for those who don't know, a friendly texas billionaire-- - ed bass. - ed bass put up the money to create a new world. 3.15 acres, 3800 species of plants and insects, four men, four women, to be sealed inside for two years. this was the first closure of a projected 50 so this would go on for 100 years. the whole point is, nasa is still after this, by the way, is could we create another biosphere, other than the one we live in here, in the event that this one should collapse, which it sure looks like it's happening right now-- - honestly, it's about 50/50 isn't it? - exactly, or a mars colony, or whatever. - and the idea was that they would be observed as a laboratory experiment or a laboratory environment all along. - yeah, they were famous. they were aping the astronauts of nasa. now, nasa was congenial with them but this was a private enterprise, a tremendous chutzpah. i mean, build a new world? also, what the fun of it for me is they had hundreds of scientists helping to build this thing. i would think they would put in maybe just one biome. they did take a section from a florida everg

bass: let me thank chairman ed royce for his leadership of the foreign affairs committee and i want to thank my colleagues from minnesota, ms. mccollum and mr. emmer, for their hard work on this issue. world fairs and world expos explore bringing millions of people together from around the globe. they drive billions of dollars of investment to host cities and provide a forum for working toward new and creeavet -- creative solutions to problems. across more than a century, they've given us some of the world's most iconic architecture. the golden gate bridge, the space needle, the eiffel tower. they have brought together world leaders to discuss topics from nutrition to the future of energy. the last expo held in the united states was in 1984, and minnesota is a potential candidate to host the 2023 world expo. this expo could bring in about 12 million visitors and $4 billion of revenue to minnesota and connect the public and private sector to discuss wellness and well being for all. but mr. speaker, we are at a fwray disadvantage in competing for this event. in 2001, at the direction of