mr. ruppersberger: yes. i want to thank my friend, mr. wolf, for his involvement in all national security issues. we served together on the commerce and justice subcommittee and appropriations and we work together on gangs. i appreciate your focus on this area to protect our citizens ever our country and district. i reserve the balance of my time. yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. . the question is on the amendment as modified offered by the gentleman from virginia. those in favor say aye will say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the amendment as modified is agreed to. it is now in order to consider amendment number 3 printed in part b of house report 112-200. the chair understands that amendment number 4 will not be offered. it is now in order to consider amendment number 5 printed in part b of house report 112-200. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. holt: yes, i have an amendment, number 5, at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment

rogers, and the ranking member mr., ruppersberger, come before the rules committee and offer bipartisan proposals on both charter schools for the education committee, obviously, and the authorization bill from the intelligence committee. in fact, i quipped at one point in the rules committee that maybe we should have a five-week break between each rules committee meeting so we can in fact come together in a bipartisan way and deal with these critically important issues. . i have toe say, mr. speaker, it is a great day especially as we prepare in just a little less than seven hours to hear from the president of the united states on an issue the democrats and republicans alike say needs to be addressed. we all know from having been in our states over the past five weeks that job creation and economic growth are the top priorities for the american people. we all represents constituents who are hurting. i have friends who lost their homes, businesses, their jobs, and we want to make sure we get our economy back on track. it's my hope that the example that we are going to have today as we be

mr. ruppersberger. he has been a great partner. as you said, this is exactly the way it is supposed to be. another good friend of mine, mr. chambliss. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. it's good to be back on this side. as a member of the last endeavor, i am very pleased to be here today with my good friend and my chairman, senator feinstein, and to publicly show the spirit and attitude that we now have. the four of us might have met a number of times to make sure we do the parallel oversight that needs to be done within the intelligence community. i want to thank our witnesses for being here today. i have known both of them for a very long time in a different capacity when they both wore the ofform of ththe united states america. director petraeus, since this is your first hearing as a civilian to testify before this joint committee, we welcome you today. we welcome you to the community. obviously, you are certainly no stranger to any of us. it is kind of unusual to see you sitting there without a uniform on. we're pleased to

mr. dutch ruppersberger. i have been following your career. i'm a critic of yours because there is no military appropriation you do not vote for. we just heard from you and general petraeus is that you planned on doing the same thing again and again, and for an unlimited amount of time. is it not about time that we start doing some new things, that we are a little more creative rather than planning for endless warfare with muslim nations around the world? guest: it is very unfortunate that we cannot communicate a lot of what we do. we have come along way. one of the highest priorities of any government is to be able to provide security, law, and ordered to your country. we were attacked on 9/11. we responded. we ultimately want to afghanistan because that is where -- went to afghanistan because that is where al-qaida was training. we had to go. then we went to iraq. that will be debated whether that was the right thing to do or not. we have so many smart people. we do so much research and development. we are planning to protect our citizens. i