Floor Statements

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. 3293, ``Making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Department of Education--Higher Education

Project Amount: $300,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Maryville College, 502 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville, Tennessee 37804

Description of Request: The funding will be used to prepare increased numbers of talented students for professional lives as research scientists and educators.

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)--Health Facilities and Services

Project Amount: $350,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: UT Medical Center, 1924 Alcoa Highway, Knoxville, Tennessee 37920

Description of Request: The funding will be used for renovation and expansion of the Family Medicine Building and Clinic at the UT Medical Center.

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)--Health Facilities and Services

Project Amount: $200,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Clinics of Hope, USA, 1064 Hayslope Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee 37919

Description of Request: The funding will be used to develop three free medical clinics in Knoxville, Tennessee. The clinics would serve those who are under two-times the federal poverty level. The requested funds will be used for initial start-up of the three clinics and for the first year of operation.

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. 3288, ``Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Federal Highway Administration--Surface Transportation Priorities

Project Amount: $750,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Blount County Highway Department, 441 N. Hall Road, Alcoa, Tennessee 37701

Description of Request: The funding will be used to improve 2.23 miles of Morganton Road in Blount County, Tennessee.

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Federal Transit Administration--Buses & Bus Facilities

Project Amount: $1,250,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Knoxville Area Transit, 1135 Magnolia Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee 37917

Description of Request: The funding will be used to replace an aging bus fleet and bus facilities.

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Federal Transit Administration--Buses & Bus Facilities

Project Amount: $500,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee, P.O. Box 51650, Knoxville, Tennessee 37950-1650

Description of Request: The funding will be used to purchase vehicles in order to provide reliable transportation to the residents of Knox County.

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. 3170, ``Making appropriations for financial services and general government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Small Business Administration--Salaries and Expenses

Project Amount: $100,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: City of Alcoa, 223 Associates Boulevard, Alcoa, TN 37701

Description of Request: The funding will be utilized to develop infrastructure servicing the new Pellissippi Research Centre on the Oak Ridge Corridor. The vision embraced by a regional partnership is the creation of a world-class community aimed at attracting research and development firms.

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. 3183, ``Making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Project Amount: $500,000

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: NTRCI, 2360 Cherahala Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37932

Description of Request: NTRCI will conduct over-the-road, heavy vehicle testing and research to validate the benefits and reliability of the Legacy rotary engine to demonstrate the capability of the Legacy engine to deliver greater fuel efficiency and thus lower consumption and reduced emissions for the $7 billion Class 8 heavy vehicle engine market.

Mr. Speaker, this is a bill to name the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee, as the William C. Tallent Veterans Outpatient Clinic.

I first want to thank Chairman Filner and Mr. Boozman, the gentleman from Arkansas, for bringing this legislation to the floor today and for their assistance and for the help of the staff on both sides in regard to this bill.

In East Tennessee, Mr. Speaker, there is perhaps no person better known for devotion to area veterans than Bill Tallent. While the story of his service in World War II reads like a Hollywood script, his lifelong dedication to fellow veterans, his humble demeanor and his career as a public servant make him the perfect candidate for the naming of the Veterans Outpatient Clinic in Knoxville.

Following his capture by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge, Mr. Tallent spent 6 months as a prisoner of war. At his capture, notorious Nazi General Josef Sepp Dietrich lined him and his fellow soldiers up against a wall and ordered their execution; but through the grace of God, a fellow soldier persuaded the general to spare them and, instead, ship them to a prisoner of war camp. Mr. Tallent survived long enough to engineer an escape 6 months later with one other soldier, the only one willing to risk certain execution if captured.

As he made his way across Germany, wearing tattered clothes and sleeping in graveyards at night to avoid Nazi troops, Mr. Tallent and his fellow soldier searched for the American front line. One day, while on a scavenger trip into a nearby German town and while looking for food, a Buick carrying an American general came speeding down the street. Bill Tallent jumped in front of the car and gave a salute. He was rescued. His bravery, determination and sacrifice during this experience earned him two Purple Hearts and one Bronze Star.

While Bill Tallent's prisoner of war story is legendary, so is his service to veterans. Mr. Tallent founded the Smoky Mountain chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War, where he served as its commander. During his tenure, he helped compile the prisoner of war stories of other members, and he gave the publication to the Knox County Public Library for posterity. He has spoken to many civic clubs and to other groups about his experiences and about his dedication to veterans and to this country.

He was also appointed by the Governor to serve on the Veterans Administration Home Policy Board, where Mr. Tallent was instrumental in bringing a veterans' nursing home to Knoxville.

Bill Tallent's lifelong service to veterans also includes serving as commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, chapter 356; as a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, chapter 173; and as a member of the Disabled American Veterans, chapter 26.

In addition to his service to veterans, Mr. Tallent devoted his professional career to the public good, serving as Knox County Commissioner of Finance from 1953-1980, being reelected to that position several times.

Mr. Speaker, there is, perhaps, no greater sacrifice an American can make than that of serving his country during a time of war. Bill Tallent not only answered that call but did so with courage and humility. In 2003, he told the following to my hometown newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel:

``I would not go through what I went through again if you paid me $1 million a day to do it. But I would do the same thing again, without compensation, just for the privilege of living as a free American.''

Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree we need more Bill Tallents in this world. I appreciate this opportunity to honor Bill Tallent, and this country is a better place today because of him and because of his service to this country. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation to name the Veterans Outpatient Clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee as the William C. Tallent Veterans Outpatient Clinic.

Madam Speaker, there is perhaps no greater sacrifice an American can make than serving their Country during a time of war, and one of my constituents--William Churchhill ``Dobber'' Doyle--has quite a story to tell.

At 90-years-old, Billy--as he is known to many--loves to share his tale with anyone who will listen. Like many from the ``Greatest Generation,'' his time during World War II reads like a Hollywood script, but to the humble man who lived it, the sacrifice was his duty.

Billy was assigned to a supply unit and stationed at Camp Forrest in Tullahoma, Tennessee in December 1941. On December 6, he was told to get ready to be deployed, and he boarded a troop train to the west coast on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

His first step on foreign soil was on his birthday on November 19, 1942, in North Africa. He would eventually pass through sites like Casablanca and Cairo and make his way to Europe, crossing through Italy, Germany, and France. As Billy told the Knoxville News Sentinel in Knoxville, Tennessee, ``Every time the front moved, we had to move.''

As part of a supply unit, Billy was one step behind General Patton throughout the war, tasked with keeping him supplied and always at risk of attack. He was part of one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war to establish a beachhead in Italy. 3,000 troops died in the effort, and his 30-member unit lost two in the battle.

Billy demonstrated his true character after breaking his nose in the field. He refused to seek treatment because that would mean having to leave his men.

His favorite moment of the war was when a group of French citizens called him a liberator. He learned of the end of the war in Lyon, France while listening to the radio. As he told the Knoxville News Sentinel, ``The town went crazy, especially the girls.''

Throughout his life in Tennessee after the war, Billy has selflessly given his time back to the community. He is known as the ``Bread Man'' around his hometown of Vestal, and donates his time to the Vestal United Methodist Church Food Pantry and Center of Hope Ministry. He is loved and respected by everyone who is fortunate enough to know him.

Madam Speaker, I have known many members of the Doyle family, and they are one of the most respected and prominent families in South Knoxville. I gladly bring this story of William Churchhill ``Dobber'' Doyle to the attention of my Colleagues and other readers of the Record, and I hope this tale of the ``Greatest Generation'' inspires the next.

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 the Departments of 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. 2996, ``Making appropriations for the Department of Interior, environment, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010.''

Requesting Member: Congressman John Duncan

Account: National Park Service, Save America's Treasures

Project Amount: $200,000

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

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

Madam Speaker, I have noticed that most environmental radicals come from very wealthy or very upper-income families. Perhaps they do not realize how much they have hurt the poor and the lower income and the working people by destroying jobs and driving up prices.

Now, those who seem to be the loudest in saying they are for the little guy are about to pass a bill that is going to hurt the little guy most of all. This cap-and-trade bill is going to drive up prices for gas, utilities, and especially costs for small businesses and farms. Businesses in China and India will probably jump for joy because this will give them even greater advantages.

And college graduates all over this country wonder why they cannot find good jobs and have to keep working as waiters and waitresses because this bill will drive even more jobs to other countries.

I hope everyone who is undecided on this bill will vote for the little guy instead of the big money environmental groups and the very big businesses which will benefit from this very costly bill.

I do thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding me this time. I want to say, first of all, and express my appreciation to Chairman Price and to Ranking Member Rogers. They certainly are two of the hardest working Members we have in this Congress and two men whom I admire the most and for whom I have the greatest respect.

I want to say that, overall, I think these leaders have produced a very good bill, particularly in regard to aviation security. That's something in which I have a great interest because I did chair the Aviation Subcommittee for 6 years, and I know they have greatly increased the security at the airports and so forth.

In fact, I will be offering an amendment a little bit later that does freeze the appropriation for the Air Marshal Service, which I do feel, as one high-ranking TSA official told me 2 days ago, is sort of gilding the lily. And I think it's a very unnecessary, useless part of the Federal Government and of this bill.

But, overall, I think it's a very fine bill. And I particularly want to thank Chairman Price and Ranking Member Rogers for the work that they're doing in regard to cybersecurity, because from everything that I have read over these last few years, that is going to be one of the areas that is going to be the most troublesome to this country in the years ahead.

And so, Madam Chair, I will simply say that I want to express my appreciation to Chairman Price and Ranking Member Rogers, and particularly the staff that has worked so hard on this legislation.

Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chairman, former Congressman Sonny Callahan, a very respected former subcommittee chairman on the Appropriations Committee, told me that we had done all we needed to do on airplane security when we secured the cockpit doors. Whether you agree with him or not, that one very inexpensive action took away the ability to hijack and use airplanes the way they were used on 9/11.

Now we are about to appropriate $860 million for the Federal Air Marshal Service, and I believe this money could be much better spent in any one of hundreds of other ways. However, my amendment does not eliminate this agency, even though I do believe it is a needless, useless agency. And my amendment does not even cut its funding. All it does is freeze this agency at its current level of funding, $819 million.

Air marshals arrest an average of a little over four people each year. Even after my amendment, they would still be getting about $200 million per arrest. There must not be a softer, easier, more cushy job in the entire Federal Government than just to ride airplanes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, many of them in first class. I would rather give this money to local law enforcement people who are fighting real crime, the street crime that people want fought.

Families all over this country are having to tighten their belts, and many millions are having to reduce spending. It would seem to me that the least we can do is stop giving big increases to agencies like this that really are doing almost no good at all. Actually, more air marshals have been arrested since 9/11 than there have been arrests by air marshals. This is an agency that has gone from just 33 before 9/11 to over 4,000 today.

Now, what TSA is doing at the airports, what all the other Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies are doing, what private companies are doing on security and all the many other things that are done on this bill on aviation security are more than enough. We need to realize that we cannot make everyone totally safe even if we spent the entire Federal budget on security.

I chaired the Aviation Subcommittee for 6 years and have always been a strong supporter of law enforcement and aviation security, but as one high-ranking former TSA official told me 2 days ago, this air marshal agency is simply ``gilding the lily.''

The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial a few months after 9/11: ``We would like to suggest a new post-September 11 rule for Congress: Any bill with the word ``security'' should get double the public scrutiny and maybe four times the normal weight, lest all kinds of bad legislation become law under the phony guise of fighting terrorism.'' That was from The Wall Street Journal when they noticed that almost every Department agency was requesting additional funds and using the word ``security'' to justify it, even unnecessary appropriations.

Everyone on both sides of the aisle, Madam Chairman, likes to call themselves fiscally conservative. Well, even if my amendment were to pass, this agency would be getting an almost 60 percent increase since 2003, more than double the rate of inflation since that time.

This amendment is bare bones fiscal conservatism, very minimal fiscal conservatism. And I might add that I have never had a run-in with an air marshal. In fact, I don't even believe that I know an air marshal, so this is nothing personal. But USA Today a few months ago had an article about this agency and all the troubles and problems they're having, and I can tell you that I think this agency at least should not keep getting huge increases in funding.

Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chairman, I will close by saying that, first of all, I appreciate the kind comments by the chairman of the subcommittee for whom I have the greatest and deepest respect.

I served on the conference committee that created the TSA. I do believe that aviation security is very important, and I do believe that this bill does many good things in that respect. But I also know that the Air Marshal Service has a horrendous record so far. And as I said earlier, when you think of the very few arrests that they've made, it comes out to an average of a little over four a year, or about $200 million per arrest. I can't think, really, of any Department or agency in the Federal Government that does less good with more money than this agency. And yet, in spite of that, I am not trying to eliminate the agency; I am not trying to cut its funding. All I've done by this amendment is advocate a freeze that would save a little over $40 million. And if we can't do that, then really we can't do anything that is truly fiscally conservative in this Congress. I think when we recently raised our national debt limit to over $13 trillion, I think we at least need to start taking a few baby steps like this. So I urge my colleagues to support my amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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, probably the most needless, useless agency in the entire Federal Government is the Air Marshal Service.

In the Homeland Security Appropriations bill we will take up next week, we will appropriate $860 million for this needless, useless agency. This money is a total waste: $860 million for people to sit on airplanes and simply fly back and forth, back and forth. What a cushy, easy job.

And listen to this paragraph from a front-page story in the USA Today last November: ``Since 9/11, more than three dozen Federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human-trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.''

Actually, there have been many more arrests of Federal air marshals than that story reported, quite a few for felony offenses. In fact, more air marshals have been arrested than the number of people arrested by air marshals.

We now have approximately 4,000 in the Federal Air Marshals Service, yet they have made an average of just 4.2 arrests a year since 2001. This comes out to an average of about one arrest a year per 1,000 employees.

Now, let me make that clear. Their thousands of employees are not making one arrest per year each. They are averaging slightly over four arrests each year by the entire agency. In other words, we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest. Let me repeat that: we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest.

Professor Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania wrote last year about the money feeding frenzy of the war on terror. And he wrote this: ``Nearly 7 years after September 11, 2001,'' he wrote this last year, ``what accounts for the vast discrepancy between the terrorist threat facing America and the scale of our response? Why, absent any evidence of a serious terror threat, is a war to on terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding?

``The fundamental answer is that al Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes but to hijack our political system.

``For a multitude of politicians, interest groups and professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and State governments and Federal agency officials, the war on terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget project grant and contract proposals.''

And finally, Professor Lustick wrote: ``For the country as a whole, however, it has become maelstrom of waste.'' And there is no agency for which those words are more applicable than the Federal Air Marshal Service.

In case anyone is wondering, the Air Marshal Service has done nothing to me, and I know none of its employees. But I do know with absolute certainty that this $860 million we are about to give them could be better spent on thousands of other things.

As far as I'm concerned, it is just money going down a drain for the little good it will do. When we are so many trillions of dollars in debt, a national debt of over $13 trillion, we simply cannot afford to waste money in this way.

Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes we will begin voting on 26 amendments to the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill, but the overriding problem is that this bill is a 12 percent increase to $65 billion.

At a time when families and small businesses all over this country have been tightening their spending, at a time when foreclosures and bankruptcies are still at record levels, the Federal Government keeps going on its merry way, spending like we have just boocous of cash.

All this comes after the $787 billion stimulus bill which the Washington Post said was a ``massive financial windfall'' for Federal agencies. A 12 percent increase in times of 3 percent inflation, when our national debt is now over $13 trillion, is just ridiculous.

We would not be having all these problems if we'd had fiscally conservative Congresses for the last 45 years. Now we seem to have the most fiscally wasteful Congress we have ever had.

Mr. Speaker, we have now spent approximately $200 billion, $200 billion, on the war in Afghanistan against a foe that has almost no money and equipment, especially in comparison to ours. Now we are about to take up a supplemental appropriations bill later today to provide many billions more, all this in a place where even General Petraeus said we should remember has been known as the ``graveyard of empires.'' This comes on top of approximately $800 billion on the war in Iraq and hundreds of billions more in indirect costs for these two wars.

Then, in the supplemental bill that we'll take up later today, we have $5 billion for the International Monetary Fund, and in this bill, there is a guarantee for $100 billion in loans made by the IMF, loans being made to other countries. All this money will have to be borrowed because we are so many trillions in debt already that it is not even humanly comprehensible.

The bill also contains $7.7 billion for swine flu vaccines. I heard a reporting of a speech of our colleague, the gentleman from Texas, Dr. Paul, made recently, in which he said during his first stay in the House, in I think it was 1976, that there was another swine flu scare, and that only he and one other person, probably the only other medical doctor in the House at that time, voted against the money for the swine flu scare. And one person died from swine flu that year, and many more died from taking the vaccine than died from the flu. This is a great overreaction in this area as well. Many thousands are dying from other diseases that we're not paying attention to.

This supplemental appropriations bill started out at $85 billion, then it went to $91 billion, then $95 billion, and now, today, $106 billion. And I ask you, are there no fiscal conservatives around here?

We read last year that the Pentagon had $295 billion in cost overruns on just their 72 largest weapons systems. Now, that didn't count all the cost overruns that they might have had in all their thousands of other large-, medium-, and small-sized contracts, and we're having a hearing right today--in fact, it's going on right now, I was there earlier--in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in which they said 74 percent of the private contracts that the Federal Government gives out are given out by the Pentagon. Are there no fiscal conservatives at the Pentagon?

I know everybody is trying to prove how patriotic they are today, and everybody feels that we shouldn't question anything the Defense Department wants. But to allow $295 billion in cost overruns on just these 72 largest weapons systems, in my opinion, it's unpatriotic not to question that. And I ask again, are there no fiscal conservatives at the Pentagon?

The fact is, we've turned the Defense Department primarily into the ``Department of Foreign Aid'' now, and I believe very strongly in national defense. But we cannot afford to run the whole world, and we cannot afford to have the Department of Defense be the ``Department of Foreign Aid.''

All of this comes not long after we have raised our national debt limit to over $13 trillion. Nobody can comprehend a figure like that, no one. That is an astounding figure. And yet on top of this debt that we already have, the President's budget in this year and the next 2 years will add over $4 trillion of debt to that debt, $4 trillion in this year and the next two; three years' time, $4 trillion added to our national debt.

And then this year, if I had told people 2 or 3 years ago that we would have a budget this year of $3.6 trillion and that half of that, $1.87 trillion, would be deficit, nobody would have believed that. They would have thought that I was ridiculous or that I was crazy in saying that.

I used to say to my colleagues that it was terrible what we were doing to our children and grandchildren. Now, I'm saying it's terrible what we're doing to ourselves because it's not going to be 5 or 10 years, if that long, before we're not able to pay all of our Social Security and veterans' pensions and all of the things that we have promised our own people.

We've got to stop trying to run the whole world. It's not isolationist to say that because I believe in trade and tourism, and cultural and educational exchanges, and I believe we should help during humanitarian crises. But we can't keep spending hundreds of billions of dollars in other countries, whether it's done by the Defense Department--and of course, it's also being done by every other department and agency in the entire Federal Government.