mr speaker pursuant to house resolution eleven ninety seven i call from the speaker's table h r two six four two and offer the motion of the desk  with the title of the bill designate the senate amendment and designate the motion future twenty six forty two an act making appropriations for military construction the department of veterans affairs and related agencies for the for the fiscal year ending september thirtieth two thousand houses please come to water members please save all the conversations on the floor this bill hence it increases the deficit simply by putting new entitlement spending on an appropriation bill in order to eight evade paygo would constitute a blatant loophole in the pig a point of order if the if pay go is designed to prevent increases in the deficit this measure should not not the way it is the legislation before the house fully complies with the paygo rule that rule deals with direct spending and revenues has to revenues the revenue effect of this package reduce the deficit rather than increasing it as to spending none of the spending in this package falls into the direct spending category which is basically defined as spending outside the appropriations process even though not technically required to do so the medicaid provisions and the expansion of veterans education benefits fully meet the paygo standard both sets of provisions contain offsets to ensure that they do not increase the deficit or the five in ten year period used by the pay go rule the rest of the bill mostly of emergency appropriations for defense and other security related needs largely for things requested by the president and the other major spending item relating to extended unemployment compensation benefits is temporary in nature  response to current hardships created by the economic downturn so i believe that we are to abide by the house rules as they are not as some members wish they were generous wisconsin makes a point of order that the motion violates clause ten of rule twenty one by increasing the deficit clause ten of rule twenty one provides a point of order against the measure at the provisions of such measure affecting to expending all revenues have the net effect of increasing a deficit or reducing the surplus because ten of rule twenty one further provides that the effect of the measure on the deficit or surplus is determined by the committee on the budget relative to certain estimates supplied by the congressional budget office the gentleman who is constant is asserted that the motion contains direct spending that causes an increase in a deficit as a threshold matter the chamas the chairman of provisions in the measure affect direct spending and reviewing the text of clause ten of rule twenty one the chair finds no definition of the term direct spending because clause ten of rule twenty one is a budget  mechanism the chair finds it prudent to look to other budget and forstmann schemes for guidance in defining this term in a review of relevant budget unfortunate statues the chair finds a definition of the term direct spending in section two fifty of the balanced budget emergency deficit control hundred eighty five the definition in section two fifty provides important part that there expending these budget authority provided by law other than appropriation acts the underlying bill h r two six four two is a general appropriation bill the motion proposes amendments that would make emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year two thousand and eight this measure constitutes an appropriation act within the name of section two fifty accordingly the budget authority portended by the motion does not constitute direct spending for in confidence with the chairs finding the chairs authoritarian sickly guided by estimates from the committee on the budget that the net effect of the provisions on the pending motion affecting revenues in direct spending would not increase the deficit accordingly t one quick parliamentary inquiry for the purpose of clarification the speaker but may state isn't very condensing all of that is it is it my understanding then that that this is not sustain because paygo does not apply to direct spending so long as it's in  send their remarks include extraneous material on the pending legislation without objection pursuant to house resolution one one nine seven the jennet was consummate obion the gentleman from california mr lewis will each control one hour a war that we do not have the power to end so long as the president is of as obstreperous as he has been on the subject that means that we have to try to find a way to manage this problem in a way that sends a clear message to the public that they are the only ones who can in fact muster the power to change direction on this war by electing a president that will get us out of this war it also means we have to manage it in such a way that we set the table for the new president to give him at least a few months to think through how he's going to proceed to extricate us from this war and to get his ducks in a row on  policy therefore we are taking this senate bill and where asking the house to consider three amendments and work their will on it the first amendment is very simple it's an up or down vote on providing the funding to pay for the equipment and to pay for the salaries for the for the troops as long as they are going to be in the war situation that money will be estimated to run out by june of one of two thousand and nine the second amendment would simply be an opera down vote on the can do ition that the house believes could should appropriately be attached to the to the spending of that money those conditions many many of which the house has seen before those conditions will among other things require that virtually every unit sent to the war be fully combat ready they will provide that no one who works for the united states may engage in techniques that are at variance with the army field manual in plain language no torture it all the conditions will also say that there shall be no long term security agreements entered into with iraq which without the submission of those agreements to the knotted state senate for their consideration it will establish a timetable for extricating ourselves from combat by setting a goal not a firm date but a goal of eighteen months from the date of an act of an act when the conditions also we've added to conditions which would have the effect of requir iraq to provide a dollar for dollar match for any of the redevelopment and reconstruction activities that are being carried out on the the by the united states government the effect of that would be to it would be the functional equivalent of turning fifty percent of what we provide to iraq into loans we've done it this way because we have no faith that the loans whatever be repaid in this way we guarantee that the iraqis who are now the about to develop very large surpluses in their own budget they they will have to meet these costs of front on an equal basis before the united states proceeds to expend its own money and well also require that the american military be provided gasoline in iraq at the same subsidized price as the iraqis are being subsidized we don't see why the united states troops or defending that country ought to have to pay a premium then we will have a third amendment again op or down on the other administration requests those include  we've increased the international food aid recommended by the president by seven hundred forty five million dollars anybody who has read the newspapers or watch television for the last two weeks understands why that is a moral necessity we've also included the administration request for the louisiana levees exactly as they have requested it as fiscal zero nine money we have provided or we have we  responded to a request from the bureau of the prisons to provide one hundred seventy eight million dollars so that they do not have to lay off prison guards and other personnel in the u s prison system the secretary of commerce has requested that we provide additional funding because they run into technology problems at the u s census bureau so we've responded to that with a two hundred and ten million dollar appropriation and we've also  added two point two billion dollars in military construction funds above the president's request to fully fund the administration's two thousand and eight brac requests we've also included two hundred ten million dollars for  military child care centers which the president from that rostrum told the country he was for but neglected to ask the money for in his budget this year there are no members projects whatsoever in this bill in the military construction portion of the bill for instance there are one hundred twenty one facilities that are provided for one hundred eleven of those were specifically asked for by the white house and the others were identified by the committee as top service priorities after testimony from the military services the only there's only one proposal that could be really considered a specific project earmark and that is one hospital which the assistant secretary of defense asked to be included in the recommendations and were providing planning funds for that facility in addition to the other items in that third amendment to be considered what would deal with the following if we're going to fight the war we happen to believe that we ought to  provide a thank you to the people who have fought it especially because there's been no sense of shared sacrifice in this country the only people have been asked to sacrifice our military families again and again and again and  we are doing is a including the web bill which would provide for the equivalent of a full boat for your education at at a public university  florida for persons who have spent thirty six months on active duty and the benefits are scaled down in accordance with time served it's long past time that we do that we've also included an emergency funding for unemployment compensation so that for persons have exhausted their unemployment benefits they will have an additional thirteen weeks available to them we have also in this amendment  recommended delaying the the administration's rules changes in medicaid that have been so controversal and we include to contractor reforms which the house had already passed the main difference mr speaker between this bill and the administration's bill is that we pay for everything in the bill except the unemployment compensation provision and the president for virtually none of his requests now i preferred to pay for the entire war if we're going to have it i thought i don't think we ought to have it but if we were going to have it i thought we ought to pay for the whole thing s and miss and mr mcgovern so we introduced legislation to pay for the whole war with a war surtax we lost that argument that's not in this bill i felt that if we weren't going to pay for the war up front then there should be no requirement to provide an offset to provide the additional g i bill expanded benefits what you are the equivalent of only about six percent of the cost of this war so far  i lost that argument too and so this bill does pay for the expansion of g i benefits and it pays for that in probably the best way possible by asking the the most fortunate citizens in our society those who are individually make five hundred thousand dollars or more a year or as a couple who make a million dollars or more a year we're asking them to help out in the form in the form of a patriot a premium buy in essence asking them to pay a one why one half of one percent surtax in order to finance the g i bill expansion as i look at this bill what we're doing is we're asking people who on average have got one hundred twenty six thousand dollar annual tax cade take a tiny portion of that tax cut to help us make life better for the persons who have been doing the most in order to preserve the way of life which is enable those people to do so well in life and i make no apology for it ninety nine percent of the appropriated dollars in this bill ninety nine percent of the appropriated dollars in this bill are being requested by the administration  this war mr speaker has screwed up our economy this war has has injected chaos in the lives of military families all across the country we make no apology in trying to use this vehicle to respond to the needs of the two groups in society who have been hit the hardest by this war the one being those who've lost their jobs because of the turmoil we've had in the economy because of the war and other factors and and second military families who are we believe ought to be treated about as well as the g i s were when they came back in world war two this war is now lasted longer than world war two and we think we have an  to what's actually out there on the ground in communities all across the country we can debate our political philosophies we can debate our economic theories we can behave like a little budget tears arguing about this offset but in the end we're dealing with the lives of human beings we're dealing with the lives of families we're dealing with oh we're dealing with people who have sacrificed incredibly much with their family members being sent to iraq and afghan i stand once twice three times kids not seeing their parents i represent a city of thirty seven thousand people we've had thirty almost thirty five thousand casualties in this country it is as if four thousand people in my hometown were killed and virtually every other person in that hometown wound up in a v a hospital that's the human toll that's been paid so far just by americans on this war so this is a process which will give members the opportunity to vote up or down on the major pieces that that comprises the legislation urge the house to move forward i myself will it be intending to vote against the first amendment i will be voting for the second and the third amendment i hope that every member here today exercises  little bit out of order for two of my colleagues on the floor david obey the chairman the committee and my colleague mr murtha the chairman of defense subcommittee have shared with me i thought over some years the traditional order of this house seeing the committee system work especially your preparations committee work making certain that all members democrats and republicans had opportunity to provide input to have us move so far away from that tradition order by way of this process today is a great disappointment a disappointment to me i can't help but wonder if maybe there's some lack of commitment to regular order that i'd never see before for example my colleague from san diego who's  subcommittee if he'd been given opportunity could have mark dept head of hearings and otherwise on the v a portion some time ago this supplemental came from the president well over a year ago we've had plenty of time to exercise  process in a way that maximize members involvement and remembering that those members are elected to represent their people at home and so the procedure we're going through today has undermined that representative process i think many of my colleagues particularly those who serve with me on the appropriations committee know that i have a great deal of respect for the senior senator from west virginia the chairman of the senate appropriations committee senator robert byrd well he and i may disagree on issues from time to time it is fair to say that we both share a deeply held love and respect for this institution senator byrd also reveres the established traditions and presidents of the committee he leads he understands that we were only truly know what is in this supplemental if it is exposed to the light of day through a regular order a committee process no one not even the senator senate majority leader is going to tell senator byrd to abdicate his devotion to regular order or his responsibility as chairman of his beloved appropriations committee unfortunately the  to regular order has now been completely abandoned on the house side of the capitol both chairman ovi and speaker pelosi the sole authors of the house supplemental before us today have dismissed as a non issue those bipartisan voices calling for folk amid a consideration of this critically important legislation in conversations with those republicans and democrats in the house it's widely felt that the democrat leadership has unfairly and wrongly circumvented the house appropriations committee process further the house majority has chosen to proceed under a closed rule eliminating any and all amendments on the house floor and intent on bypassing a conference committee with the senate in effect the democrat leadership has a limited every conceivable opportunity for republicans and democrats to represent the views of their constituents i find this sadly ironic for it was nancy pelosi in two zero zero six who outlined the new democrat majority governing philosophy and i'll quote her bills should come to the house floor under a procedure that allows open full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives including a substitute bill should be developed following full hearings and open subcommittee markup and the body knows full well we have had not an open process let alone a full and fair debate nor have we had any amendment process nor have we had any hearings whatsoever so i asked the speaker what has changed in october twentieth two zero zero six press release then minority leader nancy pelosi wrote in a letter to quote the voice of every american has a right to be heard no member of congress should be silenced on the floor my colleagues know that i've expressed grave concern about speaker pelosi and chairman o b being the so authors of this legislation without any input from other members with considerable expertise in these subject matters i am not alone in expressing this concern last week my dear friend  broader membership it does disenfranchise the voice of the people who don't come from leadership locations i just happen to be the ranking member on this full committee i saw the text and the heart of this proposal  only yesterday and in the early part of the afternoon they've had it for months in the works of chosen to ignore entirely the minority in this connection my colleagues know that i've expressed grave concern about this process before the house majority leader standing a whole year has said it is disingenuous for republicans to speak out over the iraq war supplemental bypassing the appropriations committee process he suggested that the house republicans while in the majority had engaged in similar practices this argument would be convenient if it were in fact true how are we all know that facts are stubborn things according to the april twenty ninth edition of politico there have been about three dozen emergency spending bills and the past twenty years and a handful has passed without input from the appropriations committee including billions  hurricane katrina and post of temper eleven funds but none of that iraq war funding those bills has happened as bypass the appropriations panel in the process have there been occasions where supplementals that spending bills have not been considered by the full committee sure there have but in those rare instances such as the aftermath of september eleventh and so on there was bipartisan consensus on the need to act quickly and we did so by working together in no circumstance to my knowledge that either the republican the majority or the democrat minority that preceded it ever deny either the opposition party or even members of its own party a seat at the table in writing such critical legislation yet here we stand today debating the merits of a bill that only a handful of members have even seen very very few members know what is in this legislation i ask you anybody in the room of any of you besides the david obie had a chance to really read this bill and know what's in it in detail you're going to be asked to vote on it anyway regardless of that lack of input members of the house republicans and democrats deserve to have their voice heard by the end of the day not one member will have an opportunity to offer an amendment or propose any alternative ideas to this body for  our speaker pelosi and chairman of be afraid of this is the fist time since january of zero seven that this majority has brought a supplemental appropriations bill to the house floor under a close rule violating the entire tradition of the appropriations process representatives to represent themselves and have their voices heard are fundamental to their people having their voices heard and that's what's happening here we're beginning  a pattern to destroy the representative process that allows the people to be heard by the people they sent here to represent them in the first place speaker pelosi and chairman of we have effectively said virtually every democrat and republican serving this great body your voices they're relevant and your input is not welcome again what are speaker pelosi and chairman of the afraid of i believe this practice of circumventing our traditional committee process ignoring the voices of rank and file members and their constituents is detrimental to the health of the legislative process it puts in in place a process that i hand full of powerful legislators in which they become the great deciders of what should or should not be included in this almost two hundred fifty billion dollar spending bill this is not a house of a few great deciders it is the people's house it is the house of representatives we failed to recognize this at our great peril on may twenty fourth zero two my friend and my chairman mr obie said and i quote what a shame when the legislative process is corrupted to polarize a product that should have been used to forge national unity these words are particularly true today as chairman of the and speaker  partisan interests ahead of the interests of the members of the house and ahead of the people of this country we can do better and ladies and gentlemen we must do better vote no on this package and send it back to where it belongs daily let me also say that i think his speech simply bears out that because they can find no real substantive fault with the legislation they have to fall back on the whining about process and i would suggest that the gentleman from california is the last person i will take the lectures from what it comes to talking about an open appropriations process i was not chairman when the appropriations committee after the conference was closed and the work was done and the names on the conference report i was not chairman the committee who allowed forty pages or thirty pages of unrelated new language is not seen by anybody to be inserted in that conference report which insulated the pharmaceutical industry from from suit if their products damage their customers was i was not the chairman of the committee when the committee after the conference was closed and after it was finished inserted anonymously anonymously in the dead of night language which changed the definition of organic foods on the agriculture bill and led and led to nicely enrich profits for certain people in th society all i can say is the gentleman may not like the fact that we couldn't finish the discussions as fast as we wanted to on this bill and he says he's only been able to see the text of the last day or  so well let me simply suggest at least the text he reads is the text that will be in the bill after we've pulled a vote on the bill which is more than you can say for what happened under his stewardship on several occasions you must one to recognize an additional minute and let me simply make the point there is virtually nothing in this bill that hasn't been around here for months this is not new material the president's war request has been has been around here for months is the gentleman in self has indicated the unemployment compensation provision that were put in providing this bill already passed the house on one occasion the the web bill has been around for months and it has the support and in fact the sponsorship of a majority of the house and and a wide bipartisan support in the senate as well so i would suggest that mr mr chairman i think the question is the pentagon is saying you've got to get the money to the troops because they're about to run out of money won't get paid and yet our our friends on the other side are are asking us to follow a process which would have taken a much longer period of time you can't have it both ways this is a fair process i'm against the amendment i you must have another members recognize i'm your first only opposed to the first amendment which we're presenting to the house but out of courtesy to the minority w support it and out of courtesy to the white house which who would support it and weren't were allowing that to come to a vote our party has not even wept on that question we've told members vote your conscience i don't see how i could be more fair than member in drafting this bill we've always done that when i was chairman we did that when he was chairman we did that and the defense part of this bill is a good package and that's that's amendment number one as a matter of fact we actually followed the process and we went to the subcommittee and the subcommittee members were word that we had a full discussion of the defense part of this bill and the subcommittee members on both sides of the aisle agreed that we had had to produce a pretty good bill and it met most of most of what the administration had asked for and we would then we reported it on to the full committee but that's where the process broke down that process up to that point while i was at the subcommittee level process work fine regular order just like it was supposed to but then all of a sudden the process did break down and i don't know to what extent  any other members might have been involved with this member as the ranking member on the subcommittee was not involved there were subsequent meetings despite the fact that hadn't gone to the full committee it hadn't gone to the floor of the house so that the members could express their interest either by amendment or by debate but there was a meeting between the leadership of the in the house and the senate on the defense package where said we just we has gotten the actual language of what is in this package last night and so it does take a little time to read all of these bills and to and understand but i think the defense part of it there may be have there may have been an additional change just use me mr speaker there may have been an additional change after that pre conference conference or whatever it was i don't know that that might have happened but i have i support the the amendment number one and i believe that we've done a good job in providing for our troops the largest portions of amendment number one will deal with pay military personnel costs what it takes to maintain the lives of our of arce members of the military and their families the other very large part of this package is operations and maintenance something that is essential to keep the military going and so i support this this package but i really am concerned about the process as well i like the package but there may be some members on this side of the aisle or on that side of the aisle who would like to see some changes who would like to have an opportunity to debate what is included in that package who might want to offer an amendment that could be productive that may be something we would all support but we don't know because the opportunity to do that just isn't there it is a little strange process now my friend and i think everyone knows that mr robey and i are friends and that we have a strong respect for each other and we have worked together very well in our respective positions but then he mentioned early on that we moved very quickly after september zero one after the attacks on the world trade center and the airplane that flew into the pentagon and the airplane that flew into the ground in pennsylvania and mr murtha's district that very likely was directed at this united states capitol where the defense subcommittee was in session working on the defense appropriations bill but we didn't know what was happening there we didn't know what was next if you recall all of the airplanes flyin and around the united states were grounded because we didn't know if there were additional airplanes had been hijacked we just didn't know the that of the attack that we were experiencing the terrible vicious terrorist attack against an innocent nation and so we did move quickly and we appropriated and on the third day we had worked together republicans and democrats to produce a bill that sailed through the house sailed through the senate signed by the president and that's the way it was done the process was not the regular order but it was a process done in consultation with both parties and any member of that one of the be included and so while i do support amendment number one i think the process is terrible i think the process is inexcusable i cannot support the process but say that the united states military must prepare for more fighting future wars against insurgents and militias such as in iraq and afghanistan rather than spend money and time preparing for defense no conflicts overemphasize the department's focus on training and equipment for counterinsurgency mission appears to be simply a rationalization of a short term budget decision made in waning months of this administration i'm worried because we've been saying over and over again let's look beyond iraq let's make sure we get the military back to the position where it should be these decisions that left the armed forces in a degraded state of readiness and both of us when jerry w chairman when when bill was chairman we have tried to increase the amount of money for the military to increase or reading it without the support of the administration in many cases they have left it was still these directly impacts there was personnel quality of life in disrepair and every place we've gone we've seen the disrepair they have left many defense acquisition program broken or badly damaged i sent a letter to secretary of defense saying mr secretary we've got some real problems here we've got to fix this procedures by sending a budget up to got to stop the supplemental to put it all in one budget so we can have some semblance of order when we when we look at d c decisions and these decisions to take  account the potential missions of the u s armed forces must prepare for and may have to undertake and the years ahead i find these comments question a bullet he's made at a time when not one combat unit united states rate is combat ready now i hope that in the base bill in the supplemental we're moving in that direction i hope that's what we're going to be able to accomplish now we spend more money on intelligence than any other country in the world put it all together we spend more money i got pun things have not been right so i am concerned that if we don't pay attention to what we know i have been here a long time we're not going to be prepared not only to fight a war but to prevent preventive war we can no longer be the world's policeman and i think all of us understand that we need to rebuild our diplomatic alliances and we need to restore our international credibility our military and diplomatic force must include the strength of our allies we cannot do it alone now let me say in this bill we have three point six billion for c seventeen judge we produce thirty four c one thirty s we went through with the subcommittee in detail we had to make some changes because a full committee one has to make some changes three billion dollars for medium and heavy trucks i remember when we went to to saudi or saudi arabia the first time we what was the biggest shortage said trucks so we tried to take care of the things that we realized need to be done we put money in for the and then marine corps facility maintenance and we put for medical  maintenance we transferred money to the military construction committee and then made a decision where that money should go and five hundred seventy million no one in congress probably the history of congress paid more attention to medical care for the military than the mr lewis miss young and myself and we've tried to be in the forefront and making sure that they have what they need in order to take care of the troops matter of fact we put money in some years ago for a  center that take care of the amputees and it took them a while to understand we were serious about it but it happened and i'm proud to say that that's working very effectively so what we have done under the constitution is appropriate the money where we think it will do the most good and we'll continue to do that this is a good bill and i would hope the members would vote for it and we can get it get the money to the troops that they need back from california of this body he's my chairman on the full committee he's my chairman of my subcommittee and on this subcommittee we work very well together to address the key issues of our country however mr speaker the bill before the house today is a phony bill for many reasons the rules have been thrown under the bus no markup no caps with the senate first and foremost this product is the product of a couple of people and a body of four hundred thirty five it does not reflect the best ideas of bipartisan membership of the committee on appropriations and when it leaves this chamber it will not reflect the best ideas of the four hundred thirty five men and women of this house while i often disagreed with the chairman of the appropriations committee in the senate senator byrd at least he stood up for his committee and for the regular order and for the prague is of the appropriations committee in the senate i've heard over the last several days the assertion that members of the minority were offered the opportunity to participate i must have missed it i don't remember any consultation madam speaker i'm embarrassed that the committee that i so revere and on which i have been so proud to serve for so many years has been reduced to this phony exercise the reality is the majority knows that this bill is going to be vetoed staff representing them as democratic leadership were quoted yesterday in the press is saying oh yeah it will be vetoed that's the whole part i forgot quite frankly mr speaker there's a time in a place for fun but not here and not now the democratic leadership by virtue of that flippant remark to the press a remark made quite clearly without regard to the needs of the men and women who risk their lives every day and service to this great nation seems to me to recognize they are playing politics with our troops if they know this bill will be  expired gentlemen additional minute john of the authors recognize one additional minute thank you gentleman if they know this bill will be vetoed if they know that our troops need food and ammunition and armor and equipment quickly enough they know that the families of our troops need a paycheck following a veto strategy seems to be nothing more than another phony political posturing at the expense of the heroes who with their families sacrifice to protect our nation and i yield back the balance  subcommittee texas judge in texas recognized three minutes mr speaker this bill honors our troops our veterans and their families i want to thank chairman obie for being a true champion for nation's veterans our troops and our military families his leadership in partnership with speaker pelosi is why this bill includes a historic twenty first century g i bill of rights to make a college education a reality not a dream for america veterans perhaps less notice but vitally important to our military troops and their families we also made a commitment in this bill to significantly improve health care and daycare for military families and housing for single servicemen and women better housing health care and daycare is our way of letting those who defend our nation at this congress will respect their service and sacrifice in a meaningful way for troops in iraq and afghanistan many of whom are on their second or third tours of duty this measure provides the essential facilities required to live and fight this war so far away from their homes and provide for force protection projects wherever our troops are located the young men and women just volunteer and now for military service and them at number three also provides three hundred million dollars bill much needed training barracks and other facilities this barracks initiative will send a clear message to our newest heroes we deeply respect their decision to serve our nation the men and women who are wounded or ill this amendment provides over one point three billion dollars to modernize outdated inefficient military hospitals twenty first century troops and their families deserve better than to be treated in world war two and korean era medical facilities this commitment tells our troops that they will have the best care if they're wounded and even more important to so many of them if their families will have the best of care while they are gone i want to especially thank and salute chairman murtha for his dedicated strong support for this military healthcare improvement initiative all of our military troops deserve his thanks and his should thank him and respect him for his leadership here for the families that are left behind here at home with their loved ones are in combat overseas this bill also provides over two hundred million dollars to the new child care our military spouses and children may not be wearing our nation's uniform that they are making sacrifices each and every day and we should never forget their service to the american family to address the housing mr speaker that individual member earmarked for neither requested nor considered by our military construction and be a subcommittee every project funded was either requested by the administration the department us without objection i had wanted to offer two amendments one that would have prohibited government officials from attending the genocide olympics on taxpayer money and also members of congress and no members  congress who speak out on human rights should go to that olympics secondly i want to offer an amendment that would create a bipartisan commission much like the iraq study group to look at everything to put everything on the table all this spending and tax to get control of our spending where we are we have fifty four trillion dollars a day in this nation we have nine trillion dollars a day that the chinese hold one chilean dollars and the saudis own a large force in the saudis iraq gasoline is increasing why mr speaker what can a country are we leaving to our children are we leaving a country where by china and saudi arabia will be their bankers di democratic insiders not leaving a very good situation to their children and their grandchildren would ask us members of this congress as parents and grandparents what kind of country do you want to live what are you going to tell your kids and your grandkids later on when you say you know when i was there there was fifty four trillion dollars in debt and i did nothing there was nine trillion dollars in the chinese who are spying against it and mr murtha knows how this final gets us we did not think we lost needs of today's college students the current bill the current program is designed as a benefit for peacetime service and it was never intended as a wartime benefit the twenty first century g i bill in this bill will give our men and women in uniform of serve multiple tours of duty and extended tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan the educational benefits similar to the ones i earned in world war two these people have served our our veterans today of served multiple tours of duty they're getting pulled away from school from their jobs their families the current g i bill does not honor their service sufficiently this bill well i want to commend our bipartisan co sponsors especially my virginia colleague jim webb for writing from the congress they should expect that when the united states sends our brave men and women into combat we provide them with the resources to protect themselves to accomplish their mission both military and humanitarian and that we do it expeditious in this context the chairman the joint chiefs of staff admiral mike mullen the nation's top military officer has warned all of us in our congressional leaders and i quote the pentagon is dangerously close to running out of money we need the supplemental appropriations very badly before the memorial day recess we stopped paying soldiers on the fifteenth of june and we have precious little flexibility with respect to that end of quotations should it be surprised of the majority leadership absolutely not troops have been waiting nearly four hundred fifty days since the president delivered his request for emergency funds to congress our soldiers need this funding to continue their efforts in the global war on terror yet this is  process that amounts to deliberate brinksmanship you waited until the eleventh hour before bringing the bill to the floor in an effort to force the president and congress to indorse and accept billions of dollars of non war non emergency spending having said that mr chairman substance on the funding for iraq and afghanistan this is a solid package and i commend the gentleman the chairman mr murtha and the gentle gentleman from florida m young for their work however my colleagues once again were being asked to endorse a policy that amounts to retreat from our battles with terrorists in iraq but this bill in the end should not be about binding or non binding deadlines withdrawal or how to conduct this war the critical mass of this bill is about supporting our troops and making sure that all of these volunteers get what i need by i challenges and reading the amendments the house is considering today as chairwoman of the economic opportunities subcommittee of the house veterans affairs committee was jurisdiction over veterans education benefits i'm proud to support today's efforts to modernize the montgomery g i bill members of the subcommittee of work diligently throughout the hundred tenth congress to understand how best to enhance education benefits and make them easier to access for our nation's veterans in the twenty first century my step brother a third class petty officer in the united states navy now ext week deployed to the persian gulf on the u s s ronald reagan he like so many thousands of brave and dedicated service men and women stands to benefit from our important vote today votes on vets more wisely in these men and women who make the commitment to serve our country and keep us safe a vote reflects our priorities as a nation to do recognition of their honored service i urge my colleagues to support this much needed improvement in veterans education benefits i thank the chairman once again and yield back the balance of my time the gentleman from california been excluded from the normal rules and regulations of the house and america's representatives have not had their voices heard or their rights allowed it would be a totally different bill if we had not violated the house rules and let the committee process work washington is broken and we need to have it changed for example if we'd had committee meetings we would not have had a tax increase in here you know we have a huge tax increase in this that affects small business owners eighty percent or eighty three percent of the taxes here the people to be taxed here are small business men now in kansas just like a lot of america four out of five jobs are created by small businesses and for those you that have not been reading the newspaper our country is in a period of slow growth this is exactly the time we need to strengthen small businesses instead of punishing them through this bill eighty three percent of the people placed in this bill are people that are creating jobs if we had a committee process we may not have added in other ancillary issues into this idea instead we would have had a clean bill that would address the needs of our young men and women who are faithfully serving this nation protecting our families taking the fight to the enemy and helping us keep this country safe but mr speaker washington is broken and it needs to be changed we have avoided the committee process and because of that there are portions of this bill that could have been improved portion of that it could be improved for our veterans that have served so faithfully come home to us broken people we need to take care of but because the committee was not involved in this process we have not had the ability to improve this care for those who have done so much for us the reason as mr speaker is because washington is broken and it needs to be changed we need to use the committee process the committee process and othe somehow we have violated house rules or committee rules by this procedure the fact is that just because some members were not i have not been around here long enough to remember the house  to often precede in this way of moving amendments back and forth between the senate on the house as a device by which to reach agreement on on legislation that happened routinely during the old abortion debates back in the seventy's when amendments offered by mr magnusson and mr flood or bounced back and forth between the houses the fact is also that  i offered and my staff director specifically offered to have the minority staff participate in every discussion related to appropriation items we pointed out we were not drafting the minute we were not drafting in our committee the unemployment insurance issues that was drafted by the authorizing committee and we were not drafting the language with respect to medica rolls that was done by the energy and commerce committee but we offered to have the minority staff participate in all of the staff meetings that were going on with respect to anything over which the appropriations committee had directors stiction if they if they chose not to exercise that right that's their responsibility not ours i would also point out that my understanding is that to is that in the hundred ninth one hundred tenth congress fully fully twelve percent twelve percent of legislation that was that was passed was passed using this process of moving a moving amendments back and forth between the senate and the house so this may be an unusual procedure but it is far from unprecedented california number three to the supplemental appropriations act of two thousand and eight as a member of the foreign operations appropriations subcommittee i thought to include overseas humanitarian assistance in the supplemental appropriations bills i want to thank chairman obie for including several of these provisions number three which truly reflect the will and generosity of the american people because of the rising cost of this and shortage of food riots and instability have hit haiti have hit egypt and the philippines a minute number three contains a total of eight hundred the million for p l four eighty pooed for peace programs which will be made available as soon as this bill is signed into law in sudan chad kenya somalia and the democratic republic of the congo thousands of people die each day not from conflict but mostly from malnourish t and lack of health care and shelter a minute number three includes two hundred million for urgent humanitarian disaster assistance and three hundred million for assistance for refugees and internally displaced persons these funds are desperately needed and i strongly urge my colleagues to vote for a back through the process of the past and look at some of the part of stations and expressions of concern by my colleague now the chairman of the full appropriations committee interesting i love this quote particularly his now this bill is going nowhere it's going to be the toad which but we talk about this one are that one the american people know that once again congress is putting partisan political considerations ahead of the needs of the american people california is recognized for one minute they've learned and the meeting actually followed in tradition of hearings first held during the vietnam war the formed a veterans who have firsthand experience a chance to tell their stories it was a so solemn thought provoking event what these men and women saw what they've experienced is really heartbreaking but today we have it in our power we have it in our power to put an end to the tragedy that is the iraq war today this congress will decide if we will give the president a blank check to continue his endless occupation of iraq or if he will it or if we will fund redeployment and reconciliation and if we will do something for the refugees in iraq the american people have been clear in their demands they want to end the occupation not extend that they want us to bring our troops and military contractors home so they want to just i affirm our commitment to the  so much opposed to giving this president the new funding to continue this occupation with no strings attached until last night once again i went to the rules committee the pro proposal a amendment which would provide funds only for the safe responsible redeployment of our troops and contractors and also for strong diplomatic initiative not one dime should be spent any more for funding this combat operation we just left the hearing of our went soldiers these young men and women told us the band that dehumanizing effect of what has happened to them in terms of our troops this is got to stop one of the first requests of them was to ask us not to vote for any more funding to fund only redeployment and to bring them home in so an honor of our time to buy let's bring them home and not tell them county what money over there to fight this war a speaker moon memorial day work period historically this been a time when we recognize those who have served and those who are serving those who are willing to give even their life to help protect the freedom of this country this is a time honored tradition in our country it's today that we finally come to the floor after literally months and months of request for this funding for troops nearing the deadline the word troop withdrawal notices or troop furlough notices and other furlough notices would go on go out and we come to the floor with a bill that puts restrictions on the troops we come to a floor the floor with a bill that does in fact finally meet those funding needs needs of the troops and we come in a way that doesn't allow us to have any different ideas have any amendments to the these these provisions that are wrote to us today this is an extraordinary procedure in the way we have handled supplementals in the past the only supplementals that have ever been brought to the floor in the last twenty years with a closed rule were supplementals where both sides agreed that we had to immediately respond to an immediate emergency and it was a bipartisan agreement there is no bipartisan agreement on the way this bill is brought to the floor and because of that it does not meet the needs of the troops as it should the restrictions are wrong the timeline is wrong even the g i benefits that all of us believe need to be updated to meet the needs of of today's military as opposed to yesterday's military doesn't have transferability of those benefits the thing that spouses and people in the military and dependents in the military would like it isn't designed for a military that's a ballance here army there is a better house provision but are we allowed to offer that house provision no before memorial day to bring a float bill to the floor that will not become law the majority leader announced earlier today that way maybe it'll be the middle of june before we get to a bill that would actually get to the president's desk and become law when furlough notices have gone out this is a shameful way for us to meet the needs of our troops and i hope we'll get down to business next week and see if we can actually pass a bill that will meet the i think my collar from wisconsin from pennsylvania this is about our eight war funding as supplemental emergency spending for the war but what's intriguing about this one is that in every other war supplemental we've asked the american taxpayers to give the iraqis approximately fifty billion dollars to rebuild their country schools hospitals roads electricity also iraq can rebuild after the war and this is the first supplemental that we've asked to rebuild america these kids lives approximately the same amount of money over the last eight funding bills for the war we've dedicated approximately fifty billion dollars of american money to rebuild iraq schools and wrote we're asking approximately fit little over fifty billion dollars to help these kids are g i to rebuild their lives to get the education that they've earned to start a new life for them and their family whether they be guard or reserve or act or duty so there has been no conscious no problem when it came to iraq's roads they got the money there was no problem when it came to iraqi schools and hospitals we said that was our moral obligation to help iraqis get back on their feet what moral obligation do we have to our own i to get back on their feet where is the decency to these kids who we sent not once not twice some of them three times to restart their lives at the height of the one nine hundred forty nine the original g i bill all right for world war two was one percent of our g d p this is far less and look how well that paid off for this country everybody knows somebody who went to school on that g i bill we are doing right by those kids who are doing right by us you've compared this war the equivalent to what we did in world war two well let's make it the equivalent by giving these kids a g i bill they've earned it every day doing something that not one of us have done in this context and yes we've asked those who are the most well off in this country people we all know that pay a little so these kids can go to college and pursue their dream that they made possible for us because of their sacrifice and i know a lot of those people and they're willing to pay a little more to make sure that these kids have an so used to you when men to my colleague from indiana without jackson thank you thanks gentleman for yielding unlike the previous speaker from illinois who i greatly respect i support the war in iraq i have supported it from the beginning i support providing resources to our soldiers who are in the fight in iraq and afghanistan i pray for some three thousand indiana soldiers who are on the ground in operation iraqi freedom every day though i support providing our soldiers with the resources they need to get the job done and come home safe i cannot support this war supplemental bill and mr baker i believe the american people need to know what's going on here maybe this is  back room deal for two hundred fifty billion dollars that includes seventy two billion dollars in domestic spending that has nothing whatsoever to do with our soldiers and the war on terror it also increase taxes on working families by fifty one billion dollars higher taxes and higher domestic spending put on the backs of our soldiers is indecent mr speaker when my colleague from illinois speaks about decency it is indecent to come to this floor and play politics with our troops during a time of war this congress should bring a clean supplemental bill to this floor that provides our soldiers with the resources they need to get the job done and come home safe not billions of dollars in domestic spending and higher taxes i urge my colleagues to vote no on this gentleman just indicated that somehow we are adding seventy two billion dollars to a bill that has nothing whatsoever to do with the welfare of soldiers i would point out by far the largest item the where add into this bill fifty one billion dollars over ten years is devoted to help those very same soldiers so that the people who fought so that the people who fought when they come to come home get treated the same way is that the jail is that at the end of world war two that isn't on the backs of the soldiers that's trying to enhance their allies it's trying to enable reservists and guard members and regular forces who've had their lives disrupted we've gone to iraq two and three times we're trying to say ok you can stay home for a while get yourself a college education the g i bill paid back this country seven bucks for every dollar it cost i you know myself one exaggerate additional minute the g i bill paid back in benefits to the society seven dollars for every dollar that it cost their own fortunately some people in this house who know the cost of everything and the value faced tremendous challenges during the last two and a half years thousands of people lost their homes due to the failure of federal levees however today we find out that the flood protection that they need is going to be held in jeopardy by a poison pill in the name of a fifty two billion dollars tax increase on the backs of small businesses that was thrown into the bill last night with no debate are flood protection should not be held hostage to fifty two billion dollars in new taxes on the backs of small businesses this language clearly will not make it through the legislative process and will only give false hope to a people who deserve much better let's go back to work come up with a solution that we can all agree recognized the one that i get asked baker when these people say they're going to provide the resources for the war and for the better ones but they're not going to pay for what they're really saying is china is going to provide resources to our  veterans china's going to finance this war because that's what's been going on they have borrowed more money from foreign sources since george w bush took office than all forty two presidents of the united states before him put together and they still want to keep borrowing if we can ask people who talk about working families we are asking people who make over one million dollars a year to increase our taxes five hundred dollars for these veterans to go to college so there won't be veterans will not be subject to future deficits and future matters that maybe beyond our control where the program has to be cut this is dedicated funding and it comes from those in this believe that there is a member here in the house that opposes improving the g i bill but what is i find objectionable and i and mr speaker i have listened to the lectures by then ranking member and now the chairman of appropriations with regard to process over the years and how conflicted he must feel the fact that his leadership has directed him to bring a bill to the floor that has not gone through the process process and then a fact that there is no bipartisanship in agreement you have brought bills to the floor before that we didn't go through the appropriations process but you but you two had agreements so you must be incredibly conflicted at the moment because you've given us a lectures on process and now you've thrown all of your lectures ranking member john bozeman have a bill it's called h r fifty six eighty four and that bill was amended through regular order in the house and what we know what that bill did was improve the existing g i model and the entire committee passed it now what has happened instead of using the bill that came from the veterans affairs committee she she hijacked that process to bring a bill in the senate that this that the house here has never even considered we've never had any hearings on it it might be the greatest of bills but if we're about to do this mr murtha and others for all of our comrades and our buddies and pals we'd better make sure it's done right and so in this process i also know and i agree with mr tanner's remarks a speaker about paying for now i'm going to vote for this i'm going to vote for it not because i like the tax provisions i would have much prefer some offsets i also recognise the senate probably are going to go the tax provisions but we've got to be smart about our business year because of this house adopts this bill we're going to have to be correcting it healed two minutes to the distinguished chairman of the veterans affairs committee mr filner gentleman from california is recognized the two minutes i hear my colleagues on the other side talking about political games and partisanship and process the g i hundred four made the middle class of this nation many of us are here today because of the g i bill my dad came back from world war two and was able to get some education but he bought a house in levittown the york for a couple grand and we became part of the middle class for the first time in our history it's time for a g i bill for the twenty first century and that's what this supplemental has it says to our young men and women who are fighting we're going to pay for the full cost of college for four years when you get back we're going to take care of some of the living expenses if you have a family and we're going to put the national guard and reserves that are doing so much of the fighting in iraq as eligible for most of the benefits of the g i bill jenman you that's what we need in a supplemental you know we have a supplemental for the war we need a supplemental for the warrior fact the first year two years of this bill for the g i bill paid for we spend the same amount in what two days of the war in iraq this is a reasonable amount of money to spend on those who have given us so much you know general washington said all the two hundred twenty years ago the single most important factor in the morale of our fighting troops is a sense of how they're going to be treated when they come home when they we come home many of them with amputations many of them with psychological wounds we want to say we're going to make sure we take care of you we're going to make sure you get that college education we're going to make sure that you can take a part of the american dream that's what we o soldiers that's what we owe our reserve and national guard and that's what this supplemental has i don't care you could talk about partisanship in political games we're talking about the welfare of these young men and women who have given so much let's give them a part of the political rhetoric today rather than really carry out his responsibilities are you one of the gentleman from texas mr handsomely jones in texas is recognized for one minute i thank the gentleman for yielding again it's a travesty that we are on this floor yet again expecting  fighting men and women to carry their spending on their backs while they're trying to preserve our freedom we've seen it before there oughta be a clean up or down vote do you support our troops do you not support our troops now is the ranking member said mr brewer from indiana now we all support an increase in g i benefits but do you want to do it in such a way that the secretary of defense and the commander in chief says compromises are all volunteer army i am the son i am the grandson i am the brother of veterans honor these people but to harm our all volunteer army is not the way to do it and then we have heard lectures about what we have to pay for well why yesterday did this body hand out federal subsidies to millionaire farmers and then the day turn around and try and tax them a tax a tax on small businesses the way we're going to pay for this   and for all his work and of course chairman murtha for his unending and tireless support of our veterans i rise today and strong support of the long overdue modernizations to the g i bill the original bill as you've heard so many talk about was one of the best piece of legislation that ever left this floor it allowed millions to attend college it would normally have been able to do so i like my father before me as one of those that stands before you because of that i also stand before you in a humble position of being the highest ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in this body and the understanding of what these soldiers sacrifice and what our responsibility is should be known by everyone here at times of war we are asking so much and as senator dole told our committee not more of them more than a year ago you spent billions putting him out harm's way you spend the billions getting them out we have a moral obligation to provide these veterans benefits when they return it's also a national security issue to keep faith with our young people to know that if they choose to sign up for this to defend their nation we will stand with them now i can tell you this i am not an attorney like many of my colleagues here i'm a high school teacher and a twenty four year veteran of our military but i hear people stand here talking about process talking about legal age talking about everything like that your process and when you were in charge you had five years mr speaker five years to do something that i was reminded of here mr speaker maher colleagues on the republican side have those five years they chose to do nothing they spent their time in an acting tax cuts for the wealthiest americans they tell us today this is a tax on small business they must be doing well and we see an in texas compared to minnesota because a million dollars a year for a family of two is an awful lot of money the time to do this is now we hear all the talk we hear their soul searching being done by my republican colleagues the only thing you need to do is look into the eyes of those veterans and tell them that you are unwilling to provide the necessary benefits for them to come back and make their lives did two minutes to the gentleman from louisiana mr mccurry jel of louisiana's recognizes two minutes and thank you mr speaker i rise in strong opposition to the legislation before us besides increasing taxes this bill would create and an targeted emergency extended unemployment benefits program that would add to the deficit and ultimately increase state payroll taxes moreover this provision is an targeted meaning it would pay extended unemployment benefits in all states regardless of the availability of jobs in those states today's national unemployment rate is five point zero percent in march thirty two states had unemployment rate below five percent congress has never created a temporary extended benefits program at such a low unemployment right the lowest prior unemployment right when such a program was created was five point seven percent especially given today's low unemployment rate nationwide it just doesn't make sense to extend benefits in states where jobs are readily available while i do not support the legislation before us on this subject republicans know that laid off workers are hurting especially in states with struggling economies where jobs are hard to find and unemployment rates are high that is why during committee consideration of this legislation i supported targeting extended unemployment benefits so real help would be provided where it is needed most unfortunately that effort was rebuffed in favor of the general and targeted proposal before us today this legislation also shows the sha paygo the broad extended unemployment program is projected to cost sixteen billion dollars over the next five years and increase the payroll taxes by one billion dollars over that time and this is likely just the start the typical temporary program  in recent decades lasted about thirty months if the program started under the legislation before us today follows that payout the ultimate cost will exceed thirty billion dollars by i have additional thirty seconds the additional thirty seconds john was recognized rendition of thirty seconds this program will cost about thirty billion dollars if it follows that path yet despite pledges and this house to adhere to the letter and spirit of paygo this bill does neither our colleagues argument is that today's economic conditions constitute an emergency but only twenty percent of all nonsense nine hundred seventy had a lower unemployment right than today so if we're in an emergency now when we won't be one won't we be in an emergency we may as well just have extended unemployment benefits hundred percent federally paid forever and ever it doesn't make sense i was expired and it's very costly job of wisconsin  one minute joe is recognized one minute mr speaker just imagine the mortal sin that we're accused of committing on this side of the aisle is believing that we ought to provide some additional economic assistance to people who have been hit the hardest by economic dislocation and have been unemployed until their of their and their benefits have expired and they haven't been able to find a job suggested that we're doing this quote on the backs of our fighting men and women who return home i'd suggest it's just the opposite when a man or a woman returns home from iraq when they find out that in addition to their having their reentry problems they also some of them may have post trauma stress reaction they find out that in addition to what they have to worry about for themselves they also have to worry about the fact that their sister or their brother in law is now unemployed adding to the burden on that family you know myself thirty seconds i was granted another thirty seconds i think those g i s recognize this is supposed to be a seamless society we're supposed to help take care of the people who are in the most trouble and i don't apologize for using some of the money that we use for veterans benefits of for i don't apologize for getting that money from some of the people in this society who had the least stress in their lives seems to me that that's what the judeo christian ethic is all about and we plead for we guilty on this side of the aisle jones times it's by a gentleman california mr witnessed the kind of traveling back in time you will to find a baseline to use so that we could comply with paygo so the the party seems to use however it fits their purposes they'll use pay go or they'll ignore pay go or find ways around it by shopping for a baseline that works rather than what the law provides or they'll say we've got to comply with pay go today because we need to increase taxes so it seems just an observation here that pay go is only used as a way not to enforce spending discipline because if it actually doesn't force any discipline we waive it but if it's used to increase taxes then by golly we've got to enforce it i just don't see how one day can make such a big difference i rise in support of the iraq provisions included amendment number two calling for the responsible redeployment of our troops to begin within thirty days after voting against this war i have supported the goal of responsibly redeploying our troops for over two years and after president bush and prime minister al maliki signed a quote declaration of principles document outlining unprecedented security commitments and insurance is to iraq from the united states i introduced iraq strategic agreement review act so today i want to voice my support for the provision that makes clear as my bill does that any security arrangement between the united states and iraq will not be funded unless it comes in the form of a treaty or specifically authorized by a law as we speak the administration has negotiated yesterday just framework agreement that goes well beyond a typical status of forces agreement as centrally amounting to a treaty that will need to be ratified by the iraqi parliament and it must be ratified by the united states congress as well just because this issue goes to the heart of our constitutional duties as a congress and the power to declare war with which we have been entrusted as representative i urge my colleagues to support this provision this nation that party divisions in time of war have always ended at the water's edge until today tragically for this congress for this house for the appropriations committee the speaker of the house has decided  unilaterally impose on the will of the entire nation this appropriations bill without the benefit of a hearing without the benefit of amendments without the benefit of input not just from the republican members mr speaker but from the democrat members  i think a terrible precedent to set for this kerry committee that i'm so proud to be a member of the i know that my colleague mr lewis my colleague chairman obie are both men of good will and good hearts who have i know  this is i think a particularly sad day for the institution in the nation where three hundred million americans are not given an opportunity to be heard on a question of national security as important as the issue of funding our troops is never before in the history of this institution have the entire committee the congress been shut out of this process on the aftermath of nine eleven when you could stand in front of the capitol building and still smell the pentagon burning the congress came together in my unit you unanimous consent agreed to approve a supplemental appropriations bill to help pay for the cost of the war in time of emerge can see with the hurricane damage in the new orleans and across the south we all came together and agreed to do this but this is done unilaterally without the consent of both sides in a time of national emergency and it's a it's a travesty mr speaker it contains provisions that have nothing to do with our troops survival and safety in the field to burden our troops with pork with tax increases was special provisions that have nothing to do with the war adds to i think the obvious if mr mr chairman there's a number of an unnecessary provisions a name on well why are we separating out sir why don't we just passing name on why are we can you name one or can to the chair you know myself one additional number was conscious recognized one minute and through the chair i would invite the member to name a specific piece of congressional pork in this cut in this bill he cannot because there is none he has at least ha enough time to read the bill to know that the only possible piece of pork in this bill is one which we inserted at the request of the a deputy secretary of defense for a military hospital in guam that came here california mr speaker i yield two minutes to my colleague mr one from tennessee jel of the tennessee is recognized a tremendous thanks gentleman for yielding up i don't want to get in the blame game cause american people are sick and tired of blame game i think the truth is republicans screwed up running this place and now democrats are screwing up running this place so there's plenty of blame to go around and they're sick and tired of this process debate the calls they don't understand how to fix them but let me say to the people who are talking process if the congress is not going to work together on matters of the military funding at a time of war the congress is never going to work together and that is the underlying problem and it does affect our lives i've got a nephew in iraq right now i've got another nephew on his way to afghanistan and that affects our law and the ranking member of the military preparations military construction and veterans affairs subcommittee heard much chairman mr edwards who have very much respect go through three minutes of excellent reasons want to support this bill but not one time did he talk about anybody on this side because we didn't have any voice in the process he didn't complement anything over here because we were not involved this time around i think we should be and the way that they pay for the extras in this bill are with taxes we don't want to raise your taxes and i know that we're spending a lot of money in iraq but it's easy for everybody to for get over half the democrats  united states senate voted to remove saddam hussein by force almost half the democrats in the house voted to remove saddam hussein by force the president states acknowledge just a week ago that he never should have said mission accomplished and he shouldn't have because it's not we've got a long way to go this is the serious business of freedom it needs to be funded without all the extraneous stuff and for the all the tricks associated with getting what they want in addition to what we need from washington mr mcdermott just washington is recognized one minute mr speaker i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks without objection mr speaker the economy has been one of the casualties of the iraq war and this administration has consistently refused to be interested in dealing with the problems of the unemployed we tried to get this introduced when we've had the stimulus package some months ago the administration didn't want to do anything with the unemployed now we have people that have long term unemployment in this country is up to seventeen point nine percent now you'd think they'd care but they still aren't asking for it they have never changed their tune from one hundred thirty five they never thought we should have unemployment insurance in the so security act the one hundred thirty five because they said if you give people unemployment insurance they won't want to go to work i just want to sit home and get a check that comes from people who have never been unemployed that comes from people who don't know anybody who's ever been unemployed it is simply nonsense and we need to put the money into the economy we need to give it to the workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and this administration still bill that the troops very badly need and that's why it's odd to me that there are so many unrelated amendments to it i understand that when the democrats took over their promise to the move on dot org fringe of their party was that we are going to get the troops out of iraq they have not delivered on that and so what we have here is a little fig leaf debate on getting out of iraq so that their get out of iraq caucus can have a political cover story so that when they go home over the memorial day recess that they can tell people you voted to get out of iraq but the truth is there's no delivery here that debate alone should be something that we do all day long it should be least a week's worth art if not more the debate on getting out of iraq and imperil and troops in the way but no the democrat party will not give that to their group that want that out of the get out of iraq caucus what they want is a little amendment to a bill which they know is going to pass and they're hoping the is going to cover their politics that is a sham and that is a shame i respect somebody who wants to get out of iraq now but they should have a debate but it is an emergency it isn't stuff you put on the back of our troops in the field i don't know how much money we spent in new orleans i would like to know i think we as republicans spent too much i think you guys is there rats are spending too much i moment thank the gentleman there's money in here for the census now learned in eighth grade geography we do a census every ten years why should that be put on an emergency bill we know that the end of the decade cans that funding should be done  freestanding manner the bureau of prisons why are we passing that on the back of soldiers contractor layout language and i'm a former member of military construction and i remember i represent four military installations milk on is very important to me but why is it put on the back of a supplemental emergency bill that is not what we do here it should go through the regular appropriations process should go through a subcommittee it should go through the full committee before it comes to the house floor and it should not be an amendment that is put on a troops bill i think that that if we look back in history of the way that we were sticking it to if you will the minority party when we were a majority i think you guys have a very gentleman wants to know why do we have money in in this bill for the census simple it's because the secretary of commerce asked us to put it in because they had a huge technical screw up in that in the department of the census the last time i looked the secretary of commerce was appointed by the president of the united states mr george w bush he wants to know why we have money in this bill for four prisons simple we've been told by the bureau of prisons last time i looked it's run by the bush administration that if we didn't provide this money because of cost over they're going to have to fire guards and lay off people in federal prisons anybody interested in law and order i don't think is going to be happy about that so it seems to me it is responsible to respond to emerge ies on both the domestic side and on the international side you know myself if seen organized another fifteen seconds i'm sorry that the gentleman doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that we have in writing requests from both of those agencies but that happens to be the fact and that's the answer gentleman's time has expired to california and the interest of keeping this wonderful dialogue going on i yield the gentleman other minutes i don't think there's been a nice one minute i'm touched with the bipartisan support of the democrat party that suddenly when the bush administration asked for something it's like that they get it i'm really impressed with that did you get a formal letter from from a land they on the census can we haven't seen it on we got it in writing requests from the agencies will we have we haven't seen it from o m b on our side so i'm just saying the challenge that i had before the committees i don't know if you were there or not but they testify embers were reminded once again to please address their remarks what i would say is that these things may or may not be legitimate expenditures but if they went through a subcommittee and a full committee and there on a freestanding piece of legislation that is the proper process of congress and when the democrat party was in the minority the distinguished chairman of the appropriations committee was one of the biggest proponents of regular order and what we are asked good for is right your order i commend him commend you chairman obie and mr murtha for your tireless work on behalf of our men and women in uniform and for bringing this critical legislation to the floor today i'm particularly interested  two and three part two and three of the resolution is my understand we're all grateful for the fact that this will be the last time we will vote on in iraq supplemental in the house of representatives again i thank the chairman and the chairman for their important work in this regard when the house completes its work today with such achieved three goals first will have set a new direction in iraq that will end this sad chapter in american history and bring our brave men and women home and that is necessary because president bush in his request to the congress insist on his failed course of action in iraq failed from day one day one when they went in and thought the war would end in one day they're asking us to trust the same impaired judgment that took us into this war on a false premise without the proper training and equipment for our troops without a strategy for success or an exit strategy from iraq isn't it sad that here we are five years over five years over four thousand of our precious treasure have died tens of thousands of our men and women and if one has been wounded many of them permanently our reputation in the world has been greatly diminished harming our ability to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and a real eradicate disease and alleviate poverty and all of the other leadership roles we have played in the past and it's come at a tremendous cost in dollars to american taxpayer trillions of dollars trillions of dollars which have taken us deeply into debt which has taken us into recession more on that later but think of the opportunity cost of that money what we could have done to invest in education and health care will pay any price any time to catch the american people but not to follow the whim of the impaired judgment of the bush when i have been to the theater of well not only when we finally end this war can we rebuild our military and that is another cost of this war diminishing the capacity of our military challenges and threats to our security wherever they may occur when we do that we'll be able to refocus our attention on the real war on terror so this action that we are proposing today a new direction in iraq that will end the war rebuild our military refocus on the real war on terror and restore our reputation in the world that is why this legislation direct redeployment begin within thirty days of this bill's enactment and with the goal of being completed by december two thousand and nine be completed by then the new it will have the flexibility to bring our troops home safely honorably responsibly and soon essential to restoring our reputation in the world is to regain our moral authority which has been lost in this war that is why this legislation under the conditions in this legislation torture is banned thank you mr murtha for your leadership on this subject this condition has passed this house overwhelmingly and the defen appropriations bill will also banned permanent bases in iraq this condition has passed this house overwhelmingly on any number of ok jand over three hundred votes insist that the iraqis pay their fair share for reconstruction this is a relatively new condition but a necessary one predicated on the fact that the iraqis are amassing a budget surplus while we're going deeply in debt to pay for their reconstruction we are saying if we put up a dollar you put up a dollar dollar for dollar to participate in their reconstruct they have to be as and at least as interested in read building in iraq as we are specially when we are doing it to the neglect their own reconstruction needs in the united states this legislation will also ensure that our military pays only its fair share for fuel do you know that in iraq we pay almost two and a half times as much for gasoline our military does than the iraqi people do the government subsidizes the iraqi people the iraqi government does and makes our military pay almost more pay more than double the ledges the conditions also and that a new condition the conditions here call for cleaning up waste fraud and abuse in iraq and reviewing the contracting passed by suspension over two thirds of the house voted for this lead just lation that is contained in this condition and require that any agreements with three iraq that commit u s forces to root for the protection of the iraqi government from an external force or from of from a civil war internally must be approved by the congress of the united states under the guise of a status of forces agreement the administration is can committing the united states to a treaty without congressional approval i remind the president of article one read the constitution mr president i believe that these provisions should receive bipartisan receipt of support they have every time they have come to the floor the only two new ones are about the cost of fuel and the dollar for dollar the next what we've also accomplished in this bill is to honor our responsibility to our men and women in uniform i have been to the theater to the war area five or six times in the course of this military action sometimes with mr murtha with mr skelton with mr lantos with our committee chairs of jurisdiction and when we meet the young people there they always say the same thing what is going to happen to me when i go home what is going to happen to me when i go home one of the young people that i met there was he was telling me about some of the soldiers were telling me about their lives at home one of them was very quiet and i said to him what did you do before you came to iraq he said i was in high school ma'am i was in high school he was a teenager with a gun over his shoulder if that's necessary for our country's security it has to happen but this young man a teenager fighting that fight without any thought about what was going to happen to him when he came home well what we like to say in the final amendment here is that when you come home young man we will thank you for your service to our country by sending you to college that's why what the student veterans have asked us for as that is what we have done for veterans in the past that is what we owe these young people now and in doing so we will be doing great thing not only for them but for our country because their education will be part of the eco economic recovery of our country in the security of our country they have led the way in the economic recovery of our country but they will be in the lead third in this bill we will begin to address america's domestic priorities we will address the deep economic pain facing many families as i mentioned this war this president president bush's war which is enabled by the complicity of the republicans in congress has taken us deeply into debt which has taken us deeply into recession and now has is taken our economy to a place where we have record numbers of people unemployed today seven point six million people are unemployed of these one point four million americans jobless americans have been looking for work for over six months and our economy has lost two hundred and sixty thousand jobs this year so far alone these people need our help as they continue to seek work in this difficult economy thank you o'bee for including the unemployment insurance for america's workers in this legislation contrast i believe mr speaker is clear president bush insists on and the republicans in congress cyst on a war without end in iraq democrats independents and republicans across the country but sadly too for up to few republicans in this house are insisting on a new direction a new direction that strengthens america's military by ending the war in iraq a new direction that strengthens america's economy by investing in our veterans and our workers here at home we've said over and over again that one way to to support our troops is to build a set aside a future worthy of their sacrifice we can begin building that future worthy of their sacrifice by saying thank you to them and when they come home to send them to college are my colleagues to support the second and the third and them and that are being presented today and in closing want to as always salute our men and women party watching a very perplexing bill come towards us it's perplexing in the sense that we watch a majority party which is promised america to end the war which many of us i think rightly view in the world will be as an american defeat because it is failed and cannot be changed to the point where america can win it also watch the minority party tell us that the spending on the iraq war has destroyed the american economy we can differ on that but that is their position and we now watch the democratic party bring forward a bill that will fund a failed war and will evidently by their logic further decimate the american economy now how does one come to the conclusion that this is a necessary step for said party well you have discretionary spending added into it now i would argue that a fine piece of legislation has been attached to this bill that was introduced by the gentleman from washington to help people who are unemployed thanks to the policies of my state legislature which is raise taxes and help drive business out of michigan we have seen that people need unemployment insurance to get themselves through difficult times in the hopes they can find employment which brings me to the next problem with this is in an attempt to help veterans we are raising taxes on small business income eighty percent of the income that will be taxed comes from small business so now what we have is an attempt to show that we can fund the war that we believe has failed with money that is decimating the american economy from going overseas it will try to help the unemployed who will further suffer from this and we will try to who come back from that war by making sure that there are no jobs here waiting for them again it is a very perplexing bill i would suggest the gentleman who earlier suggested there is nothing congress could do to end this war a rethink the position because congress holds man one more additional min one minute congress still holds the power of the purse if the war is not funded the war cannot continue it is perhaps position i disagree with that is a factual matter if you are serious about this you would do that or you would have a straightforward vote on funding the troops to ensure that we continue to move forward and that america is not defeated in iraq he would have dealt with the macdermid bill and sent it to the president despite his veto threat because he has also threatened to veto this legislation pretty much republican support for this and then you would deal with the veterans in the way that should be don't now i caution my friends of many friends of mine or blue dogs you were not questioned on your patriotism when you just turn and that this money for veterans had to be offset no one said you cared more about big government than veterans i would suggest that those of us who want to make sure our economy recovers do not want to tax it into submission and decimation should not have any patriotism questioned about supporting veterans by opposing tax increases and instead looking for cuts in federal pork to pay for it i yield back the balance of my time time is expired the gentleman from wisconsin money into instead support an amendment that will force the redeployment of our troops from iraq and to fully fund the benefits that our veterans deserve a half a decade at the mission accomplished the president is asking once again four hundred sixty billion dollars to fund a war that cannot be won militarily but mr speaker it's past time to look this president in the eye and say read my lips no our military is support but it cannot impose the peace in a country plagued by sectarian violence peace will not come to iraq until iraqis stop killing each other nevertheless the president's followers demand hundreds of billions more for combat operations while they insist on blocking a relatively small appropriation for our veterans  this bill was concocted in the back room of a speaker we were not allowed to have and puts on it we have not been allowed to have amendments jack murtha's subcommittee on national defense was not allowed to have a hearing on this our discuss it with his subcommittee members no subcommittee on appropriations was allowed to have a hearing and debate the issues are you with we we all you know later but we did have a meeting and i explain the part of our bill to the subcommittee and we had no dissension always a lot of suggested we'd been a long time with the bills but least an hour much more time we usually spend on a bill you say yield later and the members of the minority have had no say in what's in this bill the people of this country deserve to have their representatives in congress have a say so comes before the house and what's debated on the house floor and we have not been given that this is a dictatorship or this bill not seen the light of day it's not been the subject of  we've not been allowed to ask questions we don't know what was in until yesterday bill this thick and so the process here is flawed and it's the first time that i recollect in math twenty eight years here of a bill coming to the floor appropriations bill without the minority having a say so unless they had agreed to this is a new procedure we're having here  today number two this bill is loaded down with matters that are not related to helping the brave men and women on the battlefield on the other side now there's all sorts of amendments that you're hearing today that will be offered one of which contains a lot of spending and a lot of spending that's not related to helping the troops overseas and so i am disappointed and i'm disappointed in the fact that the appropriations committee was bypassed ladies and gentlemen the last year bill was written after world war two and sixty four years later we are passing a new expanded g i bill that will provide important education benefits for our veterans simply put ladies and gentlemen it's the right thing to do in the wars in iraq and afghanistan our guardsmen and our reservist have been used and deployed by our commander in chief at a level that we haven't seen since world war two many of these guardsmen and reservists were in a career profession before these wars and many will come home unable to continue that career profession because of physical or mental injury sustained sustained during their service in that war this g i bill will restore the promise of a full four year college education for our benefits sixty years since the last one was written and make the veterans of iraq and afghanistan part of the american economic recovery efforts just as the veterans of war two were i want to thank the speaker of the house leadership for next ten years and pay in part up front we have made this legislation better for our veterans and better for the american people we're asking those who benefit the most from living in a strong country to pay to take care of those who risked their lives to defend it instead of borrowing the money from china or bucking the cost to our children and grandchildren supporting this bill is the right thing to do and i want to thank chairman obie and chairman murtha for also close or something like that all right we have so many at the somme a distinguished body we can stand ready to break with president bush and the main demand a change in iraq and again we have a chance to do what is right after years of pursuing the wrong strategy a misguided strategy that i saw firsthand and i battle my fellow paratroopers are still fighting today today we can come together to do what is right today we can change direction iraq refocus on our  afghanistan and give our troops the g i bill that they have earned the question before us is clear do we proceed in a bipartisan way with the support of military experts and american families or do we continue to allow more political posturing and more of the same while american troops are stuck refereeing a religious civil war that is a choice we all must make it to those who stand in the way of change and accountability in iraq the american people are paying attention one moment thirty second seconds mr speaker i am proud to stand with those who want to change i am proud to fight for accountability in our foreign policy and proud to fight until our brave veterans get the foreign policy that they deserve a year ago i called my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to stand ready for  change every knew that same call today neither our troops nor veterans can wait for us to change our foreign policy in iraq not until next year or six anniversary or their seventh anniversary or the time i heard gentleman from california war in iraq but many many dollars spending on the brave men and women i thank the leadership and i thank this committee for allowing us to spend dollars because of a responsibility to our troops with the g i bill they also offer to my constituents but also to this body that we have an emergency as well without some a jobs program and i hope that we'll find a way to fund a summer jobs program for our youth let me say that there is not a tax burden in this bill and i think our leadership understanding paygo this is nothing more than an opportunity for those who make over a million dollars to experience the burden if you will of the sacrifice this nation is making on behalf of out troops the monies that are expended only five hundred dollars for those making over a million and more will be allowed to be given to out troops with a g i bill of rights where do we stand i stand with the flag on behalf of the american troops this is a great bill vote against the funding for the war and vote for the redeployment of our troops a better domestic plan and yes an opportunity to pass the all rights are protected you indicated to me that you wanted the minority leader to to close debate on your side and i indicated recognizing for a minute i may have a few seconds myself at the end ok well contract employees who work at the pentagon why because we can't seem to get this bill finished and why can't we get it finished because we have a bill in front of us that has all types of unrelated spending beyond what is needed to fund our troops the jumma of california mr lewis earlier this week interest a clean funding bill a bill that the president called for with the changes that were made up here to make sure that we got funding to the troops as quickly as possible that's the bill that ought to be on the floor today not a bill that handcuffs our generals stars our troops and puts them in a position where they can succeed and their mission in iraq and afghanistan that also includes a fifty four billion dollars tax hike on small businesses around the country and if there's a time when we don't need to be raising taxes on small businesses it's now the in our country and what we're going to do we're going to put more taxes on them i think that what we're doing here is we're playing political games on the backs of our troops you know what all this bill is going is delay the process for weeks and weeks and weeks while we play political games because you know the president's not going to sign this bill why don't we move mr losses bill we can do it today we can do it early next week  funding bill that takes care of our troops and honors them on the eve of memorial day instead of playing political games on our backs gentleman yield back the balance of his time joseph wisconsin how many speakers how many speakers you have remaining i'll just have a few seconds few seconds are reserved about my time however i'm sorry i couldn't hear you i will have a few seconds but at the end of it if you're at the end is foyer coming  today but most particularly i've enjoyed having a chance to review the comments sometimes even the lectures of my colleague the chairman of the committee over the years it wasn't that long ago that i had shared the chance to be the chairman myself and i'll ask her earlier today i used to quote from the then ranking member of the committee in which he in part said the american people know that once again congress is putting partisan political considerations ahead of the needs of the american people he protested so much and that same conversation mr robey went on to say in my view the quickest way to end this political nonsense is to vote no on this bill so that we can send the president a bill which is respectable responsible and can be signed i must say that serving in the ranking member position at this point in time i i couldn't more heartily adopt the words of my colleague when he formerly had a position like mine and in the meantime this bill goes forward the chairman knowing full well the bill that was written in the corner of this building by a couple of hands is going nowhere is very likely to be vetoed and in turn he's repeating virtually every appropriation issue was written in the appropriations committee we did not obviously write language that is previously passed the house under the control of other committees the energy commerce committee produced the language for instance on the on the medicaid rules and the authorizing committee produced a language on unemployment compensation that's normal in fact the speaker herself was a joking the other day and teasingly indicating that there were three items that she had wanted in the bill that the committee had turned down so i would suggest this is not quite the dictatorship that the m makers on the other side of the aisle are trying to portray having said that let me explain what it is we're doing here today since the minute minority leader was courteous enough to ask what we are trying to do is to recognize a sad fact which is that as long as george bush is president of the united states we're not going to be able to shut down the war so what we're trying to do is to proceed in the most responsible possible manner in order to assure that the next president will have or he or she is has at least three or four months to think through how he or she would get us out of this god awful mess in iraq which i regard to be the most misguided foreign policy decision in my lifetime what we are trying to do is to recognize that we do not have a majority in the say in the united states senate to shut down this war and so where looking at ways to provide members with an opportunity to speak out on whether they want to see that war funding go ahead or not straight up or down vote no coercion at least on this side of the aisle know what bring that question on this side of the aisle members were told vote your conscience  trying to do two of the things we are trying once again to attach conditions to the use of this money now i myself will vote against the first amendment because i have no guarantee that the conditions in the second amendment will survive senate action if they did i would be perfectly comfortable with the first amendment because i think the first a first amendment  effort to do what i just described a minute ago but the reason we want to pursue the second amendment is because we think it is about time that the iraqis now that they are generating all surpluses and budget surpluses and we believe it's about time that they begin to assume the cost of their own reconstruction at least fifty percent of it which is why we have a fifty fifty dollar for dollar match requirement  which where imposing on the iraq ease if we are to be expected to spend any more money in reconstructing iraq with think that's eminently sensible we also think it's about time that iraq quit over charging the u military for the price of gasoline there's no reason why we should be paying through the nose at a much higher price than iraq is or paying for gasoline and then thirdly where asking the president of the united states to remember that the united states of america still exists too and that there are some problems that we need to address here in fact the administration itself has recognized some of them because the administration sent down a reprogramming request to deal with the problem of of the bureau of prisons they sent down a reprogramming request to deal with the census we didn't think that way out of fix those problems by cutting even more deeply into local law enforcement funding because those budgets have already been cut far too much so we rejected the way that the administration wanted to pay for those items and instead have included them in this bill for the people who fought the war on our behalf and that is why we are insistent that we passed the expansion of the g i bill so that you can take people whose lives have been turned upside down for years military families from east coast to the west coast their lives have been disrupted for years what we want to do is to say we want to at least partially compensate you by giving you the opportunity for a full four year college education a any state university in your state and we provide for various provisions that will that will even expand beyond that if they go to other schools that also participate in helping finance or education we make no apolog for including that we've we've heard from at least three speakers on that side of the aisle that we're providing fifty one billion dollars for that on the backs of the soldiers it isn't on their backs it's an effort to help than and i would point out in the in the previous g i bill in world war two this country got a return of seven dollars for every dollar that it invested in the g i bill we did we recognize the value of doing that again we recognize the moral obligation of doing that again and that we make no apology in going forward with it we also make no apology for recognizing that we that when we have millions of americans unemployed that there is no harm done by providing to those who have been unemployed the longest and have exhausted their benefits with thirteen weeks of additional assistance as those people look for jobs this congress sits here in a comfortable room making one hundred sixty thousand dollars a year nickles nursing about our efforts to provide a few additional benefits that people have been unemployed for that long if we don't vote for that provision we ought to be ashamed of ourselves so i ask each and every member to vote your conscience i'm not going to ask tell you how to vote on any of the amendments i will be on you against the first for the second then the third but i urge us to get on with it  way that we can get all kinds of crying down the house resolution one one ninety seven the previous question is ordered the question of adoption of the motion is divided among the three proposed house amendments to the senate amendment the first portion of the divided question is will the house concur in the amendment of the senate with house amendment number one printed in house report one one zero dash six three six those in favor say aye those opposed to a no the ayes have it first portion of the  on concurring in the senate amendment with amendment number one will be followed by five minute votes on concurring in the senate amendment with amendment number two if watered and concurrent with the senate amendment with amendment number three if watered and the motion to suspend the rules of the guys in h r twenty eight ninety four if watered this will be at fifteen minute vote the house wraps up two and a half hours of debate on the additional funding for the wars in iraq and afghanistan one hundred eighty four billion dollar bill this is the first part of it three votes here on this bill it is a divided vote this first on the first amendment for this for this bill this is the this is the funding part for the wars in iraq and afghanistan ninety six point six billion dollars three point four below what president requested for fiscal year two thousand and eight and then money for two thousand and nine is as well you can see the total in your screen hundred sixty two point five for iraq and afghanistan we are opening up our phone lines again for your comments and your thoughts on u s policy in iraq the numbers two zero two five eight five thirty eight eighty five for democrats republicans two zero two five eight five thirty eight eighty six and for independents and all others two zero two five eight five thirty eight eighty seven make sure you're turned on your television or radio when you call in this afternoon and if you've called any c span program in the last thirty days give others a chance to call in this afternoon eugene oregon on our republican line good afternoon good afternoon and i'm hoping that we see dr paul speak about this issue today because it seems like he has the most logical and constitutional position which is the war that we're in is really not a war it's some sort of dictator ordered police action against the former shill for our own neo con system when we didn't see representative paul speak on the bill this afternoon he is in a couple of campaign appearances this weekend but later on you can check out and find out how he voted if you go to our web site c span is your is your son currently in iraq yes how long has he been there more than a year and he's serving with a pilot with the army he so he's a helicopter pilot yes ohio thanks for your call east hampton connecticut on our independence line go ahead hi i heard the hearing today by the iraqi veterans against the war some who are still fighting who are members who are still in the in the iraq theater and they are asking for them to stop funding the war i've been trying to get my representative stop funding for and i hope these guys do not fund this war it's illegal war who's your representative connecticut courtney representative courtney you'll be able to find out later how how they vote in all the of the upcoming two amendment votes is when i called him today to tell him again and i also heard in that hearing where representative waters was talking about  we should we shouldn't take more than six months to get out i've been following that issue too and i think we can get out in six months and stop wasting our taxpayer money my taxpayer money on this for and we need the money here at home calling was referring to the meeting we showed earlier on c span three of iraq war veterans iraq veterans against the war they spoke to the house progressive caucus will show that to you later in our schedule this is the first of three votes on this iraq bill this one dealing with funding for the wars we still have votes on policy restrictions and also additional domestic spending we're going to show you some floor debate in just a couple of minutes more phone calls though now yonkers new york on a republican line go ahead hi yes i think that they should go with this bill because a number of reasons it gives the options for the next president to make a decision and a timely fashion to get the troops out safely and also i personally know somebody who was in the service and got injured really bad and he is meant to we and physically destroyed and having trouble getting the help that he needs as far as this school for all these troops when they come back i think they should support that because they fought so hard for us and still fight hard for us while we're here at our safety and the unemployment edition  i have a mortgage i've been looking worked for a long time and that expansion back in i believe january or february when it was turned down on march it would really help towards the mortgage payment plus the families you know the true they feel they need to because when they come back they sure to get a job right away the jobs are really bad education benefits will be in the third part of the votes today this is a divided vote among the three parts of this bill this first part on funding for the wars in iraq and afghanistan we are going to continue with your calls in just a moment we did want to show you just a little bit of the floor debate earlier today you'll see the republican whip roy blunt and also rahm emanuel feel annoyed we have to say yes or no because everybody in this building knows that this bill will never become law we waited till the week before memorial day to bring a flow bill to the floor that will not become law the majority leader announced earlier today that way maybe it'll be the middle of june before we get to a bill that would actually get to the president's desk and become law when furlough notices have gone out this is a shameful way for us to meet the needs of our troops and i hope we'll get down to business next week and see if we can actually pass minutes thank you mr speaker i think my colleague from wisconsin from pennsylvania this is about our eight war funding as supplemental emergency spending for the war but what's intriguing about this one is that in every other war supplemental we've asked the american taxpayers to give the iraqis approximately fifty billion dollars to rebuild their country schools hospitals roads electricity also iraq can rebuild after the war and this is the first supplemental that we've to rebuild america these kids lives approximately the same amount of money over the last eighteen funding bills for the war we've dedicated approximately fifty billion dollars of american money to rebuild iraq schools and roads we're asking approximately fit little over fifty billion dollars to help these kids are g i to rebuild their lives to get the education that they've earned to start a new life for them and their family whether they be guard or reserve or act or duty so there has been no conscious no problem when it came to iraq's roads they got the money there was no problem when it came to iraqi schools and hospitals we said that was our moral obligation to help iraqis get back on their feet what moral obligation do we have to our own g i to get back on their feet where is the decency to these kids who we sent not once we have an obligation to these children to restart their lives at the height of the one nine hundred forty nine the original g i bill little a right for world war two was one percent of our g this is far less and look how well that paid off for this country everybody knows somebody who went to school on that g i bill we are doing right by those kids who are doing right by us you've compared this war the equivalent to what we did in world war two well let's make it the equivalent by giving these kids a g i bill they've earned it every day doing something that not one of us have done in this context and yes we've asked those who are the most well off in this country people we all know that pay a little so these kids can go to college and pursue their dream that they made possible for us because of their sacrifice and i know a lot of those people and they're willing to pay a little more to make sure that these kids have an opportunity for the american dream joins us actually live during my time jones and some of the some of the floor debate from earlier today we continue taking your calls your thoughts on the iraq war bill in particular more broadly u s policy in iraq let's go to dickson tennessee an independent caller go ahead dixon you're on the air you know i would like to say that anything besides immediate withdrawal is killing our troops it is definitely murder at sacrifice just like the as to jamestown new york on our democrats lawn good afternoon hi how are you fine thanks but i think although that the bill should pass it's not going to pass the house and if it did pass the president's going to veto it i mean we can justify spending all this money in iraq but we can't take care of all of our host of domestic issues i mean i'm a college student and we can't even lower our tuitions or to isha it's crazy these i mean and the loans we have to put in the high interest rates for the loans you know just a whole host of domestic issues and those people that think that they can compare again in iraq for fifty one hundred years to our men and women who are incorrect and so on it cannot in my opinion compared such a peaceful occupation that we have there to this mess just going to be good yes i'm a great thing to carry and you know and that's another thing you can't eat can't nothe troops over there that can that can handle the mission now we i constantly get this barrage of phone calls from cell that's another thing that i deal with as a college student thanks new york huntsville alabama on a republican line yes i'm calling about this one point one six two point five being correct and you know right let me let me just have you turned on your television or radio there you're feeding back on us and then you can go ahead ok well i definitely support this bill and the reason why is our troops over there fighting for us for fighting for our freedoms and we're sitting back we can some of the benefits of that but think about what what i really want to convey is this i don't understand how the republicans can not a this fifty billion dollars for veterans i don't understand that because they're the ones who've given their in this war and it seems like they're just voting along party lines and i just don't think that this there and if they don't then we don't believe that's right well this ought to be an interesting way to watch how you remember votes in the three different areas of this bill first up here the funding for the the additional funding for the fiscal year two thousand and eight into two thousand and four rock in afghanistan and then policy restrictions on iraq and later the expand you've been hearing talk about the expanded g i bill and also additional domestic spending extension of unemployment benefits so three separate areas where in the first vote here fifteen minute vote taking your calls we'll also show you a little bit more of the floor debate in a moment to san francisco on our independent line go ahead yes thank you c span and i agree with congressman all b and that is he wants iraq to contribute more and it's about time that they do i think things are starting to pick up a little bit over there that they can start helping themselves a little bit and i think it's appalling that president bush would not nine years and it's been beneficial and where they cannot contribute to help people here at home and get a little bit of unemployment when people here i  it's appalling to think where is all of this money going over there it looks like to me it's gone to independent contractors over there like to have you make a statement on their thank you thank you for calling well the second part of this bill the second amendment on policy part of that policy does deal with how the iraqis will contribute to it if the policy change calls for the u s reconstruction aid for iraq be matched dollar for dollar by the iraqi government it also requires  that that any any agreement between the u s and the government of iraq committing u s forces be authorized by congress that's when the next round of votes the next vote that's coming up that will be a five minute vote we'll continue to take your calls we'll take one more here and then hear a little bit more floor debate from the a chairman of the ranking member of the appropriations committee let's go to houston on our democrats line hello how are you doing very well go ahead i'm calling about been watching your program and i had some i have a thousand about this representatives here a john culberson republican on the floor and also the chairman of the appropriations committee a committee david obi from a short while ago will share some of that to back your calls thank you mr speaker i think it's important for the american people understand that throughout the history of this congress in this nation that party divisions in time of war have always ended at the water's edge until today tragically for this congress for this house for the appropriations committee the speaker of the house decided to unilaterally impose on the will of the entire nation this appropriations bill without the benefit of a hearing without the benefit of amendments without the benefit of input not just from the republican members mr speaker but from the democrat members it's a i think a terrible precedent to set for this kerry committee that i'm so proud to be a member of the i know that my colleague mr lewis my colleague chairman obie are both men of good will and good hearts who have i know this is i think a particularly sad day for the institution in the nation where three hundred million americans are not given an opportunity to be heard on the question of national security as important as the issue of funding our troops is never before in the history of this institution have the entire committee the congress been shut out of this process on the aftermath of nine eleven when you could stand in front of the capitol building and still smell the pentagon burning the congress came together in my unit you unanimous consent agreed to approve a supplemental appropriations bill to help pay for the cost of the war in time of emergency with the hurricane damage in the new orleans and across the south we all came together and agreed to do this but this is done unilaterally without the consent of both sides in a time of national emergency and it's a it's a travesty mr speaker it contains provisions that have nothing to do with our troops survival and safety in the field to burden our troops with pork with tax increases was special provisions that have nothing to do with the war adds to texas two weeks to point out a single piece of member pork in this bill is jim and you if mr mr chairman there's a number of an n n nessus larry provisions in name one well why are we separating answer why are we just conversation the time thirty seconds has expired all members are asked to read just the remarks to the chair you know myself one additional number was conscious mechanized one minute and through the chair i would invite the member to name a specific piece of congressional pork in this in this bill he cannot because there is none he's at least had enough time to read the bill to know that the only possible piece of pork in this bill is one which we inserted at the request of the deputy secretary of defense for a military hospital in guam that came here at the request of the secretary of defense's office you can find no members pork in this package and you know what as well as i do wisconsin's david obi and john culberson a gel john culberson of texas from the debate earlier today on the iraq war funding bill again the bills broken in three parts this first part fifteen minute vote hundred sixty two point five billion dollars for the wars in iraq and afghanistan in fiscal year two thousand and eight additional and also into fiscal year two thousand and nine the vote continues a number of the members as you can see on your screen voting present annandale virginia is next on that a lot of priorities so that we're not looking out at the moment primarily you know we really do need to bring them home i don't believe that spending any more money for anymore years on this war's a good idea we're talking about trying to support the iraqi country which i fully support it's not that i don't support that i'm talking about reparations for them to help rebuild their country we're putting ourselves in an economic by  pumping this much money into a war we could pull our troops out and have them home tomorrow if we just give the iraq is what they need to rebuild and that being said i believe that we should not be expecting them to pay you know one dollar to the dollar that we're spending because we actually owe them for the million plus the casualties that we cause them in their country thank you thanks for junior the senate appropriations committee is meeting at this hour scheduled to meet at this hour anyway on their version of the  of the iraq war funding bill the houston chronicle reported earlier today that senate democrats are rejecting a plan by their house counterparts to add a surcharge on the upper income taxpayers to a bill providing one hundred sixty three billion dollars to pay for military operations in iraq and afghanistan into next year that will be the third one in this series next is boca raton florida independent caller go ahead yes change change shame we're debating nonsense when we're talking about help in american flags the bible this is going to these guys and gals are over they are laying down life and limb for us a fifty billion a expanse chump change to give them some kind of a foothold in america and sent home why just america when they come back home what are you dating here i used to be a republican but after the two thousand election i became an independent i can't stand both parties the democrats have right totally right on this but this so we'll see why don't they impeach bush and cheney they've done enough to damage this country and they are lying chain eating and daddy bush went to work for the brown w trends and i so strongly feel that i have a very close friend that has worked for me for years and her son is waking the entire family up with three in the morning and they're out there they're out there and grabbing what he a gun it's scary it's scary for his family it's scary for his kids and i agree with this lady i was also a republican i was a republican for about fifteen years the last one i owed for was not nixon but brock feller and when he was you know not accepted the heck with it and i can chase and i remember a democrat and i'm proud of it and i know my representative will vote for peter welch i know well thank you if you're just tuning in this is the first of three votes that we're going to see on the iraq war funding bill this is the biggest chunk of it one hundred sixty two billion dollars for iraq and afghanistan the next a vote will be a five minute vote on iraq policy restrictions and then another five minute vote on a part of the part of the money included the total is one hundred eighty four that adds on domestic spending including this g i bill or expanded g i bill that you've heard of the extended unemployment benefits and things like that so two more in this debate over iraq two more votes to follow this one this has been a fifteen minute vote continues week to you taking your calls to we go to arkansas is this arkadelphia yes go ahead i am the mother of a navy corpsman traveling with the marines that is in iraq at this time i think that the party needs to just forget about this power play do the right thing us and for your sons and daughters the g i bill is under forty thousand dollars we need better care for the veterans racks that should pay for their own war that should reimburse the united states for the money that we have spent on their war and we need to take that money and use it for the veterans use it for the military issues and things that we need to do here but we did not name them they depend more than that one dollar back then they need to pay for the entire war they have it himself i'm never going to vote for him again the bottom line is we want our troops we do want to protect ourselves the united states of america and we want our people to be able to come back and get an education and and better themselves and when you have politics by the people then then it's crazy there's no way that we can accept that and thank you for puerto and thank you for arkansas and thank you for ver t you know people in houston just because we're in you know that however district doesn't mean that we we agree you know with what is going on you know we don't we don't want to higher oil prices we don't want  that we want to live we want our fellow americans to survive in and i think that what that lady said right there you know in arkansas is speaks for america and i wanted to succeed and i've called these offices i call jack kingston i call mr pants i called jerry lewis is office i call those guys and i said hey let's let's get this right because we have to get it right and whether we like the war or not let's educate our men and women when they come home i don't think this is this is oxymoronic it's crazy ok houston thanks for your call if you're just joining us  winding down there's been a fifteen minute vote on the largest part of the money the money piece of this iraq war be one hundred sixty two point five hundred sixty three billion funding the wars in iraq and afghanistan for the rest of fiscal year two thousand and eight into two thousand and nine if you're a regular watcher of c span and particularly of the votes in the house you don't often see this many members voting present so across the screen as it now stands number voting in favor of this one forty one against this piece of it one forty eight and one hundred thirty one members so far having voted present san francisco your next san francisco you're now on go ahead get a good afternoon how you doing there fine thanks my son's also on the second tour duty you know tell you what when i call these congressional members and ask these twenty two year old and twenty three year old and twenty four year old they're answering the phone how come they're not giving my son a break they say that they are serving their country by answering a phone something answering machine can do what service is y son my son's in the marines and let me say this i find it really bizarre that we have all these people calling up want to support this war want to support these all this funding for this war i find out by usa today that forty three the second part of the vote five minute vote this is on the iraq policy restrictions portion of the iraq funding bill and to get some more background on this bill in particular how this vote is how this vote is being broken into three parts we talked earlier to a capitol hill reporter david clark congressional quarterly is with is how things look in the house today for passage of this iraq war bill all right now looks like the house will pass this bill sometime probably early in the afternoon sending it over to the senate there were some worry among looks like they well the house would be able to pass the bill today so no last minute concerns with the blue dogs or the out of iraq caucus about those opposed to the war it doesn't look that way and of course you know the war or votes can always be close but it looks like they'll have the votes to  this out the house today what's behind the democrats strategy of splitting this bill into three parts well the strategy is that if they roll it on the one bill they don't feel like they would they be able to pass it so what they've done is they've divided into three so that they can  three separate votes the first will be on war funding both the rest of the remainder of this fiscal year as funding as well as a bridge fund that about seventy billion for the next fiscal year and that that will probably pass mostly with republican votes the second amendment is policy restrictions on that war funding including a timetable for withdrawing troops within the next eighteen months as well as some other things like banning banning permanent bases in iraq that would not that will probably pass mostly without democrat votes and then the third is domestic spending amendment which includes the two main items are the extension of unemployment benefits as well small group of republicans so the reason to do that well as they have they can pass the bill to break it up into three but they probably would be able to pass it if they rolled into one because the democrats stop position to the war funding because the republican opposition to y to the promised restrictions on that veterans benefits piece in the third part there is also a tax attached with that how much is that expected to generate well the congressional budget office says that the expanded veterans benefits cost fifty two billion over ten years and the taxes expected to raise to raise that much if not a little more it's actually it's a surtax on individuals with thank you more than five hundred thousand dollars to couples who make more than a million dollars  that was one of the there's a late last week or let's make that was a point of contention the blue dogs their signature issue is paid to go which requires new mandatory programs or tax cuts to be fully offset and they were not happy that leaders had included this benefit in the bill without paying for it and so they compromised they they struck was to create this tax that would that would offset the cost the fact benefit and that sort of clears the path for pass he's hoping to get a bill on the floor monday and so they should be taking this up early next week as the white house weighed in on either of these bills the white house did issue a positive statement this morning on the house bill saying that the present with you know in its current form the white house next to the policy provisions the timeline for withdrawing troops it also objects to the added domestic funding for the unemployment insurance and the back benefit as well as the tax to pay for the veterans benefits that the white house officials sent i would like to work with congress on the expanding the bill they just don't want to do it through the supplemental the issue is going to be in the senate now it doesn't appear that once the bill makes it through there so that that will lead to some of the interesting question of what happens once the congress clears a bill that just gets rid of the timer on things like that as well as the you know the tax for the pay for the package benefit whether or not the white house will still maintain a firm date of stats on that bill david clark covering the iraq war funding bill for congressional quarterly thanks for joining us thank you and this is the second vote of three on the iraq war policy bill the first  went like this one hundred forty one vote voting in favor one hundred forty nine voting against and one thirty two voting present that portion of the bill was the money portion hundred sixty two point five billion dollars for the wars in iraq and afghanistan fiscal year two thousand and eight into two thousand and nine and so that motion that measure does not carry the boat here on iraq policy part of which includes a requirement that troops begin redeployment from iraq within thirty days with the goal of so the house approves the iraq policy portion of the bill to twenty seven to one ninety six part of which is we're saying with choir's troops to begin redeployment within thirty days with the goal of completing withdrawal of troops funded summer two thousand and nine it also has calls for no permanent establishment of bases in iraq this is the third of three votes this deals with domestic spending including expanded g i bill benefits extending jobless or unemployment benefits and this too is a five minute vote during this vote we're going to bring you comments from speaker pelosi during her briefing earlier today today as you know the house will pass a supplemental bill the legislation provides for a new direction in iraq that will end the sad chapter in american history and bring home our men brave men in the form only when we finally end this war can we rebuild our military really refocus the war on the real war on terror bardsley in afghanistan and restore our reputation in the world this legislation will direct that redeployment begin within thirty days and be completed by december two thousand and nine there's also part of the bill that will talk about banning torture barring permanent bases in iraq insist that the iraqis pay their fair share of their own reconstruction ensure that the military pay same lower price cost for fuel as do the iraqis clean up waste fraud and abuse in iraq require that any agreement with iraq that commit u s forces receive congressional vote will be at the will be on the on the twenty first century g i bill of rights this legislation will welcome home our retiree our returning heroes by sending them to college and i think some of you were there when we had a  bipartisan buy cameral house and senate democrats a republican senator hagel senator warner on the senate side joining senator webb for our g i bill rally a week or so ago the students that were there and they had big banner saying thank our vets send them to college says pretty exciting and a great deal of interest throughout the country certainly in the veterans community about it making make  hundred forty four for every dollar invested in the original g i bill seven dollars were returned to our economy the american legion the veterans of foreign oil war the iraq and afghan that's of america on many afghan war part of our new economic recovery as i mentioned our legislation will also seek to meet the needs of here at home by extending unemployment benefits for those whose benefits will soon expire in april america suffered the fourth straight month of job losses totally two hundred sixty thousand since the jobs lost since the beginning of the year more than one in every six americas americans looking for work have been jobless for more than twenty six week the maximum number of weeks receiving regular unemployment insurance benefits work to extend benefits for those whose assistance will soon expire last night as you may know the and growing and for us to be reselling the strategic petroleum reserve at those prices when it could be put into the marketplace to reduce the price at the pump is i think a better course of action the president said no we passed the bill overwhelmingly in the house the senate did so last night that bill will be awaiting the president when he comes home and we would hope that he would sign the bill and abandon his own and the house voting on the third fortune of this iraq bill dealing with expanded domestic spending twenty one billion dollars in additional spending above the one sixty two point five that was in the the funding part of the bill this includes benefits and also unemployment compensation this is a five minute vote the last of the three involving the iraq bill you're watching live coverage on c span gillibrand gave birth in the middle of the night to her second son a mom is doing fine the son is seven pounds fourteen ounces twenty inches long and i think she is the first member of this house to leave an armed services markup to go into labor and deliver a child i yell back the balance of my time and send her good wishes for all of us without objection five minute voting will continue the unfinished business is the question on suspending the rules that pass the h r twenty eight ninety four as amended which a clerk will report by title h r twenty eight ninety four and don't require the secretary of the treasury two thirds of those being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed without objection about to reconsider is laid upon the table finished for the for the wake of my correct on that staff i am correct on that so have a good weekend and we will see you back here there will be one of the as mr braun there will be no votes on monday but there is business on monday if you have a suspension bill in which you are interested you need to be here to participate but we have agreed that there would be no votes on monday but there will be probably thirty suspension the house will be in order right for what purpose of the gentlewoman from texas rise proceed thank you mr speaker i rise today to celebrate israel on its sixtieth anniversary while israel is frequently cited as a model of democracy in the middle east i'd like to focus on israel's advances in embryonic stem cell research the united states is still trying to fully harness the potential of this valuable research we aim to cure debilitating diseases like parkinson's diabetes epilepsy spinal injuries and others but for years years at facilities like hebrew university tel aviv university and the weizmann institute and many others israeli scientists have blazed the path for the rest of the world to follow for sixty years americans and israelis have built a friendship embracing all that we share and as the united states works to unlock the promise of embryonic stem cell research we find yet another reason our friend israel is so special honor nascar legend dale jarrett this weekend marks the last race of nascar legend dale jr its long career may seventeenth at the all star race at lowe's motor speedway will be his last time driving you a p s car dale was born a new to north carolina my district and got a start of the hickory motor speedway track owned and operated by his father another nascar legend negeri over his twenty one year career dale went on to compete in six hundred  sixty eight races wedding thirty two times with two hundred sixty top ten's and sixteen poles what a career and in one nine hundred ninety nine he was a winston cup champ nascar's one of one of nascar's greatest drivers is dale jarrett and i'm proud to can call him a constituent and my community's grateful for his service honored by his presence and again grateful for his contribution and the charitable sector as well nascar will miss them but we're grateful to still have them on generally to proceed the speaker i want to start by indicating that i missed a vote on the art meyer amendment to the warders housing bill last week i'd ask unanimous consent that my vote be placed in the appropriate place in the wreckage if i was president i would have voted no the speaker i rise today to announce to the american people that their voices have been heard today this house voted down the hundred eighty billion dollars war funding bill that the president requested it is time now for americans to be heard and for this congress to move forward on the safe redeployment of our troops in addition mr speaker i offered amendments to declare the authorization of two thousand and two expired i hope we will address that question and to announce or to establish a national day of honor and celebration to bring our troops home with the utilization of the hundred and eighty billion dollars we can begin an economic stimulus package that would include the work that the congressional black  and majority whip cliburn and myself have been supporting and that is to provide for a billion dollars or five hundred million dollars for the summer job programs this is an emergency our young people are finding the doors of opportunity closed many of them south carolina us soward but speaker in the past few months there's been a lot of talk about high gasoline prices in talk about commonsense plans to lower the skyrocketing costs individuals and business across the nations are suffering misspeak or and there's too much talk congress must take steps now to address our nation's energy needs today i'm proud to announce i'm an original co sponsor of h r six thousand and one the main street usa energy security act two thousand and eight this legislation is an action plan and our first step to energy independence it will boost our national security by increasing domestic exploration encouraging research in the area of alternative energy sources and promoting clean nuclear energy but speaker for decades united states has not had a comprehensive energy policy now with gasoline prices eating up americans paychecks we need to find solutions to our growing energy needs we have the resources and technology available to make energy independence a reality so no more talk mr speaker it's time to act and act today speaker our government should fight for the release of a key prisoner of conscience the first person in the arab world convicted of what he peaceably wrote on his blog the case has attracted strong international attention and the personal interest of the president last year in egypt saw the deterioration of human rights and especially the regard to freedom of expression most troubling is the conviction and imprisonment of a young human rights activist and blogger solomon mr solomon known for his internet pen name karim a mare was convicted for statements made on his personal web log condemning islamic extremism and the poor treatment of women and minorities he was sentenced to four years in prison and while we recognize what he said may have offended some his convictions sends a dangerous precedent on the internet on saturday the president will meet with president mubarak i urge members to sign the letter to the president urging him to raise the case of karim there and to free this man the first man in the arab world convicted simply for what he said on his internet web lo bayless waters bill which dealt with the foreclosure crisis in the neighborhoods and been affected there by it was a difficult decision for me not to be here for i haven't missed a day in my two years that i've been in the congress but a very dear friend of mine thomas bogs passed away and i was asked to be a pall bearer it is funeral which i was honored to do thomas fox is one of the finest people that i've had the pleasure of knowing nearly thirty five years he was a leading citizen and memphis tennessee giving much to the community and charitable works to people regardless