mr. veasey: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the suvet my special order -- the subject of my special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. veasey: mr. speaker, it is with great honor that i rise today to co-anchor this congressional black caucus special order hour. and also want to take the time to acknowledge our chair, the honorable cedric richmond from the state of louisiana, and for the next 60 minutes we have a chance to speak directly to the american people on the issues that are important to the congressional black caucus. and the issue right now that seems to be of the most importance to the congressional black caucus and the constituents that we represent, and the american public for that matter, is tax reform. and the plan that is being considered, that the speaker has indicated that he would like for us to vote on this week, we have a few members here that

mr. veasey: thank you, mr. speaker. with that, we're going to continue on with the congressional black caucus special order hour. i'd like to thank my friend and colleague, representative evans from pennsylvania, the quaker state, for being here again. thank you very much, representative evans, for always offering your insighten these matters and i know that in addition, i'd like -- like the gentlelady from texas, it's open to a broad array of topics and appreciate any insight you want to give us on tax reform or any of the other issues that the american public wants to hear from from their congressional representatives on this day. so again, thank you for your participation. mr. evans: i'd like this to thank my colleague from the great state of texas. he has consistently done a very great job in leading these efforts for the congressional black caucus as well as our chairman, chairman richmond. soy thank the gentleman from texas, he's been fantastic. mr. speaker, this is an interesting time that we are obviously in the

mr. veasey. mr. veasey: i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. thornberry: i'm pleased to yield one minute to another valuable member of our committee, the gentleman from wisconsin, dr. gallagher. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. gallagher: i rise today to urge my colleagues in the house to support the 2018 ndaa conference report this. body has no higher or more urgent priority than providing for the common defense and restoring our military readiness. i'm proud of the final text my colleagues have worked on. not only does it authorize a teeflt $700 billion in defense spending, $26 billion increase above the president's request, it proadvise the largest pay raise for our troops in eight years. it gets us closetory the critical goal of the 355 ship navy. includes funding for three combat ships. helping to meet the navy's urgent and enduring requirement for more small surface combatants. i want to thank chairman thornberry

mr. veasey: mr. speaker, i rise today to recognize the life of my friend of forest hill, texas. since making forest hill her a true 1975, jerlene was champion for improvement of the city. among her many accomplishments she was the first black female elected to the city council. and she also played a very critical role in establishing the first forest hill library, serving as its first librarian. and she was also part of the board of directors. during her tenure on the board of, -- board, she coordinated the purchase of over five lakers -- acres of land for the library district and dedicated the garden. she also made her mark in the community by operating and serving as the community outreach coordinator for the food bank at the love sanctuary church for 15 years. i ask my colleagues to join me in honoring her life and, while the community will be sad that we're losing jerlene, i know she's probably happy right now with coach harvey in heaven and just really want to thank her for being the driving voice to help get that library created. because it would not have happened. when i