mr. duncan. rep. duncan: i yield my time to the chair. chairman chaffetz: thank you, mr. duncan. would remind members that it was the president himself who inexcusable." this is his reaction to the report. he said, "our administration has to make sure we are working hand-in-hand with congress to get this thing fixed." >> mr. chairman, if you would yield, hiking he said that about irs, not the individual. that is who we should be going after. chairman chaffetz: clearly, but tigda did not have access to all the relevant evidence. lois lerner's e-mails were the most important evidence in determining the degree of the political targeting. but these e-mails were destroyed while mr. koskinen was the commissioner. part of my challenge with mr. cartwright's amendment is that you're trying to suggest that the inspector general did some sort of review of mr. koskinen's actions as commissioner. this is not right. lois lerner herself refused to testify based on her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. when people exercise their constitutional rights, we respect that, but he did

mr. duncan. mr. duncan votes yes. mr. jordan. mr. jordan votes yes. mr. wahlberg. mr. wahlberg votes yes. mr. gosar. mr. gosar votes yes. wdy.go votes yes. mr. massey. mr. massey votes yes. mr. meadows. mr. meadows votes yes. mr. desantis. esther desantis vote yes. esther mulvaney. mr. mulvaney votes yes. mr. walker. mr. walker votes yes. mr. bluhm. mr. bluhm votes yes. mr. hise. mr. hise votes yes. mr. russell. mr. carter. esther carter votes yes. mr. grossman. mr. grossman votes yes. mr. palmer. mr. palmer votes yes. mr. cummings. mr. cummings votes no. ms. maloney. ms. maloney votes no. ms. norton. ms. norton votes no. mr. clay. mr. clay votes no. mr. lynch. mr. lynch votes now. mr. cooper. mr. cooper votes no. esther connolly. mr. connolly votes no. mr. cartwright. mr. cartwright votes no. ms. duckworth. ms. duckworth votes no. ms. kelly. ms. kelly votes no. ms. lawrence. ms. lawrence votes no. mr. lou. ms. watson coleman. ms. watson coleman votes no. ms. plaskett. mr. boyle. mr. boyle votes no. mr. welch. ms. lujan grisham. ms. lujan grisham votes no. have allchaf

mr. duncan: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 20 printed in house report 114-623 offered by mr. duncan of tennessee. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 783, the gentleman from tennessee, mr. duncan, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. mr. duncan: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. duncan: mr. chairman, i have tremendous respect for chairman frelinghuysen and ranking member visclosky, and i know they have had a very difficult job in trying to resolve all the competing interests in this bill. they are two of our finest members. my amendment is being offered primarily because of my very great concern for our astounding national debt, now over $19 trillion, and a debt that is going up much higher in the years ahead. also, i just do not believe in forever permanent wars, and we

mr. duncan, is recognized for five minutes. mr. duncan: i request permission to address the house for five minutes and to remarks my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. duncan: joseph spent 35 years in the foreign service including serving as our ambassador to both cambodia and slovenia. the ambassador wrote a column to "the washington post" which i'm surprised the paper published. i'd like to quote at length from this column. the ambassador wrote as follows -- quote, most of my former colleagues at the state department will be appalled by the assertion but much of the media said angst about donald trump's dirt of foreign policy expertise is contrived. our cadre of neo conservative foreign policy experts unhumbled after marching us into a war in iraq and a poorly conceived one in afghanistan who applauded as we bombed libya and bitterly resent our having fail to bomb syria and they focus on comments that trump made that are less genuine of interest to him. and his attitude of foreign affairs, trump has no desire

mr. duncan. mr. duncan votes no. mr. jordan. mr. jordan votes no. mr. wahlberg. mr. wahlberg votes no. mr. omash. >> no. >> mr. gosar. mr. gowdy. mr. pharynthold. ms. lummus. mr. massy. >> no. >> mr. meadows. mr. desantis votes no. mr. mull veiny. >> mr. buck. >> mr. buck votes no. votes no. mr. walker? >> no. >> mr. walker votes no. >> mr. blum? mr. blum votes no. mr. russell? >> mr. russell votes no. >> no. >> mr. carter votes no. >> mr. hurd? mr. hurd votes no. mr. palmer? >> no. >> mr. palmer votes no. >> mr. cummings votes yes. >> ms. maloney votes yes. >> ms. norton votes yes. >> mr. clay votes yes. >> mr. lynch? >> mr. lynch votes yes. >> mr. cooper? >> yes. >> mr. cooper votes yes. >> mr. connolly votes yes. mr. cartwright votes yes. ms. kelly? ms. kelly votes yes. mr. lou? ms. watson coleman? >> yes. >> mr. boyle? >> yes. >> mr.well ch? >> how is mr. gosar is not recorded. >> have all members voted? clerk will report the tally. >> on this vote there are 15 yays and 21 noes. the question is on the adoption of house resolution 737 as amended to the house of representatives. >> m

mr. duncan. >> i yield my time to the chairman. >> thank you, mr. duncan. i would remind members that it was the president himself who said, "it's inexcusable, and americans have the right to be angry about it." this was his reaction to the tigda report. he said, "our administration has to make sure that we are working hand in hand with congress to get this thing fixed." i think the president -- >> mr. chairman? if you would yield, i think he said that about irs, not about the individual. >> yes, about the irs. >> okay, and that's who we should be going after. >> clearly, clearly, clearly. but tigda did not have access to all the relevant evidence. lois lerner's e-mails were the most important evidence in determining the degree of the political targeting, but these e-mails were destroyed while mr. koskinen was the commissioner. so part of my challenge with mr. cartwright's amendment is that you're trying to suggest that the inspector general did some sort of review of mr. koskinen's actions as commissioner. that's just -- it's just not right. ms. lois lerne

mr. duncan for five minutes. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman, and there are very few people for whom i have higher respect than i do for ranking member cummings. he has a very difficult task at times and usually trying to defend administration witnesses, but it should send a message to director jarvis and throughout the park service that mr. cummings did not defend mr. jarvis today, and instead pointed out several different types of problems that have occurred in the park service. i think that's very significant. i spent 22 years, up until about six years ago on the interior committee, and now i've served on this committee and another committee. but i heard years ago that there was a $4 billion backlog -- maintenance backlog, and then i heard it was $6 billion, and then i heard it was $9 billion, and now i get material here that says the maintenance backlog is $12 billion. i have great respect also for people, for education, and people who get advanced degrees. but i think the park service needs to stop hiring so many ph.d.s and master

mr. duncan, to preside over the committee of the whole. the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the -- the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h.r. 5293, which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: appropriations for the department of defense for fiscal year 2017 and for other purposes. the chair: pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the first time. the gentleman from new jersey, mr. frelinghuysen and the gentleman from indiana, mr. visclosky, each will control 30 minutes. the house will be in order. the house will please come to order. will members please remove their onversations from the floor. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. mr. frelinghuysen: i rise to present the appropriations recommendation for fiscal -- fiscal year 2017 department of defense appropriations bill. i'd like to begin by paying tribute to those who are not with us today, our men and women in uniform, all volunteers, who

mr. duncan for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. general brennan, you have an article from "los angeles times" that says after peaking in 2006, total mail handled by the postal service has declined 27%. is that fairly accurate? and is mail volume still slowly declining? and have you taken -- do you feel like you have taken every step you can do thus far to adjust to that decline? >> congressman duncan, you're correct in terms of the decline in total mail volume. the challenge for us is the continued decline particularly in first-class mail, which pays the bills, defines or network requirements, hence our actions to right-size the infrastructure and take costs out of the system. there are still opportunities, but i think as noted, we have reduced our annual cost base by $15 billion. >> i'll tell you a little story. about four years ago they had an article about me and my dad in the knoxville news sentinel. i got the nicest letter from peyton manning about that article. he said he could tell i have the same relationship with my dad as

mr. duncan from south carolina. >> we talk a lot about these overstays.isa overstays with some students in my office this morning. of allall visa overstays illegals in this country were people that overstayed their visa, people we gave a permission slip to enter this country. bottom line is, they came to this country with a permission slip and decided to stay. for whatever reason. the numbers you have here, 60%, and alarming number. we have entrusted these people with access to our country and they chose to violate the trust. i think that is low hanging fruit for enforcement. we are not chasing a foot in the desert. -- a footprint in the desert. some biometrics according to mr. wagner. we know where a lot of them were headed, work visa or student visa. visa, why not contact the university if their visa has expired and find out if they are still enrolled? maybe they need to have their visa extended? middle get them into legal status and out of illegal status by extending their visa then we start reducing this number from 68% to a lower number and we can fo

mr. duncan for five minutes. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman, and there are very few people for whom i have higher respect than i do for ranking member cummings. he has a very difficult task at times and usually trying to defend administration witnesses, but it should send a message to director jarvis and throughout the park service that mr. cummings did not defend mr. jarvis today, and instead pointed out several different types of problems that have occurred in the park service. i think that's very significant. i spent 22 years, up until about six years ago on the interior committee, and now i've served on this committee and another committee. but i heard years ago that there was a $4 billion backlog -- maintenance backlog, and then i heard it was $6 billion, and then i heard it was $9 billion, and now i get material here that says the maintenance backlog is $12 billion. i have great respect also for people, for education, and people who get advanced degrees. but i think the park service needs to stop hiring so many ph.d.s and master

mr. duncan from south carolina. >> thank you, thanks for the information provided about visa oev st i overstaystalked about visa overstays with some students that were in my office this morning. the number i used then was 49% of all visa overstays of illegals in this country were people who overstayed their people visa. people we gave a permission slip to enter this country. they had an interview or went online with a visa waiver bottom program. bottom line is they came to this country with a permission slip. known as a visa. and decided to stay. for whatever reasons. the numbers you have here, 68%. it's an alarming number. we've entrusted these people with access to our country and they chose to vi now, now, i think that's low hanging fruit for enforcement. we're not chasing a footprint in the desert. we have a name, biometrics. we know where a lot of them were head either a work either a work v but too but too many times they the overstay. the student visa, then why not contact the university if their visa has expired and find out what their status is? are they still enrolled? are they in a m

mr. duncan, for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman. there are few people i have as much respect for than ranking member cummings. he has a difficult task and usually defends witnesses and that should send the message to director jarvis and the park service that mr. cummings did not defend mr. jarvis today. instead he pointed out sever problems that occur in the park service. i think that is very significant. i spent 22 years, up until six years ago on the interior committee. now i serve on this committee and another committee. but i used -- i heard years ago the was a four billion maintenance backlog, then i heard six billion, then nine billion and i get the material saying the maintenance backlog is 12 million. i have great respect also for education and people who get advanced degrees. but i can the park service needs to stop hiring so many historians and environmental activists and so forth and start hiring more labors to chip away at this maintenance backlog if is not being exaggurated. i think we have far too many chiefs and not n

again, andrew schmuhl was accused on november 9, 2014, bursting through the home of sue duncan and leo fisher, tasing mrsher, beating, stabbing both of the victims, shooting at sue duncan. and essentially according to prosecutors wanted to kill both of them. at one point, andrew schmuhl allegedly fired a gunshot at sue duncan. she played dead and was able to trip the alarm as a result of playing dead. later authorities caught up with andrew schmuhl. now the apparent motive according to prosecutors was that andrew's wife alecia schmuhl has recently been fired from her law job, from her lawyer job at a firm in arlington by leo fisher. again, that was the alleged motive for this crime. the get-away car did include alecia schmuhl and andrew schmuhl. they were arrested in springfield. andrew schmuhl was found to only be wearing a diaper at the time of his arrest. no comment from any of the victims. no comments from defense at prosecutors who still have to try this case of alecia schmuhl in september. the sentencing recommendation hearing for andrew schmuhl is going to take place thursday morning in fairfax.

mr. duncan, kindly esume the chair? the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 5293 which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill making appropriations for the department of defense for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole rose on wednesday, june 15, 2016, a request for a recorded vote on amendment number 40 printed in house report 114-623 offered by the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, had been postponed. it is now in order to consider house nt 41 printed in report 114-623. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? mr. yoho: mr. speaker, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 41 printed in house report 114-623 offered by mr. yoho of florida. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 783, the gentleman from florida, mr. yoho, and a member opposed, each will contro

mr. trump's message to make america great. sounds like duncanunter doesn't want to do that job anymore. it's also becoming every man for himself battle in the senate where former president george w. bush who is not supporting trump has decided to hit the trail in an attempt to help vulnerable senate republicans up for re-election. those folks are trying to distance themselves from trump. headlines like these that are peppering the op-ed pages. time for a trump intervention. trump is holding the gop hostage and the self-immunization of the republican party pap th. that last headline from matthew continetti who wroits, the republican party should receive a darwin award by supporting the least qualified, least knowledgeable -- didn't come from any liberal wag. the washington free beacon, folks. donald trump is also playing serious defense in the money game. clinton camp is already blitzing battleground airwaves with a 20-plus million ad buy for the next two weeks, while trump is stuck fundraising in deep red states and has yet to go on the air to r

mr. fisher? >> schmuhl, no. you don't remember cutting his throat? no. you don't remember aiming your gun and shooting it at sue duncaneporter: so shortly before court adjourned today schmuhl's lawyers told the judge they want to use the unconsciousness defense that would allow them to call on a medical expert to testify how his many medications could have impacted him and impaired him. earlier in the trial the judge rejected their request to use an involuntary intoxication question. the judge will hear the argument tomorrow morning and make a ruling. >> julie carey reporting. thank you, julie. >>> a cigarette may have sparked a deadly fire i it happened at an apartment on moezby woods drive and a neighbor heard a smoke alarm and woke up 20 other people in the building and 74-year-old william patten was killed and neighbors tell us he was a veteran and heavy smoker. >>> the senate is facing a tough battle as it looks for a leg up on the war on synthetic drugs. each drug has a distinct chemical compound and manufacturers frequently change the formulas to stay ahead of federal laws. d.c. police chief kathy lanier testif

mr. fisher? >> schmuhl, no. >> you don't remember cutting his throat? >> no. you don't remember aiming your gun and shooting it at sue dunc duncan? no.ked about any attack or the evidence, schmuhl's answers were the same, i don't know. i don't recall. i don't remember. >> reporter: prosecutors also pointed out that schmuhl had the presence of mind that night to retrieve his hat and coat and every piece of the taser darts before he fled. just before court adjourned this afternoon, his defense attorneys provided a legal name for this defense. coming up at 6:00, i'll tell you more about the unconsciousness defense. back to you now in the studio. >> julie, thank you. >>> students in prince georges county scls opportunity to jump-start their college careers. prince georges community college opened a hub for high school. juniors and seniors who enroll in the dual program can earn college credit while still in high school. school officials tell us through this ongoing partnership the number of high school students earning college credit has increased 20fold since 2013. >>> so i think i was sitting here where the rain came through our area a