Floor Statements

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

I rise today in support of H.R. 3767, which designates the United States Post Office at 170 North Main Street in Smithfield, Utah, as the ``W. Hazen Hillyard Post Office Building.''

Mr. Hazen Hillyard of Smithfield, Utah, was born in 1893 and grew up on his family's farm. Always active in his community, he served on the Smithfield City Council twice from 1930 to 1933 and again from 1964 to 1968, being reelected after staying out of office 31 years.

While on the council, he worked tirelessly to upgrade the catalog of the records of Smithfield's city cemetery. He was also instrumental in a number of projects to beautify his hometown.

A member of many civic organizations, Mr. Hillyard served on the Smithfield Historical Heritage Society, was president of the local Kiwanis Club, vice chairman of the Cache Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and was awarded the Silver Beaver

Award in recognition of his long service to scouting programs. Mr. Hillyard was also active in the Lion's Club of Smithfield and was awarded their Outstanding Citizen of the Year Award in 1974.

As my colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts, has mentioned, Mr. Hillyard was appointed postmaster of Smithfield's post office in 1934, and at that time there was no home delivery for citizens of that town. He was so active, as my colleague has mentioned, that he was elected president of the Postmasters Association in 1952. And under his leadership and direction, the Smithfield post office grew in size and was able to start home delivery and other services.

Throughout his life, Mr. Hillyard was a central figure in Smithfield, dedicating his life to the advancement of that city. He did live a long life and passed away in 1992 at the age of 99.

As my colleague has mentioned, this is a very worthwhile and appropriate piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3767.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers and will yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 1825, which would make permanent the authority of the U.S. General Services Administration to approve Federal agencies' requests to operate programs to test alternative methods of compensating employees for relocation and travel expenses. This bill passed the Senate on November 9 by unanimous consent. GSA's current authority to authorize such a program would have otherwise expired in December of this year.

By acting now we are allowing successful test programs to continue to operate and are giving GSA authority to approve more of them. Many of these relocation expense test programs have been successful in not only making government run more efficiently but also in achieving cost savings. Other provisions of this bill would expand the number of test programs that can run at the same time from 10 to 12 and allow them to operate for a maximum of 8 years. Based on information from GSA and the agencies involved, CBO estimates that there would be no cost to the Federal Government if this bill is passed.

Unfortunately, these relocation and travel expense programs have been subject to major scandals over the past few years, and each and every agency should watch these expenses very closely; and, hopefully, these test programs will lead to a closer and more honest accounting of this type of money for the Federal Government and for our taxpayers.

At a time when the Federal deficit is soaring, it is important that we continue successful programs that make the government more efficient and hopefully save money.

I urge my colleagues to support S. 1825.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3539, which designates the United States postal facility located at 427 Harrison Avenue in Harrison, New Jersey, as the ``Patricia D. McGinty- Juhl Post Office Building.''

Patricia McGinty-Juhl, a native of Harrison, New Jersey, had an impressive and distinguished career with the United States Postal Service for 3 years as a manager and executive. While working in the human resources office, she was instrumental in overseeing affirmative action issues on behalf of employees as the district women's program coordinator. As a result of her work, she was offered a position at the U.S. Postal Service headquarters in Washington as the national women's program manager.

Once in Washington, Ms. McGinty-Juhl continued to impress those who worked with her. As a result of her work ethic and leadership skills, she was offered the position of government relations liaison to congressional offices. The Postmaster General, Jack Potter, often spoke of Ms. McGinty-Juhl as an outstanding manager and a warm and giving person.

Ms. McGinty-Juhl passed away at her home in 2006.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3539 and recognizing Ms. McGinty-Juhl's dedication to the betterment of the United States Postal Service.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1506 would waive certain claims of the United States to specific documents relating to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The papers, known as the Tully Collection, are said to be an important and valuable collection of materials relating to President Roosevelt's time in office. Grace Tully served as part of Franklin Roosevelt's secretarial staff for several decades, and in 1941 became his personal secretary. After her death her collection of personal papers passed on through her niece into the hands of private collectors and finally to the current owners, Sun Times Media, who bought the collection for $8 million in 2001.

In 2004 the National Archives asserted a claim to a portion of the documents. Sun Times Media wishes to donate the entire collection to President Roosevelt's Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York. Due to the Archives' formal claim, however, Sun Times Media is prevented from receiving a tax deduction on the donation. This bill aims to alleviate the legal claims of the United States and the Archives, thereby clearing the way for the donation and the deduction.

I understand this bill is a priority for certain Members of the New York delegation. I also understand the Archives has offered its support for this legislation in a letter to the committee. Nevertheless, I want to briefly highlight two points.

First, given the multiple ongoing instances of mismanagement at the Archives, we need to take a close look at all legislation relating to this agency. Second, the majority moved this bill without a hearing. We should have a better understanding of this legislation, particularly how it relinquishes the Federal Government's claim to certain documents while benefiting certain entities through tax breaks.

Mr. Speaker, I hope we can take a closer look at this bill as it moves through the legislative process.

I have no other speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to first commend my colleague, the gentleman from Oregon, for bringing this legislation to the floor today, and I rise to express my strong support for this bill designating the post office located at 630 Northeast Killingsworth Avenue in Portland, Oregon, as the ``Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Post Office.'' The leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the civil rights movement helped to make America the country it is today. Because of Dr. King's many accomplishments in the pursuit of justice and liberty, he clearly deserves this simple honor and recognition that we can bestow on him.

Dr. King began his career as a Baptist minister who was also the leading civil rights figure in this country during the 1950s and 1960s. Dr. King's lifelong crusade to end all forms of racial inequity and discrimination was instrumental in enlightening the country with regard to civil rights for all citizens. Dr. King led the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, and was instrumental in orchestrating the famous Birmingham protest.

Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, which helped show the world that racial discrimination

could be ended through nonviolent means. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal. In recognition of his many accomplishments for our country, in 1983 Congress established a national holiday as a tribute to his memory. Later in Dr. King's life, he expanded his message of equality to apply to impoverished Americans of all races and cultures. Dr. King dedicated his life to ensuring the principles this country holds so dear, those of liberty and justice for all of our citizens.

Not quite 4 years ago, Mr. Speaker, I was given the honor of being the grand marshal of the Martin Luther King parade in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I believe I have attended all but one of the many Martin Luther King celebrations at the Greater Warner Church in Knoxville. I'm also very proud of the fact that my father, who served for 6 years as mayor of Knoxville, led the peaceful integration of that city. And in 1962, Look magazine awarded Knoxville an All-America City Award, primarily because of the peaceful integration that we accomplished in our city.

I think this legislation is very fitting and appropriate, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

I have no other speakers, and so I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, this morning I was honored to go with five other Members, three Democrats and three Republicans, to have breakfast at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The Secretary is a kind man and this was a very nice thing for him to do. I have great respect for Secretary Gates.

The purpose of the breakfast was to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. When I got this invitation, I wondered if I should go, since I have been very much opposed to our war there. However, I decided that the only right and fair thing to do was to go listen to what he had to say.

Unfortunately, I still believe that what we are doing in Afghanistan is a horrendous waste that we cannot afford. I also believe that Afghanistan is no realistic threat to us, unless our war there continues to anger so many people around the world.

George C. Wilson, military columnist for Congress Daily, wrote recently: ``The American military's mission to pacify the 40,000 tiny villages in Afghanistan will look like mission impossible, especially if our bombings keep killing Afghan civilians and infuriating the ones who survive.''

General Petraeus said this summer we should not forget that Afghanistan has been known as the ``graveyard of empires.''

Congressional Quarterly reported on September 17 that members of both parties were ``fretting openly about a lack of progress in the conflict.''

As much as Americans love our troops, we need to realize that the Defense Department is not just a military organization. It is also the world's largest bureaucracy. Every gigantic bureaucracy always wants to expand its mission and frequently exaggerates its challenges so it can get more money and personnel.

The Taliban guerillas have almost no money, and a top U.N. antiterrorism official said recently that al Qaeda is having ``difficulty in maintaining credibility.''

National defense is the most legitimate function of our Federal Government. However, that does not mean Congress should automatically or blindly approve the Pentagon's every request or never criticize its waste.

Much of what we are doing in Afghanistan is of a civic, charitable or governmental nature, like building schools and teaching agribusiness. But the Defense Department should not be the ``Department of Foreign Aid,'' or much of our military primarily a very large version of the Peace Corps.

In March, the President promised a ``dramatic increase'' in our effort in Afghanistan, including ``agricultural specialists and educators, engineers and lawyers.'' Why, when we are $12 trillion in debt, are we spending mega-billions in Afghanistan doing practically everything for them? We are spending money we do not have on a very unnecessary war and jeopardizing our own future in the process.

Many people think that all conservatives support this war. Well, I believe that there are many millions of conservatives who do not and who want us to bring our troops home, the sooner the better. In fact, this war goes very much against traditional conservatism.

When I was in high school, I worked as a bag boy at an A&P grocery store making $1.10 an hour. I sent my first paycheck, $19 and some cents, as a contribution to the Barry Goldwater campaign. I am still one of the most conservative Members of Congress.

But this war has required huge deficit spending, almost half a trillion in war and war-related costs for Afghanistan. Fiscal conservatives should be the people most upset about this. This war has spent mega-billions in foreign aid, because probably at least half of what we have done and are doing there is of a civic or charitable nature. Traditional conservatives have been the strongest opponents of massive foreign aid.

We went into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under U.N. resolutions, yet conservatives have traditionally been the biggest critics of the U.N. Conservatives have traditionally been the biggest opponents of world government because it is too elitist and arrogant and too far removed from control by the people. We should not now support what is essentially world government just because it is being run by our military.

I am a veteran and I am very pro military, but I am for national defense, not international defense. I know that the leaders of Afghanistan want us to keep spending hundreds of billions there, but we cannot afford it. We cannot afford it economically, and as far as I am concerned, it is not worth one more American life.

I know that when leaders of the Defense Department and the State Department and the National Security Council all get together in their meetings, that all of the pressures are on getting involved or staying involved in just about every military, political or ethnic dispute all around the world. I know that they want to be considered as great world statesmen, but 8 years in Afghanistan is not only enough, it is far too long. It is time, Madam Speaker, to come home. It is time to start putting our own people and our own country first once again.

Madam Speaker, today I wish to pay tribute to a beloved philanthropist from my district and one of the most selfless and kindhearted persons I have ever known.

Mary Shafer recently passed away after battling breast cancer for 14 years. During that prolonged fight she never lost her faith in God and tirelessly continued her charity work.

With her husband Bo--who served as the President of Kiwanis International from 2000-2001--Mary traveled all over the World helping the indigent. Her compassion and service had no boundaries. Bo and Mary believed their work with Kiwanis was a privilege, not a duty, and they left an immeasurable mark on more people than can be counted.

Mary's most passionate cause was providing clean drinking water to people in developing countries. Many people admirably serve their community or donate money to charity, but it takes a very special and resilient person to perform such challenging work in some of the World's most impoverished places.

Closer to home, Mary also served numerous other causes and served on or chaired the boards of many agencies like the Volunteer Mission Center, the United Way, and the Florence Crittenton Agency.

Bo recently told the Knoxville News Sentinel following Mary's passing that he was head-over-heels in love with her, and, ``We never had an argument. Her goal in life was to keep a smile on my face, and my goal in life was to keep a smile on her face.''

Mary was very active in the Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville and a devout Christian. According to her family, her last words were, ``Thank you, Lord Jesus. I had a great time.''

Even in the face of such a lengthy and difficult illness, Mary thanked her creator for all the blessings in her life. For Mary, He had a special purpose, and although the Lord decided to call her home, she will not be forgotten by all those she knew and comforted.

Madam Speaker, the passing of Mary Shafer is a tremendous loss for my district, her husband, Bo, and her countless family and friends. I call her service and faith in God to the attention of my Colleagues and other readers of the Record and thank her for being a shining example to us all.

Mr. Speaker, before the Federal Government got heavily into health care in the mid-sixties, medical care was cheap and affordable for almost everyone. Doctors even commonly made house calls. We took what was a very minor problem for very few people and turned it into a major problem for everyone.

The people want medical care that is less expensive and less bureaucratic. The bill that we will apparently vote on later this week is 1,990 pages of bureaucratic gobbledygook. It will make health care even more expensive and even more bureaucratic. As Senator Joe Lieberman said on Face the Nation, this bill ``will actually hurt the economic recovery and our long-term financial situation.''

The pattern seems to be that the Federal Government makes a problem

so bad that the only solution people can see is for the government to take it all over. But a famous man once wrote that there is a simple solution to every human problem, one that is neat, plausible and wrong. This bill is the socialist approach, and all it will do over the long haul is make a bad situation even worse.

Madam Speaker, consistent with House Republican Earmark Standards, I am submitting the following earmark disclosure information for project requests that I made and which were included within H.R. 2996, ``Making appropriations for the Department of Interior, environment and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Save America's Treasures

Project Amount: $250,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Blount Mansion Association, 200 W. Hill Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902

Description of Request: The funding would be used to upgrade and improve the National Historic Landmark.

Mr. Speaker, Robert Samuelson is a long-time economics columnist for The Washington Post. He is considered to be a very middle-of-the-road writer, neither liberal nor conservative.

In yesterday's Post, he wrote a column entitled, ``Public Plan Mirage.'' Mr. Samuelson wrote that the public option ``is mostly an exercise in political avoidance: It pretends to control costs and improve access to quality care when it doesn't.''

He wrote that it is a mirage because it uses ``free market rhetoric to expand government power'' and added that the public plan ``would probably doom today's private insurance.''

The so-called opt-out provision is a mirage, too, because it does not allow people to opt out of paying for the program. No State could really opt out, because its citizens would then be paying medical bills for people in other States without receiving any benefits in return.

Medicare and Medicaid have both cost about 10 times more than was predicted. This new health care plan will also cost many times more than is predicted now. We simply cannot afford it.

I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule and to the underlying multibillion-dollar waste that the rule brings to the floor.

Later today, I am sure the House will approve overwhelmingly this very wasteful $2.2 billion subsidy for the solar power industry and for the solar bureaucracy, but we should be remembering that our national debt will soon pass $12 trillion in just a few days. Solar energy has received massive subsidies, with very little progress, ever since the Carter administration. In fact, it has turned into little more than a jobs boondoggle for bureaucrats as the gentleman from California just showed us in a story from The Wall Street Journal where, in 1978, there was a claim that solar energy by the year 2000 would make up 20 percent of our energy needs.

After all of this time and after all of this money, however, solar energy makes up far less than 1 percent of the total of U.S. energy. In fact, it is just 1 percent of the 7 percent that renewable energy provides this country. That is such a small figure that I can't even figure out exactly what 1 percent of 7 percent is. It's hard to get that small. The Department of Energy has received at least $1.2 billion for this research just since fiscal 2000, not counting what other departments and agencies have spent on this.

I am not against solar energy in any way, but it is way past time for this industry to stand on its own. The demand for solar energy will go up much faster if the industry is weaned off of Federal money and if it is forced to put out a better, more efficient and less expensive product. This is called free enterprise. Some people may have heard of it. The taxpayers simply cannot afford to keep funding a very wasteful program just because it is politically correct or fashionable to do so. This is a multibillion-dollar waste, and it should be defeated.

This bill should be defeated, but it will not be. As someone told me last week, it is easy to run as Santa Claus, but it is almost impossible to run against Santa Claus.

I urge the defeat of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, consistent with House Republican Earmark Standards, I am submitting the following earmark disclosure information for project requests that I made and which were included within H.R. 2892, ``Making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: TSA, Aviation Security

Project Amount: $1,250,000.00

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: National Safe Skies Alliance, 110 McGhee Tyson Boulevard, Suite 201, Alcoa, Tennessee 37701

Description of Request: This funding will be used to create a research and training center that will provide critical improvised explosives recognition training to TSA Transportation Security Officers, law enforcement personnel, fire fighters, emergency services personnel, first responders and others.

Madam Speaker, consistent with House Republican Earmark Standards, I am submitting the following earmark disclosure information for project requests that I

made and which were included within H.R. 2997, ``Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: National Institute of Food and Agriculture--SRG

Project Amount: $1,000,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: University of Tennessee, 114 Morgan Hall, 2621 Morgan Circle, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Description of Request: This funding will be used for producing crop plants that can be used directly as early-warning sentinels for the detection of plant diseases.

Madam Speaker, consistent with House Republican Earmark Standards, I am submitting the following earmark disclosure information for project requests that I made and which were included within H.R. 2997, ``Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: National Institute of Food and Agriculture--SRG

Project Amount: $1,000,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: University of Tennessee, 114 Morgan Hall, 2621 Morgan Circle, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Description of Request: This project would entail the ARS at Knoxville working in cooperation with University of Tennessee scientists in improving plant carbon production from atmospheric CO2 and the sequestration of the carbon in plants.

I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise mainly to commend, first of all, Chairman Oberstar, who I have always referred to as Mr. Aviation in this Congress, and my own ranking member, Mr. Mica, who has been so kind to me. I especially want to commend my good friends, Chairman Costello and Ranking Member Petri, who have worked so hard to bring this legislation to fruition and bring it to the floor today.

Unless you have worked on legislation like this, you just can't imagine all of the details that have to be ironed out, all the competing interests that have to be brought together. I especially want to thank them for taking into consideration the needs of our great educational institutions that have aviation programs, such as Embry- Riddle and Middle Tennessee State University in my own State of Tennessee, and many others.

As Ranking Member Petri just mentioned, I had the privilege of serving for 6 years as chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee. I enjoyed that very much, and I think it's very important work that I had the privilege of doing then and that they are working so hard on now.

We have the best aviation system in the world, without any question. Unfortunately, we have more people killed in 3\1/2\ months on the Nation's highways than have been killed in all of the U.S. aviation accidents combined since the Wright brothers' flight in 1903. It's an amazing record.

But you can never rest on your laurels, and you should always be trying to make things better. We have the best airlines and we have the best pilots, but everybody should always be trying to improve and get better. Certainly, when we are faced with the tragedy of a major crash such as we have heard mentioned several times here already today, it's a terrible thing, especially for those who have been killed and their families. We all need to do everything we can and we certainly try to do everything we can to make our aviation system even safer.

I am pleased to be associated with these gentlemen and also with this legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this very fine bill.