the administration will continue to work closely with officials in michigan and officials in the state of detroit -- city of detroit as they continue to recover from the significant financial problems that they have had. there is no question that that region of the country has benefited significantly from the efforts that this president undertook to rescue the auto industry. it is thanks to the grit and determination of american workers that this industry has come roaring back. that we are seeing record sales. we are seeing record revenues from those companies. and we anticipate that will continue to have a positive economic impact on the city of detroit and the broader state of michigan. that's not the only way. we'll continue to seat administration whether it's department of education, department of housing and urban development, and other core agencies are working closely with city officials in detroit to help that community recover. >> live to capitol hill as the u.s. house gavels in. terrorism risk insurance on the

agenda this afternoon. house rules meeting this afternoon on the federal government spending measure. wil in order. the prayer will be offered by our guest chaplain reverend aron mcenrees, unitarian universalist church of arlington, arlington, virginia. the chaplain: creator god, spirit of light, we come here today with our spirits open to the sun of your loving gaze. we come, humbled by the work entrusted to us, to tend to your children, for we know that we are, all of us, your children, bearers of your divine spark. may we remember this, no matter how thick the stacks of paper on our desks. when we are weary, may we be filled with your generosity of

spirit. we will pass it on with interest. when we don't know which way to turn, may we find stillness and listen for the soft voice of wisdom. help us today to do justice, to serve mercy, and to walk humbly with you and the better angels of our nature. and most of all, beloved god, may we practice the arts of kindness in all that we do and all that we are. nd to this we say, amen. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approve. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, i demand a vote on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal.

the speaker: the question is on the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the journal stands approve. mr. ill wn -- mr. wilson: i demand the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in support of the request for the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postpone the pledge will be led by the gentleman, mr. perlmutter. mr. perlmutter: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: without objection, the gentleman from virginia, mr. moran is recognized for one minute. mr. moran: thank you, mr. speaker. it is my honor to introduce and

welcome reverend aaron mcenress, from the unitarian universalist church of arlington which is in the heart of my congressional district. the reverend is an accomplished religious leader who thrives on collaboration and draws his energy from working with people. he has led a life of service and generosity, caring for his neighbors and working to protect his flock. i'm proud to share his views as a passionate supporter of marriage equality, of addressing the disparity in wealth and income throughout the country, of workers' rights, and addressing the growing problems caused by global climate change. he has spent years trying to improve the daily lives of the neediest among us. he holds a masters of beginity from this immediateville theological seminary, and a

bachelor of science in labor studies. he is well able to lead a well-informed and politically active congregation. i'm proud to call him a valued constituent and thank him for opening our day with such a meaningful prayer. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair will entertain up to 15 further one-minute requests or each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentlelady rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> i rise with representative jolly to recognize an organization in my district, hanna's house. many football fans know the name charlie weise, coach of the university of notre dame and the new york jets. mrs. walorski: he and his wife

maura are passionate about helping people. they founded hanna's house in hon november their daughter -- in honor of their daughter hannah. they help children with special needs realize their potential, plan for their future and achieve their own personal best. thank you very much and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous con sonet a drink thess -- i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. israel: they provide those -- the -- mr. higgins: my community of

western new york considers its procks imto -- proximity to lake erie as one of its greatest assets. we must strife to guard the great lakes against imminent and future threats and today we did just that we introduced the guarding of the great lakes act to continue to help protect the great lakes from asian carp and other invasive species. it will take necessary steps to find permanent solutions for flood mitigation. yesterday we passed the great lakes initiative act prorkviding $300 million in federal funding annually to support projects relating to the restoration of the great lakes for each of the next five years. these are two excellent steps forward as we continue to protect these great bodies of water. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. wilson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend

my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. wilson: i'm grate to feel express my appreciation of karen kurami, our schedule manager. she joined the wilson team in 2010. though a nate f of -- though a native of great falls, virginia, she's come to adopt south carolina as her second home. the scheduling position is most challenge bug she's excelled. her ability to connect with constituents, coordinate with my wife, red sox ann, and eagerness -- my wife, roxann, and eagerness to assist has made her invaluable. she'll join congressman-elect frank guinta's office. i know her parents are proud of her accomplishments. i wish her best wishes and look forward to seing her future successes. in conclusion, god bless our troops and the president should take action to never forget

september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the president's pardoning of guantanamo terrorists endangers american families. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek reck snigs -- recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. perlmutter: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to recognize the remarkable achievement of the orion spacecraft's first pest flight. it represents the next frontier for nasa's deep space program. last friday, december 5, orion lifted off from cape canaveral and by all accounts it was a flawless mission. this test flight sent orion 3600 iles above earth, traveling at

thousands of miles an hour. it is aimed to take astronauts to mars and beyond. this exploration will inspire our nation and capture the hearts and minds of young americans. more importantly, i'm proud to say colorado played an enormous role in make og ryon a reality. -- in make og ryon a reality. -- making orion a reality. lockheed martin and others contributed to the success. orion supports thousands of jobs around the country and is an engine for space exploration in our state and the nation. this is something we all can be proud of as a nation and look forward to further space exploration. with that, i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. >> i rise to honor my good friend and colleague congressman mcintyre. we are blessed to represent the southeastern region of north carolina and some of the most genuine and thoughtful people you'll ever meet. mr. h.u.d. spon: mike has -- mr. hudson: mike has his priorities in order, focusing on his families and -- and representing his stirts. he's been a voice for commonsense and never been afraid to reach across the aisle to get things done for our communities. during his years, mike has time and again stood up for issues folks care about back in north carolina. i'm honored that i inherited robinson county from mike, a place my family has called home for generations. i'm thrilled to call mike and his amazing wife, dee, my constituents. i can tell you he's respected across north carolina because he has sincere passion for the

people he represents and serves. i thank mike mcintyre for his leadership to north carolina over the years. it's been a privilege to get to know mike, to call him a friend, to work with him to make life better for the folks in north carolina. i hope the folks in north carolina will help me wish mike and dee well. we're going to miss them. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. hahn: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to renew the call for congress to act on comprehensive immigration reform. the job of congress is to legislate, and immigration reform needs a legislative solution. it is therefore disappointing that we will be finishing this congress in a few days without the house having passed or even voted on comprehensive immigration reform.

but i hope that starting immediately in the new congress, we can work together to pass comprehensive, commonsense, and compassionate legislation that will provide opportunities to those who want to come here and opportunities for the 12 million undocumented residents who are already here. this legislation can grow our economy, decrease our deficits, secure our borders, protect our workers, unite families and provide an earned pathway to citizenship. a majority of americans support this framework and it has the support of both labor and business as well as religious and civic organizations. let us come back in january, ready to get the job done and pass comprehensive immigration reform. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr.

speaker. there are a lot of my republican friends who have been upset with the comments of jonathan gruber, like he's quoted accurately as saying about obamacare, a lack of transparency is a political advantage. call it the stupid i have to the american voter or whatever he also said they, president obama and the democrats, proposed it and it passed because the american people are too stupid to understand the difference. now, i say to my republican colleagues, chill out. don't worry. not a single republican voted for that bill. not a single republican in the senate voted for that bill. he wasn't talking about republicans. he wasn't talking about the democrats, independents, or republicans that voted for republicans to come to the house or the senate. he was talking about the people he was paid millions by to work on obamacare. that's right he, called the democrats stupid. he wasn't talking about republicans. he knew we were smarter than that. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i rise to recognize the life of coach osciles. the beloved coach, father, grandfather and friend passed away on december 3 after a long battle with cancer. mr. sires: his career spanned 50 years, taking over the north bergen football program in 1973 for nearly 40 years. he retire theafed 2011 season as new jersey's third winningest coach. as a member of the hudson county hall of fame and the new jersey football coach hall of fame he guided them to 11 dosh 12 hudson county crowns. he was hudson county coach of the year 14 times and in 1997 he was named toyota coach of the year for the eastern united

tates. coach will be remembered for his lasting impact on and off the field and his ability to inspire players and the community. my thoughts are with his family, former players and the north bergen community. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? . the gentlelady is recognized. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to congratulate my friend, journalist and television anchorman, jose diaz-balart. for over 30 years he has been reporting on momentous events from international crises to breaking news in order to properly inform his diverse audience. as the first u.s. journalist to broadcast in two languages, english and spanish, simultaneously on two networks, jose has proven to be a valuable voice to the hispanic american community. throughout his career, he has been the recipient of many

accolades, including three emmys, the george foster peabody award. his role in our society should not be taken for granted. there are hundreds of journalists in cuba and around the world who are being persecuted and imprisoned for showcasing the realities within their own countries. jose speaks for them. i congratulate jose for 30 years within the industry and thank him for his commitment to the principles of independent journalism and freedom of the press. thank you, mr. speaker, for the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition? mr. cicilline: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cicilline: mr. speaker, last night the house rules committee filed a 2015 government funding bill. my top priority is keeping the government opened and this bill will prevent the kind of widespread economic damage that would be caused by a government shutdown. funding the government is more

than just about dollars and cents. it's a statement about our national values. we must make difficult choices with limited resources and fight for what we stand for. funds called cronnibus the government through 2015. it provides funding to combat isil and support our troops, and invest in critical science and research programs. i'm deeply disappointed it responds to the president's executive action on immigration by providing only short-term funding for the department of homeland security. i strongly oppose several controversial policy riders that impact women's health and the environment. as we begin a meaningful debate on this bill and as the new congress approaches, we must ensure our actions and decisions will reflect our values and our ideals. to ensure that we protect our country, grow the economy, and provide every american a fair shot at success. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized. >> it's the most wonderful time of year. a time when millions of americans gather together to celebrate christmas. for many of us christmas is a time to remember the humble birth of our savior on a holly night tsh-holy night ,000 years ago. we give thanks for jee cuss' -- for jesus' message of love and peace. mr. lamborn: according to a recent pole, nine out of 10 americans celebrate christmas. sadly, however, there is a troubling effort in america led by a vocal minority to remove the symbols and traditions of christmas from the public arena. there have been many examples of atheist groups working to remove public nativity displays and other deck lations. just last year my home state of colorado, an anti-religious organization filed a lawsuit against school officials for their support of student led involvement with operation christmas child. these petty efforts by groups offended by the religious significance of christmas violates the freedom of religion our founding fathers provided for us in the constitution.

this congress and in congresses past i have introduced a resolution to protect the symbols and traditionings of christmas for those who celebrate the holiday. the resolution also disapproves of efforts to ban references to christmas. we must not allow those who choose to take offense to shut down the religious celebration of every other american. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. lowenthal: i rise in support of my newly introduced resolution which recognizes today as the 66th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights and the celebration of human rights day. 66 years ago today, the world spoke for the first time with one voice to proclaim the fundamental rights and freedoms

of all people. today it is our duty to continue to speak out for human rights for all people. imprisoned bloggers in vietnam, lgbt activists in russia, murdered students in mexico. all have shown us that there is still a great amount of work left to to. mr. speaker, i urge the house to take up my resolution and encourage my colleagues to setaside today to recognize human rights day in honor of all those who are struggling to reclaim their fundamental rights. thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized. --

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 5656, the global food security act of 2014. which is a recognition here by the house of representatives of the important lead role the united states of america can and must play in fighting poverty and hunger throughout the world. mr. nolan: the simple truth is a hunger epidemic of crises proportion is spreading across the developing world. leading to mass unrest, armed conflict, needless suffering, and death. every day more than 21,000 people die of hunger or hunger related causes. the united nations reports that in sleffing countries -- in developing countries, 842 million people are conically hungry. one out of every three children who die before the age of 5 die

from hunger. one out of four children suffer mental or physical impairments due to malnutrition. mr. speaker, this congress has been more than willing to spend trillions on warfare. today i call upon the congress of the united states to declare war on hunger and give people in need a good reason to be grateful to america. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman's time has expired. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on the motion to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection under

clause 6 of rule 20. any record vote on the postponed uestion will be taken later. for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass senate bill 1691. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: senate 1691, an act to amend title 5 united states code to improve the security of united states border and to provide for reform and rates of pay for border patrol agents. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from utah, mr. chaffetz, and the gentlewoman from the district of columbia, ms. norton, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: mr. speaker, thank you. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. mr. chaffetz: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. chaffetz: border patrol.

we love the border patrol. the men and women who serve in the border patrol we cannot thank them enough for the hard tough duties they provide. it's difficult. it's hard. i have been out there in arizona as they do this. out on a.t.v.'s chasing drug runners. it's amazing what they do and how they do it. we love them. the bill before us, mr. speaker, is a gad bill to help them, their families, provide a better service to them and their families, but actually save some money for the federal government. this is truly a bill, mr. speaker, that is a win-win situation. i'm honored to have that bill before us today and urge my colleagues to support it. the border patrol agent pay reform act of 2014 would replace the border patrol's current pay system and create a consistent and reliable pay system. enhance border security, and save taxpayers literally hundreds of millions of dollars. established in 1924, today's worder border patrol relies on roughly 21,000 agents to secure some 6,000 miles of international borders between

mexico and canada. and 2,000 miles of coastal waters surrounding florida and puerto rico. properly paying border patrol agents and responsibly managing a payroll system are critical to the mission of the united states customs and border patrol. often referred to as c.b.p. 13 months ago, november 20, 2013, subcommittee on national security held a hearing to exam the border patrol's compensation policies. it focused on a report by the office of special council documenting the abuse of a type of overtime within the border patrol. the o.s.c. testified the long-standing abuse of overtime within the border patrol including by headquarters employees who regularly extended their days by roughly two hours and pat padding their paychecks by an additional 25%. administratively, uncontrollable overtime, a.u.o., was established more than 40 years ago to pay employees for, quote, irregular unscheduled but necessary overtime, end quote. homeland security is one of the largest users of a.u.o. within

the federal government. with the border patrol accounting for more than 75% of the paid a.u.o. border patrol agents receive between 10% and 25% of their basic pay through a.u.o. depending on the average number of irregular overtime performed per week. generally agents themselves are responsible for recognizing without supervision the circumstances which require them to remain on duty beyond regular hours. they are down on the border, pursuing somebody who is coming across illegally. you can't say, well, time to go home. oftentimes they work for hours and hours in continued pursuit of these people that had come across there illegally. under a.u.o. most agents earn up to 25% of their base salary for time worked in excess of 80 hours in a pay period. agent may earn additional overtime compensation generally paid at 50% above the regular rate. total overtime costs for border 35 troll agents, including pay and benefits, was $627 million in 2013.

while total compensation cost for those agents was 3.1 billion in that same year. during the hearing it became clear that a.u.o. is ill suited to meet the needs of today's border patrol. in response i joined with senators tester and mccain in introducing legislation to provide border patrol a cost-effective and flexible overtime system. the border patrol agent pay reform act, d.h.s. called the border patrol agent pay reform act. d.h.s. pledged to work with the committee to find a solution at an affordable cost. that's why we are here today. under current law border patrol agents who work beyond the 85.5 hours are generally paid time and a half. under the bill agents will annually elect one of three pay options. number one, work 100 hours per biweekly pay period and increase their base salary by 25%. work 90 hours and receive a 12.5% base salary increase. or work no overtime at all.

unscheduled overtime will be treated as comp time with no monetary compensation. the bill eliminates fair labor standards act overtime which results in significant savings to the taxpayer. the border patrol agent pay reform act generally requires 90% of border patrol agents to work 100 hours each per pay period. while c.b.p. expects most agents to work 90 hours per pay period. the staffing floor will allow supervisors to more effectively plan border security operations. to help ensure accountability, the bill requires the border patrol to undertake its operational requirements and staffing needs at every border patrol station within one year of enactment and submit to congress for review. the g.a.o. will examine c.b.p.'s meth methodology and analysis and within 90 days submit a report concurring whether they concur with the assessments of the board he patrol as flexibility and staffing floor based on the results of that

assessment of the the bill grants c.b.p. management authority to unilaterally assign agents to work additional hours if the situation necessitates. the bill reflects months of negotiation and congressional review. and is supported by the national border patrol council. i personally cannot thank the national border patrol council enough. their good work, tenacity on this issue. and deep desire to make the agent's lives better. they represent some 17,000 agents, c.b.o. estimated that implementing the senate bill, 1691, would save roughly $100 million per year. costs would decline under senate bill s. 1691, mostly because border patrol agents would no longer receive compensation required under the flsa. this is an important bill, mr. speaker. there's a lot of good, bipartisan support. if i'm not mistaken.

it passed unanimously from the senate. i want to thank chairman issa for his good work and glad this could be here tooth. -- today. i want to thank leader mccarthy and speaker boehner for allowing this to come to the floor. chairman mccaul and candice miller have been pivotal in working on this, and others like mr. o'rourke and ron barber. i appreciate again the nice, good, bipartisan support. and bicameral support. good work from senator tester. senator mccain who cares deeply about border patrol issues and certainly senator carper for making this a reality. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves his time. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the district of columbia. ms. norton: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for such time as she wishes to

consume. ms. norton: i thank my good friend, mr. chaffetz, for not only coming forward to manage this bill, but i thank him of a he is the sponsor bipartisan bill very similar to e bill before us today, h.r. 3463. i rise in strong support of s. 1691, the border patrol pay agents reform act of 2014. a bipartisan bill sponsored by senators tester and mccain. s. 161 would ep hance -- 1691 would enhance the border patrol's ability to secure and patrol more than 6,000 miles of our nation's borders between mexico and canada and 2,000 miles of our coastal waters

surrounding florida and puerto rico. it would also respond to the growing threat of cyberattacks. this legislation, which is supported by the administration and the border patrol council, would also save the american taxpayers about $100 million annually, according to the congressional budget office. the bill would dramatically simplify the current pay system for our clint's more than 21,000 courageous border patrol agents by eliminating compensation for overtime through what is administer -- administratively administratively controlled overtime. under a new created pay system, border patrol agents would have three-week schedule and compensation options. they could choose to, one, work 100 hours for each pay period and receive an increets in

basalry of 25%. or, two work 90 hours each pay period and receive an increase in -- an increase in basalry of 23%. or three, work 80 hours per pay period with no overtime. all unscheduled overtime beyond these hours would be treated as compensatory time off with an annual maximum of 240 hours. the legislation would also set a minimum staffing requirement, requiring that at least 90% of border patrol agents in any given location work 100 hour pay periods to ensure that customs and border protection has the man hours it needs to respond to threats and to secure the border. under this new system, border patrol agents would work millions of hours longer than they do today which equates to

about 1,500 agents to patrol the nation's borders. s. 1691 would require customs and border protection to submit to congress a staffing plan, detailing the agency's operational and staffing requirements to ensure hours worked matched the agency's needs. the government accounting office would also be required to review the plan as an independent check. the bill would also address concerns regarding past abuses by prohibiting agents at headquarters and training academies and instructors from working more than 0 hours per pay period unless a staffing plan shows a need for these employee -- more than 80 hours per pay period unless a staff planning shows a need for those hours. it also shows a custom plan with flexibility to lower the staffing floor set by the bill

if the staffing plan shows the agency can meet its operational requirements in a given location with fewer man hours. s. 1691 would also require customs and border protection, in consultation with the office of personnel management, to develop a plan to prevent border patrol agents from artificially boosting their retirement annuities by selecting a higher rate of pay than they had historically within three years of being eligible to retire. the government accounting office would be required to review this plan and to report to congress on its effectiveness. an amendment introduced by senator carper also would add provisions allowing the department of homeland security to recruit and retain cyberprofessionals by granting authority to hire qualified experts on -- on an expedited basis and pay them competitive

salaries, wages, and incentives. legislation also would require the department report annually on the program's progress. s. 1691 would provide much-needed reform to the compensation of border patrol agents and ensure that the department of homeland security has the personnel it needs to deal with the increasing cyberattacks. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation and mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from the district of columbia reserves her time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: i want to simply continue to thank some other people for making this possible. yvette clarke has been very helpful and we have a bill she had worked on so hard and h.r. 3107 which passed 395-8 that has been now included in the senate

version. i'm glad to have her and her involvement in this. i also want to thank blake farenthold for his work in this, coming from texas, he cares deeply about these issues and has been veryportive -- supportive. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from district of columbia. ms. norton: i'm pleased to give two minutes to mr. o'rourke, the gentleman from texas, an original co-sponsor of h.r. 3463, the house companion version of s. 1691. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. o'rourke: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to going by thanking my colleague from the district of columbia for her work managing this bill on the floor today and yielding me some time to speak in support of it. i especially want to thank my colleague from the state of utah, mr. chaffetz, for his work on the house version of this bill and on behalf of my community in el paso, texas, and especially on behalf of the border patrol agents, more than

2,500 in my community. i want to give you my thanks, our thanks, from the largest city on the u.s.-mexico borderism support this bill because i do represent more than 2,500 agents in el paso and in addition to the more than 21,000 agents on our northern and southern border, this is an important bill that provides a consistent and reliable pay system to address problems and administrate -- address problems in administratively uncontrollable overtime and provides more structure for our border control agents. we ask these brave men and women to put their lives on the line to do what i think is the toughest job in federal employment but we fail to compensate them adequately. i want to remind my colleague at el paso, texas; -- texas, which i represent, which is ciudad juarez, is

the safest city in the united states. it's been the safest city in america four years running. and we have in large part to thank the border patrol agents who help secure or border for that. not only do they keep our countries and communities secure they do it in a very professional way. in 2013, there were zero complaints filed against the border patrol in the el paso sector. i want to thank them for the job they do. this bill creates a reliable pay system that secures our borders. supporting our agents is key to keeping our border and our country safe. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from the district of columbia reserves. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. chaffetz: i want to thank mr. o'rourke for his passion on this issue. he's a fine gentleman to work with on these types of issues and others. i'm happy to serve with him on homeland security and in this body.

i thank him for his work because it has been some good, bipartisan work on both sides of the aisle and both bodies to get to this point. i also want to thank eleanor holmes norton for her personal commitment to these issues and federal workers in general. this truly is a situation where we've got a win-win situation, we make life better for border patrol agents and their families, give more certainty to them and their families, help them with their mortgages, very difficult work, we also happen to save money for the american taxpayers. i appreciate the creativity and good work to get to this point. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah reserves. the gentlelady from the district of columbia. ms. norton: i'm pleased to offer three minutes to my good friend from new york, the ranking member of the cybersecurity subcommittee of the committee on homeland security, yvette clarke. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for three minutes.

ms. clarke: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the distinguished ranking member from the district of columbia. the district of columbia, -- from the district of columbia, ms. holmes norton, for yielding and i want to thank mr. chaffetz for his leadership on these important matters of homeland security. i rise in support of s. 1691 and i'm pleased that today we are considering legislation containing language i introduced earlier this year to introduce fundamental cyberwork force challenging at the department of homeland security. important parts of my bipartisan bill h.r. 3107, the homeland security cybersecurity boots on the ground act are included in the measure we are considering today. the cyberwork forest language included in s. 1691 generally does two important things. first it grants special hiring authority to d.h.s. to bring on board top-notch cyberrecruits.

the department desperately needs a more flexible hiring process with incentives to secure talent in today's highly competitive cyberskills market. second, it requires the secretary of the department to assess its cyberwork force, to give congress and the office of personnel management a clear picture of the needs and challenges that d.h.s. faces in carrying out its important cybermission and helping to dotect both the dot-gov and com arenas. it directs the attorney general to analyze, monitor and report on the cybersecurity work forest measures. today many of the department's top cyberpositions are filled by nonpermanent contractors and d.h.s. reporting having difficulty competing with other executive branch agencies and the private sector for talent. in an effort to address these

challenges, the department asked the homeland security advisory committee to asemiable task force on cyberskills to provide recommendations on the best way d.h.s. can foster the development of a cybersecurity work force and d.h.s. can improve its cape to believe the review and -- recruit and retain cybersecurity talent. the legislation i introduced sought to address a number of the task force's key recommendations as does this bill, s. 1691. cybersecurity is a complex mission for the department and requires a wide range of talent at all levels. given the urgent nature of the d.h.s. recruitment efforts, it's essential that the department have at its disposal certain hiring authorities and training procedures in place. before i close, i'd like to acknowledge that there's a lot of interest on our side of the aisle to make progress on cybersecurity. hopefully in the coming days, old jurisdictional squabbles can be laid aside for the betterment

of the country, as was done on this bill. and again the oversight committee can work with the homeland security committee to bring forth critical cybersecurity legislation. we need to put in place legislation to advance the ball with respect to protecting federal civilian networks and codifying d.h.s.'s role. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back and i thank you, ms. norton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentlelady from the kk d.c. reserves. the -- the gentlelady from the district of columbia reserves. the gentleman from utah. r. chaffetz: i have no additional speakers and reserve the balance of my time. ms. norton: i have no additional speakers, but i want to say how much i appreciate the views of the two members who have spoken in a bipartisan -- and the bipartisan way in which this bill has been handled in the house and senate and look forward to more to come, mr. chaffetz, more bipartisanship to come. and i wreeled back the balance

of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back her time. the gentleman from utah. mr. chaffetz: in conclusion, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. chaffetz: i thank the gentlewoman from washington, d.c. i look forward to working with her on a host of issues as we serve on the same committee and i can only hope that they'll be as bipartisan as possible. we both have a nature to fight to represent the constituencies which we represent and do so in the spirit of making this country better and really that's the reason that this bill has come here today with good, broad, bipartisan support. i cannot thank enough brandon judd, the national border patrol council, he heads that group. he has been wonder obviously this issue. . it's my honor to recommend to my colleagues to support passage of senate bill 16 1. with that i yield back the

balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah yields back his time of the the question is, will the house suspend the rules pass senate bill 1691. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, without objection the motion to reconsider is laid pon the table.

for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and concur in the senate amendment to h.r. 4681, the intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2015. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 4681, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 to for intelligence and intelligence related activities of the united states government, the community management account, and the central intelligence agency retirement and disability system, and for other purposes. senate amendment. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from michigan, mr. rogers, and the gentleman from maryland, mr. ruppersberger, each will control 20 minutes.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, thank you. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill h.r. 4681. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. rogers: i also ask unanimous consent, mr. speaker, that the joint explanatory statement prepared by the house and senate intelligence committees be entered into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that my full statement be entered into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. until all time yielded is for purposes of debate only. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he wishes to consume. mr. rogers: thank you, mr. speaker. when mr. ruppersberger and i assumed the helm of the committee, we committed to return to the practice of passing annual intelligence authorization bills. recognizing it's one of the most critical tools that congress has

to control the intelligence activities of the united states government. proud today that we are bringing the fifth such authorization bill to the floor since mr. ruppersberger assumed the role of ranking member and i assumed the role of chairman four years ago. as most of the intelligence budget involves highly classified programs, the bulk of the committee's direction is found in the classified annex to the bill. which is very similar to the version passed by the house earlier this year. at an unclassified level i can report that the classified annex increases the president's budget request by less than 1% and consistent with the bipartisan budget act funding caps. key committee findings and funding initiatives vital to national security are preserved in this bill. these funding initiatives are offset by reductions to unnecessary programs and increased deficiencies. the bill's modest increase reflects the committee's concern that the president's request does not properly fund a number

of important initiatives and leaves several unacceptable shortfalls when it comes to the matters of national security. the bill also provides substantial intelligence resources to help defeat islamic state in iraq. earlier this year the house passed its version of this bill by an overwhelming bipartisan vote. this bill contains all of the provisions that were not previously enacted into law in the fiscal year 2014 bill. along with provisions added by the senate. none of these provisions are considered controversial and we have worked through and vetted to make sure that is accurate with both republican and democrat staff and members. mr. speaker, we find ourselves in a very interesting time in history. isil is attempting to build a state across the middle east om lebanon to iraq, syria, jordan, and israel. they already control a swap of land across iraq and syria about the size of the state of indiana. and it's growing. the goal of our counterterrorism

strategy is deny safe haven from which terrorists can plot attacks against the united states or our allies. regrettably we have not prevented isil from establishing such a safe haven and as a result we face a growing threat from that region. at the same time, state actors like russia and china view this time as an opportunity to expand their reach and influence. uneven leadership in recent years has emboldened these adversaries to change the international order at the expense of u.s. interests. we rightly demand that our intelligence agencies provide policymakers with the best and most timely information possible on the threats we face. we ask them to track terrorists wherever they train, plan, and fundraiser. we ask them to stop devastating cyberattacks that steal american jobs through the theft of intellectual property. we ask them to track nuclear and missile threats. we demand they get it right every time. this bill will ensure that the dedicated men and women of our intelligence community have the funding and authorities and

support that they need to meet their mission and to keep us safe. i take this moment, mr. speaker, at a time when certainly voices both around the country and around the world are seeking to condemn the very courageous men and women who show up in the intelligence business to provide the information to keep america safe. they are silent warriors. they are faithful patriots. they don't ask for recognition. they don't ask for time. you don't see their names in the paper or in the front pages of the paper or on tv. and they really don't seek that recognition. but they seek the very purpose of being the first to be able to develop that one piece of information that might prevent further conflict. it might prevent a terrorist attack. it might prevent a nuclear launch. it might prevent one nation from attacking another. and in the haze of what seems to be self-loathing these days and

targeting that against these very courageous men and women who cannot defend themselves in public, we are doing a disservice to their courage and their commitment to keep america safe. we find it's easy to at some point go back and point fingers what we believe may or may not have happened in the work of keeping america safe. and it's realistically and holistically unfair that we would do that to these very brave souls who risk their lives today. here's the good news for americans. these folks understand that they have accepted these dangerous and quiet roles that work in the shadows and they'll get up this morning like they have every other morning and understand it is between them and the united states when it comes to any terrorist attack. or worse, bigger, broader conflict somewhere in the world. they'll do their job, they'll do

their duty, they'll do their mission. they'll read the papers and fold them and put them on their desk and go about their work, their important work. but it is wrong that years later we ask these people to have to believe that they might have to get a lawyer to do their job. is the next time that america asks them to do something hard and difficult in defense of the united states, we shouldn't be giving them lawyers and subpoenas and the united nations condemning their actions and looking for prosecutions in their effort to tear the united states down one more level, we ought to be giving them ticker tape parades when they come home from these places and say thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your family's sacrifice. we can sleep better at night knowing that you have had the courage to stand where no other american was willing to stand in defense of the united states. i hope they take this as certainly my final bill on this particular floor to encourage

them to do their good work, to know that americans who are kissing their kids and putting them on the bus this morning understand that it takes their efforts to keep this country safe. that somebody that shows up for work and is engaged in international commerce understands that it takes their work to keep america safe. believe me, outside of this town people across america understand the value and importance and really the essential work that these people do for the defense of america. we should not condemn them. we should be proud of their work. and we should stand behind them. this bill, i think, represents the work in a bipartisan way that allows them to continue that work, to do the work that protects america and with that i yield to -- reserve the balance of my time but before i do that, i would be remiss if i didn't thank my good friend, dr. ruppersberger, and over the last four years with these five budgets could not have happened without your work, your staff's work in making sure that we had the best product available to

make sure that the intelligence community had the resources that they need, the policies that they need, the support that they need, and yes, every once in a while, the kick in the can they needed. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan reserves his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. ruppersberger: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he wishes. mr. ruppersberger: this is my last opportunity on the floor to thank you again for your leadership. it has once again produced a strong bipartisan, bicameral intelligence authorization act. our committee believes in our nation's security is too important to be a political football. we have had different views, we argue, but we work it out for the good of american people. mr. chairman, i hope your legacy of bipartisanship, hard work, and rigorous oversight and problem solving continues and spreads throughout the congress. it is amazing what we can accomplish when we work together to solve problems. i also want to thank our counterparts in the senate,

intelligence committee, senators feinstein for working closely with us. and each member of our committee. on the democratic side i want to acknowledge all the hard work of mr. thompson sitting here to my left. mr. schakowsky, mr. lightningy vin, mr. schiff, mr. gutierrez, mr. pastor,. i want to thank our staff and the dedicated men and women of the intelligence committee who work every day all night to protect us. i do agree with the chairman's statements about those men and women throughout the world that are out there protecting us and putting their lives on the line. today we look beyond this congress, we come together to set the stage for the continuing oversight of intelligence programs, personnel, and dollars. by doing so, we reinforce to the american people and to the world that there are checks and balances. we reinforce the tools we authorize are for the soul purpose of keeping us, our allies, and partners safe. in may the house passed the

intelligence authorization act for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 by 345 votes to 19. the senate, however, took up each year separately. over the summer this house passed f.y. 2014 bill which the president signed. so we now take up the f.y. 2015 bill which the senate amended and sent back to us. this amended bill largely mirrors the relevant portions of the house passed combined bill. passing a detailed intelligence authorization act ensures that our intelligence agencies spend money only on programs congress is informed of, approves, and continuously oversee. oversight is extremely important. it helps to make sure that everything our intelligence agencies do follow the constitution and the laws of the united states and maximizes the civil liberties and privacy of americans. at the same time, the intelligence agencies need the clear authorization, direction, and guidance from congress to do their vital work to protect and

defend america, its allies, and partners. the intelligence authorization act is split into four parts, the unclassified legislative text, the unclassified report, the classified annex, and that explains our intent for the classified aspects of the bill, and the classified schedule of authorizations. what we have made cuts to certain areas and added money to others to produce a responsible, well thought out and fiscally brewedent budget, the budget forefiscal year 2015 slightly exceeds the president's request. over the last four years we have educed the budget by millions, this addresses the need to make cut that was sequestration and budget control act. additionally, this bill acknowledges the need to step up intelligence efforts to counter evolving threats such as isis. it's a dangerous world out there

and our bill accounts for that. let me mention some specifics in the bill. first, continue to emphasize the value of our space programs and endorses aggressive action to decrease our reliance on russian-made engines to launch our national security satellites. two, makes investments into research and development to defend against next generation threats and to stay ahead of countries like china and russia. three, further improves the continuous evaluation of insider threats while safeguarding privacy and civil liberties. next number, enables better intelligence and information sharing to prevent foreign fighters coming in and out of syria. next, enables cutting edge defense intelligence agency technology. we must stay aed of the curve in technology. next, further refines the department of defense human intelligence capabilities while supporting community wide human intelligence efforts to better understand the enemy's plans and intentions and establishes

increased accountability measures for our most sensitive programs. the committee has worked with the intelligence community and the senate to produce this solid, bipartisan bill. this bill also incorporates the valuable floor amendments the house passed in may. it represents a culmination of our committee's work through extensive hearings and briefings, travel, and in depth studies. the bill is strong and i'm proud to support it. for the sake of keeping our country safe, its allies and partners, and for the sake of thoroughly overseing to even the most classified intelligence programs. i urge my colleagues to pass the bill today. thank you and i reserve the plans of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. >> thank you, mr. speaker, i thought i'd extend my thanks -- mr. rogers: thank you, mr. speaker. i thought i'd extend my thanks to those who helped -- who work

sod hard to get us back on track. if you'll indulge me, mr. speaker, thank you to my current staff committee, aaron, sar remark brian, ashley, susan, m, michael, chelsea, jeff, brooke, randy, jim, shannon, rachel, lisa, and diane. thank you as well to those staff who played an influential which is hard for me to say today, role in the committee activities during my tenure as chairman and re-engaging this as a force for oversight in the intelligence committee. michael allan. chris, nathan, todd, frank, george, will, lee, fred, and stephanie. finally a big thank you to our dedicated security and information technologies staff, by the way, who have done well to beat back the hordes of our nation state actors who for some reason, mr. speaker, took a food

interest in what we were doing in that classified space and they kept us up and running every single day. brandon, kristen, and kevin. with that, i continue to reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. ruppersberger: i yield to minutes to mr. thompson, a great member of our committee who specialized in infrastructure and worked hard to make sure our embassies have the intelligence information they immediate to protect themselves. mr. thompson: i thank the gentleman for yielding and thank you for the work you did on the committee as ranking member and i also want to thank chairman rogers for the good work he did as chairman, working together, very accommodating and allowed all of us to be able to address specific issues of concern to us and our concern regarding the security of our great nation. so thank you, mr. chairman, we're going to miss you. i rise in strong support of

passage of this bill. this bill will provide greater national security for our country and the people that we all represent. the bill contains two important provisions that i authored that protect our communities at home and diplomatic facilities abroad. my district is home to several oil refineries, employing thousands of people, providing well-paying, good, middle class jobs and are a key part of our regional economy. as domestic oil production continues to increase in the region, i've heard from several of my constituents and my local governments about their growing concern regarding the security of the shipment and storage of crude oil and subsequent refined products. i believe we have the responsibility to protect our workers, our domestic refineries, and our communities from potential threats. included in this bill is a provision that directs the department of homeland security office of intelligence and

analysis to conduct an assessment of the security of our nation's oil refineries and related rail transportation infrastructure. it directs the office to make recommendations on how to improve intelligence collection and sharing of information to better protect those facilities and the surrounding communities from any harm. additionally, studies conducted in response to the 2012 terrible attack on benghazi identified the need for security personnel at u.s. diplomatic posts to receive threat information in a more timely manner. in response to this need this bill requires the director of national intelligence to provide an assessment of the -- 30 seconds? mr. ruppersberger: i yield the gentleman 30 seconds. mr. thompson: provide an assess oment of status of threat information sharing between the intelligence community and the diplomatic security personnel

and to the purpose action -- proposed actions to help make secure security personnel at u.s. embassies are better able to re-- make sure security personnel at u.s. embassies are request help. we need to increase security at home and abroad and our make our country safer. i urge my colleagues to join me in passing this good piece of legislation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from michigan. plaintiff rogers: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman -- >> ruppersberger: i yield two minutes to the gentleman who has focused a lot, specialized and working with us on legislation involving transparency and

accountability and spent a lot of time on an area very important to our intelligence committee, the space programism yield two minutes to mr. schiff. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. schiff: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i want to join my colleagues in urging the house oto support the 2015 intelligence authorization act which is now returned to us from the senate but before i address the substance of the bill, i would like to congratulate chairman rogers and ranking member ruppersberger for their extraordinary efforts to get this bill passed and to the president. i know how hard they and the staff worked to make this happen. i'd especially like to congratulate chairman rogers and wish him well as he prepares to leave the house at the end of the year. it's been a great pleasure working with you and wish you the best. these are challenging days for america's intelligence officers and analysts. as russia continues to threaten -- as there are thefts in the

middle east, as russia's little green men continue to threaten, as china's -- and as the international community continues its efforts to secure iran's agreement to dishasn'tle its -- dismantle its nuclear weapons program, our intelligence professionals play a vital role in keeping us safe and secure. developing and maintaining actionable intelligence on isis is of particular urgency. while the intelligence community has been following isis growth for some time, their takeover of a large swath of syria has made it a bigger priority. we need to be able to develop the intelligence, the very best, as well as accurate ground truth. that takes time and it takes assets on the ground, in the air, in space, to collect information and it also takes world class analysts of our

intelligence community to turn that information into recommendations for policymakers. we must also remain focused on russia's efforts to destabilize its neighbors plarkly ukraine but also the baltic state. our intelligence community has given us insigh -- insight into these evens and the events that led to the downing of the malaysian plane last summer. it will give us the tools we need to assess events on the ground in north korea and iran and wherever there is the threat of w.m.d. these are but a few of the important matters covered in the authorization bill. as a member of the committee who has been proud to work closely with the chair and ranking member, i'm confident it supports our intelligence professionals while providing oversight that's so critical to the proper functioning of our intelligence agencies. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. ruppersberger: i'm ready to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland.

mr. ruppersberger: i yield myself such time as i may consume. i urge my colleagues to vote for this important bipartisan, bicameral bill. it is the single most effective oversight tool we have and ensures that our intelligence community has what it needs to keep us safe and our allies safe. intelligence is often the first line of defense against a dangerous world. without it we are in the dark and we are vulnerable. finally, once again, let me just say thunge my good friend, mr. chairman, and to your members of the committee, to our colleagues of the senate, and to the men and women of the intelligence community, it's been my honor and privilege to work with you and your great leadership in the 113th congress. i also want to thank our staff, first the republican staff and the democratic staff working together, that's what makes it work. you're only as good as your team and your staff. i also would like to acknowledge my democratic staff, heather, amanda, bob, linda, carly,

allison, deb remarks and michael. also the staff member who was been with us that are no longer here who have retired. mike, janet and kasra. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. rogers: i want to thank my friend on the other side of the aisle from dutch to heather to the entire team for putting this product together by putting our country firstism challenge every member to read this material next year when it's announced you can review the classified annex. ic they'll have a better perspective at the huge number of challenges facing the united states -- i think they'll have beater perspective of the huge number of challenges facing the united states around the world. i would say thanks to all and i ask that my -- i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker: the gentleman yields back his time. the -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time.

the question is will the house suspend the rules and concur in the senate amendment to h.r. 46 1? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative -- for what purpose does the gentleman rom michigan seek recognition? >> i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this uestion will be postponed.

for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> by direction on the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 775 and ask for its

immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 149, house resolution 775. resolved, that upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill senate 2244 to extend the termination date of the terrorism insurance program established under the terrorism risk insurance act of 2002 and for other purposes. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived, the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted. the bill as amended shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except, one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on

financial services and two, one motion to recommit with or without instructions. section two. it shall be in order at any time on the legislative day of december 11, 2014, for the speaker to entertain motions that the house suspend the rules as though under clause 1 of rule 15. the speaker or his designee shall consult with the minority leader or her designee on the designation of any matter for consideration pursuant to this section. section 3, on any legislative day of the second session of the 13th congress after december 11, 2014, a, the journal of the proceedings of the previous day shall be considered as approved and, b, the chair may at anytime declare the house adjourned to meet at a day and time within the limits of clause 4, section 5, article 1 of the constitution, to be announced by the chair in can he claring the adjournment. ection 4, the -- declaring the

adjournment. section 4, the speaker may appoint members to perform the duties of the chair for the duration of the period addressed by section 3 of this resolution as though under clause 8-a of rule 1. section 5, each day during the period addressed by section 3 of this resolution shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 7 of the war powers resolution 50 u.s.c. 1546. section 6, each day during the period addressed by section 3 of this resolution shall not constitute a legislative day for purposes of clawed 7 of rule 13. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas, mr. sessions, is recognized for one hour. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, thank you very much. for the purposes of debate only i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman, my dear friend from florida, judge hastings, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. mr. sessions: during consideration of this resolution all is yielded for the purposes of debate only.

mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks . the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, today the house of representatives is considering a rule for consideration of a bill to re-authorize the terrorism risk insurance program, or a program known as treea. without this bill, -- tria. without this bill, tria is set to expire meaning that the house or the senate will extend or else it will end at the end of this year. since it has been here since 2002, it has served with the problem of availability of terrorism insurance. tria has enabled the private insurance market to provide an essential type of coverage that otherwise would not exist. however, like many other government programs, tria needs to be looked at and reformed in

order to serve its original purpose, and that is why we are ere today. thanks to the leadership of chairman jeb hensarling and ce chairman randy neugebauer of the financial services committee, s. 2244 provides many of the necessary reforms that will protect taxpayers, promote market stability and provide for economic security for the american people, all in one brand new package. what we're doing here today is important and essential for many people, but it's here to maintain the stability of a marketplace. mr. speaker, i'd like to take us back to 2001. shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. none of us will ever forget where we were when we first saw and heard of the terrorist

attacks that attacked our homeland in new york city, at the pentagon and in a field in pennsylvania. the accompanying stories of heroism and the deeds by americans and others were finest at ism at its the time of attack on this country. what some might not remember, though, is the remarkable amount of economic uncertainty and damage that was caused on america and in the following weeks and months after 9/11. and while we mourn the loss of many loved ones, our economy was shaken to its core. created $34.5 billion in losses, approximately $20 billion which were incurred by insurance companies. a second similar attack would have left the u.s. insurance company insolvent which in turn

of being insolvent would have undermined our entire economic structure of the free enterprise system. that's why tria was pressed into law. to provide a federal backstop to avoid an immediate terrorism risk insurance crisis. sadly, terrorism has continued to be an ongoing threat to our nation and for the foreseeable future i think we need to remain vigilant and prepared for those consequences. so the cost of terrorism still looms large, and acts of uninsurable risks which could sink our insurance markets without this new updated program. in this way, tria is a vital economic piece of our nation's comprehensive security strategy because it allows for the american economy to recover

more quickly in the event of an attack. i believe it does more than that. i believe it puts in place building blocks for us to understand responsibility, economic security and how we would build back based upon rule of law and understanding about what would happen at a time of chaos. tria provides certainty, certainty to our marketplace, by giving policyholders and insurers the tools that they need to understand and to develop a market-based solution to the economic threat that could be posed by terrorism. it gives policyholders and insurance providers the opportunity to model risk and to diversify their exposure with an understanding of what the law would provide. i'm encouraged by the reforms championed by yesterday up in the rules committee chairman

jeb hensarling from the fifth congressional district of texas, who has placed many of these new items directly into the bill as a result of hard negotiation. these are called reforms, mr. speaker, and three reforms stand out to me as being particularly important. first, section 102. it would decrease the federal share of losses under the program by one percentage point annually until it equals 80%. that means that federal taxpayer will be responsible for less of the initial costs incurred after a terrorist attack than under the current law. second, section 103. 103 would increase the program trigger to $200 million in $20 million increments over five years. this means that tria would not kick in the -- the government

program would not kick in until there were $200 million in inshurble losses following an a-- insurable losses following we would ensuring know the rules ahead of time. third, section 104. section 104 would increase the amount of federal assistance that treasury secretary must recoup from the insurance industry following a certified act of terrorism. this means that federal taxpayers are getting once again a better and well-understood deal with insurers than they would have gotten before this important reform. finally, s. 2266 would provide a much-needed change to dodd-frank. it's a piece of legislation that was passed a few years ago that is causing chaos in the marketplace. higher costs, uncertainty and

overwhelming regulation by the federal government. federal regulators have interpreted parts of dodd-frank to apply to nonfinancial companies who are called end users. these end users are people who were never expected to become subject to the requirements of dodd-frank, such as ranchers, farmers and small business owners. this dodd-frank fix would arify that true derivative end yearsers -- end users to derivatives contracts. end users would be able to use derivatives to hedge risk which allows them to maintain low and stable prices for consumers. that in turn frees up capital that can be used to create brand new jobs, current jobs and to grow our free enterprise

system in america. this fix is not particularly controversial. in fact, the current policy of requiring nonfinancial companies to adhere to the same margin requirements as financial companies was not intended when the original bill passed. to fix this problem, earlier in this congress the u.s. house of representatives passed h.r. 634. yes, i voted it along with other 410 other members of this body in a bill presented by and aledered by congressman michael grimm of -- and altered by congressman michael grimm of new york, overwhelming, broad bipartisan consensus as we look at the impact of that bill. mr. speaker, i applaud the young chairman of the financial services committee, jeb hensarling, for his hard work. i also applaud the vice chairman of the committee,

randy neugebauer from lubbock, texas, who's worked very hard on this re-authorization of tria. it's essentially his bill. it came out of his subcommittee, and he's done yeoman's work to make sure that we understand what the deal is through law, how to protect taxpayers, what the government role is and it means that we can move forward from here with the certainty that american taxpayers and the industry have a well-understood deal. i'm also glad, though, that this is good for small business, it's good for farmers, it's good for ranchers, it's good for members of congress, 411 of us that voted for pieces of this bill before today. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. hastings. mr. hastings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. and i yield myself such time as i may consume.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he wishes to consume. mr. hastings: i thank the gentleman, my good friend from texas, the chairman of the rules committee, mr. sessions, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. mr. speaker, s. 2244 re-authorizes through december 31, 2020, the terrorism risk insurance act, also known as tria. this much-needed re-authorization ensures that the program will continue to protect our nation's taxpayers in the event of severe loss from an act of terror while providing the security and stability necessary for our nation's businesses to grow and invest. tria was a direct response by the federal government to the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001. and the resulting disruptions

from that act of terrorism to coverage under commercial policies in the marketplace. since 2002, it has provided companies with affordable access to terrorism insurance coverage while serving as a backstop for insurers against the most severe terrorism-related losses. currently, in order to receive payment for claims, insurance companies must pay a deductible equivalent to 20% of the previous year's direct earned premium for commercial lines. furthermore, the insurance -- the insured loss must be at least $100 million before the federal government will cover 85% of each company's losses up to $100 billion.

with the other 15% of losses, . e obligation of insurers in extending tria to 2020, s. 2244 makes important changes to the program. gradually, as mr. sessions explained, it will increase the program's threshold from $100 million to $200 million as well as slightly increase the amount the government recoups from private insurers up to 140%. moreover, this legislation decreases the government's hare of losses from 85% to 80%. i'm pleased to share that the inal measure before us today does not include a contentious provision that would have bifurcated tria based on the ype of terrorist attack.

essentially treating nuclear, chemical, and biological different than -- differently than conventional attacks. the re-authorization of tria is broadly supported by members of the business community and many of my colleagues in congress on both sides of the aisle. however, while we can agree that tria is both necessary and must -- s. 2244rized, s-2 also includes an unrelated provision that changes the dodd-frank wall street reform and consumer protection act. in particular, it exempts manufacturers, energy companies and agricultural firms known as end users, from having to put up collateral when they are trading derivatives. with less than two legislative days left before funding for the

federal government expires, i'm troubled by the addition of this extraneous, john germane -- nonjer rain derivative end user provision which is a disappointing setback to the progress made in the last few weeks of bipartisan negotiations and risks the entire bill's defeat over in the other body. these last minute changes are to dodd--- these last-minute changes to dodd-frank are not previously agreed to as they were included without informing democrats after an agreement was reached monday night. after months of negotiations, my friends, the house republican, then announced an emergency rules committee meeting with only 2 1/2 hours' notice. almost 3,000 lives were lost, an estimated $40 billion in insured

losses, sustained in the absolutely horrible attacks of 9/11. ia helped our nation rebuilt and recover and continue -- rebuild and recover and continues to protect the american people today. such an important program deserves better than the partisan slight of hand represented by the last-minute addition. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you, mr. speaker. i note that today we've got a speaker for our friends, the democrats, as well as vice chairman of the committee on financial services who are here, really, i believe to give this body a real shot in the arm about how important this legislation is, i think about what a great job that the process has gone through and achieved, and i'd like to if i

can, recognize for three minutes the gentleman from texas, i'd like to bring him back, but we want to make sure we get to our colleague from new york before it takes too much time. i'd like to yield the gentleman three minute the gentleman from lubbock, texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. neugebauer: this is an important piece of legislation to our country. we have heard a little bit of the history that after 9/11, the insurance industry took a hit, their reserves were drained to pay out these claims. as they were looking at writing new business they were concerned about what the future held because, you know, quite honestly, america has never experienced that kind of disaster in the past. so they were trying to figure out how to underwrite those in the future, tria was put into place to help temporarily be a backstop for the industry to get them back on their feet. and they have gotten back on their feet and their reserves are at all-time highs.

and they have had a number of years to model this risk. but the reason it was originally important to do that was basically in order to continue the construction projects a number of projects around the country. the insurance industry needed some assurance that they swront to bear that kind of event again. when we begin to look at this process, we knew this was going to expire at the end of this year, we knew that there was kind of three options out there. one is to let the program expire. it was meant to be a temporary program. some members wanted to do that, some members did not. others wanted to extend the program the way it was. under the bush administration, though, we depan a process to begin to reform this and begin to transition more and more of the risk away from the taxpayers back to the insurance companies. unfortunately, when it was last re-authorized, none of those reforms were built into it. even the president of the united states says that tria needs to be reformed and has offered up, for example, change the trigger levels.

but one of the things that we have done with this bill is that we didn't really change the overall structure of tree yasm we could have written a whole new terrorism insurance program. bewe didn't think that was good for the market. the market had already begun to adapt to the current framework system of we felt like if we worked within the existing framework, changing some of the triggers and some of the knobs and on this particular program that that would begin to allow the industry to take on more of the risk that taxpayers take less of that risk. i think we've accomplished that with this bill. i think it's been pointed out, age lot of people don't know a lot about tree yasm but one of the things is the insurance industry takes the first losses urn this program. so if there is a loss today, as the gentleman mentioned, 20% of the previous year's premium which if industry wide would be about $40 billion today, would be directly to the insurance companies. should those losses exceed that should we have another

catastrophic event, what would happen is that then the taxpayers and the insurance industry would begin to share those expenses with a provillings now and we've strengthened that in this bill, i think this is one of the mor important parts of that, the taxpayers would get their money back, would get some return on their money. so i think we are headed in a good direction. i would respond to the point that some extraneous things were put in this bill. honestly when it came over from the senate, it came over with an extraneous item in it as well. that was to change the structure of future federal reserve -- mr. sessions: i yield the gentleman an additional minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. neugebauer: the senate sent over a bill that had -- changing the structure of the federal reserve board of governors. they also sent a program which honestly i agree with, something that's in this bill, allowing your local insurance agent to be licensed if he's licensed in or

she is -- or she is licensed in the state they reside in, they can also do business in other states. none of the policy in this bill is new policy. this is policy this body has voted on in the past. with that i think we've got a good billism see my good friend from new york, mrs. maloney over there, i'm anxious to hear her thoughts on this this is an issue she's been very interested. in with that i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is ecognized. mr. hastings: i'm pleased at this time to yield two and a half minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from new york, the ranking member of the financial services subcommittee on financial markets and government sponsored enterprises. mrs. maloney. the speaker pro tempore: the jerusalem is recognized for two -- the gentlewoman is recognized for two and a half minutes. mrs. maloney: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for

his work on this issue and many others. i rise in opposition to this rule because i believe the approach we are taking jeopardizes the passage in the senate of a good, bipartisan, compromise to extend the terrorism risk insurance act, or tria. tria is incredibly important to new york and to the entire country. and it is critically important that we pass a long-term extension of this bill. after 9/11, all construction in new york city stopped. you could not even build a hot dog stand. thousands of people lost their jobs and business ground to a halt. because we could not get terrorism insurance. the only insurance available was from lloyd's of london and it was difficult to get and incredibly expensive. and if we do not re-authorize tria, no business will be able to get terrorism insurance in this country, and all

construction will stop, costing thousands of jobs in our country. i must say, of all the government programs that helped new york rebuild, i would say this program was the most important and it did not cost taxpayers one dime. and i want to emphasize that i strongly support the tria compromise in this bill that was reached between chairman hensarling and vice chair neugebauer along with senator schumer and ranking member waters. however, the deal reached did not include the end user margin bill that is also included in the underlying tria bill, which senator schumer and many other senators are strongly objecting to. the reason this was not part of the agreement is that adding unrelated bills that amend dodd-frank makes it much more difficult to pass this bill in

the senate. where there are any changes to dodd-frank, senators, many take exception, it is very difficult to pass them. this, unfortunately, jeopardizes the chances of passing this important re-authorization of tria in the senate. and it is extremely important to the overall economy of this country to pass this bill. separately, i want to note for the record that i support the end user margin bill which would simply clarify that end users of derivatives such as airlines and manufacturers are not subject to dodd frank's margin capital requirements. i voted -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. mrs. maloney: i voted for this bill in committee and also on the floor. however, with this being said, i strongly oppose this rule because it puts tria's passage

in the senate in jeopardy and this is truly unfortunate. before the rules committee, ranking member waters and i suggested that we divide this out have tria and the other bill, the dodd-frank regulatory bill, separate so there would not be a problem in the senate. unfortunately that did not happen and i am extremely concerned that this puts in jeopardy the passage of a bill that is critically important to the economy of this country. i thank the gentleman for yielding and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: thank you very much. exactly what the gentlewoman speaks about was part of the long discussion we had in the rules committee yesterday. the gentleman from dallas, texas, chairman hensarling, very clearly went through piece by piece by piece of the things which the senate had added which

were extraneous to tria that was in their bill that they passed. and likewise the chairman outlined what he was for. he's for having a bill that got 411 votes in this body. but one of the things which was a very pleasant surprise and i thought very wisely done by the secretary of the treasury, and i'd like to read what secretary jacob lew said in a letter addressed december 11, just this week, to the honorable charles e. schumer. chuck schumer is the leader of e tria bill in the senate he said, dear senator schumer. i want to thank you for your leadership on extending the terrorism reinsurance act and its program. as you well know, tria is critical to our economic and national security. terrorism insurance is necessary for a broad range of economic

activities in areas across the country and would be prohibitively expensive or unavailable in the absence of the program. second paragraph. there is clear bipartisan support in both the senate and the house to enact a long-term extension while making reforms to further reduce taxpayers -- taxpayer exposure. time is running short to head off an unnecessary, unprecedented and disruptive lapse of the program which is scheduled to expire in just a few weeks. third paragraph. given the economic necessity and national security implications of this legislation, tria's re-authorization should not be delayed due to disagreements over entirely unrelated financial regulatory issues. i appreciate the hard work you and your bipartisan colleagues are doing to re-authorize a

long-term extension of tria. i would like if i can to have unanimous consent to insert this in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. sessions: this is from the secretary of the treasury asking mr. schumer to say, let's get this done. i would like to yield 10 minutes to the gentleman from lubbock, texas who can further delve into the issues about how important his measure is. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 10 minutes. mr. neugebauer: well, i thank the distinguished member of the rules committee. you know, i think the point that we want to continue to make here is when we put -- use the existing framework, the objective here was to give certainty to the industry, both the insurance industry and to the people that the insurance industry is insuring, and so over the next six years they'll know what the policy but at the same time we're beginning to transition some of these

reforms that hopefully will be a trend for future re-authorizations, should they be necessary. let me emphasize that, should they be necessary. because one of the things we do know is the industry is doing a better job of being able to model what the potential risks are. there is some mitigation going on on making sure that new structures, new facilities take into account to prevent the potential for certain types of attacks. so we want to encourage that kind of behavior. but it doesn't encourage that kind of behavior if there isn't some economic incentive, and there's no economic incentive if the taxpayers keep having to pick up the bills on a number of these programs. so i'm very pleased with the reforms that are built in this. i think we bring market certainty and we didn't materially change the program and we're doing a long-term re-authorization. you know, i think the interesting thing -- and i think we can't make that point

-- there's not anything controversial in this bill. now, some people don't like the fact there's been some things included into it, but, you know, quite honestly, we're taking up a senate bill that was sent over to us with extraneous policy built into it. it's policy quite honestly some f us degree with, why that nrab provision is important, your local insurance agent that now do business ined a joining states without having to go take a license test in each state. doesn't preempt the state's ability to regulate the insurance activity in that state but actually streamlines and basically is a small business bill. the other issue, as has been talked about, is the business risk mitigation and stabilization act. that's an important piece of legislation because a lot of our small businesses are out there that are trying to raise capital, they're trying to create jobs and there are

certain risks they just don't want to take or they feel like it's in the best interest of their business to be able to help someone risk share that with. in many of the products they buy to share that risk, the risk factor of doing business with that company is already priced in that transaction. but what we have an overinterpretation here now where not only do those businesses paying the risk premium but they're also having to put up additional collateral, so this begins to keep the working capital for the company so they can invest in new equipment and things that can help, you know, create ew jobs in this country. and i want to talk about the fact that 411 people, including mrs. maloney, voted for this piece of legislation, so this is not something we are trying to sneak in. this passed this house by 411 votes. mr. dodd and mr. frank, the

authors of the dodd-frank bill, said this was never the intention of dodd-frank and has poken in favor of some kind of reform for that in the future. so this is a good piece of legislation, and i'm a little, you know, concerned that my colleagues think that it's in jeopardy. the only reason it would be in jeopardy is if our colleagues on the other side of the building decided they don't want to re-authorize tria. that's certainly a decision that would be made on their own. again, nothing in this bill has not -- is policy that has not been considered in this body in the future -- in the past. so mr. chairman, i encourage my colleagues to support this rule. we need to move this forward. time is running short, and the marketplace needs that certainty. i'm confident that we'll pass this bill in the house today and we are going to encourage

our folks over in the sfat to ratify that and we hope -- in the senate to ratify that and we hope the president of the united states will bring certainty to the american industry in the future. so with that i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i would advise through you my good friend from texas that i'm the last speaker and i'm prepared to close if he's prepared to close. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, i want to thank the gentleman and that will be fine. we've had our speakers and so i'll let the gentleman proceed as he's suggested. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: then i yield myself the balance of the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hastings: i certainly don't intend to use that much time, but i do wish to point out, mr. speaker, since there has been discussion regarding the changes that are extraneous to the base bill, more specifically the changes with reference to dodd-frank and

other changes that senate included in the measure that has now come to the house. my understanding is, and i stand to be corrected, that the changes that were made in the senate were not measures having it eal with dodd-frank, and appears that's where the provisions are likely to come into play in that my friends on the other side included the dodd-frank language after the negotiations had been put forward and the fact of the matter is it does appear that several members of the other body have indicated that they are opposed to it. i don't believe that means that they're opposed to tria. but i do believe it means that they are opposed to changes in dodd-frank. tria has been a widely successful program that has created jobs and fostered

certainty in the marketplace and protected u.s. economic security all at no cost to the taxpayer. re-authorization, in my judgment, is essential to urrent and future commercial developments in communities across this country and to the economic prosperity. i don't believe my republican colleagues really want to play chicken with this vital national and economic security program in order to strong arm the process on unrelated provisions.rvices you know, mr. speaker and my friends, when the 113th congress began, it began with the distinguished speaker of the house enouns ated among other things -- enounciated

among other things that we would have an open and transparent process. is is the 83rd closed rule that my friends on the other side have brought to this body. it rivals any in the history of this country and i have been in the majority and the minority as a member of the rules committee and have seen members of my party advocate and pass closed rules. en i came to the body in 1992, i had very little understanding about the process , and i recall very vividly when i went home for the first time, the democrats were in the majority and all of the talk on radio shows that i would appear on was your party is passing

closed rules. i'm not so sure that generally the public is mindful of this inside process, but the essence of it allows that members who are not on the relevant committee or members who did not have their amendments made in order before the rules committee are precluded under closed rules from having an opportunity to put forward their ideas which might benefit the legislation or if they feel the legislation is deserving of burdening it might very well do that as well. but i close by saying that i never thought that we would have 83 closed rules. i'm privileged to be able to serve in the 114th congress,

and my great hope is that we get past this particular measure cutting off other members in this body from having full participation in the world's greatest deliberative body. i urge my colleagues to vote no on the rule, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: mr. speaker, thank you very much, and i thank the distinguished gentleman from florida, not only for the effort that we've had today but also at the rules committee yesterday where the committee heard really, really great points, perhaps on both sides, but great points about how important this legislation is not only to the country, the stability of a marketplace and the ability to keep and grow jobs. i also heard the gentleman, you know, very clearly talk about his pleasure of having a number

of closed rules. and i would just thank the gentleman for reminding me as chairman of the committee and would respond back, almost every single week we were in session we put into play more amendments in order for democrats than harry reid did for six years for any republican in the united states senate. and i've tried to make sure that what i do is based upon some bit of fairness, but the facts of the case are the last time this tria bill was on the floor, chairman -- then-chairman barney frank asked for and received a closed rule. hen he did the same thing in 2007. and republicans have also, under these processes, done the same thing except in 2005 and 2007 they were done on suspension, meaning that we had about 10 minutes to talk about

the effort. today what we've tried to do is to have a full debate in the rules committee. the gentleman, mr. hastings, among others, were allowed time, as much time as anybody wanted to discuss the ideas, fully vet the views of not only ranking member and the gentlewoman from new york but also the gentleman, mr. hensarling, to explain to the rules committee that most members are not aware of all the arguments. the real need to make sure that tria was done well, it was better to do it well and certainly putting in a closed rule, we can get through things in these remaining days good legislation, 411 vote piece of legislation. you heard chairman neugebauer from lubbock, texas, really, the argument tect of this legislation and the person -- architect of this legislation and the person who has the authority and responsibility through the subcommittee who

worked with chairman hensarling to develop leading edge ideas that they could feel free to come to this body to support. i think it is critical that we are here today. we're going to get our work done. it's really noncontroversial except if we just want to roll over and second guess what the senate wants to do. they had their shot at it, and they added some, quote, extraneous measures. one that have been passed with 90-plus-percent of their body, and we're going to work through this and it's going to be doing the right thing for the right reasons. so as i've said, i think it's important that why we're here, we know why we're here, what we're doing. we talked about secretary of treasury, mr. lu, writing a letter to chuck schumer, the lead in the senate saying, hey, listen, let's get this thing done. it is so important.

chairman neugebauer, chairman hensarling, just in time arrival of a bill for the rules committee, long debate, long discussion, plenty of time to debate on the floor today. anybody that wanted to could show up here. it's just not a lot to be upset about. it's just really a good mark of the fine work that mr. neugebauer, mr. hensarling have done. and so it was really a pretty interesting meeting yesterday. got to learn a lot and the members of the rules committee said this is the right thing to do. let's not get in the way. it's important to the country. so mr. speaker, once again, i'd like to say, i think the secretary's right. i think the chairman of the committee is right. i think the vice chairman of the committee is right. i think many of the people that came up in the rules committee yesterday were right. this is a great piece of legislation. this package will provide a long-term extension to tria. it's going to make reforms to

protect taxpayers. it's going to make sure that the industry understands what it is. it's a bipartisan fix. it's going to include a bill with 411 votes out of this body. i think it's a darn good deal and i'm delighted to do that. so i urge my colleagues to vote yes, vote yes on this rule, yes on the underlying legislation. i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the resolution is agreed to and without objection -- the gentleman from florida. mr. hastings: i ask -- i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered.

to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 101 east market street in long beach, california, as the juanita millender-mcdonald post office. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, this 15-minute vote on adopting the resolution will be followed by five-minute votes on suspending the rules and passing s. 1000 and agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. 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 231. the nays are 189. the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion from the gentleman from washington, mr. hastings, to suspend the rules and pass s. 100, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 1000, an act

to require the director of the office of management and budget to prepare a crosscut budget for restoration activities in the chesapeake bay watershed and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 101 east market street in long beach, california, as the juanita illender-mcdonald post office. -- 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 416. the nays are zero. 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 upon the table. the house will come to order. he house will come to order.

the chair would ask all present for a moment of silence. the house will come to order. will members please clear the ell and take your seats. the chair would ask all present to rise for the purpose of a moment of silence. the chair asks that the house now observe a moment of silence in remember brens of our brave men and women in uniform who have give their lives in the service of our nation in iraq, afghanistan, and to their families and of all who served in the armed forces and their families.

without objection, five-minute voting will continue. pursuant to clause 8, rule 20, the unfinished business in question is agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the question on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal, 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 261. the nays are 155. with one answering present. the journal stands approved. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on additional motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. any record votes on postponed questions will be taken later.

he house will be in order. the house will be in order. members, take your conversations off the floor, lease. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and concur in the amendment to h.r. 2719. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 2719, an act to require the transportation security administration to

implement best practices and improve transparents with regard to technology acquisition programs and for other purposes, senate amendment. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from north carolina, mr. hudson, and the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson, ach will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. the gentleman will suspend. he house will be in order. members, take your conversations off the floor. the house will be in order. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. hudson: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered.

mr. hudson: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hudson: mr. speaker, i rise today in strong support of the senate amendment to h.r. 2719. mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the house is not in order. members, please take your conversations off the floor. the gentleman is recognized. mr. hudson: mr. speaker, i rise in strong support of the senate amendment to h.r. 2719, the transportation security acquisition reform act, a bill that i introduced in july of last year which passed the house unanimously one year ago. this commonsense bipartisan legislation is the culmination of two years of collaborative

efforts by my colleagues in the house and senate and four years of strong oversight by the transportation security subcommittee. h.r. 2719 will save significant tax dollars by forcing t.s.a. to make thoughtful, informed decisions about what kinds of technology to deploy in our nation's airports. we simply cannot afford to see t.s.a. repeat the mistakes of the past, which have resulted in technology such as puffer machines and body scanners being pulled out of airports prematurely and others sitting idly in warehouses never to see the light of day. h.r. 2719 requires t.s.a. to develop and share with industry and the public a detailed five-year technology investment plan. the bill gives congress early warning about any cost overruns, delays or technical failures encountered by t.s.a. it ensures that t.s.a. is implementing acquisition -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. will members please take their

conversations off the floor? members to the right of the speaker. please take their conversations off the floor. the gentleman deserves to be heard. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. hudson: thank you, mr. speaker. this bill ensures that t.s.a. is implementing acquisition best practices as identified by the government accountable office. it mandates a better process for managing security equipment in t.s.a.'s inventory. finally, the senate strengthened the bill by requiring more consultation by experts in the public and private sectors during the acquisition process. i'd like to thank the chairman of the committee on homeland security, mr. mccaul, for his assistance in moving this bill through the committee and the house, as well as the ranking member, mr. thompson -- ranking member of the full committee for your work, alongside myself . d our chairman

mr. thompson made this bill a better bill. he and mr. richmond, appreciate the cooperation with which they gave us and, again, their work gave us a better bill. and i'd like to thank senator ayotte for leading the effort to see it through the senate commerce committee and the full senate. i'd like to thank senators rockefeller, thune and tester and their staffs for their strong support and for important efforts to move this bill. finally, i'd like to thank the 18 industry groups that have endorsed this bill, including the security manufacturers coalition, airlines for america, airports council international north america, the national association of airport zktiffs, the general manufacturers association, the security industry association, the u.s. travel association and many others who provided valuable feedback and worked with us throughout this process. mr. speaker, i'd ask unanimous consent to have a letter of support from these stakeholders included in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. hudson: this no-cost

bipartisan legislation will go a long way to improving transparency and accountability at t.s.a. i ask my colleagues to support this bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate. 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 s. 2519, cited as the national cybersecurity protection act of 2014, in which the concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi is recognized. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of senate amendment to h.r. 2719, the transportation security acquisition reform act, and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, for years both as chairman and ranking member of the committee on homeland security, i've been troubled by the way t.s.a. goes about

acquisition technology. time and again, taxpayers' dollars have been wasted on technologies that either do not work or cannot be upgraded to meet the agency's need. i have also been troubled by t.s.a.'s apparent inability to effectively manage its inventory of security-related technology and meets its goals for contracting with small and disadvantaged businesses. the bill before us today addresses these concerns through greater transparency and accountability. in this age of tight budgets, t.s.a. cannot purchase technologies on a whim and outside of robust acquisition controls. under h.r. 2719 of which i was proud to be an original co-sponsor, t.s.a. will be required to develop and publish a multiyear technology investment plan that will guide the agency's security-related technology purchases.

this plan will give both the agency and congress a clear understanding of how taxpayers' dollars will be allocated in future years. the bill also requires t.s.a. to develop a plan for managing its inventory of security-related technologies. last year, the department of homeland security's office of inspector general found that t.s.a. had more than 17,000 items in its warehouse inventory at an estimated cost of $185 million. the i.g. concluded that t.s.a. may be able to put approximately $800,000 per year to better use by managing its inventory more effectively. for fiscal year 2012, t.s.a.'s goal for prime contracting was small businesses was set at 23%. yet, the agency barely reached 16%. while t.s.a. improved this performance in 2013, it still failed to meet its goals for

prime contracting with small businesses. to address t.s.a.'s chronic problems meeting small business contracting goals, the bill requires t.s.a. to consult with other fellow agencies that get small business contracting done and done right. under h.r. 2719 t.s.a. will be required to develop an action plan for improving its performance and report to congress on its progress in implementing the plan. for too long, t.s.a. has relied upon the same limited number of companies to develop and produce the security-related technologies it puts into the field. doing so comes at the peril of small and minority-owned businesses that are essential to innovation. this dynamic also results in additional costs to taxpayers due to a lack of competition in the marketplace. h.r. 2719 received the unanimous support of the

committee on homeland security and its full house later last year. the senate amendment to this bill that we are considering today makes minor and beneficial modifications. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from north carolina. mr. hudson: mr. speaker, i have no further speakers if the gentleman from mississippi has no further speakers, i'm prepared to close once the gentleman does. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman reserve? mr. hudson: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: mr. speaker, i have one speaker before i close. i yield three minutes to the ranking member on the subcommittee on border and maritime security of the committee on homeland security, the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is ecognized for three minutes. s. jackson lee: thank you very

much, mr. thompson. thank you for your leadership as ranking member and formerly chair, and mr. hudson, let me also acknowledge mr. richmond, ranking member on the subcommittee on transportation security. it is clear that this committee, homeland security, overall, has worked together for the betterment of the national security of this nation and these legislative initiatives in particular are remembered -- i remember distinctly the hearings, the collaboration with a number of groups. so i rise today to speak on the transportation security bill regarding best practices to improve transparency with regard to technology acquisition programs and for other purposes. transportation security administration now under homeland security, is one of our vital oorgans that relates to the security of america. we only need look at special hol lay -- holidays throughout the nation and throughout the year to realize how vital the

aviation system is and how important it is to work together with the transportation security administration covering t.s.o.'s and a large component of research and technology dealing with the security of our airports. this initiative is an important one. it is almost unspeakable to have the size of inventory, some $185 million in assessment, languishing in warehouses under the name of transportation security administration. other the years as the ranking member and chairwoman of the transportation security, i've joined my colleagues for fighting for small business because there lies technology this initiative to open the oors for the idea of a multiyear technology investment plan and underutilized innovation opportunities that can be provided in this area of security i believe is very important. and then of course to insist that the 16% not be the number

that we rely upon in terms of the investment and opportunities for minority and small businesses. i support this initiative, and i must at this moment add my support for the legislation dealing with insisting on an aviation security advisory committee. i want to congratulate mr. thompson on that and indicate that the issue of aviation security matters need collaboration. let me finish by saying, as we experienced over the last year, a -- over the last year a decision to add or take away what was an item that you could bring through security, we found out that collaboration is crucial. so this is an important initiative and i thank both the managers on the floor and i support both of these initiatives and congratulate them for moving the security of america further. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from north carolina. mr. hudson: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi is

recognized. mr. thompson: i have no further speakers, i'm prepared to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: thank you very much, mr. speaker. in closing, i'd like to thank subcommittee chairman hudson and ranking member richmond for working in collaboration to develop this important legislation. i'd also like to acknowledge the bipartisan staff work that went into getting us to this point. specifically, i want to turberville onan my staff and amanda pareek on the majority staff for their work on this legislation over the past two years. mr. speaker, i urge all members to support the of senate amendment to h.r. 2719 so that this bill can be enacted and t.s.a.'s acquisition process is on a path to improvement. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. hudson: thank you, mr.

speaker. i want to thank the chairman for his kind remarks and for the collaborative nature with which we've worked throughout this congress. i've appreciated his leadership and advice. i believe we've done good work and we've done it because we've listened to each other and worked well together. i appreciate your leadership as ell as mr. richmond, the ranking member on the committee. this would not be possible had they not work sod closely with us. i'd also like to thank the gentleman for mentioning our staffs. our staffs have worked very hard. they've worked in a bipartisan manner. i attach myself to his compliments for our staff there and thank him for that kindness. mr. speaker, i'm proud of the accomplishments we've made on the subcommittee, in particular, i'm proud of this piece of legislation, h.r. 2719. it was developed with input from stake holders in an exhaustive process. it was -- with subject matter experts across government and the industry to address

different deficiencies we've identified through the t.s.a.'s acquisition process. i urge my colleagues to vote yes on senator ayott's amendment and let's send this bill to the president for his signature. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and concur with the senate amendment to h.r. 2719. 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 senate amendment is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the gentleman from north carolina. mr. thompson: i'd like to request the nays -- mr. hudson: i'd like to request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having

risen, a recorded vote is ordered. pursuant to clause of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. -- clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> i move that the house suspend the rules and concur -- mr. hudson: i move that the house suspend the rules and concur in the senate amendment to h.r. 1204. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the amendment. he clerk: h.r. 1204, to direct the director of homeland security to establish an aviation security advisory committee and for other purposes. senate amendment. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from north carolina, mr. hudson, and the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. mr. hudson: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. hudson: i yield myself such

time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hudson: i rise in support of the senate amendment to h.r. 1204, the aviation security stake holder participation act this bill was introduced by my colleague the ranking member of the committee on homeland security, mr. thompson. i would like to thank the ranking member for developing this legislation which would ensure stable, open lines of communication between t.s.a. and a multitude of aviation security stake holders. i also thank the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from texas, mr. mccaul, for his support and work on this bill and seeing it through committee and the house. additionally our colleagues in the senate, particularly senators rockefeller, tester, thune, and ayacht played an i want -- and ayott played an integral role in bringing this bill forward. this bill passed through the committee and passed the house a year ago to outline exactly the sort of outreach expected from

the t.s.a. t.s.a. should constantly solicit feedback from the aviation community before making new security policies, especially when the policies could translate into big headachers in traveling public or the aviation industry. last year we saw what can happen when t.s.a. tries to make policy decisions in a vacuum. they announced they'd allow small knives and sports equipment to be carried onto airplanes before consulting stake holders. the result was a public disagreement and a complete reversal of the decision. had the process been handled differently, the outcome may have been different. the committee already provides input and includes u.s. air carriers, cargo air carriers, flight attendants, law enforcement and other groups this bill codifies existing asac into law and gives additional groups a seat at the table. it requires them to give --

t.s.a. to provide feedback which it doesn't do, and makes i impabble for asac to discuss sensitive information as appropriate. 18 diverse groups, including aims, technology manufacturers support this bipartisan bill. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support the senate amendment to h.r. 1204 and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time the gentleman from mississippi. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of senate amendment h.r. 1204. the aviation security stake holder participation act of 2014. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for such time as he may consume. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, at the outset, i would like to thank chairman mccaul and hudson and ranking member richmond for their support of the measure before us today. i'd like to thank senator tester, for working with me to

introduce companion legislation. finally i commend chairman rockefeller for taking an interest in this legislation tond moving it through the senate commerce committee on science and transportation. mr. speaker, the legislation before us today has gone through regular order and is the product of thoughtful deliberation and bipartisan agreement. indeed, the senate amendment to h.r. 1204 improves upon the bill passed by the house in december of last year by enhancing transparency while preserving the ability the aviation security advisory committee to effectively and efficiently conduct its important work. by concurring in the senate amendment to h.r. 1204 and sending the bill to the president for his signature, the house will be ensuring that stake holders, including labor organizations, airports, small business operators at airports, airlines, have a permanent seat

at the table when t.s.a. is developing policies and procedures that directly impact their work in business. when congressest tablied t.s.a. in response to the 9/11 terrorist attack, the agency was granted broad latitude to develop, implement and modify aviation security policies and procedures. as a result, in many instances, t.s.a. is not required to, and does not go through the federal rule making process to establish new policies or modify those already on the books. i've introduced h.r. 1204 to ensure that input if the key stake holders is sought, received and considered by t.s.a. to that end, my bill not only makes the aviation security advisory committee permanent but puts new requirements on t.s.a. to consult with this body and give its recommendations thoughtful and timely consideration.

it also requires the establishment of subcommittees within the larger aviation security advisory committee to focus on air cargo security, general aviation security, perimeter security, and security technology. whatever your views on t.s.a., i believe we can all agree that aviation security policymaking should reflect meaningful consultation and coordination with key stake holders. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. hudson: i have no further speakers network gentleman from mississippi is prepared to close i'm prepared to close once he does. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman reserve? mr. hudson: yes, sir. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from mississippi is recognized. mr. thompson: i have no more speakers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. as you've heard, h.r. 1204 has broad bipartisan support within congress and is supported by a

wide a ray of stake holders. the senate passed the bill by unanimous consent and the house initially passed the bill last december with over 400 members voting in favor. i urge my colleagues to display the same level of support for the senate amendment to h.r. 1204 so that this bipartisan legislation can be sent to the president for his signature. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. hudson: thank you, mr. speaker. this is an bornt bipartisan -- an important bipartisan bill that i believe will make a real difference for the future of aviation security. i want to thank those on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the hill who played a key role in moving this bill. i want to thank the staff not just for their work on this bill but the other transportation security bills we sent to the president this congress. matt, ake, nicole,

jerry, and amanda. thank all of you for your service to our country and your hard work. i urge my colleagues to vote yes and send this bill to the president for his signature. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and concur with the senate amendment to h.r. 1204? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rule -- for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise? mr. hudson: i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this uestion will be postponed.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 775, i call up s. 2244 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 2244, an act to extend the termination date of the terrorism insurance program established under the

terrorism risk insurance act of 2002, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 775, the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the house report 113-654 is adopted and the bill, as amended, is considered as read. the gentleman from texas, mr. hensarling, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. waters, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and tend their remarks and include extraneous material in the record on s. 2244, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for such time as he may consume. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, thank you very much. we have an incredible opportunity before us in the house today and that is to move significant bipartisan

legislation that can accomplish a number of purposes, that will bring greater stability and certainty to the construction markets, to our insurance companies in dealing with the terrorism risk insurance act. we can also bring greater certainty and stability to our small factories, our farmers, our ranchers, those who are still suffering in this economy. we can bring them certainty and stability by taking care of an unintended consequence of the dodd-frank act, something called the end user exception in the derivative title, which may just be the most -- one of the most damaging -- as interpreted -- one of the most damaging regulations that many in this body perhaps have not heard of.

again, mr. speaker, this is legislation that has been worked on in a bipartisan manner, sometimes a little contentious but we've ended up in a place where i believe that both republican and democrat and house and senate should be able to come together. i think it's important to remember, mr. speaker, that particularly as we go into the holiday season and as we go into christmas how many working men and women are still laying awake at night wondering how they're going to be able to fund christmas for their children at this time. and although we've seen some modest improvements in the economy, there's still over nine million of our fellow countrymen who are unemployed. the number of underemployed, those who wish to have full-time work but cannot find it, that is almost twice the number at 18 million. we have 46 million of our

fellow countrymen still on food stamps. 45 million at the poverty rate. one of the most important things we can do here, mr. speaker is being able to make a positive -- mr. speaker, is eing able to make a positive opportunity at this particular me and that is, one of the aspects of s. 2244. we've had a debate about the terrorism risk insurance act in this body. i was authorized on behalf of the house to negotiate this particular part of this bill, along with senator schumer, the gentleman from new york, on the senate side. over the course of several weeks and several meetings we have negotiated language on this. certainly, it doesn't give

everything the house wants, it doesn't give everything the senate wants. such is negotiations in a free society with divided government. but for those who care passionately about the re-authorization, this is a long-term re-authorization bill which most members have asked for. it's a six-year re-authorization. for those who care about taxpayer protections, as i do, there are improvements for taxpayer protections. the trigger level has been in, ed before tria kicks meaning there is greater coverage for insurance companies, less for taxpayers. an artificial ceiling on what the industry will contribute. that artificial ceiling now ceases to be in s. 2244. for the first time, taxpayers will actually get some modest rate of return should they be called upon under tria to

backstop. so these are important improvements, and i think both conservatives and liberal and republican and democrat hopefully will see something worthy here, but i will point out it is disconcerning, it is disturbing that those that have backed so many provisions in this bill now want to say no to being able to have a long-term tria re-authorization passed. this bill before us includes that end user exemption which is so important. this isn't for wall street. this is for main street. it's for a cattle producer in kansas named tracy who said, quote, this mistake in language in dodd-frank may, quote, may very well force me out of the arket, subject me to greater risk. my operation is family run. we're not responsible for the failures that led to dodd-frank. yet, his family farm in kansas,

1,500 miles away from wall street, suffers. and so even the ranking member has acknowledged there have been some unintended consequences to dodd-frank. and recently she was one of 412 members of this house to vote in favor of the end user exception which she herself called quote-unquote clarification. not an amendment, not a change but a clarification. d mr. speaker, even mr. dodd and mr. frank four years ago on colloquy on the house floor and senate floor said that these provisions were never meant to harm main street america, never meant to apply to end users, never meant to apply to the farmers, the ranchers and the small factory workers, and so we have an opportunity to do something very positive but now all of a sudden some across the other side of the aisle said we can't do this. we believe this is unrelated to tria. well, why did the united states

senate, mr. speaker, put in a provision that makes a change, a radical change in the requirements to serve on the board of governors of the federal reserve? what did that have to do with tria? the senate put that in. the national association of registered agents and brokers, the senate put that in. 2/3 of this bill is about narab. the senate put that in. mr. speaker, i'm not debating the underlying policy issues, but it is at best a little disconcerning if not disingenuous to say, my lord, the house shouldn't put in an unrelated provision since the senate did it twice. the senate will not open up dodd-frank. well, what is the collins amendment? the collins amendment was sent over by the senate, not part of this legislation, they opened up dodd-frank. and then again to quote the ranking member, this is a clarification. it is a clarification.

and so we have an opportunity to pass a bipartisan bill, not only to bring some stability and certainty to our insurance markets, our builders but to farmers and ranchers and small businesses and hurting families at this holiday season and without any further delay we should enact s. 2244, as amended. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from california is recognized. ms. waters: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for such time as she may consume. ms. waters: mr. chairman and members, i rise today to shine in ght on what has happened the development of the terrorism risk insurance program re-authorization act. i rise today to talk about the

fact that the chairman of our committee, the financial services committee, did not want at one point to re-authorize terrorism risk insurance at all. and so he strung out the possibility of negotiations for months. he had decided that he was not going to re-authorize -- no, not now, mr. chairman. that he was not going to re-authorize terrorism insurance, and he will tell you that he offered to negotiate with me. the only thing that i ever remember about a conversation that we had was that my chairman said i will only negotiate this once. starting out in bad faith. and so time went on, and at

some point in time somebody convinced him that to re-authorize the terrorism risk insurance program was an honorable thing to do, it was an american thing to do, it was an important thing to do. that this program had been passed and signed on by the president of the united states after 9/11. the insurance companies who insured risk basically said hey cannot model terrorism acts. after 9/11 it was decided that we would mandate that they insure, but we would provide a backstop, that we would provide a backstop to ensure we could rebuild our communities, that we could rebuild these huge venues, these important places

in our lives in the case of a terrorism attack. and so when mr. hensarling finally decided that he would negotiate -- he ended up in negotiations with mr. schumer, and mr. schumer and the democrats basically conceded and gave in on a lot of things. we supported originally the senate bill. we thought the senate bill was a fine bill that re-authorized terrorism risk for seven years and, of course, it had had in it the backstop after $100 million was spent by the industry, and it basically did everything that we wanted it to have done, just as it had started out to do. mr. hensarling came along and that he wanted to

reduce the time of re-authorization. i don't know what he started out with. we had six years instead of seven years. we gave in. i remember he wanted bifurcation in the bill. he wanted to distinguish between what kind of terrorist attack, how much it was worth and whether some of it was worse than others. he talked about bifurcating in ways that you would distinguish between radiological, iological, chemical and others . and so we negotiated and negotiated and finally we got that out of mr. hensarling's mind about bifurcation. and then mr. hensarling said that we needed to reduce our backstop and instead of backstopping after $100 million, he raised it -- first

he talked about $500 million, and finally -- well, secondly, he talked about $250 million, and finally we got him down to $200 million and it's over a five-year period of time. so we said, ok, we negotiated in good faith, and we'll go along with the changes, we're willing to concede that you have some different thoughts and that's ok. let's come together in a bipartisan way and support the re-authorization of terrorism risk insurance. i was informed later on that my chairman came back to the table with any number of things that had nothing to do with terrorism risk insurance. but had more to do with dodd-frank. because unfortunately, my chairman and too many members on the opposite side of the aisle are intent on dismantling dodd-frank in any and every way they possibly can. and finally, in those

negotiations, the way it has been explained to me, that they agreed that they would allow him to act -- to add just one aspect of the dodd-frank bill that had passed this house to talk about how agriculture and some other industries could lock in some prices so that they could look forward to what a price would be on those commodity, etc., that they would have to purchase. this had nothing to do with terrorism insurance. and so i'm not saying to the members you shouldn't vote for this bill. what i'm pointing out is that this is just another attempt for the chairman to indicate in every way that he possibly can and take advantage of any opportunities that present

itself to get a little something in about dodd-frank. and what i worry about is not so much about what he has put into tria. i worry about what's going into the omnibus bill. i worry about the fact that in addition to this there is an attempt, if it has not already been done, to place into the omnibus bill a repeal of part of dodd-frank that would prevent the biggest banks in america from taking advantage of our consumers by using their hard-earned money to do risky derivative trading that should be pushed out into the subsidiaries and not have fdic in any way support or protect them in doing this. and so what i say is this. we should know and we should understand exactly how the process works.

we should know and understand what is being done and why it is being done. if in fact there is so much care and concern about tria re-authorization, we should have a clean bill with nothing else in it. if we want to debate dodd-frank, what we don't like it, what we like about it, let's do it straight up. let's not slip it in at the 11th hour. at a time when our backs are up against the wall. at a time when we're closing down this session. that's what i'm opposed to. so with that, mr. speaker, mr. chairman, i will retain the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. sessions: i yield myself 20 seconds to thank the ranking -- mr. hensarling: i yield myself 20 seconds to thank the

gentlelady for her long narrative that proves how reasonable republicans were in this. but i have to correct, i have never said publicly or privately that we should allow the backstop to lapse. she is entitled to her own opinions, but not her own facts and previously she has said she has been in favor of this provision, i yield myself another 10 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hensarling: she's been in favor of the end user exemption and said the bill would clarify the intent of the wall street reform act. i urge me the committee to adopt the bill. she was before it before she was against it but whether it be bigger waters, whether it be export-import, whether it be end user, she has changed her mind frequently. i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. mchenry, the chief deputy. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two

minutes. mr. mchenry: i want to thank mr. hensarling for bringing this bipartisan construct to the house floor. it extends a very important federal backstop against the risk of terror on the american people and to small businesses aened substantial businesses as well and as i've said in the past, it's very important that we re-authorize the tria program. and the chairman incorporated diverse opinions, including those from across the aisle, also want to commend our colleagues from new york, grimm and congressman king for helping get this to the floor today. since september 11, the tria program has provided an important federal backstop for businesses that must insure against the devastation of a future attack. congressman hensarling has worked with our friends across the aisle to make commonsense changes to this program while ensuring that both businesses and taxpayers are not exposed to

the risk of future terrorism attacks. in addition, as amended, this will make some very important technical changes to the dodd-frank act by protecting manufacturers, ranchers and small businesses. -- small businesses that buy and need to hedge against business risk. while this legislation will become law and i expect a substantial number of my democratic colleagues to cross the aisle and vote with almost all of the republicans to pass this and the democrat senate, democrat president to sign this, i urge my other colleagues on the other side of the aisle to come on over. it's a good reform. a necessary reform. and it's going to be a fantastic, strong vote we'll have in the house of representatives to do the right thing, both for the taxpayer, the american people and small businesses and at the same time protecting against the devastation of a future attack. i thank the chairman, i also thank chairman hensarling, not scrust chairman hensarling but subcommittee chair neugebauer

for their work on this very important program. it's been a long process but can show that the financial services committee can get the deal done. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time is expired. the gentlewoman from california. one ters: i yield myself minute to correct mr. mchenry. he's inviting taos come on over. we have been inviting them from day one to come up with terrorism risk insurance bill re-authorization so we have been inviting you to come on over, we've had members on the on side -- opposite side of the aisle who have been pleading with you to come over. we have always had 100% support on the democratic side for the re-authorization of terrorism risk insurance and you guy have basically held us up and only negotiated at the last minute. don't invite us to come over you come on over with us. i yield back -- reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves.

ms. waters: i yield to the gentlelady from new york. the speaker pro tempore: for how long? ms. waters: three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. mrs. maloney: i thank the ranking member for her leadership, for yielding, and for her hard work on this bill. i rise in support of 2244 which is critically important to the economy and national security of the city i'm privileged to represent, new york, and to our nation at large. after the terrible attacks on 9/11, insurers realized they could not accurately model for terrorism risk. it was simply too unpredictable. and the market for terrorism insurance completely dried up. no one could get insured. businesses stopped. the only place we could get insured was from lloyd's of london and we lost thousands of jobs and our economy came to a standstill.

in response, congress came together, united and determined, and in a bipartisan way passed the terrorism risk insurance act or tria. which provides a government backstop for terrorism insurance. the goal of tria was to make terrorism insurance affordable and available. and that's exactly what it has done. and it has been done with without one cost whatsoever to the american taxpayer. this bill represents a true bipartisan compromise. and i commend chairman hensarling and neugebauer for working with my colleagues senator schumer and ranking member waters to reach a deal on tria. initially, the house tria bill raised the trigger for the government backstop by a whopping 500%. from $100 million to $500 million this would have forced many small and medium sized insurers out of the market

entirely. and would have actually decreased the amount of terrorism insurance available in our country. fortunately this compromise bill only raises the trigger for the government back stop from $100 million to $200 million. this modest increase will ensure that small and medium sized insurers are not forced out of the market. and also it is protecting our taxpayers and i fully and completely support this compromise. importantly, however, the compromise does not include the so-called bifurcation which would have treated nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological attacks differently than so-called conventional terrorism attacks. this made no sense whatsoever and this comp mice sensibly drops the proposal entirely. finally i'm pleased that this bill re-authorizes tree cra for a full six years.

this will provide much needed certainty to businesses across our country as they expand and create jobs. this compromise will ensure that terrorism insurance remains widely affordable and available. this has always been the underlying purpose of tria and i believe that this bill accomplishes that goal. to revise andrise extend and place in the record the continuation of my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, ordered. the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: thank you, mr. speaker. first i thank the gentlelady from new york, the ranking member of the capital markets subcommittee, for her support. i wish to yield three minutes to the gentleman from texas, the chairman of the financial services housing -- financial services housing and insurance subcommittee and the champion and author of the house tria

bill and the author of the amendment here. i thank him for his work and yield three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. neugebauer: i thank the chairman. there has been a lot of discussion about this bill and people were talking about reforms. i think what american people need to understand is why these reforms are important to them. the reason they're important to them is quite honestly right now, the taxpayers in this country are underwriting part of the risk for terrorism attack in this country for the property owners. and what this bill does is begin to bring certainty for the industry, for the insurers, also certainty for the people that are building the new buildings and apartment houses and shopping centers and other types of public facilities, gives them certainty what the policy will be over the next few years. but i think the important part is taxpayers, additional cushion is being put between them and any potential loss.

one of the things that's been mentioned, we raised the trigger from $100 million to $200 million. that's an important part of that. i think the other issue we tried to do with this in order to create the certainty was we didn't change the overall structure of the tria program. we tried to keep it in the frames of how it's been operating over the last few years, creating the least uncertainty we could. ic the part that isn't mentioned is the fact that we did leave in place the deductible. basically the industry has to take the first loss up to about 20% of the annualized premium for the previous year. today on an industry-wide basis that's about $40 billion. so you've got a $200 million trigger, a $400 billion -- i mean, a $40 billion cushion between the taxpayers and a potential loss. the other thing we did in this bill is we also said when we get to the point where after the deductible that we start sharing that loss, the taxpayers sharing that loss, that the tags

taxpayers' portion moved from 85% to 80%. so that's another cushion. so i think one of the things that we want to let the folks know is also is that additional protection built into this bill was the amount of money that the taxpayers could recover if in fact they had to put additional money into the tria program. so now we've increased that amount substantially and so i'm feeling good that we are moving in the right direction. but ultimately what we need to do is get the taxpayers out of the insurance business. when you look across the border where the taxpayers are having to underwrite insurance type losses, whether it be flood insurance or mortgage insurance, quite honestly the government doesn't do well at processing those. but i'll tell you, there's some good things in this bill besides the tria reform in that we have narad too, a good small business bill. a lot of people have independent

insurance agents in their districts or communities or their states that may want to write business in other states. to do that today they have to go pass, take another license in that other state. under this, they would be able to take their existing license if they meet the requirements in the other states, and follow those laws, they'd be able to underwrite that. the third piece of this legislation that's important -- 30 seconds? mr. hensarling: i yield the gentleman 30 seconds. mr. neugebauer: the other thing that's important is we are going to help farmers and ranchers and small businesses being able to cover the risk that they need without taking a lot of their operating capital, putting that operating capital into plant and equipment so they can hire and create more jobs in america. these are all issues that have bipartisan support in the past and i urge my colleagues, let's do something good for the american people and let's pass . 2244 as amended.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. waters: i yield the gentleman from georgia for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. >> i'm sure, those who are watching this on c-span across the nation, we can comfortably say that what we have on the floor of the house of representatives is something that alexander hamilton leaned over and said to thomas jefferson, my friend, what we have here is an old-fashioned, good-old compromise, compromise, a word that has been out of our lexicon for so long. mr. scott: that the american people are looking for us to put back in it. well, that's what we have on this floor is a compromise. and i want to thank the ranking member because of her tenacity, her leadership because in his vision on the other side, our

distinguished chairman hensarling, who's a very good friend and in his own way sought for a $500 million trigger. and we on our side felt that we wanted to hold to the $100 when trigger, which is the actual federal assistance would go into action and we knew that that was further. i commend both the ranking member and i certainly commend mr. hensarling for agreeing and ecognizing that we come to the $200 million level. i also want to thank mr. hensarling for including in this narab. that is such an important measure, and many people may not realize this but we worked on narab for 10 years in the

financial services committee. it's been a major part of my whole legislative history in this body every year working on it, and i want to thank you, chairman hensarling, for listening to us, talking and agreeing to make this a part of this bill that we have before us. thank you very much for doing that. the other part i want to thank both -- and i certainly want to thank our ranking member for her wisdom in compromising on the end user. now, we all know of the differences with dodd-frank. i tried to have a clear view on this, and it was very important that we make this technical change so that we don't let our ranchers, our farmers, our manufacturers, none of which had had -- which had anything to do with the wall street debacle, none of which our

financial institutions that we will exempt them from the cumbersome and the overbearing need to put margins out when they're doing swaps and derivatives. ladies and gentlemen, this is an excellent bill, it's a good bill and it's one that we urge move forward. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: i yield myself 10 seconds just to say i heard so many good words from my friend from georgia that maybe i need to re-examine the bill. both sides can advance their principles in this bill. mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. king, a valued member of the financial services committee, a tireless occasionally retiring member of tria re-authorization. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. king: very serious, i thank the chairman. at the outset, let me thank chairman hensarling, chairman neugebauer, ranking member waters, my good friend, mrs. maloney from new york and senator schumer. as the gentleman from georgia said, this has been a long and winding road but we've arrived at a compromise that i believe is worthy of support of all members of this body. certainly those of us who certainly support tria. i've been a supporter of tria going back now 12, 13 years because after 9/11 we realized it was absolutely essential that tria be enacted, if not just new york, we rebuilt, but also construction be allowed to go forward anywhere around the country where there could be a risk of a terrorist attack which is why major league baseball and the nfl and nascar and virtually every large university in the country supports tria. now, this is a compromise. it's a compromise where all of us can find some fault but the bottom line is the essence of tria has been sustained and as we go forward, it's essential, i believe, strongly believe at

that it be extended. now, let's make it clear there has not been one cent of federal money expended on tria. during the 13 years it's been in effect, there's been billions of dollars in construction, revenue coming into the federal government. there's not one federal employee involved in administering tria. we are where we are. six years to have that servitude is absolutely essential, and i respect those on the other side who made objections to added provisions in the bill. i would just say, let us keep our eye on the prize. those of us who realize how important tria is, we're not going to get all we want. i support end users. even if i didn't, i would still support this bill because it's so essential. and let me just also say in closing, in addition to those i mentioned, let me acknowledge congressman grimm, the outstanding work he's done on this, from the first day he came to this body. in closing, i urge all members

from both parties and both houses to support this bill. it's a solid piece of legislation and all of us can be proud for voting for it and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. ms. waters: thank you very much, mr. chairman and members, and special appreciation to mr. king who has worked very, very hard on both sides of the aisle to try and make sure that we did not abandon our citizens in this country and leave them at risk in case of a terrorist attack. as i said before, my chairman held us up for a long time and would not negotiate. he finally came around, but this is typical. he mentioned the flood insurance bill. we never could get him to negotiate on that. and so we had to bypass him to make sure that we didn't put our homeowners at risk and as he mentioned, the ex-im bill, he only supported it for a

short period of time. when it comes to helping our citizens and the least of them, it seems as if my chairman has problems with providing for the average citizen on main street. but no problems when we talk about how we can enhance the ability of the biggest banks in america and others to get richer and richer. so i thought it would be worthwhile to shed some light on those comments that he made about ex-im and about flood and now about tria. so we're glad, we're very happy that he finally saw the light, even if he had to insert a little something in it and he came around and he is now on the side of the people. this is about patriotism. this is about american citizens. this is about protecting our cities and our neighborhoods. at a time when this country has to be sure that it is focused

on the safety and security of our citizens, it's no time to dither around with whether or not we will rebuild neighborhoods in these important venues in case of a terrorist attack. -- and these important venues in case there is a terrorist attack. yes, we have a compromise. i'm so proud of the democratic side of the aisle on this. as i said, democrats were fully supportive of the re-authorization of the terrorism risk insurance program from day one. we have never ever waivered, none of us have tried in any way to reduce the program -- waver, none of us have tried in any way to reduce the program. now, let me speak to the end user part of this. yes, i worked with mr. david scott and others because i've always said that on dodd-frank that we have a responsibility to implement what is in law, but i always said i would

support technical changes, i would support ways that we work together to straighten out things that were not clear in dodd-frank. i've never said that i would not be at the table to deal with these kinds of technical changes, and i was. and when i got up today, i didn't speak about being against the bill. i spoke about what has happened that led us to this point and why we're at the 11th hour and the way that the negotiations went on. and so, again, tria is important, and it should be re-authorized. i wish it had been a clean bill. it is not. and i hope that we're not going to have to have dodd-frank -- attempts to undermine dodd-frank, that is, in every bill that comes along with my chairman sees an opportunity to try to slide something in at the 11th hour. and i hope that when we talk about negotiations and trying

to get together to compromise, to work on things that are in the best interest of this country, that nobody will play games with us, no one will lead us to the point where our backs are up against the wall at the 11th hour. but we will openly debate these issues. we will listen to the pros and cons on these issues and that we hopefully will come together in the best interest of all of the citizens. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. hensarling: i yield myself 10 seconds for, mr. speaker, those who may be listening could be confused, as are those in the chamber. i'm very curious whether the ranking member is opposed or supporting this bill, as amended. 'd yield to her. ms. waters: mr. chairman, as i said -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.

mr. hensarling: is the gentlelady opposed or supporting? ms. waters: i want to shed light on it. mr. hensarling: answer the question. mr. speaker, it's my time -- it's my time -- mr. speaker -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady will suspend. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from oklahoma, the chairman of the agriculture committee, and a distinguished member of the house financial services committee, mr. lucas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. lucas: thank you, mr. chairman. i rise today in support of s. 44, a bill to extend the expiration date of the terrorism risk insurance act. i support the business risk mitigation and stabilization act that is included in part of the larger effort. h.r. 634 would provide critical regular lower relief to end users, the market participants, businesses, job creators that use derivatives to manage the risks they face in their daily operations. for example, farmers who need to hedge against the volatility

of crop prices, manufacturers who need to hedge against the rising input cost of fuel use derivatives as part of their business plan. during the consideration of the dodd-frank act, congress clearly intended to exempt end users from some of the most new costly regulations. such as margin requirements. margin requirements needlessly prevent capital away from job creation and production and investment. however, the cftc has narrow interpreted the law which has negatively impacted end users in their bottom line, including the business risk mitigation and price stabilization act in today's bill permanently fixes this issue for end users. it ensures that those businesses, which have been exempted from the clearing requirements their trades are also exempted from margining their trades just as congress always intended. the language in h.r. 634 has passed through the committee on agriculture by a voice vote, and then through the house four

other times. as a stayed-alone bill, it passed with the support of 411 members -- stand-alone bill, it passed with the support of 411 members. it continued to receive overwhelming bipartisan support. the house of representatives has spoken clearly on this issue. end users should not be required to post margin on their transactions. i thank the chairman for including the business risk mitigation and price stabilization act in today's bill. it's time to give our farmers, our businesses the relief they need from this costly and damaging rule. i thank you and urge a vote for yes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california has 11 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from texas has 11 3/4. the gentlelady from california. ms. waters: i yield to the gentlelady from new york three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized for three minutes. ms. velazquez: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentlelady for yielding. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. today, i call on my colleagues

to pass re-authorization of the terrorism risk insurance program, a public-private partnership that is vital to continued economic development across the country. following the tragic events of 9/11, terrorism became uninsurable. many insurers left the market and rates skyrocketed. as a result, thousands of small sinesses -- hindered the recovery of effort -- recovery effort. congress passed terrorism risk insurance act, creating a federal backstop and enticing insurers back. i can say without a doubt, our efforts were successful. i have witnessed firsthand how this program has helped new york city recover and prosper ver the past 12 years. tria has provided thousands of

small businesses with the certainty needed to manage long-term costs, grow reliably and create new jobs. in fact, the program has tripled the number of small businesses that have terrorism protection since 2002. today, over 60% of small firms now have coverage. tria also ensures rates remain affordable. under the program, terrorism coverage averages just 3% to 5% of small business annual insurance premiums. if today's bill -- is today's bill perfect,? no. but it will restore -- perfect? no. stability toestore the marketplace. the government accountability office has stated that terrorism remains an insurable risk. in light of such findings, the terrorism risk insurance program continues to be vital component

of our economic growth and national security. with that, i urge my colleagues to support this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from stks recognized. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, i'm prepared to yield a small amount of time to any democrat member on the floor who intends to vote no on s. 2244 as amended because i haven't heard one say that yet. mr. speaker, i have no takers, so at this time i am happy to yield one minute to the gentleman from missouri, mr. luetkemeyer, the incoming chairman of our housing and insurance subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman recognized for one minute. mr. luetkemeyer: i want to thank chairman hensarling and chairman neugebauer for their work on this issue and tell my colleague, while tria is an important program, it's in need of reform. this bill we'll consider today does just that in a responsible

way and i urge support for it. but make no mistake. this bill reforms the tria program. it takes important steps to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure that industry has more skin in the game. and i remind my colleagues that without tria, the federal government would be on the hook for the entire bill in the fake of a terrorist attack. this builds a program that has long-term re-authorization with greater protections for taxpayers. legislation we consider today, however, does more than re-authorize tria. it also contains important language that protects -- that ensures that derivative end users can lock in prices and keep consumer prices stable. without those, ranchers and farmers and small businesses will have to manage their risk. mr. speaker, i urge me passage and support of this from my forward to d look

his support. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. waters: i yield to the gentleman from new york three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. meeks: i know that any time you have things added to a bill, it's not a clean bill, makes it difficult. but i want to thank her and the chairman for working together in making this happen because this is a major bill. significantly important. you know. and we learned, i think, from the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that this was substantial. when you looked at the losses, it was about 32.-- it was about $32.5 billion or $49.2 billion in 2013 dollars, the largest insurance loss in global history at that time. prior to 9/11, insurance companies generally covered all the costs of terrorist attacks. after 9/11, terrorist risk

insurance became either unavailable or very, very expensive and unaffordable. furthermore, premiums for workers' compensation insurance increased significantly and real estate and commercial ventures were stalled because of an inability to retain -- to obtain the requisite insurance coverage. now, 9/11 happened in new york. and so yes, you see new york and new york members and all of us here supporting the bill. but this is not a bill just about new york. it's about all of america. because they did not attack new york for new york. they attacked new york because it was part of america. and we don't know, and god we pray, that we don't have another such attack ever on our homeland again. but it could be someplace else. it doesn't have to be new york. and it's when we should rally around as americans, as

patriots, to make sure that we continue our economy flowing and moving and that's why even though things are added and certain things people don't like, we're trying to figure out how to get this right because it is too important to america to allow tria to expire. furthermore, when you examine tria really, it costs taxpayers virtually nothing. yet it continues to provide tangible benefits to our overall economy. tria allows for terrorism insurance market stability, affordability, and availability so it -- so those in business, etc., can know, predict and be confident that we will continue to move on. tria is a critical part of the u.s. economy's security infrastructure and would ensure a swift recovery in the event of a significant terrorist attack.

in new york, i'm proud that now we've got the freedom towers up. because it also sends a symbol to those who don't like us, that you can't keep us down. that we'll get back up on our feet, stronger and better than ever. and that's what makes this country the great country we're going to rally around and work with one another system of this tria bill is significantly -- with one another. so this tria bill is significantly important. i ask my colleagues to vote yes on voting for tree yasm the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. hensarling: i yield one minute to the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. duffy, the incoming chairman of our oversight and investigation subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. duffy: i want to commend the chairman of financial services for his pete nasty and hard work to make sure that the american taxpayer is protected. on the hook just a little bit less for the next terrorism attack that could happen in our country and the private sector

is on a little bit more. i'm encouraged by this bipartisan bill because it ensures that my constituents in central, northern, and western wisconsin, can purchase affordable terrorism risk insurance this six-year re-authorization is a backstop for all americans. this is not just a bill for new york. as my friends have mentioned. or chicago or l.a. but it helps small town america. if off mall a small mall in your community, or for wisconsin, lamb bowe field and green bay -- bleem field in green bay -- lambeau field in green bay, this is important. one other part, the requirement that we have a community banker as part of the fed. making sure the fed go into a larger role with rules and regulations. they have a perspective and a view that takes into account small community banks around america that right now are being crushed by overburdensome rules and regulations. i commend the chairman and i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. ms. waters: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, i am now pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from ohio, mr. stivers a valued member of our committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. stivers: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to thank the chairman for yielding me time. i appreciate his work on this very important bill as well as the work of the subcommittee chairman, mr. neugebauer, for this six-year re-authorization of the terrorism risk reinsurance bill this bill protects taxpayers by reforming the program to reduce potential taxpayer costs associated with the terrorism risk reinsurance program. it builds capacity in the private insurance market. and it ensures access to terrorism insurance for communities like mine in columbus, ohio and southern ohio as well as all around america. the bill provides meaningful

reforms by reducing the government's share of losses over time, by increasing the trigger. a over time and ensuring that -- increasing the trigger amount over time and ensuring that it provides important transparency on data collection that will let us know how much companies are billing for terrorism coverage and what the potential exposure is for terrorism and losses. those are all good things. the other thing that's good is it will build capacity in the private marketplace when we increase the trigger -- marketplace. when we incress the trigger we build capacity in the marketplace. the certainty this bill creates, makes sure that businesses across ohio and across the entire country get access to terrorism insurance for multiple years. it creates certainty, it's good for job, good for commercial development and construction.

i think this bill is a very important reform and a great move forward. i again want to applaud the chairman for all his work on it. i want to applaud the bipartisan support this bill is getting today and i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the bill. i yield back the balance of my time, mr. chairman. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlelady from california -- ms. waters: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: how much time is remaining on each side, mr. speaker? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas has 7 1/2, the gentlelady from california has 6 1/2. mr. hensarling: it is my understanding that the minority has no more speakers and the gentlelady, the ranking member, will close, is that correct? in that case, mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from illinois, mr. hultgren a member of the financial services committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. hultgren: thank you, mr. chairman, thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of the tria amendment to senate 2244 and i

would like to commend chairman hensarling and their staff for their hard work throughout this process. tria's re-authorization is not a wall street or big business issue. i believe it's a conservative issue. illinois and american jobs are at stake. if tria is not authorized, illinois small insurers may be subject to costly rating downgrades or have to exit certain insurance markets altogether, leaving customers in the lurch. in the event of an attack, potential targets like soldier field or chicago sty skiestrapers would be left without protection from massive economic losses. tria protects taxpayers because it sets the terms of how our country will cover losses before instead of after a terrorist attack. the rand institute has estimated that it protects our taxpayers by as much as $7 billion. tria also ensures the continued viability of long-term construction projects. one estimate found that for the first 14 months after the 9/11 attacks, 15.-- $15.5 billion of real estate prompts in 15 states

were stalled or canceled because of the continuing scarce i have to terrorism insurance. so this backstop costs very lit physical it's never used or saves money if it is. each regulation requires continued oversight and tria is no different. i believe that this re-authorization contains conservative reforms that protect the taxpayers from excessive los and ensures a functioning terrorism insurance market that doesn't punish businesses such as illinois' small insurers for offering this much-needed terrorism insurance. the end user provision passed by the financial services committee sailed throughout house with 411 votes. congress should come together to support reasonable bipartisan reforms that provide much-need red leaf for mainstream america. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from california continues to reserve. the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: i yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. pittinger, member of the financial services

committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 90 seconds. mr. pittinger: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of the bipartisan terrorism risk insurance act re-authorization known as tria. i would like to commend chairman hensarling and congressman neugebauer for their hard work on this important legislation. tria does not curtail terrorism but this legislation does protect taxpayers, promotes stable markets and enhances economic certainty in the face of terrorism. another important provision includes -- included in this legislation is the bipartisan legislation known as the business risk mitigation and price stabilization act which the house has already passed by a vote of 411-12. this is a basic but very important clarification to the highly regulatory dodd-frank act. this reform will ensure that end users such as manufacturers, ranchers and small companies are not subject to the burdensome margin and capital surcharge requirements imposed by the dodd-frank act.

even the creators of dodd-frank have argued in favor of excepting these end users from margin requirements. without this essential clarification, small main street businesses will have to post additional margins against trades that they enter into for the sole purpose of managing commercial risk. these transactions do not pose a systemic risk to our financial system and did not cause the 2008 financial crisis. a failure to address this issue will cause serious harm to main street economy. instead investing and expanding their business to create jobs, small business owners are being forced to direct resources to comply with more burdensome and unnecessary regulations coming out of washington. this is a bipartisan provision that 181 democrats in congress have already voted for in support. we must not play politics with something as important as tria. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california

continues to reserve. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes -- mr. hensarling: mr. speaker, i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. grimm, who has played a leading role in bringing both the tria and the end user exemption title to s. 2244. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. grimm: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in strong support of this legislation, but before i begin, i'd like to say a very special thank you to chairman jeff hensarling for his outstanding leadership on this bill, as well as chairman nog bureau and ranking member waters. i'm very proud to have worked so long and so hard in what i would say was truly a bipartisan manner. so let me also thank and acknowledge my senior senator from new york, chuck schumer, for his tireless efforts and for making tria re-authorization one of his top priorities. i also want to thank my good friend and colleague from new york, peter king, for being such a champion on this issue. as someone who witnessed the tragedy of 9/11 firsthand and

as a member whose district saw the greatest loss of life during the september 11 attacks, i know all too well the destruction and the suffering that is caused by terrorism. however, as a proud new yorker, i've also seen the tremendous recovery, a recovery that's taken place since that fateful day. but in order to ensure that such a recovery would be possible in the face of, god for bid, a future -- fored by, a future attack -- forbid, a future attack on our country, we must ena a and the vitally tria. - ensure like the pending hudson yards project in manhattan or the barclays senlter in brooklyn, as well as our hospitals and university, such as the statin island university hospital or the college of staten island. i'd also like to add my strong support for the inclusion of my legislation, the business risk mitigation and price stabilization act. which passed i believe this

house with 411 votes right here in this chamber and does anything but undermine dodd-frank. in fact, what it does, it will actually ensure that commercial end users of drisktives contracts will not be subject -- derivatives contracts will not be subject to costly margin requirements that needlessly tie up capital and impede job creation. so with that, i strongly urge my colleagues to support this critical, commonsense legislation and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas has two minutes left. any witnesses left? the gentlelady from california is now recognized for her remaining 6 1/2 minutes. ms. waters: water -- ms. waters: thank you very much, mr. chairman and members. i am pleased that i had an opportunity to be on the floor today managing this legislation on behalf of micah cuss. i'm pleased that i was able to shine some light and create some transparency on what has

transpired over a long period of time. i'm sorry that it had to take this long. i'm sorry that my chairman at first refused to support re-authorization. he finally came around and that's good. and so the negotiations took place and there was a compromise. and that compromise is not everything certainly that we would have wanted, but at least it is a compromise that will allow terrorism risk insurance program re-authorization. and that's extremely important. for all of the reasons that you have heard on the floor here today. and i want to say to my friends on the opposite side of the aisle, some of whom i talk with when it was unsure what the chairman was going to do, i'm so pleased that we've been able to relieve your anxiety about what was going to happen. i know that many of you early on were in support of the

re-authorization of the terrorism risk insurance program, just as it had been framed in the senate. and so now we are at the point where we have flushed out the fact that this terrorism risk insurance program re-authorization is needed and that businesses and our citizens deserve it and they should have it. we've also flushed out that this -- adding to this legislation, a dodd-frank concern, was not necessary. and it's this kind of interfeens -- interference with the process that oftentimes causes confusion. and we would hope that this kind of legislation -- legislating would not continue. let's take up these issues in a way that they're clear, that they can be debated, that we can hear from both sides of the aisle, we can hear the pros and cons without having to drag it

out until the last moment when we feel that you have the opposition up against a wall and they have no choice but to accept whatever you have done, because you have a legitimate issue that is before us. even when that issue is attached to something that has nothing to do with that main issue. so, having said that, i'm going to move on because we still have work to do as we move toward trying to make sure that we do not shut down this government. that we have the omnibus bill to fund the government and to keep it operating. i'm going to move on to deal with the fact that just as this was inserted, the end user provision was inserted in this bill, in the omnibus bill we difficult n more

situation to try and resolve. as a matter of fact we know that our citizens are at great risk because there's an attempt to repeal an important part of the dodd-frank legislation. there's an attempt to make sure that somehow the biggest banks in america have an opportunity to use the taxpayer dollars to do risky trading and put the taxpayers at risk one more time , for having to bail out these institutions who have used the taxpayers' money that was protected by fdic, have used their money to do this risky trading. we simply ask in dodd-frank for some of these trades, for some of these derivatives trading in such to be placed a fashion that they would cause us to have to say to our

consumers and our taxpayers once again, we're going to have to bail out some big bank because they have failed. we need to protect our consumers, we need to protect our taxpayers. all they have to do is push out , push out these derivatives into their subsidiaries where they don't have the taxpayers' protection. and so i'm going to be working on that and i'm going to stand here today and say to my chairman, i'm going to ask for an aye vote on the terrorism risk insurance program re-authorization act and i'm going to vote for it. will you work with me to pay attention to the omnibus bill and help me to negotiate tonight to get out of that bill the risky trading that is now being put back in the bill, the same bill that came through our committee that was written by citicorps, that would allow this to happen, will you work

with me to try and prevent this from happening and prevent another bailout of the biggest banks in america with taxpayers' dollars? i am going to support tria, will you support me getting rid of that in the omnibus bill? i yield to the gentleman from texas. for the answer. mr. hensarling: i would point out to the gentlelady, as i think she knows, it was the democrat senate who i believe is putting this in the bill. so perhaps she could negotiate that with senator schumer. ms. waters: the gentleman knows that he was involved in the negotiation for placing that in the omnibus bill. and so i have raised the question with you, even though you're saying -- mr. hensarling: will the gentlelady yield on that one point? ms. waters: reclaiming my time. reclaiming my time. i simply ask the gentleman if he would join me in helping,

whether he was part of the negotiation or not, as the chair of the financial services committee, where this is one of the biggest issues that we have been confronted with. i know that you care enough about the consumers, that you would not want them to have to bail out another a.i.g., another big bank, i know that you don't want that. and so i'm simply saying that i am going to support the re-authorization of terrorism risk insurance, will you support helping to get rid of that risky derivatives trading opportunity that has been placed into the omnibus bill by your side of the aisle? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. hensarling: i'll yield myself the balance of the time. i am glad that the ranking member has had yet another change of heart from her opposition to s. 2244, as amended, that she articulated last evening.

it is fascinating to me that as she characterizes other members of congress as unpredictable, i guess it is somewhat predictable now that she will change her opinion. i'm glad she did. rarely have i seen in my congressional career a member of the house come to the floor quite so vociferous and quite so grumpy about a bill that they have previously supported and now ultimately choose to support. regrettably, frequently, when the ranking member comes to the floor, we enter into a fact-free zone. i have not been involved in any of the negotiations on the omnibus. if i were involved we would have far more dodd-frank relief in there, since it is a bill that was aimed at wall street, hits main street and working men and women across our country are collateral damage. our economy is slowed down,

families can't find work, they have no financial security because of what dodd-frank is doing. the sheer weight, volume, complexity, load of the regulatory burden as unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats try to run this economy, as they have run it into the ground, be that as it may, i look forward to working with the ranking member so we can get more dodd-frank relief to americans and get this country back to work. finally, i once again wish to thank and offer my gratitude to the gentleman from texas, mr. chairman neugebauer, whose leadership in bringing this bill to the floor was indispensable. he's been a rock throughout these proceedings and every member who supports the end user exemption, who supports the tria compromise owes an incredible debt of gratitude to chairman neugebauer of lubbock, texas. i'm proud to serve with him on the house financial services

committee. i urge an aye vote for all members of congress on s. 2244 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. all time for debate has expired. pursuant to house resolution 775, the previous question is ordered on the bill as amended. the question is on third reading of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: an act to extend the termination date of the terrorism insurance program established under the terrorism risk insurance act of 2002, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question now is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? >> mr. speaker, i request a

recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman ask for the yeas and nays? mr. neugebauer: i do. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are now requested. those in favor of a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the 15-minute -- it is a 15-minute vote on the passage of the bill. it will be followed by five-minute votes on suspending the rules and concurring in the senate amendment to h.r. 4861, suspending the rules and concurring in the senate amendment to h.r. 2719, and suspending the rules and concurring in the senate amendment to h.r. 1204. 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 417, the nays are seven. no one answering present. the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from michigan, mr. rogers, to suspend the rules and concur? e -- in the senate amendment 4861. the clerk: h.r. 4681, an act to authorize the appropriations for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the united states government , the community management account and the central intelligence agency retirement

and disability system and for other purposes. senate amendments. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and concur in the senate amendment. 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.]