mr. payne: mr. speaker, today i rise not to debate the economic crisis. our national debt recently reached $14 trillion and our deficit continues to rise annually. and so we know that we have a crisis. and so that's really not the debate here today. however, i would want to remind my colleagues that our economic deficit is dependent on our job deficit and our ever-growing education deficit. while we must work to rein in our spending, we must not indiscriminantly cut funding in areas like education, health and employment that will hamper our immediate and future economic growth. as we remain vigilant in cutting the debt and reducing deficits we must remember that the most powerful driver of both is a growing economy which includes an increase of revenue. during this recession, unemployment hasn't paid in economic growth. one of the challenges in addressing unemployment has been the rapid decline in certain occupations and industries in and our labor market's to meet the demand of new occupations and industries. more than 2/3 of workers in occupations and i

>> thank you, mr. payne. let me begin with sudan and the question of i.b.a. as you know, the united states has been very active in trying to, not only originally to broker the c.p.a. but to ensure its full implement akseation but trying resolve all of the outstanding post referendum issues. it should have been, as you know, dealt with in its own referendum simultaneous to the referendum. the ambassador who was recently named by proub as his new special envoy is out in the region as we speak. he is out working actively with both parties as well as with the a.u. high-level panels, former south african president and others trying to push for resolution of i.b.a.. we fully understand its significance as a critical issue that needs to be resolved. as you also know, it is one of the most difficult ones and thus far, we have not seen the parties exhibit sufficient flexibility to resolve it swiftly. there are a number of other post referendum issues that also are still to be negotiated. all of which are high on our agenda. if i might for a second, it has been raises

mr. payne, the chairman of the committee on global human rights. >> thank you for allowing us to have one minute and mr. steinberg for your commitment. let me say that i guess that anything that the president does is wrong. i heard someone say if he walked on water, they would say he couldn't swim. so, the fact that six months ago or a year ago when the lockerbie bomber was released, everybody how terrible it is, and now libya is the worst place in the world, and now people are wondering why we are in libya, and all of the sudden in a year, there is a total change in our position against libya. it is sort of strange. i don't know whether it is who called for action, rather than the action taken. i also would like to know certainly our responsibility to protect is something that is certainly very important. i think that we like to find out about nato's roles, and id'd also like to know about the treatment of the so-called minorities in libya right now who haveeen accused of being supportive of t

mr. payne, the chairman of the committee on global human rights. >> thank you for allowing us to have one minute and mr. steinberg for your commitment. let me say that i guess that anything that the president does is wrong. i heard someone say if he walked on water, they would say he couldn't swim. so, the fact that six months ago or a year ago wen the lockerbie bomber was released, everybody how terrible it is, and now libya is the worst place in the world, and now people are wondering why we are in libya, and all of the sudden in a year, there is a total change in our position against libya. it is sort of strange. i don't know whether it is who called for action, rather than the action taken. i also would like to know certainly our responsibility to protect is something that is certainly very important. i think that we like to findout about nato's roles, and id'd also like to know about the treaent of the so-called minorities in libya right now who haveeen accused of being supportive of the m

mr. payne, ranking member and subcommittee on africa, global health and human rights. >> thank you very much. as i indicated before, i commend the president for waiting until there could be a consensus with the europeans and for the arab league for the first time to ask the west to intervene, i think, is something that we keep losing the importance on the -- the importance of that. just about gadhafi in general, you know, i think that his intimidation of many african leaders over the years have kept them quiet. as a matter of fact, though, if you want to put his hand on d dastardly group, charles taylor went into sierra leone and got together with the group, the ruf, who are chopping off hands of women and children to get the blood diamonds and so charles taylor is a direct result of gadhafi. so i'm not so sure that african leaders really have that much of a real appreciation for gadhafi. they talk about the fact that we do not know who the persons are. i met with former amssador of libya, and

mr. liveris. i'm representing the payne international association today. you mentioned many times that we are facing the threat coming from from china, and you emphasized that we need to really bring together the public sector and the private sector together to work on the fundamental growth of the country. and it's funny that you also mentioned for one state -- [inaudible] can last nine months and another can last nine days. and my question for you is that what's the next step the country should take in order to make the states join the forces and effort together to help our private sector to catch up with the countries like china and other developing countries? thank you. >> it's a great question. and the governor didn't mention why i had him down at business council. the whole two days of meetings, actually it was called state of the states. and it's right at the heart of your question which is exactly the question you're asking, but we're asking our governors and next governors. we're saying why haven't we as a country gotten the states together? the b

mr. long: the first small business i owned happened to be a miniature golf course. i also went to high school with payne stewart and none of his golf abilities rubbed off on me, unfortunately. golf is a $76 billion industry which provides two million jobs in the united states. golf courses are generally small business owners own golf courses and i know the challenges that small businesses face today. the estimated economic impact of the government industry is over $200 billion. golf course superintendents are excellent environmental stewards of the land and among the best in the world as knowing how to care for the earth. being outdoors always improves one's quality of life, walking just a nine-hole course can give you a 2.5-mile workout or in my case seven miles. it is a sport that can be played by all ages and we should take time today to recognize national golf day. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one