the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for five minutes. mr. poe: this week we learned three british school girls between the ages of 15 and 16 left their families and have gone to fight with isis in syria. how were they recruited to join? apparently through social media. they are not alone. terrorists have used twittory radicalize thousands -- twitter to radicalize thousands of young minds around the world and recruit new jihadists. they have also used it to fundraise millions of dollars for their reign of terror. they use twitter to broadcast its propaganda to the world. on february 3 isis tweet add video of its evil horrific burning of a captured jordanian pilot. last august when isis release add gruesome beheading of american journalist james foley, it did so on yes, twitter. there are many more examples. now, all of these groups, isis, aqap, aqin are officially listed as foreign designated terrorist organizations by our government. federal law prohibits giving aid or helping a designated foreign terrorist organization. these f.t.o.'s use tw

mr. poe: thank you mr. speaker. it was in the cold, dark damp, moldy walls of a beatup old spanish mission that was already 100 years old at the time. he was a 27-year-old lawyer from south carolina and also from alabama. he was the commander of 187 volunteers from 13 countries and most of the states in then the united states. his men were surrounded by several thousand of the enemy. it was the alamo. it had been turned into a makeshift for the and the commander was -- forth and the commander was william barrett travis. mr. speaker, he wrote the following letter 179 years ago this very night. february 24, 1836. it's entitled, commander of the alamo, february 24 136. to all the people -- 1836. to all the people of texas and all americans in the world. fellow citizens and patriots i am besieged by a thousand or more of the mexicans under santa anna. i have sustained a continual bombardment and cannon fire for over 24 hours. but i have not lost a man. the enemy has demanded surrender at its discretion otherwise the for

mr. poe: mr. speaker, just a few weeks ago, this chamber was filled with members of the house of representatives and all of us stood up raised our right hand and we took an oath to support and defend the constitution of the united states. same oath the president takes, others take, the military, and we do that for a lot of reasons. but the main reason is, in this country, the constitution is paramount to all other law. and i agree with that philosophy. the constitution is a march vesselously written document as well as the declaration of independence that justified the reason for us to start our own country. attached to the constitution are what is commonly referred to as the bill of rights, rights to the people and prohibitions against government intruding on those rights. and they call it the bill of rights. originally 12, 10 have passed and i would like to start and talk about only one of those rights. there's only 30 minutes and only going to talk about one of those, and it's the fourth amendm

very good student. >> this is the grads from d.a.d.s., are byron poe. >> thank you, mr.ry. >> once i get out, i know i'm going to make it better. this probably is my last -- i won't even say probably. i know this is my last run at criminal activity, drug use. i'm going to do everything there is possible for me to stay out of here. >> congratulations to the march graduates. [ applause ] >> i'm kind of elated. i was kind of emotional. i started to cry. i didn't think this would bring me to things like this. but graduating here out this program allows me to believe that there's goals that i can achieve once i leave. >> congratulations, everybody. congratulations. >> thank you. >> congratulations. >> thanks, jen. >> all right. >> one inmate previously enrolled in the jail's education program is not graduating today. alexandria mcbride was dismissed from her m.o.m.s. class for fighting with another inmate. >> she flew to the ground, and i went crazy on her. so she came into my room and that's when she told me she despises me and she wants to punch me in my face. then the othe

mr. poe: mr. speaker isis has beheaded yet another person. just this morning we also learned that taliban assassins murdered nine people in afghanistan. a few months ago the taliban did a most vicious act of jihad. they attacked a school and murdered 150 children and their teachers in pakistan. and last week we learned that one of the taliban five that was unfortunately swapped by the president in exchange for beau has recently called his buddies in the group taliban. according to the white house press secretary, and i quote, they do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism. they do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda. well, then why not call them terrorists? why is the white house so timid and so intimidated by refusing to call the taliban terrorists? national review reports that al jazeera news service has banned the terms islammists, jihad and terrorists from their reporting. is the white house press secretary getting political correct language and censored statement from al jazeera? who knows? even secret

poe. we'll go to mr. cicilline of rhode island. >> thank you, madam chair, and thank you to the witnesses. i, too, want to begin by acknowledging the experiences and passionate leadership on cuba-american relations by chairwoman ros-lehtinen and mr. sires and thank you for being so open with your experiences with this committee. i think it adds to our understanding of these really complicated issues. i think many -- i think all members of this committee are equally and deeply committed to help the cuban people achieve freedom and democracy and i think the difference of opinion is what is the best strategy for bringing that about. and i really thank the witnesses for being here today. i expect you'll continue to keep congress informed throughout these discussions with the cuban government. and i am hopeful -- i think most americans are hopeful that president's efforts to engage in real and substantive negotiations with the cuban government will ultimately advance the national security interests of the unit

because you said in your testimony, in response to the question by mr. poe, that the cuban people are not better off after 50 years of our policy. my question is if the other policies of all the other countries in the world are so good, why haven't the cuban people benefited from those policies? >> congressman, i think part of the problem in terms of actual sort of economic policy in cuba is that they have not modernized their system, opened their system, made a foreign investment law that adequately attracts investment to have those other countries be part of it. >> and they said that they are not going to clang. raul castro said they're not changing. he said this is a victory for the cuban revolution and we're not going to clang. so i don't see where you get that the people of cuba are somehow going to benefit more than the regime. i think the regime will benefit from this, but until there's a change, i think the benefits are going to be bottled up at the top. >> but remittances also go directly to kooushen encuban people. we raise the remittance amounts i

mr. poe: i thank the gentleman for having this special order. let me bring an additional perspective to the importance of local broadcasters -- tv radio. i live down on the gulf coast. we call where i live in my district hurricane alley. just since i've been in congress hurricane katrina, hurricane rita, hurricane humbert, hurricane ike and hurricane gustav have all hit my congressional district. now, some blame me. that's not my fault. they -- here they come, all of these hurricanes. and we're down on the gulf coast and as soon as the hurricanes come through, guess what, there goes the power, electricity besides all of the flooding, the damage, the wind, all of this happens when hurricane season comes upon us in the summer. and so the local folks to get information they -- if they're still at home, they're watching local tv. many are not because they have to leave because of rising water and wind damage. when hurricane ike came into galveston, texas it went across the island and then when the wind shifted, it came back across the island but tha

you said in your testimony and response to mr. poethat the cuban people are not better off after 50 years of our policy. if all the other countries in the world are so good, why haven't the cuban people benefited from those policies? >> i think part of problem in term of the actual economic policy in cuba is that they have not modernized their system, opened their system, made a foreign investment law that adequately attracts investment to have those other countries be part of it. >> they said they are not going to change. he said they are not changing. he said this is a victory for the cuban revolution and we're not going to change. i don't see where you get that the people of cuba are somehow going to benefit more than the regime. i think the regime will benefit from this, but until there is a change i think the benefits are going to be bottled up at the top. >> remitances also go directly to cuban people. we have raised the remitance amount. one of the reasons they have not rushed to us to implement the telecommunications proinvita

poe. we'll go to mr. cicilline of rhode island. >> thank you, madam chair, and thank you to the witnesses. i, too want to begin by acknowledging the experiences and passionate leadership on cuba-american relations by chairwoman ros-lehtinen and mr. sires and thank you for being so open with your experiences with this committee. i think it adds to our understanding of these really complicated issues. i think many -- i think all members of this committee are equally and deeply committed to help the cuban people achieve freedom and democracy and i think the difference of opinion is what is the best strategy for bringing that about. and i really thank the witnesses for being here today. i expect you'll continue to keep congress informed throughout these discussions with the cuban government. and i am hopeful -- i think most americans are hopeful that president's efforts to engage in real and substantive negotiations with the cuban government will ultimately advance the national security interests of the unite

mr. chairman. with that i yield back. >> thank you. we go now for a minute to judge ted poe chairman of the subcommittee on terrorism and nonproliferation. >> thank you, mr. chairman. there is not a comprehensive strategy to defeat isis. the training and equipment of modern -- moderate rebels whoever they may be, has not even started. but when it does start it will not be enough to make a difference. the rebels will probably end up fighting assad not isis. the air strikes on isis have taken a toll but no one believes they alone will enough to defeat this group embedded in the local population. the effort to turn sunnis in iraq against isis has also not shown any real progress. the kurdish forces are the only group that has a record of battlefield success against isis. they don't cut and run. for some reason we refuse to give them the adequate weapons they need to fight against isis. we seem to be more concerned about baghdad and turkey and what they think than helping the kurds. my strategy to defeat isis, as we debate to give the president to go to war it would be nice to k

mr. durbin: two weeks ago an amazing discovery was made in a pile of dirt. a new antibiotic was found. the first that's been discovered in more than 25 year, it holds the poe teption to kill off a wide variety of disease-causing bacteria. it offers a cure to growing antibiotic resistant diseases. president obama noted had his state of the union address that antibiotic resist resistance is one of the most pressing challenges in the u.s. alone it costs us at least $20 billion a year and claims 23,000 lives. a plastic storage crate filled with backyard dirt might seem like an unlikely source for a breakthrough but that's exactly where these scientists who were workingworkworking under a grant from the n.i.h. discovered this medical breakthrough. scientific breakthroughs are nothing new for the united states of america. in the last century we split the atom defeated polio conquered space, create the internet, and mapped the human genome. after of these historic achievements had something in common with the discovery of technoback sin. they were backed by the united states government research funds. i have some people come up to me in illinois and say name one

mr. chairman, i'd like to call up the manager's amendment which is work of several senators including senator portman, senator schumer. we incorporate their bringing missing children home act and senator boxer and representative ted poe from the house have we've incorporated a version of their survivors of human trafficking empowerment act. this manager's amendment also addresses the requests of several victims' rights groups including the alliance to end slavery and trafficking. >> senator leahy. >> mr. chairman, i will speak very briefly, because i do not want to hold up the time for the vote on loretta lynch, she's waited so much more time far more time than the four men who were ahead of her for attorney general. but on senator cornyn's amendment, i have told him i will vote for it because i believe it does make important contributions in human trafficking, something both he and i expressed concern about. i don't think it goes quite far enough. i think we have to prevent victims from falling prey to sex traffickers which would mean reauthorizing programs for run and homeless youth. and i've told -- runaway and homeless youth. and i've told senator cornyn that i will bring an amendment to that effect on the floor

mr. blackman: the answer is yes. if this precedent stands, the game is over. you as a body of congress have no power and all you have left is the power of the first. rep. poe: one more question if it is permitted by the chair. what if the same scenario exists and you have a state governor who decides that, as the executive of the state, the constitution empowers him or her to waive federal law or federal regulations, that it is his or her discretion as the governor, executive order, send out memo to the state of whatever, i didn't say taxes, but it could be -- just ignore this federal rule, by a regulatory agency under the idea that the executive, whoever it is in the state, has the same authority. rep. poe: that would violate in both cases. the presidents are bound by it and the state are bound by it. rep. poe: i'm out of time. i yield back to the chair. chairman goodlatte: thank you. the chair will now recognize the gentlelady from california. rep. chu: i would like to enter into the record the center for american progress report that said it would cost $52 million to deport the people who would benefit. chairman goodlatte: without objection. rep. chu: p

colleagues to poe pose this amendment and i -- to oppose this amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: mr. chairman, i just wanted to read parts of a letter from the leadership council on rights. it says locally developed aelse isments will undermine one of the most central tenants of state and local efforts to raise achievements for all students, the ability to have can comparable data and as a result know how all students in all schools and communities fair on a common, objective measure of achievement. statewide assessments serve as a check to ensure that -- to ensure the students who are the focus of the federal law, low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities and english learners, are not being subject to lower expectations than their peers. it provides parents, communities and advocates with critical information about how well different schools and districts are serving different students, a crucial tool for monitoring and ensuring the protect