mr. shuster: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution rule 362, i call up the bill h.r. 3038, to provide an extension of federal aid highway highway safety, motor carrier safety transit and for other purposes funded in the highway trust fund and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 338, a bill to provide an extension of federal aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety transit and other programs funded out of the highway trust fund, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 362, the bill is considered as read. the bill will be debatable for one hour controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on transportation and infrastructure and the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means. the gentleman from pennsylvania mr. shuster, the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, and the gentleman from michigan, mr.

mr. shuster: i recognize the gentleman, mr. graves. three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. graves: thank you,, mr. -- thank you, mr. speaker. i appreciate that very much. i want to associate myself with the words of my colleagues who just spoke on the need to do this and the need far long-term transportation bill. i remember chairman oberstar working diligently to try to do that and the six or seven extensions we had but never did come up with a transportation bill. that's why we're working so hard to make sure we have a good, bipartisan bill. i do rise in support of h.r. 3038. it's going to extend the current transportation law until december 18, until we can get that long-term bill in place. as chairman of the committee on highways and transit, i believe it's critical for -- critical for congress to come together on this bipartisan long-term, sur vas -- surface re-authorization. in my home state of missouri we have 10,000 bridges begging for our attention. last month i held a hearing on the transp

mr. shuster, the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, the gentleman from washington mr. mcdermott, the gentleman from florida, mr. miller, and the gentlewoman from florida, mr. -- ms. brown. the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. shuster: this is a three-month clean extension to the surface transportation legislation. it's the right thing to do. it gift the transportation and infrastructure committee and the ways and means committee the time to work out a long-term solution to the surface transportation bill which we need to pass for the health of this country. and importantly, it gives the house the do its constitutional duty to be heard on important legislation that's important to all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from oregon is recognized. mr. defazio: mr. speaker, i would direct anyone interested in this legislation to my remarks on the five-month bill and with that i yield ba

mr. shuster: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution rule 362, i call up the bill h.r. 3038, to provide an extension of federal aid highway highway safety, motor carrier safety transit and for other purposes funded in the highway trust fund and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 338, a bill to provide an extension of federal aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety transit and other programs funded out of the highway trust fund, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 362, the bill is considered as read. the bill will be debatable for one hour controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on transportation and infrastructure and the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means. the gentleman from pennsylvania mr. shuster, the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan, and the gentleman from michigan, mr.

mrs. radewagen: i also include for the record an exchange of letters from rob bishop of the natural resources committee and chairman shuster on the ki on infrastructure. we thank them for their gracious cooperation on this bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. radewagen: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentlelady from guam. ms. bordallo: mr. speaker, i have no further speakers so i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentlelady from american samoa. mrs. radewagen: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 774 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative the rule is suspended and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition? >> suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1381. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 1831 a bill to establish the commission on evidence-based policy making and for other purposes.

mr. sessions: thank you very much. our colleagues are making really, really good points about what we need to do. bill shuster and the republican majority is committed to doing exactly what they have talked about. getting our work done. in fairness, it's taken the united states senate until this week, and they have a 1,000-page transportation bill that we are not simply going to say, let's just agree to that. it's going to come over to us after they have done their work with great respect we are trying to make sure that we are continuing the funding. we are using mechanisms that would be available. and the right thing to do is to measure three times and saw once. we are not going to accept by unanimous consent or another agreement a 1,000-page bill. on the republican side we read bills before we pass them. i reserve my time, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from washington, leader in the bipartisan efforts to re-authorize the export-import bank and a member of the financ

mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity to present this bill to us. i also thank all the many people who have worked from three different committees on this. chairman shuster, chairman conaway from the t.n.i. and the ag committee, as well as those who have worked on the resource committee. very grateful for the democrats who have spoken here already in defense of this bill, mr. schroder, mr. defazio, their help and assistance in this. as former chief forest -- of the forest service said, we don't have a fire problem in our nation's forests. we have a land management problem and it needs to be addressed quickly. that is exactly what the westerman bill does. it addresses that problem. the status quo flat-out is not working. forest service has recommended or recognize that we have at least 58 million acres that are in dire need of assistance right now, that can easily be burned in this next fire season. that's bigger than my home state of utah, which is still the 11th largest state in the nation. if you add the higher end estimates, then you add more acreage into that, which means you'd add the state of utah and michigan. 1/3 of the entire forests we have are