Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I am reminded that in World War II and at Willow Run, Michigan, I believe, Ford Motor Company made a bomber every 60 minutes for this country. Chrysler made tens of thousands of tanks. General Motors developed engines for practically every type of war machine that we utilized.

I would ask my colleagues to look at the need for this vote, after we have the vote and in the ensuing months, to move into the real requirement that is before the American people, and that is this: Right now, we have a non-level playing field around the world. We agreed to a GAT agreement many years ago after World War II in which we agreed to allow other nations to subsidize their auto industries by rebating their taxes, their VAT taxes, and by charging that same tax to American cars coming into their countries.

That means that a $10,000 car coming out of Japan receives a rebate from the Government of Japan to that car company for $1,500 if they'll do one thing--sell the car in America. When the American car comes to Japan, it receives a tax of $1,500 at the border for the American car to be sold. That's why, of the 132 trading nations moving beyond the auto industry, the United States has a deficit, a trade deficit, with practically every country in the world, including those with higher labor rates than the United States. So, as we apportion these jobs-- this burden--for industry and for labor, there is also a job for government.

That job for us is a job of leveling the playing field and of reforming our trade policies so that free trade moves in both directions. Right now, we have trade that is free in only one direction, and that is for products coming into the United States.

I thank my colleagues, and I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to do something that I think has been a long time coming. On March 19 of 2003, the United States made the initial strikes in Iraq with two F-117 aircraft carrying 2,000-pound bombs that initiated the action in which Americans took Iraq, overthrew the dictator, Saddam Hussein, ultimately established a free government, and built from scratch a security apparatus and a military in Iraq capable of protecting that free government. And today, Mr. Speaker, I thought it would be appropriate for this Congress to thank the more than 1 million Americans in uniform who have served in Iraq, in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Coast Guard and in our intelligence services and our security services, to thank those more than 1 million Americans, men and women, for doing something that Americans often applaud; that's winning. We have won in Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, it was March 19 when we initiated that operation with those first Tomahawk missiles that were launched on leadership positions in Baghdad, and those first two F-117 stealth aircraft that moved out and dropped 2,000-pound bombs on important sites. And after that, just 48 hours later, on March 20, 2003, two prongs of coalition forces moved across the berm in Kuwait, after American intelligence agents and American Special Operation Forces had laid the groundwork, and they moved out and they started to move toward Baghdad.

Mr. Speaker, the launch of the operations and the ground forces and, incidentally, those ground forces were led by Army Lieutenant General David McKiernan. He was the commanding general of the Combined Forces Land Component Command. They crossed the line of departure from the Kuwaiti desert into Southern Iraq, and they had to go about 600 kilometers to get to Baghdad. We covered that distance in record time. And I don't know how many people in Congress or in the American populace remember it, but you had many commentators, many armchair commentators stating that the United States forces would be bogged down, that Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld had not sent enough forces, and that we would see this operation grind to a halt and we would take heavy casualties. They were wrong, and Tommy Franks' forces, in fact, you would have talk shows in which the commentator or the guest would be talking about American forces bogging down, and his statement would be interrupted by a news flash that Tommy Franks' forces had taken yet another one of Saddam Hussein's strongholds.

So we drove on to Baghdad. And on March 21, in fact, Iraq's 51st Army Division, which was estimated to be about 8,000 personnel, surrendered and deserted at Iraq's southern border.

The main ground effort was led by U.S. Army Fifth Corps under Lieutenant General William Wallace. Fifth Corps moved along a western route up to Baghdad, and the First Marine Expeditionary Force, 1MEF, under General James Conway, now the Commandant of the Marine Corps, moved along the more urban route closer to the border with Iran, on the east side. They took the far southern port of Umm Kasar. The main Marine force encountered some resistance as they pushed north, in particular, An Nasariya.

Mr. Speaker, I can remember talking with a young Marine who had some injuries and was at Bethesda hospital shortly after that operation, and he talked about how much he loved those Marine tanks when he was pinned down by fire coming from several buildings at An Nasariya, and these big Marine tanks came whipping in, laid some heavy fire on the Feyadeen who were laying down these torrents of RPG fire; that's rocket propelled grenades. And they rushed out, that is the Feyadeen did, after being hit with several tank volleys, and surrendered to the Marines at that choke point.

In the west, the Army faced a longer distance but a less populated terrain. And Fifth Corps began combat operations with two divisions under its command, the Third ID under Major General Blunt, and the 101st Airborne Division, the 101st under Major General David Petraeus.

The Third ID led the western charge to Baghdad. They moved speedily through the south. They reached Saddam International Airport on April 4 of 2003. At that point the division launched the first of what it called ``thunder runs.'' And a ``thunder run'' was a fast armored strike going right into the heart of Baghdad. And according to the Brigade Commander in Charge, General David Perkins, the Americans wanted to ``create as much confusion as they could inside the city.'' And the second purpose was to make sure that no one in that city, whether it was a member of the Iraqi population or an Iraqi leader, had any doubt that the city had fallen and the Americans were in charge.

The 101st followed the Third ID up the western route into Southern Iraq,

clearing resistance in southern cities, and that allowed the Third ID to move up very quickly. Soldiers from the 101st faced intense fighting in Hillah, Najaf and Karbala. And just after mid-April a division arrived and set up its headquarters in Mosul in northern Iraq.

In the north, on March 26, 2003, the 173rd Airborne jumped into Iraq. They had to parachute into Northern Iraq because the Turkish government decided not to allow the Fourth Infantry Division to move across Turkey into that anchor position in the north. So the 173rd, deploying out of Italy, flying in C-17s, jumped at about 1:30 in the morning; came into some hip-deep mud, but they anchored Northern Iraq, and they linked up with the peshmerga and Kurdish fighters who were moving then into the Kirkuk area and moved down and secured and anchored that northern portion of Iraq.

The UK First Armored Division, our great friends in the coalition, the United Kingdom, the Brits, were operating under the Marine force, took the important port city of Basra by April 6 of 2003.

On April 9, 2003, just some 21 days after we had gone over the line from Kuwait into Iraq, the statue of Saddam Hussein fell in Baghdad. This was just 21 days after we initiated that operation.

Mr. Speaker, we had, at that point, taken less than 150 KIA, precious American lives, but we had destroyed more than 20 enemy divisions in an unprecedented move through the center of Iraq.

And for that, Mr. Speaker, I know that over the last year or so the pundits have been filling their pages, and some politicians have been filling their quote lines with critical statements about Don Rumsfeld. But Don Rumsfeld's operation, in ignoring the critics who wanted him to build slowly and to bring in more divisions before he moved on Baghdad, was absolutely right, and the critics who said he would bog down were absolutely wrong because he moved with precision, like a hot knife through butter, straight into Baghdad and took down the Iraqi divisions before they could really establish a strong position against the Americans.

And I might add that General Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at that time, was an able assistant in helping to carry out Secretary Rumsfeld's policy.

The First Armored Division also began arriving in Iraq in April 2003.

Saddam Hussein was captured outside his hometown of Tikrit by 4ID units on December 13, 2003.

In April 2004, the young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia, which we refer to as the Mahdi Army staged uprisings in cities and towns throughout the Shiia populated southern Iraq, just as a volatile Sunni populated City of Fallujah in Anbar province simmered in the wake of the murders of four Blackwater contractors.

For all the great men and women of the United States Marines, the chapter entitled ``Fallujah'' will forever be a part of the history of the U.S. Marines, which testifies to their tenacity, to their greatness on the field of battle, to their compassion for their fellow marines, to their ability to handle tough, difficult situations, for their tenacity, and for their courage.

Now, we went into Fallujah right after the four contractors were hung from the bridge and burned. After we were partway through the city, because of political considerations, which was a real mistake on the part of the American governance and Iraq, the marines were pulled back out of the city even though they'd taken KIA. At that point, they were moving swiftly through that city and were taking out the terrorists.

Well, after that, Fallujah became a hotbed for terrorists and a base for operations throughout al Anbar province. So, in November, the marines went back again, and they went into a determined enemy who was waiting for them, who was set in place, but it's a credit to the great men and women who wear the uniform of the United States Marine Corps, from where the sun now stands to the end of our history. The chapter of ``Fallujah'' is a testament to their capability and to their courage.

I want every single marine in the United States and every family of a marine and every neighbor and every friend of a marine and every citizen who loves that globe and anchor to be proud of what they did in Fallujah.

In Fallujah, they went into a determined enemy. The operation included some 540 air strikes, 14,000 artillery and mortar shells fired, 2,500 tank main gun rounds fired, and at the end of that operation, over 70 marines had been KIA--that is killed in action--and over 609 had been wounded. Incidentally, army units participated in that, and a few other coalition units participated in that, but of the 39,000 buildings in Fallujah, 18,000 had been damaged or had been taken down by the force and fury of this marine operation. Now, at the same time, military operations in the town of Tal Afar in 2005 marked an early, multifaceted and successful application of what we call counterinsurgency approaches.

In Washington, Tal Afar gave birth to a new Iraq policy lexicon in Iraq, though not immediately to the expanded use of counterinsurgency practices. Tal Afar is located in Ninewah Province, along the route from the provincial capital of Mosul to Syria. Its population is about 290,000. It includes Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and Yezidis.

From April 2003 until early 2004, the 101st Airborne Division had responsibility for Ninewah and for Iraq's three northern, largely Kurdish populated provinces. Because the north was relatively quiet, due in part to the effectiveness of the pesh merga, the 101st was able to concentrate primarily on Ninewah, a relatively high troops-to- population ratio.

In early 2005 when the 101st redeployed, the responsibility for the area passed to a much smaller striker brigade. That brigade, in turn, was periodically asked to provide forces for operations elsewhere in Iraq. So the coalition force footprint in Ninewah was substantially reduced. Tal Afar was a convenient trade route location, and a mixed population perfect for fomenting sectarian strife became a base of operations for former regime elements and Sunni extremists, including suicide bombers.

In May 2005, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, now commanded by Colonel H.R. McMaster, arrived in Tal Afar. Colonel McMaster was familiar with OIF issues from his previous service as director of General Abizaid's Commander's Action Group at CENTCOM.

In early 2005, the ACR began their deployment preparations at home in Fort Carson, Colorado, studying counterinsurgency approaches. Later in Iraq, Colonel McMaster described the regiment's mission in the classical counterinsurgency lexicon of population security. The whole purpose of the operation is to secure the population so that we can lift the enemy's campaign of intimidation and coercion over the population and allow economic and political development to proceed here and to return to normal life.

Now, for every single American who participated in the Iraq operation--and I don't care if you were stocking shelves in Kuwait or fixing strikers as a mechanic or working in Balad in logistics or making thunder runs in Baghdad early in the war or going house to house in Fallujah--you participated in a very important operation.

Let me tell you why it's very clear that we've won in Iraq. We've deposed Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was the guy who sent Chemical Ali to put poisoned gas on the Kurdish population in northern Iraq. He is the first leader since Hitler who had put poisoned gas on his own people. If you ever have any questions about the morality of what we did in intervening in Iraq, push aside this argument about weapons of mass destruction and pick up the picture of Kurdish mothers holding their babies where they were killed in mid stride, laying on those hillsides in northern Iraq by the thousands, where that poisoned gas struck them and killed them immediately or go to the History Channel, and watch the mass excavations where you will see mothers with their children, where they were executed by Saddam Hussein's army and bulldozed into open trenches and where, if you will look closely, as the scientists and the excavators who have the stomach to do it did for these reviews and analyses, you will see bullet

holes in the backs of the heads of the mothers and, in many cases, bullet holes in the backs of their babies' heads where they, too, were executed before mother and baby were pushed with a bulldozer into open trenches.

That's the regime that you, every single American who wore the uniform of the United States, put out of business when you did your job in Iraq--you, the more than 1 million Americans who left your families, who in many cases did multiple tours, who were separated from your loved ones, who in many cases undertook some very, very difficult, very dangerous missions, who suffered some very hot weather and, in some cases, some very cold weather, who suffered lots of inconveniences but who did it for a purpose, which was a good and idealistic and moral purpose, and you won. Let me tell you how we know that you've won.

We now have an Iraqi Government which was elected by the people, and it's not a perfect government, and it has got lots of strife and lots of crosscurrents of politics and lots of people who resent other people on the other side of their aisle, but it's a government where people settle most of their problems with ballots, not bullets. It has got a modicum of democracy and representative government. Only the Americans, only the people who wear the uniform of the United States could have brought that to Iraq.

Throughout Iraq, there are schools and there are medical facilities that you built, that you Americans in uniform built. There are millions of babies who were inoculated because of the Americans, and there are hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers who were given prenatal care because of the Americans. There are people who have avoided disease because of the Americans, and there are people who have enough to eat now because of the Americans.

Now, it's true that they have a fragile infrastructure. They've always had a fragile infrastructure, and it's true that Iraq hasn't developed all of its natural resources. On the other hand, neither has Mexico and neither have lots of countries throughout the world, but on the backs of the American men and women who wear the uniform of our country, they had free elections, and they now have a government, and that government is holding. The voices in Congress and the voices of the pundits who talked about an all-out civil war don't talk about that anymore, and they never say they were wrong or sorry. They just move on to a different subject. There is no civil war, and we now have a government which is settling in and a people who are settling into the idea of having fierce fights but of having those fights with words and by settling things with ballots and not bullets.

Now, one thing that we did that has to be credited very strongly to President Bush--and for all of those who don't like President Bush, he has one characteristic which Winston Churchill admired above all others, persistence, because at a time when many people were saying you have to give up and leave Iraq, he said, ``I'm not going to give up.'' He joined with Mr. Maliki in sending in more American troops and more coalition troops and more Iraqi troops into Baghdad in what is known as a surge.

If you want to talk about the surge, very simply, the surge was this: Instead of Americans going in and clearing an area and coming back out and having the terrorists flow back into that area, the surge involved going in, clearing the area, sometimes with Iraqi forces in the lead, sometimes with Americans, but clearing that area and then holding the area, building the area, restoring the confidence of the population, securing the area, making the area a little bit more terrorist resistant and not giving up those games.

That's what this President did, and he should be commended for it. Of course, history, as we go down through the years--and as the Iraqi Government continues to hold and as it is a friend, not an enemy of the United States as it was before and as it has a modicum of democracy and as it will not be a state sponsor of terrorism as it had been in the past and as its neighbors are--will be appreciative of what those more than 1 million Americans did who wore the uniform. You won. You fulfilled this mission. We've got a government in place that's holding. We've got a military that's holding. It has got about 160 battalions, and we built that military from scratch.

Now, many of the pundits and many of the politicians said we should have taken Saddam Hussein's army and kept it in place. That wouldn't have worked. It wouldn't have worked because Saddam Hussein's army had 11,000 Sunni generals. That's a recipe for disaster. Especially in a country in which the Shiite population is in the majority, the idea that you're going to have an army with 11,000 Sunni generals--literally squads of generals, each one a futile lord in his own right with his own arms cache--and the idea that they would be honest brokers is ridiculous. That's why we had to build that army from scratch.

Now, we've got a few weaknesses in the army. We've had a few weaknesses in the Field Grade Officer Corps. This is an army that traditionally did not have a large noncommissioned officer segment, and we've had to build that segment from scratch, but we're being successful.

One of the marks of success was when Mr. Maliki, the President of Iraq, moved into Basra on his own initiative. Now, we were used to calling the shots in Iraq. Yet, in Basra, Mr. Maliki decided to move ahead on his own. He moved into Basra. He initially took quite a few casualties. We had situations in which we had Iraqi battalions which didn't show up for the fight the next day, some of the green battalions. In the end, with Americans backing them up and with this fledgling government working against the extremists in Basra, the coalition and the Iraqi forces prevailed. That is the mark of a government which is maturing, one which takes its own initiatives.

Now, Mr. Maliki had initially a force of some very small numbers of battalions that were ready. Then he got to the point where he had over 100 battalions and then 130, and he has got, roughly, 160 battalions right now.

Now, I recommended to the President and to our military leadership that the way you build a military is through military operations; that means saddling up your battalion, moving them into the fight, rotating them into the fight, exposing their weaknesses--whether it's logistics or your leadership levels or your ability to direct fire power--and fixing those problems. You build a strong military force through military operations.

And in fact, they did this in many cases, and they rotated their forces--when we did the surge in Baghdad, the Iraqi forces rotated battalions in and out of that particular area of operations where they made lots of contact with the enemy where they had to exercise their logistics chain, where they had to exercise their chain of command, where they had to be soldiers. And so the Iraqi Army has matured.

Now, it's nowhere near the capability of the American forces. Nobody in the world is near the capability of the American forces. It needs lots of enablers.

On the other hand, the Iraqi Army today can do what it has to do. It can go to an area in Iraq where the extremists, were al Qaeda are in control, maybe where extremist Shiite militias are in control, and it can push them out and it can fracture them, and it can defeat them on the battlefield.

They don't have to handle a column of armored divisions. All they have to do is be able to hold on to their own sovereignty in their own country, and the Iraqi military can do that. And they can protect their government, and they can now largely protect their infrastructure. That's important.

So for all of the Americans who participated in the Iraq operation, whether you were there when we first went over the line in March of 2003, whether you just got back, or whether you have friends that are there right now kind of wrapping up the operation--and that's what we're going to do over the next couple of years. We're going to mop up, and we're going to pack up, and we're going to leave. But we have taken out the tyrant Saddam Hussein. We have defeated al Qaeda.

In fact, when the leader of the Senate was saying that we had lost in Iraq--and he was absolutely wrong. You had senior Marines in Anbar province sending messages back saying, ``We are

crushing al Qaeda in al Anbar.'' So we won. You won. Everybody that wears the uniform of the United States, whether you carried a base plate for mortars, drove a truck in those difficult convoy runs, were a nurse in one of the many medical clinics and facilities we had, if you were a medic in some of the difficult battles, maybe you were a support troop, maybe you flew aircraft or a crew in aircraft, whether it was a C-130 or a tactical fighter, what you did was of enormous value to the United States of America.

You know, I'm reminded of great stories that have emanated from Iraq. I'm reminded of the battle of Fallujah when General John Kelley was the assistant division commander, and at the same time his son, Robert, was a private first class in a rifle squad fighting door-to-door at close range. And when it was over, Robert was the only one in his platoon who had not been wounded.

I'm reminded of Jason Fry, Captain Jason Fry who, going up through the Nassiriyah choke-point was hit by an RPG that took off his right arm; and when the medics were working on him and one of them asked, ``Are you right handed or left handed,'' he said, ``I'm left handed now. You tell my men I'm okay.'' That was the spirit of the American service personnel who served in Iraq.

And remember when they went into Iraq, we had intelligence to the effect that they would use poison gas against our troops because we'd seen them use poison gas against their own people killing thousands of them. And yet the American service personnel persevered and moved ahead into that storm of unknown quality.

And because of them, we have won in Iraq. Yes, we have won in Iraq. And don't let any left-wing journalist come up and tell you that we haven't won. It's true that there's no surrender on the Battleship Missouri. There's not going to be one in this war against terror. But if you look at the military missions that we have--and it's also true we haven't turned Iraq into Iowa. That was never the mission. And if somebody says the other guys won, you tell them to produce Saddam Hussein.

But what we have done, we've taken out the dictator and his forces, we've installed an elected government, and we've now installed a security apparatus, including an army built from scratch by the Americans capable of protecting that government. Nobody is guaranteed freedom and perpetuity, including this country.

But the American military mission in Iraq has been accomplished. You brought us victory. You, the more than 1 million Americans who served in uniform in that theater. And for that, Mr. Speaker, I think the American people owe a huge ``thank you'' to those great men and women, to their families who endured those separations, for all of the difficult burdens that they've carried ever since March of 2003 when we took that first unit across the line into that country known as Iraq.

Thank you to everyone who wears the uniform in that operation. Thank you for winning.

Mr. Speaker, I would yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, as we move to vote on the ``bailout'' of weakened institutions in the U.S. and abroad, it is appropriate to address the emerging question: Where does the U.S. go from here? Most instructive is the fact that the nations which appear to be cash-rich in the financial crisis are those which have strong manufacturing based economies . . . China and Japan. China presently holds $502 billion of American debt followed by Japan which tops the list of American creditors with $592 billion in U.S. debt. Following the bailout and the sale of toxic assets to U.S. taxpayers, China and Japan will have additional cash, some of which can be loaned back to the U.S. to pay for the bailout.

A few years ago, an American manufacturer seeking a loan package from a major Wall Street firm recalled the threshold condition,

``before we talk about your loan package, you must tell us when, not if, you are moving your production facility to China.'' This has been the reality for U.S. manufacturers for the past 10 years or so. The defacto tariff, of 17 percent in China's case and 15 percent in Japan's case dampens U.S. exports to those countries and the same tariff; know as the VAT tax subsidizes Japan's and China's industries when those nations rebate the tax to them upon export to the U.S. This built in trade advantage of the VAT tax is not limited to the ``big two'' but is employed by 130 other trading nations to disadvantage the U.S. manufacturers.

As a result, thousands of financial advisors last year told their clients that for tax and tariff reasons it made sense to move their production offshore, even when their operations in the U.S. were healthy.

The manufacturing bases of Japan and China are now generating the cash needed to purchase big pieces of the U.S. financial community. Mitsubishi UFJ has now acquired about 20 percent of Morgan Stanley for $8.4 billion, China Investment Corporation picked up 10 percent of the bank earlier this year for $5.5 billion.

The movement of U.S. manufacturing offshore damages the U.S. in two major ways. The cause of the present economic crisis, the devaluation of U.S. real estate, is contributed to by the growing inability of our citizens to meet substantial mortgage payments with their wages. Service sector jobs do not produce the take home pay that can carry the payment schedule of appreciated homes in the U.S. Manufacturing jobs have historically supported the heart of the 1500 to 2000 square foot home market but now they are scarce. For a long time the housing market itself has represented the last of the major manufacturing effort in the U.S. Homes are simply a composite of material and labor, called ``product'' by home builders. Every community which has experienced a strong home building surge understands the ripple effect of high wages from construction operations. Now this last major manufacturing initiative in the U.S. has ebbed and the toxic-debt left in the wake of over valued real estate packages is resulting in a new debt package, this time for taxpayers, which could reach $700 billion.

Now is the time for the U.S. to rebuild our manufacturing base. We should now:

(1) Eliminate taxes on U.S. manufacturing. This would offset the 15 to 20 percent tariffs now being charged on U.S. exports by our trading competitors.

(2) Adopt ``mirror trade'' rules with our trading partners that treat foreign exports from any given nation in the same way they treat ours. For example, a 15 percent Japanese border tax will be met with a reciprocal tax for their exports at U.S. borders.

(3) Have a commission review unfair trade practices by other nations, including lack of enforcement for intellectual property rights and impose tariffs or other penalties to balance unfair foreign treatment.

(4) Reduce rate licenses from U.S. government laboratories and U.S. government sponsored research when the intellectual property created is used in U.S. manufacturing.

(5) Fund the development of robotics and manufacturing sciences with emphasis on our academic institutions.

A few years ago when roadside bombs began to massively increase U.S. casualties in Iraq, I detailed our staff teams from the House Armed Services Committee to locate steel companies in the U.S. which produced high grade armor plate. Only one such company remained in the U.S. This dissolution of the U.S. defense industrial base, once known as the arsenal of democracy is a by-product of the manufacturing exodus. National security requirements should compel a restoration of U.S. manufacturing, as much as our present economic situation does.

Rebuilding U.S. manufacturing should be America's next step forward toward solid economic footing.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to the life and memory of former Petty Officer First Class Joshua T. Harris, who was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan last week. Joshua was a native of Lexington, North Carolina, and was deployed to Afghanistan from an assignment at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group in Dam Neck, Virginia.

Joshua graduated from Lexington Senior High School where he distinguished himself as an outstanding linebacker earning both all- county and all-conference honors. He enrolled in Davison College in Davison, North Carolina, where he studied studio art before pursuing graduate studies in architecture at the University of North Carolina.

After enlisting in the Navy on August 23, 2000, Joshua attended Navy SEAL training in California.

Joshua Harris is survived by his mother Evelyn, his father Sam, his twin sister Mary-Maria Kirstin and his older brother, Sam Ranchor. He will always be remembered by his family and friends as a competitive athlete with a passion or art and design.

I would like to share with my colleges a poem penned by Albert Carey Caswell in memory of Petty Officer First Class Joshua Harris, recognizing his heroism and sacrifice to America. The poem titled ``Thou Art'' reads as follows:

Thou Art

A thing of Beauty . . .

A sheer work of art . . .

Can only come but from deep inside one's heart . . .

From only deep down inside one's soul . . .

All in the brush strokes of a lifetime so . . .

All on the canvass of a life behold . . .

To all hearts and minds, and souls . . .

A thing of faith and courage, so!

A thing of beauty . . .

A work of art . . .

To warm all hearts as we grow old . . .

As was your fine life Josh, so . . .

All in courage's quote . . .

All in the seeds of freedom you so sowed . . .

As left behind, to all hearts which spoke . . .

All upon your fine canvass of life as lies such hope . . .

Which but means the very most . . .

That so touches all of our hearts and souls . . .

Is but your fine portrait of life, that which you so wrote!

Painted, all there by your oh so magnificent heart of gold .

. .

All in this your Honor's Code . . .

Is but left a fine reflection of your very soul!

Bringing Light!

Bringing Hope!

As in the darkest days of war you fought . . .

Such a thing of beauty Joshua, as you Thou Art!

Are but the colors of your heart . . .

All in this your life's design!

Reminds us all, how against all odds your courage climbed . .

.

As against the darkest of all evil's you so shined . . .

All in your Seal of Honor burning bright . . .

To win that day, that night!

Shining, all in your most sacrificial light . . .

Burning bold, burning bright . . . blessing all of us here

this night!

For Joshua, how so you lived and died . . .

Brings such tears, even to The Angels eyes!

As so surely, it was but Heaven Joshua you'd find!

As we gaze upon this Masterpiece, all in the life you so left

behind!

Mount Up Seal . . . Your new battle has begun . . .

It's your new war to be won!

All as an Angel in The Army of Our Lord, my son!

Now with wings of courage full . . .

A thing of beauty . . .

A work of art . . .

Joshua, my most magnificent of all sons . . .

You are Thou Art!

Amen. . . .

Madam Speaker, I submit the following:

Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter.

Bill Number: H.R. 2638.

Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy.

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: L-3 Communications, San Diego, CA; MBDA, Los Angeles, CA; Raytheon, Tucson, AZ; Boeing, St. Louis, MO.

Description of Request: The Affordable Weapons System (AWS) program is an advanced technology initiative to design, develop, and produce an affordable precision guided weapon. Phase II to begin September 2008 will study best material approach, conops and system architecture refinement, and a comprehensive risk assessment leading to a preferred system concept with a flyaway cost of less than $250 thousand. The results from the Phase I and Phase II study will support the development of an ICD leading to a new start program in 2010 with a 2016 first article delivery. An additional $11.2 million will support the Phase II contracts.

Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter.

Bill Number: H.R. 2638.

Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy.

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Torrey Pines Logic.

Address of Requesting Entity: 12651 High Bluff Drive; San Diego, CA.

Description of Request: The Navy's need for a secure non-RF alternative to radio communication is well known. The need arises from operational scenarios, such as Underway Replenishment, where vessels are unable to use radios due to RF jammers, EMCON conditions, the presence of IEDs, and the need for a secure communication system that has a low probability of interception and detection. $400,000 to the IR LED Free Space Optics Communications Advancement program will allow the program to advance LightSpeed technology, which is a proven, tested and fielded technology based on IR LED Free Space Optics (FSO) concepts. The funding will enable the advancement of the technology's size, weight, power, distance and bandwidth for the Navy's use in Special Operations and general services communities.

Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter.

Bill Number: H.R. 2638.

Account: Procurement, Defense-Wide.

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: California National Guard.

Address of Requesting Entity: San Diego, CA.

Description of Request: The Southwest Border Fence supports the President's border security initiative and makes for more efficient and effective use of the National Guardsmen deployed in support of Operation Jump Start. $1.6 million will continue work on the 14-mile Border Infrastructure near San Diego, CA.

Requesting Member: Congressman Duncan Hunter.

Bill Number: H.R. 2638.

Account: Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Navy.

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Information Systems Laboratories.

Address of Requesting Entity: 10140 Barnes Canyon Road; San Diego,

Mr. Speaker, I thought it might be appropriate at this time, when all of our focus is on the financial crises, to remember that we have just now passed the defense bill out of the House. It is awaiting passage in the Senate. At this time, we have Americans fighting in two theaters of action in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and their protection is paramount to the people of the United States, to this body and, of course, to the Armed Services Committee.

I thought it might be appropriate to talk about the precedent that has been established by the Armed Services Committee and by some great staff people on the Armed Services Committee who have helped to ensure that more Americans are protected earlier than they otherwise would have been in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We just passed the House bill in very difficult circumstances under the great leadership of Ike Skelton. His staff director, Erin Conaton, is doing a wonderful job, and the minority director, Bob Simmons, is also doing a wonderful job. With their guidance and with the team of staff members behind them and helping them, we managed to get a very complex bill through the House floor very quickly.

Back in 2004, we were seeing the roadside bombs increase in Iraq, and we started to see increased casualties WIA, wounded in action, and KIA, killed in action. We were seeing those increased figures flowing out of that combat theater as the insurgents placed more and more bombs along the roadside.

We moved very quickly on the Armed Services Committee to get as many armored vehicles, up-armored vehicles, known as up-armored Humvees, into that theater as possible. In 2004, we looked at the plan, the blueprint, to get the 7,000 up-armored vehicles over there very quickly so that soldiers and marines in places like Mosul and Tikrit and Fallujah could have up-armored vehicles. We thought that that schedule took too long and that we saw those 7,000 vehicles coming into country around the end of the year in 2004.

So our great staff director, Bob Simmons, who had been an industrialist, who had been a CEO of an aerospace company in San Diego and who had known how to move components and how to move people quickly to get a product finished, went to the Army and asked them why their schedule was as long as it was. They said, you know, we think the driving factor here is the steel. Our schedule for receiving the steel is such that it's not going to be until the end of the year when we get these up-armored Humvees, these protective vehicles, into theater.

So Bob Simmons said, ``Why?'' like any good CEO. They said it was the steel production.

So he went to the steel companies, and he asked them, ``Why can't you put on more shifts and get this steel produced earlier and get it out to the Army and get those Humvees over there?'' They said, ``You know, we don't think we can get another shift on here, and we don't think that the unions will help us here or will comply with adding another shift to the time schedule.''

So Mr. Simmons said, ``Let me talk to the union leaders,'' and he sat down with the union leaders, and our great staff director talked to them about what was happening in Iraq. They said, ``You know, we have kids in Iraq, and we'll put on another shift, and we'll get that steel out.''

As a result of this, we accelerated the steel to the Army and to the Humvee makers, and we got those Humvees up-armored with more steel between those roadside blasts and those marines and soldiers inside those vehicles. We got those 7,000 Humvees into theater 7 months ahead of time.

I want to just say, Mr. Speaker, that it's a blessing to have those honest brokers--those great staff members like Mr. Simmons--and like his great team. I'll just mention a couple of them who worked this issue. John Wason was one of our great team members. Jesse Tolleson is another one. Steve DeTeresa is another.

You know, Steve DeTeresa with his team, in working with Lawrence Livermore and in working with DARPA, actually moved the first heavily armored trucks into Iraq, some 130 trucks that were double-hulled, that had two layers of steel and that had a layer of an inch and a quarter of what we call E-glass on the inside of that steel. I've seen some of those trucks that were hit with massive IEDs, with massive roadside bombs, and I've read letters back from the people who drove those trucks, saying, ``Our lives were saved because of the steel on those trucks.'' To my knowledge, none of those 130 or so trucks that were directed to be built by the Armed Services Committee were ever penetrated by fragment from roadside bombs.

So thanks to Mr. Simmons and to his great team and to all of his wonderful staff folks on the Armed Services Committee.

Madam Speaker, as we study the various proposals that are being circulated right now on the economic crisis, I thought I might take a break for just a minute from that and talk about a bright spot in this country and a shining light in this country, and that is two of the individuals in my community, in San Diego, who provided a wonderful bright spot for hundreds and hundreds of young people.

The first person I would like to talk about is Rex Cole, who was the head golf pro and manager at a place called Carlton Oaks Golf Course, a public golf course in San Diego County, for many years. Rex Cole was known for the fact that every weekend for almost 40 years, and he is now at Cottonwood Golf Course in East County, he would give free lessons to any young person who wanted to come over and be taught the game of golf.

On those Saturdays and Sundays, you would swing by that practice area and you would see that great professional, Rex Cole, out there teaching young people, whether they were 5 years old or 10 or 15, or sometimes 90, teaching them the golf grip and the basic swing and helping them, and not charging a dime.

Madam Speaker, this is a time when we are looking to heroes for inspiration. As Ronald Reagan said, you don't

always have to look to great national leaders or military leaders. Heroes are in these communities all around us, and Rex Cole is one of those heroes. He and his wife Karen have seven children and 13 grandchildren, but, beyond that, they have many, many young people who in a very real way have benefited from Rex Cole's mentorship and from his teaching and from his being such a solid, wonderful member of our East County community.

The other person I would like to mention is the late Cato Cedillo, who was my District Administrator in San Diego, California, in that East County area. I will never forget Cato going out to schools, to grade schools, and teaching young people how to play golf, and going out to the football field and hitting a few shots out there, and then having each young person pledge to him that they would never take drugs, and then giving each one of them a couple of cut-down golf clubs that he had gotten from various professionals in the area, sometimes from Rex Cole, giving them a couple of cut-down golf clubs and letting them have those clubs and take home a bag of golf balls and start this wonderful game.

So, Madam Speaker, I thought it might be kind of nice to talk about two local heroes, two people who gave, and in Rex Cole's case, continue to give so much of their own time and their own substance to the young people in our community.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

To my great friend, Ike Skelton, and all my colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, it is an undeserved honor, but I want to thank you for the wonderful job that you have all done in putting this bill together.

This bill would not be, with all of the exigencies that we have had, and all of the difficulties in the other body to get their bill up, this bill would not be before this body now if it wasn't for the leadership of Ike Skelton.

There are a lot of military institutions in Missouri and around this country which teach members of the uniformed services leadership, but there is another institution which exhibits leadership every day, as chairman of this committee, and that's our chairman, Ike Skelton.

Ike worked this thing through a difficult period of time, with the emergencies that are emanating right now in the Capitol and the major economic emergency which is distracting lots of folks who otherwise could be working on this bill. Time schedules have been extremely difficult, and Ike Skelton, in his quiet way with his quiet leadership and his corporate understanding, he is the main body of history for the Armed Services Committee. He is the guy who remembers not only what happened in this committee 10 and 20 and 30 and 40 years ago, but also what happened in the wars that this Nation fought and what happened in that institution across the river known as the Pentagon. And being able to recall that history at important times in our deliberative processes is a great, great asset to this Nation. Ike, I want to congratulate you. This is your bill. It may have my name on it, but this is your bill. You brought this thing through to the House floor in the most difficult circumstances. Not only that, it is a wonderful bill.

The chairman has talked a lot about the details of the bill. This is an authorization of $531.4 billion. It does authorize a $68.6 billion bridge fund; a bridge fund, I might add, that was an initiative of the Armed Services Committee several years ago.

We looked at our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and said they are going to have to have the equipment and the resources during the later months in the calendar year before that spring supplemental arrives, and we came up with the bridge fund. The President followed our lead. The appropriators have followed our lead, and it has been an excellent vehicle allowing us to maintain in these warfighting theaters while we are waiting for the next funding vehicle. My congratulations to Ike for that.

We do have a good pay raise for the members of the armed services, a 3.9 percent pay raise. You know, this bill does several other things, and I will speak generally about them. It leverages American strengths. It leverages American strengths by continuing to keep the line warm, for example, on F-22 which is a key weapon system because it is a weapon system with the capability to penetrate air defenses that are here today and which may be here tomorrow. It leverages two great American innovations: stealth and precision weapons.

I would urge all of my colleagues as we go into this very difficult, very dangerous era for the United States, to continue to put pressure on and to produce American leverage. And stealth and precision technology are two of those items of technology, as is undersea technology. And we are moving toward an acceleration of the submarine program in this bill. That is very critical.

One disappointment I have is we are not doing enough in space. I would just say to my colleagues that the shooting down of a satellite by China this last year heralded a new era of military competition in space with China whether we like it or not. When you are in a military competition, there is only one alternative and that is to win. So I would urge this committee to continue in the years ahead to build a capability in space to make sure that we maintain all of the institutions and the apparatus that we need there to make sure that our military operates effectively here and that our economy operates effectively here.

Also in the area of missile defense, we are moving ahead to try to establish a missile defense capability in Europe that would handle through that throat of approach out of an Iranian missile launch that might take place 5 years or 10 years or 15 years from now, or perhaps even earlier. That is an important item because that brings the partnership, the NATO-plus partnership of the newly freed captive nations, but also the NATO membership, along with us in what is sometimes a difficult path, an expensive path, but nonetheless a necessary path to defend the world in this new era of missiles.

Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of excellent items in this bill. In the end they all go down to and reflect on and focus on the most important warfighting leverage that the United States have, and that is the men and women of this country who wear the uniform of the United States.

I just want to commend my colleagues for the wonderful job that they have done in making sure that the men and women of the United States have the right equipment and the right incentives and good pay and good quality of life for their families such that when I was in a recruiting office the other day, and no I wasn't signing up, but when I was in one of the old Army recruiting offices in good old San Diego, the one shortage that they had, the one specialty, military occupational specialty that they had which was not available because too many people had subscribed for it and too many people had signed up for it was infantry.

And I thought in these dangerous theaters of Iraq and Afghanistan, the idea that we have more people than we need signing up for the United States infantry is a reflection largely on this committee.

We have two Members who are retiring, the great Mr. Everett of Alabama and the great Mr. Saxton of New Jersey. Mr. Udall is moving on to another race, and we wish him well in his endeavors. But those two gentlemen are retiring.

Terry Everett has done more good for this country behind closed doors than a lot of folks have done with lots of press conferences and lots of pronouncements. The quiet man. I know that Mrs. Tauscher held a nice going-away party for Mr. Everett that I thought was well-deserved. He is a quiet man who has done so much for

this country behind closed doors and is such a valuable asset to the United States.

And Mr. Saxton, who years before the war against terror started was the chairman of the Task Force on Terrorism here in the House who did lots of research and did lots of prediction that this would be the conflict and the challenge of this new era.

Jimmy Saxton is owed a debt of gratitude by everybody who wears those special forces uniforms around the world. Whether they are Seals or Army Rangers or Green Berets, Jimmy Saxton has devoted many years to making sure that they have gotten what they need. What a wonderful member of this committee he has been.

It is with a little touch of sadness that I am here on this last bill that I am going to be involved in with this undeserved honor of having my name on this bill, which is a case of more generosity than was deserved by the chairman and the members, but it has been an honor to serve on this committee. It is a wonderful bipartisan committee, probably the most bipartisan in the House of Representatives, always with our focus on the security of the United States, even in difficult economic times like these. This committee has a very excellent focus on what is important to keep that number one requirement, that number one Constitutional mandate on government, and that is our first obligation is to protect our people. This committee does a great job.

I reserve the balance of my time.

If the gentleman would yield.

I thank the gentleman. I remember being with him when the 82nd Airborne jumped into Honduras, when the Sandinistas came across the border, and I remember the press conference that was held after that. The gentleman's statements were so inspiring, I have never forgotten them. We have been in many parts of the world, the last time up on the DMZ watching the North Koreans. The gentleman has been a real leader in this committee, and I really appreciate it.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama, a very distinguished gentleman, Mr. Everett.

I would yield to Mr. Thornberry, the distinguished gentleman from Texas, 2 minutes.

I would yield to Mr. Bartlett, the gentleman from Maryland, a very distinguished gentleman and one of our great leaders on the Armed Services Committee, 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I would yield to Mr. Akin, the very distinguished gentleman from Missouri, 1 minute.

I want to commend my seatmate from San Diego for her very hard work on this bill and her leadership.

I yield 1 minute to Mr. McHugh, who over the many years has been one of the great leaders in this country for what I call, when we used to call the subcommittee the total force, which is the Guard, the Reserve, the active duty, those 2\1/2\ million men and women who serve this country so effectively, and to this guy who knows probably more about them than just about anybody I've ever met and knows more about policy, the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh).

Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude by again reflecting on the great leadership of Ike Skelton that brought this bill to the floor under such difficult circumstances. It's a great bill.

And lastly, to just reinforce a point that's been made by a number of speakers, you know, this is a city which really, whether you have a military crisis or an economic crisis, needs honest brokers, and those are people that can look at interested parties and make a decision that is made for the right reasons and made on the merits. This committee could not function, this Congress couldn't function, if we didn't have incredible, professional staff who can look right through a dozen conflicting interests and see one interest that should dominate the scene, and that's the American interest, the right thing to do.

And our professional staff members have that capability, and they have great character, and they have a lot of character, and in many cases, they are characters. Erin Conaton and Bob Simmons are the former staff director and the staff director, and their team have done such a great job of bringing this bill together, and only people in whom you could vest enormous amounts of trust could accomplish what they've accomplished.

I just want to commend them for this incredible undertaking that's been the last couple of weeks. They are all so sleepy right now they really just want to finish this thing and get off the floor. But let's thank them for what they've done for this country. We appreciate you.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time.

And to all of my colleagues, as I wrap up this 28 years, having come in with Ronald Reagan in 1981, I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about this great Virginian who came in in 1981, in August--I think it was about August 27, 1981, walked into my office and took a job as a front desk person, the person who's right there in the front of the battlefield, to be a member of our office staff. Her name was Vicki Middleton, and she was the daughter of a dairy farmer in northern Virginia. And she came in with a can-do attitude, did a wonderful job at the front desk. And then she moved to be a legislative correspondent, and then our senior legislative person, and then, ultimately, my chief of staff.

Mr. Speaker, the ability of this House to operate and this legislative body to operate is strongly reliant on these wonderful, great Americans, these professional staff members who can look through a sea of interests and crosscurrents of people with various stakes in the game and can clearly see the American interest, what's right for this country, and Vicki Middleton is one of those people.

Mr. Speaker, I came in in 1981. I got on the Armed Services Committee. We rebuilt national defense. We came in with a 12.6 percent pay raise for our troops. We came back from those days when 1,000 petty officers a month were leaving the Navy because they couldn't afford to take care of their families on the pay they were making. We rebuilt and replaced lots of those old planes that wouldn't fly, and we fixed those ships that wouldn't steam and we built lots more of them. And we stood up to the Soviet Union and we brought down the Berlin Wall. And we brought a new era of freedom to hundreds of millions of people in this world.

And behind those initial programs and those initiatives by President Ronald Reagan and later President George Herbert Walker Bush and then George W. Bush and the initiatives that we've undertaken with our armed services to bring freedom to others in the world and to protect our own security are those wonderful, great staff people who not only work on the Armed Services Committee, but also work in the Members' offices. And Vicki Middleton is first and foremost, in my mind, among those people.

She is, in my estimation--and I know a few Members will argue with me because they have superb people working for them--I have always called her the best chief of staff on Capitol Hill.

And so, Mr. Speaker, as I leave this job after 28 years, I thought it might be nice to give something to Vicki Middleton to make sure that she understands how much we value her great leadership and her friendship. And so my wife Lynn and I had this painting, which is a signed and numbered lithograph by Olaf Wieghorst, whom you may have heard me talk about on a couple of occasions here on the House floor, who is considered the ``Dean of Western artists'' from my hometown of San Diego, whose paintings, at the end of his life, he was the highest price western painter in the world. And he was a guy who was highly independent, strongly accountable, looked you right in the eye, never had a lick of painting lessons in his life, but had a great eye for movement, for color, and for the people of the West. And he painted this beautiful picture of western horses. And this inscription reads, ``From Lynn and Duncan Hunter, for your 26 years of service to America, to Vicki Middleton, and for a lifetime of friendship, duty, honor and country.''

I reflected today, Mr. Chairman, as I looked at all of our great staff members, that those terms, ``duty, honor and country,'' aren't reserved exclusively for the people who wear the uniform of the United States--although they certainly reflect those values of our uniformed personnel--but they also reflect the values of people like Vicki Middleton, who came from a small town in Virginia, came to Washington, D.C. with independence, with honesty, with integrity, and with a great deal of patriotism for her country, and dedicated 26 years to this institution and to the flag that waves over it.

So, Mr. Speaker, Lynn and I are presenting this picture--in fact, we've already presented it to Vicki once; I think we're going to present it to her about five more times before this session is over-- but we're presenting this picture to her in recognition of her service to America.

I thank my good friend for yielding. And to both these great sons of Alabama, I want to say, thank you for your wonderful work and your wonderful service to our country.

I was in Terry's house a couple of summers ago. And we walked out to his woodworking studio where he makes all of these great cabinetry, wood products and molding. In fact he built this beautiful house by himself almost single-handedly using all this machinery that he had in his woodworking place. And as we walked across the floor, I noticed a bunch of red stains. And I said, what is that, Terry? He said, that is when I cut part of my hand off. And I keep that blood to remind me so I won't do it again. And I immediately decided that I would not become a woodworker. It was too dangerous.

But I am reminded on that trip that Terry Everett was showing me how to make cabinets. And he can make cabinets. And if you go in that house, you can see he made beautiful ones. I said, Terry, our house burned down in California. We're going to have to rebuild it. He said, well, Hunter, if you come down here for a week or two, we will make some cabinets.

Terry, let me tell you, having now experienced the cost of California cabinets, I wish I had come down and worked with you and made those cabinets with you out of some of that good old cypress wood. That would have been great.

And Bud, I want to thank you incidentally for your great support of national defense. I have always been in this Congress kind of a Johnny One Note focused on defense issues since I got here. You always support a strong national defense. That has helped us to do all the things that Terry and I have worked on over the years to rebuild our defense in such a way that we're able to bring down the Soviet Union and that we were able to free hundreds of millions of people, we were able to bring freedom to the captive nations of Eastern Europe and to keep the United States a shining star in this very difficult, very dangerous world. And your

work to make sure that we kept this country strong is very, very much appreciated.

And I have always thought of you as one of those great voices who could reach across the aisle and come together in a bipartisan way to make this country strong and to do the right thing. And that is so important in this body. In fact the ability to reconcile our differences and find common ground may be the best characteristic of this body.

Now let me tell you about Terry. Terry and I have done a lot of political planning. And some people would call it conspiracy. But I just call it political planning. Terry Everett has either shown enormous loyalty to me or terrible judgment. He supported me in every campaign I have run in the House. And I have run for the leadership. I have lost some of them, and I have won some of them. And Terry would go out and make those vote counts and helped me. Sometimes he would sit and say, Hunter, I think you're going to be a little bit short here, but we're going to drive on. And we always drove on. And in the end, it's not whether you won all those contests. It's the great friends that you made while you were on the way, while you were competing.

If you think that loyalty and friendship are important components of the American character, then Terry Everett is just full of character. And also he is a character. And if you listen to him, you will see a great sense of humor, an ability to laugh at the world, even when the world has taken some dangerous turns, and go back to work in a quiet way and get things done.

I have also said that Terry, behind closed doors, is one of our members on the Armed Services Committee and on the Intelligence Committee, so he ties those two committees together; one committee that oversees this $600 billion-plus budget and this enormous fighting force of the Army and the Navy and the Marine Corps and the Air Force, and the other committee which oversees this very important arm called the Intelligence Branch, which gives us the information that we need to keep this country safe and secure. And many times those two entities, the defense community and the intelligence community, have to come together and work together, just like they are working together in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

Let me tell you, a lot of the coordination that is taking place right now in Iraq and Afghanistan between people that are working in very difficult, inconvenient places and risking a lot, their effectiveness and their coordination to a large degree is a result of the work of the guy sitting right in front of me, Mr. Terry Everett.

So, Terry, you are a life-long friend, a great, great American, and I have got to tell you, working on the Armed Services Committee with you for so many years has been a real joy. It has been a great thing for this Nation to have you in the traces there pulling that plow, doing that hard work every day. You are going to be tough to replace.

Bud, I know you are going to be tough to replace too. You have done wonderful work.

Terry, you are one of two guys retiring from political life from the Armed Services Committee. Jimmy Saxton is the other one, and I gave him his parting gift from the Hunter family. I have got one for you. I am going to give it to you now, Terry. I am going to present it to you about five times this week so I can get a lot of mileage out of it.

I want to tell you just a little story about this picture. This picture was painted, this is a signed and numbered lithograph by Olaf Wieghorst, who at the time he passed away in San Diego, California, and he was a great friend, he was the highest-priced Western artist in the world. He was a grand old guy who had been part of the American cavalry in the early 1900s and became a great artist, without ever taking a lesson.

In fact, if you go rent the movie ``El Dorado'' with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum and James Caan, you will see that Olaf Wieghorst is the Swedish gunsmith in the movie. He was in that movie because John Wayne had a number of his pictures, as did Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, and Wayne told him to come down to the movie set one time, and he did that, and they put him in this movie ``El Dorado.''

So I want you to check out ``El Dorado,'' and you will see my old friend Olaf Wieghorst, who painted your picture. And I believe your picture is rolled on the screen during the credits as they sing the opening ballad in this great Western movie. So I want you to go down and look at that.

But one reason I am going you this Olaf Wieghorst picture of the American West is this: The quintessential American Westerner is straight ahead, looked you right in the eye, his word was his bond, loyalty was his trademark, and that is Terry Everett.

So, Terry, I want you to look at this picture and remember that the Hunter Rancho has lots of rooms in it since we have rebuilt after the fire, and we look forward to you coming up and bringing some of your cabinet making tools. Maybe you can show Mrs. Hunter and I how to make a couple of extras.

But thank you for your great service to this country. That flag over this Capitol waives proudly and waives more securely because you served.

Thank you very much for your service.

And Bud Cramer, thank you, my great friend, for your service to our country also.

I am going to take this picture back, Terry, because I am going to present it to you about five more times.

Well, Terry, thank you. You know, we did lose on NAFTA, but we were right.

In your work on the Strategic Subcommittee on Armed Services, what a critical position at a critical time for this country. Because being able to renew our strategic capabilities, these systems age, being able to match what other people are doing in space now. I think when the Chinese knocked that satellite out of space, they initiated and heralded a new era of competition in space. Whether we like it or not we are in this fight, we are in this competition. And being able to maintain that capability that, as you so articulately stated, supports American military movements and operations and the economy of the United States, what a crucial responsibility, and you did a great job at it.

But always with that great--you know, you are an Alabama guy, and Alabama is a wonderful State, but you have all those great qualities that represent the best of the American West.

Terry, I want to give you this picture, but you have to give it back so I can present it to you on five more occasions.

I thank the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey for yielding. Thanks for the privilege of being here.

We just finished talking about Terry Everett, one of the real giants in this House, and now, to talk about Jimmy Saxton.

You know, there are a lot of ways to describe Jimmy Saxton. Jimmy Saxton is the kind of guy you'd like to share a duck blind with because he's such a good guy, and he's just fun to be around, and he's got a great sense of humor.

He talks about the time--and I'll tell the story on myself--that we went deer hunting one day. We were going to go bowhunting for deer. I told Jimmy I'd pick him up at 5:00 in the morning, and I did pick him up at 5:00 in the morning in my old, beat-up suburban that we called the war wagon.

We were driving out toward this farm that I had permission for us to hunt on. We never got anything, but we had a lot of fun out there, watching the sun come up. We were driving out there, and I realized, you know, when you're deer hunting, you want to get into the

woods before daylight, while it's still dark. You want to get up, and you're blind, so you're waiting for the animals to move.

I realized we didn't have a flashlight, and so Jimmy said, ``Well, darn it. I don't have one either.'' So he said, ``I thought you were going to bring one.''

I was supposed to bring it, so we stopped at the first convenience store, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth. None of them had it. Now, finally, at one store, just as we got next to the farm, Jimmy said, ``I'll bet that one's got it.'' Sure enough, it did. He went in, and he got the flashlight and the batteries.

He came out, and he said, ``Hunter, I've got the flashlight.'' He said, ``There's only one problem.''

I said, ``What's that?''

He said, ``The sun is coming up right now.''

I said, ``I don't care. We're taking that flashlight into the woods. We paid for it. We're going to use it.''

So Jimmy Saxton is just a fun guy. He's one of those guys who's kind of like Terry, who always had his eyes on the national interest. You know, this place, this city and this political system is full of interests, and that's legitimate. Most of the interests come from our own countrymen in our own districts and from people who have positions on things that they feel very strongly about. A lot of them are economic positions. A lot of them are social positions. Jimmy Saxton is the kind of guy who can always look through all of that and see what he called the American interest or what I call the American interest, which is always to do the right thing and to want to do the right thing. That's what makes this country go.

Now, Jimmy, as I said, is a hunter. He loves to hunt. I'll never forget the time he came out to Wyoming, and we went antelope hunting out there. Barbara Cubin, a great representative from Wyoming, had arranged for us to come out there to do some antelope hunting, and we did that.

After that was over, Jimmy went on a trail drive. Now, as a boy from New Jersey, he doesn't get to go on many trail drives, but he went on a trail drive. So I gave him his picture a couple of nights ago--and the gentleman from New Jersey was there, Mr. LoBiondo--and it's a picture of a bunch of cowboys on their horses, and it's entitled something like ``True Friends.'' I put on the inscription plate of that picture ``A friend for life, Jimmy Saxton; from Duncan, Lynn--'' she's my wife-- ``Duncan D.--'' he's my marine son who is now running for Congress-- ``and Sam.'' He's my youngest son.

That's the way you feel about Jimmy. You work with Jimmy professionally, but you feel about him that he's just a great, close friend. Like Terry Everett, he has helped me down my long career of running for and mostly losing leadership positions, every now and then winning one.

You know, in the end, as you've gone down this competitive trail once again, it's not all the results of these things, because we all win and lose every day whether you're winning issues or losing them or are winning elections or losing them, but it's the people you work with along the way and the people who are your friends. Jimmy Saxton is as true an American as those first Americans.

You know, I imagine those first Americans who fired those first shots in the Revolutionary War who said now we've done it. We've got the biggest, strongest country in the world coming at us--the British empire--but they decided to take them on for freedom. I can imagine that among those people were lots of people who had the character of Jimmy Saxton--that of pure principle, of doing what you think is right even though it's going to have adverse consequences and of enjoying this great, wonderful country that God gave us called the United States of America.

So I thank Mr. LoBiondo for ordering up this time.

Terry Everett sat next to Mr. Saxton for a long time on the Armed Services Committee. Terry and Jimmy sat side by side. I was hoping, leaving as the ranking member, that Jimmy would take that position. And now he is retiring. And then I was hoping that Terry would take that position, and now he is retiring. We are losing two great, great, bright lights, two stars in this very important leadership position because everyone who is on the Armed Services Committee is a leader of sorts.

I am kind of interested in what the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Everett) has to say about Mr. Saxton.

Well, Terry, we are probably going to come out to your farm. You have a big house which will hold a lot of folks.

Terry Everett said Jimmy Saxton always cared about the soldiers, and he did, very deeply.

Interestingly, I had a lot of conversations with him about weapons systems. Never in those conversations, and people look at this as a place where lobbyists come in, and they lobby for things and want you to support them because they give contributions or their things are made in your district, I never heard Jimmy Saxton say, even in total confidence, we need to go for this one because it is politically the thing to do or it is good for my campaign. He would always argue the merits and he was willing to be convinced the other way if there were enough facts on the table.

We all visit the military bases, and we know the major bases and we go to them. When we go into theater in Iraq or Afghanistan, you go to the big bases and you spend a lot of time with the line troops. I was a line troop in the 173rd and our conventional forces.

Jimmy, as chairman of the Terrorism Subcommittee, he oversaw special operations forces. And so he spent a lot of time going to little, out- of-the-way places and meeting with people who weren't highly visible all of the time, but people who work in small teams and work in dangerous and difficult places.

And kind of like the gentleman from Alabama who is one of the few people who served at the same time on the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee, and that is Mr. Everett, and understands the enormous character that is required of our intelligence people, Jimmy Saxton spent a lot of time with our Green Berets, with our Seals, with our Rangers and special operators, and he made sure that these people had the custom-made things that they need. That didn't always come in the regular procurement accounts. When you are undertaking these difficult missions, they need unusual equipment. Jimmy Saxton was very meticulous about making sure that they had the right stuff.

That is an important job, and I hope that those who come after Jimmy have the same attention to detail and the same concern for those guys who need extraordinary equipment.

He is going to be missed.

Mr. LoBiondo, I have watched as we would listen to a debate, and I will

come in and sit next to you, and we will both listen to Jim Saxton. He will share some of that great wisdom of his about issues, and it is always straight ahead. It is always the best advice he can give, and it is always in the best interests of our country.

Thanks for letting me come out. Since I presented Jim with his picture of, guess what from the west, horses, I am going to retrieve that back from his office and present it to him four or five more times.

Thank you for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

A parliamentary inquiry.

Could I be recognized for 1 minute and then yield it to my friend from Texas?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would yield to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I think it's appropriate that I follow the remarks of my great friend Silvestre Reyes, who was a great veteran of Vietnam and who was a wonderful leader, I think the best leader in the history of the Border Patrol, and who is a great Member of this body, but he is a gentleman who has been to Iraq many times and to Afghanistan many times.

Mr. Speaker, I take the well to comment on an event that occurred in San Diego, and that is regarding Sergeant Rafael Peralta, who was killed on November 14, 2004 in the now famous battle of Fallujah. He was killed, and absorbed the blast by an enemy grenade when, during house-to-house fighting, he was thrown into a small room while he and three other marines were working their way through this series of fire fights.

According to the eyewitnesses and to the citation that he received, he pulled that grenade to his body and absorbed the full concussion and the full explosive power of that grenade on his own body and, thereby, saved his fellow marines.

Now it has just been announced that he was awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest award for heroism, but not the Medal of Honor.

Mr. Speaker, the last person who did that same act, in fact, who was a marine and who did that incredible act of sacrifice in Anbar province, was Corporal Jason Dunham of Scio, New York. He was given the Medal of Honor--awarded it by President Bush in the White House--for falling on a grenade, for taking the shock and the deadly power of that grenade, thereby saving his colleagues.

That is the standard that we have traditionally placed and the metric that we have traditionally placed on this act of heroism of a soldier or of a marine who falls on a grenade or who pulls a grenade under him when it's in close proximity to his buddies, knowing full well that that grenade will most likely kill him but making that split-second decision to give his life for his colleagues and for his country.

Sergeant Rafael Peralta made that decision.

Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that he should have been awarded the same award that Jason Dunham and many before him have been awarded in Vietnam--the same theater that Mr. Reyes fought in--in Korea, in World War II. Where we have recognized that standard of a soldier or of a marine who falls on a grenade or who pulls it to him to save his colleagues, we have traditionally recognized that act of heroism, that act of sacrifice with the Medal of Honor.

So, Mr. Speaker, I intend to ask the President--and I hope a number of other people join me to ask the President--to review this award and to award to Rafael Peralta, posthumously, the same award that we awarded just a few months ago to Corporal Jason Dunham.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of Cpl Chad Michael Watson who lost a leg in an improvised explosive device attack. While on patrol in the Anbar province in Iraq on November 29, 2006, Chad's vehicle came under attack and he was severely wounded and later lost his right leg.

The son of Mike and Gina Watson, Chad was born in Mount Zion, Illinois on February 8, 1983. He attended Mount Zion High School graduating in 2004. Chad joined the Marine Corps May 17, 2004 and was trained as an infantryman. Following his initial training he deployed to Iraq with Charlie Company, 1st Infantry Battalion, and 24th Marines where he served until his injury.

During the twenty months of recovery, Chad maintained a positive and even uplifting attitude which reflected well among those fellow marines and soldiers passing through the recovery process at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Mr. Albert Caswell of the U.S. Capitol Guide Service, a friend of his, penned the following poem as a fitting tribute to Chad for his sacrifice and unrelenting commitment to his long and enduring recovery.

Breaking Chad. . .

Breaking Bad!

Breaking Chad! He's Good, but he's the good king of Bad. . .

A Marine's Marine, one Fine Fighting Machine! The kind of

son, you wish you had!

First in boot camp. . .

First in his class in military school . . . training with his

brothers in arms, as number one he'd rule. . .

Wherever hearts of courage roam, men like Chad have come home

with but their hearts of heroism full. . .

A Hero who went off to war. . .

Who lost a leg, but came back with so much more!

With his courage full, over our hearts he rules . . . as he

takes us all to school . . . is that not what heaven is

for?

Upon, battlefields of honor seen!

Running towards death, as he was strong . . . fast and lean .

. . a real bad fighting machine! Upon the scene!

The kind of guy you'd fight for and not ask why . . . ready

to die for you and his United States Marines!

For in our Country Tis of Thee. . .

There have been many heroes such as these who heard the call

. . . who did not pause, as did he!

Who are but rough & ready, while in the face of hell were

ever steady . . . for their colors did not run, you

see!

And now his new fight. . .

To rebuild his life, with his fine and future wife . . .

teaching us all what is right!

`Oh what a heck of a sight, bringing tears to eyes . . . as

he does not ask why . . . bringing to our world his

light!