mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves his time. the gentleman from west virginia. mr. rahall: before i yield to the author of the pending legislation, i would like to make a couple of comments and praise him for his work, his hard work and his determination and his persistence and patience on the pending matter. for 20 years, representative and beer come by and i have served together on the natural resources committee. we have fought battles together and i'm proud to call him a friend, unique friend, and i'm not getting chocolate-covered nuts this evening. he has been able to work together with members of differing views and backgrounds and has always remained decent, fair-minded, able to reach across the aisle, both politically and philosophically. and i find that truly a commendable feature of this gentleman. he will be leaving the congress, as we have already heard, from the minority side, at the end of this week. i can tell him that his mark o

mr. hastings: mr.speaker, i send to the desk a privileged report from the committee on rules for filing under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the -- report the title. the clerk: report to accompany house resolution 1109, resolution providing for consideration of the senate amendments to the bill h.r. 3961, to amend title 18 of the social security act to reform the medicare sgr payment system for physicians and reinstitute and update the pay-as-you-go requirement of budget neutrality on new tax and mandatory spending legislation enforced by the threat of annual automatic sequestration. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? mr. hastings: mr. speaker, by direction of the committee on rules i call up house resolution 1105 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 163, house resolutio

mr. hastings and my colleague from texas, mr. rodriguez, are making improvements to this bill to ensure that the strategic plan takes into consideration the talents of women and minority populations in the cybersecurity work force and that the university industry task force include representatives from minority-serving institutions. i therefore urge support for this amendment and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida. mr. hastings: madam speaker, i yield 30 seconds to the distinguished chairperson of the committee. the chair: the gentleman from tennessee is recognized. mr. gordon: first of all, let me thank my friend from florida for his very kind words but more importantly i want to thank him for introducing this important legislation. we can have the best technology in the world but we don't have the work force to go with it, then the bad guys win and this will go a long way to improving and expanding our work force and i thank the gentleman for t

mr. hastings of florida, amendment number 12 by schauer of michigan. the the unfinished business is the -- the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 1, as modified, by mr. reyes of texas on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 1 printed in house report 111-419 offered by mr. reyes of texas, as modified. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 239. and the nays are 16 -- . the c

mr. hastings of florida. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 1105, the gentleman from florida, mr. hastings, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the gentleman from florida is now recognized. mr. hastings: madam chair, i'd like to correct some things because i've been here all day listening to our colleagues complain about the process. this is the beginning of the process and it's an important one, one that has not been undertaken in four years such that we have not had an authorization bill for all that time. now, i'm sure that my colleagues know that when this measure is completed and on the other side of the other body that we will have a conference and many of the discussions that are being heard here today are likely to be addressed in that conference report. now i've stated time and again that the intelligence community is not diverse enough to do its job of obtaining and analyzing foreign countries' secrets. diversity is a mission imperative. we need people who blend in, speak the language and understand the cultures in the countries that we are targeting. the

mr. hastings.t making sure that we have a clear, complete understanding of the different languages and cultures around the world. in the world of intelligence, diversity translates directly into improved operational capability. mr. speaker, as the chairman of the intelligence committee, it has been a privilege to work with both sides of the aisle to craft this bill. it's important to keep in mind that all of these issues are vital and important components of making sure we do our work. with that, i urge all my colleagues to support this rule and enact these critical provisions into law. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate concurs in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 129 9 cit

mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, last week americans were encouraged when president obama mentioned offshore drilling in his state of the union address. yet it took only five short days for the president to reveal his true intentions on offshore drilling. the president's budget plans shows revenues from new offshore leases dramatically declining in the next five years. if more areas are open to exploration, revenues would increase, not decrease. less revenue means less exploration. this shows this administration has no intention of opening up new areas to offshore drilling. in 2008, the decade-long ban on offshore drilling was ended because the public demanded it. as a result, we now have over 500 million new acres available for energy production, but this administration is purposely shoozing not to act. the president's words don't match his actions. this administration's policies are preventing the creation of millions of new american jobs. mr. speaker, it's time for america to move forward with an all-of-t