Floor Statements

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

I, too, rise in support of H. Con. Res. 296, recognizing the goals and ideals of National Heat Stroke Awareness Month. I credit and thank my colleague from Arkansas, Mr. Boozman, for drafting and introducing this resolution.

As August hits, more people will be traveling to the beach, going to neighborhood pools, working outside, and football practice starts for many high schools and colleges. As people enjoy the outdoors, it is important for Americans to be cognizant of the dangers of heat stroke.

Friday, August 1, 2008, will mark the beginning of the National Heat Stroke Awareness Month. This month serves to commemorate the importance of educating Americans and their children about the need to stay hydrated during hot summer months, understand how much water and fluids their bodies need to replenish, and the appropriate ways to avoid heat- related illnesses.

National Heat Stroke Awareness Month is an important reminder that Americans and children participating in athletics continue to be impacted by the intense heat and physical activity that can dehydrate the body or even lead to a heat stroke. Local communities should work together to provide avenues to prevent dehydration, as well as ensuring that children, who are more vulnerable to heat illness, have access to fluids to rehydrate and a cool place to rest during hot summer months.

According to the National Centers for Health Statistics, 7,046 deaths were attributed to excessive heat exposure from 1979 to 1997, or an average of 371 deaths per year. Heat stroke and death from excessive heat exposure are more common during summers with prolonged heat waves, such as in 1980. Department statistics show that children and the elderly are among the hardest hit populations in the U.S., and, if not treated properly, it can be fatal.

A recent study found that 70 percent of after-school athletes arrive on the field already dehydrated, and because children have a reduced ability to dissipate heat through sweating, it puts them at an increased risk for a heat-related illness. It is alarming when 50 percent of those diagnosed with heat stroke will die, and it is important that parents, coaches, teachers and other members of the community look for the warning signs of heat illness.

I would like to thank Rhonda and Mike Fincher, who have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the heat-related illness after they tragically lost their 13-year-old son Kendrick during an August preseason football practice. In honor of their son, they have founded the Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation, and have provided student athletes with the information and equipment needed to ensure they will not suffer from heat stroke.

I would also like to thank the Gatorade Company for leading the National Beat the Heat Campaign aimed at educating parents and football coaches about the importance of hydration in order to keep athletes safe in hot summer months.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Congressman Boozman once again for introducing this resolution, my colleagues on Energy and Commerce, Mr. Pallone and Mr. Dingell and Mr. Barton, to make sure that it got to the House floor in a rapid, quick motion. I urge all of my colleagues to support this important resolution commemorating August as National Heat Stroke Awareness Month.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as he may consume to the author of this resolution, the gentleman from Arkansas.

Mr. Speaker, I would just conclude by suggesting that if there are any coaches of youth teams that play outside, they should check out the Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation's Web site for advice on how to protect the kids on their team.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I too rise in support of House Resolution 896, recognizing February of 2009 as Primary Lateral Sclerosis Awareness Month. I also wish to thank Mr. Baca for authoring this resolution.

While primary lateral sclerosis is not fatal, there is no cure, and the progression of symptoms varies. Some Americans affected by this disease may retain the ability to walk without assistance, but others eventually require wheelchairs, canes, or other assistive devices that limit their mobility.

Because primary lateral sclerosis is such a rare neuromuscular disease, its diagnosis is often delayed because of its resemblance to ALS, or better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In PLS, there is no evidence of the degeneration of spinal motor neurons or muscle

wasting that occurs in ALS, and it is characterized by progressive muscle weakness in the voluntary muscles. PLS belongs to a group of disorders known as motor neuron diseases that develop when the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement degenerate and die. This usually occurs after the age of 50, and causes a gradual weakness in the muscles.

Symptoms for the individuals afflicted by the disease may include difficulty with balance, weakness and stiffness in the legs, and clumsiness. Other symptoms may include sudden and involuntary muscle spasms in the hands, feet, or legs, and maybe speech problems due to the involvement of the facial muscles. The disease, which scientists believe is not hereditary, progresses gradually over a number of years or even decades.

The efforts of the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation have been paramount in raising funds dedicated to finding cures and providing information about PLS. Thanks to the dedication and hard work of many individuals at the Spastic Paraplegic Foundation, in just 5 years, more than $1 million has been targeted to research on SPF conditions and thousands of people have been helped.

I would like to thank the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institute of Health for conducting a broad range of research on neuromuscular disorders such as PLS. Their research has been aimed at developing techniques to diagnose, treat, prevent, and ultimately cure these devastating diseases.

In closing, I would like to thank again the author of this resolution, Mr. Joe Baca, my friend from California, for raising public awareness about PLS. I encourage all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

We have no further speakers, so I will just once again thank Mr. Baca for writing this resolution and bringing it, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Barton for making sure that it, in such a speedy manner, got to the House floor.

I yield back.

Offered By: Mr. Terry

Amendment No. 32: At the end of title II (page 51, after

line 11), insert the following:

establishment of national cemetery

Sec. 226. (a) In General.--The Secretary of Veterans

Affairs shall establish, in accordance with chapter 24 of

title 38, United States Code, a national cemetery in the

Sarpy County region to serve the needs of veterans and their

families.

(b) Consultation in Selection of Site.--Before selecting

the site for the national cemetery established under

subsection (a), the Secretary shall consult with--

(1) appropriate officials of the State of Nebraska and

local officials in the Sarpy County region; and

(2) appropriate officials of the United States, including

the Administrator of General Services, with respect to land

belonging to the United States in that area that would be

suitable to establish the national cemetery under subsection

(a).

(c) Authority To Accept Donation of Parcel of Land.--

(1) In general.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may

accept on behalf of the United States the gift of an

appropriate parcel of real property. The Secretary shall have

administrative jurisdiction over such parcel of real

property, and shall use such parcel to establish the national

cemetery under subsection (a).

(2) Income tax treatment of gift.--For purposes of Federal

income, estate, and gift taxes, the real property accepted

under paragraph (1) shall be considered as a gift to the

United States.

(d) Report.--As soon as practicable after the date of the

enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress

a report on the establishment of the national cemetery under

subsection (a). The report shall set forth a schedule for

such establishment and an estimate of the costs associated

with such establishment.

(e) Sarpy County Region Defined.--In this section, the term

``Sarpy County region'' means the geographic area consisting

of--

(1) the following counties in Nebraska: Knox, Antelope,

Boone, Nance, Merrick, Hamilton, Clay, Nuckolls, Thayer,

Fillmore, York, Polk, Platte, Madison, Pierce, Cedar, Wayne,

Stanton, Colfax, Butler, Seward, Saline, Jefferson, Gage,

Lancaster, Saunders, Dodge, Cuming, Thurston, Dixon, Dakota,

Burt, Washington, Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Otoe, Johnson,

Nemaha, Pawnee, Richardson, and the following counties in

Iowa; Lyon, Sioux, Plymouth, Woodbury, Monona, Harrison,

Pottawatomie, Mills, Fremont, Osceola, Dickinson, O'Brien,

Clay, Cherokee, Buena Vista, Ida, Sac, Crawford, Carroll,

Shelby, Audubon, Guthrie, Cass, Adair, Montgomery, Adams,

Union, Page, Taylor, and Ringgold; and

(2) the following counties in Missouri: Atchison, Holt,

Buchanan, Platte, Clay, Clinton, Dekalb, Andrew, Nodaway,

Worth, and Gentry.

Offered By: Mr. Terry

Amendment No. 33: At the end of the bill (before the short

title), insert the following:

Offered By: Mr. Terry

Amendment No. 8: At the end of title II (page 51, after

line 11), insert the following:

establishment of national cemetery

Sec. 226. (a) In General.--The Secretary of Veterans

Affairs shall establish, in accordance with chapter 24 of

title 38, United States Code, a national cemetery in the

Sarpy County region to serve the needs of veterans and their

families.

(b) Consultation in Selection of Site.--Before selecting

the site for the national cemetery established under

subsection (a), the Secretary shall consult with--

(1) appropriate officials of the State of Nebraska and

local officials in the Sarpy County region; and

(2) appropriate officials of the United States, including

the Administrator of General Services, with respect to land

belonging to the United States in that area that would be

suitable to establish the national cemetery under subsection

(a).

(c) Authority To Accept Donation of Parcel of Land.--

(1) In general.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may

accept on behalf of the United States the gift of an

appropriate parcel of real property. The Secretary shall have

administrative jurisdiction over such parcel of real

property, and shall use such parcel to establish the national

cemetery under subsection (a).

(2) Income tax treatment of gift.--For purposes of Federal

income, estate, and gift taxes, the real property accepted

under paragraph (1) shall be considered as a gift to the

United States.

(d) Report.--As soon as practicable after the date of the

enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress

a report on the establishment of the national cemetery under

subsection (a). The report shall set forth a schedule for

such establishment and an estimate of the costs associated

with such establishment.

(e) Sarpy County Region Defined.--In this section, the term

``Sarpy County region'' means the geographic area consisting

of the following Nebraska counties: Knox, Antelope, Boone,

Nance, Merrick, Hamilton, Clay, Nuckolls, Thayer, Fillmore,

York, Polk, Platte, Madison, Pierce, Cedar, Wayne, Stanton,

Colfax, Butler, Seward, Saline, Jefferson, Gage, Lancaster,

Saunders, Dodge, Cuming, Thurston, Dixon, Dakota, Burt,

Washington, Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Otoe, Johnson, Nemaha,

Pawnee, Richardson, and the following counties in Iowa; Lyon,

Sioux, Plymouth, Woodbury, Monona, Harrison, Pottawatomie,

Mills, Fremont, Osceola, Dickinson, O"Brien, Clay, Cherokee,

Buena Vista, Ida, Sac, Crawford, Carroll, Shelby, Audubon,

Guthrie, Cass, Adair, Montgomery, Adams, Union, Page, Taylor,

and Ringgold.

We use, in this country, 20 million barrels of oil per day; 14 of that we import. In fact, a little over 14 million barrels per day we import.

It is my personal mission and dream that we can displace that 14 million barrels per day that we import, and use our own American-made resources instead.

This bill here today, releasing 10 percent of the SPR, equals 3\1/2\ days of our total use. Now, that will, using my understanding of economics, will reduce the price at the pump by a few cents for a few days. So we have to balance that against the harm that is being caused by the high gas prices to our constituents, to people on lower income, especially with our national security needs, which is the intention of

Ask yourselves why folks on the left who are more green than the Riddler and the Democrat leadership that has vowed to prevent any new drilling support this bill. Do I smell hypocrisy? No. Because this bill doesn't open up any new drilling. In fact on balance, it makes it more difficult to drill in an area already open for drilling. It poses new requirements to prove that you have to fully have used other leases before you can get any one there. A new requirement that any company must have a union contract in place before receiving a lease are just some of the couple of examples.

This is not a drilling bill that's going to get us more resources. It's a rhetorical political bill. Don't be suckered. Vote ``no.''

Thank you. I appreciate this opportunity.

My friend from California, I'd like to clarify a little bit. The 66 million acres are land that hasn't been authorized by Congress. In fact, the efforts by my friends on that side of the aisle was to take away that 66 million acres of already leased land. So I think the public needs to be clear on that aspect.

Yes, some of the Bush plan on energy has been implemented. The part, conveniently, that has been left out of presenting to the President for signature is the part that increases supply. It's the lack of supply that is causing problems for American families today, with the price at the pumps.

I have had several meetings with constituents who have told me their stories about how the high price of gasoline is literally taking food off of their tables and making them to make decisions about what they are taking away from their family in order to be able to get to work and back.

Our reliance on foreign energy is destroying this country, and we have to become independent, folks. We use 20 million barrels a day. Twenty million barrels of oil per day, most of which is refined into fuel that we use in travels. Over 14 million of those 20 are imported today.

Let's look at what is on the foreign scene today with Iran sending missiles as a message to the United States and Israel about their might. Make no bones about it, my friends; the only reason they have missiles is because they get to sell oil. If we weren't reliant on foreign oil and we could get away from it with a comprehensive plan and, Mr. Cardoza, I'd love to work with anyone on your side of the aisle to come up with conservation alternative fuels and to be able to open up our offshore drilling in the gulf coast, Alaska, and use oil shale. If we put all of that together, we can be energy independent.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of a comprehensive energy policy. And the gentleman from Massachusetts and I are friends and neighbors by offices and talk all the time.

And do you know what? It may be entirely true that Nebraskans think differently than suburban Boston folks. And that is why we go back and we talk to our constituents. And what I hear--and this isn't evenly divided; this is 95-5--that people are angry at the price of gas; they are angry at Congress doing nothing. And we sit here in this body and we have no real energy bills to discuss, so we have to use a flood insurance bill to be able to discuss these type of issues.

But my friend from Massachusetts brings up a point that I want to kind of correct and kind of agree with. We have been in Congress now five terms. I have been on the Energy Committee for 8 years; and almost every year that I have been on that committee, we have done an energy bill. Most of them haven't gotten to the President. We did get an energy bill that included drilling to the President in our first term, which was vetoed by President Clinton, that included ANWR.

My friend would probably remember a lot of vicious debates on this floor about opening up drilling in Alaska and ANWR and the deep waters off the coast of Florida and the gulf coast. We had incredibly intense debates on that, and we passed those. We passed the refinery bill that would expand our refining capacity and diversify where they are at in this body. So to be able to come and say on the House floor that we haven't done anything for 12 years is not accurate.

What is accurate is a bipartisan opposition to energy in the Senate, where we did good work, but unfortunately we had a group of 40 that was mostly Democrat but Republicans also that voted to kill refinery expansions, that voted to--well, sometimes they voted on deep-sea and ANWR, but most of the time they just ignored what we did here, in the Senate. And I am angry and upset at that.

But the people are demanding action now. And what I would like to see is, instead of this partisan rhetoric that we are hearing on the floor today, that my friends on the other side would say, hey, let's all get together. Because you talk about conservation. I wrote with Baron Hill the CAFE bill that ups the amount of fuel efficiency for the auto manufacturers. I am open to more of those types of discussions.

Let's get together and work on an energy policy, instead of this partisan bickering that we are hearing right now.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in favor of H. Con. Res. 163, which is sponsored by the gentlewoman from New Mexico, Heather Wilson. She has worked diligently on this issue and has helped raise public awareness for the 10,000 to 40,000 approximate Americans currently diagnosed with Dandy-Walker syndrome. I commend her on her work with H. Con. Res. 163 and support further research and activities to increase public awareness, professional education, diagnosis, and treatment of Dandy- Walker syndrome and hydrocephalus.

Currently, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the NIH conducts and supports a wide range of studies that explore the complex mechanisms of normal brain development. The knowledge gained from these fundamental studies provides the foundation for understanding abnormal brain development and offers hope for new ways to treat and prevent developmental brain disorders such as Dandy- Walker syndrome.

Dandy-Walker syndrome is a congenital brain malformation that can appear dramatically or develop unnoticed. Symptoms, which often occur in early infancy, include slow motor development and progressive enlargement of the skull. In older children, symptoms of increased intracranial pressure such as irritability, vomiting, and convulsions, and signs of cerebellar dysfunction such as unsteadiness, lack of muscle coordination, or jerky movements of the eyes may occur. Other symptoms include increased head circumference, bulging at the back of the skull, problems with the nerves that control the eyes, face and neck, and abnormal breathing patterns. Dandy-Walker syndrome is frequently associated with disorders of other areas of the central nervous system, and subnormal intelligence is manifested in 41 to 71 percent of the patients.

Treatment for the one in every 25,000 to 35,000 individuals diagnosed with Dandy-Walker syndrome generally consists of treating the associated problems with a special tube to drain off excess fluid inside the skull. This will reduce intracranial pressure and help control the swelling.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to recognize the outstanding research that the NIH has conducted and commend them on their efforts to gain more insight into brain disorders such as Dandy-Walker syndrome and hydrocephalus. I, again, congratulate the gentlelady from New Mexico, Heather Wilson, and the gentleman from Maryland in their interests in helping these folks and bringing this resolution to the floor today.

I reserve the balance of our time.

At this time, I yield as much time as she may consume to the author, the gentlelady from New Mexico.

Mr. Speaker, I want to close by thanking the gentlelady from New Mexico and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for bringing this to the floor, helping to increase public awareness and provide education and training to physicians for early diagnosis, and encouraging the NIH to continue their research to help those with Dandy-Walker and hydrocephalus.

With that, I would encourage all of our colleagues today to vote ``aye'' in support of this measure.

I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

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

Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to rise in favor of House Resolution 353, which is sponsored by the gentleman from Maryland, Elijah Cummings. He has worked steadfastly on this issue that affects an approximate 2 million Americans currently diagnosed with prostate cancer, and I commend him on his work.

House Resolution 353 supports the development and innovative advances of using imaging technologies when detecting and treating prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in America and takes the lives of nearly 28,000 American men each year. Over a lifetime, that is one out of every six males will fall victim to this silent killer.

Early prostate cancer usually has no symptoms and is commonly detected through prostate cancer screening tests such as the PSA blood test and DRE. The chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer increases rapidly after the age of 50. The most likely risk factors that are associated to prostate cancer are age and family history of the disease.

In addition to the PSA blood test and DRE, imaging is another useful tool that can help with the detection and treatment of the disease. It is important for men to take advantage of prostate screening exams which could yield early detection when the disease is still curable.

I urge my fellow Members to support House Resolution 353.

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

Mr. Speaker, I recognize myself for as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me just thank Mr. Cummings from Maryland for drafting this resolution and his bill and congratulate him on getting this resolution to the House floor. I encourage all of my colleagues to support it.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

I appreciate you yielding me the time.

I rise today to pay tribute to four boys who lost their lives after a tornado destroyed their Boy Scout camp near Little Sioux, Iowa, on Wednesday, June 11. And as the gentlelady from North Carolina mentioned, it was a string of storms all the way from Iowa through Omaha, Nebraska, all the way down into Manhattan, Kansas.

The boys were at this camp in Little Sioux, Iowa, Boy Scout camp, learning leadership skills and were definitely on the right path to be leaders in their future endeavors. Unfortunately, their lives were cut short by a fierce and destructive storm, an F-3 tornado.

Interestingly, it was just the day before where the Scouts practiced how to react to a disaster like a tornado, and we can be very proud of the Scouts and how they acted after the storm.

This tornado killed four boys, injured almost 50 others. Killed in the storm was 13-year-old Ben Petrzilka, 13-year-old Sam Thomsen, and Josh Fennen. Those three boys were all from Omaha. Ironically, all three of them were only a few miles from where my wife and my family live.

Ben Petrzilka has been described as a caring and a natural leader. He was a member of Boy Scout Troop 448 and earned more than 20 merit badges, truly amazing.

Sam Thomsen was born more than 3 months premature, adopted by a caring and loving family. They called Sam their ``miracle boy.'' His pastor said he was ``great kid'' and always had a smile on his face.

Josh Fennen, a great student and hard worker as he was described by his school principal, had a knack for exploring and was a natural leader.

Aaron Eilerts was a member of Boy Scout Troop 108 in Humboldt, Iowa, loved music, especially Elvis. For merit badges, he created pillowcases for local hospitals and made blankets for the humane society. He truly lived the Boy Scout Oath of: ``On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help others at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.''

All of these boys lived the Scout Oath, something their family, friends and fellow Scouts can be extremely proud of. I know I am.

I'm proud of all the Scouts and how they reacted. The stories of heroism from these four fallen boys' colleagues are truly moving.

So God bless them, their families and Scouts everywhere.

Mr. Speaker, I had a constituent come up to me over the weekend and say Congress has no energy plan. I corrected that person. The Democrats' leadership is no energy.

Just in the last few months, Congress has voted under their leadership to take shale from Colorado and Wyoming off limits for extracting the oil. Last week coal-to-liquid for aviation fuel was banned. The Air Force is not allowed to enter into a long-term contract to buy that type of synthetic fuel. We are going backwards.

The reality is if we bring all of our resources together, yes, conservation, yes, alternative fuels, and open up the resources that we have right here in America offshore where there is a moratorium that Congress can lift, a moratorium that was imposed by Congress on shale oil that can be lifted by Congress, and in Alaska where Congress can lift that moratorium, if we combine all of those resources, we can be free of OPEC. It is time for a real energy policy where we free our resources for American-made energy.

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

Madam Speaker, we rise not in any opposition to this at all and in support. We thank Mr. Braley for bringing this made-in-America resolution to the floor today. We too on this side of the aisle want to reach out and give our condolences and our best wishes to his constituents in Iowa that are dealing with the flooding.

Now, let's look at this resolution very quickly. It states some of the obvious things about our economy; that since the Democrats took over in 2007 that we have lost 17,000 jobs, and since that same time when the Democrats took over in Congress, we have lost another 269,000 jobs over the past 12 months within manufacturing, making it the lowest time in our modern history, where only 10 percent of the jobs, or first-time jobs being created, are in the manufacturing business. That has always been kind of the backbone of America's economy, and those things have been changing.

Then at the beginning of 2008, probably one of the more remarkable things and frankly what I think people look to Congress to actually do, you have the Republicans, Democrats and White House all working together, and within a couple of weeks had a pretty good stimulus bill. We knew that the economy was slowing down, that unemployment was increasing, and we did what the American public required of us and got a bill passed that stimulated the economy by helping small businesses with some accelerated depreciation. But the heart of it was getting money back out through what we call the stimulus checks to eligible families.

Mr. Bruce Braley suggests in this resolution, that I think we are going to adopt today, certainly we are in support of it, says that it helps our economy more if we buy products that are made in America. Of course, those products are made by people employed in America, and it will have a cyclical turn of the dollar where it goes to not only that company, but those people working there, which then in turn they get to spend within their community and it turns over.

But one of my fears, well, not fears, but let's just say concerns, is that now with the gas prices everywhere over $4, it hit $4 in almost every gas station back in Nebraska in my district yesterday, that the stimulus checks aren't going for what we thought they were going to go to, and that is for consumers to have a nice little chunk of change where they could go out and buy an appliance, something that they need in their home, something that they can reach out and really help with the bigger dollar item that helps to really stimulate the economy. Now it is probably going to go to just filling up the gas tank.

We have got two cars in our family that are smaller cars. My Camry, I put over $70 in filling up in Omaha this weekend. I can't imagine what bigger families are doing to keep up with this. So, frankly, if we want to go even a step further and stimulate our economy more, what we should do in addition to these stimulus checks is adopt an energy plan that will actually increase supply and lower the price of gasoline at the pump.

We can do this by embracing a very comprehensive approach to energy. We have got alternative fuels like coal-to-liquid. And, by the way, last week during the Department of Defense reauthorization, this Congress adopted a policy of banning the Air Force from engaging in contracts to buy coal-to-liquid as a synthetic aviation fuel.

We can use cellulosic energy. We are going to have about 13 small micro-pilot plants come on within the next couple of years. We can do things to speed that up, by passing a tax credit that is more than 1 year, like we did a couple of years ago, instead of adopting the 5-year plan that this side of the aisle was pushing.

We can also not only use those types of alternatives that have such great promise that we can use in a mix, but we can also do conservation. We want to encourage people to conserve not only the electricity in their home, but we are talking about fuel here to create a supply that will lower the price at the gas pump, which is a not-so- hidden tax on American families. We can do that by incenting, providing a tax credit for more than 1 year, for people to buy in plug-in electric hybrids. Some American manufacturers are going to start rolling those out next year, but they will be more expensive. So we want to incent people to buy those. If we can do a blend and conserve, we can take a large step towards energy independence.

We can get fully independent of all OPEC oil if we add one more prong to

this plan, and that is allow offshore drilling. Right now we have China working through Cuba that is getting to within about 60 miles of the Florida shore, but yet we can't have American companies do that.

We can open up oil shale. Last year, about November, we had a vote on this floor that banned the ability to get oil from oil shale in Colorado and Wyoming. We just found another large pocket of oil from oil shale in North Dakota. I wonder when that is going to be banned to use.

So if we bring our own resources together with all of the alternatives, we can bring the price of gas down rather dramatically and be independent. And if we can bring the price down, have a stable supply of energy under this type of a comprehensive plan, the American consumers, the families, can expect stable gas prices for a generation or more as we work towards completely going off of fossil fuels, to like a hydrogen economy.

So while we stand on this side of the aisle in favor of this resolution to buy American, my fear is that the reality is most of this stimulus money is going to be going to the OPEC countries when we fill up our tax tanks.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, we have no further speakers, so I will just make a quick statement and close. I just once again thank Mr. Braley of Iowa for bringing this resolution to the floor and wish him and his constituents the best.

We on this side of the aisle want these stimulus checks to be spent within America. Hopefully they can spend it on American-made energy.

Madam Speaker, I yield back my time.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of Senate bill 2146, a very commonsense based solution to dealing with older diesel technology.

Retrofitting simply is a cost-effective way to address the issues. It produces immediate emissions reductions and eliminates these really unnecessary infrastructure requirements.

So with that, I'm going to urge all of my colleagues to support us in this measure.

Before I reserve my time, I yield to the gentleman to answer if he has any other speakers.

Since they have the right to close, anyway, I'm going to yield back our time and let them wrap it up.