mr. lankford: mr. speaker, i'm prepared to close. i have no additional speakers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lankford: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman have additional speakers? -- mr. lankford: does the gentleman yield back? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois has yielded back. mr. lankford: this would be something we can do together. with that, sir, i urge all members to support the passage of h.r. 2548, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2548. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. mr. lankford: mr. speaker, i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make

mr. lankford of oklahoma. amendment by mr. gosar of arizona. a second amendment by mr. lankford of oklahoma. amendment number 14, mr. broun of georgia. and amendment by mr. walberg of michigan. the chair will reduce to five minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. blackburn, on which further proceedings were postponed and o on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment offered by mrs. blackburn of tennessee. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for 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 will be 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 hou

mr. lankford: i yield to the gentlelady from west virginia. mrs. capito: i would like to tell the gentleman i support his amendment and i think it lends itself to the transparency and full accountability and i thank him for bringing it forward. good work to the gentleman from oklahoma. the chair: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. frank: has the other side yielded? i won't speak, i'm the only speaker and i have the right to close. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. frank: mr. chairman, i appreciate the amendment and i had a chance to think about it and i am persuaded by its merits. this is a genuinely helpful amendment. but i do want to take this opportunity to talk about broader issues and i do so, i will say, i would not ordinarily have done this to take the five minutes in this way but the rule was so outrageously stingy in allowing debate time on central issues but we have no option but to use this perfectly reaso

mr. lankford: thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment is about eliminating wasteful duplication in our federal government, specifically dealing with the council of environmental quality. this amendment would eliminate the funding for that council of environmental quality and transfer the savings to the spending reduction account. this amendment will result in about a $2.7 million taxpayer savings. specifically the council on environmental quality, if people aren't familiar with it, it's a council of one person with a budget typically around $3 million. throughout the council's 40-year history it really has done little to demonstrate additional responsibilities other than what already is being accomplished by the environmental protection agency and noaa itself. former presidents have proposed a reduce in the budget for this council. this council blatantly duplicates the efforts of other federal agencies, as i already mentioned the environmental protection agency and noaa who are doing an excellent job in these same areas. t

mr. lankford, member of the budget committee. mr. lankford:. i speak in support of this bill. i came on as a freshman and in january of this year, we were already talking about th moment. and for months the conversation has been, how do we reach a point of agreement. there have been lots of ideas that have been floated around and very few put down in writing. but the ideas seem to circle around a central theme, how can we find a middle ground to be able to resolve this issue. i propose this bill is that middle ground. the debt reduction that's in it was the framework that was formed in the biden talks. the select committee that's in it is something veryimportant to the senate that harry reid raised that idea. the proposal to have a balanced budget amendment is very important to republicans who say let's have a moment to discuss that and the statutory caps that are coming are very important to republicans. this is a bill that has been discussed in its essence and in its core in a bipartisan fashion. and while we search for a compromise, i would suggest that we have found it and

mr. lankford: the gentleman yields back then. the chair: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from idaho rise? mr. simpson: move to strike the last word. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. simpson: mr. chairman, i rise in opposition to the amendment. what the amendment does is creates a 0% language that he is we've had in the past and make -- that -- 30% language that we've had in the past as a floor and makes it a floor. it provides grants to states that capitalize their programs. these programs offer low interest loans to communities for projects included in the state's intended use plan. these low interest loans are usually below market rates and are used to finance water and wastewater infrastructure projects. many small and disadvantaged communities with low income-based can hardly afford to apply for these loans even with the low interest loans. therefore this provision in the base text which we have had for a few years would offer zero interest loans, loans that forgive a portion of the principal or grants to

mr. lankford, for five minutes. mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lankford: 19 years ago my wife and i married. i was still in school. i was working as much as i could. she was also working but we were barely making to but we made the decision we were not going to run up credit card debt and live beyond our means. we paid our school loans, we tied to our church, we ate a lot of peanut butter and lived simply. as dave ramsey said, we were determined to live our wage. the borrower is the slave to the lender. 22 applies to families and proverbs 22 applies to nations. if we were living within our means as a nation almost all the debate in the last six months in this chamber would have been different. we tried every method in the fed's bag of tricks to protect the interest rate because if the rate goes up at all the house of cards fall. we work to manipulate banks, manufacturing, because we must keep revenue up. we manage every relationship worldwide because we need the borrowing liquidity. we borrow from f

mr. lankford, member of the budget committee. mr. lankford:. i speak in support of this bill. i came on as a freshman and in january of this year, we were already talking about this moment. and for months the conversation has been, how do we reach a point of agreement. there have been lots of ideas that have been floated around and very few put down in writing. but the ideas seem to circle around a central theme, how can we find a middle ground to be able to resolve this issue. i propose this bill is that middle ground. the debt reduction that's in it was the framework that was formed in the biden talks. the select committee that's in it is something very important to the senate that harry reid raised that idea. the proposal to have a balanced budget amendment is very important to republicans who say let's have a moment to discuss that and the statutory caps that are coming are very important to republicans. this is a bill that has been discussed in its essence and in its core in a bipartisan fashion. and while we search for a compromise, i would suggest that we have found it

mr. lankford, member of the budget committee. mr. lankford:. i speak in support of this bill. i came on as a freshman and in january of this year, we were already talking about this moment. and for months the conversation has been, how do we reach a point of agreement. there have been lots of ideas that have been floated around and very few put down in writing. but the ideas seem to circle around a central theme, how can we find a middle ground to be able to resolve this issue. i propose this bill is that middle ground. the debt reduction that's in it was the framework that was formed in the biden talks. the select committee that's in it is something very important to the senate that harry reid raised that idea. the proposal to have a balanced budget amendment is very important to republicans who say let's have a moment to discuss that and the statutory caps that are coming are very important to republicans. this is a bill that has been discussed in its essence and in its core in a bipartisan fashion. and while we search for a compromise, i would suggest that we have found it

mr. lankford: the debate topic was resolve. america should pursue alternative energy options. since the 1970's we've been talking about hydroelectric and solar and wind. we've been trying to advance this technology and i hope we will continue to crack the code on that to make those energy solutions work well for us. but since the 1970's we've been talking about trying to get off of fossil fuels and guess what? it is still the dominant resource that we are using in our country and it's still the most effective resource to be able to move our vehicles, be able to heat our homes and be able to produce these petrochemicals that are used in almost everything we lay our hands on. i hope one kay i can run my car -- one day i can run my car off a pin wheel that's on top of it but currently i runs off of gasoline. -- it returns off of gasoline. there's electricity in all the different dynamics that come in, i look at it and say, 43 years old, i've been hearing my whole life that we need a national energy policy, drilling, pipelines, production, retailing, to be able to work at a plan t

mr. lankford, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for two minutes. mr. lankford: thank you, madam speaker. we have two distinctly different views and it's not just republican or democrat views. one group cease the impending crisis as -- sees the impending crisis on whether we're going to vote to increase the debt creel and all the crisis is based around august 2. the other group sees the crisis as the debt itself. how you see the crisis will affect your view of how you choose to solve it. if the problem is the uncertainty around just this vote, then we do whatever it takes to get past august 2 and the problem is solved. if the problem is the debt when we raise the ceiling we will face a debt apreaching -- approaching $14 trillion with no strategy to pay off that debt and our disaster is not averted, it has been accelerated. one thing we know, just raising the debt limit does not solve the problem. we've done that many times in the past. the economy that we have now is

mr. lankford, kindly take the chair. the clerk: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for further consideration of h.r. 2354 which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2012, and for other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole rose earlier today, the bill had been read through page 23, line 10. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, proceedings will now resume on those amendments printed in the congressional record on which further discussions were postponed. an amendment -- the chair will reduce to twoin miss the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on an amendment offered by the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. tierney, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk

mr. lankford: i spent the holiday week listening to people in my district. no one said they wanted more government interference. no one said they wanted to celebrate independence day by having more government oversight. we need real spending limits to offset our serious budget shortfall. we can't continue this way. there's a limit to the debt we can carry. our current debt equals our g.d.p., and i hope that many in the house see that as a problem as well. we need to overhaul our entitlements. they are necessary for some but they will go broke if no one is held accountable. 15 years ago, the balanced budget amendment failed to pass the senate by one vote after it passed this house with overwhelming bipartisan support. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. lank spord: ill say went doe have a debt ceiling trote vote crisis, we have a debt crisis. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. po