mr. rooney. mr. rooney: i rise today to discuss an invasive and dangerous species destroying our everglade ecosystem. jeff pictured here is a constituent who's a banker by day and a python hunter by night. i had hunted with jeff and kill sommed of these pies on this while participating in the south florida water management district python elimination program. the speaker pro tempore: restore order to the house. please take your conversations off the floor. one moment. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. rooney: one of the pythons i killed is hanging in my office today. you can come by and see it. the elimination program has removed over 820 snakes from south florida, but as of now, they can't hunt inside the everglades national park. because of interior regulations. these predators eat up small animals and disrupt our ecosystem throughout the everglades and even eat panthers, bobcats and alligators and they posey a threat to humans -- pose a threat to humes. the south florida water managemen

mr. rooney came up with. i think he's right, we need to target this to infrastructure and flood control. the people of houston simply can't wait. we don't have 10 or 15 years to get those projects built. i assure you as their representatives i'll ask for those dollars to be targeted and i'll bird dog it and make sure the project is done and put a cattle prod where necessary to make sure the army corps gets their job done to protect the lives and property for the people i represent in houston. thank you very much. >> gentleman yields back. >> i want to try to avoid saying the things that have already been said. let me just say that i support earmarks. i support directed spending. now, there are a lot of people who support this who probably don't want to come before the committee and i don't care because my support is well known in my district. when sam graves and i were endorsed by the kansas city "star" for this last election, here's what they said, and i think this is important. some purists have complained

mr. rooney. mr. rooney: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chairill enrtain to 15 requests for one-minutepeeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. wilson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i'm grateful for the thousands of dedicated citizens traveling to washington this week for the 45th annual march for life. the vision is of a world where every human life is valued and protected is one i support every day in congress. earlier this month i had a chance to meet with ryan in columbia. although his biological mother was raped, he gave ryan an opportunity to grow up in a loving and adopted family. he ensures the unborn van opportunity f

you got your special client mr rooney is good with shampoo are all from a big club. and also gives unsolicited relationship advice. you're probably better. you better get another job. or you're. going to be over. the merchant the learner one day at a time star david. are you ready almost never. turns up said i'm revealing too many girl secrets you just upset. as a guy sharing a scene thank you so much. more than this last thing you have a seat belt while he may be a distracted driver he always wears his seat belt in your new. machine. you can count on how so i feel perfectly well steven is getting is here done rio is having a spa day of his own. the low. level. is the standards we don't well. i grew up you know with the dead that was the next mine so it was always when he was coming or harry's kids it was always clean around all that stuff so you. say yeah i mean if that's cool but i mean i need it and. now knows this i'm going to the national today once i'm done with pounds establishment. ready to go acceptable respectable well it's going to take more than a shape f

you guys are especially quiet mr rooney is good with shampoo all for big growth. and also gives one solicited relationship despite. your problems. you better get another job. and. it will be over. in the church in the living room one day at a time star david. are you ready almost no. chance upset i'm revealing too many girl secrets you're pretty upset. as a guy sharing a scene thank you so much. more than this last thing you have a seat belt while he may be a distracted driver he always wears his seat belt. issue. thank you. so i don't feel perfect well stephen is getting this here done rio is having a spa day of his own. the low. level. is a series we don't well. i grew up you know with the dead that was the next mine so as always when he was cut our hair cleaner and. cleaner and all that stuff so you. say yeah i mean if that's what i mean i need it and tend to be noun roses i'm going to the national today. pounds establishment. ready to go acceptable respectable well it's going to take more than a shape for that and take more than. i just said that. so my friend

mr. rooney. i would add, not to sound too philosophical here but the whole reason why we're here is because our founders wanted to do away with exactly what we have given the executive branch. we operate as a people under a rule of law and the constitution which is a limiting document. it's not an empowering document. so when you have a revolution based on the fact that we don't want to be ruled by a crown in a distant land or some king, that we are a representative republic that all of us get to represent our constituents so we're all heard here equally. to think that in 2010-2011 we started giving more and more power back to that executive branch -- i'm not going to call it the crown but it's exactly opposite of the reason why we even exist as americans. we're going backwards and that's, i think, just totally wrong. i think it's fundamentally against who we are as a people. >> thank you. i'm sorry, mr. walker left because i had a question for him. i'm going to state my question and you can -- h

mr. rooney has pointed out, they actually take ownership of learning and that learning would be something they would enjoy doing and would want to progress in that and would take pride of ownership in that. that's what homeschoolers are noticing about their students. it is a lovely, compelling reason to take someone out of a school where it seems to be not suiting a student and to bring them home and restore a love of learning and to see how that can flourish. it also allows, especially for kids who have unique interests and also some unique disabilities in order to not only be accommodated but actually receive therapy and other things that will benefit them so that could be incorporated as part of their schooling. there has been more than has been learned about learning disabilities and learning styles in the past ten or 15 years than in my entire lifetime. i'm so thrilled that information and those resources are available and homeschoolers can take advantage. depending on the state you are in you can take advantage of some of the options available for special needs students in the publi

mr. rooney has written about the need, but as i recall the projects were funded at the amount requested by the adm administration, and clearly everybody wants more. everybody has a project or two in the district, and then when you start to getting through all of the projects, 33,000 requested the last time they had earmarks, it is in my view very difficult for your staff, appropriation staff and others throw it ral to literally substitute the merits, and the projects being judged against each other or are they being judged against the criteria. i heard mr. ellis, because we have worked together on the earmark reform project moratorium, and he is essentially describing what goes through the authorization process. and if we are talking about the $15 billion or the one percent of spending to, me, it should be folded in together with more oversight and more a authorization, and there are always going to be projects that are not funded because there is unfortunately not enough money. and there are projects that should be funded at the state level. >> well, we do try to have robust oversight, bu

mr. thomas j. rooney of florida. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourn today it adjourn to meet at 4:30 p.m. on friday, february 2, 2018 and further, when the house adjourn that day it jdjourn to meet on monday, february 15, when it shall convene at noon for morning hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. the speaker pro tempore: is there objection? hearing none, so ordered. after consultation among the speaker an minority and majority leaders, the chair announces when the two houses meet tonight in joint session to hear an a dress of the novet united states only those -- only the doors immediately opposite the speaker and to his left and right will be open. no one will be allowed on the floor of the house will be allow those opposed, no floor of the house. the rule regarding the privethrofpblge floor must be strictly enforced. children of the members will not be permit odd then efloor. the practice of purport

i think you get trey gowdy and tom rooney and mike conway and those folks intimately involved in this will have a whole series of questions for mr as well as what did he first-hand see. mr. bannon has been all over the map on this thing but it will be very interesting testimony. i do think that the house republicans want to wrap this up sooner rather than later. you have the inspector general that will come out with their report probably by the end of this quarter. you will also have the house republicans push to get their report done. democrats will say there is more to look at. it has been more than a year and really as best we can tell there is nothing there. >> sandra: senator dick durbin at the center of a lot of the controversy this week because he was sitting with the president in that meeting, he was one of the senators to say i did hear that use of the language by the president, he just now we are being told, speaking and saying he wants to bring his bill to the floor as we quickly approach this deadline, where does this all go? we are laong at a potential government shutdown come this friday. >> oh, the virgin ears of