mr. nugent: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of h.res. 320 and the underlying legislation 2219 which appropriates funds for the department of defense for fiscal year 2012. the rule is truly an open rule. one which provides for ample debate on the bill and gives members of both the minority and the majority the opportunity to participate in debates. any member can submit an amendment to h.r. 22 as long as it's germane in keeping with the rules of the house. as a member of the rules committee, i'm proud of the transparency, the openness and the free-flowing debate that we've seen thus far in the 112th congress, especially in the appropriation process. one way we can show our commitment to change, we promised the american people is by supporting open rules like this. the underlying bill keeps our promise to bring an end to wasteful pet projects in keeping with the house earmark ban, h.r. 2219 doesn't contain a single earmark. now as a father of three sons all currently serving the united states army

mr. nugent: mr. speaker, just in response. the letter that we have from the congressional budget office of may 26 talks about c.b.o. estimates enacting the bill would reduce net direct spend ig by $725 million. -- spending by $725 million. i'm not sure if we have the same letter. but this is the letter i referred to, mr. speaker, and i suggest those on the other side of the aisle may look at the same letter. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. mr. polis: to be clear the gentleman from florida refers to a letter regarding the initial bill. the manager's amendment actually changes the equation the gentleman indicated and renders that side letter inaccurate relating to the manager's amendment which if adopted under this rule will then be part of the bill. i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, a member of the budget committee, mr. tonko. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker

mr. nugent: mr. speaker, the question before the house is, should the house now consider h.r. 316? while the resolution waives all points of order against consideration of the bill, the committee is not aware of any points of order. the waiver is prove latic in nature. the -- it would oppose both intergovernmental and private sector mandates. as defined by the unified mandates reform act on certain patent application. other entities would also be preempted from the courts to hear certain patent cases. however, the patten and trademark office, the congressional budget office estimates that the cost of complying with both mandates to state, local and tribal governments would fall far below the annual threshold established by the unfunded mandates reform act because the cost of complying with the mandates fall below the annual threshold. it is prophylactic in nature. i ask members to vote yes on the question of consideration and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman fr

mr. nugent: there is no further amendment. we withdraw that amendment. the chair: the gentleman from california yield back? does the gentleman from georgia wish to be recognized? mr. kingston: move to strike the last word. the chair: scrarked for five minutes. mr. kingston: i want to clarify some things on this that is important. number one, i want to make sure we all realize that a.l.s. is funded at $993 million and that the foreign aid services at $175 million and the foreign aid service actually does have a valuable role in representing u.s. agriculture overseas and it's not all about importing their products as much as it is working and making sure that we can -- kind of a two-way street. but i wanted to yield to the gentleman if he wanted some more time to explain it. my inclination is to take the amendment, although a.r.s. is saying it has a pretty big funding level already and i wanted you to speak more and maybe warm us up a little, there is a lot of criticism and somebody coming in to increase it. the amendment is paid for. i don't know that $2 m

mr. nugent's criticism in a new segment i'm calling "good point; other point." (laughter) here to take the other point position is n.y.u. art history major robin greenfield. robin, thank you so much for joining me. (applause) robin, ted nugent has condemned your generation as lazy and apathetic. your response. >> who's ted nugent? (laughter) >> stephen: okay, okay. okay, well... he... he made a bunch of hit records in the '70s. >> what's a record? (laughter) >> stephen: okay, it's... it's the way we used to buy music. >> buy music? (laughter) >> stephen: o.k., um, all right, he's the motor city madman. come on! ted nugent! "cat scratch fever!" bow hunting! ♪ you've got to wango tango... laugh (laughter) well, that's... that's food for thought there. still, clearly a polarizing issue, this has been "good point; other point." thanks to robin for... she's gone. okay. (laughter) we'll be back. (cheers and applause) you could save a bundle with geico's multi-policy discount. geico, saving people money on more than just car insurance. ♪ geico, saving people money on m

mr. nugent's criticism in a new segment i'm calling "good point; other point."r) here to take the other point position is n.y.u. art history major robin greenfield. robin, thank you so much for joining me. (applause) robin, ted nugent has condemned your generation as lazy and apathetic. your response. >> who's ted nugent? (laughter) >> stephen: okay, okay. okay, well... he... he made a bunch of hit records in the '70s. >> what's a record? (laughter) >> stephen: okay, it's... it's the way we used to buy music. >> buy music? (laughter) >> stephen: o.k., um, all right, he's the motor city madman. come on! ted nugent! "cat scratch fever!" bow hunting! ♪ you've got to wango tango... laugh (laughter) well, that's... that's food for thought there. still, clearly a polarizing issue, this has been "good point; other point." thanks to robin for... she's gone. okay. (laughter) we'll be back. (cheers and applause) [ horn honks ] [ indistinct conversations ] excuse me... am i in the right place? uh, ya! this is the bar exam study group!?! of course. look, what's this bar mea

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 balance of his

mr. nugent. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. nugent: thank you, mr. speaker. i'd also like to thank my friend and fellow rules committee member, mr. scott, for the opportunity to support this rule. mr. speaker, while we're fighting the wars on two fronts, iraq and afghanistan, our troops is already spent very thin. the president announced the u.s. military forces to join with our nato allies to commence operations in libya. the president did this only without congressional authorization but without even consulting congress on the matter. for the first time since the operation, it was under u.s. command. before shifting the ongoing operations to nato on march 30. to this day the president still hasn't come to congress to ask for formal approval. when president bush committed our military operations in libya, he said we were talking about days, not months. today, we're talking about months, not days. mr. speaker, president obama has put us in a trip bag with our nato allies. he knew he was committing our nato allieses to missions t

mr. nugent. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for five minutes. mr. nugent: thank you, mr. speaker. i also thank my friend, my fellow floridian and rules member, mr. webster, for the opportunity to speak, in support of this rule and also support of the underlying legislation, h.r. 2055. which appropriates funds for military construction and our nation's veterans. mr. speaker, florida's fifth congressional district which i represent is home to over 116,000 veterans, one of the highest veteran populations of any district in america. the funds we are talking about here today have a direct effect on the lives, on the men and women who proudly served our nation in uniform. this bill provides for full funding for the v.a. and health and education benefits. it also funds vocational rehabilitation training for those troops who come home for more with service connected disabilities. thanks to programs like vet success, these veterans can work with job counselors to develop skills necessary to find meaningful civilian employment. these programs also help connect

mr. nugent. the speaker: the gentleman from florida is recognized for four minutes. mr. nugent: mr. speaker, i'd like to thank my friend first of all from new york, mr. reid, and all -- reed, and also a rules committee member i serve with for the opportunity to support this rule and support the underlying legislation, h.r. 2017, which appropriates funds for our nation's homeland security operations for 2012. just a comment, i thought that's what you were you were -- what we were here to talk about. so we're going to go back on track in regards to where we should be. as a member of the rules committee i'm proud of this rule. it is the first open rule in four years, mr. speaker. and that's because of you. it's a continuation of our promise to the american people that we're committed to bringing openness and free-flowing debate to this chamber as a service to the american public. it's just like the rules that keep our promises to the american people, so does the underlying legislation, it keeps our promise to reduce spending, to narrow the size and scope of the federal government, it a