find out what farmers and ranchers thought about how the current farm bill is working and what changes they would like to see made in the next farm bill but we heard most of those field hearings is that in general the two thousand and two farm bill working well for producers and that the basic structure should be maintained the feedback on the two thousand farm bill especially positive when you compare it to the reaction from farm country through the one nine hundred ninety six farm bill which in my opinion was a bad deal for producers and taxpayers likely the ninety six farm bill dismantled the safety net in favor of free market approach to farming was written during a time of high commodity prices under the assumption that those prices would remain i well into the future and this actually a similar situation to what we have today in the price didn't stay high and congress had to intervene spending more than twenty three billion dollars in additional  payments to farmers over the life of the nightsticks bill now the administration is proposing a farm bill that we just had a little over three hour hearing on the committee just now where they're  once again proposing to weaken the safety net for farmers on the assumption that these prices will stay high my opinion we've made that assumption before and if we get real great results and cost of taxpayers money and i to really avoid that serious again in two thousand in contrast to the two thousand and two bill which restored the safety net for farmers has proven to be one of the most fiscally responsible government programs we've had by making payments to farmers when freshers are low and returning savings when prices are high the two thousand two farm bill represented a major policy improvement in one way we've become victims of our own success with the two thousand and two bill about eighty million dollars and while a baseline has increased for some other farm bill programs these increases are common areas such as food stamps which should not count for sixty seven percent of our  budget and they need to be maintained but the bottom line is that additional resources are going to be needed to produce a policy that facilitates a strong farm sector and helps our nation move towards energy independen recommends increased funding for the renewable fuels program one of the biggest developments that agriculture in rural america has seen in a generation of maybe in a lifetime has been the growing demand and expanding market for agriculturally based energy sources routing ethanol and biodiesel and excitement about this exists far beyond just our rural communities as our colleagues from across the country in urban and suburban districts i think  excited about the potential for ethanol and these other renewable fuels as we are to reduce our nation's dependence on foreign energy sources we need a strong energy title in the farm bill harbor we currently have no baseline money to accomplish that i believe that this is a necessary investment that we must make especially to jumpstart the transition from corn based ethanol to psychologic out in all which will provide long term environmentally friendly and sustainable renewable fuels industry in the united states another interesting part of the administration proposal is the additional funding to support the fruit and vegetable industry many of our colleagues in the house as well as the senate aren't agreement that some sort of action in this area should be a priority for the two thousand and seven bill your state u s d a is also calling for an extension of the gulf program the milk income loss contract program it's a long story but this  program that has become very popular amongst very farmers across the country but it currently does not have a baseline the administration has also recommended expanding agriculture can conservation programs the two thousand to farm bill have the largest increase and such programs in department history even so again many of our colleagues are persuaded as a secretary that further expansions are appropriate another proposal from u s d a recommends increases in the food stamp program that would account of the rise in obesity remove the cap on program programs on the programs child care duction and excludes college savings accounts from resource limit calculations and these is addition of these priorities some minor but present perhaps desirable rebalancing and basic commodities programs will be proposed and those will also require an increase in funds available to  committee knowing that you have a difficult task i nevertheless feel strongly that increasing the resources made available for writing the farm bill will serve our nation well and will yield substantial and tangible gains in return the budget committee is an important partner of in the development of this new farm bill and i appreciate your consideration of the case that we're making here today i'm looking forward to continue to work with you as we develop this budget resolution and in the handout i've  included some historical information here to kind of give the committee the lay of the land if you will on where we're after this we have one summary sheet and one goes into more detail  but we have a sixty billion dollars i said reduction in the baseline in the commodity area and all the other parts are up substantially conservation thirty two percent food and stamps the way it's a poll to work and as i've said earlier quite a few of the folks in this area as we travel around the country are saying if we just expanded the current commodity title  that would be something they could live with but there are some issues there that have been bubbling around with especially with wheat and barley in the way they were treated in two thousand and two i made a personal attempt to get additional resources for barley that was unsuccessful and so we have some other information that will make available to you that will some analysis of what kind of safety net is available all these different commodities based on a resources to fix all we're here to plead with you to see if you can help us figure out a way to get some additional resources and then hopefully be able to support you as you move ahead with your budget as well just good luck would you like to answer the yes thank you very much mr chairman mr moore we appreciate the opportunity to make our case for american farmers and ranchers in all of rural america chairman peterson and i are continuing the process of information gathering in evaluating information we've received as we move forward and prepare to reauthorize the farm bill later this year we begin this process more than a year ago with the  farm bill hearing in fayetteville north carolina and convened ten more field hearings as well as several subcommittee hearings throughout the united states since then in addition we held several full committee hearings in washington d c and in total heard from heard formal testimony from one hundred seventy four farmers and ranchers and through our website and other means for input thousands more even now as we move into the home stretch there is still much work to be done we set out on every hearing intent on finding out what farmers and ranchers wanted to see in the next farm bill in turn the witnesses as well as members of the local communities in the audience want to know the situation in washington that would influence the next farm bill while there are myriad of factors that will influence what the outcome of the farm bill will be both mr peterson and i unabashedly agree that it all comes down to how much money is available in the budget today we take the first step to find out how much money will be available for rural america while in the field listening to producers the popularity of the current farm bill was readily apparent so we were proud to hear that farmers were happy with our two thousand and two product i felt the need to caution them that in terms of the budget environment much has changed since then today the budget environment we find ourselves in is very different than that of two thousand and two in two thousand and two we had one hundred ninety eight billion dollars baseline for commodities conservation research and rural development executing nutrition i told farmers that the handwriting has been on the wall for some time in the budgetary constraints we feel now well likely continue into the future most notably c d i was march two thousand and six estimate to continue the current farm bill baseline was one hundred four billion dollars which was significantly lower than the baseline in two thousand and two however in the most recent cvo estimate the projected baseline took another thirty billion dollars hit resulting in an estimated seventy four billion dollars over ten years again that's excluding nutrition programs throughout hearings we heard that some commodity groups wanted a higher loan rate others wanted a more consistent countercyclical program and still others wanted to increase direct payment or a payment of any kind the ideas and suggestions about how we could perfect current farm programs were as numerous as they were diverse differing by commodity and region of the country how each farmer defined an adequate safety net depended upon what he was growing and where he was growing it there was one common issue that we heard from all varieties of commodity producers in every region of the country the increasing cost of environmental compliance farmers and ranchers across the nation from row crop crop producers to fruits and vegetable growers and livestock owners all complained about the cost they're incurring in order to stay in compliance with burgeoning environmental regulations the growing list of requirements thrust upon farmers and ranchers are largely debilitating we heard from quite a few that were so confounded with the increased regulation and sh and depth of the seemingly endless compliance requirements that they were seriously contemplating a career change for most the situation is beyond a matter of profitability which an increased direct payment or a higher loan rate can compensate  has unfortunately become a matter of survivability we must put the taxpayers money where our mouth is we must help those that by the sheer nature of their livelihood aren't near by burdensome environmental regulations and requirement we must offer increased financial assistance to help those who are willing to do the right thing or at least what the law requires but can't afford the cost of compliance i'm not asking the house budget committee to roll back environmental laws rules or regulations i am asking for the resources needed to help our farmers and ranchers who are first and best stewards of the land to comply with the complex and costly web of federal regulation that govern land use our farmers and ranchers will be the first to tell you that their production yields are directly influenced by the quality of the land air and water around them but that responsible use of those elements is absolutely necessary to agriculture production in this country there can be no reservations about the need to assist those in rural america to comply with the numerous laws and regulations that we all too often thrust upon those that are least able to afford compliant mr chairman if i might add to that point more than half of all of the farmers in america do not participate in the commodity programs that are so important to many in many regions of the country they may be fruits and vegetables producers they may be livestock producers any producer of other r crops that do not participate in the major commodity programmes but they all have to comply with environmental regulations and when they do comply it not only benefits their farm but it also benefits those who live downstream downwind in the same community along the chesapeake bay in my region of the country and so many other environmentally sensitive areas in other parts of the country and if we are to take the current baseline for agriculture and recognise that the commodity programs have worked very well and prices have gone high which has resulted in a great bonus i would argue to the taxpayers and to the budget committee but if we operate simply on that baseline and don't recognise that since two thousand and two many circumstances have changed many needs have changed and if we're going to write a new farm bill we're going to have to have resources to do it that doesn't just recognise that we're going to address the commodity programs that we're going to have to address rural america in general and the problems that it has if we operate off the current baseline we will not be able to anywhere near meet those needs if you come from central valley of california they're probably going to tell you it's going to be the fruit and vegetable situation if they come from you know the chesapeake bay area it could be conservation and environmental things so i'm not sure have reached that consensus yet part of part of our why wasn't more specific in my testimony is that we have the body groups in general farm groups coming to a conclusion now amongst themselves about what they think things should look like we've got the conservation people doing that we've got a lot of effort going into looking at the psychological as an all out what we should be doing in those areas  if i had to prioritize them i think one of the most important things for the future of the country is is getting the show you watching us and all of these newer noble fuel opportunities stood up realistic for us to when you have commodity title down forty three percent that we're going to take more money out of the commodity title and put it over into that that's that's not going to work we're going to undermine the shaking out that we put in place we saved seventeen billion dollars over the life of the farm bill so far because we have a shaky now that works and because of this work we have a lot less baseline so i would argue that we're literally the only part of the united states government that's contributed to the by that budget deficit situation i don't know if you can find any other part of the government were worried we cut spending as much as we have in agriculture because the program worked and so we don't want undermine that permanent disaster i think what i'm trying to do there is get away from these ad hoc disasters which we've had to do every couple years because even though we improve the safety net it's we still haven't been able to get at the situation when we have something happen like a hurricane or a drought or whatever we don't know exactly what it would cost us we're not exactly sure how to structure this but i think this would be a good thing for the government for the taxpayers for the budget if we could figure out how to do this and i really believe that if we had a permanent disaster program it would cost us half as much or maybe less of what we're spending on these ad hoc disasters because whenever we do one of those stuff gets added in there that should not be added people get paid that should not get paid because of the ledger quite a process you know and the other body and so forth and so if we could have a formula have a pot of money like they do and i think it would cost us a lot less money but where we get the resources to do that i mean you know they're going to rob rob and peter to pay paul so  if we need to many maintain the safety net that we have in the commodity program we need a little more money for conservation because it was taken away from us by the appropriators we need to do this ruble fuel situation and you know you'll have other people tell you that they're from the city that we need more money in food stamps even though a food stamps have gone up fifty eight percent and commodities are gone down forty three percent they will argue that we need to put more money into food stamps so i think i think it depends on where you're from mystery about a very good answer i think is a good answer and i would indorse it but let me add to that that whether you're from south carolina or virginia or minnesota or oregon or the suburbs of kansas city missouri and kansas city kansas everywhere you look the question about whether a farmer will stay on the farm in a value that i think almost all americans have in terms of wanting to see open space preserved and not want to see continued taking of private lands is the ability of that farmer to be able to continue to feed his family and derive some profit from their farm and the two things that pressure them on that are increasing land prices it's easier to sell that land and do something else and that land is most likely not going to go to another farmer it's going to go to some other use or it's going to be to have to spend a substantial amount of dollars in complying ever increasingly burdensome environmental regulations so  programs that make sure that we maintain the safety net that's very important to many farmers most of my farmers that are in livestock in virginia don't have much of a government program safety net but i strongly support maintaining that i think it needs to be revised but maintaining that for midwestern and deep south farmers and farmers other part of the country that do have important dependence upon the commodity programs but programs that deal with conservation and deal with helping farmers pay to comply with environmental regulations that don't just benefit them but benefit all of society are what i think should be the focus mr moore  chairman i respect to the people that are waiting and and to our chair and ranking member what i would do agree at some point i'll just try and follow up if i could specifically i'm i touched a raw nerve when you're talking about being able to help farmers comply with environmental regulations and the land preservation piece congressman far and i spent the weekend in portland hearing from a wide variety of people who were concerned about that and i'd like to just submit some things and see your sense of what we can do on this committee to be able to do that but well i'll do that separately because it's  more detailed i'm sure they have information or can direct me to folks and i do want to respect well i think you know i got a report from mr far the meeting in fact we had quite a discussion and there are a number of things we have been looking at and we'll be looking at these issues and so it's definitely on our radar screen super and if i might just add between one hundred ninety four billion dollars baseline in the last farm bill and seventy four billion that we start with excluding nutrition programs in this one is one hundred twenty billion dollars that's coming back effectively to the budget committee there are many other sectors of our economy where you've got that kind of a figure we're not asking for all of that to be redirected to these things but we are asking for a significant portion of that to be made available for new ways to address farm programs i do think mr chairman that there is a compelling case that this that it does touch everybody in america and that the time is coming i mean no here i think we should you just described ranking member just described the fact that we didn't spend all the money in the last farm bill and i had i don't think that the american people conservation program for the land owners and help encourage people to get the job done as far as laying out i've been involved with it all my life and it's always water as clean as we have and clean if we do without the conservation programs and without getting a whole lot of details i just think it's absolutely critical that we put enough money in this to write a good farm  mr cardoza if you could keep your statements to a little less than ten men so we can accomplish if you question you would appreciate you but the thing was your work i'll do better than that i want to respect mr dix mr chairman and all the members here but the issue i do want to talk about today is very important and i've submitted written testimony to the committee but i'll try and summarize a little bit why i've taken your time today few years ago mr chairman actually seven years ago i was fortunate enough my wife and i were fortunate enough to adopt two children out of foster care and since then i've been an advocate for these children there are over two hundred eleven thousand children currently in foster care across the country and that are being helped by the six point eight billion dollars in funds that the federal government gives the states to allocate that money is needed but i will tell you that there's some other and i'd ask for this committee to give the floor  children there are actually four hundred twenty seven thousand children in foster care two hundred eleven thousand are supported by the funds given that are speaking families two hundred eleven thousand children are getting funding from the federal government  last year mr chairman i authorized i authored an amendment to the science state justice and commerce appropriations bill that provided five million dollars for drug endangered children there was actually an authorization for twenty million dollars including the patriot act to date it's not been funded because last year's five million dollars amendment ups in the earmark process that we just saw go through the house so i'm asking that we fully fund this program mr chairman members these these drug endangered children grants provide grants to children to import improve coordination between state and local agencies to provide assistance to children found in homes made dangerous by drugs in to aid the transition of these children to safe residential environments this amendment was adopted by voice vote last year and as i said it didn't pass mr chairman both of my children came from the same drug a dangerous home it is a despicable situation where so many kids are left in abusive situations because of their parents addiction to serious drugs including and in particular methamphetamine it is absolutely vital that we do everything we can to get these children out of those homes and placed in more secure environments my children were saved out of the foster care system in place in my life in my home because of court appointed special advocates which is the second program that i'd like to advocate for you today i urge you to fully fund that program i will tell you that it was a casa volunteer who was my son's kindergarten teacher who realized that they were being abused a second time in foster care and were able to get them to the social service agency that got them to my wife and i and i am forever in their debt and for every year that i come here i will testify on their behalf we need more cost of volunteers not less programs been cut in the last few years we need to change that around it's a small program considering we spend six point eight billion dollars on foster care we only spend twelve million dollars on casa and i will tell you find out where you can provide you with that information out of order but the cost of funding you know i've done bake sales and fundraisers for casa because i think it's that important and if it truly is something that we must do  finally mr chairman i'm going to advocate to all of you to fully fund the s chip program and not just to the age of nineteen or lower the age of eighteen but i'm going to advocate that we extend it it's currently a voluntary program to twenty one and it's imperative that we fully fund that program at least in one particular area and that is for mental health services i was shocked recently when i read in the paper that forty percent of foster kids according to this one article are homeless after eighteen months when they age out of the foster care system the reality is that large numbers and it's in my read written testimony are on psychotropic drugs because of the abuse and and the neglect that they sustained as child children i never be very frank and honest before i had my own children that came out of this situation i didn't realize how bad the nurturing process in effect or the lack of nurturing at an early age can affect children but it graphically does we see that  well i can read you some of the statistics i include in my testimony the incidence of drug dependence among foster kids is seven times greater than the general papa public more than half of foster care alumni ages nineteen to thirty three have mental health problems so fifty percent and twenty percent of foster kids have three or more mental problems well mr chairman what happens to foster kids is their are they coming out of unstable environments and then they age out at eighteen they get thrown pretty much on the streets with very few social services that follow them and they're expected to get jobs and start supporting themselves but the problem is that just at the time when they're supposed to really step up and take responsibility for their lives the psychotropic drugs that are helping them become stable are cut off for lack of health services so what we need to do mr chairman is continue this program to give them a fair chance at a good start in life certainly a lot of these kids are going to fail anyway because of the disadvantage they have but we shouldn't be withholding their medication at the most critical time that they possibly can have when they have no one else in their lives to help shepherd them after they age out i will tell you i've spoken to a lot of these kids mr chairman is a very serious problem and it's a shame to spend billions of dollars trying to save these kids only to lose them for lack of a few drugs right at the end of their care i believe mr chairman i know you can score this in the in the congressional budget scoring process correctly that this is a lot like head start where we know if we take care of me at the beginning they're healthier and it costs government less money i believe if we take care of these kids as they age out of the process that we will in fact save the government money by these kids not becoming homeless not committing crimes on the street not not being put in our penal the saudis and costing the taxpayers much more money in the long run  to introduce legislation to authorize and fully mandate the extension on the on the mental health services a plan to work with mr kennedy and others to try and move this legislation as the mental health chairman as a district attorney elected district attorney in the suburb of kansas city for twelve years i prosecuted discernable homicide cases involving small children and frankly that's exactly why i ended up leaving the position of district attorney after twelve years and i was one of the founders of the casa program you know our county and i'll tell you i've seen and what you just said is exactly right it is a very very valuable resource court appointed special advocates having an adult in the community who go in and advocate for a child who needs that help is very very helpful i think in many many situations and as mr chairman just said well funding for s chip is absolutely mandatory far as i'm concerned as well thank you for testifying today in this room and i know compelling testimony agree makes a lot of sense you referenced a number of young people who age out as you say from foster care who end up on the streets well i've had conflicting statistics on this but it i've heard a statistic that says forty percent i believe it's i've heard other six that are budget and really what's happened between two thousand and one and two thousand and eight and i think most of us who serve on the budget appropriations committees are aware of the constraints which have been placed on discretionary spending during the last half dozen years as tax policies and more cost to drain the treasury of funds for basic service and critical investments there are serious shortfalls in education health services research and other areas which often which others will testify about today i believe these are all critical challenges which we need to address and i hope that we will be recognized in the budget which you will present to the house next month but you chairman there are other needs which also need to be addressed in the two thousand and eight budget my request today is that shortfalls in environmental and conservation programs which have critical reach critical proportions will also be adequately funded in your budget the numbers regarding funding for environmental and natural resource programs under budget function three hundred tell a discouraging story as the budget committees on analysis released last week shows the two thousand and eight request for function three hundred programs of twenty eight point seven billion is two point eight billion or eight point three percent less than the amount required to maintain current services funding for the environmental protection agency is reduced by five hundred eight million the budget for the forest service not counting fire fighting cost which are really uncontrollable is down three hundred  forty three million excluding the incoming the welcome increase for our national parks funding for the interior department is reduced by two hundred thirty seven million these two thousand and eight proposed cuts come on top of seven years of steady decline as the chart included in my written testimony shows after adjusting for inflation funding for the interior department has declined by sixteen percent since two thousand and one e p a by twenty nine percent and for the nine fire portions of the forest service by a whopping thirty five percent these cuts to the never to bleed lead to declines in services for visitors to our parks refuges and forest and to dramatic reductions in assistance to state and local governments for environmental and conservation activities it's a chairman i know that your committee understands the impact which these reductions mean in a broad sense but i want to impress on you today what this means in terms of direct services to the public we all serve under the president's two thousand and eight budget funding to help our local communities repair and upgrade the water and sewer systems were declined by six hundred sixty two million or approximately fifty percent since two thousand and four this is despite e p a s own estimate under governor christine todd whitman of a shortfall of at least three hundred and eighty eight billion for water and sewer systems mr chairman there is not a community in this country that doesn't need help with its water infrastructure and without these investments drinking water related health problems will increase and economic growth will be curtailed air quality grants are reduced by thirty five million at a time when e p a designated two hundred eighty american counties with a population of eighty eight million as failing to meet air quality standards under the clean air act areas designated by the not meeting your quality standards include columbia and in your state of south carolina and milwaukee racine and sheboygan and mr ryan state of wisconsin these areas need our help the annual level of cleanup of superfund sites contaminated with p c bees and other highly toxic substances has declined from eighty sites per year in the late ninety's to twenty four sites estimated for this year and next under the president's proposal funding from the land and water conservation fund to acquire precious land for recreation for species habitat has declined from four hundred forty million in two thousand and two to eighty five million under the president's two thousand and eight request i'm not proposing money to acquire large new tracts of land or establish new parks and wildlife refuges if funds are restored they will go mostly to acquire remaining private properties in places like valley forge grand teton national park and the flight ninety three memorial site all purchases are from willing sellers since two thousand and one staffing in the forest service is declined by fifty nine hundred position making it more difficult to provide services either to recreational visitors or to commercial temper projects hundreds of forest service campgrounds are being closed for lack of funding and our forests are overrun with drug traffickers for lack of law enforcement personnel staffing at the fish and wildlife services that climbed by four hundred positions over the last two years many refuges out there don't have one single person anymore to take care of them mr chairman my basic request my urgent plea is that your committee recognizes in its budget resolution for two thousand and eight that the environmental and conservation needs of this country have been neglected too long this committee to reverse this trend and provide a significant increase for discretionary spending so that all of these deficits can begin to be addressed but your chairman in addition to my testimony regarding environmental and conservation invasions needs broadly i wan make a specific request regarding the way the firefighting costs are being dealt with under the budget frankly the fire budget is exploding as fires become more common more severe and more expensive these increased costs are causing havoc for other forest service and interior programs as members know funding from other programs have been reduced by hundreds of millions of dollars as funds are borrowed at the last minute to finance the cost of fire suppression activities in many cases these funds are never repaid and critical maintenance and hazardous fuels work does not get done mr chairman these fire and vents are natural disasters every bit as much as hurricanes tornadoes and floods the costs however are not treated like other emergencies whose costs are covered either by the fema or by the emergency funds outside of the discretionary caps which a chairman we recognize that a certain amount of fire expenditures are a reoccurring and predictable expense and should be paid from discretionary funds i believe however that when there is especially catastrophic and expensive fire when cost to substantially exceed those of the normal year that alternative funding arrangements need to be made i would urge your committee to either emergency reserve fund of five hundred million as was done in two thousand and four and two thousand and five for extraordinary fire crosses we did those last two years or provide an alternative mechanism mechanism for handling these costs when fires get out of hand but funding highly variable and highly unpredictable fire fighting cost are out of core discretionary budget does not make sense in fact in one thousand nine hundred thirteen percent of the budget for the forest service was for fire today it's up to somewhere close between forty five and forty seven percent of the entire forest service budget goes to fighting fire so these are important matters i've taken over the responsibility as chairman of the interior and environment appropriation subcommittee forest service some places are controversial but overall they have been accepted by the public the money comes in is used for maintenance use for other activities at these facilities you know we have the land and water conservation fund here's another problem mr secretary why remember james watt in the reagan administration he said that money coming in and this was not a mandatory requirement to extend the money so we collected about fifteen billion it's gone into the treasury under land and water conservation and it hasn't gone out to the conservation needs of the country so you know a few years ago we had a bill in the house called kera i as an appropriator wasn't supposed to vote for it i voted for it because i was i figure the only way we're going to get the kind of money we need to deal with some of these problems that there's an opportunity right there under land of water conservation to do nine hundred million dollars if we as a congress made that program mandatory and  that money would go out and be used to acquire lands and do other environmental things at the state and federal level so we've got to do something i mean these things i mean what's happened here is with with the priorities of the administration being the way war and tax cuts they have short changed and these programs and and we are pleased about the increase in the money for the park service but it's it's coming at the expense of cuts in every other area of the environmental budget so when we need help we need relief what about the allocation of funds from offshore drilling that's what also i was the one that's the land and water conservation funding and we gave some of that money to the oil producing states i'm saying we now should give some of the money to the rest of the country for environmental needs across the country that's one place we could go to get some extra money we also by the way the president's budget calls for one hundred million dollar increase three actually three billion dollars over ten years for the park centennial one hundred million of that is is mandatory spending so the natural resources committee has got to come up with a pay go to get one hundred million and then the is committed to going out and raising one hundred million each year from the private sector so that's another way to pick up two billion dollars if we can find a way to come up with a program to deal with that so that's the nevada high represent the right me national rate recreation area one of the most visited national recreation areas in the country with millions of visitors every year i appreciate you making this a priority because it's a serious challenge for us k to be tour guides and there's a serious shortfall and i appreciate you bringing this before the committee today well one good thing about the president's proposal on the parks is he's going to add a thousand full time f t east for the national parks and three thousand  other members have questions mr lerner thank you conscient x eloquent and forceful i really appreciate your testimony in the work that you've been doing to try and pull us back from the brink following up on the chairman's question to you about things we can do to would you support does it seem reasonable for us to go back and you are mentioned in your testimony we're only going to have a couple dozen superfund sites despite the problems cross the country i mean to go back to the tax yes i think we need to do for fun sacks yes i do think we need to do that i mean we have more money to said to clean up the superfund sites quicker i mean that will help our all of our environmental needs so i'm probably the wrong choice of terms but the firefighting costs i'm wondering if there's a way to couple the emergency reserve i'm sensitive to that right that that makes some sense to me but you don't do that if we don't do that they have to take the money out of other important accounts dealing with the environment and running the park i mean running the forest service agreed but it's the same token we have federal policies that are driving up the costs of forest fighting and the next twenty years there's going to be another million people who are going to live in metropolitan denver for instance and that's what's driving up the cost of force if it's out in remote areas the cost of forest fighting fighting forest fires are one hundredth of what they are when you've got people recreational homes and development involved is there a way that we could couple your very reasonable request of a of a reserve a contingency something it would be emergency truly emergency funding with policies that will stop restraining stupid activities on the part of the federal government that are putting more property and lives at risk and and driving is upset is that the federal government or is it the local governments that are allowing this development to occur in these near urban areas that's that that to me is more of a zoning issue that has to be dealt with at the state and local level but there are allowing people to do it and you're right it's those areas that are the most expensive it's we're also trying to remember is also with under a healthy forest is to go in and do their meaning out of the under storage so that when the fires are not as intense and to me that that makes sense that is that is underfunded in this budget as well and i would like to explore with you if we are i could in the capacity of what we do on the budget committee i'm also interested in things we can do in the ways and means committee to make it harder to do stupid things like we've done with flood insurance where repetitive flood losses we've made some adjustments and maybe there's a way we could structure something that would be win win make your job easier reduce prices and would be a cooperative the next member to testify is julia carson miss carson if you would come forward please we're pleased to welcome you to the committee and to accept your testimony when you are recognized mr carson for ten minutes right whatever you need up to ten minutes  that are vital to the senior citizens of this country does not include funding that would ensure homeless veterans a safe and affordable place to live this year the president's budget again eliminates funding for the commodity supplemental food program the c s f p provides monthly nutritious food packages including fresh produce meat and other items to fab jonathan fifty three thousand seniors women and children and half while six ninety percent of the program recipients were elderly with such disregard and indiana four thousand three hundred fifty seniors are currently enrolled in the program on average these individuals in my home state are now only and all the many difficult budget choices you must make must not overlook the fact that the scientific research and development buttresses our economic and national security and we constantly argue about national security issues but not very often do we recognize how important our scientific research and development is because that provides the basis for our defense but i'm pleased that the nation has recognized us now i hope as you begin the budget process that you certainly strongly urge you to give high priority to scientific research and development as well as math and science education and the general space science and technology function of the broad section two fisted in my testimony today i will briefly highlight three important agencies national science foundation department of energy's office of science solely to supporting basic scientific research it has generated no more nobel prizes than any other research institution in the world they nearly of all the words they make from basic research nearly ninety percent of these words are made through a competitive merit review process that ensures that excellent and innovative research is being supported furthermore it's a very efficient organization physical science research agency the federal government in order to maintain our economic tech technical and military preeminence we must continue to support research and alternative energy resource energy sources nanotechnology super computing and a number of other issues which are under the aegis of the department of energy's office of science unfortunately they have been so poorly funded recently that they had to lay off people and cut back the time in which we allow usage of the major instruments experimental instruments the national interest institute of standards and technology they build the nation standards and that may seem mundane but the backup for technology has done that they also play a major role in other things ranging from fire protection which you were just talking about the national parks on to a great deal of scientific technical research and just a simple example of how it affects our daily lives everyone and you're probably too young to remember the days when color television first came out and people constantly hopping out of their chairs to just hear you and the tent and the color was awful and now we don't have that problem interestingly enough the development for accurate time standards in the bureau of standards made that possible because the frequencies that are used to automatically adjust these colors require very very precise standards and the federal government through nest provides us now some very important agency i am very concerned that they are not getting enough money for the research programs they are giving money for space but we must not forget the research function and the rovers on mars have taught us far more than we have learned from any man's expeditions in space in the recent past i run the fate of many of the programs i've highlighted in this testimony lies not with you but with the appropriations committee well the budget does not spell out exact funding for these programs i believe you can send a strong signal about the importance of fundamental science and education to the appropriation of funding function to fifty programs will argue about whether the return on investment in research is twenty forty or sixty percent but whatever it is it is huge now for when a private company invests mit professor lester thoreau says it could expect an average return of about twenty four percent however the economic benefits of a private r and d investment are felt by society as a whole society as a whole and often don't return to the company that makes the investment but the return to society on r and d investments is huge often unpredictable about where it will fall which is why companies tend to spend less on research that will benefit society as a whole one role of our government is to do things which benefit society as a whole particularly when market and other forces won't do so and the government has an important role to play in the funding of research and history shows that in fact federal funding of research  i'll state it as forcefully as i can we are in under investing in research in the united states by a very large margin this committee would do well to increase the funding for function to fifty by fifty seventy five perhaps one hundred percent and not come close to saturating the need for investment in research in the united states the return will be huge as you go to balance the income of the outgo in the out years the situation will be greatly improved by this investment  and we have mr edwards and i and others have i'm sorry to say been unsuccessful up until now in convincing the you predecessor budget committees to make that kind of investment now let me just highlight a few of the specific points that that mr a already addressed the president's budget does honor the promise for the american competitiveness initiative which calls for long term increases in the national science foundation the department of energy office of science and the national institutes of science standards and technology  they are by his by recent history attractive increases they fall far short of what could and should be done but the president has been good to his promise in those areas but aside from the a c i m creases to n s f nist the other areas of the budget target increases for weapons development and manned space fli and and tend to greatly under fund in fact even cut research and other agencies the await budget request for function to fifty basic and applied research actually falls by two percent to fifty five billion relative to the continuing resolution and down by seven percent relative to the zero four peak energy r and d falls by nine point two percent or more than a billion dollars in the president's proposal relative to the continuing resolution no warranty falls by about nine percent department of homeland security r and d falls by more than a percent and a half i guess ri certainly shouldn't let that happen if if the committee cannot see their way to make the kind of bold investment that would benefit the country that i was talking about at least at least do not let these agencies lose ground in research i would also like to underscore the importance of maintaining the educational pipeline prospective undergraduates need better access to the promise of scientific and technical college education graduate programs must be made more appealing by improved quantity and quality of fellowship support post doctor's post doctoral fellow ships are a disgrace it constitutes an increasingly long phase of a scientist career but they are not competitive with salaries even made by the average college graduate now remember these are postdocs and while they require an extreme degree of individual geographic flexibility the salaries are not even competitive with students right out of college  and with wildly fluctuating federal support of competitive grants and funding from some of the national labs even the mid career and final phase of a government or academic scientific career is unstable and much less appealing to achieve the best of our national potential we've got to do a far better job in overcoming the social and financial barriers for people to enter the sciences so it is not only an elementary and secondary education but it is in all of these federally funded research efforts under function to fifty that we have a desperate need to make a with you the concern that we're under funding research and development as a nation and some of this work has to be done by the government it is not going to be done but private the private sector and return on investment is is obvious i would pose this question to you to both of you do you think this is important enough to the future well being of this country to be willing to forego some of the tax cuts that are proposed in the president's budget and the extension some of those tax cuts that fund these particular matters well i will jump in there and say absolutely and individuals not just society as a whole individuals will  benefit sufficiently that most of them will actually come out ahead historically when you look back in the days of and i'm talking three and four decades ago a large federal investment in research and development the economy benefited and many individuals benefited from that no science policy document this government hadn't even written a science policy statement since one nine hundred forty five so i proceeded to do that in the process i tried to find don't but the actual return on investment was it's very difficult to calculate and economists are all over the map but i couldn't find anyone who said it was less than twenty percent and the highest i found was four thousand percent now that was probably something like the laser which part i think cost the government other uses of it we take it for granted but it didn't come out of thin air came out of the laboratory of a scientist who was found a unique way of making it work and that's really low cost and that's what most scientists do there are pursuing the basic fundamental knowledge of the universe but almost invariably that turns out to be very useful was a great return on the cost of the investment so this is probably one of the few areas that you could rationalize with federal government going into debt because it's a return on investment is so high but i share your concern about making sure we pay for it but you need not go into debt  in order to do this i told investment is something that would not only the socially exciting it would be the kind of thing we're supposed to be doing here in congress century you've already alluded to the debt and that was going to be my next question was do you think it's worth putting our children and grandchildren in debt for i get that answer r not that i advocate it but it's the one thing you can be pretty certain that will not add to their debt if we spend the investment wisely they in fact will benefit and receive the benefits from it so i and i say that fearlessly i'm not speculating this is a historical record and other countries of course on to this china india some of the european countries if you look at the charts and i didn't take anyone but i've spent a lot of time that you look at the charts what countries are putting in their investment how much they're spending on this we have to be it's tough we are and we have not been passed a couple of countries and believe it or not south korea is very close to passing what has been the obstacle to getting congress to part of the reason is that the typical lobbying effort if i may use that shorthand for people who bring their cases before congress is that research as a and and nonspecific payback no interest group can be sure that it personally that they personally will benefit from this and there are not many people who come and lobby congress for the common good we are supposed to deduce that on our own and we have not been very good at that point it comes to investment in scientific research i can't explain it better i wish i could understand why we have been so blind to this when as mr eyler says there is it and as as mr taylor says it is to try to come up with a distinction between whether it is twenty percent forty percent or sixty percent return it's not whether it's two or and the fact that we're right it's hard to persuade the rest that's number one the other is it's very difficult when you're funding research to point out specific applications that this might lead to the laser i mentioned i was in graduate school in the ways that was developed i was a lot of the great what a fantastic research instrument i'll have to make all kinds of new discoveries never once dawned on me develop who saw the market and they went and they made the billions of dollars not the star geo corporations so but i always say just look at the field of medicine for an example we don't expect physics research is physicists have not very good ears at this point i'm wearing hearing aids i remember when i was a child the hearing aids boxes like the rest about it that are said to be changed every day with the development of the transistor was pure up into different parts amplifies it from match your ears and they're not cheap but boy it's wonderful and all because someone developed a transistor at one point and texas instruments developed the integrated circuit and for almost all of those inventions that mr taylor spoke about it is hard to separate the public and the private sector contributions to their development it appears to be the case that public investment in research leads to private investment in research and historically again going back to some of the golden era of of of research thirty and forty years ago  the public sector in the private sector approximately the public sector has fallen dramatically and we are living economically off of the dances that were made decades ago we are not replying to sharing those advances at the present time well i thank you both for your testimony on behalf of the greater good it is  welcome that's played on us and we're pleased to have you here to testify you're recognized for ten minutes funding for this barracks should have been included well there we go funding for this barracks should have been included in the two thousand and seven budget but of course congress never passed a two thousand and seven budget as i testified before you today the big red one barracks is five months behind schedule and it's unlikely to be completed before their return from iraq either construction projects that from miley leavenworth and america's many other military bases have been similarly delayed responsibility for the starry state of affairs rests squarely on the shoulders of the hundred ninth congress the new democratic majority has already begun to recover from the last congress of failures we passed a continuing resolution that increased brac funding by one billion dollars over the levels approved by the hundred ninth congress and we are working on a supplemental bill to further support black through two thousand and seven now your committee must continue the critical work you must prepare a budget that fully funds the base realignment and closure process for two thousand and eight please kno that i consider this to be the most single important issue of our day both for my constituents in kansas and also for america's security once your committee has ensured america's safety i hope you will consider many further opportunities to brighten our country's future your ambitions for two thousand a should begin with helping millions of americans who now struggle at the bottom of our economic ladder i am heartbroken that in today's america the richest nation in the history of mankind nearly forty seven million of our fellow citizens lack health insurance these hardworking families face an on certain future an accident sibylla a severe illness that spell  financial ruin the united states congress as a whole and this committee in particular must seek this clee responsible market driven solutions that strengthen america's systems of employer provided coverage of course the employer care system will collapse of our employers themselves falter and so i believe the fiscal year two thousand and eight budget must wrongly support america's businesses especially our independent employers when small businesses flourish our communities and our national economy will flourish congress is currently considering legislation that would ease the burden of taxation on small businesses by over a billion dollars and i consider these cuts to be wise and a prudent investment in our future in order to further strengthen our economy we must end the drain on the wealth in our communities in a rural communities especially this means supporting our farmers  ranchers ranchers who heart whose hard work provides america with the safest and most abundant food supply in the world congress has long boasted has long been for the agricultural industry to rural development funds and the two thousand and eight federal budget must continue this commitment by investing in american agriculture this committee can energize the rural economy and open new opportunities to hardworking farmers and ranchers a support the industries that have guided america through its past you must also consider our future one day soon or oil and gas and clover and their centuries long reign as the planet's primary source of energy replaced by fuels now under development in laboratories across the world our nation must prepare for this is stuart transition and i urge you to pass a two thousand and eight budget that invest in new energy sources such as stylistic energy or  and i especially encourage congress to invest in wind energy with your support my state kansas which is the third windiest in america can and will lead the world in developing clean efficient wind based power finally this commitment must fulfill america's promises to our veterans the men and women who served in world war two korea vietnam and iraq never hesitated when their nation called them to duty and america owes our veterans the same  nching support forte yet not makers have consistently cut corners on veterans programs ignoring the promises made when our soldiers were on the line of fire i'm the daughter of one veteran and the wife of another so i speak deep in my heart from deep in my heart when i say that these barriers are unacceptable your committee must fully fund the v a we owe our veterans nothing less i have mentioned many goals in my testimony today and i could have mentioned a hundred more without scratching the surface is the two thousand and eight budget i realize faced with so many complex and sometimes conflicting priorities this committee will have to make compromises you cannot fund every worthy project yet by investing our limited resources very wisely by setting aside partisan politics for the public good i am confident that you will strengthen and secure our great nation thank you for your time i thank the general a for her testimony are there any questions any members who would like to be recognized in the remaining time mr porter i'm sure i'm sure that the three of us could vote  budget to congress legislation to increase revenues must be passed by two majority of each chamber not just a majority of those present in voting exceptions to these provisions provid each taxpayer shares over twenty eight thousand i know in the last year and a half in my congressional district district many of the constituents are very very concerned about the debt largest expense of the federal budget meanwhile the debt is increasing by a billion dollars every day and yet the federal revenues increased eleven point eight percent in two thousand and six fifty states including after another but our revenues have continued to grow but the number one job growth state in the country but yet we're nine eleven here and we didn't have the revenues we made the tough choices here in this institution you don't have to  ninety nine contract with america had a balanced budget requirement constitutional balanced budget requirement we didn't have quite enough votes the time is now the last twenty seven years as i've watched politics and i was a big fan of ronald reagan was things that a lot of us cannot stand is intolerable as we continue to run up these massive debts there's absolutely no confidence that this institution can balance and pay its bills as it goes the balanced budget requirement that the president's proposed is in alignment with mine in a period of five years we can continue at that point have a balanced budget requirement it's not a republican or democratic issue the fact is i looked at this thing in the paygo it just doesn't go far enough our children grandchildren are counting on us to do with this today one thing i read that a politician runs from election election statesman runs for the next generation and again i want to thank you for the opportunity speaking today i look forward to working with you and your colleagues on this very important issue thank you mr chairman i thank the gentleman for his remarks and for being brief  may just a couple quick questions first of all i share your commitment to a balanced budget but i would have to ask as a member of this committee do you consider that the president's plan which asserts that we'll have a balanced budget within five years but at the same time biles one point one trillion dollars from social security including about one hundred eighty billion dollars or more during the year that were supposedly in balance is that a balanced budget if we're borrowing one hundred eighty billion from social security i don't agree with that but my feeling is the thought is if we're growing our revenues at eight or ten percent a year we don't have to stop spending completely we can maybe add two or three percent a year but i think we can work together on a bipartisan basis to put something in place over five years get a constitutional balanced budget amendment with the exception of war or natural screen or something like that but i think if we don't do what i'm convinced that being a student of politics and watching over the last twenty five thirty years this isn't about democrats or republicans this is about doing what's right if we don't do what the four hundred billion we're paying an interesting issue for some day might be a trillion dollars for our kids i'm concerned about it i share the concern i would just ask if if we're going to have a balanced budget amendment to the constitution allows it's important to be clear on what defines a balanced budget and the president of the united states has said he'll have the budget in balance and yet clearly he'll be borrowing one hundred plus billion dollars from social security that at some point we have to pay back so definitional a would your amendment to the constitution address that address that matter and other words how would you define a balance  amendment declare that it's in balance or do we have on budget versus off budget balance or how do we deal with that i think there's a lot of issues like that that we'd have to work through but i think if we did it in a bipartisan basis  democrats put out a paygo i just think we need to take it to the next step and if we need a national revenues and people want to raise taxes i'm against that but if that's where they want to go at least we're not borrowing from our kids in the future amen to the latter we are passing unconscionable that onto our kids and i share that concern but i think we also if we don't if we're not going to pass that that david walker has a contra with the government accountability office testified before this committee and he quite clearly has said that we are going to need a combination of spending constraints and revenue increases he doesn't think we can get there and when you look at the long term budget particularly the growth of entitlements i don't think we can i don't i mean just mathematically and i wish i could just say one of the other and i'll just i guess for the record and your testimony you suggest that since the bush tax cuts were not going to revenues have grown to record levels you weren't here this is your first year in congress i know we had a hearing before this very committee that when your party was in charge and it was a good hearing it was a hearing about whether or not tax cuts pay for themselves two of the three witnesses were called by the then majority the president's cuts lead to a revenue increase greater than the revenue that would have been generated had there not been cuts all of them said no but i can tell you take a look at history we've had substantial cut year reasons for that but i think we make the hard choices it might be a tax increase again i don't think we can get it done the other way but if we can't get it done let's make the hard choices must pay like every american family and business pay as you your term but the only way i think this ever gets done in watching this for thirty years is have a constitutional budget requirement but i commend the gentleman first commitment to balance and a bipartisan approach in joining in that i may not join you on the amendment but i think you're absolutely right that we're going to have to put everything on the table and that the reason we're going to have to is otherwise and pass unconscionable debt levels on to our kids david walker that's why before this committee that two thousand the long term seventy five year horizon commitment in current value was twenty trillion dollars by two thousand and six the going to fifty trillion dollars ninety some ninety three percent of the net worth of all american households you're absolutely right mr buchanan we've got to work together on this and i whether we agree or not on the details of the amended i applaud you for your commitment to the issue i know it's an seer and i'm glad you took the time to come before this committee only i'd say that i think there's going to be ideally the give and take on both sides but i think the other day we've got to do what's right for the next generation  neighbor to the north we are pleased to receive her testimony and you're recognized for ten minutes and as i mentioned before you keep the speak for ten minutes i can't ask any questions so that might be a good strategy as well but if you're short of that we can have a dialogue if necessary i'm sure we could finish crystal meth from countries such as mexico this time that we bring the same urgency and commitment to the federal government's efforts to combat meth as we've seen some state and local communities bringing that fight to the issue of meth for years our state and local law enforcement officers treatment providers and prevention experts have proven effective in bringing back meth but they cannot do it alone successful federal programs that can provide them with desperately needed resources do their jobs unfortunately many of these programs  provide nine hundred million dollars in budget authority for burned as a stance today another important program within d o j his budget is the community oriented policing services are cops program the president proposes to cut costs by over five hundred million dollars and this week i visited the drug enforcement administration stream facility to quantico and took part in some of the training that provides for state and local law enforcement i got a small taste of the dangers faced by the men and women on the front lines of the meth epidemic are da agents do great and i've additional comments i've submitted for the record and i'm happy to answer any questions thank you i want to thank you gentlemen for leadership on the methamphetamine caucus you've done great work and someone who's been very active myself and in that i'm grateful for you being here calling the committee's attention to this if you talk to your local law enforcement officers and they look at the scotts what is their reaction to the federal government under the bush administration want to cut these programs to the levels that are proposed what are the local guys on the street say that usually disbelief followed by frustration and so much county alone which is the largest county in my district the them to just totally shut down thereby obviously decreasing the effectiveness and the coordination that's important to conduct to conduct interdiction against drug against drugs and methamphetamine in particular so disbelief followed by continued frustration to have to fight this battle year after year in congress it's tough enough to fight the battle against drugs and addiction and you know and and prevention and treatment at home i think grassroots but they have to fight a battle out in washington d c to make sure their dollars are to help them fight that battle as is you know it's more work than they need to be doing one last question some would argue that well we don't need this federal support law enforcement the local responsibility but as my awareness of particular methamphetamine problem is we have done a very good job over the last number of years locally and with federal help but putting the local clandestine labs and their local the messick supply of math but increasingly it's international super labs bringing finished product in which makes it a federal issue in my judgment are you your law enforcement people dealing morwitz and especially on the drug front which some of these programs address more increasingly with international suppliers and still the local klan lab says it's increasingly international supply in fact in the last several years nationally we have seen a decrease of meth lab us from around number of twelve thousand down to about six thousand per year that's great news but  t seen what some call these beavis and butthead labs or mom and pop labs is one thing but that supply is being replaced by a higher form of methamphetamine that's coming in through international distribution  channels that's why in the combat meth epidemic act which congress passed last year and you worked you worked on as well hold many other members in a bipartisan way worked on there was a very important international element for international interdiction we expect in the next within help develop a baseline for further action on international interdiction so the international element is a critical component and the federal government is the only dog big enough to fight that battle we can't rely on my local sheriff or your local sheriff in kalak scale ready to to deal with the international drug trafficking that's a federal responsibility i think you could have said it better be very articulately put then i'm glad it's on the record for this committee and i know we'll be very cognizant of that as we craft a bu budget i do not know i'm not an economist but the as everyone knows this nation is facing a financial crisis like none other in our history as the baby boom generation starts moving into retirement the retirement of the first baby boomer will begin to trickle in less than a year two years later a trickle becomes a flood in it within five more years a tsunami which will wreak havoc on our nation and national priorities like finding a cure for cancer or for the math or keeping american competitive education are already being crowded out by mandatory spending and there is a social security medicare and medicaid the retirement of baby boomers will only exasperate an already strained budget we need to take action now in addressing these issues are critical to ensure that countries that hold our debt do not control our future foreign hundreds of millions of dollars from countries like china which is not only our future economy at risk but also our national security there's never a convenient time to make hard decisions but the longer we wait the more dramatic the remedy will need to be a brand blink in one of the nation's greatest presidents said you can on the scale of the responsibility tomorrow by abated today it is encouraging many members of congress to discuss how to address the issue i believe that congress understands the crisis that we're facing and i believe the president does too i also believe there's a desire by the democrats and republicans as well as the ministration to address this crisis unfortunately that may not be the political will to make the tough choices to keep the nation's falling off of financial precipice therefore i believe we need to do something dramatic and something bold that can move the nation to understand where the financial future of  opportunity to thoughtfully address the nation's budget challenges reflect on national priorities a move to take responsible actions that will avoid wholesale arbitrary cuts or or caps one of the most critical responsibilities of the commission will be explaining the crisis we face and listening to the american people about how to get the country back on track to help determine national priorities the commission with hold a series of public hearings across the country to engage the american people i hope and vote on its recommendations in their entirety similar to the brac quote process i believe unfold the expected commission's legislative recommendations to accurately reflect our national priorities but it is important to remember the commission of congress including one who chaired this committee former c b s show directors i've heard criticism that such a weighty decisions on the nation's national nation's financial future on the responsibility of congress that's accurate but there are two provisions to protect congressional prerogatives first for the fourteen congressionally appointed commission members must be sitting members of congress obsolete a chairman of this committee and the ranking member would almost certainly be too there could be more and i think as a father of five children as a grandfather twelve it's time for us to face this very very critical issue i believe again there are strong these are just listening to members on both sides speak the question is is there the will i thank the gentleman for first of all for as many years of service in his initiative and bringing this out and i think you raise a number of interesting points i share the absolute passion to try to resolve this and it is not as you said very eloquently thought of democratic issue it's not a republican issue are cack ads would probably say congressman will wants to cut benefits for retirees and your attack ads and say congressman baird wants to raise we're not going to solve the problem with attack ads we're going to solve the problem we both do the kind of things that this commission would probably recommend if i can ask just a couple questions about the commission itself as i read it  ok so so no amendments to the correct straight up or down vote on the package itself correct it walk us through the rationale for that if you would we would never have closed a base in this country if we didn't have the base closing commission dick armey put that idea to gether you there's just there is not the will and and sometimes strangely enough in this place the or the issue the easier it is to get done sometimes and then we'll come out on the floor for a million dollars they'll take the whole afternoon debate in it then the next day perhaps defense appropriations come out and he spent an hour debating the whole bill i mean so i just don't believe there is a plus this place on fortunately is very partisan and i think just what you said at the outset so i think everyone had that opportunity i think you could certainly and i changed the bill based on mr spratt's comments that there were not enough congressional valma so we did put numbers on it and he would certainly ryan would be two but that number could even go up but we also have a portman from ohio and b and we have the secretary of treasury and some outside people they would hold public hearings every thread of reserve districts short of that i just don't think it's go topic last two weeks ago and i said any responsible adult given a choice between themselves experiencing physical pain or illness and suffering or passing it on to their kids would immediately say but the pain on me  if you haven't a questions or comments i don't yes i appreciate the opportunity to review your testimony and i speak later thank you and thank you i might say i'm going to look for opportunities much if i could ask one last question and this sure sounds like i'm trying to be cute and i'm you know i one of the and i know you're i think you're very cognizant of this in the structure of the commission process it's got to be a super majority it was a two thirds administration officials as individuals that you talk about you spoke about and frankly for that matter for my colleagues on this committee the question would be balance of power can change you could have a democratic president next time presumably you would be comfortable  it is exactly split eight and eight is that coincidental it is already make up of the house right now no it's we're we are based on we have a republican and then a stretch and we have a democratic congress yes my wolf would be if we if we had next round a large switch in the other direction one way or the other so that it was a democratic or ministration democratic congress or republican administration republican congress does a balance get skewed at that point well i really haven't thought about that i will stick with he is very sincere about obvious and when you listen mr conrad over in the senate side i believe he is to our our members are too so i think we're out of point now we have a republican administration a democratic house and senate congress you almost have a stalemate checkpoint and by having a super majority we require not only be democrats forte but some democrats and republicans are not only just republicans but some democrats so we can truly be bipartisan i appreciate i know you to be asked and sincerely and passionately committed to this and that's why one of the i was not trying to get you on the record that's ok as i was trying to give you a chance to be on the record as manifesting that is what was the goal of that because i know that what you're trying to do is come up with a commission that can get the job done without one side or the other having so much power over the other sides not what we can agree with because in the end then we wouldn't vote right that's right and everything again argues talking want everything everything has to be on the table amen to that i thank the gentleman very much for i'll make reference to that and in order to shorten my my presentation it's a little different from what you have been in the complete testimony but i want to thank you chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to give testimony into what will i will be a very difficult budget process and i come to you today way many congressional hat first as the delegate from one of the offshore possessions of the united states and then chair of this subcommittee an insular fears and such i would be remiss if i didn't point out that the economic conditions of the u s territories under the jurisdiction of the department of interior have languished over the past ten years each them the virgin islands guam american samoa and the commonwealth of the northern marianas continue to suffer from one and i am employment and unstable economy while our wellbeing is dependent on programs in every department of our government telling applied to the most appropriate way to our islands in large measure it does fall to the technical assistance account of the office of insular affairs as the only program which provides assistance simply to the u s territories to meet and tailor the programs to our needs or respond to some of the unique challenges that we face  time when the economic trend in all of these u s territories is downward that one account which can be useful to help improve our condition should not also be decreased as it is in the president's budget accordingly i believe more resources should be devoted to the office of insular affairs technical assistance account to better respond to the needs of our territories and to further support our economies i would also encourage the committee to work with the virgin islands and puerto rico to provide for the full cover over of excise taxes that are due to the territories but madam chairman woman and colleagues also come to this committee as the only female physician ever to have served and the only position of color in this body as also is chair of the health brain trust of the congressional black  us and as one of the three health co chairs of the tri caucus which is made up of the congressional black hispanic and asian pacific caucuses in that capacity we represent nearly one third of the u s population and we're growth which is growing unfortunately this is wrong for the segment of our population that makes up more than one half of the uninsured that has the least access to quality care and that therefore bears the greatest burden of disease in this country these circumstances have created a longstanding and shameful disparities in health between our population and the rest of the country and this results in close to one hundred thousand premature preventable deaths every year the time is come for ethnic and racial minority americans and for our entire country to make that up front investment in the health care of people of color to end these disparities to bring fairness justice and equal opportunity to our national health care system and to prevent the healthcare crisis that now exists from becoming a catastrophe but we have to be willing to step a new direction and provide the berne leadership we promised this country last year in which the doc for the elected us to provide i have to say up front and i know this is going to be a bit of heresy to many people but it will take either entering the tax cuts for the wealthiest among us and cutting the excess fat out of the defense budget that pays from berman's in ways where it will take increasing our debt or slowing our achievement of a surplus but it is an investment that we cannot afford not to make our country strength continuing moral leadership and national security depend on it even if it increases that the economy is to find good and bad that w asking will not be that bad that that has left the middle class as well as the poor and people of color waiting and left behind while the big corporations and wealthy americans have got more at their expense and the expense of our country it would be good debt which t investing in our people improves wellbeing and preparedness and so increases productivity and the strength competitiveness and prosperity of our nation we have all asked to lead and now it's up to us to do so and doing so we require a change in the health care and health spending paradigm we have followed for far too long in this country whether we get additional funding as i am requesting or not it is critical that we redirect how we spend the limited healthcare dollars we will have because no longer continue to increase from doing just and i at the expense of prevention and quality health care we cannot just run health centers without ensuring survival adequate reimbursement to first funding a public health program and increased training of a diverse health workforce to take care of our increasingly diverse population our failure to do this is at the heart of our failure to close the disparity gap and reach our healthy people want an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure has not survived this long without good reason it was true when first uttered it is true today and it applies to how we can most effectively spend our health care dollars which are considerable without a doubt the two trillion we now spend annually has not raised our health status among ranking in the world has not enabled the poor the rural or those americans of color to be healthier nor has it prepared us to protect our communities from the threat of terrorism by bomb biological chemical or even nuclear agents to spend the balance we do budget more effectively and to reduce and eventually reverse the skyrocketing cost of health care we have to set a new direction to change course to alter the old tried and failed approach and instead focus on expanding coverage increasing access improving quality providing cultural and linguistic competence and health care and improving the social determinants of health and poor rural and communities of color i've listed a number of programs in my submitted testimony which are important to the school programs which have been cut eliminated or level funded and which need to be at least restored and the best increase which is what we urge you to do medicare medicaid and chip for the states and the territories and the rebuilding of a better stronger health care in new orleans and the rest of the gulf region affected by katrina and rita are among the top priorities because they are the foundation upon which the new direction of healthcare must be started but there are also the programs that give both children a healthy started life and many of these and more are listed in the testimony well the target eight dollars for the h communities especially the african american community that provide increased access and equity to mental health and substance abuse treatments that time programs for american indians living in urban areas that empower communities to develop systems that better meet their health care needs and support wellness to reach out and bring under represented minorities into the health professions and all levels or that keep the facilities and institutions that serve the under served open that reimburse providers for the large high quality health care they provide despite being nickeled and dimed to death or that in those programs that improve the social and economic factors that underpin our health and that above all focus on health promotion and disease prevention which is the key to reducing our nation's health costs and to reliably and sustainably reducing the deficit and none of the projections i have seen has there been any reference to the impact of health care costs to the debt if those health care costs continue their rapid will spiral unchecked to rein in these costs the options are only to want to provide quality and comprehensive care to reduce or prevent catastrophic high c and create healthy productive citizens and communities or to use a cost containment strategy that creates a multi tiered system of health care delivery and simply leads the poor and very often the middle income to fend for themselves which is bluntly put is to write them off the second is not only abhorrence to our democracy and the ideals of this country it is not an option but i'm willing madam chair women and colleagues this and here is where i am asking you to step up and out even further beyond our comfort zone and the political limitations we have placed on the two hundred two thousand a budget and on ourselves this nation's health to improve so the cost of health care to begin to go down us to once again be the most productive and competitive nation we have always been we must do what is necessary to ensure equal opportunity for all and that includes equal opportunity for health care and to good health to do that we must first eliminate health disparities and so in addition to repairing  budget that is the need of intensive care i'm asking for an equity fund to be created at the level of somewhere around two point five billion over the next five years with the possibility of renewal the disparities which are sometimes called the slave h deficit because it's our actions have been with us for four hundred years it would be reasonable to expect that it would take more than five years to close it well i and many of our partners and supporters would have no problem if we were to incur good debt for this noble chair and colleagues despite our enviable advances in technology and the over six thousand dollars per capita we spend in this country on health at least one person of color whose death should not have happened was that was premature and preventable died in the time it took me to make this presentation it adds up to over two hundred people per day and close to one hundred thousand people and uli not just because they fail to act responsibly in most cases they try that because the institutions that serve them and create the programs and the policies that direct those that work themselves fail to act responsibly this is the kind of terrorism that african americans other people of color and the poor live with every day the president's budget is worthless out of sync with the american public as are his policies and priorities americans want equal opportunity to good health care and good health for all they want an america that lives up to its promise a promise includes investing in the most precious resource we have our people the democratic party and all of us who come here know i have always stood for those same things this would be a bold step but the leadership is also what we promised and i want us to deliver on that promise and thank you for helping to turn out my light reader testimony and for really pointing out all the inequities that we have in our health care system the amount of money that we spend and yet we don't really have a health care system ok from some studies that he has done and it sums it up and then however it all comes down to priorities and this is the quote in the end it all however it all comes down to priorities perhaps we have reached a point when progress in providing good care when needed was compassion and skill and without errors would impress the public as a more meaningful medical advance than the rollout of the latest device or pill they're linked established system to ensure that everyone receives recommended care is causing greater disease and deaths at level that can thank you we have representative higgins next and then right after him i believe it's representative  welcome and we are pleased to receive your testimony you are recognized for ten minutes thank you i'm sure and distinguished members of the committee i'm here to ask the committee for consideration of two priorit project top priority in the nation of the project has not received funding over the past couple of years in the proposed two thousand and eight budget the president has included and hearing from the courthouse thirty six point seven million dollars the continuing resolution that the house passed a couple of weeks ago included two hundred eighty million dollars to the government service agency for specific to new courthouse  approximately two hundred fifty million dollars to the national cancer institute and the national institutes of health those funding is vitally important for cancer research and prevention with me great strides  nation in trade union affectively idealism with the issue of cancer thirty years ago if you were diagnosed with cancer fewer than fifty percent less than five years ago diagnosis today you're sixty five percent for thank you for your testimony any questions the questions again thank you very much for coming thank you very much the next member to testify is representative  welcome and we're pleased to have your testimony and you are recognized for ten minutes thank you madam chairman thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before the committee today several topics i'd like to highlight i mean for bedrooms health care impact  technical job training programs in department of agriculture programs and i'm chairman of the service for our country's veterans ensure that all americans can live in freedom they answered the call of that question and that's why it's important we honor their service by making certain that they receive the quality health care they have more than earned less request in the right budget best players total of eighty six point seventy five billion including forty four point nine in mandatory funding to support benefit programs for our nation's veterans and thirty six billion for medical care a lot of the health care funding continue to grow if we continue the global war against terrorist number of veterans increase their exponential health care million dollars in construction projects have been put in jeopardy these projects include everything from banks to training rangers to child about men centers if you do all you can to fund military construction the highest possible level to help lessen th selling off our precious natural resources and i appreciate your reference to that and i certainly agree i have two questions about your testimony in terms of understanding you reference concerns about the adjusted gross income eligibility cap that the president has come forward with minor standees that's two hundred thousand dollars correct and a requirement that it actually be two hundred that it couldn't be multiple members of the family so that it's two hundred two hundred two hundred bright for spouse and kids you say you have to what level do you think it should be at oh i wish i knew it's a very request twenty five thousand that actually receive payment so we're the larger number don't know what the number should be my concern has grown from two point five million down to two hundred thousand is a huge jump and i've asked the secretary just to take a look as you a the make sure that we're not missing something in our attempt to saw what better may not be a problem in the reference your concern about reducing funding for for an operation i guess that's the one fifty accounts you have as a sense of what programs you want reduced or deleted help a lot are military sure i would be happy to look up in your view some specific recommendation that's a tough question to answer and basically what the democrats were in domestic and term and that's what the folks back home care about well it would be i would be interested i and we're having testimony here about the fact that the united states does more or less with foreign aid than any of the other major countries we made a commitment as you know to do point seven tenths of a percent of our g d p we're down to point two five percent and we're not keeping our commitments on things like water and and some of the things you're talking about they do they use money to buy things from us  some of our agriculture is used overseas actually posing problems for poor people overseas because we're get food and we're not buying it from the local area so this is this is an area of of great interest to me and one that is going to be of contention on the committee because things like international water and sanitation saves lives and protects health of americans and we're going to be i think struggling with this in a way that we could use guidance in terms of the specifics in terms of areas that you think are worthy of cuts  that if we come forward something that would actually be supported and appreciate the depth and nature of your question then i will be happy to come back to you with some more specifics i suspect a lot of these countries in that  a treasure but if you've got the forest here in a small piece of acreage for starters kind of slow talking about well how do we try to describe it piece over here which might be valuable to enhance the main part of the holding site to the extent we can that would be something i hope the committee can help so i want to thank you and i'm going to be turning this over as representative turner comes up to miss kaptur i'm here to testify justify in support of the eight point two billion dollar request for the base realignment and closure account this account was created to implement the recommendation of the two hundred two thousand and five and closure commission the last round of brac was included in the two thousand and two national defense authorization act in two thousand and three the defense department published a draft of the brac review criteria  march two thousand and four d o d submitted the force structure plan and infrastructure inventory to congress congress approved the final review process or criteria in april of two thousand and four in may two thousand and five the defense department provided its closure and realignment recommendations to the base realignment and closure commission the commission delivered its report to the president in september of two thousand and five and he delivered it to congress the same month the brac recommendations came before congress on october twenty seventh two thousand and five as h j rez sixty five and attempt to disapprove the recommendations of the base realignment and closure commission the house overwhelmingly defeated the joint resolution by a voice vote of eighty five to three twenty four to one by defeating the resolution the house had the effect of supporting the brac recommendations on november ninth two thousand and five the black recommendations officially took effect marking the end of a three year process and the beginning of another six year process a realignment and closure congress designed brac as a deliberate slow process outside the political process is very hypocritical of congress to create a process supported clamor for its funding and then reduce its funding and authorization the black recommendations have the force and effect of law and is responsible to congress to see that the process is completed the administration's f y two thousand and eight budget calls for the authorization of nearly eight point two billion for brac implementation this funding request is based upon the schedule created by the department of defense to meet the military construction needs as a result of brac the full authorization of this account of the resolution is necessary to meet the statutory deadline imposed by congress of two thousand and eleven the failure to meet the budget request level will jeopardize the implementation timeline and degrade the readiness of our military facilities the military services and many communities throughout the country have begun making specific plans to prepare for missions either lost or gained under brac in the case of my community dayton ohio partnerships between academia industry and research  institutions formed to ensure that during the braca transition a minimal human capital impact occurs in the science and technology fields a substantial funding cut development the brac recommendations risk the plans that my and other communities have spent months creating a reduced authorization increases the risk that nationally the brac savings will be reduced raises the chances of delaying or postponing scheduled redeployments of military personnel and their families and undermines the brac process that congress established in f y two thousand and seven the house budget resolution supported the administration's five point six billion budget request for brek the house armed services committee fully authorized the funding for brac and the military construction appropriations subcommittee supported the funding of brac however the other body was not able to finish its work requiring the creation of continuing resolutions to fund government operations the c r written by the new house majority cut black implementation enough by two thousand and seven by three point one billion raising serious questions on whether the department of defense could meet the statutory deadline of two thousand and eleven representative o of the house appropriations committee said last week that he is planning to add the missing brac funding to the war supplemental request that the ministration submitted to congress if the appropriations committee does not provide additional funds for brac in f y two thousand and seven the house budget committee would need to increase f y two thousand and eight request for brac by the three billion from eight point two billion to eleven point two in order to put the implementation timeline back on track supporting eight point two billion in five f y two thousand and eight for brac is a necessary step toward realizing the savings from brac and protecting the integrity of the brac process a majority of congress supported bracket it was congress that created the brac process including the request of a point two billion for brac in the house budget resolution in the both the military services and the civilian personnel to continue their planning for possible relocation i encourage the budget committee to support the request for eight point two billion for brac in the budget here thank you very much congressman turner and i would like to give my colleagues a chance to ask questions i happen to be one of the designees from the appropriations committee to the budget committee so i followed very carefully what you're saying and my question is let's just say the worst happened in either the supplemental though congressman nobody has promised it nor the budget mark would provide the funding that you seek to fully implement  space as you know is a research and development base predominately it's not planes and and flying missions it's research and development from the early wright brothers plane all the way to stealth our advantage on the battlefields of tomorrow is develop design implemented that right out of center for space when brac decided to send more jobs and missions to right pat it did so with an analysis based upon savings that would occur by consolidating those missions the right path and the monies that are sought in construction allow those missions to be sent to right pat but are deemed to be savings and that we later find in the budget as a result of those missions coming there are not only individuals that are represent missions being colocated occurs so the domino effect of what we miss is a cost savings opportunities to take advantage of the ingenuity of employees of course the impact on their lives thank you very thank you for clarifying the act for the record i would like to ask our colleague mr bloom an hour if he has any questions or comments he would like to make it this point i appreciate your reference to brac madam chair congressman turner this is an area of great concern to me as well i hope it's something the budget committee will have a chance to focus on i don't know quite how we put all the pieces together but we have vas areas of formally used military sites including some actually who are that are continuing to be used that haven't been appropriately cleaned up in transition so there's a huge opportunity loss and because we don't adequately fund it it actually means that the unit cost to clean up and transition increases and i would be interested congressman and  perhaps your reflections on ways that we might all work together to squeeze a little more value out of this process because i think we're leaving a lot of money on the table i am concerned about you but i had an amendment on the floor last year because sacramento which had a base closed in the first round of base closing anticipates that it will be fully cleaned up in twenty seventy nine i don't think that's fair to you it's not fair to pee all in prior round and it's not fair to the public to have these important resources chewing up money and potentially being  economically dangerous or environmentally dangerous and i would really appreciate thoughts that you may have at some point that we might be able to work either through this committee or are some of our other mechanisms that we cooperate on to make progress on th he has work in partnership with the community so that as land becomes available there is a master plan for a transition for economic readiness of but the biggest impediment is the timeline of funding and completion of cleanup in order for that land to be available to committees having a great deal of difficulty in planning when the land as part of the partnership might be clean and available in order to attract additional economic capital and i know that's a big concern of your side love to work with you want to thank you very much i might just say congressman turner you stayed within the time limit so will you give me a chance to ring in as part of this triumvirate here i'm clean up because one of the most perplexing sites in the country is one that i represent i think there are two sites in the country where there are really where there's ordnance that is buried under water and it happens to be one of those is in north carolina the other is in lake erie and last year we were able for the first time to get  because of new technology that the department of defense has brought on line to actually identify where this buried ordinances is massive and you've got a hundred fifty millimeter shells you got who knows what under there they don't shoot out into lake erie anymore but the issue for us is how do we clean it up there is no real you'd say well the army corps of engineers should clean it up guess what they don't do water that's the army they do land and there really isn't any naval facility up there on lake erie but we've got all this stuff and when i asked the d o d personnel who came out to survey the site when they did their preliminary work by the way the helicopter crashed it crashed into lake erie we lost the captor but the people in it were ok because the boom caught the edge of a wave i guess they were too close to the water but when they showed us the preliminary mapping it showed that on a scale of one to ten it was a seven point attention to these environmentally damaged sites and what we can possibly do to move toward cleaning them up and you mentioned twenty seventy nine i mean my goodness i doubt that the timetable for ours agricultural a lot of our farmers a couple really big ones are in that area next to the urban area and what i don't want to have happen is a disincentive for them and their family members to keep farming and turn around and sell that land thank you madam chair and thank you mr bloom an hour for being here as well and thank you to chairman spratt for allowing us to come before the committee i appreciate the opportunity to testify today on the importance of the f y two thousand and eight the president's state of the union he outlined his budget priorities for the year the need for fiscal responsibility reducing the number of uninsured investing in renewable energy and protecting america's homeland security but unfortunately the president proposed a fiscal year two thousand and eight budget that does not represent any of the rhetoric that we heard and instead continues the same failed policies of the past six years you have been enacted the president the school year two thousand and eight budget w not as it claims balanced the budget within five years the president ignores outyear costs and uses overly optimistic economic forecasts in the name of fiscal responsibility to achieve balance in two thousand and twelve but an honest assessment of the president budget shows that it never reaches balance and instead would increase the deficit by more than three trillion dollars over the next ten years i believe we must begin f y two thousand and eight budget  with a true accounting of where we are and what will be required to pay for over the next five to ten years no more gimmicks in order to make a political statement no more omissions of costs that we all know we're going to have to face we cannot continue to deficit spend in the trillions of dollars and pretend it doesn't matter it only delays the inevitable and passes the tough decisions of today on to future generations i would strongly encourage the budget committee and leadership in both chambers to adopt a fiscally responsible budget resolution we will not be able to dig ourselves out of the deep hole created over the last six years in just one year or perhaps even the next five we can stop the bleeding and put us on a path toward a balanced budget many of my colleagues have spoken here today about the need to invest in essential programs and priorities and i agree with many of them but i will again emphasize t committee that the decisions about which programs to support and increased funding for must be made within the constraints imposed by adopting a fiscally responsible budget and within that responsible framework i believe the fiscal year two thousand and eight budget should focus on a core set of priorities health care for veterans and seniors educating our children and assisting first responders to properly defend the homeland  are no greater debt than to our veterans and i urge the committee to make sure that we fully fund their medical coverage and hospital services the veterans affairs health care system is chronically underfunded and even in the president's budget he short changes our nation's veterans medical care by requesting insufficient funding over the next five years funding for the v a health system would be short three point four billion dollars if the president's budget were enacted in addition the president asks veterans to pay a new enrollment fee and increase pharmacy co payments at a total cost of over two billion dollars our veterans should be at the top of our priority list when it comes to making decisions about the federal budget our veterans said honorably served this country we should honor our commitment to them by adequately funding their health care coverage approximately one hundred twenty four thousand medicare beneficiaries reside in my district so any changes to the medicare program are of deep concern to me and my constituents after the president's call to address the health care crisis in this country i was amazed to see his subsequent budget request reduced spending for medicare beneficiaries by over two hundred fifty billion dollars over the next ten years i find this misguided at a time when the number of medicare beneficiaries is growing every year and the baby boomers are for the first time now starting to qualify for medicare the proposed budget also continues to demonstrate the president's failure to live up to his commitment to fully fund education programs for our children k through twelve spending is still fifteen billion dollars below authorized levels as a member of the house education and labor committee i believe it is critical to the future of this country for us to increase funding for no child left behind and our k through twelve schools the new global economy  requires a highly educated and trained workforce and we must meet our commitment to properly invest in the future of this country by increasing that funding we must also address the mounting concerns of students and parents who are finding it harder to afford a college education i believe we took an important first step during the first one hundred and ours by slashing student loan rates by fifty percent but as a father of two i share the concerns of millions of parents in this country who or how they are going to afford sending their children to college the president's budget again takes us in the wrong direction and i hope this committee will reject many of his education proposals nine higher education programs are completely eliminated leading to a cut of one point four billion dollars in financial assistance to students the proposed increase in the maximum pell grant award is nothing more than robbing peter to pay paul most alarming to me are the proposed cuts to homeland security under the president's budget funding for first responders will be reduced by forty two percent state homeland security preparedness grants are cut by sixty four percent and grants to firefighters are cut by fifty five percent further state and local law enforcement grants through the department of justice the cops program are nearly eliminated which consequently deprives our local communities of the critical support they need to operate in this post nine eleven world is my hope that congress can work in a bipartisan manner to move this country in a new direction with the adoption of a new f y eight budget resolution two thousand and eight budget resolution a new direction that probably accounts for every dollar of the federal government spending and moves us towards greater fiscal responsibility a new direction that adequately provides for the health services of our veterans and our seniors a new direction that invests in our children to ensure that they receive a proper education and the opportunity to attend college and are sufficiently prepared to enter the workforce and compete in our global economy a new direction that provides our local firefighters law enforcement officers and other first responders with the training and equipment required to defend our homeland again i appreciate the opportunity to address the committee today and outlined my priorities in the fiscal year two thousand and eight budget you'll back the balance of my time house congressman filner just happens to be waiting testimony himself and what a fine job he has done in attempting to increase funding for our veterans i'm going to ask my colleagues mr bishop to mr bloom now or if they have any questions or comments they make they wish to make at this point regarding your testimony thank you very very good thank you the committee will place into the record your testimony as well as any additional attachments that you wish to provide congressman matheson welcome to the well fredricka many of you are now recognized for ten minutes well thank you i will i will tell you up front i don't think i'm going to take all ten minutes there's probably been a series of members come through all day on member day for the budget committee and i suspect every member who came here asked for more money for something that's the challenge you face is a budget committee is when you set a budget you've got to prioritize among a number of great ideas and you can do everything for everyone i think very concerned about the lack of fiscal responsibility that this country has undergone in the last few years and so what i wanted to talk to you about today is if we could make some effort to return to the fiscally responsible policies we had in the past decade this congress this house of representatives at least made an important first step when in the stab she in the rules at the start of this congress that include paygo and that's a good thing but as i said that's a good first step if we want to recreate the dynamic that existed in the early night the start in the early ninety's we need to have statutory pay go and we need to have spending caps as well on discretionary spending it's going to force tough decisions i get it it's always tough when you have to live within a budget but for the fiscal health of this country i would suggest that as this committee undertakes the process of creating a budget resolution for this current for the next fiscal year i would say looking at budgeting for some mechanisms that were successful and we have the model that shows how they were successful i would submit that those ought to be on the table as well and so i want to come to make a pitch for that recognizing that if we have to live under those restrictions we as members of congress all have to face some real tough choices for how to live within those restrictions but i think that's what we were elected to do and i'd suggest that that ought to be part of what we're looking at in the budget process today and just to show i'm doing my part i'm going off you know three quick items where i would suggest we probably ought to cut first of all there is a program called the run wild bill replacement warhead program for replacing our current nuclear weapons warheads in our arsenal it's projected in the president's budget spent another hundred twenty million dollars this year one of the chief justification for moving ahead with replacing all these warheads is there was concern that the plutonium in the existing warheads was deteriorating and so we had to have new warheads but the jason study was just came out in december of last year said it turns out the plutonium pits are not deteriorating that they're good for a couple of hundred years and so it's not clear to me what the need is jumping ahead with this new program which i suspect is going to be a new effort at developing new types of nuclear weapons quite frankly and i would submit that in the currently difficult and challenging fiscal times we live in right now perhaps not moving ahead with a reliable replacement warhead at this time would be a more prudent cost take secondly broader effort in terms of changing our nuclear weapons arsenal is the is the program called complex twenty thirty now there is no cost estimate for this effort that's been released it's estimated to be in the billions of dollars again i would submit that we instead as a measure that would be more fiscally responsible i think adequate for our nation's security needs to continue with the existing stockpile stewardship program that's what it's called and i think that would be another area are we going to experience savings in our budget in the next few years and finally a third item the proposed storage facility at yucca mountain for spent nuclear fuel there are a lot of issues about this facility that i think are fair questions to be raising i i have concerns getting poured into this project the problem often for people who say they oppose this project is they don't really offer a solution or an alternative and i would submit to you that there is an alternative it's reflected in legislation introduced in the past congress by senator re in the senate and i introduced in the house it calls for in a room on site storage where waste each site would be converted into dry cask storage units that are government would take title and would stay on site now when when the nuclear waste policy act in one thousand nine hundred two was passed which was the precursor to the yucca mountain discussion we're having here twenty five years later no what i've heard of dry cask storage because that was a technology that didn't exist the point is that technology does advance and things change and when i say interim on site storage dry cask storage is a two hundred year solution is not a permanent solution but it's a two hundred year solution is a couple of hundred years for technology to maybe take us to a new place what we could do and that would be a third item where i would submit that we could save money in this budget so just for fun i thought i'd read the really reason i came here was pay go spending cap statutory let's let's show fiscal responsibility going to thank the gentleman for his testimony particularly yours a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee i will take mary close note of the programs that you have mentioned and and firstly did not receive a copy of your will hear from is the chairman of the veterans committee mr filner of california thank you mr bishop and colleagues appreciate the work you're going through my scepter i heard your plea for help to clean up the ordinance from sending the navy from san diego directly to lake erie figured it out  i have prepared testimony that you have but i'm just going to talk briefly from the high points that current administration will boast that it has improved the funding for veterans especially veterans health care an incredible amount of credible figure they face eighty percent seventy percent dollar amount we have gone backwards during this administration because of inflation and the increasing needs of veterans the absolute dollars have not met the real needs and we have a great amount of neglect to make up with a new congress i think we have as you know more than any other committee and up to millions in lots of areas we need campaign promises and lots of areas and we're not going to be able to meet all these needs overnight but we can have a plan over time to meet that we have to meet these needs i think in installments the first installment for veterans who've already make you live in the appropriations committee by increasing the  continuing resolution for zero seven by three point six billion dollars send an incredible signal across the country that this congress is going to take care of veterans and you can't believe the the powerful and optimistic feedback we have had because of the c r that was passed with that money so we would have done our first step as a democratic congress i think in showing that veterans are going to be met i think in the second installment that is injuries equally traumatic injuries of the mind that we have to take care of i don't care how we're going to vote on this resolution on the floor right now i'm back to work but we are going to be committed as a party and as a congress to taking care of every young men and women who comes back from that war and we're going to take them and give them the care and love that they deserve and have earned if we can pay for the war we can pay for the war years so our next installment of meeting the needs in history budget we have to take care of the health care of those returning veterans the president's budget was a shell game upped the absolute dollar amount for the first year six percent for health care but over invest five year period actually cut dollars for health care we cannot do the same thing and i regret i think our committee is going to recommend a twelve percent increase for health care in this in this first year and of course we want to show that we are not taking care of our own not only on the incredible physical damage but the mental health needs p t s d post traumatic stress disorder which has become a catchall phrase we know when we did not treat the mental needs of those coming back from vietnam we have tremendous problems today half of the homeless on the street tonight are vietnam vets you see the same thing happening already with iraqi vets the grunts with the same thing and we know how to prevent it we have to have the outreach and the resources available to meet the needs and we're going to do that with your help in this congress and of course on what we have to make up more money than the president's the president's the budget assumes investment in veterans and a double co payment on pharmacy items which this congress is not going to approve so we're going after find that money in additional areas so we have to take care of those health needs i would like you to keep in mind one for the we have a tremendous obligations to pass veterans world war two sixty years ago we still have veterans alive they're in their eighty's some of you know already in their ninety's there are several injustices which we must correct as they're going to die in the next budget cycles we have veterans like from atomic threats were not told about the dangers of being in the testimonies have cancers and they're being forced to prove that there is a relationship between the services in the armed forces and their cancer should be a prism through things and we have to take care of the use of these these men in addition sixty years ago filipino veterans taught in the pacific helped us win that war we took away as a congress their benefits in one thousand nine hundred eighty six they are not interested in money in return but they would like to have the honor and dignity of being american veterans i think we can do that it's a budget it's accomplishable within our budget lastly the merchant marine mariners are world war two took tremendous losses they helped us win the battle in the atlantic there's less than ten thousand alive they were never given the advantages of the bill of rights at the start was so important to other veterans they were never they never got the education or the housing benefits we have legislation which you would recommend to you that again is a not a lot of money but says thank you to these merchant mariners of world war two our job will not be finished with this budget but we have to see it i think as hopefully that with the democrats in the majority we will continue our installment of paying down the debt that we need to our nation's veterans we promised in the campaign a twenty first century g i bill that means i've paid the education benefits the housing kinds of we have as i said over two hundred thousand homeless vets on the face on the streets of america tonight that is a that's a tremendous more a blot on our nation we can still do something about that if we so choose there are lots of things to do there are greater demands that we have the money for but i think as we showed in the c r that when we put that money in and if we adequately care for the items that i mentioned are not great we will have the veterans on our side they will see that we are committed to them and we will continue to address their needs until we have met from all in the coming budget of america i thank you for your committee work it's a tough job especially when they have given us credit card debt to dig ourselves out of we not only have to make up for past problems but we have to try to balance the budget also that's a tremendous job we're going after work together as a team to do it thank you for what you're doing mr filner thank you very much for your testimony and thank you for your service as chairman of the veterans committee if i could just make a comment and ask our ask the question one of the things that the president has been saying about his budget is that if it balances comes the balance in five years without a tax increase i think we all know that that is wishful thinking at best if not an outright fiction because it does not recognize costs associated with the war in iraq nor does it recognize the cost of fixing the a m t but also it is shot through with the increase in fees and increases in fees are simply getting a tax increase by another means could you talk more about the increase in fees proposed for veterans for access to health care and for pharmaceuticals and what the impact would be on the veterans population the stra way means over twenty five grand so but there is a moment to see which is up to two hundred fifty dollars a person can read to they say they say and they say it was great i'm afraid that several hundred thousand veterans would leave the system to me we should be expanding the system not contracting it but they estimate that if they do you normally see go through several hundred thousand veterans will not be able to afford the system they still have the same extremely difficult because it's that co payments per medicine and per month so it certainly looks like one up from eight dollars to fifteen dollars that's but if you take dealing with ten medicines ten times a dozen other problems so we should not even entertain the space but that leaves us money to make up in the budget thank you very much from his captors thank you mr chairman first of all i just want to say chairman filner we are so proud of you and the work that you are doing and will do as chairman of the veterans affairs committee thank you i know how totally dedicated you are to it and you know such a great deal about it and you're young enough to really make a difference i just wanted to comment on the issue of fees i had a veteran come up to me who was over eighty years of age and was on something like twelve medications a world war two  i wondered after i dealt with him well whether you might just advisedly take this after a veteran reaches a certain age especially eighty shouldn't we just let them have the medicine that their doctor prescribes i mean this poor soul had lost his wife he didn't have a telephone a life was hard enough it just seems to me that some point unless there multi billionaires there  shouldn't have to go through all that confusion of co pays and all the rest i just thought i would mention that while you are here before us today you don't have to comment i'm sure you as well as i and other members have confronted this secondly congratulations to you on your understanding of the needs of our homeless vets and those who will face neuropsychiatric damages or result of deployment i want you to know you have a total ally in their cause in this member and when i began my service in congress as a member of the veterans affairs committee it was very troubling to look at how many individuals in our v a hospitals were there with chronic mental illness and substance abuse and yet if one looks at the peer review on research on staffing i want to do the same with the o d to really finally grapple with this in a proper way i would in mentioned that there are several members including congressman moran congressman la hood who have introduced a bill dealing with mental illness at least it's a step forward dealing with p t s d other neuropsychiatric conditions at onset i think we have to go way beyond that in terms of dedicating research dollars which i'd like to do as a member of the d o d appropriations committee in this arena perhaps you might consider some type of convening for members who hold deep interest in this it is quite deep in this congress we've never been able to meet with one another on that subject perhaps not as member of the budget committee but to invite members i'm a subject before your committee i would be one that would show up and then finally in a very provincial way i just want to mention that i represent one of the a clinics in the country that is not in the state of its mother hospital this is unbelievable and it causes so many problems because it is a cost center for a hospital located about an hour away from us in michigan where from the state of ohio i would just prevail upon you if you have staff that could work with us so we could figure out how to get an independent affiliation or an affiliation with our own medical center so our vets do not have to travel such a but just on the p t s d again thank you for your incredible support of that you know if i was the president right now when he asked for support of our troops i would be saying every community every family children must know what p t s d is so we can envelop these young kids when they come back and recognize the symptoms and help direct them because the major problem is they can't talk to anybody about it they feel resources but for the v a it could be meaning for i don't know if they care paid fifty cents on the dollar twenty cents on the dollar whatever to help because v a does things in a very cost effective manner it would save medicare money to do parts of the budget so i'll continue to work and then we have tremendous you guys have a tremendous difficulty yes we you know we got to meet the demands that our constituents had they haven't been met for you know almost a decade and yet we want to balance the budget too so we'll be working with you to do thank you thank you thank you letter thank you based on your own thank you for your testimony and as someone who represents one of the largest military base in this country for consuming to pay attention to the respective needs of committee chairs and individual members on on on the effect of the budget on our respective programs  after a careful review of the administration's budget for the programs of the under the jurisdiction of our committee we have concluded seven billion dollars but the administration requests two point seven five billion dollars so it's roughly a billion dollars lol that is serious for the the construction of runways taxiways parking aprons the hard side of the air air operations of airports it is serious because in the three years after september eleventh airports diverted their capacity construction funding from taxiways runways parking a to security needs in the terminal so accommodate stationing of the and and and security needs of explosive detection systems and the baggage clearing process that that is hidden from passengers back underneath the airport terminal itself they spent three billion dollars  funds on security projects that have not been compensated for that by the homeland security department or by the general revenues of the federal government now air traffic is up and claimants are up air operations are up there reaching pre two thousand and one service levels worldwide last year a billion people traveled by air seven hundred fifty million of those traveled in the u airspace we are seventy percent of all the aviation travel in the entire world we need now to expand runway capacity and yet this administration underfunded the  p program you're not going to be able to add capacity or accommodate the growth needs of airlines if we don't invest in the hard side of  the administration request is six hundred million below that it's two point five billion now you don't just go in by air traffic control equipment off the shelf at radio shack you don't go and sign up with dell computers and say send us standard terminal out of automation replacement system these are highly sophisticated real time computers that are almost the size of that computer that television screen down here they track aircraft real time not data retrieval you need highly sophisticated computer programming for example in going from the previous technology three hundred thousand computer lines if they have to increase capacity a million three hundred thousand computer lines of code that took years in development and it takes and  it has to be continually revised as the system evolves and as more traffic moves but you're the air traffic controller is managing aircraft that are moving ten miles a minute at seven miles in the air they have to make instantaneous judgment they have to have instantaneous feedback that takes huge capital investment to continue the modernization of the air traffic control keep it current with developments in aviation we're having we're seeing more aircraft in the skies today than in two thousand and one airlines are are increasingly using point to point service using regional jet aircraft that means more workload at air traffic control facilities both in the enroute centers that is where aircraft are managed at altitude above twenty nine thousand feet and then the airport environment forty miles out from the airport that that system needs to be connected now to satellites so that satellite technology will relieve the air traffic controller of a great deal of the tedium of managing air traffic on a moment to moment basis that will take huge investments in the future not a decrease in funding as this administration is proposing of thirty nine billion dollars but the administration submission for the awake budget at the very time that this administration is launching with big bally congestion reduction initiative they propose to cut three hundred million dollars out of the transit account of the highway trust fund three hundred million below the amount we authorized and you voted for  in two thousand and five you want to deal with congestion you have to invest more not less in transit in amtrak they administration proposes an eight hundred million dollar budget well two years ago david gun the president of amtrak said yes this is ministration request the one point two billion dollar budget for amtrak we shut it down we need more than that this administration as they do every year come in with a low number for amtrak expect congress to make up the difference and what and then talk about what we need reforms what they mean by reform translate abolish really what they want to do is abolish amtrak and only say that because they've been working on it for six years all around the world other countries are investing in high speed intercity passenger rail the french with the highly successful t g v have already committed six and a half billion dollars to upgrade their system add new lines add more service italy invested six  billion dollars denmark little denmark about the size of three counties in my district has invested nine and a half billion dollars in a high speed rail system we ought to do we've got at least keep amtrak afloat and that means a budget of at least a billion three hundred million dollars in the environmental protection agency the state revolving loan funds of averaged a billion three hundred fifty million dollars over the last ten years that's to build wastewater treatment facilities water lines sewer lines interceptor sewers and this current budget is half that amount it's six hundred eighty seven point five million dollars we have a bill that we've reported from committee we're ready to bring it to the house floor to refund is the state revolving loan funds at twenty billion dollars over the next five years that's doubling the existing amount states are falling behind sewage treatment plant capacity is inadequate to meet current demand most of these plants are thirty plus years old and need to be upgraded we're discharging the waste in combined sewer overflows combined sanitary and storm sewer all refloat polluting creeks and rivers and streams and lakes and and this is ministration at that very moment proposes to cut the funding for the state revolving loan fund i urge you not to do that and finally in the corps of engineers the administration proposes a forty five percent retention facility and they're proposing to make nearly fifty percent forty five percent cut and in the construction account they propose thirty five percent cut what that means is say to the gentleman from ohio on the great lakes as we as we come to the opening of shipping season this and of march early april on the great lakes lake superior will be down ten inches because of drugs over the last three years and the watershed of lake superior the great lakes watershed is similarly in drought lower lakes will be down as much as seventeen inches lake superior is equal to the volume of all the other four great lakes combined so if it's flows down the flow in the other and the volume in the other lakes will be down substantially more harbors in the lower lakes or down as much as fifty four inches taconite ships that is iron two or three more voyages per vessel that means higher cost to the steel mills our transportation costs we need to accelerate the dredging in the in the interconnecting channels in the great lakes and and on the harbors in the lower come back and do that and and do that dredging so those are just a few of the highlights what we need to do in this budget is under your direction line responded to questions i thank the gentleman for his testimony his full written statement is in i'm happy question it's your and i just want to thank the distinguished chairman of the transportation and infrastructure committee for coming before us today and i said to many audiences we couldn't have a better american in place today for what we face in terms of these investments than yourself you are so ready for this i'm just happy here in place and i can tell you as a member of the appropriations subcommittee on transportation and housing we look forward to recommendations and as a designated this committee from the appropriations committee to try to do the best that we can in view of the work class the next member to testify is a gentleman from california the stand up welcome and we're pleased to receive your testimony mr harmer and you are now recognize for ten minutes impose unfunded mandates on our schools our teachers in our students and on fortunately that fear has become a reality and today i hear from house educators who are struggling with the mandates set out by nickleby while have shut them down so we must increase our investment in the education to fund vital programs and services for last fall budget cycles we have seen very little increase in education spending the president's budget proposes one point five billion below the fiscal year two thousand and seven requests level for the department of education yet the demands on our students in schools have increased due to the increased cost of providing services them a difficulty of meeting the requirements occasion and education technology the reauthorization of elementary and secondary education act the so called no child left behind has already left many students behind we have a long ways to go to fix this law to give schools the help they need if nothing else the data from nola no child left behind has clearly demonstrated america's education system is fundamentally inequitable we have set high standards for students but we have not match those goals with the resources they need the achievement gap remains and the funding gap remains awful with our increased funding will not be able to provide teacher training instructional services the materials our schools improve student learning significantly the president's budget once again fails to fully fund the individuals with disabilities education act or idea and i to certify the federal government made a commitment to provide forty percent of the cost of educating children with a disability congress has failed to meet these tournaments for over twenty years this is simply as you understand simply unacceptable for a program don't one and programs exist to level the playing field for disadvantaged students but we have failed to provide the funding to allow them to have their full effect public education should be the great equalizer providing the opportunity for a better life for all americans today i urge the committee to make education a top priority by fully funding idea increasing funding for the no child left behind act  chairman i'm also here today to oppose the president temple once again to eliminate the state criminal alien assistance program and this budget gap reimburse the state and local governments for the costs of incarcerating criminal aliens and it's vital for border states such as california which incarcerate this proportionately high share of undocumented criminal aliens secure a nation's border is the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government congress has consistently legislated that the federal government even take criminal indians into federal custody or reaching an agreement to compensate state and local jurisdictions for their incarceration the president's budget requests which provides no funding for scap would abandon state  local jurisdiction and devastate my home state of california which receives forty percent of gap funding in addition the president's budget would eliminate several crucial programs that will affect the health and well being of my constituents as well as our nation the president proposes to eliminate the urban indian health program which provides unique services for those that have americans living outside of reservations as a result of their relocation policies and the unfortunate soci needed holistic care as well as culturally and linguistically competent care unavailable through other providers in my district the sounds indian health center will face significant decreases of medical and dental services case management and substance abuse treatment by because treatment and cultural activities they estimate there will lose ten staff members and about that about fifteen hundred fifty clients will be terminated from the services under the president's budget and this is not acceptable the president's budget also nearly completely cut funding for title seven health professionals programs proposing just nine point seven million a ninety four point seven percent cut from all seven these programs aimed to increase the diversity of our health care workforce as well as improve the quality of health care in low income and racial and ethnic minority populations the centers of excellence program enables health professionals training programs to enlarge their applicant pool and have factored in a performance of under represented minority students improve the recruitment and retention of under represented minority faculty and other ways and hence the capacity of the graduates to provide health care services to people who are medically underserved in all strive there was only one cent troubled by the president's proposal to let many other programs that serve our most frail and vulnerable populations such as the community service block grants of preventative health and health services block grants in all five california receive nearly fifty six point five million c s p g for me and use it to serve almost half of the state's residents identified as low income now i am encouraged by some aspects of the president's budget requests he proposes judicial system mental health and social services and treatment communities to intervene and break the cycle of substance abuse addiction and crying the president's budget requests thirty one point eight million for this program a twenty one point seven million increase over the funding level for all seven i'm also glad to see that the president has included some important funny increases for scientific research that will help our nation to maintain its competitive position in the global marketplace unfortunately he has once again chosen to rob peter to pay paul by proposing to eliminate programs that have a proven track record of aiding small businesses in creating new jobs the manufacturing i understand that the budget committee is being asked to make these funding decisions in the context of a deficit environment however the federal government has an obligation to invest in the future growth our nation's historical commitment to education health care yield back the remainder of my time and i appreciate all of the committee's indulgence and i lobbied to put on record that which is important to my many silicon valley but also this welcome and we are pleased to receive your testimony you are recognized for ten minutes well thank you so much mr chairman i truly appreciate the opportunity to come here and speak to you an arm even an absentee i thank you to all the members of this comm that this may be one of the most thankless but the most important job that is being done this year and your work is truly appreciated by all of us and i say that not just members but my constituents i'm here today mr chairman to talk to you about this budget as it affects our veterans and i don't think in the environment that we're in right now and the discussion that we're having on the floor of the house of representatives anything could be more important i come to mr chairman as i discussed these as a twenty four year veteran of the army national guard and the son of a korean war veteran last week the president's proposal showed some promise but in many cases far short of the expectations that we need to fill during his two thousand and two state of the union the president spoke of the need to care for our nation's veterans and he asked for a statement that ha heartened at the time to approve a historic increase in spending for veterans health care unfortunately over the last five years we've seen just the opposite without taking into all the details and using your precious time mr chairman i would just pass along to you a couple of things that i think are critical for me in looking at the independent budget created by veterans for veterans there are some critical issues being addressed and one of the things that this president budget does is in trying to make the budget balance they give us the choice of cutting off access to services to our of specially a previous wars in the name of balancing the budget at the same time underestimating the need of our veterans that are returning as a nation have an opportune i have an obligation to make sure that we're honest with the public honest with our veterans if the need is there the need to be fulfilled and i spent the afternoon with some of my soldiers from my old unit the thirty fourth division out at walter reed this afternoon and both of these soldiers lost limbs in this war in iraq these are good soldiers they believe in their mission and they're doing everything they can to accomplish what they've been sent to iraq to do but one of the interesting things was is one of these young men's is still in the process of preparing to get his prosthetics and another one has had his prosthetics that when we look at the president's budget  see that the money spent or allocated for prosthetic limb research has been cut in half and i would challenge and ask mr chairman and i don't know if it's possible for each of the members of this committee to get out there and get a chance to talk to these young men you  encourage that the people to think about the impact that the snake we're feeling the budget request as a present habit phillida spar short mr chairman we've got an opportunity we understand that to take budget constraints but we have an opportunity to do right by these people i ask you to consider the testimony that's coming in from the veterans group i ask for you and the rest of the group to look closely at this and i ask for us to keep our commitments to our bathrooms and and to ensure that future generations know that that commitment will be there so i would entertain any questions mr chairman if not i'll get back the balance of my time thank you for your commitment or is keeping the focus as you're on the men and women who are on the front line in their families who are coming back now and they're going to need care not just whe get back for years to come we thank you for your testimony your time and your commitment thank you mr chairman thank you opportunity to dress the committee on issues that are special interest to me and the voters of indiana as a district my career in law enforcement my time listening to constituents back home and my limited experience in congress so far give me some unique insights into the importance of promoting our nation's priorities while maintaining our dedication to fiscal responsibility for the new replacement without objection your for statement will be entered in to the record thank you m chairman to continue during my twenty four year career in law as a law enforcement officer with a local sheriff's office i saw firsthand the bravery and sacrifice of our communities police officers and firefighters even before the terrorist attacks became a concern these public servants had their hands full keeping the peace to protect america's families at the local level our law enforcement deals with domestic violence past suicide threats drug crimes and a host of other challenges as they step into their patrol cars each and every day the efforts of these men and women are allowed the rest of us feel secure in our cities our neighborhoods and in our homes in the early one nine hundred ninety s the federal government provided local law enforcement with the ability to fulfill their duties in the midst of growing crime rates and drug use the cops program lower the cost of local governments of hiring new officers and more than one hundred twenty thousand additional police went on the streets this year the president's budget contain funding cut for the cops program from five hundred fifty eight million dollars in fiscal year two thousand and seven to thirty two million dollars in fiscal year two thousand and eight this would amount to a ninety four percent cut in the program in a single year there is no doubt communities across the nation will suffer from such cus fewer cops on the streets result more crime and more security for american communities after nine eleven it became quite clear that the foreign terrorists had ability attack us on our own soil not only on the coast but also in the heartland overnight our nation's community police and firefighters are first responders and were suddenly thrust into battle lines in this war on terror and i can attest th brave men and women did not expect to lay this latest responsibility but they proudly accepted it and these new challenges strain an already overwhelmed local budget the federal government stepped up to help the municipalities and these agencies face this new threat federal programs provide grants training and other assistance to the community agencies charged with a spawning in these local terrorist attacks without such programs local officials would be unable to confront this new threat once again the president budget proposal the massive cuts in funding to homeland security initiatives targeted equipping america's first responders law enforcement terrorism prevention grants cut by thirty percent firefighters systems grants cut by fifty five percent state homeland security grants cut sixty four percent federal assistance to community policing and security has already been cut in half in the last decade this forty two percent cut in overall homeland security assistance combined with a virtual lumination of the cops program would hinder the ability of the american community police officers and firefighters to respond daily to the catastrophic emergencies that hit us every once in a while the president of the international association of firefighters may have put it best and i quote make no mistake this budget proposal puts the safety and security of the american people at risk unquote in our efforts towards a common goal of a balanced budget we must not forget our duty to protect america's can unities it is a priority and our budget must reflect it's important constituents throughout the eighteen counties in my district share another common concern the skyrocketing cost of health care in america the cost of health care is forcing the elderly to choose between groceries and prescription drugs that they need to survive it squeezing the bottom lines from hoosier small businesses it's depriving many of our children the opportunity to fill their potential in the classroom of course it's no secret to hooters that the federal government is not here to solve every one of our problems and they don't expect us to but they do understand that government has a responsibility to help the nearest among us those who can't help themselves few programs have been a successful in providing for those in need more than the state's children's health insurance program referred to as s chip when a democratic president and a republican congress came together in one thousand nine hundred seventy right s chip into law they were united with one purpose to provide access to health care to those children who had fallen through the cracks their parents had jobs but like many americans they didn't get health insurance while they worked they may just enough to disqualify from the medicaid program and not enough for them to purchase private insurance ten years later over six million children across this country have access to quality health care through the s chip program these children enjoy a level playing field at school and have a better chance to succeed yet despite the successes of this program we're still faced with many challenges in my state alone one hundred sixty one thousand children are without health insurance nationwide the number is closer to nine million and while these numbers increase the president's budget proposed  shrink s chip in fact the president's request to congress underfunded s chip by about ten billion dollars or ten billion dollars as it reauthorized the program this year is proposing would plunge many of these children back into the ranks  this responsibility a balanced budget in particular is a goal that we share on both sides of the aisle but we can all agree that our nation's budget should illustrate our nation's values and priorities as we consider our options and make the difficult choices that lead to fiscal responsibility we need to address one of the most unnecessary obstacles to reaching a balanced budget taxpayer dollars lost to waste fraud and abuse there are too many instances instances to this list in such a short time but i have been here long enough to see the instructive examples in my seat on the house armed services committee i've seen multiple reports already of waste and abuse that are robbing our troops in iraq of the support of congress and provide them in previous budgets a recent defense department inspector general's report showed that fifteen percent of the american taxpayer dollars devoted to iraq reconstruction projects nearly three billion dollars has been wasted that same report indicated that the state department may have spent over thirty six million dollars on weapons and equipment that cannot be accounted for another are discovered that fourteen thousand weapons supplied to iraqi security forces have now shown up missing not only do errors like this wasteful taxpayer dollars meant to be for u s troops in harm's way they may further endanger our fighting men and women by arming violent militias the funds and weapons accounted unaccounted for in iraq aren't not the only examples of waste and fraud i've seen in my seat on the small business committee i have heard the numerous budget problems faced by by government agencies such as the small business administration where resources are so scarce that oversized is halted altogether open the door for fraud and abuse this past weekend a local nightly news report from houston texas illustrated the waste that results from improper oversight after the nine eleven attacks by terrorists the federal government authorized the small business ministration to provide loans to small businesses suffer an economic toll from the attacks in new york and washington d c this news report found nearly one hundred million dollars in nine eleven alone nine eleven loans have been awarded in the houston area businesses such as a car wash a dry cleaner a preschool and a yogurt shop to prevent such waste fraud abuse congress and a president must work together it's not acceptable for billions of taxpayer dollars to be thrown away due to improper accounting and scant oversight as we work together to balance our nation's budget our priority must be reducing waste not only will efforts stem the tide of waste and move us closer to our goal of balancing the budget but they will also demonstrate to the american people that their elected representatives are spending their money wisely  chairman the people back home in indiana sent me here and expect us to work together every day to achieve a balanced budget that reflects our values and our priorities this course sponsibility is not a democratic goal it's not a republican  what our constituents expect of both parties as their representatives it is our responsibility to put in the long hours make the tough decisions and get our country back on the right track i'd like to thank you mr chairman for your time and i yield back the balance i might have we thank the gentleman for his testimony and before congressman ellsworth you leave perhaps i could ask you a question having served in law enforcement when you tell us whether or not your former colleagues in law enforcement back home are familiar with the president's budget and its impact on a number of law enforcement programs that you mentioned cops program for example and are the getting back to you on any comments they may have they're very aware of it mr chairman both i've been called and visited by both law enforcement and firefighters and they've been telling me every trip home the impact and sometimes the larger agencies can can absorb this it's the smaller agencies are really being hit when we're talking about four and five men departments who rely on that that just to run just to run a third shift a patrol that they rely on these type programs and they're going to have to cut that all together so having no police officer no fire protection on a second hand or third shi we are hearing that and it is disturbing but we appreciate your testimony and the work that you're doing for the folks back home indiana and we look forward to hearing from you again soon on the issues of the budget so thank you very much for your testimony  at this time the committee will recess until further members are present familiar just like i apologize that mr bush and we are allowed in ten minutes for members to address the committee and to respond to any questions if there is any time remaining so the opportunity myself and the other members of the come up here and and actually testified concerning things that they had concerns about and this is really you know this is my third term in congress and this is the first time that i've really actually i guess a little bit longer than that but actually i want to special election so it's confusing they knew why they they this is the first time i really afforded myself the opportunity to come and talk about something i thought was really important but when i'd like to visit with you about as i project the ozark jeta tyler power house which happens to be located in the third district of arkansas the project is of fundamental importance to the citizens of my district state of arkansas and indeed the surrounding states of oklahoma missouri texas kansas move louisiana and all over six million people will directly benefit from the recommended amount in the in the budget proposal there are five turban generator units of those are three of its counterpart facility the weber falls power house in oklahoma from nine hundred ninety nine through two thousand and four two point four generating units on average were unavailable at the ozark powerhouse from arbor falls did a major failures resulting from significant the design flaws damage  continue to increase with the rising cost of energy and the increasing cost of repairing  night every year these units are mine out of service the government loses nearly one million in energy sales revenues that otherwise would be returned to the u s treasury from the north cost south western powers  ministrations hostile power customers an estimated nine million dollars to replace this lost energy with more expensive less advisor mentally friendly sources if we fail to act we can expect our lifecycle minus cost and a high right than has been experienced in the past in the past congress has shown a major commitment to the project in fiscal year two thousand and three congress appropriated two point five million to begin the the rehab rehabilitation ozark in two thousand and five requested and congress appropriated another five million to begin the turban acquisition contract for ozark additionally the power customers have shown a magic commitment by providing more than twenty four million dollars to continue this rebel session projects such a great public private enterprise how does not a traditional funding method is merely a stopgap measure and of arts money from other maintenance and replacement projects and c rehabilitation is zero the appropriations appropriating the administration's recommended seventeen point three million roll out the ozark powerhouse to complete rehabilitation allowing the  dropping as low as thirty one percent of i will build the in two thousand and one the ozark jetta tyler powerhouse rehab project is a how you beneficial revenue producing self sustaining environmentally friendly job creating our dependence on foreign energy value to complete this project in a timely manner results in the expansion of less environmentally friendly alternatives furthermore this project will provide a positive return on the taxpayers dollars funding this project will provide tremendous benefits for a national environment and economy our local communities will be thankful when the corps of engineers completes its work on this project and again i urge the committee to conclude the ozark powerhouse this you know was the first time that i'd heard before the budget committee actually really you know ask consideration that we that we really look at a project and certainly all of us all of the members of congress  things that they very much believe in but this is a situation you know we talk about you know renewable energy we talk about reducing our dependency on foreign oil we talk about all of these things and yet  efficient they were installed many years ago and it was kind of the they were the first of their kind in the country and because of that you know they've had some problems with them all of that's been worked out a lot of this type of turban was being used in europe but it really doesn't make sense the cost benefit ratio is very very good it's a it's a unit that not only does it benefit now district in the sense of producing power there but produces power throughout the surrounding states so again you know it's one of the signs that if we don't get it done now the other thing that we run into is that as the projects drop down and they don't aren't don't have enough money to continue the budget in the contract then you wind up you know paying much much more money in the future you know as you somebody will discover say this really is a great project we need to get it done so like i said  ability to keep the project energy as you might very difficult decisions concerning the budget and i certainly understand that also so if you have any questions find announcement of a very very long day for you all and i'm gradually getting down a little bit early sherman thank you so much for this topic you so much for coming in and i'm going to make it real quick for you he would recognize the problem that i'm bringing to your attention i want to talk about an urgent issue in my own home town of los angeles that would be really negatively impact president's budget a mr chairman our children are killing one another at an appalling rate the los angeles police department reported seven thousand seven hundred and fourteen these crimes have a racial or ethnic character as well i'm going to try to ethnically cleanse your neighborhood i believe we need to take a comprehensive approach opportunities once they leave school but there is one action that we can take right now that will immediately lose the level of violence and protect our kids and that is to put more police on the street we have a program that will do just that and i think you're familiar mr chairman with the cops program the community oriented policing program and it's going to be like urban communities where crime a two thousand and seven funding of more than five hundred forty two million dollars the program also cut eighty seven million dollars of the programs existing resources and this is unacceptable despite all the talk about supporting local police from the administration the president's budget stars the cops program i would fund because of the administration marriage to big tax cuts this budget proposes cutting this program by eighty seven million dollars and that eighty seven million dollars could pay for over seventeen hundred new local police officers helping los angeles and other cities big and small across the u s deter and fight this street crime mr chairman i urge the committee to re store full funding for cops i think this instance or to feel safe in their own neighborhoods and cutting funds to programs that serve these purposes is not the answer we have a responsibility with a new majority in our congress to put our citizens first and mr president mr chairman the president's budget simply doesn't do that so i want to thank you chairman and if you have any questions i would be happy to answer them and i do have an article from the l a times that underscored my presentation for you the beneficiary of two hundred  current where i live so i can bear testimony to the same results that you just talked about i've seen it throughout my neighborhoods and furthermore we have sold the idea of budget we certainly want to restore some of it above the existing level which basically is a maintenance of effort level to pay for the cops who originally had the program and i'm not quite yet sure that three or four year  perspective but it's working in both places something that works in your own south carolina central california it's got to be a good program well i appreciate your sensitivity and your experience with the program i'd like to read this article with your staff you just described a recent killing that's a very young girl and sixteen years old because of out of control gang violence and  under staffed in our police department in los angeles the need it's desperate and you understand it and if we can just address it in any way we can i think that will be a step in the right direction so thank you so much mr chairman thank you for coming thank you ranking member on the parks public lands and forest subcommittee resources to land issues obviously extremely important i recognize also this is the time of year when everyone everyone in their third cousin comes to washington they all come to our office and say you know the budgets terrible you need to control things but my program is special in some respects i'm doing the same thing to you here today except i do think i can i can make a case there's something different about three programs in the president's budget that i would like to talk to you about very quickly the first a most important payment of taxes programs been around since one nine hundred seventy six we're in the fourth decade and it seems like every year we play the same game were the o m b cuts the funding for this committee recommends that it should be looked at by the appropriators and increased in some way the appropriators increases on the house side and the senate cuts it down in conference and then repeat the same game the next year which i have to admit i'm very tired of the game and where it starts and i'm not blaming you for that one because actually this comm has been very very favorable to this program and very helpful in years past but there is that political wall street play of two steps forward one step back and then you sidestep a bit and we seem to be in that pill is difficult i realize especially on the administration level because it has no washington officers there's no executive branch to push for it the only people that get this are the people in the local levels where the money goes directly and they are using it very wisely every state but one has a role and benefits from health but it obviously has a greater impact in the mountain west than in other areas and sometimes what we take for granted in the west in understanding this issue is difficult for those unless you have a public land state or county in the process the pill to funding is there for three basic reasons that a government does not pay taxes on landed owns doesn't pay royalties and fees but the distribution process that does not get until that is equitably given to the counties where the services are mandated also the public lands decreases the economic opportunities of those who have public lands if you have two percent as many of my counties in my state have owned by the federal government you have to build a base for your services and county government on the eight percent that is left ironically two years ago all the while the washington post sent forth an editorial talking about the same problems that washington d c had when they wrote about the fact that the federal government is the largest landowner washington since the land can't be taxed the federal government is a principal contributor to the dement district's chronic fiscal imbalance i agree with them because that's the same argument that we have been making year after year dealing with federal lands especially in the west where the definition of higher also the federal government seems to treat the west a little bit differently because of that factor with only washington d c coming in there if i could do this very quickly and i'm trying to walk through that again if you look at the first page you see the growth and uphill funding as a percentage of the of the spending that's been done on interior budgets all together basically pitt was flatlined from its inception to about year two thousand in recent years congress has been doing a better job because they become right they have realized the significance of this program on the counties where the impact is felt however the bottom line of the numbers are this year the administration suggested one hundred ninety million that is eight million dollars less than they suggested for this program last year in their budget last year this congress funded it at two hundred thirty two million even though the house passed one that was i think two hundred forty pickup number for that last one i don't know what it is but house has been very popular has been very positive to this program the senate has usually cut it down and we are significantly more than the administration i have to admit i feel a great deal of frustration with my administration for how they played game question expect congress to boost up this program of significan if i could also have you look carefully at the second page that's there once again the distribution of public lands is picked up in the pictures and the number of the stuff that's blue is how much better land is owned in each of those states  george it's frustrating for me to sure because i'm one of those and that that is the problem and the basis that we have i want to add one other thing to you and then if there's any questions you have one of the phenomena we've also found if you look at the last chart pilt has actually nothing to do with funding of education in western states but issue it's the same thing education faces one of the ironies we found out is the states litter in red on that last part of the states that have the most difficult time in funding increases to their education budgets and the phenomenon is if you compare the two charts the blue one with the red one you see there is almost a one to one correlation between states with a great deal of federal money rental lands and their inability to fact of the fund the education system for their kids which once again i feel a double whammy as a school teacher i think my pay and retirement was was was retarded because of this problem and my kids i think their education level was diminished because of this particular problem this is not one to one correlation with guilt but it is the same problem but the amount of central lands has a negative impact on the ability of states to actually raise the money and raise the taxes and pay for their own programs by themselves which is why we're going to ask you very seriously in your committee on the assumption they are all here listening to me to seriously look at this issue to help the president's budget yearly underestimate the significance of that something in the administration talk that it's being welfare for the west to be honest we look at it as rant but it's due for the landed there because there is no other way we can survive if you want to give us our land back so that our blue map looks it's very similar to the east we would hit tickled to death and we would talk about it again but until that stage of nirvana actually hits we definitely need programs like bill nye written testimony there are some other programs and if i can just very quickly tell you about the a t p processing and user fees it's one of the simple situations because you're putting a fee if you already have a lease the fee is almost like taking to that lease but the difficulty is that lease does not distinguish between ability to pay so a small developer has a much more difficult time of paying th large developer which inhibits the ability of actually developing those lands geothermal payments that are supposedly not going to the host county which once again to me is is lacking a common sense and puts a burden once again on counties provide that services put the burden on the geothermal developers who don't want to go that changes their basic operation costs and their profit margin whether they can actually be successful on and finally the administration zeros out the range improvement fund which is a small program but once again it is extremely important to rural western communities to develop range land potential and i'm once again i i feel for you having to be here this long i'm trying to get through this is quickly as possible with theirs and i usually am cumbersome the impact that takes place there and and national forests all floor impacted by the amount of money that goes there i think the state of rhode island is the only state that doesn't have enough public lands to qualify for any kind of funding but the second map that shows you the amount of federal lands clearly this is a western issue it's almost like life and any questions you have once again we would be very happy the budget committee would make another recommendation proposing to support them for the level of funding for house produce last year that ended up being cut in conference actually i would i would support us and it's difficult this is going to be for anyone to go to the full authorization which is about three hundred twenty something million the house last year came up to a two hundred forty figure two hundred forty million figure which i think would be a nice starting pick starting assignment about four years ago when the interior department took bill funding out of the b l m and said we'll put it under the secretary's budget procedure so we'll give it greater visibility an easier time of funding and they would find it as an incremental stage until they reach a level of authorization that was quite frankly never happened they have never started incremental relation they didn't move it but they didn't actually do any of the incremental sation two hundred forty million which would be what we did last year and as least appropriate for the first stage stage when pit was originally passed it was funded at ninety nine percent of the authorization level we've obviously increased the authorization so we're funding about sixty percent of the authorization sixty seven percent of the authorization level right now obviously the high get the better off it would be because this program i think goes directly to counties and pays for stuff that is used very frugally by them  just write around another two minutes down that's you talking i'm done i'm no i don't want to put you through on the much less or something specifically but i didn't cover i was confused confusing in the way i presented it ok thank you mr thank you very much indeed for com