mr. fortenberry. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. fortenberry: when pressed last week by a reporter about the tragic events on september 11, 2012 in benghazi, the former spokesperson said, dude this was like two years ago. this juvenile and unprofessional response has only added to the concern that we still do not have a full understanding of what occurred that night. what we do know is that our ambassador, chris stevens and three other americans are dead. several from the congressional committees have looked into this question and concluded different things and there are many lingering questions still unanswered. they reached different conclusions. but the lingering questions are made worse by the fact that we now know that emails from the administration may have been withheld from congress. this is the reason that we need a select committee. to probe deeply and get clear answers with a singular goal in mind, to restore the public trust. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter:

mr. fortenberry. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. fortenberry: when pressed last week by a reporter about the tragic events on september 11, 2012 in benghazi, the former spokesperson said, dude this was like two years ago. this juvenile and unprofessional response has only added to the concern that we still do not have a full understanding of what occurred that night. what we do know is that our ambassador, chris stevens and three other americans are dead. several from the congressional committees have looked into this question and concluded different things and there are many lingering questions still unanswered. they reached different conclusions. but the lingering questions are made worse by the fact that we now know that emails from the administration may have been withheld from congress. this is the reason that we need a select committee. to probe deeply and get clear answers with a singular goal in mind, to restore the public trust. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter:

mr. fortenberry. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fortenberry: i thank the chairman for yielding and, had mr. speaker, i want to -- mr. chairman, i want to start by commending the leadership of chairman mckeon and ranking member smith and getting this bill to the floor in such a timely way. especially after the president's budget was quite late. but also in getting this bill here on a unanimous vote of the committee. none of us agree with every provision that's in this bill, but members of the committee were able to put aside personal preferences on individual issues to support a bill that benefits the nation overall. and i hope that the house will do likewise. and i think it is important to emphasize that it has been a bipartisan effort with the chairman and the ranking member, also with the chairman of the subcommittees and the ranking member of the subcommittees working together, that has got us to this place. i think it is especially important that -- appropriate for this bill to be named for chairman mckeon. not only as a recogni

mr. fortenberry: thank you, mr. speaker. we just heard an extensive debate about the future of america's defense policy. and i want to commend the chairman for including an important amendment that i offered that does address a serious, serious issue. it is very hard to react to something that has not happened yet and frankly we are in a race between collaboration or catastrophe in regards to nuclear security and the threat of nuclear proliferation around the world. this technology is spreading very, very rapidly. in the department's effort at cost savings and reorganization, it is important that our nonproliferation efforts not slip, not become a second priority. it may be easy to do that because again, when things don't happen it appears that we are secure. but this is one of the most grave difficulties facing not only the united states but all of humanity. so i'm very grateful that in this bill we now have an effort to demand that the department explain its important reorganization efforts and how it is going to address t

mr. fortenberry. the chair: the gentleman from texas is recognized for one inute. mr. thornberry: if the president had a plan of exactly what he would do and how he would do it, including what the costs would be, where he would move them, what the costs of security would be wherever he would move them, i might support that. in all the time since the president has been in office he's not come up with a specific plan that's gotten the support of the american people or this congress even when democrats controlled both houses of congress, they were not able to pass a -- legislation to close guantanamo. so if he can put a plan together to -- that gets the support of the congress, support of the american people, i think that may be a step forward. but to say we're going to close way, along thehe way, you can tell us what you're going to do, that's putting the cart before the horse. the president needs to get the will of the american people, he hasn't done that. the american people are clear, they are uncomfortable with the detainees coming here. it's premature to close it an