-.5 quest level of million to purchase radars, 15 of which will go to the air guard and it is a prudent investment but the bill also funds the national guard and reserve equipment account which if the air guard needed these rad arizona they could buy them. so why would this be damaging? the d.o.d. nuclear weapons activities are $ billion short of their 2010 commitment and deferred maintenance across the d.o.d., stuff that we need to be

fixing that we are not fixing, has a backlog of $3.5 billion and this would take $39 million to satisfy that backlog. this should be seen what it is, another effort to reduce the nuclear deterrence of the united states. there would be a better focus if it was focused on russia and does nothing to improve the overall capability of our air national guard. they have all the resources they would need. and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: it's laughable to say that our air national guard have all the resources they need, it's not true. and i have entered argument to the contrary from the people who are administering it. i only have one minute. i would not like to be interrupted. i'm happy to debate our rein legislation, which would be $100

billion. we have far more than we need and can afford. what i'm talking about is $100 million for items that are specified that are modest reductions that aren't going to cripple us and will give the air national guard a modern updated radar system that makes them safer and more efficient. this is an example of the tradeoffs sadly that are not part of this bill that we do need to make. sooner or later the day of reckoning will come. in the meantime, this is a small gesture to help approve the capacity of the air national guard and i urge its adoption. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from alabama. mr. rogers: i would like to yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from ohio to respond. mr. turner: my comment is they have all the information. resources they need to make a decision to purchase these rad

radars. this bill is underfunded and your amendment would reduce our nuclear weapons capability. and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from alabama. mr. rogers: i yield to the gentleman from texas. mr. thornberry: mr. chairman, the centerpiece of our national security is our nuclear deterrent and we have neglected it for years, both in the administration and congress and we have a lot of catching up to do. as the gentleman from ohio said the administration itself says we have $3.5 billion backlog, 30% of the facilities we are using were built during the manhattan project. we are fortunate we have some engineers and other highly skilled workers who are willing to work in those conditions, but they aren't going to be wig willing to work in it forever. this bill doesn't solve that

problem by any stretch of the imagination but this $39 billion helps it from getting too much worse. it takes a step in the right direction. these nuclear weapons are aging machines, just like the facilities are aging machines, and they require care and trading out parts, if the people who have to work around them are going to be safe. that's why it's a mistake to take away from this central element of our security. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from oregon. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the noes have it. the amendment is not agreed to. mr. blumenauer: mr. chairman, i would like to request the yeas and nays. the chair: the gentleman requests a recorded vote? mr. blumenauer: yes. the chair: pursuant to clause 6, rule 18, further proceedings on

the amendment offered by the gentleman from oregon will be postponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 2 printed in house report 113-455. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise?

the chair: it is now in order to consider amendment number 2 455.ted in house report 113- for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. gohmert: to address the . use on amendment the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 2 printed in house report 113-455, offered by mr. gohmert of texas. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 585, the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. gohmert: at this time, i would like to yield to the chairman of the committee for a

colloquy with unanimous consent to do so. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mckeon: thank you, mr. chairman. and i want to thank the gentleman. we just had a little discussion. the amendment that he plans on presenting tonight is something that we have not in the committee been able to hold hearings on and to really discuss fully in the committee. it didn't come up at the full committee or the subcommittee level. but he has an issue that is very important to him, it's very important to his state, it's very important to many people around this nation. . what i told him is this is a continuation of a process we started here in january with hearings work subcommittee hearings, subcommittee markups, full committee markup but we're not even halfway through the process yet. after we pass our bill on the

floor, the senate is marking their bill up this week and at some point they'll mark it on the floor and then there'll be a conference. so there's a lot of things to do between now and the end. and what he would like -- well, what i should do -- mr. gohmert: my concern had been when we had a second shooting without the administration having done anything after the first fort hood shooting and then we have a second fort hood shooting 4 1/2 years later, it made no sense not to do something. my own feeling was we should just allow all of our military members who may be carrying automatic weapons, they may be authorized to shoot r.p.g.'s, drop bombs, all kinds of weaponry in a foreign theater, why shouldn't they be table carry weapons on military installations here in the united

states? so my first amendment was simply to just allow every military member to carry, and then the issue came open or concealed. there are some commanders that have an issue both ways. in talking to other commanders, some commanders have said, there are some people overseas we don't let carry weapons and we know from experience some have returned as -- where you have someone suffering potentially from ptsd that needs to be checked out. commanders have encouraged that gee if that's going to happen, ought to be able to check them out and everybody knows, nobody stands stronger for second amendment rights than me but when you're in the military you do give up certain rights, including free speech and freedom of assembly, and so it shouldn't inappropriate to have someone go through an extra check before they were allowed to carry and then in bowing

further to current commanders, former commanders, like jerry boykin, former delta force, thought, well, gee, we can give them a choice. either have duty roster where people walk around with weapons and that would discourage further shooting, because clearly, as the article by arthur burg says in the "wall street journal," these people want to conclude it themselves if they're afraid someone will shoot them before they conclude it, that would not be -- they wouldn't be going through it. those are all things that motivated my amendment being filed and the chairman here tells me that this is an issue that they would like to push in conference with the senate bill that will be brought through and since there is an ongoing concern about what would be the best way to do this as i've

experienced with commanders i've talked to, i have been encouraged, and not in a bad way, that this would be a way that we could do it. i would be consulted on what was being done in conference and that it would be brought up there and as a result, based on assurances of my friend the chairman, i would ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment at this time. >> i reserve the right to object, i want to talk for a moment or two if i may. the chair: the gentleman from washington. mr. smith: i hear all that i'm happy to have this withdrawn, i think this is a bad idea, i've talked to a lot of people in the military who are deeply concerned about the notion of allowing people to be armed on base at all times, the command structure issues that you mentioned, the rights that are given up, we would strongly

oppose, i just want to make sure for the record, a colloquy doesn't put something in conference. ok. i don't know what the senate is going to do. there's nothing in our bill on this. if there's nothing in the senate bill it ain't in conference. so you want to withdraw it, keep working on the senate that's fine, i want to make sure that we don't, have some record here that thinks that this colloquy make this is a conference issue. the chair: does the gentleman from washington withdraw his reservation? mr. smith: i ask a point of parliamentary inquiry. a colloquy does not put an issue in a position to be in conference, does it? it has to be in either the house or nat bill. the chair: matter or debate. mr. smith: if the purpose is to withdraw the amendment, i will withdraw my objection and grant unanimous consent to have it withdrawn. the chair: the amendment is

ithdrawn, without objection. it is now in order to consider amendment number three printed in house report 113-455. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? ms. sanchez: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 3 printed in house report 113-455 offered by ms. loretta sanchez of california. ms. sanchez: i yield myself -- the chair: pursuant to house resolution 585, the gentlewoman from california, ms. sanchez, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california. ms. sanchez: i would like to yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. chairman,, every day the united states faces an extremely

uveraget and dangerous threat and this threat goes beyond the traditional dangers of states possesses nuclear weapons. what i am talking about right now is the very real possibility of these dangerous materials landing in the hands of terrorist organizations. because of this threat, i know there's no one in this chamber who will deny the importance of nonproliferation programs and how effective they are in combating one of the greatest threats the united states -- to united states security. for example, just imagine if ukraine still had its nuclear materials today. now imagine the disaster we would be -- we would be in as the administration endeavored to accelerate the removal of nuclear materials from ukraine but the global threat reduction initiative, an incredibly important nonproliferation program, could not adequately respond because they required

additional funds but the department of defense could not transfer those necessary funds. this is exactly the type of situation we are trying to avoid by passing my amendment. fortunately, the united states removed over 235 kilograms of highly enriched uranium over two years from the two remaining sites -- sights in -- sites in ukraine from 2012. this is enough to develop more than nine nuclear weapons. we do not have the ability to predict the future, especially with challenges and -- what channels and threats we will face. this is why we need the ability to be flexible. this is essential. and that's exactly what my amendment provides. the department of defense has been transfer approximately $1 billion per year to nnsa weapons programs and over the next five years, d.o.d. will be providing around $1.5 billion annually for

n.s.a. weapons enable reactor programs. what the sanchez amendment would do is to allow the department of defense to have the option, the option of transferring funds to nonproliferation programs. it does not remove funding from weapons programs or enable reactor programs but it provides the d.o.d. the flexibility to allocate funding to areas which they believe will effectively secure dangerous nuclear materials and to respond to emergencies and threats as they may arise. nuclear weapons materials remain dangerously vulnerable, so terrorist groups continue to seek these weapons and material every day. i'd like to ask my colleagues from both sides, there was a loose nuclear weapon or missing fissile material or the risk of these materials landing in the hands of terrorists, why would we not want the department of

defense to have the flexibility to engage nuclear weapons experts from nnsa? that's exactly what my amendment provides. once again, my amendment doesn't take any funding away from weapons nor from naval reactor bus removes barriers and provides the department of defense the flexibility to use all of -- all of its resources to effectively address such nuclear threats. thank you, mr. chairman. i'll reserve the plans of my time. the chair: the gentlelady reserves. for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama seek recognition? >> to claim time in opposition. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is the fourth year in a row that this amendment or something similar to it has been offered and once again i'm going to ask that this be rejected. the d.o.d. has asked for authority to transfer funds to

nnsa's weapons activities, it has not asked to move resources to pay for the activities. mr. rogers: the -- they may need to utilize authority to support naval reactors which has taken major funding cuts in recent years. ed a admiral richardson, director of national naval propulsion said in our hearing on april 8, a 23% shortfall in operations and infrastructure requirements resulted in insufficient funds to do rirped maintenance on one of my land based pro toe types and without relief i'll have no choice but to shut down that reactor, resulting in 400 nuclear trained operators not reporting to the fleet, putting a greater burden on sailors and families that are already sustaining a nine or 10-month deploipt. keeping the underlying language sends a clear message to nnsa that nuclear weapons activities

are the nnsa's primary missions and it must prioritize those missions and deliver what the military needs. any defense funds transferred out of d.o.d. should only be used for activities that align with d.o.d. priorities. i would urge opposition to the gentlelady's amendment and reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from california is recognized. ms. sanchez: may i ask how much time i have left? the chair: the gentlewoman has 1 1/2 minutes. ms. sanchez: you have one more speak her go ahead with your speaker. mr. rogers: i yield to the gentleman, mr. lamb born, for such time as he may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lamborn: i want to applaud my friend and colleague from california for her desire to fund nonproliferation, that's a worthy goal we all agree with but right now nnsa is going to be spending in the bill that we are debating $1.6 billion for

that worthy goal. and to allow the department of defense to go in that direction also would dilute the money they need so badly for readiness and train, paying our men and women in uniform prorkviding them the food and weapons that they need, so for that reason, i, too, oppose this bill, this amendment, and ask for a no vote. nuclear nonproliferation efforts don't -- simply don't need more money. if you don't believe me, belief yen dempsey, chairman they have joint chiefs of staff. at the march 6 hearing he said in response to a question from ms. sanchez, quote, i speak in this regard on behalf of the joint chiefs because, of course, we have discussed and debated this among ourselves. i think we have allocated an appropriate and adequate amount of money into nonproliferation in our budget, unquote. so simply put, our senior

military officials agree that the nonproliferation budget is already sufficient and therefore this amendment is unnecessary. this is the fourth queer in a row we've debated it and i would just ask that -- this is the fourth year in a row we've debated it and i would just ask that we stop debate on this amendment and defeat it. the chair: the gentlewoman from california is recognized. ms. sanchez: i would like to correct my colleague. it's not the fourth year in a row we debated it, we didn't debate this last year but i would further like to say that one of the reasons that the -- we've asked for a navy reactor moneys is because of the shortfall that they had this past year which they weren't able to react to because they didn't have the flexibility of that. and so with all of this -- these issues going on with terrorists in particular looking for nuclear arms or materials, i think it's important for us to

give the department of defense that flexibility, the same type of thing that, if they found themselves in a bind for with the reactor this is past year, would be important not to find ourselveses in a bind if we would need it for this year. and i would also like to remind my colleagues that yes, we put some more money into nonproliferation this year after many years of cutting it but we put in significantly money amount of money into the nuclear armament piece. mr. chairman, i would just ask my colleagues to vote for this flexibility for the department of defense, i have no further speakers and i urge my colleagues to support my amendment with the underlying bill. i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from california is recognized. i'm sorry, from alabama is recognized. mr. rogers: thank you, mr. speaker. i respect my friend from california, she's very knowledgeable on the budget but she's wrong on this amendment and urge a no society. i yieldk.