Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my wife, Elizabeth, who is here in the gallery, for her constant support during my service in the United States Congress and to thank the people of Ohio's 10th Congressional District for their constant support, as well as the great congressional staff both at the district and at the D.C. level. I also, before I make further remarks, want to express my support for my colleagues from New York and New Jersey in their tireless efforts on behalf of their constituents who have suffered so grievously from Hurricane Sandy.

We must unite for the people, and that's really the idea of the United States. It's the unity of States, but it's even deeper than that. It's expressive of the unity of people that it's all for one and one for all. Our Nation's first motto, ``E Pluribus Unum,'' out of many we are one, stresses the power of unity. The idea of human unity is implicit in this Nation.

In my visits across America, I discovered that there is an underlying unity which binds us as Americans and which calls us forward to a higher purpose. I

have also come to understand that our politics divide people. The politics of polarization and hyper-partisanship has become obviously quite destructive, nearly incapacitating our government. Yet at such a time, the hunger for unity is the greatest, but the ideological differences between us widen.

We need a new politics in America which unites people, which sets aside partisan differences for the greater good of the country, and which strives to reconnect with the greatness of the Nation and the goodness of the American people. But what would that politics look like? The rhetoric would change to one of mutual respect. The questioning of motives would end. The poison system of ``pay to play'' would be transformed by public financing, and our government would be rededicated to addressing the practical aspirations of the American people for jobs, for health care for all, for education for all, for retirement security for all, and for environmental security.

We need a new politics which creates jobs and celebrates the dignity of work. Our government must raise the status of working people and protect their rights. Our government must stress wealth creation over taxation, investment over debt, health over illness, peace over war, and liberty over surveillance.

We have the capacity of choosing and choosing again as we are involved in the most creative endeavor of human achievement actualizing the highest principles upon which this country was founded and infusing those principles into self-government. Unity. One Nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

A new America is waiting to emerge. Let us call it forward with the same sense of wonder and expectation that the Founders first evoked: the United States of America.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, I challenge the wisdom of House Resolution (H. Res. 834) which urges the governments of Europe and the European Union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization and imposes sanctions.

This resolution could have an effect opposite to that which was intended--to strengthen Israel. The UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for the end of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, is now being enforced by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) with the participation of European governments. There are reports that Hezbollah has been cooperating with UNIFIL in stabilizing south Lebanon and that the relationships developed are channels for peaceful dialogue in the future.

Asking Europe to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization could be counter-productive, increase dangers and lessen the effectiveness of European troops in UNIFIL. There will be adverse consequences of the resolution on the situation in south Lebanon.

I have visited the region and have worked to end the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, even as it was starting. I offered a peace plan to try to end the war. I further visited Lebanon and Israel on after the war. I visited an apartment house in Qana, south Lebanon, which had been destroyed by a bomb which killed fifty women and children.

I brought the bomb fragment back from the site and kept it on display in my office, together with three dog tags of kidnapped Israeli soldiers to remind of the great human tragedy of the conflict, and the suffering on all sides.

The passage of this bill means that Congress must take up the responsibility of making sure that the Lebanese army is sufficiently equipped to protect the country.

At this very moment America is roaming the world strenuously involved in promoting the Art of Governing. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and all points north and south, east and west, it is our State Department with its large plans, it is our Central Intelligence Agency with its drone strikes, our military by its active presence, our Defense Intelligence Agency, and our military contractors all of whom are the instructors involved in a show of unparalleled force to display not only American power but to make the case for American exceptionalism.

If the machinations concerning the so-called fiscal cliff mean anything, they illustrate the conceit that somehow we have a right to tell others how to govern their affairs, and use our military to enforce our worldview. What is our case for democracy and cooperation elsewhere, if we have such difficulty practicing it or demonstrating it here at home? Where, with our unemployment, mortgage foreclosures, school closings, pension fund collapses, neighborhood violence, oh where is our showcase of democracy?

For all of our foreign entanglements, our military occupations and preoccupations, our spy-in-the-sky-surveillance, death dealing from drones on high to those who we see as a threat, for all of this--we are not safer.

We may in fact be less safe. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Al Queda has been strengthened by the US support for military action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and by extrajudicial killings through the use of drones which are exacting a high toll on innocent civilians.

John Quincy Adams once said America ``goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy''. How far we have journeyed from that wise aspiration of a Founding Father?

To paraphrase Shakespeare's Cassius in Julius Caesar: `We act as a Colossus bestride the narrow world . . . and petty men walk under (our) huge legs.' It is an illusion.

Through our endless interventions, we have lost our way in the wide world, by trying to conquer it. We cannot conquer the world. We cannot rule the world. We cannot be the policeman of the world. We cannot afford it militarily, financially or spiritually. American control of the fate of others in faraway land is an expensive fantasy and can no longer be indulged.

We will spend trillions of dollars in pursuit of a war on terror, which has become like a war against apparitions which shift shapes, loyalties and directions, consumes lives and money and at the end we meet in the distorted mirror of our fears the prophecy of Walt Kelly's Pogo: ``We have met the enemy and he is us.''

The cost of the wars is a threat to our freedom. The money spent for war inevitably comes from pressing domestic needs for job creation, infrastructure rebuilding, education, health care, retirement security. Since 9/11 we have let fear set our priorities and that fear has cost us mightily. It is worth recalling President Eisenhower's full warning about the undermining of freedom which comes from out of control military spending:

``Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.''

The wars have been a disaster for innocent civilians. More than one million innocent Iraqis perished in a war based on lies, a war executed by an American president and vice president who flat out lied to the Congress, lied to the American people, lied to the media and escaped responsibility and accountability because we just moved on.

We will never recover from the tragedy which we wrought upon the people of Iraq, we will never recover from the sordid legacy of torture, rendition, indefinite detention, we will never recover from the effects of 911 unless America has a deep, searching period of Truth and Reconciliation, where the principle decision-makers are required to come before a public tribunal to tell the truth or to face the consequences of their perfidy. We need such a process not only to set straight the historical record, but to remove the dark stain upon the soul of this nation which an unjust war fixes firmly.

There must be a new role for America in the world, where we can work with the community of nations for comprehensive international law enforcement, to assure security abroad, and protection here at home with democratic governance through strengthening our community safety forces.

This is much to be preferred to the architecture of the national security state here at home which increasingly requires American citizens to give up their civil liberties to achieve a measure of security. Big Brother is hard at work in America, assembling huge databases of personal information, warrantless wiretaps, tracking phone calls, emails and internet searches, watching closely with new networks of cameras, new sophisticated drone technology, observing everything but the US Constitution.

Our right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure has been annihilated through the legal acrobatics of high technology.

It was Benjamin Franklin who wrote ``Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.''

What is outermost in the conduct of our foreign affairs is a reflection of what is innermost in our domestic affairs. And what is innermost in ourselves becomes outermost in our families and our communities. This is the ironclad law of reciprocity in human affairs. It is not simply `do unto others as you would have them do unto you', but as you do unto others, so you do unto yourself.

It may not be possible for the US to bring peace to anywhere except the U.S.

Peace inside the United States is possible. Peace in our communities, our neighborhoods, our homes is possible. Yet the omnipresence of violence in our society mirrors the violence which the United States visits on nations across the globe.

The fate of humanity is written not large in the sky, but in a cursive across the tablet of our heart. How bold we stand for peace and love in our daily lives informs the strength of the impulse of our hearts to radiate outward to establish new conditions of our existence and in the lives of each person we touch.

The peace we claim for ourselves is the peace we can give to others. But it requires conscious thought in every moment. Peace necessarily involves a structured approach, within our lives, intersecting with the lives of others. An awareness of the consequences of our every action, how it affects us and how it affects others.

This is not a theoretical exercise. For the past 16 years, this Congress has been my human relations workshop in which I have tested ideas of conflict resolution, of standing for truth, of fiercely engaging in debate, of moving forthrightly into partisan debates, of negotiating around partisanship, of alignment with another person on matters of personal interest, of even building friendships from the broken pieces of partisan battles.

We are locked into a cultural matrix of thinking which produces violence and we are shocked when its heartbreaking effects emerge. It's ``Us vs. them'' thinking, the evocation of enemies, whoever they are.

On a global level, this type of thinking justifies war and brings the slaughter of innocents.

Nationally it sows seeds for murder. Yet, war abroad and violence at home are not inevitable. We have it within our power to recreate America today. Are we not the land of the free, the home of the brave? Is there not something uniquely American which gives us the ability to transcend our woes and seek a more perfect union? Even at the darkest moment we Americans can stand bravely for our freedoms. Mindful of our inherent unity, we must break the ``US vs. them'' mindset and move beyond survival mode to security through cooperation.

Let us create an organized structured approach to become architects of a new culture of peace, in our homes, our schools, our workplaces.

This is what the ``Dept. of Peace'' (H.R. 808) is about. Let us establish that America's national security and peace at home includes jobs, housing, physical and mental health care, education, retirement security for all. We are, the land of the free, the home of the brave. Freedom and bravery, courage and democracy are our birthright, our inheritance, our destiny.

And let us not propagate to Europe and the European community the fears which have infected this county. The Scriptures bid us to make peace with our brothers and sisters. This is the higher calling for the United States. This should be our new raison d'etre in the world and at home. God Bless America.

The question settling over this Capitol as we face the fiscal cliff is: How can this be happening? It's hyperpartisanship meets Citizens United. America's politics are so saturated with money and so politically polarized that the system cannot function to meet its obligations to keep the government running. But make no mistake about it--government does work. It's working for Pentagon contractors, for arms manufacturers, for oil companies, for coal companies. It's working for those who want to hold down wages and suppress the rights of workers. It's working for drug companies whose sweetheart deal on prescription drugs blew a hole in the Medicare budget.

The apparent dysfunctionality of government masks the reality that the tax resources of government increasingly are going to the highest bidders in a $4 billion national election. The debris at the bottom of the fiscal cliff will be the wrecked hopes of doctors and Medicare patients, unemployed workers who can't protect their families, and middle class taxpayers who just can't pay any more. Our Nation's pose at the fiscal cliff is proof of the necessity of a constitutional amendment, H.J. Res. 100, to rid this Nation of the corrupting influence of special interest money with public financing, which recreates a true government of the people.

I thank my friend. And I want to thank both my friends, the chair and the ranking member, for the work that they do on intelligence. You make a commitment to this country, and I think the country is in good hands because of your work.

I want to raise a question--and we've had some of these conversations between ourselves. I'm very concerned about the shift that's occurred in our national security policy where the Central Intelligence Agency has increasingly played a very powerful paramilitary role with the execution of drone strikes. Numerous studies have indicated that there are many innocent civilians being killed by drone strikes. There's a lack of accountability here. There have been studies that suggest, for example in Yemen, that drone strikes are stirring up anti-American sentiment to the point where al Qaeda is actually being empowered.

We really have to ask of the CIA, but even more than that, of our entire national security infrastructure, What's the game plan here? We see there have been changes in military policy where certain functions have been ceded to the CIA. We see changes in foreign policy where the State Department has let go of some of its functions. We know that the military has made an attempt with the Defense Intelligence Agency to try to become more actively involved as a separate organization. They were seeking 1,600 new spies.

We have this architecture of national security which is so powerful, but I'm not sure that it's actually that effective. I don't question the effectiveness of our chair or our ranking member, but I do question the effectiveness of what we're doing.

I do question the effectiveness of this drone program, its adherence to international law or lack thereof, the intel gathering on targeted killings where we've seen reports of efforts of one group to target individuals and other groups as a way of trying to settle some scores between people so they put them up as a potential terrorist and they get marked on a list and executed. And as I mentioned earlier, the concern about civilian deaths.

I think that the Central Intelligence Agency functions best in gathering intelligence, and we ought to support them in that regard. I was very concerned and expressed this on the floor about what happened in Benghazi. If we'd paid more attention to the CIA, we probably would still have some of our officials there alive. But that's gone and it's over. We have to recognize that putting the CIA more and more into a paramilitary position is not in the best interest of this country, I don't believe.

Will the gentleman yield?

I have no question about the commitment of the chair and the ranking member to proper oversight, but what I do question is that the proliferation of the drone strikes puts such an extraordinary burden on our own oversight capacities. I'm wondering, looking retrospectively at the number of civilian casualties that have occurred, the oversight--there's a decoupling of the oversight capacity from the consequences of the strikes, and that's the point that I'm making here.

I would ask my friend going forward for the committee to be ever more vigilant on--if you're for these strikes and you are conducting the oversight, look at the consequences of civilian casualties to raise questions about the information that's being given you. That's the point that I'm making.

With that, I thank my friend for yielding.

If I may, will the gentleman yield?

What I would like to do, Mr. Chairman, is to present to you and the ranking member reports that have been forwarded to me regarding these casualties. Maybe these are reports that you've seen, and maybe they aren't; but I certainly think that in the interest of acquitting our country's efforts that we make sure that every effort is made to avoid civilian casualties. So I will present those to you and the ranking member in the next few days, and I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Neil Armstrong's voyage to the Moon represented a personal heroic journey, and it was also expressive of a uniquely American capability and capacity to reach higher and higher, to expand our horizons, to seek newer worlds, and to do that with a sense of wonder and in peace. May we regain that capacity through recognizing him today.

First of all, I want to begin by thanking the chair and the ranking member for their commitment to security, to Israel and to the region. I want to thank Mr. Kelly for his commitment, similarly.

In my office, which I recently shut down because I'm not going to be in the next Congress, I had a pedestal on which rested a bomb fragment that I brought back from the village of Qana in south Lebanon. Qana is the place where Christ is said to have performed his first miracle. And Qana was also the place where a bomb dropped on an apartment building and killed about 50 women and children.

I brought a fragment of that bomb back and put it on a pedestal in the office. And within that pedestal I put the dog tags of three Israeli soldiers who were captured and kidnapped. I got the dog tags from their parents. I've had that in my office since 2006, when I first went to Lebanon to look at the effects of the war. And I have them together because they represent the parenthesis on a human tragedy.

But we're all concerned about Israel's security. I rose on the floor of this House when the war started to talk about putting immediately into effect a plan that would stop the war. I've been to south Lebanon and Israel on several occasions.

I want to add a word of caution here because what I'm concerned about, notwithstanding the best intentions of my friends who are taking a strong stand here, is the impact of this resolution on a United Nations force in Lebanon, UNIFIL. There are European troops there. Their mission is to enforce U.N. Security Resolution 1701 to end the hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

UNIFIL has been working with Hezbollah to stabilize south Lebanon. And there are reports from the ground that they have helped to achieve a good measure of stability in that regard, even reports that Hezbollah has worked to help curb the work of terrorist cells of extremist bent. UNIFIL has, in effect, worked with Hezbollah. Peacekeepers have worked with Hezbollah. They've developed a relationship for future dialogue.

Now, I'm concerned that this resolution could make it even more difficult to enforce UN Resolution 1701 and that, if it's passed, one of the things that this Congress has to consider is that the Lebanese army, itself, has to be strengthened.

We have to look at the implications of this. If you have European countries who are essentially part of the UNIFIL presence in south Lebanon in furtherance of a U.N. resolution to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, to create safety for both the people of Israel and the people of Lebanon, we've got to be very careful here that we don't create a situation that is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. If this resolution passes--and unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to support it. But if it passes, we have to do something to strengthen the Lebanese army, because if the Lebanese army isn't strong enough, then you have a situation where the very thing that we are opposing here could come to pass and with great force.

So I would just urge your consideration of that, and I thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to put this forward. Again, I thank my colleagues for their constant support of Israel.

The Anasazi were Native Americans whose culture dated back 2,000 years. They were the cliff dwellers who built into the sheer walls of canyons extraordinary places to live. Yet, in 1300 A.D., these cliff dwellers, these great architects of culture and civilization, mysteriously disappeared.

The people of this great Nation, the United States of America, are dwelling on real cliffs of fiscal insecurity: the cliffs of joblessness and low wages; the cliffs of mortgage foreclosure, homelessness; the cliffs of retirement insecurity; the cliffs of small business failure and investor uncertainty; the cliffs of violence at home and war abroad.

At a time when the government should be demonstrating its capacity to meet the practical aspirations of the American people for jobs, education, health care, and retirement security, the government instead would have America dwell at the edge of a fiscal cliff in a manufactured crisis to manufacture consent for a deal that would otherwise be unacceptable.

Leaders of both parties would do well to remember that the original cliff dwellers, as great as they were, disappeared.

Will seniors be pushed off the fiscal cliff?

Social Security did not cause the deficit, but the White House's plan to lower Social Security cost-of-living benefits could eventually reduce seniors' annual benefits by hundreds of dollars. The gimmick is called the chained Consumer Price Index. The chained CPI works this way:

As the cost of living goes up, seniors inevitably turn to cheaper alternatives. For example, if seniors eat steak, but then can't afford its higher price, they can switch to something cheaper--like cat food. The cost of living calculation would chain to the cheaper item--cat food. So the less you pay for food, the less benefits you get.

The chained CPI benefit cut will chain aging seniors to a poverty of choices, a lower standard of living with cheaper products. The chained CPI formula doesn't take into account seniors' rising health care costs. If it did, benefits would go up.

There is no justification to cut Social Security benefits. ``No'' to throwing seniors off the fiscal cliff. ``No'' to a cat food Christmas.

In this discussion over the NDAA, we arrive at a moment where we meet the moral consequences of our Nation's choices over the past decade. We chose war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and perhaps later on Iran. Inexplicably, we've created openings for al Qaeda and radical fundamentalists as a result of our interventions. At home, we choose a false notion of security over personal freedom, even if it means we look the other way when the very language of this bill opens the door for indefinite detentions of Americans. And we choose poverty over plenty by giving over a half trillion dollars to the Pentagon and nearly $90 billion for wars, including Afghanistan, while facing reductions in domestic spending.

We put war on the Nation's credit card, including a $5 trillion charge for the war in Iraq, which was based on lies. We gather at a fiscal cliff of our own making and refuse to see the implications of our unrestrained spending for war. But when it comes to providing for the long-term security of our seniors, a cynical ploy using the Consumer Price Index is being used to cut seniors' Social Security benefits.

When did America become more concerned about the control of and the security of foreign lands than the retirement security of our own people? Unending war abroad means austerity here at home. It's caviar for the Pentagon and cat food for seniors. Our choices are being made, but when will we choose for America jobs for all, education for all, health care for all, housing opportunities for all, retirement security for all? When will we choose freedom over fear? When will we break the hold which fear has over this Nation and our budget choices?

I'm voting ``no'' on this bill.

This past September 11, four Americans, including our Ambassador, were killed in Benghazi.

The responsibility for security failures has now been placed on the State Department. End of story? No. The deeper question is why did the U.S. intervene in Libya in the first place.

Twenty months after a U.S.-led mission to overthrow the Libyan Government, militias are still battling in the streets for control; al Qaeda-linked groups have a foothold in Libya they did not have before U.S. intervention.

Why did we spend U.S. tax dollars to open the door for al Qaeda in Libya? The intervention itself was a disaster, and it makes the case that the U.S. Government's policy of intervention in Libya was wrong and that everything that proceeds from that intervention is bound to be tainted.

The book of Ecclesiastes says: That which is crooked cannot be made straight. Nothing will ever be made straight about U.S. intervention in Libya.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember Chester E. Gordon, a resident of Lakewood, Ohio, for the last 50 years and a constituent of Ohio's 10th Congressional District. Chester, who was 81, died on September 15, 2012.

Chester Gordon was an attorney, scholar, soldier, and citizen. A 1948 graduate of Cleveland Heights High School, a 1952 graduate of Harvard College, and an alumnus of the 1955 class of Western Reserve (now Case Western Reserve University) School of Law, Chester started practicing law in 1956. He assumed the practice of his uncle, Harry Hemple, in Lakewood in 1963. He served in the U.S. Army on active duty in Washington, DC as an attorney from 1956 through 1958, and then practiced as a reserve officer until receiving his honorable discharge in 1963.

Chester was a lifelong Democrat and political enthusiast. He met his wife Stephanie, who shared his enthusiasm, on the presidential campaign trail of John F. Kennedy. They married soon after Kennedy's victory. They worked on and supported many candidates for political office. Their children learned politics alongside their parents. Their daughter Merle, whose first baby-steps were on door-to-door political campaigns with Chester and Stephanie, went on to serve several terms as a Cleveland city councilwoman representing Cleveland's Old Brooklyn and Brooklyn Centre neighborhoods in the 10th Congressional District. I am proud to be among the candidates for office for whom the Gordons campaigned.

Chester was a man of diverse interests. He was a long-time member and past president of Beth Israel the West Temple in Cleveland and a member of Beth El--The Heights Synagogue in Cleveland Heights. He was a subscriber and supporter of the Cleveland Orchestra for over 60 years. A wood turner, Chester was a member of the North Coast Woodturners. A loyal member of the City Club of Cleveland, Chester could usually be found at its Friday Forums each week. On Saturdays, Chester was a faithful shopper at Cleveland's West Side Market with his son David. Chester was also active in his alumni associations, was a long-serving member of the Harvard Scholarship Committee, and attended his 60th Harvard College reunion this summer.

In addition to Merle, David, and Stephanie, his wife of 51 years, Chester is survived by his son Abram and daughter-in-law Bess and their daughters Annie and LuLu of Cincinnati; daughter Rachel and son-in-law Joseph of Israel; son Derek and daughter-in-law Jen and

their children Sam, Henry, and Sophie of Tuscon, Arizona; and sister Sue Wintner of Pepper Pike, Ohio. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in remembering Chester Gordon and joining with his family and many friends who are mourning his loss.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of ClevelandPeople.com, a website designed to promote the more than 100 different ethnic and cultural people and events in Northeast Ohio.

ClevelandPeople.com strives to embrace the City of Cleveland's rich and ethnically diverse ethnic and cultural groups by promoting the ``tossed salad model.'' Opposed to the ``melting pot,'' a tossed salad model is designed to embrace and maintain unique cultures.

ClevelandPeople.com's work is an invaluable documentation and collection of text, videos and pictures of cultural events that occur throughout Northeast Ohio. They truly are creating ``an archive of this activity (ethnic and cultural events) that makes Cleveland so unique.''

In addition to being an archive of cultural events, ClevelandPeople.com has proven to be an invaluable resource to Northeastern Ohio residents, tourists and people seeking to relocate to the area. ClevelandPeople.com has information on nearly every ethnic and cultural group in the city and is also a hub for ClevelandPeople.com Ambassadors. These ambassadors are leaders among the dozens of cultural groups throughout the city and have proven to be invaluable contacts for members of the community and people new to the area looking to become involved with their respective ethnic groups.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in recognizing the work and efforts of ClevelandPeople.com.

We are locked into a cultural matrix of thinking which produces violence, and we are shocked when its heartbreaking effects emerge. It's ``us versus them'' thinking, this evocation of enemies, whoever they are.

On a global level, this type of thinking justifies war and brings the slaughter of innocence. Nationally, it sows seeds for murder. Yet war abroad and violence at home are not inevitable. We have it within our power to re-create America today. Are we not the land of the free, the home of the brave? Is there not something uniquely American which gives us the ability to transcend our woes and to seek a more perfect Union?

Even at the darkest moments, we Americans can stand bravely for our freedom. Mindful of our inherent unity, we must break the ``us versus them'' mindset and move beyond survival mode to security through cooperation.

Let us create an organized, structured approach to become architects of a new culture of peace in our homes, our schools, and our workplaces. This is what the Department of Peace is about. Let us establish an America where national security and peace at home includes jobs, housing, physical and mental health care, education, retirement security for all.

We're the land of the free, the home of the brave. Freedom and bravery, courage and democracy, they are our birthright, our inheritance, our destiny.

I thank the gentlelady from California for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA. Today, this House will send the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, to conference. Contrary to its title, the bill does not provide for the protection of the American people. It expands war. It further indebts our nation. It encroaches on basic rights with regards to indefinite detention. It eliminates the basic tenet that due process rights applies to everyone in this country--not just American citizens.

The legislation also includes additional sanctions against Iran despite numerous reports that our sanctions are affecting the ability of ordinary Iranians to obtain medicine and offer basic goods. Sanctions have thus far not served to solve the impasse or bring Iran to the negotiating table. More sanctions are not the answer and do not bring us closer to a diplomatic solution.

This legislation also perpetuates the myth that we are ending the war in Afghanistan. We are not leaving Afghanistan. We are deepening our commitment. This bill provides for another staggering $88 billion for the war. The Strategic Partnership Agreement between the U.S. and Afghanistan commits us to the country for at least another decade with a $20 billion price tag.

Finally, this legislation continues financing our bloated Pentagon. The United States maintains 1,000 bases worldwide. Some of these bases are infamous, like Guantanamo Bay. There are small bases to support our drones program. There are fortresses to support our wars.

The cost to maintain these bases is billions of dollars. Included in these costs are the costs to maintain and run 234 golf courses around the world.

The Pentagon is expanding their spy agency. The CIA has become a paramilitary organization. We are preparing to support intervention in Mali. Our government's policy in Syria is incoherent. We are expanding our military presence in Asia and in Africa.

And for what? For millions of Americans to be unemployed? For millions of Americans to go hungry? For millions of Americans not to have adequate access to education or even healthcare? For millions to lose their homes? For millions to lose their retirement security? For roads and bridges to collapse because we have no money for infrastructure?

I say it's time we pay attention to the defense of the American people's pocketbooks--The defense of the dignity of the American people--The defense of the moral authority of the United States. It's time to end this state of permanent war. We should throw out the NDAA, put an end to interventionism and begin to take care of things back home.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Mr. Loree Soggs and his countless contributions to the labor communities of both the City of Cleveland and State of Ohio. Mr. Soggs has been an active member of and staunch advocate for unions and union members since he entered the workforce nearly fifty years ago.

Mr. Soggs began his affiliation with the labor community in 1964 as an operating engineer. As a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), Local 18, he served as a business agent, apprenticeship coordinator, steward director, officer and fringe benefit fund trustee. In 1994, Mr. Soggs was elected to the office of Executive Secretary for Cleveland's Building and Construction Trades Council (CBCTD), being the first operating engineer to hold this office in the Council's history. In his capacity as president, Mr. Soggs has successfully negotiated numerous contracts fighting for the betterment of working men and women within the community.

In addition to his dedicated work with IOUE Local 18 and the CBCTD, Mr. Soggs has also affiliated himself with numerous labor organizations and programs throughout Northeast Ohio and the State of Ohio. He has served as President of the North Shore Federation of Labor; Vice President of the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council; Trustee of the Union Construction Industry Partnership; Chairman of the Union Construction Industry Partnership/Apprenticeship Skills Achievement Program; Executive Director of the Northern Ohio Building Trades Real Estate Investment Program; Vice President of the United Labor Agency; President of Pinzone Towers; Vice President of Lupica Towers; and Co-Chair to the Labor Initiative of United Way of Greater Cleveland. He is also a member of the Cuyahoga County/City of Cleveland Workforce Investment Board; Executive Committee of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese Building Commission; Executive Committee of the Cuyahoga Democratic Party; board member of the Ohio Water Development Authority; and member of Mayor Jackson's Sustainability Cabinet.

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, please join me in honor of Mr. Loree Soggs who has dedicated his life and career to the labor communities of Ohio.