loves the marine corps. his son in listed in the marine corps. he basically was the marine corps commandant. that is one of his jobs, to take care of the marine corps. the he took over we arency, you know, going to get rid of those guys. comment about the 1932 plan. summer 1944.ut the marines right in the middle of this. so, prices increase. the marine commandant has a statement for the senate naval affairs committee. corpss taking the marine away. we will no longer have the marine corps. this is after iwo jima. all the pacific islands. the service chiefs and reorganize the marshall plan. what are we going to do? we're going to continue to work with this. eisenhower said we should bring the army guys on shore. so, back to the cartoon. remember that. this is barnaby. this is over malley. so inwas a small, secret quantico, virginia and basically it started with two guys. two of the most brilliant minds of the marine corps. provide athere to statement, this plan, this communication plan. they were known as the chowder society. people.always bothered

get worse until the corps fixes it. which they are committed to do. the current study for the alternative solution will not be completed until 2019. this amendment is critical to the alaska community because it prevents stewart from bearing undue hardships from frequent flooding and continuous damage to the outflow due to the unforeseen design of pulse. this would continue to require the course to expedite the study and place a critical importance on the fixing the dam system for my constituents in stewart. i want to thank, again, mr. chairman shuster, ranking member defazio, and their staffs for working with me and my staff on this amendment and for supporting my amendments here. we'll continue to work further on this issue in conference and i urge all of my colleagues to support my amendment, number 49. with that, i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. shuster:

i was please the corps scheduled several meetings on the topic and the corps worked with us to extend the open comment period several times. this process proved successful, and a number of innovative and thoughtful alternatives were submitted for consideration. yesterday, the st. paul district office of the army rps and the city of wabash signed a memorandum. the m.o.u. describes a process by which the corps can use existing authorities to collaborate with a non-federal entity in order to allow for greater flexibility of placement. this has the support of the district office, our local community, and the state of minnesota. it is also environmental friendly as it will allow the dredged material to be used in a manner that benefits society rather than taking up place on a pristine farmland. it also spreads the burden of a public benefit to everyone who benefits. my amendment encourages the army corps' headquarters to fully consider this alternative plan and alternatives like this in the future. in its history, the corps has rarely approved innovative plans such as this. federal, local,

they can partner with the corps and fund corps activities. i did that a number of years ago in oregon. they don't have the money. and we're depriving them of the money. but this is the trump administration's soluon. the big infrastructure package? this is gog to be counted. we're going to add $3 billion to ec. pile of unfunded corps e got day $96 billion of corps projects, been authorized by congress, that aren't funded herehe foreseea will be 99, almost $100 billion. achievement. the administration is applauding this. they think thiss just great because it gives the local port. the capability of raising money spend mon raise to the improvements they can't make. -- to spend money on the improvements they can't make. meanwhile we're that project. all we need to do is get the money. maybe a future congress, maybe next year we'll start spending the harpor maintenance tax on harbor maintenance. who knows. might depend on who is in charge around here. there are other provisions in here that are critical authorizing the national levy safety initiat

we have obviously done very well at training the corps mets, the corps essential tasks that are within their mission, but they may not be as steeped in the knowledge of the peninsula as the os who work there every day. same goes for that force that is almost every conflict i can think of in recent history that the marine corps's been associated with, we did windows on the way to or on the way back from the conflict. so, whether it was desert storm, it seemed like liberia was always a stopping point on the way to or on the way back from, a conflict that was a little more serious. so, i agree that the perfect solution would be that those three forces that you describe will know each other, have trained together, have had the opportunity to do combined arms together, et cetera. that's optimum. we don't always have that luxury, i think. so, again, things like a well-known operating concept that has been tried out and exercised with and experimented with across the force is valuable. and then if you have to put these forces together to do it, you have at least got a common ground to work fr

i think the corps had to think about for a while. and the degree at which you are able to leverage the navy to do that, at least in the short term, is an open question in my mind. >> let me ask about pickinup onnother thing that marron had raised, the environment, there is a lot of talk about that, particularly with china and russia, their ability to build defensive bubbles around their homeland and i realized pno does not like a2ad because it sounds a little too restrictive, maybe, on our operations. but i wanted to ask about what that means for the training organization and doctrine of the may tap, operating in that environment opposed to permissive environments we have been living in. well, really, two decades and many of your remarks have touched on that. but lets start with general d work our way down. >> i will start with-- is general budroe, said strategy is the most clear strategy i think in my career, since 1989, since reagan administration, clear strategy, the department is clearly turned in that direction, clear strategy i

our peace corps volunteers deserve better. they deserve better care than this, but unfortunately i have heard too many stories about peace corps volunteers like sarah's. young, enthusiastic volunteers, eager to make a difference in the world are let down by the organization that they once held in such high esteem. peace corps volunteers selflessly sacrifice years of their lives to help people that they have never even met. often in some of the most desolate, dangerous places on the globe. their service to our country should not turn into a nightmare that ruins or even ends nair lives because we don't take -- their lives because we don't take care of them. small, commonsense changes could protect our peace corps volunteers abroad. that's why representative the dy and i has a bill, sam far peace corps act. this takes important -- sam farr peace corps act. this takes important steps to improve training on the side effects of malaria medications and allows the peace corps to better prescribe other types of malaria medication. in a

and the marine corps is able to put them out, then they are important. if you look at the nss, those types of things are being deemphasized. if you need to recoup equipment aircraft and people to build readiness for a higher priority mission, those special-purpose magtfs, where are we going to get them back, a different force for a different crisis. >> we have three to put down in south america during the storm season primarily, different purpose organized differently in the central command region. and it is also different in its own right in terms of organization and challenges in terms of time, distance. i want to reinforce the point that we work these elements up, and designed to be combat credible or humanitarian purposes for security engagement. the rest is combat credible but will need augmentation from the joint force with fixed wing support and it is the real world. the idea we would need to employ it in total would be desirable but the real world gets in the way of having to provide small elements and detachments to us personnel and facilities a

it is not an area directly for the marine corps.what i would say is when you get into great power competition, you have to have a credible force. today, we are just focused on a piece of that. for our national capability, you have to have a credible capability. . looking at the nuclear force, we have not put in a lot of effort or funding into that for many years. to have a credible deterrent capability, you have to have a credible nuclear capability. looking at that capability along with things like energy weapons which can be -- all those capabilities will come into play. it is things we have not put our resources against. we have not been focused on any type of strategic competition or threat. the threat is driving us to new capabilities. we have to increase our conventional trading against our higher ed capability. i do not know if you want to touch on anymore. >> i think you are referencing space. is that correct? it goes to the strategic investment we are making. some comes off the top for every service pay for the common good.

the fifth corps is 22 miles behind at union mills on its way to hanover, and the sixth corps is heading to manchester. 32 miles away. so who is there to support john reynolds in the event there's trouble? and then the question of leaving to a subordinate the position of bringing on a general engagement far from army headquarters. do you do that? would he have done that? well, harry fans, by the way, comes to a very similar conclusion. i mean, this is a powerful crowd now. i mean, harry fans, edward cottington, who am i to dispute them? but then we get steven sears. now, he's written two studies that directly impact what i'm talking about. the first is his book gettysburg which is a great tone. and he writes this, it was clear on july 1 rind was to match to gettysburg with the 11th corps and close support. that's true. then he says, what was not made clear was what he was supposed to do when he got there. a as if meade just sent him out there. with no instructions at all. and then his current work, lincoln's lieutenants says this, wing commander reynolds rode that morning, july 1, with t

retiring and looking at the army corps of engineers and how can utilize technologies. at the same time, it's important for us to understand how the army corps of engineers primary partner in the delivery of its services the navigation industry work force is managing the impending retirements. we need to get a grasp of what they need to do for the graying of its work force and the work force of the maritime and shipping sectors. and it is critical to understand how all of this has a bearing on safety and operations within the navigation industry. mr. chairman, in my home state of washington, the average age of a maritime worker is 54 years

, joint task force east, two arab corps and there was the marine corps. this was an army group fight with 350,000 combat soldiers in the field, only counting americans, not counting the arab soldiers. there were lots of people out there. the other side had 41 plus divisions on the forward line and about eight in their operational reserves. they were a big army as well. how do you do things like this? you have to plan things in parallel. that means, i may not know the details of where i am going to attack, who i am going to attack and with what i'm going to attack, but i may know what my task are, which allows me to think about it. in those days, the army had four forms of maneuvers. our division commander decided upfront that he wasn't going to do in infiltration attack, sneaking in at night, wasn't going to do a turning movement, flanking going to do a movement, penetration, a frontal attack. we were going to do a penetration, which is narrow the frontage, stack the deck. to do that, he brought the frontage down to eight kilometers. he put four assault b

then i was released from the marine corps. you know, walked out the front gate and that kind of ended a chapter. i was happy to be alive, you know. happy to be alive. proud to have done it, but yeah, it was interesting. >> what did you do following the service? >> i went to school. i first attended an aviation technical school and i was given some federal ratings, airframe power plant technician ratings. then i went on and got a degree in aviation engineering management and was going to go back into the marine corps to fly. i got all my flight ratings down there, too, by the way. then, i joined the railroad and had a career with the railroad. they sent me for a masters, at pin of all places, which was nice. i had a great career, i finished up my career with amtrak. i was a senior director of equipment for national railway passenger corporation. so i had a great thing. i credit the marine corps with that can-do attitude. it was great. i always kept in touch with my marine corps buddies. and attend these reunions, sometimes i or

marine corps fighting in this area.ing said that, sometimes there were marines that came from massachusetts. he was a new englander. special lieutenant thomas ashley , young guy in his mid-20's. he was killed pretty early in the battle. he was a member of the fifth regiment marines. that is the regiment that took the northern part of the battlefield of belleau wood . he would have never seen belleau ,ood, at least not close up because he did not live long enough to get there. he was killed taking out a german machine gun on hill 142. it is not just belleau wood for the marine corps. they fought at the farm, hill 142, and that first battle in june. he did not live long in combat. the gold star mothers pilgrimages, do you know when they came here to the cemetery? it was before the cemetery was dedicated, right? ,> the goldstar pilgrimages another part of american history that is largely lost and does not get all the play i think it deserves. the u.s. government gave the families of the fallen the choice to bring their lov

account to reduce, to increase the corp.'s aquatic nuisance species program. i commend you for that and thank you for working so late into the night. your constituents are lucky you're here, congressman nolan. thank you and i yield back any remaining time to the gentleman. the chair: the gentlelady's time has expire. the gentleman yields. does anyone seek time in opposition? seeing none. the question is on the amendment buffered a-- offered by the gentleman from minnesota. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed. for what purpose does the gentleman from idaho seek recognition? mr. simpson: i move the committee do now rise. the chair: the squone the motion that the committee rise. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the committee rises. the speaker pro tempore: madam chair. the chair: mr. speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union having d under consideration h.r. 5885 di

army corps of engineers. and as the gentleman knows, and as i've made clear to the corps, our great lakes members and myself are very supportive of the proposal for a great lakes coastal resiliency study. the study will take an inclusive view of how to make our coast line more resilient, with an eye toward using more sustainable, green, or natural infrastructure to reduce runoff, mitigate erosion and protect property. this will ultimately save money as the corps looks to fulfill its mission in the face of changing environmental hazards. i have to say, over my many years of service, we finally have at the corps not just civil engineers, we have environmental engineers. and we raised a new generation of americans who understand the relationship between structures and the environment. it is a new day at the corps and nobody welcomes it more than this member. so i want to thank the gentleman for offering this amendment and i urge my colleagues to support it. thank you, and i yield back. mr. simpson: i yield back

army corps of engineers. incredible. of engineers. this is stupid. this makes no sense. resident trump: that was [laughter] president trump: i think you should put that on television. mr. mulvaney: and linda's job, [laughter] dealing with small businesses. long time ago i worked in a freezer for a guy that made frozen pizzas. one day he's making cheese pizzas and the afternoon he will make pepperoni. he has an entirely different agency to deal with. it simply doesn't make sense. we will try to fix it. i want to go through a couple of examples today. step aside to go over just one or two -- a couple of them made the press. we talk about this later about the department of education and the department of labor being merged. we think that makes tremendous sense. what are they both doing? they're doing the same thing, get people ready for the work force. sometimes it's education, vocational training. we're doing the same thing. this goes back to the work i think ivanka i think did very early on job training when we learned we had -- in fact, we don't even know how many job tr

so the proposal today you'll see makes important change to the corps of engineers. the stuff is really defense and there are still -- army corps does that's defense. they stay there. and they should. the things the army corps doesn't help to defend the nation will stay where they belong which is at the department of defense. environment, what what they do deals with the environment, they deal with environmental mitigation, so forth, that goes over to the department of the interior. y'all are really good at that. similarly, ports, deep water ports, our lock system, that's not -- it used to be a military thing 100 years ago. now it's department of transportation because it's a transportation item. we think it's a much more efficient layout. it ties in what you talked about. streamline our permitting process and goes along with what mr. zinke is doing at the d.o.i. to try to centralize so there's one point of contact. you want a permit, go to one federal agency. down here, we talked about that one food safety thing. right now it's f.d.a., usda, couple of places. we mov

corps is to the department of the navy. we should have a space corps that still falls under the department of the air force. in the long term, this report said we should have a separate alitary department for space, space force. this was recommended 17 years ago. and it has been hotly debated in defense circles and persons then. not a lot of that debate has made it out into the public, because it is kind of a nerdy thing. it may seem far-fetched, whimsical, and even silly. i admit when i heard trump say it, it did some kind of silly. he went on to say there is no place like space, and i am thinking about a dr. seuss book i read to my kids. it is a serious issue that has been studied for quite a while. there are big decisions that need to be made. it may be that a space force is not the right place to go. maybe we need an interim step. there are a lot of big decisions. do you carve out abilities from the air force, or from the navy and the army as well? what about the intelligence agencies? and othertner the nro agencies tha

speaker, depend on corps of engineer facilities for their drinking water. 0% defend on corps engineer facilities for their drinking water. tremendously important to families across the district. i am heartened that the appropriations committee even though they could not be unanimous, persisted in moving this bill through committee in a bipartisan way. i'm optimistic of what it's going to do for water and energy infrastructure for years to come. finally, mr. speaker, to a committee that is almost as near and dear to my heart as the rules committee, this bill brings to the floor a bill from the transportation committee. the water resources development act of 2018, folks often think of the veterans' affairs committee as being one of the on bipartisan committees capitol hill and candidly i think it makes us all proud to know that that is true. but the house transportation on capitol hill and committee sits a very close second. infrastructure projects, whether it be safe drinking water, whether it be roads and whether it be airport facilities, these are issues that we all confront and thes

trump tweeted the white house will host the united states marine corps band and hear the national anthem. there you see the president, live coverage now here on c-span. >> ladies and gentlemen, please join us in singing our country's national anthem. >> ♪ oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we atched were so gallantly streaming and thcked gre the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o say does that star-spangled anner yet wave oer the land of the free, and the home of the brave ♪ [applause] president trump: thank you very much, everybody. appreciate it. i want to thank the united states marine band and the united states army chorus for that incredible performance. i'd love to have a voice like that. what a voice. we love our country, we respect our flag and we always proudly stand for the national anthem. we always will stand for the national anthem. [applause] it is my grea

marine corps in 1943. she earned her teaching degree and was only two years out of college working at a summer job when she heard the call to serve her country. she heard it through slogans like uncle sam needs you, and, free a man to fight. mr. davis: with the u.s. marine corps women reserved newly authorized, she walked into a recruiting station and signed up to reserve. she competed boot camp at camp lejeune in north carolina and was selected to go through officer candidate school. after graduating, she was commissioned to second lieutenant and she and three other women were sent to florida to attend navigation school. while there, iris was one of the first four women to earn aerial navigator wings. she was trained to teach aerial meteorology and radio technique to the men who flew combat missions. she served in the marines until she was discharged in 1945. this weekend she will celebrate her 100th birthday. i am beyond proud to honor her today. she's a trail blazer for women in the -- trailblazer for w

i also think she really liked her state department press corps. she thought they were substantive and asked about foreign affairs, et cetera shared this political press there was yelling at her about e-mails. a lot of other things but in her might we were obsessed with the daily stories. in the white house she had described the political press to a friend diane blair as big egos and no brains. hard feelings with way back. good question. fact check, kind of true. >> i had a question. i know bill clinton obviously had to take a less public role with his wife what when he for president. i'm curious on your thoughts if you think that was a little bit frustrating for him not to be in the limelight as much, and what role did he actually played in some of the strategies and in the campaign itself? >> i have a lot about this in the book because bill clinton was trying to push hillary's younger aides to reach out to the white working-class voters who he won in 92 and 96, and they were like those voters have left the party. we are good. where focus on these

army corps of engineers looks like. in the kay of my community, it's not -- in the case of my community, it's not just a pipe, though. it's millions of gallons a minute that destroys our environment, destroys our economy, destroys small businesses and affects the i said already, of every single man, woman, and child who comes in contact with the water and it threatens our entire way of life. the treasure coast of florida can no i said longer be forced share thed a vessity that they created -- share the adversity that they created no role in creating. the entire coast of florida demands the u.s. corps of engineers stops immediately the willful pollution of our home that's done on behalf of others. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. quigley, for five minutes. mr. quigley: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, perhaps now more than ever we need to recognize the critical role a free press plays in our democracy and those who pla

this is to emphasize the needs for funding in the army corps of engineers. is a -- an amendment that increases and decreases with the focus on the construction account. and i hold up examples of construction projects are necessary not only in the gulf region but necessary across pt region. but dams, reservoirs, reservoir pools and other areas that can be devastated by disaster. this amendment is to emphasize the army corps of engineers' construction account particularly dealing with the need for repair to river and harbor, flood and storm damage and restoration as well to include the need to deal with our ports. and so, my amendment is again to reflect on the devastation of storm that occurred over the last year with the prediction of 14 storms coming in 2018, approximately five or so to be of monumental impact and hitting the gulf region. it is imperative that the army corps of engineers moves on their construction accounts and projects to avoid some of the disasters that we have experienced. i ask my colleagues to support my amendment. and i reserve. the c

so the proposal today you'll see makes important change to the corps of engineers. the stuff is really defense and there are still -- army corps does that's defense. they stay there. and they should. the things the army corps doesn't help to defend the nation will stay where they belong which is at the department of defense. environment, what they do deals with the environment, they deal with environmental mitigation, so forth, that goes over to the department of the interior. y'all are really good at that. similarly, ports, deep water ports, our lock system, that's not -- it used to be a military thing 100 years ago. now it's department of transportation because it's a transportation item. we think it's a much more efficient layout. it ties in what you talked about streamlining our permitting process and goes along with what mr. zinke is doing at the d.o.i. to try to centralize so there's one point of contact. you want a permit, go to one federal agency. this is going to help that. down here, we talked about that one food safety thing. right now it's f.d.a., usda,

it also requires the corps to provide a final accounting for each project, and the status of the corps' plan to return the excess nonfederal funds. it does not increase federal spending. it's not intend -- it is intended to ensure the corps returns excess nonfederal funds to project sponsors in a timely manner. just for the information of senators and staff, but first let me thank the republican and democratic staffs for working with us through the morning in the customary smooth way to get an appropriations bill on the floor. this is the first vote on the appropriations bills this week. we will vote on the, on the coons-gardner amendment first and then on the carper-alexander amendment second. we have several other amendments waiting for consideration. senator thune and durbin have one that should be filed shortly. senator hatch and udall, the same. we would hope to have more votes later this afternoon and and hopefully in the area of 5:00. that will be up to the majority leader and the democratic leader. we'll let senators know about that. senator pwoez -- boozman and daines and i an

when i was in the marine corps, it meant underaged women. it might have been pokey bait that we were saying. tank -- self-explanatory. trenchcoat. over-the-top, an expression that originated in world war i. booby-trap did not exist before world war i. sniper. before that, they were sharpshooters. but to snipe became popularized. camouflaged. a personal favorite of mine -- cooties. the british soldiers started referring to body lice as cooties. i do not know why, but they did. third light, three on a match, self-explanatory. the german snipers, you lit a match and they could see you from very far away. it's a death sentence. finally, shellshock did not exist before world war i and sadly, basketcase. when a soldier was so badly wounded, usually meaning he was a double-amputee, that he had to be carried to the rear in the basket. the war to end all wars, if only it had been. we have some wonderful speakers here today. the first gentleman is talking about ike. i can remember my father was a sometimesan, although he seemed liberal with this attit

thedvanced during the war cavalry corps, the infantry corps, and finally the army command. he was known for having a single emotion -- rage. there is a touching story about him in that every night, before he went to bed, one of the staff officers who was -- or had the responsibility to monitor the list,d, or the casualty that staff officer was to report night on theery status of his son, who was a field artillery officer at the front, and it was only after receiving a positive report that he would go to bed each night. , this seemingly softer side of allenby has a tragic end. after being posted to egypt, allenby received a telegram from his wife, informing the general of his son's death, and he publicly wept, the only time his staff saw a display of emotion. when allenby took over command of the expeditionary force, it was 27th june, 1917. he immediately reorganized the forces under his command into two infantry corps and one cavalry corps. he visited the front regularly, and he was a present leader. this is a picture of allenby entering the city of jerusalem. i will mentio

macarthur uses this plan to mobilize the civilian conservation corps. fed,ts them closed, roosevelt's like, you are my guy now. man inthe most dangerous america, but he also has a lot of talent. and then in 1935, at the end of macarthur's tenure, finally, the money comes through. he wants him anything to build the army and the officers. be bold, press on. he pretty much angers everybody in washington. and then we learn about the .onus march 1932, all world war i veterans marched on washington. macarthur never admitted they were veterans. they were communist. no veteran of the united states would ever do that. , and macarthur ignores orders not to cross a bridge. he believes he's going to stop a revolution. stay away from the press. get out of my way. they are all communists. reputation,is total and that's why he leaves in 1935 to go to the philippines to build their defense force. he does not ever plan to come back to the united states. that's why everything he owns is .estroyed in the philippines now, macarthur's plan for the philippines, he wrote it u

corps ordered, the 2nd ranger battalion to seize the high ground of hill 400. the reason why hill 400 is important is because it basically, it was a window into hitler's greatest secret of the war, which was the battle of the bulge. on december 16, hillary would launch the battle of the bulge. the bulge assembly areas, there was a perfect view of them on top of hill 400. the germans knew that high ground had to be held at all costs. and the rangers wanted it, also, because they had very good artillery positions. and that morning on december 7, they were ordered to clear the rest of bergstein. as they moved out, they were in cellars that were filled with water, that was waist deep. they were told they had to take hill 400. it is an incredible story. as they moved through bergstein, they went through a cemetary werewas, the graves actually overturned because it had been shelled so many time by allies and german artillery. they moved through that and they were being hit by artillery and german artillery. they moved up towards the sunken road. overlooking,noad this

when i was in the marine corps, it meant underaged women. tank -- self-explanatory. trenchcoat -- over-the-top, an expression that originated in world war i. booby-trap did not exist before world war i. sniper. before that, they were sharpshooters. but the snipe became popularized. camouflaged. a personal favorite of mine -- cooties. british soldiers refer to body lice as cooties. i do not know why, but they did. third light, three on a match, self-explanatory. snipers can see you on the third light and it's a death sentence. finally, shellshocked did not exist before world war i and sadly, basketcase. when a soldier was so badly wounded, meaning double amputee, he had to be carried in the basket. the war to end all wars, if only it had been. we have wonderful speakers. the first gentleman is talking about ike. my father was a republican, although, he seemed liberal with this attitude. i was 11 years old or 12 years old and i asked, why are we republicans? he said, my general was ike. here is a guy who got wounded at a battle and was in the united states army and in

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org] >> house returns in 35 minutes at noon eastern. legislative work today including more work on the opioid epidemic. they have been focusing on that all week. two bills set for today. we'll have live house coverage when they gavel back in at noon eastern. house speaker paul ryan also took reporters' questions this morning. here's that briefing. mr. ryan: good morning. take a look at this. this opioid crisis, this is a epidemic in the true sense of the word. i want to paint a picture of just the urgency we're facing in this country. this shows you that the national death rate, national death rate, 13.3 opioid overdoses for every 100,000 americans. as you can see there's been a huge spike. this goes from 1999 to 2016. we had a 28% spike in the opioid eath rate from 2015 to 2016. 20% increase in death rate of opioids in one year in this country. this is an alarming scale. this spike represents so many fa

the proposals wouldegin significant efforts to improve the readiness of navy and marine corps aircraft, ships, and other systems. i am pleased that it authorizes are discussion so that we can replace the ohio class submarines. while i support many of the provisions of the bill regarding the navy and marine corps, the bill makes sizable -- thatill be the backbone of theus aault l for the years to come. this is shortsighted and i plan to continue to work with my colleagues on this issue throughout the process. for the air for the air force this bill authorizes the a-10 wing replacement program to ensure the readiness of our a-10 fleet. additionally, the bill authorizes $350 million for the air force t procure light-attackaftcr and $2.3 billion for 14-kc 46 tankers. it provides multi-year procurement authority for the c130-j program. the bill alsoasros to begin to address therong challenge of operating and supporting the f-35 fleet for all services. i believe this challen willwi ue have to take additional actions in the future where we have begun this process. j-stars is the commanding co

the army corps installed a culvert to drain water toward t welcoming environment for migrating birds.his is my neighbors are so concerned. look at all the houses that backup that open field. the back of the houses have grills on them. maybe people sit out and have a cigarette, anything over those walls could that this on fire in an instant. >> i don't want to see the birds displaced. hole believe they are coming up with a solution to mitigate the fire danger and find a place for the birds. >> reporter: the army corps is working on a solution. it's going to see if there's a different kind of grass it can plant that doesn't dry out in the summer, good for the homes and good for the birds. >> i am glad to hear that they are working on it and not just saying, that's the way it goes. >> reporter: the army corps is going to notify neighbors about this this week. >>> it looks like fire writers finally caught a break battling that pawnee fire northeast of clearlake oaks which has scorched nearly 14,000 acres. >> emily turner says they are using a new weapon. >> reporter: they are luckily stay

again this is the 31st commandant of the marine corps who is now retired. mr. speaker, it makes no sense that our men and women in uniform have been there for 17 years. the afghan government would never change. history has proven that afghanistan is a graveyard of empires and yet we in congress who take an oath of office and that oath says that we're responsible for voting to go to war, and we can't even get a debate. mr. ryan, i know you have a lot to do, but for goodness sakes, you leave in january, let us have a debate on the future of afghanistan. let members vote yea or nay. the at lease give us a debate. it's very disappointing, mr. speaker, that you will not allow to us meet our constitution -- constitutional responsibility. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. himes, for five minutes. mr. himes: thank you, mr. speaker. and i stand to address this chameer with at the -- chamber at the start of this legislative week in a sli

of engineers and i remember the army corps of engineers member pointing to a drainage ditch as a part of a subdivision and he said, scott, that drainage ditch is a water of the united states. and i looked back at him and i said, well, it's not going to be anymore. and i will tell you that that kind of decision in the past administration put washington first and american citizens second. it didn't put the people of this country first in that regard. this president has made a commitment, in fact, on february 28 of last year, he signed an executive order directing me to fix that, and we are fixing that right now. this year there's going to be a new definition. [applause] there's going to be a new definition of what a water of the united states and guess what it's not going to be? a drainage ditch that makes up a subdivision. we also saw that with the clean power plan where the previous administration used regulatory power to try to do what? shut down power generation in this country with respect to fossil fuels and to cause a generation shift as to how we generate elect. guess who steppe

army corps of engineers they perform absolute critical functions, mr. president, no doubts about it over the cof the last century their role has continued to creep and creep and creep. and we can do better. the proposal you will see makes important changes to the army corps of engineers. the stuff that is really defense and there is still things that army corps does, they stay there. and they should. the things the army corps that actually does to help defend the nation stay where they belong is at the department of defense. dealing with the environment. a lot of what they do deals with the environment. they deal with environmental mitigation and so forth that goes over to the department of the interior. because you all are really good at it similarly ports. deep water ports, our lock system. that's not -- it used to be a military thing a hundred years ago. now it's elaine chao at the department of transportation. it's a transportation item. we think it's much more efficient layout and ties in what you talked about streamline our permitting process and

hey moved to a much bigger city that was the i corps headquarters. that's where the marine assistance was located. that was a better place to have the consulate. it was a more important city by that time. it was re-established as a consulate general in late 1966. >> what did you learn from the experience that you took forward into the future? of the vietnam war? tuy-cam: i thought very seriously that we might be in trouble. the escalation of the war and the lack of military assistance from the u.s., we didn't have a lot of hope by then. james: it was a time when you can sethe impact of the political instability on the south vietnamese government's ability to prosecute the war. e were winning all the battles in the countryside. ut but we were losing the war. the insurgency was gaining in trength. by 1964, the north had started sending regular units of the north vietnamese army, particularly in the i corps area and things were clearly going downhill during that time. they continued to up until the tet offensive in 1968. after the consulate was burned d

charge of theake newly established tank corps training center. to read real fighting, he said, had been denied. he expressed this frustration writing -- i seem embedded in the monotony and unsought safety of the zone of the interior. other members of the class were already deployed. whoooked to me as if anyone was denied the opportunity to fight might as well get out of the army after the war. as a footnote, the combat record of the 300 worst is interest -- 301st is interesting and reflexive happened to most american units on the western front. three1st battalion fought separate offenses between september and november 1918. it began with 40 tanks and emerged from the last battle with 12 tanks and suffered 50% casualties. promoted to major, eisenhower was the only regular army officer at camp called and had -- camp colt and had total responsibility for preparing for the onward movement of tank troops to the european theater. 10,000lt soon had over soldiers and 600 officers. as a commander, eisenhower had to innovate continually. not only did his t

gore's current corporate configuration the agreement expires in two thousand and twenty and miller corps has said that they may not renew it perhaps alleges a breach of contract and anti-competitive practices in twenty six in a twenty sixty lawsuit now set to finally begin on nov twelfth after miller corps repeated motions to dismiss were rejected the stakes are very high for paps which reported reportedly only had a five point five million gallons of independent production capacity in twenty fifteen a loss in court would leave them with a much less with much less product to sell and a difficult path to markets beer drinkers on a budget may want to stock up. and it is an unfortunate circumstances a circumstance especially for me who served in government for thirty years when government officials or politicians behave badly but it doesn't change the fact that when we learn about backroom deals and people lying under oath it gets under the skin of a lot of us and it should artie's alex mann joins us to talk about the latest couple of culprits who just happen to be members of president trum

talk remains quite positive in new york city it sort of still lacks the detail for an eager press corps and a very expectant global audience. absolutely very little detail at all but the fact that the talks are happening there is this in gage meant that this very high level i think that will be taken as an encouraging sign especially here in south korea where this policy of engagement first began all those long months ago you do get the sense pompei oh they're saying they're trying to overcome decades of mistrust but you get the sense that these two pompei zero and kim if they are going to have a breakthrough it will be with their dialogue their discussions these are men who very much stand in their bosses shoes they seem to have the full confidence of their leaders and can lay out their country's positions and they go see a those positions we can only guess at what the possible stumbling blocks are but we can assume that there will be problems over the definition of denuclearization the pace of the process of denuclearization and then of course as far as the north koreans are concerned

he had to competent, white division commanders in his corps, robert potter and orlando wilcox. these fellows were not george patton or robert e lee, they -type of guys but they were qualified. instead of selecting one of leaders to lead the attack, he asked all three of his white divisions who wanted to lead the assault and none of them volunteered. burnside said, i'm not going to order you to do it, we are going to draw straws and decide who is going to lead the attack. and of course as fate would have went toshort straw james h leslie, commander of the first division of the ninth court. ledy was a 32-year-old -- ley was a 32-year-old civil engineer from new york. his own ambition and connections with secretary of ledly william seward, was a brigade commander during the overland campaign. as one effort was on may 23 at whenattle of north anna, under the influence of alcohol and against orders, he led a disaster to attack against confederate lines, slaughtering many of his massachusetts troops in the process. his staff cover this up and because of attrition in the the casualtie