mr. rahal: mr. speaker i yield two minutes to a valued men of our administration on infrastructure, the gentlelady from hawaii. the speaker pro tempore: the the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. hirono: the legislation is constructs them to do the job they already do, construct laws passed by congress. i believe it is a component of successfully tackling the challenges we face as a nation. while i have no objection to this resolution, i question why we need to spend 9 1/2 hours debating what we should all unanimously agree on. mr. speaker, spending this much time on this resolution is like making sure we finish chewing our gum before we start walking. when just a few months ago we were doing both at the same time. take the american recovery and reinvestment act. for example, this legislation was passed as an unprecedented response to the most severe economic crisis our nation has faced since the great depression. we know that there was a lot of taxpayer money involved in this legislation

mr. rahall. going to -- we will entertain brief opening statements from members if they so choose. i will try to limit them to three minutes if you can do that in less than that i would appreciate it. so we can get to the meat of the hearing. are there -- >> thank you, chairman lobiondo and ranking member gibbs and senator bishop for holding the center this hearing. welcome, admiral allen. it's good to see you, sir, and thank you for your service top# the country. well. in light of the difficulties our country has faced attempting to cap the bp oil still, it's imperative that we increase our ability to prevent future spill# and expand the country's capability to respond contain a oil spell in order to prevent another regionwide catastrophe. immense technical difficulties involved in capping the bp deepwater blowout, i am hopeful we can apply the lessons learned from the b oil stelle and never again have 87 days of the oil spewing into the water and have a government bureaucracy repeat (kcovery in

mr. rahall.e going to -- we will entertain brief opening statements from members if they so choose. i will try to limit them to three minutes if you can do that in less than that i would appreciate it. so we can get to the meat of the hearing. are there -- >> thank you, chairman lobiondo and ranking member gibbs and senator bishop for holding the center this hearing. welcome, admiral allen. it's good to see you, sir, and thank you for your service top# the country. well. in light of the difficulties our country has faced attempting to cap the bp oil still, it's imperative that we increase our ability to prevent future spill# and expand the country's capability to respond contain a oil spell in order to prevent another regionwide catastrophe. immense technical difficulties involved in capping the bp deepwater blowout, i am hopeful we can apply the lessons learned from the bp oil stelle and never again have 87 days of the oil spewing into the water and have a government bureaucracy repeat (kcovery

mr. rahall. going to -- we will entertain brief opening statements from members if they so choose. i will try to limit them to three minutes if you can do that in less than that i would appreciate it. so we can get to the meat of the hearing. are there -- >> thank you, chairman lobiondo and ranking member gibbs and senator bishop for holding the center this hearing. welcome, admiral allen. it's good to see you, sir, and thank you for your service top# the country. well. in light of the difficulties our country has faced attempting to cap the bp oil still, it's imperative that we increase our ability to prevent future spill# and expand the country's capability to respond contain a oil spell in order to prevent another regionwide catastrophe. immense technical difficulties involved in capping the bp deepwater blowout, i am hopeful we can apply the lessons learned from the bp oil stelle and never again have 87 days of the oil spewing into the water and have a government bureaucracy repeat (kcovery i

mr. rahall: i rise in support of my colleague's amendment. this permit is an insult to the surprise mune and the mine is located in my congressional district and permit was negotiated with the e.p.a. in good faith by the coal company over a space of 10 years. the permit was granted three years ago and just recently was revoked by the e.p.a. it goes against the grain of what i think should be good faith efforts by coal companies to negotiate with the e.p.a. recognizing they can't get what they want in a permit application, some withdrawal and some compromise was necessary. that was done in this particular case and in a process over 0 years and the permit was granted. and now to have it revoked is an insult to the mine permitting process and i yield back to the distinguished chairman. mr. rogers: mr. chairman, let us work, give us the jobs. give us the jobs. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time has expired. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from west virginia. those in favo