mr. tonko: mr. speaker, i request five legislative days in which members can revise and extend and insert extraneous material on house resolution 411 into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, ordered. mr. tonko: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. tonko: i thank you and i rise today to support the goals and ideals of the intermediate space challenge in mojave, california. the intermediate space challenge captures childrens' imagine vation as it relates to science, math, space and learning. it's part of the x prize space flight contest. it took pilots to space and back, claiming a $10 million prize. marie walker, originally founded the intermediate space challenge. she coordinated with stu whiths, the moe haw see -- mojave airport general manager. it's been a great success. now in its fifth year, students look forward to the annual competition with younger students anticipating the time when they're old enough to part

mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. routinely, this chamber is visited by many young peoplemark groups of young people. reminding us that we are in need of promoting and advancing sound and principled ideas and policies that will be inherited by them, by their generation. they will inherit the good and the bad works that we do. and they will count on us on doing the sound and reasonable solutions. with that being said, i believe it's very important for us to advance the opportunity for them to have a sounder environment. they have the right to breathe cleaner air. we have within our grasp the opportunity to reduce that carbon footprint. we have the opportunity to go forward and quit advancing $475 billion annually to foreign countries for fossil-based fuels. we can advance house resolution 503, which allows us to promote physical education in sports that will advance the health, general health and well being of our students and that will give them stronger academic performance. with that being said, i strongly urge our

mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. i request five legislative days in which members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on house resolution 503 into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. tonko: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. tonko: i rise in support of house resolution 503 which supports efforts to increase physical activity and participation of sports of youth. physical education is necessary in our growing childhood obesity crisis. it's estimated that by 2010, 20% of children in the united states will be obese. without physical education and sports, this epidemic would surely be worse. childhood obesity places a significant cost on our health care system. obese teenagers have a 70% to 80% chance of becoming obese adults. the rise in childhood obesity has been accompanied by a rise in the prevalence of type two diabetes among children and adolescents. teaching children about

mr. tonko. would you like to join the conversation? mr. tonko: sure. let me thank you, mr. polis for managing our discussion on the floor. it's a pleasure to join you. i know you've been an outspoken voice for greening up our thinking as it comes to energy and the environment and the economy, three areas that are critical right now that face a crisis of some dimension and we can resolve those crises simply by moving forward with progressive policy. i thank you for providing the leadership here this evening on the floor and to join with you and our friend and colleague, representative heinrich, because you know, you're surrounded here by two mechanical engineers in background, education background. mr. heinrich: that doesn't happen on the floor very often. mr. tonko: it doesn't. it's good for us to step back and look at these issues from an academic perspective. and to respond to them in technological terms. that's real leadership and the president, the speaker of the house nancy pelosi, leaders

mr. tonko: sometimes the issue comes across in such a complex picture that it's difficult for people to get their arms around what the discussion is all about. to repeat what i mentioned earlier about the hundreds of billions of dollars that we have been spending that go to foreign nations, that import to us these fossil -- fossil-based fuels, we need to see this as an embracing of the american intellect, to take ideas that are there, shelf-ready, and put them to work for us. it's quite simply american power to power america. it is providing our opportunity to utilize the american workforce, to produce this power that then powers this country to do all that it needs to do. it provides great opportunities for manufacturing sectors and for our business communities, small and large, because i witnessed first-hand what happens when we retrofit these facilities, even our dairy farms in new york state, with state-of-the-art opportunities for efficiency, where you need to use fuel for the power that y

mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in strong support of the resolution before the house sponsored by my very good friend, representative louise slaughter, condemning the senseless killing of george tiller. dr. tiller was gunned down while serving as an usher during church services last week. we are blessed in this country to have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom to protest. our country has a history of nonviolent protest from the women's rights movement to the civil rights movement to the gay rights movement. dr. martin luther king jr. breached nonviolence and his great movement heeded this call in the -- of unspeakable violence. this is a terrible perversion of what it means to be pro-life. while we have different views on this issue, no side should resort to atrocious acts of violence such as this. since 1977 there have been more than 5,800 reported acts of violence against providers like dr. tiller. since 1993, eight people have been murder and there have been 17 attempted murders sin

mr. tonko: madam speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 454, please. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will read the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 454, resolution recognizing the 25th anniversary of the national center for missing and exploited children. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from new york, mr. tonko, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. platts, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: thank you, madam speaker. i request five legislative days during which members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on house resolution -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. the house is not in order. members will take their conversation off the floor. the speaker pro tempore: members will take their conversation off the floor. the gentleman from new york. mr. tonko: thank you. again, madam speaker, i request five legislative