Lee Terry

Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to recognize the 25th anniversary of a grant program that has benefitted thousands of individuals and families across the country--the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) system's Affordable Housing Program (AHP). The AHP is a flexible source of grants designed to help community-based lenders and their partners develop affordable housing solutions for very low- to moderate-income individuals and families.

The AHP receives its funding through annual contributions of 10 percent of the FHLBanks' net income. The Federal Home Loan Banks have awarded over $5.1 billion in AHP funds since Congress created the program in 1990. These funds represent the largest single source of private grant dollars available for housing and community development in the country.

By developing affordable housing--and creating stable communities in the process--AHP funds have a long-term, positive economic impact. Many projects are designed for seniors, the disabled, homeless families, first-time homeowners and others with limited resources. More than 845,157 housing units have been built using AHP funds. And I'm happy to say that the Federal Home Loan Bank system is the largest single funding provider to Habitat for Humanity, an organization that I have strongly supported during my 16 years in Congress.

Created by an act of Congress in 1932, the Federal Home Loan Banks are 12 regional cooperative banks that community-based financial institutions utilize to make home loans, small business loans and agriculture loans in every corner of America. Nearly 8,000 lenders are members of the Federal Home Loan Bank cooperative, representing approximately 80 percent of America's insured lending institutions. The FHLBanks and their members have been the largest and most reliable source of funding for community lending for over 80 years.

The FHLBanks have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to serve their members and to meet the affordable housing and community development needs of individuals, families and local communities through the Affordable Housing Program. As Congress contemplates the future of housing finance, I encourage members of Congress and the Administration to look to the Federal Home Loan Banks as an example of a system that works well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Captain Mark Edward Dreiling, who is retiring from the United States Air Force. He is a third generation Airman who comes from a family with a long history of military service to this nation.

Capt. Dreiling entered the United States Air Force through ROTC Detachment 465 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He then began his career as a Missile Warning Crew Commander where his crews provided warning and battle space awareness to deployed personnel engaged in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. With over 2500 error free hours of operations and five Highly Qualified Evaluation ratings, his crew earned the Air Force Space Command Crew Member Excellence Award. During this time, he was selected to serve as both the Chief of Crew Force Management and the Chief of Operations Training.

Under his leadership in Crew Force Management, his team secured the first-ever error free Space Command Inspector General assessment for the office, earning the Professional Team Award during the 2008 operational readiness inspection. During his tenure in Operations Training, Capt. Dreiling's leadership helped his team garner the 2010 Air Force Space Command Operational Readiness Inspection operations group ``excellent'' rating. By leading the instruction and war fighting proficiency efforts for over two hundred missile warning crew members, he ensured the technical accuracy and effectiveness of training materials and operational procedures for the entire crew force.

Capt. Dreiling's next assignment was to the Joint Functional Component Command for Space, where he was the first DoD representative to complete certification on one of the government's newest overhead sensors. During this time, he completed over five hundred error free hours providing unprecedented indications and warning for nine high interest events.

Most recently, Capt. Dreiling served as the Test Director for the family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-sight Terminals at the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center Detachment 4. During his final assignment, his work on a $3.9 billion military satellite communication terminal program directly informed a Secretary of Defense Milestone decision critical to the maturation of the future Presidential and Air Force Strategic Nuclear Command and Control System.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in wishing Capt. Dreiling and his family a heartfelt thanks on behalf of a grateful nation for their dedication and service to our country.

Mr. Speaker, Doc Hastings, I really appreciate your leadership on energy issues and natural resources issues. It has just been incredibly important to our Congress.

I want to thank my colleagues for allowing me to bring this package here today because this is a commonsense energy approach that grows our economy, creates jobs, and ensures our energy is affordable and reliable.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, most of these, or all of them, have already been voted on at some point in time over the last couple years. It is important that we continue to push the Senate into taking up these energy bills so we can expand our economy and grow the jobs.

Too many of the rules and regulations coming out of this administration are making energy more costly

and less reliable to the consumers. This is the point of this bill. The House continues to do our job with legislation, but the Senate continues to block it. I am not going to stand idly by and keep allowing that to happen.

This approach puts together bills that allow us to build up our infrastructure of abundance, streamlines permitting processes, Mr. Speaker, and provides commonsense guidance to the EPA rulemakers, all of which provides reliability and affordability for our consumers, which is an inherent cornerstone to economic success.

So what does this bill do?

It allows the United States to take advantage of the fact that we are incredibly close to being self-sufficient, no longer reliant on those outside of North America. This bill approves the Keystone pipeline, which was filed, originally, 6 years ago tomorrow. But yet 22,000 pages of studies have been completed that show that this pipeline does not pose an environmental risk to land or aquifer and will actually reduce CO2 emissions compared to not allowing the pipeline.

Recently, Larry Summers, President Obama's former senior economic adviser, was quoted as saying: ``I am very much aware of the toll that the Keystone pipeline issue has taken on the relations with a crucial U.S. ally, Canada.''

So it is even straining our relationship with our good friend Canada.

This bill also removes Federal barriers to offshore energy production, enhances onshore production by removing red tape and making sure that any regulations are reasonable.

This bill will expedite LNG exportation to our allies, allowing us to maintain a strong, strategic position in the world.

This bill will modernize the permit process for natural gas pipelines. This is important as we use more natural gas for manufacturing, electrical production, and as a transportation fuel.

There is an abundant supply of natural gas here in North America and it has been proven to be cheaper and cleaner, but I believe it is greatly underutilized. We need to make natural gas a priority, which this bill does.

Our country is blessed to have these abundant natural resources. We must do everything in our power to make sure that our policies support resource development and minimize the red tape that strangles our job creators.

I am proud to lead this effort in support of lower cost energy and more American jobs. With these policies, we can make real progress towards reducing prices at the pump and protecting families.