the south. of course, that would be texas. now, while the acquisition of louisiana does momentarily satisfy this desire for expansion, it was only a moment. in 1810 -- now, i know this is texas history. so as i tell you this, i don't want you to be upset, i don't want to hear any hissing or booing. in september of 1810, there's going to be a minor uprising. and of all places baton rouge, louisiana. now, let me tell you what happens here. there are a group of americans who are living in th north of the lake pontchartrain and north of new orleans. they had been there for more than a decade, many of them had. the spanish government longer able to meet their needs. and in september of 1810, these americans, they rise up, they storm the dilapidated fort there at baton rouge. in fact, there were gaps in the stockade that the men are running through. they capture the fort, they capture the govern. one spanish soldier dies. well, as soon as that conquest or that rebellion had been successful, they call a convention, they draft a declar

especially efforts to preserve the greatest texas history shrine of all, the alamo. i can't think of a more appropriate person or organization to take on this charge. please join me in welcoming and thanking a great friend of texas history, land commissioner jerry patterson. [ applause ] >> welcome to our symposium. i tell people at every opportunity when they say, what do you do or what's a land commissioner do or i can't vote for you because i'm not in your precinct and by the way would you fix that road up there, and i say, you know, if you live in texas you're in my precinct. i say i have the greatest gig in texas government, and i really do. it's an opportunity to look good through no effort of your own. i mean, how can you do any better than that? i have people that work for me in archives and records, and you know mark and others that are here who make even me look good. but it's a great opportunity. i mean, i'm a big history buff, and i'm not a historian. i'm a history buff. i have a history degree. that doesn't mean i have anything other than an interest in h

the west florida rebellion. americans had moved into texas. happy with the situation in texas. so they began asking for concessions to reorganize the government so that it is a separate state rather than part of it. at the time they didn't realize that mexico had its own internal problems. there's a struggle between centralist and federalists. americans in texas just get caught in that struggle. the text rev laux was successful and texas becomes a free and independent state. president andrew jackson wanted to annex texas. can't do so because of the slavery question. he does recognize it as a republic on his last day in office. his successor martin van buren won't touch the texas question because of the slavery issue. it is not until the election of 1844 when james knox polk will make the annexation of texas a political issue and as he is being elected in the fall of 1844, john tyler will actually be responsible for the annexation of texas itself. he had tried to annex texas under a treaty, treaty needed two-thirds of both houses well, a joint resolution simply needs a majority.

that was the same year texas one its independence. if the parker family had built a stockade 90 miles south of texas. they were out to the comanche frontier it is almost ridiculous. they were way out beyond almost anybody else on the frontier. one thing to keep in mind how the american west was settled, people sometimes think there was a sweep across that went north or south. it was not to. it was all south. the human frontier was in texas nothing going on up north. fifth great clash was down in the south. five people were killed others were wounded five captives women and children one was cynthia anne parker. this is a routine raid they had been doing this for many, many years. but in historical terms it was a defining moment of the front here. two reasons. first-come it marked the start of the longest and most brutal war between americans and a single native tribes also because it involved the woman who was to be the most famous as a captive. it took place precisely at the point* where the westward booming american empire that the pa

the language of commerce in texas today is english. etty interesting is we have a register of the board of commissioners of the bexar county. it's a list of folks who appeared before the list of commissioners to prove up their title for land. some of that was due to their military service, some to the time that they -- criteria for how much land you got. there's a couple of names in the columns. there's a name of david crockett represented by robert, his son. and then just a couple of spaces away is a name juan seguin. they were in the same place on the same day. you wonder if they had a conversation, as someone who had seen his father alive before he died tat the alamo. there's a column up here that says, immigrant or native? and if you go down and look at the names, every anglo name is immigrant. every hispanicnive. we were the immigrants. people who look like me. we were the immigrants. we were the newcomers. as a matter of fact, i love going to various places and talking to -- particularly at republican events. we're going to build

the recent texas decision has a cryptic sentence saying maybe not, saying the district court's decision in texas if it thought you could do that might not, they might not have really understood what section two is about but there's, you know, if they want it to be clear they could have been and they weren't in that case. on -- >> i think just to say something about that bartlett against strickland the supreme court was so focused on coalitional they didn't focus on coalition of what. in bartlett against strickland it was a coalition between black and white voters would b in the district. in the texas case it was a coalition between black and latino voters, and i think the supreme court didn't focus quite as much on that as they might have in trying to figure out whether minority coalition districts are something people can bring a claim on because that's something that in areas where there are large cohesive minority communities made up of more than one racial or ethnic minority people have been bringing claims since the 1980s as opposed to the bartlett against strickland style claim wh

there is only a small segment producing snow in the texas panhandle and parts of texas now. the storm moves to the southeast, there will be a little more snow. that's what we will watch for tomorrow. let's look at the current situation now. there's our sky cam camp view. inner harbor 44 degrees. the barometer high right now. that is holding off the storm for the moment. let's look at temperatures. 41 degrees on the eastern shore at camebridge. edgewood, elkton, parkton. temperatures have gotten up into the 30's. overland checks in with 31 degrees. dry conditions here. conditions to the north with a little snow here and there up in parts of pennsylvania and new york with a cool front going through the great lakes right now. a few few sprinkles in 10 tn and kentucky. this high pressure overhead giving us great conditions moves out of the picture, it will eventually be replaced by low pressure out on the texas coast. all this storminess that will fill in and move to the northeast and center itself off hatteras by tomorrow evening. of course, cold air coming in behind this cool

he said the dry air in texas will help you, not knowing the air in southeast texas is anything but dry with humidity here. she came down to visit her friend. in the process met wph, a dashing widower, 16 years older than she was, still very handsome, they fell in love and got married. this house is perfect for entertaining. all of the public rooms on the first floor open into the central hall. and big houses like that were just perfect for someone like ida, social, loved to entertain. so they had many, many large parties here, receptions and teas, where several hundred people circulated through. we're standing in the dining room right now and this was the formal dining area, of course. and it was decorated in a colonial revival style and a howed the mcfaddens to show off a lot of their fine pieces because there's a plate rail that runs around the room and it holds the fine silver or crystal or whatever they wanted to dis play at that time, plus the vitrines and the sideboards provide more space. i would definitely describe this furniture as ornate. the fabric in the upholstery is a bro

the only two state wide redistricting plans that we have opposed are the texas congressional and the texas state house of representatives. congressional and the texas house of representatives. so if you look at appendix a, you'll see a few that say pending. california is no longer pending, precleared that. you'll see a pending on south dakota, that's no longer pending, we precleared that. and you'll see michigan is pending and that's no longer pending because that was also precleared. let me give you an example of what we have been doing. our process again is to be sure we give a comprehensive and independent review to all these plans. and louisiana is a good example of the approach that we have taken because we not only have waited for the plans to come in to do the review but before that, we have done a remarkable amount of outreach to explain the process. in the case of louisiana, i actually traveled down there at the suggestion and invitation of a bipartisan group of lawmakers and i addressed a bicameral session in the house and the senate. i did so because of term limits there's

the museum is located in what was once the texas school book depository. southeast corner window of this building, lee harvey oswald shot president kennedy on november 22, 1963. curator gary mack talked about the museum and how the information on the assassination and ensuing investigations is is presented. >> what we set out to do was to basically tell what happened and not draw any of our own conclusions about what it means but to present what history has told us. and there have been several investigations, and various developments over the years. most people, according to the public opinion surveys, have never been satisfied that it was just lee harvey oswald. but none of the other theories have been proven, and, as far as many people are concerned, they've all been dismissed. the official explanation is is three shots were fired, all from lee harvey oswald and all fla southeast corner sixth floor window. the rifle that oswald supposedly used was his. it was traced to him and to his post office box. he was left behind in the building on the sixth floor.

they see an alignment with certain positions of the republican party. texas is that a tipping point in terms of what political parties are going to do with all of these latinos. are democrats going to continue to fracture and fracture preserving the last shred of incumbents? or are republicans going to start knocking on doors and say that they believe in comprehensive immigration reform? or maybe there is not just one future here. it is like the christmas carol. not the singing one the movie won. the ghost of christmas future. >> i was thinking -- like silent night? >> no, no [laughter] . i was thinking of you to help me. either the republican party is going to be weeping over their own grave, because they could not reach out to latino voters. we may see more people reaching out and doing what they need to do to have a healthy political system in texas. >> i wanted to make a quick comment. that is exactly what happened in california. i have to respectfully disagree, it is a party of whites. >> that is the thing the democratic party was not what the republican

nice to see you live from the bob bullets texas state museum in the capital city of texas, austin. we're here to play a little match game. not that match game. in order to create the 30 million jobs this country needs -- that was cute. in order to create the 30 million jobs this country needs we know we must match the problems we face with the money we have to the people that we have looking for work. if you marry them together guess what happens. you end up with a solution and a job. we will also have complete coverage of course of the rick santorum trifecta wins last night in colorado, missouri, minnesota to say the least a wrinkle in the gop presidential ball game. >> i don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. i stand here to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. >> washington will never be reformed by those who have been compromised by the culture of washington. this is a clear choice. i'm the only person in this race republican or democrat who has never served a day of time in washington. >> well, mr. romney, many more nights like

the remaining states. ohio, illinois, california and texas. he had the home state advantage in california and although the democrats did make an effort in california, i don't think they ever thought california was leakly, even though they turned out to be very close they couldn't count on california ending up on the kennedy column. ohio had a natural tendency toward the republican party that was not true of other midwestern states and so nexton got a bit of an edge there and had fewer catholics. illinois, the polls show nixon running ahead of illinois all spring more than in other parts of the country and nixon was quite confident that he could carry illinois. the key to the election turned out to be texas, kind of strange and texas hadn't played that key role before and eisenhower carried texas very easily and if nixon could hold on to texas and illinois he could, in fact, win the election. a couple of days before the democratic national convention nixon wrote a letter to a friend in which he said that he expected that kennedy almost certainly

during the past 50 years in johnson's native texas, a lot has changed. apter leader for the ncaap here in texas tells us, their efforts have turned from the marches of the 1960s to the very institutions that they confront today. >> we have the same issues here. black folks couldn't go to public facilities. those laws had to be changed. you were fixing the whole country. folks who came here also brought things to this environment that demand a different kind of struggle. i was born in macon, georgia. i saw the killings and lynchings. based on the urgency, peopled involved. if you have a country that big next door, and those who fought for the same things, civil rights, voter rights, he gave us a bigger struggle. and more international in context as well. when you think about the loss of life, the loss of jobs, loss of opportunity, many lives were destroyed. these people sacrificed a lot for ours. it doesn't stop here. we have to do the same thing today. we have to do the same thing today. we have a thing called structural racism. we have to fight the stru

simpson tate who was the ncaacp lawyer for texas. and they put together a lieutenant against the city of beaumont. that was in the summer of '55. and in order to set up the case, several of them went out to the golf shop at the terrell, offered to pay their money, they were refused, and so they got the case set up like that. and then after they set up the case, then johns and willard and tate filed the suit papers in beaumont, challenging the fact that they were not permitted to play the terrell because of their color. and the new judge, he had just been appointed recently, was lamar cecil. and so judge cecil had to handle this new case that was coming in. johns and willard and tate argued this case in the courtroom here. they brought the plaintiffs and the defendants together and judge see sicecil presided at h bench. and they argued that brown versus board of education also applied to golf courses. he ruled in favor of the black plaintiffs. he said that brown versus the board of education does apply to this golf course and he ordere

this is the university of texas in austin and this is a picture of the nanoscience center. this building represents one of the great things american universities do. it is a world-class research. dallasites of course is the science of very little things that the applications are tremendous. they are in batteries. they are in solar panels. and a lot of medical applications. this is going on at the university of texas, austin that a ten-minute walk away is another world indeed. and that is the texas memorial stadium. and coexisting in this great university are these two worlds. in this world, the players are taken to practice every day, to practice in a chartered bus. when they dress out, they are in a locker room that has a 20-foot long light at the top of the ceiling in the shape of a longhorn. and there are tvs and everything else. these things coexist and what we think of as american universities. now, american universities are some of the best in the world. here is a list of the top 20 universities plus taxes. the top 20 universities in the entire world. look at how many

it was very, very long in the texas at the time. it detailed every, all the rare plants, specimen plants, horticultural, introducing them to texas. i was so excited about all of this. i used to say to my brother, this apple thing, you have gotten from your grandfather who had a reverence. he would say that is ridiculous. when my brother announced he was going to give up his life as a trial lawyer to be an apple orchardist. my father said i have one thing to say, jews don't farm. but they did. his father clearly did. >> just to wind up, then, what are you working on next? >> i have become fascinated with the personal. this is the most excruciating difficult book. >> so you are going to turn around and do it again. >> i have been spending a great deal of time in india every year my next book is a memoir of going through india and what this has done to transform my own life. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> [applause].

there wasn't a single elected republican state or county official anywhere in the state of texas. and the way some of the vote counts were done in texas is truly bizarre and spectacular is the only way to describe it. without going into the details. i would suggest that probably more votes were stolen in texas than in illinois in reality. well, in 1968, richard nixon copied kennedy's 1960 formula to run in the primaries, to show popularity by winning primaries to build party organizations, by winning in primaries and to use television advertising in order to massage the electorate and win the election. the bigger budget and the bigger staff really mattered. the -- yeah -- well, that's good because i'm at the end. as nixon hinted in a letter just before -- well, anyway, so the 1960 election was a big disappointment, of course, to nixon. and indeed, republican party officials were really angry with him because they believed that the underlying fundamentals of the economy and the peace and prosperity eisenhower eight years and so forth should have given nixon the victory. and, of cour

that say the capitol building is a symbol of the legendary spirit of texas. get ready for a spirited show. you're watching 30 million jobs tour on msnbc live from austin. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color. that's because you always get two times the points on travel, from taxis to trains, airfare to hotels, and all kinds of dining... from fast food to fine dining. and that's not all you get. there are expert advisors who answer immediately, whenever you call. and absolutely no foreign transaction fees. does your card do all that? apply today and earn 50,000 ultimate rewards bonus points when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. that's $625 toward your next trip when you redeem through ultimate rewards. so, why settle for gold when you can have so much more? chase sapphire preferred. a card of a different color. call the number on your screen or visit our website to apply. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors

as most of you in the room do know, in texas the system operates on more funding than most states. there may be five to six states that has funding at this level, it's extreme in texas. we have the big five. we have the workforce investment act. temporary assistance to needy families. food stamps. employment training program. and the snap program. we use the staff from the employment service. not the money. but the staff, the human talent, the human resources as part of our workforce center and low and behold the biggest sum of money and it's the most incredible shift for all of us is child care for working families. if you don't have child care that is ready and available and affordable, the workforce doesn't show up. the workforce doesn't come. so we will be talking about how we've managed the child care piece of what we do as well. the bottom line, for anyone in the nonprofit, and we are a stand alone nonprofit, business leg, for any of you in nonprofit, if you go by, gosh, we got in under budget, no, that doesn't work. that doesn't work, you have to challenge yourself i ever day

if we won the texas primary, if that's his definition of relative parody, okay. that's in the ballpark of where it would be things play out with romney winning. so that ice a long haul to go. and went through a lot of states right there. that requires a lot of money and organization and when you're losing, the money doesn't keep coming in. so he's going to have to run a very disciplined campaign to get this far in and have the resources to compete not only in texas but the other places. that's april 3. >> he seemed 100% determined to do that. he's not going anywhere because you can see how angry he is at mitt romney. let's take a quick break. we'll go back to that special caucus in las vegas. we'll see what happens there. stay with us. our special coverage continues in a moment. financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from peo

-- will the gentleman from texas suspend? mr. green: reach some sort of -- the chair: the gentleman from texas will suspend. the gentleman from texas' time has expired. mr. green: i am -- can i ask for unanimous consent now, mr. chairman? the chair: there's been an objection to that request. >> i don't want to make an objection but i do -- the chair: the gentlewoman from the district of columbia is recognized. ms. norton: is it true that 5:40 is the end -- there will be no members heard on this issue after 5:40? i ask the chair. mr. gingrey: mr. speaker, i am going to have to insist on regular order here. mr. green: thank you, mr. chairman. the chair: the gentlelady's parliamentary inquiry is a three-hour time limit that has not been reached. for what purpose does the gentlelady from illinois rise? >> strike the last word. the chair: the gentlelady from illinois is recognized for five minutes. ms. schakowsky: you know, roughly 70% of us at some point are going to have difficulty taking care of ourselves independently and we're

san antonio has spent months refereeing the fight over redistricting, and we will find out when the texassay it's on april third, there's no way it's on april third, correct? >> right. it's going to be very hard, and the dispute is over redistricting in these four new congressional districts that the state of texas will get, even if the federal court comes to an agreement, the ability on get your ducks in line to have a primary is not enough time. chuck, instead of april third, what about june fifth or some time in may. you are talking unintended consequences, there could be an unintended consequence of having the texas primary later. >> listen to newt, he is all about texas. here is what he said yesterday about the texas primary. >> they will do what they have to do and we are organize a campaign with governor perry and we are happy to get there whenever we can. >> he cannot, if super tuesday is a disappointment, it's hard to see if he can stretch to get to texas, and see if perry's organization is rally a victory. if we are talking june -- >> texas by itself as 155 deg gate -- all of a

our commitment is to find a series of victories by the end of the texas primary and leave us a parity of governor mitt romney and see if we can't win the nomination. he will do reasonably well. this is one of his best state . a heavily mormon state and he carried in 2008. we have early returns and we don't know how it is going to end up. last time ron paul was in second place and any time in a caucus state dr. paul has a substantial advantage. i think i will do better than john mccain did. we'll get some delegates and obviously like to get more . we are happy to compete here and move on to compete first in maine, minnesota, colorado, early voter began in ohio and arizona and we'll compete in arizona and in michigan and we'll go on to super tuesday and beyond that. i wanted to set that all of you could relax. and what happens is. every caucus day or primary day. romney headquarters sends out the rumor that they believe i will with draw. that is their greatest fantasy . i am happy with where we are . the conbetween governor romney and me get wider in the next few weeks and i look forwar

at the texas presidential libraries. and so, we began here today and we will continue with programming at the george w. bush library in march of 2012 and conclude with the program at the lbj library in november of 2012. programs like this can't be done without support. and therefore i am very grateful to our program sponsors, texas a&m university. whoop! american university of public affairs and american university libraries, the george bush foundation, always generous to the library. thank you to the foundation and i would like to thank the white house historical association and he stephanie sale and jim si singleton. introducing our panel, our program and panelists tonight is andy card, acting dean of the bush school of government and public service, can we give him a whoop? >> whoop! >> mr. card was appointed in july of 2011. he is formally dean card served as chief of staff to george w. bush from 2000 to 2006, he was assistant to the president, deputy chief of the staff and the 11th secretary of transporta

now the gentleman from texas, mr. gonzalez, is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the witnesses. i'm going to agree with my colleague that if you're exporting fuels because it's refined product from obviously what we received from canada, exporting is good. balance of trade creates jobs and such. the real question then comes as to how you refine it. i just want to remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we attempted to make sure that we did it in a more cleaner fashion and more safe fashion and that they oppose this every step of the way. now we were able to get a bill out of the house that we never had been able to conclude that. so i'm hoping that they recognize the necessity of safe and clean refining industry in this country and the way that we can accomplish and meet all of the demands of this country. general, again, thank you for your service, first of all. thank you for being here today. thank you, mr. thompson. it's good to hear from you. i understand what you're saying. i'm going to agree with you. this is my fear

representatives committee on science, space, and technology, and the representative from the 30th district of texasthank you, and good morning. thank you for this opportunity to make -- to permit me to make a few remarks as we honor distinguished americans. you know, hero is an overused word. but i think that all who are assembled today would not hesitate to describe our honorees as genuine national heroes. in fact, the only ones who might object to that description are the honorees themselves. in an age of inflated egos and self-promotion, each of these has distinguished himself and his modest, his competence, his bravery and his dedication to serving this nation. while we ostensibly are honoring them by bestowing gold medals, it is a simple representation of all they have meant to america. as i said to mr. armstrong when he testified before our committee earlier this year, america's space program is as much about inspiration as it is about rockets and space capsules. and the four gentlemen we are honoring today are continuing to inspire our young and old. even though our path making, path breakin

the gentleman from texas. mr. doggett: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. doggett: madam speaker, i'm against fraud. i think everyone here is against it. i'm for what's in this bill, that's why i voted for it back in december and i'll vote for it next month, too, if that will make for more cooperation here in the house. you i think in -- i think in a way this election year's welfare cadillac. and i was against welfare cadillac he if there were any of those. this year we have the strip club loophole that has been defined as a political term to suggest that we have a lot of problems with poor people abusing their benefits. and to the extent that any poor person abuses even a dollar of these benefits and keeps those benefits out of the mouths of hungry children, providing the clothes those kids need to go to school, i'm against it and plan to vote against it today. . i favor comprehensive legislation against fraud in public assistance. it concerns me wh

the high court said it will hear fisher v texas, to determine if abigail was denied admission to the university of texas because she was white. the federal appeals court banned the affirmative action. but justice o'connor has been exceeded by samuel. he wrote: right now students in the top 10% of texas high schools are automatically admitted into that state's public university system. miss fisher missed the cut off and was put in to other things that were considered like work experience and community service. the last time the supreme court ruled on affirmative action and why are they taking this up now? >> probably a simple head count. the court is much more conservative. and keegan was a very strong vote likely in favor of texas. and the swing justice, justice kennedy voted previously against the position of sandra day o'connor in the case you just mentioned. but the odd thing is really timing. one of the most controversial parts of the o'connor decision is she sort of arbitrarily said we're going to allow this to happen for 25 more years, and a lot of people viewed that as why 25 y

the gentleman from texas, mr. barton. >> mr. chairman, i just want to give congressman terry the opportunity to respond if he wishes to. >> i'm sorry. i was being briefed. >> i just want to give you the opportunity to respond to the prior question. >> sure. thanks to due diligence of great staff here. the specific statute of nebraska is 57101. and it does state specifically petroleum pipelines. it's stated in the statute. and so there is a specific process that is spelled out, as i mentioned, through state statute. and those things -- those things are important. i have two points that i want to make to mr. rush's points. one is the reason why there's this kind of catch all is that if you have one land owner that, you know, has aligned themselves with the nrdc and then you have one land owner that can stop at 1,700 mile pipeline and i think that's really what the basis of this amendment is. but also what it does is it it makes nebraska law that's been vetted, has been adopted by the state legislature that the people are behind say

time for a quick break and we return ok for challenging lamar smith for his seat his name before the texas representative is going to dismiss challenger richard mack after the break. so people calling like you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the clinton as you can hear behind me loud explosions. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture . well there's something to be said for the way that sopa and pipa were defeated through online communities like red as well as the tech giants taking part in a blackout day and now it looks like one congressional candidate might be riding as anti-social weight richard mack is the former sheriff of arizona's graham county as well as an oath keeper a coalition of current and former law enforcement and military personnel that have pledged not to enforce laws that violate the constitution and he's taking on mars

yes, i'm the acting dean of the bush school, and the bush school at texas a&m is a graduate school. we're turning out the finest and best graduates that go into public service. we're so proud of the quality of the students and the performance of the graduates because they have earned a great reputation for that school. but i'm not here tonight to talk about the bush school. i am here tonight to pay praise to president bush, and i appreciate him bringing his library and museum and creating the school here at texas a&m, but this is really a pretty special program. on november 11th, 267 years ago, there was a woman born who had a pretty great legacy for this country. and i'm not talking about barbara bush. her name was abigail smith adams. and she was the first woman to have been married to a president and was the father of a president. i mean the mother of a president. [ laughter ] thank you anita. it was actually the secret service that whispered first. on february 12th, interestingly, 11/11 and 2/12, are pretty significant days in american history. on february 12th, 1775, there was a

the gentleman from texas. >> thank you. the agriculture industry needs to hire hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers each year to put food on americans tables. many workers choose to work elsewhere. that is why many illegal immigrants soon left the fields for other jobs in the city. as the president of the american farm bureau, any new amnesty would have the same result. because of this, u.s. employers often face a shortage of available american workers to fill seasonal agricultural jobs. there is no limit to h 2-a limit visas, yet half of farm workers are illegal immigrants. why don't more who have demands make use of the program? in 2008, the department of labor concluded that the majority of growers find the program so plagued with problems that they avoid using it all together. this sub committee held a hearing in which witnesses described what was wrong with the program. growers believe that the labor department, which largely administers the program, is hostile to them and the program. growers are troubled by the g

the strait of horm use. it's very narrow. for you in texas, that's the distance from houston to g galveston to zip down the freeway. the commercial traffic, tanker lanes are close to iran, pushed to the northern part of strait. it's very shallow, 200 feet. 30% of the transported crude flows through the straits of hormuz. if those shut down for any amount of time, maybe two month, the price will spike dramatically. it is a national security issue. you don't have to take my word for it. the department of state agrees. we had a similar issue about three years ago. a pipeline called the alberta clipper which came from the same spot in canada and came over to the lake superior on the great lakes. this is the record of decision by the state department for the alberta clipper pipeline. i'll read one portion to you. it applies today. the department of state has determined through review of the alberta clipper project application that the alberta clipper project would serve the national interests in a time of considerable political tension and -- excu

of the texas needs, this according to the texas department of labor. to ensure the industry a future work force, we need a model that is more flexible, scalable and market oriented. congress lungren is offering a visa for agricultural workers. it requires a biometric visa, criminal background check, incentives for workers to abide by the visas and return home when the work is done. the closer a new program comes to replicating the way, the farm force moves now among employers and crops the more likely it will meet the industry's needs. to ensure programs actually work it will likely need to beed amrpted by the united states department offin agriculture instead of the department of labor, which has a long history of implementing the h2a program. a workable program may meet the needs of the dairy and livestock industries. these operations have difficulty finding workers and their need is year-round. any solution must avoid needless disruptions of the industry and must accommodate the large experienced labor force currently within our industry. any soluti