Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, too many of our leaders today seem to want to be modern-day Winston Churchills and think of themselves as great war leaders. They are far too eager to go to war and far too willing to stay in a war after it has started. But the American people do not want permanent, forever wars, and especially do not need such wars.

I salute President Trump's decision to bring our troops home from Syria. With a $21 trillion national debt, we simply cannot afford to be the policeman of the world.

Our very unnecessary wars in the Middle East have now cost us several trillion dollars that we have had to borrow and have resulted in the deaths or horrible injuries to thousands of young Americans and many more thousands of innocent women and children. They have created more enemies for our country around the world.

The Bible tells us in both the Old Testament and New to ``seek peace and pursue it.''

Mr. Speaker, as I near the end of my 30 years in the Congress, it is only natural to reminisce just a bit.

During my first term in the House, a roving photographer for Roll Call stopped me to ask a sort of humorous question. He asked: If there was a statue of you in the Capitol, where would it be and what would it say? I said: It would probably be in the basement, and it would say: Lucky to be here.

I have always felt very lucky to have this job, and everyone on both sides of the aisle have been very kind to me. But I want to pay tribute this morning to the three people most responsible for me being here.

A friend of mine in Knoxville told me a few years ago that I won the lottery with parents. I had never thought of it in that way, but it is true. My grandparents in Scott County, Tennessee, were wonderful people, but they had no money, 10 kids, an outhouse, subsistence farm-- pure Appalachia.

My dad hitchhiked into Knoxville with $5 in his pocket to go to the University of Tennessee and worked his way through. Twenty years after coming to Knoxville, he was elected mayor and led the peaceful integration of our city. He got about 95 percent of the African American vote in three nonpartisan races for mayor.

He then preceded me in Congress, serving 23\1/2\ years and becoming the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee. A former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania told me one time: Your dad was the only man I knew who never had an enemy in this town.

I once described my father as the kindest, sweetest, toughest, hardest working man I ever knew, and I meant tough in a good way. I got a really nice handwritten letter from Peyton Manning about that article. He said he had flown out of Knoxville the day it was in the paper and that he could tell from that article that I had the same kind of relationship with my dad that he has with his.

My mother was 2 years older than my father and, after college in Iowa, came to Knoxville to visit an older sister who had married an engineering graduate from the University of Iowa and who had gotten a job at TVA. Her sister talked her into staying, and she met my dad at a YWCA dance.

Dad told one of his brothers that night that he had met the woman he was going to marry, and 3 months later, in Iowa City, Iowa, they were married, in May of 1942. The odds against a farm boy from Tennessee meeting and marrying a girl from Iowa City must have been billions to one, but theirs was truly a marriage made in heaven.

No one ever loved me as much as my mother did, and several times I have told women from the Midwest that I have a very high opinion of women from that part of the country because I thought my mother was the sweetest woman in the world.

My wife, Lynn, was a waitress in Knoxville's finest restaurant when I met her. She later said she married me even though I gave her the lowest tips of any of her regular customers.

Lynn has been my strongest supporter and biggest critic, my number one adviser. I honestly believe, if she had been elected to Congress instead of me, she would have gone much further than I have. She is certainly the speaker of our house and the love of my life for more than 40 years.

During my 30 years in Congress, I was in Washington a lot and gone a lot,

even when I was home. She had to raise four children, and all four have made us both very proud. During much of that time, she worked at full- time jobs, worked in all of my campaigns, and took care of most things at home. It certainly was not easy.

Once President Trump, when he was running, told her: Your husband sounds just like me. Lynn told him: Yes, I know--great for the country but hell to live with.

I could not have had a better wife and certainly could not have stayed in Congress for 30 years if she had not done all she has done for me and our children.

She gave me four children and nine grandchildren, all now living in Knoxville. What a blessing. Our daughter, Tara, has been for several years the head of the Knox County probation office. She has two children. Whitney has three daughters and is a leader in all the activities of the Christian Academy of Knoxville.

Our son, John, was elected as trustee for Knox County, receiving the highest vote total of anyone on the ballot that year, including me. He did a great job, serving 3 years, and then took over running my campaigns in 2014 and 2016 and representing me all over the district. He also is a successful realtor. Our son, Zane, worked for several years as a railroad executive and now serves on the Tennessee Parole Board. The boys both have two children, and the nine grandchildren range in age from 3 to 15.

I told my youngest granddaughter, Emma, who is 7 years old, at my younger son's wedding party: One of the happiest days of my life will be when I get to come to your wedding. She looked at me like I had said something really silly. She said: Oh, Papa, you couldn't do that. You would be dead.

But I am not dead yet, and I am going home mainly to spend more time with those nine grandchildren.

Lou Gehrig, the great baseball player, once said he was the luckiest man in the world, even though he knew he was dying with ALS. I am much luckier and very, very thankful.

Mr. Speaker, Ella Mae Wright passed away in Knoxville, Tennessee on September 27th, at the age of 101. She was a great wife, mother, business woman, and all-around good citizen of the type that has made this country great.

Mrs. Wright and her husband J.B. were married for 67 years. They founded Wright's Cafeteria which still today is one of Knoxville's most popular eating establishments. It was once described in a Knoxville newspaper as my ``favorite restaurant.''

Mrs. Wright's pride and joy were her three children, David, Janice, and Calvin, and her seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.

She could often be found in the Cafeteria, greeting customers, most of whom she considered as longtime friends. She was always smiling and offering encouraging words to everyone.

During her 101 years, she lived her Christian faith every day and touched thousands of lives in good and positive ways. This Country is a better place today because of the life Ella Mae Wright led.

I wanted my colleagues and others to know about this good woman and great American.

Mr. Speaker, I ran into my longtime friend Wayne Bell at Barnes Barber Shop in Knoxville recently and decided that I wanted my colleagues and others to learn of his great service to our City, State, and Nation.

Sgt. Phillip Wayne Bell is a veteran of the United States Marine Corp. While the importance of his military service cannot be downplayed, he is especially known for his 53 1/2 years of service to the Knoxville Police Department. In fact, he is the longest serving officer in the City of Knoxville and the State of Tennessee.

Wayne began as a patrol officer and moved to supervising the parking ticket division before moving to the court under the honorable Judge Rosson. He also supervised all of the crossing guards for the city of Knoxville for decades.

The average person can go through life not knowing many police officers, but in Knoxville over the past several decades, the one police officer, who was probably the most known to the general public, other than maybe the Chief of Police, was Sgt. Wayne Bell in his role as the original ``Eye in the Sky.''

The Eye in the Sky program in which Sgt. Bell delivered traffic reports from a helicopter was an innovative joint effort between the Knoxville Police Department and radio stations WNOX and WIVK. This type of collaboration between a private business and government was a novelty when it started and remains a rarity today.

Sgt. Bell earned numerous proclamations and awards for his traffic reports but he is also credited with unraveling traffic snarls, catching criminals and assisting in the betterment of our community. In one especially notable instance, he even landed the copter in the middle of the interstate to stop a chase and saved countless lives in the process.

Knoxville is located at the junction of two of the longest Interstates in the Nation, I-75/I-40. Unfortunately, the original I-75/ I-40 interchange at one time was also the biggest traffic bottleneck in the region. It was Sgt. Wayne Bell in his traffic reports who bestowed the nickname ``Malfunction Junction'' on this interchange.

The interchange and the traffic jams it created are so legendary that there was even a song called ``Malfunction Junction'' that frequently played on local radio in the 1980s. Even though this interchange has since been reconstructed and improved in recent decades, most people in the Knoxville area still refer to it as ``Malfunction Junction.''

Sgt. Bell entertained radio listeners for years and he was especially good at cutting up with then-WIVK morning OJ ``Claude the Cat'' and his cast of characters. Although the radio station eventually changed from a helicopter to a plane, Sgt. Bell continued for a total of over 20 years with the station.

Sgt. Bell's service to the community extends well beyond his professional life. He is a life member and past master of Burlington Masonic Lodge. He is a member of the Eastern Star as well as a life member and past Monarch of Zelmar Grotto and the past president of Southeastern Grotto Association. He is a member of the York Rite and Scottish Rite. He is a life member of Shriners Hospitals for Children and Kerbela Shriners where he served as Treasurer, Recorder and Potentate. He is a member of the Order of the ``Q'' and past director of the Royal Order of Jesters.

As a Shriner and a Mason for over 50 years, Sgt. Bell literally helped hundreds of children and families get the medical and burn assistance they needed through the Shriners Hospital and Burns Institutes. If he received a call in the middle of the night of a burned child three states away, by the time the phone was hung up that child was on a plane on the way to wherever they needed to be for their care. When he first began as a Mason and Shriner he entertained children for years as was ``Danny the Clown.'' While Potentate of Kerbela Temple during the annual Shrine Circus, Sgt. Bell entered the ring every show riding an elephant.

Wayne is especially remembered for the patriotic programs that he has performed for over 60 years with his wife Mary. The two entertained and educated children and adults with a program to help understand and appreciate our Flag and Country. During the 1970's, Sgt. Bell performed this patriotic program during the dedication of the bells at the International Peace Garden on the border of North Dakota and Manitoba, with representatives from both Canada and the United States in attendance.

I have personally worked with Sgt. Bell for over 20 years when he has represented KPD as an escort and chaperone for the annual AAA Safety Patrol trip to Washington, D.C. The Safety Patrol trip is a tradition that goes back over 60 years in which middle school students come to our Nation's Capital for a

whirlwind weekend tour to learn about our history and government. At its highpoint, this annual trip consisted of over 40 busses of students, chaperones and guides.

East Tennessee is one of the few regions in the Nation that still participates in this tradition. My own first personal visit to Washington, D.C. occurred on this trip when I was in sixth grade, long before my father was elected to Congress. The high point of the trip is a visit to the Capitol Building in which I give a tour and talk in the House Chamber and complete it with a group picture on the front steps.

Most everyone in local law enforcement today in Knox County and Knoxville City including UT Police know Sgt. Bell because he was just a guy who reached out and helped anyone and everyone he could. He is the true definition of a humanitarian and community leader. Even when he was in charge of security for two major companies while a policeman, and as a Shriner, he included others by giving them the opportunity for extra work, community service. Whatever was needed to make Knoxville a better community, he did it.

Wayne is the father of two boys, Mark and Dan. He also has three grandchildren, Kristopher, Jonathan and Brandon along with a deceased grandchild Peyton. His wife of 54 years, Mary, is retired from KUB and has put up with Wayne all this time despite him never ever slowing down.

The Nation is a better place today because of the life Wayne Bell has led. He has touched thousands in good and positive ways, and I wanted to honor him by this recognition.

Mr. Speaker, at the height of the Bill Clinton-Monica

Lewinsky and other sex scandals years ago, I was speaking to an assembly program at Fort Loudon Middle School telling the students about my job.

During the question-answer session, in front of the approximately 1,000 students, one girl asked me if I had ever had an affair.

I told them no, I had not and that I bet that almost none of their fathers had either.

I have found over the years that the men who cannot be satisfied with and loyal to one woman are almost always repeat offenders with many women--such as President Clinton.

I have become concerned during all the publicity and controversy about Judge Kavanaugh that some young women may think all men are sexual predators in the worst meaning of those two words.

I really believe that the great majority--the overwhelming majority-- of men are good and kind people who have no desire to force themselves on anyone.

I believe that most women are good and kind people who do not want to be in an adversarial relationship with most men.

Men and women are different, and that does not imply that women should be held back in some way.

My wife and I have two daughters and two sons and now five granddaughters and four grandsons.

My biggest desire is for all of them to be wonderful at whatever they want to do.

But we all need to get along. We certainly don't need to be enemies.

In thinking about this relationhip between men and women, I include in the Record the following column by Suzanne Fields which was published in the September 27th edition of the Washington Times.

The Disappearing `Man's Man Blues' By Suzanne Fields

My father was not very tall. But no man ever stood taller

in my eyes than this particular Big Daddy. He was warm and

playful, a man of character and the model for the men I would

admire as I grew up. Daddy wasn't formally educated, having

dropped out of school in the sixth grade after his mother and

father, Jewish immigrants from Pinsk, told him he had to wear

his older sister's hand-me-down shoes because they didn't

have the money to buy him a pair of his own. He took a

certain pride later in having graduated from the ``school of

hard knocks.''

He was a man of his times, describing himself as a ``man's

man.'' He became a sportsman of his era, hanging out with the

sportswriters of the considerable number of newspapers in the

Washington of those days. He promoted a world heavyweight

championship at Griffith Stadium in 1942 between Joe Louis

and Buddy Baer. According to contemporary feminist thinking,

he was a male chauvinist who believed that men should earn

the bread and women should bake it.

I wrote a book years ago about a father's influence on his

daughter, titled ``Like Father, Like Daughter.'' He was the

person of integrity I wanted to imitate as an adult, even if

I didn't agree with all of his ideas. I further saw my

parents in a loving marriage, reinforcing the idea that has

lasted for many thousands of years, that men and women are

different and that the difference, at its best, is what gives

spice to life. The French famously celebrate it as ``Vive Ia

difference.'' But now it's not fashionable to think of that

difference as anything but a negative, to regard the male as

an aggressor, and in the worst way. My father would be

described as ``bad'' because he was not only a man, but a

white man of privilege.

I've been thinking about my father a lot, with the

newspapers and television screens awash in breaking stories

about the evil that men do. Accusations from universities and

now from high schools, some true and some not, tell of men

who have wronged women. There's so much hatred manufactured

against specific ``bad'' men that it's become fashionable, if

not mandatory, to think of all men as evil.

The presumption of decency for men like my father and those

of his times are lost in a chaos of angry assumptions about

men who have resisted feminine pacification. Women from many

different places in life, different experiences, are eager to

show contempt for men as if they are guilty simply for having

been born male. An unproven accusation of sexual aggression

is considered ``credible'' merely for having been made, and

men are told to stand up and shut up. Sen. Mazie Hirono of

Hawaii told men exactly that, that ``they have to shut up.''

(We still don't know what her male constituents think about

that.)

The editor of a gender studies journal asks in an op-ed in

The Washington Post, ``in this land of legislatively

legitimated toxic masculinity, is it really so illogical to

hate men?'' After cataloguing global realities where women

are treated badly, from low pay to gun violence, Suzanna

Danuta Walters, a professor at Northeastern University, says

American men can only be #WithUs if they follow a rigorous

prescription for passivity. Men must not run for office,

decline opportunities to be in charge of anything, step away

from power, and vote feminist. If they don't, ``we have every

right to hate you.''

Her stunted attitude obviously doesn't reflect the

attitudes of all women--there's still a lot of fraternizing

with the enemy in the war between the sexes--but reflects the

thinking of a large swath of vocal feminism. The turnaround

of cultural assumptions is poisoning the relationships of a

generation of men and women. Fox News interviewer Martha

MacCallum struck a poignant note when she asked Brett

Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley, how their daughters were dealing

with the dreadful noise raised against their father. ``It's

very difficult,'' she replied. ``But they know Brett.''

Many women know their fathers, their brothers, their

husbands, lovers and friends, who live beyond the malicious

male stereotypes, but find it ever more intimidating to speak

out in defense of men unjustly accused. Men are presumed

guilty when accused by a woman. Even asking for due process

and fair play for men is asking for trouble.

I closed my book a generation ago with Loretta Lynn's

country hymn to the fate of our fathers: ``They don't make

'em like my daddy anymore.'' But her message has been drowned

by Helen Reddy's ``I am woman, hear me roar.'' When anger

trumps love and hatred trumps reason, we all, female no less

than male, pay for it.

Suzanne Fields is a columnist for The Washington Times and

is nationally syndicated.

Mr. Speaker, this past June marked the nine- year anniversary since Tanner Lee Jameson collapsed at a school basketball game. Tanner was in cardiac arrest and needed an automated external defibrillator or AED. But the school's defibrillator was inaccessible, and Tanner did not survive.

Seconds count for those suffering from sudden cardiac arrest. Chance of survival decreases 7-10 percent for every minute without CPR and a defibrillator. A defibrillator is easy to operate and highly effective in restoring the heart's normal rhythm. Schools with AED programs have survival rates of over 70 percent, as compared to only 10 percent for children in schools without AEDs.

Because of this, I am proud to have introduced House Resolution 35 to encourage public schools with AEDs to hold annual training in their schools on how to use their AEDs. My resolution has the support of the American Heart Association, American Ambulance Association, the American College of Cardiology, National Association of School Nurses, and many others.

My constituent and Tanner's mother, Rhonda Harrill, has been a dedicated advocate for increased AED presence and awareness. Thanks to her efforts, Tennessee has passed two laws increasing the number of schools with AEDs, especially in readily-accessible locations.

I am honored to represent constituents such as Rhonda, who has celebrated her son Tanner's life by advocating for the lives of others' children.

Today, I am pleased to join my colleagues in participating in the AED Hunt on the Hill, an annual event hosted by the Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation. Cardiomyopathy affects how the heart pumps blood through the body and is the most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest in the young. This condition does not have obvious symptoms, so it is often not detected until tragedy strikes.

It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to remember Tanner Jameson's life and participate in this year's AED Hunt on the Hill. We can all help save lives by increasing awareness about the importance of having accessible AEDs.

Mr. Speaker, a constituent and good friend of mine, Paul Edward Dunn, was one of the most well respected lawyers across the entire state of Tennessee for over four decades.

He was one of the kindest, most honest, fair-minded men I have ever had the privilege to know, and I was deeply saddened to learn he passed away on Saturday.

When he wasn't serving our own community as a lawyer, as a member of various state bar associations, or as a special General Sessions judge, he was serving our Nation in the United States Marine Corps as a tank commander during the Korean War and later in the reserves.

Paul would have been married to his sweet wife Martha for sixty years on August third this year. Their devotion and love for each other was known well by many.

Paul and Martha had five wonderful children, but one in particular, Laura, holds a special place in my heart from years ago.

The first time I ran for Congress in 1988, Laura, who was in eighth grade at the time, came to help us every day after she got out of school, and even on the weekends.

I don't think many people worked for me as hard as she did. It seems like Laura's perseverance, work ethic, and soft heart were inspired by her dad, who possessed the same attributes.

Paul and Martha suffered a painful loss when Laura left this world at the young age of 22 due to her battle with lymphoma cancer. Now, we have the hope, through faith in God, that they have been reunited in Heaven.

Laura was such a wonderful, sweet, young woman full of enthusiasm for others.

While I am saddened by the loss of Paul, and the loss he and Martha experienced with Laura's passing, I certainly appreciate the kindness they showed me through the years.

While Tennessee mourns the loss of a great man, we remember the positive impact Paul made on our community, state, and our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, sometimes people say one person can't make much of a difference. But many times, I've seen that this is not true.

One prime example was a friend of mine, Tom Jensen, who was a businessman and community leader in my District.

Tom was a distinguished member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. During his time in Nashville, he served as chair of the ethics and disclosure committee and was elected as the National Chairman of the State Legislators.

In 1996, Tom came to me with the idea of creating the National Safe Skies Alliance to perform research on aviation safety and security. The alliance is still headquartered near the Knoxville airport.

Tom and I went to the FAA for approval of the alliance and over the years the National Safe Skies Alliance has performed safety and security testing on over 120 national airports. This has brought untold millions into East Tennessee and has done great national significance.

Not only was he a great leader, but an even better Christian. He and his wife, Carolyn, were always a strong presence with their faith community at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church, where they taught an adult singles class for 45 years. That class is now named the Jensen Sunday School Class.

Once he graduated from the University of Tennessee, he went to work for his family business in Knoxville, where he learned the lessons of hard work and service. He took those lessons with him to many business ventures, and public service, that led him to his highly successful career.

Having the privilege of knowing Tom has certainly proven to me that one man has the ability to make a big difference. He touched thousands in good and positive ways.

Tom's presence in our Knoxville community will be missed. I am honored to have served him in Congress and even more proud to call him a friend.

This Nation is a better place today because of the life he led.

Mr. Speaker, last year CNN reported that the U.S. had interfered or attempted to influence presidential elections in other countries at least 81 times. This is probably a very conservative estimate.

This report came from a study by Professor Dov H. Levin of Carnegie Mellon University and apparently was just the tip of the iceberg. His study covered just years up to 2000, and these activities may have increased since that time.

Professor Levin defined an intervention as ``a costly act which is designed to determine the election results in favor of one of the two sides.'' He said these acts were carried out in secret two-thirds of the time and included ``funding the election campaigns of specific parties, disseminating misinformation or propaganda, training locals of only one side in various campaigning or public announcements on threats in favor of or against a candidate, and providing or withdrawing foreign aid.'' He reported that in 59 percent of these cases the side that received assistance came to power.

In a December 21, 2016, article, the Los Angeles Times said: ``The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries.''

The newspaper reported, that ``the CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 Presidential election by hacking into Democratic and Republican computer networks and selectively releasing emails.'' But the Times added: ``But critics might point out that the U.S. has done similar things.''

I am not criticizing our government's activities in this regard. Some of it has been good, designed to fight communism and promote freedom around the world. However, some of it has probably been wasteful, and, at times, has increased hatred for the U.S. We are involved, in many ways, in almost every country around the world through our State Department, Agency for International Development, the CIA, the Defense Department, and just about every Federal department and agency. Most countries take an active interest and involvement in U.S. Presidential elections through their citizens and former citizens who now live in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record this article from the Los Angeles Times.

[From the Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 2016]

The U.S. Is No Stranger to Interfering in the Elections of Other

Countries

(By Nina Agrawal)

Update: President Obama on Thursday slapped Russia with new

penalties for meddling in the U.S. presidential election,

kicking out dozens of suspected spies and imposing banking

restrictions on five people and four organizations the

administration says were involved.

The CIA has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016

presidential election by hacking into Democratic and

Republican computer networks and selectively releasing

emails. But critics might point out the U.S. has done similar

things.

The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence

presidential elections in other countries--it's done so as

many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a

database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie

Mellon University.

That number doesn't include military coups and regime

change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S.

didn't like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor

does it include general assistance with the electoral

process, such as election monitoring.

Levin defines intervention as ``a costly act which is

designed to determine the election results [in favor of] one

of the two sides.'' These acts, carried out in secret two-

thirds of the time, include funding the election campaigns of

specific parties, disseminating misinformation or propaganda,

training locals of only one side in various campaigning or

get-out-the-vote techniques, helping one side design their

campaign materials, making public pronouncements or threats

in favor of or against a candidate, and providing or

withdrawing foreign aid.

In 59 percent of these cases, the side that received

assistance came to power, although Levin estimates the

average effect of ``partisan electoral interventions'' to be

only about a 3 percent increase in vote share.

The U.S. hasn't been the only one trying to interfere in

other countries' elections, according to Levin's data. Russia

attempted to

sway 36 foreign elections from the end of World War II to the

turn of the century--meaning that, in total, at least one of

the two great powers of the 20th century intervened in about

1 of every 9 competitive, national-level executive elections

in that time period.

Italy's 1948 general election is an early example of a race

where U.S. actions probably influenced the outcome.

``We threw everything, including the kitchen sink'' at

helping the Christian Democrats beat the Communists in Italy,

said Levin, including covertly delivering ``bags of money''

to cover campaign expenses, sending experts to help run the

campaign, subsidizing ``pork'' projects like land

reclamation, and threatening publicly to end U.S. aid to

Italy if the Communists were elected.

Levin said that U.S. intervention probably played an

important role in preventing a Communist Party victory, not

just in 1948, but in seven subsequent Italian elections.

Throughout the Cold War, U.S. involvement in foreign

elections was mainly motivated by the goal of containing

communism, said Thomas Carothers, a foreign policy expert at

the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ``The U.S.

didn't want to see left-wing governments elected, and so it

did engage fairly often in trying to influence elections in

other countries,'' Carothers said.

This approach carried over into the immediate post-Soviet

period.

In the 1990 Nicaragua elections, the CIA leaked damaging

information on alleged corruption by the Marxist Sandinistas

to German newspapers, according to Levin. The opposition used

those reports against the Sandinista candidate, Daniel

Ortega. He lost to opposition candidate Violeta Chamorro.

In Czechoslovakia that same year, the U.S. provided

training and campaign funding to Vaclav Havel's party and its

Slovak affiliate as they planned for the country's first

democratic election after its transition away from communism.

``The thinking was that we wanted to make sure communism

was dead and buried,'' said Levin.

Even after that, the U.S. continued trying to influence

elections in its favor.

In Haiti after the 1986 overthrow of dictator and U.S. ally

Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier, the CIA sought to support

particular candidates and undermine Jean-Bertrande Aristide,

a Roman Catholic priest and proponent of liberation theology.

The New York Times reported in the 1990s that the CIA had on

its payroll members of the military junta that would

ultimately unseat Aristide after he was democratically

elected in a landslide over Marc Bazin, a former World Bank

official and finance minister favored by the U.S. The U.S.

also attempted to sway Russian elections.

In 1996, with the presidency of Boris Yeltsin and the

Russian economy flailing, President Clinton endorsed a $10.2-

billion loan from the International Monetary Fund linked to

privatization, trade liberalization and other measures that

would move Russia toward a capitalist economy. Yeltsin used

the loan to bolster his popular support, telling voters that

only he had the reformist credentials to secure such loans,

according to media reports at the time. He used the money, in

part, for social spending before the election, including

payment of back wages and pensions.

In the Middle East, the U.S. has aimed to bolster

candidates who could further the Israeli-Palestinian peace

process. In 1996, seeking to fulfill the legacy of

assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the

peace accords the U.S. brokered, Clinton openly supported

Shimon Peres, convening a peace summit in the Egyptian resort

of Sharm el Sheik to boost his popular support and inviting

him to a meeting at the White House a month before the

election.

``We were persuaded that if [Likud candidate Benjamin]

Netanyahu were elected, the peace process would be closed for

the season,'' said Aaron David Miller, who worked at the

State Department at the time.

In 1999, in a more subtle effort to sway the election, top

Clinton strategists, including James Carville, were sent to

advise Labor candidate Ehud Barak in the election against

Netanyahu.

In Yugoslavia, the U.S. and NATO had long sought to cut off

Serbian nationalist and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic

from the international system through economic sanctions and

military action. In 2000, the U.S. spent millions of dollars

in aid for political parties, campaign costs and independent

media. Funding and broadcast equipment provided to the media

arms of the opposition were a decisive factor in electing

opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica as Yugoslav

president, according to Levin. ``If it wouldn't have been for

overt intervention . . . Milosevic would have been very

likely to have won another term,'' he said.

Supporting Congressman Jim Jordan

Mr. Speaker, there is greater turnover in elective offices today than ever before. And in my 30 years in Congress, I have now served with almost 1,500 other Members. Almost all have been good, kind men and women. But one of the best, one of the kindest is my friend, Jim Jordan.

Now, Congressman Jordan has been attacked with one of the dirtiest, most low-down political hit jobs that I have ever seen. He has been accused of knowing about, but failing to report, sexual abuse that occurred 25 to 30 years ago. This alleged abuse was done not by Mr. Jordan but by another man, a team doctor, who has been dead for 13 years. And this abuse was not done to little boys or girls. It was supposedly done to grown adult men, Ohio State wrestlers, none of whom reported it at the time.

The timing is so suspicious coming out now when Mr. Jordan may be seeking a leadership post. He is supposed to have known about this because of locker-room banter.

All the coaches and many of his players have defended Mr. Jordan, calling him one of the most honest men they know. Surely, Mr. Speaker, even though politics of hatred is prevalent today, surely we are not going to stoop to convicting people based on locker-room banter or gossip.

Mr. Speaker, I voted for the first Gulf war many years ago because our leaders at that time said Saddam Hussein was the greatest threat since Hitler and told us all about Hussein's powerful, elite troops.

I then saw these same elite troops surrender to CNN camera crews and empty tanks. I realized then, and many times since, that the threats had been and continue to be greatly exaggerated. For this and many other reasons, I voted against the second Gulf war in 2002.

Most of these threats are more about money and power than they are about real danger to the U.S. They also seem to be because many of our leaders seem to be a little too eager to go to war and want to be new Winston Churchills and prove how tough they are, how patriotic, and how they are great leaders. Mr. Speaker, it is certainly not patriotic at all to send young Americans to fight very unnecessary wars.

With these thoughts as background, I would like to read part of conservative syndicated columnist Eric Margolis' most recent column.

First, let me say that President Trump is correct in saying that NATO countries should not continue to expect the U.S. to pay for their defense needs.

Mr. Margolis' column, in part, is as follows:

Germany is reported to have less than 20 operational tanks.

Canada's armed forces appear to be smaller than the New York

City Police Department.

But the Europeans ask, ``Defense against whom?'' The Soviet

Union was a huge threat back in the Cold War when the mighty

Red army had 55,000 tanks pointed west. Today, Russia's land

and naval power has evaporated. Russia has perhaps 5,500 main

battle tanks in active service and a similar number in

storage, a far cry from its armored juggernaut of the Cold

War.

More important, Russia's military budget for 2018 was only

$61 billion, actually down 17 percent from last year. Russia

is facing hard economic times. Russia has slipped to fourth

place in military spending after the U.S., China, and Saudi

Arabia.

The U.S. and its wealthy allies account for two-thirds of

world military spending. In fact, the U.S.' total military

budget, including for nuclear weapons and foreign wars, is

about $1 trillion, 50 percent of total U.S. Government

discretionary spending.

In addition, Russia must defend a vast territory from the

Baltic to the Pacific. The U.S. is fortunate in having Mexico

and Canada as neighbors. Russia has North Korea, China,

India, the Middle East, and NATO to watch.

As with its naval forces, Russia's armies are too far apart

to lend one another mutual support. Two vulnerable rail lines

are Russia's main land link between European Russia and its

Pacific Far East.

Trump's extra supplemental military budget boost this year

of $54 billion is almost as large as Russia's entire 2018

military budget. As for Trump's claim that Europe is not

paying its fair share of NATO expenses, note that Britain and

France combined together spend more on their military forces

than Russia.

In Europe, it is hard to find many people who still

consider Russia a serious threat, except for some dipsy

Danes, right-wing Swedes, and assorted Russophobic East

Europeans. The main fear of Russia seems concentrated in the

minds of American neoconservatives, media, and victims of the

bizarre anti-Russian hysteria that has gripped the U.S.

Mr. Speaker, that is from the Margolis column, and I hope that Members in this Congress will keep those words in mind.

Mr. Speaker, I know that one of the easiest things in this world to do is to spend other people's money; and for at least 50 years or more, we have been reading and hearing about unbelievable waste by the Pentagon and excessive charges by defense contractors who hire so many retired admirals and generals.

But in today's American Conservative magazine, there is an article about Air Force spending that really takes the cake. The article is entitled: ``Why Do Air Force Planes Need $10,000 Toilet Seat Covers?'' The story is by Dan Grazier, a former Marine captain. He wrote the following:

``. . . a Department of Defense contractor told the Air Force that each new toilet seat cover for the C-17 cargo plane will cost $10,000. Will Roper, the Air Force's Chief Acquisition official, rather than pooh-poohing the cost, defended it by claiming the company would have to switch production from other products to make a limited number of toilet covers, thus driving up the expense.''

It is unpatriotic, Mr. Speaker, for any Federal department, but especially the Defense Department, to spend taxpayers' money so recklessly. I wish someday--someday--we could get a fiscal conservative in charge at the Pentagon.

Mr. Speaker, a very special Vietnam Veteran in my district has continued his service to others decades after fighting in the war.

Mr. Lou Volk of the Cedar Bluff community of Knoxville, Tennessee has been walking along a busy road, picking up trash and praying for his neighbors every day for the past 30 years in spite of his injuries from the war.

He started this service when he was a teacher in Oak Ridge, and used it as an opportunity to teach his sons about doing for others without expecting anything in return.

At 71 years old, Lou has made it a priority to make the 2 mile walk each day in hopes of making our community better both physically and spiritually.

As he is cleaning up items that no one else might dare to touch such as used cigarettes, road kill, and food packages, he says prayers for cars that pass by.

He has gotten to know the challenges, suffering, and needs of the residents on Bob Kirby Road by saying hello and growing relationships with people out in their yards.

I want to recognize Lou for being such a dedicated caretaker of our community. I hope he inspires all of us to do a little more for others, without expecting anything in return.

If more people were out in the community instead of playing video games, watching television, or spending hours on social media, they could experience the blessings of serving causes greater than themselves.

I include in the Record the article that appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel by Brittany Crocker on May 7th, 2018, entitled ``Every Day One Local Vietnam Veteran Picks up Trash and Prays for Everyone Who Passes Him'':

Almost every day for more than 30 years, Vietnam veteran

Lou Volk has donned his orange reflective vest and rubber

gloves before leaving the house on a mission, armed with a

trash grabber and a re-used Kroger bag.

He's a fixture in Cedar Bluff, where he's been walking his

mile-and-a-half route along Bob Kirby Road since he moved

there about 12 years ago, cleaning up the litter that seems

to reappear almost every day.

You may have seen him in the mornings with his dog, Rosco.

Rosco died in December though, so now Volk walks his route by

himself, but not necessarily alone.

Volk can list the neighbors who live in the homes he

passes. He can tell you the names of the dogs barking as he

passes, or that the woman in the house on the left just lost

her husband, or that the person in the passing truck is

struggling with cancer right now.

Passersby wave or honk their horns at him, veering over the

hilly road's median rumble strip to give him a little extra

room.

What they might not know is that Volk prays for every one

of them as they pass.

``I say a quick, `Jesus, keep em' safe,' '' Volk said, ``so

I know that each and every one of them has been prayed for

that day.''

His daily walks are a service he calls ``Agape,'' a Greco-

Christian term that has been interpreted to mean loving or

serving while expecting nothing in return.

Making a habit

Volk started the habit when his children were young in Oak

Ridge, where he taught middle-school math and science after

he returned from the Vietnam War.

Before the war, Volk had a bachelor's degree in business.

He served as an infantryman from 1969 to 1971 in Vietnam,

where he was exposed to agent orange.

A rocket-propelled grenade explosion left him mostly deaf,

and he lives with post-traumatic stress disorder.

When he returned from the war, he started working in

education. Peggy, Volk's wife of 41 years, said she thinks

that taking care of children helped him adopt the unrelenting

optimism he speaks with today.

``The kids were my little soldiers, and I had to take care

of them,'' he said.

One of his favorite things was taking sixth-graders to the

Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. ``I always tried

to talk to them about the environment and how important it

was, and well, you should lead by example.''

So that's what he did. He started picking up trash around

his neighborhood and at Cedar Hill Park, where he took his

sons, Aaron and Max, to play on the weekends.

He continued the habit in Oak Ridge after his sons grew up

and left home until he had to retire.

Volk said school shootings were becoming more common,

kindling his post-traumatic stress, so he started thinking

about retirement.

He recalled a school fire drill the teachers weren't

informed of about a week after two Arkansas students pulled a

fire alarm and opened fire on evacuating students and

teachers.

Volk shut his students in their classroom and went outside

to check the school's perimeter. ``What if that had been a

copycat?'' Volk said.

He stayed in teaching for four more years but ultimately

retired in 2002 after the Veterans Administration gave him a

100 percent disability rating for PTSD.

Four years later, he and Peggy moved to their Cedar Bluff

condo to care for Peggy's mother.

Response and ability

Volk found a sense of continued service in his daily

cleanup walks. ``It's my Father's world out there, and I've

got to take care of it,'' he said.

Tuesday was a ``one-bag'' day, but the weekends sometimes

take two.

``Cigarette butts are by far the most numerous and the most

annoying thing out here,'' Volk said, picking up a fluffed-

out cigarette filter with his trash grabber. ``I'm told it

takes three to five years for one of these things to break

down.''

Food wrappers and plastic bottles are also pretty common

sights for him. Plastic bottles filled with tobacco spit are

the worst, he said, but he picks them up anyway.

He'll even pick up roadkill if it's lying where children

can see it.

``It bothered my kids when they were little to see a

squirrel lying dead on the street,'' he said. ``And I'm not

afraid of it; I grew up on a farm. So, I just pick it up.''

By now, he knows the areas of the street that have the most

poison ivy, and where the thin borders of the road drop off

into steep hills.

He knows he'll usually find some broken glass bottles near

people's mailboxes. He suspects people driving by at night

make a game of trying to hit mailboxes with the bottles.

Speeding drivers aren't an uncommon sight on the short

stretch of road, but Volk said he usually feels pretty safe.

He checks both directions twice before crossing and tries to

make sure drivers coming around blind hills can see him.

He almost got hit once, but he leaped into a ditch with his

dog just in time.

Volk's walks have clearly paid off for him physically. He

looks at least a decade younger than his 71 years.

He and his wife said they want to travel for as long as

they are physically able to, and his walks help him keep fit.

``That's the selfish part,'' he admitted. ``The nature, the

birds chirping, the vitamin D, and I get exercise.''

Volk said he wants to see other retirees in Knoxville take

up the gauntlet and go outside to pick up trash.

``Retired people need to walk more, and most of us have the

ability,'' he said. ``Just try picking up your neighborhood

some day. It doesn't have to be far. My walk is about two

miles, but I have the ability so I go.''

Volk said a fellow Vietnam veteran told him that ability is

one half of the word responsibility. ``If you have the

ability to do something, what is your response?'' he said.

``My response is that I can't do everything, but I when I

see something, I can try to do something to make it better.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Alabama for yielding me this time. He is one of the great leaders in this Congress, and it is an honor to serve with him.

Mr. Speaker, I have always heard that many government agencies spend roughly 60 percent of their budgets within the first 11 months and then scramble around during the last month trying to spend the rest of their budget so they won't be cut for the next year.

I think we should do what we can to incentivize more government employees to come up with cost-saving ideas. That is why I introduced, along with Mr. Polis from Colorado and Mr. Jones from North Carolina, an amendment to the NDAA which will do just that. It will give all military personnel even more reasons to be creative in how to save costs.

I am pleased that my amendment, which has been made in order en bloc, directs the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress on the military's existing incentive programs for cost-saving ideas. This amendment will also include a report on how the Secretary plans to expand and streamline those existing programs to better reward military personnel who help the Department of Defense to be more efficient.

We need to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money and should do everything we can to ensure that our military's funding is used wisely and used where it is needed most.

I introduced a bill several times many years ago to give Federal employees bonuses for half of any money that their agency or their department can save. This amendment hopefully will move us in that direction.

On a side note, I do want to say that I believe the American people are really sick and tired of our spending hundreds of billions on a very unnecessary, no-win war in Afghanistan now 17 years old. I am disappointed that this bill continues that funding instead of bringing our troops back home.

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

Mr. Chairman, this is a very simple amendment to establish a national standard of care for hiring freight shippers. This is purely and simply about highway safety, and everything carried on planes, of course, goes to and from on our highways.

Currently, there is no law that requires freight brokers or others to have any sort of standard when hiring a carrier for a shipment. Under this amendment, a broker or other entity would be deemed to have acted in a reasonable and prudent manner if they made sure the carrier met these three requirements:

One, authorization to operate by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration;

Two, the minimum insurance coverage required by Federal law; and

Three, that the carrier had no current Federal unsatisfactory safety fitness determination.

This amendment does not prohibit or limit in any way any type of lawsuit, and, in fact, a lawyer could show that a broker or a company had acted in an

unreasonable manner if they did not comply with this hiring standard. This amendment would actually help trial lawyers by giving them stronger grounds to sue brokers who did not comply with this standard and tried to get cheaper rates by using unsafe or uninsured carriers.

This amendment would also make it less likely that a person or a company that hired a safe, legal motor carrier would be held liable for an accident that happened through no fault of their own.

This amendment also will help make it far less likely that unregistered, uninsured, unsafe freight carriers get any business in this country in the future.

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

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster), the chairman of the committee.

Mr. Chair, I will simply say this: neither of the cases cited by the opposition would be stopped under this amendment. In fact, this amendment would make it more likely that freight brokers would be required to hire safe, insured carriers for their shipments, so it would make the highways safer.

Mr. Chair, I urge support for my amendment. It is an amendment about fairness and justice, because all lawyers--I was a plaintiff's lawyer before I came to Congress, and I have supported

the trial lawyers in every way possible in my 30 years here, but I can tell you, no lawyers want people sued who have done nothing whatsoever wrong in a case.

Mr. Chair, I urge passage of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday's New York Times carried a story headlined ``Scandals and Investigations, but Few Arrests, for Air Marshals Program.''

In fact, in the most recent 10-year period that was studied, 148 air marshals were arrested; and throughout the history of this program, there have been many more air marshals arrested than there have been arrests made by air marshals. Yet, over the last 10 years, the Congress has appropriated well over $8 billion for this needless, useless program. At least 250 air marshals have been terminated for misconduct and over 400 more have resigned or retired during conduct investigations.

This has to be about the easiest job in the country today. All these marshals do is fly back and forth, back and forth, on airplanes, usually or often in first class. The New York Times' story said the program ``is in such disarray that it does little to deter terrorists, many of its employees say.''

The story also said alcohol abuse is so rampant that the TSA has had to monitor whether the armed guards show up for their shifts sober.

Mr. Speaker, yet, we are going to give this needless, useless program another $800 million this year. Ridiculous.