mr. griffin: thank you, mr. speaker. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado leak to address. >> i ask that my name be removed from h.r. 1380. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> i ask unanimous consent that my name be removed from h.r. 1380. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. observation. -- the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado like to be recognized. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly the house earlier today, we spoke with a capitol hill reporter on the upcoming spending bills and the debate over raising the debt ceiling. >> the house is finishing burch all -- work on the fee a spending bill. >> and what about an amended with -- which deals with military project? >> it is attempting to strike language that would prevent projects funded under the bill to east project labor agreements, and even though he is a r

mr. griffin: thank you, mr. chairman. i rose today in strong support of h.r. 1249, the america invents act, and i urning my colleagues to support it. make no mistake, the america invents act is a jobs bill. at no cot to taxpayers, this legislation builds on what we as americans do best. we innovate. bolstering american innovation will create jobs at a time when we need it most. the american invents act ends speed diversion and switches the u.s. to a first inventor to file system. these changes will streamline the patent application process to help american innovators bring their intentions so market. each new commercialized intention has the potential to cate american jobs. this is a jobs bill. a provision that i worked on included in the bill would make permanent the patent trademark office's ombudsman program for small businesses concerns. this program will provide support and services for independent inventors who may not have the resources to obtain legal council f guidance on obtaining a patent. this provision ensure

mr. griffin, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. griffin: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd like to yield to some of my friends here. we're going to spend some time talking tonight about the difficulty this country is having in terms of unemployment and job creation. and we've got a big challenge ahead of us and the republicans here in the house have a lot of good ideas about how we can get this economy going. how we can take the regulatory burden off of small businesses, how we can reform the tax code for individuals and for businesses so we can be competitive. i'd like to yield to my friend from illinois, adam kinzinger. mr. kinzinger: i thank the gentleman from arkansas for yielding. you know, we're facing some pretty tough times in our country. i remember days when we had very little unemployment and if you wanted a job, you had multiple offer when is you got out of college and everybody needed you and the economy was thriving and now we're creeping back up in the unemployment. i remember we passed an $800 billion spending package out

mr. griffin: thank you, mr. chairman. i rose today in strong support of h.r. 1249, the america invents act, and i urning my colleagues to support it. make no mistake, the america invents act is a jobs bill. at no cost to taxpayers, this legislation builds on what we as americans do best. we innovate. bolstering american innovation will create jobs at a time when we need it most. the american invents act ends speed diversion and switches the u.s. to a first inventor to file system. these changes will streamline the patent application process to help american innovators bring their intentions so market. each new commercialized intention has the potential to create american jobs. this is a jobs bill. a provision that i worked on included in the bill would make permanent the patent trademark office's ombudsman program for small businesses concerns. this program will provide support and services for independent inventors who may not have the resources to obtain legal council for guidance on obtaining a patent. this provision e

mr. griffin: thank you. i rise in opposition to house joint resolution 68 which authorizes the president to continue military operations in libya. i appreciate all the policy arguments that i have heard here today, but the question for me is, is it illegal or not? if it's a question of law, then all of the arguments about making this group mad or not being a good ally, etc., those are very persuasive, but those are not legal arguments. those don't change whether the actions in libya are constitutional or legal. those are policy arguments. the president continues to be in violation of the war powers resolution which requires congressional approval for military action within 60 days of the initial use of our armed forces. that deadline expired long ago. the president continues to involve the u.s. military in this illegal conflict and has continually ignored requests to gain congressional approval. what's so hard, mr. president, about coming to the house and consulting with the congress? what's so hard about th

mr. griffin: thank you.ition to house joint resolution 68 which authorizes the president to continue military operations in libya. i preciate all the policy arguments that i have heard here today, but the question for me is, is it illegal or not? if it's question of law, then all of the arguments about making this group mad or not being a good ally, etc., those are very persuasive, but those are not legal arguments. those don't change whether the actions in libya are constitutional or legal. those are policy arguments. the president continues to be in violation of the war powers resolution which requires congressional approval for military action within 60 days of the initial use of our armed forces. that deadline expired long ago. the president continues to involve the u.s. military in this illegal conflict and has continually ignored requests to gain congressional approval. what's so hard, mr. president, about coming to the house and consulting with the congress? what's so hard about that? the other presid

mr. griffin: thank you. i rise in opposition to house joint resolution 68 which authorizes the president to continue military operations in libya. i appreciate all the policy arguments that i have heard here today, but the question for me is, is it illegal or not? if it's a estion of law, then all of the arguments about making this group mad or not being a good ally, etc., those are very persuasive, but those are not legal arguments. thosdon't change whether the actions in libya are constitutional or legal. those are policy arguments. the president continues to be in violation of the war powers resolution which requires congressional approval for military action within 60 days of the initial use of our armed forces. that deadlinexpired long ago. the president continues to involve the u.s. military in this illegal conflict and has continually ignored requests to gain congressional approval. what's so hard, mr. president, about comingo the house and consulting with the congress? what's so hard about that? the

mr. griffin: this country has not seen job loss like we will see if we have a debt crisis. and if we want to be the country like many of us grew up in, a country that is innovative and leads the world in technology and advancement, then we have to deal with our crushing debt. and what has been striking on the issue of the debt here tonight is i've been listening to colleagues from the other side of the aisle, and i've heard about all these plans, i've heard about plans to pay down the debt, plans to deal with the deficit, i've heard about their medicare plan. the bottom line is, they don't have a plan. this president and the senate controlled by senator reid, they don't have a plan. they don't have a plan for medicare, they don't have a plan in the form of a budget, they don't have a plan to get the debt under control. they don't have a plan. their only plan is to let the house lead. they will let us be bold while they are politically timid. they have no plan. it would be easy to have a debate between our plan and their plan. but they don't have a plan. so we are left with

mr. griffin: i see people come to the floor in favor of our food programs, at the same time any of those members come down and attempt to pull the rug out from under farmers by scrapping programs that provide an important safety net to our producers. we have to be clear, we can't have a stable food supply for recipients and nutritional programs unless our commodity producers have some stability. through a deliberate and balanced approach, they've targeted program benefits for those who depend on farming for their livelihood. by setting the income level at an appropriate level, the committee recognized the production costs and the economies to scale that is necessary to be competitive in today's agriculture. and overly restrictive a.g.i. ceiling disregards the financial reality of commercially viable farms. let's be clear about this. a farmer's a.g.i. is not profit. mr. crawford: there are a number of expenses that must be covered. in addition, farmers must service the debt, the costs of machinery can reach into the millions of dollars. at a time when more and more people rely on the prod

mr. griffin: thank you.osition to house joint resolution 68 which authorizes the president to continue military operations in libya. i appreciate all the policy arguments that i have heard here today, but the question for me is, is it illegal or not? if it's a question of law, then all of the arguments about making this group mad or not being a good ally, etc., those are very persuasive, but those are not legal arguments. those don't change whether the actions in libya are constitutional or legal. those are policy arguments. the president continues to be in violation of the war powers resolution which requires congressional approval for military action within 60 days of the initial use of our armed forces. that deadline expired long ago. the president continues to involve the u.s. military in this illegal conflict and has continually ignored requests to gain congressional approval. what's so hard, mr. president, about coming to the house and consulting with the congress? what's so hard about that? the other

mr. griffin: end quote. i couldn't agree more. i couldn't agree more. the president recognized last year that we need to move quickly with regard to these agreements that will increase exports. why? because if we increase exports we increase jobs. some estimates say that if we pass these three trade agreements, that we will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. . it's important we pass them quickly. why? i sat down last week with the -- this past week with the ambassador from colombia. and he was talking about how his country has greatly increased trade with europe. while they're waiting on the administration here in the united states to move the agreement with their country soy that we can increase our exports and do business more efficiently , create jobs in this country. he said, we're waiting, we're waiting for the administration to take action. we keep hearing, it's coming. it's coming. we're working on it. but he knows that those are just words. we need to get these trade deals passed and in place so we can compete. right now, businesses from euro

mr. john king. >>> up next here on cnn, drew griffin digging through the sthouns of e-mails sarah palin received andent when she was governor of alaska. when we come back, he'll tell us about the one she sent when she became john mccain's running mate. >> we also have the latest on congressman anthony weiner who announced he's entering a treatment center. >> many of you have been asking us questions, reaching out online, you can reach us on twitter, facebook, cnn.com, and foursquare.com. we're back in a moment. economic. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. >>> before sarah palin became a force to be reckoned with in politics. she became the well-known governor of alaska. drew griffin pored over the e-mails and showed what we found. >> this is what we'r

mr. brewer authorized it. >> well, he went on to sayhood wait to see more until an atf inspector general finishes investigating. we put drew griffin and the cnn special investigations unit on the story keeping them honest. >> reporter: december 14th of last year, border patrol agent brian terry, approaches what looks like a routine scene. men gathered along the arizona-mexico border. it turns out they are bandits, helping smuggle illegals into the u.s. there's a gun fight, and agent terry is shot dead. an investigation reveals the weapon used to kill him was purchased in the u.s. and here's the catch. the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms knew about that illegal weapon and actually allowed it into mexico. >> and in fact, you believe the people who formulated this plan have blood on their hands? >> without a doubt. >> how the gun that killed agent terry got into mexico was part of a program run by the atf called operation gun runner or fast and furious. the plan? monitor the illegal guns crossing the border, link them to drug cartel leaders, then somehow arrest some of the most dangerous men in mexico. the problem? once the g