mr. cardenas. mr. cardenas: thank you, congressman cartwright. i think it's very important for us to understand once again that tonight we're covering many aspects of why comprehensive immigration reform is good for this country and it's really important for us to understand and what i urge every viewer to do is to ask your local chamber of commerce how they feel about whether or not comprehensive immigration reform is overdue and whether or not we should pass such a bill. also ask your local law enforcement agencies, for example, 37 out of the 50 states attorneys generals in this country have all signed a letter saying congress, please pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill and please ask anybody from whatever religion you may be closest to or be part of and ask that pastor, ask that individual that you look to for that spiritual guidance to answer the question as to whether or not comprehensive immigration reform is something they believe should happen in this country. i think the answers will overwhelmingly be yes, yes, yes. next i'd lik

mr. cardenas. before i begin to ask questions and for the rest of the panel because as questions, i would like to mention that in the spirit of this hearing last week, i as was sometimes of my team and staff from homeland security participated in last friday's weekly essay many, our social media emergency management chat on twitter. and solicited questions from those participants on a weekly basis, folks bertus smit investment the an end of persial the wonderful insights. i'm not sure if this is been done in congress before to solicit these types of questions but since this is the people's house i'm happy to be submitting some of these questions that came from this chat last friday. i should also note that during that chat i was asked to express their appreciation for the work that your companies and your association are doing to support emergency manager to they truly appreciate it and he wanted to make sure that we think the private sector for all of the work they're doing to support their work.

mr. cardenas. once again mr. payne is ahead of us. we in new york are trying to catch up, but anyway.thank you for bringing the witness today. let me ask mr. stepka, but i guess expanding on your testimony with the chairwoman, and you describe the partnership that you establish with first responders and government agencies as google grows -- rolls out its crisis efforts? again, if you emphasize what you do with sin and how that would apply to the future of? >> sure. i think it's a key partner we work with, i think they shelter information. with the city of new york were very engaged as well. we created a separate map in your. with special day that was a fable to them for evacuation route and things like that, affected areas. of course, we work with noaa for weather information to the also working with the cap standard for alerts. it's very helpful for light wind storms are coming and to get that information to users but with sandy those partnerships, we were able to respond more effectively. .. the new yorker has concerned me is the way that the mobile phone scenario signal degrades r

mr. cardenas: how much time do i have, mr. chairman. the chair: the gentleman has one minute. mr. cardenas: my amendment while ruled in order does not go as far as we should, mr. mirl's substitute provides more opportunity, his bill would replace h.r. 5, therefore i ask my colleagues to support mr. miller's substitute language, vote against the current language and at this time i withdraw my amendment. the chair: the gentleman is withdrawn. mr. cardenas: i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. it is now in order to consider amendment number four printed in house report 113-158. for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri seek recognition? mr. luetkemeyer: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate. the clerk: amendment number four printed in house report 113-158 offered by mr. luetkemeyer of missouri. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 303, the gentleman from missouri, mr. luetkemeyer and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri. mr. luetkemeyer: thank you, mr. ch

mr. cardenas: thank you very much, congressman garcia. next, i yield time to congressman vargas from alifornia. mr. vargas: i want to thank the gentleman from california for yielding to allow me to speak on this very important issue. i especially want to thank the gentleman from pennsylvania for putting it in the context of our faith and our faith communities and our faith tradition. he quoted from matthew 25, he lavidicu quoted from 1933 and 34. when an yalen resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. the foreigner among you must be treated as your native born. love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in egypt. i'm the lord your god. i have to ask, are we keeping that commandment, that rule, are we keeping that pronouncement? of course we are not. i wish we were. immigration reform is vital to our country and particularly to california and my district. california is unique in that it is home to the technology industry, which relies heavily and highly on skilled talent. and has an incredibly successful agriculture industry

mr. cardenas. before i begin to ask questions and before the rest of the penalty against us questions, i would like to mention that in the spirit of this hearing last week i as well as the members of my team and staff from homeland security participated in last friday's weekly smem, social media emergency management chat, on twitter. and solicited questions from those participants on a weekly basis, folks participate in this manner. and i appreciate all the wonderful insights. i'm not sure if this has been done in congress before to solicit these types of questions but since this is the people's house i'm happy to be submitting some of these questions that came from this chat last friday. i should also note that during that chat i was asked to express their appreciation for the work that your companies and your association are doing to support emergency managers. they truly appreciate it and they wanted to make sure that we think the private sector for all of the work they're doing to support their

mr. cardenas: thank you, mr. chair. i rise today in support of congressman pocan's amendment, increasing the navy research testing development and evaluation account by $10 million. this would support research improving the safety of advanced batteries, specifically lithium ion batteries. this amendment does not add new funding to the bill. mr. chairman, lithium ion is the present and future of our energy storage technology. this technology is critical to u.s. military personnel for communications, navigation and vehicles in land, sea, air and space. it is also important to many other sectors of the economy, including the utility companies, transportation, aviation, aerospace and medical devices. as we have seen with recent airliner incidents, we can do more to address the safety of these batteries. without improving that safety, we cannot fully realize the potential of lithium ion technology without realizing that potential, we cannot improve our production capability here in the united states of america. the global ma

mr. cardenas just shared with us, the possibilities of what your companies and the innovators and engineers and inventors in your companies are creating, we ask that you continue to share those with government, with the public sector, with the volunteers. it's amazing to me that 14,000 volunteers come together quickly, but that we already had a team of veterans in place to help mobilize and that were trained, and so it's a wonderful marriage of the government and the military and our veterans and that point, mirroring up with volunteers to aid in recovery and save a lot of lives and save homes and save property, most importantly, save lives, and that's what i think your testimony here today has also shown. i think we absolutely have some challenges that everyone needs to be mindful of, and some of those challenges -- sadly, the few bad actors that come up, the privacy issues weed in to be mindful of, but i do think -- and the connectivity. without power, number of this works, and we do need to continue to explore and continue to advance and partner between the public and the private sectors