mr. carter, and i would just like to follow on mr. carter's remarks about the modesty of the veteran who upon returning to the normandy beaches wondered if he was worthy after only spending nine hours there on d-day whether it was -- he deserved to come back there again. i have spoken to army veterans who were wounded and needed help but say i don't want to go to the v.a. and ask for help because maybe there's something wounded worse than i was and they need the help more, they need the money more than i need it. and that modesty and sense of self-sufficiency is admirable but something we on the veterans service committee tried to get past and tried to convince all americans that they've earned the assistance that this country should give them. i'm somebody who was turned away on induction day when i went for my physical at haliburt avenue in baltimore for various physical reasons, but as fate would have it, i'm now chairing the veterans' affairs subcommittee on disability assistance and memorial affairs. and we were in the middle of a

mr. carter and mr. olson. mr. carter: reclaiming my time, let me say right off, i'm very, very proud to be part of a congress that instantly eacts to a crisis situation. you and mr. oberstar should be commended for that reaction. that's what we're asking for the entire government to do. let's react positively. let's work as a team. let's quit blaming previous administrations. let's go to the -- do the job to clean this mess up. i thank you very much. my good friend from texas who lives in the heart of all -- of oil country, u.s.a., houston, texas is in my way of thinking, the center of the universe for the oil industry. my good friend, pete olson, is one of our members of our houston delegation, very knowledgeable in this area. he has some legislation and maybe other things he wishes to talk about so i yield to my friend, pete olson, the member from sugarland and all points south, talk to us about how he feels about what's going on today. mr. olson: thank you for hosting this special order tonight on such an import

mr. carter: if the gentleman would yield a moment. mr. gohmert: certainly. mr. carter: john mica from florida was with us earlier tonight. he gain of us an interesting revelation -- he gave us an interesting revelation. there is an american flag ship firm with cleanup capabilities that has informed our government they stand ready and willing if they are asked to go start helping clean up this act and the jones act has nothing to do with this. these are american flag ships and they are still waiting for a response from the white house. and, you know, waiving the jones act, all you have to do is say, come on, boys, get in there and start cleaning up. my lord. if they know how, if they got the equipment, why don't we have anybody on the face of this globe that's willing to do it out there in the gulf cleaning that water up? so, it really -- it is almost comical, with all the criticism of the bush administration over katrina and rita and some of the hurricanes, natural disasters that occurred, this manmade disaster has had this administration's hands hog tied for two

mr. carter, is ecognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. carter: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate being recognnzed this hour. i'm pleased to be joinee by several of my colleagues. and i want to raise an issue that is of real concern to the people of the state of texas, state of alabama, state of %% florida. those who for now for generationn been invested in and proud of that great american accomplishment of our space program. you know, we are an exceptional people and there is an awful lot of people that seem to be ashamed of our exceptionalism. but one of the things we have been exceptional in our inception is our space program. i can remember as a young teenager when the russians put sputnik over the roof of my house and we watched that thing, this little flashing light and thought, oh, my lord, the russians are in space and we aren't there. what are we going to do? being the exceptional people that americansr we put our nose to the grindstone and our brains to work and in a very short time, we met the pledge that president kennedy mad

mr. carter: thank you. mr. hall, we're awfully proud to have him and he has been working a long and hard for any, many years to make sure that eeery time we shoot a human being into outer space we've ad to bring him back. you know, it's easy to develop a space program whether you can say, well, if the guy we shoot out there, if we lose him, it's no big deal, and there's some who develop the space programs this way. but we never developed it that way. and some people with say we're a greet dinosaur, this nasa. this great dinosaur comes from the basic premise thht makes --% part of what makes americans great, that every human life is impootant. therrfore you test and retest and retest again and you take another path and you find a new direction until you are assured% of one thing, that that precious human life you put upon that exploding bomb called a rocket, you're capable of putting that human life out into space and bringing it back. bringing he human being back alive.%% and i would argue that we're the only s

mr. carter of texas for today, ms. kilpatrick of michigan for today and the balance of the week, ms. richardson of california for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the request ares granted. -- requests are granted. mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any specialereders heretofore entered into, the following persons may be permitted to address this house, revise and extends their remarks and include therein extraneous material. mr. burton for today, june 9, 10 and 11, myself, mr. poe, for today, june 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15, mr. jones for today, june 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15, mr. moran for today, july 9, 10, 14 and 15, mr. latta for june 9 and ms. ros-lehtinen for june 10. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into, the following members may be permitted to address the house for five minutes, to revise and extend their remarks and includ

carter, on your retirement. and thank you for everything you have given to marietta school system. mr. speaker, with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia yields back. mr. rohrabacher of california. mr. rohrabacher: ask to address theous -- the house and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tem: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. rohrabacher: recently, israeli military personnel intercepted ships headed towards gaza. world out cry has been deafening and also been misplaced. the israelis have been portrayed as committing violence in order to prevent food and humanitarian supplies from rching women and children in the crowded palestinian community of gaza. yes, that would certainly be an outrage if that was going on. but the actions taken by israel are aimed only at preventing rockets from being shot into israel, not denying food or medine to the palestinians. the image in the public's mind is totally distorted and what the world needs to do is take a closer look at what's being presented to them, even al gentleman zera, the arabi

tax and reaching back to the high rates of taxation we had in the carter administration. mr. rogers: this is unconscionable behavior, and if it doesn't make you mad, it ought to. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> request one minute. and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. >> it's time for america to end its addiction to oil. mr. garamendi: our national security is at stake. we spend $1 billion a day sending our money overseas to the oil companies. many of them owned by foreign nations. some of whom are not at all friendly to america. i hear a lot of whining from the republican side of the aisle about we can't do that. well, we cannot continue doing what we are doing today. we see the risks, $20 billion worth of economy destroyed along the gulf coast. big oil has had its day. $12 billion. you want to save some money on that side? let's retrieve the $1 billion subsidy we send to the oil industry every day. it's

mr. wilson: today i se to recognizreverend eddie lee carter on his retement from the hous where since 2004 he's been repairing d shining shoes. reverend eddie lee carter and i have a shared heritage. was born ineach island, south colina. mgrandfather was born in beach isla, in akin county, soth carina. at very you a, his family moved to augta, georgi wch wasearby he attended elementary sool with the wod famous musici james brn, another great south carolinia reverend carterirst began to rk on shoes as aoung man, even beforoid the ar in 1953. was stationed primarily in germany while servi in the army, a musician mself, he was renowned for singing and entertaing generals wn they passed througthe post. in 1955, he left the army wth the rank of corporal and later moved to washington fm augusta to work shoe repair. the chathe geman may procee mr. wilson:n 1992, he was ordained a methist nier. june 7, 04, he came to work athe u.s. capitol, reiring and shining shoes he lives in fort washington, maryland,ith his wife, molly anony carter. they've beenarri 28 yrs. he has a son and ms. carter has two