mr. defazio, i hope to thank him, and i thank you for bringing this hearing together. mr. fazio had done hearings previously on passenger bus safety, and i think it is vitally important that we have the latest, most up-to-date input from some of those involved with this matter before us as we conclude and finalize the drafting and provisions for our larger bill. this has been highlighted unfortunately by some very tragic, dramatic accidents that have taken place with some of our buses, passenger buses. we had that horrible accident march, 2011, on the new jersey turnpike. we had another horrendous accident in new york with 15 fatalities, injuries in the incidents. we have unfortunately had in north carolina another horrible accident in the greensboro, north carolina, area, where four passengers were killed and 53 others were injured. the purpose of the hearing is to look at our current laws, regulations, and the administration, those provisions we currently have in statutes or rules and make certain we have the very best measures in the bill the we are drafting. we have tak

mr. defazio, i hope to thank him, and i thank you for bringing this hearing together. mr. defazio had done hearings previously on passenger bus safety, and i think it is vitally important that we have the latest, most up-to-date input from some of those involved with this matter before us as we conclude and finalize the drafting and provisions for our larger bill. this has been highlighted unfortunately by some very tragic, dramatic accidents that have taken place with some of our buses, passenger buses. we had that horrible accident march, 2011, on the new jersey turnpike. we had another horrendous accident in new york with 15 fatalities, injuries in the incidents. we have unfortunately had in north carolina another horrible accident in the greensboro, north carolina, area, where four passengers were killed and 53 others were injured. the purpose of the hearing is to look at our current laws, regulations, and the administration, those provisions we currently have in statutes or rules and make certain we have the very best measures in the bill the we are drafting. we have t

mr. defazio, i hope to thank him, and i thank you for bringing this hearing together. mr. fazio had done hearings previously on passenger bus safety, and i think it is vitally important that we have the latest, most up-to-date input from some of those involved with this matter before us as we conclude and finalize the drafting and provisions for our larger bill. this has been highlighted unfortunately by some very tragic, dramatic accidents that have taken place with some of our buses, passenger buses. we had that horrible accident march, 2011, on the new jersey turnpike. we had another horrendous accident in new york with 15 fatalities, injuries in the incidents. we have unfortunately had in north carolina another horrible accident in the greensboro, north carolina, area, where four passengers were killed and 53 others were injured. the purpose of the hearing is to look at our current laws, regulations, and the administration, those provisions we currently have in statutes or rules and make certain we have the very best measures in the bill the we are drafting. we have tak

mr. defazio: i move to strike the requisite number of words. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. defazio: we ran into tough times and said we wouldn't have this program. heard all the same myths. we are going to lose all our sheep. we are going to lose all these cattle. you know what happened? nothing. they took care of the problem themselves. i could oat comes on their prompt in proximity -- a coyote comes on their property in proximity to your property, you kill it. can you kill it? sure you can. there is a limited exemption for endangered species. they killed some wolves in eastern oregon because they were concerned they might cause predation. now, let's talk about this subsidy. it's unnecessary. it's ineffective. and it's a taxpayer subsidy. are you guys serious about cutting the deficit or not? why give private ranching interests subsidies to do something they should do themselves? there's no good reason to do it. oh, we have to coit. we're worried about aircraft? no, we're only cutting in one budget which is $13.7 million which is the wildlife -- the livestock protectio

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. pretty miserable employment numbers reclently, but the real unemployment rate is actual bye about twice what we read in the paper. we have discouraged workers and people who are underemployed. now, can we look to washington for solutions? on the republican side of the aisle the answer's simple, more tax cuts. that will put people back to work. let's see for 10 years now been living under the bush tax cuts. we have had the worst job creation for the last decade since world war ii. now, it doesn't seem to be working too well, but it's all based on the theory of trickle-down. i think at this point the american people have been trickled on so much, particularly those unemployed and looking for work, they would like an umbrella and a little shelter from these nonsensical policies. can we look to the white house? unfortunately, things aren't a lot better down at the white house. they went along with the republicans on quite a bit of these tax cuts. 40% of the so-called spluss was tax cuts.

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: today, every american who fills up their gas tank is going to pay an extra 70 cents, 70 cents per gallon as a tribute to speculators on wall street. that's right. 70 cents a gallon is due to hedge fund speculation derivatives and commodity speculation on wall street. didn't used to be this way. before enron we prohibited this sort of speculation on wall street. there was a special law passed for enron, enron bankrupt, ken, who knows where he is now, but the law still lives on. it was changed in dodd-frank to give new opportunities for the commodities future trading commission to begin to regulate speculation on wall street, but the republicans are fighting tooth and nail against the regulation of speculation on wall street. today we'll consider a bill that would deprive the commodities future trading commission, the watchdog, of new computers. republicans say we can't afford $60 million for computers at the commodities few tear trading commission to track a $400 trillion marke

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: the united states objective in afghanistan was to root out, destroy al qaeda, osama bin laden, and their taliban hosts. that job is done. afghanistan has been superseded now as a haven for terrorists by tribal areas in pakistan, yemen, and sudan. the interand intratribal disputes in afghanistan are rooted in ancient history. and 12 to 36 more months of a large u.s. troop footprint is not going to resolve centuries old conflicts among the afghan tribes. there never has been, there never will be a strong central government in afghanistan. so i disagree with the president's plan for a snail's pace, partial drawdown of u.s. troops over the next few years. we should do it much more quickly and leave only a residual force to prevent a terrorist takeover. there are only a few thousand troops there when we drove out the taliban, and when we pursued osama bin laden. unfortunately we lost an early opportunity to capture and kill him because of mistakes by then secretary donald rumsfeld.

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: i appreciate the fact that the gentleman who preceded me in the well talked about unemployment and creating jobs and i may not have agreed with his particular words, but at least that's one republican talking about creating jobs. unfortunately, the republican majority in the last six months of leadership in the house has brought forward no bills to put americans back to work. except they say, do more of the same. what? yes, more of the same. the last decade george bush dramatically cut taxes twice. decreased regulations. under the theory that that would create jobs. unfortunately the facts are in. we had the worst job creation post-world war ii in the last decade under george bush and doubled the deficit and debt while doing it. didn't create jobs. trickle-down economics doesn't work. didn't work in the reagan era, didn't work then. compare that to the clinton era. we raised taxes, yeah, particularly on rich people and big corporations. we balanced the budget. we paid down deb

mr. defazio: i move to strike the last word. the gentleman preceding me said we lost a lawsuit. we didn't lose a lawsuit. no conflict of interest, no open litigation, no legal proceeding as we in the united states of america understand it. a closed group with no conflict of interest that makes rulings and they have decided that we under this failed trade policy should pay tribute, tribute more than we paid to the pirates, $147 million a year to the government of brazil so we can subsidize our cotton farmers. now, you go home and explain that to your constituents. we'll borrow $147 million from china and we'll send it to brazil so we can subsidize our cotton farmers. what is this all about? it is about a totally failed trade policy and at some point this congress has to take a stand. ron paul and i a number of years ago, three years ago, we do it once every five years, offered an amendment to withdraw the united states of america from the w.t.o. that will come up soon. i hope you'll all support it. it is something that binds us and is destroying our industries, our farmers and ev

mr. defazio: you are either for states' rights or not. when it is veept to their agenda, they are for states' rights, my state voted the legislature, just last year for 10-year moratorium on their lands as an expression of interest not only to ban the leasing of the lands within the coastal waters, but beyond that. we are serious about protecting our fisheries. we are serious about our profitable tourism industry and yes, we are serious about wind and wave development. and the gentleman made no sense. he said somehow this would preclude wind and wave development. not at all. you don't need a clean air permit for something that doesn't potentially pollute the air. i don't have enough time. i only have one minute. so at this point, i would just suggest that let's be consistent. state of alaska wishes to push ahead. the gentleman from alaska has the bill before us. the republican party controls the house, great. he has always had a rule that people from local districts and local states, the gentleman from alaska, get to have their prerogativ

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: well, yesterday, the house resoundingly rejected a so-called clean increase in the debt limit. as it should have. but different people are going to draw different conclusions from this vote. the republicans will say this means unlimited spending cuts, that's how we'll balance the budget, and on my side of the aisle there will be those that say, no, this puts revenues back into play, actually, both should be right. there is no way, no way -- money is coming in better than expected, to deal with that without dealing with both sides of the equation, that is revenues and cuts in spending. now, unfortunately around here it seems that coming together for the problems of the nation is somewhat quaint and old-fashioned. been here long enough to remember when we used to do those things. when we had the surtax on millionaires back when bush the first was president. and brought back some fiscal sanity. before my time when ronald reagan raised taxes three times because he realized supply

mr. defazio: the united states objective in afghanistan was to root out, destroy al qaeda, osama bin laden, and their taliban hosts. that job is done. afghanistan has been superseded now as a haven for terrorists by tribal areas in pakistan, yemen, and sudan. the interand intratribal disputes in afghanistan are rooted in ancient history. and 12 to 36 more months of large u.s. troop footprint is not going to resolve centuries old conflicts among the afghan tribes. there never has been, there never will be a strong central government in afghistan. so i disagree with the president's plan for a snail's pace, partial drawdown of u.s. troops over the next few years. we should do it much more quickly and leave only a residual force to prevent a trorist takeover. there are only a few thousand troops there when we drove out the taliban, and when we pursued osama bin laden. unfortunately we lost an early opportunity to capture and kill him because of mistakes by then secretary donald rumsfeld. but that being done, the president did say something last night with which i strongly agree. he said, ameri

mr. defazio: last december with one vote congress voted to add $1 billion by extending all the bush tax cuts and adding a new social security tax holiday. the premise was it would put america back to work. get what, it hasn't worked. this country is anemic at best. now the republicans and the president want to double down. they want to expand and continue the social security tax holiday at a cost of $225 billion borrowed. how about instead of more tax cuts, instead of reducing investments and infrastructure, how about $220 billion of reinvestment to our crumbling infrastructure? in engineering, in small businesses and manufacturing, add $1.5 trillion to our economy. the choice is clear. more failed policies of the past or investment in the future. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama rise? >> address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from alabama is recognized for one minute. mr. aderholt: mr. speaker, i rise today to ask one simple question to the oth