Date: 2008-06-04
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Today. the House is set to consider H.R. 3021. the 21st Century Green HighPerforming Public School Facilities Act. This bill will direct the Secretary of Education to make grants and loans to local educational agencies for the construction. modernization or repair of public educational facilities. It also would require the funds to be used only for projects that meet certain green standards such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Energy Star. or an equivalent State or local standard. Tomorrow. we are scheduled to consider H.R. 5540. to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Water Trails Network. I spent last week. Mr. Speaker. meeting and speaking with constituents in my district about the issues that matter to them. and no one mentioned anything closely related to these two bills. Both of these bills may be important in their own right. but I believe there are other issues that are much more pressing. issues we should be debating. When Americans are paying $4 a gallon for gasoline. we should be working on legislation to lower the cost of gasoline. increasing domestic energy exploration. reducing our reliance on unstable foreign energy. France produces over 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. and theres a strong environmental movement in France. And yet the United States hasnt built a nuclear power plant in 30 years. When our military forces are running out of personnel. operation and maintenance funds. we should be working to bring bipartisan legislation to the Presidents desk that he can quickly sign and fund the troops. When the intelligence community is stripped of one of their key tools in the fight against international terrorism because the majority let the Protect America Act expire. we -should be working to give onr intelligence officials the tools they need to stop terrorist attacks. Instead. the majority has decided to work on a green schools bill and a water trails network reauthorization. These are not exactly the pressing issues facing Americans every day. These are not the issues our constituents want us working on today. One of the central tenets of the Democrats campaign in 2006. Mr. Speaker. was that they would run Congress in a more open and bipartisan manner. On December 6. 2006. the distinguished Speaker. Ms. PELOSI. reiterated her campaign promise. She said. "we promised the American people that we would have the most honest and open government. and we will." However. that promise has yet to come- to fruition as the majority has consistently blocked an open process through the Rules Committee. A prime example of how theyve consistently stymied openness and bipartisanship is by the number of open rules that theyve allowed in the 110th Congress. Were threequarters of the way through the 110th Congress. and so far the majority has allowed only one open rule. One open rule. Mr. Speaker. in 18 months. They had a chance to double to two the open rules last night. but by a party line vote they decided that they would once again use a restrictive rule process in making only four Republican amendments in order. They struck down 15 Republican amendments that had been introduced. including one from the ranking member of the Education and Labor Committee. Mr. McKEON. So much for the open process they promised. I reserve the balance of my time.