mr. duncan: i request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. duncan: mr. speaker, yesterday the "washington times" reported that the u.s. is now spending millions on life skills and art seminars for prisoners at quantity quantity bay in cuba. the -- guantanamo bay in cuba. the paper said a contract is teaching get know basic landscaping, power point, microsoft power point, among others. last july the comptroller of the defense department reported that the cost of keeping guantanamo prison open during 2013 would be an astounding $454 million for just 164 prisoners. this comes after roughly $2.7 million per year for each one of these detainees held in the prison camp. this compares to $72,000 per year per prisoner in federal high security prisons. because the federal government is so wasteful and inefficient, states are housing state prisoners for half that amount. the taxpayers of this nation should not be forced to spend $454 million to give the good lif

mr. duncan said he regretted the statement and its clumsy phrasing.ng me now, dana laesh and julie riginski former adviser to senator frank lautenberg. let me start with you. you home school your children. common core is a big deal with parents who have children in public schools because it is changing the way we test our children and in some ways educate them. so it's controversial. tell us why the secretary of education seems to be so upset with people like you. >> this thing about arnie duncan is he needs to meet the many, many diverse families who provide more diversity, education than he realizes. we home school our kids. i have two boys, aged 12 and 8. at a certain anyone they decide if they would rather go to a traditional school. they get to make the choice with our input. i'm worried as a parent because common core isn't just going to affect public schools. it's already affecting private school and standardized testing which ultimately, no matter which route you go to teach your children will will affect those who choose to home school. it do

mr. duncan, for five minutes. mr. duncan: i ask unanimous consent to address the house and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. dr. tom kim came to america after escaping north korea at the age of 6. rough a strong christian upbringing and belief in god, he devoted his life to others. he wished to open a clinic that provides free health care to the working poor in my district. the clinic would operate with a mission based on the bible verse matthew 25: 40, whatever you did for the least of these you did for me. from that vision came the free medical clinic of america, which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary and 11,000th new patient. what started as a small clinic alongside dr. kim's own practice in knoxville has grown to facilities in four other counties. most recently the office in knoxville gave dr. kim the director's community leadership award. this yearly honor is given to citizens who go above and beyond in service to their communities. mr. speaker, dr. tom kim is o

mr. duncan would like to open up for the record. we are pleased to have a panel and the witnesses full written statement appear in the hearing record. john pistole is the first witness. he is administrator at the department of homeland security since 2010. he oversees 60,000 employees and 450 airports and security for highways, ports, mass transit systems. you have a big job and i commend you for the job you are doing. the chair recognizes mr. pistole to testify. >> thank you the members of the committee. let me start off by expressing by deep appreciation to you chairman and others who have expressed sympathy for hernandez and his family and the two other officers who were shot and wounded on november 1st. there was great outpouring at the memorial service held by the city of los angeles and the local police. law enforcement community pulling together and demonstr e demonstrating support for officer hernandez family and the two other officers and family. so thank you for that. the bottom line is these are challenging time for membe

mr. duncan. >> well, thank you very much, mr. chairman. i first want to commend mr. sepulveda for speaking out in no way in which he did. apparently, there are sound or maybe many employees of the va that think they are made from criticism because they know that all members of congress want to support the veterans. and i can tell you that my father with state legion commander in 1954. my uncle joe was state legion commander in 1963. and those were times in the 50s and 60s and the american legion's around the country were huge. i am a product of boys state and now i think it's only about 19% of the congress who are veterans. i'm proud of my surveys and i appreciate the education and opportunities that i got from them. i know that most veterans don't want to see the tax payers abuse or money wasted, even in the va. we have this -- i want to commend mr. griffin for the work they've done. they have the report that says there was an e-mail and much one department employee said where large agency with deep pockets. this e-mail response was indicative of a large problem thr

mr. duncan. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. while i am very skeptical about government's ability to run our health care system, what i'm re concerned about or object to more is all the sweetheart insider deals that government contractors get under these programs and all the people and companies that are getting lthy rich off of these programs. i have an estimate here on the cost of all the technology that was -- the estimate of o.m.b. as of august 30 before all the problems surfaced and they said we would spend $516.34 million on the technology. and now we've gotten -- we've seen estimates way above that. and so i have a question about that about how much all this is going to cost us to straighten this out and are these going to be continual costs each year? are we going to have to spend more and more and more on the technology? but secondly and a greater concern, i have two stories here from -- one from "the washington post" about 10 days ago and one from cbs news a couple days later and they say the administration knew 3 1/2

mr. duncan. without objection so order. we are pleased of a distant bell of witnesses before us today on this important topic. the witnesses full written statement will appear in the hearing record. our first witness, the honorable john pistole, has been the administrator of the transportation sector the administration at the department of homeland security since 2010. as tsa administrator he oversees the management of approximately 60,000 employees. acidity operations of more than 450 federalized airports throughout the united states, federal air marshal service, and the secretive for highways and railroads, ports, mass transit systems and pipelines. you have a big job, and i commend you for the job you did and appreciate you being here today. the chair now recognizes mr. pistole to testify. >> thank you, chairman hudson, ranking member richmond, and other distinguished members of the committee. appreciate the opportunity to be here today. let me start off by expressing my deep appreciation to you, chairman and other membe

mr. arne duncan.d afternoon, sir. >> thanks for the opportunity. >> explain what this program will do for the nearly one in four children who live in poverty. because in our research, we actually found websites decrying big government and indock tri nation when, in fact, the opposite is the case. >> yeah, well, i think about what we can do over the next three years, not to improve education for the next three years, but for the next 30, the next 3 decades and arguably at the top of the list, making sure our babies have access to high-quality, early learning opportunities is the best investment we as a nation can make in our children, in strong families and ultimately the country. for poor children coming from disadvantaged communities, martin, the average child starts kindergarten at 5 years old, a year to 14 months behind. and quite frankly, far too often we never catch up. i keep saying, we have to get out of the calf catch-up business, our babies off to a good start. this is a huge day to seek folk

mr. duncan has consistently showed little patience for critics of the common core educational standards beingmplemented in 45 states and the district of columbia. but his remarks, as reported by politico, what a step further and add elements of race and class. it is fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who, all of a sudden, there child is not as brilliant as they thought they were and their school is not quite as good as they thought they were, and that is pretty scary. friday, you bet your house and where you live is everything on, my child going to be prepared. that can be a punch in the gut. it is said he chose his words poorly in trying to make his point. it is a globally competitive workforce. maryland up next -- marilyn up next from illinois. caller: i would like to go back to the gettysburg address where it says that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom. eventually lincoln was , and they more or less dumped the reconstruction. so we started right in on the jim crow laws, things like that. so it makes the gettysburg

telecommunications company they have the nerve to complain that if mr snowden took somebody else's passwords just ridiculous right duncan campbell thank you so much for sharing your views with us here on r.t. . well still ahead in the program defusing terror. dr and here is in fukushima are braced for the removal of fuel rods from the complex the most dangerous step yet and we examine the risks shortly after this break. so there's a leader so we leave the people. by the sea oceans to cure the plague your party there's a good. shoes that no one is at school with to get that you deserve answers from. politics. t.v. . dramas the truth be ignored. stories others refuse to notice. the food since changing the world light snack. food picture. from around the globe. drop to. welcome back here with our team engineers a difficult human who clear plan in japan are about to start their most hazardous undertaking to date huge cranes will be a lowered into the reactor that survived a meltdown of twenty women to start pulling out thousands of fuel rods a process that will take at least a year or just next year cesky visited the exclus

shuster, duncan of tennessee, lobiondo, graves of georgia, mrs. capito, mrs.iller of michigan, messrs. hunter, beau chon, gibbs, hanna, webster of florida, rice of south carolina, mullen, rodney davis of illinois, rahall, defazio, ms. brown of florida, ms. eddie bernice johnson of texas, mr. bishop of new york, ms. edwards, ms. hahn, mrs. frankel of florida and mrs. bustos. for the committee on natural resources for sections 103, 115, 144, 106 and 220 of the house bill and sections 2017, 2027, 5,002, 33, 2051, 3,005, 5,020, ,007, 5,118, title 12 and section 1300 of the senate amendment and modifications committed to the conference, messrs. hastings of washington, bishop of utah and mrs. napolitano. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kansas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to take from the speaker's table house resolution 1848 with a senate amendment thereto and to concur in the senate amendment. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman mean to call up h.r. 1848? >> i do. the speaker pro tempore: the cl

mr. duncan. , mr. chairman. i want to commend mr. bento volio. oh -- bento employees that think they are immune from they knowbecause members of congress want to support the veterans. was state legion commander, my uncle was state legion commander in 1963. those were times when the american legions around the country were huge. i might product of boy state and i think it is only about 90% of the congress who are veterans -- it is only about 19% of the congress who are veterans. i appreciate the opportunities i got from the military. on the other hand, most veterans do not want to see the taxpayers -- or moneywar wasted. mr. griffinmmend for the work that he has done. we have this report that says there was an e-mail where employee said we will are -- we with deepe agency pockets. did disregarded -- they disregarded budgets. that is a disturbing report. in the time of a $17 trillion debt that is heading higher, how , howa statement like this does that reflect on the department? >> it is a troubling statement. it does not reflect well. the is not t