mr. coffman votes aye. -- mr. coffman votes aye. mr. o'rourke votes no. norcross votes aye. scott votes aye. mr. gallego votes no. mr. cook votes aye. dr. winstrol votes aye. ms. rosen votes no. mr. burns votes aye. graves? mr. graves? mr. brown votes no. ms. mcsally votes aye. murphey votes no. mr. russell votes aye. mr. o'halloran votes no. dr. abraham votes aye. mr. walls votes no. mr. kelly votes aye. mr. gallagher votes aye. mr. gates votes aye. mr. bacon votes aye. mr. banks votes aye. ms. cheney votes aye. mr. graves votes aye. >> clerk will report the tally. votes, 26 no votes. >> chair recognizes mr. wilson for the purpose of offering a motion. >> i moved them market chairman's mark is amended. ayes being habit. -- have it. the motion is adopted. three things. one, you have been terrific. they are very few cases are some in taking the whole five minutes and generally we stay on topic. thank you. the laptops of worked great but he cannot take them. leave them there. number three, i want to thank members of the fourth estate who have stayed with us the whole time. [ap

mr. coffman. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. coffman: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i rise today in strong support of h.r. 2810, the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2018. the bill contains significant policy and funding initiatives that is continue our commitment to maintain military personnel and family readiness and address issues important to our troops. the provisions contained in this bill provide our war fighters, retirees and their families the necessary pay and benefits to sustain them in today's highly stressed force. to support these efforts, this bill establishes a fully funded by law pay raise for all of our service members, overriding the president's ability to reduce the pay raise. after years of lower than bylaw pay race requests, it's critical we continue to give our troops and their family the pay increases they deserve. increases -- the end strengths of our active duty, national guard and reserve forces increases mission readiness while reducing the stress and strain on the force and their families. further focuses last

mr. coffman: i yield to my colleague, the gentlelady from california, ms. speier. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. speier: i am truly impressed with my colleague, mr. rooney, on any number of issues. this is not one of them. this is absurd. absolutely absurd. we have military academies to train the next leaders of this country. we are not running a training camp for the national football league. if you want to serve as a leader of the military, then you go to one of the military academies. if you decide you want to have a pro football career, then pay back the money, the $500,000 that the taxpayers of this country have paid for each and every one of these students. now, mr. rooney said yesterday in rules committee, he listed three names of examples of academy graduates continuing in professional sports after graduation. all of the names he mentioned, roger staubach, david robertson and alejandro villanueva served on active duty for at least two years. the model for how this should work is villanueva who served his five-year commitment, deployed three tim

mr. coffman, your recognized for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i saw to say first as a gulf war veteran how disappointed certainly i was in aftermath of the war and to this day that the department of defense i think participate in a cover-up, and that cover-up was the exposure to chemical weapons. and that i can remember the marine corps is limited advance in the first gulf war was kind of the northern end of kuwait on the iraqi border. and i can remember in aftermath of the fighting, and your tremendous visibility in the open desert, seeing this white cloud close to the ground not moving. i didn't think it was a question at that time, well, i knew later on, years later on what it was. and it was that combat engineers of the united states army were blowing chemical weapons in place because they did want to go through the hassle of all the decontamination stuff. so we were fortunate, the marines i were with were fortunate we were not downwind of the come that the wind patterns were moving in the other direction for none of the i served with came d

mr. coffman. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. coffman: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i rise today in strong support of h.r. 2810, the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2018. the bill contains significant policy and funding initiatives that is continue our commitment to maintain military personnel and family readiness and address issues important to our troops. the provisions contained in this bill provide our war fighters, retirees and their families the necessary pay and benefits to sustain them in today's highly stressed force. to support these efforts, this bill establishes a fully funded by law pay raise for all of our service members, overriding the president's ability to reduce the pay raise. after years of lower than bylaw pay race requests, it's critical we continue to give our troops and their family the pay increases they deserve. increases -- the end strengths of our active duty, national guard and reserve forces increasesis

mr. coffman for including portions of my bill the list of relocation burden. and before i conclude, i would like to thank the chairman as well as my ranking member jim lanching vin for his bipartisan energy and cooperation on all of these issues. i urge my colleagues to vote yes. with that, i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. smith: how much time is on each side? the chair: 9 1/2 minutes. mr. smith: we are going to reserve. the chair: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. thornberry: i yield one minute, a valued general from nebraska, mr. bacon. mr. bacon: i rise in support of this bill. i served in the military under the past five presidents and witnessed the erosion of our combat edge. we out trained our competitors th a two to-one flying advantage. and it is unconscionable to send them into combat. but that's where we are at today. i was charged with preparing our forces to prevail over any adverse area. and given the damage by 22% reduction of defense funding while we are at war. this will right the ship. providi

mr. coffman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a very important topic. presented vba with a set of recommendations on this issue. you have said and agree to all of those recommendations. in a general way, can you give me an idea of when you might complete all of these recommendations? and have them operating in a way that is more effective? >> yes, thank you for the question. we did accept and concur with the three recommendations. we appreciate gao's looking at this. there always is to mental and helping us do a better job. we appreciate that. the recommendation to ensure the medical examiner's take this 90 minute training has been accepted by and be made mandatory. >> do you think matt -- do you think 90 minutes is enough? let -- i will let dr. joyce answer that. dr. joyce: the course is a mere fraction of a training required to do a gulf war examination. these positions tested these decisions are -- these physicians are experienced before they do well for examiners desk before they do gulf war examiners. this will be completed by november. it is suppl

mr. coffman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a very important topic. presented vba with a set of recommendations on this issue. you have said and agree to all of those recommendations. in a general way, can you give me an idea of when you might complete all of these recommendations? and have them operating in a way that is more effective? >> yes, thank you for the question. we did accept and concur with the three recommendations. we appreciate gao's looking at this. there always is to mental and helping us do a better job. we appreciate that. the recommendation to ensure the medical examiner's take this 90 minute training has been accepted by and be made mandatory. >> do you think matt -- do you think 90 minutes is enough? let -- i will let dr. joyce answer that. dr. joyce: the course is a mere fraction of a training required to do a gulf war examination. these positions tested these decisions are -- these physicians are experienced before they do well for examiners desk before they do gulf war examiners. this will be completed by november. it is suppl

mr. coffman, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman.ant to say first as a gulf war veteran how disappoint certainly i was in the aftermath of the war and to this day that the department of defense, i think, participated in a coverup. that coverup was that -- the exposure to chemical weapons, and that i can remember the marine corps's limited advance in the first gulf war was kind of the northern end of kuwait on the iraqi border. i can remember in the aftermath of the fighting and you have tremendous visibility in the open desert, and seeing this -- this white cloud close to the ground, not moving, and reported that in. and didn't think there was a question at that time -- well, we knew, i knew years later on what it was, and it was that combat engineers of the united states army were blowing chemical weapons in place because they didn't want to go to the hassle of all because th to go through the hassle of all the decontamination stuff. so the marines i was with were fortunate we were not down wind from it. so the marines i served with

mr. coffman: thank you. the house will vote on h.r. 3218, the harry w. colmery veterans educational assistance ct, the largest expansion of educational benefits for our veterans in over a decade. this legislation provides a lifetime benefit of the g.i. bill, an additional nine months of g.i. eligibility for veterans pursuing a stem degree, protection of g.i. bill benefits for veterans impacted by a school's closure and makes it easier for veterans to use licensure bill for tests. mr. speaker, h.r. 3218 also includes provision fathers my bill, the g.i. bill processing improvement act, h.r. 2549, which ensures veterans studying under the g.i. bill for their military service receive their benefits in a timely manner. as a united states army veteran who attended the university of colorado under the g.i. bill and my late father, a retired united states army master sergeant who learned heating and air conditioning repair under the g.i. bill, i rise today in strong support of this legislation. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro t

mr. coffman, for five minutes. mr. coffman: mr. speaker, it is my honor to today to recognize the long career and accomplishments of a dear friend of mine. professor venanda, who will be celebrating his 50th year teaching international law at the university of denver. as a professor at the college of law, he has been a pioneer in the international law community since his arrival at the university of denver in 1965. the professor created the school's we nouned international legal studies program and -- renowned international legal studies the am and established international law and pol in 1972 -- policy in 1972. his work has inspired countless students to become part of the conversation on human rights and international issues. in the addition to his achievements as an educator, professor nanda has contributed significantly to the international law community. he has served as the united states delegate to the world federation of united nations associations where he worked to promote world peace, human rights, and the spread of demo