mr. poe: mr. speaker, i request unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes, revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: mr. speaker, like many members of congress i receive thousands of emails from my neighbors each month about the issues that are important to them. since i work for them and i'm their advocate, it is important that i bring their words directly to the house floor and let other members hear what i call the pulse of texans. bill baggy from texas recently wrote me about the deteriorating condition of our southern border with mexico. here's what he has to say. i own and operate a heavy specialized trucking company and transport specialized freight around the united states and canada. 1/4 of my freight ends up in the south texas towns of mcallen, farr, and brownsville, and other towns. over the last 10 years i have watched the border in south texas deteriorate with not only undocumented crossing, but much worse, the cartels. i know fro

mr. poe: mr. speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule 1, i demand a vote on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. the speaker: the question is on combreg to the speaker's approval of the journal -- agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the ayes have tanned the journal is approved. mr. poe: mr. speaker, i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question are postponed. the pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman from illinois, mr. dold. mr. dold: please join me in the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chair will entertain up to five one-minute requests on each

mr. poe, for five minutes. mr. poe: request unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: madam speaker, for nearly a decade the united states has invested money, sweat, blood and tears all in the name of the free and democratic iraq. before the war, iraqis suffered from the oppressive dictatorship of saddam hussein, and recent evets there led me to believe that perhaps the new government does not value freedom any more than the last one did. as a member of congress i've been fortunate to go to iraq several times to visit with our troops, and during my last visit with a bipartisan congressional district -- delegation, we also met with the iraqi prime minister maliki. during the two-hour-hong discussion, covering many things, i asked one question -- can we go see camp ashraf? now, it houses eye rain rain dissidents. i represent a good number of iranian members whose family members are in this ca

mr. poe: request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. please take your conversations off the floor. the gentleman deserves to be heard. the gentleman is recognized. mr. poe: mr. speaker, the found ers purposely defined the role of government in the u.s. constitution to protect, quote, we the people. from the chains of government. today the united states supreme court began three days of oral arguments on the national iced health care law. the issue, whether or not the federal government has the constitutional authority to force citizens to buy government-approved insurance. but much more than that is at stake. mr. speaker, if this law stands, it is the end of limited government as we know it. and the beginning of unlimited government is forced upon the people. citizens are f

the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe. mr. poe: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. poe: mr. speaker, the white ribbon campaign theme is no excuse for abuse. crystal harris was raped by her abusive husband, and it was not the first time he hurt her, abused her or even threatened her. but this particular crime and rape was caught on tape so shawn harris was convicted and sent to prison for six years. that sounds like justice prevailed. the outlaw was put away. but that's not the rest of the story. a judge ordered that once the sex offender husband gets out of jail for rape, the victim must pay him $1,000 a month in spousal support and, get this, she has to pay the legal bills for the divorce. his legal bills. the victim has to pay the rapist. rape is never the fault of the victim. and a victim never owes the perpetrator anything. no judge, no law should force victims to financially support convicted rapists because there is no excuse for abuse. and tha

mr. poe: mr.peaker, it seems the administration may open up the emergency strategic petroleum reserves under the economic theory that more supply will lower the price of oil and gasoline. if the president's theory of supply is correct, then, why not allow more oil shale be in the west and why not say yes to more oil and gas lease sales in the gulf of mexico. and why not say yes to the keystone pipeline and allow permitting process. if it wasn't for more production on nonpermitted land, the situation would be worse. the administration wants to save us from the high cost of gasoline by increasing supply. i agree. i have introduced legislation that would require the administration to do all of the above before it can tap into the s.p.r. let's increase our energy supply ve a relief at the pump. we don't need a temporary fix in supply, but a long-term energy supply solution. and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: jabt. are there any other one--- the gentleman yields back the balance of

mr. poe. this legislation strengthens the capacity of usaid and the state department, increases aid effectiveness, transparency, accountability for sanitation, water and hygiene, and it has no net cost, according to the c.b.o. i strongly urge my colleagues to co-sponsor this legislation and hope that we can move it forward in this congress as there has been movement in the senate. millions of lives will be transformed. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlelady from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, for five minutes. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, madam speaker, and i would like to begin my remarks by commending all of the citizens and young students in my congressional district and indeed throughout the country who have worked so hard to raise awareness about joseph coney and his brutal crimes, as we can see in this poster. there's coney and these are just a few of the photos of so many innocents who have been mutilated by coney and his thugs. joseph coney is a mass murderer whose c

mr. poe: request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: mr. speaker, vietnam citizen was convicted of armed robbery of a chinese restaurant in california in 1996. he received 10 years in prison. he was also ordered by an immigration judge to be deported back to vietnam. but vietnam has never taken back the lawfully deported criminal. u.s. law does not allow indefinite incarceration so after an additional 180 days, he was released on american streets. but last weekend he struck again. this time he murdered five people in san francisco. mr. speaker, there should be consequences for countries like vietnam who failed to take back their lawfully deported criminals. there are several thousand criminals ordered deported back to their native lands where their nations just don't ever get around to taking them back. so i have introduced the deport foreign con

mr. poe: mr. speaker, two american soldiers were killed today in afghanistan. and while our amazing troops are still in the rugged field of battle fighting people who kill in the name of religion, a new field is getting ready for its grand opening at guantanamo bay. finishing touches are being put on a swanky high-dollar soccer field for criminal terrorist detainees at gitmo. and of course americans are picking up the $750,000 tab for the recreation facilities for these criminals. now, isn't that lovely? the u.s. government has given these radical extremists access to the soccer field for 20 hours a day. what follows, a terrorist soccer league? these radicals should be doing hard time, not soccer time. our government has no business building this tropical caribbean recreation facility for terrorists. it is disrespectful and insulting to all who are victims of these killers. what's next at this terrorist playground? a tiki hut and bar on the beach? this ought not to be, but that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yielded back

mr. poe: request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and stepped my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: last week, border protectors spotted drug smugglers trying to move narcotics into the united states. the agents found themselves under attack from the mexican side when the narco terrorists unleashed gun fire and the agents returned gun fire. this sounds like a scene out of the western movie, but this is real life on the texas border. the legal ports of entry may seem safe but it is really the wild west. law enforcement is outmanned, outgunned and outfinanced. we have troops protecting other borders, why don't they protect ours? texas has to protect itself. texas d.p.s. has now six gun boats that will patrol the rio grande. why does texas has to send its own navy? because the federal government refuses to do its job and someone has to protect the homeland. and that's just the way it is. . the

mr. poe: madam speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. poe: madam speaker, modern day slavery is alive in america. when maria was 16 she was lured from mexico to houston by a man who promised her a better life, but when she arrived in texas, she learned this scoundrel was in the slavery business. the slave master put maria up for sale. now she was a sex slave, a child of human trafficking. here's what she said, every day , six to seven days a week, i'd have sex with seven to 10 men a night during the week and during the weekends 20 to 30 men a night. tortured and abuse, the slave trader threatened her. she defied her capture and called for help. law enforcement came to the aid and rescued her. the trafficker was convicted and sent to prison where we house these deviant slave traders. now it's time to prosecute the customers as well. meanwhile, we have a duty to help an

mr. poe: request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. poe: mr. speaker, on monday i visited hardgrave high school in huffman, texas. students from this school come from hardworking, rural, lower to middle class seniors. i met with almost every one of them and they had a job. i was proud of their questions about government. one student, corina, asked me this. why should those of us that work hard sacrifice our tax dollars for freehandouts to pot heads and others that are too lazy to work? this has nothing to do with being black, brown or white, because i'm hispanic. they should be made to try harder to find work, submit to drug testing to qualify for this money. mr. speaker, corina and several other of her students have a concept that many people have forgotten, personal responsibility. the american dream means that if you work hard you can do anything in this country, and it's the individual, not the federal government, who controls our future. young people must know that hard w

mr. poe: mr. speaker, as the bagpipes played in the background, the black cloth of sacrifice was draped over the badges of houston first responders yesterday. senior captain thomas "bill" dillon of the houston fire department was rushing into a house fire on march 14 when he apparently died of a heart attack. captain dillon was 49 years of age and 23 years with the houston fire department. he had three children. with somber respect, hundreds of texas firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians, and citizens attended his funeral. mr. speaker, 300 firefighters from other towns in texas volunteered their time to fill in at houston fire department stations so houston firefighters could attend the funeral. firefighters are a family of dedicated, loyal public servants. captain dillon and other firefighters spend their lives rescuing people they do not know and protecting property they have never seen from fire. most of us flee danger. firefighters rush to the smell of smoke and the heat

mrs. obama. they'll grow poe pay toes, broccoli -- potatoes, broccoli, radishes and onions. >>> the new york jetsentials for today's press conference to introduce your backup quarterback. sport director dave feldman with the latest craze in the big apple. >> more than 200 media members showed up with 36 tv cameras. so let's put it this way. if tim tebow is half as effective in the pocket as he is in the podium, he's going to have a heck of a career in the big apple as the backup quarterback or maybe starter. new york has linsanity, now tebow mania, today the newest jet introduced to the big appear, tebow traded last week from denver -- big apple, tebow traded last week from denver. tebow will back up starting quarterback mark sanchez and play a major role in the wildcat offense, although maybe he's not convinced that he's the backup. >> everybody that puts on a uniform, you want to go out there and you want to play. that's why you play the game of football. i'm excited to be a jet, to go out this and help this team any way that i can and whatever my role is, however i can expand that role, i'm go

mr. zimmerman. his family says he's in the a racist, that he aked in self-defense. that hasn't stopped the outrage online. a single poerest has over 400,000 signatures. >> we're going to bring in dan abrams. what are the issues? >> let's separate the fact from the law. he is told not the get out of the car on the 911 call. he gets how any way. he makes the comment, they always get away. >> they. >> they, right, unclear what he means, but it's not helpful to his case. allegations the police are putting words into people's mouth. and the fact that trayvon was unarmed. the difficulty here is the florida law. they have a law called the stand your ground law. in most state, you're retiquire to retreat. you don't have the right to shoot someone on the street if you feel you're in danger. in florida, you do have that right. that's what the prosecutors are relying on. >> you just said it. zimmerman got out of hais car, admitted he was following him. how can you claim self-defense when you're the aggressor? >> it's a good question. it's who is the aggressor at the moment it occurred. hypothetical situation. let's say zimmerman