Floor Statements

Madam Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 5019, the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act; and I want to commend Congressman Welch for his extremely productive efforts on pursuing this issue. This Home Star program will help support jobs in the construction and home retrofitting sectors, which have been among the hardest hit during this economic recession. In addition, in my home State of Utah, it will help homeowners make the investments necessary to improve energy efficiency in their homes, which in turn will help them save money on their energy bills.

In my State of Utah, well over half of an individual's residential energy bill goes to home heating and air conditioning, and we have all felt the impact of increased home energy costs on our budgets over the last few years. We know that savings from energy efficiency upgrades are among the best ways homeowners can keep their energy costs low.

This bill is supported by over 1,200 companies and organizations nationwide, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and in my home State, the Utah Clean Energy Coalition and utahgreenhomes.com.

I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I hope the Cash for Caulkers program can be signed into law soon.

Madam Speaker, when James Cash Penny opened his first dry goods store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming he called it ``The Golden Rule'' because he believed that if he provided quality goods at a fair price and treated people the way he wanted to be treated his business would be successful.

In 1909 Mr. Penny opened the headquarters for J.C. Penny Company Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah and a year later opened the Price, Utah J.C. Penny's store, located in the 2nd district of Utah which I represent. The Price J.C. Penny store is the oldest in Utah, and the second oldest in the national chain. And while the store window displays may have changed over the years the core values of Mr. Penny are steadfast. Evidence of Mr. Penny's beliefs and commitment to service went beyond retail sales. His compassion for people can often be found wherever his stores are located. From Les Eldridge who was the first Price store manager in 1910 to the present store manger Leslie Childs and her staff, the J.C. Penny team has made customer service and community a balanced priority.

Through more than 100 years of history, the Company has stayed true to its Golden Rule beginnings, with a continued commitment to care for the communities where it does business. This is reflected in the many decades of support this store and its Associates have given to a variety of charitable causes in the community, including strong support for quality afterschool programs. The Price store has partnered with groups such as Kiwanis, United Way, Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Business Alliance as well as The Family and Children's Support Center, Angel Tree, The Cancer Society and many others to ensure that those in need are cared for in Southeastern Utah.

In honor of the continued service and commitment to the foundation built by Mr. Penny with the opening of his first store, I want to offer congratulations to the Price, UT J.C. Penny on your 100th anniversary. Thank you for making a difference in the community.

Mr. Speaker, as so many people in this country continue to struggle to find work, let alone receive a pay raise, I am glad Congress has chosen to highlight this issue. Now, last year Congress recognized how inappropriate it would be to accept the stealth salary increase and passed a measure to block a congressional pay raise for the current fiscal year. This past week the Senate continued the freeze on congressional pay without a single dissenting vote. And now I urge my fellow House Members to follow suit and pass this commonsense measure.

The need for this bill also underlines another significant problem with the

congressional pay raise system because every year, unless both the House and the Senate actually vote against a pay raise, like we are talking about doing right now, we automatically receive a pay raise. In almost every profession, salary increases are dependent on performance, experience, tenure, or any number of factors other than really showing up to work every day.

This system which shrouds the congressional pay increase in arcane procedures deters a healthy, open debate of the issue. This legislation is a straightforward measure to stop the pay increase for fiscal year '11 and has been widely supported in a bipartisan manner.

I commend Congressman Mitchell and Congressman Paul for their work on this issue over the past 2 years. Now, beyond this one-time issue we are talking about today, I would be remiss if I didn't mention I have introduced a separate piece of legislation which would permanently repeal the provision of the law granting automatic pay raises and bring this issue to an open, up or down vote to let the public know where we stand on this issue every year. The Senate has also passed this legislation. I look forward to discussing this issue as we move forward to address our budgetary priorities.

As I have said for the past many years, spending priorities in a time of war and economic turmoil should not include an automatic salary increase for Members of Congress. I urge my fellow Members of the House to prevent a pay raise for 2011 and vote in favor of the legislation on the floor today.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I will be very brief. You know, right now this legislation to enhance cybersecurity authorizes the National Science Foundation to assist in doing research that will help law enforcement look for issues related to intellectual property. I thought it would be helpful if we also included and amended this bill to enhance the ability of law enforcement to prosecute cybercrimes that involve crimes against children and organized crime.

So simply stated, that is the substance of this amendment. I think any of us who are parents of children right now have concerns about when kids are using the Internet and the amount of inappropriate material that's on it right now and the number of folks who are targeting children on the Internet. So I thought that would be a helpful amendment to this bill. I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time as well, Madam Chair.

I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding.

You know, often when we have a sporting event about to come up, a lot of people predict what's going to happen. But what's great about sports is you never really know what's going to happen. And while we often do a resolution to congratulate teams who have won a major championship, this is kind of special because the Real Salt Lake team went into the playoffs as the last team in. Eight teams made the playoffs for Major League Soccer this year. Real Salt Lake had the worst record, but it's a team that throughout the course of this year has evolved, and in fact there was a stretch of 17 days between two games toward the end of the regular season where the team kind of rededicated itself and went through sort of a mini-training camp again, and when it came out of that camp, it seemed to be a different team.

It got into the playoffs, and of course it was an underdog in its first round, and it won. It was an underdog in the semi-finals, and it won there, too. And then the championship against the L.A. Galaxy. In a shoot-out, the team was able to succeed.

And there's an interesting sign in the locker room of the Real Salt Lake team. The sign says, ``The team is the star.'' And in an era where we often celebrate great individual performances--and there are a number of individuals that certainly deserve mention--still the concept of a team coming together in a team sport seems to be a pattern and a formula for success. And in terms of the Real Salt Lake soccer team, that is exactly what happened.

So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to offer this resolution. It was interesting going around to my colleagues to collect cosponsorships. This was something that was very accepted on both sides of the aisle. And again, I just think it's great that we have a chance as a Congress to at least congratulate this team on its great accomplishment in winning the Major League Soccer Cup in 2009.

I thank Mr. Gordon for yielding.

Before I begin my comments, I have a copy of a resolution that was passed by the Salt Lake County Council in support of the Writ Act to include in the Record.

A Resolution of the Salt Lake County Council Opposing the Importation

of Foreign Nuclear/Radioactive Waste and Its Disposal in the United

States

Whereas, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been

asked for a license to import radioactive waste from

dismantled nuclear reactors in Italy;

Whereas, Italy, which currently stores its nuclear/

radioactive waste at power plants and other sites throughout

Italy, has no permanent repository for this waste, has four

closed nuclear power stations and other nuclear facilities

with nuclear/radioactive waste, and for the past number of

years has been unable to construct a waste disposal facility

due to strong citizen opposition;

Whereas, due to having closed facilities and citizen

opposition to construction of any new facilities, Italy

reportedly has no nuclear waste disposal plan and is seeking

assistance from other countries to manage different types of

nuclear waste;

Whereas, if allowed, foreign radioactive/nuclear waste

would be transported and

Whereas, if granted by the NRC, the importation license

would allow almost ten times more waste to be imported for

disposal than the total amount authorized by prior NRC

importation licenses;

Whereas, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, the Utah Radiation

Control Board, and a regional regulatory board, the Northwest

Interstate Compact, have opposed this waste being brought

into Utah;

Whereas, a declaratory judgment action has been filed and

is currently being actively litigated to determine whether

the Northwest Interstate Compact has jurisdiction over the

importation of the waste and the legal authority to block the

transportation and storage of this foreign waste in Utah;

Whereas, the NRC has delayed making a decision on the

proposal until the litigation against the Northwest

Interstate Compact has been resolved;

Whereas, nearly four thousand people submitted comments to

the NRC, the vast majority overwhelmingly opposing the

proposed importation license;

Whereas, granting approval to this or similar proposals

could open the door to the United States becoming the world's

nuclear/radioactive waste dump and create a disincentive for

foreign nations to dispose of their own nuclear/radioactive

waste;

Whereas, other contracts have been solicited for additional

foreign nuclear/radioactive waste disposal from entities in

the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil and other countries which

would directly impact Salt Lake County;

Whereas, nuclear/radioactive materials will be shipped over

oceans, into ports, and, potentially, through Utah cities and

counties, including Salt Lake County, with the exact types

and classifications of these materials not determined until

after they have been imported;

Whereas, dumping large quantities of foreign nuclear/

radioactive waste in the U.S. will only constrain further our

domestic disposal capacity, result in the need for expanded

or new nuclear/radioactive waste dump sites and increase the

risk to public health, safety and the environment;

Whereas, neither the United States Congress nor the NRC

ever intended that domestic nuclear/radioactive waste sites

be used for the commercial importation of foreign nuclear/

radioactive waste;

Whereas, importing foreign waste only serves private

companies and their shareholders; and

Whereas, many of the probable transportation corridors run

through Salt Lake County, risking public health and safety

with, every shipment, not to mention the financial

responsibility imposed on the County and its residents in

preparing for and responding to incidents.

Now, Therefore, the County Council hereby resolves that it

supports the prohibition on the transportation of foreign

generated nuclear/radioactive waste through Salt Lake County;

Now, Therefore, the County Council further resolves that it

urges the NRC to not approve the request to import and

dispose of foreign low-level nuclear/radioactive waste; and

Now Therefore, the County Council further resolves that it

urges Utah's legislative delegation to support the

Radioactive Deterrence Act (RID), HR 515 and S. 232, which

would prohibit the importation of foreign nuclear/radioactive

waste, thereby alleviating the health and safety risks of

transporting such materials through Salt Lake County.

Mr. Speaker, the Energy and Commerce Committee has held two hearings on this issue: one in the previous Congress and one in this Congress. And during those hearings, we really flushed out this issue in a way that I think makes some pretty clear points that justify moving this bill.

First of all, what was established is that there is confusion about what U.S. policy is relative to importation of radioactive waste from foreign countries. There really is a gap in policy here because as our low-level radioactive waste has developed over the last two or three decades, foreign waste wasn't even really considered. It just wasn't conceived that we would even take waste from other countries.

As Mr. Gordon indicated, no other country in the world takes another country's radioactive waste, and I think that appears to have been the assumption in terms of when policies have been determined in this country.

But what has happened in the last few years is that there are efforts and contracts being signed to move waste from Italy; there is discussion about Brazil, Mexico, Great Britain, to move low radioactive waste to this country. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says we have no authority to determine whether or not waste from foreign countries should be allowed into this country.

So then we turn to the next regulatory body that we have in this country, and that is the system of State-run compacts that was established in Federal law primarily in 1980 and 1985. And the nuclear waste compacts are the ones who also have this role in deciding how to handle low-level radioactive waste.

The State of Utah happens to be a member of the Northwest Compact. When this proposal to move waste from Italy was put before the Compact, the Compact, with the State of Utah opposing the importation of this waste, the Compact agreed with the State of Utah and moved to disallow this shipment. At this point, the matter was taken to the courts. The Federal district courts have ruled the Compact courts have no authority to stop this either. That case is currently on appeal.

But what this points out--and the reason I walk through these steps-- is to illustrate that there's a lot of confusion out there and everyone is pointing in a different direction of who's in charge of this issue. It seems to me this issue ought to be addressed by Congress. It's up from a public policy perspective to discuss whether or not as a policy of this country we should accept another country's radioactive waste. I happen to think we shouldn't. No other country in the world does. I don't think we should either. There has been mention that this is a restraint of trade issue in preventing U.S. companies from competing. I don't know of any other country that takes imported waste.

For trade to exist, you have goods and services going in both directions, not just in one. I don't understand how this in any way could be described as a restraint of trade.

Secondly, the capacity of this country for handling low-level waste is an issue because from what I have heard, not many States want to have a nuclear waste site for this low-level waste even though you have heard descriptions that this low-level waste may be no more dangerous than what's in a smoke detector. When you talk about tons and tons of this low-level radioactive waste, not a lot of States are lining up to take it.

And as we move forward as a country in a climate-constrained world where I believe--and I support development of nuclear power plants which, in addition to high-level fuel rods, do generate low-level waste--we need to have a location in this country to dispose of that low-level waste.

When the GAO did analyze the site in Utah to discuss the capacity issue, as was pointed out during the Congressional hearings before the Energy and Commerce Committee, it was pointed out that the GAO only looked at 1 year's worth of data for how much waste was put in, and they just took that volume from that year and projected it out into the future, which I'm a little disappointed that GAO would make such an elementary mistake in terms of how you project a trend, because the 1 year they used, in terms of the volume that was deposited that year, was a particularly low year in terms of volumes of waste.

And in fact, even with that assumption, they projected that it would go out maybe somewhere between 20 and 30 years. That is not necessarily a long amount of time when you talk about storage of low-level waste in this country. That is not a long amount of time when you consider the issue that most States don't want one of these sites located in their State. And I would submit that if you take the longer view of the life cycle of a nuclear power plant, that 20 to 30 years is not an excessively long amount of time, that's the storage capacity we've got at this site.

By the way, the GAO report also did not assume any foreign radioactive waste would be going in the site when it made its analysis of what the capacity was.

So I think this is a good bill. I think this addresses a gap in policy today. I think it will create greater certainty for the future of the nuclear industry in this country. I think it aligns the United States with the rest of the world in how we deal with importation of radioactive waste.

I want to thank Mr. Gordon for his leadership on this issue. I encourage my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to clarify one comment made by the gentleman from Florida about capacity in Utah.

It is interesting the company is telling people that they have so much capacity. They made a commitment to our Governor that they were not going to ask for any increase in the license capacity compared to what they have. It so happens when they came to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee, in their written testimony they included tables that assumed great expansion of this site. But the State of Utah has not licensed that expansion. They made a commitment to our Governor that they weren't going to apply for an increase in size from the license capacity that exists today.

So I am not sure if they are talking out of both sides of their mouth now, if they are telling the other side that they have plenty of capacity, but I would just put it on the record that that company is on record that they said they would not make a license request to increase the capacity at the site.

The imported waste?

The Northwest Compact, as I made some reference to in my earlier statement, voted against taking this waste.

The Governor of Utah was opposed to it. The State of Utah was opposed to it.

The company then took the State and the Northwest Compact to court.

They took this action to Federal court because they disagreed with the decision of the State of Utah and the Northwest Compact.

Madam Speaker, Utah has lost a venerated hero with the passing of PFC. Aaron Thomas Nemelka of West Jordan, Utah.

Private First Class Nemelka was killed while serving his country at Fort Hood, Texas. On November 5, 2009, a lone gunman opened fire and caused the death of 12 soldiers, 1 civilian, while 30 more Americans were wounded.

Private First Class Nemelka is remembered for his dedication to both his family and his country. As a combat engineer in the 20th Infantry Battalion, 36th Engineering Brigade, he specialized in munitions diffusion.

Aaron was set to deploy on his first tour of the Middle East in January 2010. He will forever be remembered for having sacrificed his life in the defense of our great nation. His selfless devotion to those around him is a great tribute to his spirit.

Aaron grew up in West Jordan, Utah and was the youngest of four children. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout and through his efforts was able to help better his community by always extending a hand of service. Aaron graduated from West Jordan High School in Utah in 2008 and enlisted in the military shortly thereafter.

Private First Class Aaron Nemelka was very young, and he served his country honorably and heroically. Please join me in taking a moment to honor this Utahn for his service to our country. My thoughts are with Aaron's family during this difficult time.

Madam Speaker, Utah has lost a local treasure with the passing of Ms. Heather Christensen of American Fork, Utah.

Heather Christensen is remembered by her joyfulness. Her friends and family said she was always smiling, laughing, and positive. As the woodwind section instructor for the American Fork High School band, she was known to work 18 hours a day. Heather was known to arrive at school early in order to help individual students and make sure they had a good experience. Her close friends said she believed in positive reinforcement as a way to motivate students.

Heather died trying to save 46 American Fork high school band students on October 12, 2009. A bus carrying the band crashed on Interstate 15 as they were returning after winning a competition at Idaho State University in Pocatello. After witnessing the bus driver pass out, she reached for the wheel and tried to steer the bus back to the road but fell out a window as the vehicle rolled. About 30 students sustained minor injuries, but thanks to Heather's fast action, none had life-threatening injuries.

Heather was a very talented young woman, who played multiple instruments and sang. Her family said she could play any instrument by ear and had perfect pitch. She was said to have been living her dream by working with the nationally recognized American Fork High band.

Heather grew up in American Fork and was the third of six children. She was the drum major at American Fork High School, and was also the student conductor for the school's a cappella choir. She went on to become a drum director at the University of Utah, where she earned both a bachelor's and masters in music education.

People have called Heather's actions heroic and I want to take a moment to honor this Utahn for her courage.

Mr. Speaker, I would really like to thank Chairman Rahall for moving this bill so quickly, and folks on both sides of the aisle on the Resources Committee have been very helpful in moving this bill.

As was discussed, this legislation will allow the Uintah Water Conservancy District to better use its resources to prepay its debt to the Federal Government.

Rural counties in Utah--the second-most arid State in the Nation-- have a significant need for water that has only increased over time. The water in Uintah County is utilized by both municipalities, irrigators, and manufacturing industries. This bill will move us towards greater assurance of the development of water supplies in that part of our State.

I will just point out the Uintah Water Conservancy District has operated and maintained both the Vernal and Jensen units of the Central Utah Project since 1956. It has been around for a long time, and the debt that the county would like to prepay, which is the subject of this legislation, was incurred to construct a water project that is part of the original Central Utah Project.

Now, the district has always made its payments on time, but we have a circumstance now where its capability and its financing create a situation where it makes economic sense for it to prepay its debt; and, interestingly enough, at the same time, the CBO scores this as a positive for the Federal Government as well. So this is one of those classic win-wins, where a local water conservancy district can prepay its debt and do right by its constituents, and it also assists the Federal Government in terms of a positive score from CBO in terms of how it affects the Federal finances as well.

As was mentioned, the bill has broad bipartisan support. I do want to thank everyone on both sides of the aisle--both members and staff on the Resources Committee--for helping us with this.

I would add one other point that the gentleman from Virginia mentioned. It is unfortunate that we have to do a bill every time to allow for this type of prepayment. This is pretty common sense, and a decision in the private sector gets made all the time. And so I would encourage the effort to try to come up with a broader piece of legislation that will allow us to look at this issue in a more extensive way.

I encourage passage of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Included in this bill was the manager's amendment addressing an issue that I raised that Mr. Dingell has worked long and hard on and helped me figure out a way to address concerns about, lead glazing on ceramic plates on which we eat our food.

This issue first came to my attention with reports in my home State of Utah when a child was sick. After they analyzed the child, they determined the child had lead poisoning. They investigated the home where this child was living and couldn't find any sources of lead.

Ultimately it was discovered that the child's mother had been heating food in the microwave oven. The ceramic bowl or plate she was using wasn't properly glazed or wasn't properly sealed, and lead was leaching out of the plate into the food. Then when she would nurse the baby, the baby would get lead poisoning.

I think we all want to take steps to prevent that type of thing from happening. What we determined is most people don't even realize lead glazing is used on these plates. These plates come in with FDA labels, because the Food and Drug Administration has authority over it, so people who see a label from the Federal Government probably assume it safe.

Included in the manager's amendment is a requirement that there is labeling, just so consumers have the right to know, that it contains a lead-glazed product. If it is properly glazed, it is not necessarily dangerous. But people have the right to know that.

I really commend my friend from Michigan, who has been working on this issue and has been aware of it for a long time. He worked with my office extensively to come up with some way to try to at least make some progress on this issue. It is included in this bill. He is a great legislator, and I am glad he helped me figure that out.

I encourage people to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Waxman and especially Chairman Emeritus Dingell and his staffer, Virgil Miller, for their work to include an amendment I authored regarding lead in ceramic ware.

A couple years ago in Utah, a young mother used ceramic plates to heat her food in the microwave. Her infant became very sick. Doctors discovered that the baby was suffering from lead poisoning because lead had leached out of the ceramic plates she used. Most of us are unaware of this risk and most people don't know that lead can leach out of ceramic ware when the glaze is improperly fired or when the glaze has broken down over time. When lead is released into food and drink from ceramics, hazardous levels can contaminate food substances and expose children and adults to toxic levels.

FDA regulates the lead levels of ceramic ware and has set acceptable levels of lead-allowed ceramic ware used in food preparation and currently has a safety warning designating ceramic items not intended for food use. However, there is currently no label alerting consumers that the ceramic products they purchase for food use/preparation (i.e. plates, cups, etc.) contain any lead.

My language requires labels on plates and packaging for ceramic ware/ cookware containing lead for an intended functional purpose. It focuses on the glazing because all ceramic ware has trace amounts of lead in clay and those trace amounts do not contribute to lead poisoning. Problems arise when ceramicware contains lead-based glaze that is either fired incorrectly or contains high amounts of lead (above safe levels).

This language doesn't affect ornamental plates or decorative ceramics, which are already regulated by FDA and which are not considered safe for food use because of their lead levels.

Finally, my provision requires FDA to set up an educational program on its website to further educate consumers about these issues and about safe practices.

I am hopeful that these measures will enable us to better protect children and families from the potential problems caused by incorrectly fired ceramic ware and lead leaching from ceramics.

Well, first, I thank my colleague from Guam for recognizing me.

I am pleased to rise in support of this bill. You have heard the description of the bill, and if I could, I will just briefly point out what the repercussions are if we don't move this legislation.

This cemetery is a nonprofit entity. It has been around for about 100 years. It is suffering some financial distress in terms of its endowment. It has figured and has looked at choices for how it could maintain itself and create greater financial viability. The notion of selling off a piece of the land that's undeveloped will ensure the integrity of the cemetery for the future. If, in fact, this cemetery were to go bankrupt and if this nonprofit couldn't continue to maintain it, the land would revert back to the Federal Government. I do not think the Bureau of Land Management wants to be in the business of owning and operating a cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah.

So here we have a situation that is based on legislation that occurred 100 years ago, and today, we're making a substantive solution to a problem that has developed since, and there is no harm to the taxpayer. This is a commonsense bill, but I've got to tell you something: while it sounds simple, it wasn't simple, and I really want to commend the Resources Committee staff for being so helpful in working through this issue to find the right way to get it done. It may have passed the committee by unanimous consent, but that does not mean it did not take a lot of work and effort to make the right decision. So I want to thank the committee staff so much. I want to thank Chairman Rahall and Subcommittee Chairman Grijalva.

I encourage the passage of this bill.

Madam Speaker, the two great energy issues our generation faces right now are domestic energy security and climate change. These issues deserve our active attention, and they deserve action. Unfortunately, the bill we are considering today does not appropriately address these issues.

Some continue to argue that climate change is not happening. In fact, scientific consensus has clearly been established that climate change is a very real, significant problem and we need to determine an effective way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. However, this legislation has problems.

The early-year carbon reduction targets assume an aggressive pace of new technological development that may be unachievable. These targets received little attention in the debates that have taken place on this bill.

I remain concerned that this energy bill will result in unfair regional wealth transfers. The one-size-fits all renewable electricity standard is not the right approach to address climate change. It is an add-on without a purpose. Data shows that the renewable targets in this bill are only slightly better than business-as-usual. So why are we bothering to dictate these standards when we should encourage the 15 States that currently do not have renewable energy targets to find something workable for their communities?

The bill's distribution of emission allowances also creates regional inequities. The ``50-50'' formula in the bill gives extra, unneeded allowances to utilities with lower fossil fuels resources, and less to utilities with greater reliance on fossil fuel resources. Those regions that receive excessive allowances would sell those allowances to other regions of the country that received less.

With respect to carbon markets, this bill overreaches and will effectively destroy the derivatives market. Many people seem to confuse the different types of markets that exist. The futures market contains listed derivatives--these are standardized exchange-traded agreements. There is also a market for cleared derivatives, which are standard contracts that are privately negotiated but booked with a clearinghouse as a counterparty. And finally, you have the over-the-counter derivatives market where people negotiate deals to fit the needs of everyone ranging from utilities, to airlines, to banks, and finally, regular investors. This is a very complicated financial system and while it is clear that we are not appropriately regulating this market today, we should also avoid gutting the market altogether. I think there is a reasonable way to structure the new carbon market and to address deficiencies in the commodity markets. The provisions in the bill are not the right approach, and these provisions of the bill were

never really debated in a House committee hearing.

There are also some changes made to the offsets section which are troubling to me. I have been supportive of the effort to build a strong, accountable offsets program and I am sorry to see that this bill allows USDA to try to establish a much looser, less effective program. This is short-sighted because unless offsets signify real, verifiable carbon reductions, they will be worthless. This is problematic because buying and using offsets is much cheaper for businesses than it is to buy allowances.

I have been advocating for the inclusion of transmission language in order to build much-needed infrastructure. However, this bill only addresses the Western Interconnection, not the whole country. That doesn't get at the underlying problem which is the lack of electricity transmission capacity across the Nation. I wish this bill had taken an approach similar to the one the Senate is considering.

Finally, the issue of energy independence calls for additional items that are not included in today's bill. In the long run, technological advances will provide new options to help this country gain a more secure, stable energy profile. In the interim, we need policies that keep all options on the table for the development and use of conventional energy sources.

As a result of all of these concerns, I will vote against this legislation. However, I will continue to work on the important issues of climate change and energy independence.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chairman, I first want to thank the Foreign Affairs, Rules, Judiciary and House Administration Committees for working with me on this amendment. My amendment seeks to ensure that Americans living overseas, all of whom are currently required to pay taxes to the U.S. Government, are counted in U.S. censuses and get to vote in U.S. elections.

This amendment instructs the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of the Census Bureau and the U.S. Attorney General, to develop a study using the passports of overseas Americans to determine how they can fully participate in future censuses and elections.

In the 2000 census, the State of Utah narrowly missed getting a fourth congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives because LDS missionaries living overseas at the time were not counted. My amendment seeks to help correct this unfair practice by examining effective ways that all Americans living overseas will be counted in future censuses and get to vote in future U.S. elections.

This amendment is straightforward in establishing a study to examine this issue. I encourage my colleagues to support it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to speak in support of Navigational Aids funding for the new St. George airport in Utah.

I would like to thank Chairman Oberstar and the T&I committee staff for working on this important piece of legislation.

Last October, the City of St. George broke ground on the construction of a new replacement airport--this is the only airport in the country currently being built. While the FAA has committed to funding a large portion of the project, they did not provide enough funding for critical navigational equipment.

Given the difficult mountainous terrain and the need to avoid flying over two National Parks--Zion and the Grand Canyon--navigational equipment for the new airport is essential for public safety.

In April, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood committed to the City that FAA would fully fund the navigational aids component of the airport.

I would like to thank the Secretary for undertaking this commitment. I stand ready to work with the FAA, DOT, and the T&I committee to make sure funding is provided in order to open the new airport on time.