mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. cummings: may i inquire how much time we have? the chair: the gentleman from maryland has 15 seconds remaining, the gentleman from california has three minutes remaining. mr. couple k -- mr. cummings: i urge the adoption of this amendment. this is an appropriate way to address this, it is a reasonable way. with that, yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield back. the chair: the question son the amendment offered by the gentleman from maryland. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the amendment is agreed. to it is now in order to consider amendment number 34 printed in house report 111-182. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey rise? >> mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. th

mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i'm happy to yield at this time to mr. turner, the gentleman from ohio, subcommittee ranking member, two minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. turner: thank you, ranking member mckeon. i want to thank the gentleman for the amendment that's in the en bloc. jim marshall and i introduced nato first bill. with the chairman supporting it, six out of eight of the bills is in the national defense authorization act. as the u.s. and russia begin or start negotiations, this treaty expiring at the end of 2009, it's important for us to set some framework. this amendment would limit the use of f.y. 2010 defense funds to implement reductions for u.s. strategic nuclear forces pursuant to a treaty with russia. for example, start, unless the president certifies that the treaty, one, provides sufficient verification mechanisms. two, does not limit u.s. ballistic missile defense systems, space capabilities, advanced defense capabilities. the amendment also requir

mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield now to the chairman of the armed services committee, the gentleman from missouri, chairman skelton, two minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. skelton: mr. chairman, i respectfully disagree with this amendment, and i respectfully oppose it. this amendment sends exactly the wrong message, focusing on an exit strategy which may well reinforce a perception among the afghans that we are not committed to protecting them from the taliban and al qaeda. mr. chairman, we have a new commander on the ground. we've added tens of thousands of jobs. we're adding hundreds of civilian experts. we should not undermine those efforts. commanders make a difference. as you know, we have general mcchrystal, who has replaced general mckernan in afghanistan. history shows that new commanders make a big difference. let's give general mcchrystal the opportunity to show what american troops and american civilians, state department and others can do. history shows

mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i'm happy to yield to the gentleman from georgia, mr. gingrey, such time as he may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. gingrey: mr. chairman, thank you, i thank the gentleman for yielding. rise -- i rise in support of representative connolly's amendment. but this amendment does not go nearly far enough. let me try to explain in the limited time i have, the energy security and independence act of 2007 has in it a section 526. which does not allow any agency of the federal government to use a fuel source that has one scintilla increased amount of carbon dioxide footprint other than bubble up petroleum. the department of defense uses about 350,000 barrels of refined petroleum products every day. most of that by the air force and the use of jet fuel. and in this country, we have so much domestic source of nonconventional bubble up petroleum, i'm talking about things like shale in particular and the liquefy case of coal liquefication of coal. we probably have a 150 year supply of coal and can't touch that even though the depa

mr. mckeon will each control five minutes. mr. skelton: i urge adoption of the amendments and i yield two minutes to mr. kratovil. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. kratovil: i rise in support of the en bloc amendment and i -- two specific amendments i offered are included and i urge my colleagues to support the measures. the first urges stability and security in afghanistan. it requires a comprehensive assessment othat improves our understanding of the role being played by our coalition partners in afghanistan. my amendment requires that any specifics shared with nato countries as well as non-nato troop contributing nations regarding the following -- mutually agreed upon goals, strategies to reach those goals and troop and resource levels. it also requires a listing of unfulfilled commitment of partners and the data for each reconstruction team from anywhere but the united states. current law permits installations to receive financial incentives for energy management measures, only from electric utility

mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield at this time to the gentleman from ohio, mr. turner, ranking member on strategic forces subcommittee, three minutes. the chair: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for three minutes. mr. turner: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank and congratulate chairman skelton, ranking member mckeon, its predecessor, john mchugh, who has been nominated as secretary of the army, and lend my support for the fiscal year 2010 national defense authorization act. i'd also like to thank mrs. tauscher, chairwoman of the strategic forces subcommittee. she has provided a strong and thoughtful voice on national security issues. i wish the very best in her new position as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. this bill contains sound, bipartisan provisions that provide key capabilities to our war fighters, strengthens our nation's strategic forces and sustains the intellectual capital supporting our national security infrastructure. the national nuclear s

mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield now to the gentleman from new jersey one minute, mr. garrett. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for one minute. mr. garrett: i thank the ranking member. i thank the chair. thank you for the inclusion of this amendment with regard to israel and the underlying bill. i'd like to speak for that minute then with regard to one of our strongest allies in the middle east and that is the state of israel. i'm thankful for the strong relationship that we have, that our two countries share a lot in common, that we fought for peace and freedom. we both continue to pursue liberty despite ongoing opposition. we both face many common enemies. now, throughout my time in congress i've been a strong supporter of israel's right to exist. and when you think about it, it's even disturbing that we have to come here and talk about it in terms of such as that. but the truth of the matter is there are few peoples on earth where more of the crosshairs than israel. not even

mr. mckeon: i reserve. mr. skelton: mr. chairman -- the chair: the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: the amendment before us is one that is technical in nature and seeks to clarify several technical misstatements and problems that arose in the drafting of the bill. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from missouri. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. . it is now in order to consider amendment number 3 printed in house report 111-182. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. mcgovern: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 3, printed in house report number 111-182, offered by mr. mcgovern of massachusetts. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 572, and the order of the house of today, the

mr. mckeon: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mckeon: as legislators we meet once again to address the wide range of important national security issues undertaken by the departments of defense and energy. we all take our legislative responsibilities very seriously. this is especially true during the time of war and it's always true of my good friend and colleague, armed services committee chairman ike skelton. i would be remiss without saying a word about the outgoing ranking member john mchugh. we agree this committee, this congress and the 23rd district of new york will all miss the leadership of john mchugh. i look forward to speaking more about john later in our debate. as a result of chairman skelton's efforts to put forward this bill, our committee reported out the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2010 last wednesday. the vote was unanimous, 61-0. consistent with the long-standing bipartisan practice of the armed services committee, this bill reflects our committ

mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield to the gentleman from maryland, mr. bartlett, the ranking member on the airland subcommittee such time as he may consume. the chair: the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. barton: thank you. i'd like to thank my -- mr. -- mr. bartlett: thank you. i'd like to thank all the hard work that has taken place behind the scenes to get this bill done. this is not an easy process. and the legislation before us reflects many difficult decisionings -- decisions. once again this bill places forced protection issues at the top of the priority list. it provides additional funds for the national guard equipment account and the service's unfunded priority list and the changes this bill makes in regards to body armor is long overdue and will provide better protection for our war fighters for years to come. as i said during our oversight hearings and subcommittee markup, there hst no doubt that this budget and the decisions that come along with it will fundamentally change the united states air force and army. i see two problems.

mr. mckeon one minute, mr. turner one minute. the chair: the gentleman from arizona went 30 seconds other his time. mr. franks: i'll yield the gentleman from alabama, mr. griffith, one minute. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. griffith: madam chair, congressman franks, i appreciate this difficult situation. i believe that as the budget was formed and the decisions were made, north korea was not as aggressive, nor was iran. i stand in support of the franks amendment. i share the speaker's concern, madam chair's concern, that accountability needs to be increased but in this time of increasing threat, i would prefer that we err on the side of the franks amendment even if we must attach certain conditions to it in conference, but i would urge our members to support it. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from alabama yields back. the gentlewoman from california. mrs. tauscher: i'd like to yield two minutes to mr. langevin. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. l

mr. mckeon: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank my good friend from california, mr. dreier, for yielding the time. as ranking member on armed services, i rise in opposition to this rule and to the war supplemental conference report for one simple reason -- it will endanger our troops in harm's way. compared with a clean troop funding bill that passed the house with bipartisan support in may, this package cuts $4.7 billion from defense we passed at that time to create room for $105 billion global bailout loan program. what should be a clean military funding bill has become a means for the president's promise to provide more foreign aid to the international monetary fund. those funds will eventually make their way to countries that are less than friendly to the united states at the expense of programs to support our troops. and even more disturbing is the decision by conferees to reject a motion offered by republicans to prohibit release of detainee photos that could exacerbate tensions in the very regions our troops are fighting. mr. speaker, let me read to you a stat

mr. mckeon and jenny brown-waite and we will talk about elements of the plan.e will be working with the drafting folks on that and hopefully while we are almost always last in line with the resources available to congress these days, we are going to be working hard now to bring these concepts into legislative language as quickly as we can. >> thank you, roy. thank you for your leadership on the solutions group. i want to thank leader boehner and all of my colleagues here and those that are not here who helped really make it possible for us to come forward with an american solution to healthcare. the president said this should have a uniquely american solution. we have an american plan. one that we believe as has been said will really focus on affordability, accessibility and availability. the question is how do we do that? we think that it is very important that there be a robust waste fraud and abuse oversight of healthcare, not only in the government programs and medicare and medicaid but clearly the duplicity that away find in our healthcare system there sho

mr. mckeon, talk about the priority of funding for our troops. and then we listened to speeches made by our colleagues, and there was barely a mention of the issue of troop funding. we issues heard our colleague talk about firefighters. hey, i'm from southern california where we have fires and we have horrible fires, loss of life and property is something that regularly takes place there. it's a very, very important issue. it's an issue that should be considered under the regular appropriations process under the leadership of my california colleague, mr. lewis and mr. obey, not in a troop funding bill. then we listened to our very good friend from detroit talk about the automobile industry. a serious challenge that we as a nation are trying to address. i personally believe that the notion of continuing to see the government more and more involved in this area is not the right thing to do, but it's a debate that will go on. and yet, our friend, mr. levin, was talking about the issue of the automobile industry in this troop funding bill. then i lis

mr. speaker, i thank the the gentlewoman from maine for yielding. i would also like to thank in particular chairman skelton and ranking member mckeon for their leadership in crafting this legislation before us. this year's national defense authorization act takes significant steps forward in supporting our national guard and reserve. earlier this month iowa observed the one-year anniversary of the floods that devastated large parts of my district. the iowa national guard played a critical role in the response to those floods and their heroic work is a testament to the vital function the national guard plays in domestic disaster response, even as their role and operations abroad increases. nationwide more than $700,000 national guard and reserve soldiers have been cold to duty since september 11 2001 much. as the national guard continues to transform into an operational reserve, it is essential that they are properly resourced for both their overseas and homeland missions this. bill provides $6.9 billion. $600 million more than the president's request. to address equipment shortfalls in the reserve components. it also extends health care coverage for th