be offered by the guest chaplain the ships are all to a right senior from greater miller memorial church of god in christ warren michigan nation we thank the for a beautiful and bountiful america was people of all classes colors and creeds we are grateful for workers in industry farmers doctors nurses teachers and ministers we thank the four soldiers sailors and airmen who guard and protect us day and night we thank the for all forms and levels of government local state and national and most especially for this our united states congress we now pray that they will give them courage and strength to provide honest government for our nation above the provisions to meet our needs lov invite all to join in the privilege of reciting this pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republicans for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all  the bishop is very well known in detroit and we've known each other since the one nine hundred fifty s even before coleman young became the first african american mayor of our great city he has a number of responsibilities but the one that i enjoy bringing to the membership's attention is that he is a founding and supporting pastor miller memorial church of god in christ number two located in haiti and of course we're honored to have his lovely and gracious wife  robin l wright who is the senior supervisor of the church of god in crisis japanese jurisdiction and in addition to being an evangelist she's also a writer and a great help to the bishop we've known each other across the years and i remember coming to him the first time i heavily on his favorite scripture romans four twenty one and being fully persuaded that which he had promised he was also able to perform he exemplify  fellow man allowing his words to always bring grace to the here he constantly speaks words of hope spreading the good news to all he practices evangelists and that reflects christ like compassion to reach the world and the gossip of bishop earl right senior is a wonderful man of god and i'm happy to know him and to welcome him to the floor of the house madam speaker today the house will consider one of the most important piece of legislation that we worked on this year the defense authorization conference report include provisions to restore our nation's military readiness as well as protecting our troops this critical bill restores our military readiness by author ing authorizing one billion dollars for strategic readiness bonds that were acquired and up status of our forces especially our national guard and requires a plan to reconstitute that force this legislation offers assistance to our most precious and important resource our warriors and their families who sacrificed so much it provides a three point five percent pay increase for service members prohibits increased health care fees why improving the health care system the bill addresses growing needs of our troops that were  require care in traumatic brain injury post traumatic stress disorder other mental health conditions to wish an assistance program and also authorized the unique program that was started in my state of minnesota called beyond the yellow ribbon to reintegrate our forces back to civilian life madam speaker i'm proud that this congress will pass a legislation this week to provide our troops with the resources and health care benefits they deserve and protect our nation's readiness i yield back for what purposes the gentle eighty from increased funding provided in a bill that passed the house and senate months ago and the president is waiting to sign this bill includes increase funding to improve access to medical services for all veterans new initiatives for mental health and p t increase funds for improved medical facilities and increase funding to assist homeless veterans to name a few the democrats have refused to move the bill forward while our veterans have been operating on an extended shoestring budget since october one two days from now their current budget will expire if the democrats are acting in good faith and in the best interests of our nation's veterans why have they continued to delay this bill and why do they now intend to use our veterans to pass an end of the year spending package the veterans bill could be passed and sent to the president and signed today i'm calling on the speaker to move the bill forward and i call on all i can to contact their representatives to tell democratic leadership to researching illness and disease or whether we should cut funding i hope we will learn the lessons about the right priorities from a group of high school students in my congressional district at north fork high school two of their teachers mr pendergast and mr deutsch were afflicted by ls lou gehrig's disease alice strips people of their ability to speak to swallow to walk in many cases to breathe independently now these students could have ignored their plight the student could have said we have other priorities the students could have said that's not my problem not our problem here's what they did they raised over four hundred thousand dollars on their own for a less research and advocacy they didn't just turn away from this problem they became part of the solution on january sixteenth they're going to gather at their midwinter's night's dream and raise even more money these students have become our teachers i hope that we will learn their lessons about investing in the right priorities about caring and showing compassion for those who need help they have taught us a critical lesson and i hope that we will listen carefully to the students  madam speaker the pentagon said last week that layoff notices for army employees could start going out the middle of this month merry christmas here's your pink slip may sound like a harsh way to greet an employer this time of year but that is what the defense department will be forced to do with civilian employees and contractors in the run up to christmas because congressional leaders refused to negotiate with the president fund our troops in the feel the department of defense has been forced to cut spending in other areas in order to pay the bills for continued operations in iraq and afghanistan even as our troops have made major security gains in iraq the democrat majority wishes to pull the plug by cutting the funding to support their mission i believe we're sending exactly the wrong message to the men and women who serve in our armed forces not funding our troops each day that goes by without such a bill is a failure of the leadership of this dysfunctional congress i yield back to minion specter webb purpose the gentleman from california  objection gentlemens recognize thank you very much about him speaker when the democratic congress was elected last november we pledged to enact measures to protect and support our military troops and veterans since taking office we've honored that promise by import passing much important legislation this year the house has passed the largest increase in the veterans health care in the history of the veterans administration has made major improvements in equipment and training including the protecting the mine resistant ambush protected vehicles that reduce the strain on our servicemen and protect them in iraq and i and afghanistan today we continue that commitment by passing the defense authorization conference report which includes much needed three and a half percent pay increase for our troops improves military health care and w and requires a report on the current state of writing that's far forces which are stretched very thin madam speaker this congress has a proud record this year of supporting our troops and veterans i hope all our quality colleagues will join in continuing his efforts by supporting the department of defen a half trillion dollars spending bill because they're unable to complete their constitutional responsibility this half trillion dollars spending bill follows a failed energy bill that did nothing to increase our domestic supply of energy and failure to come up with a new four bill families across america are paying higher energy costs they're bearing the burden of higher cost of living and are paying more for their health care we in congress have a responsibility to them furthermore the treasury department waits now to s democrats will tax millions of americans with the a m t with their so called a m t fix the american people want results not politics let's finish the farm bill to provide some stability to our food producers an energy bill to address the un certainty and and fluctuating prices finally let's be diligent with americans hard earned money with responsible spending let's put politics aside let's get our work done and let's give american families  results which they can be proud of i yield back let purposes the gentleman from arkansas one minute that objection gentleman second madam speaker proclamations and commemorations are a wonderful part of the job that we we are honored to have elevation of certain historic events as they are remembered and respected particularly by our young people is so important no one in arkansas is unaware of the significance of the desegregation of little rock central high school in  seven no one in america should be unaware of the courage of the little rock nine that courage is celebrated in one of the two commemorative coins that are part of the u s mint collection this year now i've come here before this morning to let you know if you don't have your order in by december fourteenth which is the end of this week you won't be able to order the coins from u s mint dot gov or call one eight hundred u s mint usa mint one eight hundred usa mint or u s mint dot gov for you folks on the  hill the man is having their annual holiday hill coin sale in rayburn twenty two twenty in which you can buy this coin and also the wonderful coin sponsored by the late representative joanne de was honoring the four hundred anniversary of jamestown u s mint dot gov and you too can send these right for months congress has failed to meet its budget deadlines and now house leadership is trying to make up for the inefficiency with massive pork filled spending bill to fund our federal government this is inside the beltway political gamesmanship americans want change and i came to washington to fight status quo house leadership is essentially blackmailing the american people by saying it will only support our troops and veterans if its budget busting deficit spending initiatives are funded with high gas prices rising health care costs and economic insecurity the last thing michigan families need is more out of control government spending people back home in michigan no higher spending equals higher taxes which is the last thing our hardworking families need let's get to work give our troops fighting the war on terror the resources they need support our veterans and show true fiscal restraint with taxpayer dollars by keeping spending in check and i yield back for purposes the gentleman from new jersey generous recognized but a speaker last week congressional republicans refused to join us in supporting energy legislation that will provide real relief for the american consumer instead republicans once again show that they have no problem doing the bidding of all big oil and the utility companies for too long washington has dragged its feet there now and that they are actually that there was actually an adult you problem this new democratic congress is taking our nation in a new direction our energy security plan is about for those who walk clean and renewable sources of energy right here in the united states over the next ten years this bill will create ten million new green jobs by invest global warming bottom speak at this house has acted now it's time for the senate and the white house to our knowledge our energy problems and join us in supporting this important legislation that's perfect gentleman from arizona r thank you madam speaker at some point this week congress is going to consider a massive omnibus spending bill that rolls the eleven remaining appropriation bills into one enormous bill i wish i could take the floor today and talk about what's in the bill that i can't because i have no idea i'm far from alone save for a few members of the leadership all of us are in the dark about what could be in this massive bill that we're going to be voting on in just a matter of hours with the likelihood of thousands and thousands of earmarks in the bill our constituents deserve a process that at very least members have an opportunity to read the bill before we vote on it now the majority argues that such tactics are no more  egregious than those that republicans employed during our years in the majority that may be true but i would remind my colleagues that that's one of the reasons we find ourselves in the minority today this institution deserves far better i yield back administration proposed a five year interest rate free something that should have angered invest the investor community i should know before i came to congress i was an investment advisor but the investor community was not upset we ask why well the reason why is that the voluntary rate freeze will only apply to a small number of the subprime loans that are in danger of default and foreclosure the center for responsible lending estimates that the administration's plan will affect seven percent of sub prime borrowers this plan is based on the unrealistic belief that the subprime market failure will cure itself leadership is needed to help homeowners and the united states economy the president needs to show support for the house passed legislation that provides additional options for borrowers and distressed and strengthen the regulation of the mortgage lending practices thank you and i yield back the balance of my time for what purposes the gentleman from texas writes quest mission to address the house one minute gentlemen to recognize madam speaker freedom of expression is under attack and our neighbors to the north canada yesterday a sixteen year old girl was strangled to death by her father in toronto canada the reason for the homicide the girl refused to wear the traditional muslim headscarf his job her school friends said that she wanted to be more western but her devout muslim father wouldn't have it so she would move her remove her scarf at school and change into western clothes school officials said that she was an energetic and popular student but she lived in fear of her father and her father has been charged now with murder and her older brother has been charged with assessed rita the crime this is yet another example of religion gone wrong in a society that values freedom and tolerance this kind of behavior in the name of religion is unacceptable our father needs to be prosecuted and sent to prison his actions are not acceptable in our culture no one has the natural right to murder their children in the name of religion backlog at the u s citizenship immigration service agency known as u s c i s in july two thousand and seven the basic bush administration raised the naturalization fee application by sixty six percent from four hundred dollars to six hundred seventy five the fee increase was meant to improve the process of these applications yet recent reports state that the u s c i s is months behind in scheduling so they are even beginning to process these applications th department of homeland security estimates it will take sixteen to eighteen months to process these applications that have been filed by june first two thousand and seven these delays are going to hinder thousands and thousands hundreds of thousands of people from exercising their vote to be a part of history the presidential elections that are coming up in the vampyr how abysmal this is for us to give that information to so many people who are playing by the rules who are waiting in line to become u these are people from across the world waiting in line we have to do something i urge my colleagues decide up to the plate and you back the balance of my time for what purpose is generally for minnesota ri without objection the gentle eighty's recognize thank you madam speaker tis the jesus this season to be jolly for americans unless of course you happen to be a tax planner or a tax payer wondering if your finances are going to throw you into  confusion when you file your tax return in april of two thousand and eight i do the current tax filing mess because the majority has failed to repeal the alternative minimum tax the average tax increase for tens of millions of americans will increase by over two thousand dollars children hope for candy or presents and their stacking and not a lump of coal but since one thousand nine hundred sixty nine the tax alternative minimum tax has represented a lump of coal for millions of americans we should do right by the american people madam speaker put an end to the alternative minimum tax once and for all that's a christmas present every american can use and i yelled back gentle idea back for what purposes the gentleman from tennessee right gentleman is recognized thank you madam speaker last night about it with the great majority in this house and everyone but one republican on a resolution to recognize the benefits the honor of christmas and the christian religion i would read that resolution and agree that christianity is a great great religion a lot to be learned from at the teachings of jesus are wonderful i would ask my colleagues on the republican side who voted for this the members of the senate the president to remember those teachings and do god's work here on earth there but for the grace of god go i do unto others as you'd have them do unto you the president supposed to be vetoing the chips build a day which would give health care to children that's not the spirit of saint nick or i believe in the tradition of the christian religion or the judeo christian religions nor is it in that same spirit that we would take away from people that need help with college education with health care aaron was research for diseases and for responsible fiscal policies and for taking care of god's earth i would ask that we not just pass resolutions and name but in spirit and we honor the great religions and do god's work on earth thank you madam speaker lady from new hampshire writes generally distractedness madam speaker over the last six years more than one point six million american troops have been deployed to either iraq or afghanistan to implement the bush administration's military strategy these troops and their families have really sacrifice and now the majority of the families believe that the war in iraq was not worth fighting the president won't listen to the generals perhaps he'll listen to the military families according to a new poll from the l a times nearly six out of ten military families disapprove of the way the president is running the war in iraq fifty eight percent of military families in general think we should withdraw within a year and sixty nine percent of those who have been in iraq the families would like to begin withdrawal within the year these findings come just days after the pentagon and now it's a temporary tour of duty extension for all active duty soldiers that will keep them deployed for fifteen months rather than twelve men stagger our troops and their families deserve much better than this let's ask the president to listen to the generals and listen to the military families  resolution eight sixty resolved that upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider the conference report to accompany the bill h r two hundred eighty five to authorize appropriations for the fiscal year two thousand for military activities for the department of defense for military construction important defense activities of the department of energy to prescribe military personnel strength for such fiscal year and for other purposes all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration our way section two the house being in possession of the official papers the managers on the part of the house at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two houses on h r thirty nine three shelby and they are hereby discharge to the end that h r thirty nine three and its accompanying papers be and they are here hereby laid on the table florida is recognized for one hour madam speaker for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary thirty minutes to my friend and colleague from washington on the rules committee mr hastings all time ilda during consideration of the roll as for debate only i ask unanimous consent that all members have five man speaker house resolution eight sixty provides for consideration of the conference report to accompany h r fifteen ninety five the national defense reauthorization act for fiscal year two thousand and eight under the standard conference report men speaker today the congress will promote a stronger and safer america by approving the national defense authorization conference report and this role as a member of the house armed services committee which is chaired by the distinguished gentleman from missouri mr skelton i'm pleased to report that the committee has worked in a bipartisan manner to ensure that our brave men and women in uniform have the tools they need to keep america safe and strong military personnel and their families have sacrificed so much in past years and continue to do sell in recognition of their services congress is proud to make important improvements in military pay and benefits we have raised the pay of our brave men and women in uniform beyond that level set originally by the president and when our brave men and women in combat are injured in the line of duty they deserve the top quality medical care the walter reed scandal drew back the curtain on some of the challenges that the military community faces when it comes to serving our brave men and women when they return from the battlefield unfortunately the military health care system was not providing consistent excellent care for our wounded soldiers so madam speaker one of the highlights of this bill are our efforts to improve assistance to wounded warriors these provisions have been worked on throughout the year in a bipartisan way to improve the health care for our wounded service members because they deserve nothing but the best we move beyond the support our troops rhetoric and enact substantive improvements that will restore confidence in the quality of care that our brave men and women in uniform deserve when they return from the battlefield this includes assistance to their very supportive families because supporting our troops is not simply mean that you salute and send them off to war and then ask them to serve and sacrifice for our great country but supporting our troops means that we continue to support them when they return home so this bill improves the screening for traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder and i'm very proud to to say that the efforts of my hometown v medical center the james haley medical center which is home to one of the four poly trauma centers in the country where we have so many dedicated doctors and nurses and psychologists and folks in physical therapy they're so dedicated to these brave men and women that come home with the worst injuries but we've got to do more and that is contained in this bill this bill also mandates that the secretaries of defense and veterans affairs establish a standard for rating service members disability and that takes into consideration all of their medical conditions an important part of improving the health care mental health care for our wounded warriors is tackling the bureaucracy that has blocked their access to health care so we require expedited action provide medical advocate we improve support services for families and elevate the care for traumatic brain injuries and aid the poly trauma centers in v a hospitals across the country that are serving the most critically wounded troops this bill also blocks an increase that was proposed by the white house to health insurance premiums for military families and troops under the tri care system inexplicable how the white house could propose health insurance premium increases at a time when we are asking so much of our brave american men and women in uniform so proudly the congress in a bipartisan way block these health insurance premium increases madam speaker we know that because of the multi year sometimes seemingly unending war in iraq that the readiness of military  our country has suffered over the years well this bill restores the readiness of our armed forces including equipment repairs with our that our soldiers go to battle with the most up to date equipment available in terms of  we have authorized monies for a new strategic readiness fund and to address equipment efficiencies we have all heard stories of soldiers especially the folks in our national guard and reserves who are having problems with equipment shortages and even receiving than a very training that they need before heading off to war in some cases the national guard has been unable to help in the traditional disaster response roles in their local communities due to this problem well this bill tackles that so we can improve the readiness of the national guard and reserves so they can do their job safely efficiently and  bill also calls for greater accountability over the waste in fraud in iraq that has been on has been all too prevalent under this administration this includes the troubles we've had with the various contractors as we see from the fallout of the blackwater contracting debacle so there's been so much waste and fraud in contracting in iraq and under this white house that we're not going to put up with it any longer this bill substantially improve the oversight of the multibillion dollar and sometimes sole source contract that have been approved during this war in iraq the armed services committee under chairman skelton's leadership also requires additional accountability measures for afghanistan including a new inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction as we cannot sanction the waste and fraud that has accompanied the administration's iraq reconstruction man speaker many believe that because of the white house's preoccupation in iraq that that preoccupation is short changed the focus in afghanistan where the taliban allowed al qaeda to flourish some years ago and after all the ungoverned and dangerous tribal areas of pakistan are just south of the afghan border indeed just yesterday listening to the defense secretary and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in the armed services committee it became apparent that we're not able to do as much as we would like to do in afghanistan because of the resources that have been overwhelmingly devoted to iraq well in this bill we direct more attention doppler ations in afghanistan in addition to an inspector general that will oversee reconstruction efforts this bill contains a long term plan to improve stability in afghanistan madam speaker many of the unsung heroes of our armed forces whose missions you never hear about are the brave men and women in america's special forces i'm very proud that the headquarters of special operations command is located in my hometown of tampa florida at the mcdill air force base will this defense bill under democratic leadership not only fully fund our special forces but goes beyond the bush administration's budget request for these brave men and women including a number of needs that were not supposed to be funded by the white house that all our commitment to special forces recognizes that we cannot rely overwhelmingly any longer on conventional forces in defense of our country we've got to be smarter we've got to be more strategic and this bill authorizes the increases in special forces and also on a new it and also a new emphasis on more strategic action oftentimes to win a struggle it's more strategic and smarter not to go in with guns blazing but instead to work with folks on the ground to prevent any terrorist inclinations from air ever developing and this buildout that we will invest additional resources to improve education and analytical intelligent surveillance we harness the science and technology innovation in this great country by investing in information technology and other technology to make sure that our troops on the ground have the best technology available across the globe mount speaker this defense authorization bill in this role charts a new direction for true readiness accountability and more strategic investments to protect our national security and improve the health care needs for our wounded warriors and does a better job of helping our families work through this unending maze of benefits and paperwork that come for caring for an end injured soldier i urge full bipartisan support and i reserve the balance of my gentle lady reserves gentleman from washington madam speaker better speaker this rule out for the consideration of the conference report to accompany the national defense author race authorization act for fiscal year two thousand and eight this conference report is largely bipartisan as it should be and is an example of what democrats and republicans can accomplish when working together this conference report contains important authorizations for increases in force protections and retains provisions of the overd warrior assistance act by passing these provisions we will help provide the tools needed to protect our men and women currently deployed in the global war on terror we will be setting up the improvements needed to en excellence in our military and veterans care system there are also provisions in this conference report that are and that are of importance to those that i represent in central washington this conference report authorizes twenty nine million dollars for the acma training center this funding will be used to increase the science of the army's training space allow for urban operation training and support the digital systems used by today's stryker forces this new range is expected to be completed in august of two thousand and nine and will provide critical training for i active duty in army reserve soldiers in addition i am please this conference report extends the operation of the on bud's been for the energy employees occupation illness compensation program act the ombudsman office played an important role in assisting workers at hanford and other sites seeking illness compensation that they are due and i might add my timbs madam speaker this issue goes way back to the second world war when we were involved obviously in atomic power hanford which is in my district in a county adjacent to my district played an important part of that in there oh and those workers that work at those sites in many cases gave the ultimate is our men and women overseas did but in a in kind of a different setting and this compensation program i think is very important for those that worked at the hanford site and other sites during the second world war so massacre again like to stress that this conference report was achieved in a bipartisan manner and i hope to see more bipartisan conference reports but brought to the floor as congress wraps up its business in this first session of the hundred tenth congress so as this first session of the hundred first hundred ten congress comes to a close i am disappointed that democrat leaders are still intent on micromanaging the war on terror by blocking the funding requested for our troops on the battle food at a time when both democrats and republicans r c n recent progress in the war on terror this approach frankly a matter of speakers strikes me as unnecessary divisive and dangerous if a supplemental spending bill is not signed into law soon some army civilian employees may get layoff notices before the christmas holidays and if this funding continues to be delayed department of defense officials have reported that it could affect as many as two hundred thousand civilian employees and contractors so man speaker i'm also concerned as a democrat leaders continue to use delaying tactics to block a vote on a file on a final bipartisan bill to fund veterans services this inaction is causing our veterans to lose critical funding each and every day as i have done in the past ma'am speaker i will later be asking my colleagues to defeat the previous question in order to appoint conferees and quickly a prove a veterans funding conference report that again has strong bipartisan support and which is long overdue  madam speaker i reserve my time generally from florida madam think i'm very pleased to yield three minutes to the distinguished chairman of the armed services committee the gentleman from missouri mr skelton congratulate him on his outstanding leadership and shepherding this bipartisan bill through the congress gentleman from missouri is recognized i thank you john lady for yielding to me of course i rise in support of the rule for this conference report on the national events authors ation and i will speak more at length of this issue later today after we had the privilege of passing a rule on this floor but i must say madam speaker that in my years of being here in the congress this is the most comprehensive well thought out as and studied authorization bill that we've had at saxon for the troops it's excellent for the families and their health care it makes great strides in the area of readiness and i just feel like bragging on all the members of house armed services committee and both sides of the aisle and course it couldn't be done without the crackerjack staff that we have and we're just absolutely blessed with the dedicated training people it gives an across the board three point five percent pay raise protects him from escalating fees for health care includes over one hundred measures large and small for quality of life we combine the best elements of the wounded warrior act that was passed here in the house by four hundred twenty six to zero as well as a companion bill that passed the senate w many parts of this bill that are new that will help us in the area of national security all the more and i will at link discuss risin in strong support of this rule and in the conference report for fiscal year two thousand and eight national defense authorization act and i would certainly like to commend chairman skelton ranking member hunter for standing strong throughout conference negotiations and representing us so well during these proceedings and madam speaker i think it it proves as a right as out my colleague from washington just stated mr hastings that that in support of our soldiers sailors airmen and marines who are bravely defending us both at home and abroad madam speaker as we move toward adjournment it's essential that we pass this legislation which covers an extensive range of issues this obeid really important to our armed services from my three point five percent across the board pay raise to an additional seventeen point six billion dollars an increase of thirteen thousand army and then thousand marine personnel active duty personnel and in a time when our guard and reserve forces have been so heavily utilize it appropriately includes guard empowerment provisions not to speak although or i do remain concerned about the overall underfunding of missile defense and the lack of full funding for our european missile defense site i am thankful that the con significant livery stored funds for certain critical missile defense programs i am also proud as my colleague from washington state made note that the wounded warrior legislation is included in this conference report which will help our injured heroes for all as they face challenges encountered on the road their long road to recovery additionally the legislation authorizes one hundred eighty nine point four billion dollars in supplemental funding to support current operations in the global war on terror and it fittingly recognizes the dangers posed by a precipitous withdrawal from iraq by providing increased funding for force protection and for the repair and replacement of battle want to quit and this legislation authorizes the necessary supplemental funding to give out a ploy soldiers the resources they need to continue taking the fight to the terrorists and i'm further very please what the work the committee has done this year to authorize funding of twenty f twenty two raptors in land with the current multi year contract the f twenty two matter speak as world's most capable fighter and these funds will go a long way towards providing stability for our forces and ensuring that america does manned tain air dominance for the forseeable future madam speaker section twelve fifty seven of the contre conference report  firms that the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation acronym when say is an invaluable education and training facility which is apartment of defense should continue to lead you to laz in order to promote for a number of years madam speaker and know how important that is important for my colleagues to remember that when sec may be the only medium we ever have to engage future military and political leaders of these latin american countries if we were not to engage with the ne these nations in this way the void created would be filled back countries with different values than our own regarding democracy and yes human rights countries such as venezuela and chana whose influence in the region is growing so therefore i am so proud that congress stands behind when say a family man a speaker i would like to take this opportunity to again recognize our fallen soldiers a brave young man from my district who royally gave his life for our country sergeant paul sailor from bremen georgia his remains were not able to be viewed for a final time upon being returned to his family two years ago last year's authorization bill h r fifty one twenty two included a provision which requires that all medical personnel be trained in remains preservation to ensure that these fallen heroes get the and respect they deserve this is the least that we can do for the families as they are grieving so much and i'd like to thank my colleagues for following up on this measure by honoring my request for a report on this program  bill and i i want to certainly take an opportunity to thank paul's parents jamie and patty sailor for their help in this regard madam speaker there is much to be proud of in this bill again commend chairman skelton and ranking member hunter for their efforts to keep this bill focused on the needs of the war fighter in this spirit our job my colleagues in these days ahead let's abandon any defeatist rhetoric any puttering gentleman is recognized as thank my colleagues to to ask my colleagues to abandon any defeatist rhetoric in any partisan bickering which only serves to demoralize our troops and yes to embolden the enemy so we must stand united in provid our troops every need to resource to send a strong message to these terrorist and eyelashes that the resolve of our great nation is stronger than it is ever been mounted speaker all our job members vote in favor of the gentleman to recognize gentleman from florida and i thank the chairman for his leadership as well as ranking member hunter and i want to talk specifically for a couple of minutes about two provisions that this bill includes that i introduced one of them involves a bill h r nine hundred forty four dealing with traumatic brain injury which is the signature injury of the war in afghanistan in iraq and what this legislation that we're voting on today says is that the department of veteran affairs will treat traumatic brain injury and do screenings and treatments in a way that is much more put together than has been done in the past it's going to create a national registry it's going to create a long term system for traumatic brain injury screening and treatment and it's going to create a coordinated network throughout the nation that's going to help our brave men and women who are affected by t b i secondly i also introduced an amendment during consideration of this bill dealing with family and medical leave and what this legislation does is allow family members for our brave men and women serving in the guard and reserve to use family and medical leave act time to see off to see the deployment or to see the members return when they come back and to use that importantly to deal with economic issues and get the household economics in the water so this bill is going to dramatically impact people's lives and i'm proud to have played a very small part in it but i do want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership and madam speaker i also thank the gentleman from florida for allowing me the time to speak today thanks to me in fact gentleman from washington so i can amend the rule to allow the house who immediately act to go to conference with the senate on h r twenty six forty two the military construction and veterans affair funding bill and to appoint conferees and speaker i'm disappointed that a final veterans funding bill is sitting waiting to be acted on and that the democrat leaders have bent over backwards to prevent this congress and this session from passing the final bill democrat leaders the house used to name conferees and instead have chosen to put partisanship and politics of head of ensuring our veterans needs are met they have been stalling since september and they have ignored the fact that the new spending bill began october first of this year nearly two months ago or over two months ago since the beginning of the new spending year our nation's eight million veterans have been waiting for their thirty seven billion dollars in promised veterans benefits sadly each day democrat leaders chose not to act and move for and if i don't final funding forward our nation's veterans lose eighteen and a half million dollars since if a fiscal year begin seventy three days ago our nation's veterans are out one point three five billion dollars but what is even more disappointing is that this bill has almost unanimous unanimous support from republicans and democrats yet we are not being allowed to pass it into law in we're getting to the winning days of this session meanwhile our nation's veterans who have sacrificed so much on behalf of our country are left paying the price is time that a speaker like in the underlying bill at this rule makes an order to put partisanship and politics aside and work together to do what is in the best interests our nation's veterans i see a no better time than right now by defeating the previous question the house will send a strong message to our veterans that they have our commitment to a friday and then with the funding increase a need deserve and were promised once the democrat appoint conferees the house can move forward and pass a standalone veterans funding bill it will pass with strong bipartisan support by him speaker so i ask unanimous consent to have the text of the minute in extraneous material you madam speaker then speaker irons approval of the defense authorization act h r fifteen ninety five and this rule this bipartisan bill improves military readiness it demonstrates our commitment to our brave men and women in uniform including a three point five percent pay raise for these brave folks a commitment to the national guard in our reserves and an expansion and great improvement in the health care provided to wounded warriors who return from the battlefield the bill also also increases overside and restores accountability over the waste and fraud that has occurred in the war in iraq madam speaker this  america safer and stronger i urge you yes vote on the previous question and on the royal back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution question is on order in the previous question on the resolution doesn't  the gentleman from california madam speaker by the direction on the committee on rules i called house resolution eight sixty one and ask for its immediate consideration circle report the resolution house calendar number one sixty eight house resolution eight sixty one resolves that upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house of the bill h r forty three fifty one two and then the internal revenue code to provide individuals temporary relief from the alternative minimum tax and for other purposes all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived this get except those arising and laws nine or ten a rule twenty one the bill shall be considered as read all points of order against provisions of the bill our way the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill to final passage without intervening motion except one one hour of debate equally divided in control by the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means and two one motion to recommit section two during consideration of h r forty three fifty one pursuant to this resolution not withstanding the operation of the previous question the chair may postpone further consideration of the bill to such time as may be designated by the speaker gentleman from california is recognized for one hour thank you madam speaker for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary thirty minutes to the gentleman from washington mr hastings alltime yielded during consideration the rule is for debate only recognize madam speaker the house resolution eight sixty one provides for consideration of h r forty three fifty one the alternative minimum tax relief act of two thousand and seven under a closed rule the rule provides for one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee on the ways and means the rule waives all points of order against consideration of the bill except for clause nine and clause ten of rule twenty one finally the rule provides one motion to recommit with or without instructions madam speaker the democratic philosophy is believe in pay as you go in other words we believe that you should live within your financial means every family that makes these choices around the kitchen table every month in order to live within its budget understand that simple fact of life the federal government used to understand this too in fact the clinton administration and the democratic congress worked with republicans on a bipartisan basis and turned decades of exploding but budget deficits into four straight years of budget surpluses through the use of pay as you go or pay go rules in this house the use of pay go through the one nine hundred ninety s and early two thousand helped lead to the first federal budget surpluses in over thirty years at that time and we saw record economic growth during that period which resulted in the addition of twenty two million american jobs and in that time america actually began to pay down the national debt to foreign nations despite the proven success of paygo president bush and the republican congress abandon the paygo rules in the year two thousand and two allowing it to expire with no interest in reinstating it according to the bush administration's own numbers president bush's policies are on track to increase the federal debt by over four trillion dollars by the year two thousand and eight it took madam speaker forty one presidents combined to accumulate the total of four trillion dollars in debt this means that the debt america incurred over the first two hundred plus years of our nation will be doubled in only eight years under the bush administration worse madam speaker about eighty cents of every dollar every dollar of new debt year two thousand and one has been financed by foreign investors including foreign governments especially china this is resulted in fifty four percent of our nation's debt now being owned by the following countries china japan saudi arabia and iran at the start of the year to the one hundred tenth congress democrats provided real choices and a new direction for america we made good on our commitment to pay go and did what six years of republican congresses before us refused to do we restored paygo rules to make sure that we do not spend more money than we have once again the pratik leadership brings to the floor h r forty three fifty one the alternative minimum tax relief act of two thousand and seven that provides millions of middle class families with economy without increasing our national debt h r forty three fifty one prevents twenty three million families from being hit by the a t m a m t excuse me and it helps twelve million children by expanding their to child tax credit the republicans will surely say that this bill raises taxes but that is far from the truth let me sec the record straight right from the beginning this bill closes tax loopholes that allows a privileged few on wall street to pay a lower tax rate on their income than other hard working americans such as school teachers and police officers and firefighters and our nation's veterans this bill stop hedge fund managers making hundreds of millions of dollars from using offshore tax havens to avoid paying income tax while other middle class families play by the rules and play by their fair pay their fair share it also prevents multinational companies from shifting their income to offshore entities and from creating sham corporations in tax friendly jurisdictions to avoid federal taxation i you know we'd all love not to have to pay our taxes why should we allow these big corporations to who can go offshore to avoid paying their fair share it seems only fair that of hardworking american middle class families play by the rules and pay their fair share that the wealthy and huge multi national corporations that are gaming the system should pay their fair share as well madam speaker this congress has made great strides to get our fiscal house in order if we want to continue down the path  fiscal sanity we must make sure that every piece of legislation we consider including this bill fixing the a m t complies with the pay go rules the blue dogs in the house democratic leadership are standing strong behind our commitment to fiscal responsibility through paygo i would like to thank speaker pelosi and leader hoyer and chairman rangle for their unwavering commitment to sticking with the paygo rules i would also like to reiterate to the other body that our leadership is committed to abiding by the paygo rules and not considering any an a m t bill on the house floor that is not fully paid for madam speaker the nine point one trillion debt that arcot country has irresponsibly racked up nearly half of which has happened in the last six years must be paid back and it will be paid back by our children and our grandchildren if not by us we need to adhere to the old adage that we should we should provide a better life for our children than the ones that we found ourselves quite simply we should be investing in our children's future and not borrowing from it i strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make the right choice today to stand by paygo today to stand by paygo tomorrow and support  common sense legislation i reserve the balance of my time as an unreserved gentleman from washington thank you madam speaker and met a speaker i want to thank the my friend the gentleman from california mr cardoza for yielding me the custody customary thirty minutes permanently to give one worth one year's worth of tax relief let me let me repeat that madam speaker this rule provides for consideration of a tax bill that would raise taxes permanently to give one year's worth of tax relief they empty was an acted in one thousand nine hundred sixty nine to prevent a small number of wealthy taxpayers from using at that time the gentleman deductions and credits to avoid paying taxes altogether back then the tax affected only one hundred and fifty five people the super rich the a m t was never adjusted to match inflation therefore the a m t is affecting more and more taxpayers today without fixing the a m t problem millions of taxpayers will be hit by the a m t costing the average taxpayer about two thousand dollars when republicans gain can gain control of the congress we passed legislation to protect american taxpayers from the unintended consequences of the bracket creep of a m t unfortunately this measure was vetoed by president clinton so here we are again today try in a temporary protection of taxpayers to temporary protect x players from the mt the longer we wait to fix the a m t the longer it will take for the i r s to make the necessary changes in the tax forms and to process tax return tax returns under the changes in the law that is for this tax year as of right now the democrat majority is failure to pass and a m t fix will force the i r s to delay processing tax refunds in till mid march  likely to do to delay returns for over twenty million taxpayers who currently would be subjected to the a m t but who with the patch would not have to pay the mt this comes out that i'm speaker to about seventy five billion dollars interest tree interest free loan to the federal government from the taxpayer and paid for by the taxpayer i support fixing the a m t trap but it is a tax that was never intended to occur it is going to affect millions of americans but the democrat leaders and house are making it nearly impossible to help these americans let's just pass a bill to eliminate the tax stop using this tax relief bill to raise taxes by over fifty billion dollars just as disappointing as the tax increases including the bill is tax relief that is not included in this bill and i'm talking about a particular loophole in the tax law and i'm dismayed that an extension of the sales tax deduction is not in this bill the sales tax deduction for those states that do not have a state income tax it's a matter of fairness they empty fixes for one year i think it's only a matter of fairness to extend the sales tax deduction for those states that don't have a state income tax for one year i attempted to offer an amendment in the rules committee last night to allow me to offer an amendment to close this loophole or adjust this loophole on the floor today to extend the sales tax deduction again to those states that don't have state income taxes it was a fee that unfortunately on a party line vote of two to eight with every vote democrat voting to block allowing this amendment to meet and be made in order including two members from florida who which is one of the eight states that is affected by this legislation but there is another way there is another way madam speaker and the house will vote today on extending the sales tax of action so it doesn't expire at the end of the year if you are from washington florida texas tennessee nevada wyoming south dakota and alaska join me in voting no on the previous question i will then amend the rules that we can to vote to extend a deduction and modify this loophole as i was talking about ensure that our can constituents in states that do not have a state income tax are treated fairly so madam speaker with that i reserve the balance of my time gentleman from california thank you madam speaker i'd like to inquire how much time remaining we have on you to sign sentiment from california has twenty two and a half minutes remaining thank you madam speaker at this time i'd yield two minutes to my friend the gentleman from california mr costa who has been a champion of the paygo rules and fiscal responsibility since the day he walked into these howard halls i thank the gentleman from california my good friend congressman cardoza for yielding the time for me to speak in support of this rule madam speaker what we're really talking about here this morning is do we choose the easy road  least resistance to provide tax relief with the alternative minimum tax or do we choose the more difficult role that requires fiscal discipline that requires us to be honest with the american taxpayers as to how we are plotting our fiscal priorities for our nations today tomorrow and for future generations to come we're debating the alternative minimum tax relief of two thousand and seven it's important to tax relief for millions of americans i support this legislation as it stands now is actually the second time in recent months that the house will send a paid for a paid for alternative minimum tax relief to the senate it's important that we do this according to secretary paulson and the department of treasury unless we fix the a m t twenty five million taxpayers will be subject to it in two thousand and seven that's twenty one million more americans than in two thousand and six however it is important i believe and i think many of those in the blue dog caucus feel as well that we pay as we go that we provide the paygo provision that has been in every measure  that has passed this house since january of this year peggle was implemented by the democratic congress actually back in one nine hundred ninety it was signed into law by the elder president george bush and it was part of the rules of the congress for eleven years it was a tool that we put in place to rein in deficits that the federal government experienced since the early one nine hundred seventy s this congress pledged to reenact that pledge  to the american people to bring our house passed back in fiscal order we have kept that prague promise since january of this year every single bill that we have voted on again as i say has complied with a paygo rule gentlem to ask thirty more seconds please close tenements i think it's important that we note that our current debt is nine trillion dollars anough is enough much of that that is old by foreign nations we can pass today the alternative minimum tax act by not borrowing money from china because of this pay go provision i want to thank the leadership of this house for sticking with paygo and i urge my colleagues to vote for this measure the rule and the underlying i agree with them wholeheartedly as speaker at this time i'd like to yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from oregon a member of the committee on ways and means mr bowman our i appreciate the gentleman's courtesy i listen to my friend from washington repeating the same lame line from the talking points from my republican friends they knew this was coming yes president clinton vetoed a flawed tax measure back in the previous administration what have they been doing for the last six years when they controlled everything they decided not to deal with the alternative minimum tax they made a cynical decision to cut taxes for those who are the most fortunate in this country and be able to use this money in the budget calculations to be able to justify these massive budget of these massive tax reductions they spent this money and they count on spending this money for years to come it's in president bush's budget we reject that cynical effort we implored them time and time again when they were having their tax reductions to deal with the alternative minimum tax this fiscal tsunami that's going to sweep away middle and upper middle income americans they refused they bet on the other side now we are coming forward not with a tax increase but with an at a tax adjustment the federal government will get the same amount of money it's who are you going to benefit we're going to save twenty three million americans from paying the alternative minimum tax making some reasonable tax a judgment and not putting the cost of this at on the credit card of our children sentiment from washington are you myself a two m recognized i appreciate my friend from oregon making his remarks i'm glad he acknowledges that president clinton clinton vetoed the permanent tax relief from the a m t i agree i appreciate the gentleman making of let me make my points and evolve the more i have to deal every since that time i might add i might point out to my colleagues that there has been a one year fix and we know that this we know at this issue is coming we know that this issue is coming it needs to be resolved it hasn't been resolved and we know that that it won't be resolved by raising taxes on other people now i know my friends the other side of the aisle can say no these are adjustments if there are adjustments that i hope they'll acknowledge  acknowledge with me that what i'm trying to do on the previous question is to make an adjustment for those states those are those considered people in states that don't have a state sales tax to make that adjustment so they can have fairness across the board  tax on their federal from their from their federal income tax i'll be making that motion madam speaker on the previous question and i'll be happy you are my friend thank you i just i appreciate you know we were sort of finalizing history here and i pre you're referring to that but i i wanted to just is it not true that for the last six years when you were in control you made a decision to have other tax cuts that were financed in part by the assumption that we're going to collect real this a m t don't reclaiming my time the gentleman is is not correct on that because in all the budgets that we put together there was never a provision that said that this income was something  that we would use that is either way in your budget you do it with a mechanism called the reserve fund which says that you have to offset but i will say this and i will talk about economic policy and tax policy because the tax policies that we have put in place with the tax cuts in two thousand and one and two thousand and three we have seen an extraordinary strong economy in this country i think that is pretty hard to refute and and so i just want to point out to my friend with that i reserve my time now i have  gentlemen remind our men members to address the remarks to the chair gentleman from california yes i'm sick i'd like to allow mr bloom an ar fifteen seconds to quite my good friend from washington i talk past the point those budgets assumed the alternative minimum tax president bush's budget assumes the alternative minimum tax and i want to make clear that this is something that we are simply not going to do in the really we're not going to continue their practice of assuming this tax to be able to finance other priorities gentleman from california thank you man speaker at this time i'd yield one minute to the gentleman from tennessee mr cooper a former co chair of the blue dog coalition and a great member of the spouse who's committed to fiscal responsibility gentlemens recognize from one minute i thank my friend madam speaker there's no reason to make this debate more complicated than it is it all revolves around a very simple but vitally important principle whether the united states government pays its bills we think that it should the principle is called paygo pay as you go i'm thankful that thirty one blue dogs have signed a letter saying that they will not vote for anything that means the free lunch mentality of the past i'm thankful that so many of our progressive friends across the caucus have similarly strong feelings and i'm thankful that our democratic leadership has put in paygo what alan greenspan said was the single most important domestic reform that we could undertake let's stand for fiscal responsibility in the south america must pay its bills thank chair of the blue dog coalition and someone for the last eleven years who has fought hard on this particular issue and to bring fiscal sanity back to our country gentleman from florida striking me madam speaker i thank my friend mr cardoza for leading this debate and let's be very clear i think it's well understood by the country the fiscal recklessness of the period the six year period from january two thousand and one to january two thousand and seven recklessness which included record spending levels at the same time revenues were being reduced to a level that created record deficits during that period of time which are going to have a serious negative effect on the future of this country the economy the cond of life that our children and grandchildren will see if we don't get under control this recklessness that has been demonstrated over the last six years since the two thousand presidential election madam speaker you you have to fix those problems by first of all believing in some principles in that principle that we believe in is that if you're going to have a program your be willing to pay for it we all understand that the serious consequences of the a m t and we want to fix it but many of us believe that if you're going to fix it you're going to do it in a revenue neutral way that is the difference between this leadership and the previous six years leadership which says just damn the port torpedoes full steam ahead tax cuts and increase spending it doesn't make any difference as long as everybody's happy at the moment the children and the grandchildren want to pay that bill madam speaker in the end and i want to thank the speaker of the house nancy pelosi and  two minutes to a member of the rules committee the gentleman from texas mr sessions sentiments rex i thank the gentleman from pascoe washington madam speaker you know we're sitting here watching our good friends on the other side talk about all this great work that they've done how fiscal responsibility is so important and all these problems with the country and yet we're sitting here in the middle of december with ten out of the eleven spending bills not even done because the democrat majority is interested in spending record levels of money more and more and more money and talking about tax increases taxes that continue and keep going and yet they want to stand up and eat both sides of that cake and talk about fiscal responsibility and how nancy pelosi is our speaker he's done such a great job well madam speaker i would like to encourage my friends to go home maybe on a weekend sometime and talk to people and find out about how well we're doing how well we're doing is not well get well understood by the american people because we're up here and can't even get our work done and yet we're up here crowing trying to take credit for all this great work that's been done and not of its past not even a negotiation with the press in the white house no negotiation bills that show up seventeen hundred pages worth of a bill last week that we were given twenty minutes before the rules committee went in we find out all sorts of earmarks billions of dollars worth of earmarks and then we have people that come down here and start crowing about fiscal responsibility that's malarkey that is ridiculous we're trying to get our work done and we're over here standing up acting like we just won the race american people know the difference we're here today to say the republican party is here to say we're going to try and get our work done and we're here to show up and to try and do that work we're waiting for those other ten out of the eleven bills to come to the floor we're waiting to be able to see those bills so that we can know what's in the bills and then one side stands up talks about fiscal responsibility absolutely we take you back might that gentleman from california thank you and speaker at the gentleman who just spoke talked about malarkey i would say that his side the house should know about malarkey after they raise the federal deficit over four trillion dollars in the last six years i'd now like to yield one minute to the gentlewoman from california ms harman a member of the blue dog  bill i strongly support a m t relief for fifty five thousand taxpayers in my congressional district and twenty three million americans nationwide but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it simply providing relief to this generation while raising taxes on future generations is the wrong way put another way the fifty billion dollars price tag for this a m t vote can either be paid for responsibly or we can send the bill to our children and grandchildren in my seven terms in congress i have always supported fiscal responsibility and have made scores of votes that are faithful to that principle among them was a career risking vote in one nine hundred ninety three for the clinton budget my vote in one nine hundred ninety four to cut one hundred billion dollars from federal spending my vote in one nine hundred ninety seven for a balanced budget my vote against the bush tax package which provided unnecessary relief for the top tax brackets and now these a m t votes madam speaker i dedicate my vote today to my first grandchild lucy and to her brother and cousin who will be born early next year gentleman from washington that is speaker how much time is on each side a gentleman from washington has twenty one without objection much madam speaker thank you madam speaker i just don't get it i just can't figure this thing out under the democrats logic they are saying that we have to increase taxes to avoid a tax increase we have to increase taxes to avoid a tax increase that's what the fiscally responsible thing is for us to do madam speaker last saturday morning i had the privilege of writing in the glendora christmas parade glendora california beautiful pride of the foothills they call the city and as i arrived i happened to a run into a guy called marshall mao who's a former city council member and that great city he worked for the u s postal service for many years and the first thing he said when he looked to me is what are you going to do to make sure that we're not victimized by the alternative minimum tax and i told him we have tried time and time again to do at least what's called a one year patch a one year patch which would ensure that twenty three million aren't going to be saddled with this unfair tax and personally i'd like to flat out repeal completely the alternative minimum tax now let's remember what the alternative minimum tax is back in one nine hundred sixty nine we found the democratic congress found that there were one hundred and fifty five americans who were millionaires and they weren't paying their to fair share of taxes they of course were doing things legally they had all kinds of investments they were creating jobs but they weren't paying their fair share of taxes so called and so the alternative minimum tax was put into place to go after those one hundred and fifty five million americans who many believe were cheating somehow and not paying their fair share and what has happened will do to bracket creep we now see twenty three million americans and i like to describe as mr speaker madam speaker as unintended consequences it's one of the things that we often don't think about in this institution when we try to pass sweeping legislation well intentioned but sweeping legislation and that's one of the framers of our constitution james madison especially one of the process of lawmaking to be very very hard very very difficult and i see my friend the single chairman of the committee on appropriations here mr olby and i will say that it's very clear that medicine's vision i guess is working now when you look at how hard it is for us to get our work done how hard it is for us to get through this appropriations process and i'm very very relieved that many of the things that this new majority would like to put through which i believe in many ways undermine what the american people want like putting into place a massive tax increase to avoid a tax increase can happen and they're not going to happen the distinguished ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means mr mccrary said yesterday all we need to do is take the last debate that we had on a m t pace that thing in and then we'll see exactly what happens we know that our colleagues on the other side of the capitol are not going to accept this and so what we need to do if we in fact are going to ensure that the american people are going to get that much needed relief from the alternative minimum tax it's very important for us to do everything that we can to try and come to an agreement as quickly as possible we know what that agreement is we know what we're going to agree to we're going to agree to what we've done in the past a one year patch to ensure that these twenty three million americans don't get this massive tax increase mr speaker is that madam speaker is i listen to my colleagues i was just told by one of our staff members that they've been talking about how horrible the last six years have been how often the last six years have been well i'd like to remind i'd like to remind our colleagues of the fact that we got a report two weeks ago of the third quarter gross domestic product growth rate that we've had in this country it's four point nine percent i'd like to i know our colleagues who continue to wring their hands over the deficit yes i'd like to see the deficit lower but as a percentage of our gross domestic product the deficit today is eighty one billion dollars lower than it had been projected in february of this year putting it at one hundred sixty four billion dollars now people don't often think about the fact that the united states of america as a thirteen point three thirteen and a third trillion dollar economy  thirteen point three trillion dollar economy clearly the strongest most dynamic economy that the world has ever known do we have problems of course we do i mentioned at the outset some of the one of the communities are oppressed represent in southern california the sub prime issue is something with which we're trying to contend and to work through if you look at the value of the currency if you look at lots of other issues out there we do have problems but this notion of claiming that the last six years have been a living hell for all americans is preposterous what we need to do is we need to make sure that we do everything that we possibly can to rein in wasteful federal spending make sure that we pursue opportunities to open up markets around the world for u s workers to be able to export into those markets we need to make sure that we continue cutting taxes so that we can see the kind of economic growth that we've been enjoying in the past and so that's why it's silly for us to be sitting around wasting our time wasting our time doing exactly what we did last week on the so called alternative minimum tax when we know exactly what is going to happen here at the end of the day we're going to have madam speaker a one year patch to ensure that twenty three million americans don't face a massive tax increase let's this crazy notion that we've got before us the distinguished chairman of the appropriations committee and an absolute champion on this issue mr oakley gentlemens recognized madam speaker i would just like to respond briefly to some of the a few minutes ago under which the clinton administration was attacked for supposedly not correcting the alternative minimum tax problem i want to read from the administration's statement when the president vetoed the record budget reconciliation bill which contained the so called eight a m t fix the president the president pointed out at the time that in addition to supposedly dealing with a and with the alternative minimum tax that that bill would have cut medicare by two hundred seventy billion dollars it would have cut federal medicaid payments to states by one hundred sixty three billion dollars it would have virtually eliminated the direct student loan program it it would have provided huge tax cuts over forty percent forty seven percent of the benefits would have gone to the top twelve percent of earners in the country and i think that's enough said if you want to understand why the clinton administration vetoed the bill it was not because they were against  an alternative minimum tax fix in fact the president specifically supported it in his comments what do you objected to was using the alternative minimum tax proposal as a trojan horse to bring to bring in huge gifts for the most well off people in this society paid for by huge tax i mean by huge funding cuts for those in our society who are the most vulnerable and the president didn't apologize for his actions at the time and we shouldn't either it was the right thing to do back you're back the balance of the gentleman from washington you myself two minutes and then speaker germans recognize the right a great deal of respect for the previous speaker of the chairman of the appropriations committee he is always been one that believes that this house ought to do their work and he is working extraordinary hard to make sure that this house does their work on the appropriation process but i find it ironic that in the gentleman's remarks talking about what happened with a bill that at the present clinton vetoes because there's a lot of at least inference is a lot of extraneous stuff on that bill my goodness how history repeats itself because here we are in the closing days of the first session southern tenth congress and what are we contemplating we are so many rumors around here about an omnibus bill and we know what on of those bills are there are so many things that are stuck in there to extract votes that  generally they come out after the fact embarrass is that the institution and yet receive the going going exactly down the same path i appreciate the gentleman for acknowledging that the president clinton did week about everything put into one package and maybe we should take my friend from wisconsin's remarks and just repeat them again because history does repeat itself and with that i reserve my time gentleman from california tha time i would like to inquire how much time either side has remaining gentleman from california has twelve and a half minutes gentlemen from washington has thirty minutes thank you ma'am speaker at this time i'd like to yield one minute to my friend the gentle lady from connecticut  gentle lady is recognized and figure i ride today strong support of the rule we are considering in the bill the a m t relief bill last month this congress stepped up we passed responsible legislation providing millions of hardworking middle class families with the tax cuts they need and they deserve and were back today working once again to protect over twenty three million middle class families from the encroaching alternative minimum tax my home state connecticut failing to act on the a m t would be new taxes on three hundred fifty eight thousand eight hundred forty two households including almost sixty seven thousand in my district this is must pass legislation for our families and for our changing economy i chairman rangle for leading the way for providing relief in a way that allows us to get our fiscal house in order by sticking to the paygo rules that this congress adopted this legislation also includes a long overdue expansion of the child tax credit last year because of the way the laws are written seven million children most of them infants and toddlers and working families across the country remained in eligible for even a partial credit this year we do better we return to the original intent of the child tax do thirty second generally is recognized by lowering the earnings threshold to eighty five hundred we will capture additional millions of children who will be eligible for this tax credit and the families of ten million others will receive larger refunds with this bill we have an opportunity to help these kids i urge my colleagues to vote for this rule and to pass this legislation gentle lady effect gentleman from washington thank you thank you  minute the gentleman from indiana mr burton you know we had probably close to eleven hundred votes this session we've been here since january we in fact january we had more work schedule than i've seen in a long long time because january is usually a light month but we had all those votes and here we are with just a few days left in this session and we haven't done a darn thing in my opinion the accomplishments of this conduct congress under the democrat leadership has been a big zero the appropriation bills that the president wanted to sign to get through this process have not been given to him and now you're going to come up with an omnibus spending bill right here at the end with a lot of pork in it that nobody knows what's in it and you're going to present that to the american people as a job well done well it is not a job well done that on them a spending bill  has all that pork in it that that we've heard of the president's likely to veto and then we're going to come back with a continuing resolution to get us through the the end of the year into the middle of january so i just like to say to my democrat colleagues whom i respect a great deal we haven't i mean i just like to say to my colleagues whom i respect a great deal the promises that you made at the beginning of the year when you took charge of this house have not been met we have not gotten anything done of substance and we're going to leave here with a continuing resolution with a omnibus spending bill that may or may not be vetoed and the american people are going to wonder what in the world's in that bill so i just like to say to my colleagues i'd like to say job well done but i can will again remind them first to address their comments to the chair gentleman from california thank you madam speaker i have a distinct honor to yield one minute to the gentleman from new york a member of the rules committee and a member of the blue dog coalition the gentleman from new york mr curry gentlemen to recognize i think my friend and colleague for yielding madam speaker i stand today in strong support of this rule a rule that  so that student loans are increased pell grants for increases that our children who go to college leave college with less debt less saddled for the future when i think of the sacrifices that parents make so that they can help their children through college so that when their children finish college they're not saddled with debt those are the kind of considerations that we need to take into consideration today in fixing the a m t so that we don't saddle our children with incredible debt in the future that we fix the a m t and we do it in a responsible way so i am proud to support this rule and i yield back the balance of my time gentleman from washington i reserve my time as the i'm underserved gentleman from california thank you men speaker at this time i yield two minutes the gentleman from texas a committee on a member of the committee on ways and means in the budget committee a distinguished member this body mr duggan gentlemen specs and i thank the gentleman responsible pay as you go government is a significant part of the new direction to which this congress committed our country last january and now is hardly the time to abandon that important commitment for seven years spend and borrow republicans have seldom met a problem in this country that they didn't address by borrowing more money and incurring more public debt now when america faces i credit crunch they say get more credit insist on boring even more money to finance another tax cut age under republican rule the a m t the alternative minimum tax has been turned into the aggressive middle income tax republicans were so busy treating the federal  to finance tax cuts for the wealthy that they largely forgot about the need to permanently fix the a m t affecting the middle class we need that permanent fix that president bush continues to refuse to support but correcting and reducing the a m t can be accomplished in a fiscally responsible manner we democrats understand that discipline is required for fiscal responsibility you simply cannot wish away a race a mountain of debt the way they are right the cia torture video this bill pays for the a m t fix in part by adopting the abusive tax shelter shut down act that i first authored in june of one nine hundred ninety nine and which year after year house republicans have blocked indeed they blocked it even after senate republicans approve the m today we can stop corporate tax dodgers from shifting the tax burden to middle class families ensuring both tax fairness and fiscal responsibility i yield back the answer back gentleman from and speaker i rise today in support of this rule in support of fixing the alternative minimum tax and my southern arizona district over forty thousand families are going to be directly impacted if this congress and our president do not take action the a m t was never intended to impact middle class families that is why we must fix this tax that allows families instead to make decisions about investing into their futures this is a critical critical priority as a blue dog member i'm pleased with the this bill also respects what americans respect what arizona's respect which is fiscal accountability and that is why this bill is offset it in terms of closing a tax loophole congress have to play by the same rules that our families in america play by balancing budgets being fiscally responsible and this is a priority that we're going to continue to push and push and push today we're standing strong for tax policies that help middle class families the backbone of america and i urge members to support the rule and support fixing the a m t thank you gentleman from california thank you men speaker at this time i'd like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from tennessee a member of the ways and means committee founding member of the blue dog coalition an absolute champion on the issue what this rule embodies a fundamental principle of responsible stewardship of this country and that is to live within our means and pay our bills there some folks around here who apparently don't believe the laws of arithmetic apply past the steps of the capitol of the front door the white house well they do and there are some who said don't matter but if that was true we just borrow what we need to get along and forget about it not have any tax code at all everybody knows that that is ludicrous what we have witnessed over the last seventy two much i something that has not occurred in the history of this country since seventeen seventy six and that is the willful and knowing climbs into debt by our continued refusal to pay our bills when they say we can pass the i m t fix and we don't have to pay for it because it was never intended own these folks and therefore it doesn't exist if asked said that in tennessee they would say of been in washington too long we've got to get him home that is absurd the arguments to justify borrowing more money right now for all future generations plus us to me are the worst of political rhetoric somebody is going to pay this bill we've asked the c b l and i say if we don't pay for it instead of fifty billion dollars with kerry with the interest kerry it'll be eighty billion dollars and so it's not unlike a credit card we have a nice us credit card here  i think we are looking at warning signs all over the world when people begin to talk about the dollar when the dollar has fallen to where it is to when people say maybe the euro is a better alternative for us right now than the dollar these are warning signs that this country cannot and must not continue down this fiscal path all of us took an o to up all the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic i think the financial vulnerability that has been created and a in a way that has never been done before go to the s treasury website this administration and this congress over the last six years before last year when we started trying to pay the bills borrowed more money from foreign sources than all forty two administrations before it put together that's not a political argument that was our numbers and the more we do the more the interest is we have transferred over seven hundred billion dollars in interest payments to people around the world over the last this year we have removed basically from the tax base that we had in the summer of two thousand and one one hundred and thirty one billion dollars by c b s calculations every year when we don't pay the bills when we pass these these measures when we don't pay for him what we are basically doing is an acting tax on the american people in the form of interest by myths that cannot be repealed that is wrong it is i think a violation of our oath of office to continue to argue that we can pass bills without paying for mr speaker and mr carrados i thank you the rules committee for bringing i know their bill here and i hope our colleagues here in the house and the senate will understand what we're trying to say thank you  he'll prevent is the gentleman from california mr campbell tell me it's recognized for three minutes thank you mr speaker you know i find this whole debate rather perplexing what the already party is saying is that in order to leave people's taxes the same in order to leave them where they are now they have to raise taxes on somebody else they have to pay for leaving your taxes by raising taxes on somebody else now that's just warped logic but let's just accept that warped logic for a minute and let's say that somehow leaving taxes alone required being paid for what about reducing spending to pay for it where in this rule is the ability to have an amendment to do that what about reducing spending instead of raising taxes now later this week we are likely to see a gigantic budget bill that will spend the fifty billion dollars more than last year where is the pay for that now that's pretty clear if you spend fifty billion dollars nearly fifty billion more than last year that's a clear increase in spending for which you would think someone would want to pay for it but instead here you're going to leave people's taxes alone the same as last year and somehow that's a tax cut that has to be paid for the logic is so distorted here and the rationale is so distorted let's go i haven't spend all this extra money and not pay for it you know that if you held the line on spending and didn't increase that spending this year and you looked at what that did over a ten year period you could almost pay for repealing the alternative minimum tax completely but no that is not what the majority party is doing that is not what this rule talks about that is not what this rule  this will continue it was this distorted logic that says that spending more money is ok and doesn't have to be paid for but leaving people's taxes alone is not ok this rule and this proposal should both of those i yield back the balance of my time in the u s bank joan from california speaker i'd like to inquire from the gentleman from washington that he has a main speakers this is speaker i have no more requests for balance of the time there's a speaker let's put this things in perspective this democrat tax plan essentially allows the state sales tax deduction for those states that don't have a state income sacs to to expire residence of state has no income tax deserved to be allowed to duck their state sales tax from their federal income tax bill to meet mr speaker it's a matter of fairness which is why republican congress acted in two thousand and four to restore the state and local sales tax deduction this law provided tax fairness to washingtonians and those who live in other near in non income tax states for the first time in nearly twenty years now this deduction mr speaker expires in just days at the end of this year but this house will have a chance to vote today today mr speaker to extend the sales tax deduction by joining me in voting no on the previous question i will then amend the rule to allow amendment to be offered on the underlying bill to extend the state and local sales tax deduction for one year just for one year it's a matter of fairness to all the members from washington florida texas tennessee see nevada wyoming south dakota and alaska vote no on the previous questions that we can give state sales tax deductions a fair deduction for our constituents this is a is going to raise taxes by fifty billion dollars the very least we can do is to extend the sales tax deduction out of fairness now mr c speaker let me be very very clear because there's been a great deal of discussion on the floor today about paygo i think paygo has a lot of merit i happen to disagree as it relates to this particular tax plan and the underlying bill but there's been a great deal of discussion about bagle so let me make perfectly clear this previous question vote does not waive the paygo rule it's pre previous question is defeated in my men is made in order to pay go rule is not waived if a member then wants to raise one in it when the issue is on the floor a the republicans have said that this bill raises taxes but that's far from the truth let me again as i didn't my opening set the record straight this bill closes tax loopholes that allow a privileged few on wall street to pay a lower tax rate on their income than the average hardworking american does on their income that includes school teachers and police officers and firefighters our nation's veterans and frankly even us privileged that are able to serve here as members of congress mr speaker the republicans need to make a choice today are they going to stand with tax cheat and hedge fund managers or are they going to stand with the twenty three million hardworking americans who will be affected by this policy mr speaker the house of representatives is united in our commitment to fiscal discipline and ensuring that government live within its means the democratic congress pledge to exercise spending restraint and to stop shouldering our country's needs on the back of our children and grandchildren we strongly urge the other body democrats and republicans to have the courage and good sense to keep the promise they made to american people to be good stewards of their taxpayers dollars we can't  choose and we comply with pay go rules if we want to reserve if we want to reverse the irresponsible fiscal policy of the bush administration and the prior republican congresses by restoring budget discipline and getting back on the path to budget surpluses we ensure america is economically strong and that we are not beholden to foreign nations such as china and japan iran and saudi arabia who we are borrowing this money from that we are protecting our social security and medicare programs and that we are paying down the national debt is not a burden that we're going to pay put on the back of our children and generations to come with this mr speaker i urge a yes vote on the rule and a yes vote on the previous question i e mailed back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution what purpose of journalists in new york why mr speaker by direction of the committee on rules i call up house resolution eight six two and ask for its immediate consideration classical report of a solution house calendar number one sixty nine house resolution eight sixty two resolve that upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider and how stability or forty two ninety nine to extend the terrorism insurance program of the department of treasury and for other purposes all points of order against this iteration of the bill are waived except those arising and requires nine or ten of rule twenty one the bills should be considered as read while points of order against provisions of the bill await the previous question shall be considered as altered on the bill the final passage without intervening motion except one one hour of debate equally divided be controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member amber of the committee and financial services into one motion to reco section two during consideration of h r forty two ninety nine pursued to this resolution notwithstanding the operation of the previous question the chair may postpone further consideration of the bill to such time as may be designated by the resolution eight sixty two provides for consideration of h r forty two ninety nine the terrorism risk insurance program reauthorization act of two thousand and seven the rule waive all points of order against consideration of h r forty two ninety nine except those arising under clause nine and clause ten of rule twenty one the rule provides one hour of general debate controlled by the chairman and ranking minority members of the committee on financial services mr speaker i will make my remarks brief we have debated the substance of this bill before in the house passed a similar version in september with the support of three hundred twelve members of this body the measure we will consider today contains many needed revisions to the terrorism risk insurance program to ensure our national and economic security the terrorism risk insurance program was originally enacted as a short term backstop for an insurance industry hard hit by the terrorist attacks that occurred on september eleventh of two thousand and one in the years since we have seen that the private insurance market is unable to cover the risk of the domestic and foreign acts of terrorism without assistance experience has shown that there is a true need for government involvement in terrorism insurance the exposure for private companies is just too great in the wake of september eleventh two thousand and one many companies opted to exclude terrorism risks from private insurance policies leaving no coverage in the event of another attack treat requires primary insurers to make terrorism insurance available to commercial clients that wish to purchase it while at the same time helping those insurers manage their exposure and risk of loss the legislation this will provide for consideration of what extent tria for seven more years this is a shorter extension than the fifteen year extension that the house originally passed but still far longer than the two year extension that was enacted in two thousand and five a seven year extension will provide greater certainty and stability to the insurance and real estate markets  presently exists and that is good for business the legislation would also make several other critical changes to the terrorism risk insurance program it would change the definition of terrorism under tria to include domestic terrorism and reset the program trigger level where the government backstop kicks in to fifty million dollars where it was in two thousand and six it would expand the program to to provide for group insurance coverage it would decrease the doctor bills for terrorist attacks costing over one billion dollars and reduce the trigger levels in the years following such an attack the tree a bill which the house approved in september would have required insurers to include coverage for nuclear biological chemical and radiological attacks and policies they offer however this provision has been removed from the bill because some insurers particularly the smaller insurers raise concerns rick concerns regarding their ability to cover the additional risk when private insurance does not exist to address these concerns the legislation will mandate a study by the government accountability office on the availability and the affordability of private insurance coverage for nuclear biological chemical and radiological attacks this provision represents a commonsense first step in addressing the economic fallout of such an attack mr speaker this legislation is critical in protecting our national and economic security in the fight against terrorism it will also help many of the small and medium sized insurance companies located in my congressional district provide coverage in this ever changing twenty first century i commend financial services committee chairman frank and ranking member baucus for their bipartisan effort to bring this vital time sensitive piece of legislation to the floor thank you and i reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves this time gentleman from texas  opposition to this rule despite my long term support for tria because passion a bill that has already been been pronounced dead on arrival in the senate foolishly puts the reauthorization of this important program in jeopardy as its expiration date at the end of the year drawls ever closer because the democrat house leadership has decided to continue to play political games on this issue by engaging in this game of what i call legislative chicken with the senate the house is set in itself up for potentially allowing this important program to expire an outcome that i believe is bad for continued growth of the american me and is an outcome that i strongly oppose but even if the senate were somehow to miraculously pass this legislation the statement of administrative policy regarding this legislation that was released by the office of management and budget on tuesday makes it clear that president bush will veto this bill in its current form and that any extension of the tree or program must be temporary and short term and include no program expansion and must increase private sector retentions i ask unanimous consent to include a copy of the statement administrative policy for substantially similar legislation explaining the futility of today's legislative exercise and congressional record that objection mr speaker the senate version of this legislation is not perfect however i do believe that on behalf of terrorism insurance policy holders american workers and businesses the health of our insurance marketplace and the continued growth of the american economy it is important for the house to stop playing games with tria and to pass a bill that can advance to the senate and be signed into law all i president bush mr speaker i encourage all of my colleagues to reject this exercise in legislative futility so that the rules committee can instead bring to the floor a rule that would provide for consideration of the senate compromise bill that the house has already received it's time to stop playing games on this important issue and for the majority to finally grow up and lead to protect the american economy from th necessary not only for new york but for the entire country with that mr speaker i would yield six minutes so the gentleman from new york who's been a champion of this legislation mr ackerman gentleman from new york is recognized for six minutes vital program that has made affective terrorism insurance coverage available across this nation by creating a federal backstop to share with the insurance industry the burdens of losses caused by catastrophic acts of terrorism upon our country the certainty and stability the trio has provided over the past six years has allowed large scale developers to plan to secure financing and insurance and ultimately to build the type of multi million or multibillion dollar real estate development projects in our capitalistic system projected a project that shape our city and invigorate the american economy with tree is set to expire at the end of the month i am particularly grateful that our leadership and chairman frank and our friend on the minority side are insisting that congress renewed this vital program before we run out of time and insurers are forced in an act of self preservation to abandon our nation's largest project this rule will allow the house to consider legislation to reauthorize tria for the second time in three months my colleagues may recall passing h r twenty seven sixty one the terrorism risk insurance extension at h r twenty seven sixty one was a triumph and a triumph for bipartisanship regular order good faith bargaining and effective governing it sought to extend tria for another fifteen years and added group life insurance to the program lowered the program trigger provided for nuclear biological chemical and radiological the so called n b c our coverage and most importantly mr speaker h twenty seven sixty one included a so called reset mechanism which in the wake of a catastrophic terrorist attack lowered the nationwide program trigger and decrease the doctor bills for any insurer that paid out after an attack on our country this provision was and is absolutely critical to meeting the man to terrorism insurance across our nation especially in our high risk areas on september nineteenth the house overwhelmingly passed h r twenty seven sixty one with a bipartisan vote of three hundred twelve two hundred ten and with the clock ticking toward the program expiration date we waited for the senate to act and we kept simply extended the program to seven years stripping out the key provisions that were vital and put in there on a bipartisan house passed bill we believe that we would have had the opportunity to negotiate on many of the issues in the conference with the senate but the senate unacceptably and it responsibly has refused again and again to conference with the house on the senate bill leaving us with few but zero options mr speaker this rule will allow the house to consider a compromise bill that accept the senate's position on the extension period as well as the senate's opposition to protecting us with n b c our coverage this compromise bill however does stand firm on the house and key priorities the reset mechanism roof life insurance and lower program triggers passage of this rule will allow the house reaffirm its equality in the legislative process and reject the senate take it or leave it attitude i urge all of our colleagues to support the rule in the underlying legislation and i yelled back the balance of my time  ordered the legislation to be passed also and that's why we're encouraging for the house to agree to the senate version so we can get this done before expiration at the in the year or reserve my time gentleman reserves gentleman from new be one minute to my colleague from the rules committee the gentleman from vermont mr welch telephoned them on is recognized for one minute speaker i'm here to say thank you to the good work of the committee republicans and democrats  also for making an adjustment in the bill that's going to make a real difference to small vermont insurers this bill calls for a study instead of an imposition of an obligation for the n c b r that's the right thing to do second it lowers the trigger  in the tree a program will kick in from one hundred million to fifty million and that's enormously helpful to cash strapped companies that are on the small side so i thank the chairman i thank the members of the committee republican  and democrat on behalf of small businesses small insurance companies i yield the balance of my time to the speaker at this time i do not have any speakers and i would reserve the balance of my time gentleman reserves gentleman from new york thank you mr speaker i yield five minutes to the distinguished gentleman from massachusetts the chairman of the committee on differences over across the building not across the aisle let me begin by saying to the gym texas we agree we will not let this program die and texas knows he's had to sit through this on the rules committee three times here twice this past week because we didn't originally think about taking the bill the senate head passed amending it and sending it back i am disappointed say that we heard from all point that if that happened the senate might be so one able to function as to kill the program the united states senate has perfected something i call the strength of weakness they labor to do anything whatsoever and having done it tell people that if we ask them to change one bit of it they will collapse in a heap it's like the song from across the park someone left a bill out in the rain and they won't be able to remake it because they'll never have the recipe again that's what we keep hearing but on the other hand and here's where i do disagree with my friend from texas i know we've had some disagreements here about the war or preemptive strikes in foreign policy here are disagreement is on the  preemptive surrender in it to branch negotiations i agree that if all else fails and the senate does not act on this bill we will have to acquiesce i regret that i think it w they are all universal but but people are concerned and so we have blocked and we agreed not to endanger the chances of the ship the senate is unable to act on the other hand here's differ i am unwilling at this point to let it end without the senate once again being given a chance to function on several issues the german government just talked about the smaller companies the reduction of the trigger from one hundred million to fifty million was done anonymously by our committee at the request of overwhelmingly of small insurance companies who wanted to be able to ensure that the argument is if they do not have a small trigger many of them would not feel able to bid on insurance for these building projects so i think that's important we have the including a group life insurance i am afraid of the senate version this is kind of the analog of the old neutron bomb remember the neutron bomb  it killed people and left the building standing the senate would have us have a provision that insures buildings but ignores people well people die in these terrorist attacks we will all remember that this congress in two thousand and one two thousand and two i forget exactly when passed a program that cost us billions of dollars to compensate those who lost their lives why should we not allow that to be done to the insurance system that's another think would like to have been there and as part of the life insurance and it's been noted i think  difficulty there is a provision that was not contested in our committee that would prevent discrimination against people who were traveling to places that some companies might think it appropriate to travel particularly israel there's a provision here that says you're terrorist attack would apply nationally so that you don't get only one bite at the at the apple to terrorists use to strike again and i think the major reason for doing three is to neutralize the effect that murderous thugs who wish this country and its people build in our large cities and other areas which are threatened by terrorism because you cannot get the building without a loan you cannot get the loan without insurance and i to hear time line is obviously too short for major jeopardize our ability in the end if nothing else fails to accept the seven years that the senate sent us but i appeal to the members here out of an institutional concern that understand that in the end of the senate the future is to do certain things they may have an advantage but let's not make it easy let's not continue a process by which senators can avoid tough raise some of these issues maybe i know it's maybe in a land of fantasy the senate would vote on some of them and senators would have to decide that they wanted to say no it's ok if you can't travel to israel with your life insurance it's ok if the small companies are kept out it's ok to want to a buildings but not people maybe it will work but no harm will be done i would also add this in terms of the rule nothing in the bill that we are proposing today is new except the senate pay go in every other area and the senate pay go we all agree i believe it should period given the need to do a pay go this is a bill that was voted on and subcommittee and in committee and came to the floor it was amended in various ways it was a bipartisan product in the end the vote was something like three hundred plus to one hundred plus when the bill passed you know in the house not unanimous obviously but with a lot of bipartisanship everything in the bill today with the exception the senate paygo has already been through s committee and the floor but we are saying to the senate there are important issues here on group life on the reset on travel on small companies and we are simply i hope not ready to say them we've all been play dead i agree with i think the questions are timing and the fact of the matter is is that the majority has chosen to not have a conference they've chosen to negotiate among themselves and they have chosen to wait till the last minute and with great respect to the gentleman these are lots of arguments and i could have been making our chairman could have made just several years ago for a number of years with the gentleman yield i would yield to the gentleman i would  one thing it's not the majority here we wanted a conference in the senate it was both parties it was you that was not the majority in the d there was objection more from the minority side so i would only differ with the notion that we somehow we majority decision we asked for a conference and we were told that in a a bipartisan bases over there they wouldn't give us one thank you reclaiming my time where we're not negotiating with the senate we're negotiating with ourself and i believe that what we need to do is get it done now there are reasons why the gentleman has chosen to do what he's done at i really can't disagree with them or really don't from institutional perspective for making the bill better i think every one of these are great arguments i think my point would be similar to what we're trying to make on our side let's get our work done so that the rest of the world and the rest the marketplace can get their work done it's pretty like we're now moving on to middle of december in this expires at the end of december there are lots of paperwork issues the lots of legal issues there are lots of contract issues there's lots of things that need to be done and it takes some period of time we do the same thing with the a m t we're trying to say why don't  rock the boat because what's going to do is put in jeopardy the ability this next year for the arrest even get their work done so the wake up call the head snap is today it's darn near the middle of december i could have completely bought off on everything the chairman said every single word every single philosophy everything he said if this were november fifteenth it is not is their meals on flight or it is time that we get our work done so that the marketplace can get their work done so that investors can know that they're taking care of so that we have certainty in the marketplace and so that we know what we're going to pass with and that's the only disagreement i would to the gentleman i thank you gentleman and if it were up to me obviously we would have done this earlier and the only thing i say yes and i appreciate the spirit of cooperation i only regret that he cannot love me in december as he didn't make retrieving my time if i would say to the gentleman that we believe we should not continue doing what the gentleman is doing we should do what the agreement should be and it done because we believe that there are overriding considerations mr speaker in the marketplace with people who need an answer today to be able to get their work done and waiting until the end whatever that means does not help the marketplace we are not the start all and end all of the world by being the united states congress there's a marketplace out there there are people who need things done new york city is a fine example of where five minutes thank you very much mr speaker there is probably a timing wise no greater no more important piece of legislation for the protection of this country than this trio risk insurance program it is very important that i just start my remarks by responding to some of the concerns that the gentleman raised first of all in our financial services committee this is indeed a bipartisan product republicans and democrats worked on this together now this is also a back hamel institution it is important for the house to have it and put is important for the senate to have it and as a timing matter i critically important for us to make sure that we have incorporated into this legislation important issues that the senate has left out so what we have before us mr speaker is simply a joint product we asked for the conference the conference was not permitted so we have no other choice except to take what the senate has offered and weeks are accepting that but there are some other important points of this legislation that need to be incorporated into this bill and so this revised bill is not a repudiation of what the senate has done it is an acceptance of what the senate has done and it is also recognizing an acquiescence to some of the issues that they raise that we agreed with the no clearly biological chemical way the chemical and biological we agreed with that we would not include so what do we have here and i think it's important for the american people to know exactly this product that we have that we are putting flowered at this point this revised bill would extend tria for seven years just as the senate favors now we in the house asked for a fifteen year renewable for this you talk about stability you talk about making sure that we're responding this is a heavy heavy issue with a terrorist attack but we also feel genuinely that if we're going to offer of this insurance protection for property for buildings my the most valuable commodity that we lose n a terrorist attack is here human life group life insurance should be included in this we are just simply taking what the senate has offered and again extending back as a group in life insurance must be offered in this bill just a moment please the reset mechanism a lowering of the trigger senate wants one hundred million we say fifty million to increase the capacity by encouraging smaller and shearers to provide coverage this is very important as well and as chairman frank just mentioned life insurance for foreign travel why shouldn't people who decide they want to go to a a somewhat dangerous destination as israel would have that life insurance cover and so we are simply adding the reset mechanism that for significant terrorist attacks over one billion dollars to lower the deductibles and triggers to rebuild market capacity and then gradually increase private sector obligations over time we took a lot of time mike ali i'm i'm on the financial services committee we work very hard we had hearings on it we heard from every factor of the community in the financial services and this product that we offered reflected that all we are simply saying is timing is important but why not allow the house which has just as much right as the senate to perfect this important legislation we're taking what they want we've accepted some of the things that they felt were excesses and were simply adding these four major components back to the bill well reset mechanism group life insurance lowering the trigger and life insurance coverage for foreign travel be glad to say the question that i would have for the gentleman is who are you negotiating with and in the senate you talked about these negotiations you talk about who's the negotiation with we're negotiating with whoever would present themselves to negotiate wait on the senate side but unfortunately that has not been successful so what we're offering here  gentleman from massachusetts america today on this and i didn't want to make it in any way partisan but what we've been told is that the senior republican on the committee the gentleman from alabama has gentleman from the financial services committee offering their explanation about this process i would once again remind friends in this great body that there is a lot of work that needs to be done after this bill leaves both of these bodies including a signature of the president of the united states and what we do does matter and is important but it's time we get our work done to allow the people who really do matter and that is the people who are in the marketplace to be able to buy the insurance to make it the bible and to get it ready days from now and it's time to put aside our differences it's time to enter the real negotiation and that is the that have a real conference or we know where people are and get it done or to find a way to cut a deal and instead of come to come back to this body and to once again change the rechange of the change i think is a bad deal so we're going to vote no we would like to get the deal done but not to continue the deal see mr speaker the word lack come from it's results that matter not just reworking the work to rework the work just like what this body has got used to this year with ten out of the lind eleven spending bills not being done and i would remind the majority you've got a lot of work to do there too so that we can have the confidence of the american people that we can not only run the railroad on time but we can make wise decisions where preserve the bounce for time gentleman reserves the balance of this time gentleman from new york speaker i would inquire the gentleman from texas if he has any additional speakers i thank the gentleman and responded to the gentleman i have no additional speakers i have all of our speakers have spoken so i would reserve the balance of my time and as my colleague if you wish to close i thank the gentleman gent from texas thank you mr speaker mr speaker the conversations taking place today is one that was important the republican party does support and thinks what the gentleman is doing is of worthy nature the gentleman mr frank has for a number of years not only spoken about this issue but has worked hard for torres aleutian and we know that if we continue to work together on issues like this we can get things done but getting things done is also important and we think that a bill should have been done in agreement should have been reached before now in the gauche a should should have ended because it's now time to give it to the president  time to give to the market place but also recognize that this is the forty fourth close rule of the session that someone is not really interested in what we think that's why we have forty four closed rules this year so we come to the floor once again the republican party saying you can have it your way we know you've got the votes forty fourth closed rule this year let's get our work let's not have the american people waiting on the house of representatives i know the speaker of the house wants to do things in the way that she sees fit let us get our work done the american people are waiting they're waiting not just on a t they're not just waiting on this bill that we have today they're waiting on like the rest of the government the other ten out of the eleven spending bills and i do think that the american people don't confuse a lot of work that's being done with progress progress is the end result where you get something done and then say we're proud of our effort and all i've heard all today notwithstanding the prior arguments and these arguments that are waste time trying to take credit for everything it would were far short of the runway we're far short of the runway because what we do here must be done right but must be finished and done so the american people and the economy can move forward so i know this is a closed rule if it had been an open rule and that's ok we understand if it had been open rule would have said let's get this thing done let's close it i offered an amendment rules committee the other day that said let's let's take the senate language let's decide we'll just accept what they've done so that we can get it done in proper timing on a party line vote that was defeated so there's a reason why the speaker wants to continue this dialogue there's a reason why the speaker wants to to wait and to hold this out i don't understand it but the republican party once again today is saying we think we ought to get our work done we think we should do what we said we were going to do and we should then let the american public see what we've done and not hide things in secret let's get this done let's get tree a done let's get our a m t done let's get the ten added eleven spending bills done and let's let's show the american people we can do the work which we were we have heard lately especially in the rules committee debate is that this bill is not going to pass the senate this bill is going to get vetoed by the president and therefore the house should follow what the senate's going to do in the house should follow what the president suggests well that's not the reason that four hundred thirty five members of this house were elected we were elected to do what we think is best that what we think is best for this country and not what the senate thinks is best and not what the president thinks is best but rather w the house of representatives thinks is best and that's what this bill is attempting to do give what the house of representatives thinks is best for in this important piece of legislation protecting the safety and security of america is without question the top priority of this institution the horrific terrorist attacks of september eleventh two thousand and one had a devastating effect on many people in this country the attacks also had a devastating economic effect on the commercial insurance market tria has been a success primary insurers are able to write policies in business owners are able to obtain coverage stability was restored to this vital market if we do not act now to extend tree of this program will expire at the end of the month and we will be back where we started after september eleventh attacks we have debated this bill before in the house passed a similar version in september with the support of three hundred twelve members i hope that the trio legislation will consider here today will enjoy the same overwhelming bipartisan support we must not allow the threat of future terrorist attacks to endanger or close valuable businesses because they cannot afford insurance this is not an exercise in futility as my colleague said in his opening but rather an sighs in the subsidy mr speaker i originally yes for on the rule and on the previous question are you back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution without objection the previous question is ordered the question is on adoption of the resolution all those in favor say  eight of route twenty this fifteen minute vote on adoption of house resolution eight sixty two will be followed by five minute votes on ordering the previous question on house resolution eight sixty adoption of house resolution eight sixty eight forwarded ordering the previous question on house resolution eight sixty one and adoption of house resolution eight sixty one if or did this will be a fifteen minute vote