a great gift for which we give you thanks in the midst of cold winds an uncertain and sometimes disastrous weather patterns the consistent warm rays of light fall upon the good and the bad the believers and unbelievers alike gradually the days are already growing longer but like the movement of your grace often unnoticed lord you are ever present especially those most in need show your mercy to the most vulnerable the children the poor the elderly the homeless we commend them to you now and forever and then the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from mark and mr walton please join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stan one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all madam speaker last week the nonpartisan congressional budget office released a report saying that president bush is understating the number of troops and the amount of money needed to move forward with his troop escalation plan while the president claims he plans to send twenty one thousand five hundred troops to iraq the congressional budget office says the number will be as high as forty eight thousand as any soldier like myself knows that to put a combat unit on the ground you need substantial support forces including personnel to staff headquarters service military police provide communications provide mess facilities engineering and other services the congressional budget office also said that the president has seriously underestimated the cost of truth  bush claims it shouldn't cost any more than five point six billion the congressional budget office says a four month deployment will cost between nine and thirteen billion twelve months between twenty and twenty seven billion this is a four hundred percent under estimate madam speaker this is a serious report that cannot and will not be ignored president bush cannot expect members of this congress to support his troop escalation plan when he is not telling us the whole story on the number of troops and the funds involved to make it happen i y a breach of faith in the more than six hundred forested counties across america and forty four hundred school districts but every county oregon my home and hosted two of oregon's icons mt hood in the powerful columbia river both attractions for outdoor recreation and the dangers that come with them surely you remember the december search for the mountain climbers lost on mt hood this event unfolded just miles from my home that can he paid for the rescue and recovery effort entirely with county payments buns this included the airplane snow cats and equipment for volunteers radios and medical supplies county sheriff joe wampler says and i quote we will do search and rescue on federal lands and waterways no matter what but the nation must share this cost county payments also fun many other vital services like the county's health department's vaccination program for children county commission chair ron rivers says the loss of these funds will have a significant impact on all services including those provided to protect our most vulnerable citizens by colleagues congress must keep the federal government's word to the timbered communities and pass h r seventeen time is running out for what purposes the gentle lady from texas without objection mr speaker i would like to of to express my strong support for h r eight zero eight and it would create a u department of peace the importance of peace in the world today is also overlooked due to the severity of constant conflict but as a mother and a lawmaker the reality of war concerns me for the future of our nation and this planet the promotion of peace not violence should be number one on i gender but years i have worked to raise awareness for women within our society and around the world so that they can spread the word peace and build a culture of peace in this world women and them sales are powerful entity and i believe by working together we as a society can stop the escalation of violence we can prevail by joining together and building the u s department of peace was not the way but undermine the efforts of the very man they confirmed along with all the brave men women who served with him the actions of the senators will simply encourage a terrorist and undermine u s efforts to succeed in iraq in the war on terror republicans want to debate this issue yet the democrats only want to pass a resolution it's time to take a real stand on the issue that the democrats won and the war than they should stand up call for the hypocritical actions of the democrats are wrong they've offered no plan for success in iraq and  interfering with the president's power to execute a war that the congress has already approved democrats must realize there is only one commander in chief and it's his job and responsibility the manage the war as he sees fit mr speaker i support my republican colleagues in the senate mr speaker soldiers don't choose to go to war soldiers do not allocate funds for which they used to fight the war soldiers may face danger soldiers may risk their lives and sometimes lose their lives but the least a nation can do that since a young person into harm's way is to fully support fully equipped and fully allow that young person to be successful to protect their own lives and yet this administration has not done that we have failed in the early parts of this war to provide kevlar this administration has failed to provide home b s that were fully armored for our young people and now what we see is tunes of billions in backlog on maintenance so that the equipment that young people are relying on to protect their lives into fully do their duty is unavailable this is wrong and we must call attention to this wrong and we must do something about it now which is speaker i yield back the gentleman yells back for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina house women are without objection mr speaker his debate continues surrounding president bush's new way forward in iraq i hope all sides are heard i'm a thirty one year veteran of the south carolinian national guard i have four sons serving in the military the eldest of whom served for a year and iraq i sit on the armed services committee and i have visited iraq six times and afghanistan twice i am committed to my family and our nation survival and prosperity all of which will be threatened should we not triumph in the global war on terrorism as elected officials members of congress have an obligation to debate war strategy and exercise congressional oversight is by conscience they disagree with the president's decision they have a responsibility to put forth an alternative plan political posturing in the form of non binding resolutions however brings nothing to that evade regarding the protection of american families in conclusion god bless our troops and will never forget september  eleventh and i mean the us back for what purposes the gentleman from north carolina writes without objection speaker iraq today in honor of the memory of police officer sean joshua dean williams officer williams dobs while responding to a fellow officers call for assistance last thursday night in zero four north carolina he was only twenty three years old i offer my condolences to his wife sharon kirby williams his young daughter riley alexis his parents max suttles and mother holly way arms and all of his family and friends also extend my faults and prayers to his fellow fort police officers and the entire law enforcement community and mcdowell county mr speaker officers william's wife was an example of for all of us to follow i ask my colleagues to join me and express remorse at all the passing and the dedication of law enforcement officers and the gratitude to all those who protect and to serve our communities every day you'll back my gentleman heels back for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania restless without objection mr speaker but we could go the anti war rally in washington made headlines across america lost in most of the coverage however was the complete lack of basic decency displayed by some of these protesters the anti war protesters defaced our capital by spray painting graffiti on the capitals west terrace mr speaker it never ceases to amaze me how non peaceful these so called peace protesters can be there's no question that americans have a constitutional right to peaceably assembly but when you brazenly deface cherished public property you're no longer assembling peaceably you're committing a crime mr speaker we can have a thoughtful to public debate on our policies overseas but we must remember this our freedom was not earned by protesters with poster paint it was earned by the thousands of brave men and women who courageously stand up to fight for it many of whom paid with their lives back for what purpose does the gentle lady from california asked without objection thank you mr speaker it's time to make a real commitment to the peace that we want to see in the world that is exactly what h r eight eight zero eight introduced by congressman kucinich which fifty two co sponsors would do by creating the department of peace we are now spending eight billion dollars each month on the occupation of iraq imagine if a small portion of that money was invested in standing conflict resolution diplomacy weapons reduction and human rights and as a drumbeat of war against iran are now heard imagine if the debate included not only the secretary of state and defense but the secretary of peace guarantee the military option would be taken off the table and our world would not be led again into another useless senseless war imagine if we were to direct a small portion of that fat hundred eighty three billion dollars pentagon budget to promoting nonviolence here at home by investing in efforts to stop domestic violence gun violence child abuse gang violence violence in schools hate crime racial violence religious intolerance and the mistreatment of the elderly dr king said that peace is not just the absence of tension it is the presence of justice this isn't something we should just hope for but we must work toward it for what purpose does the gentleman from texas for us mission to address how one minute without objection mr speaker a government spokesman has said people from poor countries are taking jobs and giving nothing back to the country but the government spokesman was not from the united states but russia under a new russian crackdown on illegal immigration illegals are being ordered out of the country and employers who hire him are being prosecuted russia is also securing its visa program against fraud all of these actions are working the illegals are leaving the country by the thousands no massive deportation is needed no amnesty or path to citizenship similar to the united states millions of illegals are crossing russian borders they take government resources from legal citizen the russian government however unlike the u s government isn't giving in to those who won't cheat plantation labor the russian government doesn't care if illegals or businesses don't like the new rules rushes in force and border security backcross union illegals and those that harm the us government could learn something from russia prosecute businesses that knowingly hire illegals and illegals will leave russia's proven but does america have the moral will to do the same we shall see and that's just the way it is for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois are without objection mr speaker no one can deny the situation on the ground in iraq is grave and rapidly deteriorating and therefore deserves the immediate and undivided attention of this congress last week the national intelligence estimate released a pessimistic outlook on the future of operation iraqi freedom the end i e offers no hope that on the likeliest of scenarios the level of violence in iraq will be significantly reduced between the next twelve to eighteen months additionally the iraq study group  identified the increase of sectarian violence in iraq as a principal challenge to stability in the middle east in light of the current situation a military approach is no longer a viable solution to stabilizing iraq our success in iraq is dependent upon a forward changing direction which involves input of iraq's neighbors and the entire international community through political and diplomatic engagement we have a serious chance of reducing sectarian tensions bringing our troops home and ultimately declar victory in iraq i urge my colleagues in both houses to put aside partisan differences and honestly debate our strategy in iraq i yield back for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana right you know center address how survive without objection the father of our constitution james madison wrote the constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the legislature the power of declaring a state of war the separation of the power of declaring war from conducting it is wisely contrived to exclude the danger of its being declared for the sake of its being conducted as we begin the process of hearing resolutions down the hall of this capital in the united states senate non binding resolutions over the way in the manner which we would conduct our war we would do well to reflect on the wisdom of our founders separated the article one powers of this body from the article two powers of our commander in chief and let us remember as franklin roosevelt said hostilities exist there is no blinking at the fact that our people our territory our interests are in grave danger let this grave danger color our debate provide the oversight that is our purview but we have but one commander in chief and let him lead us to victory in iraq as the gentle lady from florida writes without objection i rise today on behalf of my district in the eleventh year eleven year path to the super bowl title came through my hometown of tampa i think it's fair to say that everyone in the tampa bay area feels attached to his win and we are proud to claim him as a resident my friends neighbors back home remember coach dungy as the former coach of the buccaneers who in that capacity brought of winning spirit and gracious leadership to that team in our community we watch with pride sunday in this man show that nice guys can finish for his team came from eight points behind withstood the weather and won the game coach dungy as the first african american coach to win a super bowl provides the perfect start to the month long celebration of black history month his victory follows the march of other men and women who have stood up for justice and open the doors for others congratulations to him and all that understand the perseverance and teamwork is the best answer to life obstacles thank you mr speaker for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rest without objection m speaker dr darrell superintendent of greenwood school district fifty for south carolina was quoted saying i pledge to the best i can and work together as a team i'd like to honor dr johnson during february's black history month as a very notable and distinguishable african american who is heavily heavily impacted the third congressional district of south carolina dr johnson's an extensive background many leadership positions as a teacher coach administrators has laid the groundwork for him being named to the position of district superintendent just one hundred ninety one dr johnson worked for rock hill school district three beginning as assistant principal at the rocky all high school after serving as a principal and principal for sunset park elementary school he moved to the district office in one thousand nine hundred eighty as director of student services in two thousand and one he was named assistant superintendent his dedication to making a difference in education propelled him to earn his superintendent position and rightfully so i congratulate johnson for being able to excel in capacity where he may apply its natural ability to lead those who are most important to our future our students back for what purpose does the gentleman from connecticut me without objection thank you mr speaker when it comes to health care agree with the president one respect it's time to start redistributing resources within our health care system the problem comes when we talk about where we bring those resources from the president's plan that he put before us in his state of the union speech in his budget presented to this house yesterday would take resources from families who have good insurance and give it to families who have no insurance i would propose instead and many of my colleagues on the side of the i would propose instead that we take resources from the h m o s enjoy massive profits off of our medicare system to take money from the drug companies who've enjoyed the pleasure of not having to negotiate with the bulk purchasing power of the federal government and redistribute resources from those that are making millions of dollars or profit off of this system and put those resources into the hands of those who have nothing we can agree on some things mr speaker we can agree that this healthcare system has to be made better it's just a matter of where we take and who we give it to thank you generated from west virginia mr speaker i rise today to recognize february is national health month heart disease is the number one killer of women in america taking the lives of nearly a half a million women a year that's one per minute it claims the loss of more women than the next five causes of death and in my home state of west virginia heart disease kills twelve women per day that's thirty one thirty one percent of all female death between the years of nine hundred ninety nine to two thousand and three on feb on feb second people from across the nation participating go red for women day to support the fight against heart disease go red for women is the american heart association nationwide movement that celebrates energy passion and power we have as women to band together and fight this disease too few people realize the threat associated with heart disease the good news is that hard disease can largely be prevented by learning all of the serious threats such as high blood pressure high cholesterol diabetes obesity we can work to reduce our risks go red for women is an innovative way to raise awareness of health disease sixty four percent of women who died of coronary heart disease had no symptoms i urge my colleagues to join together in celebrating national heart time is expired for what purpose does the gentleman for arizona rest without objection government in iraq stuart bowen the special sector general for iraqi reconstruction released its quarterly report last week it concluded that three hundred billion us war and reconstruction effort is plagued with waste spiraling violence and corruption among the worst misuses our forty three point eight million for a residential training camp that stands empty about four point two billion for twenty trailers and on the lympics size pool that was ordered by the iraqi minister ministry of interior perhaps the most disconcerting however is that our government spent thirty six point four million for armored vehicles body armor and communications equipment that could greatly benefit our troops but it is completely unaccounted for mr speaker this abusive spending going to reckless stop both for the american taxpayer and for the troops but what purpose does the gentleman from michigan right now without objection mr speaker i come  before the pension to an honor recently received by my home community back in one wake county michigan america's promise the alliance for youth a foundation formed in one thousand nine hundred seven to help children use from all social economic sectors in united states recently named one of a county one of the one hundred best communities for young people as part of its ten year anniversary celebration the criteria for winning included strong community support of children and youth possessing valuable resources for children and youth youth and child outcomes overall progress within communities and innovations in the areas of policy practice and resources communities in thirty eight states receive this award and went to a county is one of the five communities in the great lakes state to be named a winner this recognition is a tribute to all of the police officers local officials firefighters outstanding teachers community leaders and civil servants that make linda wake county in south central michigan a great place to live you know back to the manuals back for what purpose transforming our country and the world h r eight o eight creates the department of peace and nonviolence it is now supported by fifty two members of the house of representatives and it's supported by groups who yesterday came to washington representing forty five states last night nearly a thousand people came to the george washington university campus to hear about the department of peace and i hope that it brings for america mr speaker if you were to look at this clerk's desk just around the corner you'll see engraved right into the desk of the clerk of the house of representatives the word peace peace is a foundational principle of this congress and of this country and the bill gives it a chance to have an animating power in our civic life by addressing the issues of domestic violence possible abuse child abuse violence in the school racial violence all those concerns we have both domestically and internationally a resolution supporting the funding of our troops and the senate leadership prevented that resolution being brought to the floor under regular order because they wanted to bring a resolution partisan politics it should be about doing what is in the best of our troops making certain that we win in the global war on terror and how are we going to keep this nation and our communities and  our i recently read a quote from specialist tyler johnson he's serving his first tour of duty in iraq and when asked about the criticism back home he said that passing resolutions does send a message to our troops overseas and i'm quoting you my supporters say you support the troops you're not supporting what they do they're here sweating for what we bleed for what we die for all just doesn't make sense to me and i quote mr speaker i agree with tyler and our troops passing no confidence resolutions does send a message it is not a message of courage of confidence and strength i agree of votes of the gays are nasar order or on which the vote is objected to under clause six of rule twenty the court of votes are recorded votes on postponed questions will be taken later today for what purpose does  gentleman from arizona mr speaker i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h r one six one report the title of the bill h r one sixty one a bill to adjust the boundary of internment national monument to include the you'll know memorial in bainbridge island washington and for other purposes pursuant to the rule the gentleman from arizona mr hall the and the gentlewoman from washington miss mcmorris rodgers each will control twenty minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona thank you much speaker and i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the build under consideration without objection thank you speaker i rise in strong support of h r one sixty one introduced by my colleague on the natural resources committee the gentleman from washington the state representative  the noteworthy legislation would authorize a memorial to commemorate the japanese americans of britain bridge island washington who were the first americans to be forcibly removed from their homes and relocated in internment camps during world war two the new memorial will serve as an important remembered of a sad chapter in american history shortly after the japanese attack on pearl harbor president franklin roosevelt issued an executive order providing for the relocation of japanese americans living along the west coast our march thirtieth one thousand nine hundred two the relocation began at the eagle dale ferry dock with two hundred twenty seven bainbridge island residents being forcibly removed to internment camps away from the coast eventually more than twelve thousand japanese americans in washington state and more than one hundred ten thousand japanese americans along the west coast where we located public law one hundred seven dash three six three directed the secretary of interior to study the eagle dale ferry dock brain bridge island washington to determine the suitability of design in the site as a unit of the national park system the study was to include an analysis of the historical events associated with the and the potential for preserving and interpret in the site on may first two thousand and six the department of interior transmitted to congress the study report the study recommended designated a memorial site on brain bridge island and that memorial be managed on the satellite dhaka internment national monument and existing national park system unit in idaho h r one sixty one would implement the recommendations contained in the study mr speaker i want to commend and congratulate my colleague mysteriously for his commitment and leadership in this matter a hearing was held in the nearly identical measure last congress and representative of the arrange for the subcommittee on national parks to receive moving testimony from an ent from an internist who photograph showing or holding your infant child has become its searing image of the internment i would also note that most of us the internment of japanese americans was a historical event that we read about in history books but for two of our colleagues it was part of their life experience my colleagues my conda and doris in the tooth but much spent part of their childhoods in internment camps i want to acknowledge their experience in this unfortunate episode in american history mr speaker we strongly support passage of h r one sixty one and urge its adoption by the house today and i reserve the balance of my time any resources time generated from washington thank you mr speaker i write in support of h r one fifty one in y myself as much time as i may consume this legislation further recognizes a tragic period in our nation's history by designating the quote let it not happen again memorial on bainbridge island washington as part of the  national monument in the state of idaho while a hearing was held on this legislation in the hundred ninth congress we are concerned that this bill has not gone through the markup process where issues in this bill such as the inclusion of eight acres of land in the state of washington in a monument over seven hundred miles away could have been discussed additionally is critical to point out that the national park service testified that this bill could divert scarce resources that are needed for existing parks and programs that being said we will not and yield him as much time as he may consume the gentleman from washington is recognized strangely mr speaker today when we passed the bridge i have a japanese american monument act of two thousand and seven we will be making a strong american statement that statement will be that the power of fear will never again be allowed to overcome the imus of liberty these are images we should never see again in america and today with the passage of this bill will make a strong american statement that they will not a march hundred ninety nine hundred forty two the american army pursuant to a an executive order by an american president rounded up two hundred twenty seven americans living on bainbridge island and march them down the eagle dale dock in eagle harbor bainbridge island washington surrounded by american soldiers some having been nets deployed and were taken away to internment against their will without trial and without recognition of their rights as citizens in their honor to serve america and now today is when we are making the memorial and bainbridge island at the site of this dock which is now being prepared is under construction we will be making an american statement that this cannot happen again the saying is need total not yoni never let it happen again and by making this part of our national park system we'll be making a statement that these images will never to happen to any generation of any creed in america i want to note some of the people this is a picture of a young fellow at that time named frank in a moto in this picture frank and his little tag everyone was given a tag they had to wear with the number on it frank grew up to be a respected dentist on bainbridge island and frank is done personally what this legislation will d nationally he has spent many years going around showing a collection of photographs telling young students why the protection of our civil liberties is critical and why we should never be overcome by fear again and i pay respects to frank in his efforts another young woman at the time who testified several months ago who has been pivotal in this effort from equal hiatt she does shown with her daughter here just before she was marched down that pier from eagle came now who's ninety five years young who is the old disinter need that we're aware of to send congress a message to make it a national statement to memorialize this now there are three reasons i think it's important that we pass this bill first although this was a tragic episode in american history it was an episode involving patriotism because and this is incredible to me of the two hundred twenty seven people marched down that pier sixty two of them turned around and volunteered to serve their nation in world war two and sixty two of these people served with distinction these people were the ultimate patriots having been sent to campus by uncle sam to turn around and fight for the freedoms to which they were not entitled was the ultimate act of patriotism and we all honor them as an act of patriotism in this room oriel second it is a memorialization of their neighbors many of their neighbors rallied around them many of their neighbors guarded some of their equipment to wait for them to come home and walt woodward the publisher of the bainbridge island review was the only publisher on the western coast of united states to editorialize against this violation of american values that's something to memorialize but most importantly you doto not yoni never let it happen again and this will be a statement to ourselves to our children to our grandchildren that when we are in fear in this country we should never lose that anchor of american civil rights and civil liberties and respect for what we are as americans and we have gone through these days in the last several years we've experienced fear that sometimes has infected the discussion here in the chamber and when we go through and deal with our fears today i think it's well that we take a lesson from history in one thousand nine hundred two to hew to the power of liberty rather than the power of fear so i'm happy today that we will we will pass this bill that will make this part of our national park system i'll invite all americans to come visit us in bainbridge island we'll invite the world to come see that america is a country that makes mistakes but learns and improves and this is continuous continuation of that american tradition of improving the american value system so i'm happy today this house will take this step i want to thank the bainbridge island community all of those who worked on this project clearance for more walking has led the effort on bainbridge island congratulations and graduations to america it's always been improving country thank you the gentleman from washington yields back does a gentle one from arizona reserves time to the lady from washington is recognized mr speaker may inquire as to other speakers on the other side of the aisle and pass h r one sixty one those in favor signify by saying i was opposed in the opinion of the chair two thirds being in the affirmative the ayes have it speaker yes on that i asked for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona arise thank you mr speaker i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h r five twelve as amended the clerk will report the title of the bill h r five twelve a bill to establish the commission to study the potential creation of the national museum of the american latino to develop a plan of action for the establishment and maintenance of the national museum of the american latino in washington d c and for other purposes pursuant to the rule the gentleman from arizona mr hall and the gentlewoman from washington ms mcmorris rodgers each will control twenty minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona thank you mr speaker and i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days  revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection thank you speaker i rise in strong support of h r five twelve which was introduced by my colleague from california representative beth cetera the legislation directs the establishment of a commission to study the potential creation of the national museum of the american latino to be located here in washington d c the commission would be composed of twenty three qualified individuals with seven appointed by the president and the remainder appointed by the majority and minority leadership of the house and senate under h r five twelve the commission would be required to prepare a plan of action for the establishment and maintenance of the museum including recommendations for legist for a legislative plan of action to create and could struck the museum the commission's plan would be due note not later than twenty four and four months after the date the commission's first meeting mr speaker i'm proud to be an original co sponsor of h r five twelve given the contributions that the american latino has made and continue to make to the cultural and social history of the united states this is a most fitting measure the legislation was the subject of hearings in the house last congress and i would note that a nearly identical measure passed the house on september twenty seventh two thousand and six as the face of this nation is represented by many people the medium would be an opportunity for all of america to look at the diversity to appreciate the many peoples that make up this great country of ours and i want to take this opportunity to also commend and congratulate my colleague from california several for his leadership on this matter he has worked very hard with many parties to bring this legislation to fruition mr speaker we strongly support h r five twelve and urge adoption of the legislation by the house today and i reserve the balance of my time arizona reserves this time the gentle lady from washington thank speaker i rise in support of h r five twelve in yield myself as much time as i may consume latinos have played an integral part in american history since the founding of the united states and that they were on the continent for more than two centuries prior to the signing of the declaration of independence despite the growth of latino inclusion programs at the smithsonian over the past decade supporters of h r five twelve believe believe that the trade in the washington museum is incomplete without a museum dedicated to the community this bill passed the house in the hundred ninth congress but we have concerns that this legislation requires the secretary of interior to provide administrative services facilities and funds for the operation of the commission and a hearing on the bill the national park service testified that the commission would fit better at the general services administration whose mission is well suited to serve the commission  read for her persistence and hard work in helping craft this measure i reserve the balance of my time the gentle lady from washington reserves of time the gentleman from arizona yes the speaker i would like again to commend congressman as i will but cetera of california for bringing  session what we found was that we just ran out of time this bill passed unanimously out of the house of representatives not a single opposing vote and we were very very close in the senate having this actually go to the desk of the president where i'm sure he would have signed it unfortunately time became the enemy and i hope that now moving this quickly through the process will be able to give the senate the time it needs to move through its process is well i want to thank my my colleague and friend from florida  tireless efforts on behalf of this legislation and i have served as a i hope a dynamic duo in trying to move this forward with all our colleagues who are who are supporting this legislation many of us believe that there is no place on this earth like the national mall that we have here in washington d c if anyone from mars were to come and ask what is it like to be an american i would send them directly to the national mall and say go through the museums that we have at the smithsonian take a look at the various artifact that give you a sense of our culture our history our heritage as a nation you will have a better sense of what it means to be an american after that walk probably takes you a few weeks if you want to go through all the different museums but you have a better sense of what it means to be an american then i think if you go anywhere else in this world the only problem i have and the only disappointment i have is that you don't get the full picture of what it's meant to be an american we've moved forward to try to take care of that over the years we have a museum that recently opened in the last four five years that will help us better understand what it's meant to be a native american in this country we are going to put shovel in ground very soon in trying to help america understand the history and the plight of many americans of african descent who have come into this country and the generations that have followed and what it means to be african american in this country i hope at some point this commission will report back to us what best we can do as a nation to make sure that when someone does walk through the mall of the capitol and visits those precious museums that we have that they will have that symphony and that understanding that comes from visiting those tremendous facilities of what it means to be an american and what it is to be proud of our american history and culture this legislation which has the support i'm very glad to say of a bipartisan group of members in the house should help us get a sense from the experts not politicians not people who have no real understanding of this but from the experts of whether or not there is value in moving forward the idea of trying to have a a place where we have resided within it the culture the experience the here history the art they heritage of americans of latino descent and so with that that your speaker as chairman i would like you back i time support today mr speaker of h r five twelve the commission to study the potential creation of a national museum of the american latino community act and i'd like to thank my dear friend  basara of california for his commitment in bringing this important legislation to the floor we've been working on it up for a number of years it's got strong bipartisan support and he it's been a delight for me to work with him and members of my staff to have worked with the his staff as well as the republican leader of this legislation i'm so pleased that this bill would take the next step in developing a plan of action for the establishment of a national museum of the american latino the commission would be comprised of experts in art and museum administration as well as individuals with experience in the development of similar cultural institutions the commission would have the responsibility of examining and reporting to congress and the president a plan to establish a new national museum even as the largest minority group in the united states hispanic americans are not fully represented by one of the permanent exhibits in washington's museums currently there are over forty two million hispanics in the united states furthermore the census bureau estimates that in the year twenty fifty the hispanic population in the u s will reach over one hundred million as we can see hispanic americans our country's largest and fastest growing minority group and they continue to expand and contribute to the greatness of our wonderful country as the first hispanic american woman elected to congress i'm so proud to advance the issues affecting all citizens living in our great country i've been proud to represent my diverse south florida constituency for many years now in congress and i look forward to a future that is indeed bright for individuals across our terrific country hispanic americans are playing an increasing role also in the nation's economy in our workforce for example according to the office of management and budget the unemployment rate among the hispanic community dropped to four point seven an all time record low this the to stick demonstrates that the economic policies of lower taxes and less government regulations are working and that all americans are benefiting from it the great diversity of ethnicities and nationalities of the many people of the united states is what makes our nation strong is what continues to be a home for many different cultures and this national museum will signify our strong commitment to proudly exhibit america's rich cultural diversity therefore i ask all of my colleagues to join me in support of this important legislation to ensure that visitors to our nation's capital gain a more complete understanding of who we are as americans thank remarks on h r five twelve of which he has been a participant and a hard worker the legislation to this point and i told him as much time as i may consume gentleman from california thank you very much first of all i thank the gentleman from arizona for allow me the time to say a few words and i want to raise my strong voice in support of h r five twelve this is important legislation that would establish a commission to study the potential creation of a national museum of the americans l i want to thank my good friend who had been set up for sponsoring this bill and chanting this cause which is of great significance to many hispanics latinos throughout the nation throughout the country including myself this is a bipartisan legislation that basically asked for a study to create a national museum of the american latinos bipartisan currently there are over forty five million latinos in the united states including  the social cultural and economic contributions of latinos united states have an important history and important history and are growing daily we must realize that america l are natives to many different parts of the world some are from port but equal some are from south america while others have roots in tides to make will but while we hail from different countries including from right here in the united states we have different backgrounds and many of us share a similar experience and it wealth of common values and mass human z m of the american latinos will help share this experience and the values not only with latinos but with all that would be a sense of pride tradition cultural and arts that would be exhibit to all americans to see all individuals arjan my colleagues to cast a vote in favor and understanding the heritage of all americans and support this legislation i yield back the balance of my times gentleman yield back the gentleman from washington thank you mr speaker i yield such time as you may consume to the ranking publican of the committee house administration which also has jurisdiction over the bill the distinguished gentleman from michigan vernon a letter from a michigan is recognized and thank you for  three four which was referred to the committee on the house administration in the last congress and which i was pleased to guide through that committee and presented to the house for passage on september twenty seventh of last year so on the regret the not pass the senate the latino american community is often recognized for its rich traditions its sense of community and deeply rooted beliefs which are for woven throughout the fabric of american history as a nation's fastest growing ethnic community the latino populations in america has more than doubled in size in the last ten years to over forty million and continues to grow the creation of a national museum of the american latino community would enable latino americans to tell their story in their own words and would create a destination for students families and visitors that would accurately depict latino american history in order to explore the possibility of creating such a museum the legislation before us specifies that a commission be created with twenty three members seven of whom would be appointed by the president and three voting and non voting each will be appointed by the speaker the house republican leader the senate majority of these are in the senate republican leader once a point of the commissioners would assess the cost of the museum its impact on other his spanish and latino related museums identify a possible location for the museum and proposed guidelines on the museum's operation the commission would also work closely with  latino arab american community during the design and development phase to ensure that the museum accurately captures the latino american experience i urge my colleagues to once again support this important legislation which is a first step and creating a national museum of the american latino community that will serve as a testament to the vibrant history and tradition of latino americans and  would just be delighted to venture to say this constructive now mr speaker at the risk of being the skunk at the garden party i would like to add a postscript expressing my concern about the proliferation of museums on the mall and what this may do to the mall as you would call the mall was designed many many years ago as a gathering place for america and it has no place so serve that purpose i believe it is very important that we in building any additional museums not impinge on that intent so establishing a location is i think going to be one of the most difficult parts of the work of this commission and i wish them well but i think it's extremely important that we preserve the national mall as a gathering place for america and make certain that any additions additional buildings on the mall fit well with that purpose r speaker i ask permission to speak out of turn without objection thank you i rise today to support h r one sixty one debated earlier to expand them in adult internment national monument to include than it does hold night yoni memorial which commemorates the japanese americans of bainbridge island the japanese americans of bainbridge island washington were interned during world war two on february one thousand nine hundred forty two president franklin roosevelt signed an executive order which forcibly removed approximately one hundred twenty thousand americans of japanese ancestry from their homes their friends and their communities they were incarcerated by this government for their ancestry just over one months after the executive order was signed two hundred twenty seven bainbridge island men women and children were sent to internment camps they were the very first japanese american families in the united states to be incarcerated we in the pacific northwest would like to think that we live in a better part of the country in a part of the country where things are the way they ought to be but sometimes the way we want things to be is not the way things happened or reality because these japanese americans were taken from their homes in the heart of the puget sound they were sailed to seattle they were loaded on the trains for three days journey to man's  concentration camp in california's mojave desert these americans were the very first americans to be so detained and the last of the detainees were not released until october of  six four and a half years after the signing of the executive order and over a year after the end of world war two but this chapter of our history did not end there upon release from the internment camps japanese americans could not return to the lives that they had led before the tragic and misled executive order and i'd like to submit further information about general clinton's decisions and recommendations and i would do that at a different time but during the period of internment they had lost their homes their businesses and their livelihoods by commemorating japanese americans who were so detained we ensure that the sad episode in our history will never be forgotten and hopefully not repeated because we need to learn from the mistakes of the past thirty years past before the executive order was formally rescinded in one teen seventy hundred eighty eight a presidential apology was issued to inter nice this is not an abstraction this is not a theoretical debate the military commissions act passed by this congress on september thirtieth two thousand and six potentially puts american citizens at risk of military detention that is a plain reading of the military commissions act it was hotly debated between the chairman of the then chairman of two committees and this member it has been commented upon to a limited extent in the national press but i think that a fair reading of the military commissions act would show you that if a person is just walking down the street and is detained by military authority for whatever reason and we're not talking about aliens in afghanistan we're talking about someone walking down the streets of portland oregon or in bainbridge island what could potentially happen to that person the better course under the military commissions act is that they're subject to military justice a very limited review by a military tribunal and the end of that appeal road is the secretary of defense that is actually the better course now i have to point out that there are twenty five detainees in guantanamo who after five years of attention have not had their first review because the course that it's actually more troubling under the military commissions act is that if there is not a review there's no appeal there's no appeal to a civilian court there is no hey vs corpus a doctrine which has served anglo american societies well for almost a thousand years this memorial which h r one sixty one helps us remember is not an obstruction it was real suffering for the japanese americans for the americans who were incarcerated but it is also a reminder that as was said of the executive order much later when actions are taken by this government in an atmosphere of hysteria great injustice is i can be perpetrated and we need to be and the gentlewoman from washington miss mcmorris rodgers each will control twenty minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from california thank you mr speaker i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend the remarks revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection mr speaker h r three eighty six would transfer title for approximately nine acres of land and several buildings to the yakama teton irrigation district the terms the transfer are included in a formal agreement between the bureau of reclamation and the irrigation district other parts of the reclamation project including the teton diversion dam and associated can i else would not be affected in the hundred ninth congress the subcommittee on water and power held a hearing on similar legislation that bill was favorably district in washington state no project facilities such as dams diversion structures are canals are included in this title transfer the transfer is been in the works for almost a decade this legislation also introduced by the junior senator from washington state will enhance more private ownership and decrease the federal government's liability is a win for the local community and a win for the american taxpayer i urge my colleagues to support this important bipartisan legislation i have no speaker i move to suspend the rules and pass the bill h r forty two the clerk will report the title of the bill h r four eighty two a bill to direct the secretary of the interior to transfer ownership of the american river pump station project and unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration without objection mr speaker h r forty t direct the secretary of interior to convey a certain land and the water pumping facility that is under construction on the american river to the placer county water agency in california currently the bureau of reclamation is obligated by a previous agreement to supply temporary pumping service to satisfy the water rights of the placer county water agency this temporary pumping is done at considerable cost to the b reclamation the american river pump station will provide a permanent facility for the delivery of water to that agency h r four eighty two allows the bureau to satisfy its contract will obligations by transferring this facility and eliminates the continued cost of providing temporary pumping service to that agency in the one hundred ninth congress the subcommittee on water and power held a hearing on similar legislation and the bill was subsequently favorably reported by the committee and passed by the house we have no objections to this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time from california reserves to time the gentlewoman from washington thank you mr speaker i rise in support of h r forty two year old myself such time as i may consume r forty two introduced by our colleague john doolittle directs the secretary of interior terrier to transfer ownership of the american river pump station project to the passer county water agency in northern california to facilitate construction of the auburn dam nearly forty years ago the federal government removed a locally owned pump station located at the dam site the dam was never built and now the federal government has is building a permanent pump station to replace the one it removed years earlier under an agreement the federal government much must transfer the pumps to station to the local water users once construction is complete before the transfer can take place congressional authorization is needed and this legislation achieved that purpose i urge my colleagues to support this common sense bill i reserve the balance of my time on a lady from washington research the time the gentlewoman from california does the their help on this legislation this is been quite a few years in and production the pump station is almost complete and will be completed next year sometime we anticipate and we would like to have this last detail of the transfer just to put in order as you heard the explanation as to why we need the legislation fulfilling an obligation made by the federal government years ago the placer county water agency  was just debated previous to this on h r three eighty six mr speaker it's a pretty straightforward bill that legislation would authorize the transfer of about nine acres of federal property along with a few associated structures from the bureau of reclamation to the bureau to focus focuses limited resources where they are more urgently needed this legislation is based on a formula agreement negotiated between the bureau and the aca mataya to your geisha district in two thousand and four i commend of the bureau for working together at the local level to resolve the concerns of the parties involved is a speaker the same legislation passed unanimously during the previous congress but it didn't get through during the final parts of the session so i urge my colleagues to support this bill again today so that we may move on to the other body and i want to thank chairman ray hall and ranking member young of the natural resources committee and her staff for existence in expediting this bill and i yield back my time watching  unanimous consent to reclaim my time without objection gentlemen woman from california is recognized thank you mr speaker i thank my colleague miss mcmorris rodgers and hopefully we'll be able to continue working on a bipartisan matter to get these very very critical projects going and approved and moving out of this house and i'm sure that we're going to have others that are just equally important and i hope the same consideration is given to all those with i thank you and i thank my  forward to working with her on a bipartisan basis to move many of these projects important projects forward all across the country and i yield back the balance of my time gentle lady back for a time as well all sides having yield back the time the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h r four eighty r forty two will be taken tomorrow the first electronic vote will be conducted as a fifteen minute vote remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five minutes vote the on fish finish business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from arizona m suspend the rules and pass h r one sixty one on which they gaze and they are ordered the court for report the title of the bell h r one sixty one a bill to adjust the boundary of the mean internment national monument to include the need don't own your own no memorial in bainbridge island washington and for other purposes the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill those in favor will vote aye those opposed will vote no members will record their first recorded vote of the day in the house with a fifteen minute vote here debated several suspension bills this one as a japanese american internment camp a moral in the state of washington to a national monument program again a fifteen minute vote on the house floor meanwhile over in the senate side the senate will be back from their weekly party lunch at three thirty as negotiations continue off the senate floor c q reporting that majority leader harry reid indicates he may pull iraq policy bill unless he can reach an agreement with republicans on how to proceed senators yesterday voted to block debate on the iraq war and the bill opposing the president's plan to increase troops forty nine to forty seven vote to proceed to debate was eleven votes shy of the sixty day need they needed me wants a day majority leader of the house majority leader standing where announced that the house will take up its own resolution on the iraq war next week representative hoyer said he expects the debate will stretch over three days to allow every member wants to talk on the resolution sometime and a couple of committees today meeting today to talk about the iraq war riddle related events the senate armed services committee just wrapping up a hearing on defense spending for two thousand and eight in addition to the president's supplemental record on it on the iraq war emergency spending for zero seven and on c span to work covering a house government oversight committee hearing on iraq reconstruction with the former head of the coalition provisional authority paul bremer and of course stuart bowen who has been overseeing iraq reconstruction live coverage of that on c span t if you're just tuning in the first vote of the day in the house on h r one sixty one which recognizes the bainbridge island japanese american monument in the state of washington bainbridge washington it's a fifteen minute vote couple of iraq hearings on the hill have wrapped up and we also want to let you know about this sunday's gas on q and a john burns has been the baghdad bureau chief for the new york new york times for a couple of years now since the start of the iraq war and he joins us sunday on q the house is voting on h r one sixty one a suspension bill debated earlier on a japanese american monument in the state of washington this is a fifteen minute vote there will be a five minute vote to follow yesterday in the senate and the senators voted on monday to block debate on the iraq war and the bill opposing the president's plan to increase troops forty nine to forty seven vote to proceed to debate was eleven votes shy of what they need which was sixty as negotiations continue off the senate floor harry reid has told us c q that he may pull the iraq policy goal as he can reach out and reach an agreement with republicans on how to move forward earlier today house majority leader study hoyer announced that the house will take up its own resolution on the iraq war next week he expects that debate will stretch over three days of next week to allow every member who wants to talk on the resolution sometime so that's from this morning's news briefing with us anywhere and as we find out more information we'll pass  along to you as well this first vote fifteen minutes winding down h r one sixty one which adds the bainbridge island japanese american monument to the national monument program and it's a fifteen minute vote just update you majority leader standing announced earlier today that the house will take up its own resolution on the iraq war next week he said he expects the debate will stretch over three days allowing every member wants to talk on the resolution sometime his desires to get the house on record before members go home for the president's day recess which begins the week of february nineteenth the unfinished business is the motion on the as a vote on the motion of the woman from california ms the paula tano this is bend the rules and pass h r three eighty six on which they are order house will be in order and a five minute vote here h r three eighty six transferring buildings in the irrigation districts the state of washington yakama anti a ten again is a five minute vote and the second in a series of votes the senate is out till about three thirty they're taking their weekly party lunches and they also have an intelligence briefing this afternoon they'll gavel back in at three thirty eastern yesterday in the senate they voted to block debate on the iraq war the bill opposing the president's plan to increase troops the forty nine to forty seven vote to proceed to debate was eleven votes shy of the sixty necessary and to go she asians continue off the senate floor congressional quarterly reporting that majority leader harry reid indicated he may  pull the iraq policy bill unless he can reach an agreement with republicans on how to proceed and also in the house majority leader standing hoyer saying earlier today that the house will take up its own resolution on the iraq war next week  expects that debate will stretch over three days on this book four hundred seventeen the nays are zero two thirds begin the affirmative the rules are suspended the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table will be in members are asked to take their conversations off the floor the honorable the speaker house of representatives madam this is to inform you that i am resigning my position as clerk of the house effective midnight on feb fourteenth two thousand and seven thank you for the honor  nominating me to serve in the position of clerk of the house in the one hundred tenth congress it has been an honor to serve the house of representatives and to work with so many suspend the house be in order please take your conversations off the the continuum and to work with so many dedicated individuals i will especially miss those hard working men and women in the office of the clerk our nation is a communication the honorable the speaker house of representatives madam this is to inform you that i am resigning my position as chief administrative officer of the house of representatives in order place house be in order house resolution one twenty nine resolved that lorraine she miller of the state of texas be and is here by chosen clerk of the house of representatives clerk of the house of representatives effective february fifteenth two thousand and seven and that daniel p beard of the state of maryland be and is here by chosen chief administratively officer of the house of representatives effective effective february like to have enough to speak on the resolution before its immediate adoption the chair will distribute the time gentleman from maryland and gentleman from michigan each will control thirty minutes chair recognizes gentleman from maryland chair would ask members please take their conversations from the floor so the gentleman may be h the gentleman from maryland is recognized i thank the gentleman for yielding and i want to we're not going to take certainly the hour that is a lot of but first of all i want to say something about the two individuals who have just resign  and others and i worked on the house of the spend house will be in order those in the back of the chamber please take your conversations off the floor so the gentlemen can be heard gentleman from of professional management to this house of representatives which has been a credit to the institution and a credit to all of the members and a credit i might say to my colleagues on the republican side to the republican leadership on this issue and i congratulate them for that mr egan is someone of who has worked on this hill for many years he will be leaving the hill and leaving the city and moving his family to the west and we wish him the very very best  speaker karen hawes who has been the clerk and who submitted her resignation is as well someone who has worked for this institution cares deeply about the house and has  relatively short period of time as the clerk of our house in a way that brought honor to the office of clerk and bought credit to the house of representatives and i know from my perspective personally and from the speaker pelo i and i both want to on behalf of our caucus extend to them our deepest thanks and gratitude for the services they have rendered to the house of representatives and to our country both of them i know have very  house has run very very well as a result and i commend them and wish them well in the future and i'm certain that they have bright futures based on the excellent work they did here i also would like to comment about the by the speaker and has been in the past i look forward to good things for her she is obviously very capable has an outstanding record in working in the house the senate and various other places and i look forward to good work from her in regard to the selection of candidates for chief administrative officer of the house mr beard i do not object to his appointment he is i think a relatively good background and should be able to manage the job at least i certainly hope so but i have serious concerns about the lack of transparency in the selection process resulted in his appointment just to give a better history when i first arrived here it was shortly before the republicans took over the majority and there had been considerable confusion in the house we had the bank scandal the post office scandal and so forth and a position was created i forget the precise title but something along the line of the director of the non legislative and financial functions of the house of representatives the speaker at that time was a democrat since they were in the majority appointed a person to fill that post w general was hired i believe and he resigned after several months saying basically he could not do the job given the parameters that were imposed upon it when the republicans took over the house of representatives they also appointed and it was largely a speaker's appointment at that time appointed someone to serve as the chief administrative officer of the house and that position was created and described by the new majority decided and i believe mr hoyer was on the committee at the same time with me and we simply decided that we had to make this as nonpartisan a position as possible and so we formed a group two republicans t democrats and they conducted a nationwide search with a search firm to find the best person for the chief administrative officer position they ended up selecting someone from the house of representatives someone who was familiar with it but also someone with extensive administrative background who did a tremendous job of operating this institution since that time the main point i want to make is a process was set up that was bipartisan it resulted in excellent appointment and we i believe we should use that same process again in fact i felt so strongly about it i sent a letter to the speaker last week pointing out that we should use that same process again and rarely was a letter delivered then she announced publicly that she had selected a new c e o without using that process at all without input from a minority party and simply we had the  courtesy of chatting with the new appointee but nothing to say in the appointment or whether or not that person should have the appointment i have met with them i recognize he has considerable administrative ability he's been around a long time but i am very concerned because we did not use the same process i don't think this new appointee is going to hold his allegiance to only one person that is the speaker of the house and i don't believe that is the best way to operate the house of representatives at the same time should anything serious or improper happened we recognize where they had managed that where the responsibility for that will lie because it will be with the person who made the appointment but i have firsthand job this is a complex organization on the hill over ten thousand employees and the position has many responsibilities that are supposed significant consequence to the house of representatives while the proper administration of the house is ultimately the responsibility of the majority the successful operation of the house is most certainly not a partisan manner republicans and democrats alike maintain a shared investment in preserving and building upon the professional improvements made by the house chief of ministry of officer over the last twelve years in one nine hundred ninety seven as i mentioned the last occasion a new c search committee was constituted that as i said and required it to you now and on this decision from all search committee members in order to select a candidate for the position of chief administrative officer that last provision i think is very important to ensure that it was not a partisan position required that both republicans and both democrats had to she had to vote to select the final candidate for the position that that time our current house majority leader my colleague from maryland stated that the formulation of a search committee comprised of the leaders of both parties quote was done to assure that we would have  bipartisan agreement on an administrator for the business of the house mr hoyer also stated that what this house needs is a bipartisan and effectively nonpartisan way to are sure ourselves and the american public that the business of the house the paying of our bills the managing of our information systems all of that which has nothing to do with the formulation of policy but everything to do with effective management of the people's house is being done in a proper fashion now i'm not quoting this to throw the words and mr hoyer space that's not my intent at all it's simply my intent to show how at that time we worked very very hard to get a bipartisan agreement and that part bipartisan agreement the house says achieved eight consecutive clean opinions from independent auditors an impressive result by any measure and this should be conscious contrast that with the result when we really republicans first took office we asked for an independent outside audit and the auditors came back and said the books are such a mess we cannot even audit them you will have to construct an entire new financial management system and i was pleased that i since i helped develop the computer system that i was able to help develop a system that was appropriate for that task and i think all of this together has led to the clean audits that we have had for a number of years i certainly support the comments that mr hoyer made some years ago they were very appropriate they described the procedure accurately and his point as he made then i totally agree with that the appointment of a post with such a significant impact to this institution we should be able to put aside our party affiliations and work together to find a suitable candidate i wish i could make the same comparable statement today i wish that such a bipartisan process had been followed this time and instead i'm left only to express my sincere disappointment that it did not take place let me make it clear the qualifications of mr baird process and i'm disappointed that's the speaker chose not to do that without a fair open and competitive process there is simply no way to determine whether this selection is in the best interest of the house and the complete sins of transparency is cause for alarm for those who value the integrity of th let me simply at this point reserve the balance of my time and i will gentleman from michigan to balance of time the gentleman from merrill my friend i don't have any other speakers on this do you have a speaker their service and i'm sure they will continue with honorable service in the future when i return to the house of representatives after being away for sixteen years i observed that there were some things that were better about this house and some things that were worse about this house i noted that there was always a partisanship in their house in this house but there appeared to be a harder edge to that partisanship and one of the things that struck me was that we needed to be around here more often and that's why i frankly i'm one of those on this side of the aisle that believes that attempting to go to a five day work week not only is good in terms of the product we will put out eventually when we actually do go to five day work weeks but the interchange in the interplay and the opportunity for members to deal with one another and get to know one another i think may very well take the hard edge off the partisanship that is always going to be a part of the house when you have strong feelings argued by members on both sides at the same time i must say it is a disappointment as a member of the house administration committee to see the manner in which the decision was made to choose a chief administrative officer when i served here before there is no doubt that the administration of this place was in a mess you could ask questions and get no answers you could attempt to try and decipher how this place was organized and you couldn't find out you would ask questions and you would get a wink and a nod and a sense that don't ask don't tell you would try and find for legitimate reasons information and you would find that either that was not made available to you or that it could not be made available to and since that time primarily i believe because of the institution of the position of chief administrative officer and the organization flows from that it is changed and so i was trying to look back at the experience of the house to see how this was made and how the decision was made to fill that position and want to discovered that both the republican of the democratic sides had come together stressing bipartisanship making a national search attempting to try and find the best possible person for the job but above that requiring unanimous support from both sides of the aisle it seemed to me that that was an encouraging step towards righting a wrong that existed in this house and that's why even though i don't know mr beard and i will take on its face the recommendations that have been made on the other side about mr baird it is a missed opportunity we had in this house to manifest an effort in one of the legitimate areas where bipartisanship should reign that is in filling the position of someone who is to be the chief administrator of this body it is a sorely missed opportunity and i know that we should not be complaining about process and people are tired about complaining about process and i'm tired about hearing the complaints about process but this was a unique opportunity for us to work together not as democrats or republicans but members of the house of representatives who have respect for this institution who understand the necessity of having this place run at that level on a business like basis so that every member can feel that the person who filled that job was chosen by the entire membership and that no one has to feel that they have allegiance only to one side it's very difficult in this place because of the way it's organized for us to find that sort of sweet spot if you will in the activities in which we are involved this was one of those chances and i'm very sorry that we rejected the experience and the precedent of the recent past in making the selection i joined of the gentleman from maryland and others in hoping that mr baird will do an excellent job it's in the interest of all of us that he does and that's an excellent job my only point is this was a tremendous opportunity for us to remove partisanship to work together as the gentleman suggested a number of years ago when the selection of mr reagan was made and my only hope is that this does not suggest how things will be done in the future when there is abundant reason for us to work together as members of the house rather than as democrats and republicans and with that i congratulate mr beard on his selection suchlike almost verbatim in terms of how i believe the auto operate his office in the in the sense that this is a business office this is not a partisan office and hopefully he will respond to doing what is in the best business management practice best practices as well as his own judgment and without respect to party or partisanship i would hope that that would have expect to happen but i appreciate the comments that have been made i want to say that also i'm a strongly in support of all rain miller this is a stark appointment first african american to serve as an officer of the house not just as clerk of the house but as a loraine miller has served for three speakers now she served president clinton in the white house she is a president double a c p in washington d c and she is an extraordinarily knowledgeable able  individual and she will be a tremendous asset to this institution and i think will send a very strong and powerful message to all of america about inclusion as the election of our speaker did mr beard as some of you know as more than three decades of experience and policy and executive management he clued in senior positions in the house of representatives united states senate the white house and the interior department as well as the library of congress obviously has a long distinguished career in management and as such is a a professional appointment again i appreciate the comments that have been made strongly support the nomination of both because i believe both will serve this institution in a professional manner that will bring credit on their offices and on th cliburn be able to manage the balance of time available to me without objection thank  you michigan i thank the gentleman from maryland for his comments and i would also echo his comments about ms miller i was astounded at her resume in fact i would love to have a resume that complete myself she has served government in so many different agencies and so many different ways but i'm certain that she will perform very very well as the clerk of the house like to you two minutes at this time to mr mccarthy of california a brand new member of the committee on house of menstruation but one with considerable experience on it because of his previous work as a staff member for the honorable bill thomas who chaired the chairman from california is recognized for two minutes i think the gentleman for yielding i rise today actually to for two reasons congratulate mrs meller rightfully so she was selected rightfully so that the speaker was able to appoint her but the day actually write a disappointment disappointed this resolution as a member said i am a new member from california but i'm not new to this house i had the pleasure of serving mr thomas who had served as the chairman of house administration in one thousand nine hundred five i know the work that was done and the respect for this house on both sides of the aisle i never question the respect for this institution either side but to go about and bring out an audit to this house i knew the work that needed to be done i worked as a staffer and i found out in one nine hundred ninety five and we went to do the first audit we didn't keep enough books to even have an independent audit and what has transpired in the last eight years we've had a clean independent audit and how were we able to achieve that this body was able to achieve that by being bipartisan is sent in the selection of the chief administrative officer and to do this resolution today is actually a step backwards transparency in this house both sides will agree is the best thing for the house of representatives and my question today is i don't question the credentials of mr baird will he make a great c e o i don't know quite frankly because he's never come before us we've never had the ability to go for the search and we've actually done it this justice to him because we have gone through to select and not even empower him when both sides of the aisle could go by and make a selection that would empower that office in a bipartisan manner much like we have done in the past my biggest disappointment is this that of the i was ready to work i know the ranking member had sent a letter to the new speaker to ask to go about doing it just like we did in one thousand nine hundred seventy where somebody from the democrats and some from the republicans got together and agreed unanimously that is the respect of this office thank you for the time but merry request another thirty second please do you have a gentleman one moment gentleman is recognized for thirty thank you for doubling my time now as of my first day on this floor i listened intently i came with no animosity i came to work together i came to find common ground and up in that top i listen to the speaker when she said this is about partnership not partisanship but today is a step backwards this was the opportunity to move forward in a partisanship much like we've done in ninety seven much of this history says sharon and i will tell you in the end the respect for this house has to come from both sides of the aisle that we have and we have to deal when it comes to a resolution to give back the balance of my time gentleman yiel develop and i was on that group that you have to clean it up with a high number to it and he's done a professional job and i want to thank him for that not to have met with mr baird and i manager of something all of my life before coming here and one of the things i learned as a manager is that you have to try to balance efficiency and effectiveness and in order to do the work of this body i want all of those people who assume positions to be efficient but i also would like to see the work done be effective and to do so we have to recognize the individual worth that exists in every human being and there are a lot of people working in and around this building who we sometimes don't see but they effectiveness and so i think they will make good additions to the work here in this body and i want to thank them for being willing to serve to the gentleman from texas dr show the house but i rise today to honor lorraine miller a fort worth texas on her appointment as clerk of the house of representatives courses clerk of the house of representatives mr miller's responsibilities will include but not be limited to the page  board congressional travel reports and disclosure forms the voting system oversight of the legislative operation of the house floor she's well prepared for this she's worked at the highest levels of government which have contributed to her leadership abilities and  knowledge of management the role of the clerk is demanding and require someone with great intellect as miller will certainly bring strength and diversity to the office of clerk as the first african american woman to hold this top house position ms miller first work for the house of representatives for us congressman jim wright back in fort worth texas when he was majority leader she moved on to work for then speaker tom foley u s congressman john lewis and finally the current speaker speaker pelo is miller also worked as deputy assistant to the president of legislative affairs for the house of representatives during the administration of bill clinton she additionally helped positions at the federal communications commission and the federal trade commission it was great honor that i recognize miss loraine c miller for decades of hard work and selfless dedication i want to join her friends and family both here in washington d c and particularly back home in fort worth texas where where i represent in congratulating her on this prestigious milestone she's been an inspiration and a role model to many and i know she will continue to be a role model to many of the young men and women who will watch her progress with pride here in the house of representatives and i for one look forward to working with her here in congress now your backgrounds my time back to south carolina how much time do i have a week twenty one minutes twenty one minutes  that will make my final comments i assume the gentleman from north carolina or south carolina is so it will to close right after that just hearing this debate reminds me again of all the things that happened and first of all i have to clarify that mr reagan did not have to clear up the mess left by mr faulkner mr faulkner may or may not have been the best choice for your number filled in with two million five hundred thousand dollars just to make the books balance i have seen those books i know the facts it was a mess after forty years of the rule of one part now not defending or criticizing either general or scott faulkner they were there they did the best job they could and very difficult circumstances but they were not there very long the point is simply that when we followed a good process when we used a bipartisan process we appointed someone who has served for a number of years and have served extremely well you know as well as i that if you hire a person that person's going to be to you it is very important that this position be operated in a bipartisan fashion and since the speaker has appointed mr baird no matter how capable the u s no matter how much he tries he will be suspected of bipartisan p pardon me of part partisanship in his decisions daniel there may in fact be the right person to lead the cia organization and i truly hope that he is however given the selection process there's simply no way of knowing that with any degree of confidence this appointment could and should have occurred with the full confidence of all members of the house and fortunately the burden of proof now lies with mr beard and ult demand a division of the question on the adopting of the resolution question will be divided the question will be divided reserve the balance of my time john ritter's about  before the house the following personal request a leave of absence requested from mr lamson of texas for today without objection requests is granted the gentleman from texas twelve what reason your rights mr speaker i ask unanimous consent that today following the legislative business in any special orders here before entered into the following members may be permitted to address the house remarks include their in extraneous material mr emanuel five minutes miss woolsey of california five minutes mr miller of california five minutes this trip alone of new jersey five minutes this mccarthy of new york five minutes mr mcdermott of five minutes previous order of the house the following members are recognized with five minutes each mr jones of north carolina was recognized for five minutes drug smuggler who brought seven hundred forty three pounds of marijuana across our southern border into texas members of congress have and let me say not only members of congress but many american citizens have repeatedly president bush to pardon these agents at the house democratic caucus last week the president said and i quote we want our border patrol agents guarding the borders from criminals and drug dealers and terrorists mr president we are calling on you today as you said you would weeks ago to take a sober look at this case many members of congress have warned that if they used two border patrol agents in prison their safety would be threatened by those who hate law enforcement offices tragically this happened last saturday night when agent ramos was beaten while being in prison m you have the authority to correct an injustice please mr president expedite your consideration of a pardon for these two men and help their families know lies that america is a country that  with foreclosures and i want to repeat that mr president you have the authority to correct an injustice please expedite your consideration of a pardon for these two men and help their mr speaker yesterday the president has been in his budget to the united states congress and to the country and in that budget the president made clear a number of priorities that i think are in direct opposition to the wishes and aspirations of the american people most egregious in my view is that the president leads in place a tax increase on the middle class families of this country today about three million americans are affected by the alternative minimum tax meant to tax only the super wealthy this year alone it will reach twenty three million middle class families across the country and the only way the president accomplishes any of his goals to leave in place attack that was never intended by the congress or the president to affect middle class families the democrats make a pledge to in fact deal with the zero turned a minimum tax this year so middle class families do not have a tax increase either this year next year or the following year is been consistently but this is only one egregious misplaced priorities in the president's budget the other highlights in addition to increasing taxes on the middle class it cuts health care for seniors one hundred billion dollars over five years three hundred billion dollars over ten years while we are dealing with the temperatures outside that are near freezing in my home area chicago below zero it cuts housing how home energy assistance  seniors by eighteen percent eliminates the cops program for community policing which is have supported one hundred twenty thousand police officers throughout the country it goes forward in the press since desired to privatiz social security it cuts health care benefits for our returning veterans forcing them to pay up to seventy five hundred fifty dollars a year to enter the health care for veterans one of the best health care system in the country and i don't think that's a welcome home at that either our veterans from iraq and afghanistan deserve it also has of cuts to education and underfund leave no child behind by fifteen billion dollars it cuts housing assistance for affordable housing with the returning again and relationship to our veterans it cuts the funding for research into brain trauma research which is so significant one of the greatest injuries for our veterans coming home from iraq and afghanistan have been the brain injuries that they have incurred there and the first time ever we've gotten funding in the side the pentagon for that area it makes a cut and then it doesn't deal with what we call earmark here which is a president continues his ears marks in his budget across the border from so security privatization to hug health care cuts to medicare and medicaid to also not cutting children from their health care to raising taxes on the middle class in time in place from health care to taxes to supporting our law enforcement community this budget makes the wrong priorities it is time to have a new direction and a change here in the priorities in washington in addition to all that while we have families not being able to get to their homes in the area of louisiana mississippi in the gulf coast the president asked for additional two hundred forty five billion dollars for iraq and afghanistan in every turn that we can we have to right this ship that is wrong most importantly in the area a president's budget has relied on tax increases on middle class families cuts medicare medicaid asked for two hundred forty five a billion dollars in increased funding for iraq and afghanistan cuts children from their health care cuts house heating assistance from our promoter elderly also cuts benefits for veterans those are not the priorities of the american people every president in the history of the country in a time of war has thought about how to invest in america abraham lincoln in the height of the civil war had a land grant colleges roosevelt in the height of the final two years of world war two developed the g i bill of rights during the height of the cold war eisenhower saw the internet's interstate system as a way to invest in america kennedy a man on the moon when we were facing down the soviet union at every critical juncture when america was at war a president thought about how to invest in america to turn this country's efforts overseas here at home to make this a stronger and better country this is the first presidential budget that in time of war rather than looking for increases here and how to make america stronger it looks for cuts in america it looks for the areas of education health care veterans and law enforcement to sacrifice while we increase our investments in iraq and afghanistan if you look at the history of every time there's been a period of america's engagement around the world militarily every president has looked to invest here at home to make america stronger this is the first budget that leaves america weaker in a time of military affairs this is what i would say don't do it mr president it's a bad idea there's no need for it there's great danger in doing it america is against it and congress should be united nations is against it the russians the chinese the indians the pakistanis are against it the whole world is against it our allies are against it our enemies are against it the arabs are against it the europeans are against it the muslims are against it we don't need to do this the threat is overblown the plan is overreaction to a problem that does not yet exist hysteria is never a good basis for foreign policy don't we ever learn have we already forgotten iraq the plan defies common sense if it's carried out the middle east and possibly the world will explode oil will soar to over one hundred dollars a barrel and gasoline will be over five dollars a gallon despite what some think it won't serve the interests of israel besides it's illegal it's unconstitutional and mr president you have no moral authority to do it we don't need it we don't want it so mr president don't do it don't bomb iran the moral of the story mr speaker is this if you don't have a nuclear weapon was threatened to attack you if you do have a nuclear weapon we'll leave you alone in fact we'll probably subsidize you what makes us think iran does not understand i would like now to yield to my friend mr jones from north carolina giles north carolina speaker thank you very much and i want to cite mr paul for so many years coming down to the floor to defend the constitution the united states the united states constitution article one section eight calls eleven this and the congress the exclusive power to declare war many of us in the past few days have put in a resolution a resolution fourteen to say that the president should not go into and bomb iran unless he comes to the congress so that the congress can meet its constitutional responsibility james madison said and i quote the power to declare war including the power of judge and the causes of war is fully and it's supposedly vested in the legislature the executives have no right in any case to decide to question whether there is or is not calls for declaring war i want to thank you ron paul for always been a spokesman and a protector of the constitution thank you i don't know if it's a promotion to california or no it is the miller this is speaker the president has isolated himself from all the evidence military advice members of his own party and the american people is not staying the course in iraq the president's making matters even worse by escalating the war he has ordered at least twenty one thousand five hundred more u s soldiers into the middle of a bloody and violent civil war this president has step backward in history he's making the same tragic mistakes of vietnam all over again the president's speeches won't stop a bullet and they won't protect soldiers from the tsunami of violence inundating iraq our soldiers don't have enough equipment or support soldiers know it but the white house ignores it some of the best newspapers and magazines in the nation are reporting the facts and they are not just reporting or repeating the president's spin from the mccla newspapers here's a recent headline soldiers in iraq view troop surge as a lost cause from the san francisco chronicle calmer corners cut in rush to add troops shorter training time lack of equipment hurt readiness experts say and the latest issue of the business magazine business week said military equipment missing in action i ask unanimous consent to enter these stories in the record without objection across america the newspapers are filled with stories and editorials about the tragic consequences of this war and the dread over the president's escalation from the seattle post intelligencer the editorial published yesterday is entitled iraq war advise  consent while the president is acting like he can go it alone the p r i correctly places responsibility on the co equal legislative branch of government congress the p r i wrote and i quote no resolution however can absolve congress of its responsibility to cut off spending on a hopeless occupation it is time for congress to act responsibly by exercising its constitutional responsibility and deny funding of the president's escalation of the iraq war the history of the vietnam war shows us how to deal with the iraq war and i'm prepared to apply the lessons of history in this congress in one thousand nine hundred seventy the mcgovern had feel the man was introduced to stop the president from continuing to escalate the vietnam war it kept funding for troops for a short period of time after which money could be used to bring the troops home and for bringing the the  prisoners old it didn't pass but it began a five year process that ended the war i intend to offer a similar amendment to the first appropriation bill related to iraq that is introduced in this house there should be no do funding for any escalation of this war not one dime because it only leads to more u s casualties resolution in iraq will never come on the bloody streets of baghdad it's time for us to act on behalf of the american people and on behalf of our soldiers they deserve our strong and reserve and reserves port we can provide that by passing an amendment to channel or fund those funds to the immediate redeployment of u s forces out of iraq out of occupation and out of harm's way we have waited far too long to act and our soldiers have paid for our delay with their lives and their limbs i believe it is time for congress to reassure the american people that the president cannot go it alone it is time for congress to put an end to the president's reckless disregard of the truth about iraq those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them the president is doing today exactly what happened in vietnam  wrap themselves in the flag and say we're staying in vietnam because it is not our blood that is being shed but we are responsible for those young men and now young women and their lives and their hopes and if we do not end this  damnable war those young men will someday curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the executive carry the burden that the constitution places on us i believe we must apply the lessons of history and i urge my colleagues i think the speaker and i asked to revise and extend my remarks so you know i'd like to respond to my colleagues who just spoken here on the floor but today i'm here on some happy news so i'll confine my remarks to what i consider to be a real celebrate retore event sunday day before yesterday i sat in the rain was seventy five thousand other americans sharing the indianapolis colts to victory in the super bowl and i want to tell you that there was one of the greatest football games that the i've ever seen and we were very much in favor of the colts as you might imagine and when the kickoff came to the bears and devon hester ran ninety two yards for a touchdown everybody's heart went down to their feet because we thought it was going to be a real letdown for us but peyton manning and the colts came roaring back and won a very convincing victory in the super bowl and after that they had a parade in downtown indianapolis for the colts  eight degree weather can you imagine people going out in eight degree weather to be in a parade i can but the streets were filled by hoosiers who were celebrating the victory and giving tremendous accolades to the colts of the coach and manning and everybody else that made just victory possible i'd like to just make a couple of comments on what happened the colts four hundred thirty yards in that game against the third strongest defense of the national football league peyton manning completed twenty five of thirty eight passes for two hundred forty seven yards and was and was named the most valuable player running dominic rhodes ran for one hundred thirteen yards against that bears defense in a driving rain i might add running back joseph addai received ten passes for sixty six yards and ran the ball for seventy seven more yards in that driving rain and the colts did a tremendous job in defense kevin hayden intercepted one of the chicago quarterbacks passes and ran it back fifty six yards for a colts touchdown and the colts scored in every single quarter in all four playoff games for the first time in playoff history so i'd just like to congratulate tony dungy the coach of the cold one of the most popular people in football and special in indianapolis and we think he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet he's the only third person in cold in only the third person in football history to win a super bowl both as a coach and a player i want to congratulate my friend bill polian the president of the indianapolis colts who put this team together over the past several years and did an outstanding job they were very proud of you and i want to congratulate of all hoosiers we want to say to the internet well scholes you are the world champions and we're very proud of each and every one of you all and one more thing i want to mention the colts defense was maligned throughout the season later in the season they said the co defense was one of the worst in football in the playoff games they took on everybody and held them to very very low yardage and so congratulations to the colts defense as well as our office you did a great job i yield back t minutes was designated the minority leader mr speaker joan on organizing our truth squad and making sure that we are getting the word out about what needs to be gotten out in terms of the issues that are important i think to the american people  are going to talk today about the economy and what's happening with the economy in the united states and i want to talk a little bit about that to begin with until mr price gets here and i probably will recognize my colleague from tennessee who is also here to speak on this issue and ask him if he would share some comments first thing i want to say is our economy is in wonderful wonderful shape  it's the best economy that we've had in this country for many many years now a major reason that the economy is in such great shape is because of the tax cuts of two thousand and one in two thousand and three i was not here when those tax cuts were passed but i'm very pleased that they were passed and that they brought about such a positive economy for this country we have the lowest unemployment rate we've had in fifty years we  have growth in all sectors we have more people owning their homes than have ever owned them before incomes are up and revenues are up and i want to say something about revenues using some information from the heritage foundation tax revenues in two thousand and six for eighteen point four percent of gross domestic product which is above the twenty year forty year and sixty year historical average is the inflation adjusted joining percent tax revenue increase between two thousand and four and two thousand and six represents the largest two year revenue surge since nine hundred sixty five nine sixty seven there's a myth out there that tax revenues are low tax revenues are actually above the historical average even the after the tax cuts we know that tax cuts are good for this economy they're always good for the economy the more money that we leave in the hands and the pockets of our taxpayers the better off we are when the government appropriates that money and spends it the government is very inefficient in its spending of that money and that does not grow the economy contrary to what many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would like to say we're going to talk again more and more about the economy and and the fact that it's been very good shape and very unfortunate that the economy doesn't get the positive press that the economy has gotten under democratic president when in back most of the time the results of the good economy are coming from a republican congress which knows how to do things in terms of growing the economy i'd like to recognize now my colleague from tennessee  who is here to make a presentation on this issue also i know that he will bring some enlightened points to the discussion mrs fox appreciate your leadership and your friendship just across the mountain in north carolina from tennessee and thank you mr speaker for allowing me to speak today it is an interesting time in america things are going well in the economy it's going well because americans are working hard up in an era of politics looking back at ronald reagan which was a great president and as we all know is birthdays today you go back ninety six years ago his  was the date of his birth and one of his quotes was we don't have a trillion dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough we have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much and i think that's a good starting point and as we look towards our economy and how we run this congress and how we work for the people across america revenues are coming in at a record pace and if we continue the pace that we're at now we will actually be able to balance our budget by the year two thousand and twelve without raising taxes and i think that's exactly what the american people would like to see i think they want to hold the line on spending i think they want to progress economy and they want good say on financial policy if you look at the congressional budget office c b o which is nonpartizan it confirmed just last week the tax cuts of two thousand and three as helped boost our federal revenues by sixty eight percent that's good news and there's other signals that keeping taxes low couple of physical restraint economic growth help move us forward and help us balance our budget and we can do that in take care of that deficit that we have if you look at some other statistics that there are vitally important our economy has grown for twenty one straight quarters that's rather impressive and in the period between two thousand and four two thousand and six federal tax revenues rose the largest north nearly forty years not because we had raised taxes but because we had lowered taxes in addition to that the deficit has been cut in half two years earlier or ahead of schedule that's good news for americans i think that's the type of leadership that america is looking for if you look the way you balance a budget like a small business does back in east tennessee or a family sitting around the kitchen table and they have a small budget that their budgets tat they're trying to decide what they need to do they have to decide do you cut but you span or do you bring in additional revenue and most people understand as i said around the kitchen table you have to hold the line on spending you can't spend more than you make unlike government and i'm excited about a good starting point that we see from the president in his budget calls  making the two thousand and one two thousand and sat two thousand and three tax relief provisions permanent i think that exactly what the american people want and if we do that the administration projects total revenue to grow an average of five point four percent  year the way we maintain this healthy economy that we have today is keep tax cuts permanent that's what the american people want to see we really have a simple choice mr speaker we have the choice between a bigger economy or bigger government and i really believe if we look forward what the american people want is us to hold the line on spending hold the line on increasing of taxes and allow the economy to work the way it's worked in the past and the way it's working today we also need to work very hard to make sure that we hold the line not only on spending but we need to take a good strong look and a bipartisan way reducing earmarks i think we need to pass the line item veto and if we do that it will allow the president to have better control of how tax dollars are spent i would also like to see a biennial budget process where we can actually sit back and let this house and this congress take a breathing period from every other year and to find out if what we're doing works and back in tennessee as a state legislator out when i was a state representative for eight years we had a balanced budget amendment in our constitution we couldn't spend more than we brought in and i signed on as a co sponsor to h j resolution number one house joint resolution number one which calls for a balanced budget amendment right here at the federal level i think that's exactly what the american people are looking for and again going back to what ronald reagan had to say just to reiterate president reagan said we don't have a tree and dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough we have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much and if we can remember that in this body and over in the senate we pass a good balanced budget that will take care of the deficit without raising taxes and i think the american people will be very pleased with that i the remainder of my time i thank mr davis gentleman from tennessee for his remarks and i appreciate his being involved and sharing some information with us that so important this is his first term and he's done a wonder well job and he is my neighbor to the west to his district in tennessee joins the fifth district in north carolina and we both live in a wonderful wonderful place and every time somebody speaks to me about where i live they say oh what a beautiful place you live in and i feel that way about it and i want to say that it's a great honor to serve in congress but i can tell you that my feet are planted very firmly on the ground in the fifth district of north carolina and i don't ever forget where i came from and the people that i represent i want to talk a little bit on this issue about the economy that mr price set up today for the truth squad and i know he's going to be here probably very shortly and when he does i'm going to yield back to the chair and hope that the chair will recognize him so that he can continue this discussion but i want to talk a little bit today about the economy and  ious situation that we're facing here and the congress as it deals with unions i have come to the floor several times in this session and talked about what i consider th going on in this congress by the majority party we are having black called white white called black in terms of pieces of things on the paper  is it is astonishing to me the hypocrisy that's going on and i think there's probably no more piece of hypocrisy greater piece of a poc receive than this so called employee free choice act which has been introduced by the democrats and it deals with the ability for unions to twist people's arms to get them into unions the unions have been steadily losing ground in this country for many many years i my understanding is that they percentage a number of us workers are belong to unions decline began in two thousand and six after having stabilize a little bit in two thousand and from eighteen percent in two thousand and one there is a steady erosion in the percentage of construction workers represented by unions in the past twenty three years and what's happening is because the unions are losing membership they want to take away the secret ballot i'm going to enter into the record today several different pieces which i have in front of me that i'm quoting from i'm quoting going to quote from a wall street journal article of february second and from some other information which i'll enter into the record but i want to read the beginning of this article from the wall street journal because i think it is it is so it says why is the new congress in such a hurry to take away workers right to vote question mark it seems extraordinary but the so called employee free choice act is right there near the top of the democrats agenda this legislation replaces government sponsored secret ballot elections for union representation with a public card signing system one of the reasons that union membership is down so much in this country is because of the abuses of the unions and also because our economy is so good and again i think that representative price is going to talk more about the economy i mentioned earlier that it's the best that it's ever been in terms of wages in terms of income and white use and homeownership and the burden that we place on the american people from the government but we don't people don't need to join unions like they needed to one hundred  twenty five years ago or so we did have abuses in this country by employers and i'm very sorry about that but those abuses don't go on anymore and people are finding out they don't have to belong to unions but the democrats who are so beholden to unions want to take away the right of a secret ballot which is so fundamental to us in this country and which they argue for on this floor for voters and they want to take it away from union members or people who are thinking about forming a union and i again want to make some quotes because this article is so excellent most important it's totally unreasonable to deny all one hundred forty million american workers the right to a secret ballot election because some employers break the law yes occasionally somebody may not do what they're supposed to do not only is such a remedy disproportionate it's counterproductive if one's goal is worker empowerment how can a worker be better off if both his employer and his prospective union boss know his views on the union when the secret ballot is replaced with a public card signing for the worker is the ultimate example of being caught between a rock and a hard place and mr edwards who's running for president has said that you should be able to if you can join the republican party you should be able to join a union boss employee signing a card but mr edwards analogy is a very false one because signing a card to join the republican party does not oblige you to vote for the republican ticket in a secret ballot election and i quote again from the article from the wall street journal the employees choice act would take care of that by abolishing such elections if the average principle was applied to the political process in the twenty eight non right to work states karl rove and republican party organizers could force all democrats and independents to become republicans and pay dues to the party if a majority of voters sondra public and cards that free choice the final proof that this bill is about union power and not work or choice is revealed treatment of the flip side of unionization decertification elections these are secret ballot elections in which workers get to decide that they've had enough of the union under the employee free choice jenna majority of workers decertify the union boss awning accord not on your life here unions want the chance to engage in a campaign to give workers both sides of the story and maybe do a better job of representing them before the union is decided by a secret ballot but again the hub pocker see is absolutely mind boggling and it's just one more example we have bills called one thing and they do another  it just goes on and on and on but i think it's very important that we point out this particular poc recy because the title of this bill the employee free choice act is i think particularly egregious in this leader thank you mr speaker i appreciate the opportunity to come to the floor again today appreciate the confidence of my leadership and allow me to organize this hour and come chat a little bit with our members  forty five minutes thank you the official truth squad is a group of individuals who try to come to the floor on this side of the aisle least once a week in an effort to to bring some some truth and some facts to the items that we talk about on this floor i know it won't surprise you mr speaker but oftentimes some of the things that we hear on this floor aren't necessarily the truth and so what we try to do is to point out items that are of importance in terms of information to the american people and how we on this floor ought to be making decisions on their behalf and so doing we have a number of of individuals we'd like to point to as kind of leaders in the public arena both present and past who have had as one of their hallmarks making certain that they that they discussed truth and made certain that they use facts in developing their their positions one of my favorite quotes comes from senator daniel patrick moynihan former united states senator from from new york and he had a quote that said everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts everyone's entitled their own opinion but not their own facts not it gets incredibly important as we talk about this issue that we're discussing today the economy and budget and it issues that relate to how washington spends hard earned taxpayer money one of the most important facts is to remember that it's the taxpayers money it's not the government's and there are many people who are here in washington who believe that somehow just by some miraculous nature when when the money is sent to washington that somehow becomes the government's money well mr speaker i suspect i would hope you would agree with me that in fact that is the taxpayers money and we need to spend it very very wisely i have one of the the other relative issues that i think has seen a lot of naysayers and a lot of misinformation is the state of our economy right now and if you if you ask folks most people across this nation will say that their own economic situation is pretty good pretty good and they feel pretty good about the future if you friends on the other side of the aisle of been been down talk in this economy for years literally years and so i was curious that over the weekend the wall street journal had an editorial that day and titled the current depression and they use depression in quotes because if you really look at the numbers if you look at the facts mr speaker they kind of belie the naysayers and what they've been saying hundred ten thousand new jobs in january forty one straight months of job growth in this nation the average job growth in two thousand and six was a hundred and eighty seven thousand jobs two point two million new jobs in two thousand and six and seven point four million new jobs in since two thousand and three seven point four million new jobs since two thousand and three when you compare this expansion to the expansion that all sorts of folks talk about as being the be all and the end all and that is was the expansion of the ninety's when you compare this expansion it is the expansion that we're currently in the economic success that we're currently in is better when you look at many many parameters unemployment for example the first six years of the ninety's one hundred ninety one thr six had an average unemployment rate of six point four percent the average unemployment rate for the first six years so this decade five point four percent and as you know mr speaker right now that average that unemployment rate is a four point six percent and the last time i looked if the unemployment rate is four point six percent it means that ninety five point four percent of folks are working real wage growth our friends on the other side of the aisle often talk about well the this is this is a  recovery an economy that isn't resulting in real jobs the wage growth isn't occurring there people's wages aren't increasing well you compare it to the vaulted years of the early one nine hundred ninety s real wage growth for those first six years averaged point six percent per year increase two thousand and one through two thousand and six real wage growth in this nation up one point five percent and last year it was one point seven percent increase and that's accounting for inflation accounting for inflation mr speaker one might want to ask given the success of the current economy well how did that happen what happened how did that occur how how are we seeing the kinds of results in the economy the good news in the economy that we're currently seeing and i'm fond of using charts because i think that they paint a picture that's oftentimes at least for me easier to comprehend and easier to get my arms around this is a chart that runs from two thousand through two thousand and six and we're going to update the numbers for this most recent quarter but what what it shows here on this vertical line this this dot a green vertical line is when we began this remarkable expansion and what occurred  that at that point was you guessed it mr speaker appropriate tax reductions for the american people so when you decrease taxes what happens is that the blue line you get more jobs the red line you get increasing business investment and lo and behold something that president can it he knew and president reagan knew when you decrease taxes which occurred at the nadir of this graph here what happens is that you increase government revenue it sounds counterintuitive but in fact it is that if you decrease taxes if you allow individuals to have more of their hard earned money what happens is that the economy grows and because of that tax revenues go grows to the federal government that individual who is joining us today for this edition of the official truth squad individual who is a new member of our conference from california who knows a lot about taxes and a lot about the issue of taxes and how they affect us on a daily basis i'm pleased to ask my friend kevin mccarthy from california to join us and give us some insight into exactly where those taxes come from and  often were tax i think that's a kind of truth in fact you'd like to bring to us today well i think the gentleman for yielding some time i do come from california and i am a new member and i guess it's only fitting we're talking about how letting people keep their hard earned money how jobs grow revenue grows and individuals can spend the money on what they desire like putting their kids to college but we're very remiss if we didn't miss this day because i think it's rather ironic today is the ninety sixth birthday ronald reagan and nobody finer than the talked about taxes and talked about which way they went and president ronald reagan was actually governor of california at one time that's where i come from prior to serving in this house i served in the state assembly and when i got elected to the state assembly we had a thirty six billion dollar deficit the much like the other side of the aisle here the other side of the aisle there their answer was to raise taxes we sat down the republicans and crafted a bill that actually proposed a budget that didn't raise taxes they gave incentives that let people keep more of what they are and we've seen revenues continue to grow we are now about out of our deficit which was fundamentally the biggest one they've ever had and it's continued to move forward that we were able to bring more revenues in but i want to put forth really what the graphs you've been talking about put it into everyday life put it into where people understand it where you saw that graph continue to take off that is when the tax cut happen now what does that mean to the millions of americans well more than a hundred million americans have now had more than twenty two hundred dollars of tax relief that may not sound like a lot of money to washington where they spend trillions of dollars but that's a hundred and eighty dollars a month you know what that means that means daycare that means you can take your kids maybe to disneyland that means you can go and invest for your kid's college future that's what it means when you send more than one trillion dollars back to the taxpayers that actually are in the money now to put it in a much broader perspective where a person can understand day to day life i always like to see what i did today and what did it mean about taxes and what did it take out of my pocket on my money when i woke up this morning i took a shower you know what i paid tax on that water when i got out a friend of mine needed a cup of coffee about a cup of coffee i paid a tax on that we had to stop at the gas station put gas in the car we paid a tax there when we got to work most americans work the first three hours just paying the taxes before they are in any money when i go home i'm going to turn on the t v hopefully i made c span i'm going to pay a cable tax just to watch the government work then when i go on somebody's going to have to travel for their work they are going to buy an airline ticket going to pay a tax on a ticket they're going to rent a car they going to pay a tax on the car they go check into the hotel we're going to pay an occupancy tax and god forbid if the other side of the aisle gets their ways and we are successful individuals earning money the death tax is going to come back we are taxed from the morning we wake up to take a shower for the night we go to sleep it's tax tax tax and i'm here to say just like ronald reagan said we don't have a tax issue when it comes to that we have a spending problem the news are coming in and coming in very strong so what i would proclaim and what i would like to see happen is that we actually reform that we can compete i will tell you i have two small kids connor and megan who are just twelve and ten and every day i call home when i'm back here and we talk about their education we talk about if they've done their homework because i'm not concerned with my kids from bakersfield california competing with kids from sacramento california or even competing with kids from georgia you know i'm concerned with my children competing with when they grow up kids from china and india and we need a system that allows us to be competitive we need a tax system that creates jobs we have tax system that creates entrepreneurs and the way we do that is what taxpayers keep more of what they are that's why i applaud you today for your truth i applaud you for going down and doing this work and i yield back the balance of my time thank the gentleman for coming and joining us today and helping out and and bringing truth and facts to to the issue of the economy and especially taxation because oftentimes people don't think about the times that they do indeed pay tax  am i try to visit as many schools as i can in my district back in georgia and when i'm in front of student groups oftentimes ask them not do you pay any tax and of course most often you hear that they all know we don't pay any tax are our parents pay some tax but we don't pay any tax then yes when you buy a pack of gum you paid for any of your shoes lately you bought any food anything that you buy anything that you buy has has taxes on it so any consumable product whatsoever has taxes on it so everybody contributes into it and when individuals are able to keep more of their own money what happens is that the economy is able to flourish to a much greater degree so i appreciate the information that you brought about about taxes i also want to point out that you mentioned that  friends on the other side of the aisle seem to be moving in the direction of allowing that to appropriate tax reductions that resulted in this success allow those tax reductions to go away which means that tax increase for the vast  majority of americans all across this nation and if they do what they have basically said they're planning on doing and that is allow those tax reductions to expire allow taxes to go up the marginal tax rate that is the rate the percentage of income that each and every american pays to government to run the services will be over fifty percent for the first time since the late seventy's and mr speaker some of our members may not remember the late seventy's but i remember it and i know that my good friends here remember it and that is that we had something called the misery index it was the last time that inflation and unemployment work were just skyrocketing both of them because of poor programs of the federal government and so i fear that what will happen if our good friends on the other side of the aisle get their way is that we will revisit the misery index and so we're we're here to try to bring truth and fact and a light to the issue of the economy and taxation in the budget i'm so pleased to be joined by my good friend from tennessee congresswoman marsha blackburn who understands business understands the economy and budgetary issues as well or better than the vast majority of folks  this chamber and i look forward to your comments today as we talk about budget economy and taxes and i thank the gentleman from georgia and i was so pleased that the gentleman from california mentioned ronald reagan in his first day and brought  up that government does not have a revenue problem government has a spending problem this is something that we all know and we all realize and certainly because of the tax reductions that were put in place in the gentleman from georgia showed us the chart revenues for the federal government because when those rights of taxation go down we know that revenues to the government go up you know i was listening to the gentleman from california and i recalled a conversation with one of my constituents this weekend anything came i came to me and he said marcia look at this here in the paper it was a note that on february third in one thing thirteen is when the federal income tax went into place and so here we are at the time when that is being remembered and feb third nineteen thirty one percent temporary tax only on the wealthiest went into place to pay for a war and look at what we've got now the i r s that is big and is bloated and cumbersome and it wants more and more and more of a government that wants more and more and more of the dollars that the taxpayer earned and you know it is like another saying that ronald reagan asked there is the closest thing to eternal why on earth is a federal government program nineteen thirteen a tax was put in place to pay for war to fund a defense effort and today it is bigger than ever and is still in place so how appropriate that we come this week and we talk about the budget and we talk about what the president is bringing forth and we talk about the tax code and the changes that should be made and the changes that all to be made and the steps that we should be taking to be certain that the american people retain more of their paycheck it's an important thing to do you know i want to as i was looking through the president's budget that he  is offering forth this week one of the things that caught my eye and that i was pleased to see is that he is recommending the elimination of one hundred forty one programs that maybe have outlived their usefulness that need to be revisited that's the duties could be shuffled to another one that could be merged with another program so that services are delivered more effectively and more efficiently i was very pleased to see that because as a said earlier we know that there is a spending problem in washington d c we have had our focus on addressing that and what we want to do is reduce that spending a lemonade programs that have outlived their usefulness and make certain that we do not raise taxes it is important that we move forward balancing the budget it is important that we get the fiscal house in order it imperative that we do it without raising taxes so i'm looking forward to working to make certain that we focus on waste fraud and abuse working to make a certain mr speaker that we our women ate those programs and mr speaker working to make certain that we keep the commitment to the american people that their tax bill is not going to go up that their tax bill is going to be growing d'eon i thank the gentleman from georgia for yielding and i yell back the balance of one time i thank you so much for joining us again today and bringing light and truth to an issue that is so remarkably important because it's good to the bottom line for each and every american and each and every american family you know what we do at home when we have discussions about our family budget is that we determine how much money we have dishpan and then we determine what our priorities are and depending on what those priorities are that's how we allocate money and we try to make certain that we set aside some some savings as well for a rainy day for a difficult time  that ought to be what the federal government does as you well know but sadly that appears to be not the plan of the new majority here and so it's important that we talk about family budgets about how family budgets ought a parallel federal budgets government budgets not be placed yield if you have a comment thanks to georgia one of my constituents this week was talking about this very issue and he was very concerned he'd been reading some of the oney and his point to me and his was the time has come to achieve greater efficiencies every one of our constituents can go through their district any number of federal agencies state agencies local agencies that are wasting taxpayer money they know they can't do that in their family budget they know they can't do that in their small budget and it is we have said time and again this is the hold on to your wallet congress they are determined to get more of the taxpayer money and we are going to stand solid with the taxpayers to make certain that we help protect those pocketbooks and i yelled back i thank the gentleman her comments again  has a balanced budget because they can't do what washington does and that is print money and so having served in the state legislature we would spend days and weeks and months some time dealing with the the hard earned taxpayer money again not government money but harder and taxpayer money and make certain that that our budget was balanced at the state level back in washington that i'm distressed to say that isn't exactly what occurs i'm a strong supporter of a of a  balanced budget and what you will see on some charts and information that we currently have is that the tax policies that have been put in place and the program changes that have been put in place something that's all that isn't well known is th the non defense discretionary money which is about sixteen to seventeen percent of our overall budget right now has been actually decreasing as it relates to inflation so congress has been trying hard diligently to try to make certain that it rains in  in spending because lord knows we don't have a revenue problem got a spending problem but if you if you track out the budget itself and this is with the congressional budget office numbers they aren't the kind of numbers that i think demonstrate the  the the upside that we receive from tax reductions but in any event what they do show is that at about two thousand and eleven the budget is balanced the budget balance and that's if we keep our current programs in place now we can get to that point a lot sooner if we get more responsible on the spending side now my good friends on the other the other side of the i will tell you well we're going to balance the budget too and they  they and they could do that if they just left things alone would get to a balanced budget but what they will tell you is that we need to spend more in other areas and so we need to tax americans more and we're going to balance the budget yes but we're going to do it by taxing the american people more and i would suggest mr speaker that that is not the way in which we need to move forward we'll talk about some other revenue items and some other aspects of a balanced budget but i want to address what has been termed by many myths ten twelve number of myths about the bush tax reductions president bush's tax reductions and these are the tax reductions appropriate tax reductions that are good friends on the other side of the aisle say they have to and they have to increase taxes on the american people the democrat majority has to write a budget now they have to write a budget each year the majority party has to write a budget in the house has to pass a budget and the new majority the democrat majority has three options in that budget as to how they're going to deal with these appropriate tax reductions that were put in place earlier in this decade they can extend them they can continue that appropriate tax reduction something that i and the vast majority of folks on on our side they believe ought to occur they could allow them to expire virtually all of them are slated to expire and eleven so if no action is taken then the other side will in fact increase taxes or they can repeal them they could increase taxes right away so they have the responsibility of determining exactly what they are going to do with those tax appropriate tax reductions now there are a number of myths that have grown up around these tax reductions that i'd like to like to highlight one is that the the tax reductions themselves or the tax revenues themselves remain low in fact in mr speaker as i had on a previous chart shown now the tax revenues are above the historical average even after these appropriate tax reductions tax reductions in two thousand and six were at about eighteen point four percent of the gross domestic product which is actually above the twenty year forty year and the sixty year historical average is now the inflation adjusted twenty percent tax revenue increase increase between two thousand and four and two thousand and six represent the largest two year surge in tax revenue since nine hundred sixty five in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven let me repeat that mr speaker the revenue to the federal government increased twenty percent over a two year period between two thousand and four and two thousand and six which is the largest increase in revenue to the federal government since hundred sixty five and one nine hundred sixty seven so claims that american and the american people are undertaxed according to history are simply patently false absolutely  it's important to remember that tax revenues are up because of a decrease in taxes decrease in liability to the american people when you compare the tax revenues in the fourth fiscal year after each of the past recessions it shows that the tax revenues were basically the same so in one thousand nine hundred seven tax revenues were eight by eighteen point four percent of gross domestic product one hundred ninety five eighteen point five percent and two thousand and six eighteen point four percent all of that is to say mr speaker that when you decrease taxes the revenue that comes into the federal government stays about the same as a percentage of the overall economy but it's you decrease the numbers for each and every american and because the economy is increasing and the revenue increases to the to the federal government so tax reductions are good for the government actions are good for the american people the second myth that i want to talk about and discuss as it relates to approach the appropriate tax reductions that were adopted by this congress back in two thousand and one and in two thousand and three  the myth that's out there is that these tax reductions substantially reduced two thousand and six revenues and expanded the budget deficit well the fact of the matter mr speaker is that nearly all of the two thousand and six budget deficit resulted from additional spending above the baseline not the first to tell you mr speaker that that the federal government washington has been spending too much money too much  hard earned taxpayer money that being said i think it's important that our friends on the other side of the aisle who say that they want to balance the budget do so by doing the responsible thing and that is decreasing spending and not increasing taxes from the first place if you if you increase taxes what you do is over the long term you get less revenue to the federal government but in terms of that budget deficit what you see is that  that you will decrease the deficit more rapidly by decreasing taxes and by decreasing spending that critics higher tirelessly contend that america's swing from budget surpluses in one nine hundred ninety eight through two thousand and one to a two hundred forty seven billion dollars budget deficit in two thousand and six result that chiefly from what they call quote irresponsible unquote tax reductions this argument however ignores the historic spending increases that pushed federal spending up from eighteen point five percent of g d p in two thousand and one to twenty eight point two percent of spending in two thousand and six furthermore tax revenues in two thousand are actually above the levels projected we've talked about that before they were above the levels that were projected before the two thousand and three tax cuts and immediately before the two thousand and three tax cuts the congressional budget office for projected the two thousand and six budget deficit would be fifty seven billion dollars yet the final two thousand and six budget deficit was two hundred and forty seven billion dollars now one hundred ninety billion dollars deficit increase resulted from federal spending resulted from federal spending that was two hundred thirty seven billion dollars more than projected so revenues were actually forty seven billion dollars of above projections even after the seventy five billion dollars in tax cuts that the other side says hurt hurt the bottom line and hurt deficits so these myths i think are important to correct to point out the factual nature of what's going on as opposed to just gonna fly and by the seat of your pants which is not the way poll folks do their family budget and mr speaker certainly ought not be the way that we do our federal budget the next myth i want to talk about is that capital gains taxes tax cuts do not pay for themselves there's kind of this sense that folks say well if you keep capital gains low those are the taxes that people pay the profits that they made on an investment if you keep those taxes low i'm in favor of doing away with with them all together but if you keep them low what happens is that you don't get the same amount of revenue into the federal government well mr speaker the fact of the matter is that capital gains tax revenues double double following the two thousand and three tax cut here that mr speaker capital gains to tax revenues doubled following the two thousand and three tax cut now whether a tax cut pays for itself depends on how much people alter their behavior in response to that policy and investors have shown to be the most sensitive to tax policy because capital gains tax cuts encourage new investment to more than offset the lower tax rate and this this chart here is is a demonstration of exactly that what we see here mr speaker is a chart that shows capital gains tax revenues that doubled following the two thousand and three tax cuts the yellow line here the projected from two thousand and three through two thousand and six the yellow line demonstrates what the congressional budget office said would be the taxes gained from capital gains revenue a tax revenue the blue line which you see mr speaker is significantly higher than that are the actual revenues that came into the federal government following the two thousand and three capital gains tax reduction so in two thousand and three capital gains tax rates were reduced from twenty percent to ten percent depending on income to fifteen percent and five percent now rather than expanded by thirty six percent from the current fifty billion dollars level to sixty eight billion dollars in two thousand and six as the c b o projected capital gains revenue more than doubled to a hundred and three billion dollars one hundred three billion dollars more than twice what was projected pass capital gains cuts have shown similar results as well so again mr speaker the fact of the matter is remember you can have your own opinions as you walk through this discussion of the economy and of tax policy and of budget policy but it's important and that we look at facts so that we are making appropriate decisions here on behalf of the american people and the fact of the matter is that when you decrease capital gains taxes you increase investment in america and you increase the revenue to the federal government which is demonstrated clearly by this chart that we see right here myth that i want to talk about mr speaker is a myth that says that the the tax reductions are to blame for the long term budget deficits in fact that isn't true at all projections show that entitlement or automatic spending automatic costs will dwarf the projected large revenue increases of the current tax reductions so mr speaker you remember the the the graph that i had up here had revenue to the federal government increasing because of the appropriate reductions in taxes to the american people however those increases will all be eaten up by automatic spending that occurs here in washington and the some of the some folks call these programs entitlement programs they're primarily medicare medicaid and social security these are the automatic programs where the spending continues to increase based upon a formula i've got a chart that i'd like to share with you mr speaker that demonstrates clearly the challenge and the problem that confronts not just those of us representing americans but all of america these are three pie charts that demonstrate the mandatory or automatic spending that occurs primarily again in medicare medicaid and social security is one nine hundred ninety five those programs comprised approximately half of the federal budget forty eight point seven percent of the federal budget now the percent of the federal budget that was utilized at that time for interest on the debt was fifteen point three percent of a point much gray and then current and that discretionary spending where we have all of the federal programs that people think about in terms of transportation national park programs all of those kinds of things in addition to defense that portion in one nine hundred ninety five was thirty six percent now again mr speaker about forty eight point seven percent was the mandatory portion of  budget in two thousand and five just two years ago that portion had grown from forty eight point seven percent to fifty three point four percent again medicare medicaid social security automatic spending increases over a period of time with those three specific programs if you track out to two thousand and sixteen you get to sixty three point nine percent of the federal budget so those are the automatic programs that are in place the automatic spending programs that are in place this is clearly clearly unsustainable spending of the anti or g d p is as kind of hovered around twenty percent for the past half century however with the retirement of the baby boomers this is the first year the baby boomers will begin to receive social security social security medicare and medicaid will see significant increase in the amount of revenue projected to increase over ten point five percent over the next ten years so what you see mr speaker is an increase to sixty three point nine percent by twenty sixteen now clearly clearly these french style spending increases not tax policy are the problem and washington lawmakers all of us all of us have a responsibility and should focus on getting these entitlements under control as opposed to raising taxes on the american people which not only won't work and may be good bumper sticker politics but they won't work to solve the problem says hard work hard work significant challenges that confront all of us next myth i'd like to address very briefly mr speaker is that raising tax rates is the best way to raise revenue there's kind of this general belief on the other side of the aisle that all you have to do to get more money is to raise more taxes while as you know mr speaker tax revenues themselves correlate with economic growth not with tax rates so that as the government increases its revenue as the economy grows many of those who desire additional tax revenues regularly call on congress to raise taxes but tax revenues are a function basically of two variables one is tax rates and two is the tax base since nine hundred fifty two the highest marginal income tax rate has dropped from ninety two percent to thirty five percent drop from ninety two percent to thirty five percent at that same time tax revenues have grown in inflation adjusted a term terms while remaining basically a constant percent of g d p there's basically a perfect correlation between those two so mr speaker i think it's in it it's exceedingly important for all of us here and the american people to realize and appreciate that raising taxes doesn't raise tax revenues in fact as we saw from the previous charts it is decreasing taxes that increase tax revenues one other myth that i'd like to talk about very briefly is that there's this myth that reversing the upper income tax reductions the upper income tax cuts would raise substantial revenues in fact mr speaker the low income tax cuts reduced reduced tax revenue more than the high income tax reductions and i've got a char that will show that as well and this this chart oftentimes comes as a real eye opener for the american people and for so many of my colleagues here as a matter of fact mrs baker this chart shows the share of individual income taxes that are paid by different portions of our society and i would like to just point to the last two bars the last two bar graphs down there this one the larger one that demonstrates that over ninety six percent of all tax revenue comes from folks in the upper half of the income bracket of this nation and that the bottom fifty percent the lower fifty percent spend less than four percent of their pay less than four percent of the tax revenue that comes into the united states now that's important because if you if you try to concentrate on just the middle income folks in fact you won't generate the kind of money that you're talking about or or that you need and you also will significantly significantly depress the economy so again it's important to talk about facts it's important to talk about truth as we talk about making certain that we have the right policy here at the federal government and mr speaker the bush that there's a myth out there the that these reductions tax reductions haven't helped the economy in fact the economy has responded to the two thousand and three tax reductions in remarkable ways as we've already pointed out g d p grew at an annual rate of just one point seven percent in the six quarters before the tax reductions six quarters of follow the tax reductions it grew at four point one percent one point seven percent before four point one percent afterward it's speaker that's a fact nonresidential fixed investment declined for thirteen consecutive quarters before the two thousand and three tax reductions since then it's expanded for fourteen consecutive quarters down thirteen quarters  before fourteen quarters afterward mr speaker that's a fact not an opinion the standard poor's five hundred dropped eighteen percent in the six quarters before the two thousand and three tax cuts after increase thirty two percent over the next six quarters before down eighteen percent after thirty two percent that's a fact mr speaker not an opinion the economy six quarters before the two thousand and three tax cuts lost two hundred sixty seven thousand jobs in the six quarters after increased three hundred seven thousand jobs and as you well know mr speaker since then we have burgeoned by having seven point three million new jobs since since the middle of two thousand and three  speaker what we've tried to do today is try to bring the american people some truth some facts as we talk about the budget that will have to be laid out here over the next month to six weeks pointing out the remarkable fallacy of so many of the arguments that are used on the floor of this house to say that well we just got to raise taxes you have heard from some of the presidential candidates out there on the stump say we just got to raise taxes in fact some of my good friends on the other side of the aisle say just that no nothing we can do except raise taxes but mr speaker you know and i know that the truth of the matter is that when you look at how the economy operates how the federal government gains revenue that in fact decreasing taxes maintaining the appropriate tax reductions allowing the american people keep more of their hard earned money is exactly what it is the prescription that  is necessary for america and for the economy to continue to flourish so i look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle look forward to a spirited debate i think the question really is when you get right down to it the question becomes who ought to decide who should decide how the american people spend their hard earned money should it be the government should it be more government programs were governments of whatever area of the of the you want to talk about is it the federal government and state governments that ought to be making those decisions or should it be as so many of my friends on on this side of the i believe in that is that those decisions are better left to individual americans they make better decisions about what to do with their hard earned money when they're allowed to keep their hard earned money and not not have it rolled into the federal government as tax revenues so much speaker i'm pleased to be able to provide it hopefully a bit of light that bit of truth  republican majority leader said he felt really bad about voting to go to war in iraq mr armey said quote had i been more true to myself and the principles i believed in at the time i would have openly oppose the whole adventure vocally unquote it takes a big man to admit something like that chris matthews on m s n b c on election that said quote the decision to go to war in iraq was not a conservative decision historically and he said the president asked republicans quote to behave a different people than they intrinsically are in two thousand and four william f buckley jr often called the godfather of conservatism wrote that if he knew in two thousand and two what he knew about two thousand and four he would have opposed going to war in iraq today the oversight and government reform committee held a hearing on the subject of waste fraud and abuse and i read a couple of years ago the same committee then under republican leadership held a similar here david walker now head of the g a o but then inspector general of the defense bartman testified at that time that thirty five billion dollars had been lost in iraq due to waste fraud and abuse another nine billion had just been lost and could not be accounted for at all i heard a talk by charlie cook the very respected political analyst who said people really could not comprehend anything over one billion forty four billion is an awful lot of money in anybody's book a foreign service officer told me last year a few months after he had left iraq that he sometimes they're filled with cash with barely enough room for the driver conservatives have traditionally been the strongest opponents and biggest critics of federal waste fraud and abuse conservatives have traditionally been the strongest opponents and biggest critics of wasteful lavish and ridiculous federal contract conservatives especially fiscal conservatives should not feel any obligation to defend wasteful spending or lavish federal contracts just because they are taking place in the january fifteenth issue of the american conservative magazine wrote this he said many quote many conservatives who regularly graph about the federal government's ineffective and inefficient use of taxpayer dollars give the pentagon a free ride on their problem spending habits conservatives admire respect and appreciate the people in the military as much or more than anyone conservatives believe national defense is one of the few legitimate functions of the federal government and one of its most important however this does not mean we should just routinely give the pentagon everything it wants our turn a blind eye to waste in the defense department the defense department is a gigantic bureaucracy in fact the biggest city in the world it has the same problems and inefficiencies of any bureaucracy and conservatives especially fiscal conservatives should not give a free ride to waste fraud and abuse just because it is done by the defense department canning our regular defense broke plus emergency and mental appropriations bills plus the military construction appropriations bill plus the end of the year out of misappropriations bills we spend more on defense than all the other nations of the world combined and yet the military like all other bureaucracies always wants more money well at some point we're going to have to decide do we want national defense for our own people are we going to be the policemen of the world and provide international defense for all countries that claim to be our allies with a national debt of almost trillion dollars an unfunded future pension liabilities of many trillions more i believe it is both an affordable and then constitutional for us to try to be the policemen of the world we will soon not be able to pay social security and veterans pensions with money that means anything and all the other things the federal government is doing if we try to maintain an empire around the world conservatives have traditionally been the biggest critics of interventionist foreign policies because they create so much resentment for us around the world finally mr speaker conservatives have traditionally been the biggest critics of nation building as president bush was when he as president bush was when he ran for the white house in two gentleman from arkansas mr ross is recognized to sixty minutes as the designee of the majority leader thank you mister speaker this afternoon arise on behalf of the forty four member strong physically conservative democratic blue dog coalition as we demand from this government fiscal accountability as well as fiscal responsibility mr speaker as you walk the halls of congress it is easy to know when you're walking by the door of a fellow fiscally conservative democratic blue dog coalition member because you will see this poster as a welcome mat through his or her office to remind members of congress to remind you mr speaker to remind me and remind the american people and all those who walk the halls of congress that the u s national debt today is eight trillion six hundred ninety six billion four hundred fourteen million two hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy seven dollars and we ran out of room but if we had the room we would tell you sixty five cents for every man woman and child in america their share our share my share of the national debt is twenty eight thousand nine hundred dollars and ninety two cents that's a big number a lot of people think well it really doesn't matter what the debt is our government can simply print more money and wish it was that simple our nation today is spending the first half a billion dollars it collects in taxes not to improve veterans health care to protect our troops to build roads to fund health care to protect social security and medicare to ensure the forty seven million folks without health insurance have access to it no the first half a billion dollars that we collect every day in taxes from the hardworking people in this country go to simply pay interest not principle but enter it on this number the national debt and those are what should be america's priorities will continue to go unmet until we get our nation's fiscal house in order so this is something that affects every man woman and child in america we have a plan a twelve point plan for budget reform to ensure that we can live within our means that we can pay down this debt and restore fiscal discipline and common sense to our government one of those twelve points by the way mr speaker is what we refer to as pay go rules which means pay as you go and i'm real proud that the leadership of this democratic caucus in the first twenty four hours not one hundred hours but the first twenty four hours the democratic leadership re instituted the paygo rules on the floor of the house which means quite simply if you want to fund the new program you've got to show us where the money is coming from now the republicans tend to think that that means that to fund your programs you raise taxes and i find it quite interesting that the republicans think that pay go pay as you go means raise taxes to pay for new spending doesn't mean that it means cut programs it means make the tough choices to put an end to the waste in government i've got some eight thousand brand new fully furnished mobile homes that they are port arkansas that were destined for hurricane katrina storm victims but never raised them you could say that that's four hundred million dollars right there we're not talking about raising taxes to pray for you to pay for a new program but on to what we are talking about mr speaker we're talking about putting an end to the days of the republican leadership borrowing money from china to fund a new program creating this large number making it go up daily it's still going up nearly a billion dollars a day under the republican budget that was approved last year no more that mister bigger no more borrowing money from china to build a rainforest in iowa we are demanding that you show us how you pay for your projects and your programs we are going to restore fiscal discipline and accountability to our government this week the president came out with his budget and we'll be visiting more about the president's budget during this hour but another thing that the fiscally conservative democratic blue dog coalition is doing is we have gotten together and we have written and endorsed what's referred to as house resolution ninety seven and house resolution ninety seven we have thirty nine co sponsors it's providing for operation iraqi freedom cost accountability but quite simply we're demanding accountability on how your tax money mr speaker and the tax money the hardworking people of this country is being spent in iraq you ask a hundred different people what they think about this iraq policy you'll get about one hundred different answers you'll find some members of the blue dog coalition that are for the surge some are against i'm against the surge now they the american people want us to go and a different direction in iraq but one of the things that unites us as a coalition and the thing that we've indorsed and we've written and that we're trying to put in place is house resolution ninety seven which has four crucial points that demand fiscal responsibility in iraq point number one a call for transparency on how iraq war funds are spent the american people are sending some nine billion dollars a month to iraq that's about twelve million dollars an hour and the american people in this country that work hard and pay taxes deserve to know how their money is being spent interact number two the creation of a truman commission to investigate the awarding of contracts it is time mr speaker to put an end to war profit in iraq number three a need to fund the iraq war through the normal appropriations process played by the rules no more of this so called emergency supplemental appropriations to hide from the american people the true cost of the war and finally number four use american resources this is america we're the leader of the free world and we should be using our resources to improve our raqi assumption of internal policing operations in other words it's time for the iraqi people to step up to the plate and buy into this and take more responsibility and accountability i'm joined this hour by a number of blue dog colleagues mr speaker and at this time i yield to the gentleman from kentucky mr chandler thank you mr ross pre show all the gentleman from arkansas is doing to bring these issues to the forefront to the american people because i believe they're extremely important and i know all members of the blue dog coalition believe that accountability and responsibility to the people of our nation is of the utmost importan mr speaker the president sent a two point nine trillion dollars budget to congress yesterday that's quite a lot of money and you would think that among those trillions of hard earned tax dollars the president would find resources for the most essential services like education for our kids and health care for our veterans but once again those who need our help the most are the very people who have been pushed aside if we follow this budget medicaid and medicare will be cut by a hundred and one billion dollars over the next five years health care for our veterans will be slashed by three point five billion dollars over five years perkins loan funds for our college students will be recalled and no child left behind will be underfunded by some fifteen billion dollars the president in addition would have us cut state preparedness training programs and firefighter and law enforcement grants depriving our first responders of the funds necessary to operate in this post nine eleven world these policies make no sense they rob our children of opportunity make our communities less safe and dishonor those who have sacrificed while wearing our nation's uniform i could understand some of these cuts if they were being made in the name of fiscal responsibility but they are not if we were truly making an effort to reduce our public debt i could and i believe the american people could accept some pain because the cause that we would be fighting in that case would be a good one and it would be about our future but that's not the case this budget is not trying to reduce the debt the president's budget will drag us even deeper into debt to the tune of three point two trillion dollars over the next ten years trillion that's a lot of money burdening future generations with mountains of debt not of their own making mr speaker when i talk with my constituents back home in communities rich and commonsense they ask me a simple question over and over again where is their tax money going if we're cutting all of these programs going deeper into debt what are we getting for our tax dollars we owe it to our constituents to answer these questions and it starts with ending the black hole of waste fraud and abuse that is plaguing our reconstruction efforts in iraq here the fact we've already  budgeted one hundred eight billion dollars on reconstruction yet the inspector general for iraq reconstruction is telling us that we haven't come close to recovering the level of basic services that iraq enjoyed under saddam hussein here's the return americans are getting on their over one hundred billion dollar tax investment only twenty five percent of iraqis have access to clean water access to modern sewer facilities remains an incredible problem for most iraqi families iraqis now have electricity for only four point three hours per day and oil production is down almost one million barrels a day since the levels before the war how long are we going to let this farce continue we can all of our view all day about spending priorities but can we not at least agree to make sure that our tax dollars are being efficiently spent to accomplish good because right now the only thing i see these tax dollars are doing efficiently is lining the pockets of government contractors how many reports of jobs being billed that were never authorized jobs being started without permission individuals admitting to stealing millions of reconstruction dollars and private contractors such as halliburton being awarded unprecedented numbers of no bid government contracts do we have to put up with before we do something about it well mr speaker it is my belief and the belief of the blue dog coalition that we must demand accountability the president with his proposed budget is telling our seniors our students our veterans and our working families that our country doesn't have the money to help pay for their health care or for their education and i say we'll come closer to having the money for health care and education if we stop mismanaging funds in iraq and greasing the pockets of contractors who are failing in many instances to get the job done that's why our coalition the blue dog coalition has introduced the house resolution for the operation iraqi freedom cost accountability in the spirit of the truman committee which defeated so much and saved our country in excess of fifteen billion dollars during world war two this resolution outlines the critical steps this body must take to hold the administration accountable for its neglect of taxpayer dollars it's our constitutional obligation as members of this body to provide oversight for war spending and congress has neglected this duty for far too long we owe it to the taxpayers of this country to the troops who are fighting this war and yes we owe it to future generations who are going to be financing this war for many many many many years to come to stop the wasteful spending of this administration and war profiteering by contractors we need a modern day truman committee and we need transparency on how iraq war funds are being spent the days of offering the president a blank check are over we need to ask the tough questions and we need to send the message that waste fraud and abuse in iraq reconstruction just simply will not be tolerated i say thank all of my fellow blue dogs for the work that they're doing on this issue for continuing to raise awareness and i hope that my colleagues on both yield back i think the i think the gentleman from from kentucky for his valued inside and to the h r ninety seven which is the blue dog indorsed house resolution to demand accountability and fiscal responsibility and how tax money is being spent in iraq some nine billion a month put another way some twelve million an hour let me be clear that as coalition we support our troops one hundred and ten twenty thirty percent we can't do enough for our troops and as long as we have troops in harm's way we're going to be there to ensure they have what they need to get the job done and to get it done as safely as possible and hopefully get back home to their families this is impacted every family in america in one way or another my brother in law is in kurdistan now which is the entry point for afghanistan just as you weight is oftentimes the entry point  iraq my first cousin was in iraq when his wife gave birth to their first child before coming here to day visit with ms watson in pine bluff arkansas whose son and she is so very proud of him and i am to lieutenant colonel watson continues to service today in baghdad that we thank you and we thank all soldiers for their dedicated service to our country this is about accountability this is about having responsibility and oversight on how our tax money is being spent in iraq and not only that but this hour is dedicated to talking about this new bush budget that was delivered to capitol hill yesterday thank goodness that is members of congress we get a vote on this budget that we can ensure that funding is there for education and for our veterans and yes we're creating a new generation of veterans and afghanistan and iraq today and we've got to be there for them a year old a gentleman from tennessee a former co chair of the blue dogs for policy mr cooper i thank my good friend from arkansas and i thank my blue dog colleagues mr speaker i'd like to focus for a minute on the release of the president's budget as has been mentioned it just came out yesterday and today as a member of the budget committee we had our first hearing with rob portman the director of the office of management budget and former trade ambassador and former member of the house this is what a part of the budget looks like it's available online it's of about one hundred fifty two hundred  pages this looks like a very credible document but that's what i'd like to discuss today one of the first claims in this budget is in the second paragraph it says the budget i am presenting a cheese balance by twenty twelve hallelujah wouldn't that be nice if it were true now if you look deeper in the budget you'll see that they claim after years of deficits in the bush administration remember we have a surplus in the last three years of the clinton administration but after years of bush deficits they claim that by mid term of the next president will have a surplus well that would be good news if it were true they claim that the surplus in that year will be sixty one billion dollars and i hope that it a number like that would be true but if you look at page one hundred and sixty eight of their document you will see that that sixty one billion dollar surplus is really one hundred eighty seven billion dollars deficit this guy has by borrowing two hundred and forty eight billion dollars from the sale security trust fund and other words we would have a sizable large deficit if it weren't for the money they're planning on taking from the south the security trust fund and that year and this is just i want your practice they are planning on doing it  every year between now and then in two thousand and seven they took a hundred and eighty three billion security in two thousand and eight they're taking two hundred and twelve billion from social security and two thousand and they're taking two hundred twenty six billion from social security and two thousand and ten two hundred forty five billion dollars from so security and in two thousand and eleven two hundred sixty four billion so basically what this budget says although it looks very respectable and credible it says we're going to take over a trillion dollars close to one point two five trillion dollars from social security so we can disguise the budget deficit and make it look like a surplus five years from now mr speaker that doesn't sound like honest budgeting to me but don't take my word for it look at this other document this came out about a month ago this from the us treasury department this uses a different and better method of accounting to tell us where we are financially in this country and it says basically right to have deficits as far as the eye can see and that the deficits are far far larger than what the president admits to in this document but even if you don't believe any of these government documents of the president's or the treasury department's look at a private sector organization called standard and poor's there on wall street they're probably the top credit analyst agency in the world they projected this last summer that the u s treasury bond the most important angelus for men on the planet would lose its aaa credit rating by the year two thousand and twelve just five years from now so in other words s and p the leading credit analyst said that although this document says we're going to have a surplus then they say we're going to have continuing deficits as far as the eye can see in fact deficits that damage and possibly destroy america's credit rating because standard and poor's went on to say in their analysis they said that by the year twenty twenty five the u s treasury bond would have just lost its aaa credit rating they say that the us treasury bonds would actually become junk debt by the year twenty twenty five below investment gr that would be a true tragedy for our nation we cannot let that happen and that's why we need to examine the credibility of the numbers in this document we need to make sure that they're correct and if you look at the assumptions in this document you will see not only trouble with the terrific borrowing they're planning on doing from the so security surplus you'll see trouble and the fact that they're planning on the a m t tax taking a bigger and bigger bite out of the middle class in america for the next four or five years they do nothing to remedy that in this document there are so many other features of this document that make it almost completely unrealistic as a starting point for our budget debates mr speaker we have a lot of work to do it is not easy putting together budgets i've done it because i had the privilege of serving back in the majority days over twelve years ago here is a very difficult process to come up with a proper budget but that must begin now and i would just wish that the president's offering we're going to be of more help to us it's not all bad there are some good elements of the president's budget but if you look at the overall promise of a balanced budget by two thousand and twelve i'm not sure anyone in the investigation really believes that it's here on paper and it sounds mighty good but if you look at the assumptions underneath that whether it's borrowing from so security or why that's taking a big bite of the middle class with the a m t tax it looks like the president's budget is not standing up to scrutiny but i think my friend from arkansas think my blue dog colleagues this is the day that we start the budget debates over the next two months will be trying to bring this to a conclusion i hope that all americans will download these documents off the internet will participate in the debate and let me and other blue dogs know your opinions on what we should doing on these budget matters i thank the gentleman from ceremoniously bringing of the budget if you will to the capitol hill and here in fact most here here's a copy of it this is the the budget of the united states government for fiscal year two thousand and eight from the office of management and budget and it's it's quite a lengthy document but if you read over it you will learn that budget submitted this week continues the same policies that helped create the fiscal mess now facing our government while the administration's budget claims to reach balance in two thousand and twelve unfortunately this budget is in deficit every year under realistic bush policy assumptions the budget continues to make the wrong choices for the american people it proposes substantial cuts to programs that benefit seniors working families and children all to help pay for an extensive tax cut for folks earning over four hundred thousand dollars a year it's about priorities mr speaker and the properties found in this budget this budget as delivered this week by president bush are misplaced i yield to the gentleman from georgia mr scott thank you very much mr ross as always it's a pleasure to be on the floor with you there's so much we need to cover sometimes you wonder where where to really begin but i think today we need to begin with what the president brought over here and his budget i've had a chance to look at it to go through it and i i am just astounded i truly am astounded at the recklessness of the president's budget at the irresponsible ness of the president's budget here we are at a time when this country is crying out for very serious attention in health care especially health care for those at the lower income and the middle class and what do we get in the president's budget but a tax increase for the middle class and health care what we get in this budget is a slash to medicare and to medicaid i want to go through it just just very quickly so the the american people and our colleagues who might not have had a chance to really get into this budget to see how surprisingly irresponsible this budget is the president's budget that he just sent to us slashes medicare medicaid by about three hundred billion dollars at a time when medicare medicaid are in greatest need to slash those programs by three hundred billion dollars over the next ten years with legislative and regulatory medicaid cuts totaling about fifty billion dollars and medicare cuts tolling two hundred and fifty two billion dollars and rather than using these monies to reverse the growing number of uninsured americans and dede listen to this startling statistic since president bush took office in the last six years we have added an additional six point eight million uninsured americans this is not a time to cut the basic government safety net program for ensuring a mare because we're having more this is why i say is reckless this is why i say it is irresponsible and these monies are being offset in his mind by tax cuts to millionaires i totally out of thing the medicare cuts include premium increases for millions of beneficiaries totaling ten billion dollars over the next ten years and at the same time the budget slashes medicare funding it protects special interests here's how it leaves on touch massive over payments by medicare to h m o s under the g o p two hundred two thousand and three medicare modernization act and many of the federal medicaid cuts will simply increase state cause or lead to further restrictions and medicaid benefits thus instead of assisting state efforts to reduce the number of uninsured the bush budget will impede those efforts but in the area of health care and i mention at the outset that there would be in here this hidden tax increase for the middle class here's where we find it under the president's budget employee health benefits would for the first time be treated as income and would be subject to income and payroll taxes just like wages this is new for the first time listen carefully at the same time the president would create a tax deduction for health insurance fifteen thousand dollars for families and seven thousand five hundred dollars for individuals this proposal would fail to reduce the number of uninsured and it would also mean a tax increase for millions of middle class families who have ploy or sponsored health insurance worth more than fifteen thousand dollars you have to really look at the fine print and also because the new deduction would reduce taxable income people's putri social security benefits would be reduced as well and as many health experts have pointed out the president's proposal would undermine employer provided health insurance and push people into the individual health insurance market market where insurers are able to refuse coverage to workers based on their health and as karen davis who is head of the nonpartisan commonwealth fund pointed out about the president's proposal she said it's not solving the uninsured problem and it's not solving the cost problem so it's not really advanced saying what we need to have happen here at the most basic need where government and people need to help soaring high health care costs this budget not only fails but to add insult to end and injury adds a tax increase to the middle class in the process i yield back mike i think the gentleman from georgia a very active member of the physically conservative democratic blue dog coalition mr scott for joining us now hope you'll stay for the remainder of this this hour as we discuss the president's budget for fiscal year two thousand and eight as well as the blue dog coalition endorsed house resolution ninety seven to demand accountability on  how the hard working people of this country's tax money is being spent in iraq misspeak or in the six years of the bush administration the government has posted the highest deficit is in the nation's history the administration has squandered the budget surplus it inherited transforming a five point six trillion dollar projected ten years or aplus into a deficit of some two point nine trillion dollars over the same a swing of eight point four trillion dollars based on realistic estimates of the cost of the president's policies the president's new budget calls for a deficit of two hundred forty four billion dollars for two thousand and seven and two hundred thirty nine billion dollars for two thousand and eight marking six years six years in a row of deficits of more than two hundred billion dollars this budget that the president delivered to capitol hill this week includes two hundred forty four billion dollars worth of hot checks for fiscal year two thousand and eight and two hundred thirty nine billion dollars worth of hot chicks for fiscal year two thousand and nine unbelievable mr speaker that is that it means that this nation will continue to borrow about a half a billion dollars a day every day monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday every day under the bush budget we will borrow over a half a billion dollars and that's before we borrow another i'm sorry that's before we spend a half a billion dollars each day paying interest on the debt we already got america's priorities will continue to go unmet until we get our nation fiscal house in order meanwhile this budget continues to climb the climb up the climb of our nation's debt which is already grown by three trillion dollars during this administration put another way this president this administration barred more money from foreign lenders foreign central banks than the previous forty two presidents combined in fact had only barred six hundred twenty three point three billion dollars in foreign holdings in one thousand nine hundred three today foreign lenders currently hold a total of about two point one trillion dollars of our public debt i was with the president at a meeting saturday morning the gentleman from tennessee mr tanner asking about whether he believed barring so much money from foreign central banks and foreign investors was a security threat to our country his response was that he didn't know how much money we had borrowed from foreigners so mr speaker i hope the president's listening to us today because mr speaker i want to share with you mr speaker what i refer to as the top ten list this is the top ten list of the ten countries that we have borrowed the most money from japan six hundred thirty seven point four billion dollars china three hundred forty six point five billion dollars the united kingdom two hundred twenty three point five billion dollars can i go back to china for a moment you know we don't do business with cuba because they're communist and yet we do business with communist china out of a spirit of international relations and while we're all focused on the middle east and what's going on in iraq and afghanistan cuba has hired china to drill for oil on their behalf fifty five miles from key west florida when the united states does not allow drilling within one hundred miles of key west can you imagine that and yet we have our three hundred forty six and a half billion dollars in china to give folks who live in this country who earn over four hundred thousand dollars a year a tax cut and to leave our children and our grandchildren with the bill i yelled at the gentleman from georgia just for a moment on the on the issue of china and our lending we are now debt to china well over three hundred fifty billion dollars now just to show you why this debt in the hands of foreign governments is such a a threat to our national security just this example china is now engage with iran and building and supposedly building a pipeline from gas pipeline from china to iran the united states as its efforts to tighten certain screws economic and political on iran in addition to the saber rattling we're doing has began to ask china if they would desist from that  relationship and to this point china has stonewall and in large measure it's because we don't have the leverage if you owe me three hundred and sixty billion dollars that weakens my position the other area in terms of our national security is the situation in iran as we are dealing with because i asked in the news now are all kinds of questions and issues now of whether or not we're going to attack iran which is why we've got to hurry up and get our resolution passed to make sure that the president stands what section article one section eight of our constitution it's the congress the extreme role the exclusive role in determining the funding and the declaration of war and that and that regard but the whole reason why it this whole funding operation puts us in a weakening position from our lending and our debt with our foreign countries is this iran has to depend upon a tremendous amount of lending from other countries to support them it puts our treasury department our secretary to treasure our secretary of state and i plan to ask miss kind of lisa rice tomorrow we'll have an opportunity to meet with her this specific question the fact that we need our partners who we're working with to stop lending to iran if we tighten that financial economic screw that's how you avoid this unfortunate military clash that might be impending but the point i want to make is as long as we are so overly dependent and have this overwhelming indebtedness in the hands of foreign governments we lose the leverage we need to secure our nation and to secure a better peace in the world i think the gentleman from georgia point well taken thanks for sharing that with us and let me just round out the top ten current lenders these are the countries the united states of america is borrowing money from in order to provide tax cuts for folks in this country earning over four hundred thousand a year that's in the president's budget that's what he's proposing to do here's what he's done already in the past six years our nation has borrowed more money from foreigners than the previous forty two presidents combined again japan six hundred thirty seven point four billion dollars china three hundred forty six point five billion dollars the united kingdom two hundred twenty three point five five billion dollars oh pay and we wonder why gas was approaching three bucks a gallon in august our nation has bargnani seven point one billion dollars from opec to give folks who live in this country a four hundred thousand dollars tax cut and that's exactly what the president's proposing to continue but mr speaker i dare say that in this new democratic majority we will stop that korea sixty seven point seven billion dollars to one sixty three point two billion dollars you know if if china decides to invade taiwan gentleman from tennessee mr tanner's made this point before our country our fiscal house is in such a mess that if china decides to invade taiwan we'll have to borrow more money from china to be able to afford to go assist and defend taiwan caribbean banking centers sixty three point six billion dollars hong kong fifty one billion dollars germany fifty two point one billion dollars a lot of discussion about our border and i believe we must secure our border but are you ready for this the united states of america is barred thirty eight point two billion dollars from mexico in the past six years the fun tax cuts for people who live here arning over four hundred thousand dollars a year leaving our children our grandchildren with the bill which is the very reason why our nation today isn't it eight trillion six hundred ninety six billion four hundred fourteen million two hundred fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy seven dollars that's a big number how do you explain it if you divide it better by it lives in america some three hundred million of us every one of us owe twenty eight thousand nine hundred dollars i don't know about you mr speaker but i can afford to write a check for twenty eight thousand nine hundred dollars to the government it's what we call the death tax the c and it's one tax that can't go away until we get our fiscal house in order and began to meet america's priorities again today the money is going to pay interest on the debt and it's going to borrow more money to fund the war that's costing us not billion a month again a big number break it down twelve million dollars an hour twelve million dollars an hour to the gentleman from ohio mr wilson for as much time as he'd like thank you mr ross and thank speaker for the opportunity to to speak on the budget that has been sent to us just as recently as yesterday i was elected by the people of eastern ohio and sent to washington to try to bring a common sense approach to what's going on down here and i must say that the budget that we received yesterday and have looked through today making different points it's it's astonishing the of the math that is used the budget doesn't add up the numbers don't fit together  lack of really fiscal responsibility the tax increases on the middle class the continued cutting of programs that are good for people the lack of oversight over our war that's going on right  now it's frightening it's frightening for everybody there are just several things that are wrong though that i would like to talk about as i said the numbers don't add up they just don't come together there are assumptions that are made that are are unrealistic that it provides us with an opportunity to for real failure more so than we have now as as mr ross recently indicated they're near nine trillion dollars right now in debt and with every one share of three hundred million residents of america we're looking at twenty nine thousand dollars per person that's man woman child looking at this it's unfortunate that under this budget proposal there are crucial investments th cut to programs that are important to people we have for example they're cutting commodities for seniors and people that are on low income and people who have disabilities but yet we're making real strong assumptions on the scenario of what can happen for the right things to give more tax breaks i did an interview today mr speaker with a newspaper in ohio and was asked you know how will you pay for the to reste or the  commonsense benefits that are in this budget but one of the ways would be to eliminate some of the tax breaks for the people who lead need them least and this would certainly be a thing that we as a democratic blue dog coalition would be supportive of we need to look at common sense we need to find ways such as pay go which we are putting forward to find out that no program goes forward for more spending mr speaker without eliminating of a program that's costing us in the present time this is what pay goes about it's a it's a direction that our country needs paygo stands for common sense and that's really what we're trying to do when we look at this budget that we say that in the president's budget this time for the two thousand and eight series it's more of the same there has been no change it takes many many assumptions that it's going to be a best case scenario but when you really look at the numbers mr speaker it winds up quite bad again and we're moving in the wrong direction doing the wrong things the un bid contracts in the war the situation that we have where money is being drained on a daily basis out of america i can't help but wonder all the good that could be done if we had fiscal responsibility if we had people that were looking at the realities of what this budget could do and so i'm i'm confident that as a new democrat in this congress that we are going to work hard to try to bring common sense to the budget to buy and to try to benefit the american people this best case scenario assumptions is just not a fair way to go it has been proven good in the last six years and i doubt very much it's going to prove good in the next two years so i'm happy to be a part of the of the blue dog coalition to look for fiscal responsibility and fight for the rights of what should be done about the war accountability act house resolution ninety seven to demand transparency accountability and just good government mr speaker and how we're spending the hard working people this country's tax money in iraq there's a lot of misplaced priorities in this enormous budget here's the top ten the top ten list number one it includes tax increases for middle class families number two it has cuts in it the health care in the seniors number three while it's very cold outside right now it freezes while much of the country is frozen if you will mr speaker it cuts home energy assistance for those who need help the most with finding the money to afford to heat their home in the winter months after five years following nine eleven it has devastating cuts to police and firefighters in direct opposition to the wishes of the people of this country here it comes again a plan to privatize social security presence budget includes cuts the veterans health care at a time when word creating a new generation of event veterans coming home from iraq and afghanistan the president's budget includes cuts to our veterans we need to ensure that our veterans are see the health care they so desperately need i don't know about you mr speaker but i get a letter after letter and call after call from veterans who have to wait in line weeks and months at a time to be able to see a doctor that's not the kind of health care we promised america's veterans we should honor them by properly caring for them it includes cuts to education cuts to housing assistance and with iraq veterans returning with devastating injuries it includes cuts to the brain trauma research that is so desperately needed by many of these returning vets from iraq and afghanistan president bush's budget says a lot but it does very little it is filled with misplaced priorities i will challenge you mr speaker to read it for yourself make your own decision and as members of the blue dog coalition we're not here to beat up the president he can run again we're here to reach out across that aisle and work with him and work with the republican members of congress because the american people have sent a message very loud and very clear they want us to work together that's what the physically conservative democratic blue dog coalition is all about we want to work in a bipartisan manner to put this nation on a track toward a balanced budget to pay down the debt and restore some fiscal discipline and common sense to our nation's government i yield to the gentleman from tennessee mr lincoln davis for as much of the remaining ten minutes that he so desire my friend from arkansas thinks affirmation to extend their arts and to correct any hear from our friends on the right that when democrats question the war or the strategy in iraq we are disheartening our troops and embolden the enemy i guess it doesn't matter that there are many republicans who also acts the same question about the war this attempt really saddens me it saddens me because it seems like those on the right are trying to discourage the very actions that led to the founding of our nation very actions that allowed the united states to continue evolving toward never ending gold  perfect union our country the raf the stress on the diversity of views and that dale's that comes from its people if one out it is a work and then someone has the freedom to suggest another idea that is different and might yield different results in my opinion the ability of the american people to discuss differing ideas gives our nation great strength additionally i believe that when iraqi people see americans exercising their right to freedom of speech iraqi people are not this intended by their prospects but rather they're an spired to have a country as free as ours they see our freedom as a beacon of hope for what their nation could become someday and frankly it is a freedom we enjoy here that scares enemy over there so much because they know that once the people taste freedom they will demand it for eternity for themselves so we should not strap our stoffel our freedom here for fear that it might be negatively impacting the war with earth which answers the doubt that it is but the more the actions of senators of both parties and house members of both parties embolden the enemy then doesn't public opinion also involved in the in enemy since polls show a large majority of americans disagreeing with administration's policy in iraq not the war the ministrations policy in iraq and if this is the case why don't we see those in iraq condemning the american people for expression their views and the bowling the enemy is it is because probably politically they know they can't criticize the american public it is because it is easier to take pot shots at politicians and everyday men and women in american society a statement i contend that the american people love america democrats love america that republicans love america and that president bush loves america i contend that we all of america and that the discussion everyone is having on iraq right now is not an extension of our love for america because we all want what we think is best for the country we want success and we want to tear security if only we also wanted civility in is this rhetoric helpful to the end goal are just hurtful there's certainly been plenty of failures in iraq and there's plenty of blame to spread we should have sent more troops some say we should have not disband the iraqi army we should have kept better track of how taxpayers dollars were being spent we should have squashed the militias before they were built void built a strong following some say and so on and on but i will tell you who hasn't failed our soldiers on the ground the american soldiers won in iraq they defeated saddam's army deposed dictator and tore down the statue they gave the country to the iraqis sadly in my opinion the many others leaders in washington have failed our soldiers because those in charge of iraqi policy have been weakened dealing with the new iraqi government have not pushed him to find political solutions to the problems they face the lack of political structure  iraq falls squarely on the shoulders of the war planners and i for one will not let the reputation of our fighting men and women be tarnished by the miscalculations of those in charge the question now must be what are the next steps to bring success and so we can make sure our taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and going where they are needed to achieve success in my opinion this resolution is the first step of many steps down the price  conservative democratic blue dog coalition and a gentleman is exactly right as members blue dog coalition we're sick and tired of all the partisan bickering that goes on in washington we don't care as members of the blue dog coalition we don't care if it's a democratic idea or republican idea all we care about is it a common sense and does it make sense for the people who sent us here to be their voice that's really what the fiscally conservative democratic blue dog coalition is all about restoring frame of mind this is this is not a debate that's personally against the president it's presidents a lack of a person that's just his policies his policies are wrong for the american people even american people are rising up and saying so we have as congress the responsibility to respectfully disagree with the president that's what we're doing we're simply saying it is wrong to cut veterans it is wrong to cut seniors programs it is wrong to cut education it is wrong to cut the cops program out from getting folks in to be employed for first responders it is wrong to cut homeland security it is wrong to cut every single basic domestic program that is cut in this budget it is wrong to do that it is wrong also for the president to say on the one hand that he's going to have a surge of twenty one thousand five hundred more troops when in fact we now know that it's not twenty one thousand five hundred it's more like forty eight thousand according to the see below that is just corrected that so when we have these kinds of situations this is what makes this government it is this is what makes us the n b a of the world this is why we have this house this is why we run every other year why people hold us accountable to come and to make sure that the bloaters and the people of america and their tax dollars that we are good stewards of them that is our responsibility and we have a right more than that we have a duty to raise the tough questions and to hold the president's feet to the fire when he comes with such a wrong headed budget as this that goes right at right to the heart of where america is hurting and this is why we're here today and this is why the blue dogs all offering this and this is why the blue dogs are also offering our ninety summer resolution ninety seven to bring this fiscal countability and financial accountability to stop war profiteering and to make sure the money goes to the soldiers so that we can take care of them while they're on the battlefield and to make sure we re store these cuts to make sure we take care of them when they come home this budget doesn't do it and it's our obligation to raise these questions in a make sure that this budget response appropriately i think the gentleman from georgia mr speaker if you've got any comments or questions or concerns you can email us mr speaker at blue dog at melbourne house dog that's blue dog at mill dog house you know the gentleman from tennessee a so often hear that cut and run is a strategy from democrats that's not when we finish the war nine hundred forty five military bases were stabbed and watched in europe in turkey and other places throughout the world are still there or as we finished  our endeavors as many people thought during the korean war our military bases are so located in south korea there is we will never leave the middle east the american people think that is the case what we're talking about is being able to re certain other endeavors that have not been done to be sure we win this war when the police have success in iraq we will be in the middle east for a long long time my great grandchildren will still see us but either that's an area where we have to defend america's freedom and liberty but we've got to take another under the speaker's announced policy of january the eighteenth two thousand and seven february that date is incorrect and today is a very six two thousand and seven the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland mr bartlett for sixty minutes madam speaker there are three different groups in our country and indeed worldwide at least for some of these issues that have common cause and  campaigning for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels these three groups come from very different perspectives but as you will see from our discussions this they really do have a common cause because to solve the problems that brings them to this dialogue all three of these groups are advocating a sensually the same thing that is a reduction in our use of fossil fuels the first of these groups is the group a very large group which has genuine concern about national security interests probably two years ago now or nearly that thirty of our prominent americans twenty seven others some of them senior retired military people wrote a letter to the president saying mr president the fact that in our country we have only two percent of the knowing reserves of world oil and we use twenty five percent of the world's oil importing almost two thirds of what we use represents a totally unacceptable national security risk the president himself recognized this and that is his state of the union a year ago when he noted that we get some of this oil from countries as he said that don't even like us very much that's a bit  understatement for some of those countries the next chart shows a recognition of this on the part of our secretary of state this was april five of last year we do have to do something about the energy problem i can tell you that nothing has really taken me aback more as secretary of state than the way that the politics of energy is i will use the word warping diplomacy around the world we have simply got to do something about the war a diplomatic effort by the all rush for energy supply and i'm sure that in her head she had a mental picture of this really interesting map of the world that shows what our world would look like if the size of each country was determined by its reserves of oil and you can see  how america right here tiny on this map of the world we represent about less than five percent of the people of the world and we have only about two percent of the oil in the world but we're using twenty five percent of the oil could kuwait was relative to to how much oil they have russia up there they're a big exporter now but they can be a big exporter because they are used and anywhere near as much as we have you see russia is what two three times as large as we are well large community in our country which is genuinely concerned about national security interests understands the problems that come from this distribution of  oil many of these are many of these oil reserves are in countries that what we call them royal families they're really dictatorships aren't they and kuwait and the united arab emirates and saudi arabia and  wisely said in that state of the union message a year ago that we're getting oil from many of the reserves are in countries that don't even like us very much now fortunately our import of oil doesn't come from  mix as we see it here because we're getting wholesale where it's cheaper to ship it and so forth so a lot of our oil comes from canada they're pretty tiny in terms of total reserves aren't they but there aren't very many people there so they are an export are we going from mexico and we get oil from venezuela simply because of economics is just cheaper to ship at the short distances than it is around the world so this is one group that has common cause and wanting to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels particularly oil because we're so dependent on the rest of the world which congolese are i says presents a very real national security problem a second group that is interested in reducing  our use of these fossil fuels particularly oil is the group that believes that whereas the united states reached its production its maximum production of oil in one thousand nine hundred seventy that the world is about protest that point now and if you aren't concerned about national security risk and if you aren't concerned about climate change which is going to be the third when that we talk about you would really be concerned about about oil if you recognize that energy research associates who are trying to point out that that m k hubbard was not very accurate in his prediction and therefore it is prediction of what the united states would do and therefore you shouldn't take him very seriously when he predicted that world would be peaking about now the average person looking at this would say that they were kind of nit picking because this is the hubbert's lower forty eight projection the yellow line and the red is the actual and of course added to the lower forty eight was our big discovery in deadhorse unproved over alaska and our oil discoveries and in the gulf of mexico well i think that these two curves one pretty darn close together and for that growing community of people that have a genuine concern about about the availability of oil in the future  his chart has real meaning i might look at the the next chart here before we move to two of those who are concerned about climate change this is a a chart which presents the the challenge that we face from what's called peak oil and these bars here represent the discoveries of oil and you know that the big discoveries were back in the sixty's and seventy's and ever since one thousand nine hundred eighty on average the discoveries have been reducing going down down down  now anyone who has had any my out then the charging and so forth in schools knows that if you draw a smooth curve over this the area under the curve will represent the total amount of oil that we have found and they each of these represents a reservoir of oil if you add up all these little bars where you have the total of course that's what you do and you smooth it out you in effect add them all up the solid dark line here represents the amount of oil that we've been using oil we started out really rich didn't we i mean we have found all this much oil we're just using this tiny bit down here it looks like oil is going to be forever when we run out look at how little we're using and how much there is out there but now look what happened we continued to use more and more as the industrial revolution grew and as our population grew and we found more ways to use energy to make our lives comfortable continued to grow and grow and but the discovery started falling off around here i think sixty five or so they started falling off down down down and that's in spite of ever better techniques for finding oil computer modeling and three d seismic and so forth we now have a pretty good idea of what the geology of the world looks like and we will find gas and oil only very unique geological formations maybe a little later as he'll have a chance to talk about those so that you have some expectation of what we might might find in the future well here we are now and  but two thousand and seven and we've been using more oil ever since about nine hundred eighty and we've been finding it of course we've had lots of reserve bacteria within eating up that reserve now who we take and some of this to fill in this space so now you look to the future and what will the future look like we have some options and what the future will look like one of the options we don't have though is pumping oil that we haven't found so new and less you think we're going to find more oil than this chart indicates and of course it won't be a nice who's down curve like that will be up and down but generally it will be down most people recognize what we can use all sorts of and has oil recovery techniques and pump it sooner and you may get a little more from those enhanced recovery techniques but you know you pump what you what you haven't found so this shows you very graphically if you had only one graph to look at to help you understand what we're facing in terms of peak oil this would be the gra and you understand now why this second group is really concerned about our use of fossil fuels particularly oil because it's very probable that the world is going to reach its maximum production of oil maybe has already but if not now very soon and the demand for oil which has been going up at roughly two percent per year growth is going to continue and so it's going to be an ever increasing difference between the available and the and the demand for oil and of course when that happens of course when when the man exceeds supply why price goes up and we've seen oil prices go up from a relative few years ago ten dollars a barrel to sixty dollars a barrel now it was just a few months ago seventy eight dollars a barrel is kind of a fear factor in there when they went away it dropped very quickly eighteen dollars a barrel but very volatile market up and down a dollar or more a day and another fear factor could jump another another eighteen dollars that next chart that i have here is one that that shows the concerns th the that this third group has and that's those who are concerned about about climate change and i have something i want to read here this chart comes from from this document by way the stern review the economics of climate change and it says here is the scientific evidence is now overwhelming climate change prevents very serious global risked and it demands an urgent global response climate change is global and its causes and consequences and international collective action will be critical and driving an effective efficient and equitable response on the scale required this international cooperation reminds me of a visit we just made i came back just about a month ago from china nine of us nine members of congress went over and the primary reason for the trip was to talk to them about about energy and i was surprised and pleased when they began their discussion of energy by talking about postal g i says they get it somehow a civilization that was a golden civilization when my forefathers were were barbarians running around europe has a longer view of things and then we seem to have we have trouble seeing beyond the next quarterly report in our industry we have real trouble here seeing beyond the next election but they're looking post oil they say they recognize that there will be a post coital period eight thousand years of recorded history we've been in the age of oil about one hundred one hundred fifty years if it's half gone and if it follows a bell curve as it did in our country and it probably will in the world league of another hundred hundred fifty years of oil it ever increasing costs in ever decreasing amounts as we get the oil which is harder and harder to get climate change presents a unique challenge for economics that is the greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen the benefits of strong early action on climate change way the costs they say so this is this is a little chart that shows where these gases come from just a moment of explanation as to why the use of oil and so forth  produces climate change when you got into your car the seed and if you go out it's parked outside in the sun is shining in and if you go out before dark your car will be very much warmer inside than it is outside and we call that the greenhouse effect and what happens is the light from the sun comes in a very broad the wavelength spectrum from from very long waves the very short waves and they go easily through your car most of them through the car window and then that sun heats up the material inside your car and that really radiates in the infrared well the glass is relatively impervious to infrared so it simply reflects it back and that's called the greenhouse effect and your car then gets warmer and warmer you see it especially on a summer day when it may be eighty outside and one hundred twenty inside your car which is why you shouldn't leave your children and animals inside the car when you when you leave it well there are  es in the atmosphere that do essentially the same thing as the glass in your automobile you may remember riding into the airplane and you're very comfortable sitting in there thirty eight or forty or forty two thousand feet in the pilot tells you it's minus forty degrees centigrade outside that's really cold and the reason you get these so warm down here you're so cold up here because of the reflection of all of this heat which is radiated back from the earth long infrared rays and they're reflected back in one of the things that reflects of back our gases  in the atmosphere and there are a number of those gases methane and carbon dioxide is one of the major ones of course carbon dioxide absolutely essential for plant life and they are so efficient our oxygen is about twenty one percent and we can do with maybe half of that if you're eighteen thousand feet that's all you've got because you've got half an atmosphere of pressure there but these plants might do one point zero four percent don't you wish you could be as efficient as these plants you could get by on the top of mount everest very easily and you wouldn't need to pressurize the cockpit in the aircraft you're you're writing and what's done to me in this report was when i read that are now is only five degrees centigrade that's nine degrees fahrenheit warmer than it was in the last ice age wow what a huge change in climate a relatively small change in temperature makes judge nine degrees cooler fahrenheit and we had glaciers that came down to southeast ohio you can see the terminal moraines there they came down that far scooping up the dirt in from you can see where they melted and left the mounds of gravel and dirt there where they came down where they came down that far i'm very pleased to be joined by one of the nation's leading voices and authorities on climate change my colleague also from the great state of maryland congressman gilchrist i think the gentleman from maryland mr bartlett for yielding and for having this time we can discuss these issues of energy its ramifications to national to national security the environment and to the economy and i would like to reiterate some of the calm that congressman barton has made as far as energy use and it's a single issue energy use the ramifications of our energy use now is to our economy to our national security into our environment our energy use is dependent on fossil fuel and our whole economy then is dependent on fossil fuel our national security to a great extent is the ramifications of national security are as a result of where we get fossil fuel sources from throughout the world and fossil fuel burning has a pretty big impact on the environment so our energy policy affects our economy affects our national security and affects our environment and each of these because it's fossil fuel because like mr butler bartlett said two thirds of our energy sources for oil comes from foreign sources that makes our economy fragile that makes our national security much more difficult and the ramifications to our environment is that it's degrades our environment what i would like to discuss here is the legacy of oil to our environment and the environment in particular is our climate the air sea and land upon which life exists on the planet depends to a great extent on the atmosphere and the atmosphere in order to support life as we know it as mr bartlett described has a certain heat balance to it in order for life to exist that heat balance that we talk about is the greenhouse effect which keeps the planet and its heat at a certain temperature in order for us to live vegetation to grow life in the sea to exist and life on the land the greenhouse effect is as a result of the chemistry of the atmosphere and the chemistry of the atmosphere whether it's carbon whether it's methane whether it's oxygen or whether it's water vapor does hold the heat of the sun's rays and nuff for us to have life the way we know it the greenhouse effect and the greenhouse effect has had huge fluctuations over the eons of time that the earth has existed we have ice ages we have warming trends so throughout history we have had a natural range of fluctuation to the temperature to c o two to other greenhouse gases that's a natural range no huge rapid fluctuations in that natural range of chemicals that make up the atmosphere to hold on to the greenhouse effect the question is when we debate this issue in congress when other political situations is are humans impacting the climate are humans the cause of a warming trend well let's take a look at that right now is there a warming trend and i would say that every single scientist in the united states throughout the planet who is a meteorologist or an atmosphere a chemist or anybody in that scientific community every single one of them will say that yes we are we are in a warming trend and we have been a warming trend for the past ten thousand years that you could go back ten thousand years using ice cores drilled into the glaciers in greenland or the antarctic and you could see that ten thousand years ago as mr bartlett mentioned earlier the temperature of the planet was about five degrees centigrade cooler than it is now and the assessment of that is evaluated by the makeup of the chemistry of the atmosphere ten thousand years ago one of those elements in the atmosphere was carbon dioxide and if you looked at carbon dioxide you would see the ten thousand years ago there was about one hundred eighty parts per million of c o two in the atmosphere but let's come ahead almost ten thousand years to eighteen ninety one thousand nine hundred and you evaluate c o two in the atmosphere at that point you would see that in ten thousand years you increased the amount of c o two in the atmosphere from one hundred eighty parts per million to two hundred eighty parts  it took the earth and its natural range of fluctuation ten thousand years to increase one hundred parts per million of c o two now let's project the next one hundred years which is essentially the industrial age we've increased another one hundred parts per million we are now at three hundred eighty parts per million so what took the natural forces in a natural range of fluctuation over a period of ten thousand years to increase one hundred parts per million in the industrial age we've done it in one hundred years now some people say that has nothing to do with human activity that's volcanoes that's the natural decaying of matter that's nature producing that one hundred parts per million the answer to that is this you can distinguish between the kind of c o two that comes from volcanoes or forest fires or other natural sources from burning fossil fuel every human being has their own d n a marker you can tell one human being from another human being by their d dockside has a d n a it has a marker it's a radioactive isotope so you can determine where this c o two in the atmosphere comes from is it coming from your automobile or is it coming from a volcano in southeast asia or is coming from a forest fire in california or brazil so the radioactive isotopes are markers for c o two so it is very easily discerned that the in extreme some of the results of that seawater is warming the atmosphere is warming fuel for hurricanes is warm air and warm sea water so we are seeing a fairly dramatic increase in stronger hurricanes what are some of the other implications of increasing temperatures as a result of burning fossil fuel human activity that sea level rise sea level rise from the melting of the arctic ice arctic glaciers such as greenland and the antarctic has the potential in this century to raise sea levels by three feet what would that do to new york or baltimore or miami or all the other low lying communities throughout the world that james river in london sea level rise with flood the city of london coastal erosion coastal communities the insurance industry in the united states as a result of climate change global warming and potential increasing violence storms and sea level rise the insurance companies in the united states are beginning to stop their homeowners insurance coverage for these communities at risk along the gulf and atlanta coast the insurance companies of the united states and lloyds of london the only reinsurance company that i know of in the world that is continuing to cover these homeowners have doubled tripled and quadrupled their premiums to look at the risk the other problems with increasing c o two and other greenhouse gases is  what it does to the actual chemical makeup of our oceans our oceans have a certain balance in their ph it's just a little bit above seventy and it's been that way for eons of time how long have the sharks been in the ocean here on on shows on television that sharks have been around for millions of years other creatures on our planet have been around for millions of years some of the best habitat in the world for ocean creatures are coral reefs increasing c o two into the atmosphere and the world's oceans have absorbed fully half of the c o two that we've put into atmosphere it's to make the result of that the legacy of oil burning fossil fuel is that it makes the oceans more acidic ocean chemistry ocean chemistry would change be more acidic and more corrosive it could destroy the vast resource that we get from quarries by destroying those cool reece by destroying the very fabric of the beginning of the ecology of the world's oceans warmer temperatures we've already begun to see cause more forest fires more infestations more problems with agriculture weather patterns become more violent in some places that become more unpredictable the storm cycles are more violent and more unpredictable shifting vegetation zones we've already talked about sea level rise habitat loss the arctic ice ca at the top of the world in the last fifty years has lost forty percent of its ice baal you forty percent so the list of dramatic ramifications of not addressing one of the problems of the legacy of oil in our dependence on it is climate change is global warming what are some of the answers to this mold mr bartlett has made some comments about this but we have a bill on the senate side on the house side mr bartlett is a co sponsor john older from massachusetts is a co sponsor a number of our colleagues have gotten on this bill to try to understand the nature of this problem at least part of the problem of our dependence on fossil fuel which is global warming climate change we think the debate is over the debate is over because the science is clear that human activity i causing the climate to change and all those other problems around the vacations of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we need to take action now to stop global warming we subject our economy our national security our way of life to great risk catastrophic harm we have a bipartisan bill that will reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions substantially and in a timely fashion we have a series of  fortune five hundred companies from alcoa to b p to caterpillar to duke energy to dupont to a number of environmental groups that support the federal government making a goal of reducing greenhouse gases by the year two thousand and fifty to seventy percent below one thousand nine hundred levels creating a regulatory structure to do that and then these companies that i just read say that the market can resolve the issue it will create a cap and trade program with large tax incentives to unleash the ingenuity of the american free marketplace to capture the technology which will make us much more economically viable to use efficiency technological advances alternative fuels to reduce over a period of decades not only our dependence on fossil fuel from foreign sources not only improve our economy not only our improve our national security situation with the rest of the world but drastically begin to improve our environment and the u s can take the lead in finding solutions to this seemingly intractable intractable problem the federal government sets a goal  a regulatory structure the market produces the results and human ingenuity once again solves some of the problems and i want to thank congressman bartlett for the time and for his enormous us very well in this country they have provided for us the highest quality of life of any place in the world but market forces are limited they cannot do what they cannot do as i've noted somewhat humorously that there are some things that even god can do god can't make a square circle for instance and the market forces are very powerful and as long as there are unlimited resources market forces will work i remember mentioning one of our very high government officials the problem of limited oil supply in the future and its response was gee i guess the market will take care of that i guess one coil gets more expensive we'll use less of it and then we will find alternatives that's true but or oil prices get higher we will use less of it and we will look for alternatives but when you look at the potential for exploiting these alternatives you see that a large amount of time and energy must be invested in these alternatives you for that yield any meaningful amount of replacement for the fossil fuels which are so abundant and so energy rich let me give you just one little example of some of the unintended consequences of trying to do this there is a big push to make ethanol from corn in our country we have noted that the brazilians are making ethanol from from sugar cane and they now don't have to import any oil and we would like to emulate them and make enough ethanol from corn that we won't have to this part of the country that are out in the midwest with a relatively small amount of ethanol that we're making the demand for corn raise the price of corn from two dollars and eleven cents a gallon in sep bushel in september to four dollars and eight cents it was in december that's causing a huge problem for our people that the that raise animals we're having a meeting in a few days with a number of our dairy people from maryland unless bell goes up to more than i think it's about fourteen dollars a hundred not need to be at least eighteen before they can break even with this kind of a price for for food for their animals they're going to go bankrupt and so the the relatively small demand for corn to make the relatively small amount of ethanol that we're making now has has essentially doubled the price of corn what this does is to reflect the enormous amount of energy that's in these fossil fuels they are really energy  this chart shows something about what's happened to our world as a result of the incredible energy density in these fossil fuels hyman rickover and let me get a copy of his of his paper it really was in the paper it was a talk that he gave up to a group of physicians fifty years ago the anniversary of that will be a fourteen of this year and that was that a band put of the annual scientific assembly of the minnesota state medical association there's talk of nothing to do with medicine he apologized for that beginning of his talk that he thought that the physicians might enjoy the version he was talking about the enormous energy in these fossil fuels and what he said was so well done hyman rickover course is the it's the father of our nuclear submarine i had no idea that he had given this talk it just appeared and the energy bulletin december two of last year two thousand and six so it's only been out in the general public for for these couple of couple of months i noted this the other night that i you know we need to hear this again because this is just so revealing as to what this energy has done for us with high energy consumption goes a high standard of living that's enormous fossil fuel energy which we and this country feeds machines which make each of us master of an army of mechanical slaves not that we didn't import any so we could say we controlled it now we import almost two thirds of what we use another writer has indicated the incredible amount of energy in fossil fuels and oil and let me give you the analogies he uses and then i will read the ones that hyman rickover gave in that speech fifty years ago one barrel of oil produces the energy equivalent of twelve men working all year for you if you figure the price that you can hire a man the equivalent of a man to work for you by buying ten dollars fossil fuel of oil he work a full year for you now let me read from hyman rickover what he said this was fifty years ago the more so today man's muscle power is right at thirty five wat continuously one twentieth of a horsepower now that's on a twenty four seven you can do a little better than that when you're working that you go to sleep and eat and so forth machines there for furnish every american industrial worker with energy equivalent to of two hundred and forty four man well how many man months of work without any energy from fossil fuels would it have taken to build your automobile while at least two thousand man pushes automobile along the road and his family is supplied with thirty three faithful household helpers each locomotive engineer he says controls energy equivalent to that of one hundred thousand men each jet pilot of seven hundred thousand men you know thinking of that some jet pilot in that plane up there and i look at those contrails and sometimes they're the only cloud like things in the sky and it's just the other day that it finally occurred to me the the dynamics of of the c o two thing that congressman go chris was talking about carbon and that's what's in these these fuels is largely carbon and hydrogen carbon has a molecular weight of twelve and hydrogen has a molecular weight of one that's the lightest element in the universe and when you burn this carbon it combines with oxygen one molecule of carbon with two molecules of oxygen oxygen weighs sixteen so what that says is going to go because if you weigh the gasoline that goes in your car you produce three times that weight and carbon dioxide that is incredible now all of that auk carbon dioxide was taken out of the atmosphere a very long time ago and i didn't know it was a little boy where oil came from but i didn't know where coal came from because we had a co furnace in our house and i have to break those big lumps of coal we bought it just as it came out of the mine and when i break a lump of coal opened there would be a fernley nobody had to tell me where coal came from a knew very well working come it came from plants that grew a very long time ago that fell over under pressure and time and they became they became coal so we're releasing incredible amounts of carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas which will change the acidity of the ocean fortunately water carbon dioxide is very soluble in water but it still changes the p h of the water because it forms a very weak acid carbonic acid when it gets in the in the water truly the humblest american admiral rickover says enjoys the services of more slaves and were once owned by the richest nobles and lives better than most ancient kings and retrospect and despite wars revolutions in this asters the hundred years just gone by that was one thousand nine hundred and fifty that's right here one hundred years just gone by well seem like a golden age and what this chart shows here is the history of the world energy wise for all of about four hundred years out of that eight thousand years that admiral rickover talks about and the industrial revolution began with wood the problem curve here and that didn't produce very many quadrillion bt use of energy and then call and boy did the economy grow with coal and trains and so forth but then look what happened it exploded when we found gas and oil and that's because gas and oil are so easy to change into compounds that we can readily get energy from and they're much more adaptable and flexible than than coal although you can get gas and oil from coal hitler had to do that when we cut off its oil supplies and under embargoed south africa had to do that we may be turning to that again shortly as i mentioned about a speaker there are three groups that really have a common cause and talking about the use of these fossil fuels one is that very large and growing group of people including our secretary of state who are concerned that our growing dependence on foreign oil is a very serious national security risk what do we do we obviously need to use less of it the president says we're hooked on it we need to use less of it and we can use less of it two ways one we can simply conserve and be more efficient and we have done some of that we could do a great deal more of that and the second thing that we can do is to get energy from alternatives and as this chart shows and as dr rickover mentioned there will come a time when the world will be getting less and less energy from fossil fuels and finally at some point in history down the road we will be getting sent essentially no energy from fossil fuels goes obviously they are not infinite in their supply and they will not last for ever in a thousand years of recorded history the age of oil will represent but a blip in terms of energy production a pretty big but we're probably about halfway through the age of oil and another hundred hundred fifty years of emptying however it was correct that we're now at the peak and it will be tailing off and going down the other side of what's commonly called h or will be ever more difficult to get an ever more costly and another hundred hundred fifty years we will have transition to renewables we will be steady state having used up the coal we have having gotten all of the energy we can  these unconventional oil sources like the tar sands of canada and the oil shales of the united states the next chart looks at what obviously we need to to be about and that is addressing this problem whether you believe that we need to reduce our use of fossil fuels because it's a national security problem whether you believe we need to reduce our use of fossil fuels because it's causing climate change or whether you believe you need to reduce the use of fossil fuels because they just aren't going to be there and the quantities that we're using today in the future you still must do the same things with the first thing that you need to do is to buy some time that the world would be peaking about now and so for these last twenty seven years we should have been addressing this problem and investing energy and time and alternatives unfortunately we and large measure have not done that and so today we're faced with the problem we have no access to oil no excess oil energy to invest in alternatives if there were any excess it wouldn't be fifty five sixty dollars a barrel and we've essentially run out of time now we can buy some time and free up some oil with an aggressive program and conservation and you really can't do that europe uses half the energy that we use it would be hard to argue that they don't live as comfortably as we use the average californian uses sixty five percent of the electricity that we use and they're fifty some of those in our congress and i doubt that anyone would agree that they live less well than we do and they still use a lot less energy than we use what you need to do then is to use it wisely what we do with this energy that we freed up and the time that we bought by this aggressive conservation program we have to invest that wisely in alternatives now whichever of these camps you come from whether it's it's the climate change champ or the cat that's concerned that we are to dependent on foreign oil that's going to be a big national security risk or do you believe that we need to move from fossil fuels to alternative simply because they are going to be less and less of more and more expensive fossil fuels in the future you still want to do  same thing enormous benefits can accrue from this congress and go chris mentioned the enormous creativity and entrepreneurship of our people we put a man on the moon and less than a decade when you realize where we started from that was a really big feat we can do this we were challenged to do that today the average american doesn't know that oil is probably limited in its future supply they probably are unaware today is an interesting day to talk about the potential for goldman warming because it's the coldest day we've had this this winter but i understand that it's twenty degrees above normal  alaska and twenty degrees above normal today in russia i just wanted to make a comment about some of the potentially unexpected consequences of this climate change if you look at a globe you will see that england is way up there about mid canada and i had to stop for refueling flight in ireland that really is the the emerald isle that is so green and that has a climate like what  south carolina how to have a climate like south carolina at a latitude of of central canada and the reason for that is a huge conveyor belt that carries heat from the tropics to the british isles and europe and that huge conveyor belt is called the gulf stream and the gulf stream picks up heat  the gulf area near the equator and it then carries that like a giant conveyor belt up to the british isles and europe and they have a very moderate climate compared to what they would have in the absence of the gulf stream now water is not piling up up there around europe and england so it's obvious that if it flows up there and carries that heat up there it's got to come back and it comes back by going down and why does it go  down talk about that in just a moment and then it comes back blowing in just as large a volume and just as fast it comes back the lower part of this big conveyor belt again in the tropics picking up more heat and continues this transfer of heat to the british isles and that well very interesting thing is happening to this conveyor belt it of the waters as they flow north they're warm and the sun shines on them and water evaporates and when they water evaporates it leaves the salt there and that makes the water more salty and heavier and of course that's what produces the writings that then drops on our mountains and produces the indirect to solar energy from the waterfalls that that we use ice cap is melting and a lot of that freshwater water without sailing in a very light compared to this heavy water it's in addition to the general global warming of the oceans it's the effect of this polar ice cap melting and strangely the melting of the polar ice cap may so dilute the waters in the gulf stream that they do not become dense enough to drop down to continue this conveyor belt on back down to the tropics and the gulf stream could stop but the gulf stream slows down appreciably or if it stopped the climate in the british isles and in europe would be very very different than it is today now if we were in siberia talking about global warming and so forth we might have a very different view of it it might be hard to convince me that a little global warming wouldn't be good if i lived in and siberia but noting that just this nine degree fahrenheit five degree centigrade change from the ice age has produced the and credible climate changes that we see from that time to this you see the potential for really devastating climate changes as a result of very modest changes in temperature congressman gilchrist you have an observation with you know just for a second on the issue of of the gulf stream and the conveyor belt issue the can as mr bartlett described the conveyor belt is part of this whole system of the climate that we're used to because it creates this heat balance that humans over the last thousands of years have become used to in north america and then specially europe and england and mr bartlett talked about ireland being just about on the same latitude as northern labrador but has a much warmer climate that's partly based on the fact that ocean currents bring warm air to that particular region with global warming the ice cap on greenland which is about six hundred thousand square about five years ago was melting at the rate of about fifty some cubic miles today it's eighty cubic miles of free water flowing into the northern part of the north  atlantic ocean putting mr bartlett's describe more fresh water less likely to sink or drop and create the pump that drives a conveyor belt so the unexpected climate changes instead of the potential for a much warmer climate in europe especially norman northern europe there is a slight chance because of global warming that you could have of a much colder climate in northern europe the british isles as a result of the fresh water pouring into the north atlantic from the melting of the glaciers to stop this conveyor belt from functioning the unpredictability of this climate change as a result of our dependence on foreign source sources of oil and burning fossil fuel i yield back to the gentleman thank you congressman gilchrist and i have both been that twice to antarctica  one of those trips we made together we're on the science committee and we have a large experiment station down there right at the pole when you go to antarctica and that's a continent that nobody owns i think argentina claims they own it russia claims they own it but nobody honors those of statement it's an international area it's got ice piled nearly two miles high so high and so heavy that it's actually pushed the continent down a little bit under it ninety percent of all the world's ice is and in antarctica and seventy percent of all the world's freshwater you take our great lakes and all of the relatively thin ice to the north pole in green and that's relatively thin compared to nearly two miles in antarctica who have ninety percent of the ice down there and seventy percent of the freshwater and  but of all the ice melted in antarctica i'm told that the ocean was the dry ice two hundred feet now that would really really change our world could i don't know what percent of our population lives within two hundred the to the ocean i suspect that it's more than fifty percent if you look around the world of the people who live in less than two hundred feet altitude now there is a an interesting ocean current that goes around antarctica talking about the ocean currents and their effect on climate that's the circum polar currents and what it does it keeps the like our gulf stream will either let the cold air down if it's further south or keep it from coming down a bit further north this circum polar stream around the pole keeps the northern down there of course it's northern waters that are warm keeps the warm northern waters from coming down into into an a and if something happened that stopped that circum polar stream the antarctic polar ice cap might melt much more quickly than we anticipate that it might melt as an indication of how much these ocean currents affect climate about what five years ago i guess it was an iceberg broke off down an antarctic it which was the size of delaware and in spite of the circle polar current some northern warm waters do get through it and down there the temper of the climate a little and that usually melts the sea ice and that's so that they could get a boat in with full of diesel fuel to murdo which is where the one station is you fly from there to the pole and because that big iceberg the size of delaware block the flow of this water that year and that was four years ago it was so cold there that the ice sea ice didn't melt and the closest they could get with the help by the way of a russian ice breaker the closest they could get was three miles out so they laid a hose three miles across the ice to fill their tanks at mcmurdo by the way congressman one of the things that quite amazed me that when i was down there the sun was shining all day long and the wind blew incessantly i didn't see any solar panels down there and i didn't see see any wind machines down there in the summer down there and their summer our winter they could clearly make all of their energy from from the wind and from solar it just reflects the president's wise observation that we're hooked on oil we're so hooked on oil that we're really quite irrational in our use of it you had an economy that was just going to make the first time i went to the and mr barton i have been down there twice the first time i o and then after the the ice shelf that huge chunk of the glacier broke off about the size of delaware it was close to thirty so miles that they had to break that ice from open water all the way to mcmurdo station so a few a few degrees a few changes have some pretty significant dramatic events especially on and and just feel i guess a lighter note on one of those trips i can't remember which one it was we went to  watch the penguins the first time i was in the antarctic they didn't have that far to go to get the open water the adelie penguins the second time as a result of the increasing ice because it was blocked had to go miles and miles and miles and unfortunately really reduce the population of those adelie penguins and that part of the ross ice show you have a very interesting rookery down there we enjoyed seeing that both times i was down we went out to the rectory to see the to see the the big emperor penguins they didn't like us they waddle doff and they scoot along on their bellies when they're moving fast by the way rather than rather than marching well i'm very pleased to have been joined with congressman gilchrist and again i want to emphasize that we have three groups that have common cause those that are concerned about oil and national security those that are concerned about the excessive use of fossil fuels and the climate change that may very well result from that and those of us and i'm with all of those groups actually but i'm particularly concerned about the fact we may muddle through the national security thing and somehow god may save us from the global warming but you know nothing's going to save us if there really is a limited supply of oil so i'm very pleased to be joined by my colleagues and i urge all of those in these three camps we really do have common cause please join and help us do the right thing i yield back gentleman's time has expired tomorrow's house bills include cleaning up meth labs and the los angeles san fernando valley metro rail system plus recognizing max mayfield who's retiring from the national hurricane center and house majority