mr. defazio is committed to our cause and our co-sponsors are committed to this cause. i ask all of my colleagues to sign onto the letter and join us. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i introduced a bill that would eliminate sweetheart deals. recently, the current health care bill that got passed, i know in my area in my town hall meetings talking to a lot of americans, people are concerned about the health care bill that was just passed but they're outraged about the sweetheart deals. what do i mean? the $300 million that went to louisiana purchase, $100 million that went to a hospital in connecticut. people are outraged because they feel it's their money, it's their taxpayer money and they're very concerned about it. they feel it's buying votes, and that's the reason i think we have such a low approval ra

mr. defazio from oregon. mr. jones from north carolina. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? without objection. mr. burton: let me just -- i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. let me just say that, mr. poe from texas, my good friend who just spoke, he added a little bitive levity but it was very important, the point that he was making, in that we have the ability in this country to really deal with things like agriculture and insects that might come in and contaminate our crops. but we have a serious, serious problem on the 1,980-mile border between us and mexico. the administration has cut some of the money from the whole project of putting fences and more border patrol agents on that border and it's a war zone, as mr. poe has said. mr. poe is the leader in pointing out the problems with what's going on the border between texas and mexico as well as the border all the way between the united states and the whole country of mexico. and so i'd just like to say, if i were talking to the president or anybody in his administration, listen to mr. poe and the guy

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: as i speak here on the floor of the house, the republicans on the senate side of the hill are still blocking meaningful financial reform, protecting their patrons on wall street, as they always do. and the lords of goldman sachs are before a committee protesting their innocence. . now we know that goldman and these other people on wall street were too big to fail. i think we should let a few more of them fail personally and i oppose the bailout of wall street. but let's just say they were too big to fail or at least they were deemed too big to fail and they were bailed out by the united states government and the taxpayers of the united states. but something else was going on at the same time. not only were they too big to fail, they had created wonderful new financial products that were enriching them in unbelievable ways, making millions of dollars a day for the lords of goldman and elsewhere on wall street. they had designed products that were designed to fail. then they sol

mr. defazio said, those are the things we need to do. >> neil: are you worried with the best of intentionsle will look at the move toward regulation and say the u.s. is overtaxed, overregulated, we'll go elsewhere. we'll invest elsewhere. >> % well, we are still the largest economy in the world. you know, i -- in -- for instance if you're talking about taxing or regulating, britain has a financial transaction tax, hasn't driven people out of the london. people don't want to live in third world countries to escape. we have to do this in concert with our allies. the e.u. was interested in cracking down and getting to the heart of the meltdown as were other responsible first world nations. >> neil: gentlemen, elijah raises a view but there isn't nearly the amount of regulation or oversight or baby-sitting for lack of a better term in the hot asian markets, for example, as is being proposed in your -- in our country. that could be just a preview of collapsing issues there. but for now, that's not the case. so wouldn't money naturally be drawn to those markets and not ours? >> we could certainl

mr. defazio of oregon. the gentleman from washington. mr. sestak of pennsylvania. mr. larsen of washington. mr. taylor of mississippi. ms. sanchez of california. mr. langevin of rhode island. mr. mcmahon of new york. without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent to address this body for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: if there is no objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. my colleagues, i rise this afternoon to speak to a very alarming and disconcerting issue that continues to grow unchecked around the world, and that is the debilitating and negative effects that the islamic republic of iran is having around the world. mr. speaker, as we all know, we are all concerned about peace in the middle east and we know it's it's very important that our -- we know that it's very important that our great friend and ally in israel continue in negotiations with the palestinians to come to a solution of the issues that exist there. however, mr. speaker, i believe

mr. defazio of oregon. mr. moran of kansas. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida rise? ms.lehtinen: to claim the gentleman's time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. ros-lehtinen: i thank you madam speaker and i thank the gentleman from indiana for allowing me to have the time. as a sponsor of the democracy act, i would like to -- the puerto rico democracy act, i'd like to dispel only myths around this. it provides for consultation with the people of puerto rico regarding the island's political status. h.r. 2499 authorizes the government of puerto rico to conduct an initial pleb site. eligible voters will be asked if they'd like to maintain the current status or a different one. if they prefer the current status, the government would be authorized to ask the question again at eight-year intervals. however if the majority of voters favor a different status, the government of puerto rico would be authorized to conduct a second poll among the different three options recognized by u.s. law. the three options are independence, statehood, and sovereignty in associati

mr. defazio: i think the american people are a bit confused as to what's really going on here. and it's, you know, a lot like the humphrey bow gart movie, what's going on here is gambling, plain and simple. it would be one thing if these so-called investment banks like goldman sachs were lending into the productive sector of the u.s. economy. if they were lending to people who have good ideas to produce products and goods and employ americans and help us, you know, compete in the world economy. but they're not doing that and in this case they weren't even helping to package and move mortgages off of people's portfolios and some place else. they were merely mimicking with what are called synthetic collateralized debt obligations, packages of bad or potentially bad mortgages to bet on. you know, for this one hedge fund to bet against and make $1 billion. but then of course unfortunately other parts of goldman sachs, apparently unbenones to them, i mean, in totally good faith, wednesday to clients of goldman sachs and said, hey, we've got a great product here we'd like to sell you

mr. defazio from oregon. mr. moran from kansas. ms. ros-lehtinen from florida. ms. foxx from north carolina. ms. blackburn from tennessee. mr. rohrabacher from california . mr. garrett -- i'm sorry -- mr. garrett: permission to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: mr. garrett from new jersey. the gentleman is recognized. mr. garrett: madam speaker, on september 11, 2001, almost 3,000 individuals were victims of the most devastating acts of terror in our nation's history. first responders and civilians, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, we acted towards impunity and the nation still mourns this tragic loss. i would like to specifically remember one of those victims and that is richard j. morgan. mr. morgan, or dick as he was known to his friends was many things to many people. he was an enduring husband to his wife patricia, a beloved father to his four children, a proud grandfather to his seven grandchildren and respected colleague to all that he worked with and cherished friend to those who were fortunate enough

mr. defazio of oregon. mr. forbes from virginia. ms. ros-lehtinen of florida. mr. bilbray of california. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from california, mr. royce is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. royce: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, as we watch the senate move on legislation yet again toward a cloture vote on senator dodd's legislation, i think it's worth noting some of the concerns that many of us have, and that many economists have, with the dodd-frank approach on the legislation. i begin with focusing on a past occurrence, the rescue of investment bank bear stearns in the spring of 2008. the federal government has committed trillions of taxpayer dollars to institutions like fannie mae, freddie mac, a.i.g., citigroup, and bank of america, out of fear that the demise of any of these too-big-to-fail institutions would strig arer a systemic crisis and collapse of the global financial system. for my own part, i make the observation that i thought -- i voted against those bailouts w

mr. defazio of oregon. mr. forbes of virginia. mr. dent of pennsylvania. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from missouri, mr. akin, is recognized for of minutes as the designee of the minority leader. -- for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. akin: thank you, madam speaker. i appreciate being recognized as we are on occasion, on wednesday, after the house business -- the main part of the business is closed, we have an opportunity to take a look at various topics and subjects, usually we have chosen subjects of significant importance to americans, ones that affect everybody's lives. and it might seem odd in that we have already passed the government takeover of health care bill that we would go back to that bill, but i think there is continuing information that is being released that a lot of people may not have known about when the bill was passed. additional facts and figures, which are at a minimum quite disturbing. the facts and figures that i thought would be important to talk a little bit about

mr. defazio from oregon. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. burgess: i thank the speaker for the recognition. i thank the minority leader for allowing me to speak this afternoon during the leadership hour. it is always a significant event to be asked to speak during the leadership hour and certainly appreciate the confidence shown in me by the leadership. this afternoon i thought we would talk a little more about the health care bill passed by this house last month because it is an important subject and one that continues to cause problems across the country. almost any place you go people want to ask you questions about why did you do this bill and what does it mean for me and what can i expect going forward? mr. speaker, i know i need to confine my comments to the chair and i will do so, but if i were to be able to speak to people directly, i would encourage them to look at a

mr. defazio of oregon for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, and under a previous order of the house, the following members are recognized for five minutes each. ms. sutton of ohio. ms. sutton: madam speaker, i rise today with a heavy heart to honor the life and service of police officer james kersetter. . kerstetter. on march 15, he was tragically shot and killed in the line of duty while responding to the domestic call. he made the sacrifice, putting his life on the line to protect another. the officer was a committed public servant. he was a member of the department for 15 years. he was a member of the s.w.a.t. team and taught the rookie officers at the department. he was the lead crash investigator and prior to joining the police force, he served with the lorraine county sheriff's department. but even more importantly, he was the loving and devoted husband of wife tammy and the proud father of three daughters, misty, shelby and bailey. james kerstetter was known as sponge to his fello

mr. defazio of oregon. ms. foxx from north carolina. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? without objection. mr. rangel: i thank the chair for giving me this opportunity. i want to thank ms. jackson lee for her remarks and i thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to speak out of order. the reason i rise is there are very few people who have been active in the civil rights movement that -- they all came after dorothy height. she was there before adam powell, dr. martin luther king, jim farmer and all the great civil rights leaders that have made the struggle. she's been a confidant from franklin roosevelt to president obama and all the presidents in between. she gave so much of herself without even talking about color, without just talking about women, but most of all in talking about humankind. she was a true believer that if america really did what it was supposed to do to the brothers and sisters and the citizens that made up this great country, then fairness and equity would determine that all people are

mr. defazio of oregon. ms. kaptur of oregon. excuse me. of ohio. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from missouri, mr. akin, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. akin: thank you, mr. speaker. it's a treat to join you and my colleagues once again this evening and talk about a subject that has been troublesome to all of us for some number of months now. that is the state of the economy, the problem with unemployment and the various causes and factors that caused some of the tremendous level of distress economically which we've been experiencing. and sometimes it's helpful as we weigh into a rather broad subject about jobs and the economy, it's good to take a look back a little bit and see what we can learn from some of the lessons of history and how we got into the mess in the first place. some of the first rather troubling signs of the condition which brought on the recession go back to september 11, 2003, as recorded by "the new york times," not exactly a republican or conservat

mr. defazio, oregon. ms. jackson lee, texas. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009 and under a previous order of the house, the following members are recognized for five minutes each. ms. woolsey from california. ms. woolsey: mr. speaker, for those of us who want to live in a world without nuclear weapons, there is very little good news, very little to celebrate over the last decade or so. the previous administration showed barely any interest in eradicating the nuclear threat. but now, finally, with the recently signed start treaty between the united states and russia, there is cause for optimism and hope for future and further progress. in negotiating this agreement, i'm pleased that president obama has embraced the principles of the no nukes resolution, which is house resolution 333, that i have introduced in the congress, and the smart security approach i have championed for years. much of the attention paid to arms control issues focuses on north korea and the looming possibility of a nuclear threat from i

mr. defazio of oregon and ms. kaptur of ohio. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. under the speaker's announced policy january 6, 2009 and under a previous order of the house, the following members are recognized for five minutes each. mr. moran of kansas. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise? ms. ros-lehtinen: take mr. moran's time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you for the time, yesterday congresswoman wasserman schultz and fellow members of congress held a great press conference with the chief administrative officer of the house of representatives on how to make our offices more energy efficient. representing such natural wonder iris like the florida keys national marine sanctuary, i'm sensitive to the impact of our daily routine on the environment. i'm a supporter of the green proposals, such as increasing the fuel efficiency in our cars and promoting the use of clean alternative energy. however, as we all know, green living begins at home and the workplace, whether it is by turning off the lights when ex