two thirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended the resolution is a great two and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise better speaker i ask unanimous consent that it shall be in order at this time to consider in the house house resolution nine eighty nine that the resolution be considered as re and that the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the resolution gentlemen is correct the gentleman who else was to spend house is proceeding with business i ask all numbers to take their conversations off the floor i ask members to take their seat thank you texas thank you very much madam speaker it as i was saying i would ask the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the resolution to its adoption without intervening motion except ten minutes of debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman the gentleman from california is recognized man a speaker reserving the right to object and i will not object i yield to the chair of the committee on house administration task force mr gonzales charged with examining the election contest explain the purpose of this resolution resolution nine eighty nine and ask for its immediate consideration in the house the clerk will report the title of a resolution house calendar number one ninety how fragile lucia nine eighty nine resolution dismissing the election contest relating to the office  representatives from thirteen congressional district of florida pursuant to the order of the house today the gentleman from texas mr gonzales and the gentleman from california mr mccarthy each control five minutes the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas thank you very much madam speaker and i would ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend the remarks in the record on this resolution are you myself at this time as much time as i may consume on feb twelfth the committee on house administration unanimously recommended dismissal of the election contest relating to the thirteenth congressional district of florida the late chairwoman when they don't know and are mcdonnell established a task force to investigate this contest kevin mccarthy of california and i had the honor of serving as the chair of the task force after the task force established the need to conduct an investigation every vote by the taskforce to determine the scope and direction th investigation was in fact unanimous i want to thank the members of the task force for their dedication to the investigation and the government accountability office for a systematic investigation of the voting equipment i would also like to thank both the majority and minority staffs along with the house recording studio the task force authorized the g a o to investigate whether the voting machines used in sarasota county contributed to the unusually high number the task force also directed the g a o to evaluate whether additional testing was needed after the g a o recommended further testing in october the task force directed the g a o to design and execute testing to determine the reliability of the sarasota voting equipment the g a o presented its final findings to the task force on feb the eighth two thousand and eight when the g a o report at the sarasota county voting machines  contribute to the large undervote in the congressional race for the thirteenth district of florida the g a o acknowledged that the undervote could have been caused by other elements such as voters who intentionally did not vote in the race are voters was limited to the voting machine malfunction issue due to the geos determination with a high degree of certainty that the voting machines did not cause the undervote the taskforce unanimously recommended to the full committee unanimously recommended to the house that the contest be dismissed irish members to vote in favor of this resolution i reserve the balance of my time the gentleman reserves gentleman from california is recognize or been involved with the task force dealing with contested elections and i believe this is by far the best procedure the has been developed and can help serve as a model for future decisions of the sort i can graduate of the two gentlemen before you who are representing the majority in the minority doesn't the yeoman's work on investigating the issue deciding to pull the general accountability office which i think was a good addition to the entire process a careful examination has made it very clear that there was nothing wrong with the voting machines in this particular election and therefore the contestants claim that the undervote was caused by  by faulty machines is just not valid what the real reasons were we will never know it could have been ballot design it could be several other factors that we've considered but the simple fact is that mr buchanan did win the election and the results of our vote tonight will demonstrate that he did in fact win the election and will remain as a member of the congress i want to want to once again compliment the the individuals here very very carefully very thoroughly contributed a great deal to the discussions and the decisions and i'm just very proud that they help us administration committee has completed this task which can be i can assure you a very onerous and difficult task but the committee has completed very competently thoroughly and fairly and the result i believe is beyond question and this will serve as a model for future expenses situations of this sort opportunity to close in recognize of course the time that has not been used by mr mccarthy the gentleman from texas reserved the gentleman from california is recognized thank you madam speaker mastic i rise today in support of this resolution to dismiss the election contest related to the results of the thirteenth congressional district of florida race in two thousand and six met a speaker i want to congratulate the chairman of this task force mr gonzales it was a three member task force with congresswoman myself every bit of this contest and as we went through studying it and spent the hours on it was a unanimous decision this was a bipartisan movement a bipartisan investigation and i just want to thank the chairman for his professionalism his respect and the ethics in which he carried this out in my former life i was actually a staff member to a former chairman of house administration and i was an individual that investigated some contest elections and i will tell you this is probably the most thorough investigation i have seen we knew after the last election that there were races in this body that were even closer within one hundred votes and we did not contest those as they went forward but we wanted to make sure as this christine jennings moved this debate in this argument as we going through that we looked at every single one i want to thank the state of florida before we even went to study it they went through analyzing all the machines we had the g a o look at every ability of the machines even miscalculating the machines they come forward to make sure they were still correct and the american public can be very proud madam speaker that to know every vote in the thirteenth district was counted the outcome was correct and congressman  elected on that day and still elected today and i want to congratulate the work that is done by the task force and i yield back the balance of my time gentleman gets back the gentleman from california is recognized  again thank you i just i just do when i have some parting words to the members of the task force congresswoman lofgren and of course mark colleague from california congressman congressman mccarthy because it really worked very as i indicated all decisions were unanimous which made the process goes smoothly i also want to recognize congressman dan lundgren from california who is not an official member of the task force but was present during some of the briefings and was very  instructive the last thought of course that we really the task force and the full committee simply were acknowledging their responsibilities as light before this body and that is to determine the qualifications and who actually will sit and take the old and have the great privilege of joining his joining us here and what is often referred to as the people's house and at this time you'll back the balance of my time the gentleman yields back all time for debate has expired pursuant to the order of the house today the  considered read and the previous question is ordered the question is on adoption of the resolution those in favor say aye those opposed no the ayes have it the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table will entertain a one minute request for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina arise without objection so ordered the gentleman is recognized for one minute better speaker community volunteers run our school boards our civic centers and help with youth programs and assist our hospitals they make a difference and so many for so many and ask for nothing more than an opportunity to give richard johnson j is not your average community volunteer and during black history month i'd like to honor him for his dedication to service a community activist and well known civic volunteer richard has has devoted his spare time to promote education health care and politics around the akan area he's not only of and you're in his region he's also served the nation the united states army and is a member of the korean war veterans association each of the board richard service counsels he governs and committee he chairs bears the benefit of his knowledge commitment and experience during this month a third district of south carolina recognizes the true community service of richard johnson jr and i proudly thank him for those he has served in his state and in his for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise eight is a necessary measure but one that only gold half way it cannot substitute for passage of the colombia free trade agreement which is of central importance in defending critical u s strategic interest in the region colombia has been an indispensable ally in the fight to keep drugs off american streets and it has successfully battled armies of narco terrorists even as it has consolidated it democracy it is a steadfast partner in an increasingly unstable region where enemies of the united states and strategic competitors are making rapid advances but the strongest argument of speaker for the colombian free trade agreement is that although it would benefit colombia enormously it would benefit the united states even more those opposed to the colombia f d a do not understand that the existing trade preference sense  businesses easy access to u s markets but do nothing about giving u s businesses greater access to colombia markets madam speaker only the free trade agreement can do that are there further one minute request the chair lays before the house the following personal requests and ease of absence requested for mr bishop of georgia from today mr edwards of texas for today mr ellison of minnesota for today mr lucas of oklahoma for because for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois arise as speaker i ask unanimous consent today that following legislative business and any special orders heretofore enter into the following members may be permitted to address the house revise extend their remarks and include their in extraneous material mr post today mr for five minutes mr jones today for five minutes myself to day for five minutes mr franks arizona today for five for today february twenty sixth twenty seven twenty eight for five minutes each mr jones also for the twenty six twenty seven twenty five minutes each mr pole for the twenty six twenty seven twenty eight for five minutes mr brown to day for five minutes and mr garrett of new jersey for february twenty eighth for five minutes without objection so ordered for what purposes the gentleman from ohio arise yes madam speaker i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders here to four entered into the following members may be permitted to address the house for five minutes three byes and extend the remarks and include there in extraneous material mr de fazio of oregon for five minutes miss kaptur of ohio for five minutes with that objection so ordered the under the speaker's announced policy of january eighteenth two thousand and seven and under a previous order of the house the following numbers are recognized for five minutes each mr  purpose was a gentleman from ohio rise for five minutes and include extraneous material thereof without objection so ordered the gentlewoman from ohio is recognized for five minutes thank you madam speaker the favorite question of political pollsters of late is the benchmark right direction wrong direction question do you think our country is headed in the right direction or the wrong direction this year most people say wrong direction and the reason is because our jobs are headed in the wrong direction there's a new report out by  tech the american manufacturing trade action coalition that details the extent of the job loss in ohio the state that i represent just since two thousand the job washout in ohio over the past seven years is the worst since the great depression the damage to a high of economy has been concentrated in manufacturing sector our farmers are currently enjoying record high prices for corn soybeans wheat and aig but manufacturing is a different story it's the story of loss strength and of lost independence is the story of one of america's largest states teetering on the precipice and the situation in michigan is even more dire our nation has lost three point four million jobs in manufacturing and another seven hundred thousand in the information sector since the beginning of the bush administration in the past seven years total non farm employment in ohio has declined by three point seven percent a loss of over two hundred nine thousand four hundred jobs according to dr charles mcmillian author of the report in the manufacturing sector ohio has indeed lost over two hundred thirty six thousand jobs most of those good paying jobs with good benefits according to the bureau of labor statistics manufacturing employment in ohio dropped from one million jobs at the end of two thousand to seven hundred seventy seven thousand two hundred jobs at the end of two thousand and seven that loss of two hundred thirty six thousand manufacturing jobs represents a twenty three point three percent drop in employment put another way almost a quarter of the manufacturing jobs in ohio have disappeared in the last seven years only three of ohio's metropolitan areas added jobs over the past three years and none of them even match the four point three percent overall u s job growth which by the way is the weakest seven year period since the mid  after world war two akron has the best recent record in ohio adding four point one percent to its job base then came cincinnati and columbus at two percent or less i'm going to place in the record the casualties by  metropolitan statistical area and i would invite all the candidates running for president to get off of their high horses and all these stage crowd rallies and come to us to travel with the delegation from ohio to places like cleveland elyria and mentor which have lost over forty eight thousand eight hundred manufacturing jobs or to youngstown warren that's lost over fourteen thousand or to steubenville where ten west virginia over three thousand eight hundred jobs are descent dusky which i represent having lost over three thousand five hundred more jobs there you have it that's why people in ohio say the country's headed in the wrong direction and why is this happening why has ohio lost more than a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs the main reason according to executive director of bam tech is the bush administration's failed trade policies and i might say the prior administrations as well and the flood of imported products from everywhere in the world china mexico indonesia malaysia the us imported one point three seven trillion dollars in manufactured goods in two thousand and seven alone and we incurred a trade deficit in manufacturing of half a trillion dollars this is not the hallmark of a strong economy this is not characteristic of an independent people and communist china accounted for more than fifty percent of that half trillion dollar deficit in manufactured goods according to am tax america can't keep running on its china credit card to b foreign manufactured goods we need to make things here we need to be a production economy not just a finance economy we have to restart our manufacturing engine according to dr mcmillian the author of the am tech report the jobs only one important part of ohio's past seven years economic story yet these record job losses bear strong witness to the depressing effects of record trade deficits and the loss of us production that they represent another key part of ohio's past seven years economic history is the unprecedented level of household and federal debt that even in ohio played a vital role in moderating the effects of import competition outsourcing and job loss with the soaring engine of household debt now sputtering and debt service payments rising strong industrial and trade policies seem urgently needed to halt ohio's further decline the candidates coming here ohio keep wondering what to highlands care about they care about job creation in the united states of america they care about exploiting goods not jobs they care about independence for america and if you choose of good jobs with good wages and speaker i yield back my remaining time generalists time has expired brought seven hundred forty three pounds of marijuana across the border into texas these two decorated border patrol agents who were doing their duty to protect the american people from an illegal alien drug smuggler have now serve more than a year of eleven and twelve year prison sentences on december the third of two thousand and seven the fifth united states circuit court of appeals in new orleans h oral arguments for the agents appeal during the hearing one of the three judges on the case judge a grady jolly said and i quote it does thing to me that the government overreacted here for some reason this got out of hand a ruling on this appeal is now expected any day and the american people actually slee awaiting the result many of us in congress and millions of american citizens feel that the united states the tourney's office in western district of texas was not justified in indicting these agents nothing can erase the suffering these agents have undergone and the many months they have spent in prison away from their families however a judgment in favor of ramos and copy on in this appeal would be the first act of justice these agents have seen since their arrest madam speaker the injustice of this case should not go on examined a number of days ago i hand delivered a letter to john conyers the chairman of the house judiciary committee and a man i greatly respect to request a hearing on this case they have been many letters sent to the white house by members of congress and the american people calling on the president to pardon these agents as of this time the white house has had not not even responded to any of these calls from the american people that is why it is critical that chairman conyers hold hearings to examine the injustice that comments by the appeals justice judge scuse me are justification enough for the house judiciary committee to review this case to determine exactly why this case got out of hand madam speaker as the american people eagerly await a ruling by the fifth circuit court of appeals my prayers are with the agents and their families it is my hope that the judge's decision will rectify this gross miscarriage of justice and faith in our justice system may be restored madam chair and went before a close tonight i'd like to say to the families of agent copy on and ramos there many of us here in the house of representatives in both parties who have not forgotten this injustice that has fallen on your family and we promise to do our best to see the end justice consent to address the house for five minutes revised without objection so ordered the gentleman from illinois recognize for five minutes thank you like to talk about ten americans showing america's best face from the tenth congressional district today i rise to honor ten very special individuals from my congressional district who are making a difference for the united states it's overseas these ten for the tenth go beyond dedicating themselves to building a stronger community here but also show the best face and values of america overseas marilyn tallman from highland park has been working for more than sixty years leading the fight against anti semitism after a trip to the soviet union in  maryland joined chicago action for soviet jewry to fight human rights violations against jews since one thousand nine hundred seventy two chicago based the highland park bishop cagr action has been a vocal advocate for the third largest jewish community in the world sponsoring fact finding missions linking synagogues with communities in the former soviet union and pressing for legislative action lori dillon from lake forest works closely with eric pace act at the counter trafficking center to support the rescued children sold into child labor in ghana they have been working to save hundreds of traffic children lorie started a pen pal program where children in the lake forest community write to rescue children in ghana offering support she also started a child trafficking awareness initiative at the deer path middle school and lake forest high school where her daughter claire is a soft more zack harris of glencoe it was a neutral freshman when he learned about and studied the conflict in darfur and he became determined to help as an eighth grade student and president of the central school  organized a dance for dar for a fundraiser for the luol deng foundation which works with the world food program in darfur to assist in food distribution the dance for darfur was the first charity dance ever held at the school and helped to wear or raise awareness and over a thousand dollars with over five thousand more can contributed by the community gene marks of northbrook realize that many latinos in the tenth congressional district come from only three villages in mexico lose to the tico and san jose last year northbrook purchased a new ambulance for the fire department and instead of scrapping the fairly operational older ambulance  contacted my office and arranged with our a latino advisory board member miguel as mandy to donate this ambulance to turn a teco mexico the first ambulance they will ever have where it will benefit thousands connie duckworth of lake forest after retiring as a partner at the managing director of goldman sachs she founded arzoo to better the lives of afghan women this nonprofit group provide access to education for many women in afghanistan by selling homemade rugs here in the united states the freddo to foundation in northbrook in two thousand and six susan via koski northbrook and mariana gibbs of gurney founded this foundation to raise money for a girls school in kenya the foundation provides school supplies food and medicines all for fred oda school in kenya international sharing miti ministry in libertyvill was created by libertyville st joseph parish in two thousand and five to build an elementary school for the children of mali seat's attends a nia additionally the organization is now building a guesthouse in moshi to generate revenue for people traveling in the members at sign of the judge church in waukegan and nor chicago to institute a a water system and clean rainwater for local residents and mock masaka uganda this is notable because in his community of south waukegan and there chicago is a lower income community but they are representing the united states very well overseas when the abrams of highland park is one of the leaders in the fight against climate change when he developed and implemented chicago's cool globe's art and public awareness exhibit along the lake front in conjunction with the city a hundred twenty three five foot tall globes were designed for artists on environmental themes to  raise awareness about reducing our carbon footprint the cove alliance of indian creek in april two thousand and five formed a nonprofit organization serving orphans and vulnerable children in central uganda parishioners are actively involved in fundraising as well as mission trips to copycat uganda and finally an honorable mention to dr wayne goldstein who is the doctor to doctors in sierra leone these ten where the  americans have led the best face of the united states overseas from my congressional district and of the gentleman has expired mr franks of arizona gentleman from arizona is recognized for five minutes thank you madam chairman madam speaker i once again stand before this body with yet another sunset when morial is feb twenty fifth two thousand and eight in the land of the free and the home of the brave and before the sunset in america almost four thousand more defenseless unborn children were killed by abortion on demand just today that is more than the number of innocent americans lost in september eleven's tragedy only it happens every day that a speaker has now been exactly twelve thousand eight hundred seventeen days since the travesty call roe versus wade was handed down since then the very foundation of this nation has been stained by the blood of almost fifty million of its own children some of the madam speaker cried and screamed as they died but because it was amniotic fluid fasting over the vocal cord instead of air we couldn't hear them all of them had at least four things in common they reach just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone each one of them died a nameless and lonely death and each of their mothers whether she realizes it immediately or not will never be the same and all the gifts these children might have brought to humanity are now lost forever yet even in the full glare of such tragedy this generation clings to a blind invincible ignorance while history repeats itself in our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most helpless of all victims yet to date those unborn man a speaker perhaps it's important for those of us in this chamber to remind ourselves again of why we are really all here thomas jefferson said the care of human life and its happiness and not its destruction is the chief and only object of good government the phrase in the fourteenth amendment capsulizes our entire constitution it says no state shall deprive any person of life liberty or property without due process of law madam speaker protecting the lives of our innocent citizens and their constitutional rights is why we are all here it is our sworn oath the bedrock foundation of this republic is that clarion declaration of the self evident truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by their creator or with the on anal rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness every conflict and battle our nation has ever faced can be traced to our commitment to this core self evident truth it has made us the beacon of hope for the entire world it is who we are and yet madam speaker another day has passed and we in this body have failed again to honor that foundational commitment we failed our sworn oath in our god given responsibility as we broke faith with nearly four thousand more innocent american babies who died today without the protection we should have given them but perhaps tonight madam speaker maybe someone who hears this sunset memorial will finally realize that abortion really kill little babies and that it hurts mothers in ways that we can never express and that twelve thousand eight hundred seventeen days spent killing nearly fifty million unborn children in america is enough and then america that same america that rejected human slavery and marched into europe to arrest the nazi holocaust is still courageous and compassionate enough to find a better way for mothers and their babies than abortion on demand so tonight madam speaker may we each remind ourselves that our own days in this sunshine of life are also numbered and that all too soon each one of us will walk from these chambers for the very last time and if it should be that this congress is allowed to convene on yet another day to come may that be the day when we finally hear the cries of the innocent unborn may that be the day when we find the humanity the humanity the courage and the will to embrace together our human and our constitutional duty to protect these the least of our tiny little brothers and sisters from this murderous scourge called abortion on demand it is february twenty eighth two thousand and eight madam speaker twelve thousand eight hundred seventeen days since roe versus wade first gained the foundation of this nation with the blood of its own children this in the land of the free and the home of the brave thank you madam speaker gentlemen time has expired the chair recognizes mr brown of georgia under the speaker's announced policy of january eighteenth two thousand and seven the gentlewoman from new mexico mrs wilson is recognized for sixty minutes as the designee of the minority leader thank you madam speaker i appreciate the opportunity to talk to folks this evening about something that's critical to our country ten days ago a very important law and was allowed to expire called the protect america act and it made changes to our foreign intelligence surveillance laws we passed the protect america pair merica act in august of this last year to close a gap in our intelligence collection caused by changes in technology unfortunately that law had a sunset in it it expired after six months the senate passed a bill a bipartisan bill overwhelmingly in the senate and sent it over to the house i believe that that bill if it were b up on the floor of this house would pass overwhelmingly here as well consideration of that legislation is being blocked by the liberal democratic leadership in the house of representatives and it is putting all of us as americans at very serious risk ten days ten days we've been going without the ability to listen to foreigners in a foreign country without a warrant because the protect america act has been allowed to expire wanted to take this opportunity tonight with some of my colleagues to explain why this matters what the foreign intelligence surveillance laws are why we should care no i i believe that the greatest accomplishment of the last six years has been what has not happened we've not had another terrorist attack on our soil since the morning of nine eleven and they have tried the first line of defense against terrorism is good intelligence the intelligence problem has changed since the cold war when i served in the military in the cold war our biggest enemy was the soviet union and we had no doubt about where they were in some ways they were very convenient enemy and they had exercises from the same barracks every year at the same time using the same rail lines in the same radio frequencies they were very easy to find had they ever attacked us they would have been very difficult to defeat but we knew where they were we knew what their capabilities were today the problem is completely changed we have intelligent we have terrorist networks that are hiding in the midst of civil society using commercial telecommunications if we can find what they're doing we can stop them and prevent another terrorist attack it's almost like it's a where's waldo problem you have to find waldo who's hiding in the midst of regular everyday confusion if we can find him we can stop him the hard part is the intelligence problem it is finding him it's and covering what their plans and capabilities and intentions are and so that's why these laws make so much difference we need to be able to listen to communications among foreigners in foreign countries to do so very quickly so that we can act on tips as soon as we get them and use our great strengths in telecommunications twenty cover what our enemies are trying to do and prevent another terrorist attack by then using our law enforcement our military our financial networks to shut down a arrest and in some cases eliminate these terrorist threats i want to talk a little bit about what the foreign intelligence surveillance act is for and then one of my colleagues has joined me here from oregon and i will yield to him whenever he is ready to to speak the foreign intelligence surveillance act was put in place in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight it was the result of some abuses by the intelligence community where they had been listening to americans and it puts in place protections for americans so that if you are in america and for foreign intelligence reasons  government wants to listen to you they think you're a spy you have to go to a court and get a warrant that's the basics of it but we do not require warrants and we never have under the or it was never intended under the initial law to require warrants to listen to people overseas america spies on its enemies we are trying to figure out what the north koreans are intending to do whether they have developed a nuclear weapon whether they're going to sell that