Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, many Tennesseans care about the Three ``F's'' in life: Faith, Family, and Football.

One outstanding Tennessean in particular, Coach Ken Sparks, incorporated his love for all three of these into his amazing life.

Ken Sparks devoted his life to his alma mater, Carson Newman University, as an inspirational coach for almost 40 years.

While his record setting list of wins and accomplishments with his football teams might give someone else a big ego, Coach Sparks always kept the focus on someone else.

I had the honor of celebrating his impact on my district, thousands of student athletes, and other coaches just a few months ago at his retirement ceremony.

Coach Sparks spoke of success, wins, and achievements, but he did it while giving all the credit to the Lord. He spoke of his gratefulness to God through his amazing life experiences.

The life that Ken lived was one that was devoted to building up the success of others while remaining humble through each level of success he achieved himself. He had an amazing ability to connect with players in a way that gave them purpose on and off the field.

The love he had for his faith, family, and football were given deeper meaning with the devotion he had to his wife Carol, and their four children and 14 grandchildren.

Even though he was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, he continued to work hard to bring glory to God.

Although Tennesseans are greatly saddened by his loss, we should reflect on his life and the legacy he left behind.

I encourage all my Colleagues and others to celebrate the amazing life of Coach Sparks.

I would also like to call attention to the article that appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel on March 31, 2017, entitled ``Ken Sparks, A Life Well Lived''.

news sentinel editorial board, published march 31, 2017

A wave of sadness washed over East Tennessee on Wednesday

with the word that Carson-Newman University football icon Ken

Sparks had succumbed to cancer.

Carson-Newman and Sparks were inseparable, venerable

institutions.

He had dedicated nearly four decades to shaping young men's

lives who played football for the university. That was more

important to him than any of the championships, the trophies,

the accolades, the numbers.

``I'm grateful to be part of a profession where you can

teach about life while you're teaching blocking and

tackling,'' Sparks said in 2010 when he was honored with the

Robert R. Neyland Trophy. ``The Lord has blessed me.

``I hope that through things like this I can honor the Lord

and that it has more meaning than what's on the scoreboard at

the end of the field.''

Sparks, 73, a Knoxville native, retired after the 2016

season after courageously battling through his cancer

diagnosis in 2012.

Polite, warm, always smiling, Sparks coached 37 seasons,

recorded 338 wins, made 25 playoff trips, won 21 South

Atlantic Conference titles and 5 national titles for the

university where he graduated in 1967. He coached in the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the

National Collegiate Athletics Association Division II as well

as at several high schools before returning to Carson-Newman

in 1980.

In addition to the Neyland Trophy, Sparks has been honored

with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Lifetime

Achievement Award. Sparks was elected president of the

American Football Coaches Association in 2007. In 2002 he

received the All-American Football Foundation's Johnny Vaught

Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sparks earned NAIA coach of the year honors in 1984 and was

voted SAC coach of the year 12 times.

A forgiving man, he gave troubled players who had lost

their way at other institutions a second chance.

``You're going to have influence, whether you like it or

not,'' Sparks said last November when he retired. ``Everyone

of us is an example of something. We can talk all we want to,

but our walk is what tells people who we are.

``The Lord has put us in a position where we've been able

to have an audience of players and people that want to know

the message. That's what I hope I've been true to, the Lord's

message.''

When Sparks announced his retirement, Carson-Newman

athletics director Allen Morgan called it a sad day.

``It's a day we honor Ken and the legacy he is leaving for

how he has touched young men's lives in a way far greater

than wins on a football field.

``He has molded boys to become Christian young men,

husbands and community leaders where they too can give back.

So today, it's Ken Sparks' day. The entire Carson-Newman

community gives thanks for what he has done not only for

Carson-Newman but for the greater good of mankind.''

Mr. Speaker, defense spending was $348 billion in 2002. Now it is well over $600 billion a year, and this total does not include the military construction budget which has totaled more than $181 billion over the last 10 years, and many billions more in supplemental appropriations. There is presently a request for another $30 billion supplemental appropriations for the military.

On top of all this, almost every year for the 29 years I have been here, there has been an end-of-the-year omnibus appropriations bill which always contains even more for the Defense Department.

I have always believed that national defense is one the most important, most legitimate functions of the Federal Government. But I am also a fiscal conservative.

With our Nation $20 trillion in debt and many trillions more in unfunded future Social Security and pensions liability in the years ahead, we desperately need some fiscal conservatives in the Pentagon.

I realize that the easiest thing in the world to do is to spend other people's money; and you can never satisfy any government's appetite for money or land. They always want more. But it is a myth to say or think that the Defense Department is underfunded when defense spending has doubled since 2002.

Yet, even though this spending has gone way up, most people around the country seem to believe it has gone way down. We hear some saying the military has been decimated or has undergone drastic cuts. This has been a masterful public relations job, I assume, by the Pentagon, working with defense contractors and think tanks funded by the defense industry.

Last year, we spent $177.5 billion for new equipment, tanks, planes, weapons of all sorts. Most of this equipment does not wear out after just 1 year, yet we keep spending similar amounts on new equipment every year.

I mentioned that the military construction funds are in a separate bill, not in the regular Defense Department appropriations bill. The $181 billion we have appropriated over the last 10 years in this bill means you probably cannot find any military base in the world without new construction going on, and much more that is only 3 or 4 years old or even newer.

We have a $20 trillion national debt. Last week, I read in The Washington Times that the estimate now is that we will be $91 trillion in debt 30 years from now. Obviously, if we allow that much debt, we will be printing so much money that our Social Security and military and civil service pensions will be worth very little.

In the biography, ``Bonhoeffer,'' about the famous theologian, by Eric Metaxas, it says that, in 1921, the currency exchange rate was 75 German marks to the dollar. The next year, it was 400 marks to the dollar. Then inflation really took off, and, by early 1923, it was 7,000 to 1.

Metaxas wrote: ``The resultant economic turmoil would make the bleak conditions of a few months earlier look like the good old days.''

By August, a dollar was worth 1 million marks. The book says: ``By the end of 1923, things had become impossible. In October, Dietrich wrote that every meal cost 1 billion marks.''

Germany, in the early 1920s, was one of the most educated countries in the world. It is hard to imagine what could happen here in the United States if we continue to spend money we do not have and run trillions more into debt.

With the exception of a brief downturn in 1958, President Eisenhower gave the Nation 8 years of peace and prosperity and balanced budgets, and he looks better with the passage of time. He spent most of his career in the military and loved and respected that institution.

But in a new book called ``Ike's Bluff,'' by Evan Thomas, is this very interesting observation: ``Eisenhower

was, in effect, his own Secretary of Defense.'' When Defense Secretary Neil McElroy warned him that further budget cuts could harm national security, Eisenhower acerbically replied: If you go to any military installation in the world where the American flag is flying and tell the Commander that Ike says he'll give him an extra star for his shoulder if he cuts his budget, there'll be such a rush to cut costs that you'll have to get out of the way.''

He would periodically sigh to Andy Goodpaster, his Chief of Staff, ``God help the Nation when it has a President who doesn't know as much about the military as I do.''

As we all know, Eisenhower made a famous statement in his farewell address warning against the excesses of the military-industrial complex. I think, Mr. Speaker, he would be shocked at how far we have gone down that road against which he warned us.

Mr. Speaker, one of the finest men I have ever known, Mr. D.M. Miller, was the subject of a lengthy article in the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

The article told of his 48 years in education in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Mr. Miller touched thousands of lives in good and positive ways during his career as a teacher, coach, principal, administrator, and school board member.

This country is in a better place today because of the life and service of D.M. Miller.

I include in the Record, the story about Mr. Miller in the Knoxville News-Sentinel from March 2, 2017.

[From The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Mar. 2, 2017]

(By Rebecca D. Williams)

You might say D.M. Miller of Knoxville, 91, a longtime

educator and coach, was in school most of his life.

``I remember seeing my first basketball game, at South

Harriman School, where my aunt was playing. I was 6 or 7

years old,'' he said.

``I was born in Roane County on Oct. 22, 1925. My parents

were Ben and Stella Schubert Miller. My dad had a fourth-

grade education and my mom had a fifth,'' he said.

By the time he was 10, the family moved to Knoxville and

lived in Lonsdale. ``This was during the (Great) Depression,

and everybody was poor. My dad was a machinist, a motor

mechanic, an electrician and a carpenter. He was without work

at times,'' Miller said.

When he was a student at Lonsdale Elementary School, Miller

remembers the marching band from Rule High School going on

``strike,'' and marching around Lonsdale, to protest the fact

that Rule only had 10 grades. The kids wanted 12 grades so

they wouldn't have to walk to Knox High School, Miller said.

Rule High School had 12 grades by the time Miller got

there. He lettered in basketball, track and baseball, and was

captain of the football team and vice president of his senior

class in 1944. Shortly after graduation, Miller joined the

U.S. Navy, during World War II.

``Everybody wanted to join up,'' he said. ``My mom wouldn't

let me drop out of high school to go in. I graduated from

Rule High School on a Friday and went right in the Navy, a

boatswain's mate.''

Miller served on the U.S.S. Gosper, an amphibious invasion

and casualty evacuation ship in the Pacific. The ship was

part of the Okinawa invasion. ``There were four of us boys

from Rule High School over there, and two of them got killed

at Okinawa. We thought we were going to invade Japan, but

thank goodness (the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb) and the war

ended,'' he said.

``Then, they sent us to Corregidor (Philippines), and we

picked up 2,700 American, Canadian and British prisoners of

war. None of them weighed a hundred pounds. They were

skeletons,'' he remembered.

After the war, Miller returned to Tennessee and enrolled in

Maryville College on the G.I. Bill, where he played football

and majored in education. ``All the veterans had come back

from the war, and we had a pretty good ball club,'' he said.

``I played on an undefeated team and in the Tangerine Bowl, a

forerunner of the Citrus Bowl, in 1946.''

As a senior, he met Viola ``Vi'' Marshall, at a dance. ``I

saw her dancing and cut in,'' he said. ``We started going

together and got married June 2, 1952.''

In 1950, Miller was hired back at his alma mater, Rule High

School, as an assistant coach of several sports and teacher

of math, science and health. He eventually became the head

football coach of the ``Golden Bears.''

When the drafting teacher died unexpectedly on a Friday,

Miller was asked to take over his class. He had only had one

class in drafting in high school. ``I studied all weekend to

get ready,'' he said. ``I taught on Monday.''

Miller went back to the University of Tennessee at night

for a master's degree in administration and became assistant

principal of Rule High School for four years, and then

principal from 1965 through 1975. It was a time of racial

integration of the schools.

``We had on one side of us Lonsdale Homes, and on the other

side was College Homes. And in between there was Western

Heights, the largest low-income housing project in the area.

So we started integrating in 1970. I enrolled 1,625 kids in a

school that would hold 1,000. Eight hundred were black. We

had the Black Panthers on campus; we had to run them out. It

was not easy. I broke up the first fight,'' he said.

Discipline back then involved a ``long paddle,'' Miller

said. ``Our kids were used to it. Mamas would call me and

say, `Handle it.' You have to be fair and firm and

consistent. There's no in-between,'' he said.

After being principal, Miller was asked to work in the

Knoxville City Schools administration building as the

administrative assistant to the superintendent. He also

served on the control board of the Tennessee Secondary School

Athletic Association for nine years, during which time he

helped TSSAA build an office in Hermitage, reclassify

schools, and implement Title IX. He was inducted into its

Hall of Fame as an administrator in 1994.

Miller retired after almost 35 years in the city school

system, and was elected to the Knoxville City School Board in

1986. The city and county schools merged in 1987, and Miller

was elected to the consolidated board for his second term.

``I'm the only man to have served on both,'' he said.

The Millers had three children, a daughter in 1952, and two

sons. Even though he was an educator, Miller's daughter could

not go to public schools.

``Our daughter, Elizabeth, we call her Libby, was born

handicapped. They told us we should put her in an

institution. We just couldn't bear to let her go, so we

raised her.

``The (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) hadn't

come into effect yet. So she never had any education. We

couldn't get her in a regular school. Her speech was a

problem. We had her at every speech clinic, and we had her to

doctor after doctor, but she never went to school,'' he said.

Libby Miller is 64 today. She lives with the Millers and

attends the Sertoma Center each day for adults with

intellectual disabilities.

In retirement, Miller has been very active in his church,

New Hope Presbyterian. And Miller still keeps in touch with

other students from Rule High School, which closed in 1991.

In 2015, the Rule Alumni honored Miller with a ``Greatest

Among Us'' Award.

``I counted it up one time, and I've been in education

about 48 years,'' he said. ``Given my mom and dad's

education, it's a miracle.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding, and I want to say that, in a short time in the Congress, he has become one of our greatest Members, and I appreciate him leading this effort tonight.

It is sad, it is unfortunate that, with any big government program, a small number of individuals or companies find ways to manipulate the system and become wealthy. That is why 6 or 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the U.S. are suburban counties to Washington, D.C., and that is wrong.

I have read for years about the revolving door at the Pentagon, about the defense contractors hiring all the retired admirals and generals. The same thing has happened with the Food and Drug Administration, that the big drug giants have hired all the former top people at the FDA, and we have a drug price crisis in this country today. There are many parts of it, but we want to talk tonight about one that most don't know about and you almost have to be a pharmacist to really understand what is going on.

But I rise tonight, Mr. Speaker, to join my colleagues in exposing, as I say, an almost unknown culprit in our Nation's drug price crisis, pharmacy benefits managers, also known as PBMs.

PBMs are essentially middlemen between pharmacies and drug manufacturers, but the legal relationships among PBMs, pharmacies, and drug and insurance companies have become increasingly entangled and complex.

For instance, one of the largest pharmacy chains also operates its own PBM, and one of the largest medical insurance companies also operates its own PBM.

PBMs are supposed to be helping keep down the costs of drugs by negotiating discounts and helping pharmacies with managing drug plans, as they often claim to do. Despite these PBM promises, though, I have heard from several pharmacy owners in my district who say that many PBMs are, in reality, ripping them off by drastically raising drug costs.

PBMs have tricks of the trade that include retroactively charging pharmacies more for drugs that they have already sold and processed. I am also told that PBMs also take too long to update the market value of the drugs on their covered drug lists. But these tricks are just two. PBMs use many more.

According to one expert and pharmacy owner in my district, he has seen three primary causes for recent increases in prescription drugs: one, FDA involvement, including requiring ``modern clinical trials'' of old drugs that have worked for decades; two, drug manufacturers needlessly hiking the price of generic drugs; and three, PBMs charging ridiculous prices for drugs and pocketing the profits.

According to my constituents, PBMs are the main culprit of the three. This pharmacist recently met with me and shared an eye-opening example. One of his senior customers came in with a prescription for a fairly common drug. The prescription had a real or actual cost of $23.40, but the pharmacist found that the PBM was charging a copay of $250, over 10 times the actual cost of the drug. The pharmacist chose to just absorb the PBM's ridiculous copay, and only charged his customer the actual cost of the drug.

Another pharmacist in my district emailed me, describing how PBM practices are accelerating seniors into the Medicare part D coverage gap, or doughnut hole. He said: ``All of these PBMs have these types of unfair compensations . . . This is not fair, and it hurts our seniors.''

Even more pharmacists in my district have also reached out to me, saying that they only get pennies on the dollar for the drugs they sell. PBM actions are forcing pharmacies to deny patients access to critical medications, or to give drugs away for free.

The Daily Times in Blount County, in my district, recently ran a story on PBMs called ``Sworn to Secrecy.''

The article cites a pharmacist in Pennsylvania, Eric Pusey, who says that his patients' copays for drugs are often higher than out-of-pocket costs. Why? Because of PBM clawbacks. Mr. Pusey says that if he explains clawbacks to his customers, some get fired up and don't even believe what we are telling them is accurate.

Another pharmacist in Houston says: We look at it as theft--another way for the PBMs to steal. Most people don't

understand. If their copay is high, then they care.

Susan Hayes, a pharmacist in Illinois, says that these PBM clawbacks are like crack cocaine, the PBMs just can't get enough.

Some PBMs are facing lawsuits with accusations such as defrauding patients, racketeering, breach of contract, and violating insurance laws. Since 1987, when the first of the three largest PBMs incorporated, drug prices have increased 1,100 percent, Mr. Speaker, and per capita expenditures have jumped by 756 percent.

The three largest PBMs make up about 80 percent of the drug market, which includes about 180 million patients. These PBMs often conduct business through mail order practices. They sometimes will automatically fill prescriptions month after month even if the patient no longer needs the medication, resulting in terrible waste. Patients include veterans and Medicare beneficiaries--endangering them, wasting their benefits and taxpayer dollars, and driving up the cost of drugs.

As we heard President Trump say in his address last night, we need to look into the artificially high drug prices right away. A good place to start is PBMs. Mr. Speaker, PBMs must be more transparent in their operations so that they can be held to their promises and to the law.

I will just close by saying that PBMs must no longer be able to get away with conducting their business with such unethical methods that they are using now. In short, PBMs must be held accountable for their roles in the Nation's drug price crisis. I join in supporting our community pharmacists.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Charles ``Deedle'' Walker who will be turning 90 years old on March 4, 2017. Deedle Walker was born in East Tennessee in 1927.

He helped operate his older brother's gas station when the United States was at war during WWII.

He once entered a free throw contest shooting under-handed and managed to finish second after sinking 24 out of 25 free throws.

After graduating from Carter High School, he was offered a basketball/football scholarship at the University of Alabama. Unfortunately, he became ill from spinal meningitis and did not go there. However, he was lucky to later attend Carson-Newman College.

He hitchhiked to college daily to attend class and starred in basketball and baseball under the tutelage of legendary Coach Frosty Holt. He also signed a minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

More importantly he met his future wife, Martha Dale Kitts, of Knoxville, Tennessee while at Carson-Newman.

While attending a friend's wedding, in which Martha was a bridesmaid, in Washington, D.C., Martha and Deedle became engaged. They were married later that day at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church on August 5, 1950.

Martha Walker later taught English and was the librarian at Carter High School where Deedle attended. Deedle enjoyed a 40-year career with the telephone company Southern Bell and its successors, and he was also a longtime basketball referee in the Knoxville area.

Deedle is an early riser and a hard-working man. In fact, he still greets anyone who sleeps past 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning with ``Good afternoon.''

Martha and Deedle had five children: Mark, Laura, Christopher (died in infancy), Joel and Don. They now have eight grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren, with another one on the way.

I hope everyone will join me on March 4th in wishing Deedle Walker a Happy 90th Birthday.

Mr. Speaker, in Scott Berg's biography on Woodrow Wilson, it says that, in World War I, we had one officer for ever 30 enlisted men.

President Eisenhower once said we had too many officers when we had one officer for every nine enlisted. Now we have one officer for every 4\1/2\ to 5 enlisted. We are almost overrun with retired admirals and generals. This is very expensive.

President Trump wants to greatly expand the numbers in our Armed Forces. If we do, what we need is more enlisted men and women, not more officers.

I started in the Army as enlisted and left as a captain, but we simply can't afford as many officers as we have today. We now have 475,000 retired officers drawing military pensions and 1,500,000 enlisted retirees. These two million military retirees, and those near retirement, should be demanding more fiscal conservatism by the Pentagon, or, in the very near future, we will not be able to pay our military pensions with money that will buy very much.

Mr. Speaker, approximately 58 percent of the people in this world have to get by on $4 or less a day. This means roughly 4 billion of the 7 billion in the world are living in extreme or very great poverty.

If we simply opened our borders, probably several hundred million would come here over the next 2 or 3 years. Our entire infrastructure-- our schools, hospitals, jails, sewers, roads--in fact, our entire economy could not handle a massive, rapid influx like that.

The American people are the kindest, most generous people in the world. We have allowed far more immigration than any other country over the last 50 years--many millions. No other country has even come close. But we must enforce our immigration laws.

The great majority of the American people want border security. President Trump's immigration order was not a Muslim ban. It did not even apply to 9 of the 10 largest population Muslim countries.

The President's efforts are being completely distorted. He is simply trying to do what the people want.

Mr. Speaker, Bret Baier of Fox News has a new book called, ``Three Days in January.'' It is primarily about President Eisenhower's warnings against the excesses of the military- industrial complex.

Today, we have a military-industrial security complex that is more about money than it is about any realistic threat.

I think President Eisenhower would be shocked at how far we have traveled down the road against which he warned us. Our new President has spoken out against the excessive, exorbitant cost of some of our newest military equipment and weapons systems.

The only way we will ever bring these costs under control is if we stop the revolving door at the Pentagon, where the defense contractors hire all of the retired admirals and generals.

President Eisenhower once said: Heaven help us if we ever have a President who doesn't know as much about the military as he did.

We need more leaders who have the guts to say ``no'' to the excessive spending by the military-industrial complex.

Mr. Speaker, some people have expressed concern that President-elect Trump will start a trade war if he gets tough on trade. But what they are not admitting, or perhaps it has never occurred to them, is that we have been in a trade war for many years, and we have been losing.

China has followed a China-first policy for years to their great benefit, while we have sent millions of good jobs to other countries and several million of our young people now can find jobs only in restaurants.

With only 4 percent of the world's population, we buy 21.7 percent of the world's goods. We used to buy about 25 percent, but we have more competition around the world now as most countries are trying to move away from socialism while we seemingly move toward it. But we still have tremendous leverage on trade that we have not used because every country wants desperately into our markets.

We need to negotiate trade deals that will create more jobs in this country. We need, Mr. Speaker, to tell foreign leaders that we want to buy things from them, but they need to start buying from us, too. Friendship is a two-way street.

I thank the chairman for yielding to me and for his support of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, this is very simple, bipartisan legislation that would require organizers of Presidential libraries to disclose the identities of donors and the amounts they give. It wouldn't limit any donations; it would simply require disclosure. I introduced this legislation several Congresses ago because I felt then and feel now that the public should be made aware of possible conflicts of interest that sitting Presidents can have or may have while raising funds for their libraries.

First of all, I thank Ranking Member Cummings for again cosponsoring this very important legislation and making it bipartisan. The legislation is so bipartisan that, after the first time we passed the bill--and it passed 392-3--it was taken over, at my request and with my agreement, by then-Chairman Waxman, who made it his bill. We passed it once again, and we passed it in the last Congress by a simple voice vote, so there is a lot of support for this bill. In the Senate, it was introduced by Mr. Carper and Mr. Coburn, when he was in the Senate. We need to get some

more interest over there, and I think we are going to be able to do that in this Congress.

Mr. Speaker, we do not know who these donors to the Presidential libraries are or what interests they may have on any pending policy decisions that are to be made. I think that our government needs to operate in the open, not with secrecy. This legislation will apply to all future Presidential libraries and mandate, regardless of party, that the names of the donors and the amounts they contribute be disclosed. I would like to add that this legislation will apply to President Trump's future Presidential library. This will require him to disclose more than any other President has ever had to disclose before. This will be an unprecedented disclosure, and it falls in line with his stated desire to drain the swamp. Any sitting President has a great deal of power. Funds should not be raised for a Presidential library in his honor without some type of public disclosure.

I decided to introduce this bill after news reports surrounding a proposed Presidential library exposed that foreign governments from the Middle East were making very large donations. Then, in 2007, The Washington Post reported that President Clinton's Presidential library raised a substantial percentage of the cost of its facility with foreign contributions. However, this is not a partisan issue. I have introduced this and supported this legislation under both Democratic and Republican Presidents. The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2017 would bring clarity to the process of planning and building these Presidential libraries.

In 2013, Sunlight Foundation Policy Director Daniel Schuman endorsed an earlier version of this bill during a hearing in front of our House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he said it ``would provide valuable information on special interests whose donations put them in close proximity with Presidents.''

Even Richard Cohen, the very liberal columnist for The Washington Post, once said about this bill: ``But surely it would be anything from interesting to illustrative to just plain damning to see what names are on that list and for what amounts.'' Our citizens have the right to know the details of these fundraising activities.

This bill has been introduced by the Center for Media and Democracy; the Center for Responsive Politics; the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, often known as CREW; Common Cause; Public Citizen; the Society of Professional Journalists; and many others.

USA Today wrote a very favorable editorial about this bill, and it has been mentioned favorably in many publications across the years. I think it is a bill that everybody on both sides of the aisle can support, and I ask my colleagues to support this very bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that make the U.S. the greatest country in the world is volunteerism.

No other country in the world has as many civic and charitable groups doing volunteer work like the United States.

The government could not come close to replacing the hundreds of billions of dollars in work done by these organizations, and one of the most respected charitable groups in the U.S. is the Shrine.

I have been fortunate to be a member of the Kerbela Shrine Temple in Knoxville for approximately 40 years.

The Kerbela Shrine Temple recently celebrated its 100th Anniversary on February 18, 2015.

For the past century, this group has touched the lives of needy children in my District in many positive ways.

On Thanksgiving Day 1950, the Knoxville Kerbela Shriners began a paper sale to benefit the East Tennessee Crippled Children's Fund, raising $19,000 the first year.

Over the next 75 years, with the help of the Blue Lodge Masons, the Kerbela Shrine Temple raised $13 million for handicapped and burned children through this one tradition.

Mr. Speaker, even in a state known for its Volunteers, the Kerbela Shriners stand out as an example of community service and charity. I call this important work to the attention of my Colleagues and other readers of the Record and wish them a happy 100th anniversary and many more years of success in serving our community.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding this time and for her good work on this legislation.

I came to the floor today just to tell you a little bit about why I think this legislation is so very important.

When I first came to Congress many years ago, we had a Democratic Governor of Tennessee, Ned Ray McWherter, and he was a fine Governor. He would have the Tennessee congressional delegation to the Governor's mansion once a year. And he would always start those meetings off-- every single year he would say: Please, no more unfunded mandates. Please, no more unfunded mandates.

He said that most of what the State was having to do now were things that were required by the Federal Government, and it was causing the States great financial difficulties, and it was turning what was supposed to be a Federal system that our Founding Fathers envisioned, it was turning it totally upside down.

This bill is a very reasonable, moderate, commonsense effort to make good on the original Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995. All it is trying to do is ensure that Congress and Federal agencies are fully informed about the impact of these Federal mandates.

I urge my colleagues to support this very fine effort to make our system better.

Mr. Speaker, this past Sunday, Rev. John Wood was honored for his 25 years as Pastor of the Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville.

Almost everyone who has heard John Wood speak believes he is one of the greatest preachers this Nation has ever produced.

He is not loud or flashy or flamboyant, but he preaches the Gospel in a sincere, intelligent, humble way that relates well to all types of people.

I think he is one of the most brilliant men I have ever known, and I have felt that way since I first met him in one of his early days in Knoxville.

Under his leadership, Cedar Springs has become one of the largest Presbyterian churches in the Nation. His sermons are both enjoyable and thought-provoking, and, most importantly, Biblically-based.

He somehow has the ability to teach the Bible in a way that is helpful to Biblical scholars as well as to beginning Christians. He preaches in a kind, down-to-earth manner that gives his listeners the feeling he is preaching to himself as well as to everyone who is listening.

John has been a true friend and an inspiration to me and my family. He has been with us through good times and bad, and I am very fortunate to have known him and have him as a part of my life for these last 25 years.

Much more important than the help he has been to me, however, is the fact that he has touched thousands of lives in a good and positive way.

He has brought the Christian message to churches and meetings through the U.S. and to many countries around the world.

I want to congratulate John Wood on his 25 years at Cedar Springs and encourage all my Colleagues and other readers of the Record to listen to one of his sermons on the internet or hopefully someday in person.

I would also like to call attention to the article that appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel on January 13, 2013, entitled ``Pastor John Wood: Best leaders are servants.''

Pastor John Wood: Best Leaders Are Servants

(By Josh Flory)

Legendary University of Tennessee football coach Robert

Neyland was famous for his seven maxims of winning football.

In that spirit, the News Sentinel offers a series that

highlights maxims for the 21st century--not about football,

but about effective leadership.

On one Sunday every month, the Business section will

highlight an East Tennessean from spheres including

athletics, the arts, religion or the public sector, speaking

about their ``leadership maxims'' for the 21st century.

John Wood, senior pastor, Cedar Springs Presbyterian

Church: ``The best leaders are those who help people

accomplish good things, not by ruling over them, but by

serving alongside them.''

Q: Tell me about your philosophy of leadership as a pastor

and a minister.

A: I think ``leader''--just at its rawest, most basic

definition--a leader is someone who gets other people to

follow them and to get something done.

But a good leader is someone who encourages and motivates

people to get something good or something necessary done. A

great leader, the best leaders, are those who accomplish

that--who encourage, who motivate, who really get people

excited about being a part of something that they're doing--

not by ruling but rather, as Jesus said, by serving.

It's servant leadership. And it's not just Jesus' word,

it's really the whole picture of leadership, positive picture

of leadership in the Bible. And (it) often contrasts between

the very good leaders and very bad leaders, those who ruled

and those who served. . . .

To me, the ultimate example of servant leadership,

integrity in the Bible is John 13, where just the night

before he was crucified, Jesus, having loved his disciples,

loved them to the end and took off his robes, put a towel

around his waist and did the one thing that no Jewish family

could force another Jew who served them to do, and that was

wash feet. . . .

And so Jesus lays aside His robes, puts a towel around His

waist and crawls from one set of dirty feet to the next,

washes feet, and then when He resumes his place He says: ``Do

you understand what I've told you? You call me Lord and

master, I am. I'm your master, I'm your teacher. And if I,

your master and teacher, have washed your feet, how much more

ought you?'' This is servant leadership. This is what it

looks like.''

Q: You mentioned the service aspect of leadership. At the

same time . . . you mentioned this issue of mastery and being

a master. In some sense your role involves challenging and

confronting people at certain times, I would imagine. How do

you balance those competing demands of confronting at times

but also serving and being humble?

A: When Jack Kennedy was inaugurated as president, he asked

Robert Frost to write a poem and read a poem for him, which

Frost agreed to do. When Frost's friends heard that he had

agreed to participate in Jack Kennedy's inauguration, they

said how could you do this, you've always hated liberals?

And he said, Kennedy's no liberal. And they said, what do

you mean, what's your definition of a liberal? And he said, a

liberal is a man who cannot even pick his own side in an

argument.

Now I always tell our people, Christ was never, in calling

us to be humble, telling us that we can't have principled

views--hopefully biblically formed and shaped--for which we

are willing to stand and passionately take a position and

debate it, but debate it charitably without demonizing people

who hold a different view.

Being a leader means that you're going to have to go to

people, often if you see them working what you think is

outside of their own gifting, and say: ``Look, you know, you

have so many really wonderful gifts, and I want to help you

use those gifts. We need for you to be using your gifts.

We've got you in the wrong place. This is our fault. We asked

you to do something that is outside of your gifting.

Or it's something that you clearly have no interest in. I

think you could do it, but you've got no interest. Now let's

help you get in a place where you can really be fulfilled and

be, in our context, serving Christ and serving others by

using your gifts. And let's deploy you rightly. . . . '' But

also as a pastor, and a pastor who believes that the Bible is

God's word written, there's often the responsibility of

confronting--hopefully gently, lovingly but firmly--someone

who's simply wanting to go along and be part of the family of

Christ and yet wanting to live way outside clear teaching of

God's word. And that doesn't mean on secondary and tertiary

issues, but on things where the Bible is clear, where

Christians have always everywhere believed these things.

You have to be able to go in love and say: ``Look, I love

you too much to watch you on a destructive course. And this

isn't an option for you. How can I help you get out of this

thing? And I'm willing to walk with you or we'll find

somebody who will walk with you.''

And again, I think too often as pastors we want so much for

everybody to like us and for the numbers to keep increasing

and for the money to keep coming in, and so we don't want to

say the hard things. We say hard things that we know

everybody agrees with. . . . We preach to the choir and they

(say) ``Oh yeah, go get 'em.'' And I don't want to preach to

the people that are out there; I want to preach to the people

that are here by preaching first to my own heart, confronting

my own idols, my own demons, my own brokenness.''

Mr. Speaker, I wish today to recognize one of the most admired public servants in my District on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Harry Wampler has served my State with distinction for many decades, and he has one of the most well-known last names in my District.

His family founded Wampler's Sausage in 1937 with just $38 worth of supplies, and today, most folks in East Tennessee could probably sing the Wampler's Sausage jingle--``made on the farm in Tennessee.''

Wampler's Sausage is an iconic Tennessee company that Harry helped lead. During his successful business career, he has also served as President and CEO of Family Brands International and as a member of the Board of Emeritus of Sun Trust Bank and the Board of Trustees of Baptist Hospital. He is a longtime member of the Civitan Club, serving as President twice and named Civitan ``Man of the Year.''

For several decades, Harry Wampler has also served the people of Lenoir City in public office, including the Lenoir City Council, the Loudon County Planning Commission, and the Tennessee State Legislature.

He has also held the post of Vice Mayor of Lenoir City, member of the Lenoir City Utilities Power Board, Chairman of the Republican Party of Loudon County, and Deacon of First Baptist Church of Lenoir City, where he served as Chairman several times.

Harry's hard work, personal faith and love of East Tennessee is very well known by his constituents.

He is a very patriotic American and one of the finest public servants I have ever known.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my Colleagues and other Readers of the Record to join me in wishing a very happy birthday to my friend Harry Wampler and celebrate his impressive service to the people of Loudon County, Tennessee.

Mr. Speaker, recently a very special event took place in my District in East Tennessee.

For three days in September, Medal of Honor recipients were honored at the Medal of Honor Convention in Knoxville.

The Medal of Honor is the highest award that can be given to military personnel. Recipients must meet a very high standard of ``conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty.''

There are less than 100 living recipients of this award--an elite club of brave soldiers unmatched anywhere. The word hero is used way too frequently these days, but this was a gathering to honor true American heroes.

A few months ago, I attended a reception at the East Tennessee Historical Society and planned to attend some of the events over the Medal of Honor Convention weekend. Unfortunately, my son Zane ended up in the hospital for 5 days, and I spent most of the weekend at the hospital or helping to care for my 18-month-old grandson.

It was a great honor for this convention to be hosted in East Tennessee. My state has a deep history of military service and is very patriotic.

Tennessee is known as the ``Volunteer State'' because of the high number of volunteer soldiers during the War of 1812 and the Mexican- American War.

It is also home to Alvin York, who is thought to be one of the most famous Medal of Honor recipients.

Medal of Honor recipient Gen. George Gillespie of Kingston, Tennessee, actually redesigned the Army medal, and many of our Nation's first Medal of Honor recipients are buried in Tennessee.

Joe Thompson and convention co-chair Chris Coyne worked for three years to bring this event to Knoxville. It could not have happened without their dedication, creativity and patriotism.

Dozens of Medal of Honor recipients were honored during the convention, including Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. and retired Col. Jack Jacobs, now an NBC News military analyst, who declared Knoxville ``to be the most beautiful place in the country.''

Mr. Speaker, this convention was a great honor for East Tennessee and a testament to the patriotism and spirit of my District. I call this convention's success to the attention of my Colleagues and other readers of the Record, and I hope everyone takes a moment to honor these soldiers whose sacrifice for our freedom can never be repaid.