mr. poe: mr.peaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. poe: mr. speaker, it was a bright sunday morning in the islands of hawaii. america was at peace and unprepared for war. soon the rising sun was darkened by hundreds of japanese planes as they bombed pearl harbor. the american battleships were sunk, over it,400 united states military were killed -- 2,400 united states military were killed. most of the united states aircraft were destroyed while still sitting on the ground. it was december 7, 1941. in the chaos and confusion and still in his pajamas, army air corps second lieutenant, phillip rasmussen, and three others, took off into the blazing sky. they met 11 japanese planes head on. rasmussen was flying an old outdated p-36 hawk and he shot down one japanese plane while enemy fighters attacked him. they shot up his plane with over 500 bullet holes, b

thanks to mr. poe. around here we just simply know him as judge, but thanks for his poignant comments. as a vietnam veteran returning to the united states in 1973 era, i found a nation that was disrespectful to young men and women who had served, myself included. took my uniform off and put it in a closet never to pull it out till i ran for congress and people began to ask why i didn't tell about the military story. that's something that's a mind set that i think -- no matter how you're registered, no matter what culture you're in, what religion, whatever, we must not let this happen again. you must be willing to sacrifice for those who have sacrificed for us and those who have been willing to make the sacrifice. my grandfather was in world war i. as i approaching my time to go to vietnam, he visited with me about going in the argon forest and about being gassed there. the condition left him with a lung condition and frailt throughout the rest of his -- fraility throughout the rest of his life. but he n

the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, or five minutes. mr. poe: mr. speaker, the united states has our military all over the world. and we have for a good number of years. in fact, the united states has been at war for a long, long time. and this year, as we approach christmas, families across america will gather around to enjoy home made apple pie and turkey and each other's company. our men and women in uniform, those volunteers, are still all over the world protecting and representing the united states. these are america's best. it's the best we have in our country. in 2005 i had the opportunity to go over to iraq and see our military during the christmas season. but before i left, i decided i'd ask local school children and their teachers to help make some homemade christmas cards and holiday cards to give to our troops when i arrived in iraq. so that year after i landed i took about 5,000 hand-made christmas cards made by primarily school children to our service men and women in iraq and kosovo. since that time children in seevet texas it -- sout

speaker -- mr. poe: mr. speaker, he said i'm president, not a king, i can't do these things by myself. that was president obama in 2010. that was then, this is now. the lawless admferings continues to ignore congress in order to go it alone and implement his own awe tore tharne -- authoritarian agenda his latest kingly edict is he will disregard the immigration law, orally change the rules, grant amnesty and give work permits to millions of foreign undocumented nationals. this shows he's more interested in giving jobs to illegal foreign nationals in america than americans in america. that's why we have introduced the separation of powers act. it would prohibit the use of funds for granting deferred adjudication, green cards and work permits to people not lawfully present in the u.s. most importantly, it would allow congress to exercise its check on the out of control white house that treats the constitution as a mere suggestion instead of the law. the president says he's not the emperor of the united states

i yield back, mr. poe. >> anyone else wish to make an opening statement? mr. kennedy, one minute. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you to the chairman and ranking members of this committee for holding this hearing. to our witnesses, thank you for coming here today, thank you for your service to our country. a number of my colleagues have already touched on the issues around trying to limit the number of foreign fighters coming in to syria in the region and obviously that's critical. the other as pekts of this is our ability to monitor their movements after they're there and once they return home. this puts an awful lot of pressure on our intelligence agency's apparatus to try and make sure we can successfully identify those fighters once they try to leave and try to gain entry back into the united states and canada. i would love to hear your assessment of those capabilities, how much confidence we have in our intelligence communities, in order to conduct those operations, if they need additional resources if they need to do so and what road blocks you might

>> that would be my hope, mr. poe. maybe i should call you judge poe. i think all judges want the public to be better informed about our branch of government. and recognize that the public is not as well informed as they used to be, perhaps when we were in school many years ago. we recognize and embrace the fact that public access to the courts is very important. they are public proceedings. we understand that, you know, cameras may augment that. at the same time, though, we're balancing other interests. i appreciate that you have had seasoned experience as a trial judge in texas and there are a number of judges in the pilot itself that came from state court experience. we're going to be surveying all of the participants in the pilot, including judges, some of us didn't have that experience before being on the federal bench. others did. it will be interesting to hear from those judges that have the prior state court experience as well. but that's going to inform how we go about formulating policy forward. there are concerns. i think there are legitimate

mr. poe: i have an amendment at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report. the clerk: amendment in the nature of a substitute strike after the enacting clause and insert the following, section 1, short title -- the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. poe: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading the speaker pro tempore: the amendment is agreed to and engrossed, passed and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. without objection, the title is amended. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> i move to suspend the rules and pass s. 1434. the clerk: senate 1434 to designate the junchings city community-based outpatient clinic located at 715 southwind drive, junction city kansas as the lieutenant general rich ard seitz community-based outpatient clinic. the chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. mr. roe: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days

the chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, or five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. the federal food police are whipping up their latest batch of distasteful government regulations. with the government to round an iron spatula, the federal government has become the new mr. bumble from the book "oliver twist." the food police have placed unhealthy and illogical regulations on menus for government school lunches across the fruited plain. this is more unneeded, unnecessary, and unwarranted federal government invasion of what school kids eat. the federal government now is trying to raise america's children. in an effort to control and dictate and give children a nanny state society, school lunches have gotten watered-down to a simpy new low. after strict portion control and outlandish so-called nutrition standards, school lunches have become as exciting as detention. the food is unappealing and lacking in nutrition. so what have students done? they have taken their frustrations to twitter, taking photos of government dictated school lunches. an oklahoma school s

mr. chairman, i feel your pain on crimea, too. >> yes. it's a moving target and a moving argument. we go now to judge poe of texas. >> i thank the chairman. there's no question about it that isis, as i call them, they're a bunch of bad people who just commit murder. and we are doing battle with isis. the united states has been in middle east with boots on the ground for a long time. ambassador, would you say that the united states is at war with isis or not? >> congressman, having seen it up close, i would say we are at war with isis, yes. >> it seems to me that our strategy is twofold at this point or maybe threefold. send aid to different groups, countries. there are 60-something nations i understand are in the coalition to fight isis. one is to do air strikes as the chairman has mentioned the success of those air strikes depends on who you're talking to. i do not believe they have been quite as successful as we had hoped they would be. the other is to take syrian moderate rebels, vet, train and equip them to go back to syria and defeat isis. how many of those people have been vetted, trained and equip

mr. chairman, i feel your pain on crimea, too. >> yes. it's a moving target and a moving argument. we go now to judge poef texas. >> i thank the chairman. there's no question about it that isis, as i call them, they're a bunch of bad people who just commit murder. and we are doing battle with isis. the united states has been in middle east with boots on the ground for a long time. ambassador, would you say that the united states is at war with isis or not? >> congressman, having seen it up close, i would say we are at war with isis, yes. >> it seems to me that our strategy is twofold at this point or maybe threefold. send aid to different groups, countries. there are 60-something nations i understand are in the coalition to fight isis. one is to do air strikes as the chairman has mentioned the success of those air strikes depends on who you're talking to. i do not believe they have been quite as successful as we had hoped they would be. the other is to take syrian moderate rebels, vet, train and equip them to go back to syria and defeat isis. how many of those people have been vetted, trained and equippe

mr. chairman, i feel your pain on crimea, too. >> yes. it's a moving target and a moving argument. we go now to judge poe of texas. >> i thank the chairman. there's no question about it that isis, as i call them, they're a bunch of bad people who just commit murder. and we are doing battle with isis. the united states has been in middle east with boots on the ground for a long time. ambassador, would you say that the united states is at war with isis or not? >> congressman, having seen it up close, i would say we are at war with isis, yes. >> it seems to me that our strategy is twofold at this point or maybe threefold. send aid to different groups, countries. there are 60-something nations i understand are in the coalition to fight isis. one is to do air strikes as the chairman has mentioned the success of those air strikes depends on who you're talking to. i do not believe they have been quite as successful as we had hoped they would be. the other is to take syrian moderate rebels, vet, train and equip them to go back to syria and defeat isis. how many of those people have been vetted, trained and equip

mr. chairman, i feel your pain on crimea, too. >> yes. it's a moving target and a moving argument. we go now to judge poe of texas. >> i thank the chairman. there's no question about it that isis, as i call them, they're a bunch of bad people who just commit murder. and we are doing battle with isis. the united states has been in middle east with boots on the ground for a long time. ambassador, would you say that the united states is at war with isis or not? >> congressman, having seen it up close, i would say we are at war with isis, yes. >> it seems to me that our strategy is twofold at this point or maybe threefold. send aid to different groups countries. there are 60-something nations i understand are in the coalition to fight isis. one is to do air strikes as the chairman has mentioned the success of those air strikes depends on who you're talking to. i do not believe they have been quite as successful as we had hoped they would be. the other is to take syrian moderate rebels, vet, train and equip them to go back to syria and defeat isis. how many of those people have been vetted, trained and equipp

mr. speaker. yesterday by unanimous consent motion from my friend and the bill's republican lead, ted poe, the house passed h.r. 2901, our paul simon water for the world act. it was almost anti-climactic considering all the ins and uts it's taken for years to be able to hammer out the details necessary to take the next step in reform of the the hard work was worth it making our efforts to have the united states embrace its responsibility to help the world deal with our water and sanitation crisis. and make no mistake about it, it is a crisis. oday 152 million hours will be spent by women and girls to get water. often dirty polluted water to meet the basic needs of their families. almost three quarter billion people still lack access to this fundamental necessity of life. there's an even greater crisis with inadequate sanitation. there are approximately 2 1/2 billion people who suffer from this lack of what most of us take for granted. it results in horrific disease, stunted growth, even malnutrition. in fact, the children under 5 who are malnourished in india are suffering less from a lack of food a