mr. cole: mr. chairman, i want to offer somewhat different perspective than my friend from massachusetts does on the trend line of defense spending. looking at the long term, defense spending is over time come down pretty dramatically as a percent of our gross domestic product. 1960, the height of the cold war, we spent about 9% of the g.d.p. on defense. 1980 in the great reagan defense buildup it was about 6%. it fell as low as about 3.5% on the evil of 9/11. it's barely 5% or in that range today. so this by historical standards, particularly since 1940, we do not spend a large portion of the national wealth on defense. by the way, the same thing is true of the federal budget. in 1960, about 50% of the federal budget was defense spending. it was about 33% in 1980. it's about 18% or 19% today. certainly a lot of money and that's not certainly the way to judge military spending. in terms of the size of the federal budget or the wealth of the country, defense has been comparatively speaking a bargain

mr. cole. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: every now and then you need to step back and look at the record and put the rhetoric aside. when this jority showed up in january of this last year, we found a situation where our fends on the other side of the aisle had failed to write a budget for this year, failed to pass any appropriations bills, and had just sort of gone home. we had a president who had appointed a debt reduction commission and yet failed to embrace any of their actions at all. not one. then we heard the president come and address us in this chamber, state of the union message, didn't bostonner to mention the looming debt crisis for 35 minutes. 35 minutes. then the first serious proposal we got from that president, our president, was for a $400 billion reduction over 10 years that was so laughable, when it was brought up in the united states senate, which his bod -- which is controlled by his party, it failed 97-0. the the president wanted to have a free vote on

mr. cole: i thank you, mr. chairman. i would just remind my friend from california that when republicans brought disclosure they didn't link it to the contracting process which this potential executive order does. i think that's out of bounds. i'd also remind my friend, the democrats opposed that. when democrats were in the majority, in the overwhelming majority, they failed to enact legislation similar to what you suggest in the disclose act. i think this is something that this legislative body has looked at. my friend from california wants to introduce a bill to do it. that's appropriate. but doing it in the contracting process is simply wrong. people submitting bids will somehow think inevitably that they will be helped or hurt by their political activity. that has no basis in judging the ability of a federal contract. frankly, my friends never wanted to apply that same standard to labor unions or to affiliated groups applying for federal dollars. i'd actually agree with them on that. i don't think it has any place in

amendments on which further proceedings were postponed in the following order -- amendment number 26 by mr. cole of oklahoma. an amendment by mr. cohen of tennessee. an amendment by mr. gosar of arizona. an amendment by ms. kaptur of ohio. first amendment by mr. flake of arizona. an amendment by mrs. capps of california. second amendment by mr. flake of arizona. an amendment by mr. scalise of louisiana. amendment number 81 by mr. broun of georgia. amendment 63 by mr. broun of georgia. amendment 76 by mr. landry of louisiana. first amendment by mrs. blackburn of tennessee. second amendment by mrs. blackburn of tennessee. amendment 53 by mr. hare is of maryland. an amendment by -- mr. hare is of maryland. an amendment by mr. rohrabacher of california. an amendment by mrs. adams. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment 26 printed in the congressional record by the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 26 printed

mr. cole: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, this amendment is quite simple. it prohibits the funding of military -- prohibits any funds in this bill from being used to conduct military operations in libya. a place where i believe we are engaged in an illegal and certainly unauthorized conflict. mr. chairman, i feel a little bit today like a lawyer with two very unpopular clients. one of them is libya and the other one is the united states congress. but in this case each one of them has an important point to make. with respect to libya, let me make it clear, i don't believe anybody in this chamber supports mr. gaddafi, supports that regime or wishes it well in any way. but libya did not attack the united states of america. libya did not attack any member of nato. libya has not allowed al qaeda to operate with impunity out of its territory. a number of years ago, libya turned over nuclear material to the united states. quite simply, however much we detest mr. gaddafi and his regime, we have no reason to be at war or conducting military operations in libya. and

british blogger how do you call mr cole a very good evening to you thanks for being on the line let's you just heard there from our correspondent laura on the speculation circling on twitter about the similarities between the deaths of sean hoare and david kelly about you've got some to say about that too strongly suspect well i think the police have come out. they are they are treating this not treating it as a special. and they don't believe that any third party was involved mr hall was was known. to be deeply troubled as one person it's me drink and drug addiction it was actually the reason he was there he was fired from the news that a few years ago because of his because of his it fiction so i do think this is a sad twist more than anything anything more suspicious of the story. of the past of many a british politician on their toes afraid of any potentially unflattering facts being published about the monday how likely is it what we're seeing today is a result of the political plot maybe back against murdoch. well i think. this story's been public over for a few years kind of un

amendment number 13 by mr. cole of oklahoma. amendment by mr. amash of michigan. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for the second through 11th vote. the final two votes will be five minute votes. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 1 offered by the gentlewoman from california, ms. lee, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment 1, offered by ms. lee of california. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having risen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. ho

mr. cole. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: every now and then you need to step back and look at the record and put the rhetoric aside. when this majority showed up in january of this last year, we found a situation where our fends on the other side of the aisle had failed to write a budget for this year, failed to pass any appropriations bills, and had just sort of gone home. we had a president who had appointed a debt reduction commission and yet failed to embrace any of their actions at all. not one. then we heard the president come and address us in this chamber, state of the union message, didn't bostonner to mention the looming debt crisis for 35 minutes. 35 minutes. then the first serious proposal we got from that president, our president, was for a $400 billion reduction over 10 years that was so laughable, when it was brought up in the united states senate, which his bod -- which is controlled by his party, it failed 97-0. the the president wanted to have a free vote o

mr. cole. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: every now and then you need to step back and look at the record and put the rhetoric aside. when this majority showed up in january of this last year, we found a situation where our fends on the other side of the aisle had failed to write a budget for this year, failed to pass any appropriations bills, and had just sort of gone home. we had a president who had appointed a debt reduction commission and yet failed to embrace any of their actions at all. not one. then we heard the president come and address us in this chamber, state of the union message, didn't bostonner to mention the looming debt crisis for 35 minutes. 35 minutes. then the first serious proposal we got from that president, our president, was for a $400 billion reduction over 10 years that was so laughable, when it was brought up in the united states senate, which his bod -- which is controlled by his party, it failed 97-0. the the president wanted to have a free vote o

mr. cole. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: every now and then you need to step back and look at the record and put the rhetoric aside. when this majority showed up in january of this last year, we found a situation where our fends on the other side of the aisle had failed to write a budget for this year, failed to pass any appropriations bills, and had just sort of gone home. we had a president who had appointed a debt reduction commission and yet failed to embrace any of their actions at all. not one. then we heard the president come and address us in this chamber, state of the union message, didn't bostonner to mention the looming debt crisis for 35 minutes. 35 minutes. then the first serious proposal we got from that president, our president, was for a $400 billion reduction over 10 years that was so laughable, when it was brought up in the united states senate, which his bod -- which is controlled by his party, it failed 97-0. the the president wanted to have a free vote o

moran, mr. cole and other subcommittee members for the funding levels for programs serving american indians. it is gratifying that the subcommittee's bipartisan commitment for tribal programs forged over the last few years has been continued by the new majority. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from virginia reserves. the gentleman from idaho is recognized. mr. simpson: mr. speaker, i yield to the gentleman from washington such time as he may consume for the purpose of a colloquy. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. chairman. i thank the chairman for yielding. mr. chairman, as you know, two months ago the secretary of the interior announced that the u.s. fish and wildlife service would remove gray wolves in the rocky mountain states and the eastern one-third of the state of washington, the eastern quarter rft state of oregon and a small piece of utah. i understand that h.r. 2584 also would exempt from judicial review any final rule issued by

we're going to have astronaut rick mr. cole a little bit later on flying weather reconnaissance, a little before 9:00 you scheduled to take off in a to t. 38 jet to fly afford our to do some of the initial weather reconnaissance, based on what we've seen from radar and satellite he has already been given some direction on where they would like him to go out and reconnoiter. and then a little after 10 a.m. he will take off in the shuttle training aircraft to further assess the current weather, as well as the weather's direct effect on the handling characteristics of the orbiter, anything of return to launch site. he will be shooting approaches to the runway and shuttle landing facility, and judging the visibility and the when conditions and its effect that it would have on the shuttle. you will be passing his observations to john casper, the weather court near here in my room for. and the mission control in houston. the forecasters at the spaceflight meteorology group in houston, part of the national weather service are going to

mr. cole: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i rise to support the resume and the underlying legislation -- the rule and the underlying legislation. mr. speaker, this is the second time in this congress has chosen, this house has chosen to raise the debt ceiling in a responsible and historic way. that is not only allowing the ceiling to go up but coupling it with real reductions in long-term spending that we all know need to occur. now, so far the president and the other body have both failed to act. the senate, just for the record, hasn't even passed a budget in two years. hasn't moved a piece of legislation in this crisis. frankly has doling done nothing. the president is now a born again deficit hawk. it's a false conversion. let's just look at the record. the appointed deficit reduction commission and then refused to adopt any of its recommendations. he sent this body and the other body a budget that was so flawed it failed 97-0 in a democratic senate. he asked for a clean vote on the

mr. speaker, the prime minister has just made a very important admission. he has admitted that his chief of staff was given information before the general election that andy cole son had hired a man had hired a man jailed for seven years for a criminal conspiracy who made payments -- who made payments to the police on behalf of the "news of the world." this evidence casts serious doubt on mr. could you son's assurances that the phone hacking over which he resigned was an isolated example of illegal activity. do you know what, mr. speaker? do you know what, mr. speaker? i think the public and the victims of this appalling scandal want us to rise above this and deal with the problems that this country faces. >> mr. milliband. >> mr. speaker, he just doesn't get it. he just doesn't get it. >> i'm afraid, mr. speaker, the person who is not getting it is now the leader of the opposition. >> the unfolding firestorm was brought to life by hollywood actor hugh grant, a brit himself who secretly taped a former news of the world reporter talking about the unsavory practices that he says everyone in his organization condone and encourage. here's grant taking a very uneas