protect because they knew the christian significance. . apparently our intelligence agencies did not miscalculate. apparently our intelligence agencies made very clear to this administration, isis is not a j.v. team, these are dangerous people and they've got to be stopped, you've got to ramp up -- but -- so it wasn't our intelligence. we didn't have bad intelligence. the reports are out there. but the administration, thinking it knew better, than those on the ground in the area, did not take isis seriously. and now this christian monday tare, 1,4 lun years -- monastery, 1,400 years old, has been razed. this story from iraq, the oldest christian monastery in iraq has been reduced to a

field of rubble. yet another victim of the islamic state's group -- islamic state group's destruction of ancient sites. for 1,400 years, compound survived assaults by nature and man. standing as a place of worship recently for u.s. troops. ier centuries, te generations of monks tucked candles into the niches and prayed in the cool chapel. the greek letters represented the first two letters of christ's name, were carved near the entrance. now satellite photos obtained exclusively by the associated press confirm the worst fears of church authorities and preservationists. st. elijah's monastery of mosul has been completely wiped out. in his office in compile, in iraq, the reverend paul, 39,

stared quietly at the before and after images of the monastery that once perched on a hillside above his hometown of mosul. shaken, he slipped back to his own photos for comparison. quote, i can't describe my sadness. he said in arabic. quote, our christian history of mosul is being barbarically leveled. we see it as an attempt to expel us from iraq. eliminating and finishing our existence in this land. the islamic state group, which broke from al qaeda, and now controls large parts of iraq and syria, has killed thousands of civilians and forced out hundreds of thousands of christians, threatening a religion that has endured in the region for 2,000 years. along the way, its fighters have destroyed buildings and ruined historical and

culturally significant structures they consider contrary to their interpretation of islam. madam speaker, i find it interesting that these writers know what leaders in this administration have still, after all these years, not figured out. martha mendoza and others, they point out in this article that these people believed that these sites are contrary to their interpretation of islam. yet this administration says, no, it hases nothing to do with islam. the article said, those who knew the monastery wondered about its fate after the extremists swept through in june, 2014, and largely cut communications to the area. now, st. elijah's has joined a

growing list of more than 100 demolished religious and historic sites, including mosques, tombs, shrines, churches in syria and iraq. the extremists have defaced or ruined ancient monuments in palmera and hatra. museums have been a lotted, books burned, artwork crushed or trafficked. a big part of tangible history has been destroyed, said reverend man wull. -- manuel. a catholic pastor in michigan remembers attending mass at st. elijah's almost 60 years ago while a central narian -- seminarian in mosul. quote, these persecutions have happened to our church more than once, but we believe in the power of truth, the power of god, unquote, said he.

he is part of detroit area's community, which became the largest outside iraq after the sectarian bloodshed that followed the u.s. invasion in 2003. iraq's christian population has dropped from 1.3 million then to 300,000 now. church authorities say. christians are under persecution, being killed in greater numbers than any time in our history. yet it's not the christians being persecuted in greater numbers than any time in history. it's not the group that many in the world recognize are the religionists in the world. no, this administration wants to welcome those of the religion of persecution rather than the most persecuted group

in the world, that being christians. although, just recently, this article from cns news, 550 syrian refugees were admitted to the united states since the paris attacks. 550. and of the most persecuted, highest number killed in the history of the world, christians, this administration admitted two. article from "the texas the e" points out that u.s. department of homeland security was pressed to explain why the agency plans to reduce its aerial surveillance on the texas-mexico border. monday's request comes after c.b.p. reported a new surge in the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the rio grande. from october to december of

2015, about 10,560 unaccompanied minors entered texas illegally through the rio grande sector of the u.s. border patrol. that marks 150% increase over the same time frame in 2014. madam speaker, what's clear is that as this administration says, oh, we're arresting fewer people coming in to the country illegally, these kind of reports make clear, well, yeah, you close your eyes, you'll keep arresting even fewer. and that's what they're doing. they're closing our eyes to our ability to see people that are violating our law, and at the same time we get this report from the "washington examiner" that sanctuary cities now cross the 300 mark with dallas and philadelphia added to it. madam speaker, with so much to be depressed about, i want to commend people in the state of iowa, where i spent a couple of

days last week, where i spent many days in the past, when i'm among the iowans, i feel like i'm back home in east texas. the people are wonderful. and i had somebody ask earlier today about, what do you think about your party? i said, what do you mean? he said, you look at the people that won the iowa caucuses. so? nd the comment was made, well, in the democratic caucus or primary, you had two white socialists, this was the comment from this person. and in the republican primary the first and third vote getters were cuban, hispanic americans, and fourth was african-american. isn't that interesting the way things have turned? well, i have enjoyed coming to

love the people of iowa and i look forward to the days ahead because of them. madam speaker, with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2015, the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. garamendi: madam speaker, thank you for the opportunity. i want to pick up some issues of security. we've heard for the last hour discussions of security and there are many different aspects to the question of security. are we secure in this world in which we live? well, there's a lot of problems . to be sure, we can worry about

china and the south china sea. we do. and certainly the middle east, where i recently visited the gulf states, and iran. a lot of concerns there. as you move into iraq, the issue of isil, al qaeda and, of course, the great tragedy of that -- that's occurring in syria, where basically cities are simply being destroyed. obviously the churches, monasteries, the mosques, boom. housing. and, well over 270,000 people, christians, muslims, others, killed in the syrian civil war and the resultant desire by people to get out of there and immigration issues are abounding. certainly they affect us here in the united states. there are many other security issues beyond those that make the headlines. the security issues in our

homes. for example, do we have a job? that's a big issue and often here on the floor in days gone by, i would stand with my colleagues and we would talk about creating jobs in the united states. we'd talk about strategies of making it in america, strategies to use our tax dollars to buy american-made products and services, so that our money could be used to employ our own people. to support our own businesses. these are all very, very important strategies. they do have to do with individual security, community security and family security. so security has many, many pieces. tonight i want to talk about one type of security. and this is something that every human being, every animal , large or small, from an elephant to the smallest mouse, this security issue is one that

ffects every form of life. it's called water. it's called water. this is the most basic of security issues. you don't go but a day or two, maybe three days, if you're not doing much and it's really not very hot, without water. it is essential. this is a bottom-line security issue. you don't have water, you are insecure and you don't have water, you're very -- you'll very soon be dead. and if you have poisonous water , you may not die immediately, it will certainly effect you. let's take a look at this. this is water from flint,

michigan, united states of america. roughly 100,000 human beings in flint, michigan, and the most -- well, among the most essential of all of the things we need for life, for security, is water. and that is flint, michigan, water. a city of 100,000 people. in the united states. oh, we like to think of ourselves as being the most advanced place in the world. that's flint, michigan, water. 9,000 children under the age of 4 or 5 have been drinking that water, contaminated with lead, for about 14 months. i'm not going to go into the reasons why that tragedy's

occurring. and there are many and there is an f.b.i. investigation and there's questions about the governor of michigan and the way in which it was done. but i'm not going to go there today. i want i'm going to go to something else we're responsible for here in the house of representatives. and our colleagues across the capitol in the u.s. senate. i want to talk about our responsibility here. because this is our business. if we're concerned about ecurity, and we are, we should and we do talk about al qaeda. we should and we do talk about isis. and we should and we do talk about refugees and whether they're safe or not and we talk about san bernardino and the

great tragedy there and we should talk about it. and we should do something about it. there's another side of security that we have specific responsibility to deal with. in 1974, we set out to clean up the waters of the united states with the clean water act. over the years, it's been amended. in 1996 we set standards for clean water. nd we provided some funding. so. if someone were to grade us on our success in addressing one of the fundamental security issues that is the ability to have clean, drinkable water, here's the scorecard. let's take a look at it. let's see. we can run down through aviation, bridges, oh, by the way, this is from the american

society of civil engineers and they produce a scorecard on how well this great nation, the united states of america, is doing on providing fundamental security. aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water. d. today, at a hearing on water, the society of civil engineers said we got a d on drinking water. somebody asked them, is that the bottom grade? they said pretty much because if you go to an f, there's too much paperwork. so they stop at d. d. we fancy ourselves to be the greatest place in the world. the most advanced economy. all the way down this list, d's, a couple of c's. our infrastructure doesn't rank

among the best in the world. in fact, we rank about where developing countries are. so what's the result of all of this? flint, michigan, water, would you drink it? 100,000 people in flint, michigan, that's their water supply. and without water, you don't ive. closer to my home, porterville, california, city of a few tens of thousands of people. no water. so they truck it in. i've got one of those on my ranch. it's called a livestock water trough. so that's where the kids get their water. in the united states of america. oh, we think we're good.

security comes in many forms. rinking water. o. why? why does this happen? why is it that in this great nation all of us, 435 here and another 100 across the capitol, why is it? flint, michigan. porterville, california. half a dozen other cities in california. no water or contaminated water and just in december, it was reported that in about half a dozen communities in the san joaquin valley of california, the uranium in the water has what is level beyond allowed. it's only going to be cancer, that's ok. uranium. flint, michigan.

porterville. oh, toledo, ohio. i remember, toledo, ohio, last year shut down its water system because of contamination from algae from the lake. america. why? why? here's why. a sharp drop in government infrastructure spending. oh. government infrastructure spending. federal government infrastructure spending. 435 of us. this is our job. let's see. this is 2002. somewhere around -- oh these are eal dollars. $325 billion. 2014. that's 12 years later. $210 billion.

that's what happens. that's what happens when you don't have water in importanterville. that's what happens when you vo uranium and the inability to take it out because you can't afford the system. and that's what happens in flint, michigan. let's take another look at those numbers. another way to look at it. spending on clean water and drinking walter infrastructure. in 2014 dollars, these are constant dollars across the way, 1973. is that ronald reagan? i think so. actually, it was a little later that wasn't reagan. so what did we spend in 1973 in consistent collars?

in 2014 dollars. we spent about $10 billion. ok. 1990, we spent about $6 billion. again these are dollars all consistent for 2016 dollars. 1999. we're down to about -- just under $4 billion. 2005, we get down to about $3.5 billion. 016, $2 billion. you wonder why we have a d, you -- r why the water system 214,000 water mains broke last year in the united states. have you seen the pictures of the sink holes? that's not a geological issue, it's a water main issue. a water main is broken, washed

out the street, washed out the community and the houses fall into it. not all of them but that's basically it. 240,000 of those last year. so what are we doing? are we building new high quality water systems for our community? no. we're not. i'll tell you what we're doing. over the next few years, we're going to spend $1 trillion in he next 20 years on rebuilding -- $1 trillion, not a billion, a trillion dollars, on rebuilding our entire nuclear warfare system. every bomb, new airplanes, new missile, new intercontinental ballistic missiles, new

submarines. $1 trillion. and this number competing with that $1 trillion. we make choices around here, folks. we make choices on how we're going to spend your tax money. we're going to spend it on bombs, nuclear bombs that go big in a big way, on new stealth bombers. new intercontinental ballistic missiles. new submarines. new dial a bomb. dial it up, goes big. dial it down, it goes small. so we can use it as a tactical nuclear weapon. whoa. making choices here. been going on for some time about this. i get pretty excited about it. i get pretty dismayed when i'm

in brussels, as i was last week, eturning from the gulf states, oman, dubai, abu dhabi, qatar, bahain, looking at what's going on there i'll tell you what i saw there. i saw enormous problems. but i also saw modern infrastructure. go to brussels. look at their airport. and go to an american airport. water. water. lint, michigan watt. state of michigan, united states

of america, and that's the water that 100,000 americans are forced to drink. we've got a clean water act. we've got the laws in place. to build our water systems. so what do we do? i guess we'd rather rebuild the b-61 nuclear bomb. rather than building a water system. for americans. for the security of 100,000 people. i live a long way from flint, michigan. the guy i'm going to call on, that's his home. that's where he was raised. those are people he represents. dan kildee, you have been on this issue for weeks and months. you have been sounding the

alarm. you have been calling us out. you've been calling us out, all 435 of us and the nat and the administration and you've been calling us out and you are doing the work of securing the safety of the people in your community. please join me, dan kildee of michigan. mr. kildee: first of all, let me thank my friend, mr. garamendi, not just for that introduction and for his comments about my hometown but for his leadership on this issue. this is the critical issue that really determines whether we're competitive as a nation, but it goes beyond competitiveness. it's the issue that will determine whether we have national security, true national security, but it goes beyond national security. sometimes it's a matter of life and death. sometimes it's a matter of

health. in my hometown, the issue of infrastructure, failed infrastructure in a particular -- and particularly of the state of michigan and the failure to manage infrastructure, let alone reinvest in it, potentially will affect not just 100,000 people, all the citizens there, but most importantly, will affect the trajectory of the lives of 9,000 children under the age of 6 who for the last year and a half ave been drinking water that has elevated lead levels well beyond what normally would be required in order to take drastic action to correct the problem. and it was largely overlooked because a failed philosophy of government in the state of michigan that put short-term interests, short-term dollars and cents measures of success, ahead of not just long term

investment but ahead of the lives of children. and has resulted in this terrible tragedy. i'll take a moment to tell you what happened. and to support the efforts of my friend mr. garamendi in continuing to raise this question. the letter grade graphic that he showed regarding clean drinking water, showed in the aggregate a grade of d. in flint it was an f. it was a failing fwrade. so the failure to invest in infrastructure, particularly urban infrastructure, roads, bridges, water, led to significant economic difficulty in my hometown of flint. the failure of the state to support cities and in fact they cut direct support to cities, resulted in my hometown going into financial stress. the state then appointed a receiver to take over the city, rather than provide support,

rather than rebuild, appointed a receiver, a financial manager, to go in with one tool and one tool only, and that was a scalpel. to cut the budget of a city that was really begging for investment. instead of investment, more cuts. one one of the cuts was for teamprary period of time until a pipeline was completed, to draw drinking water from the flint river. which for decades functioned as an open industrial sewer. in the state of michigan, where we have the world's greatest source of surface water, freshwater, there was a decision to use the flint river. but because of our aging infrastructure, old infrastructure, lots of lead pipes, including thousands and thousands of lead service lines to homes, and the failure of the state to manage this process and treat the water

effectively, highly corrosive water leashed lead into the drinking water and 100,000 people have been subjected to elevated lead levels, thousands of children potentially affected. and the sad story here is that it all could easily have been prevented. with just a little bit of investment, better management of the infrastructure. but we take infrastructure, we take water infrastructure, for granted. as if all we have to do is turn on the faucet and the water will appear. no, it takes investment. it takes money. it takes resources. and in this case, the state's failure has resulted in something that we hope is not repeat aid cross this country -- repeated across this country. but without investment there will be more flint, michigans. call we need now is to upon the state particularly to make the kind of investment in

flint, to make it right. as i said, 9,000 children in the city of flint under the age of 6 -- age of 6. ubstantially elevated lead levels in their water. that showed up in their blood in tests done by a courageous pediatrician, who was one of the people who blew the whistle on this. so now we have a crisis in flint. a lot of -- a loss of faith and government. but it's a crisis because this ity is really at risk. we need significant investment to make it right. that investment would come in , long m of replacement overdue replacement of those lead service lines, that lead piping, that is outdated, obsolete and dangerous. but because of the failure to deal with this, when it was a less expensive investment, we

now have, i think, a very important moral responsibility that the state of michigan has to take care of the unique needs that these children will face as they go through their developmental stages. we need early childhood education. for all of them. we need good nutritional programming. not just to make it available, to ensure they have good nutrition. we need additional help in the schools. we need behavioral support. there are consequences, there are human consequences, to this failure. it's not just that the water looks bad, smells bad, tastes bad. it's unhealthy. and here's a case, again, i hope flint's experience can be a lesson for the rest of the the y, because the way state treated the people of flint was if they didn't matter and allowed this infrastructure to atrophy, allowed the city to

atrophy. didn't support redevelopment, didn't support even the basic eed of $140 a day to provide corrosion control treatment in this aging water system. all of that could have prevented this terrible tragedy. but they didn't do it. and so now the state of michigan bears the principle responsibility. i'm doing everything i can to get federal help for this. but the state of michigan bears the principle responsibility and as far as i'm concerned it's up to them to make it right. and to close, then i'll turn it back to my friend, the message that he has been bringing to this congress, when it comes to this question of infrastructure , that flint proves, is that it matters what we do here. it mat whars we do in this house -- it matters what we do in this house. the fact that we have known as a nation for a long time that if we're going to be safe, if

we're going to be competitive, if we're going to be healthy, we have to invest in that which we take for granted. think about it. water. drinkable water. most people in this room, most people in america never give it a second thought. to turn on the faucet and it's there. and it's literally, literally what we depend upon for our very lives. in flint, michigan, because of this terrible failure, not only was it not safe, but we poisoned 9,000 children as a result. there are consequences to what we do here. and there are consequences to what we don't do here. so, for those members who have expressed their sympathy, i appreciate that. i sincerely do. but the children of flint, the people of flint, and frankly the people of porterville and everywhere else, need more than sympathy. we need investment. we need this congress and this

country to step up and do what's right and invest in our own future, because if we don't, as you can tell, there are consequences. thank you for your leadership on this. mr. garamendi: mr. kildee, thank you so very much. for your work that you're doing . sounding the alarm and driving all of us. i know did you this morning in our caucus, you alerted us to it. you motivated us. and in fact, i'm talking about it tonight because of your motivation, that you gave to me and to my colleagues, to our colleagues this morning, you spoke here a little bit about the human consequenceses. and i'd like you to take nother run around this, on how we bear, the community of america and more specifically michigan, bear the

esponsibility of caring for, addressing the human problem that now exists. mr. kildee: i thank you for that question. because that's really the core what have we're dealing with right now. we need a lot of help in flint. this could have been avoided. but now that this has occurred, there's some work we needed to to fix -- to do to fix the -- need to do to fix the pipes, there's something we need to do to make sure emergency needs are met. but the real need is this human need. lead exposure, lead is a neuro toxin. it affects development of the brain. the people, citizenses who are most at risk are those children who are still in those early developmental stages. particularly children age 6 and under. literally children feeding, drinking formula made with this

water, will have the trajectory of their lives potentially affected. the thing that i think is important to keep in mind, first of all, flint is a tough town. we can live through this. we can get through this. we can succeed. but we're going to need resources. we need resources really to come from the people who did this to us. which is the state government, with, i think, a completely bankrupt philosophy that basically says, you're on your own. well, you're not on your own when it comes to drinking water. we all expect drinking water to be clean and we have every right to expect it. it's a human right. but now what we need and what is morally, i think, required, is to wrap our arms around these kids. we know that when it comes to brain development and challenges, that kids might -- challenges the kids might face, whethers a developmental question from some other source

or derived from lead exposure, the more we do to help those children development as early as possible, the better they'll do in the long term. so, i'll have legislation that i'll introduce this week that puts federal support up and requires the state of michigan to come up with its share. because they did this. we expand head start. early head start. give those kids that early opportunity to expand their minds. that would get the nutritional support, because we know that good food, nutritious food, milk, for example, is very helpful in getting kids through lead exposure, with minimal impact. now, it's only to mitigate the damage and to help these kids overcome. but what we need to do now as a community is what we would do for any child facing a developmental challenge. so it's early childhood education, it's nutritional

support, it's a school nurse, for example. i mean, we have gone so far in this country where we don't even fund the basics, which we all grew up with, i mean, we all had the school nurse. you go to flint, michigan, it's a city of 100,000 people. you have one school nurse. after school programming. in richmond -- enrichment opportunity. most of the kidses in my hometown, sadly, already have hurdles in front of them because of the misfortune of being born into poverty. and they don't have the kind of opportunities that many kids take for granted. piano lessons, dance, art, after school activities, gym time. a summer program. maybe for the older kids, a summer job. that's the kind of help that will be required in order to move these kids from where they were, headed -- they were headed before this crisis

occurred and what the trajectory of their lives looks like right now. so the point is, there are human consequences for the failure to do this right in the first place. when we have a state government that failed these kids, they now have a moral obligation to step up and actually take care of their needs going forward. mr. garamendi: if i fight interrupt you for a moment. this morning you spoke of a young child that was interviewed. would you please share that with the united states? mr. kildee: i will. i read this, it came from a writer from detroit. a guy named mitch album, who most people know for having written a best seller called "tuesdays with morrie." he came to flint to interview some children, to talk to them about what this whole experience meant to them. and this one young man said something which in a very

poignant way in a really eloquent way, describe what is exactly has happened in flint. he said that he was afraid that he wouldn't be smart now. that he wouldn't be smart. and it just occurred to me, what a terrible crime this is. that the failure of adults to manage the government in a way that takes the concerns, the life of a child into account, that looks only at the balance sheet, only at a quarterly earnings statement, maybe the longest term that they look at is an annual financial report. wouldn't consider the fact that the result would be to have a young 8-year-old or 9-year-old boy say to himself, i'm afraid i won't be smart. what does that do to that kid's hopes for himself? whether the cognitive,

behavioral, developmental impact of lead would have any substantial affect on him or her, kids that are in flint, the fact that the lack of action by their government gives them doubt about their own future, doubt about their own capacity, it's just heartbreaking. mr. garamendi: mr. kildee, thank you very, very. -- very, very much. i'm afraid i won't be smart enough. i wonder if we should ask we are smart enough. are we smart enough? 435 of us. facing a myriad of questions around this world. some of them in our own

hometowns. are we smart enough? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. does the gentleman from alifornia have a motion? mr. garamendi: i move to adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. i'm sorry, the question is on the motion to adjourn. the ayes have it, the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow for morning hour debate.

both chambers in the first