mrs. biggert: mr. chairman, i rise to claim time in opposition to the kennedy amendment even though i am not necessarily opposed to the amendment. the chair: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for five minutes. mrs. biggert: thank you, mr. chairman. i just have a question of the designee, mr. gordon. i'm not sure that this amendment is necessary. a qualified plug-in manufacturers is considered. there needs to be something written in to the amendment saying that a qualified plug-in electric vehicle manufacture is an auto -- mr. gordon: mr. chairman, if you'll yield to mr. kennedy. the chair: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized -- mr. kennedy: rhode island. the chair: sorry. mr. kennedy: love massachusetts. rhode island is where it's at. thank you, mr. speaker. yes, to answer the gentlelady's question, obviously with advanced technology and energy efficient vehicles, we're looking at all sorts of modes of transportation. and, of course, in europe, these modes of transportation for

mrs. biggert. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized for three minutes. mrs. biggert: i rise in opposition to this bill. 60 years ago, the only student loans available were private loans. unfortunately, the system left out many students with either limited financial resources or poor or nonexist ent credit. in 1965, congress created the family education loan program which has been successfully administered and regulated, federally-backed student loans. but president clinton decided to create a new federally run program to provide student loans at public option. just under one-third of colleges have chosen the public option, also known as the direct loan program. democrats have decided that by leveraging the borrowing power of the federal government which congress has more aptly demonstrated they can score it by c.b.o. the government's size and ability to raise taxes at any time to pay off its debt, it can borrow money at a cheaper rate than private banks by requiring all students that use student loans to borrow directly from the government, this bill allows th

mrs. biggert, and the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. kanjorski, for offering this informtive measure and i want to thank my -- ask my colleagues to join me in supporting h.r. 16 and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. biggert: i thank the gentleman from ohio for yielding me the time and i want to thank my colleague from massachusetts, mr. lynch, for managing this resolution. mr. speaker, i rise today to urge my colleagues to support house resolution 16 which offers support to the goals and ideals of the national life insurance awareness month as recognized in september. i want to thank my friend and colleague, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. kanjorski, for introducing this resolution with he me for the sixth year. during previous years the house has passed identical resolutions by voice vote or with as many as 412 yes votes. this year's resolution has 59 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. i also want to thank the gentlema

mrs. biggert: revise and extend my remarks. mr. speaker, tonight when the president addresses the joint session of congress, i hope that he will turn a new page in the health care debate, setting aside demands for a government-run taxpayer-funded health care system and instead support -- he will want real support for reforms that will reduce costs and increase access to quality health care for everyone regardless of pre-existing conditions. i hope to hear that the president finally will fix the medical malpractice crisis that continues to drive costs up and drives doctors out of illinois and other states. i hope the president will finally commit to our small businesses by allowing them to ban together in association health plans so they can provide affordable health care to their employees. finally, i hope the president will join members on each side of the aisle to end waste, fraud and abuse. it is my hope that after tonight's address the president and congressional democrats will focus on a bipartisan, commonsense reform that wil

mrs. biggert, for working with me to improve this important bill. i'd also like to thank democratic leadership and in particular majority leader hoyer for working on this bill. the advanced vehicle technology act will help reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil and preserve and create manufacturing jobs in michigan and across the country. i encourage my colleagues to support h.r. 3246. the chair: the gentleman from texas. mr. hall: i yield to the gentleman from indiana, mr. souder, five minutes. the chair: the gentleman from indiana is recognized for five minutes. mr. souder: i want to thank my friend from texas. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the chair: without objection. mr. souder: i strongly support this bill but i do so with some reservations. i would like to discuss some of what the pressures that the government has put on a region like mine, my district is number one in manufacturing jobs, and number one in percent in manufacturing. it actually gained slightly over number two last year because we lost fewer jo

biggert. r five minutes. >> thank you, madam chairman. my questions for mr. stevens.do you believe the resources at fha are enough, or do you think there is need particularly in the area of administrative funding, staff increases, and more technology, capabilities to accomplish fha's oversight? >> i appreciate the question. i have stated previously and others have as wellhat we do believe that somedditional investment is nded from a resource standpoint particularly in the area of technology as you have mentioned, to help bring our systems io line. >> how long will it take, bcause we have been worried for several years on this technology issue and it hasn't been resolved. or it is not completed yet. >> that is a great question. i think at the end of the day theris some deferred investment into systems, into africa in general. there is a budget request in. buet request i kw they made in past yea as well, but we're hoping and we have an initiative of transformation initiative right now in hud. we have mped out the specific investment that we would like to see to upgrade