Floor Statements

Madam Chairwoman, I am an oilman. I always have been, and I always will be. One thing that I learned as an oilman is that no matter where you go around the world, when you visit oil- and gas- producing areas, you mostly find American companies, American technologies, American equipment, and, of course, Americans. America is the pride of the oil patch.

Over the years, that position has served us well. It creates wealth and jobs in our country and has been the

basis for America's leadership in the global economy. But the world is changing. Where before other nations could not compete with our economic might, now they can. And before, where the hydrocarbons were the only solution to the world's energy needs, it no longer is. America will continue to lead the world in the production of oil and natural gas, but we must also lead the world in the production of renewable energy.

America will be stronger if we lead the development of new ways to capture wind energy. America will be wealthier if we create and produce the technology the world uses to produce energy from the sun. Most Americans will have good-paying jobs if it is American ingenuity behind the production of new biofuels around the world.

The Teague-Titus-Giffords amendment creates the Global Clean Energy Exchange Program to strengthen research, educational exchange, and international cooperation with the aim of promoting the development and deployment of clean and efficient American energy technologies around the world.

Our amendment will mean that professors, researchers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners can travel to other nations to show people there the renewable energy products, technology, and expertise that America has developed. And when those nations decide to make investments in renewable energy, I imagine they will turn to the technologies, products, and expertise that we introduced to them in the first place.

This amendment is about enhancing America's leadership in the renewable energy field; it's about creating markets for American goods; it's about creating profits for American companies; it's about creating jobs for American workers.

I thank Chairman Berman for his support, and I thank Chairwoman Slaughter for allowing this amendment to be debated on the floor. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

Mr. Speaker, over the Memorial Day recess, our Nation lost two individuals that I consider to be national treasures. Two marines that were known as ``Navajo Code Talkers'' passed away: John Brown, Jr., of Crystal, New Mexico, and his compatriot, Thomas Claw. Both were 87.

During World War II, the Marines recruited members of the Navajo Nation for the specific purpose of devising a code that was based on the Navajo language. The Japanese were never able to break the code, and the Code Talkers were credited with helping save lives and contributing to the military success in the Pacific theater.

The Code Talkers' contributions were invaluable, and we should always be grateful for their service. They did so much, and their contribution can be summarized best by what John Brown said when he was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal: ``We have seen much in our lives. We have seen war and peace, and we know the value of the freedom and democracy that this great Nation embodies. But our experience also reminds us how fragile these things can be and how vigilant we must be in protecting them.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 498, a resolution honoring and congratulating the U.S. Border Patrol on its 85th anniversary. This bill shows our support for the men and women who have served and are currently serving in our Nation's Border Patrol, and I encourage my colleagues to vote with me in support of this resolution.

The Border Patrol has undergone incredible changes over the past 85 years. They have grown from an initial force of 450 to over 18,800 agents today. They have learned to deal with new threats such as terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. And they have adapted ground-breaking technologies--such as infrared cameras and unattended underground sensors--to better face the challenges confronting them.

But despite these changes, their primary mission has stayed the same: to detect and prevent illegal entry of persons into the United States. As we all know, doing this is no easy task. They must patrol over 8,000 miles of international borders with Mexico and Canada and the coastal waters around Florida and Puerto Rico. They are our first line of defense against many threats, including terrorists, illicit drugs, weapons, and criminals; and they perform admirably at these tasks.

Since 1998, the Border Patrol has seized more than 15 million pounds of marijuana and 189,000 pounds of cocaine. Most importantly, border agents have very dangerous jobs. They risk their well-being every day on our behalf. In 85 years, 104 Border Patrol officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. In my district, the Border Patrol has an especially active presence, the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which covers all of New Mexico, covers 262 miles of border and employs over 2,600 agents. In fiscal year 2008 alone, they made over 30,000 apprehensions and seized over 87,000 pounds of marijuana.

Also in my district, in the town of Artesia, we have the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at this facility which covers over 220 acres of space.

The Border Patrol agents, along with the other Federal agents, get the training they need to better perform their duties and adapt to the new challenges facing them.

In closing, the functions of the Border Patrol are more important today than ever. We have given them an incredibly difficult task and the brave men and women of the Border Patrol deserve the full support of Congress in achieving their goals.

I would like to thank Congresswoman Sanchez, Chairman Reyes, Chairman Thompson, Congressman McCaul, and Majority Leader Hoyer for their leadership in helping bring this resolution to the floor.

Again, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in support of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on an issue that is dear to my heart--our Nation's veterans. Yesterday I introduced several bills that I believe would improve the quality of life for our veterans and continue to honor our commitment to them.

My district is a highly rural district, and my veterans need access to qualified mental health professionals. I have submitted a bill that will establish a mental telehealth pilot project that will provide access to veterans that live in rural areas. This bill will make it possible for them to at least talk to a qualified specialist about the problems that they face as they re-adapt to home life.

Secondly, a report in the Journal of Military Medicine stated that blasts from IEDs have caused a debilitating condition called tinnitus. I have introduced a bill that calls on the Department of Defense to screen for tinnitus and also calls on the VA to look for new ways of treating and curing tinnitus.

We should never forget that freedom is not free. These men and women laid their lives on the line to protect us, and we should always do all we can to serve them as well as they served us.

In 2007 when I announced that I would be running for Congress, people were surprised to find an oilman like myself campaigning on a platform that emphasized energy independence through a focus on renewable energy. But I told people in Hobbs, Roswell, Carlsbad and across southern New Mexico that technologies like wind, solar and biofuels were not only good for the environment but would also create jobs in our communities and bolster our national security.

One area in which we can do a lot of good is biofuels. My State of New Mexico is fortunate to have several biofuel organizations on the cutting edge of research. Both private companies and the national labs in my State are making excellent progress towards commercially producing oil from algae and other green sources.

The United States currently uses 20 million barrels of petroleum each day. American biofuels producers are aiming to reach 1 million barrels a day of biofuel production, which will really be sending a message to OPEC that America is serious about her energy independence.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Griffith-Teague amendment to H.R. 2187, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act. I'd like to thank Chairman Miller and Chairwoman Slaughter for their help in this bill and on this amendment.

This amendment is about protecting the health of our children. In my district, schools are oftentimes surrounded by sand and dust. When the wind comes, which is almost every day in New Mexico, this sand and dust is picked up and becomes a part of the air our children breathe. These particles can cause asthma attacks and can give them other health problems.

Under our amendment, schools would be able to work on facilities to mitigate the amount of dust and particles in the air.

Our schools must be places where the health of our children is protected. Our kids should not be subjected to dust and other particles constantly being blown in their faces. The air they breathe should be clean and free of contaminants.

I think it is important that this bill provides schools with the resources they need to help lessen this problem and protect the health of children. That is exactly what this amendment does. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to H.R. 2187, and the underlying bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise today for the purpose of honoring the Gadsden High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

On April 18, 2009, the Gadsden JROTC competed against 32 other teams from across the great State of New Mexico at Pedro Vista High School in Farmington, New Mexico. The competition

consisted of the corps participating in air rifle, physical fitness and drill tests. Due to their discipline and commitment and dedication to their program, the Gadsden cadets bested their competition from across New Mexico for the second year in a row.

I am proud and honored today to stand on the floor of the United States House of Representatives and say something that those students certainly deserve to hear: you are again the pride of your State, and congratulations on a job well done.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment along with my friends, Congressmen Nye, Kissell and Boccieri, that has three principal attributes. One is it's common sense. It does what is right and it helps out our Nation's veterans. Specifically, the amendment stops credit card companies from bringing down the credit scores of deployed soldiers and disabled veterans during the first 2 years of their disability.

Mr. Chairman, one of the time-honored commitments we make to our veterans is after they do the dangerous work of protecting our national security, we, as a country, ensure their economic security. When a soldier is fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan or the deserts of Iraq, he or she does not have access to regular mail service nor the ability to tend to the everyday financial pressures of home.

Likewise, when an injured veteran is adjusting to life with his or her disability, there is often a period of economic vulnerability where the costs pile up and sometimes you just don't get to every last letter in the mail.

When veterans return home, they should do so with the confidence that their credit history allows them to open a business, buy a house or a truck. If they were late on some payments while serving their country or recovering from a severe injury, that shouldn't prevent them from pursuing the American Dream. No commercial credit rating agency can be equipped to account for the intangibles of combat service and recovering from service-connected injuries.

Economic opportunity for veterans should not be a question of mistakes that they may have made during deployment or recovery. It should be a question of their service.

I urge my colleagues to pass this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to my friend from Ohio (Mr. Boccieri).

(Mr. BOCCIERI asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to my friend from Virginia (Mr. Nye).

My concern is that penalizing veterans for missing payments while they are in combat or recovering from an injury is not an accurate way of determining their creditworthiness. However, I do look forward to working in conference to address some of these valid concerns.

The amendment requires the Federal Reserve to write the rules that accomplish the goals of this amendment, and we will work closely with the Fed.

Once again, Mr. Chairman, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote for this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, when I was 17 years old, I went to work in the oil fields making $1.50 an hour on a pulling unit to help support my family. Over the years, I have done just about everything there is to do in oil and gas around New Mexico. People know that I am an oilman, and I am proud of that.

In 2007 when I announced that I would be running for Congress, people were surprised to find an oilman like myself campaigning for energy independence through renewable energy. I told people in Hobbs, Roswell, Carlsbad and all across southern New Mexico that technologies like wind, solar and biofuels were not only good for the environment but would also create jobs in our communities and bolster our national security.

If we are going to keep up with an increasing demand for energy, we need to put Americans to work producing energy from the wind, the sun and such new and strange things as algae. Our energy future should not be defined by dependence on one source of energy, the vast majority of which we do not control.

Like I said, I am an oilman, always have been, always will be; but sometimes it takes an oilman to say it: America simply can't continue to be addicted to foreign sources of oil.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment is about something simple, laying yet another block in the foundation on which we can achieve energy independence.

Personally, I am an oil man. I have always been an oil man and I always will be. And one of the first things that I learned when I started working on oil wells when I was 17 years old is that sometimes when you drill a well you get a lot of water. You have to figure out what to do with that. Can you put it into a stream? Do you need to reinject it into the Earth? Or can we use it for something else?

It's a question as old as the oil and gas industry, just as the relationship between water and energy is as old as water itself. And as we look toward achieving energy independence through a focus on renewable and alternative energy, creating jobs, bolstering our national security and improving our environment along the way, we are going to have to better understand that important and ancient connection.

My amendment ensures that the relationship between renewable energy development and water resources is established as a priority for Federal water planning, research and development.

Mr. Chairman, we are proponents of wind, sun and biofuels, because they are renewable resources. But water is not. If we draw down our aquifers to the point that they can not recover and tax our rivers to extinction, much of the American West will be unrecognizable. That is not an option. And not harnessing the abundant renewable resources we possess in places like New Mexico is not an option either.

Research, planning and the development of new technologies will free us to develop energy in harmony with our environments and with needed resources like freshwater.

When we site solar farms, we need to consider not only the sun's intensity, but the proximity and sustainability of needed water resources as well.

When choosing a path toward the production of biofuels on a massive scale, we need to ask, what are the implications for freshwater of developing corn-based ethanol in the Midwest versus algae-based biofuels in the deserts of New Mexico?

When we consider wind, nuclear, and every other component of a comprehensive plan to move our Nation toward energy independence, we need to know what the implications are for our precious freshwater resources.

There's even a biodiesel project in my district called Cetane Energy that produces freshwater as part of its fuel production process. That adds an interesting dynamic to the water intensity of Cetane's production and is exactly the sort of thing that we need to better understand as we expand our renewable energy portfolio and move toward energy independence.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an important amendment to an important piece of legislation, the GIVE Act. My amendment, which I am offering together with my friend, Congressman Klein of Florida, establishes that a Veterans Volunteer Corps would engage in activities that are important to veterans in my district and across the country.

Those activities include: Helping veterans pursue education and employment by coordinating with State and local agencies that administer education and job programs for veterans; helping veterans file benefit claims; and, aiding rural, disabled, and unemployed veterans with transportation needs.

This amendment is especially important for veterans in rural areas like the one I represent. Many veterans in my district have to travel 4 hours or more to reach a veterans hospital for doctor appointments. For folks who would require constant medical care, the burden of this travel weighs heavily on both the veteran and his or her family. Ensuring that a veteran can receive a helping hand for transportation through the GIVE Act will mean so much to men and women in Southern New Mexico and rural areas across the country.

Additionally, providing access to knowledgeable volunteers for veterans applying for their benefits can be a guiding light through the maze of the benefits application process. Veterans service organizations across the country already provide assistance like this at veterans benefits centers often on a volunteer basis. My amendment bolsters their critical service.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment invests in our veteran community, while also allowing our veterans to invest in themselves and their fellow vets.

I thank my chairman on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Congressman Filner, for his assistance and support of this amendment, and I thank Chairman Miller.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield to Chairman Miller 30 seconds.

Mr. Chairman, I yield the remaining time to the cosponsor of this amendment, Congressman Klein of Florida.

I rise today in support of Chairman Oberstar's manager's amendment to H.R. 1262, the Water Quality Investment Act. The manager's package includes my amendment to the bill, the Teague-Green wastewater amendment.

My amendment is simple. It allows wastewater utilities to use resources from the Clean Water State Revolving Funds to implement renewable energy production and energy-efficient projects in their plants.

Wastewater treatment plants are large consumers of power. Along with drinking water facilities, they consume approximately 35 percent of the energy used by municipalities. Together, they constitute 3 percent of national energy consumption, sending approximately 45 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year.

We need to give our wastewater infrastructure an energy makeover. With my amendment to the eligible activities associated with the Clean Water SRF, the revolving funds can become prime motivation for energy conservation and energy generation at wastewater plants across the country. Employing resources from the SRF, plants can generate power from in-circuit hydro turbines, biogas produced through anaerobic digesters, and solar panels and wind turbines, all offsetting electricity purchased from the grid.

The Teague-Green Wastewater Amendment will reduce the amount of energy consumed by wastewater plants, create green jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money for taxpayers. It is what I like to call common sense.

I want to thank the chairman for including my amendment in the manager's package and for crafting this excellent piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 100th year after the passing of Goyathlay. Goyathlay, more famously known as Geronimo, was a Chiricahua Apache leader who hailed from an area that is now part of the great State of New Mexico. He was born on the Gila River, which now lies in the southwestern part of my district.

Goyathlay's actions on behalf of his people have been commemorated in legends, history, and film. His skill and indomitable spirit live on as a memorial to the Apache people and their culture. Goyathlay fought to preserve the Apache from what he saw to be an invading force, one that was foreign to him and did not understand his people's ways and beliefs.

I am proud to say that today I have the privilege of representing the Apache people in the United States Congress. It is an honor to serve as their Representative. The values that they cherish, values that Goyathlay fought so hard to preserve, are still alive in them today.

On the anniversary of Goyathlay's death, we hope that we as a people and Nation have moved beyond the differences that separated us 100 years ago. We hope that we can begin a process to heal old wounds and ensure that everyone's voices are heard their needs are met.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, this stimulus bill is about one thing first and foremost: creating jobs. My amendment is about connecting out-of- work Americans to those jobs.

Just 2 days ago, on Monday, major companies across America laid off 70,000 workers. The United States economy has dropped nearly 2.6 million jobs since the recession began in December of 2007, raising the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent last month. Experts worry that the economy could now be losing as many as 600,000 jobs a month.

Now, if you're reading about this recession in the newspaper, it's numbers on a page. But for each and every one of those job losses, there's an economic crisis at a kitchen table somewhere in America, including quite a few kitchen tables in Southern New Mexico.

So what we are doing is working with President Obama to put forward an economic recovery package to spur the economy and create jobs. With $30 billion for highways and bridges, we are creating 850,000 jobs. With $10 billion

for rail and mass transit, we are creating 200,000 jobs. And with $16 billion for clean water and flood control, we're creating 375,000 jobs.

On top of that are the jobs created by investments in our schools and renewable energy and more jobs from the stimulus provided by the tax cut to 95 percent of Americans.

To add to all of this, I'm offering a commonsense amendment to help connect people to the new jobs we are creating. H.R. 1 requires the creation of a Web site, Recovery.gov, to ensure greater accountability and transparency in the government's economic recovery program.

Well, that's a good idea. We need to keep a firm eye on all this money to make sure it is well spent. But if we're going to have this Web site, it has also got to do something to help the people that this bill is all about: the folks trying to find a job.

My amendment would simply require Recovery.gov to provide information about the jobs created by this bill that would be useful to job seekers.

What my amendment basically says is this: If you're out of work or if you're looking for a job, if you're trying to provide for your family, we want to help. If you're willing to work, we want to do all we can to help you get a job.

I want to thank the chairwoman of the Rules Committee, Louise Slaughter, for making this amendment in order. And I also want to thank the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Obey, for his assistance. This is my first amendment as a Member of Congress, and it was an honor to work with you both.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, but what we're doing is just putting some extra information on the Web site, information that's useful to Americans trying to get a job and go to work. Certainly whatever cost would be incurred would be small compared to the expense of establishing the Web site in the first place. It will be a minimum amount.

Yes. Mr. Chairman, my amendment is just about creating jobs.

Yes. This particular amendment is about connecting people looking for a job to the jobs, and I think it's a necessary part.

If we are having a Web site, let's make it work for all Americans looking for a job.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with America's economy in deep trouble. Families from Hobbs to Silver City and across the country are struggling. They are wondering if they will be able to make ends meet.

We must act now to help those families. I know that we won't all agree with every little part of the economic recovery bill that we are considering. I have some concerns myself, but I intend to support the package, not because it's perfect, but because it will create jobs and get our economy going. After all, that's what the people sent us here to do. If this bill passes, 684,000 New Mexicans will get a tax break and over $400 million will go into infrastructure and investments to create jobs and support economic development.

I am also pleased that the bill includes language from two bills that I introduced as a stimulus package for southern New Mexico to create green jobs and give families with kids a tax break. I urge my colleagues to pass this stimulus legislation so we can put America back on track and back to work.