veterans. annie gallagher, a longtime friend, who worked for senator roth, we had to bring her out of retirement twice to help with medicare and social security, which she gets better than anyone i know. drew slater has done a tremendous job as my eyes and ears in kent and sussex county. and may love the state fair even more than i do. larry morris, my longtime friend, whose dedication to the city of wilmington and its youth is unmatched. and reed scott, who helps me stay in touch with my constituents and directs people through the confusing worlds of the i.r.s. and health care. each one of these individuals has put in countless hours on behalf of delaware. i've been lucky to have them on my team. in my washington office, elizabeth connelly has worked for me since before she even graduated from smith college.

i'm extremely grateful for her loyalty and her dedication to our work on financial services nd other issues. fran she is can amadeo overcame her not being a delawarian to become one of our state's biggest cheerleaders and to help become an effective communicator. connor hamburg, a true blue hen, has an unbridled passion for southern delaware and agriculture policy that can't help make you smile. gita and betsy respond to one of the largest constituencies in the whole house of representatives. lastly, our staff assistant, elena and her recent predecessor, brannic, have done everything from under the sun, from capitol tours, they both

have been crucial to our operation. in addition to our current staff, i'd also like to thank the many dedicated folks who worked for me. doug first served as chief of staff during my time as lieutenant governor and later as my state director. he's been a valued friend and confident ever since. doug got our office up and running six years ago and played a critical role during my first years in congress. i'd also like to recognize my first chief of staff here in washington, elizabeth hart. elizabeth worked for me for five years and built a solid foundation from the start. she served -- showed me the ropes here in d.c. and her knowledge was invaluable to me and to our office. lastly, i'd like that all our former staff in delaware and here in the district.

dustin, , gale, sam, tasha, mary, katie, james, matt, and steve. i will always remember our time together and never forget your hard work on my behalf and the eople of delaware . -- delaware. mr. speaker, it's been an honor to serve alongside this team for example making sure constituents receive the federal benefits they deserve to crafting legislative policy that addresses the needs of our state. each of these individuals has worked tirelessly on behalf of delawarians. and i want to publicly thank them today for their dedication to the people of our great state. and mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced the of january 6, 2015, gentleman from indiana, mr. rokita, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the ajority party. mr. speaker, good afternoon. it's an honor to stand before the chamber today and talk about one of my favorite subjects and one of the favorite subjects of all the speakers that are going to appear before this floor in the next hour and that is the state of indiana. and in particular, the fact that we, as a very proud state, which has offered so much to this nation, we're celebrating our 200th anniversary since admission to the union.

it's been the highest honor of my life to serve indiana in public office, and i know for all the speakers today it's been the same for them. we have a lot to talk about. very few minutes, if you consider it, so i'd like to get right to introducing some of my colleagues who are here to celebrate the bicentennial of the state of indiana. the first being one of my good friends, mr. todd young from indiana's ninth congressional district. he's represented that district since 2010. he's an amazing young leader and last month he was elected as senator-elect. we look forward to working with him. mr. chair, i yield to mr. young of indiana. mr. young: well, i thank the gentleman. it's been a privilege serving with you in the house on behalf

of the people of indiana. i look forward to our continued work together, and i'm just so grateful for our delegation and the leadership they've exhibited on behalf of the state. but i rise today, mr. speaker, to recognize indiana's bicentennial celebration. much of our state's great history emanated from a little town in indiana's ninth congressional district which i've had the honor and privilege of representing for the last six years. the town is cordon. it's located in harrison county which is on the banks of the ohio river. in 1816, james madison, our then president, signed an act, the enabling act, to explore the possibility of statehood for indiana. soon after in june of 1816, 43 delegates congregated across the territory.

they came to descend and their purpose was to draft our state's first constitution. much of the delegates' was done under the shade of an elm tree known by so many hoosiers and even people outside of the state today as the constitution elm. that tree still stands and indiana is still going strong. in august of that year, jonathan jennings was elected our governor. in november, governor jennings and indiana's newly elected representatives met in the new capitol building, a beautiful building, and the intention there was to commence the state's first general assembly session. their work resulted in indiana

formally being admitted as the country's 19th state in december, 1816. corydon would serve as the state's capital in 1825 when it was moved to indianapolis where it remains today, centrally in the state. as the only served battle during the civil war. it was part of morgan's raid as confederate troops descended across the ohio river under the leadership of confederate general morgan. he moved across in 1863 and it was a small militia of hoosiers , at met morgan's confederates and that skirmish is still celebrated today. so corydon can't be highlighted enough. it's one area on the map, one very important area on the map

for the state of indiana. there are so many other important towns, cities and hoosiers that i know will be highlighted and accentuated in the course of this celebration here on the floor of the u.s. house. i commend my colleague, todd rokita, for shining a bright light on our celebration of 200 years. i look forward to continuing to celebrate indiana's bicentennial with hoosiers and celebrating the rich history, which our state has followed, and celebrating all the good years we know will come. so with that i yield back. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman and i thank the gentleman for his service. look forward to working with him in the future. thank you for honoring our great state, sir. thank you for your service to our country. you know, indiana has had a long and proud history acting as a leader in many crucial fields and enriching the history of our nation overall. hoosiers have helped give us

everything from airplanes to n sillon and inns -- pin sillian and both wilbur wright and eli lily were from indiana and changed history for the better. neil armstrong attended perdue university. it is one of the top engineering schools in the country and has been one of the leaders of fighting against rising tuition costs, one of the most important issues facing this congress and the next and actually the next generation of students entirely. our state is lucky, however, in that perdue is hardly the only outstanding higher education available. alumnus of proud two colleges, wabash college and indiana school of law and we fight for all hoosiers and all our institutions. and that includes the entire delegation, whether republican

or democrat. in that vain, let me, mr. speaker, yield to another distinguished hoosier and member of our delegation, representative larry bucshon. ress' a doctor by trade -- he's a doctor by trade, practiced and practiced well the profession his entire adult life starting in the united states navy. and now represents indiana's eighth congressional district. indiana couldn't be prouder of representative bucshon and what he bring not only to the energy and commerce committee but to this floor every day that we are in session. so with that i'd like to yield to dr. bucshon for as much time as he may consume. mr. bucshon: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to thank mr. rokita for putting together this special order on behalf of our state. you know, indiana boasts two of america's presidents and now eight vice presidents. we're the home of hoosier hysteria, a great basketball tradition, and the greatest

spectacle in racing, the indianapolis 500. we love our breaded pork tenderloins and our sugar cream pie. we have the sixth largest national guard in the nation made up of over 13,000 hoosiers that has defended this country in wars from the battle of tipakonn to world war ii to the global war on terror. most importantly, indiana is home to the most humble, generous, compassionate and hardworking citizens in our country. and our great state, all 6 1/2 million hoosiers, is now celebrating 200 years. i want to take a minute to briefly highlight a few of the things specific to the eighth congressional district in indiana. this year my annual art competition for high school students focused on celebrating indiana, to commemorate the hoosier state's bicentennial. we had a lot of creative submissions from talented

students across southern indiana and the wabash valley. the winning art piece recognized the 100th year anniversary of bossyville in evansville, a baseball field. it's the third oldest ballpark in the country and still in regular use for professional baseball. it was also featured in the popular film in 1991, a league of their own, a lot of that was filmed at bossyville in evansville, indiana. i'm also proud to say that communities in indiana's eighth congressional district were exceptionally involved in the bicentennial legacy project. the bicentennial legacy project showcases the best of indiana and pro-- to promote and support important community projects and programs across the state. it's really the best of the best for what the hoosier state has to offer.

there are nearly 300 officially sanctioned bicentennial legacy projects undertaken in counties and communities in the eighth congressional district. the eighth district is also home to premiere places of historic, cultural and national significance. lyle station in gibson county, a small farming community that was an original settlement of freed slaves nearly 200 years ago. lyle station is highlighted nationally at the smithsonian institute's new national museum of african-american history and culture. it served as our territorial capital and was a key player in the american revolution. it's also home to george rogers clark national park and president william henry harrison's rosiland, his miami when he was governor of the

indiana territories. excuse me. new harmony was first established as a communal utopian society and later a center for knowledge and science. spencer county -- in spencer county, there's the home of president abraham lincoln as a youth and young man and is the home of lincoln's boyhood home national park. we have a strong german catholic heritage in southwest indiana with a monoasterry of immaculate conception in dubois county. the na is also home to third largest naval institution in the world. last week the base celebrated its 75th anniversary. n 1915, the ruth glass company developed the very first

coca-cola bottle in terra haute, indiana, that's one for the trivia question book. where was the first coca-cola bottle designed and made? in terra haute, indiana. that bottle has now become an iconic, world-recognized brand. and of course we have hoosier national forest, which takes up a good portion of the southern area of my state which is hope to -- which is home to a lot of activities that hoosiers enjoy with the great outdoors. along with potoka national wildlife refuge near oakland city, indiana, and it serves the same purpose. of course we have the world famous santa claus postmark, santa claus, indiana, every year at christmas, has literally tens of thousands of boxes of christmas cards sent to santa claus so they can have the nique postmark from sclaust,

indiana, that is usually -- from santa claus, indiana, that is usually decybered by a local student. every year i get the pleasure of going over to santa claus, to the post office, and post-marc some of those christmas cards myself. in manufacturing, everything from noodles to nuclear components are made in the eighth district of indiana. we're also a principal supplier of the world's agricultural products. as you can see, indiana's eighth congressional district has a rich history and i'm proud to represent this area. it's an honor and a privilege to serve with all my hoosier colleagues. thank you again, representative rokita, for putting this together. i yield back to congressman rokita. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman. i quickly want to turn our attention and yield to the gentleman from indianapolis, mr. andre carson, who represents the

seventh congressional district. he's a fierce advocate for the different communities in his district. additionally, andre and i both serve on the transportation and infrastructure committee. i think that's an important position to have when the motto of your state is crossroads of america. so with that, mr. speaker, i'd like to yield as much time as he may consume to mr. carson from indianapolis. mr. carson: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank my friend, congressman rokita, who has done a great job at representing his constituents and we appreciate him for assembling a body of thesier -- hoosiers from all across the great state of indiana and thank you again. i rise today to commemorate a milestone in indiana's history, the bicentennial of our great state. for the past 200 years, indiana has stood as a beacon of

opportunity for millions of hoosiers who came to the state to make a better life for themselves and their families. indiana's history stems from our earliest native american inhabitants. in fact, the state's name literally means land of the indians. early settlers befriended native americans as they came from new york in the neevet, kentucky in the south and ohio in the mevt. they -- in the midwest. they settled across a geography as varied as indiana's people, from rolling hills in the south to flat and sandy along the indiana dunes national lakeshore. these influences created a melting pot of influences that remain today. the past 200 years, mr. speaker, indiana has been home to count lesco lohrful and transformative figures like the jackson five.

larry bird. john cougar mellencamp. dan quayle. babyface. mike adams. and countless others. but more than any individual, mr. speaker, when folks think of indiana, they think of race, they think of basketball. in fact, the great hoosier state is credited with the origin of high school basketball. our college teams are some of the most consistently successful in the country and the enthusiasm surrounding the sport is unmatched. in my hometown of indianapolis, we're proud to have hosted the indianapolis 500 for 100 eventful years. the indianapolis motor speedway has long been the world's gold standard for racetracks. hosting some of the most historic races and prompting countless innovations. but what makes indiana so special is not what most people think of first, mr. speaker.

it's not a historical figure or notable accomplishment. what makes indiana great is the type of people who live there. hoosiers. have truly built america. students at our world class universitys have spawned creative businesses and grown our economy across the country. our workers have built millions of automobiles, created life-saving medicines, and advanced sports to new levels. our farmers feed america and the entire world. we joke about how friendly and welcoming hoosiers are. living in indiana, you don't always recognize it, but coming here to washington, d.c. has made me realize how real hoosier hospitality is. unlike a lot of d.c., i'm talking about capitol hill, i'm not talking about the rest of d.c., they're great people. staffers are great here too. but hoosiers care about people.

want to make them feel welcome. and we want to help them when we can. hoosiers we see today who grew up in a state built by all of those before us are the reason that this bicentennial is so special. i can't imagine a better place to live, mr. speaker. i'm proud to call indiana home. proud that i grew up there. that my daughter will too. and representing this wonderful state in congress continues to be a tremendous honor. so happy birthday, indiana. may our next 200 years be as and achievement as our past 00. i thank you and i yield become. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: 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 agreaed -- agreed to the

conference report accompanying 2943, cited as the national authorization act for 2017. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from indiana is ecognized. mr. rokita: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman, mr. carson for his words. you mentioned the indianapolis moto speedway, here's a great picture of it, circa about, i would say, late 1980's. just part of our heritage we'll be sharing here over the next hour. when i was last commenting about the great hoosier state at this podium, talked about hoosier schools. hoosier places of higher learns have also become major players in the sports world, winning national championships and creating some fierce yet tune rivalries. for example, in indiana's fourth congressional district trk

there's depauw university and what bash college and they face off every year in an akonic game that's been going on for over 100 years. as what bash men, i don't think there's any question who mr. messer and myself root for. that's just another example of the great hoosier spirit in that game. with that, focusing on purdue university again for just a second, i want to yield some time to a great member of this body who is also retiring this year, mr. kirk clausen of florida florida, who is no longer a resident of indiana but he was at one time, helping produce basketball team to untold heights. so at this time, mr. speaker, i yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from lorida, mr. clausen.

mr. clausen: thank you, mr. rokita, for those kind words and your support and flexibility in this house. there are very few people like you and i'll miss you. first thing i have to say today is boiler up, mr. speaker. boiler up. i'm from florida. i proudly represent southwest florida that i love so much. but i went to high school and college in indiana so part of me will always be from indiana and i will always love the state and its wonderful people. in 1976, my dad moved the family of seven kids to southeastern indiana from the south and we went to a small town in southeastern indiana called batesville. kind of a typical town of 4,000 or 5000 people. typical hotbed of basketball and shooters with well known sports names in the area like paulerman, the co-chairman, going into the hall of fame,

indiana baseball hall of fame next year. s amoorman, dave galle, among other basketball and sports greats in southern indiana. my parents immediately loved the indiana culture that we were exposed to in batesville. best summer -- best summarized by words of my dad who would say something like this, work hard. don't complain. put the group, the team, and the family first. o to church on sunday. actually kneel down and pray. nd show a little humility. right, dad? eventually, trying to do as best i could to follow my father's counsel, i went to purdue to pay for the college hall of fame coach, coach gene kay and i have to tell you how much of an honor

that was and a memorable experience in my life. before continuing on a little coach k, i want to talk about the current president of purdue, mitch daniels, who moved the university into the future with a new business model of innovation and leadership. president mitch is a leader who is not afraid of change and i admire that because change, without change tomorrow you lose. our senior year, mr. vital on tv picked our team -- vitale on tv picked our team last because we lost our best player to the nba draft. i went to the coach's office before the season and i asked him, how do you feel about this team? do you believe we're going to be last? he said, no, we're not going to

be last. i said, how do you know, coach? how do you know? he said because i like my locker room. what does that mean? i know you all are going to listen to me. and you'll follow what i say. i know you'll share the ball and i know you'll outwork the competition. well, of course coach was right. we went from being picked last to winning the big ten. his first of six big ten championships in 25 years at purdue, four consensus national coach of the year, six national coach of the year in one media service or another, and importantly, in 25 years of purdue, a winning record against the coach down in bloomington. so i want to honor coach today and i want to end by thanking our president at purdue university, mitch daniels, coach, i honor you and admire

you for what you have accomplished and most of all, i want to thank you, coach, for your loyalty to me. my last game was bad. i have to live with that forever. but for 0 years now, i've lived in your umbrella of love and loyalty. you've always been there for me. i honor you for that and i appreciate your loyalty as the last porn lesson of so many that you taught me. and happy birthday to our wonderful state of indiana and our wonderful people with our basic cultures of believing in god and treating one another with love and respect. with that, i yield back. mr. rokita: i thank mr. rokita: i can't believe that the last game you played was all that day. we'll look back at the tape. and it's part of our wonderful hoosier history. there are, of course, quite a

few other notable sporting events in indiana. andrew carson spoke of it, spoke of -- andre carson spoke of it, spoke of one of them, and that's called the greatest spectacle in racing, unquote. i just had a -- recently had a picture of the speedway up here on the floor. the indianapolis 500 celebrated its 100th running earlier this year and continues indiana's storied history with automobiles which began in the late 1800 when ellwood haynes, the, quote, father of the utomobile, unquote, was in kokomo, indiana. it is in howard county. it has a wonderful, rich automotive history. it's an honor for me to be able to share that county with one of our great members of the

indiana delegation, an accomplished leader, accomplished lady who has done wonderful things throughout her professional career, in this house continues to lead the way. most recently by being chosen as our next chairwoman of the house ethics committee. it's my pleasure at this time, mr. speaker, to yield such time as she may consume to my friend, mrs. susan brooks of indiana's fifth congressional district. mrs. brooks: mr. speaker, i rise today in celebration of our home state of indiana's bicentennial, and i want to thank the gentleman from indiana's fourth congressional district for having this very meaningful celebration of our state's 200 years and i just want to thank you for your leadership here in the house representing not only the fourth district but all hoosiers so very proudly and as your time as secretary of state where you served throughout our state and really appreciate the fact that you put the time and

your staff put the time and effort in making this last minutes on the house floor so possible as we close out this 114th congress. i've been asked to specifically highlight -- i wanted to specifically highlight a little bit of the history of the fifth district where i represent by more importantly how that history informs, inspires and ignites our future. since we became a state in 1816, indiana has transformed again and again, growing and evolving into the strong and thriving state it is today. i want to talk with you about connor prairie in my district because connor prairie has grown up with the state. what started as a log cabin by the white river has grown into a stately brick home that has served as the seat of early hamilton county government. now an interactive history museum and park and most

recently been recognized as the only smithsonian affiliate in indiana and it's a leading innovator in the history museum field with more than 360,000 visitors each year. in 1800, william connor settled in indiana to become a fur trader. he and his indian spouse and their six children lived in that first log cabin on the property. in 1818, connor played a pivotal role as interpreter and liaison of the treaty of st. mary's in which the delaware tribe got lands in the west of the mississippi river. the tribe, including connor's wife and children, left indiana but connor decided to state. in 1823 he and his second wife, elizabeth, built a beautiful brick home overlooking land that came to be known as connor prairie. this serviced as the county

seat of hamilton and the post office of the early days of the county's foundings. colonel eli lilly, then the president of the pharmaceutical company which he founded which remains today in indianapolis, indiana, colonel lilly purchased connor prairie and the old brick home in hopes of restoring it and openings it to the public. he believed that history and its preservation were cornerstones of american. he wanted people to connect with their history and to see their heritage brought to live. little did he realize that his idea would be so visitly brought to life in conner prairie. growing to the site of historical re-enactments, conner prairie blossomed into a living history museum that invites people to see life in indiana in 1836. prairietown, an exhibit where

people, animals, objects, daily routines remain just as they were 180 years ago was just the beginning. in addition to the prairietown exhibit, conner prairie has included an 1859 balloon voyage and you, the gentleman from indiana's fourth, who loves to fly, i hope you've tried the balloon voyage. it's really remarkable. as well as an 1863 civil war ourney and an indian camp. visitors to conner prairie today can see how innovation in math, science, engineering have shaped our history and how these vital and growing histories will shape our state's future and are shaping the state of indiana. students and children can build planes, create an electrical circuit, radio, construct a windmill or invent their own products which they then attempt to patent. i agree with colonel lilly that

history is the cornerstone of our democracy. i believe that conner prairie is the cornerstone of the idea that history plays a pivotal role in our history. in fact, conner prayer and william conner and the conner family is one of the reasons that we named our son conner and where we spelled his name with an e and he happens to be in the balcony of the chamber today and i'm very pleased that he's here with us to learn about our state's incredible history and the history of his own name. the brick house that colonel lilly purchased still stands. as indiana celebrates its bicentennial and in the many years to come the many places just like conner prairie will always help hoosiers find their heritage, understand our history and most importantly ignite our great state. happy birthday, indiana, and all hoosiers. thank you and i yield back. mr. rokita: i thank the gentlelady.

reclaiming my time. appreciate her leadership in the fifth district and throughout indiana. it's just another example of frankly how we believe our state is great. in that vain, i want to yield such time as he may consume, a dear friend of mine from indiana's third congressional district, mr. stutzman,ho has not only served in this chamber but also in indiana state house, first as a state representative and a state senator. a farmer from the northeast part of our state, brings with him to this house and to his future endeavors a robust knowledge and practice of our state's best traditions and history. with that, mr. speaker, i yield to mr. stutzman for how much time as he may consume. mr. stutzman: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my colleague from indiana.

great to be on the floor from our colleagues from the indiana delegation as we celebrate our binn centennial celebration. i also find it honoring that we get to be the last -- one of the last groups here on the floor discussing an issue here in this congress as we wrapped up our business earlier today. i just want to thank mr. rokita and mrs. brooks and mr. messer and others that i see here, mr. bucshon earlier, who i say this is a privilege. this will be my last speech on the floor for, as i end my time here in congress and looking forward to looking back home to indiana again. i come with some mixed emotions, frankly. but also very excited about what's at store for you all, what's in store for indiana and our country as i had the privilege to serve indiana's third congressional district for these past six years. and i know just as you all feel

that we feel very privileged to be hoosiers. indiana is just oftentimes to be that flyover state from the east coast to west coast or vice versa but so many ind wonderful things are happening in -- many wonderful things are happening in indiana that we're proud of and we feel especially at this time as our own governor, the vice president-elect mike pence has been our governor for the last four years in indiana, is showing and exhibiting the good policies, the good nature, the humbleness, the character and integrity that so many hoosiers display on a daily basis. and so i think as i leave, i'm looking forward to watching you all continue to face some difficult challenges but with a lot of opportunity in front of us and i know that hoosiers all across our state and americans are looking for leadership, and

i know that we've seen that in indiana with our former governor, mitch daniels. it's great to see our colleague, mr. clawson, here earlier who's also going to be departing after this congress. we have such a great -- we have such great history and of course our sports history is one that we love to talk about and brag about. i also want to recognize my family. my wife, christy, and our sons peyton and preston. peyton was named after a football player in indianapolis and he was one of the kids in indiana that was named peyton during a great streak. peyton manning and the indianapolis colts. we have such great ownership. great leaders in indianapolis and across the country with the teams that we're proud of in indiana with the colts, the pacers and how we got a great college tradition.

you turn on espn and you see, of course, indiana basketball, perdue basketball, notre dame. alparaiso ends up in the tournament at the end of the year it seems like and of course other teams that continue to exhibit that tradition that we have in indiana of great basketball. and state basketball is something no other state has. there's something remarkable about high school basketball in indiana. also want to quick recognize a friend that just happens to be here today, randy luindowski who is president of the indianapolis indians, our baseball team, triple-a affiliate of the pittsburgh pirates. he just happens to be in town and proud of the work that he does to bring great baseball to our city and our state and proud of the folks that, like ndy, make so -- work so hard

to make indiana a great place to live. and more importantly than all of that, you look at the hardworking hoosiers on a daily basis who go to work every day, whether it's in the factories, ether it's in the trucking industry. we are neen as the crossroads of america and you have distribution centers all across the state. you think of the teachers who do such a remarkable job in teaching our children. and as you get to know people across the state of indiana, i've become just more and more proud to be called a hoosier, to have the opportunity to represent them and to know that we all love life. we love liberty. we want to continue to protect the ability to pursue happiness as americans and we know that life is difficult, life has

challenges but working together and working hard, keeping our head down and facing those challenges together as communities, as a state and as a country we can be successful. and as we celebrate our bicentennial, i just know that indiana's done so much for me and my family. i want to thank my parents, albert and sarah stutzman, and my brothers, matt and chris and my sister, lynette, and their families for the support they've given to me. it's time i had the opportunity to serve here, but i know there are so many families across our state that support one another and to working to make life better, not only for them but for their families. indiana also has the fourth largest national guard in the country. you have, of course, texas, california, new york, but indiana's one of the largest national guards in the country.

and i think that shows the level of commitment that hoosiers have been willing to sacrifice, to commit to the defense and security of our country. and i appreciate many of our leaders in our state that have led a national guard to show that we're willing to do our part to help lead the way. . traveling across the state, there are so many different parts of indiana that are so proud to have as part of our state, so i would just say to anyone listening and watching this as we talk about our beloved indiana, you ever get a chance to visit, there's so much to to and see and to enjoy, the nature, from top to bottom, from lake michigan in the northwest to the ohio valley in the southern part of the state, the beautiful farmland, the rolling hills in the southern part of

indiana, and we just have such tremendous traditions and of course the values that we all hold very dearly and know that we want to do our part to not only make indiana great but to continue to make america great as well. so with that, mr. speaker rokita, i appreciate the opportunity and thank you for putting this time together as we reflect on our great state and i want to wish you the very best and my colleagues, the rest of our colleagues, the very best in the future. and know that we are, folks across this country can look to you for solid leadership and appreciate all that you do. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the plans of my time. the speaker pro tempore: mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman, reclaiming my time, a lot has been talked about already from indiana's manufacturing prowess to our agricultural richness to our own rich history.

i want to focus just a little bit before yielding to my good friend, mr. messer, to talk a little bit about indiana's agriculture history. it is in the top 10 in the nation in agricultural sales with over $11 billion in those sales. the agricultural industry creates good hoosier jobs and provides our nation with an array of products from coin to soybeans to hogs and poultry. you just have to go a few miles in any direction, on any one of our roads, to know that by looking out your window. in fact, indiana has so many ar -- so many agricultural products that there are six times as many chickens in me state as people my district in particular has produced several major agricultural innovations, the town of kokomo is known as the city of firsts, quote-unquote, due to the many products invented there, including both the first canned tomato juice and the first mechanical corn

picker which revolutiontized the farms of one of indiana's most porn crop. indiana is specifically the nation's largest producer of popcorn and while that definitely helps us all enjoy trips to the movies, indiana's contributions to the entertainment field have not stopped there. famous hoosier, as andre carson ntioned, such as john cougar mellencamp, axle rose and michael jackson have provided us with memorable songs and iconic music while never forgetting where they came from. another great hoosier who hasn't forgotten where he came from is my good friend representing the sixth district of indiana, which , and es columbus, munsie, that's mr. luke messer. i yield as much time as he may

consume to the gentleman from indiana's sixth congressional district, mr. luke messer. mr. messer: i thank the gentleman for organizing this time to celebrate indiana's 200th anniversary and i thank you for all your service to our great state. it's an exciting time to be a hoosier any year but it's pretty big birthday coming up this year when on december 11, 2016, we'll be celebrating our state's 200th birthday. 200 years since indiana became our nation's 19th state. i'm holding this basketball because when you think about indiana you can't help but think about basketball. my district, indiana's sixth congressional district has a couple of -- a couple of pretty important distinguishing factors in indiana's great history as a basketball state. first, the mylan indians team that showed in our single class

basketball, the small little engine that could can win a state title. that's from ripley county in the middle of my state. and then the gem, the -- and then the gym, where the movie "hoosiers" was filmed was also in indiana's sixth congressional district. i'm going to throw a chest pass to my colleagues in indiana. here you go, mr. bucshon. nice. see, he -- let the record show he caught the ball. showing he's a hoosier. bring the house to order as they say. thank you, mr. clawson. this sunday we celebrate two centuries of statehood, history and tradition and accomplishment in indiana. we hoosiers have a great deal to be proud of in our state and in the sixth district they represent. the district is home to renowned architecture, historical landmarks, beautiful parks and famous americans. the wright brothers spent part

of their childhood in our corner of indiana. wilber -- will burr was born in millsville and orville first took up kite building in richmond, indiana. richmond was also the home to je net records and they're -- there some of the earliest jazz recordings ever produced, earning richmond the nickname of the cradele of recorded jazz. david letterman attended school at ball state university in munsie, as did jim davis, famous for the garrfield cartoon. hancock county in the sixth district is home of the famed hoosier poet jims whitcomb riley who wrote, among other things, little orphan annie. columbus is known as being the home of the oldest theater in the state, crump theater, built by john crump. grows atop old tree

building in my district giving it the nickname tree city. three time-indianapolis 500 winner will burr shaw,ries car driver tony stewart from columbus, shelbyville basketball player bill garrett. actresses joyce dewitt, jamie heineman, and the list goes on. we've had two governors hail from our part of the state, oliver morton and current governor mike pence, now the sixth district will be lucky enough to claim another vice president. vice president-elect, former sixth district congressman, mike pence. who we're all very proud of. in fact, i'm so proud of our state, i don't know that the gentleman would know this, i know throes one of our colleagues were surprised to learn, but my wife jennifer and

i wrote a book about the great state of indiana, "hoosier heart," that celebrates the history and traditions of our state. i'm just going to read the sort of closing passage of this book as i wrap up my comments today. the book closes this way. the word hoosier is a mystery. in one knows where it comes from. -- comes from for sure. some say it was a pioneer greeting. who's here? others say someone once lost an who's a young guy asks, ear? but we -- whose ear? but we all know what hoosiers live in our state. other time some hoosiers do leave. but wherever hoosiers now live, there are never far apart

because the key to being a hoosier, most of you won't be able to see this is having a big hoozewrer heart. happy birthday, indiana. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman. it's a great book, as fi family knows as well, excellent words from the gentleman from indiana's sixth congressional district. you know, throughout this all, indiana's fourth congressional district has more than done its part in adding to our state's rich history. he battle of tip canoe -- of tippecanoe which led to indiana's statehood. the fourth district is also home to the first indiana state flag, a picture here. this is 1916 when our flag design was -- this flag design was awarded the honor of

becoming the official flag. it was created by paul hadley of moorsville in indiana's fourth district for a contest during our state's first centennial celebration. our district is also home to many important land marks, the boom county courthouse has the largest one-piece limestone columns in the country. newton county is home to 23 bison, our state animal. and beten and white counties have one of the largest windmill farms in the nation. this is just a small sample of the great parts of our state and district and our bicentennial celebration has done a fan it's a exjob of highlighting these and many others over the past 12 months. i have even had the pleasure of participating in several of the events, like many of my colleagues have, including selecting a bicentennial themed entry as the winner for our

offices art competition an serving as a torch bearer for the torch rerye. the relay saw the bicentennial torch, designed and made by perdue students, travel through each of our 92 counties over the course of several weeks. and highlights both the unique history an places in each part of our state and the common bond that makes all of us hoosiers. i saw as -- i served as a torch behrer in fountain county and was impressed by the high turn out -- turnout and enthusiasm. at a time in this nation's life when it's thoord get members of a particular place to act like a community, because of so many different distractions and diversions and how technology has entered our lives, it was humbling, sobering, but very pride to feel see thousands of

people in a relatively small county come together for such an event as to see a torch going by and being pass aid long by the county courthouse. the hoosiers i saw were well prepared for the event and were not going to let a little bit of rain keep them from coming out and celebrating towns and their counties and most of all our wonderful state. the event itself helped remind me of the most important and unique part of our state. and that's the people. hoosiers are kind and gracious people. who take pride in their work and in those in favor say aye state. -- have been the secret -- this sunday's bicentennial event is entitled igniting the future and it is my belief and hope that it will inspire our next generation of hoosier leaders to continue this record of accomplishment and never forget

about what makes this state and our country so exceptional. exceptional with a capital e. myself and my colleagues here in indiana look forward to working with these future readers -- leaders and ensuring the success of our state for another 200 years. before yielding back, i'd like to yield to the gentleman from evansville, mr. larry bucshon, such time as he may consume. dr. bucshon. mr. bucshon: thank you, mr. rokita. i want to use some of the last time we have to honor a great hoosier. today as we recognize indiana's 200th birthday, it's important to acknowledge the contribution of one of those who made an indelible mark on our shared history. without a doubt, one of those is a man who delivered his final speech from the senate floor this last week with a heart emperature message about

holding on to those things that make our state unique. he's dedicated to improving the lives of his fellow citizens. he served the country in the united states army, spen time in the u.s. house and united states senate, served as ambassador to germany, assuming that role just three days prior to the tragic attacks on september 11, 2001. after this disting westerned career, senator coats answered the call to serve his fellow citizens once again in the united states senate where he's been a national leader on the -- on reducing federal spending and fixing our economy and keeping our nation safe and secure. a little personal story, i was a cardiovascular surgeon prior to coming to congress. when i spent time at events with senator coats, he likes to tell everyone he feels very comfortable because if he has a heart problem, congressman bucshon will pick up a butter knife or something and fix him up right there on the spot. and it's really humorous story

that i enjoy him tell telling every time we're together at an event. senator coats has a great sense of humor. and while his time in the senate has come to an end, i'm also confident he will continue to be a voice and advocate for the issues he cared about most. our state and our country are lucky to have benefited from the service of a great man like senator dan coats. i wish dan and marsha all the best. i yield,. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman, reclaiming my time, i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from the sixth district, mr. luke messer. mr. messer: when given the opportunity to say something nice about dan coats, i didn't want to pass it up. if i could use one word to describe senator dan coats, it would be hoosier. he's a person of he is a person of grarkse humility, hard work and humor. never worried about who got

credit. loved his country. and made the sacrifices through his life and career to make the -- to make our country better. i am honored to call dan a friend. i appreciate his mentorship of our entire delegation in the time i had an opportunity to serve here. i suspect dan's service for our country isn't quite over yet, and i look forward to whatever he does yet and i certainly wish dan and marsha and their entire family because one of the great things about dan coats is he is a family man. i wish their entire family a great future. thank you. i yield back. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman for yielding. reclaiming my time. i think the gentleman's right. i don't know if dan coats will ever be able to retire. i know he wants to. with that i'd like to yield one minute, again, to the gentleman from northeast indiana in the third congressional district, mr. marlin stutzman. mr. stutzman: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to stand here in front of this house and this body to honor our senator dan coats, who served indiana in so many

different capacities. i actually have the privilege of representing his district, the third district of northeast indiana. we have such a long line of great leaders from northeast indiana that have served here in indiana, are here in washington from our state, and dan coats, of course, exemplified a man of character, humbleness and leadership. as he followed former vice president dan quayle who i'd like to recognize as well, another man who showed leadership for -- from our state here in washington, d.c., and both of those gentlemen have been heroes and models for me growing up watching both of them. they took time to come to washington and show what hoosier leadership is all about. so thank you, again, for honoring them today. mr. rokita: i thank the gentleman. reclaiming my time. indiana -- in closing this out, myrick, let me just say -- mr.

speaker, let me just say that i have remarks of susan brooks from the fifth district that i'd like to submit for the record regarding senator dan coats. i'd like to say indiana has produced no shortage of great statesmen as we flected in the last half-hour. enator dan coats has indisputeably joined their ranks. my own history with senator coats goes way back to when i was an intern in his senate office and if he was on this floor today, ladies and gentlemen, i'm sure he would say i was one of the worst interns he's ever had but nevertheless, he started my career in politics with that unpaid job that was one of the best experiences of my life. he had conservative leadership. i know he was anxious to get back to helping out the office and do whatever he could for the state of indiana however he could. since those men years ago,

since those first observations that i had of senator coats, he has gone from senator to u.s. ambassador to the state of germany and back to senator again. it's a long and distinguished career, full of dedication to the right ideals and the desire to fight for what's best for all hoosier families and what's best for americans. i appreciate all of the work, like we all do, that senator coats has done and the causes he has advocated for and for his counsel. and as been said, i don't know if he's actually going to be able to retire this time, but whatever his desire he deserves it. i have no doubt that he will continue to represent the best interests of our state and this country even after his time in the senate has come to an end. i'd like to issue a heart-felt thank you for all of his work, and i wish him my best on all his future endeavors. again, mr. speaker, please, i hope you'll join us all in

wishing indiana a happy birthday on this wonderful occasion of our 200th anniversary. i with that, mr. speaker, yield back. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman have any unanimous consent requests? mr. rokita: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the subject of this special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2015, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, for 30 minutes. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. this is supposed to be our last day in formal session, actual

session of the year. there maybe that comes up. i always worry about unanimous consent requests when nobody is here, but i know the administration likes to brag that it's been a good year for enforcing the border, but this story from brook singman says the number of unaccompanied children crossing into the u.s. from mexico nearly doubled this year. anyway, from border patrol figures, that hopefully we'll get the trump administration moving as quickly as they indicated they intend to. and it's worth noting that this story came out from "the hill," mark hinch, that khalid sheikh mohammed, the mastermind behind

9/11, says that in his view immigration into the united states is al qaeda's deadliest weapon against the united states. anyway, that's what he has apparently indicated. a witness said from his perspective, the long war for islamic domination wasn't going to be won in the streets with bombs and bullets and bloodshed. no, it would be won in the minds of the american people. and goes on to -- this is khalid sheikh mohammed's thinking, and thank god, literally, thank god that president obama has not released the mastermind as he has so many others who contributed to the deaths of americans, but khalid sheikh mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, said the terror attacks were

good but the practical way to defeat america is through migration and by outbreeding non-muslims. khalid sheikh mohammed said, jihadi-minded brothers would emigrate into the united states, taking advantage of the welfare system to support themselves while they spread their jihadi message. they will wrap themselves in america's rights and laws for protection, ratchet up acceptance of shahrya law and then, only when they were strong enough, rise up and violently impose shahrya from within. he said the brothers would relentlessly continue their attacks and the american people eventually would become so tired, so frightened and so weary of war that they would just want it to end.

and according to khalid sheikh mohammed, that is when radical islam, shahrya law would take over for the united states and the constitution of the united states would no longer have meaning here. anyway, rather interesting, when we find out exactly what the enemies of freedom have in the way of plans to destroy our liberty and freedom, it really should catch the attention of some of our united states . deral government we passed a bill today -- and i love and respect the people that pushed for it, but i need to make further comment about

it. this was h.r. 4919. it's a bill -- it was supposed to just be -- oh, it's just a re-authorization. well, it's got a program, and people that start these kinds of things, knowing where they'll end up, start with a small amount of money. if you start with just millions, then you can go later on from there. and when you paint it as being simply to help families who ve autistic or alzheimer's patients, people with dementia, things that americans like me, we understand, as we've had family members who, because of ganic problems, a very

brilliant person can become confused, not know where they are, become lost. but life here in congress would be so much easier if i simply would not read the bills, but a bill creates a program, federal tracking program and it starts with alzheimer's patients, autism patients, people with those disabilities, but it also includes, according to the bill, developmental disabilities, and that's broad enough that you can start including all kinds of things now that the law has been passed. my understanding, i was told that in the senate it was likewise breezed through. somebody went on the senate floor when other senators weren't there, maybe two people

or so, and said, i ask unanimous consent that this bill be passed. hearing no objection, so ordered. not a vote. we didn't have a hearing in subcommittee, committee, where we bring witnesses, talk to experts, talk to people involved, see what the problem is, see if the cure is worse than the problem and we didn't have that. we didn't have constitutional experts talk about the indications for our future freedom. instead, we got this bill, and i'm grateful the proponents tried to fix things, but as i read through it, the fixes idn't really fix things. this program that's supposed to help because of people with mental health issues, confusion, getting lost, dying, we know these things happen. there is nothing anywhere in the law that prevents a parent

from having something that helps that parent track or keep track of their autistic child or child with, according to this bill, developmental disabilities. nothing. there's nothing that keeps a guardian from using some kind of tracking methodology to keep up with someone who has alzheimer's. and, yes, i know it's a serious issue. but why wasn't this left then to the department of health and human services if it's really just a mental health issue? and the answer is, it was left to the attorney general, to the department of justice because, truth is, if it needs to expand, that's where they want it to expand. we were assured this is strictly voluntary, but once you have a program in place, it's very easy for someone to

file a petition and ask a judge, such as i once was back in texas, here's the indications. we need an order for the good of this person, safety of the public, so that this person can be tracked. and it's not just a danger to themselves. the bill talks about caused by the -- injury that's caused by the patient or could be. and we know from the department of health -- sorry -- department of homeland security that many in the department of homeland security think the biggest threat for hate crimes, for destruction and death in america are from people who are veterans that may like the idea of the second amendment, allowing them to keep guns.

there are people who believe the constitution should be literally followed and the words that the constitution actually says should be followed. i mean, the founders of this country, of course, if they were around today, would be at the top of this administration's no-fly list because they wanted liberty above all. they wanted freedom. they did not want a government that interceded into their own personal, private decisions in life. the attorney general will set up the best practices and i know that there's language added, oh, no, the parent or guardian, they have to voluntarily use this program. it's not forceful. well, no, the grants are not for anyone except voluntary but i

can guarantee you the program will ultimately be used to involuntarily place tracking information on people and then, despite some of my friends in congress saying, this is really not a danger, it's nothing to worry about, i get back to the fice and my staff hands me a -- an article regarding japan and lo and behold, it's from ahoo news, japan tags dementia sufferers with bar codes. the article goes on to point out at in japan, where until the 19 -- until after world war ii, and the surrender of 1945, japan had a history of submitting to whatever the emperor, e-- the

totalitarian leader, dictated. now in japan they've come up with the best way of tracking people, by putting bar codes on fingers. all you need is a bar code on one finger, on one toe, and then the japanese government will be able to accurately and adequately track people they're concerned about. so i don't think anybody needs to be worried about the government having this orwellian program, unless perhaps they're christian, because the civil rights commission thinks that people who talk about religious freedom, religious liberty, christians that use words like evangelical, that those are a -- the biggest threat, threats, for hate in america.

because of the ignorance in this administration. and i mean, it's nothing against them personally, it's just all of us are ignorant in some areas. but apparently in this administration there's widespread ignorance over the fact that christianity is the religion based on love, that god so loved the world he would send his son and that his son would so love the world he would lay down his life for his friends, which he, jesus, said was the greatest love. and true christians follow the teachings of jesus, just as most muslims try to do, follow the teachings of jesus. but anyway, if you're christian or you believe the constitution should be literally followed, or you believe that you should have a right to keep and bear arms

under the second amendment, or you believe the 10th amendment means what it says that any power not specifically enumerated for the federal government is reserved to the states and people, anybody that believes those kind of things is really a threat, according to some in this administration and some in what has become more of a permanent government, administrations come and go but we've got liberals that are so tolerant they want to take away the rights of anybody with whom they disagree. the black list experts. they talk about black lists of the 1950's and they go beyond anything that the 1950's may have had in store for those who wanted to bring down the united states government. so anyway, there just was not enough attention paid to this bill and it break misheart and i'm not kidding, i'm not being

sarcastic, that there were some that were pushing for this bill that have some of the biggest hearts, want to do more to help people, and i'm afraid because of the bill's passage today, i'm sure the president will sign it into law, gee, we get to track people we're concerned about in america, maybe we'll use a bar code. if we can have the attorney general in his opinion find that a subcutaneous chip implant is noninvatesive, we could do that. maybe the bar code would be better than a chip. but anyway, we've passed the program and some day, i am very afraid for my dear friends that pushed this bill that history will not so much remember the wonderful things they have fought for in this legislative

body, the great moral issues they have stood for, but one day they'll be remembered as the ones who quietly pushed this bill through that allowed a federal government to begin tracking for the first time students, not students, but young people, whether students or not, people with disabilities, and i'm sure we'll be seing the attorney general since it's up to her or him, what really is evelopmental disability. maybe we'll have a congress that one day, before it's too late, will say, we are not going to be

funding with federal taxpayer dollars, a tracking system for american citizens. i had some colleagues say, i could have voted for it if it was only people who were known terrorists but we're not, no, we don't want to track known terrorists. this bill would be considered an abomination if we tried to put a bar code or a chip into a known terrorist in the united states. this needs to be reserved for and so o get confused it goes. in the words of billy joel, so it goes and you're the only one who knows. ams this week included the 75th anniversary of the day of infamy when right at that level the

president of the united states, ranklin d. roosevelt, said actually 75 years ago today , he said yesterday, december 7, 1941, a day which will live in infamy, the united states of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of ethe -- of the empire of japan. he went on, it's about a page and a half speech, double spaced nd he concludes by saying with confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounded determination f our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us god. it is interesting, roosevelt so

often referred to god, he is the only president, american president which i'm aware who went on national radio, or it's, but he went on radio, that's what they had at the time, on d-day, when thousands of american troops were landing in france on the beaches, thousands were being killed, and he led the nation in a christian prayer on national radio. why? because he was a true leader of the united states. he knew our nation was in great trouble. and so the natural thing to do was lead the nation in prayer. if we go back to the man who is called the father of the constitution, as i understand

it, the federal government mandates a test be taught in order for people to get a little bit of the money that they send from their states to the washington, d.c. to the department of education. department of education, you to what they tell you, they'll send you a little bit back of your own money. so they don't require that the statements of our constitutional founders be learned. my understanding, the biggest thing the current folks want to be taught and learned about world war ii is not that america was attacked, there was a day of infamy, and that america was fighting and losing lives around the world, not as much for erica but for liberty, for freedom, for -- that there would be places in the world where

people could live and have opportunity and make their own ecisions without the forces of radical islam which joined forces with the nazis and with the emperor in japan. as you go back to james madison, he said, we staked the whole future of american civilization, not on the power of government, far from it. we have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government. upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the 10 commandments. that is rather important. and that's why if you go through

the writings, pronouncements, the proclamations, the laws of the united states for the first finally years or so, we ot the constitution to a place where people understood, you can't have slavery legally exist under a constitution that grants freedom and thank god they finally got past the ridiculous decision in dred scott and we got past the civil war and in 1890, there was a case that the supreme court sat in on, 131 u.s. page 1, 1890. the supreme court said this. it is contrary to the spirit of

christianity and the civilization which christianity has produced in the western world. two years later, in the case of e united states versus the church of the holy trinity, the supreme court went on for pages talking about the evidence of christianity in america, not so that christianity would be forced or imposed on anyone, but as madison understood, and as adams understood, and as washington understood, you could not maintain self-government, a democratic republic where we will elect representatives as our servants, you can't maintain that if it is not a religious and a moral people and that

cannot be a majority of religious and moral people who believe that the constitution must totally be sub jew gated to a particular law, whether that be sharia or others. so in the declaration of independence, this is the supreme court citing this in their 1892 decision, the declaration of independence recognizes the presence of the divine in human affairs in these words. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator, capital c, with certain inalienable rights. appealing to the supreme judge, supreme judge in capitalized letters, of the world for the rectitude of our intentions. and for the -- avent further support of this declaration with

further reliance on divine providence, divine providence is capitalized, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. when i saw a copy of the original treaty of paris, 1783, swearwe forced england to under something so important that they would not want to break the oath, what to you come up with to get great britain, the most powerful country in the world, most powerful navy and army, what do you get them to swear under that they would not willingingly be wanting to break that oath? the big words, huge letters, starting the treaty that recognized our independence for the first time, starts out, in the name of the most holy and father, son, holy hat's

ghost. the opinion goes on and cites so many examples of christianity in america and they say, we are a christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon christianity and not upon the doctrines of worship of those impostors. t goes on and says, after much more recitations. these and much other many notices, declaration of the mass of organic utterances that this is a christian nation. we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth. the happy ofness of a people and a good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piettey, morality and re-- piaty, morality and religion. not that we would force christian beliefs upon anyone,

and s we find historically even a descendent, a muslim leader, a descendent of mohamed, told general garner in iraq saying what kind of government should we have? he said it should be based upon the teachings of jesus because that descendent of mohamed, that muslim leader understood it's really only if you have a government that is under the teachings of jesus where an theist, a buddhist, anybody, they won't fear so long as they try not to undo the constitution of the united states. so franklin roosevelt endeared to liberals in this nation,

december 24, 1933, said, this year marks a greater national understanding of the significance in our modern lives of the teaching of hymn, apitalized, a birth we celebrate. more and more of us the words, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself is a meaning that's shoving itself and proving itself in our purposes in daily lives. may the practice of that high ideal grow in us all in the year to come. i give you and send you one and all, old and young a merry christmas. and a truly happy new year. d so for now and for always, od bless us, everyone. another example. franklin roosevelt, december 21 , three -- well, actually two

short weeks after the bombing at pearl harbor, i won't read the whole thing but it's deeply moving. and he finishes by saying, our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which christmas day signifies. against enemies who preach the principles of hate and practice them, we set our faith in human ove and in god's care for us and all men everywhere. he said, our strength is the strength of all men everywhere is of greater avail as god upholds us. 1942 on christmas eve, he

finished by saying, it is significant that tomorrow, christmas day, our plants and factories will be stilled. that is not true of the other holidays. we have long been accustomed to celebrate. on all other holidays, work goes on gladly for the winning of the war, so christmas becomes the only holiday in all the year. i like to think this is so because christmas is holy day. ohn f. kennedy, december 17, said these words. and i won't read the whole thing. ut the conclusion. 1962, this has been a year of

peril. where the peace has been sorely threatened, but it's been a year when peril was faced and when reason ruled. as a result, we may talk at this christmas just a little bit more confidently of peace on earth, good will to men and as a result the hopes of the american people are perhaps a little higher. we have much yet to do. god ill need to ask that bless everyone. and then last for today before we adjourn for christmas, ronald reagan, december 19, 1988. he concluded his christmas address as saying, our compassion and concern this christmas and all year long will mean much to the hospitalized, the homeless, the convolessent, the orphaned,

will surely lead us on our way to the joy and peace of bethlehem and the christ child who bids us come. for it's only in finding and living the eternal meaning of the nativity that we can be , ly happy, truly at peace truly home. i conclude, mr. speaker, as ronald reagan did. merry christmas. god bless you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair lays before the house a message. the clerk: to the congress of the united states, pursuant to section 23347b e-1 of the social security act, as amended by the social security amendments of 1977, i transmit

here a social security totalization agreement with bra zilt tiled agreement on social security between the united states of america and the republic of blah brazil and related agreement entitled -- and brizill and related agreement entitled the feder ated republic of brazil for the implementation of the agreement on social security, collectively, the agreements. the agreements were signed in washington, d.c., on june 30, 2015. the agreements are similar and objective to the social security agreements already enforced with most european union countries. australia, canada, chile, japan, norway, the republic of korea and switzerland. such bilateral agreements provide for limited coordination between the united states and foreign social security systems to eliminate dual social security coverage and taxation and to help prevent the lost benefit protection that can occur when workers divide their careers

between two countries. i also transmit for the information of the congress a report required by section 232-e-1 of the social security act on the estimated number of individuals who will be affected by the agreements and the agreements estimated cost effect. the department of state and the social security administration have recommended the agreements to me. i commend the agreement on social security between the united states of america and the republic of brazil and the administrative arrangement between the competent authorities between the united states and the republic of brazil for the implementation of the agreement on social security. signed, barack obama, the white house, december 8, 2016. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on ways and means and ordered printed. for what purpose does the

gentleman from texas rise? mr. gohmert: mr. speaker, i hereby in e do now the spirit of christmas adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on monday, december 12, 2016. current funding runs out tomorrow at midnight. that measure contains provisions easing for the way for congress to issue a waiver for jrnl mattis. that goes to the senate for consideration. the house will meet every three

sessions to orma event president obama to appoint supreme court sessions. john glen has died and third u.s. astronaut in space. he spent 24 hours as a ohio democrat in the senate and briefly made a run for president in 19 4 and returned to space in 1998. here's some news real from john from february, 1962. >> five hours before he is destined to take a giant stride in history, he squeezes into his space suit. and this morning, the weather is

better and there is an optimism as he walks carrying his portable air conditioner and plans to go to the 11th deck as clocks point to 6:00 a.m. eastern standard time. and the cool north wind.

>> in the cap sull, the colonel will be transferred to a con toured couch. the mercury will be tilted so the astronaut will ride backwards and seconds tick off. the hatch cover causes a slight delay when a detective bolt is discovered and then millions are . ved to silent prayer everything is go. he take off from the atlas 360,000 ponds of thrust covers. the exerts the pressure six times the force of gravity on the astronaut. loud and clear. reading off his instruments, commenting on his reactions. all is cool and calmly.

able to control the pitch of the vehicle himself. now comes the moment when the mercury is turned so he will be facing backward. he checks with ground control. >> the capsule is turning around. oh, that view is tremendous. roger. capsule turning around and i can see the booster, just a couple of hundred yards behind me. it was beautiful. roger 7. ou have a go in at least seven orbits. and give scientists the opportunity to study his reactions as he passes over the can ari islands, australia back across the pacific and over the united states. speeds of 17,00 miles an hour reaching a high point of 169

miles. each of the three orbits. three times he sees the sun rise in four hours. three times roon the globe before he re-enters the earth's atmosphere, a shield protecting the astronaut from the intense heat. the carrier randolph is the pickup. and lands short of the carrier. ground instruments indicated his heat shield was loose and he was instructed to hold under his rocket bank. right at hand is the destroyer noah and she speeds to the capsule to take the vehicle and pilot aboard. among shaky moments, glenn is down hail and hearty and will ift the friendship 7 aboard.

the end of a saga. and now friendship 7 is latched to the deck and the crew prepares to help glenn from the capsule. first they attempt to help the colonel from his complex from the upper exit and he encountered diss and blow off the escape hatch cover. colonel john h. glenn, he left his footprints among the stars. he has a grin and carrier randolph. he is lifted aboard on a maneuver that looks more dangerous than the flight tself.

the helicopter takes him to the randolph for a debriefing and examination by the medical men. and glenn gets a preview of the congratulations that are still to come. on every side, smiles and cheers. his time is over and instruments to the national space administration. he goes for further rest. a venue of honors, a proud ountry bestows on a brave man. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2016] former u.s. senator john glenn has died in ohio. he was 95 years old. and on capitol hill, the house wrapped up its work for the remainder of the year. they approved two measures today, one for water projects and aid to flint, michigan and the other containing short-term government funding that will last until april 28. paul ryan and nancy pelosi spoke to reporters. nancy pelosi will talk about why she vote d against the measure. we will hear first from expire ryan. the speaker: well, this holiday season, like any holiday season it's time for making lists. i would like to offer one of my own. these are just some of the things that the 114th congress has achieved for the american people. the first real titlement reform in two decades, the first

long-term highway bill in more than a decade, the biggest rewrite of our education laws in 15 years, the first permanent ban in accessing the internet. policy-based evidence, something i worked on. new sanctions packages for north korea and iran, a strengthen the visa waiver program to keep americans safe, the end of the 0-year ban of exporting crude oil, permanent renewal, renewal of trade promotion authority. the first rewrite of our nation's trade enforcement laws in a generation. make government more open and transparent. reforms to stop trafficking, a bill of rights for the survivors of sexual result, reforms to help our veterans and the clay

hunt suicide prevention for veterans act, reforms to level the playing field for american manufacturers, a law to prevent a taxpayer bailout of puerto co and allow to retake its future, resources to tackle the zika virus, landmark legislation to combat opioid addiction, landmark legislation to accelerate the development of cures of rare disease ease and mental health reform and when our defense bill becomes law as it's about to, our troops will see the biggest pay raise in 10 years. my predecessor, and used to say what we do is bipartisan and other 10% gets the attention. bipartisan is not rare, it is just rarely noted. on that note, i would be happy to take your questions.

reporter: mr. speaker, donald trump in comments that were published in "time magazine said we are going to work things out that will make people happy and proud. the speaker: we will work that out with the trump administration. the judiciary committee is working with the trump organization and i refer you to those guys. reporter: you said in comments this week that the replacement for obamacare may not come to next football season. are you concerned that it could turn the system into chaos? the speaker: that's the point i was trying to make on "60 minutes." there needs to be a transition period so the rug isn't pulled out from under them. there clearly will need to be a

transition period so people will not have the rug pulled out from under them and that's what we intend on doing them. we'll get to it next year. we just had a meeting with our authorizers this morning with the senate and the transition team. those talks are ongoing. reporter: president-elect trump has asked for a call for a 35% tariff on companies going overseas. is this something you just talked about? the speaker: we had this question on tuesday. we believe the best way is through comprehensive tax reform. he is making american businesses are more competitive and stay in america and sell things overseas. the best way to solve that very important goal is comprehensive tax reform. reporter: on the a.t.a. many republicans are saying it would

be unfair to have conditions last more than two years because it would push that problem to the next congress, do you agree with that? the speaker: we are going to have these kinds of kfts and i don't have a time line. there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of dialogue with the senate and white house. it is premature to suggest that we know how long this transition is. obamacare is hurting people. we are seeing double-digit premium increases and the insurers are pulling out. the largest health insurance company in america, united pulled out. aetna pulled out of obamacare. people don't have choices. that's a monopoly and not a choice. people are getting stucked with monopolies, massive deductible increases and not picking their plans or doctors and they are

saying this is in a death spiral. we have to bring relief to obamacare as quickly as possible so it stops doing damage toe the families of america who need affordable health insurance. we are going to do it as well and fast as we can and make sure that the transition does not pull the rule rug out for people. reporter: mr. speaker, there is a concern right now that the republicans are getting both chambers along with the white house in the next congress that perhaps republicans might be eventually overspending into bleeding heart causes and perhaps democrats may take advantage of that and going into a 2005-2006 mentality and spending like drunken sailors. the speaker: not in the least. we are going to do a quick budget dealing with obamacare in january.

but our spring budget will deal with this. we were given this opportunity to have unified opportunity and that includes getting our nation's finances back on track. reporter: the president-elect has been going back on for the with an indiana union leader criticizing him directly. jones said i'm standing up for the workers. in your home state, local union heads have played an important role for some workers. what is your view that those people play and should the president-elect go after these people? the speaker: i can't speak to chuck jones. i haven't heard about this until just know. local union leaders are important parts of our community. i work with them, but i can't speak to them because i'm not sure what you are talking about. >> last question. reporter: a question about daca.

what is your personal view of that policy? the speaker: we should have something that balances the concerns of all parties involved and make sure that we don't pull out the rug from people. but i think the judiciary committee is on top of how the timing of this works and the transition team wants to make sure they get this right. i want to refer to the people who get this on a daily basis to get this policy right so we don't have a disruption. merry christmas, happy new year. njoy the season, guys. salt salt [captioning performed by national captioning institute] -- [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> and house minority leader nancy pelosi held her weekly

briefing with reporters. she explained why she voted against the federal spending bill and expressed concerns over donald trump's cabinet nominees. this is 25 minutes. ms. pelosi: good afternoon. we have a new president and wish him well. it has been interesting times and we have some concerns. after naming a white nationalist, steve bannon, steve bannon, the president-elect is aking troubling choices in his administration, he chose an attorney general with a long record of racist statements and contempt for voting rights. jeff sessions would vr dangerous new authority to attack lgbt rights and people of color. senator session' of records

comments was disqualified by a district judge. 30 years president-elect trump wants to make him the chief law enforcement in america and senator sessions towards latinos has grown more disturbing. so that's it. appoint somebody who is anti-voting rights and lgbt rights as attorney general. we go to e.p.a. e.p.a., environmental protection agency. oklahoma's attorney general, pruitt of big polluters and corporate deniers. with control of e.p.a. he could damage to air our children breathe and the water they drink. it is exactly the same thing, the same agenda that the house

of representatives espouse every day, but we are here. so this isn't different from the republicans in congress. democrats will continue to fight for clean air and clean water and clean energy investments that protects god's creation and good-paying jobs. now we go to social security and medicare. tom price with his clear statements that they will try to end medicare. we have discussed this before and always had a dream of ending the medicare guarantee and that is a nightmare for the american people. medicare and guarantee, they are synonomous. you are destroying medicare. democrats will fight their efforts to destroy medicare just in 2005 when president bush try

to privatize medicare. making seniors pay more is not what the american people voted for. democrats in congress and millions of americans are going to make it very, very clear. ands off medicare. a.c.a. after years of the g.o.p.'s fevered fact-free crusade against the affordable care act, republicans repeal plan will have -- republicans' repeal plan have will have cold, hard consequenceses for millions of american people. working families will bear the brunt of republicans' blind contempt of the affordable care act. under the a.c.a., just think of this, did you know this, a.c.a., complimentary initiatives, 95% of america's children are covered. in addition to the 20 million people who were previously uninsured, with the newfound health security, the a.c.a. protects about -- over 123

million americans with pre-existing conditions. and, in ending the discrimination against them even getting coverage, also renews the limit on their coverage, lifetime limits on their coverage. and state by state basis, we ill have a strong advocacy for what this means in the lives of the american people. has made a tremendous difference. it's about cost, the cost is growing at the slowest rate ever since the cost had been measured. about quality, the quality of health care that people have, and their stories are the best testimonies to that. and quantity. the number of people covered. the bigger the pool, the lower the cost, the better the care, the healthier the country. so this -- you won't see a

state by state basis, doctors, hospitals, patients, advocates, they're our strongest voices and faith groups, while stepping forward to express the consequences of the republican repeal of a.c.a. now, for what's happening today. this morning we had a lovely signing ceremony for the cures act. we're all very proud to participate in that and to stick with it to the end. there were some things right at the end that were dropped from the cures act, that we were hoping would be in it. one of them relates to families first. we thought, therefore, that it would be in the c.r., but it is not. come to the final business of 2014, we're disappointed that we're not voting on a morrow bust c.r. that meets the needs of the american people. in all of these negotiations, on these end-of-session investments, whether it's an

omnibus or a continuing resolution as it is this year, 've always had a four-post negotiation, house, senate, democrats and republicans. this year the republicans decided it would just be senate republicans and senate democrats -- excuse me, senate republicans and house republicans. senate republicans and house republicans. $1.7 trillion budget deal, spending bill, and they decided that they would establish what the priorities were, never treated them that way. but we don't agonize. just to state the facts thfments a bill that is a missed -- facts. this is a bill that is a missed opportunity in so many ways. we didn't get our family first. they played a number on flint that should be clearly in that bill, that it's spelled out in the way that flint would receive the money. instead they used it as a trick for the wrda bill. so, for that -- these and other

reasons, missed opportunities, leaving the coal miners abandoned, when we try to get initiatives for renewables, they said, we're fossil fuel guys. we said, ok, honor the work of the miners and their families. suppose you work for a country -- company, as these miners have done, that went bankrupt or insolvent and then they said to you, you no longer have your pension or your health benefits . feature that in your own life. well, that's what happened to them. so, the request was for, like, a five-year pension and health care benefit initiative, or aybe in perpetuityy, a republican bill by congressman kildee, that does help these families so much. a lot of them widows. the republicans have rejected that.

instead of five years it's going to be four months. four months, from now until april. really appalling. for these and other reasons, i will be opposing the c.r. members will do what they do. but the fact is that it's such a missed opportunity and it's really kind of sad because there's so many things that we could do to meet the needs of the american people, working together in a bipartisan way. we did that with making many concessions on the cures bill. and really disappointed that they've gone down this path now. so, i will be opposing it. some of our members will vote for it. some against. i don't know. i haven't whipped it or anything. you're probably the first to know. officially. and -- that i will be opposing it. i'll leave here and go speak on the floor on it. it's so sad. it's really so sad. so many provisions, more than

i'll go into here. any questions? yes, sir. reporter: what do you say to donald trump's proposal to keep jobs and companies in the u.s., to do so he's going to have a 35% tariff. can you talk about the consequences of something like that? ms. pelosi: i know the speaker's told you tax reform or something was the answer to this. global live in a economy. any initiatives that we take in terms of trade have a consequence for us. i do not support t.p.p. i did not support t.p.p. exempt for 28 democrats in the house, we overwhelmingly opposed it. the republicans overwhelmingly supported it. and that's how it got to 218. 190 republicans and 28 democrats. we live in a global economy, we should address our trade

relationships, very important. starting with the worker. starting with the worker. but the idea that we were going to go down that path, it doesn't seem well thought-out, it doesn't look like a formula for success and it certainly will invite reciprocity. and what we want to do is to promote our exports, not to have them tariffed highly in other countries. so i think this is more of a p.r. thing, because it doesn't really sound like a serious proposal in terms of trade. but it gets an applause, it brings people to their feet, but not to their senses, which is where we have to go on these things. reporter: since 2011, epublicans have arguably weaponized the debt ceiling by using it as a way to try and force concessions by the white house. now that the shoe will be on

the other foot next year, you guys have said that something shouldn't be messed with generally speaking. i'm wondering if you're rethinking that stance now that -- ms. pelosi: no. i mean, point is that we have supported or opposed lifting debt ceiling but never letting it go down. people have made their point. but what the republicans did was to put in doubt as to whether the debt ceiling would be lifted. even just the discussion of it, even the discussion of it lowered our rating. lowered our rating. so you can't mess with it in that way. can you use it as a discussion? can you use it as leverage? but you can never use it to say, if you don't do this, we're going to take it down. and that's the difference between a discussion and a negotiation, than an absolute declaration that you're going to not lift the debt ceiling. reporter: sounds like you're saying you're not planning on

using it the way they used it. ms. pelosi: i don't think anybody should use it the way they used it, to lower the credit rating, the good faith and credit of the united states of america. i don't think we should have to take the vote. the constitution call for that, should never be in doubt. they placed it in doubt and that had a bad consequence for us. so we're not placing in doubt whether it will be lifted, but we have reserved the right to negotiate and maybe we will, maybe we won't. just depends on what the circumstances are at the time. it will be interesting to to see what the president of the united states will be saying at he time. reporter: what's your position on the ride that are dianne feinstein and kevin mccarthy wrote into the water bill? ms. pelosi: in terms of how it was done, again, nobody wants

to hear about process but it is policy in some respects. this was something that we had en negotiating the wrda bill .or a while two hours before it was supposed to be posted they came up with this thick bill that said, this was supposed to be in it. we didn't even see the bill until hours later. from that standpoint it was suspicious. it isn't a water bill. it is a natural resources bill. it pertains to water but it should be a natural source. so it doesn't belong here. with all of the importance of it, to have it just be something that's parachuted in, with tons of pages and very little time before it is now included, and it's something we've been talking about, really trying to come to terms, we had concerns about not

having buy america and wrda, we have concerns about why are they putting a piece of flint in wrda. we have concerns that they have taken the harbor maintenance trust fund, which is billions of dollars that could be used for dredging, understanding that that was going to be addressed in the bill, they took all the stuff out that we anticipated might be coming, and then put this bill in. knowing that it was controversial. d required much more attention. have concerns that it undermines the endangered species act. i have enormous respect for senator feinstein and the time that she has put in on all of this. i do respect the fact that this is senator boxer's committee, it's her bill, it's her position, it's her leaving of congress and they would do that

for substantive reasons, i oppose it. i oppose that provision. but also it's just another indication of an arrogant -- not speaking of senator feinstein now, but of the republicans, of an arrogance of take it or leave it. in my view, they have hijacked it -- hijacked the good intentions of everyone in terms of the children of flint and put something on there that people don't want to support but then have to make a choice between the children. the children could have been addressed in the c.r. completely. authorization in the c.r., there's appropriation in the c.r., but they said, oh, authorization has to be in wrda, we have to have an zauthition -- to have an authorization. the $1.7 trillion bill probably has a quarter of a trillion dollars worth of unauthorized language. but they're holding the wrda --

the children of flint to a different standard and that's really unfortunate. then to combine it with what some of us consider a poison pill is a problem. not was, in my view, worthy of the subject. this is a serious subject. the water issue in california. how they did it is unworthy of the seriousness of the subject at needs to be addressed and just gives the next administration an opportunity to make matters worse, as they build on what would be in this bill should it pass. which i think it will. reporter: the republicans say that they want democrats to work with them on a replacement for obamacare. assuming that they go ahead with the path that they appear to be on, which is to repeal the affordable care act, or the major part of it, through

reconciliation early in the new year, is it thinkable that democrats would work with them on a replacement at that point? ms. pelosi: we're fighting to repeal right now. but we had this question last week. if people have good ideas, i certainly vom things i would like to change, -- have some things i would like to change, we're a bicameral legislature but there are some things the senate wanted that i didn't, we can have a discussion about how we can make some improvements in that regard. we never, never pass any bill of any consequence that you don't say, in its implementation, how could we do better. from what we have learned from its implementation, how can we address some of those concerns. or even renew -- parts of it, like the cadillac tax, or something like that. i'd like to get rid of that. but the fact is that right now it's really important for the republicans in congress to know

the harm that there do to people throughout our country. fault us for not messaging clearly enough as the bill was being passed and they were allowed to misrepresent -- i don't even want -- misrepresent an illusion that they wanted the public to have about this legislation. but the fact is that some of the people who opposed it then are some of our strongest supporters now. we're going to fight this out. because this is a pillar of health and economic security for america's working families. and just to recap, because maybe you weren't here last week, i said this. 75% of the american people receive their health insurance on the job. the remaining 25%, a large chunk of those, are those who now have health insurance through the affordable care act. some people are left out. they haven't stepped up or they can't afford to participate -- whatever it is, we still have to address that. but that's a small percentage. so we're saying, 75% are

covered, 20 million more, 95% of america's children are covered now. are covered now. that's a beautiful thing. again, 123 million people with pre-existing medical conditions. don't have to worry about being discriminated against for health insurance. you have no lifetime limits. these were all levers that the insurance industry used against the policyholders. now they have joined together with us to make access more widely available. so it's about quantity. the quality of health care has improved. the more people you have in the pool, the healthier the country. the most privileged person in merica, health care and health outlooks, are better if the poorest person in health care has access to health care -- person in america has access to

health care. quanltity, quality, cost. is there in other reason, no other reason to do the affordable care act than cost, it would have been essential. the costs were un-- the rising cost of health care were unsustainable to businesses, big and small, families, individuals, the federal government. and any other government entity. because the costs were going up like this. unaffordable. and so now we have the cost rising at the lowest rate ever since all of this was measured. are there some places where we should iron out some accommodations in one state or another? yes, let's do that. but you don't say the 20 million, forget about it, the 123 million, that's why the disease loops are so much with us -- groups with so much with us. the difference it has made in their lives, no pre-existing condition as a barrier to access and no lifetime limits

is remarkable. so we're very proud of it and we're going to put together these organizations, as many states as possible, with all of the stakeholders in it. again, if anybody has any positive suggestions about how we can work together to go forward, we never would say no to that. we're not talking about a replace am. what they're saying, is oh, we're going to keep no pre-existing conditions, we're going to keep lifetime limits. you can't do it unless you have the big pool. so that's what they'll find out. but what they'll also find out is there are more stories that support the affordable care act than they may have wanted to listen to. they will be hearing from them on that. again, when you look at affordable care act, what it did for medicare, just think of this. for medicare, the affordable care act took savings, extended the life of medicare, closed the doughnut hole and provided free checkup, early pre-expect checkup. that's -- pre-checkup.

that's very important to early intervention. in the ryan budget, they take the same savings that we recognize are there and give a tax break to the richest people in the country. so we're talking about a value system here. and that's a lot of their debate. maybe a discussion that we should have had earlier. but the president said we were all busy. not too busy to give people confidence that we're there to not only protect them, this is not just about health care in america, but the good health of america. i'm going to have to go because i have to speak on the floor. but i thank you all very much. wish you a happy holiday season. maybe i'll see you next year of i don't know. i think you get out pretty soon. we'll see. thank you all very much. happy holidays to all of you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2016] >> minority leader nancy pelosi

at her weekly briefing, answering a question about why she wouldn't vote for a bill that funds the government until april 28, 2017. however the house went on to pass that four-month spending measure. 326-96. it now heads to the senate for consideration with government funding set to expire tomorrow at midnight. we'll show you the floor debate now from earlier today. it's an hour and 15 minutes. re: gentleman is recognized. mr. rogers: i rise before you today to present the second fiscal year 2017 continuing resolution this year, which will fund the federal government through april 28 of 2017. this bill is a necessary measure to continue vital government programs and services like our national defense. it keeps the lights on in our government preventing the uncertainty and harm of a shutdown. our current continuing resolution expires tomorrow, so

we must act today. this continuing resolution is a responsible compromise making only limited adjustments were required to preserve the security of the nation, to prevent serious lapses in government services and the careful expenditure of taxpayer dollars. to highlight a few of these changes, we take care of our troops by increasing overseas contingency operations resources and include provisions that accelerate production rates for equipment and systems like the ohio replacement submarine, the pache helicopter and the kc 46 ---46-a. and provides funding for the department of homeland security to keep our nation safe. in addition to these changes, the bill includes necessary funding to help communities

recover from recent natural disasters like hurricane matthew, flooding in states like louisiana and west virginia and devastating droughts. legislation also includes $170 million for important health and water infrastructure improvements as well as $872 million for the house passed 21st century cures act and $500 billion to respond to the opioid abuse epidemic. these items are both fully offset. as i have said on this floor many times over the past six years standing in this exact spot, a continuing resolution is the last resort and not what i would prefer to bring to the floor as final bill as chairman of the appropriations committee. at the end of the day, a c.r. is simply a band-aid on a gushing

wound, which is no way to run a railroad. it's bad for congress, bad for the federal government, bad for our country. a c.r. extends outdated policies and funding levels, wasting money and preventing good changes from being made. a c.r. also creates uncertainty in federal budgets and in our economy. and lastly, it diminishes the congress' power of the purse, giving away to people's voice in how the government uses their tax dollars. i truly hope that in the near future we can stop lunching from c.r. to c.r. and return to regular order for the sake of our national security, our economy and the well-being of all americans. however at this point, this is our best and only path forward. it's absolutely imperative that

we complete the work on the 11 remaining appropriations bills as soon as possible when congress returns. this is a good bill. and i urge my colleagues to vote yes on the c.r. and i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. today we consider the second continuing resolution to keep most of the government open. to say that i am disappointed in this band-aid approach to operating the government would be an understatement. the legislation before us is an abdication of responsibility for the entire congress. it is a disgrace that more than two months into the new fiscal year, congress will kick the can

down the road nearly another five months for purely partisan reasons. having already failed this year to adopt a budget, pass appropriation bills and restore regular order, the majority's failure to enact full year funding is not surprising, but nonetheless shameful. several administration requests were either not included or drastically discounted. the commodities future commission would be frozen under this c.r. likely causing staff furloughs and making it impossible to protect market participants. . i'm concerned about the majority including just $7 million, 1/5 of the amount requested by the administration and by new york city, to reimburse new york for the cost

of helping new york and other state and local governments protect the president-elect until his inauguration. local and state taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for the federal responsibility of protecting the president-elect. i view the amount in the c.r. as a down payment, and i'm putting the majority on notice that a future funding bill must fully cover these costs. at a time when economic hardship is common among those who've worked in unsafe and unhealthy coal mines, this congress should be united in ensuring these men and women have both the health and pension benefits they have earned. these hardworking individuals need more than empty promises. i'm pleased the c.r. provides additional funding to respond to natural disasters, to assist

flint, michigan, in recovering from a lead crisis, to respond to threats abroad, to prevent opioid addiction and to support biomedical research. however, we should have made these investments along with a full-year bill that would have dealt with every government program. finally, this bill should not include the provision that would limit debate on providing a waiver to allow the next secretary of defense to have been retired from active duty for less than the current requirement of seven years. civilian leadership of the military is a bedrock principle of our democracy, and any new standard deserves full debate by the congress. i know chairman rogers worked to have the appropriations committee return to regular order. i've tried to be a partner with

him because i think the american people want us to do our jobs of keeping the government operating. notwithstanding the constraints facing the chairman, the bill we consider today should be a bipartisan full-year spending measure. thank you, mr. speaker. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i'm very proud to yield three minutes to the gentleman from new jersey who will assume the chair of the appropriations committee come january and in whom i have great confidence and pride, mr. frelinghuysen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. frelinghuysen thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the time. i rise to urge support of the -- mr. frelinghuysen: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the time. i rise to urge support of the continuing resolution. i want to thank mr. rogers as

he manages this appropriations bill. i know i speak for ranking member lowey and all members of the committee, republicans, democrats, our remarkable professional staff when i say this body and this nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude for his many contributions on the appropriations committee for 30 years and as its chairman for the last six. no one understands better than hal rogers the house's constitutional duty to responsibly fund the federal government. no one has defended this body's power of the purse with more vigor. he's always supported rigorous oversight. under chairman rogers' leadership, the committee has held over 600 public hearings to ensure that federal tax dollars were well spent. and the committee has earned results, cutting wasteful spending to the tune of $126 billion since fiscal year 2010. in fact, the chairman has worked tirelessly to restore

trust in the spending process all with professionalism, good humor and class. mr. chairman, i know i speak for all members of the committee, all members of the house in extending to you our heart-felt thanks for your continued service on the committee and your remarkable service as chairman. on the resolution, briefly, the is ity is, and this relative to national security. war ality is we are in engaged with those in iraq and afghanistan and elsewhere. we have no greater responsibility to ensure that our men and women have the resources that this continuing resolution assures they can -- so they can carry out their missions and return home safely. in this regard, we've scrubbed the president's budget amendment, $5.8 billion, for overseas operations. in doing so we've redirected

funding for stocks of various munitions that our troops need to fight isis and the taliban. increase activity on behalf of the russians, we provided our nato allies. this resolution needs to be supported for national defense, homeland security and, again, i salute chairman rogers for his leadership and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mr. speaker, i'm leased to yield four minutes to the gentleman from indiana, mr. visclosky, the ranking member of the defense subcommittee of appropriations. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. visclosky: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the gentlelady for yielding. i ask unanimous consent to place my entire statement in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. visclosky: i'm sorely dispinted that despite the best efforts of chairman rogers,

mrs. lowey and all the members of the committee we yet again find ourselves in the position of considering another continuing resolution. in june on the floor i stated that our fiscal year begins on ctober 1, 2016, not may 1, 2017. and it is the responsibility of those of us holding office in this session of this congress to execute the 2017 appropriation process. we should not foist our responsibility upon the next. unfortunately, almost six months later, it is appropriate to repeat myself. as the ranking member on defense, i feel it is important to highlight some of the complicationes that we are compounding for next year -- complications that we are compounding for next year, ain, despite the work of mr. frelinghuysen. first, the c.r. hinders the d.o.d. to adapting to conditions around the globe.

although we have included a few adjustments in this c.r., many more programs and initiatives were not addressed and we will have created unforeseen but real impacts to our war fighters and their families. second, the defense budget that we are defering was planned for back in late 2015. complete the appropriations process by april 28 will present the department with a fundamental management challenge. third, it will require a significant amount of interchange with the d.o.d. for congress to complete the work for the remainder of this fiscal year's appropriation in the spring. those same individuals in offices in theand the department will simultaneously be making changes for the 2018 budget for the new administration. and while it is likely that the 2018 budget request will be delayed beyond the normal first week in february, the two

activities will overlap significantly, and it creates inefficiencies. let me also point out the department will be well into the development of its fiscal year 2019 budget at the same time. the department will be presenting the fiscal year 2018 budget to the congress. at the same time it will patiently be waiting for the resolution of this budget, all the while operating under 2016 levels that we have now extended with two consecutive c.r.'s. this c.r. has the likelihood of being particularly disruptive because it also coin sides with the change in the -- coincides with the change in the executive branch. we add a much greater burden to the incoming administration and the next congress by not completing our work now. in closing, i again appreciate the chairman, ranking member,

the staff's work, the committee's work. i regret that we find ourselves on the house floor again creating manufactured uncertainty. i would yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i now want to yield three minutes to the gentleman from oklahoma who chairs the largest civilian piece of the federal budget, the labor-hhs subcommittee on our committee, the gentleman who is the most articulate member of our committee, i would say, and one of the great members of this body. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for three minutes. mr. cole: thank you, mr. speaker. i certainly thank the gentleman for yielding and those extremely kind and gracious words. i certainly rise in support of this very important bill. i want to offer and echo the praise that's been offered on this floor by members of both

parties to our chairman who is bringing his last full appropriations bill to the floor as the full committee chairman and just tell him what a pleasure it's been to work under his leadership and to learn, frankly, at his knee. usually with a pretty good cigar at the same time. so i've enjoyed that. i think he's done a great job. i also want to congratulate my friend, the ranking member. this is a chairman and ranking member, frarningly, that have done their jobs the -- frankly, that have done their jobs the last two years. all bills were reported out of the appropriations committee both years and all 12 should have been on this floor and dealt with. and i regret that they were not. there are a lot of good things in this continuing resolution. as been mentioned earlier, the additional funds for biomedical research, the funds for our defense at a critical time of our country and disaster relief funds that parts of our country share. i know in is not the bill that chairman rogers wanted to bring to this floor. and frankly we've got to get out of this. i couldn't agree more with my

friend from indiana who said it pretty well, and this is not this committee's fault this is a failure in this congress. this is the responsibility of this congress and this administration to write the bill for next year. this is a failure to meet that responsibility. it's a necessary step. i certainly will support it, but we've simply got to get back to the point of regular order. you know, next year, believe me, i will push very hard to make sure we don't have another c.r. on april 28, that we actually do the appropriations for f.y. 2017. shouldn't be doing it in f.y. 2017, but it would be better than another c.r., and we'll push to make sure we do the f.y. 2018. i know the chairman has done everything humanly possible to do that, and i know he's had a willing partner in the ranking member. let's pass this bill but let's get back to regular order. let's restore things. there's a bipartisan sense of

frustration on the appropriations committee and frankly the leadership on both sides in this body need to work to achieve that. it's not the appropriations committee's failure. this is a failure of the house of representatives and the senate to do its job. that should not happen again. with that i urge support for the measure and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i rise to enter into a colloquy with chairman rogers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. chairman, section 170-b of the continuing resolution creates a contingency fund which could make available an additional $200 million after march 1. can you clarify if the additional funds in section 170-b will be available for obligation for three fiscal years, the same period of time as fiscal year 2017 funds appropriated to carry out the same purpose? mr. rogers: will the gentlelady yield? rs. lowey: i'm happy to yield.

mr. rogers: the answer is yes. mrs. lowey: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mckinley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from west virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. kinzinger: for the purpose of a -- mr. mckinley: for the purpose of a colloquy. thank you, mr. chairman, for discussing this short-term health care provision for coal miners that's in the c.r. a few months ago, approximately 20,000 retired coal miners and their families received notices that they would lose their health benefits at the end of this year. not for anything they did but because of president obama's war on coal and the excessive regulationes that have forced their former employees into bankruptcy. -- former employers into bankruptcy. remember, these men and women

did nothing to cause these problems. this will give these families little relief. it's for only four months. not any longer. after this bill passes, in just a few short weeks, they will be back in the same position. they'll get the same notice. i'm deeply disturbed that this bill does not include a long-term solution. some in the senate are even willing to kill this bill, but in so doing, they would be abandoning the 20,000 coal miners. we can't do that. . we have to accept on what we have. we can't turn our backs on these families. stopping this c.r. would put people in harm's way. so i'm supporting its passage and asking that they work with me when we return next congress to find a long-term solution. our coal miners deserve the peace of minds to know their

benefits will not be threatened in the future and willing to work with the leadership and anyone else in congress to get that done. so, mr. chairman, i have enjoyed working with you as the chairman for the last six years. so my question to you, is it your understanding we will have the opportunity to pursue a long-term solution and fund the health care benefits of retired coal miners in the first months of the 115th congress and before the c.r. expires? mr. rogers: would the gentleman yield? mr. kinzinger: yes. mr. rogers: yes. that's my understanding. there are thousands of retired miners who will be impacted by the expiration of these health care benefits, many of them in my district. these miners have worked hard their entire lives to earn these

benefits and deserve to know while the promises made to them will be honored. i'm committed to working with you and other members representing coal country to arrive at a lasting solution to this problem in the new congress and to provide some lasting relief that our coal fields have suffered so much in the last eight years. mr. mckinley: thank you. reclaiming my time and i look forward to working with you. you have been very honorable and someone that i have truly enjoyed working with. and as we proceed on this in the next year and i think we can be successful. and with the incoming chairman, i'm even more excited. this is a way to come to a solution. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i ask for the time remaining.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman has 22 minutes remaining. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from ohio, ms. kaptur, the ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee on appropriations. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. ms. kaptur: i thank the gentlelady for yielding and compliment her on her work and the chairman, mr. rogers, incredible chairman. both of them did their work. but i rise today as the underlying bill that all of this is attached to our energy and water bill appalled that this christmas tree bill that the republican leadership hoisted on this congress in the last minute. this is exactly the type of bill the public hates. the top brass over there literally disrespected our committee work and produced instead a rotten egg. today, we will take a vote that forces us to choose between shutting the government down two

weeks before christmas or supporting this funding bill laced with nongermane controversial provisions. what kind of choice is this? what happened to the republicans' top priority of funding the government under regular order? not our committee's fault. we did our job. what happened to voting on 12 appropriation bills and allowing amendments under regular order? we want to do that, but we are being handcuffed. i'll tell you what happened, the republican leaders threw out our up-to-date bills and threw them in the trash and replaced them with yet another bill that looks in the rear view mirror with numbers that are two years old and doesn't meet america's defense late and the department to operate without any predictability or stability. this is disgraceful. no wonder americans are so mad

at us. if republicans wanted to take care of the military, they have failed. the military has never ever operated during a continuing resolution until now. imagine how the commanders in the field feel when the april deadline hits. if republicans wanted to take care of american workers, they have failed. this resolution abandons hardworking coal miners. right at christmas time. may i ask for an additional minute perhaps? i thank the gentlelady. if republicans wanted to run the house under regular order, they have failed. they only brought up half of the 27 bills to the floor for a vote. where are the other six. if republicans wanted to fund the government in a responsible and efficient way, they have failed. this resolution will likely cost

us millions more dollars in delayed projects, contract reaches and lost american jobs. is this a sign of what's to come? what happens on april 28 when this filthy band-aid falls off? if we want bills under regular order this year when we had a bipartisan agreement and republican majority, what will we do in may when we have the 2017 budget to fix and the 2018 budget and the debt ceiling to fix. i wonder what chaotic pakistan the republican leaders will lead us down in the new year. this is certainly a terrible sign of what's to come. i yield back my remaining time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentlelady from new york reserves. the messenger: a message from the president of the united states. the secretary: mr. speaker, i'm directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. rogers: i now yield three minutes to the outstanding chairman of the house energy and commerce committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. and first i must join the long line of folks congratulating our friend and chairman of the important appropriations committee, mr. rogers from kentucky, for great service, assembling a hardworking staff and making sure at christmas time now we aren't going to be shutting down the government. i rise in support of this c.r., continuing resolution and i just want to inform a couple of my colleagues of some of the very important provisions that are included in this package to fund some of the work in 21st century cures and relief for families in

flint, michigan and elsewhere around the country. there is not a single person in this chamber who has not been touched by disease in some way. we have said all too many good-byes to the people we hold dear, every day countless folks living vibrant lives are delivered unexpected diagnosis. it is a cycle that repeats itself over and over. life can change in an instant and hope seems sometimes out of each whether alzheimer's m.s., cancer, diabetes. both the house and the senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st century cures act with 392 votes here in the house and 94 in the senate just yesterday. it is set to be signed into law next week and our effort will help change the conversation on innovation and research. but you know what?

it's patients that are going to be helped the most. and this bill fulfills our commitment to hit the ground running immediately in an effort to to deliver valuable funds in this fiscal year, something that was critical as we worked together in both sides of the aisle and the house and the senate to get it done. the bill fulfills our commitment to the folks of flint, michigan, again an issue we have dealt with and i commend mr. kildee who is on the floor working with him in a bipartisan way. the system failed at every level of government, but that's not what the folks in flint wanted to hear. they wanted answers. this bill finally delivers that. and it's been a long struggle and i commend the gentleman from michigan for his leadership on this. we worked together. this bill provides the effort to right those past wrongs. they want answers and results, and this bill delivers exactly that and i would urge my

colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this bill and send it to the senate and then to the president. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. serrano, the ranking member of the financial services and general government appropriations subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. serrano: i thank the gentlewoman. i rise to join my voice to those from new york and other places who continue to ask why not new york city, reimbursing new york city for the work and money they are spending to take care of the president-elect? we don't have a problem with safeguarding him, but someone should pay other than the local government. and i must remind you or warn

you that he loves new york and that's fine and i suspect this will be a president who will spend a lot of time in new york city rather than in the white house. that might sell well on some tv networks but won't sell well for the taxpayers of new york. so i think it's important for us now to be able to give new york the $35 million it has already paid. now the $7 million in the bill and some will say, i can't vote for this because you only have $7 million and i'm looking at chairman rogers and chairman frelinghuysen and i suspect this is a downpayment on what's to come and negotiations will get better. as i close, let me say, hal, you have been a great chairman. every time i get up and you look to your right, which is not difficult for you to do, but

when you look to your right and single me out to speak, i always felt i'm part of a team. and you're not leaving the congress, but leaving the chair manship and miss you in that position but replaced by a friend who will have to sit loser to him on the train. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from arkansas, a member of the armed services subcommittee on appropriation, mr. womack. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. womack: i thank the gentleman from kentucky for giving me a couple of minutes here to speak on behalf of this bill. i'm not real sure, mr. speaker, how much more constructive i could be on this discussion on this underlying bill.

the truth has already been spoken by both sides. it's not the bill we wanted to bring to the floor. it's not the bills that we have marked up after some very serious oversight meetings and discussions within the appropriations committee and has already been mentioned, we moved each of the 12 bills through committee. only half of them made it through the floor of the house. so it's not the final product that any of us on the appropriations committee and i would guess most of the people in our congress would have wanted to bring. but it is the bill that is on the floor today and it's quite essential that we pass it and leave for the holidays without turning washington upside down or our economy upside down. so i support the underlying bill and i would recommend that it get a thunderous amount of

approval here within the conference. i can't helpclose, but remember back six years ago, mr. speaker, when i came to this congress and during the orientation period, i had the opportunity to engage in conversation with my friend from kentucky, hal rogers. i told him then i wanted to be on his committee. i knew he was committed to regular order and i knew he understood the process and i had the desire to serve on a committee that was actually going to do something that washington is not real familiar with and that is cut spending. he has done that. i said i would be willing to take the tough votes and standing with him and rest of the colleagues on the committee to restore regular order and really the article one powers that the congress should enjoy. he has never failed me nor has he failed our committee and our congress, our house should be --

appreciate what this gentleman has done with this regard. so i thank the gentleman from kentucky for the leadership he has given our committee and i thank him for the time here to express my feelings publicly on the floor of the house. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i am delighted to yield three minutes to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. price, the ranking member on the transportation and housing appropriations subcommittee. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. price: i thank the gentlewoman and i second the words about our committee chair with whom i've been pleased to work.

i'm pleased that this continuing resolution makes sure that north carolina and other states have the ability to rebuild after hurricane matthew and other major storm this is year. securing the funding has been my top priority since hurricane matthew made landfall. i'm grateful for the bipartisan cooperation of the congressional delegation from our state and also the appropriations committee leadership throughout this entire process. the bill before us also includes critical funding to address the flint water crisis, our national opioid epidemic, and vice president biden's moon shot to cantser initiative. so -- to cancer initiative. so it's heartening to see these bear fruit, but this resolution stands in stark contrast to how the republican leadership of this house has managed the appropriations end game this

year. rather than work in a productive way with democrats to finalize our fiscal 2017 appropriations bills, republican leaders of the house have again decided this time in ecided, this conniveance with the trump transition, to abandon the bills we negotiabilitied in good faith to have yet another stopgap measure this one lasting an arbitrary five months this doesn't bode well for the appropriations process. we've heard the alarm bells sounded by appropriations leaders from both sides of the aisle. make no mistake, there are some immediate consequences as well this c.r. will damage h.u.d. programs that serve our most vulnerable populations. it will also prevent states from receiving new highway and transit funding called for in the bipartisan fast act. the c.r. also contains a partisan anti-safety provision

that would block overnight rest requirements for commercial truck drivers, endangering highway travel for millions of drivers across the country. perhaps most egregious as well as unprecedented is the inclusion of a waiver for president-elect trump's nominee for secretary of defense. now whatever the merits of this nomination, setting aside the seven-year waiting period designed to protect civilian control of the military deserves more deliberation and debate than a c.r. provides. mr. speaker, as we enter this period of political uncertainty, i hope that we can commit in future fiscal years to an appropriations process that allows us to exercise the pow over the purse this body's essential constitutional power, in a measured and bipartisan way. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from new york reserves.

the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from idaho, who chair the all-important energy and water subcommittee on our committee, mr. simpson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. simpson: thank you for the time. let me thank you for the job you've done over the last six years leading this committee. it's a difficult job, we have to make tough choices than committee has been willing to do this. i appreciate the leadership that you and ranking member lowey have provided for this committee and the direction we've been able to go. but let me say also, mr. speaker, i don't really like what we're doing here. i don't think anybody on the appropriations committee likes what we're doing here. we all know it's necessary because we don't want the government to shut down. to it's amazing to listen all the people who come to the floor, i know all the appropriations committee members

want to get back to regular order. the last time that was done was back in 1994. under republican and democrat leadership we have not been able to do it in the last 22 years. it's time we do. but it's amazing the number of people that come to the floor that aren't on the appropriation committees that say, man, we need to get back to regular order. and we all agree with that. so how do we do it. i'll tell you how we do it. it takes a commitment. it takes a commitment of republican and democratic leadership. if you're going to have open rules where any amendment can be offered and a lot of these appropriations bills come to the floor, we have 100 or 150 amendments offered, they take a lot of time to pass. that's ok. we've got to have a commitment that we're going to spend time on the floor to do these appropriation bills. and we're willing to do that. but it takes a commitment from leadership that we're going to have the floor time. we used to have a time where all during the month of june, first of july, it was appropriation

season. we were here six weeks in a row, five days a week, sometimes late at night and early in the morning, doing appropriations bills. e have a different schedule, because district work period is important for a lot of members, so every third week we go home to our districts. that time is important, but we're elected to do a job. we've got to be in washington and we've got to be on the floor and we've got to be debating these bills if we want to get back to regular order. we act as if it comes down from on high that this can't happen, like it's not in our control. it is in our control. and we on both sides of the aisle need to make a commitment that we'll get back to regular order and do appropriations bills. i thank the chairman for all the job and all the effort he and ranking member lowey have done to bring us back to regular order to the extent that we can and hopefully we get back to it. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back, the gentleman from kentucky

reserves, the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: i'm delighted to yield three minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. farr, the ranking member of the subcommittee on agriculture appropriation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. farr: thank you, mr. speaker, thank you, madam chair, for yielding. this is the last time i'll speak on this floor after 23 years of serving in the house of representatives. and it's sweet because it is about the appropriations process. and the wonderful camaraderie that that committee, which i think is the most important committee and most exciting committee in congress because you dealt with all aspects of how tovet -- of how government operates. you really do the policy wonk, the technical stuff, the drilling down -- drilling down, all those words we use to understand how government works and how much it's going to cost. you've heard this incredible bipartisanship of people dedicated to the job they were elected to do and the committee

they serve on. do the appropriations process. all of that is develop -- has developed this incredible friendship and i think respect, professional respect that we have for one another regardless of our philosophy. the bitterness of it is that you've just heard everyone so eloquently speak about the failure of the process. that we're doing a c.r. that nobody wants to do. why is that? frankly, they're not saying it, i think this is the first test of how the congress is going to respond to the new president-elect trump's agenda. it was our former member, now vice president-elect mike pence, that said, we want a c.r. he served in this house. he knows the process. we don't want -- we were all in agreement. we were going to do a comprehensive bill. we've caved to this request. and we shouldn't. because this is the only place

you do checks and balances. the abuses of the administration can be only checked and balanced in, mostly in this che. -- in this committee. it's going to be a tough year next year. it's going to be a tough year, some of the proposals being made are really radical, they're going to cut a lot of things and hurt a lot of people if this congress doesn't correct them, and we have a sense of how to do that, but we can't do it with a c.r. so i leave here, you know, really appreciative of the incredible responsibility that my electorate has given me to be here, the privilege of being in the house of representatives, i really love the opportunity to be on the appropriations committee, i respect the leadership of the chair and ranking member, being able to produce some remarkable appropriations bills. but i just ask my colleagues, take back your power. be what the electorate wants.

be what the constitution asks us to do. be that serious minded representational government that really drills down on how all of government is going to operate. don't cave in to c.r.'s. thank you very much. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. rogers: will the gentleman yield? the gentleman and i don't agree on many issues but i think all of us agree he's been an outstanding member of the congress, he's been a work horse on our committee, and we're going to miss you. so congratulations to you on a great career. thank you for serving. the speaker pro tempore: thank you -- mr. farr: thank you, mr. chairman, i appreciate those kind remarks. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back.

the gentleman from new york reserve -- the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i'm delighted to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from minnesota, ms. mccollum, ranking member of the interior and environment appropriations subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. ms. mccollum: thank you. mr. speaker, once again this congress has abandoned its responsibility to provide a full-year appropriation. months of hard work were thrown away. pushing important funding decisions down the road. i've heard from families and business leaders in my district, they're worried about the uncertainty that continuing resolutions create in their daily lives. it's not a good way to govern. it's not a good way forward for our country. as the ranking member of interior and environment subcommittee, i am disappointed

that this bill only provides five months of funding for priorities like clean air, clean water, national parks, and our treaty obligations. we need to secure funding for hospitals and for schools in indian country and it should be for a full year. we need to manage our national forests and parks and the environmental protections agency of monitoring toxins that threaten the health of our families. the decision that we have before us today only allows these programs to continue for five months and be in jeopardy again in april this bill does not take an -- this bill does take one important step, however, to assist with lead poisoning crisis in flint, although it's less than what's needed and coming far too late. i want to thank, however, toirman call vert and i want

thank chairman rogers and ranking member lowey for their work to ensure this bill does not contain any new policy riders that would impact the interior subcommittee's jurisdiction. my biggest concern with this legislation is not interior related but instead involves the fundamental principle of our democracy. the dig by republican leadership to include language that would limit a full public debate on senate confirmation for the nominee of secretary of defense is alarming. civilian control of our military has been a corn stone of american democracy since our country's founding. when the secretary of defense position was created in 1947, this principle was enshrined into law. with that, i think the decision moving forward in this bill is deeply concerning to all americans and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from new york.

mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i am pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, mr. kildee a member of the committee on financial services. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. kildee: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my friend and colleague, the ranking member, for yielding and for her work on behalf of the hometown -- my hometown of flint, she's been one of the strong advocates. no piece of legislation that i have yet seen in the four years i have been in congress that has come before this floor is perfect. and this bill is included. but, the people of flint, the people of my hometown, today, cannot drink their water. because of actions by the state government and frankly as we know, failure of the federal government through the e.p.a. to alert the citizens of flint to

the crisis, to the fact that their water had been poisoned, has caused this community to face the biggest crisis that it's faced in all its years. i am a product of flint, michigan. i grew up in flint. everything i have, everything i am, i owe to that community, and it has faced some terrible struggles over the years. loss of manufacturing jobs, 90% of those manufacturing jobs gone. . it's a community that had just begun to rebuild itself when this water crisis has caused flint to face the toughest times it's ever faced. it needs every level of government to step up, to provide relief. this bill includes necessary funding to put flint back on a path that allows its citizens to have the basic human right

of clean drinking water. so i ask my colleagues, as we consider obviously all elements of all legislation, but also keep in mind, this is the last day of this session of congress in the house of representatives. this is our last chance to provide that much-needed help to my hometown. this is why i was sent to congress. to fight for the people that i represent. to make sure they have what they need and to make sure that at this moment of their greatest need, that every level of government responds to them and that's why i'll support it -- this bill and i hope my colleagues will join me in that. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. >> i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas who chairs the all-important homeland security subcommittee on our committee, mr. carter.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. carter: i thank the chairman for yielding, i thank the chair for recognizing me. i am a proud member of the appropriations committee. i have one of the most difficult areas as far as current events in the country, and that's homeland security. and i don't like a c.r. any more than any other appropriator likes a c.r. but our job is to fund the government. the constitution tells us we are to fund the government. and we have hardworking people like hal rogers who reads the constitution and realizes we've got to take the best medium we can for now and fund the government. so of course -- and i am going to support this c.r. and i hope all my colleagues will. i want to tell you, all of us on the appropriations committee

go through the entire process of doing the best we can for the departments we represent, to give them suggestions of leadership and direction, to fund the projects that they need, to take care of the employees that work there, and take care of the mission of every department we have. and to have to feed all that to a c.r. is painful. but reality is reality, the government must go on. and at this point, in this time, the government will go on with this c.r. and i also wanted to get up and say, as you go through these battles, wonderful people, like my chairman, mr. rogers, and mrs. lowey, fight through the frustrations through the entire committee. and we do this. and yet these great minds, like hal rogers, know how to make

things work around here, and they're willing to put in the time and the effort to get it done, no matter how it has to be done. our preference is pass all appropriations bills into law. a necessity at this time is a c.r. and i trust absolutely my chairman is doing the right thing. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from texas, ms. jackson lee, from the committee on the judiciary and homeland. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for two minutes. ms. jackson lee: i thank the gentlelady from new york and i thank her for her leadership. i want to associate myself with the words on the chairman, mr. rogers, and thank him for his years of commitment and dedication to this nation. i also want to acknowledge my good friend sam farr and thank him so very much for being so strong and committed to the

right things of this body and the nation. i thank him for his service. i join with my colleagues, many have said this is the wrong way to fund the government. that appropriations legislation done by the appropriations committee was ready and done. and i join my colleague who says that we caved. we conceded to not doing our job in the 114th congress. and for that reason i am very concerned. earlier today we had the wrda bill and i support that bill, for the many projects that are going to help the citizens of texas. i wish i could say the same thing as we go into the continuing resolution. for, yes, we have suffered in the state of texas. there's $1 billion for the army corps of engineers, $1.8 billion for the community development block grant, $1 billion for the federal highway. certainly i would say in the wrda bill is the authorization for helping the people of flint and a reform of the safe

drinking act, to make sure we protect people from lead-filled water, protect our children. that is a good thing. but it is not a good thing to only put $100 million in for flint. but i support my colleague, congressman kildee, that this money is needed and the needed now. i think there's more that we can do and we should have done regular order and if we'd done regular order, a few more days, we would have passed appropriation bills. let me also say that what really skews and takes this bill off its wheels, the c.r., is the waiver, the expedited process of trying to move forward a nominee of the incoming president, violating statutory law that has not been changed in -- has not been utilized in 66 years, since the famous general marshall was selected. why not regular order, hearings, legislation, understanding what this will do

to the military civilian separation? mr. speaker, let me simply say, we've got to do our job the right way. this c.r. is not the right way. the american people need us to do our job the right way. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the gentlelady from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentleman from new york -- the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i'm very pleased to yield one minute to the distinguished democratic leader, nancy pelosi, from the state of california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized for one minute. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentlelady for yielding and i commend her for her excellent leadership as the ranking member, ranking democratic member on the appropriations committee. as an appropriator myself, i understand the culture, i understand the camaraderie between parties and for that reason i want to commend our distinguished chairman, mr.

rogers, for his wonderful service as the chairman of the appropriations committee. i served with him for many years on the committee, i know firsthand his concern for the american people. and i thank you for your service. i know you'll continue as an appropriator, but thank you for your leadership as chairman, mr. rogers. i join in commending one of our members, who is leaving, sam farr, for his always looking out for america's children. whether it was the health or education especially, in terms of their access to food security. thank you, mr. farr, for your leadership. mr. speaker, it's with great regret that i come to the floor to express my personal disappointment in this legislation. and that i will be voting no. my colleagues have asked me what i think about it, i am not urging them to do anything, but i am telling you why i think his is a missed opportunity.

while we all recognize that it was a moral challenge for us to do something for the children of flint, the manner in which was done, was used to get votes for another bill, which i think was wrong. but not to dwell on process, not to dwell on process. let's just look at the facts. the facts are thiels. this will probably be a bill over -- these. this will probably be a bill ver $1.5 trillion. could have been $170 million appropriated for the children of flint in this bill. some would say that's not authorized. probably $250 billion to $300 billion in this bill is not authorized. so why should the children of flint have to step over a higher barrier? and that's just exemplary of the partisan nature of the

bill. we have always worked in a bipartisan way, house and senate appropriations, and especially as we come to the end of the year. but this year it was republican, republican house and senate. again, again, forget process. but what does that mean in terms of priority? it means that families first, an initiative to help foster kids in our country, something that had bipartisan support, house and senate, was rejected from consideration. it means, again, that the miners, the families of coal miners, who needed -- supposing your business that you worked for, my colleagues, went bankrupt or declared themselves insolvent and therefore your pension and your health care benefits disappeared. how would you feel? well, that's just what happened

to the miners. and what was needed is a long-term security for them -- is long-term security for them, that mr. mckinley, a republican, put forth in his legislation, that we hoped could be taken up and be part of this. but it was rejected by a republican -- our republican colleagues. and it was interesting, because one of the other things that is not in this bill, that we hoped would be, would be a correction to last year's bill for extenders for renewable energy. i was told by the republicans that we don't want to do that for renewable energy because we are fossil fuel guys. fossil fuel guys take care of the miners and their families. the anticipation was that there could be a five-year proposal for pension and health care benefits. right now there's a four-month provision for health care. four months. not five years. not pensions and benefits. just health care. why, why is that so

unimportant, when we're talking about people who are part of a mining in our country, that is fading, and they need help and we should be here to help them. so as we reject any proposals for renewables that might provide many, many jobs for these same people, we are also rejecting their rights to their health benefits and their pensions. the list goes on. but it's really so sad that the flint issue should have been all in one bill, but it was not for reasons i can't explain. and that's why, i can't explain it, i'm not voting for it. that's why i've called upon my colleagues, recognizing the many good things in the bill, but not meeting the needs of the american people.

kids, bipartisan support, house and senate, rejected. rejected. now, there is funding for the opioids in this legislation. nd i'm pleased about that. i've been told i should be happy about that because it was one of our requests. i think it was a bipartisan request of everyone, house and senate, to have the funding for opioids. that's what i thought. that's what i thought. i'm glad it's in the bill. so in any event, for the opportunity lost, for the ignoring of some very legitimate proposals to help the american people, for the rejection of republican suggestions in terms of the miners, for these and other reasons, i will be voting against this, regretfully, because we have tried to work in a bipartisan way in the ast, but this year, instead of

four poster, it's two, and that's had an impact on what the con nent of what this is -- on what the content of this is and that has had an impact on the american people. that's why i am voting for the bill. members will have to make their own decisions. but we cannot go down the path of missed opportunities and just roll over and not speak out and say, this isn't the best that we can do for the american people. and we owe them much better than this bill. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: does the gentlelady ave additional speakers? mrs. lowey: i'm concluding. mr. rogers: i'm sorry, i didn't hear the gentlelady. mrs. lowey: yes. i am concluding, mr. chairman. mr. rogers: does the gentleman yield back? mrs. lowey: no.

i'm concluding. are you -- mr. rogers: i'm prepared to close if the gentlelady is. mrs. lowey: i yield. do i have anyone else? no. i will close after the gentleman closes. oh, i can -- ok. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized. mrs. lowey: i yield myself as much time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, as we conclude debate on the c.r., i want to take a moment to acknowledge the service of chairman rogers. this may be the last bill mr. rogers will manage as full committee chairman. i've appreciated his partnership and his friendship. i support his ultimate goal as chairman to pass individual spending bills, allowing members to exercise their constitutional

duty of providing fun -- of providing funding for government programs and it may be an understatement to say he has faced political head winds each year that made regular order out of reach. but i know he will remain as a senior member of the committee and we he will continue to work to pass full year bills. and i thank you for your partnership. finally, i would be remiss if i didn't take a moment to recognize my departing colleagues on the committee. for 23 years, sam farr has worked tirelessly to support agriculture, ensure the safety of our food and medicine, protect the vitality and cleanliness of our oceans, has also been a tireless defender of our military veterans, the peace corps, and the institution of congress itself.

we are also losing the ranking member of the commerce, justice, science committee, mike honda. mike's life experiences, including his early years with his family in a japanese-american internment camp helped shape his efforts addressing income inequality, lgbtq equity, technology issues that are vital to his silicon valley district. new york and all the of america's middle class is losing one of their strongest advocates with steve israel who has been a champion of our armed forces, clean air, and water, and the u.s.-israel relationship. on the republican side, we will miss scotry gell, david jolly and especial -- scot rigell, david jolly and especially ander

crenshaw. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: may i inquire the time remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 8 1/2 minutes remaining. . rogers: i yield myself the rest of the time. as i noted before, this may be the last time i speak before the body as chairman of the house appropriations committee. let me first say how much i appreciate the friendship and the camaraderie with the gentlelady from new york, mrs. lowey, she's been a pleasure to work with. she's perceptive, she's persistent, and she is a personal friend. and we enjoy a great friendship. without a doubt, the last six years have had their ups and downs. but i've always been proud to

serve the people of kentucky, the people of this nation, the appropriations committee, and this great institution that we admire. let me highlight, mr. speaker, just a few of these ups and downs that i mentioned with one f my favorite exercises, a by-the-numbers reflection on our many shared experiences. here's my by-the-numbers recollection of my last six years at the helm of the appropriations committee. 650. the number of hearings held by appropriations subcommittees. 140. the number of appropriations bills considered on the house floor. 19. the number of appropriations bills considered on the floor in just one month, october of 2013. 12. the number of appropriations

bills we should pass every year. 2,1 2, the number of -- 2,122 the number of amendments considered to appropriations bill. 592 and counting, the numb of floor hours spent debating appropriations bill. 70. the number of appropriations bills enacted into law. hopefully that will make it 71. two trillion, the number of dollar -- of dollars saved in discretionary outlays as a direct result of our appropriations work. too many to count. the number of cigars smoked in my office. and they were not only me. number one. the number of basketball championships won by the university of kentucky. 70, the number of mighty fine members that have served on the

committee over the last six years. incalculable, the number of hours our staff, the best on the hill, have put into their tireless work on behalf of all of us. this includes late nights, weekends, holidays, you name it. when we need them, they're there. and they've done a wonderful job. in particular, mr. speaker, let me take a moment to thank will smith, sitting beside me here, will worked up-- the ranks in my personal office, serving as chief of staff before moving to the committee in 2011. first as deputy staff director and now as staff director. he's been with me for so long

and through so much it's hard to calculate. in any year, he is a first round draft pick. and i'm fortunate to have had him by my side these past six years. he has done a wonderful, wonderful job. and to mrs. lowey and our senate counterparts, chairman cochran, ranking might be mikulski, for all their -- ranking member mikulski, for all their work throughout the process and the great work they have done. today is a bittersweet day but i'm deeply honored to have served this institution at the head of the committee i love. i hope this institution and the people we serve are better off now because of our work other the last six years. and i know that under the steadfast leadership of our new chairman, a dear -- our dear

friend, rodney frelinghuysen, the progress we've made will only continue to grow. in addition to will, let me thank the front office staff of he committee, will smith, jim, le oak, steven set, jennifer hing, matt, mara hernandez, mmy hughes, kaitlyn locouer, kalisha, and then the clerks of the subcommittee, epeople that really do the hard work. tom o'brien. john martins. rob blair. donna s crmbings havez. valerie, dave, susan ross, liz dawson, maureen hollohan, fred higgins, deana behren, and all

the staff that works with them on the subcommittees and the full committee. so mr. speaker, in closing, let me thank you for the help that you've given me as chairman of the committee over the years, both on the committee and off. the friendships that we have developed, the camaraderie that develops and exists on our committee, and throughout the body. it's been a great honor to serve in this role. i look forward to continuing to work in the committee to do the nation's work. thank you all for your collaboration, your consideration, and your companionship over the last six years. with that, >> the house -- the house went on to pass that measure today. current government funding expires tomorrow at midnight. the house is done with

legislative work for the day, the rest of the week, and for the rest of the year. they finished all legislative business today and the 115th congress is set to begin on tuesday, january 3. you can watch the house live here on c-span when members gavel back in for a brief pro forma session over the next few weeks. earlier today, the last of the original mercury 7 astronauts, former senator john glenn died in ohio. he was 95 years old. he became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first american to orbit the earth. was an ohio senator and briefly made a run for president. here's no, ma'am newsreel from his flight in 1962. ♪ >> five hours before he's destined to take a giant stride into history, colonel john glenn

squeezes into his space suit. this morning, the weather over cape canaveral and the pickup areas is better. there's an air of optimism as to his el walks destination, carrying his portable air conditioner. a cool north wind rustles across he cape. the colonel's date with destiny comes 10 months after the russians claimed an orbital flight and less than a year after alan shepard blazed a suborbital trail for the u.s. this is the moment when all eyes turn to cape canaveral.

russian orbits were in secrecy, the u.s. orbit is in the white ot glare of publicity. the astronaut will be strapped to a couch, he will be tilted backwards. the hatch cover causes a slight defect delay when a defective bolt is discovered. then millions are moved to silent prayer. everything is go, the takeoff of e at los blasts off by 360 pounds of thrust carries it skyward. it exerts a pressure of six times the force of gravity on the astronaut. lud and clear he reports back to

mercury control, reading off instrument, commenting on his reactions, all as coolly and calmly as if he was commuting on the 827. glenn is able to control the yaw and pitch of the vehicle himself. now is the moment when he'll be seated facing backwards he checks with ground control. >> i feel fine. capsule is turning around. h that view is tremendous. capsule turning around, i can see the booster doing turn -- during turnaround a couple hundred yards behind me, it was beautiful. >> roger 7, you have a go. at least seven orbits. >> understand go for at least seven orbits. >> actual pictures of glenn in the capsule will give scientists the opportunity to study his reactions as he passes over the canary islands, africa, australia, back across the pacific and over the united states. he speeds at 17,500 miles per

hour, reaching a high point of 160 miles and a low altitude of 99 miles. each of the three orbits takes about 90 minutes. three times, the colonel sees the sunrise within a period of four hours and 56 minutes. three times around the globe for a trip of 81,000 miles before he re-enters the earth's atmosphere a shield protecting the astronaut from the intense heat. the carrier randolph is the command ship in the pickup area, but glenn, instructed not to jettison his retrorockets, lands short of the carrier. it's indicated his heat shield was loose and he's instructed to hold on to the rockets to help hold the shield in place. n hand is noah who takes him aboard. glenn is down.

hail and heart -- hale and hearty. a pinser like crane will left the friendship 7 aboard. the end of a saga. the now famous friendship 7 is lashed to the deck of the destroyer and the crew prepares o help glenn from the capsule. first they attempt to help the colonel from his complex prison through the upper exit in the mouth. they encounter difficulties, so it is decided to blow off the escape hatch cover. first glimpse of the conquering hero, colonel john h. glenn, he left his footprints among the stars he has a grin as wide as the path he blazed, as he rests briefly before being flown to the carrier randolph. he is lifted aboard in a

maneuver that looks more dangerous than the flight tself. the helicopter takes him to the randolph for a debriefing and examinations by medical men. the cotchter no sooner touches down on deck than glenn gets a preview of the congratulations that are still to come. on every hand there is jubilation, on every side, smiles and cheers. he signs over his precious log and instruments to the national space administration. from here, he goes to grand turk island for further rest before the deluge a deluge of honors, a proud cubt e-- country waits to bestow on a brave man. ♪

>> the last of the original mercury 7 astronauts, former u.s. senator, john glenn, died today in ohio. he was 95 years old. tonight, president-elect donald trump will be holding another victory rally, this time he'll be in des moines, iowa, a state he won by almost 150,000 votes in the general election. tonight, he'll be speaking to iowa, live at in 8:00 eastern here on c-span. >> follow the transition of government on c-span as president-elect donald trump selects his cabinet and iowa, l republicans and democrats prepare for the next congress, we'll take you to key events as they happen, without interruption. watch live on c-span, watch on demand at c-span.org. or listen on our free c-span radio app. c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and

policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, michelle malkin will discuss her new show, michelle malkin investigates, and also her reaction to the 2016 presidential election result and expecting as for the trump dministration. then hamilton electors member paul ibaka will talk about trying to get other electors to change their vote. sydney lufkin will look at the 21st century cures act passed this week by congress and talk about the various medical industries that benefit from the bill after it gets signed into law. be sure to watch c-span's "washington journal," 7:00 a.m., friday morning. join the discussion. >> next a discussion about the incoming trump administration and possible changes to environmental and energy development policy.

we heard remarks from house science committee chair lamar smith who spoke about his goal of working with mr. trump on relaxing e.p.a. regulations while boosting support for oil and gas development on public lands. this was held at the heritage foundation, about an hour and 20 minutes. >> good morning. are my mics now working? that's what i always get to d is be the mic test for everything beforehand. i'm john, director of electors and seminars at the heritage foundation. it's my privilege to welcome you all here at the auditorium as well as those joining us on our heritage.org website. we're pleased to host this program today with the texas public policy foundation. our housekeeping duty if you're in house to make sure your

mobile devices have been silenced or turned off as a courtesy to our speakers. and we're running based on a house vote schedule so some thing this is morning will be a little bit on the fly. my introduction of our first guest will be very brief. my ome on behalf of my -- colleague, becky norton-dunlap, she was a member they have reagan administration, working in the white house with president reagan as well as attorney general miese and later with don hodell in interior. for those in virginia, she was our secretary of natural resources before coming to heritage. join me in welcoming becky norton-dun lop. [applause] >> good morning. there's lots of energy in this room, i can tell. becky: truly it's a privilege on behalf of jim dement and the

board and staff of the heritage foundation to welcome you here. most especially, we want to welcome our friends from texas. the texas public policy foundation is the genesis of this conference. we're delighted to be the co-sponsor with them. i'm not going to take much of your time before inviting the president of the texas public policy foundation to the podium, but i do want to make a couple of quick points. the idea behind good policy is good politics. if you want to do something that's good politics, you come up with good policies and you advance them. and you help people understand why good policies are good for people. and you know, the reason that's important is because we believe people are our most important, unique, and valuable assets. and the reason that we care

deeply about the management of natural resources, the wise management of natural resources and the development of our energy resources is why? because it's good for people. it's good for people. and we think principles need to guide our policies and principled policies are good for people. that's what conservatives are all about. our job at a think tank, the heritage foundation, is to help create the atmosphere so people who are in office, elected officials and appointed officials, want to do the right thing. and part of the reason that you're here today, i hope, is to learn about some of the right things that need to be done, some of the changes that need to e made as we're going forward, growing economy and improving environment go hand in hand. and what you need to have a growing economy. you need energy. you need energy, you need an

atmosphere of freedom, so that you can have economic growth and all of this is good for people. so, we're delighted that heritage -- we're delighted at heritage to be on the frontlines of advancing these good, sound policies and we're delighted to welcome the president of the texas public policy foundation, brook who is going to do her own welcome and tell us why texas public policy foundation is involved in this. welcome. [applause] brooke: thank you, my name is brooke rollins, i've had the great privilege of leading the texas public policy foundation for 15 years. which is hard to believe. the heritage foundation has been our mentor and model all these years. 15 years ago, there were three of us based in san antonio, texas. today we just hired our 66th employee based in austin, texas in a brand new headquarters building. truly, what a remarkable journey it's been as we see washington, d.c. move more and more in the

direction of bigger government and higher taxes and we see the antithesis of that out in the states, especially led by texas. we are so happy to be here and so grateful that you are joining us. this is our third crossroads summit and i know probably many of you came to the first two, first one was in houston, the second one in austin, then today we are so proud to be in washington, d.c. for those of you from texas, it won't surprise you that we're a little bit of wildcatters down there we decided to take a pretty big risk and say, let's have an energy summit three weeks after the presidential election. and we thought, you know, most people think it's going to be a sad and dark and unfortunate time for the country, especially in this particular issue but the alternative was if we did have a new day and a new president and one that believed in unleashing the potential of our energy sector, that truly everything could change. and today, i will say, here we are, the first two summits,

first in houston, like i say, second in austin, we're a little sad and a lit -- were a little sad, a little depressing on what was happening on the national front on this particular issue. today, the big thing that has changed is that there is great hope. thank you for being there with us. it is an absolute privilege and blessing to partner with the heritage foundation and continue with this great work alongside so many of you. it is a great privilege also to introduce tim chapman with heritage action who will be introducing our next panel and very special guest. thank you for being here. [applause] tim: thank you, everybody. i'm tim chapman with heritage action for america. we're the sistering ornyization to the heritage foundation. we're on the front lines on capitol hill, lobbying for the things we all believe in. we are excited to be in a place now where we're able to, as we say internally, shoot with real bullets and got get some things done over the next few years. this is -- this conference comes at a fantastic time.

i'm going to move quickly because we've got votes that are going to be constraining us up here and we're just going to all have to roll with the punches a little bit. we'll have members come in and out as they cast votes on the floor and we'll work to get questions from the audience as we go forth. but the first member i'd like to introduce is congressman lamar smith. he represents the 21st district in texas, he serves as chairman of the science, space, and technology committee, which as you all know has jurisdiction over a lot of the things we're talking about here today. the committee oversees agency budgets of $39 billion. congressman smith continues to serve on both the judiciary committee and the homeland security committee as well and he's former chairman of the judiciary committee and the ethics committee. he was ranked as the most effective member in the house in the 112th congress in a study jointly conducted by the university of virginia and vanderbilt he also was named policymaker of the year by politico for his work on patent

reform legislation during that same congress. so we are very lucky to be able to hear from the congressman today. congressman, please come up and give us your thoughts. [applause] > tim, thank you for -- lamar: thank you for that introduction. let me put that study that had to do with effectiveness in perfect i. when that study came out, that's the first time i had ever heard of the study. i now think it was the most important study conducted in america 10 years ago. the other thing is we looked at the methodology, i think it's suspect. nerls, it may sound good but i'm not quite so sure about it. in in case, it was just -- it is just wonderful to be with you all here this morning. it's not often you feel you are 100% among friends and i do want to thank you, heritage, for hosting us and texas public policy foundation for frankly inviting me to be with you as well.

on the texas public policy foundation, i just have to say to brooke, saying they've gone from three in san antonio to 66 in "usa today," we, meaning conservatives, republicans, an even nonconservatives and non republicans, recognize texas public policy as being the number one think tank in the state. they do such good work. we rely on them in the front lines. they have great influence across the board. and i'm just delighted to be a guest of theirs today and appreciate all they do for so many of us, it's not just limited to texans. it obviously goes beyond our borders. the other confession to make to you all is that one hesitates to say this publicly, i haven't been feeling too well. you can preble tell by my voice, the last couple of days. i'm probably going to excuse myself when i finish. i probably should have just said i need to leave to go vote. anyway, i'm delighted that my

colleagues are going to be here shortly or will be coming back after they vote and i'm sorry i'm going to miss being with mike, who happens to be my candidate for the supreme court. pete olson is a good texas colleague on the energy and commerce committee. gary palmer you'll be hearing from as well, he's a wonderful member of the science committee. i and you all are in good company when we are with them. well, this is an exciting time for american energy. for the first time in eight years, congress can look forward to a partner in the white house who recognizes the prosperity that is possible on the path toward energy independence. but as the obama administration comes to a close, thankfully, the president and his extreme environmental allies remain committed to stopping the energy revolution. since the election, e.p.a. has finalized regulations under the renewable fuel standard and moved to finalize tough fuel efficiency standards for

vehicles. more unrealistic mandates won't benefit the environment or lead to innovation in biofuels technology. many of the new requirements are not even achieveable in today's energy market. the white house also continues to delay the construction of pipeline projects and drags out the permitting process for l.n.g. exports. make no mistake, while president obama may soon leave the oval office, the environmental extremists who fight against american energy are here to stay. they are determined to stop americans from using reliable and affordable power. they would rather see america keep our natural resources as they say, in the ground. even with the united government in 2017, it will be an uphill climb to roll back the damage den by this administration. as chairman of the science, space, and technology committee which has jurisdiction over federal agencies such as the e.p.a. and the department of energy's research and technology budget which is about $9 billion, i will continue to take

every action possible to reverse this administration's attacks on american energy. it is my committee's responsibility to ensure that the federal government is efficient, effective, and accountable to the american people. we had our work cut out for us to accomplish these goals under the obama administration. during this congress, the science committee issued a record 25 subpoenas to retrieve information the administration had withheld from the american people. to put that in perspective, it's been 21 years since a former science committee issued just one subpoena, so the 25th one i signed a couple of weeks ago made me feel very good about how act i and proactive the committee has been. it's going to be a little bit of an adjustment because there won't be near as many subpoenas in the coming congress, i don't think. one subpoena that we issued sought to recover, this is going to sound very familiar, sought to recover some of the almost

6,000 text messages sent and received by e.p.a. administrator geena mccarthy that were deleted from her official mobile device. -- mobile device. she claimed unbelievably that only one of the 6,000 deleted messages was official even though they were all on her official device. that should give you a sense of the frustration we have felt. time and again, e.p.a. officials have dismissed americans' rights to know and have advanced expense i have regulations without releasing the data they used to justify these burdensome regulations. e.p.a. senior officials have been held in contempt of court, used secret email accounts, and ignored freedom of information act requests. under the current administration, the same discredited e.p.a. pursued the most aggressive regulatory agenda in its history. one of the worst offenders is the obama administration's so

called clean power plan. this will cost millions of dollars, cause financial hardship for american families an diminish the competitiveness of american industry around the world with no significant benefit. e.p.a. justified its approach by claiming its regulations will slow global climate change and reduce carbon emissions. heavy handed regulations and arbitrary emission targets will do lasting damage to our economy and even the oba in a -- the obama administration admits the rule will have little to no impact on global temperatures. regulations should be based on sound science, not science fiction. unfortunately, the president's power plan which he presented as the cornerstone of his paris u.n. conference climate fail this is test. the e.p.a.'s own data shows this regulation would eliminate less than 1% of global carbon emissions and would reduce sea

level rise by only .01 of an inch, or the thickness of three sheets of paper. this to me is just, if you wanted to remember one statistic about the paris agreement, the paris summit, this would be a point to remember. country completely impled -- implemented the agreement they submitted and these agreements were in effect the next 5 years, it would only prevent a temperature rise of one sixth of one degree celsius. we can protect health and promote economic growth at the same time. contrary to what the administration may suggest, these are not mutually exclusive goals. it is vital that the next administration immediately rescind the clean power plan and other rules that threaten the

american economy. [applause] lamar: there we go. thank you. regulatory mandates, picking winners and losers in the energy marketplace only benefit this administration americans are tired of scare tactics and they sent that message loud and clear. the science is clear and overwhelming, but not in the way the president says. statements by president obama and others continually attempt to link extreme weather events to climate change. these claims are of course, unfounded. the fact is, there's little evidence that climate change causes extreme weather events. the lack of evidence is clear. no increased hurricane, droughts, or floods. the ministration's claims are

contradicted by the signs from the united nations' panel on climate change. the icc found there is "low confidence that drought has increased in intensity or duration." the same can be said for transient tornadoes and hurricanes in the last 100 years, despite constant insistence to the contrary. but providing accurate on climate t change is not important in this regulation. the epa put limits on the use of innovative technologies that could help us safely develop our national resources. that is why we need organizations like the texas public policy foundation and the heritage foundation to provide the truth and oppose federal government overreach and those that ignore the facts to advance their own political agenda. 030, whichpassed hr-1 i sponsored. by the way, it also passed in th

e senate. at that point, the president tried to veto it, and that slow down the legislation. the legislation requires the epa to base these regulations on publicly available data. why would the epa want to hide this information from the american people? obviously, one of three reasons. the data does not show what they claim it might show, or the data does not exist, or they are changing the data. the american people have every right to be suspicious when the epa uses political correct science to get the results they want, and then refuses to reveal the data behind those decisions were made. .he epa has a responsibility i will have that information tomorrow. the epa has a responsibility to be open and transparent with the people it serves and whose money it spends. eness will be important

in the next administration. regulationsted opposed by the american people and negotiated climate deals that would damage our economy without consulting congress. i look forward to working with the new president, president-elect trump, to restore transparency and restate the epa into an accountable, science focused agency dedicated to a core mission of protecting our environment. do,n, thank you for all you everyone in this room. thank you to every member of the heritage foundation and the texas policy foundation, for all they have done to get the fax to the american people and help us achieve a point where we will have reliable and inexpensive energy. i want to embarrass two people before i leave. one is senator mike lee, who just joined us one minute ago. senator, irrived,

told everybody that you were my pick and hope for the united states supreme court. i still hope that is a possibility. and gary palmer has arrived and he is a wonderful member of the science committee. maybe he will run here as well. the last person to embarrass was a member of the science committee staff, emily, who is to my right. to my left is doug. and like father like daughter. emily is an initiative taking, smart member of the science committee and if you liked my remarks today, you know who to thank. [laughter] [applause] >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. we hope you feel better and we thank you for youwearing your heritage tie today. upn next, gary palmer will come

give some remarks. it is a great privilege to be able to introduce gary. gary, since coming to congress, has been a tremendous asset for the heritage foundation, the conservative movement, a real friend who has been there for us in many different fights. i had no idea o he walked onto the football team. before coming to congress, gary was the leader of a think tank in alabama. he is a heritage-type through an d through. since coming to congress, he has joined lots of different groups on the hill. he has worked for a lot of our most conservative members, but has the ability about him to not just work with the most conservative members in congress, but to pull a lot of folks in his direction. demeanor and way.

people like that he has passion for what he does. i am excited to introduce to you gary palmer. please welcome him to the stage. [applause] gary: and because you are about to call votes, i will be brief. i do want to say something about brooke rollins. i adore this woman. i just told senator lee, she is our rockstar. i have worked with her for years through the think tank movement. i try to remind our colleagues of the potential of the think tank movement and how they have shipped public policy, not only at the state level, but federal level. they are now 65 state-based think tanks. i think with this new administration there is a lot of optimism for what we can get done. chairman smith mentioned gene mccarthy's emails. we had a hearing on that and she said out of 6000, only one

of them was work related. my question was, well, when did you work? [laughter] >> i have teenage daughters who have not texted that much. i want to make a couple points about where i think we've really got some opportunities for this new administration, particularly with scott pruitt as the nominee for the epa. a lot of people -- the "new york times" headlines, they used to get after george bush. st is a think deniali word either. it is really not about the science. i mean, in terms of policy, we should pursue the science, ok? but from where we sit, it is really about the process, the constitutional process. i have told people that i think it is legitimate for congress to debate climate change and things

like that, but we have got to follow the science. but for monumentally, we -- but more fundamentally, we have to follow the constitution. that is what has happened here, particularly within the last eight years. and really, preceding that to a much more limited degree. we are losing constitutional government. -3880,oduced a bill, hr the stopping epa overreached act. that bill says congress never toe the epa the ability regulate greenhouse gases. john dingell, the longest serving member of the house at least in history, tim. i think he got elected right after i was born and retired in 2014. he was a member of the energy and commerce committee when the spring court said the epa had the authority and the decision was based on the ambiguity of the clean air act. john dingell, a liberal democrat from michigan, said in

a energy commerce committee hearing that he and other members of that committee were there when the clean air act was written, and that he was never the intention of congress to give the epa that authority. he said, in fact, it never occurred to us that we needed to inform the supreme court of that because without even they were not so stupid. that is one of my favorite liberal quotes. the point of the bill is, it is not about the issue of climate change or greenhouse gases. the issue is who makes law. ey, liberalrl law professor, note voted for obama, made this point. he says unless congress uses its authority to rein in this administration, we are in danger of losing the constitution. what we have when we talk about the issue of climate change and the epa is two discussions. one is a policy discussion.

it is a science discussion. and we should pursue the science. i think chairman smith mentioned the fact that we had subpoenaed looking --om the epa, because we want to look at the scientific data they are using to justify the policies they are trying to impose on the people and they refuse to provide those documents. they makes the science suspect. i am not saying it makes the scientists suspect. i am singing makes the data suspect. when you have a situation like that, and the epa is then making a wall, and i is what they are doing senator lee, they are bypassing congress. it becomes problematic. i think what we want to do in congress is first of all, make sure that we are evaluating all of the science, and then we have got to regain our lawmaking authority. that is why i introduced hr-3

880. there is another issue that seems unrelated, but it is totally connected. it is the agency accountability act. senator lee, i think you were on board with that in the senate. it will require that all appropriated funds go directly to the treasury identified with the agency where they originated, subject to being appropriated by congress. why is that important? because agency are collecting fines and fees in court settlements and are dispersing money without the oversight of congress. consequently, when we tell an agency they cannot do something, like we did with the department of homeland security when the president issued his executive amnesty order, and we said, we are not going to fund that, dhs said, we will pay for it with fees. last year, i think the office management budget reported that $520llected somewhere over billion in fees.

$83 billiontified in fines over the last five years and we do not know how much has been awarded through court awards. for instance, the epa got a judgment against volkswagen, and directed that volkswagen make contributions to what? four of their favorite left-wing charities. all of that money should have gone to congress. i carry my little constitution case. you really ought to on the floor of the house. but section nine, clause seven says no money should be drawn from the treasury. if you have got agencies spending money that congress did not appropriate, i think that's outside your constitutional authority, but it goes on to irregular regular

statement. accounts and receipts of all public money should be published from time to time. i know this is shocking, but federal agencies have been acting unconstitutionally. [laughter] >> i think we've got to restore constitutional authority. that is the most important thing that will come out of this administration. it is the single most important thing we will do with regard to issues like climate change. we have got to have constitutional government restored. we cannot allow agencies to make law, circumvent congress and basically, turn us into a bunch of elected bystanders. and i'm very optimistic that we're going to be able to do that. and i'm tremendously excited about scott pruitt. i had a meeting with got in denver, actually, before i got elected. i won the run-off. to talk about how the attorneys

general could work with congress to restore constitutional authority. i think scott was one of the attorneys general who thought against the epa claiming they were in violation of the clean air act, acting outside their legislative authority. so, going forward, i think that is what we have got to look forward to from this administration. and having a guy like general pruitt as the administrative epa, i'm quite certain he will not be sending out 6000 texts. so, we will not have that issue. when we ask for documents to back up the positions the epa takes that we will get them. what i also know this. if we are able to pass this agency accountability act, and we have the power of the purse again, we can hold agencies accountable. we will be able to restore the authority of congress and make law appropriately.

the i really appreciate opportunity to come and speak. i think i'm going to have to head over to the capital and vote in a few minutes. i see my colleague from texas. texas,my dad was born in but how did i get invited? [laughter] >> thank you. >> thanks, gary. [applause] >> thank you congressman palmer. congressman olson, have you voted? you're ok. so, we can keep going. thank you. just want to make sure we are all coordinated here. now i have the distinct honor of introducing mike lee. mike lee is somebody you know well. he would make a supreme court justice, but my goodness, that would be a terrible loss in the united states senate. he has become in the united states senate a think tank unto himself. the man is an entrepreneurial

conservative who is trying to think ahead to where we are right now, trying to tap into what we need to tap into as conservatives. he is putting together right now an agenda that centers on federalism or subsidiary or localism. but what i like about what he is doing is i think he has identified the major force of what needs to drive the conservative movement over the next decade. we have an opportunity now as conservatives to bring a lot of these new voters who came into our coalition in this last election in for good, to keep them there. but i think the only way you keep them there is by actually having an agenda that empowers locality, that empowers states, that actually deescalates the game of federal politics and makes the game of local politics more important. mike lee gets that. he is the number one guy to look to in the united states senate for all of this stuff. please join me in welcoming mike

lee to the podium. [applause] tim.ank you, this is such a great place to be. i love coming into heritage. i especially like it when i get to hear members of congress talking, as we just heard gary palmer say, that executive branch agencies sometimes violate the constitution. [laughter] >> it is like, i heard some they what,e say, guess professional wrestling is fixed. [laughter] >> i want to thank heritage and the texas public policy foundation for putting this event together. this is a very necessary discussion to have. it is always good to beget heritage, but especially for an occasion like this, to discuss something so important. we have got a government that will soon be under the unified

control of the republican party, in the house, senate, and white house. and i for one, can't wait. asay we are most as far away inauguration day as they are from election day. it is coming out as quickly. i wish we could fast-forward it tabletsthe same way as and iphones have changed the way we watch television come are what we used to call television. my wife has the show she loves to watch. it is called "suits." i, for whatever reason, can't stand it. i'm not even sure i can why. partly because, as a recovering lawyer, i find it insulting to my profession. it portrays us as lawyers as being some sniveling, backbiting, bottom dwelling parasites of society. fair point, i guess. [laughter] >> whenever she watches "suits,"

iwatch a little ticker at the bottom because we frequently wanted on the tablet, just so it will tell me how far away from the end we are. you could not do that with regular television. you can with this. there is still a moment i feel like i am experiencing right now. we are getting closer and closer to inauguration day and i cannot wait for this obama show to come to an end. and in some this, of the areas we have been doing this, thanks to organizations like heritage and the texas public policy foundation. we have been doing this in summary different areas of public policy. -- this in so many different areas of public policy. looking at energy policy today, it seems to be of special importance. it is exciting because america's energy renaissance is underway. it's moving forward in a way we have not seen in decades.

despite the obama's administration that despite the obama this ration's best efforts. -- despite the obama administration's best efforts. oil and natural gas production has loomed over the last decade, largely because of the shale revolution. this has taken place as a result of technological innovation. in light of this annoying commercial that used to come on television when i was five years old, i think it was right after "gilligan's island" and right before "the brady bunch." it was put on by a local environment a group. it was of a local boy walking along a beach with a lighthouse in the background. i don't remember the exact words, but he was basically saying, by the time i'm an adult, we will be out of oil and gas and we will not have any more. so, you should all be very scared. that,sometimes scared by

but mostly annoyed because i wanted "brady bunch" to start. but our own technological innovation has proven those dire projections wrong. we have been able to produce energy in a more efficient and environmentally responsible manner. it is something that we have much more of than we anticipated at the time. advancing public policies to support and strengthen this kind of revival of energy production in our country is important for all americans. but it is especially important for our fellow citizens living in rural communities and those who are struggling to get ahead in today's highly competitive and knowledge-based economy. it is especially important for america's poor and middle-class, who are hit more harshly anytime energy prices spike. and every year it becomes harder

to earn a decent living and find stable work that can support a family. if you haven't completed some kind of formal education, some kind of formal higher education. interesting though, that some of the most important exceptions to this rule involve the producing and transportingransporti of our nation's energy resources, jobs involving construction and mining. upwards of 90% of the workers do not have, and perhaps do not need in order to succeed in that industry, a college degree. with these unique challenges in mind, i would like to take a few minutes looking back at energy policy under the obama administration, and thinking about what it might look like, and what i hope it will be like under the administration of president-elect trump. if there's one word that can

describe the obama administration's approach to energy, it would be centralization. for eight years, president obama and his allies in congress and his foot soldiers within the federal bureaucracy have feverishly worked centralized energy regulatory power right here in washington. empowering bureaucrats to micromanage how energy producers operate their facilities, and how they run their businesses, how they fuel and power the united states of america. the question is not whether we protect the environment and regulate energy producers. the question really, that i think needs to be asked, is who decides? is it going to be state officials are federal officials? is it going to be elected senators and representatives who

stand accountable to their constituents every two and six years? or is it going to be unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to whom congress can regulate a vast amount of authority and disclaimers possibility when they overreach? the fundamental problem with centralized regulatory authority is the tendency of bureaucrats to be ignorant of, and often, entirely indifferent to the interests of the people who live and work in the committees affected by the laws they make. -- work in the communities affected by the laws they make. this is not a knock on the people who work in our federal bureaucracy. other people who are well-educated and well-intentioned and highly specialized. a lot of them are very hard. but there is no doubt that a regulator in washington dc knows less about a coal mine in sevier county, utah, and cares less

regulator insult lake city. -- a regulator in salt lake city. a perfect case study involves the extreme buffer zone rule,a regulation that was recently finalized by the department of the interior. an independent economic analysis estimates this new rule alone would eliminate between $40,00 jobs000 and 70,000 nationwide. think about that. one regulation. 77,000 jobs destroyed, eliminated, gone forever. many of those jobs are in utah, causeone operator has to all three of the minds to shut down completely. these are real people affected in a very serious way by one rule that was never approved by any democratically elected body.

part of the story here is that the u.s. department of the interior essentially wrote the rule to address extreme pollution in one single state, west virginia. but then it enforces that same rule on the entire country, on producers everywhere, whether they are in west virginia or not. approachests-all with centralized regulations, to over one hour regulations, has got to stop. -- which tend to overrun by regulations, have got to stop. now, mining in west virginia is vastly different than long wall even thoughah, federal regulators tend to treat them as if they were the exact same thing. what a deeper problem is that washington bureaucrats are insulated.

not just geographically. ly. you an electoral it does not affect them. they are completely detached. the interior department claims rule willbuffer have a net positive impact on the economy. "we are doing this to you because it will help you." despite the fact it is destroying tens of thousands of jobs in coal mining because, according to interior, it will create this abundance of compliance related jobs. in other words, those jobs that were made, many of them will involve regulating the few people still regulating energy. the report says, and i kid you not, "these official work requirements include conducting biological assessments and other tasks that require employment of highly trained professionals." how comforting. now, if you live in a community

where most of your neighbors are well credentialed government workers, this kind of labor market centralized planning probably sounds feasible, and might even sound fair. but if you live in a community where some of your neighbors were iork in a coal mine or oilg or construction site, you probably know that people cannot just be moved around, going from a mining machine operator one day to a bureaucratic compliance officer the next. every state in the entire union has suffered under the obama administration's march to centralize energy regulation in washington. but the coal miners and rig operators and construction operators in utah have been hit particularly hard because of wh ere they happen to live. utah is what we call a federal land state, which is a term used

to describe any of the dozen western states in which a significant portion of land, anywhere from 20% to 80% -- it is a little under 70% in my state -- is owned and managed by the federal government. utah's share of this amounts to a whopping 2/3. as matters for two -- this matters for two reasons. federal lands maintain a lot of energy resources. it's not going to run out anytime soon. second, energy producers are subject a whole host of regulatory rules. because it is the federal government we are talking about, many of the regulations never go through the normal rulemaking process, but are put in place

simply by executive edict. i will give you an example. earlier this year on june 15, the obama administration simply said it would not issue any more coal leases until it could prrof oof a systematic review. how long would that review take? the rumor is that it will be as long as a few years, but with this kind of regulation by decree, there is no knowing for sure. it is unknown and unknowable. they will complete bother to tell us when they get around to it. imagine you are a coal miner trying to support a family. one day you hear you will be out of a job once your company's holdings expire. on top of that, you have no way of knowing when, or whether you might ever be hired for another job. for far too many of our citizens

today, they do not need to imagine this. this does not require any kind of stretch of the imagination. it is how they are living. it is their own reality. it is their own living nightmare. but starting in january of 2017 we can begin to change that. and that is why i am so happy today. that is why this is such a great time to be alive as an american. the incoming congress and newly ministration give us the best opportunity -- the incoming congress and new demonstration give us the best opportunity, perhaps in our lifetimes, do but washington, and especially federal energy policy, back on the side of hard-working americans. as i see it, this will require a dual track approach. one that simultaneously reigns in our hyperactive federal bureaucracy, and it takes positive steps to return policy back to the states.

because of course, most of our problems in washington stem from the fact that we have completely neglected this document, whose central, most important feature is it protects us against the accumulation of power in the hands of the few. first, they separate power along the vertical axis. and then along the horizontal axis. it separates power between three equal branches of the federal government. that we have drifted from those protections. first by moving power away from the people and taking to washington, and then within washington. handing power away from the people's elected representatives. we can and we should and must, and i believe we will, start to restore this system of checks and balances. we need to start to process repealing the most costly federal regulations right away.

now, with president-elect trump, he will be undoing many of his predecessor's executive orders, like the moratorium on coal leasing i mentioned. and on capitol hill we can get to work immediately after the new congress is sworn in by using the congressional review act, first to rescind a long list obama's issuances, and then to adopt new reforms, which will make sure that these powers are not delegated out to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in the first place. in fact, i know my friends from texas and from alabama have a few items on their wish list they would like to share with us. some regulations i will mention here include the buffer rule and the interior department's new methane emissions rule, which unnecessarily conflicts with new and very effective methane

reduction methods put in place by the state of utah. both of these rules are ripe for review under the congressional review act and i plan to work tirelessly to make sure we do exactly that. much of this can be accomplished within the first hundred days of the demonstration, but we also have to have a long-term vision to rein in this centralization problem. this has to be in with a much-needed and fundamental attitude adjustment within administrative agencies, which is one reason i'm so encouraged by the nomination of scott pruitt to be the head of the epa. this is a man who understands federalism and separation of powers, and has been a warrior, an champio to restore those things. he is a smart man, and most importantly, understands the dangers of consolidated power.

as attorney general of oklahoma, scott pruitt has spent years being ignored and being pushed around by washington. so, he knows the kind of dangerous bureaucratic mindset he is up against. e's notfident that h going to shy away from the battle, from the task of shaking things up and moving things forward in washington. and reminding epa regulators that their job is to work with, not condescend to, the states and those they regulate. finally, congress should work to pass and get signed into law legislation that empowers the states to resume their rightful role in regulating energy producers, so that we are not constantly following this instinct to take all that power to washington. for federal land states, like utah, i believe the only fair and sustainable solution would involve significant transfers of

noncontroversial and back to the states. there is no reason why the federal government needs to own 2/3 of the landed my state. this of course, is a long-term goal and in the meantime, we can develop solutions that encourage management of public land in a way that will prevent federal rules from preempting and overriding effective regulations and laws implemented at the state level. these are just a few of the ideas. they were meant to kick off this morning's discussion. texas hasfriend from other ideas and my friend from alabama, who we heard from moments ago, has other ideas he proposed, and i respect him greatly in support them. i thank you for letting me speak to you this morning.

i encourage all of you to join in the fight to restore constitutionally limited government. this is the time to make it happen. [applause] >> thank you, senator. that was great. exciting stuff. ok, we have one more speaker. congress and pete olson is joining us here for our final talk. pete olson is a navy veteran. he cut his teeth in politics when he worked for the great texas under phil gramm. i came to d.c. in 2000 and met him and it was absolutely ian honor. he took the oath of office on january 6, 2009, first term as congressman. since then, he has served on

multiple committees and most recently, has been appointed by the leadership in the house to be on the energy and commerce committee. and obviously, that is a great committee for all the things we are talking about today. it allows them to advocate for all the issues that we care about. he has been, in particular, a champion in congress and we have appreciated this at heritage, and fighting against ozone regulations. he has made that one of his major rallying cries, and we look forward to helping him. we are excited to have him. please welcome congressman pete olson. [applause] pete: wow. thank you, tim. now, i'm 53 years old, so bear with me. my glasses. but thank you tim for that very kind introduction. and of course, thank you to the

texas public policy foundation and the heritage foundation for hosting this important forum on the new administration and energy policies. i wanted to be here to talk to you all about these important issues, especially with a group of people who could understand my texas accent without having a translator. howdy y'all! much obliged to be here. theckon we dusted on down road. it is not news to anyone here, but the last two years have seen the most positive change in america energy in our lifetimes. has been brought from a nation of energy beggers to a country that has the largest proven reserves of oil in the

entire world. than saudi arabia. more oil than russia. americanis liquid freedom. right, it could be a game changer for our economy and our national security. we have seen tremendous changes to our electronic grid, electric grid. president obama's 2008 promise to bankrupt coal has largely been kept. because it happened six years and 7000 miles away in japan, nuclear power is stagnant. natural gas is quickly becoming it can help because

coming wind and solar online. and that is a lot of change. last eighte years, congress has been forced to spend time playing defense against a tidal wave of executive orders coming out as the white house tried to twist the market forces to meet their liberal ends. opportunity.a new we will have president trump in a few short weeks. and he'll have strong majorities in both the house and senate. ofeg walden, the new chair

energy and commerce. and i hold the reins of the energy and power subcommittee. as greg knows, i want that gavel 115thfull term in the congress. as we close out the books, we need to determine how we use this bounty of new american energy. priority must be to stop the bleeding on energy coming out of d.c. more arbitrary decisions to block resources from safe development. we need to go back to days when we worked with local communities that wanted to safely develop their resources. our federal government decided

ort alaskans or atlantics pacifics or federal land is untouchable. that is not some policy. 'txans like me say, that ani'in very smart. it hurts american energy and it is an abuse of federal power. it stings local communities that need energy for economic growth. likewise, blocking safe pipeline protests is not rational governance. we must rein in what i call the enterprise agency, the epa. thrilled president trump announced his new ministry to for the epa, our attorney general from the north, scott

pruitt. friends, we can get this thing turned around. while cheap natural gas has been obama has worked from day one to find creative new ways to change the clean air act to close down coal plants. the clean power plan/climate alter thee did not law. it smashed the law. no surprise, the supreme court agreed. despite those liberal attacks, coal is still a big part of our power grid. in texas, my own state, coal is just a bit behind natural gas for power production.

ht years,st eig we saw obama and the epa misuse the clean air act to shut down helps stateshat with electricity policies. going forward, rules must be written with a bounds between public health benefits, real technology, and economic impacts, jobs. and i know, y'all's blood boils like mine when liberals claim republicans dn'on't care about our children or environment. that is a load of texas bull. that's my thought on that. we are the party of teddy

roosevelt, who made our national parks. we are the party made up of sportsmen who love open-space and the outdoors. we are the party that cleaned up the smog i breathed as a child in houston in 1972, so my daughter and son, our kids, can breathe cleana ir -- clean air today. we have to have rational, commonsense regulations and sensible laws. on to ourl not pass filledd grandkids smog air across houston, texas. i believe we can find that balance and that happy combination for the 115th congress. climate change.

well, there has been climate change since the book of genesis. i don't believe that humans are about to destroy our earth. he will not see the energy and commerce committee advance a sweeping cabinet tax bill. i think it is the wrong policy that will be of great consequences to local communities -- that will give great consequences to local communities. to quote the free loving texans, i would say senator phil gramm, a tax bill is deader than elvis. emissions,r carbon and free-market approaches are worth talking about. approach is to

produce more american natural gas. those who protest for natural gas are raising hypocrites. the sameet, foregetget, pipes they fear are the ones that help it clean gas to the markets and are medically cut our-- and dramatically cut carbon emissions. there are also the renewables. the ministry talks about how they are cost competitive. really? really? wind and solar are often located far from population centers. work unless you have reasonable transmission lines and perming at the federal level.

in texas, we are the number one in america for wind production. through times go of energy to market. we had one day recently where over half of our power production came from wind power. but there has to be a free market. a conservative liberalists.he d.c. takingport winners and losers, especially on energy policy. we need to get the feds out of the way, let the free market takeover. we should look at combining

reform with gas pipeline reform. at the same time. should include all forms of energies, the pipelines, coal po wer, should be able to get to market without federal wrote road blocks. the industryve fuelterm storage and options. they need to know, the people do, that the rnc will keep the people safe without adding layer upon layer of new costs that make those plans uncompetitive. need to make sure the nfc is

liberal in improving new reactor designs. get the government out of the way and let's have what i call an energy cage match. may the best man win. and while we're improving the oil and gas at home, we have to open up the markets to american natural gas at the america movil. -- at the american level. we keep getting on the cusp, but failed to cross the finish line. it is time to get that done. exporting natural gas creates good paying american jobs and helps our allies abroad. expensive russian gas from putinmir strengthens our eastern middle

opec stilllies and controls the global market, and that control hurts beacons of freedom in bad neighborhoods. like japan, like south korea, like india, who need our low cost energy for their security, and ours. issues,ricity congressional oversight does not end at the clean air act. for too long we have ignored the federal power act. sleepy sounding group. they oversee the markets. they shape our grid. they monetize the electricity

sector. congress does not have all the answers, nor should it. if it did, i'd be very, very scared. new, hope that conservative majorities in theress can help administration can get these energy questions done right. americandemocracy, an free trade have given more freedom to more people in the world's history than all of our wars combined.f principlest preserve our way of life, keeps

the lights on, and passes a booming economy onto our kids and grandkids with an environment we can be proud of. u very much.thank yo go navy. christmas, y'all. thank you. [applause] >> questions? >> i will start off real quick. this is dan pfeiffer tweeting last night. dan five or was the millennial speechwriter for president obama -- dan pfeiffer was the millennial speechwriter for president obama. he said, at the risk of being dramatic, scott pruitt at the epa is an existential threat to the planet.

a scott pruitt appointment mean for the future? d.c. basically means loses power. it goes back to the states. he fought at oklahoma for our current attorney general paxton. and i'm excited. arefact that those guys attacking scott pruitt, i would say, my friend, scott, if people ain't saying bad things about you coming you are doing something wrong. so, my friends, he is doing something right. i am excited to have him come before the committee and say things i would like him to say, like let's build up american energy. let's have clean water and clean air. let's not stagnate. let's grow, make the world it better place.

help allies. we can do a lot of things with the new java ministration -- with the new truck administration and it's got up there is -- with the new trump the ministration and it's got up there is the epa administrator. we have heard things about the congress approved regulations and the marines act. but that could be appealed by the next liberal congress. you thought that all about supporting the regulation freedom, and the constitutional t?rsion of the marines ac >> i thought about that, but we have thought about the act. mr. trump told us in late july, when that comes to my desk, i will sign it. that means the senate has to act.

we passed that three times in the house. let's make this permanent, like you said. because we will not have the white house forever. make sure that when a democrat gets there that stays on there. that gives d.c. a voice. if the executive order crosses a threshold, we can seay yay or nay. it dies, unless we approve it. addition.t is because -- hey, that is the constitution. constitution? >> john hancock. >> john hancock signed by declaration. the john hancock from the revelation, but he signed my constitution. >> we have a question right down

here. >> yes, ma'am. >> what can congress and the trump administration do about the pipeline? >> i will talk to mr. trump and say, let's pass keystone asap. mrs. clinton, twice, mr. kerry , once. all the states along the pipeline route said, we are good to go. people forget, that is the keystone xl pipeline that caused the problems. , sincestone pipeline 2007. 500,000 barrels per day, coming along the same route, basically, going to illinois. the keystone pipeline creates good paying american jobs, we all know that. it makes us less dependent upon oil we cannot control from opec

or russia, helps out our allies. how about this idea? consider opec, how about apec? , three of us.ican our neighbors to the north, us, and mexico. private there. have got a lot of oil and gas down there. offshore of the gulf of mexico and gas down there. it goes all the way to the border. guess what? it is there. gas, in mexico. let's help them tap that. and we can trust them. in north dakota, the pipeline --

i'm sorry, the same guys that have it stopped right now, to build a pipeline from mexico to west texas, they are coming down to spread their ill will in my own stupidity will not be successful -- it will do my own state. it will not be successful. we have allies. >> may be time for one more question. >> [inaudible] theake some pressure off of miners? >> that is a big bear. that is a big bear to kill because of the corn lobby. it is very powerful. statellinois, the court

-- supports it. but there is good news. facts a quote from phil, are consistent things. on that outcome of the facts are getting better and better. different groups will support climate change, hydrocarbons are now saying that -- makes it worse. it does. it is all the same. let's get the corn to market. now you are driving tractors and you have heard allies are and all of this. it is even worse. hopefully, that is a big hope. i know. but we should support getting rid of ethanol, because it is making the planet were -- worse. how about nuclear power?

if you care about climate change with can reduce emissions nuclear power. it is really really safe. comments,rse, with my it comes across the pacific about nuclear power. and we are hitting people with the facts. the people to fax -- facts, american people are smart. once they have back -- have facts -- that is our mission. >> please join me in thanking the congressman. [applause] >> ok, we're going to take a short break. about 20 minutes. the next panel will start at 11:00. thank you. ♪

[chatter] tonight, president-elect donald trump on another stop on his thank you tour. in iowa, a state he won by almost 150,000 votes. he will appear with the governor will -- who the president-elect is nominating to be the u.s. ambassador to china. president-elect donald trump speaking in a few minutes. while we wait for his remarks, here are his