spencer was gracious in acknowledging jim leach. without michael oxley he would not have gotten to the ranking member. let me also acknowledge the willingness of the state legislature of new york to act against his state's economic interests. if they had redistricting in 2002 i wouldn't have gone to be the chairman. why a state where financial industry is the number one industry would knock out the guy who would be chairman of the committee are don't know and i am not questioning it. i am just the beneficiary. it didn't seem smart to me but what do i no? the other thing i would note, one president was chairman of the committee, james garfield. the second shortest tenure as president but he still was president. i don't think any committee has ever had before. spencer sits on a republican side with three declared presidential candidates. ron paul, michele bachman and thaddeus mccarter. they have primary in their caucus. the committee's work is challenging and important and we are grateful to the people who are here to help us figure i

jim, they are starting to board up. we did see some of yesterday on atlantic beach. leachks waited today to make sure the forecast is what it looks like it will be and we could be close to, if not in the eye of the storm. take you from here down to the beach here. jim, probably know this area and what is interesting this is actually a south-facing beach. so if irene comes straight up at us, we will get the eye wall and we could get the left side of the storm which would mean storm surge here. but it's going to be running up this, the coast this way. so it's actually going to be paralleling us. so right here you can see this building is already boarded up and they have got some sandbags down here as well. they didn't put any boards on the doors. double pane glass there. but they say they are ready here. folks i've talked to in the last few minutes have said you know what? this could be the worst hurricane this area of north carolina has experienced in decades. that is the fear right now. see right down there? the lifeguard stand? it was about 40, 30, 40 yards closer to the