mr. connolly too. thank you. >> thank you very much, madame secretary. i will be brief to allow mr. connolly to jump in, as well, before you leave. you've been generous with your time. i am one of a large number of folks here who are skeptical about our current timetable for a withdrawal from afghanistan. i'm surprised we haven't talked more about afghanistan today. and part of that skepticism comes from the fact that i'd like to see us spending a lot more time on the diplomatic and economic cooperation necessary to get afghanistan to a place where they can succeed on their own. and so i had a couple of questions related to that economic and diplomatic cooperation, but i'll ask one of them. and it's on the economic side. you know, there's various numbers that come out suggesting that 80 to 90 to perhaps even as high as 97% of the afghan economy is dependent right now on international aid. and i'd love to get an update from you as how you see the timetable playing out over the next five years to make sure we withdrawal our military contingent that we leave behind a stable economy ther

mr. connolly, if you could ask a question. >> oh, okay. welcome, madame secretary, i'll be joining my colleagues in expressing my great admiration of your service to the country. i've known a lot of secretaries of state over the last 30 years, so i thank you for your service. i wonder if you could comment a little bit -- and i thank my colleague from connecticut for his courtesy. on our diplomatic efforts to sort of try to change minds in russia and china with respect to the syrian situation. i mean, it gets worse by the day. they have provided a shield of point proved not only counterproductive but frankly lethal. and i welcome your thoughts about how we're engaging diplomatically and turning trends on our own. thank you, madame chairman, for your courtesy, as well. >> thank you both. congressman murphy, we do have specific ideas and plans about what we could do to assist afghanistan being more integrated into the regional economy, developing their own economic assets. i would like to take it for the record to give you a broader set of re

mr. connolly: thank you, mr. chairman. this important amendment will help small and emerging growth businesses address a significant cost they incur, the rising price of gasoline. according to the national federation of independent businesses, 10% of businesses say energy costs are the single largest. 25% cited as the second or third largest. although some argue for increased domestic drilling, at best it will take five years before new supplies are brought to market and have any effect on the current price of gasoline. meanwhile, oil companies are producing more oil in america right now than at any point in the last eight years. but since they're also exporting more oil, consumers aren't realizing the benefits of that production. approving the keystone x.l. pipeline, as some proposed, actually would make gas prices even worse. the oil company, transcanada, that said in its pipeline application that keystone will raise american oil prices by $3 a barrel. the price of gasoline has risen 30 cents per gallon in the last month

mr. connolly the gentleman from virginia. >> thank you. and thank you all for being here today. i think we need to start positively recognizing the extraordinary difficulty of the mission here in a free society, how do we graft on to that protective and necessarily often intrees i measures to protect the public after the tragedy of 9/11, especially? i don't think we should ever get complacent about this. so i think it is a natural tension and not necessarily always a reflection on the men and women who are trying to fulfill this mission. the hen and women who have been recruited and are doing a very good job. many of them are very professional. there are many -- one thing i commend to you, is simple training in please and thank you would really go a long way with the public. i wish that that. we are not cattle and we are citizens. we are not to be preseemed guilty of anything. i would urge you strongly. most of the public i think actually understands me and is willing to tolerate a fair amount of instrusiveness, more than i would have expected. so i think so long as we can view

mr. connolly. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. connolly: i thank my friend from west virginia. madam speaker, america's commuters an businesses want us to speed up transportation improvements. however the house republicans have offered only a speed bump. we face a transportation crisis with bridges and roadways crumbling, millions of americans struck in gridlock and transit improvements languishing. we've known the transportation lapses on march p 1, severely jeopardizing projects and jobs in every one of our states. this is nothing more than a three-month band-aid. the republican plan was rejected on a bipartisan basis because it disinvests in america, cutting $361 million in my state of virginia alone. america needs a real transportation plan a plan that ep sures its states an localities don't shut project this is sunday, a plan that creates jobs, putting the hard-hit construction strbak to work. thankfully, there is such a plan, it's bipartisan. this month the senate passed it. a two-year transportation plan on a vote of 74-22.

mr. connolly, my colleagues from the other side of the aisle spoke well to that. i want to talk to you a little bit about the viper teams. on october 20th, 2011 my home state of tennessee became the first state in the country to deploy viper teams simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations. the teams included your tsos, bdos, explosive detection, canine teams. my office was informed by tsa that the point of operation was for tsa agents to recruit truck drivers into the first observer highway security program. the tsos and bdos involved in the operation were only supposed to be handing out recruitment brochures since neither position has actual federal law enforcement training. however, i've got a couple of posters here you can see back here. if you look at these posters, i'll call that one exhibit a, and if you were watching the video of this transaction, would you see that this individual who is designated as a tsa employee is walking around and inspecting the truck. so if they were supposed to be handing out brochures, what were they doing inspec

mr. connolly. >> come to both our guests this morning. mr. geithner you noted in your testimony that will ireland and spain ran large fiscal surpluses, yet they were victims of financial crisis con taken on. you know theed that spain reduces its deficit since the austerity measures since the on set of the crisis. do you believe that there's some lesson in that? i would have guessed that in order to have this kind of crisis, both ireland and spain would be deeply in the hole of debt. how did that work? >> you're right. i think the popular perception is that the crisis in europe is overwhelmingly the result of decades of fiscal provefully gassy. that's not really quite right. it was certainly true in greece where following the advent of monitoring the european union, greece dollars substantially expand the size of its borrowing and the government grew to unsustainable levels. there's other countries what you saw was a very large rise in private borrowing in the banking system and by the private sector, huge rise in private debt as a share of th

mr. connolly. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. connolly: i thank my friend from west virginia. madam speaker, america's commuters an businesses want us to speed up transportation improvements. however the house republicans have offered only a speed bump. we face a transportation crisis with bridges and roadways crumbling, millions of americans struck in gridlock and transit improvements languishing. we've known the transportation lapses on march p 1, severely jeopardizing projects and jobs in every one of our states. this is nothing more than a three-month band-aid. the republican plan was rejected on a bipartisan basis because it disinvests in america, cutting $361 million in my state of virginia alone. america needs a real transportation plan a plan that ep sures its states an localities don't shut project this is sunday, a plan that creates jobs, putting the hard-hit construction strbak to work. thankfully, there is such a plan, it's bipartisan. this month the senate passed it. a two-year transportation plan on a vote of 74-22.

mr. connolly, for five minutes. mr. connolly: thank you, madam speaker. last month the house republican leadership commemorated valentine's day by planning a shotgun wedding between transportation re-authorization and the arctic national wildlife refuge. i think it's time congress started listening to the people. consider what my constituents wrote me when they asked me to oppose it this transportation, disinvestment plan. one concern a constituent in vienna said, i'm writing to urge you not to support the energy efficient and infrastructure act. it is anti-business and anti-environment. it slashes funding for transit, guts our nation's fundamental laws and has damaging drilling in anwr. another one, worried about the utter lack of transit in the proposed legislation. wrote, i can tell you from firsthand experience that this proposal will have a profoundly negative impact on our ability for our clients to go about their daily lives. many clients use public transit to access our services and seek and hold employment because it allows them to remain indepen

mr. connolly. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. connolly: as the house votes on the budget this week, i remind my colleagues that a budget represents our values. sadly, tragically, this plunl budget seems to value only cruel darwin -- darwinism, debasing the american society as we know it to survival of the fittest. if you value relieving traffic congestion, this budget throws you to the wolves. if you value job creation efforts hike make it in america, this leaves you out in the cold unemployee. if you value education, the republican attack on education leaves nothing but scraps. if you value retire yeses, republicans enthe medicare commitment to you and picks seniors' pockets. madam chair, the republican budget disinvests in america. the only thing republicans claim to value, fiscal responsibility, rings hollow in the face of $5 trillion transfer of wealth to the wealthiest in america by cutting the highest tax bracket from 35% to 25%. this budget attacks america. i thank the chair. the chair: the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. rya

mr. connolly: it breaks a bipartisan compromise not even a year old. it voucherizes medicare and in effect jeopardizing health care for millions, tens of millions of american seniors. it essentially guts medicaid, jeopardizing nursing home care for millions more. it block grants the safety net programs led by food stamps, threatening to reverse the progress, decades' old progress in lowering poverty and malnutrition rates in america. this is a budget that needs to be rejected, madam chairman. it is a budget that would make charles darwin blush. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: madam speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. poe: madam speaker, the nationalized health care bill will soon go before the supreme court. the issue -- does the federal government have the constitutional authority to force americans to buy government ordained and approved health insurance or else? or else face the wrath and

mr. connolly: mr. speaker, budgets are about values. the budget we're about to debate today, the republican budget, does not reflect american values. it is a budget for the survival of the fittist. it cuts the highest tax bracket from 35% to 25%. that's going to add $5 trillion to the debt. in order to compensate for that, this budget cuts $5.7 trillion in domestic discretionary spending. if this budget were ever to become law, it would push back all the progress we've made over generations in terms of malnutrition, in terms of poverty rates, in terms of protecting our seniors. it is a budget that would make charles darwin blush. it is a budget not worthy of this house, and it is a budget i hope will be resoundingly rejected because of the values that do not reflect america at its best, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arkansas, for what purpose do you rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i ris

mr. connolly, ms. norton, there are a number of people on both sides of the aisle who have passionately worked on this issue and i'm proud to report, mr. speaker, this is very report in its nature. i also want to thank our chairman, chairman issa, who was very instrumental in passing out of committee to the floor, as well as ranking member cummings, and certainly our majority leader, mr. cantor, for allowing and encouraging this bill to come to the floor. i appreciate the bipartisan nature. these are the types of things that we should be doing as a body, to make sure that we're improving the process and streamlining the disposal of real property that happens in this country. most are somewhat amazed to understand that our federal government has roughly 900,000 buildings and structures under its ownership. the g.a.o. in 2011 estimated that the federal government holds 45,000 underutilized properties that cost nearly $1.7 billion annually in order to operate. again, these are underutilized. in fact, more