mr. hastings, for yielding. mr. speaker, i rise today because the american people have grown weary of war. war destroyed the dreams, the hopes, aspiration, and longing of a people. a wise man once said every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a threat from those who hunger and the not fed. those who are cold and are not clothed, it's like spending money alone, it is spinning the threat of its labors, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of a children. these are not the words of dr. martin luther king jr., these are not the words of gandy -- gandhi. these are the words of a five star general, president dwight eisenhower. we have spent billions of dollars, thousands of our sons and daughters have been left on the battlefield and scarred by the brew tality of war. -- brutality of war. and glad the president is bringing 10,000 soldiers home from afghanistan, but we must do more to end this war and start investing in our future. we must continue, we cannot continu

mr. hastings. if you believe that this is just another example, the war is going to escalate, and you're concerned about that escalation and you want to put yourself on the record as saying, no, no more. no more. you have your chance to do that today with the rooney resolution. no more. i hold here in my hand, mr. speaker, a copy of the constitution of the united states of america. again, ratified this week in 1788. article 1, section 8, the congress shall have the power to declare war. article 1, section 9, no money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. mr. speaker, it's easy to say that foreign policy is the dominion of the president of the united states and it is. but the purse is the dominion of the u.s. house of representatives. i want to hearken back again of what the chairman of the rules committee said before, this should be a time of celebration, and, mr. speaker, when we have troops in harm's way it should be something that we are unified behin

mr. hastings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i thank my good friend from florida, mr. webster, for yielding the customary time. as he has said, the military construction and veterans' affairs appropriations act for fiscal year 2012, provides $144 billion in appropriations for veterans programs, military construction, projects, and other agencies and programs. this bipartisan effort, and mr. webster underscored that and i echo his sentiments in that regard, brought democrats and republicans together to craft legislation that provides the necessary funds for important military construction projects as well as improve the quality of life for veterans and military families. one of our colleagues who no longer serves here would be very proud of this measure, he and mr. dicks and others worked together for years, but i know ike skelton spent the greater portion of his career working to improve the quality of life for veterans and military families. so i pay homage to him that i have the privilege of presenting this measure on the floo

mr. hastings of florida. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 316, the gentleman from florida, mr. hastings, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. mr. hastings: thank you very much, madam chair. you know, in the past i've made the statement regarding offshore drilling as native floridian that i will be the last person standing opposed. but it would seem to me that there is ever-mounting evidence that republicans are willing to expand offshore drilling regardless of cost to the environment. this particular iteration of what i described as a near criminal energy policy takes the form of selling out hardworking americans' rights to breathe clean air. in particular this bill excludes shell oil's icebreaker ships in the arctic from regulation under the clean air act. shell has and will continue to argue that since its icebreakers are regulated under title 2 of the clean air act, the vessels don't also need to be regulated under title 1. yet the fact is that shell's ships would not be regulated under title 2 due to the fact t

mr. hastings. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman fr florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. you, mr. speaker. thank you, howard. it's hard time that congress asserts its authority and engages proactively with the administration on this los serious question of war. i just kind of wonder where my colleagues have been all these years that we have had presidents in war. it will be interesting to see a matchup ofheir votes with this one. mr. speaker, the underlying legislation authorizes the limited use of ited states' forces in support of the nato mission in libya. this legislation is a bipartisan effort to prevent the kind of open-ended, indefinite military commitment we have elsewhere in the world. register that as afghanistan and iraq. this resolution is the companion to forward-leaning senate legislation introduced by senators kerry, mccain and cardin and durbin. immediately after they introduced the legislation in the senate, i brought it to the house so we can make progress on this very important debate before us. if i had my way, and i don't, mr. chairman, we wouldn't be i

mr. hastings. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, howard. it's hard time that congress asserts its authority and engages proactively with the administration on this los serious question of war. i just kind of wonder where my colleagues have been all these years that we have had presidents in war. it will be interesting to see a matchup of their votes with this one. mr. speaker, the underlying legislation authorizes the limited use of united states' forces in support of the nato mission in libya. this legislation is a bipartisan effort to prevent the kind of open-ended, indefinite military commitment we have elsewhere in the world. register that as afghanistan and iraq. this resolution is the companion to forward-leaning senate legislation introduced by senators kerry, mccain and cardin and durbin. immediately after they introduced the legislation in the senate, i brought it to the house so we can make progress on thivery important debate before us. if i had my way, and i don't, mr. chairman

mr. hastings of california, amendment number 3 by mr. welch of vermont. amendment number 5, mr. rush of illinois, amendment number 6, by mr. quigley of illinois, amendment number 7 by eshoo of california, amendment number 8 by ms. capps of california. amendment number 9, by ms. hochul of new york and amendment number 10 of mr. schrader of oregon. the chair will reduce to five minutes after the first vote. the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 1 printed in part a of house report 112-111 by the gentlewoman from california on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 1 printed in part a of house report number 112-111 offered by misspear of california. 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 nationa

mr. hastings. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. k you, mr. speaker. thank you, howard. it's hard time that congress asserts its authority and engages proactively with the administration on this los serious question of war. i just kind of wonder where my colleagues have been all these years that we have had presidents in war. it will be interesting to see a matchup of their votes with this one. mr. speaker, the underlying legislation authorizes the limited use of united states' forces in support of the nato mission in libya. this legislation is a bipartisan effort to prevent the kind of open-ended, indefinite military commitment we have elsewhere in the world. register that as afghanistan and iraq. this resolution is the companion to forward-leaning senate legislation introduced by senators kerry, mccain and cardin and durbin. immediately after they introduced the legislation in the senate, i brought it to the house so we can make progress on this very important debate before us. if i had my way, and i don't, mr. chairman, we wouldn'

mr. hastings, yields back his time. the gentleman from florida, mr. nugent, is recognized. mr. nugent: mr. speaker, i support the rule and the underlying legislation and i encourage my colleagues to support it as well. i know that since i've come to the house i've gotten up here and talked time and time again about our government's core mission. there's no doubt there's nothing more central to the purpose of government than to provide for our nation's defenses. it's in the preamble of the constitution, provide for the common defense. it's in the oath we took when we swore -- when we're sworn into office to defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. h.r. 2219 fulfills our constitutional duty to provide for our nation's defense. additionally h. house res. 320 ensures it will review the legislation completely in an open and transparent manner that all american people deserve to see. with that i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the bal

mr. hastings.when i think about 3:00 in the morning on june 26, 2009, we had begun on 2005, june 25 of 2009, we began the debate on this horrible idea of cap and trade. and it was 3:00 in the morning that i was sitting upstairs with my rules committee colleagues, mr. speaker, and dropped in my lap, still hot because it had just come off the copying machine, was 300 pages of an amendment that we reported out force -- mr. woodall: two additional minutes. mr. dreier: at :00 this is morning we were handed this measure. what we have before us as again complied with the three-day layover requirement, not a single amendment was offered, and there is a proposal offered by a democrat and a proposal offered by a republican. and so, mr. speaker, i have to say that i believe that this rule is one that does allow for a free flowing debate. it allows for an opportunity to consider this. and it's not as if we haven't been engaged in this discussion for a long period of time. my friend from cleveland is here and h

mr. waxman is here, since we do about ten minutes each opening statements we can start doing those, and then we can wait for doc hastings and then go to the tradition. the committee is that we go to members for their opening statements after hours and then because of our schedules we will just move to the second panel after that. so, with that, i'm going to begin in recognizing myself for five minutes for an opening statement to recycle the hearing to order to recognize myself. this is a part of our ongoing effort to the committee to make certain we are providing safe and sustainable long-term storage of high-level nuclear fuel. specifically today we focus our attention on the part of the department of energy play and the process by which decisions have been made when it comes to the long-term repository. the matter if you support the continued use of nuclear energy or if you don't, we have a responsibility to deal with the existing spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste material from the nation's defense complex. as we sit in this room, spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants is piling up and remains scattered

mr. chairman. thank our distinguished first panel. it is good to see you. we are glad that congressman hastings is back. just remember, this is the energy and commerce committee. no more shenanigans as you were trying earlier. our nation is sitting on 13,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. our nation is sitting on over 65,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants. there is 78,000 tons of nuclear fuel in many states. as you well know, we spent over $15 billion in taxpayer funds in 2009. it is clear that the safe and permanent storage of nuclear waste is a critical element of a long-term energy strategy. study after study has shown that yucca mountain is suitable for storage of that waste. we are here to discuss the decision to terminate being yucca mountain repository. this administration has, for what i think our political reasons, has determined that get the mountain is not a workable option. i think it is unsettling that the department of energy stopped short of characterizing yet the mountain as unsuitable. instead, it said unworkable. it did this to circumvent the law as