mr. ellison: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: one minute the gentleman is recognized. mr. ellison: madam speaker, we could spend five hours today and tomorrow talking about jobs. we could consider a jobs plan that the president offered before this very body. but we won't. because we have to go repeal health care again for the 31st time. you would have thought the 17th time would be good. 29th time. 3 is-s -- 31st time is like they are going for a record. of course the senate is not going to take this this up. this is political theater at its worse because americans are out of work than body isn't doing anything about it. everyone here knows that the president can't just rip up a jobs bill out of thin air. congress has to pass it. but congress won't pass it because they are busy doing political stunts. and that is a shame. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman seek recognition? mr. ellison: i seek recognition to move to

mr. ellison: mr. chairman, representative eshoo and i have submitted this very straightforward amendment for a very simple reason. we believe that it's simply fair and it's good for public disclosure to require defense contractors to publicly show and disclose their political contributions. money, secret money in particular, can breed corruption. sunlight will banish it away. when government contractors make political contributions there's no doubt that the office knows who gave them money. the only ones in the dark are the american public. this can lead to corruption where contracts donate to candidates they believe will benefit them. and this would misserve our democracy. we need full disclosure so that the public can ensure that contracts are awarded based on merit rather than money. now, some have expressed a concern that in the past, that disclosure, a precontract disclosure requirement could be a problem because they fear that agencies would choose contractors for partisan reasons. while i think

mr. ellison, for five minutes. mr. ellison: thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate everything everyone has said about the defense of the affordable care act, but rather than striking a position or coming up with basically -- it was pretty humorous and entertaining by my good friend from texas, i appreciate his presentation, i just want to talk about a person. this is the person i want to talk about. this is a young lady from my district, in the prime of her youth, she's only 25. and i'd like to talk to her -- talk to you about her a little bit, mr. speaker. today we're going to vote to repeal the affordable care act for the 31st time. we're wasting two days debating a bill that has already passed a house and has no chance in the senate. rather than spend our time creating jobs, we spend it trying to take health care away from those who need it most. one of those people, mr. speaker, is an individual by the name of julie doyle. this is julie. this is julie. jewel owe's 25, as i said -- julie's 25, as i said, and her life has been filled with numerous roa

mr. ellison: madam speaker, state legislators all across the country are passing photo i.d. laws that could strip millions of americans of their right to vote. students, communities of color, low-income individuals and seniors are particularly at risk of being disenfranchised. just one example, in march this year a world war ii veteran in tennessee was denied the right to vote because he did not have an i.d. that matched his assisted living address. in minnesota which is considering a misguided constitutional amendment on photo i.d., 215,000 renlsterd voters don't have a driver's license or i.d. card with a current address on it. and if it passes, it will disenfranchise all of them. why put these voters at risk? proponents claim fraud. but there's not any fraud. the voter fraud is already illegal, and the number of confirmed cases is insignificant statistically. there are only a tiny number of cases, and for this to disenfranchise literally millions of people? thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from flori

mr. ellison: it's always a great benefit when we can work things out and occasionally we do just as we have just seen. that's a good thing. i do have an obligation to speak up for constituents in my own on this issue. mr. speaker, i have to say on the record that there have been more than 17,000 people killed in syria over the last 14 months. . when a nonviolence began in the city of darah, violence against civilians has escalated rapidly months and there have been large massacres in villages of hullah, kuber and possibly trumsa. the arab league is overwhelmingly condemned al asad's violent oppression. one country, russia, has refused to stopal assad and his campaign. in fact, a russian cargo ship could deliver them this week. there is substantial evidence that al asad is using threats against innocent civilians in syria. i was surprised to learn that we are buying russian owned weapons. we are supporting syria's armed dealer which is enabling the syrian regime's blacky crackdown. this should stop and that's why i urge all to support this. we should not be supporting syria's armed dealer. i

mr. moore are right. americans are going to embrace this bill. >> congressman keith ellison, wes moore, thank you for yourght. >> thank you, sir there it has been 47 years since the voting rights act. now we are fighting not just against new voter i.d. laws but also against the right wing challenges to the voting rights act itself. how we got here and how we must go forward. martin luther king iii, we are honored to have him here with us tonight. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense. >>> the law says mitt romney and his campaign may not coordinate with super pac supporting his campaign