mr. blumenauer: thank you. and i appreate your putting in ntnot just the potentl reat to your state of virginia b to all of us here who wo and celebrate our capital region and e chesapeake b having those precious resoces at risk. i appreciate ur exploring a imsion thai st admit i really hadt thought rough equatey. the threat of unrulat, insc, offshoroiling drill -- o drilling could pose to military readines and your int about what could happenn tes of naval opations and trainin one that i don'k has been giveice in this debate. i've been spending a lot of time working oit this is new information to me and ieeply appcie your putting it out before the erican pubc this evening. i think th we are wrestling wh has many dimensis at require us to step back anexpand the scope ofnquiry. e need r our fixing a broken regulatory system. we've refenced the ft at the ainistration, despite the previous administration talking abouthe addiction to foreign oil,id nothingbout it and in fact evenfter we reined control, woed against

mr. blumenauer: i thank the gentleman. i rise in reluctant opposition. but reluctant, i want to acknowledge the hard work of my friend and colleague, chairman berman, in piloting this legislation through difficult times. he made some important improvements and i appreciate his willingness to delay final action while the administration negotiated ar-reaching multinational sanctions against the iranian regime. i'm also reluctant because i understand what animates this legislation. we are all appalled at the repressive behavior of the regime towards itt own people, the destabilizing effort it has in the international arena and we all recoil at the prospect of nuclear weapons falling in the hands of this regime. the problem is, the legislation is not likely to accomplish these ends and poses problems for this, indeed, any administration to be able to conduct the foreign policy of the united states. i would also oppose restrictions of this nature on the clinton administration or the bush administration. the irony is that congress seeks to impose its will as e

mr. blumenauer: thank you. i'm intrigued with my colleague from ohio's approach, because when the other team was in charge we had a series of programs that undercut the ability to have government equipped, moving forward. the scandals in the m.m.s., the appointment of people literally from the industry to sort of look at their former colleagues, people who were literally in bed with the people that they were supposed to regulate. a series of efforts, the lany that we have heard from our colleagues when they were in charge was to cut back on regulation, to move it faster, to do more drill, baby, drill. with all due respect, i think looking at the history of 10 years of moving in the other direction to somehow fault the administration who inherited a unparalleled economic collapse, problems with e.p.a., with m.m.s., around the whole array of areas that are a consequence of policies that were put in place by our friends on the other side of the aisle. i feel it somewhat ironic that we're celebrating oceans day on

mr. blumenauer: i thank the gentleman. i rise in reluctant opposition. but reluctant, i want to acknowledge the hard work of my friend and colleague, chairman berman, in piloting this legislation through difficult times. he made some important improvements and i appreciate his willingness to delay final action while the administration negotiated ar-reaching multinational sanctions against the iranian regime. i'm also reluctant because i understand what animates this legislation. we are all appalled at the repressive behavior of the regime towards itt own people, the destabilizing effort it has in the international arena and we all recoil at the prospect of nuclear weapons falling in the hands of this regime. the problem is, the legislation is not likely to accomplish these ends and poses problems for this, indeed, any administration to be able to conduct the foreign policy of the united states. i would also oppose restrictions of this nature on the clinton administration or the bush administration. the irony is that congress seeks to impose its will as e

mr. blumenauer: something that everybody ought to be able to agree on. that's why i have been appalled at the repeated attacks on cycling on the republican leadership. the latest is for the second time republican whip cantor has offered on the chopping block safe routes to school. this is a program in 68 schools across the country that has been requested by three times that number. people know that children under 14, 1/3 of all their deaths occur when a car hits them when they are biking or walking. in my old grade school on a very busy street, these grants have reduced crashes by 25% and pedestrian injuries by 34%. this is a commonsense program supported by people regardless of their party. when children can bike or walk safely to school, we won't be worried about 300-pound morbidly obese sixth graders an second rain shower as people take their kids to school. -- rush hour as people take their kids to school. and all our families will be safer, health your, and more economically secure. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of h

mr. levin: two mites tor. blumenauer of oregon. thspeaker pro tempore: the geman is recognifor two minutes. mrblenauer: thank you. is leglation is persal for me. we've watched o cntry come back from the brink in the fall of 28 in my state of oregon, lped byecery act fus of aut $6 billion. weave en ae to sbilize and make some progress. is it enough? absolutely not. but we areaking -- iave had a steady paradof pple coming to my office thanking me for the investment that wama i terms of infstctur in terms of health care, in terms of making sure that we didn't have layoffs of public emoyees. nowe have a provisiohe that an oppo to focus small biness. it is a package, as the cirman ieces here. wo p itironic that our friends artelling us it'not enough. these are sll pieces, yet they were ng on e other hand, the legislatn we had that c.b.o. has scored over one milln jobs s or created was too big. well, we ought to be chipping way as wn on th, having $30 llion for a sll business nding fund, being able to provide a cole billion dollars of ta